Back to work!

Phew, once the girl-next-door started back at school on Thursday, we were able to get back to a bit of edyookayting! It's a relief not to have her in the house from morning till night every day!

So, with that usual back-to-it burst of enthusiasm that will probably last about 5 days max, we launched into some Story of the World last Friday out on the lawn in the sunshine. It was lovely! I read, we looked at the globe, filled in a photocopied map, she answered some questions, etc. Didn't get much else formal done that day - it still amazes me how little we manage to get done in the midst of requests for food, soothing bumps, getting the washing done, preparing more food, rushing Shannon to the toilet, walking the dog, trying to tidy up a bit and the girls' games and adventures. Never mind, Jade is still only 6 so if she prefers to spend most of her time in a world of fairies, unicorns and magical happenings then that's fair enough really!

On Saturday the Fire Service Training College nearby had a rare open day - I think it might only be the second one in the 11 years we've lived here and we were away on holiday last time. So we were keen to go along and have a nose around the place seeing as security is normally so high you can't see a thing. We had a lovely day including a ride on a fire engine racing along with siren blaring, a guided minibus tour round the 'fire ground' where they have all the training scenarios and buildings set up, fire dogs demonstrating sniffing out fire-starting stuff at the scene of an arson attack, and road accident rescues involving cutting open cars to get people out. It was fascinating, and I was particularly surprised but heartened by Jade saying how interesting it was seeing the car rescue equipment and air bags and so on. It was not what we imagined we'd be doing when 17 years ago we were getting married on 8th September, but it was good anyway!

On Sunday after church in the morning, we took the girls over to my Dad's and Bill and I had an extremely rare afternoon out together in celebration of our anniversary. It was most refreshing to actually spend time together without two adorable but demanding small people inserting themselves inbetween us at every opportunity! We must do it more often.

Today I've tried to get back into the swing of Sonlight - which we began in January and I reckon we are now on Week 4!!!! There have been lots of diversions along the way, obviously! We've done 6 pages of maths, she's written out a Bible verse which is one that we've been trying to drum into her anyway seeing as it's something she clearly needs to learn - "Treat other people the way you want them to treat you." - they've listened to an Usborne Spanish Beginner's tape and both girls have been practising bits of that, and at bedtime she's read out loud to me one chapter of her current reading book "Nina Fairy Ballerina" which she has then continued reading to herself when I left her in bed. I am again amazed that though it seemed like a full and busy morning we actually have done only a small proportion of what 'ought' to have been today's work - we haven't been anywhere near the history or the science or the other language arts stuff. We had an HE friend visiting this afternoon with her 6-year old and Jade treated her nicely after I talked her through the behaviour I expected of her beforehand so that was a bonus and a relief!