Lovely day out.

Yesterday, A went into work as though it were a normal working day, in order to get on top on the mountains of work he seems to have, so that we could spent today, Bank Holiday Monday, together as a family.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that's it's a family tradition, but most years since we found out about it (probably 2006/7), we have gone along to the Wood Fair, which is about half an hour's drive from us.  Part of the reason that A spent Sunday, rather than Monday, in the office, was that this was on today, the other part was that the weather forecast was better for today, although in the end both days were pretty good!  So we headed there and had a great time.  As soon as we arrived, we asked if there was anything in particular that K & M really didn't want to miss out on and the only thing that they came up with, well M in particular, was the climbing wall, so we went there first and queued for about half an hour, during which time we talked about how it's much more important to have a really good go and to feel that you've done your best, than it is to succeed in reaching the top.  They each had a go and got about 2/3 of the way up before deciding to come back down, which they were both happy with.

K on the climbing wall

And M's turn

By the time we'd queued and they'd each had a turn, it was time to find some lunch and then we headed into the main marquee.  There was lots to see, including some beautiful wood carving, this chain caught our eye, for example.

Very clever!

After a look around, we decided an ice-cream would be a good idea, but since the queue was very long, A waited there while the girls and I returned to the marquee and queued elsewhere.  K & M have both had a go at pyrography before, both here in previous years and at Fun Club, so they decided to spend some of their money on having a go again.  They each chose to do a coaster this year, having done plaques for their bedroom doors previously.

M at work

And the finished article

And K concentrating

And the result

After this, we had a wander around the rather large site and among other things saw demonstrations of....

....horse logging

and chainsaw wood carving.

Something that K & M hadn't done here before, was having a go in the corricle.  It looked very trickly to control, but really good fun!

K went first,

then M had a go.

Finally, before heading home, we also watched a demonstration of bushcraft, match-less firelighting.

 

Flames appeared shortly after this photo.

Once home, at K & M's request, I continued reading Boy, finishing off the section about his time at prep school, which included another gruesome medical incident, although this time it was one that Dahl witnessed rather than underwent.

Then M & I continued with The Cavern of Clues, a Maths Quest book, on the topic of calculations, that we had started to read together this morning.  We had tried earlier this week, but M really wasn't in the right frame of mind at the time, not being willing to listen when she went wrong to explanations or suggestions of ways to try to solve the puzzles.  Today, she was happy to listen, and we talked about carrying when adding and multiplying, borrowing when subtracting and what to do when multiplying by 10 and its multiples.  She still got a few things wrong, but we have now addressed the ideas of writing down sums (she's pretty good at working things out in her head, so was a bit resistent to the idea of putting pen to paper) and how to set things out.

K had been listening in while M & I were looking at the Maths Quest book, as she was waiting to re-read it herself, but M really didn't want to try things with K around, so I suggested that K might like to do a bit of piano practice, which she did and obviously quite enjoyed, as she then returned to play a bit more a while later, after tea.