Back home and back to the mess.

We're now back home and trying to get back into the swing of things, but with building work going on and an awful lot of stuff around the house in not necessarily logical places, the PC packed up and the playroom absolutely crammed and the kitchen split between the kitchen and the playroom, it's not really 'normal' (for us that is) round here.  We've got another 4-6 weeks to go and at the moment that is sounding like an awfully long time.  I am holding on the thought that it's going to be much better than it was when we get through to the other side, but unfortunately that doesn't help with the girls because they are still firmly of the opinion that change is bad and the kitchen wanted to stay as it was.

On Sunday, K finished off the the triangle worksheet, which included Pythagoras and working out the area of a triangle.  Using a couple of diagrams of a triangle with a rectangle drawn faintly in a different colour around it, with a bit of help, K came up with the equation to find the area of a triangle: half the base times the height.  Finally, she used a ruler and protractor to draw a particular triangle, given various pieces of information.  I also continued with Ruby Redfort, which we're still enjoying.

The thing I spent most of my time doing on Sunday though, was turning an old pair of A's trousers into Tudor breeches for him, ready for our trip to Kentwell Hall at the end of June.  I'm rather pleased with the result!

Yesterday we continued with Ruby Redfort and also picked up with where we had left off with the Anglo-Saxons & Vikings.  After an early lunch we went to Asfordby, for the board games session.  I was quite surprised to see that they had a go at a Horrible Histories Awful Egyptians board game with C, as they won't go near the books, because they don't like nasty or gory things.  After a play outside, where M cracked leapfrogging (up until then, when she tried to leapfrog me, she ended up in a piggyback position!), we went back to E, C, L & J's for a while.  After tea M had Brownies and K watched a documentary about The Globe theatre that we had recorded.

Today, the girls had piano lessons, we continued with Ruby Redfort, we met friends from school and went back to theirs for play (including football in the garden) and tea, before they all went to korfball.

A couple of relaxed days - catch up #4

After a couple of really rather full-on days, we didn't have much planned for the last couple of days at Granny's.  On Thursday we pootled round the charity shops in the morning, finding a couple of pairs of longish denim shorts for K.  We also bumped into J, who used to babysit me and my brothers when we were very little, until I was about 6 and we moved house, and had a chat with her.

K made a start on the worksheet that I had made for her on triangles to go with the Basher maths book we're working through.  She had correctly labelled the four different types of triangle (equilateral, isosceles, right-angled and scalene) and worked out some angles.

We had arranged to go for tea at Great Grandma's, which was lovely.  She's getting on a bit at 92 and does have a tendency to have the same conversation fairly regularly and we did start on one that we had only when we saw her on Sunday.  She was rather non-plussed when K pointed this out, so on the way home I suggested to the girls that it might be an idea to just go along with it, as clearly Grandma didn't remember and so it was interesting to her and didn't do us any harm!  We also had a look at some more photos that she has around, some of which were the same as the ones Granny had shown the girls earlier in the week, but some others too.

It was a lovely evening, so on the way home we stopped for the girls to have a play in the park before returning to Granny's for more Ruby Redfort.

At the playground.

On Friday I packed up and then we met up with Granny and Uncle M (who finishes work at lunchtime on a Friday) for a pub lunch before heading back home.  It took a ridiculously long time to get home, due to the horrible weather and the traffic, but we made it eventually!

On Saturday we went to see the girls' other grandparents, Nana & Little Grandad.  They live a bit further away, in North Wales and this was first time we'd attempted a daytrip to see them as we usually stop for a couple of nights at least.  An overnight stay, however, means a lot more work for Nana and she has more than enough to do as Little Grandad's full-time carer, although she is incredibly fit and active for her age, she is now 80, and his care needs are increasing, so it's getting ever closer to the point where residential care is inevitable.  We had a lovely day with them, playing a couple of games with Nana (Rummikub and Scrabble) and we went for a walk to the park.  A also had time to talk to his Mum and sort out various things that needed addressing.

Shakespeare's Birthday - catch up #3

Wednesday was 23rd April and also happened to be Shakespeare's 450th birthday.  The girls were keen to go to Shakespeare's Birthplace.  After breakfast P went off to see her mum, and the girls and I took S & Megan to the catch a train from Evesham home to Oxford, before heading to Stratford.

Last time we were at the Birthplace, there had been work going on to the entrance part of the museum, and it was now finished.  K & M agreed that they preferred how it used to be, although they did like that you no longer have to wait for the audio-visual presentations to end before doors opened to let you through to the next section.  Another thing that they definitely didn't like was the new Shakespeare Giant Wallbook.  We have the other wallbooks, but this one was far too gory and one glance was enough for K & M to decide that they didn't want to look at it at all (there are severed limbs depicted, admittedly in cartoon form, but that's more than enough to put K & M off).

Some things that they did like included the dressing up...

Tudor K.

And daft M!

 ...and of course watching and chatting with the Shakespeare Aloud actors.

As part of the birthday celebrations they had a herald with a fanfare trumpet to play on the hour and we chatted to him for while and M and I both had a go on his trumpet.  There was also a short talk about midwifery and birth in Tudor times every hour by one of the guides, K & M weren't sure whether they wanted to come to listen to that, so we spoke to the lady who was giving it beforehand to ask if there was much unpleasantness in it and she reassured us that there were only a couple of bits, but that she could give K & M a signal to put their fingers in their ears for those parts, which is what she did and it worked very well. 

After that we headed off to get some lunch and while we were having it we decided that it was about time to compose another sonnet (see here - below the limericks - and here for others).  M was quite keen to help and came up with some good suggestions and found rhymes for me ('both myth and fact' was one of her phrases) and K helped a little bit too.  This is what we came up with:

The twenty third of April is this day
We celebrate the birth of Will, our bard
Balloons and candles on a cake - hooray!
So here's a sonnet for his birthday card.
We love to come to see the players act
The garden by his place of birth their stage
They like to tell the tales, both myth and fact
That come from Shakespeare and the Tudor age
Some people like the funny things he wrote
Thought others find the histories more their thing
You may prefer a tragedy to quote
Or with some music lift your voice and sing
Will Shakespeare, as we know, is dead and gone
But he'll live forever, through his work, live on.

After lunch we returned to the Birthplace and gave Richard, one of the Shakespeare Aloud actors a copy of the sonnet to share with his colleagues and he read it aloud to one of them who was also there.  A man with a video camera was there and asked if he could film him for stratfordtv.com and with a bit of persuasion (they don't want to be famous, you see) K & M agreed.  Yesterday I found the result here - use the right arrow on the video at the top until you get to a man in Tudor dress with a girl in a red coat next to him and click to play.

Mary Arden's Farm wasn't yet open (it closes for the winter) last time we were at my parents', so K & M were keen to go back.  We had a wander around, watched the birds of prey for a while and watched the blacksmith and a mate melting pewter and talking about the use of it in Tudor times (it polishes up really nicely, so you can pretend it's silver and that you're better off than you are!).  We also saw a rather unusual sight - a sheep being milked.

Milking a sheep!

After Mary Arden's Farm, we headed more back to Granny's for tea and more Ruby Redfort.

Nature and History - catch up #2

On Monday morning my brother, Uncle M, came round and we had a good catch up with him.  Last time we were at my parents', I very cruelly didn't let K & M go paddling in the river (we weren't there for long and didn't have enough clothing!).  I did, however, say that they would definitely be able to on this trip, so on Monday, they wore their crocs and appropriate clothing (either shorts or leggings that could be rolled up) and after lunch we returned.  They had a great time!

First they made their way to the 'island', over the stepping stones and log.

Then they started exploring a bit further...

...and tested out just how far they could go!

Standing underneath the bridge that I used to do my best to avoid running over & under in cross country!

 While K & M were busy getting wet, A & I went for a little wander and then while he rejoined them, I took the camera and went off on my own.

We then headed back to Granny's for the girls to watch another of the Harry Potter films, a number of which were on telly over the Easter weekend.  Later we started a new book, which had been both recommended and lent to us by friends, the first of the Ruby Redfort series; Ruby Redfort - Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child.

A took an extra day off on Tuesday, so that we could have a family day out at The Black Country Museum, where K & M got in free with their Blue Peter badges.  The girls and I had been before, a couple of years ago with Uncle M, but it was A's first time.  We started off with a walk down the drift mine, which the girls and I didn't do last time.  K was particularly keen to see everything, even if only briefly and I think we did just about manage it. 

The Blue Peter badge in the canal tunnel of the limestone mine.

The limestone tunnels are now famous for fossils.

Playing with hoop and stick - she was fast!

K was doing really well at it after a while too.

Watching the chain maker at work.

There are two main areas, one with a small row of 1930s shops and a bigger one with shops, houses and more from around 1910, which isn't that long before the great grandparents we had seen a couple of days earlier were born.  The vast majority, if not all, of the people who work at the Black Country Museum have got quite strong Black Country accents.  In the bakery, where they still bake bread for display in the shop (although due to hygiene rules they aren't allowed to sell it), the man, who was telling visitors what it would have been like for a baker's boy, to us and another family, had a particularly strong accent.  When he mentioned that the local words for 'girl and boy' were 'wench and bloke', the very well spoken mother of the family didn't catch what he'd said and then realised and said 'Oh, bloke!' with such a cut-glass accent that it really made me chuckle.  After a really good day, we parted ways and A left to catch the train back home and the girls and I drove back to Granny's house.

By the time we got back, my brother, Uncle S, sister-in-law, Aunty P and their dog, the girls' canine cousin, Megan had arrived.  S was meeting up with an old school friend, but P, Granny, M & I had a game of Scrabble.  It was the first time that M has played in a proper game and not only did she hold her own, but with only a little bit of help on the last round, she came second.

Family and photos - catch up #1

Back home after nearly a week away at Granny's.  It was a busy one!

We went down on Easter Sunday and saw Big Grandad briefly before he headed off to go to France, an annual thing with Uncle B, his brother.  This was one of the reasons for the timing of our visit, it's much easier when he's not around as he doesn't really appreciate what is normal for children and 'best behaviour' for an extended period of time just isn't realistic!

On Sunday afternoon we went visiting, first we went to see Great Grandma and then Great Grandad.  The contrast between the two visits is rather pronounced, Grandma is always clearly delighted to see us and interested in what we're up to and has things to talk about, whereas with my Grandad conversation is like pulling teeth and he continued watching the snooker that he had on the telly.  Snooker on telly meant a bit of maths, as we talked about the point score for the different coloured balls as well as some geometry.

After that we went home and Granny showed K & M some old family photos, of her parents' (both of whom we'd just been to see) side of the family.  She's been doing research into her father's side of the family, but also has lots of information about her mother's side, because her cousin has already done a lot of research on that side, so she could tell them quite a lot and they also talked about the clothes that the people in the photos were wearing.

The girls' Great Grandma (born 1922)

Her parents.

Her father in his dress uniform.

The girls' Great Grandad with his parents.

His father as a boy - he was the son of a Coastguard.

The girls' Great Grandad's maternal grandfather.

This dapper gentleman was the headmaster of the local school, which I went to (although by then it was just an infant school and sadly, along with the school house where he lived, is no longer there), and he was also the organist at the church my Mum goes to and where my Dad now sings in the choir.

Apart from that we also finished off The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, which ended most satisfactorily.

Social circles - or socialising and circles.

This week we went to see two families who have school holidays.  Wednesday we spent the afternoon with S, A & J and the girls made the most of the lovely weather taking lots of their camping equipment into the garden for their game.  Thursday we went to see Ka, Ma & A, where the children had a game of The Settlers of Catan, which Ka & I had a cuppa and a catch up.  She's my oldest friend in Nottingham, who I met, having moved here knowing nobody for my first (and only) teaching job, at the local korfball club, where she still plays and coaches the juniors (including K & M and all four friends we meet up with this week).  We then had our first baby within a year of each other and our second 8 week apart and went along to our first LLL meeting together.  K, Ka, Ma & I had a game of Rummikub, which we'd taken with us, while M & A played outside for a while.

Friday and Saturday has been spent mostly clearing out the kitchen by A & me, while K & M have watched the first two Harry Potter films, which have been on the telly (apparently it's necessary to watch them when they are on, even though we have all of the films on dvd!).  I have also fitted in some more chapters of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase with them. 

I had given K the next maths worksheet that I'd made, on Circles and Pi, a couple of days ago, but she only finally got round to doing it with lots of reminding from me.  I'm finding it a bit frustrating that although she claims to want to do more, when given something that she has asked for she can't seem to find the motivation to make a start on it, although once she does, she will keep at it until she's finished.  The past few worksheets I've made for her, which she has said she does want me to do, it's only when, after putting it off and putting it off, I've said she needs to do the sheet before she can do something else that she wants to do, that she's eventually got on with it.  Having talked to others it seems that she's not alone, and given that I am really rather good at procrastination myself, I suppose I can't really moan too much.  I would like to be able to help her with strategies to get things done though.

The worksheet involved labelling a circle, with circumference, diameter and radius, before moving on to Pi.  We talked through what Pi is, i.e. the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, but had to take a step back and talk about ratios in order to help her understand that.  Then we looked at the equations which you can use to calculate the circumference (C = 2πr or πd) and area of a circle (A = πr²) and she answered a couple of questions using them, after a bit of a recap about giving answers to a certain number of decimal places.

Jogging along and some disruption.

Yesterday was Asfordby, with the theme of spring and both girls engaged with quite a lot of the crafty activities, decorating polystyrene eggs with fancy pins and making birds out of pipe cleaners and feather for example.  They both also did a spring wordsearch and K did some sudokus too.  M and C made some chocolate nests, although we discovered that although the recipe said you could melt the chocolate, butter and syrup together in a saucepan, it's better to do so in a bowl over simmering water, when the chocolate seized on the first attempt.  The second go turned out very well though!

Yum!

Afterwards we went back to our friends for a while, as none of us was pressed for time because there was no Cubs for them or Brownies for M.  The weather was so lovely, we spent the whole time in their garden.  The girls came up with a trampoline chant with actions about a dragon.

K did a couple of maths worksheets that I made for her, as she's still keen to keep working through the Basher Maths book.  One was about 'lines' (e.g. parallel, perpendicular, arc, chord) and the second was about angles.  The worksheet had two sections, the first was to label different types of angle and the second part was using a protractor to measure various angles, both of which she did without any help.  She embellished the first part rather beautifully!

From the top, a mouse with cheese, a man in a prison, a sun lounger and a mountaineer on a mountain!

We've now started a new book, which we got from the library a while ago.  It's a book I haven't read before, but it rang a bell and so I picked it up on a whim.  It's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, we're about a third of the way into it already and really enjoying it. 

Today our building work began, which meant two very glum girls.  They really don't like change and have made it very clear that they don't want a new kitchen and don't want anything else to be different either and clearly do feel very strongly about it, and although they do accept that it is happening they aren't happy about it and now that things are actually happening they are being confronted by a constant reminder of that.  The work is going to take 6-8 weeks, so it's going to be a tricky time, and a big chunk of that we will be kitchen-less, which I'm anticipating will be quite stressful for those of us who see this change as a good thing, nevermind for the girls.

I decided that getting out of the house as much as possible is probably a good plan, so this morning, after I'd read some more to the girls, we went to the library to return the books about slavery and the American Civil War and renew some others and do a bit of shopping.  They had got in the Harry Potter cd set that K has been waiting for and the only one that we haven't had out yet, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be a good distraction from the building work while we are in the house.

On the way to the library, prompted by a poem that starts 'Hey Diddle Diddle' to help remember the different types of average that I had seen on Facebook, but which K does not want to hear because we haven't got that far in the Basher Maths book yet, we started playing about with the nursery rhyme, when M changed a couple of words, so we took it as far as we could and this is what we ended up with:

Hey Diddle Diddle the feline and the violin

The bovine animal leapt over the planetary satellite

The small canine chuckled to perceive such jollity

And an item of crockery fled with an item of cutlery

After lunch, I dropped the girls off with our friend C, who had kindly agreed to have them for a couple of hours, while I went to help with the sort and clear out of the LLLGB office.  While there they recited not only our version of Hey Diddle Diddle, but also the whole of the Much Ado About Nothing rap that they learned off by heart a while ago.  Once we got home, I read them some more of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase before tea and then as we need to clear out the kitchen completely by the weekend we did some sorting and packing up.  A arrived home just before the girls' bedtime, so they spent some time with him before going to bed.

Coin toss walk.

Yesterday A & I spent quite a lot of time sorting and emptying the utility room, in preparation for our building work starting on Tuesday.  The girls and I played Rummikub and Draw Out in the afternoon though.  In the evening A read the girls a William story.  At one point I overhead him read that William and the outlaws were 'insolvent' and stop to ask if the girls knew what that meant and when they said no, he told them 'Ir means the same as impecunious' before going on to explain. 

This morning A had to go off on his travels again, this time to Paris, although fortunately only until Tuesday and he'll be back before the girls are in bed all being well.  The girls spent quite a long time reading this morning, K has now started on the first of the Charlie Bone books and M is now on the sixth.  This afternoon we had another game of Draw Out, before finishing reading the book we started after finishing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer about The Abolition of Slavery, which, although it concentrates on the American Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, does continue through the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

By this time it was about half past three on a lovely day, so we decided it was time to get dressed!  We went for a coin toss walk, something that K first came across at Brownies and which the girls remembered that we had done when on holiday in Venice, which was several years ago now.  Every time we reached a junction we tossed a coin to decide whether to go left or right, we started off by walking around the block, and after we'd gone past our front door, we decided to go and get an ice-cream before carrying on with the coin tossing.  After following the fate of the coin for a while we ended up near the Trent, at which point K & M decided they'd rather go to a particular playground, the other side of the river, so we headed over Trent Bridge.  M insisted that I go on most of the things there, so rather than sitting watching I joined in today.

At the playground

Beautiful blossom.

Theatre trip.

We seemed to get going a bit earlier than usual today (still late compared to school-y folks, but early for us).  At the girls' request I finished reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to them, and immediately afterwards we started reading one of the library books we'd got out to put Tom Sawyer into its historical context, called The Abolition of Slavery 1863.

After an early lunch we headed into town for the theatre trip that I'd organised to see Tom's Midnight Garden.  It's a pretty straightforward sort of thing to organise, because making a group booking you don't have to pay immediately, so can gather money in before finalising numbers, but I do get stressed on the day until everyone has turned up!  We really enjoyed the play and agreed that it was a good adaptation of the story, which we read a couple of months ago.

The poster outside.

The set.

After picking up a poster from A's office for him, we came home via a cafe for a hot chocolate and cake treat.  Once home M disappeared to carry on reading the Charlie Bone book she's currently got on the go (number 5 of 8 I think) and K & I had a game of Rummikub and after tea M joined in for another round while we were waiting for A to get home.  Since he left home early on Tuesday for Amsterdam, got back about midnight last night and then left for work including a trip to London before the girls were up, they haven't seen him since Monday.  We haven't got him home for long, as he's leaving for a short trip to Paris on Sunday morning and won't be home until after the girls are asleep on Tuesday.

Ticking over.

I haven't posted for nearly a week for various reasons.  Partly because I usually blog in the evenings, but that's also when I do my LLL work and I've been rather busy with that lately.  Also because we don't seem to have done that much lately, we've just been ticking over.

We had a weekend when the girls were subjected to 'benign neglect', basically left to their own devices while A and I got on with things that needed to be got on with.  We're having some building work done and a new kitchen very soon (I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having plenty of kitchen storage and drawers that stay shut without blutack!), and we need to start sorting and clearing out our utility room and the kitchen and A has been cutting back/down things that are growing up the back of the house.  K & M played various board games together and M got out and played her new French horn on numerous occasions.

On Monday we met up with friends at Belton House, which was a bit risky given the weather forecast, but we were remarkably lucky and only got drizzled on a bit in the morning.  We spent a couple of good chunks of time at the big adventure playground, had our picnic lunch in the orangerie, tried out the maze, went into the Discovery Centre (which isn't usually open when we go, as we generally avoid weekends and school holidays) and the café and indoor play area.  I also spoke to a very helpful lady, who told me that they could offer the workshops they do for schools for home ed groups at £2 per child and when I asked about minimum numbers, expecting to be told about 20, she said that at least two families would be okay!

New willow sculpture in the middle of the maze.

On Tuesday evening, I had the impression that we hadn't really done anything, but when talking to A on the phone (he had gone to Amsterdam by this time), I realised that having finished reading Roman Britain and had made a good start on Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, as well as continuing with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Wednesday we headed into town for ice-skating, which we all enjoyed.  I went on the ice for the first time since January, having been either ill or getting over illness the last couple of times we've been.  When we got home, K and I had a look at a worksheet I'd made for her about x, continuing to work our way through the Basher Maths book.  Since we got Dragonbox, which K really enjoyed and worked through the entire thing the afternoon that I installed it, she's got a pretty good grasp of algebra, so it was just a question of transferring the skills learned on the computer to paper.  I also introduced the idea of brackets in maths, which she seemed to grasp fairly easily.  The girls also had their swimming lesson as usual in the evening.

Today there was rather a lot of screen time, as the girls asked if they could watch the rest of Shrek, which they had started watching after swimming yesterday and they then started it again, so they could watch the beginning and as I was busy in the kitchen, I didn't notice.  K & I were talking about what's next in the Basher Maths book, which is 'Line', so remembering a video they'd watched a while back on youtube, I asked K if she'd like to watch it again and both she and M watched a video about Euclid and then another six!  This afternoon we went across the road for play or cuppa and chat with friends and stayed for tea, before coming home for some more Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer before bed.

A very early birthday present.

Yesterday, K & M had their piano lessons.  While K had hers, M & I continued working on learning the countries, flags and capitals of Oceania, and then K & I played Phase 10 while M had her lesson.  We went to the library on the way home and K requested Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows on cd and M got out a big book on penguins and More Shakespeare Without the Boring Bits on cd.  After lunch, I read quite a lot more of Roman Britain.  Then I read the story of Joseph from the girls' First Bible, then from The New International Version Bible before we watched Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat on dvd.

Today we had an LLL toddler meeting.  K & M are generally a bit reluctant to go to these (partly because it involves leaving the house earlier than they'd like), but usually have good time once there and often there friend L is there, as she was told, which helps.  On the way home we went to Windblowers and, having talked to M who thought it was a good idea, we bought her a very early birthday present (her birthday isn't until June!).

Taking it home.

Having a go.

She is very pleased with it indeed and has had it out of its case at least half a dozen times this afternoon.  Early this evening we popped next door to our adjoining neighbours to let them know that M will be learning a brass instrument and to please let us know if it's ever a problem.  Having talked about this to my friend S, the mum of M's best friend J, who is learning the trumpet, she said that J only plays in a room that doesn't adjoin the neighbour, with the door shut.  Given that we're frequently in during the day when our neighbours are out, I've said that M can play in her bedroom if we think they're out, but otherwise it's in the playroom, in both cases with the door shut. 

This afternoon, we finished off Roman Britain and continued with a few chapters of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  After that, since we've finally sorted out our printer, I had printed off a worksheet on division for K and we had a look at that together.  It included, the two ways of thinking of division i.e. sharing out and repeated subtraction (the latter is particularly helpful compared to the former when dividing by a fraction), factors and multiples, using knowledge of times tables to help with division, helpful tips and tricks to find out if numbers are divisible by certain numbers (e.g. ending in 0 or 5, digits adding up to multiples of 3 or 9) and 'chunking'.  We worked through most of it together, but for the final section K preferred to have a go on her own and use a calculator to check her answers, which she did and go them correct.  M rather reluctantly left K & me alone for this, but insisted on her own half hour alone with me afterwards, so she got out the Flags of the World again and we found that she's pretty much sorted on all the flags and capitals of Oceania, to go with South America and Europe, which she's rock solid on, so we're starting on North America (there are more of them than you'd think!).

A went to the supermarket after work this evening and both girls decided to go with him, so I had an hour and half or so to myself.  It was very quiet! 

A busy day and a quiet one.

The first Tuesday of the month is Fun Club and this time it was Easter and spring crafts.  K & M each decorated an Easter bonnet, although M would have preferred a top hat and so made did her best to make hers as top hat-like as possible. 

M decorating her Easter bonnet...

...and K wearing hers.

They also both made a miniature Easter garden and decorated a chocolate egg.  Then after lunch, they each did the treasure hunt that hat been set out (there were three different ones for different ages and abilities and they went for the middle one).

After Fun Club we came home and a short time later, friends arrived for a play and tea.  Since it was a lovely warm & sunny day, they spent most of it in the garden, playing at Olympics I believe.  Then I took them all to the final korfball of the term.

Today M woke up feeling rather under the weather again.  She did want to continue learning flags of the world though, so we did some work on the countries of Oceania.  She's got most of the countries sorted, but still needs some work on the capitals.  We also continued with reading both Roman Britain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  We then all went out for a bit of fresh air and a mooch around the many charity shops, looking for a few things.  I'm starting to look for things that I can turn into a Tudor costume for A, as we've booked to go back to Kentwell Hall in June and this time he is coming with us.  Unfortunately we didn't find anything this time, but we'll keep looking.  I did find a specific book that my parents had asked me to look out for, in excellent condition, in the Oxfam bookshop though.  I wasn't sure if swimming was a good idea for M, but she insisted she wanted to and did okay.