Started off with Joe re-discovering Reader Rabbit – he played on the Y2 Maths one very briefly, then changed to the general Year 2 game (some maths, english, and science, maths and science bits far too easy for him but he was challenged by the literacy side of it). By the time I’d had the usual arguments with the girls over getting ready and leaving for school he was utterly engrossed so I left him to it, and actually went up and sat on his bed so that I could watch

We had elevenses and then did violin practice and piano practice together. Tick music.

It was pretty much lunchtime at that point but we waited for Steve, so while we were waiting we made chocolate mousse. Two avocados had turned up in my Riverford box this week so I had to try the recipe, it just sounded too weird not to give it a go! Tick cookery and some practical maths through the measuring.

Put that in the fridge and got the fraction tower set out, which Joe enjoyed playing with for a good half an hour until Steve appeared. Tick more maths.

For some reason (can’t think why?!) Steve was hugely suspicious when I produced dessert – but he ate it – and Joe liked it as well.

Think I might head off to find some Valentine’s day crafty stuff for this afternoon, I wonder if Joe could be persuaded that he loves his sisters enough to make them a card …

Joe started the morning with some maths sticker book (multiplication and division in the 2,3,4,5 and 10 times table), violin practice, and then we carried on with our Hotchpotch thing – it ended up being a Superhero Hotchpotch character named Batpotch (photo to follow, can’t find camera), with different special powers taken from all the different superheros Joe could think of. He drew the character and wrote a sentence, then dictated a few more sentences to me – I still can’t stand making a child write when they really aren’t ready to, and when the mechanics of writing actually detract from the enjoyment they have in making up stories or describing things.

Gave in to a bit of tv before lunch, then after lunch we walked down to the library at the bottom of the close – planning to make that a weekly thing, and hoping that the librarian will start being nicer to us if we go in regularly! Joe sat in there reading quietly for half an hour, so I did as well Then when we got home we played Mindbender (Woollies’ version of Mastermind), Jenga, Set, and by the time the girls came home I was knackered! They’re now playing playmobil and having a variety of music lessons between the three of them.

Note to self: remember to look at school dinner menu before planning dinner at home, my poor girls are going to have had gammon twice today, oops! Nigella’s gammon in coke seems to have worked fine in the slow cooker though – will update after tea with my verdict although I’m sure it will be yummy

Had a break for violin practice (done beautifully again with no hassles, how long can it last?!) and Raven-watching, then went back to the Little Hotchpotch theme by making up our own imaginary animal – the plan was to draw it, describe it, then hopefully make a 3D model version … but that’s saved for another day as by the time we’d got that far and rounded up crafty bits from around the house Joe was wanting to play a game instead, so we had an extraordinarily long game of Trilemma/Addendum. Followed that with another episode of Raven (I’m guessing it must still be half term programming on CBBC?) before getting some food

After lunch Steve and I swapped over so I went to work, and they got lego out together – another of those things we simply haven’t had time for when he’s been at school so it was much appreciated. And children *should* have time to play lego

Girls got home from school and they all watched tv for a bit, then I came home, Steve took Anna out for her cello lesson, and the other two played with Geomags for a while before watching more tv (Blue Peter is a favourite here at the moment). The girls are currently engaged in bedroom lunacy aka putting their clean washing away before bed, while Josiah and Steve are discussing syllables …

Planning to watch the Da Vinci Code later, can’t think that I’ll enjoy the film as much as the book but you never know. We watched a couple of films last week too – R.V. which was just meant to be a bit of a laugh with the kids while we were staying in our camper, but Steve and I both enjoyed it too – we were in a slapstick humour sort of a mood, obviously – and the obligatory American mushy sentimental bit made us both cry!

Also made time to see Tsotsi in a couple of instalments last week, and I really enjoyed that film, it was brilliant cinematography and a compelling story too – definitely gets a recommendation from me and there are very few films that I actually go that far with these days!

Today I spent most of my day up on Dartmoor, where it was very cold! I walked a bit, but mainly sat in the van … drinking coffee and hot chocolate to keep warm at the same time as simply enjoying time away from the world at large. Annoyingly I left behind the OS maps that I’d been lent, so I’m not at all sure I ended up where I was supposed to, it was so grey that I didn’t even bother taking photos bar this one just to see if Rog can tell me whether I was in the right place or not!

I have to say that I am really enjoying the enforced organisation in the mornings due to school; I like having an alarm and getting up to it, I like the fact that the children are all doing their music practice before we leave in the morning, and I like the way we seem to have breakfast together, whereas we rarely did that when things were more relaxed – I guess there were other times that we did, but anyway.

The kids had another good day at school by all accounts.

As we walked home I heard tell from Anna of numeracy – brackets and doing the operations in brackets first, literacy – writing instructions for making a sandwich and a cup of tea, PE – gymnastics, all of which she hed enjoyed. She also went to ICE club in her lunchbreak, apparently, which is a christian thing ‘like Sunday school’.

Abbie told me about skipping with skipping ropes in the playground, and maths which was easy. No surprises there then

Josiah seemed to cope with his first full day really well. He said he couldn’t remember what he’d done at school, and I joked that if he couldn’t remember and tell me anything then I’d have to home educate him again, and his response was ‘yikes!’ At which point he miraculously remembered an interactive whiteboard game of word-snap that they’d played. His teacher caught me at the end of the day and talked to me about his reading so they are obviously making an effort there, which encouraged me.

When they all got home they cleared out lunchboxes then settled down with Little Toe/Big Toe Radio and hama beads, draughts, some 3x and 4x tables homework for Abigail. Then Abbie had a bath, Anna drew pictures, Joe played with Mollie, they watched Blue Peter – all really peacefully. I was being domestic goddess and making a roast dinner! Then Joe had a bath, Anna carried on with hama, Abbie played with her hamster, and then we had tea

They seem so happy that I am really not regretting the decision for a minute, any more. I don’t think they learn any more at school than they would in half the time at home, and I’m sure they are wasting plenty of time doing pointless activities there, but hey, they used to waste an awful lot of time dossing around at home as well. They are all enjoying the social side, and the extra motivation for doing things.

Meanwhile things behind the scenes are busy as ever – more on that another day. Need to go and find some chocolate by way of stress relief for my husband

We’ve had a good day so I’m blogging quickly, then off to nurse my sore throat and make some wedding tiaras. Steve worked my day at the office today (phew!), although still not sure who got the easier day, but I was pleased to be at home anyway.

Morning started with loads of tidying up/sorting out/gaming … followed by Joe’s violin lesson at 10am. Violin is a moveable feast, thankfully Mr Featherstone is flexible as we’ve moved lessons for one reason and another over the past five weeks now!

Despite not wanting to go and throwing a wobbly about it beforehand, Joe pulled himself together, changed his attitude, and did really well in his lesson, so he got to choose cookies in Sainsbury’s for elevenses While he and I were at violin, the girls sat in the van – I’d filled their bookbags with activity stuff of one kind or another and asked them to do whatever they wanted, my only request was that they had something to show for their time.

When I got back to the van I was really pleased; they were sitting together doing a sticker flag atlas thing but they’d also spent most of their time writing and illustrating a poem together. Nothing earth-shatteringly amazing in terms of poetry, but they’d had the idea together and carried it through, and obviously made loads of effort, all of which is relatively unusual, so I was thrilled. The handwriting (Anna was the scribe) wasn’t bad, and spellings were pretty good all round. And they were pleased with themselves; they’re now going to write more poems this week apparently!

Went to Sainsbury’s and stocked up for the week, then came home for lunch, more sorting out, music practise for the girls, etc.

The afternoon was completely taken up with swimming and hanging around waiting, but again, it was productive. I did some work with Anna on percentages/fractions, and rotational symmetry, just from one of her workbooks. Abbie did a bit of addition practise which was fairly simple and easy. Joe and I read some Flying Boot books together, and we generally had a nice relaxed time as well as the swimming lessons – chatted to their teacher for a bit as well, and she is pleased with all of their progress, so that was good.

Got home at 7pm to find Mollie and Ruby from our close trick-or-treating, Ruby looked absolutely gorgeous dressed as a pumpkin with matching orange & green stripy socks, irresistable. Chatted to them and their mum for a while, which was nice too, haven’t seen Emma properly for ages.

Baked potatoes and various bits for dinner, kids are just in bed (Monday is such a late night!) and I’m trying to make a list of stuff to do this week – house exchange (this weekend coming) is a great idea but it does mean you have to go away and leave a tidy house, which feels like a bit of a pressure. Still, I’m glad in a strange sadistic sort of a way, as otherwise we’d never tidy it up properly! Feeling fairly naff still, sore throat is a killer, but never mind. Must fit some Animal Crossing into my evening too, as Halloween is a special occasion there I think!

Abbie finished her Monster Maths book this morning (age 7 – 8 one), so she was pleased about that … she did get Anna to do the writing for her though, the cheeky monkey. Anna did half a page on bar charts and then avoided the other half of the page which was on fractions/percentages. Josiah came into the office and played on Education City where he was happily completing Y2 maths and english activities at an average of 70% success, not bad, I thought. He can’t do all the calculation side of things but most other things he can manage. He then went on to the Y4 electronics activities, and was happily completing circuits (that electronics kit obviously has taught him something!) 100% successfully!

This was all before going into town for Nanny McPhee. That was enjoyable enough – completely predictable yet still watchable ‘Mary Poppins meets The Sound of Music, in the style of A Series of Unfortunate Events’, and there you have it. Colin Firth does do a good line in pathetic ‘can’t look after myself’ male characters, doesn’t he? Still, it was an entertaining way to spend a morning, and it was free

I went back to work afterwards; Steve took the kids home for lunch and then swimming lessons/pumpkin carving at Crealy this afternoon. I got bored so went and bought a Tassimo machine for the office (in the hope that offering customers a coffee will make them sit in the office long enough for us to sell them a car, beware of car salespeople bearing coffee ) and we faffed around moving the office furniture around a bit to fit it in.

Later in the afternoon I went over to Steve’s parents’ house and finished off the sewing with Steve’s mum. Emma (Steve’s sister) and Robyn (our 6 month old niece) are staying at the moment too so plenty of Auntie duty for me today, which I do love – Robyn is gorgeous but I get to hand her back for the yucky feeding/changing parts I’m babysitting for her tomorrow night as well

This evening I went out to a governors’ meeting before Steve and the kids were even home. [note to Ruth & Roger - I left the ear stuff outside the door this morning as arranged, one of the kids took it in again at lunchtime despite me having told Steve why it was there sorry - will drop it round tomorrow] . Have finally managed to extricate myself from governor status – I’m staying until Christmas so the December meeting will be my last one – after four years it’s about time really!

The girls eventually emerged and got dressed, did music practice, and then they all disappeared again into some elaborate Romans & Dogs game, which also included band practices where they sing ‘Here’s a pin and here’s a pingle’ (from Bagpuss) in a round – whatever!!

Veggies arrived so then we popped to the shops before going to Puddlers, armed with cat-related Draw Write Now books and plenty of drawing resources. Louise took the children up to her house to see her cats, and there were some cat collage and cat plasticine creations going on. A quiet group today, but it was nice

Have come home for soup & bread before Friday Fish for the girls, a bit more violin practise for Joe, not sure what Steve & I are up to tonight … probably not a lot!

Josiah did a page from his book on lines of symmetry – I don’t think he’s met this before but we got some mirrors out and he cottoned on really quickly, and was able to show me where each line of symmetry should go on each shape. He then read a Flying Boot book really confidently, time to get the next box of those out I think.

Abbie’s been practising handwriting, and general multiplication. I love watching her do this, I really haven’t taught her anything and yet she splits numbers up and deals with them in an easy, comfortable way. Having said that, she’s still sitting here and has slightly lost concentration now, it’s becoming hard work!

Anna did a grammar workbook page on nouns, basic, but we haven’t really done much grammar at all so far, and somehow she was in the mood for taking it in this morning, so I think it went in. Her maths page was on area, which Steve has done with her before, so she was happy with that, and then some multiplication practise too.

Kids are now watching schools’ programmes on BBC2 and I *must* go and clean bathrooms. This afternoon we have mooted the idea of some baking, or perhaps a science kit, or something crafty … we’ll see.

After that we settled down to some Narnia reading etc., then watched Look & Read on BBC2, which covered short/long vowel sounds, single/double consonants, and then possessive pronouns. I must say I find it a weird programme, they present things by the rules, which always seem bizarre when they’re taken ‘out of context’, iyswim, I still think good grammar will be absorbed naturally if the children read enough, with the odd thing needing to be learnt perhaps, but generally I think reading is the key. Not that I’d know, my children are so resistant to writing anything (or reading anything decent, for that matter!) that I haven’t been able to test my theory, so I could be talking rubbish for all I know. Hmmm.

Went out to Sainsbury’s, had lunch in the office with Steve, went and did some banking for him, and now the children are drawing/playing … we’re about to go out for our manic swimming afternoon with the long gaps inbetween, must go and round up some stuff to do (Maths!!) during our long waits.

Joe made a new friend, which was lovely to watch – one of the older boys had brought a toy roulette set in, and after the big boys had finished playing with it they left it out on the table, and Josiah started playing with it, along with this other little boy who is a very similar age – they made up all their own rules and were spinning the roulette then giving one another money, loads of mathsy stuff going on, from what I could overhear.

Afterwards Anna had cello and then her chamber group practise as well, then in the evening a friend came round for tea (the tuna burgers were scrummy, by the way), and to test Turkish Delight recipes, among other things!

Today we have read a couple more chapters of TMN, only one to go now (edit: and we read it over dinner). Josiah and I did some more reading together, just some library books. The girls both did music practise, which I helped with for once, and then they had an hour of schools’ tv – Words and Pictures (air and ow sounds), followed by Primary Geography then Primary History.

That was followed by Carrot & Almond soup, set to become a family favourite, I think.

The afternoon was taken up with a couple of science kits at the kids’ request – plenty of enthusiasm today – we are doing them in desperation as the cupboard was getting full up! Number 23 was another electronics one, pretty crummy actually, and because we’ve had an electronics kit about for a while, the stuff in it was fairly rudimentary, apart from a simple electromagnet experiment at the end.

Number 24 was on magnetism – reviewing poles, attraction/repulsion, and then looking at magnetic fields using iron filings. This was hugely exciting for all three and Anna even made one of those funny face things with iron filings in it …

By this time Josiah had got distracted from the science kits but had got into the electronics kit and was building circuits by correctly following instructions in the book, which I thought was quite impressive. He was really pleased with himself anyway. And so absorbed that he wet himself, but I’ll let that pass.

Home after a quick cuppa with Ruth (thanks – was lovely to see you ) to give the kids tea and get them sorted for bed before the babysitter arrives, we’re off out tonight to celebrate a friend’s birthday, so that should be a fab evening.