even home educators have half term

particularly when they have a schooled niece and nephew coming to stay M and E have had a bit of a tough year so far, their dad has been away for 4 weeks in a 1 and 3 week block and i think it showed particularly with E, being v in need of lots of physical love nd attention.

anyway, getting ahead of myself woohoo for annual leave we started the weekend with bb wanting to do more oil painting, and sb sewing, so i got the paints out and bb painted a fab pic of dafodils and started a pic of a footballer. SB and i played lots of board games, and we all wii danced together [i even beat sb on some sections ]

my nephew and niece joined us early the next day and we settled down to the serious business of crafting. my niece now has a good anticipation of lots of different crafts and kits being available for her to do, and i hope i didnt disappoint. my goods are bought, as always, in part from playmerrily [ having nipped there i can see there are some fab arts kits about to come in! ], and cut with crafts from baker ross i think e did 4 or 5 things and was v happy m also did some crafts and we all had a lovely time in the lovely conservatory

monday we had planned to go swimming. unfortunately bb seemed to have developed some spots. some v suspiciously chickenpoxy spots. not many, so we thought we would see how it went in the day. it clearly went chickenpoxy, so swimming cancelled and therefore also any museum visiting and some friends visiting due to babies etc wah!! oh well, best laid plans! we therefore did way more crafts! we did lots of games, wii some running about in snow [the first weekend was still v frozen] and general high spiritedness. phew! tues was much the same, with added baking of cakes. tues i barely moved due to the migraine i had all week – grr!

weds was historyetc, which i will hope to blog separately! but it ha as a theme vikings and the battle of hastings.

by thurs, bb’s spots were starting to crust over, so we planned to end on a high note with swimming on friday if were all crusty and cinema on the sat. we were v relieved that by fri it was clear that she was all crusted over and pretty much better, and whats more, i could be more than horizantal, so swimming it was! great fun splashing about. bb and e competing for my attention but great. we then went home and the kids did a masterchef for me. M did starter of pizza toast. he had made something similar at school, was v confident and did a great job, with me just putting under the grill for him. bb made roasties, from scratch yorkshires with peas, sausages and gravy. i very much assisted and scaffolded E to make meringue nests [which were brill] into which we put some chocolate icecream. it was a fab meal, and the kids loved all the planning, preparation and the delicious nature of it. amazingly happy

sat we went to see monster in paris together and v much loved the film, they spent their holiday money from my parents on sweeties and also the one pound machine pokemon goodies i loved monster in paris, and would recommend it to all. and it was a lovely way to come to the end of what had been a not stressfree week, keeping 4 kids cooped up in a house! luckilly we have lots of resources my b-i-l joined us, v chilled and relaxed and has sold his house. he is definitely moving on, and i was pleased that i could be pleased for his joy. moving on for me is never going to happen. but i don’t want him or the kids to be trapped by the loss in the past, although it clearly affects them still. he is v happy with his new love, and i just really really hope it works out for all of them.

unfortunately, sb managed to fall and hurt her weak foot, necessitating a trip to a and e and we were therefore unable to meet our date with the manor borns for a beautiful walk in the rspb woods on a beautiful day but did join them for a lovely meal and chat