Organising

With the home ed report safely ensconced in the LEA, all of thirteen pages long(!),  I've been able to turn my mind to much needed house sorting and cleaning.  The loft room was tackled on Friday morning when Pip was at Debbie's and Benedict was at his art class. With a clutter free room,I'm hoping to finish some sewing projects in the next few weeks.

Next up was the main bedroom and whilst Dave and the kids were running errands on Saturday I was able to make a start. The task was completed after tea and I'm pleased to report that I no longer have to dodge piles of paper work /clean washing.  Hooray!

I'm currently planning our next year in the home school and have enlisted the help of Melisa Nielsen over at A Little Garden Flower.

We are currently e-mailing one another regarding planning and the implementation of the grade three curriculum.  I'm feeling a lot more positive than I did a few weeks ago and can see that, failing to adequately plan last year was a contributory factor in some of the pitfalls I experienced this year.  I do know however that, given our combined health needs, the plan is not set in stone; it is meant to be a working document full of scribbles, changes and notes.

We actually managed to attend Mass this morning, albeit in different directions!  Dave and Benedict attended the Cathedral Mass, across town followed by coffee in the social centre.  Sara, Pip and I attended our home parish where Pip had a lovely quiet time in the Children's Liturgy.  Ironically, Benedict was baptised in our home parish but Pip was at the Cathedral; ho-hum, isn't that just a perfect analogy of our upside-down, back-to-front, topsy-turvy lives!  It actually worked really well as Dave was able to keep Benedict focused and Pip I think was glad of a change in company.

After lunch Dave, Pip and Benedict went out with friends for a strawberry picnic and steam ride.  Sara painted the back fence posts and I quietly worked on my planning.  It wasn't all work and I did make some Lemon Oat Cookies for tea.  I'll leave you with steam pictures and the latest addition to the family:

All steamed up and ready to roll.

 Picnicking on the grass.

 Meet "Harry" a tongue wagging, googly eyed, paper mache puppet!  Benedict has talent I did not know existed, mind you it helps if you have someone on board to show you the ropes and Simon has worked hard in helping Benedict achieve his goal.  If you want to check out Simon's work then a display of it can be found at

http://www.junkpunk.co.uk/ 

We have various medical appointments this week but we're hoping to fit in an exhibition of liturgical vestments at the Cathedral and a trip to Jodrell Bank Science Centre as part of our lap book project.  Here's to a happy week... with a bit of luck!