Last week Craig asked me if we would be having the summer holidays 'off'. He thought it would be a good idea as I'm trying so hard to get lots of rest at the moment in the hope of really shaking off the lethargy I still have from when I was unwell towards the end of last year. I could see the benefits, it would be nice to chill on an evening without having to think about what the girls will be doing the following day during our little circle time and sitting night on night with hours evaporating into the vacuum also known as Youtube and Wilkipedia. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I discovered these sites, but goodness, the amount of time which just seems to disappear trawling through them is quite mind boggling. Initially I balked at the idea. We do circle time because the girls enjoy it, they ask for it. It isn't something we 'have' to do or something we 'need' a break from. That makes it sound like 'work' as opposed to just part of life which incidentally they find enjoyable.


Hmmm, after another day of physically wobbly moments I decided that perhaps there was some merit in what he said though. I would love to be running on all cylinders again and I'm sure the children would benefit too. We had a chat about it and we have decided that we are going to carry on with our circle times over the next few weeks but we're going to do other things too - sometimes instead of circle time - for example this week the girls are spending four afternoons at a taekwando camp so the mornings will probably spent playing and messing rather than doing any set thing. We've also rejoined Amazon DVD rental service and have chosen a few dvd's out of their educational section. We're not turning away from semi structured stuff - we're just going to do it differently for a while so that the girls can take advantage of summer activities and I can chill and recuperate a little. I feel quite happy about this more laid back approach - I was very fond of the quote 'it's not education - it's just living' till Hermione asked for more structure.


So, what have we done the past few days? I've started buying books and squirrelling them away for Miles when he is a little older, books which I always wanted to read to Hermione when she was younger but never got round to finding them. Hermione noticed Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and we read it together. It was so sweet. I was really impressed and look forward to sharing it with Miles too in time. We've read lots of other books too but this one really stood out.




Craig has spent a lot of time playing his sax and encouraging Hermione to do the same. She is very excited at being the owner of a lovely new, shiny, dinky saxophone but slightly less keen to get on down and play it. I think that will change once she has had more practice and feels more confident about playing it.






We've visited Tweddle Farm and tried unsuccessfully to spot their baby porcupine , visited a local beach which I could nominate for the dirtiest beach award (won't be going back there), went out for lunch at our local Chinese restaurant, pottered around the house, wondered at the rate our cauliflowers are growing and today we dug up our first row of potatoes. Life feels good!