Making it up as we go along

For the last couple of mornings we were out after breakfast to take advantage of free swimming lessons being offered at the local pool, (trainee instructors needed kids to practise on). R had to miss out unfortunately, having recently suffered a perforated eardrum, so while Ia and J swam R, U and I went to the nearby park. R found it boring, even today when we took his scooter, but that was the way it had to be. Ia especially enjoyed her lessons, telling me that over the two days she had been to the zoo, space, the rainforest and safari. She had also been an excellent hippo. Not like swimming in the old days is it!

Back at home the boys set up some solar lights H recently bought. H intends to take the lights back home to his mum's, as there they get loads of sunshine and loads of power cuts. We just want to see if they actually work at all first. So, practical science.

Ia has been working on her latest lapbook. It is very nearly finished, it just needs a few decorative touches. With the overall HE shedule being so relaxed this week it has been hard to get Ia into doing anything other than her lapbook, although she did listen in as I read to the boys about castles in the garden today. All four of them have been doing lots of reading. Yesterday afternoon they sat under the sheets on the washing line (for shade), reading. This looked quite funny really, especially as we have two trees providing plenty of shady spots in the garden. It reminded me of how we used to sit and read in the garden of the flat we used to live in. There we would usually be under the washing, but this was because once the washing line was open and loaded it took up most of the garden space anyway.

I don't think Ia could read all of the books she had with her, I think she was picking out the words she knew. As usual U was retelling the stories in her own words.

This evening R made a pizza. I showed him how to make the bread dough for it, but he did all the mixing and kneading. He then did all the topping. He was very pleased with the results, alhamdulillah.