The Long Winter

It's that time of year when everyone is feeling tired and longing for signs of spring.

For a brief while it was beautifully sunny today, and equally freezing cold. Then the rain came and we rushed out to see if there was a rainbow (there wasn't). The rain went and came again, then hail, then more rain, and then just the cold greyness, traditional of our British winters. I felt guilty for not dragging the kids and the dog out for a walk, but the thought of trying to anticipate the next half-hour's weather and dress everyone accordingly was just more effort than I could summon up.

Instead I badgered the kids into doing some maths. Yeah yeah I know. I never claimed to be consistently and entirely autonomous.

So ds1 did some stuff on fractions and decimals in his CGP book. It was ok cos we had the accompanying book that explained at least most of what it was all about.

I always struggled with decimals and fractions. Never really understood it. Not sure I do now. And I passed A level maths. Right now, I think an understanding of fractions and decimals would be far more helpful than all that work I did on differential equations (no, don't ask me, I've never used them since). Education is a strange thing, isn't it? Why is it that in school you're made to learn all the unuseful stuff, but never the stuff that you need or want to know?

So today, eventually defeated by the weather and the maths, I started assembling a large flat-packed cupboard unit. We were given two units by friends at the weekend, Ikea storage units, that they no longer needed and had disassembled. No instructions. I thought about leaving it till the weekend, then thought again. I managed most of one unit by trial and error, but found the drawers perplexing. I left dh battling with the problem tonight as I went to work, reassured that it wasn't just me being incapable, the drawers really were tricky.

Today seems such a contrast to yesterday. Today slow, grey, long, and yesterday bright and busy with a packed house and lots of wonderful company. I forget how lovely it is to have a family over, to have adult conversation while the kids play. So often when you home educate it seems that your children have plenty of playmates but there is little adult company to while away the time. Of course I understand that it's a relief to be able to do child-swaps, to get a little bit of time to yourself, but on days when I herd in another 3 child visitors and wave the parent off, it feels as if I am nothing more than an unpaid creche supervisor :)

So thank you, my visiting family yesterday (you know who you are!). You brought the house alive and reminded me that this is what my house is meant for. I plan to do it again. Soon.

And ds1 says a big 'thank you' for the sling shot :)