Slip and slide

James was up bright and early this morning and spent the first hour building Geomag structures. He showed me how you could propel a linked line of Geomag magnets using another magnet. We talked about how magnets have poles and that unlike poles attract and like poles repel.

Mid morning, The Reading Mission called agents Thea and James to the library to exchange their books. James has chosen Oggie and the Dinosaur. I am keeping my fingers crossed he may want to read this as the pages are not too wordy.

Once again we have been on child minding duty today. The afternoon started with potato printing followed by an excursion into the countryside. Grandpa accompanied us, he thinks home education is good for grandparents as well as kids. It means a great deal to have his support. In the early days I thought we were going to become estranged over the issue but all credit to him he has researched the field and now thinks home education has much to offer. For our excursion we decided to visit a favourite grassy bank that the kids love to roll down. Someone, I can't remember who, suggested we take plastic bags to slide on. A debate then ensued as to which bags might work best. In the end we went armed with a selection of bin bags and supermarket carriers; Morrisons' proved to be the most durable.

Much fun was had by all careering down the slope, one passing family thought it looked such good fun they decided to have a go themselves. Who needs theme parks when you have this on your doorstep for free. On our homeward journey we were puzzled by what appeared to be netting covering a manure heap. Closer inspection revealed it was a cobweb like structure. I think it must have been spiders as I can't imagine what caterpillars would find to eat on a dung heap.

Success - James read his book this evening with just a little help. He was really pleased with himself, and so he should be. School made him feel he was a failure where reading was concerned and I fear it will take some time before he can truly put that feeling behind him.