Thursday

Breakfast and off in the car to Seaford. Hunting for fossils, poking around rock pools and collecting seashells. Picnic next to the car park and then home in time for dinner. Piano practice, bath, Max & Ruby, stories and bed.

Wednesday

Breakfast, half an episode each of How Its Made and Monkey Business and then piano practice. Car trip to the local recycling centre, then the garden centre to pick up slug pellets and a few seeds. Home again for some gardening and then lunch. Walked to Fun & French class and then back. Dora, dinner, a little more ‘baby TV’ followed by The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs on DVD (thought we might manage a dino-free day for a while there!), stories then bed.

Tuesday

Breakfast then ‘Walking with Monsters’ on DVD (I think she’s trying to memorise it). Finished digging out the dinosaur and I glued the bits together. Gardening, Audrey planted a row of radishes, 2 pumpkins and a sunflower and helped me pot on some sweet peas and remove dead leaves and algae from the ponds. Lunch out in the garden. Piano practice. Audrey then spent some time ’sorting out’ her dinosaur collection. Back out in the garden to chat over the fence with the kids next door, then helped me wash a ground sheet (wet and messy). Dinner, ‘Time Team’, episode 6 of ‘The Planets’, bedtime stories (no dinosaurs) and bed.

Monday

Breakfast, an episode of “How it’s Made” and then into town for banks, shopping and a coffee and a chat. As soon as we got home Audrey started excavating a plastic dinosaur from a plaster block. We then moved the baby goldfish out into the fish pond. Had lunch then off to the Godalming group (made a felt dinosaur) followed by a further hour in a nearby playground. Home again, dinner, Pepper Pig, piano practice, bath, Max & Ruby, bedtime story (yet another Astrosaurs book) and bed.

Sunday

Set off mid morning for London. Science Museum first, for a run around the Space hall and a spot of shopping, then over to the NHM … for more shopping (Audrey for once happy to part with birthday/xmas money since it meant two plush baby dinosaurs). Lunch then the talk we’d gone there for, “Evolution Revolution” with Prof Robert Winston. After that another NHM shop this time to get a real meteorite to add to the space display, the Creepy Crawlies room and inevitably, a visit to the Dinosaurs. Home for dinner, Max & Ruby, piano practice, story and bed with new plushies.

As an antidote to the depressing battle against the DCSF and its evil minions I’ve decided to address the often asked question “what’s a typical day like?” by recording what we do for the next week.

Saturday
Finished reading “The Hatching Horror” then had pancakes for breakfast. A quick change into her old ballet clothes and Audrey sat with granny watching “Time Team” while I planted tomato seeds. Next she announced that she wanted me to dig out her “My Neighbour Totoro” DVD so while she watched that and flicked through the next Astrosaurs book I did some net surfing and started to write this blog entry. After the movie we made a Hama bead Totoro, had lunch and then did some gardening. Back inside for piano practice. Watched an episode of “The Planets”, played with space toys and then painted Saturn on her plastic solar system model. Dora and other ‘baby TV’ for her while I got dinner ready. Dinner. More TV, bath, bedtime story, “The Seas of Doom”, and finally bed.

We visited Wisley today to look at  all the beautiful butterflies - they are wonderful and it was fantastic to watch my son and husband reading all about butterflies and moths and where they come from, their life cycles etc - you dont get science classes like that at school.

We also compared the leaf structures of the plants in the tropical zones with the plants in the desert zones - and even I learned something new about cactuses (not that I knew that much about them before we went)  I think that Home Education is an education for the whole family, I am learning as much as DS is about new things.