Day 222: 22nd Jan 2018 - Back to boatschool!

The fact that AJ had already done his English last night, and Esmé had done some reading too was supposed to make morning school easier. I had also planned a schedule so that Esmé was off the boat while AJ was doing his Maths so that he could concentrate better and if he got anxious about it, Esmé didn't then copy!

In reality we were all up early, and AJ continued reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix as he was close to the end. We all ate breakfast and listened to the morning radio net and then AJ had a bit of down time as he had already been reading for a good while and Esmé dried the breakfast dishes. Then at 9:30 we settled down to work, AJ starting on the next Harry Potter while Esme worked on the initial stages of a character description of Timmy the dog out of the Famous Five.

Next AJ worked with me on some Maths while Esmé helped Patrick with the Laundry, and then we switched so that AJ helped Patrick while Esmé did her maths too. Lastly we took a look at nutrition as the kids had been asking what vitamins actually do for us. This was a year 6 resource of Twinkle and I was impressed that both kids were fine both reading the content and applying what they learned to an activity sheet.

It was a beautiful day and Esmé did some of her work laying in the sun on the pontoon outside, then announcing that we should have a picnic lunch on the beach. The soup I had prepared yesterday stayed in the fridge and Esmé made sandwiches while I recorded the work they had done and tidied up a bit, then off to the stony beach we went.

We had a lovely picnic before Patrick returned to pick up the laundry while I stayed at the beach with the kids who were busy improving the den and practicing sword skills as well as just generally exploring. AJ eventually got bored so went back to the boat while I stayed on a little longer with Esmé. As we were playing we found a lovely fossil to take back to show dad!

Back on the boat I got curry going in the thermal cooker for tea while AJ had some electronic time and Esmé went to play with Kynan and Leora. Then at 2:30 the kids went to help set up todays craft session with Lotty.

We painted some lovely stones and had a great time with the other kids.

On the way back the kids tried to skim stones and build dams, eventually working really well together as a team!

Then it was quickly back to the boat where I put on the rice and then stole a sneaky half hour to take a walk in an effort to do a little more exercise. It was nice to have a little alone time and I walked West along the seafront further than I've been before which was really nice as the sun dropped lower and lower in the sky.

We all enjoyed the curry and then evening school was abandoned in favour of a celebratory movie night watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix.... AJ's treat for finishing his book!