Day 224: 24th Jan 2018 - Life is good, despite more holding tank issues.

We all woke a little earlier than usual and after grabbing some cereal AJ asked if he could go for a walk. I've been trying to get a half hour walk in each day so jumped at the chance of a little one on one time with my boy. We headed out of the marina and to the west as I had done yesterday and enjoyed the lovely morning sun while having a natter about life, school, and Harry Potter.

On our return AJ wanted to cook breakfast so fried some eggs and made toast which was lovely. In the meantime Esmé had helped Patrick fill the water tanks and do a few other jobs.After the morning net we started our usual morning routine of Esmé (eventually) drying the dishes while AJ reads and I prepare boatschool. Then at 9:30 Esmé starts with English, continuing with her character description of Timmy the dog, along with a little handwriting practice and some time on the app Nessy Writing Beach where she practices where to put commas.

After half an hour it's AJ's turn to learn with me and we carry on with his "Maths no Problem" workbook. He's doing really well at the moment, looking at the problems and working out how to do them for himself. As we finished the worksheet a little early we had a good chat about the use of manipulatives not just being for "babies" but a useful tool for all mathematicians for solving problems.

While AJ was doing his maths, Esmé was busy helping Patrick to service the winches. She was really enthralled and helpful. AJ also helped with the winches while Esmé did her maths before both kids did a lesson out of our "Story of the World" History program. I have come back to this after a break as it is a chronological history of the world from the earliest nomads. If we put some effort in now, then hopefully we should have covered ancient Greeks before we get there in spring!

It was about this time that Patrick realised that we had a problem with the holding tank again so he stopped work on the winches and started investigating.

I fed the kids as they were starving and they went off to play at building dams with Kynan again, and an hour or so later and we had a working toilet again so Patrick and I celebrated with a peaceful kid free lunch!

Wednesdays are movie days so at 3pm kids and a handful of parents gathered at the meeting room to watch "Song of the Sea", a lovely film based on an old Irish story. I spent a little time catching up with Lynita, getting a B&B recommendation for a road trip we're planning for our birthdays, and downloaded the latest updates for our iNavx iPad based chart plotter. (We have a nice Raymarine chart plotter on deck but the iPad is a great backup and actually our instrument of choice in heavy shipping as the AIS overlay on it is much clearer than the AIS on the Raymarine chart plotter).

Back to the boat while the kids play outside and I finally get round to tidying the kids cabin after piles of luggage were dumped on our return. I finish just in time to dig out the leftover curry from the fridge and cook some rice before Esmé falls asleep. After a lovely tea I get E ready for bed and share reading more Famous Five with her while AJ dries the dinner dishes. Next up is AJ's English which despite being really tired he attacks with enthusiasm. Looks like the pirate book may have been £32 well spent! 5 minutes of typing practice and then he asks to go to bed. Think that's where Patrick is heading too!