This morning I got on top of the piles of clean laundry, and that apparently inspired K to start helping, by putting away a basket of her’s and H’s clothes. Meanwhile, H helped Mr Bat clear the dining table so he could wash up. Then both kids went outside to the woodpile and collected chips (well, bark and twigs) for starting the fire, a la Little House on the Prairie, then piled them up on top of the fire to dry out.

I went out to Hoonville at midday, and bought a new clothes-airer and some crafty/activity stuff at Chickenfeed, then op-shopped, and had lunch at Petty Sessions before going home. While I was out the smalls helped Mr Bat make cinnamon buns. After I got home, K reminded me about making sock puppets to play along with the book Jumpy Jack and Googily, so she and I did that. She sewed the felt tongue and whites of the eyes (onto H’s puppet because her own sock was too big for her to comfortably hold while she sewed) and I did hers. I did both pairs of button eyes, though, because that was a bit trickier. H was Very Impressed that his sister had made him a sock puppet. They played with them happily for a while, and Mr Bat later read the book with them so they could jump their sock puppets out and say “Boo!” at the critical moment. Oh look, cross-curriculum learning! K also found the sticker book I picked up today, and helped H do some of it, then did a bunch more of it this evening when I was reading Farmer Boy.

We read lots of different books today. I need to make a list of sciencey-type books K and I are reading, for her portfolio. The latest was Death in the Nut, which we borrowed last week, and which sparked a few convos about why things have to die. It’s written by the same guy who wrote the wonderful Earth Story and Life Story. I might put Beginnings and Endings and Lifetimes in Between out tomorrow, to continue that theme.