Today Katy started off wanting to do her phonics book, and did about ten pages of that. Hugh wanted to be doing something with us too, so I set him up with playdough. After a while, Katy decided she wanted to do playdough instead. I suggested she might want to do a leadlite kit I found in the craft cupboard, before I realised that we don’t have any alfoil. I gave her the modelling clay I had just unearthed instead, and she made some complicated scenes with purple people sitting at the bus stop or on top of hills, and birds balancing on pegs in the sky, etc. Hughie came up with a maths concept story book which I bought the other day, Abu Ali Counts His Donkeys, which we enjoyed so much I read twice.

The two of them played for ages while Mr Bat and I brought in and sorted, respectively, a huge pile of boxes from the shipping crate. I gave Katy a book about making things out of junk, although most of the ideas involved things we didn’t have in our still-rather-understocked busy box, so eventually she gave up on making a castle with a couple of toilet rolls. Instead she amused herself for ages with a box of old cards, cutting and taping to make a big collage which we stuck on the corkboard. Her fine motor skills are really coming along, I noted. I also uncovered the bag of matchbox cars, so they played cars together on the play mat for ages. At various times they also had the toy animals out, and the threading beads/pictures, and the stacking plastic bits, and the kitchen toys. Katy played with the feltboards for a while as well, although she did it up on her bunk bed so Hugh couldn’t get into it! I read a few more books to them together. What else? I think they were playing outside for a while, and they also went to the hardware store with Mr Bat.

And Katy and I are still reading The Little White Horse aloud each night in front of the fire – we are nearly half way through now.