B walked the dog up to the shops and got herself a horrible pie, then came back to eat it. She played Chicktionary while I was in the shower, then I diverted her into the dining room and we played Maths War. She was pleased to actually win today! After that we discussed the various different card games I had squirrelled away in the cupboard, and she got excited by the Junior Scrabble game. At which she whupped my ass 105 to 85. Scrub. I was particularly impressed with her last move – I had put down my favourite Scrabble word, “quire” (which is one of those specialised words which only exists in Scrabble games), and quick as a flash she put down “re-” in front of it. She seems to have that strategic instinct for Scrabble which I lack!

We didn’t quite finish the game as BTN came on and B wanted to watch that. She came in to tell me about a segment on BTN, in which they profiled a school which hunts for spiders and one class which has found 40 new species. No prizes for guessing what her suggestion for the rest of the day was *g* After BTN was Science Clips, on rocks and soils. Then we spent a little while on the multiplication book, but B’s concentration was getting ragged and K was getting cross that she wasn’t getting any attention (she was sitting up at the table with her colouring-in book and a puzzle), so I sent them off to play in the garden. In between all this I’ve managed to put two loads of laundry through my fortunately not-yet-extinct washing machine, and pick up the Duplo which was pissing me off strewn all over the playroom. I am also recording a science program for B, although I am not really keen on her watching it this morning as we are meeting Nannie at the pool at 1:30, we haven’t done any English, and we still need to eat lunch – plus I promised a trip to Federation Square to feed the fish and visit the Lolly Shop. Hmm, I may have to get her back inside soon!

[Later] Neither of them put up much resistance at coming inside at about 11:20 when bribed with the trip to the Lolly Shop. B wrote most of a page on her story, then read a chapter of Tai’s Penguin, and did it all so quickly that we left earlier than I had planned. The fish were disappointing – K can’t really feed the ones which have to be fed from the bank rather than the bridge, and the pond with the bridges is so chockful of algae that all the fish appear to have died off. K was pleased with her loot (a lollipop and one of those horrible plastic-looking hotdog things), and so was B. Lunch is being had, and we are about to leave for the swimming pool. K has not had a nap, unlike last week, so I’m not sure how long she will last. We will see…