Best laid plans...

Today was going to be awesome!  Meeting up with friends at the splash park, where the council have just added a temporary 'beach', and taking nets to see what we could find in the nearby stream.  The weather forecast was perfect.

But...it was not to be.  Fred woke very early with a tummy upset.  So, I cancelled our plans.  I needed some food - we were out of milk, bread etc.  Fred understandably wanted to stay at home.  I put my mobile number on the speed dial of the landline, showed Fred how to use it, and popped out for 15 minutes with Betsy and Meg.  I haven't done this before.  I won't make a habit of it - he is only just 9 - but it's helpful to have the option in a tight spot.

A day at home then.  The paddling pool was stuck behind a load of stuff in the shed of doom, but the sprinkler hopscotch was accessible.

Betsy wanted to paint a log that she'd found yesterday, so I gave her a washing up bowl full of soapy water and a couple of sponges.  Betsy and Meg scrubbed the log and left it to dry. Then we got the paint out.  They both had a big cardboard box to paint, as well as the log.

Unsurprisingly, they soon started painting themselves!

One of those little home ed/unschooling nuggets fell into my lap today.  Fred was looking at the birthday card from my parents.  It's a shark one, and when you open it a pop up shark head opens it's mouth with lots of sharp spiky teeth.  He said 'why do so many birthday cards have bad puns?  This one says "have a fintastic birthday."  It's so bad!'

I'm still pleasantly surprised when he casually reads something to me, and I know that he knows about puns, but I felt a lovely warm glow with that one simple observation.