Botany, party planning, interviews,and tantrums.

This morning seemed to be a bit of a mix of tantrums, strops but also very productive.

Got all the houseworky stuff done by 9 (well not everything,but we limit ourselves to only spending so much time cleaning the house in the morning,as it does seem endless).

James was in Daddy mood, so I sat with Becky and Danny and looked at our Exploring Creation through Botany - first lesson Taxonomy.

Then we went onto Maths and English. By this time James had climbed onto the table where we were working and insisted on grabbing us around our necks. So I left the elder two to finish up, then took James out in the garden to plant his Cress which he got free from his CBeebies magazine that he conned Mike into buying him this morning.

His interest in this lasted all of a minute, then a battle for him to keep his hoody on, as it was quite cold this morning, despite the sunshine. I think in the end I did give in (having read several books on toddlers and their tantrums, the advice is to sometimes give in on things that are not that important) so I decided (probably a bit too late) that I would just let him take the darn thing off!

The other two were really good at this age I have to say, so this is quite a shock. I dont think it is his meds as some have suggested (which the doc said if it affected his behaviour it would be all of the time) as I remember him starting to be like this in September last year. We attended the Green Fair, we had a home ed stall, and I distinctly remember running myself ragged trying to look after him, and not spending any time at all at the stall.

According to an article in Time Magazine - the youngest child is like a "loose cannon" and also the youngest tends to get bored quickly,amongst other things (been reading about birth orders!).

Anyway, after the shopping had been delivered,Becky and Danny came out into the garden and continued their learning with tree identification - in the end I had to leave them to it, and took James upstairs to settle him, felt like he had a slight temperature which would explain his behaviour (he always seems hyper, but when unwell there is a nasty edge to it).

Mike then went off to an interview, which went well and looks quite promising, and the poor neglected elder children had to fend for themselves and get their own lunch, (left over buffet food from evening before). They were kind enough to put a plate of food back for me to, bless them.

They then watched Blitz Street, programme about WWII, then it was free time for them.

James finally settled down, I caught up on my emails, arranging James birthday party, booking HE trips etc and then Mike arrived home, James woke up and we all went into the garden again.

It was relatively warm, so we stayed out there for a while, James helped Mike pick some lettuce and spinach to go with our evening meal,then we went in when it started to get a bit chilly.

So quite a good day, despite me getting incredibly stressed this morning, alls well that ends well.

Lou x