Little Star Homeschool

Today Robert has been busy, very busy. He did Hotwires with Dad and played Tantrix by himself. We went into town and got stopped by a promotor for the library service and were persuaded to join the Quest Seekers summer reading challenge. Robert has to read six books in six weeks to gain rewards. We have a chart to complete and the best thing is its all free! So thats maths, science and literacy covered for today. Tomorrow I need to do some cooking to restock the freezer and carry on with repainting the office.

John is a happy bunny after seeing one of his favourite rock bands play Chesterfield last night - Saracen -

Following their first live performance in 1977, the band gigged extensively
across the Midlands during the ensuing years. The standard of those 'live'
performances, combined with their unique brand of symphonic rock, saw Lammergier
amass a large and loyal following of fans. Then a new decade arrived, and with
it some major developments for the Matlock-based rockers.

Their named changed from Lammergier.....to SARACEN. But the music remained the same; an ever-growing repertoire of powerful, guitar-oriented rock, amply laced with lush keyboards and evocative vocals. After several months 'off the road', with time spent putting the finishing touches to their new 'live' show, the Lads re-emerged as 'Saracen' in January of 1981. And this time with plans for a debut album!

During the summer of that year the now famous 'Heroes, Saints & Fools' album was recorded, at Fairview Studios in Beverley, England. Released in October '81, it was received with critical acclaim, and is still regarded as a 'classic' of it's genre even today, over twenty years on!

After being suitably reprimanded yesterday for mistakenly calling Robert's tour a 'world tour' when in fact he has never set foot outside the UK I thought I would stick to safer pursuits today and start painting the office. I had a tin of blue paint just doing nothing, an impulse buy from a few years ago. I am dealing with my 'blue problem' trying very hard to use new colours but I cannot let a good tin of paint go to waste. Robert sat and watched while reading to me from Horrid Henry's Joke Book.

That cat has been for a visit again, exploring the house, sitting on the sofa, purring and rubbing against just about everything.

Have had a few problems with Blogger over the past couple of days, ads not feeding properly and text refusing to wrap around pictures. Very glitchy. John uses Wordpress and keeps trying to convert me but I do like Blogger most of the time.

It was about 2pm when I phoned my mum yesterday to tell her my Rowan Classic knitting pattern book had arrived after quite a long wait. That was the good news. The bad news was I would need a second mortgage to afford the yarn - Rowan Classic Tweed. To my surprise she told me to hang on while she put my sister on the phone. A surprise because Monica lives in Northampton and I haven't seen her in several years. So we met up for lunch and swap knitting tales and chat about yarn cheaper than Rowan Tweed. While I was in town I bought some baking beans for quiche making, a new roasting dish and a cute Ruff and Tumble mug. Robert enjoyed himself, he loves surprises.

Today we hung out loads of washing on the line, went shopping at Iceland, posted the Direct Debit form for family membership to The Wildlife Trust, rubbed a balloon until it was statically charged and observed what happened when it was put next to a stream of water, found out the maximum number of straws Robert could suck water through, repaired some scratched Playstation games and made a yummy pasta bake for tea!