Box Day!
Yesterday was "Box Day" ie that momentous day when the Sonlight box lands in the living room and you go "OMG where on earth is all this lot going to fit????" it was also the day when 2/3 of the LDA order arrived In fact the 2 couriers practially arrived together, formed an orderly queue and laughed at a small child getting all excited at all her school stuff arriving at once… she was very excited about unpacking which added somewhat to the general level of "buried in resources"-ness going round. The excitement peeked when she discovered that Sonlight had sent stuff in a Castle Box (ie it has a castle printed on the inside so once momma empties out all the goodies she has to rip open the box, re-stick it the other way out and allow offspring to play with it instead of keeping all the stuff in it for a while until working out where it all goes.)
So what did I get? Well, I don’t need it til September but the exchange rate was so nice looking that I got Sonlight Core 2 which is the second half of their first whirlwind tour of world history (they do it all again in later years, I may or may not join them on that trip - I fancy some of the Winter Promise packs for a change) I also, because I couldn’t resist even though I should have doen, got Lyrical Life Science 1 and a times tables CD. Oh, and a large stash of workbooks and other goodies for Mummy Bean. All that lot found homes eventually and we have already enjoyed a listen through of the science CD (the work text looks way too advanced though)
the Phonics and Maths board game packs from LDA have gone down a storm (they were an "early birthday pressie from Jessie") which gives me something less tedious than Ludo to play with her and gives her a more entertaining way to practice some of teh basics, get her "puzzle star" for the day and not get nagged at my me (did I ever mention that autonomy isn’t our style?)
There was also a timer that I wanted to try to keep me on track a bit more with things like getting sucked into hours of mindless websurfing when I should be studying. I can set it to give me a count down to when I should stop messing and start learning, then alot myself a specified time of study time after which I can stop - somehow knowing that I am going to study for a set time makes me more liketly to start than just "oh, I’ll just sit here with my books" I used the timer last night at Rainbows so taht the game didn’t go on for ever and it was a big hit. It’s not perfect, setting the thing going involves a lot more button pressing that I think it ought to do (oh for the top to be a nice big start button…) but it’s handy and I can see it getting a lot of use. I really could have done with it for my exam as it would have helped me plan my time better, mind you I seemed to do okay without it 
and I’ll have it ready for the next one.
Today we story-ed and puzzled in the morning then swam then, to celebrate getting it back from Lola, we watched HP5. I suspect I could recite a large chunk of that script you know.
