So, apart from a day playing in the snow we've done a few other bits and bobs work wise, although must admit, not as much as I'd like due to the numerous phone calls, form filling and serious clearing out of unwanted items, all associated with a housemove.

We've done more to our maths posters, mainly on area using templates of the layout of the new house to make it a little more interesting. Reading "More Murderous Maths" has helped to sink all this new stuff into our brains as it makes for funny and educational reading. The kids are able to tell me and P the definition of a formula, the formula for the area of a rectangle, square and triangle and the formula for finding the circumference of a circle. Thanks to the aforementioned book, they've also learnt how to estimate the area of a wibbly shape and an unusual shape like a foot (by putting it in a bucket of water, catching the spilt water and measuring it!). They wanted to try this out with Allie (the cat), but luckily he wasn't around at the time (only joking)!

Continuing with the USA section of our "Around the World ..." and have read and written about the Krabloonik Dog Sled team in Colorado which Palin used during his trip, Statue of Liberty and the Dollar Bill with George Washington's face on one side.

K and B have finished off all their Flat Traveller's stuff ready for posting. They've enjoyed hosting the Flats, as always, but we'll probably take a break for a while as it certainly takes up alot of their time. On the literacy front, the children continue to practise their cursive writing using this, and have produced some written work about the play we'd seen last weekend at the theatre. They also wrote lovely poems titled "Brrr!". I'd found this poem when sorting through K's old school work - it was something she completed in year 3 and I wanted to see what descriptive and imaginative work she, and B, could produce this time.

On a cold day,

On a really cold day,

On a really, really cold day

***

On a really, really shivery, frozen, dazzling cold day ...

There is nothing I like better in the whole world than

Going sledging on big snow covered hills,

Sitting by a firey fire,

Throwing wet, freezing snowballs,

Crunching through a fresh white snow blanket. (K)

***

On a really, really breezy cold day ...

There is nothing I like better in the whole world than

Snow on a gusty, blowy day,

It is raw, cold and bitter,

Sitting by the camp fire! (B)

We got a good lot of exercise on Wednesday as, without the car for the day, we had to walk to K's swimming which took us a good hour each way. After her lesson she was really chuffed to hear so is to go up a level after just 5 weeks. We talked about global warming as we noticed buds appearing on the trees and flowers appearing - really Spring like (strange that the weather changed so much overnight). We also chatted about religion. As we saw the minerets of the mosques ahead of us on our walk home, K started to compare the inside of a mosque to that of a modern and old Christian church which made for a rather informative and interesting conversation.

B has been building new Exo-Force men as his new one turned up from e-bay. He's also asked to do some computer programming so I've found this course on Basic (which I learnt at school) to start him off.

And finally .... Is it really so cold in our house that Allie has to end up sitting on the gas hob to warm himself? Rather a foul look too, perhaps he'd had a tipple from the red wine by his side