A Wearing Day!! :(
It's been one of those days when nothing goes like it should! The girls were supposed to go to playgroup and the boys were supposed to get really excited about the idea of making a lapbook about Egypt, but no 
The girls didn't have playgroup because the schools don't start back until tomorrow here, which sent Phoebe into floods of tears. They are both SO looking forward to showing off their holiday makes (the lapbooks) to 'Nicki' - the playgroup leader. Fortunately my friend Helen was willing to take them for a couple of hours, which cheered Phoebe up - they showed their books to her instead and that seemed to settle that problem. 
This meant I was then able to concentrate on the boys as planned.
We got all the bitty stuff out of the way first thing, as usual - Bible study, handwritting and Maths. Maths was easy today I felt we could have spent more time on the geometry that Jacob was doing and got out the geomags or something, but he is really workbook orientated - likes to know what he has to do and does no more than he has to!! Still, maybe we'll do some 'expansion activities' on that tomorrow?
Then they had a break and that crept into lunch-time, so we had an early lunch in the hope of starting 'Egypt' before the girls came home - which we did, but only just.
Initially the idea of a lapbook was met with enthusiasm, but when I told the boys that they had to do the 'finding out' for the inside all the fun seemed to vanish in a flash I think they hoped I was going to tell them everything!! Research is NOT a big hit in this house sadly and getting the boys to work together is a real challenge. All Joel was willing to do was read, but the level was too hard for him, so he was not really understanding what he was reading and if Jacob read Joel just switched off and rolled all over the floor, etc... Jacob couldn't seem to remember any of what he was reading either, let alone take 'notes' on it - even though it was all in nice short paragraphs with clear headings - 
Every time I went out of the room (which of course I had to do now and again with the girls now home and Ellie about too) all work stopped and both boys went into 'lark-about' mode. I was thoroughly stress by the end of an hour of this, but we had not really achieved much The boys were supposed to be finding out what the six/seven time periods of Egyptian history were called, when they were (what years) and what important things happened in each of them. Not really that tall an order! We got as far as the last 'period' in the end, but it took about 2 hours - with only about 45 minutes of that really spent working though!! Not quite sure how we can get over this lack of desire to read/find out. Looking at the pictures is all very nice, which is what they are very willing to do. They do tell you some stuff I guess, but not necessarily what you are setting out to learn! More to do tomorrow - finish off taking notes on that last 'period', when a lot more is known and there will be much more to write down (sigh) and then we can put the first mini-book together. Hopefully that might inspire them & spur them on a little more..!!
One thing that was interesting was reading the history book's version of the events in Egypt and drawing them alongside the Biblical account of the growth of the Israelite nation within Egypt and then the Exodus. They match up very well. The names given to people and events are different and the perspective is altered of course, but the actual pattern of events matches very well. This little add-in I did not expect the boys to grasp by themselves, but when I read the Bible story they could see how both books said the same thing, but told the story differently - well at least we achieved that much!
THEN I started Joel's grammar lapbook with him - which he met with much greater enthusiasm and got stuck into straight away. Not sure why - maybe because really we are just re-covering old ground and he already has an understanding of what we are doing. Anyway, at least that was more fun
And now I need to hand over the computer to Paul for his study time
Oh yes, one more FANTASTIC thing that did happened today, and brightended it up somewhat, was that some friends of ours sent us £200 for driving lessons - about the cost of an intensive course!! Now, who goes first is the question?! P. needs to be able to drive for his work; I need it to have more freedom with the kids. He is more likely to get help paying for his lessons than I am (i.e. from a church), but his need is perhaps more urgent than mine and I am heavily pregnant of course, which is a negative. I could perhaps, just about get it done before baby comes - not sure about the emergancy stop thing though, or all the twisting with the maneouvers etc... We could just bank the money and wait I guess... Hmmm - we really need to think on this one, but FAB to get given the money - a real answer to a long-term prayer (persistent widow style!!). 
