My husband (Big J) goes back to work tomorrow after nearly two weeks off. 

To take our minds off that Sunday night feeling we took ourselves for a walk in the woods, something that has been suggested regularly but which has been met with groans from the children until today, when they had to yield to Daddy’s “last day of freedom” request. 

C(7) had a wonderful time marvelling at the dens people had made in the Norwegian Spruces and attempting a few of her own. I’m sure our experiments and discussions about throwing sticks onto the semi-frozen pond counted as science. 

J and I enjoyed the challenge of crossing a swamp, having picked a particularly untrodden path back to the car (I was glad I’d gone for brown snow boots instead of the white I’d been so tempted by a few weeks ago).

Tomorrow’s still officially school holidays, so the children will probably watch TV when they get up in the morning. But I’m resolved to rise earlier, in preparation for the start of our new, fully home-educating lifestyle. 

I was going to say “the start of our home-ed term on Thursday,” but that would be far too structured!