More bird news and school

The fairy tern survived the night, no thanks to my sleepless night of worry. At nine o’clock this morning I dashed out to the shops to look for mackerel. No fresh ones, but Thorpes had three varieties of canned mack. It’s incredibly fishy-smelling fish, and the smell lingers! We managed to get a few small chunks of it into the bird, as well as some milk and water during the course of the day. So far it’s doing very well – it was very active and energetic today. It’s just too cute. We gave it the run of Nick’s office and my room for some time, and it’s getting quite sturdy on its legs. It tries to run, head down, wings out, full tilt, then bumps into something. It has stopped trembling when we hold it, and quickly settles down to sleep when it’s in a hand. This baby is more spoiled than mine ever were!

School today was very good, despite the bird. It just took longer because I stopped after every subject to feed. We started with the language section today, and I was extremely pleased with the boys’ work, both of them. We’re doing Bb this week, although focusing on the capital letters. Caleb is starting to write neatly between the lines I draw for him, so this handwriting method seems to be working well. Aaron is also learning to write the letters independently, not only tracing. I feel confident knowing that I’m teaching a proper method, not muddling along! Also for language I had them retell yesterday’s short story, which they did pretty well. After tea we carried on with the read-aloud and history, and then another break, and then science. After lunch Caleb read to me, and I couldn’t believe how much he had retained from last year. He only stumbled over a few words, but most of them he read fluently, just slowly. So it was a very encouraging school day.

We had lunch out today, to try out Sally’s new delicatessen. It’s so nicely done, looks like any modern SA deli/take-away. The boys each had a cheese sandwich, and Nick and I had baguettes (foot-long rolls). Nick had bacon, and I had chicken, mayo and salad filling – tomato, cucumber and lettuce. It was absolutely and perfectly wonderful! Sally makes her own mayonnaise, so doesn’t struggle with the shortages.