Winter is icumen in

The bugs have stopped their incessant night-time chatter, indicating the start of our second sub-zero winter. A sort of joke, but I am already wearing two thermals vests and my ski-jacket. Inside the house. Like all good English people we refuse to put the central heating on just yet, although we did give it a blast last night, to accompany the first fire of the season. We're not quite an environmentalist's dream.

T is getting busy at school. Homework started this week. It is really being more of a chore for most of the mums, trying to persuade their kids to sit down and do it.The teacher has said that if they are not finished within 30 mins, to leave it. My approach is that this is far too long, and eats into valuable colouring-in time at home. I give her 10 minutes. So far it has involved reading lists and attempting to write five words without copying from the original.

She is also attending Vision Therapy as she is having difficulty focusing. I'm quite optimistic as there appears to have been an improvement already. Some of the things she has to do seem quite tricky for a 6-year old. eg Jessica sits opposite to her and says "Which is your right-hand, which is your left?", and then asks "Which is my left-hand and my right?", which involves a fair deal more spatial awareness than her mother is capable of (ask bridgjo - there was a very good reason we invested in a GPS). The exercise she likes best involves her lying on the floor on her tummy, and me touching an arm, leg, head, and her raising it. Then we go up to 4....it's a bit like the Simon electronic game with "Lady-Bird"-clad appendages rather than flashing-lights. This is all to do with "body awareness" as it is tricky at this age to just say "Well, move your right eye in a bit". There are lots of tracking exercises ("Follow my finger....") and focusing games to do too. What with the homework, this, plus she needs to keep up with her English reading, we're going to have to start getting up earlier.

But not this morning - a tumultuous thunderstorm at 6.30am, and the darkest morning yet, encouraged us to have an extra hour in bed with a story.

I took my skates in to be sharpened today. This is in spite of the other woman in my class coming a cropper the other day, and either wrenching or breaking her ankle (a piercing scream and and yell if "It's grating", is not something you really want to hear. Or, indeed, experience).

At the shop I came across the snort-worthy Warrior Nutt Hutt. This sturdy piece of equipment came in one of those inpenetrable plastic jobbies (of the type, paradoxically, scissors are normally sold in), with the award-winning design being a photo of a broken peanut casing with two tatty looking peanuts inside.