When I wrote my homeschool application I had such grand plans. One of which was that we would somehow build our own tiny home and I imagined Helena by my side measuring, sawing etc. Of course reality was someone else built us a sleepout sized building with no internal finishing…. and I paid cash, so no debt. I have been slowly working on it having a break every time something got too hard and then coming back to it. I was disappointed that H showed no interest in building stuff, wood work in general.

We finally got some gib on one wall yesterday, which was a seriously stressful experience involving the three of us, Dad, Helena and me. It was so hard getting Helena to help. But it turned out she had being doing her own project.

She had totally independently taken the door off the Wendy house so we could change it from opening in to opening out and hence turn the whole Wendy house into a rat house.

It turns out she can…

• Match screwdriver to the screws and unscrew hinges
• saw a straight line
• measure correctly
• Competently nail and screw things together
• Use an electric drill
• Communicate her ideas

but apparently she really truly can’t vacuum – this is totally MY fault, actually our vacuum needs it’s filters washed, possibly replaced but I am particular, I like the floors to be transformed from messy to immaculate so have been known to vacuum after Helena.. she has picked up I don’t think she can vacuum.

We also had a few words over the painting, I went all instructional! We had a discussion over how I had been doing it for years and even our house guest, an adult, hadn’t been able to paint well enough for me and apparently I was underestimating how much I’d learnt over my long house painting career. Helena then turned the door into a work of art…