Harry up at 6.30, me and Joe up at 8.20. Harry on the Wii, Joe on the iPad, me with a pile of books and a cup of tea. Breakfast.

I read a book extract for the writing course I’m running and email the writer to tell her it’s great, then I answer some emails and bicker on Twitter while the boys go up to my room to play Spongebob. (Giggling, thumps, ominous crashes.)

Manage to get the boys dressed and drag them out of the house, then up to the Co-op for petrol and food for tonight. (And a coffee and a pastry for me.) Harry asks if we can go for a drive, mainly, I think, because he and Joe are enjoying the Muppets CD. We go for a short drive (on the route we used to use to get Baby Harry to go to sleep) and they do some “funraisin'” in the back (this seems to consist of their toys having a dance-off).

Back home, Harry hops straight on the Wii while Joe plays with his doctor kit and I put the shopping away and write a blog post about women and heart attacks (I didn’t mean to do this, but it was playing on my mind).

I take the rubbish out to the bin (this is something else I wouldn’t do if David was here and, as I learn when I speak to him later, I’ve done it wrong). Clean the loo. Chase an invoice, send an invoice. Fetch Joe’s blanket from upstairs. (Joe: “Is it in my bedroom? Come on then, darling.”)

Look at The Earth from the Air, etc. (learn about a boy from the Philippines named Edgar, whose favourite toy is a truck made from tin cans and an old flip-flop. I give the boys the ‘see how lucky you are?!’ speech) and read a bit about chromosomes/genes in the other book.

Make a packed lunch and chivvy them into the car for a home ed meet-up at a soft play centre about 20 minutes away. We wouldn’t normally go to soft play twice a week, but I want the boys to play with other home ed kids, particularly at a place they’re familiar with. Listen to Cabin Pressure on the way (at Harry’s request). Boys go off to play while I chat with the other parents. One of the children has Down’s Syndrome and, on the way home, we talk a bit about it – the reading from earlier helps – and Harry asks me about one of his old school friends who has a disability.

When we get home, Harry opens the front door and notices that the magnet that I stick the house keys to the noticeboard with has got a 2p piece stuck to it. We empty out Joe’s money box and test which coins are magnetic and which aren’t (while Joe shouts “NO! That’s MY MONEY!”) Discover that, er, some are and some aren’t. Find a 2p that’s as old as me.

They both go upstairs to play, then come down and play on the Wii and iPad, while I make tea because the grandparents are coming round. Tea with the grandparents and then a chat (me) and a play (boys) with them. By the time they leave, it’s pretty much bedtime, but since the boys are happily practicing parkour in the lounge, I have a quick look through my in-tray. I show them a couple of parkour/free-running videos on YouTube (this may turn out to have been a mistake, although Harry does say “Don’t try this at home!”) and then I take Joe up to bed. We read The Windy Day, then Harry joins us and we watch a bit of Sesame Street (I must write more about Sesame Street – every time we watch it I’m struck by its brilliance).

Back downstairs, Harry and I clean out the guinea pigs (while listening to more Cabin Pressure) and then Harry goes up to bed. We read a bit of History Spies and watch BrainPOP (on internet safety – I try to convince Harry to watch the one on genes, but he’s having none of it).

Once the boys are both asleep, I pour myself a glass of wine, send a couple of emails, then settle down to do some reading, including my WIP (haven’t had much reading time today), followed by a bit of Cougar Town, Buffy, Happy Endings…