I’d been a bit of a “hands off” mum this afternoon. A long week at work had left me worn out, so I’d been getting a bit of my coursework done, while my daughter was happily occupied with sorting out (emptying onto the floor) all her pencil cases.

She decided she wanted to sharpen some pencils. I’m not proud to admit that I tried to discourage her from this endeavour as I figured that at the very least, I’d end up finding pencil shavings everywhere for the next month.

All credit to her though. She asked me if she could use her jam tart case to catch the shavings and then empty it into the bin when it was full. Who was I to argue with such logic and ingenuity?

So for twenty minutes, she was totally engaged in her work. And yeah, there were pencil shavings on the carpet, but she was using a whole lot of fine motor skills, and her concentration was just wonderful to observe.

Very soon after that photo was taken, she got one of her colouring books out, and asked if I wanted to colour with her. Feeling all the mum guilt for my earlier lack of enthusiasm for her pencil sharpening, I readily agreed. And I was so delighted that I did.

Half an hour later, boyfriend turned up to discover us both on the floor on our bellies, heads bent over the page, deciding which yellow was the most fitting for our unicorn’s hair. Bliss.