Life is very challenging for my five-year-old daughter. She has been busy at school, her little brain is growing and filling with knowledge, and her body is doing the same. We cannot keep up with the amount of food she needs at the moment, despite her being the smallest child in her class!

But the worst part is the tantrums. She loses the plot at least three times every day, and last night was the worst for a while. She screamed because she didn’t want to go to bed, she screamed because we refused to read a bedtime story when it was way past her bedtime, and she screamed when I took her out of her sister’s bed and put her in own. In between those times she just kept crying. She was howling like a wolf at one point, and it’s not even the full moon. I resorted to sitting on her bed with her head in my lap while she screamed, until I got fed up with that tactic and just left her to cry it out. She ended up back in her sister’s bed having a story.

I think that tantrum was borne out of exhaustion. We had visited Beeston Castle near our home, making use of our English Heritage membership, and she did a lot of walking for such a small child. We walked the perimeter of the castle grounds and climbed the steep hill to the old ruins. Then we clambered and stumbled over the ramparts, enjoying the views and marvelling at the skill and determination it had taken for the people that built the castle. Our girls loved exploring and imagining how it must have looked when it was an active fortress, and we had a great time listening and searching for what we thought were a couple of woodpeckers up in the trees in the castle grounds. We were so busy exploring the old caves that we missed the half-term nature crafts that were on offer, but it didn’t matter, because we had lots of fun. Now the week of half-term holiday stretches ahead, and I think it will be a long one. I cannot wait for a free weekend when they go to Nanny’s house for a sleepover!

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