Back to business… yes… i’m off again!

Well today has been a bit weird. Max has been car hunting, mainly on the internet trying to decide on what will fit our budget and needs – he found a non-camper version of the Portico camper earlier that he seemed quite keen on. We also had to get the exhaust fixed on ours as it cracked across during last week. So what with that and shopping and other bits, he was out a fair bit today.

The girls were cranky today, tired and “coming down” i guess. Moo spent ages and ages on the Learning Ladder game and seemed to be loving it, so that worked quite well for her. I saw her do a fair bit of word reggnition, singing along, shape tracing and something else i couldn’t fathom. Fran was playing SF’s for a while but was a bit hyper to say the least so they went away. Ams was asleep for so much of the day that i’m not sure what she was up to, but Nemo and Toy Story definitely featured!

I’ve been browsing a couple of catalogues that turned up while i was away, the this years Sonlight one, which is kind of an endless fascination to me although i am not quite sure why and one from Half Moon Books which was quite interesting. It had some historical fiction readers listed that i might bear in mind for that elusive day when reading is just a thing everyone does! lol!

Going to spend a bit of time tomorrow giving Fran some one-to-one; she was so busy last week that i barely saw her and i am kind of missing her. I thought i might just curl up with her and recap on some of the stuff we did over the previous two weeks and look back at the Bob books – she has made it through the first boxful now so i’ve got a few games to play with her based on those. If all of that stuff has stayed in we can have a week of stories and so on, I’ve got quite a bit pre-printed.

Basic outline for the week then is…

CM stuff left over from “Week One” – i’ve set up a Week 1:B because i think the Ambleside Online thing will work better going slower and slightly tailored towards the history rather than the “moralising” – Fran isn’t particularly sophisticated when it comes to that sort of thing (being only 6!) so i don’t see much point in labouring it :~)I remeber being read lots of Aesop and Pilgrim’s Progress but it was the story i followed rather than the meaning at that age.

I sorted out a load of Creation Myths so i am going to look through those in a bit, pick a few nice ones and read them to Moo and Fran, and hopefully have a go at illustrating them in some way.

I’d like to do “Adam and Eve” too – mainly because the illustation in the Bible we have has lots of animals in it and Fran wanted to learn more about Africa and Moo wanted to learn about Giraffe’s (so that would cover nature study!) – and it would mean i was sticking to my CM “Bible every week” thing. I think i still have a sticker book or two lurking somewhere we could use.

I’ve got two really beautiful books “A Calender of Festivals” and “The “Book of World Religions” which complement each other beautifully. The Japanese day of “Tanabata” falls in July so i am going to “attempt” to read that to them this week and do something meaningful with it during the month, even if meaningful is nothing greater than finding it on the map! lol! I really want to start working with Fran and Moo together – thats going to be easiest while Ammi naps and term finishes in a week or two for Moo so it would be nice to have a few things that i can engage her in. My biggest concern now is if she is not going to go to nursery next year, how will i adjust her back to being home all day (or even adjust me!) I’m starting to think the best reason for her being out next year during the day would be simply to have one less child around and that seems pointless given i enjoy her being here!

I’m sticking with my “gentle nudge/shove into reading and writing” plan for now. Its causing no stress and seems to be working okay. Fran’s maths is clearly fine so my plan is to keep doing maths within her easy reach that actually require some reading and writing. She loved that number square and i can always make up some sheets that play on words she knows to give her confidence. The CGP books are simple and the first one, reception maths, should do the trick – its got plenty of repetition of “How many?” etc in it.

Oh yes… we have some pretty pressed flowers done now, so i am off to hunt for a short flower fairy poem we can write out and decorate; got to be worth a go! lol!

I can see all that taking a month, not a week. But still – its nice to have the energy to being thinking ahead for now. I’m also on a mission to sort out my shelves and get our Montessori materials available again.. hmmmm….