Had to take an exhausted, overheated, wailing Josie to bed last night, so the blogging went by the by. Its so rare for her to be bad-tempered that its a bit of a shock when she reverts to full on angry baby. Slightly horrifying to remember that Fran was like that ALL THE TIME!!!! Although not at this age but still – thank goodness i’ve not had one like it since!
TT was here for the day, which meant that i could reclaim my bedroom and start packing for the holiday (feeling horror-struck by weather forecasts atm… although, having looked at that, the wet seems to be disappearing in favour of just plain cold. Cold i can deal with. That type of cold anyway.) So anyway, i have a pile of sleeping bags and fleece and stuff downstairs and a tidy room. I also had to go to the Dentist for a checkup; aside from the two temporary fillings, i need two small other ones, so it could have been worse. I’m such a wimp over it, he was pressing my teeth with his prong thing and i was leaping out of my skin with fright. I really do NOT like lying on flat things under bright lights having stuff done to me. What a wimp.
Anyway, in the morning Fran asked to do more Nezert adding up – she really likes these but i’m struggling to explain carrying over 10’s in a way that sinks in. I’d be more than happy to leave it really but she is desperate to do it. We had rods out yesterday but even so it was a bit hit and miss. I do find it odd the way it can sink in for 4-5 sums then just go again! Ah well.
During the day TT had helped them out in the garden and they got all the potatoes topped up and various other things planted – they also ate the peas off the bushes and we had a fairly intelligent conversation about seed pods and pollen. Probably made having done the whole garden thing worth while 😀 I’m REALLY struggling with the allottment, i think i am going to have to go and just cover what remains and leave it to rot away so its in better shape come autumn. The weather is hopeless atm; either its too hot to take Josie there or too cold! Hopefully what i have planted is still alive 🙁
Maddy and i did some Explode the Code – she is doing really well at recognising beginning sounds, she is much better than Fran is at it! lol! Must bring her reading books this week so we can have quiet time doing that. And Ammi and i took some time together as well; she loves writing and i spent a bit of time showing her her name, she was doing really good “A”s – yet another different kettle of fish – i reckon i could teach her to read now if i tried.
I’m actually determined to teach her to write her own name because the one thing about nursery that has really annoyed me is the “marking making” malarky. This is the “total swing back” from writing worksheets, which were the norm at the time Fran would have gone there (which is why she didn’t.) Fran learned her name at playgroup where i think a practical approach, from leaders who were mums, meant that children learned proper letter formation with people who sat down and taught them. Now “mark marking” (they have a “mark making area”) is totally different, children are just left to approximate their name, or whatever, by coping what is around them. So if they want to write their name, someone gives them their name card and they work it out for themselves. This might be fine for most kids (or possibly not, i’ll let you know when Ammi has been!) but for Maddy it means she has learned an approximation of the letters in her name and come up with circles with sticks added into them and now she is utterly resistant to changing it in any way. Which is a mite frustrating, or is going to be. So anyway, i’m attempting to head this one off at the pass 😀
Finally managed to get our keyboard out last night and the girls are making up little tunes on it; Ros if you swim by, i need some piano books (and i also need to ask Tony something!) – i’m sort of hoping i might be able to illicit some piano lessons out of sarah during my jaunt to Exeter!
SO much to do today – ARGH!!!!!!
