Ouf!

Two full days of 9-4pm education – i’m worn out! Let’s see, what have we done today?

I’ve managed to supervise all 3 lots of music today; that takes a bit organisation, but i’m keen to make the most of the money being spent on it, so i need to make sure we do the work. As i spent most of my life trying to avoid music practise as a child, i have a certain interest in trying to keep it enjoyable but also expected. Luckily today Fran really seemed to have benefited from the work on her bow hold and enjoyed playing, Maddy got furious with her fingers but turned it around and Amelie is just thrilled by her opportunity to play still, so it all went okay. I feel a bit of a fraud when i don’t play but being in the lessons really helps, so i can make a difference which.. .erm.. .makes a difference.

What else?
Fran – some multiplication practise, the end of the chapter on The Norman Conquest, Handwriting (Claire suggested these books, Handwriting Today and Fran and Maddy both liked them), reading, a comprehension quiz on rivers and then a load of stuff on flags. All the map colouring has sparked an inclination to colour in general, so she’s been colouring in pictures of lions this afternoon.

Maddy – writing, maths on adding and subtracting and converting length and distance, endless bits and bobs on Egypt which she made into a book, a lot of reading and then some time with me reading the Usborne Time Traveller book; we did the Egypt section with her and Amelie. She loves factual books to read and i’ve run out for her – i must try those books that SB had (Helen, can you remind me what they are?) Maddy has suddenly decided that actually she can colour stuff in nicely (she’s been, for all her neat and detailed line drawing, very anti colour up till now) and so she made lovely flags and did a fab King Tut’s mask which she stuck on to a cover that she also coloured in (i’d have let her have coloured paper if she’d asked!)

Amelie – she read to me (very nicely, she likes the Up, Up and Away books) and then did the second Dolch word list. She is coming on really well, so different to what the older two were like at this age. Her writing is great too. Then she recapped on some vertical addition with carrying, spent a large part of the afternoon colouring in pictures of tigers and now she’s got a map of India to colour.

Josie has been in a world of her own all day, downstairs. This world in fact, a world that only she is allowed to inhabit.

I must blog about her sometime; she really is quite fascinating.