Hello friends
The sun is shining, and already this post has taken my until Sunday morning to finish, so I won’t keep you too long.
I’m starting with table activities today because I don’t think I got to them last week. There’s always so much going on, far too much to do justice to in any one newsletter, but hopefully this gives you an idea of what our weeks look like.
If I seem at all organised, you’ll have to forgive me - that couldn’t be further from the truth! Lots of learning still seems to happen, no matter how few plans I have.
A is 6.5 years old, L and Q are 3.5 years.
At the table
We seem to have somehow rounded a corner with both maths and reading - hooray! I couldn’t say for how many weeks table work has dragged now (the small, inconsistent amounts that we’ve done). This week it felt easy, even joyful again.
I recently discovered Progressive Phonics free digital early readers and they’ve been a game changer for Miss 6. A has had a real block with reading for some time, almost like a brick wall comes up every time she tries to read more than a few consecutive words. I’ve tried giving her time and space, occasionally pushing her outside of her comfort zone, and just continuing along with phonics instruction (even when it feels like we’re getting nowhere). Her progress has been very slow - up until these past couple of weeks. Finally we’ve found something she’s willing and able to read!
The early reader books have text in black for the adult to read, and text in red for the child. This massively reduces overwhelm for my sensitive girl and makes these books really accessible for her. The words she reads repeat, so even if she needs to sound it out the first time (or get a prompt from me) she can then usually remember it the next time it comes up. While they’re certainly not a ‘quick fix’ they seem to be really helping (she told me that some words she just ‘knows’ now when she looks at them) and the reading practice is doing wonders for her confidence. She even wanted to read to her grandparents, though her leg was bouncing up and down the entire time.
I made the decision around Easter to not go back to MWC and instead I bought a secondhand copy of Maths No Problem to work from. We started a couple of weeks ago, simply reading through the pages together whilst snuggled under a blanket on the sofa. We then started to grab a white board and pen, or a few manipulatives. This is our third week and I mostly used the book for reference and made up little activities and stories.
In keeping with our Peter Rabbit theme, we helped our cuddly Peter toy to work out how many seeds he’d need to plant in his garden (using arrays). Another day I drew some doubling and tripling ‘machines’ and multiplied groups of cookies and bananas. We’ve also been using a Peter Rabbit book with a clock to teach A how to tell time. She didn’t have much interest last time we tried time, but the book really helped this week! I’ve packed it in the bag a few times and brought it out while on the bus or in a cafe.
Looking over the remaining chapters, I suspect that we’ll have covered the entire ‘Year 1’ curriculum by the summer break. I’m not sure how as we’ve been so inconsistent with it! A certainly won’t be reeling off number facts any time soon, but I think she’ll have a good enough foundation to move into Year 2 work in September.
I’ve been offering up Beatrix Potter stories occasionally, which have mostly been well received. When I first started to read them A said she didn’t want to listen - I asked her to kindly close her ears and I would read only to her sisters. At the end of the story I stopped and closed the book. Aren’t you going to read the next one? she said, of course.
The girls particularly enjoy role playing as the floppy bunnies, and I have to play Mr McGregor as he lifts the sleeping bunnies (children) into his sack (blanket). Then I drag the sack back to my house (weee!) and someone swaps to be the mouse who nibbles a hole in it.
Another new favourite is the Beatrix Potter audiobooks I found on Spotify read by Vivien Leigh. They’re very charming and there’s lots of singing in them. L particularly enjoys what she calls the ‘Mr McGregor song’ during Peter Rabbit, where she pretends to be Peter being chased then hides inside a watering can - and sneezes! She must have asked me to play that part of the story a hundred times.
A has moved on to a new reptile this past couple of weeks: snakes. She’s been sewing, drawing, painting, making and playing all things snakes. I’m not sure exactly where this new passion has come from, nor have I offered much encouragement really. Yesterday I finally found some digital books on her Amazon tablet, as we’ve not had time to visit the library. Luckily for A, our new childminder has two pythons and she said that A can hold them one day!
We’ve been measuring our cress as it’s grown, and it was finally tall enough yesterday to trim. No one likes the taste other than A, who has been sprinkling it liberally over every meal. Otherwise the little girls have been directing their own projects. Q has been building small worlds and nests; L made cards for the childminder and the window cleaner! She has also recently started drawing people - faces with little arms and legs coming off the head. They’re very sweet.
Out and about
We did nothing noteworthy over the weekend - just a lot of tidying and decluttering - so I’ll jump straight in to Monday.
We got the bus into town and met our friends, as we often do. First we popped into the supermarket and chose some violas for the garden, then we headed to The Works for little gardening tools and watering cans. Afterwards we lost a good hour at the park in the spring sunshine. The kids made ‘rug island’ from Bluey using chalks on the ground and eventually we all retired to the library, where they ran around and made far too much noise as per usual!
We visited our new childminder on Tuesday and then again on Thursday morning, where I left the twins for an hour. I was feeling both hopeful and very, very nervous about leaving the twins again. I think I felt afraid to get my hopes up - the idea of regular childcare was too good to be true. They seem to be settling in very well though - I’ll definitely talk more about childcare another time.
On Wednesday we had HE group, where the parents tried to tidy up our little outside space and some of the children did a bit of gardening. The girls spent the afternoon at Nanny and Grandad’s on Thursday, and A had Rainbows, and on Friday we walked to Ballet class in the rain. Despite promising myself a quiet week, it was quite busy in the end!
In the garden
I couldn’t not mention our little Peter Rabbit which is coming along nicely. We’ve added some violas, which we picked up from the supermarket, and planted two rows of radish seeds. The girls also popped peas into pots, and brought bluebells and dandelions inside which we’ve watched go to seed.
Their current favourite outside pastime is painting. They take out the paint palettes, brushes and jars full of water, and paint the garden path, stones or little craft items they’ve gathered.
How was your week? I hope you’ve managed some rest over the weekend - we’ve had another weekend of catching up with household jobs. They’re never ending!