This morning we concentrated on finishing off B’s homework for horse management, which ought to have been finished before the Sunday afternoon course which we forgot about. There were only three questions left, which B was okay with answering at first, but then got upset about not knowing the answer to the last question. We looked them up together in her horse book and then wiffled around trying to get her to put it into her own words. She really got emotional at having to write out the answers longhand. Eventually we just did it question by question with lots of breaks. I discovered that part of the issue is that she just can’t focus on long words because they just look like a long string of letters, but we found that she could transcribe a very long word (surroundings) if she blocked off all but three or so letters at a time. I will have to find out exactly what Mum talked to the instructors about when she explained initially that B would need extra help in the exam. I think the best course would be for her to go off quietly with someone and give her answers verbally – they are checking whether she knows the material, after all, not whether she can write it!
That said, I was very impressed with how well she was able to read questions like, What safety aspects should you consider when you want to lead your horse past other horses or people? She had virtually no difficulty with that at all.
Apart from that she basically played Rune Scape all morning. And she is definitely trying to read what’s going on onscreen, as she called me in to help with some words. Apparently she was having a conversation with someone she thought was Caitlin but turned out not to be, which rather weirded her out!
We headed off for swimming with Nannie at 1:30 as usual, and B’s out at the farm now. I recommended that she ask Nannie to support her tomorrow at riding when she hands in her homework and talks about whether she can still do the course, and also apologise for missing it on Sunday. She’s quite worried about it, I think, so I hope Nannie is prepared to back her up.
K is watching yet more Play School on my ‘puter (I’m on Ocelot and B’s shows are recording on the DVD player). We did have a lovely time together earlier when I turned the TV off after the broadcast of Play School, then she helped me pick up the Duplo, then we played Tummy Ache! and drew and coloured in together, but apparently I am not exciting enough as after an hour or so she decided she wanted more of her show… I also pulled the rice basket out for her when she was mooching about earlier and I was trying to help B with her homework, and she had a lovely time with that. The ease with which she helps tidy that up has shown me that if I have an expectation that toys are cleaned up after an activity is finished then she will internalise that and be quite happy to help (or even do it herself when she’s finished if I’m not immediately available), whereas if I am happy for it to stay on the floor she will happily let it stay too. Surprise surprise! We made a point of packing the Tummy Ache! game up straight away, and she was happy to put it away while getting another puzzle off the shelf. Food for thought. I’ve been treating K as if she’s as intrinsically disorganised as B, but that seems to be pretty off-base…