I’ve been tired the last two days so we haven’t done much academic work. This morning B watched the ABC schools TV programming: For the Juniors, Music Moves, Science Bank – Heat, Designers, Great Artists – Stubbs and Walks with an Architect. I did also manage to catch her this afternoon and sit her down to the third unit in Module 4, on recording measurements in metres and centimetres, so she’s still on track to complete the module this week (amazing – that would make two in two weeks! *g*). She finds the timed skill builders intimidating so I think I’ll find another way of getting her to practice her tables. Year 3, module six in Smartkiddies has untimed multiplication practice, so we might start there.
Other than that, we’ve been pretty casual. B has been building elaborate architecture from K’s birthday Duplo, and K has been grumpy because her sister is hogging all the fun pieces. B was building things with the interlocking daisy pieces and a similar rectangular set, which K is now also fascinated by. This morning they did some dress-ups, I read some books to K and played with her new Big Bird puzzle, they played outside for a while, and we went for a walk to the park after an early lunch. This afternoon we introduced K to popcorn, which she loved, and watched probably too much TV.
Yesterday we were more active, going out op shopping (at B’s request). She was interested in looking for clothes, so I got her to sort through and inventory her summer wardrobe so we knew what to look for (skirts and Valley girl-style T-shirts). Since it was B’s idea to go, we negotiated a compromise which meant that both of us got to look at what we were interested in, and K didn’t have to spend the whole time stuck in her pram being bored. It worked very well: I took K in the pram and kept her amused while B looked for clothes and tried them on, then B took K to play with toys or wander about while I browsed. B was disappointed not to find any interesting clothes in Vinnies, but I was happy with my pickings. I found some nice red and blue clothes for K, some dress-ups, and some useful baby stuff. The Salvos were more promising, with B picking up a couple of tops and two pairs of shoes, and I found even more baby clothes plus some more random oddments. B and K had lots of fun playing with the toys at Vinnies, and even though K was getting a bit tired and distracted in the Salvos she still wasn’t even close to being obnoxious. Unfortunately I now know that the umbrella stroller is definitely too low for me to push comfortably and I had a rotten lower backache and sore hips by the time we got back to the car, and we still had to go to the markets after that…
We had a moment in the car park at Vinnies where I got to demonstrate the rewards of telling the truth to B. We had found a $50 note floating in the drain behind our car, and B wanted to tell the Vinnies volunteer who was out there that she had lost it and get him to help her retrieve it. I pointed out that that was Lying. She seemed unconvinced by the argument from morality, but went over and told the volunteer that she had found the money. It then turned out that he knew who had lost it and was effusively grateful to B for having found it, so I was later able to point out to B that if she had lied about it he would have known or suspected she was lying, whereas now she could bask in the glow of having Done The Right Thing, rather than that of embarrassment caused by getting caught Doing The Wrong Thing. Educational *g*
By the time we got back from the markets we only had enough time for a quick snack before taking B to horseriding. K fell asleep in the car, and slept for the whole lesson. We drove off to Phillip to pick up E before having a lovely meal at Ethiopia Down under to celebrate E’s bonus. Later in the evening I tried to assemble a large order at Windmill Educational Toys but came up against the same problem of not being able to process it which I’d encountered earlier in the year, and which I had just given up on resolving (not because the company was unwilling to help, mainly because it seemed like too much effort and I couldn’t really justify the expenditure then). E assembled K’s new bed upstairs and K put herself to sleep in it. Here’s to that continuing!
ETA: I discovered an ABC show on training dogs, Wagging School, which is available online, and B spent the evening watching episodes and then practising on Zebedee. Then she watched Catalyst, and now she’s watching a documentary called Brat Camp which I imagine will horrify her *g*