I was inspired by Mr Bat cleaning the kitchen and dining room last night, as well as a blog entry I happened to read, and set up a morning activity for the squids. I didn’t have any shells but I figured that if I set up a sorting exercise with some beads, then K could extend it and make a necklace or something. So I cut up a few old necklaces that I don’t particularly want, and set out a divided plate with one of each kind of bead in each division as a guide, and the rest of the beads mixed up in a pretty canister. They found it just after they woke up, and sorted the beads out happily, then K made a necklace and has been beading on and off all morning.

H got restless, so I pulled out another old favourite – the rice game. I put rice, a handful of soup mix, and a handful of soybeans into a tub, gave him scooping, pouring and sifting things, and he had heaps of fun. I also read some books, including H’s current favourite The New Land: A First Year on the Prairie, and Life Cycle: Spider, which inspired some discussion.

Mr Bat found a witchetty grub while splitting wood, but I couldn’t convince the kids that they wanted to try eating it. So we put it out in the garden for the birds.