Yesterday was pretty busy in the morning, with B going to pottery, then continuing on to Dickson Library with Caitlin and her dad to sit in on Caitlin’s German class while K and I finished at playgroup. Playgroup ran over time so it was after 12:30 before we got back to Dickson, and since K was asleep in the car I sent B off to buy us lunch (gotta love that gluten-free bakery!). After we got home and had a break, we had time to do some maths and spelling before the gasfitter arrived at 3pm to give us a quote for the water heater and stove. B spent quite a while outside in the garden with the chookies before sunset, doing her own thang. I was completely knackered by dinner time, and E came home mid-afternoon with a lurgi, so no one was planning to make dinner, but B decided to make tuna pasta for herself and K. She’s turning into quite a useful Small Person 🙂 In the evening she read a couple of bedtime stories to K, then we went downstairs and I started reading another chapter of Wintersmith to her. K decided to join us rather than stay upstairs with Daddy, and was occasionally disruptive but mostly just wanted to snuggle. B went to bed about 8:45, K stayed up and ate her way through a piece of toast with sardines, a bowl of Weetbix, and some dried fruit, then took herself off upstairs and put herself to bed. My girls are both growing up…

This morning B and I got started early, and she did some spelling practice under her own steam while I got K ready. Then she had a break and played some Rune Scape, and we did some more maths. We tried the Year Four module on subtraction yesterday and B panicked, so we went back to Year Three and found the unit which demonstrated the concepts using virtual concrete materials *g* She got the hang of carrying much faster when she could illustrate it with rods and units, although interestingly she always did the sum first and then worked it out with the materials. She did a few questions back at Year Four level to build up her confidence, but is still getting slightly confused with carrying if she can’t note it down, so we’ll keep practising at the Year Three unit and also some paper worksheets so she can get the hang of the notation.

After she’d finished that it was time for Behind The News, so she watched that, but didn’t want to watch Our History which was on afterwards. She was discussing what to make for Father’s Day, and happily read through a recipe which she wanted to make and we took notes of ingredients we need. We eventually headed outside, so I could finish weeding the proposed potato bed, and the girls pottered about. B waxed enthusiastic as I explained my short- and long-term plans for our backyard farmlet, and wants to help me fence in the new chook run. She was happy to play with K in the garden for a while so I could sort laundry and do various boring things, then they came inside. B played more Rune Scape as I was cooking quinoa for lunch (doing lots of sotto voce reading to work out what was going on), and chatted with Caitlin for a while before C had to go.

After lunch she and K headed off to the shops with E to spend their various pocket and tooth fairy monies. B lost the molar next to her already-missing pre-canine last week and she decided that she wanted to share the tooth fairy loot with K, so asked us to put $1 under her pillow and $1 under K’s 🙂 We then took advantage of E being home and relatively healthy to take off for an op-shopping excursion without the distraction of having to amuse K.

This evening we’ve been in and out, watching the lunar eclipse. Fortunately (touchwood!) it isn’t as cloudy as it was for the Perseids, nor is it as cold. Unfortunately, our camera is hopeless and we haven’t been able to take a single decent photograph of it… *grumble grumble moan* In between eclipse-watching, we took it in turns to read three chapters of The Stone Giant (an early chapter book about the Cardiff Giant hoax which I picked up today at the op shop) then I read aloud some more of Wintersmith. B is really intrigued by the giant story, and as soon as I gave her the book sat down to try and read it. She found it was easiest to have me there to help her over bumps, and also to trade off reading paragraphs with her so she could rest her concentration, but she read an awful lot by herself, and without making many mistakes either. Her reading from context is getting pretty good: either she’ll figure out a word without needing to sound it, or she’ll sound it out enough to figure out what it is after only one attempt. And I notice that her letter-sound correspondence is becoming much more secure, just from increased practice. She didn’t get discouraged and chuck the book across the room either! 🙂

K has watched a couple of Play School episodes, and played with the Math-u-see manipulatives, including a three minute micro-lesson from me while she was receptive, during which time I gently guided her in putting different pieces onto a ten-rod and talked about how four ones plus one six-rod equal ten, but look, one four-rod plus one six-rod equals ten too! Then she started using them for building with so I stopped making with the schooly. She wanted to play with the pattern blocks but we couldn’t find them, so we played with the magnetic fish instead. She has also been working on potty learning over the last two days, after deciding she wanted to wear underpants. So far she’s good at using the potty when she’s bare-bum, but goes in her pants when she’s not. She’ll work it out sooner or later, I’m in no rush! She has spent a lot of time outside playing with B, and also been generally amusing herself inside. I bought a new lot of fridge magnets, along the lines of the set she already has with people, cars, houses etc, at the op shop this afternoon, and she was delighted with them and spent ages arranging them and making up stories. Hmm, she might be ready for the feltboards now…

Today’s Episode of Extreme Cute: came out of the shower to hear K humming a car song from Play School very loudly. She was sitting in a bucket with a teddy on her lap and her hands up holding an imaginary steering wheel, clearly going for a joyride *g* This has really been an absolutely lovely few days. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m less stressed, or less hormonal, or what, but it’s been sheer enjoyment most of the time. I like it…