Quick dot-point post because I want to go to bed…

• B fed the chooks without much argument. She also collected dirty washing up for me, and vacuumed up a spill (by Katy) and shards from a broken bowl (by her) without complaint.
• B watched BTN Specials: Kids Matters and a half-hour documentary on ageing (which sounded quite interesting).
• K appears to be getting bored with Play School at last – she asked me to play a couple of episodes as well as the usual TV offerings but I don’t think she sat through even half an episode before finding something else to do in another room *g* And I noticed that B did not turn on her computer all day, although she did play Brickshooter on Ocelot for a little while. Possibly the fact that I unglued myself from my own screen and tried more actively to engage with them throughout the day had something to do with this…
• K and I played shopkeeper and made some play money for the cash register before I realised that we had a whole jar full of Monopoly money we could use instead. K also pulled out her melody bells and we had lots of fun (and made lots of noise) seeing what they sounded like when I spun them faster or slower as she experimented with ways to hold the striker.
• K set herself up to do cutting and collage (with sticky tape not glue) while B sat down at my puter to start some maths. B had an attack of the “I-can’t-do-its” then got incredibly perfectionistic and self-blaming about being stupid and not being able to get anything right (didn’t help that she’d chosen knitting as her break activity and she’s still learning to cast on *sigh*). I actually managed to handle it well without getting exasperated as I usually do, and the munchkins ended up going outside for a longer break.
• Given that it was so windy, B made a “kite” by tying a wandering plastic bag onto a long string. K had lots of fun with this too!
• B eventually completed the Revision sheet for Module 3 (with no difficulty), after having spent some time doing subtraction at Year 3 Master Class. We talked about the program as a whole and she felt rather intimidated by the idea that it was 20 modules long, so we read through them and basically there’s almost nothing there which she can’t already do. She was particularly amused by the idea that people think kids still need to be taught how to spend money at the age of ten *g* She asked me what “division” meant so I gave her an explanation which emphasised that she already understood the principle. She was also pleased that a later module (15) includes something she’s already been doing with LISP. The only two which I anticipate may give her any significant pause are 11 and 13, and I would like her to do them with E as he is much better at explaining this stuff that I am (given that he actually understands how and why it all works, unlike me who can just about do it by rote if I concentrate really hard! Module 11 made my brain hurt – division was always my most hated operation).
• Baking biscuits – K and B had lots of fun rolling and cutting out shapes, then icing and decorating when cool. B did some measuring for me and we had a giggle about how one of the upcoming maths modules was supposed to teach her how to read kitchen scales!
• B and I looked at cool pictures of bubble houses on-line, because I thought she’d like them (she did). She also decided that instead of resubscribing to Helix magazine, she wanted to subscribe to New Moon magazine for girls. I’ve had this mag in mind for her for three or four years so I’m excited that she’s finally interested enough in Girl Stuff to want to get into it – it’s the only feminist mag for pre-teens that I know of.
• 5:00-6:00 watched Roller Coaster.
• Scouts 7:00-8:30. B has decided to do her Pets badge next, and will be looking after the rats for two months in pursuit of that.
• B didn’t do any formal reading today, but I did note that she is far less intimidated by things like recipe books and her Scouts badge book, and was happy to look through them and try to read for information. Even if eventually she decided to ask me to read instead, she didn’t get upset or discouraged by it.
• K has caught the counting bug – when she starts with “Boo”, “Boo-to-you”, “Boo-to-you-too” I now have to follow it up by alternating in counting from two up to as high as she can reach. Today she was showing a particular attachment to the numbers six and sixteen. I read about this idea years ago in a homeschooling book and have been sneakily trying to infect K with it for a while, and it seems to have worked *g*
• K watched lots of Youtube music videos with me and E.
• B came home and fell asleep in front of a Roller Coaster episode from earlier in the week. K had had a late nap from 5:30-6:30 but weirdly it seemed to make it easier for her to go to sleep – she was up til latish (10pm) but was happy and chirpy and seemed to go to sleep quite easily, in contrast to her exhausted hysterics of earlier in the week.