* bead-looming: involves following a pattern, counting out beads of different colours etc
* took Katy out to feed the chickens and check for eggs
* made a sculpture in the sandpit (which was then demolished by Katy, causing a great wailing and gnashing of teeth)
* watched Take on Technology (ABC, 10am), which happened to be about commercial and domestic worm farms – a useful coincidence, considering one of the things I had in mind to do today or on the weekend was set up our worm farm!
* watched BTN Specials: Disasters and Emergencies (ABC, 10:15am)
* watched Our Earth: Pushing and Shoving (ABC, 10:30am), on geology
* watched Atoms of Fire: Improving on Nature (ABC, 10:45am)
* watched Wild Weather (ABC 11am-12pm)
* scrubbed out and rinsed the worm farm with Katy
* started making a shirt for Katy, which involved measuring her (and attempting to convince her to stay still so said measurements could be taken!), planning the pattern and cutting out fabric. Right now I am in the process of pinning on bias binding for a decorative hem.
* hand-training the rabbits
* bead-loom
* played in the garden, including with the chickens
* visual memory: she did really well. Longest word was “outback”, other 2 syllable words deport and desert. She knew exactly where to divide the syllables according to the rule. She is having less and less difficulty recognising the “-ck” spelling pattern, although still needs a lot of reinforcement with “-rk”. I also included “gecko”, which she had no difficulty with.
* reading aloud: “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, from a library book, Sing a Song of Sixpence: a pocketful of nursery rhymes and tales by Jane Chapman (a rather beautiful volume – nice pictures, and the font is very heavy and simple and easy for B to read. Maybe one for our library?). Beth is doing BRILLIANTLY. She’s never see this book before and she’s missing less than one word in ten and sounding out incredibly well.
* 6:30-8:30 Cubs
* read some random phrases E wrote on his Palm Pilot, then E talked about phonetics (although I don’t know if she was paying much attention)

Katy had her first experience of finding an egg in the nesting box, carrying it very carefully into the house, and then eating it ten minutes later, lightly boiled and served with toast fingers. She was so excited when she looked into the henhouse and first saw the egg, her mouth opened so wide she could have fit the egg into it whole *g*

We have also been building towers with the round nesting/stacking pieces, playing with dolls, pottering in the garden, playing in the sandpit, etc.

I have been plugging away at the laundry and washing up (hence the paucity of bookwork in the above list), and have to date managed five loads of laundry and three of washing up…