Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Little things...


Little things that have happened today...
  • I was chopping up vegetables ready for making a tomato sauce and the children were helping. James was washing up :-) and Hannah was with me in the vegetable section! She asked to taste the vegetables, which I said was fine. Raw broccoli was a "no" but both Hannah and James loved the celery - in fact Hannah loved it! I am not sure if it was just because she was there and was hungry but I will have to try this with her with hummus - I had not idea she liked raw celery!
  • While this was happening Hannah needed a wee so we disappeared and when we came back James had stuck the broccoli on its end so it looked like a tree and out two carrot sticks either side. I asked him what it was and he said a broccoli canceller (cancel, cancelled etc is his new word). He told me it was a broccoli that could cancel anything and take it away!
  • We then made scrambled egg and Hannah wanted to whisk the egg (James had a go to) - as she was saying this she said, "Just like gloop, gloop, gloop - that's what Katie says (thank you I can cook!)
  • James on the way started talking about injections - I think he is very anxious about them. As he was chatting it reminded me of a cute way he says hospital which I just wanted to remember for the days when he no longer says it this way. The way - "hobidal" :-)
  • Hannah was looking at her alphabet mat today and when she say an H she spontaneously used her finger and said down and down and across - as if drawing a capital H in the air!
  • We went to Fell Foot Park and the children saw a log - Hannah said - "has the frog fallen of?" and James said, "What on earth could make holes like that in wood?" I explained that it was insects and he said "Can they do that to us?" I said, "No, you are not a log of wood". He seemed reassured!
  • When we got back James was really sad that we had not picked the hyacinth to put in a vase because it had now died. He then looked at the daffodils and grabbed - only the head came off. Amazingly I did not cross and used it as a teaching moment. I asked him how long a vase is and he showed me and saw that his would be too short. I showed him exactly where to pull and he then did it. Hannah then grabbed one! Her's one was no a middle size compared to the one James had grabbed and the long one he had carefully pulled out. So I out them all down and asked Hannah to show me the smallest (she showed me the middle) and which was the longest (she was able). The daffodils are now in one tiny vase type thing!


The Rocket

Daddy here, jumping in to do a post...

A long weekend off at home (each morning the comment was "Daddy's not going to work, AGAIN!" or words to that effect) has allowed me some extra time with the children, and this resulted in the long overdue task of James and I building a rocket using some cardboard I reclaimed from work.
After some initial frustration / boredom on James's part as I did some difficult cutting, we got to the point where he could join in, and from then on had great fun. He enjoyed having the responsibility of drawing the door, naming all the different parts and deciding what interior fixtures and fittings he would need!

We discussed whether it would need external fuel tanks - I suggested having two, he decided it would need three, because it would need to go REALLY FAST!

I'm quite pleased with the end result - although it does kind of resemble a cathedral!
James wrote Top Bit!
Favourite moments:
1 - The need for 3 fuel tanks (see above)
2 - James suggesting that we could use the empty pizza boxes we had collected as actual pizzas for the astronauts to eat (is this a reflection of the fact that he's normally not allowed pizza??)
3 - James doing his pre-flight checks (steering wheel - check, pizzas - check, telephone - check, door - check)
4 - The amazing shape James came up with for the hatch - I didn't modify it at all!
5 - The way the whole thing sparked his imagination
Not sure what James is doing with his nose!
Lets see how long it keeps he and Hannah interested this week as the rain comes down outside!

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Eiffel Tower


Today James and Daddy were discussing Gummers How and the Eifell Tower (see post on Gummers How) and little Hannah piped in and said that is the one from Madeline! This is my little absorber!!!

Monday, 9 April 2012

How to Teach Reading

I have been thinking for a while - how do you actually teach reading? The above image is taken from Jolly Phonics who suggest that you learn the above phonics combined with sight words and then you are done! Is it really that simple and what happens when your child struggles?

I would love this Teach you child to read in 100 Easy Lessons but for now I will write down what I have learnt so far and add to it as my own knowledge expands! According to Piney Woods who has based her thoughts on Charlotte Mason it is best not to start reading lessons until the child has a good and thorough knowledge of the letters. This would tie in with Jolly Phonics phonics learning. They should also do a series of word building before formal reading lessons start. I am going to go through each step that Piney Woods has outlined to help me understand what it Charlotte Mason means.

Step One

The first step is word making. As I understand it - this is a very practical "game". In Charlotte Mason she suggests to start of with the syllable 'at'. Get these letters and put them on the floor and tell the child it is a word with use when we say "at home", "at the park" or "at school". It is now time to add an extra letter e.g. put b to make bat, s to make sat and c to make cat. I am presuming as you add the letter the child says that makes cat. My question is do you say "look, when I add c it makes cat" or do you somehow let the child work it out?

My other question is - do you teach 'at' as one word or as two letters combined together? I suppose if it is considered a syllable it is one sound. I could be wrong but I think in school they teach the children to sound the word cat as c-a-t. Learning this way would certainly be less laborious for the child! I now just need a list of all the syllables and three letter words! Eventually after a while the child can then read a list of words (I presume without heavily phonetically spelling them out) with ease. The idea is that eventually the child can do the lesson himself e.g. give the syllable 'en' and he then has to think of all the words or try out all the words he can with that one syllable.

I think I understand - it is now time to consider how this can be done in practice!

Extra:

This is a link I have found that I do not want to lose but not sure quite where to put so for now it will be here. It's on learning sight words when things do not come easily.

http://www.diannecraft.org/video_sightwords.htm

Encouragement



The other day at dinner we had a question time which was fun and insightful! We all had to say what each other were good at. I thought I would record the answers as they were SO sweet!

Hannah - this is what we said about Hannah:
  • Dancing (Daddy)
  • Being a Princess (James)
  • Being outside (Mummy)
James - this is what we said about James:
  • Eating cake (Hannah said this!)
  • Lego making (Mummy)
  • Riding his bike (Daddy)
Mummy - this is what we said about Mummy :-)
  • Learning (Daddy)
  • Reading her Bible (James)
  • Running (Hannah)
  • Putting James and Hannah to bed (James)
Daddy - this is what we said about Daddy
  • Taking us out (James) like to Gran and Grandad (James)
  • Fixing things (Mummy)
  • Taking us on the prom with our bikes (Hannah)

UK Blogs



I love reading blogs to be inspired and encouraged but am aware that many of these blogs are American (nothing wrong with that as I love America!) however I very much wanted to see what other mothers are doing in the UK as that is where I live! I happened to find a couple and didn't want to lose the links before I could read them properly so have put them here as a resource!

http://weshallobtaindeliveringgrace.blogspot.co.uk/

http://pyjamaschool.wordpress.com/

http://smoothandeasydays.wordpress.com/blog-roll/

http://theberrybush.blogspot.co.uk/

http://bugsbeetlesandbarefootdays.blogspot.co.uk/  - she lives in Lancashire!

http://ifnotschool.blogspot.co.uk/

Saturday, 7 April 2012

Peter Rabbit is 110 years old

James and Peter Rabbit having a special moment
Peter Rabbit and the Storyteller
I have started to read James a Peter Rabbit story before he goes to be which he is really enjoying. We happened to be in town today and the local bookshop Waterstones was having a special day celebrating Peter Rabbit's Birthday. A professional storyteller read Peter Rabbit and then there was a chance to say Hello to Peter Rabbit. Both James and Hannah loved this. After a while Peter Rabbit had to leave. Hannah said Peter Rabbit had to go because he had a tummy ache from eating too many carrots and radishes! James said he had to go back to his mother in the burrow! It was a lovely surprise and a lovely memory.
A really special cuddle - I think she is in love!
Hannah cuddling Peter Rabbit
James not so sure about what Peter Rabbit is going to do next!
What a lovely moment to have while we are reading the stories of Beatrix Potter!