Counterpane

James is continuing to enjoy his Garden of Verse. He asked me to read him 3 tonight and then wanted to have more - I did not realise how much he would enjoy poems. I am so glad we have been introducing this to him gently every night. Today we covered a little boy who was sick and who imagined a city on his bed with all his toys, with him as the giant. I asked James what a counterpane was and he did not know. I then realised - did I know? I said a duvet but later had to check - it turned out to be a quilt or bed spread so I was nearly right. This is SO good for stretching MY vocabulary.

Flower Pots

I saw these on the web the other day and they are just too cute - I may have to do these for Hannah's Birthday! They would also be great for the Carrot Seed. I think my lovely friend Becky showed me a picture of these but I cannot remember where so it's great to now have a link. I love how she used real Carnations.

http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2012/03/easy-flower-pot-cupcakes.html#comment-form

Twinkly Diamond

So does Hannah know what a diamond is (as re: last FB post) ? Yes! She made a beautiful one today with her hands and fingers and sang Twinkle Twinkle - why do I put out things that are just not her?

Life is the School

I found this artwork recently and thought it was just for this blog!

I also realised you can get it as a bumper sticker. Mmmmmm.......

Useful Resources

I have been finding a few resources that have been helpful for FB and I wanted somewhere to record them for future use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFKzriYtEt8  If you Give a Mouse a Cookie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OId535urADE The Three Tenors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TuvTsQfwOg Spanish 1-10
http://www.wegivebooks.org/books Great books to read online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djz82FBYiug Jolly Phonics

FB 29 - Day 7 Continued

So today we spent some time doing a few extra bits off Day 7 as yesterday was spent mostly outdoors :-) Saying that today was also spent mostly outdoors! The children today wanted to take their umbrellas to school - I am not sure why but why not? On the way up James discovered he could hang his umbrella on a tree - "Look Mummy it's like a hook!" He did this again and again - he loved it. WE then made up a little story about pretending to live outdoors and hanging our coat on the trees when we finished school James would then sleep in the grit bin and have fire flies provide the light! I said I think James would be great at making furniture out of nature.

When we got home we got the chalks out and played outside. She loved this. It was also her first time to draw hair on a little face (I drew the circle). She also then drew a flower - with a green chalk she kept saying this is the stalk and drew about 3! I think in part she just loved being outside and enjoying the fresh air and being allowed to draw on the floor :-). I did bring the colours out and the stickers with the plan to put stickers on the lines of the diamond - but Hannah was not interested. She did some colouring and her only little thing and then said I've drawn a diamond - it was not quite right but in her mind it was. She knows what a diamond is - so I am not sure why I provided this activity - maybe for review or to reinforce.

We finished our morning with some more scooter practice - there is a big improvement in her confidence and pushing. I think she just loves being on James big boy scooter. Ironically today she spotted two bugs while we were outside and named them both - "fly away bumble bee" and ladybirds (one which was not moving so she proclaimed as dead - I then helped it to move a bit and she said "oh it was sleeping!") It showed me that it is important to point out things gently and not expect her to react in the moment but to watch for that knowledge to make its way out spontaneously.

On our way back to the house Hannah asked to go to the stream.In we went and once again we had a lovely time. I so love the noise of the water - it seems to SO calm me. This is the view of the stream looking away from the house.

Our play was all going well until this happened!

So that ended our morning out - it was then a strip down and a warm towel and a cuddle and some lunch :-) Another lovely morning of gentle natural Hannah led learning.

Learning Letter Sounds

I have not as yet intentionally taught Hannah letter sounds but she seems to be picking them up by osmosis. At the dinner table the other day we were playing a game where we think of a letter and a word beginning with that letter and everyone has to guess. This is really easy for James now but it was interesting to hear Hannah join in. These were her unprompted answers:

• k - kite
• oo - cuckoo
• m - mummy
• d - daddy
• j - james

She was also watching Praise Baby and saw the letter B and said "like bib" and then when the C came on she said C for cat. Today when for FB it was Y for yoghurt. So I put a Y magnet out and said can you guess what we are having for pudding and she said yoghurt! I am not sure whether to look at letters in an intentional way or simply let this very natural learning continue.