A horrid cold

My last cycle really depleted me and I feel anaemic and rundown with this cold which I have had for a week now. C has taken Springy out to the beach today which means I am having a day off. I really need it. I've been reading every day to her but my voice is on the verge of packing up and at night I seem to be coughing all the time (which has meant a general lack of sleep).

I have a new coughdrop mixture to take - ground up calendula petals. They seem to be quite soothing and I'm about to do another steam inhalation.

At the moment I am falling behind with the plans I had. Saying that we have been doing the quality of numbers for 1 through to 4 so far.

Springy heard a story about a little girl called Springy (based on Marsha Johnson's files) who followed a rabbit in her garden to a hole and then fell through it (Alice in Wonderland). At the bottom (soft landing) was an unknown land and a hill with a door set into it. An old lady was the guardian to the door and she has questions to ask. For example, she asks "What is there one of?" and then falls asleep again. We've been working with it orally so far rather than doing anything written but Springy has been reeling off that there is:

one of herself,
one of the sun,
one of me,
one of the moon,
one of the Earth and so on. One is circular and so a circle is for me the shape of one and the old lady let Springy know this. I also mentioned in brief that the Romans wrote their numbers in a different way and held up one finger and showed her on our mini chalkboard what that would look like written down: I


When the Springy in the story gave the old lady the answer she woke up and asked the next question, "What is there two of?". Again, the lady fell asleep and I left it to Springy. Springy came out with:

Mummy and daddy
Night and day
sun and moon
my arms, my legs, my hands, my eyes
and we added things in (via the old lady in the story) like a line goes from here to there so a line is the "shape" of two and also did the same with the Roman numeral of II.

For three, Springy came out with:

You, me and daddy
The old lady informed Springy of the triangle (and we were in the car at the time and went past some road triangle warning signs and a roof side so Springy was able to spot them) and then the old lady (as me) showed her three fingers and so the Roman numeral III.

Yesterday, I told Springy the next bit of the story and the old lady's question was "What is there four of?".

(I realise there is some deviation from the way this would be covered in a school but even Steiner knew the value of being economical with things that children already knew and Springy does know her numbers already, although the qualities for the numbers coming up until 12 will be more difficult for her).