Last week Springy made a felt jingle. You basically use embroidery thread and attach that to a small bell. Cut up some felt and then thread these on (with a needle). It's a piece of thread with a bell and then up the thread are the bits of felt piled on top of each other and you then tie it off at the other end of the thread and hang it up somewhere. It makes a great Christmas decoration. It was lovely that Springy a) had such good needle control and b) enjoyed doing it.
We've also been making finger pom poms and Springy, as of today, has a collection of four pom poms. She's given them all names and they seem to be a family of a mummy and daddy plus 2 children.
How to make a Finger Pom Pom
You use two fingers together (with a bit of a gap and don't pull the wool too tight otherwise you will cut off the circulation to the fingers) and wrap the wool around these, round and round you go with the wool. When you think you have enough wool then tie a piece around where the middle would be and then slide the pom pom off your fingers. Tie the middle section tight and then cut the ends of the wool (the loops) - et voila you have a pom pom.
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Ron Jarman - maths
I have the Ron Jarman maths book. It has been discussed on a few lists. It's been very useful. I'm doing a block with Springy on Roman numerals. We talked about how the numerals look a bit like fingers with the V (5) being the shape between thumb and first finger indicating the whole hand of 5 digits etc.
Springy has begun to copy the numerals into her Magic Book and we have completed all the alphabet entries (lower and upper case but no pictures/illustrations) - I felt she didn't need to because she already knows them and we discussed the alphabet in terms of relating the letters to words e.g. C is for cat and a curly cat lying down in a C-shape etc. She has also done some lovely pictures for the number properties. She's been able to count and recognise numbers for years and we have done some story work about the number properties before but it's nice for her to have a book that she is creating herself with her own work.
We're continuing with the Four Processes and Springy gets to do little sums almost daily. I write them on a little chalk board. She's allowed to use the abacus and her little bag of stones if she needs to. I also do some aural/oral maths with her so she does it mentally rather than with manipulatives. The colds we had stopped a lot of our maths flow but we will hopefully get back into it all again this week.
So to sum up:
Alphabet
Introducing the alphabet visually - Upper case - giving M for mountain and then relating the symbol of the letter to an image.
Introducting the alphabet visually - Lower case - same, although lower case are companions
Alphabet - upper - written - Springy has used this for a few years (not very Steiner but there you go...) to write us letters and to write stories - self interest and self initiated - knows them all
Alphabet - lower - written - not as confident or as competent as upper but getting there.
Oral awareness - can correspond letter symbol to sound. Is aware that some letters in words do not correspond with the sound.
Maths:
Introduced properties - via stories. What is 1? (Marsha Johnson/Eugene Schwartz)
The Four Processes - Springy can do plus and minus (up to 20) but still struggling with divide and multiply (my fault - and needs me to put more energy into this - the right kind of energy)
Counts in twos - yes
Counts in tens up to 100 - yes
Counts in fives up to 100 - yes
Knows her shapes - yes
Starting to recognise time - o'clocks, half pasts
I could go on about all the everyday maths that is conversational and through everyday life but won't yet.
What I'd like to do again is have another letter search. We've done these a few times around the house, looking for items that start or end with particular letters or have used themes such as animals.
Springy has begun to copy the numerals into her Magic Book and we have completed all the alphabet entries (lower and upper case but no pictures/illustrations) - I felt she didn't need to because she already knows them and we discussed the alphabet in terms of relating the letters to words e.g. C is for cat and a curly cat lying down in a C-shape etc. She has also done some lovely pictures for the number properties. She's been able to count and recognise numbers for years and we have done some story work about the number properties before but it's nice for her to have a book that she is creating herself with her own work.
We're continuing with the Four Processes and Springy gets to do little sums almost daily. I write them on a little chalk board. She's allowed to use the abacus and her little bag of stones if she needs to. I also do some aural/oral maths with her so she does it mentally rather than with manipulatives. The colds we had stopped a lot of our maths flow but we will hopefully get back into it all again this week.
So to sum up:
Alphabet
Introducing the alphabet visually - Upper case - giving M for mountain and then relating the symbol of the letter to an image.
Introducting the alphabet visually - Lower case - same, although lower case are companions
Alphabet - upper - written - Springy has used this for a few years (not very Steiner but there you go...) to write us letters and to write stories - self interest and self initiated - knows them all
Alphabet - lower - written - not as confident or as competent as upper but getting there.
Oral awareness - can correspond letter symbol to sound. Is aware that some letters in words do not correspond with the sound.
Maths:
Introduced properties - via stories. What is 1? (Marsha Johnson/Eugene Schwartz)
The Four Processes - Springy can do plus and minus (up to 20) but still struggling with divide and multiply (my fault - and needs me to put more energy into this - the right kind of energy)
Counts in twos - yes
Counts in tens up to 100 - yes
Counts in fives up to 100 - yes
Knows her shapes - yes
Starting to recognise time - o'clocks, half pasts
I could go on about all the everyday maths that is conversational and through everyday life but won't yet.
What I'd like to do again is have another letter search. We've done these a few times around the house, looking for items that start or end with particular letters or have used themes such as animals.
Feeling better
Springy and I are both over the worst of our colds. Springy had a temperature most of last week and we had to take it very easy. She missed swimming and Beavers and we hardly went outside.
We've been practising The Fork and the Spoon - a song from the Oak Meadow First Book of Recorder. I'd love to do more violin and piano lessons with her but just cannot afford it at the moment.
Today was nice - Springy and I played dominoes (she won...twice) and then The Hedgehog Game with the variation being that we had to add up the dice values in French.
I told her the Shingebiss story again tonight (from the link below):
Shingebiss' Song:
(Am) North Wind, North Wind, (G) fierce of feature,
(Am) You are still my (G) fellow (Am) creature.
(C) Blow your worst, you (G) can't scare me.
(Am) I'm not afraid, and (G) so I'm (Am) free.
Springy has read up to book 21 of the Rainbow Magic series which means that she is on the last book of the entire boxed set (from The Book People).
We've been using our peg loom to make a possible rug (in a synthetic pink wool - lovely and soft but not very natural!). When I say a possible rug I mean that if it turns out big enough then it may end up as a rug but it's about the width of a scarf.
We baked foccacia bread this morning and C made soup (with kidneys - smell terrible but at this time of year we need their nutrients). Today at lunchtime we were out in the garden with the bantams and the guineapigs. I pruned the other butterfly bush and tidied up a few areas in the garden. Part of me dislikes tidying up too much because it is those places where insects tend to settle down and hide for the winter but at the same time I need the garden to look as if it belongs to a home, rather than just a piece of wildlife scrub.
Springy has some nice new front incisors growing and one wobbly tooth (as well as a gap on the bottom 2nd left incisor).
We've been practising The Fork and the Spoon - a song from the Oak Meadow First Book of Recorder. I'd love to do more violin and piano lessons with her but just cannot afford it at the moment.
Today was nice - Springy and I played dominoes (she won...twice) and then The Hedgehog Game with the variation being that we had to add up the dice values in French.
I told her the Shingebiss story again tonight (from the link below):
Shingebiss' Song:
(Am) North Wind, North Wind, (G) fierce of feature,
(Am) You are still my (G) fellow (Am) creature.
(C) Blow your worst, you (G) can't scare me.
(Am) I'm not afraid, and (G) so I'm (Am) free.
Springy has read up to book 21 of the Rainbow Magic series which means that she is on the last book of the entire boxed set (from The Book People).
We've been using our peg loom to make a possible rug (in a synthetic pink wool - lovely and soft but not very natural!). When I say a possible rug I mean that if it turns out big enough then it may end up as a rug but it's about the width of a scarf.
We baked foccacia bread this morning and C made soup (with kidneys - smell terrible but at this time of year we need their nutrients). Today at lunchtime we were out in the garden with the bantams and the guineapigs. I pruned the other butterfly bush and tidied up a few areas in the garden. Part of me dislikes tidying up too much because it is those places where insects tend to settle down and hide for the winter but at the same time I need the garden to look as if it belongs to a home, rather than just a piece of wildlife scrub.
Springy has some nice new front incisors growing and one wobbly tooth (as well as a gap on the bottom 2nd left incisor).
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Shingebiss
This is the story I plan to tell to Springy because today the wind is blowing cold:
Shingebiss
http://www.healingstory.org/treasure/shingebiss/shingebiss_and_the_north_wind.html
Update:
A few hours later...
I told Springy the story and used the audio track (since my throat can just about cope with speaking). Springy loved it and lay down near my feet, stretched out and very relaxed so she was really listening.
We had a Sunday roast which C made and then Springy and I made the dessert - fairy cakes with sprinkles on. I had mine dipped in a decaff coffee. I haven't baked fairy cakes with Springy for quite a while - she was very adept at cracking the eggs today.
Shingebiss
http://www.healingstory.org/treasure/shingebiss/shingebiss_and_the_north_wind.html
Update:
A few hours later...
I told Springy the story and used the audio track (since my throat can just about cope with speaking). Springy loved it and lay down near my feet, stretched out and very relaxed so she was really listening.
We had a Sunday roast which C made and then Springy and I made the dessert - fairy cakes with sprinkles on. I had mine dipped in a decaff coffee. I haven't baked fairy cakes with Springy for quite a while - she was very adept at cracking the eggs today.
Thank goodness for tangrams
I've still got no voice at the moment and when I do have one it's painful (laryngitis) and I then cough like mad and my sinuses pour like a waterfall (nice image...not!). Home education still has to go on though.
Last night Springy did some tangram pictures.She's still loving her Rainbow Magic books and is onto the second set (given that they are very short she can read one a day). I read her the Michael Hall reader for November as her bedtime story (inbetween coughing and my voice going - not great). At lunchtime she helped me to cook some pasta with some vegetables. She had questions about how the kettle worked (told her in brief it had something called an element in it that worked with electricity and that heated up and thus heated the water and mentioned that in days before kettles, people would have to boil up water over the fire or on the cooker in a pot or with a non-electric kettle).
This recipe for Dundee Cake sounds delicious and I hope to be able to get one ready for C for Christmas: http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/pdf/receipts_dundee07.pdf
Last night Springy did some tangram pictures.She's still loving her Rainbow Magic books and is onto the second set (given that they are very short she can read one a day). I read her the Michael Hall reader for November as her bedtime story (inbetween coughing and my voice going - not great). At lunchtime she helped me to cook some pasta with some vegetables. She had questions about how the kettle worked (told her in brief it had something called an element in it that worked with electricity and that heated up and thus heated the water and mentioned that in days before kettles, people would have to boil up water over the fire or on the cooker in a pot or with a non-electric kettle).
This recipe for Dundee Cake sounds delicious and I hope to be able to get one ready for C for Christmas: http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/pdf/receipts_dundee07.pdf
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Reflexology
I'm studying several complementary therapies at the moment. Reflexology and Indian Head Massage are the two I'm most interested in (other than crystal healing which is something I am also fascinated by). I will be a fully qualified Reflexologist for insurance purposes by late spring, having done over 90 hours training and practice as well - spread out over 9 months. The Indian Head Massage is something I will qualify in (again for insurance purposes) by spring too (35 hours training - spread out over 3 months).
I also need to redo my First Aid certificate to ensure that I am up-to-date on current practice and in event of emergencies arising and then I will continue with CPD. I hope to upgrade my Reflexology to AOR standards.
Today was lovely in that C and I gave Springy a box set of Rainbow Magic books. We held it behind us and said that we considered her to be a star reader and that because of this we felt she should have more of her favourite books. Her face was like the sun sparkling on water as she smiled.
I also need to redo my First Aid certificate to ensure that I am up-to-date on current practice and in event of emergencies arising and then I will continue with CPD. I hope to upgrade my Reflexology to AOR standards.
Today was lovely in that C and I gave Springy a box set of Rainbow Magic books. We held it behind us and said that we considered her to be a star reader and that because of this we felt she should have more of her favourite books. Her face was like the sun sparkling on water as she smiled.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Rainbow Magic still going strong
Springy's fascination with Rainbow Magic is still going strong. I found a boxed set on The Book People website so ordered it since it is so nice to have her enjoy something.
Last night we were meant to be going to a firework display but it got cancelled because of the weather.
also, last night, I heard a noise when I was in bed and worked out it was coming from the bin next to the toilet. I got up very quietly and sneaked my way across the landing, turned on the light and a little fat, roly poly mouse scurried out of the toilet (room), across my foot and into Springy's room. It was so cute but it really is the enemy at the moment. One has chewed my velvet cloak at the bottom and yes, I'm too old to prance about in elven velvet cloaks these days but it is the principle of it - the mice have to go. I'm not sure how many we have but I am fed up of little poos and wees everywhere. Not only that but it or they raided Springy's dollshouse and chewed to pieces all the little wax fruit that she had made. They also chewed her froggy rucksack a little and destroyed the little nature area with acorns and corn dollies. I have set traps but they seem to be avoiding them and know how to set them off, take the bait but not get caught - smart mice. I have been ensuring that nothing is left out for them in the kitchen. We certainly have less woodlice and spiders than normal so perhaps they have been surviving on these. I keep wondering if I will find out what the major food source is (although everything is in jars and cupboards, swept up crumbs into the bin etc). Hmmm...if one could only talk to them because we do have waste but they just chew on everything.
Last night we were meant to be going to a firework display but it got cancelled because of the weather.
also, last night, I heard a noise when I was in bed and worked out it was coming from the bin next to the toilet. I got up very quietly and sneaked my way across the landing, turned on the light and a little fat, roly poly mouse scurried out of the toilet (room), across my foot and into Springy's room. It was so cute but it really is the enemy at the moment. One has chewed my velvet cloak at the bottom and yes, I'm too old to prance about in elven velvet cloaks these days but it is the principle of it - the mice have to go. I'm not sure how many we have but I am fed up of little poos and wees everywhere. Not only that but it or they raided Springy's dollshouse and chewed to pieces all the little wax fruit that she had made. They also chewed her froggy rucksack a little and destroyed the little nature area with acorns and corn dollies. I have set traps but they seem to be avoiding them and know how to set them off, take the bait but not get caught - smart mice. I have been ensuring that nothing is left out for them in the kitchen. We certainly have less woodlice and spiders than normal so perhaps they have been surviving on these. I keep wondering if I will find out what the major food source is (although everything is in jars and cupboards, swept up crumbs into the bin etc). Hmmm...if one could only talk to them because we do have waste but they just chew on everything.
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