The past week of February

Today we played bean bag games, used our feet to pick up stones and pop them into a basket and worked on a number of maths equations including some bar graph questions.

Yesterday we did a lot of Form Drawings.  I love doing this.  I've got a separate book for them at the moment and doing the outlines in yellow to aid Springy (she's in her 9-year change at the moment and everything seems to be a big trauma unless we take it back to something less stressful).

We baked some scones (with cranberries and raisins) and worked on negative numbers using the stairs and the keyboard. We used middle C as zero and worked up and down from there. We also had one stair as the zero stair and then went up and down from there too - it's just to give a quick overview to Springy so she can understand more about temperature etc later on.

For Imbolc we made candles, read Farmer Boy (which resulted in us making some popcorn and polishing shoes with wax), Springy did some maths problems whilst I was working, did some knitting, walked dog, made egg stir fried rice with courgettes and cashews + lots of conversation.

Bad colds and reading and writing

We're all suffering from a bad cold at the moment. I can barely speak (pharyngitis) so have only managed to tell 2 stories today (very short ones) from books.

Springy has had a fairly nice time nevertheless. Her silicon swimming hat arrived yesterday, along with a pair of pink goggles (to match the hat) and she has been practising with both of them in the bath tub. She's not happy about her appearance because she looks "different" with the hat on - it squashes and distorts her face and she doesn't know who she is when she looks in the mirror. Her other lovely comment was from the weekend when we sat and watched Return of the Jedi together and she came out with "I know why they have breaks... it's so the people can change their costumes between scenes". This girl shows she has been to the theatre a few times ;)

Anyway, I found two really useful articles at the Waldorf Library:

http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/Learnreadwriteward.pdf - by William Ward

and the other is on
Teaching our children to write, read and spell by Susan R JOhnson MD. It also mentions bedtime issues and links proprioreceptive stuff i.e. the child is not aware of where their limbs are to having difficulty in getting to sleep. I'm going to think on this for Springy but I'm not sure whether that's really the issue. I know she thinks too much at night but she's very much in her body, more than I was at her age (and I was a good sleeper) but maybe I do need to giver her limbs a gentle massage before sleep and see if this can help. In terms of active days most days she has been out and about and we do other movement type activities. I know on some days we have walked miles, done balancing, climbed and so on and she still can't sleep with ease. I think this may just be the nature of Springy (this was the baby who until 8 months old would have to be woken up to feed and was a very easy and contented little baby.. then teeth and sleep patterns changed).

Left vs right brain

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

I saw this going clockwise at first but could reverse it. I guess that makes me dominant right-hemisphere for the visual side of me

"THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it. LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling "big picture" oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can "get it" (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking "

I'm reading a brilliant book The Well Balanced Child - it's by Sally Goddard Blythe and is published by Hawthorn (Early Years series). It covers a lot of basic neuro development including the evolutionary aspects.