Springy has fever

Springy had her MMR just over a week ago now and seems to have come down with something...not sure whether it won't turn into measles which is the one of the three that she hasn't had. I ummed and ahhed about vaccinating her - decided that at this time it would be best option because she's no longer breastfeeding and she's 7 and increasing in age. Vaccines are not an easy choice to make because their are pros and cons on both sides and then there are us parents in the middle, trying to do what is best for our own child/ren.

Anyway, I'm typing whilst Springy has a short nap. I've been patting her down with a cold damp flannel and giving her lots of fluids including elderflower tea (home gathered).

She had Brownies last night - a trial - and really enjoyed it and wants to keep going. They had pancakes and a pancake race. They were a really loud bunch - more like boggarts than brownies! Nevertheless Springy and I both feel that she will benefit greatly and have lots of fun and learn loads from the group.

Snowdrops and Lilies

Today Lily (our new shih tzu puppy) had her 2nd vaccine which means next week we can take her out properly.

Today Springy and I did a couple of watercolour paintings using the wet-on-wet technique. Springy did a yellow circle, surrounded by blue which was the sun in the sky. I did a snowdrop picture.

Snowdrop painting
First of all use very diluted blue and wash it from the bottom of the paper upwards in horizontal strokes. This leaves stronger blue at the bottom and lighter blue at the top of the paper. Then use yellow and take this over the bottom third of blue to make green. Use the brush to come upward in stalks (green). Then wash brush and dry it and lift off the blue paint where the stalks end to make the white snowdrops.

The story went as follows:
The winter had been full of cold ice and snow.
Then the sun began to shine a little - the grass grew again and then little shoots started to appear - up they came from the ground...it tried to snow again but the sun was too strong.

I will try and post a picture later on this week.

(c) Liz Plant 2009

Melisa's Maths book

I really want to get Melisa's maths book featuring gnomes for Springy.

http://www.waldorfjourney.typepad.com/

This thing on adrenal and thyroid issues (thank you to friend who provided link) looks interesting:

http://www.drrind.com/forms/wp_metabolic_seminar.pdf

Narwhals

We watched the new David Attenborough BBC series today (on the BBC website) and discussed bits as we were viewing it. The episode was called The Great Melt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hn4hs

A puppy called Lily

This month has been beautiful so far. Imbolc was snowy which the folklore says means a good year ahead. Springy went out to play in the snow which was a bit wet, rather than the useful type of snow that you can make snowballs out of but still...snow is snow and it was fun.

Springy started a dance class - ballet and modern - which she loves. She's there for 1 and a half hours which I would have thought would have worn her out but it hasn't quite yet. The first time she went, we stayed to check she was all right and she was beaming away with her smiles. I got all tearful. She's now been to her second class and the dance teacher wants to move her to the next class. I'm so glad I waited until she was 7 for starting ballet because I think it's a much better age to start with formalised movement.

We have a lovely CD that we're listening to at the moment. It's called Fairy Moon: Songs of the Ring and is by Maria Sangiolo. Springy's favourite song is Meanie Mary.

http://www.mariasangiolo.com/

We got ourselves a puppy who was born 20th November 2008. She's a Shih Tzu and we have called her Lily. She's adorable - a lot of work but we've been learning how to care for a puppy and so far seem to be doing the right things. Today we introduced her to our chickens and yesterday she met the guineapigs.

She gets fed 4x per day at the moment because she's still ver little. We feed her at about 7.30am (sometimes 8am), midday, 4pm and 7.30pm (or quarter to 8). We're making sure she gets exercise. She cannot go out in full yet because she has only had one of her vaccinations (which I'm still unsure about but Parvo virus is a risk factor and nasty so I guess it's necessary to vaccinate) but we've been running with her on a leash in the garden and she mostly follows. We've found that knowing where we are going to helps.

Pukka Herbs

These are some of my favourite teas so I would love to do their distance learning course Introduction to Ayurveda. I'm very interested in Western Herbalism, Ayurvedic medicine and TCM but wouldn't want to be a practitioner of medicine as such. I'm quite happy to be a Reflexologist but do like extra skills so the Pukka course is something to consider for CPD.

Maths legs

Springy and I have been doing lots of conversational learning over the past few days. One of the things we discussed is how we're related to chimpanzees and orang utans (she did the asking). It started with "Mummy, did I used to be an orang utan?". It's not easy explaining evolutionary theory to a 7-year old but I think I answered her question without getting too technical and too over her head (and mine). I asked her about rats and mice - are they similar but not exactly the same? She responded in the affirmative and then we talked about whether she looks exactly like grandpa and grandma or her very tall uncle - no. We talked about going back and back and how if lots of tall people got married and had children they would more likely have tall ones and so on. She grasped it and understood that somewhere in the distant past, there were some creatures that were related to us and also related to chimpanzees but were not exactly like us.



My mother upset me today because she did her view on home education having asked what we did today. She really is unable to think outside her little box on school-based learning and thinks Springy should be in a school in order to have a "normal education". I then got told how when we were visiting, she had noticed that Springy is not able to read properly! I was then told how another child she knows reads "yellow books" at school - naturally my mother was not able to name the particular reading scheme which might have put it into context. Springy reads, fluently, and best of all enjoys reading. We still do story time together and at the moment this is Enid Blyton's The Wishing Wand.



We did some maths later this evening. We were playing with some of her toy animals and I just started to ask about their legs. It was really good fun asking Springy questions like "If you have 4 cats how many legs all together?" and "If there is a guineapig and a spider and then you stand near them, how many legs all together?". She looks up as she's working it all out - we did mental arithmetic in division, multiplication, subtraction and addition. She's still getting a few answers wrong but it doesn't matter and what's even better is she doesn't want me to stop asking her more questions because she likes doing problem solving and we have a giggle thinking of all the creatures going to and fro.