From Bob Bug and friends to The Caper of the Crown Jewels: England (Secret Agent Jack Stalwart) in two and a half months. Small started his first chapter book, The Finger-Eater (Sprinters), on Thursday. He read a chapter then, and a chapter today. Then the book ppl order arrived, including a gift bag set [...]
I read The Friday Night Knitting Club and really enjoyed it, even though it made me cry. Quite a lot. I am a big softy.
I also finally finished reading And the Skylark Sings with Me: Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-based Education which I found very interesting and enjoyable, if almost implausible in parts. Or perhaps [...]
only photographically - took the kids to a party this afternoon and discovered when I got back that I had pictures from the last party they attended at the end of September, then nothing from October, and then pictures again today. Hm. Must do better - they are growing and changing so fast, I really [...]
Two months ago, I posted about Small’s reading. I talked about whole word recognition, and how that’s what we were focussing on.
We didn’t tell Small that. Somewhere since then, pretty much unaided, especially as he didn’t come to school that much in holiday club, he decided that he would get phonics, figure out most [...]
started by the fact that I didn’t surface until 12.30, as I was finishing off my book, The Margarets Not sure that I can be bothered to write a separate book review post (although I ought, as there are a couple of other books I’ve read that I haven’t reviewed yet. But there you) [...]
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Concern over age bands for books
In the normally sedate gardens of the Edinburgh Book Festival, it is causing quite a furore.
From this autumn, a number of publishing houses will “age band” their children’s books.
Each book will carry a specific marking indicating they are suitable for [...]
Right-brained Children in a Left-brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child Jeffrey Freed.
Borrowed this one from Kirsty following ponderings on Small, who most definitely doesn’t fit into standard assessments of learning styles or behaviours. I don’t know whether he’s right brained though, as he cheated on the test I gave him to find [...]
So we provided one.
He wasn’t this sad throughout the whole day, this was because of the sticks in the ground - they were for rounders, but he felt it was deeply wrong to shove things into the ground, and I had to remonstrate to get him to leave them there. On some levels, he’s probably [...]
After a long chat with Tim’s brother last night, Tim and I came to the conclusion that Small needs whole word recognition, that phonics is not going to be the way forward for him. A has been doing that a small amount at school with him too, but today he sat and read Read at [...]
I keep thinking I’ve cried about enough and then someone says something nice, or I catch the eye of another member of the family and I’m crying all over again. Then again, we did difficult things today - went to the funeral home and saw the body in a coffin. I really didn’t want to [...]
English is too hard to read for children | News crumb | EducationGuardian.co.uk
Monkey, asparagus, spinach, caterpillar, dwarf, banana, handkerchief, pliers, soldiers, stomach, petal and telescope have all been included on the long list of words that baffle children because they contain letter combinations that are more commonly pronounced in a different way.
Interesting article that suggests [...]
when you leave your laptop switched off
It’s still switched off. I’m borrowing Tim’s machine, while he’s out shopping and the grots are bathing. I’ve really enjoyed the freedom, haven’t felt that the day got away from me at all. Well, apart from the first hour or so I spent sleeping [...]
I had so many good intentions today. Well, at least I got the car serviced
Let’s see. I wanted to clear out bits of the dining room - Tim managed to hoover in there at least. I pulled a couple of bits out and I have a big pile of stuff [...]
Now, how long is it going to be before I join the select crew of Wizard Whimstaff results in google?
Tim took Big out today, and they went to wilkos and bought Wizard Whimstaff’s Hilarious Handwriting (aka Basic Skills: Handwriting: Ages 6-7 (Basic Skills)) and his Toady Times Tables: Magical Skills Level 1 (Magical [...]
this morning, Small has learnt from numberjacks that 6 can be split into two 3s. (I’m not going to promise that he knows he can do that with six things mind )
Big is sitting on the floor counting her money and exchanging pounds in change for pound coins. Her arithmetic is improving [...]
to claim the day has improved? Perhaps I’d better stick with it’s improving
After a traumatic half hour on Small’s part, when someone mentioned lunch to him, and he realised he hadn’t had breakfast (it *was* offered, but he was too busy being read to, then drawing, then dancing :roll:) and of course, [...]
why Big doesn’t get to do anything much else once she starts on writing. 15 minutes in, and we’ve got once sentence written out.
30 minutes reading took 45 today by the time she’d fallen off the sofa, crawled around the room and so on.
Yesterday I worked from home. The break from driving was much appreciated!
Kirsty came by and dropped A off while she took M to the dentist, and despite the fact it was ages since my two had seen A they all disappeared off upstairs, and were neither seen nor heard until about 5.45, when they [...]
Our children are morning ppl. Tim and I are night owls. This has often resulted in the children getting up and breakfasting and watching tv on their own and us staggering down an hour or two later, which then sets the pattern for a bad day.
Wanting to break the pattern, we’ve decided that [...]
Tonight Big read Night You Were Born (Orchard Picturebooks) to me. We got it at the library earlier this week, when they were selling off lots of books, 6 for £1. And as you know, we’ve a shortage of books here
Anyway, tonight we talked about punctuation marks, I said things like [...]