what we’ve been up to
well, it seems to have been a while! I meant to update at the end of last week but things turned against me. Last week started with a trip to the theatre to see Hamlet in a Shakespeare for Kids production. Really enjoyed that, but Alex didn’t really enjoy the ghost of Hamlets father and it scared her for a while after.
The rest of the week was taken up with the Film Education week which I’d foolishly booked too many! I think I got carried away, by Friday I was filmed out 
But we did see The Simpsons, Bridge to Terabithia (kids loved this and we immediately ordered the book when we got home), Charlottes Web and The Little Polar Bear 2 (That was a complete load of rubbish!!!). In between all that we had another trip to the home ed group which I’m feeling much better about. The kids are really enjoying it and I’m being braver Kept up with our Ambleside Online readings but really did very little else education wise!
Saturday we had a birthday party at Barbara’s which was lovely. M was feeling rather ill by the evening, but I put it down to a long day and much excitement. Unfortunately by the time we got home he’d been sick and was up the rest of the night being ill. Sorry if anyone got it. Hope not.
Sunday, M just flaked out and Alex and I went to see some football with my dad. It was Doncaster Belles (ladies team). A was fine for about 20 minutes and then just wanted to go off an do something else, namely get in with the teenagers that were hanging about rofl! She has no attention span at all.
Monday and Tuesday, M was still bad, but by Tues he was pretty much better, but we didn’t risk going to the HE group which was a shame. James was ill Tue and Wed and so had a day off. Typical, just before our holiday he’s ill so we have less money. Argh! We’re doomed when it comes to holidays this year. We’re half thinking about a trip to Venice for our 10th anniversary of being together, but I’m not sure I dare plan anything.
So again this week education wise I don’t feel we’ve done too much, read our stories and done a small bit of copywork each and a little bit of maths. Trying to work on sums like 2 + _ = 5. Half of the time they are fine with them but sometimes, esp M, they just look at the numbers and add up what they see. So today we looked at them again but I concentrated on showing them what ‘=’ actually means and shwoing that it has to balance each side. I’m not sure they got that before.
Off out in a mo to take M to buy A a birthday present. My last day of having a 5 year old. Sniff.
bleugh to poorly people, hope everyone is recovering and you don’t catch it!
Miquon do a lot of the 2+_= type sums, I’m not sure of teh value of them really but Aprilia has finally got the idea thanks to using the rods to actually see what’s being asked. I think it’s a hard concept fro them to see in their head!
Comment by T_bird — October 25, 2007 @ 3:01 pm
HAPPY BIRTHDAY A!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great day, 6 year old
2+_=5 is a tricky concept - you do have to actually understand what’s going on, lol. We find the Cuisenaire rods help. Also - I think I saw this on the Wellyboots blog - the Thinking Blocks website might be useful.
One of my tutees is in his last year of GCSE and he struggles with _-3=2 type questions. /shrugs in despair/
Comment by Alison — October 26, 2007 @ 9:28 am
A says thanks
I saw that Thinking Blocks website before I think, but the numbers are a bit big for my 2 just yet. The idea is good though and is what we’ve been doing (with smaller numbers). Using the blocks makes it much easier and they can do it that way, it just occurred to me that they didn’t know that + means same on both sides. This was confirmed when I said ‘what’s this? (shows pic of an equals sign) and they shout ‘equals!’ and what does it mean? ‘er…. dunno!’ Lol. Just minor stuff lol
Comment by Administrator — October 26, 2007 @ 10:02 am
Happy Birthday A from all of us!!!!
xx
Comment by Em — October 26, 2007 @ 10:38 am
Happy Birthyesterday A from us too. Michelle, Marcus nad Chloe xxx
Comment by michelle — October 27, 2007 @ 11:13 pm
Hey! I wondered where you’d got to! Happies to birthday peeps and hugs to poorly peeps.
Comment by Sarah, Dino and Mimi — October 28, 2007 @ 12:29 pm