Outdoor fun

We've been outdoors most of the week this week making the most of the unseasonably warm weather.

It seems so weird that within a fortnight we've gone from big coats to shorts! No doubt it will soon be over and we'll be back to shivering!

This week we've visited Saltburn, Seaburn, Roker Park and Chester-le-Street Riverside Park.

Parenting is so much simpler in summer!

Planting potatoes

Sunny days

I wish we lived somewhere where it is hot all year round

3D shapes

Made some homemade with the boys this week and then set the Chops a challenge to save some aliens from a meteorite by making cubes and cuboids to build a wall, pyramids as sharp objects to break the meteorite and spheres as bullets. That'll be 3d shapes introduced then!

We all had a great time playing with the dough. Roly spent a long time sticking his fingers in it and squashing it.

Three little pigs - 2012 version

Chops playing 3 little pigs with 'big bad wolf' daddy.

'I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!'

'No you won't dad because I'll bash you on the head with a hammer!'

Happiness is...

a lovely spring walk with my littlest bud singing in my ear.
I don't get enough time to spend just with him so really appreciate it when I do.

Chops Progress Report and Plans

I've been looking back over my previous plans for Chops and it's amazing how far he has come in such a short time.

Out of interest I've had a flick through the EYFS guide that I have to see what they'd expect him to be able to do and in all honesty, he would laugh if I gave him stuff at that level to do. There are a few things that we are yet to cover - symmetry, 3d shapes and other peoples cultures - but symmetry I already had planned as part of a butterfly/spring theme next week.

In terms of literacy, he got a pack of magnets today which were the 45 high frequency words which children are expected to know by the end of reception (summer 2013 for him). He knew 41 of them already and gave the others a good try. There are also a lot of words in the Y1/2 packs which he knows too.

We got him a clock last week for the playroom which includes the number of minutes past plus quarters and half aswell as the usual 1-12 so he's been trying to decipher that this week. He can reliably tell the hour and half hour now and is getting to grips with quarter past and to. We played the Hickory Dickory Dock board game today to make the most of his interest. He's fascinated by what Daddy was telling him about the clocks changing, more sunny evenings and a later bedtime - for one day at least!

I really love being able to work at his level without worrying about anyone else. I love challenging him too and seeing the sense of pride when he realises what he's capable of.

I just can't imagine doing this kind of observation/reviewing/planning for a whole group of children in school. Hats off to my teacher friends - how you find time to actually teach when doing all of this I just do not know! Relieved my records are purely personal and for the boys to look back on.

Over the next few days I'm continuing with the Spring theme. I have ideas in my head for the life cycle of a butterfly. Plus we collected a lot of twigs at the park last week for making a nest so we need to find time for that.

He's enjoying spot the difference/maze type puzzles at the moment so I'm going to hunt out some more of those.

Then just the usual games, reading, random pages of workbooks and answering the gazillion questions he comes up with every day. I really love seeing the progress both boys are making and am very excited about seeing where their interests and talents take us next.