Germs, jelly and Oscar Wilde

Had a really much better day today. I think it was because I had a more relaxed approach: no timetable, not too many preconceived ideas and I had some Francesca-directed activities at the ready.

First thing, we made up the rest of the jelly to add to the jelly worms creation (which I don't think is working very well but more on that issue another time)

The main thing is, the girls loved preparing the jelly and Francesca was very competent at measuring half a pint of water and popping it in the microwave for one minute (won't be long before she's making me a cup of coffee!)

The 'worms' are in the fridge, setting, so we'll review that tomorrow.

Earlier in the morning, Francesca surprised me by randomly and unbidden, producing this:

It's a drawing of her embroidery and the ruled lines and wording are all of her own design. I had nothing to do with it - not even asking her to do anything. I am, frankly, amazed by the quality of the work. It goes to show what part motivation plays in all this.

Anyway, I started to log onto the computer to get the work on germs, for Francesca.

Last night, she said she wanted to know what germs look like, so I prepared some resources about germs for her to read about bacteria, viruses and mould, with links to pictures and videos.

The web connection was slow and the computer was slow... so while we were waiting, Francesca did some of Elizabeth's sticker book (with permission).

Sebastian climbed up to the fruit bowl and asked for a "nana" but there wasn't one so he gobbled up a nectarine instead.

Elizabeth decided to do some of her wipe-downable alphabet book.

Here's Francesca engrossed in reading about microbes. She was sufficiently interested and able to read several pages of text (that I had written, so it was sparse and at a basic level, but even so!)

She loved seeing the pictures and watching the videos - which also drew an extra spectator.

With Elizabeth, I played her the next two "Jolly Phonics" songs and helped her to do the "p" and "i" worksheets. That meant she knew enough phonemes to do the first page of her phonics workbook, with help from me (I drew dots to help her form the letters but she knew what had to go where)

This is what she managed today:

After that, the girls went to listen to a story tape - Children's Stories by Oscar Wilde. "The Selfish Giant" and "The Happy Prince". Francesca said that both stories seemed sad at the end.

All that was before lunch! After which they did some colouring before we went to our friend's house for a play (and, it has to be said, some exceedingly nice biscuits). From thence home again, for a play with another friend (let it be said that my children do have a good social life!)

And I feel great! What an interesting, productive day, all round. More like this please.

Tonight's requests are these:

"I'd like to see a white blood cell eating a germ!"

and

"Why does water fill any shape?"

So I'm off to do some prep.