Violin breakthrough. I hope.

Not a bad day! Not bad at all. Hardly a fight among us. I don't think I even shouted (much) or sent anyone for time out. This is despite having just cooked dinner for 5 unexpected guests and single-handed bathing my three (well, I used both hands, obviously, but the back up team was at taikwondo). It wasn't just bathing. The result of having friends round this afternoon, followed by more friends round for (surprisingly!) tea, meant that I have just had to make the girls tidy what looked like a jumble-sale scrum from the floor of their room. No mean feat. But I hardly shouted.

Sebastian was up all last night with a temperature too. He wasn't particularly unhappy. Just awake and hot. At one point, he was sitting up in our bed and I said, "Go back to sleep, Sebastian." He replied, "Not leepy." So I said, "You could at least pretend to be asleep." So he lay down and closed his eyes and said, "Badin aleep. Very. Really." Then forgot to sit up again and was soon snoring.

Anyway, I hadn't had the best rest, and I wasn't on top form, today so I was glad and, frankly, amazed, when Francesca complied with my request to start violin practice.

I've found The Book. It's the accompaniment for her Eta Cohen violin method, meaning that I can provide jolly piano accompaniments for even the most boring of twanging exercises, even the ones which are entirely on the D string. I have been looking for it for a while and finally spotted it in our local music store at the weekend. Francesca was really enthusiastic. We played the pieces she is currently working on and then went back through the book and did her easier pieces, at her request. It was great. We played for ages! Elizabeth was at playgroup and Sebastian was pottering around beside us, occasionally helping with the piano part. It was lovely.

Later we did maths. I helped Francesca to colour lines of ten on squared paper so that she could work out the 10x table and see the pattern. She seemed to cotton on quickly but then forget, when it came to 'knowing' the answers. Early days...

We didn't get onto English, having done so much music and then having guests all afternoon.

Elizabeth did more of her phonics work though. She asked me to do the next big book with her (book 5) with 6 new phonemes. Today we did z, w, v and two sorts of oo. Then she made phonics cards for each sound, to add to her collection and then she did some cutting and sticking work to reinforce the point. She's so keen! She's getting to be quite a good reader :)

No photos today. Not one! Sorry. It's just been so hectic, somehow, but in a nice way.