Monday 22 October 2007

Weekly Reports #4 and #5

I am reporting on these two weeks together because they have been so full of social activities.

Last week we had three families over on separate occasions, taking advantage of the official school holidays to get together with friends who do school outside their homes. We also attended a birthday party. I didn't do anything much in the way of reading or writing lessons and I really let the kids have a lot more freedom than they usually have in choosing what they could do. As the kids grow, I would like to use the holidays to focus in on practical skills (such as training in new chores), as well as continuing to take advantage of the extra social activities afforded by the holidays.

As a consequence of the extra freedom that the kids had in their weeks of holidays, it was to be expected that they wouldn't want to get right down to writing and reading this past Monday, but after (quite a bit of) whining from Joshua, he did complete his set task of reading and tracing one sentence, then colouring the accompanying small picture. (During the holidays, I made him a second A5 "Reader" with simple sentences composed of words from his Reading program.) Each day, his whining showed itself less, and my commendations increased, until Friday when there was no whining and some magnificent work done.

We also enjoyed having my FIL, Graham, stay with us for the week.
Jeff took him to the plane today after lunch, and we dearly hope that it will not be so long until we see him again.

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