Starting simple

As I've mentioned previously both K & M have a couple of things that they'd like to learn how to do this year: knitting and cooking.
We're doing pretty well on the knitting front and they're both knitting reasonably competently (although I do have to undo and sort out problems occasionally) and with a bit of help they can cast off as well now. So once they can cast on, pearl and increase and decrease that's pretty much all you need, unless you want to get really fancy (in which case I'm going to have to find someone to show me!).
Today we made a proper start on the cooking front (other than baking which we already do reasonably frequently). The reason it's taken a while to get going is that trying to persuade the girls that starting simple is the way to go has been a bit tricky, but today I made a suggestion that M thought was a very good one and K was happy to go along with. So the girls made their own tea - eggy bread. M had a square and K cut out a man-shape and they went down very well and they're planning on making some for Granny when she comes in a couple of weeks time.

Baby toys - worth keeping?

We were at a SureStart centre this afternoon and we found some bricks with letters on. M got to work almost straight away and with very little help indeed came up with the following 'story'. I think I might dig out the bricks/foam letters/magnetic letters again!

Reading the dictionary.

At K's request, after my exclamation of 'Oh there's a grammar section in the middle of our new dictionary!', for the past few days I have been reading it to the girls (usually while they're knitting or doing hama beading). It's really very technical and I (as a former modern language teacher who also has a TEFL qualification!) have been learning quite a lot. This doesn't seem to be putting K off, and she's insisting that she wants 'More of the story from the dictionary please!' I'm not sure how much she's really understanding, but it's got us thinking and talking about how our language works (and comparing it at times to others), which has got to be a good thing.

Over a year in the making.

For Christmas just over a year ago, my Mum gave both girls a pair of knitting needles and a ball over wool and she cast on the number of stitches of each girl's age at the time and knitted a few rows to get them going.
K (with 7 stitches) had no interest whatsoever and barely touched it, but M (with 5) was fairly keen for a while but lost interest after she'd knitted about 10-15cm.
More recently, however both girls have been much more interested in all things crafty (see previous posts). Both of them have picked up their knitting and (since she only has 5 stitches per row) M has raced on and today finished the scarf which is for her dog Spot and together we added a fringe each end. K's taking a bit longer, but is getting there.

When you're feeling you haven't done any maths for a while...

Bake! K's Brownie Pack is having a bake sale for Children in Need today, so we baked to take things along to sell. M, even though she can't join Brownies until June, wanted to take something too, so she made flapjacks. K chose mint choc chip cakes from a recipe book we've got.
So they each weighed and measured, and in K's case halved. We used weight, volume and temperature and both imperial and metric! There's plenty of scope for science too of course, with melting butter and making a cake from individual ingredients is a great analogy for compounds being made from elements!

Pyjama days and different interests

We've been rather poorly this week, nothing really nasty just very horrible colds. One of the lovely things about HE is that I find we actually end up learning just as much on those days as we do on days we do more obviously 'learn-y' stuff.

On Tuesday K and I came down with the stinky cold that A had very kindly given us. M was a bit under the weather but more poorly in sympathy than actuality. So the three of us snuggled on the sofa and watched films. We watched Prince Caspian (and compared it to the BBC tv series that we've already seen and to the book), Singin' in the Rain (and talked about the development of the film industry, due to technological advances) and Swallows and Amazons (for the umpteenth time - we're looking forward to going to see it at the theatre in a musical adaptation next month).

We went to Wildlife Watch group yesterday at Rushcliffe Country Park, where there seems to be more and more to do each time we go. I have promised we'll go and spend the day there when the weather is better. We decorated some really lovely quality books, which we obtained from a scrap store (covers misprinted for schools), with the idea of using them as nature journals. And we also brought home an owl pellet.

This afternoon M happily spent an hour or so dissecting the pellet and finding lots of bones and attempting to identify them, while K stayed well away. There are a *lot* of bones in an owl pellet, we found dozens and those are mostly the bigger ones, mostly rodent or shrew skulls, jawbones, leg bones and the occasional scapula we think. There's still plenty left to go through, just think how tiny a mouse's vertebrae are! Oh and I think I will buy myself some new tweezers...

This year's plans.

I asked K & M if they had anything they particularly wanted to work towards this year, this is what they came up with.
K decided that she wants to learn to knit, she had needles and wool for Christmas 12 months ago, but showed no interest whatsoever, now however she's very keen and this afternoon is pretty confident after about half an hour. M followed suit, although she had a fairly brief keen period last winter, and has picked it up again pretty quickly.
The other thing K wants to do is 'learn to cook'. We already do quite a bit of baking and she's perfectly capable of making fairy cakes on her own with me just doing the putting in and taking out of the oven, but we haven't really done anything savoury, so that's where we'll start.
M said that she wants to do the same and had one other target for the year - to meet a real live dinosaur. Slightly tricker!

A rather belated Christmas tree decoration post.

I've only just got round to downloading photos from Christmas, so it's rather late but ho hum. In the short space of time between A bringing in the tree and me bringing the decorations in, this is what K & M decided would be a good way of decorating it.

After a few more rearrangements on a similar theme, they agreed that we could use the more traditional decorations after all, including a few new ones.

Rather a long time ago, I bought a few little kits to make felt Christmas tree decorations, from the lovely Ali at http://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/ (back when it was Craft Matters) and finally got around to making them shortly before Christmas. M was rather taken with them and so got sewing and with very little help came up her own baby version of a couple, here's one which I think is particularly cute.

Games

Shortly before Christmas we finally got around to trying out a gift we were given last Christmas, the game Carcassonne. It has very quickly become a firm favourite, particularly of M and we have played it many times since. Unfortunately just yesterday we discovered that we hadn't been following the rules quite correctly and have started to do so, which has put M off somewhat. She is fiercely competitive and was holding her own and regularly beating her Daddy previously and I think she was a bit worried that she might not do so with the changes.
This Christmas we received (after suggesting it to friends who asked for ideas) The Game of Life Adventures edition. A while back we were given an old original set, which became something of an obsession for several months earlier in the year. K & M got pretty good at adding up in 1000s and it led to many conversations on all sorts of topics. The new version is probably a bit more fun and more strategic, but unfortunately in my opinion many of the talking points of the original have gone.