We've had quite a lot of variety over the past couple of days of what would mostly come under the heading of literacy. Yesterday morning the girls and I made a list of things to do for the rest of the week, before we head down to spend the weekend at my parents'. It included quite a lot of reading of varying sorts. M wanted 'Charlie Bone' to go on the list, as that's what she's reading to herself at the moment (she's started book 3 now). K, unusually, hadn't got anything on the go, so I suggested a trip to the library for her and she came home with a Daisy book and The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Atkin (I recognised the title and picked it up, although I'm not completely sure if I've actually read it!). We also had on the list me reading to the girls, both starting a new fiction book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and starting on the next book of a boxed set of The Usborne History of Britain, Roman Britain (we read Prehistoric Britain a while back and then stalled somewhat). Also on the list was letter writing, M decided to write letters to people during lent and K thought she might too, along with various chores and K & M cooking a meal and a few other things.
Over yesterday and today, we've made quite a lot of headway with the list. Yesterday, after our library trip, we came home and after lunch made a start of some of the reading. I read several double pages of the Roman Britain book curled up on the sofa with the girls and then read the first three chapters of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, while K did some colouring and M played with Lego. We looked briefly at when the book was first published, which was 1876 and related that to it being the Victorian period in this country. We also talked briefly about slavery and the American Civil War and while K & M carried on with what they were doing (I did invite them to join me, but they were too busy), I did a bit of finding out on the computer. I discovered that although the book was published post-Civil War, it was set (in the South) before it took place. The girls had their weekly swimming lesson and I phoned up a local French horn teacher and arranged for M & me to go and see him next Monday.
Although neither of my girls write particularly regularly, they do occasionally and when they do it's usually for a specific reason that they see the point in, such as thank you letters or a script for a play, as K did recently. Despite not doing very much writing, I have noticed that both girls' writing has improved in terms of their handwriting in particular, getting smaller and neater. As far as spelling is concerned, both girls will ask occasionally me to spell a word they're not sure about and K will use a dictionary to check, if they show me what they've written they are often able to correct mistakes if I point them out. Today, M did the longest piece of writing that she has ever done, I think. She wrote over a side of a typical exercise book sized piece of paper in quite small, closely spaced lines in a letter to her Great Aunt M. Rather frustratingly for me, I wasn't allowed to see it, but it's lovely to see her doing this. She had decided to write letters to various people, mostly older relatives, during lent and this was her second one. I think the reason it was so much longer than her first one, to Nana, was that, having recently got back from holiday, she had plenty to say in this one! K didn't write a letter, but she did plan one, I think in response to one of the requests for penfriends in Aquila magazine, she has also been doing some logic puzzles in a brain teaser pull out that Granny kept from The Times for us.
Apart from that, M & I popped out, to print off a photo to put in with the letter (our printers not working at the moment, so we went to Boots to do that), buy stamps, post the letter and pop into the library. Even though we spoke to a librarian, while the lady we spoke to yesterday was nearby, nothing was said about the conversation we had yesterday about leaving children on their own in the library. We got some books out about slavery and the American Civil War, so that we can put The Adventures of Tom Sawyer into the context of when it was set and when it was written, although we won't be looking at them until we've finished reading the book, because that is what K & M have said they'd rather do. We read some more of both Roman Britain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and all three of us did some housework chores too. K had Scouts this evening, so I took her to that, as A wasn't home until quite late having been away overnight again (there has been lately and will continue to be for the next month or so quite a lot of that unfortunately).
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