Well since posting about internet links, most mornings I have come downstairs to find K doing mathematical things on Lure of the Labyrinth and M has been on Duolingo pretty much every day. M gets a bit frustrated with the accuracy needed when writing both in French and English, but is persevering none the less. K has now signed up for Duolingo as well and appears to be just as determined as M to have a go every day.
Still on the theme of French, we went to see the second of our two Into Film films last Thursday, which was Belle et Sebastien. It wasn't something that K & M had jumped at, but they were willing enough to go. It was in Derby and thanks to roadworks getting out of Nottingham, we only just got there by the skin of our teeth, but we all agreed that it was very good and the fact that it had subtitles didn't bother the girls at all.
On Friday, the girls went to spend the day with Z & R, who had kindly agreed to have them so I could help out a friend in need. They had a great time and I felt and indeed feel very fortunate to have such good friends who I can ask to help out (I had another friend on standby, in case Z hadn't been able to have them).
Saturday the girls donned their Scout uniforms to help out at the church Christmas fayre, where they were selling quizzes, something that was clearly more suited to M. Their Scout leader had printed out 60 and of the 59 that the Scouts managed to sell, K sold 3 while M sold 24 of them!
Monday's group at Old Dalby was a Christmas craft session and M designed a card that we took with us to show people. She'd come up with the design entirely by her self, which I will add a photo of later. We made another, slightly neater, example between us to take too and a few of the children chose to make one. K & M each decorated a Christmas biscuit (unsurprisingly that was the most popular of the activities!)
We have managed to rearrange the girls piano lesson (although admittedly they're not entirely chuffed that it's now 9 o'clock in the morning!) in order to make it to another gymnastics group on Tuesday afternoons. It's with the same club that they are already members of and go to a 'teen gym' session on a Friday evening, but this is a HE session and quite a few friends go too. M in particular wanted to go to see one new friend, who we don't see very often, in particular.
On the way home from gymnastics M nailed the problem with using rewards to try to motivate children, something that I have posted about previously here and here. She mentioned that she'd been given a sticker for effort in part of the gymnastics session, but pointed out that it was for an activity that she doesn't find very hard, so really hadn't needed to put in very much effort, so what was the point in the sticker. The conversation continued about how it's pretty much impossible to know just how much effort somebody else is putting into something.
On Wednesday, I had a very rare day off! A sometimes meets a colleague in the small town where my parents live, it being about half way between them. My Mum (aka Granny) suggested that K & M could go down with him and spend the day there, before bringing her back here for a week-long visit. Despite the fact that A was leaving before 7am, they both wanted to and indeed managed to be up and ready in time. So as well as getting quite a few jobs done around the house, I treated myself to a much needed massage, which was fantastic!
Just to add a few more things, M has baked some very good chocolate brownies, K in particular has been doing lots of piano practice and we are now in the final stretch of the penultimate in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five.
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