P's in a pod: August 2013

Saturday, 31 August 2013

High lodge

We discovered a wonderful forest treck with lots of climbing apparatus and activity equipment near to us and went with friends. The kids loved it! We went with friends.

It made me think about how I have read about the importance of developing the gross motor skills before embarking on teaching writing and fine motor skills.

Sunday, 25 August 2013

Although I felt really poorly we had a wonderful camping trip by the sea. The kids had so much fun together, playing Star Wars, light sabres, water pistils, swimming in the sea, playing at the park, feeding the guinee pigs and rabbits.... Lovely time had by all.

Monday, 19 August 2013

Delaying the teaching of the 3 R's

I feel that following the child's own internal learning timetable is the safest way of teaching. At present Freddie is not interested in writing, reading or even drawing although he is beginning to want to draw a bit more... He prefers to be physical, play imaginary games, play on the computer, be read to, play with children (on a 1:1 basis generally), cook, play with play-doh, do puzzles, play board games, and that is fine by me....learning is not a race!

Mia is more interested in writing, reading and drawing and that is fine by me too!

I like the Steiner philosophy of delaying learning the 3 R s until the age of 7, however I differ in the sense that if the child was motivated to learn earlier I would absolutely support and encourage this learning.

I found this article very interesting.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9266592/Bright-children-should-start-school-at-six-says-academic.html?fb

Sunday, 18 August 2013

What 4 year olds should know.....

As September draws ever closer and a bit of anxiety bubbles to the surface this was a reassuring and comforting read... http://magicalchildhood.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/what-should-a-4-year-old-know/
Beautiful!

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Gardening and sea fishing!

Saturday, 10 August 2013

BBQ with friends!

Our very lovely friends came over for a BBQ, they bought pots and salad and bread and we did meat, veg and hallumi. Was a wonderful evening, all outside, children playing happily, us laughing and talking, relaxed, very happy times!

As the night got darker the kids loved playing with glow sticks, jumping on the trampoline with them and playing hide and seek around the garden with them! Late night with children in bed at 10.45!

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Garden work

Wow, we did so much work in our garden today! Jackie came over and gave us some ideas and we set to work. We want to include the back bit of our garden into our garden as before it was just wasted space. This is what we did to our conifers to do this!

This is the fire we did at the end of the night!