I thought it would be amusing to review last year's aims (I didn't even give them the status of resolutions!) and see how I got on.
Children:
* Night-wean Shannon - Failed. Am currently trying AGAIN!!!
* Get Jade doing regular chores - Partly successful. She now knows she is responsible for making her own bed, feeding the dog, helping to sweep/mop the kitchen floor and tidy the living room before going to bed. Sometimes she even does them!
* Get Jade to usually sleep in her own bed all night Pretty much. Because I'm usually in Shannon's bed by the early hours of the morning, Jade often creeps in with us but it's usually not till 5 or 6am so that's pretty good going.
* Much less television - maximum half-an-hour in the morning while I have breakfast and 1 hour in the evening. Failed abysmally. It's on far more than that.
Home-Ed:
* Try actually sticking to the Sonlight K curriculum for at least 3 months to see if it works for us like that - We didn't get anywhere near it from January, but from September we've got on fairly well. I'm not sure it does work for us but we're going to stick with it till I find a better way.
* Otherwise concentrate with Jade on maths and writing. Zilch on the maths. She doesn't like it. She's spontaneously writing more, though, and I still want to encourage more.
* Do more practical stuff like making historical meals, dressing up etc. Not much done. Failure of energy and imagination.
Personal:
* Regular stretching exercise - I can feel myself stiffening up - Nope, not done.
* Regular prayer/quiet time Well, I've made attempts in the past few months - probably manage it about twice a week.
* More sex (once a year isn't enough, DH says.....) Erm.....
* Less web-browsing
* more book reading Nope - neither of these achieved.
Home:
* Keep up-to-date with finances Nope.
* Reduce debt (currently £10,000 or £15,000 if you count the student loan which I am hoping never to have to pay back) - see above. I haven't kept up with the finances so I don't currently know how much it all adds up to.
* Redecorate at least some of the areas in this house that have never been done since we moved here 10 years ago, i.e. dining room; hall/stairs/landing; kitchen. - Not done. Still planning!
Business:
* Get at least 2 more Usborne recruits by the end of April
* Do at least one event per week, preferably 2
* Organise paperwork
None of these done. In fact, I did one Usborne event in March, one in November, and that was it!!!!
Hmmm, not such a good showing then. I'd better sleep on it and decide what to carry forward to 2008!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Parenting problems
Had to take the Christmas tree down this evening. Jade (who surely is old enough to know better) simply cannot keep her hands off the ornaments. She has broken 3 of my favourite ones so far, and was told very clearly and firmly NOT to take any more stuff off the tree. She has since taken two more down, both of them my most precious ones, so I told her that since she couldn't seem to control herself, the tree and its ornaments would have to be removed. So DH and I instantly packed everything away and took it down.
Actually she is severely testing our patience in many ways lately. I hate to say it, because naturally I love her anyway but it has to be admitted that she is rather selfish and badly-behaved quite often. I am torn between wanting to rant about it, and not wanting to set out all her worst behaviour in public. It probably doesn't help, from Jade's point of view, that Shannon is incredibly sweet-natured and adorable, so the contrast between the two is particularly stark. We are planning a couple of ways to try and address the problem, but unfortunately my natural reaction is to yell and shout and come down on her very hard, and it has little effect, except possibly to make the situation worse. And then I'm conscious that if my self-control isn't that good, then why should hers be?
I once read that parenting is the most intensive self-development course you can ever undergo. That person was right.
Actually she is severely testing our patience in many ways lately. I hate to say it, because naturally I love her anyway but it has to be admitted that she is rather selfish and badly-behaved quite often. I am torn between wanting to rant about it, and not wanting to set out all her worst behaviour in public. It probably doesn't help, from Jade's point of view, that Shannon is incredibly sweet-natured and adorable, so the contrast between the two is particularly stark. We are planning a couple of ways to try and address the problem, but unfortunately my natural reaction is to yell and shout and come down on her very hard, and it has little effect, except possibly to make the situation worse. And then I'm conscious that if my self-control isn't that good, then why should hers be?
I once read that parenting is the most intensive self-development course you can ever undergo. That person was right.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
And so this is Christmas...
Can you imagine the awful feeling in my stomach when I woke in the middle of the night and realised I had forgotten to do Jade's main present!!!!!!! As she's been completely pony-mad for the last 6 months, I decided to give her what my parents gave me one Christmas (only I was about 10 years old, not 6) and pay for some riding lessons. During last evening I was browsing online clip art, trying to find a nice outline of a horse I could arrange the text in and print out, couldn't find anything suitable and shut it down .... and promptly forgot all about it in the rush of finishing wrapping presents, finding all the other things that I'd hidden round the house over the past few weeks, and collapsing exhausted into bed. So that middle-of-the-night stomach-clenching realisation was a bit of a shock to the system, and put the final touch to an already disturbed night of Shannon's usual 2-hourly wakings and Jade waking at some phenomenally early hour and chattering away about how she hates it when her stocking is empty (it wasn't - I don't think she'd even checked it at that stage) and keeping me awake for ages before finally falling asleep again. I contemplated going downstairs to quickly write a card for Jade in the middle of the night, but because I as usual fell asleep while waiting for Shannon to go into a deep enough sleep to leave her, I didn't manage it. So when Jade showed up just after 8am and had to be reminded to go and check if Santa had been and filled her stocking and getting both girls installed in our big bed opening presents, I nipped downstairs, cut out a quick pic from her pony magazine, stuck it in a Christmas card and wrote a few words. Phew!!! One day maybe I'll learn not to procrastinate so much .... but not yet, I'll leave it till later.
Aside from that, a good time has been had by all! Stocking gifts were received with delight and then we all came downstairs. Shannon has a perfect breathy "Wow" that warms the heart, this time at the pile of presents under the tree. As expected, Jade rushed through her gifts one after another, very pleased with each one but then rushing on to see more and more.... whereas 20 minutes after opening her first gift (Charlie & Lola books) Shannon was still sitting looking through them. Jade was thankfully particularly pleased at the Pegasus horse (from Barbie & the Magic of Pegasus film) which was the only thing she'd repeatedly asked for (and bought at a rather high price second-hand off Ebay - it was the one gift I simply had to get) but she wasn't expecting the matching Barbie with her wand of light (bought gratifyingly cheaply brand-new off Ebay due to a poor title in the listing) and she's thrilled with that too. Shannon loves her Talking Upsy-Daisy, her pink and white hobby-unicorn to match Jade's purple one, and both of them have loved Shannon's kitchen from Grandpa, with cooking noises and flashing lights! I can see myself tearing the batteries out of it before too long, but we'll see! Jade hasn't made much comment about the riding lessons, but when the time comes and it's more real I know she's going to be over the moon. As for me, I was surprised and very pleased to find a fab new camera from DH, as I lost my old one a few months ago, kept expecting it to turn up somewhere round the house but it hasn't so must be very careful with this one!
We went out to church this morning, got back and I prepared lunch while everyone else played/tidied and lunch was finally ready around 2.45pm and was excellent! The girls have played like mad for the rest of the day, going from Barbie/Pegasus games to cooking/kitchen games to doll's house games and then back to Barbie/Pegasus again, with not too many altercations along the way. At 5pm we all settled on the sofa to watch Polar Express which I hadn't seen before and I thought was fab, so I'm glad I videoed that one for future use! Didn't bother doing any tea, just nibbles, and then the girls went to bed around 7.30pm.
There's still loads more for us all to explore over the next few days, like the WebKinz toys the girls got from their American cousins, the Pony Club PC game we got for Jade and some craft kits and games, so hoping for a continuation of the nice relaxing holiday feel.
Aside from that, a good time has been had by all! Stocking gifts were received with delight and then we all came downstairs. Shannon has a perfect breathy "Wow" that warms the heart, this time at the pile of presents under the tree. As expected, Jade rushed through her gifts one after another, very pleased with each one but then rushing on to see more and more.... whereas 20 minutes after opening her first gift (Charlie & Lola books) Shannon was still sitting looking through them. Jade was thankfully particularly pleased at the Pegasus horse (from Barbie & the Magic of Pegasus film) which was the only thing she'd repeatedly asked for (and bought at a rather high price second-hand off Ebay - it was the one gift I simply had to get) but she wasn't expecting the matching Barbie with her wand of light (bought gratifyingly cheaply brand-new off Ebay due to a poor title in the listing) and she's thrilled with that too. Shannon loves her Talking Upsy-Daisy, her pink and white hobby-unicorn to match Jade's purple one, and both of them have loved Shannon's kitchen from Grandpa, with cooking noises and flashing lights! I can see myself tearing the batteries out of it before too long, but we'll see! Jade hasn't made much comment about the riding lessons, but when the time comes and it's more real I know she's going to be over the moon. As for me, I was surprised and very pleased to find a fab new camera from DH, as I lost my old one a few months ago, kept expecting it to turn up somewhere round the house but it hasn't so must be very careful with this one!
We went out to church this morning, got back and I prepared lunch while everyone else played/tidied and lunch was finally ready around 2.45pm and was excellent! The girls have played like mad for the rest of the day, going from Barbie/Pegasus games to cooking/kitchen games to doll's house games and then back to Barbie/Pegasus again, with not too many altercations along the way. At 5pm we all settled on the sofa to watch Polar Express which I hadn't seen before and I thought was fab, so I'm glad I videoed that one for future use! Didn't bother doing any tea, just nibbles, and then the girls went to bed around 7.30pm.
There's still loads more for us all to explore over the next few days, like the WebKinz toys the girls got from their American cousins, the Pony Club PC game we got for Jade and some craft kits and games, so hoping for a continuation of the nice relaxing holiday feel.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Yes, we have Christmas lunch! (just)
I really must stop being so haphazard about things. Not having got round to planning anything much about Christmas food or gone food shopping till today (partly because I refused to go with the children, and partly 'cos I'm plain lazy), I confidently told Bill to go out this morning and I would go and sort out the food after we'd been out to visit our friends this afternoon. Surely shops stay open late just before Christmas and Tesco would be open till about 10pm? I was a bit taken aback when said friends told me, just as we were leaving at around 5pm, that they thought pretty much everywhere was shutting early... Well, of course they're shutting early, it's Christmas Eve - where on earth was my brain when I needed it earlier??! I dropped everybody off at home and went off to Tesco - got there at 5.15 to find they shut at 5pm. Oh well, I thought, we've got the turkey (no carrots, hardly any potatoes), we've got sprouts, (no Christmas pudding), but we do have one box of mince pies (no cream or brandy butter) ... well it would have been a bit of a disappointing Christmas lunch but we wouldn't starve ..... But thank goodness Budgens was open (till 7pm!) so I spent plenty of money and got us a feast!!!! No croissants or brioche for breakfast, disappointingly, but plenty of other yummy stuff.
The other thing I've been haphazard about is the Jesse Tree. We've frequently missed days and had to catch up 2 or 3 days in a row, and tomorrow we're going to have to do the last 4 days all at once!! (sigh) I never was much good at routine.
Still, presents are purchased and (mostly) wrapped - just stocking stuff to do now. Jade is excited but under instructions not to open her stocking if she wakes when it's still dark - well, it's worth a try even though I don't suppose she'll take any notice.
So, I'd better press on and tie up the last few loose ends. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
The other thing I've been haphazard about is the Jesse Tree. We've frequently missed days and had to catch up 2 or 3 days in a row, and tomorrow we're going to have to do the last 4 days all at once!! (sigh) I never was much good at routine.
Still, presents are purchased and (mostly) wrapped - just stocking stuff to do now. Jade is excited but under instructions not to open her stocking if she wakes when it's still dark - well, it's worth a try even though I don't suppose she'll take any notice.
So, I'd better press on and tie up the last few loose ends. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Nice weekend
To church this morning, where Jade's little group of 5-8 year olds practised for next week's nativity performance - Jade's going to be an angel and I think Shannon's supposed to be a shepherd (aaaahhh!). And there was a lovely moment for me when I was chatting to a woman, and commented that I'd better be getting going because (and then I turned to Jade and said) "What are we going to do this afternoon?" (not expecting a verbal answer, just excited jumping up and down or something, and she shouted out loud "Christmas Tree"!!! In front of someone who was looking at her!!! Wow, I hardly dare imagine her starting to talk to people, but it is so thrilling to see these little steps of progress!
Then home for a quick lunch and tidy up to make space for the imminent arrival of the Tree! Took the girls off to the garden centre to choose an appropriate specimen, and then home for decorating fun. To the accompaniment of Christmas music, of course. I love that bit of christmas! While I was busy doing the bits only I could do, the girls (including L from next door) were acting out the nativity story. We got many of the other decs up in the past couple of days. Just need to do the wreath with the greenery that we collected in our walk in the woods on Friday.
Took a few moments here and there through the day to remember that 9 years ago today, Bill and I went for my 20 week scan in my first pregnancy very excited and looking forward to finding out the sex of the baby, only to find out a whole lot more and ending the day a whole lot sadder and wiser. Dec 16th will be engraved on my heart for the rest of my life as the day I really lost my innocence, I think.
Yesterday the whole family tripped off to Oxford to meet my Mum and cousin to exchange Christmas presents. We had lunch at the Ashmolean Museum cafe and had a quick look at some of the Egyptian artefacts they have there, and then went over to the Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum for the rest of the afternoon. So lots and lots of informal and fun learning went on, for everyone! If I was Nic I would describe each and every piece we looked at and discussed, but instead, it's 10.45pm and I just want to go to bed (could do with some matchsticks for the eyelids actually) so I can't be bothered!!
Jade did a lovely bit of spontaneous writing on Friday (we'll gloss over the fact that it was in my notebook where I (sometimes) keep track of our finances). She did a bit of contemporaneous reporting on what she and Shannon were up to: "Shannon's in the box. Now she's out. Now she's spilled her drink. Now she's on the sofa. reading my book! grrrrrrr shannon!! Now we are waching Tom and jerry. Now she's stoped... playing with my book. Like I said I Thingkck i did. eeeek! it's nearly cristmas!" followed by a lovely toothy, curly-haired self-portrait!!! One to keep for posterity, I think!
Then home for a quick lunch and tidy up to make space for the imminent arrival of the Tree! Took the girls off to the garden centre to choose an appropriate specimen, and then home for decorating fun. To the accompaniment of Christmas music, of course. I love that bit of christmas! While I was busy doing the bits only I could do, the girls (including L from next door) were acting out the nativity story. We got many of the other decs up in the past couple of days. Just need to do the wreath with the greenery that we collected in our walk in the woods on Friday.
Took a few moments here and there through the day to remember that 9 years ago today, Bill and I went for my 20 week scan in my first pregnancy very excited and looking forward to finding out the sex of the baby, only to find out a whole lot more and ending the day a whole lot sadder and wiser. Dec 16th will be engraved on my heart for the rest of my life as the day I really lost my innocence, I think.
Yesterday the whole family tripped off to Oxford to meet my Mum and cousin to exchange Christmas presents. We had lunch at the Ashmolean Museum cafe and had a quick look at some of the Egyptian artefacts they have there, and then went over to the Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum for the rest of the afternoon. So lots and lots of informal and fun learning went on, for everyone! If I was Nic I would describe each and every piece we looked at and discussed, but instead, it's 10.45pm and I just want to go to bed (could do with some matchsticks for the eyelids actually) so I can't be bothered!!
Jade did a lovely bit of spontaneous writing on Friday (we'll gloss over the fact that it was in my notebook where I (sometimes) keep track of our finances). She did a bit of contemporaneous reporting on what she and Shannon were up to: "Shannon's in the box. Now she's out. Now she's spilled her drink. Now she's on the sofa. reading my book! grrrrrrr shannon!! Now we are waching Tom and jerry. Now she's stoped... playing with my book. Like I said I Thingkck i did. eeeek! it's nearly cristmas!" followed by a lovely toothy, curly-haired self-portrait!!! One to keep for posterity, I think!
Friday, December 14, 2007
I will blog.....
...when I feel like I've got something to say.
I will just note that speech therapy for Jade is still going well, and that all pretence of educating Jade has gone out of the window for the past week or two, and normal service won't be resumed till some time in January. Shannon, however, is speeding along learning Letterland letters (at her insistence) and spending much time poring over books.
I will just note that speech therapy for Jade is still going well, and that all pretence of educating Jade has gone out of the window for the past week or two, and normal service won't be resumed till some time in January. Shannon, however, is speeding along learning Letterland letters (at her insistence) and spending much time poring over books.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Feels like whatever I blog this evening will be boring - just don't feel inspired. I'm sure you can find entertaining blogging somewhere else if you wish. We've been doing the usual stuff - Sonlight, Beyond the Code, a lovely walk in the woods on Monday, and the rest. We had a good visit to Playschool yesterday morning, which Jade thoroughly enjoyed as well as Shannon! I think she would love to go back and is disappointed that she's too old! Shannon played very happily with her friend who already goes there, and I'm sure she'll settle in just fine. She'll start going in January, and I think I'll be sending her on a Thursday morning instead of going to the childminder, who I will ask to go and collect her, and I'll pick her up about an hour later. I may even send her on a Tuesday morning as well, if not straight away then before too long. I'm sure she'll love it, and it will be useful to have a bit of toddler-free time to do stuff with Jade.
We had a good session with the Speech Therapist on Tuesday. In the space of a 45-minute session, Jade was at the end able to say single-word responses to my questions with the ST right there in the room! Quietly, but in a normal voice, not whispering! I thought that was fabulous. She's coming again next Tuesday so hoping for more progress then too, even if it's just speaking in a louder voice. We're planning the next steps, too, along the lines of getting her similarly comfortable with speaking to another adult at church, who could then go with her into her Sunday School group instead of me going with her each week. Need to find a willing volunteer!
While I was at work today, Jade and DH had been talking about doing some sort of treasure hunt, with clues to find things, and after dinner she wanted to start straightaway. It was pretty close to bedtime, but while Jade and I were reading a Christmas story (the real St. Nicholas story), he devised a couple of rhyming clues, and then she had a fabulous time working them out and finding the hidden toys. Then, even more wonderfully, she started writing her own clues and sending me to find stuff! She did several before I finally insisted it was bed-time.
Tomorrow morning is work again, Jade coming with me while Shannon goes to the childminder. I'll get Jade doing Education City, among other things, while I'm working as that all went quite well last week. We may go up to Stratford in the afternoon as there is a book waiting for me at the library about making dolls' house furniture.
We had a good session with the Speech Therapist on Tuesday. In the space of a 45-minute session, Jade was at the end able to say single-word responses to my questions with the ST right there in the room! Quietly, but in a normal voice, not whispering! I thought that was fabulous. She's coming again next Tuesday so hoping for more progress then too, even if it's just speaking in a louder voice. We're planning the next steps, too, along the lines of getting her similarly comfortable with speaking to another adult at church, who could then go with her into her Sunday School group instead of me going with her each week. Need to find a willing volunteer!
While I was at work today, Jade and DH had been talking about doing some sort of treasure hunt, with clues to find things, and after dinner she wanted to start straightaway. It was pretty close to bedtime, but while Jade and I were reading a Christmas story (the real St. Nicholas story), he devised a couple of rhyming clues, and then she had a fabulous time working them out and finding the hidden toys. Then, even more wonderfully, she started writing her own clues and sending me to find stuff! She did several before I finally insisted it was bed-time.
Tomorrow morning is work again, Jade coming with me while Shannon goes to the childminder. I'll get Jade doing Education City, among other things, while I'm working as that all went quite well last week. We may go up to Stratford in the afternoon as there is a book waiting for me at the library about making dolls' house furniture.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
There goes another week...
Well, I've been busy! Have had various of my own organisational projects going on, and have mostly left the girls to fend for themselves. So what have I been doing, I hear you ask?!!
Well, I had a brainwave last week that, despite being signed up to Flylady and getting the e-mails every day, I didn't have a permanent list up in my house of what needs doing so that I can look at it whenever I want and see what I'm supposed to be doing today. A bit like I do with my calendar. So I made one! I have no idea how to display it in this blog but there is a list down the left-hand side of daily jobs that need doing, with a little box to tick for each day, and then on the right-hand half of the page there are jobs to do for each day of the week, i.e. the weekly jobs, OK? And the motto (from FlyLady) is "Progress, not Perfection" so even though I'm not getting it all done, at least I am doing better than I did before, so that's progress!
The other thing I've finally done today is to re-hash the menu plan I made about a year ago. I'd made several changes for a summer menu, but we've been back to the winter menu for a while now. However Jade has one-by-one decided that she doesn't like several of my staple meals. I've been in a bit of a dilemma whether to just stick to making them in the hope that she eventually gets to like them, but it's rather demoralising to have her frequently not eating the healthy dinner I've cooked and ending up with just a sandwich yet again (same as lunchtime, usually!). It's also a bit difficult when she's declared she's a vegetarian (with the exception of roast chicken which she loves, and bacon, and sausages!!!) but Shannon is a confirmed carnivore who always picks out all the meat in whatever I've cooked so she can eat it first. Anyway I've found a few different dishes which we'll try out and if that fails I'll teach her how to make her own cheese sandwich and she can do it herself every day!!
We have done some Sonlight stuff this week, including another chapter of Story of the World, a science experiment, some Beyond the Code, (but no maths). We still haven't done any more of the germs lapbook we started before we all got ill. Maybe this week! Last night she read out all the question and answer cards from the Alpha Animals game, and she's done some Education City. And endless reading in bed at night - that goes without saying!
Shannon, in the meantime, is sneaking up on the rails, and when we pulled out the Junior Scrabble board on Friday, totally astonished me by instantly taking the letter tiles and starting to match them up with the letters printed on the board. I had no idea she could do that! Bill tells me she can recognise some letters, such as pointing to 'S' and saying "that's sssssss...". I haven't been paying enough attention, obviously!!! Her counting from 1-12 is very well established, although she's still somewhat wobbly on her colours! When I was tidying up the educational bookshelves this morning, I noticed that I have several books of early play-type learning stuff that I could be doing with her, so I guess I need to start planning that in instead of just palming her off with toys while I do stuff with Jade. However we're also going to be making a visit to playschool on Tuesday morning to introduce Shannon to it, and so that I can meet the new playleader who has taken over since Jade used to go there. I can't quite decide whether to send Shannon there instead of going to the childminder on a Thursday morning, or on a different morning as an addition to it! I love the idea of saving the money I'm spending on the childminder, but OTOH Shannon gets on really well there and is very happy, and I'm reluctant to break up a happy and useful relationship. It's really useful when I need some extra childcare for either or both girls every now and then to be able to ask the childminder. I'll have to keep musing on that one. She's not going to start till January, although as I type that I realise it's only a month away!! Somehow I still thought I had a couple of months to think about it!
Finally, we have started a Jesse Tree for the first time for Advent, which I have been really looking forward to, and started that this evening.
Well, I had a brainwave last week that, despite being signed up to Flylady and getting the e-mails every day, I didn't have a permanent list up in my house of what needs doing so that I can look at it whenever I want and see what I'm supposed to be doing today. A bit like I do with my calendar. So I made one! I have no idea how to display it in this blog but there is a list down the left-hand side of daily jobs that need doing, with a little box to tick for each day, and then on the right-hand half of the page there are jobs to do for each day of the week, i.e. the weekly jobs, OK? And the motto (from FlyLady) is "Progress, not Perfection" so even though I'm not getting it all done, at least I am doing better than I did before, so that's progress!
The other thing I've finally done today is to re-hash the menu plan I made about a year ago. I'd made several changes for a summer menu, but we've been back to the winter menu for a while now. However Jade has one-by-one decided that she doesn't like several of my staple meals. I've been in a bit of a dilemma whether to just stick to making them in the hope that she eventually gets to like them, but it's rather demoralising to have her frequently not eating the healthy dinner I've cooked and ending up with just a sandwich yet again (same as lunchtime, usually!). It's also a bit difficult when she's declared she's a vegetarian (with the exception of roast chicken which she loves, and bacon, and sausages!!!) but Shannon is a confirmed carnivore who always picks out all the meat in whatever I've cooked so she can eat it first. Anyway I've found a few different dishes which we'll try out and if that fails I'll teach her how to make her own cheese sandwich and she can do it herself every day!!
We have done some Sonlight stuff this week, including another chapter of Story of the World, a science experiment, some Beyond the Code, (but no maths). We still haven't done any more of the germs lapbook we started before we all got ill. Maybe this week! Last night she read out all the question and answer cards from the Alpha Animals game, and she's done some Education City. And endless reading in bed at night - that goes without saying!
Shannon, in the meantime, is sneaking up on the rails, and when we pulled out the Junior Scrabble board on Friday, totally astonished me by instantly taking the letter tiles and starting to match them up with the letters printed on the board. I had no idea she could do that! Bill tells me she can recognise some letters, such as pointing to 'S' and saying "that's sssssss...". I haven't been paying enough attention, obviously!!! Her counting from 1-12 is very well established, although she's still somewhat wobbly on her colours! When I was tidying up the educational bookshelves this morning, I noticed that I have several books of early play-type learning stuff that I could be doing with her, so I guess I need to start planning that in instead of just palming her off with toys while I do stuff with Jade. However we're also going to be making a visit to playschool on Tuesday morning to introduce Shannon to it, and so that I can meet the new playleader who has taken over since Jade used to go there. I can't quite decide whether to send Shannon there instead of going to the childminder on a Thursday morning, or on a different morning as an addition to it! I love the idea of saving the money I'm spending on the childminder, but OTOH Shannon gets on really well there and is very happy, and I'm reluctant to break up a happy and useful relationship. It's really useful when I need some extra childcare for either or both girls every now and then to be able to ask the childminder. I'll have to keep musing on that one. She's not going to start till January, although as I type that I realise it's only a month away!! Somehow I still thought I had a couple of months to think about it!
Finally, we have started a Jesse Tree for the first time for Advent, which I have been really looking forward to, and started that this evening.
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