THE FROG-ACADEMY

Amazing..!

…what a little verbal motivation can do. The promise of doing Hama, craft and arty stuff this afternoon prompted a concerted effort to get the essentials out of the way this morning, so maths and English were done by 11.30 (playgroup run time). That's to say - Joel did a couple of pages of MEP maths & a mental maths exercise that he does every day, four pages of S&S English (finished the book he was on) & his Bible study. Boo did Bible study, Handwriting, MEP maths (2 pages), S&S English & about 15mins on EC Literacy. Phoebe did Bible study, 3 pages of her S&S Numbers book, Headsprout and about 25 minutes on EC. Only thing really left to do, which I will get them to do at the end of the day, is Spellingtime - I never get much protest about that. It will be good when the website eventually get 'math time' up and running too. The kids all want to get going on that. Don't know what it is about that website, but it's enjoyable/tolerable to all of them!

It's now almost 2pm and the kids are fed, watered and have played for an hour in their room (Barbies as always - groan..!) and outside for a bit too (stroking rabbits is a major incentive to go outside!), so now to embark on the afternoon's activities. I wonder what creations will come forth. I bought some cheap Hama from Aldi (sorry Merry), not so much for the beads (which I have no idea what they will be like), but for the patterns, which are the kind whereby you can put the board over the pattern and match the colours underneath. My little ones find that so much less frustrating and immediately rewarding than having to follow the lines of a printed pattern, which confuses them and takes too much time for their attention span and more often than not means they don't actually complete what they were doingL.

Oh - and now the request to do cookery…hmm, I think not - that's one I always need to get my head round more in advance and get the 'stuff' in for, so it's not that easy - especially with 5 little ones' fingers in the bowl/pot!!