We've had a lot of time at home lately and it's been lovely. Exactly what we all needed after a very crazy Term 3 and the first half of Term 4.
Yesterday we had nothing planned except resting at home and we had a varied and interesting and overall restful day. Some of the things we did
- Jigsaw puzzles
- dominoes
- lego
- watching and caring for the chickens, collecting eggs, observing the evolving pecking order now that we have so many new chickens
- gardening - watering, weeding, mulching
- planning a cubby house, drawing up plans using a drawing app on the iPad, and starting work on clearing the area
- drawing pictures on the iPad
- playing on the trampoline and swings
- Millie pretending to be a kitten and eating and playing like one
- packing picnic lunches and eating outside
- reading books (the bear books by Nick Bland, and others)
- playing games on ABC3 website - the 5th Boy, and Huebrix (this is a great puzzle game, Liam and Caitlin and I all had a go and between us were able to solve a lot of the puzzles. Liam really grasped the concept and quickly solved some that I struggled with)
- maths games on the computer
- playing Red Fish/Poisson Rouge on the computer - this is the best kids website I've come across and Millie can spend hours exploring it, while the older kids and I still enjoy it as well
- playing with MAB blocks
- Movies - The Incredibles, Cats & Dogs - the Revenge of Kitty Galore, Winx
- lots of discussions about all of the above as they were happening
It was interesting too, when I said on Monday night that we'd be having a rest day on Tuesday, the kids all said 'cool, we can watch movies all day!' I wouldn't have minded if they did, but they were so busy playing games and exploring other things that the movies didn't get put on until 5.30. And while there was a fair bit of computer and iPad use, it was all collaborative and very social
Showing posts with label cooperating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooperating. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Train set
Liam and Millie are playing with the train set.
Millie had been sitting at the computer when the screen saver came on, and she saw a photo taken by Liam of some of the trains, and she asked if she could play with it now. I got it out and quickly set up a basic loop with a bridge in it, got out some of the trains and then she was happy to play by herself while I ate some breakfast. While I was setting up the loop, she put some animals in the middle 'They're in a field'. When Liam got out of bed about 20 minutes later he went straight to join her.
A few minutes ago Liam decided a river would be useful so he asked me for something blue and flat. I gave him a pale blue baby wrap which he said would work. To set the river up the way he wanted it, he needed to temporarily get the animals out of the way and I heard him say 'Millie is it OK if I move these for a minute? I'll put them right back once I've set up the river'.
Its so great when I hear them developing the skills that will help them in relationships of all sorts as they get older. I've modelled that kind of speech as often as I can, I've suggested using sentences like that at times when they do act without thinking of their siblings, and although it doesn't happen all the time, its encouraging and affirming to hear and see that the kids are learning to think of others and to be kind to others - without having to be reminded or having been shamed or punished when they forget.
Now he's built a bridge over the river, called it the Sydney Harbour Bridge, run over to check with me that trains do go over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which led to a discussion about all the ways that you can cross it - walking, riding, driving, in a train.
Its not even 9am and I feel like we've already covered enough areas of learning to make today feel joyful and abundant and successful.
Millie had been sitting at the computer when the screen saver came on, and she saw a photo taken by Liam of some of the trains, and she asked if she could play with it now. I got it out and quickly set up a basic loop with a bridge in it, got out some of the trains and then she was happy to play by herself while I ate some breakfast. While I was setting up the loop, she put some animals in the middle 'They're in a field'. When Liam got out of bed about 20 minutes later he went straight to join her.
A few minutes ago Liam decided a river would be useful so he asked me for something blue and flat. I gave him a pale blue baby wrap which he said would work. To set the river up the way he wanted it, he needed to temporarily get the animals out of the way and I heard him say 'Millie is it OK if I move these for a minute? I'll put them right back once I've set up the river'.
Its so great when I hear them developing the skills that will help them in relationships of all sorts as they get older. I've modelled that kind of speech as often as I can, I've suggested using sentences like that at times when they do act without thinking of their siblings, and although it doesn't happen all the time, its encouraging and affirming to hear and see that the kids are learning to think of others and to be kind to others - without having to be reminded or having been shamed or punished when they forget.
Now he's built a bridge over the river, called it the Sydney Harbour Bridge, run over to check with me that trains do go over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which led to a discussion about all the ways that you can cross it - walking, riding, driving, in a train.
Its not even 9am and I feel like we've already covered enough areas of learning to make today feel joyful and abundant and successful.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Helping each other
We had a lovely quiet day at home yesterday which was just what I needed. I've got the sore throat and cough that the kids had during the week, and on Saturday I felt terrible - after a day at home yesterday I felt much better.
Caitlin was practicing her skipping with a skipping rope on the trampoline. She drew up a grid to record how many jumps she managed with each attempt, and developed notation to show whether she was jumping forwards or backwards. She had about 40 attempts and managed between 0 and 95 jumps with each go. Millie wanted to join in after a while so Caitlin found her another skipping rope and tied knots in so that it was short enough, and then demonstrated how to skip. Millie happily jumped up and down on the trampoline, waving the skipping rope up and down, and was thrilled that she was skipping.
When we came inside Liam was playing Minecraft and Caitlin wanted to have a go, so Liam showed her all the new things he'd learnt to do since list time she'd played it, so that she could do them too. They played together on the ipad for ages.
I really love how easily and willingly they all offer to help each other and how well they work and play together.
Caitlin was practicing her skipping with a skipping rope on the trampoline. She drew up a grid to record how many jumps she managed with each attempt, and developed notation to show whether she was jumping forwards or backwards. She had about 40 attempts and managed between 0 and 95 jumps with each go. Millie wanted to join in after a while so Caitlin found her another skipping rope and tied knots in so that it was short enough, and then demonstrated how to skip. Millie happily jumped up and down on the trampoline, waving the skipping rope up and down, and was thrilled that she was skipping.
When we came inside Liam was playing Minecraft and Caitlin wanted to have a go, so Liam showed her all the new things he'd learnt to do since list time she'd played it, so that she could do them too. They played together on the ipad for ages.
I really love how easily and willingly they all offer to help each other and how well they work and play together.
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