Long lost

Hi,
Haven't posted for a while!
Been busy reorganising curriculum and touring Disneyland!
We took the girls down from Sunday to Thursday last week. The boys stayed at home with a babysitter as they really wouldn't have coped with the noise and stimuli.

It was soooooooooooooooooo easy managing just 2 kids! Anna was extremely well behaved. She had a book of 'social stories' written to remind her about waiting etc but she coped very very well. We had a minor hiccup where she lost her pass but all in all she did very well. We received a special pass because of her issues so we didn't have to wait in lines. We think it probably saved us a day of waiting over the length of our stay there and thanks to it behaviour was also kept under check.

The girls had a fantastic time as did we. It really was 'magical'. :)

Well................I asked for it!

I literally did with this one!
I asked the girls to write down a few topics each that they were interested in or wanted to know more about to see if we could incorporate them into our homeschool. Anna wants to know more about Autism so I'm going to see what I can teach them about it on a level they'll understand. They both had 'bees' on their lists which ties in nicely with the FIAR title; ' The bee tree' so we'll definitely do that. Eva had ' bats' which we'll cover in depth around Halloween, and the 'Redwoods' (feeling a 'fieldtrip' to Avenue of the Giants, coming on with this one)......................but, what I really hadn't reckoned on was this ' topic' from Miss Eva........(in her words), "How babies are made and how they get in Ladies tummies".! Oops.......................gulp..............I don't know if I'm ready for this one!

Monday........................Madeline

Monday we started "Madeline" and a study of Paris and the digestive system. It seems to be going well. Tomorrow we're going to a French bakery, " Bouchon" as a 'fieldtrip'!Mmmmm sounds like fun to me too :)
Over the weekend we had some new friends for dinner. It was a really nice evening even if we did have to spend it inside in the aircon due to the heat.
We seem to have a nice little routine developing here at the moment. I'll bore you with the details if you care to read on :)
Rik and I get up about 6 to 6:15, shower and get ourselves ready (which in my case involves drinking 2 cups of latte in quick succession) by then the boys are usually up and Rik gets them changed and dressed. I wake up the girls at 7 and have their breakfast ready to go (clothes laid out the night before saves many minutes, last minute decision changes and in the case of one girl (I'm sure you can guess which) a tantrum or two). They get dressed, eat their breaky and are generally sitting down at their desks by 7:45 or 7:50.
In the meantime Rik has given the boys their breakfasts, and Lucy has arrived at 7:30 to help out while Rik leaves for work.
The girls and I begin our school day while Lucy entertains the boys.
Just before 9am I leave to take Isaac to preschool, while the girls are given independent work to go on with. I get back by 9:30am when Lucy leaves again and Jude starts his therapy and then the girls and I go on together with school till 11am when their school finishes (except for reading) and Anna starts her therapy.
Eva usually has a bit of work to finish off as she's a bit slower than Anna with the writing tasks and she spends about 15-20 mins finishing off while I feed Jude, give him a bottle (yes, almost 2 and still a bottle, naughty I know) and put him down for his sleep.
Eva then does some reading or plays her DS and then we break for lunch.
After lunch, we wake up Jude and all go and pick up Isaac.
Still reading????? Boring I know, but they're our days up until 2ish through the week.

A few photos

Just a few photos from today with descriptions. The first is Eva, stretching out on the couch and relaxing after school. The other two are master Jude who doesn't really cook in his kitchen but likes to dump the china plates in the sink to make a loud noise whilst we read! Check out the 'innocent', "it wasn't me" face!

Better go now and make pizza dough foir dinner tonight. Yummmmmmm.

The Giraffe that walked to Paris

This week we kicked off MEP (Maths programme) and it has been a huge hit! Anna is actually looking forward tio her Maths lessons :)

We've also been learning about giraffes and a little about Egypt and France. The girls have been notebooking and are doing really well with it.

Yesterday they fashioned ' pyramids' from clay and painted them today after they'd hardened.

We also measured ourselves, the giraffe in the story, and the height of a fully grown male giraffe and marked them off with chalk on the cement out the back. This was a really good way to visualise just how tall these creatures can be. Only one more day with "La giraffe". It's a beautiful book and I think we'll all miss it, but back to the library it must go:(

Been a little while........

So Isaac's first day of preschool went very well

and so has the rest of the week. He is absolutely loving it! There were no tears, no drama, no nothing!

He has therapy after his class so it's a long and intensive day for a little guy. He finishes up about 2pm after a 9:15 start but is so far coping very, very well. The girls, Jude and I all miss him at home and we all look forward to picking him up together. He, though is thoroughly enjoying himself. His therapist today even said that she reckons he's on the cusp of being able to be potty trained! On the way home we stopped off at Target and bought some ' big boy undies'. Who knows? Fingers crossed!

Sunday....planning day

I've just got things planned and ready to go for the week. We're going to be working on the book, "The Giraffe that walked to Paris". It is so beautifully illustrated I can hardly wait till tomorrow to start it PLUS Giraffes are my all time favourite animal :)

The new Math MEP programme is all bound and ready to go and we have a basket of books to browse on Egypt, Paris and Giraffes so it looks like a fun week.

I've planned out all the meals for the week but had better get upstairs and cook dinner for tonight..........alsI'd better get Isaac's bag ready for tomorrow (lots of paperwork). He's starting pre school tomorrow and he's so excited and a little bit nervous (just like his Mum).