Another photo drop

Apologies again for being a very slack blogger.  We are just living life at the moment, nothing strange and startling happening, but we are having fun.

Here is a rough outline of what we have been up to.

We had our friends Rachel, Riley, Layla, Christy and Edmund round to play a few weeks ago.  It was so much fun, and the kids all played so well together, making it a nice time for the mummies to chat.

I have been throwing myself into my Uni work lately, doing my best to stay ahead, especially as we have the holiday coming up (more on that to come).  But something popped up in my Facebook feed on Wednesday morning, and I was taken with it straight away.  Basically it was a pack of preprinted c-v-c cards, perfect to assist Isaac in the first steps to reading and writing.  So I spent the morning cutting and laminating them.  Isaac and/or Seb have done these at least once a day since I made them.  Not always properly, but they are practicing pen control.

Yesterday was Isaac's International Festival.  Paul took the day off, so we all went along.  We did not dress Isaac up, as we don't really have any costumes to represent England.  Last year he wore his Liverpool shirt.  According to his teachers, he got quite upset when he saw everyone else dressed up, so they found this for him to wear.

He looks so cute, and so pleased with himself.  The festival was to the usual standards, and i bought some plants for the garden after (more to come on that too....).  We went out for lunch after, and both Seb and Isaac fell asleep on the way home.  Isaac slept for about an hour and a half, Seb for about 45 minutes.

I get a little worried about Seb sleeping in the day unpredicatably.  He is now potty trained!  In the weeks leading up to Easter, he had loads of nappy off time.  Rachel had sent me a really good book to assist in potty training, so over Easter we went for it.  Friday and Saturday were nappy off days, Sunday was pants only, Monday was pants and shorts.  Tuesday he went to school in pants, and held his wee all morning.  The Wednesday he went twice at school.  We are now 2 weeks in, and he is doing pretty good.  Very few accidents, and even doing number 2's on the toilet.  He is waking up in the morning dry, and the same if he falls asleep in the car.   I am so proud of him for doing this, particularly as he doesn't tell us.  He just takes himself to his potty when he needs to go, admittedly his pants are normally the other side of the room, but at least the liquid is in the potty.....  The next step is to get him a bed, then we will be completely over the baby stage.

Sob, sob.....

*Home school* number and color trays

This is not overly interesting, but it is the first thing I have made for home schooling in a while.

So we went to Costco yesterday and brought a tray full of apples.  Once we got home, I put the empty tray in the 'resources/recyclable' cupboards.

I had nothing better to do today (other than washing, make bread, play with the boys, change the beds, make dinner), so I thought I would use the trays.

Excuse my toes.....

So the first one.  I colored squares of different colors with Sharpie permenant markers (I got a pack of 10 for a bargain price of $2 in Family Dollar recently).  I then added some beads, so Seb can match the colors.  Admittedly, I am missing black, but I will do something about that soon....

The other one, I wrote the numbers 1-11 in the domes, then added the correct amount of pasta shapes.  This can be used for Seb for counting, or expanded for Isaac for addition and subtraction.

The items in the trays are small, so will be good for fine motor skills.  These trays have extended learning potential, as I mentioned, addition/subtraction, and finding different colored things around the house.

That's if the get used......they may just gather dust like a lot of the other things in the learning room!