Well, May has been and gone! As ever, it’s felt like a mixed up month, not least because of the bank holidays, Damian having time off work and us having work done in the house. It hasn’t been quite as productive as I had hoped, but as I look back I can see we have still managed to do a fair bit.
We have been continuing our work on the second Sassafras book, and I’ve found this a different experience to the first time around. The first time around they were already familiar with many of the animals we were learning about, but this time, it’s all brand new so it’s taking a bit longer than I had anticipated. We have picked this up at least once a week and they’re certainly enjoying it, and I’m planning to really push on with this in June and get another section completed with them.
This month we really got into the Kings and Queen project, and it’s been a lot more in depth than I expected it to be but the children (and I!) have learnt lots and had a lot of fun with it. This will continue on for another few weeks at least I am sure and I plan to visit a couple more castles with them to help bring the learning to life for them.
We hosted an Owl themed day at our home, the first in a series of Great British Wildlife themed meets and this went down well I think and we attended meets other friends hosted on butterflies and the story of Daniel & The Lion’s Den. The children always enjoy these short focussed sessions and I think they get a lot from them.
Emma is doing really well with her Maths work and is continuing to follow the Maths No Problem books. She seems to grasp most concepts fairly easily but when shes finished the current chapter I am going to go back and do some consolidation work with her. Whilst you should never compare children, she definitely finds maths much easier than Daniel does and is further ahead at this stage than he was. Daniel is getting better and his confidence is certainly growing. He is continuing on with his maths work and I’ve learnt to do lots of consolidation at regular stages with him to help his confidence.
We have had plenty of trips to the library this month, and Daniel continues to consume books at a phenomenal rate, and will often impart little nuggets of info he’s gleaned from a book or two! Emma’s reading is coming on well and she’s gaining more confidence. Harry has also, (strangely!) started to show an interest in letter shapes and has been keen to play the Teach your Monster to Read game. I don’t expect any sort of reading from him for a long while, but whilst he’s interested in letters and shapes I’m happy to explore that with him.
We have had days out this month including to the Julia Donaldson/Axel Scheffler event at Z-Arts in Manchester and of course to Skipton Castle. We have had our speaking & listening group (Artists) ad completed the fourth CREST meeting towards the award. We have walked around (and got lost!) in a country park with friends and of course, voted in the Local and European elections. The children have been riding on their bikes, making bird feeders, spending time with friends and generally having fun.
Whilst May hasn’t been quite as productive as I would have liked, we have still managed plenty and I am sure that the next few weeks will see us tie up some loose ends on some projects as well. We have a busy month planned but I am really looking forward to it.
