A Sprinkle of Spring
Although we've been working really hard on our wildflower meadow for the last few days, there has still been plenty of time for play as well as some reading and writing exercises.
The weather has been so fantastic we spent the large majority of our time outside. On Wednesday, after a morning of digging up old turf and digging plenty of big holes, I got the sprinkler working and Jenson in particular absolutely loved running through the water. Surprisingly, he opted to stay fully clothed. The feeling of feeling drenched seemed to appeal to him!
Yesterday followed a similar patter: working on our wildflower meadow in the morning followed by more sprinkler action after lunch.
We stopped for a break during which Jenson made a fruit smoothie. He juiced an orange, tore up a banana and sliced up an apple, whizzed it all together and hey presto! He does it all by himself these days, which is something I really encourage. It's all about him learning what he can and can't do and what he does and doesn't feel comfortable doing, for example, using a sharp knife. Risk assessing by his own limits is the best way for him to understand what's dangerous and what's okay.
Over lunch we did some more formal learning, which we don't tend to do much of because at this age, so very little gets remembered. I would rather be making happy memories together, ones that he will cherish when he's older and ones that will help build his confidence. There is plenty of time for reading, writing and arithmetic. Saying that, Simon is keen to keep Jenson engaged with these things and so we do the odd activity just to keep things ticking over.
On this occasion we were following up with the alphabet, which we touched on last week with our LEGO letter aids. Jenson wrote all 26 letters out, first in upper case and then in lower case. We talked again about why we use capital letters and how we can build sentences. Jenson seemed keen and interested.
Next we talked about the results of The Big Garden Birdwatch, which have just been released. We shared our memories from that fabulous weekend of bird watching and talked about what the birds are up to now it's Spring. We thought about the changing seasons and talked about what we were looking forward to seeing in the garden.
It's been ages since we last wrote in Jenson's learning journal but over these last few days we've been making lots of interesting entries. These have included the alphabet and Big Garden Bird Watch just mentioned, a book about castles that Jenson made, a receipt for the donation we deposited in the bank for the money we raised for Action for Children and a shop receipt from the Red Cross Book Shop, which provided another opportunity for Jenson to learn about money, counting and why receipts are important. Jenson is really starting to enjoy his learning journal and got really excited about filling the pages with pictures and things he is learning about.
We also have a few other stories to share from the past few days but shall write them up separately, as one story in particular, is fascinating!