Already failing myself....

So here we are- over a week down the line and any more posts yet?? BFZ!

Lets move on... what have we been up to? Well number one, M has taken another exam- which means (hopefully) one less to do before we get a daddy back again. Self advancement is one thing but starting a Masters when you have a 2 week old baby in the house is NO joke.

We have finally ( another finally) obtained our Hama beads this week- so the older two have spent the afternoon Hama ing. SJs eyes lit up when we opened the bag "Scotland" he shrieked- memories of Melrose last year being very precious to his little heart. Other than that it was a fairly laid back day- jigsaws and games, stories and lego.

We had a Chinese meal to celebrate Chinese New Year this weekend. A couple of days ago SJ made a great Dancing Dragon and we watched Youtube of Chinese new year celebrations as well as dragon & lion dancing.

I have decided to give reading a slightly lower profile as SJ seems to be feeling a little pressured. I am currently using the 'Reading reflex' by McGuiness. Maybe it is the first time HE parent in me that I/we are struggling a little with the totally totally autonomous route- reading just seems sooo important and he loves his stories so much that the bookshelves are drawing him in. However I think he is finding it frustrating that it isn't falling into his lap- that there isn't a magic secret that we can tell him- so I think we will maybe just go onto hold and keep on top of where we are at the moment rather than going forward. The Reading reflex does seem to be going OK- maybe a little more flashcardish than I would have liked. We are struggling to stick to their rules and find outside reading material for breadth- I have some of the Oxford Reading Tree stories and they introduce non-standard phonics words straightaway. I have signed him up to a year of Education City- as an awful lot of people seem to use it- so maybe that will help to give alternative material

FI is being a little trying at the moment, when she isn't snatching anything and everything from her younger brother she is being a little stroppy madam- so we plan to try to deal with that at the moment. She has been doing some of the Peggy Kaye pre-writing activities which she is loving. She is sooo desperate for workbooks or her activities- so I think I need to focus a little more on her and back off from SJ

TP seems to be having a 'switch on' moment with his talking. We have been waiting for a new word for a couple of months and we now seem to have had a new word everyday for the last couple of days. I have been so waiting for this- he has been so frustrated. I had forgotten how precocious FI was with her talking (producing words at 9-10mo). I KNOW that in a couple of months I will be wishing he had a few less- but for now, it is good to see him going forwards on this one. He has also learnt the skill of properly pointing to what he wants and shaking his head when Mummy inevitably gets the wrong thing!

Have actually even managed to clear a few things off the book shelf- just the nappy stash to start addressing now!