The week started with a public holiday, and so Vio took the kids to the park with his sister and they had a picnic. Back home I helped Alex make some lego things, then we had a good play dough session as I’d made a fresh batch that morning. Daniel just wanted to smash, and so I got his mallet from his toolbox and away he went! I later showed Daniel an app for cooking on his iPad. He thought it was hilarious as he got to feed characters the wrong foods!
We were supposed to visit friends but Alex seemed to have a mild case of gastro so we stayed home, mostly watching TV until Alex asked to go feather collecting. There’s a wetlands nearby that i knew would be quiet so I asked him if waterbirds would be ok and he was happy so off we went. The boys had a jar each to collect feathers in and we identified all of the birds that we saw – roughly 10 species. We also followed some ants from their nest to a plant they were collecting food from. Alex noticed how strong they were. It was a really nice couple of hours. Back home, we made animal families in the playdough and I played snakes and ladders with Alex. This time he didn’t ‘cheat’ – like re-rolling the dice, or not going down a snake, and he didn’t get upset. the game took much longer, he noticed this too.
Daniel is often declaring “I want cooking on my iPad!”. He doesn’t know how to switch apps just yet, and he likes to play the game himself.
We had a homeschool group visit to a local(ish) mini golf centre. Alex had a great day with his friends, and even Daniel went off with his friends laughing. We didn’t really play properly though, just had a bit of fun as Alex has enjoyed mini golf in the past. In the evening we visited an ex-homeschooling family. I was a little concerned about it as the kids are not particularly friendly towards Alex and never were, but I was friendly with the mother and she has just had a baby so we visited. The visit went just fine though and we left to go swimming. Alex is saying he doesn’t want to continue nextt term – a shame as he’s improved so much. I wonder if I should just enrol him and wait for him to stay stop as when we’re there he loves it and he comes away from it smiling. Perhaps my asking him is confusing, or pressuring. On the way home from swimming we stopped for chips. Alex picked up a car magazine and found a lamborghini. The car wasn’t the only thing in the picture – there were two girls in bikinis too. Alex wanted to know what their names were and why they were there!
We were all booked in to attend a parkour session, but Alex really wanted to stay home. We had lots of cuddles, and talked about next term’s classes as he’d been insisting for weeks that he does so much and I don’t want to overload him with a schedule and want some free days where we have no commitments. They we discovered a butterfly had hatched! the kids were so excited, Daniel’s face was a delight. We opened it’s enclosure so that it could fly when it was ready. Alex named it Maxilla (WK show). He then wanted to use the techniques he saw in the art video with wax crayon and watercolour to paint a picture of a butterfly. He wanted me to help. Afterwards he cut it out and made it into a bracelet – the first band was too small so I helped him measure his wrist instead of guess a size.. Then made it fly as a glider. Alex asked if butterflies sleep, so we looked it up to discover they are diurnal so they rest at night. I also found out how to identify gender – Alex was upset as maxilla was actually a boy!
We had visitors, and the boys were incredibly loud! The second butterfly hatched and was very friendly, climbing over our hands. But to Alex’s disappointment, it was another boy. Daniel gave our visitors another rendition of “I don’t like it”. So funny, I love it! We couldn’t release the butterfly today as it was windy and wet, so we had to keep him till the next day. It wasn’t interested in food though, and instead hung out on the nettings in the window. We let it out next day once we’d returned from football. I also got out a stencil set that my mum sent the kids. Alex busied himself for hours! he’d even colour the in between bits and then cut them out to stick on the wall.
Question: Why does scratching stop an itch? I’d never thought about it before so I looked it up.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/information/anatomy/question600.htm
Sunday was a day for Alex and I together – we went to the water treatment plant for a bird tour! It involved us on a bus for many hours, but Alex spotted kites and found a dead duck as well as getting photos and feathers. We were given binoculars to use. It was so ice for him to have me to himself and not have Daniel interrupt his flow.
