HORSES Eat The Same Things As Us Mummy!

Greetings dear readers, I cannot recommend learning spelling via the word family method enough, it is really working well with Sophia who struggles with retaining spellings more than a few moments after she's told you. I dictated a couple of sentences to her using a mix of common words and words from the 'At', 'Ow' and 'It' families, as well as basic punctuation. She could use the tools she's learnt so far with a mix of phonics and word families to write it out for me, just needing the odd reminder on spacing. She was so excited when she saw the finished article and proudly read it back to me. 

They wanted educational play lists on then, and Spanish was the consensus. Jack Hartmann has a really good, fun, catchy video on Spanish Colours which is a family favourite. Xander recognised the language and started telling us 1-7 in Spanish unexpectedly, toddlers are such sponges, they really do take in far more from their surroundings then we realise. He also randomly has started to learn materials, he correctly identified a metal toy which I did not expect at all! He was so pleased with himself, and he wanted to learn more materials. So play lists were abandoned as the girls and I ran round the room touching items shouting out their materials, while Xander was giggling like mad. And that's how a lesson is born. 

We just had a quick reading session as the girls were excited to get back to the horse topic. Xander was reading odd words from the subtitles of a peppa pig episode, Sophia was reading new words by sounding it out which was a first for her and fantastic to witness, and Kira chose a short story on horses. Today they learnt the name for the female, male and baby horse, and learnt what they like to eat in the summer and winter. They were very excited and amazed to hear it about their healthy eating habits: carrots, apples, oats, just like Kira likes to eat, sugar lumps for treats, same as Sophia has, and hay and grass just like cows! Sophia love watching a foal being born on YouTube video. They love sitting on my lap watching the miracle of life taking place, they always have plenty of questions and they learn a lot about farm life from their natural curioristy. 

The topic of horses carried on into garden time, they were behaving like horses: walking, trotting, running and galloping over obstacles, and then had a carrot for a snack. Sophia found a spiders web outside and was fascinated to learn about where the web came from and what was its purpose. She then said that we should catch a fly in order to get it stuck in the spiders web in the school room, so the spider can have dinner (note to self, it's time to run round with a duster). She soon ran off to amuse herself singing the alphabet song with her friend next door which was sweet. 

Kira was in a complentative mood this morning and came to sit in my lap to talk about Xanders health. She told me we had to make sure he had plenty of good food, water and rest and lots of medicine, to help the white blood cells grow to fight his virus. This is completely accurate, his bonemarrow is engrafting currently and his white cells need to strengthen quickly, whilst they are new and yet fighting the common cold virus which he unfortunately caught six weeks ago and is still battling. I always keep the girls up to date on their brothers health because they are interested in biology and seeing it play out in their brother makes the lesson even more revelant. They have learnt the importance of flushing the kidneys through with water to keep them healthy, especially if you have lots of medicine, as a result of his last stay in hospital. 

Additionally after garden time Kira sat down to eat her dinner, only to bounce back up before I could say anything, and told me she had to go and wash the dirty garden bacteria off her hands before she eats, so the nasty bacteria doesn't go into her tummy and make her sick. Healthy practices are really easy to approach from an early age, having fun musical soap despensers help make the activity fun (I have listened to the baby shark song on repeat far more then I care too, but it got the message across). 

I have discovered the vital importance of giving a full explanation behind any action that I expect them to perform on a daily basis, so they can understand the logic behind the request. They are far more likely to pay attention and comply with the basics of brushing teeth and hair, wearing sunscreen and keeping clean if they've been given the scientific reasoning behind why it needs to be done. It is one of my key tools that I use constantly in all walks of life and it really helps to keep them focused, eager to engage in their daily routine and lessens meltdowns. 

So there we go, lots of new facts about horses. I hope you all have a great day and stay safe x

 


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