Autumn has truly arrived!

Autumn has arrived dramatically with drawn in nights, pitch dark mornings, flash storms and high winds which had my husband rescuing the trampoline from flying away into the neighbours garden one evening. The girls love going out in all weathers but I drew the line at play times out in the freezing temperatures with rain lashing down. Unfortunately we had a week of charming weather like this so we bunkered down in the house and waited it out. 

Maths update: The girls are adding in fives and tens with their mental maths, and Xander is surprising us by counting in multiples of five and ten. Sophia is filling out times table wipe clean books, using the multiples she knows. They are learning multiples of three currently. The learning aid clocks keep disappearing from the school room as they draw an unfathomable fascination from all three children. Sophia wanted to practice telling the time the other day and because she could not find one, she used her imagination and created one out of waxi doodles, complete with hands. I was very impressed with her creativity and rewarded her with yet another set of practice clocks.The girls have made up a game where they won't let the other past until they answer three 'What time is it?' questions. Kira is more advanced than Sophia but there's plenty of time (excuse me, not sorry, I couldn't resist). I would like them to be masters of time by next August. 

The girls have decided to revisit their Japanese vocabulary of colours and numbers and like comparing them to English and Spanish. I have consequently added this into their curriculum quiz.

Xander has become proficient in the months of the year, days of the week and colour mixing, and sings along with gusto to his education videos and nursery rhymes. He will read on occasion as well and is loving building towers currently and role playing with character toys. He will play 'The floor is lava!' with the girls but for the most part he acts alone in his varied role plays. 

He is creative in his story telling, for example when playing with his PJ Masks toys recently, the baddie Romeo had captured Owlette and Gecko had to rescue her from his evil clutches. In the hospital Xander was making up adventures with his Spiderman figure and walkie talkie. The nurses were very surprised at his level of imagination and his use of vocabulary. 'Hurry hurry Spiderman, it's a emergency, quick quick. There's a fire'. The last time he was in clinic he played the lead role in the kitchen role play, shouting out to the amused parents 'Two minutes! It'll be two minutes', hurriedly throwing the ingredients in a pan and placing it in the oven. He very busily shook salt and pepper on his creations as he walked through to the waiting room and served parents. He played very nicely with the other children his age, offering alternative toys to them if he wanted the one they were currently playing with. 

Artwork is always a popular past time in our house and we have had some fine masterpieces produced, ranging from the friendly rainbow, a Ben and Holly picture, rockets, and Totoro, to name a few. Sophia has been collecting leaves consistently since autumn commenced and we have more pictures to add to the ever growing collection. 

Sophia has rediscovered dancing again, having danced her way through last year. She is a natural and is very compelling and fascinating to watch. She is extremely graceful in dancing and agile in gymnastics, which is amusing as she can be very clumsy when walking. 

A few childhood milestones revolve around clothes. Kira has caught up with her sister's level of dressing, and has learnt to put on and fix her trainers, and correctly put on her coat. Who knew there were so many wrong ways to put your coat on, until you have a child demonstrate their genius in this area. Thus Kira is now trained in all aspects of dressing herself, relevant to her current wardrobe. She cannot fix a tie, however she has no need to wear one, and so this remains a redundant skill until the opportunity presents itself. She is very conscious what she wears, choosing each element carefully to match, including her favourite accessories of cat ears. 

Kira's choice of dress usually mirrors closely to what animal she is portraying that day. One day I discovered her in the kitchen, just standing looking around. On being questioned it transpired she was a lost kitten separated from its mummy. She was standing still waiting to be found and had bitten an imaginary stranger for trying to take her away. She had not seen a police officer to find her mummy with her. I took the opportunity to talk further on the topic of stranger safety. Interestingly I was not the mummy in this scenerio. She stayed like this while I was cooking dinner, but then left the role play to eat. 

Alexander can now identify his left and right shoes and place them in front of the correct feet. He is beginning to understand the connection between attire and weather, knowing which item of clothes are classed as outdoors and indoors. 

The rain got on everyone's nerves and tempers were beginning to fray by the middle of the week, so the children wanted to be separated not only by rooms (of which there are plenty), but there had to be different houses within the rooms. Sophia and Xander joined forces in the school room, rearranging the chairs into a square and used the plastic sheeting from the floor as a roof with added accompliments. Xander disappeared for a couple of days with his tablet and only emerged for nappy changes and food. Sophia wrote a sign claiming it, and had a scary sick alien standing guard over it. Kira's house varied from being her toy chest in the toy room or a sofa den in the living room. It was a quiet few days unless the two camps met and then screaming and fighting ensued. A truce was found with the forming of a new club for only big girls, no toddler boys allowed. We now have a Lego and Barbie room upstairs where the girls can go in peace to create and build to their hearts content, with no fear of Xander destroying their masterpieces. They also do not have to keep that room tidy, lego and the current project is allowed to be spread around liberally. Ironically they are so proud of their room they tidy it religiously after every visit. 

I hope you enjoyed this next installment. Stay safe from covid and the bad weather. Catch you next time.