Lessons on the body, mind and life

Sophia's intense focus on science in January, shifted into English over February and March, so her maths and science have taken a backseat over the past couple of months. She still enjoys other subjects and progresses in them, it's just at a slower pace than the subject of intensity. She has had this learning pattern from being a baby and it seems to work for her, the focal subjects shift organically at her pace. 

She spends half an hour a day working on her gymnastics, which are continually improving. It is a great way to expel her excess energy, she works hard to perfect the moves and is constantly pushing herself to try new moves. She naturally trains her muscles, focusing on arm, core and leg strength during the course of the day in her general choice of exercise. She is learning to listen to her body and rest if she can feel a twinge. She is also beginning to school Xander in the subject too as he is showing a strong interest. 

She's learning Minecraft game mechanics and trivia with her Daddy in lieu of having Minecraft education lessons soon, and spends time watching YouTube videos about the game. Her knowledge is extensive for her age. She plays the ipad version and has a world on Xbox Bedrock edition. She also likes watching Roblox run throughs and has drawn a couple of her own characters. 

So long you explain English and Maths in terms of puzzles, sequences and codes she will attack any exercise with gusto. She has mastered telling the time to the first half hr, she's half way to unlocking her first official watch. In early February Sophia was playing new maths, puzzle and maze games, and geography game on ipad and kept surprising me with geographical nuggets of information. 

Her drawing is interesting to say the least. A new style is emerging and she still enjoys long sessions sat at the school room table working away. There's always a story or reason behind her drawings, and she still likes writing notes to us. She recently made us the first anniversary card she has ever made us, she was so proud of herself. I was banished from the school room whilst she let the others in on her plan. She has no idea however that her stage whispers could clearly be heard from the living room, we could plainly hear 'it's mummy and Daddy's marriage day....'.

She loves pottering around the house and garden, whether it's tending her plants, or tidying the garden after a high wind has sent our recycling flying yet again. She regularly cleans the draining board, sets up the dishwasher and puts a wash on. Bed making and drawer sorting is a daily task. None of the above comes from me, it's as and when the mood takes her, our rules is once a day she has to tidy a room before bedtime, but sometimes she'll prefer working on the house during the day rather than academic lessons. Last night she wanted to wash the French windows after the other two had a mud painting session on them. She had great fun playing with the warm soapy water, and she was as wet as the windows. 

She had an angry moment however in February whereby she brought her heel down on her ipad in frustration with one of her games, shattering the screen. She was crying obviously immediately and wanted us to fix it. 

She lost access to it and all other tech in the house other than the remote control for a month until she could prove that she can control her anger. She took her sanctions very well with no argument. She realised what she had done, and that she had lost our trust around tech. She came to me the other day and sat down to have a grown up chat about how sad she was that she had broken her ipad and that she missed it, she had learnt her lesson about controlling her frustration. That was the end of the conversation she didn't ask for another one or moan about the situation, and just wandered off again. 

Her maturity on this subject has been impressive so we've got her a protective cover for it and it's been returned to her. She understands if she continues to show this level of maturity she'll get an upgrade at Christmas. 

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