Not that it is likely to prevent me from saying it in the most flowery and lengthy way possible of course 🙂
Today has been a lot of nothing really, not sure where it has gone. After earlier blog we had lunch, which I ate trying to conduct a phonecall to someone to which was tricky. The kids have been invited to a birthday party while we are at Melrose, which is a shame as they don’t get invited to a lot really, it was an invite for them both which was nice and the little birthday boy is a particularly nice little chap too. His parents are friends we have known a while – well actually his Daddy was my first kiss many years ago 😉 Ady worked with him at B&Q as did I and we met his Mummy when we attended their wedding. We were pregnant at the same time with Davies and their son A (who will be 4 soon, so a few months younger than Davies) and have stayed in sporadic but consistant touch ever since. She is currently one year through a five year course in ostoepathy or something similar so has very little free time (infact we arranged to meet up and the first weekend we are all free is mid- March 🙂 ) . I was not really expecting to get a real person on the end of the phone so was phoning to leave a message on their answerphone and was taken by surprise to speak to her 🙂
Then round to Rachel’s where the kids played pretty well together actually. I think E is starting to settle into school and Rachel has been working really hard on giving him lots of time and one to one attention – all of which seems to be working.
We did tongight’s EZ lesson while Davies was in bed which meant we didn’t get the writing practice done – although he was well up for me going to get pens and paper and doing it I want to keep it light hearted and somehow having him learning to read and write while in his bed about to go to sleep just doesn’t feel right! The lesson went well again though and he is very happy about the idea that he is going to learn to read, so I am feeling pretty positive about the whole business.
I have posted what I hope is an inspirational and motivating post to our local group yahoo list asking for thoughts, contributions and ideas which no one has responded to yet! But I’m hoping that some replies will trickle in over the next couple of days.
Tomorrow is a very hectic day indeed so if I am AWOL then please do not fear – we are meeting Julie and the twins at soft play in the morning and for lunch, then to Tumble Tots for Davies, then home and the kids’ friends L & L are coming over for tea before my Mum arrives to babysit for me and Ady to go out for dinner with friends. As I say, I may not have time for blogging 🙂
We used to do EZ in bed too, after her bedtime story. If it was the very last thing we did before sleep then she was less likely to get distracted by other activities, and more likely to make it to the end of the lesson as once she finished it was lights out. And we all know how good children are at delaying lights out. It also seemed the easiest time of day to slot in a regular thing consistently, and consistency in the key, I think. We didn’t do the writing at all.
Comment by Barbara — 27 January 2005 @ 9:31 pm
Any time is good time.Pea often gets up very late and does a few pages of her workbooks! Like me she is best at night.
I WILL reply just been wallpapering. Any week that I do make it I will either do art or cookery. Can’t come next week as mum will be here and then Melrose but the week after that put me down for errr…either you choose! I’ll reply email soon LOL!
Comment by Roslyn — 27 January 2005 @ 9:50 pm
thanks Barbara that is reassuring. So did you get to the end of the 100 lessons then? How well did it work? I think it is a last resort as we can at least get the time without Scarlett there when he is in bed, but he is also slightly less likely to concentrate as he seems to be focusing on what he can do to prolong bedtime next 🙂
And Ros, I wasn’t stressing about *you* not replying – but thanks for the offers for the week after next – will put you on my rota 😉
Comment by Nic — 27 January 2005 @ 10:24 pm
We haven’t done much of the writing with Joseph either, although we are not yet half way through it (consistency just isn’t my thing, I MUST make more of an effort)
Tiegan (3) loves doing her ‘lessons’ too. She used to sit when she was younger listening to Joseph and copying what he said, now she is chuffed to bits that I let her use the book too lol.
Comment by Jules — 28 January 2005 @ 8:49 am
It all sounds like it’s going great Nic.
Comment by Karen b — 28 January 2005 @ 10:05 am
No, we didn’t get to the end. We got to lesson 50-something when morning sickness took over and *I* didn’t have the concentration or patience. E would ask for a lesson and we’d start but end up both getting upset so it seemed a bit pointless, especially given her age (not yet four at that time). So we left it, always intending to pick it up again which I tried to do once sickness subsided a few weeks (a few? who am I kidding?) later. But for some reason E didn’t want to do it any more. But by then she had a really solid grounding in listening to words and sounding them out and so on, so we gave it a really long break (just playing games like I spy, board games, and looking at signs/books and so on). Then we started on a look-and-say approach instead (Ladybird Tom and Kate books). This was about 9 months after we gave up on 100EZ, but I think the break was good and gave the opportunity for what had been learnt to be consolidated. She then whizzed through the Ladybird books and pretty much learned to read using a look-and-say method within weeks, but with an understanding of phonetics that was just a bonus. She now almost exclusively uses look and say (the other day she claimed not to know the word ‘pet’!) but when pushed can sound out unfamiliar words, and seems to be learning letter blends through familiar words.
Comment by Barbara — 28 January 2005 @ 6:40 pm