A trip down memory lane

I decided to take a trip down memory lane today, and read through my blog and have a giggle at the things the children used to get up to. I was shaking my head over the amount of cardboard littlest chicken used to eat when I realised that over time the blog had shifted from words to photos. So here I am to try and use words again to give you an idea of life in our household these days.

You will not be surprised to know that eldest chicken is still thoroughly enjoying her books. She reads a wide variety of styles, but the one she finished most recently was the Count of Monte Cristo. With the longer books, she tends to start reading it, then decide that she needs to be doing something creative with her hands at the same time so swaps to an audio book version so she can be knitting up some toys at the same time. There's a pretty wild and wacky looking blue chipmunk coming our way soon! (I had written raccoon, but thankfully she is still not asleep at 10:30pm so was able to come out and correct me! Oh, happy mother am I.)

During the last few days I have decided to be one of those marvelously inspiring homeschooling mothers that learns with the children - so I have been trying my hand at some story writing at the same time as chicken no.1. The result being that she has written about 4 pages of a funny story about a dysfunctional henchman, and I have written a couple lines of something mysterious that is going nowhere fast! My delightful daughter says it reminds her of a graphic novel style. Sigh.

Our boy is also fast consuming books this year. I thought he would never sit still for long enough, but he seems to have hit a groove. The last few weeks have been full of reading for long hours, then throwing a ball for long hours. He has his own Kindle now too, but mostly uses it for looking up words in the dictionary. Lots of words. Hates spelling and grammar work (requires handwriting), but likes the dictionary. Hmmmm. Also spends lots of time doing maths work - going over it until he has totally nailed it. And spends lots of time on music practice until each bar sounds wonderful. Are you getting the picture? A very focused boy. Still loves his sport and plays lots of it. Still delightfully encouraging and cheeky at the same time.

Littlest chicken always surprises me with her right-brain way of looking at things. She spends hours weaving stories in her imagination or dancing to music in her room. Not so much beetle chasing these days, but she has certainly been enjoying our science work this year - studying insects in the garden. We had a huge laugh over ants milking aphids like cows today. Life is mostly occupied with sport and music for her at the moment. She and her brother would win the neat bed of the week award. We don't need an alarm clock, because we are woken at precisely 7am each morning to the sound of the pillows being fluffed and the sheets straightened. It really is very funny (when we don't want to sleep in...).

So there you go. Lots of words, few pictures. Soak it up, coz it might not happen again for a while! :)