We are loving Spy Dog at the moment. I think it is the first time ever that Josiah has got hold of a book and pretty much read it from cover to cover (rather than skimming it and looking at the pictures!). Lovely to see him reading and really enjoying it.
He’s got this one and Spy Dog 2, plus Spy Dog Unleashed. I’m hoping to read them too, to see what’s so great about them, after he’s finished … later today I expect!
Don’t want to spend too long blogging today as I’m halfway through the Deathly Hallows and Steve wants it next … but it’s been a lovely day so thought I would write something.
Anna had a friend to stay last night; another Anna. Very pleasant to have her company though it was slightly confusing at times 
The girls spent ages making little braids attached to hair bobbles to sell at their school summer fair, and also went over to the park to meet yet more friends. After the other Anna had gone home, my Anna made marshmallow crispy cakes, played with Mollie and Ruby, then went out to play with yet another friend for the afternoon.
Abbie’s been mainly kicking around here, in pyjamas all day. She read, helped with the braids, played with Mollie, helped me with the guinea pigs, and made chocolate crispy cakes. And then had a bath
Abbie slept in the music room last night to make space for the other Anna, and she started drumming along to her cd last night, and has been doing it at odd moments throughout the day too. Steve came home and has shown her how to hold the sticks properly, and a basic 4/4 rhythm, and she’s been happily playing along to McFly and making a pretty decent job of it, for an 8yo beginner I am quite impressed. Think Steve (formerly known as a pretty good drummer) would be quite pleased if one of the kids took up the drums! Still, it just added the criteria of ‘downstairs music room’ to our list for any future house of ours, as despite the fact that it’s not a proper drum kit, it still sounds like a herd of elephants upstairs when you’re sitting underneath it!
Josiah stayed in pyjamas today too. He did a decent music practice, then played far too much gamecube, working his way through an old Sonic game again. He helped with the guinea pigs too, and also managed to trip over outside grazing his side (not quite sure how he managed it!) and elbow, which left him feeling a bit fragile and needing cuddles which was nice for me Managed to bath him too this evening as he was stinky!
And I’ve really enjoyed just pootling around alongside the kids – cooked a couple of Shepherd’s Pies, made a courgette & banana cake, washed and dried three loads of washing, had a couple of long phonecalls with various people, did lunch for everyone, helped out with the music practices, braids and crispy cakes, washed the kitchen floor after they’d finished, and then finally opened the book 
On Sunday afternoon we went to visit a couple of the kids’ favourite places, the House of Marbles and Cardews Teapottery, at their request. Took a number of photos which are all pretty much the same as the last lot I took there – kids painting pots, and kids in the play area – all pretty boring if they’re not your own kids really. Thankfully no-one fell off any swings this time though
Monday was a non-event of a day really, although Joe and I did defeat one big bad boss in Sonic at teatime so that was good (only one more to go now!). We did some maths and music workbook pages, and also played with pattern blocks and talked a bit about symmetry, reflections, rotations and translations. Reading and comprehension activities over the past couple of days have taken the form of hint guides and walkthroughs for Lego Star Wars and Sonic!
Sun’s still shining here so I’m still happy – I like hanging washing on the line knowing that it will be dry in a few hours, it makes all the difference to a day And today’s been generally nice.
Joe started off with a Draw Write Now early this morning while the girls were still around. This was mainly so that he could cajole Anna into colouring the background and writing some of the sentences for him Still, the writing that he did was probably neater than hers! While this was going on the other three girls in the house (Caitlin & Riona were over here very early) were simultaneously practicing their recorders. Steve and I wondered if Rog & Ruth had done that on purpose?!!
Once the girls had gone, we sat and read the end of Monster in the Wardrobe which we’d started yesterday at the Music Festival. We quite like that Treetops series, they’re not bad stories. I think I did more reading than Josiah today though. Sometimes I insist on sharing the reading with him but other times I want him to enjoy the story without worrying about the mechanics of reading so it’s more fun to read to him. And often he’ll read something without really taking it in … I’m still generally waiting for his understanding to catch up with his de-coding abilities. He can read me a sentence out loud perfectly and then still turn to me blankly if I ask him what it said! Ahem, anyway. Moving swiftly on!
He went on to violin practice after the story, and that was very quick today. I told him if he could play his two pieces without stopping/making mistakes then that would be it, so he pulled all the stops out and did it. Fairly effortlessly as well. Which *really* makes me wonder why we have these torturously long and arduous violin practices!
After that he did some painting, from a Kipper kit that he had years ago. He got bored pretty quickly (it was colouring in by another name!) so had a bit of a play on Sonic Rings, then went and got the Lego out to play with for an hour or so while I spent some time with a Miscarriage Support Group person. Have had a couple of people through the group recently who’ve helped make it all feel worthwhile again so I’ve got a second wind with that whole thing.
Then came lunch, and we watched Friends and Heroes on CBBC. Because I’d seen it advertised and told Joe I wanted to see what it was like, he immediately said he didn’t want to watch it, he hated it, and it was rubbish (just like everything else at the moment it seems). However he then stood transfixed for half an hour while it was on so it can’t have been that bad
Another hour or so of Sonic, and I had a phone conversation with the other local Suzuki teacher who’s doing a group lesson in a couple of weeks. After the last disastrous attempt to join in with this group I’m more anxious than ever to get it right this time so I wanted to find out what she was planning so that Joe can be as prepared as possible. Apparently she’s happy to have older siblings joining in so I’m hoping to enrol Anna to help me by joining in on her cello. Anyway, more on that when it happens!
Then we played some other games together. We did some mindbender type puzzles from a puzzle calendar that we hadn’t even looked at since Christmas (got to about the end of January today!) so that was fun. Then we got the draughts out and had a looong game. It was looking touch and go at one point, I thought Joe was going to beat me but then he made a silly mistake at the end so I took him out.
The girls are home now and having piano/recorder lessons, and alternately playing chess and draughts with Joe. Then it will be tea and the mad rush out for violin, Stage by Stage (must write a cheque) and Wind Group. I’m missing my chauffeur tonight too … but at least that means I can take a short cut across town rather than sitting in traffic wondering if we’ll be late