Day 45: Bike riding on the road!

Wednesday, 6th May 2020
Weather: sunny

One of our school activities was art sculptures. We looked at the work of Alberto Giocometti and then created our own sculptures using foil. We also had to draw some stick figures before the time which was a lot of fun. Even daddy joined in!

Isabella's drawings

Isabella had her first bike ride on the road and she did so well! No actual road pictures, but this is the way to her forest school site.

And Tabby still owns this chair!

King of the Boss chair, hear me roar!

Day 44: School work

Tuesday, 5th May 2020
Weather: Cloudy and cool, little bit of sun, but not  very warm!

I'm a little late with this update, but here it is now!

We had a great geography lesson, an online video lesson, not by Isabella's teachers, but it was linked on her class tasks by her teachers. She already knows the continents and the oceans and where they are. This  was revised as well as learning things like the northern and southern hemisphere, equator, difference between town, village, city, county, country etc. There was lots of listening, saying, writing and finding on the map or globe! Well presented.

Every morning we log in to Seesaw, an app the school is using for sending us activities. Isabella's teachers put the days' activities here, a combination of practical games and tasks, video or voice messages from her teachers and links to lessons. Isabella then uploads her completed work here, either through video, voice recording, photographs or typing notes and the teacher check and respond.

Maths was practising more doubling. Tabby had a go too.

And this is how we work! Although Isabella was watching youtube kids by this time after completing school work while I was doing office work.

And Tabby would like to show you that he won the battle over the kitchen counter and dining table! The humans have given up! Except when we're actually cooking or eating, then he gets removed.

Day 43: Busy Monday

Monday, 4th May 2020
Weather: Sunny

We had another busy day. I guess it will never be quiet, lazy days if it's up to Isabella! She always has something we need to do and it's hardly ever the things on the to-do list!

School work today was:

English: re-tell a story with actions
Maths: doubling- pretend to be the teacher and explain it to your dolls
History: Design a statue of Mary Anning.

We've been learning about Mary Anning who was an English fossil collector and discovered the first ichtyosaur skeleton and the first two complete plesiosaur skeletons amongst other finds. Interesting. Here is Isabella's drawing.

Mary Anning, holding her basket for fossil collecting and a fossil in the other hand.
Her dress is decorated with fossil designs.

Tabby loves Andre's office chair. Andre went in to the actual office this morning so Isabella was looking forward to using his chair while doing her school work. Tabby was apparently not aware of this plan. Even when I picked him up onto my lap he just kept struggling to get back onto Andre's chair with Isabella and she was too scared he might scratch her. The more she moved out of the way, the more space he decided to take up on the chair until she was standing next to the chair doing her work.

Tiring work this.

Stay off the boss chair little girl.

We spent a lot of time outside in the garden playing dolls and then I convinced Isabella to collect snails for payment. I remember my mom paying us to do this! She got a penny per snail and made 12p. I think once all the bluebells and forget-me-nots are done she'll be able to find more.

She's not going to work for free!
I had to get my wallet out before she would start so she could check that I do actually have money to pay her!

Day 42: Busy day at home

Sunday, 3rd May 2020
Weather: Cool and cloudy

Here's a list of what we did  today. We always feel busy but end up not really knowing what we actually did with our time.

- Played baby dolls
- Played big girl dolls (Our generation- the ones we made the face masks for)
- Rode mini Tesla
- Rode 9-bot mini
- Cycled
- Prepared veggie patch and planted corn
- Cleaned around both sheds to remove overgrown plants
- Cleaned the fish tank
- Painted some printed animals and made a video of it (video coming as soon as I get it edited)
- Rollerbladed
- Carried buckets full of stones from the front drive to the back garden (picture coming soon)
- Cut up the trimmed off branches from yesterday to go in the bin
- Walked the cat in the garden
- Played animal crossing
- Had breakfast, but not lunch
- Put the car on charge
- Made pizza sauce
- Chatted to friends in the street who brought us groceries
- Chatted to the neighbour in the street
- And watched iPad!

But we didn't take a single photo of any of today!

So instead, here is a picture I took a while ago of the play park and skate park having been locked up. Kind of just a reminder for us of what things are like during this time when we look back at it in a few years time. Or maybe it won't change much by then, who knows.

Day 41: Sunny day in the garden

Saturday, 2nd May 2020
Weather: Warm and sunny

Isabella and I made face masks, including some for her dolls. We then spent most of the day in the garden. Isabella drove her Tesla, played with her dolls and made herself a picnic lunch while Andre and I did some gardening. Andre cleaned and tidied the shed and trimmed one of many trees in need of trimming. Before dinner, Andre and Isabella went for a cycle on the field and came home with a daisy chain they made.

It's reversable!

Looks like we have a medium sized cat!

Day 40: Puddles in the Woods

Friday, 1st May 2020
Weather: Mostly rainy with a bit of sun

Wow, 40 days since schools closed! It's been about the length of a summer school holiday now.

We had the same as most other days: a mix of school, walk in the woods, play time and work. Isabella is actually watching very little iPad and I'm enjoying the time I have with her. Also grateful that school work at her age is still very much fun and not very difficult!

This morning's start.

Watch out Tabby, she's going to bite your ear!!

Isabella and my work place moves all over the house depending on what we're doing and I have to work wherever I can. Andre has a permanent spot overlooking the garden.

Lovely big puddles after all the rain!

Maths activity for today. Throwing 'beanbags' and adding up our scores.

Day 39: Tree Showers

Thursday, 30th April 2020
Weather: mostly rainy

One of Isabella's school activities was to count raindrops! How many drops in one minute into a tub or on her tongue! She counted 80. We also went on a walk to the woods. The rain had just stopped as we left the house. Another activity was to try a tree shower: Stand under a tree while a grownup shakes the tree so you can have a shower! She loved it! We also tried out the splashability of each puddle.