Day 38: Epic Reading!

Wednesday, 29th April 2020
Weather: Raining on and off

We have been writing the previous day's blog the following morning for the past few days so Isabella can help writing it too. At the moment she is busy with her school work next to me, so you've got me (aka mummy) writing today.

Isabella managed to complete her school work in record time. The trick was to pay her with a sour sweet after each activity!

We managed to take out 30 books from the library before it closed for lockdown, but we have read through them a long time ago already and we were all ready for some fresh books to read. Andre found the app called 'Epic' which has loads of amazing books, both for Isabella to read herself and for us to read to her at bedtime from the iPad. It also has educational videos on a large range of interesting topics. It has a free trial for a month so we will see how much we make use of it and whether to continue after the free month. It keeps track of the time spent reading and awards points for each book completed which is also fun. We were able to see that Isabella spent 2 hours reading yesterday morning! And that was mainly due to her being able to find loads of books on animals which she enjoys reading. We all prefer reading something that interests us. Some books even have the "Read to me" option. It highlights the words as it is being read to you so you can follow. It's a bit slow though and luckily Isabella prefers reading it herself.

This book is about Mr Putter and his cat called Tabby!

Isabella taught Tabby to play hide and seek using treats to come and find her. And she introduced Tabby to fidget spinners which he found very interesting! 

Tabby loves a bit of a pamper session in the evenings! He gets so relaxed while I comb out the tangles in his fur.

Day 37: The Unicorn Surprise Blog by Isabella

Tuesday, 28th April 2020
Weather: Rainy all day

This blog post has again been dictated by Isabella.

Me and my mummy were doing stretches and Tabby kept shooting through my mat. It was crazy, but it was very hard to do our stretches with Tabby under the mat. On this picture you can't see Tabby, only his tail and his paw.

Tabby rode on daddy's motorbike. It was really funny. He always runs away when we try to take a picture. In this one we got the photo just in time. We don't know why Tabby doesn't like us taking pictures. 

We have the best daddy in the whole entire world. He helps us clean the house. In this photo he is vacuuming all of Tabby's hair stuck on the carpet.

I did some questions about the story Tyrannosaurus Drip. In this picture I did some comparing carnivorous dinosaurs to see how they are the same. We had a few pictures of carnivorous dinosaurs to compare. I only had to write three sentences but I wrote four. I like to do my school work. It was great fun. We all enjoyed it. It was hard writing without lines but I could do it.

Tabby was playing with some ribbon. He really enjoys playing with ribbon. He fell off the sofa a few times! In this one he started to fall off but he held on tight enough. That's why he is so close to the camera. He doesn't like us taking photos of him, because when he sees us he jumps up and runs to us.

Daddy printed a unicorn. I coloured it in with acrylic paint pens. I love decorating models that daddy prints. I'm still decorating today. Mummy coloured pikachu and pikachu was already yellow so she didn't have to colour in a lot. It took me the whole entire day to colour my  unicorn, but at least I had a light. It was easier with the light. I enjoyed colouring the unicorn. 

Day 36: Learning about animal blog - by Isabella

Monday, 27th April 2020
Weather: Cloudy start turning into a lovely sunny day

This post is written by Isabella.

Tabby sleeps in the bathroom sink the whole night long. It was very cute. We got a photo of Tabby but he always runs away when we try to but this time he didn't. We got a few photos but these were the best two.

We went for a walk a long way to pick up a cat flap and an automatic feeder for our cat called Tabby. Someone was giving it away for free. I went on my scooter and mummy walked there but I walked as well a little bit. Here is a picture of me with some pretty pink flowers. One flower fell off the tree and I picked it up and put it in the bag to take home.

Mummy and I made playdough things. We made the characters from the story Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson. They also sing a song about the story. It was part of my school work at home. It was great fun. We also made a nest. It was fun as well. We enjoyed making it out of playdough. These are the best three photos we could find.

I did my school work. I had to sort my soft toys into groups of omnivores, carnivores and herbivores. If you don't know what that means, omnivores means it eats plants and meat. Carnivores mean they just eat meat. And herbivores means they just eat plants. A good way to remember it is for herbivores, think of herbs. And for carnivores think of chewing meat "carn-carn-carn". And for omnivores we go "everything, everything, omnithing".

Here are some two videos. We are just being silly. The first one is a tongue twister challenge which my teacher sent me. The second one is me reading Afrikaans. You might not be able to understand what I'm saying in the video but you can read underneath the video.






This is the last photo we're putting in this blog. My mummy took a photo of Tabby at the windowsill. It is a lovely photo for the end of the blog. And it is of our cute and very crazy kitten! He is running like  crazy today. He is all over the place! Our yoga mat looks all tangled up, we're going to have to fix it tomorrow morning when we're going to do our joga. Bye! This is the end of this blog of yesterday.

Day 35: Isabella can cycle!

Sunday, 26th April 2020

Weather: Another perfect warm and sunny day

Isabella has been able to cycle without stabilisers since last summer, but not without Andre running along with her and staying right next to her. Yesterday she managed to stop by herself, while before she would shout stop! to Andre and he would need to catch her and the bike. Then today she managed to also start by herself. Andre has been holding the bike at the back for her to then start without wobbling over. Then this morning she did it herself without realising that Andre wasn't holding the bike for her. When we told her, she was very proud of herself and had no more problems doing it herself. And no need for  Andre to run along anymore, she now cycles all across the field! Next challenge is cycling on the road/ pavement.

Isabella started building a box fort yesterday which Tabby decided he really likes too. Isabella made it all cosy with a blanket and a soft toy, which Tabby then goes and mess up by playing with the soft toy and blanket. Isabella was not impressed. I didn't see it happen, but there must have been some kind of stand off between the two of them which ended in BIG  tears from Isabella, saying that Tabby tried to scratch her with BOTH paws! I didn't see it happen so I don't know if Tabby was playing or was annoyed at her not letting him inside. Anyway, we then built Tabby his own box fort and tried our best to make it interesting to him by adding ribbons and feathers. It did work mostly.

Tabby also joined us in the garden for a nice long play. He loves hunting for bugs in the grass but mostly just lies in the grass observing which is nice. Still on his leash though.

Our neighbour brought us lots of rhubarb from his allotment. It's the first year that Isabella is also enjoying the rhubarb. We cook it with a little water and sugar and eat it with Greek yoghurt, honey and cinnamon.

Day 34: Sunny Saturday

Saturday, 25th April 2020
Weather: Just as warm and sunny as yesterday.

We had a lazy morning. Isabella built a box fort, picture still to come, and I did gardening. Picture of that to come too once the sunflowers are flowering. At the moment there's not much to see yet.

After lunch we went for a cycle on the field. Isabella and I both cycled and Andre ran next to Isabella. She is now able to stop herself, but still likes having daddy near and he also needs to start her off still. I'll take a video next time.

The dolls are the only ones able to visit the hairdressers at the moment!

After cycling, Isabella, Tabby and I relaxed on her bed. Not sure why Tabby needed the rest but he seemed to need it most as didn't want to get up when we already had enough!  He eventually joined us back downstairs and we took him for a walk around the garden on his leash while Andre started the BBQ for dinner.

And that was Saturday.

Day 33: End of week 5 Lockdown

Friday, 24th April 2020
Weather: warmer and sunnier than the previous day

I went for a walk today to stretch my legs. My body had gotten so achy from sitting on the floor most of the day playing either with Isabella or the cat.

Not much school work got done today. The only thing actually was that Isabella wanted to write sentences so Andre sneaked her spelling words into the sentences.

Isabella then rediscovered Sago Mini, a game on her iPad which she played on and off through the day. She's been spending very little time on her iPad actually.

Of course we also spent some time outside, it was an amazing day outside. Isabella played in the water while I did gardening.

We went for a long scoot/ walk through the village.

And Tabby also had a play in the garden late afternoon.

Day 32: Isabella's half birthday!

Thursday, 23rd April 2020
Weather: Warm and sunny

Isabella started her school work at 6.30 this morning already by doing her reading in bed. Then exercise/ stretches before breakfast and then on to her tasks assigned by her teachers.

The theme this term is dinosaurs which Isabella is excited about. She had to label a dino and draw one following instructions. For maths it was sequencing events.

Watching a video to follow instructions on how to draw a dinosaur.

School work completed by around 1am and then we baked a cake. Isabella is 6 and a half years old today and we have the time right now to do things like celebrate half birthdays and bake cake!

We also did some gardening and ended the day with a swim in the jacuzzi, followed by half-birthday cake before dinner.

And now it's bed time!

Day 32: Covid-19 Lockdown

Wednesday, 22nd April 2020
Weather: Warm and sunny

Andre starts each day with the previous days' Joe Wicks PE while Isabella and I do our own thing. Today I did abs and Isabella and I both then did her splits stretches which are just some really good stretching exercises to also work towards splits.

Isabella then practised her spelling words on her own while I got her learning websites ready. She picked a book to read from Oxford Owl. Today's book was called 'Big Ears & Sticky Fingers'.

We find the non-fiction readers more interesting than Biff, Chip and Kipper.

English lesson for today was adjectives and Isabella wrote descriptive sentences, highlighting the adjectives. She also played a good English language game which included grammar and spelling which was fun, educational AND she could do it on her own. Perfect!

Pretty, happy, fluffy are adjectives that fit Tabby too!

We then had a break in our school day to allow for office work which included some iPad time for Isabella. Barbie playing was also continued from yesterday. Emily had an accident involving a hover board and broke her leg...

I went for a long walk while Andre joined the Barbie game during lunch time. The game was changed from hospital trip to camping trip.

Andre back to conference calls so Isabella and I left the house to go rollerblading and scooting outside. It was so lovely outside today.

Back from our exercise we tried to be as quiet as possible by making use of the iPad. Again. And then quick science (seasons, day and night) and maths (counting in 5's) lessons.

Here is also the link to Isabella's own PE session from yesterday.

Click caption to watch video. Opens in new window.

Day 31: Back to (Home)School

Tuesday 21st April 2020

Weather: Warm, sunny and slightly windy.

Isabella and I started with school work first thing this morning. We're using BBC Bitesize which has lessons each day. In English we practiced using question marks, in Maths we counted forwards and backwords in 2's up to 50 and then we also had a Geography lesson which covered the 4 countries making up the UK and their capitals, continents and oceans of the world, seasons and weather.  And it was presented in such a fun way. We both really enjoyed it. Isabella also practiced spelling and read an online Oxford reading book from her current reading level. For her extras she did some German from Rosetta Stone while I did other work next to her. She's getting on so well with the German now that I can leave her to do it on her own with hardly any help needed. She asked to also try Spanish on Rosetta Stone so we did. After the second page of the first lesson she asked to go back to German and no longer complains that it is hard! It made her  realise how much German she actually already understands compared to trying a totally new language!

Clockwise from top left: Spelling, writing questions following an online lesson and reading "Things that  sting" from
Oxfordowl.co.uk

Clockwise from top left: writing a postcard following online lesson, front of postcard, German practice and Geography.

And we even did a PE session: PE with Isabella! Joe Wicks is getting a bit too much for the two of us although Andre is still doing it daily. Isabella wrote down her own PE routine for us. Video coming hopefully tomorrow!

Things we didn't get to today were practicing Afrikaans reading and writing, she wanted to practice the harmonica and cycling too but instead went rollerblading which is also something that needs practicing. She also has some nature picture we still need to create from the things she collected in the woods over the weekend. Not every day is as busy as today. Some days it just happens.

It was a very productive day. Hoping tomorrow will be the same! We also had a phone call from one of Isabella's teachers which was nice.

Today was a good day for these two together.

Starting to trust each other and becoming friends.

Tabby watching my online pilates class while I'm doing the hard work this evening.