These are the things that are so hard to record and yet I have to keep a log of things we have done. I am keeping anything like workbooks, stories and pictures that can be kept but Hannah seems to prefer writing that has a concerte function rather than imaginative stuff, so she will happily write letters but of course unless we took photocopies of everything (maybe I should???) the point of a letter is to send it. Her Nanny's friend bought her a book this week (The Complete works of Lewis Carroll, which I hope she will enjoy at some point...she's maybe a little young to appreciate the surreality of it..I got my copy as a present when I was 12 and loved the nonsense poetry) and she wrote him a nice thank you letter....hooray, maybe this is the year when she writes all her own thank you letters???
Tomorrow though she is writing a very important letter....to Father Christmas. I know she is expecting a letter back, as she has seen in her book, Dear Father Christmas. A nice creative challenge for me, but am a little intimidated by following Tolkien into this realm. I've never actually read the Father Christmas Letters and was planning to read it to Hannah this year but she is enjoying our bedtime reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone too much and wants to carry straight on to Chamber of Secrets afterwards and then on through to the end of the series. I wonder how long that is going to take us...
Tomorrow also sees the start of a new Christmas tradition. As Hannah is not allowed chocolate on a daily basis, there is no chocolate advent calendar this year, but we have a gorgeous fabric one and each pocket has a Christmas-related activity in it, hence the writing to Father chirstmas, but others include writing cards, picking recipes and crafts to make, making gifts, going for a walk in the woods to see if we can find stuff to make a wreath or at least a winter display, walking round the neighbourhood looking at lights, decorating the tree, going to see Santa, going to the pantomime.
Other work we have been doing has involved playing games, especially a new one called Ooky Spooky which is a number game that requires counting and addition. We've also introduced the concept of maths as a language that can be read and Hannah has enjoyed writing down and answering sums. I started to do it using flashcards but she has never really taken to flashcards...sensibe child. Pencil and paper was better. How on earth do I record for the benefit of the Education people that we played a game? Mind you, after two terms at school she came home with a scrap book that contained at most ten pages of work and a selection of photos. Most of her time was spent playing, as it should be at 5...and still is. Her play is so wonderfully creative. I love listening to her telling stories with toys, especially when she doesn't know I;m listning. I specially love the way she has taken to blending her imaginative world with her knowledge of the natural world. she has so far created about 4 imaginary species, about whom she knows the most incredible amount of detail, where they live, when they lived in the case of mythosaurs who were post-dinosaur but pre-human, although from the pictures she has drawn they appear almost human and I sense her interest in human evolution at play even though she clearly conceives of them as animals. Others are hinders, which appear to be a kind of grazing herd animal with the appearance of a large cat...very feline ears and spotted like a cheetah, but have four identical babies at a time like an armadillo. I'm not entirely sure what a softer looks like and have forgotten the most recent species...altough there was an aquatic one as well when we were on holiday and spent part of each day in the pool. Her latest project is to create a book about her beasts and she has made a start, drawing very detailed pictures of mythosaurs and hinders (I had imagined the hinders to be more like deer and was surprised by how feline the are).
I suppose my next task must be to get the camera sorted so I can take pics of some of her writing and craft over the next few weeks, before they are all given away or eaten!
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