now that kynan is in school, and effectively out of the house for 6hrs a day, my attention has suddenly taken an about-change.

while he was home, (and being the elder of the two), the schooling had been mostly focused on him. kay has really just been pottering around along the sidelines, doing her own bits and pieces up til now. admittedly, she was qt happy with this arrangement, joining in where she cd, or doing something else when she cdnt. even when we went to montessori, my attention was more directed towards kynan, helping him new learn things, or directing him when necc. so kay didnt really try anything new as i cdnt help show her how.

we've had just 2 montessori classes since ky has been in school, but she really loves them. today she shouted "yaaaaaay!" when she heard we were going. :)  ky had usually had enough of such learning after 1 hour, but kay can continue for 3hrs non-stop and still want to more...  so i'll usually hear at least 3-5 requests before we go.... "mum, i'll just do this *one* thing more before we go!"/ and "mum, let me just do this *one* thing very quickly!"/ and " mum, i promise this is the last one...let me just do it quickly ok?".... how can i say no? :)  most days before we even get there, she already has an idea of what she wants to do, and especially which one she'd like to do 1st. it's so refreshing! so now my focus is on her!

...and she's blossoming!

she started with some familiar scooping, then asked me to read her favourite rhyme: "3 little kittens".... joining in where she knew the words.  :) then she chose landforms (little putty shapes that she has to pour water in). there were 9 and she asked me to ask Aunty Q what their names were. (ya, she's still too shy to do the asking herself!)  with her interest peaking, i decided to draw them out for her, w the intention of making a little matching game when i have a moment.  then while i was busy drawing, she pulled out the 9x9 division tray and beads, and divided different numbers of  'sweets' between different numbers of our family members. then we did some pink boxes together. the timing is so right for these as she's nicely joining the sounds together to decipher the words. (her p's, b's and d's are still sometimes muddled, but i'm hopeful they'll sort themselves out b4 she gets to p1 :))

aside from montessori phonics, the new a-z reading programme is coming on well. we'd planned to do it in a small group as with ky, but for unforeseen reasons the others had to pull out. it's not ideal having just 1kiddo, but there's not much of an alternative.  those in her present p/g are 3yrs-old and as yet unsure of most alpha sounds, so not quite ready.  so with nothing else on the horizon, it's perhaps just something that's meant to be.  kay enjoys the reading bit, esp as she's getting 3-4 new books a week. but she's presently not too keen on the writing practice sheets...although it's only one a week. so we're doing that a little at a time. :) she's very proud to show kynan all her 'work' when he gets home, and very amused when i pretend that i did it myself! :b

at night-time she goes to her little chest where her new reading books are stored. then she takes her pick of what she wants to read to kynan. in exchange, he reads her one of his. it's my turn then to read them one of kay's library books, followed by prayers and lights-out.

so while i get kay to sleep, ky disappears to his room where he does a bit of malay with his daddy.  then i join him for our special storytime (we were halfway through 'wind in the willows', then we switched to 'alice in wonderland'... which he's finding 'curiouser and curiouser')  ;b   then our favourite bit is probably when we snuggle and have a bit of 'catch-up' time before we're both ready for dreamland. :)