Verona Strauss.comjust because life is fun! …

Verona is still on blog strike, I thought it would be good to keep a ‘diary’ of our day today. it’s interesting to see what other people get up to in the course of one day!

To begin with Verona did one of her household jobs. Her first is to tidy her bedroom and bring down any washing to put into the machine.

After breakfast (an apple, banana, nectarine and a decadent topping of grated chocolate, honey and cream no less!) she spent some time sorting her babies; first into height order and then into age order.

Breakfast made even more yummy with the addition of chocolate, cream and honey!

Verona likes to categorise, sort and compare things. We discussed how being the oldest baby didn’t necessarily mean you were the biggest baby. Case in point; Verona is off the 99th centile for height and has been since day 1! She was the tallest in her class at school; towering over most of the boys. This really helped her to see that it was the same for her babies as it was for her.

Verona sways between people wanting to think she is older than she is, and then getting frustrated that people expect so much from her because she looks about 10.

babies sorted in to age order

After that she did some pages from her maths book while I made some bread. Maths is not her favourite subject, but she does so well and we keep chipping away at it daily. We generally do maths in a more practical sense, through cooking, gardening, money and other practical applications such as making things which involves measuring.

We do use the Carol Vorderman series of work books and Verona is currently working through a times table book.

boring maths!

After that we learned about homophones. Verona loves English and has always had a love of words, stories, reading, poems and anything else to do with words - talking mainly! She wrote sentences using words like hare and hair, pair and pear and their, there and they’re and drew illustrations.

Then it was time for an experiment!

Verona was suggesting we got rid of all the clocks in the house yesterday. For a girl who is obsessed about being a minute late for anything I found this unusual! Anyway, we went for a walk into the field to find one long stick and twelve ‘markers’. We weren’t successful in the field, but we enjoyed the walk anyway; spotting birds and identifying trees.

In the end she rummaged through the garage and found some perfect offcuts off wood and a long stick…

At 10am we went outside and put her stick into the ground. We looked at where the shadow fell and put in a marker. I told her we had to leave it for an hour and go and put the next marker in. I think she had the idea already! Our times were a bit haphazard due to the sun going in and out all day. We managed 10am, 11am, 12:30, 1:30, 2pm and 3:30. Tomorrow we’ll go outside and see if we can tell what the time is by using our sundial.

sundial showing 10am

It was a lovely day, so she played outside on the swing, trampoline and in her favourite tree while I did some work inside. Then she came in did some dancing. She has a friend and they are planning some singing and dancing routines together. It’s all very top secret at the moment; all I know is that Verona is dancing and her friend is making up some songs to sing. I’m sure all will be revealed in time! Before she came back inside, Verona noticed that the shadow had now moved around from her original marker.

practising her dance routine

After putting another marker in the ground for her ‘natural clock’ we made some pastry for an apple and blackberry pie. Verona loves helping in the kitchen and readily tells me she could live on her own now because she can cook!

learning to make pastry using only the fingertips

Inspired by the pastry, Verona asked to make playdough. I showed her how to make it, but something went horribly wrong! We ended up with a bright pink seething mass which, fair play to her, she worked and worked at until it became the right texture. I think we must have added far too much liquid, but she just kept working in flour until it worked out ok!

sticky playdough!

While I made lunch, I gave Verona another chore to do. This time she was in charge of matching up my plastic containers with their lids. She complained that she had only done this recently, but I explained that I can’t put the lid on after washing them otherwise they can go bad. After that we put the washing out and she played until lunch was ready.

Lunch was a ceremoniously named ‘a plate of stuff’ - cottage cheese, sliced turkey, cucumber, tomatoes, pepper slices, buttered rice cakes, an apple, some dates, raisins and a few crisps - anything that needed using from the bottom of packets or the ‘fridge! The she served up her blackberry and apple pie with cream for a delicious pudding.

I made it all by myself

After that we had ‘quiet time’. This is some down time we have every day where Verona goes to her bedroom to play or read and I go to mine to read or sleep. It means we both get some space from each other and we come out refreshed and ready to continue with our day together.

As we are grabbing as much sun as we can at the moment, Verona spent some time cleaning up her Wendy house. She loves clearing it out, sorting and changing things about. She uses it for playing in and rescuing poorly insects. It’s great that she has a small space to take care of which is solely hers. She is free to do as she wishes in there and all the things I say NO to in the house (mud, dung beetles, water and dying insects) she can indulge in as well as rearranging things and doing what she likes without me breathing down her neck. Also she can keep it as messy as she chooses without HAVING to tidy it.

After that we had to get ready to go out for some errands and her weekly swimming lesson. Verona announced that her teacher had said she was very good at life saving. Unfortunately this is her last lesson for a while, as they need to sort her out a new teacher. We’ll probably go to another pool that we can all enjoy.

Once we were back home, Verona was very hungry, so had a hearty fry up of potatoes, beans and eggs. After that we did some work on the Victorians and the food they ate. She was quite shocked to see that children were responsible for plucking chickens; there were no supermarkets then! She is particularly fascinated by ‘poor children’ and ‘poor animals’ and often role plays having no possessions and nothing to eat.

Learning about the Victorians

At the end of a busy day, it was time for another walk before bed at 7:30. Verona usually spends time in the evening in her bedroom, reading to some unearthly hour, drawing pictures, playing with her babies or writing stories. If she doesn’t have to get up the next morning and she is fit and healthy I let her read until she wishes. If she is below par physically or we have to be up next day, it’s lights out at 9pm.

We always end the day with a cuddle and asking each other about the worst and best part of our day. It’s a great way to debrief, discuss anything that needs talking about and end the day on a positive note.

And I wonder why I don’t have time to clean the house!