This was the same one we went to last year, but this time I was working, filming the goings-on, which meant that Finn and Orry were happily hanging out with friends separate from me as I got on with this. A lovely time was had:
You'll note the fine set of warm clothes on Finn & friend here - we were very pleased to dig Finn & Orry's out of the cupboard, and fine things they are too:
Not to be outdone, in outfits anyway, of course, is Oshin, who grew into fitting this beautiful thing - isn't he a cute one:
Not so cute is the state in which those two older boys can get things into when they 'play':
Of course, part of this is playing - getting out the block, for instance, and building things with them. But then they don't get put away, even with the promise to do so upon getting the ok to tip them all out, because, of course, they're 'playing with them' and so they need to be left everywhere.
Slightly different to this is Orry's playing, which often is very avid chopping or sellotaping, which he will then just walk away from, blissfully free of conscience. It's a real struggle to get him, and them to tidy up!
Also annoying is Play Doh, which Orry really likes. He got a new set for Christmas for Christmas, which we'd been putting off getting out due to the mess it makes and the dedication it takes to manage it, but at least he got out the hair-cutting stuff:
He had good fun with that, as he does wherever he finds the stuff, even if sometimes unconventionally:
Other play is less painful, such as when Cori found these things at the tip, which they had good fun inventing games with:
Oshin, of course, loves his bouncer (and Cori loves it too, when it lets her grab 10 minutes away from him getting at least something done!):
I spoke of having a shocking success of a walk in January. This was in great contrast to a walk we tried this month, up Sneafell.
The weather looked good and it was relatively warm, in Peel. But not so up the mountain, though things started off ok lower down and when we were moving relatively quickly upwards:
However, things began to go wrong when Orry decided that he needed to take a rock back to Cori. Not a small one, but a really large one. This one:
Seeing what a bad idea it was, I told him that he shouldn't and that I wasn't going to help him with it if he did. Mistake, for both of us. Thus ensued Orry getting tired and teary at having to carry the heavy rock, in the cold and wind, and getting in a muddle over trying to rebel by going slower, but then getting colder and further from Finn. I tried to reason with him, telling him to leave it there for when we came back down, but by this time he was past it into irrational, crying that the seagulls would get it. (From the fear of them stealing food on the Peel shore). I tried to say that seagulls don't steal rocks, and then pointed to the clear (cloudy) sky, but there was no getting around his near-hysterical fear of it all!
By this time Finn had gone ahead, got to the top, got scared, and come back down to us, at which point he carried the damn rock up. At the top they cowered from the cold wind and got cold as I got to the very top, and came back down to them quite and miserable. The walk down was miserable too, but it got frantic and painful when it began to hail, heavily. I have to put my scarf over by head to stop the pain of the things hitting me on the head, and the children were all crying in pain and misery by the time we got back to the car. - Not a success!
For our next weekend adventure we chose to just go to the library:
This picture is how they start the journey back; as soon as their books are signed out, they scuttle out and read them on the steps as I finish my conversation and join them. They tend to not move until prompted, which is how I could walk straight past them and take this picture without them moving at all. - I liked the sight sufficiently that I then went inside to show our friend behind the counter in the library. She was very pleased to see children enjoying books so!
(And they go up the street reading too, one each, with the rest safely stored in the bad - a lovely thing to see).
Prompted by this talk of books, this is probably the point at which to note Orry's continued phenomenal development in reading. He never ceases to amaze us in how he just picks it up. And without our teaching him at all really.
For instance, this is one of the rare occasions where I was reading with him (besides at bed time when I read to them). As you'll see, it's really just him reading, with me helping out with the occasional word which doesn't read off the page. But the words he does know, somehow!, are amazing - honestly amazing:
And he gets better all the time, on a steep trajectory such that by the end of the month, we would say almost without qualification that Orry can read. This is him reading a book he'd just got from the tip:
We are honestly amazed at his reading. We know that reading is just one aspect of a child's development, and it doesn't therefore mean that he's a genius, or that he's especially intelligent, but it is rather exciting to think that perhaps he is something special. We feel like perhaps we should start to make ready in some way, to try and not let him lose that eagerness to learn and ease of achieving it. If he were able to retain that special ability to take on things like this so easily into his life later on, he would be something special and with much more potential than his parents ever had/have.
Perhaps his ability with reading is linked to his annoying strong-willedness. This manifests itself in things like the spirtle he was inspired to get by his book when they came across it in the tip (full respect to Cori for knowing what it was!):
So it was that we had to suffer Orry wanting porridge for ever meal, just so he could stir it with his damn spirtle!
On the topic of Orry, we were delighted with this lovely Valentines themed butterfly he brought back from nursery:
He was very pleased to present it Cori, which prompted her to ask him what it meant so that he could tell her ('I love you'). But he had no idea, and seemed disappointed that that was what it did mean.
Never mind!
Having seen a lovely home-made art-work at a friend's, Cori was inspired to do it herself with the boys for our own wall. So it was that she set them to the collage task, with drawing, cutting and sticking - a brilliant task for them both! - with the picture she found in the tip:
The final result was a marvellous thing fit for wonder & awe:
It now hangs proudly in our kitchen.
As wonderful as the result and the activity was, it was incredibly labour intensive for Cori to manage it. So, despite their requests to do it more, she quietly hid the other picture that she had ready, so that she wouldn't have to do it again!
For want of introduction, here are the boys rather delightfully quietly playing as they listen to the radio waiting for me to appear one Sunday morning - a lovely thing:
They rest of February will be left over to a second post, but to finish this one off, here is a picture of that cute (through dribbly) Oshin:
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