Monday 20 April
Monday brought something very exciting for the two older boys - Orry's very own Maths workbook, and a magazine for Finn.
After Orry getting so much from Finn's maths worksheets recently, Cori thought it was a good idea to get him his own thing aimed at his age. She got a book aimed for Primary age, and he's very excited to get stuck into it. The only drawback is that it's a lot of sums - we're concerned that it won't be fun if he tries to do all 30 - 50 sums on every one of the 100 or so pages! But at least the level is just about for him, so it is a test of him keeping getting it right, rather than stressing about grasping new concepts or understanding tricky things.
Finn's magazine was The Week Junior, a review of the week's news, for kids. Finn loves it. Cori loved it less, having failed to predict that he would be telling her about every thing in there constantly! But at least he's getting a lot from it. It is a free trial, so we'll see how it goes after the month or two. (It's a shame it's UK based though, as I (James) fear that it will confuse things a little, to be speaking from the standpoint of England, when we don't live in that country... but we can't have everything!)
It's nice to have them like this at lunch:
Cori set up a new regime whereby the kids have to do some maths, reading and writing in the morning, and then the afternoon can be more relaxed or project-based learning.
This is also now being supported by Finn's teacher, who is doing a great job of supporting us in what he needs to be up to. (Orry's teacher less so, but it's trickier at his age perhaps, but he is fine to just join in with Finn's doings).
Today's subject was calendars, with the days of the weeks and the concepts of weeks and months. Besides the teaching/concept stuff, here was their product:
We were delighted when we saw on Facebook how epic & beautiful other children's ones were - it says so much about our two that this is what they did! Admire the lovely letter decoration from Orry though - lovely!
The writing was beginning this diary in Manx (which Finn took two or three days to get this far - he's not very quick):
The afternoon activity was Finn's choice and he chose to do a science experiment from one of his books - of a jar which rolled back on itself (i.e. you roll it one way, and when it stops, it rolls back a little), thanks to a rubber banks inside. They loved it:
Beside the usual exercise etc., Cori also admired her need to wash her hair...
Tuesday 21st April
There was more 'clock maths' today. It's tricky stuff for them to get.
They had a story, about Norman the Snail, in Manx. This worked well for them both as Orry understood enough to listen well as Finn read it out, and he read bits too. Then it was a good test for Finn to give the story in English for each page.
The afternoon activity was Orry's choice today, so he chose something from one of his art books, which included pastels - something we'd never don before with them. They (all) loved it:
The weather was lovely so we went for a very nice walk around the now-one-way Peel Castle:
Oshin always has a lovely time out. Here are two little videos of how he is out and about:
After this we successfully still managed to get exercise in, following which they continued enjoying short programmes about Shakespeare on BBC Teach. However, we made the mistake of watching the cartoon-animated song about Macbeth, which included a castle oozing blood. He didn't like that!
At bed-time I was amazed that Orry read the entire Manx version of a Topsy & Tim book. I got it for Finn to read, but Orry started when Finn was still in the loo, and he didn't want to stop, so he read it through. He didn't understand it all, but the pictures got the meaning over, and Finn helped with some of the pronunciations, but I was truly amazed by how good he was at reading in this language with different rules about how to pronounce things. Wonderful stuff!
Wednesday 22nd April
Today's work included 'clapping maths', and rewriting yesterday's story of Norman the Snail. Here is Finn's:
(Finn's spelling and writing are not good. We hadn't realised he was this bad at them. They are things we're glad we now know about and we obviously need to do something about them).
The afternoon activity was another art project, using watercolour pencils which Cori was surprised to have found in the art box, and doing the Manx version of the common 'Stay Safe' signs for the windows. Everyone had good fun and the pictures came out really well:
And here they are up in the window (the next day, once they were dry):
Here is Oshin's black toe, having dropped something on it on the weekend:
During Oshin's nap Cori finished off the long-proposed onsie for Orry, which he was very excited by, as you can see:
Note in the background the mound of recycling in the end of the kitchen there. There's not much we can do about this with the recycling centre closed at the moment. We just have to suffer it, sadly. But at least Oshin enjoys digging through it for things to throw around every now and again!
Thursday 23rd April
Today's school task was recreating the activity which everyone would have liked to have been doing. Finn and Orry chose camping, which they did a lovely job of re-making, complete with marshmallows:
You will note that Orry's marshmallow in somewhat larger in that final picture - they had to redo the picture so that Orry could up the size of it to this!
During Oshin's nap Cori was delighted to finish her own project - a new pair of dungarees for herself - good work:
Orry decided to make crosswords today. We don't know what inspired it, but it was entirely his idea. Cori only needed to step in when he was trying to do it by doing the boxes first and then trying to think up the words for them!
He did a great job of it:
We were ready early, with dinner slowly cooking, so we headed out to the Headlands for a kick around with the football:
Orry's not been fussed about joining in the exercise of late, so it was lovely to get him out excitedly running around, declaring himself the ball-getter so that he was the one to run off down the hill after mis-kicks etc.
Oshin also enjoyed a quick kick-around, and then a play in the dirt, as you do:
Friday 24th April
The boys were introduced to group drawings where each person doesn't see what the others have drawn. Obviously, they loved it:
Perhaps more educational was the continuation of their stories which they've been working on.
Here is Finn's:
And here is Orry's:
As is now apparently normal with Joe Wicks, exercise was done in fancy-dress. The boys chose to be pirates:
As we were exercising was when Cori went out on an enormous shopping trip (the first real one for two weeks). Cori had planned it perfectly last time, meaning that we could last the two weeks and have almost nothing left in the fridge at the end of it - we were all very impressed by her skills!
The after-exercise BBC Teach today was not on Shakespeare (as they came to the end of the ones for their age), but on Mary Seacole. This sent them up excitedly to seek her out in one of their books, which was good.
After Oshin's initial wailing at her absence, every settled down nicely to a nice meal and a relatively painless put-down as Cori was out.
Cori heroically managed her shopping even after crawling the car to Foxdale after she discovered the slow leak in the tyre meant she had to get it re-pumped at an open petrol station - Foxdale!
Saturday 25th
Saturday brought Cori's first swim since Easter, with her going out even further than normal - out beyond the Castle from Fenella beach - which she enjoyed greatly.
This left us at home with me and Orry (and Oshin!) doing some Manx language puzzles:
These I swiped from work. They were really for learners of the language, rather than immersive beginner-speakers, but they were the sorts of games which Orry enjoys, so it was good for him. Of course, I was impressed by how many words he had, and even some of the unusual grammar (e.g. he knew that it is 'one cat', 'two cat', 'three cats' in Manx - plurals starting at three, not two - though he had to be reminded by the game):
As he was working on those (and Oshin was working on the play food, as you see in the pictures!), I worked up another game for Orry, which he did excellently at, understanding the written Manx perfectly. It was a fill-in-the-blanks without knowing what the other person had written before. We all had great fun at this:
("My name is teacher, I live in Ramsey, I like a toilet but I don't like pirates!!! Yesterday, I went to space to visit the poo house. The woman said, Aaaaaaaa!, and I did a poo.")
Since my Manx is better than Cori's at the moment, it is my job to try and do some Manx with them at the weekends, and this did the job nicely. It also meant that Orry learnt a new work - 'poo' - though I'm unsure that I'll be thanked for it when he's back in school!
Finn wasn't a part of these activities as he finished all his library books yesterday except for the last three - which are the first three Harry Potter books. Inevitably, he was hooked, and gorged himself in the book all day:
One of the problems for the Isle of Man during these Covid19 weeks is that the supply chains which took the fish fro the fishing boats have been closed off. This has left the fishing boats in a dire state, with a catch but no way to get it to the usual customers. They have tried to mitigate this by selling directly to people, via Facebook or friend-of-a-friend sales.
Cori is the household seafood eater so she was excited by this and so asked around and treating herself to 5 scallops for £3 (they were sold in a batch of 15 for £8, but she sold 10 to her friend round the corner). She was delighted when they arrived, fresh from the ship after her return from the sea:
She had to put off dealing with these as I had to go and do a bit of work recording a podcast interview about Manx folklore (very enjoyable for me!):
While I was doing this, Cori was helping Orry do a collage (as Finn read Harry Potter). This was how the marvellous thing finished, after a couple of days working at it:
Note that he felt the need to record their names on the back - very important!
After I emerged, Cori got stuck into her freshly-YouTube-researched skill of shucking & cooking scallops - not work for the feint-hearted, but Cori was up to the challenge:
Meanwhile, I deflected Oshin from trying to draw on every book going by getting down the books which are made for just that - he was very happy!
With everyone else cooking-happy, collage-happy or reading-happy, it was just Oshin and I who ventured out, down to kick the rock in the lovely weather:
The (rubbish) picture of Oshin on a bench was indication that this was what he decided we needed to do - clamber up and sit on the bench, for only a second or two - on every bench we passed!
The final picture here was the one I took to send back to Cori to tell her I was done letting him wander about and was carrying him home!
At home this was the meal Cori created for herself:
Very swanky, and perfect for her as none of us fancied even trying it, let alone trying to take it from her!
Sunday 26th April
Completely inspired by my conversation for the podcast of the day before, and a conversation with a friend about trying to find the location of the house, we decided to go out to Doarlish Cashen, the home of Gef, the famous talking mongoose, the Dalby Spook.
The government announced that the ban on non-essential travel on Friday, so for the first time in weeks people could travel for exercise, including walks. Apparently it was terrible in the glens yesterday, with crowds of people out, but there was no one out on Dalby Mountain on Sunday - we had the place to ourselves:
Getting Orry to come on a walk without complaining is rare, but they all know about Gef and his antics, so he was excited to come and to play a trick on Cori, secretly bringing his 'Gef' puppet and hiding behind the hedge to shout "Coo-ee!" - Cori had a good laugh:
It was good to have clever-Cori there, as she was able to put me right on where the house was (not where I had thought it was):
This she confirmed later by realised that one of the main images is a mirror-reverse of what it should be:
Another part of the excitement for Orry was leaving some chocolate for Gef, since that was one of his favourite foods. Just a single button, as we discussed on the way home whether we thought he still had a body, or whether he was now just a ghostly-spirit:
Also on the way back we were sorry to see a lamb where we had seen it last, weakly bleating and untended for in the hedge:
Cori then spent the next hour expertly messaging friends and Facebook posting to find the farmer, who was delighted to be told about the thing, so they could go and tend to them. Cori was very happy!
We got a delivery from friends today, including a bath-robe for Oshin, which matched Orry's, which everyone was delighted by:
We even put them to good use by having a bath (at last!), but not before Oshin developed an utterly reckless new game, without any encouragement from Cori!
Another week done - phew!
