we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym – woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.
today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!
BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.
we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.
SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.
SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.
a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.
chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!
I will have to have a proper look through all your mentioned French resources as Buttercup has decided she wants to learn French. Earlier this summer it was Italian, and I’ve been pushing her towards Spanish like Gwenny, but she seems to have settled on French. So if there’s anything you have that you’d particularly recommend or not bother with, I’d love to know
The French is paying off
SB was great this morning, and more confident in speaking and having a guess at words than she was last term. I think I need to have a look at all your resources too 
Scary Avatar it’s given you Katy
thanks katy, it is so ad hoc, and i worry my pronunciation all wrong! i will do a page on the side. it is all rather informal. glad it is working though, as i am after confidence rather than competence at the mo!
oh, and yes a very scary non-you type avatar!!
have done a page
]
http://petitsharicots.org.uk/weblog/french-for-now/
i would recommend the lucy chat, the usborne apple tree farm and the i can read french for doing together. the read and write french and the toddler bilingual books and bonjour mes amis for having a stab at on her own, if thats how you would think of doing it. we have the usborne spanish video, which i lie, and i am guessing the first fun with french would be similarly OK [the girls like the bottom peaking out from the towel
i am sorely tempted by the idea of this book though – french for children