10 Days to go

Preparing for kindy -
On the weekend we took the twins to the Powerhouse Museum. they loved it. Hannah got a bit wild and tired running riot but she also loved the 80s music - good girl that she is! Now it is time to encourage focus on tehrapeutic play and school enhancing routines. I have had mixed success with breakfasts - Hannah just doens't like to eat too early in the morning but I also know she doesn't eat much at school (well she didn't at preschool) so I still have a few strategies to try to get her used to the idea that breakfast is important. Tv in the morning still needs refining - but that is more my slackness - Kit insists on getting up at 6am and it is just too easy for us to leave him in front of the tele while we catch a bit more sleep - which makes it hard to turn the tele off a little later - jsut as Hannah gets up.

Hannah had a good OT session today then we visited a friend of mine and her 2 kiddos. We all went to the park and that was a lot of fun. There were a couple of awkward boys (about 12yo) I guess - poor darlings - it really is a most unattractive stage - yet they nice boys and Kit and the other 2 kids with us had soon engaged them in a game of chasings. Later on 3 girls arrived - 2 13 yo? and another about 8 I guess. Hannah thought that was cool and approached them for a cuddle and was pretty quick in trying to boss them around. Until then she had stayed apart playing on the swing so it was nice to see her join in with others. They all sat together on the small slide - which would have made a great photo!

DH is out at a work do so it feels good to be able to put some happy tired kids to sleep and then to sit up with a little time for me. Tomorrow Hannah has a 30 mins swimming lesson with a special needs instructor then we are meeting a friend who has 2 kiddos - (one about the twins age with DS) for a play at an indoor centre - all good gross motor!

The OT today commented on how much stronger her upper body strength was - must have been all the digging in the sand on holidays - oh and pushing the grown ups out of the way! She has another OT session on Wed and speech on Thursday. I have left Friday free and not much is happening at the start of next week - cos then it is school.

I still have to label their uniforms, make a pecs book for Hannah to use at home - as part of her prep to use it at school.

I am pleased with how she has grown over the holidays. She is getting more confident and is more keen to engage in play with other kids although she still needs a lot of encouragement with that.

She has also been doing lots of help with cooking - on Sunday she and Kit helped me make hotcakes for breakfast and then their father make pizza for dinner. Cooking has lots of skills that they really enjoy - measuring, stirring, talking about what we are doing. We also played a game of snakes and ladders - to try and get Han so familiar witht he dice that she recognises the 'look' of 3, 4, 5 etc without actually counting them (which she can do quite well) and that was fun. I won! It's tough love here in the Dock, if they want to win that way they have to play Grandpa.

They also played for ages iwth playdoh on the weekend and set up an elaborate picnic/birthday party. They have been using the wonderful dollshouse that Pop made Hannah as the setting for playing too - they have a campervan each and set off from the house for a picnic - it is too cute really.

Kit has had a hideous dose of lice so I did Hannah and myself as well yesterday - now I thought that that was something I wouldn't have to worry about until they were actually at school - not as part of the 'getting ready' activity programme!!