Still Here - A Catch Up

We've been busy reorganizing the house and replacing some furniture for better storage solutions. It's taken all my time leading to me being way behind with my blog.

So, a little catch up -

Hannah has a new school area and desk. We found it in IKEA and it's perfect.

 She has been working at it this week and found it much easier to keep things organised. She has been reading Oliver Twist and working through the corresponding lessons in her Galore Park English book.

She also has Galore Park maths and history, Spectrum science and The Everything Kids Geography book which is really fun and interesting.

A friend told us about this online maths program The Maths Factor which Hannah tried last week. It really suits her, so we have signed up for it. There was a special offer of £14.99 for the first quarter (half normal price) which was even better!

Lily is growing so fast! She is almost 4 months old now, and despite all the cute sleeping pictures, is actually a whirlwind of crazy non-stop kitten!

Of course, there has been lots of stable time for Hannah as well, I asked her to take some pictures this week - this is what I got haha

and finally lots of skyping and real life hanging out with her friend Izzy. They chatter non- stop when they are together and speak to each other every single day.

Home-Schooling, Dancing, Riding and Pianos...

Hannah has been asking for a while now if she can try ballet classes. It's been 7 years since she had a term at ballet, but she really does love to dance so I've been looking at the local possibilities for her. We found three classes, we watched one, made an appointment to watch another, and the third (Hannah's favourite choice) invited her to try out a class last night. She loved it! She came out of the class so excitedly and couldn't wait to tell us all about the class, and the lovely teacher and how she even knew how to do some of the exercises. According to Hannah she is absolutely, definitely, no question, going back every week for ever!

Nervously waiting to go in, they were excited nerves though so all was well!

After the excitement of dance, we headed over to West Wittering to collect a piano that we had been offered. Hannah has had piano lessons, but we've never had a piano for her to practice on and she really does want to progress, so being given a piano is a fantastic opportunity for her. She is absolutely thrilled with it, and even happier that she can still remember everything she learnt in her lessons.

School-wise, we've been doing a lot more at home instead of going to classes, and that has been working out well. Hannah is using Khan Academy for maths (she previously hated maths - now she even quite likes it!), we are carrying on with the science and geography books we've been using, as those are working well, and have plans to do some lap-booking with a small group of friends after half term. Hannah is practicing her writing skills by making up her own mythical creatures project, inspired by Harry Potter, and with the new piano we have music covered as well.

On Tuesday Hannah had a pony morning at the stables. She had had a bad night (nighttime anxiety), very little sleep, and morning transport issues with a train strike and long bus journey. She was at about breaking point when we arrived, and I wasn't sure she was going to cope. But her riding instructor is so great with her, she got her started with her favourite pony straight away and all was well.  She told me afterwards that she went into Murphy's stable, put her arms around him, and it all melted away. I am so glad she has the stables. The people there, and the ponies are so good for her.

Pictures From The Stables

Hannah rode on Friday. She rode Dillon again and is getting on really well. She is able to be much more determined with him now when he messes her around (he's a cheeky little pony who likes to try his luck!) and is really gaining confidence. I've already posted a million pictures of her riding him so here are some yard pictures.

Freddie - Hannah's favourite pony

Dillon looking pretty muddy! 

It really is Dillon despite saying Patrick on the door!

Hannah and Dillon after the lesson.