A walk to the stables

A walk to the stables
Tamerin at the horses: we walked there on Thursday and talked rugby nearly all the way!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Last day of school of First Term 2009

We had a wonderful last day of term last week: Tammy and her family came to our farm for an outing. First we had a lovely picnic on the stoep and then we climbed up the koppie (hill) behind the house. It is not very high or far, but it is quite steep.

Tammy and her brother climbing up the rocks. Since doing water aerobics, Tammy's general muscle tone has improved much and so has her balance and stamina. She climbed up with far greater ease than December last year when they first came to visit.

Tammy's grandmother and her mom.


On top of the world. Tammy still had a fever blister: she had tonsillitis last week. The spare tyre around her waist is slowly but surely getting thinner and thinner.

Ouma Vossie posing with the horse, with brother Shaen and cousin Lee standing by. Tammy has always been fond of horses, so riding had to be included of course. Hendrik was at home, so that worked out well. I wouldn't want to saddle and handle the horses myself.

Tammy on horseback. She has several toy horses. Last year we read "My secret Unicorn". Getting onto the real thing was a little intimidating, but Tammy seemed to really enjoy it.

Big smile before the dismount!

Shaen's turn.

While waiting their turns, the cousins had fun playing with the dogs.

Mommy's turn!

This has been a great term. There has been noteworthy progress in especially the following areas:
  • Spelling and ability to "make out" words. Big improvement.
  • Pronunciation generally and especially of "long" words like "electricity".
  • Ability to use multiplication purposefully e.g. every day she has to calculate how many problems or sums she had by adding the amount in a column with the number of columns. (She usually did about 60 sums per day.) After counting and deducting the mistakes, she has to work out the percentage on the calculator. She also converted Rand to Dollars. We will do much more of this as their trip draws close.
  • Ability to determine "highest" or "lowest" number.
  • Ability to read the thermometer.
  • Knowledge of sport (cricket and rugby) and awareness of political parties in South Africa (We have an election coming up.)
  • Understanding of the meaning of Easter.
  • General fitness and improved muscle tone, coordination and balance
Most noticeable challenges:
  • Creative language (Speech and written language).
  • Adding - this is a bigger problem than multiplication!
  • To improve her posture

Have a Happy Easter. We will be back on 20 April 2009

4 comments:

Heather said...

Great job! It is beautiful there! I am curious to know how your school year is set up... how many terms/how much time between?

Jan and Miekie said...

Hi Heather
We have 4 terms per year - starting more or less mid January till end of March, (3 weeks vacation) Mid- April till end of June,(3 weeks vacation) Mid July till last week of Sept (one week vacation) and Oct till first week of Dec. ( 5-6 weeks summer vacation.) Our homeschool schedule is slightly different from the government schools: we follow Tammy's brother's private school time table - so we have only a 2 week vacation now. Our school year runs with the calendar year i.e. Jan - December.

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

Happy Easter to you, too! Great way to end the term!!

Jan and Miekie said...

Hi Mrs C
I hope you had a great Easter too!