Old Columbans

 Ellie joined us again this morning. Urban-Cub had had to wake her to bringer round at 7:30 and she will be with us until midday tomorrow. She's been very good today.

We spent part of the morning working with phonic flash cards to help her with her alphabet and basic reading. When bored with that, the Gorse Fox had to return to her imaginary restaurant along with various dolls and cuddly toys. 

The postman arrived. He was delivering a Numicon Home Set. This is a collection of shapes which help a child get to grips with numbers and patterns. This was our next diversion. To be fair, she did quite well. After the first "game", however, she got bored and wandered away. This will have to be used in small bursts until she grows to love maths!

After lunch Ellie helped the Silver Vixen make a strawberry muffin and then asked to go to the park. The Gorse Fox took her. We struck lucky. As we approached the park we could see Ellie's friend Bonnie was playing there with her sister Ivy, under the watchful eye of mum. This changed the whole complexion of the interlude. Eventually, Bonnie had to leave. Ellie lasted about 5 minutes more and then asked to go home. Once we were home she helped the Gorse Fox prepare a curry for tonight's dinner... and then sat down to some sausages, rice, and sweet corn, herself.

The Gorse Fox recently noticed an advert for the Old Columban's over-65s lunch. He hadn't seen any email or invite so chased it up. Within minutes he had an invite and has now RSVPd and booked his train tickets.