Answers...

To answer a couple of questions that came up yesterday...

Janine - To make it happen I need to be in a place financially where I can work part time. I do, do a little bit of it now part time. It's a specialised subject, and I would only be sharing that knowledge on a part time basis only. I also love teaching young children. I think they deserve to have a mix of experienced and inexperienced teachers, as both bring different skills.

Mrs Frizz - Yeah, wouldn't it have been funny if they did arrive early! One Mum, jokingly said she couldn't get there at that time, so she'd just leave her daughter for the night, and the kids around me all were like...oh is she staying the night, that's not fair, can we too...umm don't think so guys, just because you all think we live here! Of course we had a chat about the meaning of the morning and then they spent the rest of the morning telling each other four year old 'jokes' and laughing their heads off...

Mich - Yep, your right any teaching has to be fun. Up until around eight years old children learn through doing. They have to have a base knowledge of experiences to build on. Even as adults we learn best through doing. This list is by no means the be all and end all, just some things that would fit somewhere into most families routines.

*Getting dressed - do you want the blue or the green shirt? Don't do this with every item of clothing, they lose interest to quick.

*Shopping - can you grab the red can? Okay, I know initally it means shopping takes an hour or three longer, so pick your days when you do this.

*Cooking dinner - can you grab the milk from the fridge, the one with the blue top...

*Tidy up - you do the blue cars, and I'll do the red ones...

*Bath time - now this is fun, and boys especially love it! While the bath is running and they are watching, add a few drops of food colouring to the bath - get them to choose the colour, make it a Friday night 'treat' because they tidied up all those green cars LOL! I've never had it stain our bath...so I have to say it's pretty safe...but be sensible...and remember jif removes most things! (You can add shaving cream too, thats a great sensory experience for children, try writing names etc with it - it's a fun way to add literacy).

I imagine you will be adding to the list yourself now. Remember if you get young children to sit and they don't want to, then they probably are spending more time thinking about how they can get out of this, than listening to you. If they can pick up their green cars, and they know when Dad's Holden arrives home, that it's yellow - they know their colours...

Alison - Do you have a rotary clothesline at home? One at a time, get your boys to hold onto a bar close into the pole (because it's strongest point is there) and slowly spin them around. They might not even go once round the first time. Don't worry. Do this each day if you can, and you will start to see a difference - depends how often you do it, in regards to the time it takes to see a change, but if daily, about three months give or take. And it's fun. They may want to go fast, because it's more euphoric, that's not a problem occasionally (we all love that sense hitting us!). Slow spinning helps with balance. But that's a whole subject on it's own. I'll write more about that another day, if anybody wants to know about it. And of course there is the other ideas from yesterday with regards to sqeezy bottles in the bath etc - and they will help too.