We've had Keas (they had a guide dog and his owner come to visit), been on the big Keas National Trek over the weekend where they all had a games day followed by a trek up a big hill. Later on Simon took Nathan on a big bike ride on his new bike and he got to try out the gears on all the slopes.

A real home-bound day yesterday with the torrential downpours, but fortunately no need to be out in them!

Nathan got out Blokus so we all had a game. Danielle also had out the Cadoo game and discovered if she looked through the glasses that come with it and realised that the red tiles from the Blokus turn clear. Good little colour and light discussion came about.

Danielle then got out Whoosit (guess who) for a few games.

Nathan wanted to play Cadoo. Until I haven't played it with him (got it a few years back to have on hand when he was old enough). Since it's usually just he and I who play games together it made it a bit tricky playing the game properly since you need to do what is on each card for the other person to guess. I said to him jokingly, if he could read the cards then I will play with him. Well, it seemed to be the motivation he needed to go from can-read-but-doen't-like-having-to-figure-out-what-stuff-says-unless-necessary to taking the time to read out the cards so we could enjoy a game. And another game. And another.

He's also been enjoying playing with his Top Trumps card game that he got for his birthday.

Interesting how the maths knowledge develops in a kid who hasn't had any formal sit down time. Nathan was looking at a couple of sheets of stickers that Danielle had bought the day before. He noticed that one sheet had 34 stickers and the other 45. I heard him talking to Simon in the morning saying "if I add the 3 and the 4 that is 7 which becomes 70 and then the 4 and the 5 are 9 so that's 79". The only previous discussion we had was a few weeks back and he got it. I showed him later how that is represented on paper with the ones and tens columns, but the moment had passed. Will be interesting to see what happens when he comes to numbers that need carrying over...

Danielle's been very busy dressing and playing with her baby, beading,