Skipping Day

We were both born in Scarborough. In Scarborough, on Shrove Tuesday life stops for the children of the town. Schools throw open their doors for the afternoon and release the crazed tiny humans, traffic on the seafront is halted and the kids ram the foreshore to skip in a hoard of thousands. It's fabulous. There's a skipping bell, pancake races... all that kind of thing. It's to do with the town's fishing heritage. It's fun. I like a good tradition, so Skipping Day is one we've passed on to Katie. I don't take her to Scarborough, but we always skip. Today we went out early for school so we could skip before school. She's getting good! Mummy had a skip too. 

Leaving to skip came after a fabulous piano time. She has had such good practise time the last couple of days. She's really getting the hang of "how" to practise - that it's not just playing through your pieces and exercises a few times each, but breaking down the new areas and really working at a single phrase to master it, separating hands to perfect tricky areas... all these things. And it paid off with some brilliant progress on two new pieces. She was really proud of herself.

She said she'd had a good day at school - her and one of her group were given a maths challenge that they completed so they each got a big marble for the class jar (worth 10 marbles) and she got one for being kind. She said how much she'd enjoyed working with Isabelle. They went to preschool together but drifted a little at school, although they're in the same sets for literacy and numeracy. She had some happy time playing with her oldest friend, which they both reported home on with delight. She did though fall and bang her head in the playground. She was most upset about the state her lovely hat was in as a result, no marks to her head.  We walked home from school and she was telling me all this when she fell over again and scrubbed her hands! 

She had her music lesson after a quick tea. It was a great lesson - she worked really hard. She had fun and was delightful, but achieved a lot too - in all areas. It's now a three instrument lesson, plus some theory and aural training, though the recorder has reduced in time to allow the clarinet to progress. When she began, she worked for a maximum of 20 minutes really. Now, her lessons are an hour long usually. Both because she doesnt want them to end and because her teacher thinks of new, extra things to do. I think they may be both having as much fun as the other. She did some good listening games, both on the clarinet and in her aural practises. She moved on to some new notes on her clarinet. She did some great recorder sight reading. Her piano was great. Thrilled to bits with her. 

After music, we came home and were very happy to find Granny, Grandad AND THE BUNNIES!! They haven't actually returned to us since their Christmas holiday, so it was wonderful to have them back. They are now residing in our lounge whilst we work on a new special outside home for them. A giant stack of pancakes for tea, a mini clarinet recital and now the tired little pickle is in bed ready for some stories. I'm having to get used to the bunnies making noises unexpectedly and making me jump!