Developmental updates...

Well Lychee made some serious leaps in the last fortnight and is now putting together two words on a fairly regular basis (eg 'Nice teddy' or 'eggs hot!'), has learnt to say her brothers name (he'd previously just been known as 'brother'), can ride a scooter (slowly) and recognises, points to and reads the words for several shapes (circle, square, heart, diamond, oval and star - still struggling with rectangle and triangle).

Cosmo has also been doing well and his bike riding is getting better and better.

We watched a documentary on autism (well, I did - he walked in for ten minutes at the end) and he asked a few questions, most pointedly 'do I have autism?' and I answered him, 'yes'.

We had a chat and I explained that he didn't have it as severely as the little boy in the program, to which he responded that he probably did because he felt like doing all those things, but didn't because I would tell him off.

I pointed out that the little boy in the show was getting told off but he didn't mind because he couldn't help behaving that way. He's not convinced, but at least we can talk about it now. I'm not sure why I hadn't told him about the diagnosis before, but he seems to be okay with it, so I probably could have said something sooner.

He also did an amazing job with his memory verse today and taught it to the whole family at dinner time. I'm so proud of him!

Mr Bloom's Nursery

As we are studying plants and trees in honour of Tu Bishvat, we have started looking out for all things gardening related.

Yesterday we went to the garden centre to buy pots and compost for our new fruit trees which will arrive at some point next week. We are getting two apples (braeburn and golden delicious), a plum, a pear and a cherry, with a blackcurrant and a redcurrant bush too. Cosmo chose which pots we wanted and worked out which compost was the cheapest (not by weight, just by packet - but there wasn't much in it so I let it slide).

Then we came home and it was time for everyone to nap. Cosmo has been a little unwell recently (in large part down to the fact that he hates swimming and the stress of the lessons is wearing him out for the next few days - we are evaluating whether to continue) so we have been having more 'cuddle time' in a blanket on the sofa whilst Lychee naps. He doesn't like to admit to needing a nap, but often drifts off if I put something on iPlayer.

That's when I discovered Mr Blooms Nursery.

We've seen it before, but only ever one episode (weirdly iplayer just had one about ladybugs that was on all the time and nothing else) but when we clicked on to it yesterday, there were LOADS of episodes, and they're pretty educational too, especially for someone studying plants and trees.

Cosmo learned how to make 'nettle tea' as a treat for his plants, and that horse manure helps give them the nutrients to grow properly, as well as that they need sunlight for energy. None of these are entirely new concepts, but it helps with reinforcement of learning, and repetition at this age is key to absorbing information.

So if you want to watch a couple too, in no particular order, here are our favourites:

Grand Veggie Fete

Secret friends

Thank You Compo

Rock Candy!

We've really been enjoying watching the Frozen Planet series on BBC iplayer as a family on Sunday afternoon's. Lychee pretty much sleeps through it, but Cosmo is fascinated. So much so that the other week he clicked 'more like this' and found 'The Secret Life of Ice' and begged to be allowed to watch. It looked educational so I figured 'why not'? In fact, it looked a little too educational. I didn't think he'd last more than a few minutes.

I was wrong.

Not only did we end up watching the entire episode, he asked LOADS of relevant questions. I was amazed. The bit he found most amazing was how ice crystals formed under pressure (hot ice) and how supercooled water could form crystals instantly. In fact he though crystals in general were amazing and so we decided to look at them a bit more closely.

We made Rock Candy lollies.

If you want to have a go, the basic instructions are here. We made it a bit more exciting by doing jars with different coloured food dyes and flavourings in them, and put them in our boiler room to speed up the process. The most interesting part was that some of the colours/flavourings behaved differently and the crystals came out all different shapes and sizes, so we were able to talk about large crystals forming more slowly than small crystals etc...

I'd really encourage you to have a go with this experiment. It was great fun. Even a three year old (properly supervised with the hob) is able to carefully measure out the correct amounts of the ingredients and stir until they are completely dissolved.

I wish we'd taken photos, but we didn't, so here are some I stole from google, but they look pretty much the same.