Ms5 Update
8 weeks is isolation, time is weird. About a month ago Ms4 became Ms5.
She was very disappointed to not be able to have a party, but at least I was able to make a cake to her exacting specifications (which she kindly wrote down for me, as well as supervising the decoration).
She enjoyed her gifts, which included a jewelry box from Grandma, books, Lego (Trolls set, she loves Poppy), Frozen figurines, and a Frozen Play-Doh toy. I'm also glad that we had the chance to go and see Frozen 2 before the cinemas all closed.
I think she has mostly accepted (but not forgotten!) the lack of party, but is very keen to remind everyone on a regular basis that she is 5 now, just in case anyone might have missed it.
She now measures 118cm tall, mostly wearing size 6 or 7 clothes. Despite a tendency to change her outfit a couple of times a day when she's at home, she doesn't need any more clothes.
An eon ago we finished moving the kids into their own rooms, here is Ms5's.
She has very quickly become accustomed to having her own space, there don't seem to have been any regrets about no longer having her brother for company. She also likes being able to close the door and keep the cat out at night (Mr8 never wanted the door closed, he doesn't like the dark).
We were trying to encourage her to go to sleep on her own instead of needing us to lie down with her, but with the stress and uncertainty of life at the moment we've put that aside and she still enjoys being cuddled as she falls asleep at night.
She seems to have more books, toys and drawing supplies than any one child could possibly need. I'm sure we never intended for them to accumulate so much stuff.
Remote learning has been rather up and down for her. A lot of the time she is missing her teacher and social aspects of being at school, and doesn't really want to engage with the learning. But on good days she tries hard and does a great job. If something is going to be uploaded for her teacher to look at she will usually be motivated to try harder on it.
Here you see her sorting her word ring words into alphabetical order. She is actually supposed to be doing a cutting and pasting worksheet. She loves to cut&paste, but not when she has to. And so she avoids it by things like this, or writing math sums on the whiteboard, or doing a "reading response" to a book we've read but that isn't the one she is supposed to do it for.
(She's not even up to doing sums yet, she's been watching Mr8's math videos.)
My children are quite contrary.
She is clearly very bright, learning to read and write at a good pace, loves numbers, and enjoys art.
Ms5 is also a perfectionist, there have been tears over imperfect letters and shapes, and she is not keen on Italian because it's not something she immediately knows or understands. I think she is warming to PE after fun skill sessions with dad. (I'm avoiding the PE, because I go into coach mode and it becomes frustrating for everyone).
There was one art session we had trouble with. They needed to make a "mistake", and then use it as an opportunity to create something. It would be a wonderful lesson for her to learn, but she refused point-blank to make a mistake, even on purpose. Eventually I was allowed to make a mistake, then she fixed it, mostly by painting over it.
Next week she gets to go back to school, and she is very excited about this. There was a significant lift in her mood when she heard the news. She is already planning what she is going to tell her teacher, and her friends.
Ms5 is the social butterfly of our family, being isolated has been hard on her. She has seen one of her friends a couple of times on park outings, which cheered her up for a short time, but it will be good to see her back at school and in her element again.