My new school bag!

I have a new back pack! I didn't really need it but I wanted it! It is the official school bag that the big children have. It has hundreds of pockets in it where I can store all my prized possessions like cats, stones and rulers!

Some craps!

Me- Look Äiti, there are craps on the floor
Ä- um, I think you mean cracks
Me- No, craps
Ä- crabs?
Me- no, craps
Ä- spell the word please
Me- C-R-A-P-S, craps!
Ä- scraps?
Me- no, CRAPS, it is just a word I made up that sounded like cracks!

Me- Do you remember we saw those cat costumes?
Ä- um, when?
Me- In October.
Ä- errr, maybe
Me- they were in Tescos in October, do you think they'll still be there?

Me- Look Äiti, look at that female pheasant crossing the road, don't hit it!

Me- we are collaborating aren't we?
Ä- um, yes
Me- collaborating means working together and we are working together, aren't we?

Swim swim swim!

I had a brilliant swim lesson today! Mrs Hippicampe my swim teacher was so pleased with me. After a bit of a warm up with a woggle (noodle), we moved onto kick practice. I had to kick on my back holding the float, roll over and kick back on my front. Then we did some push and glides, I had to push off the side, swim 2 strokes, breath, swim 2 strokes, breath etc. I was quite quick at this. I then did some diving for treasure- I made lots of splashes but got all the treasure off the third step. Then I had to jump in and swim 5meters to the side on my front, then I had to do the same thing but on my back.

Then, Mrs Hippicampe decided that I could try backstroke with a float all the way up to the other end of the pool (20meters). I did that so she said that I could try for my 20 meters badge. I pushed of the side and did some great backstroke to the other end and that meant I earned my 20 meter badge! I then did some breast stroke practice before it was time to get out.

Half Term!

This week I haven't been at school as it has been half term. I have been so tired that I've spent a lot of time snuggled on the sofa under the duvet. We have made it out though! On Monday I went to Gymnastics as usual and on Tuesday I went swimming and met up with my friend Jessica again. I wasn't very well behaved so had to get out of the pool early. On Wednesday I met up with Kayne. We had a great time together. We went for McDonalds and our free toys played very well together! We then went to the bookshop where we read lots of books together. We then went to the toy shop where our free McDs toys played some more together.

After seeing Kayne, I met Emily for a swim. I wasn't very well behaved again so we had to get out early. Today, I met with Maya at the zoo. I moaned all morning but after lunch (with the threat of leaving early) I cheered up and had lots of fun! The best part was going into the lemur enclosure, the lemurs were running around us and we got so close to them! For the first time in ages I fell asleep in the car and then carried on sleeping when we got home! I really needed that nap!

Tomorrow is going to be an easy day. I am going to have a long bath, then we'll go to the library.

I am really enjoying a series of books called 'The Magic Treehouse'. Each book has about 70pages, I read one about dinosaurs in Borders. It took me 30minutes. I then read another one in the car! Äiti thought I was reading far too quickly so found some comprehension questions about the books online- I got them all right!

A pheasant plucker

Yesterday we drove into town. On the way along the country road a pheasant ran out in front of us. We were going quite fast so we couldn't avoid it. We carried on driving feeling very sorry for the pheasant we'd just hit. As we got to the car park in town we noticed that lots of people were pointing at our car and laughing. As we were stuck in a queue, Äiti got out and had a look at what people were laughing and pointing at..... the pheasant that had been hit was still stuck in the grill!

Daddy got out then and had to remove it, it was very stuck!

A new story

Here is a story that I dictated to Äiti whilst I was in the bath. I am quite proud of it even though it doesn't make complete sense. Äiti had to type very fast when I was telling her my story. Here it is...

Cardinal’s Birthday Party

Today Cardinal was going to be 4 and he invited Cepalop, Marly and Marlin and Wobbegong and Tiger Shark and Orca and Salmon, they all got carried in.

They all got carried to Cardinal’s birthday party in a fishing net and when they got there they saw that more were there, like Mummy Orca. They couldn’t believe their eyes- Mako Shark was there too as well as Fishily. Fishily was just a baby fish, he really liked his big brother, Fang. Both Fishily and his brother had fun playing together with games like ‘Tag’. “I’ll tag you” shouted Fishily and Salmon just splashed up from behind her brother. “Oh hello, blow your bubbles at my brother” said Fishily, “OK” said Salmon but he couldn’t. “I’ll tag you” shouted Salmon and tagged Fishily. Wasn’t he clever at playing tag, good old Salmon! He tagged Fishily’s brother. Then he swam off, when he swam off something dreadful happened, something had caught little Orca. Out of a fishing net came Little Orca, he had swam all the way to the fishing center. “Whoops” said Little Orca. “You should have told me” said Mummy Orca. “Little Orca” said Carnidal, “where were you?” She was having so much fun at Cardinals birthday (splash splash), they even splashed me. They splashed the water in the ocean with their tails and fins. “Hello Mako Shark” said Cardinal, “watch this” said Mako Shark and he got out his torch and he dived under a rock. “Wow” said Cardinal “my mother taught me to do the ‘hip”’, “wow” said Mako Shark and that is more or less the end.

Cardinal was going to be 4 today, he got some little fish biscuits and a tin of sea salt to pour into the ocean and a tin of octopus food for his friend Octy. Cardinal was very happy until he met his friend galloping along the sea bed, he swam up to say hello. Then his friend vanished! Then Cardinal whizzed up to say hello but his friend was gone again. Then he gave Cardinal a kiss, he thought it was the rock that was moving but it was actually Gallopy, it was the horse who had kept moving, not the rock!

But what about Tiger Shark? Some facts about Tiger Shark. Tiger Shark came to hunt for Salmon, Cardinal blew some water at Tiger Shark and then he swam away looking sad that he couldn’t eat Salmon. “That was a good idea wasn’t it”, said Salmon.
“What a great idea” said Cardinal clinging to a branch floating on the ocean. Cardinal balanced with Salmon. Salmon wobbled and fell into the ocean just as Tiger Shark swam up and ate him all up. Cardinal simply fell down off his branch and pushed Tiger Shark, but he still had Salmon. Tiger Shark liked Salmon and decided he would never eat Salmon again. The fish then all got carried home in the fishing net they came in. The End! What a good party! “Oh wow, look at all my presents” said Cardinal, he had invited so many people that he had so many presents.

Volcanoes and toilet rolls!

The other day I announced that I'd like to read about volcanoes, so I got my encyclopedia and looked up volcanoes. Äiti then found me a few clips of erupting volcanoes on youtube so I watched those. We then found a great site that allowed you to design your own volcano, you could alter the amount of force and gas and then watch it erupt.

The yesterday we made a volcano! We used a sort of papier maché mix with lots and lots of glue. After it was dry we painted it. When daddy came home we made it erupt. We used bi-carbonate of soda, stinky vinegar and red food dye. This is what the volcano looked like before it erupted and then afterwards...

It was so much fun making it erupt that we used up all the mixture in another baking tray....

Guess what I have been collecting and stashing away? Toilet roll tubes! Yep, I have nearly 30 of them now! Why- no idea! I'm not sure what to do with them so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

My New Year's Resolutions

At the beginning of the year I made some New Year's Resolutions. Here are some of the things I said.

1. I want to get better at cycling.
2. I want to get better at talking.
3. I want to learn to do harder sums.
4. I want to read harder books.
5. I want to go to Africa.
6. I want to go to France.

We found my list today and thought we'd see what has changed in the last 6 weeks. I haven't had the chance to practice number1 as the weather has been bad. Number 2 has improved a lot especially at school.

Number 3 is happening right now and I am doing harder sums. I now want to be as fast as Kayne is at his sums so I want to do maths everyday. So far this year I have learnt more multiplication, more fractions, brackets, co-ordinates, simple codes, basic algebra and I'm now thinking about negative numbers.

Number 4 is also happening. I now read chapter books in my head. I've taken my encyclopedia to bed on many occasions.

Number 5 isn't going to happen this year as it is expensive to get to Africa. I wanted to see the lions. Madagascar would be fun to visit as I could see the lemurs there.

Number 6 hasn't happened yet, but I'm hoping I can go to France in the summer.

More snow!

For the last few days we've played out for hours in the snow. Yesterday I went to school but when I got there, only 9 other children had turned up, so Äiti took me home. Daddy dragged me round the village on the sledge. Today, school was actually closed so we played outside for 2 hours. Daddy took me to the park and we went down a steep slope together. I then went on the slide at the park- wow, I went sooooo fast! I had several goes. Daddy then went back in to work and I stayed out playing. After lunch we are going out again.

A silly video here of me! My computer keeps crashing when I upload photos, I'll try again later

Hacking, co-ordinates and snow!

Ok, not really hacking, but Äiti showed me how to write secret messages in code! What does this word say? 3 1 20...it says CAT! We used a simple a=1, b=2, c=3 etc and wrote silly messages to each other! I also discovered co-ordinates so can now plot points on a simple grid.

I got asked a question on my other blog recently. The question was from Louisa who asked if I knew the difference between (10x4)+2 and 10x(4+2). I do know the difference, one makes 42 and the other makes 60!

It has been snowing! After school yesterday we played in the snow for ages. I got dressed up in all my Finnish winter clothing. We then got out my sledge and Äiti dragged me round the village for hours, it was so much fun. I found it very funny when Äiti kept falling over. I was pretending she was the engine of my car and I was driving, every so often my engine crashed! When Äiti got tired of being an engine we built a snow cat together. Unfortunately the snow didn't last long so I didn't get to play in it today

Vegetable boxes and maths!

My school has just started a new scheme with Veg-Boxes. A local farm makes up boxes of organic vegetables grown on their land and then the parents order them. So today, our first Veg-Box arrived. I was quite intrigued with some of the more unusual looking vegetables. I then decided to do some maths so asked Äiti to write some problems for me. Each vegetable got a turn at answering.

"Ok, Mr Swede, you have to do the 2 lots of 5, that is the same as 5 lots of 2, do you understand Mr Swede? Right, one lot of 5 is...... yes Mr Swede, it is 5, so 2 lots of 5 is going to be..... hurry up and think Mr Swede, yes...it is 10, oh well done"

Here is a photo of me with Mr Leek!

Another swimming certificate!

I got my level 2 badge today! I have made loads of progress in the last few weeks. My arms are now completely straight when doing backstroke. For my badge today I had to push off the side on my back, swim half way, then flip onto my front and do front crawl back to the side. I also had to hold a push into starfish float for a long time! Mrs Hippicampe (my swim teacher) asked me to do a mushroom float too..I thought I looked like a floating poo! I also had to jump in as far as I could, surface and then swim back to the side. I practiced my breaststroke too, I am very good at breaststroke arms and breaststroke legs...but not together!

I'm not sure what I have to do for level 3, but Äiti thinks it will be a while before I get that. What I would like are some rainbow badges (distance swims). I can swim 2 lengths (50 meters) of doggy paddle but this isn't allowed for distance badges.

Today I also started doing some simple double digit addition in my head. I seem to picture sums like 32+12 in my head and work out the answer!

The World's Longest Sum and Haggis!

OK, so it may not be the world's longest sum, but it was my longest sum ever and I did it in under a minute! It wasn't very hard.

Today it is Rabbie Burn's Day. We got to eat haggis, neaps and tatties for dinner tonight. I didn't though, I had fish fingers, numberetti, tatties and a bit of neap. Äiti cooked a lot of food and between us, we ate loads. We were meant to say a poem before stabbing the haggis but I think we forgot, however, I did manage to read the first and last verse earlier. Daddy then read the same bit but in a super Scottish accent. Here is the video....

This last week was a normal week. I had school every morning, I also went to gymnastics, swimming and to the library. I went to play at Emily's house but I was in a funny mood so Äiti took me home early. I got my 60p pocket money on Friday, I counted out 41p for a tube of Smarties in the shop. On Saturday we went to Oxford to see the 'Earth from Above' exhibition. I'd already seen this in Helsinki, Amsterdam and London. The exhibition tours the world so I have been very lucky to see it 4 times. I had the most fun finding all the countries I'd been to on the giant map. After the exhibition we went for coffee and I ate a huge piece of chocolate cake. Here I am heading onto Canada which is where I went last year.

My first sleepover

This weekend I had my first sleepover. We all met at an indoor playcentre and then Kayne and Sylvie came back to my house. We played with my marble run and my Balloon Lagoon game. Then we had dinner of fish fingers, chips and beans. After dinner we had another play, then we did some dancing in my room. It was then supper time. We all got ready for bed and snuggled down ready for a story. We all got to pick a story each and then daddy read an extra one- 4 stories! It was then time to go to sleep but none of us wanted to, we all claimed to be bored. Eventually Kayne fell asleep first at 9.30pm, Sylvie was half an hour later and I was asleep by 10.15pm. I was the first to wake at 7:00am, by 7:01 everyone else was awake!

We played quietly in our room until about 7.40am and then we came downstairs. We had a game of 'Bus stop' which Kayne won. We then had breakfast and then we did some playdoh. We played with the marble run again and then it was time to get dressed. We all got dressed and then got ready to go to Borders to meet the other mummys and daddys.

It was such a fun night and I cant wait to have another sleepover.

Here is a short video of us dancing..

I love Fridays!

Daddy took me to school today which was nice. I had ballet at school today which I really enjoyed. I wore my blue leotard from Amelia, it is really soft. I then went to Year 1 and did some maths and some reading. After school we went to the post office to post a letter to Amelia, I wrote her a letter yesterday. Then we went to the library and I got quite a few new books.

When we got home I was given my pocket money (50p), I wanted to spend it straight away so we went to the village shop. I found some chocolate buttons for 49p. I counted out the correct amount and then paid for my chocolate. Äiti thinks that if I want to save a bit, then I need a little bit more pocket money, so I will now get 60p a week.

After eating my chocolate buttons I got to play on my computer. I played Crayola Physics again and Jigzone. I then read some of my library books and wrote on my other blog.

Here is something I said today...
Me: Think of a world without any flowers, think of a world without any house with no one to love...can you imagine that?

Äiti: Wow Sophie, that is the most profound thing you've ever said

Me: Oh don't worry, it was just a song we sung in assembly today. Can you imagine a world without houses, where would we all live?

Skipping and Swimming and School

I have finally learnt to skip! I have been galloping and hopping forever, but it has never really come close to skipping. I can now skip with a hop on each foot..I am so proud of myself and skip everywhere.

I got my Level 1 swimming badge yesterday too. I finished the Duckling badges before Christmas so I am now on a new scheme. I am very close to getting my level 2, but I need to have straighter arms when I do backstroke. I took my certificate to school to show my teacher, I was so pleased with myself.

School is going well, I am really enjoying it. I am getting more and more social with my friends and am gaining in confidence. I had French on Monday and actually found it a bit tricky as I didn't know some of the words! I'm really looking forward to Ballet on Friday.

My Weekend and Pocket Money

We had a quiet weekend. Daddy had to go to a meeting wearing his kilt on Friday night, he was staying away so it was just Äiti and I. I choose the dinner (pasta wheels) and I stayed up a little later than normal. I had a very long bath on Saturday morning whilst I waited for Daddy to come home. He didn't look very well when he got here. We went out for lunch and then we went to Borders. I read several books in there but didn't buy anything except a 'paint your own' piggy bank. I am going to start getting pocket money so I needed somewhere to put my money. We then went to Tescos....

I read 37 pages of my book whilst we shopped. Later that afternoon I played on a brilliant new website. If you like drawing and physics then this is for you.

On Sunday we went to a new swimming pool by the sea, it was sooooo cold and the water slide was soooooo slow! I had fun until I went blue! We then went for some Chinese food. I found a little purse in which to put my pocket money. I then went into another shop and promptly spent my pocket money on some chocolate! I am going to get 50p a week. I can either save it or spend it. I think I might spend some and save some!

It was nice having a lazy weekend as I was quite tired after my first week back at school.

Money, money, money!

I love money! I have been squirreling any money I can find recently, I can sniff out loose change a mile off and can politely ask if I can look in Äiti's purse.

Today I set up a shop selling Schleich animals. I was both the customer and shop keeper until I asked Äiti to join me.

S- Hello, can I help you?
S- Yes, I'd like to buy this rhino
S- (clink clink on my cash till)... that'll be 18p please
S- Here you are .... 18p that is 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p
S- thank you, bye bye

I can make totals up to about 40p now and can find different combinations of making totals e.g. 12p can be a 10p and a 2p...or 5p,5p,1p and 1p.

I'm saving up for my birthday present- I really want a Playmobile vet set.

A bit of catch up

Just before New Year I went to see Tyan in London. We dove to the station, then we had to get a train, followed by 2 underground trains and then a bus! I met Tyan's 2 little kittens, they are lurrrrvely! We all went out for lunch where Tyan and I shared ours with each other. Then we went swimming. The pool was lovely and new but freezing! Tyan and I had fun swimming around together. We then had a little play back at Tyan' house and then Äiti and I got the bus to central London.
I sat at the very front of the double decker red bus. We went past BigBen and the Houses of Parliament. I asked why there were people camping outside in their tents. We then went past Trafalgar Square and up to Regent Street. I absolutely loved looking at the Christmas lights. After a quick dinner, we went to Hamleys to look around. Hamleys is a huge toy shop. I headed straight for the Schleich models. We then walked up Regent Street to Oxford Circus tube station to get the underground. It was a brilliant day!

I also went to the Rainforest again, we have an annual pass so we can go whenever. I really like it there.

A few funny things I've said recently...

At dinner tonight...
Me- can you say the word 'terminate'
Aiti- um, yes...terminate.
Me- Can you say 'dinner is now terminated'
A- (stupidly) dinner is now terminated
Me- excellent!
I then climbed off my chair and went to play!

Me-wow, look at how much milk we've used (looks at milk carton)
Aiti-oh yes, we've used almost a quarter
Me-Actually I think we've used one sixth

"I think I'm conservative"

"Oh how typical"

Back to School

Today I went back to school after 3 weeks off. I was very excited to go and see my friends. It snowed today so we got to play out in the playground whilst the snow came down. I also went to Year 1 today and did Literacy. I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow.

A new game

This weekend we bought a new game called Katamino. It is so much fun and I am very good at it. Here is a video of me playing it. The game is a bit like Tetris and Tangrams.