In which there are bodily fluids and literary allusions...

I really should be doing some work tonight but I'm somewhat sleep deprived.  The kids have both taken turns being sick so I've basically spent my entire week channeling Florence Nightingale.  Turi did a particularly spectacular vomit all over my pillow in the middle of the night, sat up, surveyed the mess and said a little sadly, 'Franken-soup'.  I can always trust Turi to add a little levity to any situation.

Minty is now fully recovered but has been cooped up in the house while Turi is comatose, so I've been entertaining her with some literacy games.

I used white crayon to write Minty some hidden messages.  When she painted over the paper with watercolours the messages were revealed.  She's just starting to read a little so this was a fun activity for her to be able to read the little notes.  She then spent some time making her own little resist paintings.  Turi even managed to resurrect himself lazarus style from the couch to join in the fun for a while.

This is another little literacy game we've been playing lately.  I give her a tub of small objects, along with all the corresponding beginning letters (I use coko bricks).  She matches the objects and letters and then uses this as a starting point to match the objects with a list of written words.  I try to include some easy words that she already knows along with some trickier ones.  I usually set this up the night before and she can do it independently while I get some housework done.

Last but not least, today I gave her a word list of things that could be found around the house.  I asked her to cut them all up and try to find the corresponding object and tape the label on it.  When she had finished I asked her to show me where she'd put them all and I helped her fix up any she couldn't figure out.  She had lots of fun doing this and even went around the house suggesting other words I should have included.  We've left all the labels up so hopefully this will help her remember them when she encounters them in other situations.