Finding the concentration first following this morning's interest

Today was a different day. It was peaceful for once. The kids were calm. We started finding concentration with practical life and drawing. Daddy helped a lot explaining to the kids mummy was running a tight ship and it was important to start at the right time in the morning, especially after mummy stayed p till midnight to clean the kitchen and the lounge to give us a good start. This morning Laura worked extensively on the yellow knobless cylinders and I would say she was nearly normalised, I loved the way she was exploring the material, what she would bring out and the terminology she was using: larger smaller diameter, thinner, larger, higher, shorter.
Then I started doing Italian with James, his reading was a lot better, and he read extensively as you can see. Last night he created his own first story at the dinner table, so this morning he wanted to write it. He wanted to dictate it to me, and then me to dictate it to him. We did so, but I was starting to have a deep headache and neck ache. I let him perceive he did a couple of imperfections, ( my huge limit) and he stopped. I was then too in pain and had to go to bed. Worked resumed at four, he worked on article exercises, and he was fine, our beautiful Faber castel pencils arrived, and he loved writing with them. After that I did the change game presentation to both of them. It took us a long time, but we did it, and they liked it. After that I askedJames to represent a couple of numbers. The thousands with no hundreds and tens, and then with no hundreds. I am trying to make sure he does not get lost in numbers like 3008 and 3018. Starting from the right with the materials, and then matching each single numbers with the figures makes sure he does not get lost. I think he is nearly ready for the dynamic sums in the thousands, I am pleased we are doing progress. The present from nonno, a book on navi in Italian has arrived today, so hopefully he will be able to enjoy some Italian reading.

All in all I am pleased today. It was the first glimpse of normalisation, but it cost my well being staying up till 12.00 am to clean the house, you give something here, and it is taken away somewhere else the day after, it is often a no win situation....hopefully Andrew will work less, and his presence will help them get ready in time and be calm. Really, this morning, it was peaceful, no shouting, no arguing. Bliss!