On Saturday (I'll start there) some of the younger ones were asking to go out in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, but Paul did not want to. He just wanted to take some time to chill at home - he deserves that much, so I decided to take a few to the park and en-route take DD into the local pub to meet their dog. The dog is called ?Poppy and is adorable when she is inside, but the only time DD has 'met' her is when we are walking into the village and she is out in the yard 'on guard' - she has a ferocious bark (that's her job) and DD is very nervous to go past, but we have to. Kindly the landlord has said I can take DD in to meet her one day so that he won't be so frightened on our walk - how nice is that :D But, sadly, the landlord (M) was too busy on Saturday, so that didn't happen this time. However I did get some gorgeous autumn shots (always take my camera these days) and the children had a lovely play in the park and even met up with a couple of children they have got to know from the village (slowly, slowly...!). We were out almost 3 hours in all and by the time we got back it was tea and bedtime. I felt unnaturally tired and I knew I had a busy day to come on Sunday, so I had an early night - mistake - I forgot to plan the boxes!
collecting hay/straw from the cut grass in a field on the way home from the village - for the bunnies (we'd run out - how handy!!)
yes, it is still this warm - some days, but only in the middle of the day!
On Sunday was the town 'Food Festival' & Victorian Country Fayre. Our puppet & dance group had been asked to take a stand, so of course we agreed! It was a great success (again) with a big crowd watching, but it was a full & exhausting day (bearing in mind this was after our usual 9-1 stint at church). As part of it the girls got to take part in a mock Victorian Sunday School (the boys could have too, but they were busy looking at owls!) - that was good fun!! Later on Minnie 7 TweetiePie got to hold a little owl too :D Again it was tea-time before we got home. I'd Still had no planning time and again I was totally wiped - so wiped I actually fell asleep before the kids did! They were taking forever to get ready for bed. Paul had nipped out to collect Bugs from Hydro-G (Sunday Night youth meeting) and I fell asleep on my bed! Paul came in and covered me over - and left me there. It was barely 10pm then and I slept soundly (all bar a loo trip and a change into my pj's) right through till 8am - and even then struggled to get up!!
The boxes weren't planned and definitely not filled - oh dear!!
Fortunately the kids were wonderful. I told them 5 things that were a must for the day and they filled in the gaps with their task cards :D And I'm sorry to say the rest of the week did not get any better. I tried to catch myself up, but for one reason or another I never did and so each morning the kids have done the same thing this week - filled their boxes with a mixture of 'must do's' and whatever they choose-s. Never the less-it's actually been a really good week. I must say these last two days have been a bit tooooo computer orientated for my liking (just goes to prove the preferred medium of learning in this house!), but I don't feel like it's been a waste of time and I know they have learnt stuff, so I'm OK about it really. All the same - I must do better next week!!The good bits have included;
- Making pots (looking at ancient Grecian art) to be painted this week
- Writing various meaningful numbers in Roman numerals (history)
- Completing the section on Earth in Exploring Creation with Astronomy - onto the moon next week, unless I decide to do the 'making a compass' activity, but no-one was keen to do it this week - funny kids!
- Lots and lots of Playdoh play by all the children
- Some interesting drawings from them all and Stitch even made his first attempt at drawing a face - then promptly scribbled all over it, so no photo :(
- Re-installation of Tuxpaint onto both computers - they all love this one and it makes a fun IT/art lesson :D
- Some Hama'ing by everyone at some point (very popular here atm) & more Airfix modelling by Bugs
- Photography (Bugs & me!)
- Memorisation & Recital of a Shakespeare poem by Bugs (Shall I compare thee...)
- LOTS of Moshi Monstering - but I am actually quite happy with it's educational value in many ways :D
- Some Puzzle Pirating (also has some educational value once you get good at a puzzle)
- Bugs took DD & Stitch into the kitchen to do some science - expansion & retraction of air (very cool and easy fun!)
- game playing in varying degrees of inside and outside-ness.
- chillin' and watching TV (lots of Horrible Histories - the cartoon series)
- reading stories
- puzzles
- discussion of baby animal names with both DD & Stitch
- some Tot-tray activities - particular favourite seems to be the pom-poms, which become anything the children decide - today they were chocolate biscuits being shared out, yesterday they were tea being poured out into 'cups' - interesting to see that the older children all like to play with these with Stitch!
As of today the boys are re-enrolled with Conquer Maths (was waiting for payday!) and I am just waiting for the Catherine Mooney English materials to come through. so we can start that.
I discovered MangaHigh online (recommended on one of my groups) - it's pretty difficult maths games - take a look. Bugs spent a while on there today and seemed to like it well enough for an occasional play :D
I also got the second set of six 'Using Maths' in the post today - the boys loved the look of them even better than the first set and even Minnie is asking to do them! So they will be in the boxes as soon as the current ones are finished then :D
DD practising cutting 'sausages' with a knife - that's pretty worthwhile :D
& then counting the pieces he'd cut :D
'shut the box' with Bugs
Science in the kitchen with Bugs...
...the air retracts in cold water
...and expands in hot!
PE - of varying kinds (it's so good to have a yard again).
Chillin' and learning in front of the box!
3 comments:
What a fabulous week!
We made some playdough this week. I have made it many times before and I so prefer it to the kind you buy. Looks like you guys had a great time.
Looks like a fun week! Beautiful pictures, too. :)
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