A bit of a week...

I think I would find in near impossible these days to document the entire ins and outs of our week, so what you (and I) see here is always only a snippet, but it is a fairly good representation of how things go along most of the time.

I'll start with out artwork last week. We used another lesson from Art Projects for Kids (my go-to place now) and began a short watercolour series that we are going to do using lessons from here. 

Here's the results ~ that most of us were particularly pleased with...

Joel got as far as the painting, but then struggled to see the flowers and complete it. I drew one flower to show him and then he said it was spoilt and wouldn't even have a go at the rest. I liked it without the flowers too, but he was ready to throw it away :( I would let him because I thought it was very beautiful, and could envisage a poppy field, so tonight he let me have a go at finishing it for him. And so this is a piece of joint artwork really. I think without the pen-lines it's rather more impressionist, but love it with them too.

Abbie didn't really like hers - she felt the flowers were all too big. It's a shame, because again I really like it, but hey ho ~ can't win them all ;-)

TP was very pleased with hers though;

Lilo's is lovely ~ there's something very simple and innocent about hers ~ and unmistakably 'girly'.

DD has not quite finished his yet, but I think it's going to be great. Again there is something about his work that is quite unique to him ~ orderly, and straight, but striking at the same time.

Stitch's is incredible! This has to be one of the most successfully and carefully executed pieces of art he has ever done ~ and it's stunning! ~ a conglomerate mish-mash of intense colour, out of which he has brought beauty :D

I was also very pleased with mine ~ and have been asked if I'm framing it! I'm not, but it might look lovely as a print on a wall I think...

Chip joined in with this lesson too and was doing a really good job, but in hindsight I should have given him a smaller piece of paper because he didn't really have the concentration to fill the paper enough. I might try him again with this another time. He absolutely LOVES his paints that we got him for Christmas, from Merry ~ they are perfect for him and he is really careful about washing and cleaning his brush between colours, so he is managing to keep them nice too :D

Whilst we are in Kenya Abbie will take charge of art and they are going to have fun doing some cartoon work using her Cartoon Drawing for Kids book (although I bought the dino's one too in case anyone wanted to have a go at something different.)

Chip has also been further developing his drawing skills, and this was his flower this week (which Stitch then wrote Chip's name all over and Chip then decided to cut around)...

There's been some Spielgaben work - not as much as I'd like, I confess, but he loves what we do manage to fit in. This week we did some work with ordering numbers. This particular lesson is used to teach ordiNAL numbers but he's a bit too young for that, so instead we just put the numbers, selected at random in order. He had absolutely NO problem with this, showing me that he not only recognises all his numbers to 10 (only occasionally stumbling over 7 & 8), but can also put them easily into correct order - even to the point of leaving gaps and filling gaps for missing numbers. I was a bit impressed with him :D

We brought out our 'characters' again and blue-tacked them to wooden cubes (the lesson said to draw people, but these are just as much fun and less time consuming) and lined up alongside their house (red bricks). The house was where number 1 would be. Numbers on scraps of paper were blue-tacked to the reverse of 10 dots, which were then turned blindly. He then had to place the number on the character the correct number of blocks from home. 

We did this a couple of times, shuffling the characters about, so that he didn't learn their positions visually.  

Lastly I just gave him the down-turned number dots and had him arrange them in order, without the characters or house for a starting point and that was equally easy for him :D

Later we moved on to another number activity. He was supposed to try and arrange the bricks to create the number shapes. This proved too difficult for him, but Lilo had fun with it and Chip himself made some lovely symmetrical structures and then just named them whatever number he chose!

AAS ~ Lilo and DD are just testing at the end of Level 5. I can't say they are doing fantastically well ~ about 50% correct answers, which might mean another repeated book. I can't decide if it's worth it...
Stitch on the other hand is doing really well in Level 2 and barely ever spells a word wrong!

Science
TP is using some TOPS science cards at the moment that we were given by a friend a long time ago and we have never really used. I think we have an older edition, but it's fine. They are quite simple experiments, but have good teaching in them. She is doing the 'Cohesion and Adhesion' set atm. The last two lesson looked at cohesion and this week she moved on adhesion. It looked a bit like this;

Four tubs containing (L-R) oil, soapy water, tap water and rubbing alcohol. The stopwatch on her phone for a timer (and the cakes are a kitchen necessity!!).

A greaseproof paper 'ramp' was attached to a lemonade bottle, marked with four headings to indicate the four liquids.

a drop of each liquid was timed for how long it took to reach the bottom.

The greaseproof paper was then detached and the 'tracks' of the liquids drawn around, as a permanent mark of their travels.

From this easy experiment, TP was able to visibly see the liquid with the greatest and least cohesion and adhesion. 

The little boys & Lilo have been using some of the experiments from  http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/ and this week had a go at making a musical straw. 

It was easy to make, but more tricky to make the notes!! I was so busy trying to make a sound with it, I forgot to take any pictures!
As of next week I'm going to get them to work through topics though, as I'm not sure random choosing because they look easy/fun is the best way to get a build up of knowledge. We'll see though ~ it might not be so fun that way and I'd still rather it were fun than boring!

Outside of HE there's been plenty of general family-ness. So, here's some of 'those' moments from our week;

Noodle-tea!

'Smokin' (chocolate fingers!)

Experimenting with sound through air-bed pump tubes!

Cuddles

cycling (still) ~ nearing half way now!

Reading (a whole LOT of reading :D )

Lilo has now FINISHED the Hetty Feather trilogy she received for Christmas ~ three books in a month - I NEVER thought I'd see the day!

And a whole selection of cute and crazy faces!!

Before I go, I will just say this...

I haven't mentioned here last night, when I burnt the tea ~ TWICE ~ and was rescued by Paul, with ready-roasted chicken and microwave chips! I haven't mentioned the fact that Paul & I had our first set of jabs on Friday, which brought me down with an almost instant cold (that I had probably been quite effectively fighting off until my system was overloaded) and has left me feeling rather rough tbh. Nor have I talked about toddler melt-downs, or seven-year old's food struggles. I haven't mentioned the mornings when it's just too cold and none of us really want to get up and about - and the days when everything seems a struggle from beginning to end. I haven't mentioned all that 'stuff' because... well, it  just wouldn't make much fun to read, but suffice to say ~ we are a very normal family consisting of very normal stroppy kids - and stroppy parents at times! Please don't look at all we do with rose tinted glasses ~ you read the best bits and snips here. There are plenty of not so photo-worthy moments in our life, but I prefer to keep those to ourselves ;-)

I hope you've all had a good week ~ keep healthy ~ and see you next week I expect (if not before). :D