THE FROG-ACADEMY

DEMONSTRATION FOLKS NEEDED!!

2009-12-07T11:38:00.004Z

Permission has been given to demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament this Tuesday from 6:30-7:30pm. This is timed to coincide with the mass presentation of parliamentary petitions.

Some local media have expressed an interest in covering the presentation/demo, so now we need enough people to make the demonstration worthwhile!

If you’re keen (or even just willing) to take part please contact Lil on bunny_stlyon- at - hotmail dot com asap.

Sorry about the short notice. Please X post everywhere.

I won't be there - sadly - but you can be!! :D

Happy Birthday Lilo!

2009-11-27T23:02:00.000Z

My little blondey turned 6 today. It doesn't seem like yesterday that I was approaching that 21st day overdue and deliberating over what I was to do if that day arrived - and just as it did, so did my little girl - only not so little, weighing in at 9lb 10oz!!

Happy Birthday my little fairy! :D

Weather!

2009-11-25T00:17:00.001Z

The weather here has been, to put it mildly, WILD! Now I know what living at the top of a hill in a less than sheltered location feels like! Yes there are plenty trees, but it’s still pretty exposed. Strangely though I kind of enjoy listening to wind billowing around the place (even if the kids really don’t!). I getting used to going to sleep to that noise now. It’s seem kind of quiet when the weather finally decides to calm down. We’ve had almost 2 weeks of it now (maybe more, I’ve lost count). I’m not sure our bunnies appreciate it as much as I do though!

The pants thing about such rubbishy weather is the lack of ‘going outside’ to run off steam. I can’t abide running in the house, even in a big house – quite frankly it is too dangerous, but I do appreciate the need for the kids to burn off somewhere…

I am grumpy as…what’s a good metaphor?… an old woman! I think maybe I’m brewing the bug the kids are sharing between themselves (runny tummy, temperature, heavy cold – in that order). Def had the tummy this morning :( Did not help my mood at all!

I’m not going to lay myself bare here tonight, but suffice to say, today was NOT a good Mummy day :( I lost my patience too quickly and easily and I was less than encouraging of my children’s efforts – this of course will not encourage them to be creative at all (see below). I wish I could stop shooting myself in the foot!

We are having an ‘auto’ week. I seem to be interspersing with these lately. 2 weeks on boxes, one week on auto! Basically I tell the kids what they must do in the day and they are free to keep themselves busy learning whatever they like and by whatever means for the rest of it. It’s not working terribly well this week (although it has been better other weeks), but that might be more me than them! I’ve decided we all need to sit down and have a family conference about what we like/dislike about the workboxes, what we can change to make them work better, and how I can change to help the children learn better (will I want to hear this?!); I’d like to address expectations and ‘goals’ (I think maybe it might be good for the older children to set themselves some to work towards – to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning a little more). I don’t want the workboxes to become a ‘timetable in a box’ (which I am in danger of slipping into out of sheer laziness and lack of creativity). I know some people do actually choose to use them that way, but I was hoping they would instil more independence, more creativity and more diversity into our learning. I think diversity is possibly doing ok – and probably independence (in terms of getting on by themselves, but not so much in terms of thinking for themselves), but creativity is dragging her heals! I’d like to know what the children think though…

All in all a rubbishy kind of day – didn’t even make it Little Drama Group :(. The children failed to tidy away the mountain of ‘stuff’ that they had strewn around in the ‘school room’ through the day (which should of course have been tidied as they went along…) before it would have been worth leaving. By the time they were done the group was about to start and it’s a 20+ minute walk to the village, so not worth going. I was cross (a bit beyond reason I think), especially as I think they are letting Kel’ (leader) down, as they are supposed to be practicing for a little ‘sharing’ at the end of term, but there have to be consequences sometimes don’t there?! I just hate that those have a knock-on effect of others and in our case (where 4 children are involved) that is felt quite severely. I shall ask them to apologise for their absence next week.

Yesterday was a little better though and I had fun with Lilo and DD in the afternoon making biscuits. The pics are on my 365 :D It turned into quite the little cottage industry! I can be a good Mummy too – I can!

Home Education Parliamentary Petition

2009-11-20T12:50:00.001Z

CHECK THIS OUT!

Home Education Parliamentary Petition

I even did something that is not me - I signed up as a co-ordinator (scarey) - that might make me a bit busy for the next couple of weeks!

New Skills

2009-11-19T00:36:00.002Z

Stitch decided it was time to learn to use a pair of scissors. He's doing really well. He still needs helping to get his fingers in the right holes, but once I had his fingers placed he VERY quickly got the ideal of opening and closing his hand to use them - I showed him for about - oooh - 30 seconds!!

He has also decided he want to learn his colours, hence the strewn pens on the table. Each time he takes a lid of he says to me 'pink?', to which I am supposed to respond with the correct colour! :D I'll think he will pick it up quickly.

He enjoyed playing with this Colour Wonder set too (as did DD) - such a clever idea :D!! The only trouble was he didn't understand when the middle section refused to colour in and he just kept putting the paint there which essentially wastes it and tbh, I don't think it is generous enough to start with. He was most upset when I encouraged him to change picture (to one without any blank bits), but after a short sulk he did do so. Lesson learned - select the picture you ask the toddler to do CAREFULLY!

History was fun this week - consisting of making and playing a game about Roman architecture. They played in teams of two - the younger team won!! :D

DD made these 3D dino-puzzles that he has, but it was still a bit hard for him. He roped in Lilo, but even she found them hard. With some help from yours truely they did get a couple completed before the Stitch came along!

Today we talked about the passage of time on Mars and what it might be like to live there. The children were amused to consider that Bugs, Taz & Minnie could all have a driving license already if they lived there (leave you to work out how!). We talked about why living on Earth is so good and what we would all miss if we didn't and had to live in an ecosystem to survive. Bizarre thoughts!

Bugs and DD have both had 'challenging' weeks. Bugs has been seriously argumentative with all and everyone, but mostly Taz and myself - that makes everything so much more stressful for me to begin with. DD has been loud, screechy and ratty all week. He is either shouting, yelling or screeching about something nearly 90% of the time. He has worn me down this week: my voice is completely shot. So much so that I have decided I have to take a rest from singing AT ALL until after Christmas - no choir, no band :( . I have lost 3-4 notes in my middle range - NOT GOOD! My throat is not sore though and I attribute the loss mainly to spending most of my days raising my voice above 7 children's banter and noise. I try to keep my 'classroom' quiet and calm, but end up yelling to do so!! BUT - DD is the main culprit. There is something about his pitch of voice that goes right through me and when exaggerated by sheer volume and wailing, well...it drives me nuts!! It is his voice that I have to contend with so much of the time but he is too young to really understand the damage it is doing :(. I could do with going on a silent retreat and not talking for a week, but that is NOT about to happen! The struggle with DD though is that he is a one-to-one kid in a one-seven family! He was great today when I sat down and did some book work with him - page after page of it! He is bright enough, picks things up quickly, is interested and relatively keen to learn, but he does not wish to work independently AT ALL and when he is told he must he will always find something to whine and cry about. It's not easy. I cannot assign any more of the big kids time - they already spend at least one 'slot' a day with Stitch to keep him out of mischief and occasional slots with DD too, but I can't let him have a helper all day - it's just not possible and he must learn to work alone some of the time, but the process is painful - esp for our eardrums!!

Change subject... Minnie has been doing some science experiments - this was always a favourite of mine :D -

I've been doing some experimenting too - with 'actions' in my new Photoshop Elements 7 that came in the post on Monday (YIPEE!) -

Other than that it's all been pretty normal round here :D

The girls are practising for Christmas the play (at church) and singing the same songs over and over, but that's normal this time of year and I actually quite like it :D

They are doing one at Little Drama Group too, but they haven't brought the scripts home yet for that one!

That'll do for now.

Plans for next term - sort out some fun lapbooks for the small ones to do and try to finish off Lilo's ABC Lapbook with her (nope we still haven't)! I think it will be good review for her now and help firm up some of the sounds she still forgets too much of the time.

Life Happens!

2009-11-15T19:28:00.002Z

It's been another one of those weeks...On the Saturday after my last post we all trooped over to visit SOTP for the day. The girls (including moi) attended M's party while Paul took the boys off swimming and for a coffee-&-cake (in Sainsbury's!). In the evening we enjoyed finishing off the party food and catching up a little. I wish we saw more of each other - the children like each other so much :D Sunday was Sunday, but it also yielded the delivery of a new computer tower, as our old one is definitely on it's way out, or loaded with errors and in need of some TLC. The delivery inevitably meant me spending many hours (all night in fact) moving files over and installing the necessities to use it Monday morning for school. I then set to trying to make the old tower a little bit happier (and HD emptier) to nurse it through to it's death - we can at least enjoy an extra PC while it is still breathing! It's STILL backing up now (onto MoZY) and when it eventually finishes I will take it back to a fresh installation of Windows & Office and leave it at that. We'll see how long it lives for! The new tower has a massive 1TB Hard Drive, but just-in-case I fill it up with photos, we have also bought an additional 500GB External HD (which currently is hosting the back-up files of the new PC until I switch the online back-up over). It's complicated and boring, but it'll be worth it! The new tower is virtually silent and VERY quick - AND it doesn't crash every half and hour!! :D

As a result of my total absorption in the setting up of new and old PC's this week the kids had to self-educate & self-fill their boxes if they wished, but basically the orders were to keep out of my very grumpy way as much as possible! I did manage to teach a history lesson and read a couple of stories - the rest was VERY free range and involved WAY too much screen time for my liking. This week will be back to normal - I hope!

There were some interesting bits though; We were visited by this little fella;

This was a real treat. He normally flys off the minute we step foot outside, but he decided to fly in today. He wasn't panicked (or didn't seem it), so I took the opportunity to snap him. I only got one shot though. He flew into the lounge and we opened a big window which he immediately flew out of, much to Taz's disappointment, who was desperate to hold him, or get it to feed from his hand.

The boys have been invested at scouts (don't know if I mentioned they started going a few weeks back)- leading to 3 hours of sewing on of 11 badges for me this week. I don't DO sewing, but needs must! At least they will only be one at a time after this!!

They already have taken apart and reassembled an engine (leading to a mechanics badge) and last week did the first part of a first aid course. This week they are going over to a flight simulator in Manchester (too cool!) as part of work on their Aviation badge. It helps that one of the leaders is a pilot!!

Hopefully this week will be a little more interesting to blog about!! ;D

A Glorious Waste Of Time..!

2009-11-06T23:22:00.002Z

If you had your way and you were 4,6,7,8,11 or 12 how would you spend your time? I know when I was any, or all of the above ages I was pushed outside for 'play-time' each morning, lunchtime and afternoon whatever the weather. I hated it, as did many others, and tried to spend as much time as possible during those break times sitting on the loo, or washing my hands in warm water! I would even strike up conversations with the prefects (who I didn't necessarily like in the real world) just to hang out the time INSIDE - where it was warm & dry! Consequently, now that the weather has turned significantly colder I do not 'force' my children to play outside. I do have rules like "No running in the house - if you want to run around, wrap up and run around OUTSIDE!", but I don't make them go if they don't want to - they just have to stop running! Every now and then I do suggest to them that they might like to make the most of a dry day and play outside for a while, but seldom do they take up my suggestion. Then, every once in a while, an idea takes them and I can't keep them in..! Two days ago Taz took it into his head that he wanted to make a football goal in the adjacent field to us, which belongs to our neighbours but who have said the children can play in there. The field was full of ferns (I mean REALLY full) when we moved in. Over the summer the children made a pathway into the middle and built a den with branches and ferns and had lots of fun in there. As the ferns began to dye back Taz decided he might as well flatten it all out properly and make it more of a play space, so he trooped in there one day with the girls and trampled most of the middle of the field flat. THEN he thought he'd try it out as a football pitch! It really is the most unlikely pitch - it's uneven, it slopes, it has a fern carpet underfoot, but he liked it :D It IS big and not so easy to loose a ball - and if you did the fences are low enough all round to hop over and collect it from the next field. SO, he collected three long pieces of scrap timber from the top of the pile of rubble/rubbish sitting in our garden (left over from the renovation of the house and garden before we moved in) that is waiting for a skip to collect it all. He lumbered them over to the field, spade in hand and dug holes for the posts. He measured it out and sunk them down so that the tops were level. He did a fantastic job, but was not able to figure a way to get the cross bar on. Today Paul did that for him with the longest nails I have ever seen in my life! Now they have a football goal that is really a perfect size for them all, in a big field, with a fern pitch to play on - brilliant!! Not only does this provide them with a lot of fun and motivation to play outside, but me with plenty of photo opportunities!! ;D The best of it is, it's not only the lads who want to be out there (in fact Bugs is not so keen), but the girlies too. And another great thing is how multi-purposed they have made this field. They have had a hollow amongst the remaining ferns (their house) and behind the trees is their dance/recording studio, complete with branch-microphones and a dance floor!! It's brilliant to see my techno-addicted children playing free in a fern field. The only thing that worries me is the way they chose to dress! While I wrap up warm in several layers, Minnie is out there in a strappy top and TweetiePie in a T-shirt - crazy kids!! OK, so they were running around, but it is COLD up here!!

Of course playing footy took a chunk out of their school work on Wednesday, and when they realised this, this was, of course, a great incentive also to do the same the next day!! But I was only to happy to see them outside, knowing that there are so many days of winter ahead of us when they will be unable to go outside. I want them to get the very most out of living where we do just now and of being children. I know that even though they didn't have pencils in their hands they were learning none-the-less, just a different kind of lesson than the one I had planned :D There's something about this place that makes me want them to have more fun, makes me want to have fun with them - it's something that's been missing for WAY too long - and I am so pleased to be here and to have rediscovered the zest in life. Of course, life is never a bed of roses, but a carpet of ferns will do me just fine! :D

I won't post a stash of pictures here today, but if you want to see some more then you can check out the last two days over on my 365 blog :D But just so you can see the goal post and the relative size of the field...

She Can't Read...

2009-11-04T23:36:00.002Z

...but apparently she can write just fine!

Lilo wrote this today completely unprompted by me during her 'you choose' time. I only had to help her to add the 'a's on the ends of Hana & Montana. She sounded it all out completely by herself and even wrote the capital letters! I think reading is just around the corner somehow :D

Actually to say she can't read is not accurate really - she can, sort of. She can sound out completely phonic words and today read 'grown-ups' in the context of learning that 'ow' says 'oh!' She is doing fine, but I don't think she has realised until this week that she can read and that writing is within her grasp too - she was pretty chuffed with this little sentence!

DD made a leap today too - he redid a puzzle from a couple of days ago, only this time entirely unassisted. 40 pieces - all by himself!! It took him about 30 minutes and he stuck at it until it was done - major, major progress!!!

Out Of touch

2009-11-03T17:36:00.005Z

I don't know about you, but sometimes life just runs away with me. I wasn't 100% over half term - had a raging sore throat and a bit of a temp to boot. I'm largely over it now, but it did make 'catching myself up' over the holiday just a bit more challenging. I had loads of stuff to do and sort for the church Sunday School (now that I am in charge of the rota and resources, etc...), I had a stash of marking to do and the following week to plan. I wanted to get some more materials printed of for DD & Stitch, but that didn't happen in the end. I also wanted to finish up some photo editing I had promised to some friends. I finished one set, but only just started on the other - sigh! Put that together with visitors either end, sleep overs and a birthday (Taz turned 11 on the 24th), it all got a bit busy, busy. Not that I mind that, it's just I still feel like my tail is lost somewhere!! :D

Life ticks along anyway. H'ED is going well. I'm thinking that, in the light of current potential legislation, I might stop talking about 'home-school' as, although I have a school room and, to all intents and purposes, we have a fairly structured school in our home, I would not like to think that I will be forced to continue this way if I should choose to move away from it even more than I have in recent times. My children's education is more valuable to me than my system - so from now on I will call it H'ED as that better fits with how I feel our nation should view what we do :D

Anyway - H'ED is going well..! Stitch is beginning to get the hang of not being such a pain and is a good deal more involved in our day than I remember any of the others being a toddlers. He has his own little supply of resources which he has free access to. I haven't changed this around as much as I would like to due to a) lack of time, b) lack of creativity, c) lack of courage (i.e. there are lots of fantastic ideas out there I could use but I can just envisage what Stitch would turn them into!!). But he has his favourites that he has a go at every day, sometimes more than once and he spends a LOT of time playing on PoissonRouge - or rather roping in someone to play on it for him as his command!! :D Each other child has a 'slot' in their boxes to spend time playing with him and now that he has got used to that he is responding well to it and is not demanding that it be me quite so much. I too, try to make at least one slot in each day to spend time with him, but it's not always easy.

Bugs & Taz are doing well with their new Science and English materials. It is interesting and challenging enough without being too much for them. It's good to have them working on something together, although in reality they often do it separately because Taz is a fast worker and Bugs not so, but at least they can compare notes :D

DD has suddenly started to blossom: He has got the hang of things that six months ago were way beyond him. He can now tell me the beginning sound of most words (still struggles a bit with 's' and 'z') and find another picture that begins with the same sound.

He can now match up pairs of things that 'go together', like hat & coat, salt & pepper - which shows a vast increase in his comprehension of language and the world around him.

He can also count up to about 14 quite reliably and count out objects up to about eight. Beyond that he loses count of objects and as he can't 'count on' yet it gets a bit difficult!

He knows all his colours - although for some reason has begun confusing blue and purple on occasions, and interesting some shades of blue and green. My dad and Taz are blue/green colour blind, so maybe he is too - not tested yet.

He can verbally label numbers 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 4 now - so that's progress too. Matching up the numbers on his workbox is really helping with that without even deliberately working on it - learning by the back door I call it :D

He knows the names of most of the basic 2D shapes.

He can complete simple sequences (ABABA..., ABBABB..., ABCABC...)

He can hold a pencil correctly (most of the time, and when he gets it wrong it's only to put his 2nd finger on the pencil instead of under it).

He can almost write his name independently and has fantastic pencil control when writing inside 'hollow letters' or over dotted ones. :D

He forms the majority of his letters correctly and understands about starting at the top and ending at the bottom, also about working left-right, top-bottom, which he does now about 90% of the time instinctively and no longer makes a fuss about it when prompted to do so the other 10%!

He DOESN'T yet know very many letters (only 'curly c' and 'kicking c', 's' and 'o'), but tbh - I don't really care - he is enjoying himself and I can see life beginning to make real sense to him now. In the light of this, he now can put together full sentences - including all the 'little' words (I, it, the, on, to, etc...) and asks more sensible questions than he used to, with genuine interest in the answers. He sometimes can then follow up with a subsequent question. This is a real marked improvement in his speech and makes life so much less frustrating for all of us :D His diction is gradually improving too, although he can still be hard to understand at times, especially when he has mis-remembered what something is called, or how a word should sound. When he does this, we not only have to work out the sound of what he is saying, but also what he is meaning!! He still gets a little frustrated with this, but mostly he gets that we don't understand him now, and tries to say whatever it is more slowly and carefully, rather than just screaming at us (and making it worse) - and when he does that we can usually get to the root of what he means eventually :D He is then able to hear us say it correctly and repeat it back without error.

I don't know what the Early Learning Goals are for a Reception age child (and I don't really care either!), but I am happy that mine is doing well and achieving to the best of his ability and I am sure that he will continue to make happy progress with the way we are doing things now.

I am loving the way things tick round here now - I really am. It is all so much less pressured than it was when I started out with Bugs 8 years ago now - sometimes I really wish I could turn back time and get to enjoy him as a 5 year old again. Everyone told me at the time to "make the most of it - they grow up so fast" and all I kept thinking at the time was "good - this is a nightmare!" He was so full on and so hard work, but he was so funny and so full of life - so creative (yet not imaginative - which made it difficult to channel his creativity) and he just LOVED to be with me and do stuff with me. He loved looking at books and colouring and had a zeal for learning. He asked what anything and everything said - on bus shelters, road signs, everywhere, he would ask me "what does it say?" Now, I wish I had that time again - then it annoyed me! :( Now, I wish I had 'got' him as a little kid (I SO didn't) - now, I am enjoying 'getting' the young man he is becoming before my eyes. I love him to bits - I just wish I could do his toddlerhood again for him. I would do it better this time - I know I would! I watch myself with my now pre-schoolers and I love every minute (well not every, but a lot) of their mischief and naughtiness! I don't find their questions as annoying (I just switch them off when I've had enough and they soon get tired of asking - better than yelling to get them to stop and upsetting them) and have more interesting answers to give them. I try to explain the world in a way I never saw the need to before. I find them funny and interesting - and I love to watch them grow as people without feeling the need to hurry them on to the next stage. Of course there are many things that I still struggle with in my home - noise being the chief annoyance (particularly shouting to and at each other too much of the time), screaming (in anger, frustration, annoyance, or pure irrationality sometimes), throwing of things (especially if it's something of mine!), and the constant MESS everywhere - no matter how much I pick (or get the children to) up there is always more accumulating somewhere! But I wouldn't actually want life any other way just now - they will all be gone from here before I know and I just feel in my bones that I will miss it all - all those things that drive me crazy just now will be gone from my life and I will wish for them back again - so maybe I shouldn't complain so hard just now and maybe I should just live for the moment, for the here and now and keep it close while I still have it with me :D

Enough sentimentality - time for pictures;

DD loved this very simple activity - it's been buried in my cupboard for eons.

I'll get it out again for certain ;D

Stitch giving his orders!

When it's wet outside...

Scientists in the making :D

Lilo having fun and learning on Moshi Monsters - love it!

Lilo colouring her new Snowman puzzle (£1 for 2 - bargain!) with her new

not-so-cheap triangular Staedler pens!

Lilo finishing a 49 piece puzzle - solo :D

Stitch playing with his new 'pens' (paint dabbers). He had been given paper, but he discarded it because he likes to line them up, take all the lids off, knock them all down, count them (with me of course) and then match all the lids back on again - it's his own little game :D!! Occasionally he 'writes' with them!

DD doing some handwriting practice. These are homemade Write-0n, Wipe-off strips and I thought he might do one or two - he did them all :D He did get bored towards the end and it showed in his effort level, but on the whole these were excellent for him and he enjoyed them. A boy who likes to write - is that possible?!

The finished result (can't really hide the names here!) - the Nathanael one was the first he did - Daddy was the last - you can see the decline, but it's still good :D

Stitch considering his next move!!

Lilo playing on Tux Paint - she loves this too (they all do) and I liked the pattern she achieved with this colouring. It's not all colouring - they can paint and draw on this independently.

A puzzle (40 pieces) that DD did on Monday. I only gave verbal help and as he got to about half way I just left him to it - he completed it independently and I was very pleased with him. His concentration was good for this one :D

(WARNING!! - last photo - scroll down - is of a rather LARGE SPIDER who crawled out to visit us (bringing along lots of 'behind the cupboards' debris) and who the kids were fascinated with - it's Minnie holding it, not me - I'm not afraid of them, but I'd rather not hold them this big!!

The Beautiful Bus :D

2009-10-26T23:19:00.003Z

:=D

Pictures as Promised..!

2009-10-26T14:25:00.001Z

Crazy Weekend!

2009-10-25T21:55:00.002Z

I'm so glad it's half term - a chance to just catch my breath a little - except not this past weekend! On Thursday night some good friends of ours (J&T, J, L&S) stayed overnight. They arrived late and left early (very early!) to catch a ferry to Ireland (from Holyhead), for a wedding on Friday. They then stopped by again for the day on their way home to Oxford on Saturday. Saturday just happened to be Taz's 11th birthday too, so the addition of great mates as visitors made his day :D We convinced them to take a walk round The Moss and the village, with a little stop at the brook and our lovely village pub - kids & all - and so, with a couple of pints down, they were obliged to stay the night again :D It was brilliant to spend some time with them. We haven't seen them since February (when we camped in their garden just after the really heavy snow). S is Lilo's very close friend: despite the miles they are soul mates. J&L are life-long friends of Bugs & Taz, and the whole crowd get on SOOO well - it is always such a joy to be with them :D

They left for home this morning at the same time we left for church (the extra hour was a real blessing this morning with so many in the house to be out by 9am!). After church we came home for bangers-and-mash (loverly!!), and just as P was dozing on the sofa (with numerous children on top of him) M&B with Taz's mate D arrived to collect something from us. M is another pastor in our church and she had some things she needed to discuss with P. Shame - he so rarely naps on a Sunday and when he chose to.... No sooner had they left when S brought back our two girls, having had them for lunch today to play with K. She stayed to chat for a bit...and as she was thinking of leaving our other expected guest arrived for the evening - our close friends H&G, who moved away just after we moved house. So they were around for the evening until about 9ish (as X-factor was finishing they left). It was lovely to see them too, I miss them so much :(

But it's been a couple of days FULL of people - I shall be glad to not have to do school tomorrow! I have Sunday School 'stuff' to do and I need to print some resources out for Stitch for next half term, plan out the week following and catch up on some marking! AND I need to have some fun with the kiddos :D I also have a pile of photo editing I want to get through for a couple of friends of mine who have been waiting several weeks now to see these shots I've taken... Where does time go?!

Forgot to blog too, that we got a new Tourneo. In the end we gained the consent of Ps M&D (while they were here last weekend) to bid on one on Ebay. It was a tough choice, but the only other one I could find on the net that was within our budget was the same age as this one, but with 25, 000 extra miles on the clock, an arm rest missing on a passenger seat, pictures that weren't as clear - and it just didn't FEEL right. I prayed so hard. This other one looked immaculate, but it was on Ebay (something P's parents do not quite trust I feel). In the end we bid and won - we got a 2003 model for just over £5000. P went down to Norwich on the train to collect it (half expecting to be getting the train home again) and it was as beautiful as I thought it was. He paid the man and drove it home! It IS stunning - silver, not a speck of rust even underneath or on wheel arches (as Tourneo and Transits are notorious for), not a scratch or a dent anywhere, the engine is clean, the inside is pristine, even with added rubber flooring to protect the carpet, the A/C works and the CD Player is GOOD! The only minus for P is that it doesn't have a headphone socket to plug his MP3 player into - poor man :( !! This car, sorry BUS, is SOOO much quieter than the last one - you can actually hear the music & each other whilst driving! It purrs contentedly under the bonnet and it's not slaving away at 4000 revs at 70 mph - in fact, it's not even working particularly hard at all! :D We are hoping now, God willing, we are set for the next 10 years!! By then the kids (maybe 3 of them) will be driving their own cars and two may be living independent lives (scary thought), so then we can downsize to a 7 seater!! :D

I'll post up some pictures when I've put them on the PC - P is on there atm and I hate loading them to the laptop as it takes forever to transfer them over to the big hard drive - much quicker to just wait a day and put them there to begin with, so tomorrow maybe :D

Smoothly Does It!

2009-10-21T22:31:00.003+01:00

I'm organised this week - and it shows :D Everyone is working smoothly (provided they start before half the day is gone) and stuff is happening :D

Yesterday the kids did these;

They draw around their shadows (we shone a torch on the whiteboard with paper attached) and then took them away to add all the details. I assisted only with the placement of ears, the shape of eyes, and the arrangement of their hair. For the older ones I just showed them with my finger, but they did them themselves. For the younger ones I added these features for them, but they filled everything in without help (if I hadn't have helped you might be able to work out where Lilo wanted to put her eye - we pretended it was a hair decoration in the end!!). I didn't want to do it all for them, as they so often want me to as they really do not like a poor result in their own eyes, but at the same time I wanted them to be pleased with their results - this time they really were! They are coloured with oil pastel (hence the smudgey marks) with the exception of DD's which is just chalk

. Top-Bottom, Left-Right they are; Lilo, TweetiePie, Bugs, DD, Taz & Minnie (stitch was busy playing cars somewhere at the time :D).

It's School Ed', But Not As You Know It!!

2009-10-18T00:32:00.000+01:00

This week I was entirely disorganised (again) and didn't have those boxes sorted at all, but the kids are so into this now they just HAVE to fill them! So each morning I jotted on a piece of paper the things that were 'must-do's' for that day - each of them slotted those in and filled in the gaps - easy!! I must confess they did fill in the gaps with a lot of computer orientated learning, but it was all learning none-the-less :D The discovery of TutPup was a GOOD thing - I'm hoping this will be an ace learning tool for TweetiePie as it has speed & accuracy practice with the two areas she struggles most with; spelling and 'number families' (the lowest level of algebra) - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! (Thank you Merry :D). Minnie likes it too.

Here's some pictures from our week - just to show you that I can do it even with my hair down ;D!!

(this last shot was Jake practising his photography skills!)

Despite this week being a result of me not being organised it IS a good thing to do this every now and then, because it has a couple of positive effects; it means the children plan their day and that is an excellent thing - they are taking responsibility for their learning, choosing whether they wish to work together or alone, choosing how to arrange their day and when they want to do the 'hard stuff', hence learning what does and doesn't work in that regard (like leaving maths until just before we need to leave for Little Drama Group is NOT a good idea!), AND it teaches certain of them (Taz in particular) how to build some flexibility into their lives. Taz is such a little creature of habit and routine and any change is difficult for him - he can do it, but he takes a while to adapt. He is the only one who seems to want to fit the Workbox System back into his old timetabled way of doing things. He gets quite agitated if he has to skip forwards or backwards to work with someone else (because they weren't ready at the same time as him), but he can't bear waiting around 'wasting his time' either (not that that's a bad thing). He is often first to finish in the day because he ploughs through his work and being held up by someone else, or some 'group' activity is a simple annoyance to him!! Get used to it my son - that's life - and if I have to not fill the boxes some weeks to help you learn to adapt and bend then that is what I will do - nobody else really minds!! :D

Consultation Response

2009-10-17T03:42:00.007+01:00

I am number 2841 - looking like we might hit 3000 afterall :D

It took me HOURS!! I'm not going to paste it here, but here's link I hope you can all get into;

CLICK HERE.

The House of Commons - Children, Schools and Families Committee Reports

2009-10-17T03:42:00.005+01:00

Here is a link to the transcripts of the Select Committee meetings - scroll down to 'uncorrected evidence' .

The House of Commons - Children, Schools and Families Committee Reports

Dear Ed Balls & the DCSF – no thank you!

2009-10-14T01:00:00.003+01:00

I'm pretty sure this won't be as eloquent as Helen, Jax & Merry, but I had to say my piece!

I, Mr Ed, am already registered with my LEA, of my own FREE will and choice, but don't get me wrong I didn't do it so you could count me in your numbers, check up on me annually, or so you could consider yourself at liberty to enter my home & interview my children. I did it because I wanted to be a resource for those who might be starting out on the road of EHE and need a friendly welcome to the community! I did it, so that IF I should ever require your services I would not be eyed with suspicion for having never registered before. I did it because that is what I CHOSE to do. BUT I have friends who have not made this same choice and for whom I now choose to stand for. It is for reasons such as this report/review, whatever you want to call it, that my friends chose not to register in the first place.

So, you want to know numbers - but why? What business is it of yours?

I hear you when you say "so we can plan for services to support the EHE community." - but guess what - WE DON'T TRUST YOU!! - and with that in mind it is likely that many would not choose to use those services you are just now paying lip-service to. Your review makes sweeping assumptions that we actually WANT your help. Agreed, there are many things that I am sure Home educators would LOVE more ease of access to, but NOT with all these strings attached. If given the choice of access or freedom, I know what I and many of my friends would choose... FREEDOM wins hands down! Why should we have to prove we are providing an adequate education - by your measures - in order to have access to these things? I have yet to see you deny examination access to those schools that fail our nations children year after year! Do you go in and interogate school children one-on-one to hear what they have to say about their education? I think you might get a nasty shock if you were so to do! I don't mean interviewing the ones who are high fliers, high achievers (who are likely well supported at home also), but the ones who are struggling, the ones who are 'at risk' of failing to achieve, the ones with behavioural problems, the ones with Special Educational Needs - ask them whether they think the education system works for them, or against them! I dare you...

And then I challenge you to go set your own house straight before you go poking around in mine!!

Luke 6:42 NIV
"How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

One more thing... Mr Badman talked about the 'Tasmanian model' of monitering, where it is home educators who monitor home-educators. This looks to me like a formalised, state organised & controlled* version of what home-educator naturally set in place for themselves here in the UK. It is for THIS* reason that I suspect Home-Educators reject the idea (which despite knowing it was not widely accepted in the HE community Mr Badman put forward as an example anyway!) - we do not wish to be state controlled!! We do not believe the state has any RIGHT to control our lives! Believe me, there are not too many Home-Educators out there who chose to go it alone. It's not easy and we need support - but we CHOOSE where that support comes from and for the most part we are HAPPY with the way things are. THIS POT IS NOT BROKEN - DO NOT TRY TO FIX IT!!

For a supposedly intelligent man Mr Badman appear to me to be making incredibly ridiculous assertions. Lets look at his figures...

0.2% of the general population are 'known to the DSS' - or if we are to believe Mr Badman, that is purely the figure of children under "section 47" of the at risk register. OK - let's assume that's true. According to Mr Badman (and his meagre statistics) 0.4% of the KNOWN EHE community are likewise under that section 47 of the register (although I do recall the original questions put to the LEA's did not make it clear what 'known to the DSS actually meant and so I doubt if this is an honest promise). From these figures he makes the assumption that EHE children are doubly at risk of abuse. On what planet does he live? Is it not clear that IF his guestimated figures about the UNKNOWN EHE community are anything like correct (which I suspect he has severely UNDER estimated) then his 0.4% is going to drastically drop! Is it not pertinent to assume that IF a child were at risk in the community they would already be known to Social Services (and therefore counted in the 0.2%) - I mean lets face it - it's not always schools that pick up these issues and report them in reality is it? HE children are the ones out there in the community, mixing with the folks in their locality all day, every day; not hidden away in a classroom full of children their own age, who are unlikely to notice abuse, even less likely to report it. HE children are 'known' to the neighbours because they always about - they are noticeable - and you can bet your bottom dollar, if anything untoward were suspected there would be enough people in any location to think the worst, and that family would very quickly come under scrutiny - justly or otherwise. Please tell me then, why do you feel the need to vest MORE powers of interference in the EDUCATION Authorities than you currently do in Social Services? Currently it is only the POLICE - with warrant - who have the power to interview a child and only then are Social Services involved IF NECESSARY. How plays it that suddenly EDUCATION authorities are being allowed to make calls on SOCIAL welfare grounds?! Just supposing for a minute that the 0.4% were an accurate figure, surely these are the families where your focus needs to be - and these are already known to you, so no need for registration!? These and the 0.2% of the rest of the population. WHY do you feel the need to inspect and interfere with the lives of those of us who are quietly getting on with our God given responsibilities as parents of our children, to raise, love, protect and educate them as we see fit (at school or otherwise). YOU do not have a "duty of care" towards our children - WE DO!! YOU do not have responsibility for their education - WE DO!! YOU do not have the right to strip us of our duties and responsibilities until you can prove that we are shirking them - and that's what this review is all about - setting out to prove that we are not doing our job and thereby vesting the state with parental status - YOU WILL NOT WIN!! Try as you might but you cannot prove something that simply isn't true!

What I see developing before my eyes is a twisted woven web of Government control of our lives. BIG BROTHER is watching you. If you don't learn to think like we want you to think and know the things we want you to know, you are of no worth until we have kicked into shape and forced you to conform. And if we can't catch you in one web, we will spin another.

So what if my son is a NEET for a few years - I am not training him to be useful to you - I am not training him for puplic slavitude - I am training him to find his joy in life. My ambition for my son is that he is happy and fulfilled - and I'm sure his happiness won't be tied up in what he knows about "ancient oriental history!" IF my son chooses that as a topic of interest then we will look closely at it, if not we will probably touch on it lightly at some stage - just as they would in school (where nothing is learnt in any great depth though many things are covered as token gestures). I want my son to spend his life in a vocation that he loves, not one that he feels trapped into through a need to earn and contribute to public productivity. I love my son - I have more ambition for him than THAT! IF he needs to take his time to get to where he is going, that is fine by me - his age is not the issue.

Like I said I am already registered, but I do not follow a prescribed curriculum and have no intention of doing so. I tweak my schooling according to the needs of my children year-by-year, month-by-month, week-by-week-, hour-by-hour, even minute-by-minute if necessary. I have NO intention of writing down learning goals and objectives for the upcoming year - this would be a waste of my time! In our house I might set a goal and it can be met in a week, or it might take two years. It's not that my educating has failed, it's that my goal was not well aligned with my child's needs and therefore needs changing. But under your proposed system I would be deemed to be failing if I did not reach my original goal that year - and what would befall me then? Prescribed State Curriculum? Enforced state schooling? LEA 'support'? - I can see the thin end of the wedge already!! Am I then to stick with that goal even though it has already been achieved/I got it wrong, just because it's what I said a year ago that I was aiming for? THIS would be crazy!! THIS is where it's all gone wrong in schools. Teachers are no longer free to use their initiative and change the goals according to the needs of the child and/or class - they have to stick with the goals laid out before them, or woe betide! NO WAY am I getting into this in my home. We have already seen the impact of your trying to enforce the 'early learning goals' on childminders. These are people caring for children in their own homes, in a large number of cases, because parents have chosen to send them to a less constructively educational setting - a setting where the children are more free to play as they would as home, and yet BIG BROTHER believes it is only right that ALL children should be squeezed into their mould from as early an age as possible - let's get at them even before they can talk!! THIS IS WRONG!!!

I CHOOSE TO REMAIN FREE! I CHOOSE FREEDOM FOR MY CHILDREN!

I will not bow down to your totalitarian state, where everything I do is watched and controlled and I will train my children to stand up and be counted also. I will change my goals as often as I see the need to, or even not set any in the first place - that is MY CHOICE! I WILL NOT conform, or fill out forms or allow you to interview my children without me there. WHO do you think you are!?! I do not want or need your 'support' and I will not use it even if you offer it to me - I would not be foolish enough to fall into the snare trap you are setting - and I think you will be surprised just how many of us can see right through you!

Going Potty!

2009-10-13T00:20:00.007+01:00

Quick update & a 'few' pics :D

Bugs' completed Lego creation

Minnie's Greek Pot (outside)

& inside

Taz's Greek Pot (outside)

inside.

Bugs' pot (outside) - painted with Gouache, hence the sheen

inside

Tweetie's pot (outside) - she decided to leave hers grey.

inside

Lilo's pot (outside)

inside

Early Victorian style puppet theatre - playing Cinderella :D

...And here's the evidence you've been after...

So not only do I now have 7 children to look after, but one is an invalid (with a far too good reason to spend plenty of time SASSing) and one (Stitch) is sooo rough with his cold he wants to spend every waking moment on my knee or in my arms - or Daddy's when he gets home! Problem is, I don't feel too grand either and I can only get to about lunchtime before I feel like I need to sleep for about 10 hours - not sure what's up with me :(

If anyone was wondering about the car...it IS a right off. We are desperately trying to track down a 9-seater through a dealer now before the insurance pay out / our 21 days courtesy car runs out. With Bugs incapacitated a car becomes even more essential! Problem is there just doesn't seem to be too much out there within our budget - so if anyone spots a nice looking minibus in their local garage for around the £6000 mark please LET ME KNOW! We will go near enough anywhere to collect if we can get it quick!

Drama in the house!

2009-10-11T22:54:00.002+01:00

Tonight my Bugs has returned from A&E with a plaster up to his knee! He was dancing at his youth club on friday night, landed funny on his foot (in new shoes) and limped through the weekend. I had a look at it last night and decided I thought it might be broken, but to leave it one more night to see... His foot was pretty swollen this morning. Stitch is not too well with a heavy cold and feverish, so he, Bugs and I stayed home. This afternoon Lilo and DD were booked for a party I didn't want them to miss and as Bugs was happy just lying on the sofa with his leg up, we decided to take him down this evening. Obviously being a nice Sunday afternoon and rugby season A&E was busy, so they only just got back (nearly 5 hours later). Bugs has broken his 5th metatarsal (correct diagnosis on my part - grin!), but the tendons that connect are twisting his leg a bit, hence the mega-cast & crutches. Pictures to follow in the morning! Let's see how much he milks this then ;-) He's already tried the "Well, I can't do school then!" - to which I replied, "it's your foot that broken, not your brain!", but to be honest sometimes I'm not so sure!! :D

Stitch is non too well - nasty barking cough and he really looks rough, bless him :( Hoping we don't all get it.

I can't get motivated this weekend at all, so I haven't planned the week yet. I have a vague idea in my head of what the week needs to hold, but the boxes are empty - again! I really do love this system Monday -Thursday, but I dread the hours of prep on a weekend. It aches my brain trying to organise 60 activities and make sure everyone gets their fair turn at the fun things without stepping on each others toes too much. I think I need to try and be creative about how the boxes get filled. I could ask the kids to do it just as they finish each day, but I feel they already do quite a lot of stuff that eats into their free time (chores and all) and I want them to have time to be kids, BUT I am aware that they do it in about 5 minutes a piece and somehow it takes me so much longer than that when I'm doing them all of an evening. More thought required on that one. I certainly don't want to get into a 'rut' again, with the same things in the same boxes each day (which is how I know a lot of folks use it), because that would just feel like a timetable in boxes - and we've been timetabled for way too long. At least with this there is so much more flexibility built in and a lightness about it that allows me to feel things can pass-over to the next day if we've simply run out of time. The next day can be juggled and nothing is being missed out - unlike when we did timetables and things frequently got squeezed out.

Right now I need to go an make up a temporary chore-chart so that my invalid son does not just skive out of every chore there is for the next however many weeks!

2009-10-11T20:17:00.001+01:00

I just recieved an award from Sheri over at Homeschooling on a wing and a prayer.

I am honoured! Thanks Sheri :)

Select Committee witnesses

2009-10-09T00:16:00.001+01:00

If you haven’t seen the list of witnesses for the select committee the phrase read it and weep comes to mind.

From Home Education Forums

The Children, Schools and Families Committee will be taking formal oral evidence as follows:

Monday 12 October 2009 at 4.45pm
Wilson Room, Portcullis House

Witnesses:

Graham Badman CBE;
Ms Diana R Johnson MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools, and
Penny Jones, Independent Schools and School Organisation, DCSF.

The purpose of this session is to examine the evidence base for and recommendations of the DCSF commissioned review of elective home education in England.

Wednesday 14 October 2009 at 9.30am
Wilson Room, Portcullis House

Witnesses: (At 9.30am)
Jane Lowe, Trustee, Home Education Advisory Service;
Fiona Nicholson, Trustee /Chair Government Policy Group, Education Otherwise;
Simon Webb, home educating parent;
David Wright, home educating parent, and
Carole Rutherford, co-founder, Autism in Mind

(At 10.30am)
Colin Green, Chair, Families, Communities and Young People Policy Committee, Association of Directors of Children’s Services;
Ellie Evans, Head of Children Missing Education team, West Sussex County Council;
Sir Paul Ennals, Chief Executive, National Children’s Bureau, and
Phillip Noyes, Director of Public Policy, NSPCC

No Paula Rothermel. No one from AHEd, or AEUK. The two home educating parents are both men, which doesn’t strike me as desperately representative of the demographic of home educators as a whole?

If you feel like dropping a complaint in (and I really feel you should) the email address is csfcom@parliament.uk

The Members of the Committee are:

Mr Barry Sheerman (Chairman), Labour, Huddersfield
Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat, Mid Dorset and Poole North
Mr Douglas Carswell, Conservative, Harwich
Mr David Chaytor, Labour, Bury North
Mrs Sharon Hodgson, Labour, Gateshead East and Washington West
Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat, Chesterfield
Fiona Mactaggart, Labour, Slough
Mr Andrew Pelling, Independent, Croydon Central
Mr Andy Slaughter, Labour, Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush
Helen Southworth, Labour, Warrington South
Mr Graham Stuart, Conservative, Beverley & Holderness
Mr Edward Timpson, Conservative, Crewe and Nantwich
Derek Twigg, Labour, Halton
Lynda Waltho , Labour, Stourbridge

so if any of them are your MP, suggest that it would be a good idea to stick a flea in their ear too.

Please spread far and wide.

(I stole this post from my friend, but she won't mind - let's get the word out!!!)

Brain Dump!

2009-10-06T19:03:00.008+01:00

It's all happening here - and I have a headache!!

Yesterday we did:

Tux painting
Maths (online and off)
Art (painting our Greek pots) - just the red-clay colour
Spelling tests - with varying degrees of success this week ;)
English (Galore Park at various level & 'Just Write' for Minnie)
Lilo did some more Starfall work - she is doing really well with it and loving it atm)
Typing
Education City & Moshi Monsters
DD & Stitch spent some time on Poissonrouge
A few of the kiddos had some Wii time
Minnie chose to get out the Moonsand - which I regretted saying yes to when I was sweeping it up from all around the house half an hour later. It's great stuff - outside, or on a weekend when I can supervise better, but when little ones get their fingers in it (which of course they do the minute it comes out), just like any sand, it goes EVERYWHERE! And because it's sticky it sticks to feet very well indeed - and therefore spreads around rather nicely!
DD did some fine-motor work with paper clips and colour cards. He stuck with it for a little while, but was not that enamoured! Paperclips were a new skill though and he understood how to work them after a little practice and verbal guidance, so that was good.

Sure there was more too, but I forget what!

Here's how today looked;

Bible study (four bigs) while I printed out a few bits I forgot last night .
Lego Challenge for oldest 4, joined by younger 2 and later by stitch - build an aeroplane to be judged by Daddy later, on effort, design & strength - great fun - took AGES!! Actually Lilo decided to build a train & station, and Tweetie built a plane & airport :D. DD had a major strop because he couldn't do it (even though he didn't actually try), but in the end he built a wall and was quite happy with that :D

Whilst Lego was happening Stitch was downstairs amuzing himself with 'Push' - a game that requires all it's 26 balls to be there and whenever he has asked for it in the past I have said "no!", but I was upstairs doing Lego with the others, so, sneaky*(see later story) as he is, he got it out and when I spotted him I decided to leave him as he was playing so nicely with it. I just WISH I could trust him though, because just as always, when he was done (and of course I was called away else where), instead of tidying it or even just leaving it, he threw the balls everywhere - WHY does he do that with EVERYTHING!?! So now, I am missing a ball of course - rrrrr!

Various combinations of Tux painting & maths.

Watched the tractor with giant hedge-cutter attachment as it massacred the hedgerows along the footpath beside our house (very entertaining for small children).

Taz did something on the Wii for a bit

DD practiced his name (getting very good now) and did a tiny bit of his colour sticker book. I'm not sure why he doesn't want to do the sticker book atm, maybe because it doesn't involve ME!

DD also threaded some foam shapes on a nylon thread - independently - and enjoyed that - phew!

Lilo made a felt shape 'ribbon' bracelet with a LOT of help from yours truely - the instructions were SO unclear and it was very fiddly for her, but it's pretty so that's good! :D

We learnt a bit about the Roman Army and made shields for the project folder - which also took AGES and needed to be finished after drama/prayer group.

Bugs, Taz & Stitch went to prayer group (chauffeured by Dad), whilst Minnie, Tweetie, Lilo & DD walked to LDG (Little Drama Group) with me - in the rain!

Home to judge the aeroplanes and finish off the shields, clear up and now to eat tea :D

I took quite a few photos! :D

The workboxes have been about half completed today, but hey-ho, it was a busy, fun day & there's only so much one can squash in! :D I have a headache, because, although the kids have been good on the whole, they can still be incredibly noisy and when it's this busy I find it all a little too much. I like that it's productive, but at the same time, it's exhausting! It's exhausting when the children seemingly refuse to think for themselves - I seem to be the first port of call before they tap into their own brains, even just a little bit: "Muuuuum, what shall I do with this tiny scrap of paper I cut off (that is obviously no good to anyone any more)?" - seriously - how bright does one need to be to work that out!?! It's also not helped either by DD being rather screechy rather too much of the time of late - whiny, in a high screechy voice about sooooo many things. And Stitch is also a bit clingy and whiny some of the time too, but only in a normal 2yo way - it just all adds to the intolerable noise levels/pitch/fuzzy-head at times.

OK - moan over!!

* Sneaky Stitch ... this boy is SOOO sneaky! Bugs gave him the tiniest piece of bread from his own sandwich at lunch time. Stitch took this as being enough, and, while my back was turned to make food for the others, helped himself to a chocolate mouse from the fridge, sat down, opened it and proceeded to eat it (with his fingers) before anyone noticed what he was up to. We NEVER have mouse at lunchtime - he knows this and you should have seen the twinkle in his oh-so-mischievous eyes!!

This boy is SOOOO sneaky that often, when I go to get Jaffa Cakes out at snack time, I find a black (high)chair in my pantry and an empty Jaffa box (or two!!). This boy is SOOOO sneaky he will pinch chocolate snack bars, open them and sit on the bottom stair with it and his drink (like a table), minding his own business and you won't notice him until the misdemeanour is almost accomplished - and he looks so innocent (and quiet) that you seriously have to consider if it is worth the hassle (and noise) of reprimanding him. This boy is SOOOO adorable that he is extremely difficult to tell off as he smiles at you with twinkly eyes and huge dimples, and so intelligent that it's hard not to clock his mischief up to pure 2yo genius, but my-oh-my am I gonna have my work cut out with him in a couple of years time!! He does NOT rule the roost, by any stretch of his imagination, and he DOES know the boundaries (and push them constantly), but he is a force to be reckoned with, no shadow of a doubt!! I do and will have to pick my battles carefully with him because I think he will be libel to grind me down - and I cannot afford to let him be the winning side in a battle that I have chosen to pick!

Out-to-Lunch!

2009-10-04T23:20:00.002+01:00

We had lunch with friends today (thank you K&R for a wonderful meal!) and I took pictures of her amazing garden, which really is pretending it is still summer - check out my photos :D. It's been a lovely relaxing day, and because I spent ALL of yesterday getting ready for this week - in determination that there is to be more Mummy input than internet input this week - I know I am ready for tomorrow, so I can PLAY tonight!! :D

Week 3 - Not TOO bad - considering..!

2009-10-01T23:40:00.012+01:00

If you start the week chasing your tail in this house it's likely not to get any better...and it didn't, but we managed to keep the ball rolling and the kids were good, and I'll do better next week - I have to - I promised them I would!

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!

I'm sure there's been a lot more too, but it's hard to remember it all. Not bad for an unplanned week though :D

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!

Week 2 in Review

2009-09-24T23:04:00.012+01:00

It's been busy again - exhausting in parts and bitty in others, but overall I am pleased with what we are achieving. I find we are all running out of impetus by Thursday and tbh today has not been as good as I had it in my head to be, with only about half the work being completed, but it still felt like a reasonably good day all the same.

The pictures tell the story in a much less boring way than all my words, so enjoy - and I'll add tit-bits here and there :D

MONDAY

Art - painting the bas-relief creations from last week

even for Stitch !

Typing - (everyone does this at some point in the week)

Maths - all at different levels, but Lilo's is most photo-worthy :D

Minnie is doing English is this shot too.

Nature study - this is the view from the school room window and provides many moments of Tot-School conversations about cows and birds :D

Creative Play (Playdoh) - for all the smalls (what school would be complete without the stuff - and ours is all brand spanking new this week - first new stuff we've had in years!!). Here they are all making in Monsters :D

here's Lilo's;

(which of course then led to some pretend play for a little while :D)

TUESDAY.

Craft - Lilo chose to make this little keyring, from a kit she earned at conference this year that had been waiting for the right moment :D With only a little help, she did a great job

Sports / team play - of a sort!!

DT - bridge building (DD was doing this too, but missed the photo)

PE - the walk to Drama takes about 20 minutes :D -

currently the highlight of the week for the middle four.

followed up with races in the park...

and Lilo FINALLY learning how to swing herself -

and then not knowing how to stop again (lol)!

some more nature study/photography (for me this time) -

there seems to be lots of these about atm.

and then for them as we discussed the changing seasons on the way home.

and looked at seeds...

...and berries.

WEDNESDAY

Group play & DT- the day got off to a pretty late start due to some elaborate games with this track that Bugs was sent to 'quickly' build to keep DD & Stitch happy! In the end everyone played for quite some time!!

Craft/DT- Later on Taz spent too much time making this, but I was impressed with his patience and effort, so I left him too it - plenty of hours in his life to do boring school work, not so many to play with Airfix model kits!! :D He took the photo too - so he could use just a little more time!

Problem solving/Thinking skills - DD got busy with his Tweenie puzzles, loved doing them and didn't argue with me that they were "too hard!" - he just did them - so that's progress! Look how pleased he was with himself - he even asked me to take a picture of him with them all done :D

Lilo was on the floor doing her alphabet initial-sounds-match frieze activity, with the 'help' of Stitch!

We did do other 'stuff' on Wednesday too, I just didn't take pictures! When Paul came home DD & Stitch disappeared into the kitchen with him and I think he let them 'help' cook tea - which was taco's, chile and salad - yum!

THURSDAY.

Maths - I gave these home-made pattern strips to Lilo together with some wooden blocks...

.... she understood it no trouble :D

Lilo is a very visual person and it was no surprise to me that she easily converted 2D to 3D and understood the patterning. Looks like I need to think of some more of these - she really enjoyed them. Next thing is to get her to show DD how they work :D

Another of the major achievements I sadly have not photographed this week, is that Lilo learnt to write her full length christian name completely independently - quite an achievement seeing as this time last year she only knew her shortened name and didn't believe her full one actually was her name! Next target is to get her to write all her names - she often doesn't even remember what her middle name is most of the time!!

DD too has been working hard on his name and is beginning to understand pencil grip and letter direction already. He is doing really well with it and I reckon might manage it solo (i.e. not traced) in about another week or so :D Currently he is writing on a sheet of laminate over a lined dry-wipe board on which I have written his name. I give him a 'blob' on each letter from which he knows he has to start and then verbally tell him which way to go ; "around, up, down to the line and flick - that's 'a' ", "start at the top, on the blob, go all the way down to the line, then back up a little, JUST to the dotty line, around and close - good - that's 'b' " - etc... This verbal method is the way I have taught them all to write and they all have very legible handwriting - so far :D The closed laminate tracing is a new idea and it seems to be working well atm. DD is the first child I have had to come out of playgroup still unable to write his name though. It's not that he doesn't have the pencil control, or that he's not bright, I just think everyone's focus has been more on getting him talking clearly than on reading & writing - still is really, but I think he will be so proud when he can write his own name! :D

On the reading front with Lilo I have put her back to the start with Headsprout ( I remember I had to do that for TweetiePie too) as she just was not remembering anything, but meanwhile I have shown her the Starfall 'learn to read' program - and printed out the worksheets - and it is really working for her!! She is getting it AND she is enjoying it. So, I'll go with her flow while it's fun and see where we end up :D I think it will suddenly click (I think I can already see the penny beginning to drop) and she will fly - she's that kind of kid. And when she has it sorted, I will be redundant - she will read and read and read and I will never be able to get her to come and do anything else! She will loose herself so completely in her stories that all else will be a nuisance to her - I can see it coming because that's how she is already, only the stories at the moment come from a conglomerate of sources; her head, things we've read and things she watches. When it's books they will take over her world - I just feel it in my bones!! :D

Other activities have played a role in our week - like Ed City and Moshi Monsters (which I highly recommend as an educational tool!), reading, writing - all the normal, boring stuff. Even when the children play trains for large portions of the day I still feel like we are achieving more than ever before! Bugs is learning a Shakespear sonnet (wow) to recite to the 'class' next week, we have done astronomy, Taz & Bugs played Jenga this morning too, which then morphed into an elaborate game of armies at DD's choosing and lasted some time (missed getting a shot of that one though); there's photography happening here, there and everywhere and Bugs' photo-blog is beginning to look significantly less neglected :D. They are playing together with the littler ones much better than they used to too, probably due to it being an expectation that they do so at various points in each day - to get down to a younger level and play whatever that child wishes is a challenge that it so good for them all, but especially Taz.

Other things of note this week: Minnie and Tweetie-Pie both passed to the next level in swimming - AT LAST! - and Tweetie also found out she did well and got a B for her Primary Ballet exam. I think the examiner might have been quite hard this time though, as none of the class got an A, which is quite unusual at this level, and Tweetie got a lower mark than when Minnie did the same exam, although I know she is much more graceful and co-ordinated than Minnie was at that time.

That's about it for now I think..!