A Little Bit of Home Ed...

We've been a bit slack here of late, what with girly cousins staying over half term, decorating the girls room and birthdays and stuff, but there's been some learning happening too. 

For Lent the girls, Paul and I gave up meat this year. This has meant some learning adventures in vegetarian food & getting a balanced diet. I have certainly enjoyed going back to my veggie days and the girls don't seem to be missing meat too badly either, but I think it's proving a lot harder for Paul who  would basically be a meatatarian given the choice, and who strongly dislikes what I consider the basics of a vegetarian diet - mushrooms or  tomatoes! He's not mad keen on pasta either, so I think this is really quite a challenge for him.

One of our favourites so far has been Homity Pie ~ why have I never met this before?!

Then there's been chinese hom-bao (steamed, stuffed dumplings), which, although eventually successful, were a LOT of work and I deem only to be repeated if cooking for two, rather than 10!!

Another great success has been Sweet Potato & Butternut soup, with hunks of bread ~ yum!

Then of course there's been lessons in 'decorating' ...

And besides that some 'formal' learning too.

Chip's home-ed is the most photo-worthy though, so... (hover over the pics for details) ...

   

   

   

And that's all for now really. 

Not Back to School 2014 ~ The one in which Daddy Builds a Swing!

I'm skipping my last few 'summer holiday's' posts in favour of a 'back to school' one  and being up to date! ~ I'll blog the final bit of our holidays over at www.tmfh.me.uk/blog 

  So, this week marked the start of the new academic year (Sept - July here in the UK). For the majority of children here that means new school uniforms, shoes, haircuts, pencils and school-bags; a certain excitement about re-uniting with friends not seen over the summer, but also significant anxiety over new class-mates, new teachers, new routines and expectations. But for those of us who home-educate our children it really doesn't mean any of those things! 

   For us not much changes. Many home-edders will have even continued over the summer without a second thought. Education for these people settles on a continuum with all of life. It doesn't stop and start with seasons or the calendar. For others, like me, who do choose to take a long 'break', it just feels like picking up where we left off ~ although in reality education just LOOKS different over the summer - it never really 'stops' for any of us!! 

    'Back to School' for home-edders doesn't mean a return to stressful mornings spent trying to chivvy reluctant, sleepy children up the road to a classroom full of other sleepy heads; it doesn't mean leaving our children (crying) at the school gates; it doesn't mean exhausted children returning home at the end of a long day, grumpy about the thought of the hour (or two) of homework that they still have ahead of them; it doesn't mean playground spats and verbal teasing (for whatever reason the teaser chooses to find) or picking up the pieces of shattered dreams & broken friendships; it doesn't mean choices and options that cannot change, but that are supposed to determine their 'entire' future; it doesn't mean 'making the grade', or performing like dancing seals to the expectations of others who don't love them and have no vested interest in them beyond this single year; it doesn't mean watching (and missing) the last throws of summer ebb away whilst sitting at a desk, inside four walls, and the skies having clouded over by break/home-time. 

    Not Back 2 Skool in MY house looks more like this; wake up naturally around 8ish (little ones are usually up around 7am), get ready, maybe empty the dishwasher if it's your turn, eat breakfast and clean you teeth and be ready to learn by 9am. (If you're not ready by 9 then whatever you were meant to be learning between 9 & 10 you'll have to catch up on later - your choice!). I will be up about 8.30 and busy about, doing washing and odd jobs, before I join the children in the 'schoolroom' (never managed to think of another label for it) at 10am to do Bible Study with them all. On Monday's though, which I think most people will agree is the hardest morning to get going, I am realistic about my abilities and instead of pushing myself to get up before I'm ready - making me grumpy all day, the younger ones join me upstairs in bed, with our Five-in-a-Row book, and we read and snuggle while we learn! I'm not a morning person, which is why this year I have pushed Bible Study back to 10am ~ because realistically I am more with-it and human by then! 9am just wasn't happening often enough.



By 11am it's snack time ~ and if the weather is fine the children run off outside. In fact they may already be out there, if they've taken the morning into the garden already. There are no rules about 'where' learning has to happen ~ garden, bedroom, schoolroom ~ they can choose for themselves. Even computer based learning is reasonably portable if the light is favourable for a screen (and now I've managed to install flash on our android tablets). My only rule is that any writing has to be done sitting in a proper position, but there's two tables in the garden, so that's fine!

After half hour free time, structured learning resumes for a couple of hours, then they get a full hour lunch-break. In the afternoon they just do one hour and we are done by 3.30. We have 5 'structured' hours each day, but only four days a week. Friday is a structure-free day. Sometimes one child or another may have something they want/need to finish off from the week, or that they simply 'skipped' in favour of playing a bit more at some point ~ so they have the whole of Friday to slot that into. 

   The beauty of having a structure like this is that when 'school' is done, it's really done! The children know where they stand. No home-work, or unexpected demands! The children have a couple of chores to fit into their evenings once or twice a week, and they have clubs and activities that they go to 'after school' ~ they do have demands on their free-time, but mostly these are chosen demands, and the rest of the time they are able to simply 'be'. Obviously, as the older teens' courses become more demanding, there may be research they need to do over the weekend, but I don't/won't police it. They are expected to take responsibility for making sure they make reasonable progress. The 'junior' children might have a few spellings to practice over the weekend, but again, I leave the responsibility with them ~ and they know that if they don't learn them, then the consequences might not be ones they would particularly enjoy (like repetition)! 

   And so here we are at the end of Week One of the September term. It went smoothly. Everyone was mostly happy and all the 'structured' learning got done. Stitch struggled to adjust a little to the increased demands on his time (although it's not a massive increase in reality), and I anticipate it taking him a couple of weeks to settle into it, but he'll get there. He really is a boy who struggles to concentrate and be still (unless he's on a screen), but some essential things just can't be learnt/done whilst running around!
  
We've had a really great week tbh. The weather has been lovely which has meant a good deal of outdoor time, especially when Daddy came home on Wednesday with a rope and began sawing off a tree stump (from an Ash tree he hacked down last weekend) ~ and announced he was making a swing! The children were thrilled! They have wanted a swing in the over-grown pear tree of the neighbouring field for almost as long as we've lived here. They've made make-shift ones with skipping ropes and even borrowed Paul's tow-rope once, but they've never had a 'proper' swing ~ and now they do ~ and some of them even had a small hand in making it!! 

Usually at this time of year, when all the tiny (but perfectly edible) little pears have fallen and are rotting on the ground, the pear-tree is a no-go area because  there are gazillions of gorging wasps, but oddly, this year there don't seem to be any wasps around and, although the place smells of fermenting pears, it is safe for them to play. So play they have ~ re-firing their imaginations. A couple of autumns ago they built a wigwam against the same tree ~ now they've lined it with ferns to keep the floor less muddy, and woven ferns up the sides to make it more den-like. They've climbed the tree and Minnie, who had already made a 'seat' up there, has sat in it to write a story she has been inspired to start. They've thrashed down giant nettles & ferns (with sticks and a spade) to reveal hidey-holes amongst uncultivated, rampant plum trees. They've swung. They've played. They've run. And now they are talking tree-houses and Paul is planning a 'bridge' across the fence (we cannot remove the fence, or add a gate, because the field doesn't belong to our landlord, but to our neighbour (and the two do not get on too well), but the children do have permission from our neighbour to play in there). 

  

The wild play led to a desire to 'wild camp' but Paul wasn't too keen on letting them camp in the field, so they've camped in the garden instead ~ which is still pretty wild to be fair, especially at night! You'd have thought with two camping holidays this year they'd have had enough of sleeping on the ground, but apparently not!

Not only did Daddy build a swing on Wednesday, but Joel (Taz) also finished his go-kart that he began last summer! Admittedly part of the delay has been waiting for Paul to get him some bits and bobs to fix wheels and such, but he has done it now, with minimal help ~ and it works!

All of this loveliness was topped off by the fact that Tuesday was Paul & my 19th Wedding Anniversary. 

Having older teens affords us great babysitters for short periods, so when he got home from work, Paul bundled me in the car and took me off for an ice-cream treat at Snugbury's (seriously the best ice-cream EVER) and a walk in the beautiful sunshine! We chatted about us ~ the past, the present (yes, the kids) and a bit about the future. It was lovely :)

A Bit Out Of Touch..!

I'm feel I am seriously OUT of the blogging loop atm. I am just about managing to hold together my 365 (although even that is a week behind) and I haven't blog-hopped in WEEKS, either to my photography friends, or my HE ones ~ and for that I apologise. Somehow life just seems to have been a whirlwind since Christmas and evening are often tied up with jiggling a restless baby - like they all get in the evenings! We have decided to experiment this week with putting him to bed earlier as he was waking at 5am and really struggling to re-settle. By the time we eventually got him back off it was almost time for Paul to get up and that didn't seem to be working for us! Putting him to bed earlier means he wakes at 3, but goes back off better and we get longer until morning! We'll see how it goes ~ it worked well last night, but I am not a 7am person, even if Paul has to be and the kids naturally are!


HE-wise things are ticking along. Stitch and DD both completed a 'year' on Education City last week, meaning DD is now working at Yr1 level and Stitch at Reception (which of course he would be starting in September were he going). The work on there is just right for them and in fact perhaps a little easy in some areas. Stitch is quick as a wink and misses nothing ~ I am thinking I might be teaching them BOTH to read next year and save myself some time and work. I reckon Stitch is actually almost ready and DD definitely is. DD is already sounding out words really well, even if he doesn't yet know the sounds of all the letters. Let me explain: He can tell me that shoe is made up of 'sh' and 'oo', or mouse is made of 'm', 'ou' & 's'. He would not be able to tell me what letters make those sounds yet. However, some words, like 'b-u-s' he could probably actually write correctly as he does know all those letters well enough and his pencil control is excellent. Letters he knows sounds for consistently are (for the record); a, b, c, e, k, o, p, q (and qu), s u, x, z. ~  that's almost half the alphabet even though I've not made any concerted effort to teach him any yet! He knows some of the others sometimes; f, i, l, p, r, y.
Stitch also knows a few ~ although he seems to be learning a mixture of sounds and names due to the sources of his learning (i.e. mainly Starfall and Ed'City!). Consistently he has; a (sound), c (sound), e (sound), k (sound), o (sound), p (sound), q (sound), r (name), s (sound), w (name), x (name & sound), z (sound) ~ interestingly almost exactly the same ones as DD has picked up, only the u/w is different! I wonder why that might be???
Lilo is eventually picking up with reading at a more rapid pace, although she still does make consistent errors that I wouldn't expecting by now: she still, almost always, reads 'd' for 'b', she still sometimes still reads 'i' for 't' (and vice versa) and often cannot remember 'j' at all, or reads it as 'i'. She still forgets 'v' on a regular basis too and sometimes, when she remembers it, still makes a 'f' sound for it. I know these are all common errors in younger children, but I am surprised she is still making them when she can essentially read, and that by phonetic means! I think she needs a vision test (well I know she does), but I need her to be more consistent with her letters before she goes, so it doesn't seem she can't see them when she can! She is almost at the end of Headsprout. She had only about 10 more episodes to complete, so just another couple of weeks - she'll be finished by half term. I am thinking of enrolling her on Explode-the-Code online. They have a 3 for 2 offer on atm, so I could enrol all three youngest ones at their own levels! I think it might be a fun way to sure up Lilo's phonics, whilst still taking her forwards by doing LOTS of reading with me as-well. Her confidence is growing, and that is good, but it is still not brilliant and I believe that is half the battle with her. Where she is confident, and almost able to self-teach, she excels. Reading has not really been something she has been able to approach in that way, or that has come to her easily, but she IS getting there at last and I know she is happy about that :D
Maths is progressing nicely with all of the younger ones too. Lilo has completed Miquon Orange and is rapidly pacing through Singapore MPH 1A (it's a cinch for her now). DD is working through Grade 1 Math Mammoth, which is also relatively easy for him, but gives him a stretch. He resists the stretch a little, but the work is not too hard!


The older four are plodding along nicely, although I do feel their work is too much 'on your own' atm. I want to be able to input more with them, but just now I can't see how. They do have plenty of things they do which are not book work and there seems to be a significant of arts and crafts happening atm which is off their own backs. I like that as a&c is not really my thing at all tbh. They are enjoying playing some games together sometimes too ~ also which I like. I would like to find some to get back and finish our long abandoned Astronomy project (which we were all enjoying) and get on with learning some more History from our Diana Waring series. It all seems to have been on hold for TOO long now. Maybe after Easter Solomon (need to pick web-name for him soon), who will be 4 months by then, will be in a more predictable routine and/or be happier to sit and play while we work. At the moment, when he's awake he wants to be held, fed or stimulated by one of us. He does sleep most mornings, which gives me time with the smaller ones, but he less often sleeps after lunch so the big ones only get me avec babe-in-arms, which is not conducive to Mummy-led teaching :(  I guess sooner or later we'll find our way again ~ we usually do...


I need to get my finger out about arranging an appointment with the deputy of the local college if we are still going to look at Bugs maybe going there next year ~ time is flying by and it'll be the summer before we sneeze at this rate and he'll be stuck home with me for another year by default, which may not (or MAY be) the best thing! I must add though ~ I think he's going to need to address his work ethic before he goes to college or he won't last there very long at all! The motivation cannot come from me. I can only warn him, and coax him. I cannot force him to work. He might just have to learn his lesson hard when he gets to college. He doesn't believe me when I try to help him understand the amount of work children his age would be set from school. Not that I think that that is a good or necessary thing, but it is a reality for most kids and he simply doesn't believe me! The downside of that being, I know he will be shocked by the amount of time and effort the college will expect him to put into his studies, but I HOPE he will rise to the challenge!
I'd really like to take a trip to London (or somewhere nearer maybe) with him soon, to a photography exhibition of some sort, as I believe this would inspire him and also it would look good on his portfolio/'CV' when he's trying to impress the college deputy!!


So that's us. I feel we are treading water a bit right now, or at least the bigger children are, but all the same they are making progress and life is not too much filled with daily drudgery, so I must be doing something OK. :D Only two more weeks to half term, when maybe I might get a moment or two to look at things again. There's not much I feel I can really change right now, but I might just need to shuffle things here and there to make life a little more 'vibrant' for us all ~ especially with the nicer weather hopefully just around the corner (yeah!).


Next week, on Thursday, Minnie turns 10. I can't believe I am Mum to 3 children in double figures (and three under 6 too, with a couple in between!). She is a very grown up 10 in so many ways... ~ look out for her 'special-day' blog later in the week!


In other news...


I would be very appreciative if those of you who know about my Aunty, would please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Having been exceptionally well right up until Christmas and having had a scan that showed very little change in any of her tumours, she then became increasingly unwell over Christmas, with a variety of different symptoms. She asked for a re-scan in January and it sadly shows that all of her tumours have now spread ~ some more than others. She has developed a cough where fluid is now gathering in her lungs (although this is not distressing her atm), but her most painful symptom is in her muscles, which simply refuse to work at all some days. So much so that she is unable to even turn herself over in bed at times. She has lost a significant amount of weight over the year (it is almost a year since she received her initial diagnosis) and is constantly nauseous (which could be due to the cancer and/or the pain-relief drugs). She is no longer receiving Chemo', but they are discussing radiotherapy to target the cancer she now has on her spine. I am hoping to visit her very soon (maybe the beginning of March, which is her birthday). Thankfully we have wonderful friends who are willing to take on our children for a weekend, so we will just take Solomon down with us. I am not looking forward to it very much because I think I will see a marked change from when we visited last in October. I am sad. I am still praying for a miracle...
Her teenage son (my cousin) is not coping well either and has been missing significant amounts of school and/or simply not completing assignments. He is due to take his GCSE's this year. I'm not sure he will. He is now on mild antidepressants (depression runs thick in my family) and not at school. He has been told that unless he makes up the time he's missed he will not be allowed to attend the leavers ball! I think the school is being grossly unfair to him ~ they have made little or no allowance for the fact that he is watching his Mum getting sicker in front of his eyes, & seemingly quite rapidly now. GCSE's are not where his head is at right now! The real world is not a happy or nice place for him to be and he prefers to bury himself in virtual-reality. I can really understand that tbh ~ pain is not real in there! At the end of the day, it's not like he can never re-trace his academic path, whereas he will never be able to have his Mum back once she's gone and just now he needs to be with her ~ at home. The world can wait!! That's my view anyway... but it's hard to say that out loud - even to them.


On a happier & lighter note... 


Solomon is an awesome baby! .... and I am over a stone lighter now than I was before I fell for him, so he's also a brilliant weight-loss machine!! :D ~ I have few more stone to go before I get to where I want to be, but it's a great start and I am happy to now be wearing jeans I couldn't comfortably wear before I was pregnant!

Pumpkin Fun!

So, here she is ~ our biggest, most beautiful, home-grown pumpkin!

Getting ready for her destiny...

Such FUN!!

We don't celebrate Halloween as such, but that doesn't stop us having fun!!

A pumpkin carving session is a perfect opportunity to illustrate & explain to my children how God loves us so much He is willing to get Himself really mucky, cleaning and scraping out all the gunk in our hearts and lives, so that He can put HIS light inside our hearts and make us shine for Him, for all the world to see!

Schooly Update...

Well, here we are nearly at the end of the first half-term of the year and I think I've blogged about educating my kiddos ~ all of once?! Time for an update me thinks, but I'll try not to make it ALL about H'Ed!


DD ~ he is SO keen! So keen, that once he eventually gets dressed in the morning he just ploughs through his 'bookwork' and then nags me all day to do more!! I don't like to do too much in each day with him as I want him to absorb what we have done, so I have to be creative! I'm liking the materials on Lesson Pathways when I can get myself organised enough to have it ready (which is not often enough atm I'm afraid). He likes to paint, colour, use the computer, do puzzles, play games, cut & stick ~ and generally I can keep him happy! He is making really excellent progress learning letter sounds and his pencil control is great. He is able to sound out basic CVC words verbally and probably could write some if I asked him to (which I haven't tried yet). He easily identifies beginning and end sounds of words, and can hear rhyme, so I think basically half the battle is won before we even step onto the 'reading' road :D. He too, is a whizz at maths! He can read and write all numbers to 20 and do dot-to-dots with numbers beyond twenty with no trouble ~ saying the numbers as he goes along. He has just completed a maths book for 5-7's (excepting the pages that required multiplication & addition of money, which I deemed he wouldn't be ready for until he is at least 7). I think MAYBE I might start him on Miquon Orange right behind Lilo, and just take it slowly. He certainly likes to play with the rods :D. Any suggestions anyone (he was 5 in June)? Alison? I'll tell you what he already knows...

• Count, read and write numbers/quantities to 20 confidently (says 'two-teen', 'three-teen' & 'five-teen' to help him remember those 'strange' numbers. I've used this method before and it naturally changes over time).
• All basic shapes (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, star, oval, heart) and necessary properties of them.
• Concepts of 'half' /'equal' / same /different.
• Concepts of greater/fewer, more/less than.
• Good understanding of sequence and pattern.
• Concept/recognition of O'Clock.
• Order of numbers (can fill in gaps in sets of numbers/number lines) ~ forwards and backwards.
• Can recite 2,4,6,8,10 (although does not fully understand skip counting).
• Brilliant at 'odd one out'
• Can do some basic addition & subtraction with the use of manipulatives (not tried beyond numerates of 10 yet).

So ~ where do I go from here with a 5yo? I'd like to encourage and nurture him, without over stretching him or discouraging him. He's definitely the kind of kid who is very easily frustrated, so whatever I use needs to seem 'easy' and yet still help him to make good, steady progress.

Lilo  ~ seems to be FINALLY be getting the hang of reading ~ slow but definite progress :D. Headsprout and plenty of practice SEEM to be working this time around. She's feeling more confident about it that is certain and there is a whole lot less guessing/memorising whole texts going on! Maths wise she's been working on multiplication and continues to surprise me how great she is with numbers. She just 'gets' it :D We are using Miquon atm and nearly finished the Orange book. It really seems to suits her. I suspect, if it was something I had ever invested in, Maths-U-See would have been the thing for her ~ but I didn't/haven't/won't now! I do plan to skim through Singapore MPH 1a/b when she's done though, because at some stage I expect she will transfer her onto that instead and in the past I have found they supplement each other nicely.

She's done other cool things too ~ like started to join her handwriting (she does handwriting practice every day) and I don't know, but I actually think the joining of letters might be helping her reading! Strange how that works, but it does seem to. Aside from that, some STILE Literacy work, lots of puzzles, colouring, drawing, colouring, computer work (Learning Ladder/Tutpup/MoshiMonsters/Reader Rabbit/Education City, etc...) and we are reading Alice in Wonderland together ~ when I can muster the wherewithal to do so! It all adds up and she and I are happy :D.

Big Girls ~ they are doing well :D They are SO easy! They get up, get sorted, get on! TP is usually done by lunch time, but I have warned her that after Easter I shall be adding a couple more tasks to her day. Minnie works like a trooper too, but her work is a little more taxing due to her general 'level' being that much higher. But they find time to have some fun in their day :D. Yesterday they built these (the challenge was to build a 'flat design'); 

TP's USA flag.

Minnie's Butterfly.

Lilo's Butterfly 

(the bits at the top are the antenna, the odd red bits were because she ran out of whites).

Right now they are playing on 'Just Dance' (otherwise known as indoor PE when the weather is too fowl for outside).

There are things that Minnie struggles with ~ multiplication & division being her main stumbling blocks in maths. She just does not seem to 'get' the idea at all and practice doesn't seem to be helping! I must confess though, that it was an area I struggled with at her age (and probably still is not my strong point), so I think it will click in at some point enough for her to be able to function with it. She is definitely a reading-writing sort of girl :D. 

TP ~ is catching up nicely now. Her spelling seems to improving quite naturally, alongside her more natural & avid reading of books (well there's a surprise!) and her writing is making progress too. She still does not have the most 'logical' mind, but I see reflections of her eldest brother! He's a pretty good writer these days, so I think she will get there. It's so odd to think how desperate I was for Bugs to be writing stories at her age (coming up 9) and how shocked the school were when he started in year 4 and told them he had never written one! TP hasn't either, but this time round I really don't care!! I've come to the conclusion along the way that writing stories is NOT actually that important or useful and it's only fun IF it's something you enjoy. If you are forced to 'create' on demand your creative juices are highly likely to dry up!! Bugs these days is pretty good at prose & poetry when he CHOOSES to put his mind to it. I can't remember the last time I asked him to do a piece of creative writing, but sometimes he just does because he is actually a creative person ~ left to create under his own steam. I suspect TP is much the same & so I'm just waiting for her to bloom in her own time :D. She writes in her diary once or twice a week ~ I don't read it, but I know she can write!

Taz ~ well he is doing fine - reluctant still, but doing fine :D! Skiving off as much as he can get away with, but actually, WHEN he sets his mind to a task is very capable and struggles less than he thinks he does! He is a just typical 12 yo boy who tries to skim and dart through everything, but I'm not worried about his abilities, just his attitude!! ;D

Bugs ~ he's much the same, only actually his problem is not so much attitude (which is actually not all that bad), but time management and inability to prioritise well and/or recognise his own limitations! Same old, same old in fact! So he often ends up 'finishing off' over a Friday and the weekend, but I think he needs to achieve a certain level/quantity of work these days so that's just the way it's going to be!  Still chasing up college options for next year ~ but I think he'll get a work-load shock all the same! Ideally, I think he'd spend his days taking and editing photographs! I think he's pretty good (and in his shoes I'd do the same)! ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/doogle13/ IF at the end of the day this is where his future lies I don't want to stand in his way too much..! After baby is born we are planning a trip out together to a photography gallery (just linking in some possibilities for future reference) ~ looking forward to that :D

• http://www.openeye.org.uk/default.asp
• http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Culture/Arts/Manchester-Photographic-Gallery_11750.asp
• http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site10/index.php
• http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?pid=18
• http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collections/Collection_Department.asp?DeptID=1

That'll do for now ~ all 'thunk' out now.

Catch up more soon...

Back-to-School (or not)...

Obviously for home-educated children there is no such things as 'back to school' in the traditional sense, but as we DO take traditional holidays there is a definite change when term starts up. Suddenly the idleness and non-routine of summer is gone and thinking caps go back on! If it were sunny, which it isn't, I'm sure learning would be happening in the garden and lanes, but as it is wet (no change there then) we are pretty much confined to the house and more formal learning, but that's OK ~ it gets us back in the swing of things, and away from excess square screen time..!


It's been an up and down kind of week.  Being now almost 28 weeks pregnant I am finding it a struggle to keep going all day, but I am also acutely aware of having had 8 weeks off and the children really needing to get back to some kind of routine ~ if only to make sure they get up and dressed in the mornings!! ;)


So, at the end of last week I sat down and went through resources with them and talked through my expectations for them for the year. Nothing as heavy as it seems, except that I did make it clear to both older boys that they needed to be working a bit harder than they had been. They agreed - in theory!! Then this week we 'started up' again.  Monday was a nightmare, but I think that was just settling in/down to the idea of using a pencil again. There was far too many 'Muuuummmmeeeeeeeeeee'-s in that day to be bearable!! Tuesday and Wednesday were loads better, but Thursday had some pretty awful patches again. Even though I decided at the beginning of the week that all the 'group' activities could start up next week to give me chance to get back in the swing too, it still seemed to a big stretch. Wednesday night Stitch joined us in our bed from the small hours onwards and I know my sleep was erratically broken, not because he was a pain, but just because he was there. I woke up still tired and far too early, which really did not help my mood for the day. So when the Bugs had a wobbly over something little and continued yelling at me after several warnings to stop - well I kind of lost the plot! That was right at the start of the day ~ good start! When we'd both calmed down (and talked) things were better for a while and he was certainly good as gold for the rest of the day! The girls were angels, but I didn't have enough patience with Lilo and her reading (or lack of it) today. We did have fun writing an opposite poem though: we read 'Bed in Summer' and reversed everything in it ~ which ended up, of course, like a poem written by someone who works a night shift and talked about how that might feel, so not a completely lost day!
She's also continued with Orange Miquon this week and has done some Headsprout. I decided it was time to challenge her though and get her to prove to herself that she is actually better at reading than she believes, so I set her THIS book to read over the weekend. There is nothing in it she can't sound out, so with a little concentration and determination I know she can read it! I've asked Paul to read it with her though ~ he has more patience than me atm!! I meant to do some Science with her too, but that didn't happen :( ~ next week..!


The little ones enjoyed games of Dotty Dinosaurs (big favourite with Stitch atm, and he knows all the shapes too) and played with shape pictures for quite a while. 

DD also did some colouring by numbers & some other number work (basically quickly revising concepts I know he already understands, ready to step up the game a little ~ he is good with numbers now). We also set up a little science experiment and talked about what 'science' actually is. He is BIG on asking questions at the moment, so this really appealed! Other stuff I have done with him this week;  read Three Billy Goats Gruff and did 'language arts' stuff related to that ~ talking about concepts & words in the story, re-enacting the story with finger puppets & playing with playdough mats (I even made the playdough!). A friend put me onto THIS website and actually it's looking like it might be a really great resource for Lilo and DD this year. I've also put Minnie and TP on Science & Language Arts streams too, but they can work through them more at their leisure than my instruction (although I will get involved where I need to of course) ~ it's just another resource for them to access to make life interesting :D ~ This is the Science page that Minnie made a start on, in case you are interested. 
At the end of Thursday Taz was doing a crossword based on collective nouns. It WAS challenging and tbh I couldn't have answered all of it without doing a bit of 'looking up'. His problem is that he approaches all of school (and life) like a test ~ he assumes, as I guess all 11 year old do, that he KNOWS everything he needs to know already and therefore he can answer anything worthwhile with the knowledge he already has. Problem is, of course, that he doesn't know that much really, so when he comes up against things he cannot answer easily he has a tantrum!! Despite having well stocked shelves of books and the internet readily at hand he thinks sucking answers out of me, or getting me to do the research is a much better thing to do than look anything up himself. He is approaching 12 ~ this is no longer an acceptable solution in my eyes and so I told him he had to find the answers for himself (especially as I would have had to have done the same) ~ cue major wobble, huffing, puffing, crying, slamming of the computer mouse when the first website he visited didn't have the answers he wanted... cue me getting rather annoyed with him... cue more tears and anger... (does this sound familiar to ANYONE, please tell me it does!!). Eventually he found all but two of the answers he needed, but was FURIOUS that it had taken so long! Welcome to life son ~ things do not always arrive on your plate so easily as the snap of your fingers!! 
There have been a few other issues with Taz this week too, but I am hoping that things will settle down as he gets used to this years work load..!


Bugs on the other hand ~ who used to give me SO much grief, has worked like a dream. Long may it continue! :D But we are beginning to think about the future for him too. He is worried (although I am not) about not taking any GCSE's (which quite simply we cannot afford to put him through, and in all honestly I am not sure would benefit him really for HIS future). He is NOT an academic ~ not stupid at all, really quite bright, but not 'sparked' by academic subjects. I cannot see him flying into a career where he is required to use Science, Maths, or English much beyond the normal everyday level that most of us use. I want him to be well grounded and 'up to standard' in those subjects of course, but I do not think an exam in them is necessary for where he is likely heading. He is creative and I want him to be able to enjoy his learning in a creative way. I think that school would stifle him and in reality, IF he went in next year with a view to doing GCSE's, he would hate it more than he realises. SO, what instead..? We like the look of this;  http://www.s-cheshire.ac.uk/newcamp/14-19/course14.htm 
He would look at doing the 'creative and media' higher diploma (equivalent to 7 A-C GCSE's), with a view to then going on to do the Photography AS/A2 course, but of course that would be optional, he could do pretty much anything else if he chose to at that point and of course he could do additional studies too. SO, here's hoping that this course is open to him (need to make some enquiries), because it looks absolutely up his street and I think college will be a healthier environment for him than school, especially as it is quite likely that some of his church friends are to be going there next year too.


Monday week I have my annual visit from out LEA lady ~ it doesn't worry me as  she is very nice and has been consistently visiting us for a number of years now, but still, it's in the back of my mind with recent events and all...


I think that's about all I can think to write just now; pretty 'schooly' I know, but life itself just ticks along, with me getting fatter and the kids getting bigger ~ that's just us!! I still struggle to envisage our family with another little addition in around about 12 weeks time... I am SO not ready for that!