A Short Long Month

November always seems like such a long, long month. 

The long, cold nights and short dark days set in; jumpers get pulled from the cupboards, never to go away again until spring and it's hard to lift your mood when the sun sets at 4pm!

This November has admittedly been unusually mild, yet still it's seemed like one of the longest months of the year. But, thankfully, it has been sandwiched by a couple of breaks in the hum-drum...

The first slice of the sandwich was at the very end of October. We took a family walk in the countryside, not too far from home (minus the two eldest boys who opted out). It was a warm and sunny day - perfect weather in fact - and we had a lovely time together. The days preceding had been a bit wet, so in places it was more than a little muddy, to the point of almost losing shoes and boots! Thankfully the children mostly thought this all just added to the fun and adventure of it, all except Chip, who wasn't so keen :D Whilst walking Chip and Stitch had a great time looking closely at all the different kinds of fungi we came across ~ and there were many!

We also had the unexpected priviledge of watching a lady training her young Border Collie dog for sheepdog trials. This was fascinating to all of us.

We also discovered an amazing old oak tree, which was managing to sustain itself despite being almost completely hollow at the base...

 - so hollow in fact that two of us could stand up in the centre of it and look up to the light coming in above, where a branch had once been. Presumably it had been storm damaged, and/or struck by lightening, but it was quite incredible to stand inside a tree!

More pictures in this slideshow;

November 5th came and went and Paul was out, so we watched fireworks from bedroom windows. However, after considerable amounts of persuasion, Paul lit a bonfire on the 6th. This was our very first family bonfire (a good way to dispose of the felled holly tree) and tbh, it could have done with being a bit less windy! The smoke and flames were bit too unpredictable to roast our marshmallows without considerable bravery! Still, Jake and I did so, and passed them round :D

School wise we have just plodded on. A couple of the children are reaching the ends of things now ~ just in time for the end of term :D. Chip has been wanting to do more learning activities too. I don't take as many pictures as I should, but here's a couple from this month

Many mornings Chip comes into my room with a handful of cars and begins his day by lining them up on the 'mountains' of bedding! 

He also counts them and groups them ~ he has that organised sort of mind I think. He can now count reliably to about 14 in sequence, or about 12 if he's counting objects and consistently recognises almost all the numbers to 10 (only really getting 7 & 8 wrong occasionally). I've started insisting that if he wants 'screen time' (on the tablet of laptop) whilst we are doing school, then he must choose a learning app/website. He has quickly got used to this idea and is happily working away on a few now :D

Another thing that seems to have made a sudden leap, is his drawing. He loves to draw and colour, but mostly, up until now, it's been draw 'something' and get us to guess what it is. Then he'll decide when we are right if he likes that idea! One day last week though, Abbie asked him if he could draw a person and after an initial refusal, and no further persuasion, he then drew this and shocked us all;

According to him it is "A Mummy, a baby and a spider mummy." I think the decorations around the outside are the spider web, and the extra red legs are intended to be trousers (after-all I always wear trousers).

We've all been learning about Molluscs in Zoology and the children have really enjoyed looking at my seashell collection, from various beaches over many years (spot the two 'oddities' in this picture) ~ how many can you name?

One thing that has been a little exceptional this month, is that Paul had to make two trips to A&E within the space of a couple of days! Our children are hardly ever ill, and even more rarely need any emergency treatment, but one Sunday morning DD was practising some gym in the lounge, as he does all the time, kicked Lilo's foot and fell awkwardly on his neck. For the rest of the day he walked with it to one side and was still doing so by evening. His shoulders were also misaligned and he was still complaining of pain, so, being a neck injury I thought I had best play it safe and get him checked over. It was just a muscle pull thankfully, but even with a hot wheat bag wrapped around his neck for most of four days plus gentle stretches, he still couldn't hold his head straight until the Friday. 

Then on the Saturday Abbie was carrying the Henry (hoover) downstairs, got the flexible tubing caught under her foot and fell off the bottom stair. She landed awkwardly on her foot, cried out and then carried on, but within minutes she was struggling to weight-bear, it was swelling and a hard lump had appeared on the top of her foot. I was pretty certain she had broken it, but also knew it was not a good night to do so! Paul was in and out and had commitments until well after 9pm, so I made her comfy on the sofa with her foot up and waited on her for the rest of the day! When Paul eventually got her up to A&E, they took an X-ray but were not completely sure whether it was broken or not (seen by nurse specialist rather than Dr), or whether it might be a torn ligament. She was sent home with crutches for the weekend and an appointment with the Orthopaedics on Monday. Poor girl struggled around all weekend and by the end of it she was complaining her hands and upper-arms were in more pain than her foot! that said, she was still unable to weight bear at all. We were all hoping is was a break rather than a ligament tear tbh, as we weren't sure she was going to be able to manage much longer on crutches and the recovery time would also be quicker with a break. So, come Monday morning she and Paul headed off to the hospital - again - and she came home with this;

I was glad I was right this time at least (although a little irritated that they hadn't just cast her on the Saturday night). She has only 'cracked' the outside bone of her foot (more than a greenstick though), but she is in the cast until just before Christmas. She can walk in it, and isn't using her crutches much at all, but still has to spend most of her time with it elevated to stop it swelling. It's driving her crazy with itching, but she is coping well. 

Something interesting that did come out of having an X-ray done, is the knowledge that, to the medics surprise, she has no growing plates in her feet ~ she is fully fused and done growing - which is a bit annoying as she is stuck at a half size, but also means she is unlikely to get any taller, which she is quite pleased about :D

The second slice of the sandwich came towards the end of November, when Paul and I were given a lovely gift to enable us to take a weekend away together. We were a bit last minute booking and ummed and arrred where to go, but ultimately we chose The Lakes because that really is my happy place! We decided though to explore some areas we hadn't really done before and I fancied being near the sea as well as the mountains, so we chose the western Lakes and stayed in Boot - a tiny little village in the valley of Eskdale. We stayed in a     Inn which was fantastic ~ comfortable, beautiful views, real fires and incredible food ~ what more can you ask?! I shan't bore you with a gazillion pictures and I shall blog about the trip separately over here, but if you're interested the pictures are on the slideshows below;

The end of November also brings Lilo's birthday, and this year she is 11. She's still such a little girl in many way. She still plays with her dolls and an essential on her list this year was some more Lego Friends, but the other things she most wants now is a 'tablet', so apart from the one toy all she really had was money ~ and plenty of it  ~ enough that after Christmas a tablet should be within her grasp! But I wanted her to have something else to open and she had been asking me to make her a cushion for a LONG time, so with just a week to do it in, I embarked on making her this  ~ 60+ rows of 154 stitches, endlessly counting in sevens;    

 and I did it! 

I found some other fun uses for the pattern along the way too, and will be tempted to do it again without the deadline ;-)

It perfectly held a single ball of wool and would be great for stopping it rolling everywhere when you're working! Also lovely as a little 'pot' for holding bobbles and scrunchy type things. A friend of mine also suggested it as a hat, which you maybe could with a little adaptation and the right shaped head!

Anyway, back to Lilo's birthday...

The final day of November saw DD and I back in Wigan at another Gym competition. He did very well and came away with 2 bronze medals. The competition was harder this time because he was against more boys. He narrowly missed bronze overall for his group of 8, and came  12th of all 19 under 10's. Sadly, despite excellent warm-ups, when it counted he under rotated for his low-bar dismount and landed on his bottom, thereby losing a full mark. With that added he would have done considerably better! 

And that's it, we're into December and the run up to Christmas has begun!

When the Internet goes down...

Today, well actually for the last week or so, our internet connection has been atrocious! Mostly we have soldiered on, but today it just went down ~ completely dead! As about 50% of the kids schooling involves computers for one thing or another, and a large portion of that requires an internet connection (strange how different things are for us now than when I first started out with Jake), this basically meant I had to give the children an impromptu games day!
They did what work they could, that didn't need internet, and then they spent a large part of the rest of the day play Monopoly city together ~ starting at 12.15 and finishing at almost 3pm!! 

Most stayed the course, but the little boys ended up going off to play after a while - I think they went and played lego upstairs. Minnie won ~ although she looks cheesed off here, she was thrashing them all!

I wasn't feeling like playing the game, so I had some luxury 'free' time to get my latest little crochet project finished. I only needed to do the breast overlay, the tail and sew everything together. I loved making this ~ especially working with the thread for the eyes ~ so fine, so rewarding!

A certain little man was more than a little chuffed with him (he'd asked me to make him a doggy with a tail) ~ and named him "Puppy" (of course!).

So today was quite a productive day, despite the lack of internet, and then just about the time we were packing up for the day, it came back on again, but VERY slowly! It seems to have picked up again now (thank goodness) ~ here's hoping it lasts!

So while I have a decent connection, I'll share some snap shots from over the last couple of weeks. There seems to have been a LOT of reading going on, which makes me very happy :D

Minnie has read Pride & Prejudice (devoured it to be fair!), dipped into Emma and given up and moved onto Sense & Sensibility ~ I think she's having a Jane Austin phase ;-)

TP recently finished reading Black Beauty - I'm proud of her for that - and is now reading 'Go Well, Stay well' ~ a book I read as a child about her age and absolutely loved . It has some deep and challenging content and she is gripped by it! I don't think I've ever seen her so engrossed in a book ~ even when she read 'Shadow the Sheepdog' (that Lilo is currently enjoying), which was probably her favourite book - until now!

Lilo, as I said, is reading Shadow the Sheepdog. This is a real step up for her, but I felt it was time to challenge her a little. She is still not great with texts that contain a lot of conversation, but as this story does not have quite so much as other Enid book, but it's also the KIND of story she would enjoy, I thought it would be a nice introduction to next-level reading. She is definitely enjoying it  and I hope it will give her the confidence and inspiration to continue in her reading journey. It's amazing for me to think though, that this time two years ago she was still almost completely illiterate. It's been a slow but steady journey for her, but she is certainly doing well on it now :D

DD is ripping his way through Five on Treasure Island and enjoying as much as I remember doing at his age. I think this was my favourite Famous Five book of all ~ and I read lots! They may not be perfectly 'politically correct', they may not even be brilliantly written, but the stories are perfect for inspiring the adventurous spirit in us! I just knew DD would be ripe for these and I was right ~ he can't wait to turn over the next page :D

Stitch is reading an abridged version of Robin Hood. It's actually quite a stretch for him, and he tends to rush himself a little (as he does in all things!), but he's doing pretty well. I feel perhaps he does better when he reads to himself than when he reads aloud to me, but that's rather hard to gauge!

Chip is enjoying some interactive Bible reading on their Hudl, amongst all the other many stories he loves to read and have read to him! He also has loved playing with these really cheap pegs that I bought for the chids to make 'dens' with (to hold up all the blankets).

There's been some experimenting... DD instisted on trying to get this Knex windmill to turn. I did try to explain that the design was not really going to work due to flat sails and general instability, but he had to try :D

And we have continued on making our Art Journal. I thought this weeks (which was a colour wheel) would be too simple for most of the children, but surprisingly they were all happy to do it and enjoyed it :D Nothing like going back to basics for a little reinforcement! This week will be on shading ~ I'm expecting that to be a bit more stretching for all of them!
   The week before last I was particularly pleased with Stitches work this week ~ love his cars! His pencil control and patience for these little projects has come on in leaps and bounds this year. I am so grateful for a few years of experience that has taught me not to panic, or push a child beyond points they are not yet ready to go. I may not always get it right, but I do more often than I ever did before. Stitch enjoys a little bit of writing and drawing, and is even beginning to enjoy colouring. His dexterity for these fine motor things is still a little challenged, but it's coming, slowly but surely and at his own pace. 

A little bit of this and that...

This week has been decidedly uneventful, which is actually a good thing :D

THURSDAY ~
Usual Thursday things really...
Caught our Zoology lapbook up to date with where we are in the textbook, and stuck everything in place.
Minnie got her top brace fitted in the afternoon, so by the evening her teeth were beginning to ache - poor thing.

I swam ~ I'm back up to my 130 lengths more easily now and working on my technique a little. Trying to better my time. Managed 1hr 25 tonight :D
I spent the rest of the evening watching a few more crochet tutorials and downloading some patterns to try. 

FRIDAY ~ 
The usual things; Chatterbox (toddler group) and then home to catch up on a bit of work (and do some more crochet!)
I spent the evening crocheting my first real 'thing' ~ & made Minnie a slouch hat. 

So here's a shot of Minnie with new braces and new hat!

SATURDAY ~
The usual craziness in the morning of gym for Lilo and DD, & Ballet for Minnie. It's her ballet school's biannual show on the 9th and 10th, so they are all rehearsals and excitement atm :D. However Paul does all the taxiing, so I just laid in for a bit!
I crocheted some more (yeah, kind of enjoying it :D) and spent some time on the PC in the afternoon, doing some prep for Sunday morning.
The kids generally played well together most of the day, so it was quite a peaceful day - for me anyway!

SUNDAY ~ 
Church (fabulous service) and then home for a game of Seafarers of Catan ~ Episode 6 (Cloth for Catan). These games usually take all afternoon, and this was no exception :D Paul won (again ~ how does he do it?!?), but we did chase him down hard near the end and it was a close call between him and Jake. 

Then the older kids were off out straight after tea to youth groups, while I put the littlies to bed and settled down to an evening of 'Call the Midwife' and 'Mr Selfridge' ~ my Sunday evening fix (crochet in my lap) :D

MONDAY ~
A new week, but I always find it tough to get up on a Monday morning! Only this morning Chip was up bright and early needing the loo, so I got up to sort him out & then of course he climbed back into bed with me and chatted and fidgeted like all good 3 year olds do ;-) . So, I crocheted a little bit - just to start the day on the right foot and all! ...

Here's my progress in a week... I feel I'm beginning to see how it all works now, and that really helps :D

DD & Minnie are back up to Lesson 3 of All About Spelling (Level 4) now. We're going a bit slower this time, but I am very glad we are repeating. It is proving very worthwhile and, surprisingly, not at all boring!

Minnie cooked a fabulous Macaroni Cheese for lunch, with garlic bread and salad ~ yum, but somehow the afternoon just ran away and consequently Geography never happened this week, not that I was met with any resistance about that from the chids!

TUESDAY ~ 
'Igniting Your Writing' seemed to go really well today. The lesson was on 'Megawatt writing' ~ adding impact and intensity. I wasn't really sure how well they would all do with this, but was really pleased with what they wrote. TP especially produced a piece of writing better, I think, than anything she has previously written to date :D She said she really enjoyed writing it, which is also a first! She doesn't hate writing at all, but she doesn't love it either - usually. 

The sun came out briefly in the late morning and it actually felt warm for half an hour or so, so Stitch and Chip took themselves outside to play with some little plastic eggs ~ hiding and finding them. I joined them and hid the eggs to make it more fun for them both - and took some pictures of course!

Later the girls went outside on their roller skates for a bit too, before the rain started again. It was good to hear them playing outside. They don't choose to much over the winter months unless there's snow on the ground! And to be fair, we have had endless rain this winter!

I took TP, Lilo and DD swimming in the afternoon (my lesson with them) and worked them hard! Their swimming has dramatically improved since I have been taking them and I now actually feel confident that they could get themselves out of trouble should they need to, or at least keep from drowning long enough to shout for help! Lilo especially has really strengthened all her strokes and gone from a sinker (swimming almost vertically) to having much cleaner, more proficient strokes and a good position in the water. It's good doing this with them. We all enjoy it :D. 

After Paul picked them up I continued on with my swim, but I really find it hard, when I have already been in the pool most of an hour, to then swim for another hour and a half. The pool is so crowded on a Tuesday - it's a constant weaving in and out of kids and slow swimmers. There's no lane at that time (only one that's used for lessons) so hacking up and down is not at all easy. I also struggle with hydration (due to length of time in the water) and I think the pool puts some kind of air-freshener around intermittently  (somehow) that I find takes my breath away. I don't do well with fragrant sprays (deodorant/airfresheners...), they stick in my throat and I feel like I can't breathe - which is not most conducive to swimming long distance! I just can't wait for the outside pool to be open again so I can just breathe fresh air and there is always an available lane for serious swimmers...roll on spring! Anyway,  for all those reasons, I only swam for just about an hour and didn't even bother counting, but I did try to concentrate on my technique a little more.

In the evening, I prepared my Communal Global blog post, pottled on FB for a bit, downloaded yet more crochet patterns (TP wants a belt and Minnie want a headband) and then sat on the sofa and crocheted another African flower (btw I know these are stitched together incorrectly - I've undone them now and will do them again when I have a few more). TP also has her eye on this as a blanket...

TODAY (WEDNESDAY) ~
Another early start because Chip wet his bed :( , but today I climbed back under the covers and fell asleep again! It's been a pretty mundane kind of day really.

In Art we began a piece of Valentine's art, looking at the work of Jim Dine ~ who uses hearts a lot. We'll finish it next week, because it requires 'rubber cement', which I don't have. I've ordered some, but I've no idea what it is! Hoping for a nice rewarding piece of mixed media artwork at the end though. Pictures next week :D

And tonight Paul has just announced to me that he has taken tomorrow off work and is taking me out for lunch at one of our favourite little cafes in town ~ how awesome is that! :D An early Valentine's, before we hit birthday season!

TOP QUOTES OF THE WEEK...

Chip (wearing a hoody with a kangaroo pocket) - "I can't find my pockets!"
Minnie - "It's here Chip. It's called a kangaroo pocket and you can put both hands in it. Do you know what a kangaroo is?"
Chip - "No, what is it?"
Minnie - "It's an animal that lives in Australia that jumps really high and has a special pocket on it's tummy where it keeps it's baby safe."
Me - "It's a marsupial Chip. Animals with pockets on their tummies for their babies, are called marsupials."
Chip - "I like 'supials' ~ I like MY supials!!"

Jake was home on Tuesday. It's his study day, but he was intending to spend the day job hunting. So, I think as most teenagers are apt to do, he didn't emerge from his bedroom until late morning, had things he needed to do at home, had a shower, had some lunch and didn't even get to a point of being vaguely ready to leave the house until some time after 1.30pm! He had originally intended to go into one local town (Crewe) in the morning and the other (Nantwich) in the afternoon, but now he only had the afternoon left, so he could only go into Nantwich. We had a brief conversation about not using time wisely and he declared that he was 'adamant' about going into Crewe anyway, so it didn't really matter that he hadn't! I was slightly confused ... until I realised he meant the exact opposite and did in fact mean that he wasn't that fussed! He's so funny how he does that :D.

Ten Days...

For me to post in just 10 days is quite something, but I'm still going to have a job to think back!

Nothing much new on the home ed' front really. We're just plodding along nicely, so I'll bullet point the things of note (for the record really)...

• Completed All About Spelling Level 4 with Lilo and DD, but wasn't really happy that either of them had the 'rules' sorted in their heads very well, so have decided to repeat the level with both of them. It won't hurt and will hopefully cement a few things that are shaky atm.
• ETC Online ~ Taz 2/3rds through book 3, DD Bk 6 Lesson 3:1 (completed Bk 5 in ten sessions), Lilo BK 6 Lesson 4:1 (7 sessions so far) ~ making slow but steady progress).
• Reading ~ Stitch is reading an abridged version of Robinson Crusoe, DD reading Five on Treasure Island (I thought the Famous Five would appeal to him and it's easy reading, without being TOO easy), Lilo reading Shadow the Sheepdog ~ again easy reading, but hopefully ticking her 'interesting' box. It's so hard to find books for her, because at 10 she needs older content, but her reading level and comprehension of what she reads would not keep up. TP about to start a new book, having just finished 'The Body Book'  Minnie re-reading Ballet shoes, and thrilled to bits with a hard-back copy I bought her on Amazon for less than the Kindle edition! 
• Maths ~ Minnie whizzing through Miquon purple and decided to try to re-tackle some of the Year 6 conquer maths and actually finding it easy enough, so hoping Miquon has done the trick for her and plugged some gaps :D. Lilo struggling to get to grips with fractions in Miquon Yellow, so finished the section but have asked her to work through fraction on Conquer Maths until she has it sussed out more in her head :D DD happily plodding through Yr 4 Heinemann maths without any issues. Stitch almost completed Year 2 Collins Primary Maths, so will then move on to working through Yr 2 on Conquer Maths, but I think he will sail through it. The only concepts he struggled with a little, were the ones to do with shapes ~ reflections, rotations, etc... which fits a little with the way he struggles to process those concepts in every day life too, so no surprises there, but all the 'concrete' maths he is very solid on and can explain to me quite complex ways of finding solutions :D
• Geography ~ we have been looking at urbanisation in rural areas, and in poorer vs richer countries. It has raised some interesting conversations and ideas about solutions to the problems it brings! One suggestion by TP was to build one Mega building and everyone and everything be under one roof ~ the whole world! We thought about that for a bit and considered some of the pro and cons... can you imagine!! Taz  suggested that all the shopping could be in one mega-rise building then people wouldn't have to travel to more than one place for anything ~ I pointed out we sort of have that in places like The Bullring (to which he has never been) and we discussed the problems that places like that themselves present. We went on to discuss the effect of internet shopping on ALL genres of 'real' shops, from small family businesses, to town-centre shopping, to business parks ~ all negatively, and yet also positively affected by on-line shopping. This week we talked a little more about 'commuter villages' (such as the one we live in) and how history has changed the nature of our villages across the country, to the point where many of them consist of little more than a few 'nice' houses and pub ~ no village shops and few young children. We also discussed how health care and public transport are often not so easily accessible in rural communities which means more people, especially those with young families, choose to live nearer to towns, with all those amenities close at hand.

      Strangely all my children tell me they "don't like Geography!" - yet it very often brings the most relevant and interesting conversations to our school room ~ so we aren't stopping it ;-)

• Zoology ~ we made some fossils! Looking at the differences between fossils formed in mud/sand/clay ...

• Art  ~ last week was a bit of a cheat ~ we just did some wax relief painting ~ easy for the littler ones for a change ~ and Taz did some more of his Airfix helicopter. We didn't do any art this week as Paul & I had to be at the college by 4 for Jake's (Bugs') parent's 'consultation' ...

Tonight, as I said we were at the college for Jake's review. It seems they are generally quite pleased with him, but to be honest I was not mightily impressed with them! They have a very airy fairy approach to grades etc... in that they basically are too afraid that a low grade would discourage a students from working well, so they don't give any grades at all until the end of the second project ~ end of Feb! I explained that I felt that would depend on the mind-set of the student, because for someone like Jake (and me), he needs to know where he stands or he feels he is flailing in the dark, not knowing if he is doing OK or not and feeling like he's working hard for little or no reward. I think the tutor understood, but I don't think it will change anything tbh ~ it's the nature of an arty farty department I think!! Essentially though, I got the gist that Jake is working to merit level. His target grade overall, based on his initial entry assessment, is a MM (higher level Merit), and with steady progress this is perfectly achievable. I personally feel he is capable of a Distinction, but would need more tutorial support to achieve it ~ which he is sadly not all that likely to get. Although his tutor said "all he needs to do is ask," in reality he is not always available and knows that, so he kept saying things like "but it is all written out for the students in the 'objectives' guidelines." To Jake though, those guidelines might as well be written in Dutch for all the help they are to him :( 

Jake's other concerns about certain 'personalities' in the class were rather brushed aside, so I will need to keep a careful eye on that with him. He is being slightly bullied/intimidated, but tbh he doesn't help himself by not being able to keep his mouth shut at times. He opens himself wide for attack ~ like handing them ammunition. He's just not very worldly-wise or diplomatic! That said his tutor did mention how impressed he was with the way Jake has handled the transition into college from Home-school, and that his energy and enthusiasm were a real asset to the class dynamics :D

Aside from the chids, I too have been learning something this week...

For YEARS (literally since I was a small girl) I have wanted to learn to crochet. I had a ladybird book when I was girl that was supposed to teach me, as no-one in my family crochets either, but I could never make much sense of it and even going back as an adult it wasn't easy to follow. I managed to eventually make a square block  of double stitch, but couldn't get any further. I wanted to make a granny square ~ SOOO badly! In the end I resorted to You-Tube (oh the joys of modern technology) and watched a video or two! I realised I was using the hook like a knitter (not that I knit, but I can a bit) and wrapping the wool instead of hooking it up. I got the same result mind... So now I'm practising doing it properly, but it's not as comfortable and I keep dropping everything! All the same, I have managed to make 5 granny squares, all different sizes (due to different wools and hooks), but I'm getting there :D I've also made a phone sock and two MP3 player socks for the girls :D. I'd like to attempt a small blanket for my Nan for mothers day (thinking a square or two each night), but I need to get some wool first ~ some decent wool ~ this horrible, cheap, rough 3ply is doing my head in - it's so 'splitty'.

I've also found time in the week to complete Lilo's sock-cat that she got as a kit for Christmas ~ helped by taking it to do at a soft play centre early in the week, giving the little chids a run around and me a break!