Other Stuff!

This week in the FrogAcademy...

It's non-book week, so it's been pretty chilled around here, but stuff has been happening all the same;

MONDAY:
Joel finished of Maths & Science YR4 of Ed'City * then did Test A on the maths and got 84% - well done that boy :)
Abbie worked on the rest of YR2 maths on Ed'City
Phoebe worked on understanding of sentences with me, playing Silly Sentences and talking about capital letters, full-stops, what a sentence has to have and be; has to 'make sense' and have a subject & a verb. Then we looked at the object, noun, & preposition, as well as the who, what, where, when, etc...
Everyone did Bible study and handwriting - same old
All kids played Kadoo together in the afternoon (while I sorted out some financial stuff).
J,P & A read independently and then I read to them all from an on-going book that we only ever seem to read together on these more relaxed weeks. - NOTE TO SELF - make more time to read to the children - they do actually enjoy it!!

TUESDAY:
Bible and H'writing
5 minutes of exercises - we forgot yesterday!
J took Test B and got 74% - I was pleased, but he wasn't!
A carried on with Yr2 maths (trying to get that finished off now)
P did some work on Ed'City too - finishing off the vowel-blends on Letter & Sounds - stuff she knows now, but worth reviewing.
All read and were read to :)

TODAY:
Bible & H'writing
Exercises
J retook Test A and this time got 91% - that'll do!!
A - nearly finished Yr2 now!!
P - completed the Letters and Sounds and I put her up to Year 1 Literacy. So now, at the end of her official Yr1 she is just starting out on Ed'City Yr1 all round. She'll catch up though next year, I'm sure of it :)
All played Vocabulon together (only ours is in English - we got it cheap in Home Bargain!) & then Globe Trotting. Then they read independently for a while.
Ballet today so we ran out of time for me to read too :( I'll put in a long session tommorrow :)

TOMMORROW:
Bible (no h'writing)
Exercises!
J - retake Test B and hopefully ace it - and that'll be Yr4 done with on Ed'city. He is already through Yr5 Literacy (completed) and on the Science for Yr5. So when I put him up he will be part Yr5, part Yr6!!
A - hopefully finish the maths and then she will be fully in Yr3 Ed City
P - have a play with Yr1 literacy and see how she does :)
MAYBE do some cooking (I actually prefer cooking one-on-one, it's tough as a group thing, but they have asked, so we'll see...)
READ more of The Artic Tern and James Herriot (the books we've been reading)
HEAR them read to me in turn.
LEARN spellings ready for Monday next week.
CHILL or play a game together :)

And then back to the grindstone finishing off book-work stuff for the next three weeks!!

A Funny Moment in our Day :)

Turn the volume down quite low before you hit play!!

MERCYME TV LINK

At the bottom of my right hand column I have added a MercyMe TV box. Its a bit of a big box, but looks OK down there. I LOVE this group. The words of their songs are awesome and have really spoken to me these last few months. Enjoy :)

Birthdays...

Just thought I'd mention that since Jake's birthday (May 2nd) we have celebrated a few other milestones and my blog has missed them :( Been SOOO busy, I don't get enough time to blog as I'd like. Must get back into it more, it is very therapeutic!

Anyway - NJ turned ONE at the end of May

and CT turned THREE middle of June.

and I turned ... not that would be telling!
Paul also had a BD but I'm not telling his age either or he might hang me - even if he is younger than me!

Where Does Time Go?

Only 4 more weeks to the end of term (where DID that year go?) and today was supposed to be an 'intake day' for Jake at his secondary school, but he did not go, as we have now decided he is not going, for more reasons than just that we are moving away. Instead I gave him a day at home with us. There was only one other little girl in his year not going to this intake day, so they were given permission by the head to have the day off :-) SO, today was the start of tomorrow and we had a great day! I think it was made better by the fact the Thursday is our non-book day, so Jake felt like he was almost getting a day off!

We started the day out by finishing off Geography - we always seem to run out of time on a Wednesday (that'll need tweaking next year) and so it carries over. Today we were talking about how the sun influences the weather and what actually makes weather in the first place. Jake was interested, despite having missed half the book to date, and felt he learnt something. Then, whilst the middle two wrote up in their notebooks about the lesson, Jake did some on-line fractions work on mathematics.com.au which is what I am planning for him to use next year. I thought today was an opportunity to test the water. He said he like the way it taught and he understood it easily and got 19/20 on the questions in the following online worksheet. So that's a positive start :)

Then playgroup pick up for which I was grateful to have him with me today as all three girls took a tumble, resulting in three sets of scraped knees! Ellie was carried part way home by him (bless!) - he is a very caring big brother :)

During lunch break the girls watched the boys playing soilders in Joel's room because, despite trying, they simply couldn't agree a board game that they all wanted to play! Then, after lunch, Jake led some simple exercises in the lounge. At his school they do a 5 minute exercise drill at the end of assemble every day, before they start lessons. They all seem to enjoy it there, as did mine, so maybe this is something I can introduce into our day... Only today it was more like 3o minutes of messing around together doing exercises on an off - but that was OK :)

Lastly we set to having an art lesson. Initially this was met with droans of complaint from Joel, but he bent to the will of the masses and ended up having quite a good time. We were experimenting with colour mixing today and I thought it was going to be way too simple for Jake, but I was wrong! He thoroughly enjoyed messing with the gouache paint and the watercolour pencils (neither of which they have at school it seems) and everyone produced some nice pieces of work. In the evening he said my art lesson was better than he gets at school - which amazed me as they have more of everything and I am certainly NO artist, but we did have fun and I think he felt he really learnt something today.

And last achievement - I convinced him that I do have some good books on my shelves when the first one he picked up (Superhuman) he immediately got engrossed in and was thoroughly impressed with the descriptive writing in it. He gave it 10/10 and took it away to read more at bedtime :) ... "YES!!"

So - all in all a very successful and encouraging day when I think about the future. My nightmare child is rapidly turning into a joy to have around...something in him has really changed and I LOVE what I see :)

There is some impressive stuff going on with Joel atm as well, but that's another long story which I can save for tonight. Suffice to say, we always thought he was a very spiritually open child right from when he was a tiny-tot just learning to talk. And now it seems we were very right - he has been praying some amazing things of late (essentially praying for near-miracles) and seeing them answered almost at once. I'll tell all another night, but we are very happy parents atm :)

There are other things in life which are not so great. Money is a real worry just now and that always makes me shouty and stressy, but we trust that God is faithful. We could really do without it though as we contemplate an imminent move (never a cheap affair). House hunting is also stressful and hard. God willing we will move in the summer, but He'd better hurry up and drop a house in our laps, coz' we need to start giving notice very soon if we are to move in August in reality.

Ho-Hummm! It'll all come right in the wash - so they say!

Event of A Life-Time

Well, the deed is done…Paul is officially now (of of Monday this week) the 'Reverend Paul Hampton'! If seems 'WOH' to me to think that I married to a Rev' and yet in so many ways it I'm not that surprised or phased by it - yet!! I guess only time will tell what a challenge his calling will be to us all. For now, we are pootling along, but I know that won't last forever - it can't - life's not that easy!

We have been away at the Elim annual conference this week (which is where P was ordained) and we all had a fantastic time J !! The kids were nearly all 'catered for' which meant they were all (except Natty) off, busy doing stuff in their own groups for a few hours each day. Jake we hardly saw from morning 'til night - he was with his friends (old and new) most of the time. In our free time we swam, played in the park, did crazy-golf, shot snooker, dived around in the soft-play centre, kicked a football around, threw the hover-disk about…and generally enjoyed each other's company. It was especially special by the fact that Paul's Mum and Dad joined us - which meant the kids got to spend a week with Nanny & Grandad and also made the whole kid-sharing thing a lot lighter J. Spiritually - I think I need time to assimilate everything…it's a lot to absorb. I need to read over my notes and read a little more around them, but I know that what I drank in this week was good wine!

It's been a strange three weeks really with Jake because he has simply not been around much; first school residential at Min-Y-don, where he had a fabulous time it seems J Then Energi Youth Camp (Church Camp) where he had an equally excellent time and had a real experience with God, such that HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN by his own confession - A-MEN - HALLELUJAH - sorry, but I get SO excited about that bit!! J And then this week were he has had a mixture of great fun and Christian teaching to consolidate his decision. And all the while I've not seen much of him, but I've been able to see the emerging man in him through a window of opportune independence - and I like what I see J! It's going to be hard for him readjusting to 'family' life again I think, where he is not so free to do his own thing due to the nature of his actual age and family dynamics, but needs must and he must, so I guess the next week or so might be tough for both of us (brace myself!!)

Back to the grindstone on Monday - with a bunch of tired kids I'm not sure we'll get much done in reality, but at least it will stave off the echoes of "I'm bored" which I'm sure will rain down otherwise!

The Future Begins Here...

Well, last weekend saw us all take a trip to Windermere - the whole family. We were fortunate enough to have free accomodation in the home of a friend as they were away on holiday. The children had a fabulous time and if you visit HERE you can see some of the photos from the weekend. We climbed Mitchells Knotts (on Claiffe Heights), which was a 600ft climb and all the children did the whole thing.

We walked for 2 1/2 hours and Caleb only hitched a lift for the last 1o minutes of that. He was amazing and Els was even more so. J & J are natural goats I have decided and P was confident too. The only one who was more hesitant was Boo - who didn't like the sheer drops of the side and was tearful a couple of times. But she made it and overall had a great time. Taking the buggy was a HUGE mistake - next time we will know that whilst bridle paths might be OK for an off-road buggy 'footpaths' really are not! But we did it and the buggy survived and proved it's worth. Next time I will also remember to study the gradients on the map rather than rely on the words of a guide book! Natty thought the whole carrying thing was hilarious - not sure Paul was in such agreement. BUT at least it didn't rain until after we got back to the boat to cross over back to Bowness. Aside from all the fun with the family, things are going forward with the church too. We had a fantastic time together on Sunday morning and the presence of God was very apparent. We have told the church here that we will be leaving sometime over the summer and the church there that we will be coming! Now we are just waiting for God to find us a home - which will truly take a miracle as there is SO little rental accommodation of a suitable size available up there. Plenty to buy, but that is not a possibility for us sadly. It may be that we need to move into holiday accommodation as a temporary measure - just to get us up there, but that will be a really extortionate stretch on our finances so could only be VERY short term.

On the schooly side of things; Paul brought some of the children home on Sunday whilst I followed with JA and N & E on the Monday (giving us time to do a little more exploring ;-) ) so he took JI, A, P & C up to Beeston Castle for the day and they had a lovely time it seems (sorry no pics - I had the camera). Then Tuesday was filled with making door plates for their friends. I made this one the other day for Nat

They just had to make one each too :-) That was followed with some reading poetry and a whole lot of playing! Wednesday we did NOTHING educational but the girls decided to 'clean the whole house' and promptly did so - to the best of their ability and made a pretty good job of it. Even JI jumped on board and cleaned and hoovered his room! Then Thursday was JA's school trip to Blist's Hill (IronBridge), to which we were all signed up, so off we went for the day. Brilliant!! An excellent day out. And that was our non-book week done and dusted.

Today I had my annual LEA review - no worries there - nice lady who seemed more than happy with what I had to say and what I have in place. Hope they are as nice in The Lakes!

And Today was my beautiful boy's 11th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY not-so-little man!

Other news is, we have nesting robins in the garden.

AND we have 5 new baby rabbits - thanks to my friend's daughter's Big George :) Pics to follow when they are a little bigger.