GAMES WEEK...

Every few weeks I like to take a 'games week' : we down all books and do whatever style of learning we please ALL WEEK ~ be it games, outdoor play, screen learning, or anything else really. They have to keep busy and they have to stay off the PS2 or screen time that is just idling, but other than that anything goes really.

So the three littlest boys, and sometimes Lilo, spent a good deal of the time outside building dens, which was excellent in all sorts of ways ~ team work, problem solving (especially when it all slid down the bank), perseverance, safety (using garden tools) and of course good physical labour!

Then there's been some of this... 

a good deal of this...

and a fair few games of this, amongst the girls especially...

And now it's half term, so time for me to do some marking, DD to head off to his cousin's for the week and us all to chill ~ and maybe bake a bit :D

Another Week Goes By ... a non-book week

We took a 'midway through half the term' break from our books as everyone had worked hard so far since summer and I thought we all deserved it. The weather seems to have suddenly turned far more wintery and it felt like a good week to snuggle in and play games, so we did!

Minnie did her usual cooking on Monday, but I set her the challenge of making Turkey Pasties. She did exceptionally well and they were really scrumptious. I did buy ready-made puff pastry (I can make shortcrust, but I've never attempted puff and it's so much easier this way), but she did everything else from scratch :D

TP spent some time one day customising her new tablet case and used an iron for the first time! Ironing is not something we do much of in this house, so not really a skill my children have been taught. That said, no-one taught me. I taught myself how to use an iron and developed my own methods for such times as I need them, so I guess they will too ;)

Some of the chids played Monopoly City a couple of times. On this occasion I believe TP won. 

There was a good deal of 'tablet' time ~ learning without a book, but on a tablet is still considered fun it seems ;) 

This is a new tablet, as our Hudl's charger point packed up in again (second Hudl) and I refused to let Tesco replace it again, instead insisting (with some force) on a refund and getting one! We now have an Asus Memopad HD7 (Ist generation) and it seems great so far. It was £20 cheaper than the Hudl and as far as I can tell is no different, except that it only runs on Android 4.2, rather than 4.4. This is not much of a problem atm, although it might become so in the future as apps continue to update, but only if Asus don't release a system update too.

On Thursday I took the children on the train to Liverpool. It was my intention to visit all sorts of places, but in the event it was a bit of a cold, wet day, so we headed to The World Museum and stayed there all day!! 

To be honest though, there was plenty to look at and learn at TWM, and every part was a 'must see' for at least one, but in most cases all of the chids. I find this kind of trip SO much easier now that most of them can read, as they are each able to glean as much from it as they wish, reading the bits that particularly interest them and each taking away different bits of new information :D

Chip was particularly keen to see the fish. I knew it was only a small aquarium, so I made him wait and he did really well to wait until after lunch. We explored the top 3 floors first; covering 'space and time', 'animals & dinosaurs' and 'ancient cultures'. I found the Egyptian section particularly fascinating, with plenty of real mummies to wonder at!

After lunch we took Chip to see the fish, and then he was very happy to continue on and see the rest, which included a large 'World Cultures' exhibition (with some weird and wonderful masks that worried Chip a little), and the 'Bugs & Snakes' section, which was Stitch's favourite part! 

By the time we had seen everything, it was 3.30pm and some of us (not all I might add) were ready to go home, but we all agreed that it was a very good idea to do days like this more often. The train only cost £26 for all of us (me + six chids). Admittedly, Joel is not a child fare for much longer, but I have a Family Railcard, so even with that added bit of fare, it'll still be an excellent value day out. They all pack up a lunch and carry their own bag (school style!) so there wasn't too much to lug around and the day literally only costs the train fare. This time I took the buggy to make the day easier on Chip, although I only really used it too and from the stations to speed us up a little and then I shut it away in a room at the museum and he walked around the whole thing. My plan is to go back to Liverpool again after Christmas, to visit some of the other places we would enjoy. It might even take another couple of trips to explore everything I had on my list of possibilities!! There is SO much to see and do there - a city steeped in history and with some truly stunning architecture that is art in itself! I myself would like to take a walking tour, just to learn more about some of the beautiful buildings.

One thing during the day that made me rather chuffed, was the fact that a couple of times different members of staff in the museum commented on what a lovely bunch of children they were ~ well mannered and well behaved :D. Comments like that always make me so proud of them. People might consider it brave to head on out alone to a big city with seven chids in tow, to spend the day in a Museum, but I just know they are going to behave well and have a nice day and so I don't worry. Often my only real struggle is getting Stitch to agree to come away! Indeed, on this occasion, as he so often does, he staged a sit-in and refused to come away. I ended up leaving him to stew for a bit - coming downstairs without him, retrieving the buggy and getting things out of the locker, whilst leaving TP on watch for him. He still didn't appear, so I went back up for him. I was none too happy. He saw me coming and started to come down. He was met with my displeasure and a two day screen ban! I am never quite sure what he hopes to achieve by these strops ~ I had even explained that the museum would close in an hour and we needed to go home for some tea ~ but he gets beyond logical reason and won't budge. I hope he grows out of it soon, as it does tend to make leaving anywhere rather traumatic and spoil things rather, if for no-one else but himself.

By the time we got back on the train he was back to his chirpy self and bent the ear of two young guys on the train to such an extent that they both looked exhausted by the time we all (including them) got off 40 minutes later!! I believe they will think twice before engaging in conversation with a chatty 7yr old boy again!

In other news...
DD came home from Gym tonight and announced he can now do 12 full circles on the 'mushroom'. He's been steadily adding 3 circles each time he goes recently. His 'level' requirement is 11 circles apparently, so he's really pleased with himself. He also tells me he can now do swings to handstand on the P' bars, but has been told he isn't ready to hold that handstand yet, so goes straight to dismount. Still, I've watched that move on YouTube and it looks pretty difficult to me, so to be able to do it at all impresses me! He's working on adding a back somersault to his floor routine and beginning to land that now. The next big things he needs to work on is Giants on Highbar and Handspring on the Vault. Giants he is not far off now, but vault is the thing he struggles with most I think. He has a county competition again at the end of November, so he is working hard in the hope of doing well in that :D

Gym & NBW

DD had a Regional Assessment day for Gymnastics last Sunday. He did REALLY well and came away with a Silver (Merit) which means he averaged between 80-90% over the 6 pieces of apparatus. I'm so proud of all his hard work! We should find out individual piece scores too, but he has a couple of days off now :D

And tomorrow we have a 12th birthday in the house!

This week we are having a Non-Book Week (NBW) so I can get some marking done (I've only done Minnie so far ~ that took me a solid day!!) and because the chids were desperate too!

30 Boxes packed...

... and many more to go!

I cannot believe how much stuff we have - well no - actually I can - that's why we are moving!!

The kids are being great actually. They are so excited and of course not too worried that school is not happening normally ;)

Despite the endless packing, school does not feel like a total loss. The morning began with Carcassonne - the five eldest played (E teamed-up with A). Then all the children used ed City in varying amounts. Joel passed his Test B (third time) with 86% . Needs to redo Test A and polish up his Mental Maths on there - that should keep him busy for a few days! I'm going to have to be really creative when we are UNpacking as we won't have internet for about a fortnight - how WILL I cope?! 

Some of our toys already have their own boxes that don't need further packing, so the Duplo was brought out today for Nat, but everyone wanted to play with it - of course! It was good for Caleb to play with this for a while too. 

Lots of 'Mummy' play going on too, which I love watching. I've put some bigger photos over on my 365, but here's some snap-shots of our day :D

    

  

LONG week!!

It's been a mish-mash of good and bad this week. It was our non-book week and these are supposed to be a rest for me and a change for the kids, but tbh I'm not sure that they work all that well in the first regard as I usually end up more stressed at the end of them than I do when we are in routine. 

Monday - C had a bit of a temperature so we kept him home just in case he went down through the morning. As it was he was fine most of the day and has been fine since. We started off the day with squircle board which for this week's theme was The Vatican and person of the week was The Pope. They were interested enough in it (even if I did struggle to get stuff together for it). I had planned to make a rosary bead as a craft to go with, not that we are Catholic or anything, but just as something about a different 'strand' of our Christian faith. As it was that never happened because I didn't get round to resourcing it! After squircle board the children tried to re-act Jake's play of a part of Melusine. While they were doing that I spent some tot-school time with C working on shapes and patterns with this;

Sadly the 'play' ended up with the boys squabbling (as usual) and me taking over as 'narrator' - really no big issues, just J2 not being able to accept not being in charge! Once that was over the kids all got measured ready for our 'drawing to scale' activity. Was amazed to find that Jake is almost 160cms already - that's 5'2"!! He's not yet twelve - he will be as tall as me by the time he reaches his teens at that rate! Also interesting that there was only 1cm between J2 and A (representing 2.5 years in age!!). We then took a break for a bit & later in the afternoon I sat them all down and did an ad libbed lesson on drawing to scale. This actually meant a little bit of explanation on decimals and how they can be translated to fractions (of cms). I was amazed at their seeming level of understanding. When I asked what 5/10ths was E (age 5) - with the help of a little picture - was the one who saw it was 1/2. It was complicated to teach three concepts in one, but somehow I think they really got it and the drawing went really well. They drew themselves 1:10 (hence the reason for the decimals lesson). I didn't teach them about ratio, but simply said they were going to draw themselves 1/10th of their real height, which in effect meant they learnt about ratio too without knowing it was called that. They did some great pictures of themselves and I want to keep the outcome as a memento of how tall they are just now and how they all drew and coloured at this age.

Tuesday - Thursday 

We decided (with a little persuasion from me) to make a start on this. I bought it ages back, along with some others in the series and ever since we did an American Indian one, Boo has been begging to do the other one. I didn't want to do the same type of thing again just yet + storage of the gorgeous models is an issue! Instead I persuaded them all to have a go at this because we can make a lapbook with the models (as most of them are flat). They did succumb and we had a good time with it for the rest of the week. We have learnt about the seven systems of the body (an overview), types of body cells, some types of body tissue, the brain and it's functions, neurons, eyes, and ears. We didn't quite finish off all I had hoped - which was to do sight, touch and smell and complete 'The Nervous System' (and associated organs), but we can pick up next non-book week. That's the beauty of lapbooks :)

As an aside, but relevant all the same, I have been sadly stunned by how LITTLE Jacob knows about all this - considering he got Level 4 Science SATS. He didn't know the 7 systems of the body. Even once he had been informed of them he couldn't clearly sort out which system he thought each major organ should be in - meaning he does not have a very thorough understanding of the basic functions of any of the major organs of the body. I know science and memorisation of facts are NOT his strong point at all, but really... I am SO glad I decided to push this now because it will be teaching Jake the stuff he should already know without him feeling like he is being patronised by me. Hopefully it will give him a starting point for some more serious science next year. I can't imagine he is ever going to do anything really scientific in life and I have considered dropping 'science' as a whole subject out of his curriculum entirely (giving him more time to focus on art and dance - and the things he excels at), but in reality a) I don't think he would really want me too as it "can be fun sometimes" and b) I think he should have at least a basic level knowledge of how the world hangs together. But it does make me wonder exactly what science (if any) he did at school!

Integrated Tot-School.

At some point in Tuesday C played with this a bit (note the ever present Hula Hoop packet!),

 at other points he joined in with us a bit and did some colouring along with the others. He was disappointed not to be able to cut anything out of the project work, but was not content to do some cutting out of his own, so we did have a melt down or two :(  However, he did enjoy joining in with our make-believe 'ear' (toilet roll and greaseproof paper), and the couple of games we have played to help get ideas across; for 'NO BONES!!' one person calls out an action like "skip", or "hop", etc... and then at some point shouts "no bones," at which point everyone else flops to the floor like jelly - amidst fits of giggles as they all land on top of one another! Mine can play this game endlessly it seems & they ALL love it! :) Ellie calls it the floppy game and has wanted to play it everyday since Monday! Then "SILENT MESSAGES" is designed to help them understand the workings of neurons. They all stand in a circle holding hands. On the word "Go!" I start of a timer & one person squeezes the hand of another. They pass the squeeze around till it gets back to the beginning hand. The last/first person then shouts "Stop!" The idea is to see how fast they can get the message round. A variation on the theme is to stand them in a line finger-tips to finger-tips and pass 'tickly fingers' along the line (and maybe back again) as fast at they can . This is actually a little harder, but possibly better as a visual illustration of how the dendrites and terminals of the neurons work. They were fascinated to think that while they were acting like neurons the neurons in their own bodies were doing the same thing, only at lightening speed!

Thursday pm

The smallest ones went for a rest and I played Ticket to Ride with the older four (P 'teamed up' with Jake). J2 won - with 8 journeys under his belt!! A lost, but not by a great deal and she did remarkably well considering her age (8) and the fact she had NO help until the very last. Jake & I drew scores exactly. 

If you are wondering why all this lovely together-school stuff would be more stressful than our normal routine I can explain. I have an 11.5 yo joker-boy in my classroom, a 10yo hoppity, "can't control my laughter" son who sits opposite, an 8yod getting to the 'I know everything before I do' stage, a mousey 7yod who forgets what you said 2 seconds ago (& who is quite capable of giggling along with the others) and an airy-fairy 5yod who takes every item of fact and makes it part of her fantasy world!! Mix that together with a 3yos who wants in on the act and a 20mos who climbs up and dances in the middle of the table you are working on to make sure you notice him!! That makes quite a cocktail and it's not very conducive to everyone listening and learning sensibly, 'front lead' teaching from me. Now one-on-one these kinds of 'free(r)-style' weeks might be even more fun and not requiring of the 'teacher' bit so much, but in a mixed age group that haven't quite learnt enough respect for the next member, I get a headache! They all call out comments (although that is getting better), one makes jokes, and they all try to be the first to show off how much they know, or worse still I have one that rarely answers anything because she knows if she says nothing for long enough someone else will give the answer! It's not like we aren't doing the hands-on fun stuff too, but I have to do a bit of 'teaching' for it all to make any sense to the younger ones (and maybe the older ones as well it seems). On Tuesday morning it did actually get to a point where I wasn't willing to continue trying to 'keep order' and I made them all do an hour of silent book-maths instead! They were not happy but it did the trick. The girls were 90% better after that, but the two big boys still mucked about too much for my liking and so had to do ANOTHER hour of maths after school. I don't like using maths as a punishment really, but it needed to be something they were least likely to need me for help with and that they didn't want to do! I gave them all a straight up chat after school and said that if things didn't improve drastically not only would I call off THIS non-book week, but I would be considering not scheduling them in at all next year - and I would scrap non-book DAYS as well. This definitely got them thinking and they did majorly improve for the rest of the week - now they need to show they mean it by keeping it up next time round! I am not into 'crowd control' - that's not what I want my HE to look like. I want it to be good fun, but I need them all to understand that it is only fun when it is fun for everyone - and that includes me - and for it to be that way they need to learn to learn a lot more respect for each other (and me) so that everyone gets a fair share at taking part, I can think clearly and not get be-fuzzed & grumpy and we can all learn together and from each other. School should not be a competition - it should be am exhilarating ride!!

Moving on...

P went away on Thursday to his Grandad's funeral in Portsmouth, leaving me solo for the last couple of days. So after all the busyness of the day I ventured out to kitchen to cook tea. When tea was done I was seriously flagging and I think Jake saw this and kindly volunteered to bath the small boys :) He duly did so very well while I washed up. He even managed to put N's nappy on and was so chuffed with himself for doing it right - "Wooo, I'm a real big bro now!!" That was such a blessing as it didn't mean I had to face a sink-full of dishes late at night or in the morning :) He can definitely pull out the stops at times. Shame he let himself down though by omitting to tidy his room, or put away his clean pile of clothes (which he should have done while I was cooking tea), thereby hindering the actual putting to bed of the baby by about 1/2 hour - but also, at the same time, getting me out of another exhausting game with the big boys! I had said (why do we do this to ourselves?!!) we would play their new Star Wars Risk game that they got for Christmas, but that we haven't had time to look at it properly yet - if everyone else was in bed by 8pm - which in the end they weren't ;) Boys came down and played Hue Knew together while I read my rss feeds and emails. Not long after they went up at about 9.15pm my Internet went down, so I played on ACCF for a bit and paid off my mortgage part one :) Then I went to bed!

And that about takes us up to speed! Today was Friday group at my friend's this morning, followed by Lasagne for lunch, which, thanks to having been able to get the kitchen tidy last night, I made this morning before I went out - I am never that organised!! There is something about P being away that means I get all 'driven' but by 9pm I am done for - except I stay up - don't ask me why! (My answer would be because if I don't blog now I will forget my week). N went for a rest after lunch and the others played nicely. The kids go out to club at 4, but before they went tonight I got them to do all their chores (rabbits, tidy rooms, tidy lounge & hallway, clear & wipe table) so that tonight would be easier. I didn't have Jake to help me tonight because he is at a 'half knight of pear' (half night of prayer - sleepover - fun night). Once they had gone C went on Reader Rabbit Nursery for a bit, giving me a window of peace - well maybe, only by the time I had finished washing up from lunch N had woken from his nap all grumpy and C was bored of the computer :( I put 'Cars' on for C and snuggled N on my lap - at least that way I would get to sit down quietly for 5 minutes, where N promptly fell back to sleep :) Once he was settled I put him down on the sofa under a blanket and set to writing a bit more on this blog... A few sentences later the rest came home (ho hum...). Round 2!! P and I set to in the kitchen (not long cleaned up remember) making promised scones for Tea. If A had made them she can do them alone, but P wanted ME to make them with HER - so like the nice Mummy that I am, I did - and they were lovely and she did really well, but the mess..! After scones J2 remembered that I had said we would have Angel Delight for pudding today and had not done it at lunch time, so he set to making that in the kitchen and dishing it up for everyone - more mess..! N & C woke up and played in the lounge - more mess..! By bedtime tonight I was running well out of steam, so this time J2 offered to help (no little kid's baths tonight), so he went up and tidied his room while A read C's favourite book to him (One, Two, Buckle my Shoe...), then tucked C up, said prayers with him and put his music on. He then went and read stories to the girls. I usually try to keep it to a shared story, but he read at least two! Said prayers with them all and put on their music for them :) He came downstairs looking a little more weary than when he went up and declared that it was more tiring than he thought!! It was nice though as it gave me a few mins to be with N and just chill with him - not that he really ever chills much these days except when he is asleep! J2 & I then played with N together for a few more minutes and he asked me how to put N's nappy on, so I showed him, but N was in manic, reaching overdrive mode, so it would have been impossible for him to do. Once N was down in bed J2 ate the last scone and got a big hug from me before he went up to bed.  At LAST I get to finish my blog - the mess can wait till morning!! Now I'm done & I'm off to bed - I've no more energy left for today and I have 3 girls to get ready for ballet in the morning!

SURPRISES

Aren't kids funny creatures! Just when you think you have them sussed...

Today Joel was doing a maths activity on graphs. It involved the other children too and was basically 'the memory game'. They had to see who could remember the most objects out of 10. I had no doubt that A would do best (and she did) and that P would really struggle. Initially with the removal of single objects from the tray P couldn't see what was missing hardly at all - probably once out of 20 times she got the answer. Then I removed the tray entirely and asked them to recall the whole lot. JI did the worst (typical 9yo bouncy-brain!) and P remembered all but one! I was amazed. This girl is so like her eldest brother it is unbelievable. She has definate memory problems (JA has auditory memory problems) and will forget an entire lesson 5 minutes after it is taught, even if she has done some practical work on it. I always thought she was a tactile learner - now I'm beginning to wonder... HOW did she remember the 9 things? She wouldn't be able to tell me so I guess I'm just going to have to figure it out! Reading has been a real struggle. JP only helped her a little, with its songs and stories, but Headsprout did the bulk of the work this time - and it's visual! Am I going to have to go and buy a mass of multi-media materials for this little one? A visual learner - now that could be a lot more expensive, as most of the materials I have are either auditory (cheap and chearful, but I don't have that many coz it's not our style), or tactile - rods, bricks, shapes, cubes, lapbooks, magnetic words & letters... I could go on and on! She is learning with what we use, because there is of course there is a visual element to it, but I'm wondering if there is something out there that could help her more? I've toyed with Maths-U-See in the past and decided against (more financial outlay), but now I'm thinking again... If she is visual it might be what she needs, but how different is it to Miquon? I need to investigate.

6 years in and still I don't have this home-ed lark down cold! LOL I don't think I ever will. Some days you do one thing and its brilliant the next it falls flat - and vice versa! One day I might find a 'rut' that works for us all - but I doubt it! It feels like this is an ever evolving form. No one year looks quite the same as the one before or the one after, but the kids are learning, growing and developing enquiring minds & a love for Jesus - what more could I ask? :-)

Our morning has consisted of Maths activities (memory games), trampolining (PE), reading quietly, Bible study - CD and book called "When Dragon Hearts were Good", which came out of a short discussion the boys had with Paul at breakfast table about age of the earth! And now they are all doing Dance Mat (PE again and Music - coz it involves a lot of 'listening to the beat') and C is in here with me doing a peg-board picture (ancient things with plastic 'pegs' and a white square board with loads of holes in. It was actually mine when was a kid!).

So is the shape of our Thursdays and the kids really look forward to it. The rest of the week is pretty intense, so so do I!!

Now I need to go make lunch (left over lasagne for those that want and tortillas for those that don't) and tea (cook the chicken, coz tonight's tea only needs to be heated under the grill for a few mins) and then find something fun for the kids to do this afternoon (I really should be more organized) while I sort out the mountain of washing there always seems to be in this house! I have an idea to do 'squirt painting' in the garden if the rain holds off long enough for me to get it sorted. Basically collect old Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottles - the really big ones with the valve-lid - fill with watery paint of various colours and then squirt at huge sheets of paper (back of wallpaper is great if you have some- which I don't, but the Ikea big roll of paper is good to). This is definately an OUTSIDE messy activity that is best done when the grass needs cutting - so all the painted bits get cut off, or when it's about to rain - to wash away the mess! We've not actually done it before, but I'm sure they will all love it!!

While I'm here - this a picture C coloured on poissonrouge yesterday - I thought it was very lovely. As he paints one side the symetry is done for him, but all the same - the colours and placing of them is great for a not yet 3yo I thought :-) I love that website and I can't keep him off of it. It has done wonders for his mouse skills and now he uses it independently. Before he started using it he had no mouse skills at all, but this was such a high motivation for him he learnt really fast!