6 WEEKS IN...

Due to computer issues I've not been on to blog (or anything else) much lately, but having spent the last couple of days building a new PC ~ yes, I built my own, with a bit of messenger help from a friend here and there ~ I can hopefully get back into a bit of a routine with my online-life. But I must say, it's been nice to take a break and focus on other things for a bit :D

So, I promised an update on how our new more-flexible system is working and on the whole, I'm pleased to say, it's working very well for MOST of the children. For Stitch however, the person who I thought this would work better for, it is not working SO well as I'd hoped. This might be more because he is basically 8 and rather work-shy. It doesn't matter what I ask him to do ~ learning activities, or simply picking up his mess ~ he walks around in a dream-world: he begins things, stops, doesn't go back, gets into trouble (and doesn't really care that he has) and is generally quite difficult to motivate to do ANYTHING constructive with his days! He is a mud-up-your-fingernails kid and I need to find a way to be a Mum who is more happy-with-that than I currently am. I still am not managing to be very hands-off tbh and trusting the process doesn't come easily to me :-( That said, he makes it all that much harder for both of us by not showing me any willingness to do anything other than play (and distract others). When he does do some work, he tries to do too much at once and gets in a tizzy. He doesn't seem to register his own limits, or want to listen when I try to help him. So, instead of doing some maths (for example) for about 10 or 20 minutes, and then taking a break and doing something else for a bit before going back to it, he tries to cram for a whole hour and wonders why he hates working so much - he has fried his brain! Then, because the last experience wasn't great, he avoids doing anything at all and ends up with hours and hours of work left to do at the end of the week, having used up all his 'free learning' time in one or two swoops, or spent the whole day playing!  I don't know if I'm doing the right thing by leaving him to learn the hard way, meaning he misses out on free time with his siblings in the evenings and on weekends (because he has work to catch up), or whether I would be better to come down a bit harder on him so that he has more free time. He, by the way, doesn't see that all the playing he does in what he considers 'school time' counts towards his free time. My children are very stuck in a 9-4 routine and it's proving very hard to get any of them to break that mindset. Stitch, however isn't so much in the routine as his mind likes to think he is!! We're only 6 weeks in though, so I'm hoping things will improve. For the others though, the new way has proved very successful. It enables to my early risers to get up and get on, and my late risers to take it at their own pace. DD, for example is a 'plougher' - this week he has worked really diligently and completed everything he 'must' do by Thursday late morning, leaving himself free to get his chores out of the way and carry on building his den in the garden all afternoon and all day tomorrow if he chooses! We've also done some baking this afternoon, so that was 'extra' that he chose to join in with. Stitch on the other hand, just by comparison, still has about 3 hours worth of empty spaces on his chart, so will end up with a day of work and chores tomorrow (and maybe Saturday), but instead of doing some of it, he is currently in the garden den-building with his brother. It's not that I don't count the den-building as educational - I know it is - and I would be fine with it, IF every now and then he just came in and did a few minutes 'work', to chip away at the back-log he has left himself. I wouldn't mind either if he didn't care about working in the evenings, but I know that I will have a tantrum on my hands if I ask him to do anything after 4pm. I'd be happy with him working in the evenings ~ after-all that is definitely when I work best and it might well be for him too, but HE is not happy with that arrangement, because it means he doesn't get 'screen time' (screens aren't on in the day time, other than for educational purposes, as they are too distracting to EVERYone), or to 'play' (lol). I've been out and reminded him of the time and his need to do some work, but he just 'nnnyah'-ed at me and carried on, so I'll be facing upset later then! This really is a catch 22 ~ fuss now or fuss later... let him choose to make bad choices & face his own consequence, or coerce him into doing things my way and face the long-term consequence of a child who is possibly less able to make good choices on their own. Right now I'm fighting the urge to coerce him and letting him be because I THINK that is the right thing to do, but I'm also dreading the melt-down that will be inevitable later. 'Training' children is no easy task, when you have one that doesn't want to listen to any form of reason - and doesn't easily learn lessons from the consequences (good or bad) of his actions. 

As part of my 'make it better' this year, I've have decided that we need to go out more. I don't drive, so this can prove challenging, but Paul's hours at work have changed a little and he now has two days a week working for the church. This is great for us too, because it means on a Tuesday he is free to drop us at the train station in the morning (saving us a phenomena amount of bus fares) and we can off out for the day and be back in time for tea :D. So last week I renewed my family railcard, courtesy of Tesco vouchers, and we took advantage of the tail-end of the Indian summer and headed for Colwyn Bay. Just an hour on the train and we spent the best part of the day on the beach! The kids loved it and the day was not too long. The clouds came over and it began to rain just as it was time for us to get the train home :D. I think we will go to Liverpool next month. It's a year since we were last there, and we never got out of the Science Museum that day!! This time we won't go there, but instead will head down to the docks, where The Tate and the slave museum are ~ or we might spend some time looking at the amazing Architecture! Liverpool is definitely a city we need to make several trips to, to get the best from it. 

This weekend my eldest children are all away... four are going to The Gathering and their levels of excitement are rising as I speak. This is one of the highlights of their year. Lots of meeting up with friends, and LOUD worship with about 2000 other young people from around the country. Worship to D&B music may not be for everyone, but they love it!! Joel decided not to go thought this year, so he is going to a different worship conference in Bradford with another friend. 

I'll leave you with some of the highlights of the last few weeks in photos (and video).

Beach Day...

Male or female?

The English trench!

The German trench.

The bombing!

Other fun that's happened...

SCIENCE

This is possible Phoebe's favourite subject this year. She's loving being left to do her own thing with this and work at a her own pace.

There's a stop motion that we made to go with this too, but I've not uploaded it yet.

ART
Stitch & DD's

Chip's

Chip's first 'proper' people drawings :D

MATHS 

(with spontaneous art and literacy built in)

SPIELGABEN

WRITING

NATURE WATCHING

COOKERY
The girls and DD made shortbread...

whilst Stitch and chip made simple biscuits.

And today we made these!


...which were seriously INCREDIBLE ~ so incredible they left Chip speechless - and he is SO fussy about his goodies!

Just Art, Cookery & Science

This week in art we looked at colour value. It was a fairly simple lesson. Stitch had a bit of a melt-down over the drawing, but he got there eventually and then did well with the painting.

For Cookery this week we made butter biscuits. They were super simple and super-yummy! No decorating this time ~ they didn't need any enhancing :D. It's nice that my children now know that tasty things don't have to be iridescent colours!

Joel's science has been about osmosis this week and involved soaking an egg in various liquids over the course of three days & measuring it's girth each time: vinegar for 24 hrs (to soak off the shell), sugar solution for 24 hrs (home-made), and then purified water for a further 24 hrs. The result one seriously pudgy egg, which exploded in the sink shortly after being measured! I think he said it swelled by just under 3cm in total. 

It's half term this week, so the chids are chilling, and I shall be busy trying to get as organised as possible for Paul & my's upcoming Kenya trip. I can hardly believe that in 3 weeks time we will be there ~ sweltering in tropical temperatures! I'm excited and nervous in equal measure. I think I'm most nervous about the whole airport thing ~ crazy really, but I've never flown as an adult, and Paul has never flown anywhere other than Southern Ireland. It's a bit more serious if you catch the wrong flight, than if you catch the wrong train!! I'm sure we'll be fine though :D

Last Week

~ Last Saturday the girls and I went to get Phoebe a new phone, as her hand-me-down one died and she would be getting one in a months time anyway, for her birthday (as is our tradition at 13). We took the opportunity to grab lunch, a hot-chocolate and a doughnut together :D. Then the girls hopped on the bus to Chester to meet up with Abbie's BFF, and go to 'craft club' ~ they're getting so grown up!

~ Last week Joel decided to have some fun with a 'Sick Science' can crushing experiment, but it may need to be repeated as it didn't really work. Not sure why. Maybe water was not hot enough, or possibly the cans weren't soft enough metal. We'll try again with Coke cans.

~ Last week little man learnt to hop ~ he was a bit pleased with himself :D

~ Last week we embarked on a new activity to do together each week. The bigger chids and I have decided not to carry on with 'Igniting Your Writing II' any more ~ it's a good course, but we all feel the need for something more 'hands-on' and all the children do enough English and writing in other ways. Instead we have decided I will do proper cookery lessons on a Wednesday! Last week we had some left over chicken bones (from the night when Paul rescued my burnt meal attempts ~ see the irony there), so we made chicken soup. It was just going to be plain, but then I found we had some Thai spices and lemon grass 'flavour pots' in the cupboard, so we converted it to Chicken Noodle Soup.

I did very little towards this (I just chopped the mushrooms to oblivion and then did the bone picking towards the end, because the chids had run off to do some other work whilst it simmered) ~ and I have to say it was DELICIOUS! In this case many cooks did not spoil the broth ;-)

This week we're making biscuits and next I think we'll make pastry. The little chids will probably join in with those too. I want to keep a mix between savoury, sweet and 'staples'. I've invested in an old fashioned home-ec' book, so between that and Delia I think I should be able to teach them the basics that they may all need one day :D

~ Last week (and so far this week too) Chip has been BIG into wanting to know how to write his letters and numbers. At his demand we've done lots on paper; I've let him make up his own way a lot, because it's just good for him to play with emergent writing; and we've done some like this too ~ because it's fun. He tells me what to write in dots and I obey!

~ Last week IT SNOWED!!

Not for long, but big soft flakes fell for about 20 minutes or so. It was enough to cover the ground; enough for DD to make a tiny snowman; enough for some of them to throw a few snowballs at each other; and enough to satisfy their craving to simply stand in the falling snow!

Chip remembered how cold it was last time I think, so he was very reluctant to go outside. Instead he watched from the comparable warmth of the living room window ~ and then agreed to sit there for a bit while I took a few cute photos of him watching the snow fall ;D

When the snow stopped falling and gave way to sunshine, we came inside and painted snowy trees instead. By the time we were done the snow outside had all melted away :(. We were glad we enjoyed the moment while we could!

Artwork oldest to youngest (Mine, Abbie's, TP's, Lilo's, DD's, Stitch's and Chip's);

I just want to say that with Chip I learnt from last week, and only gave him a half sheet of paper. Then he set to work and did his almost ENTIRELY by himself (the last one). He drew around the triangle templates by himself, he drew the ground and the dividing lines by himself. I initially drew the tree trunks and stems, but he did ALL the over-lining by himself. He then chose all his own colours and painted it entirely on his own. When it came to the snow, he chose to do it multicoloured and arranged them where he wanted them, I just helped him squeeze the tiny dots of glue. I think his might be my top-pick of the week! I think it's incredible and I absolutely love it!

Joel chose not to do the watercolour work, but instead did a rather fabulous sketch of a turtle (using a tutorial book we have). 

 ~ This week has been a bit bitty so far, but the three younger ones did have fun with Steve Spangler's Coin Tower experiment (looking at friction and inertia). They weren't entirely successful with it, but had fun trying and I think Lilo did manage it in the end ~ when I wasn't videoing of course!!