Classroom Free - Home Education Blog

{Feeling Yuck}

2009-04-24T19:50:00.003+01:00

I have had a horrid few days of feeling really rough. Awful flu like symtoms that have really knocked me back. The children have been pretty good and managed to just get on with what they could.

So, what has been happening? Well, Wednesday was the worst day for me, with sickness thrown into the mix. Chelsea was really good and got on with things without being asked - she covered Numeracy, Literacy, and started a project on Italy. She also sat with Tiegan and helped her with a Maths workbook. Joseph read the Our Island Story for me - that's our family chapter book at the moment that we read together. He also did part of his Maths workbook, and a bit of copywork - copying a poem from a book, then illustrating it.

Our caterpillars were checked and were growing nicely - I took this picture..

Thursday was a great day for Tiegan as it was her first day at Brownies! She thoroughly enjoyed her Rainbows experience and was eagerly anticipating Brownies, so much so I was nervous about it living up to her expectations. It seems that my worries were unfounded though as Tiegan came out afterwards absolutely buzzing with excitement and chatterings about how it all went and what they did. I knew she was going to be alright though when we walked in and she was immediately surrounded by her new pals with crys of "oh it's Tiegan!" from those she had met previously at Rainbows, arms flung around her, the works. Very cute and reassuring to see.

Today (Friday) was a disappointing one in that we were meant to be joining the local HE group for a visit to a Deer Farm. I really just couldn't face it though, still not feeling at full strength, and Callum was still suffering from a horrendously snotty nose (sorry for the graphic description) so we thought it best to rest ourselves and protect others from our lurgy. Instead I have had another day of resting and wiping Callum's nose - whilst the children pottered around on laptops, projects, workbooks and playing with the kids next door (who weren't at school again...) I ordered Tiegan's Brownie uniform :o)

I took photos of the caterpillars who have made yet more progress on the growth front...

I am strangely fascinated by the process, I really should grow up I think, but I think this is part of the fun of home-educating I guess, being involved and experiencing what the children experience. I wouldn't change it, even on days when we struggle to keep everything together.

"School Time"

2009-04-21T13:17:00.004+01:00

It's so good to be back into the swing of things again - my enthusiasm for Home-Ed had dwindled a little and so we were just trundling along with no particular routine going on, and our family just doesn't work well that way.

After my "spring cleaning" session of yesterday, the children were looking forward to trying out their new "classroom" and even went so far as calling me Miss...and giggling everytime they did so. We covered a little Maths together, Tiegan did a bit of work on sentence building, Chelsea wrote a sweet poem about Kira, and Joseph read poems from his football poem book to keep us all amused. Then Tiegan read her modernised version of Princess and the Pea that she borrowed from the library - and Chelsea read us all a chapter of Twilight, her new book (which was a bargain price of £3.87 at Asda if anyone is interested and doesn't want to wait for delivery...)

As you can see in the picture, Callum joined in. He has a workbook to encourage pencil control. He is supposed to draw over various shapes, silly patterns, pictures etc. He didn't want to do it today, but insisted on doing work like the others, but nothing I offered was right, so we came to a compromise. He drew over it with his finger, and I did it with the pencil - at least one of us has good pencil control now... ;o)

(Btw, it's just the photo making it look really dark - we don't work in the dark honest!! lol)

This was a "lightbulb moment" when Tiegan finally understood something that had been perplexing her for a while - so nice to catch this moment of hi-5 congratulations from Joe. I love the way they help and encourage each other.

Tiegan's reading session...

and Joseph reading his football poems...

Our caterpillars have grown amazingly fast already - we have all been surprised by their growth in just a few days.

I'm happy now as their future home has arrived and I no longer have visions of last minute panics to find them a suitable container when needed - I do like to be organised lol. Along with the butterfly kit, I also bought a simple (and cheap) plastic model set that shows the various lifecycle stages.

It has proved to be a hit with the children, and Callum has been "playing teacher" and telling us about the different stages from egg to butterfly. Very cute.

Talking of cute - Callum had us all giggling yesterday with something he said. He asked Chelsea something and Chelsea said "You'd better ask your Mother..."

Callum - "What's her name?"

Chelsea - "Julia"

Callum - "Where is she?"

Chelsea - "There, next to you!"

Callum - Looking at me with the utmost confusion - "Nooooo, that's Mummy!!! Silly Chelsea!"

I love my life....

{All Change - New "School" Room}

2009-04-20T20:13:00.004+01:00

We've had a busy but very fruitful day today, one of those days when you can sit back and reflect and think we did ok :o)

The morning started with a quick visit to the library. The children came home with a variety of books, both fiction and non-fiction, whilst I chose one book about the history of our village. I have a plan that we will put together a children's guide to our village. If successful, I would like to run off a few copies and give them to our library, I know that the children would like the idea of others enjoying their efforts. Anyway, we returned home and the children all immediately opened their books and started reading - so I left them to it and decided to potter about and tidy up our "school" area. Why is it, that my "tidy up" always leads to a huge mega rearrange and sort out?

I have moved our "school room" back to the back room - and it now looks like this...

View from the Doorway

I wish my window had overlooked palm trees when I was at school...

To see the photos with explanation notes added, you can visit the set on flickr here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/classroomfree/sets/72157617003593175/

{Our Weekend}

2009-04-19T23:56:00.000+01:00

Wow, what beautiful weather we have had - so warm, with blue skies and glorious sunshine. Everyone had dug their shorts and t-shirts out and life felt good - well it always does when the sun is shining doesn't it?

We had a lovely day on Saturday - lots of family reading time, planting things in the garden, then enjoying the football on TV together.

On Sunday we went for a quick walk around a local town, before heading for home, unpacking the shopping, and going to the park for a play :o)

Joseph was with us too - but he was on the other side of the park playing football with his dad :o)

{We have Caterpillars!}

2009-04-19T12:45:00.004+01:00

At long last, finally, we have caterpillars!!! I have wanted to do a Butterfly project for years, almost since the beginning of our home-educating adventures, but have never got around to actually doing anything about it. Yes, we have discussed the life stages of course, and touched on various aspects of growth and development - but I wanted to give the children an opportunity to experience it first hand, in front of their eyes so to speak.

To help with this, I have purchased this kit from Insectlore, which includes live caterpillars. We have 5 little wriggly jiggly things in a pot as I type. We haven't yet received their new home to be, but at least progress in the long waited for project has been made :o)

The children are, as to be expected I guess, pleased with the new arrivals. Well, Chelsea and Joseph are pretending to be uninterested, they are obviously too old to be concerned with such creatures - I won't mention that I have seen them have sneaky little peeks more than once - or that Chelsea was sat talking to the little fella's this morning when she thought no one was looking..., but both Tiegan and Callum are suitably obsessed. Callum doesn't think that they will be turning into butterflies though, he would prefer worms if possible. I guess that will be learning curve...

So, be warned - plenty of photos and general progress obsessiveness will follow. I apologise in advance for any offence this may cause...

{The best laid plans and all that....}

2009-04-14T22:55:00.003+01:00

Why is it, whenever I get all enthusiastic about "home-ed" and make plans, something happens to delay things. Today Tiegan and Callum have become poorly little beings, and have spent the day under blankets on the sofa, needing lots of TLC. I reminded myself that the schools are on their Easter Break, and shook the guilt ;o)

So, what got done instead? Well Chelsea got on with her "Paranormal" project - she is finding out all about ghosts and things that go bump in the night...actually, so far it makes pretty interesting reading. We read a few stories together, including a few chapters of Our Island Story, and Joseph read through a Horrible Histories book (we are all looking forward to the HH programme starting on TV on Thursday).

I haven't got any pictures of our day to share - but I did have a look through the latest pictures and chose a few to show you...

{Plans 2009}

2009-04-12T09:20:00.003+01:00

This will be added to and adjusted as time progresses.

Plans 2009

General Ideas
· Increase family cooking and baking sessions.
· Record progress of our Vegetable Garden.
· Increase amount of Arts & Crafts to include various mediums, including clay, paints, fimo, and Salt Dough. Encourage each child to try various crafts to include knitting, sewing, cardmaking, scrapbooking etc.
· Make more use of the library – weekly visits?
· Butterfly Project – Life cycles, caring for living creatures.
· Middle Ages history project.
· History and geography of Dartmoor.
· Science Projects – Weekly Project to include written, illustrated, photographs, and experiments.
· Countries – Fortnightly Project; Cooking, Crafts, History of, Present day life, Geography, Climate, Famous events, Famous People, Wars/Disputes.
· More poems and story writing.
· Family Reading sessions.
· Plan, write, and create puppets for a puppet show which can be filmed on completion.
· Making use of time when walking the dog – Walks by theme, such as Alphabet, Colours, Smells, Animals, Flowers.
· Photography – Daily themes? Alphabet, shapes, expressions, movement, nature, weather.

I also want us to be involved in the groups more, getting to know and spending time with local home-educating families.

Chelsea 2009

As general plus -

· Maths work – textbook and everyday life, build confidence in ability.
· Introduce running a home – Meal planning, bill payments, managing budgets etc.
· Work through Human Anatomy and Physiology book with me.

Joseph 2009

As general plus:

· Handwriting and spelling work – encourage an increase in neatness and concentration.
· Encourage more out loud reading where possible to help with speech.
· Joseph would like to do his own project on the History of Football, to include changes through the ages, famous footballers through history, league tables – history of and how they work, and football disasters.

Tiegan 2009

As general plus -

· How flowers and vegetables grow – Tiegan has developed a keen interest in gardening which I would like to encourage and facilitate. It was at her suggestion that we have planted various vegetables this year, and she has shown great enthusiasm for learning more.
· Introducing Lapbooking – this is something that we have touched upon before, but I think Tiegan is now ready to progress further.
· Volcanoes – At her request, along with Callum.
· Handwriting – concentrating on neatness; letter size, spacing, capital letters.
· Maths – Basics, textbook and everyday. Introduce Timetables.
· Reading – Tiegan is already a (self taught) fluent reader, but I would like to encourage her to read with expression and think of the context the words are written.

Callum 2009
Callum will more than likely join in with whatever he likes the look of when we are doing group work together. In addition to this, I’d also like to facilitate his interests which currently include –
· Volcanoes
· Sharks
· Dinosaurs
· Vegetable Garden

I am planning on introducing Callum to lapbooking as a way of collating what we do.
I’d also like to encourage Callum to try more arts and crafts.

{Torquay Museum Visit}

2009-03-06T20:34:00.003Z

Today we joined one of the local home-ed groups and headed off to Torquay Museum. Now, at this point, I should shamefully admit that despite living in the area for over 20 years, I have never ever set foot in there before - that's bad isn't it?!

Anyway, that aside, we had a rather lovely day. A talk about Charles Darwin had been arranged, and actually it was very interesting and rather informative - certainly my lot were given food for thought as we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening fielding questions about theories and evolution. I enjoy days like this when an interest and enthusiam has been "sparked".

So, here are the pictures:

This display is at the top of the staircase of the entrance hall...

After the Darwin talk, we were able to get a closer look (and feel) of some of the exhibited animals.

Hmmm, these lot were meant to be listening to the talk about the animals...

Rhino and Hyena skulls...

In the galleries, some of the displays were pretty fab. Callum loved this Anaconda...

There is a gallery with "Old Devon Farm Cottage" type displays...

and Egytian displays...

All in all it was a really pleasant day, one I am certainly glad we participated in. It actually gave us a lot of food for thought with regards to our home-ed group life, and once home we discussed how we would all like to be more involved in the groups again. We have talked about the possibility of setting up our own Teignbridge and Torbay area group - not to compete with those already available - but to run in addition. We are happy to host the group at our home, at least initially, and we see it is as more of a social meeting get together rather than a "learning group", although obviously activities and crafts can be brought along if desired. You wouldn't have to make a weekly/fortnightly/monthly commitment, it would just be a group to dip in and out of as wanted, whether we meet up here, or head for a local park or beach for picnics etc. If any local HErs are interested in being involved or exchanging ideas, please email me at Julia@creativemakes.co.uk.

{Husband's Appeal Update}

2009-02-27T10:56:00.000Z

Some of you have been asking how the appeal went for my husband, so I thought I would update you here. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers - I really appreciate people thinking about us.

On Wednesday husband went for the final appeal about his sacking from work. The outcome was the same - they upheld the decision to sack him. They have admitted there is no evidence against him - but they have “reasonable suspicion” based on rumours.

The charge against him is based on the fact that they have sacked his colleague on suspicion of theft. They think my husband knew about the thieving and have actually claimed that he took cash bribes to keep quiet about it!!! They don’t actually have any evidence on this other chap thieving either - again it’s just rumours - they have even admitted that some of the stuff has gone missing when the chap wasn’t around.... *sigh*

One piece of so called “evidence” was that someone had seen my husband and this “thief” in the work van heading towards the area of the “thiefs” then girlfriends house. The story goes that the guy stole things and took them to his girlfriends house. Apparently they had a statement from an “anonymous person” saying that he clearly saw my husband and this guy in the van. This guy couldn’t even say what day he saw the van or a time - as it was over a year ago. This “evidence” was bought into the appeal process at the 2nd appeal after a manager had already backed up my husbands version of events which would have cleared both the accused.

So, with the rumours, and this “evidence” they have concluded that it’s all true and have sacked both people involved.

On Thursday morning my husband got an email from someone that works at the company, saying that he had been talking to the person that had made the van statement. This person said that he had been “encouraged” to say that it was my husband and this other guy in the van, when in fact he had clearly said that he didn’t know who was driving or who was in the van. He said it could have been the mechanic on a test drive, or someone picking someone up for some reason or anything - he couldn’t even say if it was one person or two. He refused to sign the statement as it was untrue. This person has said that he would be willing to tell a tribunal this if necessary. At the same time my husband got this email, someone else phoned the “thief” saying the same thing.

We knew all along it was a stitch up - and I think this just proves that them having to falsify evidence means that there is no evidence against my husband or this other guy. Isn’t it so unfair that firms are allowed to get away with dealing with people like this to save redundancy money?

We are now playing the waiting game to see if the guy that made the statement really will back us up or if he is pressured into taking back his claim. We are also waiting for the union solicitors to get back to see if there is enough for a tribunal. If they say there isn’t - then we plan on taking it to an outside solicitor to see what they think as the whole situation is a complete joke and unfair.

{Another Zoo Trip}

2009-02-15T00:14:00.003Z

We spent a few hours of our Valentines Day having a family trip to Paignton Zoo. It was lovely. We had a chuckle in the entrance when one of the staff members came over to admire my bright pink DM's that I was wearing. The weather was dull, but quite warm and it stayed dry, so we have to be thankful. I of course took far too many photos, some of which I will share here.

I love this picture of the babboons nit picking - isn't the baby so cute!

A peeking Marmot.

One of the giraffes.

Me with Tiegan and Callum.

Joe in a bubble...

Callum with his beloved "Mr Purple" - a cuddly dog that goes literally everywhere with him.

One of the elephants.

The Lion.

We are lucky to have annual membership to the zoo until the end of July. We bought it last year when Lee was working or else we wouldn't have been able to afford to have gone today. It was another lovely family day - I'm really enjoying spending time as a family at the moment.

{Family Walk at Cockington Park}

2009-02-13T21:19:00.001Z

As the weather was dry today, we went along to Cockington Country Park, with the dog. As a family we really enjoy walking, and it's always nice to stroll through beautiful countryside and watch the children and the dog running free. I actually remembered to take the camera so I'll share ~~a few~~ too many pictures.

Cockington is a real "Chocolate Box" village, full of thatched cottages and winding streams, it's so pretty. Even on a dull day it looks so quaint.

We walked around the Manor House grounds, and went passed the old Gamekeepers cottage. The earliest record of this cottage dates back to 1517, when the gamekeeper was employed to tend to the rabbits in the surrounding fields.

Our beautiful dog Kira does love her long off lead walks. I love this picture of her - she looks so happy.

In the Manor House grounds there is a lake which contains large carp and is home to many ducks - a couple of which were kind enough to pose very nicely for the camera...

All in all it was a lovely family walk.

{Where we are at...}

2009-01-20T13:43:00.002Z

Things aren't exactly perfect here at classroom free at the moment. Husband was suspended from work at the beginning of December, and was sacked on 23rd. Just in time to make the perfect Christmas *sigh*. The allegations against him are totally unfounded, all rumours, and we are of course appealing against it. One allegation is that he was taken cash bribes to cover up someone thieving from the company - LOL !! Where on earth that one has been dreamt up I'll never know.

Anyway, other than that little, erm "hiccup" in the proceedings, things are progressing pretty well. We are just starting to get back into our normal routine now, although my brother-in-law is staying with us for 2 weeks, so that has thrown us a little out of sync again.

The children have been enjoying themselves, with plenty of baking, playing with friends, role-playing games, and computer time. A lot of time has been spent on the Club Penguin Website - www.clubpenguin.com which seems to keep them amused for long periods of time. We have also being doing a fair bit of reading, and planning our studies for the coming months.

Hopefully when things have settled again, normal daily blog service will be resumed ;o)

{Another one done and dusted}

2008-11-11T12:13:00.001Z

Well today was the day of our annual LEA visit. I know that some of you reading this won't agree with us having them - but they work out as an easy option for us. We have had the same lovely lady since we started - it's like having a friend over for a chat. I love the discussions we have - everything from her family (a new grandchild this time), to her Australia visits, to the education system. Diverse and interesting.

I know I haven't updated for a while - we have been busy. Busy preparing for the visit, putting together work and sorting out our "schoolroom" displays. We have just started a number of projects for the winter 08/09 term -

Looking a bit sparse at the moment, but the spaces will soon be filled :o) As you may be able to see, our current projects include:

The Solar System
Recycling
The Great Space Race
Famous People through history (display not shown)

So be prepared for updates of how we are getting on with it all :o)

Hmm, what else have we been doing in our absence. Well, during the half term week, Joseph took part in a football training 2 day scheme. He thoroughly enjoyed it, seemed to get on well with the others, and I was very proud of his enthusiasm to join in with whatever they asked of him. It must have been tough, going along to something on his own, knowing no one. All of the others seemed to know each other either through schools or football teams, so for Joe it must have been daunting trying to fit in. He came home with a certificate and a t-shirt, along with many new skills and tips he had learnt.

Chelsea has been spending a lot of time with the girl next door. So nice for her to have a girl of her own age living so close after a few years of having to put up with boys lol.

Tiegan is still very much enjoying her Rainbows. She seems to have slotted into the whole group dynamics thing very well, and literally skips along the road each week when we walk there. She also seems to be learning a fair bit from the activities they do which is good - this week it was about Bonfire Night, the previous week it was Bugs.

Callum really is the dream child. Enthusiastic about everything, wanting to learning about all that goes on around him, thoroughly enjoying being a little computer whizz, playing on neopets and club penguin websites. He is like a little sponge, soaking up knowledge - knowing his letters and being able to count easily to around 50. He makes us all laugh with his comical facial expressions, his cute sayings, and the way he emulates his favourite WWE wrestling stars.

{Mine all Mine}

2008-10-20T17:13:00.001+01:00

Just look what the wonderful courier delivered to my door this morning...

An absolutely gorgeous pair (yes, the courier bought 2) of Dr Martens, which I bought from this fabulous store on Ebay. I wore them to the film education viewing of Wall-E at the cinema this morning, much to the surprise of the girls belonging to the school party we walked passed lol.

For some reason Callum didn't want to go to the cinema today. Think it might have been a bit too early for him *sigh*. Without the school run to contend with each morning, our mornings tend to be a little lazy, and it's not often that we need to be up and ready to leave for 9am. The rest of the children enjoyed it though, as did I, whilst Callum seemed to enjoy the one-to-one time he spent with his dad.

Our days have been pretty busy recently, lots of "learning" stuff going on, despite what my dear mother thinks. Yes, once again poor Chelsea has had the "You are very silly not to want to go to school" chat, and my mum has said that she won't ever amount to anything as she hasn't been school. *sigh again*. Luckily Chelsea knows better, and is well used to my mums thoughts and feelings on home-ed. My mum told her that I am not clever enough to be teaching her, and Chelsea can't learn without school. Seems she just doesn't "get it". Ho hum. I am going to have to be a little stricter though and say that Chels won't be staying over again unless my mum stops harrassing her about our home-ed choice - I know Chelsea is used to it, but Tiegan wouldn't like her saying things like that to her as she just wants to please everyone.

{Torre Abbey}

2008-10-03T23:35:00.000+01:00

One of the local home-ed groups arranged a trip to nearby Torre Abbey in Torquay. Finally feeling ready to get back into group life again we went along, and I'm so glad we did. We received a really lovely welcome from people we hadn't seen in a long time, and also met some new ones which is always nice.

The Abbey itself was interesting, and we have vowed to go back on our own one day and spend more time looking around. It's history is an interesting one. The children were particularly enjoyed viewing the art gallery section, and seeing the William Holman Hunt painting - The Children's Holiday, and knowing it was worth in the region of 3 and a half million pounds, seemed to impress them.

We were the first home-ed group to have been taken around the Abbey (I believe), and we seemed to have caused a little planning headache for the education department. It has to be said though, that the lady did a pretty good job considering the age differences of the children, and she managed to hold the interest of most of them for the duration. There was a little too much "do not touch", "keep fingers off the glass", "don't lean on that" kind of thing going on for comfort really, but all in all it was a very enjoyable day.

{Photos and School Madness}

2008-09-24T17:09:00.002+01:00

At last, the promised pictures. First the armwarmers - I did these like simple gloves with just the thumb hole. It was my first attempt at cable knitting, and I'm really chuffed with the results and the quick knitting time. Next time I will make them a bit longer.

Here is a photo of the Chocolate concrete cake; scrumptious with custard. Hard on the outside, deliciously soft on the inside.

Needless to say we have none left now.

I have had a nice couple of shopping trips recently - buying things that I never usually bother with. I have bought new make-up, costume jewellery, and 2 hats. I love hats. I used to wear them alot when I had long hair but when it was shorter hats never seemed to suit, so I stopped wearing them and stupidly got rid. Now my hair is growing again and (although it's still purple) hats seem to suit me again - well I think so anyway ;o) Chelsea is just adoring this new found mum as she is thoroughly enjoying doing all the "girly stuff" together, something that we have never really done before apart from the occasional painted nails session. As vain as it sounds, and as much as I hate saying it, the more I "look after" myself, the more self confident and better about myself I feel. I have always been a take me as you find me sort of person, and to some extent I still am, but I have been making a bit of an effort these past few weeks with my hair and make up, and feel a whole lot better for it. I have never gone the "whole hog" with the make up, never used foundation and all that stuff - just a bit of eyeshadow and eyeliner and maybe a touch of blusher and lippie. Amazing that so little can do so much :o)

As for the school madness in the title of this post, well I've just been listening to my local radio station when they reported a story about school children being threatened with exclusion if they have hair gel on their hair. ???!!!???!!!

More can be read here : http://www.geminiexeter.co.uk/Article.asp?id=902636

{All Quiet}

2008-09-21T10:20:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely day yesterday. Chelsea and Joseph spent much of the day with their friends - either here, next door, or at the park. Tiegan went with my brother's girlfriend over to visit my parents for a few hours, and dh and I took Callum to the playground. The weather was glorious, the nicest we have had a for a long while. It was lovely being able to make the most of it.

The lady from next door came around in the evening to ask if Joseph would like to stay the night at theirs. Of course he would (silly question). She then asked if Chelsea would like to stay too, and then go with them to a majorettes competition that her daughter was taking part in in the morning. It meant Chelsea needed to be up by 6am *yawn*, but she wanted to go anyway. Whilst the older two were at their sleepover next door, I made flapjacks and chocolate concrete cake with the younger two. Yum. they toddled off to bed together, watching DVD's and Tiegan reading stories to Callum. I really love hearing Tiegan read, she is so fluent, so expressive, so darn good! I still can't believe how little input I have had for her to get to this stage. It really has been a real eye-opener for me of how child-led learning works at it's best.

So here I am this morning, with just 2 children around. Very odd. The house seems very quiet. Mind you, they have just started playing on the wii, so that peace and quiet will soon be shattered...

Last night I got one of my knitting urges. I haven't done any knitting for a long time. I've wanted to have a go at knitting a pair of armwarmers for a long time, but haven't got around to doing so. I need to buy some new wool, but thought for my first attempt I could use what I've got. I searched for an easy pattern, knitted flat and not in the round (haven't got any circular needles yet) and found a lovely one - but it had a simple cable pattern in it. I haven't attempted any cable stitching before, but it sounded easy enough. Fortunately it was, and I managed to complete the first one yesterday. I'll add a photo later when I've complete the other one. Of course the girls are already eyeing them up, so I can see myself knitting a fair few of them in the coming weeks :o) Next time we go out somewhere I'm going to treat myself to some fab new wool colours.

{Sleep Overs}

2008-09-19T20:18:00.000+01:00

Another busy day here, with children off doing their own things. Chelsea has been reading - various things but Roman Mysteries being the main. Joseph has been writing a play, based around Tudor history from what I can gather at this early stage. Sounds intriguing anyway, and we all have parts apparently. Tiegan has been full of energy - singing and dancing her way through the day. She has also managed to write a story, illustrate it, and sit with Callum doing Hama-beading. All of them made a lovely victoria sponge cake this morning, which it has to be said was delicious. It looked good and tasted better ;o)

Once the school children had been released, we had another 2 join our clan. Together all of the children have played X-factor, been on the Playstation, trampolined to the point of exhaustion, planned a spooky party, and had a go at cardmaking using my stash. The new 2 are joining us for a sleep-over apparently, and have just come in armed with DVDs. Their mother came over here yesterday and raised a few questions about home-education. Apparently her children have been begging not to have to go to school, the girl in particular struggling to settle into her new school and already has had to tolerate a great deal of name calling and general nastiness. Home-education isn't something they have considered, nor indeed something they are *actually* considering, but she showed an interest and I did my best to answer her queries as best I could. She left with a promise of us talking more when more time is available to us both.

{Where are my children??!!}

2008-09-17T19:43:00.000+01:00

Goodness me, since we have had a new family move in to the house next door, we have been seeing less and less of our children. Our new neighbours have two children - a girl aged 12, and a boy aged 11. Both are lovely, and a pleasure to have around. All of the children have immediately hit it off, and firm friendships have seemingly already been formed. Now, once home from school, the next door kids come over and call for ours. They all then go off to the park, to the shops, or just "hang out" together. What has been an added bonus, is that our children are now mixing with, and getting to know the other neighbourhood kids. We no longer know from one minute to the next who is visiting - we can have 8, 9 or 10 children here at any one time, and it's great :o) The house feels alive again, with happy children, lots of laughter and giggles, and enough people traffic to make the M6 look quiet :o)

Today has been a good one. This morning we headed off to Trago Mills. We wandered around the animals section, fussing the goats and llamas, and admiring the rabbits and birds. We found the sculptures, and all fell in love with the blue dragon in the lake - amazing. Trago is a place we have visited many many times - but usually in a rush. Go, shop, and leave. It was nice today to just take the time to walk around, enjoying each others company, and watching the joy as the children were given the time to explore.

Once home, I took the girls to the library. Our local library is soooooo different to our previous one. The librarian is happy to see the children, always willing to chat and hear their thoughts on their latest reads or favourite TV shows of the moment. It really makes the library a pleasure to visit, and the children enjoy restocking their reading material.

When we returned home again, I sat to read a couple of read-alouds with Callum and Tiegan. Unfortunately my voice didn't want to play nicely. I have been struggling for the past 3/4 days with a funny throat and lack of voice at times (much to the children's delight!) I only managed one read-aloud today, and I struggled with that. In the end Tiegan took over the reading and did a superb job :o)

Once again this evening the house has been taken over by children - and I love it. It is exactly the "open house" I have longed for, where the children's friend were made to feel welcome and able to treat the house as their own.

{Speech Therapy}

2008-09-15T19:59:00.001+01:00

A lovely reassuring moment this morning whilst visiting the Speech Therapist that Joseph has been seeing since he was 4 years old. There has been a long (year long?) gap since the last appointment, and although I was obviously aware of Joe's fantastic progress, it is of course, always nice when an "expert" agrees and it gets recorded in the notes :o) The therapist is such a lovely lady with whom I always enjoy chatting. She has often openly expressed how she believes our home-educating lifestyle has been an enormous factor in Joseph's rapid improvement. Always nice to tell my mother - my main home-ed objector.

We came away today with a great sense of achievement, and a promise to attend again in a years time for another catch up appointment. We met dh and the other children at the nearby playground, and then had a lovely walk around Dawlish - feeding the ducks and black swans and eating too many cakes :o)

{Callums Athletics}

2008-08-31T15:44:00.000+01:00

My little man made me smile today when he decided to join in with the Athletics on the TV. We had javelin throwing, the long jump, the pole vault, and then running.

On your marks, get set...

Go!

{Garden Education}

2008-08-30T14:42:00.000+01:00

The kids have just found this little fella in our garden...

Having put him back safely back where they found it, they are all on the laptop researching all about their new found friend. I like it when education just happens :o)

{Smiles}

2008-08-30T13:01:00.003+01:00

Dear Callum was walking around the house this morning saying "6 7 8, 6 7 8. Mummy 6 7 8"

I had no idea what he meant until he said "I'm a dalek - 6 7 8..."

then we had "Mum mum, what does tombraider say?"

Erm, I don't know sweetheart, what does tombraider say?

*cue deep breathless breathing*

Ohhhhhh, you mean Darthvader!

*grin*

{Isn't it amazing...}

2008-08-29T17:09:00.000+01:00

what a difference a bit of a clean up and rearrange makes?

Since moving to this house, can you believe we have never had a "proper place" for our books? Most of our books have been kept in the garden shed! The children have always had access to them, and we do have *some* in the house of course, but the masses have just been left to be forgotten at the bottom of the garden.

I wanted to change that. I have always been surrounded by books. I love books (as some of you that remember my frequent charity shop visits will remember *grin*) I have always loathed the fact that our books are hidden from view and thus forgotten - out of sight, out of mind.

My husband is the opposite to myself. He doesn't like reading and ~~never~~ rarely picks up a book. Bookcases filled with books fill him with dread. They look messy and the books never get put away tidily. Hence why our books and bookcases are kept in the shed.

Or rather, they were...

After a mammoth mum and kids carrying session, they are now taking pride of place in our house. One in the living room (all nice and neat and tidy) and one in the hallway. Ooooh, it feels like my home now.

And the difference I referred to at the beginning of this posting? Well, the fact that my children have ALL had their heads buried in books today, and we have talked about so many different things, sparking off interests in all sorts of directions. Chelsea has covered Art History, skeletons, India and Antartica. Joseph has looked at Pirates, Dinosaurs, Ancient Greece, and the Human Body. Tiegan has found out about skeletons, dinosaurs, cooking, and electricity. Little Callum has questioned the pictures of Egyptian Pyramids, various Dinosaurs, Spiders, and Blues Clues ;o)

Alongside the mammoth book reading session, we have walked the dog whilst making note of the changing seasons, Joe has made a batman costume, the girls and Callum have played a shopping game, and we all played on the trampoline in the garden. Oh, and the children all sat at lunchtime writing their own lists of what they wish to "study" in the coming months.

I love days like this.

{Is that it?}

2008-08-26T16:48:00.000+01:00

Is the summer over already? Oh goodness, hasn't time whizzed.

In all honesty we haven't done a huge amount. It feels as though we have wasted the days really. Dh had a fortnight off work and we had made many plans for days out in that time. Sadly it was not to be, and instead the first week was spent trying to sort out a broken boiler (oh what fun we had!). The second week was spent trying to sort out the mess that was once known as the house next door. Once again the tenants decided to leave - owing rent and leaving a great big mess to clean up and get rid of. Why, why, why?! (For those that don't know, next door is owned by my brother, who works away so we are left to deal with many of the problems that arise).

We have had a few nice days though. We headed down to Cornwall for one of them, spending a lovely day wandering around Polperro, and then on to Bodmin. The weather was just gorgeous, one of those rare dry all day days.

I have been busy trying to organise things (in my head and on paper) as to where I want to be heading. Lots of muddles and confused thoughts buzzing around, lots of dreams to aim for and decisions to be made. I'd share them with you if I knew them myself - that's kinda how I'm feeling at the moment.

All are well. Chelsea and Joseph seem happy. Both are still determined that school isn't for them, which is fine. I'm happy to continue HE-ing for as long as they wish to do so. Tiegan is progressing well with her reading, and is gaining confidence with it daily. We are having such a different experience to that we had with Joseph. Callum is amazing us daily with all that he picks up, he appears to be as bright as a button and adores "learning" new things. I hope that love continues - it makes my job soooo much easier ;o)