Aboriginal Art

Having just written a huge blog post I thought I'd better stop where I was and do a new one on what we actually did today.  Now we have  rediscovered our groove, I wanted to share our day as it's been lovely.

It started with me reminding the boys that it was time to do Maths Whizz.  Youngest found a maths workbook that he wanted to do instead, so of course I said that was fine.  Eldest promptly went to find a workbook as well and chose to do two pages.  Again, fine.  Middle had to have a look for one, but came rushing back enthusiastically clutching a cursive handwriting book.  Well, I wasn't going to say no, just because it was supposed to be maths day (especially because he is usually a most reluctant writer), so he had handwriting practice instead.  All happy, all good!

Then I said we needed to go into town, but Eldest reminded me that we hadn't read their Bibles together today, so first we read from Youngest's Jesus Storybook Bible (which is totally lovely), followed by Middle's God and Me daily reading book (a bit young for him I think, but he loves it), with Eldest reading the passage that Middle's book referred to, from his Explorers Bible.  Today wasn't strictly the allocated reading for today's date, but Middle wanted to read one of the missed ones from previous days as it was about hugs.  We all appreciated that subject - plenty of opportunity for practical experience!

Then it was time to go into town.  We had a parcel to post as we have been taking part in a Culture Swap.  We'd not done one before, so started with a mini one, where we had to include three or four things that represented our summer here in the UK, and send it to our swap partner (this time in Germany).  Obviously there were a lot of outdoors things involved from us: seashells from the beach; a bug viewer and British bug ID sheet, sticks of ice-cream flavoured rock, and a recipe for Eton Mess (best if made with fruit from the local PYO farm).  We posted our parcel off this morning, and the boys were thrilled when they turned the TV on later to find that the Lingo Show (CBeebies) was in German today.

While in town we also popped into the bank to pay in a cheque, and I was thrilled when the cashier commented on how well the boys were behaving.  I confessed that the promise of a doughnut as reward for good behaviour was doubtless part of the reason - but still, it is always lovely to have people comment on how lovely the boys are (I mean, I know they are, but it's nice to have others notice too!)

When we got back we had an art 'session', planned the previous evening.  I didn't want to get paints out as the only available table was the one in the study (we try not to get paints near the computer), so I found some examples of aboriginal art and got our pastels ready.  When I showed the boys the art examples, the conversation went via a quick history lesson (convicts and the British colonies), followed by geography lesson (look at the globe, talk about the difference between northern and southern hemispheres, native wildlife), and then we got creative.

First we drew an outline of our chosen Australian creature (Youngest - snake; Middle - lizard; Eldest - great white shark; Mummy - lizard), and cut them out.  We chose a second piece of paper (contrasting colour) and decorated our creatures with pastels.  Then we glued our creatures to the backing paper and got busy with pastel dotted outlines.  All three boys needed a break in between 'dotting' but were happy to come back and finish their pictures without my needing to prompt them, and they were all happy with their finished pictures, so that was a real success - great work!

 Youngest's 'Snake'

 

 Middle's 'Lizard'

 Eldest's 'Great White Shark'

 Mummy's 'Lizard'
(if I had known Middle was going to do one too I would have done something else so as not to
put him off, but as it was he was quite happy to do the same as me)

This afternoon it was too hot for the boys to go outside, so they stayed inside in the cool and took turns playing Minecraft while I wrote my blog.  Oh, and Eldest and I watched a programme recommended by Daddy on finding the Giant Squid: a fascinating and strangely beautiful creature.  All in all, that was a lovely day!

PS While in town this morning I bought myself an 'academic year' diary (because it was the only sort available), so I can note down a quick summary of each day's educational exploits.  It really helps me to have a record of what we've been doing!

I need to read this again if I wobble...

It was a funny day today.  We had a delivery coming from Ikea - the shelf set we bought a few months ago worked so well, we ordered another one to try to bring order to the study.  Therefore I needed to spend most of the day sorting things out of the study so that we can get the shelf unit into it once assembled... and then filled of course.  Consequently the kitchen table is now buried under study stuff & there has been no space anywhere for the boys to 'do anything much' - except of course watch TV, draw pictures, play on the computer, pore over photos, tell each other stories, do a bit of baking, read books, make masks, and play games in the garden (and that's just the bits I noticed)!

It's something I have really appreciated about this 'term' - we've had so many interruptions to the rhythms & patterns we had been in, but in each of those interruptions, every single time I have just been easily able to spot the blessings of unstructured time.  We do usually like a little bit of structure - it works for all of us; but I am now so chilled about days without structure when needed - they are still so rich, just in different ways.

So I thought I'd share some of today's lovely little highlights (in between moving books, boxes etc)...  While the boys were watching 'Absolute Genius' (about Brunel), there was quite a bit of footage of the Clifton suspension bridge, and I was able to tell them about an ancestor of ours on my father's side who tried to kill herself in the late 1800s by jumping off the bridge, but her crinoline skirts opened up like a parachute and she floated harmlessly down to the mudflats and was rescued.  They were happy to hear that she seemed to cheer up afterwards, and lived to be an old lady.  She had a poem written about her and even has her own page on Wikipedia... The boys were enjoying the TV programme as it was, but even more so after they realised we have family links to the bridge, and such a great story too!

I also uncovered our wedding album, & had a lovely few minutes looking through it with the boys.  They loved looking at all the family twenty years ago & working out who everyone was.  There is such strength in knowing you're part of a big, supportive structure like a family - it was lovely to be able to share that with our boys today.

This afternoon I realised it was teatime and I hadn't prepared anything, being preoccupied with the study contents.  So I hastily grabbed some home-made hidden-veg sauce from the freezer and we all made our own pizzas.  We didn't have any mozzarella cheese handy, but we're all perfectly happy with cheddar - and they worked a treat.  Eldest's 'boomerang' pizza turned out particularly large, but he was happy to eat every last crumb, so no problems there! 

 top left to bottom right: Youngest, Middle (heart-shaped), Eldest, Mummy

 Afterwards we enjoyed the chocolate brownies that I had made with Youngest as a distraction from something the older two were doing earlier that was leaving him out.  Whenever one of the boys gets left out of a game I always find baking is a very acceptable consolation!

Oh, and of course we had the camera trap photos to explore.  There was quite a mystery attached to last night's photos.  The camera trap is triggered by motion, via a PIR sensor, so every time anything goes past, it is set to go off & take a quick succession of 3 pictures.  Well last night we know it was working, because first we had several lovely shots of our resident fox - and then there was a gap of an hour before another photo was taken.  Nothing unusual there - there are often gaps between creatures passing by.  However, when we checked the next photo, which seemed to have no visitor in the frame (it happens occasionally that the photo is taken a split second too late), a large number of the peanuts that we had sprinkled on the ground had mysteriously disappeared!  What a puzzle: we were baffled by how something managed to take the peanuts without triggering the camera trap.  A mouse was suggested as the culprit, but we know mice do trigger the sensor as we have a few photos of mice (well, photos of their eyeshine, anyway - they're too tiny to make out otherwise).

 

this is where the peanuts disappeared...

 and a visitor in daylight today... muntjac deer!

in fact not just one, but two!

Finally, as promised, I managed to take photos of Middle's fabulous lapbook that he completed the other day.  We used a combination of the excellent Homeschool share volcanoes lapbook templates (Middle loves the ready-printed ones), and some that we made ourselves. He is rightly proud of his work, as am I, so I'm glad to be able to share it here...

Home Ed, Ancient and Modern

It's been a good day today - we started off with the boys gleefully fiddling on my ipad.  I'm still a little nervous about letting them loose with technology as they outstrip my limited understanding easily, seemingly by instinct (such as Youngest managing to activate some music, that then took me several minutes to work out how to turn off).  I have found the parental locks though, so hopefully they shouldn't be able to spend money or watch/listen to anything inappropriate...

I have to say, it's been totally brilliant as a home ed resource - I have stacks of free apps loaded.  The first one was Eggy Words - a word recognition app from Reading Eggs.  Youngest had only been on it for a couple of minutes when he had mastered the word 'the'.  He has struggled with this one since starting Reading Eggs, because it was one of the few 'sight words' introduced right at the beginning, and he just didn't get it (but refused to repeat any lessons), so has consistently failed to recognise it ever since.  Not once he'd been on the app though - he has no problems now.  Such a little thing - such a big difference!  Other apps we have include Hungry Fish (basic arithmetic), WatchKnowLearn, which has a huge range of educational videos (like the ones you can get on Youtube, but without the risk of them accidentally clicking a link to somethig dodgy), Horrible Histories magazine app, with one free magazine to enjoy - and the only app I have paid for - a year's subscritpion to a magazine called Sea Urchins, about ocean life etc.  They do paper versions I think - but by using it as an app, the boys all get to have a look without one of their brothers having trashed it first.  Eldest was particularly excited when I showed it to him.

Well anyway, I tried to make sure they all got a turn, but of course their turns couldn't possibly be long enough, so I motivated them to share by letting those not "playing" help me to bake some cheese scones and chocolate cinamon crumble cakes... just the kind of distractions I like!

 

After eating our yummy produce for lunch, we went from one extreme to the other - from a morning of modern technology to an afternoon spent engaging with a great chunk of the past at our local museum.  We've somehow never been before (probably because in my mind it's not the first place I think of taking exuberant boys), and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised: yes, the boys were excited to be out somewhere new, especially as their much-loved auntie was with us, so at first they sped around as expected, and I thought we were going to be in and out again within ten minutes, but then Eldest and Middle found a computerised game to design a town, Youngest found some boxes of themed toys for under-fives, and generally that slowed them down enough to notice the more interactive elements around them.  After that they had a lovely time: Eldest found a quiz that could be answered by investigating some of the exhibits, Middle did some coin rubbings and made a mosiac, Youngest tried on lots of different hats and costumes, Eldest tried on a milkmaid's yoke for size (even without pails, it was too heavy after a minute or so), and Middle and Youngest took turns in the stocks.  It's one of those experiences that is tempting to wonder "how much did they learn, fact-wise" - but then again, they interacted with history in a positive way, and found out some interesting trivia that left them wanting to know more - and in my mind, that's what it's all about: introducing them to something and seeing where their interest is sparked.  We were all amazed by the severity of punishment in "the old days", as demonstrated by the exhibit below - and that has already prompted further conversation - so that was one successful (and fun) trip out. 

 

 

 

Looking back over the day I found it really pleasing to think on how the boys interacted just as easily with ancient history as they did with the most modern of technology. Days like this are just wonderful (apart from my tumble dryer dying in the middle of "rainy season", but that's another story... technology is great - when it works).

 

Finally - not in the 'ancient and modern' theme, but I have to share anyway - when we got home the day was rounded off nicely with a visit from a black squirrel - we know they live in Herts, but we hardly ever see any, so we felt very privileged to have this little chap spend about half an hour in our garden, noseying about and gobbling up any spilled bird seed that he found - just gorgeous! And by the way, no, we didn't have an on-the-spot chat about genetics, mutations, melanism etc: we were just enjoying the moment, and it would have been too forced for me to introduce it - but you know what?  The boys will remember the day we watched a black squirrel in the garden (if they don't, I took lots of photos!), and when they do want to chat about genetics etc, I will remind them of him and they'll have a great frame of reference! 

 

 

 Tumble-dryer notwithstanding, that was a lovely, lovely day.

 

OK Days are Good

We had a real job to get going this morning.  We had arranged to go and visit friends, so no chance of a pyjama day today - not that the boys minded in the slightest, for once.  However, our usual routine seemed a bit stale today, so rather than nag them to do their 'work', when they finished their Reading Eggs(press) we had a day off lapbooking, and did some creating instead.  I asked Youngest if there was an art project on my Pinterest board that he would like to try, and he chose a lion painting, originally posted by John Post - so we all happily sat down and mixed paints, chose brushes (it's SUCH a big deal to get the right brush!?) and got started.  Youngest hadn't gone very far at all when he decided he'd rather do his own thing.  "Are you experimenting?" I asked.  His eyes lit up: "YES!", and he promptly splashed paint about, squished it between pages of paper etc, all the time checking that I could see how well his "experiment" was going... very cute.  Eldest, Middle and I dutifully finished the project originally chosen by Youngest!

 Eldest's Lion

  Middle's 'Vampire Lion' (hence the red teeth)

 Mummy's Lion

 Youngest's 'Experiments' (above and below)

Middle decided that part of belonging to his club (based in the fort, now happily situated in their bedroom) was to involve a "taste test", where everyone tries four different items of food and rates them 1-5. He wanted to make all four items at once, but as they were all dessert items (that's my boy!), I persuaded him to spread it over four days.  Today the boys wanted to make lemon and lime cheesecake from CBeebies 'I can cook', but as we had no limes, we did lemon and orange cheesecake instead.  Unsurprisingly enough, I was the only one who really liked it (it was very citrus-y), but at least they tried it!

Over lunch we watched a DVD on explorers from our Now You Know-About DVD set.  They were engrossed in the tales of Captain Cook (though Youngest wasn't impressed at his being killed by the natives) and Columbus.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: we find TV can be sooo helpful when it comes to sparking new interests.  Obviously we love books and I do strew them often - but I also love having the odd DVD up my sleeve for times when the boys feel the need to just veg out.

So today was OK!  Of course, if you just go on what I've written above (the "edited higlights" so common to blogs), you could think "wow, they do so much, I wish we could do that well" - and I'm tempted to think that myself when re-reading.  However, things have been a bit stressy here with various issues going on, and my patience level has definitely dropped.  Today hasn't been all bluebirds tweeting and harmonious laughter... there was also a fair amount of runny noses, arguing in the car, freezing temperatures and loads of mess to clear up after the 'creating'!  Anyway, just sayin': Our 'higlights' can look pretty impressive (and they do encourage me: after all, that's mainly why I blog, because it helps me to see written down what we're getting up to), but on balance, yes, today was OK.. and that's a good thing.

PS If you visit John Post's blog (follow link above), check out his "teaching philosophy" pdf - I found it quite inspiring.

Day of Gentle Hibernation

Hubby came home in time to put Middle and Youngest to bed last night, so I had a nice snuggly time with Eldest, watching an episode of Lego Star Wars (Padawan Menace) together.  He'd been asking to watch it together for a while, but I wanted to vet it before I let the younger two watch, so it had to wait until they were in bed.  Anyway, last night was the night - and to Eldest's delight it was deemed appropriate for his brothers' viewing.  So this morning Eldest and Middle spent a surprisingly long time on Reading Eggspress, and then asked if they could watch the approved Lego Star Wars episode.  I reminded Eldest that I had said he would be able to watch it after he tidied his room (he has supposedly been tidying this room every day this week, but not actually making any real progress).  Anyway, Middle grabbed him enthusiastically and said, "come on [Eldest], I'll help you!"  (It took me a while to register what he had said, I was so shocked!)  So off they went, while Youngest made the most of the opportunity to get on the computer & his beloved CBeebies website, where he learned about bowheaded whales amongst other things.  Much raucous laughter was heard coming from Eldest's bedroom, and I did wonder how much tidying up was actually being achieved - but it was so nice hearing them having fun together that I didn't disturb them.  Well, it wasn't a lot later when Eldest and Middle appeared downstairs, obviously plotting something as Eldest counted in a whisper "1...2...3...", and they both chorused loudly "Tidy, Eldest's room is!"  It was so sweet, just one of those moments that I wish I could replay on video.  That's why I've written it down here really - not much to do with HE, but I just wanted to record the memory.

This afternoon we watched some Blast Lab and Horrible Histories.  TV may seem like a lesser method of learning, but the facts that the boys come out with after watching are really encouraging, such as the boys' reasoning on which objects would float or sink, and remembering details about the Suffragettes.  Eldest also experienced the realisation for himself that some theories which are absolutely held to be true today will be looked back on as stupid by people in the future, which led to a really interesting discussion on generally-accepted scientific "fact".  If it's encouraging to have the boys remembering things they learned off their own backs, seeing them starting to think critically for themselves is really exciting to me.

Later there were some nativity re-enactments with the playmobil, Christmas sticker-book stickering - oh, and the neighbours locked themselves out, so they came round to borrow a boy or two to help break in to their house.  The breaking-in lesson was sadly unsuccessful, but we did then get to have our neighbours round for a cup of tea while they waited for the locksmith to arrive, so that was a nice spontaneous bit of socialising.  Middle was particularly excited to show his photo book off, Eldest was thrilled to have someone new to discuss 'Lego Star Wars' with and Youngest just kept talking at anyone who would listen.

Finally at tea-time we continued the "food we eat" learning with a discussion concerning meat and beans: which was the best for protein and muscle-building, which made the most 'bottom-burps', and which made the worst smelling farts.  This was not an exhaustive study, but I'm happy to take the boys' word for it!

All in all, considering we're kind of gently hibernating now, & it still really doesn't feel like we "did much", that was a pretty successful day!

Seasonal slow-down

Lately I've been trying to put my finger on the slightly unsettled feeling I've been having - and I've come to the conclusion that partly I think it's because somewhere in the muddle of this term, I lost hold of the lovely routine we had been developing in September.  In between asthma attacks, baby hedgehogs and dying laptops, we got distracted, and it's taken me this long to be able to refocus.  Also I think it's largely something to do with the season: the cold weather has definitely kept us indoors more than in the summer (especially as Youngest hasn't been fully well) - and I always feel a bit stifled if I don't get my frequent walks in the woods.  And I think we're just feeling a bit lethargic - we all seem to have lost energy a bit. 

Knowing that it's a seasonal thing definitely helps in dealing with it though.  Just as in nature, during winter the trees are bare and the ground is hard, so with us: we have slowed down and aren't seeing many obvious signs of growth - and just as I know the spring will bring new growth and freshness, I am confident that just around the corner are seasons for us of fresh enthusiasm and rapid growth.  Actually, I think it's a positive thing: all land needs time to lie fallow, in order to replenish strength and gather new reserves - and that's what we're doing.  With that in mind, I'm not so bothered by the different pace of this term - really we're ticking along nicely, mooching along between online curricula & TV learning programmes, interspersed with books to read and pictures to draw, walks (albeit shorter ones) outside and meeting with friends.  And even the socialising seems to have a different feel: whereas in the summer there were lots of outdoor meet-ups and field-trips (sometimes literally: trips to fields where they could run about, have fun and experience nature in all its rich glory), in winter we seem to be more home-based, less likely to go out in big groups and more likely to have friends round in smaller cosier groups of one or two families.

That said, today was our big group trip to the local soft play area, and quite a few families turned up today - it was a really lovely time.  We all had a good natter (mums) and play (children) - in fact Eldest was ready to come home before I was! (I think that had something to do with wanting to see what happened in Wild Tales).  That was pretty much the whole day covered, and I felt it made up a bit for having been at home for most of the week!

Yesterday was a bit more typical: the morning saw Eldest and Middle on MathsWhizz.  I need to try to persuade them to do their curriculum work at separate times, otherwise they seem to get distracted very easily with each other's work.  Afterwards Eldest got fully absorbed into the "What If" section of GridClub, which was on "what if you did Maths all day?" (he loved it!).  Middle and Youngest enjoyed playing with Playdoh, and they all had fun playing on the Wii.  I've steered them away from the Lego Star Wars game for now as they got too wound up by it; Wiiparty and the Christmas Wii game we have are much more about teamwork and generally less intense play. We also found the boys' 'Wild Times' comics that they get from the RSPB, so they enjoyed looking through those - Youngest in particular.  And of course, there was lots of TV learning, snuggled up on the sofa, learning about biology (Wild Tales - of course), geography (William Whiskerson), history (Horrible Histories) etc.  Speaking of TV, it's not all couch-based learning: Today after we came home and watched the unmissable Wild Tales, we then watched a programme called Croc Man that Eldest had found in the 'recommended section of our planner.  They loved it.  As part of the programme the 'croc man' was given planning permission for a specialist crocodile zoo in Witney where he lives - so we're all going to have to visit now!  Hooray for inspiration to get out and have a new experience :)

Lovely Morning, Not-so-lovely Afternoon

A lovely start to the day today :)

With Eldest feeling much better, and my antibiotics working, everyone was much more energetic/ enthusiastic than we have been for a while, so after breakfast we got creating straight away.  First of all we made some dough for bread, then while it was proving we got straight on with painting today's pictures.  "Mummy, this is art!" Youngest told me seriously while covering his paper with broad strokes :)  We painted a background of grass and sky, then while it dried we cut out some elephant shapes from the sheets of painted paper that we made last week.  The shapes were glued onto the background sheets, then details added with oil pastels.  We got the idea from (surprise surprise) the Deep Space Sparkle website, and were again quite pleased with the results...

 

Eldest's Elephant                              Middle's Elephant 

 

  

Youngest's Elephant                                   Mummy's Elephant

After cleaning the paint away, the bread dough was fully proved, so we then made our bread rolls.  We were thinking of making one bigger loaf, but all the boys enjoy kneading and shaping their own bit, so rolls it was :)

nom nom nom

After those two 'all of us' activities (suggested by me, based on recent comments made by the boys), I busied myself with some washing and waited to see what the boys would choose to do next.  Middle got on to Reading Eggs while Eldest read some picture books to Youngest.  Then it was Eldest's turn on Reading Eggspress, and Youngest was obviously inspired by his brothers so I put my laptop on to sit with him and have another go at the Reading Eggs level he had last got stuck at.  Obviously he was in the zone today, because he whizzed through and finally passed the level - hooray!  The level he is now on requires proper reading skills - some word recognition and some phonic blending..  It is definitely a stretch for him, but he can do it!  And of course, doing it with me on my laptop just added to the fun, especially as Mummy kept marvelling at how well he was doing!  Eldest then found some of his books to read - including The Terrible Tudors, Middle did some drawing, and Youngest found our Magnetic Anatomy Set to play with again - he has barely stopped playing with it since we got it last week :).  Next Eldest made a Treasure Hunt and gave the rest of us clues to hunt around the house for some little darts (mini-planes) that he had made with left over card and pastels this morning!  Home-made bread rolls for lunch, and then we were looking up some obscure facts so that we can quiz Daddy when he comes home.  This is a new game that the boys have started: see if we can learn something during the day that Daddy doesn't know (I LOVE this game!)

This afternoon I had the delightful (spot the sarcasm) experience that is root canal treatment, so the boys were very happy to have their grandparents visit while I went to the dentists.  Lego Star Wars on the Wii, followed by a Wildlife documentary that Eldest had previously recorded (Land of the Lost Volcano) - and Mummy was home again :)  I have to say, once the anaesthetic wore off I was feeling very sorry for myself indeed & was just trying to stay sane, so I dosed myself up fully and the boys quietly watched more TV - this time 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder one).  It was lovely having them all engrossed (they hadn't seen it before) - especially once my painkillers started working! 

If memory serves, I should be feeling much better tomorrow, so I'm thinking the boys will be having an early night this evening, then I have a date with the TV and a bar of chocolate!  Oh, and some photo books to work on...  Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my family photos (I have been called 'obsessed' by some) and in case anyone out there feels the same I'm passing on my recommendation: not really to do with Home Ed, but hey... The best photo books I have ever found are those made by Snapfish.  Being 'the best' (in my opinion) means they aren't cheap, but for the next two weeks they are doing them at half-price - so that's me busy for a while ;)

Mildly Manic Monday

Hooray for Pyjama Days - especially on days like today... there's nothing better than being snuggled up all cosy indoors while the trees outside are blowing in the wind and the rain is beating against the windows :)

Mondays are usually our lazy days, although today was a bit more manic than normal for a pyjama day - excitement levels are rapidly rising in anticipation of Youngest's birthday tomorrow!  Fortunately he was happy to sit and play on the CBeebies website - he's having a break from Reading Eggs (I know; I was stunned!).  Anyway, he sat and played, oblivious to the card-making and gift-wrapping going on in the next room.  However, I'm going to have to bake the cake on my own for once after he's in bed, as I think it's a bit much to try to do that without him noticing!

So other than the birthday preparations, we had a nice arty day today.  Pyjama Days seem to lend themselves to arty projects: the slow pace of the day working well with needing to leave paint/ glue to dry, cleaning up etc.  Today we used paint & oil pastels, inspired by Klimt's "Tree of Life" thanks to a lesson plan from the gorgeous Deep Space Sparkle website.  I do find the website owner, Patty's lesson plans inspiring, but we don't worry too much about replicating them - I am NOT an art teacher, so I'm not au fait with advanced techniques etc - we just use her lesson plans as springboards to give us ideas to start from.  For example, today my own piece of "art" was a pretty boring copy of what Patty had asked her class to do.  The boys however started off with the gold tree and black outline - and then decided to adapt as per their own ideas - and again were really pleased with the finished results...

  

"Tree of Life" by Eldest            "Tree of Life" by Middle
(he added lots of colourful birds)  (he added Christmas lights,

                                                   birds and cocoons)

 

  

"Tree of Life" by Youngest           "Tree of Life" by Mummy

(he just had fun with gold paint                                                     

 and swirly pastel patterns)                                                    

 

We also made some coconut mice from the Yummy Little Cookbook for Youngest's birthday celebrations - often the boys take it in turn to bake cakes as it doesn't always work for us all to do it together, but everyone joined in with the mice today, which was fun :)

Then there was plenty of train-track building, Reading Eggs (for Middle and Eggspress for Eldest), Youngest played with his wooden Alphabet Puzzle, Eldest read a Horrible Histories book - The Woeful Second World War, Middle and Youngest played "the buttocks game", aka Body snap with me, and of course, Eldest continued writing his diary, today adding a full-size picture of colourful slugs...

Sept 23 2012
Thinking about the slugs that already have colours, now let's see there's the
Banana slug
Sea slugs
The rest you find out later...
There now, mission one: find more slugs

7:48am
Middle and Youngest invaded my room.  I got them to play in their room.  Middle doesn't know any new coloured slugs.

8:13am
Finished playing explosive attack with Middle.  He kept on getting shot in the face and exploding himself and other stuff.

Sept 24 2012
6:42am
Just woke up...
woke up at 6:03 and couldnt go back to sleep.  Still no slugs.
11:47am
Just been on Reading Eggspress.  Almost lunchtime cause I'm HUNGRY, very hungry
12:58pm
looking up colourful slugs I found the
leopard slug
yellow slug
garden slug (has orange on the bottom)
field slug (sometimes pink)

And banana slug and sea slugs
Cool 6 slugs "WOW"

Eldest's Multi-Coloured Slugs

So today wasn't that manic at all really, just nicely busy with a hint of hyper owing to the very important day only one sleep away! (I may not have time to blog tomorrow - if not, see you Wednesday!)

PS Today I read another encouraging blog post from one of my favourite HE authors, with great advice for those taking first steps into Home Education, so I'm including the link here - enjoy!

A PS to Yesterday's Post - and some lovely Art

Well that was a great big long blog post yesterday - and it completely failed to make the point that I was supposed to be trying to get to (combination of running out of time and just getting distracted by my own waffle - oops!  Don't think I'll ever make a pro-blogger ;) )

Anyway, I was talking about why I see the need for us to use online curricula, even though we are stongly drawn to the 'unschooling' end of the HE spectrum.  We've been 'doing' Home Ed since Easter this year: more deschooling than anything else which has been incredibly helpful - I strongly recommend it to anyone just embarking on their HE adventure.  Now we're entering a new 'term', I've been taking stock of where we're all at...  Firstly, I cannot imagine ever sending my children back to school - socially and emotionally the boys are doing SO MUCH better than they were at school. Academically though... (let's say for the sake of argument that it can be sectioned off as a separate entity) - well... Youngest has made undoubted progress, largely thanks to his passionate love of Reading Eggs (an online curriculum).  Middle and Eldest?  I have to say, their "abilities" have gone backwards in some areas.  Their confidence and reasoning has made great leaps, so I think on balance it was easily worth it.  However, when Eldest had a go at the 'Reading Eggspress' programme that he's lately been pestering me to try, he was assessed at a lower age than he actually functions at in my opinion - because through lack of usage he had forgotten what verbs, nouns etc were.  Middle has also regressed a bit when it comes to Maths - forgetting how to perform certain tasks that are actually useful (that's the bit where I left off in the previous post I think).  Anyway, combined with yesterday's conclusion that standard maths skills (such as times tables, carrying/ regrouping, even long division) are really useful tools to have at one's disposal, my observation that the boys' learning in these two key areas (Maths & English) has gone back a little was the final factor that convinced me my instincts weren't all wrong... for now at least... until I change my mind again ;)

Anyway, so that's what I was trying to say yesterday!  On to today, and over all it's been lovely :)  Eldest had another temperature spike today & was feeling weedy, so we decided not to go to craft club.  That sad decision aside, the rest of the day was fun (in a gentle way).  Eldest was keen to get back onto his Reading Eggspress trial - he seems to be enjoying it still.  Youngest was also keen (as always) to get onto Reading Eggs, and spent some time happily engrossed on that.  Which left me some time with Middle, going over a Maths worksheet that I made for him, with lots of space on the paper to work out his 'regrouping' - and only eight sums on the whole page so it wasn't too intimidating.  We got the cuisenaire rods out and went through the whole process, showing him how regrouping works in a visual way - and he seemed to grasp it very quickly after that.  He still wasn't keen on doing the page of sums, but fortunately for me there is a fail-safe key to motivating him... reverse psychology works every time!  If you try to jolly him along gently saying "come on, this is easy, you can do it" he just stalls, whines, procrastinates - basically does anything except what you're looking at.  But if you say "uh-oh, I thik this one's too hard, surely you can't be clever enough to work that out", he loves it!  It baffles me, and doesn't come naturally as I like to speak positive words over my children  - but it absolutely works (for him - his brothers are a different matter), and as long as I say it in a jokey enough manner, he thinks it's the most fun we can have!  So anyway, one page of eight sums later, and he's really happy with addition using regrouping (we'll move on to subtraction next time).

After that we went to the bank to pay in the money we counted up yesterday, and had a lovely chat with a lady who was very interested and encouraging when she found out that we home educate.  Eldest then had a rest when we got back, and got engrossed in a cartoon book (I've recently introduced him to our Calvin & Hobbes books... he's hooked!)  Time for some "Deadly 60" and "Horrible Histories Gory Games" on TV, and then on to the highlight of our day...

Middle had been asking to do some art, and I found a really lovely project on one of my favourite art websites, Deep Space Sparkle... we painted some long thin 'birch trunks', left them to dry and painted the background on another page, using watered-down paint, and then sprinkling with salt for an attempt at a snowy effect (my paint was already too dry so it didn't work very well, but Middle's worked well)  Eldest's trees looked really effective I thought - and the beauty of this project was that even Youngest aged 3 (almost 4) was able to produce a lovely piece of art (although I did have to take the black paint away as he was getting carried away doing the tree trunks)...  The cutting out was straight-forward (I helped Youngest as there were a lot of splodges and he couldn't see where to cut!), and we glued the trunks on to the background using PVA (glue-sticks didn't work well with the salt), then putting heavy books on top while the glue dried - we all think they look great :)

 

 

Middle's "Birch Trees"                        Youngest's "Birch Trees"

 

 

Eldest's "Birch Trees"                         Mummy's "Birch Trees"

Lovely art project - lovely day :)