Peppermint Creams & All Things Canadian

Good morning Monday! Happy Leap Year everyone :-)  What's everyone doing with their extra day? 

We've had a great start to the day today.  DD decided she was going to clean out the rabbit first thing, and DS decided he was going to make my bed and hang my clothes up! Lol!  He hung one thing, then decided to do some tidying downstairs.  I'm not sure what's brought this on but I'll enjoy it while it lasts! Maybe it's just a once every 4 years thing :-)

We then made Peppermint Creams, me and DD.  She wanted to do it yesterday but we ran out of time, so we've made them today - 

Meanwhile, DS decided he would do some electronics, so that kept him happy for a while. He's full of cold today, and lost a tooth yesterday, so I'm not going to push him in to anything particular today.  

But as it turned out, he decided to join us at the table to do some research on Canada for our Geography project this month.  We've found some great FREE resources so far including this fab website - DLTK Kids/ Canada Worksheets.  We've found all sorts of there - Canadian money worksheets, fab links to colouring pages and word searches and word jumbles - all of which are going to be great for our Geography Club next month.   

They also have these awesome FREE, customize-able domino's - in a whole host of subjects.  Really cool!  DLTK Cards/ Dominos

DS is working hard on Totem Poles (and made a Lego one) :- 

and DD has decided to do something on wolves. (Little bit repetitive as she has already done a project on wolves, but she is at least using a reference book and making it specific to Canada :-) ) 

She's now branched out a bit and done Moose as well :-)  

Her idea now is to make a book of Canadian animals.  I love seeing how their imagination leads them. If I'd have told her we were sitting down to make a book of Canadian animals, it never would've happened.  But allowing her to start out at her level of comfort, with something familiar, and then gently nudging her with open questions enables her to lead herself on at her own pace.  It's exciting watching this ability to self study develop :-)

And now, it's time for some outdoor play :-)  Hope you're having fun whatever you're doing.  See you later x

Play Houses & Mud Making

It's the end of a very busy first week back from Half Term, so we've had a very chilled out day today.  No formal work, the kids have played and been best mates all day - which has been lovely.  I really love how they spend hours chatting to each other now, and playing together. They still have their arguments of course but they are not at each others throats all the time and, nine times out of ten, they tend to resolve their difficulties between themselves. Great life skills! 

They played outside for so long I thought I would go and see how things were looking in their play house.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find it was not only decorated with flowers on the outside (cute :-) ) -

but that it was actually tidy on the inside too!! A miracle :-)

I am glad they are loving and taking care of this space we created for them.    We bought the play house when they were tiny. It had an upstairs as well then, which we have since removed as they got too big for it.  The ladder now goes up in to the apple tree and the platform has been made in to wheeled boards on casters that they slide around on, like body skate boards.  Waste not want not ;-)    We then bought a cheap off-cut of carpet for £10 and painted the inside and out with wood preservative paint last summer.  I love the 'beach house' look and they love having a new, more grown up club house.  They even have a little radio out there. It's so cute :-)

Thanks to this, it also means they spent over 4 hours just outside today - so I was able to crack on with lots of admin jobs while keeping half an eye out the window to make sure they were ok.  Of course they were fine, working co-operatively to dig a big hole they filled with water. They then used to clay they had dug out to make these - 

coasters and cups, apparently :-)   They absolutely having a 'rough area' in the garden they can dig, build and get messy and creative in.  It's a bit of an eye sore but it's their favourite bit of the garden :-)

What do your kids like to play in the garden? x

Today was the day of our Geography Club :-)  We spent the morning gathering our resources together and making Polish apple pancakes -

We had so much I couldn't fit it all in the picture!  

I'm too shattered to write any more just now, but it was a great afternoon :-)

Hello my lovelies :-)  How is everyone today?

Today has for us been mostly about Make Your Own Adventure stories.  Read this FABULOUS Rubik's Quest book with DS - he absolutely LOVED it! 

We read the whole entire adventure and he was so enthusiastic about answering all the questions and was totally gripped by the story and it's interactive-ness.  I really cannot rate it highly enough.  For a reluctant reader, and some-one who struggles with the formalised concept of 'studying' - this book was a total breath of fresh air.  We bought our set of 4 from The Book People The Book People/ Rubiks Quest Challenge books.  They also have a Geography set (The Book People/ Geography Quest book set) and an Adventure set (The Book People/ Adventure Quest book set), both of which I've ordered this evening (at little more than £1 per book I couldn't resist!).

Apart from this today, the kids have been working on their project books.  I was just about to jump in the shower when DS pipes up "Mu-um can I 'av a project book? I t'ink I am old enough now. (DD) have explained it to me, I know what to do!"  Bless him :-)  For those of you that read my blog, I've mentioned before that I bought some fab project books from Wilko's (Wilko's - A5 Project Books) - essentially they are simple A5 spiral bound books of lined paper, already divided in to sections you can label yourself.  I bought one for DD as I wanted to encourage her to 'self study' rather than rely on me to 'teach' her all the time (this has come more naturally over time, but on first leaving the school system she was very reliant on sitting and being told what to do - all day, every day).  So I bought her a project book and told her she could choose what ever subjects she liked, and use our research books, the library and the computer to research and fill up each section.  There's no time limit. She can do it as, and when, she likes.  I don't 'mark' it (that's not the point of it) but I do have a read through every now and then to see what she's doing.  The idea being that she develops a self-motivated love of learning, and along the way discovers for herself what interests her (and what doesn't :-) ).  It's working great so far.  So this morning DS decided to start one too, his first section being on - 

:-)

DD has already filled 4 sections of hers - Wolves & Dogs, Cooking, Sea Life & Science Experiments to date.  Today she started a general Animals section (as they had the animal encyclopedias out) - but also so she could write about her beloved Meerkats (her favourite animal - she genuinely adores them and cannot stand those Compare the Meerkat adverts! She likes actual Meerkats lol). 

In the afternoon we went to DD's Creative Writing class.  Such a lovely group of kids and a truly wonderful tutor. I'll be really sad when the course ends. And DS sat beautifully for the whole hour playing with his Warhammer figures. It's so good for him to be able to sit in that environment, just be around the learning and not forced to take part, he can just sit and do his own thing and that's fine.  Wonderful. 

I'm so grateful for these opportunities.  I'm not about comparisons, or school-bashing, I'm really not.  But I can't help but sing the praises of wonderful days like this.  I'm so in love with my kids.  I'm so enjoying sharing their precious childhood with them. This week I've read lots of dear friends posts wishing half term didn't have to end, that their kids didn't have to go back to school, the tears and tantrums and sleepless nights over it.  I'm not criticizing, I truly am not. That was me, I was living that life and writing those posts, for what felt like sooooooo long, and I'm glad I'm not now. That's all I'm saying. I'm glad I'm not now. Peace out y'all xxxxxx

First day 'back to school' today - ha ha, well, you know what I mean ;-)

We started the day making pancakes which we head with fresh fruit (and whatever else we could find in the cupboards!).  Lemon & sugar for DD, a mountain of Nutella for DS! 

We all cleared and washed up together and the kids had a quick blitz of their rooms, put their washing away and whizzed the hoover round their own rooms (yes, they do chores! On a good day! I'm in to that :-) )

Then we met at the table where I did reading with DS while DD cracked on with some worksheets on Homophones, Compound Words and Complex Sentence Structure.  As this took her some time to work through, DS and I carried on with his "homework" from Beavers (as he has several badges he is working towards simultaneously).  One of the tasks was to make a list of energy saving things he does around the home, for his Global Awareness badge.  He really thought about this and came up with some great answers in his list.  He found writing really hard today and it definitely made him very 'flighty' and 'ticky', so I'm proud as anything with what he achieved :-)

Sorry it's not a very clear picture!  

He's written 1. Turning off lights   2. Don't leave taps on   3. Put 2 layers on instead of the heating   4.  Recycling boxes & paper

Notice his numbers are all inverted.  Sometimes he picks himself up on this and self corrects, sometimes not. Today he was struggling with getting anything written down so best not to pick him up on it as it didn't 'need' correcting in this instance, it would just have caused a melt down when it really wasn't necessary.

So, then we decided we would all do some research on Poland - our country of the month for our Geography Club.  The kids decided they would like to set up workbooks for it and DS decided he would look up some information on Polish Castles, which he decided to print and stick in his book.  DD was interested in the flag/ national symbols and did a lovely picture or Warclow.  We are looking forward to sharing what we've learnt at our group later this week. 

DD also decided to write up a couple of science experiments she'd done over half term, in her Project Book while DS played with his magnets :-)

What's everyone else been up to today? x

Today has been mostly about washing, tidying, cleaning pets out and getting the house straight for a return to 'normality' tomorrow and.....

Home made carrot & coriander soup for lunch -

Lots of work on her Arts Award  ( Arts Award website ) presentation book by DD (for her Discover level Arts Award that she has been working towards) -

And for DS, working on his own gorgeous little project - he has spent the day making a Dream Book as apparently he had an amazing dream last night and wants to write it all down in to a story.  Can't wait :-)

How's every-one else rounded off their half term week? xx

So how's every-ones Half Term been?

I can't believe it's almost over already! We've had some highs and lows this week.  A beautiful day spent with family down the coast, rock climbing and abseiling, swimming and water slides, fun at a Home Ed social group with crafts and lots of play, our first Indian meal out together as a family (epic achievement given the huge food/ smell/ sensory issues of both DS and DD) - versus cross words, meltdowns and frayed tempers on a number of other day occasions too!  We are only human after all :-)

While DH has taken DD & DS out to the park (with their roller skates and skateboard) I have sat and written a list of all the things we have 'achieved' this week - which not only includes all the above but a number of tedious and extremely time consuming jobs around the home - including mountains of necessary paper work that have taken literally hours upon hours to wade through, installing some new guttering & a down pipe, juggling a myriad medical appointments and managing to secure a referral for DD to see a specialist we've been fighting for a long time.  We've also achieved some happy goals for the kids - DD got to spend the day at her best friend's house, DS got to make a huge bonfire with DH, DD finally got to roller skate along the sea front and DS conquered his fear of the big, yellow waterslide :-)  So, all put in perspective we have achieved a heck of a lot in one short (not yet over) week - so a few family arguments and a case of tonsillitis is all to be expected I guess :-)

One of my very favourite moments of the week was seeing some friends at rock climbing and having our lunch together.  Our friends went off to the cafe to get theirs and came back and sat at another table, near ours but not with us.  The mum came over to collect their coats and DS said "why are you not sitting with us?"  The Mum (love her :-) ) calmly explained she thought that DS may prefer some space and not have people eating their things around him but that if he would like them to sit with him, they would be delighted to do so.   DS said he would like this, so they moved over and joined us and we had a really fun time.  Later on, on the way home, I said to DS what a nice thing that was he did.  He said "I weren't bovvered at all. I didn' want them-a sit wiv' us but I thought every-one else would like it and I tole myself sometimes I just gotta get on wiv' it!"  :-) :-) :-)  Gotta love the honesty there :-)  No filter lol xx

So we're on half term now, which means taking a break from 'work' as such.  DD and I have been working on the garden, or should I say clearing part of it today.  She did a great job of weeding and is learning the names of some of the plants in the garden and to recognise which are plants, which are weeds :-)  

We did some cutting back, while DS swept the patio and washed the bird bath out.  DD & I weeded one of the raised patio beds together (which we plan to build a Fairy Garden in) and potted up a couple of polyanthus to bring a bit of colour to the fence.

Then DS felt in a Lego kind of mood, and built this awesome two-tier construction which he photographed himself  :-)  

And I've also enjoyed some extra help around the kitchen.  DD is a very fussy eater, but this week I had her sit down with all the recipe books and told her she must choose at least 2 meals she would eat using fresh ingredients.  One of the things she chose was a tomato based soup with Quorn and beans and pasta.  So she helped me make that, which we had with warmed pitta bread to dip in.  

And DS provided dessert for us - 

Candy melt lollies, melon and squirty cream!! (Yuk! But the melon was good :-)  )

What's everyone else up to this half term week? xx

Happy Valentines Day Every-one :-)

DD & DS woke me at about 6.45am this morning, super excited about the little treat I had left in each of their rooms! (Note to self, don't leave surprise in their rooms in future!) Lets just say I was less than gracious about it, being Sunday morning. To which DD gave me a hug and said "Sorry we woke you up Mummy, we just all loved you at once!"  Awww :-)  How can you be mad at that? xx

Fabulous, exhausting day in the fresh air at the stables.

DD & DS were so excited for today, and I was so proud they got to ride out on their own (only their second time).

Thankfully the weather held, we even got the odd burst of sun and DD & DS managed to walk with the rest of the group and then to trot (with assistance) with me just watching from the sidelines. Fantastic achievement! 

Their teacher is fantastic, has such a great way with children and a very calm, authoritative influence.  He sets homework for them each month, which they are not obliged to do, but he takes a genuine interest in what they do and takes the time to read and look at it all.  DD spent a long time researching and writing up the life cycle of the bot fly this month, and DS had gone back through his questionnaire from last month and completed the questions he missed. As a result, they were each awarded a rosette, which I think was definitely their personal highlight :-) 

Today began with Nerf gun target shooting! As you do lol :-)

Then it was Table Time for some work on English today. DD was tired to begin with but then really found her groove and powered through lots of work on word definitions, meanings and origins,  compound words and presentation preparation.   DS worked on sentence structure, remembering his capitals and full stops, and word grouping.   

We also spent time reading - so pleased with DS's progress.  DD continues to free read and is enjoying working her way through the Enid Blyton St Claires books at the moment.

Our other project for the day was our home work for horse riding - to research the life cycle of the bot fly, and it's effect on horses.  This was a bit much for DS, but DD enjoyed researching it and writing it up ready for tomorrow. DS is just looking forward to being around the horses again! 

In the afternoon we had DD's Creative Writing class with a small Home Ed group. It's so nice being able to sit in on the lessons and see and hear what she is learning. It's lovely hearing them share their thoughts and poems together, in a positive, supportive environment. It's their third week now (of a 12 week course) and you can really see their confidence growing.  

And, of course, this evening was pancakes!!  But I'm afraid we were too busy eating them to take pictures! 

What did you have on yours? x 

Yesterday was one of our 'table days' - so when everyone was ready, we met at the dining room table.  I was absolutely thrilled that DS sat down with a notebook and decided to write a poem first, because of it being such a windy day outside.  He felt he wanted to try and capture the feel of it in a poem. It was beautiful. (Some-one's obviously was inspired from listening in at his sister's Creative Writing course last week :-) )

We then cracked on with some reading and updating our Reading Diaries, then some 1-2-1 maths each. Both DD & DS had Leap Ahead maths books to finish - they had both gone as far as they could and hit some tricky fractions, decimals and tables.  We took it in turns to have 1-2-1 time to help them work through the areas they were finding difficult and I'm delighted to say they both finished their books today and, more importantly, understood what they had done :-)

DS then felt in an experimenting kind of mood, so he took to the kitchen with some vinegar, baking soda and (his own addition) peppermint oil! The result?  The sweetest smelling baking soda volcano ever :-)

The kids then decided to have an hour outside before lunch.  They had great fun digging big holes and building assault courses for each other!

In the afternoon we decided to carry on in the experimenting vein and got out the Dyson Challenge STEM cards (these are fab & are available FREE from James Dyson Foundation).  DS picked a couple of simple ones, as it was late in the day, so we started with making a tornado -

I couldn't get a great picture I'm afraid, but the effect was instant, and very nice and visual.  

Basically, you need a clear plastic bottle, fill it 3/4's full with water, add a few drops of washing up liquid and a few pinches of glitter.  Screw the lid tightly back on, swirl the bottle, hold still and watch the tornado take place :-)  DS absolutely loved doing this!  Make sure you don't over-fill the bottle, or when you shake/ swirl it will explode! :-) 

As for the science bit, you have created a centripetal force - this is an inward force that directs the water to the centre of it's path (in this case circular, created by the swirling motion).  The soap allows the glitter to be suspended in the water, making the effect more visual. 


The second experiment we did, from the same Dyson STEM challenge cards, was called "Scared Pepper" (or Scaredy Pepper, as we liked to call it!)  Even simpler than the tornado - we needed a bowl of water, and some pepper! 

After you've filled your bowl, and let the water settle, grind some pepper on the surface.  Then, gently, dip one finger in the centre of the water - watch what happens (the pepper will jump back from their finger).  Next, rub a tiny amount of washing up liquid on your finger, then dip it back in (the pepper will jump right back to the edges of the bowl).  This is a great, very instant and fun experiment to show and teach children about water tensions (the soap lowers the water tension).  When you (or your child) dip your finger in the water, the water tries to spread out - and as the surface of the water levels out, the pepper is carried to the edges. 


Have a try. Let me know how you get on :-)

Sorry I've not written much this week.  Been another busy week (to think one of the things we worried about before taking the plunge to Home Educate was socialisation lol).  

This week I've been working on setting up a Geography Club, sorting the venue, agreeing dates & costs, and finding other interested parties to join us. We're chosen (by popular vote) our country for this month - Poland.  So we've been learning a bit about the history of Poland, traditional food and dress and a little bit of the language. DD has sewn their flag in felt (thankfully a very simple two colour flag!) So we're all quite excited about it.

Besides this, the kids have been working on all sorts - along with our usual maths, English and reading, we've done a smattering of science experiments, DS has written his entry for the Radio Two 500 word writing competition and DD has written her Owl poem (home work from her Creative Writing course). 

DD was very excited to get not one but two letters in the post - one from her penfriend (a fellow Home Edder the same age) which also contained a pink lolly! And one from her old Brown Owl, containing her Hostess Badge that she earned before Christmas :-) 

We've been out on our bikes and the kids have been rock climbing. We've also made pancakes at Beavers and learnt how to put some-one's arm in a sling at Badgers (St John Ambulance). 

And, as a preamble to a project on the Ancient Greeks we're going to do this year, DD has been doing this sticker book - 

I honestly can't recommend it highly enough.  I thought at 8 she was maybe a bit past the sticker-book age, but apparently not! She has absolutely loved doing it.  And it really is a great little introduction to the subject. I think it's really going to help, when we study it more in depth later this year.

Love this Treasure Map that DS had made DD this morning :-)  

She found it in her room, with the first of 4 cards she had to find hidden around the house.  Love it! :-)

Do your kids do things like this? x

So, this morning I am mostly wishing I was as artistic as my DD! She's out at her guitar lesson at the moment with DS, DH has taken them.  Meanwhile, I find this slightly crumpled epistle on the floor :-

I am constantly amazed by the frequency at which she 'churns' these things out - we find them all over her room (and the rest of the house!) - piles of them under her bed, discarded a quarter, half or three quarters of the way through because they were not perfect.  

Amazing and incredible talent, which is all the more special because of the challenges she experiences in understanding the world, social interaction and appropriate behaviour and boundaries.  But drawing is definitely her thing.  

I hear and read alot about non-neuro typical children and their problems in understanding the world at large.  More and more I am coming to understand that she does understand the world at large, she just speaks a different language.  This is hers  :-)

So, today we've done alot of reading (of course! Thanks to the delivery of lots of lovely new books yesterday :-) ), English work books (Leap Ahead & Carol Vorderman Top of the Class) and Maths work books (same).

We roller skated to the shops to get something for lunch, then DD had her Creative Writing class.  While she did this, DS did this wonderfully detailed depiction of how he paints his Warhammer figures :-)  I love it! He spent nearly half an hour on this :-)

I love how hard he concentrated on the task he set himself, how neat and precise his pictures are and how neat his handwriting is.  Ok the spelling may still be a long way off but we started September last year working on CVC words!  He has come soooooo far :-)

We stopped off at the park on the way home for a few games of table tennis, then when we got home the kids decided they were going to make badges together, with DD's badge making kit.

After that it was dinner and then an early night, as the lure of all the new books yesterday meant for very tired kids today :-)

What's everyone else been up to? xx

I also think we are going to start working on this in the next week or two:-

BBC Radio 2 - 500 Words Story Competition

Closing date is Thursday 25th February 2016 (7pm)

Anyone else fancy giving it a go?  There's an adult category too...... ;-)

Came across this  Free Online 10 Week Poetry Course for Kids this evening. I've recently signed DD up for a 12 week Creative Writing course with a professional tutor but I'll definitely be banking this for the future - looks great :-) 

OMG!  MUCH excitement in the house!  The deliveries from The Book People AND Usbourne Books have all arrived at once!  It's like Christmas (only more educational lol ;-) ) :-)

Including this fabulous Key Stage 2 set of 10 workbooks that was only £8.00!! (£9.99 normally but they were having a Flash Sale). Even at £9.99 this was an incredible bargain for 10 curriculum supportive workbooks.   Find it here at The Book People

DD can't wait to get started - she adores things that are visually appealing. But at the moment I can't tear her away from reading her beloved Rainbow Fairies :-) xx

Today we are very excited to report we have growth on our vegetable tops! We have been 'growing' vegetable tops as a very simple, very quick and visual, fun science project.  Have you ever done this? 

All you need are the cut off tops of a few parsnips and carrots (one or the other, or both, it doesn't matter) and a saucer of water.  Place the 'tops' in the saucer and place on a window sill.  Make sure you top the water up regularly as they can be thirsty.  

Over a very short amount of time (only about 3-4 days) you will notice new green shoots appear out of the tops.  Over time (ours have been growing about a week now) you will see quite a lot of new growth.  We are going to watch ours a while longer and see how they grow.

You could discuss with the children why they think this happens? They key is obviously that parsnips and carrots are both root vegetables, so the 'tops' are still part of the plants root system and able therefore to produce further growth.  

You can see we are also growing celery.  Again this has just been done from the discarded leftovers of a crown of celery. We just put the base in water (to begin with we put it in a glass jar with an inch or so of water at the bottom.  We think this probably sped up the process as it was like being in it's own little green house :-)  We are hoping it will grow big enough for us to eat!  In the meantime, it is interesting watching new roots growing from it and seeing how much it has grown. 

The is a great fun little experiment as it yields results really quickly (unlike actually growing the carrots in the first place - although we have done that as well! :-) ) and it ties in quite nicely with our 'Farming' theme last month, as a kind of 'Kitchen Garden' experiment. 

Give it a go.  We'd love to see other people's results :-)