Well hurrah for the rain I say!! Although sorry for anyone who is on the school run at this time!
Apart from the banging pre-thunder headache, and huge atmosphere pressure mood swings from DD, I am relieved the see the rain as it usually means a good night's sleep for the kids, and it means I don't have to go out and water all the pots in the garden!
Today we have had a very lazy day, after a big trip out yesterday and huge delays and cancellations on the trains (this endless and mysterious 'staff shortage due to sickness' that only seems to plague Southern Rail.......) which meant an hour and a half's journey actually took 4 hours, for 4 adults with 10 kids in tow and a whole mixed bag of special needs in to the mix!! What a 'treat'! But the kids were all so good, and the parents were all so lovely, it made a painful experience actually pretty enjoyable :-) But we're tired today, so we're chillaxing :-)
I've relaxed the rule of 'no TV' during the day. (I normally don't allow TV until after 'school' time - unless we are specifically watching something relating to a topic we are doing or something like that). But today we have proper vegged out and eaten popcorn and biscuits (the kids I mean, I'm being good ;-) ).
We've also read this great little book together -
Apart from a (hugely immature) chuckle to myself that it is a 'lift the flap' book on making babies (chortle, chortle!) it was a GREAT book! The kids really enjoyed it. There was enough factual information without being too much at their age. It answered alot of questions they had and they really enjoyed seeing the 'actual size' pictures :-)
We also did a little impromptu learning about cotton and the cotton plant, the farming of cotton and what can be made from cotton :-)
DD had, by this time, stomped off upstairs in another tearful outburst. My fault entirely for suggesting she might be feeling tired! :-)
DS then decided he would build another domino run, and has made his own weighted catapult that fires tiny Lego bricks due to a chain reaction that means a truck hits the dominos, as they fall they launch a spoon that knocks a cup down which in turn (by the connecting spring) flips up another spoon that fires the Lego! It worked! He is now 'unsellotaping' the table lol :-)
We don't have bedtimes any more (see my earlier post about how that works...) but tonight I'm thinking dinner, bath, bed is definitely on the cards. And that's just for me ;-)
xxxxx
Well, that's half term over. Doesn't it fly by? Does anyone else 'stop' for school holidays still?
We do, as DH works in Education, so we still follow the pattern of term time and school holidays for the most part. We had a lovely week, doing all things Half Term - gardening, parks and playgrounds, meeting up with friends, cinema and trips to town etc. The usual rules of computer time/ tv time get relaxed during the holidays but apart from that not a great deal changes any more, except Dad's home! :-)
And today we are back to our routine. It's been a fairly seamless transition this time - maybe in part due to the fact we've had 2 weeks off, instead of 1, so ds & dd have had more time to process things and adjust to the transition. It also helps that I have chilled out a bit this half term and although it bugs the hell out of me, I have (tried!) not to nag every time there is mess to clear up, their rooms need tidying or they ask to play on Minecraft on my Kindle! It's hard to step back but they need a break too - they are good kids, they work hard and I do have quite set rules during the normal week, so it's good to let them have a break sometimes :-) It has paid dividends too as DS was happy to help DD clean out the rabbit last night, and the tortoise, and the stick insects, and the goldfish! So they are all nice and clean and done, ready for the new 'term'. He also made dinner - one of his famous Stews! Onions, garlic, carrot, potatoes and tomato with a few herbs. He loves it! And it is a sign that he has a Good Break that he is happy and calm and able to participate in things.
And this morning, we have started out with Table Time (although they were given a free choice of Workbooks or drawing to begin with). DS made this lovely picture (he is a very reluctant drawer usually) of his own creation, The Cempot People who live in a trea (tree!) -
I love the detail of their little letter boxes and the lifts both inside and outside the tree :-)
DD worked on her beloved maths workbooks (the Carol Vorderman ones this morning) and updated her reading diary, before moving on to drawing -
DS then decided he would like me to read him one of the Geography Quest books -
We all LOVE these, I go on about them ALOT ! :-) But they are such a fun way to learn, very engaging and easy accessible even if you have no prior knowledge of the subject matter. This morning we have learnt about Terrace Farming, Meteorologists, Altitude, Cairns, Avalanches, Glaciers, Glaciologists, Fold Mountains, Moraine, Ribbon Lakes, Snow lines and Plateaus amoungst other things!
Now DS is building domino runs, DD is drawing (of course), I am happy & calm and we are off this afternoon on a fab Home Ed trip with a big group of friends :-)
Not a bad start to the summer term :-) :-) :-)
Well, I can honestly say we are having the most peaceful half term/ school holiday we have ever had! :-)
Unfortunately, due to DH working in education, we are still bound to the school holidays to a certain extent so they are still a time of enormous transitioning for my two little lovelies who struggle so much with any change of routine. However, having taken them away, on my own, last week - to a holiday park we have been to before, I think we may have got all the transitioning out of the way and just flowed nicely into the school holiday and some time at home with Dad having a wealth of happy experiences last week to reflect on.
Today we have had one of the most successful trips in to town we have ever had. We stopped off en route to pick up the kids Arts Award portfolios and their certificates to show they have both passed their Discover level Arts Award. DS was a bit confused and upset because he thought the Arts Award was going to be an award (like a trophy) - not just a certificate! Bless :-) But he was able to calm and accept it without a full on meltdown which was HUGE :-)
We carried on into town and had a lovely wander round the charity shops. We got lots of great books, so DD is happy! She does love her books :-) The kids also spent their pocket money on some great finds. DD bought this Sand Art set for just 50p -
DS was absolutely thrilled to find this (almost complete) domino kit - including motorised truck that dispenses the dominoes - all for £1.95! And with it he made this........ (with a little help from DH!)
Awesome fun! I just LOVE charity shops - it teaches the kids so much. The value of money, to support charities and their work, waste not want not, reuse and recycle :-)
We started pocket money over 2 years ago now. It started off at 50p a week, then up to £1. Now they get £5 per month, at the start of the month, and it is their job to make it last. Their pocket money is not chore related - personally I don't believe in that. I always say to them, I don't get paid to do your laundry, you don't get paid to help with it! :-) My kids know how to put a load of washing on, hang it to dry or work the tumble dryer (included checking and clearing out the filter before use), how to work the vacuum cleaner, load the dishwasher and take care of all their pets. They also lay the table when asked and tidy their own rooms (when nagged lol!) My ethos is - You help with chores because they need to be done, that's life. Each to their own, but that's how it is in my house :-) Pocket money is just given freely, to help them learn and understand the value of money, budgeting and money management. Today it was tough for them as there was lots they wanted to buy but it is also my birthday this month, and Fathers Day and yes, they are expected to buy things out of their own money - even if it is only 20p of their own money - just because, again, I believe it is an important lesson in life - if everything is only ever incoming then how will they learn and appreciate what is given?
Anyway, I digress - although I'd love to hear what others do in terms of pocket money, chores and rewards etc :-)
On another note, I found this the other day, in DD's room, in one of her many piles of discarded paper........
I asked her what it was. "Oh I was making a map" she said "I copied it from one of my encyclopedias. But I don't need it, I made another one as that's not quite right!"
I think one of the most common concerns as a Home Educating parent is "Am I doing enough? Am I teaching them enough? Are they learning enough?" And this is a great example of the answer. Yes! If you give kids the space, they will learn. They don't need to be in a classroom, or in a formal educational setting. They are naturally inquisitive, give them the time and space to explore this side of themselves and they will learn. I promise ;-)
So, last week me, DD & DS went on our jollibobs :-) (Aka holidays!) We left poor DH at home, as he is still tied to term times and school holidays, being in the teaching profession :-( And headed off, the Fab Three (DS calls us The Three Musketeers, DD calls us the three Muske-Cheers! Because, she says, there are no tears now we are happy Home Edders!) :-)
Anyway, I was very proud of myself (CEO of my Zoo's on our first Team Building Field Trip lol!). The car decided to die a death before we went, so we had to go by public transport - which added another 'fun' dimension with the current strikes/ staff shortages!! So a 2 hour journey to a holiday park ended up taking 4 1/2 hours each way but we took in all in our stride and had a fab 5 day week just hanging out, playing, making the most of the facilities (especially as we had them almost totally to ourselves due to it being off-peak season!). I was so proud of the kids - they made friends, behaved appropriately with a variety of ages and had great fun. Highlights included DD winning a skate board for being picked to go up on stage and won a sing off!! My shy little DD who HATED school performances!! Wow! And DS won another game, where he won a bottle of wine for Mummy (yay!) and a Slush Puppy for himself!
Now we're back home, have successfully ploughed through the mountain of washing we brought home with us. We've caught up with family and friends and today had a nice, peaceful At Home day. With a bit of coaxing, the kids spent an hour and a half weeding their raised vegetable beds - their crops are coming along nicely. DD has planted carrots and sugar snap peas - she was fascinated today looking at the tendrils on the pea plants and how they have coiled and clung to the canes she planted them up against :-) While DS had planted sprouts, broccoli, carrots, onions and radishes in his bed. I planted swiss chard and strawberry runners. All are doing well. So much so, we had swiss chard and radish salad with our dinner tonight - and the kids ATE it!!!
After all that weeding we took a break for drinks, biccies and lots of doing handstands (DD) and magic tricks (DS)! Then the kids tidied their shed/ playhouse :-)
They were so pleased with their efforts, they decided to decorate the outside too, with flowers from the garden (that they asked permission to pick - as Mummy gets a bit precious about her flowers lol) :-)
So pretty, isn't it?
An exciting find, in the shed when they were tidying, was this tiny abandoned wasps nest -
It had long been abandoned so was totally safe to remove by hand and absolutely fascinating to be able to look at and hold. The workmanship is just amazing.
And DD's amazing find was this..................................!
We have no idea what it is, or how it got in her vegetable bed!! It looks like a tooth, or teeth. We need to do some investigating for sure!!
And after (extremely thoroughly!) washing our hands, DD made some cakes, for a perfect tea party afternoon :-)
So, we finished our Roman themed matchbox and posted it off to our partner for this month :-) So super proud of the kids efforts and creativity in this - this is all their own work & ideas. We utilized some fab resources from the wonderful www.twinkl.co.uk but the rest is all their own ideas and all their own work :-)
Apart from that we had a nice chilled end to the week. Lots of reading, drawing and painting from DD - her bedroom looks like a junior art gallery! I will try and sneak some snaps sometime :-)
DS found an online tutorial on how to draw Cut The Rope characters. It really motivated him to have a go - he followed the instructions beautifully and was so excited to learn there could be rules and a 'science' behind drawing - in this tutorial it was drawing your basic shape first then marking your points of features before drawing them. I think he should be justifiably proud of the results -
I also decided to get out my old jewellery making stuff............
and sat and taught DD how to work the various jewellery findings to make clip on earrings and a necklace. Well, to say she LOVED it would be a complete understatement!! And she made these little beauties -
In the end she made herself two pairs of earrings and a necklace and we had the most wonderful Mum & daughter bonding time :-)
The weekend was a more difficult time of meltdowns for DS - starting on Friday night at a social club he goes to with his sister, there was a packet of sweets given out as a prize during one of the team games. This is something DS finds MONUMENTALLY difficult - he, quite literally, cannot bear it if he does not win these things. He takes it very much as a personal failure and a judgement upon himself. So that was an emotional evening to manage.
Then on Saturday, we had a largely peaceful and successful day, until he asked if we were having home made pizzas for dinner (this has kind of, unofficially, become a Saturday night tradition in our house recently - and I hadn't factored in how much he loved it). I hadn't bought the ingredients this week, so (foolishly) answered "not tonight, I'm making a curry". Oh my Lord! The poor thing, just dissolved in to floods of tears and gasping breathes for many minutes. I felt terrible, as I normally would've totally got that and prepped him well in advance of a change of such magnitude. Long story short, we ended up treating ourselves to take away pizza instead, which was almost as good!
And today we had ALOT of meltdowns. Firstly because we went to town after their gym rehearsals, and there was a new stall selling ice creams, donuts and slushies. The choice was unbearable, and to make matters worse the seller was not sympathetic to this (even though we were the only customers and there was no queue!). Full, rocking melt down occurred and we retired to as private a place as possible (in an open Mall!!) - which ended up being in a toy bus ride on!! During this, we managed to get calm enough to choose a slush but then he realised he could've had a milkshake! And he hadn't known that! But now he did..... and he tried the slushie but it felt too cold, so there were many more tears. Hand in hand we talked about how sometimes the feelings get so big, and then the thing we wanted doesn't feel or taste good any more, even though we wanted it, but now kind of don't want it. It was a Big Chat and so we found a bench to sit down and cuddle away all those huge feelings. I cradled DS on my knee and we sat and gently rocked for a while. He found the words to tell me that all the Bad Things were Crowding In on him, and kept saying he was sorry. So I rocked and I soothed, and he was super brave, and there was nothing to be sorry for, and after a good while he felt he might have some slush and be able to walk with me to the shop I needed to go to. DD kindly offered him a donut (as this is what she had chosen) - he took one, bit it and half promptly fell on the ground! There was no screaming (because he was so tired by now) but lots of silent tears. DD immediately offered him some of her donut, which I thought was super sweet of her. But he didn't want it, because that wasn't right either.
Poor darling :-(
We got to the shop, got what we needed and then asked the kids whether they wanted to go home or the park. Both chose park, not the wisest idea it turned out. We had an ok game of frisbee, but then DS went sprinting off to the playground and promptly fell down the slide, banging his face above his eye. Luckily I was right at the foot of the slide as he came off, so I was able to scoop him up as there was lots of crying and "I want to go home"s.
I felt so bad for him, he was being so brave. He said "I want to say this are the worst day ever, but I know it aren't so I'm not sayin' it!" Oh, my heart! We cuddled, and soothed, and chatted the bad things away until he felt ready to go on the swing - but not for long as that all felt Too Much after everything else. The small water feature was on in the toddler area of the park and he decided "that would be a Peaceful thing to do". So we let him have a few minutes there, playing peacefully with the water, so we could leave and come home on a happy note.
I am SO proud of this boy, and this girl, in all that they do and achieve. The great and good, and what seems to be totally insignificant but actually is HUGE. In every victory. They are warriors and they are champions. And because of that, this was not The Worst Day Ever and we had a peaceful bath and bedtime, with no Bad Feelings left over from the day and (hopefully) sweet dreams for my darlings who deserve them :-)
Today we have been immersing ourselves in all things Roman. In preparation for our Matchbox swap this month (Home Ed group that partners families who swap a matchbox full of info/ resources on a set subject every month) DD (8) made this beautiful Wordsearch:-
She made this entirely by herself, with the aid of our reference books (although she chose all the words herself and worded the descriptions in her own way rather than copying definitions). She is 8. I think this is impressive!
DS decided he would join in. Obviously not with the Roman soldier worksheets I wanted him to do (that would've been far too much like compliance lol!). But instead he did make his own Roman Soldier task/game - so I appreciate the effort :-)
Apparently the instructions are - within a time you set yourself, try and fill all the speech bubbles with facts about Roman soldiers or the Roman army :-)
We then took a drive out to meet up with a new HE group we've joined. It was POURING, and I do mean POURING - and of course the meet up was in a park! Thankfully we managed to de-camp in the onsite cafe/restaurant/pub with some board games and hot chocolates while it passed over a bit (not really, it continued to rain AS MUCH AS EVER!) But kids don't mind do they? So us brave and hardy Mums took shelter under a tree and watched while they had a whale of a time, splashing and chasing about :-)
So nice to meet a bunch of people for the first time and watch them just welcome new kids with open arms, no suspiciousness, no defensiveness, no 'you can't play here', no 'this is OUR park/ MY friend/ OUR game'. I'm not saying the world of Home Ed is perfect, but it is welcoming, it is inclusive. Sadly, we found school wasn't. And it isn't because in Home Ed we are all the same - there's a huge mix of families, parenting styles, religion and atheism and reasons for pursuing Home Education. There is a level of respect and acceptance. A massive decrease in competitiveness and one-up-man-ship, but an increase in self worth. I can't help but get on board with that and sing it's praises while I watch my happier (than they were) children thrive xxx
Lovely couple of days :-)
Yesterday I had a routine hospital appointment. Luckily we were seen by a nurse DS knows really well. She is so sweet and kind with him, doesn't rush us out when I'm done if he wants to ask questions or is still looking around. Yesterday she gave him a little ball of gauze to gauze :-) It's the little things - makes a HUGE difference.
Afterwards I decided to take the kids to one of our favourite places for a day out. A lovely farm with cafe and playcentres. It's always been one of our favourite go-to places and we were lucky that a friend shared a voucher she had for discounted entry this week so we decided to make the most of it.
Not gonna lie, one of the MOST FABULOUS things about Home Ed is Not Queuing! We had the place almost to ourselves in the morning - we rode tractors, bounced on trampolines and had the indoor soft play and slides all to ourselves until nearly lunch time :-) We fed the, still hungry, animals :-)
Saw tonnes of gorgeous spring lambs and kids. Couldn't resist getting a picture of this blissed out pair, Mumma & baby - so precious...
And today was another beautiful day. DS harvested a few radishes from his vegetable patch (of, they're still a little small but he's just SO excited to have grown them!!)
And we did some Table Work on Romans - learning all about the baths, strigils and daily life via a busy street scene. We also looked at designing a poster to advertise the Gladiator Games, and played Roman God's pairs (all thanks to wonderful www.twinkl.co.uk - they have such fabulous resources).
Then in the afternoon we had some lovely Home Ed friends over for a play date. Such adorable children. The kids had The Best time, just playing and hanging out together.
Love these simple days. Love being in control of our schedule. Love being able to do what we want when we want. Love being able to be a Yes! Mum - because there IS time, and we CAN do it :-)
I love that my DS says things like "Mum how much do you spend on us for Christmas?" Hmmmm, why? "Because I'm thinking just don't this year. There's nothing we need and you do stuff with us all year."
Priceless xxxxxxxxxxx
