Science & Growing Potatoes

So, how's everyone enjoying the start of Spring? 

We've been back in to our routine today :-) 'Table Time' this morning - including reading, English comprehension, spellings (for DS) and some new science workbooks I bought at our local pound shop! 

I bought 2 copies of the age 7 book, as although DD is 8 1/2 and can work at a much higher level, I thought it might be fun for the kids to do something together as we tend to work separately in the same space.  It was :-)  They really enjoyed working on the same thing together and DD enjoyed reading the questions to DS and it spurred him on to want to take turns of reading the questions too! So we got some inadvertent reading practice in too :-) 

We also planted out our potatoes that we have been chitting.....

If you don't already know about this scheme,  see  Grow Your Own Potatoes.  Registration has closed for this year, but bear it in mind for 2017 :-)  

We are a little late in starting, but we got them planted out today and DD noted the weather on our progress chart - so let the growing begin!   DD is on Team Rocket and DS is Team Rudolph (these are the varieties of seed potatoes we were sent). 

I'll let you know how we get on :-) 

Letting go a bit

Hi!

Sorry I've not been around for a little while.  Computer issues, car issues, life issues!  

How is every one? :-)

I've been trying really hard today to get the kids to crack on with some 'Table Work', as we are severely out of routine at the moment, but it's just not happening!  DD has sat and drawn animals and painted water colours and DS has played both acoustic & rock guitar and just generally played.  

I did get to the point of deep frustration but I removed myself to the kitchen, made a cup of tea (the British cure-all) and took some deep breaths!  And, do you know what, I think it's kinda ok now :-)

Sure, I wanted us to do Maths & English today.  I wanted DS especially to do reading (no worries there with DD!!) and I wanted to feel like we had 'achieved something'.   But then I realised, we have.   The kids are not fighting, we've had a lovely breakfast together of home made pancakes and fresh fruit while we've chatted and hung out, we're all washed, dressed & the right way up :-)  and the kids have found their inner peace.  They haven't got up, hung around my shirt tails making eyes at me and be-moaning "I'm bored".  In fact, I honestly cannot remember the last time I heard either of them use that phrase.  Because they are not bored, ever!  That's a huge claim to make and a massive achievement.  They have learnt how to fill their time, with pursuits they enjoy, rather than waiting to be 'told' and 'directed' all the time.  How many of us as adults can even claim that?  I'm not saying it's all sunshine and rainbows, and of course there are times they need structured routine, and other times they need a bit of nudging and guidance to come up with ideas of what they want to do.  But other times it is entirely self led.

They both worked super hard last week collating all their stuff for their Arts Award - all their projects, evidence and research and presenting it all in a large A3 book each.  At the end of the week they did a special presentation to a family friend on all they have learned and I was so proud of their confidence, competence and enthusiasm.   Between them they have done:- 


For DD - Marble painting, pottery painting, still life drawing event at a museum, theatre production, 2 pantomimes, a variety of Christmas art activities, textiles (making her own shoes, learning to knit & sewing finger puppets), an art from literature activity, water colour paintings, a creative writing course on poetry and an animation studio activity! And researched and learnt about Picasso and Susan Williams-Ellis and a smattering of Alphonse Mucha & Edgar Artis (who does the drawings of women that he completes with flowers or other natural objects).

And DS has done Christmas mice, making his own play dough to build with, review of a theatre production, papier mache project, attending the Primary Proms, making instruments & taking guitar lessons as a result, pottery painting, Warhammer figures, film review as part of the Into Film festival, Imagination Station at South Bank as part of the London Design Festival, an interactive Christmas play he went to, a bird house he built, newspaper printing & making, Hex Bug & remote control car drawing!! And for his research he has done poet James Carter.

Phew!  A massive, massive achievement for both of them.

So, we were going to plant out the potatoes we've chitted today. So it'll probably rain the rest of the week and we'll have to wait until next week, or beyond.  So, we're behind on the project chart that says we should've planted them on 8th March.  You know what, I'll live with that.

Instead I'm going to make a packed lunch & take them out to the park. Because, after all, isn't that why we chose this Alternative Life in the first place?

Have a happy day xxxxxx

Arts Award & Hail Storms

Feeling absolutely shattered today. DH has unexpectedly just arrived home early and taken both the kids to Beavers, on his bike, in the rain - Top Husband Marks :-)  

So I thought I would sit down and do a little blog update and I'm just thinking about what we've done today and why I'm so shattered.  Apart from the fact I was awake half the night (you know how it is!).  

So far today I've changed all the beds, done 4 loads of washing, changed all the cushion covers in the lounge, ensured all the pets got done, done a weekly grocery shop (without the car!), unpacked it all and put it away and STILL we found time for lots of lovely work on the kids Arts Award presentation books:-

Above is DS's effort, he did 4 pages in all! I am sooooo pleased and proud of this. He did the write ups himself, which is MASSIVE for him as he is still huuuuugely reluctant to write anything he feels he 'has' to. He is still so afraid of being judged, it not being 'good enough' or 'right' but his confidence with this is growing and I love the fact that by the second one he had gained confidence and branched out and used different colours for each word.  Not only writing, but having fun with it. Hurray! :-)

As DD was off reading one of our new Choose Your Own adventure books - the Geography Range (love, love, love these books! They are so fun the kids don't even realise they are learning :-) ) - I had some more 1-2-1 time with DS.  He'd had enough of writing, so we did some reading together.  Getting DS to read aloud is alot like wrestling a greased pig (I imagine!) :-) :-)  It is SO hard to get him to stay focused. His mind is SO BUSY, whirring at a hundred miles an hour and making connections left, right, forwards, backwards, sideways, that it is really, really difficult to get him to stay on track.  It is a question of continuously drawing him back to the words on the page, away from the minute detail of the pictures and every other tangent he then goes off on.  It takes an average of 45 minutes to read with DS (the amount of reading that would be a simple 5 minute reading task for a neuro typical child of his age).  He has the ability to read, it's a case of trying to pause the washing machine cycle in his brain to allow the words through.  It's a real labour of love, but he is coming on leaps and bounds and his confidence with it :-)

This was then enough Table Time so I suggested he had some Golden Time (play time basically) while I worked 1-2-1 with his sister, so she could assemble some of her Arts Award file - 

She did about 7 pages in all, so we are on target to have them ready before the Easter holidays for assessment :-)  

It was then time for lunch, and afterwards I spent some time playing Lego towers and Nerf guns with DS, as DD wanted some time on her own.  (I think she is creating something for Mothers Day, bless her little heart).

The kids then played and hung out together while I SAT DOWN!! Honestly, I don't know how I managed to fit that in today lol :-)   And then they went out to play in the crazy hail storm!

It's great being a kid, isn't it?  What could be more exciting and fun than tiny bits of ice falling from the sky? :-)

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