I used www.random.org to determine who got what and the results are...... (ok, it's not really that exciting)...
The Early Years Worksheets book goes to BuffyBaskey (cheers!!! clapping!!! and general audience happiness)
The Basic Skills Book goes to Overflowingcup (cheers!!! clapping!!! and more general audience happiness)
The SuperMaths books go to Adeola (cheers!!! clapping!!! and some more general audience happiness)
Sorry to everyone who didn't get anything but thankyou for reading and taking part. Let's do it again sometime :-D
Friday, 30 April 2010
Monday, 26 April 2010
Learning French before bed...
Actually, it's a really nice little phrase book with French phrases about playing games etc, translated into English with phonetic spelling underneath to help with pronunciation.
And it's got pictures ;)
The Girl's verdict:
It's fun, cool, easy to learn from and it's got quite a few things in it. It's got a few facts in it and some jokes with the answers in French.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Germination Project
The Boy has been germinating beans and peas.
NB The floating pea method is quite tricky. The cork slices have to be thick enough to float, even all the way across with a centrally placed hole so that the pea balances properly. I think you also have to be careful about which way up you place your pea. The roots are supposed to go through the hole but our root has wormed its way over the edge of the cork disc.
As well as the above mentioned two methods, he also tried germinating a bean by hanging it above the water. He used a very long wire tie - the sort they package toys with that make it REALLY difficult to get the toy out of the box. I wrapped the end of the wire round the neck of the jar for him and he needed a little help to push the wire into the side of a pre-soaked runner bean but was able to bend the wire so that the bean hung about 1" above the water. Look what happened :0)
He also had a lot of fun comparing soaked bean/pea seeds with unsoaked ones. He enjoyed peeling them and looking at the differences and similarities of the different seeds. He found where the roots and shoots will stem from and we talked about the seed being the first food for the plant.
The Boy planted some beans in pots to try out the science experiments - and I planted a few different types of seeds to try and grow some food ;0)
Both children pretended to be seeds growing - The Girl used to do this a lot when she was a toddler :0) So cute - they pull big smiley faces for the flowers! This led into a discussion on seed dispersion (ugh! bird poo spreads seeds!). We ate seeds - sunflower ones, planted some seed potatoes and looked at some games online.
And just for fun to go along with the bean theme
Useful Sites:
Kids garden - activities, printables, info, useful for plants & gardening in general
Seed site - lots of info and links to colour diagrams
Salt Experiment
BBC kids gardening - activities and experiments
Seed packet printables
Veg Seed Minibook
Bean plant to label printout
Bean growing cards to print
Good explanation of bean seed growth - not dumbed down
Books we've used to go along with this project;
The Golden Nature Readers - Book One
Enid Blyton's Book of the Year
NB The floating pea method is quite tricky. The cork slices have to be thick enough to float, even all the way across with a centrally placed hole so that the pea balances properly. I think you also have to be careful about which way up you place your pea. The roots are supposed to go through the hole but our root has wormed its way over the edge of the cork disc.
As well as the above mentioned two methods, he also tried germinating a bean by hanging it above the water. He used a very long wire tie - the sort they package toys with that make it REALLY difficult to get the toy out of the box. I wrapped the end of the wire round the neck of the jar for him and he needed a little help to push the wire into the side of a pre-soaked runner bean but was able to bend the wire so that the bean hung about 1" above the water. Look what happened :0)
He also had a lot of fun comparing soaked bean/pea seeds with unsoaked ones. He enjoyed peeling them and looking at the differences and similarities of the different seeds. He found where the roots and shoots will stem from and we talked about the seed being the first food for the plant.
I also got some ideas and activities from Seeds.
Both children pretended to be seeds growing - The Girl used to do this a lot when she was a toddler :0) So cute - they pull big smiley faces for the flowers! This led into a discussion on seed dispersion (ugh! bird poo spreads seeds!). We ate seeds - sunflower ones, planted some seed potatoes and looked at some games online.
And just for fun to go along with the bean theme
Useful Sites:
Kids garden - activities, printables, info, useful for plants & gardening in general
Seed site - lots of info and links to colour diagrams
Salt Experiment
BBC kids gardening - activities and experiments
Seed packet printables
Veg Seed Minibook
Bean plant to label printout
Bean growing cards to print
Good explanation of bean seed growth - not dumbed down
Books we've used to go along with this project;
The Golden Nature Readers - Book One
Enid Blyton's Book of the Year
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Saturday, 17 April 2010
If Not School Curriculum Clearout
curriculum v I'm taking part in the curriculum giveaway at If Not School?
I have these books to give away.
The Early Years photocopy masters is totally unused and in excellent new condition.
The Basic Skills workbook is also unmarked but has been unstapled at some point.
There are actually 4 Supermaths books on offer - books 2-5 - book 1 got left out in the rain unfortunately. These are well used and the number cards are gone from one book. This doesn't really matter as there are number cards in all the other books that could easily be used instead. They were very much enjoyed by The Girl but are still in pretty good nick. These books are offered as one lot. (Supermaths: Bk.1
is really cheap on Amazon)
If you want any of these books please leave a comment saying which you'd like and I'll do a draw on April 30th using random.org :0)
I can post to UK ONLY.
I have these books to give away.
The Early Years photocopy masters is totally unused and in excellent new condition.
The Basic Skills workbook is also unmarked but has been unstapled at some point.
There are actually 4 Supermaths books on offer - books 2-5 - book 1 got left out in the rain unfortunately. These are well used and the number cards are gone from one book. This doesn't really matter as there are number cards in all the other books that could easily be used instead. They were very much enjoyed by The Girl but are still in pretty good nick. These books are offered as one lot. (Supermaths: Bk.1
is really cheap on Amazon)If you want any of these books please leave a comment saying which you'd like and I'll do a draw on April 30th using random.org :0)
I can post to UK ONLY.
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Relief :0)
They chucked Clause 26 out of the CSF Bill today!!!! Yippee! All the Home Ed stuff has been binned in the wash-up - that's the bit just before a general election where the different parties negotiate what's going to be kept in (or out) of pending legislation.
There will be a collective toast tonight at 9.30 to celebrate :0) Let's raise a glass! :0D
So many people have been working really hard to get this result. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou from the very utmost bottom of my heart :0) I knew it was a worry to me, but the beautiful sense of relief and elation I'm feeling right now makes me realised just how really frightening it has been.
Mind you, there's been some positives- like learning how Parliament operates and 'meeting' lots of other HEers all over the country and the world. And my eldest can now breathe a sigh of relief because I'll be able talk about something else for a change ;0)
There will be a collective toast tonight at 9.30 to celebrate :0) Let's raise a glass! :0D
So many people have been working really hard to get this result. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou from the very utmost bottom of my heart :0) I knew it was a worry to me, but the beautiful sense of relief and elation I'm feeling right now makes me realised just how really frightening it has been.
Mind you, there's been some positives- like learning how Parliament operates and 'meeting' lots of other HEers all over the country and the world. And my eldest can now breathe a sigh of relief because I'll be able talk about something else for a change ;0)
Monday, 5 April 2010
Happy Easter :0D
Well, it's been a lovely weekend :) A couple of their friends came for a sleepover which added to the fun. Last night we played cinemas, complete with posters, tickets, usher, ticket collector, popcorn and projectionist (me with the remote lol). They watched Planet 51 and covered the floor with popcorn for that extra touch of realism ;)
They all woke up far too early very eggcited ;0D
They made their bags for egghunt no. 1
And then, with some more friends, we went on egghunt no. 2
Closely followed by egghunt no. 3 :)
Then we watched yesterday's Dr Who on iplayer.
I earned good Mummy points by making a bow-tie for the Boy who refused to having his picture taken without his sonic screwdriver which unfortunately he couldn't find :( It's the first thing I've sewn in ages that's not been just mending. I'm well chuffed :)
He did let me take photos of his seed planting though. He's put some beans in a jar with blotting paper....
...and he put some peas on corks. I'm not sure how this will go. It's an idea I got out of an old Enid Blyton book so I thought we'd see how it goes.
Soak some pea seeds overnight.
Get a jar and half fill with water.
Slice a cork - our slices were about 1/2" deep.
Put a hole through the centre - my corkscrew had already done that bit :)
Place pea seed on the hole and float on the water.
The roots should go through the hole and into the water.
All the while, The Girl was running ahead with her friends, playing Star Wars micro machines, Dr Who, Hide and Seek,etc as well as playing Hot Cross Buns on the piano whilst eating large amounts of chocolate :0)
All in all, we've had a a great time :0)
They all woke up far too early very eggcited ;0D
They made their bags for egghunt no. 1
And then, with some more friends, we went on egghunt no. 2
Closely followed by egghunt no. 3 :)
Then we watched yesterday's Dr Who on iplayer.
I earned good Mummy points by making a bow-tie for the Boy who refused to having his picture taken without his sonic screwdriver which unfortunately he couldn't find :( It's the first thing I've sewn in ages that's not been just mending. I'm well chuffed :)
He did let me take photos of his seed planting though. He's put some beans in a jar with blotting paper....
Soak some pea seeds overnight.
Get a jar and half fill with water.
Slice a cork - our slices were about 1/2" deep.
Put a hole through the centre - my corkscrew had already done that bit :)
Place pea seed on the hole and float on the water.
The roots should go through the hole and into the water.
All the while, The Girl was running ahead with her friends, playing Star Wars micro machines, Dr Who, Hide and Seek,etc as well as playing Hot Cross Buns on the piano whilst eating large amounts of chocolate :0)
All in all, we've had a a great time :0)
Friday, 2 April 2010
Believe it or not ....
Spring ;0)
Today we went here and saw lots of baby animals...
...and the Easter Bunny.
There was hail this morning while we were at french group but look at the beautiful blue skies we found when we got there :0) Yippee!!!
Even our visiting Flat Traveller from Kansas enjoyed himself.
...a sheep-pig*...
...and the Easter Bunny.
There was hail this morning while we were at french group but look at the beautiful blue skies we found when we got there :0) Yippee!!!
*Alright...it's not really a sheep-pig ;0)
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