Down Down the Mountain

Last week we rowed Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle. It's quite a long story about two children growing up in the Appalachian Mountains. They want some squeaky, creaky shoes and try to earn the money to buy them by growing turnips. It's a familiar plotline with the characters almost missing out through there own generosity. In the end, of course, they are justly rewarded and return home happily. Boykin enjoyed listening to it every day and his sister enjoyed reading it to him too.

We had a lot of fun with it but I think Boykin's most favourite part was the maths lesson which meant playing shops. They used real food, weighing scales and real money. Great fun! The girl loved it to :)


It proved a good opportunity to get the sandpaper letters out and do some spelling/reading practice.


Boykin made a lapbook.




Boykin's turnip picture - note the curly tail that twists around the stones in the ground :)

We ate turnips - which Boykin hated - and Polenta. Polenta is the nearest thing I could get to corn bread. Nobody seems to sell cornmeal flour around here. The Girl enjoyed it but again Boykin wasn't too keen :(

Just for fun :)



Useful Links
Turnip facts
Lapbook at HSS

Books we used

Goddess jewels giveaway

Goddess Jewels are having a giveaway on this facebook site. Her bracelets are beautiful and the winner gets to choose the one they want :)

Just leave a comment on her page that you've shared the link on your blog, twitter or facebook page for entries. It closes midnight tomorrow so hurry up and enter :)

By The Girl

Her first, very short animation short :)



This came about as a result of reading Swallows and Amazons and joining in with Boykin's river project when we 'rowed' Mr Gumpy's Outing. She did the animation a while ago and finally got round to adding music to it. Needless to say, she's pretty chuffed with herself :)

For The Girl...

What The Girl did yesterday while Boykin did his maths.



...as requested by The Girl.

After a busy day out walking with Nana, visiting friends, swimming lesson and band, the Girl tackled her French homework for French group tomorrow while her little brother 'read'.



A picture of calm before bed.

Today's harvest

We pulled up our potatoes today. Each of my children had planted 3 chitted seed potatoes in a tyre stack and we had big hopes....well, I had big hopes.
Fortunately, they don't realise that we didn't actually get very many really. Never mind, they've enjoyed doing it and we grew some interesting shaped potatoes - more like carrots really, or bananas or any other long thin fruit or veg you can think of. Ho hum!
I got another courgette as well - making a grand total of 2!
We'll try again next year :)

HOAC giveaway on Lapbook Lessons

Lapbook Lessons are having a giveaway for a years super membership with Hands of a Child. A super membership gives 2 free project packs a month, access to the Super Members area, a free Birthday Project Pack and a $10 discount voucher.
All the information needed to enter this giveaway is at Lapbook Lessons

Starting MEP Year 1

Well, among the other things we did this week was start MEP Year 1 with Boykin. He was VERY excited and loved his new workbook. I laid all the necessary manipulatives out for him and he was pleased to know that he'd be using his Cuisenaire Rods for other things than picture making. Other manipulatives we're using are a number line, number cards, shape cards and function cards - all of which can be printed from the MEP website or they can be bought VERY cheaply from them too. (I looked at number lines etc on Amazon and they are SO expensive - MEP do them for 10p each!) For counting we have an abacus and a box of conkers. We also use coloured lollipop sticks for some of the puzzles. Add to these playmobile figures, toy dinosaurs, glass beads, pattern blocks and a beanbag frog you get an idea of how full our maths drawer is. He also has a bog standard exercise book for some lessons which we use to stick in activities which are in the copymasters and not the Practice Book. I've done Yr 1 with the Girl already so I feel a bit better prepared this time :)

I've bought the workbooks and posters from MEP rather than printing them all out. I live in the UK so postage is free and £5 for 22 posters seemed a good deal to me. They're big (A2 size) so we put them on the floor. I find that the large size works really well as they are clearly printed on good quality paper and the 1 unit cubes fit perfectly on the grids.

I managed to find 3 of the stories online and typed them up here. There's a book for The Three Rabbits (link below) but I am absolutely unable to find anything even remotely sounding like The Carrot Comes Home.

Songs we've used this week:-
Five Little Men in A Flying Saucer
1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a Fish Alive

A book I've found useful for finding number songs to use in the lessons is Counting Songs (Ladybird Action Rhyme Books)

We're actually going through the lessons pretty quickly because they are obviously designed for teachers to assess their new pupils abilities. I already know what the Boykin is capable of so he's completing the lessons in about half the time they say. (Makes a nice change as the Girl will often take twice as long as they say). So far he's pronounced it easy, which must be a boost for his confidence. I am wondering whether to skip some bits of the lesson plans sometimes though just because I know he's pretty capable at maths already. Maybe just keep one or two of the 'easy' bits in and look more at the more challenging and new stuff. We won't skip the song, he loves that bit especially when there are actions involved too :)

And we're off....

I loaded workboxes on Sunday evening and was all fired up ready to go on Monday morning....life had otherplans. The Girl was very, very, very sick on Sunday night - all over the bathroom floor. Yuk! So we all camped together in the living room (the bucket was easier to reach from the sofa than from her high bed) and woke up tired and a little less enthusiastic than I would've liked.
Obviously, the Girl got let off maths and work-type stuff in general but made a speedy recovery in time to go to her friends house for pre-Brownie tea, playing and Brownies. Short illnesses are the best kind of illnesses I think, what with me being a rubbish nurse, having no patience for patients and hating having to stay indoors for more than 24 hours.
Boykin, on the other hand, did workboxes this week. He didn't manage all 6 but enjoyed what he did. He did lots of maths cos he was so close to the end of the Reception year book. (He finished it today and is eager to start his new Yr 1 book tomorrow).
Then we played a game he got for Christmas from his very big Bro called Kids of Carcassonne Board Game.It's a nice game with wooden pieces and thick cards that calls for tactical thinking to win. Boykin, however, prefers to play it co-operatively and help everyone else win too :)
We also started his new FIAR book - Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle. By the time the Girl had recovered on Tuesday she was reading it very expressively to him too. We're doing a lapbook so I'll post more about that when we've finished it. So far he's enjoying the activities and the story. Hurray!

The Girl has started more slowly and has done only a little maths. She's far too busy doing her own thing at the minute, which, as long as it's not in front of a screen I'm not too bothered about. She's taken an interest in cooking lately which is really fun for us both. She's also spending lots of time reading, drawing and making things. I've read the next Thomas Edison chapter to her and hopefully we'll get on with some of the activities tomorrow. (Yes, I know we've been doing this BYFIAR title for ages but summer has been busy.) She also got her grade 4 swimming badge this week which is very good news.
All in all, it's been a gentle start back into our not-school year. Other things we've done this week so far - games day with local Home Ed group; drama; swimming; choir; brass band; start reading new book group book The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Let's see what happens tomorrow :)

Not-back-to-school picnic

After all the wet weather we've had during the summer, it was nice to have some sunshine :) Nicely timed for our local not-back-to-school picnic. It was lovely to reconnect with our Home Ed friends that we see very little of during the school holidays. This is partly because lots of families go away, most organised Home Ed stuff stops and we like to catch up with our schooled family and friends during the weeks they are available to play during the day.



We had a lovely afternoon and the kids all enjoyed playing together and setting up camp in one corner of the playground. The Girl was starving by the time we left - she was too busy playing to eat.
For me, the best bit was the Kelly Kettle that on of the dads brought. The older boys enjoyed collecting twigs and feeding the minute fire that boils the water and I really relished having a proper cup of tea in the park :)

Kelly Kettle 2 1/2 Pint
- a great little device that boils water really quickly only using a few twigs.