Sunday, 25 September 2011
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Autumn Display by The Girl
Today we went to Story Circle - our local creative writing group. We looked at nouns, adjectives and verbs and the children made silly sentences and identified which bit of each was which. There were a couple of families missing so we decided to wait til next time to start a new pass-the-parcel story.
After that, we went to a meeting at Booksplus which is the warehouse where all the libray books are kept and where various resources live that go on loans to local schools. One of our local HE mums has done a great job in getting us access to this via our local LEA.
What a treasure trove!! I could have spent hours there, reading books, exploring boxes and investigating all the objects and artefacts that they have. I definitely feel like a bit of forward planning might be necessary to take full advatage of the stuff that is there.
In the end, we came away with two boxes and a NASA space suit for The Boy. One of the boxes was full of Autumn related things so when we got home, The Girl decided to make a display :0)
I'm really looking forward to going on some walks so they can add to this. The Girl thinks we should now do one for every season :0)
The other useful find today were 2 mini whiteboards from a pound shop. After The Girl had been using hers as a means to communicate silently, Boykin sat down and wrote his first unassisted sentence :0)
I love seeing his confidence develop - even though I know a day of silence would be impossible for anyone who lives in this house :0D This is the first time he's written anything without asking for spellings - although he did get help with 'talking'. In fact, it's been a day of seeing his progress with written words - he did most of his own reading at Story Circle this morning too. It feels like a big leap in our HE adventure. I can't wait to see what happens next :0)
After that, we went to a meeting at Booksplus which is the warehouse where all the libray books are kept and where various resources live that go on loans to local schools. One of our local HE mums has done a great job in getting us access to this via our local LEA.
What a treasure trove!! I could have spent hours there, reading books, exploring boxes and investigating all the objects and artefacts that they have. I definitely feel like a bit of forward planning might be necessary to take full advatage of the stuff that is there.
In the end, we came away with two boxes and a NASA space suit for The Boy. One of the boxes was full of Autumn related things so when we got home, The Girl decided to make a display :0)
The other useful find today were 2 mini whiteboards from a pound shop. After The Girl had been using hers as a means to communicate silently, Boykin sat down and wrote his first unassisted sentence :0)
Monday, 19 September 2011
Thursday, 15 September 2011
2 Groups in 2 Days
Tuesday - In the morning we did maths. Boykin, now doing Year 2 MEP, enjoyed sorting numbers into 2 groups.
While The Girl had a bit of a meltdown over her maths :0( She's fine with the straight forward arithmetic but sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to get to grips with the way new problems are worded. After a quick cuddle and some daftness on my part, she managed to solve it. Phew! I keep thinking I can just leave her to get on with it herself but these little outbursts are a not-so gentle reminder that I still need to keep a good eye on the lesson plans to get the best out of this cuuriculum.
I read a good few chapters of our book group book while she spent the rest of the morning making some beautiful peg dolls and Boykin completed his 100 piece Invisibles jigsaw for the first time. Smiles all round :0)
In the afternoon we went to book group. We're reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, or rather, we were supposed to have read it for this book group session. However, only one family had finished it (not us - see above) and all the families decided that there were just too many learning opportunities to miss here, so we are carrying it over to next month to give ourselves more time with it. My children are enjoying it even though the vocabulary is quite challenging. Boykin made a picture based on the book cover to take in and we managed to play the comprehension snakes and ladders game as usual.
Wednesday - We went to our local HE monthly themed meeting where we met up with 5 other families - a bit quieter than usual. This month's theme was Europe. Activities included a cheese tasting quiz, a borders quiz, a game to identify the country of origin of Euros by their designs and the opportunity to design your own British Euro.
The Girl designed the one on the left which represents rural and city landscapes separated by Big Ben. Boykin's is a Doctor Who design, complete with Tardis, sonic screwdriver, Amy and Rory.
Another activity involved them being given a minibook with a map of Europe inside and a country. At the start of the day they had to stand in the room according to where they thought their country was situated in Europe. They then had to go and put the flag of their country on the front of the minibook and add some facts to bring back to everyone at the end of the day and stand where their country is actually situated in relation to all the other countries/children.
Next month - Autumn festivals
I read a good few chapters of our book group book while she spent the rest of the morning making some beautiful peg dolls and Boykin completed his 100 piece Invisibles jigsaw for the first time. Smiles all round :0)
In the afternoon we went to book group. We're reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, or rather, we were supposed to have read it for this book group session. However, only one family had finished it (not us - see above) and all the families decided that there were just too many learning opportunities to miss here, so we are carrying it over to next month to give ourselves more time with it. My children are enjoying it even though the vocabulary is quite challenging. Boykin made a picture based on the book cover to take in and we managed to play the comprehension snakes and ladders game as usual.
Wednesday - We went to our local HE monthly themed meeting where we met up with 5 other families - a bit quieter than usual. This month's theme was Europe. Activities included a cheese tasting quiz, a borders quiz, a game to identify the country of origin of Euros by their designs and the opportunity to design your own British Euro.
Another activity involved them being given a minibook with a map of Europe inside and a country. At the start of the day they had to stand in the room according to where they thought their country was situated in Europe. They then had to go and put the flag of their country on the front of the minibook and add some facts to bring back to everyone at the end of the day and stand where their country is actually situated in relation to all the other countries/children.
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| Belgium and Portugal |
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| Research in the book corner |
Monday, 12 September 2011
Not Back to School Picnic
We met up with 9 other Home Ed families today for our not-back-to-school picnic. It was very, very, very windy but fortunately, no-one got blown away :0)
The children (all 15 of them - not just mine) enjoyed playing in the new playground in Greenhead Park.
I really enjoy the Not-Back-to-School picnic. Even though we HE year round, it's still a significant marker of the changing rhythm of our HE lives as public places become quieter and HE groups become more active.
The other event of the day was Boykin started Year 2 of MEP. He was getting so bored with the Year 1 work. Luckily for him, His older sister completed Year 1 some time ago so I had a pretty good idea of what was coming and I know he is more than capable of it. I also know that the first few eeks of Year 2 are really just revision of Year 1 so I had no qulams of moving him on a little. Consequently, he was so much happier to do his maths today and said he enjoyed it because it was a little bit more difficult for him and he likes things to be a bit hard :0) Time to challenge The Boy then :0)
The children (all 15 of them - not just mine) enjoyed playing in the new playground in Greenhead Park.
We were all very grateful for hot drinks made in two lovely Kelly Kettles. I'm so glad I have such organised friends :0)
I really enjoy the Not-Back-to-School picnic. Even though we HE year round, it's still a significant marker of the changing rhythm of our HE lives as public places become quieter and HE groups become more active.
It ties in nicely with Autumn's energy that, for me, stirs up the desire to start new projects and prepare for winter. Time to teach my daughter to crochet I think :0)
The other event of the day was Boykin started Year 2 of MEP. He was getting so bored with the Year 1 work. Luckily for him, His older sister completed Year 1 some time ago so I had a pretty good idea of what was coming and I know he is more than capable of it. I also know that the first few eeks of Year 2 are really just revision of Year 1 so I had no qulams of moving him on a little. Consequently, he was so much happier to do his maths today and said he enjoyed it because it was a little bit more difficult for him and he likes things to be a bit hard :0) Time to challenge The Boy then :0)
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
While the mice are away the cat will play...or how to make a blog button
Instead of going back to school or not back to school yesterday, mine went to Euro Disney with their Nana :0D
So while they're away I decided I'd do lots of useful stuff (like decorating and cleaning etc) but instead got inspired by this post (which was no use to me because it's for wordpress) and made this -
I used Photoshop Elements 5.0 to make my picture. (Good clear instructions on this blog.) That was the easy bit....
The hard part came trying to make a HTML code. I followed her instructions and they didn't work.
Here is what I did in the end -
1. Start a New Post
2. Click on Compose tab.
3. Click on photo in toll bar at top
4. Upload .jpg that you've created
5. Add it to New Post as normal
6. Right click on picture
7. Click on link in tool bar at top (next to photo icon)
8. Where it says 'Web Address' in edit Link box, type in blog URL - in my case http://englishweather.blogspot.com
9. Switch to HTML view and Bob's your uncle - There's your HTML code for your very own blog button :0)
I didn't publish this post. It was just a means to getting a working HTML code and a place to store it.
If you want other people to be able to get the code for your blog button to put on their own sites ...
10. Scroll to the bottom of this post to get the code at the end and follow the instructions.
11. Go to the design page of your blog, pick add a gadget, select HTML/Java script box and paste your code in to the box and save.
12. Stick it where you want on your blog :0)
I hope all that makes sense.
Go on, do me a favour and grab a button from the sidebar just to see if it works.
Cheers :0)
So while they're away I decided I'd do lots of useful stuff (like decorating and cleaning etc) but instead got inspired by this post (which was no use to me because it's for wordpress) and made this -
A lovely new blog button :0)
The hard part came trying to make a HTML code. I followed her instructions and they didn't work.
Here is what I did in the end -
1. Start a New Post
2. Click on Compose tab.
3. Click on photo in toll bar at top
4. Upload .jpg that you've created
5. Add it to New Post as normal
6. Right click on picture
7. Click on link in tool bar at top (next to photo icon)
8. Where it says 'Web Address' in edit Link box, type in blog URL - in my case http://englishweather.blogspot.com
9. Switch to HTML view and Bob's your uncle - There's your HTML code for your very own blog button :0)
I didn't publish this post. It was just a means to getting a working HTML code and a place to store it.
If you want other people to be able to get the code for your blog button to put on their own sites ...
10. Scroll to the bottom of this post to get the code at the end and follow the instructions.
11. Go to the design page of your blog, pick add a gadget, select HTML/Java script box and paste your code in to the box and save.
12. Stick it where you want on your blog :0)
I hope all that makes sense.
Go on, do me a favour and grab a button from the sidebar just to see if it works.
Cheers :0)
Friday, 2 September 2011
Friday Fun
It's been a bit of an adventure for us all, but especially Boykin. He got to be in the audience for a CBeebies show, Justin's House with about 50 other HE children at MediacityUK. They got to see what it is really like making TV programmes, all the stopping and the starting for make-up and mistakes.
I've not been to Salford Quays before so had no idea how easy it is to get to from where we live. While he was inside the TV studio, me and The Girl spent an hour or so in the Imperial War Museum on a recce to see if it's worth a longer visit. It is :0)
City life is so different to village life. I always end up feeling like a right country bumpkin, wandering around getting all excited by the buildings.
Boykin's verdict on the show - "It's better than you think it's going to be". I think he was quite chuffed about the Daleks and tardis in the foyer too ;0)
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