Round-up of 2014

It's been a very busy year. I've written and published 10 new Picture Book Explorers, a lapbook and helped The Girl take her first steps into e-publishing with the game that she devised. 

Both children have achieved the yellow belt in Ninjitsu. The Girl also gained Grade 4 in both Cornet and Music Theatre; Grade 1 Ballet; the Bronze Arts Award and Gold Award in scouts. Boykin gained the Discover Arts Award and is working towards his Silver Award for cubs and Grade 1 in both Ballet and Tap.

We've been on lots of lovely Home Ed trips including a local camp and a youth hostel trip, unfortunately cut short because we wanted to be here to celebrate 10 years of one of our local groups. I think my favourite trip might just have been the evacuee workshop because we all got to dress up and we stayed dry for a change :)

We've also been on a youth hostel trip with some of our non-HE friends and are looking forward to another one in 2015. We've had some fab days out with family too - Chatsworth House and Blackpool Pleasure Beach particularly stand out in my memory. It would also have been my Granny's 100th birthday this year so we celebrated (commemorated?) with our very large extended family by gathering for a mass picnic at Cannon Hall on her birthday :)

I set up a new HE board games group at a local games shop which we are all enjoying very much and The Girl is taking part in activities in the new teenagers group organised by another local mum. They also enjoy the new social group in a local park and are interested in contributing to the variety show that is still in the planning stages. We are very lucky to live in an area with so many HE families that like organising stuff :)

We've all learnt lots about UK geography (thanks to PBE) and they've both made progress in maths. We're still reading Story of the World, but I'm no longer using the activity book as we would only get to the end of book 4 by the time Boykin is 16 at the rate we were going :/ Our time line is looking more interesting though :) They have both been spending time on Scratch and want to create more games.

Performance-wise they both took part in their drama class end of term plays and did the half-term four day workshop. Both have given up drama groups :( The Girl has sung in various choir performances, both with her usual choir and with a gospel choir for a Christmas show. Boykin also took part in the dancing show and is happily back at classes again. The Girl has also taken up dancing lessons, but has sadly, given up cornet and brass band :( :( :( She is now learning violin and piano.

We're all looking forward to the year ahead. There are lots of changes in the offing as The Girl moves towards thinking about exams and deciding which groups and activities to keep and which to drop in an attempt to make best use of her time. Boykin will move up to scouts this year and is looking forward to investigating his new Raspberry Pi, playing all his new board games and building with Lego.

Our year in photos that didn't make it to the blog before, starting in January with an amazing birthday cake made by the Girl for Boykin :)

   

Christmas

It's been a lovely Christmas this year. My eldest son and his girlfriend joined us and came to stay over on Christmas Eve which meant I woke up on Christmas morning with all my children in the same house. This hasn't happened for a good number of years so I was very excited.

We didn't manage to get to the local Christingle service this year, nor midnight mass due to visitors and transport arrangements but we still watched our Christmas Eve film and read the last book of our annual Advent calendar - It's a Wonderful Life and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Everyone got socks, toys, books and games - a proper Christmas selection. We ate goose for the first time but I forgot the Yorkshire puddings :( There were no arguments, everyone liked their presents and they all worked and all had the right batteries. My present from my first born and his lovely girlfriend included very posh chocolates and a theatre ticket for the end of February to go and see Mark Thomas with them. Such perfect presents - something delicious to eat and something to look forward to :)

The favourite new game we played on the day is Dixit. It consists of beautifully illustrated cards and is suitable for all ages, being both challenging and fun. I'm already thinking of ways to use the cards as creative writing prompts. I can't help it, I'm a home educator ;)

Favourite craft activity is Rainbow Loom Official Kit. The Girl declared them to be definitely superior and easier to use than the cheap ones they had before. She has made me some lovely new loom band jewellery and something I very much wanted - a glasses chain because I am CONSTANTLY losing my reading glasses.

Boxing Day was more relaxed, a day at home in front of the fire with more games (King of Tokyo), leftover Christmas food and Gnomeo & Juliet on iPlayer. (The geek in me wants to watch it slowly so that I can work out just how many Shakespeare plays are referenced...) The day was delightfully topped off with a fall of snow and playing out in the dark with the neighbour's children :) It really has been a truly delightful Christmas. I feel very blessed :)

Happy Birthday to Us!

Today was the 10th birthday of our local HE group. I was so busy that I didn't take any photos - nor do I have any photos of our first meeting. We also did Christmas crafts and played some party games. (I love the Hokey Cokey - it makes children smile).

It was a very busy session with lots of new families and old friends that I haven't seen for a while. It was lovely to see everyone there sharing memories and looking at old photos, including three families who were at the very first session, us being one of them.

The theme of our first session was Bats. We did some craft activities and had a speaker come from the Bat Trust. Some of the older children can still remember him :) The craft activity I took was making bat mobiles with coat hangers, brown card cut-outs of bats and cream card cut-outs of moths.

Whilst looking through old photos to take today, I came across the original guidelines for our group and was surprised to see just how much it hasn't changed. We had to add a few more ground rules and put up the price when we changed venues and the children don't wash up any more, but other than that, it's still pretty much the same. Sadly, we did lose the closing circle somewhere over the years but opening circle is still an important part of the day as is the communal meal and constant supply of fruit for people to snack on.

I remember the discussions and planning meetings we had at first, how we decided what was important, how we found an affordable venue. We don't have planning meetings now, but we do vote on the themes that we will cover and use email to organise related trips.

I've really enjoyed this group over the 10 years. I've made some good friends, met some interesting people, had a lot of fun, stressed about what activity to take, played, sang, danced, cooked, painted, crafted, seen children grow up, eaten lovely food (the shared meal is so important and probably my most interesting meal of the month), learnt loads, covered topics I would never have thought of (Toilets) and developed skills I didn't know I had.

I'd just like to say 'Thank you' to everyone who came today; to everyone who has ever been to our local HE group, even if they only came once; to everyone who has ever brought an activity to share; to everyone who has brought food to share - especially food that I would never dream of cooking myself; to everyone who is, and has been, involved in the organising. I'd like to say thank you for the support and friendship I've found in this group and thank you for the ideas and inspiration.

I'm really looking forward to more good food, good friends and interesting topics over the next few years :)

My top 10 tips to starting up a local HE group :)
1. Find some like-minded parents and share the load;
2. Decide what kind of session you want - purely social or learning activities?
3. Find a cheap venue, preferably with storage - church halls and scout huts are often a good bet, especially as they're likely to have outdoor space too;
4. Pick a regular date - once a month works well, it allows for other activities to happen, nobody feels overworked, and people who want to come don't keep putting it off till 'next week';
5. Do some fundraising before you start to give yourselves a cushion - a sponsored walk and jumble sale worked for us;
6. Ask parents to donate any unused art materials, pinnies, cooking equipment etc.;
7. Buy a teapot and cosy :) ;
8. Communal meals are great :)
9. Work out a fee that will cover costs - we started out at £2 for the 1st child + £1 for each sibling age 3 and up. We now charge £2.50 and £1.50 respectively.
10. Take photos - lots of them!

I'd love to hear of other peoples experiences when it comes to setting up and running Home Education groups. What tips would you add to this list?

Typekids Review

This is a really thorough programme if you really want to learn to touch type. It spends a few lessons on a combination of a small number of letters making sure that you have got those letters off pat before moving on to the next set. One thing I did like about this programme is that you can sign up for a free trial before you commit to buy to make sure it's a good fit for your child.

Typekids is an online course of 30 lessons that will teach your child to touch type. This seems to be becoming an all important skill these days as more and more writing happens via technology. I was pretty keen to try this out with my children to give them this skill.

The programme has a pirate theme complete with animated boats, canons, sharks and rousing music.
The instructions are pretty straight forward and graphically illustrated to help make them even easier to follow

As well as the exercises, there are games to play which build on the lessons. After completing so many lessons students get to unlock new games. There are also badges to be earned and chapters of a story that become available to listen to as you progress. Parents/tutors are emailed a progress report after each lesson so that they can check on their child's progress. There's a review screen so children can check their accuracy for themselves too.

Boykin had a go on this programme. He enjoyed the games and the story, but found some of the exercises a bit repetitive for his liking. He can type faster with two fingers though at the moment so learning to touch type hasn't got that much appeal to him at this stage. However, I'm hoping that he will persevere and will, hopefully, begin to see the benefits soon.

Typekids.com seem to have everything pretty much covered in terms of thoroughness, progress reports, ergonomics information and incentives - there's even a Diploma at the end of the course. Now it's just down to the Boy to keep at it and finish the course :)

Disclosure: I got given a free account at Typekids in order to write an honest review. No money changed hands. All opinions are my own.

Evacuee Workshop

It's been a full-on week this week with a Home ed groups every day. Monday, The Girl went bowling with the new teen group; Tuesday, we went to Bankfield Museum in Halifax to do an evacuee workshop; Wednesday was our local HE games group; today was Ninjas and tomorrow we will go to our last film of the Into Film Festival. I think next week will be a bit quieter and I'm planning for them to do some actual written work. Boykin has mostly spent his time playing out or making games and animations on Scratch when he has been at home this week. The Girl has mostly been sleeping (as teenagers do), listening to music, drawing and making games on Scratch.

The evacuee workshop was fun. I think it is the fourth one we have done over the years and each one has been different. As a family, we enjoy dressing up and they both enjoy the role-play aspect of these types of events. Not only did we all go in costume, we even packed a 1940s wartime lunch in a proper picnic basket. I did cheat a little and put a piece of cake in our basket because I decided that if my children were being evacuated, I'd use the whole weeks sugar ration to make sure they had a good feed on the train :)

The session was divided into two parts. The first part of the morning they looked at what an evacuee might pack and had a chance to try on some of the clothes. They also had to be inspected and receive their billets.  My children were going to work with a barber and they sent a postcard 'home' to let me know and also to tell me that Boykin had been sick on the train ;)

They also got to look at the kinds of toys that children in the 1940s would have played with. I was quite surprised to see Boykin's hand up insistently to look at the wooden spitfire. I hadn't realised that he liked planes quite so much. We also listened to a short section of The Children's Hour and learnt the song "Run Rabbit Run".

The next part of the session took place upstairs with an Air Raid Warden who showed them how to use a gas mask and what to do in the blackout. They were given the opportunity to handle gas masks, headlight covers and shrapnel. There were four stations with different activities to do on each. They all had a go at building a Morrison Shelter; working in the hospital; trying on Home Guard uniforms and investigating Fire brigade equipment. The ARP showed them how a stirrup pump worked and got them to form a human chain to put out a fire.

We went back downstairs just in time for the air raid siren when we all got taken to the dark air raid shelter where we had a sing-song with a rather out-of-tune rendition of "Run Rabbit Run" :)

This was definitely one of the better evacuee workshops we have been on and I was reassured by The Girl's knowledge of all things Home Front. It shows that our rather haphazard style of studying history is working and that not only is she learning stuff, but that she is also retaining the information. We first visited World War 2 in a deliberate way when she was only 4 with one of our very early local HE group themed sessions. It's very much been an ongoing topic that looks to have no end in sight.

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Bingo maths

Bingo is a great game used in all kind of learning. We've used it for learning foreign languages; shape and number identification; letter recognition; matching words and pictures as an early reading game; we've even got an Animal Soundtracks version.

My children often want to play maths related games instead of doing their workbooks - especially for what they call Friday fun maths. They can be quite inventive sometimes :)

The Girl came up with a great way to play Bingo. We have a basic set with a pretty large selection of cards. We played a few times coming up with several variations.

The basic premise is to cover the numbers on your bingo board. The caller draws numbers from a bag and the other players cover that number if it's on their Bingo card. The caller also covers the number on his Caller Board to keep track of what has been called and to check when someone shouts Bingo!

The Girl put only the numbers 1 - 12 into the pot to be drawn. She then pulled out 2 numbers which we had to multiply together. The product was then the 'called' number. As we continued playing, we extended our equations to include addition, subtraction and division so that we could get all the numbers on the caller's board. It worked pretty well :)

You can buy a print-and-play version of The Girl's game with full instructions for variations and extension activities here.

 

Maths Manipulatives - Pattern Blocks

We have a nice large set of sturdy, wooden, pattern blocks that Boykin got for his birthday one year, probably when he was about 2 or 3. (Thanks Mum :D) The shapes in our set are hexagon, equilateral triangle, two sizes of parallelogram, square and trapezium. Did you know that in America they call the trapezium a trapezoid?

They have been very well used over the years. When we were doing workboxes, they appeared quite regularly along with a selection of printouts for Boykin to make pictures on. I put the printouts in a clear plastic A4 page protector, changing the top one so that he had different patterns to work with each time. He simply placed the pattern blocks on top of the page protector which helped make the printouts more durable, so durable that they are still perfectly usable 5 years later :)

We've used them to explore symmetry, both by looking at the shapes themselves and by creating symmetrical patterns.

This is what we got when we played the symmetry version of game 3 below.

We've used them to create and explore repeating patterns and sequences as well as using them to explore shape, area and angles.

The blocks have been used as building bricks, and even glued together to make a sculpture.

And, of course, we have used them to explore tessellation. There's something so satisfying about creating a pattern from just a small selection of shapes that could go on into infinity, if only we had enough tiles :) They came in very useful for the maths activities in Picture Book Explorers - The Mousehole Cat.

Yesterday, the Girl came up with the idea for a game, which we have further developed today giving us two or three variations. What other variations can you come up with?

Game 1:
Start by placing a hexagon on the table.
Take it in turns to draw a shape from the box without looking or trying to identify the shape by feeling.
Place the shape on the table so that it touches at least one other shape on the table.
How big a pattern can you create with no gaps?

Game 2:
Follow the instructions given for game 1.
The variation is that you have to keep a running total of the sum of the internal angles of the shapes as you place them.
For instance, there is a triangle and a square on the table. Their sum of their internal angles is 180 degrees and 360 degrees respectively. This gives a total of 540 degrees.
Younger children could add together the number of angles/sides.
Useful information:
The internal angles of a triangle = 180 degrees.
The internal angles of a quadrilateral = 360 degrees.
The internal angles of a hexagon = 720 degrees.

Game 3: The most popular version in our house.
You will also need two different colour dice - we used red and white.
There are 6 different shapes in our set, so we gave each one of them a different numerical value.
The white dice determines the shape to be used and the red dice determines the number of that shape to be used.
For instance, using the picture below, a white 6 and a red 5 have been thrown. The hexagon is number 6. Therefore, 5 hexagons would be added to the pattern being built.
Take it in turns to roll the dice and build the pattern.
To make it more challenging, try working together to keep the pattern as symmetrical as possible.

Other Pattern Block Activities:
Click on Pattern Block Pictures at Kelly's Kindergarten
Ideas for using pattern blocks to explore shape from Scholastic
More pattern block printables from ABCTeach - not all are free
Online pattern block activity at Math Playground
Game and sequence pattern printables at the end of this post from Confessions of a Homeschooler
Using pattern blocks to explore fractions
Pattern blocks matching game
Exploring tessellation

Don't Forget the Discount!

That was the subject heading on an email I received today :) You may remember I posted about Picstick photo magnets about a month ago?
Well, the discount code WEATHER25 is only valid until November 5th 2014. Don't forget to use it to get 25% off at the checkout at Picstick

Autumn Sale at Currclick - Extra Discount Here :)

Get an EXTRA 10% off CURRCLICK SALE prices at the checkout with this code LEAVES

Round Up the Week

It was a very busy week last week, and seemed to involve lots of film related stuff. Strange that, cos it's not even the Into Film Festival for another month :)

We started Monday by going to see Ten Pieces at the cinema. It's a BBC film aimed at KS2, designed to get them to engage with classical music. My children very much enjoyed it and we had some debate over whether or not the final modern piece was really music at all, with Boykin being of the opinion  that it was really dance. In the afternoon we came home and played Agricola for a couple of hours before they had to get ready for cubs and drama.

Tuesday we went to see some filming that was happening in our area. The film is a full-length feature with stars like Liam Neeson and Sigourney Weaver in it. (Not that we saw either of them). It was really interesting to see how many people were involved and how many times the same scene had to be filmed from different angles. It's made us all watch films in a different way now. One of the other onlookers likened it to Groundhog Day. Consequently, we came home, lit a fire, made big mugs of hot chocolate and sat down to watch Groundhog Day. I'd forgotten how much I liked that film and it lead to more interesting discussions as to why the main character had to keep repeating the same day; what changed within him; what would it be like to get so many chances to achieve the perfect day; and which day would you change.

Unfortunately amongst all that, I forgot that we were supposed to be at book group. Sad to say, we missed it. Sorry folks :(

Wednesday was our local themed group. The theme this month was Time & Clocks. The activities on offer were: make a paper plate clock; make a lemon clock; make a water clock; make a timeline of time and clocks; play some time related games; estimate a minute; design a time machine and write a story about it.

 

Thursday Boykin went to Parkour and they both went to Ninjas. In the afternoon, we delivered the Harvest festival donations to the local food bank before The Girl had a singing lesson. Boykin then went to dancing whilst The Girl went to choir and we all spent the rest of the evening visiting my eldest son and his girlfriend :) That was a busy day, that was!

Friday was a pyjama day :) We did stuff at home. All day. They did maths, biology, handwriting, made chocolate croissants and drank hot chocolate. And I read to them. A lovely relaxed HE day at home :) Until The Girl went to scouts that is.

Saturday we went to play in the woods with my brother and his children where they climbed trees and swung from ropes while we drank tea brewed in a Kelly Kettle. I love Kelly Kettles :) And then The Girl went litter picking with scouts at a local music festival.

 
Sunday was church, a bit more of the music festival, games with friends and hot baths, warm fires and a film.  

Panda Drinks Review

We were offered the opportunity to review a  range of still drinks from Panda, a brand I associate with brightly coloured fizzy pop and blue tongues. I had no idea that they produced anything else and was curious. My kids were pleased to receive the drinks and very much enjoyed testing and reviewing them :)

The bottles are a handy size, small enough to fit in a lunch bag, handbag or the little side mesh pocket on a child's rucksack. We do quite a bit of walking and I like my children to carry their own drinks, so the small sized bottles make this easier for them. I also quite like the flip tops rather than the push-up-and-down tops, which invariably lose their plastic lids and are, I think, a little less hygienic.

We received two samples from each of the two different ranges - the juice drink range and the Panda Splash range, which is flavoured water. Both ranges are made with only natural fruit flavours and they contain no added sugar and no artificial colours.

My children really enjoyed the drinks. Words they used to describe the Panda Juice drinks were sticky, sweet, syruppy and yummy. The Girl preferred the Raspberry flavour and Boykin preferred the Blackcurrant flavour. Personally, I preferred the Raspberry flavour because it did actually taste of raspberries (not that the blackcurrant didn't taste of blackcurrants though). However, I was put off by the very obvious taste of sweeteners which I really don't like. When I buy bottles of dilute juice, I usually go for the 'sugar' version rather than the 'no sugar' version because of this.

In the Panda Splash range, we were given Blackcurrant and Orange & Pineapple flavoured waters to try. Again, my children liked them, with Boykin preferring the blackcurrant and The Girl preferring the Orange & Pineapple :) Words they used to describe theses drinks were very sweet, quite nice, tastes of orange and sweeteners. Apparently they like the taste of sweeteners and so this doesn't put them off at all. I found the flavoured waters much more refreshing than the juice drinks, although overall the Raspberry juice drink was my favourite - despite the sweeteners.

Oh, and I'm very sorry for not being able to show you the actual product. The package got returned to the Post Office, so we had to go and pick it up and we drank them on the way home :)

You can follow Panda Drinks on Twitter and on Facebook

Disclaimer: I received 4 bottles of Panda drinks at no cost so that I could give you an honest review. No money changed hands for these opinions, which are entirely my own....and my children's.

Frugal Food

Both children are out on Thursday teatime, one at choir and one at dancing. Consequently, there's only me to feed. I really look forward to it. Not because I'm going to eat some fancy dinner or unhealthy junk food, but because I get to eat leftovers :)

 That sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? Not if you saw me cooking normally. The Girl is now vegetarian. Me and Boykin are not. Neither child seems to have inherited my taste buds - or at least not for the same dish at the same time. Consequently mealtimes here can look a bit like variations on a theme. Veggie vs meat sausages. Potatoes vs rice. Garden peas vs processed peas.

I've now developed a bit of a routine with Wednesday's tea being something and mash potatoes. I always make way too much mash because in my previous life (i.e. the one with only one child who ate everything) they were a favourite staple in our house. Now, my two youngest eat next to nowt when it comes to spuds :(

As well as loving mashed potatoes, I also loathe chucking food in the bin. It feels a bit like a sin - especially if meat and fish are involved. So on Thursdays, not only do I redeem my foodsoul, I also get to eat my favourite all-time potato dish - fried mash potatoes :) I usually chuck in all the leftover veg from the previous evening and make a bit of a fancy bubble-and-squeak. However, yesterday, they ate all the veg. Hooray!!

So tonight's delicacy consisted of all the left over spuds fried in butter (yes, I know it's bad for me - but it's so yummy); a large dollop of cream cheese spread; an egg; some fresh spinach and rocket from the garden. I mixed them all up together and fried them until they went brown and crispy. Then I slid the whole lot onto a warm plate and sprinkled it with black pepper. Lovely!

Now I'm going to enjoy eating the left over random fruit crumble served with evaporated milk. Can you tell I was a child in the 70s? ;)

What's your favourite left-over potato recipe? Maybe you will come up with something that will tempt even my spudless children :)

Home Ed groups - then and now

I've been home educating for over 20 years now. I'm not saying that makes me any kind of expert or anything but I have seen quite a few changes, especially in regards to local groups.

15 years ago, I knew of only 3 Home Ed groups in our region that I could take my son to, each one meeting on a monthly basis. Two were in our local town and one was on the other side of Leeds and involved a train and two buses to get there. The two local groups consisted of the same four or five families - one was an art group and the other was a social meeting in a small room provided by the council (other families occasionally turned up there too). There were very few children my son's age  at these groups and it was a struggle to get him to go sometimes.  Luckily, he understood that I needed to meet with other home educating parents and he would agree to come along. There were occasional trips to theatres and workshops, but communication was often sparse. We sometimes missed them because the only way to find out about things was down the phone tree (which often didn't work) or through a printed monthly newsletter. There were no yahoo groups that I knew of and definitely no Facebook. Not that it would've helped anyway as we had no internet and neither did the local library.

This week we went to a new local group in a local park. I'm really not sure how many families were there as some sat in the playground, others played cricket on the playing field and more were sitting in the room that was our official meeting place. I reckon there were at least 18 families who had travelled from different parts of West Yorkshire to come to play in the park. Most of these we see regularly at one group or another, some were new families with younger children just starting out on their home ed journeys. The group had been organised through yahoo and Facebook. No phone tree.

It really struck me how different it is (and how old I am) for HE families nowadays. Every week there seems to be a new group being started in areas where none have existed before. Every week there are new workshops and trips being organised by parents all over West Yorkshire. My children were playing in the park with friends that they have known since birth, with children that they see two or three times a WEEK at different groups and with new friends. The world seems full of home educated children today whereas 15 years ago, I had to search the EO contact list to find the very few other local HEors.

This experience made me determined to organise groups and trips myself so that my younger children wouldn't struggle with isolation in the same way my eldest son had done as a teenager. I never envisaged the growth in the number of HE families that I have seen, nor did I envisage the way the internet would change the way that we communicate. Back then, I was inspired by an American HEor living in Leeds who put tons of energy into organising groups and activities. She showed me what was possible, how trips could be organised and how groups could be set up and run. Consequently, along with other local HE parents, I have organised trips, set up groups and met some fabulous families. I have many people to be thankful to, and for, on my HE journey, but that American mum stands out in my memory. Wherever you are in the world today, Judith Shalkowski, I thank you. You were an inspiration :)

Cycling at the new HE group in the park

Picsticks Review and Discount Code

I was offered the chance to review some photograph magnets from Picstick.  They offer nine photo magnets 50mmx65mmx0.75mm for £9.50/$14.99. You can upload photos from your computer, your Facebook account or your Dropbox. Postage is free worldwide :)

Picstick encourages people to create photo magnets from photos shared on Facebook. On the FAQ page it states "You can also browse your Facebook friends and groups you follow and select from the photos they have shared. (Perfect for creating surprise presents!)". I can kind of see the lovely friendly gift-giving idea behind it, but I don't really want my Facebook friends or random group members making magnets from my photos. I also felt that this suggestion contradicts the Terms and Conditions which state that "You warrant...that you have all required rights or permissions necessary to incorporate third party material into your Products". So those surprise presents could cause you some problems :/

Setting up a Picstick account is simple and free. For some reason, I was unable to link my Picstick account to my Dropbox account where most of my photos are kept. It kept timing out or giving me a blank page. I don't know if that's a Picstick thing or a Dropbox thing. I didn't try connecting to my Facebook account , so I don't know if that process is easier or not.  In the end, I chose to upload photos from my computer which proved to be fairly easy because of the straightforward instructions on the website.

Because I was writing a review, I tried to choose different subjects rather than all family photos.  I went for colour, brightness, detail, landscape vs portrait,a  computer generated image and some family photos. Any editing that needs doing has to be done before you upload the images to Picstick as the only editing tools available are crop and rotate. One or two pictures looked like they had a black line across the top of them when I placed them in the grid, but I had no need to worry about that as it wasn't on the magnets when they arrived.

I quickly got an email to say that my order had been received and my magnets were being made. I received another email the next day saying that my order had been shipped and they arrived the day after that. Speedy service!!

The magnets arrived in a strong cardboard envelope which also contained a card with a thank you message and thumbnails of my photos. Very cute. I was, however,  a bit disappointed in the magnets. They looked very grainy and mottled. At first I thought this might be because I had cropped some photos as far as the website would allow, but when I checked the image I'd made in Photoshop I knew the colours should've been solid and they weren't:(

But all was not lost. I contacted Picstick via the Contact form on their website and quickly received an automated email saying that replacements would be sent out sharpish. The next day, I received a more personal email that addressed my questions directly and asked me to let them know if the replacements were ok or not. They were. Not a mottle in sight :)

The colours are vibrant and details are clear. . Although next time, I may make my images brighter before I upload them and use more close-up photos as they definitely work better. That said, I think they're a lovely size, they stick very nicely to my fridge and I can see all sorts of uses for them :)

They'd be ideal to slip in a Christmas or birthday card to friends and relatives.
You could add text and use them as magnetic business cards to give to customers so that they never lose your contact details again.
You could make your own large print magnetic flashcards to help with reading or maths or language learning.
Every member of the family could have their own photo magnet that holds their personal 'To Do' list or messages to the fridge door.
You could scan your children's artwork and make magnetic copies to send to friends.
Or you could make your own magnetic calendar, or timetable if you're very structured, or a chore chart......

I'd love to know what other ideas you can come up with. I like to find an educational use for everything if possible :)

Picstick have offered all my lovely blog readers a 25% discount. Just use the code below at the checkout.

WEATHER25

Disclosure: I received a free set of photo magnets in order to be able to give a complete and honest review. All opinions are my own. No money exchanged hands :)

Toilets and Trips

Our last local group themed session was on Toilets. As parents we had all felt a little challenged by the topic, although it proved to be a more popular theme than anticipated. We had 16 families come to the session which is about twice as many as usual.
The activities included investigating tipping toilets and designing a water container that tips when it is full; listing the synonyms of 'toilet' including the more impolite ones; matching the translation of the word 'toilet' with the correct country on a large map; making miniature model outdoor loos from toilet rolls; a toilet related board game; learning about U-bends and making a working model; playing outdoor toilet related games like toilet Tig, Mother May I and toilet roll relay race; and making toilet pests from empty toilet roll tubes. I was very busy most of the day making toilet roll flies but I did catch a glimpse of the toilet roll relay race and the ensuing carnage.












Totally coincidentally, another local HE mum organised a trip to a water treatment plant and a sewage treatment plant which tied in very nicely. Both places were very interesting, although I found it a bit sad when they told us that 30 people used to work in the water treatment plant which is now computerised and has only a couple of people working there. And the same at the sewage treatment works that would've employed up to 300 people and now employs only 8. Not that I'd want to work there. It was a bit too smelly.
The two plants, one at Headingley and the other at Esholt, are education centres for Yorkshire Water, each venue had its own classroom. There were computer activities in one venue and models of roadworks and films of protozoa in the other.
I thought my children knew about the water cycle, we have covered it before, but they seemed to either have forgotten everything or were too shy to answer.
We were split into two groups, so I stayed with The Girl while Boykin hung out with his friends in another group. There was a lot of information to take in, but they gave us some really nice looking resource books to take home and have a look through. They were mostly aimed at KS2, but that doesn't bother us as we aren't limited by the National Curriculum and happily jump around resources as long as they are interesting.
One of the things that surprised me most, was the ornate sewer exit constructed by the Victorians. There we were, looking at real-life pieces of poo floating out of the sewer through a fancy bit of stonework complete with coat-of-arms and Latin motto. They were so proud of their sewage works those Victorians. It made me realise just how much we take our sewerage system for granted, and just how lucky we are to have it.

As part of my own home education, I had to look up the motto. Labor Omnia Vincit - Work Conquers All. The sewage works certainly went a long way to conquering some of the Victorian health problems, we don't get cholera outbreaks anymore, thankfully.
One thing that both my children mentioned having learnt that day was that Fat, Oil and Grease (F.O.G) shouldn't be put down the sink. I already knew that, but thought it was to prevent my house pipes blocking up. I now know that it's to prevent the main sewers blocking up. I'm usually pretty careful anyway, but I'll be a bit more careful from now on because some poor bloke has to go down there and chip it all out by hand :(
The sewage and waterworks trip was free and was open to children age 7+. If you have one near you, I'd recommend going along as soon as your children are old enough. It really is an eye-opener.

Yorkshire Water Educational Resources

Never the Same....

Yesterday felt like a bit of a non-day to be honest. The Girl was pretty exhausted from her Scout camp at the weekend which involved caving and walking . The walking I can get on with, but not the caving, especially as she demonstrated how she had to move through some of the low, narrow tunnels 8-o Ugh! Makes me shudder just thinking about it. I'm so very grateful that she has an active Scout group with dedicated leaders who can take her to do all the stuff that I'm too  wussy to do - that would be anything involving water, heights, small spaces.....


Anyway, she had a bit of a lie-in yesterday while me and Boykin did some maths. He also wrote a postcard to send to his new penfriend and finished off his sequel for The Day The Crayons Quit which he did for one of his Picture Book Explorers activities. His sequel is called "The Day After The Crayons Quit" :)  He did a really fab job. His letters from the crayons were funny and his illustrations complemented them beautifully. He even included a letter from Duncan which had a wrapper for the naked Peach Crayon in the envelope. I was impressed with the amount he wrote and with what he wrote. I found some parts of it hard to read though because his handwriting is still very irregular and he'd written all the letters in wax crayon. Anyway, he has agreed to work a little bit more on his handwriting. We're using a book from Schofield and Sims to help him along.
In the afternoon they informed me they were doing media studies and would be watching a St Trinian's film as it also covered history too. Cheeky or what? ;)

Boykin took the book he had made along with a couple of other things to Cubs which gained him his Creative Challenge badge. One happy Boy :)

Anyway, all in all, yesterdays day of films and relaxation meant everyone was in a much better mood today after an early night. Me included :) I think the sunshine helped.

So today, we have had some interesting discussions about the Bible including whether or not the Book of Genesis could be interpreted as saying that people should be vegetarian.
Then The Girl went to her ballet lesson and Boykin continued reading his current book in the How To Train your Dragon series. When The Girl got home, we all sat down and watched last year's Children's Author's Live with Cressida Cowell and looked at some of the activity sheets and did the quiz. We're signed up for this year's event, which will be on 2nd October - Dragonese Day.
This afternoon, The Girl has happily spent her time designing and making some new greetings cards to sell on her stall at the next Scout coffee morning :0) While Boykin watched The Fairly Odd Parents which arrived today from Lovefilm. Then it was his turn to go dancing. It'll be another early night tonight for them.

In the meantime, I have to find an activity to do for our local Home Ed group tomorrow. The theme is Toilets. Any suggestions? Please?

Book Review and Dino-jaws

It's been a busy week. We started Monday with a pyjama day keen start into the full on routine of term time life. Oh, I know we don't stop for holidays, but we do ease up somewhat to make time to see schooled friends. None of the Monday activities had started yet and the kids had had a weekend in Blackpool with their dad, so they were more than happy to wear their self-styled home ed uniform once more ;)

We spent quite a bit of the day reading The Story of The Amulet by E. Nesbit. This is the third book in the trilogy which begins with Five Children and It and includes  The Phoenix and The Carpet. I have to say, my children have thoroughly enjoyed listening to all three of the books. I think they would make a great base for unit studies too. There are so many different places visited by the children, both in England and abroad, and in the last book, they travel through the ancient world. This was especially exciting for The Boy as he recognised quite a few of the places mentioned from our reading of The Story of the World: Ancient Times v. 1 .
There's lots of opportunity for discussion when reading the E. Nesbit books too. What would you wish for if you could meet the Psammead? Where would you go on the magic carpet? Which time period would you visit with the Amulet? There are also lots of things that we had never heard of casually mentioned in the book as if they were common knowledge, presumably they were at the start of the 20th Century. Lots of opportunities and incentives for historical research there :)
In case you don't know the stories (we didn't), the books follow the adventures of four Edwardian children who live in London and their baby brother. While on holiday, they meet a sandfairy, the Psammead, who grants wishes. They have lots of mishaps by being a bit too vague with their requests. The children are very realistic and bicker amongst themselves quite a bit in all the books. In the second book, they meet a Phoenix with a magic carpet. Again, they get to wish to go to different places and again have lots of adventures. In this book though, they are a little more careful with the wording, having learned from their time with the Psammead. In the third book, they rescue the Psammead and he shows them where they can find half of the Amulet. They spend the rest of the book trying to find the other half so that they can get their hearts desire. Each of the books could be read as a standalone, but we were all rather glad that we read them in the correct order. My two would recommend them to anyone of any age and I would recommend buying the books rather than downloading the free kindle versions because you don't get the line drawings that help the story along :)

Anyway, we eventually finished the book at Tuesday lunchtime, just in time for our local Home Ed book group :) Everyone else enjoyed it too, it seems :)

Wednesday we went to the Dino-Jaws exhibition at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Another Home Ed event :) Me and the Boy went by train which meant we had a lovely walk on the river. The Girl really isn't that interested in dinosaurs anymore so she wentto spend the day with her Nana instead. Anyway, I think she would have rolled her eyes at us two enthusing about odd shaped buildings with fancy Victorian architectural features (Not windows again!)
All in all, Boykin enjoyed the exhibition. He filled in the questions on the quiz sheet, did the interactive stuff, and built a Lego model dinosaur that was displayed on the reception desks along with everyone else's models. I'm glad we went as a group though, as it was pretty expensive for the amount of time we took to get round. The animatronics were good fun though and Boykin particularly liked the vibrating floor with the T-Rex roar.

But for me, one of the weirdest things we saw all day was the hologram person on Leeds train station telling people not to take luggage up the escalator. Just a bit too Doctor Who for me :/ Mind you, it was interesting working out how it worked and lead onto a discussion on how and/or if science fiction influences the development of technology.

Thursday, after all their out of home activities, we sat and watched Dolphin Tale. We all enjoyed it and found it very inspiring. We ant to know more about the actual dolphin that the story is based on, and we want to know if the home-schooled daughter of the animal doctor actually exists.

 I wonder if this might be a good starting point?