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 :)