On Tuesday we went to RHS Harlow Carr for a Naturally Festive workshop. I still have no phone camera and , due to setting off at the last minute, I forgot to take my proper camera, so again no photos. It's a real shame too because the weather was lovely, we met up with old friends and they all had a great time. There time to play in the tree house before lunch and time for a bit more exploring after the workshop. There are some beautiful sculptures and some gorgeous Christmas decorations that were all worth a picture or two.
The workshop itself was well-delivered and interesting. The lady leading it talked about plants that are traditionally associated with Christmas and how they were used. Did you know that holly was planted near houses as a protection against lightning? We then went around the gardens to look at real life examples and learn some more about each plant whilst collecting samples for the craft activity. They made glittery clay tree decorations with leaf imprints and clay reindeer using twigs and berries. Ho! Ho! Ho!
The workshops run by RHS are free for educational groups and free entry into the garden is included. If you live near enough to an RHS garden, it's well worth the hassle of organising a group to go to one. They have a selection to choose from and didn't seem too phased by the wide age range of our group (6-15 year olds).
My phone is broken and I forgot to take my camera so I have no photos to share :(
We've just spent a lovely five days with 9 other families in Sheringham Youth Hostel in Norfolk . This is our fifth year at Christmas camp which we have previously spent at Okehampton YH, Castleton YH and Coalbrookedale YH.
Every year we enjoy big communal meals and a pretend Christmas Day, complete with Christmas dinner, carol singing and Secret Santa :)
This year the weather was very mild (12C) and mostly dry so we got to go to the beach in December!! Children went paddling and pebbles were collected :)
We visited Cromer; had fish and chips; walked on the pier and voted in the local best dressed Christmas Tree/Nativity Scene/Shop window competition.
We played games and crafted. There was a Nerf battle and lots of hide-and-seek. Much tea was drunk and lots of cake was eaten.
It's been a lovely week spent with lovely people who we hope to see again before next Christmas :)
We love Michael Murpurgo books here and I was delighted to be asked to review his new book and run a competition for you, my lovely blog readers :)
As you all know, I'm a great believer in reading aloud to children, no matter what their age, so it was a pleasure to read An Eagle in the Snow
to both Boykin (10) and The Girl (14). It's fab to have a book that spans the age gap and engages them both equally. Much crafting and building took place over the two afternoons it took to read the book; creative activities always seems to help them focus better on a story :)
Morpurgo makes this an easy book to read aloud, being written mainly as a conversation between three of the characters. For once, I managed to consistently remember the voices I gave to each of them, although my German accent definitely needs some work :/
The layout of the book made it a much quicker read than I thought it was going to be when I first saw it. There are wide spaces between the lines of text, and it is beautifully illustrated by the poignant artwork of Michael Foreman. Even though they're black and white, the illustrations reminded us of a another Morpurgo/Foreman collaboration that we explored last year, The Best Christmas Present in the World. That book is also about World War I and the similarity of some of the pictures helped Boykin make connections and remember that we were reading about the same war, even though An Eagle in the Snow takes place in World War II.
As always with Michael Morpurgo, there are points in the story where I have to catch my breath and shed a few tears. Being written in the first person, a stronger connection is created between the reader and the characters leading to deeper empathy. As I read, I realised that some of the subject matter of this book is just as relevant today as it has always been, what with the ongoing wars in the Middle East and the current refugee crisis.
Both my children (and I) very much enjoyed the book. They liked the characters and particularly enjoyed the twist at the end. They thought it was a sad story and wouldn't recommend it for young children. Boykin was excited that the protagonist is 10 just like himself and that we have also been to Bridlington. They both thought Billy Byron had been a brave man, despite the character's own opinions on the matter. The tension of the story is balanced by touches of humour that make the characters believable and very human. I like how Michael Morpurgo has the knack of creating heroic military characters without ever glorifying war.
Our conversations during and after reading covered World War I, World War II and the similarities with the modern day refugee crisis. We also discussed courage and doing what's right, as well as exploring a whole host of "what ifs".
To follow up, we found Coventry on the map, looked at photographs of the Cathedral, read about the Blitz and learnt about Dig for Victory. Personally, I really appreciate the Afterword where Morpurgo gives the true account of the most decorated Private of World War I. I like to know which parts of the story are pure fiction and which parts are based on truth. This book would be good as part of a larger project on both World Wars, or could even be used as the basis for a literature-based unit study of its own.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book to review. No money has changed hands. The opinions expressed are my own and my children's.
To win a copy of this book straight from the publisher, please enter the competition via the rafflecopter widget. Make sure you leave a comment below this post to validate your entry. Competition open to UK residents only. Book is aimed at ages 9+.
Technology can be great, but our household is currently plagued by troubles :(
The kids laptop won't access any sites and my PC was refusing to go online for most of the day. But worst of all, my phone seems to be dying :(
It's running very slow and the camera won't work at all. I have so many photos on there, far too many really, and I'm not sure how to retrieve them.
But I have no fear :) I'll call on my eldest son and he will help me. I'm sure of it. He's very good with technology like most people of the generation after mine. Yes, I know, there are many people of my generation who are equally as tech savvy, but for me, it's something I have to work at whereas it seems to come so much more naturally for my children. I still struggle with the remote, for goodness sake :/
Anyway, I have no photos to show (because I can't take any or see any) to show our lovely day out at Harewood House last week. Nor can I show you the comic book writing workshop we went to at the weekend led by Al Ewing. Or their joyful faces after their first lessons at Rock School. Or the birthday party they went to today.
Instead, I'll share this picture that I saw on Facebook today, as a reminder to all my children. I may not be very tech savvy, but I'm a dab-hand with a spoon ;)
I'm not really a big Instagram user. the last time I used it was for the #100homeeddays challenge. Anyhow, in my Facebook newsfeed I saw the #hsdailyphoto challenge for October hosted by A Sip of Southern Sunshine. Find her on Instagram and see other people's posts too.
OK, s Blogger is being weird and not letting me post photos :(
You can see the challenge criteria here and you can see my #hsdailyphoto challenge pictures on my Facebook page and on Instagram.
Next free cinema trips that we're looking forward to will be with the Into Film Festival in November. There's still time t book your films, if you haven't already done so :)
This is an interesting infograph that I have been asked to share. It looks at the history of American homeschoolers from 1977 and shows how the number of homeschooled children in America has doubled since 1999.
I'd love to see something similar for UK home educators, statistics and history-wise. I wonder what reasons UK parents would give for their choice to home educate?
I'm not so sure about the last three tips for homeschooling though.
Establish Expectations? Maybe that's got something to do with American home education laws. I don't really go in for evaluation by subject. I take a much more holistic approach to learning within our routines and loose structure. I know that learning happens all the time and often the outcome can not be foreseen at the outset. We often digress and what they actually learn can look very different from what I thought they would learn. The important thing is that they DO learn and that they ENJOY the process :)
Set a Space? Again, I view learning as part of life. I WANT the task of learning to be perfectly intermingled and integrated into the household.
Don't Forget Friends? Goes without saying, doesn't it? And as for children being at home with parents all day every day, that's very far from the truth in this family and other home educating families I know.
No, there's no missing apostrophe.
Today was our local themed group session. The children chose the theme themselves a few months ago and the theme was Gods.
It was a fairly quiet session (August usually is) with just 6 families with 12 children in all, age range 1 to 14.
It was beautiful day for a change, so the kids all spent a lot of time outdoors playing a very complicated role play game that involved super powers. It's great to hear a wide age range of children negotiating and building characters and plot together, loudly and happily I might add. No arguments or tears. Bliss!
There were Spirit cards to look at, colouring pages of Egyptian gods, a couple of Roman Gods minibooks left over from a previous session and a story about the Hindu gods.
They also looked at the names of the days of the week...
One thing I really like about home education is that there is less pressure to stick to traditionally gendered activities. It's never been too much of a problem for girls to like and enjoy 'boy' stuff, but boys are often ridiculed by their peers (and, unfortunately, some adults) for taking part in and enjoying anything deemed to be 'girlie'.
As a family, we attend a local sewing class that's aimed at adults. The Girl is developing her patchwork skills and I'm learning just how much bodging has gone on with my sewing projects for all these years. It's actually really nice to learn how to do things properly and not to be allowed to be lazy. (Think ironing seams :/)
After two lessons these are Boykin's creations, both are his own design :)
He's learnt how to pin a pattern, how to applique, how to use a sewing machine, how to handstitch a seam and how to embroider.
I spent the morning working on a new project and trying to organise another qualification course for The Girl and some of her friends.
Boykin was mostly playing Minecraft and the Girl mostly slept, recovering from her Duke of Edinburgh expedition.
In the afternoon , we got out for a walk with our neighbours. The sky was grey and it kept threatening to rain but it felt so good to be outside...
We've been really busy. Too busy to blog really. And too busy for very much maths, much to Boykin's delight ;)
So far this month, we have been to our monthly table top games group session where they enjoyed playing Diavolo
, Knock Your Blocks Off
and Snake Oil
amongst others.
We also had our monthly themed session which was about physics. They really enjoyed learning about Newton's Laws and doing the experiments that involved spinning eggs, dropping marbles and playing with a skateboard. I also used the opportunity to test the science activity from the new Picture Book Explorers ~ The Little Ships. (Use this link to get a 20% discount until 4th June.) It went down a treat and engaged all the kids from ages 3 to 15. Woohoo!
They're both still enjoying the study group that they attend, both doing two classes each, unfortunately for me, not at the same time.
They've been to the new local swimming pool which has slides and better family changing rooms.
The Girl has continued working on her patchwork quilt at the sewing classes we attend together; I made a cushion cover :) And I'm quite chuffed because on the very last session Boykin joined in and made a pincushion. Consequently, we're all going back to beginners again so that The Girl can finish her quilt and Boykin can make something else. It's great when they discover a new craft that they enjoy :)
Boykin has also recently been enjoying building and playing with remote control cars outside. His main indoor activity is making Minecraft videos so that he can have a Youtube channel when he's old enough. Look out Dan TDM ;)
The Girl has started volunteering at a not-so-local Montessori school one morning a week as part of her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh, and she's off this weekend on her expedition. Here's praying that they get good weather and don't get lost!
They're both working towards the Explore Arts Award with the library service who set up a CILIP shadowing scheme for our book group concentrating on the Kate Greenaway Medal. The group is from aged 5 to 15 and they all seem to be enjoying it. I'm very impressed with the way it's being run and will be incorporating some of the ideas into our own book readings at home. I'm also very impressed with the things my children come out with when discussing the books. Our litereature heavy approach has really paid off :)
We've been to the theatre to see "I Believe in Unicorns" which was sad but hopeful, and "Bromance" which was funny and breathtaking.
I finally finished reading The River Singers
to them and they've both read piles of books to themselves. Boykin has just discovered the joy of Roald Dahl.
On the film front, he's had me watching every version of The War of The Worlds that he could find on Netflix, which has lead to lots of interesting discussions. I'm thinking Day of the Triffids next as a good scary sci-fi story....
Oh, and they went to a dry slope skiing centre for their cousin's birthday :)
The Girl is currently working towards an NVQ Level 2 in Art & Design. This week's homework was to tea stain some paper and use it to create a piece that will go towards their final project. Here is a photograph of her work - shared with her permission :)
In the meantime, my not-quite-so-crafty Boy has been inspired to make mini weaponry after he saw this video on Youtube.
You can get free downloadable .pdf instructions by subscribing to Sonic Dad. There's also a selection of other freebies too.
We had a lot of fun with the glue gun even though we got a couple of singed fingers along the way - keep the aloe vera handy! It proved to be quite tricky in parts and Boykin definitely needed a bit of adult help. He was still very happy with the outcome and has been firing matches all round the house since :/
Hints and tips from Boykin:
Use coloured lolly sticks to save colouring in.
Number your pieces on the template and write the numbers on the lolly sticks too.
Trim the excess glue before it sets too hard.
I have happy memories of Easter egg hunts as a child, particularly one year's hunt that included a new book. I really hope that I am giving my children similar happy memories of special celebrations.
Family traditions have been very important to my two youngest children over the years. They have enjoyed maintaining them and tweaking them a little as they grow older.
I can't really remember when we started the tradition of an egg hunt in our home, but I think it may have been after Boykin was born. I didn't go in for encouraging the Easter Bunny, but somehow The Girl took this myth on board. Consequently, a few years ago, I was very much surprised by her disappointment when I let slip that I laid the clues for the Easter egg hunt. Boykin, on the other hand, has never believed in the Easter Bunny and has always enjoyed the egg hunt just as much as his sister.
My mum still does an egg hunt every year for her grandchildren, very similar to the ones she made for me and my younger brothers - albeit with more eggs. It is noisy joyful mayhem. They all love it and very much look forward to it, even though there were often tears when they were younger when some cousins got quite a few more eggs than others. They have had to learn to share their winnings over the years.
Because there is a four year age gap between Boykin and The Girl, I wanted to make it fairer. I had to level the playing field somewhat so that one (The Girl) wouldn't end up with loads more eggs than the other (Boykin). So, I came up with the idea of cutting egg shapes out of cardboard and drawing pictures of the places where the eggs were hidden. Drawing meant that no-one had to be able to read, and the rough sketches meant that they were both as likely to be able to guess. At each destination, there were an equal number of small eggs to be shared and a new clue which they had to work together to solve. The hunt ended with a large egg each and quite often a present too. (Usually a book, sometimes audio books or CDs, but one year I gave them toothbrush sets). The whole Easter morning egg hunt event became a much more co-operative rather than competitive celebration.
It's been a good tradition and they have both enjoyed it.
This year, however, there's been a slight change. The Girl is growing up. She's a teenager and doesn't always want to join in like she used to do. She is, however, really good at adding a certain flourish to the traditions in our home. This year, she took responsibility for setting the egg hunt. She drew pictures and wrote riddles on her egg-shaped clues, hiding the eggs in new places as well as old, tried-and-tested ones from previous years.
On Easter morning, she presented both me and Boykin with a basket for our finds. She collected her own share of eggs along the way as well, but I really loved how she included me in the fun.
I had my own Easter egg stash for once - the first time since I was a kid:) Yummy!
A Selection of Writing Competitions - open to home educators as well as schools. Click on the Parents tab and then click on Home Education in the drop down menu
The Girl is an Explorer Scout. Her scout group are going to Kanderstag International Scout Camp in Switzerland in 2016 and she has to raise the money to pay for the trip. Fundraising is not my forte and I was really stuck for ideas and suggestions for her. However, it turns out, she has had a very good idea of her own :)
The Girl wanted to help other children by donating her hair to the Little Princess Trust to be made into wigs for children with cancer. She has been collecting sponsors and the money will go towards her scout trip. Yesterday, she had 12" of hair cut off her head. The long thick plait weighed 94g and was posted to the Little Princess Trust yesterday. One of the local beaver leaders kindly cut her hair for her :)
From this.....
...to this.
.
Both me and The Girl have been overwhelmed by the messages of support for what she has done. It has really made her realise that donating hair is special and that it will have a real impact on others. I am very proud of her for her thoughtfulness and determination.
Thank you to all those people who have left messages and thank you to those who have donated. She has made a good start on her fundraising for going to the International Scout Camp next year :)
Last week we went to our first study group session. I say 'we' but really it was 'they'. The only bit I was involved in was the driving and dropping off. Another home educating mother has organised a study group for older children to take Level 2 certificate courses which can then be extended into taking IGCSEs if they wish. The Girl has signed up for four classes and Boykin has signed up for the Digital Photography and Film-making class, working towards Level 1.
It's quite a long drive to the group, but it's through lovely countryside and we get to stop and walk round a lake on the way home - weather permitting. Unfortunately, the group clashes with the home ed martial arts group, so Ninjitsu has had to go on the backburner for a while :(
Other new stuff for The Girl is that she is starting her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award with Explorers. In fact, she is at the training weekend for the expedition as I type.
The Girl also walked up Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia, Wales last weekend with friends. We try to go on at least one holiday every year with a whole bunch of people, old friends and new, cousins and kids they've grown up with. It's a fantastic weekend that gives us all chance to catch up with each other and get to know new friends better. It started out as a camping trip every year and has evolved into a YHA holiday instead.
While the teenagers and adults climbed a mountain, I took Boykin inside one - a new experience for us both. Dinorwig aka the Electric Mountain houses an underground pumped-storage hydro-power station built by the CGB when electricity production was a nationalised industry. There is a lake on top of the mountain that feeds the turbines as the water drops a couple of hundred or so feet through an enormous pipe, ending up in a lake at the bottom. The station can go from stand-by to full production in 12 seconds (or something like that) and provides the extra electricity needed during a power surge. At night, it pumps the water back up through the system from bottom lake to the top lake, using electricity provided by coal-fired and nuclear power stations. It took me a short while to get my head round the fact that for every 3 units they produce during the day, it takes 4 units to pump the water back through the system in the night. The tour guide explained really well how this particular type of power station is designed to stabilise the national grid. It's well worth a visit if you or your children are into electricity and power stations.
I managed to get up nice and early today to do some work before the kids were due to get up, as in accordance with their new timetable as designed by them. Even though they'd both had an early night last night, the wind was so strong it kept waking them up. Me too to be honest. Consequently, they were up quite a bit later than they'd planned and were still pretty tired and grumpy :/
They managed to get some of the things done that they'd chosen to do - maths and the Schofield & Sims reasoning books. They really like the challenge of them. It's just puzzles against a timer really but it gets their brains working in a different way. Boykin got a set of Nanoblocks for Christmas so he spent a fair bit of the morning working on that. Not sure quite how that fits into his new timetable, but hey ho! It's just great to see him gravitate to a toy rather than a screen :)
They got all their morning jobs done and cleaned out the rabbits. I read a chapter of Story of the World: vol. 2: to them while they finished their lunch. (We're on China and the building of the Grand Canal.) And, being inspired by this post, we had some soothing choral music playing in the background - Lambert Leçons de Ténèbres.
The Girl devised a game to build up her French vocabulary using the Cherchons Le Mot
game from Orchard Toys. She's working on a print and play version, so I can't tell you what it involves, but it was fun and it worked well :) She's trying to raise money to go on an International Scout camp next year and is hoping that her Games Galore stuff will sell on Currclick as a means of helping towards her fundraising :)
There was also a Nerf battle, a singing lesson, tea at a neighbours and a cubs meeting in and amongst it all. And right now, although it is past bedtime by my body clock, they are both still running with the Harry Potter theme (how many years is this now?) and have both just signed up to Pottermore and Hogwarts school....
Somehow, New Year always feel like a time to make new beginnings. A time to look at what we've been doing, what has worked, what hasn't and reassess what we've learned and what we want to learn. I say 'we' because I include myself in these plans too :)
We're keeping our maths curriculum, Boykin will continue to work through the books and lesson plans with me, but The Girl has decided she will do the interactive materials on the website and use the lessons and tutorials on there instead. She's making good headway and is listening to Mozart at the same time: :)
Boykin has decided he wants to learn Spanish, which means I will learn it with him as I know no Spanish and want to be able to help him along. We're starting with Duolingo to build up some vocabulary. The Girl will continue with French.
Boykin is currently using Schofield & Sims books for handwriting, grammar and spelling. The Girl is going to make a start on IGCSE English materials instead of doing the Galore Park she was doing before.
I'm still reading The Story of the World while we have elevenses, followed by whatever book we are reading for book group (A Bear Called Paddington) :0)
The Girl is really going to try and get her teeth into the IGCSE Biology book and Boykin will continue to do science experiments with me and we will start to look at the Galore Park SYRWTL Science books for a bit more theory, although I'm really not sure how he'll get on with them.
For music, The Girl will still do singing, violin and piano. I'm going to buy her a new cornet so that house has one in the house to play when she wants without needing to be in a brass band. Boykin wants to learn the didjeridoo. Hmmm!
They will both continue to work on Picture Book Explorers with me and I'm hoping to tackle volume 4 of the Five In A Row series in between those. Even if we don't follow the curriculum, I want to at least read the books :) I have plans for five more Picture Book Explorers and hope to make some more lapbooks and project packs too this year :)
Between us we want to go swimming more regularly; grow some more food; get rid of more clutter and make better use of our National Trust membership :)
We've all struggled to get back into the swing of things after Christmas, not least because of late nights and late mornings. We've managed to get to most of their activities so far, but Tuesday was a bit of a fail in that respect and we didn't quite make them all today either :/
We have a day at home tomorrow so we'll have time to recharge our batteries before The Girl starts Explorers. Another new beginning :)
to both Boykin (10) and The Girl (14). It's fab to have a book that spans the age gap and engages them both equally. Much crafting and building took place over the two afternoons it took to read the book; creative activities always seems to help them focus better on a story :)
. That book is also about World War I and the similarity of some of the pictures helped Boykin make connections and remember that we were reading about the same war, even though 
by Terry Pratchett...
, 
and 
amongst others.
to them and they've both read piles of books to themselves. Boykin has just discovered the joy of Roald Dahl.
for Christmas so he spent a fair bit of the morning working on that. Not sure quite how that fits into his new timetable, but hey ho! It's just great to see him gravitate to a toy rather than a screen :)
.
game from Orchard Toys. She's working on a print and play version, so I can't tell you what it involves, but it was fun and it worked well :) She's trying to raise money to go on an International Scout camp next year and is hoping that her .jpg)