A different group every day

This week has been BUSY with home ed groups.

On Monday morning, Boykin went to his Bronze Arts Award group at the library. Progress was made on the Lego stop motion animation that he is making with three of his friends there. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it when it is finished.
He then went back to his friend's house afterwards where they spent the afternoon trying to complete a Lego bridge building challenge. I love how home education can be shared with other families :) I'm very grateful for it.

On Tuesday, The Girl finished her volunteering at the local library which she was doing as part of her D of E. They gave her a glowing report and a card and box of chocolates as a thank you :) We love our libraries!
In the afternoon, both children enjoyed playing Laserquest with a group of other home ed families. They had a great time and I got chance to chat to other parents and have a cup of tea :)
In the evening, we went to the theatre as part of a home ed trip to see Attached, a circus show. It was funny and clever. Boykin wants a Velcro suit now.

Yesterday, The Girl was at college. me and Boykin spent the day at our local themed session. This month it was Disney & Animation. Activities included a Disney timeline game; a Peppa Pig game; a pin-the-tail-on-Eeyore game; icing mickey mouse on digestives; stop-motion plasticine animation; creating animated figures using plastic cups; Disney animal related parachute games and decorating Gingerbread Men on biscuits made by one of the older girls :)

This morning, The Girl and one of her friends went to their music theory lesson whilst Boykin went to the ninjitsu group. We raced to town this afternoon to go to a tour of a small museum in the local university where we are hoping to attend some workshops over the coming year.
It was a lovely session. They got to see behind the scenes, handle artefacts and play with a gigantic computer screen-thingie.
Afterwards, The Girl went shopping with her Nana and Boykin came home to spend some time on his latest computer project.

I think we will all be glad of a quiet day at home tomorrow :)

Still adjusting....

....to all the changes that go with The Girl doing one day of college a week. I didn't think it would have as much impact as it has done. Boykin is also out of the house for almost a full day a week too, but on a different day. He's taking part in a Bronze Arts Award group and then goes to his friends for a few hours afterwards. I'm juggling tutoring on one of those days and on the other there are two lots of music lessons to fit in as well.

I'm trying to ensure that The Girl still gets some positive HE group experiences in this last year at home so have organised a few theatre trips and a museum takeover day in the next couple of months on top of the usual groups that we do. I'm finding that she doesn't want to go to all the groups anymore because she has so much studying to do for upcoming IGCSEs and music exams. This can be a bit tricky when Boykin does want to go, depending on where it is and how long we will be out for, of course. Tuesdays were our at home pyjama day for a while but so far, it doesn't seem to be happening that often anymore :( I think our pyjama days will now be tied in with school holidays and I think we're really going to appreciate those holidays this year.

Despite all the nearly-daily activities that they do, we still had time to take a day out to Lyme Park in Cheshire as part of The Girl's studying of Pride and Prejudice. It's the stately home used as the exteriors of Pemberley in the BBC series that starred Colin Firth. It's well worth the visit. We'll be going back again because we didn't get time to see much of the park and when we were still only halfway round the house there was a fire drill.

Boykin was given a trail sheet to take round the house which he enjoyed and which encouraged him to look at things in more detail. There's a wonky fireplace; a secret panel so that the family could spy on their guests; a library where you can sit and read books; a writing desk where you can write letters that they will post for you; a butler's pantry where you can have a go at cleaning the floor; a nursery where you can play with the toys and rearrange the dolls house and a school room where you can play a piano and leave a message on the blackboard. As usual, we took our time and made the most of everything :)

We enjoyed the gardens and then went to the playground. It was pretty late in the day so we had it all to ourselves which was fun for me because I get to climb up the towers and stuff too ;)