Life, Love & Literature

Just another Home Education blog

May 18

Adventure Group — Share a Story Month

by sarah
Yes­ter­day at Adven­ture Group all the kids bought along a book they had enjoyed and told the group about it. The chil­dren all seem to be grow­ing in con­fi­dence in this sort of sit­u­a­tion and it is lovely to see.
Here is Sam shar­ing his ‘Glad­i­a­tors’, he seems to have sent Oscar and Finn to sleep though :)

Once the shar­ing had fin­ished they dec­o­rated fab­ric bookmarks.

Jack was very pleased with his.

The fin­ished masterpieces.
Then time to play.


Before piano and an early night as Jack had a headache and wasn’t up to Cubs.

Day to day life Home Ed Group

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Mar 23

The Fox Busters by Dick King Smith

by sarah

Yes­ter­day was book group. As ever we started with a quick chat about the book and then we looked at eggs and dis­cussed what would hap­pen if we dropped raw and boiled ones.

We then looked at one that had been soak­ing in vine­gar since Fri­day and saw how the shell had dis­solved and felt how rub­bery it had gone — we even got a lit­tle bounce.
Then I set the chil­dren (or mums) the chal­lenge of mak­ing a para­chute that would safely land a raw egg from the roof.
Jack helped at bit, Sam and Oscar lost con­cen­tra­tion and caused havoc by ‘inves­ti­gat­ing what hap­pens when you squeeze eggs’!
I think there may have been a bit of tak­ing over the chal­lenge from the parents!
Show­ing off the para­chutes. And yes from 3 or 4 shots this was the best!
Launch­ing…
The win­ner! Mine and Claire’s (for­get the boys they didn’t help) sur­vived com­pletely unharmed.
Lunch in the sun.
Then that was pretty much the last I saw of them.
Home and Jack had a Cub hike along the beach.

Day to day life Home Ed Group

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Mar 2

Being ‘Findouters’

by sarah

Tues­day was one of those ‘really good days’ that brighten things up when you have been down and con­vince you spring will come and you won’t always want to stran­gle the kids.

Being St David’s Day we started the day by mak­ing a bara brith and some mac­a­roons (not Welsh but relevant).

Time for a game of chess before break­fast. Sam is start­ing to be able to play prop­erly. Although this game ended pre­ma­turely when he had two pawns left, nei­ther of which he could legally move, and he dis­solved into tears because he ‘really wanted to move a pawn’.
Piano prac­tice.
Bit of Eng­lish and then off to book group.
We started with paint­ing pic­tures with lemon juice. I later ironed them to reveal the pic­tures — Jack did an omni­trix and Sam a squig­gle but I appear to have lost them.
Then I taught the kids ‘head, shoul­ders, knees and toes’ in Welsh to warm up their voices before we dis­cussed the book. It was nice to see the kids all start­ing to join in now, in the past I’ve done 90% of the talk­ing but they are all start­ing to join in and it’s lovely to hear.
The book was Enid Blyton’s ‘The Mys­tery of the Burnt Cot­tage’ and I’d set up a ‘mys­tery’ for the kids to solve.
One of the other mums had wrote a note ‘Sarah has a big bum’ and we pre­tended it was in the kitchen when I went in.
First stage was hunt­ing for foot­prints. They found lots in the sand­pit. How­ever, we had taken crayon rub­bings of the soles of 3 mums shoes, and even­tu­ally we per­suaded them to focus on these.
Once they had the foot­prints they matched them up to the mum’s shoes.
Then they ‘inter­viewed’ their sus­pects. Finally they asked the sus­pects to write their names down and with mag­ni­fy­ing glasses exam­ined the writ­ing until they matched one to the note.
Hav­ing solved the mys­tery (it was that pesky Claire!) it was time for Gin­ger beer and macaroons.

Then out­doors where they all had great fun play­ing at being ‘find­outers’ mak­ing up their own mysteries.
I didn’t get any pho­tos out­doors — I was too busy iron­ing lemon juice pic­tures — but here is more pool playing.
Unfor­tu­nately by the time we got home Jack wasn’t feel­ing well at all (although was still glad we went appar­ently) and curled up and has slept for most of the time since then.

Day to day life Home Ed Group

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Jan 19

Cat in the Hat

by sarah

Sam was very happy when he woke up yes­ter­day because I’d fixed all the holes in his soft toys. Can’t do much with Sweet­heart the mon­key as he was chopped up by scis­sors (why?) so has no hair and only one ear. We have found another hole in his foot since though — poor thing, he is back on my mend­ing shelf already.

We packed our pic­nic includ­ing these ‘mosaic bars’ baked on Mon­day. Which were actu­ally pretty hor­ri­ble.
Jack did his Maths and then helped Sam with his.
Then we went to Book Group and made Cat in the Hat pen­cil pots and kites. They also did pic­tures in the style of Dr Seuss. Unfor­tu­nately the boys didn’t quite get the idea but Han­nah did a fab one so hop­ing Susie posts a picture.
Then out­side to try and fly the kites.

And build sand­cas­tles.

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Dec 7

Back to Normal…

by sarah

…Although it is still very cold!

Mon­day we cracked on with some ‘school’ work. Jack worked on prob­lem solv­ing in his Maths book. He did some Eng­lish, by a fluke of good tim­ing the chap­ter he is study­ing is based on some text from Trea­sure Island. Then some sci­ence and now keeps throw­ing out ran­dom facts about scurvy.
Sam did some Maths from his hein­na­men book, then insisted he had to do some from his CGP book as as the first had colour (and doesn’t look like Jack’s) it isn’t proper Maths. He is des­per­ate to catch Jack up, but since Jack is 4 school years older and work­ing ahead of where he should be I can’t see it hap­pen­ing. But he’s try­ing bless him and doing well. I think he is going to be good at Maths too but in a dif­fer­ent way to Jack his brain seems to process the visual stuff much better.
We then did some more Pil­grim work.

Includ­ing mak­ing a pup­pet.
And a dis­cus­sion of ‘rules’ and man­ners.
Then we nipped into Fare­ham for a few bits and pieces and added a few grey hairs as it was hor­ri­bly busy.

Then took Sam to gym­nas­tics where he got his first pro­fi­ciency award.
Tues­day, we braved the cold to go over to Portsmouth for Book Group.
We looked at Trea­sure Island. After a short dis­cus­sion the kids made skull and cross­bone bis­cuits, a com­pass (by mag­netis­ing a nee­dle and putting it on a piece of cork in a cup) — had var­i­ous degrees of suc­cess with that, and drew trea­sure maps which we ‘aged’ with tea.
Sam’s map
Jack and Oscar’s map
Then it was out­side to play, where they didn’t appear to feel the cold.
Stopped off in Gun­wharf on the way home.

Then home. Tea. Took Jack to cubs and Sam and I did some Christ­mas crafts and then to bed with Percy Jackson.

Day to day life Home Ed Group

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Nov 14

Out and About

by sarah

Last week involved lots of run­ning around.

Mon­day we started with a bit of work. Maths, Eng­lish (read­ing prac­tice for Sam)and read our story of the week.
We looked at ‘Eeyore’s Birth­day’ to con­tinue the ‘fes­ti­vals’ theme.
We then did some exper­i­ments with bal­loons. Putting on some sticky tape and then pok­ing a nee­dle through.
Then inflat­ing a bal­loon using the gas released from mix­ing vine­gar and bak­ing powder.
Then home ed group where they played with the boomwhack­ers and gym­nas­tics for Sam.
Tues­day we braved the wind and rain (and thun­der and light­ning) to go over to Portsmouth for book group. We dis­cussed George’s Mar­vel­lous Med­i­cine. Made a vol­cano from bak­ing soda and vine­gar again. Every­one drew ingre­di­ents and we stuck them on a big pan to make a collage.
The kids then all made blob­ber (borax, and pva) with vary­ing degrees of success.
After lunch we played para­chute games and the kids did some dancing.
Back home we dropped of our bags and then took Jack to his piano les­son. Back home for 1hr, time for a quick tea and change. Then off to Cubs. Where Jack wrote the fol­low­ing poem…
Lots of sol­diers died
By their rules we abide
On Remem­brance Day
I say
Spir­its invis­i­ble to the naked eye
There in the grave­yard they do lie
Weds we messed around at home and then the boys came to Rain­bows with me. The other Guider has 8yo twins, a 9yo and a 10yo, who stayed too and they all get on really well. While the older 2 help out the younger ones hide away in the cor­ner and play/chat.
Thurs­day we caught up with some work and house­hold chores then took Jack to drama. As the lady who is in charge was there Sam decide to ask if he could join in next term. She let him join in then, he loved it!
Fri­day we went out to Southamp­ton to cel­e­brate Sam’s birth­day, which being on a Sun­day (and Remem­brance Day) we’ll spend qui­etly at home (or out parad­ing). Due to the rain we just went to the town cen­tre. To the model shop for Air­fix kits, Burger King for lunch and then to the Build a Bear workshop.
(sorry for pic­ture qual­ity, pho­tos are off phone)
Sam made a rab­bit named Alexan­der — com­plete with Star Wars PJs.
And then played some music with Dad before bed.

Day to day life Out and About

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Sep 29

Home Ed Groups Galore

by sarah
Yes­ter­day we started our new book of the week

We exper­i­mented with chang­ing tex­tures and made bread (Sam told the lady in the co-op tonight that it was hor­ri­ble).

Time for Maths and Eng­lish. Then we headed over to Stub­bing­ton to meet some mem­bers of Fare­Gos for a new meet­ing in the new Guide hall. Was only a few fam­i­lies there but the kids had great fun run­ning around the hall. We didn’t bother with set­ting up any activ­i­ties, a ball and fris­bee and open space and that was all they needed. There was also time for some tree climb­ing before Sam’s gym­nas­tic class.
Today we headed over to Portsmouth to join the home ed group there for book group. We were look­ing at the book Flat Stan­ley. Jack and Sam were very vocal dur­ing the group discussions.
Then they made a new flat trav­eller and pass­port each.
 

The room is attached to an Adven­ture play­ground which Sam was so excited by — espe­cially the sand­pits. Jack got stung by a bee about which he was very stoic.

At home I decided to test out a recipe for next months ses­sion which the boys decided to take as an invi­ta­tion to empty var­i­ous things out of the kitchen cup­boards and mix them up to see what hap­pens. Var­i­ous pots of green salty water with tis­sue paper in and things like that are now sit­ting in the kitchen.
Finally Jack had Cubs at the Ten­nis club.
Tir­ing but enjoy­able few days.

Day to day life Home Ed Group

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