Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Aaaaah! Lovely!
It's sooooo hot! Really nice after all the cruddy cold, rainy weather recently *smiles* However, it's not good when you go shopping - we went to Tesco this afternoon and nearly melted in the car on the way home.
Been looking through yesterdays Sopley photos again. I have to say I think I look like poo and it's really depressing because I don't actually look like that - I really don't! I just totally hate having my photo taken and always, without fail, end up either looking grumpy or pulling a stupid face (or I get caught at the wrong angle and just look plain fat!) Anyway, we were mucking around with my new camera again this afternoon (so many functions on it - so confusing!) and snapping away at each other and here are some results (Tim forced me to delete the ones of him - he hates having his picture taken even more than me!) Really trying hard to get some up to date pics at the moment because all the ones on the photo page are really getting old now.
Me having a cuddle with April (you WILL have a cuddle ha! ha!) See what I mean about me and photos though?! I look like I'm asleep! S'pose my hair looks ok *grumble grumble*
Rosie being very, very silly! She also looks a bit ill ... bad lighting I think
April "look at my sandy hands!"
I'm hoping our upcoming holiday will afford some better photos opportunities .. but I'm not getting my hopes up. *Grumble grumble again*
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Feeling fruity
This afternoon we headed out to one of our favourite places - Sopley Farm in Hampshire. It's a pick your own place and I'm pretty sure I blogged about it last year because we love it - they do the best raspberries EVER. Honestly, I've never tasted any better they are gorgeous.
Anyway, the weather was fantastic today so we had a good walk and came back with truckloads (ok, I exagerate!) of fruit - raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and rhubarb. It also gave me the change to practice with my new camera again so here are some pics AND a little vid of patched together clips ... still getting the "rumbly" sound when we record stuff - will have to work out why. Right at the end of the video is a shot of some eggs in a nest we found amongst the strawberries. No idea what bird they came from but they looked abandoned which is a bit sad.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Na, na, na, I'm not listening
Photo of April taken a couple days ago. Aaaaaah! ain't she cute? Just wish she'd listen to her mother occasionally! Certainly would save an awful lot of tears - literally!
We have a huge area of lawn in our garden and, because April is still a bit unsteady on her feet, I've told her not to run on the path - just the lawn.
I've told her ... and told her ... and told her....
... and she totally ignores me. She runs on the path, falls over and screams blue murder while we mop her tears and apply tubefuls of Germolene to her various grazes. Every time it happens I say "don't run on the path just the lawn".
Today, she ran on the path, fell over and is now sporting glowing grazes on her chin and arm.
Bloody hell, I wonder why I bother. Really, I do.
Maybe I should try some reverse psychology ..... "for the love of God, DON'T run on the grass!"
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Proms
Wow! I've gone blog-post-bloody-mad today! What can I say?..... it's Sunday.
I'm not much of a telly addict, there are a few things which I adore and will ALWAYS watch (sometimes much to Tim's distress ... I'm thinking, Are You Being Served here) such as Spring/Autumnwatch, the Blackadder series, Goodnight Sweetheart, history documentaries and so on. The Proms is one such thing.
Obviously, I got into this because Tim was into it and we've watched it every year since we got together. Some years it's been brilliant and other years it's been a bit forgetable (or annoying, in the case of the jolly uplifting 9th Symphony by Beethoven getting cancelled last year!)
I haven't really had chance to study what is going to be on this year but Tim tells me that there is going to be the Miraculous Mandarin (Bartók). Oh! I was overjoyed - this was last on years ago (when I was pregnant with Rosie in fact) and I didn't take much notice of the music (shame on me!) but I adored the shadow puppets that went with it *big grin*
Alas! This year, no puppets!! NO PUPPETS! What's the point of the Miraculous Mandarin with no puppets?! Pah! The odd shadow puppets acting out the rather sordid story just soooo make it! *grumble, grumble*
Anyway, opening night of the Proms was ok (although there have been better years). Presenters are now stuck in a slightly bland "News at 10" style room which I don't think is quite right because they seem a bit separated from the action. Most of the music was nice but spoiled a bit by the rather long and noisy organ solo piece ... the title of which eludes me.
Looking forward to the rest of the season thought ... odd to think that by the time it finishes we'll be into early autumn.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
New home ed site
After much thought, I've decided to move all my home ed related stuff over to a new site here
this is because this site is becoming a little confusing and cluttered with a mixture of home ed and non-home ed items.
Doing this will allow me to post ... erm... whatever I like on this site without confusing/upsetting/bothering people who come looking for purely home education related things.
All homeschool stuff that was already on this site will remain (with the exception of the homeschool page which will be transferred completely to the new site) but from now on there will be no home ed posts - they will be on the new blog.
The link for the new site will be in the sidebar.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Montessori homeschool resources - Part 2
For part 1 of this click here.
There are loads of places you can get Montessori materials - both free and paid for - here are some that I think are the best.
Montessori Print Shop Has an excellent range of low cost pdf files in all subjects. Also has recently added a free download section which changes every month.
In-Print Montessori Gorgeous materials and the prices aren't too bad. I especially love their transparent skeleton overlay cards (which, if I don't buy anything else, I WILL be getting for the new school year!)
EdCatalyst Various free download files. Very nice.
JMJ Publishing Lots of free pdf's here so that you can make your own materials.
Montessori Materials Group Very well known, free materials site.
Montessori for Everyone Low cost pdf materials. Also has a very good section of free downloads here.
Alison's Montessori Has a good range of pdf files in addition to their "solid" materials.
The above links cover, mostly, pdf materials. If you are looking for things like bead materials, geometric solids and all the other "solid" materials, your best bet is to go to Ebay. I've got some real bargains from there (Montessori materials are VERY expensive). You could also try:
Absorbent Minds The prices of the materials are amazing BUT watch out for the VAT and postage costs which are added on afterwards, they bump out the price HUGELY and you could be in with a shock.
Finally, don't forget to check my home ed page - I'm slowly uploading free materials that I've made but it will take a while :)
Friday, July 18, 2008
All Zwinkied-out and other things
Bored of Zwinky now. That didn't last long but then I didn't expect it to, to be honest. It wasn't helped by the fact that it was waaaay too weird (some very odd things going on there). I'm finding more and more that I get bored of these virtual things very quickly (I used to adore them!) - maybe I just like the real world and real people much more ;)
Anyway, other stuff. We've made the big decision to get April out of nappies over the summer. Yes, she's still in nappies. Every attempt we've made thus far has failed and so I talked to the HV about it at April's 3.5 year check up. HV says to just get a tonne of knickers and go "cold turkey" as far as nappies are concerned. I'm dreading this but I can understand the idea behind it so I'm just preparing myself for a mountain of washing. Tim and I are both agreed that once we start on this road we cannot go back so if she is not toilet trained by September she won't be going back to nursery. She can't go if she's still wetting all the time and we refuse to put her back in nappies (she'll be nearly 4!!) We'll have a slight "blip" when we go on holiday soon as we'll have to use pull-ups but other than that it's bye bye nappies (apart from at night).
We're off to Tim's mums tomorrow evening for my (belated) birthday dinner which I'm very much looking forward to as she is making a curry and I love her curries. Actually, I probably prefer them a little bit more to Tim's but shhhhh! don't tell him!
Friday, July 18, 2008
A con and a half
Tim got a letter in the post today - it was a fine (why do they call it a "fine" when it is, in fact, anything BUT fine?!) for £75 for apparently parking somewhere he shouldn't - in this case a local pub car park. Tim wanted to park to get to the nearby cashpoint machine so he went in the carpark, realised he wasn't allowed to park there and drove out again.
...and he's been fined £75 for that. What a bloody con!!
His "crime" has been referred to as nuisance parking but (and here's the rather odd thing) he DIDN'T park - he drove in and drove out.
He didn't react well to the not-fine and I suspect the parking company are going to get a rude letter about it in which the words "shove", "violently" and "rectum" are going to feature quite heavily.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
What a day!
Had a fantastic, albeit up and downy day today :)
Tim got up and made me breakfast in bed and I had my pressies and cards - my new camera from him and Lush smellies from the kids. Then I decided to put the computer on and install the drivers for my camera. Nothing. Hmmm. It wasn't doing anything when I put the power on so (again!) along comes James and sorts it out. Not sure what was wrong but he said it might have been something to do with a power surge.
So, we had lunch and then James went home and we got to play with my new camera - in a big way!
Rosie was in the garden and heard a rustling sound in the bushes. When she looked she saw a grass snake wrestling with the biggest toad I've ever seen! Tim went racing down the garden with the camera (that I haven't got to use yet *laughs*) and got a brilliant picture AND a short video. The snake had fastened it's jaws around the toads head and was dragging it around however, I think it had bitten off more than it could chew because, despite fighting with it for about half an hour, it just couldn't eat it! In the end the snake gave up and disappeared and the toad, although shaken, hopped off apparently unharmed.
Here's the (utterly brilliant) photo Tim took - if you click on it you get the bigger version. It looks like the snake was just resting it's head on the toads back but it actually had it's jaws wide open round it.
If you want to see the wrestling match in action, I stuck the vid on You Tube. It's very short, only about 11 seconds and it's a bit gruesome really! The thing to remember is that the toad survived this *smiles*
Monday, July 14, 2008
Montessori homeschool resources
Getting ready for a new school year here (amongst other things!). For those of you interested in Montessori as a method (ooooo! how we love it), here are a few resources to help you on your way. Today I'm focusing more on the "how to" such as curriculum and lesson plans - on another day fairly soon, I'll do some materials links.
The Moveable Alphabet Excellent blog by a Montessori teacher. Full of ideas.
My Montessori Journey Another wonderful blog.
Montessori Mom Links of the Day A great blog tha provides (almost) daily lesson ideas.
Shu-Chen Jenny Yen's Albums Free Montessori lesson albums.
Montessori World Free lesson albums.
Montessori lesson presentation videos These are excellent. Scroll down the page until you come to the list of videos by Tami Elliot. Each section contains several videos.
Michael Olaf Free pdf versions of The Joyful Child and Child of the World - their Montessori information books.
Moteaco Lesson albums for 3-6 and 6-9 years.
Montessori Scope & Sequence This page from a Montessori school website has some excellent pdf's for the scope and sequence right through to 12th grade.
See archive index for other posts