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Archive : August 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The table is set
Here is our newly created autumn nature table :) Again, maybe I'm a tad ahead of myself here but never mind - the kids were just as keen to get on and do it as I was so we did!
I finally got round today to removing our bird chart from the front of the fridge. Readers who came to my temporary home ed blog (Activity Homeschool) a while ago, may remember this but I thought I'd share it for the benefit of those who haven't. It's a really lovely, all year-round addition to your homeschool nature study.
Basically, we've been keeping this since September last year - we've kept track of the birds that we've seen (mostly in our garden but also a couple from other places). We just drew round a dinner plate on a piece of A3 paper, divided into quarters and coloured the outlines to represent the different seasons. Then Rosie just added the birds to the chart as we went through the year - it was rather fun and a couple of times she had to come back and consult her bird spotting book to find out the name of one :) She's been a bit lax over the last couple of months but with everything that's been going on (holidays and whatnot) it's been hard to remember to do it. I'm thinking of doing it again this year to compare bird sightings BUT am also wary of ruining the fun by doing it every year so I'm thinking about it.
Very excited at the moment because today I found out when BBC Autumnwatch starts - 27th October! It runs for 2 weeks and it should be even more interesting this year because part of it is being filmed from Brownsea Island which is in my neck of the woods :) Can't wait - Springwatch and Autumnwatch have become such a lovely part of my year!
Actually feeling nice and relaxed and ready for the new school year :) You simply wouldn't believe that only a couple weeks ago I was totally stressed and not at ALL happy or feeling ready for it. Not sure what was wrong really other than I had a couple of things on my mind - one of which being April and nursery which she is NOT going back to and which has taken a huge weight off my shoulders. I can't honestly say going to nursery changed her that much but it DID change her - she had considerably more flunkies than usual and she did definately get a bit "tired" of it towards the end of last term. There were also issues I personally had with the school which I won't go into here but frankly just served to remind me how, once you enroll your child, they almost cease to BE your child anymore. Ho-hum. She's been a happy, happy little girl over the last few weeks and I see no reason to change that. Of course, all this does mean a possible return to Tumbletots .... groan.
Next Wednesday Rosie goes back to trampoline class to start work on her Level 10 award! I think this one will take her a while as it's going to involve quite a leap in the sort of things she'll have to do. Tim and I are taking April into the cafe and then out to the playpark while Rosie's in there, something we've not done for ...ooooo!... ages. I'm looking forward to it hugely :)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Yes, I know ...
.. I'm a bit quick off the mark with the old autumn themed blog but whatever. I love autumn and was bored of the other blog theme now. I was going to change it in the next couple of days anyway and had some spare time so decided to just get on with it *smiles*
Well, I've been busy cleaning house a lot, doing some gardening (can't believe how much it all grew while we were away!) and preparing homeschool stuff for when we start next week. I've decided, now that April's older, to make things easier with doing work for both of them, to follow a fairly seasonal basis for our learning. So, I'll break things down into 3 monthly periods, think about any special events that happen during those months and then plan maths, language arts and craft activities to go with them. For Rosie's science we're going to stick to nature study (got her a gorgeous Usborne garden nature spotter sticker book) plus experiments with her chemistry set. I'm also going to do the MEP maths in addition to plenty of seasonal fun stuff (which will be stuck into a maths journal). April will obviously have lots and lots of seasonal crafts, simple worksheets (for counting, letters, shapes etc) and nature spotting.
We're going to do 3 "main" school days a week (when Tim is working) and then more relaxed learning the rest of the week when he is off (although he frequently does overtime so I may catch the kids out by chucking in an unannounced extra day just when they thought they could relax bwa-ha-ha). The days off will also be for outside the home classes and daytrips out.
So, obviously, from September through November we'll be doing autumn/halloween/Guy Fawkes night stuff. I'm REALLY excited because I've just got the most FUN things for them to do :)
We're going to redo our nature table and I've printed out a background landscape to go with it along with some little characters (squirrel, acorns etc). I've laminated these and attached the little characters with blue tack so that as well as being a background, April can use it as a playset sometimes.
I've also got a calendar/weather chart, primarily for April as Rosie's has outgrown such things but I think April will have fun changing the pictures every day :)
I've chosen 2 main sites for putting together some seasonal maths activities - Math Wire and Math Cats. Both of these have some great ideas for all seasons and holidays. There are also some brilliant "basic" maths worksheets for the seasons at Kidzone
Nature Detectives is a lovely UK site - they're currently still doing summer stuff at the moment but look out for the autumn nature study soon.
For a large collection of autumn crafts try DLTK - they've also got a Halloween section too.
Finally, I put together a few activities of my own for the kids (most preschool stuff but there is some bits for slightly older kids too). You can download them here (there ARE a couple of errors - nothing major, just a couple of blank boxes that got in by mistake - just ignore those, you'll see what I mean lol).
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Days that follow
A round-up of sorts.
So, we're getting back into the swing of things here following our holiday. I've been tackling the laundry we brought back with us (so much of it ... starting to feel like a bloody washer woman!), clearing the mess left by the builders and generally trying to get back into a routine. Kind of.
Tim ended up doing a days overtime this week so went back to work a day earlier than he should of done. No biggy - he wasn't there very long anyway which prompted me to think that they didn't really actually need him that much anyway *shrugs*. He's working this bank holiday coming which will be interesting to see if it's busy or whether everyone has sodded off to escape the rain.
My new bathroom is divine and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Yes, I can get excited about a bathroom - if you'd seen it before you'd know why. It was crap. Now it's white and shiney and modern - a joy to clean! We've got a bit of a leak under the toilet and another under the sink which the workmen have to come back out and look at but other than that it's gorgeous.
We finally (I hope!) have cured our computer of it's power supply problem. My brother had it while we were away and put in a new graphics card for me (back to Sims yay!) but was baffled by the power problem. Anyway, in the end, some guy came out yesterday evening and sorted it for us (and only charged £35 - bargain!)
Evenings are drawing in aren't they? I kind of like it - I look forward to Halloween and Guy Fawkes night and stuff (I'm such a kid!) I've also been snuggling down on a Friday night and watching The Tudors which, whilst not being entirely historically accurate, is jolly entertaining. Poor old Anne Boleyn *laughs* y'know she's headed for the block - it's like watching a car crash in slow motion. I had to laugh at Henry though - utterly devoted until she gave birth to Elizabeth and then it's like "oh right!! you've had a girl, well that's that then - I'm off with other ladies!" And off he went - getting the Duke of Suffolk (the utterly yummy Henry Cavill) to chat up other women for him (can't even do his own dirty work pah!!)
Tim and I have been planning some places to go with the kids to enjoy the remaining summer weather. Definately going up Hengistbury Head again, it's one of my most favourite walking spots and also hoping to go to "the fossil beach" (the name of which temporarily eludes me) further up the coast. Must do Corfe Castle too - haven't been there for YEARS. Oh, and more berry picking soon *smiles*.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Jersey Part 2
Feeling definately better this morning having got a pretty good nights sleep last night. Poor old Tim is still snoozing but then I think he was worse off than me sleep-wise so it's not surprising.
Thought I'd fill in with a few amusing/mad/annoying bits from our holiday (actually, there weren't that many annoying bits!) Just so you know who I'm talking about, we went with Tim's mum and step-dad and their adopted son Luke, Tim's sister (Sarah!) and her boyfriend Rob and Tim's mums god-daughter, Hannah. Here goes ...
- Me staggering around the duty free shop on the boat lugging 2 litres of vodka with me like I'd already had one too many was pretty funny. I was laughing at myself and my mother in law was laughing even more. If you've ever tried to duty free shop on a ferry (particularly an express one) you'll know it's impossible to walk straight. The shop is probably the worse bit of the boat as it's down at the bottom and it REALLY rolls - not good if you get travel sick but luckily I've got good sea legs.
- Luke tripping over in the restaurant at breakfast and falling face first in his mum's full English shouldn't have been funny because he upset himself. However, I've got to admit the sight of eggs, bacon, sausage etc flying everywere was very nearly too much for Rosie and I and we had to hide behind our napkins.
- The roads in Jersey are CRAZY. Firstly, the maps lie - they tell you to go down a certain road which then either doesn't exist or ends up being a dead-end (this very nearly ended up being the cause of several minii screaming matches between Tim and myself as we tried to navigate our way around). Secondly, a "B" road in Jersey wouldn't even constitute a country lane here. Several times we turned into what was supposed to be a "B" road and sat there saying "this cannot be a main road - it's only one cars width!" We ended up down one such road and, having driven a good way down it, found ourselves confronted with 2 workmen who had dug a big trench across the road which we couldn't drive across. We certainly coudn't reverse ALL the way back down the tiny road so we sat there and they scratched their heads. Then one of the men grabbed his shovel, partially filled in the trench and put a piece of wood across it so we could drive on! As we drove off Tim said "God, I hope we don't find this is a dead end and have to turn round!" *laughs*
- I mentioned the windy day in my last post but I really cannot put into words just HOW windy it was. At the same spot where Tim took the light house picture, there were some toilets that Rosie and I needed to use. I actually had problems getting out of the car because the wind was buffeting the door and then when we tried to cross the road there was a sudden HUGE gust of wind and we couldn't walk - we actually did just stand there, trying to remain upright, with our hair plastered to our faces and laughing our arses off. Thank god no cars came!!
- On one of our last nights in the hotel, we had the misfortune to have a bunch of noisy, rave music playing idiots be moved into the room above. I'm very surprised they picked that particular hotel to stay in because it just didn't seem their type being a sort of sleepy, slightly well-to-do country hotel. Anyway, they drove us nuts so Tim went and complained to reception who promptly reprimanded the "villains" amid much grovelling and apologies to Tim. The horrible people were then moved to another part of the hotel - in the room above Tim's mums!!! Bwa-ha-ha!! Ahem.
- As mentioned before, the journey home was a nightmare. We got to the ferry terminal on time and were supposed to be boarding and sailing within the hour. However, it was not to be. Firstly, there was a stonking great "slow" ferry (bound for Portsmouth) in the space where our ferry should have been and it would not go. This was due to the fact they were still trying to get their passengers on and the passengers were obviously dense and couldn't seem to navigate their way on to the ship. So, the tannoy man had to keep sending out messages - these started off firm and authorative "Please could all foot passengers, heading for Portsmouth, board the ferry now". As time passed he started to get more panicky - "This is the last and final (LAST and FINAL!) call for foot passengers to Portsmouth!" It wasn't the last and final call though because a while (a LONG while) later he came back on the tannoy, this time clearly having a full-on breakdown judging by his hysterical voice. I can't remember exactly what he said but it was words to the affect of "for the love of god, will all foot passengers for Portsmouth PLEASE get on the bloody boat NOW!" Rob, who's car we were in, said he'd go out and round them up with a pitch-fork *laughs* Anyway, that wasn't the only delay. Having finally got rid of the big ferry and ours arriving to replace it, we were then told by the boarding card office that sailing was being delayed by an hour (it ended up being nearly 2) due to "worsening weather conditions". Perfect. We left the car in the queue and fought our way through the driving rain to the terminal cafe (not surprised they're called "terminals" - you could die of terminal bordem in them), to have a revolting cup of tea and read magazines. Then we fought our way back through the rain and started to drive on to the ferry. Whilst doing this the boarding "officials" were shouting "come on! hurry up! I want to go home!!" like it was OUR fault that they were running late! UN-believable!
So, we FINALLY got home, didn't really notice the mess caused by the builders (when I get my hands on those bloody builders ......) at first and just collapsed into bed. It wasn't until the next day that I really noticed the huge stain in the middle of my hall floor, the plaster dust over EVERY surface and the total rubbish left in my entrance porch *sigh*. Got lots of cleaning to do now.
Right, I'm off now to get on with some stuff - got a HUGE pile of laundry to get through and MAYBE I should wake Tim now?......
PS - I know autumn is on it's way because last night Tim caught the first big house spider of the season. Now I'm terrified as well as being surrounded by dirt and dirty washing. Perfect.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Jersey
Well, I'm tired but started playing around with some holiday photos and Moviemaker .. mucking around with titles and stuff and made a holiday video.
This is of some of my favourite still photos from the week which I put together and added a soundtrack. I used Beth Rowley's Sweet Hours which we heard over and over on the radio as we drove around the island and which I will now forever associate wth that holiday. Amazingly, it fits just so well with the pictures and the overall mood - the hours did go by quickly!
We were amazingly lucky with the weather and only had one major downpour over the week (at least during the day, it did rain at night) and one day when it was sunny and warm but absolutely blew a gale. In the video, you'll see a picture of a lighthouse - Tim took this while being pinned to the tailgate of the car by the wind *laughs*, it was hysterical. The rest of the week was wonderfully warm and sunny and we sat by the pool and went to the beach and for long walks. There's not much else I can say about the week - I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Greetings earthlings!
Helloooooo! We're back!
We're also excessively tired having not slept hardly at all for the last 48 hours. The ferry home was delayed hugely (Condor Express indeed! Huh!) and we got back to a bitofa mess left by the builders (they'd made a rather lame attempt to hoover but it was basically horrible). So, we're going to sleep (lots), clean up and sort through hundreds of holidays pics (oh! and got a dentist appointment on Tuesday morning - good planning eh?) and then I'll blog proper *smiles*
Jersey was fab, weather was (mostly) fab, everything generally fab but for now much rest beckons so I'll catch up soon.
*Yawn*
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Life goes on
Feeling a fair bit better over the Mo thing now. Still get very choked up over silly things that remind me of him but at least not bawling my eyes out continuously.
This is really just a flying visit to say I'm checking out for a while. The computer is going off to my brother to have stuff done (new graphics card and a dodgy power supply problem sorted) and we are sailing off on holiday very soon so there'll be no blogging for a couple of weeks.
"See" you soon *smiles*
Byeeeeee!
See archive index for other posts