NOTE ON PICTURES: This shouldn't be necessary but I have, sadly, noticed growing cases. Please DO NOT link directly to pictures on this website - it steals my bandwidth and is BAD! I CAN trace you if you do and I will take action.
Category : Crafts
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Pictures
Just can't blog properly at the moment - suffering from a bit of blog-writers-block. I have plenty to say but can't seem to put it into words! Ah well, until I get my groove back, here are some pics.
Categories: Crafts, Cultural, Language Arts, Maths
Comments
Friday, June 11, 2010
Froggy things!
So, we've been doing some frog related work - here are some things so far ...
April's moving frog craft - complete with pond! Not sure about the shark being in the pond though .... *laughs*
Rosie did a frog report wheel about the Poison Dart Frog and then made a collage rainforest pocket to keep it in her project book
April working with the parts of a frog cards
.... and starting to make a "parts of" booklet
For her parts of a frog, Rosie labelled a picture
We've also looked a lifecycles and painted lifecycle pictures. April wanted her frogs, tadpoles etc to be cutouts so that she could Blu-tack them onto the page and move them around! So, here is her painting without figures
.... and with figures
Here is Rosie's gorgeous painting :)
That's it so far :)
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Crazy bookbags
I wanted to make some nice bookbags for the kids to keep their homeschool project books in and ... well... here they are!
They chose their own fabric from my fabric collection and ended up with a rather curious mix of chick fabric and dinosaur appliques! Very crazy and cool I think :) They have pockets on the front so they can keep their own pencils/glue sticks/erasers etc in (to stop them arguing over them!) and are big enough for all their other bits and pieces.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Finding the time ...
.... to blog is becoming increasingly difficult lately! We are still here, still working hard and getting lots done - I just don't seem to have the time to get it all written up!
I'm still working on the shop website and really hope to get that done soon so that I can start transferring all my materials from Lulu to the new site. It's just a case of Tim being off work and NOT doing anything else so that he can help me with it.
We've also been doing plenty of lovely outdoor things, in particular tending our little vegetable plot - we're in the process of thinning out the carrots at the moment because they're growing like wildfire!
Rosie and I have also been having a rethink about her "out of homeschool" activities - she's very, very keen to work in wildlife/conservation when she's older so she's decided she wants to star doing things to work towards that. Consequently we've put her name down for the Young Rangers at Moors Valley - they take them from 13 years so she'll start in September. It'll be a wonderful step in the right direction for her :)
There has been plenty of "academic" work going on too (so much that I haven't taken photos of yet!) - here are just a couple of things they did this morning.
April working with a homemade lacing card - I just drew simple shapes onto card, cut them out and punched holes round them. She's using a piece of string sellotaped to a cocktail stick to thread through the holes. Excellent for hand/eye coordination.
Rosie (or Rosie's hand!) doing a coordinates activity
That's all for now - I will (honestly!) get round to photographing a load of their recent work soon and putting it up here!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A post of few words
.... and quite a few pictures! Just some things we (April mostly) have been doing - collage giraffe, addition tables with gnomes (no, we don't do Waldorf but she loves the gnomes so I sort of adapted it for Montessori), picture card writing, map work .... and so on!
April chose a picture card from the basket, dictated a sentence to me which described it, I wrote it on the story paper and then she copied it and drew a picture.
Rosie - working with my common/proper/abstract/collective noun cards
These are Alphablocks - April adores the Alphablocks which are on the Cbeebies website so I printed off the colouring pages they have REALLY small and she coloured them in. Then I laminated and cut them out to use as a kind of moveable alphabet. I think I printed 2 sets.
Always save your sweetie wrappers - come in very handy for collage! We've got HUNDREDS from Christmas!
I made these happy chappies - cute no? :) I put them in a basket with a bag of "jewels" (beads!) to work out sums with
Put the beads to the left and right of the addition gnome (in this case 1 + 5) and then collect them up and move them to the other side of the equals king to get the answer.
Categories: Crafts, Cultural, Language Arts, Maths
Comments
Friday, January 08, 2010
Pictures from this week
Due to the snow we added a couple of snow-related activities in this week :) Rosie collected a cup of snow and did a small experiment on comparing the volume of a cup of snow to the amount of water that results when it melts. April had a load of snowman themed activities from childcare Land which she has been really enjoying! April didn't start her animal science work this week ... never mind, will start next week instead.
Anyway, here are the pictures:
MEP maths:
April using the shape board (see my materials page for download) and working on one of the practice pages from the lesson book:
Rosie was working on area and perimeter - here (although you can't see it very well!), she has drawn round her hand on graph paper and is estimating the area:
April snowman work and crafts:
Rosie doing her work on photosynthesis - on the computer and her drawing:
Their art books:
April is making the art book from Kinderart - here is her cover page and the first activity - Primary Hands!
Rosie is also making an art book but she is studying different artists, starting with Guiseppe Arcimboldo who created portraits using fruit, vegetables and flowers. She wrote her information sheet on him and then did her own picture in his style. She decided against a portrait and instead created Aubergine Bird with an aubergine for a body, grape for an eye, cherries for legs/feet, lettuce leaves for wings, chilli peppers for a beak and a stick fo celery for his tail!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Slowing down and taking a new direction
Really must get some nice wintery blog graphics for here I think :)
We've changed direction a fair bit with homeschool - we began to tire of all the workbooks and plastic manipulatives a lot and have moved into a more Waldorf approach. There are a few main reasons for this which I can't be bothered to write about (sorry, tired tonight!) but Rosie expressed an interest in doing more drawing/painting work and April was clearly bored of the workbooks.
Anyway, I'm still getting Rosie's work sorted ready to start but April did some letter work today with upper case "M". I have to say, we're not following Waldorf totally strictly and just having any rhyme or story that seems to fit - so today we acted out The Bear Went Over the Mountain (and got totally out of puff doing it!) Then we drew mountains (looking like capital M's) and wrote the letter M next to it.
Here's April working - love the bear marching up the mountain :)
We're going to bind all these letter pages together when she's finished to make a nice book
Also today she started making a theatre out of an old cardboard box. I cut it into shape for her and she got painting - will post the finished item tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Photos from today
I made the kids new science journals - nothing fancy, just plain paper, spiral bound with construction paper covers. For their first work in them, April is doing about the seasons and Rosie is studying cells and cell functions.
Here's April, doing a pasting activity (what activities would we do in different seasons):
Rosie made plant and animal cell models out of various craft bits and pieces - we didn't include ALL the cell parts, just the ones it says to cover in the Year 7 curriculum! Anyway, here she is working on her animal cell and then a picture of the finished models:
She also spent quite a long time viewing things under the microscope (we've got it out so we can prepare and view cheek and onion skin cells later on in the week). She found a nice sunny spot in front of the window and sprawled out there!
Oh, and April drew a rather cute alien :)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Halloween Masks
The kids made Halloween paper plate masks today and I think they turned out really nice! :)
They decorated them with allsorts - April added ears to hers and Rosie used embroidery thread for hair and twirled some green paper round a pencil to make the top of her pumpkin.
Here they are:
Rosie's witch - I loved this!
... and her pumpkin
April made a cat - here she is with Rosie
... and a giraffe - very cute!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Leaf rubbing activity
I got the idea for this activity from here, but instead of using rubbing plates I wanted to use real leaves. However, that gives us 2 problems - firstly April gets frustrated when the leaf slides around under the paper and secondly if you put a bunch of leaves in a basket then they are going to get tatty pretty quick.
To get round these, I cut squares of stiff card and then glued the leaves onto them. With a couple I had to weight them down while they dried because they kept curling up but once dry they were perfect. I then put everything in a basket (leaf rubbing cards, squares of paper cut to the right size and some Stockmar block crayons) ready to use.
April hasn't had a chance to use it yet but I had a quick go and they come out pretty good :)
Friday, October 02, 2009
Cooking and sewing
Mmmm, what a creative day :) I finished off my "cat" - he's called Ramses and I got the pattern here. To be honest, mine has not turned out quite so well and April says he looks like a bear! I did do something a little different with mine in that I half filled him with toy stuffing and half with dried chamomile flowers which smell lovely and are supposed to help you nod off. I should have given him to my insomniac husband in the hopes that he might get a puuuurrfect (*groans*) night's sleep. However, April seems to have adopted him so I guess I'll have to make another.
Anyhow, here he is ..... he's a bit ..umm.... weird! I also took some short cuts with the sewing which is naughty, naughty ;)
I also baked today - firstly apple crumble cake. This is a first for me but it turned out very yummy - the topping (dark brown sugar, oats and cinnamon), in my opinion, could have been left off. It tastes nice but is soooo messy!
I also made cheese scones - now I LOVE these (remember them being about the only thing my mum ever made that vaguely resembled anything edible). Tim enjoyed them (or at least he SAID he did - he could have been trying to humour me), Rosie ate them but said she was confused because she's used to them being sweet (doesn't take much to baffle my kids eh?). April made so many disgusted noises and had so many coughing fits, you would have thought I'd fed her arsenic for her tea *rolls eyes*.
Right, off now to get the kids in bed, have dinner and then settle down to sigh over Chris Packham - sorry! did I say that? I meant enjoy the beautiful nature - in Autumnwatch. Actually, the beautiful nature is what I love - I've been looking forward to this for ages! :)
Friday, September 25, 2009
Ummm...
I have no suitable title today! This is just a mish-mash of different things from the last couple of days.
Today I've been really busy - I decided to remove EVERYTHING from our kitchen and completely clean it from top to bottom! You know how it is, it gets to a point where normal day-to-day cleaning isn't enough and you feel the need for something more thorough. So it's done and I'm a bit weary now!
Also been getting ready for Rosie's birthday - buying presents (and hiding them!) and whatnot. Her birthday is on Monday but Saturday evening we're going to Pizza Hut (her choice) for dinner - haven't been there for ages!
Anyway, here are a few bits and pieces from the last day or two:
Fangs!! Tim found a disgarded spider skin so we put it under the microscope for a closer look *shudders* It was only a tiny thing but look at the size of those under the scope!
A couple of pet pics - no idea why but I guess they're cute :)
Hemmy, very slightly giving the evil eye here (probably disturbed his snooze)
Jeff! This is a better picture than the one I first put of him when we first got him.
April is loving Starfall! Here she is using one of the computer games - it's a really great programme
It also comes with printable reading books and activity sheets. Today she did "d" and we cut out some pictures to stick on it - dragon, Dipsy, Dora and ducks!
April is also doing an Autumn lapbook - today she made a leaf man :)
Rosie did some work on her Japanese lapbook and made some origami. I love doing origami so I worked with her. Here are our efforts (hers first then mine) - a yacht, a pencil and a cat.
That's about it. Off now to peel Tim off the living room floor where he has been lying pretty much since he got home from work a while ago - got to have tea :)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Smile
Poem by Carol Batton - digital scrapbooking and dandelion painting by me :)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Photo heavy!
The last couple of days (apart from going to the dentist where we found out all our teeth are lovely and not in any way holey) we have mostly:
Enjoyed the summery weather by painting pictures of bits of our garden (top to bottom - April's, mine (!) and Rosie's)
Counted - with apple tree game and Cuisenaire Rods
Studied decimals
Studied more about Japan - this time bento lunchboxes and made a paper bento to go in the lapbook
Notebooked maths
Learned the letter "a" with the lovely stuff from Starfall
Wrote friendly letters using a dinosaur penpal theme
... and played a game called appetising adjectives by using a menu from our local Indian takeaway (yes, really!)
We picked blackberries in our own back garden ....
... and I digital scrapbooked this (for no good reason that I can think of)
I think that's about it ...... *laughs*
Tomorrow, we're (hopefully) going to stretch our legs with a walk on Hengistbury Head where we haven't been for aaaages!
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Kokeshi dolls
We made Kokeshi dolls today - they turned out really cute!
April's doll is in the middle - Rosie's doll is the one in yellow and mine is the one in orange :)
I took photos of them individually so that the kids could put pictures in their lapbooks because we obviously couldn't put the whole dolls in there!
The weather is still looking ok for tomorrow so we should be off to Compton Acres after lunch (I've got everything crossed!) The whole place is gorgeous but they have a lovely Japanese garden complete with Tea House which will just be sooo appropriate considering what we're studying at the moment. Oh, and they've got a kids climbing play area too which is about the only thing that persuaded April and Rosie it was worth going! They moaned when they were first told they were going to "walk round some gardens" but I had to remind them that this was supposed to be my treat .... and make them feel better with the play area!
Friday, August 07, 2009
Playdough
Another post - I'm on a roll today 
I made playdough for April last night and thought I'd share the recipe because it's really, really gorgeous - so much better than the stinking shop brought variety.
To make a fairly big lump of dough you will need:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- mix all these dry ingredients together in a saucepan.
In a jug combine:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon food colouring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Gradually add this to the dry mix until you have a smooth liquid.
- Cook over a low heat, stirring continuously. It will appear to not be doing anything for a while and then suddenly it will start to lump together. Take it off the heat as soon as it comes away from the sides and continue stirring into a ball. Leave to cool for a bit (until you can handle it) and then knead unto a smooth lump. Store in the fridge in a plastic ziploc type bag (make sure you squeeze the air out) and bring out to warm a little before using. It should store well for WEEKS before you need to chuck it and make a fresh batch.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sleeping Bag
When I wasn't doing silly things on Google Docs, I took some time to make a little sleeping bag thing for April's gnome dollies. Got the idea from here. Sorry about the blurry pictures!
Aaaaah! Night night!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Headachey
A bit of a headache thing going on today (because of the hot, muggy weather) - slightly unfortunate as we're off out for dinner tonight to some place called the Alice Lisle in the New Forest - it's fil's birthday - maybe have to down some pills before we go!
I've been busy getting a unit study on Japan ready for Rosie as this is going to be our first major study of the new school year. I'm really looking forward to this as it's a subject I love - we're going to do loads of crafts and some lapbooking to. I've found some great resources/websites for this and will post them nearer the time in case anyone else wants them and I've been getting into practice with some origami and have rather got into it! Very relaxing hobby :)
Oooo! Tim ordered Sims 3 for me - should be arriving from Amazon any day now! Just got the ENDLESS 3 week wait until my birthday now! I know, I'm beyond sad *laughs*.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
My Lords, Ladies and gentlemen ......
Tis done!
Yup, Rosie finished it today and I think it looks pretty good! :) After taking photo's to put in her work portfolio, she's now carted it off to her bedroom and moved her knights in and I'm sure they'll be very comfortable :)
I've had, quite likely, the laziest day for aaages today, possibly crappy weather induced lethargy. I feel really guilty for my lack of doing much because Timofee (and he'll hate that heehee!) has been busy at work and has been asked in to do more overtime next week. The pregnant wife of one of the other guys has gone into labour and someone else has quit (great timing!)
I must try harder! *mentally beats self up*
Better go and feed Hemmy now - he's sat looking at me with his best "gimme some grub" face on.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Beautifully contained chaos
Today has been, in all intents and purposes, a perfectly normal homeschool day. Started off with the usuals - properties of materials, abstract nouns and percentages for Rosie and building an Animal Crossing house out of bricks for April. Then they went on to craft stuff and this is where I started to unravel mildly.
Rosie carried on with her castle:
April did some "stamping" which then turned into an impromptu colour mixing experiment:
.... and I flitted back and forth between the two becoming gradually more (quietly) hysterical over the mess. Oh! mess there was - over the dining table, Rosie, me, April's table, April, the radiator ... on and on.
There are times when I really don't think I'm a "proper" home educator at all - real home educators don't seem to mind the paint and glue and glitter and cut up paper and other crap all over the place. Me? I can tolerate it to a point but then start getting panicky.
Actually, this may be as good a place as any to bring our minds back to the issue of school for April. Some regular readers would be very forgiven for assuming that we had decided to home educate April - after all, the dread "s" word hasn't been mentioned for a while has it? Well, we haven't decided that at all - at the moment, her place is still there, we haven't cancelled it or anything
We've just kinda ... forgotten about it lately *shrugs*. I guess the "mess" issue brought it back into my mind.
I wonder, what would I gain from her going? One afternoon a week to myself, less mess around the house, more peaceful time to work with Rosie (who needs the help more).
... but what would I lose? Seeing my child grow up and learn first hand instead of getting half baked school reports, knowing exactly WHAT she was learning instead of getting half baked school reports ..... you get the picture.
.... but there are still no clear answers. This sounds incredibly sad but I need someone to say "you must send April to school because......" (and then give me a sensible reason) or "you must home educate April because ......" (and then give me a sensible reason).
I'm normally pretty damn good at making decisions but on this occasion I cannot. My brain, it seems, has turned into rice pudding.
See archive index for other posts