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 : News
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Well, hello :)
I've decided, for the new year, to take a new direction with this. I will be resurrecting the homeschool blog BUT it will only be updated once a week with pictures from our homeschool week, projects we've done etc. I MAY very occasionally post materials I've made (but, in all honesty, not very often I'd imagine). We've got a funky new image and a bit more of an "identity" - cute eh? :) I liked the owl theme - appropriate for homeschool and we do get a lot of owls round here (particularly tawny owls) so ... an owl it was :)
What I'd really like is for it to be a resource for project ideas and inspiration but I don't want to become a slave to it like before. Anyway, look out for new posts in the new year once we start homeschool again after the holidays :)
Happy new year everyone!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Problem solved
My maths issue with Rosie has been sorted ..... I've happened upon some Montessori albums with work for older kids (including algebra!) so, as we've used Montessori maths with her in the past, it makes sense to continue now I've found the lesson albums I need. We are still going to do little bits of maths notebooking though as it's so fun but Montessori will be the backbone of our maths lessons.
In homeschool today, April did a new activity - addition! I'd set up a little game for her with the conkers (sorry for the bad photo!). Basically, you have 3 little pots, addition and equals signs on card and a pile of 10 conkers (or whatever objects you want!). You also need a set of sums to complete - here, because it's her first attempt, we did 1 + 3 =, 1 + 8 = and so on (essentially, 1 + something!)
Yout set up the game with an empty pot - plus sign - empty pot - equals sign - empty pot. Then, you look at the sum - say 1 + 5 = and proceed as per my fantastic diagram! This demonstrates, in a very concrete way, the act of "putting together" (adding!) the 2 sets of objects.
Here's April using the game - she enjoyed it hugely :)
So what else .... Rosie went to trampoline class yesterday (actually, we all went and Tim took April in the swing park). Rosie's VERY nearly at the stage where she's ready to do somersaults - teacher is taking her time because she needs to be really "ready" before attempting it as it can be dangerous. She says Rosie seems to take a while to "get" something and then it will suddenly click and she doesn't look back. Yep, I'd say that was true!
Rosie also had an orthodontist appointment yesterday. She's got to have braces top and bottom and they will be fitted in November - she's got to have some other work first including removing a baby tooth that she still has from one side. What's really odd about this tooth is that she has NO adult tooth underneath! They're going to extract it and then let the braces close up the gap. Want to know something even more odd? Tim has FIVE baby teeth still remaining and no adult teeth underneath! Awww bless him, how cute! *laughs*. Dentist said that it is hereditary apparently - I guess, unlike Tim, Rosie won't be hanging on to hers. Remains to be seen if April has any of these now but she hasn't starting losing any yet so we don't know.
Anyway, must get on now ...... oh, just one thing - remember what I said the other day about Tim always getting lucky with the weather on his day off? Well, he's gone back to work today and taken the gloom and chilliness and grey cloud with him - *giggles* they must LOVE him there!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Publishing on Lulu
Rather than making myself redundant *laughs*, I've decided to carry on publishing/selling my materials but I'm going to do it through Lulu. This will make it much easier to upload the files and keep track of who's brought them AND my finances! Also, when someone buys a file they get an automatic download link to it rather than me having to physically email them the file - obviously this reduces the time I have to spend sending things to ...umm.. nothing. This sounds like I'm being terribly lazy but it is, in fact, better for the purchaser - some people's email boxes just can't handle the size of the files and I got a lot of bouncing emails. This way ALL customers will receive their purchase instantly without a problem.
It's going to take me a day or two to get all my files listed but you can still go and see - the first (introduction to the periodic table of elements) is here.
Spread the word please? :)
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Bizarre bird feeders and lovely friends
I received a wonderful surprise in the post today :)
All this (apart from the Special K!) came from my unbelievably lovely and generous friend Nats .... maybe she read my last post and thought I was in need of a little surprise - the cat was gorgeous and the choccy and tea was EXACTLY what I needed *laughs* ... how could she know? ;) Whatever the reason ... THANK YOU Nats! x Jingle (as I've called the cat) has now taken pride of place up next to my pute :)
Yesterday (after the tedious start!) things got a little better and I cleaned out our birdfeeder which hangs outside the kitchen window and refilled it with fresh seed. Within minutes the thing was swarming (although I don't think that's the right term - should it be flocking?) with Nuthatches and Blue Tits. Some birds (like Dunnocks and Robins) won't use the feeders and need a bird table so I decided to try and construct something. I happened upon our old mini-barbecue ... hmmm. I stuck it on an old table - again, near the kitchen window so I can watch - and sort of decorated it with branches to make it more bird friendly. It looked ridiculous but I was rather proud of my inventiveness :) Then I put some food on the bottom tray and waited .....
This morning an inquisitive little robin turned up, looked at it as if to say "erm... what on earth?" but then seemed to take to it :) I grabbed a quick picture - not very clear as it was through the glass of the patio door but you can just see him stood on that branch at the back:
Other stuff - Rosie thoroughly enjoyed the Guide campfire last night - she said it was hilarious because the marshmallows kept bursting into flames! I'm just in the middle of making a cute pumpkin word match up game for April but will post it here when I'm done. In fact, I've got a load of materials which I need to list but I been sooo lazy!
Monday, September 07, 2009
The good, the bad and the downright hideous
The good .......
Meet Jeff. Yes, really. Jeff. The cutest bunny in the whole world with the stupidest name (for a bunny). Terrible photo, sorry, he kept moving around! He's a lionhead and we got him from a woman who could no longer keep him because she had got a dog that kept trying to eat him (nice!) I found him on a sort of Free Ads list and he came with his hutch and we decided to just sort of go for it and get him. I'm sooo glad we did - he looked a bit sorry for himself and sad when we picked him up but when we got him home, settled him down and let him run about (he's an indoor bunny) he really perked up and is very, very happy now. I cleaned his home (which still had straw in it from when we picked him up) and was DISGUSTED - it had about an inch of poo in the bottom and had just had fresh straw chucked on top! The woman we got him from said at the time "oh, he's not been out for about a week because of the dog". REALLY?! Judging by his miserable face and being knee deep in poo, I'd say he hadn't been out for ever!! Anyway, I spent ages and got him and his home all spruced up again :) He's totally friendly and cuddly!
The bad .....
This morning, before we got Jeff, we went to Tesco for some routine shopping. I'd just been in to the instore health shop to get some essential oils and just as we walked off to get on with the rest of the shopping April suddenly screamed and started sobbing! She was clutching her nose and I was trying to work out what was wrong with her but she was sobbing too much. Anyway, this woman came over and said "I just saw that woman hit her with the trolly". WHAT?!!! I looked up and the culprit was, literally, running away!! I just didn't know what to do - I checked that April was ok, not bleeding or anything and by that time the woman was gone off into the distance. Really, I should have got her to apologise to April and had April been more seriously hurt I would have done. As it was, her nose was a bit red but ok. I was so angry and fumed all the way round the rest of the shopping!
The downright hideous .....
I got up yesterday morning, went into the kitchen and was greeted by this on our chalkboard:
Tim had drawn it! Apparently, this is him being shocked senseless by a house spider that he had encounted on the air vent in the kitchen the night before! *laughs*. Anyway, this was the start of it. Yes indeed, it's house spider season again - that "very special" time of the year when these HORRIBLE creatures come out looking for a girlfriend and, in doing so, terrorise me for a few weeks. Last night I was sat at the computer and one just suddenly appeared on a pile of dvd's next to me and this morning I saw this creeping horror outside our bathroom window:
However, it WAS outside, let's be grateful for small mercies here. I don't understand it - we don't see these for MONTHS and then all of a sudden they just appear all over the place! So, we've started our yearly "keep the house spiders at bay" battle by putting lemon oil around the window frames and doors and hoovering like nut cases.
Still, I'm going around glancing fearfully into dark corners in case one of them is about to jump me.
Yes, I'm very girly scared :(
Monday, June 22, 2009
Bloggy stuff
NOTE: Blogging experiment to see how it goes - this may or may not work out! .....
For a while I've been considering having 2 separate blogs - 1 for very general, educational type stuff (links, reviews, recommendations, ideas etc) and the other for more personal, family related stuff.
In view of recent changes to things around here (school, yikes!) I've decided this is as good a time as any to start up the separate blog. I guess there are several reasons for doing this. For a start, I'm going to have considerably less homeschool related things to write about from now on (as I said above, I will still share links and whatnot) and also school type things which I'm less inclined to share with the whole world. Also, on that note, I have become, recently, less and less inclined to share all the general, non-school nitty-gritty and personal details with everyone - I want that sort of stuff to be limited to just family, close friends and blog-internet-friends (who are particularly well known to me).
All this obviously posed a problem because I wanted to still host the diary on my site and also not have to faff around with Blogger or Thingamablog (which I'm using to type this and which is, frankly, a pain in the arse sometimes). So, I've used Bravenet to set up a passworded page (link at the top of this page)- it's not pretty (you have to put up with the horrible ad bar at the bottom) but it does the job. Will try this for a while and see how it works.
Now, about passwords and things. This is going to be a bit like ex-directory telephone numbers - if you know it, please don't share it about with all and sundry! I don't have anyway of keeping track of this or who is reading the page so I'm just going to have to trust people. I've deliberately tried to pick a word that, generally, most people who know us reasonably well, or are family, should know. If you fall into that category but don't know it, just email me (email addy in a min) and I'll let you know it.
If you are well known to me (through blogging or internet in general), then please feel free to email for the password BUT please understand that I'm not going to give this out to everyone JUST people I'm familiar with. Sorry ... but there you go.
Email address for passwords and stuff: info (at) sarahsellers (dot) co (dot) uk (obviously replace the at and dots as necessary!)
So, sign in details are as follows:
username: diary
password: will be the first word in the name of the company Tim works for (clever eh?!)
If you know it (which hopefully, as I said, family and friends probably should), just go right ahead and sign in (not much there at the mo!). If you don't and want to, then please email me.
Finally, I appreciate that there are probably a lot of people who've been reading this blog for a looooong time but, basically, aren't known to me (either by blog comments or email contact). I know that some might feel a bit upset that they won't be able to read the new diary and I'm sorry about that I really am. Please, do still look out for the occasional education related post on this blog though :)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Erm....
Sorry (if you read my most recent post that has now been deleted). Having a bit of a screwy day and blogged-while-wound-up. Never a good move.
Normal service to be resumed shortly.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Oh dear, oh dear
Presumably, the nursery school in this report was regularly inspected by Ofsted and presumably it's workers were CRB checked. Yeah? Yet, this still happens:
Nursery Worker in Child Porn Charges
Now, I know this has already been said, but what right has this Government got to throw (by their own admission) completely groundless accusations of child abuse against home educators when this sort of thing is going on?!!! Methinks they should get their own house in order first ......
Doesn't inspire a vast amount of confidence in one does it?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Nuturing your family
Today, something hurtful and unpleasant happened with a member of my family (not Tim, me or the kids - another member of my family) that made me realise, yet again, how important it is to cherish, nuture and love the family you have. I've been hurt badly today - not prepared to go into details but it had me sobbing on Tim's shoulder for a good long while this morning. I think, all there is to say is that I'm done with my family once and for all, I've been crapped on once too often.
It got me thinking about families in general. Yesterday, I took this screenshot from one of the Springwatch webcams - it's a sodden lapwing, sat on her nest in the pouring rain (for HOURS), shielding her chicks (the droplets are obviously rain on the camera):
Today, I saw a blackbird out in our back garden, hopping about on the lawn hunting (most likely) for food for it's offspring. It was being buffeted by the wind and rain and yet kept plodding on collecting food.
Both of these birds made me realise how, to be honest, crap we humans are as parents compared to them. Birds don't shove their chicks out of the nest at the earliest opportunity (like we humans sending our kids to school!) - they care for them, feed them, keep them clean. All the while the chicks are learning what they need to learn (flying, looking for food etc) from their parents. Parent birds have a hard job - they're out in all weathers looking for food, they sit for HOURS on eggs or chicks protecting them for the elements while they, themselves are usually soaking but they keep on doing it. They do it because, albeit unconciously, they want to give their chicks the best start in life. The chicks stay there, being carefully nutured by their parents until they are ready to go and then they fly, confident, fully grown and ready to face the world.
I want to be more like the parent birds when it comes to my own kids ......... yet, I think I fall waay short.
Friday, May 15, 2009
What's on?
Check out the ratty hair! Rosie, not long out the shower and hence a trifle damp looking, doing a science experiment on hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials:
Today, I made her up a whole bunch of reducing fraction sum cards which I want her to do tomorrow. I'm hoping to finish up this topic soon and these are harder than any she's done so far - she's going to love me for it. Not.
April has been mucking about on the kitchen draining board with various plastic cups filled with water and food colouring. She's been using an eyedropper to mix colours ... "look! I made green!"
I've started a Montessori training course. I was going to do this last year but never got round to it so I decided the time was now :) This is not a full teacher training course but will be brilliant for helping me to teach, Montessori-style, those topics which I'm a bit stuck on. It lasts a year!
Oh! and it's Eurovision tomorrow! WOO-HOO!! We HAVE to watch this complete feast of naffness every year despite the fact that it's crap simply because it makes us laugh our arses off *laughs at the thought* ..... hehehehe!
Got to go ... dinner beckons :)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Your mission, should you choose to accept it.....
... is to send your child to school. Well, we got offered our "preferred" school - it's not our catchment school (although not far away) but the only one out of 3 we put down that was "outstanding", so I suppose we're lucky.
I don't know what the hell else to say to be honest! Geee! I guess I should be thankful.....
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Page pulled
I've pulled the DHENK page already (see last post). My main reason for trying to get this group up and running was for April - I wanted to homeschool her but she just requires so much in the way of interaction with other people that I wanted a good, regular group set up so that, alongside stuff like Beavers, she'd have plenty to do.
April, however, has other ideas - she is completely, totally adamant that she wants to go to school (to the point that she said that if it's full and she doesn't get a place, she'll cry). Brilliant. Wonderful. What a problem - April, with her rosey-tinted "Timothy Goes to School" idea of the place and me with years worth of knowledge and the facts and figures of just how bad most schools are these days. What do I do?
Nothing, that's what. I no choice whatsoever - I'm going to have to let her go. I've always believed in giving my kids free choice and if this is her choice .... well, who I am to try and persuade her otherwise.
I don't have to be happy about it though (and believe me, I'm far from happy about it). I don't even have to pretend to be happy about it. With her, I'll be positive and upbeat (as much as I can) - the rest of the world can go hang themselves though because I'm really bloody pissed off and I don't give a damn who knows.
So the page is gone. Rosie couldn't care less about it anyway - she's just happy and dandy with the social stuff she does already, so it's gone.
Back soon.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Spring is in the air!
.... because the weather is on the up (overcast but definately milder) and I'm absolutely bursting with enthusiasm and energy for just about anything and everything! I'm decluttering the house, sorting out new curtains and cushions for the living room and crafting like mad!
I've also decided what I'm going to do with my Montessori materials! Y'know, I hated taking down the free things - I like to "share the love" so to speak BUT with things as they are these days (financially), I just could not continue to do it. This website needs paying for and I feel, honestly, that I should be helping out with household finances a bit more (at least paying for the kids homeschool stuff). So, I had to think about charging for materials :( Anyway, while I was doing this, I hit upon the most wonderful idea - a monthly, Montessori based newsletter which would contain not just printables but also ideas for crafts, lessons and further study - all on a single theme! Yes, I will be charging for it but no, it won't be a huge amount (in fact, the first issue will be at a discounted price!)
I'm already steaming through the first issue, which will be available at the beginning of March, it's on the topic of flowers. Anyway, go check out the Montessori Monthly page - I think it's going to be rather gorgeous when it's done :)
PS - Spring has also got me working on another home ed related "project" .... watch this space for news on that one ;)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Website n stuff
Well, dentist went ok yesterday - for me and the kids anyway, Tim needed a filling (bwa-ha-ha!) which, because it was only little, the dentist decided to do there and then with no anesthetic. Tim said he reckoned it was borderline as to whether an injection was needed because he felt a definate "tingle" while it was being drilled out - ooo! nasty!
Anyway, that's that for another 6 months.
Not much going on otherwise. Did a "big Tesco" shopping run this afternoon and Tim bumped into some bloke he used to go to school with. He was a tad .. erm... big and losing his hair which I think must have made Tim feel good heehee. He also had his wife with him who was yelling at their kids in that AWFUL way you hear some people do in supermarkets and which I'm completely forbidden to do (not that I would ... honest!) Actually, it is horrendous when you hear people doing that :(
The other thing I wanted to blog is that the website is going to get an overhaul again (AGAIN! *rolls eyes*). This is mostly because of my decision to go into sales with the Montessori stuff (the enhanced Montessori stuff and VERY well I'm doing too!) so that page isn't needed anymore. I may well keep the one page of general educational materials - haven't decided yet. It's entirely possible that this website will, once again, revert to being just a general thing with crafts and whatnot on it. Also, the blog will be less home ed orientated and (even more) geared towards just general day to day banter and thoughts/views on various topics.
Right, enough for now - got to do tea soon, very hungry!
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
In the words of Margo Leadbetter .....
"Well, thank you VERY much!"
Today is Tim's birthday but before I get on to that I have to vent against a small, cute child. After DAYS of sneaking around and hiding card statements and emails, my lovely Christmas present for Tim arrived today. Whilst I was wrapping it up, April went to Tim and said "it will be very nice when you open your new phone".
Aaaarrrrggggh!!! Tim started grinning and I wanted to cry - I so hate having surprises spoiled :( Still, it IS my fault, I shouldn't have wrapped it in front of her, she doesn't really understand yet. So anyway, yes, I've brought him a lovely new mobile phone so he doesn't have to use the works one any more. That is what I had to do the secret emailing about - I had to ask his boss, Richard, whether he had sole use of the work one or whether he shared it. I'm on a bit of a budget and had quite a few things I wanted to get him so I decided to only get the phone if he DID have to share it and I could only think of Richard who would know that.
So that's that.
Back to his special day *smiles*. We treated him to breakfast in bed this morning and gave him his pressies - Gamecube Mario Golf from the kids and a Mock the Week book from me (which he's been dipping into periodically ever since and chuckling to himself).
We went over his mums this morning and had lunch and she gave him a very nice fleece and some new boots (I do love him in boots - so much more manly than trainers!). Now we're having tea and (just for once) I didn't make a birthday cake this time - he chose a rather sticky, totally sinful chocolate one from Sainsburys (highly yummy!), see pic below. Tonight, when the kids have been packed off to bed, he and I are having chinese takeaway - oooo! I love chinese food!
Happy 36th birthday to my gorgeous hubby!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Dinner out!
We went over Tim's mums today to see her so she could give April her birthday presents (some very cute stuff - dvd, rag dolly, funky jeans and Mr Men books) While we were there she invited me to go out for a meal with her, my sis-in-law and a couple of other girly friends (some time before christmas but we haven't fixed a date yet). Well of course! *smiles*. Apparently, we may be going to a place called Flame, an oriental, buffet-style restaurant in Poole. Now, I've got to be honest and say I'm really a "sit-down-and-be-served" type person - if I go to a restaurant I like to have my food brought to me so this will be a new experience that I shall approach with an open mind! There are mixed reviews about this place - some absolutely love it (the food is supposed to be gorgeous) and others say it's too packed (like sardines in a tin!) and you feel a bit like you're on some kind of gastronomic conveyor belt - y'know, quickly in, quickly out.
However, I'm nothing if not adventurous so I shall look forward to it ... be nice to have a night out anyway! Been told by hubby (jokingly, or at least I think so!) not to flirt with any "talk, dark, handsome strangers". Ha! ha! as if that was very likely with his mum and sister sat there anyway *rolls eyes* Still, you never know ;)
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Happy Birthday April!
More pics and stuff to follow later ..... but can you see who that is in the 2008 pic I took today? (which incidently, has gone all blocky and a bit yuk, so I'll post the proper one later) Yes, he was found and I'm afraid I've got to 'fess up *looks guilty*. More later, got to make birthday cake now because I didn't do it last night!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Fiddling with the shop!
My shop page is temporarily down while I make a few minor adjustments ;)
Back soon!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Getting there!
Been pretty much glued to the pc today (ok, I did take a break to clean the bathroom and dust the living room and do some stuff with the kids!)
So far, I've smartened up the front page and this blog, uploaded the webstore (although not all products are there yet, just the maths section) and sorted out the free printables page. As yet the craft, recipe and contact pages have not been done - obviously the homemaking page has been taken down while I sort out the recipes.
Phew. Hard work! I've boggled my eyes doing all the coding for the pages - that's the only problem with writing html from scratch, if something goes wrong you have to spend AGES scanning the code to find what it is (and it's usually a TINY thing!) However, I did learn from Tim today how to convert decimals to hexidecimals via a rather nifty tool he has and this is going to make the webpages much smarter (nice matching colours instead of rough guesses!)
Right, time to give my poor eyes a rest and have tea!
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Firework party
So, last night, we went to Tim's sisters, (another Sarah!), house for a firework party. Luckily the torrential rain that had gone on through the day managed to stop for a bit (it came back later) to give them time to actually set the fireworks off.
We did take some photos but they mostly came out crap - we took better ones last year at our house (even with a really cheap camera!). I think this is because there were just so many people milling about this year, we just couldn't get a decent shot. Anyway, here's one - and this just looks like Sarah's garden shed is in flames rather than a dazzling firework! You can see Sarah's boyfriend, Rob, in the background looking strangely ghostly!!
Best I could do I'm afraid!
There was some lovely food - my mum-in-law made 2 curries, there were jacket potatoes and I made a chilli (which I had to make very early that day because it was done in the slow cooker) which went down well. The kids had fun as they usually do at these things ...... much tramping of mud in and out through the kitchen and hall ... ahem. Anyway, as I said, the rain came back later (and the howling wind!), leaving people huddled under a rather flimsy garden umbrella which threatened to collapse under the weight of the water - very funny!
We got home pretty late, packed the kids off to bed and then I had to do this:
....the fruit/brandy mix for my Christmas cake! Finished result will be displayed later on today .... providing it doesn't all go sadly wrong!
Oh, and Tim came home from work yesterday with the news that someone had told him that they might be having a Christmas dinner this year. Initially, I felt a bit, well, scared (memories of "work Christmas dinners of the past" came roaring straight back!) but then I thought, actually this might be fun. I haven't had the chance to get a bit dressed up and go out for AGES (I mean, come on, what woman doesn't like the opportunity to get herself really prettied up once in a while?!) Also, I'm one of these people that gets very curious about other people - y'know, you speak to them on the phone and formulate these ideas about what they're like - I just want to see if I was right! *laughs*.
Right, off to get dressed and then start on the cake!
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