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Category : Seasonal
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!
Categories: Crafts, Homeschooling, Seasonal
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Pictures from our day and a file :)
We are having a fun Halloween/Autumn theme to our work at the moment. April did pumpkin addition - she had to glue the right number of small pumpkins on the large pumpkin worksheet I made her. Then she had to add them up and write the answer in:
She's also been doing some leaf rubbing with the set I made her the other day and sorting the leaf shapes - I made ours from craft foam :)
I've been introducing Rosie to the idea of algebra ... sloooowwly! We've been looking at function machines and I came up with a rather cute Halloween version of this - creepy spider web functions!
The file I made for this game is below - instructions are provided and you will need to have some dice handy. It's a nice idea (although not essential as you can just think up rules as you go along) to have some "rule cards" made up in advance, you can just write some by hand or (as I did) print some off at Mathwire.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
... and another post!
Look at this gorgeous sky! - took this a little earlier this evening. You only ever seem to get evening skies like this in the Autumn ..... absolutely beautiful :)
I have a problem .... a maths problem. Y'see, every now and again I like to take a look at our homeschool programme and figure out if everything is still ok. At the moment, it pretty much is apart from Rosie and her maths.
I had her list all her favourite stuff and her favourite ways of learning and here's what we ended up with:
- Lapbooks
- Drawing/painting
- Science
- Nature Study
- Experiments
- Writing things on the computer
What she doesn't like:
- Workbooks
- Pointless maths (not sure what she means by pointless!)
The thing is, I have NO idea how to get her to do her maths in a way which she will enjoy given that she hates workbooks and doesn't like maths in general! We do use a little Montessori stuff with her and also I make some notebooking type things but that is not "complete" enough and I'm concerned about her having gaps in her education.
I keep looking at the 2 lists and thinking, thinking, thinking how to work her maths into what she DOES like ........
Monday, September 28, 2009
12
Happy Birthday Rosie!
12 today - wow! how time flies!
We went out for her birthday meal at Pizza Hut on Saturday evening and it was really, really fun :) There were about 10 of us in total and we got put on a great, long table at one end of the restaurant - the only problem was that one side of the table was against the wall with a built in bench seat and if one person needed the loo everyone had to get up *laughs*.
Today she had croissants and marmalade for breakfast and had some lovely new things - Nintendo stuff, books, birthday money and a clock from her grandma that has gorgeous pictures of garden birds instead of numbers. It's kind of like a cuckoo clock in that it chimes every hour but instead of being a cuckoo it makes the bird noise for that hour (which does include a cuckoo for 12.00!) Really quite pretty and original but how annoying it's going to be chiming out bird sounds all night we'll have to see!
Of course, I was up late last night - as I am every year - making her birthday cake :) She loves my sticky lemon icing cake so that is was I made. Always end up with icing running everywhere but it is sooo yummy. This year I printed and laminated pictures of Hemmy and Jeff (her request!) and stuck them on cocktail sticks - it looks like they're running around on the top of her cake! April drew (with some help from me) a picture of Sticko (a little cartoon character stick man that Rosie made up and writes stories about), holding some balloons. Haven't eaten it yet but will hopefully get a candle-blowing-out picture to blog soon :)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Nearly time ......
Soooo looking forward to this ... just check out these gorgeous animals :)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Just because ....
..... it's the Autumn Equinox - my favourite time of the year, beautiful, special. So here is a little something I made (cute!) - and a poem I love.
Hope you have a gorgeous, happy autumn day :)
AUTUMN EQUINOX
~By Heather Shackleton~
Web flash morning -
Poised and bobbing on Arachne’s thread,
Nimbly spin your myth of sloe-eyed beauty,
lush and bramble-sweet.
Drop your orchard fruits on rain-greened grass,
Laid to rest in scattered languor,
Bruised and wasp-wreathed in succulent decay.
Show me napped-facet field flints,
Ancient past imagining, yet sharp as first frost.
Tempt me with low sun warmth, hop and berry,
colour wash.
Take me and turn me in your slow waltz,
Your circle dance,
Your sinking cycle spiral...
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 :(
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Mellow
I really do love this time of the year - sinking into Autumn with that
gorgeous smell you only ever get at this time of the year and the
dazzling summer green fading into muted gold colours (this is very
poetic isn't it?!) I've also just really noticed how the sun is having
to bend down a bit more to look in our windows :) It's really mad, but I
also realised that at the end of next month I'll be making the Christmas
cake! CHRISTMAS!! It's true what they say that as you get older time
seems to pass more quickly because it really doesn't seem two minutes
ago that I was writing this
and getting all huffy because Tim was going out for Christmas lunch
without me *laughs*. Honestly though, I do sometimes feel a bit like
Cinderella (with Tim being a fabulous ugly step-sister .... I JEST!!),
come Christmas. Tim gets all the lovely festive niceness - the church
things he does - ok, we're not religious but I remember years ago going
to the Lessons and Carols when he was playing and it was GORGEOUS, all
flickering candles and dim lighting. Then last year he got whisked off
out for lunch with his work (and very nice it was too apparently!) It's
really not fair, I want some festive fun at that time of the year ......
where's my fairy godmother to magic up a ball for me? 
Anyway, back to now! Must stop whining about things that are 3 months away yet! It's quite peaceful at the moment but we are expecting the next couple of weeks to be busier. Tim's on holiday but, as I mentioned before, we've got the garden to sort out - honestly, it's getting so bad out there that we're going to need a crash course from Ray Mears to go out there soon! Also I want to prepare a little vegetable plot which I'm going to have to do in a large container of some kind. We've got a really big garden but it's all shrubs, lawn and patio with no planting ground whatsoever - plus the ground is really stoney and we just get MILLIONS of slugs!
We've also got to sort out the car soon *groan*, the MOT is due at the beginning of October but we really are in two minds whether to bother. The car is getting on a bit now and the intermittent (hugely irritating!) clutch problem is something that is not likely to go away. We are expecting it to fail on a few things (tyres for one and quite possibly the weird up-and-downy-crazy-Citroen suspension). We don't have a vast amount of money to spend so it's a tough decision either way - Tim could get credit and buy something newer but he doesn't like "owing" so cash it is. The other problem is that he doesn't know much about cars and is worried about buying something rubbish - he NEEDS a reliable car, even if just for getting to work because it's a bit of a trek from our house to his work.
So what with the gardening, the car and (hopefully!) some days out AND Rosie's trampoline class starting up again next week (back to the weekly hike to the Littledown Centre!) AND she's got Guides the following week ......... I think we're going to be a bit busy!
PS - looking on a bit further - it's Rosie's birthday towards the end of the month - we're getting vague requests for a Nintendo and a small cuddly pet of some kind. Haven't had any small cuddlies since Smartie and Rolo our guinea pigs, so a bit nervous about that.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Is it just me ....
.... or is it getting noticeably chilly first thing in the morning and early in the evening? There has been a distinctly autumnal feel over the last week or so!
We've been busy working here :) I've been busy planning our first home ed park days (getting a few people interested in coming along now!) and cleaning - lots! I don't know, however much I clean the place, I'm never completely satisfied with it - I never quite reach the impossibly high standards I set myself - *laughs* - I thought it was Virgo people who were supposed to be perfectionists, not us cuddly, homebody Cancerians!
.... No, I'm not into starsign gobbledygook by the way!
Anyhow, the kids have been busy too:
April has been learning letters with the initial sounds basket (I SOMEHOW managed to find an object for every single letter of the alphabet - it was like going on a treasure hunt around our house!)
She has also been working with (my version) of the spindle box and getting to grips with the concept of "0" (she kept trying to put sticks in the zero bit because she couldn't get "nothing"!)
Rosie has been doing some map labelling work (Japan)
.... and adding fractions
Oh, and for no other reason than it's totally cute, here is April's lunch today! She wanted a bento lunch (even her pudding got put in a little bento box!) I couldn't get the lids on because they are so full but she still wants them (*rolls eyes* - honestly!), so I just rest them on top!
That's all folks! :)
Categories: Homemaking, Homeschooling, Seasonal
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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!
Categories: Crafts, Homeschooling, Places, Seasonal
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Summer fruit picking
Oh! gorgeous weather today!
After lunch we decided to go to Sopley and pick some raspberries (and what was left of the strawberries) - just seemed like the "right" thing to do on such a beautiful afternoon. So hard was the sun beating down that me and the kids wore sunhats (poor old Tim probably has a burned head by now) and we all put on LOADS of suncream and wore not much :) We came home with a big box of raspberries and another of yummy strawberries.
Here are a few summertime-berry-picking pictures - the more observant will notice a) that one of the pics of me has been used to replace one in my blog banner (Tim made me do it!) b) there are no pics of Tim (wasn't allowed to because, apparently, he looks "tired and yuk") and c) there are no berries in April's box - she ate them ALL!
Not sure what Rosie's looking for in this picture!
Yuuuummy! (and no, she hasn't wet herself! She ran through a sprinkler they had going!)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Happy, happy day :)
Just a quicky as about to have dinner. I just had the most lovely birthday thanks to my gorgeous family - from breaky in bed, fab pressies (Sims 3 is just BRILLIANT!), yummy birthday cake and letting me hog the computer pretty much all day to play the aforementioned Sims :)
Not quite over as Tim and I are having a rather lovely dinner (at home) on Friday night (Chinese - duck with pancakes .... yuuuum!) We did it this night because the First Night of the Proms is on so we decided to combine the 2. He's taken the day off on Saturday ... just "because" and then, hopefully, we're going out to Compton Acres on Sunday as long as it doesn't rain - if it does we'll go during the week.
I'm a happy bunny ... truly great birthday :)
Thursday, July 02, 2009
I don't know what to say really!
It is quite UNBELIEVABLY hot! Yesterday was hot, today is hotter, tomorrow is (apparently) going to be cooler - thank goodness.
Don't get me wrong - I am NOT moaning! I absolutely love this after the freezing winter and so-so spring but, really, it is too hot to do anything.
Oh, and Tim just made me want to cry by giving the kids the last of my Häagen-Dazs icecream leaving me with bloody Mini Milks!! What possessed the man?! Mind you, I do feel sorry for him - and pretty much everyone else at his company who does the same job (very physical) - he must have been terribly hot at work this morning!
Off now to sort of ... melt.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Summer
We went fruit picking this afternoon at Sopley - the strawberries are at their optimum ripeness and are just divine :) We picked waaay too many really but they're only around for a short time so best to make the most of it. April has been feasting on these ever since we got home and now has strawberry juice all down her front :) We also got a few raspberries although they're not "out" as much yet - I love raspberries and me and the kids walked up and down the rows of plants eating as many as we put in the basket ............. simple pleasures ;)
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
What?
Is this pigeon doing for goodness sake?!
(Bigger pic than usual so you can see clearly) I took this in the garden yesterday afternoon. The pigeon flew down off our house roof, landed on the path, waddled a few steps and the sorta flopped down on the path and spread itself out! At first I thought it might be injured - it stayed there for about 10 minutes and then got up, had a shake and few away!
This is where I need the highly knowledgable Chris Packham (or "gorgeous Chris Packham" as one Googling person who showed up on my site stats wrote - *laughs out loud*). I have 2 theories - both along the same lines. One is that the pigeon was exhausted (perhaps from chick feeding - we do have a nest of pigeons in the garden) and was taking a bitofa nap. The other is that is was HOT and, basically, trying to cool itself down by fanning its wings out.
Any guesses?
Also (non-pigeon related), I had to share this totally cute pic of April in the sandpit looking very cool and funky :)
Off out to Christchurch after lunch - gotta feed those duckies :)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tranquil
More outdoor play today :) We're living (well, me and the kids - poor old Tim was very busy at work today), at a very slow and easy pace at the moment. It's so calm and quiet and, occasionally, I wonder what April is up to and then I find her. She's plopped her sunhat on, headed outside and is quietly playing some little game - lost in a world of her own :) Gorgeous.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sun, sun, sun
Absolutely gorgeous day and, it would seem, more of it to come :) I'm a happy bunny.
Today was a kind of quietly productive day - everything just ambled along nicely and we all went about our business sort of ... happily :)
Tim worked this morning and then went to the shops 3 or 4 times after he got home. Yes, really - shocking waste of petrol, I know.
April played with water inside at the kitchen sink:
... and outside with a bowl:
Rosie did an edition of her family nature newspaper:
We put some flowers in the press - I think the kids are going to make bookmarks with these:
Finally, I made a raspberry jam and fresh cream sponge (just too delicious for words!):
Tonight, Tim and I are having tuna steaks in a sort of lime marinade and salad for dinner. This is one of our regular summer meals and it's the first time we've had it since last year - the weather is just so definately summery though, that it called for it. :)
Edited later: I've just realised I put "telly" down as one of the categories for this post and then forgot to write anything telly related *rolls eyes*. I was going to mention that I'm thoroughly enjoying springwatch this year and Chris Packham (who replaced Bill Oddie) has turned out to be utterly lovely :) I was always worried he might be a bit dull but far from it - brilliant telly!
Categories: Cooking, Seasonal, Telly, Things
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Ooooo!
Warming up! Assuming it doesn't change, this is our local weather for the next few days - mmmm! I love this sort of weather!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunny :)
What an absolutely gorgeous day it was yesterday :) All of us spent pretty much the whole day outside in some form or another - it was just such bliss to feel proper hot sun!
I pottered about hanging up washing to dry (got loads washed and dried!), did some gardening, played with the kids and just sat for a bit - about 10 minutes - and got a rather red back as I was only wearing a little strappy top! I should have been more careful really - I'm very fair skinned and having been under wraps for months on end I don't think it knew what hit it :(
Tim got the foul job of cleaning the old sand and rainwater slime out of the kids sandpit in readiness for refilling (last year I did it and it was gross so it was definately his turn!) April had a bowl of soapy water and a sponge and washed all the buckets and spades and stuff and left them on the path in the sun to dry.
Rosie, my little naturalist, was bug hunting and found millipedes, a
dead beetle (which she's brought inside and put somewhere to view under
the microscope), woodlice and a funny little thing called a click
beetle. 
This little bug made us laugh because, if it feels threatened, it
pretends to be dead (for aaaaages!) and then lets off a loud "CLICK!"
and jumps straight up into the air *laughs* She put it on her hand and
we all had to wait and wait and wait for it to jump :)
Anyway, after all that lovely sunshineness yesterday, today ..... it's raining .... hey ho.
PS - Oooo! don't forget - tonight, BBC2, 8p.m SPRINGWATCH!! Hmm... Springwatch with Chris Packham instead of Bill Oddie .... Hmmm.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Lush
It's very lovely outside - very rainy, but lovely all the same. After a spell of dryish weather, the continual rain over night and today has suddenly really brought the spring out in everything! The garden looks gorgeous all green and fresh... it's got that look that makes you want to go "ooo! I'm going to run around barefoot out there!" I might just do it too *laughs*.
Anyhow, fairly quiet weekend really although I did some "work" (I don't actually consider it real work, but I guess it's my little contribution to the family!) yesterday as I got some Montessori orders overnight on Saturday so had to deal with them. Other than that it was all very sleepy! I'm also in the middle of making some materials which will go on sale in the next few days and see how they do. It's quiet at the moment but ticking over :)
I also wanted to share a couple of science links that we've found useful recently.
First Planet Science. If you haven't discovered this place yet, do go take a look. April absolutely adored the Little Watering Can song/game which you can find in the under 11's playbox. She went around the rest of the day singing it! :)
We also liked My Science Box. There is just so much stuff here - full lesson plans with downloadable materials with them. Brilliant.
Right, off now, lunch is ready :)
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