Fascination...

Are the days getting shorter? Sure seems like it in this household. We don't seem to getting as much done as I would like to. We have been a little lapsed with the "sit down" schoolwork, and have been enjoying time outside in the warm weather instead. I knew it wouldn't last though, and seemingly just to prove my point, today has been a wet and indoor kinda day.

It started off well, with each child doing various workbooks. Chelsea was working on Maths, Joseph and Tiegan both on English. Callum sat with us and drew pictures, played with his cars, and talked about colours.

Tiegan then went on the laptop, making use of various websites. Her favourite site at the moment is the Rainbows one. Joseph went on the laptop and used a few Maths sites, whilst Chelsea sat with me and corrected a very poorly written letter I had been sent a few days ago. She was horrified at the poor spelling and punctuation, and corrected both. It made me smile as she was tutting over her "just what are they teaching in schools?" remark.

After lunch I set about continuing with my organising. Having decided that the current schoolroom was too small for our needs, I have moved some of the school resources into the dining room. The old schoolroom will be my craft room/kids arts & craft space. I will get around to taking photos of the new areas one day :o)

This afternoon has been filled with various goings on. Chelsea and Joseph have been doing "website reviews" together:

whilst Tiegan and Callum had a colouring session:

Callum found some "new" games, that had been long lost in a cupboard, only resurfacing due to my change around. In one of the boxes he found a timer, the type filled with sand. Here he is looking at it with utter fascination...

Don't you just love those moments?

The kids are currently playing Twister Moves...

A lot of noise and a lot of laughter!

{Thing of the Past?}

I am really hoping that this scene:

that has been greeting me each day for far too long, is now a thing of the past. After a quick test drive this evening, it seems as if my wonderful daddy and fabulous husband have sorted our car out once and for all! I am sooooo pleased. We have mobility again, although a very poorly bank account :o( Just a shame all of the local garages have run out of petrol!

In other news, the children and I have had a pretty good day. After my bargain book arriving this morning, we promptly went outside for a reading session on the trampoline. We read the first two chapters of Our Island Story. I bought mine from Browns-Books (have I said it was just a penny?!?!) and was very happy with the condition it arrived in (quick delivery too!)

We then went inside and the children illustrated what they had heard.


The children then went their seperate ways for a little while. Tiegan went off to read and play in her room, Joseph went outside to help the men with the car, and Chelsea started writing a Narnia-style story. Callum played with his cars, had a play-picnic, a bit of trampoline jumping, drawing, and lots of chatting with mummy.


Tiegan went to Rainbows this evening. She is still enjoying her time there very much, and seems to have fitted in very well. Today's session was filled with group games and the making of a swirly hanger.


After dinner the children gathered together at the table and started discussing the story that Chelsea had been writing. They brainstormed ideas, and came up with some interesting concepts. Suddenly the idea of it being made into a film was mentioned, and they set about thinking of what the characters would look like, who would play what role, what special effects they would use, etc etc. Fascinating stuff in all honesty, it all sounded very exciting. They are now going to work on the story together. I'm quite looking forward to reading the final edit :o)

Time is Racing

There's not long to go before the big day, and I feel as if time is just racing by. I'm enjoying it though, and I am trying to ensure that we take time out to soak up the festive spirit so our Christmas isn't lost in a wealth of birthday celebrations.

So what has been going on in our little corner of the world?

Well for starters, there has been great excitement in Tiegan's corner, with the news that she can finally begin Rainbows in January.

We put her name down on the waiting list for the local group when Chelsea first started Guides, and we have had regular "When am I going to Rainbows?" pleads ever since. A couple of days ago, the long awaited letter dropped through our door, and the pleading ended but the daily countdown began :o) Tiegan is a little sweetheart, with a gorgeous smile and an infectious giggle. Her latest thing to amuse is a wonderful Catherine Tate impression, "Does this face look bovered?" Along with Joseph, she does a brilliant little sketch that has me in stitches :o)

Joseph is a very happy bunny at the moment, as he finished the term at Cub-Scouts with the highest number of inspection points.




This meant he came home this week with a medal around his neck, a much looked at and admired medal at that. He was also bursting with the news that he is going to be a Seconder when he returns in January. I am proud of his efforts, and he has overcome much to get to where he is now. I have noticed a real change in him this year, he has grown up immensely and now settles happily and confidently into whatever is asked of him.

Chelsea is working hard with her schoolwork, working alone through a Biology textbook, and still enjoying writing her poems. She has gained my real love of animals, and that makes our relationship all the more precious.





I feel as though we are firm friends, not just mother and daughter, and I love our cuddles and chats on the sofa when the others are in bed. She is a wonderful helper, always willing to help out with dinner, or check and feed the animals, and I fully appreciate all that she does for our family.

Callum is still the little darling as ever.





He brightens up the darkest day, and never ceases to make me smile with his antics. He adores all things Thomas the Tank, and has an obsession with In the Night Garden. His speech is coming along wonderfully, and I never tire of listening to him chattering away to all who will listen, with eager expectation of gaining a response. He has a definite sense of what he wants and doesn't want, and makes sure that everyone is aware of such. He is caring, affectionate, generous (to a point that I have never seen in a child before. The dog often gets the largest portion of his sweets...), and extremely loveable.

Kira hasn't been herself over the past week or so, and as such has been resting. Aha, anyone that has ever tried to rest a Springer Spaniel will know what amusement it can bring. Now she is back to full health again, we have been building up her exercise level gradually, and today we felt she was ready to start our usual long-walk routine.

We went to the local woods and had the most wonderful time. It was great having all the family together, and the dog looking so happy again. Here are a few pictures (too many, but I was playing with my camera).

I have been thinking about where we are at, schoolwork wise, and what I want to be doing next year. I've decided to relax a little and not be so hard on myself making the usual plans and lists that I rarely manage to stick to, and then inevitably get angry at my own failure.

I've decided that Monday, Saturday, and Sundays (dh's at home days) will be our Family Days. I have planned out some things I want to do on such days, some for fun, some with a more educational aspect, and I think the relaxed approach will be more do able.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we will be more "work" orientated, with a definite aim to do Maths, Reading, and Project work. Our projects tend to be cross-curricular, so there is no need for me to be anymore specific than that. We will see how things progress, and if I feel we are lacking in any area, we can adjust as necessary.

Chelsea's Pictures

There is nothing exciting going on here, hence the lack of blogging. I have been busy setting up a new website to sell my handmade stuff, and making stuff to go on it :-)

The children have all been busy doing bits and pieces of "work". Chelsea is doing her own project on Anne Frank, Joseph is writing about Football, and Tiegan is doing whatever she feels like at the time. I have totally fallen head over heels in love with Callum this past few weeks (not that I didn't love him before of course, just the bond seems to be growing even more). He has just been the cutest little fella to have around, so curious, so loving, so darn gorgeous! We have been spending lots of time together just one to one, going to the shops or walking the dog and I've really enjoyed it. I've found out that there is a mums and toddlers group on a Thursday morning in the village, so I think I will take him along to that. Would probably benefit the both of us really as I would meet other mums, and he would meet other littlies. As well as that, there is a sing thing that goes on at the library for his age group so we may well go to that too.

Joseph is still very much enjoying cub-scouts and has earnt his first badge! Of course he was thrilled to bits. It is the road safety badge and he is very proud of it :-) Chelsea has given up the Girl Guides and has decided to go to Scouts instead. She had her first meeting last week and adored it. I haven't seen her grin so much in a long time, it was lovely to see. Apparently she was made to feel very welcome and they "did stuff" so that can only be an improvement on her Guiding experience. She is going again tonight.

This week we have my dad over every day to sort out the bloomin' car. It has started to play up (which is something we have expected it to do for a long long time so no surprise but still annoying), and is due it's MOT soon. I haven't heard any shouting and cursing so I think things must be going okay.

My parents are looking at selling their house which has come as a huge relief for my brother and I. We have been really worried about my mum and the stairs that lead up to the front of the house for a while, and have been trying to persuade them to move but although they agree it's the right thing to do they frustratingly didn't do anything about it. I told them that if they didn't arrange for their place to be valued and put on the market within a week then I would arrange it all for them. It did the trick I think. Mum is just tidying up a rooms decor wise, and then it will be all systems go. I'm expecting a phone call in a wee while from mum asking me to go and view a house she likes the sound of. I love looking at houses :-)

More like this please...

We were all up late this morning, so we were fighting a losing battle to fit everything in. We took Kira to the park straight after breakfast, and let her off the lead. She behaved brilliantly, but then we were the only ones there (it was raining) so she had no distractions.

On our return, the children wrote out their diary entry for yesterday (I'm trying to get them to do this daily to help handwriting practice. I can really tell when we have been lacking in written stuff as the handwriting suffers badly.)

We then moved on to numeracy work, just simple addition revision. All of them worked hard and I was really pleased with their efforts. Chelsea finished first, and so she started on a Maths CD-Rom using the laptop. She did a bit of work on symmetry, shapes, and money matters.

I went to the shop with Tiegan leaving the older two to continue. I needed to buy a few bits and pieces for Chelsea's birthday tomorrow. I returned home to find Chelsea still enjoying her time on the laptop, and Joseph looking at a Pirate crafts book deciding which items to make.

Joseph has spent much of the afternoon sitting with me and deciding on which cub badges he would like to have a go at getting. I've promised Chelsea I'll go through her badge file with her later so she can do the same.

All in all it has felt like a lovely easy day, with plenty of educational stuff going on. I hope we have many more to come.

Catch up post.

Time is whizzing by and my days are seemingly totally evolving around the newest family member. Not that I'm complaining, she is far too cute to complain about :-)

She is now a fully paid up member of the vaccinated doggy club, so is able to go out and be sociable. We are having such fun, and lots of exercise! Must be good for all of us. We feel we are finally winning the house training battle, now just have to conquer the separation anxiety one. She goes bananas when I'm not around. We managed to get a dog crate from someone advertising on Freecycle, and are working hard to ensure it becomes a positive place for her to be. Then we will start building up the time she can be left for. It will be a lengthy process, but worth it when we know we can leave her for an hour or two without her stressing about it.

In other news, the older two have been to Cubs and Guides, and taken part in two parades. The first for Remembrance Sunday, and the second was this morning, to celebrate the opening of the Scout headquarters. Both Chelsea and Joseph are still thoroughly enjoying their groups, and are really getting involved in all activities. They seem to have become accepted members and are surrounded by "friends" whenever I see them. It makes me feel good that they are able to interact so confidently with their peers, despite all of the socialisation worries home-educators can face.

The project on Aztecs is progressing well, with all children suitably involved. For numeracy we are looking at different ways of recording information, including graphs. We have done the good ol' counting cars thing that I can remember doing at school, which despite their moaning about the cold I know they secretly enjoyed doing ;-) I think they got a good grasp on line graphs, and bar charts. Pie charts are next. We have also been doing lots of baking, making cakes and biscuits. We have also used the Encaustic Art set for crafting, and a few "learn to draw" books for art. As always, there has been lots of discussion, which really does seem to play a huge part in our days. Reading has been done each day, with us taking in turns. I read the family chapter book, and Chelsea, Joseph, and Tiegan read a book or chapter of their choice. Tiegan is enjoying the Ladybird Read With Me Series.

I really feel we are settling down nicely again now, and am looking forward to re-gaining our once fruitful routine after the upheaval of the house move and new puppy's arrival :-)

Tomorrow we are planning on taking Kira out for a lovely walk somewhere new. Chelsea and Joseph have bought new wellies for the occasion ;-) I bought new wellies last week, and Tiegan and Callum already have theirs, so we are well kitted out for whatever the ground may throw our way. I am hoping it will provide a few good photo opportunities.

We have got our annual LEA visit on Monday morning, so keeping fingers crossed all goes well with that. As it is my "usual" visitor, I am actually looking forward to it, but still get stupidly nervous.

Autumn.

We now have flooring in the lounge, in the hall, in the kitchen and in the dining room. There are places that need to have the edges fitted with trim yet, and some of the skirting boards in the dining room need replacing, but wow, the place looks great.

We have had a really lovely family day today. Started off down in the "school room" discussing the months of year, the seasons, and signs of Autumn. I was really pleased with the effort that the children made, they put a lot of thought into what we were talking about and the answers they gave. We talked about it getting darker earlier, so the days seeming shorter, hibernating animals, the changes in temperature and weather, migrating birds, Autumn colours, and Autumn sounds (rustling of leaves, wind, etc). The children drew pictures, and I put up a poster displaying symbols of Autumn. We read a poem about Autumn, and discussed it. We looked at the words in the poem, and how words rhyme even when spelt completely differently.

Stopped for a break, and we read Lemony Snickets book 12 in preparation for book 13 coming out tomorrow.

Then we went off out to explore our local farm shop. It's a real gem, certainly somewhere I can see us returning to, possibly on as much as a weekly basis.

We then went to Pizza Hut for lunch which was yum, and headed home via a No Frills store where we stocked up on various items from Pavement Chalks, to Workbenches.

Home to check on the flooring progress. There is only the playroom to be done now, along with the trimming of the other areas. I am grinning like a Cheshire Cat, I can't believe we actually live here.

We went back into the "school room" where we chatted about the Harvest, and what Harvest Festivals represent for various religions. Chelsea and I exchanged school days Harvest Festival memories which was lovely, and we talked about how the schools would collect food and give it to the elderly. This led to a discussion about poverty and starvation, which in turn led to charity organisations and their work in various countries. Lots of really thought provoking chatter went on, ending with Chelsea declaring "Don't spend it, send it!" and she told me all about how when she is older she is not going to spend her money on non-necessary items, but is going to send her money to charity. She also said how she admired the charity workers and would love to do something similar one day to make a difference to someone's life. We talked about the unfairness of things not being shared out equally, with those who have got lots often getting more, whilst those with little get less. All in all, I think we have had a very fruitful day, and certainly it is one which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

This evening we have started a new thing, with Chelsea, Joseph and Tiegan coming to me in turn and dictating a story whilst I type it for them. The results of today's storytime are posted below, but it was something that each child really enjoyed doing and readily took part in. It is also a lovely chance to listen to their imaginations running wild and sharing individual one-to-one time with each of them. The "rule" was that non of the others were allowed into the room where the stories were being compiled. Once all of the stories had been written, we then gathered together and shared the stories with each other. It was really nice. I really hope that it is something that we can fit into our daily routine and continue with.

We have ended with us all sat together to watch the final installment of Autumn Watch, a programme that we have really enjoyed.

Chelsea's Story

The Spooks

Chapter 1:

Long long ago, in a land far far away, there was a deep dark forest. In that forest livedevil spirits and ghosts and zombies and kidnappers.Anybody that went in the forest was never seen again.

One day, two children named Chelsea and Joseph, went into the forest and stumbled across an abandoned cottage. It looked rather spooky. The oldest of the two siblings, Chelsea, was very brave and said "Come on Joe, let's go in!" She was all for going in and wasn't scared a bit. "Errrm, I'm not so sure" said Joseph. He didn't like the look of the cottage. Eventually, Chelsea persuaded Joseph to go into the cottage. As soon as they went inside, they realised it looked even spookier than it did from the outside. Suddenly, they heard a bump and a bang, but there was nobody living there! Joseph said "Errr, let's get out of here, errr, it's too scary! But of course, I'm not scared a bit...." Chelsea said, "nooo it's not at all scary", but she was frightened a little bit. "Let's go and explore!" they both said, each trying to show the other how brave they were. So off they went to have a look around. The house looked very small from the outside, but there was a huge curved staircase which had thousands and thousands of stairs, with lots of passages going off from it leading to rooms. It was very dark, and dusty. There were lots of cobwebs. It looked like nobody had visited for years.

Suddenly, Chelsea felt something touch her shoulder. She thought it was Joseph, until she realised that Joseph was in front of her and not behind her! She jumped and turned around, but there was nothing there. "Oh, that's strange" she said, but she continued walking. Then it touched her shoulder again! This time she looked around almost as soon as it had touched her. There stood the most evil looking ghostly creature in the world!! The king of all ghostly things.
"Arghh!!" Chelsea screamed. Joseph was just about to tell her to stop being so silly when he saw the reason for her scream. "Aha, two of you..." said the creature. "The more the merrier" *evil laugh*

The creature lunged at the children and managed to grab hold of them both. He stuffed them into a sack and tossed it over his shoulder.

When the children were finally got themselves out of the sack, they found that they were in the most evil looking room in the house. There was a big couldron bubbling with what looked like some kind of potion. There was a big wardrobe containing a number of unusual looking outfits, and yucky things like powdered bats wings and other such stuff in jars along the windowsill. The window was broken. The whole place looked and smelt hideously horrible.

The room was painted black, so even with the window, it appeared very dark. There were no pictures or anything for the children to look at to cheer them up. After thoroughly exploring the room, they decided to sit still for a while and see what noises, if any, they could hear. After a while, they realised that they had heard nothing, no sign of anyone being around. It seemed as though they had been left alone.

"I want mum!" Joseph wailed. Being the oldest, Chelsea said "Be calm, whatever the situation is, we can deal with it." Inside she was feeling pretty frightened, but was trying to be brave for her brothers sake. "Deal with it?!" Joseph asked. "We have no idea what we are dealing with! And we haven't even got any food or drink!" "Look over here" said Chelsea, pointing in the direction of a cook book on the floor. She had a quick flick through it to see what the ingredients were. "Hmmm, powdered bat wings, eyeballs, blood, crushed glass and claws. I'm not sure that sounds like anything mum makes!" "Yeah, mum puts poison in our food!!" said Joseph. "No she doesn't" said Chelsea, and it soon developed into a long argument about mums food.

"Stop it, we are wasting time" said Chelsea. "Shouldn't we be concentrating on getting out of here?" "But I'm hungry" whined Joseph. "Shhh, listen" said Chelsea. Muffled footsteps could be heard creeping up the stairs.

"Hello my little prisoners" said the evil creature nastily as he unlocked the door. I've got my friend over for dinner. The children could just make out a figure behind him, smaller in stature, but just as evil looking. "Oh no" they trembled.

To be continued....