{Wishing Wells and Wheelbarrows}

Wow, the weather has been amazingly lovely today. We had a nice walk around Torquay in the sunshine, visiting the marina and harbour areas, as well as the shops. I wish I had taken the camera as some of the views were breathtaking. Never mind, always next time.

After Torquay, we came home and enjoyed the garden. I would like to be able to say that we worked hard - weeding, mowing, planting - but we didn't. We sat under the parasol, read a bit and chatted. I do love that sort of easy-going family time, just whiling away the hours together. Of course, the trampoline was too much of a temptation and there was intermittent jumping, along with roller skating, bike riding, drawing, and train track building (not all on the trampoline obviously!)

Joe has developed an interest in woodworking, and with a bit of help from his dad, has come up with these planters.

Isn't it lovely when a child starts showing an interest in something and it develops into an end product that they can be proud of? Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :o)

In other Joe news, he had his final session at cub-scouts tonight. It is sad, but he has a lot of very happy experiences and memories to treasure. Akela came over to me during the canoeing session a couple of weeks ago and said how much she will miss him. She remarked on what a "lovely young man" he is, and how refreshing it was to have a lad who wasn't afraid to stand up for what is right and not just follow the crowd. Yes, my head was swelling by this point. She said that he was such a pleasure to have around, always looking out for others, and ready with a kind supportive word, or a joke to lighten the mood when needed. I nearly burst with pride. We are now on the hunt for something else for Joe to sign up for, should he wish to do so . At the moment he is boasting about how he can have more time on the playstation now *rolls eyes*.

We have been having a sad time animal-wise recently, with the loss of another two pet rats. It came as no great surprise of course, as all of our ratties are of "that age" now, and it is inevitable. It doesn't make it any easier though, but we try to remember all the happy times, and the children seem to deal with it well. We have leapt from 9 to just 5 rather suddenly, but I have to confess that I am liking the quicker cage cleaning duty! Of course we still have the 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, 3 budgies and mad dog. Talking of which, I caught some lovely (to me) pictures of Kira this afternoon. She has a silly obsession with dustpans and brushes! She has done since being a pup, and we have many photos of her chasing whoever was sweeping up to get hold of the broom *shakes head*.

Here she is in "I know I shouldn't have it mum" pose...



"but I like it sooooo much!"





"I'm not doing anything, honest!" *Thinks - If I smile sweetly for long enough mum will just go away*



"What brush? I haven't seen a brush..."


"Oh look, it's just MINE okay!"

:o)

{Our Tuesday}

Not much to say about our day today really, I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

The day started with a bit of swirling for Tiegan:

That's the swirly thing she made at Rainbows.

For the rest of us the day started with the usual cleaning routine - Dusting, Hoovering, Mopping, cleaning bathroom, sorting dishwasher, and sorting out the washing.

The children then did a bit of work from their English Workbooks. I have been absolutely amazed at how many words Tiegan can read. We haven't used any scheme, I haven't sat and actually "taught" her anything, I've just read lots of books outloud, and answered her "what's this word say" questions when she asked. Child learning at it's best.

After the workbooks it was out on the trampoline for a mad jump about, before we settled down to read a couple more chapters of Our Island Story.

Then lunch time, after which we all piled into our car (yes, OUR CAR!!!) and headed off to take Kira to the vets. She was due to have her stitches out today, and I was dreading it hugely. She isn't the easiest of doggies around people she doesn't know, in fact she sounds darn right nasty! However, she was pretty much okay today. She barked like mad for the first couple of minutes, but then as I sat with her she settled down and looked quite happy to give her paw and have the stitches removed. We now have a fit doggy and a car on the road again!!! Brilliant.

The rest of the afternoon I spent sorting out our "school" resources. I have files and files of magazine clipping, posters, printed worksheets etc etc, and I wanted them moved from one room to another. I also moved a desk and a cupboard. We now have much more space to work at which feels much better. The old schoolroom will be used as our Arts and Crafts room.

I had a horrid headache accompanied by weird dizzy spells which slowed me down somewhat, meaning I have more than I would have liked to finish off today.

Whilst I was on my organising spurt, the older kids did some more work on their fantasy story, and Callum did more work on his cars ;-)

After a quick dinner of quiche and salad, I took Joe around to his cubs session, taking Kira for her first walk in two weeks. Mad thing! Joseph earnt another badge tonight, for some written work he had done about his firestation visit a few weeks ago. Another one for me to sew on.

Something new?

I haven't posted for a few days because things haven't exactly been running smoothly. Our wonderful (so we thought) car, failed it's MOT. In quite spectacular style actually. It is going to cost around £500 to get it through the test, and then we still have to have some work on the clutch done at some point (not for the MOT test, but a necessity all the same). That will cost a further £300-£400. Argh! Still, it has to be done, and we couldn't get a car as nice and great in all other ways for the price of the repairs, so we have no choice really. I had a couple of migraines due to worrying about our finances, which really knocked me back a bit as I haven't suffered with one for a while. I'm back to feeling positive about things now though and the migraines have once again ceased :-)

We suffered another sad knockback when we found dear Miss Molly (Chelsea's Budgie) not quite her normal self on Saturday morning. We didn't really know what it was, as the usual signs of bird illness weren't there. Her eyes were clear, as were her nostrils, and she wasn't fluffed up in any way. She was however at the bottom of the cage and easy to pick up. There was a small half broken feather, which pointed to the possibility of her suffering a night fright. We separated her from the others, covered her cage to dim the light, and kept her warm. On Sunday the signs were good. She was lively and very eager to get back with the other birds. We returned her to them on Sunday evening after a full day of observation, but found her unwell again on Monday morning. Sadly, despite our best efforts, she passed away on Monday afternoon. She was just a baby.

Over the past few days, I have been evaluating how things work for our family. I've been making mental notes during our "average days" to see if there is anything that could be changed in order to make things run smoother in our household. I try to fit so much into each day; the obvious daily essentials - schoolwork, pet care, household chores etc, as well as the non-essentials that are pretty important to me, such as my running and crafting. I'm not thinking about the times when we go out to meet friends or visit somewhere, just our "at home" days, which I think we could organise a little better and hopefully get into a less chaotic sort of daily routine.

My conclusion? Well, the morning schoolwork routine works well for us. The children enjoy working in the morning, knowing that they have the afternoon to do (almost) what they wish. I say almost as I do limit their TV and gaming time, and sometimes we do things like science experiments and arts or crafts together after lunch. I do think that there is room for improvement though, so we are trying something a little different.

Having noted how difficult it sometimes is to combine the teaching of such diverse age groups and skill levels, I wanted to come up with a way of providing some one-to-one teaching. Chelsea and Joseph are both at the stage now where they are making real leaps in their schoolwork, but sometimes it feels as if they are being held back by the younger ones being around. Because of this, it has been decided that each child will spend one hour with me alone each morning. During this time, the other 2 children (not including Callum in this as he will just be mingling!), will each have an hour on the computer (with breaks) and an hour of doing reading and/or project work. The computer time will be spent either on one of our many CD-Roms, doing research for their project, and/or visiting educational websites.

We tried this for the first time today, and *touch wood* it worked like a dream. Tiegan adored having me all to herself for her lessons, and thrived on the attention. We did lots of reading at her request (her reading to me) and she is picking it up really well. We also did handwriting practice (again at her request), using one of her workbooks. During my time with Tiegan, Chelsea and Joseph settled well into their work. Working independently is not something that they particularly enjoy, but I'm hoping that if the new routine works out, independent working is something that will become easier for them and they won't be quite so reliant on me looking over their shoulder.

With Joseph, I did some handwriting practice, reading, and a spelling test. Joe can read superbly, but written and oral spelling he struggles with. This term we are going to focus on getting his handwriting a little neater, and his spelling a little better.

Chelsea did some poetry, reading, and story writing. She also set up a prayer diary.

All in all, it was a very positive first day. I felt able to relax with each child, as I wasn't constantly flitting from child to child, and it was also easier to give praise for good work / efforts because of that individual focus. Each child left the table with a grin on his/her face, so that is a positive sign to take away from today. It has been easier to plan for, as I haven't had to divide the work into easy/hard/and harder categories, but instead I have been able to choose work for the individual, and it hasn't had to relate to the others in any way.

We won't completely stop working together, as we all enjoy our family projects. The younger ones gain so much from being around the older ones during work times and they learn so much from them. But after today I can see that there is another way of doing things that may suit us, and the one-to-one time will be positive for both the children and myself.

We were all done and dusted by noon. After lunch, Joseph went off to read his football encyclopedia, Tiegan went to watch a documentary on Animal Planet, and Chelsea helped me to clean out the rabbit and guinea pig hutches.

This evening Joseph went to cub-scouts and got his seconder badge, and another for being at cubs for a year. He is absolutely loving Cubs at the moment, it gives me a real buzz to see him so happy when he comes out. Tiegan had her second evening at Rainbows yesterday (and my purse is £40 lighter for the privilage!) Fortunately my brother is going to pay for her uniform, so I don't have to worry about that expense this month. She is absolutely loving it too, and even more so this week as she got her Rainbows bag and was chosen to bring the teddybear home for the week. We are still going through the counting down the days to the next session stage :-)

Tuesday comes and goes....

Today has seemingly whizzed passed. It's getting dark so early now, it's quite sad really. Another good day to record though, so I'll get on with it, with the rather nice smell of homemade Leek and Potato soup wafting through the house as I type.

The postman has bought me a lot of rather nice goodies for me to play with. I won a little competition on a crafting blog and my prize arrived today. I also received some ATC cards, which are lovely. I am also a very happy bunny as all the Christmas presents that I ordered for the kids have arrived. Since having a real fiasco one year waiting for presents that were ordered in October not arriving until 23rd December, I always fret at this time of year. Each year I promise myself that I won't order online, but each year I get tempted by the online bargains, and the thought of having to traipse through the streets loaded with bags and fighting exhaustively through the crowds fills me with dread.

This morning our work started by going through what we have learnt about Fairtrade so far and in particular Fairtrade chocolate. I asked Chelsea to explain to Tiegan what it was all about, and then Tiegan had great pleasure in showing how clever she was by relaying all the information to her dad. I was reminded of how we used to stand up in front of the class at school and do our oral communication work, whilst the rest stifled giggles and tried their hardest to distract the speaker.

Chelsea then got out the French textbook along with the Usborne French set and sat and worked through a bit of each. Tiegan coloured in some Christmas decorative angels and santas. She wants to string them all together to make hanging decorations.

Once lunch was over and done with, I got on with setting up a blog for each of the girls. They both want to join the Our Space Blog Ring so I had strict instructions to sort blogs out for them :o) Whilst I was organising that, Chelsea was reading through Little Women, only stopping to make sure she could choose the blog template. I also set up a blog for Joe as I knew that he would want one too.

My parents then arrived, bringing Joseph, who had been with them since Saturday. My children do love getting the individual time that their Nanna and Grandad can provide, and very much look forward to their turns to stay there. They usually go for 2 nights at a time. The house always feels so strange when there are only 3 children here instead of 4, and it takes a bit of getting used to even now.

We had a lovely chat and cuppa break with my parents, talking about (of course) I'm a Celebrity amongst other things. After waving them off (with them taking Tiegan this time), we headed off to the library for book hunting, and then the shop for dinner hunting.

Chelsea has fed and watered all of the animals, whilst I prepared dinner. (which is still smelling rather yummy I must admit).

Tonight Joseph is off to Cub Scouts, where they are going to the local church and trying their hand at bell ringing. I've got an online "meeting" (doesn't that sound posh!) for a card making design team I have been selected for. After that is done and dusted, I hope to continue sorting out our home-education stuff whilst I have the enthusiasm for doing so. I know that once December starts, we will be swallowed up with all that is Christmas and the home-education thing will be lost until January. I'm hoping to sort out many of our plans and resources for the coming year, so I don't find myself trying to organise it all on New Years Eve, as I did last time around! **Makes a note to buy a couple of diaries**

Parents home and nature explorations :o)

On Monday my mum and dad arrived home from their holiday in Spain. Their trip away was shorter this year, but Callum missed them dreadfully and talked about them everyday. He greeted them home with open arms and didn't stop chattering to them the whole time we were at their house.

We spent much of Tuesday in local fields and woodlands. Can you believe that these views...

are just a 5 minute walk from here? People often think that Kingskerswell just consists of an infamous main road, which has been the subject of many local and national "bypass or no bypass" battles over the years. Even many of the locals don't realise just how much Kingskerswell has to offer, and we got many strange looks when we mentioned we were moving here. Hidden away is a park, with play area and football and cricket pitches (is it known as a cricket pitch? No probably not, but I'm not up on my cricketing knowledge. Must find that out.) There are also large woodland areas and an excellent space left natural, just perfect for walking, picnics and what we were doing yesterday, nature studies. Add these to the local amenities, such as shops, post office, hairdressers, churches, a library, and of course a school, and it all makes living here very pleasurable indeed.

Kingskerswell advert over, back to our walk yesterday. We all went (dog included) to the local woodlands and fields to see what we could find. I wanted the children to draw what we came across and they ended up with sketches of flowers, trees, insects, and leaves. They also brought a few leaves home for leaf-rubbing. They had taken their clipboards and Chelsea got stopped by a passer-by and asked if she was there due to a classroom project. Fortunately the home-ed reply was well received. I took some pictures of various flora and fauna for them to try to identify on our return.

A few pictures of our day...




Tiegan absolutely adored it, and out of the 3 older ones, was the most enthusiastic, trying to draw every thing she saw :o)

When we got home we read various books (listed here for own record).

- Greyfriars Bobby by Ruth Brown.

- Rainy Day by Emma Haughton

- The Roses in My Carpets by Rukhsana Khan (lovely book written about child refugees)

- The Story of Daniel in the Lions Den by Michael McCarthy (Barefoot Books. We really liked the rhyming text to this one)

We also read another chapter of The Earth Giant.

Joseph went off to Scouts (where they went to where we had walked to play wide games and make trails). Last week they had gone to Watcombe beach and started work on gaining the nature badge.

Today will be identification and write up about yesterdays walk, reading, supermarket, library, maths, and hopefully a charity shop walkabout :o)

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 :-)

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.

Joseph...

is now an official cub scout! I am so proud of him, and he is very pleased with himself. To think of all he has overcome self-confidence wise, along with his speech problems, and his eye problems, I think he has every right to be pleased. I knew that day would come when he would feel confident to be left without me being there, and I'm very glad I trusted instincts and didn't listen to the "just leave and walk away no matter what" brigade. Instead we encouraged but did not force, we acknowledged his fears and allowed him time to deal with them. Who would have thought that he would have been confident in himself to go to a completely new place, a new group, with new adults, and new children, and be left there alone, without any hesitation at all. He didn't even know one single person there (not even by sight), yet he remained totally unfazed by it all and mingled with the group as if they were best friends. I can't describe the upset I felt when my little boy was turned into a quivering wreck, too scared to go to school and at 5 years old being sick and petrified. My happy-go-lucky, life is wonderful child changed within months into a child too nervous to speak and too distressed to talk. Thank goodness we have the freedom of Home-Ed. I am not sure where we would be without it.

House Piccies...

I have felt bloomin' awful today. I have caught Callum's cold and it really knocked the stuffing out of me. We haven't done much because of that. I managed to catch up with a bit of housework first thing before my energy was drained, but much of the day has been spent on Neopets (me with the children lol), and in general conversation about goodness knows what. Much of what we have been talking about lately seems to involve what Chelsea and Joseph are hearing on the News or reading in Newspapers.

For anyone that has the slightest interest in how our house is looking at the moment, I thought I would share these piccies.
Living Room:
Before....

After....








Kitchen / Hallway:
Before...



After....

Stairs:

Before...

After...


I will post piccies of the upstairs and the dining room, school/craft room, and playroom tomorrow, along with outside piccies if the weather is dry!

I've just spoken to Tiegan on the phone and she is having a wonderful time. I miss her so much, it feels like I've lost something huge.

Joseph went to his second cub scout meeting tonight and very much enjoyed it. Apparently he has settled in wonderfully and the Akela wants him to have his Investiture in 2 weeks time if we are happy to go ahead with that. He has also been asked to take part in a parade in November as well as the Remembrance parade. He is so chuffed :-)