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.