Another day done and dusted...

So another day is over, and the children are tucked up in bed. How did we get on today? Actually Ok. The 'experiment' went well, with the children eating normally throughout the day. Again, (rather surprisingly if I'm honest) there was no taking advantage of the new freedom they have been granted. It appears that they ate enough to satisfy themselves, and I guess that was what I was trying to achieve :) All have chosen to eat as a family at dinner time, which has been a welcome surprise.

We started our day with Muesli for breakfast. Now I actually bought this for me, as I really love the stuff (hated it when growing up, but my tastes have changed dramatically over the years). Would you believe that all 4 children love it too?? Typical - I can't have anything just for me *grin*.

Chelsea chose to tidy her bedroom without my prompting - a very rare event! All of the children helped around the house again, without my asking, which has been an interesting concept but a very enjoyable one.

I would have loved to have headed out for a walk somewhere as the weather was so warm and sunny, but we had to wait in for a delivery. It didn't turn up until just after 4pm - annoying. Doesn't it always feel like a wasted day when that happens?   Instead we had to enjoy the blue skies and sunshine over our garden - hanging out the washing (I've got a *thing* about watching it blow freely in the breeze - I know, weird), watering our plants, playing with the dog, and generally enjoying each others company. Each of the children have been on their laptops for some time during the day. Callum surprised me by reading the word "muffin" during a cake making game. We were role-playing using the game as a base, and I was playing the customer. Callum asked if I wanted the cake on the screen, and I said yes as it looked a yummy cupcake. Most disgruntled he replied "It's not a cupcake mummy, it's a Muffin silly!" I asked him how he knew that, and he said that the game had told him. He went back to the start screen and showed me where it said the word Muffin (rather proudly, with a "see, told ya!" expression on his face). The reading adventure begins...

One thing that did arrive first thing this morning was our ladybirds :o) I'm glad that they have arrived safely, and they are now safely installed in their new home. I have never thought about the life-cycle of a ladybird before, so the poster that came with them was a very welcome educational (for me!) surprise. They are certainly going to be interesting creatures to watch over the coming weeks.

Day 1, they look like this:

Yep, those incy wincy tiny black specks are actually live baby ladybirds - no, I can't see a resemblance either :o)

As for our dear caterpillars, here they are on Day 4 - their daily growth just amazes me!

Tomorrow is home-ed group here, so it will be an early start of cleaning (my job), and baking (Chelsea's job I expect).  I'm hoping the weather will be nice so we can spend time outdoors again.

Heading for the Hills...

I am happy, content, and smiling. We have had the most wonderful family day on Dartmoor. I feel so lucky to live so close to such a wonderful place. It truly is somewhere special. The changing landscape, the history and legends, the peacefulness, the uniqueness - I just adore it.

We didn't really know what the weather was going to do, but we didn't let that put us off. I can see that now Lee is working 'normal' hours, our weekends will be even more special. No longer will every day be the same. No longer will weekdays run into weekends without a flinch. It feels good, as if we have something to look forward to now. Does that make sense?

So we packed the car with food supplies, drinks, kites, and the dog (and the children), and headed for the hills - literally.

We drove around for a while, just admiring the breathtaking views. I always feel so relaxed on Dartmoor. I don't know why, but it has a really wonderful effect on me. I am totally at ease visiting most places there. If I could choose anywhere in the world to live, a village on the moors would be absolutely it. One day...one day...

The first place that we stopped was at the visitor centre in Princetown. We saw the nothing short of intimidating Dartmoor Prison. It's so dull, dark, dank, hostile in appearance, but somehow this makes it even more special.   It adds that little something extra to the all the old legends and the history. It makes it seem so much more interesting. It really is a fascinating place, and one we are all keen to know more about. I can feel a visit to the prison museum coming on soon.

We bought a few books and booklets from the visitor centre. The staff there were very helpful, advising on everything - places to visit, things to do, and expected weather conditions. We jumped back into the car full of ideas, and started driving.

We stopped at Merrivale, and everyone stretched their legs.

We smiled...

Laughed...

Laughed some more...

Crossed 'bridges'...

Climbed...

Erm, danced?? ...

and generally enjoyed family time together. We ate a little, drank a little, and loaded ourselves back into the car to head elsewhere.

Our journey took us onto to Meldon Resevoir.  A stunningly beautiful place.

The surrounding scenery was breathtaking, we walked up high to get a good view (phew!)...

Next time we visit, we shall be walking down here...

But this time we hiked up up and up, then needed to rest, rest, and rest...

Unless you were the dog - she didn't rest, not at all...

She is resting now though, sprawled out on the sofa snoring :)

We played hide and seek - although, not all that well it seems *grin*...

and talked to gorgeous sheep that happily posed for a photo...

The day whizzed by far too quickly, but we enjoyed every moment of it. Each of the children thanked us for such a great day, which is unusual and meant a lot to me. Happy children means an exceptionally happy mum.

Once home, we all relaxed. The children went upstairs, to read and play on the Playstation. Then after dinner we set up the Scalectric and had some racing fun.

Hot Chocolates soon followed, then bed seemed to be calling :) Mutters from the children wanting to do a project on Dartmoor have echoed throughout the day, so I'm going to flick through the resources we bought today and do an internet search for ideas on what we could do. I love it when the children are inspired by something.

In other news, our caterpillars have arrived ready for our butterfly project. We have 5 little beasties looking like these 2 fellas today - Day one.

Progress reports will be added regularly.

{Feeling Yuck}

I have had a horrid few days of feeling really rough. Awful flu like symtoms that have really knocked me back. The children have been pretty good and managed to just get on with what they could.

So, what has been happening? Well, Wednesday was the worst day for me, with sickness thrown into the mix. Chelsea was really good and got on with things without being asked - she covered Numeracy, Literacy, and started a project on Italy. She also sat with Tiegan and helped her with a Maths workbook. Joseph read the Our Island Story for me - that's our family chapter book at the moment that we read together. He also did part of his Maths workbook, and a bit of copywork - copying a poem from a book, then illustrating it.

Our caterpillars were checked and were growing nicely - I took this picture..


Thursday was a great day for Tiegan as it was her first day at Brownies! She thoroughly enjoyed her Rainbows experience and was eagerly anticipating Brownies, so much so I was nervous about it living up to her expectations. It seems that my worries were unfounded though as Tiegan came out afterwards absolutely buzzing with excitement and chatterings about how it all went and what they did. I knew she was going to be alright though when we walked in and she was immediately surrounded by her new pals with crys of "oh it's Tiegan!" from those she had met previously at Rainbows, arms flung around her, the works. Very cute and reassuring to see.

Today (Friday) was a disappointing one in that we were meant to be joining the local HE group for a visit to a Deer Farm. I really just couldn't face it though, still not feeling at full strength, and Callum was still suffering from a horrendously snotty nose (sorry for the graphic description) so we thought it best to rest ourselves and protect others from our lurgy. Instead I have had another day of resting and wiping Callum's nose - whilst the children pottered around on laptops, projects, workbooks and playing with the kids next door (who weren't at school again...) I ordered Tiegan's Brownie uniform :o)

I took photos of the caterpillars who have made yet more progress on the growth front...

I am strangely fascinated by the process, I really should grow up I think, but I think this is part of the fun of home-educating I guess, being involved and experiencing what the children experience. I wouldn't change it, even on days when we struggle to keep everything together.

"School Time"

It's so good to be back into the swing of things again - my enthusiasm for Home-Ed had dwindled a little and so we were just trundling along with no particular routine going on, and our family just doesn't work well that way.

After my "spring cleaning" session of yesterday, the children were looking forward to trying out their new "classroom" and even went so far as calling me Miss...and giggling everytime they did so. We covered a little Maths together, Tiegan did a bit of work on sentence building, Chelsea wrote a sweet poem about Kira, and Joseph read poems from his football poem book to keep us all amused. Then Tiegan read her modernised version of Princess and the Pea that she borrowed from the library - and Chelsea read us all a chapter of Twilight, her new book (which was a bargain price of £3.87 at Asda if anyone is interested and doesn't want to wait for delivery...)

As you can see in the picture, Callum joined in. He has a workbook to encourage pencil control. He is supposed to draw over various shapes, silly patterns, pictures etc. He didn't want to do it today, but insisted on doing work like the others, but nothing I offered was right, so we came to a compromise. He drew over it with his finger, and I did it with the pencil - at least one of us has good pencil control now... ;o)

(Btw, it's just the photo making it look really dark - we don't work in the dark honest!! lol)

This was a "lightbulb moment" when Tiegan finally understood something that had been perplexing her for a while - so nice to catch this moment of hi-5 congratulations from Joe. I love the way they help and encourage each other.

Tiegan's reading session...

and Joseph reading his football poems...

Our caterpillars have grown amazingly fast already - we have all been surprised by their growth in just a few days.

I'm happy now as their future home has arrived and I no longer have visions of last minute panics to find them a suitable container when needed - I do like to be organised lol. Along with the butterfly kit, I also bought a simple (and cheap) plastic model set that shows the various lifecycle stages.


It has proved to be a hit with the children, and Callum has been "playing teacher" and telling us about the different stages from egg to butterfly. Very cute.

Talking of cute - Callum had us all giggling yesterday with something he said. He asked Chelsea something and Chelsea said "You'd better ask your Mother..."

Callum - "What's her name?"

Chelsea - "Julia"

Callum - "Where is she?"

Chelsea - "There, next to you!"

Callum - Looking at me with the utmost confusion - "Nooooo, that's Mummy!!! Silly Chelsea!"

I love my life....

{We have Caterpillars!}

At long last, finally, we have caterpillars!!! I have wanted to do a Butterfly project for years, almost since the beginning of our home-educating adventures, but have never got around to actually doing anything about it. Yes, we have discussed the life stages of course, and touched on various aspects of growth and development - but I wanted to give the children an opportunity to experience it first hand, in front of their eyes so to speak.

To help with this, I have purchased this kit from Insectlore, which includes live caterpillars. We have 5 little wriggly jiggly things in a pot as I type. We haven't yet received their new home to be, but at least progress in the long waited for project has been made :o)

The children are, as to be expected I guess, pleased with the new arrivals. Well, Chelsea and Joseph are pretending to be uninterested, they are obviously too old to be concerned with such creatures - I won't mention that I have seen them have sneaky little peeks more than once - or that Chelsea was sat talking to the little fella's this morning when she thought no one was looking..., but both Tiegan and Callum are suitably obsessed. Callum doesn't think that they will be turning into butterflies though, he would prefer worms if possible. I guess that will be learning curve...

So, be warned - plenty of photos and general progress obsessiveness will follow. I apologise in advance for any offence this may cause...