Days like this

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We all get them from time to time.  Days when nothing seems to go right.  It’s been like that today, though it did get a bit better towards the end.  I’ll spare you the details.  Just the usual kind of things that go wrong when you have very little sleep and a lot of children, and it all seems too much.  I don’t know what it is about today, but I have lost count of the number of facebook posts I have read from people who have had a bad day.  I could have posted something similar, and in a certain mood I would have done.  But two things have put my day in perspective today.

This afternoon I was on the way to the park to meet a friend and her children, and all my children were on their scooters.  Maybe it was a bit ambitious, though I did have the buggy with me as well.  They were all being sensible and Tiddler was listening, doing what he was told and stopping when I asked him.  Then suddenly he lost control of his scooter.  He sped up at just the wrong moment as we were heading towards a road we had to cross, and the pavement sloped down sharply towards the corner.  As the other three were slowing down to stop, Tiddler sailed past and was clearly going to land in the road.  Although I had been right next to him, he was suddenly out of reach and there was nothing I could do to stop him.  I couldn’t see round the corner so I had no idea if there were any cars coming.  Thankfully there weren’t, but he fell off his scooter right in the middle of the road and it was maybe two or three seconds before I got to him.  It felt like a long time.  I was quite shaken up when I got to the park.  Almost as soon as we arrived, it started to rain, and we all came back to our house.  The day got better from that point because the children played together really well and I enjoyed my friend’s company.  But also because I knew it could have been a day that changed my life forever.  And because it wasn’t, the little things that had gone wrong didn’t seem so bad after all.

The second thing that has put my day in perspective is that today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day today.  All over the world, in every time zone, candles were lit at 7pm, in remembrance of babies who have died, and families who have been affected.  This is our candle.  It is not our story, but it is the story of many friends of mine.  Too many.  I am remembering.  I know how lucky I am.  I am thankful for what I have.

Friday round up – 12th October 2012

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At the end of last week, I thought we were more or less over the sickness bug, though that didn’t turn out to be the case.  On Friday we had another day at home with ill and recovering children, but as the day went on they all seemed to be fine and we had quite a nice time.  Owl, Monkey and Rabbit did a little more work on their Prehistory project, which we haven’t done anything with since before the summer.  We received a parcel from PlayMerrily which caused a lot of excitement, with boots for the little ones, a crystal science kit and a sewing kit.

Owl and I had a go at the crystal science kit, but it wasn’t that successful.  I was rather distracted, we were too hasty, I’m not sure what went wrong but we have some rather tiny crystals.  We need to wait until all the lovely green water evaporates off and then have another go I suppose.  I started the sewing kit with Rabbit, then she did some more knitting and we all continued making the pompoms we had started the day before.  Granny (my mum) was here too and the children had a lovely time playing with her.  Rabbit also painted a unicorn picture on a canvas that she had been given a while ago, and she and Monkey drew some pictures with chalk.

  

  

On Saturday, we took Supergirl to her au pair training day, and then visited my aunt as the training day was near her house.  We then had lunch in a pizza restaurant, and went for a walk.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the children had a great time jumping in a really big muddy puddle, collecting leaves, picking brambles and rosehips and bug hunting (we took some ants home with us!)  We also found an interesting snail on a leaf,  saw some horses in the meadow, looked at some mushrooms and joined hands around a huge oak tree to see if we could reach round.  (We could, but only just.)  In the evening we visited Granny (my mother-in-law) and then went to the Harvest Supper at church.

On Sunday, we went to church, and Owl played his violin in the service.  We had a quiet afternoon at home doing housework while the children watched a DVD, then they did their music practice and bedroom tidying before Rabbit’s friend came round to play at the end of the day.

As the children had been fine at the weekend, we thought we were over the illness, but Rabbit was sick again on Monday night so we were back to cancelling some of our activities again.  We managed piano lessons and swimming lessons – even Rabbit swam as she was fine yesterday and hadn’t been sick for several days.  She did really well in her lesson, and swam unaided for the first time.  However, last night she was sick again so we have had another day at home today.

We have done lots of things at home this week, and I can probably only remember about half of them.  I played Stairs and Slides (a times tables version of snakes and ladders) with Owl and Monkey, and also Scrabble.  We have done some Maths work on money and time, English work on homophones and writing character descriptions, lots of Reading Eggs, and a Reading CD-Rom, music practice, hama beads and plenty of playing with trains, cars and Lego.  Monkey made a brilliant computer (with monitor, keyboard and mouse) out of Duplo.  Monkey has also been to Beavers and Owl has been to Cubs.

Owl spent a lot of yesterday experimenting with bits and pieces from various electricity kits and is trying to design a helicopter.  Monkey spent most of the day and part of the night writing long and very detailed wish lists, mainly Lego Ninjago with a few other things thrown in as well.

Today I went out with Monkey to the deli and local shops, and we collected some more leaves on the way back.  We also did the Maths and English activities that I mentioned in my last post.  In the afternoon Rabbit and Tiddler played in the garden, on the swings, blowing bubbles, drawing with chalk, and collecting leaves in buckets.  Owl made a kite from his flying science kit and then he and Monkey tried to fly it, and I then I had a go with Owl as well.  We just about got it flying but obviously need to take it out into a more open space sometime.  Then we all did some painting for an Autumn display, which was very successful, particularly as the children did it separately in between other activities (kite-flying, Reading Eggs and watching Cbeebies mainly) which made it nice and calm.  Tiddler was asleep and I didn’t wake him until everyone else had finished, which worked really well as I could then focus on him completely.  We printed with apples, potatoes, carrots and leaves, and painted some trees and various Autumn-coloured splodges which I’m sure I’ll be able to work into a display somehow.  It was fun anyway!

More Twinkling

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After I posted my review of Twinkl last night, we have had such a successful day today using some more of the resources that I thought I should write a follow-up post.

This morning Monkey played the clock game, matching written times to the times shown on the clocks, and Owl did it as well this afternoon.

Owl and Monkey have also both done some character description writing.  They chose to write about Lego Ninjago characters, and they enjoyed using the worksheets with suggested descriptive words to get them started.

This is Monkey’s description of Garmadon:

Garmadon is Sensei Wu’s brother, and their father was the creator of Ninjago and the first master of Spinjitzu.  Garmadon is evil and fierce and he rules an army of skeletons.  In year 2012 he got four arms.

And this is Owl’s description of Snappa.

Snappa is a fangpyre snake scout.  He is ugly, mean and evil, but in times of peace he is calm and friendly and tries to be a good friend.  But it’s hard to be nice when you are really a mean beast.  In times of war he is usually quite angry and he is not very popular among his tribe.  Snappa bites first and asks questions later.  He also gets mad at a drop of a snake’s scale.

(Owl would like me to point out that there are some additions and corrections in the text quoted here, because I took the photos earlier and they have continued to work on it.)

Look here for lots more lovely resources like these!

I think I should have said this on the post I wrote yesterday, but I will put it here anyway: I have been given a premium subscription to Twinkl to write this review.  All opinions are my own.

Twinkl: review of an educational website

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Like most home educators, I spend a lot of time looking for educational resources on the internet, and I’m always interested in finding out about websites that others use.

I have been given a subscription to a new (newish? new to me anyway….) educational website to try out and review, and I have enjoyed exploring the resources.  I have had a few technical problems, as my rather elderly laptop does not seem to be able to print anything at all from the website, and I have had to rely on Suburban Dad’s superior laptop when he is around, which is not much at the moment.  Anyway, he has printed a few resources which we have tried and enjoyed, so I thought I should get on and write this instead of hoping we will have time to explore it further.  I think the problems may possibly be because the files are unusually large (according to Suburban Dad) and I have passed on this helpful (?) information to them, so maybe they will be able to change the format.

Initially I found the website a little confusing to navigate, but I have got used to it and I really like the resources.  The thing we have used most is very simple.  I have printed some number tracks for Rabbit and she stuck them on strips of card and enjoys using them to practise counting forwards and backwards.  I also use them to ask her questions like “What is one more than 5?”, “What is one less than 9?” and so on.

I have tried out some worksheets on homophones with Owl and Monkey.  They are clear and simple, and the children did the first one very happily which involved filling in missing words in sentences.  They struggled with the second one as they were supposed to write two sentences on two short lines for each of the words and they just couldn’t fit them in so they had to make their interesting sentences shorter which was a shame.  However, one of the great features of Twinkl is that users can suggest changes to resources and also add their own.  Below each one, there is a message which reads “Have you got some new ideas for this resource?  Or is there a problem that you’ve spotted?” (I love this – it’s so polite!) and a button which says “Suggest a change.”

Today I was planning to use a game about telling the time but I thought I would laminate it first.  My problems with technology continued as one of the pages jammed in the laminator and of course I couldn’t just go and print another one out.  Sigh.  Anyway, IT support (otherwise known as Suburban Dad) is on the case, and I should be able to play it with them tomorrow.  We have also printed out clock fans (similar to number fans, where you ask a question and the children have to hold up the fan with the right answer) and I’ve found a lovely character description worksheet as well.

The website also has book lists for a variety of topics and users can add to those as well.  I think that is a very good way of sharing ideas, and I have enjoyed browsing and looking for inspiration.  The section on displays is a good place to look for ideas for Art, and I will certainly be trying some of them out.

Overall, I would say that despite my technical difficulties (which won’t affect you if you have a decent laptop) twinkl is a really useful website to add to the range of resources that is available on the net for teachers and home educators, and I would certainly recommend it.

More Hama Bead Fun

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Rabbit has been unwell again for the last couple of days and mainly sleeping or watching CBeebies, but yesterday afternoon she was feeling better and wanted something to do.  I gave her a set of Midi Hama Beads and she spent a long time making a lovely picture with them, but it wasn’t suitable for ironing as there were lots of spaces between the beads.  She then decided to follow one of the pictures that came with the set, and made this boy (with a little help from me and a lot of help from Supergirl.)

To occupy Tiddler while Rabbit was using the Midi Beads, I got out the leftover Maxi beads from the dinosaur and butterfly kits.  He had fun for a while putting random beads on the dinosaur template, and when he had finished Owl and Monkey made these smiley faces.

I love finding craft activities that all four children can enjoy, and I would like to have a go too, so I am going to order some more soon.  Here are some links for where to buy them and some ideas for what to do with them.

http://www.craftmerrily.co.uk/section/15/1/hama-beads

http://www.beadmerrily.co.uk

http://www.patchofpuddles.co.uk/archives/category/art-craft-books/hama-beads

http://pinterest.com/merrilyme/hama-beads/

http://www.simplecrafts.co.uk/category/by-craft/hama-beads/

Lavender and pompoms among other things

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We are all still at various stages of illness and recovery, so we are having a quiet week.  Yesterday, Suburban dad stayed at home and tried to rest a bit, get some work done and help with the children as much as he could, so we muddled through the day.  In the morning, the two little ones still seemed to be quite unwell, and Rabbit fell asleep on the sofa soon after she got up.  However, they both felt better after a little while and had a lovely time playing games with Supergirl (Scrabble and Marble Run and probably others as well, I can’t remember.)  The big boys did some Maths and English, and played some Science games online.  Owl played a BBC Schools game about Rocks which I suggested, and Monkey chose a game on BBC Bitesize.

Then I decided on a whim that it was time to do something with the lavender we picked in July.  Last weekend it got moved to the hall when we were clearing out the Laundry room, and when I was tidying the hall yesterday I thought I should probably stop moving it from room to room and just use it instead.  So I started stripping the lavender with the children and Supergirl came to help.  Then the children wandered off and Supergirl and I finished the job.  It was quite therapeutic.

   

Owl, Monkey and Tiddler made lavender bags, but Tiddler was not quite well enough to manage it, so he had a daddy cuddle instead.  Maybe he can make one another day – there is plenty of lavender left.

In the afternoon, Monkey and I went with Supergirl to the local college so she could take a test and register for an EFL course.  When we came back, the big boys did their Music practice, I did some knitting with Rabbit, and all three did Mathletics, Spellodrome and Bible reading.  As promised, I made a pompom with Tiddler.

Monkey went to Beavers, and then I went out to my exercise class, thinking the children would be in bed by the time I got back, but they had been having far too much fun making chutney with daddy instead!

 

Today, we were all feeling a bit worse again, with more sickness from some of the children and also Supergirl in the night.  So we had a quiet pottering around kind of day, trying not to be too noisy (and probably failing) as Supergirl tried to get some rest upstairs.  The big three did Reading Eggs, and then I did some knitting with Rabbit.  The big boys went upstairs to play with Lego and Tiddler did some puzzles, while I read a story to Rabbit from an old Octonauts magazine and then helped her to make a Snot Sea Cucumber and two Anemones.  She is very proud of them!

 

 

In the afternoon, they all did some BBC Bitesize Science games together, and then the younger three watched CBeebies, while Owl read Maths for Martians: Galaxy Getaway.
Then Owl wrote his blogpost and the other three disappeared upstairs.  Rabbit came down after a while and asked for some coins as they were playing fairies.  I was a bit confused but made her some coins out of paper, which seemed quicker at that point than finding some, and also not a choking hazard.  It turns out that Rabbit was the tooth fairy and Monkey and Tiddler were in bed.  It was a nice quiet game!  After that we all started to make some more pompoms, to be continued tomorrow.

 

Maths for Martians

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This post is written by Owl.

 

Today I read this book: Galaxy Getaway.  The theme is space, and the main character is called Zeno.  The main part of the story is Zeno travelling on a long space journey to meet her cyberpal, Zormella, in Myria City on planet Numis.  (A cyberpal is a bit like a space penpal.)  There are Maths puzzles throughout the book. My favourite puzzle is called Underground rescue.  You have to find the missing numbers to complete several sequences to open the door to a mine.  Then you have to find the missing number in this sum:

17 x ? =34

(You have to work out the answer yourself.  I am not going to tell you.)

I would give this book 10 out of 10.  If you want to read it, you can buy it here.

Maxi Hama Beads

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We have dabbled in Hama Beads before but the children were quite a bit younger, we used the small beads and it wasn’t entirely relaxing, so I left it for a long time, but I always meant to have another go at it.  Then I discovered Maxi Hama Beads, the chunky ones which are suitable for younger children.  It still took me a while to buy some kits, and even longer to do them, but a couple of months ago Rabbit made a butterfly.  She was very proud of it.  And then it broke.  I promised to fix it and forgot for a long time.  But today I did it!  I fixed the butterfly, and the boys made a dinosaur.  Turns out all it took was a vomiting bug to keep us all in the house.  Anyway, I think we now have the Hama Bead bug as well so we’ll be back here to buy some more.

This is not a sponsored post.  I am writing this because I want to support this business, run by a lovely home educating mum.  And also because I think the products are really good!

Not bad for an off day…

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… or in fact several off days.  We have all had colds and sore throats for what seems like a month but is probably just over two weeks, and mine got a little worse on Friday, and steadily worse throughout the weekend.  Surburban dad managed to run most of Sunday (between 9.30 and 4.30) without me and I went back to bed and slept for most of that time.  Sadly, that didn’t lead to the full recovery I was hoping for, but I’m sure I’d have felt much worse without the rest.  And now we have a vomiting bug, which kept Rabbit and Tiddler (and us obviously) awake most of the night, with Owl joining in at 4am.  Suburban dad has also come down with it and has come home from a training session early and spent the afternoon in bed.

Despite all this, the children have continued to do most of their normal activities (until today when we have had to cancel everything) and quite a lot of random creative and fun stuff as well.  I have just been cheering myself up by looking at the photos on my phone, and I am encouraged by what we can achieve even when we are ill.

On Friday morning, I took Rabbit and Tiddler to Musicbox, which they both enjoyed and joined in well.  The rest of the day was quiet and productive.  As well as Maths, English, music practice, Bible reading, Mathletics and Spellodrome, the older three made some cards.  Then Owl, Rabbit and Tiddler painted some Thomas the Tank Engine trains from a kit which we had been given a long time ago.

     

In other news, I had a very therapeutic sort out of the porch so we don’t have to step over about a hundred pairs of shoes (most of which fit nobody) when we come in, and the children helped me to clean it.

On Saturday, suburban dad took Tiddler to Dramabuds, and then we went to a Macmillan coffee morning at our friends’ house.  In the afternoon we sorted out the laundry room which was quite an obstacle course before.  There is now a path to the washing machine which helps a lot (came in handy in the night of vomit.)

On Sunday, suburban dad and Supergirl took all the children to church, and then to the Autumn fair at the local riding centre for the disabled.  We go to this most years and I was sorry to miss it but I really needed the rest.  The children had a good time, and among other things they went in a fire engine, played beat the goalie, acquired a Playmobil helicopter, watched a Punch and Judy show, had a miniature train ride, went into the stables to see the horses and made clay pots.  Monkey didn’t want to make a pot (which might be because I broke the one he made at the Environmental Fair in August – oh the guilt) but Supergirl, Owl and Rabbit did, and even Tiddler had a go with daddy’s help.

Yesterday, we did some Maths, English and music practice in the morning.  Rabbit had fun with Multilink cubes working out one more or one less than a number.

      

Owl and Monkey had their piano lesson, and after lunch some friends came to play.  Monkey painted his Divali candle holder from Beavers.

We tested our rock collection to see which ones would make marks.  This was quite fun as about half of them were chalk.  And we made volcanoes again!

 

Supergirl helped the children to wrap their shoeboxes for the Smile appeal at the church where the little ones go to Toddler group and the big ones have Beavers and Cubs (contents to be added later when we have bought the remaining items.)

Today has been quiet after an eventful night last night.  Rabbit has spent the whole day on the play room sofa, watching Cbeebies for about an hour and then watching a Charlie and Lola DVD on an endless loop.  Tiddler has been there most of the day and both of them have slept a bit.  Monkey and I went out to the deli and the shops, as he has been asking for some mummy time, and anyway he was the only one well enough to go out with me.  Owl seemed to be better by the time we came back, and the two of them have been having a big lego sort out this afternoon with help from Supergirl.  I hope they may have reunited the parts of at least some of their many jumbled up sets, but it’s a big job.

They have also done a Maxi Hama Bead set, with a little help from Tiddler, but I will blog that separately.  Rabbit has been doing her knitting most days recently, though she hasn’t been up to it today.  Tiddler really wants to join in, and today he said to me “I need to do knitting.  When am I going to be four?”  I think maybe I need to make pompoms with him tomorrow.  Or weaving perhaps?  Any other simple woolcraft ideas for a two-year old?

Autumn art, volcanoes and more Fimo

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I took Owl out for a hot chocolate at the deli yesterday morning, and then to his favourite local shop which sells stationery and toys.  (He used to call it the teeny tiny toy shop until he found out it already had a name!)  He enjoyed telling me all about Lego Ninjago while we were in the deli, and said he might write a book about it, explaining all the characters and themes.  In the shop he then showed me all the Lego kits he and Monkey might possibly like for Christmas, but I was pleased he didn’t asked me to buy any.  He did ask for the Horrible Science Violent Volcano kit, and I bought it mainly because we are learning about Rocks and Volcanoes, and I was intending to make a volcano this week.  I could have done it without the kit, but it would have taken longer!

In the afternoon, we went to our friends’ house for home education group.  The children had fun playing indoors and out, with cars, Lego and a football, and a little bit of pond dipping as well.  They were also offered two lovely Autumn art activities, which Rabbit and Tiddler decided to do.  Rabbit made a tree collage, and then made another one for Tiddler when he changed his mind about doing it, and they both made handprint hedgehogs.

In the evening, Monkey went to Beavers and made a candle holder out of clay.  Owl and I went to collect him and they spent 20p on some random bits of Lego at a fundraising stall which made them both very happy.

Last night, Tiddler woke several times in the night crying, and it seems that his cold has now got worse again.  So we gave his swimming lesson a miss this morning, and had a quiet time at home.  He played quite happily, after a dose of Calpol, and the others did some Maths and English.  I took Rabbit out for a hot chocolate, and to buy some magazines and sweets in the newsagent (the most exciting thing she could think of to do) and then to her swimming lesson.  In the afternoon, after some music practice, we got out the volcano kit.  It was a great success, but Tiddler wandered off and missed it the first time so we did it twice.

       

After that we had another go at Fimo, this time the Create Your Own Space Set.

Following some expert advice involving cocktail sticks and cardboard tubes, the boys managed to produce a rocket that didn’t flop, and Rabbit made a rather lovely star.

 

After that, we did some Bible Reading snuggled up on the sofa. Later on, all the big three did Conquer Maths, and then Rabbit did a bit of her knitting while Owl went off for a treasure hunt in the park with Cubs.  Looking back over the last two days, it is very clear to see the benefits of having Supergirl here with us.  We have done so much with so little stress and it has all been lovely and calm.  I am feeling very lucky and thankful!