James attended his second session of Rugby Tots this morning - he really enjoyed it.

Mike was working so my Mum took us in, James insisted that his big bro came along to watch too.

Becky and Danny are off for three days now as it is Parents Day on Monday, so we get to go and talk to their teachers.  Only a few weeks now left of this term, and then they would have both completed a year (give or take a couple of weeks) in school.

So far so good.

Now its time to start planning activities for the school summer holidays - never had to do that before, where on earth do I start?
  
I think the first week will be a novelty of not having to get up and get ready for school each day, so that means no plans and just chilling.

Both children have done extremely well in adjusting to this sudden structure in the mornings, and I have not had any problems in them getting up early every weekday morning to get ready for school.   At a toddler group once, back in the early days of deciding to home educate, and foolishly telling othe rmothers in the group, one lady told me that it was a silly idea and how on earth are my children going to hold down a job in the future.  She said that going to school prepared them for getting up early in the morning and getting ready for work, and that if they were taught at home, they would not be able to get up in time for work as there would be no dicipline at home.

Well, both Becky and Danny get up at 6am, shower, eat, pack there stuff for school and are ready to go out the door at 8.15am.  Sometimes Danny will even make their lunch the evening before.

So in your face Mrs whatsername, who nagged me every Tuesday at the group about home educating.  I actually ended up telling her that we inherited some money and where actually going to send them to Private School - this annoyed her even more and she thought that I thought I was "better" than the rest of them and she didnt speak to me anymore.  Thank goodness for that.

Anyway - back to the here and now.

Becky is making cakes at the moment for the Rugby Car Boot Refreshment Stall tomorrow, grateful that she has made a few extra as they look really scrummy.

Danny is chilling out in his room with his Guitar

Becky has finally got her Keyboard, special deal meant that she got a set of headphones and a stand free.

So lots of practising going on there.   There was a nice moment when Becky was on her keyboard and Danny was accompanying her on the guitar.  This lasted only a few minutes as Danny only knows how to play a few chords, and this irratated Becky slightly.

Started this blog post with the sun streaming through the window, finished his blog post with it chucking down with rain.

Hoping for some dry weather soon, my tan from the April Sun is starting to fade.

Day at the beach

Ignoring the weather forecast, I took James to the beach.  Last minute decision to ditch all the housework, house moving dealings etc and re-assured by the fact that my considerate caring husband said that he would do all the housework when he got home from work, we got the early train.

Weather was a bit grotty, but we had a nice train ride there an headed straight for the beach.


First stopping to look at all the boats

Then onto the golden sands to make sand castles.

Collected shells, and saw some Moon Jellyfish

Jellyfish are in the sea obviously.

Then onto Crazy Golf

Finally the park

Devon Inter Schools Athletics Competition

Danny was picked to represent his school for the Shot  Putt - as he won this event on Sports Day.  He was a bit nervous, as his main event is the Discus, but there wasnt an event for his age group at this compeition.

Anyway - lots of schools invlolved and I am proud to say that  Danny won - with a throw of 8m 87

Quick Round Up

A week ago - Mike's Birthday also Fathers Day

Went out for a nice meal

Then of course watched the footie.


The  week has been a mixture of sunshine, illness, trip to the dentist, school issues that needed to be sorted (now sorted) visits to my Dad, cooking, cleaning, football and of course lots of rain.

Just to prove that the sun did come out -  James Pirating out in the garden without his top on

Did some water colours with James - he did this painting all on his own and he was really pleased with it.

On Saturday we got up quite early and went into Exeter to get Danny some new football boots, got into the shopping centre at 8.30am so had a lovely latte and the kids had some brekky.

Then onto James's main event of the weekend - Rugby Tots.  His first session was at 10.15 for 45 minutes and he loved it.  So have signed him up for the rest of the term, bit expensive I feel, but he doesn't do any other activities at the moment and he really did have a great time.  So beans of toast for the rest of the week lol.

We then went to my Aunt and Uncles so my Uncle could tune Danny's guitar which he is learning to play at school. 

Today

Went to The Waie Inn, Becky and Danny played football with Mike, James played in the park. Becky did have a moment of being young again by giving into temptation and going down the slide

Playing Football

and in the park

School seems to be going OK, always a few things that we have to keep an eye on, but they are both still happy enough, it seems.  Danny has been picked for the athletics team to represent the school in a competition next week, and Becky has been told her set for her Maths GCSE lessons for next year, which is Set 2, so she will be taking the the higher level of the exam.   Very proud of both of them, not only how well they are doing academically, but also socially.

Now - James is having a pre-match nap, Mike is cooking Roast Chicken, and hopefully we will all be ready for the Euro 2012 Fourth Quarter Final - England v Italy - COME ON ENGLAND!

Bugs, Rain, Football, Home Edcuating a 5 year old and Pirates

Almost two weeks have gone by since my last post - so much for blogging daily.

In my defence however, at least one of my family have been ill over the past 10 days, and then everything seems to grind to a holt. Half Term went by in a flash, rained for most of it, topped off by sore throats, coughs and flu like bugs. This week I have been under the weather with some kind of sinus type bug which made my teeth ache.

So this would explain why I haven't bothered blogging, as its all so bloody boring.

But anyway, as James is now 5, I thought I had better start typing up my Home Education Diary for him, as I did with the older two.  Although home educators do not have to worry about visits anymore, I am not sure if I still have to send in a report or not, but either way I have always felt the need to type up what we have been doing.

I am a bit more relaxed with James when it come to teaching him at home, mainly because I don't give a monkeys about what everyone else thinks anymore, and I don't feel I have to prove that I am doing it "right". 

I am quite happy for him to play, then maybe play, and then play some more.    I remember when I was a newbie at all of this and I was itching to get started when Becky was 5, scouring books (not the Internet because I didn't get a PC until a couple of years later) for ideas on what to do.  Someone once told me that you really don't need to worry to much about reading, writing and maths before there are 7, and that it is best to just let them learn through play.

This is all well and good, but at the time, with not much support, I felt I had to be seen to be doing a bit more.  But after going to HE Groups and mixing with HE families, I became more confident and decided to follow my instincts and go for the child led way.

It was way more fun.

So James spends his days playing, at the moment he is "role playing" .  He has several dressing up suits, mainly super hero's, he is currently Captain America, and alternates between this and The Hulk. This morning he helped make smoothies, jelly and helped me shop for our tea tonight as he wanted roast chicken with Yorkshires (pronounced orkshires) and peas with gravy.

Despite not sitting with him and teaching Maths and English he can count to 20, and not in a parrot fashion, which a child of two could probably do, he understands the number sequences and counts almost everything, stairs, sweets, potatoes.   He also picked up a work book that I bought him a while back, as we bought the older two workbooks before they started school to get them up to scratch, he too wanted one.   It was learning your A-Z and he went through it and got most of the letter sounds right, and I hadn't even taught him any of this.  He has just picked it up through us reading to him, CBeebies, and general conversation and being inquisitive.

I do feel though, that I myself like to have a record of what we have been doing, and anything that he may have learnt throughout the week.  It may be through conversation, on "Come Outside", Numberjacks or Pirates of the Caribbean (which we have watched about 7 times this week).

So a new blog will be formed,for my record of James's education, and I am not going to follow the school terms, not until he is a lot older when it will maybe become more structured.

Onto my other two darling children, pre-teen and teen - still both doing extremely well. Becky is being put into her set for next year, as there are 6 weeks let before the end of this year, next year it is all about preparing for their G.C.S.E's.  So far she has been told that she is in set 2 for Maths, which is very very good.
Danny has been put forward for a Gifted and Talented award for English.  Not quite sure what this is, but it sounds impressive.

Other news-

My Dad has had is knee replaced successfully, and is currently recovering at home.
Our house sale seems to be ticking along nicely, probably will exchange in 4 weeks.
Packing is progressing nicely too.
Still cannot find any England bunting to put up outside our house to support our team in the Euros - am thinking about writing to the Prime Minister about this.
Mikes birthday this weekend - will be as old as me now - 41.


Now, back to watching the end of Pirates o the Caribbean 3 - hate that Davie Jones - very scary.

Jubilee Celebrations

The weather cleared up just in time for our Towns Jubilee Celebration in the Park.

Lots of families turned out for the occasion, and all of my children had great fun.

James on the bouncy castle

Face painting - as The Hulk



and winning the egg and spoon race (aka tennis ball and spoon race)

Stretcher Ride

Danny spent the whole time playing Rugby and Football

Becky with friends

Mike unfortunately had to work, so he had to leave early.  We left shortly after and went home to settle down and watch the Jubilee Concert.  James went to sleep and then we woke him up again before Mike returned home to go and see the Jubilee Beacon.  He was very excited about going out in his PJ's.

It was a very good turn out, great atmosphere and I think the Crediton Scouts did extremely well in organising all of it.

10.15pm, along with the rest of Britain, the Beacon was lit

Then Fireworks

It was a really great day, and made me feel proud to be British, although I must say, when it gets to Friday and the Euro Games start - I will not be British but 100% English (apart from the bit of me that's Irish of course lol)  COME ON ENGLAND!

Weekly Round Up

After having a lovely family celebration weekend for James birthday,it was back to the grindstone on Monday, first on the list - house hunting.  Not a good start with James being poorly.

Monday
Mike worked in the morning, and with the  older two at school, I spent most of the day out in the garden sat on the blanket with James cuddled into me.  When Mike got home we did manage to pop into the Letting Agency and make a few appointments for Tuesday.

Tuesday

Boiling hot, great day to spend driving around looking at houses  Was OK really, James seemed to enjoy it, and was fascinated with a house that had a cupboard under the stairs like Harry Potter.

Wednesday

James not feeling too good at all, so not much going on.  In the evening someone from a few streets away (I say streets, but they are very small pathways and a few streets away is probably only about 100 yards) to ask me if I had a black cat, I said yes I have two that are black  He then told me that he had a dead black cat outside his house. To cut a long story short, it wasn't any of my cats, thank goodness, but we did bring the deceased cat back for Mike to bury.  Mike was a work and knew nothing about this of course, but I decided to keep it a day or two in case anyone needed to identify it.

Thursday

Straight to the Doctors with James, he has an ear infection, they didn't mess around and gave him anti-biotics.
Put a notice in the Pet Shop window about the cat.

Friday

James was feeling a lot better so we decided to go to watch Danny and Becky at their school sports day at the local Athletics Track.

Danny's Year's events were scheduled for the morning.  First event for him - Discus

First place for him, smashing the school record by throwing 25m (record 19m)

Then Shot

First Place

In the afternoon Becky's Year arrived.

Becky had a bad experience in a 100m sprint not so long ago, so she was very nervous about racing in the 200m, an event that I always thought she would be good at, more so than the 100m.  She had been practising at school, but this was her first ever 200m race.

Not a very good photo, I was videoing (and cheering) at the same time.

She got 3rd place, which was brilliant.

Her next even Long Jump

She did extremely well and got 2nd place

Other good news - which she found at last week, she got one of the lead parts in the Play she auditioned for.  She will play Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Very proud.

Saturday

Mike working.  James still a bit under the weather, so we just ventured out into the Town to soak in the Jubilee atmosphere, stopping for tea, with scones and a cucumber sandwich (donation for this to go to charity) at our local deli.

Sunday

Mike off this morning, we all worked hard and cleared out the loft, and the kids bedrooms.  Rubbish bags galore.

Not sure what we will be doing tomorrow with regards to the Jubilee, it will depend on how James is feeling, and Becky, as she seems to be coming down with something, and also the weather, as at the moment it is absolutely bucketing down out there and blowing a hooley.

Happy Jubilee