Lots of rugby, visit to the coast and Ice creams with clotted cream and a flake!

Over the last week:-

Chiefs Chiefs Chiefs

On Saturday, a very very cold Saturday, we went to Sandy Park (excluding B who opted to stay at home in the warm, by the fire, eating popcorn and chocolate - sensible girl) to watch the Chiefs play Leicester Tigers.   Before he game though, some of the lads from our Rugby Club, D included, got to train with some of the players.

This also included a tour of the Chiefs building, the changing rooms - no naked Chiefs included in this :-(  the gym, a pool and also along the corridor  they had a gallery of all the past Chiefs teams.  There was a photo of the team the year my father played for them, but unfortunately he wasn't around when the photo was being taken.  However, to my delight, there was one of my Pampy (my dads dad) who played for the team in 1967

He is in the middle of the top row.

Onto the game, we lost - boo, but it was a good afternoon, despite us all getting frostbite!    We did get lots of autographs, and a photo of D with Manu Tuilagi, who gave me a very good photography tip - he said "your hand is on the flash"! 

Bit embarrassing, but the photo came out OK, bit dark though.

Sunday

Up early on another frosty morning to travel to Bude for a rugby match.  We won 79-0, and Danny scored a great try.

Monday

M's day off which consisted of us food shopping, shoe shopping in Exeter, then D had Devon training in the evening.

Tuesday

My sister and her partner were down from Sheffield, with their dog, Jesse, and another little, very very little, dog called Ziggy. 

We braved the cold and headed for the coast, short walk on the beach, then hot chocolates and lattes, onto The Grand Pier, then short walk again and finished off with a visit to the chip shop.

On the way home we stopped off at another seaside town, to get the famous Gays Creamery Ice Cream

Wednesday

I took J into our local Home Education Group where I organised egg decorating, then rolling into the eggs were smashed into smithereens and then we finished off with an Easter Egg Hunt.

Maundy Thursday

Started to Spring Clean, starting with the cupboards, and while I was doing this, J decided he wanted to paint eggs, so that took up most of the morning. The afternoon saw me mainly sorting out laundry and before I knew it, it was late afternoon.  Sent D off to fitness training for an hour, then cooked a nice hot meal for his return. 

Looking forward to Easter Weekend.  M has to work until 2pm on Good Friday, but after that he is off for 5 days.

Weather looks good too x

Home Educating my three children went quite well last week, and it seems we are finally getting into a routine after all the illnesses that have plagued us this last six weeks.

We had our scheduled visit with our new LEA adviser on Monday morning, and it went really well.  Mainly chatted about the older two, what they are studying and when they are intending to take their exams. Also discussed work experience for B, and as she mainly wants to be a nurse, it will be quite difficult to get her a placement because of patient confidentiality.  She has also toyed with the idea of becoming a cook, so we thought it maybe a good idea at this point to get some work experience in this area.

She agreed it was a good idea that they both study for three GCSE's at the moment, as being Home Edded they can get into college with this, as long as the are reasonably good grades. They will however still be studying two extra subjects each, D Chemistry and ICT and B Spanish, and possibly RE.  Maths, English and Science will take precedence over these subjects though.

So back to studying this week, trying to get a good run in before the Easter Holy Week.

I am still getting my head round Mathematical problems.  Last week I got a bit stuck on Modes Medians and Means, but I did eventually get my head around it.  Both the older two did well in sticking to their schedule, even the copy writing, but I will make sure in future I will only  attempt any serious math stuff when it is M's day off (he was very knowledgeable about the Modes Medians and Means stuff ).

J is showing an interest in reading,so we borrowed lots of early reading books from the library, and I will make him a word tree this week, so we can stick on all the words he has learnt. Also he really loves to count things, and I found a tattered old numbers book in a charity shop for him, than funnily enough, B and D used to learn from.

We also went on a great nature walk, with a spotter sheet from the Nature Detective Website

I also made a start on the spring cleaning this week, as it seems that when the  sun is shining, like most people, I tend to have more of a spring in my step, and am more enthusiastic about house work.  We still have to make a start on the painting, but rugby and M working every other weekend seems to stop us from making a start.

D has also recently been picked for the North Devon Squad, and has been to training sessions which are extra to his normal rugby training with his club, but it is all good fun and he has not got his Devon Development Training Shirt, which he will wear in a festival next month.  We are extremely proud.

Also we have been trying to fund raising for our tour, which include a cake stall in our town.  B has spent most of Friday baking, making a lemon drizzle cake, coffee and walnut, lemon cup cakes and lemon shortbread cream fingers.   J made Easter nest rice krispie cakes, after he ate a lot of the mini eggs, we had just enough for the "nests".  D did help out too - he grated the lemons!

More rugby news, M and D's team won their semi-final against Exeter Chiefs 41-12  and we are all looking forward to the final in April!

Also my brother was down at the weekend which was nice (despite the fact that he is 37 years old and  still feels the need to belch in my ear) had a nice birthday present from him and his wife, and the children enjoyed catching up with him again.

I will also be staring a Home Ed Journal which will be linked to this one, which I really must remember to update.

Home Ed Group maybe tomorrow, with a possible trip out with other HE families on Friday!