Parks, Pools and Poo from the Sky

Its been a good week so far, and with the weather forecast continuing to predict more hot weather, looking forward to a good weekend too.

Starting the week off with torrential rain putting  an end to our family bike ride outing, having just all bought new helmets too.

The next day there was a slight break in the bad weather so we took J over to the park on his bike, complete with new helmet, knee and elbow pads

Shortly after this photo was taken, his had a massive crash which saw him and the other lad tangled in a heap on the floor  along with their bikes - after that there seemed to be something wrong with the brakes on the bike, so we headed off home, just in time before the rain started again!

On Thursday the weather was glorious, so I took J to the library and the park, along with my Dad who was off for the day, stopping off of course to one of J;s favourite cafe's for a milkshake, this time butterscotch flavour.

In the afternoon we all went to the park, after the older two spent the morning studying, to chill out beside the pool.


B got a bit wetter than she expected

Today I took J into the City Centre, along with my Dad, while the older two had a day to themselves, first stop the local Uni grounds for a walk, and of course a latte at the cafe

Onto town afterwards, first thing - get my Dad another shirt, something pooped on him from above (he was near a tree) I thought it may have been a squirrel, but after googling squirrel poo images I realised it must have been an extremely large bird. I really couldn't stop laughing all day.

We met M after he finished work and took J to the museum for an art session - he had to look at all the pictures in the gallery and decide what he would like to do.  Thankfully they had landscapes, some with houses, and as houses are his favourite subject, this is what he decided to concentrate on.  His picture is now on the museum young peoples website.



I love the sheep!

We also paid a visit to the park

Also this week B and D have been getting on really well with their studying, especially maths, which they both really seem to be enjoying at the moment. 
For English they are continuing to study from their workbooks as well as copy writing and lots and lots of reading.
 Hoping that next week they will make a start on the Play Scripts - Othello for D and An Inspector Calls for B.  D has now finished The Hobbit and will start on The Lord of the Rings series next.  B is reading Romeo and Juliet as well as The Railway Children.

J has been learning his ABC's through various books.  It try to sit with him for ten minutes a day to go through one of his Alphabet books, B has been helping too

He has also been making lots and lots of tissue paper pictures

Along with all the jigsaws, Lego, dressing up, and role play, this is pretty much Home Education for J.

Looking forward to the weekend, lots planned, but will it actually be too hot and muggy to do much?! 

Typical English weather  - from one extreme to another :-)



J's Birthday and Bank Holiday Weekend

J woke at at 5am on the morning of his 6th Birthday.  As we knew it would be far too early and very cruel to wake his older brother and sister up, we took him downstairs where his main present awaited him

As you can see he was very pleased with it.

Once the older two were up, (he woke them at 6am!) more present opening, then playing and we eventaully all managed to get out of the house to meet my parents for a coffee and milkshake in the Town Square

Then we went to a local Inn, where they have an indoor play area, park, skittles and nice food

Then back home to watch his favourite films and have a Birthday Tea and Batman Cake

On Sunday we went into the City Centre for a bit of light shopping, and stopped off for a latte and chocolate milk in the Cathedral Yard



J had a great time taking photos all by himself

In the afternoon I took J to the park for a paddle in the pool, while M and D met my parents at the local club to watch England V Barbarians



Then we collected our bikes from my parents garage as they have been stored there since we moved a few months ago, they need a bit of repair work, but seem OK. 

I dont have a bike, as B grew way taller than me she needed a bigger bike, so she now has mine, but I tested it out on the hill (stupidly) at my parents place to find that the brakes were not working properly!  I did manage to scrape my feet along the floor to stop myself and thankfully my hard wearing pumps from Primark did me proud.

My Mum had a go on the bike too

Bank Holiday Monday

Lovely weather in the morning.  The boys did up the bikes while we sat in the sun and my parents popped over.  Quick visit to the supermarket and arriving home just before the stormy weather arrived.  It started to rain heavily at 3.30pm and didnt stop. Turned really cold too, even had to put the fire on for ten minutes.

Ended the day watching back to back episodes of Miranda, which J really loves.  Such fun!

Banners, bats and bunting with some English thrown in

Yesterday was quite cold and miserable weather wise, so we all opted to stay inside, apart from M who had to not only go into work for a 12 hour shift, but also take a Maths and English exam!.  He is starting a Level 3 in City and Guilds Health and Social Care.  He thinks he did quite well, and is grateful for his involvement in the older childrens Maths and English revision.

Also we all felt a bit down yesterday because of the news about the Soldier who died in an attack by two terrorists in London on Wednesday.  Of course there are lots of awful things going on all over the world, but this particular incident was like something out of a horror movie, and very hard to take in.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Soldiers family and friends.

So we plodded on through the day, with B and D contining with their English revision, along with copy writing and reading.  B will read every night before she goes to bed, and sometimes as soon as she wakes up, but D takes a bit more persuading.  However, he is getting on extremely well with The Hobbit, and is half way through already since starting reading it on Monday, so am quite pleased with his progress.

Today I gave them both the day off (Biology normally).  B wanted to make J's birthday cake, along with his favourite kind of cupcake - chocolate with chocolate butter cream icing.

J decided that he didnt want us to put up the balloons and banners while he was in bed on the evening before his birthday, and that he would like to help. So we spent most of the morning decorating the Living Room, Kitchen and Hallway

Looking in through our front window, passers by may think we have gone mad and decorated the house early for Halloween, but as J's main present in an Imaginext Bat Cave, and at the moment Batman is his favourite Super Hero, we have a Batman theme going on, hence the black and yellow balloons.
We also have bats hanging from the ceiling.

Also one of his favourites is Spiderman

Basically he loves any Marvel or DC Super Hero.  So last night M and I cut out triangle shapes for bunting from one of his old Wolverine comics

And of course we didnt forget that he loves Doctor Who

(That thing on the end is really bloody scary)

Batman Cake

Along with some very choclatey cup cakes

Now my little five year old boy is fast alseep, he has been so excited all day.  Tomorrow we are planning to go out for something nice to eat with my parents, and take him to his favourite play centre. Then we are having a party tea in the afternoon and hiring a DVD of his choice in the eveining.


Now for a glass of the red stuff, and make a start on that ironing!

Books, books and more books, experiments, flapjacks and Indiana Jones!

This week started pretty slowly, probably due to the fact that M worked at the weekend and only had one day off this week. This meant that we had to cram all of our last minute prepartions for J's birthday in on Monday.

We headed into Exeter in the morning with a flying visit to M's parents before going into the town centre to try and sneakily get presents for J.  On the way back it was a food shopping stop at Tesco, then home to get the older two settled with their maths work for the day.

I have set them work for the next 8 weeks.  We decided that as they have had quite a bit of study time off this past month, that they would just work through the half term, breaking up then two weeks before the official school term ends.

They each have English Assignments and I am working on Biology for them at the moment.  Maths has been broken down as follows:-

Handling data

Tallying, collecting and grouping data
Mean, mode and median
Scatter diagrams I
Line graphs and pictograms
Probability
Questionnaires
Measures of central tendency and measures of spread
Probability
Pie charts and frequency diagrams
Scatter diagrams II and Cumulative frequency diagrams

Number:

Rounding and estimating
Negative numbers
Prime numbers, factors and multiples
Significant figures
Ratio and proportion
Long multiplication and division
Fractions
Decimals
Percentages
Standard Form
Surds
Sequences
Powers and standard index form

Space

Angles & Area
Measures
Polygons
Volume
Co-ordinates and bearings
Three Dimension
Symmetry & Transformations
Pythagoras Theoreum
Basic Triganometry
Graphs of sinx, cosx and tanx
Sine and cosine rules and area of a triangle
Circle Theorum
Congruency
Loci

Algebra:

Indices eg 22
Graphs
Proportion
Flow Charts
Sequences
Inequalities
Basic algebra
Solving equations
Quadratic equations
Simultaneous equations

B will be following GCSE level, D Key Stage 3. They will both be trying to cover each section over a two week period.

I also purchased this week, around £100 (Amazon prices) worth of books for £32.  I printed off the GCSE English Language and Literature List and went to my local second hand book shop (which also donates a percentage to charity) and gave them the list.

Managed to get quite a few, and also from the charity shop a few extra classics that are not on this list.

B has made a start on The Color Purple by Alice Walker

D selected The Hobbit

As well as their English assignments they have been copywriting, which is very boring, but it is important in an exam that they present their answers neatly, and also to be able to write fairly quickly and clearly.

I keep telling D this when he claims his arm is hurting after one page (I ask them to do four sheets of A4 a week).

Now back to child led not structured revising for GCSE type of Home Education.

J has been learning the odd letter or two, which he seems to really enjoy, and today I intend for us to paint a letter tree so he can stick all the letters he has learned so far onto the tree.

We have also started to do weekly science experiments, which he has decided he now wants to do every day.

Started with this one which I saw over on An Ordinary Life? Blog

Layers of Liquids - Density

J had great fun with this, although it may have gone a bit pear shaped at the end when we put talcum power in it and gave it a stir

Also we made fruity flap jacks, which he thouroughly enjoyed, and they tasted great.  The kitchen, however, looked like a cluster bomb made of out of oats had gone off!

He also was very pleased at his attempt to write the letter "b".  When looking for all the books off of the GCSE list, J came accross this etch a sketch type of book with instructions on how to write lower case letters.

Also from the Charity shop we found a marble run, which J spent a whole afternoon playing with, with his big brothers help.

This apparently, is the tallest marble run EVER!

Yesterday we went to the HE Group, sun was shining so lots of play outside. He also made a new friend, who is a girl, which is a shock because at the moment he doesnt really like girls, they get on his nerves apparently. This girl, however, was quite cool as when he was playing "Indiana Jones" when he pretended to shoot her, she fell down and "died" like she is supposed too!

He absouloutely loves Indie, and we recently bought him a summer hat from Primark, which he thinks looks a lot like Indies hat

He also mentioned that  he would like to be an actor when he grows up, and maybe be the new Indiana. 

Last week though he wanted to be a miner, because he would like to work underground, as then he would be able to wear one of those cool hats with lights on!