HOMES'COOL'!!

Ebay, Pepper and Drama

2012-02-15T14:50:00.000Z

I'm still not keeping up with my blogging, I am struggling to find the time. N has been sorting out more things to sell on Ebay, (seriously who knew she had so much stuff).

Pepper has been feeling unwell, but Ralph has been on-hand to make her feel better......

N is at a drama workshop in Oxford - Put On A Play In A Week - The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, we are very excited about seeing the play on Friday.

Next week is about:

Knuckling down into our maths work as N will have to take a SAT, before starting school, if she is given a place.

Cookery

Reading (N is still reading about 3 novels a week!)

French (the secondary school 'tour guide' did ask N how much French she knew, as they are expected to be able to count and make minimal conversation before they start!)

Going To School

2012-02-04T15:20:00.002Z

N has decided that she would like to go to the local secondary school in September, when she would be entering year 7. We went along to the school this week to have a look around.

N really enjoyed the tour, her favourite parts were; the canteen!, the new music block and of course the library. We have filled out the application form and just need to wait and see now if she will get a place as we have missed the first round of applications.

It will be such a major change for us all, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.........(fingers crossed for a happy ending!)

first wish completed & M moves in.....

2012-02-04T15:15:00.000Z

I haven't posted recently, we have been so busy.

N decided she wanted to buy herself a double bed, and set about sorting out mountains of things in her room that could be sold on Ebay in order to pay for it. The last 10 days we have been drowing in a sea of parcels to send off, yes we made the mistake of listing 70 items all at once. It seems like a good idea at the time until all the listings finish on the same day and need sending off!

All of this means that N was the first person to complete a wish on the wishing wall.

M (N's 20 year old brother) has moved in with us this week and we are all really excited about it, M & Hubby have worked really hard to get all of his belongings squeezed into a VERY small bedroom, but it does help that he is super tidy!!

First post of the year (shame on me)

2012-01-24T21:44:00.001Z

I can't believe that I haven't sat down to write a post since mid-December. It is true that Christmas rushes by as a blur of parties and merriment.

N has a new blog at http://www.quirkygirlfromjupiter.blogspot.com/

Early January we decided to create a Wishing Wall (inspired by the pinterest at Winding Circle). Each of us (moi, hubby, M and his girlfriend E, L and N) wrote down our wishes for 2012. Things we would like to do, achieve, see or experience. Once a wish has been completed then the wish is taken from the wall. I wonder how many will still be there in December!

We have been to Egypt on holiday for 11 days of (in theory) sunshine! N had a great time at the water park going down all of the slides, she didn't quite achieve her goal of going down all 32 in one day though! N took 6 books on holiday with her and by the 4th day had read them all! I had taken Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone with me, (I had bought it from a charity shop ages ago for N, but she always refused to read it as she was too scared) anyway I managed to convince N to read it once I had finished it and she loved it so much she read it in a day. N is now a converted Harry Potter fan, so we settled down together as a family and watched the film this evening.

Tomorrow is the official start of us 'getting back into the swing' of things. N is off to an Olympic Games workshop at The Ashmolean in Oxford, which should be really good and had me scouring the shelves in the homeschool room....."I'm sure I bought a couple of Olympic Games books from a charity shop years ago".....If only I was as organised as Hubby, it would all be alphabetised!

Speaking of organisation, this is the state of the homeschool room after 6 weeks of parties and holidays. Oh dear a little too much seating and not enough workspace me thinks.

Christmas Crafting

2011-12-13T21:12:00.000Z

This week N has painted some christmas decorations

made drinks coasters for christmas day by cutting out circles from old christmas cards

and laminating them

she has been colouring christmas pictures, listening to christmas songs, playing the piano, watching christmas movies and playing with friends.

Christmas Decorations, Bourton Lights and Grandma's Birthday

2011-12-03T17:55:00.001Z

It's the beginning of December and that can only mean one thing - time to put up the Christmas decorations. Hubby had kindly kept the day free of work so that we could put them all up together.

The tree is my favourite part.

The dogs were very good about all of the change happening in the house and the excitement. I am not sure what they made of the singing santa!

In the evening we drove to Bourton On The Water for the switching on of their Christmas lights. It was very magical, much better than the Witney switch on. They had people dressed in period costume, owls from Birdland and even a snow machine.

The christmas tree is stood in the water, there was a real ooooh factor when the lights came on.

Today was grandma's birthday and she came to visit for lunch, afterwards Grandma and N played cards while Pepper and Ralph made sure nobody cheated.

Sledging, Ice Slides and Xmas Lights

2011-11-26T09:57:00.001Z

Yesterday morning we went along to Xscape (indoor snow slopes) in Milton Keynes, after the initial stress of getting up early, realising I had forgotten my wellies, turning around and coming back to pick them up, finding our way there (putting all my faith in hubby's sat nav), finding a helmet that actually fitted each of us, (we must both have extra large heads), we had a really fun time.

The first couple of goes down the slope on the little plastic sledges were a bit scary, I seemed to be picking up top speed, and screaming louder than the kids.The travelator to get you up the slope seemed even more dangerous, especially when you had to get off it at the top, but we managed the session without any breakages! The ice slides seemed much safer, wedging yourself in a huge rubber ring before being pushed down the ice slide.

N wants to go back for her birthday she enjoyed it so much.

Last night we walked into Witney for the Xmas Light Switch On, there were literally hundreds of people wedged into the market square. N was very annoyed that moments before David Cameron came on stage to switch on the lights - someone with a child on their shoulders pushed in front of her and she couldn't see a thing. She made sure she moaned about it loud enough for them to be totally aware of her disapppointment!

Never mind, there were reindeer

an ice sculpture,

an Elvis impersonator with a gospel choir singing slightly Bollywood, Caledonian bagpipe players and lots of lights.

Making Chutney at Cogges

2011-11-24T20:27:00.001Z

We met up at Cogges today for a chutney making session over a campfire!

The children set about collecting and chopping wood for the fire, lighting the fire, peeling and chopping the vegetables and.....

making spice bags - N donated hers to the chutney

Each child had a jar of chutney to take home

the end of life for N's spice bag!!

We all had a lovely day, considering we are near the end of November the weather was very kind, and we agreed that the Outdoor Learning sessions at Cogges had been one of the highlights of 2011 and we hope we will be given the opportunity for something similar in 2012.

Passing on a love of Twilight

2011-11-17T21:06:00.001Z

Now, I am not afraid to admit that I adore the Twilight Saga books by Stephenie Meyer. There have been many times where I have realised I'm an hour late making dinner (much to N's disgust), because I've had my head stuck in one of the books.

I have been saying for while now that N is at the stage where she could read the first three books - Breaking Dawn is a little too graphic for a 10 year old! So yesterday I passed over my much loved (I bought it 2nd hand and I've read it twice!) copy of Twilight to N. She started reading it at 9.30pm last night and finished it at 3.30pm today, with 434 pages that is pretty good going. Needless to say she loved it. I think it hurt to put it down long enough to get washed and dressed and eat!

She gave herself a 10 minute break before she delved into New Moon. Bless, perhaps vampire love is genetic.

I managed to coax her away from New Moon and out of her room for dinner this evening, although it was to watch the Twilight movie. She reminded me of myself watching the film after reading the book and criticising what was missing or changed!

N always loves watching the bonus features on dvd's; finding out how the film was cast, how the wardrobe was chosen, which scenes were cut etc, so of course we had to watch the extra documentaries this evening too. I hope Stephenie Meyer's own story inspires N, after all it was the first book she had ever written.

AWOL for a month!

2011-11-16T17:48:00.001Z

I cant believe how quickly the last month has flown by. I keep meaning to catch up on the blog, but the longer you leave it the more you time you have to find as you have so much to say. It has been so long now i struggle to remember most of it!

Aside from chasing balls, this is what the dogs have been doing........

We have been throwing ourselves into English and Maths and had the wonderful lightbulb moment last week when N really understood division and the fact that she can work the sums out quite easily when she wants to.

We had National Schools Film Week and N went to the cinema for free to watch Rio and Cars 2. N spent a week at a Creation Theatre workshop 'put on a play in a week', she had a fabulous time and the play was truly wonderful. She has been to two birthday parties and had her own Halloween party.

We went along to a 'Whodunnit' crime solving workshop at Science Oxford and N had first prize for solving the crime first.

We've been along to card club with N's Nanny and we made a coach load of christmas cards. N has been practising the piano on her own, as we can't afford to restart the piano lessons at the moment.

N did a little mini project on Helen Keller, we subscribe to the School Express free themed workbook a week. They are not always age appropriate but I tend to save the ones that I think would interest N.

The binoculars are out along with the bird spotters guide, now that most of the leaves have fallen from the trees at the back of the garden. We even took the binoculars to Blenheim Palace this afternoon.

We went along to see their winter wonderland display.....

I was shouted at as I stupidly photographed the christmas trees inside the palace - oops naughty me - no cameras allowed. The display inside was actually enough to get me in the christmas spirit though, it was all white and sparkly.

Niamh had fun outside as usual rolling down the moat.

We came home and N made some dough for home-made pizzas.

Geffrye Museum, London

2011-10-16T13:40:00.001+01:00

We went to the Geffrye Museum in London, it had been kindly suggested by another home educating family on the Yahoo List as a good place to visit for our Georgian period project.

The building is beautiful and built at the beginning of the Georgian period.

Inside the museum are various 'rooms' set up as they would be in different eras. We felt spoiled as three of them were Georgian and there were lots of things to look at.

N's favourite Georgian chair.

copies of Georgian period newspapers

We had a lovely time at the museum and I would thoroughly recommend it to any history loving family.

Getting back into the swing of it...

2011-10-04T11:46:00.000+01:00

Okay, we have been away in Devon, we came home and we had a glorious week of summer-esque weather, but there comes a time when we have to slip back into our schedule!

We are still working through our Georgian project, yesterday was an excellent opportunity to discuss the voyage of the Beagle. Any excuse to talk about Charles Darwin and i'll take it! Next week is Dr Edward Jenner.
These are the things I love about home education, the freedom to play, make or learn about whatever we choose. Helping N to understand how clever and inspirational people throughout history have helped change the world is very important to me.

I am loving Education City (http://www.educationcity.com/) at the moment. Yesterday we were identifying Protagonists and Antagonists within stories. This morning we discussed it again in the context of some of N's favourite shows. After a quick reminder of the definitions of protagonists and antagonists she could quickly identify both (with good arguments to back up her opinion if challenged!) N loves watching television and I don't discourage it. In fact when she was diagnosed with Aspergers, they commented that it had most probably helped her a great deal.

Glorious October Sunshine

2011-10-04T11:23:00.002+01:00

We have been busy enjoying the glorious sunshine that we have been so lucky to have. Picnics, water fights, conker hunting, every opportunity to be outside we have taken.

We even put up the pool in the garden (for the first time this year!), N had great fun with her friend all weekend cooling off in that.
Here is a good example of what happens if you dare to relax on a sun lounger in our garden.......

Ploughing Championships

2011-09-28T20:36:00.001+01:00

We went along to the local ploughing championships at the weekend....

We had been really looking forward to it, so we could put Ralph into the terrier racing. He is the fastest dog at the park after all! (and he really wanted to win me a bottle of wine, he told me so!) Just look at how excited he was at the prospect of chasing a small furry thing across the field....

Sadly for poor Ralph, the only thing on his mind when the stalls opened was - where is my mum?! He didn't chase after anything! Never mind.

After a trip to the hospital on Monday, N had her cast taken off and as long as she is careful doesn't need another one on. No cartwheels for 3 more weeks!

Living Coasts - Torquay

2011-09-28T20:25:00.002+01:00

Living Coasts in Torquay is a coastal zoo, and definitely the best aquarium type attraction we have ever been to.

The macaroni penguins they have outside are amazing and N even said it is the best penguin enclosure she has seen. At feeding time the ropes were pulled back and the penguins came out to be fed.

They also have an excellent seal enclosure outside and the seals were very willingly sitting up on the rocks close to us posing for photographs.

Inside is where the magic began. As we made our way down through the mangroves (which was too noisy and dark for N), we came across a 'bubble' which you could sit, stand or lie in and it put you underwater in the seal enclosure. The seals were playing with N while she was there, coming up and laying alongside her. Living Coasts was quite quiet at the time so N could spend a lot of time interracting with them.

It was a very magical time that I don't think any of us will ever forget.

Pennywell Farm

2011-09-24T17:33:00.001+01:00

We took a trip to Pennywell Farm . We had a really great day, there lots of things to see and do and everyone was very friendly.

N always loves to see the farm animals and although her mum (me) ALWAYS feeds the goats (my favourite) and the sheep, she has never been brave enough. Until we visited Pennywell! She loved feeding the animals and was thrilled that she managed to do it.

She even stroked an owl.

Cuddled a piglet....

How adorable!

Becky Falls - Dartmoor

2011-09-24T17:24:00.002+01:00

We visited Becky Falls in Dartmoor, the woodland park was beautiful. Peace and Nature.

We enthusiastically followed the stamp nature trail.....

N told us all about the money tree

we left a coin each on the tree to ensure safe passage..

Babbacombe Cliff Railway

2011-09-23T21:19:00.003+01:00

We are back from our holiday to Torquay, we had a lovely time. It was probably the first time we have been on a seaside holiday without playing on the beach, paddling in the sea and using the caravan park swimming pool...(all out of bounds to poor N with her cast on her arm)

However it meant we had time to have lots of fun elsewhere.

Hubby is an old pro of cliff railways but N and I were newbees!

The cliffs were 400 million years old.

large rockfall..... think of all of the fossils in that, I mused.

Afterwards hubby very kindly drove us to here.........

The first 'chip shop' fish and chips I have tasted in almost 10 years. It was magnificent!

Next Post - Becky Falls

Taking Science Thursday toooooo far

2011-09-08T18:28:00.002+01:00

Okay so today is Thursday that equals Science.

I had a Robert Winston experiment planned, instead we spent 3 hours in the local hospital getting N's arm in plaster.

She came off her scooter with a somersault yesterday evening and has a possible fractured scaphoid, which apparently doesn't show the fracture for 10 days.

She coped so well with the 3 hour wait, but it all got a bit too much with the apparent smell of the wet plaster and the sling on her arm (she doesn't like things on her arms)

we mentioned we home educated to the nurses and they printed out the x ray for us - sweet.

We are off to the John Radcliffe tomorrow for further examinations...........

Coconut Biscuits (Cookery Wednesday)

2011-09-07T19:18:00.003+01:00

It is Wednesday and that means (according to our schedule!) that it is cookery.... today was all about Coconut Biscuits

225g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g butter

175g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 beaten egg

50g dessicated coconut

sift together flour and baking powder
rub in butter
add sugar, coconut, vanilla and egg
mix to a dough
refrigerate for at least one hour
roll out and cut into whatever shape you desire
bake at 190 for 10 minutes

guess who went a bit giddy at the supermarket when choosing the food colouring?

we came home with green, yellow and black

(at least halloween is approaching, although I don't think that was in her thoughts at the time)

N's Grandma visited today and managed to come to the park with the dogs using her frame. She said she took great pleasure in watching both dogs chasing after their balls and racing around with such happiness.

So here are a couple of dog photos as I haven't posted any for a while......

Pepper got bored with her ears so decided to wear them inside out for a change.

Last night I took this picture of them sharing the same bed.....they had been to the groomer's and did smell particularly sweet = even more reason to snuggle up.

Art Friday

2011-09-02T11:47:00.000+01:00

N's chosen subject for art today

Banana and Apple

Pencils

Pastels

Pens

OPAL Biodiversity Survey

2011-09-01T18:55:00.000+01:00

Today we did a little biodiversity survey kindly recommended by the blogging family at The Chicken Shed , this survey and others can be downloaded from OPAL Explore Nature

Our little patch of chosen hedgerow

completing the workbook

examining the wildlife

Double Figures and Strawberry Crumble Cake

2011-08-31T20:38:00.001+01:00

We've had a birthday in the house! N is now 10 years old. Single figures are a thing of the past now for this family!

N's collection of cards....

N had a sleepover with her friends and we had a family picnic ( thankfully it didn't rain)....
we popped to Daisyroots for some supplies and they all decopatched together....

the finished result, N did the star, you can tell which ones E, M and L did can't you?

Tuesday was the start of the schedule and Tuesday is French, so we dragged out our BBC French is Fun DVD..... SALUT SERGE (anyone outhere with that DVD will now be hearing the theme tune in their head!

Wednesday is cooking, N got down to it listening to her new ipod (I don't think she knows that I took this picture so i'm probably in trouble).

Strawberry Crumble Cake - twas delicious and will definitely be made again. N decided to make it gluten free, so I could have some, so we just substituted normal flour for gluten free flour.

Anyone want the recipe?
Oven 190C
Cream together 85g butter and 85g caster sugar
beat in 2 eggs
fold in 85g self raising flour
add milk to give dropping consistency and set mixture aside

slice 450g strawberries and mix in 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar - set aside

put the cake mixture into a 20cm cake tin and put the strawberries on top

then rub 60g butter in to 85g plain flour and add 30g caster sugar and sprinkle the topping over everything else

bake for 1 hour

eat it all up

day 2 at Cogges Camp and Apple Dappys

2011-08-25T18:55:00.000+01:00

It had rained overnight, and as the girls needed to cross the empty moat to get to their den, they were finding going up and down the slope a bit slippy. They decided to tie a rope to the tree and that seemed to work perfectly and made it even more fun! They also started to make a ladder.....

N sawing the wood

A knotting the rungs

we were cooking in the clay ovens we helped to make again today, here it is lit....

The recipe today was Apple Dappy;

200g of self raising flour

60g of softened butter

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

120ml of cream

combine together, roll out and sprinkle grated apple on top, the children collected apples from the garden in Cogges and blackberries were added from the hedgerows...

sprinkle some more sugar or cinnamon on top if you like

then roll that up into a sausage and slice....

place on a tray....

lovely

The children loved it so much we made 3 rounds of it! I can't wait to make a gluten free version at home.

Home-made outdoor board game

2011-08-25T18:39:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening N and her brother created a board game outside which involved various sporty mini games......

making dens and vegetable soup at Cogges Museum

2011-08-24T16:21:00.001+01:00

Today was all about making little camps all around the woods at Cogges for everyone to enjoy who visits the museum. We are so lucky to be able to create these things for the community.

time for a break, with fun in the new hammock

In the afternoon we each had a chance to harvest some food from the garden.

our little group's collection

was lovingly prepared.....

and added to everyone elses vegetables and we all ate soup and toasted squash seeds.

Holograms 2 exhibition at Banbury Museum

2011-08-23T14:12:00.000+01:00

Today we went along to Banbury Museum to look at the holograms 2 exhibition and complete the holograms activity trail.

The exhibition is excellent. We both really enjoyed it. It was great to see N's eyes light up with wonder at the holograms. The constant stream of "look at that" "look at this" is always a good indication that an exhibition has gone down well with N.

I tried to take photos of a few of them.......

Display of products with holograms. N and I both heard angels singing in our ears when we saw those Dr Martens!

The museum and exhibition are free to get in and the prize trail cost £1.50, there are also art activities with holograms you can do for £1. I thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the area, its a nice way to spend an hour.

chalk, bubbles,beads and sleeping in bed

2011-08-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

When we were visiting Grandma in the Forest of Dean on Saturday, she gave N some chalks. Needless to say that yesterday and today has involved chalk designs on our driveway....with some bubbles thrown in... here is a couple of her doodles...

At the moment N is really into making bead necklaces and bracelets. She has spent hours doing it, which is nice to see as normally she has a very short attention span :) Hopefully a video post will be on her blog very soon.

We have also been making birthday and anniversary cards for September, and today we took the tent down from N's bedroom. She has been sleeping in it for 2 weeks now! A mountain of clean laundry and other items from her bedroom had been growing on the landing as we couldn't get in her room for it to be put away! However putting away a pop up tent is not as easy as it seems... or is it just us? After a 20 minute workout trying to get it down to the small sized bag it is suppoed to go back in, I suggested we wait for N's brother to come over later as he will probably look at it and do it in 5 seconds! I hate that when you can't get things back in the box / bag it came in.

Summer Stage School, Education City and The Schedule!

2011-08-20T21:49:00.000+01:00

The blog has been quiet hasn't it. I really don't know where this week has gone.

N attended the White Star summer school this week. She went along last year and really enjoyed it. The children attend for three days and at the end of the third day, they put on a show for the parents. I am quite an emotional person and the first two days that I collected N, I was moved to tears when I watched them rehearse. I felt sure there was no way I could watch the full performance tear-free (after all it has never happened before), but I managed it!! Then the dance teacher gave a speach saying how great the kids had worked and how much effort they had put in...... and she started crying, well that was it for me... I find tears catching! Never mind - there is always next time ;)

We have been spending the week finding our way around the Education City website, now that we have our bargain subscription (very big thanks to another home educating Mum who put hours into negotiating that deal). You have access to all year curriculums, so we thought we would start working through the Year 2 activities - making sure there isn't anything that a 6 year old should know (according to the National Curriculum) and N doesn't! and work our way up to Year 6 which is the year in theory N would be starting in September.

I'm not particularly concerned that we don't stick to the NC as I really don't want to, but it is nice to check and see that even though we don't do things in order or the way they would in schools, things are still getting done.

I am not going to worry too much as since N has been playing with the local school kids during their holidays, I have heard her having to explain to one of them what a 'predator' means and she came home the other day slightly shocked that none of them had heard of Cleopatra. Her words to me were "I don't know what they are teaching them at that school". That made me smile.

We haven't started working to our schedule yet because of the summer school and N has two days next week at the Cogges Museum Philosophy & Outdoor Learning sessions so maybe the week after! We WILL start it (I went to the trouble of laminating that)!

Alice In Wonderland, Museum of Oxford and The New Schedule

2011-08-11T20:26:00.000+01:00

We popped along to the Museum of Oxford today, and we follwed the Alice in Wonderland activity trail. (Whilst secretly keeping an eye out for anything Georgian!) We both enjoyed the trail and at the end the children received a little goodie bag. Inside was a little notepad and pencil and a book shaped rubber. N was thrilled with the book shaped rubber and vowed not to use it, but keep it with her special things. It really is a sweet museum and as it is free to get in, its worth a visit whenever you are in town.

Afterwards we went next door to the Town Hall to look at the Alice in Wonderland inspired art exhibition. The art was impressive to say the least. The work that has gone into the textile art was amazing. Of course there were Alice dressing up bits and bobs for the kids.

N is the Mad Hatter naturally.......

After much deliberation I decided to set up a little schedule for our week. It is not set in stone, but it is laminated so very official!!

Tents, Sun Dried Tomato Rolls and Badbury Woods

2011-08-10T19:13:00.000+01:00

It was Daddy time on Monday and Daddy took N out to sell her two bikes that she has grown out of to someone who fixes them up. N came home with £30 (that should teach me, as I was going to give them to the charity shop).

N can't keep money in her purse too long, so yesterday after calling in to the library we went into town and N very wisely spent £15 on a pop-up two man tent. Which was immediately and easily erected in her room.

She has done her Maths and English work inside the tent for the last two days and she slept in it last night.

We met up with some other home edders and walked the dogs around the Witney Meadows yesterday afternoon, it was lovely in the sunshine. We spotted the biggest caterpillar I have ever seen. (I forgot to take my camera!) It was so peaceful there, (apart from Ralph barking at Pepper in the river) it seemed a world away from the riots happening over the UK. N has watched some of the news footage with me, finding it hard to believe that some of the rioters were the same age as her.

N made sun-dried tomato bread rolls this morning

This afternoon we met up with N's godmother and her family and walked the dogs around Badbury Woods. The dogs LOVED it and had loads of fun sniffing out the smells and chasing each other around.

N moaned the whole way around, but I am definitely going back...... (perhaps during Daddy time!)

The swing was a big hit though......

Brean & Weston Super Mare

2011-08-08T15:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to Brean beach. They allow dogs all year. It has been so hot lately the dogs have not been having many long walks, so I thought we would treat them with a day at the seaside. They do love the sea! (and so do we!!)

In the afternoon, as the rain decended on Brean, we decided to drive to Weston for a walk along the promenade. To N's delight they had a fair......

N rode on this boat powered by a steam engine.....

They had a side show.... Voltini and Electra.... I smiled as I have recently read and watched Cirque du Freak..... ( we didn't go in by the way)

N couldn't resist climbing aboard this donkey for a photo. We were told off 'thats not for sitting on'. N thought it would be sensible to put a sign on it saying so, after all, any child walking past would want to sit on that!

I couldn't resist posting this photo of the kind of cheeky antics that go on when you fall asleep in this house. Poor Pepper

To plan or not to plan?? (do I want to live by a schedule or not)

2011-08-03T14:57:00.000+01:00

This is something I really struggle with, (and I know some other home educators do too). I want to have a schedule so that we get some work done, but I love the feeling of freedom aswell :)

As N has a passion for knowing exactly what we are doing each day, it would seem a schedule would be a sensible way to go. I know some HE families who very sucessfully say 'school stuff' between 10.30 and 12.30 and play for the rest of the day. You know where you stand and you have that time set aside each day.

I just don't know how I feel about differentiating between learning and having fun, I like it all being mixed up together. Then every now and then (as we home edders do from time to time) I have a panic of ahhhhhh, we need to finish this project before we forget what we were doing in the first place!

Uninvited guests

2011-08-03T10:53:00.000+01:00

We spotted some guests on our plant in the conservatory.....

The last few days have been very HOT! Which is lovely.

In between scootering in the sunshine, we have been working on our English and Maths. N really seemed to enjoy 'mass'. She loves any excuse to weigh anything. Even after we have finished the work, she is still looking around for things to weigh to compare with each other.

After weighing the saucepans, she decided to play them and realised that size and weight makes a difference to the note they 'play'.

We finally got around to staining the chairs that we dyed the fabric for months ago.

N was picked up just before 10.00am this morning for our Cogges Museum Philosophy and Learning Outside session. As we have another session tomorrow, I am sharing the shifts with another mum and N's friend is sleeping over in between.

Late night for me then!

Inside the mind of an Aspergers child

2011-07-31T23:05:00.000+01:00

Today N, me and the doggies drove down to Grandma's in the Forest. Grandma loves seeing the dogs and always has lots of treats for them.

Grandma has lots of treats for N too, and one them was a packet of Maltesers. N opened them up and said it reminded her of something that happened in the past.

Grandma or Great Grandma (she can't remember which) bought her a small packet of Maltesers and told her not to eat them all at once. N opened the packet and ate them (after all it was only a small packet). Grandma or Great Grandma then told her off for eating them all at once.

N asked me today "How could anyone eat them all at once?"

I explained that whoever had given her the sweets had not meant 'don't put them all in your mouth together' as she had assumed but don't eat them all in one sitting - perhaps save some for later.

Since N has been diagnosed, I have been doing a lot of reading, trying to understand what has been 'going on in her head' over the last 9 years. There is so much that we just take for granted, we know what people mean. N did not really know what was meant by 'don't eat them all at once' and as far as she was concerned she had not done anything wrong.

I wonder what would have happened if N had told me that story a few months ago, before we really knew anything about Asperger Syndrome. What would have been my reply?

financial challenge

2011-07-30T17:01:00.000+01:00

Well it has been 15 days since I set the 10 day financial challenge.

I am ashamed to say that on the 9th day I spent £2.44 on Ebay. It was a DVD N really wanted and was much cheaper than we have seen elsewhere, so I gave in!

Today in town we had a quick browse in the charity shops and I spotted this...

Its clearly old, but never used. Maybe it was an unwanted gift kept in a cupboard somewhere. A quick look online told me its a 1980's game.

N and I have just played it and we had such fun. We laughed and laughed. I hope to play later on with Hubby when he is home from cricket!!

It was well worth the £2!

Dough modelling, ginger biscuits, tangrams and sudoku

2011-07-29T13:39:00.001+01:00

As the local school holidays have started N has been out on her scooter meeting up with everyone in the afternoons and early evening. In between scootering we have been...

Making salt dough for modelling. Due to N's sensory issues the messy part inbetween using the spoon to mix and actually having the dough ready to model has to be done by me, but once it is in an unmessy dough N is well away.

N decided to use a sponge to put her acrylic paint on to make the kebab really look like meat. Cool idea.

Here are our almost finished models.

a pond with stones around and a fish in the middle
a flower
a kebab
a face
a plate of sausage, mash and giant peas
a plate of jacket potato and salad
a star

N made ginger biscuits and shared them out with her friends and neighbours.

Today I spent some time looking for tangrams to work on in maths with N. I found some great pdf files to print off of tangrams and example shapes to make with them. (Its supposed to be from ancient china and you always have to use all of the 7 shapes to make the tangrams) N wasn't enthused. She said she would rather be doing sums - as there didn't really seem to be a point to tangrams!! So much for finding something different to do!

She asked if I could teach her sudoku. I found some great online games for children to introduce them to it. When she comes in from scootering we shall give it a go!

Big Kids

2011-07-26T11:09:00.000+01:00

We had the 'Big Kids' over for a BBQ yesterday, and through N's coughing fits they managed to have this much fun.......

Board Games

2011-07-24T18:43:00.001+01:00

Life can be miserable when you are feeling poorly. N has a really bad cough at the moment and didn't get off to sleep properly until 5.00am, it was made worse by the fact that she had her first wobbly molar tooth which was causing blood in her mouth.

We have been trying to cheer her up with some board games;

Brainbox cards, these are great - you get 10 seconds to remember facts from a card and the next player asks you one question (determined by the roll of a dice) its quick and easy to play and the games can last as long as you want. They have different topics in different boxes too. (We have animals and history)

Then we played Cluedo - one of N's favourites, mainly because we have the edition with character figures. N beat me 4 games to 2, and I didn't let her win!.....

Rev. Green in the hall with the candlestick

Mrs Peacock in the Lounge with the rope

Prof.Plum in the Kitchen with Dagger

Prof. Plum in the dining room with the rope

Mrs Peacock in the ballroom with the lead pipe

Prof.Plum in the kitchen with the lead pipe.

Call me weird but I think there are some interesting recurring items there, considering the cards were thoroughly shuffled. Maybe I can work that probability in to a maths lesson next week. :)

Unintentionally all about animals

2011-07-23T18:19:00.001+01:00

We didn't intend it to be, but yesterday was all about animals.

In the morning N painted the other side of the chicken....

Wrote a story about chickens.....

illustrated her story

We went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park to walk the dogs in the afternoon......

We saw the baby prairie dogs, baby camel, the new giraffes, new lambs and baby goats, new bantams, so much had changed since we have last been. The dogs love it there; so many smells and sounds. Ralph uses about 3 days worth of energy through excitement.

While I was cooking tea, N played Countries Eureka on the electronic talking globe.

In the evening we went to a birthday party at the next door neighbours, and had a lovely time :)

Rainy Day

2011-07-21T18:06:00.000+01:00

Today has been full of rain which has given us the chance to do all of this...

Chromatography - the process of separating chemicals / mixtures, we used felt tip pens and filter paper

measuring out the dots, so they are all roughly the same distance from the tip of the paper

clipping them to the glass - N enjoyed picking out 5 different coloured paper clips!!

The finished results - some more successful than others....

due to the fact that some of the pens N used were not water soluble or were permanent markers (lets call these the test spots)

Pepper has not slept in her own bed since she was poisoned as she is obviously associating the bed with feeling poorly. N had the idea of sitting in Peppers bed to show her it was safe!

30 minutes later and voila - Pepper asleep in her bed, which she hasn't done for a week - well done N

personalised maths problems - connected to N, her friends, family and pets

experimenting with my Dad's old engraving tool which we acquired last weekend

painting the chicken that N designed at Cogges yesterday, and started to saw out of wood (twas finished with the workshop leader's jigsaw)

Playing with the dogs

Sharing books together

But most of all - LAUGHING

Financial Challenge first 4 days

2011-07-19T13:35:00.000+01:00

Mmm it proved harder than I thought as about half an hour after the original post I realised I needed to send off an SAE for an Education City subscription card. I had already paid the subscription but didn't have two second class stamps. It was definitely a No-No to go to the shops and buy them. Luckily Hubby came to the rescue with some spare stamps.

Saturday and Sunday - no temptations.

Monday at the hospital - my eyes lit up when I saw a second hand book sale 50p each to raise money for the hospital. I was just about to say 'I'm just going to have a look at those books' when I realised I was not allowed. I did pose the suggestion that my Hubby could pay (as he is not taking part in the challenge), to which he quickly replied - NO! After the hospital we went out for lunch as a bit of a treat after our emotional morning - but hey I'm classifying that under the food section!

Tuesday - this morning I woke up and realised that the Avon lady is calling tomorrow and I need to pay for 3 things that my Mum has ordered. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I hope I can get around it, as even though it is coming out of my purse - I didn't order it and it is not for me. Is that allowed?!! N has a friend to play at home today, so we shouldn't need to go anywhere near anything that costs money :)

Tomorrow - Wednesday - We have our next Cogges Farm Museum session. Another free day out phew!

Hospital Visit and Human Hoopla

2011-07-18T18:35:00.001+01:00

Monday morning is Daddy time and what else could that possibly mean other than Human Hoopla?!!

N had an assessment today at the local hospital, and they confirmed that N has High Functioning Austism - Aspergers Syndrome. N felt able to talk freely about how she feels and reacts to things. We were very relieved that they were able to give an immediate diagnosis and we would not have to endure numerous visits to specialists. Now all thats left for us to do is carry on as we have been doing!
N says 'Having Aspergers Syndrome doesn't change who I am, it just explains why'.

Financial Challenge

2011-07-15T13:52:00.000+01:00

Anyone home educating knows it is not easy financially, and there comes a time when you have to zip up your purse and say NO MORE!

Therefore I have set myself a challenge that unless I am paying for food or diesel I am not spending any money for 10 days. Can I do it? Even I seriously doubt it but I have set myself a challenge and must stick to it. No more walking past charity shops and seeing something that would be great for an art project or a book that we need.

Everything we do for the next 10 days must be totally FREE or using up all the stuff we have bought previously. Which is a lot - Home edders can't walk past a bargain that someone else is casting off. I must be banned from car boot sales! The phrase 'I think we can use that for something - lets buy it' must not pass my lips, even if it is only 50p.

I am hoping for success - and if so why can't I do that for 10 days every month? (well lets just see how we go shall we.....)

Watch out for further posts to see how we progress.

Witney Town Museum & Back Garden Fun

2011-07-14T23:07:00.000+01:00

Today we went along to Witney Town Museum. We have never been before, it is a sweet little place. We were hoping to find something we could use for our Georgian project, we quickly realised the museum mainly displays pieces from the Victorian era. Upstairs there is a rather fab 1950's kitchen though!

After dinner this evening we started to make some shell decorations for the garden. N enjoyed choosing the shells from her collection. She didn't want to wrap the wire though...... here is one we made....

I enjoyed it so much I made another!

N hula hooped. Then she decided she wanted to try and teach Ralph to jump through a hoop....

I think that one is going to take some work!

Do we look like the kind of dogs who would........

2011-07-13T21:24:00.000+01:00

In one week
Chew pencils
Chew through a rubber
Chew a clay creation (N was even more bitter as it was a creation of Ralph)
ALMOST rip the telephone wire from the wall
Rip the heads off my lillies
Rip a hole in the zip up greenhouse
Eat dead slugs??????
Unfortunately for Pepper she did eat dead slugs. Thanks to Ralph who came running into the kitchen to dob her in, I managed to catch her and send her to her bed for being naughty. After about an hour she started behaving odly and having tremors. We took her to the vets who told us she had been poisoned (by the pet friendly slug pellets I had inside my zipped up greenhouse) They needed to put her under anasthetic to wash out her stomach. Poor Pepper's heart could not cope under the anasthetic and they had to quickly bring her back around without washing her out and hope that she would pull though on her own. I think the thought of breakfast was enough to perk her up and we were able to bring her back home today. Her appetite undented!

We have been.......

2011-07-13T21:12:00.000+01:00

Making hama bead creations
Having sleepovers
Learning about how the Georgian era started and about George I and Robert Walpole
Watching episodes of Pride & Prejudice

Having a picnic at Shotover and having a lovely walk with the dogs afterwards
Cleaning up our 'butterfly attracter' that we bought from a National Trust place years ago

Brightening it up with markers!!

buying a ladybird house

hanging up the newly decorated butterfly attracter
going to card club with Nanny

Learning how to emboss

Being very pleased with first embossing attempts!
Singing songs with the Nintendo Wii
Reading books together

Helping to tidy up the garden at Cogges Museum ready for the opening to the public on Sunday
Philosophy session at Cogges discussing which is longer our past or our future??

Our first tomato and the black monster in the garden is gone

2011-07-04T21:46:00.000+01:00

We have our first tomato, I had to take a photograph as it will probably be our only one (we are unlucky with growing tomatoes) and a bird or mouse will probably eat this one soon!!!!

We finally convinced N it was time to take the big black net down from around the trampoline, it was ripped and perishing and nasty. The garden looks brighter without it, and these two had fun......

Excited about the next project..........

2011-06-29T15:23:00.001+01:00

Following on from our Georgian workshop we attended recently, our next project is the Georgian Era. Before starting a project, I try to do a bit of preparation, ordering books from the library, searching the internet for resources and getting support from local home educators via the email group, who have given me some good suggestions.

The more I look into the period, the more excited I am getting about the project. I forsee this one taking us up until Christmas!!!

I think we will look at........
The Kings
The Clothes
The Food
Art
The Houses
Window Tax
Boston Tea Party
Efficient Farming
American Independence
Highwaymen
Pirates
Nelson
Napolean
Industrial Revolution
Literature

There really is so much to look into. It seems like it was such a great time and not covered in primary schools. A great excuse to watch Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth version of course) with N, visit Bath, the Geoffrye Museum and Kew Gardens and then anything else that inspires us on the way.

It's so good to get together

2011-06-29T15:12:00.000+01:00

There is nothing quite like the happiness we feel when the family is all together

Ralph's 1st Birthday

2011-06-29T09:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was Ralph's first birthday.....

He received his home-made card early in the morning

cuddles in the garden

When M, L and E joined us both dogs had a celebration treat

We sang happy birthday first though!

After they had gobbled that down, eveyone gave Ralph a birthday toy each, he raced around at top speed VERY excitedly. He managed to stay up until about 12.30am until he finally had to give in to sleep, but he kept a toy with him!

Dogs Trust, Potatoes and Dogs!

2011-06-28T11:31:00.000+01:00

We have been.......

to a Dogs Trust fun day

harvesting our potatoes

and someone has been dreaming about turning 1!!

Do you have room to squeeze in a little one?

2011-06-25T22:11:00.000+01:00

The National Space Centre & Abbey Pumping Station

2011-06-23T19:01:00.000+01:00

Today we went to the National Space Centre or 'the bubble' as N has renamed it.

It was VERY busy and very noisy inside

We did see this space toilet. The yellow spout is for the urine, which is then purified for 4 days for the astronauts to drink.

N finding out what its like to jump on the moon.

We went inside the planetarium show 'We Are Astronomers', which was very good.

We popped next door to this little 'free' museum

The sewage water treatment works - never has the phrase 'they don't make them like this anymore' been so true - its beautiful

inside there were lots of bathroom based things to look at - a kind of bathroom through the ages...

there were also zoetropes and phenakistoscopes to look at which was great but bizarre in a pumping house museum!!!

We came home very satisfied with our few days away. N was sad to leave the hotel but eager to see home, her Daddy and her pets again. I was very grateful for the opportunity to borrow hubbys SatNav while we were away, it was great to help me find all of the different places - even if it took me on the most far reaching routes to get there. Never mind - how would I know of places such as Sheepy Magna and Barton On The Beans if I hadn't had the scenic tour!!!

Snibston

2011-06-23T18:38:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday we went to ......

(We tried to blog it Wednesday evening but the free wifi at the hotel had such poor broadband we gave up!)

There were lots of things to see and do there.......

Lifting a mini

teaching a skeleton to cycle

Agatha Christie exhibit

The largest fashion exhibit outside London

inspecting fabrics under the microscope

my personal favourite - the handbag game you had to decide whether the items could be found in a 1880's, 1930's, 1940's or 1980's handbag

outdoor hands-on water based science

They also had a large country park with nature trails and at the end of the day I couldn't manage to coax my tired 9 year old to walk too far, (I suspect she was saving her energy for the hotel pool) but I did spot the most caterpillars I have ever seen in one place. These are just a handful of them.

Twycross Zoo

2011-06-21T20:36:00.000+01:00

Today we went to Twycross Zoo, as we are having a short stay in Leicester....

It is a world primate centre

we blended in nicely

This was definately the highlight of my day - the baby Bornean Orangutan born in January

Here is N and Ganesha - its hard to tell which is which isn't it!!!!

Afterwards we came back to the hotel and had a swim in the pool, which was fantastic.

M's Birthday

2011-06-17T08:59:00.000+01:00

We met up with M and E for M's birthday lunch. We had a lovely time it was nice to spend some time together as we have not seen them since Florida! M has been poorly with glandular fever and frantically trying to finish all of his assignments for his college course.

All of his assignments complete he can relax in the knowledge that he has completed his course with 18 distinctions. WOW :)

Well done M - we are very proud of you and everything you have achieved.

Leanne's Art Show

2011-06-16T21:50:00.000+01:00

We were very excited to go along and see the Art Exhibition for the end of Leanne's art course. Two years of hard work complete :)

Her work looked fantastic and we were very proud.

It is amazing to look around at all of the other student's work, all of the show unit pieces are so different, its incredible how everyone interprets art in a different way. It is very inspiring.

Chessington World Of Adventures

2011-06-16T17:45:00.001+01:00

We went to Chessington World Of Adventures for a couple of days and stayed in the hotel there, we had a great time (despite the bug I seemed to have that culminated in me being sick quite a few times!)

N was very excited from the moment we got there, we spent the first day on all of the rides, N must have ridden Dragons Fury at least 12 times! We had a wander around the animals towards the end of the day....

N's arm span compared to the average 8 yr old in yellow and the wingpsan of a condor.

any excuse to play music

You could get very close to the Larakeets.......

We went back to the hotel for a swim, and a go in the steam room, sauna and jacuzzi, followed by a very rough night on my part, but N did a great job of looking after me. The second day I wasn't really capable of much except walking around the aquarium.....

Jellyfish

Regal Tang and Yellow Tang

Clown Fish - which apparently are very agressive!

N repeatedly rode Dragons Fury for about 4 hours while I sat still on the bench, it seemed the best course of action to avoid vomitting! She said she really enjoyed chatting to everyone in the queues and on the rides. We had a fabulous couple of days and N was sad to leave yesterday evening.

Cheltenham Science Festival

2011-06-11T18:54:00.000+01:00

Today we went along to the Cheltenham Science Festival. We had tickets booked for three events and needed an early start as we were watching Robert Winston at 10.00am! I had been so excited about finally seeing him in person. (N had been less excited after watching some of his lessons on Jamie's Dream School - a bit too much blood for her) I was confident no blood would be spilled in this experiments show :) It was really good and showed the children how to do some of the experiments in his new book, which we had conveniently purchased of course. Afterwards you could get your book signed........... so we got to meet him, he is so lovely, and a legend naturally!

We watched a show called One Tough Cookie with Zoe Laughlin (internet photo), she explained materials and composites using biscuits. How materials can be changed, or combined into composites to be stronger and how they can be stronger in different ways with experiments to test how strong, tensile and ductile they are.

I sense lots of biscuit based experiments in the future.

Finally we watched Stefan Gates (internet photo) and his Future Food show. It was interesting how what we eat will almost certainly have to change in the future with a growing population and less land to farm. There were lots of cooked insects being passed around to sample, along with chicken hearts. Luckily if you had a food allergy you couldn't try any of it, so that got me off the hook, not sure what N's excuse was!!

I also took part in Dr Yan's Dance Lab an experiment for the BBC show Bang Goes The Theory, they are trying to find out what your dancing says about your personality and traits. After filling in a multi page but simple questionnaire I danced on a stage and the moves were reflected in an avatar recording the information on their computer program. You had to be 18 years old to take part in the experiment but they still gave the children the opportunity to dance on the stage and watch the avatar copy their moves. N enjoyed that very much.

All in all we had an absoloutely fabulous day, N enjoyed it much more than she was expecting, and we both came home tired but with smiles on our faces.

Philosophy at Cogges

2011-06-09T17:54:00.000+01:00

Today was the second session of our family philosophy and outdoor learning course at Cogges. We arrived first so took advantage of the time to wander around. I couldn't resist taking this photo.... best to snap the blue sky while its there!!!!!

N and I were split into different sessions today. I went off to philosophy while N added more clay to the ovens and drew designs for them. In the afternoon N took part in the philosophy session while I watched the younger children learn how to make string from nettles, (definitely something I would like to have a try with in the garden!) and start to construct a shelter over one of the clay ovens.

Here are the fruits of our philosophy session;

After dinner we watched a segment on BBC Oxford News online about home education being on the rise and N felt inspired to tackle two pages of English!!

Upcycling a white vest

2011-06-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

Today N decided to spice up one of her white vests. She used the sewing machine for the stitching and hand sewed on the buttons. Lovely.

This evening we were looking at famous fictional cats for N's cat project. We discussed how a lot of the famous fictional cats have been around for a long time (longer than me!) and the possible reasons why cats are not so prominent in modern childrens cartoons and programmes.

Daddy Time and Sewing For Pepper

2011-06-06T20:11:00.000+01:00

We had another busy weekend! Saturday we went over to see N's godmother and had a lovely afternoon. We sat in the sunshine and all the dogs played together, and the children of course :)

Sunday we drove down to see Grandma......

The dogs love Grandma's treats.

As it is Monday, it was N's morning with her Dad. She had been really looking forward to it. They went to the park for football practice and a picnic. N loved it.

In the afternoon N was feeling musical and got all of her little musical instruments out and played with them all. After that N wanted to sew a scarf that would slide onto Pepper's collar the same as Ralph's does. She used the sewing machine and here is how it looks;

Lechlade On Thames and Ralphs New Haircut

2011-06-04T11:06:00.000+01:00

Thursday afternoon we decided to take a trip to Lechlade and walk along the river with the dogs. The sun was shining the birds were singing and the dogs had a great time!

Pepper enjoyed playing in and out of the river and as usual Ralph barked at her every time she went in! Although he did eventually jump in for a swim himself and swam out deeper than Pepper had ventured :)

We felt sorry for the owners of this boat, the cows were merrily chewing through the weather cover.

Ralph posed unaware it would be his last photo in his very long but beautiful coat of many colours....

As yesterday it was time for the groomers again, they came home smelling of flowers, and Ralph was wearing his summer coat!

Art & Craft Exhibition at Blenheim Palace

2011-05-28T20:01:00.000+01:00

On the way home from Newbury we decided to pop into the arts and crafts show at Blenheim for a couple of hours. There were some fantastic displays and truly gorgeous things to purchase (if money is no object!).

N and I decided to try 'Pyrography'. The art of decorating materials with burn marks.

N chose a cow.....

After you had burned your design onto the wood, you could colour it in........

Next N had a go at the costume design workshop.

There were many more stalls to see and lots more to try so we are going back on Monday!

Sealed Knot - Battle of Newbury

2011-05-28T19:49:00.001+01:00

Today we went along to the re-enactment of the second Battle of Newbury in 1644. I have always wanted to go to a Sealed Knot event and I finally made it! It's great to be able to talk to the living history people on site about what life would have been like.

This lady was making lace, she told us it takes about an hour per inch of lace.

Here is one of the Pikemen, their pikes were often 18ft long, they told us that this was one of the last few battles which would have used pikemen in the frontline.

N with a musket!

and a pike, probably the first pikeman to be wearing pink shoes!

Period glasses; quite a few of the living history people were wearing these, N thought they were very cool.

We also met a lady using a Lucet, and she showed us how cord (to tie up corsets etc) would have been made. It was very similar to french knitting and a type of anglo saxon weaving we have done previously. Anyway N is very keen to purchase a Lucet in the very near future!

There was also a lady making griddle cakes, she told us that a typical soldier would have eaten 8000 calories a day (mostly in bread).

Battle scenes from afar; musket fire was all a bit much for N and we made our way back to the car.

But we did spot these before we left :)

Building & Baking Workshop

2011-05-27T18:33:00.000+01:00

We were at the Cogges Manor Farm site again today for a Building & Baking Workshop. We had a great time and the rain held off too!!!

Building the brick base for a clay oven

Breaking up the hard lumps of clay

Adding the clay/straw/water solution to the clay oven structure

baking bread in the kitchen, here is N's covered in sesame seeds

building clay reliefs....

tasting the baked bread....

Blenheim Palace, Cogges Manor Farm and Swallows and Amazons

2011-05-26T20:50:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday we decided to have the book club at Blenheim Palace as it was such a lovely day and there is so much space for the children to run around. Now it may be ' a unique example of English baroque architecture set in 2100 acres', but when you are nine years old it is so cool to roll down the moat!

We got our annual pass while we were there so we have so many more moat rolling opportunities ahead of us! Dogs are allowed on leads in the park land so that is another great place to take them for a walk.

Today was the first day of our 12 session course focusing on outdoor learning and philosophy at the Cogges Manor Farm site in Witney. Even with the rain we still managed to have a great day, and thankfully the sun came out in the victorian walled garden when it was our turn for the gardening. The parents and children were tasked with digging up all the existing plants and weeds and replanting new seeds and plants.

N felt a bit sad about some of the plants that were being dug up and disgarded. There was one in particular that she liked as it looked and felt like velvet. One of the other mums told us it was called Mullein, we asked if we could take a couple home and try to save them............

Here they are, all we can do now is wait and see if they 'take' in our garden after being dug up and carried home by N. We looked Mullein up on the internet to find it is a proven medicinal herb backed by scientific evidence and legend has it that it keeps evil and bad magic away as well :)

We have started the new book for book club - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. N seems to be really enjoying the first few chapters. I have printed a diagram of boat terms out for us to look at while reading it and we had to find out what promontory meant this evening as it is repeated a lot in the book!

Our next challenge is to try and drop that one into general conversation.

deco patch, wood carving, Grandma's, cricket and cats.......

2011-05-23T16:21:00.001+01:00

We have been up to so much recently.....

N started a new deco patch project, we will post a photo once it is completed

On Saturday we went along to a wood carving session that has kindly been organised for home educating families. On the way home we stopped in Abingdon and had a browse around the town. Saturday evening we were off to the cricket club for a bar-b-q, Hubby was celebrating another win!! Sausages and smiles all around.

Sunday we drove down to see Grandma.....

As Hubby is extremely busy this time of year and does work seven days a week, we decided to make a new rule that Monday mornings be 'Daddy and N time', and he would try really hard not to book any work in until after 1pm.

N decided she wanted some cricket coaching of her own this morning followed by a picnic so that is what they did....

bowling...

batting

obligatory dog photo :)

After lunch we were back to our cat project so after doing some other English work, N wrote a cat poem that goes like this;

Crystal is on her owners lap

purring softly in her sleep

she's dreaming about mice

just about to catch one

just about to creep

just about to jump on it

still purring in her sleep

the mouse was clever

cleverer than you'd think

you wouldn't even believe it

it jumped in the sink!

now cats don't like water

especially this cat

so she jumped up on the worktop

looked in the sink

the mouse had gone

quick as a wink!

Crystal was annoyed

and gave a little hiss

and then her owner woke her up

and gave her a kiss!

Felt Cat for the project

2011-05-18T20:04:00.000+01:00

Georgian History Workshop

2011-05-18T19:06:00.000+01:00

Today we went along to a Georgian history workshop in Oxford. N really enjoyed the day...

Here she is as Anne a mill worker.

Here she is with the Jolly Roger of Bartholemew Roberts (the most successful pirate in Georgian times)

Making a Georgian lady's box

and a Georgian lady's fan.

Sleepover and a new project begins.....

2011-05-17T21:00:00.001+01:00

Yesterday N had a friend to play and sleep over. They seemed to have loads of fun, but not so much that N forgot about her Dad......

here is a decorated gingerbread man she gave him, complete with note...

This morning the girls were busy making spectacles and I believe playing opticians.....

N then went over to her friends house to play until early afternoon!!

I asked N after dinner what she would like to do for her next project. "Cats" she said. Even if she is allergic it doesn't stop her loving them!

We threw ourselves into the project. We quickly found a blog that showed you how to draw cats and this is N's first attempt......

I love it.

There was just enough time before bed for N to have a browse of some childrens cat-fact websites.

I don't think Pepper and Ralph are very impressed with the new topic :)

Cookery Demonstration with Wilde Food

2011-05-16T16:08:00.003+01:00

On Saturday we went along to Wilde Food ( http://www.wildedesign.com/wilde-food-_35.html ) for a cookery demonstration. I had successfully bid for the demo at the fund raising dinner for the Oxfordshire Cricket tour to Australia last year. N and I, and J and A had a fantastic time. Nicola Wilde showed us how to cook five dishes and then at the end we sat down and ate the delicious food. We were all VERY full!!

Seriously though, the girls had a really great time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Our hosts coped very well with two giggly girls (I am sure we are not their normal customers!)

J and I are definitely keeping it in mind for the future for a 'grown ups get-together'.

Afterwards we found room (somehow?) for a milkshake at the Shake Shop in Witney

The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre (and other news)

2011-05-12T20:38:00.000+01:00

Today we went along to the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden. Its a very sweet little place.....

N looking through some of Roald's photos. There was one of him with Walt Disney, which was of particular interest to us as N enjoyed the biographical exhibit and film presentation One Man's Dream about Walt Disney at Hollywood Studios so much we went in twice :)

Here is N making a stop-frame animation in the story centre, it was so funny she made another.....

Bottling dreams for the BFG. Mine involved me waking up to find everyone else had done the housework...mmmm

N sat in Roald Dahl's chair.

We certainly did learn some interesting facts about him today.

In other news.......

N has sewn a black heart and lilac button onto one of her tops.

N and I joined a card-making club with N's Nanny. It meets once a month in Oxford. We really enjoyed our first time. N has been making cards ever since.

Cotswold Wildlife Park is the best medicine

2011-05-05T18:30:00.001+01:00

We went along to the Cotswold Wildlife Park today to renew our annual passes, thankfully N was feeling significantly better. She was smiling and laughing and lifting Ralph up to look into the enclosures as he is not as tall as Pepper and can't see over. She said her favourites of the day were the porcupines and the tapirs.

We had enough money left over from our trip to the USA to buy a sewing machine (yay one that works!!), and N repaired one of her grandma's cushion covers with it later on in the day.

N's jet lag had been so bad that she hadn't even wanted to READ since we have been home, however today she was back reading aloud from a Jacqueline Wilson book.

It's so good to see her happy again.

Coping with a child coping with jet lag

2011-05-01T12:29:00.000+01:00

N seems to be suffering with jet lag. Sure Hubby and I are very tired, but N seems to be feeling thoroughly worse.

She is feeling so over-tired she is definitely not herself, she feels sad and can't seem to stop it. When it comes to bedtime she is so tired, she desperately wants to go to sleep, but can't seem too, which makes her more upset :(

Being away for so long as a group of 6 and then coming home to just the three of us, she is lonely and missing her brother and sister.

She has a friend to play today, so hopefully that will cheer her up :)

Does anyone have any 'natural' suggestions for getting her back to normal, and not feeling quite so desperate??

Holiday Snaps

2011-05-01T12:23:00.000+01:00

Here is N at the airport, very excited about the holiday and the Virgin freebies!!

The 'Epcot' photo

Me at Hollywood Studios with my Kermit the Frog face painting and Disney Ears. No one else joined me wearing either- not sure why!!!!!! (and yes I wore those ears to EVERY Disney park)

Everyone waiting to watch The Voyage Of The Little Mermaid show.

This lady thought my ears were a good idea.....

Celebrating L's 18th birthday before we left. (I finally got someone else to wear ears)

Group photo at the villa before we left

N meeting the dolphins

2011-04-29T21:00:00.000+01:00

We are back! (and very tired). I feel its going to take a few days to get into the correct sleeping pattern and feeling normal (well normal for us anyway). Of course we took tons of photos (I personally took 418!!), but while I have a good sort through them all I thought I would post these from our trip to Discovery Cove. All six of us took part in the Dolphin Experience, here is N......

I think she was in the water probably 10 minutes watching everyone else and then she decided she was feeling brave enough to touch the dolphin, which was brilliant. Eventually she plucked up enough courage to let the dolphin pull her along through the water. I was very proud, as she only had a small amount of time to conquer her fears or her opportunity would be lost, but she did it!

Poetry and Easter Baskets

2011-04-07T21:41:00.000+01:00

Over the last few days N has been revsiting a poetry book she used to read A LOT a couple of years ago - The Usborne Book Of Poems For Young Children. Here she is, reading a couple of her favourites from the book.

After seeing Michael Rosen on Saturday at the Literary Festival, we were slightly disappointed that none of his poems are in the book. We decided we would order one of his books from the library when we return from our holiday. ( and as N seems to like Spike Milligan so much, perhaps I should order one of his too.)

This evening we were making the Easter Baskets for N's party tomorrow afternoon. We used templates from http://www.familyfun.go.com/.

The problem with pre-holiday food

2011-04-06T17:09:00.001+01:00

Okay, we all know what its like. If you're going on holiday in the next few days, you really don't want to be buying food that may get chucked away because you haven't had chance to eat it before you leave. Therefore it seems sensible to use up food you already have in your fridge / freezer / cupboards. Unfortunately this can only mean one thing, bizarre cobbled together dinners. It's fairly safe for Hubby and N as there is always something in the freezer thats edible, but its normally covered in breadcrumbs, batter or pastry so that rules it out for moi.

For example my dinner this evening consisted of;

gluten free pasta twirls
half a tin of plum tomatoes
quarter of a tin of peach slices
a handful of frozen peas

all chucked together in a frying pan and mixed together. There is only one thing more frightening than that and its the thought of what I am going to cook myself tomorrow night. (I'm guessing something that involves the rest of the peaches and plum tomatoes).

busy with boxed games

2011-04-04T21:44:00.000+01:00

This evening we have mostly been..... playing boxed games!

Secret Code (the poundstretcher version of Mastermind)

Dalmation Dominoes

and Sequence! I love it that as N get older she can really understand the strategy of games.

Mothers Day

2011-04-04T21:34:00.001+01:00

I had a really beautiful Mothers Day thanks to my lovely Hubby and Daughter! I couldn't resist posting this picture of N with her Nanny. While I was preparing dinner for us all, N took Nanny into the 'New' homeschool room to show her everything, her coin collection, the masks she has made, and here she is showing her Nanny some of the precious stones that her sister brought her back from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

More Crafting - mini sleeping bag, necklace and smoothie!!

2011-04-04T21:28:00.000+01:00

After the excitement of the Literary Festival, N came home and wanted to 'make stuff'. "I want to sew a sleeping bag for the small cat teddy I have" she said. Now I have mentioned on this blog before that the item in our home that causes me the most stress is the Sewing Machine (that noise from the psycho movie plays in my head every time its out). At the moment its not working. I didn't want to say no when she was so keen so she hand sewed it instead....

Seriously though, I have to do something about the sewing machine. We are now on our third one (never paying more than £30) (which is probably the problem). I am hoping that we have enough money left over from our trip to Orlando to buy a NEW one when we get home!

After she had finished the sleeping bag, she wanted to make her first smoothie. She looked through some recipes and found one she fancied doing, off we went to Lidl for some stawberries..... they had sold out so we got raspberries instead! N chopped a banana and put it in the blender jug with 75g of raspberries..

250ml of natural yoghurt and some honey, I can't remember how much now but it looks like 2 teaspoons from here..

She whizzed it up together and hey presto!

We started making this necklace a few days ago but it has taken soooooooo long to dry. The instructions from a childrens crafting magazine tell you to use a bottle top to make this pendant, we didn't have one spare so I thought lets use a really small cookie cutter on greaseproof paper (hence the reason its taken ages to dry!!) Anyway, here is what we started with - cutter, greaseproof paper, elastic band and straw.

and some of those small bead sequins

we put the cutter on the greaseproof paper and wrapped the elastic band around the outside to hold it in place. We put the straw in the place that we wanted the hole for the necklace to be and held it there (you need a few hands to make this) Then we layered pva glue, beads, pva glue, beads, pva glue, beads etc etc

After what seems like ages, you pull the beads from the cutter and voila :)

N meets someone she admires

2011-04-02T13:29:00.000+01:00

We were off early this morning into Oxford as we had tickets for the launch of the Oxford Literary Festival. Four children's laureates were there to talk to us all about their inspirations and what its like being a laureate. Obviously the main draw for us was that Jacqueline Wilson would be there, who is one of N's most favourite writers. Also there were Anne Fine, Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of them (so did N!) but I particularly liked something that Michael Rosen mentioned about a study that has been carried out worldwide for 20 years and the results showed that living and growing up in a home surrounded by books, regardless of your wealth or social status, had a significantly measurable benefit compared to those who had not. Jacqueline Wilson was championing the benefits of reading aloud to your children, the sharing of a story, which she feels is being lost in family lives.

Here is N getting one of her JW books - Lola Rose signed by Jacqueline Wilson

N really pleased that she had not only been in the same room as JW but also got her autograph. Priceless.

three days in pictures...

2011-04-02T13:13:00.001+01:00

Ralph has a lesson for us all... when you really love something (i.e yellow ball) never let it go!!

N baking....

Ginger biscuits

Pepper with her humourous greeeting card pose

sweet

Fractions with equivalency cubes and unifix cubes

paper plate weaving

Our life has been taken over by the monster that is Nintendo 3DS, (although I have to admit it is much better than the DS Lite!)

N has been making more decorations for her room

2011-03-29T20:51:00.000+01:00

We made our hospital visit this morning (the early shift) and on the way home N said she would like to make some more decorations for her room. I mentioned some wire hearts that I had seen on www.themagiconions.blogspot.com (which by the way has some lovely ideas for homemade crafts). N said she would like to make some stars, so with the help of a star shaped cookie cutter this is what she made......

Well four of them actually. Out came the bead box again and she threaded some beads onto the yarn we were going to use to hang the stars on her ceiling.

This is how they look along with her dreamcatcher.....

Next she wanted to make some bunting, we have loads of patchwork squares that I bought ages ago, she went off to choose some. "Mum I've got 34 of my favourites"........

She used copydex glue to attach them diagonally over some jute twine....

the finished result has not been captured on film yet but Hubby has just hung them from the ceiling in N's room and they look fab. (I'm a little jealous, I want bunting in my room!!) I can almost feel Hubby's eyes rolling when he catches up on the blog!!! :)

we made our first dreamcatcher

2011-03-28T20:59:00.001+01:00

While sat in the sunshine this afternoon we decided to make a dreamcatcher. Here is what we did.....

"we need to find something round" I said. N came back with a fishing net minus the net. I had been keeping the hoop on a stick for making a sweep net to catch insects, but it seemed excellent for a dreamcatcher and I was impressed that N had not only remembered we had kept it but also knew where to find it!! After asking for Hubby's strength to prise the hoop from the stick we were away.

N sorted out some beads that she liked and some lace to cover up the rusty end of the hoop.

and this is what we made. I love how it looks in the tree but with the UK weather its not practical for a tree decoration and anyhow it was made for N's room which is where it is now. Notice Pepper cannot resist getting in on any photo....

This evening N and I searched for dreamcatcher tutorials online, to see if it did actually turn out anything like it should and we found this .

Whilst we love what we made we thought those looked lovely too and will be attempting these soon.

How hospital visits take over your life

2011-03-27T09:18:00.000+01:00

For the last few days our life has been about hospital visits to my Mum (Grandma to N!!). It is amazing how it just fills up your day. I get up walk the dogs, do some laundry, housework and washing up, make lunch and then spend some time reading or playing with N, walk the dogs again, drive to the hospital, stay for visiting, drive home, cook tea, fall asleep! I remember10 years ago my Dad was in hospital for months and I was working full time then, that WAS exhuasting! The trouble is when you get to the hospital, the person you are visiting wants to know all the latest news and everything you have been up to - its quite disappointing for them when you have no tales to tell (because you haven't had time to do anything), in actual fact they probably have more to tell you as they have been watching the news on tv and reading the newspaper!

She has her own little side room on the ward which has advantages and disadvantages; the advantage is she can actually sleep at night, the disadvantage is when you need a nurse, your alarm can be going for over 10 minutes before someone comes to see what the problem is :( I know they have a staffing shortage but in my mind its both dangerous (if someone was needing urgent medical attention) and degrading when patients are desperate for the toilet and nobody arrives. She wants to go home on Tuesday and hopefully she will be mobile enough for them to let her go.

A beautiful day for WWII Secrets & Spies Workshop

2011-03-23T20:46:00.000Z

The sun was shining, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky, N set off with her ID card, pencil and WWII style rations lunch. We couldn't have asked for a better day for a group of home educated children to meet up in the countryside and run around on a secrets and spies mission. I didn't stay for the workshop, so couldn't get any photos of the spies in action.

However I could snap her when we arrived home. She had thoroughly enjoyed the day and was eager to tell me about everything that had happened including the bunker, the assault course, the hiding, the spying, the list goes on..... I am so grateful to the kind HE mum who organised this trip. My daughter was left totally inspired, and a bit more aware of just what spying during WWII involved.

gardening, dyeing fabric and a much awaited Amazon delivery

2011-03-22T20:28:00.001Z

A couple of weeks ago we fished out some old directors chairs from the shed and decided if we were going to keep them, they really needed some love and effort put into them, plus if we do them up it saves us buying a new bench for the garden!

The wood all needs staining as I bought them before I met hubby and they have never seen a paintbrush!

Anyway, I haven't got around to staining yet :) but thought today was the day for dyeing the fabric seats and backs as they have been bleached by the sun and look like this.......

Not wanting to spend any money :) I used some dye that a good friend had given me last year for some tie-dyeing we haven't got around to yet.

We stirred it all up.... the dogs never want to miss out on anything.....

It is now drying out on the line, finished photos will follow. Not sure how successful its been - the colours are all different as the fabric had been so sun damaged ;)

The runner bean seeds N planted were doing so well that they were starting to take over the conservatory, despite recommendations not to put them outside before April, I have had to - they are just getting too big. Fingers crossed they will still thrive,

The chitted potatoes were finally planted out today in the bags provided by the potato council. We are a week late but I am sure it will be fine, we'll just leave them in a week longer.... see I told you I was a bumbling gardener.

N has been desperate for a book to arrive that she ordered on Thursday. It finally came today, but kept us waiting until 6pm. N was so happy as she had been very distressed that it had not turned up and she had been desperate to read Poppy the Dogs Trust Dog. Needless to say that is all she has been doing since.

A trip to the seaside

2011-03-21T21:44:00.000Z

We went to Southsea for the day,

we skimmed stones

we looked for fossils

we ran

we walked

we rolled down hills

A Milestone Reached..........

2011-03-20T23:16:00.000Z

Today was the 3 year anniversary of the start of our HE journey. N's last day of school was the 20th March 2008. Grandma commented yesterday it has passed very quickly and N's reply was "Yep and I'm never going back". I said "lets see how you feel as you get older". At the moment I certainly have no plans to be sending N to school unless she feels it is something she really wants to do.

We went to the Horse Trust in Speen this afternoon. It is a lovely place, they have over 100 horses there living out their days. We met our friend there, whose horse is retiring there after 20 years at Riding For The Disabled. We took along a sack of carrots. It is free entry, but as they are a charity they really appreciate donations. N does have a fur allergy with cats and horses being the worst reactions, but we haven't been near horses for over 12 months so it was about time we tested it to see if it was better. N got stuck in straight away and started to groom one of the horses......

Quite soon after she had an allergic reaction :( and we had to leave. On the way home we drove past Hellfire Caves which I have never heard of before. I have had a look at their website and it looks great, just not sure N is ready for that yet ;) The allergic reaction had exhausted N and she came home and sat quietly drawing in the homeschool room. After our celebratory dinner we played card games and read another chapter of our book club book Dealing With Dragons, which we are really enjoying, its starting off as a great story, drawing us in right from the start.

Our first dog show.... all for comic relief

2011-03-20T09:56:00.000Z

Yesterday we went along to the local Wildlife Park where they were holding a dog show in aid of comic relief. We couldn't miss this opportunity for a new experience - and the chance to win a rosette ;)

N entered with Pepper and I entered with Ralph - in the following competitions; waggiest tail, best biscuit catcher and prettiest eyes. Sadly we didn't win. Never mind, what matters is we think our dogs are great.

Fresh smelling dogs and other Thursday things

2011-03-17T21:22:00.000Z

This morning the dogs were off to the groomers for a full wash and brush up, their hair and nails get more attention than mine :)

While they were out we began our mission to finish The Wishing Chair By Enid Blyton for the book club in the afternoon.

When Ralph came home he was keen to show off his new tidy outfit.....

quickly followed by sleep, its exhausting being pampered you know.

N and I took breaks in between chores in the afternoon to re-discover some card games we haven't played in so long. Here we are playing Old Maid.

Everyone arrived for book club mid-afternoon for a lively couple of hours :) Our next book is Dealing with dragons By Patricia Wrede. Watch this space.

Homeschool Room

2011-03-16T21:51:00.000Z

The piano was finally moved yesterday afternoon, within 5 minutes of the 'Piano Experts' leaving N could be found in the Homeschool Room (as it can now be officially called), playing the piano while trying to keep percussion with one maraca and one 'rice in a plastic bottle' that she had quickly made while removal was underway. I really wanted to get a photo of what she was up to - but she heard me, turned around and posed :)

Hubby and I were up until late moving furniture around, so that the house is somewhere near where we would like it to be.

I met a friend for a well earned hot chocolate and gluten free cake today at Aston Pottery, which is a fantastic place (not just for the selection of 6 different gluten free cakes - nowhere can compete with that). When I came home N had drawn a picture of black and white people in a rainbow world.

She had helped her Dad finish the guinea pig run, photos to follow :)

After dinner we played Top Trumps and Monopoly. We do time limit it, as N loses concentration after a while but we did play for an hour this evening. I was banker but she was telling me how much change to give her (perhaps she thinks I will cheat and short change her) who cares it is great for maths and good fun too ;)

N won of course, she always completes her sets and starts buying houses before me, perhaps she is just lucky :D

The bumbling gardener part 2

2011-03-16T21:33:00.001Z

There is a bit of activity with the seeds we planted.

The sweet peppers are just starting to sprout through.

The runner beans are growing great, although I am regretting sowing them in the pot provided already. Separating these runners is going to be challenging for a novice gardener.

These are growing well too, although we don't know what they are at the moment. The labels N wrote have been erased by the moisture in the plastic greenhouse:)

All the other seeds have been unsuccessful so far........ We are supposed to be planting out our chitted potatoes, but have been so busy we haven't got around to it yet.

Midsummer Nights Dream, Mint Footsoak & My Buy Of The Year

2011-03-14T21:42:00.002Z

We went to watch the Shakespeare 4 Kids version of Midsummer Nights Dream today in Oxford and thoroughly enjoyed it. N had read the childrens book version in the morning to prepare herself :) We have seen three of these styles of play now and would recommend them to anyone. Some of the actors are recognisably the same which is nice for the audience as well.

Now I have promised myself (and my husband) that I would not be buying unnecesary things for the course of 2011 (apart from the Minnie Mouse hat I'm getting in Florida :) not joking) and we would try and make as many things from scratch as we can...(we may regret the guinea pig run, but he's working so hard at it)... but I saw this in a clearance shop in Oxford and it warmed my heart.

This is everything we try to do and encourage each other to do and I can't wait to get it on the wall of the homeschool room tomorrow when the piano is moved in :)

We finished off our exciting day with a homemade mint footsoak that N had read about in one of her books. Lovely.

Soap Making

2011-03-14T10:35:00.001Z

After reading another home educating family's blog about how easy making soap is I thought we could give it a try. We have a couple of family birthdays this month and 'homemade soap' would be a sweet present.

After reading about it - I realised the hardest part of making soap in the UK is actually sourcing the materials. Anyway here is what you need........vegetable glycerin (we purchased the one suitable for sensitive skins) Natural colurant and perfume suitable for soapmaking - optional depending on how you want your finished soap to be. Some sort of mould for it - I did get a soap mould as they are for gifts, I thought they might be more likely to use it if it was standard soap size, but I also like the idea of using funny shaped ice cube trays.

Decide how much of the vegetable glycerin you think you need. This is definitely trial and error. Chop it up into pieces and melt it. (it takes a while on the hob, so we put it in the microwave!)

Once melted stir in the perfume and colour (again trial and error to see how strong a scent you want and how strong a colour).

Inspiration

2011-03-10T20:04:00.000Z

As a home schooler we take inspiration from various places, stories, nature, feelings, films, the list is endless. Today we have taken inspiration from.........

A Megastar Mysteries book N has been reading. It has spa treatment recipes in it. She has been waiting all day to do this! She had to slice the cucumber and soak it for 30 minutes first.

Also Jamie's Dream School was inspiring. The artwork from last nights episode was pretty amazing. We will be trying something similar once our room is finished :)

Grandma came in for a flying visit this morning. After lunch N worked through a couple of chapters of some science comprehension I had downloaded almost 3 years ago and had kept until the age was relevant. I wish I could remember where I have dowloaded it from (it must have been recommended through one of the yahoo groups) as I haven't got every chapter :(.

In the afternoon we walked to the local park with the dogs and N played with two 5 year old home educated twins that live locally. They are lovely and N enjoyed spending time with them.

belated pancakes

2011-03-09T21:08:00.000Z

Not to do anything with any sort of normality - we celebrated pancake day today instead.