Have Fun - Live Life

new family member lol

2011-05-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, hubby took time off work and we set about moving the pond from the left-hand side of the garden to the right-hand side. At the time I thought the same thing that you're probably thinking right now... what a waste of time and effort, not to mention the money... but it is sooo much better now. There is more room as you step out of the door, the fish are not in full sun and the patio area seems sooo much bigger AND I get another veggie plot, although kids want it to be for herbs since it is so near the kitchen; so all in all it was well worth all the digging around in the mud ;o)

Here's a little something that we found during the transition... he's been put in the new pond but we haven't seen him since but I'm not overly worried as I had no idea that he was living in the old one!

The boys having a well earned rest.

The plastic covering waiting to be filled and then cut to size.

I haven't got any pics of the completed pond yet but I'll get some as soon as the rain stops :o)

Horse Riding Fun

2011-05-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our home ed group recently went horseriding at a local riding school. It was great fun and the staff were very friendly. We all had a great time despite the heavens opening up at one point. The horses took it all in their stride. At the end we were all given vouchers for money off future lessons; now we just have to fit it into our busy schedules ;o)

Catch up Time

2011-05-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Just noticed that I haven't posted during April at all; this was mainly due to lots going on so I had very little time to be on the computer or to take any photos.

My youngest has been diligently working towards taking her ICT exam which is coming up next month (yikes!). My son has been making lots of money, well a little bit of money, doing programming and my eldest has been gearing up towards moving out.

As a family, we've been getting the caravan ready for outings (we are a little behind this year for lots of reasons, too many to go into), redesigning the garden on paper and then putting it all into practice over hubby's holidays from work and finally we've got a new puppy, well she's 9 months old but still a handful when she's full of beans in a morning.
We decided that we didn't want to be a dog free family when sadly Molly had to return to the RSPCA for further training to sort out her demons. Hopefully she will live with a trainer fulltime or with a family with lots of experience of dealing with a nervous dog.

Lots of photos to come but as usual just haven't got the time right now to do them :o)

Barrel Roof Science :o)

2011-05-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

This is an experiment from Super Charged Science. It's in the Forces section and apparently a Barrel Roof can hold up to 400 times it's own weight!
We printed off the template and my youngest followed the video and did all the mountain and valley folds and we ended up with a tunnel shaped piece of paper, it certainly didn't look strong enough to hold anything let alone 400 times it's own weight but we carried on.

We then had to balance two pencils on the top so that the paper had something to balance on.

We then stopped and put a place mat underneath the tunnel to stop any sliding on the work surface and the pencils back on top and then another place mat on top of that. We were amazed that it could hold so much.

Then we started to place the paper on top. Unfortunatly we didn't get to 400 sheets, I think we made it to 60 and then the whole thing collapsed in a heap. Even so we were still impressed that our little tunnel had done so well.

If you go to the first photo you'll notice that not all 'legs' were touching the work surface, I think this was the problem. It was such a simple experiment to do and we had fun; it was a great one for us to start with because my daughter has done lots of origami before so didn't feel out of her depth with it.

Cooking Days

2011-03-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

Above is how my chicken arrives in my kitchen, as a huge pack for £19.99. It usually contains anywhere between 16 and 20 chicken fillets depending on their weight. Out of this I make a variety of dishes to freeze and spread out throughout the month. Out of this box I made chicken curry, chicken escaloppes x 3meals, chicken glazed with honey and mustard and chicken cordon bleu plus the chicken pieces for lunches all of which can be found in the Fix Freeze Feast Cook Book. Chicken pieces dredged in eggs and then flour and oven baked for half an hour or so until cooked, then throw in freezer so that I have something handy for a quick and easy lunch; delicious in a buttie with lettuce and mayo. Below are the sauces ready for the freezer, the dark ones are BBQ, yellow one is curry sauce, then red sauce used for lasagne, pasta, or spanish rice, or basically any recipe calling for a red sauce. These all get thrown into the freezer ready to be used when needed; if I'm organised I will get them out the night before but usually I'm making a mad dash across the garden to get it out the freezer last minute. If this does happen (and it does alot) I just whizz it in the microwave for a few minutes and ta da! A slightly blurred photo of uncooked chicken pieces, dredged in flour, eggs and then bread crumbs and frozen, ready to bag up and put in freezer until needed. I like to have plenty of these on hand as everyone enjoys them and they are so quick to do. After I'd cleared away we had delicious bacon butties for lunch, yummy! We also bought a huge packet of bacon, 4 gammon steaks, 4 turkey steaks, 4 beef steaks, and two lots of sticky ribs all of which were on offer so the freezer is well and truly stocked up for this month.

More I.T. work or is it ???

2011-03-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Above my youngest has edited photos of most of her animals for the front of her latest lapbook and below we have a dilema over where we should file this piece of work because it is obviously I.T., but then again is it Religious Education being about St. David or is it English, or maybe we should do three copies and put one in each folder? ;o)

Manga Art

2011-03-10T12:03:00.001-08:00

After a trip to the library my youngest has borrowed this art book. I'm not thrilled with Manga Art as I find some of the drawings can be suggestive to say the least, you only have to take a look at the cover of this book to see that but once inside it does teach how to draw bodies and faces properly, as long as you're selective about the drawings that you practice with then I think you'll be alright.

After practising for a while my youngest chose quite a sweet picture to copy.

The same picture coloured in using her new pens bought for her birthday especially for Manga Art, they do have a name but I can't remember it off the top of my head ;o)

A Manga face typically has small features with huge eyes as in my daughter's drawing below.
She also got me a slow cooker recipe book, mmm I wonder what she's trying to say....

Guess what we did yesterday...

2011-03-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

No words needed except 'yummy!'

Ladybirds, ladybirds fly away home....

2011-03-08T05:32:00.001-08:00

Now I don't usually leave my garden baskets up throughout winter but this year I had a good reason for it. When I was taking them down to compost the dead plants and give them a wash out I found a crowd of ladybirds hibernating underneath, yes really, they were all huddled together keeping warm.
I was amazed by this because I'd always thought that they just died off after laying eggs and then new ones were born in the spring.

Here's the first group:

and here's the second group:

I thought they might have gone by now but they're still there so I've put the baskets back up even though they are unsightly; ladybirds are too precious to let die as they do such a good job in my garden :o)

Education Round Up

2011-03-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well... I seem to have misplaced the 'Cultures around the World' lapbook, hence no photos yet but it must be here somewhere so I'll hunt it down and then get some up as soon as possible.

We've moved on from Algebra on MEP maths, infact we've moved on from MEP altogether. Youngest was struggling with Algebra so we went back to Conquer Maths and she's flying through it. I also enjoy the freedom it gives me (to do the ironing) whilst she's listening to the tutor :o)

Youngest has finished researching all she wants to know about the Elizabethans for now so we're going to move on to more recent history, say the 20th century I think.

Science was dithering a little, we either did alot all in one go or nothing for ages but not anymore, oh no, now we do Super charged Science!
I'm really enjoying it as it is so easy to do, just watch a video, read a bit and do the experiments and have a quiz at the end to check understanding. I think youngest is enjoying it even though she isn't a science person, and my son keeps watching the videos too and I feel sure that he'll join in when we get to the harder stuff :o)

So that's it for our round up I think. We obviously do many more things but these are the ones that have changed so far this year, no doubt there will be more ;o)

Getting ready for Spring!

2011-03-02T08:25:00.001-08:00

I really wish I had a photo of the huge hole in the wall but I wasn't in when it was taken down, and when I came home and saw it you could say I was in too much of a shock to bother with photos.
The only proof I have that the french doors are new are the curtains, as you can see they are too short for the french doors and we didn't get the blinds ordered in time before hubby cracked on with it.
This was home ed in action as hubby taught himself all he needed to know to do it; now I'm just waiting on the blinds* to finish it off.
Molly certainly likes it as you can see and I can't wait to get out into the garden and start planting and weeding again and get some nature study back into our home ed life as that's really been curtailed with the horrid winter we've had.

*company we ordered blinds from has gone out of business and having a job getting our money back so new blinds will just have to wait a while longer, sigh!*

Just had to post...

2011-02-28T04:59:00.001-08:00

We'd just got back from our weekly shopping trip when our neighbours daughter popped round with these lovely flowers for me. Her mum had bought too many and wondered whether I'd like some, isn't that thoughtful?

Just ignore the clay bits and pieces for now, they are our attempt at vases and are just drying out before we paint them, they should be about ready now but I don't think we'll get many flowers in them, mine is the wonky one on the right :o(

Still catching up!

2011-02-28T04:35:00.000-08:00

Aww, my children are so thoughtful. This lovely box of choccies was given to me from one of them to say 'thank you' for taking them to the hospital and keeping them company on the numerous appointments; something that I see as part of my job anyway but it is so lovely to know that I'm appreciated :o)

And now down to some 'schoolwork'. Youngest is working her way through this text book (she hopes to do an exam in it) and after a rather boring start (lots of reading) she's gotten onto the good bits, which is a little reading and lots of practical things to do on the computer.

This photo shows some print outs she did both showing different headings and how to make them stand out on a black and white printer - something she hadn't considered before because she's been using a coloured one at home. You can just about make out the heading at the top of the sheet but it's not very clear, I blame the photographer, tut! tut!

Granny kindly donated lots of wool and I mean lots. I'm not sure where we're going to put it all but youngest is putting it to good use by crotcheting a scarf.

New beginnings

2011-02-18T11:47:00.001-08:00

This post is just a quickie to say that I haven't forgotten about posting, just being a little busy but such a lot has been happening around here over the last few months that I can't possibly get all the news into one post anyway but no doubt over time I'll get up to date with it. As for the title, well, I just feel as if it is new beginnings but more on that another day :o)

Below is the lovely basket of bulbs that we had delivered as a 'thank you' gift from my inlaws. The intention is that they can go in the garden and flower year after year.

Gingerbread people made by my daughter to take to her Tuesday night group. This is a group of like minded young women who discuss the past weeks service, what they thought to it, what they got out of it etc and have lots of laughs and love along the way (and lots of food too).

Below is Molly, we found her sleeping here after we'd stripped the beds and left the piles ready for washing, she obviously found them very comfy!

More biscuits made by my youngest, only these were for a neighbour who was feeling poorly at the time.

Below is a photo of the family's Christmas present off my daughter. She made them herself and designed the packets and everything. They tasted scrumptious, mine had maltesers and M&M's (my favourite chocolate) in a melted bar of chocolate, my mouth is watering just thinking about all that chocolate.

We've also had two birthdays in the family this month so this has meant more chocolate in the form of lovely cakes but I'm not sure whether photographs were taken but they taste yummy all the same!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T10:24:00.000-08:00

It's all over for another year and I feel quite sad. I don't feel that we all got out of the period what we could or should have because we were all ill at one point or another :o(
The tree is down and the decorations have gone away, the house has been vacummed and re-vacummed, the pressies have all found a home and the house is ready for another year. Plans have been made and holidays booked, school work has been sorted out and gotten ready for a new year so everything's ready to welcome 2011 and all that it holds into our life.

Winter has definitely arrived!

2010-12-18T09:53:00.000-08:00

The snow has finally melted away but we are threatened with more this weekend so it's been a mad dash to the shops to finish the Christmas shopping and to try to get organised.

Academic school work has dwindled to nothing, but there is still lots of activities happening such as looking after animals in the cold weather, watching the icicles grow and then melt at certain temperatures, calculating how high up the hill to go to get a really good speed downwards on the sledge, cooking biscuits, mince pies etc, helping out at Christmas sales at church, going to carol services,visiting friends and relatives, wrapping presents and lots of work on the website.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a book recently ordered from here. The author is another home educator and has done lots of material to use with the book for free so I'm looking forward to snuggling up with the book very soon :o)

SNOW!!

2010-12-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

Birthday Cake and weekly round up

2010-11-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a gorgeous looking cake made by my son and it tasted good too :o)
It was made to celebrate my eldest daughter's birthday.

Love pictures like the one below: my youngest snuggled up in her 'pudsey' blanket enjoying a good book :o)

We are having a few weeks off lapbooking science and have decided to read about Archimedes instead, even though strictly speaking he was a mathematician, I think. However it is a really good read and would make a delightful lapbook but I think we really need a break, sort of winding down towards Christmas :o)

Above is my daughter's homework for art group.

We've finished our Cultures around the World lapbook, just haven't taken any photos yet so we've started a lapbook on Maps this week, just a quickie, sort of a refresher one as we covered maps a few years ago and my youngest has started her research on Elizabethan clothes.

We are doing Algebra in Maths and continue to work through an English workbook. My son is continuing with learning Java, but is currently away in London with his dad, so it's been a really quiet end to the week :o)

Middle Ages Resources

2010-11-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

As soon as the lapbook is completed I get a little lazy about putting up the resources we used and end up forgetting where I got most of them from but I'll try to do my best. My previous post has a few on it but I've posted a few more below:

Here are lots of lesson plans to go along with a few books that we read by Karen Cushman such as The Midwife's Apprentice, Catherine called Birdy and Matilda Bone.

Here is a Middle Ages site map which has absolutely loads of informations on it.

Here is a Paint the Cathedral Game.

Here is an interactive castle game.

Here is even more information on the Medieval time period.

My youngest didn't play this one but it sounds very good.

A collection of recipes can be found here.

As well as all of the above we read lots of books such as Castle Diary, which I bought from the library for 10p! The books already mentioned by Karen Cushman, The Kevin Crossley Holland Trilogy about King Arthur, The Once and Future King by TH White, also about Arthur; A proud taste of Scarlett and Minerver by Konisburg about Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and her famous husbands and children, this one has been read and reread already and much enjoyed. Robin Hood by Roger Lanclyn Green is another favourite; Black Horses for the King by Anne Mcaffrey, Fire Bed and Bone by Henrietta Temple, The Bedouins Gazelle by Francis Temple (I haven't read this one so can't say what it is about other than my daughter enjoyed it); Otto of the silver hand by Howard Pyle and Crusades by Elizabeth Laird, a particular favourite author of my daughter's.

We also used SOTW Middle Ages as our spine book along with Our Island Story.

We watched a few programmes from the BBC Medieval Season, but our favourite by far was Christina - Story of a Medieval Girl.

Last but not least is a quiz to see how much we learned.

Middle Ages Lapbook

2010-11-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

I got this lapbook from HOAC and I'm really pleased with it. It is choc-a-block with information and you can tell that alot of thought has gone into the graphics.
My daughter loved doing it too as it is such an interesting time period to study with lots of craft activites to go along with it.

The front cover is done by writing calligraphy as the monks did, but not having any velum lying around we had to make do with tea dyed paper, although it took nearly as long as the velum to dry out ;o)

Below is all about the knight, from his armour to a scroll about his codes of chivalry.

The first full flap below is sort of an introduction to the Middle Ages with high and late Middle Ages flaps and dates for the Medieval time period on the visor of the helmet.

The right hand side below is about the knights tournaments and parts of a castle.

Below is the late Middle Ages flap but the phot has got out of sequence ;o)

Below is the back of the first full flap and contains information on the Black Death, declining population and reasons for low population; the latter was an extra added in because there was just so many reasons as you can see from the photo below!

The next two photos of the top flap is about Medieval foods, Common Life, The Feudal system and a Society Pyramid.

Below is the back of the top flap and contains information on Charlemagne, Duties of the Parish Priest and The Rights of the Magna Carta.

The base of the lapbook contains more information on the knight's life such as Weaponary, Becoming a knight and their responsibilities and the Crusades. My daughter laid it out so that when the bottom and top flaps were open, the entire base of the lapbook would be about knights

leaving the flaps for information about the peasants and general life during the Middle Ages.

Below is a photo of our Motte and Bailey Castle, the blue bit in the corner is a pond that my daughter added. The instructions for this can be found here.

Below are the practice sheets of calligraphy my daughter used before writing the front cover and menu.

Belkow is the menu, complete with some recipes from the lapbook and rather surprisingly they tasted really good. We did extras though just incase but we didn't need them (again on tea dyed paper).

Below are photos of the shields we made, all of which come from my husband's family name (Scottish names are so much easier to research than English ones).

A list of programmes and films watched and additional books read to follow in next post as I think this one has been long enough :o)

Edwardian Farm and Downton Abbey

2010-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

We've been looking at the Edwardian time period recently, quite by accident really. We started watching this and then this and you can read the blog about the Edwardian Farm here. We also saw a programme on a few nights ago about setting up a high street during the Edwardian time period called Turn Back Time, there's a type of blog about it here.

It's a time period that we haven't looked at before so we've learnt alot already just by watching the programmes without getting any books out but I suspect we'll get them out fairly soon and then look at World War One as my youngest is keen to do some of the worksheets here.
We also have a Hands of a Child lapbook about World War 1 but I'm not sure whether we'll go into it in that much depth yet, maybe next year, because the Middle Ages study is taking longer than I anticipated as the period is such a large one to do about. (Will post more about Middle Ages when finished).

Below are some Edwardian links I intend to use over the coming weeks:
Here is a link for colouring pages.
Here is a website with lots of info on The Edwardians.
Here is a timeline.
Here is a worksheet on education during the time period
Here are tales from a London Tenement house.
There is lots of info on this site.
I think we'll round up with an Edwardian afternoon tea and scones, yes that sounds good... off to paint shields and prepare decorations for our Medieval Feast.

Reproduction Lapbook

2010-11-03T06:05:00.001-07:00

My youngest has finished her first lapbook of the new school year, phew! I say phew! because I really didn't think we'd get started this year never mind actually finish one, so I'm really pleased.
It's one (from HOAC) I've had for quite a while now but I've been waiting for just the right moment to use it and that time has arrived :o)

We've followed a friends progress through her pregnancy and regularly see the development of her daughter. During all this my youngest's interest was aroused so we watched this, a fabulous informative documentary and we watched another one which I can't remember the name of but it had men dressed up in white suits running around pretending to be sperm, hmmm!

The above cover was done by my daughter using photoshop, something that I think she's getting very good at, but then I'm biased :o)

Above is a booklet on Chromosones and Genes.

Above are booklets about changes in boys and girls, below that is a three tiered booklet about puberty and hormone levels.

My daughter used different coloured card/paper to back the booklets in this lapbook which I think make it look alot better than just sticking them in but unfortunately the photos just don't do it justice at all :o(

This photo isn't too clear but the blue flaps at the top are about the male reproductive system and the ones below are about the female reproductive system.
The photo below is about the menstrual cycle and the parts of sperm.

The flaps below are all about fertilisation.

Below is about the fetus and the placenta.

My daughter even did the vocabulary and timeline, something that she usually runs out of steam with :o) The lapbook was rounded off with a whole page about genetics and twins.

Halloween Fun

2010-11-03T05:51:00.001-07:00

I wanted to be an organised mother with lots of photographs of my children making their pumpkins but it wasn't to be, I only made it in time to take photos of the finished products.

Below are my youngest and friends ready to go halloweening, I think they look really good.

These are the delicious toffee apples my daughter made; only photos of the finished product again I'm afraid, but I was lucky to get this as they tasted far better than last years attempt and therefore didn't hang around long!

Half Term Holiday

2010-10-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

The week started sooo well. I'd arranged for Granny and Granpa to deliver my youngest to art class whilst I stayed home and got on with the house work and packing for our short break. It would be so much fun taking a leisurely drive to my mam's and then staying over in our caravan for a few nights. Ironing done, packing almost done, tea cooked, everything still going well :o)

The family had got together and set off to collect the caravan. Once hooked up and ready for the off my hubby noticed something wrong with the car. The accelerator pedal had snapped! We couldn't move forward at any great speed at all but we had to get the caravan back in the compound and in it's usual position, now that was fun!

We rang the RAC man and arranged to meet him back at our home, so we slowly made our way home. The RAC man couldn't fix it so had to tow the car into the garage - at this point I rang my mam and explained that we wouldn't be going to see her afterall :o(

Hubby arranged a replacement car for the next day so undeterred we put our plans back into action and set off. We decided we would stay the night at mam's house and then return home the following day.

In the end we saw the funny side of it and had a lovely time and just thanked God that it hadn't happened when we were flying down the motorway, not that you can fly down the motorway with a caravan on the back but you know what I mean ;o)

Hard at work!

2010-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

During our sort out we came across this model of the solar system belonging to my son. My youngest then repainted it after finding out about each of the planets online, which then led to her re-doing a Solar System Digilapbook using this (just click on the boxes to reveal the information about each planet.

Below Molly is taking an interest in the planets, I suppose they do look alot like the balls she plays with :o)

We've also been trying our hand at calligraphy, Medieval style, to coincide with our history middle ages lapbook (which is coming along nicely :o)). My youngest has so much patience for it, it's unbelievable, she really puts me to shame. Although her line goes a little wobbly on this sheet, she has all her letters correct and all the swirly squigly bits in the right place too. I haven't bothered to take a photo of mine because I only managed a couple of letters and even then I don't think I did them that well.

Here is the art group homework that my youngest has done ready for her class this week. It is wet on wet water colours. She had to choose a painting and copy it. I love the effect of water that she's done. She goes to art every other week with about 6 home ed teens and she's loving it.

My son is currently learning Java, which is a programming language for the web and computer programs and of course he is onhand to help out with our computer queries :o)
My eldest is currently enjoying half term, refuelling her batteries ready for the next onslaught of college work :o)

Polymers and Glow in the Dark Slime

2010-10-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

We had an impromtu science lesson today thanks to Aurora. My daughter really liked this as it was messy, my son liked it because it looked so good under his black light at the end... I knew we'd find a use for that thing one day :o)

First you had to open up a high-lighter pen and run cold water on it catching the liquid in a cup.

Then mix the liquid with the glue and borax and give it a good stir.

We used white glue here because I'm a cheap skate and wouldn't use any new clear glue until we'd used up the old stuff :o)

The white PVA glue didn't work very well,(sort of ended up with a bouncy ball) so we did another batch and used the clear glue which worked really well and we ended up with flourescent slime.

This is it under the black light, quite impressive.Below are pics of cornstarch and water mixed together to show how polymers act (as a solid when pushed together and as a liquid when left to run down your hand).

This had my son engrossed for quite a while.

The best bit about the class was that everything was explained as you went along so there were no tricky questions that I couldn't answer, phew!

Thumbs Up!

2010-10-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

You know when you've almost finished painting but you've just got a bit left to do so you don't want to stop and do menial tasks like cook for everyone? well, that was where I was last week so my youngest volunteered to throw a few pizzas in the oven so that I could carry on.
Yippeee! so on I carried.I was just about done when I heard a shriek from the kitchen. My daughter had managed to burn her thumb whilst using oven gloves!

Picture of said thumb above but luckily it didn't blister or mark in anyway thanks to her quick thinking of running cold water on it. (I think I can tick first aid off for this weeks life skills lesson).

Below is offending oven glove which is rather thin in the padding area so she gave it a thumbs down but the next photo has our new oven gloves with lots more padding ready for when she next cooks :o)

My daughter edited all photos for me because I really wouldn't know where to start.

Theatre Royal again

2010-10-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Back to the theatre this week to see RSC Hamlet for kids and it was fabulous. My youngest and I really enjoyed it. We left friends their and had a shopping day gathering everything we needed so that I wouldn't have to go into town again for a while, it's far too busy for my liking.

When we got home we found a rather hungry and grumpy older child.

He felt this way for two reasons 1) There wasn'y ANY food to eat in the house at all and he was starving, 2) he'd wanted to go see Hamlet but we didn't book him a ticket way back in February because he hadn't wanted to go then.
.
To comfort him for his mother mistreating him in this way I made him a batch of Granola (which he adores).

My youngest has continued to work on various lapbooks and meet up with friends during the week. She's also preparing for halloween by sewing her friends dress, I think she's done a really good job of it too.

My middle child continues with his on line work and is currently looking for an affordable C++ course to do and my oldest child is actually enjoying her college course, I would go as far as to say she is thriving on it. I am so pleased with her.

My hubby is currently on his holidays from work so we have lots of DIY planned for next week; I'll update if we actually get any done because usually something else happens and plans change, but that's life.

Carrying on:

2010-10-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday:

My youngest continued with maths,which she's doing really well with whilst I whizz around the house implementing flylady again. Then we read Romeo and Juliet to refresh our memories and then went to the theatre to see the play. It was fantastic and well worth the money. My youngest, if who you remember hated anything to do with Shakespeare last year absolutely loved it and is still going on about it now so after much umming and arring, I'm really pleased we went.

Wednesday:

Maths, English and various lapbooks done today along with conker picking in the rain. This was alot more fun than it sounds and we managed to get a rather big bag full, enough to do our conker webs with (I'll take a photo when they are finished).

Thursday:

We went to the Theatre Royal again for a workshop to go along with the play. It was very good, they showed us how they practised understanding the play and how they got into character before they even knew the lines. After that we had lunch and then did a bit of shopping, replenishing my youngest's sock drawer... I'm not sure what she does with them but boy do they disappear!

Friday:

At some point during the week my youngest started working her way through an I.T. book so she spent the day finishing off a few projects in this mainly related to Romeo and Juliet. She continued her Middle Ages and Reproduction lapbooks and I'm pleased to say she isn't finding it confusing doing so many at once, she rather likes it.

Afterwards we watched Downton Abbey, a new series on BBC.

I've been cooking alot this week using my new book that hubby bought me. It's full of great sounding recipes, that are really easy to make, I can't wait to try them now :o)

Blogger is playing up and won't let me put in the link but it is www.fixfreezefeast.com for anyone who wants to find out more.

We've been to see the grandparents too at some point but you know when you get so busy you forget which day it is and everything becomes a blur... well that's what this week has been like for me. I feel sure I've missed something important out but I just can't remember what it is, oh dear I'm getting so old ;o)

All go here :o)

2010-10-02T02:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a week!

We've been sooo busy this week ,it's been a real tonic, just what I needed...

We started our table/school work on Monday morning:

Maths with MEP Maths. This is free and starts at Primary level and goes up to GCSE.

English: CGP workbook, we already had these from my other child so it didn't cost us anything but I think you can get them slightly cheaper from Amazon or Ebay.

Geography: We decided to do a Cultures of the World lapbook from HOAC seen as we've done about the continents,we thought we'd learn about the people on the continents.

Science: We've started another HOAC lapbook on Reproduction. This was a free one from many moons ago that I'd been saving until the right time and I think that time has come.

Then off to Alison's in the afternoon for art. I went for coffee and chat with the other mum's at a cafe whilst all the children were at Alison's (another home ed mum with the patience of a saint, who forwent the coffee in favour of being surrounded by 6 teenagers).

When we got back youngest made delicious chocolate chip cookies, the sort that just melt in your mouth, yummmm.

When I started this post I intended to write about the full week but time has passed too quickly so I'll have to finish up later.

Back to normal?

2010-09-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

We're trying to get back to normal which hasn't been easy because there's been lots of building projects going on, but we're getting there slowly.

My youngest has finished painting and decorating her room a lovely toffee colour. I wasn't sure about the colour at first but now it's all done and accessories are in place I think it look really good.

Hubby and son have finished working down the 'alley' too. They've put in a longer and lower workbench and installed the computers so that they can work down there together instead of my son being upstairs on his own. So far it's going well and they are both being very productive.

My eldest daughter has started college doing her A levels again but this time she is loving it, so I don't think she'll be leaving halfway through.

The bathroom has been stripped of paper and has plaster boards on the walls awaiting the tiles. The bath has been moved slightly with new taps and shower added but now we are changing the sink too so I've started saying my mantra again... it'll be lovely when it's finished ;o)

Thank you

2010-09-12T12:38:00.001-07:00

I've been away for few weeks hence the quietness of my blog; inpart due to not having computer access and inpart due to the fact that I don't know what the family have been getting up to whilst I've been away.

The house is still standing, the washing is up-to-date and nothing appears to be burnt so the cooking and ironing must have gone well :o)

I just want to thank my hubby for stepping in and taking care of everything while I dashed down to be with my mam, of course you didn't do it all on your own, I heard you had a few little helpers, so thank you all for making hard times a little easier, I love and appreciate you all xx

Summer days and Summer weather!!!!!

2010-08-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

I love the holidays but they fly by far too quickly...

This week we've been to Manga Art here. My youngest learned how to draw bodies to accompany her manga faces so she is very pleased, whilst I spent 2 whole hours browsing the shelves of the local Christian bookshop, so I'm very pleased too :o)

She also continues to teach her friend to play the keyboard, not sure what they'll do when they reach the level my daughter's at but thats something to worry about for another day I suppose.

We continue to watch Robin Hood and Discover the Normans through Domesday and the Normans which of course is all about the Middle Ages.

So this week has been a bit schooly but of course we're not doing school ;o)

The Versatile Blogger Award

2010-08-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been given my very first blog award; I'm surprised, shocked even, but also very pleased so thank you to Chelle from last in line as I really appreciate it.

The rules of the award are that I have to pass it on to other blogs that I deem worthy (there are so many that it's going to be hard to choose) and that I have to tell seven things about myself.

Here goes:
1. I am a Christian
2. I enjoy gardening
3. I enjoy cooking although the family may not always enjoy what I produce ;o)
4. I have 3 children but home educate two at the moment.
5. I live in the North East of England
6. I try to enjoy life to the full
7. I would spend all my money on books if hubby didn't stop me ;o)

Well, that's me in a nutshell so now for the hard part... which blogs to choose... I could be here for a while so you might want to go grab a coffee ;o)

Drum roll please... in no particular order (because I really couldn't choose which one I like the most anyway) are the blogs that I wish to pass on this award to:

Blog 1 is Sheri from Homeschoolin on a wing and a prayer

Blog 2 is Amy from Fisher Academy International

Blog 3 is Lee from Just Us

Blog 4 is Elle from Ellie's Treasures

There I'll leave it at that, otherwise I will be here all night.

Sun, fun and then lots of rain

2010-08-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had lots of fun spending time with friends, enjoying trips to the beach, out to the shops and cafes. The weather has been good with plenty of sunshine for the most part and then we had a down pour today so that watered my plants nicely and saved me a job.

My son continues working through the hols for Elance and for this company and he's really enjoying it. It's giving him lots of experience about the world of work ready for when he dives in fulltime in the not too distant future.

We have a food shop to do, dental appointments and hairdressing appointment for this week and then that will be the second week of the hols finished, I really can't believe how quickly the time is going and I'm still not done with planning for next year yet...

2nd Week of Hols

2010-08-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

So far I've had a lazy week this week, no teaching, answering questions or dashing out to appointments and I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying it, just not sure I could do this every week .

During my relaxation week I made Cinnamon Streusal Muffins from here (scroll right down to the bottom for the recipe) and here's my photo below:

They were a huge hit with the family even though I put lots of cinnamon in, I love cinnamon!

During a shopping trip in town I bought my first lot of provisions for the new school year, photo below. I'm trying to spend less this year, but the diaries are a must as my daughter loves having a meet up and writing in what she has to get done and what she wants to get done and then ticking it off as she gets it done. It just means that she's not waiting around for me if I get sidetracked doing something else :o) The purple one is my daughter's so the red one is mine, they were a bargain at £1.49 each and the handwriting pens were £1 for the lot.

Planning wise: I've got on really well, I know what I want us to do, my daughter has okayed most of that and added what she wants to get done, so now it's just fitting it all in. I've worked out that next term we'll only do 3 1/2 days academic work, so it's going to be tough going but that's the challenge I suppose :o)

First Week

2010-07-31T03:57:00.001-07:00

Whoah! I can't quite believe where the time is going, this week seems to have flown by.
I haven't got nearly as much done planning wise as I'd hope to have done but we've had a busy week all the same.

I spent one afternoon in a hospital after one of my family had an allergic reaction to intravenous iron. Apparently this doesn't happen very often, but everything is back to normal now thank goodness!

My eldest attended her college interview, signed up and paid to do her A levels at college from September this year, if only she'd completed them when they were free :o( She is spending this weekend in Edinburgh because it is her friends 'Hen' party, so no doubt she is having plenty of fun there.

My son is continuing with his free lance work in I.T. and my youngest has spent plenty of time outdoors at the horses and in going to the cinema and catching up with friends.

We did a round trip to see my parents at the beginning of the week, they were both well but my dad has now gone into respite care for a few weeks to give my mum a break so hopefully they can both get the rest and care they need and it's hubby's parents anniversay on Monday so we'll be off to see them over the weekend so busy, busy, busy.

I just hope I can get more planning done next week :o)

French Revolution Lapbook

2010-07-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought the last week of term would be spent winding down, finishing off, filing away, getting ready for the long summer hols, oh how wrong I was!
My youngest had watched a film on Marie Antoinette and wanted to know more about her, this of course, led on to the French Revolution, which led onto a lapbook. There's nothing wrong with this, it's great, home ed in action, but it was the last week, I was winding down and filing things away ready for the holidays... sigh!

So here it is the fastest printed out and put together lapbook in history!

Most of the information was from here and here.
We learned about the 3 estates, Marie Antoinette, Louis 16th, Napoleon, The Bastille, The Guillotine, The Tennis Court Oath, The French Flag, Voltaire and Rousseau, The Declaration of Man, The New Constitution of France and general French geography.

The printout lapbook flaps came from here and I really can't thank the person enough because we just wouldn't have been able to do this lapbook without her!

Below is a printed out power point presentation of the Lady who started this whole thing off! I took a photo of the front cover only.

Below is a 'made up' diary of someone who attended the beheading of Louis 16th.

And even though this whole project was 'a rush job' my daughter remembers in detail the things she learned, just goes to show that if the interest is there, they retain the information.

African Lapbook and not a mention of football ;o)

2010-07-23T12:05:00.001-07:00

The picture below isn't Africa, it's my daughter's 'Earth' cake, which we gobbled up when she did her Earth Lapbook but luckily I managed to take a photo of it complete with delicious icing. Africa is the green bit on the right hand side so I thought I may as well put it in here :o)

Now I can't remember what these are called but they are sweet pastries deep fried and then covered in honey. They are supposed to be interwoven but they separated when in the fryer but that didn't change the taste any, they were delicious and very sticky. I have the recipe somewhere if anyone wants to try them :o)

Below is my daughter's African mask and Door post she made from an African set we had.

This is the full display with her salt dough map and flags pin pointing the areas we studied, because I learned such a lot too, as always.

The front cover of her lapbook is just a map that I googled and printed out in colour.

At the top is a fact file on Middle Ages Africa,a booklet on my daughter's favourite country (Egypt) and another tribal mask.

Below is an African Slave Trade fact file, an unpainted shield and a habitats booklet.

At the top of the first page is a 'What I want to know' page and under neath is a huge file of animal facts. If you look on the left hand side you'll see that she kew where Africa was, the middle is what she hoped to learn and the right hand side is everything she did learn :o)

Showing some of the animal fact files below:

Predator and Prey sheets and a leaflet on African huts.

Lifecycle of a Mosquito, and fact files on Mosquitoes and a flap about the most leathal killer in Africa which I got about 5 years ago but I can't remember where from.

The map is a booklet with information and other maps underneath showing rivers, mountains and regions of Africa.

My daughter took notes when reading about Nelson Mandela and then typed it up.

Below is a page on David Livingstone's life. We used sticky back velcro on the back of the pictures so that they could stand up for display but be put down in the lapbook, it worked quite well. There is also a museum not far from us all about him called The David Livingstone Centre.

We made Adrinka cloths, cutting up pillow cases and tiedying them and painting on the markings. We threaded them with string on a straw and hung them up for display.

Since completing our lapbook I've found this, it looks really good.

Resources Day, Redundancies and Baby Hamsters

2010-07-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

With the impending holidays and the new 'school' year around the corner our area held a home education resources day in a local church. It was really good to meet so many new and interesting families and meet up with the old ones that I already know.

Other home edders spoke on their various methods such as Steiner, Montessori, Structured, Autonomous, Classical and Charlotte Mason. It was great to have an insight into others days but it left me kind of wondering where we fit in...and I'm still wondering ;o)

We found a few books that we fancy for next year but we may have to hold off with any plans of buying them just yet as redundancies are being made at hubby's work over the next few weeks :o(

Once home we found the escaped baby hamster (not sure if I got around to posting about this) sitting outside the cage peering in at it's mum and brothers and sisters, so after a mad dash to catch it, it is now safely back where it belongs :o)

Wild Dogs Lapbook/Notebook

2010-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here is another of my youngest's booklets made using Homeschool Share's FREE Wild Dogs lapbook. My daughter completed this herself as it is her favourite topic, animals!

Below is my daughter's sketch of Molly our dog, she's not really a wild dog, she just acts like one :o)

On the back page is a photo of Molly with her ears down so she looks rather a funny shape

The Earth Lapbook

2010-07-15T07:31:00.001-07:00

I didn't mean to neglect my blog for quite so long, I had decided to make a real effort to blog at least a few times a week, but then the sun came out... and I mean really out! The weather here has been fantastic, really hot sunny days and still hot evenings and muggy nights and it's been continuing for a good few weeks now, well until yesterday when it poured down for most of the night.

So here are the latest photos of work done by my youngest. It is not the full content of her studies as she does lots of different things but these are the easiest to 'show off'.

This is two of Hands of a Child lapbooks put together, but my daughter decided to make it into a huge booklet instead. She braided bits of wool together and threaded it in the holes to keep it together. Doing about Earth was a last minute choice as I wanted to do a review of previous work and this fitted the bill perfectly :o)

This cover is self explanatory, I think, as it has a huge photo of the Earth on the front. This pic was 'photoshopped' by my daughter too.

The next page has information about the seasons and the planets. My daughter was well and truly disgusted that Pluto was not on the list of planets because it will always be one according to her :o)

The next phot has a day and night wheel, and a coloured in map of the continents.

More info about continents.

At the top is a Rotation and revolution flaps, a fact book abbout Earth anda booklet about how 'we must take care of our planet'.

Below is a 'layers of the earth' booklet and information on tectonic plates.

A fold out on the layers of the atmosphere...

... and flaps showing why it is so important.

Then she moved onto the soils and rock types and how land forms are made.

Below is a map and fact cards about the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, not to be confused with the Man-made Wonders of course ;o)

Moving onto natural resources and energy, renewable and non renewable.

A flap on biomes and one on magnetism below.

And finally the bodies of water on earth and a flap on the most interesting field of science...

... which of course is Zoology (animals).

Plodding on and on and on and on...

2010-06-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

The garden is coming to life quite nicely and we are enjoying lots of salads and the greenhouse is doing really well with courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of busy lizzies and petunias but also it is getting alot of wildlife in it too such as spiders and slugs, eauuw! I don't mind them in the garden afterall that's where they live, but I really hate them in the greenhouse because they are just too close for comfort.

Academically we are finishing off a lot of projects that we have had on the go for a while... I really must try to stick to one or two and finish off before we move on to something else in the future.
The loft tidy up is continuing slowly, also the bedrooms now look messy again because they have more things in them... sigh, my eldest's floordrobe is looking more like a rubbish tip :o(

On a happy note: I've lots of pics for my next post but that will just have to wait because I have to feed the family :o)

Periodic Table Lapbook

2010-06-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Whilst doing our Chemistry studies I came across this fantastic lapbook for free from here. There is such a lot in it though that I've decided to do one lapbook on the Periodic Table and another on basic Chemistry and notebooking pages on the famous Scientists, rather than one huge lapbook as I think my daughter would lose interest fairly quickly.
Here are the photos so far:

My youngest designed the cover using photoshop and cut it in half so that it could open. I'm not sure what font she used but I quite like it :o)

The first page (green) has an introduction to the Branches of Science, what is Chemistry flap and a flap on Atoms and one on Elements.

The middle (red) page has a periodic table chart on it which can be used for reference through out the study and flaps on Halogens and Alkali Metals.

Across to the righthand page (yellow) is a short biography of Dimitri Mendeleev, apparently he only cut his hair once a year and two flaps explaining the table and the difference between Groups and Periods.

Below are pockets made by my daughter to put all the information cards which we got from here.

Below are flaps on Non-metals and Transition metals

The yellow flap below folds down and has information on Noble Gases, Lanthanides and Basic Metals.

Below is a print out of Mendeleev first Periodic Table. On the front of this sheet (but somehow hasn't been photographed) are flaps on Alkaline Earth Metals, Actinides and Metaloids.

The bottom of the lapbook has more pouches with information cards in and a flap which explains what each box contains in the Table.

Below shows some of the information cards.

We have the pillow case and fabric paints to make a Periodic Table pillow case but haven't done one yet but you can find the pattern here and we played this game to round off our project.

So all in all we enjoyed the project but of course we are constantly coming across elements in our everyday life and it is so good to know that the children know what they are too.

Baby Elephants awww!

2010-06-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

This link has absolutely nothing to do with what we are studying at the moment but I was sent it from a friend and I simply love elephants and just had to share!

Please don't watch if you are squeamish as it is a video of an elephant giving birth to a baby, if your not squeamish then please keep watching till the end because the mother knows just what to do to get the baby breathing, it's awesome!

Green Festival

2010-06-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely afternoon here. It was a much larger event than I had first thought with loads of things happening, something for everyone's tastes I reckon :o)

Our local home ed group had a stall there which apparently got lots of interest so we'll wait and see if anything comes of it. My youngest bought a roller boot 'Pandora' bead and we had a freshly stone baked pizza for lunch. I got lots of information about composting so I am raring to try again as last years compost came out rather heavy and very wet; aparently I needed to put more 'browns' into it, so now I know :o)

For a perfect ending to a perfect day... it is pouring down with rain so for the first time in two weeks I get to put my feet up instead of watering the plants in the garden, yeay!

More on Chemistry

2010-06-04T10:13:00.001-07:00

We have been working our way through this book, albeit slowly but we are getting there. There is so much information in it that we keep going off on tangents so it's taking a while.

Here is the download we used for making candy compounds, common ones such as O, CO2, etc.

We started off with some simple compounds, even I could do these ones without much thought,

then we moved onto more complex ones, sadly I can't remember what this one is supposed to be but it looks impressive :o)

Below you can see a rather tasty looking Carbon atom. The nucleous has green and yellow sweets showing the neutrons and protons and the shells have red sweets showing the electrons. We used this template to make lots of other atoms but I won't show you all the photos but you get the gist of it; we got through lots of packets of wine gums :o)

Chemistry ugh!

2010-06-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks we've been looking at Chemistry, nothing too indepth as my daughter's love lies with animals but I just want her to have an understanding of the subject upto GCSE level and then if she takes it further that's up to her.

Having never studied Chemistry myself I felt very much out of my depth and I have to admit it, I have been putting it off and didn't go out of my way to encourage my daughter to learn about it. We've done the usual experiments because they were fun but nothing too serious. We used the Chemistry kit we bought way back when my son was interested but he just got on with it and didn't need me to interfere at all except to clean up the exploded blue ink off the kitchen ceiling ;o)

However after reading a lot of books and visiting many websites I now feel I have a thorough enough understanding of the Periodic Table to explain it to my youngest.

We started off by doing a little atomic structure, obviously using as many sweets and marshmallows as we could, guaranteed to get my daughter's interest. We also played this game of elements trading cards and visited these websites One, and website two.

Then finally we got around to The Periodic Table and visited these websites: one, two and three and four is the answer key. We also did some chemical bonding, photographs to follow after I've taken them off the camera. All in all it went quite smoothly and we've enjoyed it so far... I think that might have a lot to do with the sweets though :o)

Green House Photos

2010-05-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

I thought this deserved a blog entry all of it's own because I'm so pleased with it :o)
In the first photo you can see the 3 tier shelves my hubby made, this is were I sow and plant because it has a wire rack top so the soil just falls straight through and back into the bag. We have a grape vine or should I say stick in the far right corner and hope for great things there and you can just make out my metal shelves from my plastic covered green house.

Below gives you a better view of the automatic windows, as you can see it was a very hot day so they were open fully, even so the greenhouse was still stifling so I had to open the door too.

Above shows the tomato seedlings which we planted and have had on the windowsill for a few weeks now. Some have been potted on and are having their first night out in the greenhouse tonight... I feel like an anxious parent on the first time a child stays away from home at night.

Above are my fabulous first time Tulips, the colour is so magnificent and striking, I'll certainly keep them and let them flower again next year. I might even plant some in the garden beds.

A Lovely Summer's Day

2010-05-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

We've had a really good day today, the fact that it was really sunny certainly helped, but yes, we've had a lovely relaxed day and even though it was relaxed we got lots done.

My youngest started off with MEP Maths, then fed and watered her animals (too many to list). After this we started to sow seeds, a little late but my greenhouse is up and ready now, then we moved into the front garden to dehead the daffodils and do a bit of weeding. We baked chapatti bread for lunch and then my youngest started reading about 'money' from a good little book I bought here. She did this out in the garden sun bathing with her big sis, whilst her brother was sunbathing too but of course he was on the laptop at the same time :o) He's currently working on a few websites and more updates for the DigiLapbook.

I bought this book too because the other book gives the basics but it really spends alot of time on the American Bank and money system whereas this one is on about the English pound and pence so they can learn about them both for good measure :o)

Eventually I hope to do this nifty little lapbook about money from Homeschool Helper or maybe combine it with 'Living with Less' by Hands of a child, I'm not sure yet.

When the sun started to fade we turned in and my youngest started doing photoshop and editing again, leaving me free to do this, where or where would we be without computers...

Proud mum alert :o)

2010-05-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just a really quick post to tell you about my daughter's website. She's made most of it herself and the rest with her brother's help :o) She is really getting into the whole photo editing thing, I'm not sure I understand the point in it all but the finished product does look rather good.

The website contains her portfolio and tutorials to help other would be editers (is that the word used in the editing world?) My daughter has completed these herself and is currently teaching herself photoshop Cs3 as she goes along. I am totally amazed because she's gone from being almost computer phobic (other than emails) to my not being able to get her off the thing! Just goes to show that once something captures their interests, there's no stopping them.

Mother's Day 'Week' Deals

2010-05-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to go over to Currclick to get your freebies for Mother's Day, meant to post this on Monday but we've been a bit busy so had to get it in here first so that I didn't forget ;o)

There seems to be a glut of good programs on at the moment so lots of our time has being spent watching the tv. A few we are watching are The Story of Science , Blitz Street, Modern Masters and The Edible Garden.
We are enjoying all of them but consequently not getting much academic work done, although we have started reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.

We've also been busy going to Dr's appt, Dentist appt, Hospital appt, so all in all we've had a fully packed week so far... roll on Saturday so I can have a rest :o)

New Greenhouse (well, new to me)

2010-05-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had a really good week with hubby being off work. We took a break from academic work purely because non was getting done ;o) instead we worked in the garden, mainly weeding , but the exciting part is that we've been putting up my first ever greenhouse!

After deciding to take the gardening more seriously this year and try to produce more than the few potatoes and peas, which never make it to the table anyway, we would take the plunge and get a greenhouse to start us off with seedlings etc. The only trouble was that they all cost rather more than we had put aside for it :o( so my ever ingenius hubby set about trawling ebay for cheaper second hand ones; they would have had to been really cheap for us to afford one, but alas there was none.

I was down stricken for a while, my dreams of becoming a gardner in tatters when someone offered us their old greenhouse. Their dad had passed away three years before and their mum now felt ready to move on, so we dismantled it, transported it back to our garden and now it is standing in place and at this very moment in time getting some new glass put in; I am sooo excited! I've been out and bought Tomato seeds and have themn planted and growing on my windowsill ready to go in the moment I get the okay.

I've got to say I'm not a jigsaw person at the best of times so a big thank you goes to my hubby for doing this huge 3 dimensional one :o)
Picture will follow soon.

Digilapbook Finished!

2010-05-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

My son has been updating a program he made to allow us to make digilapbooks without it being too technical ;o) I think he's done a great job but then again I'm biased, but here's the link for you to take a look and see what you think. He charges a nominal fee to help cover the cost of hosting as he's moved to a larger host now, I suppose that's the downside of it being used :o)

Here's my daughter's latest digilapbook on dogs. She bought a book from a local charity shop and worked through that. She really enjoyed using the program and found it easy to use. I think she was being used as a guinea pig for my son :o)

My hubby has a one week holiday from work so we are working in the garden putting up a new greenhouse therefore there's not much academic work getting done so once again the work boxes haven't really come into their own yet but I'm sure they will eventually.

Industrial Revolution Lapbook

2010-04-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Below are the photographs of my daughter's lapbook which she completed a few months ago. It is by Hands of a Child. I can't remember the grade level of this particular one but I think it was for the older children as it had lots of detailed information in it and ended up being a huge lapbook. It took quite a while to finish it and if you look at the photographs you can see that my daughter's handwriting changes over time :o)

The front cover has lots of pictures which were in the lapbook print out available to use, so my daughter chose the best ones to decorate the cover and back of the lapbook.

St George's Day!

2010-04-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

Happy St. George's Day!

Information on the Saint here also about home rule . Lots of interesting facts and a fabulous dragon here, here , here and lots of activities here . I was hoping to do a lapbook on St George seen as he is our saint but I just don't have any energy at the moment, maybe we can do something post St Georges Day :o)

Hope you have a fabulous day :o)

Back to Normality!

2010-04-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Easter break has finished, friends back to school and our bugs have almost gone now so it was back to a bit of routine for us today. Whilst I was ill, I had plenty of time to think about our schooling life and if I'm ill again or if anything should happen to me, then my hubby just wouldn't know what we were doing or where to start so I've spent the last few days downloading stuff so that it can all be laid out for him to follow and then everything should run smoothly :o)

I don't really like timetables and plans etc as I feel so restricted/constricted by them... at least not written down ones, but my children are both of an age now where they do need some structure in their life so I've planned it all out and filed it away so that my hubby knows just what to do the next time I'm ill, so no more missed school days for the children :o)

I've also started work boxes. We will read the same books on the same days so they will always remain in the boxes, I will just update the lapbook folds/notebooking sheets as needed. Hopefully everyone will know what they should be doing each day and the home will run smoothly :o)

All this said we didn't actually do everything in 'Mondays' box but I think working on the whole person is just as important as academic work, so what didn't get started today will get started next Monday because by then we will be well and truly into the swing of things.

Digital Lapbook Designer

2010-04-16T01:45:00.001-07:00

I'm very excited at the minute.

My son has nearly finished updating the digi lapbook program and we are testing it out for him.

Using her research from an earlier project, my youngest has made a digi lapbook about Beatrix Potter and I have to say I am very impressed. I don't know who to be more proud of, my daughter for using it and creating a fantastic piece of work or my son for creating the actual program?

Here's the link for you to have a sneak-preview of what the new program can do because I simply can't wait to show you :o) The new version also has a scroll bar at the side giving you more space to use, I think this is my favourite bit :o)

http://www.digilapbook.co.uk/index.asp?d=UFB5XP7SF6

.

Spring has sprung!

2010-04-15T08:09:00.001-07:00

You know it's getting warmer when the fish come up to the top to sunbathe :o)

Above are tender buds on my clematis; I'm really pleased because I thought it had died and turned into a twig ;o) I am now looking forward to some lovely flowers in the not too distant future.

These lovely purple pansy's were planted from seed last year and should only have lasted one year but we left some in the ground to see what would happen and hey presto! they've flowered beautifully.

Photographs showing the different colours of daffodils we have in the garden.

I can't remember what this flower is called but again it was supposed to last one year but you can just make out a little red flower coming up.

Rhubarb just beginning to grow again after a dormant winter. The leaves are flourishing and getting bigger daily.

These bright yellow flowers are by the side of the pond and are gorgeous but I can't remember their names.

This is Molly, devouring a bone in the sunshine.

This is Domino, our latest addition to the rabbits. He was rescued because his owners couldn't manage him anymore; their other rabbits kept fighting with him but he is lovely and very playful.

This is the head of Pip, a very nervous guinea pig that we are looking after because the shelter is having building work done.

This is Percy, another shelter guinea pig, making a run for it when the camera came out.

All photographs taken by my youngest daughter, who I think did really well, especially capturing the animals.

Easter Lapbook

2010-04-15T07:32:00.001-07:00

We've had a really rubbish Easter! We have been taking it in turns to be ill so very little got done around the house and all the academic learning just went out the window but that's life I suppose, we even had to cancel Easter meal due to illness!
My youngest did manage to complete a few activities during Holy week before becoming ill herself. She set to with water colours and painted this fabulous pic of an Easter egg for the front cover of her lapbook, I just love the colours.

All the printables are from hands of a child. They are doing 5dollar lapbooks now for super members so it's well worth joining up. I really don't know where I printed this game from but we enjoyed playing it, again I think she did a lovely job with the colours.

The chocolate rabbits and lollies all came from these packs bought for a few pounds from Asda. Unfortunately the lollies were eaten before I had a chance to photograph any.

I meant to post this link up before Easter but, well with one thing and another, I forgot all about it, but once again they were eaten before piccies could be taken ;o)

Victory!!!!

2010-04-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the press release issued by Education Otherwise about our recent Victory, obviously we, as a family are all delighted by this and feel we can now take a breather until the next onslaught begins because I feel sure that there will be one, just not sure when.

Thank you to everyone who signed petitions and wrote letters to their MPs and did all the really hard work that has won us this Victory.

Right no more political jargon, well just want to say that we have a new 'coming of age' voter in our house this year and he feels very strongly about it all so he won't be voting for Labour, I guess they've well and truly lost his vote.

Digital Lapbook Designer

2010-04-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to my son's programme he made a while ago to help design your own digital lapbook. He's in the process of updating it as he has learned alot of new things that he can put on it to make it even better, so please take a look and let us know what you think:

www.digilapbook.co.nr

Thank you

My oldest daughter

2010-04-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

It has being pointed out to me that I don't blog about my oldest daughter much, so here it is the first post of April, a whole post dedicated to my oldest daughter...

We all have a flu bug kindly passed on from my oldest daughter, also some of us are getting a chest infection again kindly passed on by my oldest daughter. So you see, we do think about her alot, even though I don't post about her much (particularly at the moment when most of us are ill and can't be bothered to do anything and she is out and about having fun at work and the cinema).

And if you're reading this: Of course we all love you tons and tons really, just wish you weren't so generous with your bugs ;o)

World War Two

2010-03-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Above is the decorated cover. My daughter used a variety of 'cigarette' cards with WW2 images on them which we bought as part of a pack from one of the many museum's we visited. This turned into a very long unit of study as we read many books, spoke to grandparents about their experiences and visited lots of museums some of which had live re-enactments of various stages of the war. We listened to music from the time period using a cd which came with this book; it even had an air raid warning on it!

Below is the pack which we bought, it has a ration book, identity card and various other things in it which my daughter loves. This led onto a discussion about having identity cards today - mixed feelings here about that topic!

We finished up the whole project with a WW2 meal. Some of the recipes were found in this book.

Unfortunately the camera quality isn't fantastic as this was before she got her new one.
My daughter cooked the whole meal herself and did a good job too. She was very tired afterwards though ;o)

I haven't taken a picture of the menu but you can just about make out Toad in the Hole, Woolton Pie (vegetables with mash on the top) and at the far end of the table is Jelly, Syrup Loaf, and Honey Cakes and a variety of vegetables for those who didn't eat the sausages. Also a dish of M&M's because the soldiers ate them in the trenches because they didn't melt in their hands.

Books we read included:

The Diary of Anne Frank, Carrie's War,
The Blitz, The Singing Tree , Letters from Rifka,

Number the Stars, The Endless Steppe, When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit,

The Dragonfly Pool , Life on the Home Front

We obtained the free teaching pack from Royal British Legion last November, it is available every year, so sign up and get it, it's full of great information specifically aimed at children.

Lots of information here, here and here; also had fun here.

St Patrick's Day

2010-03-24T04:38:00.000-07:00

We decided to do this on the spur of the moment and I think it actually turned out pretty well.
The lapbook printouts are from here and the notebooking pages were also free from here

My daughter made a booklet and threaded it together using braided wool. She designed the main logo herself but unfortunately due to my camera work you can't quite make out the leprechaun's hat, or the gold coin or the shillegagh :o(

First page has relevant info on about St Patrick and where he came from and that all business' except restaurants in Ireland are closed for the big day, something which my children think is totally unfair because nothing like that happens here for our saints day :o(

Next page has Ireland's flag on it and info about the country and what the Irish do to celebrate the saint.

Last page has more info on Ireland in a lapbook flap and the 'shillelagh' tradition and the 'pinch' tradition and various legends on St Patrick that my daughter particularly liked.

Edible Colour Wheel

2010-03-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Oooh! I'm blogging again, can't quite believe this, three nights in a row, I'll be done for child neglect if I'm not careful ;o)

Here's our latest art exploit, should have really gone on yesterday's post but never mind it's on now and that's the main thing. Basically it's an edible colour wheel, yum! It is so simple to do and so tasty to eat.

We baked the fairy cakes first and then mixed the icing up using food colouring to make the three primary colours, then mixed these up to make the secondary colours and again to make the tertiary colours, the yukky brown cake in the middle is a mixture of all colours. For a more detailed description of how to do it please go here

Art work

2010-03-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

We started this 'school' year with Giotto and Botticello, notebooking pages are below. We found doing our copies of their famous painting a little difficult to say the least but it was good fun trying all the same. We are using The History of Art by A.N.Hodge which we bought from our The Works, our local reduced priced bookstore and Ambleside Online for information.

After a while I decided we needed something a little easier to paint so we concentrated on 20th century artists; this did the job nicely and coincided with our study of World War Two.
Below is our version of a Matisse. This was done by making a patchwork out of scraps of paper and fabric and then cutting out lots of shapes and sticking them on and trying to make it look something like his.

Below is our attempt at a Kandinsky. We used acrylic paints on acrylic paper and made lots of mess and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Below is our take on Van Gogh's 'sunflowers'. We had lots of pistachio shells left over (I collect anything) so we used them to form the petals and used various seeds to form the middle of the flowers. We painted on canvas using acrylic paints and stuck a piece of fabric on top for the vase. I was vacumming the seeds up for days afterwards :o)

Below is our African art that we are currently doing during our African study, more to follow soon I hope.

We got quite attached to Van Gogh and so tried to do our version of 'a starry night'.

Below is the very first painting my youngest did this year, so I thought it deserved a place here, I love it.

Guinea Pig Lapbook

2010-03-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

We recently acquired two guinea pigs, I say recently but, actually it was last year now from a rescue centre... yes there really are rescue centre's for Guinea Pigs... so naturally the next thing to do was to complete a lapbook on them.

I eventually found one at hands of a child . I was a little unsure at first because the grade level was below that of my daughter and I feared she might have found it too easy but I shouldn't have worried. She was so excited about doing it that she wanted to get started right away so I handed it over and let her run with it.

I am pleased to say that she finished it in record time, learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed every minute and that's what it's all about isn't it? I think we all learnt something from it actually so I need not have worried about the grade levels, after all it doesn't matter what age you are, if you haven't read about guinea pigs before then you will definately learn something new.

Below are the photos of the lapbook, I'll try to get a few shots of the actual guinea pigs later and post them up at the bottom too.

Rivers Lapbook

2010-03-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

Above is the cover page of our River lapbook, originally it was covered in green glitter all around the outside but it has almost rubbed off with everyone holding it. We were going to re apply but we were begged not to, by a green fingered hubby ;o)

Above photo has a pull down four part flap with info about how a river erodes, below that one is a two flap about flood plains being good for farming and at the very bottom is a three tab booklet about how a river erodes, deposits and transports it's load.

The above photo shows simple folds with information about rivers flowing from side to side, shapes of river valleys, where waterfalls occur and upland rivers having steep sides. I particularly like all the colourful drawings my daughter did to illustrate each point perfectly.

I love these drawings... so much so that I didn't take a photo of the insides but there is plenty of information in there about river basins, source of a river and about rivers becoming deeper towards their mouth.
Below is a fold down flap about meanders and how they deposit their load on the inside bend to form a slip off slope.

The below photo shows the four ways a river transports it's load.

Above is a very colourful water cycle wheel. The photo below has even more info on rivers and their load.

Above and below are photos of my daughter's booklet about famous rivers, well, the three that she wanted to do about :o) This was done on 'Publisher' on the computer, she designed it herself and chose the colour gradients and pictures and I think she's done a lovely job. She made the clever little flap thing that holds it in place too.

The lapbook folds were from here and the information came from a Letts book which you'll find here. The geography book was very thorough but a little dry for our liking so we supplemented with a horrible geography book which covered more or less the same things but in a much more child friendly way.

Mesopotamia Notebook

2010-03-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Below are the piccies from my daughter's first attempt at Notebooking or at least how we perceive it to be. She enjoyed doing it (and learned alot) as it made a change from lapbooking but all the handwriting got a bit much towards the end.
The notebooking pages were from here

The first written page has a map of the area in the corner and information about the lay of the land and what 'Mesopotamia' means. This info was read in Story of the World and history reference books.

The next page has been devoted to King Sargon; his story is remarkably similar to that of Moses.
Next came Hammurabi and his many laws. The pic is of the code or laws which Hammurabi had carved into a monument which showed him getting the laws from the sun god.

The last page is of Nebuchanezzar, somewhere along the line we 'lost' Ashurbanipal and when we realised this my daughter had had enough of the writing, so she didn't bother ;o)

She didn't want to decorate this page or draw a piccie of him either. I think she was quite relieved when she finished writing it up because obviously she had written rough copies too, so all in all she ended up writing quite alot.

Science Festival

2010-03-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

Over the next week or so there is a local science festival that happens each year. So far we have been to see 'Galileo and the Stolen Telescope' and to a workshop were we made our own DNA pendant. The Galileo event was very good. A man, in period costume gave a talk on Galileo and the stars etc and we got the opportunity to play with lenses and see through a telescope and learn how they work.

The DNA pendant workshop was about an hour long. We learned about DNA and why we have it and where it is in our bodies and how to extract it out of the nucleus so that we can actually see it. We ended up with a unique pendent.

Over the coming days we have a lot more science things planned, I only wish it was over a month rather than 10 days because there is so much we want to do, but so little time to fit it all in :o(

Resources for HB lapbook

2010-03-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

There's been lots of interest in my daughter's Human Body lapbook so I've been trying to remember where everything came from, not an easy job seen as it was done last year and we've had a clean out of computers and the house, so most of info has gone I'm afraid but what I have I can now share with you all and hope that you have as much fun as we did.

The main lapbook is from Hands of a Child, human body one, not healthy bodies. Most of the downloads and printouts came from Ellen Mchenry site. A fantastic site full of all sorts of science stuff and some of it is free of charge. I used the digestive template for the t shirt in our lapbook as my daughter didn't want to wear the t shirt but it worked just as good on paper as on fabric; the brain hat was from here too and I'm utterly convinced that this is the site were 'Boney Bob' came from but I can't find it anywhere :o(

Below are the books we used: 'How your body works' is very good with the naughty bits... there isn't any, on the other hand the Dorling Kingsley book below that one is very lifelike and detailed, not my daughter's cup of tea at all, too gory for her liking. The HB Action pack was very informative with heaps of activities in it to do.

We also used anything and everything off the internet, as my daughter is a very 'hands on' learner. For more info and a few websites please see my previous post on the hb lapbook. I hope you find this useful and have fun doing yoiur own.

Finished Human Body Lapbook

2010-02-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

I realised that on the post marked HB lapbook I hadn't gotten around to putting up pics of it so here they are, although I can't remember where all the info came from, (it was a long time ago), but the basic flaps are from HOAC. For more information about what we got up to please see my previous post on the human body.

Above is a skull made out of paper and below is a lot of wool demonstrating how long the digestive system really is. Each different coloured piece represents a different part of the system.

Below is a spinal cord made out of string and beads, smaller ones at the neck and larger ones near the bottom.

2010-02-21T12:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a looong time since I posted on here and soooo much has happened in our lives that I don't know where to begin so that you get caught up! It is probably going to be a jumbled up affair and by that I mean that it's not in date order of how things happened but here goes...

My hubby has taken on the role of Northern Area Manager (finally). It is very demanding on our time as a family but that's life, I just keep thanking God that he has a good job when so many people are loosing theirs.

Our eldest daughter is saving to buy a house with her boyfriend and then they will get married at a later date, not exactly the way I would have liked it but at least she has found true love and happiness.

Our middle child left home ed and went to Zenos Academy to study I.T, something that he has dabbled in for many years but finally took the plunge and gained some qualifications: MCDST, MCP, ADITP, A+ Technician, NVQ Level 2 Maths and English, Advanced apprenticeship. He also achieved the following awards: Best performance in gaining a Microsoft Qualification in the Newcastle Academy, Best performance in gaining a Microsoft Qualification in the North of England. (I am obviously extremely proud of him) He is back home now and cooking ginger snaps in the kitchen :o)

Our youngest has been continuing with lapbooks (I have heaps of photos to get on here but that will have to be done over a few days I think) and we have started a Charlotte Mason approach to her education which at the moment is going well and she says she is learning lots and enjoying herself. She has stopped going to trampolining, so far she's done archery, horse riding, Girl Guides, trampolining and this year it's ice skating. We have a few newcomers to the family in the form of hamsters, rabbits and dogs but more about them in another post... off to try out the ginger snaps... sure is good to have him back :o)

Woop Woop! (again)

2009-03-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

My youngest competed in her second trampoline competition this weekend and came 6th out of 19!
In her section, her team mates came 3rd, 4th and 12th place. The team consisted of 4 girls under the age of 15 and they came 1st, each getting a gold medal. I am extremely pleased and proud of her as she was very nervous this time. They were all wearing their new royal blue leotards and they looked lovely... I just wish I had taken my camera.

Another good bit about the competition was, that this one took place just down the road, so we were back in plenty of time to enjoy our Sunday Dinner, followed by a lovely evening walk along the beach, all in all a good day I think.

Shakespeare Lapbook

2009-03-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

I've put off posting piccies of this one as each time I look at them I feel so horrible, selfish and pushy, you know the total opposite of what us home ed mums are 'supposed' to be like.

Even at the time of 'making' my youngest finish it off I knew that I was wrong and that it didn't really matter whether she completed it or not, that she would get around to Shakespeare in her own good time but Noooo I had to keep at it until it was done.

So I was left with a completely unhappy child, frazzled mum, and a half hearted lapbook... still we all learn by mistakes don't we and I certainly have!

Above is the front cover, it is of Shakespeare on stage with sweeping stage curtains.

This the left hand side of lapbook. It's a review of two plays that we either read about or watched on the tv. We were lucky enough to have the re-runs from the BBC of the plays in cartoon or puppettry format so this helped a great deal in our enjoyment of them. A timeline of Shakespeare's life runs along the top of the lapbook.

The middle section with information about the different kind of writing Shakespeare did and info on The Globe Theatre, again the timeline across the top.

Above is the left hand side, again with timeline along the top and review booklets of two plays. My youngest enjoyed drawing and colouring them in; she enjoyed Romeo and Juliet the best.

An unfinished cut and glue Globe Theatre. By this stage I really didn't have the heart to insist that she finish it as she truly had had enough of Shakespeare to last a life time. I got this from a really good site that has heaps of things to make.

The books I picked up very cheaply from a second hand shop and the videos we had from when my previous children studied Shakespeare. I got all of the print outs from Jimmie's site I think, but it was a while back now so I may be wrong about that, please correct me if I am.

So on the whole not a complete disaster, the lapbook came out quite well and we didn't stay unhappy and frazzled for too long :o)

We moved onto The Victorians but I don't think she is doing a lapbook, the human body with a lapbook and we've started doing Geography now and my youngest is doing a lapbook on rivers. So all is not lost, she still enjoys lapbooking, just not Shakespeare ;o)

Spring has sprung!

2009-03-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

Wow! We've had a lovely few days of sunshine here and it's made such a difference to the garden. We've put up the back fence now and given it a coat of paint, unfortunately it will need another one though. We've been buying various shrubs and climbing plants ready to plant in the back and we've sorted out the front garden too. All this activity has left me feeling a little tired but very, very happy!

The Human Body project continues. We went to a workshop about the human brain as part of the Newcastle Science Festival and had a go at creating our own out of a kind of play dough material...

The above one is mine... it is a little flat because I did it as a side view cut in half. My daughter's (below) is much rounder and in my opinion looks more like a brain, but she is the crafty one in our household. I don't seem to have a photo of my son's and hubby chickened out.

We also saw some real brains when watching Victorian Farm as the lady made 'brawn' using cow's brains yuk!

We are plodding on with 'The Victorians' too using a few chapters out of SOTW. Below is a model of The Crystal Palace made out of paper, this one is obviously not as stable as the original ;o)

Also did a bit out of a chemistry set that my youngest has been wanting to do for ages! This is were she separated a mixture. All easy stuff really, don't know why I put it off, I must do more of it with her.

Then, of course, we celebrated mother's day with lots of choccies,cards and flowers and yet more gardening. We went and finished Granny's path for her, so now she can walk easier on it, hopefully without falling over.

Human Body Lapbook

2009-03-13T06:29:00.001-07:00

Over the past week or so we have started doing the human body. I have bought a lapbook from HOAC. My youngest is steadily working through the lapbook but we are supplementing with lots of our own activities and experiments.

We started with the skeletal system, including joints and muscles. Please meet Boney Bob our skeleton below:

To begin with the children had to find the correct bones and make the labels for Boney Bob, then each day they had to put the labels on in the correct place. They have now just about mastered the bone names and where they should go. I think I'll leave it a week or so and then see if they can still remember...

We did an experiment to to do with bones and their calcium content:

http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/rubberbone.php

Then we moved onto the digestive system. We did a few simple experiments:

http://qldscienceteachers.tripod.com/junior/expt/biology_digestive.html

http://www.juliantrubin.com/fairprojects/medicine/digestivesystem.html and coloured in and labelled a diagram.
I also did the 'path of food being digested' as I wanted them to remember the process and the names, which they did, as it was totally gross!

I started off with the oesophogus (the first part of my mixer) and put bits of bread in it, this fell into the stomach (the main bowl) with water and vinegar (stomach acid) added to this were some rather colourful enzymes from the pancreas; the red one is carbohydrase, the yellow one lipase and the blue one protease. This got mixed up really well as it would in the stomach and then passed into the small intestine (a stocking with the toe cut off). Due to the mesh the molecules could be squeezed out just like the small intestine would do it, to enable the food to travel in the blood. The food bits were then pushed further along the stocking until it reached the large intestine. Once there it had a final squeeze getting even more water out and then it was released through the anus with a 'plop' into the jug (toilet bowl). Thanks to the food colouring enzymes it was a murky brown colour which the children thought was disgusting!

The above is of the children putting the food into the small intestine.

You can see the stomach clearly, with the three enzymes brightly coloured. I don't think they are this colour really but it made a lasting impression on the children.

Squeezing the food down the the small intestine into the large intestine. As you squeezed so the water and colourings and bits of squashed bread ran through your fingers... distgusting!

The end result in the jug (toilet).

So I think the human body project is going well so far.

Update

2009-03-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't yet posted in February and it's nearly half way through March!
Anyway here's a quick catch up:

My youngest has made a good start with Year 7 maths using conquermaths; starting with the number system, fractions and now decimals.

In science we've finished rocks and the rock cycle, completing work sheets on these to see how much had been retained... the less said about that the better.

We have finally finished our Timeline on the Georgians (hurray!) I found this time period to be very boring which is unusual for me as I love history, but I just couldn't get into this at all but my youngest loved it... all the make-up and fashion I expect.

In English we've started to read a book about Charles Dickens intending to write a biography on him at the end; this seems a long way off at the moment as it is slow going for us both. I would much rather be reading one of his many novels but it's not about me is it?! Maybe this is payback time for Shakespeare (see previous post).

For Geography we are reading 'Raging Rivers' and have designed raised beds for our vegetable plot, nothing to do with rivers but they needed doing. These have now been built and painted and are looking great ready for the plants.

We've also had half term in the middle of February so that meant downing tools and lots of play with Natalie (school friend). Being home edded you have to make the best of the time available to you I suppose; I had a lovely stress free week too :o))

We also had 3 major birthdays during the month so we've had lots of family celebrations.

End of January

2009-01-31T04:06:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how quickly this month has flown by! We've done lots of things but haven't really photographed anything as the camera batteries are playing up, well it's either the batteries or the charger, I'm not too sure but I will get it sorted soon.

My youngest has finished her Shakespeare lapbook, although she didn't really enjoy it and because of this it's rather thin on the ground. I feel really bad because I pushed her to do it. In my mind you can't study Elizabeth I without Shakespeare can you? They go hand in hand or so I thought, but not in my daughter's mind.

She found it difficult to understand and rather boring so much so that she has declined to go see 'The Tempest by Shakespeare for kids' with a home ed group. Aaaagh! I may have put her off for ever...

We've started to go to a local art gallery for lessons with an artist fortnightly. I hope this will kickstart our art at home again, as I have neglected it of late.

My youngest has now finished Year 5&6 maths so we celebrated with a walnut loaf topped with fudge icing, yummy - I love it when we celebrate!

We are doing the Georgians in history using Our Island Story. They arn't on the national curriculum which means there's not a lot of info/crafts out there suitable for children but our timeline is filling up nicely anyway.

We celebrated Chinese New Year with calligraphy, painting and making tea for everyone which we ate with chopsticks naturally - some better than others but it was lots of fun!

Woop! Woop!

2009-01-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I am soooooo proud of my youngest daughter, well I am proud of all my children but particularly my youngest this week because she won a trophy at her FIRST trampoline competition. She came joint first with 46 marks, but because she did the same set for her voluntary she received a 2nd place trophy. The other girl did her set routine and a different routine for her vol and therefore received the first place trophy.

I am over the moon that she got a place at all as we didn't expect her to. I thought her nerves would let her down with it being her first competition but she was just wonderful on the day.

We don't usually go in for competitions or exams in our house so this has been a big thrill for us all. I will try for a piccie when I find my camera... lost in the graveyard of my room....

Goals...

2009-01-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my last post was early in December; the time has flown by.
We started a Jesse Tree but only got to day 11 and then one by one we fell ill. We had a variety of coughs and colds etc to keep us going well into the new year but somehow the big day was not affected too much by it all :o)

I had a lovely time surrounded by family, everyone playing games and generally having a good time but almost as soon as this was over my thoughts started to turn towards goals for 2009.

Ideally I want to get fitter as I really don't do enough exercise, none of us do really with the exception of my youngest who does trampolining. I want to start flylady (again) and stick to it this time and finally get our bedroom sorted (it is definately the graveyard for everyone's junk).

Educationally I would love my son to knuckle down and get into the college that he wants and I would love my youngest to have a desire to learn the things I want her to learn as well as the thing she loves to do! I would love my oldest to finally sort herself out (her dreams and aspirations seem to change on a daily basis).
As for my hubby, well, last year had many upheavals for him on the job front and I would just like him to be happy and contented in his work.

Digilapbook Designer

2008-12-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

Below is the link for my son's finished program for designing digilapbooks. We would really love it if you would sign up (for free) and start making your own!

http://www.digilapbook.co.nr/

Classification lapbook

2008-12-09T06:28:00.001-08:00

My youngest daughter got to grips with and finished her HOAC classification lapbook. She enjoyed working on it and I felt she was capable to be left alone with it, so I got on with lots of little things around the house. We've been listening to lots of Christmassy music and she's been practising carols on her keyboard, all in all it's being very festive in our house this week.

Rabbit lapbook (HOAC)

2008-11-21T03:55:00.001-08:00

So what have we been up to this week? Not much really. I think we are slowing down and reserving energy ready for the christmas period ;o)

It's my eldest daughter's birthday this weekend so preparations are underway for that, such as cake baking and decorating it, present making and card making. We are looking forward to Chinese for tea. It's become a bit of a traditional in our house that on birthday's we visit the Chinese and we luurrvve it!

We have continued watching 'Little Dorrit' and 'Oceans'. This week in Science we've done about food webs, food chains and changing environments. No experiments were neccesary as my youngest remembered with a shudder, my son doing the 'woodlice environment' last year and trusted his results entirely!

My youngest has nearly finished her lapbook on Shakespeare, and read a great novel by Gary Blackwood, well 3 in 1 novels to be precise; she highly reccomends it.

My daughter also finished her HOAC Rabbit Lapbook this week; she did all the cutting out, sticking and fact finding herself and we're really pleased with the finished results. She has 2 pet rabbits so obviously knows quite abit about rabbits already but even she found out new facts about them from the lapbook.

Routine and digi lapbook

2008-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

We seem to have naturally fallen into our own schedule recently. Mon, Wed and Fri = Maths, English, Science and Art, Tues and Thurs = Maths, History/Geography and helping at local Toddler group and going out. Dog walking and general exercise is a daily occurance!

Last week we explored writing non-fiction, continued with times tables, watched Twelth Night and Julius Caesar and started a Shakespeare lapbook. We took a break from Science last week as youngest wanted to look at WW1 after seeing her Grandpa in a parade marking the end of the war. We've also started watching a really good programme on oceans: http://www.bbc.co.uk/oceans/
We've been sculpting soap like Michaelangelo, well I don't think he used soap but we did ;o)

We played a few games of 'Smath' last week along with Cludeo, Guess Who and Boggle

My son has finished converting a lapbook into a digi-lapbook on The Normans: http://www.rkwebcreations.co.uk/digi/users/knxrb/The%20Normans.html just click on the coloured boxes for all to be revealed.

Maths and Cells Lapbooks

2008-11-13T08:24:00.000-08:00

Half Term flew by in a flurry of planning and making this fabulous lapbook from Notebooking2learn. Heartfelt thanks go to Jessica as she's done all the hard work really, I've just copied them and stuck them together, but my daughter loves them!

I've always used lapbooks as a review of the topic studied, but this is to be used as a learning tool and so far so good; my daughter is asking to play the maths games and learning her tables, it's really great!

This side contains multiplication flashcards for 7-12 and a reminder for what factors and multiples are.

The middle section has domino multiplication (well worth the cutting out), dice multiplication game and Mingo (multiplication Bingo).

This is the first flap (for some reason I've put the photos up in the wrong order) it has the flashcards for 1-6.

This has been such a success at our house that I've also made a lapbook for Cells which my daughter has been working through over the last week. Below are the photos starting with the front cover which my youngest decorated with a plant cell.

This side has a matching game and flaps about the differences between plant and animal cells.

The middle flap has a microscope picture with a labelling game and different kinds of cells and their functions.

I used sticky back velcro on the right side so that my youngest could learn about 'Mrs Gren' Life Processes.

Also went to a fabulous firework display with the grandparents in Blyth, to the Cinema with Grace to see High School Musical 3, shoe shopping, painting window stickers, a lie down painting like Michaelangelo, making jewellery ready for Christmas and doing boxes for Romania as well as the usual activities at church, so all in all a good couple of weeks I think.

Book Launch

2008-10-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

We met up with lots of home educators when we went to a fellow home educators book launch for walking with witches last week. It's a story based in Newcastle, set in 1600's about witches being burnt on the town moor.

We highly recommend the book not only because it's a good read (and written by a friend), but also because my youngest daughter is a character in it, along with lots of other home educated children.

Decisions, Decisions

2008-10-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

After careful thought and consideration we have decided to stop using the Sonlight schedule. It just isn't us, we jump around too much for that :o) We love the books and are continuing to read them but at our pace. We all feel much happier about our home educating since we came to this decision.

Recently we have been studying the Tudors. Since we already have a lapbook here my youngest decided to make a costume instead, along with wax letter seals and a marzipan Tudor Rose. We've been reading from SOTW and Our Island Story, as well as a Tudor craft book below.

We have been studying Microbes in Science for the past two weeks which has involved lots of experiments - mainly leaving lots of food to rot in the kitchen...

We are continuing with Maths2XL and workbooks for English and each week we will be studying a different artist; last week was Botticelli, week before that was Duccio and Giotto, and Michaelangelo is this week.

One more thing: I'm going to try and write in here on a weekly basis. I thought if I put that in then I might achieve it :o)

Egyptians Lapbook

2008-10-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Youngest daughter finished her Egyptian mummies lapbook from Hands of a Child.

She used water colour pencils to add a little colour, and made mummy masks using Barbie's head as the model.

The Normans Lapbook

2008-10-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, my youngest finished this lapbook during the school hols (I think), but it's taken a while for me to upload them. I see this as a good start to October, long may it continue!!

I love the front of this one, as it is so colourful, but the photo just hasn't done it justice so you'll have to take my word for it.

This page focussed on the Battle of Hastings and vocabulary to learn.

This was about the various castles around during the Norman period and how best to attack them. I got the sheet from a history site on the internet.

A fold out booklet on the Feudal system.

There is a little writing about the three sons under each flap with a picture of King William in the centre.

Day Out

2008-09-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

Finally uploaded piccies from our day out a few weeks ago. Unfortunately we couldn't eat any of the cooked food for health and safety reasons, even though the Medieval people ate it all the time!

New 'School' Year

2008-09-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Finally sorted the problems out and can now get back in and post, well that's not strictly true, hubby to the rescue... and now I can finally post!

The new 'school' year has started rather slowly, what with an LA meeting in the first week back and hubby on his hols from work the second and third weeks, we haven't really got down to work at all. We are supposed to be giving Sonlight a 'go' but I'm having trouble implementing a schedule and sticking to it; life just keeps getting in the way!

We've been to the Life Museum though, which was lots of fun as they have a healthy bodies section where you give yourself an overall health check and watched the summer sky, stars and planets in the Dome, this went very well with daughter's Astronomy lapbook she's doing at the moment.

We've been to the beach a few times too, yes there has been a few days without rain during September :o)

We visited a living archeology day during the Heritage Open Days based on the medieval time period. We learnt how to make tallow candles and watched a short play on Saint George and the Dragon. This was really good fun for all the family.

I'll upload the piccies when they are off the camera.

We've also been helping our eldest daughter set up her business and visiting the grandparents (which was lovely as we don't get to see them very often) but with all this going on, I wonder just when I'm supposed to start the new curriculum!

2008-07-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Have been a way for a while to Holy Island, Delemere Forest and the East Coast to aid our Medieval studies so lapbooking has been to a minimum but I will post up the piccies when I have more time.

In the mean time my son has been working on another digi-lapbook. He's also developed an application that allows other children to make digi-lapbooks (like his) on their own.
Please take a look at his digi-lapbook example which he made using the application.
The flash is high quality at the moment so it may be slow. My son says he will sort it out later this evening so that it's faster but I couldn't wait to show it off :o)

http://www.rkwebcreations.co.uk/digi/v&e/volcanoes%20and%20earthquakes.html

Heart Lapbook

2008-05-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Had a lovely bank holiday weekend; spent most of it in the garden either replanting/weeding or lazing in the sun! Here's my daughter's rabbit sitting on his hutch enjoying the sun too.

Below is my son's experiment: he left an orange out in glass and we watched the mould grow. It looked very fuzzy and hairy but you can't really tell from the photo.

We all finished the heart lapbook this week too, yes it was a joint effort in the end as it had been hanging around for a while and just wasn't getting done so I ended up putting the velcro on bits and pieces to get it finished. My daughter decorated the outside and they both finished off the questions. It was a freebie from Knowledge Box Central I think, it was so long ago that I can't really remember.

The flap above was added by us as the lapbook didn't have anything in it about 'the parts of the blood' something that I felt was pretty important considering they were studying the heart!

The two photos above were taken of the 'naming the parts of the heart' and 'naming the flow of the blood through the heart' game.

Digilapbook

2008-05-01T03:16:00.000-07:00

My son has progressed onto digilapbooking now, with thanks to threads started on another lapbooking group. It already appears on a few other blogs so I thought I really should have it on mine too!

This means nothing to me but he says he's done it using Shockwave Flash. He's kindly shown me how to do a link with the picture too.

http://www.slimeandgrime.co.nr/

Volcanoes and Earthquakes

2008-05-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

This lapbook was done by my son a while back. I'm making the piccies a little bigger than the previous ones so that you can see the work, as I don't think the other size did the work justice.

Information about earthquakes is on the left and volcanoes on the right. The centre has two grids with holes in, to place over the text to allow you to read about either topic. I thought this was quite an original idea of my son's, and it works really well too.

The above is a comprehension game, the info is on one side of the flap and the questions on the other. The answers are stuck on with velcro to allow them to stick in place.

To get a little history into the lapbook he wrote Pliny's letter on the computer. I was really impressed with the work my son did on this lapbook, as usually he tries to write as little as possible!

Bat Lapbook

2008-04-28T12:43:00.001-07:00

Their second venture into Science was about Bats done last year or maybe the year before around Halloween.

Antartica Lapbook

2008-04-28T12:23:00.001-07:00

This lapbook was done by my son. The front cover has the picture cut down the middle so opens up with a little on each side.

This page on the right hand side has information flaps on the resources of Antartica, tourism, land management, weather conditions, and a small piece on Robert Scott and Roald Armundsen. The centre page has a food web.

Penguins Lapbook

2008-04-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

This was my daughter's first science lapbook done about Penguins; their habitat; life cycle; food web; fact cards on the different varieties and a small leaflet on Antartica. You can just about make out the concertina folded tape measure which measures two varieties of penguins.

The above picture shows the many species and where they are located around the world and a bunch of fact cards on each one.