Diary pages, December 2013

18/12/2013

Mollie asked how broken bones mend so after breakfast and morning chores which both Mollie and Jake helped with, we spent some time  looking it up in the books we have about how the body works. Jacob joined us and we looked through both books and found the answer (new bone grows) this led on to them browsing through both books and asking me to read bits and pieces (actually, Jacob read aloud the bits he was interested in and I helped him when he got stuck), they then asked me to read a chapter of each of their preferred books. Mollie chose how babies are made and grow from the first book of questions about the human body and Jacob chose the digestive system from the Osbourne lift the flap book on the human body.

Charlie got up late today, he has a mouth ulcer and said he was feeling achy and so went off to have a bath, to soothe his aches.

After lunch we decided we wanted to play a board game but  we couldn't all agree on one we all wanted to play then Charlie decided to go off and do something else, so I helped Mollie with her puzzles (during which she told me that the shapes on the back of the pieces of one of them were hexagons and that hexagons have six sides), then we played blackjack (good practice for adding up) with Jacob (Mollie teamed up with me).

At teatime Mollie helped me make the batter for the toad in the hole.

In the evening I played hairdressers with Mollie and read a few chapters of Mr Gum and the Dancing bear to Jacob, Mollie and I settled down to sleep whilst listening to the complete tales of Beatrix Potter (we finished reading Milly Molly Mandy yesterday) the boys usually have an audio book on to go to sleep too but I don't know what they chose last night.

19/12/2013
Mollie and I started off the morning reading Issi Noho's alphabet and completing the Sudoku puzzles at the bottom of each page we read about letters A and B and completed puzzles a-e Mollie picked it up very quickly.

I spent the morning doing the usual chores, putting on yet another new toilet seat and preparing tonight's dinner (beef stew), whilst Mollie and Jacob played and Charlie created a dungeon's and dragon's character for Jacob.

After lunch we played carcassonne, then I bug combed Mollie and Charlie, Jake is going to be done tomorrow after his bath.

Then it was 3pm (the time that the children are allowed screen time if they get up by 9 otherwise they have to wait for an hour later for each hour they are late getting up) so Jake went on the ipad, Charlie got up at 11am today so has to wait until 5 to go on, this is a consequence I have set to ensure the children have plenty of opportunity to explore other things away from screens.  Mollie and I played hairdressers and dentists for a while, then I did some blogging whilst she played on my phone.

Jacob and Mollie helped make dumplings to go with our stew which had been bubbling away nicely in the slo cooker all day, we had dinner earlier than usual today. It was nice to have a Thursday afternoon/evening at home for a change - we are usually at our trampolining/games lessons taught by a local youth worker, we club together to hire the local youth centre each week with some friends from our home ed group and that is usually followed by more trampolining for Jake at Wight Flyers, so we're usually not home till after 8pm.

Our Week in a list - beginning Sunday 27th Oct 2013

This week we:

Went to Wight flyers - Trampolining/ Gymnastics club

Did Puzzles

Played Games:
Game of life
Connect 4

Watched Documentary's:
Monkey Life
Emergency Animal Rescue
Earth ..

Learnt about Lithography - studied Lithographic prints, looked up meaning in dictionary, read about inventor and process, watched you tube clips of the process of lithography both in a professional setting and a kitchen table setting. (Milton Bradley who designed the game of life was a successful lithographer).

Practiced our dictionary/research skills

Celebrated Charlie's birthday

Jewellery making

Sewing

Took part in halloween activities:

We went to a Halloween craft afternoon where we made jar lanterns, painted cardboard pumpkins, decorated biscuits, did some drawing, chatted and shared with friends, ate cake and took part in cleaning up.

We carved our pumpkin,
Made costumes
Got together with friends and family and went Trick or Treating

Baked and Cooked - banana bread, cup cakes and pancakes.

Read Stories - The Hunger Games, Milly-Molly-Mandy

Did Chores

Went Shopping

Got together with friends to play Badminton and Pool

Did lots of drawing

Made Lists

Spent time writing

Played a Medical School Game on the computer

Discussed politics, banking, bank charges, bank accounts, what being overdrawn means, will there be a revolution?

Discussed decorating boys bedroom colour scheme etc.

     

February 2013 - Life in General and Celebations

My very dear friend Emma came to stay for the weekend at the beginning of this month to help me celebrate my 39th birthday. I was thoroughly spoilt - Emma and the children brought me breakfast in
bed and I was blessed with many wonderful gifts including: a lovely pair of purple fluffy slipper boots, a huge bar of galaxy (my favourite chocolate), some beautiful spring daffodils and tulips, some books by Buddhist monks and nuns, a notebook to write my favourite and inspiring quotes in, a tiny bottle of perfume - Daisy by Marc Jacobs, a book token and a H&M voucher.

Birthday Treats

Flowers from my wonderful husband

Steve is still in Canada he was due to come home at the end of this month but has been allocated more work so will be staying on for a few more weeks. I keep a daily diary which we send to him each day so he can keep in touch with the daily goings on at home. We have also kept in touch by Facebook, messaging and Skype and we've been following his journey through Google maps, so far he has been to Vancouver, Prince George, Terrace (which is a little place in the middle of nowhere),Vancouver Island, Toronto, Nanimo,  Mississauga and Winnipeg.

It gets a bit cold there

Shrove Tuesday
We spent Shrove Tuesday at the home of some friends who also home educate.
We had a lovely time eating pancake soup (a Hungarian dish) and traditional pancakes, playing games drinking tea and chatting.

 Valentines Day - I received a dozen red roses from my lovely husband

January 2013

Steve flew off to Canada where he is working for 5 weeks.

Birthdays
Our eldest grandaughter and our youngest daughter both celebrated their 5th birthday this month.
Our daughter in law celebrated her 21st.

                                                      Mollie's 5th Birthday

Presents

Birthday pancakes for breakfast

Daddy sent the "best balloon ever"

The delivery box made a great hidey hole

And a hutch for new friend fluffy the bunny

Birthday cake made by Nanny

It Snowed

We made the most of cold days inside by doing jigsaws and playing board games.
We also went to a board games social with our home ed group.

All finished

Being a seagull

Cooking
I've been trying to do cooking with the children about once a week, Mollie and Jacob prefer baking
whilst Charlie prefers to make meals.
We made Lemon Meringue pie, banana bread and flapjacks, Charlie made a lovely onion soup.

Pirates...

cooking...

flapjacks

Our computer broke down.
Charlie spent 3 days trying to fix it before he declared that he thinks it needs a new hard drive.

2013 - New Year, New Start!

Well, my plan over the weekend is just to get the house basically clean and organised so that we can all access the things we need to, when we need to. We've all been ill with a horrible flu and sickness bug over christmas and new year so everything has been neglected. We've all lacked inspiration and  get up and go lately and I'm hoping to get the family thinking about the things they really enjoy doing, so that 2013 is a more productive and fulfilling year for us all, hopefully there will be lots to blog about.

2012 Quick Overview.

2012 was not really our greatest year - largely due to the fact my poor Dad had 2 heart attacks in the space of a week. I had to rush up to Northumberland to help him and my Mum, which involved me driving on the mainland for the first time! I took the train up but drove Dad's car whilst there to get Mum to the hospital in Newcastle each day, they live in a little village about an hour away. I've been driving for about 5 years now but am still a nervous driver and driving on our little Island is a bit different to the rest of the U.K.

Luckily Dad has been recovering well and has stayed fit and healthy since, despite having to deal with an urgent house move recently as they found subsidence in their old house.

Our holiday to Cornwall was lovely, we went in May and stayed in a forest cabin just outside Liskeard. Whilst there we visited Tintagel  http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/tintagel the alleged birthplace of King Arthur, Steve took the boys up to the Castle but I was unable to conquer my fear of heights to make it up the cliff so Mollie and I explored the beach and wonderful caves whilst waiting for Steve and the boys to join us. We spent time exploring in nearby Looe and Polperro. We also went to Porfell Wildlife Park  http://www.porfellanimalland.co.uk/   and The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth   http://www.national-aquarium.co.uk .

View from our cabin

Charlie and Jake enjoying the hot tub

Tintagel Castle

Caves at Tintagel

Mollie making friends with an owl at Porfell Wildlife Park

Our whole family (11 of us in total including our eldest son, his heavily pregnant wife and their daughter)  travelled to Bromley in August, to celebrate our sister in laws 40th birthday. The party theme was fancy dress T.V/Film Stars. We all had a wonderful time and the children enjoyed the novelty of a stay in a hotel.

Jacob as Captain Jack Sparrow

 We had a delightful new addition to our family in October - our second beautiful Grandaughter Ava May arrived on October 17th weighing 8lb 8 oz, looking a lot like her Daddy - our eldest son Matt, who I can't believe will be 23 in July this year, where has the time gone!