Daily Diary January 2014

Friday 3rd January

It was Emma's 6th birthday today, she had her party at St. John's Church hall. Matt rang to say that Ava was full of cold and very grumpy so would I look after her whilst Steve took Mollie, Jake and Charlie to join the rest of our family and Emma's school friends at the party. However by the time I arrived at Matt and Vicki's Ava had eaten and was a lot chirpier so they felt it would be fine for her to go. Matt went ahead to help Vicki get the hall ready and I got Ava ready and took her round to join everyone when the party had started.

Saturday 4th January

This morning Mollie said she had been watching an episode of Nina and the Neurons in which they had been looking at fossils and it had left her wanting to find out more, so off we went to our bookshelves and dug out the Kingfisher Young Knowledge book on rocks and fossils and started reading (I think the book may be slightly above Mollie's current comprehension level and I would need to simplify a lot of the information to hold her interest), then we remembered that there is a little box on top of the wardrobe containing Daddy's childhood fossil and stone collection so we had fun examining and trying to identify some of the specimens. We think that Daddy may have samples of a pink mineral called feldspar, a grey/white crystal type stone which we think may be quartz  and possibly the black mineral called mica.  Daddy didn't remember what they were so he couldn't help us. We discovered that fossils are "any trace of a plant or animal that lived in the past, such as a shell preserved in rock layers for millions of years" and that the fossils in Daddy's collection were traces of Ammonites, sea creatures that lived when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Ammonites were closely related to the squid/octopus family. I think Mollie may be interested in making her own fossil/rock collection (she already collects shells) and there are projects in the back of the book that I feel she'll enjoy. Whilst we were doing this Jake kept coming over to have a look and seemed interested but it was his turn on the xbox so that was commanding more of his attention, it may be an idea to get the collection out in the week away from screen time.

Mollie and I also browsed through some art books and found lots of projects we'd like to try (see post: to do on blog/home ed/ plans etc.).

Memories of 2013 in Photographs

Birthdays!

Our family birthday traditions - I make the birthday boy/girl their favourite breakfast, most of the children choose pancakes but it could be a full english breakfast. Steve was away working  in Canada for my birthday in February 2013 so my friend Emma came to stay and she and the children made me breakfast in bed  including a  bowl of my favorite fresh fruit. Steve's Mum always makes the children a delicious birthday cake of their choice. Some years the children have had a party with their friends, this year we've mostly celebrated just as a family but in 2013 Charlie's birthday (which is on halloween) fell on a Thursday which is our regular day to meet up with friends for trampolining instruction and ball games at a local youth centre so I made some cakes to share and we had a mini celebration there, followed by trick or treating with friends and family that evening. For their evening meal the birthday person gets to choose their favourite takeaway meal. Special birthdays this year have included our youngest grandaughter Ava's 1st birthday, Charlie became a teenager, Vicki (Our daughter in law) and Shannon celebrated their 21st, Emma  (our eldest grandaughter) and Mollie were 5, and Jacob reached double figures and celebrated his 10th. Toby (Shannon's boyfriend) was away on tour with his regiment in the falklands for his birthday so we had to have a belated celebration when he came home, Shannon made him a very impressive, Lord of The Rings lego cake.

Art and Craft!

Food Glorious Food!

Steve and the children all love to cook and experiment with new dishes, Shannon. Jacob and Mollie particularly like baking whilst Charlie prefers making meals. Making the daily evening meal is one of my least favourite chores, I do sometimes enjoy it if I'm creating something new but prefer to throw it all together and experiment with my own thing rather than follow a recipe and it's always more fun cooking together with Steve or Shannon so we can chat at the same time.

Fun with Friends

 Early in 2013 we went to circus skills and dance classes. We  also started meeting weekly at our local youth centre for trampolining instruction, followed by team games and playing pool, the girls in the group have made this their fashion/dress up day.  We also meet up with others at a soft play area about once a month. 

In the summer we met up regularly with several other families and spent long afternoons on Yaverland beach and exploring the area, the boys were especially intrigued by a fort that they discovered nearby.  

We had fun camping  for a week with the Learning Zone in Parkhurst Forest. There are usually at least two Learning Zone camps each year, in previous years we've also camped  at Corfe  but this year we just visited on several days. 

We're very lucky to have so much woodland on the Island,  Jacob and Charlie attended a forest school course throughout the spring, the forest and woods is one of our favourite places to spend time and we've joined other families throughout the year for walks and to build dens and have nerf wars.  

The boys are really into magic cards and Dungeon's and Dragon's and regularly get together with friends to play in each other's homes or at clubs. 

 Nature and The Great Outdoors!