Hi all

For goodness sake I'm a day behind again (if you include Saturday and Sunday as one blog). Must get organised again. Haha.

So, here we go...weekend!

Saturday we went apple picking at Gore Farm with Phil, Linda, Tony, Danielle, Mellissa and Ruby. Colin and Lily went off to horse riding and met up with us afterwards in the cafe. We rent a tree for £30 per year, which between 3 families isn't that much, and we get to pick all the apples off of that tree. If the crop is a little low (as it was this year) they have other trees from which we can make up the loss. The photo below is just our share of the apples picked.



Whilst we had a good old chin wag around the table at the cafe drinking tea and eating cake, the kids went off and saw the animals and did a bit of investigating. The girls also picked strawberries, but Callum stayed with us, not because he didn't want to pick strawberries, we just didn't have the money to buy any that he picked and I didn't want him just going off and eating them all.

He went off and fed the donkeys (his favourite animal) where one particularly noisy one didn't like it when he fed the others. Very vocal animal (the one below).



The afternoon he spent back on the computer, so I was glad we'd managed to get out and about.

Sunday was very lazy, partly because I'd been out the night before and just fancied doing nothing all day and partly because Phil was busy doing stuff in the kitchen. So Callum spent the day occupying himself (may I add, not all of it on the computer!).

So, today! Phil is off all week this week and that normally interferes with our home schooling, but I'm determined to get at least maths and literacy done. So at about 9.45am this morning I woke Callum up with a cuppa and while Phil was sorting out the dog and what he was going to do for the day, we sat in bed and did his worksheets.

Then up we got, Phil going into the bathroom to put radiator on the wall and redo pipework running to it, we started the BBC website's typing course....dancemat style. Callum was really nervous, but he did it and got very good with his 'home' keys. I think him learning to type properly will be a big benefit to him and he sees me touch typing all the time and sees how quick it can be. Talking of which, I did a speed test on Google and came out as 54 words per minute. Bit slower than I was when at work, but glad I'm still above 50. Need to practice more!

This afternoon was baking and cooking for me while Callum helped his dad refill the heating system and check the boiler was working ok. All good stuff.

So, am now up to date again. Yay!

Cya

WHOOPS, MISSED A DAY

Hiya

Whoops sorry missed out yesterday. My fault, I went out!! Well, I went to a friend's house for cuppas and a chat, but I still class it as out.

So, what did we get up to yesterday? Well we had a day at home for starters, which is normally a good thing as we can attempt to catch up on some work.

Well, maths and literacy got done and then we were attempting to get science sorted. I say attempting, as I was having the day from hell and everything was going wrong! This, in turn, had an effect on Callum, so he was, how shall we say this, disgruntled and moody and doing a lot of faffing about.

We decided to have a sort out of documents on the computer and discovered one we'd forgotten to print off about acids and alkalines (the one where we tested the pH values of various household items, so that was a bit of a bonus find. Callum filled in a Testing Understanding worksheet writing in the first section and then using the computer to produce a bar chart and answer a couple of questions in the second section. Then another Testing Understanding worksheet with regard to cells where again he wrote out the first section and used the computer to name parts of a cell and compare the differences between animal and plant cells.

We had a sort through the science folder and decided to leave the other worksheets for another day. Folder beginning to look pretty good actually. Well done mate! It sounds like a fair bit, but it took us most of the day and it really should have only taken the morning, but hey ho, that's how it goes sometimes.

We also had to write up the 'showing' workshop that we did with Terri, his sister, on Tuesday and email it off to the moderator for the Arts Award. Had an email back saying that it had been received, looked good and that now we had completed the required parts to be put forward for assessment in November. Phew, kinda glad that over to be honest.

Today, we were picked up by a lady who is considering home education, after my talk a couple of weeks ago, and taken up to Ice Skating so she could meet others and ask questions. Strangely we didn't have to pay to get in (did last time), and we had cuppas bought for us and a portion of chips bought for Callum by her friend who is also considering home ed. So rather a cheap morning which is a good thing this month as we are skint!!! Callum ended up playing DS with another boy on/off throughout the morning too, which was nice.

This afternoon we looked at an onion cell through the microscope, trawled ebay for science equipment and generally chilled out.

Tomorrow is apple picking at Gore Farm.

Been a funny week, some parts productive and some parts not and both our moods have been up and down. Am hoping a couple of days of fresh air and a fresh week will improve our mindsets.

Anyway, cya

YAWN!

Hi all

Today was one of those days where being home educated worked wonders. I woke up at 5am this morning and could not get back to sleep, so spent the next 2.5hrs drinking tea, eating a bowl of cereal and watching TV progs I'd recorded for just such an occasion (although I was intending them to be the other end of the day). 7.30am arrived and I was expecting Callum up and about, so went off to do a morning cuppa for us both...he didn't appear. Ok, no worries, I sorted out the kitchen, sorted washing and cleared up the recycling, fed the dog, but still no Callum! 9.30am I decided I needed to check he was ok, he was, he was fast asleep! Typical, I wake early and he sleeps in, never mind.

He woke up about 15mins later in a right mood and complaining of a headache. Hmmm, avoid for a few mins I think. Admittedly I was beginning to flag by this point.

10am and after my bath and him getting dressed, he says that he's knackered! He's knackered? Pah!

"Do I have to do anything this morning?"
"Well, maths and literacy would be good, but we do have Mad Science trip this afternoon."
He pulls a face and flops on the sofa.
"You're not in the mood are you?" I say
"No! I'm tired and I want to go on the computer."

By this point, I'm really not in the mood either, I just fancy pottering about.

"Sod it then."
"Really?"
"Yep, I'm tired too and we do have all day tomorrow and we did stuff all day yesterday, so let's have the rest of the morning off?"
"Yay!" He perks up immediately and runs to the computer.
"Hang on! Get your stuff ready first!"
"Ok"

He decides to have brunch as its almost 11am by now, so scrambled egg, baked beans and toast, which he happily munches his way through.

12.15pm we are picked up by Lorraine and Amy and head off to Sittingbourne for Mad Science. We get a bit lost, but manage to find it after asking directions, and are only about 10mins late (we weren't the only ones).

Science show was fab...carbon dioxide (dry ice) today with lots of experiments on the fun of it all. They even got to taste it in water and had it blown (in gas form) over them like in a scary movie. And we got to keep the cups (they colour change)! Which reminds me, we still have Amy's cup I think. Whoops!

Back home and Lorraine and I have a couple of cuppas and Amy and Callum play in the garden for a while. No sooner have they gone and he's back on computer, but he was off again by 6pm tonight. Does this mean the game is losing its appeal or did he just fancy having a break...no, he'd got another headache so decided to go upstairs and chill in his room for a bit. Can now hear him giggling away watching TV.

As to me, I've just printed off all the science sheets we need to do and I'm going to flake out in front of the TV later. Hope I have a better night's kip.

Cya

Hi all,

Quite a productive day today. Mainly to do with Callum's Art Award, but did have fun too.

We started off with the normal maths/literacy with no strops today as he found it really easy!! His words not mine. We had a discussion about fractions into percentages (me having to wrack my brains to remember how to convert one to the other, but remembered eventually - bad me!) which, of course, led onto infinite numbers like 0.3333333 or 0.66666666 and the use of the word recurring or the symbol for infinity. Then it was writing up his workshops to include in his Award. We weren't entirely sure if the bird house making would count, but we wrote it up anyway and then the kite making one from last week. This one we did think we could include as there was designing and colouring involved. We included photographs and sent them off, only to have an email back saying exactly what we thought. We tweaked the kite making one a little bit more to include why Callum had designed his kite the way he had and were given the thumbs up! Yay.

This afternoon was his workshop to demonstrate something to someone else. Callum decided to do mosaic coasters and show it to his sister. We had to do step by step instructions and Callum had to work with his sister showing her what to do, then she had to give a brief description on how he did and he will have to do a quick write up of how he thought it went. Am hoping it will be fine as we are now running out of time. The moderation date is 4th November!!

Anyway, below is how they got on.








Terri rather enjoyed herself and has come up with loads of different projects that she now wants to do using broken tiles, mirrors, glass, plates, etc and Callum really enjoyed showing something he could do and being able to do something with his sister.

On top of that I made nectarine chutney out of a glut of nectarines Phil brought home at the weekend and managed to tidy up the dining room table and the computer table of all its junk. Would have been a bit difficult to do the coasters if I hadn't! haha.

Anyway, short and sweet today as its a bit late.

Cya

A FUNNY START TO THE WEEK

Hi all

Well Monday is here and, although sunny, it was a little cooler. Was nice to have nothing planned, no time to keep to and be able to just plod at our own pace. So what did we do?

Well, Callum got up at 8am and made me a cuppa; announcing that he was going to go onto the computer until 9.30am and then do his maths/literacy so that he would be ready to start at 10am! Hmmmm, time management covered there I think. So I drank my cuppa, washed up, put washing on, prepped my dinner in the slow cooker and made a 2nd cuppa. Was ready to sit down with him by 9.45am by which time he'd finished his maths sheets and was beginning to have a paddy about his literacy. Spelling words with 'sh' in them today and opposites also with 'sh' in. Now, to you and me, the clue is in the question...all answers will have the 'sh' sound in them somewhere, but to Callum that was a stupid idea and the answers were stupid, ie, the opposite of 'open' is 'closed' and a picture containing a pile of bottles, tins, bags, etc was 'garbage'. I tried to point out the words had to have 'sh' in them and he got the right hump saying the book was stupid and wrong!
"Ok, now let's calm down here and think logically...the question involves the sound 'sh', what other words can you think of for garbage that contain 'sh'?"
"Crap" says Callum "or trash".
"Good, trash would be good" says I.
"It's not trash as it doesn't fit, it says -----sh! This is a stupid book."
"Ok, so on Tuesday night we put out the...what?"
"Garbage"
"Alright, you're watching a programme and it isn't very good. We say that programme was....what?"
"Crap"
Hmmm, I'm not getting anywhere here am I? I look at him, he looks at me, pencil posed to be launched across the room. He spots the hammer which his dad hasn't put away (grrrrrr) and picks it up. Luckily he decides to hit the book with it!
"Ok, now put the hammer down and think."
"......."
"Oh, rubbish, this is rubbish!"
"Yes Callum....rubbish is correct."
"But rubbish is American!"
"No garbage and trash is American, rubbish is English"
"Oh this is stupid!"
We decide to have a break and he goes off upstairs to go to the toilet and pick up a toy. On his return, he calmly picks up the book, spells the word rubbish, looks at me and says "the opposite of open is shut", writes it down and then hands me the work.
"You didn't mark last Wednesday's work, can you mark that too!"
I raise my eyes to the ceiling. One minute a meltdown was on its way and then we are as calm as anything as if nothing has happened. Oh well at least he got it eventually.

Next was science and we went back over cells and discussed specialised cells. He done very well on the revision side and was fine with the specialised bit until we looked at sperm.
"Yuck" says he.
"What?" says I.
"They can swim!"
"Yes. Why do you think that is?"
"That's yucky. I was fine until they said they can swim."
"Soooooo why do you think they can swim?"
"Because they have a long way to go to find the egg!"
"Yes, well done. We'll be covering that next time."
"Yuck, do we have to?"
"Yes we do"
"Oh. Are we done now?"
"Yes"
"Good"
And off he goes, but before he totally disappears we end up talking about fire and fire hydrants and fire safety and double glazed windows and how to escape a house and whether or not we should have a fire extinguisher and why fire extinguishers in buildings are in corridors.....strange how conversations start and end up.

This afternoon we popped into Rochester to try and get the mosaic kits that he wants to show Terri for his 'how to' workshop for his Arts Award. No luck, so we go to Dockside to The Range, but still no luck. Coffee and cake is needed and then home. Lovely afternoon out, but not very successful. He did manage to get a book from the 2nd hand book shop on Missiles and Rockets though, so he was happy.

Strange day.
Cya

THE WEEKEND PART 2

Hiya again, Part Two here:

Saturday was Riverside again, seem to be spending a lot of time there lately, for bird house making. Callum D came with us again. The boys made wooden bird houses completely from scratch. Well the wood was cut out for them, but they had to nail it all together themselves. Both Callums did really well; only making a couple of mistakes each where nails went into ‘space’ instead of through the wood. It was quite noisy and my Callum had forgotten to take his ear defenders with him; typical! However, as he was making so much noise himself with the banging he coped remarkably well. They all discovered that doing the nailing on the floor instead of a fold up table made it more stable and less noisy!







I'm rather proud of Callum's performance as he has never done woodwork before and has always run a mile when Dad has got the electric drill out. Well done mate!

Afterwards they had a run around outside in the play area for about an hour after eating ice creams first as it was so hot! Then farm shop, drop off Callum D and home. Callum and Phil then put up the bird box + the other box that I'd bought last year and the bee box I'd got for my birthday way back in May. Let's hope that next year we will have birds nesting and more bees buzzing.

Today, we chilled out in the morning and then popped back to Callum D's house to drop off his brother, Shane's, birthday present and card. We didn't stop for the party, just a little while to watch Shane open his presents and say hello. Back home we've been attempting to make plans for Halloween.

Anyway, that's it, both parts now done and I'm off to find myself something to eat. Callum is eating roast dinner, but I'm not in the mood for that as its too hot and I'm not hungry.

Cyas later.

THE WEEKEND PART 1

Hiya

Busy weekend again! Sunshine has been blazing and we were up to 28 degrees.

Friday we were in London for the day visiting my friend Dennis. Terri came with us, so was like a little family day out. Caught high speed train as Callum prefers it and that means I prefer it as there is less hassle. Went all the way to St Pancras this time. Met Dennis there and walked (we did a lot of walking that day) to Hyde Park via various smaller parks, a Starbucks and the back of Oxford Street. Went that way to see where I used to work (30 years ago now) and IT ISN’T THERE ANYMORE!!! There is now some multi-coloured monstrosity instead, but it was nice to see that some things hadn’t changed. The occult bookshop was still there, although a bit more modern than it was then, Denmark St is still full of music shops and Soho Square was still full of people (although not quite the same type of people, haha). Callum enjoyed seeing all the places that I used to haunt, but said it was far too busy for him and Terri didn’t think she’d be able to work there either.

We also visited the Animals at War Memorial which was nice to see. Callum was pleased that they had their own memorial and that their work had been recognised.



That's Dennis in the background with Callum and Terri to the fore.

Hyde Park was lovely and we sat by The Serpentine for a while eating; me a banana and Callum a raspberry muffin. The geese and swans came right up to us trying to steal food, but didn’t succeed.

Then another walk to Waitrose to get some lunch; prices in the café were extortionate – they wanted £13.50 for a portion of fish and chips and the queue was huge and the organisation was confusing. At Waitrose I spent just under the same price and got lunch for two of us including salads, fruit, drinks and a sausage roll! Walked back to the park and sat on the opposite side of the Serpentine to eat. Callum sat by the lake again and watched the ducks. He looked rather lonely and I had to explain to Dennis that he wasn’t; he likes his own company and he LOVES water, so sitting by the lake watching the ducks was probably his idea of heaven.

Another walk and Terri and Callum rented a pedalo to go off into the lake, while Dennis and I had a chat. Wanted to get photo, but camera was playing up and by the time I got it sorted they were way out into the distance.

Then off to an exhibition and a sit down by Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain. Terri had a paddle, but Callum didn’t want to take his socks and shoes off, so he just walked around with her - was nice to see them off having a chat together.

Didn’t realise that it was 5.40pm by this point and thought it was best to get on home. Caught a tube back to St Pancras which, amazingly, Callum didn’t bat an eyelid at, although he did walk down some steps rather than use the escalator which was a bit of a long one. Got the 6.55pm train back home and popped to kebab shop for Callum’s tea as it was now 7.10pm. Collapsed on sofa with a cuppa, both exhausted, but after having a brilliant day (I had blisters from all the walking); Callum said he’d had a fab time and didn’t even mind all the walking – result! Terri continued to Rainham to meet up with her dad as they were heading off to Devon!!

Well that's Part One done. Better get on with Part 2.