Well this week has been a bit of a weird one weatherwise. It started off wet, we've just had a few days of brilliant sunshine and now they are predicting heavy rain again. All good for the garden, but not so good when you have plans for being out and about.
Spent last weekend, which was fine in the day and wet by the evening, out and about foraging with Phil and Callum down at Riverside and Motney Hill. Saturday was elderflowers for cordial, chickweed for infusing in oil for an anti itching lotion for later and sea beet for prawn stir fry for dinner. Callum isn't into picking stuff, but loves trying things out when I've cooked them. But he is getting rather good at spotting things, so armed with my 'shopping list' we set off. Elderflowers this year seem rather abundant so managed to get plenty for cordial and a few extra for drying for making 'flu season' tea later in the year. He thoroughly enjoyed himself running up and down the 'beach' with the dog and climbing over the walls.
Once home his dad had to go back to work and I spent the afternoon in the kitchen prepping my free goodies.
Sunday was Motney Hill for some more elderflowers; this time for fritters and we managed to get some samphire from the beach for dinner. Also collected some red clover for drying for a tea. Callum actually helped pick today, but only the clover as he was having far too much fun running up and down with the dog on the beach, but at least it's a start. Both him and the dog ended up covered in mud and sand, but it all washes out so who cares?
Monday we went off to a friend's house and ended up picking even more elderflowers (this time from her garden) and showing them and her student how to make the fritters. There were tons of them; plenty for 4 kids and 4 adults. Callum had a great time playing with Azeem in his little den.
Tuesday was Callum's birthday; the big 13!! Was planning to take him to the beach, but it poured down all day so we didn't go. Asked him what he wanted to do and he said "pj day"! So that's what he had. All day in pjs. He watched Tin Tin on DVD, played on the Playstation and the computer and watched a bit of telly. Big sis visited for the day as well and he obviously had some presents to open and some cards. Has ended up with £30 in cash to spend and a WH Smith voucher, has already ordered a new PC game.
Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day which was brilliant as we were on a home education trip to Quex House in Birchington. Quite a large group of kids, but Callum coped well and he did have some space to retreat for some quiet time too. The guide we had was fab; very good with the children and very patient and funny. We learnt a little about the Powell-Cotton estate, but he didn't dwell on it for long. We then watched a short video on how to make African pots before going outside in the sunshine to have a go at making our own. Will post a photo up next time. Then back inside to make masks. First had a little discussion about different types of masks and why we would use them and then pretty much all the kids went to make animal masks in the animal room. Callum wasn't too keen on doing that, but decided to make a tribal one instead. So I went and gathered some paper and crayons and we returned to the tribal room to make his mask. Had to leave him to get on with it as he didn't want me watching. It's turned out really well and I'll post a photo of that next time too. He wants to add things to it before we finally put it together for a mask, so I may wait until it's complete, but then again I might not.
Then it was lunch and free time. He needed to get some space by this point, so we went over by the fountain to eat and then walked around the gardens before coming home. Was rather proud of him as he remained with the group for the majority of the time which I know was quite hard for him on occasion.
Today he's been at home playing on a game he's found on Facebook. He now has an account as he's 13. He wouldn't join before as you aren't supposed to have one until then. A few of his friends already had their own account, but he insisted on waiting. I must admit, it's a bit odd seeing him comment or like posts.
Tomorrow is his dad's driving experience day at Cranleigh and hopefully the thrill ride for them both. I'll be making sure I have a large flask of tea to drink while I watch them career around the track. Might have to make sure there are waterproofs too as they are forecasting heavy rain again for the afternoon.
Oh well, here's hoping it'll stay dry enough for them to have their afternoon. Cya later folks.
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Hiya all you lovely people. Hope you all had a fantastic Jubilee weekend with the extended bank holiday and that you have all now recovered.
We had two parties to go to. One family and one friends. Sunday was our family get together. Callum loves going to Uncle Stephen's. They have a pretty large house and garden and a Bassett Hound called Floyd who is a bit naughty when it comes to food, so has to be permanently watched. Not good when you are BBQing and have a buffet out. Must admit at one point he did show his intelligence by pulling on the end of the runner and trying to get the tablecloth to come off the table and all the food with it.
Both Phil's brothers and their wives were there (obviously one of the brother's and wives would be there as it was their house) plus his elder cousins with their boy/girlfriends and his other cousin who is 16 and who is also an Aspi. There was also Teresa's sister and hubby there; so a nice little group. Lots of food and drink, Flotilla on the telly in the background and a silly 'Royal' quiz later on.
Managed to fit the BBQ in between the showers, but we ended up mainly indoors. Left about 8pm which was just about right.
Next day we were off to one of my friend's house for her red, white and blue party. BBQ again in the garden and two tables full of food within the house. Pat does know how to provide a good spread! Weather held off and the sun came out on occasion. Had a firepit in the garden under the marque type shelter which is where Phil and Callum sat themselves for most of the afternoon. Sean's son, Victor, was there too, so Callum had someone he knew there, even if it was only vaguely.
I had a great time catching up with people I haven't seen for ages. Again, we didn't stay too late as Callum was getting a bit overwhelmed by the two days of socialising.
Tuesday we had a quiet day with no visitors or visits to make. Spent it pottering about watching TV, playing on the computer and generally being lazy.
Wednesday Callum had his school friend Callum D round for the afternoon and Terri, his sister, did her usual Wednesday visit. Callum and Callum D don't get together as often as they used to, but as soon as they are it's as if they have never been apart. Sign of a true friendship in my book. They had a great afternoon on the Wii and upstairs in Callum's room making up games using the marble run and Callum's numerous tanks.
Today we worked! School work that is. We had 3 write ups that hadn't been done and so we knuckled down and got them out of the way. Bee Release at Dungerness; Tree Walk at Capstone and Mini Beast Hunt at Riverside. After writing up the days; searching the net for a press release re the bees, pictures of things that we hadn't got photos of and extra info and putting all the photos we did have into a display with added info, 3.5hrs had gone by. Must remember to allow an average of 1hr per write up in the future. Was very interesting to see how much Callum had remembered and to search the net for information when the discussions led us down a slightly different route, but we were both mentally shattered at the end of it.
Tomorrow he has, hopefully, another friend round and next week his dad is off, so we won't be doing any 'proper' work now until a week Monday. But as we will be out and about a few days next week, I'll sure Callum will have some new experiences and lots of fun.
Sorry no photos today, but I kept forgetting to take my camera out with me. Silly me.
Cya
We had two parties to go to. One family and one friends. Sunday was our family get together. Callum loves going to Uncle Stephen's. They have a pretty large house and garden and a Bassett Hound called Floyd who is a bit naughty when it comes to food, so has to be permanently watched. Not good when you are BBQing and have a buffet out. Must admit at one point he did show his intelligence by pulling on the end of the runner and trying to get the tablecloth to come off the table and all the food with it.
Both Phil's brothers and their wives were there (obviously one of the brother's and wives would be there as it was their house) plus his elder cousins with their boy/girlfriends and his other cousin who is 16 and who is also an Aspi. There was also Teresa's sister and hubby there; so a nice little group. Lots of food and drink, Flotilla on the telly in the background and a silly 'Royal' quiz later on.
Managed to fit the BBQ in between the showers, but we ended up mainly indoors. Left about 8pm which was just about right.
Next day we were off to one of my friend's house for her red, white and blue party. BBQ again in the garden and two tables full of food within the house. Pat does know how to provide a good spread! Weather held off and the sun came out on occasion. Had a firepit in the garden under the marque type shelter which is where Phil and Callum sat themselves for most of the afternoon. Sean's son, Victor, was there too, so Callum had someone he knew there, even if it was only vaguely.
I had a great time catching up with people I haven't seen for ages. Again, we didn't stay too late as Callum was getting a bit overwhelmed by the two days of socialising.
Tuesday we had a quiet day with no visitors or visits to make. Spent it pottering about watching TV, playing on the computer and generally being lazy.
Wednesday Callum had his school friend Callum D round for the afternoon and Terri, his sister, did her usual Wednesday visit. Callum and Callum D don't get together as often as they used to, but as soon as they are it's as if they have never been apart. Sign of a true friendship in my book. They had a great afternoon on the Wii and upstairs in Callum's room making up games using the marble run and Callum's numerous tanks.
Today we worked! School work that is. We had 3 write ups that hadn't been done and so we knuckled down and got them out of the way. Bee Release at Dungerness; Tree Walk at Capstone and Mini Beast Hunt at Riverside. After writing up the days; searching the net for a press release re the bees, pictures of things that we hadn't got photos of and extra info and putting all the photos we did have into a display with added info, 3.5hrs had gone by. Must remember to allow an average of 1hr per write up in the future. Was very interesting to see how much Callum had remembered and to search the net for information when the discussions led us down a slightly different route, but we were both mentally shattered at the end of it.
Tomorrow he has, hopefully, another friend round and next week his dad is off, so we won't be doing any 'proper' work now until a week Monday. But as we will be out and about a few days next week, I'll sure Callum will have some new experiences and lots of fun.
Sorry no photos today, but I kept forgetting to take my camera out with me. Silly me.
Cya
Sunday, 3 June 2012
MY BIRTHDAY WEEK
Hiya, just popping in to do a quick catch up before going off to our first Jubilee Party of the weekend.
Haven't really done a lot as it was my birthday last Wednesday and I've had a couple of 'days off' and had visitors, etc.
Monday was an early start, 5.30am for Callum, 3.30am for me. We were being picked up at 7am and Callum needs an hour or so to come to now and I was wide awake so thought might as well get up. Where were we going at just an unearthly hour? Well, we were heading off to Dungerness with Carol and Lauren to watch the release of the short haired bumblee bees which have been extinct in this country for about 25 years. This batch of 50 queens had travelled all the way from Sweden. Read the article below for more info:
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/rare_short_haired_bees_released_at_dungeness_1_1390964
It was a long morning of talks and press interviews (not with us I might add) before we went off to actually release the bees, but it was wonderful to be there especially as Lauren got the honour of releasing one herself. My Callum really enjoyed it, but kept hiding from the cameras. Was nice to be part of history.
Spent the afternoon down on the beach doing some cockling; found enough for my tea at least, hehe. Tide was out so there was loads of sand for the kids to investigate.
Tuesday was trampolining and Terri came with us this week. It'll be Callum's last lesson for a few weeks as the next one falls on his birthday and he doesn't want to do it. He worked on his routine and Kim, his coach, is trying to get him to perfect the moves to look more stylish. He also showed him some exercises that he should do to strengthen up his core muscles. After the lesson we went off to Subway for lunch and as Callum hadn't really had a proper breakfast he ended up with a foot long sandwich. Afternoon was spent in the garden opening presents with my daughter and having a small white wine spritzer.
Wednesday was my actual birthday and I had visits from both Lorraine and Linda which was lovely and more presents which was also much appreciated plus cake. Thanks girls!
Haven't really done a lot as it was my birthday last Wednesday and I've had a couple of 'days off' and had visitors, etc.
Monday was an early start, 5.30am for Callum, 3.30am for me. We were being picked up at 7am and Callum needs an hour or so to come to now and I was wide awake so thought might as well get up. Where were we going at just an unearthly hour? Well, we were heading off to Dungerness with Carol and Lauren to watch the release of the short haired bumblee bees which have been extinct in this country for about 25 years. This batch of 50 queens had travelled all the way from Sweden. Read the article below for more info:
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/rare_short_haired_bees_released_at_dungeness_1_1390964
It was a long morning of talks and press interviews (not with us I might add) before we went off to actually release the bees, but it was wonderful to be there especially as Lauren got the honour of releasing one herself. My Callum really enjoyed it, but kept hiding from the cameras. Was nice to be part of history.
Spent the afternoon down on the beach doing some cockling; found enough for my tea at least, hehe. Tide was out so there was loads of sand for the kids to investigate.
Tuesday was trampolining and Terri came with us this week. It'll be Callum's last lesson for a few weeks as the next one falls on his birthday and he doesn't want to do it. He worked on his routine and Kim, his coach, is trying to get him to perfect the moves to look more stylish. He also showed him some exercises that he should do to strengthen up his core muscles. After the lesson we went off to Subway for lunch and as Callum hadn't really had a proper breakfast he ended up with a foot long sandwich. Afternoon was spent in the garden opening presents with my daughter and having a small white wine spritzer.
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| My Wildflower Corner looking rather well established. |
Thursday was a lazy day and Friday we spent most of the day watching my new DVDs before I went out to a friend's house in the evening for drinks and nibbles. Thank you Linda for driving and thank you Gina for having us.
Yesterday Callum and dad pottered about whilst I felt crap all day. Was really stormy weather without the storm itself and I always end up with migraines when it's like that.
Today is a family Jubilee party and tomorrow a friend's one. So hope you all have a fab bank holiday weekend and try not to drink too much, hehe.
Cya soon
xx
Thursday, 24 May 2012
TEEN + HEAT = VERY LITTLE DONE
Hiya
I know I should be doing a daily blog, but to be honest we really haven't done enough to warrant a daily one. Weather has changed here in the South and it's become hot, very hot! It appears we will have to get used to swinging from jumpers, raincoats and wellies one day to vest tops, sunhats and sandals the next without a period of acclimatisation in between. Add to this the fact that, as previously mentioned, Callum is reading until all hours and sleeping in later (Issac Newton's theory springs to mind "every action has an equal and opposite reaction") and we don't exactly have a lot of room in the day for getting things done before Phil is home and chaos reigns. Phil is also an Aspi (undiagnosed), but is one for strict routines (his, not ours) and woe betide we alter those or get in the way of them. So anything we want to do that requires the kitchen, utility room or the TV and often the garden too has to be completed before 3.30pm! Bit like school really. I know he would argue that he isn't like this at all, but having experienced the hrumphing and the moaning, I beg to differ.
So this week; what have we achieved? Monday wasn't too bad as we managed to write up our visit to the Imperial War Museum that happened the week before. We did separate write ups for each part of the day as the Art Exhibition was going into the colour and light project we are supposed to be doing and the museum part is in the unrelated days out folder. It appears we are doing rather a lot of those and I might have to go through it at the end of the 'school' year and perhaps pick bits out to expand upon into projects for next year. The write up took rather longer than expected as, as usual, we got sidetracked by conversation, questions and online searching. That's the one big thing that I love about home education, it can wander off topic, go onto lots of different pathways and then come full circle back to where we started. Found a really interesting website whilst having a conversation on timezones (don't ask how we got onto those as I can't remember) which had lots of other stuff on it too. We ended up 'playing' on here for ages:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Tuesday was Faversham meet. Callum happy as quite a few of his mates were there, so he didn't end up reading the whole time. I did find it particularly funny though when I went to look for him as his mate and himself were in the computer room (no surprise there) but at opposite ends of the room talking to each other on Roblox (no surprise there either). Oh and he actually spoke to another adult! Well, I say spoke he answered her polite enquiries with stilted two word answers, but it's better than nothing. Davinia, you are honoured! hehe
Wednesday I didn't see him all day pretty much. Terri was over and as she needed to use the computer, he was upstairs in his room playing with his tanks and watching Family Guy and Have I Got News For You on his telly (he has Tivo in his room). Lots of laughter coming from his room with the added occasional 'explosion' from his game he'd made up.
Today he didn't surface until 9.50am!!!! And even then he was a bit lethargic - he'd been reading until gone 11pm the night before again. So we decided to have a PJ day and watch a documentary that I'd recorded about why we need the moon. It was really interesting and the presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was brilliant as it was explained in easy to understand terms (good for me as well, haha). It isn't on iPlayer that I can see, but the link below has some information and clips. Well worth watching if you can find it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yb5jp
This afternoon we dug out Callum's Alpine trough (well it's an old sink to be precise) and repotted with some salvaged old plants and some new ones we bought at the garden festival a few weeks back.
I know I should be doing a daily blog, but to be honest we really haven't done enough to warrant a daily one. Weather has changed here in the South and it's become hot, very hot! It appears we will have to get used to swinging from jumpers, raincoats and wellies one day to vest tops, sunhats and sandals the next without a period of acclimatisation in between. Add to this the fact that, as previously mentioned, Callum is reading until all hours and sleeping in later (Issac Newton's theory springs to mind "every action has an equal and opposite reaction") and we don't exactly have a lot of room in the day for getting things done before Phil is home and chaos reigns. Phil is also an Aspi (undiagnosed), but is one for strict routines (his, not ours) and woe betide we alter those or get in the way of them. So anything we want to do that requires the kitchen, utility room or the TV and often the garden too has to be completed before 3.30pm! Bit like school really. I know he would argue that he isn't like this at all, but having experienced the hrumphing and the moaning, I beg to differ.
So this week; what have we achieved? Monday wasn't too bad as we managed to write up our visit to the Imperial War Museum that happened the week before. We did separate write ups for each part of the day as the Art Exhibition was going into the colour and light project we are supposed to be doing and the museum part is in the unrelated days out folder. It appears we are doing rather a lot of those and I might have to go through it at the end of the 'school' year and perhaps pick bits out to expand upon into projects for next year. The write up took rather longer than expected as, as usual, we got sidetracked by conversation, questions and online searching. That's the one big thing that I love about home education, it can wander off topic, go onto lots of different pathways and then come full circle back to where we started. Found a really interesting website whilst having a conversation on timezones (don't ask how we got onto those as I can't remember) which had lots of other stuff on it too. We ended up 'playing' on here for ages:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Tuesday was Faversham meet. Callum happy as quite a few of his mates were there, so he didn't end up reading the whole time. I did find it particularly funny though when I went to look for him as his mate and himself were in the computer room (no surprise there) but at opposite ends of the room talking to each other on Roblox (no surprise there either). Oh and he actually spoke to another adult! Well, I say spoke he answered her polite enquiries with stilted two word answers, but it's better than nothing. Davinia, you are honoured! hehe
Wednesday I didn't see him all day pretty much. Terri was over and as she needed to use the computer, he was upstairs in his room playing with his tanks and watching Family Guy and Have I Got News For You on his telly (he has Tivo in his room). Lots of laughter coming from his room with the added occasional 'explosion' from his game he'd made up.
Today he didn't surface until 9.50am!!!! And even then he was a bit lethargic - he'd been reading until gone 11pm the night before again. So we decided to have a PJ day and watch a documentary that I'd recorded about why we need the moon. It was really interesting and the presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was brilliant as it was explained in easy to understand terms (good for me as well, haha). It isn't on iPlayer that I can see, but the link below has some information and clips. Well worth watching if you can find it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yb5jp
This afternoon we dug out Callum's Alpine trough (well it's an old sink to be precise) and repotted with some salvaged old plants and some new ones we bought at the garden festival a few weeks back.
We just need to get some more gravel to fill in the spaces, but it's now looking a lot more healthy than it did as it was overgrown with weeds and unwanted seedlings.
Anyway, that's about it. Ice skating tomorrow and then we are intending to plant some more seeds in the garden and into pots in the afternoon.
Cya
Sunday, 20 May 2012
A WEEKEND WITH NATURE
Hiya
Thought I'd do an end of weekend blog. Normally don't do anything over the weekend on the computer, but recent weeks have proved that there really is nothing worth watching on the TV and I've caught up on all my recorded programmes. So have been spending more time on here listening to music and playing on Facebook and, tonight, I'm doing those and writing up the blog.
This weekend has been particularly busy as the weather has been good and we had a couple of events booked at our local Country Parks.
Saturday was Riverside for a mini beast hunt. We obviously go there far too often as we don't even have to give our names now, haha. But the events are really good, the staff are lovely and they don't cost much; the mini beast session cost £1.50! So what did we do? Well, we started at the pond for some pond dipping, looking out for different creatures that live in the water.
Admittedly there wasn't a great deal of diversity to find at this time of year, so it might be worth going on another hunt at the end of the summer. Callum did find lots of red ants, a black ladybird, a tiny spider, lots of fruit flies, a few little beetles and a green winged insect that looked like a grass seed which I can't remember the name of and have looked on google, but can't find it. Really need to invest in a good insect book.
Thought I'd do an end of weekend blog. Normally don't do anything over the weekend on the computer, but recent weeks have proved that there really is nothing worth watching on the TV and I've caught up on all my recorded programmes. So have been spending more time on here listening to music and playing on Facebook and, tonight, I'm doing those and writing up the blog.
This weekend has been particularly busy as the weather has been good and we had a couple of events booked at our local Country Parks.
Saturday was Riverside for a mini beast hunt. We obviously go there far too often as we don't even have to give our names now, haha. But the events are really good, the staff are lovely and they don't cost much; the mini beast session cost £1.50! So what did we do? Well, we started at the pond for some pond dipping, looking out for different creatures that live in the water.
The Pond
The little pile of twigs and leaves (lower centre) is a coot's nest where they put their babies when they are off looking for food. Bit like a playpen.
The Tray of goodies
It doesn't really show much in this picture, but the tray ended up with loads of water boatmen, tiny watermites, snails, caddis larvae which were really weird and waterlice (underwater woodlouse). One boy managed to net a stickleback and another a newt.
Then off to the meadow with nets and jars clutched in hands to look for insects.
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| 'fishing for insects' |
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| Our ranger and some of the others |
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| Callum with net |
Admittedly there wasn't a great deal of diversity to find at this time of year, so it might be worth going on another hunt at the end of the summer. Callum did find lots of red ants, a black ladybird, a tiny spider, lots of fruit flies, a few little beetles and a green winged insect that looked like a grass seed which I can't remember the name of and have looked on google, but can't find it. Really need to invest in a good insect book.
All in all a good morning was had by the both of us. In the afternoon we planted beans, cabbages and brussel sprout plants along with carrot and beetroot seeds.
Then today, Sunday; which didn't start off too well. Both Callum and myself felt a bit rough; both of us have colds or the start of hayfever and both had very snuffly noses and not a lot of energy, but we wanted to go on our tree walk, so dragged ourselves up and off we went with dad in tow this time.
It was Capstone Park today with Ranger Dave for a 2.5hr walk around the park looking at the different types of trees that were there. We, obviously, didn't identify every tree, but picked out the most common ones. Will let pictures speak for themselves on this one.
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| Common Oak |
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| Large Common Oak Tree in Ancient Woodland |
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| Hazel |
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| Ash |
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| Norway Maple |
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| Field Maple |
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| Whitebeam |
There was a lot more than that, but didn't take pictures of them all. Had a lovely walk and the weather stayed dry if overcast. Both Callum and I felt a lot better afterwards. Had the rest of the afternoon to laze; with Callum on Roblox catching up with his friend he's made from China for the rest of the day until bedtime, while I read my book.
So weekend over and a week of catching up to do as we don't have a lot of outings planned.
Cya
Thursday, 17 May 2012
WE HAVE NO MOTIVATION
Hi all, yes I know it's been ages! We don't seem to have any motivation at the moment. Everyday is a struggle to get anything done or planned. I know that this is just a lull, but it's beginning to worry me.
Callum has definitely turned into a teen or at least a preteen. He's reading every night (which isn't a bad thing) until about 11pm, but that means he isn't getting up until 9am, sometimes 10am. Again, this isn't a real problem as we aren't having to get ready for school, but it does mean that by the time we are up and ready it's verging on lunchtime! The weather hasn't helped either as it's been so miserable that that affects my moods and I've been having more headaches and having a general feeling of blurgh!
So what have we done? Well, we've still been going to ice skating and the Faversham meetings and Callum has still be doing trampolining. He's now somersaulting! Did six this week, with 4 of those in a row! Go Callum!
Last weekend we held a charity tea party in aid of the Blue Cross (animals) and managed to raise just over £100. Callum helped make a few of the cakes and posted invites to the neighbours. He also helped clean up the house in readiness for our guests. So I suppose we could class that as life skills, haha.
Sunday we went off to the local Flower Festival at Cozenton and bought some veg and fruit plants for the garden and some alpines for Callum's little sink garden. It needs digging out and redoing, so that is something I'd like to get done before the weekend if the weather stays dry.
Monday this week we went off to London with his sister, Terri, to visit an art exhibition in Somerset House. We are supposed to be looking at colour and light and The Courtauld Gallery had a Mondrian/Nicholson exhibition on, so I thought that would be a good one to visit as Mondrian (and Nicholson) used blocks of colour. Callum really enjoyed it, in fact he also enjoyed having a look at the other exhibitions that were on, "I liked seeing the different ways of painting" he told me on Wednesday when we were doing a write up to go in our folder. In fact, he even said he would like to go and visit some other galleries!
Callum has definitely turned into a teen or at least a preteen. He's reading every night (which isn't a bad thing) until about 11pm, but that means he isn't getting up until 9am, sometimes 10am. Again, this isn't a real problem as we aren't having to get ready for school, but it does mean that by the time we are up and ready it's verging on lunchtime! The weather hasn't helped either as it's been so miserable that that affects my moods and I've been having more headaches and having a general feeling of blurgh!
So what have we done? Well, we've still been going to ice skating and the Faversham meetings and Callum has still be doing trampolining. He's now somersaulting! Did six this week, with 4 of those in a row! Go Callum!
Last weekend we held a charity tea party in aid of the Blue Cross (animals) and managed to raise just over £100. Callum helped make a few of the cakes and posted invites to the neighbours. He also helped clean up the house in readiness for our guests. So I suppose we could class that as life skills, haha.
Sunday we went off to the local Flower Festival at Cozenton and bought some veg and fruit plants for the garden and some alpines for Callum's little sink garden. It needs digging out and redoing, so that is something I'd like to get done before the weekend if the weather stays dry.
Monday this week we went off to London with his sister, Terri, to visit an art exhibition in Somerset House. We are supposed to be looking at colour and light and The Courtauld Gallery had a Mondrian/Nicholson exhibition on, so I thought that would be a good one to visit as Mondrian (and Nicholson) used blocks of colour. Callum really enjoyed it, in fact he also enjoyed having a look at the other exhibitions that were on, "I liked seeing the different ways of painting" he told me on Wednesday when we were doing a write up to go in our folder. In fact, he even said he would like to go and visit some other galleries!
Callum's own version of Mondrian
Afterwards we then walked back towards Waterloo East and went off to the Imperial War Museum for a couple of hours. Had totally forgotten how much of it there was and we have decided another visit is necessary. We only managed one floor and the main hall.
Callum with his sister, Terri
Just about reach!
As I've already said we had trampolining on Tuesday and yesterday Terri visited us again and they had a little art lesson on creating pictures in the style of Mondrian or Nicholson (see Callum's above).
Today, it's overcast again, I have a headache and Callum is in his pjs on the Wii. Tomorrow is the ice skating meet and we have Mini Beast Hunting and Tree Identification Walk at the weekend.
Hopefully we will feel more motivated next week. Not so out and about which means we might be able to get some experiments done and some more maths.
Cya
Thursday, 3 May 2012
LOGIC PROBLEMS, DRAGONS AND A 'QUIET DAY' TODAY
Hiya
Had a pj day today as we weren't going out and about. Must admit wasn't helped by me waking up with sinus headache, so a reasonably slow start. But I'm getting ahead of myself....
Yesterday we attacked some maths problems. Callum has basically mastered the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division which we've been concentrating mainly on this year. He's doing all of the above with small, medium and large numbers, decimals and fractions, so I think it's time to start using what we've learnt in a more useful way instead of just doing reams of sums. He's getting bored anyway. So I've managed to get hold of a set of books from Brain Academy..
www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=271362&searchTerm=brain+academy
I know that they are a little young, but I have discovered that they do older versions of the books, so I'm going to start with these and work upwards.
Basically they are a series of 'missions' using maths to solve them. They are pretty easy, but because they are written differently you have to think them through logically. Callum found the first one a little difficult as he was trying to over complicate the question, but once he'd broken it down and read through it properly he really enjoyed them.
We went over some measurement conversions afterwards, so we finished on something really really easy.
Then as I had an appointment with the bank in the afternoon, I left him with his sister, Terri, and they finished off his chinese dragon which we started ages and ages ago and just never got round to finishing before the dining room got totally shut down for redecorating.
Had a pj day today as we weren't going out and about. Must admit wasn't helped by me waking up with sinus headache, so a reasonably slow start. But I'm getting ahead of myself....
Yesterday we attacked some maths problems. Callum has basically mastered the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division which we've been concentrating mainly on this year. He's doing all of the above with small, medium and large numbers, decimals and fractions, so I think it's time to start using what we've learnt in a more useful way instead of just doing reams of sums. He's getting bored anyway. So I've managed to get hold of a set of books from Brain Academy..
www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=271362&searchTerm=brain+academy
I know that they are a little young, but I have discovered that they do older versions of the books, so I'm going to start with these and work upwards.
Basically they are a series of 'missions' using maths to solve them. They are pretty easy, but because they are written differently you have to think them through logically. Callum found the first one a little difficult as he was trying to over complicate the question, but once he'd broken it down and read through it properly he really enjoyed them.
We went over some measurement conversions afterwards, so we finished on something really really easy.
Then as I had an appointment with the bank in the afternoon, I left him with his sister, Terri, and they finished off his chinese dragon which we started ages and ages ago and just never got round to finishing before the dining room got totally shut down for redecorating.
Now back to today. We continued with the 'using maths in the real world' theme by attacking the kitchen for a baking session. We are holding a Charity Tea Party next Saturday and are in the process of making all the cakes for it. So we used multiplication to double recipe ingredients and weights and measures to actually make the cake. Then we made a list of all the cakes we want to make and calculated all the ingredients we needed to make them, using multiplication and addition. Then we weighed out all the ingredients we already had and used subtraction to calculate what we needed to buy. With our list complete and our cakes cooked, we finished our day. I ended up curled up watching TV progs I'd recorded dosed up with pain killers and Callum went back onto the computer to play Roblox.
So not an overly productive day, but not a complete waste either.
Cya
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