Life is a Highway - it’s the journey, not the destination

Annual photoblog time! This was last Wednesday, we had nothing planned so just let the day unfold. Normally I worry that there won’t be anything worthy enough for the blog but actually it turned out ok.

M was up first as normal and started by playing and building with his lego.

A surfaced a little later, she’s more cuddly in the morning than M

Creations - a tank I think.

birdwatching

helping me with the washing mountain!

Meanwhile M was still in Legoland, he’d built some sort of Iraq war scene. Lol, slightly obsessed by war!! A eventually got dressed, apparantly I had to take a photo of her putting on her socks.

They both then decided to take out the science box and do experiments, aka mixing lots of stuff together!

And then cleaning up afterwards - very important!

At the park.

M is very happy with his 3 pound skateboard from Asda

It was lunchtime when we got back and a new dvd had arrived from Lovefilm - Carrie’s War so they watched that while eating.

Engrossed! They really enjoyed it.

Reading time, A is still on The Cat in the Hat and M on his Magic School Bus book.

After enjoying the sun they retreated indoors to play some games. M has nearly completed Super Mario Galaxy and so was keen to play more. A likes to watch him but she also spent some time on the PC on a horse game site. Not sure what it was.

I tend to make a smoothie in the afternoon about 3.30pm ish just in time for James to get home. Here’s M testing it out. Has lots of good stuff in it, as well as fruit also some parsley and spring greens and some wheatgrass powder. Kids love em.

Finished article and A enjoying (after taking her patch off).

Once James came in the photo’s were less. He nicked the camera phone! But they played outside with friends, watched (more - ugh) telly and we had tea. Think we had pasta bake as I was really fancying it. Yum.

Kids helped out with washing up after as is their ‘job’ at the moment to earn pocket money. It’s working well atm.

Just before bed, grandad came round and they read Beanos and M finished the day as he started by doing more lego (James deleted the photo of him though!)

Phew!

I’m so behind on e-mails and blogs. Getting to the point where I’ll press delete to them all soon and just start afresh! Sorry.

We’ve been up to lots of things, but tinged by sadness as my Gran died a week and a half ago, hence the hiatus in blogging.

*baking - various types of muffins
*trips - out to a farm, visiting friends.
*VR & NVR - printed off freebies from here and tried some out. NVR seems to best at the mo mostly as their reading is a bit hit and miss for the VR. Haven’t done lots though.
*reading - M finishing up a Magic school Bus book - Twister Trouble and A has been reading The Cat in the Hat .
*History - been to watch BIL and SIL take part in a re-enactment of a civil war battle. Looks fun. James wants to join in!
*Playing - with the new Iphone
*More playing - Kids have been non stop littlest pet shop playing, hours of involved games together which is nice to watch.
*Building - M has been building lots of lego vehicles, different ones every day. Must buy more wheels!
*smoothie making - been getting into this lots. Have started adding greens to them too, fab to see the kids gulping down and not being fussed when I tell them there is dandelion leaves in the smoothie!! Juicer has been used too - thanks Michelle - kids have been making own apple juice.
*Story cd’s - A has listened to more Dolphin Diaries and M has started Stig of the Dump, finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and got really into Eragon and is finishing up Eldest . Audio books are great, he’d never pick up a book the length of Eragon!
*Planted - A and I sowed some seeds in the garden and tried to tidy up a little. Not growing much but some lettuce and some chard for the smoothies would be good.

There will be more I’ve missed, but that will do for now. I hate knowing I have to blog and it gets longer and longer without me getting chance. Feel like I need to draw a line and start again!

*grin*

we’ll start with the rubbish so we can end on a positive

NOT
M being a bit floppy last Wed and Thurs, I suspected it was the bug that was doing the rounds but actually he didn’t suffer too badly and all of the rest of us were fine, just was a bit annoying we had to cancel meeting up with friends we haven’t managed to see since before Xmas!

James being sore all weekend. He’s really having trouble with his hip joint/back/whatever it is, was supposed to have his xray results back today but they’re not in yet so couldn’t go to his appt today and so now he won’t find out for another week what’s up. Bleurgh. Just a bit restrictive when planning weekend activities as can’t have too much walking or coldness.

Erm, is that it for the ‘not’? Hmm might remember some more but anyway on to the better stuff

Having a day off James took the kids out on Friday to visit various people and I had a lovely day to myself. Much appreciated!

Easter! Choc and more choc! too much in the case of the kids, I wonder how long it will take till I say I’ve had enough of them asking about it all and just letting them eat it till they burst!! I got a lovely dark chocolate lindt bunny, so haven’t managed to eat it all yet as I savour it soo much more than milk choc.

Nice day out at creswell crags. Lovely day little bit busy on the parking side, but James was in charge of that so I didn’t worry. Absolutely gorgeous weather, and not too long a walk for James. Just perfect really.

Eating a bit healthier. Am being Very Good at the moment Am thinking about setting up a blog so I can gabber on about it all. Might do that tonight.

I should catch up while James watches The Apprentice. Save my eye rolling for a more pressing time

Monday was a chilling out day. Just nice to be at home and have not much to do. Why I decided to clear out my kitchen cupboards is anyones guess! I did need to have a good look at what we had in (or not!) before we did some shopping but I probably went a bit over the top. Kids played various games consoles and I tried not to be too cross about the time spent on them.

Tuesday we decided to go and see my mum and take some home made anniversary cards for her and my dads wedding anniversary - 31 years! Also took the remainder of the birthday cake to share out. Lovely day so we helped walk the dogs, nice to be out and about. We were home for lunch though as my mum was at work and I resisted going to the shop as we really didn’t need the temptation of sweeties, especially as if I didn’t buy the kids stuff I know my dad would have given them bits. Kids went in the garden for a bit and in their wisdom started digging the garden up - argh!! Need to sort that out!

Today wasn’t so good as M has been a bit floppy all day and managed to spend it wrapped in his duvet I haven’t stopped all day but was feeling stressed at the fact that the house looked like a total tip even though I seemed to be doing stuff. Oh well. A and I made some hobnob type biscuits, she read all the recipe to me while I measured out. She’s doing well that girl! We also did some gardening, planted some potatoes and repotted my trees (should have done ages ago!!).

Yay up to date!

lots to catch up on! Will not be very detailed I’m afraid otherwise I’ll never get done!

Saturday
we set off down the A1 in order to visit the Manor Borns in time for lunch. After the initial cups of tea and pizza for lunch we pondered on whether to go outside. The weather was changeable but we picked what we thought was a nice window of time to go for a walk and see the sights of the local village (in other words where dead bodies had been found - cool ) and do a geocache. Took a long route around and through some fields where some overly friendly ponies all galloped up to meet us - eek! Thankfully once they found we had no food they left us be. Kids had a great time playing together on DS’s and in the evening James found the whiskey cabinet!

Sunday
We headed out to Stockwood Discovery Centre. I was half expecting it to be really busy with it being the weekend, but actually it wasn’t too bad. Maybe I should go out more on weekends Really enjoyed the post office exhibition where the kids did loads of dressing up, and the carriages area. We did a few more geocaches here too James headed home before tea and we all had an early night in anticipation of the next days early start.

Monday
up before 6am!! Ugh! Although Michelle was very organised and made tea in insulated mugs so we were ok. The drive was pretty bad on the way to the British Wildlife Centre, but Michelle did a great job, much better than I would have done. Hate driving and really don’tlike the m25 much!

We arrived very early and needed the toilet so sweet talked the lady who was opening the centre and managed to be shown a 5week old (I think, little anyway) fox cub that had been orphaned. So cute! Eventually met up with Nic and the monster teenies who had organised our visit and also the Where the Days go peeps who I adn’t seen in ages and who A had been in e-mail contact with and was really happy to see again. Once some other of the local he’ers arrived we got started with the group session.

We were first taken round the big animals, foxes, wild cats, deer and otters and then after a not so great video (interestng but not the greatest presentation of it) we saw some of the smaller animals like owls and hedgehogs, which we were allowed to stroke, and some rats, moles, mice and other small things. We all really enjoyed the day, I initially thought it would be right up A’s street but actually both her and M got a lot out of it I think. I especially liked the fact M was feeling up to asking questions to the lady who took us round, shame he kept forgetting to put his hand up, but I can forgive him that. Sometimes he’s too shy and won’t do anything but this time he was very interested, maybe as he was with friends? I dunno.

Afterwards we joined Nic and co at her house for a sleepover there. Kids played mostly well I think and stayed relatively out of the way. Lovely adult company as always :O)

Tuesday
Not so early start to the day was good. We were due to visit Paradise Park and head back to Michelle’s from there. En route Ali and F were picked up so good to see them again. Really liked the place and not sure how much my kids got out of the exhibitions but *I* enjoyed them. M & A just seemed to run through it all, but I do remember them having a good look at some fossils which have been a topic of interest lately. It was a lovely day weather wise and just a lovely time had. Not so long drive back to Michelle’s and we were all treated to a show put on by A & C, lots of dancing, singing and nearly breaking their necks!!

Wednesday
Today was the day of Colourbox which I was looking forward to most I think. A day of rainbows!! It’s always a bit hit or miss with these things as to how organised they are but this was just perfect IMO. We arrived and the kids got into some weird white boiler suits and we first of all went into a separate room with 3 spotlights. The lights changed colour and mixed together and the kids had great fun up next to the white wall with shadows and puppets. No lectures about anything, they were just free to explore it.

Then we went back into the main room and did the dark maze thing, they got torches and could go round in that. Endless fun! Sometimes they went in complete darkness and sometimes with torches, and almost always with lots of noise! Then there was the white room with loads of prisms and light sources so that they could have fun splitting light. I loved this bit most. M made something like a kaliedoscope with some mirrors and rotating the prism to change the rainbow coming out of it. I tried to listen in on Helen’s explanations of it all, I was a bit rubbish at trying to put into words what was happening!

(pics courtesy of Helen - thanks for letting me borrow them!)

After our session we headed to Helen’s, my new home for the next few days. Had a wonderful time with Michelle and gang with lovely hospitality and chauffering We all had a good time playing in the garden in the sunshine before it was just Helen’s lot and us left. The kids did some air drying clay fossils and stuff (not sure if I ever picked them up though, best not remind the kids!!) I then cheerfully watched H clean her kitchen and grump The pantry sorting I witnessed must have left some sort of mark as I cleared out our cupboards as soon as I got home! No room for mass bulk orders of tartex and crisps though

Thursday
was a cleaning day! I was very enthusiastic today about helping get the house ready for the party and do any jobs that might have needed done. Anything that didn’t involve sorting my own junk would have been good though, in the end I hoovered lots and cleared lots of leaves from the conservatory. James arrived in the afternoon and in the evening he very bravely ate some bright pink takeout curry. Think he might go for the veggie option next time, much more pleasing colours

Friday
I was feeling slightly out of it and less enthusiastic!! Did help a little but perhaps Chris sensed me planning a strike so he offered us their pass to a local bird of prey centre so we headed there in the afternoon. Slightly scary with me not driving very well there, was really feeling a little worse for wear! Lovely centre and enjoyed watching the bird flying demonstration very much and having some fresh air. Actually it was nice to be just with my family for a bit, had forgotten how much I missed just their company. Not that the other company wasn’t good but it had been a while since I wasn’t a guest iykwim.

When we got back I grumped about making pizza’s for the party but eventually got on with it. Should maybe have made more but hey ho. The kids spent some time in the ‘making room’ making presents for my birthday. They are all so sweet! I was really pleasantly surprised at how little scuffles we had as I remember all too well how bad last year BB and M got on together. They seemed to have forgotton their differences this time though and I think it was a mostly harmonious get together. Phew!

Saturday
my birthday and the party! I was a little grumpy waking up, but I think that was anticipation of the day ahead. I love my friends and going to get togethers but it always takes me a little time to warm up to the whole situation. We all did last minute hoovering and clearing of nets away from ponds etc before the first guests arrived.

I had a lovely time and big thanks to everyone who came along. Some faces were missed though but there were good reasons for their absence. I was really surprised at the *huge* cake and the presents, much appreciated!! James got very drunk as is normally the case and I’d like to say it was the addition of painkillers that made him tell bad jokes, but most people know he’s like that quite often! He did have an early night though as I think it all did hit him quite hard. I hardly saw the kids all day, well A was having a little bit of a hard time fitting into a game with her friends but I think it was the results of a long week. I just remember laughing lots and having lots of sunshine and friends around. Perfect.

Sunday
Late morning as expected. James slept loads which I think he needed. He never manages a long nights sleep due to his back but he had about 12 hours I reckon! The kids were up and out in the garden almost immediately making the most of last moments with friends. I spent ages trying to pack up all our stuff which had just spread out in the spare room we were in!

We eventually got going back to Michelle’s as James was going to help out with some diy bits and were treated to a lovely early-Easter sunday dinner which was a complete surprise. I was expecting sandwiches and we got a roast dinner! Nic and tribe had stopped off too as it was kind of on their route home, felt like we all were neighbours we saw each other so much! Michelle also did the kids a little easter egg hunt, M was especially funny as he was the last to find the allotted 2 eggs per child and was getting increasingly angry at the thought he wouldn’t get as much chocolate as the rest of them!! Lol, my child completely!! He eventually found them and guzzled them both before I could blink!

Felt like a long journey home, I was looking forward to my own bed though Thanks to all my hosts for my tour of the south, it was a lovely week. I do feel so very lucky with all of my friends, I may need to pinch myself!

I turn 30 next week and I’m away from tomorrow until after my birthday so this will be the last post I make as a 20-something. I always thought I’d dread getting to 30 but actually I’m ok about it, helps that most of my friends are already there and James has been there for 4 years almost. *grin* Can’t believe that when I first came on to the home ed scene and met some of my now very good friends I was only 23! A little baby

I managed to forget loads of stuff yesterday when I blogged which goes to show that what I write doesn’t neccessarily amount to all of the ‘educational’ stuff we do or even what I deem to be most worthy if you like. Maybe I should do an Alison type disclaimer

M has been doing lots of lego building lately. He doesn’t do buildings or structures but always comes up with weird and wonderful spaceships or cars. He’s quite good at it really Yesterday he was taking pictures of some of them to send to the Lego club magazine that came through the door the other day. I really ought to buy some lego wheels for them as they’ve lost loads and I’m sure he’d concentrate more on some car designs if he had more wheels!

We *finally* finished up George’s Secret Key to the Universe this morning after starting it months ago. We’ve really let read alouds slip lately which is a shame. I think I should try more. They really liked it and can’t wait for the new one to come out (actually amazon is showing it’s already available. Will have to reserve at the library).

We ventured to the local shops today to return some library books and pick up some ordered ones (I love being able to order in books from the whole of the city libraries for free!) and returned the lost audio book and was refunded my fine - yipee! Also managed to get my new glasses adjusted as they were too tight and were causing terrible headaches last weekend so I’d gone back to my old ones till now. They’re much better anyway but will keep my old one’s on me for the time being.

After being there they played lots of imaginary games together involing lego and littlest pet shops. I dilly dallied about getting clothes ready for the coming week. We did try some more nrich interactive things. M started so very well but got really annoyed at one thing (the negative numbers swimming pool thing), he seems to just not want to try anything new He did do very well at the representation section (Oct 2008) and did the Find the difference and ladybird box one with no strops A had a go as well and also did some stuff on shapes and overlaps. Think I need to do some sneaky maths so M doesn’t realise what it is

I forgot to blog about last weekend I think. A was helping collect money for her local Badger unit (St John’s Ambulance) at a local supermarket. They were supposed to be helping pack bags, but I wonder if they didn’t get enough people as in the end they just were standing with a bucket collecting donations. She enjoyed it anyway. She is really loving badgers at the moment and I think it’s telling that James is also v. impressed at it as well having spoken to several of the cadets who all seem lovely and polite some good role models hopefully!

we have mostly been eating… cupcakes! Yum.

Nah actually we’ve been spectacularly un-busy and the one day I thought we did have something planned ( a hospital appointment) I’d got it all wrong and actually we didn’t need to be in the city at all. However we did have a really nice time at the museum looking round the new exhibition about bugs. They really enjoyed using the computer to make their own super bugs and e-mailing it back to themselves. when we got home we saw that we could play again using this link. As always enjoyed looking round the normal exhibits, this time more specifically at some of the stuffed birds that you can find in gardens as we’ve been doing lots of birdwatching lately. As it was a tuesday we should really have made an effort to get to the home ed group, but I really wasn’t in the mood to go. The kids have said that they are happy to walk there so after the easter break we might try going again maybe every fortnight or something.

A has been doing really well with her reading lately. She never did finish the Little Bear book but I was telling her that I had got that book as part of a ‘reading curriculum’ type thing (Sonlight readers 1) and that I could show her the other books that were at the same or similar level. She was really interested so I found them out, they’re mostly the Dr Seuss books and I left them with her. She read Green Eggs and Ham that very evening and has since read Put Me in the Zoo and today finished One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. She’s really enjoyed them, it’s fab to watch her really come on so well with her reading. She liked doing the questions that the sonlight guide suggests too, I wonder if she’d actually enjoy doing the sonlight type stuff. Might have a think on that one, I think too much about what M wants and would do most of the time and it doesn’t always suit A. Maybe I need to change tack and maybe M will enjoy seeing what she does.

We’ve done a bit of maths on the Nrich site which looks like a really great resource. A has been into wordsearches after finding her St John’s one from that first Badgers meeting and so found the Puzzle Pixies site which had some other stuff that both of them have enjoyed. M said he did some sudoku and some hangman this morning on it.

They have been playing loads together in a nice brother/sister way lately which I always enjoy seeing. Except today they have been awful. Hoping they’ll get over it quickly.

aka animal type stories or more girl orientated that A might actually listen to! She’s actually listening to more now and enjoying them. Just another list for me to look at, these are probably things that won’t appeal so much to M, but then he surprises me sometimes

Heidi
Black Beauty
The Secret Garden
The Railway Children
Watership Down (sad though, maybe wait a while!)
Ballet Shoes
Anne of Green Gables
Alice in Wonderland

A lot of these, and the one’s in the post for M I haven’t read. In fact although I read lots as a child I never seemed to find these ‘classics’ so I’m thinking it will be nice to start to listen to them as a family. Might start with Carrie’s War which M managed to lose about 4 months ago from the library but which has just been found again. May as well listen to it before sending it back.

Oh and I realise some people don’t like the idea of certain stuff for boys and girls and I don’t really mean these lists as certain things I approve of for boys or girls, just really what I think will appeal to M and A at this moment in time. Like I say, they surprise me with what they like and dislike!

after the weekend hasn’t been so easy. Saturday I was working and so that colours the day and means we don’t do much else, and Sunday I wasn’t feeling very well. I think it was some grapes that I ate while trying to not eat chocolate that did it, they didn’t quite taste right. Next time I’ll go for the chocolate So really James did most of the parenting at the weekend and it was a general lazy feel to it.

Yesterday I was still feeling a crummy and so decided against a jaunt to the other side of the city for a woodland activity day. A shame though as it was an absolutely gorgeous day and sounded fun. Next week though. The kids did manage to spend the whole day out in the garden though which was nice to see. They took a blanket and teddies and had the whole picnic thing going on, then decided to do some planting of some seeds. M made James a St Patricks Day card and we made some cakes.

We tried to do a food shop in the evening but the kids were being horrors, you’d have thought they’d been cooped up all day, so we just grabbed a few bits. I hate shopping on my own or I’d leave James with the kids. I really ought to get to grips with internet shopping!

Today has been a bit better but the sun has stayed away for most of it. I’ve done a few bits of decluttering and A has gone through all her clothes and sorted ut a huge pile of stuff she doesn’t want anymore which is great as she has so many. Just need to offload them somewhere now. Kids did their reading and maths, I rolled my eyes at A saying she couldn’t do her page which was asking you to count the sheep and then did some wii-fit and club penguin (st Patricks day goodies afaik which caused great excitement).

Went to the opticians this aft and chose some new glasses and had an almost teenager like strop when I couldn’t find any I liked But James perservered and I found some I should be able to pick up next week. We had a St Patricks day Simpsons binge and that’s been it. Feels a little light on the content though Ugh, should do better.

We’ve been trying to attract birds into the garden for some time now. We’ve never had much luck before and I wasn’t really expecting much this time either. However this time we’ve been attracting loads of different types and the kids are really enjoying catching glimpses of them. When it was snowy we had a couple of thrushes in the garden, or flushes as A calls them, but never had any back since. We have loads of blackbirds and blue and great tits and the occasional robins. Yesterday though we saw 2 goldfinches, one on the feeder and one on the fence. A calls them strawberry faces and really likes them and they both were about when I spotted them so that was really good.

We had a nice day yesterday, seemed to do the required reading and maths without too much trouble mainly as the maths was the tank game. Kids really like that one and play really well together on it which is a plus. We then did some baking as I’d been promising it for a bit, some nice dairy free chocolate muffins. They didn’t taste very orangey though, but were nice all the same. Managed to sneak quite a bit of maths in with the baking and for a change they didn’t strop so I was calmer doing it with them. Sometimes they get so stressed out by thinking the other has a better job than them or that they didn’t get enough licks of the bowl compared to the other - argh! Anyway, was much better yesterday. I’m sure I took some photos, must see if I can download them off my phone…

They played on some games after lunch but as it was such a nice day I insisted we took a walk to the small park for a bit before the schools came out and so we took the football and had some fun playing with that. A took her bike and they just had a nice time in the fresh air. Came home bang on kicking out time and the kids dissappeared back to their games.

A had her Badgers and had a very nice time again, I think next weekend she might be helping pack bags at a supermarket. Poor customers, they’ll be finding bags with one thing in them!! That’s what happens when she packs my bags! Watched the killimanjaro climb when we got home which was fab - would love to do that!!

Today has been a going out day, went to visit the Bonkers tribe and had a fun time making pasta with their new pasta making machine, well until A cut her finger, but she got over it eventually (actually after a looong time!!). Lovely to see the kids getting on so well, think the only telling off was for getting a bit giddy but other than that they played fab.

Home and we did some reading and maths as we hadn’t had time before heading out. A did some fab reading of the Little Bear book which she really liked. We used to watch it all the time on some sky channel and for some reason I really liked it (I know, I’m weird) so I thought they’d both love the book. Unfortunately it’s taken them both so long to get to that reading level that it’s been ages since we saw it and they can’t remember it any more. Wonder if it’s on you tube?