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

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?

Yesterday started out fairly well. I woke to M reading his horrible science magazines, he’s really enjoying them and I am aswell as it means I’m not on at him to read, he’s not desperate to finish reading to get onto whatever else and so I’m less likely to grump at him.

When Alex got up they played on a tank game that had trajectory angles as part of it. Someone had mentioned their son really liking a game like that and I figured it would be right up M’s street but in fact they both enjoyed it. I think we also need to have an explore of the rest of the games on that site, should be something else there that will catch an interest. I read them some creation stories from a library book we got as A is really interested in how it all happened. She decided she wants to go to church. I’m not really sure what to do on that one at the moment!

A then found some craft paper set she had ages ago and they decided to make a huge mess with that. They were doing it nicely together so there was a plus point and they listened to the Into the Blue (Dolphin Diaries) audio book that A got from the library.

After waiting for the postman to come without the parcel I was waiting for we headed off to try and do some shopping that we didn’t manage the day before. Explained to the kids about the labels that tell you the price of stuff per kilo or whatever so you can compare prices while we were outraged looking for some sunflower seeds in the cooking section. Last time we bought them, which wasn’t that long ago, they were 29p for a small pack. Now they were 99p and it was actually cheaper to buy the organic named brand other than the sainbury’s normal pack. Sigh. I got home from shopping in a little bit of a fraught mood and we didn’t do the Chemistry Pre-Level 1 I was planning on doing with them.

Can’t really remember what the rest of the day held, I know I sent them outside for a little while, but er…

Oh well. On to today M was up before me again, but was lego-ing this time. I decided I was going to spend the morning tidying the living room as it’s beginning to look a right mess so I got on with that while A and M played some weird game together. Every so often they have these days where they play so well and have really intricate games. Unfortunately these days also tend to descend into them just being completley loopy. Happy and not fighting, but loopy.

A eventually read a board book that we had lying about which was about a toddler making a den so then she decided to she had to do this too. I was argh-ing at the mess it was creating but decided to leave them to it till 2.30pm which meant they had enough time to tidy before James coming in.

Once James came in it was looking much better, they did a v. good job of getting on with it. Well eventually! James put on loads of music and A was enjoying dancing to The Prodigy, really should have videod her, v funny! M dissappeared to play his xbox and A had a go on Wii Fit. Think that was about it. Doesn’t look much now I’ve written it down! The downside of blogging I guess.

and girls too but really thinking about M here.

Just going to make a list of books that he’s enjoyed on audio cd’s and have a list I can refer to with ideas on some to try. Will welcome any comments

tried and tested and recommended by M age 8:

Alex Rider: The Six Missions
Silverfin (Young Bond)
Harry Potter (he’s listened to The Philosophers Stone, Chamber of Secretsand Prisoner of Azkaban)
The Twits
Blitzed

On a list to try:

Stig of the Dump
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(plus subsequent books)
Swallows and Amazons
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Five Children and It
The Iron Man
The Water Horse
Artemis Fowl
The Fox-busters
Magnus Powermouse
Wind in the Willows (BBC Audio)
Indian in the cupboard
The Box of Delights

Ok that will do for now, will go and get some links sorted and have a think about some more. Came up with loads of ideas last night and now can’t remember that many!

should be easy as it hasn’t felt like a full up day

I had a restless sleep which never helps so woke up on another planet I think. Kids were in decent moods, probably because yesterday fell into ‘days never to be spoken about again’ category and so were hoping for better today.

M started by reading some horrible science magazines we have around. I told him that if the fiction books he’s tried really aren’t doing it for him then maybe the horrible histories etc might be better. So long as he’s actually reading and not just looking at the pics. So he sat for ages with them this morning. I’m not sure what A did at all.

We had eye appointments to pick up glasses and for me to get my eyes tested. Local shopping centre was heaving though, no idea why as it isn’t normally on a monday. I decided to choose some new glasses another time as it was getting late by the time I was tested and we were hungry and still needed to get some food shopping. That was scuppered by no trolleys available and so I decided to just get a nice baguette for lunch. Still huge queues at the till. Kept wondering if it was the weekend!!

Home and a late lunch. M listened to his Silverfin (Young Bond) audio book, read some more horrible science and did some maths. A made a mess and played. Was going to do some reading with her when J came home in a fowl mood so I sent her away to read another time.

Had lovely aduki bean chilli for tea, always feel healthy when I’ve had that. Yay 10 mins!! Rofl, it has been a little bit of a crap day to tell about though.

I’ve been meaning to blog for ages and tend to in my head but at the end of the day it just seems so much to remember and write up and I put it off for another day. Jan reminded me yesterday that she was enjoying my little blogs and so I’m going to put more effort in.

So a quick summary of what we’ve been up to:

* Magna - we renewed our yearly pass there as there was a special offer on in February.
* Lovely visit with Merry so we could be in the vecinity for -
* SB’s birthday party at a soft play centre. Fab time had by all.
* A had badgers which she’s still really enjoying
* Home ed group at the Nature reserve where we were looking at soil and then Babs and I took the kids away to do a geocache.
* Another home ed meet up at a soft play, I think as a group there were 80 home ed kids there which I think is quite impressive!
* Club Penguin is what both kids are currently obsessed with. Not sure if I can find any educational benefit to it though but they are enjoying it a lot!

Yesterday we headed north (I resisted the temptation to just keep driving till I got to Scotland, if James were with me we may have just run away there!!) to Jax’s for Small’s belated 5th birthday party. We had lots of fun and was lovely to meet Jax’s bil and kids as well as catch up with Jan and Jonathan although was slightly perturbed by Jan’s M being as tall as my M and she’s 2 weeks younger than A. I should be used to it by now I guess

Educashunally M has been reading the first Beast Quest book, I think he enjoyed it, but he’s not sure if he’ll read the second one. He really just doesn’t get that interested in story books. A has been reading a book on dolphins in her own way, in other words she can read the long words in it but is struggling still with words such as ‘on’ and ‘the’.

Both children have been really enjoying the Usborne Sticker Maths that Alison gave away at Melrose. So much so that I bought M his own copy and since that one wasn’t quite the same and some of the original book had been used A then wanted her own copy. I don’t mind though, this has been the only time they’ve both been really happy about the maths, I’ve even been woken up with them coming into bed with their maths books. This is good. I also really like that M is reading what to do and just doing it all himself really, I mean it isn’t particularly stretching but as a confidence builder it’s working really well.

A had a poster she needed to make for Badgers, it was about Ireland, I think for the global badge or something so she made that and did more writing than she has ever done in her life!! Mostly without complaint it has to be said. M did his own poster too without writing as he didn’t need to

I think that kind of brings me back up to date, I’ll try and blog better next week.