Monster & Teeny

Monday First thing the children played with magic maize for a while - Monster made some people - including one of me and Teeny stuck some on a dinosaur template page. Then we headed out to see Lucy, R & R. Lucy’s friend was there with her little son and we had lots of interesting chats about Home Education. Another possible convert there perhaps as it does fit well with a lot of her parenting style and theories. Always fun to talk to people who are ‘new’ to the idea.

We came home and an old friend called round on the offchance we’d be in, so that was lovely. The children played with the magic maize some more and then it was time to go to Badgers. It was the last one of term so they all got given their certficates and badges for ‘Global Badger’ - the subject covered this term. Teeny came with me and took all the pictures

Tuesday  We read a large pile of library books in the morning, with Monster having a bash at sounding out various words and doing very well. I made him some link the words to pictures sheets to do with various short words to read and match to the pictures. He likes doing them and often asks for them.

Teeny took herself off for a sleep - she doesn’t have daytime naps and hasn’t since she was barely a year old but the late nights had clearly caught up with her and she just went off, got into bed and fell asleep. I only realised when I wondered why she’d been quiet for about 15 minutes! Monster and I did some baking together while she slept and then we woke her with freshly baked brownies.

In the afternoon they played with geomags creating pictures of space rockets with space robots

After school our friends L & L came over with their Mum, Mel so much rowdy playing including lots of dressing up ensued.

Wednesday  The children did some stickerbooks in the morning. Monster did some of a dinosaur atlas one and Teeny did some of a First 1000 words. Eventually they both decided that the one the other had was more interesting so Monster came and helped Teeny find stickers to match words and then she went and looked for dinosaurs with him.

They got bored of them so went off to play in Monsters room with the Brio traintrack stuff.

Then we went off to the park for Home Ed group. This week it was just us, Lucy with R & R and Julie with M and J but that was fine as the six children get on well and the adults do too. Teeny did brave and daring things with the climbing frame which had me half covering my face in horror and half cheering her on.

Once home they went into Teeny’s room and came out covered in make up with Monster made up as a clown and Teeny as ‘a pretty lady’. A bath to wash it all off again while I read them stories.

Thursday The children played with a remote control Herbie car first thing - when they started to get bored of that I suggested that they built an assault course for it to run round so they made a tunnel and a road with some foam jigsaw blocks. Then Monster made some cubes with it and built walls for it to run into and knock down. The toy animals came out too at that point and if the games had a plot it was one only understood by those playing it!

In the afternoon we went food shopping - a whole month’s worth which meant the trolley was so brimming we all three were carrying stuff that wouldn’t fit in, I was still loading stuff onto the conveyer belt long after it was being packed at the other end and they got me a second trolley to put all the bags into and helped us out to the car. The children behaved so well, I was really proud. Even more so as summer holidays had started in earnest and everywhere was the echo of misbehaving children and mothers raising eyebrows at each other and cursing the ‘next six weeks’ and ‘wishing it was September already’. FFS you’ve only just got your children back from the system and you want to send them back again already?!

My parents came over for dinner and helped with putting the children to bed so Teeny got bedtime stories from Granny and Monster got them from Grandad.

Friday  My Mum came over bringing lovely lunch food and I did some baking to take to F’s birthday party on Saturday. We popped out for a few bits and pieces and then Mum and the children went out into the garden while I finished sewing a present for F - Puss in Boots from Shrek 2. A came home after 2 nights away with work and we got the house tidied up and ready for Parents 1 and 2 and all the offspring from HEMUK. The children eventually went to sleep shortly before they all arrived and a very pleasant evening was had in their company.

Saturday An early start to go to F’s pool party to celebrate her fifth birthday. Ali had organised a fantastic day with an hour at a lovely outdoor pool just for our use followed by a picnic and play in the park next door. The weather was perfect, the pool and park were great and the company was lovely. A fab party

We left there and went to our local beach where Alison and I went swimming in the sea with the older four children while Teeny and Buttercup played on the beach. Really lovely day all round. And lots of scope for questions with very practical explanations about properties of fresh water and salt water - and indeed quite how sand and seaweed manage to negotiate their way through swimsuits and stick to your skin!

Sunday  Car boot sale bargain hunting in the morning followed by PYO where we pulled up carrots, beetroots and onions. A lazier afternoon for me at least once home while A and the children were outside in the garden. There was lots of bug hunting which unfortunately meant bringing a variety in to show me but I guess it’s all science or something!

I wrote this post for my personal blog yesterday but felt it should be here too as part of our Home Education blog.

Monday  Too hot And too hot makes me and the children tired and grumpy. We went into town first thing and bought some cakes from the bakers for lunch. When we got home we started talking about Monster’s birthday party. He is not six for another couple of months but he has been planning a Wallace and Gromit themed birthday party for about three months already and wanted to start organising for it. So we’d written out the guest list, the catering planning, some ideas for games and other general stuff and decided that the first action point was to book the venue. The hall we used to hire for Home Ed group last year, and where we had our big Halloween party too last year is perfect for such ocassions and is dirt cheap too - so I rang and got that booked up. Next Monster designed an invitation and we hooked my printer/scanner/copier machine up to the laptop and scanned it in and emailed it to all the invited parties. Way in advance again but as many of them will have long trips to come and will need at least one overnight stay to do so it seemed wise to give lots of notice. He was very interested in how the psc worked and thrilled to see his picture suddenly appear on my laptop.

 We also did some snap it kits - Monster had a frog and Teeny a butterfly which we’d bought ages ago at our last trip to the Science Museum so they coloured them in and then I cut them out and we played with them for a while.

Later Monster had Bagders and I sat in the car and read my book. They played outside this week so I could actually see and hear them through my open car window which was interesting. Monster is quite a different child without me around and I always enjoy the sneaky peek into his world when he is not aware I’m watching.

Tuesday  Another day with a fair amount of tired and heat induced grumpiness but we also squished in some plasticine making for the children - Monster made an excellent volcano complete with erupting lava gushing down the sides and Teeny made me a very ornate ring which she constructed around my finger telling what precious stone she was adding next ‘here are some diamonds, and some sapphires and now some emeralds’ so the chat we had about birthstones and semi-precious stones and minerals clearly went in from a couple of weeks ago then.

In the evening I had book group, which is at the local library so I collected a few books on origami, papercraft and modelling and sculpting while I was there to bring home for them.

Wednesday A trip to the vets first thing for our cat to have a check up. We’re not great at getting out of the house generally so to manage it prior to 9am is always tricky . The children quite enjoyed being at the vets - they’ve both been with me seperately on different ocassions so they quite liked being there together and pointing out the different things they’d spotted previously to each other.

Home again and I made some cheese scones to take to the park for a picnic and had a long phone chat with SIL as we weren’t going to be seeing each other which ended up with us arranging to meet later in the day after all. Then we set off to the park to meet some other local Home Educators including Lucy with R & R, a couple I’ve met several times before who HE their 9 & 10 yo grandsons and a brand new lady with her 9 yo daughter who finished school last week! A really nice mixture with loads of experienced HEors swapping stories and tips with some new, enthusiastic and excited HEors. The children all mixed really well and I was most amused and pleased to look round at one point and spot Monster playing with a 10yo and Teeny deep in conversation walking round the field with a 9yo.

We left there and headed to the beach to meet up with SIL and cousins J & M. We had a lovely couple of hours on the beach. SIL swam in the sea with Monster and Teeny, we walked along and got ice creams and then the children clambered about on the rocks eventually standing on them as the tide washed in and crashed on the lower ones playing some inventive and exciting looking game. They were gradually joined by four other children from the beach ending up with 8 children of all ages playing together as the sun made all their shadows grow long and the sand and salt dried on their skin. Lovely

Thursday In the morning I had some problems with my laptop so while I started to sort that out the children played with magic sand in bowls of water. Once I’d given up sorting it out as beyond me we looked through some of the books I’d got from the library earlier in the week and decided to have a go at making some salt dough pots with animals. So we mixed up a batch of the dough and sat together looking at the book and copying the ideas, then made some of our own interpretations. They are drying still, once dried we will paint and varnish them. Monster has been playing with playdoh, plasticine and any other modelling medium he can lay his hands on (including memorably opal fruits in the back of a car on a long journey ) and is really rather good at it. Teeny showed similar promise by making a very recognisable duck and following several of my tips for making shapes and attaching them to each other. We looked at various other paper based crafts and came up with some ideas for future salt dough projects too.

Then we headed into town to the small local library to sign the children up for the Reading Mission. Teeny sat and played on the computer in the children’s area while Monster and I walked round the library doing the first ‘mission’ of spotting some characters hidden round the shelves. The completed forms were handed in to enter a prize draw. They chose some books each and as it was lovely and cool in the library we sat and read a couple of stories too.

Once home A read them a Charlie and Lola book and they had a long, cool bath.

Friday In the morning we went to Tesco for a few bits and pieces, which was ridiculously busy so I was very impressed with the childrens’ all but impeccable behaviour in there - and the fact that Teeny begged with me in the vegetable aisle to buy some peas in their pods for her.

 Before we’d left I’d got out my old jewellry box and we’d sat and looked through my ‘treasures’ including childhood rings, bracelets and watches, various huge and gaudy earrings from my teenage rebellion period, some ‘nice’ bits like 21st gold keys and lockets and other bits with stories attached.

On the way to Tesco we listened to one of the Horrible Histories cds we’d got free with cereals last year and have never opened. This was Terrible Tudors complete with the Henry VII song which the Portico children performed at Kessingland so we all enjoyed learning that and both Monster and Teeny paid huge amounts of attention to the rest of the reading too including making comments and asking questions as it went along.

 Monster made his own sandwich for the second time this week (oh, where did my helpless newborn go?) and they played with funblox while waiting for Ali and F to arrive.

Once they were with us the children pretty much disappeared outside with the bribe of Fab lollies assisting to persuade them.

Saturday In the afternoon we headed off to the Portico   where we had a lovely afternoon and evening with the BOGOF bonus of Layla, Si and C arriving for the evening. A had to go to a work party so was off for a few hours but the rest of us had a lovely time eating, drinking, singing, chatting and playing. Bliss There was also a very HE moment where seven children put a strawberry in the microwave for one minute and we all analysed, smelt and tasted the results.

Sunday Started nice and slow (which was all I could manage after the excesses of the previous night ) with bacon bagels, the Sunday papers and the children playing quietly or at least in another room! We headed for home around lunchtime and had a quiet afternoon at home with a lovely roast dinner in the evening.

Sorry Bob, it just ate your comment! Think I’ve deactivated it now but I fear your words of wisdom were lost forever!

I did actually think of you and the mentos/coke experiment while drinking my coke float!  

Monday A still off work for a second week which meant he spent lots of time in the garden tidying up and gardening. This meant the children could spent most of their days out there too - I hate sitting in the garden, I’m a sun avoider rather than a sun worshipper, I’ve got no interest in gardening and I hate being too hot, so as the garden is too open for them to play outside without an adult out there with them they don’t get much chance to play out all day and get left to investigate garden wildlife, dig mud up and generally get grubby.

I also had a nice one to one interlude with both children. Monster came to the vets with me to take our cat back for an after the weekend check up. He was excellent with her, having her cat carrier on his lap on the way there and talking to her and comforting her on the journey.

 Teeny and I walked to the post office together to post an ebay parcel and some ‘thank you for having us’ cards to our variety of hosts from last weeks Tour Of The North. I love being with just Teeny as she never, ever stops talking but when you have Monster or even A around too she tends to fade into background noise rather than actually being listened to. So it was nice to walk along holding hands with her and hear her chatter and observations. I’m stunned to realise quite how many plants and flowers she can identify and what a lot she does have to say which is interesting, intelligent and often quite profound. We made friends with a ginger tom cat on the way back which followed us for a while so we chatted about the difference between male and female cats and speculated on where he might live and who his owners might be.

Monster had Badgers in the afternoon which he enjoyed as usual.

Tuesday Plenty of baking and batch cooking in the morning with some reading of library books due back too. Monster had a good go at reading a Dr Seuss one, although a large amount of it was guesswork at least it was educated guesswork with him spelling stuff out rather than wildly guessing like he used to.

More garden play too with A finding a spider carrying a massive sac of eggs with her and bringing it to show the childen, and them searching the garden for snails which they then lined up on the wall of the house and set off on a snail race, excitedly at first charting their progress dwindling to resignation that this was not to be any sort of high speed activity!

After lunch we walked into town, A and I taking it in turns to walk alongside Monster who was on his bike (much too small for him, far more suitable for Teeny actually, it has stabilisers but he’s still mastering steering and pedalling so we’ll wait for the balancing to come in it’s own time) or hold hands with Teeny.

In bed Monster spent some time playing with a VTech Notebook thingy we’ve had kicking around for ages and composed some music which A and I were invited to come and listen to.

Wednesday At the childrens’ request we headed off to the local dinosaur and gardens place with a picnic lunch. A fairly speedy trail round with a stop to eat our picnic and then we went over to see my Dad for a couple of hours too. Monster really impressed A and I by correctly identifying 10 dinsosaurs on one of the interactive displays - particularly as two of them I didn’t know myself!

Thursday Our cat was back at the vets for the whole day to have her sewn shut eye opened again. This time Teeny came with me to drop her off and collect her again and showed lots of interest in all the various things on show in the waiting room (animal food, toys, beds and clothing!). Monster stayed home with A and played Zoombinis.

We packed up another picnic and set off for a walk up the downs (The South Downs, we live in Sussex) which was lovely. Lots of shade, lots of butterflies, bugs and birds, plants and flowers to see and talk about. We also walked round the very pretty local church, spending ages in the graveyard reading headstones and talking about the people who’s lives they marked out, the difference between cremation and burial and different reasons why people die. Then we went inside the church and I dug out more than I thought I’d remembered from GCSE RE and told them what various bits of furniture in the church were for, admired the windows and the organ and talked about who would stand where for various services.

Later Teeny and I went to a couple of supermarkets for various bits and pieces of shopping. We are on a pretty tight shopping budget and experimenting with one large shop per month with small top ups of fresh food to see if it saves money buying most stuff in bulk.

I read them ‘bedtime’ stories while they had a long soak in the bath to wash off grime from walking. We’d borrowed a childrens’ Bible from the library as Monster has been asking about creation and evolution recently so I wanted to read him the creation version but found the children’s Bible really annoying. I like the language used in the Bible, I think it adds to the stories and I hate the summing up and interpreting of the text that this kiddie-fied version had so I’ll have to keep an eye out for a ‘proper’ Bible.

Friday Loads more batch cooking and baking for me - the freezer is nicely full atm. A did some more gardening and a couple of runs to the tip while the children played in the garden. They did some digging, some finding creatures inlcuding what they thought were baby snails inside a dead snail’s shell and I explained were maggots. So lots of talking about life cycles and how it is not just butterflies which hatch as caterpillars from eggs to metamorphosize to flying creatures but various other things including ladybirds and flies.

My Mum appeared in the afternoon so she joined us on our late afternoon trip down to the beach where we chased waves, paddles, collected seaweed and had a lovely hour or so until the children got wet and shivery so we came home again for tea.

Saturday  First thing we headed out to buy a digital camera as a joint present for my Mum from us and my Dad, then A went and helped my Dad cut their hedge then we headed over to BIL and SIL for the afternoon. The children all played with sand and water and the climbing frame with their cousins while grown ups chatted. Lovely afternoon.

Sunday My Mum’s Official Belated Birthday. We took a picnic and started a walk over the downs which it ended up being too hot and without shade to complete. We stopped about 1/2 a mile short of the final destination and had our picnic, then walked back again. Lots to see including all sorts of farmers crops which we talked about end products for, birds, bugs and butterflies including some stripey caterpillars which we brought home several of to put in our butterfly garden from last year to see what they become in the next phase of their lifecycle.

Home for birthday cake and a big bath for the children, who despite being totally worn out by the walk were just too hot to sleep so ended up getting out of bed and sitting with us while we had our dinner and going back to bed finally not that long before us in the end. They also had their first ever taste of the delights of a coke float and were instantly hooked!  

Monday After much rejigging of our schedule according to various changes we arrived at our second location of the tour which was still in the Manchester area, this time with our ex-boss. We went via The Trafford Centre shopping mall where we used to work and drove by our old house where Teeny was born. Both children slept during the journey so were refreshed and ready for playing on the climbing frame and trampoline belonging to their daughter F who was still at school when we arrived. She came home and the three children had a lovely afternoon before being wrestled into bed fairly early as it was a school night for F.

Tuesday Up bright and early we headed off with Miranda to a local ice cream farm where there was a variety of farmyard animals including a donkey, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, geese and turkeys, as well as peacocks, cats with kittens and lots of very free range chicks and ducks. We watched day old lambs being top up fed by the farmer, played for ages and ages with the kittens (two litters - one about a month old, the other just over a week) and had ice cream made on site in exotic flavours.

We left there and had a very picturesque walk along a river bank with the children collecting caught sheeps fleece off the trees and fences and me showing Teeny how to play ‘poohsticks’ using leaves when we came upon a bridge over the river. Lots of chat about currents, where rivers go and why they are not salty and why the sea is and we followed the river for a time as the road back ran parallel.

We went back for lunch and then headed off for destination number three of Joyce, Bob and Hannah in Scotland.

On the way I had a phonecall from my Mum to say our cat had been found, recovering from a dreadful hit from a car at a local vets. She would be allowed home on Friday evening so we needed to cut our trip short and be home ready to collect her. but for her being found alive.

A lovely evening at Joyce’s with the children playing in the garden, A watching football and Joyce and I enjoying the last of the sunshine in their garden accompanied by Pimms!

Wednesday A truly lovely day spent in Joyce’s garden. The children played with sand, water, the pool, the trampoline, the climbing frame and a short film break while we just enjoyed the sunshine and Joyce’s splendid hospitality.

Thursday After a leisurely breakfast with Joyce and Bob we set off for the final destination on our truncated tour which was Kirsty and James’. We had a lovely afternoon and evening there with the children exploring the fab grounds of their house and more trampolining (3/4 of the houses we went to had one - infact the one which didn’t was a child free house - wish we had the space and cash for one, they are fab! ). A very late night for the children with us not long afterwards in preparation for a very long drive home the next day.

Friday We set off before 10am for the 500 mile drive home. It was long, boring and thanks to hitting the M25 at rush hour on Friday when there was accidents aplenty making it even worse than usual it took a full 10 hours to get home. The children had both slept in the car on the way for at least part of the journey (unsurprisingly) so they sat up with us and had fish and chips before being packed off to bed late. I think Monster fell asleep after A had gone to bed. I stayed up ’til gone 2am catching up online We ended up arriving home too late to collect the cat from the vets but arranged to collect her for a weekend home visit on Saturday.

Monster did discover during the journey that opal fruits (or whatever they’re being called these days) and Werthers chewy toffees can be used as edible modelling materials and spent ages creating a whole range of fruits and other things, experimenting with mixing colours and so on. He then ate them all .

Saturday Dominated by collecting our cat from the vets. She is pretty badly injured although should recover aside from her sight. She still has one eye sewn shut and little or no sight in the other - time will tell if she remains blind or not. She will probably have to go back into the vets again tomorrow as she is not really eating or drinking yet (she was being tube fed in the vets all week) but it has been lovely to have her home and the children are being very good little veterinary assistants with some very practical experiences in dealing with pet ownership, how lives are compromised by loss of sight and how the other senses are used more to compensate.

Sunday Further caring for our cat, lots of plasticine playing, some baking (peanut butter cookies and chocolate fairy cakes), some playing in the garden and some sorting out of videos to tidy the front room a bit and add to our growing pile of stuff to go on ebay. A is off work for another week so depending on our cat (who has an appointment at the vets in the morning) - and the weather - we may be off out for day trips and picnics.

Monday A planned quiet day at home didn’t quite happen with my Granny coming over for a couple of hours in the morning. The children happily sat with her looking at our most recent photos of camping while I did some baking (turning horribly mushy bananas into muffins was particularly satisfying!). We had the geomags out and they made a tent, table and chairs for one of their toys to go camping in. Lots of talk about how many rods, balls and panels would be needed and what shapes we were creating as we went.

Granny left and Lucy arrived with R & R for lunch and a play. After they left the children watched the DVD extras on Wallace & Gromit Were Rabbit for about the 700th time.

Badgers in the afternoon for Monster where I was very pleased to be told when I went in to collect him how well he is doing there and what a favourite of the Badger leader he is .

Tuesday I wanted to finish reading a book due back at the library so the children were *very* autonomous for most of the morning. They watched some Discovery Kids and did loads of drawings for each other which they then went outside and posted through the letterbox. I also did some words and pictures puzzles for him at his request - writing out words and drawing corresponding pictures for him to match up together. He really enjoys this and although a lot of it is educated guesswork rather than actual spelling out words he is clearly learning and developing reading skills as he goes.

After lunch we went into town on the bus. I hardly ever use public transport and I’m afraid given the high price and surly attitude of the staff on most of it I am unlikely to change that any time soon. It cost way more to go a couple of miles into town than the petrol and overpriced parking would have done but the children enjoyed the different experience so it was nice enough for a one off. We had various things to do in town including visiting the optician to complete a form, getting Teeny’s feet measured at Clarkes as I thought her feet had grown (they had!) and the library to return some books. Teeny was tired and not well behaved at all in the library which was annoying and embarrassing. We got a pile of books out having arranged with A to pick us up on his way home rather than catch a bus back. We got chip shop chips on the way home for the childrens’ tea. I read them a rather good book I’d got from the library which we all enjoyed and have also borrowed a childrens’ Bible to read the creation story to Monster given his recent interest in creation vs evolution theories.

Wednesday  A very early start to the day as we were off to London to meet with friends at the Diana Memorial Playground. Except we went via Reading as A was working there and the train journey in was about half what it would have been from home and with no need to get the tube or bus either. We had a lovely day with the children having great fun playing with the sand, water, pirate ship and their friends. There was the traditional missing child just before home time who was found in the black hole that is the base of the pirate ship there and we went back to HEMUK for dinner and further playing for children / chatting for adults. A lovely day. Monster, Teeny and I sat squashed onto one seat for part of the train journey and to prevent them from being too noisy and wriggly we read through the safety leaflet and spent time locating all the various alarms, equipment and emergency exits and talking about them.

Thursday Another lovely day spent at a local attraction with an educational walk through on planet Earth, weather, ice age, dinosaurs, prehistoric man and through the ages to today, Sussex in miniature gardens and various other attractions. We went with SIL Julie and cousins J & M and Lucy with R & R. We had a picnic lunch in the gardens, a play in the old fashioned amusements and coffees and ice creams in the cafe. It was a fab day and all six children really enjoyed themselves. Lucy, R & R came back with us for a play in the garden afterwards too.

Conversations in the car and round the gardens included cows being milked, dreams and sleep talking, the progress of food and drink through your body after swallowing and various other random and varied things.

Friday A quick pop to the post office to tax my car and send ebay parcels and we headed over to Ali’s for the afternoon. The children spent the whole time outside playing with sand, water and bubbles allowing Ali and I plenty of chatting time. Our cat went missing during the previous night so when we got home we spent hours trying to find her rather than packing for our holiday the following day.

Saturday Still no sign of our cat so having looked all around for her again and finally packing and loading up the car we set off for the first part of our tour. We’d arranged to spend two nights each with six friends in a big circular route up one side of the country, into Scotland and back down the other side of the country. We arrived in Manchester mid afternoon where A got to sit and watch football to recover from the drive while I sat in the garden and the children played until about 10.30pm. A lovely welcome from the lady who used to be the childrens’ nanny when we lived up there, and her husband.

Sunday A perfect, lazy, enjoying the sunshine and Lynda & Stuart’s beautiful garden sort of day. The children played, we read the papers, ate lots of lovely food and A and I spent some time in a badminton challenge