just another morning here

Another busy day here, and it’s only lunchtime! Think I’m giving up for the day though

Started off with Joe re-discovering Reader Rabbit – he played on the Y2 Maths one very briefly, then changed to the general Year 2 game (some maths, english, and science, maths and science bits far too easy for him but he was challenged by the literacy side of it). By the time I’d had the usual arguments with the girls over getting ready and leaving for school he was utterly engrossed so I left him to it, and actually went up and sat on his bed so that I could watch

I got bored well before he did, he eventually came down a couple of hours later having completed the game. Tick literacy, maths, IT, and a bit of science.

We had elevenses and then did violin practice and piano practice together. Tick music.

It was pretty much lunchtime at that point but we waited for Steve, so while we were waiting we made chocolate mousse. Two avocados had turned up in my Riverford box this week so I had to try the recipe, it just sounded too weird not to give it a go! Tick cookery and some practical maths through the measuring.

Put that in the fridge and got the fraction tower set out, which Joe enjoyed playing with for a good half an hour until Steve appeared. Tick more maths.

For some reason (can’t think why?!) Steve was hugely suspicious when I produced dessert – but he ate it – and Joe liked it as well.

Perhaps I was just rubbish at keeping a straight face – it’s really nice, but isn’t quite moussey enough to pass for a real chocolate mousse. Still, great for dairy free diet people! Erm, there is plenty left for the girls though, it’s very rich – can’t believe Jo & Olivia managed all that just between the two of them!!!

Think I might head off to find some Valentine’s day crafty stuff for this afternoon, I wonder if Joe could be persuaded that he loves his sisters enough to make them a card …

Home Ed with only one child has advantages and disadvantages, I’m finding – no surprises there I suppose! Very different to how things used to be before, anyway. It’s much easier to feel happy that the basics are covered for the day, but then harder to fill the rest of the time … and so many games aren’t really meaningful with only two people … ah well. From next week onwards we will have Joe’s 18mo cousin Robyn with us for 3 days each week so that will spice things up a little

Joe started the morning with some maths sticker book (multiplication and division in the 2,3,4,5 and 10 times table), violin practice, and then we carried on with our Hotchpotch thing – it ended up being a Superhero Hotchpotch character named Batpotch (photo to follow, can’t find camera), with different special powers taken from all the different superheros Joe could think of. He drew the character and wrote a sentence, then dictated a few more sentences to me – I still can’t stand making a child write when they really aren’t ready to, and when the mechanics of writing actually detract from the enjoyment they have in making up stories or describing things.

Gave in to a bit of tv before lunch, then after lunch we walked down to the library at the bottom of the close – planning to make that a weekly thing, and hoping that the librarian will start being nicer to us if we go in regularly! Joe sat in there reading quietly for half an hour, so I did as well Then when we got home we played Mindbender (Woollies’ version of Mastermind), Jenga, Set, and by the time the girls came home I was knackered! They’re now playing playmobil and having a variety of music lessons between the three of them.

Note to self: remember to look at school dinner menu before planning dinner at home, my poor girls are going to have had gammon twice today, oops! Nigella’s gammon in coke seems to have worked fine in the slow cooker though – will update after tea with my verdict although I’m sure it will be yummy

Today Josiah chose to read ‘Little Hotchpotch‘. It’s a pretty boring story in my opinion, in a sort of henny penny repetitive way, but he enjoyed it. About two thirds of the way through I realised that there was some quite nice descriptive language and metaphors in it, so when we got to the end we talked about those … and the difference between just describing something as ‘black’ or as ‘black as night’.

Had a break for violin practice (done beautifully again with no hassles, how long can it last?!) and Raven-watching, then went back to the Little Hotchpotch theme by making up our own imaginary animal – the plan was to draw it, describe it, then hopefully make a 3D model version … but that’s saved for another day as by the time we’d got that far and rounded up crafty bits from around the house Joe was wanting to play a game instead, so we had an extraordinarily long game of Trilemma/Addendum. Followed that with another episode of Raven (I’m guessing it must still be half term programming on CBBC?) before getting some food

After lunch Steve and I swapped over so I went to work, and they got lego out together – another of those things we simply haven’t had time for when he’s been at school so it was much appreciated. And children *should* have time to play lego

Girls got home from school and they all watched tv for a bit, then I came home, Steve took Anna out for her cello lesson, and the other two played with Geomags for a while before watching more tv (Blue Peter is a favourite here at the moment). The girls are currently engaged in bedroom lunacy aka putting their clean washing away before bed, while Josiah and Steve are discussing syllables …

Planning to watch the Da Vinci Code later, can’t think that I’ll enjoy the film as much as the book but you never know. We watched a couple of films last week too – R.V. which was just meant to be a bit of a laugh with the kids while we were staying in our camper, but Steve and I both enjoyed it too – we were in a slapstick humour sort of a mood, obviously – and the obligatory American mushy sentimental bit made us both cry!

Also made time to see Tsotsi in a couple of instalments last week, and I really enjoyed that film, it was brilliant cinematography and a compelling story too – definitely gets a recommendation from me and there are very few films that I actually go that far with these days!

Can’t help but blog about the good days we’re having inbetween the other posts.

Today I spent most of my day up on Dartmoor, where it was very cold! I walked a bit, but mainly sat in the van … drinking coffee and hot chocolate to keep warm at the same time as simply enjoying time away from the world at large. Annoyingly I left behind the OS maps that I’d been lent, so I’m not at all sure I ended up where I was supposed to, it was so grey that I didn’t even bother taking photos bar this one just to see if Rog can tell me whether I was in the right place or not!

I have to say that I am really enjoying the enforced organisation in the mornings due to school; I like having an alarm and getting up to it, I like the fact that the children are all doing their music practice before we leave in the morning, and I like the way we seem to have breakfast together, whereas we rarely did that when things were more relaxed – I guess there were other times that we did, but anyway.

The kids had another good day at school by all accounts.

As we walked home I heard tell from Anna of numeracy – brackets and doing the operations in brackets first, literacy – writing instructions for making a sandwich and a cup of tea, PE – gymnastics, all of which she hed enjoyed. She also went to ICE club in her lunchbreak, apparently, which is a christian thing ‘like Sunday school’.

Abbie told me about skipping with skipping ropes in the playground, and maths which was easy. No surprises there then

Josiah seemed to cope with his first full day really well. He said he couldn’t remember what he’d done at school, and I joked that if he couldn’t remember and tell me anything then I’d have to home educate him again, and his response was ‘yikes!’ At which point he miraculously remembered an interactive whiteboard game of word-snap that they’d played. His teacher caught me at the end of the day and talked to me about his reading so they are obviously making an effort there, which encouraged me.

When they all got home they cleared out lunchboxes then settled down with Little Toe/Big Toe Radio and hama beads, draughts, some 3x and 4x tables homework for Abigail. Then Abbie had a bath, Anna drew pictures, Joe played with Mollie, they watched Blue Peter – all really peacefully. I was being domestic goddess and making a roast dinner! Then Joe had a bath, Anna carried on with hama, Abbie played with her hamster, and then we had tea

They seem so happy that I am really not regretting the decision for a minute, any more. I don’t think they learn any more at school than they would in half the time at home, and I’m sure they are wasting plenty of time doing pointless activities there, but hey, they used to waste an awful lot of time dossing around at home as well. They are all enjoying the social side, and the extra motivation for doing things.

Meanwhile things behind the scenes are busy as ever – more on that another day. Need to go and find some chocolate by way of stress relief for my husband