They make me laugh

Sam and his friends have such funny conversations-the number of time I nearly crashed today because I was doubled over with laughter. We took Sam's friend S with us to the museum this afternoon. All this week they are running workshops on bugs and other creepy wildlife. Sam wanted to ask S to come and luckily he was free. This was the conversation on the way to the car park.

Sam: We are parking near Marks and Spencer
S: Not Marks and Spencer
Sam: I hate the clothes section of Marks and Spencer
S: I never want to go to Marks and Spencer again.
Me-don't worry guys we aren't going to M & S.

Since when are 4 year olds allowed to have an opinon on where they shop. To make it even worse we hardly go to M & S. I rarely shop in there as it is at the far end of town and I can't be bothered to walk down there. If they are like this at 4 what are they going to be like at 14! I think I shall send him to live with his godmother! They did finally conceed that they liked the toy dept of M&S-big shock there.

The museum was a big hit as you can see by the photos. They also had an exhibit on force and motion which the boys enjoyed. We didn't see many living bugs, they seemed to be in short supply today. We did see a slow worm (weird or what), a day old frog-yesterday it was froglet and a stick insect. Sam and I may go back on saturday as they will have spiders then. Sam informed me today that he is saving up for tarantula (over my dead body) and when he gets one he will put it on my head. I think I am going to hide his piggybank!! I don't mind spiders, I just don't want one on my head-or any other part of my body for that matter.

We have reached a Headsprout milestone-sam has completed the first 40 episdoes. I presented him with a certificate-which he duly laminated. He has enjoyed the first 40 so much that I agreed that he could do the next 40. He has really learned a lot using the program, more so than when I was teaching him myself using conventional methods. He was very excited today as our amazon order arrived-full of Dick and Jane stories as well as a Boxcar Children book. I loved the boxcar children when I was growing up and I am thrilled that Sam finds them just as enthralling. I must introduce him to the Bobsey Twins and eventually the Hardy Boys. I prefered Nancy Drew myself but I suspect he Hardy Boys are more him.

Provided it stays dry we are off to central park tomorrow (bless him, sam thought the one in NY was named after the one here!) to meet up with "The Boys". It will be fun to have everyone together-we are both going to miss them when they go off to school. If it is pouring everyone is coming here-could be chaos with 9 children.

Maybe I wil run away and join the circus! 

How does this work then? 

concentrating hard 

Pooped, pooped, pooped, boy are we pooped!!

what a day- we are so tired that sam hardly touched his tortellini (trust me this rarely happens!). We were on the go literally from 9-5. First stop was our toddler group Happy Faces where sam created about a million paintings. that sounds lovely but they never dry-especially in this weather! they are all stuck together as I type this and will probably never come apart.

We dashed from there to meet our home ed group at Burghley Sculpture Park for a tour and workshop. We both had a blast. The parents running the event not only belong to our group but are also artist in residence at the park and do these workshops on a regular basis. Sam had great fun joining in the activities and of course creating his own masterpiece. He says it is a spaceship-will have to post a proper photo of it tomorrow. It was a lovely session-all the children get on well together and there was no bickering or squabbling. Sam even got into the spirit and shared the compas he was using willingly with another little boy.

Another mad dash from there to pick up the books and go to the local village school for a table top sale. From a sales point of view it was a washout but I did give out a few leaflets so maybe something will develop. they are having another one in 5 weeks time and I will go-if nothing else it is good marketing.

We finished off the day with Shrek 2-can you believe that we have only just seen the first one!? Sam seemed to enjoy the sequel if only because it featured a cat. I am not sure that he really followed the plot though. I enjoyed both movies more than I thought I would-especially all the hidden jokes and anamosity toward disney characters.

Not sure what we are up to this weekend, M is working just for a change. Our friend E has asked us round sunday afternoon but that is all we have scheduled. It will be nice to just relax and enjoy the nice weather ( if it lasts that is).

Creating a masterpiece 

an a-mazing day! 

Is Nasa recruiting? 

Sam and I at the space centre 

A question for you all..

If you could live anywhere where would you live?? One of my core beliefs is that you have to be happy whereever you are and make the most of what you have. That being said that doesn't mean that you can't hanker after new horizons everyonce in a while. I like living in peteborough (burning cars aside!) and I love the life that we have created here. However, everyonce in a while I get this longing to be somewhere else. Somewhere where the pace of life is slower, where everyone runs on island time and where you don't have to wear shoes and if you do flip flops or sandals are good enough. Somewhere where sam and the cats can chase lizards and we can eat outside everyday. In short somewhere in the caribbean-the keys, bequia- don't mind as long as it is small and friendly. I am not naive enough to think that all life's problems disapear when you move somewhere tropical-you still have to pay bills, clean house, work etc, they don't, they are just in a nicer setting. I don't suppose for one moment that we will ever move anywhere that exotic and that is fine, I am not pinning away to go. It is nice, however to have this fantasy to escape to when things get me down.
So I put it to you all-where would you live and why?

Fly me to the moon and let me dance among the stars..

That was our theme tune for the day as we spent the morning at the National Space Centre in Leicester. We have been talking about the solar system alot recently and as M had the day off we decided to visit the space centre. It is all very sleek and modern but had very little to capture the imagination of small children. It was definately aimed at older children. Sam enjoyed bits and pieces of the exhibits but none of of walked out feeling excited and envigorated by the visit. It certainly did not spark any more questions about space or space travel. It is such a shame that they have not catered for the under 8s very well-there is huge potential there. We won't be going back any day soon, especially as it was so expensive to get in. Still, it was nice to spend some time together as a family.

We also managed to fit in french and a mystery job in town this afternoon. Sam was one tired guy by bed time. though he still managed to call out a couple of times for me. The first was to tell me that he had to go to the loo, the second was because he had finished his milk and the third was to remind me that I had forgotten to put on classic fm! At least we know who is in charge in this household.

His list of toys to take to mudpud camp seems to grow longer everyday. Today he added geomags and pattern blocks. Needless to say, Hot Wheels are first on the list. Must remember to save room in the back of the car for the tent!

A disturbing night so far

The night is not going well so far. First sam fell out of bed for the first time. He was crying in the middle of the floor when I went to check on him. I put him back to bed and snuggled him until he fell asleep.

I had just gotten back to sleep when I was awoken by a burning smell. Luckily it was coming from outside. I opened the bathroom window to the sight of the fire brigade putting out a burning car in the village hall car park. I watched while they put it out and made sure it was safe. This has really unnerved me, what if someone hadn't called the fire brigade-would the car have exploded??? I don't feel as safe here now, if this can happen what else is in store. A couple of summers ago we went through a spate of teenagers breaking into the village hall and our cars and I pray that this isn't the start of something similar. I just can't understand why people can be so destructive-have they no respect for others and their property?? I feel for the person who owns the car-what a nasty shock they are going to have when they discover what happened to it.

I just hope I can get back to sleep-sam will be up before you know it, bright as a button ready to start the day. It is currently raining and if it is like this in the morning we won't be doing the car boot sale. I hope it is dry-I don't want to have to put all this stuff back up in the loft.

good night-again!

where do you get dogs from??

A dogalogue of course...Sam's latest joke as told to his friend P in the back seat of the car today. He is currently going through a joke phase and is always coming up with ones like this. His jokes are always very imaginative and P laughed at all of them.

We have had busy week, without expecting to. We have seen lots of friends which is lovely but also had time each morning for our more formal HE. That seems to be the way forward, keeping the morning for our more formal work and playtime and errands in the afternoon. Sam is much switched on in the morning even if I am not. Sam's reading is really coming on and he is starting to pick out words he knows wherever he sees them. We did lots of science this week which he really enjoyed. He was captived by our disussion on the solar system and spent ages building geomag space probes to explore the planets. He was particularly taken by Pluto for some reason and wants to go ice skating there. He is still very into little toe radio, though I am not sure how much he really takes in. Still, as a result of listening to little toe we have read The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. It has taken us a few weeks but he has really enjoyed it. He decided that the children in it must be home educated as they never go to school!

We had a lovely day today, we spent most of it in the company of F & P. Her husband and daughter had gone to the FA cup final so we got together to keep the boys amused. We went and watched P at his swimming lessons-Sam has now decided that he wants to start swimming lessons. Perhaps in sept when we have fewer structured activities. After swimming we went back to theirs and the boys played and we all had lunch. P then came to ours while F went to visit a friend. The boys got on very well and spent ages at ours making up worlds for the hot wheels cars. they also make their own pizzas and were glued to webland. They wanted P to stay the night but as we are going to do a car boot tomorrow it did not seem very practical.

M is at work all weekend and we miss him. I just hope that he is able to get a little sleep. He is on long days most of next week so unfortunately we won't see much of him.

Our experiment on air and how it expands as it heats up. 

A space probe for ice skating on pluto 

A balanced day...

A nice mix of things today-playing with friends, doing some headsprout and language work, going to french, sam getting a hair cut and....the delivery of our balancing scales and number puppies. Sam was so excited he practically ripped the box out of the deliveryman's hands. he had a ball with the scales, he went around collecting things to see which was heavier-I had to draw the line at using the cats! The number puppies were a hit too, he spent ages sorting them by size and then weighing them in the scale. The session ended with the buckets from the scale being used as space ships by the number puppies, I am sure the manufacturers never expected that.

We watched S & A today and everyone got on really well and a good time was had by all. It have sam a chance to have a friend test drive his room. Judging by the number of toys strewn across the room I would have to say it was a success. A was right in the thick of things and kept up with the boys no problem. Sam was very proud about reading one of his Dick and Jane stories to them.

sam and nana having a swinging time in dublin. 

Matthew and his mother after the ceremony 

My boys at the Davenport Hotel, where matthew passed his exam 

"Mommy, that word says out"...

sam said this afternoon as we were driving out of the carpark. Not only did he say it once but every time he saw the "out" sign. I am so proud of him. It isn't a big word but if he is starting to apply what he is learning from headsprout and our reading then he must be starting to crack the reading code. I don't think he will be doing war and peace any day soon but at least we are on the right track. I bought him some of the Dick and Jane stories and he loves them. He is able to read them without too much help and he thinks that sally and the animals are the best. He can't wait to see what mischief they get up to. I think the stories were originally published in the 30s, though it looks as if the illustrations were updated in the 50s. He likes the olden days clothes as he calls them and thinks it is neat that he is learning to read from the same books that he mom and his grandparents did.

All in all it was a nice day. We spent the morning doing headsprout and other language work then moved on to math and science. We got the pattern blocks out and sam used his cars to arrange them by color and shape. It was taking ages ( a hot wheels car can only hold one shape!) until I suggested that he used is dino expedition vehicle. That worked well until the vehicle decided it was more fun to crash the piles than to arrange them. Our balancing scales should be here tomorrow and we are both looking forward to playing with them.

Our science experiments both worked today, which is a miracle considering I was in charge. We did two to show how air contracts and expands as it changes temperature. I will post a photo later of the hot air one-we used balloons, soda bottles and warm water.

Finished off the day by watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which I wasn't at all sure he would like or even sit through. I was amazed, he was captivated-especially by the animation sequence. He wasn't at all frighted by the battle at the end, in fact he was laughing in places. They are doing the story on Little Toe Radio this week so it should tie in nicely.

We had a lovely time last week in Dublin, it is such a friendly vibrant city. We went with M's parents for the ceremony in which he became a fellow of the College of Anaesthtists( I know this is mispelled but my brain has given up), Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. We are so proud of him, he has worked so hard for so long for this. We spent a couple of days sightseeing prior to the event. We managed to use every form of public transport on offer, which delighted sam. He was especially excited to ride on the new LUAS electric trams. The men enjoyed the guiness factory-I still think it tastes like swamp water! The view from the top was amazing though. We also went out to Malahide Castle which boasts the largest model railway exhibit in the country. Sam was in his element and didn't want to leave! he also enjoyed the fantastic playgrounds on offer. It was nice going away as a family; we really enjoyed spending time with M's parents and I know that sam did too. We would love to go back to explore a bit more of the countryside-we may even be brave enough to camp!

Spent most of the weekend doing chores around the house and garden. The boys planted tons of stuff-must remember to bring in the more delicate ones as they predict a frost tonight. don't you just love english weather.

I have just finished reading The Rule of Four by Caldwell & Thomason, it was good but not in the way I expected. It is billed as the next Da Vinci code, when in fact they have very little in common. This book is not a fast paced thriller but a careful consideration about how the past can grab hold of you. You can tell that the authors are boths still in the 20s-they write about being in college with such freshness-not like a dim memory. I hope Princeton has paid them for advertising-the book paints such a rosy, dream like picture of the place it makes me want to go to college all over again. My next book is one for my book group, Small Island by Andrea Levy-looks like and interesting read.

A fairly quiet rest of the week-just hope the weather improves as sam is itching to get out on his bike.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, whether your children be human, feline or canine!! Lots of hugs to auntie lyn, cheryl, mary, amy, aunt peg and grandma. To all my english friends, today is mother's day in the us.
We have had a nice weekend, lots of pottering, tidying and gardening. The house is starting to come together again. Instead of having boxes everywhere to go through they are all now piled on the old sofa. If we do a box an evening it shouldn't take us long to go through. Have tons of stuff to get rid of, may do a car boot sale, if not will store it all away for the next nearly new sale. Sam and I spent ages in the front yard yesterday, weeding and planting. We planted lots of lovely summery flowers, I just hope a few of them grow. He is very into planting at the moment and I just can't keep up with his enthusiasm. There are only so many places we can plant things and so many containers we can fill. The corn he and M planted is doing well as are the sunflowers.
Today being sunday we, of course, went to the trains. M was home so he came along, I think it is his first visit this season. Sam was disapointed that his favorite engines weren't there but still managed to have a few rides.
We did more of the sonlight science yesterday and will do our first experiment tomorrow. Sam is so excited, he loves doing experiments. I don't know how I am going cope if he turns out to be science orientated. that is so not me-I am much more history and english lit orientated. If he does love soience M is going to have to take over more of the teaching-if only because after too long I won't be able to answer sam's questions!!
A busy day tomorrow-I hate busy mondays, rushing and stressing out too early in the week is not good for my mental health!

girls, girls girls. ain't nothing like them in the whole wide wor ld...

to quote jimmy and sam. We spent most of the day with merry and the girls and sam came away singing their praises. ( as well he should, they are delightful girls and very good company). I am not sure he understands all their princess games but he had great fun and they all played really well. Sam did get a bit rough toward the end, his cuddles sometimes turn into full body tackles. I gots lots of lovely josie cuddles. she is so cute! Merry let me have a good look through all her sonlight materials-must resist placing a big order! That being said, I will probably go for one of the handwriting programs, mine is so bad that I don't want sam to copy the way I write.

Playing with merry and the girls was a nice way to round off what was a nice day. We spent the morning doing headsprout and sentences and have now started the sonlight K science program. Sam is so keen to do experiments that I couldn't see the point in waiting any longer. I have chosen to do the 5 day schedule, though given his enthusiasm we may get through 2 days at a time. today's topic was rainbows and to go with it we made a hama bead rainbow (will post photos tomorrow), we also talked about the symbolic meaning of a rainbow ( though not the gay pride one-thought he was a little young for this) and read the noah story. we also talked about leprachauns (sp??) and hiding their treasure at the end of a rainbow. Starting the science has wetted my appetite and we may well begin the full K program before september.

The day ended with Karate and sam was his amusing self. You can defiinately tell he hasn't been to play group as he just doesn't get the concept of raising your hand to answer a question. When they were going over their numbers he kept shouting out the answers-I think that Sensi was getting very frustrated with him. He can't help it bless him, I think he takes after me, I was the original hermoine-hand up at every opportunity aching to be called on. ( except maybe in math and science). They played a game called sleeping dragons, in which the children have to lay still and the last one to move is the winner. A mintue into the game sam calls out something and Sensi says that sleeping dragons have to be quiet-to which sam replies...'WHY???' All the parents and the teenage helpers burst out laughing at this point. He gets the gift of the gab from my side of the family-it isn't our fault we all kissed the blarney stone!!!!!!!!! I do wish mom were around, I think that she would get a real kick out of him and he out of her. We talk about her alot so at least he knows who she is and a little of what she was like. I think she would approve of our decison to home school, both she and my father always tried to make learning fun and an everyday part of life, not just something that happened in school. Sorry to get so maudlin, it must be that glass of wine I had with dinner.

Tomorrow seems impossibly busy, some how I have managed to arrange a hair cut for me, two mystery jobs, a playdate and our usual trip to happy faces. Sounds like it will all end in tears, I must learn not to try and cram so much into one day.

Mommy what does bling mean??

how the heck do you answer a question like that in terms that a four year old will understand and why have hot wheels created a series of cars with this name? Sam chose one when we went shopping yesterday. I tried to explain that it meant people showing off what they had. He has spent all day today making up songs about bling and going around saying bling, bling, bling. It could be worse, at least it isn't a swear word. I just thought that we had a few years grace before he started picking up slang.

A good day despite a shaky start-I woke up as my alter ego 'evil mommy' and it took a while to shake the grumpiness. More headsprout today, followed by Singapore math and lots of stories. Sam really likes singapore math-it is very hands on which suits his learning style. he had great fun with volume today-we spent ages pouring water into different size containers. The next chapter involves weighing so we are off to town tomorrow in search of balancing scales. Sam actually joined in a french today which makes a change. He was singing the loudest but at least he was singing.

Lots of playing with trains, legos and cars this afternoon. He is started to get more creative in his play-I just which that it didn't involve quite so much ramming into things and crashing. what ever happed to a nice gentle game of trains, one where no one derailed or was attacked by a giant lego tower!

off to town tomorrow to run a few errands and then to play with the boys in the afternoon. should be a fun day.

what a difference a weekend makes

Although the house still looks as if a bomb has hit it-definate progress has been made. ( I hate the middle stage of reorganising, you know, the one where the house looks so bad you wish you had never started!). Sam's room looks completely different, it now looks like a proper little boy's room, instead of a toddler camping in an office. He loves the bed from my in laws and spent most of the day bouncing on it. The storage cupboard thing we picked up from ikea is perfect and should reduce the amount of clutter downstairs. M put castors on it to make it even better. We have put most of his books upstairs in his book case, giving us a bit more room downstairs for grown up books. He is desparate to have a friend over to see his room and even asked if his friend matthew could stay the night tonight! He is definately growing up...much too quickly too.

Yesterday was nice, we went down and picked up the bed from the in laws and then decided on the spur of the moment to head down to ikea. sam stayed with nana & grandad (he practially pushed us out the door when we said he could stay) so we had an afternoon to ourselves. Ikea wasn't the hell we had expected and we had a nice browse. We got everything we wanted and not a lot more. The worst part of ikea for me is coming home-the unloading and putting everything together and then all the cardboard-our recycling bin is alreadying over flowing, the last thing it needs is more cardboard!

Lots of practical life activities today as sam helped us in the house and out in the garden. He loves planting things and has quite green fingers. The sweet corn he and matthew planted is doing really well, as are the sunflowers and his rock garden. The only thing he doesn't like is weeding, which is a shame as there is a lot of it to do in our garden. Thank you M for working so hard today to get sam's room in shape and tidy up the garden, I really appreciate it.

Sam really enjoyed muddlepuddle on friday but I am not sure that everyone else enjoyed his company quite as much. By the end of the session he was on such a high that he was running around kissing all of the other children, which I don't think was necessarily appreciated. I apologise to the other moms from mudpud-he doesn't normally act so rowdy. I don't know what got into him. On the good side he concentrated really hard and made a nice hama bead man for my mil. the children all seem to get on really well and made the most of the activites-thank you merry!

Sam is now half way through headsprout and still enjoying it. we took a couple of days break and this morning he was eager to get on the computer. We read some books together this evening-with him picking out the words he knew and me doing the rest.

A fairly busy week ahead-three mystery jobs to do as well as all the usual stuff. we are getting together with the boys on wednesday which should be fun-but rowdy and noisy. It will be sad when they go off to school and we don't get to see as much of them.