Things are looking up..

Businesswise today has been excellent. Completely out of the blue I received 4 new usborne bookings. All of them at schools or playgroups. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I am really going to put a lot of effort into the events that I have in the run up to christmas to try and build a sustainable business. It would be nice to do a few events/parties a month if nothing else to justify all the books that I buy for sam.

We have had a good couple of days and seen lots of friends as well as covering all our normals. After finishing all our work on monday we dashed off to meet up with miriam and the boys. Sam and A were thrilled to see each other, though Sam seemed to want to spend the time playing with me! As if he doesn't see enough of me already. It was lovely catching up with them, we do miss having them round the corner.

Yesterday passed in a blurr. After doing our normals we ran over to merry's to watch the girls while she took to ammi to nursery. Sam had fun playing with the girls as usual. Then we dashed home as E was comming with with her children to play. We hadn't seen them since M started school. He arrived in his uniform and looked so grown up. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting around in our antenatal class and now they are all in school. Everyone had lots of fun and R was able to pop by with S& A briefly. We then took S swimming with us and I treated both boys to dinner at the golden arches.

Today we have had fun day just doing our normals and running errands. Sam is really keen on writing now and loves to write words on index cards for me to figure out. He also loves HWT and is really getting to grips with all the letters.

Tomorrow is our big day out in london and he is beside himself with excitement. It should be lots of fun, I just hope the trains aren't too crowded!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen....

This was how we spent the afternoon, in the company of all three. The puddles and beans and jax kindly let us tag along to a trip to a local country park where they were doing celtic/roman reenactments. It was really interesting and sam's favorite bit was making a clay pot (big surprise there!). He also enjoyed seeing the troops practice but kept refering to it as jousting. It was fun spending time with the three families and the children all got along really well. The cambridge archaeological service had set up a mini hands on museum for the children and they got to try their hand at excavating,identifying finds and building mosaic pictures. An event like this makes me question my decision to give up archaeology because I think I would have been good at the education side of it. Oh well, what is done is done who knows what opportunities may present themselves in the future. There is no way that I could return to it now, unless that is they let me bring sam along. I have tried to upload some pictures but we have used up our flickr allowance this month, I guess they will have to wait until next month.

Sam really enjoyed french yesterday and even consented to being in the class on his own. I was amazed but pleased. I managed to have a good look around the shops and splurged all my mystery earning from the month at monsoon. I can't be doing that every week. Next week I will just take a good book and sit and wait at starbucks.

A busy week ahead, we are seeing each of the boys, all on separate days which gives sam something to look forward to. He is really looking forward to london on thursday as am I.

From India to Egypt and back in one day!!

Unfortunately we haven't been jet setting for real, just having lots of fun at our home ed groups. This morning we learnt about the Indian sub continent with one group and then this afternoon we embarked on an adventure to egypt with the second. Sam really enjoyed making clays deepas (tealight holders) this morning and cooking. At first he did not want to join in but once he realised it involved pounding things and grating things he was right there. We helped to make banana semolina and carrrot halwa (not sure about the spelling). He loved the banana semolina so much that he went back for seconds and thirds and would have finished off the whole bowl if I hadn't have stopped him. We didn't get a chance to taste the carrott dish but we both enjoyed the chick pea fudge that some of the rest of the group made. There were lots of new faces at the group, mainly with children around sam's age. Hopefully we will get to see more of them over the coming months.

After inda we made a quick dash across exotic peterborough to mudpud and egypt. Everyone brought fantastic activities and the children were absorbed the whole session. We took sugar cube pyramids and make your own nile. Sorry to anyone whose trunk is covered in mud due to the flooding of the nile. I think everyone had a good time. Sam and I were shattered by the end of it and after a quick trip to tesco came hope and flopped in front of a movie. I have a bit of plague so am feeling very sorry for myself. Have spent most of the night on the sofa watching clips on the mac of fox news broadcasts.

Not sure what the weekend holds, it depends a lot on the weather. M is working so sam and I will be getting up to mischief on our own. We really should tackle the garden if the weather is nice. There is also a roman day in huntington on sunday that might be fun to go to . It all depends on my plague and the weather. we may end up having a movie marathon weekend if both things worsen.

our sugar cube pyramid

our sugar cube pyramid, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

The nile-well sort of

The nile-well sort of, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

Call me a glutton for punishment!

We just received the Superfudge tapes that I got on ebay. I know I moaned about fudge a few posts ago but sam really loves the stories and was dreading having to take the tapes back to the library. I managed to get the same tapes for .65p and he has been as happy as larry all day. He as worn his walkman as much as possible and has been giggling like a maniac to himself. I only hope that I am able to find the rest of the books on cd/tape.
Got all the normals done today as well as doing some stuff in preparation for mudpud on friday. (pics to follow). We created a model of the nile flood plain and build a pyramid out of sugar cubes. Tomorrow we are going to work on our Egypt lapbook so hopefully we will be well prepared for friday.
He seems to be enjoying SOTW and I know I am. We are taking it slowly and I have planned to do a few of the early man activities before we move on to the next section. I only wish I could take him somewhere to see flink knapping. He is very keen to see it and have a go. I did a bit when I was at university but haven't got any of the right tools or right stone to show him at home. I would love to get my hands on a piece of obsidian, that was so nice to work with.
We are looking forward to our trip to london next week-the science musuem is holding a special space session for home educators so we are going along. I can't remember the last time we were in london, it may have been M's birthday way back in january.

Congratulations to my friend S who has just had her 3rd girl. Mother and baby are doing well and are now back home.

Please spare a thought for everyone in the way of Rita. Luckily Key West (one of my favorite places on earth) came out of it pretty well but people in texas and louisiana may not fare so well.

sam really likes HWT

DSCF0772, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

the dino safari is cool

DSCF0768, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

are you sure this is part of the driving test?

DSCF0745, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

crazy driver!

DSCF0740, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

what shall we build?

DSCF0729, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

the famous stepped pyramid of longthorpe

DSCF0773, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

Sorry Mr. Disney but....

my son prefers legoland!!!!! When we asked sam which he prefered-disneyworld or legoland he gave legoland the big thumbs up. As you can probably guess we spent the day at legoland and are all shattered. Sam had a ball, helped probably by about a million marshmellows. He did enjoy the rides but I think what he enjoyed the most was miniland. He got a real kick out of watching all the cars, trains and boats moving around. He also enjoyed spending time in the legolabs making cars with daddy. The only thing we didn't like about the day was the queing. Unlike disney they haven't figured out about the fast pass system or even making standing in line fun. Despite this we had a really nice family day out and will definately make our way down there next season. It is such a shame that their season doesn't start until June because it would make a lovely birthday day out for Sam. He took some money out of his piggy bank (£6) and spent ages choosing just the right thing to buy. He chose one of the racing cars (big surprise). I was very proud that he didn't ask for anything above this and didn't make a fuss that we didn't offer to buy him anything more.

Our week went well, we are slowly easing into our routine. He is very keen on science and is pleased that mondays start with science. Tomorrow morning we are going to start a model of the water cycle. Watch this space for photos!

Sam's lego plane

DSCF0717, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

Egyptian mudbrick house

DSCF0714, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

gobble up math

gobble up math, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

School days, school days..

Although today was the first day of our school year it started uneventfully and it didn't seem any different than the way we have been working. We managed to get almost everything done and sam was still eager for more. He is really turning into a little scientist and would have spent all day doing experiments if I had let him. I just wish my enthusiasm for science matched his. He also enjoyed our Gobble up Math book and is looking forward to doing it every day. Today we did patterns with twiglets and cheese chunks. Tomorrow it is pasta patterns!


We saw Merry and the girls briefly today-we watched the girls while Merry took ami to a taster session at nursery. Sam and the girls played nicely and had lots of fun with maddie's wooden pyramid. Sam is slowly warming to the subject of ancient egypt, the mean hippos and the gory mummification bits appeal to him.

Matthew has just taken delivery of an ipodnano and sam and I are both very jealous. It is smaller than my shuffle, black and very cool. We are now an apple family with two macs and three ipods! I guess when my pc finally dies it will be replaced with a mac mini.

Tomorrow after our normals we are going in search of winter shoes for sam-that aren't icky black school shoes.. Wish us luck!!

No more fudge please!!!

As much as I love the Fudge stories by Judy Bloom I am getting really tired of hearing the same book on cd over and over again. It has got to the point where I have most of it memorised!! There are 4 fudge books in the series but to date only the most recent is on cd. We have read all of the others but the last one we listen to everytime we get in the car. I am beginning to believe that Fudge is a real person. I have tried other books on cd to distract him but none of them capture his imagination the way Fudge does. Please Judy Bloom bring out the earlier books on cd and save my sanity!!!!

We had a lovely day today, a nice slow start to the day and then a long walk in the afternoon. As part of the Heritage open days the Milton Estate opened its gates and laid on a 2 hour walk around their grounds. The estate is only about a mile from the house ( and infact our house was built for some of their workers) but I had no idea just how large it is. There are thousands of acres hidden behind the ugliness that is bretton. The land and house have been in the same family since 1502! Which to me is mind blowing-imagine the clutter they must have in their loft!! Unfortunately the house was is not open and indeed is never open to the public but from what we could see of it, it was pretty impressive. Sam seemed to enjoy the walk but we were both flagging a little towards the end. He got a kick out of the sheep, who followed us across fields. Following all that excercise we came back and watched Rugrats the Movie again. He is now tucked up in bed fast asleep, excited at the prospect of starting our lessons tomorrow with science.

Tomorrow is the 'official' kick off our home schooling year. We are doing the full blown Sonlight K and I just hope that I manage to make it fun and enjoyable for us both. Sam has lots of ideas for lapbooks that he wants to do as well as various experiments and art projects. He is very into clay at the moment and I can see that the stuff we bought on friday is not going to last very long.

Yesterday was my nephew's birthday party-which was out of doors at audley end minature railway. Luckily we managed to fit in the trains and bouncy castles before the heavens opened and we had to retreat to the party tent. The picture below is of sam riding one of the go-cart, bike type things there. He had lots of fun on the bikes but wasn't so keen on the bouncy castle.

Future grand prix champion! 

I guess we are official now!

All of sam's friends bar one have now started reception. It seems impossible that these boys that I have known since before they were born are now old enough to go to school. As sam has obviously not gone I think we must be able to say that we are now officially homeschooling. It feels good but a little daunting. I am just waiting for a call from the LEA asking if he is WASP (without a school place). I now have all of my sonlight stuff organised and have read through all of the IGs and have a good idea of what we are doing. I have also made a list of all the things I still need and the various projects we have planned for the first couple of weeks. I do like making lists, they are so reassuring, now all I have to do is actually do the things on the lists! I have decided to start the week with science as that is by far sam's favorite subject.

Today we ended up meeting Merry at Flag Fen, and though we weren't there long I think that sam enjoyed it. He was very disapointed that he couldn't do any excavating but cheered up when he saw all the dragonflies that were zooming about. It was nice being with Merry & the girls, they are so interested in history, especially Fran. She kept quizing me about my past life as an archaeologist and I tried to think of all the exciting bits to pass on. It is a fantastic subject and I am glad that I studied it. Sometimese in my madder moments I think about going back and doing another aspect of archaeology-like egyptology or colonial american archaeology or even palentology. Mabye when we have settled into a rythmn I will look at doing an OU course.

We also saw R and her children today. She very kindly watched Sam while I did a couple of mystery jobs in town. It was a luxury being in town on my own and I took the chance to have a quick look in some of the shops. Saw lots of lovely clothes that I wanted but can't justify buying. Consoled myself by getting some pretty undergarments.

Sam wanted to doing some painting this evening so we got out the oils and the canvas pad. He did a great painting of an underground carriage-I will post a pic once I have downloaded it. He put a lot of thought into the pic and even went to find is model carriage to copy from. Perhaps he has inherited some of my mother's artistic talent because goodness knows I haven't got any!!

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

What ever possesed me to schedule my car for a service (in cambridge no less) for first thing on a monday morning-especially knowing that we would be away the weekend before?!! I must have been mad. What a rotten way to start the week-getting up and out the door first thing to sit on the A14 and then to be treated like a poor relation by the dealership staff. I know my car was cheap (it is a smart) and the rest of the cars they sell cost a bomb (mercedes) but do they have to treat me like a second class citizen? Any way, after that nastiness was over Sam and I spent a pleasant day in cambridge wandering about the shops, taking in the sites and hitting a few museums. He actually asked to visit the archaeology museum-maybe he does like history afterall. Unfortunately it was closed. We went to the dino museum instead, it is his favorite museum, and pottered around there. We found a great wool shop and chose a pattern and some wool for me to make him a winter hat. I am nearly done with the baby blanket I am doing...4 hours in the car both sat and sun helped to speed things up.

We had a wonderful weekend. We went to Longleat and a good time was had by all. We stayed at a great pub and had a wonderful view from our room of a white horse carved into the moutainside in the distance. We were all really impressed by Longleat, there was so much to do that we had to go back sunday to finish everything off. Sam though the monkeys were fantastic-thankfully they didn't do any damage to our car but we did witness them vandalising several cars around us. The house was much more ornate than I expected but felt quite homey as there were lots of family photos of lord bath dotted around. Sam enjoyed seeing all the animals and was delighted when I agreed to hold a chilean rose tarantula. It was not scary at all and if he wants one as a pet when he is older and more repsonsible he can have one. All in all it was a lovely weekend and we would definately go back.

My planning kicks into high gear this week as 12th is the start of our homeschooling year. Sam is excited, especially as I have told him that science will be our first lesson of the week. I don't want to get too hung up on the timetable aspect, as long as he is learning and excited by what he is doing, it doesn't matter if we fall a little behind. I just home that I am up to the challenge.

There goes my shuffle..

It is all my fault really. I downloaded two boxcar children stories for him to listen to while I had my hair cut and now he won't give it back. He would have spent all day with it in his ears if I had let him. This does not bode while for the future. He seemed to enjoy the story and is looking foward to the next one. As near as I can tell he has only listened to the first story and still has the second one to come.

We have had a busy couple of days-sam got on really well at Karate yestserday. He concentrated hard and did his very best not to join in with the two little boys who nattered the whole way through class. I had to laugh though, when his teacher gave out vouchers for each student to give friends at school. The vouchers are for a free lesson and when sensi came to sam and he explained that he didn't go to school as he was home educated she then said for him to give them to the teacher who visits his house. He thought that this was the funniest thing ever and came back to me in a fit of giggles.

Today we had a hair cut and this afternoon we went to muddle puddle. The verger never arrived to open the hall though, so merry kindly asked us all back to hers. The children enjoyed the activities we had brought, all that is except sam who decided it was much more fun to play in the girl's bedroom and to play outside. Oh well, at least he had fun. The next muddle puddle we are doing egypt, which for some reason sam has taken a violent disliking to. Must try and find a way to make it fun for him. Merry placated him by promising to do dinosaurs the time after that. Thank you Merry!!!