T-5 and counting!! not that we are excited about our upcoming holiday at all. last week just flew by in a haze of normals and seeing friends. On friday we went back to pborough to our home ed group and took L and M. Neither of the boys was that keen on the african drumming that was on offer so we had a good walk aroud ferry meadows instead. We then went back to merry's which gave us a chance to see her beautiful new home. the children all had lots of fun and we were all sorry to leave.
The weekend passed in a haze of running errands and sorting out the house. Yesterday we went to get a new gas bbq ( a house warming pressie from the in laws) and the boys spent an enjoyable afternoon putting it together and sorting out the garden. Despite the frequent showers we managed to use it and now sam wants to bbq every night!
It is half term and while lessons haven't stopped completely they have slowed right down. Had some of the boys over day and it was so nice to catch up with everyone. The children spent the day playing jurassic park (whose idea do you think that was then?!) and mucking about in the garden. The house was so empty after they left. We filled the void by walking to Asda to get a few bits that I managed to forget when I ordered the shopping. Sam took frolic in the toy push chair and raced along the sidwalk like a maniac. He has decided that frolic is the only stuffed animal going on our trip as it was getting too tricky to remember who he was taking. Am quite pleased about that as his dragon was originally on the short list and dragon is taller than I am!
We have more friends coming over tomorrow and thursday which is a lovely way to round off the week. We do miss having our friends close by but are grateful that they are willing to come all the way over here to see us.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
curious sam..
Went to a free screening of curious george in nottingham yesterday and we both really enjoyed it. We met up with friends and the 4 children were absolutely spellbound, not a peep out of any of them for the whole movie. In fact, I have never heard such a quiet movie theatre(except for giggles and laughter in the right places) considering there must have been about 75 children there. The sound track was great too, we all like jack johnson-he is so very jimmy. He is gettting a lot of airtime at the moment, just hope jimmy does too when Hoot is released over here.
After the movie we hopped on the tram and found a park for our picnic, the children ran around like loons while we mums played catch up. We were lucky with the weather and the heavens didn't open until we were safely on the train home. Nottingham looks like a fun city (yes I know it is the most violent city in the uk but not in the very centre) and worth getting to know. It is only about half and hour by train so we will definately be heading back up there.
Came home to find the phone line was down, which meant, horror of horrors, no internet!! After lots of irate calls to BT the problem was finally sorted today-appears the line was accidently cut by guys working down the road.
Sam's map of the solar system is more or less done, it looks good and he has enjoyed doing it. Will photograph it tomorrow once he has had a chance to add stars and space ships. He is really enjoying our space unit, not so much for the planets but for the probes and space ships. All is knex has now been made into probes and droids and aliens, who seem to be locked in some type of battle for the universe. Me thinks he has seen star wars one to many times!! He is also enjoying latin-mainly I think because two of the characters are a cat and a mouse. He has been saying 'mus exit" all day, which is the last line of one of the stories. He can't get over the fact that the characters in the story actually existed-we must get up to vindolanda this summer and show him the fort and where the family lived. More california project tomorrow-this time looking at the european conquest. last week he had fun building california indian dwellings out of mechano. He is always building something.
The boys gave the lawn its first cut today, sam loved working with M and M was very patient with him. I think that they both enjoyed themselves.
After the movie we hopped on the tram and found a park for our picnic, the children ran around like loons while we mums played catch up. We were lucky with the weather and the heavens didn't open until we were safely on the train home. Nottingham looks like a fun city (yes I know it is the most violent city in the uk but not in the very centre) and worth getting to know. It is only about half and hour by train so we will definately be heading back up there.
Came home to find the phone line was down, which meant, horror of horrors, no internet!! After lots of irate calls to BT the problem was finally sorted today-appears the line was accidently cut by guys working down the road.
Sam's map of the solar system is more or less done, it looks good and he has enjoyed doing it. Will photograph it tomorrow once he has had a chance to add stars and space ships. He is really enjoying our space unit, not so much for the planets but for the probes and space ships. All is knex has now been made into probes and droids and aliens, who seem to be locked in some type of battle for the universe. Me thinks he has seen star wars one to many times!! He is also enjoying latin-mainly I think because two of the characters are a cat and a mouse. He has been saying 'mus exit" all day, which is the last line of one of the stories. He can't get over the fact that the characters in the story actually existed-we must get up to vindolanda this summer and show him the fort and where the family lived. More california project tomorrow-this time looking at the european conquest. last week he had fun building california indian dwellings out of mechano. He is always building something.
The boys gave the lawn its first cut today, sam loved working with M and M was very patient with him. I think that they both enjoyed themselves.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Because of Winn Dixie..
is an excellent family movie. We got it out of the library and really enjoyed it. It has all the right ingredients, cute dog plus other assorted animals, funny bits, sad bits and tug at the heart strings bits. It was originally a children's book so will look for it when we go home.
We had hoped to have friends over today but they were not well so we spent the day doing normals and generally amusing ourselves while avoiding the frequent rain showers. We had lots of fun with the latest young scientist club kit-photos to follow. The raising experiment was a hit as usual and M was mesmerized as he hadn't seen it before. We also got to make slime, though ours seems a bit rubbery rather than gooey. Sam is very eager to get the next kit as it is all about volcanos and he loves making them.
We managed a swim at our new gym yesterday and I am sorry they lied--that pool is not warm! Even sam said it was chilly and he plays in the sprinkler. Once we got splashing around it wasn't too bad but it could do with being about 10 degrees warmer. M is taking sam tomorrow while I get my hair done and he is really excited about it. We hope to go at least once a week, more if we can.
L and M came to play yesterday and the boys spent the whole time playing some complicated monster hunting game. they both had on safari hats and seemed to be hunting the monsters from scooby do. It is amazing how well they get on, it is like they have always known each other. L and I had a nice visit and she brought us a lovely flower for the garden. We are so lucky to have found nice friends so quickly.
Car is all better, only a blown fuse-but I won't even tell you how much they charged us as they work at an outrageous hourly rate. I wouldn't mind so much if the guys doing the work actually got half of that per hour, but I bet they don't. Forget college-sam is going to open his own garage!!
We had hoped to have friends over today but they were not well so we spent the day doing normals and generally amusing ourselves while avoiding the frequent rain showers. We had lots of fun with the latest young scientist club kit-photos to follow. The raising experiment was a hit as usual and M was mesmerized as he hadn't seen it before. We also got to make slime, though ours seems a bit rubbery rather than gooey. Sam is very eager to get the next kit as it is all about volcanos and he loves making them.
We managed a swim at our new gym yesterday and I am sorry they lied--that pool is not warm! Even sam said it was chilly and he plays in the sprinkler. Once we got splashing around it wasn't too bad but it could do with being about 10 degrees warmer. M is taking sam tomorrow while I get my hair done and he is really excited about it. We hope to go at least once a week, more if we can.
L and M came to play yesterday and the boys spent the whole time playing some complicated monster hunting game. they both had on safari hats and seemed to be hunting the monsters from scooby do. It is amazing how well they get on, it is like they have always known each other. L and I had a nice visit and she brought us a lovely flower for the garden. We are so lucky to have found nice friends so quickly.
Car is all better, only a blown fuse-but I won't even tell you how much they charged us as they work at an outrageous hourly rate. I wouldn't mind so much if the guys doing the work actually got half of that per hour, but I bet they don't. Forget college-sam is going to open his own garage!!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Education but not as we planned it..
Sam and I had a nice day planned, normals in the morning, the space centre in the afternoon and then a swim at our new gym. The day didn't quite happen like that as the jeep decided not to work but in the end we had an even nicer day. Sam got a good lesson in mechanics and physics from the two RAC men who came to the house, the first to try and fix the car and the second to tow us to a garage. Sam kept offering helpful advice to both men who took it with a smile. We then did a bit of geography as the garage was in a part of leicster that we only vaguely know. Then some diplomacy as I did my best not to explode when the woman told me that she wasn't sure that they would get a chance to look at it today, let alone fix it. As it turns out the garage is about 1/2 a mile from the Space Centre so we covered off PE on our walk over there. I sort of assumed that being a tuesday morning it would be empty but boy was I wrong. It seemed like every school in leicseter was there. I am sure in my day we only got field trips at the end of term--not in the middle-who said they could be out of school-not fair!!!
We managed to enjoy ourselves, despite the noise and chaos and I my interested was sufficiently peaked that I am going to look into doing an OU course on the planets or the solar system. Sam enjoyed the museum much more than last time we went about a year ago. It is still aimed at older children but having done some planet stuff at home he was much more interested at the museum. I still think that their entrance fees are outrageous when you consider how big the science musem in london is they don't charge a thing. luckily, EO members get a discount.
The Abbey Pumping Station Museum is right next door so we headed over there when we were done at the space centre. It was delightfully empty and we were able to browse in peace.
More PE as we walked to Abbey Park and explored there. It includes the remains of Leicester Abbey where Cardiinal Wolsey died and was buried. There are quite a few remains to seee and we had some interesting discusions about the dissolution, funding for archaeological digs and the layout of churches. I just love the fact that not only does HE allow us the freedom to do this but that he is interested in all these things. His focus changes so quickly too, one minute he is going to build a space craft and the next he wants to know what happened to the monks from the dissolved monastaries.
More lessons in dipolmacy was we walked back to the garage (it was gone 3 by this time) to be told that they still hadn't properly looked at the car and that they would not get round to it until tomorrow. GRRRRRR.. what happened to being nice to your customers. If only our wonderful mechanic wasn't away at the moment. They graciously agreed to give us a lift into the centre of leicester, wheere we explored some more while we waited for M to get off work. The museum at new walk is great and even better it was empty!! Definately worth another visit when we can stay longer. We got a lift home with M and were both shattered.
We had a good day, just not the one we had planned!!!
Have a great time in LV Dad-can't wait to see you guys.
We managed to enjoy ourselves, despite the noise and chaos and I my interested was sufficiently peaked that I am going to look into doing an OU course on the planets or the solar system. Sam enjoyed the museum much more than last time we went about a year ago. It is still aimed at older children but having done some planet stuff at home he was much more interested at the museum. I still think that their entrance fees are outrageous when you consider how big the science musem in london is they don't charge a thing. luckily, EO members get a discount.
The Abbey Pumping Station Museum is right next door so we headed over there when we were done at the space centre. It was delightfully empty and we were able to browse in peace.
More PE as we walked to Abbey Park and explored there. It includes the remains of Leicester Abbey where Cardiinal Wolsey died and was buried. There are quite a few remains to seee and we had some interesting discusions about the dissolution, funding for archaeological digs and the layout of churches. I just love the fact that not only does HE allow us the freedom to do this but that he is interested in all these things. His focus changes so quickly too, one minute he is going to build a space craft and the next he wants to know what happened to the monks from the dissolved monastaries.
More lessons in dipolmacy was we walked back to the garage (it was gone 3 by this time) to be told that they still hadn't properly looked at the car and that they would not get round to it until tomorrow. GRRRRRR.. what happened to being nice to your customers. If only our wonderful mechanic wasn't away at the moment. They graciously agreed to give us a lift into the centre of leicester, wheere we explored some more while we waited for M to get off work. The museum at new walk is great and even better it was empty!! Definately worth another visit when we can stay longer. We got a lift home with M and were both shattered.
We had a good day, just not the one we had planned!!!
Have a great time in LV Dad-can't wait to see you guys.
Friday, May 12, 2006
friends old and new
The last two days has been filled not with boxes, thankfully, but with friends. Yesterday we met up with new friends, L and her son M. M is the same age as sam and they also use sonlight. Sam and M got on like a house on fire, in fact we hardly saw them they were so busy playing. I really enjoyed chatting with L and hope that we will see a lot more of them. They only live the next village over so are nice and close. Sam was delighted to have made a friend close by and I was too.
Today was filled with old friends-Merry and the girls came to play and it was wonderful to see them. They are our first official visitors and it was fun showing them around. Sam and the girls had lots of fun, playing some made up game involving most of his fluffy animals, especially the snakes. We didn't see much of them as they spent most of their time in sam's room or the playroom, which merry and I a chance to catch up. We were both sad when they left, we miss all having all of our old friends close by.
Sam really enjoyed learning about the la brea tar pits today as part of our california project. He spent ages drawing a picture of the pits and various animals getting stuck. Next stop on our california tour is the native population. He finished sinagpore 1A today, though with some protest. I can't seem to make math fun for him, maybe because it isn't one of my favorite subjects. Must try harder though as I don't want him to become mathphobic. The Minimus latin books arrived today which was another excitement. Am very keen to start the programme as I think he will enjoy it, especially as the two main characters are a cat and a mouse. We are going to take it very slowly but hopefully it will be fun. It should help him with his french and his english grammar.
Today was filled with old friends-Merry and the girls came to play and it was wonderful to see them. They are our first official visitors and it was fun showing them around. Sam and the girls had lots of fun, playing some made up game involving most of his fluffy animals, especially the snakes. We didn't see much of them as they spent most of their time in sam's room or the playroom, which merry and I a chance to catch up. We were both sad when they left, we miss all having all of our old friends close by.
Sam really enjoyed learning about the la brea tar pits today as part of our california project. He spent ages drawing a picture of the pits and various animals getting stuck. Next stop on our california tour is the native population. He finished sinagpore 1A today, though with some protest. I can't seem to make math fun for him, maybe because it isn't one of my favorite subjects. Must try harder though as I don't want him to become mathphobic. The Minimus latin books arrived today which was another excitement. Am very keen to start the programme as I think he will enjoy it, especially as the two main characters are a cat and a mouse. We are going to take it very slowly but hopefully it will be fun. It should help him with his french and his english grammar.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Settling in..
slowly we are settling in here and it is starting to feel more like home. Most of the boxes are hidden away in the garage and all but the playroom and office are just about sorted out. There are pictures on the walls and clothes in the cupboards, which is a relief I can tell you. I wore the same pair of jeans for almost a week because I couldn't find anything else to wear.
We are all finding our feet-sam and I have been to our local country park twice and have a playdate tomorrow. M is delighted that his commute is so short and we are all benefitting from the extra family time.
Thank you all for your good moving vibes and your nice comments, it really helped to make things go better. Evenything went as smoothly as these things go, a few minor hiccups but they have all been sorted. Now the boxes are all hidden away you can all come and visit!
We are back on track with normals. Sam has finished explode the code 2 and should finish singapore 1a tomorrow. We are looking at planets and the solar system in science so will probably head over to the space centre at the weekend. We have also started a project on california-and discovered that most of it was underwater in the triassic, jurassic and creteous. tomorrow we are looking at the la brea tar pits and then on to the native american population. There has been lots of imaginative play with his fluffy dinos-I think they were all engaged in a game of hide and seek this morning that invovled using all the sleeping bags. It is so cute the way he talks to them and he says that he is their dad and that he loves them all very much. It is hard to reconcile that side of him with the one who wants to crash into things and generally create chaos.
We should have gone to t-ball tonight but instead had a family run around the park. M pointed out all the birds and butterflies to sam, while he was on a snake hunt, having been informed by a fellow park goer that snakes are often spotted there. We didn't spot any, which was probably a good thing because he would have wanted to take it home.
We are all finding our feet-sam and I have been to our local country park twice and have a playdate tomorrow. M is delighted that his commute is so short and we are all benefitting from the extra family time.
Thank you all for your good moving vibes and your nice comments, it really helped to make things go better. Evenything went as smoothly as these things go, a few minor hiccups but they have all been sorted. Now the boxes are all hidden away you can all come and visit!
We are back on track with normals. Sam has finished explode the code 2 and should finish singapore 1a tomorrow. We are looking at planets and the solar system in science so will probably head over to the space centre at the weekend. We have also started a project on california-and discovered that most of it was underwater in the triassic, jurassic and creteous. tomorrow we are looking at the la brea tar pits and then on to the native american population. There has been lots of imaginative play with his fluffy dinos-I think they were all engaged in a game of hide and seek this morning that invovled using all the sleeping bags. It is so cute the way he talks to them and he says that he is their dad and that he loves them all very much. It is hard to reconcile that side of him with the one who wants to crash into things and generally create chaos.
We should have gone to t-ball tonight but instead had a family run around the park. M pointed out all the birds and butterflies to sam, while he was on a snake hunt, having been informed by a fellow park goer that snakes are often spotted there. We didn't spot any, which was probably a good thing because he would have wanted to take it home.
Friday, May 05, 2006
still here but no broadband!!
we survived the move, all people, fish and cats accounted for. the house feels huge and is still full of boxes. we are running between the two houses at the moment trying to get other one ready for our renter who should move in in the next couple of days.
sam has taken everthing in his stride and is settling in well.
we don't have broadband at the house yet (grrrr!!!!) so am sitting here at the local library-had to get my fix somehow. we should be back on line on tuesday so will update then.
talk to you all soon
sam has taken everthing in his stride and is settling in well.
we don't have broadband at the house yet (grrrr!!!!) so am sitting here at the local library-had to get my fix somehow. we should be back on line on tuesday so will update then.
talk to you all soon
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