Friday was our first anniversary of moving into this house. Can't believe it, time has flown by, it seems like just yesterday we were running around like headless chickens to unpack everything here and to clean up the old house. We all love this house and the opportunities it had given us as a family. We are able to spend a lot more time together doing fun stuff as M doesn't have a huge communte to workl We still miss pborough and our friends there very much but the more we get to know of leicester the more we like it. There is so much to do around here that we could go out exploring every weekend and still not see everything. I especially love the sense of community in our little close. As we all moved in at roughly the same time everyone knows everyone and is very friendly. Sam and S from next door are in and out of each others houses so much that we should have a revolving door. To celebrate our housiversary we had everyone round for a bbq. It gave us a chance to chat properly, and I think everyone had fun. I know that we did. The dogs got a bit over excited though and had to have a nap in their crate to prevent them from eating off everyone's plates.
Today was another big event-the first meeting of the home ed group that my friend V and myself have started. We are holding it in a local church hall which is light and spacious and well equipped. Our theme was spring and we had 5 families in total. They are all people that we know from french class so the children were all comfortable with each other. We had about 6 activities in total, in addition to a play table with games, playdough and hamma beads. Sam's only complaint about the session was that there weren't enough science experiments and he didn't get enough custard cremes! I hope everyone else enjoyed it and hope that the group continues to grow. As we grow and evolve we hope to involve the other parents more and have them run sessions like we did back in pborough. Our next session is the 14th of may so if anyone out there is interested in coming please let me know.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
You know your son is lego mad when...
he gets you up at 5:30am because he wants to finish the project he was working on!! You can imagine my response. We waited until the more decent hour of 6am to come down so he could finish the sub that is part of the aqua raiders crab crusher set. He got it yesterday, having saved up for it and spent the evening doing it. He paid for it mostly in small coins and you should have seen the face of the woman in the toyshop-talk about sucking on lemons!!! Guess not everyone who works in a toyshop has a sense of humor. Luckily he didn't notice as he was so focused on the lego. He has been talking of nothing else for the past few days and it has been driving me crazy. Now he has the whole aqua raiders set so I suspect the afternoon will be spent setting it up in the bathtub. Shame the weather is not nice enough for the paddling pool.
A fairly quiet week so far, lots of normals and a few mystery jobs thrown in to spice it up. We are just starting to do multiplication and sam is really getting the hang of times tables. We have only done 2s and 3s so far but he gets the concept and provided you don't ask them out of order he knows all the answers. He tends to add up in his head to get from one to the other so if you ask him out of sequence it really throws him. His is slowly memorising the answers though and I quiz him when he least expects it. He is good natured about it and thinks it is one big game which is perfect. On the language front we have finished our first latin book and are waiting for the next ones to arrive. In the meantime we will use my latin book from my course. We have also started learning a few norwegian words in preparation for our trip. So far we can ask for breakfast and how much something costs-all the important things!
Today sam has a new friend coming to play-we met him last week on the arboritum trip and sam has talked of nothing else since. He is 6 and like sam has never been to school, he also likes all the same things so hopefully the two will get on. If the weather is nice we will go out bug hunting if not we will stay here and the boys can mess up sam's room.
On a dog front Miko is blowing her coat for the first time and there are fur tumbleweeds everywhere. It comes out by the handfull-anyone fance an akita scarf and matching mittens??? I have been manning the phone line for www.jawt.co.uk ( the akita rescue trust we got the monsters from) this week and am astounded at the numbers of calls from people wanting to rehome their dogs. For every 1 call from someone who wants to adopt there are 5 from someone who needs to rehome. The main reason for rehoming seems to be a breakdown in relationship necessitating the partner who was at home with the dog to go out to work. Sadly I know that we won't be able to find homes for them all, but if sam had his way they would all come live here.
A fairly quiet week so far, lots of normals and a few mystery jobs thrown in to spice it up. We are just starting to do multiplication and sam is really getting the hang of times tables. We have only done 2s and 3s so far but he gets the concept and provided you don't ask them out of order he knows all the answers. He tends to add up in his head to get from one to the other so if you ask him out of sequence it really throws him. His is slowly memorising the answers though and I quiz him when he least expects it. He is good natured about it and thinks it is one big game which is perfect. On the language front we have finished our first latin book and are waiting for the next ones to arrive. In the meantime we will use my latin book from my course. We have also started learning a few norwegian words in preparation for our trip. So far we can ask for breakfast and how much something costs-all the important things!
Today sam has a new friend coming to play-we met him last week on the arboritum trip and sam has talked of nothing else since. He is 6 and like sam has never been to school, he also likes all the same things so hopefully the two will get on. If the weather is nice we will go out bug hunting if not we will stay here and the boys can mess up sam's room.
On a dog front Miko is blowing her coat for the first time and there are fur tumbleweeds everywhere. It comes out by the handfull-anyone fance an akita scarf and matching mittens??? I have been manning the phone line for www.jawt.co.uk ( the akita rescue trust we got the monsters from) this week and am astounded at the numbers of calls from people wanting to rehome their dogs. For every 1 call from someone who wants to adopt there are 5 from someone who needs to rehome. The main reason for rehoming seems to be a breakdown in relationship necessitating the partner who was at home with the dog to go out to work. Sadly I know that we won't be able to find homes for them all, but if sam had his way they would all come live here.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
bug hunting
Patiently waiting for bugs to drop on to the sheet. Sam is now totally bug mad again and has to carry a collecting jar whenever we go out. His latest find is a black beetle of unknown origin who is residing in said jar on his bedside table. Sam wants to keep him for a pet and has even given it some miko fur to make a nest with.. Do I blame M or Gerald Durrell?
our fossil finds
Some of our finds from fossil hunting. The picture does not do them justice as they are really good. Sam is very proud of them and shows them off to any one coming to visit.
enjoying spring weather
Miko enjoying the spring sunshine. This is one of her fav spots in the yard, especially on a sunny day.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Fun morning but where was David????
This morning we met up with other home ed families in leicester for an activity session at the David Attenborough Arboretum. When I told sam where we were going he was so excited as the thought the great man himself would be there. Sadly this was not the case but we had tons of fun inspite of this. We went with V & I and the boys nattered in the back as they usually do. V admirably navigated being a leicester native she knows the city like the back of her hand. The first half of the morning was spent bug hunting and pond dipping. We split into groups and Sam and I immediately gravitated toward another boy named J. We hadn't met him before but the three of them got along so well you had thought we had known them for years. Turns out he is 6 and likes dinos, cars and bugs, not unlike someother young man I know!! Our bug hunting was sucessful but we didn't find anything exotic, just the usual, ants, spiders, wood lice, slugs and snails. Sam was hugely disapointed with the pond dipping as children weren't allowed to participate due to the depth of the water and the large drop between the pier and the pond. Sam disolved into tears and announced that he was going to write to david attenborough and tell him how unfair it was!! He soon cheered up when one of the guides produced a newt and caddis fly larvae. The second half was tree identification which we didn't stay for as Sam and I were both beginning to sag. We spent the afternoon in the garden with the dogs and discovered that trying to play bowls with two dogs running around is not a good idea!! Rogue and Miko kept running off with all the balls!!!
I have a knitting quandry I hope that someone out there can help me with. I am doing a baby blanket for a friend and am doing pink and white squares. When I did a blanket like this in the past I sewed the squares together but I have heard that crocheting is better and easier. Any advice on which is best??? I haven't crocheted since I was about 10 and then all I did was make a really long string, I had a huge ball in the end but never knew what to do with it. Plan to put a fabric backing on the blanket provided I can find something to match the pink. I am almost done with the square which is a good thing as the baby is due in early june and it still has to be mailed to california.
I have a knitting quandry I hope that someone out there can help me with. I am doing a baby blanket for a friend and am doing pink and white squares. When I did a blanket like this in the past I sewed the squares together but I have heard that crocheting is better and easier. Any advice on which is best??? I haven't crocheted since I was about 10 and then all I did was make a really long string, I had a huge ball in the end but never knew what to do with it. Plan to put a fabric backing on the blanket provided I can find something to match the pink. I am almost done with the square which is a good thing as the baby is due in early june and it still has to be mailed to california.
Monday, April 16, 2007
It figures..
It was the nicest weekend of the year so far and both sam and I were under the weather. We have both come down with the flu and have spent the weekend alternatively shivering or baking. Sam is feeling better but I have spent most of the day in bed. M was post take and kindly took sam out so I could get some rest. We were supposed to have met up with the boys so were both very disapointed not to be able to.
Prior to coming down with the plague we had had a good week. The highlight was fossil hunting on friday. We took V & I and met up with the peterborough group at kings dyke nature reserve to fossil hunt and pond dip. To say we found fossils is an understatement, we found so many that we had to leave the majority behind!! We found belamites, amonites and bivalves. Sam was in his element and was keeping an eye out for plesiasour teeth and bones. Sadly we didn't find any. It was nice to see our peterborough friends again, especially the Beans. Pond dipping was equally fun, sam managed to catch a 9 barbed stickleback as well as a large variety of beetles and snails.
The other highlight of the week was booking our flights to norway. We are going in august and are all very excited. We are flying into bergen and travelling by boat Sognadal and from there to fimble valley to go ice climbing on the glacier. We also hope to visit Flam which looks beautiful. I have never been to scandinavia so this will be a whole new experience. Guess we had best start learning a little norwegian!!
Also managed to fit in visit to two local hill forts, one iron age and one bronze age. The iron age one was very well preserved and sparked lots of questions from sam about life in the iron age and how life changed for britons when the romans arrived. We also discussed how fit the people must have been, climbing up and down the hill everyday!! It was also an interesting walk as we had to go through a field of ewes and lambs. Miko and Rogue were convinced that the lambs needed to play with them and it took all our strenght to keep them in line. They were equally interested in snacking of sheep chocolate and I am not sure which was more trickier, keeping them from the sheep or keeping them from the sheep chocolate.
Prior to coming down with the plague we had had a good week. The highlight was fossil hunting on friday. We took V & I and met up with the peterborough group at kings dyke nature reserve to fossil hunt and pond dip. To say we found fossils is an understatement, we found so many that we had to leave the majority behind!! We found belamites, amonites and bivalves. Sam was in his element and was keeping an eye out for plesiasour teeth and bones. Sadly we didn't find any. It was nice to see our peterborough friends again, especially the Beans. Pond dipping was equally fun, sam managed to catch a 9 barbed stickleback as well as a large variety of beetles and snails.
The other highlight of the week was booking our flights to norway. We are going in august and are all very excited. We are flying into bergen and travelling by boat Sognadal and from there to fimble valley to go ice climbing on the glacier. We also hope to visit Flam which looks beautiful. I have never been to scandinavia so this will be a whole new experience. Guess we had best start learning a little norwegian!!
Also managed to fit in visit to two local hill forts, one iron age and one bronze age. The iron age one was very well preserved and sparked lots of questions from sam about life in the iron age and how life changed for britons when the romans arrived. We also discussed how fit the people must have been, climbing up and down the hill everyday!! It was also an interesting walk as we had to go through a field of ewes and lambs. Miko and Rogue were convinced that the lambs needed to play with them and it took all our strenght to keep them in line. They were equally interested in snacking of sheep chocolate and I am not sure which was more trickier, keeping them from the sheep or keeping them from the sheep chocolate.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
lego creation by sam's friend I
Sam and his friend I spent part of the afternoon doing lego. This was I's creation.
happy easter
we had a fun time hunting eggs in the sunshine. The dogs even joined in. They weren't interested in the chocolate eggs, only the real ones. They would have eaten them all given half a chance.
easter egg dying
Sam doing our annual easter egg dying, think that next year we will be able to do away with the stool!!
Going Topless...
sorry to disapoint but nothing risque just putting the top down on the wrangle for the first time! The weather was so amazing yesterday that M decided to put the top down for our trip out to get a new olive tree. It only took about 20 min to put it down and it was fantastic riding with the sun on my face and the wind im my hair and jb blasting out of the stero. We took S from next door along for the ride and he just couldn't believe that someone was singing about a cheeseburger!! It was a lovely way to round off a lovely weekend. Saturday we pottered and then went to beacon hill country park for an amble. We clambered ove the bronze age hill fort and the boys did a bit of rock climbing. The views from the top were amazing, you could see for miles in every direction.
Sunday we headed down to M's parents, dogs and all. Sam had a blast hunting for eggs and playing with his cousins. We had fun catching up with everyone and relaxing in the sunshine. The dogs were amazingly well behaved, even Rogue. We stayed the night and the pups slept in their crate in the kitchen. We had expected lots of whinning but not a peep was heard. Sam made a new friend, a shield bug named shieldy who ended up living in a plastic pot supplied by nana. Shieldy survived very well and came home here to be released into our butterfly garden. Sam has now decided to collect insects whenever we go out and bring them home for the garden. Can't decide if this is a good thing or not. The garden is now looking much better as M, helped by the two sams has had a good sort out and done lots of planting. The lawn is still a mess but we have plans to deck over a lot of it so that should help with the mud next winter!!
Back to school today but as we are starting with science sam's shouldn't complain too much, that and the fact that we will be going out to toys r us later on a lego run should put him in a good mood.
Sunday we headed down to M's parents, dogs and all. Sam had a blast hunting for eggs and playing with his cousins. We had fun catching up with everyone and relaxing in the sunshine. The dogs were amazingly well behaved, even Rogue. We stayed the night and the pups slept in their crate in the kitchen. We had expected lots of whinning but not a peep was heard. Sam made a new friend, a shield bug named shieldy who ended up living in a plastic pot supplied by nana. Shieldy survived very well and came home here to be released into our butterfly garden. Sam has now decided to collect insects whenever we go out and bring them home for the garden. Can't decide if this is a good thing or not. The garden is now looking much better as M, helped by the two sams has had a good sort out and done lots of planting. The lawn is still a mess but we have plans to deck over a lot of it so that should help with the mud next winter!!
Back to school today but as we are starting with science sam's shouldn't complain too much, that and the fact that we will be going out to toys r us later on a lego run should put him in a good mood.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Stakeside in the Peak District
We went hiking in the Peak District last weekend and had a great time. The views were amazing
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Here is one to try at home..
Thought I would post the recipe for slime in case anyone is interested. It is an american recipe so where it says elmer's glue just use pva.
www.sci-experiments.com/slime/slime.html
Sam's slime is still going and still just as fun. it is very durable and I suspect it is going to be around forever. The recipe doesn't suggest glitter but we put glitter in ours just to give it that extra sparkle.
Can't believe that it is good friday already tomorrow. We haven't done anything remotely easterish and haven't even opened the easter books that we got from the library. Guess tomorrow is going to be our easter session. We have lots of eggs to dye, cards to make and history and traditions to learn about. Sam knows the basics (unlike the marketing people at sommerfield-they said that we give eggs and gifts at easter to celebrate christ's birth-oops) but it would be nice to have him learn about the traditions around the day.
We have had a lovely week filled with friends and sunshine. Monday we went down to visit my friend MB whose son is just as lego mad as sam. The two disapeared to his room as soon as we arrived and we had to drag them out later to take them to the park. I got to have lots of cuddles with my goddaughter who is getting to be a very grown up little lady. As it was a beautiful day we took everyone out to cliveden where we ran around the parkland, fed the fish and had ice creams. Sam had a ball with H and F and D, though I think F got a bit fed up with all the talk about lego. It was hard to leave at the end of the day, sam and I both enjoyed ourselves so much. Thank you B's for a lovely day and hopefully it won't be too long before we see you again.
Wednesday was also a social day, though did manage to fit in some school work first, mean mommy that I am. In the afternoon we met up with ML and the boys at Belton House. Sam is now a NT member so it was essentially a free day out. We took the dogs for a long amble through the parkland before heading over to the adventure playground. A walked Rogue and I was very impressed at how well rogue behaved himself. The boys ran wild over the playground and sam ran himself so ragged that I am amazed that he didn't fall asleep on the way home. While on the train ride he informed me that his life is boring and that he needs me to make it more exciting for him. When I enquired what would make it more interesting he said that doing lego all day and science experiments as well would make life perfect for him. While that could cover math, handwriting, reading and of course science not sure how I could work in history, languages and art. I will make sure that we do more hands on science everyweek but as for doing lego all day don't think that is going to happen-unless of course he does it on the weekend. As fun and educational as lego his, you do need a bit of variety in life.
www.sci-experiments.com/slime/slime.html
Sam's slime is still going and still just as fun. it is very durable and I suspect it is going to be around forever. The recipe doesn't suggest glitter but we put glitter in ours just to give it that extra sparkle.
Can't believe that it is good friday already tomorrow. We haven't done anything remotely easterish and haven't even opened the easter books that we got from the library. Guess tomorrow is going to be our easter session. We have lots of eggs to dye, cards to make and history and traditions to learn about. Sam knows the basics (unlike the marketing people at sommerfield-they said that we give eggs and gifts at easter to celebrate christ's birth-oops) but it would be nice to have him learn about the traditions around the day.
We have had a lovely week filled with friends and sunshine. Monday we went down to visit my friend MB whose son is just as lego mad as sam. The two disapeared to his room as soon as we arrived and we had to drag them out later to take them to the park. I got to have lots of cuddles with my goddaughter who is getting to be a very grown up little lady. As it was a beautiful day we took everyone out to cliveden where we ran around the parkland, fed the fish and had ice creams. Sam had a ball with H and F and D, though I think F got a bit fed up with all the talk about lego. It was hard to leave at the end of the day, sam and I both enjoyed ourselves so much. Thank you B's for a lovely day and hopefully it won't be too long before we see you again.
Wednesday was also a social day, though did manage to fit in some school work first, mean mommy that I am. In the afternoon we met up with ML and the boys at Belton House. Sam is now a NT member so it was essentially a free day out. We took the dogs for a long amble through the parkland before heading over to the adventure playground. A walked Rogue and I was very impressed at how well rogue behaved himself. The boys ran wild over the playground and sam ran himself so ragged that I am amazed that he didn't fall asleep on the way home. While on the train ride he informed me that his life is boring and that he needs me to make it more exciting for him. When I enquired what would make it more interesting he said that doing lego all day and science experiments as well would make life perfect for him. While that could cover math, handwriting, reading and of course science not sure how I could work in history, languages and art. I will make sure that we do more hands on science everyweek but as for doing lego all day don't think that is going to happen-unless of course he does it on the weekend. As fun and educational as lego his, you do need a bit of variety in life.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
A scientific week..
We seem to have done endless amounts of science this week. On top of our usual sonlight science we have done a young scientist club set on weights and measures (which ties in nicely with what we are doing in math!) and have been to nottingham university to a science fair. That was undoubtly the highlight of the week for us both. We went as part of a home ed group and knew absolutely no one there as they were all from the east midlands rather than leicester. We met several nice families and hope to set up a few playdates. The Chemistry dept at the uni had set up 6 stations all run by students and the children got to participate in a variety of experiments including making slime (went down well as you can imagine!), alchemy (changing a 2p from copper to gold-well not really gold, we covered it in brass but it looked like gold and the children thought it was at first), watching the effect of liquid nitrogen on various objects (see the pics below), powering a calculator with fruit and veg and several other experiments all designed to be fun. We also had a tour of the labs and a real scientist (cue a very excited sam) showed us an experiment with liquids and bases. Sam was excited to meet a real scientist and has now revised his plans for the future. He wants to be a scientist and an lego designer. He wasn't sure what kind of scientist he wanted to be but he knows that he wants to do experiments-especially ones where you get to make explosions.
Friday we did a different, calmer sort of science-we went fossil hunting with our peterborough home ed group. We also took V & I. It was nice to see old friends and make new ones, there were lots of new faces. Sam was in his elment, and managed to find several fossils, mainly of bivalves. V & I also found several and I had lots of fun just digging in the sand. In two weeks we are meeting up with them again to go fossil hunting at the hanson quarry just outside pborough. There will be more and bigger fossils apparently and Sam is already making space in the garden for his yet to be found treasures!!
Yesterday was Rogue's first puppy class and he did better than we thought. He can be quite grumpy toward other dogs but by the end of class he was able to sit right next to his classmates without barking or making a fuss. I think we may be watching too much dog whisperer as sam kept saying "remember mom, calm assertive engergy" and " rogue needs to be calm and submissive". Actually we are picking up lots of good advice from the DW so thank you MK for letting us borrow it. It will be winging it way back to you soon.
The biggest disapointment of the week was finding that the bbc had cancelled our fav radio show, little toe radio, without any warning. One minute it was there and the next it was gone. They have replaced it with ceebies radio which is drivel in comparison. It is mainly about characters from the children's tv programmes and the stories are far and few between. I email to complain and although they apologised for the cancellation they could't give a good reason for it. Guess we will have to search around for another radio show, M suggested that NPR may do one.
On a positive note, V and self have sent out the announcement about our new group. Hopefully it will generate lots of response and lots of new members. I have yet to send it out to the leicester group but will do that this week. We hope to have the group up and running by the end of april. We need about 7 families each sessions to meet the cost of room hire. If anyone out there wants more details on the group just let me know.
Friday we did a different, calmer sort of science-we went fossil hunting with our peterborough home ed group. We also took V & I. It was nice to see old friends and make new ones, there were lots of new faces. Sam was in his elment, and managed to find several fossils, mainly of bivalves. V & I also found several and I had lots of fun just digging in the sand. In two weeks we are meeting up with them again to go fossil hunting at the hanson quarry just outside pborough. There will be more and bigger fossils apparently and Sam is already making space in the garden for his yet to be found treasures!!
Yesterday was Rogue's first puppy class and he did better than we thought. He can be quite grumpy toward other dogs but by the end of class he was able to sit right next to his classmates without barking or making a fuss. I think we may be watching too much dog whisperer as sam kept saying "remember mom, calm assertive engergy" and " rogue needs to be calm and submissive". Actually we are picking up lots of good advice from the DW so thank you MK for letting us borrow it. It will be winging it way back to you soon.
The biggest disapointment of the week was finding that the bbc had cancelled our fav radio show, little toe radio, without any warning. One minute it was there and the next it was gone. They have replaced it with ceebies radio which is drivel in comparison. It is mainly about characters from the children's tv programmes and the stories are far and few between. I email to complain and although they apologised for the cancellation they could't give a good reason for it. Guess we will have to search around for another radio show, M suggested that NPR may do one.
On a positive note, V and self have sent out the announcement about our new group. Hopefully it will generate lots of response and lots of new members. I have yet to send it out to the leicester group but will do that this week. We hope to have the group up and running by the end of april. We need about 7 families each sessions to meet the cost of room hire. If anyone out there wants more details on the group just let me know.
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