no one is perfect at anything

Oliver made a cake for a neighbour who has just had a baby. It was the first time he did the whole thing himself and it came out perfect.

Finished 'the curious incident' tonight. We always have a nice talk as we are reading. Today we talked about the fact that no one is perfect at anything and that we are all still learning.

Glitter fireworks

Bonfire theme at Wednesday group. We took drinking straw whistles. Beautiful day for playing in the park with the other kids afterwards.

fractals and chores

Decided on some chores to pull out of a pot. They had a really good at cleaning the windowsills.

Ty really enjoyed drawing fractals. He really got his head around it and said afterwards that he could imagine a square inside a square inside a square inside a square.

Picnic

Went on a lovely long picnic walk in the sun. Photograph shows Oliver jumping over shadows. We had fun exploring the woods - Ty liked to burst the buff balls so the spores could spread. Oliver found grubs and eggs in the bark of a dead tree. They walked back with their hoods on backwards and took turns guiding each other.

Halloween

Found some lovely mushrooms today on the way into town to buy things for Halloween. Went trick or treating with Alex. The dog was dressed as a shark and she got some treats too...

Halloween at Wednesday group

Map reading in the park and building an action figure

We went to the park today and stayed until it stopped being sunny. I got them doing some basic map reading by hiding sweets as treasure. They found lots of different ways to roll down the hill.

Oliver build a whole 'Halo' model all by himself. He has more patience than me. Would find him something like that to do every day if I could find a cheaper way.

Noticed today that Ty has a real way with words. Will have to find ways to encourage him with this.

Watched another 'Monsoon' documentary and something about Tutankhamen. They ask questions all the way through which is great, though I still need to learn a little more patience:)

Sewing

Were given something by the neighbours today which is both a fractal and a vegetable. They are going to Nepal and might send us emails about their adventures.

Did some sewing today. Made some soft toys. Sewing machine was fiddly. I think we need to find a simpler project next time... I said that I am learning alongside them and there are lots of things that I'm not very good at yet. This was a good conversation to have.

Watched the 'Wonders of the Monsoon'. They were riveted by it.

Still reading 'the curios incident' Oliver asked what a double-bluff was. Found it very hard to describe.

Forgot to post on Friday. We went swimming. Oliver managed his own version of front crawl. Was considering lessons - but it occurred to me that Dario is self taught and I had a lot of lessons and he has A LOT more technique and confidence than I do...

Freestyle Scrabble and a less structured few days

Not posted for two days. Yesterday was Home Ed. group. The theme was 'time'. Went to Brandon's house and walking his new dog afterwards.

Tuesday was less planned than usual. Boys however managed to find plenty of their own things to investigate. Oliver spent a long time exploring the world via 'google earth.' He wanted to find the street views of some of the places I've visited in South America. Kept showing me different photos and asking me to guess which country he was in. He also discovered photoshop via the recommendation of one of his pen friends. He edited a picture of a humming bird.

Still going with the cooking... Some experimental cookies today - but Oli didn't like the coconut flavor.

We are now a quarter of the way through 'The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night Time'. I'm think that Oliver prefers more adult books as they patronize him less. Though maybe I should read some younger ones as well to make sure that Ty is loving reading as much as him.

Starting the mornings by trying out some children's exercise videos. Did some yoga this morning. Tends to lead into a lot of attempts at moves that they have invented themselves:)

Freestyle scrabble was a success this morning. Ty was engaged. I was able to give him the letters of a word and ask him to put them in the right order. Was nice to feel the letters in our hands and to avoid the stress of writing. Their experience from school means I have to tread very carefully in this area.

Chemistry Set

We got 2 chemistry sets from the carboot sale. Had lots of fun with different 'solutions.' We played acting out the difference between solid liquid and gas molecules by standing close together, holding hands while moving a bit and by running round separately.

The thing we most enjoyed was writing secret messages.

Swimming and finishing 'holes'

Went swimming today. Oliver now loves going under the water. Made us count as he held his breath. We were in the pool for nearly three hours... Ty loves the water but continued to get upset when his face got wet. Shortly before leaving we had a splashing game. A lot of water went in Ty's face and we waited for him to cry - and he didn't. So that was the milestone for him. That and the fact that they spent about 15 mins in the shower after, not something they've previously liked much. Hope that next time they'll both be even more comfortable in the water. Hope to go every week.

Finished reading 'Holes' when we got home. And then watched the movie. I am always amazed that Ty takes in so much of the book when I'm reading. We ate lots of sunflower seeds as we watched. They've not liked them before but because they were featured in the book they like them all of a sudden:) We all enjoyed both the book and the movie. Oliver is sad that it has finished and wants to read it all over again.

Stuck in the mud

Oliver made pancakes for breakfast.

Took the metal detector up the path to Hardwick Wood. Boys not too enthusiastic to begin with and wanted to go back when we got there. I managed to draw the time out until I found something that would get their enthusiasm back - making funny videos of each other with my i phone. They learnt basic camera skills such as keeping the camera still and fitting what you are filming in the frame.

Oliver got stuck in the mud and I had to dig him out with the spade! He went in the stream to wash his feet. I think he loves being mucky...

We spotted some hedge sparrows on the way home and used a bird call phone app to talk to them. We did the same with some wood pigeons and one fell out of a tree!

Stick Insects

Good day at the Home Ed Wednesday group. Lego day today. Made lots of new friends. One of the parents gave us two tiny stick insects. We need to look after them so they can grow a lot bigger.

Oliver is still cooking like crazy... He made toad in the hole yesterday. Today he is making peanut butter cookies.

Magna

Our first trip to Magna today. Went with Kristy and Brandon. Ty liked the water shooting best, and Oliver liked the fire tornado.

Reading, cooking and mild Spanish expletives

Oliver greeted me this morning and showed me how much he had read of 'Holes.' He'd read about 4 chapters in bed and he was even more thrilled than I was. Book seems to be aimed at children of at least 12 and he is still 7. I think that once you get the reading bug you have it for life:)

In the morning we watched one episode of Junior Master Chef and he was off. I decided to trust him as much as I could in the kitchen (something I've not done before). He made pancakes by himself. Then for lunch made little bacon and egg baskets in muffin moulds (even cracked the eggs successfully).
Oliver was desperate to make something for his dad when he got back. He decided on apple flap jacks, then found that a recipe for them existed. I think all our flapjacks will have apple in the middle from now on:)

Ty spent a lot of the day on Bitesize and other learning games. He still gets very excited about listening to funny songs together on you tube. He made a great dart out of a new modelling material we have and printed a target to tape to the wall.

I bought Oli a watch on Saturday. He didn't want me to teach him how to tell the time, but he is wearing it and seems to be figuring it out pretty quickly by himself.

I am trying to find ways to introduce them to more Spanish. Not found a way that they can really enjoy yet. Though Oliver was secretly recording Nico (his 28 yr old cousin visiting from Argentina) with a translator app on the ipad. Nico was speaking in Spanish on Skype using some mild expletives that made Oli giggle a lot. He loves being sneaky.

Trip to the Museum

 We went to the library to return some books and get some new ones we can read together. We choose ones with a movie we could watch afterwards.

While we we there we bumped into some friends from the Chesterfield home ed. meet up. We went to Mc Donalds with them and played with static electricity...

 We made our first ever visit to Chesterfield Museum. A gentleman called Peter showed us the wheel that was used to build the crooked spire 750 years ago. Oliver tried on a captain's hat.

We liked the collections of old coins and keys. We bought some batteries for the metal detector that came in the post this morning. Hoping to find lots of old treasures and take them into the museum for Peter to identify.

Started to read 'Holes' by Louis Sachar as a bed time story. I told Oliver it was an adult book and he wasn't allowed to read it and of course he insisted on reading. We took turns at reading a page each, there were some very long words and he didn't stumble once.

Pacing the length of a dinosaur

We paced out 58 meters to see how big the biggest dinosaur was. Three of Oli and Ty's steps makes a meter - we measured them. We estimated that this tree is the height of the highest dinosaur (17 meters). Ferns are one of the plants that have been around since the time of the dinosaurs.

We made some dinosaur collages. We are still trying to find a craft project that we can really get exited about. We learnt how to knit a few months ago and might try that again.

Today we started to read 'Five Children and It' we want to finish it quick so we can watch the movie. Like we did with 'The Indian in the Cupboard' last week.


Oliver made his first perfect cup of tea today. Ty still wants to learn more about Pasta.

New friends and animals

Went to the Home Ed Wednesday Group. Theme today was the body. We drew round our bodies on paper, and looked at a home made model of how the diaphragm inflates the lungs. We went to Brandon's house for the first time afterwards and met his new puppy. Played on his X box. Brandon has autism, we learnt a little about what that means and got along with him just fine. We are planning to go to Magna with him next Tuesday.

In the evening Oliver decided to make peanut butter in the food processor. It was very easy and tasted great.  We really liked Brandon's cats and want to get one from the cat refuge. Oliver got angry because we watched a program about orphan animals and he really wants a baby kangaroo.

October 7th

Today we made our own play dough and made dinosaurs and a mask for Nic. We watched lots of dinosaur videos on you tube and learnt that the biggest dinosaur is from Plaza Huincul in Argentina - the place that Daddy and Nico are from! Ty said 'It is called Argentinasaurus because it is from Argentina'

Monday 6th

Tidied the dreaded bedroom! Made a nice space to learn in (at least until the studio at the bottom of the garden is ready). Put a desk on the wall that will fold down to make more space and and made a big display board on the wall where we can put all the things we are learning about. We helped Nico with the power tools and really enjoyed it. Want to learn more about working with tools in the future.

We made a list of things we want to cover. This week it is going to be dinosaurs.

After tea Oliver printed out a meringue recipe and we all made it together. He is inspired by the British Bake Off and by the fact that yesterday we all went to a friends house to judge the cakes her family had made. We gave them marks out of 10. Ty only gave 4 to the lemon drizzle cake because it was too lemony.

October 3rd

The end of our first week of home education. This week we have been to the library and got out a lot of books about bugs and animals. Ty wanted a book about Pasta, but there wasn't one.

The boys now have 4 pen friends between them. Two are for writing letters and two are via email. They are from America (the son of my old pen friend!), the Faroe Islands (the nephew of a friend of ours), New Zealand (another nephew of a friend) and we just made another pen friend from Iowa (found via a young pen pals facebook group). Oliver loves to check his e-mail to see if they have written.

October 2nd

Went to the park. Played catch with a tennis ball. Was impressed with Ty's coordination! We made leaf crop circles and Ty made a leaf volcano.

1st of October

Went to the Home Education Wednesday group. The theme was autumn and we liked the leaf rubbing best. Spent about two hours in the park afterwards playing with walkie talkies and making new friends.

September 30th

33 today! We went to Ben and Sally's great big house in the country and played with their dogs and kittens. We went to pizza hut for lunch and everyone used the helium balloons to make our voices squeaky. We want to find out how this works later.

September 29th

Ty loves singing alphabet songs. Oliver gets them in the right order, Ty is almost there. We started to play using our bodies as letters and it developed into this photo shoot. We used a duvet so we were comfy.