Rushing around.

Yesterday, after a fairly relaxed morning, we went out to the library and to buy a birthday present for a friend and got home to find that my mobile phone had arrived back from being fixed.  It was only when I opened it, replaced the sim card and turned it on, to find a very recently send text that we realised that we'd completely forgotten that it was ice-skating!  So we bolted our already started lunch, dashed to the bus stop and managed to make it there for the last half an hour on the ice. 

Then, a fairly short time later, we had the rushing around that we already knew was going to happen, with dropping K at ballet for an extra lesson because of her up-coming exam, then taking M to swimming (which K usually goes to as well) and leaving her there to come back and pick K up, before dashing back to collect M.  It all went pretty smoothly, but I'm very glad we don't have this on a regular basis, just once more next week and then it's back to normal with both of them in the same swimming lesson and ballet just on Friday.

Today we were invited to L's birthday treat, a day out at Twinlakes Family Theme Park.  It's somewhere friends have recommended on various occasions, but we'd never got around to going.  We had a lovely time, both in the big indoor areas and outdoors too.  We all had a go on the obstacle course which caused much hilarity and the three mums had great fun on the zip wires, while the 7 children when on to play elsewhere with P, the birthday boy's dad who had managed to finish work early to join us.

A weekend away, a couple of evenings out, a birthday and more.

Having waved goodbye to Granny at the station in Birmingham on the way to Thinktank on Thursday, on Saturday we were off to visit her and Big Grandad, having planned this trip a while ago.  It was mainly as a getaway for A's birthday which was on Monday, even though he took his laptop and did some work while we were there!  It did mean though that he and I were able to pop out for a drink - a rare treat! - on Saturday evening with my little brother, aka Uncle M and again on Sunday this time with my Dad.

On Sunday we went up to see Great Grandma in the morning and we also popped round to see Great Grandad, late afternoon.  The latter is usually something of a trial, as he is generally very hard work as conversation is like getting blood out of a stone.  This time however, he was almost chatty and then we found common ground when we mentioned Strictly Come Dancing!

On Monday, having packed up, we left in the morning and headed to Stratford-on-Avon to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace, one of our favourite places to visit.  We needed to replace our annual pass, so M was wearing her Blue Peter badge, as it's one of the many, many places you can get into for free if you have one.  It wasn't clear from the Blue Peter website, but it does include all of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties, which is a very good thing, slightly disappointing was that a family ticket was 40p cheaper than two adults and one child, so it didn't save us any money on this occasion.  I'm hoping very much that K will have managed to earn herself a badge by the time we need to cough up again in a year or so's time!  We had lovely chats with a couple of the actors who we have spent time with previously, both of whom were very impressed by M's badge.

From there we went straight to Asfordby for the regular twice monthly group we go to, which was a board game and crafty theme.  We had taken a few games with us to share and we had a go at some others.  K & M both made various things out of beads and pipe-cleaners, which became part of a new game they played with various friends.  It sounded rather complicated, with elves, fire-fairies, kings and queens and baddies trying to steal 'bloodstones' which allowed entry into different worlds.  It all seemed to make perfect sense to them though.

A & I had a go at Othello, which we had both played before but not for an awfully long time.  It was a close game, but I won!  I saw M playing Blokus duo with her friend Z, that we'd taken along.  A couple of families had a go at Destination Hogwarts, another game we'd taken with us and A & I introduced E, the friend who organises the group, to Carcassonne.  We also offered to let her borrow it, which she eagerly accepted, but then we accidentally brought it home with us, so we'll take it when we see her later in the week.  The final game that we, A, M & I had a go at, with Z, was Zoo Am I?, which was fun.

M got this surprisingly quickly.

A - he took a while to get this.

By the time we'd got home, given A his birthday cards and presents and the girls had had something to eat it was time for Brownies and A & I had a curry later as a birthday treat.

Today was our usual busy Tuesday.  Piano lessons, Phase 10 while with each girl while the other was having her lesson, home for lunch, then out for gymnastics.  Both girls today completed their Level 4 Proficiency Core Gymnastics Award.  Then it was home for an early tea before being picked up by the friend that takes them and her girls to korfball training.  Tomorrow is a quiet day with just swimming usually, although as K has a ballet exam coming up soon, she is doing an extra ballet session instead, which is something of a feat of logistics, as M will be going to swimming as usual, but we have managed it before, so it's doable.

Wobbles, arguments and talks.

Generally speaking I'm not a naturally tidy person, but I do find that although I have a certain tolerance for mess, there comes a point when it starts to get to me and then I get stressed and grumpy.  We are fortunate enough to have a good sized house and the girls have a playroom.  Although it's their playroom, it is still a communal space, so we expect them to keep it reasonably tidy.  I try not to get too naggy with K & M about this, but, like me and unlike A, they seem to be procrastinators and frequently, when I've asked them to tidy up the playroom, they might do a little bit, but then stop to play the piano, make something out of lego or otherwise get distracted.  When this has gone on for a few days and usually in the meantime the mess has increased, I end up getting shouty and this results in bad feeling, although eventually the room does end up tidier.

Today was one of those days.  The playroom has been messier than it has been since we talked about the possibility of getting rats and the necessity of keeping the room tidy so that they could come out to play, and had been for days.  What I tend to do is ask the girls to tidy their mess and then we can do x, y or z, all of which are generally things that I know they would like to do and then leave them to it.  When they were younger I would tidy with them, but generally now they are capable with a bit of guidance at times of doing it themselves.  I left them to it while I went to sort out washing and when I returned there was no discernable improvement and I started to get rather cross.

Part of the issue for me is that, although this blog concentrates on recording and sharing the things we do, it feels to me at least that we waste so much time as a result of this sort of thing.  I have no problem with K & M playing for extended periods, but I don't think that it was happens when they are avoiding tidying.  So following the ensuing shouting, which did have some effect on the tidyness of the playroom, I explained my feelings, while having a big hug on the stairs with K and then M too.  I told them that I don't like nagging them, but that the playroom as a communal room does need to be kept tidy enough to use and that the state it gets into means that they don't have the space to do the things that they want to and could do much more easily if it were tidier.  I told them that there are things that we like to do together, that they have said that they want to do, such as my reading to them, doing more work on our human body project, watching dvds etc and that because I often ask them to do a quick tidy first and they don't we miss out on doing those things.  I told them (as I have frequently pointed out before) that if they tidy away as soon as they've finished with something or before it gets too messy then it's much quicker and easier and then the mess doesn't build up to the point that they can't face getting started.  They both said they understood what I meant and agreed to try to keep it generally tidier.  We then agreed that I would quickly clean the bathroom and they would tidy the playroom and then we would just about have time for something before K's ballet lesson.

Happily this worked more or less and so I then read them some more of Nevil Shute's Pied Piper.  While I did so K played with stacking cups and a ball and M got some Lego out, which of course they then left out as we were in rush to get K to ballet on time!  They did however tidy them away at almost my first request before bedtime. 

Thinktank!

Today we finally made it to Thinktank for one of their Home Educator days.  It's somewhere I've heard good things about on numerous occasions, but every time there's been one of these days previously it seems to have clashed with something we really wouldn't want to miss (generally Fun Club), so I had high expectations and it didn't disappoint.

We got the train from Nottingham to Birmingham with Granny, who then continued on homewards, and we had planned to meet friends, E with C, L & J and their Grandma P, at the station and walk there together.  This didn't quite work out, but we all got where we needed to be when we needed to be there, so it wasn't a problem.  K & M had chosen the same three sessions (fortunately since they need an accompanying adult!), two of which were the same as C and her brother L, who we were meeting up with, the first one was different though.  We started off in the Science Garden for a session called Movement and Machines and explored three different types of simple machine, levers, pumps and pulleys.

The first task was balancing a see-saw, which is a type of lever, the catch being they had bottles filled with varying amounts of water.  They started off with just two bottles, then when they'd managed to balance those, they had to add another one to the equation (putting it in the middle was not allowed), finishing up with 5 or 6.

M balancing the see-saw.

K working with others to do the same.

The children were put into groups fairly randomly, although it was really enforced, which meant that K & M weren't in the same groups.  K was a bit reluctant to be in a group with strangers, but actually after the first task, which apart from a bit of frustration with some boys who kept trying to add bottles before they had balanced what they already had, it was fine.

The second task was about pumps and after a brief introduction when the man talked about the pump in our bodies, and how the heart pumps blood around our bodies, which if you lay out all the arteries, veins and capillaries end to end would stretch twice round the world for a child and double that for an adult!  They then used pumps to blow up balloons.

The final task was to pull a very heavy weight up a short slope, first with the help of one pulley and then with the help of two.  The children discovered that it was much easier to pull the weight up when there were two pulleys than when there was just one.

Heave!

M had a quick go on something else with pulleys, before we met up with our friends to have our packed lunches.

 Most of us had a couple of hours before the next session, except E and J, who was too young for some of the sessions that the rest of the children were doing.  The children had such a good time on The Street that they didn't really want to explore much of the rest.

Having a go with the digger.

The second of our sessions was Cauldron Chemistry, which was a demonstration of various ways that Tom could 'cheat' to pass his magic exams by using science.  He made 'potions' change colour and 'smoke' (using universal indicator and dry ice).

Potions.

He made his wand spark with different colours, by dipping the end in different materials and then waving it over a flame.  He showed that helium would be the best choice to help him levitate on his broom, by setting a flame to a hydrogen filled balloon, which exploded, showing that although it floated too, it wasn't as safe.

At the end I asked K if she'd liked it and she told me in no uncertain terms, and very disapproving tones, 'No, he shouldn't be encouraging people to cheat!'.  She was torn whether to go and tell him so and that he seemed better suited to a career in science than magic, but in the end shyness won out and she didn't.

We then headed for our final session, which was a CSI activity about forensic science.  The children had to solve the crime, working out which of the three main suspects had stolen a valuable brooch from a museum display, by looking at fibre and hair samples, finger and shoe prints, dna evidence, blood type and handwriting.  They also got to take a print of their own fingers to take home.

K & C looking at the Fibre Sample Library.

The Fibre Sample Library with the yellow fibre found at the scene of the crime.

Blood samples.

As well as working out which of the blood samples matched the one taken from the scene of the crime, the children were asked to work out the blood type of each of the three main suspects, by comparing theirs with the control samples of each of the four main blood types.  They looked at whether each sample formed a 'scab' when 'Anti A' or 'Anti B' protein was added, Blood Type A formed a scab only with Anti A, Type B only with Anti B, Type AB with both and Type O with neither.

K studying the fingerprints.

M looking at the (simplified!) DNA profiles.

It took a while to tear K away from here, as she had returned to the fingerprints and was studying her own and identifying the different pattern on each of her fingers.  While she was doing this, I told Tom, who had led this session, as well as the Cauldron Chemistry one, what K thought about encouraging people to cheat and that he might be better suited to science rather than magic and he laughed and agreed.

This was the final session of the day and we had half an hour or so before the museum closed, so we had a look around the level where it had taken place.  K & I had a go at an interactive thing about precious metals and what they do at the assaying office, which was quite interesting.

When we were finally kicked out, we headed back to the station with E, C, L, J & P.  We had talked about finding somewhere to eat together, but in the end that didn't work out and we ended up buying something to eat on the train.  We finally got home at about 7.30pm and after a planning session of their next puppet play with A & Mr Fox (it's a comedy apparently) K & M went up to bed.

A couple of trips to town and a crafty Fun Club.

On Monday, we had plans to go to the cinema, with the National Youth Film Festival to see The Odd Life of Timothy Green and then meet up with Granny for lunch and do a bit of shopping.  Unfortunately, we got to the cinema to find that they had had a leak and the showing had been cancelled as a result.  So we met up with Granny rather earlier than planned and for the first time ever pretty much did some clothes shopping for K.  We have had a fantastic source of hand-me-downs and consequently I have very rarely needed to buy clothes other than underwear, swimming costumes and very occasionally other things, but this time K actually did need a few things.  Having found a couple of pairs of jeans, one girls' pair and one boys', which she tried on, having previously told me that she definitely didn't want any new jeans, as the ones she has are 'comfortable and *not* indecent', she found the boys' pair, which are absolutely enormous around the waist, were extremely comfortable, and so we got those rather than the girls' ones which appeared to fit her much better.

In the afternoon, I continued making the wands that M and I had started on Sunday and also made some filled chocolates, while K & M disappeared upstairs to make things ready for Fun Club.  Then in the evening they went to Brownies, which was spent entirely in the dark and by torchlight, while talking about life during the Second World War, as part of the preparation they are doing to celebrate 100 years of Brownies in Nottinghamshire.

On Tuesday it was a crafty Fun Club in the morning, with the theme of making things that could be Christmas gifts, and a table top sale of things we'd made in the afternoon.  I had decided on making Christmas cards and had consequently spent much of the previous evening measuring, drawing and pricking holes in the form of two triangles in the form of a star.  The plan was to make cards like this.

However, it became clear that I'd pitched it rather too difficult for most of the children there.  This problem was solved however, as M came along and had a go and came up with a much simpler but just as effective design.

And having realised my original idea was too tricky, others were happy to follow my revised suggestion and ended up with a star like this.

In the end though three of the older girls did go for the first option and found it challenging but managed with a bit of help, so in the end it was rather successful all round.

In the afternoon, we had 11 wands, my chocolates and the bracelets and felt badges that K & M had made.  We sold all but one of the wands, most of the chocolates, a few of the bracelets but sadly none of the badges, which M was a bit upset by, as she'd put quite a lot of effort (and blood and tears, if not sweat, as she pricked her finger at one point) into making them.  She isn't too despondent though, as she's planning on giving them as presents to people instead.  As usual, with our busy Tuesdays, we then dashed to gymnastics and then later the girls had korfball as well.

On Wednesday we had our second, and this time successful, attempt at watching a film at the cinema.  This time we left Granny at home and the girls and I headed into town to see Epic, which we all enjoyed.

A puppet performance.

I'm rather behind with blogging at the moment, so given we've had a very busy few days will post a couple of updates rather than one mammoth one.

On Saturday A & I left the girls with Granny while we went looking at kitchens.  While we were out Granny, K & M continued working on their puppet play, rehearsing and finishing off making any further scenery and props.  They also started making programmes, tickets, signs (Box Office, Balcony, Stalls etc.) which they finished on Sunday, ready for the performance at 2pm.



The tickets.

M's programme cover.

And some of the content - the cast and a wordsearch.

K's programme cover - she's still working on the inside.

Tom, who played the title character.

The play was called Dino Rescue and told the story of Dino, who was captured by Mr Nasty the circus owner and then rescued by Baby Bear and Pig, who had befriended him earlier in the story, who then took him home to have tea at Granny's house.

It was over two acts and seven scenes, with refreshments during the interval and it all went very well and A & I were beautifully entertained.

A scene at Granny's house.

Busy day with Granny.

This morning I headed off for an LLL Toddler meeting, while the girls chose to stay with Granny.  They were rather busy while I was out!  They continued working on the puppet play they are writing, producing and acting, working out the incidental music to go with it.  Granny told me this evening that both of the girls pretty much knew all their lines straight away the first time they read it through and that she thinks they've got really good memories.  I suggested she asked them to do the Much Ado About Nothing Rap for her!

They also tried out the new twist to Vapoosh!, using a 10 second egg timer with the easier side of the board up to 6x6, and the rule that you have to work out the answer and put your counter on the board before the time is up, which worked rather well.  It would be a bit tricky, certainly until the girls are more confident with the higher number tables, to do with the up to 12x12, but we can keep it in mind for the future. They also went out and had a look at the Craft Fair, which comes every couple of months, and they tidied up the front room too!

This afternoon we did our traditional biannual clothes trying on session with Granny.  I have in the past tried to sort too small clothes and get rid of them, but it's just so much easier with my Mum, that now we save it for when she's here.  K & M both get very attached to clothes and can be very unhappy about getting rid of things they've grown out of, but are gradually reluctantly accepting that it is inevitable.

This afternoon the girls and I returned to the Craft Fair because they wanted to spend some money and they bought a 3D picture of a wolf in a landscape and while we were there between them and a very persuasive lady we signed up for a family membership of the RSPB.  As quite often happens it came up that we home educate and after chatting for a while and having signed up, she gave us an extra freebie that was an ex-display copies, in addition to the free book and wildlife organisers that the girls chose.

While K was at ballet, M & I played the 6x6 Vapoosh! using the timer, which worked well and M won by rolling a Vapoosh!