Rather a lot of K & M's toys with some help from K, M & A put on a nativity play yesterday. It started with a teddy bear with wings playing the Angel Gabriel who visited first Mary and then Joseph (both played by dogs) and who used smelling salts to revive them when the fainted with shock. Another dog played the Empress Audrey who declared that everyone had to go to their home town for the census, so Joseph took Mary, who rode on a donkey played by a cheetah, to Bethelehem. The cat hotel manager who happened to be a donkey-lover let them stay in the stable. Mary gave birth to Jesus, a kitten, and breastfed him before the shepherds (two dogs) turned up with a lamb (played by a lamb!). Finally the three wise giraffes showed up, bringing with them emminently sensible gifts of a rattle, teething ring and teddy bear, and the news that Queen Heroda was coming to kill their baby, so they'd better "skedaddle pronto". This they did, by being whizzed across the kitchen floor to safety.
Thursday, 24 December 2015
Monday, 21 December 2015
Still here!
Things have busy round these parts, but now we've nearly finished everything for Christmas and I'm feeling that I'll be able to breathe a big sigh and relax after tomorrow. It's A's last day at work tomorrow and my choir Christmas social. We've still got a bit more to do before we're ready for Christmas, but apart from a few foodie things and wrapping presents, nothing that would be disastrous if it weren't to happen. I really should practise playing carols though, having agreed to play the organ for the children's mass on Christmas even though!
Last week was ludicrously busy. There was a Christmas party at the Old Dalby home ed group on Monday, to which M took her French horn and played Little Donkey, which made up a bit for having missed doing so at Fun Club when we was poorly. Tuesday, the girls went to play with friends in the morning before gymnastics in the afternoon and korfball in the evening. On Wednesday, after M's French horn lesson first thing, we headed over to Derby to spend the day with our friends C, S, G & F, and go to the HE climbing session at Alter Rock. Thursday was the girls' last piano lesson of the year first thing and then their Scout Christmas party in the evening (more on that in a moment). Friday was much less busy with just a Christmas party of friends who live across the road, which the girls chose to go to rather than the last gymnastics of the year.
To get back to Scouts, they had a secret Santa for which they had to buy a present for the person whose name they had pulled out of a hat a couple of weeks earlier. They had both put a lot of effort into their presents, for which there was a limit of £2. M had picked the Scout leader and she crocheted her a brooch and bought a nice notebook from a charity shop and had enough to get a couple of coloured biros to go with it. K had heard that her recipient liked meerkats, so spend money on a small cardboard box and got quilling. This is the result.
She has also made some stunning Christmas cards for various people; here are a few of them. She has also quilled a present for M, but I haven't yet got a photo of it and can't say what in case she sees.
Last week was ludicrously busy. There was a Christmas party at the Old Dalby home ed group on Monday, to which M took her French horn and played Little Donkey, which made up a bit for having missed doing so at Fun Club when we was poorly. Tuesday, the girls went to play with friends in the morning before gymnastics in the afternoon and korfball in the evening. On Wednesday, after M's French horn lesson first thing, we headed over to Derby to spend the day with our friends C, S, G & F, and go to the HE climbing session at Alter Rock. Thursday was the girls' last piano lesson of the year first thing and then their Scout Christmas party in the evening (more on that in a moment). Friday was much less busy with just a Christmas party of friends who live across the road, which the girls chose to go to rather than the last gymnastics of the year.
To get back to Scouts, they had a secret Santa for which they had to buy a present for the person whose name they had pulled out of a hat a couple of weeks earlier. They had both put a lot of effort into their presents, for which there was a limit of £2. M had picked the Scout leader and she crocheted her a brooch and bought a nice notebook from a charity shop and had enough to get a couple of coloured biros to go with it. K had heard that her recipient liked meerkats, so spend money on a small cardboard box and got quilling. This is the result.
She has also made some stunning Christmas cards for various people; here are a few of them. She has also quilled a present for M, but I haven't yet got a photo of it and can't say what in case she sees.
Friday, 4 December 2015
Another week gone.
Things are plodding on here. Both K & M are making Christmas cards and presents, although of course I can't say too much about that.
K is continuing to spend quite a lot of time trying to crack one particular puzzle on Lure of the Labyrinth and both K & M are doing some French on Duolingo pretty much every day. Mystery Science is also still going well. K and I have finished off our first 'unit of study' The Birth of Rocks and M decided to give it a go and has now done two of the four 'mysteries' in that unit too. K meanwhile, rather to my surprise I must admit, agreed to write a summary of the unit; what it covered and what she learned and possibly something additional that she looked into to follow up something that she found interesting.
A few weeks ago, K did actually get round to writing the letter that we had talked about, about home education and her thoughts on it. Unfortunately she managed to lose her first draft (and it still hasn't turned up) and as a result of this, the final result was rather less comprehensive than the earlier version or notes I had caught glimpses of. The summary, however, would be that she wants to continue with home education but thinks that she will probably want to do some qualifications at some point. The other thing that resulted from the letter was that I learned that her method of using punctuation is rather unconventional and not entirely successful. For the letter, she wrote the whole letter and then went back over it and added punctuation in. Consequently, we've done a bit more work on punctuation and this week, she did another piece of writing (I gave her a choice of three topics) about her trip to Granny's last week and put punctuation in as she went along and it was much better. One thing that I have learned is just how much of my punctuating is by instinct and feel rather than knowing 'the rules', particularly with commas. So we've had a look at our Basher Punctuation book to help out with that side of things.
Unfortunately M hasn't been too well this week, which scuppered our plans somewhat in the first half. On Monday we had plans to go into town with Granny, get some shopping done and meet up with A for lunch. M really wasn't up to town though, so we cancelled lunch, Granny and K went in the morning, then we had take-away pizza for lunch back at home, before I went in on my own in the afternoon.
Tuesday was the Fun Club Christmas concert and M was very unhappy not to be well enough to go. She had been planning to take part and play the French horn. Nurse Granny sprang into action and stayed at home with her, while K & I went. I have played the piano to accompany carols for a number of years now and had agreed to do the same again this year.
On Wednesday Granny headed home and since then we've had a couple of low key days and fortunately M was well enough for Scouts on Thursday evening, when she was invested. Just like K though, she decided that she didn't want Mummy and Daddy there. Ho hum.
K is continuing to spend quite a lot of time trying to crack one particular puzzle on Lure of the Labyrinth and both K & M are doing some French on Duolingo pretty much every day. Mystery Science is also still going well. K and I have finished off our first 'unit of study' The Birth of Rocks and M decided to give it a go and has now done two of the four 'mysteries' in that unit too. K meanwhile, rather to my surprise I must admit, agreed to write a summary of the unit; what it covered and what she learned and possibly something additional that she looked into to follow up something that she found interesting.
A few weeks ago, K did actually get round to writing the letter that we had talked about, about home education and her thoughts on it. Unfortunately she managed to lose her first draft (and it still hasn't turned up) and as a result of this, the final result was rather less comprehensive than the earlier version or notes I had caught glimpses of. The summary, however, would be that she wants to continue with home education but thinks that she will probably want to do some qualifications at some point. The other thing that resulted from the letter was that I learned that her method of using punctuation is rather unconventional and not entirely successful. For the letter, she wrote the whole letter and then went back over it and added punctuation in. Consequently, we've done a bit more work on punctuation and this week, she did another piece of writing (I gave her a choice of three topics) about her trip to Granny's last week and put punctuation in as she went along and it was much better. One thing that I have learned is just how much of my punctuating is by instinct and feel rather than knowing 'the rules', particularly with commas. So we've had a look at our Basher Punctuation book to help out with that side of things.
Unfortunately M hasn't been too well this week, which scuppered our plans somewhat in the first half. On Monday we had plans to go into town with Granny, get some shopping done and meet up with A for lunch. M really wasn't up to town though, so we cancelled lunch, Granny and K went in the morning, then we had take-away pizza for lunch back at home, before I went in on my own in the afternoon.
Tuesday was the Fun Club Christmas concert and M was very unhappy not to be well enough to go. She had been planning to take part and play the French horn. Nurse Granny sprang into action and stayed at home with her, while K & I went. I have played the piano to accompany carols for a number of years now and had agreed to do the same again this year.
On Wednesday Granny headed home and since then we've had a couple of low key days and fortunately M was well enough for Scouts on Thursday evening, when she was invested. Just like K though, she decided that she didn't want Mummy and Daddy there. Ho hum.
Friday, 27 November 2015
Granny's here and we've been busy!
After the girls' trip down to spend the day with Granny and Big Grandad before bringing Granny back here to stay for a week.
On Thursday, M and Granny seemed to have a plan and the two of them shut themselves away doing secret things. They didn't manage to finish it, so continued today and this evening, A and I were presented with the finished product.
Each of the windows is attached using a cut out Christmas greeting from old cards and I think the pictures behind them are too. The little boxes on the right have a little something inside, one for each of the days up until the 23rd, then the 24th and 25th have a bigger something wrapped up and attached to the windows.
M has also made some more Christmas cards using the basic design that she came up with, which I think work really well.
K had come back from Granny's with an old sheet and an old pair of curtains and some plans. She got the sewing machine out and, with no plan other then what was in her unfathomable head, she made herself something.
The waistband is the top of the curtain, with the band still on it and cinched in to give its shape.
She just dived straight in, no measuring, no pattern, just her idea. It seems to have turned out remarkably well! I'll try to get a photo of her wearing it tomorrow.
This morning, the girls and Granny went out charity shopping and for some other bits and pieces. In one of the charity shops, Shelter I think, M found a basket of Christmas baubles, which were priced at 10 for £1. She took three to the till and asked how much it would be for just those, because she wanted three of them. The lady asked her who they were for and when M told her that they were to share with her sister and Mummy and Daddy, she said that M could have them for free. M insisted on paying something and when my Mum pointed out there was a collection tin on the counter, the lady said to put 5p in there, but M put 20p in. My Mum told me that the lady was very moved by this and said that we must have a lovely home!
This afternoon K & I did the third 'lesson' of a geology unit, called The Birth of Rocks, of Mystery Science. Each unit involves watching a video, talking about what you've seen, doing an experiment or activity and filling in a worksheet. There are then some extra links which you can follow up if you want to. So far we have: plotted on a map where volcanoes are and determined that it's unlikely that one will pop up in our garden, but that it's not out of the question in some parts of the world; done an experiment to look at two different types of lava which you find in cone and shield volcanoes; and shaken sugar cubes in plastic tub to simulate erosion. K is really enjoying it and quite happily filling in the worksheets for each lesson. I'm hopeful that M might decide to have a go, having initially been put off when we started to have a look at the unit on dinosaurs and they started off by talking about a brontosaurus. As a free resource, I would really recommend this website. I know when my girls were younger it's very unlikely that they would have done the worksheets, but the videos are pretty good and the experiments easy but worth doing so far.
Finally, it's from a couple of weeks ago, but here's another one of K's quilling creations. It was a commission; I asked her to make one for friends who have just moved house.
On Thursday, M and Granny seemed to have a plan and the two of them shut themselves away doing secret things. They didn't manage to finish it, so continued today and this evening, A and I were presented with the finished product.
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| It's an advent calendar. |
M has also made some more Christmas cards using the basic design that she came up with, which I think work really well.
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| One snowman, one Christmas tree and Billy the Blue Nosed Reindeer! |
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| From the side. |
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| A skirt made out of one of the curtains. |
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| She even sewed a zip in! |
This morning, the girls and Granny went out charity shopping and for some other bits and pieces. In one of the charity shops, Shelter I think, M found a basket of Christmas baubles, which were priced at 10 for £1. She took three to the till and asked how much it would be for just those, because she wanted three of them. The lady asked her who they were for and when M told her that they were to share with her sister and Mummy and Daddy, she said that M could have them for free. M insisted on paying something and when my Mum pointed out there was a collection tin on the counter, the lady said to put 5p in there, but M put 20p in. My Mum told me that the lady was very moved by this and said that we must have a lovely home!
This afternoon K & I did the third 'lesson' of a geology unit, called The Birth of Rocks, of Mystery Science. Each unit involves watching a video, talking about what you've seen, doing an experiment or activity and filling in a worksheet. There are then some extra links which you can follow up if you want to. So far we have: plotted on a map where volcanoes are and determined that it's unlikely that one will pop up in our garden, but that it's not out of the question in some parts of the world; done an experiment to look at two different types of lava which you find in cone and shield volcanoes; and shaken sugar cubes in plastic tub to simulate erosion. K is really enjoying it and quite happily filling in the worksheets for each lesson. I'm hopeful that M might decide to have a go, having initially been put off when we started to have a look at the unit on dinosaurs and they started off by talking about a brontosaurus. As a free resource, I would really recommend this website. I know when my girls were younger it's very unlikely that they would have done the worksheets, but the videos are pretty good and the experiments easy but worth doing so far.
Finally, it's from a couple of weeks ago, but here's another one of K's quilling creations. It was a commission; I asked her to make one for friends who have just moved house.
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| Her own design. |
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Quite a variety of things.
Well since posting about internet links, most mornings I have come downstairs to find K doing mathematical things on Lure of the Labyrinth and M has been on Duolingo pretty much every day. M gets a bit frustrated with the accuracy needed when writing both in French and English, but is persevering none the less. K has now signed up for Duolingo as well and appears to be just as determined as M to have a go every day.
Still on the theme of French, we went to see the second of our two Into Film films last Thursday, which was Belle et Sebastien. It wasn't something that K & M had jumped at, but they were willing enough to go. It was in Derby and thanks to roadworks getting out of Nottingham, we only just got there by the skin of our teeth, but we all agreed that it was very good and the fact that it had subtitles didn't bother the girls at all.
On Friday, the girls went to spend the day with Z & R, who had kindly agreed to have them so I could help out a friend in need. They had a great time and I felt and indeed feel very fortunate to have such good friends who I can ask to help out (I had another friend on standby, in case Z hadn't been able to have them).
Saturday the girls donned their Scout uniforms to help out at the church Christmas fayre, where they were selling quizzes, something that was clearly more suited to M. Their Scout leader had printed out 60 and of the 59 that the Scouts managed to sell, K sold 3 while M sold 24 of them!
Monday's group at Old Dalby was a Christmas craft session and M designed a card that we took with us to show people. She'd come up with the design entirely by her self, which I will add a photo of later. We made another, slightly neater, example between us to take too and a few of the children chose to make one. K & M each decorated a Christmas biscuit (unsurprisingly that was the most popular of the activities!)
We have managed to rearrange the girls piano lesson (although admittedly they're not entirely chuffed that it's now 9 o'clock in the morning!) in order to make it to another gymnastics group on Tuesday afternoons. It's with the same club that they are already members of and go to a 'teen gym' session on a Friday evening, but this is a HE session and quite a few friends go too. M in particular wanted to go to see one new friend, who we don't see very often, in particular.
On the way home from gymnastics M nailed the problem with using rewards to try to motivate children, something that I have posted about previously here and here. She mentioned that she'd been given a sticker for effort in part of the gymnastics session, but pointed out that it was for an activity that she doesn't find very hard, so really hadn't needed to put in very much effort, so what was the point in the sticker. The conversation continued about how it's pretty much impossible to know just how much effort somebody else is putting into something.
On Wednesday, I had a very rare day off! A sometimes meets a colleague in the small town where my parents live, it being about half way between them. My Mum (aka Granny) suggested that K & M could go down with him and spend the day there, before bringing her back here for a week-long visit. Despite the fact that A was leaving before 7am, they both wanted to and indeed managed to be up and ready in time. So as well as getting quite a few jobs done around the house, I treated myself to a much needed massage, which was fantastic!
Just to add a few more things, M has baked some very good chocolate brownies, K in particular has been doing lots of piano practice and we are now in the final stretch of the penultimate in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five.
Still on the theme of French, we went to see the second of our two Into Film films last Thursday, which was Belle et Sebastien. It wasn't something that K & M had jumped at, but they were willing enough to go. It was in Derby and thanks to roadworks getting out of Nottingham, we only just got there by the skin of our teeth, but we all agreed that it was very good and the fact that it had subtitles didn't bother the girls at all.
On Friday, the girls went to spend the day with Z & R, who had kindly agreed to have them so I could help out a friend in need. They had a great time and I felt and indeed feel very fortunate to have such good friends who I can ask to help out (I had another friend on standby, in case Z hadn't been able to have them).
Saturday the girls donned their Scout uniforms to help out at the church Christmas fayre, where they were selling quizzes, something that was clearly more suited to M. Their Scout leader had printed out 60 and of the 59 that the Scouts managed to sell, K sold 3 while M sold 24 of them!
Monday's group at Old Dalby was a Christmas craft session and M designed a card that we took with us to show people. She'd come up with the design entirely by her self, which I will add a photo of later. We made another, slightly neater, example between us to take too and a few of the children chose to make one. K & M each decorated a Christmas biscuit (unsurprisingly that was the most popular of the activities!)
We have managed to rearrange the girls piano lesson (although admittedly they're not entirely chuffed that it's now 9 o'clock in the morning!) in order to make it to another gymnastics group on Tuesday afternoons. It's with the same club that they are already members of and go to a 'teen gym' session on a Friday evening, but this is a HE session and quite a few friends go too. M in particular wanted to go to see one new friend, who we don't see very often, in particular.
On the way home from gymnastics M nailed the problem with using rewards to try to motivate children, something that I have posted about previously here and here. She mentioned that she'd been given a sticker for effort in part of the gymnastics session, but pointed out that it was for an activity that she doesn't find very hard, so really hadn't needed to put in very much effort, so what was the point in the sticker. The conversation continued about how it's pretty much impossible to know just how much effort somebody else is putting into something.
On Wednesday, I had a very rare day off! A sometimes meets a colleague in the small town where my parents live, it being about half way between them. My Mum (aka Granny) suggested that K & M could go down with him and spend the day there, before bringing her back here for a week-long visit. Despite the fact that A was leaving before 7am, they both wanted to and indeed managed to be up and ready in time. So as well as getting quite a few jobs done around the house, I treated myself to a much needed massage, which was fantastic!
Just to add a few more things, M has baked some very good chocolate brownies, K in particular has been doing lots of piano practice and we are now in the final stretch of the penultimate in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five.
Tuesday, 17 November 2015
Some thoughts on the internet and some links.
I'm sure I'm not alone in finding computers and the internet in particular to be something of a double-edged sword. I'm not always happy about quite how much time K & M spend particularly on some websites which have to my mind rather limited value, but they have undoubtedly learned an awful lot from various websites. There are some websites that seem to stick around, others that we dip in and out of every so often, others that are more flash in the pan and still more that the girls use intensely for a while, forget about and then rediscover. Most of the websites that we use are free ones, although there are a few that we pay for.
Lure of the Labyrinth is a really good maths site that K has recently rediscovered, that covers pre-algebra through games.
Timez Attack is a free downloadable game for learning tables. Both K & M got very frustrated and upset when they first tried it, because to move on you need to be able to type in the correct answer quite quickly. They have at various points returned to it for a while though and it would probably suit some children really well.
DragonBox is one that we paid for (and I think was worth it), that is a game that introduces alegbra but one that you work through and it finishes rather than you keep on playing.
Khan Academy is a fantastic free website for maths, science and computing. My girls have particularly got a lot out of the coding section and K had a long phase of loving the maths doodling videos.
Study Ladder is one that has free content, but you can pay to access more but I haven't so can't comment on whether it's worth it. M likes dipping into this one, particularly the geography flags and capital cities games.
The Happy Scientist is another one that I have paid to access more content and may or may not renew once our subscription has expired. It's one that we go through phases of using quite a bit and then periods when we don't use it at all. It's worth checking out the free content though.
Typing.com is a free touch typing website, which the girls had a go at regularly for a while, but has gone by the wayside for the moment. I'm hoping they'll come back to it, as it's something that I think it a really useful skill.
Duolingo is a free language learning website, which a friend recommended. As an ex-modern language teacher, I am really keen for K & M to learn a foreign language, but they aren't keen on learning from me unless we are in the relevant country. M, however, has really taken to this website. It's rather 'plume de ma tante' but seems to be going okay. I tried to talk to M about adjectival agreement recently (she's learning French), but she cut me short with the comment that she'd already worked that out for herself thank you! K hasn't looked at it yet, but has agreed to give it a go. We will be carrying on with transactional language when in France.
FutureLearn does free online courses, of which K has done a couple. She and I did one together about the staging of Much Ado About Nothing and then she did a beginning creative writing one on her own. I am still awaiting completion of her story and I'm not entirely sure how far she's got, but I am assured she is working on it!
Mathsisfun is another one that the girls like to dip into occasionally, particularly with the puzzle games on there, although there is an awful lot more of it than that.
Thingdom is a Science Museum site, with a game that explores the idea of heredity which the girls come back to every so often.
The Natural History Museum has changed it's website, so that there is no longer the 'kids only' section, but the games and quizzes that used to be there are still available if you have a search. K & M still quite like the dinosaur ones.
Mystery Science is another free website that we've signed up for, but haven't properly explored yet.
I am not allowed to do a blog post about websites without mentioning School of Dragons based on How to Train Your Dragon. This is one that I have mixed feelings about, as both girls, although particularly K, seem to spend an awful lot of time on it. It is free, but you earn points by logging on daily, which is frustrating. There are some parts that redeem it, for example, I heard K explaining to M that you needed to identify the different types of cloud during a particular mission and you had to look for the refracted light another time, but most of it does seem to be repetitive, time consuming rubbish.
So those are the websites that I would suggest checking out (or possibly avoiding in the case of the last one!) based on what my girls have got out of them and continue to do so.
Lure of the Labyrinth is a really good maths site that K has recently rediscovered, that covers pre-algebra through games.
Timez Attack is a free downloadable game for learning tables. Both K & M got very frustrated and upset when they first tried it, because to move on you need to be able to type in the correct answer quite quickly. They have at various points returned to it for a while though and it would probably suit some children really well.
DragonBox is one that we paid for (and I think was worth it), that is a game that introduces alegbra but one that you work through and it finishes rather than you keep on playing.
Khan Academy is a fantastic free website for maths, science and computing. My girls have particularly got a lot out of the coding section and K had a long phase of loving the maths doodling videos.
Study Ladder is one that has free content, but you can pay to access more but I haven't so can't comment on whether it's worth it. M likes dipping into this one, particularly the geography flags and capital cities games.
The Happy Scientist is another one that I have paid to access more content and may or may not renew once our subscription has expired. It's one that we go through phases of using quite a bit and then periods when we don't use it at all. It's worth checking out the free content though.
Typing.com is a free touch typing website, which the girls had a go at regularly for a while, but has gone by the wayside for the moment. I'm hoping they'll come back to it, as it's something that I think it a really useful skill.
Duolingo is a free language learning website, which a friend recommended. As an ex-modern language teacher, I am really keen for K & M to learn a foreign language, but they aren't keen on learning from me unless we are in the relevant country. M, however, has really taken to this website. It's rather 'plume de ma tante' but seems to be going okay. I tried to talk to M about adjectival agreement recently (she's learning French), but she cut me short with the comment that she'd already worked that out for herself thank you! K hasn't looked at it yet, but has agreed to give it a go. We will be carrying on with transactional language when in France.
FutureLearn does free online courses, of which K has done a couple. She and I did one together about the staging of Much Ado About Nothing and then she did a beginning creative writing one on her own. I am still awaiting completion of her story and I'm not entirely sure how far she's got, but I am assured she is working on it!
Mathsisfun is another one that the girls like to dip into occasionally, particularly with the puzzle games on there, although there is an awful lot more of it than that.
Thingdom is a Science Museum site, with a game that explores the idea of heredity which the girls come back to every so often.
The Natural History Museum has changed it's website, so that there is no longer the 'kids only' section, but the games and quizzes that used to be there are still available if you have a search. K & M still quite like the dinosaur ones.
Mystery Science is another free website that we've signed up for, but haven't properly explored yet.
I am not allowed to do a blog post about websites without mentioning School of Dragons based on How to Train Your Dragon. This is one that I have mixed feelings about, as both girls, although particularly K, seem to spend an awful lot of time on it. It is free, but you earn points by logging on daily, which is frustrating. There are some parts that redeem it, for example, I heard K explaining to M that you needed to identify the different types of cloud during a particular mission and you had to look for the refracted light another time, but most of it does seem to be repetitive, time consuming rubbish.
So those are the websites that I would suggest checking out (or possibly avoiding in the case of the last one!) based on what my girls have got out of them and continue to do so.
Sunday, 15 November 2015
Another busy week with a group residential trip.
After Old Dalby group, which was a board games one on Monday and a fairly quiet day on Tuesday, with just piano lessons and korfball along with getting ready for Wednesday, things got busy again!
Wednesday was A's birthday and he had a few days off work to come on a trip to Beaumanor Hall with us. It was a two night and one whole and two half days trip with eight home ed families, most of whom we already knew at least fairly well. There were about 40 of us altogether with children ranging from 6 month old W to K & C who are both 12, with the majority between 7 and 10.
We arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and after settling in, we had some 'getting to know you' games in the sports hall. We started off by getting into a circle in alphabetical order and then swapped around so that we were in order of our birthdays throughout the year. After a couple more games, had a hilarious one which involved people moving around the circle one at a time and the person who ends up with a space to their right calling another person to come and sit in it before the person in the centre of the circle manages to sit in that space. It didn't really work at all, but it was really good fun! After it had got dark some of us went on a walk around the grounds and attempted to do one of the treasure hunts that we had sheets for, before heading back to the cabins.
On Thursday morning we had the only organised activity by the Beaumanor folks, which was the high ropes and zip wire. K & M love this sort of thing, and A & I had signed up too, but had given up our places so that all the children who wanted to could take part. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I think a good time was had by all. A couple of the children changed their minds about the high ropes once up there, but I think everyone had several turns on the zip wire.
After lunch some of the older children, mostly K, M & C I believe, had organised a 'Mini Olympics'. They had decided to do so the previous evening and a lot of thought and effort went into it. K had a notebook with lists of events, competitors and judges and it all worked remarkably well and was extremely entertaining.
The opening event was a two-aside cricket match with an adult and child on each side. I'm not sure who one, but it didn't really matter!
Next came gymnastics with half a dozen competitors, five children and one adult. They showed off a variety of skills in front of the judges.
This was followed by another two-aside team game, this time hockey. Then it was the running, first the children, then the adults.
Next came a two-aside parent and child football match.
The final event was the foam javelin, which was won by P, who on his turn threw it right over the heads of the spectators!
It was occasionally a little bit chaotic and K who seemed to be doing most of the organising on the day with notebook in hand got a little bit stressed at times, but it was all done in very good spirits and as a spectator is was brilliant.
After the Mini Olympics, M did something that she had been planning. Friday was Children in Need and she had decided she wanted to do something to raise some money. She had made a sign and brought a little pot for donations and stood on her head for as long as she could manage.
She managed an extremely impressive five and a half minutes and raised about £30 there and is asking family if they would like to donate too and has raised just over £50.
In the evening on Thursday we had a lovely singing session, accompanied by P on the guitar in one of the communal rooms (we were spread out over two dormitories and therefore had two kitchens and two communal rooms), while in the other E was giving rather lovely hand massages. At various points there were a variety of different games being played, from whist and Lord of the Rings to Rummikub and chess, as well as knitting and crochet too.
On Friday morning we needed to be out of the cabins by 10 o'clock and unlike the previous two days the weather was awful, so most people didn't hang around. There was a general consensus that the trip had been a great success and there are already plans to repeat it.
Once we got home, M decided she wanted to make A a birthday cake (I had made a fruit cake to take to share for the day but she wanted to make one to decorate for him), so she started that and finished off decorating the next morning, after a minor disaster with the icing that we managed to rescue the next day.
K's birthday present to A was a cushion that she had found at the scrapstore, which she personalised to match one she'd made for me for my birthday.
We were all pretty tired after two nights away sleeping in a dormitory and have caught up with some lovely long lie-ins this weekend!
Wednesday was A's birthday and he had a few days off work to come on a trip to Beaumanor Hall with us. It was a two night and one whole and two half days trip with eight home ed families, most of whom we already knew at least fairly well. There were about 40 of us altogether with children ranging from 6 month old W to K & C who are both 12, with the majority between 7 and 10.
We arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and after settling in, we had some 'getting to know you' games in the sports hall. We started off by getting into a circle in alphabetical order and then swapped around so that we were in order of our birthdays throughout the year. After a couple more games, had a hilarious one which involved people moving around the circle one at a time and the person who ends up with a space to their right calling another person to come and sit in it before the person in the centre of the circle manages to sit in that space. It didn't really work at all, but it was really good fun! After it had got dark some of us went on a walk around the grounds and attempted to do one of the treasure hunts that we had sheets for, before heading back to the cabins.
On Thursday morning we had the only organised activity by the Beaumanor folks, which was the high ropes and zip wire. K & M love this sort of thing, and A & I had signed up too, but had given up our places so that all the children who wanted to could take part. It was an absolutely beautiful day and I think a good time was had by all. A couple of the children changed their minds about the high ropes once up there, but I think everyone had several turns on the zip wire.
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| M & K on the high ropes. |
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| B & M showing off! |
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| K & Z hanging about on the zip wire. |
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| M & C zipping by. |
The opening event was a two-aside cricket match with an adult and child on each side. I'm not sure who one, but it didn't really matter!
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| The cricket match. |
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| C's turn in the gymnastics event. |
This was followed by another two-aside team game, this time hockey. Then it was the running, first the children, then the adults.
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| Very competitive and a dead-heat! |
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| This one was rather competitive! |
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| The winning throw. |
It was occasionally a little bit chaotic and K who seemed to be doing most of the organising on the day with notebook in hand got a little bit stressed at times, but it was all done in very good spirits and as a spectator is was brilliant.
After the Mini Olympics, M did something that she had been planning. Friday was Children in Need and she had decided she wanted to do something to raise some money. She had made a sign and brought a little pot for donations and stood on her head for as long as she could manage.
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| Near the beginning. |
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| After about 4 minutes. |
In the evening on Thursday we had a lovely singing session, accompanied by P on the guitar in one of the communal rooms (we were spread out over two dormitories and therefore had two kitchens and two communal rooms), while in the other E was giving rather lovely hand massages. At various points there were a variety of different games being played, from whist and Lord of the Rings to Rummikub and chess, as well as knitting and crochet too.
On Friday morning we needed to be out of the cabins by 10 o'clock and unlike the previous two days the weather was awful, so most people didn't hang around. There was a general consensus that the trip had been a great success and there are already plans to repeat it.
Once we got home, M decided she wanted to make A a birthday cake (I had made a fruit cake to take to share for the day but she wanted to make one to decorate for him), so she started that and finished off decorating the next morning, after a minor disaster with the icing that we managed to rescue the next day.
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| The figures are A, Tabby Kitten, Felix Fox & Christopher. |
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| My Mr Happy & A's Little Miss Sunshine. |
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