learning all the time

Well, that's the second thing that I went to last week which I really didn't want to go to and it turned out to be a triumph.

Holiday on Ice - I went to a similar thing about 20 years ago, and it was good - but I have never felt the desire to go again, and when Mark gave me and Oliver tickets for the February 'Energia' show at Westpoint, for Christmas, although an extremely thoughtful gift - my heart sank.

Now, it may well be that the last time I went, I was in the throes of a very dull first marriage and months away from separation and so my emotional responses to anything at that time probaby weren't terribly reliable, but I squared my shoulders, put my head down and summoned up enough enthusiasm to get us in the car and out to Wespoint on Saturday night. And shame on me - it was a bloody fabulous show - Oliver's excitement was reward enough and a joy to share, but the skating, costumes and wow factor were just brilliant. I am definitely going to go next year and boy, I have learnt a few lessons over this one.

I took some crap photos which I will share with you, and I got a right old telling off half time for using my camera. Feel a bit aggrieved to have to take a bollocking for such crap results.

Before the show started:

and no, despite all evidence to the contrary, we were not high on drugs.


Last week was half term, and saw Oliver going off with the holiday playscheme to Plymouth Aquarium. I've never been, but he said it was brilliant, and had a great time. They did some activities there, one of them was making 'goo', and so taken with this idea, Oliver took the trouble to ask the man how to make it, and then spent a considerable amount of time using up all my cornflour at home.

Feeling very content to see his enthusiasm for creating/finding out in action.

it's a new day, it's a new dawn, and I'm feeling

extraordinarily tired, actually.

Went to Haytor on Saturday as the sun was shining. Again I found myself cursing that the English weather had conned us in to thinking it would be a lovely little trip out. It was bloody freezing up there, although very pretty.

Oliver (well, Mark paid for obviously) bought me these flowers at Trago:

Mark and I had a heated couple of sentences, not even a squabble, really, over a new spelling initiative he started with Oliver last week. Think in truth, I spoke out of turn and thoughtlessly, and he massively over-reacted. Hence forth, no spellings have been done, and we both feel shitty. Sigh. Why is life so tricky. No answers on a postcard please, it's a rhetorical.

We have finally worked our way through volume one of the Story of the World history book, which has been fantastic, and kindled an interest in history for Oliver, and fuelled my passion for the past. Will be trying to get hold of volume two soon. Another piece of Egyptian history was added to the timeline last week, and this week we are off to Plymouth to see the Horrible Histories on tour show: Awful Egyptians. Both looking forward to that.

Well, better get going. Really I am just delaying the inevitable washing up, wrapping up of ebay parcels, preparing a veg casserole, avoiding strangling the dog and then getting bullied by the Biggest Loser Kinect game. etc etc etc. Now, do I insist on getting cracking on some home-ed worky stuff, or do I leave Oliver whilst he is quiet and playing an energetic Kinect game of football? Find this the constant dilemma of home-edding.

To do, or not to do, that is the question. No, no answers needed for this either.

today's table

looks like this:

Disclaimer: the hair straighteners and wine glass are nothing to do with home education in any way, shape or form.

In fact the meagre amount of lovely cold white wine I just quaffed was to compensate me for the sweaty and shaky half hour I've just spent at the Doctors having a mole surgically removed. Oliver cried (real tears) at lunchtime when he realised he had to accompany me to this 'procedure' and then once in the Docs surgery promptly went from sitting in the corner with his ipod and headphones on and eyes shut to pulling up a chair to the end of the bed and telling me gleefully that there was 'blood dripping from the injection'. What a ghoul.

On the table today we have maths (Saxon 54) and Sudoku. The maths is going extremely well, and it is something I enjoy with him, because he gets it and likes it. The sudoku is a new thing, prompted today by an email from the lovely Louise re Activity Village. He gets it and is enjoying it. It works on logic, and needless to say, me and logic are not best mates. In fact we are not even on nodding terms. Glad to see that the boy does not take after me in many aspects of life....

Also in the pic is Oliver's new notebook for spanish sessions at the hut - I didn't even realise that everybody else took a notebook - so my poor little lad has been drawing on loose bits of paper like a pauper! tsk tsk. So today we went and bought a lovely new pad and some pens - it was great, reminded me of the first day of term at school with lots of delicious new stationery.

And finally....

This is Ladram bay on Sunday. Lovely, one might think. But - no. In this pic you should just be able to make out my dog, buggering off up the beach back towards the car. Mark (unseen in the pic) is strolling off in the opposite direction, patently ignoring the impending screaming at the dog to return. Also note the evil glowers coming from the hiking fraternity on the far right. (no dogs on the beach apparently, which we decided to ignore....) Clearly Harvey is a better reader than us because he left the beach of his own accord pretty sharpish like .....

The baking from Saturday's blog post of intentions:



The cherry & almond flapjacks were very good I have to say, the mince pies - well, same shit different year really. I hate my mince pies. In fact, I'm not at all convinced that homemade mince pies are worth the time, money and clearing up anyhow. I am sticking firmly to my shop-bought preference from now on. Sod it.

Today we got on with the timeline. We did the birth of the Jewish Nation, and it was fantastic to witness Oliver's joy at producing aesthetically pleasing work. He is genuinely enjoying this timeline, so I am dead chuffed with it.

laters.

total eclipse of the son

For Cub Astronomer badge 'homework' Oliver has to find out about three interesting facts about two things from a list and present these facts with pictures. He hasn't kicked back too much against the potential 'work' involved with this task (yet), and this afternoon is diligently preparing his facts. He has chosen eclipses and meteorites. A 20p charity shop book has been helpful here, as it feels OK to cut up a book which cost me 20p, and he will probably not read again. (sorry if this offends the book-o-philes)

We started the timeline - ta DAH! We decided to start where our 'Story Of The World' book begins, with the earliest people (nomads) around 7000BC. Then we have jumped to the Ancient Egyptians at around 3200BC. Will probably do Greeks, Romans , Jesus, Saxons/Normans start of the Monarchy in Britain, Tudors, Stuarts, Victorians, the World Wars and our birthdays. Have probably missed out some vital historical periods in my whistle stop tour of the history of man, but hey ho, sure it will come to light.

Oliver went off to West Town Farm yesterday with Kim and Vanessa for some tree hugging and communing with nature. (I didn't go) but he has asked me if he can go again as he really enjoyed it. Sigh. Not at all sure if this is for me - it's all very outdoors and all. Still, I will give it a go in the spirit of motherly love and earthly joy.

a short history of the world (or not)

Today is the day that something is going up on this: (not sure what yet)

Yes, I got around to putting up the timeline! It has been up for nearly a week and I am frozen into inertia about where to start and what to include. Do we just cover British history? World history? From the birth of Jesus or before? One thing is for sure - it will NOT be to scale and I will not have enough room. Hey ho. Mark was surprisingly supportive of the project, given that I have nailed this thing to the wall with upholstery nails.... thought he was going to have a caustically tight-lipped and clipped few things to say, but he pleasantly surprised me. Oliver is, typically, not that interested but I am optimistic that once we start, he will see the point of it.

He has been using (quite successfully I might add) window paints to make his own designs. He made a knight (a small little pink person shape) and then made individual bits of armour to stick over the naked person. Very innovative I think, although there appears to be a bit of a scale issue. He did spot this eventually, but his pride in creating it has not been diminished.

For my own creative ends, I have been making a beaded bauble and made a December Daily album (pics to follow later) - this is a bit like the Journal Your Christmas from last year, but hopefully will not end up as big as last years effort, which is sitting in its huge fan-shaped majesty on the top shelf of my craft room, since I can't close the bugger.

What do you think of the new blog design? I can't seem to find anything more festive at the mo but will be trawling the net to find something more jolly next week - will be swinging into the holiday spirit on the 1st December - the advent box goes out and I am doing a card making activity at the hut. Oliver is pissed that I am not putting up the tree on the 1st (as has always been the case in the past) but this year the first falls on a Wednesday - my least favourite day of the week due to lots being on and I have to work. Will do the tree on Thursday 2nd instead, when we can spend the afternoon faffing over decorating it and watching a Christmas DVD. Ooh I LUUUURVE the Christmas season!!!!!

I LOVE cold days...

...dark mornings, wintry (wintery?) afternoons, wet days, icy cold days, blustery leafy days, sunny leafy days, sunny cold days, but the most important thing here is that the summer (hateful hot and make you feel guilty for feeling indoors summer) is over for another year and the lovely, lovely Autumnal days have begun with the smell of bonfires, rustle of leaves underfoot and damp and chill which leaves you feeling all crisp and healthy when outside and cosy cosy indoors with heat and steamy drying washing and baking smells. I love it. And it has made me feel all freshly enthused about home teaching.

I want to blog a bit more about our lives at home. This year we are much more into a routine of 'work' and I feel much, much less guilty about the fact that Oliver may not be covering as much as he 'should' be. I generally feel very relaxed about how much we do in 'schooly' stuff, as I am quite confident in his ability to grow into structured learning if and when need be, but I occasionally feel the squeeze of outside forces in the shape of non home-schooled family and friends. I feel stuck in the middle of state-run institutionalised thinking and free as you like home ed thinking.

This is the room we generally work in:

Boring huh?

And this is our new bookcase (in the same room)

which I am inordinately excited about, as I now have 2 whole shelves for Oliver's learny stuff.

I had the idea of getting a giant pinboard for the wall to showcase pics/work/writing but then I read this today on another home edders's blog - DUH! Why didn't I think of this?! So will be shamelessly copying that one day very soon. Want to do a history timeline on it (also mentioned on the same blog) but I can claim that I have honestly wanted to do this for a long time but has remained on my ever growing list of 'things that I want to do but can't truly be arsed to do anything about at this or any point in the near future'.

And finally...

A couple of my layouts were featured on the Papermaze blog on Saturday, so that's nice. Also went to the Scrapaholix crop on Saturday - did two layouts, a gentle and therapeutic scrapping day...