August Educational Link Find of the Month

• National Dishes

 http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/national-dish.html

We used this link to find some recipes for our commonwealth themed week.

• Latin

 http://www.minimus-etc.co.uk/

Great for future reference

Commonwealth games

Commonwealth games time has given rise to some more world learning, we have made a bunting of the 53 member states flags which we found at activity Village which you can find here http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/commonwealth-flag-bunting.

We watched a quick video about what the commonwealth is after Oliver asked what the commonwealth was, this is the best one I could find for kids:-

 

Oliver came up with a great idea of creating some medals from our pie cases which we used in our competition of who can keep their kite in the air the longest.

I was also in deep trouble as I dropped the World Globe whilst matching the countries up to the flags, and cracked it, almost snapping it in half.... Oh dear.... :-/

We read the book A river of Stories which you can learn more about here,  or buy here, there are some lovely stories from children from the commonwealth countries.

We found a fabulous site that lists a the National dishes of the world and we chose a couple of countries within the commonwealth and cooked their national dish, click on the picture and it will take you to the site.

Our weeks menu consisted of:-
Monday - Fish and Chips - UK
Tuesday - Ugali (kenyan Cornmeal Mush) with beef stew - Kenya
Wednesday - Chicken Korma  - India
Thursday - Chicharrones De Pollo - Dominican Republic
Friday - Australian Meat Pie - Australia

We also revisited our Learning Foreign Language Lapbook that we did back in February and looked at some common greetings from some of the Commonwealth countries.

Vikings

We had the fantastic fortune this week of a once in a lifetime visit and stepping foot on the Dragon Harold Fairhair Viking Ship this week.

What an experience, such a beautiful ship and what fantastic history.

The kids learnt a fundamental fact that the Vikings did not run round with horns on their heads.. 

 You can find out all about the ship here http://den.vikingkings.com/en/dragon-harald-fairhair.html but for those that don't want to click the link the ship is the largest Viking ship built in modern times.

What a superb vessel, the ship had a broken mast which was being replaced at the sailing Club in Walsall and they kindly allowed visits before it sails back again to Norway.

You can take a peek at their facebook page which will give details of its visit to UK.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/277020215675452/

We had a fabulous time on board and decided to visit the beach before heading back home where we drew names in the sand and fund some shells.

 

Egyptians coming to life.

We had a little meet with a fellow home edder on Monday a lovely family who both Oliver and Olivia have taken too over the past few months, we decided on the Manchester Museum, which suited us down to the ground as the twins have been covering the Egyptians and they found it fab that they got to see the mummies up close and personal.

We have been to the museum many times but each time the twins get something new out of it and they see the place in a different way, depending on what they are focused on.

We did a little workshop whilst we where there making Conopic jars a did some hieroglyphic writing, we all had fun.

Educational Link find of the month (July)

• Learning Environmental Education Seasons

http://www.opalexplorenature.org/education-packs-seasonal

Great link for KS1, environment by seasons, some great ideas here for our walks at Daisy Nook.

http://www.opalexplorenature.org/education-packs-arts-creative

This is perfect for me to give some art inspiration to the kids to encourage them more in art.

• Lego Story Pack

 http://marketing.legoeducation.com/acton/form/7842/0013:d-0001/0/index.htm

I have applied for this pack which will arrive in September, I am not entirely sure what the benefits will be but if it help them put pen to paper then it will be worth it.

• Children's creative writing competitions.

 http://www.writersreign.co.uk/Children%27s-Writing-Competitions.html

I will hopefully try to encourage Oliver with his writing, he isn't very competitive so it may not work, but it is worth a try.

• World Flag bunting

 http://paperzip.co.uk/topics/geography/around-the-world/world-flags-bunting-a-e

I love this resource  as we will be putting some decoration up for September for their celebration of the official start of their learning Journey, so this will come in handy to make a world flag bunting decoration.

• Chess guide.

 http://www.albertachess.org/Teaching%20Manual.pdf
I have been teaching the kids chess and also have a chess club planned if we can get enough interest so this is a great guide on learning chess.

https://www.chesskid.com/login.html
This is a great place for kids to learn and play chess with others online.

• Chocolate

 http://recipes.cadbury.co.uk/HomeCategory

As it is officially the holidays I think what better way to celebrate than with chocolate, here we have lots and lots of chocolate recipes to get stuck into.

• Dance mat typing

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Here is great game to get the kids learning to type, my two love using the computer so this should have them both glued.

• Science Activity Pack, 

 http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/national-science-engineering-week/download-activities-competitions-and-quizzes/activity-packs

A whopping 350 science activities to download and have lots of fun with... I think signing up is a must for this site to keep on top of the latest science news.

• Frozen Printables

 http://missionmouse.com/free-frozen-printable-packs-for-age-2-9-years/


If your minis are anything like mine you will love these printable's.

• Nourish Interactive

 http://www.nourishinteractive.com/

• Food A fact of life

 http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/index.aspx

We will be covering healthy eating quite extensively throughout  our time in daily life and this website looks good for nutrition information for the kids to get interactive with.

Education Update.

Well its ended up being a while since I have been here again. We have done some fabulous things and been to some fabulous places and met some fabulous fellow home edders,  I have just been so short on time keeping up with this blog.

But as the twins will be official come September (wow where has the time gone) this blog will have more content as I will be using it as a bit of a planning tool as well as a record of what we get up to.

I have found some great resources to use next year to help me plan some activities and give me ideas of what direction things will take for the twins.

At the moment we do what the twins want to do, for example if they are interested in Egyptians then we do stories and activities containing Egyptians, they very much direct their own learning at the minute, but I always like to be prepared and ahead of the game, so I have collected many many resources for a just in case scenario, and to be quite honest I am so pleased I started out like that, as those books on Saxons, and Egyptians and Vikings that I bought when they where a few months old have all come to good use already and are being well used.

Olivia and Oliver are both doing fabulous and are both coming on at a rapid pace, just a few months ago I wrote in this bog how Oliver had struggled with recognising letters but wow what a transformation, he is now spelling full words, both Oliva and Oliver are both spelling words and Olivia has read one book completely on her own from start to finish with no help at all, she is also writing her name very keenly.

Oliver is a reluctant writer so I will be concentrating on making writing fun for him over the next year, he loves books and he loves learning and he loves using the computer but when it comes to using a pen he just turns to jelly.

Neither Oliver or Olivia are drawers, they rarely draw anything although Olivia spends a lot of time walking round with a pen and paper in her hand.

Oliver is more of a maths guy, he loves maths, he spends a lot of time preferring to do maths seeds on the computer, whereas Olivia likes to put pen to paper and is doing very well with maths. At the moment I write maths questions on a piece of paper which Olivia loves to do, and she enjoys the challenge but I think I will introduce some maths books over the next year, they both have their own maths folder and Oliver never gets his out and is just not bothered about it. Oliver just goes to the computer for maths but Olivia takes great pride in her maths folder, I think the only maths Oliver likes that is not on the computer is the Multi Links that I purchase, he actually loves those but he uses them like lego and takes great pride in making his constructions so more multi link actvities will be forthcoming for him, but measurements is something Oliver likes, he often refers to things in metres.

History is one of their favourite subjects which we cover quite extensively at the moment, we have acquired the History of the world curriculum book and it is amazing, full of stores which we expand on with activities, other books, videos and outings. I love this book as it is stories that follow on from one era to the next which is really engaging for the twins who listen and ask lots of questions. It is a great bedtime book which gets them thinking.

It has been an interesting journey so far despite it not being a compulsory thing until September, it has become a way of life for us now and the twins are well conditioned for learning in a way that suits them without pressure or a have to attitude.

They have fitted well into the home ed community and there is an abundance of things to do. The last few years of planning for home ed are coming to an end and the start of the journey will become official in September, I am still anxious and excited and wondering what the next few years will bring for the twins education, but so far I have exceeded my own expectations easily and I am really looking forwards to September to really get my teeth stuck in and see what we can achieve over the next year.

If anyone is reading this and you are also starting out in September I would love for you to post your blog or comment on your own experience below in the comments, seeing how others do it would give me a huge boost and possibly some ideas  could use myself..

Perspectives, recovery from the wobble!..

The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 put home education on the agenda on Friday mornings show. 

I was fully expecting the usual bashing that goes with that on these programmes but I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction and positivity around it. 

Their facebook thread which you can find here, was equally as positive, full of positive stories...

My wobble from the other day has now disappeared and I have fully found my confidence again, just too much going on but my essays are in, and I took a day off yesterday to do nothing, no housework, no study, no work, just a wander round town to collect Louby's new Glasses and a trip to a cafe, yes I even had tea out instead of cooking and having to wash up..and a wander round a few shops, window shopping..

I now feel fully recovered from my wobble and have my positive hat back on.

Things are never as bad as they seem when you sit back and take a look at things and see them for what they are and along with the Wright show and my day off to do nothing, things seem good again!..

I need to take more breaks than I do and sleep more.... my output is far better when I have slept more, I achieve more study, housework seems to just get done easily, work gets completed and the kids get to places on time.

Sleep is my medicine and I have to force myself to take it!...

How long does it take for cheese to go solid in the freezer?

The kids made me laugh with this one and I was a bit miffed I couldn't have my cheese on toast for lunch, but give them their due they where thinking outside the box.

They had asked, so with quick thinking I helped them find the answer and added some variables in for them, below is how they found their answer.

They first grated cheese into a bowl and placed it in the freezer 

 Then they filled the ice cube try with water and some of the sections they put some salt

  We then noted down the time!....

 

  

                                                      I asked them a series of question.

                              How long do you think it will take to freeze?

                              Do you think the cheese will freeze faster than the water? 

                              Do you think the salt will affect how the water freezes!. 

We then waited to get our answers...

Whilst we were waiting with great patience, they then decided to put some items in some water and see what happens to the item. 

We took a look a few hours later we looked and the cheese was frozen, we also took the ice trays and pots out of the freezer, but the kids observed there was still water in the bottom and bubbles moved around the pots, so they put the large pots back in the freezer.

The ice cube trays where ready, 

They noticed without asking that the sections with the salt the ice had disappeared. 

They answered their question of which would freeze first the water or the cheese

Answer being Cheese.

And the additional question of
why have the large pots taken longer to freeze than the small ice cube trays?

They answered with, 

The small compartments in the ice trays where smaller than the big pots 

so did not take as long to ice up,  as there was not as much water in them as the big pots.

 We also did the ice cube glue test which you can find here

Oliver had a brainwave whilst the pots where back in the freezer and we were waiting for them to come back out and he questioned how will they get the toys out of the ice?

 

I just asked them to think about it and what would make the ice melt, they both shouted hot water and decided to put the toys in the hot water when they had finished eagerly waiting for them to finally come out of the freezer, properly frozen.....

 

finally they came out.

 They then put the pots under hot water to retrieve the toys...

Whilst we where doing this, we where noting down the times and when they had finished they where attempting to work out how long it had taken, for this we used multi links to make our own clock and drew on the numbers.

 And we worked out how many hours it had taken us to freeze the water.

That was a lot of fun today and guess what the film of the evening is going to be.. ..

Yes of course the Fabulous Frozen...

Book of the week - Jacob O'Reily wants a pet

Our book of the week this week is Jacob O'Reiley wants a pet by Lynne Richards and Lee Wildish..

A lovely little book about a boy who wants a pet and his parents suggested he did pet sitting. After a rather fraught experience pet sitting, he ends up adopting a snail as a pet.

This brought back fond memories for me of when they first experienced a snail in the garden, and Oliver went running round the garden screaming in fear which was not funny for him, but to watch it and experience that moment of first encounter is a comical memory.

The kids loved this book and so did I because of my fond memories so we have done a few activities surrounding snails. 

We have created a snail hotel and they have adopted some snails of their own.

I have read up a bit myself on snails and had some great inspiration for asking the twins some specific questions about snails and I used this fabulous website called Kiddyhouse for my resources which includes a few worksheets to give them some extra reading, writing and spelling practice with and a few games, colouring and painting activities and of course singing where they learnt a new song and read a poem.

Oliver particularly enjoyed this weeks book of the week activities, and Louby has requested horses for next time, I don't think she was so keen...

Darn TMA's

My course has been going really well but having to spend a lot of time trying to find new suppliers since I ditched the maternity pillows from my inventory, time has been of the essence.

Last time the TMA' where due in I had to get an extension on my submission date but fortunately I

had to only take a day or two, this time I have had to take a week for each one, which is disappointing especially as the weather is glorious for once and I am stuck inside not being able to join the kids in some garden fun, and the kids have voiced their disappointment to me, which makes me feel all the worse.

I am enjoying these courses more than I thought I would but I am not enjoying the substantial work you have to complete doing two 60 point courses at once.

I have learnt a lot about my weaknesses whilst doing TMA's this time round and I can safely say I need to improve dramatically on my essay construction.

I have tended to jump right in and start selecting material and then putting the essay together whereby really I should do a plan, which I keep cutting out, as I think I don't have time but the reality is if I did do a plan I could select the correct material for the essay with much more ease instead of writing and then re writing and then rewriting again which would get the essay done in a quarter of the time I waste.

I am finding the old saying of fail to plan, you plan to fail a very true saying right now. 

I know that I will have to pull my socks up and start to prioritise things a little better than I do now, the one thing I have always been good at is balancing everything that I have to do, but right now I seem to have lost the plot and I quickly need to find it again.

I have an exam in September, my first exam for many many years so I cannot cut corners like I am doing, at some point I have to go over the materials instead of skimming the materials for what I need in the essays.

My tutors are great and give good feedback on each TMA and are very accessible if needed, I just have to get my queries in order and clarify my difficult points so that I can get some guidance.

All in all, hopefully I can get these two essays done before the end of my extension date, right now it is looking unlikely but I am trying!!!!!!....

Home Education Groups.

There has been an explosion of home education groups on facebook over the past year or so, previously there where a small number of groups when I first fell into home education and started researching, I tagged along to some events with the kids even before they could walk, talking to other mums and finding out more about what home education was.

With the rise in groups I have felt more isolated due to the growing complexity of all the different groups that have formed, some for maths, some for art, some for Geography and Geology, the vast array just confuses me all the more. 

At one time all this information was available in one group with everyone sharing resources achievements and lesson suggestions and methods of teaching etc, and finding about different methods of home ed, sadly now you have to go hunting through reems of groups to find anything specific and the falling over a great post and an idea you would have never thought of seems to have all but disappeared.

There seems to be some kind of competition on who can get the biggest group, I have a group that was set up not by myself but someone else, and this was not by me wanting to have a group, but because I was forced into having the group to stay attached to my local area.

The local area group that was already set up for Manchester was handy for me but unfortunately despite many requests to join, it was ignored for some reason so I was an outcast and not allowed in the group, to this day I have no reason why, but when I was asked to take over this separate group that was newly set up I decided that seeing as I was not allowed into the already established group that I would, you can find the group I admin here  

*UPDATED* The group I did admin on I no longer admin on due to some crazy person deciding to have a go after being in the group for two days and a co-admin who also was a bit doolally crazy removed me from my own group... rotfl... the person in question who caused issues over something quite pathetic is now admin on the group.. lol, yes there are some strange people who actually do this kind of thing... anyway moving on I set up another group which you can find here.   It did end up being a blessing in disguise as the other group I spent a lot of time listing on lots of home ed directories, and there was all and sundry on there, and probably not very many that where home ed. I have kept this group off directories and it is only usually found by word of mouth or invite by a known home educator, so it has worked out and it has also got rid of the dregs I couldn't stand anyway, so hey ho onwards and upwards, I now only associate with those I actually like, the only admin is me and they days of spats and bitching are now gone, its a nice group with no bitching and if there ever is I can just remove at my own discretion without question with being the only admin.***

The groups being so fragmented are difficult for me to follow at the best of times so I only have a look in now and again to see if there is anything to catch up on and I am only a member of a couple of groups otherwise I would have thousands of notifications a day, quite often there isn't anything useful these days to catch up on.

I normally just take to google now, although if there is something we are interested in and we have a trip planned then I will put it on the group I admin and see if there is any interest for anyone tagging along, although this isn't very often, I arranged the trip to the Gruffalo which was a good meet, everyone seemed to enjoy the play.

The group I admin is also fragmented no one knows what is going on and where, things are not very organised, there is a yahoo group set up that people seem to post on frequently which I never use so I never know what is going on, the reems of emails that come through are astonishing and baffle my brain so I don't use it, otherwise I would spend all day trying to read through each email conversation. **UPDATE CONTINUED**** This is the reason why I was ousted from my own group, because I asked people to put events in the events tab instead of on multiple threads where everything gets lost, the new person who had been in there two days did not like being asked to do this and took offence and started causing shite over it, the other admin clearly thought she was right the rest is history, noobs....*****

So for now I am feeling a bit isolated from the home ed community of my own making really, and don't really have any clue what is going on in my area, it would be nice to meet with other home ed families regularly but it does not seem to happen for us, so my doubts about isolation and socialising are actually becoming a bit of a reality despite me strongly disputing socialisation is an issue in reality I think it is.

Home education can be quite isolating for me anyway, the kids don't seem to be phased by it but I would like to see them have a couple of regular mates they play with, they do get socialisation by going to dance and drama and regular trips to the park and library etc and there will be more groups they join but I would like to see them making friends, Louby particularly would thrive on it going to tea at a friends or having someone over to play.

I actually do feel a bit sad that they haven't got any regular little friends, so hopefully this will improve over time and something I will have to focus on for them, as they do need more than each other and me, so I do have to get out of this hermit mode and start to integrate with the home ed community a little more and start to make more of an effort in that direction, and find my own confidence in meeting new people which I have never been any good at.

 I generally find I have these huge walls up and keep people at a distance so I think this is time to change myself and start finding my own socialising feet and get more involved in the groups, and get rid of this silly feeling of being a pest and not wanted anywhere by anyone which has dogged me most of my life

The kids did have little friends when they where little but they seem to have drifted off and we never get invites to anything so rather than pestering people who don't want us around I have just left it, we never hear from anyone so we do need to find people that want us around without me pestering them and them feeling like they have to tolerate us out of politeness.

I really do have to find my socialising feet, which I know will be difficult for me, at the age of 41 you would have thought I would have mastered that art by now, but I have gone the other way and become a hermit finding friend forming a difficult task to do.

The big bang theory -The Friendship Algorithm, is an interesting theory!!!!...... enjoy..

Abandoning phonics!..

When we where using phonics the kids got very confused so we only used the method for a very short time and switched to the DISTAR method and oh what a difference it makes.

I purchased the book 'Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons', After months of using phonics they only made a small step forwards with reading, since using DISTAR they have come on leaps and bounds.

Within a couple of weeks they started to read simple words, we haven't had an awful lot of time recently with all the other things we have been doing, but we have been able to use the method with whatever we are doing so the practise never stops and I also hear Louby and Boliver regularly trying to spell things out on their own, so despite their protests whilst doing the book they are enjoying it and the bonus is it incorporates writing in the lessons so they have also been gaining some writing confidence.

I leave bits of paper around with the sounds we have been learning that day and they just write them as and when they please, we usually do half an hour after they have finished Stagecoach on a Saturday and try to fit some in during the week, all in all they do not have very much time on the actual book and the progress is amazing to say how little time we actually do spend on it.

How they are doing it is beyond me, I think something has clicked in them with using the DISTR method that the phonics just did not do or give them, from only just being able to recite the alphabet with actually knowing and understanding what the letters are to actually reading whole words within a couple of weeks I am more than impressed.

The one thing I can say though is that the use of phonics has damaged their learning process in my opinion and slowed them down, I really regret using phonics to start with and wish I had actually discovered this DISTAR method earlier, it can seem very monotonous at first when you start the program as it uses that key concept of repetition so for me and the kids it was hard to follow, but they have mastered it and half an hour is enough  to show a lot of progress.

We have been trawling the charity shops for more books and have found some great reads and they have been very keen since we started this program, we have even stepped up from once a month going to the library to fortnightly at the twins request, so this DISTAR seems to have done more than just helped them to read it has given them a new love of books.

Phonics has been well and truly abandoned and now we are doing it naturally with the help of DISTAR. 

I can certainly see why many kids in school end up leaving school without learning to read. Phonics really does not work effectively and misses that vital spot for many kids including the twins, DISTAR is the way forwards, for us anyway.

You can grab your copy over here on ebay at a reasonable price