The dreaded socialising question..

What is it with this dreaded socialising question I get to hear so often? "How do they socialise?"..

I find this a really strange question and it becomes more and more absurd every time I hear it.

I had to take my car for an MOT so it meant getting on a bus and mingling with the masses on our daily doings. Our first encounter of the sentence of the day was pretty fast in making an appearance.

Arriving at the bus stop and a man was stood there and one of the first things the twins did was say "hello" and started to inform him of why we where catching the bus, where we where headed etc (I can't keep any secrets with these two) and after a lengthy little chat spilling all our business, he then said to me "no school today?". Louby quite perkily said "we home school". and then the usual reared it's ugly head "oh how do they socialise?"... 

Had he not just had a very articulate conversation with two four year olds?. I find it an absurd thing to say, I just replied with the usual of explaining the home education groups and the usual extracurricular clubs kids have these days, and how they meet people all day, every day, in different settings like the library, the park, the shops, the museums etc.

Our next encounter was in the library, a lady said to the twins "no school today?", again the similar conversion arose that I had 20 minutes earlier.

We then made our way over to the park with our books and I sat on the bench and let the kids go and play, I watched them making friends with random kids in the park, happily playing away striking up conversations and introducing themselves to each new child that came along and happily adjusting games for each new child that came and went. Along came a dad of another child and sat near me and he said "no school today"..... again the same conversation ensued with the same presumptions of them not being able to socialise, as I watched them play with his child leading happily in the various games they where playing.

Then after getting the call that the car was ready, off we went in the taxi to pick up the car and unfortunately Louby had a nasty fall getting out of the taxi where she ended up with a nasty bump to the head, which lead us to Accident and Emergency where they had to clean it out and glue her back together.

As we where waiting in the waiting area I struck up a conversation with a woman sat next to me, who happened to be a nursery teacher, again same words, "no school?", I then went on to explain that we home educate, she said "is that legal?". I then went on to informed her of the law and she was stunned and said she had no idea it was allowed and then she went onto "how do they socialise?,", do they have checks?, do they have a curriculum?, etc, etc, etc, all the usual questions any home educator will be familiar with...

There was a girl sat across from us and she said "I home educate too" and we struck up a conversation. I was so relieved to not have to engage the nursery teacher on my own answering the same old, same old questions. (I really should write the answers down on a piece of card to give to people, it would save me feeling like a parrot) 

We where allies and the lady who was the nursery nurse ended up just listening to us sharing our experience and listening to our enthusiasm.

Do people really think that kids can only socialise in a school setting?, I find it such an absurd and ridiculous notion.

A fabulous blog I read explains my thoughts on the socialising question more articulately than I can which you can read here,.

I would certainly say that with the other comments I have had today about  the twins with regards to the fact they quite freely gave toys to other children in the A & E, and someone commented how good that was as normally kids are all about taking, and another comment regarding how well they talk and how articulate they are, another comment of how polite they are, and watching how well they both interact with other children, I would definitely say they have no problems in socialising....

We have experienced this question on so many occasions and I know we will be experiencing it an awful lot more as the twins get older, I think we might start a game of spot the sentence and mark the answers down to see how many of the same questions we get asked each month.

I'd love to learn what others say when asked this question, and if they find it as absurd a sentence as I do!...

Beeston Castle St Georges Day

We headed over to Beeston Castle as I said we would do in an earlier post and what a fabulous day we had.

Wandering the grounds of the amazing castle the kids where full of all sorts of questions, remembering what they had learnt during the week, visiting the castle really brought it to life for them.

We had a great time watching the displays of medieval dancing and sword fighting and finishing off with the story of St George, first they re told the real story of St George and then they told the fairy-tail of St George and the Dragon bringing it to life with a very real dragon and a very real St George.

And to top it all off the weather was glorious.

Perfume making day..

Following on from my previous post about perfume we finally got all our ingredients together and decided to make lip balm and perfume.

I bought some little lip balm and solid perfume cases and also some amber bottles for the liquid perfume, beeswax, coconut oil and various essential oils.

We started off by making the lip balm in which we put a tea spoon of beeswax, a teaspoon of coconut oil and a teaspoon of coconut moisturiser with vitamin E.

We then put the mixture in the microwave for 60 seconds, once the ingredients had melted we then put 5 drops of orange and 5 drops of vanilla essential oil in and transferred it to the little pots and waited for it to set,

whilst we where waiting we started on the solid perfume we put 2 tea spoons of bees wax and 2 teaspoon of the coconut carrier oil and then put that in the microwave for 60 seconds, then when put 10 drops of vanilla oil, 10 drops of lavender oil and 5 drops of orange and then transferred that into the remaining  little pots.

Then we started on the liquid perfume in which we half filled the bottle with coconut carrier oil and put 20 drops of Lavender oil, 10 drops of Vanilla oil, 5 drops of Patchouli oil, 10 drops of orange oil and 5 drops of Sandlewood oil, we then shook the bottle and left to settle, this should smell heavenly in a few days but it still smells lovely right now.

The results are 2 pots of lip balm smelling of orange and vanilla, 4 pots of hard perfume and 1 pot of liquid perfume all smelling absolutely delicious.

This was so easy to make and we learnt about the top, middle and base notes, as this is so easy we have made a little box to put our essential oils in and will be doing this regularly, my days of buying perfume are over and we will have some fun creating our own cocktail of smells, we might even venture into making some soaps next!.

St Georges Day...

St Georges day is on 23rd April, England's National Day.

I wasn't going to do anything with St Georges day this week but strangely enough Oliver asked me who was our first King, so we looked at the British Monarchy website which can be found here and found information on King Offa, this obviously sparked Oliver's interest on Knights and he wanted to know more, so we looked for a video on Offa but came across some info on Offas Dyke which he was very interested in and we also dug out and looked at some old holiday snaps of them near a  castle when they were small. 

Following Olivers questions we ended up watching a documentary on 1066 and kings after that period

I didn't think he would be very interested in the video but he surprised me and watched it from start to finish with lots of questions about the Castles and the Armour the knights wore.

There is an event on at Beeston Castle next weekend so we may head over there as Oliver will have a great time.... we did have a great time and the event can be found here

There is a free course on at the moment with University of Leicester, England in the time of King Richard III, it looks interesting but unfortunately as much as I would like to do this for myself, as it is only a short 6 weeks course, there is no way I would find the time sadly.

This week we will do some work on St George as his interest has surprised me, so some shield making and a few dragons and knight films are definitely in order its a perfect time to introduce the twins to some of England's traditions and customs.
 
Some great facts about St Georges Day can be found here, the day is not widely celebrated here and to most it is just a normal working day,

I will share some of the great things I have found to do for St George

Learning to draw St George which I found at Activity Village

We found a fabulous interactive castle to find out what each part of the cast was used for.

Not to leave out Shakespeare from the mix as it is also Shakespeare's birthday I have decided to Introduce Shakespeare via Gnomeo and Juliet

We made some lovely Shields and swords made from cardboard.

We also listened to the Story of St George and the Dragon on Story Nory which the kids loved.

and we read a story about St George and the Dragon which I found on the net somewhere

All in all considering we where not going to do much with St George we had a very busy day.

Easter fun..

Easter did not quite turn out as planned, I failed to remember that my MOT is due on the car and realised a little too late to book the car in before the Easter weekend, so we are stranded for a few days until Easter is over but not a bad idea really as Louby la a is not to well at the moment.

We had to take a trip over to the out of hours doctors as she gave me a bit of a fright on Thursday evening, after what had been a good day, she came down with a bit of a temperature complaining of a headache and a tummy ache, quite suddenly!.

She was like a floppy little rag doll and would not even take her dress off to put pj's on. I thought maybe a migraine or something so gave her some Nurofen, but to no avail she was still suffering with temperature, tummy ache and the headache an hour later so I called the 111 service and they arranged for a trip to the out of hours go to doc.

In typical child style she was fine within half an hour of waiting in the surgery, it may of had something to do with the fact that Oliver and I where having fun with playing spot the words on the posters in the surgery with Oliver frantically running round excitedly looking for all the letters and words he could recognise, and I was giving him eye spy letters and words to find, we where having great fun. 

Louby La La  was like a little rag doll perched on my knee, her temperature had gone down and she ended up skipping around before we got in to see the doctor, the doctor was pretty thorough even though she had perked up considerably, she still had a little pain in her tummy and the doc checked her throat and we did a pee sample and it turns out she has a water infection.

Another one of those mum knows best moments I thought, she was ill last week with a tummy bug, both Oliver and Louby La La had a dickey tummy that was short lived for 24 hours, mum's always know when there is something more than the bit of a cold or upset tummy. 

We where sent away with some antibiotics and a pee sample to take to the doctors on Tuesday for lab analysis.

She hasn't been herself so its probably a good thing that we are having a quiet weekend.

They have already eaten their Easter Eggs, they have had 6 over the past few weeks due to me buying them and despite my best efforts they have found them and demolished them, the last few I bought I left in the car and I thought foolishly they would be safe, I myself forgot about them but on rescuing them from the car to put out for the Easter hunt, all that was left was the empty wrappers, so all the twins have had this year for Easter is a lecture on steeling!..

Oliver is particularly upset as he really wanted an Easter Egg hunt and had given me specific instructions on the fact I had to put them absolutely everywhere, to be honest I don't know who was more disappointed, me or them.

Oliver and Olivia have difficulty in not steeling things, when they want something they take it regardless of the consequences, I have spoken about this before here, it is still an issue we are trying to break the habit of. 

We actually had quite a successful few weeks with not locking things away with the odd slip up here and there and they have done very well, now they are getting older they are starting to understand the consequences and I can see the effects on my being harsh in my punishments, like with the Easter eggs they now know that because they have stolen the eggs they will now miss out on an Easter Egg hunt. They understand I am serious.

I have been able to leave the fridge and freezer open and cupboards and I have just put the bare minimum in there, mainly fruit and veg.

They have been asking to make their own breakfast cereal and pour milk and take their own fruit out of the fridge which I have allowed them to do if they ask me first,  this has really made them happy and had a positive effect and the steeling has stopped to a degree, the only slip up they had was when I bought ice cream for the freezer, they chose some and I chose some but they stole mine, typical...

I have taken their ice cream off them and told them theirs is now mine, as they stole mine theirs was now going to replace mine. To be honest (yes honestly!!!...) I don't even really eat ice cream it is just for the benefit of the stop steeling project we are undergoing, (honest!!!...) trying to make them see how selfish it is and that steeling has consequences.

It has been a long slog and I can't quite see an end in site just yet but I know it will come, it is two steps forwards and three steps back, although I am discovering that the steeling is more on Olivers part than Louby La La's. However Oliver still likes to blame Louby for most things and I can now see straight through that tactic.

All in all Easter hasn't felt like Easter this year apart from Louby wanting to read the Jesus Easter Stories from her bible (as she calls it) and Oliver insisting on watching some Jesus Easter Stories on you tube, it's been a quiet one, no Easter eggs, no car and a poorly child...

And besides I hate the commercialism of Easter, most people think it's about bunnies and eggs and for most it's about the holiday from work and school, as we are on a permanent holiday so it doesn't really apply to us, it has lost it's appeal over the years for me, I will celebrate Easter in a private way saying my prayers and leave out the commercialism and traditions of the event this year.

Hopefully next year we will manage to actually keep the easter eggs long enough to do an Easter Egg Hunt which is a far better option than just the painted boiled eggs they are having instead this year!...

All was not lost and we did do some Easter activities and my favourite was the Easter Eggshell Planters.

We made some Easter Bread Bunnies.

The recipe and instructions can be found here for these.

Easter Chickens

Easter would not be easter without using the old egg cartons, 

instructions can be found here

How to make your own Perfume

Olivia asked "How do you make Perfume?"

 

I was so excited when she asked this question being a big perfume lover myself, the question came out of the blue, but we quickly took to Google to have a look at some videos on how perfume is made, the first one we came to was the famous Chanel Perfumers of course, which was informative as it is, but is very basic and only told the start of the story, so we went on a further hunt and came to a web page that gives us the ingredients list of what  goes in perfume, which you can find here, it tells you all sorts of info on what goes in perfume.

So we are currently gathering all our ingredients and will be doing some perfume making when they all arrive. excited muchly...

Oliver does not seem very happy with the idea very much. I have no  idea why?, lol.but he will soon come round when he sees that there is lots of mixing involved as a base for a science lesson this will be fun.

Here is a list of some sites we have found for making your own perfume.

Make Your own Perfume with essential Oils.

5 Ways to make your own Perfume

Make your own perfume for kids.

Science activities for kids, make your own perfume!.
 
About Chemistry.com

I found this great video on the Chemistry of Perfume, far to advanced for my Louby but I found it interesting.

 

Slightly a bit off topic but I also found a link to make bath salts which is useful and it also has a few teaching ideas, something to come back to in the future.

I found this great web page with some useful info on essential oils for perfume

Some fabulous perfume recipes that I came across cuts time in finding that perfect aroma..

This is a great site about carrier oils, it has some good advice and recipes.

This one has quite a few recipes to try making. Fusion Perfumery

This is a recipe using bees wax  

This is an explanation of base notes etc but I like this link particularly as it has lots of other useful links at the bottom of the page that you may find interesting.

Here is another one for making a solid perfume using bee wax

As I find more inspiration for our perfume project I will update our findings here and hopefully have some photos to put on.

My list of ingredients to buy is growing by the second.

Our perfume making adventure can be found here

The Gruffalo

As we are off to see the Gruffalo at the Lowry in Manchester this week, and to channel our excitement we have been doing various things on The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, besides our Aerodynamics.

We have read the book (again) which has always been a favourite and also watched the film of the Gruffalo (again)

We made masks which you can find here -   Masks 

Finger Puppets which you can find here -Finger Puppets

We have done some great games on the Gruffalo website

I also found this great little Gruffalo booklet 

We haven't done all of this but some of it is fun.

Of course it's Easter so we made some Gruffalo Easter Cards.

and also made Easter Treats

The Gruffalo Musical was fabulous, the kids loved it and it was great meeting up with all the other home edders and none home edders alike.... I took a couple of snaps but almost got thrown out by a stroppy woman who told me off like a child, lol... so the camera had to go away!... but I managed a couple of snaps but sadly not of the Gruffalo who was top bananna or the snake who was pretty snazzy, the snazziest snake I have ever seen anyway!..

School Allocation Day!...

It was quite interesting this week watching everyone get their school placements.

All the anticipation and hopefulness of getting that school place they desire, I found it very odd.

Obviously it has always been the plan to home educate so I have no idea how people decided on the way they would chose a place for their child, but in my curiosity I did have a look at the local schools and what they had to offer and to be quite honest I was not very impressed with the findings.

All the talk of Ofstead reports kind of had me wondering what all the fuss was about, when you look into the curriculum they are boring and very dull, no wonder kids are not keen to be there and parents have no interest in what their children are actually learning in school whilst they conduct ther busy day on more interesting past times.

The curriculum seems to be littered with mundane things, to have a look at the curriculum click here where you can download a copy for your perusal (please try to stay awake whilst reading)!..

I wasn't very interested when my elder two started school to be honest it was just a matter of send them to school and see what happens, I had no thoughts about their education really although I thought I did, it was just the done thing to send the kids to school, that's what everyone does, send them to school and see what happens, wait at the other end to see if they get 'good exam results'.

It was never a pleasant time with all the pear pressures that comes with school, the silly regulations and having to find childcare during holidays which to be honest I was pretty lucky with, but boy do I now realise how much I missed out on my kids growing up!...

All those rules and regulations and institutionalised ways are definitely not for us, even the little things like making children wait for the toilet grates on my nerves, I have heard many a child has wet themselves at school for not being able to go to the loo when they need to, do teachers not know that a child should not hold their urine for any long period of time as it can cause Urinary Tract infections.

.

There is a long list of negatives I can find about school but I can think of no positives apart from free childcare and it's a lot cheaper than home education especially when it comes to paying for exams.

Uniforms, oh those hideous uniforms, please don't get me started on those unattractive uniforms, my glee at knowing we can bob off on holiday or do day trips or go to just about wherever we want at any time of the year gives me a warm glow and makes the uniform horror disappear and I wait in anticipation of all the gleaming kids in their new hideous uniforms at the start of term which they will look back on in 20 years time and know how silly they look!..lol.

Those bells and whistles, oh my word those bells and whistles, called like little animals to be trained, that's another thing that makes my skin crawl, like little factory workers being called back to the factory line.

Trudging through the snow in the winter and on rainy days, oh the joys.

The day of school allocations has come and gone for us and I feel liberated at the thought of knowing we do not have to take part in the circus commonly known as school.

Aerodynamics.

Its been a while since I have been here, we have been so busy.

I thought I would pop in and post our lesson plan for our new project as it will be interesting and full of fun and well worth sharing... Aerodynamics.

We have started this long term project as Oliver wanted to know how birds fly and it has gone from there, question after question so I decided to break it down for him and move into aerodynamics in a fun way also incorporating some fun maths and geography and also some history and probably a lot more along the way.

We started off here with how do birds fly.

Making Paper Aeroplanes

Lots of questions came from that so we moved on to something that we can see, we made paper planes of varying designs. 

Distance Flight Challenge 

  We also joined in a distance flight challenge to see how far we can get our aeroplane to fly whilst we do all the other projects for Aerodynamics. You can find the  Distance Challenge Here here and you can also join in and enter your location and become it's pilot and add to our mileage count.

Oliver and Olivia say 

"thank you for sending their plane around the world"

 Kite Flying

As it is also National Kite Month between March 30th and May 5th we are also kite making and of course flying. We used this simple method. 

Trips out to see aerodynamics in action

We will also be visiting the Manchester Airport Visitors Centre and Wild Wings Birds of Prey Centre which has sadly got to move but not too far away and hopefully will be still at the old site when we visit after the school holidays.

Experiments

For Gravity and Air we are using the fun ping pong ball and a hair dryer method and the Bin bag with an egg Parachute.

Reading List

There is a fabulous array of books about gravity many of the non fiction books can be found here > Non-fiction Books about gravity <  many of the fiction story books can be found here > Fiction Books based on gravity < and the educational text books can be found here > Educational Text Books <  I have compiled a list below of some of our favourite books each one is a link so you can go and check them out:-

• The magic school bus - Discovers Flight - Joanna Cole

•  Down to Earth: The Story of Gravity (Science Works)

• Gravity by Jason Chin

•  First Flight: The Story of Tom Tate and the Wright Brothers - George Shea

• My Father's Flying Machine (Peter Rabbit) by Warne 

• Gravity is a Mystery by Franklyn Mansfield Branley  

•  You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Gravity by Anne Rooney (author), Mark Bergin (illustrator)