Same old, same old!

Although it seems like such a long time ago we thoroughly enjoyed the snow; here are some of us sledging!

Crush and Daisy have been trying to learn their number names so out came our trusty laminated fish for our magnetic fishing games

More of my home made matching games to learn their number names...I never really bother teaching this as it seems ever such a waste of time as we rarely use number names in 'real life' and I guessed they could catch up on this later but their tutor is insisting on it!  These cards can be downloaded here, although it should be noted that these ones have roses on them; I have had a request from Crush to man it up a bit and do a set with spanners or something so watch out for these to come!

Daisy decided that she wanted to make her own little 1-20 number book!

We did some writing and spelling in sand!

We spent a long time re-organising our resource shelves, games and some of our books!

And although it's not quite clear in this pic but Daisy made a drum kit [sort of] by filling up several bottles and containers with different amounts of water and spent the rest of the day playing and singing to the Prophet's Hands CD by Dawud Wharnsby Ali.  I spent the rest of the day nursing a headache!

We played lots of games this week...funny that you can go months without playing any and then have to play them all in a few days!

We practiced pioneering with paintbrushes and pencils!

We've been playing with plasticine.

We have had a craft day at the museum which included looking at lots of different toys from various parts of the world including, among others, those pictured above.  We also made masks and laminated 'things'...sorry, still not sure what they are meant to be lol.

Daisy, for some reason, has been really - and I mean REALLY - hooked on numbers over the last couple of weeks and she also modelled the numbers 1-20 from pipecleaners lol!

We have been baking up a storm, these are our yummy blueberry, banana and oat breakfast muffins.

Lego has also discovered the soldering iron and has been making remote controls etc, from scratch this week!

Apart from all of this we have had a couple of days out visiting friends and have also been plodding along with our usual school work - nothing spectacular! Tutoring has been going fabulously for Lego who is doing really well on his GCSE courses and I need to start thinking about getting some exams sorted for him.  He really wants to do his Science GCSE but I am finding it difficult to find a center for him to sit the practical aspect of the exams.  I know nothing about getting exams sorted for private candidates so any ideas would be very welcome.  

Tutoring for the younger ones is also continuing but with my approach to home ed. I'm feeling uneasy about them having to follow the National Curriculum so strictly; they have been stuck on number names for longer than I would have liked for no other reason than it appears in the curriculum at this point.  I also feel that Sprite needs to be pushed a bit harder...he is flying through his work and is always sitting their with his coat and bag on when I arrive to collect them as he has long finished his work.  He also needs to learn to focus more...not sure how I can help him with that other than to give him shorter periods of work needing concentration.  Must do some research!  We also had an really good heart to heart chat about life and education during which I asked him which way he liked to learn most i.e. by watching, doing, reading etc and he said...'I don't know', very helpful lol!

Lego also has a swimming gala coming up so the boys have been swimming a few times a week for the last couple of weeks to get their speed up...Lego is determined for his team to win this year!

Library Homeschool Group

On Wednesday we got to walk [in the freezing cold I might add] all around the local area to take photographs with proper SLR digital cameras. The kids thought it was fabulous and even the smallest 4 year old was encouraged to use the camera and was able to take pictures without any problems - if only we could have influenced the subject matter he chose! The outreach worker had photos of different landmarks of the area from times long past and the kids were asked to take photos of the same spot today so that we can see how it had changed. Lego and Sprite also noticed that there was a diving/extreme sports shop near one of the sites and discussed the changes in how people spend their leisure time! We also handed in our disposable cameras and images from these and the digital cameras are being processed for us to look at next week.....can't wait! Sorry we were so busy taking photos this week that I have no photos of them 'doing' to show you!

Library Homeschool Group

We missed the first week of this project as we were all poorly; in the first week they looked at old and new photographs of different landmarks in the are [places of worship, terraces, victorian buildings etc] and discussed how things had changed. We had done this before as part of one of our projects so hopefully we didn't miss out on much.

This week we got to look at lots of different cameras from different eras and learned how they worked and we got to play with them too...the kids loved this session and asked lots of good questions mashaAllah. All the kids were also given a disposable camera to take home and take photos of their week; homes, food, hobbies, days out etc...they were given advice on how to take photos and some different techniques they could use and were advised to take a few photos every day so they didn't use up all their pictures too quickly. Of course, most didn't listen LOL!

Library Homeschool Group

 

We had a wonderful day at the museum.  We were collected by minibus; of course the kids loved this and it was a real treat for me not having to worry about getting everyone there and parking, yay!  We were split into 2 groups and began our behind the scenes tour.  We got to see and learn how paintings were restored, how the museum stored and acquired it's exhibits, we learned how fossils were prepared and put together and we also had quite a long stay in the taxidermy department.  The boys, in particular, loved all the skins and stuffed animals [hence the pictures, I was pushing a wheelchair so Lego was in charge of the camera!] and we spent quite a time learning how animals were 'stuffed'.  We also got to see all the sea/water creatures stored in jars [I felt like I was in the middle of some evil doctors lab LOL] and all the collected and preserved insects.  The private areas of the museum had a certain smell and feel to them and you felt very special to be allowed to see it all.

Then, after some tea and biscuits, we learned all about the Ancient Egyptians; we got to walk around some of the exhibits and had the Egyptian death rituals explained to us. We also got to see a typical Ancient Egyptian kitchen and learned how food was prepared and cooked.  We got to handle some original artifacts and the kids got to put cloth body parts in the correct canopic jar.

It was a great day, enjoyed by all!  Sorry for the poor photos, lots didn't come out for some reason.