A friend who works full time and who has a 10 year old said "You never stop!" to me tonight and I think reflecting on it thats probably the case, every day seems packed, add in work and other committments such as Sophies Trampolining and Connors swimming and youth club and boys brigade and I wonder how it all fits in. No wonder I dont find time to blog when I cant find time to do many things I would like!( get this house in order for one! Does tidying up all day count as educational activities I wonder?)
The kids are really excited this week as we are of to Caerphilly castle for a visit with the new Home education group Kate and I are starting( link in list to your left!).
Its been wonderful to get emails from people we dont know( as well as those we do of course) hoping to come and join us and meet up with other home educators. There are also some older children coming which Im sure will be of benefit to Sophie .I feel despite having a couple of lovely home ed friends her own age who she is growing close to it will be good for her to have more teens/pre- teens to get to know who may share similar interests and I hope her existing friends will come along too and meet some more older children.
We'll be looking at the 'siege machines' because at the first 'hall based' meeting Neil will be helping the children create their own! All I could say after seeing the prototypes was COOOOOOOOOOOL! Nothing else seemed to fit while watching soft toys fly some distance accross their garden!
Connor has been inspired by hearing all about Leonardo Da vinci from Neil and he and Darren spent a lovely afternoon exploring a website about his inventions( including the catapult) and when i arrived home from work I was treated to a detailed explaination of all the things they had looked at and Im sure thats given him lots of food for thought when planning his own siege machine. he now cant wait to go and observe them at close quarters at the castle. We visited a Tank museum while on holiday and he was thrilled to find that one of leonadro da vincis inventions was an early tank.
He's also showing a great interest in electricity, motors and circuits so Im investigating electronics kits... all sparked by questions when he was in a complete strop after being dragged to the bank... where while sat on the sofa and " being very angry"( which he reported to me in a very cross voice) he suddenly piped up" when that button with the wheelchair on it is pressed, why does the door open? How does that happen?"Of course he would like all these things to appear immediately and doesnt really understand why we cant just go and aquire these things!
On the plus side he saved up his birthday money and gave it to me to purchase his nintendo DS( hence the visit to the bank) and so we did 'online' transactions, ordering, paying with a credit card and delvery times which was very useful for him. Even the waiting for it to arrive and the patience he showed impressed me, usually he wants everything yesterday and finds it difficult to understand why we need to wait, sequences of events etc so this has been very useful!
He is struggling with his dyslexia tutoring and his tutor at the Dyslexia institute recommended he be referred again for speech therapy( concentrating on his language not just speech production as they have done so far) and also for Occupational therapy.
We will pursue these via the GP although she suggested we ask the LEA for help with comupter programmes etc since the Welsh assembly guidelines on Home education say they should provide access to resources etc( in an ideal world) I doubt we will get far but its something to try!
Sophie has been busy watching 'animal 24/7 on BBC1 which has increased her interest in all things animal and has strengthened her resolve to want to work with animals at some point in the future. Shes definitely interested in finding out more about the work of RSPCA inspectors,animal sancturies and vets so Im hoping that maybe a sanctuary locally or vets practice a will be willing to let her come along and watch for a couple of hours.
We only have stick insects at present which are hers but she is starting to find them a little "scuttly" and shes a bit scared of spiders so I guess its not surprising. I had hoped that the stick insects would be a good halfway point for her and at first she loved playing with them. I think they have started to run a bit fast when she cleans the tank and the legs are a bit overwhelming! ( one broke off recently when she was cleaning them and she was distraught!)
A friend has recently found a bunny in her garden, its a grey dwarf lop and apparently very friendly. Its down near Chloes school and we've been offered it. Sophie of course was very excited but is now very sad that after almost 3 weeks nobody has claimed it.She cant understand why anyone wouldnt look after a bunny.
My friend has quite a menagerie but her lurcher is likely to eat it alive if possible so we will go and collect it from them in a week or so, once the hutch we have bought arrives and weve got a pet carrier etc
She's also enjoying getting into web design using a basic programme from 'girl scene' her current favourite website to design herself a web page.I hope this will grow into using some more sophisticated software/HTML etc
Shes also enjoying poetry and spent this afternoon reading me poetry from a childrens poetry book ( in between giggles) with wide ranging topics from the perils of shaking a baby to a useless, vegetarian ant-eater
Coming second in her recent trampolining competition seems to have given her lots of confidence in her ability and determination to push forward with her trampolining which is really lovely to see. I picked her up tonight with a cherry red face and absolutely worn out having worked at all her new moves which was really nice to see after spending a few months worrying that perhaps she wasnt enjoying it and waiting for her to ask to give up!
We are also seeking a copy of an out of print book called "The Book of Letters" by Michael Thomson ( 1991) if anyone knows how we might get a copy could you please let us know( all suggestions welcome!)
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