Weve has a busy week this week, I dont know where its gone! I havent had the energy to blog, each evening Ive just collapsed in a heap!
Thankfully Sophie cooked on tuesday making some lovely felafels and Tsatziki ! Shes keen to try them again and see if she can improve them on the recipe she had which she felt was a little too bland for her liking.

Yesterday we joined other home edders at Techniquest, the hands on science centre. We'd been having a lazy day but I felt the need to get out and do something and out membership needed renewing anyway. Its good value at £45 a year, considering it would cost £20+ to get us all in for one visit usually, ( for home ed visits you get a big reduction if you prebook!)

The kids found lots of exhibits which connected with our Human body science projects, Sophie got to grips with the internal organs in life size and Connor managed to steer a car'The wrong way'( controls in reverse) and raise his heart beat by 30bpm just by thinking angry thoughts ( and when he gets angry he gets ANGRY!) from 68bpm at rest to over 100!




This was their favourite new exhibit.. an optical illusion in 3D!

Brighter Blessings

Isn't it funny how life works? Feeling dreadful last night to things feeling better, well even OK today... and what caused the turnaround? Finding out that Sophie couldn't go to our local school even if we want her to, we wont get a place and we'd have to appeal. I phoned this morning and we have missed the closing date for applications( something they don't advertise BTW, forms are given out by schools and only to schooled children)The suggestion was we write every month and get turned down in the hope a place becomes available at some point.

There are however places at the second best ( of pretty dire) schools.. no way Hosea!!!.. So that's it, decision made, my hand is forced and she can't go to the local school so shes going to be being home educated. There's no way I'd consider the school we were offered.I know a child there who is begging to be home educated, leaving school every lunchtime and returning home saying "I'm not learning anything worth learning (so whats the point!??) and being returned!

So strangely I feel better about things today. Money is an issue, will continue to be I think but I will see what I can muster to get round it.Ive never been one to wallow for long before looking to a solution and something will come to me, hopefully I will get more hours in work soon.If not I will keep applying for similar opportunities now Ive passed my lifeguarding course.
At least the neighbours got the hint and were quiet last night!A nights sleep has certainly made me feel better

The kids have worked quite industriously on and off all day getting through quite alot of their workbooks and handwriting. Connor has worked in his Human Body project for a bit labelling a skeleton and is now building a Hare skeleton kit which he had for Christmas, shielding it from the rabbit in case she gets upset ( Bless!)

Sophie is working on her lapbook on the Romans having completed a Harry potter exercise( she finally got to the third chapter!!)

They both seem much more settled and happier when they are actively engaged in activities.We tried autonomy and child led learning and despite months of deschooling ( which they certainly benefitted from) it never led to them getting into anything apart from fights with each other and refusal to do anything!So structure it is for us, thats not to say we dont have a degree of autonomy and are very flexible about what, how where and when we do things but without structure it seems we all go mad. Chloes need for structure extends to her thriving in a very traditional 'prep' school environment, alien to anything available here in state schools so I guess its not surprising the others need the 'setting' of at least some of their day! It seems very much to calm and reassure them when theyve 'got their work done and its time for choosing'

I'm getting increasingly disillusioned with CGP Maths books, the english ones are great and cover all sorts but the Maths are a couple of pages on each thing and provide little opportunity for consolidation of ideas.Weve done the letts wizard whimstaff books but again, these are mainly useful for fun and revision. I hated maths at school and Sophie tried Kumon ( BLLEURGH-BORING RIP OFF!!!!!) so I guess Ill have to order a book from several schemes from somewhere like Amazon and give them all a good look through. Im seriously thinking about borrowing from Waldorf and Montessori approaches to maths, the hands on and 'rhythm' of lessons and topics makes so much sense to me when thinking about how my children respond best to things they find challenging!

Feeling down

Really down.... I think at last my resolve to remain here has completely gone. Ive never liked this house, we moved in because it belonged to a friend and was cheap. He just wanted someone to look after it following numerous tennants wrecking it ( and its still a wreck pretty much)
Its too small for all of us, we cant have visitors and people dont call generally. Friends who have been here have said the can see why it drives me nuts. We all basically live in one room which is approx 4m by 5m.
Recently we had new neighbours, relatives of the lovely people who lived next door before them. Theyve been here about 3-4 mths. In that time Ive become more and more depressed, the children more tired. Neither work and they play dance music with a ferocious base line until the early hours, keeping the kids awake .
We've politely approached them about it on several occasions. The excuses have ranged from "He's just upstairs watching the telly whats the issue?( what? with dance music pounding away?) to tonights "its not that loud, hes just testing his speakers" ( as our living room furniture was shaking perilously and lampshade swinging!) and "I cant hear anything wrong with it to be honest, its in my house" She then claimed it was all fair enough since she had hurt her leg last night tripping over the towbar of our caravan ( yes, really, that was the justification!)

The previous family left saying "err well good luck, we wouldn't want to have to live next door to them"... incidentally we never heard them... they had 3 kids, inc a toddler who alledgely cried all night when he was ill!!!

We've decided to phone the landlord who we are aware knows their landlord and have a word. If that fails we will have to move for definite. Now doesnt seem to be the time to try and buy and rents here are ridiculous money ( which we dont have)

To top it all Chloe went back to school tonight, complete with football boots( £6 in a sale thankfully!) and everything else she needed for school....and thats all our budget for the week gone..... sometimes I feel like everything is falling apart around me and theres sod all I can do about any of it as much of it simply depends on other factors/people. Im seriously contemplating the kids returning to school to get our head back above water without cancelling their dyslexia tuition, Chloes OT ( which Im battling the LEA to get them to pay for as they should be... inc writing to the assembly member!)
and they have pleaded with me not to do( so dont I feel awful) but I cant see how I we will afford to move otherwise:(
I shouldnt moan, I have so many things to be proud and thankful for, I just cant summon the energy for them at the moment. The downsides seem to cloud everything.

A day without rain! AT LAST!!!!

Loads of fun yesterday, IKEA with friends in cardiff(top 2) no pics of their kids because I dont know if its ok to put them here( although there are some cracking shots)
The bottom three are in a local park we love in the summer which has a lovely playground and paddling/swimming pool. Its not so much fun in the winter but we made the most of it, its soon to be redeveloped and the kids enjoyed sharing the plans with the park warden.
Connor is pictured here with Billy the Seal who inhabited the lake in the park from 1912 to 1939 after being caught in a fishing net in the Irish Sea and donated to the little zoo which was in the park. He used to swim with the children! The kids love the story and never cease to be amazed that a seal lived in the park and that when he died they discovered Billy was a Billie!!!
While we were there they found out there is a big park birdwatch next sunday morning so we'll be joining that weather and bleary eyes permitting!

Rain and more rain.... I can't stand it! Its not even like theres anywhere to go when its raining here! If I had any money Id book us all some cheap flights and get myself off somewhere warm!
I swear Ive got seasonal affective disorder!
As it is, we dont have any money.None at all, after totting up what needs to go out this week I cant even go shopping or put petrol in the car although clearly I will have to or I wont get to work, the kids wont get to Dyslexia tuition, swimming, trampolining etc! So I wont be going anywhere warm in a hurry! Ah well, one can but dream!
Since were now in minus teritory without spending a penny Im having to enforce a strict "No buying, no spending" rule, no Chloe, you cant have new football boots, no Soph and Connor we wont have whatever you guys want for dinner which depends on me going shopping for it.. you'll have whats in the house already!( only snag is the kids do need things, Chloe especially needs jeans! I do however have a bit of paypal!Ebay here we come!)
We'll also be spending much more time at home unless its absolutely essential to go out, no loss I guess, its endless gales and storms here, howling down the valley. The fence is shaking perilously and I hope it doesnt come down! I really dont need the agro!Ah well, maybe we'll get to tackling the girls extremely chaotic tip of a bedroom! Its serious bomb site teritory!

We had quite a chilled day today. Woke up late and the kids seemed in the right mood to 'do' something and so I decided we'd do some maths and english. Connor especially is quite resistant to working at it usually but is much better when Darren is around. He happily sat and worked his way through a page of maths, english, some spellings weve started to practice and a couple of pages of his Book. Sophie did her maths,english and some handwriting. They were amazed what they had got done in just an hour. I'm really pleased with the way the work now and are happy to sit down. Connor is really pushing on with his reading of his own accord. He hates 'chunking' but is getting the hang of combining his sounds although this still needs work. Often he really amazes me,he read the words 'completely' and 'mystified' tonight....a couple of weeks ago he was struggling with fairly easy four letter words. I think the storyline featuring bottoms getting bitten and sardines stuck up the noses of incompetent pirates is spurring him on!!

They spent a while on the playstation before lunch. I went off to work and Sophie came in with me.She told a couple of the kids she already knows that she is home educated and they said that was really cool... they werent so enthusiastic at the thought that she'd spent sunday morning 'working' but one reckoned that the positives she could think of ( esp getting lunch when she felt like without queuing for ages) would make it worth it!

We got home to find Darren had put up an IKEA unit in the bedroom we'd bought to go in the living room! It works really well and I have somewhere to put books, photos and ornaments in the bedroom :)! I have to resist the urge to go and spend money I havent got on them!
Sophie spent about half an hour before bed reading 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone' aloud and was really pleased to get to the end of chapter 2. Her teacher in school would never let her read what she describes as 'interesting books' because she hadnt finished reading what they wanted her to read... while her friends were allowed to read Harry Potter, Michael Morpurgo etc, books Sophie only accessed when they were done as parts of whole class based work. I'm starting to see how and why kids get switched off reading in schools, especially when they arent 'allowed' to read things considered 'too hard' for them. I can see the improvements already and am so glad she had something which meant she 'had' to have a go.Shes realising she can do it.
In the meantime the 24 hour a day rainfall shows no signs of stopping so Im planning to take them out more this week regardless of the rain if we dont go and 'do' something I think we'll all go loopy!

From the briar patch

40 words

Touch Typing online

I'm quite pleased with my score since Ive never been taught to type or used any sort of ttype training software.

One of the kids targets for this month is to do more typing practice. They are one finger, one word at a time typers!

Rain rain go away!

Thoroughly sick of the rain... day in day out, all day.... Its lashing sideways across the valley here tonight, as its been for much of the past couple of weeks and everything seems to have stopped as a result. We have little choice but to stay indoors at the mo! Our Caravan, which I hope is now watertight is sitting outside the house with a heater in it 'drying out' after repairs and I hope we can return it to the storage site soon (it costs enough!) but not before we know its dry and will stay dry!The sight of the caravan is just making me hanker for sunnier climes, as old as it is the kids have grown up having many sunny holidays in it (it was my parents before ours) and we spent last summer, sitting in the rain in France in it! ( hence needing to see some sun- even on holiday it rained!) Im glad we brought the rabbits indoors before Chiristmas, I fear they would be at least ill if not dead from exposure by now such is the weather. Sometimes I despise living here and not just because of the house!
Frustrating with the weather as it is I realise I am luckier than some, some of the neighbours a street away have sandbags outside their homes at the mo in case the brook bursts... I know where we wont be moving to if a move from here is possible any time sooner or later!

We did venture out this morning to buy Chloe a new pair of slippers and posted them to school for her. The P.O is now in WHsmiths and so the kids looked at the books, thankfully Connor didnt find anything which he wanted to try and I managed to persuade them to visit the library where we bumped into a colleague with his new baby( turns out his mum works there and he was showing him off!) so after lots of cooing over his gorgeousness we picked up some books on the Romans and a selection of books for Connor to try now hes almost finished his Jeremy strong book. They had a really good range of early readers and he was pleased to be choosing from the same shelves as his sister instead of the boxes for toddlers.

After lunch we decided to attempt the new chemistry set we got from LIDL, only to find that the first lot of experiments require us to go and buy iron filings,sand etc which arent included and which teach the kids what they need to know before moving onto the later experiments! Im seriously annoyed, we packed it away and Ill have to try and purchase the necessary bits. The kids were so dissappointed :(Theyd got new notebooks to record the experiments and their findings. I shall crack on with other kits they had for Christmas first while I get my head round the LIDL one!

Sophie spent the afternoon gluing together pieces of her lapbook on the Romans. We've been inspired by the examples we've seen on various sites so we purchased one from homechool e -store and shes made a start.Ill be interested to see how it works out but she was pleased to have something to work on which is her little project and which she can do a little at a time which doesn't require her to do much planning. School projects used to stump her so having spaces to fill in, books to colour, fold and stick and a plan of what she should put where should make it much more enjoyable for her.I managed to get one of the rabbits cages cleaned while she worked

It wasn't long before I had to head to work myself. It feels odd coming home and not finding Chloe on the sofa watching Tonight with Jonathan Ross.... I hope shes having loads of fun :)Her email tonight suggests so far so good! She rang here while I was in work I'm missing her loads though. Its not the same without her here.

We've had a busy day today, our first day of Propah edoookayshun in weeks ;-)
Which, despite being hard work has calmed my frazzled nerves, even just because they spent the day engaged in doing something instead of playing, annoying each other and fighting!

We decided to make use of the books on the human body which arrived a week ago from the Book people and spent time looking at Leonardo Da vinci and his studies of the human form, discussed his use of dissection to improve his art and produce more realistic works.
Then they moved onto worksheets from enchanted learning, colouring in Da Vincis "Proportions of the Human figure" and completing a sheet labelling the different areas of the brain and their purpose. This led onto an interesting discussion about Their Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and related difficulties( such as speech and language problems) and FIL's Alzheimers and how some people have brains which work differently and what happens when you get a disease or have an accident which affects your brain(they idolise Richard Hammond and Ive just read his book).
I printed off some sheets on Cells but they were quite complicated and so we decided to tackle those another day.

Theyve both spent time reading today, Sophie is tackling Harry Potter and the philosophers Stone for a unit study I downloaded from https://www.homeschoolestore.com Without any incentive to read she wouldnt pick up a book but shes decided since she has things to complete there is a point to it and is now enjoying it. Despite being american the site does have some really good bits and pieces on it( and the favourable exchange rate makes it very reasonable!). Ive also bought a Romans lapbook pack from there as we want to venture to the Roman Fortress at Caerleon as soon as the weather improves http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/caerleon/

Connor is enjoying his book "The Very Fishy Battle" by Jeremy strong and is thrilled there is an appropriate ( and funny) book he can manage which isnt a 'reading book' or a baby book as he likes to call them. I guess at 9 their content is pretty dire whichever early readers you choose! He's read twice today aloud at his request so I was really pleased with his enthusiasm for it :)

We'd decided to spend some time after lunch playing our new Golden compass DVD game which we'd bought just after Christmas. After spending what seemed like an age setting it up the instructions were less than helpful on how you actually play it, we tried regardless and all wound up frustrated and annoyed so decided to pack up and see if Dad could figure it out( he thinks differently and enjoys these sort of challenges!) Its a co-operative board game which is why it appealed but between us we were still stumped!

They decided to spend some time doing a little of their maths books( and yes I did almost faint with shock) Connor managed to do a page of fractions by drawing little pizzas and 'cutting' them complete with drawings of puddles of what turned out to be puke... " well you would if you'd eaten 2 1/4 pizzas eh mum?" and Sophie spent an hour looking at probabilty and predictions and completing an investigation using a dice before they spent a while creating some new SIMS.
Connor said he was too tired for Boys Brigade and took himself off for a bath, Sophie followed him and now they are both tucked up in bed watching High School musical 2 (out of my earshot thankfully!)

Chloe went back to school yesterday after being free of illness for 48 hours and promptly threw up before bedtime!Fortunately the houseparents were very understanding and kept an eye on her for the night before ringing me, she'd decided she wanted to go into school this morning and seemed fine so they'd let her go. It turns out she's staying this weekend( hence the phone call) so many full boarders have gone home ill they have spare tickets for the panto so asked if she would like to stay this weekend and go. Im sure she will be thrilled, Im awaiting an excited phone call now, she loves Panto.

The rest of the night I think I will devote to having a soak in the bath and putting my feet up!

Chloe was much better today so we managed to get on with life a little! Connor had his tuition at Dyslexia Action today and we used the time to rush into the City Centre and get Chloe a new pair of school shoes. Why do kids always wear their shoes out a week into term, not when it would be convienent, in Dec so we could get them organised ready for Jan?
This time however it paid dividends- literally! Our usual shoe shop didnt have anything in her size /widthso we had to rush to Clarks and see if they had anything( both rare occurances!) before Connor was due out we ran through town and left 10 mins later with a pair.... cost? £5 to say I was thrilled is an understatement. Money is tight in this house and I cant help thinking some higher power engineered the nice ( but dear) shop to sell out of her sizeand made me go to a shop we would never usually find something in....

We returned home and after lunch the girls set about doing their paper automata books which we'd bought from Tarquin Maths for Christmas. They are very fiddly and Chloe especially found them challenging. Connor decided he would rather hide in his room with a DVD! Peace reigned, even if it was just for an hour- No bickering! Wonderful!


We got the initial pieces cut out before it was time to leave for Connors first swimming lesson with a new teacher in a new pool.
Weve changed his lessons from the local pool to the one at the centre I work in. I'm so glad we did. He said his teacher was 'just the coolest' and didnt shout at them, spent lots of time showing ( which is what connor needs) I even saw him lying on the floor demonstrating!
Connor bounded out at the end raving about what a lovely time he had having tried somersaulting in the water and Butterfly stroke for the first time!
Not bad considering he could just about doggy paddle across the pool last May when we took him out of school.

The kids caught me watching the end of Hughs Chicken run last night too and now want to watch the series.I looked for free range chicken in the supermarket this week and there was none! I decided it was better not to buy a chicken at all as an alternative to an intensively reared one. The cupboards and freezer are all full for now anyway after this shop so hopefully I can keep to my 'spend very little' pledge for this month!I just hope the kids dont turn veggie on me after watching Hughs Chicken run.....

Im screaming for normality now, Chloe being home always throws things on the HE front, she doesnt 'get' working on anything at home, home is for slobbing, being waited on hand and foot and watching TV! Silly mum! Just her presence disrupts educational activities as everyone just wants to be with her and she has no interest in most things, although I may attempt the automata books we bought for Christmas from Tarquin maths as a compromise.

She's been better today, after being pretty pukey for a day or so shes on the mend, just as her roomates at school are all dropping like flies and being collected by anxious parents, one making a 7 hr round trip so Im thanking my lucky starts we live relatively close and she got ill at the weekend! Shes looking forward to seeing the staff at the Dyslexia Institute where she used to have tuition tomorrow when Connor goes and buying school shoes( what is it with dyspraxics and shoes every few weeks??!!!)

Sophie came second in her trampolining competition and won a team gold medal! Shes thrilled, her friend brought her medal for her and the secretary at the club has her trophy since we couldnt stay for presentations. Im most proud of her for that, going to see to her poorly sister rather than her own need to stay and see where she came and get her medal and have told her so.Poor thing, she bit her lip and got on with it, a year ago she would have flung herself to the group and sobbed while thrashing wildly!

Im praying I can get through tomorrow shopping for Chloes school shoes, the dyslexia institute and starting some sort of structured work ( whatever that is!) with the kids without puking.. yep Im feeling ill, whether thats the dreaded lurgy or just exhaustion I dont know. I got through an hour at work and collapsed again.

Home ed at times is like living with toddlers all over again... the one consolation is they can wipe their own bottoms!

BLAAHHH

Firstly I got through the week, one of the toughest things Ive done in my life 8-6 every day, 4-6 hours in the pool every day and theory, first aid, CPR ...I just did the course came home, did homework( yes more work on top of the long hours!) went to sleep and got up and repeated it over again! The exam was 3 hours long and we were scrutinised and questioned until I thought my brain was going to pop and swam until my lungs burned( we had to do timed swims and show various rescues ) but we all passed so I was thrilled! Im now qualified as a lifeguard enough to do a better job at the centre where I work( so now I wait for any vacancies which they might have with baited breath). The aftermath is me exhausted with a whopper of a cold sore, feeling really rough!The girls came with me into work yesterday and were so well behaved and helped set up and put away the soft play. The staff complimented them on how good they were and they were no trouble.
Its also made me realise it would be a perfect course for a home educated child to take as a pathway into employment once they were 16+ ( the min age). Its tough physically and mentally but nobody asked me if I had any previous quals or experience.. I had to be physically fit, helpful, with excellent comunication skills, able to work as part of a team and swim very well.....could be worth some parents of older teens investigating mabe?

Now to get back to normal service, getting through all the washing and tidying up the house, its like a bomb has hit it!Id love to get myself a 'lady who does'!!!

The kids have had the most fantastic week being so well cared for by K, N and their wonderful kids. Connor just said he's had 'masses of fun'... Sophie seems to have spent every day cooking and is now inspired, shes going to teach me to make Felafel and Naan bread from scratch!! Cant wait! She really enjoys it and has quite a talet for it. She said she wants to try a three course meal in a few weeks so we'll get doing some meal plans this week and look at menus etc.Shes also going to come shopping with me to choose her ingredients this afternoon, apparently its steak pie for tea!
She also took part in a trampolining competition today and I think she did really well. I dont know where she came though as they were running an hour late and we had to rush home as soon as she finished as Chloe was in the house ill and I didnt want to leave her for long as my neighbour was keeping an eye on her!

I cant wait for tomorrow to come and we can get back to doing some work. Ive spent about an hour with them in total all week up until today!!Ill be doing science this week I think, Sophie wants to go through her new 'Human body' pop up book and told me very solemly that the funny bone is really called the 'Hillarious' in medical speak(nearly chickee!) which had me in stitches.

Chloe wont be going back to school tonight though thankfully, shes gutted but Ill enjoy spending some time with her. She likes her new houseparents loads and they have 4 children aged 9- 16weeks so shes in her element keeping them all amused in her spare time. Im really pleased shes settled so quickly after being very anxious about going to a new house and brand new houseparents who were new to the job too so it was something of a baptism of fire for everyone!
She has a hard time settling in when she first started at school so its wonderful not to have to worry. Apparently they are very like Darren and I in parenting styles and expectations which Im sure makes it easier.I was expecting huge upheaval and tears on the phone every night so Im extremely relieved thats not happened!

Now off to the shop... Sophies nagging for ingredients!

Back to life... Back to reality

Now Xmas is over its back to work, with a heavy heart. Ive never felt like this before. I work in a lovely place, I consider my colleagues my friends we have a whole lot of fun and I think for the most part can see we make a difference ( I work in a leisure centre in a mixed area, some kids have very little and are expected to be 'out' all day) I like most of the kids I spend time with and hope they get as much from me as I get from them!
But now that its time to go back and Im home educating my children and staying with them seems too important for things like work, albeit it pays the bills! It seems selfish saying it but I'm so torn at having to go back... silly eh?
My peace was rudely shattered the day after New Years day while we were at my brothers house celebrating his partners birthday... my line manager giving me details of the course I have to go on, 8-6 every day next week... which sent me into a complete spin, what the heck do I do with the kids all day? Why did I not have more warning? Then even my own mother said "But the kids will be in school..!" ERRR EARTH TO MOTHER??? SCHOOL?? REALLY?? THE YOUNGER ONES DONT DO SCHOOL ANY MORE!!!!! It makes me realise how much everyone takes school for granted as "that place we send the kids while we go to work for 40 weeks a year" rather than where we choose to send our children willingly and enthusiastically and hope they will become educated, rounded individuals!!! This was also when I encountered the "are you mad or what?" reaction when I explained why this was an issue to my brothers partner! Her face said it all!

Fortunately my childcare issues have been sorted between my mum ( who isnt in the best of health) and my lovely friend K who have between them sorted looking after them, sometimes I feel so blessed I could cry! The generosity of some people I have in my life never fails to amaze me. I know the children will be ok, wont miss me too much and will have a ball while I go on this damned course ( which I wanted to do!!)while the eldest will be back where she wants to be, in the school she adores with her mates shes missed so much!
It seems a wierd juxtaposition doesnt it? two at home and one in boarding school! It does work for them all honestly!

And now thoughts turn to tomorrow when I have to don my swimsuit and in full view of all my collegues do a 'pool test' at 10am which Im reliably informed involves the sort of things I havent had to do since I was about 13 in a school PE lesson... and everyone else did theirs while I was at Disney... How convenient! Im sure theyve all cooked this up to have a damned good giggle at my expense!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope 2008 brings you lots more wonderful moments!