Happy Easter!

The kids enjoyed a fun introduction to chemistry with this wonderful video made by the clever and rather mad scientists at Nottingham university! Its got them into the idea that everyday items are connected with chemistry and that cooking is a chemical reaction. Im hoping they will watch more over time!

We've had a bit of an icky easter. Matt came back on leave after three weeks,which thankfully this time seemed to fly, the kids couldnt wait to see him which was a relief. You know, you do wonder when you start a relationship with kids who are older involved if you are doing the right thing and whether they like your partner or whether they are just being polite and tolerating them but the excitement when he arrived back was proof that they were very happy to see him!
I took the kids to the cinema on saturday afternoon while Matt did some work for his course. We watched "The Spy Next door" which was fun, an all action comedy/family film with three very spirited and mischievous children who my three readily identified with! It was a shame Matt didnt come, I think he would have enjoyed it too. Sadly he had to go back to Lincolnshire on sunday afternoon, no bank hols for him but we had a nice weekend doing not alot regardless.

Poor Connor has spent the whole of the Easter weekend really suffering from some sort of nasty tummy bug so was distinctly unenthusiastic about choccy! ( most unlike him!) thankfully he now seems to be recovering! After lots of flat coke and not alot else.. the easter eggs are still pretty much untouched! The washing machine hasnt stopped and thankfully the corner shop had calpol in stock!
Today we've had a PJ day after a night of no sleep as Connor was awake all night poor thing crying but weve still managed to get some education in! The kids really enjoyed watching an episode of "River Cottage" and are really inspired now to get the area were are going to use as a veggie patch fenced off, plant out our seedlings and make some beer slug traps. They did make me promise that I wouldnt make them try eating the slugs that Hugh Fernley Whittingstall had made into fritters and satay!!! NO worries there at all! We bought the River Cottage everyday book recently( thankfully no mention of slugs but the one recipe does mention grey squirrel!!!)
We're all ready now to start growing some of our own food for free/almost free.Our 'Dig In' seeds have arrived from the BBC so they are really inspired to get growing, our potato planter and seed potatoes were free for postage cost from Thompson and Morgan online who also threw in 5 packets of vegetable seeds! A real bargain for around £3. We also got some fence posts from a kind freecycler and swapped some strawberry plants with a friend for some of our surplus supply of eggs which saved me quite a bit on buying some!

Despite being under the weather Connor spent a happy hour on the laptop doing Mathletics. He hadnt tried playing live before but really enjoyed it. Im hoping he will use it more and more. Its a fantastic site, definitely worth the subscription! Im trying to encourage Chloe to play more and she did have a go, playing against Connor and of course beating him hands down ( she was playing at his level!) Sophies keen to join in now too.
Theyve also watched some Horrible Histories and are happily singing the song about Henry IIIV and his wives divorced beheaded and so on, weve played Ancient Egyptian Top Trumps.... and have saved "The Pacific' at Connors request on sky+ for tomorrow. He loves WWII
Its days like this that I really appreciate what my kids get from Home education, even on a 'holiday' time or when they are ill they dont stop learning because they dont see most of it as "work"... after all work is for grown ups isnt it? ;-)