Jesus following, natural living, Somerset homeschooling mum to Acey. Here is our blog to share with family and friends and anyone else who might be interested, about our home ed journey.


John 13:34 - ''A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.''

Sunday 29 April 2012

Rain, rain go away...

The april showers STILL haven't stopped. They have infact got worse! Really wishing the horrible wintery weather would go away so we can run through meaddows. This week has involved going to Messy Church, where Acey made some shaky musical instruments, some masks with happy and sad faces on, sampled some food that is mentioned in the psalms such as olives etc, and made these lovely 'worship flags' which are perfect for running through those meaddows with (sigh)!
They were very easy to make, perfect for little ones. Simply cut out strips of pretty coloured crepe paper (I guess you could use rainbow ribbons etc too)! and tape them to a stick. Then - mummies put on a pretty dress, and small boys and girls strip down to nappy/pants and find a sunny meaddow and run through whilst waving these pretty flags behind you, and singing songs of praise to the creator for beautiful wild flowers and bees.:)

We also made paper cup telephones with two cups and string, which was a good opportunity to learn about sound, and how the sounds waves travel along the string when it is pulled tight!

On Monday Jacob came to play, and on Tuesday we went to home ed group, where the children made shields and swords in celebration of St Georges day, although Acey didn't want to participate, and I have to remember that this is Ok, because he just wants to socialise on some days, and the whole reason we don't do school, or should I say one of the many reasons is because I don't believe in forced learning! Afterwards we went for a walk down to Fyne Court and played in the stream/pond. We saw a few black wiggly tadpoles :) And then it started to rain again...


When we got home, we discovered these lovely waldorf animal alphabet cards in the post. We think they are brilliant!

On Wednesday we met some AP friends in Roots cafe for lunch. Acey did a great job of looking after little toddler Flora. Thursday was a day of sorting things out, posting things and taking things to the charity shop. And then we went to Thursday Fun Club at our local church. We played some fun games and then had a little talk about the importance of kindness, and then the children had sweets (much to my dismay and Acey's luck)!

On Friday, we went to play at Hayden and Artie's house and then met our friend Marcus who is back from Jamaica, and brought us back some interesting stuff including raw amethyst from the beach, some Jamaican cedar wood to wear as a healing necklace (read the Anastasia books by Vladimir Megre to get my drift), Jamaican foliage and bark to make into a bush tea, and some yummy raw cacao beans Mmm mmm...

Last summer we did a little project about Jamaica, so we will probably follow on from this, and learn all about how chocolate is produced next week!

At the weekend, Acey stayed at his nan's and his dad came to visit. I often worry about maths with Acey, but whilst he was at his nans he built a perfecly symmetrical weapon (to kill villians I might add) out of lego, and his addition and interest in numbers is very good at the moment, so we will probably do some more maths things soon. Children learn naturally, I need to remember this!

One love xxx




Monday 23 April 2012

April showers - come back sunshine!


This week has involved Jacob's birthday party, going to The Living Light church, Library, playing with Eve and Rhys and Ethan another home educating family from around the corner, Learning about recycling and renewable energy and making windchimes at home ed group,  a spinning birdie in a cage experiment, going to a fun wildlife park for a friend's birthday and surprising Grandad and Nanny on the way home and going for a walk at Fyne Court and The Spinney at Kingston St Mary....Oh, and lots and lots of rain and wintery weather! Where is the sunshine?!

                                                     Eve and Acey with their den they built at Jacob's party

We focused on Earth day at home ed group, and talked about different types of energy and why some are more sustainable than others, and played a little recycling game, and made these lovely windchimes out of old nuts and bolts and shells and pebbles and clay plant pots.


We did a little birdy in a cage experiment to see how our brain can trick our eyes. We cut out a circle of card, and drew a bird on one side and a cage on the other, and tied some string either side, and span it around really fast to make it look like the bird was in the cage.

We also made some paper origami claws!!

On Friday we went to Avon Valley Mouth adventure park with Hayden and Artie. It was lots of fun, Acey especially liked the Go Karts!


And seeing as we were passing Bristol on the way home, we decided to surprise Grandad and turn up on his doorstep! He was very pleased!

On Saturday we went to Fyne Court and then decided to go to The Spinney at Kingston which is a very lovely place. We gathered lots of wild flowers, and discovered new ones to go in our wild flower book we are making, and some to decorate our spring table with too. :)







We really hope the lovely spring sunshine comes back soon!!!

Thursday 12 April 2012

Easter.



Poorly over Easter....can you believe it?! :(  
No Easter crafts, no Easter story, just lying in bed with tissues, eucalyptus oil, vicks vapour rub, hot water bottle and grapes. How miserable!!! (we did have chocolate though and managed to drag ourselves to mum's for the day)!



...and I suppose we managed a bit of half-hearted egg dying using natural dyes (spur of the moment easter morning thing, so it didn't work that well)

Acey's dad came to visit too...

For two weeks, due to being ill we have done NOTHING homeschooly what so ever, even when Acey felt better, I was still DYING! I feel bad, but then kind of let myself off, when I remember it's the holidays and children are off school anyway!

A few other things we have been up to recently....
Acey made a shaddow show, by painting a black landscape on some white paper, cutting some crocodile puppets out of cardboard, and attatching a straw to hold them with, and then shining a light behind the paper in the dark, to create a shaddow effect...we got the idea from a book which a friend reccomended called '50 science things to make and do' which is really good! It was lots of fun.

Three little boys went pond dipping...you can only see two of them in this picture. No bugs or pond insects were found at all when we got there...only two swans, and nets got broken but they still had fun paddling in the beautiful lake.

We went on an otter hunt at Neroche Forest with Jacob. It was a special event, walking around the woods, musical instruments and singing songs, and a story....being it daytime we didn't see any real otters....


...but we did see SOME otters, even if they weren't exactly..real...;)

and we foraged for lots of delicious wild garlic to have for tea.


I sent of for a pack of free educational recourses from the british heart foundation...I didn't realise quite how much would arrive! It was fantastic - we got lots of educational story books, playing cards, healthy eating sheets, childrens' recipes, educational DVDs, and best of all - cardboard bodily organs. After talking about it and learning about it a bit, I was quite impressed that Acey layed it all out himself in the correct order! was highly impressed with this pack!

And going for lots of runs and making badger masks with our lovely friend David, and playing with Eve and Rhys and Ethan around the corner. And making easter nest cakes and having an egg hunt at home ed group!
Can't wait to start learning and having fun again next week now all of the illness has (almost) gone!