Maths, magnets, Marvelous weather

Today some of our home ed friends kindly lent us their magnet kit!

We had a go at mixing some iron filings into putty to see if the magnets were strong enough to lift it - we had to add a lot of iron filings for this!

We also had fun spilling lots of iron filings on the tray and 'hoovering' them up with the magnets..

Playing with Geomags...

Followed by some maths..

                                                                 

And some sunshine... :)

catch up

I haven't blogged in a while; this you'll be pleased to know is not because we haven't been doing any learning ;) but because I've been so busy with my business making these washable sanitary pads to sell at Taunton Vegan Fayre

I didn't think that when I grew up (am I actually grown up)?! I would be a maker of menstrual pads, but praise God! It's going well.... and keeping me busy!

A lot of people are asking if we're taking a break for the school summer holidays - the answer is no! This is because I feel that learning never stops - and because we only do lessons in the mornings and are home all of the time anyway, it carries on as normal. So here is some of the stuff we've been up to these last few weeks;

Acey turned Seven! And had an amazing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed birthday party at Imagine Design Create..

Acey's reading is progressing, since we got given FIVE of these boxes of primary school reading books off of Freecycle - for free!!! 

Acid Alkaline experiment....

And we have started a project on pirates which we will be continuing over the next month or so...

And lots of other stuff too! :) Will be blogging more regularly now the busyness has died down xxx

one hundred

A Berry good adventure - A journey of fruit picking; Thurloxton, Somerset

summer art

Yesterday we spent the day at Lulworth Cove with our friend David. We collected some pebbles from the beach to study when we got home through the microscope. Some had lots of interesting patterns and cracks, some were different textures, some had sand crystals on and some were white and chalky. 

Today we did some art in the sunshine - this is a painting Acey did by rubbing flowers and leaves on the paper.

and a watercolor of a tree from our garden.

Acey said that his pictures were really good and he was very proud of them.

Best classroom ever!

We love long hot summer days, and like to make the most of them. The great thing about home ed is that your classroom can be anywhere! We often take our home schooling books to the nearby lake or somewhere peaceful to learn.

Another great thing about home schooling is that you can go to the woods at night time and light a fire and not have to worry about getting up early for school and being all tired the next day

(our friend David)

We're also making the most of elderflowers before they disappear

I think summer is finally here! :)

Singing through the day

At our homeschool, we love to sing throughout the day - it makes the day more Joyful and brings more meaning to our daily rhythym.... I thought I'd share some of the songs we sing;

Morning songs - we usually sing these when we have our special circle time in the mornings

Good Morning dear Earth,

Good Morning dear Sun

Good Morning dear Trees and flowers everyone

Good morning dear beasties and birds in the tree

Good morning to you, good morning to me

Early in the morning, hear the cockerell call

He struts about the farmyard, Good morning creatures all

He flaps his wings and sings to you

Wake up now - cockadoodle-doo 

(kids love to act out the cockerell in this one)

Thank you for the world so sweet,

Thank you for the food we eat,

Thank you for the birds that sing

Thank you, God for everything.

 Deep inside my heart I've got this

Everlasting love, it's shining

Like the sun it radiates

on everyone

And the more that I give, the more I've got to give

it's the way that I live, it's what I'm living for.

 Tidying up songs

We gnomes are working happily

in the forest in the forest

we gnomes are working happily

In the forest we like to be

We chop the wood, we chop the wood

We chop the wood, ho hey,

We chop the wood, we chop the wood

For a bright warm fire today

We gnomes are working happily

In our cottage in our cottage

We gnomes are working happily

In our cottage we like to be

We sweep the floor, we sweep the floor

We sweep the floor ho hey

We sweep the floor,  we sweep the floor

Spotlessly clean today

We gnomes are working happily

In our kitchen in our kitchen

we gnomes are working happily

in our kitchen we like to be.

We stir the pot, we stir the pot

We stir the pot today

We stir the pot, we stir the pot

For the best meal of the day.

Graces at mealtimes 

Oh the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord

For giving me the things I need

The rain, the sun and the appleseed

The Lord is good to me.

Blessings on the blossom blessings on the fruit

Blessings on the leaves and stems and blessings on the root

and blessings on our meal.

For the golden corn, and the apples on the tree

For the yellow butter and the honey for our tea

For fruits and nuts and berries that grow along the way

For birds and beasts and flowers 

We thank you every day!

These are some of our favorite songs that we sing throughout the day. A lot of them you can find in a book called 'The singing day' by Candy Verney which has a CD with it so you can learn the tunes too!