Robins and Snow Hunting

Today we read a truly lovely poem about Scandinavian robins. We learned about their migration and then Lady P made a lovely picture of two robins. It was a completely unplanned activity but was lovely!

In our part of the UK, we never see snow! It’s tragic actually! I miss snow! Yesterday we decided to hunt for snow. We visited a friend’s farm and they had plenty! Unfortunately, on the way I got stuck in a snow bank and by some miracle, a farmer happened to be in the same place at the same time, and dragged me out of the bank by attaching a rope to my tow bar! It was comical really! Lady P was super anxious and wanted to go home but I just thought it was just like me to go and get stuck in 3cm of snow! Canada will be ashamed!

We managed to finally arrive at our destination and played in the snow, we went sledding and saw horses who came up for a visit! It was wonderful!

Side note: I got an appointment with the School nurse about Penny. She is coming Tuesday to have a chat!

It’s been a while…

It has been quite a while since I have written. I couldn’t add anything else to my plate without things toppling off…like my mind. But here we are again! A lot has been happening, but rather than update, I’ve decided just to post what I did today as if I’ve never stopped writing! It’s easier that way!

Today was an outdoor morning: hanging out by the river, climbing muddy hills I didn’t want to, but had to, due to a daredevil 2 year old! I finally got scared and made him come down only to have him scream and kick–on a muddy, slippy mountain (steep hill)–while an old woman watched below with her dogs! I am a total winner! Anyway, we survived and my mountain goat daughters (whom I didn’t worry at all about) climbed with ease! Needless to say, we were filthy! We finished with a feast of foods we shouldn’t eat and watched Home Alone!

Rant Alert:

Yesterday I had my initial appointment for Lady P and her ADHD. The GP was highly patronising and spoke to me like I was a paranoid mother. I mean, what do mothers know?!? Never in the history of mankind, has a mother known something was not right about her kid, have they? (Sarcastic undertones) And seeing that we are living in a generation void of knowledge and information, I obviously can’t research things for myself and know stuff! He point blank, without even meeting her, said she did not have it because (and I quote): ‘She acts just like my kids”. Did I come in here to talk about your kids? No. If his kids are just like my imaginary daughter that he didn’t meet, he should have his own kids checked! Just saying! He must be a blinking genius because he knows more about my child from NOT meeting her than I know from the 6 years and 10 months of knowing her on the outside and the 40 weeks plus 5 days I had her on the inside!!! I was so mad! I even threw my 10 years teaching Special Needs experience at him. I asked him to tell me how he would expect her to behave to have ADHD because she’s a girl and girls tend to display things differently than boys. No joy! Perhaps if she were an out-of-control boy who burned down garages, I’d get a listening ear. Not to mention the look of horror and disbelief when I told him I home educated her. *sigh*

Today my home ed rep called me and I told her what happened. She said I can go through the school nurse, who deals with home ed kids; she’ll observe her and discuss things with me and hopefully things will move her along. Literally a 2 min phone call renewed my faith in the system.

Perhaps if my GP spent more time at home dealing with his children’s behaviour and less time GPing, he could sort out the behaviour issues he’s having with them! Maybe he should call the school nurse for support…

Rant Done

Autumn already?

The weather has been wet this summer! And now it’s autumn weather! The kids had a busy day today! They got more done then I expected as we are watching another Little person twice a week.

Yesterday was also a good day for learning! We have hit the ground running!

Because my eldest has ADHD, I’m attempting to create a better schedule. She needs to know what we are doing and how long we are doing it. This can be annoying for me but then I realised she NEEDS to know! It causes anxiety when she doesn’t know. I personally find it difficult creating a schedule we follow all the time because we are a home, not a school and I didn’t really want it to mimic school. I guess I’ll try somewhere in between!

First Day of ‘School’

I’ve not written in a long time but I’m hoping to change all that! Today we went back to non school. It was a mixed day. I felt very stressed and my eldest was struggling to remain calm. But we managed!

In the morning we did some English and geography. They are studying lake Louise in Alberta because Daddy is going there for his friend’s wedding.

They wrote a story and did some Jolly Phonics workbooks as well.

Later on, after lunch, we went to our woods and did some water colour painting of things we found, then they climbed trees. We headed to the zoo nearby (we have a zoo pass this year) and learned about peacocks, peahens and peachicks (I didn’t know they were called this!).

We then headed home, Little man had a nap, cheeky girl had iPad time and lady P and I had a disastrous maths lesson! I should have realised she’d be unable to concentrate but I persevered and made her miserable! So lesson learned: do academics in the morning and learn to let go when you need to!

After all this, they went to swimming lessons, ate homemade pizza and watched The Magic School Bus! I’m exhausted!

Rainbow Rice

It was a lovely day today so we spent some time outside playing with worms!

Today we also made rainbow rice! It was lovely and dead simple! Just add a splurge of ready-mixed paint, some peppermint essence and leave to dry!

We also did some maths with the new curriculum I’ve ordered called: Maths! No Problem.  Lady P is enjoying it as it’s based on Singapore Maths. I really like it and find it straight forward and easy to use.

 

 

Tens Frames and Farm Life

I just discovered Singapore maths and so far, I love the concept and it’s transformed Lady P! She is making great connections! I just bought the first textbook and workbook from Maths! No Problem! so I will let you know how they are and review them here! 

Lady P used the tens frame in helping her understand addition facts. She made the connection between 8+6 and 10+4 by moving two different coloured counters around. I watched various YouTube videos by Maths! No Problem and found them interesting! 

In the afternoon, we went on a homeschool trip to the farm! Over 130 home ed people showed up so it was great support!

The kids had a great time and enjoyed being outside all afternoon! They got a chance to brush ponies, feed goats, pet snakes and rats, feed lambs and play with new friends! It was a wonderful day!

Ted Harrison Art

I have decided to resume our study of artists.  We started a project on Ted Harrison mostly because he’s originally from England but his art is all about the Yukon in Canada; a nice joining of cultures, like our family. 

Lady P loves art so she always enjoys learning about artists and mimicking their work. We watched a YouTube video that took her through the process. I paused it so she could catch up and then resumed.  

We have also started a new routine of writing a daily scripture every morning with the date. I copy the scripture in yellow for cheeky girl to copy and Lady P writes it herself.  We help her find the scripture in the Bible then she copies it out. She feels grown up because she’s finding it in the Bible.  Also, we help her to read it and discuss it. She draws a picture to help her understanding of the text. This incorporates a lot of different skills and topics. Art, bible study, reading, writing and maths (finding scriptures requires her to understand number order). 

Unfortunately, both girls have a severe case of chicken pox so our homeschooling may include many films this week depending on how they feel! We’ve just acquired a massive supply of Barbie films which I find tedious but they love! 

Elmer the Elephant

Today Lady P did some addition questions and then coloured Elmer the elephant with colours that corresponded to the answers.  Lady P has to do her work out loud. She gets distracted otherwise. She also sings in between each question.  Needless to say, this sheet took a very long time.  And she only managed a few questions due to her being highly distractible.  

Cheeky girl enjoyed doing puzzles and was very focussed! I loved watching her do them. She’s only just turned 4 but she was managing to complete them on her own! And Little Man was able to do a two piece puzzle on his own. He found the two pieces that were yellow and put them together! He surprises me everyday! He’s so independent! I thought boys let you do everything for them (or so I was told repeatedly) but not him! He lets me do nothing for him! 

Just goes to show, you get what you get with these babies! They have their own unique personalities and if you work with them instead of against them, there’s no telling how amazing they’ll become!!!

Winter Holiday

I’ve taken a break from blogging lately but I’m hoping to get back to it! We went to Canada for a visit and had a great winter holiday.  The kids enjoyed their first proper snow experience! Although Cheeky Girl did not enjoy the -28 temperatures! 

We went to a few places like Ripley’s Sea Life Centre…
We also went to the Science Centre…
We enjoyed a weekend in Niagara Falls with family and went to the Butterfly Conservatory…

We stayed with friends at a house in The north for a week! We had more snow then we’d ever seen in our lives!!!

We had an amazing time but we were happy to get back home and back into routine! And we appreciated not having to wear so much layers all the time! 

Coniferous Leaves

Had a really good morning schooling today! Lady P got down to business in anticipation of her friend coming round for a play date. 

She completed her reading lesson; practiced her counting by  5s and 10s; counted backwards from 10 confidently and started to count backwards from 20; sorted coins with their number amounts; wrote some more of her story; compared coniferous leaves to deciduous leaves and made notes.  Cheeky girl practiced counting objects and writing the number down and she practiced the letter c and d and made pictures of things starting with those letters. 

Afterwards, friends came to play all afternoon! It was a good day!