Multiple Activity Day 2

Today we had hoards of people round for our second Multiple Activity Day. The weather was pretty rubbish, but a good time was had by all. Even though the potato gun failed to fire, all the dad's seemed to be having a great time trying to fix it and the Wii was a favourite of many as it was last month.

In addition we have people making biscuits and pizza's in the kitchen, fabric painting in the extention, creating characters for stories in the dining room, playing lego on the landing and watching DVD's in the bedroom.

We had planned a bit of stargazing late in the evening, but the weather was against us, however it was nice to sit into the eening and chat with those who were staying over. Then on Sunday morning a group of children went along to the stable to groom the pony before everyone went home.

Sushi making

Today our friends Ruth and Julia came over for the afternoon and we made sushi for lunch. The girls really enjoyed making up interesting combinations of fillings fo maki's and Mollie got an improptu Japanese lesson when Julia, who knows lots about these things, told her what al the different characters on thr Wasabi packaging meant. After lunch the girls built dens in the trees and had a quick dip in the pool, while Ruth and I had a nice relaxing afternoon.

Broody Hen

Bella the chicken has decided that it is time for her to become a mummy hen. Because we don't have a cockeral we went down to see our friends a Feufields to see if they had any eggs that she could sit on. They did, and they supplied us with half a dozen, and so now she is sat happily on them and we all have a tense 3 weeks coming up while we wait to see what hatches.

Cherry Pickers 2

Today we had a meeting of the cherry pickers group at Dalkeith Country Park. It was a good oppertunity for the children to spend some time with each other, and for the mums and dad's to chat about parenting. education and general lifestyles.

These types of get togethers are really useful in Home Edcationg because they are a chance to meet like minded people and make plans. At this meeting we planned for Ruth and Julia to come over a nd make sushi with us, and also arranged that Jo, and her children Tom and Annie are going to join us for our Georgian week. Without these chances to stand and chat lots of opertunities would probably never arise.

Beach Day 2

Following last months successful gathering we met up again on the beach a Gullane. It is really nice that we have these once a month meetings where there are no expectations and no particular point, it is just a chance to meet up, hand out and chat. It is good to see people you haven't seen for a while, and it's really nice to see the children play in a diverse group

D of E practice walk

Today Hannah went for her first practise walk for her D of E bronze award. She went off in the car with dad, her friend Taegan and a huge rucksack at 11 am,heading for the local village of Broughton. When she returned home about 5pm Dad had to carry her in from the car and deposit her in the armchair - I don't think I have ever seen her look so tired, and tonight will consist of keeping her topped up with painkillers, but we are amazingly proud that, even though she has cerebal palsy, she has managed to complete the walk. However, we don't have much planned for the next few days, so she can recover.

Muliple Activity Day 1

Today several families came round to our house for a day of activities. The dad's built a tennis ball morter from Pringles tubs, we blew up lots of coke with lots of mentoes and the bubble snake makers we so popular that every available plastic bottle in the house was emptied to make more.

The weather wasn't really on our side for Bar-b-quing, but some of the dad's braved the weather and wwe managed with a combination of umberella's and hiding inder the garage roof. I think this will become a regular event ...

Cherry Pickers 1

Sarah M has started a new group for people who live autonomous or non coersive lifestyles and today was the first meeting.

She has called it Cherry Pickers because many of us had said that we don't just follow one philosophy, we 'herry pick' the bits we like from each on and then just create our own path.

We met up in Edinburgh, initially at the playpark, but then we moved to a church hall, where we set out a pot luck supper and sat down for a discussion. It was nice to talk to people and learn about their lifestyles, and discuss the challeneges they faced. It was also nice that some of the older children chose to sit in on the discusion too. Hopefully this will become a regular fixture of our lives, it is nice to go meet up with like minded peoplem and for the children to have a space where no one is asking them about bedtimes and homework.

Holiday - day 9

Today we are in Estonia. We started our tour by looking round the old part of Tallinn, and then boarded a coach to go visit a farm in the country where they make cheese. While there, we looked round the dairy and sampled some of their cheeses. Then finally we went back into the outskirts of Tallinn to look round a typical home. We were made very welcome by Peter the taxi driver, who let us look round his home, and then told us about his life while we enjoyed coffee and cake in his garden.

Holiday - day 8

Today is our second day in Russia, and we have decided to split up into groups. Mollie and Guy have gone on 2 tours, a walking tour in the morning, and then a trip by hydrofoil over to see the Fountains at Peterhof.

Hannah and I opted for a long, one day tour to visit the Romanov palaces, firstly Catherine's Palace, then Alexander's Palaces, and then after lunch, Paul's palace in Palovsk.

The weather was terrible, we are all now the proud owners of Russian umberella's, but the sights soon made up for that.

Holiday - day 7

Today is our first day in Russia, in St Petersburg. We can't get off the ship and wander about like we have in the other ports, we have to go as part of a group because of our visa's.

We opted to go on a tour called Modern Russia, which took us on the metro, then to a market and finished off with coffee and cakes in a cafe. Once we got into the metro station we were thankful that we had a guide with us, we would never have managed to navigate around - we are not good at languages at the best of time, let alone when we don't even recognise the letters.

Holiday - day 6

Today we are in Helsinki. It's our first visit to Finland, but none of the ships tours took our fancy so we opted instead to meet up with a colleague of Guy's who took out for a traditional Finnish meal. We all tried reindeer, and we disapointed to find that it tastes pretty much the same as beef - well at least it didn't taste of chicken.

Holiday - day 5

Today we are in Stockholm and we have forgone sightseeing to meet up with our Swedish friend Jenny and her three lovely children, Lucas, Beppe and Frode. The weather was not on our side, so our original plan for a picnic in the park had to be abandond, but Mollie and the boys really enjoyed the oppertunity to go look round the toy shop and they all came away with treats.

Holiday - day 4

Today was another sea day, as we moved from Copenhagen to Stockholm, so we enjoyed more of the onboard facilities of the ship.

Close to midnight we headed up to the top deck at the front to the ship to watch as we went under the Great Belt Bridge. The sea was amazingly calm, and it was very quiet and dark - almost eerie. We could see the bridge from quite a distance away, but has no way to judge distance. Eventually we went under it, and although the Captain assured us that we had 10m clearence, it certainly didn't look like that, and we weren't the only ones who ducked.

Holiday - day 3

Today we are in Copenhagen. The girls and I have been here before so we decided not to go on one of the ships tours, but to get off and go on the standard Copenhagen tour bus. We caught it on the dock so it was quite straight forward, but were quite disappointed to find that the Little Mermaid is also on holiday, she has gone on a tour of China.

We stopped off near Tivoli gardens to have lunch and then got back to the ship in plenty of time for departure.

Holiday - day 2

Today was a sea day as the ship made it's way toward Copenhagen. Once we had worked out where everything was on the ship the girls went for a swim. Then Hannah went to get her hair done in the spa, ready for formal night. Both girls looked very grown up when they were dressed for dinner

Holiday - day 1

We boarded the Jewel of the Seas today. Once we got through the long queues at check in we made our way to our cabin, and were pleasently surprised how spacious it was.


Once we had unpacked it was time for lifeboat drill, then we went back to the cabin to change for dinner. We had a pretty relaxed day, and tomorrow will be nice too as it is a day at sea.

Holiday - Setting off

Following last months holiday disater we once again set off on holiday, this time heading for Harwich to catch a ship to Scandinavia. Not having a flight to catch means the only restriction on luggage is what we can get in the car - I think we did well.

From home we are heading off, calling in Lincolnshire at Auntie Wee's 50th birthday party and then we are having a couple of days at Guy's mum's before boarding the ship on Wednesday

Beach day

The home ed group met up on the beach today. The smaller children really enjoyed climbing amongst the rocks and gathering drift wood.
The older children then really enjoyed sitting round the fire we made from it, cooking sausages and toasting marshmallows.

Pizza Box Maps

We all got together at Sarah M's house and made pizza box maps, and idea we shamelessly stole from some other enterprising mum



Once the children had chosen their countries we printed off maps and then transfered them to the pizza boxes by rubbing pencil on the back and tracing over them.



Then we painted the sea around the countries and once the paint had dried the children began building up the land mass with layers of salt dough.



Eventually they finished off by adding geographical features like mountain ranges, and then left them to dry.

Georgian Drinks

While shopping today we bought some cordials for our Georgian Living experiment. Given that we are only going back in time for a week, and we are the only ones, we have to try find some modern products we can use in lieu of last years preserving.

Obviously Diet Coke is out, so we are trying other drinks, Mollie quite liked Elderflower and the rosehip brought back memories for me of the baby juice my brother used to drink.

Litter Picking

Today the girls were litter picking with the Guides. They went to the nearby village of Pettinan, and worked hard for three hours in the cold and drizzzle.






It was part of the National Spring Clean organised by Keep Scotland Tidy, and the girls were rewarded for their hard work with cakes supplied by Greggs the bakers. They also got one section of the four part special centenary badge that the Scottish Guides are giving this year.

Museum visit

Today we went to the museum in Edinburgh, suposedly for the monthly new members meeting for EBHE, but as it turned out, just as a meet up with friends.

Our Home Educating friends from Spain, the ones I collected from the airport on Tuesday, came along, so we were six families, and it was really nice. The children are really at home in the museum and love exploring, so the younger children went one way and the teens went another. Then after a while the teens headed out into Edinburgh. Friday is a good day for that because all the schools finish at lunchtime meaning there is no worries about them being hassled as truants, something we shouldn't have to think about, but we do.

Georgian Living Experiment

As we are currently living in a georgian house we thought it would be a good learning oppertunity to go back in time and see what life would have been like when the house was first built.

We can't totally recreate georgian life, but we are turning off the power and water to the main house, and will be doing Georgian activities and eating Georgian food, all while wearing Georgian clothes.

As preparation we will be visiting Georgian Houses and Museums, making dresses and hunting out ingredients for recipes. Today we took the first step and phoned the Georgian House in Edinburgh, who were really interested in our project and said if we go visit them they will tell us all about the life we are planning to live. Just need to book a date and round up some friends to go with us now ...

Felt balls: Part II

Today we went back to Sarah's to finish our felt balls (and eat a fantastic buffet lunch with cake)

The weather was really nice so the girls took advantage of it and spent the afternoon up the hill building dens, and then made felt balls in the evening when it was cold and dark. Another great benefit of home ed - you can do things when the weather is right :)

While they were working away I went to the airport to meet some Spanish friends who are coming to live in Edinburgh for the summer.

Planting

Before planting Molie and Afra measured the vegetable plot to work out the best places for everything. Each type of vegetable needed a different amount of space and quite a lot of maths was needed to get the best layout


Both girls were surprised to see that the carrot seedling we minature carrots :)


They decided that rows would be the best layout as some of the bigger vegetables, like cauliflowers, needed a lot of space between them. This meant that natural paths were created that could be used for access to other parts of the plot.


Once the outdoor vegetables we in the big plot they added compost to the small bed in the greenhouse and planted the salad vegetables in there.

Garden Centre

Today we dropped Hannah off with her friend to go shopping and to the cinema, and we went to the garden centre to get some ideas for the garden. We are a bit late, what with busy Easter and then the 'not-holiday' so we were really pleased when we found vegetable seedlings that we could just plant out.

We cho0se peas, beans, cauliflowers, broccoli, parsnips, carrots, sweetcorn, beetroot and potatoes for the garden, and lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and peppers for the greenhouse.

Late night pancakes

Not having to get up for school tomorrow means that sleepovers can happen any night of the week, whenever they make sense. Mollie spent the day with Afra today, and is planning to go seed shopping with her tomorrow, so bringing her home for the night was no problem at all.

They decided they would like pancakes for supper, so they mixed up some batter and got out the frying pan. Chocolate spread seemed to be the topping of choice tonight :)

Felting

Today we went to friends to do wet felting. Using wool and warm soapy water the girls made balls, adding colours once they had formed the central core from natural wool.

Once they are dried they can be decorated, either with needlefelting or by sewing on decorations

Mountain Biking

We were really lucky to get a space for Mollie on the mountain biking class in Loch Gelly. The centre supplied the bikes and helmets and then took the group round the forest, showing them how to handle the bikes ove the rough terrain. It was a great success all round, and another session is planned


After biking, they took advantage of the lovely weather and played on the lochside beach for a while.

Monthly Gathering

Being home meant that we could go to this months gathering at Dalkeith Country Park. It was a good chance for the girls to meet up with lots of their friends. They saw some people they hadn't seen for a while, and plans were made to meet up for other activities in the next couple of weeks.

They enjoyed the adventure playground and also spent some time walking round the estate looking to see what plants were growing.

Holiday and Volcano

We are suposed to be going on holiday - flying to Dubai and then cruising, via Egypt, to Barcelona.

But as we were preparing and packing the news was breaking at all flights had been grounded by the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano, ours included.

So, our trip has been cancelled and we are at home. It will take us a few days to get back into the swing of things, everything had been cancelled so now we have to restart things and try book onto activities we thouight we would miss.

Luckily we had booked a package and so the company have transfered us to another cruise, leaving on 19 May, going to Russia and Scandinavia

Spring Biology

As we have so many daffodils in the garden wwe decided to use some more of them in our education. When Grandma was here over Easter she told us about an experiment she had done as a child with doffodils and ink. While she was with us we looked everywhere for daffodils but none we out, so we couldn't re create it with her.

But now we have flowers, so we stood a daffodil in a glass containing ink and water. After only a few hours the colour from the ink began to appear along the petals. This illustrated brilliantly how flowers and other plants use water.

The photo shows a 'before' flower on the left, and the 'after' flower on the right

Spring Art

It was a lovely spring day so we decided to take the paints outside and do some biology. We picked some daffodils from the garden and looked at the different parts of them, and then drew what we had seen.

It was also a good lesson in art, we have been trying to draw what we see not what we know is there, so we turned our flowers upside down or back to front to get a different perspective.

Royal Photo Exhibition

Today we met up with friends to see the exhibition at the Queens Gallery in Holyrood Palace. It featured photographs from the royal collection which were taken on the polar expeditions of Scott and Shackleton in the early part of the 20th century.

Mollie got herslef a copy of the worksheet produced by the gallery and enjoyed working her way through it with her friend.

Hannah was more affected by the photo's, she chose to listen to the audio comentary and it really brought home to her just how difficult things had been for the explorers. Scott's story was very tragic, but Shackletons was inspiring.

Edinburgh Science Festival

Today we went to the Edinburgh Science Festival with the Home Ed group. The girls were booked into 3 workshops each, Mol did E.R., Dr Clot and Dig up a Dinosaur. Hannah joined her sister for the first 2 and then went off to build lego robots for the last seesion. They also did drop in session at the Blood Bar and the genetics lab, and watched a show about sound and musical instruments.

Day Off

The past two weeks have been really busy here so today we decided to have a day off.

We cancelled our regular activies and stayed home. The weather was awful, raining, windy and grey, so we lit the fire, brought down duvets and ordered movies from Sky Box Office. We had homemade soup for lunch and pigged out on Easter eggs.

This is just one more benefit of Home Ed. We can take our holidays and days off on days that suit us. Rather than working when we feel tired and low we can stop and re-charge. We are not limited to 'school holidays' and 'term time'. We can work on Sundays and chill out on Tuesdays, we can work when we feel productive and relax when we don't.

But you know what - we have actually learnt quite a lot today. We have chatted about adoption - because I had time to do some research, we talked about the war, and those from the UK who either supported Hitler or wanted to make deals with him - a discusion prompted by one of the films we watched, and Mouse worked on her OU letter - because she finally had the space to just think about it and suddenly it wasn't quite as hard as she thought.

Easter Pony Show

Today was the girls second pony show - this time Easter themed so we went overboard with flowers, chickens and yellow.


The preparation effort was helped by Auntie Lindsey who re-covered the saddle cloth and Auntie Beryl who helped sew little butterflies and flowers onto elastic bands.


It all paid off because Hannah won best in class for 'Best Turned out Pony' and Mollie was placed 4th in 'Best Ridden Pony', which was a big improvement on the show in Fenruary. Then, to end the day Mollie won 'Best Easter Bonnet.'

Taking advantage of quite time

While Mollie has been entertaining her cousins Hannah has made the most of a few quite days at home to catch up with schoolwork. She is working on a story with poetry in so has been researching different poetry styles and continues to progress through her maths with the online programme, ConquerMaths, which, if she doesn't exactly enjoy, at least makes maths a bit more fun than a text book would.

Easter Crafts

Little cousins have come to stay for the Easter weekend and Mollie has enjoyed spending time with them.

One benefit of Home Education is that she is used to mixing with younger children so it is no challenge for her.

As well as making Easter cards they all decorated Mollie Easter bonnet for the pony show tomorrow. It was a real team effort.

Strange, snowy, sad day

Today has been a strange day - power cuts, snow drifts and a bus crash. Knowing such tragedy had occured so close to home, to people so young sobered us all a bit and the adverse weather and lack of power meant we had to cancel our activities, stay home and concentrate more on the basics like warmth, light and food.

Mollie decided to make the most of the snow and build some snowmen with Grandma. It was interesting watching her trying to figure out the best way to move the snowball, working out the correct pressure to move it but not break it, to consider what was hindering its process and remove it. The same problem solving skills will be of use in many situations.

The bus crash gave a very different set of learning oppertunities, from disscusions of how the TV pictures got from outside our house to on the TV so quickly, the difference between driving a bus and a car in the snow, why the former is harder than the later and how helicopters can take off in a blizzard.

The lack of electricty was ... interesting. It was a taste of what we have to come in our summer Georgian week, and made us realise just how much we depend on it, and how much we will have to think about changing our life to cope without it for a week.

So doing nothing actually turned into quite a lot.

Regular Activities

For blog writing, regular activities are a bit boring. Piano lesson, skating lessons, and riding lessons occur here with regularity, we do one or another most days, and sometimes 2 or 3 on one day.

These activities not only repeat over the weeks, but the actual activities are themselves repetative. We play tunes over and over, Mollie practises the same moves again and again, they trot round and round the indoor school. Progress occurs in tiny increments, that almost go unnoticed. Improvements are gradual, smoother transitions between paces, edges and notes.

But every so often there seems to be a leap forward - starting to canter, a new jump, the next piano book. They then seems like big steps, but really they are just the accumulation of tiny ones.

So, if we have days where it looks like we are doing nothing much, we are just taking baby steps towards the next great leap. I won't blog them all - we have quite enough repetion as it is :)

Not here doesn't mean not doing ...

Sometimes, on days like today, Hannah is suspiciously absent from the activities. We have been busy cooking for Daddy's party and this just isn't her thing. She has shut herself up in her room, but she is far from idle - she is writing.

Writing is Hannah's great love. Stories, poems, plays - she is always either scribbling or typing away. She does lots on her laptop but really likes notebooks. These leather bound ones are esspecially nice and full of masterpieces.

Now we just have to work on the confidence to share her work with others ....

Yoghurt Cheese part 2

We made cream cheese from yoghurt a couple of weeks ago, but it was a bit tart for our taste. So, for Daddy's birthday party. we thought we would have another go.



We used the same equipment as last time, but instead of using the live organic yoghurt from the deli in Biggar we used Greek Style yoghurt from Yeo Valley.



Once again we put it in our cold space under the stairs and it was a great success. The cheese was thicker, creamier and milder.

This time we could shape it into a 'cheese'rather than putting into a jar. It tasted great for lunch, spread on tortillas and topped with roasted vegetables too.