Disastrous Day

Not going to write much as I'm fed up - firstly with all the boxes, secondly that our lovely day out to escape from all the boxes turned into a disaster.

Today was supposed to be spent at Satrosphere in Aberdeen, at a science workshop with the home ed group. Unfortunately, I managed to print off a map of where Satrosphere used to be, before it moved. So we got the train all the way through to Aberdeen, and turned up at a building site, nowhere near where we should have been. I don't know Aberdeen at all, and neither of us wanted to search for the place then have to walk in very late, missing most of the event, so we wandered around the city for a while feeling grumpy. Then came home.
Lesson learnt today - NEVER trust the maps on this site!!

Actually, it wasn't all bad. We met a lovely friend I hadn't seen for ages on the train on the way there, so caught up with her a bit. We also got some chocolate in Thorntons, and a bath bomb each in LUSH. And we discussed many subjects while wandering around (in between moaning and whining). And the train journey was nice. Still a bit fed up though.

Springtime sunshine

We have had a lovely couple of days. Spent all yesterday afternoon out in the garden enjoying the sunshine, playing badminton, football, and bouncing on the trampoline. Then in the evening we went to our final Astronomy class, and found out the Highlands_Astronomical_Society are having a week-long festival, where the local observatory at Culloden is open to the public every evening. Will definately be making a trip up there.

This morning we spent some more time in the garden, although I was feeling a bit stiff after yesterdays exertion! Then the very lovely man turned up to have a look round and try to decide what size of trailer he would need to borrow to move my stuff. He didn't stay long though :0(
My friend and her two girls came to join us for lunch, then we lazed around in the garden all afternoon while the children bounced. Perfect.

Some great home ed moments the other day - A decided she wanted to do a 'presentation', so she did some research, designed a leaflet for her audience (me), and gave a ten minute presentation on 'casual fashions'. I know I'm biased, but she was very good. She enjoyed this so much that she decided to do another, then another, then another, then we had to stop for lunch. So I learnt all about 'standing out' (another fashion one); 'make up'; and 'hair care'. It's moments like this when I can see that home ed is really working for her, she gets so enthusiastic and her intelligence and individuality just shines.

Science, and a nice man

We had a brilliant time at the science_festival at Moray College on Tuesday, with the home ed group. Had four sessions covering aspects of biology, chemistry, physics and natural sciences. It was all quite fast paced - going from one session to the next, but very interesting and enjoyable, and seemed to keep all the children engaged (ages ranged from about 6 to about 14).

Preparations for the move are going well, although I do need to get hold of more boxes. I have had an offer of help with the actual move from a very lovely man, who is going to organise a trailer and do the driving and help with the lifting of large items, ie all the things I was feeling a bit panicky about!

We have our final Astronomy class next week, something we have both loved, and learnt a lot from. I was gutted to hear that the Adult Education budget has been cut and a lot of the staff have been given redundancy notice. Its a real shame, as there were some great classes coming up and the staff were so enthusiastic and helpful :-(

Not much else to write about just now, there's loads going on, but cant get my head together at the moment as its all so hectic. One thing I have decided is that I am going to be more organised once we've moved - generally, but specifically with home ed stuff. I know we're doing lots and A is learning, but I never quite feel that I've got a handle on it all, and I think it would be helpful for both of us to be more organised and do a bit more planning. We'd never be totally structured, we just dont work like that, but I don't feel quite comfortable with it being totally autonomous either. Maybe thats my failing, but I have to go with my instinct and that is telling me we need a little more method in our madness.

Its all happening!!

Am very excited/stressed at the moment, as we have found a lovely house to move to. Excited because its going to be great to move into a cosy, modern, well insulated home which is much more central to the town (actually in a little road just off the high street); stressed because there is so much to get organised. But I am mostly excited :0)

A is really looking forward to the move, she loved the place the moment we walked into it, and I must admit, after looking at a few places this one just had a nice 'feel' to it. Nothing logical, and its not perfect, but an inexplicable 'homely' feeling is the only way I can describe it.

We have been doing some work, a lot of astronomy going on at the moment as we are both enjoying the evening class, but as for blogging - my mind has been taken over by 'the move' just now, and I think I will preoccupied with that for the next few weeks (I'm giving my months notice to my current landlord today). I'll try to blog a few bits here and there, but may be a bit quiet!

More squares

As you can see, I've been busy with more of my squares for the crafty_blog crochet challenge. Trying a few different styles now, but they never come out as neat as the pictures in the book!


A has been back on the BBC_Bitesize site, quite enjoying the maths and science, but got very frustrated and annoyed with the English games. She found it all very rigid/limiting, and I could totally see why, for example - with 'writing a story' she had to fill in the gaps with a choice of several different words/phrases to make up either a scary, romantic or spy story. However, if she didn't put in the 'correct' word or phrase a page came up telling her she had got it wrong. This is what upset A, as she thought her choices were valid, but its difficult to argue your point with a computer!
She then tried the 'Argument' section, and was dismayed to find that you just had to pick out a prewritten point of view and couldn't actually write your own. I tried to explain that its probably difficult to allow any real expression of opinions within these simple computer games, and we came to the conclusion that they are probably not the best way of working on English for A.

It was good to see her working on the 'problem solving' activity for maths, as it was all about shopping: working out what everything costs and giving the correct money. A has always been pretty good at maths in the 'real world', its just the idea of maths as a subject that gets her worried, so I pointed out how quickly she managed to work it out and therefore how good she is at 'maths', which she seemed to acknowledge.

A has also been learning some sign language with Granny, and helped her with this theme at the Quaker's childrens group.

Another idea A has been talking about a lot is designing and making clothes. She has done some of this before, and definately has her own quirky sense of style, so I'm thinking of pushing the practical side of this a bit more - finding some projects she can work on where she has to follow a pattern, borrowing Granny's sewing machine - just to help her develop her skills.

Went to the theatre on Friday night, we took my Mum (as her birthday present) to see the Reduced Shakespeare Company's THE_BIBLE:_THE_COMPLETE_WORD_OF_GOD_(abridged) which had us all crying with laughter. Bit of a scary moment when they started dragging people up on stage for some very humiliating participation (I was sitting on the end of a row very near the front) but they left me alone. I hate that - I think I would just refuse to move out of my seat, although then you risk even more piss-taking.
Unfortunately after a lovely evening out we came home to some sad news - an old friend and neighbour from London, who was a regular visitor up here, had died. He was quite elderly, well into his 80s, and it seems to have been quite a peaceful passing, so I guess it was just his time to go. Still sad though.

I've been giving myself a bit of a hard time recently, and had a mini meltdown on Sunday, when I misread something and got myself in a right old state. Its interesting how quickly I can go back to that 'beating myself up' mindset. I have a long history of depression, although have been pretty stable for the last five years (thanks largely - I believe - to cognitive behaviour therapy), but I spent many years believing that I was the most terrible person in the world. It seems that small things can sometimes feed back into that, and drag me down. The difference now is I manage to bring myself back from it quite quickly, and sometimes can even laugh at the ridiculousness of it. In the past it would have just set me off in a downward spiral that could last weeks or months.
I think I am very lucky to be where I am now, I'm sure I will always have those depressive tendencies but I feel strong enough to manage them now. How ever much of a hard time I give myself, life is good.

A foodie post

Mmmmm...
A vegan version of millionaire's shortbread, heaven. We had a lot of fun making these, I'd never made caramel/toffee before, and was convinced I would ruin my pan, but it was all fine. Will definately be making these again!!



And just to prove we do eat proper food sometimes, and not just cakes all the time - a lovely meal I made of roasted carrots and parsnips, roasted cheesey leeks (I used tofutti 'mozzarella style' soya cheese), and a tahini & tomato sauce. As A kindly pointed out, the sauce does look a bit like sick, but it is delicious.

Lots of other stuff going on. We started our 6 week astronomy class last Thursday, think we are going to really enjoy that. We've been looking at a few things online, including this, which is free to download and great fun. Also got some books out of the big library in Elgin with my home educator's card (I get to keep them for 3 months!). While we were in Elgin for the day on Monday we went to the Moray_College Fine Arts BA 3rd year's exhibition, some interesting stuff there. We also went swimming, which was a big mistake as it was half term so the place was packed. I suppose we're spoilt - when we usually go in term time its often practically empty.

On Saturday we attended a 'laughter clinic' workshop - hmmm... It was ok, the lady running it was lovely, but it didn't seem to flow, or come together (cant think of how else to describe it). I'm glad I went, as I find these sort of group workshops really hard and intimidating, so at least I feel I've achieved something in going at all. I don't think A got a great deal from it, but it was an experience!! Maybe I'm just too much of a miserable git to have got anything from it!?!

Other than that we are REALLY missing my Mum's car, doing a lot more bussing and walking (I walked about 3 miles to get to my pilates class last night). The sooner we find somewhere in the town to move to the better!

ICE

Look at the ice -


isn't it pretty ?

isn't it lovely?

Yes. But not when you are driving your Mum's car and hit a patch of black ice sending the car spinning like a waltzer to bounce off one kerb and end up at an angle of 45 degrees up a bank on the opposite side. That was our unwanted excitement on Sunday afternoon. The car is now a write off, and I am feeling very guilty about the whole thing, even though I wasn't driving fast or recklessly. But, as eveyone keeps saying - neither A or me was hurt, and there were no other cars involved, and that is the important thing. I just feel bad about all the hassle this is causing my Mum :-(

We did manage to get some sledging in with some friends on Friday (see below), and had a lovely night with some other friends on Saturday.

I sat and did my response to the government_consultation on home education yesterday. I had been putting it off because it seems so daunting and there's so much I wanted to say, but I finally got round to setting a couple of hours aside to really focus on it, and felt quite pleased with what I got down. I used Carlotta's draft_response a lot for reference (she is so on the case), but managed to get what I wanted down quite clearly and concisely (I hope).

A received her first copy of National_Geographic_Kids magazine, which my brother and his family subscribed to for her as a birthday present. Very impressive!

She has also been glued to another of her birthday gifts (from some friends) - Benjamin Zephaniah's Wicked_World. A had come across a couple of his poems in another book - an anthology of poems she has - and really liked them. She now reads his book every night and usually falls asleep holding on to it. I'm definately going to have to get some more of his books for her.

We did watch that new programme on Channel 4: Boys_and_Girls_Alone, the sort of programme about which my Mum would say "for goodness sake K, how can you watch this shit?". It is horribly fascinating, although I'm not comfortable at all about the ethics of making a programme like this with children, and cant understand why any parent would allow their child to participate, but it was certainly a good basis for discussions with A.

Before I finish I would just like to urge everyone to look at Debs' new site: Scarves_For_Survivors, a brilliant idea and a very worthy cause.