Pancakes!!!

I haven't made pancakes for years, I always (unnecessarily) associate them with eggs so just don't bother, but this book inspired me to give them a go. Very, very delicious, especially with the rhubarb puree I made, perfect combination!


This past week has seemed to speed by, quite alarming, I suppose that means I'm getting old.

Rehearsals are well under way for A's drama group production. She's getting a little nervous about it, but has learnt her lines well and is definitely enjoying the group. There's a week long summer school in July with the group, which A is quite keen to attend. I can see a real boost in her confidence since joining the group.

Guides has been another good move - she's been to about five sessions now, and has enjoyed every one. It doesn't seem to be very organised, I never went to Guides but I had this image of girls working towards different badges and completing various challenges. All A seems to have done so far is play sports out in the field. Not that I have a problem with this - if she enjoys it and it works for her then that's great, and they definitely seem to be a friendly group, the 'working as a team' thing is obviously emphasised.

We went off to an interesting exhibition of Renaissance drawings at the Moray Art Centre yesterday, A wrote in the visitors book that she found it 'very inspiring'. Some good classes go on there too, we must keep an eye on their courses listings.
While we were there we bumped into a parent from A's old school, and in conversation it came up that we were home educating. We ended up having a long chat as she has been thinking about home educating her son but is a bit unsure at the moment. It felt really good to be able to offer some insights from our experience of the past two years, and also how we see the future with HE. I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about (rare for me!), which showed me how far we've come. I'm feeling less that I have to justify everything and reassure people that I'm not a feckless neglectful parent, and more comfortable in our choices, because you only have to spend a couple of minutes with A to see that she's flourishing. I gave the woman my phone number and said to phone if she wanted to talk more, which she seemed quite keen to do, so we'll see what they decide.

This may be my last post for a while, as we're off on holiday on Thursday (yipee!!). We're going down to London first, then visiting a few other places to see friends and family, and will be gone for about 3 weeks. Prepare yourselves for lots of photos on our return!!!
I don't feel I'm organised at all, this weekend I'm focusing on work as I have a piece on learning styles that I need to finish before we go, and I just know that the beginning of the week will be a blur of rushing around madly trying to get things in order. I'm making lists, which is a good start, but they inevitably get lost or hidden under piles of magazines/paperwork/books. Oh well, we have our train tickets, and places to stay, so I guess we'll be ok :o)

Edinburgh

Just had a wonderful couple of days down in Edinburgh :o)
Had a FAB conference to go to on Wednesday, so I went down on Tuesday and stayed overnight at a hotel (A stayed up here with Granny).
Spent a couple of hours enjoying the art_gallery on Tuesday afternoon, then had a delicious meal in this restaurant.
The conference itself was really interesting, entitled: Nutrition for Learning, Behaviour and Mood. Some fantastic speakers, lots of evidence and information I can use in my writing, in fact its really inspired me to write more on nutrition. It has also challenged some of my fundemental beliefs about my own diet, and left me in a bit of a quandry about that, but thats for me to try and get my head around :o/

Some pics from my hotel room window:

I'm refusing to blog anything about the election - I cast my vote, we've discussed various issues and followed whats going on, but I find the whole thing too depressing for words.

Thanks to lovely Hannah we made this today:

It caught our eye when we were looking at her blog, and A was very keen to make one ('keen' about maths - whats going on?!?) I think it appeals because of the colours and shape - the 'artyness' of it. It can be used the same way as the multiplication square, but I'm thinking (hoping) that because it appeals in a visual way it might have more impact on taking in the info. Whatever works!

We also rediscovered a story we started writing together well over a year ago (in fact it might be more like two years!). We had done character descriptions, including drawings, as well as planning the skeleton of the story, then put it all in a folder and put it away in a drawer. Once we reminded ourselves of what we'd done previously the story started flowing, and we got a few pages down. Hopefully it wont be another two years before we get it out again!

We Must Go Swimming More Often

A was dropped off at Nonna's for the weekend this morning, where she will get time with her grandparents, and also get the chance to see her little half siblings. She doesn't see them very often (the littl'uns), and always looks forward to it. She really enjoys the big sister role, and is very good at it too - very patient and caring.

So I have the weekend to myself. I suppose I really should work, but I feel that the last couple of weeks have been so hectic workwise that I might just relax and enjoy my own company for a while.

We managed to get to the swimming pool on Friday. I am in a perpetual state of guilt when it comes to swimming. A can sort of swim, but is not confident out of her depth, and I really wish she was. I have tried in the past - sent her to lessons when she was five, but by the third lesson she sat sobbing in the changing room because she hated it so much and I felt like a heartless mummy-monster, so they stopped. A couple of years later I organised one-to-one lessons, but she had a different instructor each week, which was a bit rubbish, and when I watched one of them spend most of A's 'lesson' chatting up young girls it really pissed me off. So that didn't last long either. A has never wanted to attend lessons (I think her first experience put her off), although she does enjoy going to the pool.
So we now visit the pool sporadically, with me repeatedly saying "we must go swimming more often" but failing to actually make it happen. Thing is, I know if we went more often she would improve, I'm sure it wouldn't take much. But the truth is, I just don't like going swimming. The hassle of getting there, the indignity of wearing a swimming costume, the wet hair, the stinking changing rooms, and possibly on some level the memory of being called out of the pool over the PA system to a phonecall telling me my dad had died, then having to drag a protesting 4-year-old A out to get dressed and go up to the hospital and meet my Mum. All of that. Or maybe I'm just lazy. As a 'good' parent I'm sure I should put all that aside and put my child first.
Anyway, we must go swimming more often...

Deadlines

(Work) deadlines are looming. And Granny is away. This means I didn't get my usual day and a half child-free 'work' time this week. I was a little stressed about how this was going to pan out, but I shouldn't have worried - A has been brilliant, and I think quite enjoyed proving to me that she's more than capable of self direction.

Yesterday she got loads done, she decided on a couple of activites she wanted to do, and I asked her if she would also write up the red cabbage experiment we did last week. I gave her some instructions about how to write up a science experiment, but (of course!) what she came up with was far more interesting and creative than the boring old formula I would have used. I just want to share the introduction and conclusion with you, as they really made me smile:

Introduction

Hello, my name is Professor H---. Me and my apprentice KittyRae (me apparently) decided to do this experiment because it sounded like a chance for our big brains to shine and our hands to get dirty and everybody enjoys that. We also wanted to find out what pHs are for certain items around the house (pHs are a way of telling acids and bases apart). We were also able to learn lots more about chemistry and that was great!

Conclusion

Our experiment was successful!

We found out that laundry liquid and indigestion tablets pH are around 9 and orange and lemon juices are 5-6, wow! Our brains are going to explode with all this knowledge!

Today she has spent hours reading (!!!) This is because her library book, which she wasn't even half way through this morning, is due back tomorrow, and I casually said she'd have to renew it as there's no way she'd finish it by then. She finished it this afternoon :o)

We also did a 'photoshoot' for the maths article I'm just finishing off. I don't know if they'll actually use the photos, but we had fun anyway.

Last Friday we had a wicked shopping day in the big city (thats Inverness. I was being sarcastic). Met up with lovely Nonna for lunch, and bought some exciting stuff including curling tongs -

Sewing going on

A is getting to grips with her sewing machine. Although when things go wrong she leaves it to me to swear at it, fiddle about with it, then finally google up a solution.

She's made a few of these little lavender bags, but now has gathered quite a lot of scrap material and has big plans for some clothes. Transforming the designs from paper to reality is going to be quite a steep learning curve I think, but she's up for the challenge.

Red Cabbage Experiment

A drew up a schedule for Friday. I was a little apprehensive as it was a very long list, but it worked brilliantly. She did have to cut things out as the day went on, but that was ok. Our main activity for the day was pH indicator-making with a red cabbage:

The cabbage was first chopped...

then boiled for ten minutes

Meanwhile, several household substances were gathered

Once the cabbage water had been drained and cooled, it was distributed between 10 glass containers (I knew all those jars I was hoarding would come in handy one day!)

Then A added a different substance to each jar - recording how much was added and any differences occuring to the cabbage water.

And here are the results - A has estimated the pH of each substance based on how blue or red the cabbage water turned.

Next came the 'experimental healthy biscuits', this involved chucking a load of vaguely healthy ingredients together, shaping into biscuit shapes and baking.

They weren't at all bad actually.

Other activities included:

• another crime scene investigation project, this time looking at DNA evidence
• writing a short story in 20 minutes
• online maths assessment on multiplication (she got 10 out of 10 - yay!!)
• 'geograball' - a game A made up with her Granny which involves throwing a ball at each other and naming countries/cities beginning with A/B/C etc
• piano practice
• smoothie making session

We ended the day with pizza-making, and both felt very satisfied with our day. Its great to see A so motivated, she seems to be entering a new phase (or something) where she's taking much more responsibility for her own learning.

The art session with the HE group went really well, I think A was quite inspired by the artist taking the session, and had a good look at her website when we got home.

A had her first night at Guides on Thursday. She was extremely nervous about it, worrying that she wouldn't know anyone, but as it turned out she already knew a couple of the girls, and was put into their patrol, so she came home with a big smile, keen to go back next week.

So all good then. I'm off to the pub tonight - haven't done that for ages. I think I'm in a lager mood tonight...

"Science is not really my thing"

So says A.
But we had one of those wonderful, flowing, 'home education at its most effective' afternoons last week.

It started off with a request from A to solve one of the crimes in this book:

which involved looking at corrosive liquids and what they can do to aluminium drinks cans. This led on to her asking what the hell pH levels were all about. I explained the best I could, but she still looked a bit puzzled, so I dug out this book:

which had a perfect little section on pH levels, including an experiment involving a red cabbage where you make your own pH indicator. I have bought a red cabbage and that is on our to do list for this week.

What made me smile most of all was the fact that she kept going back to the chemistry book all that evening. Sat in front of the TV at about 9.30 that night she started asking me about the periodic table. That was the point I thought to myself 'why did I not pay more attention in chemistry class?'. (The answer to that is we had a very creepy chemistry teacher so I gave the subject up at the earliest opportunity, ie age 13, but thats a whole other story). But anyway, we talked and read a bit about the periodic table, and both learnt a bit more.
She still says science is 'not her thing', but at least she's open to being interested in parts of it. I hated science at school because it was 'boring'. It actually was very boring because of the way it was taught, and I shut off from that subject completely.
Fast forward a few years and guess where I was working? In a medical science lab. I loved this environment, it suited me perfectly, but because I'd switched off from science at school I had to enter at the most junior level and never really made a career of it. I know I could have done if I'd put the work in, but it all seemed too hard and other parts of 'grown-up' life got in the way too much. I cant help feeling that if I'd had the right teacher, teaching in a more interesting way I would have realised how much I enjoy science much earlier on and it would have been a viable option for me.

On to something that definitely is A's 'thing' - art. This is her latest drawing:

We are off to an art session with the home ed group tomorrow, really looking forward to that. Haven't been to a group meet for quite a while, a bit nerve-wracking for me with my crap social skills, but A will love it, which is the main point of course.

Busy week all round this one - various appointments, back to drama and piano, and A is finally getting to start Guides. She's a little apprehensive but I'm hoping it will work out well for her.

The stressful situation I'm in just now is ongoing, cant say much more, but I am doing something positive about the way I'm coping with it all.