Reading at the table...

...is very rude.

We don't give a monkey's.

No swimming today!

Actually, this was a few days ago, its quite nice today, but the weather has been so changeable we haven't managed to get in the sea again :0(

This is one (of many) creations that happened recently, we have been having a lot of arty time. The other day we got Noughts_and_Crosses by Malorie Blackman on audio book from the library. We sat for about four and a half hours listening and crafting -mostly making cards - its a great story. I think its probably aimed at children slightly older than A, and I wasn't sure if she'd enjoy it because at its heart its a love story between a young girl and boy (A is not interested in all that 'soppy love stuff', yet) but she was engrossed.

A has been doing a bit more reading. She decided to do the summer reading challenge at the library, and is on her second book. She seems to be enjoying it, she likes the fact that she can choose whatever book she wants, and tends to go for more comedy orientated ones.

Some of this has been going on - A informed me this was inspired by a scene from St._Trinians, where the girls have to get through a corridor laced with infrared light beams, avoiding tripping the alarms. She spent ages setting these up (with red wool) and working out different ways through. It was great, but a bit of a pain in the arse when I wanted to get through to the kitchen to make a cup of tea! I was very bad at it, and would have set the alarms off immediately, I don't think she'll let me be part of her criminal gang.

A has also become very preoccupied with dusting for fingerprints and looking for evidence. One of her favourite games at the moment is setting up crime scenes for each other - so I'll leave several clues as to who the 'perp' is, and she'll come along with her kit (weirdly this is kept in a jewellery box) which mostly consists of black eyeshadow and a big brush, sellotape, paper, pens, and little clear evidence bags. Far too much CSI is watched in this house.

Music is another theme at the moment, lots of it, and very loud. We just got La_Roux 's album, which has had us both jumping about a lot, very happy, dancy stuff. I'm so glad that there are certain areas where our tastes meet, we both love music so much it would be unbearable if there was nothing we both liked. However, A will not tolerate Nick Cave in any way, shape or form, and only lets me put the Clash on if I've been really good. And sometimes she does really evil things, like sneaking Beyonce or even worse - Katie Melua - into the car when I'm not looking, she then waits til I'm driving on a main road and changes the CD to hers and I'm trapped, the minx.

Sunshine and Science

We enjoyed the beautiful weather last weekend. Went out jogging on Friday morning (before it got too hot), then spent the rest of the morning out in our yard reading to each other. I finished Spilling_the_Beans_on_Charles_Darwin which we both loved (on to STB on Tutankhamen now). A read a chapter of Pippi_Longstocking - a brilliantly funny and anarchic tale about a nine-year-old girl who lives on her own and does things her own way, ignoring adult advice/intervention. This is one of my all-time favourite children's books.

Reading in the sun

We had friends over for a barbecue Saturday night, and we all happily stuffed our faces with Linda McCartney sausages.

A went out with my camera yesterday and took some 'abstract photos' (her words) around the town and neighbouring gardens. Here are a few:

Yesterday was also 'science day' through at Inverness_College, organised by one of our HE group parents and hosted by the STEM club. A had a great time, she worked mostly in a group with two other girls, but there was a really nice friendly feel to the whole group - including the parents, and I had quite a laugh too (much needed at the moment!). Briefly, the experiments were:

Enzymes - looking at how enzymes in pineapple and kiwi fruit affect the protein in gelatin, by leaving the fruit in some jelly for three hours and checking for changes.

Fruit battery - wired up a lemon/orange/grapefuit to a LED using a copper coin and a galvanised nail, then added more fruit to the circuit, testing how many were needed to light the LED.

Fat Content and Diffusion - looking at how fat affects diffusion by adding one drop of food colouring into pots of different types of milk (skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole) and comparing them.

Protective Packaging - each group had to design a container for an egg that would prevent it from breaking when dropped from head height, using newspaper/bubble-wrap/straws/tape. The designs were very varied, but they all worked.

Soda Snakes - using sand, bicarbonate of soda, icing sugar, alcohol, and a match, some very impressive 'snakes' emerged for some groups! Really should have taken my camera - for this alone - but, of course, I didn't :0(

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.

Science, hair dye and Chocolat

Had a great workshop on Wednesday with the home ed group - The_Renewable_Energy_Roadshow did two sessions with the kids. The first had them all in lab coats doing experiments with dry ice, then after lunch they looked at sources of renewable energy, and in small groups had to decide on what kinds of renewable energy they would use in a fictional town/village. Each group had a map and info about their designated town, and discussed what they would do, then presented their decisions to the other groups.
A really enjoyed the whole thing, I think it was great for her to work in a group on this sort of subject. I also got the chance to chat with some other home ed parents, and met one or two I hadn't seen before. Thats one of the good things about our network - its so huge you always seem to meet different people at different events.

A investigating solar power

The only slight concern I have at the moment is the lack of a regular social group/meet for A. I'm really happy with our home ed group, but the way it works is various people come up with different ideas and if there's enough interest someone organises it, and it all seems to come together (well, thats my experience so far). And it does work well for us, as we go to the things we're interested in, and there's no pressure to turn up to things we're not so into. The downside is that A isn't developing any close friendships within the group as the meetings are so sporadic. She gets on well with several of the girls, but we don't see them that often. This isn't a huge problem - she still has friends from her old school, and she doesn't seem lonely, but thinking about the future I wonder if it might be a good idea for her to find a way of building up some friendships locally. She is a very social person, and I hate the idea of her becoming isolated, especially as she gets older and becomes more independent (and basically wants to get away from her mother!!). So at the moment I am toying with the idea of persuading A to join the Girl_Guides. This is a very strange concept for me, as I have huge issues with the history of Scouts/Guides, the religious aspect, and the whole promising to serve Queen and country thing. Not my bag really. But I can also see how it might be a really positive opportunity for A socially. I've just got to persuade her of that now.

We had a lovely, meandering type of day today. Got up late after some dramatics last night (A's continuing problems with getting to sleep, and my annoyance at her many trips out of bed while I was trying to watch a film. It really doesn't help matters when I get annoyed, you'd think I would have learned that by now). We then put some blue/black dye in A's hair (see blurry pic below).

We spent a lot of time reading Chocolat by Joanne Harris, I've been reading this (on and off) to A for a couple of months now, and she is really enjoying it. Of course, we had to eat some chocolate too, its impossible to read the book without suffering terrible cravings for it!
A has also been preparing the flat for her mini party tomorrow. Should be fun!?

Happy Wednesday!!

It has been a very happy Wednesday here, after the grimness of Tuesday when everything was grey and the rain didn't stop, today the sun came out and it almost felt warm! I'm just realising how much my mood is dependent on the weather - when its dark and damp I just want to curl up like a cat somewhere warm, its not that I feel particularly low or sad, just more tired really. But when the sun is shining I feel great - full of energy.

We seemed to get loads done today, had a walk on the beach (with camera of course), then a drink at the cafe, where the lady serving (who happens to be one of the nice Tai Chi ladies) gave A some mental arithmetic practice working out prices and change. Came home and did some work on spelling, then A read to me. Then we played a new card game for a while - Chinese Ten - which I got out of this library book. By this time we felt we'd done enough 'work' work, so I got a bit creative in the kitchen: cooked some pies (leek and mushroom for me, leek and broccoli for A) and Italian style cauliflower, then apple and pear pie (with fruit from my mum's trees which we nicked earlier today) with alpro custard (delicious!) for pudding. After overdosing on pastry we waddled off to my Tai Chi class where A spent the time drawing, and devising a new game to play with her friends on Friday. Unfortunately the washing up is still waiting for me in the kitchen.

This is one of the things I love about my life here:
sand shadow picture:
beach treasure:
tree corpses - I find these very beautiful for some reason:
A running away!

Painting planets

We have been very much in the holiday mode the last few days. I got up at about 11 this morning and pottered about for a couple of hours, then the Steiner guilt mechanism kicked in when I realised A had been lying in front of the TV for at least 4 hours. At that point I 'suggested' she turn it off and find something else to do. What she found was
Science Museum - Solar System Mobile Making Kit . Quite a lot of close painting involved, so we worked on it together. After a couple of false starts with me making obviously stupid mistakes about how we should go about the project (these are the moments where I ask myself if I really should be in charge of my child's education!?) we settled down to it and had a lovely afternoon.

We also made up a little story to help us remember the names of the planets in order (from closest to the sun) which was fun. I know very little about the solar system - was never particularly interested as a child and don't remember studying it at any point at school (although maybe I just wasn't paying attention!), so I'm really enjoying the process of learning new things too.

A has been indicating a growing interest in science for a little while now, one of her concerns about home ed was 'will we be able to do science?'. I was really pleased as I'm quite scientifically minded, so have been gathering a few resources in the way of books and web sites. The mobile kit was a Christmas present from my Mum (good old Granny!). A was so impressed with what we did and talked about today she now wants to get a telescope - not sure if my finances would stretch to that, in fact they absolutely wouldn't - but its great to see A so enthusiastic.



I can already see a difference in A's approach to learning, I think being able to take the initiative herself and have a greater control over her education is going to be so positive. I have been struggling to encourage her to read more for a couple of years, she doesn't have any problems with reading, but shows very little interest and doesn't seem to 'get into' any books. I've found this really difficult to understand as I have always loved books, and at her age I always had a book on the go, but I've had to tread very carefully as pushing (ok, nagging) her too much just made her dig her heels in even more. I had stepped back a bit from this concern the last couple of months, figuring she would be doing enough reading at school, but was pondering about how to approach it once she left school. Well, the other morning she produced a mini 'book review' she had sat in bed and written the night before - I had never even mentioned doing anything like that (although had been thinking along those lines). Amazing child!



I'm kind of enjoying the lull and laziness this weekend, as I know next week things will start to get busy again with activities, socialising and more visitors. All good stuff, but we need our occasional duvet days (or duvet weekends!) too. We did attempt to walk down to the park today but by the time we got to the end of the (very long) driveway it started to rain, so we turned back, came home and ate cake. At least we tried though!