X and A did their monday morning spellings on the computer then wrote them in their books.

Then they played with one of their favourite resources, silly sentences.

Before Christmas we went to a home ed taster day with a former teacher who wanted to gauge what the community needed group wise. This is where we found this resource. X loved it. He really enjoyed playing around with the words, so mummy bought the same resource from trusty ebay!

It really engages them and gets their brains working on a morning.

We discussed nouns, verbs and adjectives and how they used them within their sentences.

We also discussed the use of capital letters and full stops.

The only negative we can find with this resource is that it doesnt have enough choice, especially with adjectives.

This morning F did some learning of her own, feeling different textures.

In the afternoon it was time for trampolining and climbing.

X has really improved with his confidence and ability on the trampolines over the past year.

A continued to imorove with her climbing confidence and even had a go at one where you have to climb upside down!

On the evening it was time for A’s football class. This week she dribbled the ball backwards which was a big deal for her as she had been so unsure about it previously.

To mark an end to our chinese new year topic we travelled to a local city to watch a Chinese New Year parade.

We had a really good time. X and A were particularly interested in the dragons and what they were made of (as we had made our own out of cardboard boxes).

We have been quite creative with this topic. We made our own lanterns out of paper plates.

Some of our display.

It has been really fun learning about chinese new year and then China.

A said her favourite part was learning about what animals live in China and that her favourite animal was the crane.

This morning we practiced our spellings using letter beads.

This turned out to be more tricky than mummy had anticipated. Not onky does it take ages to find the letter you want you then have to chase the bead around the tub to catch it. Mummy will rethink this one!

We also practiced our alphabet using the beads.

A made some chinese new year shape patterns using magnets.

A dragon.

A lantern.

A pig.

Then we went to another home ed meet up. Only two other kids turned up due to various reasons which turned out to be great. X and A played lovely with the other two (X is usally more withdrawn). There was so much laughing and smiling and being kind to one another. It really was a joy to watch.

Also today – X and A continue to grow in confidence when feeding the guinea pigs.

In the day time we continued with our chinese new year topic by looking at chinese designs then creating our own bowls and candle holders using sharpie and acrylic paint pens.

The finished designs ive been told (by X) needed to be photographed from every side to get the full affect.

A’s bowl design.

X’s bowl design.

A’s candle holder design.

Today X and A also had a go at making their own music using an online editing tool.

X made a song that sounded like it was off a computer game.

X really engaged and enjoyed both of these activities. We had to stop him as we had somewhere else to be.

On the night we went to a harry potter night at a local library. It really was fantastic. The minute we walked in the doors (covered in brick wallpaper with a sign hanging saying platform 9 and 3quarters) it was clear they had put in a lot of effort to make it look theamed. X and A really loved all the theaming (as they do when we go to Disneyland or Sundown adventureland). They appreciated every small detail.

Keys hanging from the ceiling

Aragog

There was lots of activities to take part in and we were given a clear program with pictures on which was a good idea. X had a look at the program and was genuinely excited to look around A just wanted to be off exploring. However the first stand we came too was make your own mandrake, so that was us.

This is one of their favourite bits from the films so they were really happy.

The end results. X carried his around all night and A took hers to bed with her.

X wasnt sure about taking part in the archery but he came around really quickly. He listened to the man really well and took his guidance of how to hold the arrow which resulted in a bullseye.

After the archery we watched a potion show. Both X and A really enjoyed it and shouted out to the man when he asked them too. It was good fun to see but we walked away early as time was running out and we wanted to see other things.

There was animals to pet including a snake called milkshake. Both X and A (and mummy) were very brave and stroked it pretty much straight away. They seem to be gaining in confidence this week.

A even bumped in to her friend O who was also wearing griffindor robes. We joked they looked like Harry and Hermione.

After doing some work on the morning we headed to a home ed meet in a village hall. X and A both did some chinese new year crafts including making paper lanterns and fans.

They also had some celebratory foods to celebrate chinese new year including cake and prawn crackers.

Also today daddy made progress with Heidi and Bobby, he had them eating from him with the cage door open.

X and A both pluked up the courage to do the same and were very proud of themselves.

On the morning we did some maths work before getting ready to go to our chinese new year event.

A librarian at our local library offered to put on a session for our home ed community. Around fifteen other children came along and joined in the session learning about chinese new year celebrations, what its all about and what year it is (year of the pig btw).

Everyone enjoyed themselves. There was lots to do.

There was a table full of props and dressing up clothes.

A and X liked looking at all the props. The lion and the dragon were A’s favourites. X liked the drums.

Mummy put the jade emperor mask on which made X laugh.

F liked the wooden puzzle.

X and A made their own dragons.

A tried her hand at using chopsticks correctly guided by the librarian.

It took her a few goes but she eventually picked it up.

We then looked at what animals are for the years that we were born (we already knew this as we have been doing a chinese new year topic at home, but we did it again).

Mummy and daddy are the year of the ox.

X is the year of the rabbit.

A is the year of the snake

F is the year of the dog.

Over the weekend we added some new additions to our family.

Meet Heidi and Bobby (both male) guinea pigs. They are just 8 weeks old.

When mummy went to collect them Bobby nibbled mummys finger so we were all a bit nervous to handle them. They were easy enough to stroke in the box that we got them in but once they were in their cage (guinea pig mansion) they fled every time we put our hands near (to be expected).

Anyway first thing monday morning we did our weekly spellings and some other work. Mummy and daddy also tried to feed Heidi and Bobby some vegetables through the cage door. Heidi and Bobby were still very nervous and kept running and hiding at any small noise.

Then in the afternoon it was time for our board games club. A and X decided on this unusual game.

After mummy read the instructions we started. The aim of the game is to catch up with the chicken ahead and steal their tail feather. It was a nice game. We all were enjoying it when two friends came over. Mummy swiftly swapped places with one and added another chicken in for the other and they began to play the game again with A and X.

The only problem with this game is it is very long to play when you have four players so eventually they all wanted to play something else.

In the end all four of them ended up creating their own game and used imaginary charcters to go around the board.

On the evening A attended her usual football class. She really enjoyed it as usual.

This past week she has mastered the art of walking backwards with the ball.

Monday – on the morning we cracked on with our maths and english work. Then on the afternoon we went trampolining /climbing. A outdone herself again by climbing 3 of the walls she didnt manage two weeks ago. She then progressed on to one pole! After climbing she then went on the ropes where you swing and fall in to the foam for the first time. X did some great jumping and is becoming much more confident at it.

Then A went to football again, she continues to improve every week.

Tuesday – Work in the morning. Practicing spellings using scrabble tiles was a hit.

Then it was time for lego club again. Mummy was very impressed by everyone’s creativity this week. Everyone seems to be upping their game! X made waddle dee from kirby and A did two of her own designs.

Wednesday – our class at a local college. X went up in front of the class to show what he could see in an optical illusion picture, a huge deal for him. We continued to work on our clay projects. Then X started working on a code for a new game on an app called scratch. He was helped by a friend. He really listened to his friend and learned a few new codes.

Thursday – after completing some research on China we all went to a pantomine. A and F both really enjoyed it. It was too much for X.

Friday – It had snowed so X and A made a snowman/snowdog. They then continued with their research on China focusing on what animals live there. They then crafted their own cuddly characters from felt using fabric pens for the faces. They used templates to cut out the fabric, stitched it and stuffed it. They made chilly from kirby. The photo’s dont do them justice they did an amazing job! Mummy and daddy were especially proud of their hand sewing skills as it was their first time with needles.

We started off the week at a new board games club. It was hard at first as mummy had to read all the instructions before explaining how the game needed to be played to X, A and their friend O. By the end X, A and O had tried their hand at 3 different board games (imported from holland!) which was good.

Tuesday – After continuing with our chinese new year topic we decided to get some fresh air at a local park.

F had her first ever go on a swing and loved it.

Wednesday – we went to the class put on for us at a local college. We made some clay creations. Mummy did a russian dolly set of our family. A did a family of rabbits and snails and X did kirby, toad in a kart and a big penguin. X and A really enjoyed it.

Thursday – after completing our work for the day we went to a friends birthday party. It was bowling and pizza hut. As expected A loved it all. X wasnt so sure.

After finding some bubble mixture in the party bags X and A both had a go at holding bubbles after watching a bubblologist at a show in early January. The listened well to what the lady said to do and put it in to action.

Friday – time for our weekly session at forest school. A enjoyed making a mudslide with her friend then playing in the den. X was interested in how to carve a stick so the teacher helped show him how use a knife correctly. It was hard work, even mummy couldnt do it! X listened very well and said he will have a go again another time.

It was also a little bit icy when we went to wash our hands!

So every second Tuesday we have our lego club. This week X and A really used their imaginations which was great to see! The lego club had some new children attend too. X promptly explained to them how it all worked, such an achievement for him! He sat next to a new boy and worked with him looking for specific bricks etc. It was great to see.

We also continued with our chinese new year topic. X and A created posters about chinese new year and had fun with some starter activities.