Baking, reading and listening

I am pleased that this week has started positively after we had a bit of a dreary last week. 

We spent yesterday morning baking some treats for the week ahead - chocolate brownies and Swiss roll. We haven't done baking for a while and will have to fit it in more often as we all enjoy it.

We went out yesterday afternoon for Peter's enjoy a ball class and Harry's beavers group, where they were looking at unusual fruits and vegetables for their healthy eating badge. 

Harry has been working on another Batman picture. He copied the shape from his art class picture and coloured it differently. 

We have really enjoyed reading this book from the library. I am a big Shakespeare fan so I was secretly very pleased when Harry chose this. We have read The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream so far.

Harry has also continued reading his Sea Quest books. There are some top trumps type cards in the back of each book and he cut these out for us to play with too. I asked him what writing he wanted to do this week and he chose to write about series 1 (4 books but with the same story weaving through them). He started this today and will continue to work on it. 

The new season of BBC School Radio podcasts started this week. I really like these and they encourage listening and participation. We listened today to Something to Think About, which asked about what we have enjoyed doing recently and what we are looking forward to. We are going on holiday soon so we talked about that.

Harry and Peter have been making trumpets and spy glasses from marble run pieces too and Harry had his swimming lesson this afternoon. 

Fun run with cousins

Harry and Peter did a fun run this morning with their bigger cousins in Lancaster. Stuart's sister was running her first half-marathon and the fun run was part of that event. They love spending time with their cousins and seeing the rest of their family too. 

This was also a milestone weekend as Stuart took the boys to Lancaster on his own for the weekend for the first time! I stayed at home and got on with sanding all the wood in our hall ready for decorating; not very rock and roll but needs must! It was very quiet in the house but also nice to be working on my own schedule for a change. Of course I love having the boys at home full-time or I wouldn't home educate but it's also very intense so I really appreciate alone time when I get it. 

Michael Rosen Good Ideas

I had a great night last night with several other home ed mums at Seven Stories. We went to hear Michael Rosen talk about his new book, which is all about practical ways of learning. This is a subject close to the hearts of all those who went and we made the most of the night by going for a couple of drinks afterwards.

I am really looking forward to reading the book. Harry is a very practical learner and it will be good to have a different and third party perspective. Hopefully I might get a few new ideas too! 

Michael Rosen also mentioned a couple of new books he is working on, which sound interesting. One is an English version of favourite German folk tales and another was a book on humanism aimed at children, so I shall be looking out for those! 

Our week

It's been an unmotivated, slightly down week for no particular reason. Peter has been up in the night a few times, which I find really difficult now (much more so than when he woke at night every night!) and Stuart was away for a few nights so maybe I have just been tired. We rarely have a whole week of feeling like this so I am sure normal service will resume next week! 

Things have been ticking over as usual and we've been doing Conquer Maths, French, cello practise and Reading Eggs along with our usual classes - ball sport, art and swimming. We also met friends in the park on Wednesday.

Harry has been making lots of loom band bracelets and has followed YouTube instructions for making loom band charms too.

Peter made shape pictures and we read a shape book from the library.

Our holiday reading arrived. I have been really looking forward to this book - it's the third in a trilogy. 

We went to a cheque presentation ceremony at Metro Radio for Harry's scout group. Along with other community groups, they received a grant towards a new minibus. Harry and Peter were the only children as it was during the day, so I was pleased that they behaved very well and sat nicely, clapping the other groups as they received their cheques. The large supply of biscuits and cakes definitely helped Peter to sit in one place! 

Whilst in town Harry and Peter spent some vouchers on books. Harry has really got into the Sea Quest series and is reading constantly. He chose more of them! 

Rocks and volcanoes

We've been following up some of the rocks and volcanoes activities we did last week today. It was raining heavily this morning so I was pleased that we didn't have any plans to go out!

We read some books first. One of Peter's Octonauts magazines had the Mariana Trench Adventure story in, which has lots of good detail about hydrothermal vents, magma and creatures. We also read What's Under The Bed?, one of the Wonderwise series of science themed books.

We enjoyed discovering The Magic School Bus TV series on Netflix after this. We watched two episodes about volcanoes and rock erosion. Harry and Peter enjoyed them and they had a lot of detail in. There are lots of other episodes on different topics so we will be watching this again.

Harry and Peter painted a volcano with underground magma chamber after this.

We read this section of our rock book - The Rock Factory - about minerals forming crystals and Harry also painted some jewellery made from precious crystals.

This afternoon we went out to Peter's enjoy a ball class, played cello, read books and Harry started a healthy eating badge at Beavers. He came home with some fruit kebabs which he enjoyed eating for his bedtime snack!

Allotment show prizes

We went to the Newcastle Allotment Show yesterday and Harry and Peter were very happy to win prizes for their entries in the children's classes.

Harry won second prize in the drawing competition for his picture of carrot harvest.

He also won first prize for a funny face made from vegetables and Peter won second prize in that class. There were several more very good entries including a crocodile made from kale and a potato hedgehog, but they had not been judged as they were not faces.

We enjoyed having a look at the amazing fruit and vegetables in the main classes too and chatting to a couple of people we know from our allotment site.

Rocks activities and parks

We've had a busy week! I have been trying to stay out of the house as much as possible as the builders have been finishing our new bathroom. We have done lots of cello practise and some Conquer Maths multiplication lessons at home, as well as reading at bedtime. 

The bathroom does look lovely and has been completed in just over a week so the disruption hasn't been for too long. There are just a few finishing touches left. Here are the before and after photos!

We went to a friend's house on Tuesday to do some activities about rocks and volcanoes. We built a 'volcano' from play dough. We started with a small mound at the bottom then added vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to simulate an eruption of lava. We watched where the 'lava' flowed over the mound and added play dough to those areas to build up the mountain. 

We did this several times to end up with a taller mountain. We cut a slice of this to show the layers within rocks and mountains as they form over time.

The children all built their own small volcano from the play dough and left a crater in the top. We added vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to make them 'erupt'.

We also read this book explaining how rocks form and about the different types of rock.

We then made sedimentary rock cakes using different coloured crushed biscuits mixed with melted butter. The layers are pushed together with the back of a spoon to simulate the pressure needed to form sedimentary rocks. The children also added some marshmallows in their layers for fossils! 

We went on the bus to a local park with a few other families yesterday and stayed for nearly five hours! The children all played together in a big group really well. Harry and Peter were exhausted! 

We had art class this morning. Harry finished his Batman picture and started a fire engine. He was really proud of his finished picture.

Peter and I did some colouring together and played Spotty Dogs outside art class.

We also went to the park after art for a few hours with our friends before Harry's enjoy a ball class this afternoon.