Christmas craft and beach

Harry finished sewing his Christmas tree decoration this morning. He likes this type of pre-punched sewing kit. 

Peter made a cut-out window decoration and a Lego/jam jar snowstorm. Harry did this a few weeks ago and Peter wanted to make a matching one. The glue-gun glue in Harry's had unstuck too so we used superglue this time on the jar lids. 

We met friends at the beach today too, which was quite mild for December and the boys had a great dig, followed by lunch at the cafe on the beach. We went back to our friend's house and all the children played minecraft together. Harry really likes joining the same world as his friends and helping each other. 

Gibside and Beaver camp

It's been a very busy few days since Harry and Peter's cousins left. We spent the weekend playing lots of board games, harvesting and clearing old plants at the allotment and going to the cinema to see Planes 2, which we all really enjoyed. Peter especially loves board games at the moment! 

Stuart took the boys to Gibside for the day on Monday, while I had a lovely and relaxing day at a spa with my mum, her friend and my sister. It was very much needed by us all and I think we decided to make it an annual trip!

Harry was very excited about going to his Beavers sleepover yesterday morning!

We walked to Whitburn beach, explored some rock pools and had ice cream before walking back to do some archery. Unfortunately, Harry was sick shortly after this (he did look a bit pale and unwell!) so I brought him home for the night instead of sleeping over there in the bunk rooms. He fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up until this morning, when he felt fine. We had a relaxing morning then went back to join in the Beaver afternoon activities. Harry has baked cakes, tied knots, played rounders and learned about putting up a tent. Peter came too as Stuart had to work and he did really well joining in and listening. We told him he is a Beaver In Training! Harry loved it, despite the unexpected trip home and he has earned fitness and camp craft badges.

Spelling app and visit to Harrogate

We visited my family in Harrogate today. We spent the morning at the Valley Gardens with my mum and sister, which was great fun and then went for lunch at my mum's. It was a quick visit as she had to go to work this afternoon but it is only 1.5 hours drive so we were home for normal tea and bedtime.

Peter was very brave and went on the big climbing castle for the first time.

Following a friend's recommendation, I bought the Squeebles spelling app for the iPad recently and Harry did his first list at home. I really like this app. The parent can set up custom lists of any words, with audio recording as well. The child sees and hears the word then spells it using the keyboard. They earn squeebles, which are small creatures, by getting correct answers. I think we will continue to do written spellings but will also be using this for as long as Harry enjoys it. I have set up the next list too, including the ones he got wrong this time.

A great weekend

We made our first family visit to the cinema yesterday to see The Lego Movie. We all loved it and Peter sat through it no problem so we are looking forward to going again. The word 'awesome' has been used a lot today, which is the phrase of the main character, Emmet! I really liked the message of the film too, which suits our boys - use your imagination, don't be afraid to deviate from the instructions and everyone can be special.

Stuart took the boys on an outdoor National Trust adventure today to Wallington. I stayed home as I have had a cold all week and had a late Saturday night babysitting for a friend. I got lots of niggling jobs done at home and they all had great, muddy fun playing in the three adventure play areas and in the woods, which were awash with snowdrops. They also bumped into some friends with their children and they played together. 

Harry read his second stage 9 Oxford Reading Tree book this weekend too. He did really well and read some difficult words without pause and worked others out. This one was called Rescue. Stuart started reading George's Marvellous Medicine to him tonight, which will be the third time we have read it. I am really pleased he is enjoying Roald Dahl books, as I love them and don't mind how often I read them aloud! 

Timeline volcanoes, podcasts and park

We were busy this morning preparing our contributions for our group session tomorrow. We discussed the group story again and added some descriptive parts to the ideas Harry already told me last week. I will write this up tonight ready to share tomorrow then another family will take it home to continue. We will also each be taking some historical events to add to a group timeline. Harry wanted to look at volcanic eruptions so we chose a very famous ancient one - the eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii and the largest modern one - the eruption of Tambora in Indonesia. 

The boys made volcano pictures from felt then we added the details. We found the information online and in a good book we have at home which has lots of world facts. We also ended up reading about other World Heritage Sites as Harry was interested to know some more. While they made the volcanoes we listened to the first Wind in the Willows podcast episode from BBC learning - it was a nice version read by Bernard Cribbins and Harry loved it so we will definitely be listening to the rest. There are also some teacher notes available on the website, so I am going to have a look to see if there is anything we might use.

Peter wanted to play a podcast too so we listened to Let's Move, a BBC schools episode about Jack Frost. There was lots of imaginative dancing through snowy trees, sliding on ice and making ice patterns with our bodies and we all did this together. I am really enjoying the BBC podcasts and they are a great way to involve Peter and Harry in something together and get them moving, listening and thinking.

The build-a-bears made yesterday have been very popular friends today, especially with Harry. We walked to our local playground and they came along too and the boys had great fun pushing them in the swings and playing hide and seek with them.

Harry has painted the box his came in too. Peter did start but didn't last long! 

Harry has also completed a Reading Eggs lesson today and read to me from books. He had his second week of Beavers tonight and has come home very happy again. They planted cress seeds to bring home and take back in two weeks to compare to everyone else's. This is the first activity towards a science badge and Harry will be delighted when he earns his first badge! 

Making our Christmas cards, reading, maths and park

I love productive Mondays and we had one today. It always makes me feel ready for the week ahead. We were up and out very early this morning to take Stuart to the airport for a work flight to London, so we also started work early and had done maths and reading by 9am.

Harry completed two Conquer Maths lessons. One on ordinal numbers, which I thought tied in well with the current opening of advent calendars and talking about dates and one on estimating. We will do some follow up on estimating using dry beans and I will get related workbook pages ready too.

Harry also finished his reading book, Gran's New Blue Shoes. We then played with the sound cards I made, showing some of the current phonic sounds in his reading. I set them out and said a word including one of the sounds. Harry then removed the correct card. I like this as he thinks it's fun but he has to work quite hard to isolate all the sounds of the spoken word to decide which sound it includes.

I also set out some of the cards together and asked Harry to throw a beanbag at particular sounds.

We then moved onto painting some Christmas cards, using Christmas themed sponges I bought recently and shiny paint and pens. Harry and Peter also did some of their own painting designs. I love Harry's tree and shop window (with helpful octopus holding up the boxes of baubles, of course!).

Harry and Peter are both really good at cleaning their pots and brushes after painting (except for the squabbling over who will go in the kitchen sink first!) so they did this and Peter loved squeezing the paint and water out of the sponges.

The boys watched some TV together while I cleaned up the table then Peter had a short nap after lunch as it had been a long morning, so Harry played some CBeebies games on the computer and practised his cello. We went out to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon, where the trees and the sky were looking decidedly wintry! Even I had to join in with a bit of running around just to keep warm! We do still try to get out every day for some fresh air and exercise when it is cold, even if it's just a walk or scooter ride around the local streets.

New science books, space, paper mâché and maths

We have had a good morning today inspired by some new books. I bought a set of Wonderwise books from The Book People last week as we have borrowed two of them (Stone Age, Bone Age and Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing there is?) from the library and enjoyed them. We read these ones yesterday and today as they relate to things we have done recently - the water cycle, looking at other countries through our Box of The World and watching Richard Hammond's How To Build a Planet. 

Harry has always been interested in space so we followed this up more. We covered two balloons in paper mâché (they are still drying!) to decorate as models of the Sun and Earth. We will then be able to use them to show how Earth turns in relation to the Sun resulting in day and night. We also talked about people and animals who are awake in the night - Harry knew nocturnal animals like bats, foxes and owls and thought of emergency workers and delivery drivers.

I got out these Usborne Beginners books from our 'books that do not fit the shelves collection' and Harry read parts of them with me for his reading practise. He is doing really well at attempting new words straight away instead of huffing when he sees a new or difficult word and he read 'invisible', 'fuel', 'launch' and 'parachute' without pausing.

We also watched some of the YouTube videos by Chris Hadfield, the last commander of the International Space Station, who has recently returned to Earth. These showed how to sleep, clean your teeth and recycle water in space.

Harry finished the maths workbook we have been working towards too, by completing the test pages to revise the topics covered. Peter and I played Spotty Dogs while Harry did this and Harry and I also played Maths Dice. This game involves making the number on the white die by adding/subtracting together the numbers rolled on 5 other dice.

The boys rode their bikes to our local playground after lunch. Harry played with a small uprooted tree and Peter delighted in the fact that he can now cross the chain bridges on the climbing frame without any help! It was nice and bright but pretty chilly and we came home for hot chocolate after an hour in the playground.

Autumnal outdoors, adding game and catapults

Another busy week so far! We went to the Rising Sun country park again on Monday to meet friends but didn't stay all day this time. We walked to the woods and had a good game of hide-and-seek, read We're Going On A Bear Hunt and found some great fallen tree fronds which Harry and Peter used as 'dusters'. We went to Hobbycraft afterwards for a few Halloween craft pieces. They had lots of Christmas craft too and we did buy a few things to use nearer the time. Bring on the green and red sparkles! 

Harry wrote a thank you letter to my mum for some Lego she brought him from her holiday.

We built catapults with friends. These are Harry's 2 designs. We have an interesting book on forces from the library we read too - there was a good section on levers.

We had another very blustery Autumn play today, after visiting a bread bakery with a friend. We do try to get out daily in the fresh air in all weathers, as the boys really need it! 

Harry started his new problem solving book with an adding/subtracting page. 

We followed this up with an adding game from the Games for Learning book. We each had a rainbow with sections numbered 2-12 and 2 dice. We rolled our dice and added the numbers together, then coloured the section with the right answer. The winner was the first to complete their rainbow. We both enjoyed this and it was good for getting Harry to add mentally.

Reading for Harry this week has been fire based. My mum also brought some books back from America so we have been reading this one together. I also made Harry a word wall using words from the book stuck to the wall on post-it notes. He loves doing this due to the very physical nature of being able to jump up and grab the notes off the wall when he has read them!