Review opportunity!

Regular readers will have noticed that I have been writing reviews for the Schoolhouse Crew over the last year. The Schoolhouse is about to recruit the Review Crew for 2014 so if you home educate and have a blog, you may want to pop over to the Schoolhouse blog to find out more.

If you are interested, don't forget to keep an eye on the Schoolhouse blog over the next few weeks.

Reviewing has been interesting but more important, has been a helpful add on to my children's education and also meant that we have had educational resources that we wouldn't otherwise have known about. In addition,  review products can reduce the expenditure needed on educational products.

These are the items that I have reviewed over the year and there are more coming up! Other reviewers have reviewed different products and those in the US will have a different range available.

The homegrown preschooler: teaching your kids in the places where they live

Homeschool Spanish Academy
Beauty in the heart
Lone Star Learning (Target the question)
Homeschool Programming
Flowering Baby
Schoolhouse Teachers.com
Mayan Mystery
A journey through learning
Homeschool in the Woods-Great Empires

Sacagawea (Brave explorers every child should know)
Touch Math

Circle Time: Plan the best part of your school day
Simplified Dinners
Reading Kingdom
Understanding child brain development
Student strength's report

Fun Trips in London

Today, I'm writing about Fun Trips.

Since I live in London, that is what I'm talking about. I've put in plenty of links for anyone who would like a virtual trip!

It is really hard to know where to begin as there is so much to see and do.
Just a couple of general points:

• driving in central London is busy, parking is expensive and during the day, in the week involves paying congestion charge. It is better to use the buses and tube.
• many museums are free. I've marked free venues with a F. Exhibitions in these venues are not necessarily free.

London has a long and rich history.

The Museum of London (F) is devoted to this. It is child friendly and the old London walls are just outside.

The Tower of London is an iconic part of London's history. Many famous people, including Elizabeth I and Lady Jane Grey were imprisoned here. Lady Jane and a couple of Henry VIII's wives lost their heads here.

Greenwich Palace is just a ruin now but if you are visiting Greenwich, it is worth popping in to the Old Naval College which has artefacts from the excavation of the old Palace.

Hampton Court Palace is a fabulous Tudor Palace with regular events including actors as period characters. If you are interested in the Tudors, then this can be a whole day visit. It is possible to visit via a longish trip on the River Thames.

Westminster Abbey is really more of a national monument than a place of worship. It is disappointing as the latter but fascinating as a burial place of many famous people.

St Paul's Cathedral was rebuilt after the Fire of London by Sir Christopher Wren. It has a famous whispering gallery.

Museums
Science Museum (F) is a favourite with children. It has two interactive areas: The Garden for small children (up to about 6) and Launchpad for older children. The Launchpad has frequent demonstrations. Word of advice, from experience, avoid school holidays!

The British Museum (F) has become child friendly over the last few years. Now, it has free activity packs for children. Definitely worth a visit and, due to the artifacts stolen from various parts of the world, fits in well with the study of the history of many cultures.

Maritime Museum (F) in Greenwich is a fascinating, interactive display of all things maritime. Again, there is an interactive area on the top floor. 

This Museum fits in well with a trip to the tea clipper, the Cutty Sark or to the Royal Observatory.

The National Gallery (F) in Trafalgar Square is an art gallery not to miss. Next door, is the National Portrait Gallery (F).  The portraits of the Tudor monarchs are especially successful with children.

There is so much more to see. Don't forget to walk along the Thames,

see the changing of the guard,

and check the flag flying on Buckingham Palace to see if the Queen is at home.

Please do add your favourite London sites in the comments.

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What did we do all day?

In our homeschool this week:
We read Another celebrated dancing bear and learnt about Russia. We found some Russian items around the house

and looked at Elder Daughter's Russian/English Bible. 

The Azerbaijanian lamb and lentil stew disappeared before it could be photographed but I haven't got round to making the borscht as yet. OK, I know Azerbaijan isn't Russia but it is close.

Younger Daughter has been learning about mapping although Russia seemed particularly difficult, in this respect. Youngest Son turns all maps into treasure maps and was happy to cover his with a large number of "X"!

Youngest Son is enjoying numbers, at present, and wanted to play Pop to the shops on a couple of occasions. He hasn't really got to grip with different coins, yet, but this has been great for Younger Daughter who managed to play and be banker. All three children have been working on IXL maths, this week, but of course, at different levels. Expect a review in the next few weeks.

Places we are going
We can't keep away from conker (horse chestnut) trees, at this time of year.

 I was grateful that the children only found a couple of conkers today-we have quite enough! Certainly enough to be useful for counting practice. 

Younger Daughter arranged the bowls of conkers herself. I was really pleased with the way she worked at this.

Things I'm planning
One week to go to our half term break and I'm looking at what is and isn't working for us. With the younger two, we are spending most of our time on literacy and numeracy although we manage to fit in history, science and art. Whilst this is probably the right balance, at present, there are other areas that need attention. Youngest Son did a small piece of free sewing on hessian, at a home education group recently. This is something that it would be profitable to repeat and helpful for my little left hander's fine motor control. I've also realised that whilst Younger Daughter has spent a fair amount of time drawing and painting, we have neglected any work with fabric, with her, recently. 

Middle Son has some ideas for altering the way in which he does his work and I need to look at how these would look in practice.

Links to share
Marianne Sunderland has a helpful post about teaching phonemic awareness to her children with dyslexia but it has useful ideas for anyone whose child is in the early stages of learning to read.

Reading
Reading aloud is an enormous part of the day. This week, I've been reading some of the book of Job to the children along with a biography of Patrick of Ireland by Michael McHugh. Younger Daughter, now often joined by Youngest Son, are enjoying On the banks of Plum Creek and later in the day, an Enid Blyton, Six Cousins again. Of course, there are the many picture books but generally, there are just to many of these to record.

My current reading is The Pilgrim Church by EH Broadbent which I'm enjoying but rather slowly due to the large number of names unfamilar to me. Leon Wood's Survey of Israel's history is my Sunday evening read. A review copy of At home in Dogwood Mudhole arrived this week and I've been tucking in.

What are you reading? I'm always looking out for new ideas.

Poetry and young children

Young children appreciate rhyme and simple poems. I've written about ways we enjoy poetry.

This autumn, I wanted to start the younger two, aged 4 and almost 7, learning a poem. My aim is that they learn a short poem each half term which gives about 6-8 weeks per poem. Whether we manage this remains to be seen!

The criteria for the poems are that they must be short, with a clear rhyme and relevant to the children. We aren't aiming for the whole of Gray's Elegy! The first poem that I chose was Eleanor Farjeon's  poem, Cat's sleep anywhere.

This is short, easy to memorise and relevant to my children.

Both children have enjoyed this and Younger Daughter will quote this around the house when she finds the cats sleeping, anywhere but their basket.

In November, after half term, we hope to revisit Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. This is already familiar to the children from when we studied this as a Five in a Row book almost two years ago. I don't think that they can recite the poem now but the familiarity should make it easier to learn.

Do you have favourite poems to learn with younger children?

Ten thoughts on tiredness

Probably all mothers get tired. Add home education and at least some tiredness, some of the time is a dead cert. In addition, many people have other additive reasons for being tired:

• pregnancy
• babies and young children
• poor health
• children with poor health
• caring for older or unwell relatives or friends
• being a single parent
• having to work a paid job or run a business 
• others that have escaped my tired brain.

These are a few thoughts about how to manage; perhaps, partly to remind myself.

• The Lord Jesus was tired. He fell asleep in the boat and wasn't woken by a storm. It isn't wrong to be weary when performing our God given tasks.

• Other people are busy too. When we are really tired it can be easy to think "I'm the only one." It just isn't true. It can be strangely comforting to think about and pray for other people who are busy. I've found it helpful to remember how hard our grandmothers had to work and how few of our modern conveniences they had.

• It is possible to manage after a night of very little sleep. I learnt this lesson as a junior doctor, in the days before hours were regulated. There isn't much that is positive about a shift that starts at 9am on Friday and finishes after 5pm on Monday. I don't think that I ever had no sleep in that time but often had very, very little, and that with the every present bleep  but I did learn that it is possible to carry on. Of course it is easier to make mistakes so be very, very careful about safety and especially, avoid driving when tired. 

• Occasionally, it is worth deciding to miss some sleep for a greater good. Going to a Bible Study or being hospitable may mean a couple of hours less sleep. It may be easier to make the choice of sleep with a messy house or cleaning and less sleep before the event than making the decision on coming home or when the guests have left.

• Everyone responds to being tired in different ways. I find as tiredness progresses to overtiredness that I start to think that

Nobody loves me

Everybody hates me

I might as well eat worms.

 or something similar. When this thinking pattern starts, I need to stop. We do our children a service if we help them to recognise the signs of being overtired.

• Routine helps. On days after being up with a crying baby or taking someone sick to the hospital, having a routine really helps. These aren't the days for exciting activities but it is easier to keep to the usual pattern of meals and home education, if at all possible. 

• Meals- no one is going to come to any harm from the occasional easy meal or takeaway. If the budget doesn't like takeaways then keep something easy in the house. Our easy staples are curry sauce, tinned chickpeas and rice or pasta and a quick tomato sauce. 

• If a plan sounds too busy on paper, it is likely to be worse in reality! Simplify!

• Pray. Often I've thought that the load is too great, have prayed and things have eased or become manageable in unexpected ways.

• Remember God's grace is sufficient.  "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect is weakness" (2 Corinthians12v9).

October Inspiration

This is the time of year for standing under horse chestnut trees and coming home with pockets stuffed full of conkers.

Here, in England, the weather is still mild but that won't last. This post has some very practical tips for living without central heating. We aren't planning to do that but there are some helpful and fairly low cost ideas for retaining heat. 

I spend hours reading aloud so this was timely. At the end of a long day, it is easy to read too fast! 

Nursery of the Nation has a series about blogging. This particular article is an interesting combination of thoughts about how a Christian blog will be different and how to earn by blogging.

The River Thames is, well, London, so I found this post about discovering its history, fascinating. This is a trip that we hope to enjoy some day.

Claire, at Angelicscalliwags has had an amazing series, over the summer, about learning about the Little House books while renovating their own wooden house. The series finished with a trip to the American Folk Museum in Northern Ireland. 

Last month, I wrote about a German family, the Wunderlichs, whose children were removed because they were home educated. The children have now been returned to their parents although the parents still do not have legal custody and the children have to attend state school. This is a CBN report about the case.

We are learning part of Psalm 19 and at this time of year, this seems so appropriate.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.

Hope you are enjoying the beauties of autumn, too.

Modelling the nervous system

We are working through the Apologia book Exploring Creation through human anatomy and physiology. Recently, we have read the chapter about the nervous and endocrine systems.

Both systems are for messaging. A telephone, of the traditional type, resembles the nervous system with its need for wires (the long extensions, axons of nerve cells or neurons)

whereas the endocrine system, sending chemical messages, is more akin to the post.

The chapter suggested modelling neurons using clay. We used playdough as it is cheap to make and easy to manipulate.

Dendrites are in green, axon in red and cell body in green with a cream nucleus. We made neurons of various sizes but didn't attempt one with an axon long enough to reach from the spinal cord to the little toe.

The role of neurotransmitters carrying messages between an axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrites of the next was more easily understood when modelled. Again the dendrite is green, the axon terminal is red. The neurotransmitters are in cream.

Other posts related to learning about the human body:
the heart
blood cells