Catch up!

I have been AWOL for about a year!

The beginning of 2019 was dominated by my husband's Mum's declining health. She died, very peacefully, in April. Soon after her funeral, my husband had major surgery. Happily, the summer was busy with meeting our first grandchild. None of this was conducive to writing and, to be honest, I was really quite tired and felt rather directionless which again, doesn't lead to blogging.

Anyway, this is a new year and decade so time for a post!

These are some useful resources, with a rather chemistry and geography theme, which we have been enjoying recently.

Seterra periodic table

Ellen McHenry Periodic Table games Thank you to @Spreadingthefeast for telling me about this.

Blog about Britain

Oaka books On the map

I hope to be back again soon with a book review.

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Catch Up

I haven't posted in over two months. We have been busy: our eldest daughter was married in July.

Cake by Little Cake Garden

Wedding photos by John Hollingsworth

Our middle son celebrated his 18th on the same day. He is hoping to start university later this month. Elder Daughter has now moved to the West Country with her new husband.

There have been some trips. Beachy Head was impressive but I don't recommend it as a restful trip with children. 

The Postal Museum was somewhere we hadn't been before and is worth visiting.

As usual, there has been loads of cooking, this is part of Younger Daughter's cooking challenge,

 and planning for the new term with one child who is year 5 age and another year 7 age.

 Our morning basket

Our not back to school activities have included a home educator day at the Science Museum, seeing Elder Daughter after her graduation and a trip, way out of London.

Anyway, just a few things that I have been reading.

Se7en has written about lessons she has learned about homeschooling. This is the first of a series through this month.

Frugalwoods has posted about postpartum depression. Some of her description brings back memories of the first year of my eldest son's life when I felt much the same. I have vivid memories of planning my husband's funeral when he was late one day and the dreadful anxiety about my little one and his health, including how my state of mind would permanently scar him. Anyway, please see a doctor if you are feeling depressed or anxious after having a baby or for that matter, at any other time.  

On a more cheerful note, this recipe for cherry chocolate brownies is one of the best!

I am hoping to keep up this blog rather more regularly, especially, posting about resources, articles and books that have been inspirational, challenging or otherwise thought provoking.

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End of term

I've been missing in action for most of this week. This was officially our last week of term and a busy time in many ways.

Terms have become a bit less defined recently: Middle Son still has his science tuition group for another two weeks and the younger two have an outing and a home education group session to go but we have just finished the formal bookwork each day other than some work on a review which fits in well with our aims. Often taking a break from more formal learning seems to lead to a spurt of learning and increased interest in reading and writing probably because education is really holistic and not just confined to English and maths time. I've also had requests to work days in the holidays so that birthdays don't have any work. This sounds like a reasonable request to me plus at the end of the holidays, the younger children are usually very ready to restart. 

I rather like the concept of year round home education but a break seems really appealing at present!


A funny thing that I've noticed about home educators is that almost everyone goes to sports day. There are four, yes, four sports days that we could attend. We went to one, after all, there are limits! The children had a great time and all ended up with certificates and stickers.

One of our cats came in a couple of nights ago with a piece of nylon caught on his tail and a cut where the nylon was caught. After a trip to the vets, a general anaesthetic and stitches his poor tail looks like this.

Today, we have been celebrating our silver wedding anniversary. OK, we haven't quite got to 25, not for another few days but it was good to meet with friends and pull out the wedding album. Hopefully, pictures to follow!

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Update

Thank you for your kind messages, both here and on Facebook, after my post about our current complicated life.

Our Older Relative is now home, with us, and we are getting used to a new "normal". We are grateful for the care workers who visit at home and that we can have this support, at this time.

Apologies for writing rather less than usual. We have a half term break, this week, which means that there is a little more time. Hopefully, the younger children and I will manage a long day trip: I'm really thankful  for my husband and the help that we have which make this possible.

When I was working, my specialty was Medicine for Older People. It is strange to be on the other end, as a carer and to experience, at first hand, the positives and negatives of the system as well as the challenges and joys of looking after an older person.

M'Cheyne Bible reading plan

Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a nineteenth century Scottish minister who ministered in Dundee at a time of revival in the church. There are several biographies of him but the one written in the year following his death, by his friend, Andrew Bonar, is well worth reading. It is simply called the Life of Robert Murray M'Cheyne.

M'Cheyne died at the young age of 29 but before he died produced a Bible reading plan which is still used today. 

The aim is to read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice in a year. The beauty of this plan is that different parts of the Bible are read at the same time so that a book that is more difficult to understand is read alongside perhaps part of the Psalms or a Gospel. 

M'Cheyne himself divided the scheme into Family and Secret portions of two chapters each per day so a total of four chapters per day. These can be used as readings for Year 1 and readings for Year 2- reading the Family readings one year and the Secret readings the next. 

M'Cheyne died unmarried. I assume that those who attended his Family worship were his sister, with whom he lived, and servants. M'Cheyne wrote in his introduction that these portions should first be read alone and at family worship, questions asked about the chapter. Realistically, using the Family portions in a family with young children might be challenging. Maybe, this is an excuse to say that we have never used the Family portions in family worship. Please do comment if you have used them in this way. 

The readings do work well for personal devotions. I know that there are schemes which cover the Bible more quickly but this slightly slower scheme is an advantage for anyone who is liable to speed read. 

The dates provide useful accountability and the plan is easy to use.


The scheme is free and available at several places on line. It is also in the back of some Trinitarian Bible Society Bibles as a two year scheme. 

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a Bible reading plan.

Looking at wildlife-Big Garden Birdwatch 2014

Each year the Royal Society of Protection of Birds (RSPB) has a Garden Birdwatch. This is a fun occasion to look at wildlife with the whole family. The time that the RSPB ask for is one hour. The survey can be done in a garden or local green area.

I've found, before, that younger children can't manage anything like this long but enjoy joining in for a few minutes. We've tended to do the Birdwatch from inside to prevent little people scaring away birds and animals.

Last year, the questions weren't just about birds but other wildlife too. 

The Birdwatch, this year, is from 25th-26th January. We are hoping to watch on 25th. Our results this year might be a bit skewed by these little creatures who don't believe in protecting birds. 

Despite this, we saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker just a few days ago, in our garden. Somehow, I doubt that will happen on the day of the survey.

Have a happy time looking for birds in the garden.

New arrivals

These arrived at our house today.

They are nine weeks old and are causing a great deal of excitement.

Younger Daughter has been getting books about cats out of the library for weeks. I've never had a cat before so it is a learning curve for me too. 

I hope that they sleep like this tonight although they certainly aren't asleep now!

Our day in pictures

It isn't easy to define a typical day. In the last couple of weeks, we have had a play afternoon with a friend, a home education group visit to a Tudor day, a concert and another home education group meeting. However, these are pictures of time around home where the bulk of our work is done.

I'm really bad at pictures of the book parts of education. It might appear that Middle Son did no maths and English which wouldn't be true. It might also appear that Younger Daughter didn't read aloud nor do any maths, again, untrue. 

 

Thanks to Middle Son for creating this collage.
From top left round clockwise:

CVC words for Youngest Son, Youngest Son and the marble run, Younger Daugher spelling out words, Middle Son and his science, Reading Eggs and a read aloud.

We start our day with God's Word. We memorise a verse:

 Youngest Son and Younger Daughter have plenty of read alouds.

At the mid-morning break, we do a little fun science; this time rolling boiled and raw eggs as well as checking on the progress of the egg left in vinegar.

The brown colour is a thin film and not shell. The general comment was "yuck".

Later, Younger Daughter was completing a lapbook from a Journey through Learning(review coming soon)

and there was an Apologia experiment hypothesising about the amount of fat in different foods. 

We almost didn't go for our park run when we had finished as the weather was cold and drizzly. Still, I think it was worth going.

Mr Mallard fitted in well with our read-aloud

and it is sad to miss an opportunity to dig for treasure.

This is linked to the blog cruise at the Schoolhouse Crew.

Snow in London

Today we had snow. London shuts down in the snow and we had the big outside almost to ourselves. There was just enough snow to enjoy although a promise of more to come.

Just a sprinkling on trees

 and people

 Enough for snow angels but not really for snowmen.

The ducks waddled on ice so thin that it was broken by  little snow balls.

Just the right amount of snow for me although the children would like more!

Summer days

 In the UK, the holidays haven't started  but are due to begin in the next few weeks. This is the time to be making plans for those days spent around home or the nearby area. These activities are things that we can do at home or within walking distance. My children have a range of ages from 18 to 3. I don't feel that I have to find activities for the older children but it is useful to have some things that everyone can enjoy.

I hope there will be time to enjoy ordinary things: reading and looking at books, discussions over meals, friends to play and children making up their own games.

Education doesn't stop with the holidays and particularly for early readers, reading and writing will need to carry on although probably in a different, disguised form.

Books and reading

• Library book club
• New read alouds
• DVD to go with books. We read Hugo Cabret with a home education bookclub recently but haven't watched the DVD yet.
• Local art and reading activity days/hours

Outside

• Picnic in the park
• Help in the garden-there is plenty of weeding/slug removal/pruning and hopefully harvesting to do.
• Find out about the famous people who have lived around and about.   
• Blackberrying. We never have enough blackberries!
• Barbecue
• Lunch in the garden with friends
• Camping
• Teddy bears' picnic
• Bat walk
• Sand pit
• Open air swimming
• Cycling/learn to cycle
• Roller blading
• Make a scarecrow
• Make a solar oven-for a sunny day!
• Get out the guttering
• Outdoor letter matching

Inside

Herman friendship sourdough cake

• Sour dough bread
• Frozen yoghurt
• Make ice cream
• Decorate ice creams-always a big hit with little people and maybe better outside!
• Growing bean sprouts
• Decorating-I would like to tackle the kitchen but am a bit nervous about this. Probably not for the odd bored five minutes!
• Press flowers
• Holiday journal
• Marshmallow building
• Inside picnic-for wet days

Do feel free to add ideas for the summer. What has been successful in your house?

In our garden, today.

My husband noticed something unusual, in a tree. Not so obvious, here but clearer in this photo.

Blandishments

 

and threats didn't move them-well, not the queen.

The beekeeper said that she hadn't seen a swarm so high-approximately 10metres from the ground.
 

The swarm has settled now, still in the tree, with a hive containing honey temptingly below, in the hope that they may want convenient food and shelter.
 

 

I will try to update the saga when they move.

Summer in the hills

Walking in the hills on a warm summer day.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork.
Psalm 19 verse 1

Around and about

This is a rather ecclectic selection but anyway...

Trisha has posted a short quote from Spurgeon about why we need a command to pray. I hadn't read this before but it rings so true.

One of my friends, Lisa, commented about my post on 5-a-day books reminding me about Five in a Row. Even more, she has kindly lent me her copy of volume 1. Five in a Row is a preschool curriculum based around reading a children's book each day for five days. The curriculum then suggests activities, one of which is used each day. The activities are around different areas including language, maths, history and geography and art. There are more activities than days but the idea is to limit the extras to one a day.

I've thought about Five in a Row before but not used it as I thought that I could invent the activities myself. Probably true, but in the busyness of life this just hasn't happened. So, I'm planning to "row" my first book next week. This book will also be one of our 5-a-Day books.

This week, we were able to harvest rhubarb from our garden, for the first time. Not a massive crop as we didn't want to weaken the plants but enough to make rhubarb crumble ice cream-my favourite rhubarb recipe.

Icy Spring

Several months ago, Miss Belle and I made ice sculptures. Now that it is Spring and there are so many more flowers around, she asked to make more but with a more Spring theme.

This is so simple. We wandered round the garden picking flowers-a favourite activity. The flowers were put into a muffin tray,a loop of string was added to each hole, water added and the tray frozen.

The next day, we took the tray out of the freezer, removed the icy sculptures and hung them in the garden.

Of course, they didn't last long but then we could talk about melting and why it took a shorter time than in January.

Miss Belle could do most parts of the activity herself. She needed some help with the loops of string and with removing the ice from the tin.

I'm linking this to It's Playtime.

End of the old year

Today was grey-fog lingering after thick fog yesterday. The sort of day when grey threatens to become a mood not just a colour.
Today, we found bulbs the children planted weeks ago with little shoots.

On grey days, I like to do something creative so started some marmalade-the first of the season. It is too early for Sevilles so used some blood grapefruit. The fruit is sitting in my slow cooker waiting for its long cooking-ready to be made into the finished product tomorrow.

Today, was the anniversary of my Grandfather's birth, 103 years ago. Today, a guest with us became an aunt and strangely, the little one has been given the same name as my Grandfather.

Present wraps

We are in birthday season. During October, we have three birthdays at exactly weekly intervals.

I may be mean but it never seems a sensible use of resources to spend loads of money on wrapping paper so we tend to recycle reasonable pieces of paper and present bags are tended with special care!
I do splash out on wrapping paper in the after Christmas sales. Usually, I buy generic type paper that can be used for various occasions. In my opinion, gold wrapping paper can be used for Christmas, birthdays and babies!
My friend Carol has gone a stage further and uses cloth to wrap presents. I have been the recipient of a present wrapped in cloth that I was able to use to make an apron. Carol has blogged about cloth wraps A year or so ago, I made a half hearted attempt by making some cloth bags for presents but ran out of time and gave up! I'm not sure what the younger children would think-they like tearing paper but for older family members this may well be a less wasteful idea than wrapping paper. Has anyone else tried this?

Reformation Day

We hope to celebrate Reformation Day, this year, on 31st October. Why 31st October? Luther is said to have pinned his theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31st October 1517.

Whilst 31st October 1517 was probably not the real date of the start of the Reformation, it is celebrated as Reformation Day in parts of Europe and also in the US. As far as I am aware, few people celebrate it here in the UK.
Why do we bother? Not because we think that there is any reason that we have to celebrate this day but to teach our children about the spiritual aspects of the Reformation and major figures in it. As a side wind, it is also a useful distraction from other ungodly celebrations on that day which can prove quite frightening to little children.
This is the third year we will have celebrated. The first year, we thought about Martin Luther, read a little about his life, sang "A safe stronghold our God is still" and made ginger bread as it has vaguely German connotations. Last year, we thought about John Calvin and this year, we plan to remember William Tyndale.

In preparation for this, we have started a children's story about a fictional boy who accompanies Tyndale on his travels. It is always difficult to suggest ages for books but I would guess it is suitable for aged 8 plus, possibly a bit younger if read aloud.

I am planning to read a very short section of the Latin Bible to illustrate how difficult it was for the general population to understand services and part of Tyndale's translation.
In addition, we will probably eat something with a vaguely Tudor theme possibly these "excellent small cakes".
I would be delighted if anyone has any other ideas about this and to know whether anyone celebrates Reformation Day and if so, what you do.

Blessings in a busy week

This week hasn't been quiet, in fact, I can't remember what a quiet week looks or feels like so probably wouldn't recognise one. This week isn't over yet and there is still plenty to do. In these busy weeks, there are plenty of joys and blessings.
This week, we made Olympus Mons. The picture doesn't do the explosion justice.
The book we were using, "Exploring Creation with Astronomy", suggested adding washing up liquid to the explosive mixture which did add a certain extra excitement to the usual bicarbonate of soda and vinegar mixture.



I don't want to leave out my bus ride on the front seat, at the top-childish, I know, but fun.

The Exuberant one is becoming more articulate. I love this stage although I was a bit thrown when he decided to count eggs on the kitchen floor; to my amazement some survived.


Dh had his birthday this week. The night before, we were given some beetroot by someone who didn't know that dh's favourite soup is borscht, Russian beetroot soup. I didn't take a picture-the deep purple soup with a splodge of natural yogurt should have been recorded. Dd- the eldest, iced the cake-I was very grateful.

Added to this, I found another Newton hymn which I hadn't really appreciated before. This one is more well known and I'm fairly certain that I had seen it previously. Just in case anyone wonders, I do read hymns by authors other than Newton.

When any turn from Zion's way,
(Alas! what numbers do!)
Methinks I hear my Saviour say,
"Wilt thou forsake me too?"

Ah Lord! with such a heart as mine,
Unless thou hold me fast;
I feel I must, I shall decline,
And prove like them at last.

Yet thou alone hast pow'r, I know,
To save a wretch like me;
To whom, or whither, could I go,
If I should turn from thee?

Beyond a doubt I rest assur'd
Thou art the Christ of God;
Who hast eternal life secur'd
By promise and by blood.

The help of men and angels join'd,
Could never reach my case;
Nor can I hope relief to find,
But in thy boundless grace.

No voice but thine can give me rest,
And bid my fears depart;
No love but thine can make me bless'd
And satisfy my heart.

What anguish has that question stirr'd
If I will also go?
Yet, Lord, relying on thy word,
I humbly answer, No!