Kidmade Again

 

Oil Pastel and Watercolours

Isaac didn't do a self portrait (unless its showing the inner workings of his mind!?!) but wanted me to show everyone this.

Self Portrait

 

This is Emily's Self Portrait for this months Kidmade challenge. I helped her with shaping the nose and cutting out the top lip but the rest is all her. The headband is particularly her, lol, her fantasy headband!

Considering we hadn't much planned this week, we seem to have filled it nicely.

On Tuesday we spent the afternoon at a local nature reserve with friends. We looked around the information centre (which has been closed for ages due to flooding) and Isaac had a great time playing with the microscope, looking at the various specimens. We then walked around the lake in the sunshine/dark theatening clouds but managed to escape with just a trickle of rain.

Yesterday our parcel from Harrod Horticultural arrived which was a new watering can and container set for the children. We have a veggie garden but i thought success was more likely if they could view their crops from the kitchen, we'll see! So after lunch we went into the garden to fill the containers, but ended up planting up a some flowers to go on the patio. Meanwhile, Emily got chatting (bellowing) to the children 2 doors down (over nextdoors garden!) and got invited over there which was nice, she had a lovely time. She sort of knows the girl from when she was at Rainbows but never got to know her that well so i was pleased for her. It would be nice if they become friends - very handy.

This morning Isaac and I had the house to ourselves as Emily was doing a jewellery workshop with her friend, Polly. They each made a lovely necklace and bracelet. P is sleeping over here tonight so we are expecting a couple of tired girls in the morning, judging by the chattering that's going on still.





Oh, does anyone know if you can merge flickr accounts (a free with a pro) cos i just discovered we have a pro account we didn't know about - for nearly two years!!! (comes with bt apparently, probably should read emails).

What a Difference a Day (or two) Makes

Friday was so lovely, sunny and warm that we decided to have our family drawing time out in the garden and sketch a few of the spring flowers. Can't show you any pictures though as the scanner is playing up for some reason.

"Emily's Tulip and Grape Hyacinth"

Much fun was also had when not one, but two snails were discovered and both Emily and Isaac spent a long time observing them and fetching cans full of water to keep the snails happy!



We also checked on the tadpoles and they seem to be doing great...



The first part of Saturday was also spent in the garden but the weather soon changed from sunny to rainy, not to mention bitingly cold! Still we did manage to get some seeds sown (to raise indoors) and tidy up the remaining parts of the garden that were crying out for attention.

This morning Isaac dragged me out of bed hideously early to take him to the toilet. When we got in the bathroom he squealed "it's snowing!" and it was, not only that but it had settled.



This was the first time in over a year that we had had snow to play out in, so of course we had to make the most of it.

Geology

I was going to write about Easter Blah, Blah, Blah but there's not much to tell. Isaac was ill for the most part, but much better now. Unfortunately it took a course of antibiotics to get him there - his first lot :o(

Everythings been ticking over quite nicely HE wise. As part of out geology lessons Emily has been having fun with the Virtual Quarry
and I've started her doing a self assessment type thing at the end of the week (although not as scary as that sounds?!) mainly to find out what she enjoys/doesn't and what she finds easy/difficult so i can tailor her work as necessary.

Also i must pass on this link as this man's work is breathtakingly lovely, not to mention jaw-droppingly amazing!!!

oh and i got Soulemama's book yesterday and it is awesome! I highly recommend it, lots of great ideas.

Right, sewing is calling...

Getting Back On Track

February was not the best for various reasons, so I'm pleased we are well into March and looking forward to Spring.

The garden is coming to life with all its spring bulbs and frog spawn in the pond and my thoughts are turning toward the vegetable garden and how behind i am already!

Education wise we seem to have found a comfortable rhythm to our days once again after the hiccup of February when things were all over the place. It made me realise that even though we don't follow a strict timetable we do need a guideline to follow or things tend to fall apart. It is also important for me to make sure i have books and websites at my fingertips and things printed ready for the week ahead. I had gotten out of the habit of doing this and it was wasting a lot of time. So to aid me I'm in the process of creating a few google pages to keep our "curriculum" all in one place. So if any of you grandparents/uncles/aunts want to keep track of what we are up to, take a peek. Or anyone else for that matter, hopefully this may be of use to other HEers. I love seeing what other families are up to and have found lots of useful books that way. One of my favourites at the moment is La Paz Home Learning.

Isaac has really got into his Montessori activities now so i'll leave you with a few pics.

Insets For Design



Helping his sister with a amphibian cards



Our version of Cylinder Blocks

Lazy Weekend

Both Isaac and myself were stuffed full of cold on Friday so he didn't go to nursery. We had friends over in the afternoon which was lovely. The children played nicely while us mums sat and drank tea!

In the evening Emily went to her first disco! I don't think I mentioned that Emily has now started Brownies (and loves it!), well it was the district disco. She had a fabulous time by the sound of it - can't wait for the next.

On Saturday D came over to play for the morning. We were supposed to be going shoe shopping in the afternoon but the girls were so happy playing we decided to stay put. Isaac wasn't really up to venturing out anyway. I wasted the day doing goodness knows what, i was supposed to be sewing.

Sunday was lovely. We went out to the woods so Emily could have a go on her bike. Isaac took her scooter but soon dumped it in favour of stick collecting.


More on flickr....

Emily did the birdwatch after lunch, Isaac watched Brum, Mick cooked dinner and I pottered around much as I had on Saturday!

Pick your Posture

Today started off with an impromptu yoga session brought about by these cards that i made last night....



Emily has been joining in with my yoga sessions over the past week and really enjoying them. I remembered these photos Meg posted about a while back and set to work!



1. emily_cobra, 2. lion pose, 3. triangle, 4. triangle_duet

I've been thinking for a while now that it was about time we tackled grammar with Emily so I've been busy putting together the Montessori farm kit. I had a free kit from here but ended up purchasing one from Montessori For Everyone too. I plan to start this next week with her.

Isaac has been a little monkey today, really mischievous, mainly i think because he's tired. He had a busy day at nursery yesterday and no nap on the way home. I had thought that he would be a breeze to put to bed but i think by the time we got there he was over-tired and it was gone 8 when he finally succumbed!

We began Story of the World again today, after a month and a half break! Emily was pleased to find she was able to tie in the Kingfisher books she got from Auntie Sarah for her birthday. We're back on to Egyptians again (Middle Kingdom)