Air theme Day 2 and 3 with pictures

Oh we have had some lovely days lately - little bits of bickering and minor strops, but nothing that goes on for longer than a few minutes. Lots of good ideas and conversations and enjoyable activities and happy times. 

So yesterday we did some art inspired by our Air theme - firstly we got the watercolours out, painted lots of very wet blobs of colour, then Freya blew the colours with a straw to get them blending and mixing and all that lovely wet paint stuff (see, the water got in again!). 

Then we made paper windmills and Freya decorated hers very charmingly. It lasted about a day as a windmill, pinned to a stick, but is immortalized in her scrap book, which is also looking good (these pages feature a great drawing of Jessie from Toy Story, a gold chocolate coin foil from Hampton Court, the windmill and some flowers and wrapping paper):

Today we did some science stuff on the Air theme - with balloons, bottles, candles - we tried blowing out a candle with a bottle in the way and noted that the candle still goes out because the air goes round the bottle, we put a balloon on the open top of a bottle and put the bottle in hot water to see the balloon inflate a little due to expansion of heated air, did similar with vinegar and bicarb in the bottle, and we made lots of bubbles (there's the water again):

So that's Air done and the end of 'The Elements'! We have to figure out what our next themes will be, but no rush...

Other things we've done:

went to the park with Freya on scooter; watched quite a lot of Horrible Histories; booked some local art workshops and a film scriptwriting workshop for Freya in August; Freya helped me putting the new safety net and padding on the trampoline (the old ones were wrecked) - I was glad of the help as I was wobbling and wrestling with metal poles in a not entirely enjoyable manner.

Air Day Out and other stuff

At last we have managed to fit in a return to our themed projecty home-ed activity business thingies. Having tackled Water (Rain, rivers, swimming; watercolours and wave pictures; testing water and wee), Earth (cliffs, caves and tunnels; soil testing), Fire (Sunrise, Solar Oven and Sunset Soup), we did our Air Day Out today. 

We chose to go to the open-air swimming pool (water must be our favourite as it keeps creeping back in to the others) and on 2 open-top bus journeys. All of which was splendid - just over an hour at the local lido (Pells Pool), which was impressively chilly on first try but we got used to it and enjoyed it. Freya really is swimming now, am still mightily thrilled by the novelty of it. And of me being able to swim with her and mostly not worry that she's going to drown and all that. 

We got out and warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and caught a train to Brighton, where we did a short city open-top bus ride, then a longer open-top bus ride up to Devil's Dyke and back, purely for the delciousness of the wind blowing our hair about madly and the views. 

Other stuff we've done recently:

Education City Maths and Literacy stuff, particularly the more complex reading a text/comprehension stuff and some work with angles and how to interpret bar charts.

History - we covered the Bronze Age with an enviable array of resources: Usborne History of Britain book PLUS Galore Park history workbook PLUS Ancient Britain DVD (my preference). And learned a lot. My history is not good so I think I will be learning alongside Freya all the way through really!

Had good conversations about: difference in how you experience gravity in water, air and analogy with moonwalking, etc.; things for which writing is better than speech - preserving a message over distance and time, keeping words private to only the intended reader; which people we like best in Horrible Histories and which actors play which characters (we are very much in agreement over our favourite actors in it!). 
Other good conversations I can't remember enough but have been noticing Freya's vocabulary, when we're really talking about interesting things, her use of more specifically appropriate language.

Bit of gadding

Over the last 3 days I've been out without J and F a lot: 2 hours shopping in Brighton on Saturday, 5 hours at a party on Sunday and 4 hours in Brighton cafes and park on Monday. Most unusual for me!

Saturday's shopping trip was OK, quite successful, bought some clothes I wanted and bought presents for friends in Lush, which was enjoyable, did a lot of wandering around and sniffing things at leisure.

Enjoyed the party on Sunday very much, catching up with a few friends and drinking Pimms in sunshine, celebrating the birthday of a lovely friend from Writers' Retreat.

On Monday Freya went to a Little Green Pig writing workshop held in an art gallery in the centre of Brighton. I could have come home but I thought I'd stay close just in case they summoned me on my mobile. So after getting some Body Shop things, I went to Waterstones and bought a book and took it to a cafe and read for an hour with a Chai Soya Latte and then moved on to Food For Friends and had some lunch! The book was Caitlin Moran's 'How to be a woman' and it made me laugh out loud many many times. Finished with half an hour reading in the gardens by the Pavilion, then picked Freya up. She had enjoyed the workshop and will go back for the 2nd and final session next week. It sounded good. 

We then had some more cafe time, together back in Lewes, with our respective books (Joyce ed) and bumped into ex-neighbour and fellow home-educator for a bit of a chat, then wandered home via the park. A lovely day!

Apart from all this gadding and gallivanting, I also realized (with help of J and tape measure) that I'd bought us a 10 ft paddling pool for a 9 ft space. Hmph! Let me know if you want a 10 ft pool! Now ordered an 8 ft one. D'oh.

 

3 week catch up with cake

Ooops.

Life seemed very hectic for a while there, am hoping it is calmer ahead.

So the past 3 weeks have gone to:

Freya having a birthday. My baby is 10! I'm amazed. She had 2 friends over to play, they topped their own pizzas and I made a vegan chocolate cake (my best yet) and she had the candles and sparklers that she had very much wanted (as I don't usually get that bit right she wisely gave me very specific instructions). One of the friends stayed for a sleepover and we had indoor ice fountain fireworks and played Pictionary and cards as requested. At Freya's request they slept downstairs, we left them watching a film but they were very tired by that time and fell asleep very quickly I think. Was quite odd going to bed and leaving them there. Next day they had croissants and mango for breakfast and we went up to the outdoor swimming pool and met the other friend again for swimming. It was all very lovely and OMG my baby is 10! Did I say?! 

Her presents were largely Sylvanians of many kinds and their accoutrements, plus from me (again very specifically instructed) a sewing bag (filled with fabric, threads, needles, scissors) and a writing bag (filled with different notebooks and journals, lots of A4 paper and lots of pens). She also got a sketch pad, lovely coloured pencils and felt pens, all of which she had wanted, so it was all very pleasing and My Baby Is TEN!!!!!

Apart from that, days have gone to:

A Tudor explorers workshop at Hampton Court with other home-ed children - pretty good workshop but the day was very difficult for me, as Freya really wanted me not to be there I think, a lot of the time. She so wants to do things like that on her own now. So she was a bit stroppy and teary to be honest. Hard day not enhanced by one of my agencies ringing at lunchtime to say 'where is our document then?'. All a bit tricky and tiring, was glad of good friends around me, especially the very good-humoured C who we did the train journey with.

The workshop itself was a good idea, asking the children which of 3 expeditions they would invest money in and then looking at the outcomes, with lots of incidental informative stuff. The woman was clearly used to schools, but it was still good on the whole.

A couple of visits to my mum and some sorting out of things to make her life run more smoothly as she now has problems with money, not knowing the difference between 3 and 30 and that kind of thing and not remembering whether she's paid people, etc. So am going to pay her gardener and hopefully her hairdresser monthly by cheque to ensure they get paid, as they're owed a bit now! A few other things needed sorting too, so that has taken quite a bit of my time and energy this month, which is hard on Freya sometimes (and on me!). Mum continues to be largely in good spirits but cannot reliably operate her telly or her phone now, which is a shame - well to me it's a shame but she is not bothered, which is very common with dementia, not actually caring about the things one can no longer do - protective in a way. She loves her garden though, watching birds out there, pottering in greenhouse. She also loves reading her Daily Mail (!) many times a day. We have just bought a printer so am going to be able to send her regular letters with photos and I think she will enjoy reading those.

Other things in brief: 

Freya also went to her friend's birthday party, which she very much enjoyed. 

And Forest School - I went to the final session of the year and enjoyed the company very much, chopped some veggies for the soup and loved spending time talking to Danny the dog, who was so enamoured of me this time that he jumped right onto my lap. He adores eye contact and chat and head scratches. I imagine Freya will continue Forest School next year as she really enjoys it. Nice group of kids too, been together a while now.

Magical Mondays now finished for summer, but there will be park meet-ups, which I hope we'll get to at least a couple of times.

I'm sure there is other stuff but have done quite well to remember as much as I have. Will add if I think of anything. Oh I know, J and F did a lot of making paper planes and helicopters one weekend, that was fun. Freya did some of the research herself, she's very able to do that now.
Also she's been doing a lot of Education City and really enjoying it.

Catching up 2 weeks

Days have gone to:

Joseph at a theatre in Brighton - good but didn't think the lead (Keith Jack) was up to it really. Attractive production but he just wasn't strong enough on the stage, not enough range to his performance. We got giggly at the end as there were seemingly interminable numbers of reprises and clapalongs and 'reveals' of ever more outrageous versions of The Coat. A good night out, but did realize we weren't in the fandom, more like casual droppers in. Fun though.

Kung Fu Panda 2 at cinema - also fun, thought it was OK, not mad keen on them but alright. Nice visually too.

lots of work and strange sleep scheduling, one morning I got up at 5am, another morning that was my bedtime - June has been excellent for work, will look forward to August pay

worrying about mum
crying about mum with J
crying about mum with Freya, who has also had a few tears about it and how hard it is that we can't make her better now

Magical Mondays x2 - made chocolate brownies, which were on the rich side!

Forest School x2 for Freya - she really enjoyed the nature walk they did, the grasshopper meadow, she has some pages to stick in her scrapbook with little drawings

A bit of English comprehension from a book and some science exercises too about bones and joints, plus Education City - we looked at some of the English, a debating skills exercise, and a bit of Maths about times, a bit of Science about melting and freezing temperatures.

A couple of nights in Maidstone, keeping mum company for a hospital appointment, just a follow-up - had to wait a long time for it but then it was over quite quickly. Afterwards we had a meal by the river, which was lovely, we all really enjoyed sitting looking out through a wall of glass as the weather changed around us. Freya had the chance to try some non-vegan foods from mum's plate that she doesn't often encounter - smoked salmon and a few other things.
Mum picked a few raspberries from her garden while we were staying. Freya did a lot of writing and was generally very good company for both of us, diffusing things and distracting. She was very well-behaved throughout, lovely girl.