Sunday nugget 22nd December

Me: cleaning,  tidying,  food prep,  present making, wrapping and buying.  Reading "room",  emma donoghue.  Incredible story,  narrated in the voice of a boy born in captivity to his kidnapped mum,  and their great escape and difficult adjustment to the world afterwards. Dad and Sue to visit.  Lovely time,  made stuff,  then chatsworth visit. Initiated very ill prepared trip to nine ladies for solstice.

Evan : beginning to try to help autumn do helpful stuff.  Lots of Christmas telly,  including the cbeebies christmas panto we went to see at the crucible last month.

Autumn : still not tidying,  avoiding by stealth. At Chatsworth,  showed everyone in the restaurant her painting.

Pat: last week at work before holidays. Work night out. Sleeping lots.

Sunday nugget 15th December

This week saw the Home Ed Christmas party, which had loads of games, music and plenty of food.  The games were great, if a little tricky for my two little ones.

Evan: Full Christmas making flow... non stop to the point of obsessive - finds it difficult to sleep and eat as it was all he thinks about. 

Autumn: Excited about starting some new dancing.  With Evan, made a "Grand Opening" with the Grand bed and other Grand things.

Me: Reading and finishing Hunger Games trilogy

Pat: GOT THE JOB!!!!!

Both went roller skating for the first time along with their friend Caty.  Autumn particulalry enjoyed doing fancy tricks break dance stylee.

First Science club this week - exploring Hydraulics.

Sunday nugget 8th December

Me: supporting Pat with interview prep,  Zumba night out to bloo88, heart decorations making galore,  new Christmas Zumba tracks,  Hunger games reading -  ignoring facebook,  emails and housework

Pat: interview prep,  to Manchester with the children

Evan : crafting marathon,  making letters with autumn,  enjoying Highfields adventure playground,  struggling with others getting their way.

Autumn : dancing,  telly time,  enjoying time with Jasmin at Chatsworth.

Sunday nugget 1st December

Evan : making christmas decorations and presents all-the-time; first wrestle with Oscar; making rivers;

Autumn : wiggling,  dancing,  chatting non-stop ;

Me: taking on new Zumba classes; making heart decorations for the tree; more book reading; nails done for Xmas party by Donna,  amazing inspiring woman.

Pat: continues illness,  achieves job interview.

Making a river

Another trip to Chatsworth, and another bit on our river project.  Many playgrounds these days are well resourced enough to have these amazing things... but we particularly enjoy this archimedes screw and accompanying water feature in a sand pit which provides endless opportunities for collaborative play.  This was the second river project they worked on during their visit, but the biggest hit.  They planned it so meticulously, and thoughtfully so as to create the river despite which way the balance was going, and it most importantly led the water back into the river from where it was sourced via the Archimedes screw.  Their efforts over their visits have led Evan and his friends to recognise key elements necessary in successful channel building - including not letting the water come down before you have created your channel so that it doesn't pool ineffectively at different junctures.  

This was about 15 minutes before we had to leave

Evan was beginning turning the Archimedes Screw to get the flow going just before we left.

It is going...

Here we begin to see the channels - which have been tried out.

Water joining t the two tributuries.

The channel flow has stopped.  They had tried the channel out, but it had filled back with sand as they had nothing to stop the sand falling in again.  So Tom re-dug out this section on the fly as Evan turned the screw.

Keep going Tom!

Here you can see a section where it pooled.

Here is the last bit of the circut, below here led to the river - both our batteries ran out so no more photos I'm afraid!

During this magnificent play Su and I were discussing how well the kids were playing and I have to say it makes such a difference that they have free reign over the equipment, and are not being pressured (either by peers, or adults) to share.  There are valuable reasons why we share, but we would never expect a scientist to share his equipment in a lab because a whole heap of other people had arrived and wanted to give it  go.  Equally, I would not be expected to share the use of all my craft equipment by others, especially when in the middle of an important project.  I would find it impertinent if someone demanded that I do so... not unlike the feeling I felt when Su told me that amidst the crowds of Chatsworth House today with the magical Narnia land, when an adult took the plastic crown off of Amy's head and put it on his own, without a word.  Unsurprisingly screaming ensued, and not a word of remorse.

I feel sure that the endless opportunities to play at their own speed and with what they enjoy has an enormous role to play in the learning and development that goes on.  I am so pleased that Home Education affords them these opportunities every day.

Sunday nugget 24th November

Me: still suffering from a bit of ankle pain; more Zumba cover classes; new Zumba class on Fridays at university; Christmas presents bought; sent out email about science and maths clubs; still reading 127 hours  -  lots of references to law of attraction.

Evan: playing jenga (invited me to play ; lots of cuddles ; den / burrow / ranch building ; pat off,  so playing the silly quite a lot ; excited about Christmas,  been making presents for autumn and thinking about decorating his bed.

Autumn : very particular ; bat costume required for museum outing ; chatter about tree fu Tom - a lot! ; request of Tft belt for Christmas.

Pat: illness continues,  time off work as suggested by deputy head; light at the end of the tunnel  in Tibshelf job,  application done.