There is always time for pudding (so it would seem)

My blogging is a tad sporadic isn't it?

I'm going to attempt to put that right. I've realised that I will never be a blog every day kind of person.I simply don't have the energy and am occasionally lacking the enthusiasm if I'm to be totally honest.
I'd like to be that blog every day kind of person because then I'm far more likely to include all that we get up to, also what tends to happen is that I leave it too long and have too much to say and don't know where to begin.

Anyway I will from now on attempt to blog every weekend.

So.......lets begin.

On Monday Charlie, Summer, Gypsie and I began to look at bones.We discusses why we have bones and what they are made of.
whilst Charlie worked on cutting and tapeing together a toddler sized skeleton (he named Mr Bounty Bones) the girls made some notes and drew diagrams .Gypsie payed close attention to the diffrent joints within the human skeletal system.

We also spent time looking at how to work out the perimeter of a shape.

In the afternoon we visited my mum and dad and after dinner that evening Gypsie and I tried out a new recipe for rice pudding.
It was really simple (as rice pud usually is) ,but was the best iv ever tasted.
If you want to try it yourself .place 100g of rice in a pan with 1/4 cups of maple syrup (we used honey as we didn't have any) 500ml of coconut cream,a tin of coconut milk,1tsp of vanilla extract and 200ml of whole milk.Then simmer for 20-25 minutes.

On Tuesday Charlie labled Mr Bounty bones .I cut up some pieces of card for him and he used a refrence book to help him spell the words .

Eva and I made a cute little papercreaft skeleton .it may not be anatomically correct but does the job of illistrating how our ribcage protects our heart and lungs.she also wrote her name for the first time !
summer and Gypsie drew pictures of a cross section of bone.
we also took time to look at how to work out the perimeter of a four sided shape.
That afternoon Eva and I spent a little while making a flowerpot hand keepsake craft.she had seen it in the Yellow Moon catalogue and insisted she wanted it.she was quite happy with my home made version and had so much fun that she decided to make one from robbies hand too.

After very little sleep the previous night wednesday was a quiet day.well quietish!
There was baking,scooting,guitar playing, card games and I taught charlie about cubed numbers too.
we headed off up the road to mum and dads after lunch where charlie sat flicking through a shooting magazine with dad.They talked about how to tune the sight and the various parts of the guns.

on friday charlie and Eva did some beautiful watercolour? paintings.There was lots of loud music and dancing to a CD Summer made for Gypsie and Gypsie decided that because she wants to go to the USA one day in future years she would work out some travel costs.
she researched the price of a passport .she also worked out the return cost of boat,coach and plane fairs to her destination .
That afternoon Jasmine tried out a chocolate sponge pudding recipe with chocolate sauce. needless to say it was absolutly gorgeous.(How am I not the size of a house? my girls are such good cooks!)

Charlie was SO very happy on friday because Paul returned home from visiting his sister with a second hand X BOX ! There is no way we could afford a new one but Paul has made an agreement with his nephew to pay him off bit by bit over the year.

Saturday morning was spent with me and Evie doing animal duties.cleaning out the hutch and coop and singing old mc donald as we squelched in our very muddy garden.
In the afternoon we walked to the shops where She and Summer each chose a magazine. Eva spotted a bargain playmobile truck in the charity shop too.Seems that will be the best £1.50 iv ever spent as she's not stopped playing with it since.
Jasmine spent saturday afternoon in sandown on the pier in the arcade and bowling.
That evening Charlie snuggled up in bed with me i read him the whole dinosaur safari book !

Sunday we whitnessed Robbie take more steps than ever before.He manages six or seven at a time now before falling onto his plump little bum.He is so proud too,grinning at us all and enjoying our cheers!
Gypsie has been working on a sewing project,summer and Jasmine have been watching YouTube videos and editing photos.Jasmine uploaded a brilliant video that she has been working on all week .she used edits made by herself and other people in an Only The Young fan account on instagram  and has been the leader of a project to create a short video to celebrate one of the members birthdays. its very cool indeed! She put so much effort in to it .
Eva spent a little time doing her magazine workbook and I tackled the meal planning and online shopping.

Leaving Jasmine and charlie at home with paul I took the others down to mum and dads again in the afternoon because my nan and auntie were visiting.
I always think its brilliant that the kids get to see them .Iv never had a great Nan so it seems very special.
A lovely time was had catching up and drinking tea.
Dad's also informed me that he's ordered six blueberry bushes and as he has his foot in a cast guess who's planting them? - No rest for the wicked hey !
I say that in jest .since dad broke his ankle we have been visiting as often as possible and luckily hes only two minutes down the road.we have been trying to keep his spirits up but I feel a bit useless most of the time.At least now I can be of practical help!

I'm unsure what this week to come will have in store.we really seem to be taking a more autonomous approach to our home ed again .
Charlie had me sign up for the Big Bird Watch which takes place next weekend and so iv made sure to order seed and craft supplies with my groceries incase he fancies doing some bird related crafts .Other than that i plan on just going with the flow and letting the children follow their passions.

Seeing stars (and squares too)

Today we have been folding  the watercolor and salt resistance paintings that we did yesterday in to beautiful stars.

It is really not as easy as it looks.Charlie and Eva did really well with the folding but when it came to the cutting and the gluing ....well even I struggled.
mind you the finished article is very pretty.its a craft project I'd like to try again one day without a baby reaching out to grab the paintbrush covered in glue.

Charlie and summer both asked for some "work" so I introduced them to squared numbers useing a lesson from grade three of waldorf essentials curriculum.

Eva enjoyed doing some more painting,I think she actually enjoyed stacking up the watercolor blocks more than creating a piece of art work!

We were really happy to get a visit from my sister Hayley this afternoon.She had just returned from christmas spent in Scotland and new year spent in Spain!
We listened as she told us all about her holiday and showed us photos.Eva was especially impressed with the photos from a zoo in Madrid.
she was playing with her Noahs ark at the time ,so hayley was able to show her how big these animals really are.

Saving and exhibiting

Another busy day yesterday!

I have harvested and pickled beetroot that we have grown from seed.
Im very excited by this.

I have BIG plans for the next year garden wise ...

So my little jar of beetroot is just the beginning.

Summer has been doing a whole variety of things to raise funds to purchase a new (to her) reborn doll.
In the past few week she has done a bake sale , sold home made beauty products and some jobs around the home too .
She raised the fourty pounds she needed and requested that I paid it in to my bank account so that I could make a PayPal payment to the parents of her friend selling the doll .of course I was happy to do this for her.
Summer is so fiercely determined to get what she wants and I love to see these plans come together.And of course working out all her finances and bagging up loose change are real life maths skills .who needs text book or a school desk?

Jasmine needed to put a prescription in at the chesmist so she accompanied myself and the two smallest of my brood on our walk in to the village. After going in to the chemist and bank I noticed there was an art exhibition on in the village hall.
Whilst I browsed the art work Jasmine sat at a table with Eva as she created a mini masterpiece that is now displayed upon a noticeboard. I thought that was a really sweet idea!

I brought both girls a portion of chips and we strolled home slowly .we returned in time for a visit from mum (and a very tidy children's bedroom courtesy of summer) and whilst we all chatted and mum cuddled a sleeping baby Eva ,summer and I doodled. Summer is coming up with ideas for Christmas cards and a birthday card for grandad Pat.
Whilst we were all sat around the table Jasmine made a fun and simple firework craft.

Actually come to think of it there has been a lot of crafting this week . We particularly enjoyed making knights helmets , paper plate bugs and PVA chalk spider webs.

Busy mornings ,restful afternoons

Well this week is flying past ...its midweek already.And tomorrow my biggest baby turns 14.

Although Gypsies failling to show any intrest in getting on with anything that other people may refer to as "school work"( she's done a few questions from a maths work book ...) shes been knitting her baby brother a blanket , researching tattoo designs and accompanied her older sister to the park to watch the football. Shes been helping out a lot with her baby brother actually, playing and giving him his lunch and dinner .

The others are still reaching for there main lesson books without any coaxing from me at all.

Jasmine is still working on her maths block.

Summers just gone from local history ( geography, economics, climate of the isle of wight) to studying the uk.

Charlie is reviewing money , he worked from a maths workbook today filling out two pages with no trouble at all.
We have also been reading stories from the Tora.

The weather is still beautiful .So afternoons are the perfect time to lay out a cover on the lawn and soak up whats left of the summer sun whilst watching Robbie attempt to crawl, (He's so close! !! ) play football,  collect seeds,throw waterbombs and look at a book or two.

Sometimes I wish everyday could be a monday.

Mondays seem to be the most productive day of week here.

Charlie  had  painted one of his airfix models , jumped on the trampoline and completed his main lesson before ten am leaving him the rest of the day to do as he pleased. (Minecrafting, painting, football, colour mixing .....)

He really seems to be enjoying the main lessons from the waldorf essentials curriculum so far.
Today we reviewed the symbols for greater than,  less than and equals,  we read a maths gnome story, solved some problems,  read some information about Rosh Hashanah and the creation story and he also practiced some form drawing.

The girls also were keen to get on with there lessons. Jasmine worked on persentages and Gypsie did some addition work.

Summers just began a social studies block and drew and labeled a map of the island and wrote about the climate and economy we have here.

Evie was happy to draw ,play and be read to all morning,  her favourite books at the moment are the wonderwise series.

All our "work"  was done by mid~day.

This afternoon the weather was gorgeous and while I enjoyed the sunshine with robbie and Eva , the others were busy inside.

Charlie and Gypsie painted some wooden photo frames which we intend to stick twigs and acorns to as a fun autum craft project.

Jasmine and Summer made a video to an Ed sheeran song which they unloaded to YouTube.

This evening when we went outside to lock up the hens Jasmine took her camera out to take few photo's of the super moon. 

It was truly beautiful !

Xxx

chemistry , maths, piggy, parks, beaches and bunnies !

This is just a quick catch up post before I forget all we have been up to.

Our main lesson on Wednesday was based upon what plants take as they grow and how they give back to the earth when they are burnt.

Our main lesson on Thursday morning was spent studying a candle flame, looking at the different colours and drawing a diagram. We discussed the different reactions taking part and how that resulted in diffrence of colour and different heats within the flame. I learnt equal as much as the girls.

That afternoon Jasmine and Gypsie cycled to the harbour , I'm glad they enjoyed afternoon together of finding beautiful shells and climbing rocks and I'm glad we live in a quiet village were I feel able to give them the amount of freedom they now desire.

Charlies maths lesson on Thursday was about odd and even numbers ...he flew through this with no trouble!

Friday morning was spent enjoying some treats , the grocery delivery came that morning along with new coloured roller ball pens as requested by Gypsie, icing and kit-Kate biscuits as requested by Summer and the"sweet treats " magazine that Jasmine has been wanting .I surprised Evie with a peppa  pig cup cake mix and Charlie with a DK lego super hero sticker book.

Summer made a fantastic "piggy in mud" cake with the supplies she had requested.

That afternoon we went to the library to return some books , renew a couple id forgotten about and borrow lots more. The evening was spent reading Eva all the books she had chosen .

This weekend seems to have flown by. summer had her dance lessons on Saturday morning and while Paul spent that time playing chauffeur I stayed at home with the others and spent all morning baking.

We went for a stroll down to the beach with my brother and sister in law and mum dog in the afternoon . It was beautiful down there . Crabs were found, rocks examined and stones thrown .

Jasmine been out most of the weekend with my sister and their friends .cycling, playing on the beach and walking. Only coming home for money and to eat..... She's growing up too fast !!!!

Today I had planned on a big spring clean .Alas iv been out all day. we popped to mum this morning to take a birthday gift to my sister and anniversary gift to mum and dad. we ended up in the garden looking at their hens, the very gorgeous cockeral , the ducks and bunnies . Dad was planting his first early potatoes and he kindly gave us a few to bring home for our garden. A long while ago Charlie planted a mangos stone and when it got too big for the noodles pot we had placed in a bigger plant pot that no longer fitted on the window sill. Since then Grandma had been looking after it in his green house.
Now that we have our own little greenhouse Charlie was able to bring it home to take back.over the care!

This afternoon we went to the park with my sister to continue enjoying the beautiful weather. once home and Robbie was settled I got too spend some quality time with Charlie outside in the garden . He has created a leprechaun tea party. With it being st patricks day tomorrow we are hoping to lure some leprichorn s in to our garden.

As you can see from the photos once they enter the rock circle through the evergreen archway they will be very comfy on the moss sofa or the rock chairs whilst they enjoy the grass and bud salad from the shell plates upon the tree stump table.

We can't wait to see if the gold treasure has lured them in!

The week so far.....

This month, according to the waldorf essentials curriculum that we dip in and out of, is maths month. . .

I don't like maths much .

In my opinion so long as you can weigh, measure and use money , thats your basic "life skills" maths sorted.

Three times I took my maths GCSE ,THREE....I took extra classes in order to get the C grade that I narrowly missed each time in the two previous attempts . This all important c grade was apparently needed for me to keep my place in the sixth form were i was studying Art, religious studies and history.

It was torture , my teacher ,a fan of the gothic look. He always dressed from head to toe in black. The belt around his tiny waist had a skeletons hand as the clasp. A black cord around his neck had a silver charm and I remember him wearing rings too .He was embellished with skeletons.

I remember one specific lesson were I was told to do star jumps. A classmate had to guess how many I would do in a certain amount of time.
so there I was doing star jumps trying desperately hard not to flash my knickers .
The teacher even commented to the male classmate behind me that he probably had a great view.

I digress , so basically you see why I don't like maths.

My children , (with the exception of Charlie , who says he quite likes maths ) also are not keen on maths.But at least I can be sure they won't be remembering there maths lessons with feelings of fear and embarrassment .

Gypsie didn't want to take part in the first couple of activities but she  quite enjoyed today pretty multiplication pictures.

so... Monday morning Jasmine ,summer and Charlie made times table circles.

Tuesday morning, they filled out multiplication grids .

Today Gypsie made times table pictures.
Charlie asked me to write out some multiplication and addition problems for him on a sheet of paper whilst summer chose to do multiplication word problems from a work book .

As well as maths there was an impromptu biology lesson this morning . Charlie asked me if his esophagus  and his "breathing" pipes were the same thing.
We got out a couple of books from the shelf and answered his question. And I asked if he would like me to draw around him in order to make a life size diagram of his digestive system . summer also decided to join in!

I now have a life size Charlie hanging on the fridge and a life size summer hanging on the kitchen wall.

yesterday was shrove Tuesday so i as well as maths we took a look at how other people around the world celebrate . Jasmine ,Gypsie ,summer and Charlie all worked together to compile all the information in to a lapbook.

The weather has been more spring like these last few days too.This of course means more time outside walking, trampoline bouncing ,and viewing the frogs pawn in our pond!

Jasmine has spent most of today with one of my sisters .They have been cycling and looking for crabs ...loveing the sun shine!

Spring may finally have sprung!