I wish I could find

a happy marriage between home schooling and school. I miss the independence that Sian had before going to school. She'd talk to anyone of any age. Now she's in a class room with children all roughly the same age as her (they have a LOT of year ones this year so aren't mixing years 1 & 2 like last year, although that was one reason I was happy to send her to this school)

She *asks* to go to the bathroom when we're at HOME. And Friday my friend and I literally LOST her as she decided to go and find some random person to tell she needed the toilet in Asda. She is SO lucky I didn't tan her hide as she was in my vision one second and *gone* the next.

She misses her BSL lessons (I miss her BSL lessons!), she enjoys reading and writing. She responded well to Miss Rosborough, I hope she does as well for her new teacher Miss O'Connell this year or I will be considering homeschooling again... I wonder if her head teacher would consider flexi-schooling. I would love to have the kids out of school on a Monday afternoon (BSL) and Thursday (home ed group) and they'd still be at shcool Monday AM, Tues, Wed & Fri. Of course that won't work with Beth's nursery schedule. Bumpers. Lets hope Sian manages to make the distinction between home (and being independent) and school (having to ask all the time).

To be fair to Sian though, she will still play iwth anyone of any age when we go to soft play. Beth is the problem there. She would rather stay with me in the toddler area than go and explore the larger area. In part I think cause her little legs are too short for the steps up. But she's getting there. Only two more soft plays left for her now before Nurser starts!

Sian's dressed herself in school uniform today. It meant that I could see how well her school coat fits over it (very well!) and discover that as well as school shoes, she needs new plimsolls. Fun, fun. Mums found her PE t-shirt though! Even found the sharpie so I can label things LOL.

well, i never

intended to go down the work book route for sian and beth, but they chose for themselve (and this was what i wanted for them) sian quite happily will do 3-5pages at a time each for fun and a gold star. then she tells me she's tired LOL. well, 20mins hard work will do that to you sweetie pie!

every 5 gold stars she earns, sian gets a cat sticker (the character in her workbooks is called "curly cat") and so far i think she's earned at least 2 cats in each book! today she learned wich direction words go in (left to right) and the book had matching games for her to do.

lap books

i'm stealing another idea and modifying it for my two. we're going to be making "favourite things" lap books. i've already created the templates. now to fill them in. i think they'll enjoy that. we can colour, draw, stick and take pictures for it!

Sian is coming on in leaps and bounds with her BSL lessons. This week she asked her GrannyJan to take her and spent the 30minute lesson translating what her teacher was saying for her granny! I've been told her signing is often better than some fo the adults! (proud mama moment!)

It's EDUCATION that's compulsory

NOT school. I wish I could get that into people's heads. Clive and I have decided to Home School indefintately, we want the girls to enjoy *learning* and not learn x,yz because the national curriculum says that's what is a 4yo should be doing at a certain time. Babies learn to roll, sit, crawl and walk at different times. That different time zone extends to children and education. It's why a 3yo girl may be able to sing the "ABC" song at the begining of nursery, but a boy who's birthday is at the end of the same school year may not know it till the end of the year.

it's why sian at 4 still can't hold a pencil properly, but her 2yo sister can. they have different learning curves. sian can learn and sign reliably. beth understands signs but can't sign them back. sian recognizes numbers and some letters. beth can count but doesn't recognize any numbers yet. it will come when her brain is ready to process it.

time to join either HEAS (although maybe not till they're a bit older) or education otherwise
for some support and advice. i've been using muddle puddle for my early years stuff as it has links to all sorts of lovely pictures and games.

Sign class #2

i'm a bit late with this one! The girls have another class tomorrow! So, last week they reviewed

• apple
• banana
• orange

and added

• table
• chairs
• cupboard
• bed

it's amazing how fast 30mins flies by. sian picks up the signs really quickly. Dom will show them the picture and sign together first and teach them new ones. then he plays "where is" where he does the sign and sian has to point to the pic. after she has to sign what ever he poitns to. beth doesn't get it quite so quickly, but by the next lesson she knows the signs. i think it's partly her age, and partly she's shy around Dom. Sian has no such problem!!

Sign Classes

The girls had their first sign class when we got back. Mama however, got it wrong and got them there 30mins late. Why didn't someone phone me to ask where we were?! I knew they had a team meeting, but I had memorised it as 11am, so the girls lesson was 10.30am. Nope, it was meant to be 10am. *blush*

Anywho. We got there, and the girls learnt/reviewed some fruit signs

• apple
• banana
• cherries (new)
• grapes (BSL rather than babysign)
• orange

Boo was rather shy, but she did a few signs for Dom. Sian on the other hand, couldn't wait to get there and show off her skills! Of course, she does have a year or so's advantage over Bethy LOL. I did get told they both showed promise though.

We went to our home ed group on Thursday. Sian was sooooo excited to be tehre again. Must try and meet up with some of the otehrs too. We did teh body this week. next time it's road safety, something every child needs to learn. Sian is improving, I sometimes forget she's only 4.

Body Experiments.

Pulse: get a smallish blob of blu-tac or similar, stick a toothpick (we used wire ties from sandwich bags with the same result) into it. Place blu-tac on your wrist, just below teh base of your thumb. can you see your pulse vibrating through the pick?

Stethoscope: get the inner tube of a kitchen roll (do NOT unroll the whole thing, it will upset Mama!) place it on the left side of your chest, get your friend/sister/mama to listen and see if they can hear your heart. Swap.

What Kind of Mother Hen are You?

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

So, we very excitedly went off to the "Kidzone" Sound and Light Exhibition. It was advertised as an installation that worked on movement and sound (so, if the kids moved, the picture changed, same if they talked/shouted) Let's jsut say I'm glad we didn't have to pay for it. The whole thing appeared to be on a continouus loop- we could see it changing from where we were standing waiting for GrannyJan and Grandad. So much for that experiemnt then. But I did get some pictures and the girls enjoyed jumping around on the light pattern on the floor and shouting trying to get it to work!

(the pics should be here, but i can't edit them without the PC crashing)

Home School

Education happens all round us. NOT JUST IN SCHOOLS!!! And if one more person asks me "When are you going to start Sian's education?" I may just have to SCREEEEEAAAAAAM!

Sian and Beth have been learning since they were born... all babies do. In their case though, I started to teach them "Baby Sign Language" and even now they do it. It's just one of the reasons they're staying home to learn though (none of the schools teach BSL to mainstream kids - only one primary and one secondary school have "Hearing Impaired Units")

Take the kids to parent & baby groups, swimming lessons (v important), toddler group? they're learning. Do you go to the library, let them play on the computer (CBeebies is fab according to my two), Go to teh park? They're learning. Even watching TV and DVDs can help in the learning process.

Bake Cakes, Look for numbers and letters on road signs and doors. Count steps, count cars. find colors. It's all about LEARNING!

As they get older, they'll need other outlets for meeting up with kids and adults alike (after all you don't see people born the same school year as you for 5-6hrs/day 5days/wk when you leave school do you? So, with the new year approaching. We're going to be aiming to make the nearest Home School group every otehr Thursday... Let's see if I can manage it this time! Shouldn't be too hard as my courses are both on a Friday and I can arrange driving lessons after the kids are in bed! Just need to find out when the group starts back up again now! Last time I went both girls were still in nappies and Beth was just about crawling!

Cookery Lesson

today we baked an apple cake with fresh apples. mmm. mind you, we have NOOO idea how it came out yet! i'll find out later i hope.

APPLE CAKE

4tbsp (appr. 4oz) self raising flour
4tbsp (appr. 40z) caster sugar
4 oz (ish!!) butter
2 medium eggs
2 large(ish) cooking apples, peeled & grated
1tsp cinnamon

grease a cake tin well and bake in a preheated oven at 200 for 20mins (roughly)

Beth counted out the spoons of sugar- wiht a little assistance. Sian did the flour all by herself and then they "miscked" those two ingredients together. Both kids (with help) cracked an egg into the mix and stirred it. Then Mama added the butter and apple/cinnamon mix and we gave it a good ol' stirring together. add a couple of kisses for luck! transfer to greased cake tin. give the kids the bowl to lick out and put in hot oven.

Paulton's Park

Requires a picnic for 9. Yup, nine people. So we went to tescos to get the ingredients for it. The girls had to remember certain items. And Beth excelled as she remembered the milk that Mama forgot! MInd you, she also started eating the cheese triangles before i'd even got to the checkout LOL.

Signing with Justin

aka 20mins in front of the box. There was an episode I've never seen today. The girls both picked up the sign for "digger" and later on, they both used signs around and about. Sian noticed that some toys had been placed in a box so they looked like they were signing "butterfly"

Yesterday we

put on some rock n roll and had a "dance lesson" for 30mins. who said pe had to be football/netball/rounders LOL. Today, Sian tried out some ballet and she's not too bad at a couple of karate moves either (front kick & basic punch) pity i can't get her into a karate session till she's 5.

Oh My Gosh!

Sian and Elisabeth have more clothes than I know what to do with! I just tried to get some sort of order on their rails. And there are more to hang! Methinks that a good sort through would be a plan. I'm pretty sure folks will get them clothes for birthday/christmas too- This year, take them off my hands for a day instead!!

I found someone willing to teach Sian British Sign Language for 30min/week :o) Most 3yos have stopped using the baby signs, but not mine. She enjoys signing and I would love her to have that for an extra language. We have another couple of weeks of Tiny Talk to go as well and then that'll be it. All done. Beth will be 2 before the next course starts I think. If not we may sign up again, they both love it.

Last year for christmas we took the girls to see CBeebies Live! They enjoyed it so much we're doing it again this year! Courtesy of GrannyJan and Grandad. I can't wait to see how much MORE beth enjoys the show this time. They both wanted to go back and watch again. We're going to try and save up some extra money this time! But for our family prestents? Well, we're just getinng one between us..... a Nintendo Wii!