All things Egg yupt!

So Ancient Egypt is our project at the mo and after a steady start the Peacehill press books really have helped us along - www.peacehillpress.com The Story of the world by Susan Wise-Bauer -Ancient Civilisations was such a fab find. P at home ed group bought it in, in her book box for us to have a look at and I have to say I nearly wet myself!!!! The teacher in my squealed with delight at the fact that there were lesson ideas and activities in the accompanying activity book AND.....activity sheets!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Added bonus is that it is written by a home educator specifically for home edders!!!! The main book is beautifully written with the sections set up as stories in bite size pieces. You can go through it from start to finish or dip in and out depending on what particular area you are studying. I LOVE IT!!! Although it has given rise to a few challenging questions such as, "Can we visit Mesopotamia?" Hmm Lets look in the atlas shall we? Find out what Mesopotamia is called now?...........Iraq..that will be a no then, yup and the bottom half is Iran.....again I'm going with, no!

So far T has:-

Coloured in a map of Mesopotamia and Egypt including the Fertile Crescent (known as the Fertile banana in our 'ouse!) and the Nile Delta ("Why is it called a delta? coz it looks like a D and D in Greek is Delta. Can you teach me Greek? Erm possibly!!!)

Listened to the Story of Osiris and Set (naughty Set) and on finishing with, "Isis was so sad that Osiris had drowned tat she wrapped his body in linen and he became the first Mummy. But no sooner had she wrapped him that he came back to life....." T comes out with "Just like Jesus!" hmmm not bad RE knowledge for a kid from a Pagan family!!! Have to say I was a little surprised that he remembered this.

Painted the window in the playroom with a sphinx and a few pyramids

Drawn a fantastic picture of the Sphinx, a lion on a pillar and the great pyramid. He's even put his name at the bottom of the pillar! He worked on it for about 3 hours in total.......slightly irritating that I wasn't allowed to look at it whilst he was doing it which meant that every time I walked into the kitchen I got yelled at.....I was hoovering the ground floor at the time!!!!!

We have done a time line to illustrate just how long ago the Ancient Egyptians were doing their thing and its really quite amazing. I managed to demonstrate a shameful inability to count by initially drawing us at 2700 as opposed to 2007 (clever Mummy!!!) T has cut out a picture of the kind wearing the double red and white crown of the united Egypt and drawn a pyramid to put along it in the right place.

The Magic treehouse book was a really nice way into the project and T has referred to it quite a bit. I also bought a ladybird "read it yourself" book on Mummies today which we had a crack at today.

Reading wise he is coming along nicely. I ordered some more Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds books, the next level up at T's request, and he is now almost halfway through 4a on the Peter and Jane series. I am trying to get him to do at least a page a day but we are a bit rubbish and kinda let it slip over the holiday we had last week so I'm trying to get back in it!!! We also bought "First Language lessons for the classical child" by Jessie Wise - Susan Wise Bauer's Mum. These are really lovely and I have been trying to do at least on every other day. There is little or no writing involved in the first 45 lessons just basic grammar, poems and stories. T has learned The Caterpillar by Christina Rosetti and painted a plate to illustrate the story. He ten went on to paint a Mummy on another plate and about 5 other pictures on various plates...at this point we realise that the paint is not meant to be eaten off no matter how hard it dries....so lucky we have LOADS of white plates! From now on only the backs get decorated!!

Today we pulled the first Potatoes from the allotment and yup they were mainly from T's plot!!! I'm on a juice week at the mo so have only tried half of one but it was bloody lovely!! We let the girls onto the plot today to do some slugging for us. Sadly they don;t give a damn where they stand so were shooed off after about half an hour! The seedlings we planted a on Sat are already shooting so we should have a second salad and bean crop on the way for when the rest are peaking.

Right have decided to register most of our reference books on www.bookcrossing.com so I can lend them out. It will hopefully free up some shelf space but mean I can keep tabs on where they all are for when I need them for the shorter one of the two children!!!

Received invite from the LEA for a "Celebration of Home Education" don;t think we'll go as I am far to suspicious of them at the moment...mebbe next year eh!

Fertile Summer

With the Solstice looming it seems like everything has burst into life. We went crayfish fishing and managed to get a very modest haul so hopefully this means the little buggers are in decline in the guildford canal system. T and L loved it and despte muggins ending up chief cracker and desheller of the aforementioned crayfish we had a lovely crayfish risotto that night accompanied with rocket from the lottie - the call of self sufficiency is just SOOOOO tempting!

Lambs jumping in the fields, bunnies just about everywhere and our allotment has gone bonkers! T's plot is awash with green and we got the first sugarsnap peas and strawbs from it a few days ago! How proud was he that his plot has yeilded the first edible non salad crop. The brassica frame is heaving! Everything has been slugged within an inch of its life and from the 11 cucumber plants we HAD we now have 5 and a half left which look very sorry for themselves! So cue many slug hunts which the chooks are very grateful for. The cheeky little moos have now started turning their noses up at fresh veggies from the allotment and looking for for the handful of slugs instead!!!!

This is T's Plot bursting with life!!! Note the really tall sunflower at the back, we're hoping that will win the tallest sunflower competition as its still going!

We had a minor crisis when the potatoes started looking a bit brown, so we dosed them with epsom salts whilst we waited for our comfrey tea to perk! Apparently it's ready when it smells like death! Today it started smelling like death and was liberally sprayed on the plots!

2 yrs old and already a Dr Who Fan

Well wasn't May....wet!!!! ???? L's birthday was thankfully dry and actually quite sunny. On his actual birthday we had A's leaving M/W party which for L meant loads of kids, food AND a bouncy castle! How lucky can a 2 yr old get!!!!!! So he has hit the ground running and only had 3 tantrums on his actual birthday 4 the day after and well we lost count the day after that!!!!!! We had H and the gang over the day after that for a wee party and bbq. And I made a blinkin dalek cake....why I cannot say, lets just say it seemed like a good idea at the time! Cut to 1am and I am still battling with black icing, edible silver paint and shimmer powder!!! Have to say that I was very please with the outcome and L just kept pointing and shreiking "dalek!" So good out come really!!! I also made a TARDIS out of a gazebo frame and lots of navy material, it's still not painted completely but L recognised it so I'm happy!!!

Butser Ancient farm

Yay, yet another Fab activity organised by the lovely J - she really seems to find blinding days! We travelled in convoy with T, M and S and despite a weeny bit of hard braking coz I nearly missed the turning we arrived in one piece to an utterly blissful scene. Round houses rising out of the landscape like sharp wooden hills, acres of oil-seed rape all set against a dramatic hillside. We really did feel cut off from the modern world it was just so beautiful. We started the day by sitting in the roundhouse and having a brief talk about life for the ancient Celts. Maureen who did the talks was fab,she coped extremely well with all the different ages and all the kids got the opportunity to answer questions and make observations about how modern houses compare to roundhouses. T noted that they didn't have cupboards or windows! It was quite smokey in there and we were all glad to get out into the fresh air but not before the kids sampled the must haves of Celt day to day life. Naturally T climbed into one of the beds! We also got to feel the weight of the chain mail used at the time, turn a mill stone and look at a loom and boat. Maureen also explained the significance of the animal skulls that adorned the front of the round houses and the house god/goddess carvings they had in the house. T seemed very pleased that he knew about gods and goddesses!!!

Then we were off to make clunch..........Clunch being an ancient form of cement/mortar/building stuff. either way it involved big ole' mallets made from trunk and branch junctions of holly trees and chunks of chalk. The kids were given a mallet and a chunk of chalk and told to gently (yerrrright) bang it until it was powder. Naturally the kids took the this task with great gusto and soon there were little piles of chalk building up on the treestump tables. Maureen encouraged them to do as much as they could as opposed to stopping after one chunk so we had a good pile by the time all the banging had stopped. She then swept the chalk into a bucket and told us all we could wipe the chalk dust on to our faces and be scary Celt warriors!!!

Naturally we all obliged so a group of slightly paler home edders were seen queueing up for the next stage of clunching!!!

The next stage of clunching was the mixing of the clunch. Which involved very specific amounts...........chalk, handfuls of dried mud, straw and enough water to make it squelch. then each child was handed an blob of clunch and told to squidge and squeeze it until it was less wet and sticky and shape it into a ball. They then went to the back of the queue with their handful of gunk to get on with the shaping. Once back at the front again they were led to a framed corner which will eventually be a forge to press the clunch into wet earth or on top of more cluch to create a series of flat pancaked clunch lumps.......apparently fab foundations............obviously was gonna take a lot more days of clunching!! Not a great activity for those, who like T don;t like to have dirty, sticky hands, especially as they were told to clean them by dipping them in a bucket and wiping them on the grass!!!!! Ah well where there's muck there's brass! "Who has the baby wipes?" was the cry and those of us who didn't willingly handle a pile of mud just laughed!!! So after a good session of clunching it was a wee bit of wattling before lunch. Again I would love to see teachers faces as the staff of Butser gaily hand out HOOOOGE long hazel rods to small people - oh not a safety goggle in sight! the curve of down struts was already set up for them to practice on so it was just a case of weaving the flexible branches into place. Maureen reckons that the fence should last about 6-7 yrs about the time it takes for the hazel tree to grow back the branches to the right size. clever int it? T, S and M had a grand time and once they had been shown how to do it they were allowed to do a couple at the other end of the fence by themselves (well T and I obviously helped a bit!!! ) It was a glorious day but still a bit parky when the clouds went in front of the sun, that being, we sat on T's picnic rug and gossiped while the kids played house in one of the roundhouses. Did you know that the roundhouses didn't have holes in the top for the smoke????? Hmm did you???? We didn't but they most certainly did not have holes or the door way would become a draw and the roof would burst into flames. The smoke filtered out through the thatch, making the thatch uninhabitable to insects and therefore uninteresting to birds. No hole, no nasties.....With hole...no roof!!!!

After lunch we moved onto the Roman villa where we all got to have a look at the failings of Roman architecture in chilly old GB. Roundhouse - very snug, Villa - very chilly, great in the med not so great in good ol' blighty!! We then got to try our hand at spinning with wool from the sheep on the farm. The younger kids were offered mosaics to do but stuck at the spinning for the same length of time the older ones did......at which point all the kids buggered off to do mosaics whilst us Mums stood around attempting to spin......not much changes then!!! The final activity of the day was chalk carving. We were given a chunk of chalk and a sliver of flint. First the kids were told to dye the chalk by rubbing a dock leaf on it and then scratch our their picture. Maureen suggested something to bless a house and explained that Celt gods and Goddesses usually took familiar forms. T decided to carve a rather lovely spider and I did a goddess. She then casually mentioned that you could also dye your chalk yellow by using dandelions which T did round the edge of his spider. We finished the day by walking down to the gift shop drinking in the breath taking scenery. Britain at its best, proper rolling hills and wandering sheep. T came back to ours for Coffee and we set the world to rights whilst the kids went bonkers in the garden. Just a wonderful day!

The view from the Roman villa - now that is a des res!

Days like these

Fairy nuf the weather is down to the evils of global warming but ISN'T IT STUNNING!!!! We had made terrific head way on the lottie and just loved being outdoors - bliss!!!

We have got the potatoes in and the brassica frame made with rocket, brussels, savoy cabbage and calabrase as well as swiss chard currently waiting to grow and salad waiting to go in.

T's plot has grown to take over the salad be next to it as the salad can fit in the brassica frame. So he has planted his carrots, surrounded by chives to deter carrot fly, potaotes, loads of sunflowers and some sugar snap peas. Its all getting very exciting!!!

oops and its April and Jesus and Eric!

So much for keeping a regular blog then!March seemed to fly by in a blur of stomach flu and grumpy children. T's reading has come on no end surprisingly via the good ole Peter and Jane Ladybird Key words series!!!! ya know Peter and Jane, Jane and Peter.......Peter and Jane and the dog. Riveting stuff I know but the repetition and reinforcement really seems to work for him. He seems to be learning words via pattern recognition rather than see-saying but he will revert to that if shoved! I remember teaching S (lil bro) to read aged about 3 using these books and the added threat of physical violence....*shakes head* Admittedly he learned to read but won;t be using that particular method on T.....oh I was a harsh big sis!The wee lad also learned to swim via the letting down of the armbands in the middle of the pool...... I knew he could do it he just didn;t believe me.....LUCKILY for me (and him) I was right and the little bugger is swimming with sharks as I type!
March saw a trip to Haslemere Museum with J and S. L poddled about quite happily in the wake of the two boys whose attention span was typically gnat like! L freaked me out a bit when discovering the bear - Albert I think it is called. He was really unhappy about going near it. Hey what self respecting 1 yr old wouldn;t baulk when faced with a 6 ft stuffed bear! So after I proved it wasn;t alive L looked at it and said "Bear, Dance" and proceeded to do a little shuffling dance..............HOW THE FECK DOES HE KNOW THAT BEARS USED TO DANCE!!!!!!!! So now am getting more convinced that both my chillies have been here before! We saw the Mummie with his toes poking out and all the boys were very impressed with the mummified cat head *sigh* well boys will be boys. on the way home L threw a wob so I turned up Jesus Christ Superstar full blast and drowned out his screams with Gethsemane!!! Had to be done and Rent has too much swearing in it. Talking of JCSS listening to it, after I was asked to turn off Linkin Park, it sparked a luffly bout of questions none of which I was prepared to answer. The questions went something like this

T -Can you tell me about Jesus and Eric?
Me - Sorry who?
T -Jesus and Eric?
Me - I don't quite know what you mean darling there is no Eric in the bible
T - (utterly exasperated by this time) Jesus and ERIC!!! The king Eric who walks on the swimming pool.....the king....
Me - OHHHHH Herod!!! Jesus and Herod! - For those oh you who aren't twirlies in JCSS there is a line in Herods song "prove to me that your no fool, walk across my swimming pool!"
T - So can you tell me the story?
Me - Oh er um yes but erm I can;t really remember the details erm I will have to ask B if she has a children's bible as we sure as hell don't!

There followed a truly appalling, even by my standards, recounting of Jesus's last days. Followed by another stunning battery of questions including highlights such as

So is he the son of god or isn't he?
When you say he came back was it as a ghost or a real person?
did the angel shift the stone?
The sun is a god isn't he so is it the same one or a different one?
Is he the sun of the goddess as well?
Was Mary his wife or just his girlfriend?

The first one just about stumped me and the follow ups left me about on the verge of tears!!!
Than we got the children's bible and tbh it really didn't help that much. it was still very complex and very hard to re-phrase in a non- "this is the total truth" way. questions following this reading were generally based around the blonde bearded guy who featured as Jesus.

Did he really look like that?
Well why didn;t they recognise him? You can see its him!
Why is he blonde on here if he probably wasn;t blonde in real life?
Can we find a picture of him on the internet?
You said he was a ghost when he came back but in this picture he isn't see through!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I was assuming (stupidly) that the fact that we are pagans would negate any need for indepth christian learning...me and my big fat stoopid JCSS cd and explanation of the Christian side of Easter. That'll teach me to raise a questioning child!!!!!!

But Jesus and Eric still makes me chuckle!!!

We are gonna start a new project on Ancient Egypt which Toby feels should include a visit to the pyramids seeing as they are still there.....unlike the dinosaurs! I see his point but we are still a bit wary of Egypt considering the instability of the middle east - this small tiny weeny comment gave rise to another wonderful discussion. The middle east and what was going on there. SO why did we invade Iraq? oh ho! Yep T, that's the question we all want answered aint it! In a way I think its great that he can see that there isn;t always a definitive answer....its just that at his age he feels he should have one! So I have bought a load of books and trawled through the internet and found loads of resources games and activities. Mummification doesn;t seem to gross him out at all so we are going to attempt to mummify a chicken - not one of ours might I add! He has been playing Senet - and ancient Egyptian board game - has elements of draught and chess. He LOVES playing chess and is good enough at it to manipulate the game to make it go on longer - if he is winning he will deliberately start losing to stretch it out a bit more then start winning again??!!!! He is getting a bit better at losing but still wants to win and be the best all the time - 1st child! He is obsessed with getting 100% on Ed city and gets quite stroppy if he has to struggle with something. The explanation that you learn as much from mistakes as you do from success infact probably more does NOT wash in any way shape or form so we help him out a lot and get him to re-do exercises so he can get his 100% in the end!!!!He did really well at a maths exercise so I printed him out the certificate and he was very chuffed! I am guessing this may have a detrimental effect on our printer but heigh ho!

Had T and the family over for lunch and got loads of ideas from her. So have been on Amazon and ordered the Magic Treehouse book on Mummies as well as the non fiction accompanying book. Am also going to intro Songbirds - Oxford *yuk* reading tree books. These are written by Julia Donaldson (her of the Gruffalo) and came highly recommended from T. Just so long as there is no Biff or chip in them!!! oh those names make me cringe!!!

T has been busy measuring - LOVES the measuring! And now has 4 potatoes and 5 sunflowers in his plot. Whilst we beaver away building brassica frames to keep out the evil caterpillars T and L irritate the crap out of the gazillion tadpoles growing in the lottie pond. Sadly L tends to kill them but T like to catch them, look at them and send them back! He is very concerned that they might get sucked into the watering can.

The summer appears to be here...in april? So tis the time for hats and sunblock tra la la la la la la la la!

Where'd Februaury go????

I know it's a short month but really this is ridiculous! The month seems to have flown by in a blur of denbuilding, birthday parties and home ed meet ups! Half term (for me not the boys) zoomed by and despite daily visits to EC and Starfall not to mention endless discussions about dinosaurs, a dinosaur birthday cake AND pin the tail on the dinosaur the lack of structured activities has made me blanche a little so writing it down helps to see all we have done. Drama started back and despite me nearly crashing the car on the way there T had a ball. Wk beginning 19th Feb was just plain bonkers to the point we had to cancel the Tuesday outing. Mon Drama and bog ole long walk with J and S. Tues mass baking and house tidy in preparation for the imminent arrival of H, P and the 6 kids for an overnight stay. Wed, Denbuilding with the W's who didn;t stay the night because my lovely mate was very poorly. (hugs to you my dear) and Mini party (as mini as you can get with 8 children) in the eve. Thursday, another party with T's mates from home ed groups all over and Friday? Well Friday we crashed, I had my lovely Mummy down from Tues night onwards to help with the carnage and all in all much fun was had.

Obviously I have to show of my handy work. T sat with L and played puzzles, picture lotto and dinosaurs while I iced this beauty. I am very proud of it and T just loved it. I also painted a Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs style apatosaurus for pin the tail on the dinosaur which was won by S. I had planned quite a few other games but when it came down to it the kids played so well that none were needed. D made Pizzas with them and all in all a good time was had by all!

This month T has really cracked on with his reading, by means of Starfall and Ed city. We moved him on to KS1 as the reception stuff was getting a little tedious. We bought him a wheel barrow and gardening gubbins for his birthday and he has been out on the lottie today planting seeds and getting his plot ready. The potatoes arrived and he helped me chit them, which aint easy on Anya and Pink Fir apples. Finding the rose end is a little tricky. I am sick with an evil bug and have missed our two lottie days but T has revelled in them. Must get round to writing our Ed Phil soon or the LA are going to be on my back. So all in all a busy old month.

Pizza party!!! See I fit in the education when they aren;t lookin ;)