THE FROG-ACADEMY

Bullet Point Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 17:54:00 +0000

Well, part two of last year's post never happened. Despite taking a whole different approach to home-educating the chids these days, life just seems to rush past. This blog has missed significant birthdays and events and I'm sad about that. If anyone follows me on Flickr, you might also realise how horribly behind I am with my photos too! I just never seem to find the time, but it isn't helped by having a study at the top of the house where it's not only cold in winter, but also a dark room all year round. It just has one tiny window and one tiny wall-light. It's not really somewhere I like to be, other than to sleep because I feel so cut off up there. BUT that's where the big computer is and that's where 'work' happens, so avoiding being there means I also don't get so much done as I might! I have decided now that I cannot even begin to fill you in on everything that's happened since September last year (which was where my last blog got up to really), so without pictures (although I may add them later) I am going to bullet-point the year and start again from now. Then maybe I might feel like this blog is worth keeping going. I know so many of my blogger friends of ages have ceased to blog for one reason and another, but for me this is a good record of our lives. It's the only diary I keep and I really hate that it is so out-of-date. I am so thankful for the photographs I take that also serve to help me remember all that I might have otherwise forgotten, but so many of the 'snippets' of life are lost in one-off snapshots on my phone. They do pop-up up every now and then and bring a smile though, so that's nice 😃

If you don't want to read everything here do feel free to skip forward to the present, but I am recording this for MY benefit, possibly more than for my readers 😉

SO...

End of September & October 2016;

Big move to Liverpool (see last post)
Unpack the house and spend some time settling in, exploring the city and that kind of thing
Girls start courses at colleges in Crewe & Nantwich (planning to commute and see for a year). Abbie will stay at a friend's house two nights a week to make it less arduous, and means she can continue her ballet for another year :D It also means she gets to see all her friends in Nantwich because she is there the right night to go to the youth group. I'm happy that the transition is made gentler for her by all of this. Phoebe is only in college one day a week, so the travelling is not such an issue for her.
Joel starts college in Liverpool and doesn't like it much to begin with, but thinks there are more opportunities here.
Boys make a bunch of friends on the park and spend a LOT of time playing football, especially after school's out each day.
Try out a new gym for Caleb, but he decides not to continue 😞and to find a new sport instead.
Paul is inducted as Pastor and it's lovely to have so many friends with us for the evening :D
Joel turns 18!

November;

I have a weekend back in Nantwich at a Pastor's Wives Retreat, which is refreshing and lovely! I land myself a reputation as a techno-wizz and end up setting up a Facebook group for us all to keep in touch 😉
My amazing niece gets baptised, in Birmingham :D
Have a clothes sale at church (to raise money for setting up a new toddler group), at which I have to say goodbye to almost all my little children's clothes. We fill the room with clothes! It is hard for me to watch them go, but good in it's own way.
Caleb and Phoebe have a rock-climbing try out
Ellie is supposed to have a dance trial, but ends up not going
Boys start going to Mini-Soccer on a Saturday and enjoy it.
Joel has his first paid Gig with some college friends. They've formed a band called 'Food for Zeus' and are REALLY good!!
Ellie turns 13!

December;

Nothing majorly significant or exciting happens.
Lots of prep for Christmas - especially now Paul is the boss!!
Chip turned 6. We organised a rock-climbing party for him and bunch of his friends (and siblings) - but he wouldn't climb!! He said he enjoyed it though. Funny little thing!
Christmas - Just us - the first time in many years! The church bless us with a MASHOOSIVE hamper of goodies, someone else blesses us with 3 joints of meat and other goodies - and some money. What was looking like a scant Christmas is suddenly very much more abundant. God is VERY good to us :D
Boxing Day spent with family again - this year in a community hall in Hinkley, where Paul's sister works. It's lovely and we have a great day :D
Over New Year my Mum and Nan come to stay and we open our home to the neighbours and church family for a party - but everyone is gone home before midnight, which feels rather odd! We are used to parties where everyone outstays their welcome 😉!

January;

The start of 2017 is about as stressful as it could possibly be. My Nan had not been very well really over New Year, and on going home she gets worse almost overnight. She is admitted to hospital with impaction and severe dehydration. She is in hospital for almost 10 days. She loses loads of weight and we really think we were going to lose her. She is more or less refusing to eat, but eventually we begin to be able to get her to eat a bit more. When she is discharged, having resolved the impaction, she has a pressure sore, is painfully thin, still eating very little and has almost no energy to do anything. A care package is put in place for her and we get Complan prescribed for her, to try and increase her calorie intake. Miraculously, she slowly comes back to us. She regains almost a stone and has been well ever since - until recently (Nov 2017), but more on that in a bit.
At church we start our Toddler Group - Seedlings. One Mum comes the first week and three the next. We see slow but steady growth over the year and have a good number of regulars now :D. It's still a small group, but there seems to be a culture of putting children into Nursery very young and many get full-time vouchered places from the age of 3. So, I am not terribly surprised we aren't bursting at the seams. But it's a nice group and we all enjoy it :D
I begin to take on a more admin for Paul, including building a website and more of a web-presence on Facebook and the like.
Joel breaks up with his girlfriend 😞

February;

Nan on the mend now, so my Mum goes home (eventually).
Spend a weekend in Malvern for a 'Transition Training' weekend, which is lovely, gives us a short break and also the chance to catch up with Helen & Geoff, some old-friends of ours who live there. Geoff was one of Paul's lecturers at college and Helen and I became very good friends. We hadn't seen them for a few years and we got to spend the evening with them :D
Abbie turns 16 and Phoebe 15.
The Dunnes pay us a visit (miss them so much) and Jack fixes our sash window in the dining room!
The Pearces (cousins) visit too and we have a lovely few days with them.

March;

Abbie decides that next academic year she would rather study in Liverpool, so we go to an open evening at City of Liverpool College to look at the Bakery Btec there. She is fairly convinced she'll make the change.
I take Ellie, DD, Stitch and Chip to a Schools Performance at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. They are all enthralled and Ellie decides she would really like to learn to play the violin! Definitely one to do again :D
Take the same four + Abbie & Phoebe to an 'Endangered Animals' workshop at the Maritime Museum (where they also have a Customs and Excise section called 'Seized'). They enjoy it - and so do I!
We go to Watoto Choir concert in Liverpool and arrive late because Paul got the time wrong!!
We have our first 'Family Film Night' at church, which is well attended and a hit with everyone who comes :D

April;

We take a lovely Spring walk around Calderstones Park, the chids do lots of tree climbing and Chip learns to ride his bike - at last :D
Next day we go to the beach at RedRocks beach on the Wirral and have a fabulous afternoon and evening with a fish and chips supper on the beach (in the rain). :D
Take chids to a Viking Village day over at Birkenhead Priory. It's FREEZING but generally they enjoy the outing. Paul suggests getting the re-enactors to put on a whole day for us and to use the church. I take the details.
I finish a blanket I have been crocheting for ages and Chip claims it as his!
We run our first Children's Holiday Club at church (Adventure Cruise) and it goes down incredibly well. There's a great team that run it and everyone has a lot of fun.
I start playing Crown Green Bowls with Linda and Dot's team. Apparently I'm not that bad at it and it's quite fun.
My Mum comes up to stay again for a bit.
Ellie has a violin group-taster session (on a borrowed violin). She enjoys it, but the group is a bit too young for her. I need to find another solution - and a violin!
Take most of the family to a 'Rock Pools' workshop at The World Museum. It's interesting, but not a lot of new-to-us stuff.

May;

Jake turns 20 and gets a job!
Stitch turns 10.
We take a family walk up to The Dream (in St Helen's)
Paul and I have a night out at The Liverpool Philharmonic; "Sound Like Shakespeare." It's lovely :D
Go to Elim Leader's Conference in Harrogate and take Jake and Joel with us as young leaders. We have a wonderful three days. So inspiring and uplifting, encouraging and motivating :D
We spend a lovely weekend in Nantwich at Bren & Michelle's 20th WA celebrations.
Phoebe, Chip and myself spend the weekend in Meltham at J&J's OTP Party in the Field. As always a great weekend with friends.
The kids play late on the park now that the nights are staying light later.

June;

It's beginning to look a lot like summer!
Caleb turns 12. He has a climbing party (just family) and this time Chip climbs and discovers he loves it. He's definitely found his brave since his birthday.
My birthday - but not much happens. We were going to go to The Lakes for the day, but for various reasons it couldn't happen. Instead we have a day on beach at New Brighton. It's a lovely day - and turns out to be our last beach day as a whole family for the entire summer.
Rachel Jones comes to share and preach at our church and it's a fabulous day :D
We have a quiz night at church and it's great fun!
Abbie goes to ballet for the very last time 😔

July;

I speak at Aglow. It's received well, but I don't think I am called to be a speaker!
My Mum comes over for a couple of days and we go out for the day to Farmer Teds, then over to Crosby Beach for fish and chips on the beach on the way home. A good fun day with not too much walking!
Second family film night goes down just as well and we decide to make it a bi-monthly thing, with other activities in between.
DD & Stitch go to an Egyptian Workshop at TWM and I take Sol to a workshop next door in The Walker Gallery. The girls go to the library for a bit. Then we all meet up and spend the afternoon in The Walker Gallery doing a 'treasure trail' with some other Home-Edders (this time a Christian group). It's a lovely day and some of the children exchange contact details.
We are offered a free weekend away at a conference (CMJ) and it turns out to be a very refreshing weekend. All the children have a great time and make some lovely new friends - some of whom are also home-ed :D But the best bit is that Chip and Stitch both make personal decisions to become Christians :D
We spend 3 days taking part in 'Jesus Loves' outreach. It's a fabulous week, culminating in three young people from our church (amongst MANY others) getting baptised - one of whom is Caleb!

August;

Abbie goes away for a whole week to New Day camp, with her BFF, and comes back buzzing!
Meanwhile we have Terry and Judi, whose mission we went to in Kenya, here to speak at church. It's lovely to catch up with them, exchange news and renew friendships :D
We run our second children's holiday club (Adventure Cruise, part II) and it's equally good fun, with a few more attenders.
We set of on our family holidays to Cromer, via Cambridgeshire to collect a tent from the Haricots, this year minus one. Jake was working 😞 Our first incomplete-family holiday. All the same we had a lovely week and made the most of having Joel with us, in full knowledge that he too would soon be fledging home.
We drive right across the country to Mid-Wales (such a long drive) for a Christian Retreat week at Cefn-Lea. Jake meets us there. Again it's a fabulous 5 days and we all have a great time. It's a bit of a bus-man's holiday for Paul and I because we are there with 20 others from our church and therefore in a pastoral role, but that doesn't stop us receiving some great teaching ourselves. It's also a lovely opportunity to catch-up with friends from Nantwich because many of them come too. The children & teenagers get to be with their friends and we barely see them all week, except when hunger comes calling. It's a highlight of our year really, and this year the teenagers especially seemed to make some made-to-last friendships :D
Then home to our final weekend of Joel being at home with us. We have a family afternoon walking around Red Squirrels (NT) in Formby, then over the sand dunes to the beach, where I and the girls can't resist the sea despite being completely unprepared to swim. We all go in fully clothed. I think it was the warmest beach day we had all summer and we were only there about an hour!
Paul drove Joel down to Yeovil on the 31st,
I can't go because I have to take Phoebe for her college interview and enrolment. She too has decided to study closer to home from September.
Abbie also enrols in college here in Liverpool.

September;

Both girls start at their new colleges and settle in quickly. Phoebe finds it a bit difficult to fit in at first but when she prays about it, God quickly answers and she settles better after that. Abbie seems to make a group of friends right from the off :D
Take 5 chids down to the docks for the day for the Pirate Festival. It's absolutely freezing down there, but we have a fun day.
Take DD to climbing club and sign him up to the NICAS scheme with a plan to go more regularly now. He is VERY good. Phoebe has decided she doesn't really want to climb for a hobby.
We manage to get Ellie a violin on a loan-to-buy scheme from a local shop, and she gets started using free online tuition. She's loving it and making good progress so far.
My Nan celebrates 92 years of life!
Jake is offered promotion to a full-time position :D

October;

Joel has his first not-at-home birthday and turns 19. We miss him!
The big 5 go off to The Gathering (and see Joel & a lot of their 'national' friends there) for the weekend. They come back buzzing as always. This year a couple of other young people from our church go too.
I take the boys to a 'Reformation Day' party and then to a PJ Film Night at another local church (instead of celebrating Halloween) and they have a great time at both.
We have a church 'games' night which is a blast and there are calls for another soon. :D
I start a monthly 'Family Bible Study' night at church, which also goes down really well. I hope it will grow, but I'm happy to do it even for just my own family. It's a bonus to share the time with others.
Sign Stitch up for Hoffmann Academy - online piano lessons and he is making real progress and enjoys the lessons.

November (so far);

We have taken the children to the cinema twice during the 'Into Film' free films fortnight. Paul took them the first time to see Cars 3 and I took them to see Goodbye Christopher Robin (through which Abbie & I wept almost the whole film).
I took Ellie and DD to meet up with some older HE kids one afternoon, whilst Stitch, Chip and I had a wander round the top floor of The Museum Of Liverpool. We didn't really finish looking round, but they found it interesting.
Stitch and Chip are going regularly to a 'Multisports' activity for an hour each Wednesday. Most Wednesdays my friend picks them up and drops them home, which affords me the luxury of almost 2 hours peace - and was the reason I started this blog today (although it's taken me all day to write it and they have long since been home and requiring my attention).
Caleb has passed his Level 1 NICAS and is half way to completing Level 2 already. He can climb Grade 5+ climbs and can't wait to get on to higher Levels. He absolutely loves it and I think the coaches have spotted that he's a bit good!
My Nan has become increasingly unwell over the last month or so. To begin with she was having excessive diarrhoea, but being on permanent heavy laxatives I knew it was not a repeat of last years impaction episode She then had two falls when going to the loo in the night (thankfully she was unhurt both times) and simultaneously she began eating less and less again and saying she had no appetite. I called the GP we agreed a slight change to her medication and to run some blood tests. Suffice to say the blood picture is not great and this Thursday I am taking her to have a conversation with the consultant at the hospital. I can't say too much just now, but I will when we have a clearer picture of what's going on with her. She is losing weight quickly though and becoming weaker again by the day.
On Monday Ellie turns 14 and we are in the run up to Christmas. I am certainly not ready for it all this year - mentally or in any other way. I actually wish I could run and hide until it's all over. To top all the stress of caring for my ailing Nan, shopping for Christmas (and two birthdays) for not only us, but my Mum and Nan too, and 3 boisterous boys who don't handle being shut up in the house so much, now that the dark nights have drawn in and playing out is not an option; I have also managed to hurt my back somehow and am on high doses of pain killers that make me feel a bit sick, dopey and dysfunctional. But it'll all come out in the wash I guess...

If anyone want to have a look at any pictures, the best way to link events to pictures is to look at my 'albums' view on Flickr. It's not quite up to date atm (only goes up to Day One of our Cromer holiday), but it will get there soon I hope. This is the first picture-less post I've done in a millennium, but needs must. Hopefully now I'm caught up, I can stay that way!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcjjap/albums

A YEAR in review - Part One - The Start of Something New...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 22:11:00 +0000

So, how do you write a catch-up post that covers almost a whole year!?! Every time I've thought about getting around to writing a blog, or two, something seems to have got in the way - busyness, sickness, tiredness, or simply life, because around June life just took a crazy turn and things changed dramatically!

June arrived and with it two major life events; Firstly, the company that Paul was working for finally decided it was going to close down the site he was working in, making everyone there redundant by the end of August. We had sensed for a while that 'change' was afoot in our lives, and known that this was a possibility, so we had been exploring new ideas for ministry in our Nantwich church - little did we realise that this 'change' wasn't just going to mean a change in Paul's secular work life. Hot on the heals of the announcement of definite redundancy, came an invitation for Paul to become senior pastor of a church in Liverpool. We were a little take aback and initially we both thought we would turn it down - not really being city lovers - but we felt it would be wrong to do that without so much as testing the waters. So we took a little drive one evening at the end of June, to check out the area where we'd been told the house was and get a bit of a feel for whether we wanted to explore the possibility any further.

It turned out that the house wasn't in too bad a location :D We bought fish and chips in the local chippy, and I had my first experience of 'salt & pepper' chips - which were not at all what I expected, but very delicious! We walked around the neighbourhood, down to the church itself is (in a less affluent area) and up the main street of shops and stores; all the time taking in the 'scene'.

When we talked we felt that, on the basis of our evening, it was not impossible to envisage our family living in Liverpool and we agreed that we would attend an interview. We knew the church was small and struggling a little - in need of some TLC, but the more we thought and prayed about it all, the more our hearts shifted and the more convinced we became that we would soon be moving away from our beautiful rural Wybunbury, into inner-city Liverpool; from our huge garden and open fields to play in, to no private garden at all, only a back alley and a city park for a front garden. For now we kept it from the children - certain that they would be devastated. We needed to be certain before we mentioned anything to them.

Over the next weeks God persistently dropped things into our hearts - together and individually. I had some 'stuff' to deal with around living in the city again - and God graciously gave my friend the wisdom to help me with that. We also received 'words' from our church family, from people who knew nothing at all about what we were carrying in our hearts, which really confirmed to us that this was our right path.

We had our interview in July at which Paul was immediately offered the post. Although we already knew we were going to say yes, we slept on it and let them know the next day that we would be coming. From then on we were committed and there was no turning back. Timing telling the children was difficult and we still didn't do so immediately. Keeping it quiet from them was REALLY hard too, but we had to handle things gently as we knew it would not only be our natural family who might be heart-broken, but our church family too. When a well-loved pastor - effectively someone who is like a father to so many people in the church - leaves, it really is painful to many people.

And boy was my heart heavy - everything I did, every conversation I had, every place I walked, I wanted to treasure every moment - capture it and hold it tight - knowing there were not to be too many more like this in this place. We tried to live life normally, but I felt I was carrying so much 'goodbye' in my heart.

When we finally did tell the children their responses were much as we anticipated. They had not suspected or guessed anything - it might have been easier if they had! We made it clear from the outset that Jake and Joel would be given the option to stay in Nantwich if they chose. They were both grown now, with their own life-paths to stake out. We would make sure they were provided for with accommodation etc... but the choice was theirs. Jake was immediately excited and super-keen to come with us, which we were not so surprised about really. He's been keen for a while to try city life. Joel was immediately sure he would stay in Nantwich - but by the time a week had passed, and he had had time to think and pray about it, he too felt that he would join us in the move and invest in our family vision. He had a lot to lose really, being part way through his college course, but we were really happy he was choosing to come with us :D. Abbie cried - a lot! She had the biggest and strongest friendship group in Nantwich and also the strongest attachment to our home I think - it was huge for her. Phoebe & Ellie (Lilo) were both up and down about it all. They could see the opportunities it presented them, but for them too it would mean leaving behind friends and activities that they loved (namely church, gym and dance). For DD it was HUGE - it meant him changing his gym! Leaving behind all his team-mates and his beloved coach. Not only that, but a couple of really good friends at church too. He was sad and angry for quite some time. He does not do change well. Stitch was pretty cool about it all - excited even. He was sad at the prospect of leaving his church friends, but figured he could make lots of new friends in a city! Chip, 5 at the time, was sad! Sad about leaving his only known home, sad about leaving all his lovely friends at church - he had quite a little troop of mates, but he loved all the grown up too, sad about leaving his 'girlfriend', sad about not having a garden, just sad. But he was 5 and I knew that as long as he had his family he would be OK in the long run.

And so it was a summer of making memories - as many as we could before time ran out! We didn't take a holiday - we were too busy making moving plans, but in many ways that worked out OK - it gave us more time to make lots of Nantwich memories.

And then it came time for the 'last time's - and they were hard :(

And by the 23rd September we were setting up home in Liverpool...

Those last few weeks went so very fast & we packed so much in that we hardly had time to catch our breath. These pictures are only snippets, and miss out the two mini-holidays I took with some of the children; to Lake Bala (see albums below) with the church youth and to Cefn Lea with all but Jake. Paul stayed home both times, which was a bit of a shame.

A few more snapshots...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 11 May 2016 23:23:00 +0000

Butternut & Sweet Potato pie - home made, pastry and all, by the fair hands of Abbie.
It was SCRUMPTIOUS!

Macro-art by DD. There were faces drawn on the bricks.

BBC-inspired art by Stitch.

This took him three attempts to get it to work,

simply because he thought he could adapt the instructions ;-)

Can you think of anywhere better to study your geography :D?
He was having to hold the pages against the breeze though.

Meanwhile inside...DD cooked fudge.

He did really well, but then boiled it a little too long, so it crystallised and I had to rescue it for him. Thankfully I succeeded and it tastes alright, but perhaps a bit to 'strong' - a little bit liquorice flavoured we think - and it still has some grit to it. Next time...

At the same time, Abbie was doing some cooking with Chip - making cookies.

He did all the work. She really just helped him with the weighing and the order of things. Look how chuffed he is with himself :D

In other news, Abbie had her college interview today and has a place to do her Level 2 Btec in Patisserie & Bakery, with GCSE Maths and English concurrently. It was a bit of a boring, paper pushing exercise tbh, and they didn't know quite what to do with her 'no GCSE's' status, but in the end it wasn't an issue. The chap we met at the open day popped in and remembered her - and pretty much said 'no problem' - I think he can tell she is going to be a great student to have around. As she is starting a year early, they just need to pull down funding for her, but having looked at government stuff online tonight, that really should not be an issue for them, especially as they are already providing 14-16s educational courses.

And, Phoebe has her college induction day in a couple of weeks too. Again, I'm waiting on confirmation of a couple of details, but she looks good to do her VOP + GCSE maths and English a year early (alongside Abbie), which will enable her to jump early onto onto a Level 3 course next year.

It's all change - and it's happened quickly - and been a so much simpler process with Reaseheath than it was first time round with Jake at SCC.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY...JAKE'S 19TH

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 07 May 2016 15:06:00 +0000

It's kind of handy being born on a bank holiday weekend - it means your almost always free to have a party! You can't always guarantee the weather, but you win some, you lose some.

So last weekend Jake turned 19. It still seems odd to think I have an working, adult son who will only be a teenager for one more year. Thankfully, working also means he can contribute to the cost of his own party - i.e. if he wants alcohol he can buy it!

So, he arranged to have a BBQ with a bunch of friends over. The weather was a warm, but a bit tempermental, with showers and cloud intermittently. Overall though, it was good and the teens did manage to spend a bit of time outside - and Paul did manage to cook without getting soaked :D

Heather, his girlfriend was also able to be here for the weekend, which was nice. He and she had been clubbing in Manchester (where she lives) on the Saturday night, until the early hours, so by the time they arrived home Sunday afternoon they were both a little tired. Unfortunately, due to a turn of events, Paul, myself and all the chids were in Wigan at gym competition, so when they got back to ours they couldn't actually get in. They camped out in our playroom (which thankfully has a seperate door to the main house and is not locked) until we got back at tea-time. Poor kids. It wasn't the warmest day, so they huddled together on the sofa and kipped I think. And then they went to bed pretty early, ready for a busy day on Monday - which was party day.

Caleb's gym comp went well, and he got possibly his best scores to date, but the competition is tough now he's in the under 12's. He's little and dinky (but strong none-the-less). He couldn't do floor due to a weak ankle at the moment, and not wanting to take a risk because he has a grades competition coming up in June, which is more important. He didn't medal, but I was very proud of him all the same.

This week the sun has come out at last, and we have mostly migrated to hanging out in the garden, and working there as much as we can. I am in fact in the garden just now, typing this out on my tablet. It's warm and breezy and I love it. This morning has been a little stressful - seriously, how long can it take for 3 boys to tidy one room, and why do things always get damaged in the process?! The chids are supposed to get their chores done by Friday evening, so they can chill on a Saturday, but invariably they push it back and the Saturday ends up being a long round of nagging to get jobs done before the next week comes around :( The sunshine has definitely been an added distraction this week too. I, on the other hand, have done so much washing and drying on the line this week that I have run out of washing liquid!

Almost April Over...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:31:00 +0000

I seem to find myself wondering, almost every single month, where on earth the last 30 days have gone! But they do, and life moves rapidly along side time...

So April was a whirl of... actually I'm not really sure tbh!

Main events included:
~ Phoebe Henna-ing her hair...

~ A family trip to the park (and brook) one afternoon, when the sun was really WARM for the first time.

~ and a visit of the Watoto Children's Choir to our church - which has given most of my children quite a 'taste' for visiting Africa ;-) They were incredible!

Other than that there's just been the run-of-the-mill home-ed life stuff and quirky family stuff here and there.

Stitch has been stretching my patience again. I'm not sure who's most to blame for my impatience with him. He is inherently bullish ~ charges at everything and takes care over nothing. I find this incredibly frustrating. It's not that he's not willing to DO any work, so long as he can do it REALLY fast and charge on to the next thing! He doesn't see the point in any of it. I think that's the problem and I lack the creativity these days to spoon feed him inspiration! The work he produces MIGHT be really good, but it's so illegible (not for lack of ability to write legibly anymore, but through lack of effort to do so) that I can't really 'mark' it (or even read it) to help him improve. He doesn't care though and I think I struggle most with his not caring. Eventually, last week, I had reached almost boiling point and decided something had to change in the atmosphere.

Some weeks ago DD had asked how butter was made, Thursday afternoon, I decided, was the time to find out. I told them all to down their books and we headed off on a 2 mile round trip to the Co-Op and came home to 'make butter.' It held their attention for a short while - at least until the double cream 'turned,' but after that they lost interest and just did gym and romped in the garden instead. I persevered with the single cream until it turned a bit, but to be fair it did take AGES and gave me blisters in the end! Some friends of mine had by then taken Stitch and Chip off my hands to play at their house (to give me a break :D)

Before this week escalates out of hand too, I have decided we are taking a trip out tomorrow. So we are heading to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester for the day. Stitch of course has declared his complete disinterest and Phoebe is not terribly keen either, but is coming all the same. Jake has the week off this week, so he is joining us, and Heather (his girlfriend) might even meet us there too. It's an early train and a full day, but we can be home for tea, so it's great to be able to do. We are so fortunate to have three major cities within an hour's train ride - and the beach also - I keep telling myself we should make better use of our railcard!

The challenging part of my 'solution' to the Stitch problem (i.e. DO more non-book based learning) is that it throws DD into a spin! He likes to slot everything into tidy little compartments of learning and know 'where to write it down' on his chart. He can't cope if I say 'anywhere' - because these things cover a plethora of learning. He needs his 'boxes'. He is quite content with his books and tick-boxes. It's not that he doesn't enjoy the other stuff too, he just needs to be able sort it out in his head and if he can't then HE kicks off! H'edding 8 (now 6) such different children is not without its issues ;-)

One trip they are all keen to do though is a trip to Media City, so I've tasked them all with getting themselves Blue Peter Badges in the near future, and then we can go for just the price of the adult admissions! :D

On another topic; this weekend Abbie, Phoebe and I headed off to Reaseheath College's open day to have a look at their options going into next September. Reaseheath offer 14-16 education and are happy to have under 16's on campus. It's a very different environment to South Cheshire College - and to be honest, felt more accommodating and friendly all round. Abbie was brave enough to go off on a 'tour' by herself, to look at the Patisserie and Bakery course, whilst Phoebe and I went on the Animal Management tour.

Abbie was very impressed by the look of the P&B course and after discussion with staff, has applied to do Level 2 BTec P&B alongside GCSE Maths & English. This will mean college 4 days a week (3 +1) for a year. She'd be able to get her M&E out of the way before tackling any Level 3 courses :D. She could then carry on with L3 Btec in P&B (or Food Technology/Dairy if she wanted to change), or she could explore her other idea of doing Performing Arts at South Cheshire. She is very happy and quite excited about next year now, I think!

Phoebe is likewise applying for a course next year ~ a L2 VOP in Animal Care (equivalent to GCSE) and MAYBE, depending on what the college decides to do, her M&E alongside that too. She would be taking her M&E a year early, but would then be able to head straight into a L3 Btec Animal Management the following year, without having to do those as well. However, we threw the college a little by asking if we could do it this way, so we are waiting to hear back from them on that. It would be good if she could be in the same class as her sister, as they could then work together on difficult things, but failing that, she can do her M&E alongside her L3 Btec the following year - no issue. Either way, as of Sept she will be at college 1 (or 2) days a week too.

I'm so glad we have such a fabulous agricultural college on our doorstep which enables Phoebe to follow her dreams :D And I am also grateful that the same college has begun to offer other more 'out of the ordinary' courses too, and we have managed to find something that Abbie should enjoy doing. Both girls can travel on the bus together (which is free from our village), and they and Joel can all walk to the bus-stop together because they go from the same place, at roughly the same time. The future is shaping up nicely for my teenagers :D

Time MARCHes on...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 21:31:00 +0000

Finally the sun is beginning to shine, and temperature is climbing degree by degree. I'm not quite sure where March has gone, but we have managed a little bit of Home-ed in between birthdays, poorly-bugs and Easter ;-)

We've also spent some time out and about and basically I'm just going to blog a few pictures. There's not a lot to tell really!

Out for some fresh-air...

Colouring ~ again!

Some time at the park...

We spent Good Friday morning in the town square, joining in the Good Friday service in the town square, and then the afternoon at Wheelock Farm - always a great place to go. I wonder when the big chids are going to get bored of it, but they never seem to - and of course there's always ice-cream thrown in to encourage them!

Meet Lucy ~ Joel's girlfriend. She fits our family like a hand in glove! :D

We managed a bit of individual and 'family' art time...

Chip's Park (chalk pens)

DD's watercolour lighthouse

Lilo's watercolour lighthouse

Stitch's '2'

Chip's '10'

A poorly / lazy day was spent watching Yesterday TV - all day!!

This almost never happens in our house, but I figure it doesn't hurt once in a blue moon and we all enjoyed the no-pressure-to-do-anything day :D The most memorable of the day were Time Team- digging up the remains of Roman praetorium, and Chemisty - the atom, atomic weight and the development of the periodic table (fascinating), and Coast - about the Isle of Wight boat race (and other things).

Some table-based educational moments...

Rainbows through raindrops!

And that was March!

Hello April :D

A Little Bit of Home Ed...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 23:39:00 +0000

We've been a bit slack here of late, what with girly cousins staying over half term, decorating the girls room and birthdays and stuff, but there's been some learning happening too.

For Lent the girls, Paul and I gave up meat this year. This has meant some learning adventures in vegetarian food & getting a balanced diet. I have certainly enjoyed going back to my veggie days and the girls don't seem to be missing meat too badly either, but I think it's proving a lot harder for Paul who would basically be a meatatarian given the choice, and who strongly dislikes what I consider the basics of a vegetarian diet - mushrooms or tomatoes! He's not mad keen on pasta either, so I think this is really quite a challenge for him.

One of our favourites so far has been Homity Pie ~ why have I never met this before?!

Then there's been chinese hom-bao (steamed, stuffed dumplings), which, although eventually successful, were a LOT of work and I deem only to be repeated if cooking for two, rather than 10!!

Another great success has been Sweet Potato & Butternut soup, with hunks of bread ~ yum!

Then of course there's been lessons in 'decorating' ...

And besides that some 'formal' learning too.

Chip's home-ed is the most photo-worthy though, so... (hover over the pics for details) ...

And that's all for now really.

Another Birthday Girl...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 22:30:00 +0000

Time seems to be passing too fast. Already we are in March and it's a few weeks since I blogged. In no time at all it will be Easter and Spring will have properly arrived ~ although it's pretty chilly still just now.

At the end of February daughter #2 became a year older: Phoebe ~ aka Princess #2 ~ turned 14.

Her day was filled with opening presents and cards in the morning and the painting of the girls' bedroom in the afternoon. The redecoration was a belated Christmas present to all three girls, and Paul had booked this week off to get it done. It was a fun way to spend a birthday.

There was also a bit of haircut (which ended up with me giving all three girls a trim/chop) and at some point I think we might get round to re-henna-ing her hair too, but that didn't fit into this one day.

Of course there was also a birthday tea, with all the usual banter ;D

A bit about Phoebe:

Funny ~ quirky funny!
Shy ~ but not! She's slow to warm to situations and people, but once she's comfortable, there's no stopping her - She is a crazy cat!
Sister ~ the middle of three. She has always had a strong bond with Abbie, her older sister, but increasingly I see the three of them coming together more, and a stronger bond growing between her and Lilo too.
Feisty ~ still my fiesty one. She certainly holds her own in this family, with a strong sense of her own identity. She is not easily carried on others' opinions and, whilst she may not always voice her own, she certainly has them!
Animal lover ~ all her life she has loved animals. That love is showing no signs of fading any time soon and from it she has gained a sense of direction for her life.
Artist ~ she loves to draw. She may not be the worlds best, but what she loves it, throws immense amounts of determination into 'getting it right', and has produced some lovely pieces of work recently :D
Beautiful inside and out ~ Paul used to call her his English Rose. She has that kind of soft beauty: pale skin, small features, generous eyes, a seriousness & sensitive nature that shows her sullen at times and shining with wonder at others.

Past posts tell me how much, and how little she has changed over the years. I love looking back...
8th birthday (with pictures from 0-8)
10th birthday (the BIG one)
11th birthday (with a good description of who she was then, and still is a bit now)

And some pictures from 9-13...

To read her take on her day, read HERE.

I hope you enjoyed your birthday beautiful! I certainly did ;-)

PS : ~ here's a couple of before and afters of the girls' room...

Abbie's 15th Birthday & A Late Winter Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 21:18:00 +0000

As promised ~ a birthday blog for my beautiful 15 year old!

Her birthday itself was set to be a bit busy with all the usual Wednesday evening things, plus the addition of her and myself going to a Lent Bible study in the middle of the day. But she requested to open her cards and presents in the morning and then go out for a walk, and as it was a lovely bright, crisp winter's morning that's what we did ~ and then rushed back to cook lunch and be ready for us to go out for 1pm. I'm glad we went though ~ we all felt it was great to get some fresh air in our lungs. We'd have walked around The Moss if it hadn't been so wet lately, but we knew we'd be up to our knees in mud, so instead we stuck to the concrete this time. It was still lovely though, and the children all enjoyed stroking the local horses :D

On Thursday evening we had pizza and watched Cinderella (the newest one) together (Abbie is a huge Disney fan!) ~ and had cake!!

Happy Birthday my eldest princess ~ I hope you enjoyed this one!

Fun & Games

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 01:21:00 +0000

So the last week or so the chids have been a bit full of cold to push for full-on concentration, so I let them have a games week. There's so much to be learnt from playing great games ~ not least co-operation ;-)

Also I got a phone upgrade, so it was a great chance to try it out with photos :D
So here are some shots from last week...

Stratego

( this game was mine as a child. I never loved it, but my boys really do)

Enchanted Forest ~ a great memory stretcher, and a favourite of mine since my nursing days.

Scotland Yard

Ticket to Ride

Take Two (like mini-Scrabble)

and full onScrabble at one point too with no photos.

And one point they decided to revive Just Dance (1) and had a giggle with that one afternoon...

A fair amount of tablet gaming (solo and together), and plenty of reading, drawing and colouring.

We also got three more new windows last week ~ including the girls room (meaning we can now get on with the re-vamp the week after half term) and the front of the living room - meaning we can now SEE the view outside :D

At the weekend Abbie & Lilo had their dance school's Bi-annual show. It was wonderful ~ I thoroughly enjoyed watching them and I know they loved the whole thing. They are just sad that it's over so soon - and I remember that feeling from my school-play days.

This week we are back at it for the week, before we take a proper week off for half term next week. The colds have mostly cleared up and everyone has the holiday in sight!

But today was Pancake Day. The children love pancake day and hoped it would be fine enough to do some races outside - which happily it was.

So I cooked nutritious (& yummy) savoury fillings to fill their crepes with and then supplied sugary goodness to pour over the sweet American style ones. All happiness :D

Then we went outside to play...

It was COLD outside, but we had some fun...

So, that's us up to speed. Tomorrow Lent begins. This year Paul, the two older girls and myself are giving up meat for Lent. It's years since I gave something up for Lent, but this year it serves a two-fold purpose; to bring some self-discipline back into my life can never be a good thing and focusing that around a time to focus on my faith will be wonderful, plus it will allow me room to think more carefully about what I am feeding this body of mine. Coupled with the meat-fast we as a family are going to be doing a Bible-study once a week, based around the Narnia films and Shadowlands ~ "Not a Tame Lion." In addition to this I am going to be attending a Lent study at church, starting tomorrow, based on The Theory Of Everything (film) ~ "The Mystery of Everything." I am thoroughly looking forward to both studies - and actually looking forward to a meat-free few weeks too :D

And ... tomorrow my beautiful Boo turns 15!! Where did the years go? Birthday blog will be next, but meanwhile feast your eyes on this just-born beautiful baby girl...

The Way it Looks from My Side...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 22:54:00 +0000

So, I thought I'd take some shots myself and show how it looks here, when everyone is busy doing their thing. A selection of shots, taken at a number of points on three different days... If you hover on them, I've added descriptions to most of them.

Abbie has her own little spot in the room. If it's cold and I haven't lit a fire, she sometimes brings her duvet down and makes herself cosy.

She doesn't move much from this spot some days, except to eat, or maybe do a bit of work with Chip. She's working really hard this year and seems to be quite enjoying her subjects. Although today she asked if she could drop one of her Alison courses as it was just "too boring." I don't mind ~ she's in charge of what she learns this year and she is no slacker.

She is enjoying working independently and today did a beautiful piece of art, just working straight from an image on her laptop screen.

Phoebe is also trooping through her work. She too seems to be mostly enjoying what she's doing and I seem to have got the levels right for her this year. She is LOVING her Zoology studies - especially as she gets to do it all by herself.

She has also taken to spending significant amounts of time drawing animals, following tutorials on You Tube to produce some lovely pieces, that have required a lot of perseverance. The leopard above is this week's work.

Lilo is working well too. Still struggling along with some things and wouldn't say she 'enjoys' learning much, but she does just get on with things these days. I'm hoping one day she will find something she loves and then she will enjoy it all a bit more. There are things she does that she does like, but certainly it's more of a slog than a labour of love for her.

DD is hard to capture, as he likes to rise early (around 7am) and set to it as quickly as possible. He is usually done by, or just after lunch, every day. Some days he powers through 3-4 hours of work in a morning and is almost done before I've finished my morning chores! But recently he has decided he wants to learn to cook, so I've managed to catch a few shots of him busy in the kitchen last week and this...

Stitch is beginning to settle into learning a bit better. He starts when he feels like it (today was gone 10am) but allowing him control over his comings and goings seems to be ticking his bucket now. He does snippets of this and that here and there and buzzing about like a bee in flight, but he does seem to be getting his hours in over the week. This week he has decided he wants to learn Spanish and must have spent about 3 hours on Duolingo. He is now spouting badly pronounced Spanish phrases at us randomly and is talking about going to Spain (en Famille style) in a couple of years time. I've told him his behaviour has to settle and calm before I could send him to stay with another family for any length of time, but otherwise I'm not averse to the idea. We'll see how long the 'phase' lasts, but it might...

It's funny how things sometimes come full circle in this life isn't it? Way back when Jake was Stitch's age we used a number of CGP resources. Jake didn't like them much and I wasn't much enamoured either, so we moved away from them. However, this year I dug out some of the Science 'Project' Workbooks I had left over from way back then and offered them as an option to Stitch. Well, he has absolutely thrived on them - the style and layout just suits him perfectly and he asked for more. He also asked if CGP did write-in English and Maths books (he doesn't much like textbook-exercise work). He had been asking for write-in workbooks for English at the beginning of the year and CGP hadn't crossed my mind, but when he mentioned the idea I said I would look for him. So, now I have bought him some CGP workbooks for English and, at his request, Geography and History too. I decided I'd prefer him to stick to Conquer Maths for Maths because it's more comprehensive and just easier all round to keep him up to speed and see where he is at - and he only complains when he's stuck on something challenging, which he would complain about in a workbook too! He seems very happy with his additional work and, to my surprise, has just added it to his selection of choices without removing anything else. So this week he did some textbook work AND some workbook work. Score :D

Chip is NON-Stop! He is like an ever-dry sponge, constantly looking for what to learn next and much as I love that, it is EXHAUSTING! To help me (and him) keep a better check and balance on what he's up to each week I've made him a mini-skool smiley chart, with just a few things on that I would like to cover each week (if we can). A bit of number and letters work and some quiet 'reading' (aka looking quietly at a book by himself) each day, then however much computer time, art, cooking, playing games, physical activity he wants to squish in to all the rest of his time (all day counts). The quiet reading bit he is yet to master as he really likes to be read TO, and doesn't like to be alone, but I'm working on it as I think it will be valuable to both of us ;D. Meanwhile here's a few moments from his week.

While the Cat's Away...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 11:19:00 +0000

Yesterday I left Jake in charge while Paul and I were at a conference for the day.

The chids took advantage of the fact and gave me a glimpse of their day with MY camera ;D

You took them chids ~ on your head be it!!

December ~ come and gone!

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 11:11:00 +0000

So, Christmas came... and went! It seems I've barely had time to catch my breath this month and when I did I couldn't always face sitting at the PC in the evenings. So, yet another long post awaits! I'll stick mostly to pictures because they tell the story, but suffice to say we had a lovely family Christmas. It was crazy-busy and we felt like we had about 5000 people through our door over the holidays, but we were glad to have everyone and spend time with friends and family.

Happy Birthday Chip
December 21st ~ my baby boy turned five! It hardly seems like yesterday we were eagerly awaiting his arrival and praying he would come before Christmas. He kept us on tenter-hooks and came with just 4 days to spare!

New ~ just hours old

One & Two

Three & Four

Hello Big FIVE!

He is a bright and intelligent little man, who loves nothing better than a snuggle and a 'chat' - with whoever is willing to engage with him. He is at that lovely 'sponge' stage where everything is exciting and interesting. He's quite the little thinker and my friend likes to call him 'little philosopher.' He has an answer for every problem - even if he has to take reality into the realms of fantasy to find it :D. He is my only child to have an imaginary friend. 'Steve' has been around a long time now and still features strongly in games and conversations. He is friendly and kind and, although he has a tendency toward shyness in groups, he is increasingly confident around all ages of people and will strangers into conversation if he can grab their attention! Slowly he is engaging more and more with children outside of his family, although it's taken a while to get to this point, and even has a little 'girlfriend' at church! He is a well behaved and happy child, with a strong sense of his own person. He may be the 'baby' of the family, and likes to play on that at times, but there's no pushing him around or manipulating him. God has blessed him with an iron will & determination ;D. On the whole this is a great asset, but it does present its challenges at times!

And so, full speed ahead into Christmas;

Christmas Eve we prep'ed the house and made our gingerbread village

Christmas Day begins (always) with everyone piling into our room to share what they got in their stockings.

The rest of our gifts are exchanged after church and dinner.

Boxing Day brings all of Paul's family calling ~ such mayhem and madness ~ and great fun!!

New Year we celebrate at church, with a service to celebrate the year past and to cover the coming year in prayer ~ then we eat together and party until the early hours! New Year's afternoon some family friends join us for games and food. This year we taught them Saboteur and Survive (our new games). Previous years they have taught us games ~ like Jungle Speed (which we also got this year) :D.

After New Year I spent a day reorganising the boys bedrooms (x2). Partly because I needed to loose the baby toys they have all outgrown to find room for new stuff, and partly because Chip had all but outgrown his toddler bed. Joel wanted a floor bed (instead of a loft bed) and so swaps needed to happen.

After that I pretty much crashed and burned and it's taken me best part of 10 days to get back on my feet and up to speed. We took an extra week off Home Ed while we all recovered properly and now we are back at it...

Another Birthday... (part 2 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 01:29:00 +0000

The family Bit...

So apart from all the 'getting ready' for Christmas, November also hold Lilo's birthday - on the 27th. It's hard to believe she is already 12 (and this time next year I will have five teens in the house!).

Lilo is my baby with maybe the most 'firsts' ...

She was my first baby born in Cheshire ~ my first 'Dabber'.
She was my first (but not last) 'big' baby ~ weighing in at 9lb 10oz, and not arriving until week 43 (although she did not look at all overdue, came with plenty of water around her still and didn't tear me). Thankfully she was the last baby to be that late. The three since have been just a little earlier.
She was my first, and only, child to have white-blonde hair, that was almost invisible until she was over two. It has remained as beautiful golden locks ~ yes, she is my Goldilocks :D
She was my first baby to be admitted to hospital, on the whim of a meddling HV who thought she wasn't thriving. We had to stay in for most of a week (which wasn't easy, with Paul being a full-time student at the time and four other small children at home), with me being pressurised to give food supplements and/or bottles because she wasn't gaining adequate weight - for their liking - on breastmilk alone. I didn't cave! She was, lively, strong and happy, feeding really well and really regularly and I knew they were wrong. Finally her consultant Paed' came round, took one look at her (and me) and sent us home ~ and gave his team a ticking off!! 'Catch Down' was his diagnosis - she was born to big for herself and was finding her happy place - which was what I had been saying all along. At this point she was the same weight as all my other babies had been at the same age (which had, of course, showed as a plateau on her growth chart). We popped back to see the Paed' in OP once I think, by which time she was happily pootling along on her corrected growth line :D So much fuss over nothing!
She was my first baby to reject the breast too early for my liking - at 6 months - and then she totally refused to drink any milk from that day on, from me or otherwise (I did try all sorts). Thankfully she ate lots of yoghurt and cheese and stayed healthy, but she has remained my most picky eater and she still really doesn't enjoy food all that much. We're set to do some work on that issue very soon...
She is my first girl with a shed load of Sas!

So, here she is ~ 12!!

Lilo is also my child of many contrasts...

She is the one who needs to plan ahead - but then forgets what the plan was ;-)
She is able to be, in one single moment, both silly and sullen.
She is fierce and fiesty, but she is my one who giggles - a lot!
She is tough - really tough - you know that kind of inner strength that holds it all together even when life hurls its crud at you - she has that!
Yet, she is soft and gentle, sensitive and kind to others.
She struggles with her dyslexia, yet she loves to create stories and talks of being a writer some day.
She has a determination in her eyes that pierces me at times. If she wants something from her life, I have a feeling she will find a way to make it happen.

She reminds me of myself in many ways, and yet not.

Happy Birthday beautiful girl! ~ we all love you to bits xxxx

~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, we are winding up for Christmas with a crafts week next week, but we have been busy already, making our new Advent Calendar.

The calendar is filled with sweeties of various descriptions (mostly from our old fashioned sweet shop in Nantwich) and a small object to help us remember the part of the story we have read that day. On the shelf above are 25 readings to cover the Christmas story. We are reading one each day.

I have also printed out some activity sheets for Chip (and Stitch if he wants), which he can do some of next week. The children are loving having a change this year and I love that they have all been involved in the creation of something so beautiful :D

Abbie is blogging Advent over on her blog. She's doing an ABC of Advent. It's great so far - why not go have a read? :D ... http://babsiboosblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Oh, and two boys had a haircut (it's mine and Chip's turn on Monday coming);

Another Month...(part 1 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 23:40:00 +0000

So already we have zipped through November and are on the run up to Christmas. I am not quite sure where the time has gone, but I do feel like my feet have barely touched the ground!

The Educational Bit...

Our first term of the year has gone great. After initially being incredibly difficult with Stitch, he seems to have settled down and is getting a handle on the fact that a little more is expected of him this year. To begin with he was having major melt downs over producing any work that required use of a pencil for more than a few words, but now it seems he has discovered a love of writing! Out of nowhere he is churning out stories and before one is written the next is brewing in his head. So much so that I've told him to jot down his ideas in the back of his book; just some rough notes that he can go back to whenever he is ready. I haven't actually chosen to read any of the stories (although I do intend to) because I know I have a tendency to be too picky - and right now I am just glad that he is writing! Just like his reading and spelling, which came good all of their own accord, I am almost certain that with Stitch, the best thing to do is to leave well alone and help him only when/if he asks me to. He fiercely resists interference, and hates it when I help him because I think he might need it. He loathes even more to be corrected, and becomes quite easily defeated by it. So, for now, I have decided to only 'mark' work that has a definite correct/incorrect answer (maths, grammar, science etc...) and the more subjective/imaginative/creative things I shall keep my pen well away from ;-). Most of the black and white stuff he breezes quite nicely through anyway, and where he doesn't he's more happy to work things through with me, because he, like every child I've ever known, like a page full of ticks! :D

The other children are working hard and well and I seem to have managed to get the levels about right this year.
DD is working a bit ahead of his 'year' in all areas.
Lilo a bit behind and a bit ahead (she is a crazy mix of ability and struggle).
Phoebe is knuckling down this year and ploughing through a tonne of work, which means she is beginning to catch up a bit where she had fallen back (unnecessarily). She is thriving and feeling like she is achieving lots ~ a bonus for her is that she has 3 hours of Zoology a week built into her self-determined timetable and is LOVING it :D.
Abbie has a fairly heavy workload, but is great at getting her head down and ploughing through. She is working through a foundation level GCSE maths book, which is challenging us both. How the work in it qualifies as 'foundational' maths is beyond me. Surely the foundations of maths should be the everyday maths we all need and use, and maybe a few key basics in other areas (like algebra, trig', etc...), but what she is doing is more like what I did at higher level GCSE all those years ago! It's way more than basic maths and is tbh beyond where I had felt it necessary to push her. Abbie really struggles with maths, and doing this was meant to help and encourage her that she knows more than she thought she did, but sadly I don't think it will have that effect. However, it will give her a head start when she has to do the work for her actual GCSE at college in a couple of years. She will have at least covered the material and had plenty of time to do so at her own pace. I'm not sure the book we have explains things simply enough though, or does so in a confusing way, so I may need to find another source text. Any recommendations? She's using THIS atm, and has the workbook too. The format works for her, but it seems to assume too much prior knowledge of each topic. She has tried watching videos on Conquer Maths, & other You Tube 'teachers' to help her, but the topics don't always match up well to what she needs to learn ~ and my days, how does anyone ever understand what Mr Khan is on about? He uses so much Mathseese!

And lastly Chip. He is coming along nicely with only as much input from me as he asks for. He likes to work with Abbie and Phoebe too, so it's not always me he wants ;-) . He is racing ahead with his number work and decided he wanted to have a go at Sumdog. He tested in towards the end of Year 1 level!! I have done nothing more than teach him to count and recognise numbers really ~ it's crazy. He totally LOVES numbers too, and is always 'playing' with them out-loud. He would do maths all the time if I let him, but every now and then I try to coax him into learning his letters too. He has been able to recognise initial sounds for a while now, and a few weeks back I realised he can also identify end and middle sounds with almost no effort. So out of the blue one day I asked him how to spell cat (phonetically) and he easily sounded out " c-a-t." We did a few other words, including some with four and five syllables and he did them with ease. In my mind I registered the fact that he could essentially breakdown and build up words, which would mean that once he could recognise his 26 letters he would be reading and I wouldn't have really had to teach him the mechanics of it at all :D. I wondered how many letters he already recognised, but it wasn't many, so at that point I felt he would benefit from starting on that. I paid him up on Reading Eggs and Maths Seeds for the year (and renewed Stitch's subscription too, so that he could use Reading Eggspress again, which he enjoys) and he is playing on that a substantial amount. I am not stipulating how much or little he does because he is such a keen learner I don't feel I need to :D. He adores the Maths Seeds and would stay on it for hours. Reading Eggs takes a little more persuasion, but if I say he can reward himself with Maths Seeds for a lesson on Reading Eggs, that works well! Couple all that with his determination to learn to WRITE the letters too and I think he will be reading in no time ~ and when he does I think he is going to have his nose in a book a lot of the time! Just now, he loads up the alphabet song on Busythings (another fabulous learning site) and then sits and copies all the letters onto a piece of paper.

He is also quite determined to get 3 egg rewards on each of the letters on his Eggy Alphabet app. It's a bit repetitive but he doesn't seem to mind too much ~ gladly, because he is learning phonetics and writing whilst doing that.

Writing is definitely a love of his. It's great to have a boy with no objection to using a pencil (or stylus) and he seems to have a love for binary...

Lastly, we are working slowly through a lovely, gentle Phonics programme I used with Stitch. We're just doing a couple of new letters a week and that works nicely hand in hand with his Reading Eggs pace. We have pinned letters around the house, on various objects, and he loves running around finding them all, telling us the sound and what it's for; "nnnnn - numbers, tttttt - table," etc. Sometimes, if he doesn't feel like going to look for them he just visualises where they are and tells me them all, which is great, because it means he is beginning to learn how to picture things in his mind and make 'photographs' ~ such an important reading skill :D

We haven't been using the Spielgaben as much as I had hoped, or would still like to, but occasionally Chip has a binge on it and plays with it all day. It often comes out to help us with the older chids maths, as it has fabulous manipulatives, but Chip, atm, is a writer, so we are just going with that flow. I do use it a bit with Stitch too (when he remembers to ask me to), and those sessions have nudged him into concepts he hadn't touched before, but he seems to enjoy the stretch, when he can concentrate for long enough!

The big boys are both doing fine too. Jake is busy working as many hours as they throw at him at Brantano, but quickly realising this is not how he want to spend his future! So I've heard him muttering about putting some time into getting his photography up and running properly and seeking out a more fulfilling job. But otherwise he is happy enough and certainly happy to have some money in the bank! He has also enjoyed being able to buy everyone in the family (and his girlfriend, of course) nice presents this year :D

Joel is coming to the end of his first term at college and I think he has very mixed feeling about the whole experience. One day it's great, the next day it weighs heavy. I'm not sure what the issues are, except that the course is rather too disorganised (in true SSC style) for Joel's very organised mind. He likes to know where he is at, and when, and he struggles when things get changed last minute, which they seem to be frequently. He expects a lot of himself professionally and therefore expects that the professionals around him should act that way too, but he doesn't feel they do really, which is a shame if it's true.

This Monday we all (yes, all of us!) got to go in and watch him perform. It was originally supposed to be solo performances that evening, but that got changed (last minute) and instead it was group performances. He played his cajon in a folk 'band'. They were very good - superb in fact! His 'band' have been chosen to play for the college Open Evening next week ~ go them!!

The other two songs are here;

His solo performance was then on Tuesday, but he only had to perform that to his peers (sadly) and his tutor's feedback was that he was excellent. Again he was annoyed though, because of a change of expectations. They had been told it had to be a 15 minute performance, which he pushed himself to achieve and was very worried it would be just under, but in the end it turned out that the duration was not even a grading factor; they were marked on demonstration of ability to apply skill in three different styles of music and being able to verbally present for a few minutes, in a professional and confident way ~ which he did with ease apparently.

Next Post for part 2 ~ The Family Bit ~

Taz Turns 17

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 15:04:00 +0000

On Saturday Joel (aka Taz) turned 17. He hates me taking pictures of him, but I do anyway.

I figure one day he might like the record ~ and at any rate I know I will!

He had already had the bulk of his present in the form of the new mobile phone he really wanted, when he upgraded in August.

So he didn't get too many gifts, just some sock and chocolate from us, but everyone else gave him money. He was pleased with that though, because he can put it towards driving lessons and/or new instruments!

A friend came over, Abbie and I made hid cookie-dough cake and he generally had a nice day.

Next year 18.

Happy Birthday my lovely, silly, serious son!

GAMES WEEK...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 12:04:00 +0000

Every few weeks I like to take a 'games week' : we down all books and do whatever style of learning we please ALL WEEK ~ be it games, outdoor play, screen learning, or anything else really. They have to keep busy and they have to stay off the PS2 or screen time that is just idling, but other than that anything goes really.

So the three littlest boys, and sometimes Lilo, spent a good deal of the time outside building dens, which was excellent in all sorts of ways ~ team work, problem solving (especially when it all slid down the bank), perseverance, safety (using garden tools) and of course good physical labour!

Then there's been some of this...

a good deal of this...

and a fair few games of this, amongst the girls especially...

And now it's half term, so time for me to do some marking, DD to head off to his cousin's for the week and us all to chill ~ and maybe bake a bit :D

6 WEEKS IN...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 17:09:00 +0000

Due to computer issues I've not been on to blog (or anything else) much lately, but having spent the last couple of days building a new PC ~ yes, I built my own, with a bit of messenger help from a friend here and there ~ I can hopefully get back into a bit of a routine with my online-life. But I must say, it's been nice to take a break and focus on other things for a bit :D

So, I promised an update on how our new more-flexible system is working and on the whole, I'm pleased to say, it's working very well for MOST of the children. For Stitch however, the person who I thought this would work better for, it is not working SO well as I'd hoped. This might be more because he is basically 8 and rather work-shy. It doesn't matter what I ask him to do ~ learning activities, or simply picking up his mess ~ he walks around in a dream-world: he begins things, stops, doesn't go back, gets into trouble (and doesn't really care that he has) and is generally quite difficult to motivate to do ANYTHING constructive with his days! He is a mud-up-your-fingernails kid and I need to find a way to be a Mum who is more happy-with-that than I currently am. I still am not managing to be very hands-off tbh and trusting the process doesn't come easily to me :-( That said, he makes it all that much harder for both of us by not showing me any willingness to do anything other than play (and distract others). When he does do some work, he tries to do too much at once and gets in a tizzy. He doesn't seem to register his own limits, or want to listen when I try to help him. So, instead of doing some maths (for example) for about 10 or 20 minutes, and then taking a break and doing something else for a bit before going back to it, he tries to cram for a whole hour and wonders why he hates working so much - he has fried his brain! Then, because the last experience wasn't great, he avoids doing anything at all and ends up with hours and hours of work left to do at the end of the week, having used up all his 'free learning' time in one or two swoops, or spent the whole day playing! I don't know if I'm doing the right thing by leaving him to learn the hard way, meaning he misses out on free time with his siblings in the evenings and on weekends (because he has work to catch up), or whether I would be better to come down a bit harder on him so that he has more free time. He, by the way, doesn't see that all the playing he does in what he considers 'school time' counts towards his free time. My children are very stuck in a 9-4 routine and it's proving very hard to get any of them to break that mindset. Stitch, however isn't so much in the routine as his mind likes to think he is!! We're only 6 weeks in though, so I'm hoping things will improve. For the others though, the new way has proved very successful. It enables to my early risers to get up and get on, and my late risers to take it at their own pace. DD, for example is a 'plougher' - this week he has worked really diligently and completed everything he 'must' do by Thursday late morning, leaving himself free to get his chores out of the way and carry on building his den in the garden all afternoon and all day tomorrow if he chooses! We've also done some baking this afternoon, so that was 'extra' that he chose to join in with. Stitch on the other hand, just by comparison, still has about 3 hours worth of empty spaces on his chart, so will end up with a day of work and chores tomorrow (and maybe Saturday), but instead of doing some of it, he is currently in the garden den-building with his brother. It's not that I don't count the den-building as educational - I know it is - and I would be fine with it, IF every now and then he just came in and did a few minutes 'work', to chip away at the back-log he has left himself. I wouldn't mind either if he didn't care about working in the evenings, but I know that I will have a tantrum on my hands if I ask him to do anything after 4pm. I'd be happy with him working in the evenings ~ after-all that is definitely when I work best and it might well be for him too, but HE is not happy with that arrangement, because it means he doesn't get 'screen time' (screens aren't on in the day time, other than for educational purposes, as they are too distracting to EVERYone), or to 'play' (lol). I've been out and reminded him of the time and his need to do some work, but he just 'nnnyah'-ed at me and carried on, so I'll be facing upset later then! This really is a catch 22 ~ fuss now or fuss later... let him choose to make bad choices & face his own consequence, or coerce him into doing things my way and face the long-term consequence of a child who is possibly less able to make good choices on their own. Right now I'm fighting the urge to coerce him and letting him be because I THINK that is the right thing to do, but I'm also dreading the melt-down that will be inevitable later. 'Training' children is no easy task, when you have one that doesn't want to listen to any form of reason - and doesn't easily learn lessons from the consequences (good or bad) of his actions.

As part of my 'make it better' this year, I've have decided that we need to go out more. I don't drive, so this can prove challenging, but Paul's hours at work have changed a little and he now has two days a week working for the church. This is great for us too, because it means on a Tuesday he is free to drop us at the train station in the morning (saving us a phenomena amount of bus fares) and we can off out for the day and be back in time for tea :D. So last week I renewed my family railcard, courtesy of Tesco vouchers, and we took advantage of the tail-end of the Indian summer and headed for Colwyn Bay. Just an hour on the train and we spent the best part of the day on the beach! The kids loved it and the day was not too long. The clouds came over and it began to rain just as it was time for us to get the train home :D. I think we will go to Liverpool next month. It's a year since we were last there, and we never got out of the Science Museum that day!! This time we won't go there, but instead will head down to the docks, where The Tate and the slave museum are ~ or we might spend some time looking at the amazing Architecture! Liverpool is definitely a city we need to make several trips to, to get the best from it.

This weekend my eldest children are all away... four are going to The Gathering and their levels of excitement are rising as I speak. This is one of the highlights of their year. Lots of meeting up with friends, and LOUD worship with about 2000 other young people from around the country. Worship to D&B music may not be for everyone, but they love it!! Joel decided not to go thought this year, so he is going to a different worship conference in Bradford with another friend.

I'll leave you with some of the highlights of the last few weeks in photos (and video).

Beach Day...

Male or female?

The English trench!

The German trench.

The bombing!

Other fun that's happened...

SCIENCE

This is possible Phoebe's favourite subject this year. She's loving being left to do her own thing with this and work at a her own pace.

There's a stop motion that we made to go with this too, but I've not uploaded it yet.

ART
Stitch & DD's

Chip's

Chip's first 'proper' people drawings :D

MATHS

(with spontaneous art and literacy built in)

SPIELGABEN

WRITING

NATURE WATCHING

COOKERY
The girls and DD made shortbread...

whilst Stitch and chip made simple biscuits.

And today we made these!

...which were seriously INCREDIBLE ~ so incredible they left Chip speechless - and he is SO fussy about his goodies!

Planning for FrogAcademy 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 20:33:00 +0000

This year sees the dawn of a year when I have my eldest son, who has completely finished his education and is job-hunting, whilst at the same time my youngest just begins the journey of his 'education' years. If I am being totally honest here, I'm 13 years in, with another 12 years looming ahead of me, and the thought is very daunting! I cannot even begin to drum up the mad-enthusiasm I had in those beginning years. In those early days (after we walked away from ACE) I would spend hours downloading - on significantly slower internet, printing and planning. And then I would try to muster up the same enthusiasm in my children ~ and often it fell flat, but I persisted anyway. Gradually, over the years, I began to hear my children better and started to model their education around them more as individuals, and life improved. If you read back over the years of my blog though, you will observe that we began very structured and timetabled; loosened up somewhat, but still had very much a formal style of learning. Up until now that has worked for almost all my children. I don't think it ever fitted Jake that well, but I was unable to make the shift in my head (or heart) back then and ultimately he has done very well, finishing college with Btec Level 3 Photography with great grades (D*DD), plus a GCSE in both English and Maths. For Joel, the girls and DD the scheduled approach has worked fine. Even Lilo, who might have struggled most, has been OK with the way things have been. Even if the content has been a stretch at times - and not that enjoyable for her, the structure hasn't bothered her. But then Stitch came along, and after him Chip. Stitch began home-ed with gusto and enthusiasm, but that has quite rapidly worn off because, as more has been 'required' of him, he has increasingly switched off to the idea of table-work. He is definitely not a child to sit still and learn to a timetable and the way we have done things has been a bad fit for him this last year - leading to tension in him and stress in me - giving me a sense of deja-vue that took me back to Jacob's early days, and I have no desire to go hang around there again! Adding Chip into the mix this year, and I am thinking it's going to be a nightmare to carry on doing things with the same structure this academic year.

After a bit of a think I have come up with this:-

This is DD's sheet, but they each have one with slightly different headings - except Abbie, who has chosen to write her own timetable (without times). Phoebe is also unsure how she'll get on with this system, but she's giving it a trial run for a month and then she'll decide. In reality, it's a trial run for all of us, but I think it'll work so long as all the children are honest ;-)

The idea is that they are each entirely in control of what learning they do, how much time they spend and when they do it. It's centred around 10 minute slots and the only requirement is that there is SOMETHING written in every coloured box by Saturday bedtime. Although there is still a requirement for them to do a certain amount of learning each week I am chilling out about what that learning looks like. Math could be done in a workbook, on Conquer Maths, on a app, or on a learning website (e.g. Skoolbo, or Sumdog). They do however much they choose to do and record how much they did, and what they did by writing in the boxes. If they did 20 minutes of Skoolbo they'd just write Skoolbo in the 10 min box and a ditto in the 20 min box.

General Interest will be filled in with things we do in groups together ~ like cookery and art.

'English' I have split up a bit, so they can record what kind of learning they have done. This is because some of the workbooks they have contain various types of tasks and it's often difficult for me to make sure they are getting a balance. This way I will be able to see at a glance where any gaps are forming and address them ~ although not necessarily with workbooks ;-). I am also hoping to do a lot more literature based work with the younger ones this year ~ bouncing off the back of poetry and prose. We begun using FIAR a little last year, and it was enjoyed by all three younger boys, so I am hoping to inject more of that into our learning this year.

Also, I am hoping to make plenty of use of our Spielgaben set ~ especially with the youngest two boys.

All this could add up to very busy days for me - jumping from one activity to another as and when the children need my attention. I know am not too great at that in reality, which is how we ended up with a structure in the first place I guess. I do better knowing what's coming next and working with low-energy activities. I was a workbooks kind of child myself. I simply loved doing pages of little exercises. But imho home-education is about an education that fits the child (and as much as possible the family), and so this year I am going to have to make a big effort to make learning work more relaxed, happy and stimulating for my younger boys, whilst releasing my older children to take more charge of their own learning. I would really like to gradually phase out even this much structure and fall into a much more chilled educational style. I think it might be good for us all - because don't have the energy for so much nagging any more! I know my younger boys are bright, and intelligent. I am not concerned at all about their ability to learn, but I am a tad concerned about their desire to do so. Trusting the process is definitely not my strong point!! Maybe I will get there - I hope so.

So, today the stop watches arrived (so they can know how long they've been at work on each activity, and help keep things honest) and Monday will be our first day of this new way ~ I'll let you all know how it goes at the end of the week!

I'm not quite sure what happened to Summer...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 17:30:00 +0000

... but it's managed to come - happen - and be on the brink of leaving, and in all that time I've not managed to blog at all. Even now I'm just snatching a little time before I go out this morning, having woken at ridiculous O'clock, and I don't think I'll get this finished (or nearly finished).

It not been the most sunny of summers ~ weather wise, or other wise really. If I look at it broadly, it feels like we have hopped from one struggle to another ~ and we aren't out of the woods yet. I'm not really complaining (much), because I know life gets like that at times, and then it has a habit of sorting itself out again ~ thankfully!

I haven't blogged seems Stitch's birthday, which seems a distant memory now and there's no way I can cover every even from the of May onwards, so I'll link to Flickr albums here and there through this post, so you can see the pictures if you want to.

Early June was DD's birthday ~ the big 10!! I can't believe he hit double figures ~ a significant milestone in this house ~ and I didn't even do him a blog post :(
But he had a lovely day: he received the lego set he really wanted (Police Station) plus a few other Lego bits, and he got to go to Costa with Daddy for the, what has become traditional, drink and cake.

The rest of June was spent finishing off as much of the school-year's work as we could before we went on hols in July. As a family we tend to holiday in early July because we can, and because it's much cheaper ~ and often the weather is good then too. This year we had planned well ahead and booked a cottage in North Devon. We considered that this might be the last year that we are able to holiday with all 10 of us together, as Jake might be working next year (and/or want to take his holiday in other ways), so we had treated ourselves with a cottage rather than camping and I can only say I am SOOO glad we did.

The week before we set off for Devon the car was due an MOT (why we get it done just before hols each year makes no sense ~ need to change that), but for the first time since we had it it failed. There were a couple of things that were not that big a deal, but then it needed some welding work doing too ~ and that was a major deal! We drew breath and paid the bill and contemplated a holiday on a tighter budget than we had hoped. Kindly my nan offered the children some spending money ~ so that would help a little. BUT THEN, two days later, Paul ran over the hugest nail and got a flat! Knowing we had a long journey ahead the spare was not an option, but then it turned out the spare had perished and needed replacing anyway - so two new tyres later and we were truly skint!! If we had been going camping at that point we might have had to cancel the holiday because although the accommodation is cheaper when we camp, we end up spending a lot of money on 'easy' food. It's very hard to cook for 10 on a camping stove, and we certainly wouldn't want to try every night for a week! Not only that, but camping also means we 'go out' every day - come rain or shine - because there's not enough to do in a tent, or space! The cottage meant we could have a more home-from-home arrangement. We could cook 'budget' meals and if we ran out of money there were things to do in and around the farm that would keep us occupied. We also took toys, games, laptops, films and even the Playstation with us, just in case of skint, rainy, stuck-in days!!
As it turned out, although we had the odd shower here and there, and enough over-night rain to make us all very grateful not to have be worrying about leaks in canvas, it was an overall lovely week, and we got to spend a significant amount of time on the beach :D.
All the pictures can be found here; http://www.tmfh.me.uk/devonholiday. The titles that start 'Devon' are from our holidays, but here's some mix and match highlights...

After our holidays the children were here, there and everywhere. DD had gym training right throughout the holidays, but missed some being away on other holidays! Once we came back from Devon it was a couple of weeks until the schools broke up round here, but as soon as they did DD and his cousin were whisked off for a most of week, down to Weymouth (yes, all the way back down South) with their Nan & Grandad. Later in the summer Stitch went with a different cousin and spent a week down there too.

Other than holidays the kids have had a holiday club at church one week and the older ones have spent time with friends. We have tried to take a few trips out as a family, but this always seems to be quite challenging to make happen. We managed a quick jaunt around Dearnford Lake one Sunday afternoon and a day out in Delamere Forest one Saturday. But somehow our lives seemed to be pretty crammed despite not formally 'schooling'.

One of my main occupations this summer has been helping the girls to clear out many of the toys from their room. On the whole they have very little that they 'play' with these days and all three are desperate to have a 'grown-up' room. Lilo does still play with her Barbies (and my old Sindy) quite a bit, so she's kept a smaller selection of favourites and the rest went. Some of the Littlest Pet Shop proved too hard to say goodbye to and ended up in a smaller box, back under a bed. The sizable collection of Sylvanian Families houses, furniture and dolls has been relegated to large plastic storage boxes to await offspring to inherit! Almost all their Playmobil was handed down to younger brothers and dressing up clothes went to charity shops or our church toddler group. That said, the Disney princess dresses (which cost a fortune) found their way into storage and we tried to save enough to share between all their daughters-to-be! That left a gigantic collection of Polly Pocket, a small collection of My Little Pony(s), some more Littlest Petshop and all things 'baby-doll' to still get rid of. Knowing that all those things carry Ebay value I have spent my summer photographing and listing everything on Ebay and have made them a not-to-disagreeable amount of money from so doing. The money will go towards the room refurbishments, which they have asked for as a joint Christmas gift this year and seems like a great idea to Paul and I. Now just to find the time to actually do it..!

Other significant time-consumers this summer have been computers! Both of our main PC's bit the dust. Mine (a little over 18 months old, and just outside warranty) hit a graphics error, which doesn't sound like much, but is a bigger deal than it could be if it wasn't an all-in-one touchscreen PC. Because of what it is it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer and quite frankly, probably isn't worth the repair cost. Then Jake's died too, refusing to power on. His was a PC I had repeatedly repaired, and it kept blowing out various components (including the power unit once before). In the end I concluded that the motherboard is probably shorting, so I removed the hard-drive and declared it defunct. Being that money was extremely tight already, I had to figure a way to make the best of a bad situation ~ being left with three vintage, but working laptops and one relic laptop that also worked, but barely! I decided to investigate & upgrade the RAM status of all of them, and try to make them all a little quicker and functional for as long as we need to use them. I did succeed in speeding up three of the four, but one refused to accept additional RAM (even though there was no real reason why it shouldn't). So now I have two moderately quick, but still vintage laptops, my SLOW vintage laptop and the relic, which is now a teensy bit faster, but still a sloth really. My final investment ended up being a Raspberry Pi-2. I had looked at this as a cheap little 'hook up to a monitor' option to give us internet access for some of the websites we use, but chose against it until I was discussing with the children what they would like to learn about this year. Lilo said that she would like to learn how Minecraft works ~ and so at that moment the RPI became a very real option again :D. She was so happy to receive her little computer in the post and I think it will be very useful to all of us - it's certainly faster than the relic and my laptop. Sadly though, we still can't afford to buy a new PC, but I do have a plan...

OK so I think that might be my summer summed up. I'll do my 'planning' post separately for those who are more interested in the home-ed of our life than the ins-and-outs of all the family stuff ;-)

Stitch Turn Eight.

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 15:21:00 +0000

So this boy turned eight!

It was a funny sort of birthday, because he was actually away on Energi camp the actual day of it, where I believe they made a proper fuss of him and he had a lovely day (and was then sick the following day with the bug that spread through the camp and then came home - sigh). We had packed up a couple of little things for him & sent them with Abbie - a big 'it's my birthday' badge and a little transformer robot thing - just so he had something to open that day.

So on the Saturday after he came home we celebrated his 'home-birthday' with his choice of meal and opening his presents & cards.

He'd asked for this Lego helicopter, and although I was reluctant because he is rather one for loosing bits, he was thrilled, so I'm glad we did get it in the end.

He and DD have been collecting the City Police set, so these extra little characters were just for fun.

The boys then spent quite some time building together. DD was finding the bits and Stitch did all the building.

After a while DD went off, but Stitch persevered and completed the set with very little help from anyone else.

He must have been at it about 3 hours or more. It kept him busy ~ and he's kept it together since (so far).

I struggle to believe that he is already 8. Time is flying very fast.

It's already 6 years we have lived in this house ~ longer than any home we have had in the almost 20 years since we were married and certainly longer than we anticipated living here! Back then Stitch was my baby ~ only just 2 ~ how cute was he?! :D

He's still cute, in a bullish, boyish, bull-dozer kind of way :D

He really is my bruising boy and struggles to be still, or pay much attention to anything other than screens really, but he is very loving and sociable. I must admit, he drives me to distraction at times, but I love him enormously. He is very bright and clever, but has some deficit on the 'common sense' front ~ I'm hoping that's just down to being 8!

Love you Stitch xx ♥ xx

ARTY POST...GIACOMETTI GLUE & PASTEL MEN

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Thu, 14 May 2015 15:09:00 +0000

This week's lesson came from here

I love the way these came out, even though they may not be as skinny as they should be. I think perhaps we needed to use thicker glue because this ran as it was drying. All the same, they look great & they were relatively easy :D

Phoebe's & Abbie's

Stitch & Mine

Lilo & DD's

We think DD's looks like a pile of rocks, maybe...

(borrowed image of Kinder Scout)

Chip didn't quite have the stamina to finish his, but here he is hard at work...

He'll finish off one day next week I expect ~ he loves to be arty :D

COOKING & ART CATCH UP

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Wed, 06 May 2015 15:40:00 +0000

I'm a bit behind with my Home-ed blogging, so just for now this is what we've been doing in Cooking and Art ~ the two things we do more collectively.

COOKING:

Custard trials...

We cooked two types of custard; traditionally made with eggs and milk, and the other with custard powder. It was generally agreed that the traditional one was nicer, but another time we might make it a bit sweeter. Abbie also felt it tasted rather to eggy, but there's not much can be done about that ~ perhaps more sugar would change that a little. The powder version was quite uniformly disliked and was really quite tasteless! Problem is, my children have got rather to used to the taste of Birds 'ready to eat' version of custard and neither tasted anything like that!

The powdered custard was improved by the addition of cocoa and a little extra sugar ~ then they ate it! I meanwhile happily finished off the traditional version, which I thought was delicious!

All about Eggs...
Then last week we made a little back-track and had a lesson 'all about eggs'. We talked about how to tell if eggs are fresh, how to store them and how to use them. We talked about their numerous uses and how to prevent curdling them when you add them to things (which of course we had practised the week before with the custard). Each of the children then practised breaking and separating one egg ~ which left me with a few eggs to find a use for ~ so so we made pancakes (as not everyone is fond of omelette, which would have been my first choice). The children asked if they could make chocolate pancakes, and as we'd already had lunch and this was just for fun, I conceded ;-)
They made up the mixture and from Joel down to Lilo they all made their own pancakes, and of course they then spread Nutella on them too.

ART:

We are all quite grateful to see a few sunny days at last; sunny enough for us to be able to begin to take lessons outside. We took art outside a couple of weeks ago and, appropriately, painted butterflies :D

These were oil-pastel and ink. The children had the choice to outline in oils and paint in ink, or colour-in in pastels and wash over with ink. The results were quite lovely, but most of the children struggled not to make a mess with the oil pastels because they are so smudgey.

In order; Stitch, DD, Phoebe, Abbie, Lilo, Mine & Chip's (started but not finished). I don't think Joel kept his :(

This week we did a bit of Lichtenstein Pop-Art, because it was simple and relatively easy, but it still took a long time, and these are the only finished two - Abbie & Phoebe's. I'll put the others' pictures up as they emerge.

18 YEARS AGO...

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Sat, 02 May 2015 01:03:00 +0000

18 years ago today... I became 'mummy' for the very first time...

...And today is the day I become mother to an adult! Yes, so he's still a teenager, but is a full legal sense he is an adult.

18 years ago today the UK heralded the dawn of a 'new-labour' government ~ and now, in just a few days time, the boy born moments after the results were announced, gets to vote himself on the government for his future (and ours).

I will never forget the moment I held that tiny red boy in my arms and how my heart just knew such overwhelming love for him. His is the pregnancy I remember most clearly, and the labour and the birth ~ not because it was painful, but because it was beautiful! He paved the way for me: he gave me faith in my body and enough insight into of it's ways, that allowed me to safely birth 7 more children at home. He taught me that I am strong ~ and brave ~ and able!

Jake was not the easiest baby, or toddler, or small boy, or slightly bigger boy!
BUT he was always funny, chatty, clever, quirky and very winsome ~ he is still all those things. I always adored him - even on the days when he drove me to tears!

He was always very easily distracted and discipline was difficult with him because he was very 'self governing' ~ such a strong sense of self and a will to go with it! In these regards he's not much changed, but the difficulties that come with those characteristics are now tempered with more awareness of how he affects others around him and a growing understanding of how to turn his struggles into strengths.

Jake always struggled with physical affection ~ even as a tiny baby ~ he needed hugs and cuddles, but disliked the restriction they brought. He cried to be held, then struggled to get down. He fed in a hurry and cried often for more, because he never quite took enough in one sitting! Thankfully, as he has grown he has found ways to show his affections without being uncomfortable ~ I even get a hug from him occasionally these days ;-) ~ and he is always very loving and affectionate towards his younger siblings - they adore him.

I know Jake has always born the brunt of my parenting struggles ~ being the first every step of the way is definitely the short straw! But I hope he knows how much I love him ~ that deep, deep love (and hint of pride) that wells up when I look at the lovely man he is becoming. I hurt when he hurts. I rejoice when things go well for him. I ache when I see a fall ahead, and I struggle to resist reaching out to stop him hurting himself, but, just as when he was small, he would rather run ahead of himself and face the scraped knees than walk quietly and sensibly by my side! He has always been a 'go for it' kind of person and I don't wish to change that about him at all. I want to send him out to 'go get the best out of your life' with all my blessing. I want him to aim high and not be afraid to fail ~ to be true to God and himself, to be faithFULL and fearLESS!

The way ahead is just about to spread wide before him, with choices everywhere he looks. Each choice will shape him and lead him to more choices. I'm not sure he has a plan really ~ and in some ways I love that he doesn't because he is free to go wherever his journey takes him. He's never really been a planner, or a forward thinker, and I suspect he will always be somewhat swept along by the waves that pass underneath him - sometimes bobbing gently along with life, sometimes hurtling rapidly towards the next adventure and occasionally (not too often I hope) recoiling from a storm. In six weeks time he leaves college ~ and full time education. He isn't going into higher education. He is content to have achieved what he hopes will be a very acceptable grade in his Btec and to now want to go and 'get a job'. Ideally he would still love that job to include photography in some way, but he is aware that his love of images may just have to remain a passion until he can find a way to make his passion pay!

And so I'm left wondering and praying about what the future holds for my grown-up boy:

I pray for his happiness.
I pray for his health.
I pray for his peace.
I pray for his success ~ however he measures it.

I pray for his 'one-day' marriage:

I pray he falls deeply, madly in love, marries and stays faithful to beautiful Christian woman, who will walk by his side through all that life throws at him ~ the good and the not so great, as it is apt to do. And that he will cherish her like nothing else ~ and love her like his Dad loves me ~ utterly and completely.
I pray that his wife will love him, cherish him and encourage him, and when life gets rough she will know how to help him through.
I pray that his marriage will be strong and beautiful. That he will be able to take the good stuff he's learnt from his Dad and I and build on that to make his marriage even better than ours. That their faith in God will be at the very centre of every decision they make together and will be the cord that binds them and entwines them.

And if he never marries ~ I pray that the relationships he has with Jesus, his friends and his family can be all those things for him!

We love him Lord. When he was a tiny baby Paul & I entrusted him to you, acknowledging that he was always more yours than ours. We've raised him as best as we could and taught him of you. We've encouraged him to find you for himself ~ and he has. So now, it's coming time to let him travel with you, without us so much at his side. It's nearing the time where we have to let go and let him find his own path. It hurts Lord, but then Love often does. Look after him Lord ~ he's Your precious child.

Week Three in Kenya & Then Back Home.

noreply@blogger.com (Frogmum) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:25:00 +0000

In the end I am blogging our third week in Kenya from home. It's crazy how quickly our time seemed to fly that last week.

Our week was again filled with ministering to the people in and around Hope and Kindness., but we did manage a couple of little 'outings' in our last week too.

I took a couple more art classes for the little ones, and continued to teach the young girls in the evenings. One evening I wasn't feeling so great, so Rachel stepped in, and she has now taken over where I have left off after coming home. It's great to know the girls will be able to continue being encouraged even now I'm home :D

Paul preached on the Sunday again, and also ministered to the Men's group and the worship team again. It seems his teaching has been a great 'boost' for them all.

We continued to pray with Dorine each morning and it was very hard to say goodbye to her on Saturday :(

We also continued to meet and study with Terry & Judy each morning, and also with Ian and Hilda, who arrived part way through week two.

At the beginning of week three H&K were faced with a potentially very difficult situation to work through. We really felt that God had placed us there at the perfect time and we were blessed to be able to support, encourage and pray with Terry and Judy as they faced their trial. Thankfully ~ Praise God ~ the situation was resolved to the benefit of everyone concerned.

The last couple of mornings we were able to be joined by Millie (Social Worker) and Duncan (administrator) and were able to pray together with the whole team ~ which was also lovely.

On Thursday we took a 'team day out' and had a jolly down in Kendu Bay, on the shores of Lake Victoria. It was very interesting to watch the fishing boats come back, but sad to see that so many of them had empty nets. Lake Victoria, despite being the worlds 2nd largest inland lake, has sadly been very badly managed and fish stocks are now critically low. The main catch desired is Tilapia (a delicious fish), but as I say, the nets were mostly empty.

After a COLD drink by the lake, we went to a restaurant (hotel) in the town. Hilda & a couple of others had Tilapia, but most of us had fried chicken. The chicken was VERY fresh, but as the chickens in Kenya are a bit on the skinny side it was much tougher than we are used to eating. All the same it was tasty, and easier to eat with fingers (no knives and forks) than the fish would have been!

Friday morning Paul, Terry and the young lads led the school assembly with their worship band that they had been working together on for the last two weeks or so. Then I shot down to the primary school and took photographs of the 90+ children who still need sponsors (see HERE if you'd like to sponsor a child) ~ which I then spent most of the evening editing!

Late-morning Ian and Hilda took Paul & I down to Simbiri Nan Bell Health Centre.

Ruth, who heads up the work there, had been to visit H&K the second weekend we were there and Paul had gone back to visit when Terry took Ruth home. I was having a nap at the time but there wouldn't have been room in the car for me anyway, however Paul really felt it was a project that I ought to see, so we made a special effort to go back there. Ruth is incredible.

The work at Simbiri is hard, but SO important. They run a small maternity care unit, HIV counselling services & treatment, & 6 wards for women, men and children. They save many lives in the local community from falling victim to HIV, malaria and other common illnesses. They also have an on-site mortuary. Death is a much more common fact of life in Kenya than here, and the mortuary at Simbiri has an excellent reputation for treating the dead well. This may sound morbid, but it is not common for this to be the case in Kenya.

Simbiri is an amazing place, but it has been hit by difficulties in recent years and Ruth really needs new supporters for the work to continue, so if you feel you could support this work in any way, then please do visit Simbiri's Facebook page and find out how.

And then it was Saturday ~ time to pack up and say our goodbyes. I spent some time in the afternoon with some of the girls, hanging out and doing hair ;-). Then in the evening everyone came over and we worshiped together one last time. Paul & I were able to give each of the young people an individual bible verse to encourage them and I have to tell you - it was SO hard to say goodbye to them all :-(

Overnight it rained - A LOT - meaning that our drive to Kisumu in the morning had to take the rougher route (the less rough route can become a bit too slippery to be safe after rain). We left H&K around 8.30am, waved and hugged off by those who were about that early. The road to Kisumu was quite eye opening ~ in parts much like driving along a dried up river-bed. It was extremely rough and bumpy, with great crevices and deep pot-holes ~ and this is the main route into Kosele and Oyugis. The road was supposedly tarmacked back in the 70's, but the contractors ran off with the money having never laid the tarmac. However, as the government now have it listed as a tarmac road it stays just the way it is ~ despite the fact it is quite clearly not! This picture is of a better part.

When we arrived in Kisumu we stopped at the local craft market and bought some souvenirs. This might have been one of the hardest things I did whilst in Kenya tbh. There were so many traders, all selling very similar wares, but each trying to scrape a living from the next passer by. Sadly, these days, since the traders were moved from the town centre, there are not so many passers-by and life is even harder than it might be. The goods were gorgeous and I would have liked to spend money at every stand (to help them), but that was not possible and I left feeling like I had cheated those I had not bought from :(

We then went for lunch ~ and this time I had the Tilapia. I felt I didn't want to leave Kenya without tasting their special fish :D It was delicious!

Finally we said our goodbyes to Terry at the airport and began our uneventful journey home.

Abbie and Phoebe came with Michelle to the airport to meet us, whilst the others waited at home. When we got home we were greeted by this;

and LOTS of noisy hugs and kisses!!

Kenya has been an adventure and a blessing ~ and now Paul and I have to work out what God wants to bring into our lives out of it. We both have the sense that this is the start of something new for us, but we're not entirely sure what that looks like yet...

There are MANY more pictures than I can share on my blog, so here's a slideshow from my Flickr pictures;