Forest school - First Visit

 

So, I managed to book B into the Cotswold Forest School last Friday for the first time. It's based in Cirencester and happens monthly.

I have to say, I am SO proud of my boy at how brave he has been since he came out of school. He has been put into many situations where he knows nobody but has to immediately make an effort to join in. He is learning that if you just watch from the sidelines and don't get involved it's all a bit boring ( a good metaphor for life too!) But it's not always easy, is it, to break into a new, fully established group of people who you don't know and you aren't sure what's happening. 

So, when we turned up a bit late (car issues, SatNav issues, solar eclipse faffing) and I literally marched him into a wood and sent him off with a (lovely) stranger called Johno, I was so pleased that he dug deep and embraced his nerves. He didn't know what to expect but then neither did I really. 

They made dens, dug holes, tracked red deers, make footprint casts of animals, made campfires, cooked bacon and generally wallowed in a whole lot of mud. 

As he rounded the corner and I saw this caked monster ambling towards me dragging his bag behind him in the mud I realised there was no option but to strip down to pants for the journey home. 

And I cannot think the last time I have seen his eyes light up like they were telling me about everything they got up to, who fell over, the names of his new friends, what he learned about the wildlife. He was like Barnaby, only with a fresh, dirty, reconnected-with-nature glow around him. 

He had a fabulous time, which totally made ' feeling the fear and doing it anyway' completely worth it. 

More than a few lessons learned there, I think! 

Home Ed: The bits I didn't know...

So, I researched as much as I could before deregistering Barnaby from school but here we are, 6 weeks in and it's evident there are some bits I didn't take into consideration. Here are a few:

* Whilst checking the answers in his maths workbook, I discovered he'd forgone the pen tin next to him and been much more resourceful with his writing implement. Who needs a felt tip anyway? Black eyeliner pencil does *exactly* the same job...... Apparently!

* I need to increase the frequency with which I buy loo roll. I do wonder where it all goes, but I think we probably know the answer to that.

* There will never be enough food in the house. Tesco must have started sprinkling it with magic dust which turns it all to a matter of crumbs in no time at all.

* Mud is no longer an external item that works adequately in a garden or wood or forest. No, it works equally as well as a lounge floor. I don't think this is quite what's meant when wanky interior designers say things like 'let's make a feature by bringing the outside in' despite the fact that's actually what's happening.

*You give up on all standards of your child wearing clean clothes because they are going to get filthy outside yet again today so they may aswell wear yesterdays. Your standards loiter precariously around the 'just making sure they have clean pants and wiping their face with a wet wipe when you think you may see other people' point.

*Old people love us. It's obvious that they love to see little ones out and about and often shout greetings or words of encouragement to Barnaby. He thinks it's brilliant because he gets to legitimately shout at them as they are deaf, and they are too old to know what day it is so never tell him he should be in school...

*I am amazed and astounded at the things my Son knows. On certain days (hours, moments) he appears so super clever and logistically intelligent that he seems way above his years. And then he undoes all his good efforts and totally spins that on its head by saying random things like 'you know that dog (puppet) on telly? I've been thinking recently (after watching him for 2 years) that, well, actually I'm not sure he's a real life dog. I've met quite a few real life dogs now and none of them have answered me when I talk to them. So, yeah, as he can talk,I think he's not really real after all' and then I wonder. I pull a funny face and just wonder....

* A dressing gown is perfectly acceptable garment to wear for housework, lessons and work. There is no obligation to remove it before lunchtime.
Unless you have something that's recorded delivery in which case please think about the poor postman who will struggle to get that image of you out of  his head for a few hours.

* I have no idea of the day, much less the date. Many a time I've said to Mum ' is it the 16th today?' and she looks like I'm a bit bonkers and says slowly 'noooo, it's the 23rd'. Hmm. I have a rogue week that's got the disappearing skills of Houdini. Comes and goes when it pleases.

* When he was at school I only heard the word "Mum" 32,355 times a day. Triple that and add half a million and that's about right for an average Home Ed day.

* I'm thick. No two ways about it. I didn't realise quite how stupid I was (ahem. No comments please!) until I had a 7 year old question EVERYTHING. Things I *should* know. Questions that sound like I couldn't possibly have reached the age of 38 not knowing. I've learned, on these occasions the absolute correct response is "well what you YOU think?' while I declare I suddenly need a quick wee and dash off to surreptitiously open Google.

* We'll have some of the oddest conversations known to man, which don't always end well.

B: "Mum, what are Rhinos horns made of?"
Me: "Ohh that's a good one, what do you think it's made of?!" (suddenly I need a wee)
B: "Bone I think"
Me: "well actually it's made of hair. The same kind of stuff that's in our hair and nails."
B: "oh well that's a bit strange, I mean, I don't even know why they have horns in the first place considering they are herbivores. I think they can't really be herbivores, they MUST be carnivores"
Me: "Why's that?"
B: "Well they have been given a horn for a reason, so I think it'll come in handy for them for when it's time to go out and stab Jesus passing by"
Me, bewildered "eh?"
B, exasperated "The horn"
Me "yes?"
B: "On the rhino"
Me: "yes?"
B: " They need it to pin down Jesus passing by" (let's out a big sigh.)
Me: ".........sorry love, you've lost me a bit, I'm not too sure why you think a rhinoceros needs to skewer Jesus with his horn?"
B: pauses for a moment and as he looks at me I see my own frown lines reflected on his brow, closely followed by a look of absolute disgust on his face about my evident lack of intelligence... before the penny drops...

"Cheetahs Mum, I said Cheetahs...."

Oh. Yes.
Not Jesus then?

Goes to prove you actually CAN find anything on Google.
A Rhino clearly not skewering Jesus for his tea. 

22.3.15 Weekly roundup

Been a mixed bag this week but what a delight the weather has been, we have been outside loads! 

Apart from the usual: literacy, phonics, reading, maths, telling the time, project work, Beavers and Home ed meet, we are happily getting sidetracked by things. Quite often we'll be talking about one topic and one question takes us into something unexpected. For example, we were discussing health & nutrition and various packaging when we discovered my kitchen scales were broken (we were  testing the weights on the packets).

From there we discovered that Trebor Softmints don't have a weight on their label. (they should!) We also discovered the website printed on the pack doesn't even exist so some researching on Google then provided a phone number to Cadburys (are you keeping up?!). We spoke to a lovely man at customer services who confirmed that all packets should have a weight printed on them and that they are 45.5g. So, now you know. I'm sure you'll sleep better tonight!!  It was a bit of a mystery tour for half an hour but quite interesting nonetheless! So he was using Maths, weights, questioning skills, Google, reading and writing. Oh and eating. He likes Softmints :) 

On Wednesday Barnaby achieved the next level at swimming and got his certificate. Bit of a shame that we are going to have to give up lessons next term as I simply cannot afford them. He's done well and is a confident swimmer so objective achieved I guess. 

Thursday Barnaby had an adventure with another home ed family and went off to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. I was a little nervous as he set off with Ginny and her two boys as we haven't known them long but seems I needn't have worried. Manners were remembered and fun was had by all. Even me who has since seen Barnabys impression of a 'boy flamingo going a bit hyperactive when he sees a girl flamingo he likes'!! Ask him though, and he's adamant he didn't learn a thing...! I love that he doesn't even realise he's learning. 

Solar eclipse was a bit of a non event owing to the fact we were rushing around to get to Forest school. We tried pin holes and colanders, all sorts. As it turned out we discovered we could view it quite well through the filtered glass in the car sun roof! I think he was disappointed it didn't go as dark as the middle of the night. 

His first trip to Forest School was on Friday but I'm going to write a separate post on that one. 

Finally, this weekend has been a sociable one as he met up with 7 of his friends in the park next to our house. I don't think he spoke to me in about 5 hours, he was having far too much fun to worry about me in my picnic chair with a flask of coffee freezing my arse off while he played football! I had 2 of his friends stay on longer and come back to the house (where I took full advantage of having enough people for teams and got them playing a whole heap of educational games without realising, I taught them about telling the time and how they can do their 9 times table easily!) 

We also went visiting friends and started clearing out the spare desk in my summerhouse so he can come and do his lessons while I am working! 

All in all a productive week in the sunshine! Yay! The 

Home Education?! But what about his socialisation?!

This is it. The question I reckon is THE question every home edder gets asked the most. 

.

"Home educate?!! But how will he learn to socialise?"

It's the question EVERYONE asks. And I mean everyone; family, friends, people at the post office, the school receptionist, the dentist, the Tesco cashier. Everyone.

Lordy me, it gets a bit tedious in the end, if I'm honest...which seems a little unfair because it was the question I asked the most too. My biggest concern was making sure that upon him leaving school he still had plenty of kids to play with (I mean, getting to spend all day every day with me is amazingly brilliant, obvs, but then I've had 38 years to get used to it...)

So anyway, when people ask, I try to explain a little.

We've all be indoctrinated into thinking school is a great place for socialisation. We went to school, our friends and parents went to school. Your kids, probably, go to school. So it seems like removing a child from that situation is going to cause all manner of problems.

I get it. I really do.

However, let's start with this question:

How do YOU socialise?

Do you only speak to people the same age as you? At your workplace, do you have to deal with all kinds of people from all kind of backgrounds, all of whom are different ages? Yes. You do.
In every day life you don't go to the supermarket and ONLY go to the checkout assistant (or whatever the technical term is these days) because he started school the same year as you, therefore you know how to interact with him. Are the only friends you have now the same ones you made in primary school?

It seems to me that it's a little odd to think that the *only* way a child will socialise is by sitting in a classroom with 29 other kids his own age. Where they have to do what they are told by an adult the whole time.

I was lucky that Barnaby is, like me, a people collector. He loves having a large group of friends and he loved spending all day with them. 

In fact, if you asked him if he wanted to spend all day every day with his friends his answer would be 'Yes! (but only if it's at the park!)'.
In much the same way that if you were asked if you'd like to spend all day every day with your friends you'd say Yes! (but only if it's at the pub!) 

(ah, I do miss those weekends when I was in my twenties!!)

So back to my boy, and how I'm ruining his life by turning him into an inept, awkward, unsociable weirdo... (Yes, all those words have actually been used in conversation from other people over the last 6 weeks.)

We see lots of different people every day. Okay, most days. Some days we can't be arsed to see other people. So we don't. The rest of the time we are out and about in the community. We talk to lots of adults. He talks to lots of kids. He has one to one playdates often, he makes new friends at various places (remember the conga in the soft play at the Garden Centre?!), we go to Home Ed groups for at least 4 hours a week, with the option of more.  We still have old school friends over for tea, or he sees them at Beavers or birthday parties or swimming. He sees 'old people' who are happy to stop and have a natter with him. He plays with the neighbours kid frequently. He has 2 ( mostly unwilling) kittens who are forced to listen to his incessant chattering and one Mummy who pretends that she listens when he's picked up the 94th carrot of the day and says 'look, this one is like a spear. And this one reminds me of a crocodile....(and so on!) He has a little sister who uses him as both a trampoline and sparring partner every other weekend. He's not short of people in his life.

He's not a loner. He's not weird. He's not lost the ability to make friends. His confidence hasn't taken a battering. 

He's learning to negotiate. To accommodate different ages and abilities. He's being brave and taking charge, then learning when to step back. He's nailing leadership AND teamwork. He's getting the  best out of his new friends, and his old ones, who are free to just 'be' without the confines of a school schedule. They don't stop playing because after half an hour their time is up, signalled by  bell or a whistle.
It may look to the outside world that kids in a muddy field playing football and making dens and climbing trees and creating daisy chains and playing tag are not learning anything or are being 'socialised' -  but that's because WE have been taught that learning comes packaged in a classroom of 30 kids, doing a set thing for a set time.  It doesn't. It really doesn't. 

There is, I have discovered, no harder or faster learning happening than when a den is under construction. The skill it takes for 19 children of mixed gender and ages to work together to achieve a goal is huge. There are arguments. There is agreement. There is laughter. There is fury when someone tries to smash it down.
They are, without sitting at a desk, preparing for life in the outside world by being IN the outside world.

So, all in all, I really believe that the socialisation issue is not an issue! 

(As an aside, I notice that nobody every asks about *my* 'socialisation', I guess because it's assumed that as an adult I've now stopped learning this. When Barnaby was at school the joy of being a self employed, single parent meant I worked (alone) all day long because that was the time I had. Interaction with another adult was confined to 3 minutes on the school run, morning and afternoon, if I was lucky. Adult conversation for a maximum of 6 minutes a day. If we were late or Barnaby had a club, it'd be entirely feasible that my communication with any other adult would amount to 10 minutes per week. I was sad, and lonely, and fed up with only Whatsapp and Facebook to inform me there was an outside world outside of my little bubble.

Now, I work evenings and weekends mainly, some daytime when B is with me, but the bonus is that we are out and about. I am seeing actual real life human beings! For adult conversations! About grown up things! I am practising making friends, negotiating different backgrounds, beliefs, values and ideas. It's a whole new world I tell you, and one thing I know for sure is that we never stop learning, if your heart is open to it...!)

See, it really isn't a 'new' idea!

11.3.15 Poorly sick

So, rather than what Barnaby is learning,  *I* am learning that being ill is rubbish! I've had some kind of virus since Christmas which insists on knocking me off my feet a few days a week. Last week I really thought I'd seen the back of it, then yesterday just after swimming I got a sudden and immediately awful cold. This morning I couldn't lift my head off the pillow.

Barnaby has been brilliant though, which is good because he could have taken full advantage of this rare occasion when Mummy can't move off the sofa.

He did his literacy and spellings, we've downloaded Literacy Planet onto his tablet for a free trial and it's brilliant, highly recommended. We have also done some learning about money and values that make up a pound. We counted up the coins in his money box.  He still feels so rich when he has 50 pennies, and not so rich when he has £1. It's hard to explain the value of money sometimes!

As Minecraft appears to be huge in HomeEd he's desperate to get an Xbox however I've said I'll search for a (very) cheap second hand one and in the meantime he's made a chart to monitor his savings so he can earn some money to pay for it.
He wrote a list of ways he can help others/round the house and has asked if he can start earning pocket money for little jobs.
I've made it clear that he still has to do unpaid chores (paying for them to be done goes against the grain with me. I know it's a common thing to do but our house grinds to a halt if it's all left to me and as more than half the work is caused by Barnaby it's only fair he helps out.  Unless anyone wants to pay me for doing my own washing and ironing, then I'll reconsider!!)

He's also done lots of reading today about Castles and Knights. It was their first topic for year 2 when be was in school and he's still fascinated by it all. I'm looking forward to taking him back to Warwick Castle. Their school trip (which I went on) was a waste of time really; we didn't even go in the castle! Looking forward to finding the cheapest way to visit again properly!

Finally, he's done about 45 minutes on the treadmill, unloaded all the food shopping, tidied his room, eaten his body weight in carrots and hummus, wrapped me in a blanket on the sofa and kissed the top of my head about 20 times saying "poor old Mummy. Poor poor old, old, old Mummy"
I *think* that was supposed to cheer me up!

Hopefully I will be well enough to leave the house tomorrow.

Xx

10.3.15 Learning and Ear Lobes

It's a bit difficult to qualify learning, it happens all the time at different places and about different things.

But the last week or so we've done 3 phonics work books and a maths work book, LiteracyPlanet online, continued the Van Gogh inspired painting and visited All Things Wild which helped with his animals project as we learned loads.

Delving deeper into Van Goghs life has been interesting. We talked about cutting off ear lobes (and I skimmed over the 'he then took it and presented it to prostitutes at a local brothel' sentence - there are some things he doesn't need to learn quite yet!!)

Interestingly though, it has prompted a few conversations about mental health issues. Well, it's not exactly usual to drink paint, cut off ear lobes or shoot yourself but it did make me think how little mental health is addressed with children. Let's face it, everyone knows someone who has issues these days, even if they aren't the one suffering themselves.
I've battles plenty of my own demons  in my time and am pleased I now have a greater understanding of what tips me over the edge and what I have to do to keep myself together.

I do think that protecting yourself and keeping a good health of both the physical and mental variety is really important. Recognising when you are in a bad way or knowing how to seek help is very important. The sooner we start teaching our kids generation about it instead of trying to hush it up or sweep it under the carpet the better.

Other than that we've had friends staying for weekend and enjoyed the sun! Barnaby has been building bases/dens, played lots of football with the teenagers at the park, been on a bug hunt with his magnifying glass, enjoyed David Walliams' Ratburger (we are half way through!), had a school friend over to play and been to Beavers.

The most crucial lesson Barnaby learned over the last few days is that a small and compact bottom does not make for a soft landing when it's your first time taking your skateboard to the skate park. Great reward for finishing his work in good time but does leave a few bruises :)

Day Trip: All Things Wild , Worcestershire

So I heard on the Facebook group about a Home Ed day at All Things Wild. (www.allthingswild.co.uk)

I'd never heard of this place before but everyone who had been had said it was really worthwhile going as there was a lot there. It's only 45 minutes from home so we packed a picnic and wellies and off we went. I kind of thought that it'd be someones farm they'd extended a bit, that had a little playground and some animals. 

Was totally wrong! What a great set up they have there. The standard prices are about £7 for an adult and £6 for a child but we were entitled to a special home ed discount. (Yay! I'm absolutely skint so couldn't have gone otherwise!) However, even the standard price is well worth it!

Barnaby and his new python friend 

First stop was the reptile rooms where we saw all manner of snakes and iguanas - great to see as we'd been talking about iguanas the day before. There was a python being held by a lovely and knowledgeable lady who was being very patient with the endless questions and various parents squealing or terrified!(Ahem, Clearly not me, I am, of course, well 'ard) The kids were a lot braver as you can see!!

Cutest guinea pig of the lot (what are a group of guinea pigs called?!)

There was a tractor barn with ride-on kids tractors, a large outside adventure playground which seemed popular (we didn't stop there), lots of animals including meerkats, guinea pigs, mice, emus, wallabies, goats, skunks, llamas and alpacas (to name some!)

After a quick race on the go karts we entered Step Through Time, which was a trek through a large field with lots of friendly dinosaurs. I say they were friendly because not one tried to eat us. Amazing really. They must be fed well :) 

The walk was quite boggy and muddy so we were happy to have wellies on - well it is early March so only to be expected. I loved that all the signs told us the pronunciation of all the names so that Barnaby could race ahead and sound like he knew what he was talking about! 

After digging up some dinosaur bones in the outside sand pit we then headed to the dino barn which had some interactive touch screen games and lots of terrifying dinosaur noises! The set up was fab and the woolly mammoth looked really quite cute in the Ice Age area!

Lunch was eaten at the indoor beach (for that read a gigantic sand pit) because the cafe was chocka. I did think the prices were really reasonable though - £4.25 for a jacket spud and salad for example. Mum had a bacon and sausage bap and 2 coffees because she enjoyed her first so much.
I think I had my most special moment on our home ed journey so far sitting in this area - Barnaby munching on his picnic smiling away to himself for about 5 minutes. When I enquired as to why, he simply said 'Mum, I think this has to be the BEST day of my whole entire life!' - I think he'd just realised that while his prawn sandwiches tasted gritty from playing in the sandpit for an hour, though he was caked in mud and freezing cold, actually, if he was in school he wouldn't have been able to do all he'd just done! Happy days :)

We were given a trail to follow and a map to collect stamps, there were loads of educational features as we went too so something to learn at each area. There were plenty of benches for Mum to have a rest on, lots of picnic areas, and there were toilets in various areas (why do most places only have them at entrances?!?!)

All in all I thought this was a great place to visit. Not only from an educational point of view but when you were in, everything was free, they weren't trying to get more money out of us at every turn. Even in the shop at the entrance or exit, the prices were quite reasonable, if you happen to have kids who can't leave anywhere without buying a plastic chipmunk, for example!!! 

Every staff member we met had a smile on their face and said hello even if they were just walking past and the ones we stopped to speak to were really helpful, It accommodated all ages and there was lots to see and do (plenty for a whole day), The loos were also clean - is it just me who judges a place by loo cleanliness?! We'll definitely go back for a return visit, probably when it's a little warmer! 

"But what exactly do you do all day?"

I am going to start dealing with some of the misconceptions or questions in more depth - if you are wanting a brief answer have a look through my FAQs blog post as it may be in there.

So: "what do you do all day?"

Well for goodness sake don't ask my Son. So far he's given the answers "eat cake", "play on the wii" and "slept all day" none of which are actually true, though frankly, I fancy a few days EXACTLY like that!!

People are under the assumption home education means sitting next to your child at the dining room table and teaching them their lessons. I'd say, after all my researching and talking to other families, the majority do not do this at all. It is not a school at home. It's learning or education. And more often than not (a whole 2 weeks in!), for me, it's not at home either.

We've chosen to make the big wide world our 'classroom' if that's the way you want to think of it. We have libraries, internet, and neighbours, and communities. There are businesses and organisations. There are family and friends. Every place and every person contain a learning opportunity.

So why, that being the case, would we sit in our kitchen and confine ourselves to 4 walls? If the Internet is so freely available why not go and work elsewhere where the view is pretty? 

Why not sit on a beach researching the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh, or sit in (my favourite place) Gloucester Cathedral Cloisters and read Harry Potter?  (we did this last year, then went for a look round the grounds to see where Chamber of Secrets was filmed. It was perfect for my imaginative HP obsessive!)

I was happy to discover that Gloucestershire has a good solid home ed base and when I was accepted into the Yahoo and Facebook group a whole new world opened up right there.

Let me tell you that in the last 3 weeks these are the opportunities offered (that I can remember, there will be more!)

• Yoga
• Drumming Lessons
• Sports club (twice a week) 
• Home ed groups in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud, weekly. 
• Computer programming lessons
• Tree planting and biodiversity
• Street/Modern/Ballet dancing
• Forest school
• Park meets (every Thursday at a different park)
• French lessons
• Singing
• Recorders
• Brass band
• Art class
• Trampolining
• Climbing group
• Learning to  speak Chinese
• Knitting and crocheting
• 3D CGI film making lessons
• Trip to Wick Farm
• Trip to All Things Wild
• Offer to help on a farm (lambing)
• Horse riding lessons
• Requests for home ed learners who want experience in various organisations to gain work experience and/or apprentice schemes.

This is on top of other bits and pieces people do individually which is thrown open to other home edders. You'll quite often see a post that says 'we are off to [wherever], anyone fancy it?'.

That list is just what I got from talking to a few people or checking on the facebook page.

And this is why I have to reign myself in from saying 'yes' to everything! We'd never be home, ever, and we would wear ourselves out in no time!

So that is pretty much what we do all day. Embrace our freedom!

3.3.15 Reflections on my first week

So Barnaby went to his Dads this weekend which enabled me to spend the entire time buried under fabric and orders in the summerhouse.
(I run a business which you can find www.fb.com/dixiedotdesigns)
It was the deal, when we started, that I'd do a minimum of 2 hours a night working when Barnaby was asleep however because of a lingering illness I've been too exhausted to contemplate it.

Now we are approaching the mid week point of our 2nd week I have observed the following:

Because 'looking the part' is the most important bit!

Barnaby is a lot less stressed out, much more cuddly and loving. He keeps curling up in my lap, or randomly grabbing a kiss then telling me he loves me. He's always been like this although it's lessened over the last 18 months, I just thought he was growing up. Maybe it's not that at all. Maybe he's just got enough energy and brain space so he can get back to being himself. This is the child I usually see in Summer holidays about weeks 2-5. Let's hope he sticks around!

I spent much of last week going with the flow and doing what we fancied at the time. Generally experienced home edders recommend a months 'de-schooling' for every year a child was in school, however what I have realised is that removing his structure completely has left him a bit frustrated because he doesn't know 'what is coming next' so I've written down a rough plan for the week so that he can see the order of the day. It's worked well the last 2 days.

Being at a home ed meeting is weird. And a nice weird. It's entirely refreshing to be in the company of LOADS of children from newborn to about 13 all playing together. There is no whinging. Or moaning. And parents don't 'hover' over the kids to direct their play or to make sure someone is sharing 'properly'. I've never been much of a hoverer, generally thinking kids should be left to their own devices to sort their issues out (I believe that's how they learn negotiation, leadership and that life isn't always fair!).... But it is such a nice environment at the meet ups. 11 year olds teaching gymnastics to anyone of any age that fancies joining in. Others from ages 4-10 embracing teamwork building dens.
Just made me realise that you don't often see this. It's not really encouraged at school for a mix of ages to play together.

Getting out in the fresh air does us both good. I feel lucky that we've spent 5 hours in the gorgeous but chilly weather today.

LEARNING:

Riddles - Questions and Answers, B had to match them.

We've covered more homographs.
We've looked at riddles and their construction. I wrote out some riddles and got B to match up the answers.
Barnabys Dad opted for a lesson on fractions, decimals, units and 'advanced den building' - although I daresay he enjoyed that more than Barnaby! I suspect he also learned that using midget gems for learning fractions was futile knowing the rate at which our Son can hoover up sweets when you aren't looking!
Visited the library and upgraded our cards to Home Ed ones meaning we can keep books longer. Have taken out lots of books on Animals so B can choose his topic animals. Also a few reading books and a David Walliams audio book to listen to at night. We are new to David Walliams and are loving his books so far!
We also played A-Z of animals game, thinking of an animal for each letter of the alphabet (can you think of an X without Google?! We couldn't!) then we went through and decided whether each was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. Quite lengthy discussions ensued and Mummy wasn't always right ;)
More Hangman and Roll a Robot.
finally, when we aren't learning Barnaby has either been in the park, on his skateboard, playing football or generally running around. He never sits still!

So lots going on. Am looking forward to shifting this virus and feeling better in the mornings. I'm on such a go slow at the moment, he's always raring to go while I'm clutching my head in need of paracetamol and coffee!

Using midget gems for fractions!