Sunshine, scarecrows and smear tests

Saturday saw a scouts adventure day so I dropped off at the scout HQ in Tuffley and left him and his friend Jack for 7 hours of apple bobbing, climbing walls, badge making,  picnics and it's fair to say he was barely standing by the time he got back through the front door!  Good day all round it seems. 

When Barnaby met Ed Sheeran.....

Then on Sunday we were invited to join some friends in Quedgeley and participate in the local Scarecrow Hunt. 43 locations which was approximately a 7 mile walk - though we only did 5 of those.
What a beautiful day we had, map navigating,  seeing all the brilliantly thought out costumes and finding routes across Quedgeley I didn't know existed (despite living there for 5 years!).
Barnaby was particularly thrilled to meet Ed Sheeran along the way! 
When we had completed as much as we could we left and headed over to a special boys 3rd birthday bbq and had more fun with friends.

He didn't have a clue who Worzel was....! 

We revived our roll a robot tournament but changed it into a roll a snail game instead: details here, if you're wondering! Roll a robot tournament

"Make sure I look like a Dude Mum"

Great excitement in the household when Barnaby had saved enough for his brand new BMX!  We went to Asda to put his coins into the counting machine and then to pick it up on Monday.
The afternoon was spent watching me build it. It would have been a prime opportunity to get him involved in reading the instructions and helping with the build but quite frankly when you mix in my looming pmt with a 7 year olds over excited enthusiasm thinking he knows best how to build it, it was not a good combination so best that he left me to it.
He's literally not been off it since. 

We visited the library for new books.  Vikings are popular at the moment since watching Time Team and Tony Robinson showed a viking poo that was about the size of Barnabys head! We also got some reading books and a joke book.
Finally I said he could hire a dvd and he chose Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. I quite enjoyed it. He apparently loved it and it triggered that kid obsession about watching something over and over and over. His knowledge about mythical Gods is coming on in leaps and bounds! 

He accompanied me to my smear test on Friday morning. Can categorically state that this is not something I'd have considered when he was at school but being home and together all day he's learning about all aspects of life. With this kind of stuff if I catch it early enough and am rather matter of fact about it all he will treat it will indifference. That's the idea. After all, smear tests are important aren't they? So after explaining that they were testing some cells in my cervix to make sure that I stayed healthy his response was "Can I watch Percy Jackson when we get in?"
He did thoroughly enjoy telling the nurse all about home education and how it meant he could have lie ins every day and do nothing at all but eat crisps in bed.
Of course.
That's *exactly* what we do all day. 

Our Geography project is coming on nicely.  I will write a separate post on that but here are a few photos of it so far! 

Today was sports club where he played hockey,  dodge ball and tag,  then Beavers tonight was the sports day with other local Beavers and scouts. He had a great time! 

So, a busy but fun few days!  

Ps - I know you're wondering but sadly no, no photos taken at the time of mt smear test ;)

Useful resources - stuff I found so far!

I thought it might be good to list some of the places I have found resources that Barnaby is using to learn at home.
Taking into consideration we are pretty much flat broke then 'reasonably priced' is what I'm looking for. Free is even better! There is so much out there and everyone will suggest different places to look so this is really a quick short list of things that have helped on our entry into Home Ed - and might also be useful for those parents of schooled kids that they wish to do some extra at home.

Lots of stuff can be found by googling and there are lots more other places I've not even looked yet such as Twinkl, which seems to be very popular.

• www.urbrainy.com gives credits for 5 free printables. They cover EYFS and Primary and I mainly chose spelling and Maths. 
• teacherspayteachers.com - Free printables is the link to a fab site that you can download various printables and powerpoint presentations among other things. The site is free to join and works on a basis of teachers sharing work they have created although I've included the link to the free section
• Primary Resources.co.uk brilliant site with teachers offering their work again so you can download via subject. 
• http://primarygames.co.uk/ - kept Barnaby entertained for hours

Cheap workbooks can be bought from various places - Poundland, Asda, The Works, Home Bargains and normally under a quid. The best workbook we have used so far is an Atlas book for 69p that covers info all about the Earth and it's components and the lots of very detailed descriptions about the countries. We refer to this often at the moment.

Book resources can be found for free at the library, obvs. This is where we look first of course but some times you just need books for reference. I have found the Works great for these at a good price but my best recommendation is The Book People (The Book People) - they email almost every day with flash offers, free delivery or discount codes so worth waiting for a few days to work out the best deal. I spent £37 when we first started Home Ed and not looked at a single book from their as yet, however I know we will enjoy what we have bought in the near future.

If you want to have a nose at my Pinterest board for home ed the link is here though it's early days yet so there isn't loads on there!

We are signed up to Conquer Maths (www.conquermaths.com) which is a years subscription. It's a brilliant resource, provides a lesson and then a test for understanding at the end. It is worth seeing if you can combine forces with other home ed families to secure a discount on resources.

Finally, I work electronically!  I only record Barnabys results and print him a certificate when he achieves it. He can refer back to his learning on the website itself.
I take endless photos of work and post some on this blog as a trail of learning which documents  everything. That way I try to limit the amount we spend on ink and printing costs - and of finding somewhere to keep it all. My tiny little house is already bursting at the seams!

Half term happiness

So we generally stick to terms of the school calendar because it makes life easier to see friends who are schooled.

Hence, come the weekend of half term we eased up on the lesson work and had lots of fun.

The Tall Ships festival was at Gloucester Docks and we had a fab time 2 years ago but this time we missed being able to go because it was his Great Grandads 86th birthday so we went to Wales to celebrate.  We has a quick walk round the Docks in the evening but everything was shut up by then.  

Great Grandad was very interested about the home ed aspect of our life and Barnaby took on board advice about trying hard at Maths (!). It was nice to think that at 86 someone still has an open mind about the ways in which kids differ and why school isn't always to most suitable place for them.

We went to see the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular in Cardiff which, for 2 fans like us, was spectacular indeed!  2 hours of the most powerful orchestral music and footage on big screens,  being accompanied by Daleks and Cybermen and Ood (among others!) This nicely kicked off Barnabys Dr Who project and he has spent much of the week on and off organising folders, contents lists and sticking stickers on the cover pages!  Oh, and using it as an excuse to watch lots of episodes! 

Actual real life scary Daleks! 

Waterfight with Amy and Zoe

Wednesday we went to Bicester to see some friends and Barnaby,  despite the horrible weather,  coaxed the girls into a water fight which was the highlight of his day.

Turns out you can build a den
anywhere! 

The weekend was spent with Daddy who took him to The Natural History Museum and spent time designing their go kart project which has been inspired from watching Scrapheap Challenge.  It will give Barnaby something to get his teeth into under the expert guidance of his Dad.

Other stuff:

• Sports club 
• Beavers
• Football 
• Park with friends 
• Conquer Maths
• Sudden fascination with Top Gear.  
• Dismantling some of his toy cars and seeing their components,  then using a magnet inside one of them to test various metals to see what is magnetic and what isn't. 
• Learning about the Vikings - inspired by a Time Team special. Toby Robinson found a viking poo which was about the size of his head which of course,  being 7, was THE most fascinating (and hilarious) thing ever.
• He's been practising his flags of the world.  
• We spent hours making lego together.

At the Natural History
Museum with Dad

Interest remains from the election about politicians and what David Cameron does on a daily basis so we often discuss that. Oh, and he has been running a mile or two every day on the treadmill. 

At the moment he's switched off from reading books at bedtime but he will quite happily sit and do complex sticker books to build robots,  and read out all about them, so that'll do me for now. 

We went to a farm park the other side of Bristol today and he was willingly reading all the information about the animals as we went round.  He appeared to have a bizarre affinity with the goat who all rushed over to the fence to see him as soon as he arrived but they weren't bothered about anyone else. Was quite cute really. Lunch was eaten on a go kart which he managed to work out how the steering and wheels were attached so he could tell his Dad how they were going to do it on theirs! 

Every goat needs a pink diamante collar!