…of England (post 1066) – the Horrible Histories version.
Someday I’ll get the boys to learn this… 😉
Kings And Queens
Blogs For The Boys
As part of our school week, I thought it would be good for each of my boys to have their own blog. Biggest boy has had one for a while, although he hasn’t updated it much… hopefully that will change this year. Little Bean has just started his, but he seems to be enjoying it. Here’s the links so you can go and have a look –
I think the titles and taglines show how different they are – even though they like some of the same things! 🙂
Rainy Day Learning
Today is our half day/birthday celebrations for Biggest Boy. We usually do science lessons on a Wednesday, so that’s what was on the schedule today.
…only this is what today looks like…
This doesn’t stop us learning science (the boys are doing that at the moment), but it was an opportunity to drop everything, when the storm first hit, and get out the paper and pens. They found a space on their own, closed their eyes, and listened… opened them again and gazed… and then wrote something down. Two beautiful poems, both completely different – I have two completely different boys!
I love having the flexibility to just drop everything, if it seems appropriate – even though I’m naturally a “let’s make a plan” type of person. I’ve had to learn spontaneity (ha!) over the years. We still have plenty of time for what’s scheduled. It’s a laid back kind of day, so the boys are taking their time going through their workbook/textbook. I’m enjoying the frequent “Hey Mum – did you know…?” from both of them 🙂
Hope the sun shines on you today – metaphorically, if not literally!
Baking Day
Tomorrow is Biggest Boy’s birthday – he’ll be 16! We would normally have a full school day, but we’re going out for lunch, and will probably take our time…
Thought I’d try to fit a bit of Wednesday’s normal “classes” into today…
The boys usually do some cooking on a Wednesday afternoon. They’ve been doing dishes for the evening meal, but today we did some baking. Biggest Boy made cheese biscuits (basically – scones) and Littlest Bean made shortbread.
Both were very nice, and livened up our morning tea. Some of our available ingredients were not quite what the recipe needed, and our set of scales is a bit wobbly… consequently, we didn’t end up with perfect results (the shortbread wasn’t quite shortbread – I think it probably had too much butter. Still tasted very good!) Today was fun! Tomorrow should be too. 🙂
Meet The New Housemate…
Picked up a new boarder yesterday. He doesn’t eat much.
We haven’t decided what we’ll call him yet..
He’s not highly detailed, but there’s a basic idea of nerves, arteries and veins. He has a heart, and you can unclip the upper part of his skull to take the brain out. Cool!
In other news, there was extra origami making at the end of the week –
We have a noddy dog (two separate parts, so the head nods)
A laughing crow (flap the wings to make the beak open and close)
…and, finally, the parrot. It took a while, but we figured it out in the end – a triumph of perserverance! 🙂
This week should be fun…
Folding Paper And Skinning Eggs
We’ve been having a good year in homeschooling so far 🙂 . Last year felt like a bit of a write off – due to ill health and pockets of confusion, we didn’t get to do as much as I had hoped. The basic learning got done… but I felt I still would have got a failing grade as a teacher by the end of the year. I’ll let you in on a secret…
We’re not perfect…
(Shocking, I know 🙂 )
Every so often, I read homeschooling blogs. They’re great – you can pick up a lot of tips, and feel part of the greater “classroom”. Often, though, I end up feeling inadequate – my boys are lovely and, I think 😉 , quite intelligent. We’re not on track to great inventions and amazing masterpieces, though. We’re… average. Maybe even a bit more than…
So, I have to focus on what’s best for my family – their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual health and growth.
I think we’re on track for that…
What have we been doing over this last week? There was a bit of origami..
Littlest bean made a puppy, biggest boy a cube, then
a sumo wrestler!
Littlest bean started a parrot. It’s not been finished yet…
He did finish a pencil portrait of me, done with his non-dominant hand –
🙂
In other news, we soaked two eggs in vinegar for a couple of days.
What happened?
Vinegar contains acetic acid (a weak acid), which reacts with the calcium carbonate in the eggshell, producing calcium acetate and carbon dioxide gas (that’s the little bubbles you’ll see). The membrane of the egg is left intact, allowing you to see the yolk inside. Cool!
Apparently the reaction is CaCO3+ 2H+ -> Ca+2 + H2O +CO2
It’s a little bit difficult to photograph…
Just as a warning – the egg will be more fragile than it was. Treat it gently, if you don’t want to have to hose off the back patio. And one small boy…
Stories Of Home
I was asked today whether I was enjoying having the boys home for the holidays… I was able to say that they’re home every day. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂
This homeschooling journey has had its moments. One of my major fears when I first started was the loss of my “free” time, but having my beautiful boys around has been one of the highlights for me. I was reminded of that this morning… the boys come in most mornings to say Hi, and we have a bit of a chat. This morning, somehow, we got on to the old family stories – when they were babies, the funny things they did, some stories of when we were younger, even dipping into older tales… we had a lovely talk. It’s not just the chance to reminisce, but that they were so interested to hear family history. We had a laugh, and were able to reinforce the family dynamic, and how much we love them and are proud of them.
A great way to start the day!
Day Of The Sniffles
It’s been cold lately, hasn’t it? We’ve had to break out the woollies to wear around the house.
Unfortunately, that sometimes means a bit of a sniffle developing, for one or other of us. I’d had the day planned out today – a bit of language learning, a bit of history, some maths… one sweet bean spent the morning in bed, the other soldiered on for a while, enveloped in a dressing gown with a box of tissues to hand.
By lunch time, we’d decided to change course. We watched some TV shows I’d recorded previously – taking it easy, while still learning. We watched one episode of “Megacities”, about large cities (in this case London), their infrastructure and what goes on behind the scenes. The next show was Tony Robinson wandering around Cornwall, talking about history (“Walking Through History”).
I love the flexibility of homeschooling – even when we were wilting in place, we could still make ourselves comfortable and do some learning!
Even so – here’s to a sniffle-free tomorrow 🙂
Not The Lesson We Were Looking For
Yesterday, the plan was to spend a large portion of the day experimenting with home-made batteries.. there’s a book called “Geek Mom” that details the actual experiment we tried. The website is here but I couldn’t find the experiment on there (have a look at the other stuff, though) Let’s just say that it involved making batteries out of drinking straws, copper wire/galvanised zinc wire, tissues and vinegar, then wiring each battery together as “legs” stuck to a plastic bowl, and connecting it all to a pair of LED “eyes” – ta da! Spider!
Ever felt calm, confident, and excited about a project you were just about to jump into? That was me, yesterday morning. The instructions I’d copied out were precise, and warned that they had to be followed precisely to achieve success. If you find the book (it’s in our local library), I would urge you to follow the instructions precisely…
We had the straws, we had the LED lights (2V, as specified) The plastic bowl was a substitution for a styrofoam bowl… I figured the weight was the significant feature. That, and the fact that I couldn’t find any styrofoam bowls. The pipette was to draw the vinegar and inject it into the straws. The first major problem came with the wire. We didn’t have fresh wire – we did have scraps of copper and (supposedly) zinc wire hanging about. Why not snip those into the appropriate lengths? Then, we had no hot glue gun (to seal the straws), but we did have modelling clay. That should be adequate to seal the tiny openings of the straws.
Armed, still, with optimism, but fairly clueless with everything else, we started to assemble…
The batteries are fairly simple – the end of the straw is sealed off, the copper wire (positive terminal) is wrapped in a thin layer of tissue to keep it separate from the zinc wire (negative terminal), then both wires are inserted into the straw. The straw is filled with white vinegar (acid conducts electricity) and the other end is sealed. The first problem was with the modelling clay – it seals, but it’s not strong enough to keep the straw sealed unless it’s treated very gently. Bending wires and twisting them together doesn’t treat modelling clay gently. The other problem was that the copper wire was thicker that the zinc – something I’d vaguely registered as not too important, but caused problems when trying to twist them together, while simultaneously trying to keep the straws upright and sealed…
The zinc twisted easily around the copper, but tended to slip off with handling if we couldn’t hook the copper somehow around the zinc. Nevertheless, we eventually got something resembling the needed circuit – positive terminals to negative terminals, connected to look like spider “legs” (complete with bendable knees)
The legs were stuck to the underside of the bowl with electrical tape, and the remaining wires were attached to the eyes. Which steadfastly refused to shine.
There could be many reasons why it didn’t work – substandard components, not enough voltage. It was a frustrating end result.
Dead and blinded spider (I saved the LEDs – the rest went in the bin.)
There was a lot of stress and emotion flying about. In the end, we still learned – just not what I had hoped. We still covered the basic theory, and we recovered enough to attempt a second spider (each boy had their own project going) Hubby put the second one together, just in case I’d skipped something obvious without realising it… and also to apply more force to the wire-twisting problem..
I found it interesting to watch the learning styles of each of my sweet beans. One of them dives in head first and starts putting things together, without stopping to listen to instructions. The other, when things don’t go perfectly (as they generally don’t), throws his hands up in despair and declares it all useless. Each reaction causes its own problems, and makes imparting knowledge to them a sometimes tricky prospect.
We didn’t get cool, light-up spiders. We did learn a little more about perseverance, and working together despite our different personalities and styles.
We also tried a basic lemon battery, although that didn’t generate enough power to light the LED. I gather that an average lemon produces 7/10 of a volt, so I hoped that connecting two lemons and a lime might get it working.
It didn’t.
We tried the “tongue test”, though (touching the tongue to the terminal wires) The boys just felt a “funny taste”, but I think that was a weak current…
So – not the original plan. Still valuable…
Morning Creations
Most mornings, my littlest bean creates different bionicles (a sort of lego) and their various accessories. Here’s today’s..
“What do you think this is?” he said. My first thought was “microphone”. Turns out Rediak’s brushing his teeth…
My gorgeous bean makes me smile 😀
1000 Fields of Roses 