Nativity

Today Nana read the story of the nativity to Hermione. They did a nativity jigsaw...



...and set up the nativity scene.



This afternoon they went to Durham Cathedral to see a performance of the nativity.

In between this we found time to bake biscuits and make leaf rubbings.





Hermione also spent time practicing her saxophone. She has been struggling with it a bit and at music academy last week Craig discussed the situation with the tutor. He feels that her soprano sax possibly is difficult for her to play and has suggested she try a clarinet. The academy is going to let her have use of a clarinet till she has decided whether or not it is for her. I know I have said it before but it is a great not for profit organisation - making it possible for children and parents to learn to play instruments together.



We also looked at this music activity website where you must classify instruments depending upon how you play them.

Miles has been full of beans as usual and enjoyed running off with the angel decorations Hermione made at home ed group yesterday to stick in his Fisher Price garage. Oh dear.



Looking forward to spending some time looking at Yule and doing our Yule scene next week.

This and that

Well, where do I begin? Not a lot going on here right now. Well that's wrong actually, there's been lots going on in my head I just haven't managed to translate much of it into action.

I decided a few weeks ago that things would be different this year. I wouldn't leave seasonal chores till the last minute. I would be organised so that the last couple of weeks before Yule/Christmas could be spent making orange and clove pomanders with the children while smelling the freshly baked biscuits turning golden in the oven. Yeah, right! So, here I am at the beginning of December (as opposed to the middle of December) in a gift/food/housework frenzy come trance. So, we may get to make our pomanders and stuff but I realise now I haven't *saved* the stress, I've just *moved* it. Ho, hum.

On a more positive note Hermione has finished making her heart shaped bag. Here it is. She's very proud of it. It has taken a few weeks but she's really stuck at it, doing a bit every few days.





I have decided to make a positive effort to reduce our carrier bag consumption and think I may well get involved in morsbags sociable guerilla bagging. I have responded to a message on our local Freecycle for two big bags full of fabric. Craig is going to collect them tonight. I think it is something that will now be shelved till the new year but I'm hoping that by late January we (myself and possibly some other home ed families) may get together to make/decorate some bags and chat about giving them out to family, friends or even a wider audience. If you are reading this and live local to me and would be interested please shout up!

I have found a source of willow! I am going to collect some on Saturday and am going to attempt to construct a willow dome in the garden on Sunday - I've read the book - surely it can't be too difficult? Watch this space!

Hermione made a newspaper from a newspaper today. She found a picture she liked and then cut out letters to construct her own headline. In keeping with the season it was then decorated with lots of glitter and stuff.



Managed to get quite a few of our ash saplings transplanted.

Certainly hoping for more constructive activity round here soon and in the mean time Hermione is counting down the days!

Ho ho ho

Another good reason to home educate - beat the rush at the grotto!

Mum behaving badly

A wave of apathy has washed over me this week. Well, not so much washed over me as washed me completely adrift. Try as I might I just don't seem to have been able to 'get it together' over the last couple of days.

Hermione specifically requested that we read a story about a river this week and learn about where rivers come from and where they go to. Should have been easy enough but it hasn't really happened. I feel bad about that as she rarely asks for us to do anything specific so when she does I generally try to respond quickly.

In my defence we have read The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hidegarde H Swift and Lynd Ward a couple of times. It is a FIAR text which is loosely connected with a river. It's a wonderful story with delightful illustrations. Ordinarily we could have turned it into hours of discussions and activities but this week we have only managed to ascertain that rivers don't flow up hills and generally speaking always flow towards the sea.

With all my oooomph and enthusiasm on unauthorised leave I decided today that I didn't want to pick up any more felt tips with no lids on (they seem to breed around here), I didn't want to do 'lessons' and whats more I didn't even want to cook. I called a home ed friend and arranged to meet up for lunch.

We had a nice leisurely lunch (that is till Miles decided to be down to investigate the restaurant Christmas tree) and then headed on to buy some more crayons and coloured pencils. I accept I will still have to pick the crayons and pencils up but at least I won't spend so long trying to remove their marks from the white skirting boards and cream leather sofa *sigh*.

Back home Nana headed off to Rainbows with Hermione while I stayed true to my 'no cooking' vow and made a raw chocolate cake. It's one of my own concoctions and probably not to many people's taste but it's chocolate in a very nutritious form - which can't be bad. One big slice with a handful of berries is like a meal in itself!



I made it by blending 250 g of raw cacao nibs, 250 g of dried shredded coconut and almost 200 g of raw dehulled hemp seeds. I then mixed them together in a bowl adding a generous tablespoonful of mesquite meal, three tablespoons fulls of honey and two tablespoonfuls of rice syrup. Mixed thoroughly, pressed into a spring form cake tin and refrigerated for an hour.

So all in all I've had a 'day off' - or as close to one as ever happens. Some would no doubt say this is a downfall of home ed - there isn't the option of calling in a supply teacher/cook/dinner nanny/playground attendant. Personally I think it's been an interesting day. A change is as good as a rest and I certainly feel quite rested now sitting here with my chocolate cake to one side and glass of chardonnay to the other - the children are sleeping soundly, Craig is home and I am having a day 'off' after all!

Gift tags

Feeling exceptionally organised (for me) I thought we would make a start on making gift tags.

It's that time of year when the glitter just has to make a reappearance. Throw in plenty paint and a couple of potatoes and you just know you're in for a whole lot of mopping!

Unplugged Project - Thankful

This week we joined in The Weekly Unplugged Project organised by Mom Unplugged at Unplug Your Kids. The theme for the week was 'thankful'.

I asked Hermione what she would like to do for the project and she decided she would like to make a 'thankful mobile'. I was originally a little confused and apprehensive but it turned out really well and we both had a lot of fun making it.

We made four pyramid type shapes and stuck them together to make the basic shape. Hermione then thought of four main areas in her life for which she is thankful - family, food, home and moon.



She made a pop up label for each area and wrote lots of relevant words on small pieces of paper to stick in each section. She decorated each section with pictures we found in magazines. I don't think the pictures really represent her thoughts - it was more a case of what we could find - thinking in particular about pictures of after shave and wedding dresses here!



She cut out and decorated lots of butterfly shapes to string from the main mobile. A couple of the ones hanging from the family section had pictures of her and Miles on.



We had great fun making the mobile and Hermione is very proud of it.



During the course of doing the mobile we got round to talking about Thanksgiving. We found information on the Internet about it and read about the pilgrims, the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving celebrations. We did a Thanksgiving word search, looked at pictures of turkeys and located America on our world map.

Last night we had a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. We had never had pumpkin pie before and it was delicious - made by our friend Soo who joined us for dinner. With a little help Hermione explained to everyone about the first Thanksgiving and we all had a lovely evening.

Art by Hermione