Sewing onto Binka

The other day I bought some Binka with which to make a sewing sampler as part of our home education provision. I've got a bodkin needle and the plan was to borrow my old sewing sampler that I did years ago as the model. However, my mum seems to have lost it somewhere! Oh well... so I'm trying to find out about sewing stitches at the moment because I haven't got much of a clue any more (since in a typical school fashion we did this project once so my brain has since forgotten it). I am hoping that we will sew a lot so that this will become a skill into adulthood (but I'm going to have learn alongside Springy).

I've also bought some felt to make the ballet shoe stocking thing as a room decoration. So far we've cut out the pattern (well I have - she just watched a bit but is so busy playing with everyone else here).

Floods

We had what was like a tropical monsoon here this afternoon. Looking at the news it would seem that much of the country is under water. A lot of the buildings affected seem to be new build - built on flood plains! Sending lots of good thoughts to everyone in the rescue teams.

Where is the military action that this country requires to assist its people?

I really had a very good laugh today (this is a true story):

A family friend has a friend who has a photographic studio. He recently had a query from a lady about a photo that she wanted him to deal with digitally. It was a photo of Prince Charles and Lady Diana (so a bit old) and she wanted to know if he could remove the policeman who standing behind them. The photo man said that yes, it would be possible. "Oh good, because I'm standing right behind the policeman!"

The World of Fruit

This book is a really good resource:

The World of Fruit

My favourite recipes

Fairy Cakes
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
butter

Cream sugar and butter together.
Add eggs gradually
Add flour (sieved)
Spoon into 12 cake cases
Bake for 12 minutes at 180deg C

Chocolate Sponge Cake
(use Victoria sandwich tins)

5 oz SR flour
1 oz cocoa powder (preferably organic)
1 tsp baking powder (optional)
6 oz butter
5-6 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3-4 eggs
2 tbsp cold water

Cream sugar and butter.
Combine dry ingredients and add gradually with egg and 'wet' ingredients.
Spoon into sandwich tins.
Bake for 12 -15 minutes in 180deg C oven (fan).

Chocolate Ganache (icing)
5 oz plain chocolate
5 oz double cream

Melt chocolate in bain marie. Stir in cream when chocolate has melted.
Pour on cake and leave to set.

Almond Chocolate Cake
4 eggs (separated)
150g dark chocolate
150g diced butter
75g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp runny honey
200g almond flour
75 ml milk.

Separate eggs (beat egg whites until they are stiff)
Bain marie: chocolate, butter, sugar and honey - melt down
Add egg yolk
Then add almond flour and milk.
Fold in egg white
Add to cake tin (flat round e.g. Victoria sandwich)
Bake 15 minutes at 170 deg C (fan - 190deg non-fan)

A little on our educational philosophy

I believe very strongly that (neurotypical) children need to play as much as possible during childhood.

We wake up between 8 and 9 am and either sing a little, tell a story or just talk about something in bed. In the summer and on bright days we bounce up and have our breakfast. We may do a story then, or again sing a few rhymes or songs. We play board and card games a lot - Top Trumps to Max the Cat or Memory. At the moment we are playing a lot of Ludo (I use 2 dice as it means the numbers are a little more of a stretch in terms of learning). Dolls come out to play - they go on adventures in the wooden train or climb up mountains (the sofa).

We do a bit of arts and crafts - today for instance, we made a clock using a brass paper clip, a round pizza base card (no - not home-made pizza - naughty us!) and then we did some cutting out of the cardboard clockhands. We do a lot of watercolour painting (wet-on-wet technique), beewax modelling and drawing (mainly pencil crayon or wax crayon). For some reason, glitter and glue is more of a winter activity.

In terms of reading and writing - we don't do anything formal or instructive in this. I believe strongly that later emphasis on academics is better than the early system in place in mainstream schools. Reading and writing depends on so many areas and I think it's better to wait before formal instruction begins. Eye tracking, co-ordination, phonemic awareness and so many other things are best naturally developed/learnt through having free play rather than formal reading schemes. We have lots of stories and songs in our house. I'd rather wait for a child to naturally develop into reading and writing, even if they are 7 years or above. I love the creativity of facilitating learning without using textbook instruction.

Audio books

This is an interesting site:

Learn Out Loud

Fridge magnet

This is a very useful resource:

http://www.fridgemagnet.com/

They have fridge magnetic rolls - you can cut a bit off and stick it to a postcard or something you've made and hey presto... instance fridge magnet decoration.

French nursery rhymes we know - comptines et chansons

This is one of our favourites:

(it sounds like a little fanfare in terms of song style):

Pomme de reinette
Pomme de reinette,
Et pomme d’api,
D’api, d’api rouge.

Pomme de reinette,
Et pomme d’api,
D’api, d’api gris.
(you use your hands to tap - make a sideways fist so your hand is the apple. The song is a nonsense rhyme apparently)

Moustache, moustachu
Moustache, moustachu
Voici le chat
Griffa, griffu
Griffa, griffu
Sortez les griffes
(whiskers, cat, claws out, claws return are the gestures)

http://bmarcore.club.fr/Tine/E167.html
Le Grand Cerf
Dans sa maison un grand cerf,
Regardait par la fenêtre,
Un lapin venir au loin,
Et frapper chez lui.
"- Cerf cerf ouvre moi, ou le chasseur me tuera!",
"- Lapin, lapin entre et viens Me serrer la main."
(In his house the big deer was looking out of the window, a rabbit came and knocked, "Deer, Deer open up for me, otherwise the hunter will shoot me!" "Rabbit, rabbit of course you can come in and we will shake hands."
(the gestures are: use your hands as antlers - fingers spread out, make a window shape, use hands as rabbit ears, knock, hands round mouth to indicate shouting, use your hand to make a gun, enter motion with hand, shake hands)

Bedtime tales

Tonight I told little one a story about the gnome who lives in our garden. Today, whilst I was sat outside in the garden I heard a lot of squeaking and twittering noises and thought it was a bird in distress. I went to have a look and instead saw a shrew. They are so tiny but they are so busy and unbelievably noisy. I was stood over them watching - they appear to be living under our shed and don't seem to care that the human neighbours they have know about them.

Anyway, I made up a story tonight (had to be short because I have a sore throat and a sniffly nose) about our resident gnome hearing the twittering sound and going to have a look for what he thought was a baby bird. Instead he finds that he has new neighbours - the very noisy shrew family. He looks, listens and sniffs for the creatures making the noise and finds them. At the end, having said, "Hello" he goes back home and he and his family settle down for the night.

Anyway small person liked it - I got the "Mum did you make that story yourself?" It's nice to be able to improvise and not hold a book but have all the component parts of a kindergarten age story - little adventure then safe return home again - and it lasted all of about 3 minutes (thus saving my voice).

I've always wanted to do a storytelling course or two because I think it's amazing that people can weave together or memorise stories.

German (Deutsch) resources

I believe that other languages are so important and small person (hmm need a nickname for here) loves hearing them. We have quite a few of the German Pixi books to read - Rapunzel, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. We also have a few CDs in Deutsch.

This is very useful for songs and rhymes:

http://german.about.com/library/blmusik_kinder.htm

For French we have our French tutor (sadly she has another job so won't be available after this week) who we have seen for about 18 months. I also have French language books and an ELC Fun with French CD (songs and rhymes).

Spanish is something I would like to introduce and we also have the name of a Latin teacher somewhere but this will be more formal in the way it is taught so we intend to wait for a year or so on that.

The good thing with home education is that you can learn alongside your child. The problem is many of the foreign language resources are mostly aimed at adults and they seem to be written by soap opera dramatists. They have the most awful plots running through them. I got one out of the library on German (a BBC one) and it seems to be about an Eastern European man trying to stay in Germany and earn a living and take up residency there. It really put me off because I want something that is not dramatic but is more joyous to learn from. Oh well...

You're not my friend

I read a story to the small person tonight. It's about a fox cub who is playing with his mummy and then his mummy tells him it's time for bed. He doesn't want to go and tells his mummy "you're not my friend". Naturally, at the end of the story it all turns out all right and they snuggle down in their den for sleep, as friends again. Well, after I finished reading it, certain small person decided to test the story's plot and declared that I was no longer her friend. Distraction often works best in these scenarios so I sat looking out of the window at the sunset and she came to see it too. I was asked to take her back to her room which I did and then, when I left again, after saying "Good night" got a "You are really my friend mummy" moment. :) The joys of stories and 5 year olds.

Toolkits

I want to get into the crafts resource and do some woodworking stuff with my child.

There is this resource here:

http://www.forsmallhands.com/

I've also looked at a company called Moulin Roty who do a toolbox too.

At the moment I need to save up a little more for either option.

Garden education

It's been wonderful the past few days and we've been out in the garden loads over the past few weeks (apart from when it was raining too much). We have loads of butterflies in our garden and this is because I am very careful about what is growing in it. We keep our nettles and keep lots of indigenous and/or butterfly-friendly plants in the garden. We grow rosemary, mullein, nettles, foxgloves, lemon balm, dandelions (lots of insect species love these, along with birds such as finches) and buddleia. I also weed by hand rather than using chemicals.

Yesterday I had one of those moments. I was stood in the garden with birds twittering, the sound of my child singing, bees buzzing and the scent of the butterfly bush, complete with peacock and red admiral butterflies probing for pollen, all surrounding me. Totally found the 'now' - ah, beautiful.

If you have a garden then make it butterfly and bee friendly, if you can and if it suits your climate. It's a most wonderful resource for a home educator to go about spotting and identifying butterflies. We made butterfly fridge magnets (used a butterfly stencil - cut out shapes and painted them according to a butterfly wall chart). The scent from most butterfly-friendly plants is incredible - it's a really good to way to help with olfactory (smell) sense integration. Eye tracking by following around butterflies is so natural.

We have lots of bumblebees too (less honeybees this year).

Also, this week has seen the birth of 4 girls to our friends, neighbours or family members.