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Category Archives: It’s life Jim
Planning early education with help from Baker Ross and Random House children’s books.
I read Tigerboy a book the other day. It was the first time that I’d read him a book instead of having him on my knee while I read to Smallest. Given he’s 9 weeks old I’m definitely slacking We … Continue reading
Education courtesy of science kits and jigsaw puzzles.
One of the plus points of being sent items for review is that very often I can work them into our educational plans. So it was great that we were offered a Wild Science Lip Balm Laboratory for Big to … Continue reading
Posted in Big, Small steps, review, things that go bang
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Home education or domestic servitude?
One of the reasons given by the labour government for their investigations into home education and proposed legislation about it was to protect children from domestic servitude. I wonder what they’d have thought about the two hour home economics lesson … Continue reading
Posted in Big, Montessori minded, Small steps, Soa, won't cook, can't cook
10 Comments
Book related rant – is Harry Potter really all that?
I’ve just, courtesy of twitter, come across the latest words of wisdom from a politician on reading. The headline is All children should read Harry Potter books by 11, says minister The actual quote is “By the end of primary … Continue reading
Posted in ranting or raving, reeling, writhing
Tagged education, Harry Potter, politicians, twitter
22 Comments
Not quite a resolution…more of a challenge!
but I want to spend more time crafting and creating. I want to challenge myself creatively. I want to design items and make them, write patterns and share them, learn new techniques and broaden my horizons. And I’ve chosen a … Continue reading
Historyetc – Design your own Kingdom – one of the ways we home educate.
We’re using Story of the World Book 2 with our history etc monthly meetup. The idea is that each family does the reading separately and then we come together once a month and each family brings one or two craft … Continue reading
For today’s home education activity: punctuation resources.
we shall mostly be studying punctuation. Skillswise on BBC have a good factsheet explaining commas And then I’ve found a KS2 Bitesize activity to explore what’s been learnt. [Edited to remove flash game but add in link to relevant place … Continue reading
Posted in reeling, writhing
2 Comments
Just to prove that we still home educate – chinese peg dolls.
It’s history etc day hosted by Helen, with crafts supplied by Zoe and Katy, which mainly my children ignored and ran around with their friends in the sun. Apparently Smallest can climb the wrong way up quite a large slide … Continue reading
Coming towards the end of our Kentwell time this year
We’re well over halfway through our re-enactment time at Kentwell now. We have dressed as tudors, spoken as tudors, worked as tudors, eaten as tudors. We sleep, thankfully, as 21st century folk, although it must be said that there are … Continue reading
Preparing for cybermummy
Or maybe not… So far this morning I’ve turned linen into a shift, and now wool into a kirtle. Yes, that’s a kirtle. Bit like a pinafore dress. It’s not finished yet, but it’s a lot closer than it was … Continue reading
Posted in Ages past, Making things, review
Tagged cybermummy, kirtle, kodak playsport, review
2 Comments
Nazca peg dolls for historyetc
If you’ve never heard of Nazca culture, you probably aren’t working through The Story of the World the way we are. One of the things I love about home education is learning alongside the children, and history is a fairly … Continue reading
Learning to read, take three.
What with the whole home education thing, I’ve been very involved in the learning to read process for both of my older children. I think I’ve learnt something from that experience. Point 1 – there is no one way that … Continue reading
Posted in It's where it is, Soa, carnival, how we do it, reeling, writhing
Tagged bob books, learning to read, Montessori, Stile trays
2 Comments
A quick octopus craft.
Trying to get my crafting mojo back atm, so I said I would try for something for RedTedArt Under the sea Get Crafty. In the end I took part in a purely supervisory role… What you will need for this … Continue reading
Posted in Big, Making things, carnival
7 Comments
Orchard Toys: Magic Cauldron game #review
The lovely ppl at Orchard Toys sent me this Magic Cauldron Maths Game a couple of weeks back when I was bewailing basic maths skills on twitter. You see, we have a bit of a problem here. It’s a confidence … Continue reading
Posted in Jonny had two apples, review
Tagged game, Magic Cauldron, maths skills, numeracy, Orchard Toys
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Kentwell and 1553.
Today I dragged the children out of bed just after 7, nearly three hours earlier than their preferred rising time in order to drag them 45 mins across country to an open day for potential re-enactors at Kentwell Hall. It … Continue reading
Posted in Ages past, Big, It's where it is, Small steps, Soa
Tagged Kentwell, Lady Jane Grey, re-enactment, recreations, Tudor
5 Comments
Ages and stages and a proud mummy moment.
We had another of those days today. One of those milestones that creep up on you, that you don’t know will hit you til it does. Big went for her first fixed braces fitting, and suddenly she looks teen in … Continue reading
Posted in Big, fainting in coils
12 Comments
Jamie Oliver at home review and giveaway with the Sun Buzz magazine
Now why oh why did I think that the Sun Buzz was out tomorrow? My bad Quick, stop reading and run to your local newsagents/ supermarket if they are still open, and grab your copy of the Sun Buzz to … Continue reading
Posted in giveaway, review, won't cook, can't cook
11 Comments
SATs all folks!
I started yesterday with the best intentions to catch up on paperwork and blogging. We all know about best intentions Ah well, lots of other stuff was achieved instead. As part of my continuing (ongoing, proactive ) campaign to improve … Continue reading
Posted in Big, Small steps, things that go bang
4 Comments
Cake, cookies, Guides and fundraising.
I confess that I wasn’t planning to join in with the Friday Club this week. I’m not much of a one for baking. I’m just not good at it. I follow instructions carefully, and at the end, get back something … Continue reading


