The Lives of a home educating family/tips/ideas/thoughts/storys/links

21:32:06 o'clock GMT
Feeling Happy

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

21:14:58 o'clock GMT
Feeling Happy

SNOW SNOW SNOW.............. Im not one to wake up that early but i woke up at 5am and looked out of the window to see if it had been snowing! and it had ... well i couldnt sleep after that !... Aaaon woke up at 6am and the same, he couldnt sleep either. We was both so excited about the snow!!!!!!

By 7.30am we was dressed and out of the door, on our way to my mums house. We stopped there for a cuppa, and Aaron and the dog had some fun in the garden (see attached pic number 2) After a hot tea and leaving behind wet puddles on my mums kitchen floor we set off to Aarons dads house. Once there the decision was made to go to South Weald in Brentwood for some fun in the snow.

We was met by a scenery that took yr breath way, a white blanket as far as the eye could see! Children sledging on hills and adults as well making the most of the snow. We stopped for tea and hot chocolate to warm up at one point and a chocolate muffin!  

After nearly 3 hours on the hills and dripping wet clothes we headed back home, full of smiles and a memory that will stick with us forever.

One thing about the day was when aaron said that the snow brought the best out in people, i replyed to him that the snow brought out the child in everyone. Looking back he was right, at one point a large group of adults pushed along a giant snow ball, all complete strangers but working as a team and cheering as the giant snow ball rolled down the hill. 

What a great day !! till next year hopefully ! x

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

19:06:30 o'clock GMT
Feeling Ecstatic

Today my son made some pictures for his bedroom wall. His bedroom has just been recently decorated and we thought it would it be a good idea to have some pictures on the wall. The best pictures we thought would be to have homemade ones, so we brought some blank canvas frames. We just used some poster paints and here are the results.

He had great fun flicking the paint and mixing it up in his hands, the kitchen was covered. The floor and rug had paint on it, the cupboard doors had hand prints on them, and the sink was a lovely colour blue. But he had fun and so did I, thats what it is all about having fun, because it only takes 5-10mins to clear up! So mums forget about worrying about the mess its about letting your kids have fun and experiment, life is too short and the kids childhood goes far too fast to miss out on having a laugh. We had so much fun we are going to be doing some more very soon.

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

23:45:39 o'clock GMT
Feeling Mischievous

The street were running live with spooks, witches, and devils. Yes, its halloween, and what a great night it was. My son dressed up and went trick or treating with friends of his. We only knocked on doors of people that we knew, and the children returned at the end of the night with a bucket full of sweets! when we was home we received great pleasure in handing out the goodies to other trick or treaters. The faces of the small children lit up when handed the bowl of sweets, thats if you could see them amoungest the masks or face paint.

Before the night began we decorated the front door with a large door banner also we stuck up orange and black balloons and some flags with happy halloween on them. Inside the hallway we hung a cob web with spiders in it, and again some more black and orange balloons.  

For our trick of the night we had a bucket full of worms !!.. well it really was spaghetti, mixed with lumpy gravy, oats and some aduki beans. It looked awesome, it felt sticky and slimy and just dam right gross to touch.  If anyone asked for a trick we would tell them to place their hand in the bucket of worms! 

I do find it sad really that children say trick or treat, but if asked to do a trick they stand there with blank expressions. Oh no you wasnt meant to say trick !.... they just want your goodies. However each year we have always had a trick, but this year no one asked us. Therefore we challenged them to try out our bucket of worms. The adults stepped back saying "no way", the kids gave it ago and cryed out a moan when they felt how horride it was. 

It was a good night !...

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

23:07:41 o'clock GMT
Feeling Surprised

Today was mainly about reading, we started off with a mixture of new and old words. I like to write new words on A4 paper, nice and large like a flash card really. Its a method that works really well for my son aaron.When he was at school he would learn his spellings in one night !....this was with the homemade flash cards. Thats all it took with Aaron to learn his words with this method was one evening. 

Well today i started off nice and gentle thinking he didnt know these new words..well surprise surpirse,....he knew them! However when i have asked aaron to read previously he moans and says he doesnt know the words and states he cant do it. But today i said that he has to read more now, and if he does well today,i might treat him to alittle gift tomorrow (nothing much just a cheap gift)

Well well well.... agift hay!.....now that switched the lights on!!!..he read each word with ease, one after another, after another.  Now i sat in amazement, scratching my head. I thought he wasnt doing so well with his reading but that wasnt the case today. I know that children just dont learn how to read just with a book, its with words all around them. Aaron wont read when under pressure i know that, or when hes "tested". That was the main problem in school, he wasnt ready when the school wanted him to read. Now steiner schools, they dont start the children learning to read till 7 years old and even then they dont push it. My friends children go to a steiner school, and she has told me that her son whos 8 now hardly ever reads. They told her not too worry, when hes ready he will learn and not before that. They even said to her that theres no need to worry till the children are at least 11 years old.

Now aaron was pushed to read before he was ready and that caused problems, he refused to read after that, so i had to start from the begining and take it slowly because i knew that if i pushed it, he would go backwards. But that wasnt the case today,he now asks to read and has shown today to be doing well. he still has a longway to go, but hes now on that road to being able to "enjoy a good read" 

I have cut this from a steiner school link :-

How is reading taught in a Waldorf school? Why do Waldorf students wait until 2nd grade to begin learning to read?

Waldorf education is deeply bound up with the oral tradition, typically beginning with the teacher telling the children fairy tales throughout kindergarten and first grade. The oral approach is used all through Waldorf education: mastery of oral communication is seen as being integral to all learning.

Reading instruction, as such, is deferred. Instead, writing is taught first. During the first grade the children explore how our alphabet came about, discovering, as the ancients did, how each letter's form evolved out of a pictograph. Writing thus evolves out of the children's art, and their ability to read likewise evolves as a natural and, indeed, comparatively effortless stage of their mastery of language.

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

14:10:41 o'clock BST
Feeling Loopy

I have noticed that my fan club is up in arms about my sudden departure from my blog . 

Therefore, I am coming back as i cant deal with the amount of mails asking for my return! However i am grateful that my fans have taken time to email me, and shown concern for my where abouts. I shall be returning tomorrow, with smiles, laughter and plently to read for all !

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

20:06:05 o'clock BST
Feeling Quiet

I was looking on an ntl site at pictures of haunted houses.

I came a cross the page on haunted houses and saw the one on Borley rectory, it brought back memorys of when i was 17. My friends and i was looking in abook and found out that Borley rectory was the most haunted house in Britain. So... we thought it would be a good idea to find the place, however it was about 10ish that night when we set off in 2 cars. I was in the car with my boyfriend and our other friends (another couple) was in the other car.  After a couple of hours or less (cant remember now) of driving, we was finally in the area we was looking for. However we could not see the rectory or the church that was suppose to be near the rectory. We kept driving around looking, going up and down the country lanes, as we did i prayed that we wouldnt find this place because i was sooooo scared!!

Unfortunately or should i say with luck, we couldnt find this place we was looking for, so we decided to park the cars up and get some sleep as it was really late now. We parked the cars in a car park, surrounded by woods, nothing there but us. The scene looked like something out of a movie, mist floated around the car park, i half expected something to jump out at us.

In the morning we thought it would be easyer to find the rectory, after driving around for a while we stopped at a house. We had seen a lady within the garden of the house and thought it would be  agood idea to ask her for directions. We all got out of the vehicles and walked over to her and asked for the rectory. Your fifty years too later she said, it burnt down, and this house where your standing now, is where the rectory was. She pointed behind us to show us the church that belonged to the rectory.On the church the  windows on one side were all blacked out.  We asked why, she told us that the reason was for tax purposes, the more windows you had in those days the more tax it would cost you she said. However she then told us that if you looked out during the witching hour, things would happened to you, so it was another reason for blacking out windows. We chatted with the lady for a while who told us storys about the rectory and how a nun was walled up within the rectory, and that her ghost walked around there. She also mentioned that in previous years she had newspapers contact her asking if she ever saw anything,but she told us that she never. So after that we left and just had a look around the town.

Here is a web site giving more spooky details on the rectory and what really happened there, while it had residents. Its a good read so take alook - http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/borleyrectory.html plus theres other spooky things here to see and read !

The ntl site i was looking at showing haunted places in Britain

http://www.ntlworld.com/microsites/kidseducation/halloween/galleries/galleries_hal.php?type=gallery&sortBy=haunted-places&picid=8

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

15:37:32 o'clock BST
Feeling Worried

Knock, Knock, Knock..... You open the door and there stands one or more children standing in some sort of costume, highly excited and all screaming at the top of their lungs...."TRICK or TREAT", with out knowing the meaning of what they are saying or doing. 

Where did it begin

It began over 2000 yrs ago with people known as the Celtics. They lived in what is today England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This was also the beginning of the Celtic new year, a time to give thanks to the sun god for the harvest.

What is it all about?

Halloween, All saints day, All hallows eve or All souls day is a festival. It was held to honor the Samhain the so called "lord of death". It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Samhain, lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals.

It was a pagan belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these evil spirits wouldcast spells and cause havoc toward those failing to fulfill their requests.

Sacrifices were offered on this night to the dead spirits because it was thought they visited their earthly dwellings and former friends.

There was a prevailing belief among all nations that at death the souls of the good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise; but the souls of the wicked men were left to wonder in the space between the earth and the moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living...But there were means by which ghosts might be exorcised.

To exorcise these ghosts, that is to free yourself from their evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you.

 

 

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

19:25:51 o'clock BST
Feeling Chillin'

Its just a thought ........................

I have often wondered when people say " oh i could never home educate "!!

- if they have ever researched into what home education is all about ? 

When i first thought about home educating my son and before i made any comment

on the subject, i spent 3 months researching all through the summer, for hours each

night.  I looked up studys on socialisation, case studys on children in the class room

and endless web sites on home education. I looked at the different types

of methods of teaching home education, all before i made the decision

to say or to make comment on, if i could or could not, teach my child home education.

like i said its just a thought.........

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

18:36:18 o'clock BST

For anyone that might read my blog ! if im lucky lol...

It seems that words go off the right of the page.. dont know

why ? so if you are reading u might miss aword or two?

in the process of sorting it !

Written by gwendalin38 Link to this entry | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own