Planning for the 2013-2014 Academic Year

Annie will be going back to her primary school to complete her primary schooling, she will be in year 6, the year they get them to practise SATs and them take them. The plan was that she would go back, but secretly I was hoping she would stay at home with me. We have really enjoyed our 6 weeks together, she has built up her confidence, we have learnt so much, but in reality done little 'school work' and yet education has taken place. There has been lots of baking, she follows recipes of quite complicated cakes with little or no input from me. This is Maths and Science at a basic level, the measurements, timing, sourcing ingrediants, temperatures, what tools to use,, cleanliness and hygiene, looking at healthy options for food, exercise and so on. She has written stories using Story Starters by Karen Androla she has done some Math in text book and online, what has jumped out to me was how she struggles at Math, she is apparently on per with where she should be at her age, but is going to have to work hard to make it a level 4. I feel if she comes out then, I need to go back to basics, I want her to be comfortable with Math, not dreading it. At the Moment I'm looking at Math Mammoth specifically the blue series which is topic based rather than level based. I have just drafted a rough plan of when I want 36 weeks, starting in the September of 2013, since I have a son in high school, it will follow alongside for the most part his school holidays, although we will have extra time. Planning will be key, as for me it's the only way it will work, as these 6 weeks have shown that having ideas is not enough, a lot of time is wasted. I'm seriously considering the file crate idea, the best place I've read ablout it is at By Sun and Candelight dawn the author is so organised! The Americans call them file crates and they seem easy to buy over in the US, but here in the UK I'm struggling, I've found this at Staples

It doest look like it comes with the suspension holders though, it's just got the groves to hang them on, so I'm looking for something a bit cheaper.

Maths now sussed - well just about.

English seems to be sorted, now it's the turn of Maths for Tom.


So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 1: A Textbook for Key Stage 2 and Common Entrance (So You Really Want to Learn)along with the answer book that goes with it So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 1: Answer Book (So You Really Want to Learn)

Next to help back up Galore Park is ConquerMaths I have the 2 discs, but many go online and pay monthly, I've been impressed with what I've seen so far, and I know quite a few from the HE community have used Conquer maths

then I'm hoping to use MEP which is from the University of Plymouth, it's free although you can buy the practise books for £3.00 which I'll think I'll probably do.

There sorted!

Singapore Placement Test

I'm working on sorting out Maths at the moment.

Annie just took the Singapore placement test and scored 72%, on 1A so I'm more than happy.

Tom on the other hand was in a grumpy mood, I thought I'd make it easy on him and a booster in confidence and gave him 2A, he should be doing about 4A. He scored 54% and missed chunks out that I know he can do.

After marking it, along with tears and wails (that's just me) he sulked for a while, after I told him, if he had to go back school they would drop him down a class or 3 (I know, bad mother)*rolls eyes*

He then asked if he could do another one, so I gave him 1B, needless to say he got 94%, the mistakes he made were minor as well.

This then did boost his confidence and now he's asking for more, but I'm going to hold off.

The placement tests have told me what I needed to know.

Playing shops

I had to play shops with Annie yesterday, she loves playing shops, I don't - but I sat down with her and played as it helps with the concept of money.

She does give her money over in real shops but I don't always think it clicks as it does when playing, as often there is a queue. She has time at home to see what she has, how much it costs etc.

We have used real money, but it keeps disappearing, so I've bought some play money from ELC, it includes euros as well.

She was delighted, I'm going to look out for stickers and some nice money worksheets to give her, any suggestions would be welcome.

I remember when I got mumps when I was 5 and had to have a lot of time off school, they sent work for me to do at home, money was one of them, I remember really enjoying doing it, in fact I remember just enjoying being a t home learning and I got through lots of work and really enjoyed myself...so I was home taught for about 4 weeks ;-)

Back to Annie, and less of my reminiscing, as promised here are the two paper masks she happily made all by herself




Tom and Annie went to their weekly swimming lessons and now after 4 years Tom wants to stop, he's a good swimmer and reached as far as he wants to go, so now I've got to make sure he gets enough exercise...I'm made all the more conscious of this as I watch the school kids charge up the hill to the school as they pass my house.

Sketch Tuesday (dinner plate) and roundup

It's Sketch Tuesday again! That seems to have come quickly around.
The assignment this week was to either draw your dinner plate, with or without food on.

Tom wasn't happy with his, ( I thought it was fine) so respecting his wishes I didn't send his off, but Annie was happy with hers and I have to say I thought she did well for her age.


Here is her picture, sorry it's a bit dark



If you want to see the other sketches or join in, then go here
Next weeks assignment is to draw something with legs!

The last few days have been hit and miss, as OH is on holiday at home, so that always interferes with schooling, plus we are trying to renovate the house at the same time.

So mainly core subjects, Maths with Tom has been multiplication and a bit of division, this will continue for the next few days.

I want to get Maths 4b finished by the end of April, watch this space to see if it gets done!

I must concentrate more on Annie's maths, more about the understanding of it, it's become recently a little too much workbook, so I've got some ideas off Boyceview, that may help.

Tom is using My Spelling Workbook 'C' from Prime-ed Publishing book cover looks like this




although a little younger than his age group I wanted to start him off on something that would be achievable, we have got into a good pattern with it, and now do it weekly, rather than just being hit and miss. I like this spelling book, as it gives the spellings to learn, but then reemphasises them through pcrossword,s puzzles etc. There are sample pages to look at on prim-ed's site.
I have Spelling Workbook A for Annie, but we have yet to start it, hopefully it ill be soon.

Last summer Annie, wasn't bothered about reading, then she got interested, she started on Peter and Jane 1A, and is now on 4b,though she insists it's 5A, but I like to cover them properly, these are our base books, meaning that we use them as our main reading scheme, but not solely as it would be very boring. So we have a mixture of other early readers avaible for her to choose, but she must do whatever Peter and Jane book she is on first. It works well for us.

Since making the Roman Theatre Masks, Annie has been making her own out of paper, I must takes some photos of them. Finally Tom related the whole stroy of Boudicaa to MIL, she was mightyily impressed.:-)

Jam Tarts - a lesson in rolling pastry

Although we have baked many cakes, I realised I had never made jam tarts with the kids. So when my dad came visiting, I got him to help the kids make them.

Now first off I have to admit to having bought ready made pastry (it was buy one get one free - I couldn't resist)but the main lesson was about rolling pastry, so I wasn't too worried. My dad made sure they did it well, telling them not to handle it too much, as it doesn't want to get too warm.

Rolling out, to just the right thickness


I couldn't find my pastry cutters so we improvised using plastic cups


Putting the filling in



Before the oven


All cooked - you will see there is less than in the tray, once on the plate, they were being gobbled up. Soon there was an empty plate.



It was a big hit, although they must make their own pastry, we shall do that hopefully soon.
The only downside was that I'm watching what I eat, and these were rather irresistible, so perhaps not too many pastry sessions ;-)

The last couple of days, have been doing the usual Basics subjects, maths for Tom, we are using at the moment as our base, CGP's 4B we also use other books and resources, but I like to follow one main book so I know where we are and if any particular area needs working on, plus hopefully I wont miss much out.
Today he has just started a book called Using Maths - solve a crime
(click on pictures)


The book says for ages 8 - 12
The principle is to use use Maths in 'real life' settings. So far so good, Tom has seen a direct link for how useful Maths can be.
Tom and Annie have both done read alouds, some spelling, writing, and science. They have socialised and played with friends over here too.

Almost forgot, lots of Education City too.
You will have noticed, that I'm using names rather than initials, as I had showed my dad my blog, he thought they needed names (not real) so here they are Ruth is the youngest. I'm not sure if I'll keep up with names as initials are so much quicker ...lol!

Roman Theatre Masks

I have a new goal to start the day off with some exercise, nothing too strenuous, just 5 mins of jogging, marching, waving hands wildly into the air. I felt great A, and R joined in enthusiastically, whereas T just grumbled and showed little effort. I will get T jumping and running around first thing in the morning, poor child, is so not an early morning person.

T sat down to a Maths test which was at the end of the Maths book he was doing. It was a Scofield and Sims 'adding and subtraction' He just got a couple of mistakes and on his workings out I could see it was just carelessness. I was pleased though as he hates subtraction and has grasped it well now.

A sat and did some writing practise, from this here(click on picture)

Then we did a couple of pages from the Key Stage 1 science book from CGP learning about seeds and what plants need. This will come in useful when we start planting seeds soon.

Then we discussed about Roman Masks that were used in Roman Theatre, how women were not allowed to perform ,and that men played both parts, wearing masks. If it was a brown mask, that indicated it was a man, and if it was a white mask ,then it was a women.

T and A went on to make a Roman Mask each. First the designed on paper what they wanted.


Then they started to paint the designs on their masks, which we had bought from Asda for a couple of pounds



Their masks next to their designs


Wearing the finished masks


I was really pleased with how they turned out. We got the idea from History on the Net we bought the download and use this as our basis for our Romans project, interspersed with other material.

We have visited a fort, where the children, 10 altogether, learn how a Roman soldier lived and on another occasion visited our local museum, same number of children where they learnt about Roman life, food, and were able to dress up as Romans.

After finishing the masks, we went and picked up R who had been at a friends, then on to the Library, then back home to write up about what they had learnt regarding Roman Theatre Masks.