tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16152309042056216972024-02-21T22:35:34.221+00:00Educating IonaAdventures in home education from one year old.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-49619342330797744142023-02-07T20:50:00.002+00:002023-02-07T20:58:57.781+00:00Back to blogging <p> Bit of a break in my blogging, I know! Back around the time of my last post things began to deteriorate quite badly, until, 2 years later, Iona was diagnosed as autistic. We believe she actually has a type of autism called Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), but few health authorities will actually diagnose that (although following further problems the Clinical Psychology department were willing to describe her as very demand avoidant). A few years down the line she was also diagnosed with ADHD and in 2020 she achieved the hat trick with a diagnosis of ARFID (Avoidant and Restrictive Food Intake Disorder). The latter led to her hospitalisation for 10 weeks and being given a nasogastric tube, which she had for 8 months (she recently had another 4-week stay with an NG tube for 3 months). In amongst all this she decided to try an autism school, but unfortunately that didn't go well, leading to a resurgence of her (already high) anxiety. Thankfully, the Local Authority allowed us to deregister her and return to home ed, albeit with a tutor supplied by them to focus on English and maths.</p><p>Through all this, Iona has grown very close to a fellow home edder, nearly the same age as her, and also demand avoidant autistic, who lives near us. Together they write stories based around their favourite Minecraft YouTubers, and cheer each other up.</p><p>Last week Iona asked for my help (mainly as phone holder) making this stop-motion animation about her experiences and feelings about the past few years. When I posted it in some Facebook groups there were a few requests for a downloadable version, so here it is. Our only request is that she is given the credit, so please leave on the final credit screen. Thanks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwS8CzMhWee3vid8Hvn8-PFYhuk5w1UaldW2y5k1IiUDrgyKOwA4vkY3gh-fExUhLsJRl2bTaRl8n-Jep_2JA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-70364628519801201602014-06-10T23:26:00.000+01:002014-06-10T23:26:38.199+01:00Paper and trufflesToday has been quite a productive day. Yesterday, when Iona was getting up and I was talking with her about what we could do during the day and the week, she said "I want to know how paper is made", quickly followed by "I want to know how pens are made, I want to know how mirrors are made", as if she was just trying to come up with as many silly things as possible. However, I treated it as though she was genuine and suggested we start by making our own paper. I got out some of the credit card slips, prescription request slips and other confidential things waiting to be shredded and began tearing them up fairly small into an old bucket. Iona occasionally helped me with this, then I added water and left it to soak overnight. I planned to colour it with food colouring, but Iona added a little colour to it by stirring it with one of her green pens. Using the historical outline in <a href="http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/paper/paper.htm">funsci.com</a> I discussed with Iona what was used in which cultures before paper and when and where paper was invented, then put a couple of dates on our timeline.<br />
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This morning I made the soaked paper into a pulp in my liquidiser, which Iona couldn't help with as she is noise-phobic. Initially I tried scooping out all the soaked paper and pulping it with just a little of the soaking water, but I had to add more and more of it to make the liquidiser work, until I had added it all. Following that, I laid a spare splatter guard, which had been too big for me to use for cooking, over the soaking pail, in the garden, and carefully spread the pulp over it, squashing it down to squeeze the bulk of the water out as I went. Iona helped a little with this, then became very enthusiastic when I described how Mulberry paper had flowers dried into it. She really enjoyed picking flowers and leaves, scented and unscented, and placing them into the paper:<br />
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I've yet to find out how good the final product will be, as the paper has not yet dried.<br />
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In the afternoon I suggested Iona make Rainbow Truffles from her Moshi Monster magazine. She had brought it down a couple of weeks ago to show me, and the next day asked if we had any condensed milk, as she'd read that was in the recipe! I'd bought the ingredients the other day, so suggested she might like to make them to share with her new friends up the road. She initially agreed, then after I'd weighed the coconut and mixed it with the condensed milk she decided she couldn't be bothered! I left it for an hour or so, no pressure, then told her I was adding the cocoa (I'd hoped to get her to do that herself). She raced in, wanting to do it herself, so I let her stir it. I then showed her how to break up the digestives in a bag, using a rolling pin, and she did almost all of that herself, too, as well as mixing the 2 together. She helped put the hundreds and thousands and other sugar decorations on a plate, then I showed her how to roll the mixture into a ball then roll it in the decorations. After doing it alongside each other for a while (I initially wanted to do the messy bit myself but she said "They're <b>mine</b>, so <b>I </b>want to do it!"), I decided to trust her and let her do it all herself:<br />
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Surprisingly, I don't think <b>much </b>of the mixture ended up in her mouth, and they taste delicious!!!Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-30437679408290305002014-05-23T09:40:00.002+01:002014-05-23T09:40:36.567+01:00The National Museum of Minibeasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Iona is still as keen on animals, and particularly minibeasts, as ever. She keeps trying to make snails, ladybirds, etc. into her pets, and gets most disappointed when they decide to leave! She has lately been finding empty snail shells, and on Monday found a dead woodlouse. This motivated her to create what she called a "National Museum" of minibeasts, collecting them into a coconut half-shell. She said she wanted people to visit, although wasn't bothered about charging for entry. I helped her find a few more dead minibeasts, such as a worm and a moth:<br />
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I suggested she make a poster to advertise her museum, though I suggested she change its name to a rather less ambitious one(!), and suggested she could give tickets to neighbours we knew. This was a great opportunity to help her with her writing and spelling (the latter tends to be, how shall I say ... "creative"!!), helping her to use it for something she really wanted to do, rather than trying to impose my ideas of what she should be learning.<br />
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(For the tickets I pencilled in the writing, based on how she had written her poster, to ensure that it all fitted on legibly, then she wrote over it.)<br />
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Iona got really "into" setting up her museum in our front garden, and was so proud of it that she insisted on wearing one of her dad's ties to look "smart".<br />
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We went visiting all of our neighbours that we know, giving them tickets to invite them to the museum. A couple of them, who know each other, came to visit at the same time, and Iona told them about her collection. She whispered to me proudly that "They like each other now", although I tried to explain to her that they already did!<br />
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We have done a little reading around the subject, too. I have borrowed a library book about snails, which we have read a little of: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snails-Up-Close-Minibeasts/dp/1844438066/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400834363&sr=8-1&keywords=greg+Pyers" target="_blank">Snails Up Close</a>, although Iona is still more of a hands-on learner at the moment.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-35961356180950636182014-05-08T20:21:00.002+01:002014-05-08T20:22:57.194+01:00Back to the BlogWell, here I am again after another long break. However, the home education has not been on a break (hence not really enough time to keep up with the blog). Iona is getting on well with her reading and writing, although she claims not to be able to read. She has learned a lot of phonics from Alphablocks, especially the later episodes featuring graphemes such as "ai", "ph" and "ea", although sadly this is not so easily transferred to her writing, which uses a large amount of creative spelling!! She has also learned a lot of sight words, as she demonstrates when I ask her to read chapter headings in books that are new to her. Mostly she refuses to read herself, preferring me to do it for her, but occasionally she can be surprised into reading a few words or even short sentences, very often correctly.<br />
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We haven't been doing a great deal of maths lately, just talking about it as it comes up. Iona loves using our retracting metal tape measure whenever she can to measure things, especially the heights of ceilings. She also occasionally asks me to help her to count up beyond 20 - she is still getting stuck on the multiples of tens. I am hoping this will improve now that we have bought an abacus from a charity shop. We also sometimes discuss addition and subtraction (and more rarely, multiplication and division) as story problems, which I then translate into more standard arithmetical statements, mostly verbally but sometimes on paper with the appropriate symbols, and she is definitely starting to get the hang of this. Until recently I would have said that she didn't understand the concepts of odd and even, but this changed a couple of weeks ago. When possible, I had been pointing out how house numbers on one side of a road jumped up in 2's, and explaining about odd and even numbers. Then, one day, she was playing with her set of number skittles (1 to 10) and I found she had arranged them perfectly in 2 rows, odd and even! She has also been learning coin value, from being allowed to keep any coins we find on the ground, providing she can identify them, and saving up money to make small purchases. Occasionally I find myself worrying a bit that she isn't learning as much maths as her schooled peers, but on the positive side, she is getting a feel for why maths is as it is, rather than just having to learn seemingly random facts, and she hasn't learned to fear maths, as I did at primary school.<br />
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I think Iona's greatest learning has occurred in her area of greatest interest: art. I'm sure I wasn't as good at drawing and colouring at her age as she is. She is a great fan of the Studio Ghibli animations of Hayao Miyazake, and was thrilled to get 2 of his DVDs and 2 of the story books from her uncles for her 6th birthday last week. She has borrowed a how-to book on drawing Manga from the library, and occasionally works at copying it, although is handicapped by wanting to do her own thing rather than following instructions. She has also become very keen on Spongebob Squarepants, and has been drawing very good, detailed pictures of the characters and settings on this. Her biggest problem in this whole area is a lack of concentration; otherwise she could easily win colouring competitions. I am currently considering, having recently bought a couple of historical era craft books, how I can teach her history using as many crafts as possible, as I think this may fire an interest in her. (I currently record Horrible Histories onto our TiVo box but she rarely wants to watch them.)Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-68705300739055634412013-09-04T23:17:00.002+01:002013-09-04T23:17:46.113+01:00Veg printingI found an interesting book in the library last week, which I got out for Iona: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Into-Art-People-Discover/dp/0753435772/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378312113&sr=8-1&keywords=get+into+art+people" target="_blank">"Getting Into Art: People"</a> . It combines information on various famous artists with suggestions for children to make their own similar art. I remember a year or so ago we had an art day at our fun club and I ran an activity on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo" target="_blank">Arcimboldo</a>, making portraits using photos of fruit and vegetables. This book suggested an activity using fruit and veg to make prints, in the shape of faces, so I suggested on Monday that Iona might like to do that. She was very keen, so I set up her painting things outside, with florets of broccoli and cauliflower, carrot sliced both longitudinally and transversely, the green part of a spring onion, a slice of celery, a mushroom sliced in half, and half the skin of a passion fruit. I would have liked to offer more options, but we were a bit short of fruit and veg to eat ourselves, which I thought took priority!<br />
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I demonstrated first to Iona what to do by printing my own veggie face.<br />
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Iona started to copy me, but then decided that a paint brush was easier to use and just turned hers into an ordinary (though quite good) picture of Smurfette.<br />
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I then used the vegetables to paint my own version of Smurfette, to give her a better idea of how it was meant to be.<br />
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After this Iona got into the swing of it a bit better and made a picture using the vegetables to print, although she forgot to do it as a portrait.<br />
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Overall, I think this could have gone a bit better, but am pleased that she did at least do a version of what I asked her to. Her painting skills are getting better all the time, and she uses the paints to make proper pictures now rather than just splodge paint. I'd like to do more work based around Arcimboldo, as I find his work amazingly modern for the 16th century, and it's such a fun, surrealist idea.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-54669939809771322232013-07-16T13:52:00.000+01:002013-07-16T13:52:21.715+01:00School TimeYesterday Iona decided that she wanted to play schools with her toys. It always amuses me how even home educated children who have never seen the inside of a school want to play it, but I guess it's just the number of TV programmes and books which feature it. Anyway, she told me I had to be the teacher, and told me exactly what to say to her toys, while she observed and moved them around. After a while of her toys being told off for being late for school I saw the perfect opportunity for a bit of impromptu learning, so brought down her cuddly toy clock with the hands set to 9:00 and asked her what time this was for the start of school. She insisted on changing the time, so after telling her the new time I drew this for her:<br />
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(the name of the village was Iona's idea). I then suggested we write a register of the toys' names to mark if they were there or not. She didn't quite get the idea, and insisted on writing a separate page for each toy, but it was all good practice in writing.<br />
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After a couple of hours of "school" I was tiring, so when Iona mentioned that she'd watched "The Mr Men Show" with Daddy in the morning (while I nipped to town to buy my brother's birthday present) I had another brainwave. I asked what Mr Man or Little Miss Iona might invent. She suggested Mr Food, so I explained that almost all the Mr Men have names which describe them, i.e. are adjectives. I drew my own invention:<br />
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(red cheeks courtesy of Iona) then Iona came up with her own, Mr Hungry:<br />
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I was pleased because, off the top of her head, Iona decided he would have an open mouth and crumbs on his chin, and then drew a tongue in too. She also quickly drew Miss Sun:<br />
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She copied "Miss" from my picture, but figured out "Sun" for herself (she still reverses z and s fairly often). She then drew another figure and told me it was Miss Bossy:<br />
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I think this comes from having read "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Friend-Friends-Families/dp/0316111538" target="_blank">How to Be a Friend</a>" over lunchtime; we got it the other day from a charity shop and I've left it lying around, as Iona is currently struggling with whether she wants friends as she has to share with them! This "strewing" worked: I think Iona would have rebelled if I'd suggested she read it but she picked it up herself and let me read it all through to her, leading to some good, if short, discussions.<br />
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Finally, Iona decided to again write me a few notes in the evening. The first said this:<br />
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It took me a lot of time and miming from a silent Iona to finally figure out that it said "I've lost my voice"! OK, so there's room for work on spelling and separating words, but I love that she sees writing has a point and she's keen to try it all the time.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-84135569109380820532013-07-13T23:41:00.000+01:002013-07-13T23:44:49.460+01:00Going autonomousAs you can tell looking back at this blog over the years, my approach to home education has tended to be based around unit studies / projects, with lapbooking seeming to be a very good way to present the work done (mostly by me in the early years, it has to be admitted!). After we finished doing the Letter of the Week (or fortnight!) studies a couple of months ago, Iona said she wanted to know how people lived in other countries, so I jumped in with trying to study a country a week with her. We learned about Iona's choice of countries (although the last couple were the ones from her list that they had resources about at our home ed group library) - Brazil, Italy, France, and India. I could tell, though, that she was beginning to lose interest by India, and didn't even try to get her to do a lapbook about it, as I had for the others. When I asked her which country she wanted to do next she said she didn't want to do any, so I think I may have overdone my enthusiasm for project work.<br />
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In an attempt to avoid putting her off learning I have now decided to pull back a bit more and let her learn even more autonomously than before. There have been mixed results with that this week, although in this heat I defy anybody to work very hard! On Tuesday morning she got out the stencils that she started using the day before, and all on her own produced this:<br />
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Apparently it's 2 robots saying Hi and something else (not sure if it's "What are you?"), a cat saying Miaow, and an apple saying Help, as well as a rather nice tortoise. I think the ladder-like thing to the right is supposed to be a path. I explained about speech bubbles in comics (she's still very keen on animation), and we haven't looked back since!<br />
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The next picture shows how keen she became on speech bubbles:<br />
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Unfortunately the picture is not too clear, but there are numerous speech bubbles with exclamations such as "Aaa", "Help", and "Imcumin" [I'm coming]. After this I showed her the exclamation mark in some print sentences and explained its use. The next picture, which I can't find, showed 2 robots, one with a filled in eye (like Zommer on Moshi Monsters), and the little robot is saying (in her own inimitable spelling) "Aaa a zombie robot Mummy!". She also added lots of other exclamations, complete with exclamation marks.<br />
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Her next picture featured 2 new characters that she's started drawing a lot: Tom and Abbey. In this picture they were singing ("Lalala"), and joined by her and me. Unfortunately she refuses to accept that the sound at the start of words like "the" and "this" is "th" rather than "d", so writes "this" as "dis". She has also decided that "is" should be "iz" (fair point!), although she does sometimes spell it correctly. My favourite misspelling in this picture is my name, Angela, which she always puts as "Anjl"! I do sometimes, while praising any words spelled correctly, and the effort made, point out how to spell the sentences correctly; at the bottom of this photo you might be able to see my correct writing of "This is Tom" and "This is Abbey". However, I try hard not to quash her enthusiasm, and I am beginning to notice some improvement in both her spelling and her reading.<br />
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Iona's drawing day wasn't yet over, and she drew several other large (all today's pictures are on A3 paper from the scrap store) pictures, including a self portrait and some pictures of her Pumpkin P family for the animated film she's working on:<br />
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She was so engrossed in her drawing that we didn't make it to the library for the 2:15 story time as planned, finally leaving home at 4:30 to visit the library and choose some books of her own choice (rather than mine for whatever project I had planned), then play in the nearby playground.<br />
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For a few days she seemed largely uninterested in drawing or writing, preferring to play intricate games with her small figures and dolls' houses. Today, however, she showed me this note which she had written in bed last night to her Ben 10 toy:<br />
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Apparently it says "To Ben Ten I hop[e] yoo [you] hav[e] a luvle [lovely] bsta [birthday] Luv [love] Iona". I was quite impressed as I could read it without much difficulty, and she can obviously now spell CVC words, at least. I have, however, reminded her that you is spelled "you"!<br />
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Overall, I am reassured that the more autonomous approach is not going to lead to her neglecting reading and writing, although I have found that some days I may need to remind her that doing something a little more academic that playing with her toys might be fun too.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-61844501827192658312013-05-26T19:02:00.001+01:002013-05-26T19:02:57.183+01:00Litter picking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since seeing children picking up litter in a park on some TV programme a couple of months ago (I have been reliably informed it was "Big City Park"!), Iona has been desperate to pick up litter in our area "to look after animals". I was less keen, and conveniently kept forgetting to take a carrier bag and our grabber when we went out. However, yesterday I finally thought of it when planning to pop around the corner to our nearest Co-Op and offered Iona the chance to come with me and pick litter. Although not really having the motor skills to use the grabber properly, she really enjoyed it and worked quite hard at it during our 10-minute walk there. By the time we got to the Co-Op we had quite a full bag, and decided to put it in the bin outside the shop, so I didn't have to carry a rubbish bag as well as the shopping going home. Although I found it a little embarrassing to do a task normally associated with people doing "community service", I am immensely proud that my daughter cares about nature enough to do something to help it, and hope that this continues.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-17190778742706434322013-03-23T15:35:00.001+00:002013-03-23T15:35:33.309+00:00Viking and lichensLast week and this we have been learning about the letter V. Iona has been aware of the Vikings for a while now, since seeing them on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/mike-the-knight/" target="_blank">Mike the Knight</a> on CBeebies, and we already had them on our hallway timeline, so I suggested we learn more about them now. We looked through some books from the library: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vikings-Ladybird-Read-Yourself/dp/1844226581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363812956&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Vikings (Read It Yourself</a>), <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vikings-Children-History-Jackson-Bedford/dp/1445106124/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363813198&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Vikings (Children in History</a>), and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Viking-Eyewitness-Dk/dp/1405345373/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363813270&sr=1-2" target="_blank">DK's Eyewitness Vikings</a>, although Iona sometimes found the pictures a bit scary. Consequently, I emphasised the more peaceful aspects, such as clothes and children's games. I also decided yesterday to help her make her equivalent of a Viking warship, decorated with various craft items to look as scary as she could to any enemies (in Iona's case, the Moshi Monster baddies, C.L.O.N.C.). In this way I thought I could emphasise <u>why</u> the ships might have looked so scary, i.e. to try to scare off enemies without having to fight. This approach seemed to work, as she threw herself into the task with enthusiasm, even creating quite a scary figurehead:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iona doing her "scary Viking" face for the camera!</td></tr>
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Then in the afternoon we went off to our local library for storytime. Iona has taken an interest in lichens on the path and walls for about a year now, so when I saw that <a href="http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Handbook of Nature Study</a> was doing a Lichen and Moss study this month I decided to focus some of our walking time on that. We found a couple of different mosses on walls, and Iona enjoyed stroking them:<br />
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We also talked about the differences between moss (cushiony and make spores) and lichen (flat and no spores).<br />
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<br />Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-35709834909676908442013-02-28T23:33:00.000+00:002013-02-28T23:41:42.910+00:00Letterland and arty pursuitsIt's been a long while again since my last post, partly because I've been too busy with Iona to put anything on here, and partly because of work I've been putting into the small charity I founded and run with my brothers <a href="http://www.chreda.org.uk/" target="_blank">(Chreda)</a>. Iona has been busily working through her letter of the week curriculum, and is now keen to suggest things we can study beginning with certain letters, e.g. sweets when we were doing "s"! I've found the Letterland series of books particularly useful to "introduce" her to each letter (although she's very confident with the main letter sounds now), and I've been able to both borrow them from our home education group's resource library and buy some from charity shops, as well as getting some <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1862098042/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" target="_blank">(like this)</a> from Amazon. Iona has the sort of brain that loves to work in stories, so this system is ideal, giving her a story behind why, for example, <b>s</b> and <b>h</b> together make a <b>sh</b> sound. She is slowly getting more confident at sounding out words, and recognising more words, although she does not do much writing and when she does prefers to do it her own, artistic, way!<br />
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We hadn't put in much work until recently on her wish to make an animated film. However, I had downloaded the Android app <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jal.clickstudio.mainpack&hl=en" target="_blank">Clayframes</a> Lite onto my Samsung Galaxy phone a couple of weeks ago, so I told her about it on Monday and asked if she'd like to try it. As she was very keen, I made some playdough, using the recipe <a href="http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/rubbery-playdough-recipe/" target="_blank">here</a>, She wanted to make an animated cartoon hippo like Harry on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/abadas/" target="_blank">Abadas</a>, so I gave her some help to do so. The biggest problem was that the dough, though a very nice texture, doesn't stick to itself very well, and was also a bit soft to support a large, fairly heavy model. I think next time we do claymation we'll have to use one of the other recipes on the site. Unfortunately the lite version of clayframes only gives you 50 frames, so it had to be a very short animation, but it was sufficient to give Iona a feel of how we create the illusion of motion, and she managed to get in her favourite "bottom dance", as well as a bit of a story, with the crocodile attacking the hippo then apologising and making friends. Apologies for the fumbling around at the start of the film: the lite version of the app doesn't allow for sharing (and my account won't let me buy the full version), so I had to film my phone.<br />
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The message on the hearts at the end was Iona's idea: Love is great!<br />
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Once we had finished making our little film Iona decided to turn the rest of the playdough into a very tasty-looking white chocolate chip cake, using chips that I'd got left from an experimental soap carving session the other week:<br />
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A little later the same day Iona spontaneously decided, while I was cooking, that she wanted to make a scene like she had seen on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/mister-maker/" target="_blank">Mr Maker</a> earlier in the day. She found an old receipt which she scrunched up to make a mountain, asked me for a piece of blue paper, collected some greenery from the garden, and ...<b> hey presto!</b> ... a landscape!<br />
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It may not look much, but I was impressed as it's the first time I can remember Iona trying on her own to copy any craft activities from the TV.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-84339119438322036432013-01-15T23:24:00.000+00:002013-02-28T23:34:37.571+00:00"I do not want to go sledding ever again!!"<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We had a good fall of snow during the day yesterday, which Iona loved, although she got really upset at getting her hands too cold when we were first out in it. She was thrilled this morning to see her snowman (mostly made by me!) was still there, and really wanted to go out in the snow again. I suggested she and I take the dog out to a nearby park, 15 minutes walk away, and combine it with a bit of sledging on a metal tea tray, like she first tried on a shallower slope last year. It was a bit slippery walking to the park, but we got there with no misadventures, and Iona loved crunching through the thick(ish) snow. She tried sledding on a really shallow slope, but it didn't go anywhere, so I suggested a steeper slope along here:</div>
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Although I set the tray near the bottom so she didn't have too far to go, it was a bit <b>too </b>successful and she shot across nearly to the trees on the left of the photo, getting a tiny scratch in the process. She was brave enough not to cry, but stated with great dignity "I have had enough for today!". This was shortly followed by the emphatic comment "I do <b>not</b> want to go sledding <b>ever</b> again - it's too hurtable!". She wouldn't even get back on the tray on the level for a posed photo, or even pose standing anywhere near it!</div>
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However, she did come back to put her toys she'd brought with her onto the tray to have a go<br />
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and also enjoyed watching me take a couple of turns (my first time ever - what can I say, I had a childhood deprived of thick snow, coming as I do from Surrey!). We then had to negotiate the walk home, which was difficult as it was accompanied by a constant chorus of "I'm going to fall over" and "I'm not going to walk on the snow - it's slippery", but thankfully we both made it in one piece. We're going through a really difficult phase in our household at the moment, with Iona over-dramatising everything and dissolving not merely into tears but into the most piercing screams! I'm finding the best way of dealing with it is to acknowledge her upset, state calmly what I can or can't do about it, then leave her to calm down in her bedroom until she's able to be distracted (today by the offer of a hot water bottle for her icy feet), but I just hope this phase ends soon.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-29016784882406721202013-01-03T21:36:00.000+00:002013-02-28T23:35:47.332+00:00Welcome 2013Happy New Year, as Iona insisted on saying to everyone she passed in Asda yesterday! We had some discussion just before the New Year about New Year's Resolutions (or goals, as I prefer). I decided Iona was now old enough to have some input into her own goals, so I asked her what she wanted to do this year. She came up with the following list:<br />
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<ol>
<li>Make magazines every day! (She got very "into" doing that last year.)</li>
<li>Make a film.</li>
<li>Learn to read and write. (She wasn't sure about this one at first, but I pointed out that she's already started, and it would be easier for her if she could play on Moshi Monsters without me having to read everything out to her.)</li>
</ol>
The second goal was prompted by a suggestion from me, as she has invented a character to tell stories about and has already made a set of "puppets" by drawing on lolly sticks. I figured a film would make a nice project for her, although it'll be a learning process for me too, as I know next to nothing about film-making. It will cover a range of skills and knowledge, so is an ideal home education activity.<br />
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Step one began today, with showing Iona how to make a simple animation by drawing on consecutive pages of a notepad. It wasn't too successful from my point of view, as it was hard work both knowing what to draw (my idea of her character waving, winking and walking from one side of the pad to the other), and having the patience to do lots of small steps. However, Iona was really taken with the result and although she couldn't really flick the pad correctly herself, insisted on me keeping on doing so. I did take a photo of the first page, which she coloured in very carefully and colourfully, but am unable to post it here, as she informed me that then people would know about her character and it wouldn't be a surprise when the film is made, so you'll all just have to wait for the finished product!<br />
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I explained that the video we had watched at her request earlier today, "Classic Christmas Cartoons" (featuring 1940's cartoons such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUwW7A3JGkU" target="_blank" wrc_done="true">this</a><span class="wrc_icon wrc13" rating="{"icon":"green3-16.png","rating":1,"weight":3}"></span>), was made using a similar technique, with individual cells photographed then playing very quickly one after another to look like movement. I told her that several of her other favourite works, "Frankenweenie" and Wallace and Gromit, were made using a different technique, called claymation, and tried to explain how that worked, while other films are now animated using computers. We then had a lucky coincidence that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p0139h2j" target="_blank" wrc_done="true">Blue Peter</a><span class="wrc_icon wrc13" rating="{"icon":"green3-16.png","rating":1,"weight":3}"></span> today was a special about animation, so I watched that with her, which explained claymation far better than I had been able to. By this time she was busy playing on the computer and didn't pay the TV too much attention, but did look at particular bits when I pointed them out to her.<br />
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Overall, today seemed a fairly successful start to her film project. As I'm not allowed to show today's picture, here, instead, is a photo from over Christmas to show how much Iona has grown up over the 6 or so months since I last posted:<br />
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Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-59442416395512426452012-07-23T20:39:00.000+01:002013-02-28T23:36:51.322+00:00July update on reading and writingWell, it's been a long time since I posted on here, but education has been continuing, mainly with our customised letter of the week and lately about the Olympics. Iona's reading is coming on, if not in leaps and bounds at least a little: she likes watching <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/" target="_blank">Alphablocks</a> and has been enjoying reading <a href="http://www.letterland.com/" target="_blank">Letterland</a> books that we've been borrowing from our home education group. She is now able to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with a little reminder of how to do it, although she currently enjoys messing around and being silly so much that she will often deliberately read it wrongly just for fun. The other day Daddy was so concerned that she wasn't reading as he thought she should (he was initially unsure about home education) that he bribed her with the promise of sweets if she read some words out to him, and surprise surprise she did fine!<br />
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It's been hard to think of activities to do with Iona to encourage her reading and writing, apart from reading to her, given her current awkwardness and attitude of "I do what <b><u>I</u></b> want to do!!". Today she was enjoying watching <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/abadas/" target="_blank">Abadas</a>, when I had a brainwave: I wrote "fox", "bat" and "hippo" down one side of a piece of A4 paper and "Harry", "Ella" and "Seren", with hand-drawn cartoons, down the other. I then made sure that Iona knew what the different characters were and asked her to join them to the types of animals they were. She managed this with no help at all, showing that she was at least able to read "fox" and "bat" ("hippo" could have been guessed by being the last one done).<br />
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Iona has been slower to try writing, but lately has been writing some letters quite deliberately (as opposed to a few weeks ago noticing that shapes she had drawn looked like letters!). (Interestingly, considering how many children have trouble with p, b, d and q, one of the letters she has been writing correctly is "P".) At the end of last week she decided to make an Asda sign:<br />
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The 2 middle lines say "Asda" (AC) "is Open" (OP) and "Asda" (AC) "is" (I) "Closed" (C). I must say I was really impressed, as it was the first time she's actually attempted to write anything.<br />
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Iona's drawing is also coming on well, with her drawing a very realistic snail this morning. <br />
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Apparently the picture on the right is the snail coming out of its shell, while that on the left is where it's gone back into its shell. Unfortunately when I gave her my very impressed honest opinion she got quite cross with me for liking it!!<br />
<br />Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-52538256667976411352012-03-08T23:18:00.000+00:002012-03-08T23:18:06.533+00:00Iona the Explorer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As we are now up to the letter E in our Letter of the Week (more like Letter of the Fortnight, due to other activities taking up time!) I suggested yesterday to Iona that we pretend to be explorers today. She liked the idea, so when we got up I reminded her of different places people had explored (desert, jungle, arctic/antarctic, ocean, space) and asked where she wanted to pretend to go. She chose the jungle, then said she wanted to go to the real woods with me. As we were due to go to craft group at church in the morning, which is on the way to the woods, I agreed we could, then asked how we would go on our adventure. Iona was feeling a bit literal and insisted we would walk. I tried to stay in character and tell her that the jungle was a bit far to walk to, and eventually she joined in and agreed to go by plane. I told her about her uncles' jungle adventure in Malaysia for a couple of weeks in the 1970's, but I don't think she really took me seriously about that (I don't blame her - even I find it hard now to believe they actually did it!). I also looked through <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-History-Various/dp/1842365711/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331239877&sr=1-1" target="_blank">World History</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Explorer-Eye-Wonder/dp/1405313056/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331240052&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Explorers</a> with her over breakfast and later in the day and we learned a little about Columbus, Magellan, Drake, Da Gama and others. We had borrowed the colouring book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Explorers-Ubet-Tomb/dp/0883882035/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331243865&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Women Explorers</a> from Fun Club on Tuesday, so I copied some pages from that, although she didn't colour any in. She also never got around to colouring <a href="http://www.theholidayzone.com/columbus/Columbus_Day.pdf" target="_blank">this Columbus printable</a> from The Holiday Zone, although I am keeping all the printables in her Letter of the Week folder, so if she changes her mind at some point she will still be able to do them.<br />
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When it was time for Iona to get dressed she herself chose to wear her khaki and olive pinafore dress, as she said that "Andy in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/andys-wild-adventures/" target="_blank">Andy's Wild Adventures</a> wears green". We discussed other clothes to wear, and agreed that she needed thick trousers to protect her legs, a hat to protect her head from the sun, a waterproof coat, strong boots, and thick gloves "to protect my hands from snakes"! We also packed her explorer's rucksack with a telescope and binoculars, although we couldn't find her camera, so we agreed that Mummy's would have to do.<br />
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At craft group Iona has begun to work on her own scrapbook while I do my own crafts, so for today's activity I decided to follow an activity which I found on <a href="http://www.theholidayzone.com/columbus/arts.html" target="_blank">The Holiday Zone's</a> Columbus Day activities. We talked about the furthest she'd ever been, which was our holiday last year. With a bit of prompting she remembered this was Dorset, and I found our holiday photos and invited her to choose some to print out for her scrapbook. She enjoyed doing this, and at craft I cut them out for her and she stuck several into her book, decorating the pages with stickers. This provided a good way to reinforce the idea of herself as explorer.<br />
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After 45 minutes at craft we left (Iona was in a bit of a "silly" mood today and as most of the attendees are older ladies I didn't want us to outstay our welcome!). Iona heard some other children going to the park and said she wanted to go there, so we made that our jungle:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The intrepid explorer spies out the land</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now for a spot of mountain climbing</td></tr>
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When we had been there for about 45 minutes I said it was time to go, but Iona was still keen to go into the wood. She said she was not too tired, so I agreed to go home the very long way (about another 45 minutes), through part of the wood. Again, she tended to be very literal about what we were seeing (e.g. a dog), but began to get more into it, so that when a van came past just after we crossed a small road she told me that there was a crocodile in the river!<br />
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When we finally reached home Iona seemed quite tired, but managed to eat a little lunch. Afterwards she curled up on the settee next to me watching TV (2 programmes I found on Madagascar and the jungle) while I showed her how to magnetise a needle and make it into a compass, as in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Activity-Book-Information-Experiments/dp/1855613190/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331246912&sr=1-5" target="_blank">The Science Activity Book</a>. It wasn't easy to magnetise it, and took a lot more strokes with the magnet than the 50 recommended in the book, but it worked slightly in the end, pointing vaguely north when floated in water, and was a good way to introduce the idea of compasses. Iona, however, was more interested in a spot of water play, and proceeded to fill the bowl with as many of her craft supplies as she could!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back at home she makes a compass</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of the home-made compass</td></tr>
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To close the Explorers' Day we looked at Iona's children's atlas and I showed and told her all the places her Dragon ancestors had explored: from France to Reunion Isle to Southampton to London to Swanage to Bristol then Woking and finally to where we live today, each generation since 1818 being born in a different place.<br />
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<br />Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-58757494091754902492012-02-20T23:21:00.000+00:002012-02-20T23:21:26.978+00:00Exercising IonaAt the beginning of this year I determined to try to take Iona out for at least a little every day, if only for 15 minutes' play in the garden. I haven't done all that well with it, especially recently when I've had a couple of my 6-day migraines either side of a nasty cold (which still hasn't completely gone). However, last Friday I decided to bite the bullet and take her on my long dog walk, which lasts about 40 minutes when I do it on my own with the dog and includes some hills. Previously I've only taken her on the "round the block" and tiny park dog walk, which I can do in 15 minutes, so it's quite a step up as she's not yet 4. Surprisingly, she did very well, and didn't complain of being tired on the way home, although she did sleep for a couple of hours late that afternoon! The next day my husband took the dog out, so I asked if he'd take her as well, and she did quite well then, too, although he wasn't amused that she had to splash in every puddle while out (as it was pouring with rain, so there were quite a few!).<br />
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On Sunday we had to walk to church and back, so I didn't take Iona with the dog then, although she said she wanted to come - we're too used to her wanting carrying on the way back from church, even 'though it's only a 15-minute walk, due to too much playing chase with her friends there. Today, however, I figured I'd take her in the morning, so that if she got really tired she wouldn't fall asleep too close to dinner-time. We set off for the 40-minute walk, but as it was only mid-morning and she hadn't done anything much to get tired yet, I asked her if she was up for walking a bit further into the woods that she used to like going to when we still had a car. She was keen, even 'though it was quite cold and she had no scarf. As we got further across the park I had a change of heart, and suggested we build up to it next week, but she was so disappointed that I relented and we crossed the main road and walked up an alleyway towards the woods.<br />
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Iona was so happy to be back in the woods. It was only the second time that I've walked the dog that far, and I always find the peace there so rewarding, although it can be hard going with a German Shepherd who's nervous of other dogs. We met a nice couple with a rescue Doberman who's also nervous and barky, and spent a long while chatting, and Iona built up her "stick collection", which yours truly ended up having to carry back in her pocket! I also showed her an uprooted tree which had fallen down across the path at the end of September (I'd meant to drive her to the woods and show her but hadn't ever got around to it before we lost the car), lichen, which she'd asked about, and tree buds, one of which we took home to examine in more detail (I emphasized that we should leave most of the buds on the trees for them to make new leaves).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iona examining the lichen on a previous visit</td></tr>
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By this time it was well after the time that I'd planned to get home, so I suggested we turn around and go home, even 'though she wanted to go and see some others of her favourite landmarks. On the way we had a few grumps that she was tired and cold, but I sympathised with her and told her how well she'd done, and the end of the walk was actually quite cheerful. We ended up with a walk lasting one and three quarter hours, rather than just three quarters, and she didn't even sleep in the afternoon. I promised her, though, that next time we go that far I'll make sure that it's not quite so cold!<br />
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<br />Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-6873391003318119362012-01-21T21:04:00.000+00:002012-01-21T21:04:32.139+00:00Metaphysical discussion of the week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This afternoon we were watching "Happy Feet" on the TV when Iona started asking "Who made the adverts?". I replied "The people whose products are being advertised". This seemed to satisfy her, but shortly after she continued:<br />
"Who made the TV?"<br />
"People in factories"<br />
"Who made people?"<br />
"God"<br />
"Who made penguins?"<br />
"God"<br />
"Who made God?"<br />
... Gulp!!!<br />
"Um ... nobody did. He's always been there."<br />
"No - God made God!".Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-87069774925621634642012-01-14T23:33:00.000+00:002012-01-14T23:33:04.678+00:00A is for ... part 2As I said earlier, on Thursday we had an Astronaut Day, inspired by the fact that lately Iona has been very keen to go in a rocket. I told her she had to be fit to do that, so at least once a day now she runs around or does other "exercises" and says she's getting fit "so they let me in the rocket!". I didn't do as much preparation as I might have, but she seemed to enjoy the day. I encouraged her to dress in a pair of grey jogging trousers and a blue fleece, to look a little like an astronaut's casual wear. She had a croissant for breakfast, and I reminded her that she wouldn't be able to have that in a rocket, as the crumbs would float around due to the lack of gravity, and might break the rocket. After breakfast I went on the computer and found some NASA and European Space Agency logos, then made Iona some badges (using our printer, a laminator and some safety pins) and an ID badge:<br />
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While on the <a href="http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/index.html" target="_blank">ESA</a> site I let Iona have a look around, and there was a fun <a href="http://www.esa.int/esaKIDSen/LifeinSpace.html" target="_blank">animation about a day in the life of an astronaut</a>. We strapped ourselves into our imaginary rocket, ran through the safety checks, then counted down. I asked Iona where she'd like to go, and she chose Mars. When we "landed" I described how it was cold, and that the ground was red, then asked her what she could see. We practised a floaty, low gravity way of walking, and talked a bit more about space. She then said she wanted to go to the planet Crayon, which was what she had called the planet she'd decorated in her <a href="http://www.uniquemagazines.co.uk/WomenAndWeeklies-243879/Subscribe-To-Charlie-and-Lola-Magazine-Subscription" target="_blank">Charlie and Lola magazine</a> earlier in the week, so we got back in our "rocket" and took off once more, to go there. Once there, she wanted me to be an alien, so I decided to talk only in alien bleeps and bloops and see if she was able to communicate with me. Surprisingly, with only a bit of sign language, she worked out that I was telling her to eat the imaginary biscuit she had asked me for, and was making significant attempts to understand my alien language. This was such a popular activity that several times yesterday and today I was also asked to be an alien, but I found it surprisingly hard work to keep up the bleeping!<br />
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In addition to our play-acting, Iona drew a picture of an astronaut, or "space lady", complete with helmet (and big hair!):<br />
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I also found a <a href="http://www.printactivities.com/ColoringPages/Space-Coloring-Pages/Astronaut-Girl.shtml" target="_blank">colouring picture of a female astronaut</a> which I printed out for Iona, but she didn't show any inclination to colour it. I found some information about Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space), Christa McAuliffe (the first teacher in space, well nearly), and Helen Sharman (the first Briton in space) told Iona about them, printed out their photos and added them to her timeline. We read through "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Astronaut-Ever-Going-Be/dp/1407517058/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326583155&sr=8-1" target="_blank">I'm Going to Be the Best Astronaut Ever</a>", "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Jobs-Astronauts-Macmillan-Library/dp/0732998093/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326583289&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Extreme Jobs: Astronauts</a>" (well, selected highlights of it, as it's far too old for her), and Letterland's "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letterland-Storybooks-Annie-Apples-Adventure/dp/0003032167/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326583387&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Annie Apple's Adventure</a>", which coincidentally includes an astronaut and a trip into space. The latter book was very popular, and she has asked for it to be read a couple of times since. It features lots of "a" words and has a good story line, rather than being driven solely by phonics.<br />
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By the end of the day we were both glad to come back down to Earth, although Iona still shows no sign of diminished enthusiasm for being an astronaut!Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-81963244595654637602012-01-12T22:59:00.000+00:002012-01-12T23:05:41.272+00:00A is for ...Well, we've begun our first week proper of the <a href="http://www.letteroftheweek.com/letterA.html" target="_blank">Letter of the Week</a> curriculum. I began by reminding Iona of some words that begin with A, e.g. apple, alligator, astronaut, animal, ambulance and alphabet. For our first Bible reading this week we finished the story of Adam and Eve, and asked her what Adam began with. She immediately replied "a". I then presented her with a worksheet from <a href="http://www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/Pages/BibleABC/Adam.html" target="_blank">Christian Preschool Printables</a> which combined a colouring picture of them with writing practice of "Aa" and their names. However, for now it still remains untouched, as she currently seems very keen not to do anything suggested by Mummy!<br />
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On Tuesday we attended our local Christian home educators' group, Fun Club. This month we were doing about powered flight, and there were lots of related things to make. However, Iona decided to spend the morning playing with the toy kitchen and food, and later the Lego - once again, perish the thought of doing what Mummy suggested!! In the afternoon she had a really good time playing with the other children, of a variety of ages. The Lego provided me with a good opportunity to reinforce the concepts of sharing and negotiation, as both Iona and some of the boys wanted to play with the same parts. Happily, everyone seemed fairly satisfied, and hopefully Iona has learned valuable lessons about how to play together. We were virtually the last to leave the hall, as Iona was having so much fun running around with a slightly older girl, and having her first game of "Tag". From the Fun Club library I was able to borrow some very useful resources for this week and the rest of the month.<br />
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The first resource I used was from the Letterland series: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letterland-Alphabet-Rhymes-Richard-Carlisle/dp/0003034208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326405774&sr=1-1" target="_blank">An Alphabet of Rhymes</a>. I read Iona about half the poems from it, and she really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to reading her the main Letterland books, 3 of which I got from the resource library. I also read her the A poem from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nonsense-ABC-Rhymes/dp/0199111294/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326407454&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Nonsense ABC Rhymes</a>, which was quite funny. As Iona enjoys poetry and rhymes (she keeps saying she's making one up), this seems quite a good activity for her.<br />
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Yesterday I took Iona to the supermarket, so I deemed it "Asda Day". This is a word that Iona has known for a couple of years now, I think, so it was a nice way of reinforcing her knowledge. We found a couple of foods that began with a, although as I was on a tight schedule to catch the only free bus home again we didn't have much time for education while there. When we got home I drew the Asda logo on a cardboard shelf unit that I'd built for her a few days ago, and encouraged her to colour it in, which she mostly did. In the afternoon I had intended to play shopping with Iona, using the till set that she bought last week with her Christmas money, but once again she didn't want to do what Mummy suggested!!!<br />
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Today I'd suggested to Iona that we have an "Astronaut Day", especially as lately she's been very keen on the idea of going in a rocket, and that idea appealed to her. I've run out of time now to feed back from that, but hopefully I'll manage a full report, plus photos, tomorrow.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-37154310042554282392012-01-07T21:07:00.000+00:002012-01-12T23:02:33.368+00:00Letter of the Week: Alphabet Intro WeekOne of my plans for this year is to help Iona develop her reading, using look-say (which is how I was taught when I was a year older than she is). As "<a href="http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=G" target="_blank">Teach Your Baby to Read</a>" (how I learned) seems a bit too structured for her I thought I might try <a href="http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html" target="_blank">Brightly Beaming Resources' Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum</a>. I liked the way this reinforces the letter being learned by introducing lots of different subjects beginning with that letter (e.g. apple, ambulance and Africa for "a"). Hopefully this will give enough variety over each week that she won't rebel and refuse to do anything I ask, like she did with lapbooking by the end of last year! The other thing that I particularly like about it is that it's free!!<br />
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In preparation, therefore, this week I decided to work through the Alphabet Intro Week. However, I've found that (possibly owing to my aversion to phonics!) we don't have many A,B,C books (I've just remembered a Dora one in her bedroom, so maybe we'll look at that tomorrow), and owing to the holidays I've not managed to get to the library this week. Consequently, I didn't really manage to start on the curriculum with Iona 'til today, when I decided we would try the activity Fishing for Letters. While Iona played with <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-First-CD-Rom-Starting-Read/dp/B00004UCNK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325968255&sr=8-1" target="_blank">My First Starting to Read</a> (that Father Christmas had found for her at a fayre last autumn) I cut 26 small fish shapes out of card, stuck a split pin in each (as we had no paperclips, but actually the pin makes a good eye) and wrote a letter on each in small case. I also tied a horseshoe magnet that Iona likes to play with onto a piece of string, and tied the other end onto a large bubble-blowing wand that we've had sitting around for a while. Voila - one magnetic letter fishing set.<br />
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Iona was quite interested, and happily came over to play. I fished a couple of letters off the floor and asked Iona what they were; she was easily able to say. She then had a go, although used her left hand to guide the magnet onto the letters. Once she started, she wanted to take all the turns herself, which was fine by me, so all I had to do then was listen to her read the letter. She confuses "p", "b", "d", and "q", and read "z" on its side as "N", but overall she did very well, both with letter names and sounds, and has some idea of what words might start with some letters, e.g. "snake" for "s". As time went on she changed the game to one where she picked up a fish with her hands, brought it to me upside down, and I had to guess what the letter might be. As she was still being exposed to letter names and sounds I went with the changes, and we carried on for maybe 10 minutes.<br />
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Tomorrow, if we get time around going to the Salvation Army and eating, I will hopefully read an alphabet book with Iona and play her on You Tube the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XEN4vtH4Ic&NR=1&feature=fvwp" target="_blank">Alphabet Song</a>, which she loves. She also loves <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcO2qWARE_E" target="_blank">E Eats Everything</a>, by They Might Be Giants, so I might show her that again, as well as trying out <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUp6BPm6pM&feature=related" target="_blank">Chicka Chicka Boom Boom</a>, of which I've heard great things.<br />
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Next week we move on to the curriculum proper, beginning with short "a". The Bible stories are supposed to be Adam and Eve, but I ended up doing them this week, so I might have to think of something else to do if she complains. Other subjects I'll hopefully do something about with her are apples, alligators, astronauts, animals, alphabet, ambulances, acrobats, Africa, addition, amphibians, America, and the Atlantic (I may also remind her about the Arctic, that we talked about when we looked at polar bears in November). I don't plan to be as structured as the curriculum is, with different subjects on different days, but rather try to nudge her to read some interesting books with me and maybe do a bit of colouring or craft (which she's really into). Wish me luck!!!Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-46690903039289669632012-01-02T22:58:00.001+00:002023-02-07T19:42:38.649+00:00Seeking Baby Jesus: a Lesson Learned<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6Zx9-nwU3W-Lgow8nNdHguyA9FL0_w0W67Ww5YR5mexPHuiVvxj1eB1dzmZq7ETvClTeWKAmmkiOU4_tSirx3ypjaOls_0i7FhyQs3RPKER5QtVaMtWBnBs4Q4PxfHwqHo5DjzOzDs0/s1600/Dressing+up+for+nativity.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6Zx9-nwU3W-Lgow8nNdHguyA9FL0_w0W67Ww5YR5mexPHuiVvxj1eB1dzmZq7ETvClTeWKAmmkiOU4_tSirx3ypjaOls_0i7FhyQs3RPKER5QtVaMtWBnBs4Q4PxfHwqHo5DjzOzDs0/s320/Dressing+up+for+nativity.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Over Christmas I've discussed the Christmas story a lot with Iona. She played an angel (or, as she was determined to view it, a fairy!) in our church Nativity, and we also used <a href="http://truthinthetinsel.com/" target="_blank">Truth in the Tinsel</a> as our advent Bible study. It certainly seems to have sunk in: this morning we were both upstairs when she came rushing in to my bedroom saying "Come quickly to Bethlehem. There's a baby there!". She was holding a small, round, glittery scrunchie above her head, and told me "This is a halo". When I said "Are you an angel, then?" she replied "Yes", and led me in to "Bethlehem"!Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-59253593322253217592012-01-01T15:51:00.000+00:002012-01-01T18:59:12.414+00:00Versatile Blogger award<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKyEdh1hbSYLzv_cF6lJDiwSxcIsj4J0jKjWRfsN2DhzDsjNbFfVUFrbHUr06pCeRcJn1s-nsnTTtVXbXdUxnvBg2rPl4uQME0AOFdOeBPE1Qrw2tkICMC8vYg3BGyUT0ktiRVWa0bP4/s1600/blogaward.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKyEdh1hbSYLzv_cF6lJDiwSxcIsj4J0jKjWRfsN2DhzDsjNbFfVUFrbHUr06pCeRcJn1s-nsnTTtVXbXdUxnvBg2rPl4uQME0AOFdOeBPE1Qrw2tkICMC8vYg3BGyUT0ktiRVWa0bP4/s1600/blogaward.png" /></a></div>
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Firstly, a big thank you to Sarah, over at <a href="http://pyjamaschool.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Pyjama School</a>, who sent me this award. I love to read her posts about home educating her little boy, who's a similar age to Iona, and her younger daughter - it's fascinating to compare notes on their development, as well as get ideas from her.<br />
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The rules of this award are:<br />
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<ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">
<li>Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them.</li>
<li>Tell everyone seven things about yourself.</li>
<li>Pass this award on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they’ve received an award!</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">7 things about me:</span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I studied biochemistry at Oxford University.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">My Mum was 40 when she had me (so I just beat her, as I was 41 when I had Iona).</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I worked with adults with learning disabilities for 17 years before I had my daughter.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I have played guitar in several church and Salvation Army worship bands, 'though I'm not very good.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I adore Christmas in all its aspects, so haven't really had time to write this blog over December.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I'm somewhat manic depressive, although life is massively better since I went onto anti-depressants, and I really recommend them for people who think there might be a genetic component to their problems.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I met my husband through a Christian dating website!</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">My 15 award-winners (though they may not be newly-discovered):</span></span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Mama Jenn</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.housingaforest.com/" target="_blank">Housing a Forest</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.holyspiritledhomeschooling.net/" target="_blank">Holy Spirit-led Homeschooling</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.whenyourise.com/" target="_blank">When You Rise</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.mummymummymum.com/" target="_blank">Mummy..Mummy..Mum!</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Home Education at the Chicken Shed</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://ponderthepath.com/" target="_blank">Ponder the Path</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.freelyeducate.com/" target="_blank">Freely Educate</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://heartofthematteronline.com/" target="_blank">Heart of the Matter</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://anordinary-life.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">An Ordinary Life?</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/" target="_blank">Art Projects for Kids</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://thewritingsofossettdavid.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Writing Times of Ossett David</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://johnager.co.uk/" target="_blank">John Ager's Home on the Web</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://unitstudy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Unit Studies by Amanda Bennet</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/" target="_blank">Confessions of a Homeschooler</a></span></span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Happy New Year to all my readers, and have fun perusing some new blogs.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-56485095163974159802011-11-29T23:28:00.001+00:002011-11-29T23:33:01.898+00:00STOP!Today Iona and I travelled on a coach-like bus to a neighbouring city for a home ed event. Having settled into our seats Iona looked up at the units above and said "Why is that "stop"?". I looked where she was pointing and found she was showing me the "STOP" button above the seats. She had never sat in a similar bus, with similar buzzers, so she had not recognised it from context or (I think) font. I therefore think it's safe to say, that Iona read her first word independently today - WOOHOO!!!!Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-79738785115899218472011-11-25T20:49:00.001+00:002011-11-25T21:55:50.738+00:00Autonomous education beginsWe haven't really been doing any formal learning for a couple of weeks now, as Iona seemed to have tired of it and wasn't up for any of my suggestions. Every time I tried to read her a polar bear book from the library (as she had previously agreed to a unit study on them) she point blank refused to let me! However, her autonomous learning has been going quite well. She has very quickly picked up a lot of computer skills, especially after I downloaded a free children's browser for her called<a href="http://www.zoodles.com/home/marketing/index" target="_blank"> Zoodles</a>. She is now quite competent with moving and left-clicking the mouse, and has some knowledge of where the "Return" key is on the keyboard. These are too of her most recent drawings with the simple art application within the browser:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6U3e9_oLdh76vjErFh7GsXOlHhqMGeBlI3qJze21f-t-8Z7sJIkZzWNGhCCVe49WYx_Y6mJq8u1wpOf6uoJJwrWUu-bGpSl9_Zb_HX4Zy4YTkEHqb7eht5TRPGnGVlWQkDxxa7EivTM/s1600/Smiley+face+I+think.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6U3e9_oLdh76vjErFh7GsXOlHhqMGeBlI3qJze21f-t-8Z7sJIkZzWNGhCCVe49WYx_Y6mJq8u1wpOf6uoJJwrWUu-bGpSl9_Zb_HX4Zy4YTkEHqb7eht5TRPGnGVlWQkDxxa7EivTM/s320/Smiley+face+I+think.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smiley face, I think</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffUwcxhmSb-QCbIwhjJKNNyjDvUFmsbFplxlCPo6oqBbZyWwqiQ1DMoz7MPGaP1zhIHo9G0mZvdepdr8nGU9PdpjS4JuKQZWI-FhswDtyzPZDClFknGrmcJy1NtiLfPcvAtkzqNbLYuQ/s1600/octopus+from+Zoodles.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffUwcxhmSb-QCbIwhjJKNNyjDvUFmsbFplxlCPo6oqBbZyWwqiQ1DMoz7MPGaP1zhIHo9G0mZvdepdr8nGU9PdpjS4JuKQZWI-FhswDtyzPZDClFknGrmcJy1NtiLfPcvAtkzqNbLYuQ/s320/octopus+from+Zoodles.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Octopus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The games section links to various children's TV websites with games, which are mostly (but not entirely) American, and Iona was thrilled to discover Dora and Diego available on it. She also very much enjoys playing Counting with Elmo, on the Sesame Street site, which has reinforced her number knowledge, and has discovered a game on the Curious George site where she has to share out bones between 2, then 3, dogs. She still struggles with the idea of the latter, but can share fairly well 4 or even 6 bones between 2. At the moment I am unable to find CBeebies through Zoodles, so I have been allowing Iona to look at that using Internet Explorer. Yesterday she was playing on it, and I agreed to print her a colouring page, explaining as I did so what I was doing. No sooner had I returned to my place on the settee than I found she had managed to call up a different colouring page and was printing that out for herself! At this rate, I think I'll have to keep an eye on my eBay account!!<br />
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Unfortunately, a week ago our car failed its MOT quite spectacularly - it would have cost £1000 for the necessary repairs (and the car cost less than that 3 years ago)! Consequently, we are now a carless family, so are having to get used to walking everywhere. Iona is taking the opportunity to fit some more learning in. On Tuesday we had a half hour walk back from the library, and she spotted some moss growing on a wall as we walked. She was fascinated by the look and feel of it, so I explained a bit about it. On the walk there, as well, she asked me what the clouds up in the sky at the time were called (I think her Daddy calls them mackerel clouds), so we looked them up when we got there (altocumulus, as it turned out). Similarly, on today's dog walk in a very nearby park I was able to show her some huge brown toadstools I'd noticed. She asked me what the stripes were, which led to a discussion about their spores.<br />
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<br />Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-28285134198640920442011-11-10T22:05:00.001+00:002011-11-10T22:53:05.727+00:00Evacuation and rationing continuesYesterday I began by showing Iona a BBC video I had borrowed from our Christian home education group: <a href="http://www.trumedia.co.uk/v21_primary_bbc.htm">Children in the Second World War</a>. I found it quite a good introduction to World War 2, but Iona, as ever, wanted to watch her CBeebies programmes instead. However, she became more interested as it played. It explained evacuation, which concept Iona appeared to grasp without worrying that it was going to happen to her (I kept reminding her that this happened a long time ago). It also talked more about rationing, and about air raids and the Blitz. Although Iona seemed to understand that it was all in the past, she didn't like seeing the bombs and burning buildings, so I fast-forwarded through that. I then suggested that we could make a pretend gas mask, using instructions I'd found online (sorry, can't remember where). However, she remained quite adamant that she really didn't want to do it, and I backed off as she seemed to be a bit worried by the idea of bombs.<br />
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To complement the learning about rationing I had bought a tin of Spam last week, so I suggested we grill slices of that for our sandwiches, as well as showing her a picture of one in "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Rations-War-Peter-Hicks/dp/0750261609/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320787218&sr=1-1">Food and Rations</a>". Despite saying that she wouldn't like it, Iona found she really did! For a teatime pudding I found a parsnip pudding recipe in "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wartime-Cookbook-Recipes-Second-1939-45/dp/0750251204/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320788107&sr=1-1">Wartime Cookbook</a>" which, despite sounding a bit weird, was actually a rather nice, chocolately blancmange-type pudding, although it didn't set well until it was cold. I also made a "crumb fudge" from Mum's old wartime recipe cuttings. It's not really like fudge, more like a chocolate refrigerator cake made with breadcrumbs, but Iona and I like it, and it certainly satisfies a chocolate craving.<br />
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Today our wartime learning was confined to attending a memorial service at our local park and war memorial, which was held today due to the local British Legion having commitments elsewhere tomorrow. Iona was adamant that she didn't want to wear (or colour in earlier) a poppy, but was interested in the old soldiers and enjoyed hearing the Last Post - she referred to it several times later.<br />
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I think our World War 2 project is now nearing its close, as Iona seems to have had enough, but I will try to encourage her to colour one of the poppy colouring pages I have printed out for her first.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1615230904205621697.post-78724711970359177722011-11-08T21:58:00.000+00:002011-11-08T21:58:31.537+00:00India mini-book and rationing beginsYesterday I went with Iona up to her bedroom to get her dressed, and while we were there she decided she wanted to look at her Disney's "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disney-Wonderful-World-Knowledge-No/dp/B003EQTQ5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320784608&sr=8-2">Wonderful World of Knowledge</a>" series that I keep out of her reach in her bedroom. She wanted to look at several of the books, but I tried to relate them all back to what we'd seen the day before about India. One of the volumes she looked at was about <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/wonderful-world-knowledge-famous-places/dp/B0050XGLMI/ref=sr_1_65?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320784913&sr=1-65">famous places</a>, and I managed to find the Taj Mahal in it, so I told her about it and how it was made to show how much the Emperor Shah Jahan loved his wife. We then talked about how we show we love people.<br />
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To make a mini-book about India I drew an approximate diamond (about the shape of India) on a sheet of thin card folded into 4, and cut it out. On the cover I wrote India in dotted lines, which Iona was only too happy to write over. Inside I wrote pages about how Grandpa was in India during the 2nd World War, "It is hot", Indian food, saris, their flag and the Taj Mahal, with key words dotted for Iona to write over. She drew and coloured the sun, the Taj Mahal (with a bit of prompting to look at what there was, and not really recognisable), a sari-wearing lady, triangular (or not!) samosas and jalebi (with a suggestion of how to do it by scribbling). In addition, I suggested that she copy the Indian flag from "Celebrate! India". I asked her to draw a rectangle (which wasn't very rectangular!) then asked her to draw 2 lines across it. She started drawing it outside the rectangle, so I drew them. Then I asked her to draw a circle in the middle, which she did. After that I asked her to draw lots of little lines in the circle. I thought she would struggle with this, but she drew a tiny circle in the middle of the circle, and drew several spokes radiating from it, just like in the flag. I was so impressed!<br />
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Unfortunately I have had to give this complex, and probably not very good, description as I managed to drop our digital camera on Sunday night and it immediately stopped working, apparently for good. As I have mislaid my mobile phone, with built-in camera, my husband's won't download to a computer without the purchase of an expensive driver, and our scanner mysteriously stopped working a couple of years ago, it looks as if I'm going to have to do this blog photo-free for now!<br />
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Having completed our India mini-book yesterday, I moved on to the home front with Iona today, and explained about rationing. I began by pointing out that Britain is an island, surrounded by water. However, she wasn't very interested, preferring to use the blow-up globe for a game of catch! I decided to join in with that but gradually brought in what we previously read in "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Place-Today-Project-Books/dp/1903919029/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320786721&sr=1-1">The World Came to My Place Today</a>" about where our food comes from, and asked her to say where something came from each time she caught the ball. This worked to get her interest a bit, so I went on from that to say how the Germans stopped boats coming to Britain with foods like those we'd named. I looked with Iona through the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Rations-War-Peter-Hicks/dp/0750261609/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320787218&sr=1-1">Food and Rations</a>", explaining some of the pictures as we came to them, particularly the posters of Potato Pete and Doctor Carrot, which she liked. I also showed her my Mum's old recipe book, featuring wartime recipes and several cuttings from newspapers of the Ministry of Food's wartime food tips. By now it was nearly lunch time, so I asked Iona to help me make a wartime recipe: cheese pudding (found in "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wartime-Cookbook-Recipes-Second-1939-45/dp/0750251204/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320788107&sr=1-1">Wartime Cookbook</a>"), which she liked the sound of. She helped to break the eggs, grate the cheese and breadcrumbs, and mix it, and after cooking it we ate it with a small salad. All agreed that it was lovely and cheesy ('though it would have used the family's weekly cheese ration!).<br />
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While working and playing this morning, I played the CDs "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hits-War-Years-Ultimate-Victory/dp/B000028BHR/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1320788678&sr=1-1">Hits of the War Years</a>" and "<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/VE-Day-Party-Various-Artists/dp/B000006JU3/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320788778&sr=8-1">A V.E. Day Party</a>", so that Iona got a feel for wartime music. She wasn't keen, but this was mainly because she wanted to put one of her children's DVDs on instead. I was able to get the CDs through our Central Library, who are selling off all their CDs, DVDs and videos cheap. This was very useful to me in the short-term, but I will be very sorry to see the service go, as it's so useful for projects like this, when I don't necessarily want to keep a particular album, but just want to expose Iona to different music.Bethel_Bunchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18358936124774972407noreply@blogger.com1