Sunshine at last...

Did it ever stop raining in April?

If you can't beat it, enjoy it!

And the rain inspired Jemima to do this piece of artwork. First she wet the paper with rain, than painted a rain scene and finally placed the paper in the rain once again, to add depth to the painting, 'like the rain was going on and on'.

Today we woke to bright blue skies and sunshine, so off we went to Seckar woods.
A nature reserve and site of scientific special interest.

Picnicking by the old swimming pool.

A constant power battle between Reuben and Rosanna to 'be the leader'.

Despite the blue skies and warm weather, there were still deep muddy patches!

Years fly by...

On the 25th April 2007, our third child Reuben was born.

Just after he was born, Imogen and Jemima arrived at the hospital and came into the delivery room. We hadn't quite started home educating yet, but already wanting a real life education for our children.
We had an amazing student midwife, who let the girls get involved and hands on.

We always felt that the girls didn't have enough time to play,

or enough time to experiment with jay cloths!

Imogen proudly wore this waistcoat she had made on a trip to the doctors.

I've still got it somewhere.

And so began our journey into the unknown world of home education.

Lots of time to bond with Reuben.

We've done some amazing things, visited extraordinary places

and met interesting people along the way.

The girls have had so much to play, Bratz, polly pocket, Barbie, playmobil, lego to name a few!

But most importantly we have had lots of time together as a family.

Two years and four months into home educating, our family was completed with the arrival of Rosanna Ernestine.

Looking back I now wonder, how did I manage to home educate through morning sickness with a toddler too? In the early days of home educating with four children it was the negative comments that kept me going. How are you going to cope with a baby and a toddler and educate the girls? I had to prove to everyone that I could do it.

So really we've got to the easy stage!! No one in nappies, no more breast feeding. Got to be so easy now!
I still find it hard to think I've got to start at the beginning again with Reuben and Rosanna. Will I find it interesting and exciting doing the science experiments, painting pictures or pond dipping?

But then again do I want to miss out on more of this?

It's not always easy home educating, but it's very rewarding.
This time of year brings back strong memories as we wrestled with the decision to home educate, and bring about our life changes.

Jemima recently tried to make me promise that I'd never send her back to school. Of course, I can't ever promise that, what if I was ill. Jemima response, if you were ill I'd be at home looking after you.

Jack and the Beanstalk and growing experiments.

I read 'Jack and the beanstalk' to Reuben and Rosanna, and then we painted pictures to decorate our beanstalk. I started the activity just with R & R, they weren't interested at all in painting pictures for me. Luckily Imogen and Jemima joined in to help me, and that gave the activity credibility!!

Our beanstalk complete with castle, harp, fairies and ...

dinosaurs!

Rosanna planted a bean a couple of weeks ago, and has enjoyed watching it grow.
She's very proud of her beanstalk!

After painting we started looking and talking about plants. First we talked about plants needs and the symbiotic relationship of animals and plants with the cycling of carbon dioxide and oxygen.

I introduced the plant cell. I don't expect the girls to remember all the parts and the things they do but I do hope that it will provide basis of understanding that they can build on later.

Next we looked at how water travels through a plant. By leaving a celery stick in coloured water for a couple of hours, you can see the coloured paths in the celery that carry water.

Then on to seed transportation. I like this scenario for introducing seed travels.
Imagine you live in a house with ten brothers and sisters. The family grows up but no one moves out. You all get married and have children, still living in the same house together. Overcrowded!
And it's the same for plants too, they need to move.
We took fruit and vegetables we had at home and looked how they might be dispersed.
Jemima thought the skin was too tough on the pomegranate to be eaten, so we tested it to see if it could float.

Geoff started this experiment. He placed different seeds around the edge of a jar, to investigate how different seeds grow, and to compare roots and shoots.

The roots grow first, and grow quiet deep before the shoots appear.

Finally we looked at how plants protect themselves from insects and other animals that would like to eat them. I asked the children to design a plant with protection in mind.
This is Reuben's plant. It's a small plant which can prickle the Gruffalo's toes, avoiding the prickles on it's back!
'Jim and the beanstalk' by Raymond Briggs is a sequel to Jack. Jim goes up the beanstalk to find a sad, bald, giant in bad health. He helps him to get glasses, new teeth and wig and gets a gold coin in return. A happy ending to Jack stealing from the giant!