Much excitement it's Birthday week

Sam and  I started with our Wildcraft board game, then moved on to Speedy Match.

The boys watched wildlife programmes whilst I tidied the breakfast things away.

Owen watched a history programme about Winston Churchill and had a few games of Speedy match. Next we all did some maths using the Khan Academy app.  

We did some of the Google Camp activities and took the microscope out to see what we could discover in the garden. 

We looked at leaves, creatures, wood and stones.

Whilst Owen watched a history programme about Queen Victoria Sam and I did some maths work on Khan Academy. After that we swapped over and between us we covered multiplication , division, number lines, bar charts, fractions and data reading.

Over lunch we talked about economies. The boys have found a way to gain 'money' on the Fadecloud server. This involves buying items cheaper than they can sell them to others. They explained how it worked and I explained what 'supply and demand' was.

The enjoyed free play in the afternoon and dashed off to jujitsu after their dinner.

It's the boys birthdays tomorrow and they are VERY excited...think moondust mixed with lemonade fizzy popping.When we had finished breakfast my ears were numb from the excited chatter.

As we will be out all day tomorrow, we decided to make the party bags up in readiness for meeting our friends on Friday. We checked the list of names , wrote and filled the bag with fun things and made a few spares 'just incase'.

Then we checked again, as the boys were convinced I had missed someone...I hadn't thankfully.

I had some old documents I needed destroying. We talked about why this was necessary and decided to build a fire. The boys took turns at lighting one each using their steels and cotton wool to catch the spark. They were delighted to be totally successful but as usual weren't so keen on the smoke lol.

Owen watched Wildkratts wildlife programme whilst Sam and I worked on Khan academy. Sam has mastered and brushed up on lots of maths skills this week. When he had finished we swapped over. Sam went to watch Wildkratts whilst Owen and I worked on his maths.

Both boys have great aptitude for maths ( definitely not my genes there) but lack confidence at learning new skills. We seemed to have gone a long way to overcome their fears this week, covering fractions, multiplication, division, bar charts and data analysis. It's good to see their faces light up when they learn to grasp a new concept. It's good for me too, as I am learning along with them and can be on hand to offer help and further explanations if they get stuck.

Today is a big day..the children's birthdays. It was a VERY early start and they happily opened all their presents before we left for the seaside. We visited Southport and had a ball at Pleasureland.

They went on lots of rides...

Walked on the beach

And on the way home visited the Anthony Gormley installation at Crosby..eating chips and cake on the sand dunes.

Finding 'Brickie' and sea glass was fun..we even spied a jelly fish in a rock pool.

I truly fabulous day!

We also spent and afternoon with friends in the park and had a great time playing and celebration the children's birthdays. There was more excitement as the children had very kindly been given a present by all their friends to open.

The next day the children rode their new bikes and caught up with their online friends.

Sunday saw us baking, swimming and playing games at home in the afternoon.

Pizza, poorly dogs and puzzled children..

Wildkratts was watched then we talked about and looked at 1940's Japanese American Internment camps:

https://shoyulearning.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/minecraft-and-crafting-to-learn/

Zigzag app which is frustrating, hard and very funny.

The Roman Coliseum

 http://youtu.be/zVqe4TnBOYo

We also had a very poorly dog and we had to see to her needs all day and take her to the vets. She is really old so we were quite worried about her. She was given some medicine and seems to be picking up a bit already. Many cuddles were dispensed.

Sam and Owen played on their PC's whilst I did chores. They also did some money work and Jujitsu class. I made birthday arrangements and generally sneaked about, trying to arrange surprises.

Blokey and Owen started taking Owens 'new' bike apart so they could paint it red and black. Owen really enjoyed having his dad at home today and doing jobs with him.

Sam and I looked at mods for Minecraft and did some problem solving. Both boys did a lot of reading and playing with their friends. The also did some money work and building.

We got their bikes from here, it's a brilliant place:

http://www.back2bikes.org.uk

An early start with two very giddy boys...think plaiting sawdust for the first hour ! I pottered in the garden doing jobs whilst the boys chatted over breakfast. 

After breakfast and sorting out our medications, we did some word searches together using this app:

The next request was to do another session on Google camp. It's space this week. The boys loved it and enjoyed the footage from the international space station. They discussed how astronauts eat in space and how they choose suitable meals. 

We got some exercise using the Wii sports game...the boys thrashed me again. They were even good enough to give me some pity points and I still couldn't win.

After many games of tennis, Sam and I wanted to do brain training. Owen started another word search on Greek Gods, which led him into further research using the iPad. He was fascinated by the subject, like father like son. 

Meanwhile Sam and I were still battling it out with various brain games. He's really coming on and managed to complete many more, at harder levels than before. 

Much reading and dispensing of wisdom later, Owen decided he wanted to do sprint brain games. The boys formed a team against me...I won the first round but they trounced me on the following two. There was a mass of shouting and fumbling and exasperated yells. Only my two can make brain training into a physical exercise! They do tonnes of excited jumping, spinning and running on the spot.

Owen has asked me to get him a world atlas, this was sparked by his interest in Greek mythology so we have been looking at what is available. He hasn't quite decided which one he would like yet.

Over breakfast he talked to me about bullying. He often doesn't understand the concept of this and it took some teasing to get to the route of his concern. Turns out he's struggling with some of the social aspects with his friends online. Trying to pull what happened apart is ...tricky but it would seem his inflexible way of thinking is causing him issues and he believed he had upset a dear friend.

We spend some time  talking about how he maybe able to approach it..but it's so hard for him to get his head round. I feel sad he can't see what's happened or that he can put it right because he is being so rigid. I also feel very sorry for his friend who must be very confused by his behaviour. He's desperate to make it up with her and despite asking for my help, he is refusing all reasonable suggestions about how to sort it out.

I managed to speak to his friends mother and it was all sorted in no time. However, he went on a bit of a rampage and upset some other people the same day. I have explained he needs to work round this himself now and gave him some pointers. I got frowned at.

We played board games, Frustration never fails to live up to its name. Then watched some wildlife programmes. Both boys are coming down with a bug, so we cancelled our meet up with friends and decided to do stuff together indoors. This may explain the poor impulse control I have been seeing this week.

Wii tennis was played, as was boxing, brain games and ski jumping. We also did some balancing games to help with our coordination. I cooked veg soup and the boys sat and discussed social problems they were still puzzled about. 

We made a trip into Stafford to re do our passport photos...don't ask..lets just say it's a tedious business and leave it there shall we?

By the time we had sorted this out it was noon, so we suggested pizza express to the boys. They were surprisingly keen and even attempted a new food. Dough balls with salad and garlic butter for starters...a new favourite and a great success.

Next they had pizzas and Sam enjoyed dipping his into the remainder of his garlic butter. Owen did very well with his pepperoni pizza but was so full, he didn't want his dessert. Sam was more than happy to polish off his both his own and Owens chocolate brownie. Whilst we waited for our various courses, we played word search games, did puzzles and created silly faces with stickers.

Owen too full for pudding...

Sam of the two desserts

Back home we decided to go for a bike ride to the park and had a play there. Since we had a big lunch, we ate sandwiches in front of the TV and played/ chatted till bath time. 

A very rainy day and a trip to Shrewsbury today to visit my parents and sort out 'boring paperwork'. We played dominoes and eye spy before heading back home. The children went off to play Minecraft with friends online and I checked out some new resources and wrote up a list of possible activities for the week ahead.

 

Myths, graves and cake

Sam and I worked on a virtual greeting card in Minecraft for his friend. Then we all looked at some new resources and decided what we wanted to do. We decided to look at Camp Google tomorrow and had a flick through some French materials we have. 

Next we watched goofy science and dramatics with Myth Busters.

Sam is very stiff from his swimming marathon yesterday and Owen was reading till late. 

Later they played with friends online building and creating in Minecraft, watched Wildkratts and played Scribblenauts

Sam played with the dogs after his breakfast. I unpacked the shopping and hung washing out. Whilst I was dealing with Owen, Sam tried to work out a tricky problem on Scribblenauts, I love seeing how his spelling and problem is improving from using this app. Then both boys watched more Mythbusters. Next the boys wanted to learn all about worms, if they can drown etc, .

I didn't know..so we found out.

There was problem solving with WinkyThink and some number work using Native Brain. 

Next some Jedi training for bilateral coordination and some weight training . After which Owen and I made a gluten free pizza.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2015/05/12/socca-frying-pan-pizza-gluten-free/

We decided it was ok but we will try the wheat based pan recipe next time, as the boys found the gram flour had quite a strong flavour. After lunch the children went off to build and play online before tea and their Jujitsu class..they get to wear their new belts this week.

We decided to do the Google Camp Oceans module. First we watched learnt about the submersibles used to take explores under the ocean. Then we watched an ROV with commentary about what we could see and how the Oceans are so important and why they need protecting. We saw many fish, corals and sponges.

https://camp.withgoogle.com

We looked at how dolphins use sonar to 'see' things and did an experiment  on why salt makes water denser by using 3 eggs. We also watched some wildlife programmes together.

In the afternoon we met up with friends to chat and play games. The boys had a ball and I got to catch up with my adult friends too. Both boys looked through the solar telescope that one of our group had kindly set up for everyone. Sam played outside all afternoon with his friends and Owen alternated between outdoor games and indoors ones. We all have a fab time and on the way home both were chattering away about how much they had enjoyed themselves....and I managed to drive home without getting lost or flustered. It always bugs the heck out of me this driving thing. For years I drove for work and in my personal life I would think nothing of driving to Scotland..I loved driving. Now I can get myself muddled of the shortest journey or feel panicky for no apparent reason..so getting us places is a big deal..it felt good.

We started with a couple of wildlife programmes then headed out on the bikes. There was initial resistance from Itsy and Bitsy, but once out the door they cheered up straight away. We spent ages in the park, then another bike ride out of the village ( scares the bejeezus out of me) and back to the park. Owen decided he wanted his hair cut at the hairdressers and we had managed to get him slotted in. He really enjoyed it but Sam was terrified they were going to wrestle him into the chair and cut his..so I gave him my phone to play games on whilst we waited.

Back home I rustled up chips, dippers and eggs for the hungry hoard. I had a more modest salad with guacamole.

Sam was up early *yawn* so he wanted to start right after breakfast *double yawn*. We started by watering the garden and looking at how much our caterpillars had grown. We added fresh nasturtium leaves to their jar, he was a amazed at how quickly they are growing.

After that we did some number work using the native brain. It's interesting to watch him using it,as although the number concepts are easy for him, the fact  there is an element of problem solving and organisation make it more challenging. He wanted to bake a chocolate fudge cake next, so got everything out for him and helped him follow the right sequence of ingredients...smells good. Sam washed up and went to watch his wildlife programme.

Owen joined us for his breakfast and decided he wanted to bake afterwards too. Toffee cake this time.

Takeaway for our evening meal so we all sat at the table and tried each other's meals.

Saturday saw us off to the back2 bikes charity shop, where the boys chose 'new' bikes for their birthday. It really was a painless experience and both boys saw something they were happy with straight away. We can also take their old bikes in to be sold on to someone else. It's a fantastic place.

On the way back we had an interesting stroll back past the War Graves Commission Cemetery and discussed  WWII, conscription and the different types of soldiers that were buried their.  The boys asked lots of very interesting questions about the different names and nationalities of people buried there. They were shocked at how young most of the were when they died. I find it particularly sad because my great grandad is buried in Nigeria and I felt for the families of the solders whose graves are far from home.

Sam and Blokey went swimming early so I could have the car to visit my friends. Owen and I watched Mythbusters together before it was time for me to leave. Later in the day when I returned home the children did their own thing and I worked in the garden. I was tired so Blokey decided to take the children to see Ant man at the cinema. I was informed later that it was ' very funny' .