Hot air, visitors, gingerbread houses, word games and the Museum.

As we move closer into December , the excitement about Christmas starts to overwhelm the children. Even good excitement is challenging and heightens their anxiety...so just getting through the days starts to get harder.

Today we manage some maths. Owen worked with me and struggled to complete tasks that I know he sailed through previously. We are also starting to see regression. I don't worry as much as I used to but that doesn't make it any the less harder to deal with the outbursts of frustration. 

Sam has developed a knack of asking for help, yet resenting it at the same time. His maths session took an inordinately long time to complete. Normally he can bash out a good body of work in less than 30 mins..today it all took over and hour and a half. 

We worked on trying to create a hot air balloon. We discussed the principles first , how it happens, what influences the results etc then went into the garden to try out some ideas.

Sam's tongue is out and he's concentrating really hard...he's also a little scared of the hair dryer. It takes a few goes before he manages a successful launch.

Owens worked first time and he enjoyed running round the garden trying to keep it up for longer.

He asks me to make a video of him doing another test flight.

We went on to experiment with different vessels to fill with air....the giant bin bag took all three of us to try and wrestle into shape, so I didn't manage a photo..but we did have a good laugh with our Hindenburg attempt.

We also played word games and talked about politics and black holes.

Sam started the day with writing practice and then moved on to his maths sessions. I find that doing a couple of short sessions per day, really helps the process 'stick' .

Sam is really moving along well doing it this way.

Owen is once more being VERY challenging again today and I have to walk away from him a number of times before he gets through his breakfast routine. He shifts his focus on to trying to disrupt what Sam is doing and there are fireworks. Eventually I get him to calm down , it's only 9 am and I am exhausted and I still need to have a quick tidy round because my parents are coming. Some days home education can be really frustrating but I remind myself that dragging Owen to the school gates would have been far more distressing for everyone on a day like today.

Finally Owen settles to his work and actually does well.

Sam wrote on the whiteboard and in his note book...it was mainly a moan about his brother. 

We use these apps currently.

We just get everything done and my parents arrive. After a quick chat Sam insists on a game of monopoly ..after which ( it was raucous) , we decide on some lunch. We played a few different games before my parents left, then the children went to their ju-jitsu class.

Today we made our ginger bread house. Sam wanted to play Word Feud instead, so I did that with him whilst helping Owen .

Sam and my word battle is still going on..

I don't beat him very often these days.

We also worked on our maths.

Owen

Sam

Owen practiced his writing.

We watched ' A Grand Day In, the Story of Aardman' ..a full 40 years history of the studio. It was marvellous. I will watch it again, so I catch all the dialogue...there was much excited chatter from Owen as he googled facts and talked about his favourite bits.

We made sushi

Sam and I played Cities of the World, which led to us researching Denmark.

This came in time for Christmas....and I couldn't resist a sneak peek..it looks wonderful. The question is, will *I* be able to wait till Christmas to give the boys their copies !?

Owen did his maths and showed me a quicker way to work something out.

Sam worked on his and is struggling to grasp the concept of 'mean' so I went through a few examples with him.

Owen and I looked at the Cities game too and discussed some of the cards and countries we came across.

We all played a lot of word games again.

The next day we had science planned, so got out our circuit boards and much to the boys amusement, we had a lemon and potato on the table.

The boys started off doing their own things, building working circuits , then periodically broke off to help Blokey with his experiment with the fruit and veg.

Sam gets his light working very quickly.

Owen builds a speaker and fan circuit.

We look at potato power.

And lemon power.

Sam then spends a happy couple of hours building increasingly complex circuits...

Sam also powers through to his next maths certificate.

Owen is working steadily but at a slower pace.

We then go off out for lunch , Owen decides to try steak and chips. He struggles with the chewiness of the steak...we all try it and it's melt in the mouth delicious..however Owen has a huge plate of food ( which he insisted on) and can't manage more than half of it,.

We then went on to visit the Gladstone Museum.

The lovely man showed us how to make pots on a wheel.

He made it look incredibly easy and we chatted to him as he worked.

We looked at the different processes and chemicals used in Victorian times.

The noisy steam driven machine

Eccentric levers and how they work.

How pulleys help with lifting.

The Victorian doctors house and what illnesses he would have treated due to the working and living conditions.

The kiln for the decorated pieces.

Clay press

Different types of tiles

The very smelly Victorian privy.

A wash house complete with copper wash pot.

The brilliant history of toilets. The boys really liked this bit.

The view of the Pot banks across the yard.

Saggars inside one of the kilns.

They were facinated by the voices on the old phones ..

We enjoyed the shop.

We went back through Hanley and stopped to admire the Winter Wonderland that has been set up. If we have enough cash, we may take the boys back there next week.

My college friend Wenna came to stay, she is an artist and works at various places across the UK and sometimes in Norway too.

The next morning Sam and I went for a 1 mile run, then cooled down with a 2 mile walk. It was a beautiful morning.