Easing us back in and unseasonal weather

Schools go back today and I have a dental appointment. By the time we get home the morning is half gone. Sam does some Conquer Maths but is easily frustrated by problems he can normal fly through. 

He's not himself and I suspect he's out of whack due to the change in routine.

Owen works on some Spanish but is much the same as Sam. I can see pushing anything right now, will cause further upset, so I cut my losses and crack on with chores. The children read and play games, watch some Manga. Later they play at the park with their friends.

The next morning I was up early to walk and surprised to find it had been snowing over night. I knew Sam would want to see it, so woke him up. He decided it was too good to miss and joined me on a cross country walk for 3.5km. Boy it was chilly but we enjoyed it. 

This put Sam in a very happy mood and contrary to the day before, he was up and running with his maths programme and enjoyed it so much he did 8 lessons. Next we looked at comprehension with Doctor Doolittle and he copied a page out of the book in his handwriting journal. Just a little bit a week is really making a difference and he is taking pride in his work.

When Owen got up we worked on his maths using RM whilst he ate his boiled egg. It's Tuesday and he is always a little keyed up, so it was slow going.

Afterwards he did the same English exercise that Sam had completed. He finds it a little more challenging to interpret the text verbally and in writing but he's making huge improvements.

Next he did his personal hygiene routine ( much improved this last few days) and checked on his giant snail.

In the evening the children play with friends locally until their ju jitsu class. Owen and I also look at sugar free alternatives that he may want to try. 

Sam was up early but in full on avoidance mode. He tries to push Blokey and me at breakneck speed because he's clearly got a bee in his bonnet about something. We explain we need to have our breakfast and I need a shower after running ..it's still only 6:30am. He refuses to wait till his meds kick in and starts his maths. It doesn't go well and he ends up in frustrated tears. After half an hour I have distracted him enough ( although that wasn't easy and tempers frayed initially), he starts again and flys through it all because now he can organise his thoughts. 

He's recapping on year 6 work before we start year 7. He's worrying about starting year 7, just because this is always what he does with anything new.

After maths he asks to work on Mystrey science.

He then draws a picture of the sun, moon and stars and goes off inspecting our wild bees.

We have a group of white tailed bumblebees making a nest in an empty hanging basket. We will need to relocate the BBQ but it's no biggie and we hope they have come from the bee hotel we made last year. I am glad to see they are still active after the snow yesterday but it's hard to catch them on camera.

Owen works on RM maths whilst he has his boiled egg and soldiers.

Then he wants to do some Mystery science too.

Afterwards he showers ( with no arguement *whoop*) and looks after his pet giant snail. The children did free play in the afternoon, reading and working on their own projects in Minecraft etc, then went to play with friends at the park till dinner time.

Unfortunately, there was some sort of misunderstanding whilst they were out, both came back frustrated and angry. Being tired didn't help matters and the evening descended into chaos. Both Blokey and I were exhausted by the time we got the children settled in bed. 

The following day Sam was up early and in a better frame of mind...if somewhat random and hard to pin down! He started his day with English comprehension and some writing practice. Today we looked at more Doctor Dolittle and a passage from Misty of Chincoteague.

We practiced our Spanish with Speekee. Sam is getting more confident with trying pronunciation now.

Owen worked more on RM maths:

And did the same English exercises as Sam:

Owen now realises when he gets his letter wrong and although it frustrates him, he manages to creep going and not give up on his work. This is a big improvement and tells me he is getting to grips with it all more.

The next day there was much excitement. Blokey was taking us all out to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2, in 3D at the IMAX. We went for lunch first and made an afternoon of it.

Lunch at Nandos was incredibly noisy but neither boy would wear their headphones. Oh no, they would much rather complain about the noise and expect everyone else in the place to be silent lol.

Owen hides behind the menu and Sam brightens up when he sees steak is available.

The film came next and it was AWESOME! All of us thoroughly enjoyed it and the 3D effects were fabulous too!

Saturday morning is spent going into town briefly and then playing back at home. Sam comes for a 5km walk with me and we explore some new public footpaths around the village.

Owen doesn't want to go out today. He embarrassed himself at the park and is nervous he will be teased. He camps out on his PC whilst Sam plays outside. I know that no amount of reassurance will persued him out, so am glad when his friend calls round to ask him to play. He brightened up immediately and shot off up the park.

Sunday is spent playing at home with Blokey at chess, on the Xbox and at the park with friends. We have a film evening before bed and both boys fall asleep without too much fuss.

Easter

As all the local children have finished school due to the Easter break I know the children will want to be playing outside more with their friends. With this in mind I just have a short amount of work set up in the mornings. It's mainly to keep it fresh in their minds and keep some sort of a routine in place. 

Hopefully, this will stop the transitional issues I normally struggle with once the holidays are over. 

Owen did some RM maths:

Sam worked on Conquer Maths.

Not long after, there was a knock at the door and they both flew out to play.

Owen was in his usual Tuesday stressy mood. When I finally got him to eat, this improved and he worked on his maths.

Sam revisited Primes and Composite numbers.

Owen finished his maths and then they chilled out for a while before their friends called round.

The rest of the day involved playing at the park and flitting in for lunch. They finally came home at 3pm, which was a good call, as they needed to decompress before ju jitsu class later.

I filled their bellies with chips, peas, bread and butter and they went off happy and a little sunburnt. They had a great time at class this week and came home tired but still chirpy.

The following day they were both up early and we cracked on with some English comprehension and writing. Sam went out to play, whilst Owen decided to play online with one of his home ed friends.

In the afternoon the boys played outside and had a friend round.

The next day Blokey finished work. We needed to take Piggle for a vets appointment and sadly she is worsening. We all felt so sad but hopefully have a bit longer with her yet. Afterwards we visited the garden centre and bought lots of shrubs for home.

The children played out and then we had a takeaway and watched some manga cartoons.

We were recommended to mysteryscience.com by a friend and decided to give the trial a go. We all enjoyed it.

Sam continued to work on Conquer maths and Owen is finishing RM.

We are still doing a slow week as the boys are playing outside most of the day whilst the school children are around.

We do some writing or maths/science most mornings, then they have the rest of the time to play. It's all pretty easy going Home ed wise but Owen is struggling with his anxiety and is having some black moods.

I was a bit hit and miss with recording things on the blog.. we had a BBQ, read a lot, watched films and the children played at the park most days..pretty chilled once Owen calmed himself down a bit lol.

National trust, Maths, Nouns

Monday we visited the lovely Kedlestone Hall and it's grounds.

We loved this car.

Lovely grounds and a good sunny day.

The children thought this was the 'Womping Willow'.

This is the middle wing.

The first floor entrance hall with grand alabaster columns and marble floors.  We all went 'wow' as we walked in.

The menfolk loved this 'Mexican wave' painting.

Sam was very interested in the beautiful, Ivory chess set.

The domed ceiling was awesome but Owen felt it would be enchanced greatly by a glitter ball.

A wind up telephone. ' that's fab!'

Lots if Ivory, tusks and dead animals...they weren't impressed.

Sam loved the weapons and named a lot of them.

Practicing on the instruments.

Reading the graves in the old church. 

Then lots if playing in the hollow willow tree.

The boys admiring the view from the Adam bridge.

Blokey watching the swans.

A quiet moment for Owen, where he just took in the scenery.

The next day being Tuesday, meant Owen got up in a foul mood. It's a theme, but I was ready this week. I just walked away and after a while he decided sulking was boring and got on with his English and maths. He was a much calmer boy and whilst he was 'contemplating his navel' , I got on with outstanding jobs until he was ready to talk to me. 

Sam and I did some algebra and looked at nouns and he practiced his writing and comprehension.

In the evening the boys both had a great time at jujitsu, especially as it was 'weapon' day and Sensai lent them his special nunchucks.

In the morning Sam got up early with me and did a 3km run. He then chilled out with his breakfast and Batman cartoons. When I was ready we took a look at the free trial of Conquer Maths. At this point Owen joined us. Both boys were impressed with the lessons and how they were presented on Conquer Maths, so I will sign them up. Owen has nearly finished his RM curriculum too, so they can both join Conquer for Key Stage 3 onwards. 

Sam working on percentages.

Owen ate his breakfast and we all worked on our Spanish together. They are picking it up quite quickly and enjoying Speekee. They had a really good laugh about the phrases they could sing to Blokey in the car.

Owen in a good mood, pulling faces at me as we learn.

Speekee Spanish

Owen then worked on RM Maths

He found it loaded better on the PC ( despite me telling him this 100's over the last two years *snort*) and said he preferred it this way.

He then did a bit of 'Vogueing'

Sam did three lessons on Conquer Maths and Owen continued on with RM Easimaths.

Next we did more lessons on nouns.

We identified different types of nouns and looked a plural nouns ending in 'S'.

In the afternoon our friends came over. The children played at the park and had a lovely time whilst the adults caught up and drank coffee.

In the evening I got bored and did some gorilla googling.

Next morning the children had a laugh at my antics. They were tired, so Owen worked on his maths.

Sam did the same using Conquer Maths..he's getting on well with it.

We then sang Spanish songs and reinforced the words and phrases we had been introduced to this week.

As it was sunny and I had a parcel to post, we cycled up to the post office. Sam's anxiety was high but we managed it. Owen was feeling a bit tetchy so I let them have free play the rest of the day, so they could relaxed and destress. They always learn stuff doing this anyway, it's just less formalised. Later they played with their friends at the park.

In the morning Blokey drove us to Stafford for our acupuncture treatment. His back is better and my shoulder and neck are easing off too. Afterwards Owen had a hair cut at a Turkish barbers..that was interesting. Then we looked around the market square and Owen tried some street food. He really enjoyed his chicken chorizo, lettuce and onion wrap...he even asked for chilli sauce. Despite him photographed doing the 'sniff test'...he did like it honest!

I managed to grab a couple of pairs of jeans in charity shop *bonus*. 

Back at home the boys played out with their friends whilst we worked in the garden. They had requested a BBQ, so we enjoyed that in the garden later.

On Sunday it was gloriously sunny again. The boys spent all day out of the house. They were either at the park or at friends houses and rushed in for food, then back out again. Both caught the sun and have pink noses. 

I went for a lovely long walk around the village and took some photos. Before bed we all sat and watched a film together.