Wednesday 25 November 2009

Thanksgiving at Home Ed group

At our meeting today we learned about Thanksgiving. The children were read the story of thanksgiving and talked about the hardships faced by the pilgrims arriving in America for the first time. Then we did some crafts, a thankful tree and a thanksgiving wreath, and Hannah did some colouring.

This is the wreath she made, she thought she might not fit the writing in the space so i wrote the message in, but the sentiment was all hers.


A very colourful pilgrim couple.


Her tree of thankfulness showing she is thankful for mama, dada, grammy and home :-)

Hannah TV

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, Hannah's cough and cold has been hanging on and on so we've been quite quiet and restful for a few days. Yesterday however, she felt much better and so decided to make a cardboard box tv and treat Dean and i to a showing of 'Feather Dusters'. I have no idea where she got that idea from but she was really cute and funny as a tv presenter!



Friday 20 November 2009

The last few days....

.....have been quiet here as Hannah has had a horrible cough and cold, but she still managed to make these collages from some of my old Country Living magazines.


and today, she was desperate for some fresh air so went out for a little while to fly her new kite (once the rain finally stopped).




Afterwards we warmed up with a hot chocolate and a couple of rides in the cafe nearby.



Tuesday 17 November 2009

Reading


Yesterday Hannah's cousin Frinny came to visit us, and the 'usually shy about reading aloud' Hannah decided to read two of her readers to her!!! I was so amazed that i took a picture :-) 

Sunday 15 November 2009

Random things we've done this week

This week Hannah decided that she had prefered having more structure to her learning, and asked if we could start doing table 'time again'. I heaved a sigh of relief (as i find it much easier to keep track of what we're doing this way) and got her workbooks back out. Well, the break seems to have done the trick as she sailed through to the end of her Phonics and Reading Book 1 and started book 2 . This is quite an achievement as she had been find that quite difficult in the summer. She also wanted to start a new journal where she can do a picture and write a little bit about it by herself. She only managed a sentence for each picture, but she is spelling things well and her writing is legible so we are both pleased about that.

Mama at the bus stop

Starting Horizon's Phonics and Reading Book 2

At our home education group we have been learning about Victorians and Pioneers this term, so last week we started a 'Time Line' for all the people we had learned about. This week Hannah and i finished hers off and talked about time and dates in history.

We also found out about 'A Christmas Carol' as Charles Dickens is one of our famous Victorians and made plans to see the play performed next month. Hannah coloured in this picture from the story as part of her art work,

and also drew this pencil drawing of a cat.

Finally this week we sorted through all of Hannah's things in her room, and rearranged her furniture to make the room warmer and cosier. She certainly seems to be sleeping well now :-)




Wednesday 11 November 2009

Remembrance Day

Today at our home education group we made posters for remembrance day. Hannah drew a big cross, some grave stones, a poppy, a soldier and a medal on hers. We talked about the reason for remembrance day and about the 2nd world war first and then the children made their posters to show what Remembrance day meant to them. The soldier in Hannah's picture is her great granddad who died during the war.


The second part of our meeting today was all about Isambard Brunel, as we are studying famous Victorians, and Hannah learned all about the things that he designed and built.

Afterwards we all went to play in the Park, and headed into the Park Cafe when it rained, where the Hannah's spent a happy time doing puzzles and drinking babychino's!

Sunday 8 November 2009

A visit

Today Hannah and i have been to Leamington Spa to visit Hannah's grandad (my dad) and grandma Heather. Grandad and grandma Heather have recently moved to the town, and live in part of my step sisters property, so Hannah was able to see her cousins as well. The last time they saw each other they were 2 and 7  years old (they are 5 and 10 now) so they had a lot of catching up to do.

Hannah had a fantastic time with the twins, we all went into the shopping centre to visit Hawkins Bazaar and then went to see the huge Christmas tree which they loved. They posed for lots of pictures there before going back to the house for more playing. The twins' older sister had finished her homework when we got back so we had a few more photo's and lots more playing, and finally left to come home at teatime. 

They had all had such a good visit that there were many, many hugs before we finally got in the car, and lots of promises to visit again really soon.




Everyone say cheese :-)

Amber, Hannah and Fraser admiring the christmas tree
Amber, Hannah, Rachel and Fraser.
Group hug
and more hugging!!

Gardening

Yesterday we had a big winter tidy up in the garden. We weeded and cut back the shrubs, had a bonfire and planted lots of lovely spring bulbs. 

Hannah did lots of the weeding, planting and sweeping and loved every minute. Of course there was a lot of stopping to rescue snails, worms, caterpillars.....the list is endless, but it was all worth it and the garden looks much better now.



Friday 6 November 2009

A Nature Walk

Today Hannah and i have been to Baffins Pond (again..yes i know!!). We were meeting friends this afternoon in the area, so we went early for a nature walk while the rain held off.



Hannah thought this Coot's feet were amazing!

It was lovely and peaceful under the Willow trees - the duck's thought so too.
A surprisingly friendly goose.
Looking for food.
Across the wetlands towards the woods.
We found Violets!!

It's been a busy week for Hannah with some late nights, so i left her to watch tv and relax while i made dinner............she was a little too relaxed when i came back and slept like this for nearly 2 hours - so who thinks we'll be awake all night then lol!!


Hannah's Thursday....

...started with her journal, she drew her favourite fish and wrote a sentence about him,



then she did some of her year 1 maths books - adding and subtracting.




After lunch we went out to the park for some ball play, swinging and (of course) leaf collecting!!



When we arrived home one of our neighbours came round with a leapad and books that her son had outgrown - Hannah was thrilled and wanted to read them straight away :-)


Finally, Hannah went to her dance class...............


and our day ended with a bonfire party at a friends house which was really, really good fun :-)

Grandma's Birthday

On Wednesday Hannah's grandma was 75 years old, Happy Birthday grammy xxx

Monday 2 November 2009

Today Hannah has....

Built a scene from The Magic Faraway Tree with her wooden blocks and tree blocks.


The cottage, forest and fairyland.

The forest with Bessie in the Faraway Tree

Done some activities on Starfall.com, and some pages from her workbooks, and then played some guitar with one of my friends who taught her a few basic chords on a much too big for her guitar!!


She started on the acoustic guitar

But soon found the electric was small enough to actually reach the strings
Jammin' with Roger!!