When we went to lessons at the Swedish school, one of the teacher was using another, Silver bed-time book of songs which included a CD, and a few weeks ago when I was looking for resources for learning Swedish, I discovered there is now a whole range of books in the series, ranging from anthologies for very young children right through to ghost stories for older children.

When we got our copy of Den Blå barnkammarboken, they didn't include CDs, but I have found a place online where you can listen to samples and buy MP3s here.

Track 4 is a little song called "Små grodorna", and it goes like this:

"Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se,
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se,
ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar havar de,
ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar havar de,
ku-ack-ack-ack, ku-ack-ack-ack, ku-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack,
ku-ack-ack-ack, ku-ack-ack-ack, ku-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack!
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se,
Små grodorna, små grodorna är lustiga att se"

And the translation:

"The little frogs, the little frogs are funnny to see,
The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to see!
No ears, no ears, no tails have they,
No ears, no ears, no tails have they!
(And then they sing the Swedish equivalent of 'rebbit' or 'croak' or whatever it is that English frongs say - ku-ack-ack-ack!
The little frogs, the little frogs are funny to see!"

It's an absolute must-learn traditional Swedish dagis nursery rhyme, and you're really not culturally literate in Sweden without knowing it!

Roligt, va!

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http://www.mammamu.se/

I'm not sure this will work, but hopefully you'll be able to play the torrent of the CD "Visor för hela kroppen" - Songs for the whole body
here.

Our favourite is track 16, "Veckovisan" - The Week Song. I did try to find the lyrics online, but can't find them so if I get a chance I'll get them myself and add them here.

In the meantime, here are the veckodagarna - Days of the Week in Swedish:

Söndag - Sunday
Måndag - Monday
Tisdag - Tuesday
Onsdag - Wednesday
Torsdag - Thursday
Fredag - Friday
Lördag - Saturday

Note that Swedish days don't need a capital letter in the middle of a sentence like English days do.

Ha en trevlig helg! Have a nice weekend!

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I'm weighing up whether or not we should take a long summer 'holiday' from homeschool. We have a lot of work to catch up on, but I am *so* tired! So I'm not planning to go back to most of the activities in September, and I'm thinking of getting the book "Homeschool Family Fitness" and trying to do more ourselves, and I'd like to do a bit more with languages at home. Still not sure how - I may use some of the money we're saving on more curriculum items. I'll post what I'm planning to use later.

In the meantime, here is some Swedish vocabulary connected with the summer:

Sommar - Summer (en) definite = sommaren
Sommarstängt - closed for the summer (see the original post on this blog)
Jordgubbe - Strawberry, (literally, earth chap) plural = jordgubbar
Smultron - Wild Strawberries
Grädde - cream (to go with your strawberries
Sommarstuga - summer cottage, typically on the
Skärgården - the Swedish archipelago
Sol - sun (en) definite = solen

I'll leave you with some very typically Swedish pop-music:

Sommaren i City - Angel

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I discovered that grain is easier to store for longer than flour, and there are advantages to milling your own grain in that the nutrients present in the flour begin to disappear after the first 48 hours after milling. I'm reading a book called "Nourishing Traditions" (I'll review later) which talks about the necessity of soaking grains the old-fashioned way, so we'll try that sometime too.

This got me to thinking about Välling - the staple drink for babies in Sweden. I thought it was something you had to buy ready-made, but then I found a recipe:

Skrädmjölsvälling 1port

Ingredienser

Skrädmjöl 2-4 tsk
Vatten 2 dl
Salt

Gör så här

Koka upp tillsammans under omrörning och söta gärna med honung eller fruktsaft. Önskad mängd vatten kan naturligtvis bytas ut mot mjölk.

Basically, what you do is boil 2-4 teaspoons of flour, it can be wheat, whole wheat, rye, or oat, with 2dl water or milk. Stir constantly. Add salt and sugar (honey) if you want to and think the taste requires it.

Basically, I don't recommend it - paediatricians in the UK and the US (and, I suspect, the World Health Organisation) don't recomment wheat for babies under 8 months old, and don't recommend putting any cereal, no matter how thin, in a baby's bottle due to the risk of choking.

Another interesting fact that I discovered when my brother was diagnosed with Crohn's disease is that it is a disease commonly found amongst Swedish and Jewish people, and the suggestion at least on the Swedish side is too early introduction of wheat - before a baby's digestive system is mature enough to stop the wheat particles from entering into the bloodstream.

Nevertheless, Välling is something so homely and conforting I can't imagine Swedish people giving it up any time soon!

If you're in the US, you can try and buy Välling at http://www.scandiafood.com/ (Just don't give it to your kids

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The result is the Home Education UK network - a much smaller and humbler version of the Homeschool Lounge, and with a decidedly British 'flavour'. I'm hoping that it will develop into a really useful resource, a kind of 'one-stop-shop' for advice, support, encouragement and information on all things relating to home education in the UK. It's designed to work in partnership with the Homeschool Lounge rather than as competition to it.

There are groups for every kind of home education method (Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, Classical, etc.) and various different curricula (Sonlight, ACE, Ambleside Online etc.), and I'm planning on starting regional groups as an aid to making local contacts; there's a forum with various categories, including Teaching Methods & Learning Styles, Curriculum Subject discussion (History, Geography, Maths, English etc.), Special Needs and a Marketplace. If you join up, you also get your own profile page where you can blog, (and upload your homeschool blogger using the RSS feed), post photos and videos and more.

Come take a look today!

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It's funny how you remember words you haven't thuoght of for years when you hear them - like the word 'gunga' - swing (noun and verb, just like in English), and 'rutschkana' - slide.

When we lived in Sweden and Dragon-tamer was little, the 'rutschkana' was his absolute favourite thing in the playground. I can hardly believe it was 10 years ago now.

I asked him if he still had any memories of Dagis (short for 'daghem' - day-home; in other words 'nursery'). He hardly remembers it really, apart from a favourite toy - a water track toy thing. I I wondered whether the dagis teachers were still there. It would be nice to go back and visit. I thought we'd do it last year, but we still don't even have passports, so it's looking less and less likely that we'll even manage it this year, but you never know.

Homeschool is being drowned out a bit by 'life' at the moment, but I keep thinking that I would like to try and teach the children some Swedish so they'd be able to speak a little if and when we do visit. They do recognise the sound of it, which is good, I think - they can tell it apart from French or German or Hebrew.

Well, we'll see how we go. I'm looking out for any good teaching materials for Swedish as a second language for children. If I find any, I'll let you know.

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I did meet my local Swedish-Finnish friend briefly in passing and had a quick samtal på svenska, and we both agreed that we must meet again for coffee, but didn't make a date.

We're not actually actively learning Swedish for school at the moment, so I don't focus my thoughts on Sweden and Swedish as I would if we still were. Perhaps we'll try again another time, but at the moment it's a struggle just to do the 'three R's'.

I do have a poster map of Sweden up on the wall alongside a post-card of Mamma Mu (the singing cow) and a beautifully painted calligraphed Swedish alphabet including the three 'extra letters': å, ä and ö, and these caught Pony-rider's eye a few days ago, so that prompted a little conversation, but no real interest in learning the language.

When I get round to it, I will post some reviews of Sweden-related things that we enjoy.

In the meantime, I thought I would give you a Swedish word to try on for size:

Flodhäst - Hippopotamus (literally, river-horse) Dragon-tamers is just telling me, "that's what Hippopotamus actually means!"
pronounced: flowed-hest
When we lived in Sweden, there was a children's television programme about horses entitled 'Hippo'.

Don't ask me why I chose that word, no reason at all that I can think of. Just a word I like the sound of.

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We reminisced about all the things we missed from Sweden (that you can't buy at Ikea!): päronsoda and sockerdricka are my two favourites, but I consoled myself with a couple of cans of Kopparberg non-alcoholic pear cider and a big block of Daim chocklad! Mumms!

We also talked about how hard it is to buy Swedish books abroad, even online, since most Swedish bookshops require a Personnummer (well I do have one, but I don't actually know it... I probably have a card somewhere, but it goes against the grain to use it really) and most of them won't actually ship utomlands. Ahp (with a sharp intake of breath)!

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We were reading about the 'firecrest', which is apparently one of the UK's smallest (if not *the* smallest) bird, though I had never heard of it before now.

I checked it out on the RSPB's website, and was pleased to find that they have a sample of its song together with lots of information:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/f/firecrest/index.asp

We're just on the edge of being in the right area to find the firecrest, so I will have to make a note to look for it when we go out towards the south-east.

The book we were reading, by the way (if any of you are interested) is '366 and more Nature Stories', published by Brown Watson. The author is Anne-Marie Dalmais with illustrations by Annie Bonhomme. It seems to have been written originally in Europe (printed in Milan) and is translated into English and edited by Colin Clark. It is a great book for nature study, with short and sweet little stories every day of the year.

There's some great pictures of the book here here and it is available through used booksellers.

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So anyway, the playlist I wanted to insert is here: Shoshana2's Playlist:

http://www.playlist.com/user/19319641

Enjoy!

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Take the Quiz here!

I couldn't resist this!

"You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed."

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In case you haven't come across lapbooking before, this is a description, which I wrote for a Lapbooking Workshop I ran for our local homeschool group:

"So, what is a lap-book?

A lap-book (also know variously as flap-books, shutter-books, project books, and mini-offices.) can be these things:

- A Hands-On Mum-Produced Teaching Tool that you can use for presenting new information to your children, or to create a visual to consolidate what you’ve already covered (like a lift-the-flap book, so most suitable for certain subjects or for very young children) These tend to be called “mini-offices”. Take a look at

- A way of presenting an older child’s project-work in a fun way, in place of boring and monotonous worksheets (although these can be included!) If you have a child who lacks motivation, lap-booking could be your answer!

- A combination of these two: a joint-effort production where parent and child work together to produce a topic book, teaching and learning along the way! (This works well for young children as well as mid-age children to begin with: once they get going they will want to take over!)

A lap book can be used with any subject matter that you are studying (Maths? Science? The only limit is your imagination!). You do not have to use the “unit study”/ theme/ project method of home-schooling to make use of them. They can be used from preschool through to college!

How are lap-books made?

Traditionally, lap-books are made from manila file folders which you refold to open in the centre, and to which further flaps can be added, but the best type of folder I have found is the “Avery Eurofold” which already has additional flaps and fastening bands, but they are limited in that they are pre-folded. Feel free to use your imagination with thick paper, cardboard, even plastic folders etc...

What supplies are needed?

File folders, paper in a variety of colours/ patterns and types (ex: patterned wrapping paper, wallpaper, colourful construction paper, cardboard), crayons, pencils, coloured pencils, glue, glue sticks, scissors, sellotape.

Now what?

When you have your folder ready, you will either want to insert project-work – writing, pictures and any other relevant items, or make “mini-books” (minature books made from paper folded in different ways) of all types, sizes, shapes and variations on which to do project-work, to glue inside your lapbook. You can make mini-books in advance for the children to work on (and older children can make their own, of course) or, if you are using them as a teaching tool for younger children, you can write, draw, or glue on pictures and items addressing the key points of the subjects you are studying. Even the youngest child will enjoy sticking things in and so, over time, your lap-books will gradually become more and more the child’s work.

One note about assembling your lap-books: don’t glue the mini-books in until they have the completed work already on them, since if something goes wrong you will be in a fix if it’s already glued in!

The main resources for learning about how to make all the different types of mini books, as well as great project ideas, are: “The Ultimate Guide to Lapbooking” by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling, of Tobin’s Lab: www.tobinslab.com and available from Sandra at Ichthus Resources, “All you need to know about Flapbooking” by Jennifer Steward, available from Steward ship www.flapbooks.com and “The Big Book of Books” and “The Big Book of Projects and Activities”, both by Dinah Zike. Ichthus Resources stock some Dinah Zike books and Rainbow books RainbowBooks@Onetel.com carries some of Dinah’s other books (Great Science Adventures). For more information, see "

Well, today I decided to join the , which was recommended on the . So far so good.... but I cannot for the life of me work out how to insert the code!

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3 cups oats, or
1 cup oats,
1 cup barley flakes
1 cup millet flakes

2 cups of mixed dried fruits (you can buy a bag of mixed fruits from the health shop, or select your own)

1 cup of dessicated coconut (if you / your children like it)

1 cup of mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, hemp, linseed etc.)

If you really need extra sweetness, try fruit sugar or demerara (raw cane sugar) rather than the processed varieties.

Directions:

Mix together in a big bowl!
Enjoy!

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I realise that I'm in danger of sound very ungrateful, after all, our next door neighbour's sister was very kind and generous to provide all six of us with free tickets for the second year running. And after all, this year's Aladdin was a vast improvement on last year's Cinderella.

But really and truly, I'd prefer a packet of biscuits. (He's behind you!)

x
Sh

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My intention with languages has always been to give the children a 'taste' so that they can get a feel for a language and then maybe choose to take it up later. We've tried Swedish (sadly much less successfully than I had hoped), Spanish and German previously with no real interest shown. On the other hand, we've picked up Latin and Hebrew which have both proven to be very popular with all the children (and Dragon-tamer showed some initial interest in Greek, but we haven't pursued it).

Dragon-tamer has asked at various times to try Japanese and Icelandic, but I have had to put him off for the time being. Icelandic I know from trying to teach myself, as well as a year in Old Norse during my Scandinavian studies degree course at UCL, and let me tell you that Icelandic is comparable to Latin in its complexity. We might give it a go one of these days, but there is a real scarcity of good materials available in the UK for learning Icelandic.

So anyway, now that we've signed up for German and said we'll definitely be going again, I got phone call telling me that the Hebrew classes have started up again.

(((sigh)))

My heart is definitely with Israel, and if things were different, I would always choose Hebrew over German, but the German class was so wonderfully geared to children (and mixed age range children at that), whereas the Hebrew was aimed at adults and the children were getting nothing out of it, plus the fact that it was held at someone's house meant firstly that the room wasn't big enough to sit in a way which would encourage learning, and secondly there was more time spent chatting than learning. Perhaps I sound miserable and unfriendly, but honestly I just don't have time for it with homeschooling.

So as it stands, we're going for German and we'll have to make do with my amateur learn-as-you-teach method of Hebrew classes at home. I like it better that way really. That way we can concentrate on Dragon-tamer's Bar Mitzvah portion at the same time as teaching the little ones their alef-bet, and everyone's happy (we hope).

x
Sh

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It's always a little difficult to manage to get what they want in time, because I always forget that the shops will be closed! But this year Motor-biker only wanted one thing: to be Spiderman!

This time, it was quite easy, and my does he look cute! I will try to work out how to post a photo!

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Nature (including nature-notes and nature-stories)
Shakespeare (selections)
Character (stories and biographies)
Art (including biography of artist, and several fine art prints)
Stories (including character stories and tales from ancient Rome)
Latin (as well as selections in Greek, French and Spanish!)
Music (hymns, folk-songs, classical)
Bible (reading, memory verses, copywork)

and includes a CD of hymns, folk-songs and classical music.

http://homeeducatortutor.com

It is a family business run by home educators, and since they ran into financial difficulties last year, there is no current issue, but you can buy the back issues (which I highly recommend!), and they are working on new issues. Please consider supporting them!

"You can purchase back issues of The Home Educator's Tutor for only $10 each*, or, for a limited time, purchase a package of four for only $29.99*. That's a full year of The Home Educator's Tutor in one shipment! These prices will be going up, so order soon"

It is ideal for anyone using Charlotte Mason or Classical education, but also anyone who would like to include the above subjects in their home education.

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Unit Study Plans

Some useful links to unit studies, some to buy, some free on the internet:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticchaos/74310/

http://www.homeschoollearning.com/units/units_ancient_soamer.shtml (free if you subscribe to a free 3-day trial)

http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/UnitStudies/argentina.htm

http://www.homeschoolestore.com carries 4 e-book unit study guides:

- South America - a hands-on unit study (this is a Christian unit study) $13.99

- South America - History unit study $3.50

- South America - Culture and Geography unit study $3.50, and

- Adventures in Writing: A Sensory Journey of South America - $5.95

Of course, I would prefer to spend as little money as possible (there is always the risk with unschooling children of having to stop in the middle of a study if they go off the idea!) and I'm not really a fan of e-books, but the history and culture & geography studies look good value. All of these are basically idea-books, and any literature would need to be obtained separately. My search also picked up studies on cougars, anacondas and Spanish language.

When I get my act together I'll post my plan with a booklist.

Questions!

Some things I would like to know include:

- Food: what is South American cuisine like - is it similar to Mexican? What about native South American cuisine?

- Literature: Can anyone recommend any novels suitable as read-alouds and / or easy-readers, set in south America (Isabel Allende looks interesting, including "Zorro" and "Ines of My Soul" about Doña Inés Suárez of Chile, but these would be for me to read, not to the children!)

- Music: can someone point me in the right direction of south American music - both Latin-American and native south-American folk music (does such a thing as that exist on CD?) (We'll be looking in the World section at the library, but fear this might be a little bit too exotic!)

- Art: same question really. Who is who in south American art?

Hi Lillbjorne. How about Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera? Fox

- Film: what would be good family films set in south America, available on dvd or video? (We have ordered 2 BBC nature dvds "Wild South America")

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1 cup of Muesli (we like Alpen best)

1 cup of demerara (raw cane) sugar

1 cup of margerine

1/4 cup of cocoa

a big shake of ground cinnamon

1 egg

1 cup of self-raising flour

We doubled this up, mixing the alpen, cocoa, butter and sugar together, then the egg(s) and then the flour. We added the cinnamon last but really it should have gone in at the beginning when the ingredients were still dry.

We greased a baking tray and baked at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes. It came out looking like brownies. I cut it into squares and it came out of the tray easily :-)

In case you don't dare to do experimental cooking with the kids, here's a recipe for chocolate brownies from the bbc: http://tinyurl.com/2fchom

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Well, actually, firstly BabaZonni had a go. There are stepping stones, which were obviously designed for use by big burly six-foot farmers whose legs are so long their steps stretch wide. Far too wide apart for a 3-year old. I very nearly followed him in, but managed somehow to right myself and pull him back with just a slightly wet trouser-leg. But the older children went very confidently back and forth on these stepping stones through the centre of the lake.

When Pony-rider went in, the whole mood changed immediately. The scene went from calm country nature-lovers enjoying our afternoon to full-blown panic mode. Of course at this point it started to rain. It all happened so fast it frightened me. Pony-rider was shocked but she managed to get out quickly (thank goodness she can swim!). Motor-biker was terrified, and couldn't stop crying.

We managed to get Pony-rider home wrapped up in my jacket, and we pampered her with a warm drink of cocoa, a warm bath and new clothes, (Dragon-tamer was a real star) followed by the experimental cooking session which did cheer her up in the end. But the pungent aroma of pondweed may take a little longer to subside.

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Dragon-tamer, if left to his own devices, would choose play-station all day every day (and it takes a good lot of it to make him sick of it, unfortunately). After play-station, he would read - all day, non-stop, during meals, through the night until he falls asleep on the book. Pony-rider at the moment is going through a really girly phase and her pastimes of choice include bathing Barbies in the sink, mummies and babies and BabaZonee (our little's one's new self-chosen pseudonym) gets to be the baby whether he likes it or not, play-ironing, play-cooking and dolls'-house. Motor-biker's choices are: sandpit, disney videos (especially Oliver, which I hate) and being Spiderman (up, up and oy vey! http://tinyurl.com/223eep )

I am sure in my heart that all of this is good and fun and educational, and life-learning, and I shouldn't worry, but party of me still thinks they should still sit down quietly and conform to a timetable that I (or a sensible adult or a teacher, for example) set for them. I know that the best learning takes place when the children are motivated and select it themselves, but I'm not convinced that even 12 year olds are going to make the best choices for themselves.

So actually, we're only part-time unschoolers. Every now and then I insist that for short periods they do sit down (quietly is a challenge) and "do school" (actually, I hate that - it makes education sound distinct from life, which it really shouldn't be).

I found an interesting suggestion for a timetable online tonight on the website of a blog I occassionally read (another UK home educator) which is basically separating the subjects out over different days, rather than trying to cram it all in on the same day, which I often try to and inevitably fail.

http://patchofpuddles.co.uk/timetable/

I think I'm going to try this approach. Yep. But not tomorrow, because I'm still up and it's ten to 3 in the morning, and I still can't sleep, so in the morning I will be a blubbering lump of jelly-mommy and I'll just have to let them read / play dollies / sandpit / be baby.

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Sonlight grade 5 which I’m using with Dragon-tamer is entitled “Eastern Hemisphere” or “Non-Western Cultures”, and as part of our Sonlight studies, we’ve looked at Pacific Islands, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, North and South Korea and China.

The way I deal with this study which, being aimed at grade 5 is suitable for ages 11 or so+, is to break it up into areas of study (easy with Sonlight 5 as it is already neatly divided into countries, but I’ve done it with the lower grades too) and do projects so that all the children can get involved to whatever degree they’re interested. In addition to reading Sonlight’s literature selections, we take out additional books from the library, we make maps, sometimes 3D models, dress up in national costumes, cook and eat traditional foods, sometimes write little books or make lapbooks and other incidental activities.

Some of these projects have been really popular, especially with the younger children; notably, Australia and New Zealand. Dragon-Tamer was particularly interested in Japan (and scared me for a while talking about wanting to learn Japanese!) Others I have really struggled to get any interest going. Hence, I realise, Sonlight 5 (designed as a one-year curriculum) has now taken us 2 years, and we are only on week 18 (out of 36 – a US school year I think)! I have been talking for months about finishing up on our China project and moving on to the next projects, but for some reason we’ve all really dragged our feet. We still haven’t finished all the Sonlight books on China (though at the beginning we took extra books out from the library). Right now we’re reading a biography of Eric Liddell – Olympic champion and missionary to China. All the books have been fine and good and we’ve enjoyed them, but somehow I don’t think I can face another book about China! Should we skip the rest, save them for later, or take a(nother) break from Sonlight?

When my Froggy friend http://schome.open.ac.uk/wikiworks/index.php/User:Elibee suggested doing a project on Rivers (which, actually I had wanted to do for years but for some reason had never got round to) I jumped at the chance! I have spent most of my free moments over the last weekend brainstorming and planning how we might cover a Rivers Project. We have one of England’s longest rivers running close by, my maps are prepared, and I’m keen for any plan of study that will take us on a trip to the sea! Ah, but now Pony-rider has announced that she actually wants to do a project on South America, please, so it looks as though the river we’ll be looking at is the Amazon. Okay, back to the drawing board…

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We made the fatal error of saying to Pony-rider “what would you like to do for your birthday – you can do anything you like!” Now that I think about it, I realise that we got off lightly. She could have asked for a trip in the Virgin Space Shuttle! Instead, she asked for: 1 trip to Grandma’s, 1 trip to a Farm, 1 trip to Toys ‘r’ Us, 1 Swimming Lesson, 1 Party, 1 slice of Swiss Cheese 1 Ice-cream Cone and 1 Slice of Salami (just checking to see you’re actually paying attention).

So instead of a birth-day, we ended up having a treat every single day for an entire week: Monday was a trip to a farm and a swimming lesson. (More about the Farm later). Tuesday was a trip to Grandma’s (actually we had to go Monday evening because she particularly wanted to wake up at Grandma’s on her birthday – we obliged.) Wednesday was a trip to a favourite local place which provides an outdoor play-area positioned conveniently close to picnic tables where mums can chat over coffee (a treat for me too!); Thursday was playgroup, followed by the girliest girly birthday-party imaginable (it was so great – maybe more about the Party later too!). Friday was play at an indoor play-centre (while the mums had coffee) followed by lunch at the unspeakable McD’s, and in the evening a surprise visit from some friends from out of town who took us to Pizza Hut! And finally, on Saturday we shared the birthday cake with her best friend (who couldn’t make the party due to not actually being a girl).

On Sunday, I laid in bed with a headache, neck-ache, back-ache, leg-ache, etc., the result, I think, of party-stress and way too much icing, coffee, chocolate, cake, McD and Pizza Hut. I did eat one nice green leaf, and after that I felt much better. ;-)

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We've had lots of adventures and shenanigans (sp?) and when I get a minute I'll come back and tell some stories around the camp-fire, but I just wanted to mention our latest very popular read-aloud. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie and abridged by er... well actually I can't check because I think Pony-rider has gone to sleep with it under her pillow. I suspect that any version will do - the adventure is so much fun whichever way it's expressed.

The funniest / most disturbing (?) thing is the way I've noticed the story coming out in their play-times: Dragon-tamer isn't too affected - he views the whole story quite philosophically ("it is quite an odd tale", he told me before I read it), Pony-rider has been spotted rooting through sock drawers for shadows, and generally loitering around windows in the vain hope that Peter will visit, but Motor-biker has been caught curling his forefinger into a hook on several occassions! If he had a pipe, I'm sure he'd smoke it...

I did worry that J. M. Barrie's axe-grinding over growing up was affecting Dragon-tamer when he remarked "I hope I won't get to 12 too soon", but it became clear that this was prompted by a big sign at the play-ground which read "No children over 12 may go on the equipment, by order of the Management".

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I suppose that for parents of children in school, when mum is ill there is the advantage that it’s ‘just’ a question of summoning up enough strength to get the children to school and then the day is potentially free and easy to stay in the sick bed (assuming sick-leave from paid employment is an option)…. But to be honest I don’t know how ‘working mothers’ manage it.

I have seldom thought of home educating as an easy option (for many reasons!) and yet, as sorry as I have been tempted to feel for myself during my bout of ‘flu, I actually think that in this case I do have the easier time of it: apart from the postman delivering packages, there’s no real reason why I need to drag myself out of bed at the crack of dawn (doubtless though, he thinks I’m a shocking layabout!) and, when things are really bad, there’s no reason for anyone to get out of their pyjamas before midday.

As to what our home education has looked like during these weeks, it’s certainly unlikely that we would be mistaken for a ‘home-school’. But has it been educational? It has been less formal even than this ‘un-schooler’ would have liked but, on balance, I think I can say ‘yes’. We haven’t missed a single day.

We can almost always manage some read-alouds: we’re currently enjoying L. Frank Baum’s original “The Wizard of Oz” and Robert McCloskey’s “Blueberries for Sal”. When Mummy has been at her worst and incapable of doing anything much more than lying on the sofa, croaking instructions (“shut that fridge door!”) the little ones have had fun learning to make their own breakfasts, and sandwiches at lunch (while I looked on, shaking my head about all the mess to clean up later!). Hours of imaginative play, and lego construction and so on – that I might normally veto or at least curtail in favour of more academic pursuits – were enjoyed at length. Not to mention all the running about that healthy Mummy would never normally allow!

I must admit as well that the TV (schools programmes and at least nominally educational videos mostly) got much more use than normal. During these few ‘sick’ weeks we became autonomous educators by default!

It was definitely a relief to finally get out of the house properly this week (playing in the garden just isn’t enough). I did wonder whether, given the choice, the children would prefer their home-ed experience with healthy mummy or sick mummy, but for my part, I’m so glad it’s over! (roll on summer…)

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Pony-rider, on the other hand, has been a little bit more complicated to teach. In addition to trying the Ladybird Key Words reading scheme, we’ve used Alphabats, Letterland, Jolly Phonics (lots of Jolly Phonics, in fact: Board books, to introduce the letter sounds, the Phonics Handbook, and the Jolly Phonics ‘Read and See’ series – two packs of books with 12 titles in each: quite cute, but not enough to tempt her…). We tried Sonlight’s “I Can Read It” (what was I thinking of? Thorough, certainly, but nowhere near high-interest enough, at least as far as illustrations are concerned!). I even looked into Ruth Miskin books and Debbie Hepplethwaite’s “Synthetic Phonics” (current favourite of the UK National Curriculum people) but it didn’t seem to offer anything new. Finally, and reluctantly, after many recommendations, I thought I would try “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”.

Not only does this US scheme use small print in so many colours it makes me feel dizzy, it infuriatingly tells me exactly what I must say to the child. I can’t stand it! Neither can Pony-rider, although Motor-biker who is almost 2 years behind her absolutely loves it! The ‘say-it-fast’ concept really appeals to him, and he has no trouble now with the idea of blending letters together into a word.

Hmm. Now we have a problem: Pony-rider’s self-esteem has taken a blow, and although I have always tried to avoid making learning to read a big issue, the fact that Motor-biker is fast over-taking her is not popular! So I’ve been on the lookout again for something new. What I’ve found is My World’s “Now I’m Reading” by Nora Gaydos and illustrated by BB Sams. (Another US programme, so watch out for different spellings, not to mention alternative words: ‘Rooster’ for ‘Cockerel’, and ‘fox kit’ instead of ‘fox cub’.) We have the ‘pre-reader’ set, aimed at ages 3-6, which comes in a cute case with 10 books and a set of 40 stickers.

Presumably, this ‘pre-reader’ set is designed for the parent to read to the child rather than for the child to read, but Pony-rider is absolutely smitten! She read right through the whole set the first day I showed it to her, totally without my prompting! The other sets are as follows: level 1: short-vowel sounds, basic consonant sounds; level 2: long vowel sounds, reinforcement of set 1; level 3: consonant blends, double consonants; level 4: multi-syllable words & compound words and finally, Independent: high interest topics, using previous skills. The blurb on the back says: “the greatest success comes from a balance of phonics and literature-based reading: Now I’m Reading! ™ successfully combines both to build confident, independent readers”. Well, I’m amazed, but I have to concur! I’m not sure that we’ll bother with the other sets though…

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We finished reading Dr. Dolittle today which was bitter-sweet: the children enjoyed the book and the ending was good, but sad because it had come to an end. Pony-rider drew a picture of Jip being presented a golden collar by the Mayor of the small town, which read “Jip, the Cleverest Dog in the World” from the story in chapter 20. We have a pile of new books to choose from next, but I may not start another until we’ve finished “Young Fu”.

In the afternoon, we listened to CDs, and Pony-rider & Tipper-trucker danced (…became trucks… then a pushme-pullyou…) to the music, while Dragon-Tamer experimented with the scanner/ photocopier… and when it wouldn’t do what he wanted, went on to reading (mostly “The Art Book” published by Phaedon which introduces a wide range of artistic styles.

Motor-biker is still poorly and subdued so the walk I had planned is postponed. Dragon-Tamer decided to read to the younger children, and “Ursula Bear” by Shiela Lavelle was selected. They’ve been having a fair amount of trouble getting on recently, so it was a real joy to see them all huddled up together happily on the sofa. :-)

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We all listened to a children’s classical CD (Bernstein Favourites: Children’s Classics), and Dragon-Tamer dictated a couple of reviews which I typed up and posted on to our local home-ed reading group website.

We thought that, in the afternoon, we would just ‘pop in’ to the local museum, or gallery, but when I checked their opening hours, I discovered that both are closed: the Gallery for two weeks while they change exhibits, and the Museum for the whole winter (except for education groups of 20 or more children… so possible to organise for a later date but no good for today).

Disappointed, we discussed other alternatives for the afternoon, but nobody could agree, and since Motor-biker was poorly with a slight temperature, we opted for a quiet afternoon in, watching nature programmes and schools maths programmes recorded earlier.

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