Category Archives: General

We were surprised in August that our allegedly 2 baby girl rabbits had made a litter of 4 healthy babies and at the point we found them, they had already conceived the second litter of rabbit babies Skittles, the proud dad, had a swift visit to the vet, and the first 4 babies were all happily rehomed and one of the second litter also homed. This leaves 3 of the babies ready to find a new loving home from next week. These babies have been well loved and hugged, used to children giving them lots of attention, don’t nip, bite or scratch. They are part minilop and part lionhead, so not a pure breed, but for some of them, there is clearly alot of lion there, with all the furriness!

This is where they started in the warm snuggly nest that Snowy made.

Soon they developed fur and character

Before long they were ready to be played with, and the love started

So, anyone fancy rehoming the rabs?? they are easy and loving pets. ideally we would like to find a home for a boy and girl pair [tho you will want to neuter the boy!] and a single boy – also best neutered, and they make better lone rabs.

Lovely fluffy lionlop Black Otter Boy

Cutie Broken Blue minilop Boy

Adorable fluffy fawn lionlop girl

hoping for happy homes

Since i no longer have any home ed to blog about I am going to have to regularly blog about all the lovely books I have bought, begged or borrowed . This one is going to be about geography, as it is something that for ages we have read interesting books, but not something that we have included into our regular attention. Now we have started to do some more regularly, in part enthused by Kirsty and her uni degree .Well it is a mixture of about geography and geology!!

Some backbone texts

Only 2 this time. The first chapter of galore park starts with OS maps, and we have to help and look at other maps and make it fun to get through it to the other chapters, but actually once started, it wasn’t as hard as she thought it might be. A bit more ‘fun’ is the Letts series. These have contextualised story based knowledge and is one of the easier ways of looking at the subject. i have to say, that unlike history, where we are following predominantly a chronological history scheme with additional situational learning, here we are dotting about all over the place, just following the order of the random books we pick up however, spurred on by other friends interest, we are looking more at geology, and have some books to go along with that too [obviously!]. When real science 4 kids get their geology book out, we may give that a look too, as their resources are available online.

Various supplemental books/workbooks

SB has really enjoyed the DK project books, and we have had them in a number of areas. You read various facts first, then there are pages with further depth and stickers to put in, and finally at the end more of a quiz about whether you have actually learnt anything. She flits between the two and likes the mixture of page types she says. The dk rock and fossil book has also been greatly enjoyed. It also has ‘experiments’ in it which are rather fun too.

Assorted reading books

There are lots of books out there in the library, some more reading story styles, some mostly pictures, some facts and experiments, some comics and above is a selection of different ones. SB likes to read a variety of styles, as does BB, so it is useful for us to dot between different ways of presenting the same thing, but obviously some children have a more steady book style We have liked all of them, but have to pay special attention to those books by Meredith Hooper who has a particular way of writing and illustrating that makes these books particularly beautiful.

Other Resources
We have done lots of things with ‘practical geography’ such as geocaching, postcrossing, going fossil hunting, pebble collecting etc. We also have a few games…

Previous resource Posts
Thinking Dinosaur

History resources

Resources overview

a gratuitous amazon link post

It is not completely impossible to guess which child got which book for the end of the week

One thing I love about living in the middle of arable land is the joy of watching the seasons change. i still think may is probably my favourite month, with mayblossom, elderflower, the grass verges blossoming, and the fields with their fresh green growth [well, apart from the bright yellow ones with oil seed in them]. But also watching the many wheat fields ripen and turn golden over the summer. It was such a hot summer, and viv complained so bitterly that she couldn’t get cool. She liked the Autumn, with the crispness in the air, the way the sun imparts a poignant golden glow over everything. A kind of enjoy this now, because this year is leaving you. My walking and driving over the last few days has showcased a ‘new England fall’ with the trees in the beautiful autumnal hues, set against bright blue skies, and brown, newly ploughed fields. I do like having seasons.

The girls came home OK so i was very happy to see them

SB and I did some piano prac, I made starter and part of main course for the eve meal with friends. SB Painted her trick or treating bag, we snuggled and cuddled, looked at rabbits and waited for the manorborns to say they were ready for us

When they were we went geocaching together, meeting up at a charming olde worlde pub, where i amtempted to take the parents for lunch and then walking to first geocache – a multi. unfortunately, we saw our path was straight through a herd of cows, with bull and calves. We thought about it, but decided against it the next cache was far more straightforward, with no cows and a nice tranquil walk – once we had got off the main road.

Home then for dinner. We had lovely company, and the girls went off to bed without too much of a fuss, leaving us to giggle and laugh for the rest of the evening into the early hours. sometimes it is easy to forget how nice it can be to be grownups without visible offspring A thoroughly pleasant catchup.

Sunday, some more piano prac for SB, and then finished making her ‘headless cloak’ made BB’s little ghost costume, SB painted her papier mache head, and then i glued on [hot glue gun alert!] the golden locks and gobbets of blood she provided!! BB announced it looked a bit like the manorborn daughter! We did some great pumpkin carving, and then had lunch.

We had a surprise for the girls afterwards, and we went to the circus! [no animals]. We all enjoyed it, though was a bit nippy in the big top! Lots of tumbling, and gymnastics. I did love the lady and the cube, and the 3 tumbling lads. the clown was actually v funny – and i am not a great clown fan! it finished slightly later than anticipated, so by time home and girls dressed up, we were a bit late for trick or treating in the village.

In the village there is a strong pumpkin ethos, and most are finished by 7-7.30, and we set out at 6.15. oh well!! still a reasonable hoard, and ppl complimented SB on her costume, which she liked , and I love the convivial atmosphere in the village on halloween. Doesn’t feel at all an imposition.

Home for candlelit [some inside pumplins] halloween dinner in the conservatory – yes, pumpkin soup!! and a merlin to be scary before bedtime.

edited to add – this post has so many emoticons in it, it looks like yellow measles. I could weed some out, but…