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when i was growing up, halloween really wasnt a big deal, and since it has been generally derided as an americanism in the family. bonfire night was always the big thing. however, our village does halloween really beautifully. it is simple, straightforward, safe and fun. from about 5.30 for 2 hours ish, if you have a lit pumpkin outside your door, you will have callers for treats. no tricks. if no pumpkin, no callers. loads of families are walking about with their kids. it is friendly and sociable. lovely. I am sold!

So, sb is settling into working hard. Looking at her classical civ answers it is clear we as parents need to sit with her for her to learn how to answer and get marks – a skill in itself!
This week we are hoping to finalise exam centres. I can’t quite believe how long it is taking, but know after this year all other years are straightforward , so being as relaxed as it is possible for me to be at least I have belief it is going to all come together!
Bb needs us to do more diverse and fun home ed stuff. She is finally getting her head around the concept if doing some routine things. She is working to year 4 english books and year 3 maths as we have to make sure it is easy for her so she isn’t frustrated and gives up. She is hapoy with her ks2 science. I am quite sure if she had to jump ahead it would be feasible, but she doesn’t like jumps. She also doesn’t like being pushed, and does like to consolidate. I am thinking she will have a very solid maths and English base!

half term didn’t quite work out as planned . We had hoped to have my gorgeous niece and nephew with us for the whole thing, and at the last minute found out via my mum and dad that BIL wasn’t planning to bring them after all . Deep breaths! and mum and dad brought them up on thurs, but with strict instructions that they had to be back early sat. OH well, meant i didn’t get to see them much as at work. well, now I have got the grumble/disappointment out of the way I am going to go ahead with all the good things!

So, on wednesday I was at home and we had a working morning and then in the afternoon we got to do some crafting, and with discussion we mixed chocolate and art . So we got our disposable piping bag and piped a variety of halloween shapes and words. Skulls and spiders were are best.

SB and I cooked perogies for tea, which worked really well for a change! we used a sightly different recipe, and it took us ages, but lovely cooking and chatting together

when the cousins had joined us on thurs, there was lots of playing inside and out, and they had a great time together. pumpkin carving also happend – obviously

Like many before me , I have realised my children enjoy art activities more when they are using real resources as it encourages thinking , planning and good execution.
So with Halloween coming up we thought we would look at acrylics on canvas for bright and bold, and with a stencil element. Bb choose a pumpkin as she loves carving them, and sb chose a Mexican sugar skull pattern ( going from pink girl into goth phase!)
First we painted the backgrounds – bb’s being a proper picture and sb going for a v interesting red with some black dragged look.
We then took some time to design and cut out stencils. Bb having a leaf and pumpkin face pattern – easiest to cut with a craft knife. Sb decided to keep the lines and discard the rest ( must be a special word for this kind if stencil??)
We held our stencils down and used black over the top. Everyone was pleased with their results.

I was working the mornings of the weekend and on call the rest, but luckily got to have quite a bit of time at home.
DH is in full DIY mode, turning bb’s bathroom acting as bedroom into a true bedroom. This weekend was clearing out the shower ( it will get a blog post!)
Whilst at work sb was doing bookish things and some music Prac and bb skyping her cousin ( with scintillating conversation apparently) and concurrent playing roblox with lots of laughter.
When I returned I did Latin one day with sb- we have slowed down and it is being a back burner! I did bb’s comprehension and spelling with her as she won’t do it with Dh. Both girls had a piano lesson.
The rest of the weekend was spent crafting. We did our lovely Halloween art. Mine didn’t work as I had hoped but useful to discuss thro with girls why I wasn’t happy and what I had learned from this. Bb did an acrilyc picture of a horse. After a lot of redraws and frustration that could only happily draw the head and neck, she decided to hide the rest of the horse behind a tree . One v happy daughter! The second also v happy as took 90 mins to henna her hands. Looked v good! She thinks we should take henna to Xmas camp, so will do that.
Otherwise we played games, survive and bananagrams – in English with bb and in French with sb- which gave me brain freeze!!

Only sb in here ( and she did some English and art since I took the pic and a piano lesson with me – taking to 35]. She has worked hard this week. Bb’s has got lost, but she also has had a good week. She has partic enjoyed doing the science kits with DH from the wizards apprentice, and has been less worried about English! we bought a couple of different science workbooks for her, as she likes doing things like that with minimal writing. Mostly she is learning through reading, experimenting and talking rather than formal work. We take things at her pace.

Just thought I would post a couple of pics here that DH took whilst they were trying out the wizards apprentice kit, which they ahve really liked

Getting exciting!

I am feeling the need to do something out and abouty, so we went to the Biology Day. The sun was shining, we left DH at home to DIY and journeyed into the city. for once I parked fairly centrally to make life easier! We found the venue with ease and started looking about. BB was feeling a bit fragile about crowds and loud noises, so not completely ideal, but we are pushing the envelope! we started with the quieter areas = racing breeding woodlice, then making dna spirals and finally looking at mitochondria. BB found the crime scene too noisy, so we retired to the cafe for a rehydrate and re-energise! We then moved onto dissect an owl pellet and a chicken wing before going to the microscope room, where we were the only people so had a lot of attention. we guessed hairs from different animals and looked at lots of water beasties as well. Overall we enjoyed it, though SB is a bit ‘too old’ for it now – argh to my child getting older! bittersweet to see her moving on!!

Afterwards we went for a treat lunch at frankie and bennies, and whilst SB and I finished and chatted, BB took advantage of the larger area to skateboard, which she has now found she has some confidence in.

The next day we did a bit of baking – well SB did for the village bakeoff! and decorating her cake. It was a bit hectic as we had planned to go to a historical fair for buying kit, but with the bakeoff challenge, and classical civ skype tutorial, and wanting to also spend time with BB it didn’t happen! However, BB and I had fun recreating assault courses in the garden. The when SB was ready, she and I walked to the village apple day and submitted her cake for the bake off. It didn’t win, but lots of people told her how delicious it was, so she was very happy with that . we also had a peel off for the longest continuous apple peel [172 cm for me ] bobbed for apples and pressed some apple juice drink. SB had her face painted and made a toffee apple. Very parochial but very chilled and lovely

On our return, BB and I decorated another of our tiles. All mine are glazed now, but SB and BB have one each left to do.