Another week's gone by already!

Time seems to be flying in the Cawser household - our lives seem to be busy and full at the moment, with lots of playdates, parties, trips to the river, library, shopping and so on.
The weather last week was incredibly hot - not something I'm fond of and am quite aggrieved that we aren't having cold, crisp autumnal mornings! I want to get wrapped up with hats and scarves and go for walks in the leaves instead of wearing summer gear and not being able to do anything because of the heat!  I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 on Saturday - just a few(!) months late. I saw it in 3d which I was really rather impressed with - it wasn't as extreme as I'd thought it would be from the trailers which were too much like hard work to watch.  I thought the flm was fantastic too. Tilda was impressed with the free 3d poster I got too!
On Sunday we went to Rowan's birthday party at which I may have hurt my back a bit on the bouncy castle whilst helping Winnie - I think that its destabilised it by wobbling in lots of direction at once, so I'm now a bit stranded for a while until its feeling stronger again. The last thing I want is for the disc to go again.
This morning we have made some weather symbols for our map of Great Britain. Tilda has taken a liking to watching the weather forecast so now she can do them herself! 
I have to say RIP to Nyree's dog Fern, who died this morning from Parvo, combined with old age. ((()))

Every day's a schoolday! (not)

Today we learnt about
dinosaurs before breakfast - we identified Tilda's plastic dino as a Spinosaurus using our dinosaur atlas. We had discussions about carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, defense mechanisms, anatomy, archaeology, evolution.
After breakfast we took a broken keyring apart and fixed it - discussing the electronic components.
At lunchtime we learnt in detail the pure chemistry that is bacon and tinned tomato, with a sideline of protein and what you need it for.
This afternoon, we went with Nyree, Lee and the kids to Attenborough where we got very wet, I ran to the cafe  - something I've not done for a long time! There was duck/goose/swan feeding, tree climbing and more running.  An insect book was bought and studied.
After dinner we read Now we are Six, then did some of the Maths problem solving workbook.
Now the kids are off to bed - Tilda listening to Harry Potter on her ipod.
The vast majority of what was learned today was initiated by Tilda. Questions were answered as and when they came up, and they came up a lot! You definitely don't need to be in school to learn!
Here's a quick pic of Winnie practising her walking at Attenborough.

Clever little monkeys!

Tilda completed her 100th lesson on Reading Eggs today and scored 100% on the quiz!

 

Winnie is also being super and is practicing her walking!

Must... Keep... Blogging...

I really have to keep at this, I did really well before, not sure why I stopped. I need to keep a record of what we get up to from a home-ed point of view as well as it being somewhere to keep our pictures in context. You'll find no pretentious, self-important, up-my-own-arse twaddle-crap that I've read on some blogs lately. I won't pretend to be a domestic goddess/ crafting genius/ mother-extraordinaire, because I don't think she actually exists!
Ok, so enough! What have we done this week? Sunday - bought and fitted a new stairgate so that Winnie can't get into the kitchen to eat the cat food - it contains egg and makes her puke! Ask me how I know.....
Monday saw us go find a playground we'd not been to before - only had a slide in working order, so probably wouldn't go back. In the afternoon, we went to babysit for Harri and Rachael as Vaughan had impaled himself on a soup bowl and needed to go to A&E for xrays and stitches.
Yesterday was fairly quiet as we all have a bit of a cold. Tilda read me her library books and did an hour of Reading Eggs.

 

Today we have done more Reading Eggs, been for a charity shop trawl - I needed a new jumper/cardigan type thing. Its refreshing to actually be able to buy second hand clothes for me - managed to do up a pair of size 16 jeans today! Tilda had a conversation with one of the shop ladies about the film 'Matilda'. We shared a portion of chips for lunch and bought the ingredients for tonight's pizza.

Since it is Wednesday, here's a pic of my nearly finished scarf, claimed by Tilda. I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.

 

On the way home we collected yet more conkers and some leaves which Tilda incorporated into some artwork.

 

Last but not least, we have Mildred. I don't think I've introduced her yet? This is her in June,

 

and today she looks like this!

 

The poor thing is recovering from being neutered yesterday. I love how her skin is tortie too! Since some numpty at the pet insurance company spelled her name wrong, she has actually been known mostly as Mudred which seems to suit her fairly well!

September

August

July

June

Start again!

Ok - so lets ignore the four month gap in posting - not sure what happened there!
Since it is now  September and the schools are back (and we aren't)  it seemed like a good time to get stuck back in. Matilda at the ripe old age of 4 and three quarters, would have started school a couple of weeks ago, so you could say we are 'properly' home educating now. It kinda feels a bit naughty. I can't say I've had any second thoughts however, particularly when I've seen how small some of the kids look in their uniforms. 
The past few months have seen so many new developments from the girls. Tilda is now reading most things she comes across. She obviously still gets stuck on some bits, with a silly language like English, how could she not, but it amazes me what she does know - words that we haven't taught her and didn't even know she'd heard. Nothing is safe anymore - no age-inappropriate reading material is to be left around any longer!
Winnie took her first 'proper' unaided steps yesterday, has mastered clapping today, added Mama to her vocabulary (Dada and Idda) being the other words. She is signing like a pro having now gotten milk, enough, bird and nappy. She also drinks quite happily out of a cup. Soooo different from Tilda!
We've just gotten back from our holiday to stay with my Grandma in Scotland. We stopped in Dunbarton on the way up, travelling up the side of Loch Lomond, then up the A9 through the Cairngorms. We spent three nights with my Grandma, then four nights in a caravan down the road in Findochty. The weather wasn't up to much and we didn't really have any 'big days out' when we were there - just a bit of pottering around really. We went to Culloden and to Clava Cairns which is a bit of a special place. We collected shells (and a eeny-weeny baby crab which was hiding in one of them and spent a night in my handbag! We went to our usual haunts, which weren't quite as good without the usual allergicky-laden foodstuffs, but I only put on a pound, so not as bad as it normally would be. We were instead stuffed full of Aberdeen Angus by Grandma, which wasn't entirely unappreciated and was bloomin lovely!
We've seen lots of lovely crafted items and have taken away lots of inspiration for future projects.
Also this summer, we've been to Denise and Chris' wedding which was lovely. The reception was at a hotel in a little sheltered gully where the children could happily run riot until it was dark.

Well - that's the start of the catch up - I'll do a photo-bomb post tomorrow!

Back from Obscurity

So I've been more than a little slack. I have pictures from the last fortnight, but really can't seem to manage to get round to uploading them! We have bumbled along pretty much as usual. I do have a new pair of DMs - purple, shimmery and lovely!

We've bought ourselves a new, smaller tent to take away for weekends and such. It folds up pretty small and only weighs 16kg, so we should be able to fit everything in the car!
Tilda enjoyed the tent show as usual!

I don't think there's much else to note. Steve's eye has held up for a couple of weeks now so is doing well!
Today we went to Grampsy's for a magnificent dinner of roast lamb and a gazillion vegetables - we saw Great Grandma and Grandad beforehand. After dinner we had a walk around Grampsy's garden and then out into the village.