Stuff thats happened...sorry, its too late to think of a decent title!

Do you know, one of the brilliant things about home education is the lovely people that I've met since choosing to take this path. I've been having a really rough time with Jamie lately and I've been able to talk to other home educator friends about it and they've been so supportive, it's really made a difference, they are some of the nicest people I've met and I'm glad I know them :) After a good couple of weeks of struggling with Jamie's angry outbursts and mood swings (on top of me already feeling low) - I'm not sure if it's hormones or what, maybe she's still deschooling and adjusting too?? -  yesterday we actually had a good day! There was no arguing or shouting at all. And today has been almost the same, there were two incidents, but I managed to remain calm, let her get on with it, then was there to give her a big hug and listen afterwards.
I've decided that it's time to swap the kids rooms around - at the moment, Jamie and Amelia are sharing a tiny and rubbish room, and Alex has the bigger room to himself - apart from it being a big job that I'd been putting off, I'm also worried that Alex is going to be really upset about changing rooms, he's always had that room, it's his safe place, I'm going to have to make his new room pretty special for him, so both rooms need re-decorating.

Saturday we went to a dog show organised by a friend who resues animals in the UK and helps bring back dogs in trouble in Romania and helps to save them from the meat trade, all the money raised at the dog show went to get a dog some much needed surgery and bring her to England - here's the website, it's still being set up though - Hanovia Gold Animal Trust Although Jamie did moan about being bored at one point, we had a good time.

Can't really remember much of what happened on Monday, I know it was cleaning day so that's probably why, it was a bit boring.... Jamie did some more worksheets though. She learnt about comparative and superlative verbs and the use of descriptive verbs in a story and how they change the way the writer feels about something.

Yesterdays activities -

We went to craft club, Jamie and Alex painted their pottery pieces they made a few weeks ago that had been fired, the glaze needs to be fired now and then they can be taken home.
They also made some very cool 'fossils' made by making imprints in clay with various shells and toy insects and lizards then pouring in plaster of paris and waiting for them to set. I think they look very cool.
We went to a local nursery to buy some free range eggs. I've decided to get them from there from now on as I can see that the chickens are free to roam around. They've also got Rheas there, those eggs must be quite big! Amelia loved seeing the chickens and he and Jamie loved picking out some eggs to go in the boxes.
In the afternoon, Jamie played about with the left-over clay from the plaster casting we did at craft club, she loved the feel of it :)
Alex amazingly remembered that he had some money saved in his tractor that I'd saved for him about 4 years ago, and unsurprisingly wanted to buy some more Skylanders with it, it's his money, so I took him to buy Slam Bams 'Empire of Ice' adventure pack. He was VERY excited about it and played it as soon as we got home.

 cool plaster cast fossils :)

 Jamie playing with the leftover clay

 Alex and Amelia saying hello to the geese at the nursery

Jamie wishing she could reach the Rheas feathers that were on the otherside

of the fence

Todays activities -

Jamie made her first omelette, with the eggs that we bought from the nursery yesterday.
Jamie learnt about Islamic Halal meat, we were talking about how the animals are treated with more respect when they are killed than other animals - she still didn't agree with it though.
Jamie also made some flapjack, we learnt a new hand clapping game, and pretended we were nautical explorers discovering new creatures.
She saved an ant from certain death and nursed it back to health by giving it a soggy marshmallow to suck on.
She's played a bit of Skylanders, watched a bit of tv and is now in my bed watching Tremors 2.

Alex has......guess what? yep, played SKYLANDERS!!! he's also done a load of trampolining, played Matching pairs, Minefield, and some Purble Place on the laptop. he's played Disney top trumps with his toys (Slam Bam won -of course) he's been watching Alvin and the Chipmunks, Astro Boy and Tremors.

Amelia loves me reading to her now, her favorite stories are,' The Snail and the Whale', 'The Gruffalo', 'Rosie's Walk', 'Where the Wild Things Are', and a really horrible one called 'The Wolf and Seven Little Kids'! It's an old one, I think some of those old stories are really scary, and whats the fixation with the number 7 and cutting open a wolf to get somebody out alive??
Amelia also LOVES laying the 'Baby Jake' game on the Cbeebies website, it still amazes me that she's only just turned 2 and she can play an online game all by herself, I'll have to find some other games for her to play, I think she might get bored of Baby Jake's one soon!

 Just thought I'd put this one in, Amelia with her new Gruffalo hat :)