We had a surprise visitor in the boot room....
He created quite a stir!!!! I do love frogs and toads. We do actually have quite a few resident toads in the garden...one usually is in the boot room but I expect he vacated when this fellow arrived. I miss our pond. That may be something we will address in the new year. Now that we have the allotment, I could spare a few square feet for a pond nearer the house.
Well, Tom has fitted the new water pump in his Vitara....all by himself!!! It is no easy task as it involves the removal of the cam belt which if isn't fitted correctly upsets the timing and the engine would not run properly. Amazing..not yet 15 years old and off to an off road meet at the weekend in his OWN car!!!!
His progress and pictures of the Vit can be seen at his blog Landykid on my list of blogs.
A very kind lady from the HE yahoo group has leant me a fabulous book called More than Moccassins which is full of excellent crafts for our Native American Indians theme. Thank you Ginny!!! We had already made some head dresses, tomahawks and have been collecting feathers for a dream catcher...photos to follow!
Jonathan has sold his Ripstick and helmet on Ebay to get the money to buy a mobile phone. He is spending a lot of time out and about now so we felt we needed to keep track of him and he, the time!!!!
William has been spending alot of time chalking and painting. It is great to see him so creative with no pre conceived ideas of what things should look like. William also likes to type on the computer and can type all our first letters of our names in various orders of his choosing. He can also do 'mum' and 'will' when he is in the mood!!! He has been using the montessori materials I made a while ago...matching cards in various themes. He has also been helping me in the kitchen the last few days...grating cheese, making gravy and talking constantly!!! He made me laugh when he was stirring the gravy though....he was talking to himself saying 'stir, stir, stir it in' and then it became 'swer, swer, swer it in'....which is one of Tom's CB terms referring to the 'tuning' in of an aerial!!
David announced autumn had arrived the other day when he noticed the leaves changing colour on the trees at the bottom of the garden. It is good to see them making their own observations. William commented on the falling leaves down the canal this morning while we were picking blackberries.He is very good at picking the nice ones. He knows not to pick the red ones, and to leave the squishy ones there for the mice. He knows the firm and shiny looking ones are best for jam.
David has been really enjoying The Deathly Hallows which we have been reading. He follows it well, and often can guess what is about to happen. It is not an easy book to read aloud as there are so many odd names in, and lots of high pitched shrieking, which I am NOT good at!!
I have been re reading Gareth Lewis's book 'One to One' which I highly recommend to anyone starting out on their Home Education journey. Or indeed anyone who is HE'ing and has not read it! I also like his other one entitled 'Unqualified Education', for over 11's. They both are very reassuring reads.
I have also been reading the Home Education Journal from Cinnamon Press. There is a very good case study in there written by a boy of 19 years old who was educated autonomously. He is the Warden of a flagship National Trust property, which he gained through his voluntary work there, not by any qualifications acquired through the system. He did go to college at one point but left because of the poor organisation and time wasting!!! He finished his course by distance learning in a fraction of the time. He also talks of learning to drive several types of tractor in a morning, where as at college they only got to drive one kind round and round in first gear for weeks!!
I do like to read success stories. It is good for the boys to read them as much as anything. I think I will start a collection as evidence for certain unsupportive individuals!
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