Do schools kill creativity?

I saw this link on one of the Yahoo groups this evening and felt compelled to add it here. It is a 20 minute video so grab a cup of tea and make yourelf comfortable, it is well worth watching/listening to!! Actually, forget the cup of tea, you'll only end up spilling it on your computer as you laugh out loud!

Here they all are!!!

I have lots to post about but thought I would quickly add a picture of the babies that a friend took with her camera while she was visiting our new arrivals! They are between 1 and 2 days old here. Aren't they just so adorable?!! They have already changed so much. More pictures soon!!

The Webmeester

As promised a link to my son's website!
He has just showed me how to do hyperlinks so expect lots more from now on!! Aren't they fab!!

I found one!

I found a photo better than the Alien one of yesterday of the first 2 chicks. They are about 5 hours old, I think.

And I remembered the other thing that I wanted to blog about. Websites. Html. How many of us know anything about how to make a website? I for one know very little and although these blogs look very good to the uninitiated, they are just a template that you upload words and photos to.

But my husband has just built a website for his employer from scratch. Self taught and in the public domain!!! Wow! But the best bit? He showed my eldest son briefly how to create a web page and he has done just that!!! With drop down boxes, moving text, links to other pages and a gallery etc. Excellent. Maybe I'lll try to put a link on here to it one day.

For now, here is a pic of one of his technical lego Landys!

Long time no news...

Yes i know, apart from yesterdays Alien like photo I have been pretty quiet on the blog front. This does not mean however that life has been quiet, oh no!! Quite the opposite as most of you reading this can relate to.

I have just settled myself down upstairs in the comfort zone with a cup of coffee to catch up on what has been happening with us, when, lo and behold, the USB cable for my digital camera has just broken.....the end has snapped off. AAAAAh!! So instead of being able to load the photo of my new babies that I have just taken specially to upload here, I will just have to tell you how cute and lovely they are.

All 11 have hatched now...they are from our own chickens in the garden so you could say they are home grown!! We put 12 eggs in the incubator 3 weeks ago, 6 from each of our lovely hens, Buffy and Brownie. Sadly one of the eggs died in the egg at about 10-12 days I think. I didn't do anything about it until day 16 just to be on the safe side and then we took it out and cracked it open to see what it looked like. A very tiny 'embryo'(?) in its sac. It had eyes and feet and you could just see the fluff forming. So very sad.

And just to add to the nightmare I managed to leave the incubator switched off that afternoon for nearly 7 hours!!! In our room which is like an ice box (no radiator and 3 exposed external walls) so I was petrified that they would all die through getting too cold.

But here we are with all the other 11 eggs hatched and cheeping away!!! Its so eggsciting (sorry, couldn't resist that!) and we have all been standing over the incubator for the last 36 hours wataching them all hatch, oohing and aahing and totally transfixed by the miracle of egg to chick in 21 days. Pictures to follow soon , I hope.

And what have we been doing for the last 4 weeks or so?

Well, the boys did a night hike and camped overnight along a disused railway cutting, and woke up to frost on the outside of the tent!! They left at 6.30 on a Sunday evening and were home by about 9.30 on Monday morning! They walked about 5 or 6 miles in total. Here they are just before setting off!

Yes, they are night vision goggles David is wearing, but he decided to leave them behind at the last minute!!

A good time was had by all, although very little sleep was had by my husband!

And here we have William out in the garden when I had just dug over part of the veggie beds ready for carrots. He just loves to be outside. In the Eglu behind is the cockerel that has to be shut in when William is out in the garden following the 'attack' a few weeks previously. We were all out in the garden in the sunshine and Tom and Will went down the side of the house to give the chickens some bread, and managed to corner them which made the cockerel very protective of his girls and lash out at Will. It was quite scary and Will had a nasty cut just below his eyebrow which had to glued at the doctors, but it didn't stop him from going out in to the garden and poking at the cockerel through the wire!!!

We have booked Tom's flight to Australia for the end of April and returning at the end of July...he is so looking forward to it. The family that he will be staying with are over here at the moment so we have managed to get the boys together a couple of times and also hope to spend the Easter weekend with them in Wales.

We've had a real turbulent couple of weeks these last few weeks. As some of you will know, David, my 7 year old decided that he might like to give school another try!!!! No one could have been more shocked than me, as it was only the week previously that I had had 'one of those days' and threatened to send them all back to school. This was not received well and was followed by panicked expressions, cries of 'NO! I'm NEVER going back' and then a mad rush to go and tidy their rooms etc So you can imagine my surprise when he calmly asked if he could go to school again. I decided immediately that I had to let him make the decision for himself or I would have it thrown back at me in later life!! I must say I initially felt quite upset, and wondered what I had done wrong but I soon realised that it was more for the playground 'socialising' , invitations to tea and talking about star wars and all that commercial consumerism stuff that I hate.

So we went to visit the local village school and he started the next day, Thursday. The first morning we had the nervous 'I don't want to go' which passed as soon as he got dressed and ready to go. His teacher is lovely, his class has lots of summer birthday children, and her own son is an August birthday so it all looked promising. A small village school with smallish classes and lots of support. But despite all this and their giving him a free ride, it wasn't long before he felt inferior and frustrated that he couldn't read and write like most of the others. We took him out of school because of the whole pressure to read and write before he was ready, and the stress that it caused, and it didn't take long before the old stressed David was back.

And then it happened.... he refused to go one morning. 8 days back at school and it happened. Possibly sooner than I anticipated but I knew that he wouldn't last long. So the second morning that he refused to go, I went to the school and spoke to his teacher and the Senco lady. They were lovely. Really understanding and helpful. We talked through some options and they offered him a space in the Year 2 class until the end of the summer term. This is what I wanted in the first place, but I'm not sure that David will go for it now as he may feel like he is losing face by going down to the Year 2 class having started in Year 3. I have given him until Monday to decide and then we will go to school together and talk to them. That is 4 days off and maybe that will be enough for him to think about whether he misses it or not. We actually saw his class yesterday as we were walking to the farm shop, and they all waved and shouted 'Hello David'. Very sweet and I think David was touched by it and it made me think that he would enjoy school if he can get over his difficulties.

Oh, and Will had his second birthday!

I'm sure there is so much more but that's enough for now.

Our new baby!!!!!!

Lots to catch up on but had to load this pic....this little chick hatched just about 5 mins ago!!! Update lateer on!!! 1 down....possible 10 to go!!

RAF Museum and sewing machines!

On Monday we had a trip to the RAF museum in London with our Home Ed group. It was a very long journey for us as it was over an hour in the car to meet up for the coach which was due to leave at 9.15!! So an early start for our family, but we weren't the last to arrive by any means!!

The journey took longer into London than anticipated, with the driver getting a little 'lost' so we didn't get there until 11.30. The boys went striaght in to their workshops - Helicopters for David and Rockets for the older two.

This gave Rob and I a chance to wander around the aeroplane hanger with William. It had been quite a difficult journey with Will needing a wee just as we got in to London, so we were glad of the time alone to recouperate!!

Lunch next and then the boys played in the aeronaut interactive area. Even William enjoyed playing on the activities. We managed a quick look at some of the planes with the boys...mainly the Bomber hall with the huge Vulcan bomber. It has all the bomb hatches open and the bombs lined up underneath! Fantastic!

There just wasn't enough time there! The coach was due to leave at 2.15. We needed at least another hour to look at everything. The boys so enjoyed the hands on bit that is was difficult to drag them away to look at everything else, even though they would have loved the planes etc too!

And today, just when I thought i fancied a quiet day, letting the boys drift about doing their own thing, we had a really hectic and productive day!! The house obviously looks like a complete disaster area but they have all been so busy!!

First Jonathan and I did some Numeracy and Literacy on the BBC Children's learning zone. He favours maths and is very good with mental arithmatic. We also looked at fractions, symmetry, angles and rotation which he showed a natural ability in all areas. Brilliant. So pleasing to see the depth of his knowledge despite having done very little for over a year.

Tom, meanwhile was on the hunt for a bag to use in the car for a rope and tools etc. He couldn't find what he was looking for, so decided he could make one out of the curtain that was hanging up at the front door.....well it was until we painted the hallway last week!!! He drew a design on paper and then drew out a pattern on the curtain as it was spread out across the kitchen floor. We discussed the complexity of his design and how the bag would be closed and eventually he altered the design to make less sewing.

Then we got the old sewing machine out of the loft. And I mean OLD. The instruction book looks as if it was made in the 50's...is this possible? Not sure of dates for sewing machines. It is electric with a foot pedal and the booklet says 'magic! 'so it must be an early one. We had a quick go, decided it needed oiling and then I gave Tom a short demonstration. And then he made a bag!!! With a tie fastening at the top! Then Jonathan wanted a bag, to go over his shoulder, like a hunting bag to carry ferrets in (don't ask!) so between them they designed it and made it. I had no input what so ever!

And here they are.......

And this is the ancient machine that he did it on!!!

While all this was going on, David was up stairs with his lego making Star Wars figures and then I helped him to make a Star Wars Snow speeder, during which time, William attempted a nap, twice!, but with no success, so he started making his own thing from lego. He picked out lots of yellow bricks to put on to a vehicle base. Brilliant!!

And whilst typing this, I'm eating the pop corn that Jonathan made by himself! HE at its best.

T and J have just popped to the Post Office with a parcel in his shoulder bag and have £2 to buy a treat for all of us....with 5 to please, that's quite a challenge!!

So much for the peaceful day!!