Update - Roly

The Roly one is now 2 and is as funny and accident prone as ever!
He's still saying very little but certainly gets his message across!
He loves stories and sticker books and puzzles and playing with his 'happyland' house and farm.
As of last week he prefers to go to the potty than wear a nappy which came as a bit of a shock to me! He's doing great though and has had very very few accidents.

Update - Chops

Apologies I have been very (very, very!) lax at updating this blog over the summer.

The husband has been off uni and mainly doing things with the boys while I've been working, trying to build up the business so that less work is required when he's at his busiest this academic year.

As an update: Chops is now confidently reading! Sounds out new words but on the whole recognised the majority of the 'tricky' ones. He's still very happy to play number games, can add and subtract simple sums in his head, count in 2s, 5s and 10s, knows a few fractions and can explain odds and evens. He's very interested at the moment in music, guitar music in particular, and in classifying animals - what makes a mammal, reptile etc.
We've done quite a big project over the summer about the Olympics which included going to St James' Park for the Olympic football and to the Olympic Park to see Paralympic football, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball and goalball. He has been fascinated by the different sports, athletes and their countries/flags.
We've had a trip to Spain and looked a bit at their culture/language and most importantly to Chops - the food! He found a recipe for paella which he's made a couple of times with daddy.
On the whole our first days of 'official' home ed have been good ones and included a weekend away with other home educating families in the Lake District. Lots of fun on bikes, scooters and shooting each other with water guns!
Chops recently started football training with a proper club and loves it.
On the whole, he's still our happy, laid back, enthusiastic boy and I'm loving seeing him thrive as he nears his 5th birthday.

Roly Counting

Will be back with a proper update from our hols later but wanted to record this before I forgot.

Roly is sat looking at a treasure hunt book and trying to count tigers. His counting is 'one, one, one, one, threeeeeee'

So cute!

London calling!

Apologies, failing miserably on keeping up with the blogging recently.

We've had a busy couple of weeks including a fab trip to London where we did an open top bus trip, boat trip, wandered around Chinatown and Covent Garden and generally had a nice time. We usually spend most of our time in London in the museums so it was good to have a change.

Keeping on keeping on

Things just seem to be going on without much planning at the moment. Days are passing by in a whirl of 'same old!'

Playgroup, HE group, swimming, gym, reading, drawing, maths games, board games, singing and pancakes.

Both boys are happy and that's the main thing!

This pic is one Chops did this week of ACDC guitarist Angus Young. He's very much into his rock music at the moment and spends a lot of time watching YouTube videos of them and then singing them himself with his guitar.

Electricity

We went to a very interesting workshop about electricity this week with our HE friends. The children had the chance to make their own circuits and then completed an experiment about what happened when you made the wires longer. It was the first time Chops had been in a 'classroom' situation with having to put your hand up to answer questions etc and I think he found the idea a bit perplexing! He enjoyed the activities though and I think I'll try to get some of the equipment for him to experiment a but more with it at home.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Finished off the Spring theme this week by looking at the life cycle of a butterfly. We read Very Hungry Caterpillar (a lot), looked in our encyclopaedia and on YouTube.

Over the week we did papier mâché over a balloon to be the cocoon, painted it and then painted a butterfly to go inside. When painting we talked about the colour mixing and also the symmetry of the butterfly's wings.

I'll probably try to find symmetry in one of his workbooks next week to look at it a bit more.

I think we're done for Spring now. It's involved a lot of life cycles - frogs, butterflies, plants, farm animals.

Next subject to be confirmed! Chops picked a few books from the library this week so will see if one of those sparks an interest. Plus there are trips to Spain and London in the not too distant future that we can start preparing for! And the Olympics. I've seen Twinkl have put some Olympics resources up this week so need to have a look at those.

Where did the sun go?

Back to winter coats and cold noses at the beach!

More Easter Fun

Easter wouldn't be Easter without chocolate nests filled with mini eggs.

The boys worked together to make them this year which was lovely to watch.

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Easter Fun

On Thursday we took part in a couple of organised local Easter activities.

In the morning we were at the National Glass Centre where Chops and two of his friends made some Easter cards using some very cool light sensitive paper! He wrote and drew inside them himself. The picture inside the one for Grandad was a 'beautiful daffodil with petals and leaves and a stem and some grass' :) Talking about it, he'd remembered a lot from a book he's got about flowers, buds, roots erc. He constantly amazes me with his knowledge and understanding of things.

In the afternoon we went with another friend to Penshaw Hill to roll eggs. The boys had both painted them and Chops enjoyed rolling his down and then climbing up to the Monument. It was the first time I'd been to the top and I was amazed by the views. Could see the snow-topped Cheviots, the sea and of course, our house!

Another Little Chef

Roly was very serious about his pizza!

He copied us stretching and squashing the dough. Then (with help) spread the tomato and sprinkled the herbs and toppings.

Outdoor fun

We've been outdoors most of the week this week making the most of the unseasonably warm weather.

It seems so weird that within a fortnight we've gone from big coats to shorts! No doubt it will soon be over and we'll be back to shivering!

This week we've visited Saltburn, Seaburn, Roker Park and Chester-le-Street Riverside Park.

Parenting is so much simpler in summer!

Planting potatoes