Concert, Compass and certificate

Some highlights from our last couple of weeks.



Also I passed my food hygiene course with 100% score.  It’s been a while since I’ve sat any kind of test so was rather pleased with myself.

Norman Feast

After a few hiccups we managed to have our Norman Feast. The girls dressed up while the boys carried swords (my old highland dancing swords) and shields made from dustbin lids. When we arrived Fraser announced that he was Saxon and not a Norman. We had medieval food (with a bit of modern thrown in for good luck), music and costumes. Some of the children drew their own version of the Bayeux tapestry while others rehearsed their medieval play. It was a good day and we even had a bit of “Normans got talent”.

Wii, weaving and weather

On Sunday we had the joint Cubs, Brownies and Rainbows church parade which involved all of us, except Paul and Cameron. It was a good turn out which is encouraging.

After a bit of home-edding on Monday morning we went shopping for bits and pieces to make a dog costume for Fraser, who's playing Dug from “Up” in his theatre club show. This was his last day of rehearsing before the show next Monday. Maisie borrowed “Dance Junior” for the Wii and in the evening she made a “show” that we all ended up joining in.



Fraser as Dug



The girls, friends and I went to Coldharbour woollen mill on Tuesday while Paul on his only day off took the boys golfing. The girls had a go at carding, spinning and weaving. We all had a tour of the mill, it made me feel nostalgic seeing the bobbins and Hattersley loom then hearing the clickety clack of loom weaving. Funny how I really didn’t like filling the "eachahan" bobbins (not sure of spelling) when I was a child but now look back on it fondly, glad I had the chance to experience it. It was a beautiful day so we ate our lunch outside by the river. After arriving back home it was a quick turn around for Rainbows and Brownies who were making pipe cleaner tiaras and hama beads Royal Wedding souvenirs. I was rather tired at the end of the day.



Maisie carding



Kirsty spinning

Maisie spinning

Maisie weaving

Maisie weaving

Kirsty weaving

Kirsty weaving

Wednesday morning the children had computer club at the library, I had a look at some books, drank coffee and chatted with another home-ed Mum/friend. After computer club we went home did a bit of tidying in the back garden and stopped to watched a couple of ladybirds go about their day (hope they stay for the summer and eat any aphids we get). We took out the garden tables and chairs and had lunch outside in the lovely sunshine hmmm……………….. Later on we studied a bit more about the Normans then the children did their own thing while I prepared dinner. Fraser had Cubs after dinner and since it was a lovely evening we walked him there, coming back via the beach.

Another lovely day on Thursday, late morning we took a donder down to the beach, met up with some friends, played, did a bit of dog spotting then back to our house for more playing, chatting, drinking tea/coffee and eating cake. Mid way through our tea/coffee and chatting we were entertained by the girls singing some Christmas Carols…………….different but very nice.

singing Christmas Carols

 
Yesterday was wet and rainy so a day indoors catching up, chilling out and Kirsty made “cookies and cream chocolate brownies” in the afternoon.


making chocolate brownies

 

 

Today we decided not to go to film club and have a lazy morning at home.  It's a glorious day so who knows what the rest of the day holds.

December 2010

Some of the home-ed outings this month. First a meeting at Bygones (Torquay) where the children dressed up and celebrated a Victorian Christmas. Then a “bring and share lunch and craft day” at a friends house where Fraser tried sewing, he wasn’t too bad. Our last home-ed trip of the year was to Killerton House.

So far this autumn/winter we’ve all had our fair share of colds and bugs which is not the norm for us but I know there are others out there suffering worse than us so we really don’t have anything to complain about.

In Paignton we avoided the bulk of the wintry weather, particularly during Devon’s heavy snow event of Sunday 19th into Monday 20th (Paul pointed out "with a brisk South Easterly wind persisting as the weather front crossed Paignton the relatively warm sea (compared to land) temperatures, ensured rain as supposed to the 10-15cm of snow that the rest of Devon experienced"). So far this winter practically all of the UK has ground to a halt with snow and ice which prevented our friends from coming to stay on the run up to Christmas.

Christmas was a quiet but pleasant family affair for us and Paul managed to have the day off again this year.

What's in a name

Some of you may have noticed I've changed our web address and name. I thought it best not to have our surname all over the blog . . . so why fraoich and "thank you God that bananas are healthy".
Fraoich is the Gaelic for Heather and "thank you God that bananas are healthy" was Fraser's first prayer when he was about 3 years old, he used to say it every day for months. I was looking for a catchy title but cosy, quiet, home educating titles just didn't match our family. I was looking for great quotes but who better to quote than one of my children.

A "bitty" week

Last week was "bitty" with Paul's dayshifts on Sat, Mon and Wed bringing a disjointed feel to the week. However we still managed to get a lot done with bike rides, post office playing, gardening, golf, glass painting, shrinkles, hama beads, computer club and reading.
Paul's car was out of action so he had the family car for work and on Wednesday we took the bus to get to our home-ed meeting. An army of Ants invaded the house, we tried everything from ant bait to vinegar and finally the last resort PRAYER . . . it worked. We still see the odd ant every other day but that's it, they've moved outside. I have to ask myself why was prayer the last resort, we sometimes make things difficult for ourselves by not turning to God in prayer first and He's not just there for the big things He cares about every detail of our life.....how great is our God!
This was also our "screen free week of the month" but I have to confess I was probably on the PC more than I should have been. With no TV the children decided to make a post office in the spare room and sent letters to each other. Cameron being the organiser/postmaster sold them stamps i.e. charged them for taking their letters to the various bedrooms.
Fraser took to using our old digital camera, mostly taking pic's of the family but also many strange things around the house. It takes some short video clips so he set it up to video him doing a high energy 30 second trampoline session complete with flips and Mario jumps.


Here is a small selection of Fraser's photos and video clips.

Luigi from Super Mario