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Why.. they have read my blog havent they?

O.k. her goes.. Asha’s unsociable week.

Monday – we went swimming with some home educated friends, and then back to there house where we played and fed the chickens and pigs…
Tuesday – we did some shopping, and phoned a home educated friend, who talked to Asha on the telephone.
Wednesday – we went to the home educated group of around 30 children who Asha unsociably decided to play with from 12 pm to 5 pm..without being made to sit at a desk or get changed, if she wanted to play outside…
Thursday – we went to the very unsociable library, and met another older unschooled girl there, who then sat on the floor and talked to our unsociable home educated child for about 10 mins, after she had returned her items…
Friday – we went to a new home education group, and spent the after noon playing with a load of new home educated children asha has never met before, and a few she knows quite well, where she unsociably played with a mixed age range of children, and socialised with there parents as well.. They also unsociably played on the beach in the day time, and really enjoyed them selves.
Saturday – we had one visitor today, and asha enjoyed an unsociable day at home with her mummy and daddy reading unsociable books, and playing with her unsociable toys.. oh and feeding the birds, squirrels and other wildlife in the garden and on the field..
Sunday – i think a few home schoolers are calling in tomorrow, but we plan to be totally unsociable and spend some time in that big shop in Bangor cos were out of coffee, and we need some to keep up with our unsociable daughter.. who is 5!

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Enjoy!

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50 fat balls for £5 from netto.. now that is approcimatly a £3 saving…for 50 or £6 for 100. As we bought to buckets.. we have still saved ourself £6.

Also from netto – we dont shop there often.. was 500 grm butter for £1.. that will do for baking with.

We have finally returned our three bag fulls of books and audio tapes to the library. and bought home a couple of audio books. Story time was on, and Asha dosnt really enjoy it, so we didnt stay long.

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Many of my fellow OU students shop at Tesco’s for one reason. To collect tokens to put towards there courses. Now tescos have changed there policy, and you can only use them on level one courses..

This is going to mean that 100’s – possibly 1000’s of students are not going to be able to complete there courses, and of course the knock on of that is a. Tescos are going to find less people shopping there. b. Tutors are going to find them selves student less next year, c. well the wonderful institution which is the OU is going to have less students.

Please find attached a link to a facebook group entitled ‘Tesco – Every little doesn’t help OU students’

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=278290981649&ref=ts

I thought you might be interested to know the impact that the OU/ Tesco change of policy on clubcard…

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n the Beginning

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations) traces the roots of his political activism to the rank racism and brutal poverty he experienced every day as an Indian child growing up on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux reservations in North Dakota.

Termination and Its Aftermath

During the last years of the Eisenhower administration a resolution was passed by Congress to “terminate” all Indian reservations and “relocate” Indians off their lands and into the cities. Indians were given two choices: either relocate or starve. Later, court decisions would declare this policy illegal. In the late 1950s, however, to implement their inhuman policy, the United States government cut off the reservations’ already meager supply of food and commodities—the pitiful little “payment” they had promised the Indians in their treaties to recompense Indians for all the vast and holy continent they’d stolen. Now, Indian people were offered money to get off their land and move to cities like Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Chicago—where they were faced with joblessness, poverty, and hopeless despair on the mean streets of America’s inner-city slums.

Leonard was about 14 years old at the time. With his father, he attended meetings on the reservation to discuss the government’s decision to terminate Turtle Mountain. He recalls one Ojibwa lady, a cousin, who stood up angrily and asked in a loud, emotional, tear-filled voice, “Where are our warriors? Why don’t they stand up and fight for their starving people?”

taken from :

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Time for Asha to turn of her light and get some sleep. She has finally got into a routine. I agree it is demanding for Steve, but Asha is sleeping a lot better, and generally looking and behaving a lot better for it.

Her routine now is : 7 pm,,, P.J’s and cereal, plus drink. 7.30 up to bed, where daddy reads to her untill 8. They are currently reading the Lord Of The Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring.

At this point, Daddy comes downstairs and Asha is allowed to read untill 9 pm, at which time daddy goes up tucks her in and she normally now settles down to sleep, before 10.

Most nights now she is sleeping though, to around 8.30. At which point she comes and wakes Daddy up. and they go downstairs..

Anyway.. i digress.. Its 9 pm.. We have just made some buscuits as we have had none all weekend, and i get annoyed with the rubbish that is found in shop bought ones. I have a rucksack full of books to return to the library tomorrow, and Steve is enjoying a break, after a busy day of cooking roast dinner. I am wearing my home grown.. woollen coat, and am considering the fact that in 3 days time i need to have enough bits of card cut out for 20 home educated children to make a horse and cart… Guess what tomorrow night is going to be!

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4 robins
1 jay
1 magpie
2 dunnocks
6 blue tits
6 great tits
2 nuthatchs, first time i have seen two together… must have been the hazel nuts we put out!!!
4 chaffinch
crows, carrion 1

Not bad going.. for 15 months worth of feeding the birds every day by Asha!

Looking forwards to next years, and I am going to find out how we can attract some different breeds and more numbers into our garden.

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Robin
pigeons
Blackbirds
blue and great tits
Shovellers

Grey heron
canadian geese
coots
loads of other birds which we didnt recognise

We were trying to find a tufted duck, but we couldnt.. I believe there was some there, but we couldnt see any. We did however have a lovely day in the sun, although it was snowing when we left here, and when we got back it was sleeting!

Our trip was followed by a quick visit to llanfairfechan for a play on the swings, and to feed the ducks on the duck pond.. and the two mute swans.. (I am pleased we did a review of the which swan is it code last night) with wild duck and swan food, not bread!

Asha had a great day, and is now settling down for bed.. Her usborne sticker book has more birds filled in, and we have all enjoyed some sunlight.. and it was WARM.. relief.

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O.k. When your 5 and a half year old asks you to do “real science” as the subject for the month.. what do you do?

Well Steve armed with two ballons, one for him and one for Asha.. supervised filling them up with water, measuring around the circumfrances writing the length down and popped them in the freezer.

A few hours later, the little scientist, got frozen items out of freezer, measured them.. and noticed with glee they had grown 2 cm each! WOW..

She then asked for a big jug of warm water, and defrosted the balls of ice, stating that it was interesting how they both ended up with holes in them, and this allowed the warm water to defrost them faster as both sides of the ice had warm water on them!

My daughter is far too scientific for me!

She then got her doll and some kitchen roll, and proceded to wash her doll with the water from the jug.. saying she was being a mummy like in india…:D

We also did a fair amount of sums today. We did a good review of the 2x table, and i was pleased to see she can still do it. We discussed adding and subtraction again, and hopefully tomorrow morning when i get up, she will have done some of that too.

We also had another look at the difference between, Whooper swans, mute swans and bewick swans, as its been a few months since we have seen any around. So wanted to get these clues back into the brain, before the weekend.

Had a lovely day at home with Steve and Asha, and we even managed a good go on the violins today… It was brilliant.

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UPDATED STATEMENT: Breastfeeding is the First Line of Defense in a Disaster

Washington, DC (January 27, 2010)–The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International Lactation Consultant Association/United States Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA/USLCA), and La Leche League International (LLLI) strongly affirm the importance of breastfeeding in emergency situations, and call on relief workers and health care providers serving victims of disasters to protect, promote, and support mothers to breastfeed their babies. During an emergency, breastfeeding mothers provide their infants with safe food and water and disease protection that maximize their chances of survival.

http://llli.org/haitimilkdonation

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On Monday we went to portmerion, with one of Asha’s little friends, X and her Mum.
It was LOVELY as the sun was out, for most of the day and the two girls played well all afternoon, though by the end the tiredness did start to show!

I remembered to take bird food with us this time, so the girls both dropped loads in the play area, and we all enjoyed sitting outside in the sunlight to eat our lunch.. Yes in JANUARY! Must be a first!

We dropped into the shops on the way home and I bought some of that jussroll pastry. So we could bung a top on some vegetables and have veggie pie for dinner.. Yummy!

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that there are powers and energies out there which we have no control over.. Have you ever tried to catch a wave??

So for me, instead of using the word Lord i use energy…

I give this to all my friends who are finding life tough right now.

Footprints

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed He was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from His life. For each scene He noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonging to Him and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of His life flashed before Him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of His life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of His life.

This really bothered Him and He questioned the LORD about it. LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.

The LORD replied, my precious, precious child, I Love you and I would never leave you! During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

Carolyn Carty, 1963

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An idiots guide O.k. the Asha’s guide to gull spotting.

Has it got red on beak… If no.. What colour are its legs… if green = Common Gull

Has it got red on beak… If yes… What colour are its legs…If yellow – Yellow Legged Gull

Has it got red on beak… If yes… What colour are its legs…If Pink – Herring Gull

If short black legs – Kittiwake.

I am sure there are other factors and Gulls which need adding to this, but as they are most of our local common Gulls. It is a hugh improvement on.. “Oh look at the seagulls Asha” We now have.. Asha what kind of Gull is it.. and Its working.. We saw a Herring Gull in town mummy today… Success!

Pink legs, grey back, small red mark on beak.

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2010 Is happening in August / September this year.

http://www.walesenvironmentalhomeeducationcamp.com/

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http://www.foodincmovie.com/

“you will never look at your food the same again”

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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt

Think about it!

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Since Christmas we have not really been doing much on the formal side of education.

We have done very little sit down and read or write.. and maths has been largely neglected. Probably not too worrying, as Asha can count well enough and understands all the concepts i feel she needs to right now.

Anyway, its the RSPB bird watch this weekend, and last week we bought a new bird book, so tonight we sat and wrote a list of the birds we know are found in the garden, and had a look at them in the book. We then had a look at the gulls and wrote a list of the ones we often see.

The garden list went like this:

Blue tit
Great tit
Coal tit
Robin
Tree pipit.
Song Thrush
Starling
Nuthatch.
Blackbird, Male and Female
Magpie.

The seagull one went like this:

Yellow Legged Gull… has yellow legs.. there is a surprise!
Herring Gull – pink legs
Common Gull – no red on bill and greenish legs
Kittiwake – black shortish legs.

Right so next time we are in town, and are watching the gulls, we might know which is which.. Yes??

I have also sat and gone over the parts of a plant, and hopefully tomorrow morning Asha will have cut out her plant puzzle, coloured it in and glued it onto a peice of paper…

I also hope to find the play room tomorrow and thus the education on the PC can start again, as i shall be able to reach it to help her with it!!

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Well I got an email through today asking me if i wanted to attend an school reunion in June.

If you know of someone who was a student at Wellington school on the Wirral before it got knocked down, please pass the word. We have ended up all around the world, but as many as possible would be good!

Dan can be found on facebook, as can “Wellington School Bebington” but if you want me to act as go between, just let me know!

Dan Smith 22 January at 12:15 Reply
Hi all,

I’ve booked the Birkenhead Cricket Club function room / pavillion for:

Friday 25th June. 6pm – midnight.

http://bpcc.play-cricket.com/content/view.asp?id=10226341&cid=202

I hope this date is fine for everyone.

In answer to a few questions:

Kids are welcome, as long as they are supervised. Plenty of room to play outside on the cricket field too.

Dress code.. shall we say smart-casual?

The music will not be banging all night, the volume will be monitored & always appropriate. The room that we’ll be using is long… from the dancefloor area through the function room, to the foyer, exit and outside, so plenty of areas to chat, inside and out.

I’m gonna put together a playlist of good music.. 60s, 70s, 80s & 90s eclectic groove based. Turntables will be there, so if anyone needs to DJ then feel free to bring your tunes (Vinyl or MP3). I probably wont get on the decks myself as this has been my job for the last 13 years every Friday & Saturday night, so I’d much rather catch up with a lot of my old pals.

more stuff to sort out..

Had a couple of offers to help with food. I’d much rather keep the budget down, so would rather not get caterers in. How about if people make / buy & bring a dish each???
Anything buffet style.. crisps & dips etc?
Let me know.

As I’m Manchester based, would anyone be up for popping down to the venue asap to formerly secure this date?
To avoid losing our slot, they just need someone to sign a booking form in person. No deposit required.
Eileen is the venue manager, she’s there Fri & Sat from 5pm, or Tues to Thurs from 6pm. Please let me know if anyone can help here.

I’ll put a couple of notices in the local Wirral press, say April / May?

OK, that’s all for now folks, any questions or thoughts just message me.

Looking forward to it!

Regards,

Dan.

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When living where we live, with so many areas being very isolated, you come to understand some of the many challenges that the RAF and other rescue agencies deal with.

I have always had a great respect for the emergency services, and feel that this is a wonderful gesture, of Art, meeting religion, meeting rescue…

“A stained glass window which took eight years to come to fruition has been dedicated at a church on an RAF base.

The two-part window, depicting rescue work, is sited to the side of the altar at the RAF Valley church on Anglesey.

It was the brainchild of 38-year-old Simon Allen, a former winchman who now trains air crew instructors.

The window was created by Karen Newby, who makes stained glass windows, and Lindsey Abbott, who paints and restores them.”

source :http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/8473055.stm

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I found this photograph today, from when Asha was around 1 and it reminded me how important it is to sit and talk to children.. all children.. how ever old they may be.

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