familytreehouse.co.uk

Archive for October, 2008

Halloween…..

Can I go sweet hunting?”

Popularity: 15% [?]

For a while now I have wanted to record many phone conversations I have. Mainly to do with local councils and dept of work and pensions.

However I have always been told its illegal. well :-

http://www.retellrecorders.co.uk/legal/home.htm

Happy times are ahead, as my trusty tape recorder is about to come out :d

Vicki xx

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Wakes up at 6 am.. demanding breakfast. Daddy to the rescue.
7.30 mummy can hear her dancing and singing downstairs. So resigned to the fact of Asha wont be quiet drags herself out of bed. 8.30 were on our way to swimming lessons.
10. o’clock very proud of herself Asha ends lesson and we head home.
11. does some maths with her abacus.
11.40 makes a lift the flap book about swimming
12.40 lunch
1. 50 is current doing glass painting downstairs.

purple fairy

…followed by more adding up with abacus, followed by painting a chimp mask, and every five seconds being Asked where GRANNY is and being told she is naughty. Its 3.07, time we are normally trying to wind Asha down and no sign of granny I am NOT amused.

Considering for the last three nights Asha has been in bed for 6 this is not fair nor funny.

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I have been lent some cuisenaire rods by a good friend on an extended lend for Asha.

Has anyone any of the game books they could lend me for a couple of weeks? Or just some ideas?

Vicki

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Asha had a great nights sleep last night, and as a result has been a really bright girl today.

This morning she was keen to go swimming and seems to have really enjoyed herself.

One thing she did which made me laugh was, the teacher was trying to get all the swimmers to swim under a hoop. It was very close to the water.. Asha – typically- lifted the hoop up so she didnt get her face wet. Why not.. she aint daft!

Tonight she insisted on having a bath “to practice putting my head under” so no soap in it :d

After a go at lying on her back with no help (it was very shallow at this point) I then added to the water and asked her what toy she would love to have in the bath if she got her face all wet.. her reply a bouncy ball… Deal done.. her face went under.

Then daddy joined in and put his head under to encourage her to continue the good work. (yay for daddies)

Anyway.. away from swimming.. We had a lovely afternoon playing with toy cars on the lounge floor and practicising the “dig it” song from her “boogie babies” dvd i got her for her birthday. We also did some art “work” o.k. at dinner Asha wanted to blow bubbles in her water, so once she had consumed enough to help her body, I added some food dies to it. We then got the white coffee filter papers out and Asha dripped the colours onto the papers.

We also noticed you could use a straw like a pipet dropper by holding your thumb on the end.. Science in the making I guess!

Todays bargain? A trip to the charity shop in Portmadog, supplied us with one copy of HIAWATHA DVD, (£2) which I have wanted for ages for Asha, and a small night light for her to paint with her glass paints (50p)

This morning before swimming she also wrote some lovely number 1’s out for me and did a lovely copy of the word “one” I just have to keep her interested in it all. We also did some Welsh on the way around, and some reading and poetry.

We have also been talking about baby animal names.. Anyway I found this link to help me out!

http://www.treasureranch.com/treasure/rzuinfofiles/terms.html

Vicki xx

Popularity: 18% [?]

Asha has been having lessons which I have payed for, but next week – from tomorrow the council is providing 5 free lessons for half term week.

I am quite excited by this as Asha is very nearly there, in so much as she wants to be able to swim with no float. is confident in the water, but just needs practice. Will five days make all the difference?

The ONLY hurdle for us is the small fact that I have to leave the house at 8.45 in order to get A to her lessons in time! (9.30 start) Anyone who knows me will know how hard this is off late with the cfs.

Vicki xx

Popularity: 16% [?]

for the last few weeks Asha has not wanted to play out or anything on a sunday as she has been very tired, after very busy weeks. But this afternoon she has enjoyed playing with two little ones who also live in the road.

After running around outside and riding there bikes they came inside and took over the living room. Blankets out and tucked in they sat and watched some camberwick green for a while, whilst playing with the fuzzy felts I finally got out of the loft yesterday for Asha. You would think it was some really expensive present the amount she has been playing with them. I love toy rotations!

They then found all her toy cars – also just out of the loft, and once again they played and played so for about 4 hours today I have had three children aged, 2, 3 and 4 playing in our front room. And they were so happy!

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Welll may be i finally have found an answer!

http://www.sinopia.com/paint.html

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-10-01/Make-Safe-Natural-Paint.aspx

Are we going to be making paint in a few weeks then!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Now why do I find it ironic that this peice of work is being removed by the council....

Westminster City Council said it would paint over the 22ft-high (7m) mural on Newman Street, off Oxford Street, which is a criticism of CCTV in the UK.

There political excuse being this

Mr Davis, who is also chairman of the council’s planning sub committee, said: “I take the view that this is graffiti and if you condone this then what is the difference between this and all the other graffiti you see scrawled across the city?

“If you condone this then you condone graffiti all over London.”

The mural is painted on a wall of a building shared by Royal Mail and another business.

The council said once it was established who owned the painted wall the artwork would be erased.

Now considering the amount of work which councils have sold… I just hope the wall owner says NO!

Just because the truth is out and the council don’t like it!
bbc web site

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Granny took me to her leisure center at haulfryn today. I had a lovely time.

Then we went to petes eats for tea. I had egg and chips. While we were there we met joe and illa. She had a sore foot on wednesday, but its a lot better now. I was very tired when I came home.

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Some organisations will give reductions for home educators.

If your in doubt as to how to access these reductions, contact them directly. If you know of any group / organisation please let me know and I will add it to this site as well.

Some require you to be a member of a group, but this can normally be questioned :d

CADW – write to them and they will send you a letter.

Learnpremium offers an online curriculum resource covering the primary
and secondary curriculums and has a dedicated newsdesk news service for
young people.

national trust..

Popularity: 12% [?]

I recently found the tax payers alliance web site. This article made me laugh.. as many of us home educators struggle to find money to pay for fuel etc…..

Welcome again to the world of waste. In this new edition of The Bumper Book, Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham have unearthed a staggering £101 billion of government misspending – all paid for by you, the taxpayer.

But perhaps more usefully, the government could cut the tax burden of every household by over £4,000 a year.

Mind blowing isn’t it?

Here are just a few examples of where all of that money has gone:

* £280,000 on a conference addressed by Blair and Brown on value for money in the public services.
* £400 million on ‘cost control’ for the Olympic Games.
* £3 million by tax inspectors at HM Revenue and Customs on flights, including £2.1 million on flights to Scotland.
* Over £16 million on the creation and upkeep of VIP lounges in Heathrow and Gatwick despite the fact they are not government-owned.
* £100,000 on assessing whether £400,000 reportedly spent on modern art for seven hospitals was money well spent.

tax payers alliance

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Asha had her first sleep over last night. I now sit here very foggy eyed and exhausted.

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Don’t worry about the small stuff. It’s all going to work out. These 2 videos help get things into perspective.

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For Sale. £20 Excellent little fridge.

It has pull out draw shelves, which clean really well and because they are solid – not shelves anything which spills stays in the one draw :d…rather than running throughout the whole fridge!

Interested, email me.

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Before we list our much loved range on ebay, I thought we could offer
it here. It is less than 12 months old! Its going to a CLAS person for
£800.00 Currently new on the internet they are around £1200. You
really don’t want to know how much we paid for it!

http://www.rangemaster.co.uk/index_310.htm

I am totally gutted at the thought of getting rid of this.

If you want it, please let me know.

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following a search on local history I came across this site.

Hidden Lives Revealed provides an intriguing encounter with children who were in the care of The Children’s Society in late Victorian and early 20th Century Britain. Find out more

Its really very interesting!

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Yes, I know I havent been very good lately at providing a running commentry again of our day.  why? Apart from the fact i feel awfull, Asha has been doing so much, and I just havent felt like spending time on the computer.

Anyway some fun things she has done:

Fungal forrage with friends at Moleci.

Swimming with friends at Portmadog.

A day at the beach – yes the second week in October! at Dinas.

Dutch Pancakes at a Tea Room near Snowdon.

A go on go-carts at parc Glasfryn.

Ride on her bike and on scooters in the road.

A trip to the play ground with J from CLAS.

A play date with R and A. – water bombs made, cutting out of words done.

A play date with T and R.G fed the ducks, and played with their dog.

Watched the Steam Train in Caernarfon.

Made bread rolls, very successfull they were as well!

Done more glass painting.

Completed a painting by numbers she started in August.

Plus so many other things, like swimming lessons, gymnastics, learning welsh, and being able to write her own name. Asha also drew a lovely picture of her daddy helping her to roller skate. She started wth the boots, drew her legs, then her body and arms and head, then she drew daddy.

Book wise, she has completed Toms Midnight Garden, and has been loveing the Medici Chidrens books lately. Not really wanting any other books to be read to her. I cant blame her really the stories are so gentle, and the illustrations so peacefull, they are a great bedtime story!

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Wow!

What a fantastic course this looks like! Its 44 weeks long and has two courrse books in all, wih two practice books as well. 6 TMA’s!!! But at least I should enjoy it. The materials seem well organised and clear to use.

The use of on line conferencing and activites will make it really good fun.

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I recently aquired at our local home education group some wild west books by an author called Rick Steber.

A quick search online came up with his web site.  We havent read the books yet, but they are certainly interesting in the tales of the wild west series.

Hopefully as tonight Asha has finishd having Toms Midnight Garden.  – which steve and Asha both enjoyed-They  can move onto these as another change.  It is quite difficult to find new books to read to Asha which Steve can read outloud.

Vicki xx

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