Saying goodbye to the summer holidays and hello to school days

Sadly all good things must come to an end and for our family that was the summer holidays. (If you want to know what Chipman and I were up to then check this out) We decided that we would mark the occasion with a family day out to Legoland in Windsor. A great day was had by all, and I really do mean all, us adults had as much fun as the children! It is often hard to find things that both the children (with a 5 year age gap) want to do, but we were certainly onto a winner with Legoland. Beebie the youngest thought the miniature village was 'cool' and the eldest Chipman and his friend looked more closely at the detail that had gone into making each replica. The rides were great for height phobic Chipman and fearless Beebie with something that they all could enjoy. Our personal favourite was Atlantis Submarine voyage. We were there from when the park opened to when it shut and even the rain didn't dampen our spirits as we spun, whizzed, screamed and splashed our way around.

Beebie after our underwater adventure

Despite some dodgy driving Chipman got his drivers license!

The following Monday bought about the dreaded 'back to school'. I had been looking at lots of back to school celebrations that home educators use and struggled to find any that would suit our family with one going off to school and one staying at home to be educated. This year we started our own back to school tradition. The day started with homemade pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast.

'Can we have this every morning Mum?'

It takes a lot of concentration to eat pancakes

Whist they had finishing tucking into their yummy (their words not mine) pancakes it was time to open their 'Great Things About Me' envelopes. As I mentioned before in Art time with perfectionists both the children struggle with low self esteem so we started the new year off by bolstering them up. Inside each envelope was something that Mum, Dad, Grandma, Nana and Aunty thought they were good at. This ranged from good conversations to reading and maths. They loved reading them all and it is something we will be repeating next year. Before Beebie went off to school we took the usual back to school picture so we could remember the day they started school in 2013.

Back to school 2013

All in all we had a great time celebrating the end of the holidays with squeals of excitement and starting back at school with renewed enthusiasm and a great sense of worth. Did you celebrate the end of summer or start of the school year? I would love to hear what you go up to!

Earthquakes at home and learning together

We did it! 5 morning's getting Beebie into school without any fuss and 3 nights of going to bed well! She is very happy with her bubble sword as a reward! As for Chipman and homeschool, all is going brilliantly. This week we looked at the effect of earthquakes on buildings with a hands on Lego experiment. It was great fun and both Chipman and Beebie enjoyed it. We have come to the end of our Japan topic and on Chipman's request are now moving onto Egypt. Again we will be lapbooking and will post photo's as we go.

This week there have been doubts. The main one of these for me is am I teaching him enough? From other blogs I have read I know I am not alone. I have been reassuring myself that no matter how much Chipman writes down on paper he is learning 24/7 and enjoying doing it. I have loved getting to know Chipman better and spending quality time with him during our learning. It is amazing to see his thirst for knowledge and how he will persevere. I am still being flexible and we are definitely learning as we go along together.

 Chipman has also enjoyed meeting up with his home educated friends at group and at the park. It's great to see him making new friends and also good support for me. I would recommend to anyone home educating or considering it to join a group, you can find lists of these groups on Education Otherwise. It has lots of information about home educating and is worth a visit. 

I am feeling so at home with being a stay at home mum and am very thankful to God for giving me this opportunity and peace in my heart. My prayer this week will be for calm in our home and hearts that want to listen to God and to each other.