Big cats before bedtime

Dd has suddenly announced that she wants to do a cat lapbook. It's half an hour till bedtime and yet I should make the most of this opportunity. I find a fab free lapbook on homeschoolshare here but no, she doesn't want that one. She wants pictures of cats.

What sort of cats? I ask.

Cat cats. Any cats. I don't know. She says.


I am trying to keep the last of my colour printer ink and do not want to spend the next half hour of my life trying to get pictures to print out in the right colour. I am too tight to buy the proper ink for our printer, but our printer doesn't like any other ink and with the cheap ink loves to turn perfectly natural shades into fluorescent pink out of protest. Life is just too short.

I move on enchanted learning, which fortunately has plenty of pictures of cats to colour in (here) . Dd usually hates colouring in. Well, perhaps hate is too strong a word, but she simply doesn't do colouring in. But she appears keen to colour in the - rather strange - outlines of cats that enchanted learning provides. (and they are strange - some of them are exactly the same outline, just different colouring instructions for the different species).

She wanders off to the next room with an outline of a panther or something and a brown pencil. I suspect the snow leopard may end up orange and purple, but such is the way of the spirited child.

And this gets me doing more time-wasting on the internet. I find National Geographic had a Big Cats week. I missed it, and besides, Freeview doesn't do National Geographic, but there are still resources online left here. It seems to late to start viewing videos, but I do anyway.

Who would have guessed that I'd spend New Year's Eve sober (so far) and watching conservation films about hyenas. This is what children do to you. Be warned.

Joy. Oh joy. Only a Siberian tiger and an Abyssinian cat to go before I can open the wine.

Business as usual

Ok. Big breath. Open for business as usual.

Today we went to The Roald Dahl Museum on a group trip that I organised. Yes, me, actually organising something that involves, well, organisation. Strange, very strange.

It's only the second time I've organised a Home ed group trip and anyone who knows me knows that organisation and responsibility are two words I avoid in my vocabulary. So it was an experience lol. But overall it went ok. And I've learnt a few things from the day which will help me with the other workshops I've organised for the next few months. [Yeah, I've been foolish enough to organise more. What am I thinking?! Eeek!]. Here are a few photos. I didn't take many pics as the workshop was rather - erhum structured - and I felt a bit self concious getting my camera out. Not that it usually bothers me, but it did today.

Yep that was it. 2 photos. Bit of a poor show for snap-happy me.

But I did get questioned about HE by the workshop leader (ex Headmistress). I answered the questions and - I think - gave her the answers she wanted without slagging off schools. Now I come to think about it, I was really very diplomatic and tactful and mature about it all lol. Must have been because I was wearing my 'grown up' cardigan (ds1 asked if I was going to work when he saw me wearing it). Yay! My 'Grown Up' disguise actually works!

On Wednesday we went to the sailing club. We haven't been for ages so it was good just to get a feel for it again, walk to the woods, let the kids explore.

Ds1 decided in his enthusiasm for survival skills to disguise his head as a large clump of moss. Nah...it's not working...I can still see you.

And dd was tussling with the dogs as usual. This is the child who when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, says 'A chihuaha'.

On Thursday we went skating with other home edders. There were loads of people there this week, choosing skating as an antidote to the cabin fever of a snowbound week I suppose.Thankfully the kids are all fairly independent on the ice so I don't have to go on with them any more. Which means I can sneak off and raid the chocolate machines instead ha ha!

And here are some photos of ds1's Ancient Greek creation:

Today I printed off heaps of stuff from the web on Ancient Greece and some stuff that hopefully will be useful for making lapbooks. Ds1 will be rolling his eyes at me next week {g}.