Have dropped ds1 off at an archaeological dig for his second day of scrabbling in the mud for treasure
Ds2 and dd are playing number bond dominoes.
I'm playing with new phone...
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Sunday, 7 October 2012
moving into the modern world...
sending this from my new phone
still cant actually phone anyone from it...(!!)
...but
loving instagram.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Warhammer and archaeology
This afternoon I alternated between:
- looming over middle child painting warhammer in Games Workshop, while tut-tutting over the price of models They want to charge HOW much for a mutated plastic soldier with a chainsaw? and trying to grasp the concept of all the different armies So, tell me again, what are Wood Elf Glade Guards and why can't they team up with those space marine guys on motorbikes?... One customer child with paintbrush in hand, who heard me sigh aloud: This is like watching paint dry replied Actually that's what it is, most of the time. He had a point. But three hours of watching warhammer is more than any parental contract dictates.
- taking/picking up big'un to an archaeology taster session at a local museum with his archaeology group. Not helped by standing outside the wrong door for 20 minutes and wondering most of his archaeology group hadn't arrived. But not alone because five others were also in the wrong place at the wrong time. And with that group mentality none of us thought to bang on the door and ask why we were still stood outside it 10 minutes after the session had started. Anyhow, apparently the group were helping out the museum by bagging - or re-packing - museum specimens to avoid damage. The highlight for ds1 was when someone showed him how to identify different flints/flint tools. Hopefully these will become regular sessions.
- testing out our new wireless internet. It took most of yesterday to get the connection working. I'd assumed it was just my technical incompetence, but when I finally gave in to ignorance and rang their helpline it turned out that *they* were having problems. Right. So I now have wireless on one laptop. The other with Windows 7 isn't playing ball despite poking it with a long stick and talking to it nicely. I've had to order a dongle (which sounds very rude) for the pc. Suddenly I feel like the squirrel in that scene in Ice Age when it goes to heaven and is dragged back through the pearly gates in a whoosh, while leaving his giant golden hazelnut behind. Except that I'm being dragged into the modern tech world with nothing more than a very slim instruction booklet and a web address for their 'online help' (which they obviously haven't realised isn't much use if you can't get online). All of which is more detail about my household frustrations than you needed.
Art Gallery
A guided tour around the James Welling exhibition at MK Gallery, followed by a home ed workshop with an artist
An explanation of abstract art and the creation of prints using randomised techniques
James Wellings photographs of foil - which in turn looked like landscapes, rock, fossils and water.
and then, in the workshop, trying to recreate some of the effects by creating 'rubbing templates'
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Monday, 17 September 2012
"Everyone couldn't stop laughing..."
(This was ds1's verdict today on his first 2-hour IGCSE chemisty lesson with a group of home educated children.)
His other comment was something along the lines of:
The tutor gave us bags of chocolates. There were so many. We stuffed them in our pencil cases. She said she's going to bring some more next week.
Yep.
I reckon that woman has teenage boys just about sussed.
Bring chocolates AND make 'em laugh.
Sorted.
Ds2 had his first Spanish session today. A thumbs up from him.
Next week more chemistry for ds1, and ds2 starts his Arts Award.
It's all rather strange. After years of very much a DIY approach (i.e. we bumble along through most subjects/topics, working it out for ourselves) I finally get to hand over the responsibility, temporarily, for educating two of my children for an hour or so. Apart from the occasional activity the kids have done, this is pretty much a first for us.
I wonder, is this what it's like to send your child to school? Probably not. After all, I'm hardly abandoning them at the school gate to do god-knows-what while I bake cakes and work off the 2 stone I've put on through childbearing by gym and yoga classes. I've never had that experience, and though I hankered for it once, I certainly wouldn't swap our lives for that now.
No. This seems like the next stage. Up to this point we've done everything on a shoestring budget and mother-and-child-fuelled energy. This is the right time to be buying in the experience/expertise/skills that I either don't have, or don't have energy or enthusiasm for.
And if our weeks consist of a mix of fencing sessions, Capoeira, swimming, home ed group, Spanish, Art class, film-making, archaeology club, computer programming, warhammer/model-making, chess, geography and chemistry, plus the projects we'll continue to do at home...Well, that seems a pretty decent spread to me. Let's hope we all have the stamina to keep up the pace!
Meanwhile we await news of whether ds1 will get a place on a training session at a local archaeological museum on 'object identification'. The aim, after the training session, is to help out at regular sessions via his (usual) local archaeological group, classifying and photographing and cataloguing objects in the museum. And this is a big, very important museum.
We've been unable to find him volunteer work at the local museums, primarily because of his age (child protection, supervision, blah blah), but also because he is competing against the students from two universities in the city who naturally want CV-boosting experience. Given the choice between a 19-yr-old university archaeology/classics student and a 13 yr-old enthusiastic amateur in a hoodie it's obvious which the museum staff would choose.
So perhaps something will come of this. As long as nobody starts getting picky about his age, this could be just the ticket for him :)
And if not, hopefully ds1 will get a place on the 'big' dig they'll be doing in October - he's done test pits, but not a full scale dig yet, so if it comes together, this will be very exciting for him...
Fingers crossed.
His other comment was something along the lines of:
The tutor gave us bags of chocolates. There were so many. We stuffed them in our pencil cases. She said she's going to bring some more next week.
Yep.
I reckon that woman has teenage boys just about sussed.
Bring chocolates AND make 'em laugh.
Sorted.
Ds2 had his first Spanish session today. A thumbs up from him.
Next week more chemistry for ds1, and ds2 starts his Arts Award.
It's all rather strange. After years of very much a DIY approach (i.e. we bumble along through most subjects/topics, working it out for ourselves) I finally get to hand over the responsibility, temporarily, for educating two of my children for an hour or so. Apart from the occasional activity the kids have done, this is pretty much a first for us.
I wonder, is this what it's like to send your child to school? Probably not. After all, I'm hardly abandoning them at the school gate to do god-knows-what while I bake cakes and work off the 2 stone I've put on through childbearing by gym and yoga classes. I've never had that experience, and though I hankered for it once, I certainly wouldn't swap our lives for that now.
No. This seems like the next stage. Up to this point we've done everything on a shoestring budget and mother-and-child-fuelled energy. This is the right time to be buying in the experience/expertise/skills that I either don't have, or don't have energy or enthusiasm for.
And if our weeks consist of a mix of fencing sessions, Capoeira, swimming, home ed group, Spanish, Art class, film-making, archaeology club, computer programming, warhammer/model-making, chess, geography and chemistry, plus the projects we'll continue to do at home...Well, that seems a pretty decent spread to me. Let's hope we all have the stamina to keep up the pace!
Meanwhile we await news of whether ds1 will get a place on a training session at a local archaeological museum on 'object identification'. The aim, after the training session, is to help out at regular sessions via his (usual) local archaeological group, classifying and photographing and cataloguing objects in the museum. And this is a big, very important museum.
We've been unable to find him volunteer work at the local museums, primarily because of his age (child protection, supervision, blah blah), but also because he is competing against the students from two universities in the city who naturally want CV-boosting experience. Given the choice between a 19-yr-old university archaeology/classics student and a 13 yr-old enthusiastic amateur in a hoodie it's obvious which the museum staff would choose.
So perhaps something will come of this. As long as nobody starts getting picky about his age, this could be just the ticket for him :)
And if not, hopefully ds1 will get a place on the 'big' dig they'll be doing in October - he's done test pits, but not a full scale dig yet, so if it comes together, this will be very exciting for him...
Fingers crossed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)