Today dd1 and ds2 finally got to make cakes. They've been nagging me for weeks to make cakes. I'm not much of a keen cook anyway, but for me cooking and kids just doesn't work especially 3 boisterous kids in a tiny kitchen! The people who say that cooking with kids is fun, obviously don't have kids - or have the patience of a saint and cleaners to clean up the mess afterwards! Anyway I confess that it wasn't me who finally conceded to their demands - it was their aunt who volunteered for cake-making duties (don't suppose she'll be doing that again in a hurry!). I took the cowardly approach, went and 'hid' in the garden, planting some beans and trying to get my wonky old bunch of bean poles to make some kind of a line.
Pussy cat cakes!
Some of the cake mix got into the oven,
but there seemed to be alot on the table and around faces!
Ds1 did some shopping today as he's starting up his tuck shop again. I'm sure all the other home ed parents will be cursing us as he turns up at the activities with his stash of chocolate bars, crisps, lollies and sweets to sell to their kids. However, despite my misgivings about feeding the home ed community's kids with junk food, it does have a lot of educational value. For ds1 this means maths, English, business skills, all rolled into something he actually gets a buzz out of doing.
There he was, going round Tescos, reading labels, adding up what was in the trolley, working out what products were cheapest, what would sell best, how much profit he could make. I leant him the money for his stock today, but he's going to pay me back from his 'business' account next week.
When we got home he was keen to get everything out and we went through the receipt with a calculator while he did division to work out how much each individual item would cost. [All those times I've tried to explain division to him with no success and there he was understanding it perfectly - there's alot to be said for learning with a purpose, in context, when it's relevant and appropriate to your needs!] He then decided how much to charge for each item, boxed them all up, wrote price labels for the boxes and stored them in the cool box. Then next he'll probably need to write out a price list to display for his customers. Perhaps we should have used this for his Blue Peter badge instead (though I'm sure Blue Peter are far too politically correct to encourage children to sell junk food to other children!)
Opening up the packages
Writing price stickers
In the meantime, ds2 was doing technical drawings today. I'm not entirely sure whether they are inventions or drawings of our car (one of them had a 'Cam wheel' labelled), but I can't help but be impressed by his enthusiasm. A little help with the boys' handwriting and spelling wouldn't go amiss perhaps (!) - I'm yet to find out how this can be achieved through autonomous education - but at least they have a passion to learn, design, invent and create.
(For some reason I can't get these photo to display the right way around)
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