We love Brainbox games. We've had various of them over the years and really enjoyed them, so when a home edding friend on Facebook was selling the Maths one, we jumped at the chance to get it. But it's a very different experience to playing the others we have (The World and English Kings and Queens), where even the observational things *mostly* also impart useful information, crops grown in a country, the kind of clothing worn in a historical era, designs of flags, etc, but on the maths one, the questions seem to be entirely observation and the answers do not demonstrate or add to knowledge of the maths in any way. How does it matter what colour the sum is or which sum is shown with carrots or bananas?? We played it once then gave up.
Today I had an idea of how to use it differently and we started picking cards at random to see whether the maths on it was something Hannah already knew how to do. So far we've covered Venn diagrams. We looked at the card, talked about the example shown on it, discussed vocabulary, then made our own example using different sets of Hannah's friends. We then looked at perimeters and watched a Khan Academy video about properties of a circle. This introduced Hannah to the concept of Pi. ("is it Pi or Pie, Mummy??") It took a while and will need to be revisited at some point, but for now I *think* she got it. Lastly, I questioned whether she did actually know all the highlighted functions on a calculator and she read the labels. I pointed out that I meant did she know how to do them, not could she read it? Mostly, she could do them, except for square roots. So I explained that and she wrote a few examples in her book.
She's now preparing for a sleepover with her cousin and making more wands for the Harry Potter party.
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
In which I borrow some extra children to help prep Hannah's party
We're always up for a party, Hannah and I, but this year we are going to town on her birthday party. In part it's because she's 10, which feels significant. It's got a 0 at the end...first number in double figures and all that. A decade of life, a decade of being a mother for me. Yes, this one felt like a big deal. Also, as a rabid Harry Potter fan myself, I am so happy she is finally reading and loving the books. So could she have a Harry Potter party?? Of course.
It needs more planning than our usual "pitch a tent in the woods" style party. We're going to have the children arrive and visit Ollivanders where they will chose a wand. We are making the wands today, which is why I thought it would be fun to invite some of Hannah's friends over to help. P and E arrived about 11 and we headed out to the woods first to collect twigs for making broomsticks for Quidditch. Not entirely sure how Quidditch is going to work exactly, but will involve hula hoops on sticks for goals, a quaffle for scoring, bludgers which have the effect of stopping you for 5 seconds when they hit you and a tiny golden snitch which will be hidden in the area somewhere!
Wand-making started after lunch. We are using these instructions to make them. Some of them didn;t turn out too well....and I can't get the glue gun to work properly and we ran out of other glue and had to go to Morrisons to buy more, but the kids had fun anyway!
We're also going to have a Defence Against the Dark Arts ice-breaker. We always do something along those lines because the nature of Hannah's social life means that none of her friends know more than 3 or 4 of the others. Well, except Lucia because she has been to so many parties, does some of the same activities and often comes to family events so possibly she knows everyone! This DADA ice-breaker is going to consist of introducing yourself then casting a hex or jinx at someone else in the circle, calling their name to make it clear who is being hexed. The person hexed has to perform an appropriate action and then hex someone else.
Then Potions class with one or two things to mix up and some strange ingredients in jars.
After Quidditch, we'll finish with the End of Term Feast. Then I will go home and collapse.
It needs more planning than our usual "pitch a tent in the woods" style party. We're going to have the children arrive and visit Ollivanders where they will chose a wand. We are making the wands today, which is why I thought it would be fun to invite some of Hannah's friends over to help. P and E arrived about 11 and we headed out to the woods first to collect twigs for making broomsticks for Quidditch. Not entirely sure how Quidditch is going to work exactly, but will involve hula hoops on sticks for goals, a quaffle for scoring, bludgers which have the effect of stopping you for 5 seconds when they hit you and a tiny golden snitch which will be hidden in the area somewhere!
Wand-making started after lunch. We are using these instructions to make them. Some of them didn;t turn out too well....and I can't get the glue gun to work properly and we ran out of other glue and had to go to Morrisons to buy more, but the kids had fun anyway!
We're also going to have a Defence Against the Dark Arts ice-breaker. We always do something along those lines because the nature of Hannah's social life means that none of her friends know more than 3 or 4 of the others. Well, except Lucia because she has been to so many parties, does some of the same activities and often comes to family events so possibly she knows everyone! This DADA ice-breaker is going to consist of introducing yourself then casting a hex or jinx at someone else in the circle, calling their name to make it clear who is being hexed. The person hexed has to perform an appropriate action and then hex someone else.
Then Potions class with one or two things to mix up and some strange ingredients in jars.
After Quidditch, we'll finish with the End of Term Feast. Then I will go home and collapse.
Thursday, 28 March 2013
In which we catch up, yet again
We have been so busy I can barely remember what we've done so I'm not going to write about all of it. Or indeed much of it!
We went to a brilliant workshop on Egyptian medicine on Monday. It started with a 7 metre long time line, where 1mm represented 1 year and key events in Egyptian history were marked out along it. It was a very clear visual of both how long ago the Egyptian civilisation flourished and how long it lasted, especially when put in context with the centimeter that represented Hannah's life!
The people running it are storytellers and presented themselves as Egyptian priests as physical cures were always accompanied by spells, which were, in effect, requests for the gods to help and not hinder the patient.
After hearing about Egyptian views on religion and medicine, we proceeded to make cures for burns, cataracts and joint pain. I tried the burn one, with appropriate spell, on the burn on my hand but it hurt a lot worse than without the cure. Maybe it;s because the "hair of a ram" was in fact a white nylon wig and I have a suspicion that the "milk from a mother nursing a newborn boy" may have been the milk of a cow kept in a shed with no calf of either sex.
Finally, we heard a genuine Egyptian story, of which the end was missing from the papyrus so we heard two different possible endings. In both, though, the faithful dog drowned which made Hannah and me cry!
On Tuesday, we got the results of Hannah's guitar exam and she passed with distinction. She is immensely proud of herself and so she should be...she worked really hard.
We went to a brilliant workshop on Egyptian medicine on Monday. It started with a 7 metre long time line, where 1mm represented 1 year and key events in Egyptian history were marked out along it. It was a very clear visual of both how long ago the Egyptian civilisation flourished and how long it lasted, especially when put in context with the centimeter that represented Hannah's life!
The people running it are storytellers and presented themselves as Egyptian priests as physical cures were always accompanied by spells, which were, in effect, requests for the gods to help and not hinder the patient.
After hearing about Egyptian views on religion and medicine, we proceeded to make cures for burns, cataracts and joint pain. I tried the burn one, with appropriate spell, on the burn on my hand but it hurt a lot worse than without the cure. Maybe it;s because the "hair of a ram" was in fact a white nylon wig and I have a suspicion that the "milk from a mother nursing a newborn boy" may have been the milk of a cow kept in a shed with no calf of either sex.
Finally, we heard a genuine Egyptian story, of which the end was missing from the papyrus so we heard two different possible endings. In both, though, the faithful dog drowned which made Hannah and me cry!
On Tuesday, we got the results of Hannah's guitar exam and she passed with distinction. She is immensely proud of herself and so she should be...she worked really hard.
Monday, 11 March 2013
In which I catch up on the past week
Last Tuesday we went to the Ice Age Art exhibition at the British Museum, which was amazing. It drew parallels with more current artistic developments in a way that was really enlightening and although it was quite a wordy exhibition and we had to work hard to absorb all the info, we were both totally engrossed and neither of us was desperate to hit the shop before the end! We had some really interesting conversations off the back of it as well, especially about the way the female figures which are probably one of the most common form of paleolithic art, changed from the ones I always think of as typical, rounded, big-breasted, saggy-bellied earth mothers, to slender, pert-breasted, nubile young figures by about 14,000 years ago. Sexual objectification of women not a modern phenomenon then!
Afterwards, we got noodles from Wasabi and sat out in Bloomsbury Square to eat...on the grass, without coats! Today it is snowing.....the weather is weird!
Wednesday we went to Ireland to see a cousin I hadn't seen in 24 years. Not just Wednesday obviously...we went Weds am and came back Friday night! We had a fabulous time. We visited a wildlife park and the Cobh Heritage Centre where we learned about the famine of the 1840s, emmigration, transportation to Australia, the Titanic and the sinking of the Lusitania.Hannah also made 2 new friends and swapped addresses with one of them. This was one of those...."and they think home ed children don't socialise" moments as H asked if she could go out to explore the immediate area round my cousin's house, which is on a very quiet housing estate. Ten minutes later she was back with a new friend! I know it's impossible to say whether she would have regained the social confidence that school knocked out of her in those first (and only) two terms, but she's certainly not suffered from not being at school.
Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn to collect our friends and drive to Long Melford in Suffolk for the Kentwell open day. Yes, we have finally applied to do this. I am divided between excited anticipation and sheer terror! But the open day was largely fun and people were lovely and we should find out in a few weeks whether we are going to spend a week of the summer in 1559!
Sunday..not much
Today Hannah took her first guitar exam. We think it went okay, but was a positive experience anyway as she was very nervous going in but came out all smiles because the examiner was really nice! Okay, good....all caught up,,,,,BED
Afterwards, we got noodles from Wasabi and sat out in Bloomsbury Square to eat...on the grass, without coats! Today it is snowing.....the weather is weird!
Wednesday we went to Ireland to see a cousin I hadn't seen in 24 years. Not just Wednesday obviously...we went Weds am and came back Friday night! We had a fabulous time. We visited a wildlife park and the Cobh Heritage Centre where we learned about the famine of the 1840s, emmigration, transportation to Australia, the Titanic and the sinking of the Lusitania.Hannah also made 2 new friends and swapped addresses with one of them. This was one of those...."and they think home ed children don't socialise" moments as H asked if she could go out to explore the immediate area round my cousin's house, which is on a very quiet housing estate. Ten minutes later she was back with a new friend! I know it's impossible to say whether she would have regained the social confidence that school knocked out of her in those first (and only) two terms, but she's certainly not suffered from not being at school.
Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn to collect our friends and drive to Long Melford in Suffolk for the Kentwell open day. Yes, we have finally applied to do this. I am divided between excited anticipation and sheer terror! But the open day was largely fun and people were lovely and we should find out in a few weeks whether we are going to spend a week of the summer in 1559!
Sunday..not much
Today Hannah took her first guitar exam. We think it went okay, but was a positive experience anyway as she was very nervous going in but came out all smiles because the examiner was really nice! Okay, good....all caught up,,,,,BED
Monday, 4 March 2013
In which we plan a Sylvanian town
Hannah really likes Sylvanians so it seemed like a fun way to do some geography, to create an ideal Sylvanian town using images from catalogues and magazines and thinking about what a town would need to contain.
First she thought about that and made a list which looked like this:
"What facilities?
Theatre
Sports
Schools
Shops
Transport
Businesses
Parks
Houses
Halls
Town Centre
Church
Library
Hospital
Doctor's surgery
Museum
Police station
Bus stops
Train station
Roads
Town Hall
Swimming Pool
Gym
Hairdressers
Hotels
Beach
Camping facilities
We then got all her Sylvanian magazines and picked up lots of catalogues from the Sylvanian shop, then came cutting out all the images she could find to fit the list, although not all were possible to find. So we did the best we could and cut out every small house, some larger ones and as many of the things on the above list as we could. I stuck 2 sheets of A1 paper together and asked Hannah to pencil in the roads. She created a market square and roads connecting the market and surrounding streets to residential areas, one of smaller terraces on one side of town and larger, detached ones on the other. She made decisions about which buildings to put where.
Right outside the town, she painted a river and we added a towpath and a bridge to allow access to the water and across it to the farms and golf course that made up about 1/3 of the paper. It took ages and I did a fair amount of the painting just because it was fun to work together and also it was occupying the whole of my dining table for about 2 weeks as it was. Gradually we filled in all the details:gardens for the houses; open spaces for play/dog walking; bus stops; car parks; trees and other plants and finally, with Hannah's agreement, I made an open public space with tubs of flowers and a war memorial. When we finally finished this morning it looked like this.
First she thought about that and made a list which looked like this:
"What facilities?
Theatre
Sports
Schools
Shops
Transport
Businesses
Parks
Houses
Halls
Town Centre
Church
Library
Hospital
Doctor's surgery
Museum
Police station
Bus stops
Train station
Roads
Town Hall
Swimming Pool
Gym
Hairdressers
Hotels
Beach
Camping facilities
We then got all her Sylvanian magazines and picked up lots of catalogues from the Sylvanian shop, then came cutting out all the images she could find to fit the list, although not all were possible to find. So we did the best we could and cut out every small house, some larger ones and as many of the things on the above list as we could. I stuck 2 sheets of A1 paper together and asked Hannah to pencil in the roads. She created a market square and roads connecting the market and surrounding streets to residential areas, one of smaller terraces on one side of town and larger, detached ones on the other. She made decisions about which buildings to put where.
Right outside the town, she painted a river and we added a towpath and a bridge to allow access to the water and across it to the farms and golf course that made up about 1/3 of the paper. It took ages and I did a fair amount of the painting just because it was fun to work together and also it was occupying the whole of my dining table for about 2 weeks as it was. Gradually we filled in all the details:gardens for the houses; open spaces for play/dog walking; bus stops; car parks; trees and other plants and finally, with Hannah's agreement, I made an open public space with tubs of flowers and a war memorial. When we finally finished this morning it looked like this.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
In which I attempt to declutter some outgrown learning resources
Sorry, this is a sales post. Feel free to ignore. Hannah has outgrown some things and I need to raise a bit of cash for Christmas. Please comment below if you want anything...or email me:afzaulandsarah@virginmedia.com
£5.00 inc postage. The burp mechanism in the gorilla does not work, but we've always had great fun making our own sound effects!
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| £1.50 inc postage |
£1.50 inc postage
£1.50 inc postage
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| PLEASE NOTE: the book I have for sale is the same series but AGE 7-8. £1.50 inc postage |
Letts Active Readers: £4.00 inc postage. Books 1,3 and 9 are missing. Book 2 has one page written on
£2.00 inc postage
£1.50 inc postage
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| £1.50 inc postage |
Friday, 2 November 2012
In which we have a very varied day
Hannah slept over at her friend's house after trick or treating with her and I collected her in the morning, after which we went to Mass with my mum. In my head I had some idea about reinforcing the stuff we did on Halloween, but bit daft really, considering she'd had almost no sleep. So I just cuddled her.
Afterwards DH came to meet us outside and the four of us took my aunt and uncle's ashes to Epping Forest Woodland Burial Park where we had a very simple burial. It wasn't even a service. I tried to read a poem and sobbed all the way through (which is most unlike me; I gave the eulogy at both their funerals and managed not to cry in the middle). We then went out to have some lunch together, before Hannah, Mum and I dashed off to meet Louise and Lucia at the skating rink.
Hannah was invited to a skating party there in the summer and won a free skating session in a competition. It expired yesterday so it had to be done, even if that made the day manic and tiring. Also a shame that her illness last week meant we had to go in half term. It was heaving. L and L often go in the week during school time and have the ice to themselves. Still, the girls had fun and they saw one of the senior students from their drama school which always pleases them. The grown ups sat and gossiped over tea and hot chocolate. I *can* skate but my feet are so wide and hire skates so narrow that I always feel as though I have the blades on the inside of the boot! So I don't skate!
We dropped Mum home and went back to L and L's house for dinner as we were all going out to the theatre in the evening. Yummy meal of lamb stew, which I love but don't cook at home because veggie daughter misses lamb terribly; it's been her biggest sacrifice!
In the evening we went to Rich Mix, to see The CrickCrack Club for Day of the Dead. Louise spent many years in Mexico, where Lucia was born and the tradition of celebrating Day of the Dead has remained with them. Hannah no
Can I have a sneaky proud mummy moment?? In the interval, Louise took the girls out to get popcorn and they came back with crisps instead, *because* Hannah had taken one look at the miniscule bag of popcorn they were selling for £3 and said, "that's really rather expensive, isn't it? I don;t think we should buy it because it's not worth that much," or words to that effect and refused to be pressured into it. Louise came back and told me that she really admired Hannah for being so principled. The show was amazing, three very talented storytellers talling tales from all over the world about death and the pleasures of life. Some of them were a little near the knuckle but the girls are still just about young enough for it to pass them by!
Got home late and had to carry a very weary Hannah so we are having a quiet day today!
Afterwards DH came to meet us outside and the four of us took my aunt and uncle's ashes to Epping Forest Woodland Burial Park where we had a very simple burial. It wasn't even a service. I tried to read a poem and sobbed all the way through (which is most unlike me; I gave the eulogy at both their funerals and managed not to cry in the middle). We then went out to have some lunch together, before Hannah, Mum and I dashed off to meet Louise and Lucia at the skating rink.
Hannah was invited to a skating party there in the summer and won a free skating session in a competition. It expired yesterday so it had to be done, even if that made the day manic and tiring. Also a shame that her illness last week meant we had to go in half term. It was heaving. L and L often go in the week during school time and have the ice to themselves. Still, the girls had fun and they saw one of the senior students from their drama school which always pleases them. The grown ups sat and gossiped over tea and hot chocolate. I *can* skate but my feet are so wide and hire skates so narrow that I always feel as though I have the blades on the inside of the boot! So I don't skate!
We dropped Mum home and went back to L and L's house for dinner as we were all going out to the theatre in the evening. Yummy meal of lamb stew, which I love but don't cook at home because veggie daughter misses lamb terribly; it's been her biggest sacrifice!
In the evening we went to Rich Mix, to see The CrickCrack Club for Day of the Dead. Louise spent many years in Mexico, where Lucia was born and the tradition of celebrating Day of the Dead has remained with them. Hannah no
Can I have a sneaky proud mummy moment?? In the interval, Louise took the girls out to get popcorn and they came back with crisps instead, *because* Hannah had taken one look at the miniscule bag of popcorn they were selling for £3 and said, "that's really rather expensive, isn't it? I don;t think we should buy it because it's not worth that much," or words to that effect and refused to be pressured into it. Louise came back and told me that she really admired Hannah for being so principled. The show was amazing, three very talented storytellers talling tales from all over the world about death and the pleasures of life. Some of them were a little near the knuckle but the girls are still just about young enough for it to pass them by!
Got home late and had to carry a very weary Hannah so we are having a quiet day today!
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