Bone necklaces and autumn leaves

We've had a fun but busy day full of play-dough, marble runs, handwriting practise and episodes of Nina and the Neurons 'brilliant bodies'. We made bone necklaces at breakfast. It's a great activity for Moo's age group but is also very pertinent for Lamb as well as he needs to work on his grip strength and fine motor skills.

... and we also made some sandpaper autumn leaves from pink and green mama's blog which Moo devoted some considerable time to.

We also got around to a cut-and-stick eye labelling activity - there were some wicked eye lashes on display but I haven't photographed these!

Georgia O'Keeffe inspired

As we're doing a body topic at the moment we've taken the opportunity to look at some of Georgia O'Keeffe's bone paintings. Moo particularly loves our art time looking at famous artists. Lamb, as you can see in the picture is taking his art very seriously, but is far more interested in his art than some old artist!

Yesterday I laid out a series of different arty activities for the boys and miraculously they had both suddenly finished what they were doing. In this picture Lamb decided to use chalks to draw bones 'with clouds in the sky'. Moo also took the opportunity to paint the floor, which is why all our art time takes place on the lino!

As well as various bone based activities there I also laid out some materials to make autumn crowns, which are still drying as so much glue was used! The kids then took it all to the next level. Leaves we painted and stuck onto bone paintings, they both demanded scissors and before I knew it they had created leafy, black snowflakes... or something like that!

Brain Hats!

We started a body topic this week, and here are the proud owners of two wonderful brain hats (available to download from www.ellenjmchenry.com). We played a pass the message brain game to learn about the way the brain sends and recieves messages, but to be honest they were more interested in threading their neurons onto string!

Little Beaver

Lamb got to bring home the scouts mascot this week for good behaviour.

He's pretty pleased with himself!

From a mummy and daddy perspective we're really pleased too. Each week Lamb is now amongst the numbers that actually behave themselves while they are at scouts. In a group of almost 30 children, some of which are not behaving well, Lamb has consistantly been a star. This is such a massive thing for him, and us as a family. 6 months ago, before we started home-schooling, it was precisely these sorts of social conditions that Lamb struggled with so much in school. Even the lining-up and sitting down parts of scouts have been going well. Add to this that he also doesn't have 1:1 support at scouts as he did at school, and it equals to the fact that this is quite an achievement for Lamb :)

Into the Victorian workhouse!

We were lucky enough to get along to this free event last week (I love the word 'free'!)

Here the boys are in the 'workhouse schoolroom' where they had their fingers inspected before starting their lessons sat upon hard wooden benches. They're practising writing their names with chalkboards and in a sand box. Lamb was putting all that extra concentration in as he discovered that chalk is a whole lot harder to write with than pens and pencils. I'm not sure Moo was necessarily using the sandbox to write his name though...

We also really enjoyed the workhouse kitchen. The boys used old ration cards with the help of the costumed museum staff to measure out how much dried bread they would be allowed for breakfast, and had a go at making some gruel. The boys were so eager for the gruel until they saw the finished product and strangely enough neither of them wanted to taste it in the end!

We also got to make peg dollies to take home, which are still prancing around our house, though their clothes seem to have fallen off.

All in last week was a museum week for us. There was only one day that we didn't go there. We went along for the 'crazy colours' treasure hunt and made colour mobiles, and we made roman mosaics and torcs, we made world war II themed posters about healthy eating and growing your own, and had lots of fun trying on all the period costumes again. It was a fun week and honestly, I was knackered by the weekend!

Free site for little fingers

I honestly never thought I would be letting my 3 year old on the computer. I've found my kids keep challenging my ideas on what makes a 'good' mother. If you had asked me a year ago if I would let such a tiny person use a computer I would have said 'no'. But Moo has been desperate to learn how to use the computer and I figured I should just be happy to see such enthusiasm.

http://www.poissonrouge.com/

This is a great little site for little people and Moo has been enjoying popping balloons, setting off fireworks and knocking green bottles of the wall... Moo loved it!

I had it in my head the kind of mummy-teacher I wanted to be. But that just didn't fit with how my boys learn. I had all these romantic ideas but in the end it comes down to the kids, not me. I hate it when I have to learn the obvious!!

Pre-engineering skills ;)

Daddy B. has been having lots of lego fun with the boys. I'm honestly not sure who enjoyed building this marble run the most! They spent hours on it, and hours playing with it.

This is possibly the coolest lego build ever...