A hotchpotch from the end of summer

In the last month or so, our structured home ed has fizzled out. I've had a deadline to meet for my OU course and, as I was way behind with my studies, I decided that we'd resume home ed after I'd finished the course.

So, what was happening downstairs whilst I spent time upstairs with my nose buried in books, ignoring my children?

There were several visits from Charlie's friends, where the boys played with the new kittens or spent unmentionable amounts of time constructing villages on Minecraft.

 

There were random experiments.

Making sand

Apparently, this gunge will turn into crystals

There was a lot of reading. As well as finishing the Harry Potter series and re-reading a lot of old favourites, such as the David Walliams books, 'Tom Gates' series and the 'Wimpy Kid' series, Charlie completed his Summer Reading Challenge.

There was a lot of playing with Lego.

Recreating the Titanic disaster in Lego, complete with iceberg

In between, there was shopping to unpack...

And my kitchen began to look like this:

Luckily, Michael was able to take Charlie out sometimes, even if it was just to help him at work.

He and Charlie visited Hersmonceux Science Centre, which is one of Charlie's favourite places, providing lots of opportunities for fun science experiments.

And they went to Hove Museum, where Charlie was fascinated by the early film plates in the media and film collection.

And intrigued by the contrast between a Victorian bedroom and one from modern times.

I was so relieved when I had finally completed the essay and could stumble downstairs to see my family again. I half expected them to have grown up and left home in the meantime. 

Now I was back in the fray, the three of us could go on excursions. One day we visited the house of Charlotte Matthews, part of Lewes Artwave. We were so impressed by her work that we ended up buying some of her prints.

Afterwards, we went for a long walk in the countryside.

A red admiral

Last weekend, a friend came to stay and we all went out for fish and chips on the beach in Brighton. A seagull swooped down and stole a chunk of Charlie's fish.

One of these seagulls was the culprit

Eating our fish and chips, whilst the seagulls waited for another chance

Skimming stones

View of West Pier

Having enjoyed such an unstructured summer, I felt the need to get some order back into my life and drew up a timetable. I have put everything on it: home ed; Tom's medical appointments and online lessons; housework; menus; and excursions. It's not set in stone and inevitably changes have to be made, but it gives me a solid foundation. I made a separate home ed timetable for Charlie, so he could see what we were going to be doing each day. He likes having it. He was particularly happy to see that every day begins with a cycling lesson, as he is really enjoying learning to ride.

This week we are resuming home ed, which will include studying our new topic, the 'Titanic'.

Playing shops

'Pupils continue to become fluent in recognising the value of coins, by adding and subtracting amounts, including mixed units, and giving change using manageable amounts.'  

National Curriculum, Key Stage 2, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie and I spotted a forthcoming fundraising event being advertised in the local park.

I decided this would be a good opportunity to raise a bit of money for a good cause, get rid of some unwanted clutter at home and give Charlie an opportunity to get involved with the local community. I spied lots of educational opportunities too.

We began preparing for the stall a few days before. I dragged out boxes of old toys and books from the loft, whilst Charlie sorted through the toys in his bedroom. This was a good exercise in learning how to let go of things that we no longer need. There were a lot of toys that Charlie hadn't seen for a long time and that he found hard to let go. Sometimes, after discussion, he accepted that he had outgrown them and that, although they brought back happy memories, it was time to pass them on to younger children for their enjoyment.

Some of the old games needed to be put together again to see if they still worked. The old Hot Wheels game was fun.

We also had to check the contents of old games to see if all the pieces were still there. 

Then we had to start pricing everything up. We discussed how much to charge and, if we weren't sure, we looked some things up on eBay to compare costs. I explained that we had to get a balance between charging the amount people would be willing to pay for secondhand goods and also making money. Charlie pointed out that some of his brother's old XBox games were more popular than others, so we gave those higher prices than the less popular ones. He was beginning to understand the concept of 'market demand'.

Charlie wrote the prices on stickers and stuck them onto each item. Sometimes, I added an extra selling point.

 Charlie made up bags of his smaller toys, put them in a box and priced them up too.

  
I explained that we needed a 'float' of cash in our till, so that we could give change if necessary. As we were pricing everything in multiples of 10, that meant we only needed change in 10ps, 50ps and £1s.

Charlie thought we'd make lots of money, but I pointed out that we were paying £10 for the pitch, so we would only make a 'profit' if we made more than £10.

After Charlie had gone to bed that night, I sat up till the early hours, sorting through old school uniforms and other items and marking prices. I set everything out in the hall, ready for the morning, and went to bed at about 2.30am.

That morning, we were up early and setting up the stall by 8.30am. We didn't have a trestle table, so we laid everything out on a picnic rug and hung the clothes up on a portable clothes rail. Cheaper clothes were in boxes for people to rummage through.

Once we'd set up shop, we waited for customers.

And they came... 

As shopkeeper, Charlie had to add up items and work out change. If someone bought several things, he even had carrier bags to put them in. He loved every minute and said, "This is so much fun!" He also quickly learnt to develop a sales pitch: he simply said, with a sweet smile, "I've made bags of toys for only 20p." Not one adult could resist and the 20p bags of toys turned out to be our bestsellers.

In between customers, we chatted to other stall holders. A boy of about Charlie's age was running a stall next to us with his parents and he kept coming over to look at the toys, but then going back without buying anything. Eventually, Charlie said, kindly: "Would you like something for free? I have enough money now." 

We were very lucky with the weather: the sun shone all day. In between customers, we sat, basking in the sunshine and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. I bought homemade cakes from a local stall and we ate them for our lunch.

Eventually, the sky began to cloud over and the customers began to thin out. We packed up our stuff and drove our unsold goods to the nearest charity shop. After a visit to his grandma to report on the day's events, Charlie and I worked out the profit: his brother had made £6 on old XBox games and Charlie had made £6.30 which he is planning to put towards a new game for his DS. 

We also have a lot of change left over to practise using money.

Welcome home

'It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.' 

Lewis Carroll, 'Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There'


I haven't posted for a while because we have been in a holiday mood and no formal learning is taking place, apart from Charlie's daily online lesson on ConquerMaths. He is also reading lots. He is now on the last volume of the 'Harry Potter' series and has also read three library books for the Reading Challenge: one on mosaics, and the other two on the Titanic, which is his chosen topic for the start of next term.

Our main news is that we have just acquired two new family members. 

They are still very shy of us, but are gradually getting used to their new home. Charlie has read a book about looking after kittens and is now able to advise us on all their needs. He made them a cardboard playhouse, following the advice laid out in the book.

 

He has also been feeding them, clearing out their litter tray and playing with them.

Today, a new piece of furniture arrived for them: a scratching post which doubles up as an entertainment centre, with tunnels and hidey holes, as well as a comfy place to sleep on the top. Charlie and his friend unpacked it and set it up, whilst the kittens looked on.

After an energetic play session, the kittens were eventually worn out by the boys' play and fell fast asleep on the top of the tower.

Two on a Tower

Keeping pets is a wonderful way for Charlie to learn about responsibility, as well as to develop a caring attitude towards animals. They have also brought him and his brother together this week, giving them a shared source of delight and laughter.

Butterflies

 

A few weeks ago, Charlie discovered a colourful creature crawling along the pavement. It reminded me of the toys - called magic twisty worms - that I used to put into party bags, but there was no invisible thread and it turned out to be the caterpillar of the Sycamore Moth. Back home, we looked it up online and found out what it fed on and what it would become. Charlie was intrigued.

Recently, we came across this fantastic display of butterflies and moths in a local art gallery. We spent a long time looking in wonder at the extraordinary variety of colours and patterns.

Yellow Silk Moth

King Swallowtail

Menelaus Blue Morpho

Spanish Moon Silk Moth

Indian Moon Silk Moth

 
As Charlie has since shown an interest in finding out more about butterflies and moths, I thought he might like to take part in the Big Butterfly Count, which takes place between 19 July and 10 August.

First, we downloaded an ID chart from the website.

We also needed a stopwatch (we used the free one we just had received for the Change4Life 10-minute Shake Up) and a pen.

 

 

Then we walked to a nearby park and spent 15 minutes sitting on a bench, looking out for butterflies. On the first occasion, we were there at the wrong time, as there were storm clouds gathering overhead. Butterflies don't like the cool air associated with approaching rain, or being pelted with rainfall, so they tend to go into hiding. We did, however, manage to spot this one, which Charlie chased across the grass until he was able to get a close-up shot.

  
It was just our luck that it didn't clearly match any of the butterflies on our ID sheet. The closest match was a meadow brown, but we couldn't see any black spots on its wings.

The following day, we returned. This time, it was sunny, so we were hopeful that we would spot more butterflies. Charlie had brought his binoculars to help him see better.

We spotted the same brown butterfly and this time we were able to get a closer look. Yes, it definitely did have a black dot on each wing and a small flash of orange: a meadow brown. We added it to our chart. We also managed to get a good close-up shot of a Small White butterfly.

 
Whilst we were waiting for the butterflies, we spotted other wildlife: we saw a large dragonfly hovering overhead, a lot of bees and several dandelion seeds blowing past. Charlie was intrigued by the number of magpies flapping around the park. We counted 12 in all. I looked up the rhyme later and it turns out that '12 is for wealth'. 

As we left the park, we noticed a sign: 'Come and support our fundraising event. All you need to do is arrive, set up your stall and sell. Donate just £10 to us!' Suddenly, here was a solution to the problem of getting rid of old toys, a way to raise a bit of money, as well as an opportunity for Charlie to practise giving change.

Maybe those 12 magpies really were going to bring us wealth.