02/12/2014: Christmas preparations

Salt dough ornaments

I love salt dough decorations. They are easy to make and look great on the tree. These haven't yet been painted but I'm sure will have lots of glittery goodness shortly. I'm not sure which recipe was used for these but I tend to use equal volumes (eg a cup) of plain flour, salt and water (start with half of the water and add more if needed). Salt dough can be microwaved for a couple of minutes, put in a very low oven for a few hours or left to air dry in a warm place - the latter takes quite a long time but is the best option if you use coloured dough that you don't want to accidentally brown. The thinner the ornament the sooner it dries hard but don't make them too thin or they will easily break.

18/11/2014 Plastic printing and curry capers

Reading tent

We set up the hall a little differently this week to cut down on the running around in circles. So far it seems to have worked, it will be interesting to see if this continues long term. There is still plenty of room for the children to move about, probably even more than before, but it no longer feels as if the tables are in the middle of a race track with the boys zooming past.

Cooking chickpea and lentil curry

Enjoying our curry!

This week we had curry prepared for us. Very mild but lots of flavour and lots of empty plates. We don't have a meal to share every week but I really enjoy the times that we do.

Playing with geo-mags

To add to our usual toys and games this week we had Geomags to explore. These are fantastic little magnets that are can be used to create structures as well as explore magnetic properties. On a practical note the trays were very useful for keeping the bits together and well away from the floor (Geomags are NOT a good mix with young children).

Our art project this week was mono-typing using plastic bags. These can be layered up to produce quite abstract almost graffiti style art. A 'how to' is shown in the video below (more information can be found here: http://alisaburke.blogspot.co.uk/)

PRINT with plastic bags from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.

We have three more sessions before we take a break for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to all the Yule tide crafts and activities that we have ahead of us.

Recipe: Chickpea and lentil curry

• Three chopped onions 
• Approx two cans or 500g cooked chickpeas
• One carton (500g) of passata
• Same quantity of water
• 150g red split lentils
• 1tsp Garam masala
• 1tsp turmeric
• 1tsp ginger
• 1tsp coriander
• Half a tsp of cinnamon

Catch up: 21/10/2014 Halloween madness, 04/11/2014 Firework fun

21/10/2014 Halloween madness

Potion ingredients

Experimental potions were made from a choice of many ingredients including ice cream, biscuits and chocolate. Some were great and others were best described as... interesting.

Recipe: Sausages

Sausages made by our boys.

• 1 kg of pork shoulder 
• 100 g salt
• 1 tablespoon of sage
• 1 tablespoon of parsley
• 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon of grated nutmeg
• 6 feet of sausage skins (28 mm diameter)

07/10/2014 Sausages!

Playdoh Aliens

For a session that started so badly I think it ended up being one of my favourites. Our initial problem was that the village hall had been double booked so we were offered the Pavilion by the local recreation ground instead. I'm grateful that everybody managed to find us.

Playing catch up: 09/09/2014, 23/09/2014

Life is hectic at the moment offering me little time on the computer so here is a quick round up of what we have been doing over the last couple of weeks.

09/09/2014 Thread painting and flat breads

Marble and thread painting

This activity was organised by a young lady working towards her Arts Award. There were two techniques to try:

New dates for a new term

Fiddleford Manor, copyright English Heritage

We had a lovely 'Not back to school' picnic* at Fiddleford Manor. It was a calm, peaceful location that we were lucky enough to have all to ourselves. But now autumn term is definitely upon us and it is time to make plans.

Recipe: Tarte aux pommes

Pastry, sweet short crust:

15/07/2014 Butterflies and rockets

Armed with our print outs courtesy of the big butterfly count  we explored the long grass area in the local churchyard and managed to identify a White butterfly, a Ringlet, a Speckled Wood and a Red Admiral before we scared them all away. There were also a number of smaller brown butterflies darting around that refused to settle so we couldn't identify which they were.

08/07/2014: Bouncing with mischief

Counting

We seem to have a lot of boys with us at the moment and yesterday it felt as if they had all been touched with the joy of summer. Watching them reminded me of my early years of home educating with my eldest boy (now 12) when I didn't feel the need to do any formal work throughout the warmer months.

Recipe: Pea Soup

Pea soup

A simple but quick and tasty recipe that was prepared by the older children during our meeting. As with most soup recipes quantities of ingredients do not need to be exact, just chuck in what you've got and hopefully it should taste good.

24/06/2014: What a scorcher!

Working towards an arts award

I think that most of us will agree that recently the temperature has been fairly high, perhaps uncomfortably high for some. Today was no exception and there was a definite feeling of lethargy at our group.

17/06/2014: Coke and Mentos

Our last session was a hot one. After half an hour of creating Hero Factory characters we were all ready to head off to the park to have a play with diet coke and mentos. What were the results of our experimentation? We found out that it was a great way to have a lot of fun!

10/06/2014 The inspirational sun

Straight into the confession: I took no photos at the group. I hang my head in shame. Unfortunately (luckily?) some people managed to leave their art behind giving me the opportunity to take photos at home, there's a silver lining in every cloud.

03/06/2014: West Bay

We had a lovely day trip to West Bay on Tuesday. Despite initial concerns that I might be Nellie-no-mates I'm pleased to say that several families joined us at the park before we all moved on to the beach. The weather prediction hadn't been great but the grey clouds swiftly blew over to give us 3 glorious hours of sunshine. The children played well together and the adults chatted away to such an extent that I didn't realise that I caught the sun until we were home. I'm now very, very pink and not feeling quite so happy about gentle sea breezes that keep you deceptively cool, grrr. 

And next time...
10th June 2014: Back to normal at the village hall. We have suncatchers to decorate and sunsets to paint plus all the usual games and fun. I'm looking forward to it!

20/05/2014: Paint, soap and beads

Rainbow

Another great session. Lots of colourful pictures, the children are clearly a talented bunch!

06/05/2014 Junk and Journals

Junk modelling - making a crocodile!

Our focus this week was to be crafts for adults with a bit of junk modelling on the side. This wasn't entirely successful; note for the future - junk modelling needs a direction or a prize! One lad happily whiled away an hour creating a crocodile but otherwise the table of mess was generally ignored.

29/04/2014 We found the park

Two not so young children enjoying the dressing up :-)

Our first helter-skelter session is now behind us and, I'm pleased to say, it went well. As the weather was not looking good we had brought dressing up, sports equipment and some toys for little people  to play with whilst in the hall. Knowing my children's capacity for turning anything into a weapon I chose not to take our hockey sticks little realising that badminton rackets apparently also make good swords!

22/04/2014 Busy, busy!

Dream catcher

We had so much going on that I was exhausted by the end of this session! The older girls made some fabulous dream catchers.

01/04/2014 Eggs galore!

Today we had the hama beads out for decorating Easter cards. They had a special surprise in them, a small packet of poppy seeds for scattering!

18/03/2014: WaterAid

A volunteer from WaterAid joined us yesterday to talk about the work that the charity undertakes throughout 26 different countries. It was a fascinating session and quite eye opening to some of us. I would like to write a whole essay on it but will stop myself and simply state that it is incredible to realise just how much difference having a local safe source of water can make to so many different aspects of peoples lives.

04/03/2013 Kick back and relax

Typewriter was a surprise hit

After a manic start to my day our home ed session this week was surprisingly calm and relaxing. Crafts were brought out but, overall, were ignored in favour of play and chat. There were some great paintings created, amazing domino runs set up and lots of tapping away on the typewriter.

11/02/2014: Valentines

Butterfly craft

Thank you everybody who came today. It was a fabulous session, slow to get going but great once everybody made it. I did think that the pouring rain was going to be a downer but it swiftly passed leaving us with the unexpected bonus of a sunny day.

28/01/2014: Chinese New Year

Chinese style painting

The sun was shining brightly this morning as we started our latest meeting in Okeford Fitzpaine. We were a little light on the toy front but had lots of other activities to enjoy.

14/01/2014 New beginnings

New hall © E Weeks

This was our first time in our new hall. It was slightly intimidating walking into that large space not really sure where to put everything. But we quickly settled in, got the toys out and muddled our way through the session.

Tuesday 14th January: Resource Share

Do you have a home education book that you love? A preferred brand for workbooks? Or even an all in one curriculum? If so please bring them to our next meeting on Tuesday 14th January 2014 so that we can all have a browse over the many resources that are available to home educators. Whether it's learn to read booklets or a set of cuisenaire rods we would love to see them.

One issue with home education can be sourcing products or simply not knowing where to start when there are so many options available. Purchasing items on line can sometimes make for expensive mistakes. This is an opportunity to share our favourite, or perhaps worst, items.

With a new hall and lots of new ideas being generated for the next term I am expecting the our first meeting to be a little disorganised but hopefully we'll have fun with the chaos.

The session starts from 10am, I hope to see you there!

New Year, New Hall

Our new location, Okeford Fitzpaine village hall.

I hope that you have had lots of fun throughout the festive season. Now that we're in the new year I'm finding that I'm itching get on with lots of new projects.