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.

10/12/2013 Christmas fun

Icing biscuits

The favourite activity today was clearly biscuit decorating, the table was packed with children anxious to decorate a biscuit before they were all gone.

Guardian News Article: Children taught at home learn more

Children taught at home significantly outperform their contemporaries who go to school, the first comparative study has found.

It discovered that home-educated children of working-class parents achieved considerably higher marks in tests than the children of professional, middle-class parents and that gender differences in exam results disappear among home-taught children.

Read the full article here .

26/11/2013 Advent and Picasso

Hama beads

We had a busy day today, four different crafts and lots of free play. A few of the children took advantage of the Hama beads to have some quiet, focused time.

12/11/2013: Cress heads and peg weaving



Two activities today! Cress heads, made from Sawdust with cress seeds sprinkled in the bottom (or top depending on child). These need to be kept damp, I'm looking forward to seeing their hair sprouting over the next week or two.