Time has really flown

Where has the time flown to.

My last post was in January, and here I am at the end of July, bordering on August.

Well I think partly it has to do with being busy with renovating my house, and having a house full of builders. Part of it has been time away from the PC, initially due to the PC not working, but then out of choice. I have to admit has been great, I found I was getting consumed by checking emails, checking blogs, replying to these and so on.

I hope now I've ventured back into cyber land, I can do so with refreshed eyes.

So what's been happening with the kids.

Both Tom and Annie have taken their SATs, both have done well, Tom getting level 4 and 2 level 5's in Science and reading.

This from the boy who had 5 years of HE, and didn't follow the National Curriculum particularly closely, so in effect had to play catch up.

From September , he will be in Year 7, and we are going to flexi-school at our nearby high school.

The subjects, he will be taking in school are D&T, Art and Spanish. Thankfully the lessons times will slot in well with my 'time table' at home...which has still to be tweaked.

So that leaves me with English, Maths, Science, Geography and History as my main subjects at home. I will post later on what I am using and how it's going.

Annie and Ruth will remain in school, Annie will be in Year 3 and Ruth is at Nursery in the mornings, which gives me the time I need to spend with Tom.

It will be interesting to see how this academic year pans out.

Hoping to keep on top of this blog more now.

Very pleased

I think I've about sussed the basics now for Tom, this September, ( I may start him in July...shh don't tell him)
He will be in yr7, so age appropriate between 10-12

I've already posted about getting Maths and English sorted. Click on highlighted links to see what I've put.

Now for Science and History

I've just sorted Science



I wanted something that backed up God as Creator, rather than pushing evolution as fact, when it is only a theory. I also didn't want anything preachy! Something that was going to have good grounding for future exams, possibly IGCSE or GCSE.

I came across various curriculum's mainly US based, and finally plumped for Apologia Science you can find sample chapters there.

I bought mine from Conquest Books, they posted the same day as I ordered and I received the books the next day, excellent service!

Apologia is pricey, but I worked out the cost over the year, then divided it between 3 kids , and it seems reasonable then. Although we haven't started it I looked thoroughly through it, just some tiny points that I may adapt or leave out, but that's to do with personal preference nothing more.

It is very good, and covers quite a lot, I'm very pleased with it, I just hope it reaches my expectations, when Tom starts this.

I will use along side where appropriate with Galore Parks, So You really Want To Learn Science Bk 1 found here
It seems quite tame in comparison with Apologia, but it is in it's own right a very good book for yr7 ish Key stage 3, and one of the best I've seen from the UK.

Now for History, I wanted something to follow chronologically with World history and British history.

For World History I'm going to use the Story of The World books.
Book1,
Book2,
Book3,
Book4

There are 4 years worth of books there, I shall start with Book 1, when appropriate I shall use Galore Park History books I have all the junior and the two SYRWTL books here is junior book3
The Galore park books will be my spine for British History along with Our Island Story
With both World History and British History I shall use Encyclopedias to help with research along with any biographies and fiction books along the way.

Just got to get Geography sorted(nearly there with that) plus the very hard job of scheduling lessons plans , making workable schedules...that is what's going to take the time.

Thank you to Anthony.

Some of you will notice I have changed my profile picture. I wanted something that depicted what my children were all about. Initially I was looking at old paintings, then I came across this picture on Anthony's blog. I fell in love with it straight way,because for me, it just so looks like my 3 children!

I emailed Anthony for his permission to use his picture and as you see, he kindly gave his permission :-)

Thank you Anthony.

They are Anthony's kids in the picture, you can see what they painted here just scroll down to Nov 7th

Anthony has done some wonderful pictures, make sure you check his blog out.

One of those moments

When the kids were quietly working either side of me on the sofa, Annie with her spellings, and Tom with his new fraction book, which thankfully has proved to be a hit.

I bought the fraction, decimal and percentage workbooks from *here*

Ruthie, played happily by herself playing shops. Then she curled up on my lap at the end, so we were altogether. It was a nice moment, it doesn't happen as often as I'd like it too, but it does prove they are capable of doing it together.

Annie had started off on her FLL book, lesson 8, she begs to do more, I find it strange as it is a repetative book, but she seems to love it and it's working so I shouldn't grumble.

While they are on 'school' holidays, I want Annie to master the spellings she has, and to be confident with her 2's, 10's and 5 times tables, plus adding on 10 from any point from a number square.

With Tom I think I may get him started on Writing Strands 3 continue with the fractions book and do some Galore Park SYRWTL 1

We will lots of meets with friends, family and have sleepovers. The next 2 weeks will fly by.

I shall not post again until the new year now.

Full of cold & Plans

The whole family has gone down with very bad colds, the ones that go onto your chest and leave you with horrible coughs.
I'm lying on my bed surrounded by scrunched up tissues, ruminating about what I wanted to do with the kids during the holidays.

Since their going back to school last spring, the time has just flown by. I have pockets of time that I feel we did some 'HE' together.

With Annie it has been using First language lessons

That has been a success it's hard though as I feel she has to keep up with her school work, but for the time she is happy doing FLL along side school.

Tom as has been noted in previous posts, has both Maths and English sorted.

English mainly from posts from the SHE forum, which incidently has gone AWOL, if any members from there, pass by this blog , then do pop on and say hello.

I'm musing now what to sort out for the rest of the subjects for him. Science is the next on my list.

I have Galore Park Science SYRWTL 1


I like what Ive read so far, but I am wondering what else to supplement it with, perhaps Apologia General Science which is supposed to real thorough science. I'm not quite sure on that yet, as it is rather pricey!

That leaves, History, Geography, ICT, Art and Music, and maybe a language.

Maths now sussed - well just about.

English seems to be sorted, now it's the turn of Maths for Tom.


So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 1: A Textbook for Key Stage 2 and Common Entrance (So You Really Want to Learn)along with the answer book that goes with it So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 1: Answer Book (So You Really Want to Learn)

Next to help back up Galore Park is ConquerMaths I have the 2 discs, but many go online and pay monthly, I've been impressed with what I've seen so far, and I know quite a few from the HE community have used Conquer maths

then I'm hoping to use MEP which is from the University of Plymouth, it's free although you can buy the practise books for £3.00 which I'll think I'll probably do.

There sorted!

Some good links

I've posted below some good links from my old blog, I've posted them seperately as it helps if someone is looking on google search engine. I will be posting more over the next few days, hopefully there will be something that may be useful to someone.