Day 81 - Composing & Caterpillars.

 Paul enjoyed his special weekend. We had a lovely meal at a restaurant to celebrate his birthday on Saturday and enjoyed the home made birthday cake at home afterwards. On Sunday Paul went for a long bike ride with Theo and they really enjoyed their time together. The afternoon was spent in the park where Paul and I played games with all the children. It was wonderful. 

Paul left early this morning for work. Once he had gone the boys and I had breakfast. Theo practiced his violin for three quarters of an hour whilst Tristan cuddled up to me and listened. Theo went on to practice his piano pieces. He stayed on the piano for an hour composing a theme tune for the Young Bond story 'Hurricane Gold' by Charlie Higson. He has written the first part and it sounds great.

Theo read his book for half an hour whilst Tristan and I got dressed. 

Tristan went down the stairs once he was ready. I expected to find him playing in the living room but I was surprised to find him sitting at the work table with a workbook and a selection of pencils. He told me that he was ready to do his work! I had not planned on using any of his workbooks today but he was so keen that I asked him to colour in a picture. 

Theo came downstairs when he was dressed. I directed him to his desk and to the task that I had left out for him as a warm up activity. He had to use the initials from his name to create a picture. He spent fifteen minutes on this original thinking task.

Tristan drew around his hand and spent a while cutting out his hand print. He then stuck it to a piece of coloured paper.

Theo worked through the last Maths exercise of chapter four in his text book. He has finished an entire exercise book for this subject since beginning home schooling in June. He exclaimed that it would have taken a whole year to complete an exercise book at school. He really enjoyed the end of chapter magic squares activity.

Tristan drew a picture about his weekend in his diary. He drew the birthday cake and a balloon.

We walked up to the library after our Maths session. We returned our books and then had a look around the museum. Theo wanted to look at the old coins again and he enjoyed showing them to his brother. We didn't spend too long in the library as we are meeting some fellow home educating families there later his week.

We had lunch back at home and then went to the park for an outdoor play. I invented a few games for them to play to ensure that they got plenty of exercise. The games all involved lots of running, jumping and balancing. We planned to spend an hour in the park but our time was cut short when seven foul mouthed youths descended on us. It is rare that anyone visits the park who is unknown to us but we certainly did not know these boys. They were only around thirteen years of age but their behaviour was terrible. It made me so thankful that my boys will not have their education disrupted by children like that. 

At home Theo continued with his dinosaur project. He spent an hour and a half researching and writing up his findings in his booklet. 

Tristan and I read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. 

Tristan went on to model a caterpillar from clay. He really concentrated on this task paying special attention to the eyes. He sat and chatted to his creation for a while before pretending to have a sleep together.

I cut out various fruits and then asked Tristan to stick the correct number of fruits next to the number. He used the reading book to help find out how many of each fruit the caterpillar eats. 

Both boys watched a clip on 'YouTube' about the life cycle of a butterfly. They both enjoyed watching the caterpillar construct the cocoon. Tristan was very curious about the process and asked many questions. 

I asked Tristan to collect together some of his pretend fruit and then I gave him a green pillowcase and an old piece of voile. I helped him climb into the pillowcase so that he could crawl around being a caterpillar. He loved it! He pretended to eat the food and with a little help from his big brother he made his own cocoon. 

Theo and I had a French lesson whilst Tristan continued to roll around pretending to eat things. We read through a page of the French adventure book and then Theo drew a picture in his book showing two creatures having a conversation in French. It was very good. 

Once he had finished work Theo joined his brother upstairs. Theo found the matching duvet cover to his brothers pillow case and they pretended to be caterpillars together. There was lots of laughter.

After dinner we went to the park where they played with their friends. It is idillic in the park at the moment. There are many lovely children who all play happily together every night. I think that we will all look back on this period of our lives with great affection.

Prudence Clarke

02.09.2013