February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

Today is another week of the family learning at the school.  We were talking about stories and making them up and how you can come up with a story just from looking at 1 picture or from 1 line that is already written down.

We mad jigsaw pieces about ourselves to go on a display board on the wall, similar to this -

I forgot to take a picture of it but will do next week.  My puzzle piece I covered it in purple tissue paper, I added my name down the side in black letters, a big pink pig in the middle as I collect pigs and have liked them since I was a toddler, a gold ring with a silver glitter diamond, a rose and some stars.  I was going to put a green cross for first aid on it but you couldn't really tell what the cross was for.

When the children came to join us for their part they all headed for the biscuits staright away, I do wonder if this is why they are coming along to it! lol!  Once I had managed to collect my 2 boys from the snacks I explained to them what they were going to be doing.  There was 2 parts to their work - the first was to make a simple book from a piece of A4 paper by folding it and then cutting and re folding it (see the book link above to pinterest).  The second part was to colour or stick things onto a paper person that will be the character in their mini book.

Blake decided that his person was going to be a zoo keeper called  Blake and he gave him zebra print trousers, a giraffe print top and red hair (see below).  And Kenzie made a boy with silver spiley hair and named him spike (see below).  They were then laminated, had a hole put on the top and a piece of string threaded through and were selotaped to the middle of the book so that the character can visit every page in their mini books.  They have got to finish them next week.

 

The pics of the jigsaw shapes we made.

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

Back at the end of January (almost a month ago now) I posted about making a spell book.  Since posting that I have managed to glue all the pages together so that they are thicker and there's now only just over 100 instead of the original 200+.

Today I have started to make the fauz leather cover, the idea was combined from this thread on pinterest and an article I found on the Halloween Forum Thread about handmade spell books.

1 and 2





3 and 4

5 and 6

1. Kitchen towel which is 2ply was seperated and gave the bumpy effect.
2. I covered the inside of the cover with pva glue and then placed the kitchen towel on to it.
3. I then covered the outside cover the same way
4. was a plastic lid I placed inside so it didnt stick together when I turned it over to do the back.
5. The front and back covers of the book all covered.
6. A couple of hours after I did it, its starting to dry with lots of texture.

I now need to decide if I am going to add a 2nd layer of the kitchen towel to it, so that the red of the book is definately gone b4 painting, and possibly loose the texture or leave it with just one and the texture I have.  I'm leaning towards leaving it as I like the way it looks.

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

Back last August we got our youngest son a cheap tablet as his main present hadn't turned up, he loves it and plays on it most days and will tell anyone that asks (or listens) that he has an "i-pad".  He has a variety of games on it - some that he asked for and others that we thought he would like.  Hill Climb is one we thought he would like.

Upon reading the blurby bit on google play store it says QUOTE "Meet Newton Bill, the young aspiring uphill racer. He is about to embark on a journey that takes him to where no ride has ever been before. With little respect to the laws of physics, Newton Bill will not rest until he has conquered the highest hills up on the moon!  Face the challenges of unique hill climbing environments with many different cars. Gain bonuses from daring tricks and collect coins to upgrade your car and reach even higher distances. Watch out though - Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!".  Sounds ok and the sort of thing a 5year old would enjoy playing.  And I was correct, he loves it.

It's a challenge for him to get to the next meter distance and collect as many coins as he can and he can upgrade the different vehicles and buy different scenes to try and complete.  A lovely game for him to play.  That was until the other day when he's sat by me playing it and declares "i've just broke his neck it went with a crack, did you hear it Mummy?"  ME - "errr no I didn't."  SON "i'll do it again listen!".  So he repeats the level and crashes the vehicle on purpose and yes there is a lovely crack as his head flops back and forth and the level ends.  NOTE HERE the line from above - "Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!"   It doesn't say that you can hear it break, nice!!!

Well I downloaded the game to my laptop to see if it was every level or just a one off and it happens every time you crash the vehicle.  Plus if you have a bus full of people theirs all do the same!

Despite this lovely breaking of peoples necks complete with sound, the game is actually very adictive and fun.  As I put above you can get different vehicles and levels to race.  You need to collect coins from the levels in order to upgrade the vehicles and buy new levels.  My personal favourite is the quad bike in the cave and I have got a long distance with this combination.  My son loves santa's sleigh on any level.  The graphics are pretty cool but basic and change as you move along.  Each level is the same thing to get as far as you can without dying or running out of fuel (you pick this up along the way).  You can quite easily waste a good few hours playing this game once you get over the shock of the broken necks.

As long as your not bothered about the gruesome cracking and breaking of necks its a great game and suitable for all ages.  Me and my son were "racing" each other to see who could get the furthest, he was on his tablet and me on my laptop.  We also had played to see who could get the most money and buy a new level.   I would reccommend this game to my friends with children.

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

Today I have finished reading Keri Arthur's Circle Trilogy of books, Circle of Fire, Circle of Death and Circle of Desire.  These are being classed towards the 2015 reading challenge I posted about back in January.

Although the books are classed as a trilogy they are not all part of the same story which is what I thought they would be and why I was eager to read them all one after the other.  They do have links to same magic circle but they do not have the same people in.

I enjoyed reading the three books as they are magic/paranormal based.  But they didn't seem very different to other books of this genre, and nothing that really stands out.  They are well written though and interesting.

February 21st 2015 - Bowling

February 21st 2015 - Bowling

Today is Blake's girlfriend Rosie's 6th birthday.  She wanted to go bowling, so her Mum agreed.  We had said about going bowling during half term and had invited her to come as well, so we all decided that we would go today for her birthday rather than twice.

The bowling alley is is the "big town" 13miles away, so we got go in the car to get there.  I'm sure the boys and Rosie will all have fun.  I will update with scores later after we have been.

OMG it went from bad to worse, to start with the car was dead, we got the neighbour to try and jump start it but it wasn't have any of it.  So hubby had to bring battery in to try and charge it and the neighbour ran me and the kids to the bowling alley.  We got there 2mins after our scheduled time, but the previous people were not quite finished anyway.  We payed for 1 game each.

The scores were really close between the kids and all around the 50mark.  They decided that they wanted a 2nd game, so we had to move to another lane.  And this lane was a heap of junk, after every 3rd or 4th throw of the ball the pins wouldn't re-set, or the machine dropped them and they stayed there in a heap.  So we had to keep getting the staff to re-set the lane, which they did by throwing another ball down it and then re-setting the computer to remove the score it had given that person.  Due to this the kids got very bored with waiting and started to mess about and fight, climb on things and over chairs etc.

The scores of the 2nd game were higher and lil man got 74 and 2spares he was so happy.  But the machine didn't record 1 of them as it was a time it re-set again.  The other 2 who are older got 57 and 58 but they didn't use the frame.  Rosie won the first game out of the children and Blake won the 2nd game out of the chilren.

February 20th 2015 - Growing potatoes

February 20th 2015 - Growing Potatoes

Last week my lil man (5) asked if we could grow our own potatoes.  He was only really little when I did this with the older 2.  I had planned to use an old dustbin that was in the garden, but sadly it got crushed when the temporary fence fell down on it.  So I ordered a potatoe grow bag off ebay for £2.99.

It arrived yesterday and me and lil man headed to town to get some compost so we could plant the potatoes today.  Well we were in £1 shop and there were loads of kids near the toys and it was like this "mum can I have this toy" and "mum I want this" etc.  As we walked past them all my lil man turned round and said to me "mummy I don't want any toys like those children, all I want is some compost to plant my potatoes in".  Bless him, so sweet.

We got the compost and a bit further on the shelf is the same potatoe grow bags as I had bought off ebay for £2.99.  GGggggggrrrrr!!!!  Oh well, never mind.  £1 shop didn't have anything like them last week.

Today we poured 1 bag of compost into the bottom of the bag, pushed the potatoes into it and then covered them with the other bag of compost.  The grow bag is only half full so we are going to get some more when we go to town at the weekend to top it up.  Lil man then proceeded to water them with rain water from his bucket.  I found this article on pinterest about growing potatoes in a bag.

He asked whilst we were doing the potatoes if we can plant some carrots and other things as well. Me and hubby agreed and have said we will make him a raised planter at the side of the garden over the next few weeks and get some seeds and stuff for him to plant.  We are also getting a blueberry plant and raspberry plant to go in pots on the decking (that isn'nt even built yet! lol).

The older 2 are not really interested in anything outdoors and moan if asked to help with the garden, but i'm sure they will be quite happy to eat the fruit and veg that we grow!

February 19th 2015 - Spong cakes

February 19th 2015 - Sponge cakes

My little man loves cooking and baking, to the extent for the past 2 and bit years he has said he wants to be a chef and has already made a business plan - he's the chef, hubby is serving drinks, his brothers are waiters and cleaners and I can sit around in apretty dress and drink wine. lol!

Anyway, he asked if we could make some cakes, which I agreed, he then said like J (his brother) made at school with no packet mix.  Errrrrrr I can't make cakes without a packet mix, they don't rise etc.  But I agreed.  Hubby bought the ingredients on tuesday when he did the shopping and today is the 1st day we have had a chance to make them.

The receipe my eldest used at school was 100g SR flour, 100g caster sugar, 100g margerine and 2 eggs, and it made 12, I also found teh same receipe on pinterest.   We doubled it all up so we could make 24 cakes and ended up with 30, however I forgot teh last 6 were in the oven and they are slightly burnt on top.

But i'm impressed they did work and they did rise (slightly).  (see pics below).  We still have to ice them, of which 12 are having thomas tank rice paper on (can't remember how we ended up with spare rice papers from a pack).