Playing card maths

At 'snow school' today, the kids did a bit of maths using a deck of playing cards.

Here, Honor is calculating 5 0r 6 numbers from cards dealt out at random using number bonds and knowledge of multiples as strategies for quick mental addition.
So from these cards she picks out the two cards that make 10...

... then adds on the next biggest number to make 16 and finally adds 2 x 1 to make 18.
From these cards, she found 3 x 10 and then added 2x3 to make 36.

Henry is in year 1 at school and is learning his number bonds to 10.
Here, he is matching the correct numbers to 10. He needs to practise this a bit more, but I think he nearly has it.

The Last Post.

I've been terrible at blogging this month, haven't I?

The last two weeks have been a bit busy. Mum is in Australia visiting my brother and new baby leaving me to look after Dad. Hubby was away in Alaska but is back now. And this week I have been to A-Ha concerts and spas and stuff! Will do a separate post about that.

Today we went to Jack's funeral. It was an extremely moving service with a huge attendance of family, friends, neighbours and army cadets who provided the guard of honor and last post. The Johnny Cash (or Nine Inch Nails) song 'Hurt' was sung and played live by Adam who I don't know but assumed maybe Jack's friend from the band that they played in. But I'm not certain. It was an awesome performance, though. There were thought provoking tributes read out about this remarkable young man and the comical stories provided some laughter through all the tears. It seems he spread joy and happiness everywhere he went and made me think about how a person can influence so many in a short lifetime. As he was known to his friends as 'tractor Jack' for his tractor driving abilities, and for his sense of humour, he departed to the song 'Combine Harvester' by The Wurzels!

Half term.

Bit late with this post, but never mind.

Half term started early with an INSET day (staff training day). I love INSET days, especially when they are on days when everyone else is at school. It gives us the opportunity to go places when it is quiet, or even cheaper than during school holidays.

We began the day with pancakes for breakfast! Well, Hubby and I had been watching 'River Cottage' the night before and HFW was urging us to do it. Who are we to argue?

I had saved up a little money from some tutoring that I have been doing recently and so booked a horse riding lesson for Honor and Henry. They LOVED it! I was surprised how much they learned in just one lesson - so I booked another one for a few days later.

In the afternoon we visited The Canterbury Museum which incorporates the Rupert Bear Museum. Even though we had to pay (boo!) the kids spent a lot of time on the interactive activities before asking 'where's the gift shop?'! I've been teaching kids non-verbal reasoning for the past few weeks and got quite excited by some of the activities which were great for developing these skills. For example, there were Viking runes for code work and pattern matching with Roman tiles. My favourite exhibitions, though, were for Bagpuss and Rupert Bear. Lovely.

For an exhilarating end to the day, my Mum treated Honor and I to a trip to the ballet. We saw 'Swan Lake' at a tiny, old theatre in Margate. It was a really old theatre like the one in the film 'Mrs Henderson Presents'. And it was fabulous.

Later in the week we met up with my ol' friend Glenn. He is Hope's godfather and we used to teach together. Glenn made us a lovely lunch of marrow bolognaise (which was great - and made a very good finger food for the baby) and then we headed off to Brockhill Country Park for a nice walk. Well. It was a good job we had Glenn with us because it was not easy getting Hope's pushchair around it.

As we stopped for a long chat, catching up on all our news, the kids got busy - taking their shoes and socks off for a paddle in the stream. It was the end of October!

Hope's face says it all!
Eventually, we made it back to the cafe for a nice cup of tea and a kit-kat.

Then we took Glenn back home. Henry made him sit in the very back of our Zafira with him. These pics show him getting stuck trying to get out again!

I took some of the frozen marrow home with me and had some today with my lunch in a creamy chicken pasta dish. It was lovely. Thanks, Glenn. See you soon.

I'm still having trouble loading up pictures and with the internet in general, so haven't blogged much of late. I was going to blog tonight about what we have been up to over half term, but my phone (with the photos on) needs charging up. Plus, it all seems a bit trite in view of a terrible tragedy that happened over the weekend. The lovely young boy who lived next door died in a car crash yesterday. It takes my breath away. His family and friends are in our thoughts and prayers. God bless you, Jack. X

Book week

I think it must nearly be my blogaversary! It is book week again and it was about this time last year that I started my blog. The children went to school today dressed as... can you guess?

Nanny McPhee and Doctor Who. Yes, I suppose these characters are better known for film and tv, but these two fans have read the books. They both read/listen to Doctor Who stories. There are loads of them in the local library. And I recently found 'Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang' in paperback, also at the library which Honor loved. They haven't seen the film yet. Henry wanted a 'David Tennant' hairdo but it was better suited to a 'Matt Smith' coiffeur.

I've enjoyed looking back over this blog to see what we have done over this past year and how much the children have grown. So I think I shall continue it for a while longer.

Hope's progress

Hope is now eighteen months old and learning fast. She is feeding herself well (if you don't mind the mess), linking words to make sentences and is running around. It is challenging finding ways to keep children this young entertained.

Today we got out the tin of stockmar beeswax crayons (very nice, waldorf style crayons) and she enjoyed having a bit of a doodle.

She loves books, too and had me read these ones to her over and over again!

After that I took her to a nearby garden centre, Bybrook Barn at Ashford, where they had lots of entertaining things to see. A pet centre that sells chickens, a duck pond and the Christmas displays were fabulous. Full sized dioramas depicting scenes from traditional fairy stories such as Hansel and Gretal, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood with moving figures. Lovely.

Catch up.

I've been having a few problems lately with blogging. Difficulties loading pictures and the internet connection being temperamental and just not having time for it with everything else going on.

Today is Saturday. I usually give HM a maths lesson on a Saturday morning and we usually end up doing loads of housework and diy jobs, homework, that sort of thing. I fancied a bit of a break from all that this weekend and suggested that we have a day out, courtesy of our National Trust membership. The weather forecast looked good too. We chose Scotney Castle in Tunbridge Wells for a picnic and a walk.

There was a stately home to look around, an old ruin of a castle and beautiful gardens.

This is the ice house - used as a fridge in the old days.
There are guided tours available on the various fungi that can be seen at the moment.
I think we all enjoyed the day out.

These last two photos are from two weeks ago. Henry broke his wrist at school and he had to attend 2 hospital appointments in one day. The first one, in the morning, was at Canterbury hospital - his annual check-up for his lazy eye. He had to have drops put in which dilate his pupils. I had to have this done when I was young and I remember how uncomfortable it feels when you come outside. I offered him my sunglasses to wear.

The bra bank (above) caught my eye among the vast array of recycling bins available. Never seen a bra bank before!

Then we spent the afternoon in the fracture clinic of the William Harvey, Ashford. It was packed and poor Henry was getting a bit worn out by it all. The ladies in the X-Ray room were fantastic though. Some people are very good at getting children to cooperate with what needs to be done.

S'all for now.