more maths and microbial mayhem

Well...maybe not mayhem,but it is a nifty bit of alliteration :) We are finishing up geometry,having covered area,perimeter,shape and space and now all we have left are angles.This probably wont get completed until after half term,which is rapidly approaching.In science,we are finishing off microbes and disease,and Peanut is reading a new biology textbook for fun.She also read 'Out of the Ashes' and rated it very good,if depressing :)We've been a bit quiet on the crafty front of late,hopefully we can get creative in the holidays!

dodgy connections and the joys of geometry

Well,just as I was starting to congratulate myself on actually keeping regular updates,the bloody power dies for 5 hours and throws my computer into a state of confusion! Of course,said power cut had to occur the only time I had plugged the darn thing in all day,and had only just turned it on in the furtive hope of watching Leon while Peanut romped through another Scrubs box set.Cue sudden darkness and shouts of "My xbox has died! Ring of death...nooo!" For anyone out there who does not own an xbox,and is currently thinking I have let Peanut watch highly unsuitable japanese horror movies or dodgy remakes,rest assured. The Ring and Ring of death are two entirely different things! It means that the dreaded red circle flashed up before the console turned itself off. As the rest of the house,and indeed the rest of the street was without power,Peanut was quickly reassured,and picked up a book instead. I,foiled again,settled down to watch Bones on my iPod instead,cursing the fact that if Id only splashed out that extra 50 quid then I could have been watching Leon on my iPod,but no,alas,I was cheap and went for the 8gb instead of the 16gb. *curses own false economy*. Anyhow,on the subject of education,finished last week with tangrams,microbes and bunnies, and started this week with further geometry,spread of disease and more bunnies! Thats planes and cubes,transmission of disease and watership down to you! I actually tried a new technique yesterday. Peanut,fairly confident now in geometry,was given her textbooks,maths is fun website pages and a selection of plastic cubes and told she was entirely free to make up her own lesson for the session,providing she could teach it to me afterwards. She jumped at the chance,and I learnt some very interesting things about the composition of prisms and cubes and numerous other things,thank you very much. I wasnt sure how well it would work. They say on most of the homeschooling websites that you start out all textbooks and teaching,and gradually relax into 'here are the resources,knock yourself out,but Id like to see some sign of progress by lessons end'.We are obviously entering that stage now,and you know what,I like it! It sets Peanut up nicely for any future college endevours,and gets her used to the idea of managing her own study time. She still has parameters within which to work,but she can learn how she chooses.I still see results,and Im in the background supervising in case she needs anything-although she demonstrated yesterday that my presence is really not required beyond preparing lunch and the occasional technical fix.This is great for me-no more lesson planning beyond the wallchart that shows what we still need to cover and when,but the minutae of individual lesson planning may now be reduced...I like. She actually planned herself a darn good lesson to,and I have to admit,it was probably better than the one I had...outclassed by a 12 year old again-and Im so proud. Dont get me wrong,I am under no illusions.Im sure there are other subjects and topics when I will be sitting teaching when she is not so confident.Right now though? Im all for self teaching,cos at the end of the day,you cant spoonfeed kids forever,and to think you can is kind of an insult to their intelligence. I guess thats why so many of us feel lost when we leave school,we are so used to someone teaching us how to do every last thing,that we forget how to do things ourselves.Eh,what do I know? Its a thought...

bugs and bunnies

The last two days have been filled with geometry,and fiendishly addictive geometric puzzles from National Geographic magazine.I can now rotate a shape 360 degrees,flip it and fit it into a space you would swear it didnt fit into in my head and before breakfast...Peanut,unsurprisingly,is totally putting me to shame,and is completing the hardest ones while Im still on intermediate,but there you go. We have also started reading Watership Down and have moved on is science to Health and Disease. The latter involved making foam diagrams of fungi,viruses and the like.The former involves Peanut dissappearing with said book for hours on end. Today will involve more geometry,a further look at bacteria and the like,and probably some Fimo of some sort.

?? missing days and friday fun

Well,yesterdays post seems to have vanished into the ether...which is annoying,as Id actually got a picture to display-albeit hopelessly huge,but still.Anyway,since I do not want to type the whole thing again the edited version is-Area and Volume and several other things...including sitting in a courtroom waiting to swear that I recognise my husbands signature and after all the time and paperwork...dear gods,the paperwork...I do in fact want to get divorced and am not just looking for a fun day out wasting the courts time.Yeah.
Today I made the exciting/disturbing discovery that we are nearly all the way through the ks3 maths syllabus...I am not kidding.We have one more module to do and we are done! Not to mention,we are 3/4 of the way through the english curriculum already,and over half way through the science!! (we would be further on in science,but we are currently looking at the plant module in much more detail) Even if we slow right down and only cover half the material we are currently covering per lesson,we will still be finished by midway through year 8! Now I understand why so many home ed kids take GCSEs early..theres not much else to do! It makes me wonder exactly what they do in schools if it takes them until the end of year 8 to get through this lot...either way,Im just glad we have time to explore things in more depth,continue to pursue side projects and prep for the GCSE years a little early. It means Peanut will have less pressure going into GCSES,if we start early we can spread them out rather than trying to cram too many subjects in to a very short space of time!
Anyhow,today was spent (as is normal Friday practice) on Manga high,mainly because I never like to start a new topic on a friday when it is no doubt going to be forgotten over the weekend,and also by Friday the Peanut brain is very easily distracted.We finished up pH as well today,and had a fairly chilled afternoon reading. Peanut has now fallen in love with Terry Pratchett *(bwahhaha,knew Id get her eventually!) and we are reading Wee Free Men and Witches Abroad aloud to each other. A good end to the week.

court and counting

Something of a short day yesterday,as I had to go and sit in a courtroom and swear that yes,I recognised my husbands signature and yes, I did want a divorce-just in case I had made a mistake somehow when I filled in 20 sheets of paper all declaring I wanted to divorce the man! Anyhoo,I digress. Maths was Volume...thank you jediteacher2007 once again-I really should send that guy a fruit basket or something...and then Cai read the rest of horrible history's Measly Middle Ages before going to her Dads house. Not a scholastic high point yesterday,but still got a few hours of the official stuff in.Also,in further education related news,we finally got our reply from the LEA saying we are all good to go for the next six months before we have to check in again. It would be a year,but because the peanut has health problems with her guts,they need to check up on us every six months ?! Not entirely sure how that works,but fair enough...anyway...more from Peanut,Bean and Bandit later,when I shall attempt to get the hang of photobucket...(again)

ookay...testing...and tinctures

Well,Im trying photobucket...could be interesting... Todays schooling went roughly as follows:
Firstly,the dreaded maths...today: area and perimeter. Thanks are due once again to the incredible jediteacher,without whom I would have considerably more grey hair,and peanut would have a lot harder time wrapping her brain around these things. Sir,we salute you!
Having survived this form of torture (her words not mine) we detoured into town for bugsys and bath bombs from boots and lush respectively. For those of you who have not encountered a 'bugsy' and are thinking of bunny,allow me to enlighten you. The bugsy is the greatest sandwich in the world ever. (once again,not my words...I dont make the news,just report it!) It consists of grated carrot,hummous,rocket and alfalfa sprouts on wholemeal bread. It it served at its best with a chocolate brownie for desert,washed down with coppella apple juice. I would reccommend trying one,but not anywhere you will be spotted dropping half a bunny hutch of carrots down your front and into your lap. This is not food to be eaten in front of anyone you may be trying to impress!
Anyhooo,that enjoyable little detour aside,and the purchase of 3 lush robot bath bombs, (please,dont ask...just let me assure you that our forray into home chemistry does NOT involve explosives or any kind of illegal device) we headed home via the oxfam bookshop,where we pick up an interesting textbook on herbalism which Peanut pounced on and dragged upstairs to her lair the second we got in the door. After failure to remove her from said new book,I decide to play sneaky,and tell her to use it to find a tincture recipe. She does. Its in cups. Suddenly,its pencils and paper at the ready as we try to A) work out the conversion and B) scale down the recipe to more manageable quantities. All this,she manages. In the space of half an hour,we have both remembered and applied our conversion formulae,and dusted off the ratio we did last term. Im flabbergasted and happy that here,if nowhere else,is tangible proof that its actually going in...the stuff we study is being absorbed...and remembered!!! I need a moment here to collect my brain before we set out to make the tincture itself. Its fun,despite the fact that the brown bottles I carefully saved are not quite big enough,and the only substitute is a hastily sterilised Tiger beer bottle-dont tell the Boys,they dont need an excuse not to visit the bottle bank! Tincture making takes about an hour and a half. After that,we make several new entries in what we have begun calling Peanuts herbal volume. This afternoon was rounded off making flapjacks,and reading Terry Pratchett. An enjoyable,and productive day.Now,photographic evidence ( I hope!)

arty crafty kinda day

Well,yesterday consisted of an hour on manga high maths, an hour of learning how to make tinctures,and 4 hours designing and sewing adorable little stuffed cats and raccoons. Not exactly standard curriculum,but fun nonetheless. Peanuts sewing has improved so much,and she was confident enough this time to both draw and cut the pattern herself,chalk it on to fabric,and pin and sew with no help except for the sewing of the eyes-buttons are tricky and theres only so many times you can drop it and /or stab yourself before it starts to become annoying...she stuffed her toy,sewed him up,and voila! A small,mostly grey ,slightly lopsided (in an endearing way) little cat called Bean. Not to be left out,I made a raccoon,unoriginally named it Bandit,and decided he was Beans friend. Pictures will follow as soon as I can work out how to get the bloody things on here! The day concluded with homemade soup and an hour reading Terry Pratchett to each other. Reading aloud may seem a little babyish,but Peanut enjoys it,and I think it is useful as it gets her used to reading to an audience,and the fact its about giving each character a voice and giving the book life out loud not just in your head. Now,off to prepare today...

In the interests of education and sanity

...I will now be trying to update this blog on a more regular basis,with updates on exactly what we are studying and how.This will,I hope, have two benefits. Firstly,it will give anyone who may be interested in what the peanut is studying a fairly comprehensive overview.Secondly,it will provide me with a handy reference point for the dreaded review reports,because although I have been keeping notes,anyone who has read my handwriting will tell you that after 24 hours something magical happens to my handwriting and makes it completely illegible.This is a feat normally only found among doctors and other purveyors of prescriptions,or anyone in my family who attempts to write out a recipe. So,on with the update...
This week has seen the peanut announce that she would like to become a herbalist. I blame this on warrior cats (thank you Erin Hunter-like you dont already take the blame for her obsession with cats...)and possibly on a dog eared copy of Neals yard remedies I consult fairly regularly-hey,Im an old hippy,so sue me! Now,while my initial response was surprise,after thinking it through I believe we can actually work this to my advantage...the next segment of biology is fairly plant heavy,while the next segment of chemistry is concerned with melting and boiling points,and how a substances composition affects how it will react to such.
It is with this in mind that we have created the peanut handbook of plants.This is a thickly bound notebook which is divided into five sections. The first section is now full of basic plant biology; germination,fertilisation,photosynthesis,soil acidity and alkalinity and the basic composition of soil types.To be added is a section we are due to start in the coming weeks on genes and heredity involving the infamous pea plant experiment.
Section two is comprised of individual plant information.For example,where it grows,when it grows,what type of soil it prefers,when is a good time to harvest,which bits are useful,which active chemicals the plant contains and what their function is.The latter includes which parts of the body they work on,and how they work. There is also a line on contraindications, and a list of things it is possible to make with each,for example tincture,infusion etc. We have completed pages on nettles and dandelions so far,and harvested and experimented and tasted each.We are currently growing several others peanut is keen to test,and are scouting for many more while out walking. The kitchen is beginning to resemble a horticulturists nightmare,and its best not to drink ANYTHING which may be laying around in various test tubes etc.
Section three is something of a recipe book.How to make tinctures,infusions,balms,bath muslins etc as well as more traditional recipes such as nettle soup and the like.
Section four comprises diagrams of certain plants as well as anything interesting which peanut feels warrents a diagram of its own,and also experiment write ups.
Section five is a glossary of terms such as anti emetic,antitussive etc.
This is very much a work in progress,and will be added to over the course of this term.
In maths,we say goodbye to algebra,and are now looking at conversion and units. This,for the peanut has involved converting from imperial to metric,largely using old recipes and herbals. (see the tie in there?!)Next week we go to area and perimeter,and the units used. We are still very much following curriculum here,with bbc bitesize and cgp revision and a little help from maths is fun.There is also the genius that is jedi teacher on youtube,without whom algebra would have been far worse...whoever he is,I salute him,its a rare thing to find someone that talented at teaching a subject like maths,and I only wish he'd been my maths teacher...
As far as english goes,peanut is still relentlessly ploughing her way through every book in sight,often before it even gets home from the bookstore. Thank gods I get waterstones discount-although for how much longer I dont know...She is also reading several herbalism texts of varying age and getting a pretty good grounding in terms specific to medicine at the mo! She is currently reading vast chunks of world history,and the measly middle ages,which brings me on to...
History! We are currently on the middle ages.Peanut is particularly fascinated with plague and medieval medicine...charming Im sure,take two leeches and call me in the morning please kinda thing...We are hoping to try a genuine middle ages recipe for rose pudding next week...hey,the kitchen cant get any worse...
Odds and sods,otherwise strictly known as art,p.e. and design tech...there has been an invasion of Fimo. If you can think of it,it can be constructed out of the stuff,and if you hold still long enough,you can be covered in it too. There are a few sewing projects in the offing,and we are getting plenty of exercise walking down by the river searching for various herbs etc. Still no foreign language as such,but we are picking up a fair bit of latin one way and another...
Well,that was this week. Its been fairly green in many senses,and I can see this enthusiasm lasting until the end of this term. I am trying to sneak in as many different subjects as possible under the banner or herbalism,and its proving surprisingly easy to do so. I am also surprisingly enjoying myself,so we are two happy hippy herbalist homeschoolers signing off for the week!
(incidentally,this counts as alliteration. Please,do not ask peanut about alliteration,onomatopea,assonance etc. It is a current obsession,and you would not believe how many innocuous sentences contain examples of such...its driving me crazy,but hey,at least its education...)