manga universe,maths tests and music

Woops...time has been flying once again and I am being dragged behind its coattails screaming...and after that strange introduction,welcome to some more insights into the Peanuts schooling. Firstly,we are back to recapping fractions in the form of the 10 minute test book. Peanut pouts,sulks and grumbles her way through a test every day before being allowed to go do something more interesting.Grumble she may,but she can do the tests a hell of a lot faster than she could and it is a quick and relatively painless way to recap a subject. We went from 'But I cant remember ANYTHING and I hate fractions mumble mumble...' to 'Done it,checked it,got them all right,now can I PLEASE go?!' At which point she stomps off to read the Manga guide to the Universe .(ISBN:978-1-59327-267-8) We have several of the Manga guide to... series. There is one for molecular biology,one for physics,another with a guide to the planets and the universe and so on. They are basically science textbooks interspersed with manga style comic strips which explain the salient points and also tell a side story of their own. The Peanut,needless to say,is a HUGE fan and as such we are hoping to complete the set.Granted,it is pitched a few years above the Peanut in some cases,but its scary what has already been digested,and if she doesnt understand the rest yet,she probably will at some point. Its the educational equivalent of buying the clothes 2 sizes too big with the thought that 'you'll grow into it'. We are still somewhere in between the universe and Darwin in science,alternating as the Peanut brain prefers. In english,we are still looking at Of Mice and Men,but I have an eye on 'I know why the caged bird sings' by Maya Angelou so Im sure we will get a start on that as soon as I can track down a copy. We made flapjacks yesterday at the Peanuts request,and judging from the vast spew of craft books on the floor I believe a creative project of some kind may well be in the offing. In other news,it was so good to get outside again. Feels like we have been cooped up forever lately,high time to get some exercise! Cant wait for planting season to begin,and we can go back to our herbalism course full tilt. Beyond that, it has been fairly quiet round these parts. We are starting the process of buying a house and also looking into a return trip to Canada,two things which are both wonderful and terrifying depending on whether you are looking at the end result or the bank balance... O and I have also got stupidly addicted to the tv show 'Friday Night Lights'. As it centres around american high school football,I am blaming him entirely for this...Only two seasons are available here in the uk,of the 5 that were made.Really hoping that season 2 doesnt end on a cliffhanger-who am I kidding?! Of course it will-and that somehow we can find out how it all ends.

Icy Imbolc and planetary polystyrene...

Well,there went January... seems it vanished in a haze of Darwin and coolmaths,something the peanut has taken to gleefully. As far as inspection went,seems a bit of an anticlimax,didnt need a single gun and we are signed,certified for another year. We bludgeoned the inspector with Peanuts current reading list,blinded her with science games and proceeded to lecture her on the wonders of modern history. Once it was obvious she was not some shrinking,pale and trembling child but socially well adjusted and by all definitions,NOT abused,neglected or unloved and mentally understimulated we were pretty much there.In fact,the inspector was taking notes and exclaiming that she could use things we were doing with other children and it wasnt so much a lesson for us as a lesson by us...
Peanut is currently reading 'The voyage of the Beagle' and numerous astronomy texts. We are still looking at Darwin,and are planning on watching 'Creation' at some point,however a sudden urge of the Peanut brain to learn about astronomy and the solar system,brought about by a chance encounter with the CGP physics curriculum,means we are temporarily hurtling off on a tangent. This tangent has involved making and painting planets made of polystyrene balls and making then playing with top trumps planet cards. Incidentally,please,no more Uranus jokes. A house full of oversized children have run that joke reeeeaaallly thin...
We have started GCSE maths now,but are only doing proper lessons twice a week,slightly longer than the previous ones. The rest of our maths hours are taken up with math and logic puzzle websites.
Now,we have,for a good few years totally ignored religious studies,beyond satisfying basic Peanut curiosity. However,she will be 13 soon,the age when traditionally a wiccan would start on the pagan path. This is something that greatly interests the Peanut,however I fear I would be a poor teacher,focussed as I am more on the nitty gritty basics of life than on the fripperies of which colour candle calls up which goddess when the moon is seven times in the fifth house or whatever. Im not sure if that makes me a sloppy pagan or if I am travelling a path entirely different,but I do believe we all find God,who or whatever that is in our own way,and we need to follow our own paths in that regard. Still,I have given her books,explanations,the run of my box of pagan stuff and left her to her own devices. Like handing matches and a flamethrower to a pyromaniac? Possibly,but what doesnt burn us to a small blackened crisp gives us a healthy respect for fire...
At this precise moment in time,the Peanut is playing with top trump cards while attempting to fart the theme tune to neighbours. Top trumps indeed. The attention span is somewhat limited at the moment and I am vastly grateful that the serious schooling is over for the day.

new year...new neurosis...

Well,December has vanished in a haze of sleep deprivation and stress,xmas day was lovely, the rest was work, work, work for us all.Only Peanut gets away with having the luxury of time off at xmas.Fortunately,its all about her anyway :)
Anyhow, Maths restarts with a recap of the essentials of KS3.I want her to be confident enough with fractions,trigonometry and algebra that she can do them without thinking about them. Thats the plan anyway.English,we have moved on to 'White Fang' as Peanuts passion for all things canadian and wolf related-yes,the Due South obsession continues... Speaking of Canada,still looking forward to returning this year. :) Science wise,we are starting physics this term...batteries ahoy! History continues with modern history,apparently much more interesting to the Peanut brain.
Well,on to the main subject. Two days ago a jolly little letter from the LEA plops onto the mat.Fair enough,time to send them a few samples of the Peanuts work and report on what we were doing last year. No problem. Oh no,now it seems we have a new 'elective home education advisory teacher' who has invited herself round to our house 'to offer advice and support'. Strange,we have been at this 2 years now,and the last coordinator was always perfectly happy with Peanuts work. I was so pissed when I read that letter,in fact, Im STILL pretty pissed off,as I understand this woman has no legal right to just come around without my permission,and yet here she is,setting herself an appointment and just assuming that she can waltz in and start poking around our home! Obviously,because I home educate my child will be found,white faced and trembling,locked in a cupboard while I sit on my butt and drink neat homebrew with my feet up...
The irony is,if we had received a letter from this woman introducing herself and asking if it were possible to visit at some point then I would have been okay with that.Its more the fact that she made an appointment to come as if she has every right! Is this how its going to be now? If I refuse this visit,will she just come back with some kind of official paper,or recommend Peanut sent straight back to school because its 'obviously best' ?! From what I saw of our temps this year,they were nice kids,but half of them couldnt spell-my favourite example was one who spelt 'Oasis' as 'Owasis' -and it WASNT a typo...most of them couldnt figure out basic stuff like 7.50 + 7.50=15 without a calculator and yet they all reckon they got good exam results...somethings not adding up..literally...kind of makes me wonder. Of course,everyone second guesses you when you home ed,because if they all had to go to school and 'learn to deal with it' then you should have to send your child there too. Just parr for the course I guess. Still,start the New Year and bring it on...

flying time and rising tide...

Yikes! Has it really been that long since I updated?! Time is indeed flying. We are still chugging along,and I am pleased to say KS3 maths is NO MORE! We finished the other day,lock stock and protractor...I could be really mean and insist on starting GCSE right away and plunge right in by going back over fractions then adding on from there the extra gcse bits,but its nearly xmas,and the Peanut has done so well and worked so hard I am inclined to be a soft touch and proclaim from now until xmas maths games and puzzles every day instead. English is flying along nicely,Peanut romped through animal farm and then dived headlong into 'Of Mice and Men' which she finished in about 3 hours.This leads nicely into GCSE modern history,so we are going into some detail about the 20s and 30s both here and in America. Science wise,chemistry will be concluded by the end of term,when we move on to physics and then on to GCSE. I have faithfully promised that we WILL be doing Darwin again next term as well. We are also going back to experimenting with our teaching methods. Having read much of the brilliant Grits Day blog,I became interested in the idea of looking at what I would normally teach over the course of the week,and then giving Peanut a list of assignments. She has Monday to ask for any help she may need understanding them,and working through any problems,and the rest of the week she is left to organise her own time as she sees fit. My only proviso is that by the end of the week the work is done and then checked by me on Friday. It is actually proving surprisingly effective,Peanut gets to organise her own time and study schedule,without the need for me sitting 'breathing down her neck' and I have more time for such luxuries as mopping 8 bathtowels and 2 buckets full of water from our kitchen floor where we appear to have something of a mains leak which has so far baffled 2 sets of plumbers...yay...

half term and half measures

Well,there goes another half term,we are now officially in the downhill terror slide towards xmas...fortunately,I have got 90% of my presents and am feeling slightly smug (hey come on,its allowed once in a while!) that I will not be one of the vast hordes shopping in december...Ill be serving them instead-darn it,knew there was a flaw somewhere!
School continues,although since we have only one module left before leaving KS3 maths behind,I have left the easiest till last.We are currently doing Graphs and Charts. Chemistry continues with 'metals and non metals'-we will be on KS3 science for a while yet...english, To Kill a Mockingbird' and study guide went down so well we are going to give animal farm a shot.History,well,Im expecting a certain amount of discussion on communism after animal farm,so I guess we will be looking at Russia and possibly China. The project on 1930s america kind of ground to a halt,so we will be trying to pick that up a bit as well.This term is traditionally an easy one for both primary and secondary schools everywhere,exams are finished,there are more extra curricular activities to worry about,and trying to keep the attention of a room full of kids who can sense xmas is pointless. We are following suit with our own more relaxed curriculum at the mo,although of course,as critics will be quick to point out as homeschoolers,we hardly do anything worthwhile anyway...*coughfinishks3ayearearly*cough*
In other news,we learnt how to make carrot oil using the baby carrots we grew this year.Next stop is to find a balm for dermatitis,please,before I scratch myself to death! So far,beeswax and almond oil seems to be doing it better than anything else,but time will tell.
The Peanut is now obsessed with a new show-thank gods as 'Scrubs' was starting to get to me. This new one was a happy accident,they have started to show reruns of 'Due South' on tv,and I found it while channel surfing. I used to LOVE it as a kid,the first 2 seasons anyway...never did get into the new Ray K thing,and I was wallowing in nostalgia when Peanut came in and took an interest.She is now hooked. I managed to buy season 2 cheap,but season 1 is SIXTY bloody quid at work,and fifty online. Even with discount,ouch. So we are working through season 2,and I bought the pilot episode for a bargain. Finally,something we can both watch with no arguement,even the boys dont mind watching this-a temporary ceasefire in the Sky Remote War is always welcomed.Peanut is incidentally following the crowd by confessing a crush on the mountie.It says a lot about me that MY huge crush was always Ray Vecchio,and I have to admit,I can still see the attraction. What can I say? Ive always been a little unconventional...

just for me...

Probably right...

Well,on to probability,which involved me buying a pack of playing cards-gambling AND home ed?! Shameful! What would the LEA say?! and giving Peanut quizzes on what the likelihood of one or other card turning up.This involves cards everywhere and the predictable ensuing chaos that results from such. As far as chemistry goes we are still happily playing with the periodic table. Sometimes literally. We have cards representing each of the elements,and the Peanuts current favourite game is to see how long it takes to reassemble them into table order from scratch and then try to beat her time. She is getting good at recognising the symbols too. Next challenge will be to learn how they combine. On the english front,Peanut has been reading the GCSE study guide to 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. For fun. Seriously,I caught her reading this on the loo AFTER school. Safe to say she is enjoying english. She has read about 2 books this week,one warrior cats and one other. History,we are buying the history of art guide from Ellen Mc Henry and working through that.It covers geography,art,history and a splash of politics.Thats been about it this week,although Peanut now has full mastery over her hair,and is happy to go into HMV with me for 2 hours a day this week whilst waiting for my flatmate to finish work and take her home. She has sat in the break room and chatted confidently to everyone.Comments range from 'oh,shes a mini you' and 'cute!!!' to 'Woah,shes smart! She read the Independent,Sun and Times then started chatting about them with me!' and also 'she is so bright its scary,she was reading the book for to kill a mockingbird,and I looked over her shoulder and didnt understand some of it,and I DID it for GCSE!' I dont know if that says more about her or the quality of people HMV employs,but considering the latter comment came from a phd student,I was quietly happy. Everyone agrees however that she is friendly,well adjusted and articulate,not to mention confident enought to talk to a room full of people older than her and strangers with ease. Guess the socialisation arguement is falling a little flat,hmmm?!
Incidentally,I do not drag the Peanut into work on a regular basis,this is brought on by desperation,as Mum is on honeymoon,Nan is away,Cais grandad is unavailable,her Dad is supposedly too sick to take her,(but turned up at work to buy a cd...)and my aunt is working. Bear is doing 12 hour days in wycombe,so hes up at 6am and returns at 9pm.That leaves Graah! who,bless him has swapped all his shifts so he can be on the early shift and finish at 5.I start at 2,so there is a three hour crossover in which she sits safely in the staffroom with the guys on lunch (giving her a rotating captive audience...) and then she goes home with Graah! to watch movies and eat copious amounts of popcorn. She is safe behind a staff only pincode protected door and there are always members of staff around,all of whom now know and like her. She is coming in on friday as well.She is thrilled,I am less so,and my boss will just be relieved when we go back to normal...the guys will miss having her around though. Ah well,theres always the traditional 2 hours on xmas eve...