Watching the amazing  Bloodstone at Jubilee Stores (we even persuaded Jamie to come and watch Morris dancing )

Cookie Exchange:

The Learning Zone Christmas Party:

Family Christmas time:

As Rebekah was sticking hers together a certain someone came and along and volunteered to eat a sweet which had “fallen” off!

And here are some of the finished items, these ones have amazing extras like a strawberry patch and giant mushrooms.

Ruth and Rebekah made lovely ones and Jonathan’s was made to eat straight away.

But on Wednesday we had her party – ice cream and Just Dance.

We also had cake – well cup cakes, Ruth was busy making them and practising with her new icing petal cutters.

We start with the king of the gods, the god of thunder and lightning, Zeus:

We particularly like the banana thunderbolt!

And Hera, Zeus’s wife and the goddess of marriage:

Please note the excellently detailed jewelled eyes!

Next up we have the Minotaur and the Cyclops

Now don’t look at the next pictures – it’s the three gorgons and if you look at them they will turn you to stone!

Rebekah made the two gorgon sisters and Jonathan made Medusa – I love the snake eyes.

Now we may get a little wet as we come to Poseidon the ruler of the seas with his trident:

He has got both eyes really!

Now we come to Heracles and the Lion which he had to kill as one of his twelve tasks (we had quite a discussion about the name to be used here as I was convinced it was Hercules – but a bit of research showed that Jonathan knew what he was talking  about and Hercules is the Roman version):

I love the dolly mixture muscles – Rebekah made these two but it was Jonathan’s idea!

They finished the Greek gods and started on some other things.

Firstly some made up runes:

And next from Artemis Fowl a demon and Mulch Diggums:

And finally and completely randomly here is banana pilot wearing banana goggles:

Jonathan would like to make it clear that these are made out of gingerbread and all the decorations are (as Mary Berry insists on) completely edible.

This blog post was a joint effort

As well as the revision we have managed to fit in some art and cooking,:

and some lego and as well as singing, music and circus and TKD.

Exams start tomorrow and end a week on Friday so hopefully we can get back to normal in time for Advent and Christmas .

There will at some point be a longer post featuring this basket but really could there be a better example of a home educators basket. Please note the organic cheese, the (looking as if it was)home made bread, the vegan puddings, the felted purse, the colourful diablo, fruit and Suma peanut butter.  Actually it could do with some knitting or at the very least a friendship bracelet dangling out of it.

It’s almost as if it was set up!!!!!!

After the experiment we thought about what we would like to carry one with.  We all thought mostly veggie meals were fine -even the fusspots like macaroni cheese, quiches and pizza.   I wanted to eat a little bit more meat than once a week but a couple of times a week generally seemed fine to me. I also wanted to plan things a bit better as I didn’t want to be traipsing off to Mottistone or the farmers market continuously.   I was also hoping that by planning I might be able to save time and energy by doubling things up and planning for leftovers etc.  For example if I have made extra bolognese sauce one week and frozen it and extra cheese sauce another week I could then, on another occasion, put these togther easily and quickly for a tasty lasagne.

So I set about planning – got people to tell me which meals they really want and which they thought they’d only like once every so often etc.  I got a plan that worked and promptly lost it.  Honestly even when I try and be really organised I don’t manage it.   So I started again and this time put it on the computer.  I decided this time to follow a pattern so we have:

Sunday – nice meaty meal (stew, roast, lasagne etc)

Monday – Jacket potaotes

Tuesday – leftovers from Sunday or pizza type meal

Wednesday – egg based meal  probably also involving left over potatoes from monday.

Thursday – pasta meal

Friday – fish meal

Saturday – wild card

From this I put together a general plan that covers two months of summer time eating – we are three weeks into it and have diverted on a number of occasions but overall it is providing a good starting point of ideas for what to eat and knowing what food we need in.  My idea is that this is a tool to help us rather than a rigid set of rules.  To misquote the bible – the meal plan was made for the Gibsons not the Gibsons for the mealplan!  I have already found a few places I need to change things – for example we have fish and chips on one Friday followed by Cajun chicken on the Sunday which we would also have with chips – that’s too many chips too close together so I’ll do some swapping about next time.  I hope when I make bolognese  I’ll make enough for the lasagne and the chilli and the pancakes – I also plan to make cheese sauce from the macaroni cheese night to do cauliflower cheese and the lasagne and maybe even some filling for a potato skin or two.

So here (hopefully if I can paste a table into the blog) is our summer menu plan:

So this is Wednesday a rather silly day to choose as I go to work part way through the day and no one else kept taking pics.

Girls still in bed still recovering from Walk the Wight.

Jonathan on slouch reading a Learning Zone communal story to decide if he wants to contribute the last chapter.

Jonathn on the slouch looking things up in the wildlife book and criticising it for a lack of black squirrels.

Jonathan has moved to the floor and is designing various things.

All this hard work is a bit much time for a go on the Wii.

Rebekah and Martin spend some time working out whether the hammock could possibly fit in the van for ruth to sleep in – answer no.

Ruth has by now materialised and is strumming the guitar.

Rebekah says she is working out music for her next concert but the computer screen actually appears to be showing facebook!

I then headed off for work leaving them in Martin’s capable hands and yelling instructions to take photos of what they did but no one took any notice of me and I forgot to carry on once I got home from work so that was the first failed attempt!

Attempt number two, Thursday.  I was a little dubious about using Thursday as it was unually busy rather than typical although perhaps typical of a busy day.  I shouldn’t have worried though as I couldn’t find my camera after 10am so not much recorded.

Everyone seems to be lurking in Rebekah’s room – Jonathan is designing some more.

Rebekah is sorting out clothes.

Ruth is experimenting with make-up for her acrobalance show at circus that night.

We’ve got our new singing for fun group followed by a quick picnic in the park so the kids get everything ready to go.

Couldn’t find my camera at singing or the park so no pics and then spent the afternoon with friends felting flowers and was too busy to think about it!

]]> http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2011/05/a-home-ed-half-day-or-two/feed/ 1 http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2011/04/wedding-anniversary/ http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/2011/04/wedding-anniversary/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:34:02 +0000 Susan http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/?p=1833 Well Martin and I have been married 20 years (a couple of weeks ago – I’m behind with our blogging).

We exchanged some small gifts.

Martin was very organised and bought these lovely earrings and necklace from our friend June with her lovely Goddess Jewels some time in advance.  However he wasn’t organised enough to remember to bring them home from work so I got them a little late in the day.

I presented him with handmade stuff.  A card using left over bits of felt and a heat cushion I had been secretly knitting.

We had the usual sort of day – I was at work and Martin was working at home but then Martin cooked for me in the evening which was lovely.  But he clearly didn’t want me taking photos of him while he was doing it!

We always talk about how our year has gone at our anniversary.  Highlight and lowlights.  This year we had many many good bits.  Our Norfolk Broads holidays were fantastic, as was the liveability conference we went to and both added to our growing determination to change the pace of our lives, to slow down more and to enjoy each day.

Finally those of you who were in Wind in the Willows might remember one of the songs.  Martin and I  both had going round in our heads throughout our anniversary day:

“20 years, 20 years it’s a very long time

20 years, 20 years for this terrible crime”

Well after 20 years we are celebrating properly later in the year when martin and I will manage to get away by ourselves for a few days.

Jonathan and I were participating in one of our favourite guilty pleasures (watching cookery programs)and were enjoying the Hairy Bikers one afternoon.  One of the recipes they made was a Swiss roll, but in true M&S style this wasn’t just a Swiss roll this was a Luscious Lemon Swiss Roll. Jonathan was particularly taken with this so we decided to have a go at it the next day.

This was going to be a more complicated recipe than we usually make as we had never made lemon curd and we’d never made a Swiss roll.  So first off we made the lemon curd – we had to use margarine to keep it dairy free and when it took ages and ages to thicken I wondered if it wasn’t going to work because of the higher water content but it did in the end.

Then we had to whisk the eggs and sugar over a pan of water.  Jonathan enjoyed doing this even if doing the whisking and keeping the bowl in place was a little tricky.

We have lovely fresh eggs from our friend and they are very very yellow so as we were whisking them Jonathan noticed not just how silky the texture had become but how much lighter in colour.  I asked him why he thought that might be and he said because it had more air in it.  Then we talked about the Marmite experiment they had done on Bang Goes the Theory (which we love even if some people  have been snooty about it on the basis that that is what the OU is producing now rather than late night proper science programs) and talked about it being the same effect – the air bubbles getting trapped in and so more light being reflected.

It thickened up nicely but not to the point of meringues where you can turn the bowl upside down over your head!

Then we had to sift the flour and fold it in.  really this is something we don’t usually bother with but with no raising agent in the flour I thought we had better do it properly!

With the flour folded in and the cake cooking in the oven it was time to make the Lemon butter(well marge) icing.  Jonathan had finally managed to get dressed by the time he was in this photo!

We rolled the warm sponge up and left it too cool while we went off to play card games with lots of other HErs (including teens – I think I have another blog posts about how involved in activities our teens are – sparked off by a facebook discussion – but more of that later).

Then we spread it with butter cream and lemon curd and rolled it back up – it oozed everywhere – I think we used a bit too much!

We didn’t have time to eat it then because we were off to a stargazing night with some of our very clever friends.

As well as learning to identify the saucepan and seeing the Seven Sisters though a pair of binoculars. We also had tea served out of Sally’s van.

Then it was back home to unveil the Swiss roll for martin to admire and us all to eat.

We all had a bit of discussion about fatless and raising agentless sponges and enjoyed eating it very much.  Not sure it was actually worth all the effort but it was fun giving it a go.