18 April 2008 - Illegal entry |
This is my contribution to CJ's great blog giveaway. As I'm one day late, I don't expect any votes  but do feel free to leave him a comment to let him know how great he looks in his super cool eyeware!
A young cucumber in 2004 |
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4 April 2008 - Show and tell Horse riding |
If you don't have a horse, grab an old whiskey barrel and some wheels! Spring fever is in the air here in apple county. This is CJ and Beanie riding out the back. Horse 1 even has a saddle and bridle lol. Imagination knows no bounds 
Visit Mary aka known as Canada girl for more Show and Tell posts. (I've lost her button as I've been messing around with my template - not with much success) 
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4 April 2008 - Felt |
Tonight I tried making felt! I'd sent off for some wool from ebay recently but hadn't had the chance to give it a go. C, my daughter's friend came around this afternoon so I got it out for the pair of them and once the kids were in bed, made a slipper! (It doesn't fit any family members and there's only one ... ah well, I might get around to making a match and baby should grow into them.)
Are there any other felters out there?
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1 April 2008 - Funny |
I guess if there was such a thing as home school Mum of the year award, I'd be way down this list. At least that's how I felt on Saturday.
The Ulster Orchestra was hosting a family concert in Belfast, and I'd arranged to take the eldest three, along with some other home schooling families.
Prior to getting ready, my ds 13 was in the kitchen and asked me "Mum, is Mozart dead?" I thought, please don't tell me you really asked this! When asked as to why he was wondering, hestated that he thought that we might be going to hear him that evening. I did take comfort in the fact that his younger siblings thought it was hilarious!
About five minutes later, he was wandering around with the top of my kitchen scales, looking for the base. "Scales" he asked, to which a gave him, doh, ray, me ... to which he responded with "Hey Mum, are you talking in another language" Sometimes I wonder if my dreamy kids are on another planet!! To give him his dues, he has no interest in music whatsoever like the other two.
Perhaps I need to introduce more culture. |
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22 March 2008 - Fun Meme |
I've just been browsing the various groups over at the homeschool lounge. It's such a great place although I've been so busy of late to really explore and personalise everything. Anyway, I found this fun meme and contest over at Robin's place.
There are two great books up for grabs - judging by the cluttered look of my fridge, I could probably use one lol. Since we were married 15 years ago, I've been collecting fridge magnets. I started on our honeymoon and if we go on a day out or on holiday, that is my one big purchase! The down side I guess is that everything from the latest work of art to hospital appointments, gets filed on the fridge! Both sides look pretty similar to the front. I guess it says a lot about me.
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14 March 2008 - Bird feeder |
Today ds1 finished off the bird feeder that he made me for Mother's Day. It is such a lovely gift and so much work went into it. The bottle sits on two pieces of wood to let the seeds trickle out. He's mounted it by the window so Miss T will be able to sit and watch the birds.
Thank you AJ. 
To read some neat show and tells, visit dear Mary here.
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27 February 2008 - Chuggin' along |
Oh I am sick of sickness! But the end is in sight - just residual sinusitis on my part. With all kids in various stages of sickness, we've been taking it easy. Today we resumed Saxon Maths - first time in a week - much to everyone's disgust.
Last week, when I was busy with the little ones, the older kids lay around and read and did some clay. They've been reading up and learning about Indians and I found this picture of a wooden mask online which the boys used to base their clay ones on. They're all currently drying off and we hope to fire and glaze them in the next week or so.
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15 February 2008 - Show & tell |
For the past few years, my kids have been fascinated by the American Civil War, whether it be Playmobil figures or more recently, little model soldiers that get painstakingly painted and placed on a scene that they've made.
Last year I took the boys to hear a talk on Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson - a Confederate Genral during the American Civil War, whose ancestry can be traced back to a town just a couple of miles from here. Their friends N and J are members of The Stonewall Jackson Appreciation Society, a group of people who hope to open a museum and visitors center in the area. This is a pic of AJ and J taken after the meeting.
Anyway, you can imagine their sheer delight when they received a wonderful package from my blog buddy Pam! Here are the contents and I'm afraid S&T has been skipped this week as they all have their noses in the books.
To take part in Show & Tell, visit Canadagirl's blog
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13 February 2008 - Magnus Barelegs! |
Every May in Ulster there is a Viking Festival in Killyleagh to commemorate the life and death of Magnus barelegs, king of Norway who died in battle in the town in 1103.
Over the weekend Vikings come to shore from their long boats and a re-enacted battle takes place between the clans. At night time there is a Viking procession through the town followed by Viking merrimennt, food and music.
Last year for the first time we went down to the country park where they were holding education workshops in the run up to the festival. We found it very informative and the kids learned all about Viking life, food, dress and armoury. I developed a fresh appreciation for Al's cooking after viewing a pile of fish heads which were headed for the cooking pot. 
We hope to start a project soon which usually consists of craft, a display and lapbooks.
Pam has listed some useful links on her homeschoolhelps blog which you can visit here.
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13 February 2008 - My first award |
As a very part time blogger here I was touched and surprised to receive an award from Kim at Naturalpaths. It is very sweet. Now I just have to figure out how to pop it on my sidebar without messing the whole template up lol. Mary kindly inserted the one and only button I have here. (I find blogger so much easier for people like me!) While on the topic of templates and the likes, I inserted a cbox which left little characters on all my links. Even though I've removed the code, the squiggles remain. Any clues?
Deb - not quite technophobic, just too busy to learn.
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8 February 2008 - Friday Show and Tell |
Yawn ... I must hit the hay shortly. I sat up until 4 am (very silly) this morning, unpicking the squint edging I'd sewn on a quilt that I was frantically trying to get finished for our little guy's birthday tomorrow. I call this a make-it-up-as-you-go-along quilt - in every way. I'd never done one before or owned a sewing machine and the patches are thrown together randomly. Beth and I started small squares by hand last year but figured at the rate we were going it would be ready for his wedding so we used them as a border. Next time I will use the measuring board before the end though and not just my eye lol. Now the other five kids will be wanting one. 
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Deborah
To take part in S&T, visit CanadaGirl's blog |
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7 February 2008 - Support |
Even though I don't post here that often, I really am enjoying reading other people's blogs. As well as every day musings and the love and support, it is really great that other Mum's are dedicating their time, sharing their knowledge with the homeschool community. We love the various Nature Blogs (see my friend's list) and appreciate the time it takes to research, write and upload all the photos. Our kids also look forward to Fridays for Mary's show and tell and are enjoying the writing workshop with Mrs Marlow. Today, I visited Pam's homeschool helper blog and came away inspired!
Tomorrow we are going to do a Viking study. Every year in Ireland there is a Marcus Barelegs Festival. We only found out about it last year and attended a schools workshop. I'd always planned to take what we learned further so thanks Pam. I will share our findings here. My soon to be two year old drowned the old digital camera and although I've installed the software for it's replacement, I haven't had time to play (or should that be, made time!)
Have to go here and do Miss T's leg exercises. She's in her chair, shouting at me lol. |
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30 January 2008 - Tagged |
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Another busy week! Most evenings I'm found putting together a quilt until the small hours of the morning. In doing so, I'm neglecting a heap of stuff (this blog included) to try and get it finished in time for my almost two year old's birthday on the 9th of February. Beth and I started it way back last year and it sat untouched for months. Will be a last minute dash ... story of my life!
I've just discovered that I've been tagged by Pam to post six quirky things about me. Thank you. Hey Pam I love the travel stories. If you want to dream, go grab a cuppa and pay a visit to Pam's place. Well, here goes ...
Six Quirky Things About Me
Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you:.
2) Post these rules on your blog (what you see here are the rules).
3) Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks (in other words, unusual stuff) about yourself.
4) Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5) Let each random person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.
Here's my quirks. This was a little harder than I thought it would be!
1. I never read instructions ... for anything. If I can't figure it out with fiddling, I get hubby to read and tell me what to do.
2. I only seem to function well under pressure and after midnight. Mornings are a struggle. I'm envious of people who like getting up early.
3. For lunch I like cheese and banana sandwiches. I blame my mother for that one - we were a strange family.
4. I'm a perfectionist in disguise. My house can be chaos but when I clean, it has to be very thorough. I would rather leave a mess than not be able to do it properly.
5. I have a dreadful fear of heights, to the point that looking at a picture or something on telly can make me go weak at the knees.
6. I have a dislike of most modern praise songs, mainly due to the melodies (is that wrong?) preferring old fashioned hymns. (Have to say that 'Oh to see the dawn' is beautiful though, both words and melody) My favourite oldies are 'And can it be' 'When this passing world is done' and 'My Redeemer oh what beauties'.
I tag ~
Mmmm, everyone seems to have been tagged already.
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19 January 2008 - Catch up ramble |
There just doesn't seem to be enough minutes in the day at present! Computer time is a bit of a hit and miss luxury and I've been spending most of it updating my travel blog and trying to organise my photos. I am also fund raising on ebay in order to get more software for Miss T which eats up time. CD roms are £60 a pop - it makes my blood boil the way these companies charge out extortionate prices, and I've already ordered two this month. In saying that, when I see the look on TG's face, it's priceless!
Mary asked how we home school. Well, we're chugging along with Saxon Maths and CLP handwriting at present. That's the structured part. For sciences I have a set of 10 workbooks from AIG which the boys are reading through themselves. The kids devour books and I tend to facilitate their interests, rather than teach. Recently they read 'Our Island Story' (history of Britian) by HE Marshall, which was excellent and the older boys are reading one by the same author on European history. I did buy a set of CDs and book by Diana Waring on world history but have put them away until the kids are older. Has anyone else used these? Last week one of our newsagents closed down and I picked up a pile of classics very cheaply. It was funny as they were all arguing over Oliver Twist. I thought, how many kids in school are squabbling over who gets to read Dicken's first or who's turn it is to have the book!
And, we do a lot of craft. I'm forever peeling pva and scrubbing acrylic paint off the kitchen table! Oh, and projects. Last year my flickr account expired and I thought I'd lost the photos, however got my sets back when I resubbed. You can see some photos here
Have to fly, babe needs feeding. |
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11 January 2008 - Show & Tell ~ Blessings |
I've been neglecting my blog I knew I would although it is becoming increasingly difficult to get near my own computer these days!
This week, I'd planned to show and tell a little about a special friend of mine in the USA but my camera batteries have died. (I wanted to show a beautiful quilt that she sent me.) However, while on the subject of blessings, I thought I'd share a picture of my home grown ones! Here they are, all six of 'em.
And these are the parents - or half of me which is not a bad thing. I really don't like getting my photo taken. Despite taking heaps of photos (too many), family ones are thin on the ground so we set up the camera the other weekend and snapped away. This was the best one which will give an idea of how bad the rest were lol!
To take part in Show & Tell, visit Mary ~ Canadagirl |
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