Cooking is great fun and measuring and weighing provides the perfect maths lesson.
Ingredients:
75g butter or marg
225g self raising flour
Pinch salt
25g Raw Cane Sugar
75g sultanas
150 ml milk
Little milk
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 400F/205C/Gas 6
Grease and flour a baking sheet.
Put flour into a bowl then add the butter, baking powder and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and sultanas and stir.
Stir in enough milk to make a soft, pliable dough.
Turn the mixture on to a floured board then lightly roll out to 2cm / 3/4" thick.
Cut rounds with a 7.5cm /2" cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife.
Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake near the top of the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.
One of Owen's favourite places is the music room at the Horniman. The museum provides interactive music projections allowing the kids to select and listen to hundreds of instruments. The kids can listen to the instruments using headsets so the room is very quiet, tranquil and very suitable for kids who are sensitive to noise or have auditory processing difficulties. Surrounding the interactive screens are beautifully displayed instruments which are organised and neatly labelled. In addition, the lighting is very dim so is kind to kids with light sensitivities ...
·an adult, to supervise lighting the candle with the match
1.Use the modelling clay to fix the candle firmly in the centre of the bowl.
2.Put five level dessertspoons of bicarbonate of soda around the candle.
3.Light the candle.
4.Spoon vinegar slowly down the inner side of the bowl, avoiding the flame. What happens when the liquid and powder mix?
5.Stop adding the vinegar when the froth is about halfway up the candle.
6.What happens to the candle? (Here’s a clue – what happens when you try to relight it?)
Fizzy candle – the science
·New substances are made when the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar are mixed together.
·One of these substances is a gas called carbon dioxide. This is the same gas that makes the bubbles in fizzy drinks. Here, it causes the mixture to froth.
·Carbon dioxide is heavier than air. It fills the bowl, even though you can’t see it.
·But the candle needs air to stay alight, so when the bowl is filled with carbon dioxide, the candle goes out.
Because of this, carbon dioxide is used in many kinds of fire extinguisher
We visited Greenwich today with another home ed family. We visited the Time Galleries including GMT. The kids learnt about longitude and latitudes, time and Greenwich mean time. Greenwich has started charging for entry to the time section of the museum which was annoying. However, my friend managed to get us a teachers pass for free by showing her Education Otherwise card.
The Royal Observatoryseems to be more interesting for the kids. They have a fantastic hands on Astronomy galleries where you can watch how the universe was formed, touch a 4.5 billion year-old meteorite, guide a space mission and unravel the mysteries of the universe.
We went mountain boarding at RedhillRide The Hill Mountain Boarding centre. It was one of the most successful trips we have done. We all had a wonderful day learning to mountain board and socialising with the other home educating families.
After the disastrous archery course I felt nervous about taking the kids on a large home education trip. Owen can't cope with large noisy groups and can get aggressive and fractious. Initially, when we arrived Owen was quite anxious. He didn't want the other kids to know that he was a beginner as many of the other kids has already had a mountain boarding lesson. However, the instructor was fantastic. He used loads of positive language even when we made mistakes. Owen gets very anxious if people in his group progress faster than him. However, the instructor kept the pace the same for all of us. He was flexible in allowing kids to go of an take a break or have something to eat as and when they needed to.
Social Stories for Jealousy
I Feel Jealous (Paperback) (ISBN: 0750214058 ) Brian Moses
Jealousy and the Theory of Mind Connection
In neurotypical children, that is, children who have no underlying neurological disorder such as autism, self is seen as a separate entity. There is an understanding after the preschool years, that others have thoughts and feelings that do not necessarily match your own. Some empathy can take place, because there is an understanding of feelings that others have, even if that understanding is rudimentary.
In autism, there is a marked difficulty in identifying and recognizing others’ feelings. It can be hard for the child with autism to put himself in someone else’s shoes, because he doesn’t even realize that person has shoes that are different than his own. This is why many children with autism overreact to imagined slights. They aren’t being difficult. They really believe when you accidentally hit them with your elbow that you meant to do it.
I am trying to work with Owen to find a hobby (other than computers) that he enjoys and is goodat and can meet new friends. We have tried a variety of hobbies but Owen hasn't taken to anything yet apart from swimming. The problem with swimming is he doesn't really meet new people as he doesn't want to take lessons or compete. He tolerates horse riding (on the condition I am teaching him) and Taekwondo but is not passionate about either. Other hobbies we have tried include football, ballet, karate. The problems he faces are:
Not being able to following instructions
Poor coordination
Not been able to work as a team
Not being able to cope with the noise and chaos of other kids
Getting upset when other kids discover he is autistic (usually as a result of Anya telling kids because Owen is being odd)
Next week we will be starting an Archery course with Surrey Bowmen. Owen liked the idea of archery. I thought it might be good as it is quite, not a team sport and doesn't require multi limb coordination.
If Archery does not suit him I also have the following ideas:
I try to educate my children in a way that is broader than the national curriculum and not constrained by religion and tradition. I feel the BBC's bias coverage of the Royal Wedding does not give my children a balanced perspective of what the Royal Wedding and the Royal family represent in modern Britain. The Guardian editorial points out that no former labour politicians were invited to the Royal wedding. That spiteful symbolic snub, alongside invites to world tyrants speaks volumes about the British ruling class which is slipping quickly back into its old ways now that the natural order of things has been restored by the Tories. The wedding is not a fairytale moment. Modern Britain is not fairyland. These are tough times for millions of British people. This is not a day for demented princess worship or for in-your-face state extravagance.
In order not to deprive my children of watching the wedding we stayed at home during the morning so that they could watch the TV if they chose. However, to their credit that preferred to play in the garden. We decided to join like minded parents and their children at a republican picnic. Over 50 local people joined us in Brockwell Park.
The kids found a snail whilst hunting for their Easter eggs. Her name is Suma and she is Owen's new pet. How can a snail bring so much pleasure into a child life?
Owen and Anya made their own fizzling bath bombs and luxurious lip balms at a days course at the Royal Institute. They learnt a bit about acids, bases and solubility and created colourful grenades that burst open in a fanfare of fragrance and fizz. The days course cost around £12.
Basic recipe in two parts.
Dry ingredients: (By Weight , as measured on a scale.) Baking Soda - 8 ounces Citric Acid - 4 ounces Corn Starch - 4 ounces Salts - 4 ounces
Wet Ingredients: Water - .75 tbsp Essential or Fragrance Oil - 2 tsp (for these I used a Ginger Peach.) Oil - 2.5 tbsp (I used cherry kernel, but any light vegetable oil will work.) Food coloring - 1 or 2 drops.
I can see the attraction in keeping chickens as a pet, with the benefit of some eggs as well. They may not be as trainable as a dog but they are appealing creatures with their gentle clucking. We have four Sussex hens. They are 10 weeks old so won't start laying eggs for at east 2 months. Their names are Chickpea, Brussel Sprout, Angry Bird and StrummerKeet.
A day at the British Wildlife Centre near East Grinstead to find out about all the wonderful British wildlife. We saw wildcats, owls, polecats, foxes, deer, otters, mice, hedgehogs and badgers.
I find that encouraging the kids to do a little bit of gardening sparks a general interest in learning.
Conversations in the garden seems to result in a more inquisitive approach from the kids.
Our 30 min seed planting session included conversations about germination, insects and slugs, the weather, months of the year and Roblox (which features in almost every conversation).
A walk in the country is a great way to discover nature. We took the kids to Oxshott Common (which is near Epsom) and walked Trail 2000. Trail 2000 is an easy walk marked out by a series of posts around the route. The Trail is approximately 2 miles provides a variety of different aspects of the Heath. The Conservators have also placed maps on notice boards at each of the access points onto the Heath to show this route and other footpaths on the Heath. I find that the kids moan a little on walks like this but they soon start to enjoy running around and discovering interesting creatures! We topped the walk off with a wonderful meal at the Bear Pub which is pricey but very good quality.
We took the kids to Heavenly Farm which is in 100 acres of beautiful parkland. Heaven Farm is steeped in 600 years of farming history and includes the Bluebell nature trail (featured many times on BBC TV), wallabies and rural life museum.
Most of the experienced home educators I meet say that children have a natural interest to learn and an extraordinary ability to think diversely. Many of them believe that mainstream schooling damages this natural interest. My kids are only recently out of mainstream schooling and generally they don't demonstrate a natural interest to learn. However, I have recently seen sparks of interest and a pride in their work. I am determined to encourage these sparks by allowing them to access a diverse source of learning.
I am on a mission to visit as many FREE museums, park and gardens as possible. Yesterday, we visited the Museum of London Docklands. I thought it was very interesting but Owen spent most of his time lying on the floor saying it was boring. Taking his shoes off did seem to help a little. However, both the kids said they liked learning about slavery. They both asked me lot of questions about this difficult subject.
Cooking is great fun and measuring and weighing provides the perfect maths lesson.
