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Sunday 19 October 2014

Time To Say Goodbye

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you all at the end of October I will be taking my blog offline. Due to recent personal events that I am unable to go into I have decided to stop blogging about our lives here at Tilly Towers so publicly. I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to visit, read, comment and follow frugal living you have all helped me in ways you will never know. I would especially like to thank Trudie who has been my longest active follower. Trudie you have always been there with kind words and support when things have been tough and I will always be grateful for that. I will miss you all :( whilst I won't be blogging anymore I will still be reading all your lovely blogs.
Signing off
Much Love Always
Claire and the gang xx xx xx

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Catch Up And Home Education

Frugal Living
We have done a few frugal things over the last few days. On Sunday my mum and step dad came down to visit so we took Brandon to the park for a while.

 
Granddad give us a push
 
 
Higher Granddad Higher
 
 
We were then treated to lunch out by the Mr which was very nice. I had a skinny chicken breast sandwich and a still iced water so sticking with the healthy eating.
 
 
Me and my little monster and the Mr's head lol

 
Brandon and Nanny
 
 
Brandon with his  little cat rubbers [50p each]

 
Granddad's whopping big hotdog
 
 
 
On the way back home in Granddad's car

 
Brandon in his new PJ's from Nanny and Granddad
 
 
It was a lovely day and both Brandon and I were spoilt rotten.
 
Today we popped to my favourite charity shop Air Ambulance [no pics sorry]. They were having an end of season sale and all ladies and children's clothes were 4 for £1. I got Ben a pair of school trousers, Brandon 3 long sleeved tops [now the colder weather is setting in he needs a few more], a big baggy t-shirt for me [for crafting sessions with the boys], 2 very nice shirts for me, and a pair of tweed style trousers for me all for £2 BARGAIN. Brandon is getting 10p for every lesson he completes nicely and does a good job in. He has been saving it up since we started so he treated himself to a lovely blue teddy bear for £1 which he has named baby bear 2 lol.
 
 
Healthy Living
I have been sticking to my healthy eating plan and to keep me accountable I will be blogging what I have eaten each day. So here goes.....
Breakfast = 2 banana Weetabix with skimmed milk
Lunch = ham and cheese Panini
Dinner = 2 large mushrooms stuffed with lean pork mince with a thin slice of mozzarella melted on top
Snacks = fruit, yogurt, 2 cereal bars
Drink = flavoured water, summer fruits oasis
 
Now I realise the cheese in the Panini is not healthy but I did ask her to put only a small amount of cheese in it and I ended up giving a 3rd of the Panini to Lee. The mozzarella on top of the mushroom is literally a very thin slice and I have checked and it seems to be the cheese that has the lowest calories and fat content.
 
 
Home Schooling
We have really found our groove on the home education front and I thought I would share how we run our school day here at Tilly Towers and what we are studying.
 
We start with reading I have Brandon on a reading programme with the library and he is currently on the blue spaceship books which are perfect for his reading ability.
 
We then move on to spellings. We are following the year 2 national curriculum on this and I have joined the TES website in order to access all things curriculum related.
 
We then do writing practice. Brandon was having trouble writing his 2,5,9's his 2's looked like a 5, his 5's looked like an S, and his 9's looked like a P. He now has all his numbers down so we have started on big A little a, big B little b, big C and little c. We will be working on three letters a week until he has them all down.
 
We then have a ten minute break. Due to Brandon's autism he loses concentration and patience very easily. I have found by breaking the work down into bite size sessions and having lots of little breaks he comes back to his work focused and with a fresh pair of eyes. This may not work for everyone but it is working for us so I am running with it.
 
We then do one of his English workbooks which is age appropriate and follows the national curriculum. We usually do 3 or 4 pages before moving on to our next subject.
 
We then do maths again a workbook which is age appropriate and follows the national curriculum. Again we usually do 3 or 4 pages before taking our next little break.
 
Ten minute break
 
We then do Spanish which is from a workbook. Obviously this is outside the national curriculum as Brandon is only 6. He is really enjoying this and has already learnt the following conversation in Spanish....
Hello
Hello
What's your name
My name is Brandon
Are you a boy or a girl
I am a boy
As well as being able to name all the members of a family in Spanish and being able to count to 5.
 
We then do one of his science workbooks which is age appropriate and follows the national curriculum. We usually do 2 pages of this as it is a little more in depth and demanding of him.
 
Ten minute break
 
We then do another one of his English workbooks which is age appropriate and follows the national curriculum. We usually do about 3 pages of this before moving on to his next subject.
 
We then do timetables he has his 1's, 2's, 5's, 10's down and this week we are working on his 3's and 4's.
 
On a Wednesday we attend one of two home education groups. One is project based and our current topic is Animals. The other is held in a near by country park where the children learn forestry skills and get to socialize with other children.
 
On a Thursday we attend swimming lessons and go to the library.
 
On a Friday we have book week day where we dedicate the whole day to doing activities around the book of the week which is decided upon by the home education book club we have joined.
 
We do our book work on Monday through to Thursday and at the weekends we do cooking, arts and crafts, and experiments.
 
On top of all this we will be having lots of days out around the topics we are covering and in November we will be joining in with the into film festival. We will get to go to the cinema and watch several films all for free. They even provide you with teaching materials for each of the films. For example there is an anti bullying message in the film Tarzan so we will be using the resources to do some work on that subject as well as watching Tarzan at the cinema for free.
 
Well I hope that gives you all an idea of what we have been up to recently. Are you a home schooler ? do you have any words of wisdom for me or perhaps some tips ?
 
 
Much Love
Claire xx xx xx