One Birthday, Christmas and a mixed bag of ups and downs!

We seem to have gone awol from the blog for a while, running up to Christmas seems so chaotic and something which I dread in a lot of ways. The week before we have youngest son's birthday and without me being super organised usually ends up in a rushed birthday cake and quickly wrapped presents. This year however I made sure we were all planned out and things went smoothly for a change. We spent a lovely day at Beaulie Motor Museum and after spending most of the day looking at the cars we ventured down to the Palace House which they had decorated for Christmas and had a lovely open fire going too. So that put us all in the festive mood.

Christmas as I expect for most involved lots of pre Christmas day crafts, board games, films and playing with the new toys/games. We spent a couple of days visiting family and the kids spent their time playing with cousins.

Now we are at New Years Eve, dad has been back at work for a couple of days and we are all feeling a bit blue. Much of the day for the kids has been spent playing and watching tv while I contemplate how on earth we are going to tidy up and get back to normal.

Despite the thought that nothing educational has been achieved, in reality the kids have spent a great deal of time being creative, reading, maths, socialising and I could go on. Even if they haven't been sat in front of a work book any time in the last few weeks they have still achieved so much.

I don't expect we will get back into any sort of routine until the schools go back.

Group, clubs and illness.

Well we managed to get away with it for quite some time but seems we have all finally been struck down with a winter bug. I'm just about hanging on by a thread and I suspect that as usual I will be well enough to look after everyone until they are better then it will hit me like a ton of bricks!

What have we been up to?
Well lots, but not that much that's interesting to write about.
Lots of minecraft again-boys are doing really well and are sad that the course is almost over. Having signed them up to a new one in Jan has pleased them though.

A ton of art in the form of hama beads (minecraft ones), colourings, drawings, model making, playdoh.
C has got on and done a lot of his English book. I'm noticing the improvement in his writing just by flicking though the pages. He's been working on paragraphs, probably something that I noticed I could do with brushing up on. Nice to learn together sometimes :-)

We spent some time learning about Nelson Mandela after recent events. Something we hadn't looked at before which brought up apartheid and a pretty long conversation on human rights.

The boys have been to their usual clubs, swimming, football and jujitsu. H has a grading coming up this weekend!

Monday was group, which was German themed. The kids worked in a group to make a giant tissue paper German flag, then they made mini ones to take home. Next they made Christmas lanterns and finally they made ice cream cone xmas trees using white chocolate spread that had been dyed green and sweets to decorate. They played some group games to finish off before we had a planning meeting (while the kids ate lunch/played) to sort out the activities for next years group.

Pottery, visitors and group.

Can't believe I have left the blog for more than a week, our time has been well and truly filled.
We have been to a lovely place in Lee on the Solent to paint pottery with a few friends. C decided to paint a gingerbread man plate, H a Christmas tree plate and M had a go at a mug and a tree decoration. I even painted a mug for my lovely hubby (don't tell him, it's for Christmas!)

As well as that we have had family visiting from Scotland, and the usual 'things' like making out own playdoh. We have been to a  Victorian Christmas festival which was extremely busy but worth it. We had some interesting conversations about some of the Victorian characters who were about the place.

We have also been to our newly improved home ed group, with a few alterations it worked much better and we are looking forward to it continuing for some time.

Today we had a rest as home after such a busy weekend with the family, the boys got on with their minecraft homeschool lessons and learnt about Nemi ships and more about the seven wonders. They have done a great job so far working in teams with kids they have never met to get the seven wonders built and they are looking great.