When all you want to do is read a good book

 Ferdy doesn't really understand World Book Day. He doesn't get why people dress up, or write stories or do craft activities about book characters. Surely World Book Day means only one thing and that is to read books all day.

So this Friday, we celebrated World Book Day the Ferdy way, which basically meant all of us reading books aloud, reading books in our head and listening to audiobooks.

He and Gil agreed to compile a list of all the books that we'd read but we had to stop when I realised Ferdy was reading books in secret so that he didn't have to write them on the list.

Unfortunately though, Gil announced this week (when he told me he was bored and I suggested reading a book) that he is 'not the sort of child that likes books'.. But when we made a cake for Billy's birthday, he did confess that books can have their uses.

P.S. To all our devoted followers, we won't be doing a blog until after the Easter holidays as the boys will be in school on Fridays up until Easter.

A grimacing face like a smiling lion

Schooling at home has been hard this week: perhaps due to having a week off last week, perhaps because the weather has been better and the last thing the boys want to do is sit in front of a computer and perhaps because this way of living is taking its toll on all of us. Gil summarised how we're getting on pretty well when he pointed out that we each have little problems: his is his eczema, Ferdy's is that he can't get to sleep, Daddy's is his back and Mummy's is 'shoutin'...

So to prevent too much shouting from Mum, Ferdy took over some of the teaching this Friday.

Gil's been learning about labelling and Ferdy's learning about measurement in maths which has been pretty tricky; it's especially confusing when he's had to convert a combination of cm and mm into mm. For today's maths, both boys chose some of their favourite toys, photographed them, cut them out and then Gil labelled his with their names, both labelled them with measurements and Ferdy converted all the measurements into mm  I was surprised at how much Ferdy had taken in when he explained to Gil about how to measure with a ruler starting at 0, and about how cm become mm by adding a 0... He didn't even get frustrated when Gil got it wrong. He is a far better teacher than I am. 

Ferdy's also been learning about literary devices and using description this week, again, this has seemed like a lot for him to take in, so we decided to focus on looking at similes and metaphors, especially as so many of Ferdy's favourite authors use them all the time. He has found it quite tricky to understand how one thing can be used to describe another ('but Mummy, a pile of broken cars is like a pile of broken cars') but when we started looking at how the BFG carried Sophie like 'a sack of potatoes' (Roald Dahl) and how when Polly in Mr Gum laughs 'the sunlight went splashing off her pretty teeth like diamonds in search of adventure' (Andy Stanton), it seemed to help. Gil also quite enjoyed this although I refused to put down Mummy smells like a poo on our list of similes. 

I have run out of ways to actively link our learning to our outings so I didn't even try today. We went for a scooter ride, had a picnic, watched some geese and played in the woods.

Later on, Ferdy wrote about one of his favourite characters, Mr Gum who has a 'grimacing face like a smiling lion', clothes as 'smelly as a bin' and who wears a 'tiny hat like a mini ringmaster who turned back to normal size but his hat didn't' (Ferdy Davies). And when they were having their bi-weekly storytime with Granny, Gil noticed 'the thing that we learnt today!', when the dragon in the story was described 'as meek as a lamb' (Rosemary Manning).

Fresh air & screen free Friday

It was fresh air and screen free Friday this week.

 This meant it was like a weekend day for us really, apart from no TV. Plus Billy was off work which was very exciting for the boys and also for me because this meant a trip to the woods without me so I could relax and not have to help with English and Maths.

Both boys enjoyed their day and even managed a bit of writing (screen free doesn't mean no work at all Mum said, meanly) although Ferdy lamented that it was a little bit complicating because now he couldn't remember which day was Saturday. Life can be hard for an eight year old...

To the time of the Andrewsarchus..

 This week we did something illegal, so please stop reading now if this makes you feel uncomfortable.

We are still supposed to be only travelling for work and staying local for exercise. All travel outside our region is not really allowed.

But this Friday, we travelled back in time.

We travelled back approximately 15000 years, which we guessed must be the Stone Age.

This was confirmed by Wolverine and Deer (apparently, according to Wolverine, Stone Age people were named after things in nature) whom I met, having lost Ferdy and Gil. I was then bombarded with a plethora of Stone Age facts like how they only spoke in grunt language, and how they were called Hunter Gatherers because they hunted animals and then gathered together to eat the food... I even met Deer's pet Woolly Mammoth called Berry (because he's a herbivore and only eats berries) and was taken to their Winter Camp (their Summer Camp had been invaded by baddies who had stolen all their animal skin clothes).

We spotted Woolly Mammoths in the distance (top right), a nest which we thought must belong to an eagle or perhaps an owl, and even some Andrewsarchus poo, which I was a little surprised about as I thought that they had lived in Asia, but Wolverine informed me that some had come over before the UK had split from Europe (the first time).

Things slightly deteriorated when we met Andy from Andy's Prehistoric Adventures so I was quite pleased to return to our time machine to listen to Stig of the Dump and return to the time of 2021. Until I remembered what 2021 entailed, and felt that perhaps living in a camp with my extended family wearing deerskin and roaming far and wide might not be such a bad option.

Screen-free Friday

 Today was screen-free Friday at school, so we read books, got read books, listened to books, climbed a mountain, played Lego and drew.

A Poetic Preamble

Lots of people (me included) have said they don't like poetry. But I reckon that, if you approach a new topic from lots of different angles, you can find something within it to enjoy.

This is part of what our flexi day is about. When we learnt about the Romans, we visited Roman sites, a Roman museum, read books about Romans, listened to audiobooks about the Romans, watched films about the Romans and, of course, played extensive games about the Romans (often featuring Mum as Boudica).

Ferdy at Watling St in Jan last year

This kind of immersion in a topic is a little tricky due to us being practically housebound. But when Ferdy's topic at school this week was poetic devices, we decided to try and use our Friday (after a bit of maths) to absorb ourselves in poetry.

Maths and poetry

The kids section on the Poetry Archive website is brill. You can look up poets who read their own poems aloud, but also poetic devices like alliteration. We spent ages taking it in turns choosing and listening to poems. Faves were: Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie, a poem he wrote whilst on a bike ride and a great example of rhythm; of course we had to listen to Michael Rosen but Gil chose lots of his poems for younger kids like Over My Toes and Where Does the Bounce Come From which we hadn't heard before and beautifully illustrate alliteration and onomatopoeia; and I chose some of the funnies like Spike Milligan's The Land of the Bumbly Boo (where Ferdy and Gil were pleased to hear that they never blow noses, 'do they wipe them on their sleeves like us Mummy?') and John Hegly's Blancmange (it's French and it's funny).

We then went out for an Alliteration Amble.

Gil made up a poem whilst we were getting ready.

Waiting
Waiting
Waiting

For Ferdy.

Anyone who knows Ferdy will have experienced this.

On our windy, wet walk, we realised how often we use poetic devices when we talk. Ferdy and Gil heard ROARING cars, saw diving ducks and ducks gracefully gliding across the water. Gil noted the splash and the rhythm of squelching in the puddles, Ferdy spotted secret spy birds and decided that ducks were quacking 'how are you, how are you'.

I do have to confess however, that Ferdy spent the rest of our walk insisting on telling me the names and skills of all the Ninjago characters. I expect there is way to make these poetic but I'll leave that to Ferdy.

Let's ask the kids

 I thought that this was going to be a blog about how this Friday we played a great game about arrays by using a wipeboard, a number sentence and some lego. Or about how we read and listened to lots of Michael Rosen's poems to aid us in learning about poetic devices (in times of need, we always call on Michael Rosen). Or about how Ferdy seems to have taught Gil to read without anyone really noticing.

But as we were on our way out to the woods with the wonderful Ickabog as our soundtrack, I was struck by how all the books that we read feature children who make better choices than adults, children who speak the truth and aren't distracted by politics or societal rules, children who are brave, strong and honourable because they feel it is the right thing, not because they are trying to impress someone else.

As well as the valorous Daisy Dovetail in the Ickabog, who (spoiler alert) against all odds persuades the Ickabog not to kill, this week we've read about: a boy who speaks to animals and saves a giant turtle from being eaten by greedy adults, little Stella Saxby who manages to escape being poisoned by her aunt by refusing to drink the tea which her parents politely and fatally drink, and Amelia Fang who aged ten teaches her whole family a lesson about friendship and loyalty. Even Biff, Chips and Kipper have been known be more insightful than their slightly hapless parents and teachers.

And when we were in the woods today, and Ferdy and Gil wanted to go off exploring with me (breathlessly) trying to keep up, I realised that these two haven't had much choice recently. Whilst the government and parents and teachers grapple with how to negotiate home learning and teaching and working, our kids just have to get on with whatever rules we set.

Ferdy proclaimed this Friday his best day ever because he and Gil led the way, and he and Gil decided where we should go. They didn't take the set path through the woods; we had to climb over branches, leap over the stream and crawl though a tunnel. Our walk even involved smashing lots of ice on the pond. Ok, it wasn't compromising with an Ickabog but was loads more fun than following the path.

Later on, Ferdy decided not to write a poem about a magic box as had been our (my) plan, but instead about a Naked Egyptian Mummy.

I love it.

And Gil decided to start a diary instead of writing out his new sounds.

So we will do the work, but we might do some of it the Ferdy and Gil way.