Jodrell Bank and Other Stories

Yesterday we made a visit to here:  http://www.jodrellbank.net/ I have to say it was very disappointing.  Not only was the admission expensive but there was very little to entertain a child of Pip's age.  The exhibits were split between two buildings which made it very difficult for Dave to be involved, so he spent his time in the cafe whilst I trundled around with the kids.  I really could have done with his input, for even though I worked with Benedict on our space lap book, planetary science was one of Dave's area of expertise at University.  It was frustrating for me, trying to read info for Benedict and keeping an eye on Little Miss PJ! 

The weather was also less than favourable as it poured down non stop throughout the visit, so the arboretum and children's playground was a non starter.  Benedict had a crashing hypo after having only walked a short distance, so an emergency trip to the cafe was in order to stabilise him, so more money spent, *sigh.*

There was however a nice moment in between all the chaos, when a teacher from a school party came up to me and commented on Benedict's thoughtfulness at holding the door open for him and the other children.  Not bad considering he was majorally hypo at the time!

Once home I did review the Jodrell Bank site and noticed that, there were plenty of interesting activities running during the summer solely for kids but I'm not sure I would want to pay the pricey admission fees.  I did manage to take some pictures of our visit so here they are:

Lovell Telescope

Letting off steam.

Feeling ghastly with a hypo!

 

Last week my time was spent proof reading Benedict's home ed report for this past year.  It consists of an overview of our educational approach, a day by day learning account including any sick days, photo collages of key events and a reading list of all the books read throughout the year - in short a twenty two thousand word document!  Dave says that my report is longer than his Masters dissertation! 

Front Cover.



An inside page.

Since I was busy elsewhere, Benedict and Dave were involved with a civil engineering construction at the bottom end of the garden.  Phase one is complete and consists of a raised timber decking underneath the lilac and damson trees.  Phase two consists of a lower platform on the left hand side, rope ladders, fencing and a roof structure swung between the trees.  Even though the structure is not yet complete, the kids have had fun playing in their new den area and have improvised a fenced area with the newly painted compost bin slats!

We have been TV free for this week too.  I wouldn't say that the kids were heavy TV watchers, but I've known for sometime that, TV viewing can have quite a detrimental impact on a child's development, especially someone as young as Pip.  Within forty eight hours I noticed she was not as antsy and in such a short space of time the kids have amused themselves in all sorts of ways.  The house energy has been calmer and we have had fun reading, crafting, jigsaw making and being involved with imaginative role play.  For my part I'd get rid of the big box in the corner, but I do have to concede that, Benedict does benefit from watching quality documentaries such as the BBC programme, Coast.  So TV watching for him will occur when Pip is not around.  So this is what happens when you are TV free:

Peace...

... and quiet!

 

Thanks to another blogging friend Sarah  I had the pleasure of listening to Andrew Pudewa  speak about how boys and girls learn and why they would benefit from being taught differently.  Thanks to him, I'll forgo Benedict sitting down to learn... I always did wonder why he fidgeted so and was nearly hanging off his chair.  Apparently boys do better standing up to learn or leaning over the desk, or sitting under the desk mission impossible style!  Anything but sitting still on a straight backed chair.  If you want to check out the podcast entitled, " Teaching Boys and Other Kids Who Would Rather Be Playing in Forts"  it can be found here:

http://circeinstitute.org/free-audio/ 

In short, another good week!