Little Star Homeschool

Today Robert has been busy, very busy. He did Hotwires with Dad and played Tantrix by himself. We went into town and got stopped by a promotor for the library service and were persuaded to join the Quest Seekers summer reading challenge. Robert has to read six books in six weeks to gain rewards. We have a chart to complete and the best thing is its all free! So thats maths, science and literacy covered for today. Tomorrow I need to do some cooking to restock the freezer and carry on with repainting the office.

John is a happy bunny after seeing one of his favourite rock bands play Chesterfield last night - Saracen -

Following their first live performance in 1977, the band gigged extensively
across the Midlands during the ensuing years. The standard of those 'live'
performances, combined with their unique brand of symphonic rock, saw Lammergier
amass a large and loyal following of fans. Then a new decade arrived, and with
it some major developments for the Matlock-based rockers.

Their named changed from Lammergier.....to SARACEN. But the music remained the same; an ever-growing repertoire of powerful, guitar-oriented rock, amply laced with lush keyboards and evocative vocals. After several months 'off the road', with time spent putting the finishing touches to their new 'live' show, the Lads re-emerged as 'Saracen' in January of 1981. And this time with plans for a debut album!

During the summer of that year the now famous 'Heroes, Saints & Fools' album was recorded, at Fairview Studios in Beverley, England. Released in October '81, it was received with critical acclaim, and is still regarded as a 'classic' of it's genre even today, over twenty years on!

After being suitably reprimanded yesterday for mistakenly calling Robert's tour a 'world tour' when in fact he has never set foot outside the UK I thought I would stick to safer pursuits today and start painting the office. I had a tin of blue paint just doing nothing, an impulse buy from a few years ago. I am dealing with my 'blue problem' trying very hard to use new colours but I cannot let a good tin of paint go to waste. Robert sat and watched while reading to me from Horrid Henry's Joke Book.

That cat has been for a visit again, exploring the house, sitting on the sofa, purring and rubbing against just about everything.

Have had a few problems with Blogger over the past couple of days, ads not feeding properly and text refusing to wrap around pictures. Very glitchy. John uses Wordpress and keeps trying to convert me but I do like Blogger most of the time.

While in Bakewell today we found a real toyshop - not just a department or catalogue store - The Bakewell Toy Shop it has two upstairs rooms devoted to jigsaws. Robert chose a Ravensburger puzzle.

And sit and think.

And wait for fish.

And learn about sundials.

And antirrhinums





And simply enjoy a new place to be.

We ventured into the library yesterday, after shopping for shoes in the Clarks sale, jeans and a belt in Next and lunch at McD's. Robert chose Shredder by Jonathan Kebbe and The Cat Who Got Carried Away by Allan Ahlberg. I feel brave taking out books again, I must be their worse customer. Never returning a book on time and in fact losing books for many months. Well this time I will use my trusty diary to remember the return date and fingers crossed I may well break my track record and return a book on time.

Robert has finished off the first book in the dragonlology chroniclesThe Dragon's Eye (Dragonology) while on holiday and has ordered the second book in the series The Dragon Diary: Dragonology Chronicles Volume 2 from amazon.

We found Working with Dragons in our local remainder bookshop on monday.

Dragonology is the title of several books, a modeling kit, and a board game released in 2003. The publisher's note at the beginning of the original book reads:

This book purports to be the facsimile of an original published on a print run of 100 copies in 1895, of which a copy was recently found in a bookshop near the Seven Dials in London. Unfortunately, the publisher has been unable to ascertain whether a real Dr. Ernest Drake ever lived in St. Leonard's Forest or wrote a book called Dragonology and so, with regret, is unable to make any claim as to the truth of this and must present this volume merely as an interesting curiosity.

The first book is officially edited by Dugald A. Steer, with other contributors credited as Helen Ward ("Scientific Artist"), Douglas Carrel ("Chief Draughtsman"), Wayne Anderson ("Pictorial Artist"), and Nghiem Ta ("Artistic Direction").

Source: Wikipedia