Friday Fun and Reviews
Part of the point of Home Education is that the children are equipped with things that will actually help them in their later life within their community, rather than some of that pointless stuff they can learn at school. By this point of our journey more of that had to really filter in to allow me to have enough time to do the things I needed to do. At the time (and even now) it is still quite hard to do as it makes me feel a bit like I am not teaching them what their peers are learning and putting them at a disadvantage. But when I step away and look back I it is clearer to see that it is them who will benefit more later on in life by doing the things that people actually do.
On the Friday of week 3 the started with some verbal reasoning for the 10 year old and The Sensory Seeker read some books (again feeding into my need of them doing things academically). But it was actually a fairy cake book he was reading. He decided he would like to make cakes and used the book to decide which of the cakes he fancied. With the help of his brother he checked the cupboards (and fridge) to see which ingredients we already had and what we needed to buy. We headed to the library and returned their old books and took out some new ones. We bought some wellies for the 10 year old for adventures in the forest (when we ever get time to go there!) and some food shopping. The boys had opted to fill their cakes with mint Aeros and decorate the top with M&Ms from Poundland. Whilst we were in there I ended up buying lots of workbooks for them too (why not at only £1) including a French one as part of our holiday would be in France. The cakes tasted really nice but work still needs to be done on their butter icing!
I had a few things outstanding for review and the 10 year old was really keen to take a smartphone off my hands. He received his first phone for Christmas, but it was just a basic one. Now he’s not seeing friends at school it feels even more important to give him as many lines of communication with them as possible. I decided to let him have the Alcatel Android Smartphone if he wrote up the review for me. I think that writing about things that interest them really helps motivate them too.
I think that knowing how to use a smartphone is going to be a really important part of life for today’s children. Being able to work the functions as well as the privacy settings and how to behave safely. For example there was a man who was quite rude in the supermarket and The Sensory Seeker decided to take a photograph of him. I told him that this wasn’t appropriate behaviour and made him delete the photograph. I think it was also great that the headphones have a mic so he can use them to talk to his friends whilst playing Fortnite and the like.
Alcatel Android Smartphone Review
The following is a review of the Alcatel Android Smartphone in his own words by our 10 year old:
This (the Alcatel Android Smartphone) is quite a good phone, as it has high storage, low battery usage and automatically switches off (I assume he means power saving as opposed to completely switching off!). It has a high range of communication apps preinstalled, as well as a whole folder about different forms of Google. There’s also a button that lets you look through everything on the phone if you can’t find it normally.
As lots of people like protecting their phones there are multiple passcode options including face recogniser, pattern and many more. There is also an option to turn on certain locations where the phone will be unlocked and a mode where all your upfront messages are hidden before logging on. It also shows recently used apps at the top of the screen. You can also restrict certain apps and limit screen time. There’s also a wide variety of backgrounds. You can see the screen well when wearing sun-glasses.
Alcatel U5 HD Android Smartphone is available now at Tesco Mobile on the below link, pay-as-you-go for £69.00.
- 8GB memory
- 8Megapixel camera
- 1GB RAM
- 300 mins talk time
The boys then had a bit of downtime (see the chill out day and why I think it is important) and The Sensory Seeker played Hello Kitty Kruisers on the Nintendo Switch™. The boys both have books where they can write in without being corrected. Every now and then I will suggest that they write in their books and so to let me know his thoughts on the game was one of those times. I think by having separate learning about the issues I see in this writing is better for confidence/mental health than correcting all the time. Anyway here’s what he had to say (I have changed the grammar a bit for purposes of this blog post):
Hello Kitty Kruisers
So the whole game is the young version of Mario Kart but you can do better things: You can do boat riding; and the cars and planes can be driven and you cannot fall anywhere on the map. You can get power ups by the circle question mark; and you can get bombs that are cupcakes, a slow a time clock, a speed boost as a rainbow; bubble is a shield that is only allowed on boat racing. Instead of the traffic cones which are in Mario Kart there are banana peels which make you slip in all game modes.
I think it is fair to say that he thought that Hello Kitty Kruisers is a good game for young children.
Hello Kitty Kruisers available in Europe, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and more. The game has been released digitally via Nintendo eShop with a suggested retail price of €24.99/£24.99. Hello Kitty fans who purchase the UK English-language version of the physical version of Hello Kitty Kruisers will find one of six adorable official Sanrio iron-on badges. Hello Kitty Kruisers players take to the starting grid with Hello Kitty and her Sanrio friends as they race on land, over water and even through the air. Will anyone pip Hello Kitty to the podium? Race in single-player or with up to three friends, and unlock new outfits and vehicles for your favourite characters. You can even challenge your racing skills in the super-exciting Adventure mode! Hello Kitty Kruisers is published by Rising Star Games for more information follow Rising Star Games on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or visit the official Rising Star Games website.
Afterwards we headed off to Science Club where the boys did Robot club – which was about following instructions to build the LEGO before coding it to move a certain way. They could then adjust things like direction and speed.
The Weekend
Saturday was a bit of a disaster in that our teen was invited to a party some way away and I had to drive to Manchester. So my husband took all the boys to the party venue (for 8:30am) only to later discover that he was possibly meant to meet people at school for that time! He ended up having to replace his tyres too so all in all they had a bit of a boring morning. To make up for it he took them to Chiquitos and to watch Sherlock Gnomes – as well as taking them around the shops to buy presents for my 40th birthday which is coming up in a few weeks. On the Sunday it was very hot and our 10 year old had a triathlon. He couldn’t wait until the end for the results as he felt too sick, and my husband thinks it was the heat. They also visited their Nan and Granddad. Then they relaxed on computer games. It felt weird to be away from them and they gave me big hugs on my return.
We received the phone and game for purpose of review. All opinions are honest and our own.