Another fresh start.........

After what seemed a disastrous week last week with studies, we eased up and went with the flow while finding stuff that interested Erin.
She also started back at a few of her activities and is back grinning from ear to ear with swimming.
Thankfully we are now all organised and have a fresh start tomorrow. Lets hope it goes with a positive swing.

In the meantime My www.craftycabin2011.co.uk ad went out in NW London Families Magazine and i have had an enquiry, lets hope i will get more than one. The last time i put an ad out for my catering business i got only 1 enquiry.
So i f you are in my area and know of someone or fancy signing up yourself or your kids then check out the website for upcoming adult and children's workshops.

Not Back To School

We started Not Back To School yesterday & it didn't go quite as planned. I think we were a bit full on. Erin got through Literacy, Maths, Handwriting Practice and Latin. We had tears and a stressful time, so we put it down and thought we would make a fresh start today. That's the great thing about what we do, we can just walk away and come back to it at a later date and there are always plenty of cuddles and encouragement.
Early in the afternoon we had some fabulous news that overshadowed the morning. Erin had done her LAMDA (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) exam early in the summer and after 6 long weeks of waiting for the results, they came yesterday. She passed with a distinction. You can imagine the victory dance that went on in our house. I'm so glad that she can work at something she is clearly talented at, something that may be a bit harder if she were in school. the rest of the week will be a bit lighter, just gentle lessons to ease into it. Yesterday we did some autumn felt craft and made trees, tracing around their hands for the trunk and cutting out green, yellow & orange leaves to stick on. These will go into our seasonal mantle along with acorns & conkers that have been collected whilst on walks and our lovely autumn mobile made with sticks, conkers and acorns, felt oak leaves and felt toadstools.
The following pictures are just a few of our activities: making past, making jam, felt crafts, cleaning, learning, puddle splashing, baby buggy racing and creative play.

 I also finished our first bout of Crafty Cabin workshops and am now preparing for the half term workshops and the christmas workshops. I am also introducing adult workshops starting next week. So if you or your kids fancy getting crafty check out www.craftycabin2011.co.uk
Erin also wanted to start her own business, we went through all the usual things car wash, baking biscuits, making smoothies etc.....but i suggested she do something a bit more longlasting. So we decide to set up Erin's Emporium a website for kids to spend their pocket money so check out www.erinsemporium.co.uk
and let us know what you think.

Erin's building a business

I'm like most He-ers/parents, i worry whether or not my daughter/s will get a well rounded education. one that starts with the basics reading and maths. maths you see is not my strong point....at all.
However i have started a business & sold it (or components of it) i have started another business. Whether or not this new on will be a success i don't know, its largely down to me.
Erin expressed an interest in starting her own business she loves the idea of earning her own money. It seems it doesn't matter what the business is as long as she makes money from it.
So i thought i would use this as a learning opportunity, a maths lesson, a life lesson. After all Branson & Sugar started somewhere.
So i have been busy devising a business template for her to follow. Starting with an idea, working out costs, labour, tax and profit and cover fixed costs & percentages and finally profit.
I'm hoping it will make math simpler for her and me. I'm trying to make it fun but also get that understanding of it all in there as early as possible.
That way she can build her empire early and i can continue in the style I'm accustomed to ;)

Being inspired

The first two weeks have gone well at Crafty Cabin www.craftycabin2011.co.uk Now i think we could be in for a few quiet weeks.
Thats fine as i have Erin's birthday party coming up, a lady like affair (i hope) at www.bettyblythe.co.uk i got a great deal from www.livingsocial.com so decided to add on a bonus activity of teaset painting. Each little girl gets their own teapot to paint and take home. How cute. In the meantime im busy making little felt party bags, like little shopper bags whizzed up on the overlocker then using bright colouful embroidery silks i am blanket stitching around the outside. The each bag will have the First letter of their names appliqued on the bag and finished off with some beads and sparkles. Then filled with girly bits some from www.mejewels.co.uk Hawkins Bazaar and Tiger. Erin has also been making plaster cast fridge magnets that she will pop in to the bags too.
I have also been busy making cushion covers for an upcoming workshop, so have had lots of fun sourcing fab exciting & sumptuous fabrics form Ebay and www.abakhan.co.uk.

Over the past few days many of my friends on Facebook have been active on Pinterest a fab new site i have yet to fully discover but it has inspired me to get down the wooden kitchen from the resources room/workshop and put it in the kitchen. The girls straight away got busy cleaning and stocking the kitchen with utensils, bowls, baskets, pretend food, play silks for the washing machine etc I ma certain much fun is to be had and much profanity from me as i trip over everything strewn on the floor.

Crafty Cabin launches as does Party Cabin!

We got through our first week of Crafty Cabin & much fun was had by all. I'm looking forward to another busy week ahead.
This week has also included building my new website updating my FB page creating a new email address and linking them to twitter and my new twitter account so if you get a moment please check out www.craftycabin2011.co.uk  or click on one of the buttons on my blog page and go to twitter or FB to take a look at what we have been up to. Tuesday everyone made juggling animal beany bags. Thursday saw the start of my very special 6 week course in puppet building. I have still have a couple of spaces left for this week if you would like to join but this is the last week you can join this course. This course will not be run again until next summer so if you would like to book a space go via my website or email me @ craftycabin2011@aol.com
I have also launched Party Cabin, take any of the workshops (except puppet workshop) and we can make it into a spectacular party, we organise your food and can make your cake or a fabulous cupcake tower to make it a truly special occasion.
We also do Blood & Gore parties - lots of fun making fake blood,burns/bruises and other fun gory stuff.


In the meantime we still carry on with our Home Schooling activities. Swimming course, gymnastics, HE groups, reading, art, baking and visits to the allotment to harvest our lush veggies.
We also had a great haul at a local charity shop. Sicence set, weather station and magic set. All brand new and unopened all for £10.50...how cool is that!

A whole new beginning for us.

Morning all. We have a beautiful start to the day here in NW London. I am on my 50th cuppa of the morning. I am just starting to feel human.
This is the last day before our big change. Crafty Cabin my new venture i have set up to work from home launches tomorrow and i am a bit nervous, a bit excited & a bit oh no what am i doing. In the long run im very excited. I get to do the things i love, pass on my skills and make money all from the comfort of my own home, what could be better?
I have 6 weeks of workshops ahead & i am already planning for October & Christmas.
Come September we start a new journey of learning, following a waldorf style routine in a radical unschooling way, can that work? is it possible? dunno but we are going to try. I have drawn up a schedule. how very unschooling i hear you holler. The schedule is for me not the girls. I am the one who needs organising.
After many months of a hectic, confusing & tiring schedule i am relishing a bit of order and structure to my day in the hope it will give me a clear head to unschool the girls. Watch this space.........
So off i trot to put the finishing touches to the workshop and my home......*whispers* i have people coming to my home, i better have it looking decent.
Will post pics of the workshops as we go along................

Its been a long time.

It has been such a long time since i last posted. Things here at Unschoolinghub have been crazy busy.
We have dashed around to auditions, shoots, dance recitals, piano recitals, HE groups, workshops, ballet shows, swim classes, drama classes and everything inbetween. During all of that i have managed to set up a new business 'Crafty Cabin' running sewing/craft & puppet building workshops from home. I trialed the puppet workshop at my HE group and i think it was quite successful. i got to see where i can make improvements for the official launch on 1st August.
I have set up a Facebook  page 'Crafty Cabin', linked everything to twitter, joined Google+ and re did my Linkedin profile. I designed my own logo see below:

 And bought a whole heap of materials for the workshops. i have advertised across the London region HE lists and the first few workshops are fully booked, so not bad.

We also had our check from the EWO which went fine but has spurred me on to get some kind of schedule going for September and that's for me rather than the girls, i just can't continue chasing my tail, it's too stressful.
I'm hoping i keep up with regular updates here as this is to record our Homeschooling/Unschooling journey and all the bits inbetween.
Must dash, eamils to type, party to attend & kid's to feed ;D