Moving the Mountain · A homeschool in England. Events in the life of our family (the Murphy clan) as we all learn together.

Update on family situation

May 23, 2010 in Family, Home Education by MamaSmurf | 3 comments

Hi,

Just a short note to update you all and to let you know that you haven�t been forgotten. It has taken me this long to figure out how to get access�Duh!

It has now been 18 months since Chrissy passed and I think you all need to know what is happening in our family. Well, I am continuing to Home Educate Deiniol, who is now 15, built like the proverbial Brick Outhouse and is just overtaking me in height. It looks like he is going to be very tall, around 6� 4�, like his Taid (Welsh name for Grandfather). I am still using Sonlight and Singapore Math although I am looking at alternatives for the next year as over here in the UK his next year is the big High School exam year, so, I am looking at preparing him for IGCSE (International General Certificate of Education) which is an alternative to the UK GCSE.

The last year has been particularly tough for both of us, Deiniol coped very well until September when it all got too much and he had a breakdown. I had made contact early on with a Family Bereavement Counsellor who was excellent when needed and she saw Deiniol within 48hrs. He then had a series of sessions with her which has helped tremendously.

Deiniol has grown into a good natured youth with a great sense of humour, he is very sympathetic and empathic, he converses well with older people, younger children and his peers, although he doesn�t suffer fools easily. He always has time to talk to people and is always there if anyone needs any help. I do know that Chrissy would be very proud of him and proud that the giudance she always gave him is reflected in how he has developed.

As for me, well I�ve found it difficult over the last year as well, in some ways it has been tougher than I thought it would be. I�ve always been there for Chrissy and Deiniol so being there for Deiniol in his struggles was without question. It was a lot of small things that caused me problems and worries, and all the bureaucratic nonsense that you have to go through. However, I�m now getting out of the darkness myself, only just realising that I�ve been there, and getting on with things with a bit more of �a spring in my step�

Before I go, I would like to thank you all for the support that you gave us when Chrissy passed, your messages of support were fantastic. I intend to keep them on the web page for Deiniol and I hope to be able to retain a place on the Blogger and keep the Mamasmurf page in Chrissy�s memory.

Kind Regards to you all

Robert (Papasmurf)

Emergency Hospital Treatment !

August 29, 2008 in Uncategorized by MamaSmurf | 68 comments

Dear Friends,

I’m sorry to have to let you know that Mamasmurf will be absent for a short while!

Chrissy started to feel unwell on Sunday evening and since that time her health has rapidly deteriorated. Our Doctor (GP or MD depending on where you are ?) came out on two home visits in 48hrs and decided that she needed to be transferred to hospital. So, 45 minutes later, one Emergency Ambulance and two Paramedics, Chrissy was in the Acute Medical Unit at the nearby General Hospital.

We don’t know what the problem is at the moment, however, her temp was 104.3F (40.2C), only fluctuated slightly over 48hrs, and we couldn’t bring it down. She became very confused and dehydrated and we had lots of problems that usually follow on from this. After she didn’t improve and, in fact, seemed to get worse it was decided that hospital was the best bet.

The hospital are putting her through a battery of test to see if they can determine the cause and see if they can isolate an infection. Of course, one of the biggest problems is that Chrissy’s immune system has been so battered by all the Chemo and Radioactive isotope treatment that she has had that any infection just takes a rapid hold and overwhelms her body.

There was some improvement late last night as the introvenous antibiotics and fluids started to take effect so that is some good news.

We are all hoping that this problem can be cleared up quickly and that Chrissy will be back home with her health restored, as far as that is possible, within a very short time.

I hope to have some more good news for you all later.

Rob (Papasmurf)

The Butterflies' "Coming Out" Party!

August 24, 2008 in Home Education by MamaSmurf | 3 comments

Great excitement this morning! The butterflies were set free!

Here is one of the first to emerge from the "Butterfly Garden" kit -

And here are some more pictures of the butterflies as they made their bid for freedom!,

Littlesmurf also managed to hold onto an apple core on which there was a butterfly still feeding!

One thing that we were able to observe more clearly on these photographs were the antennae – definitely clubbed! We also got to see some really beautiful colours on the butterflies’ wings.

Friday Fill-ins #4

August 22, 2008 in Friday Fill-ins! by MamaSmurf | 6 comments

This week Amy provided the questions; thank you, Amy! And…here we go!

1. Dancing to the music while listening to the radio makes me very, very happy.

2. The last time I sneezed I nearly fell off my chair.

3. When I drive I hope everyone gets out of my way because I’ve never passed my driving test!

4. I saw my son standing under a tree.

5. Give me the music, give me the moonlight, give me the man of my dreams.

6. Next week I am looking forward to having some time off for a short break.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, tomorrow my plans include setting our butterflies free and Sunday, I want to relax!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #23 – More Insects (Butterflies)

August 21, 2008 in Green Hour Challenges by MamaSmurf | 4 comments

Today was a really exciting day in our house – the butterflies we have been tending finally hatched out of their chrysalids!

When we bought the kit, they were tiny little caterpillars -

Within about a week, they had become chrysalids. We actually missed taking a photograph of them at this stage, but here is one of them after the butterflies had emerged -

Here is a photograph of the butterfly itself -

Altogether, five butterflies emerged! That’s 5 out of 5!! Littlesmurf was extremely happy and went on to produce the following journal page -

I also managed to catch the butterflies "on the move"! This is the first time I’ve ever managed to produce a video of anything with my camera!

From his studies, Littlesmurf found several names for the Painted Lady Butterfly. They are also known as Cosmopolitan Butterflies (because they are found virtually all over the world) and as Thistle Butterflies (because their caterpillars enjoy eating thistles and the adult butterflies enjoy the nectar from them). Their scientific name is Vanessa cardui, from the class Lepidoptera (scaly wings).

He also found out that males have smaller abdomens than females; that their favourite flowers are asters, cosmos, thistle and buttonbush; that they see more patterns, a wider range of colour and more shades of green than humans do and that the Painted Lady is probably the most widespread butterfly in the world.

We then looked at how well our sunflower plants were doing. They are still being grown in pots on the window-sill of our living-room!

Littlesmurf was fascinated by the different sizes of the sunflowers! We decided that this was due to where they were placed on the window-sill – i.e., how much sun they got during the day.

He was really pleased to see that several of the sunflowers had developed buds – here is the first one to be seen.

We cannot wait for the butterflies to be set free (we’ll probably wait until Saturday morning) and for the sunflower buds to fully open! Two great "Coming Out" parties!

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