Tag Archives: vegetarian

Not Too Spicy For Dad

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For the story so far click here 🙂

Tuesday 12 November

We read to the end of chapter six of Wuthering Heights.  It’s a great story, everyone is very mysterious and dramatic.  I think Heathcliff is a bit scary, although you can’t blame him for getting cross with Mr Lockwood, he’s a very annoying character, I would get cross with him if I was Heathcliff.  Nelly is my favourite character so far.

We have been writing out our reports for Operation Independence in our best handwriting.  A whole week of shopping and planning and cooking takes a long time to write out neatly.

In the afternoon we made salt dough plaques to hang on our bedroom doors. Salt dough is a bit like clay, so I pretended I was a sculptor. We made our names and decorated the edges with forks.

Wednesday 13 November

We did Batik today!  We made our own dye by picking mint leaves from the garden and boiling them in water.  Then we melted red and yellow wax crayons in a pot over some hot water, the same way you melt chocolate.  We painted leaves onto a tea towel with wax, and then we let that go cold and used our mint dye to dye the tea towel green! Once that is dry you are supposed to remove the wax with an iron, but we haven’t done that yet.

In the afternoon we went to Nanny’s house and did cookery!  Jude made samosas and I made spicy garlic mushrooms fried in batter.  Sadly I don’t like them, they taste too spicy. I will feed them to Dad, because he likes things like that.

Thursday 14 November

Jude wrote a newspaper report for English today, which is one of her favourite things to do because one day she wants to be a reporter, like Lois Lane.

Mum said I should write an essay describing what happened on our trip to the Robin Hood Pageant.  I used a lot of adjectives.  Luckily I had written about it in my diary, which helped me remember the details.

Later on Mum made a still life for us to draw using a fruit bowl and things.  She showed us how to hold a pencil differently to the way you do when you are writing words and numbers.  You hold it gently so that you don’t press hard.

We read some more Wuthering Heights today, I feel sorry for Heathcliff, he is so lovely when he is little. Nelly is still one of my favourite characters, I don’t like the Lintons at all.continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, home-school, education, learning, children, reading, books, literature, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan family

Running out of pink yarn

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For the first chapter of What Me And Jude Did While Everyone Else Was At School click here

Chapter Two continues …🙂

I’ve started reading my Harry Potter book, it’s good so far, it’s funny and exciting.  I read some of it out to Mum and Dad, and they like it too.  Jude is reading Emma by Jane Austen.

Jude told me that in her library book there are lots of different kinds of foxes, some with big ears, some which are white or orange, tiny little ones and great big ones.Thursday 7 November

For my dinner today I made pasta and pasta sauce and lettuce and tomatoes and cucumber! This project is so much fun!  It’s great, I am pretending I’m a witch who lives in a big house full of witches, and it’s my job to follow the budget and feed us all.  Jude made pasta and vegetable hotpot.  It was really sunny today.

In the morning I did knitting.  I’m running out of pink yarn for my pig, but Mum says that’s okay, because I can use brown because some pigs are pink and brown!

In the afternoon I read some more Harry Potter.  I really like all the descriptions of the different characters, Ron is very funny and Hermione is so caring.  They all live in a haunted castle together.

Friday 8 November

We are studying the Celtic people in history.  They were artists who made beautiful carvings of intricate knots and things.  Mum read from the book to us and then we answered questions and made drawings from photos in the book.

In the afternoon we worked on our own projects.  I am still making my knitted pig which I found very challenging today because I had to increase and decrease stitches to make a leg for him.

Jude was sewing beads onto her caterpillar, which is getting very pretty!  I asked her if she thought she would put wings on the caterpillar so that sometimes he could turn into a butterfly, but she said that would be impossible.

We had our geography test, we had to label each country on a blank map of Europe.  I got twenty-six right!  That’s more than half, because there are forty four countries in Europe.  Next we are going to learn all the counties in the UK!

We also gave Dmitri a bath with mint and tea tree shampoo which keeps fleas away. Dmitri looks so sweet and little when he’s wet.  It takes all three of us to give him a bath because he tries to climb out the whole time.

Monday 11 November

We visited The City Museum and Art Gallery and saw paintings and sculptures by an artist called Richard Barnard.  I really like pottery sculptures, I bet it would be fun to make them.  My favourite was a lovely sculpture of a sitting woman.  I think it would be nice if sculptures were painted, because most of the time they are grey or brown, because that’s what colour the clay is.

We got some books from the library about Batik and Shakespeare and a book called Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontё.

When we got home we read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream which is about a naughty fairy who casts a spell on the fairy queen because he loves her, but all kinds of things go wrong, and everybody falls in love with the wrong person.

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continues Monday.  Have a lovely weekend 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, children’s story, autobiography, home-school, home-education, education, learning, vegan children, cooking, reading, literature, diary, journal, children

November began like so

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For the first chapter of What Me And Jude Did While Everyone Else Was At School click here 🙂

Chapter Two:

Monday 4 November

We are doing a project called Operation Independence!  We have to plan and cook our own meals all week!  This morning Mum gave us each £20 and we went to the supermarket and bought all the food we think we’ll need!  We each had our own trolleys, and had to check the prices of different foods to make sure we had enough money.

At dinner time we each made our own dinners!  I made Sosmix, steamed potatoes, broccoli, carrots and gravy, and Jude made tomato soup, muffins and salad.

We have to keep a record of everything we do so that we can write a report at the end of the week!

Tuesday 5 November

In geography today we have been memorising all the countries in Europe and making a map with them all on.  It’s not easy to remember what all the countries are, there are so many!  There’s a tiny little one which I keep forgetting the name of.

Later I baked a chocolate cake which is one of my favourite recipes, the edges are wonderfully crispy and the icing is really thick, it’s called chocolate fudge icing. I really like spreading it out over the top of the cake.

Jude made Hungarian potatoes for her dinner, with broccoli, and I made Sosmix, new potatoes and baked beans. I love baked beans, they are my favourite food. And Sosmix is delicious.  All you have to do is add water to the powder in the box, and make your sausages out of the mixture! Then you can cook them on the grill or in the oven or you can fry them.  I made mine on the grill because Jude was using the frying pan to fry her onions and tomatoes, and the oven to bake her Hungarian potatoes.  Hungary is one of the countries we need to remember for geography!

Wednesday 6 November

After swimming today we cycled through the park to the library. We don’t usually go that way, I have never been through that park before. It had a stream running through it which had some shopping trolleys in it, which is so sad for the birds and fishes, if there are any. I wonder why anyone would put them there? We rode our bikes over a bridge across the stream, and then took a short cut through the supermarket car park.

At the library we chose some books from the non-fiction section about animals because we are starting our own projects. I borrowed books about apes, and Jude borrowed books about foxes.  I also got Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix !  It is the longest book I’ve ever seen! I haven’t read any of the other Harry Potter books, but this one looks really interesting. It’s got a red and yellow phoenix on the front.

When we got home we had lunch and then we read David Copperfield.  Sadly David has come home from his holiday with Peggotty to find that nothing in his house is the way he remembers it, and his mum is all stressed and uncomfortable.

Later on I made mashed potato pie with textured vegetable protein and tomatoes and onions and carrots and gravy. It’s difficult to cut onions without your eyes watering – I tried wearing sunglasses but it didn’t help. I stirred the gravy because it gets lumpy if you don’t stir it.

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, children’s story, autobiography, home-school, home-education, education, learning, vegan children, cooking, reading, geography, diary, journal, children

Me and Jude’s story continues tomorrow

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Chapter two of What Me and Jude Did While Everyone Else Was At School starts tomorrow!

Don’t miss it! 😉

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vegan, vegetarian, homeschool, education, learning, children, vegan children, veggie kids, children’s story, children’s stories

Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies: ORGANIC, FAIR TRADE, VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE, NO ADDED SUGAR, NO ADDED FAT

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Now, these cookies look very healthy, but they don’t taste it 😉

Of course there is fat and sugar in the chocolate, but the truth is there’s only a couple of specks of chocolate in each cookie, so how can that hurt really?  If you’re being ever so strict you could leave the chocolate out and I’m sure the cookies would still be lovely, but since Miranda found a bar of Moo Free in the cupboard that we didn’t know we had, we decided we wouldn’t be 😉

To make these nutritious treats, this is what you’ll need:

  • 4 very ripe medium to large fair trade organic bananas
  • about 80g of fair trade organic vegan chocolate (optional)
  • 3 ounces of organic sultanas (or other dried fruit)
  • 8 ounces of organic rolled oats
  • a little water to make the mixture the right consistency

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Mash the bananas with a fork in a mixing bowl and then add the sultanas (or raisins or other dried fruit) and the chocolate cut into little chips.  Mix it all together well.

Put the oats into a food processor and mill them into a rough flour, then add it to the mixing bowl (or you can add the oats without making them into flour) and thoroughly combine with the other ingredients.  Add a little water, if needed, a tablespoon at a time, and mix it in to make a nice, moist cookie mixture.

Then put heaped teaspoons of mixture onto a lined baking tray and flatten them with the back of a wet spoon.

Bake them for about 20 minutes or until they are as golden as you like them,

keep an eye on them and rotate the tray if necessary 🙂

And there you have it: delicious and nutritious – they tick all the right boxes!

They’re a lot yummier than they look I promise you 😀

Good ole Mr Peggotty

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For the story so far click here 🙂

Jude has been working on her caterpillar again, while I read David Copperfield out loud to us all.  David has gone on holiday with Peggotty to Yarmouth.  They go to stay with her brother, Mr Peggotty, who lives in a boat on the beach with two children, Emily, who is around the same age as David, and Ham, who is older and Mrs Gummidge.  There is a funny conversation where David asks lots of questions.  He finds out that Ham and Emily are cousins, who were both orphaned and then adopted by Mr Peggotty.  Mrs Gummidge was married to Mr Peggotty’s business partner, but she is a widow now, and so lives with him too.  They are all funny and interesting characters, I especially like Mr Peggotty, because you can tell he likes David.After that mum helped me make a design and then I drew it onto a T shirt with fabric pastels!  My design had flowers and a dog.  I used purple and orange and blue pastels.

Thursday 31 October

Today we had the special cereal with the strawberries in it. I love that.  I am always disappointed to find there is no fruit in cereals which have fruit on the box, mum told me that is just a serving suggestion.  But today’s cereal did have fruit in it!  Jude and I always argue over who has taken too many strawberries, but I can’t help it if they happen to fall out of the box into my bowl.

In the afternoon we made pop up cards and collage cards by cutting up magazines and coloured paper.  Jude made drawings of cartoons and stuck them on paper springs, and I cut out pictures of dogs and cats and flowers from a magazine.

This was the last day of our first month of home-school.  I like it.

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

Halloween pumpkins and old artefacts

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For the story so far click here 🙂

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Monday 28 October

Mum said that because I haven’t been able to learn to type, I could practise my handwriting instead. I have quite good writing when I am careful, but it gets messy when I rush or get distracted.  After that I read my book.  I’m reading a book called I Want Doesn’t Get  by Rony Robinson.  It’s really good. It’s about a little boy and his two sisters.

This afternoon I had a mental arithmetic test and a times table test.  I am not very good at doing maths in my head, so after the test mum went through all the questions with me and showed me how to do the ones I had done wrong.

I don’t really remember the times tables unless I do them one at a time, in the right order. Jude wrote a story.

Tuesday 29 October

We were going to do science this morning, but we wanted to do an experiment about the greenhouse effect, mum said it wasn’t sunny enough so we can do it another day.  So we did spellings instead.  We had to write out the meanings of the words we learned, and then we did our projects.  Jude’s caterpillar is nearly finished, it looks really good.  I am still working on my pig, which is not nearly finished.

We had tomato paté and salad sandwiches for lunch, and we watched the BBC play, which was about some ladies who go to live in a caravan, which starts to roll down a hill, but then it stops.

I wrote another story for English.  The exercise was to make a plan and then make a story.  This time I wrote a story about a girl called Bernice who meets a goblin in her garden, and then she gets into an argument with him because he won’t let her put the washing out.  Eventually the goblin runs away.

Jude was also writing a story, but hers had to have propositions and complex sentences.  Jude said she was writing a really scary story with creepy monsters and vampires.  She’s really good at making up those sorts of stories.

In cookery lesson we carved Halloween pumpkins!  We scooped out the insides and then we cut out scary eyes and teeth and noses, it was brilliant.

Wednesday 30th October

After swimming we visited the museum at the Heritage Centre.  It is great in there because you can see inside a glass case pictures of what the town looked like a hundred years ago, and there are artefacts like tin pots and badges from the 1920s.  They have an old hair dresser’s chair with a big blow drier fixed to the top.  I don’t like that though because it looks like an evil villain’s brain-washing chair.

I like the little room at the back, which is decorated to look like a little kitchen, and you can look in at all the old food tins and boxes from the early 1900s, and there is an old kettle and an old iron and things.  It’s really interesting.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

 

The Robin Hood Pageant

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For the whole chapter click here 🙂

Saturday 26 October

Today we went to the Robin Hood Pageant!  We went on the train to Nottingham in the morning, and when we got to the castle we had our picture taken with a statue of Robin Hood.

At the pageant there was archery, sword fighting and jousting, just like in A Knight’s Tale!  We didn’t go and see that, but there were people dressed as knights, noblemen, noblewomen and peasants from history.  Jude got a bow and arrows so that she can learn to do archery, and I got a wooden toy sword!  And I also got a historical Robin Hood colouring book.

A woman showed us how she was making something on a loom, and there was a spinning wheel.  Mum bought a little loom so that we can make our own cloth!

We saw a potter, and he explained to us what his different pots were for.  He had a great tall pot which he said was for putting pears in, to store them and preserve them for the winter.  He said that you would fill up the pot with pears and then pour alcohol into it, and they would last a long time, and make a nice dessert.

Jude bought a money box from him which had a slot, but no hole in the bottom for money to come out.  You have to break it to get the money out.  The man said you could use a knife and some jam to try to get a coin out, but I think that would be difficult.

People were milling grains with a big mill stone, and they explained to us that they used to make very white flour for the rich people by putting all the milled grains into a piece of cloth to sieve out all the brown pieces, and the rich people would have white bread while the poor people would have the wholemeal bread flour which was left over.  She said that as a result, the poor people were much healthier than the rich people.

I got dressed up as a knight in chain mail and a helmet, which was very exciting.  I had my picture taken and it was great.  A knight’s armor is very heavy, so after I had taken it all off I felt queasy, I don’t know how people could walk around in that stuff, and fight battles.

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

The Big Draw

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For the whole chapter click here 🙂

For maths I had to do brain teasers about square numbers and division.  That was exhausting!  This afternoon we made still life pastel drawings!  Mum set it up for us to draw three teddy bears sitting in a row.  They are Jude’s bears, she won them at the Christmas bazaar by guessing the name of the littlest one.Friday 18 October

Tomorrow we are going to the Big Draw!  I can’t wait!  I can hardly think about anything else.  I was distracted all through history this morning.  We were learning about the Bronze Age.  That was when the cave people started melting tin and copper and things to make bronze, so that they’d have something other than stones to work with.  The Bronze Age people invented writing and the wheel.  We looked at pictures of Bronze Age roundhouses and longboats in our history book.

We carried on working on our own projects, I have started a new project, knitting a pig!  I am following a pattern from a book about making toys.

Saturday 19 October

Today we visited The Big Draw!  It was at a big city art gallery.  I had a really good time.  Me and Jude made self-portraits and still life drawings and texture rubbings.  There were tables full of pieces of paper and crayons and boxes of pine cones and feathers and leaves to draw.

After that they took us into a room and there were lots of children making a great big abstract drawing together, on a huge piece of paper on the floor.  There were lots of toy cars and we dipped them in paint and then played with them across the paper, making a drawing.  It was a lot of fun, and there was a raffle to see who got to keep the giant picture, but we didn’t win it.  It was great fun, we had such a good time.

Sunday 20 October 

We are having a half term holiday this week. I got up early this morning and watched cartoons.

When the post came there was a free catalogue of women’s clothes, so I took it out to the porch, cut out all the women and played with them.  They were great paper dolls, but eventually I took them outside to have them swim in the puddle, and they all fell apart.  

I did some drawings of the Power Puff Girls! Bubbles is my favourite because Blossom is bossy and Buttercup is angry.

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

It’s a shame about Garth

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For the whole chapter click here 🙂

Tuesday 15 October

We swam for an hour today, and we returned some books but we didn’t get any more out.  It was breezy outside riding our bikes, we put cotton wool in our ears so we didn’t get ear ache after swimming.  In English I have started reading a book called Carrie’s War, about Carrie and her brother who are evacuated from London during the Second World War.  They live with a grumpy shop keeper and his sister, and they make friends with a little boy called Albert Sandwich.

After that I worked in my English workbook where I learned about paragraphs and comparisons.

For dinner Jude made “Hungarian potatoes” and pancakes.  “Hungarian potatoes” has slices of potato, fried tomatoes and onions and gravy and it’s all baked in the oven.  I made a coffee and syrup cake.

Wednesday 16 October

In science we learned how power stations store electricity, and that energy is always changing.  We made experiments out of a knitting needle and a cork and a salt pot which we cut the end off of to demonstrate how a water mill works.

At lunchtime we had peanut butter and Marmite on toast.  I like to make toast and put the margarine on straight away, so that it melts in and gets really soft.  Jude does it like that too, and Dad says she puts too much margarine on her toast.  Mum likes her toast well done, and I like mine so it’s hardly toasted at all, hot but not brown, Jude likes it to be medium toasted.

While we were eating we watched Cheers.  Cheers is great because it’s funny.  My favourite character is the woman who is played by the mum in Matilda, she is really great when she gets angry and goes crazy.  I can’t remember her name. I really like the theme tune.

In needlework we learned cross stitch sewing.  There are lots of different ways to sew, and we practised half-cross stitch and herringbone stitch.  When we finished we stuck them in our scrap books and cut out labels printed off the computer and stuck them in too.  We cut the labels out in decorative ways to make our books interesting.

Jude made drawings when lessons were over, she is really good at drawing cartoon people.  I played with my dolls and one of them broke in half because she fell while she was rock climbing.  The other dolls were pretty worried but it’s okay, because she was rushed to hospital and I Selotaped her back together again.

Jude has dolls from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  She has a Willow, a Buffy and an Angel doll.  But I’m not supposed to touch them, because they are very fragile, and sometimes their arms fall off.  Sometimes I do go and look at them though.

Thursday 17 October

This morning Jude was working on formulae for maths, which is all about triangles and circles and rectangles.  I do English while she does maths, and for English I had to write a story!  I wrote a story about a girl called Rakel who is supposed to go on a bus ride, but she doesn’t, instead she goes into this cave with her friends and finds magic crystals.  It all goes wrong when something bad happens and they have to run for it, and one of them, Garth, gets trapped and they have to leave him behind.  Mum said that was a bit harsh, leaving Garth behind, and I did feel bad about that, but that’s just a tragic part of the story.  I didn’t know how to end the story, so it doesn’t have an ending yet.

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

Small hands

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Continued from yesterday 🙂 :

Saturday 12 October

I went to music school and learned how to play the theme tune to Rugrats on my keyboard!  My friend Dana is really good, and she showed me the songs she has been playing at home.  Virginia, who is my other friend, is learning to play the clarinet, and when she has learned to play the clarinet, she says she will learn to play the saxophone, like Lisa Simpson! The teacher played us some of his CDs, which he keeps in a big folder, like a photo album.  Our teacher is called Arlo, and his assistant is called Lucas.  Lucas said that Dana, Virginia and me always wear the same colours, and he asked if we planned it that way.  We laughed because we had never noticed that.

After keyboard lessons was music theory, which never makes much sense because most of the children are naughty, but also because we are all learning different instruments, so it feels disconnected to learn about theory without my keyboard in the room. I would rather they showed me how to play the piano with two hands at once, which is something I can’t fathom.

After music theory was choir, which I really like, I love to sing really loud and they give you sheets of words to lots of songs!

And after that there was drama, (Saturday drama club is different from Thursday drama club) we are making a production of Jack and the Beanstalk, and I am one of the giant’s arms!  We have a lot of songs to learn, and I am a market seller at the beginning, before I become the giant’s arms.  I like playing drama games too.  We play wink murder which is a game where you have to stand in a circle, and someone is the murderer, and if they wink at you, you have to die really dramatically.

Monday 14 October

I got one hundred percent correct on my times table test today! I had to do the fives, which are fun because they are easier than the others.  After that I had typing practice, but my fingers are too small to reach all the keys, so mum said I should wait for now and carry on learning to type when I’m bigger.

I finished reading the book, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator! It was really funny.  Charlie, his whole family and Willy Wonka went up in the flying elevator, but his gran gets frightened, which means Mr Wonka can’t turn around, so they go into space, and start orbiting the Earth, and they get mistaken for aliens and it’s very funny.  That’s what I did in the morning, while mum was teaching BODMAS to Jude.  BODMAS is something to do with long multiplication, or something. Luckily I don’t have to learn it for a couple of years.In the afternoon I did a mental maths test, but I’m not very good at it.  I don’t like doing maths inside my head without writing anything down, especially if I’m being timed. I know now that two, three, five, seven, eleven and thirteen are all prime numbers, but I can’t remember how to calculate a perimeter.

Jude did touch typing, she is up to level 2 now, and she read her reading book.

Continues Monday 🙂

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 vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

Punctuation and sponge-printed Christmas cards

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continued from yesterday 🙂 :

We also did English, and I learned about punctuation and spellings.

We made Christmas cards this afternoon! We made stamps out of sponges and vegetables and then we dipped them in paint and printed onto card.  We made snowmen and Christmas tree and holly stamps, and we had lots of different coloured card.  It was fun to start getting ready for Christmas already! I don’t think it’s ever too early to think about Christmas and to get organised.

We made a lot because we need to send them to all our family and friends.  We couldn’t add baubles to the trees on the cards today because the paint was still wet, but we might be able to do that tomorrow.

I’m excited because the Saturday after next we are going to go to the Big Draw which is in town! That’s a drawing festival full of activities for us to try.

At six o’clock I went to drama club in town.  We are making a production of The Billy Goats Gruff for the old people at the care home and it is a lot of fun.  There are lots of songs to sing and not really any costumes, you have to use your imagination.  My friend Lydia is the littlest goat, and Benjamin is the medium sized goat, and I can’t remember who the biggest goat is.  There are only three goats and a troll in this story, and the rest of us sing.  We are the chorus.

Friday 11 October

In history we are learning about the Neolithic people.  They are the modern cave men, from about 10,000 B.C., although nobody really knows how long ago.  They made tools from stone, but they polished them, which the old stone age people didn’t do. They also lived in villages and made pottery.

This was when they started growing crops instead of picking plants that grew all by themselves, and stopped being nomads.

I think it would be cool to be a nomad, just wandering around and finding food that’s grown by itself.  Although, we did learn that living in houses gave the neolithic people time to do arts and crafts, so I can see how that would be fun too.

After lunch we worked on our projects. My project is knitting squares to make a patchwork blanket.  So far I have three blue ones, a stripey yellow one and a glittery purple one.  Today I made a green one and a purple and cream one.

Jude’s project is making a toy for a toddler, which she designed herself. She made this caterpillar out of fabric, and then she stuffed it with dry peas which we got from the health food shop.  She is sewing on letters and numbers for children to learn from, and a bell that jingles, to make it happy.

Then later on I made dinner. It’s good practice.  I followed all the instructions on the packets.  I made broccoli, carrots, Linda McCartney sausages, chips and gravy.  The broccoli and carrots were fresh, they needed chopping and washing, the other things were frozen, except the gravy granules, which come in a cardboard pot.  The gravy is easy to make, you measure it out with a spoon and boil the water in a kettle.  The sausages are tricky because if you don’t keep a careful eye on the grill they can quickly get overdone on one side.

After dinner we had soya desserts which come in little pots.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

Swimming like a frog

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Chapter One of What Me and Jude Did While Everyone Else Was At School continues:

Tuesday 8 October

I am getting much better at breaststroke, so is Jude.  Breaststroke is swimming like a frog.  Sometimes I start to sink, so I stand up, but I hardly did that at all today.  When we go swimming there are not many other people at the pool, but if you swim for a long time, which we did today, a swimming class arrives, and they all line up beside the pool and dive in together.  It’s very impressive.  I don’t know how to dive, I wonder if it makes water go up your nose.

We went to the library after swimming, and borrowed some more books.  Jude got five books! I just got two.  I got a book about dolphins and whales and sea creatures, and a book called Charlie and the Glass Elevator, which is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I haven’t read the first book, but I’ve seen the film, so I understand what happens in the story.

When we got home we went down the lane to pick blackberries from the hedgerows.  This is fun because you get pink fingers.  It is a careful business, you need to choose the ones which are shiny and dark purple, avoid the red and green ones, which aren’t ripe yet, also avoid the ones which look like they have been half eaten by wasps or birds or spiders.

For cookery I made apple and blackberry pie, and Jude made oat biscuits.  We worked at the table together.  Then we made beans on toast for dinner.  Jude stirred the beans while I put the margarine on the toast, and Mum laid the table.  If you don’t stir beans, they stick to the bottom of the saucepan.  We have a dark blue cooker and a bright orange kitchen.

Wednesday 9 October

In science we learned that energy is everywhere, and we learned about the energy in our bodies, in our blood and in our brains and things.

I like to daydream that we are making important scientific breakthroughs about the Sun, and that we have discovered that actually the Earth is slowly moving away from the Sun! Or that there are actually two Suns!  And nobody ever noticed because they are never in the sky at the same time.

In the afternoon we did sewing! Mum showed us how to do straight stitch and satin stitch, and we practised them on little pieces of fabric. When I’m sewing I pretend I am someone from Little house on the prairie, mending clothes for someone.  With satin stitch I sewed a circle in green, pink, blue and yellow on a white and green striped piece of fabric, and Jude sewed hers on a dark blue piece of corduroy.

Thursday 10 October

In the morning we usually get up early, have breakfast and then I do the washing up, Jude walks our dog, Dmitri, and Mum sweeps the floors.  We do those jobs as quickly as we can so that they’re all done in time for us to watch Bewitched before lessons start.

Last time I did maths I thought I nearly understood mean, median and mode, but they were different today than last time I saw them.  Median is the only one I can remember. At least I’m not doing long division, which is what Jude was studying this morning.

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

Reading David Copperfield and painting like van Gogh

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Thursday 3 October

This morning we read some more David Copperfield  and then had a spelling test.  Chapter Two is called  “I Observe” and David talks about his earliest memories of his mother and Peggotty, their servant.  It is very funny.

In the afternoon we made paintings. I painted a scene with sail boats by Matisse, with lots of dabs of pink and blue.  Jude painted A Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.  I really like Matisse and van Gogh’s paintings, they make everything so beautiful and colourful.  We painted all afternoon, at the table.  It takes a long time to paint in dabs and patches, so we haven’t finished our paintings yet.

Friday 4 October

In history we learned about the Stone Age.  Nobody knows very much about the Stone Age, because it happened such a long time ago.  Luckily the people of that time made paintings in caves for us to refer to.  Mum read about the Stone Age to us, and then we answered questions from the book, and drew pictures of the cave drawings.  Most of the cave drawings were of animals.

At lunchtime we had crackers and watched a program about antiques, which we all like, especially Jude. We have our favourite antiques experts, and it’s fun to see how ordinary things can be worth a lot of money.

After lunch we carried on painting our reproductions. I found it difficult to fit every detail into the picture. 

Saturday 5th October

Today Mum, Jude and me went on the bus to the museum and art gallery in town. They had Stone Age artefacts in glass cases.  It is fascinating to see little pieces of the past all dug up from underground, forgotten for years and now sitting in a display box.

The museum also had an exhibition of different sorts of shoes from history, baby shoes, dancing shoes, working boots.  I liked the red glittery dancing shoes, and the video of the fashion show.  Some of the shoes were really old and fragile.

Near the entrance of the museum there was a giant elephant made out of cardboard, which was amazing! We went in the gift shop and looked at all the souvenirs, they had books and pencils and old coins and toys from history.

Monday 7 October

Today we had separate lessons because Jude is three years older than me, so she needs to learn different maths. Jude and Mum worked downstairs on ratios and long multiplication, while I worked upstairs.  I read my Sabrina reading book, practised typing on the computer, and then practised playing music on the keyboard.

I was trying to learn a song called Beautiful Brown Eyes, but it didn’t sound right.  So far I can only play music with my right hand, which is on the treble clef.  Hopefully one day I will be able to play with both hands at the same time.

In the afternoon it was my turn to do maths.  I studied averages, which is mean, median and mode.  I found this difficult because it’s really complicated.  Median I find easier to remember, because it sounds a bit like “middle” and that’s what it’s all about.  The other two are something different.

Jude did typing and read her reading book, The Worry Website.  She doesn’t want to learn to play the keyboard, so she didn’t play any music.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, children, home-schooling, education, school, diary, journal, children’s story

New story starts today: it’s a wonderful vegan life

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What Me And Jude Did While Everyone Else Was At School

Chapter One:  I left school aged 9¼

Tuesday 1 October

This morning we cycled to the swimming baths.  We have decided to go swimming once a week, Mum, Jude and me.  The curtains in the changing rooms were blue and yellow, and we needed a pound coin each for the lockers.  I always try to pack my clothes away with my shoes at the bottom, and my towel on the top.  

Mum is teaching us to swim the breaststroke, you have to keep your fingers together and push the water behind you, at the same time you bend and straighten your knees.  Mum said to picture how a frog swims.  We swam for about an hour and then we went to the library.  

The library is a really comfortable place to browse books and read.  There’s a whole section of children’s non-fiction and fiction, I once found a really good bouncy ball on the floor near the toddler books.  Today I found a Sabrina the Teenage Witch novel for my new reading book, and a book about dogs.  I needed a new reading book because I finished The BFG on Sunday.  Jude chose The Worry Website by Jacqueline Wilson, one of her favourite authors.

At home in the afternoon we read David Copperfield together.  We each have a copy, and we take it in turns to read it aloud.  I’ve written my name in my copy.  David Copperfield is a really long book by Charles Dickens, we started reading it the other day, when Mum got us each a copy from the Heritage Centre.  We finished the first chapter today, it is really interesting.  It starts off when he is born, and then carries on.

 

Wednesday 2 October

This morning we learned that all energy comes from the Sun.  Plants use the Sun’s energy to grow, and so when we eat plants we are eating the energy the Sun gave the plants.

We had a needlework lesson this afternoon.  Mum showed us how to hem, and how to sew running stitch. I really like sewing, we used little pieces of fabric scraps to practise, and then we stuck them in our purple scrap books which is where we record our sewing.

Jude finished her sewing first and she used the rest of her lesson time to flick me with elastic from the sewing box.  This was annoying but it was funny too.  I carried on sewing and finished my running stitches, Jude said she was impressed by my reflexes.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

Last but not least … the Megan & Flos Diary winner:

By

The winner of the Megan & Flos Diary [for any year] is Annette Rochelle Aben!  Congratulations Annette, email me your address or use the Contact Form and I’ll get that off to you as soon as possible 😀

Have a lovely day 😀

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vegan books, vegan books for children, vegan, vegetarian, free book, free diary, prize draw, giveaway, books, children’s books

Luke’s Secret Sersiety Notebook Winners!

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We are delighted to announce there are two winners of Luke Walker’s Privut Notebook and they are …vegan book for children

… Karen Gadient and Hit and Run 1964 (aka Gigi)

Congratulations guys 😀 thank you for entering 😉

email me at violetsvegnecomics@gmail.com with your addresses and I will get those off to you asap 😀

………………………………………………

vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s book, notebook, children’s notebook, giveaway, free book, prize draw, book giveaway

The Third and Final Giveaway: The Megan & Flos Diary

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We have one copy of The Megan & Flos Diary: For Any Year to give away so if you want it, just let me know.  The draw is on Friday 🙂  If you win, this is what you’ll get:

There’s somewhere to write your information;

there’s somewhere to make a note of web addresses that you don’t want to forget;

there’s stuff about our solar system

there’s stuff about Flos’s planet’s solar system, as well as a brief history of Summum and the Summum Esse;

And there’s two days to a page for you to write a brief journal or record appointments.

Plus there’s an illustration and quote from the Megan & Flos comics at the end of every month.

So there you have it.  If you want it, let me know in the next 48 hours 😀

NB don’t be put off by the darkness of the photos, the pages are bright and cream 🙂

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The Second Giveaway: Luke Walker’s PRIVUT NOTEBOOK

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Luke-Walker-animal--er-notebook/dp/1530311284/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469185270&sr=1-1&keywords=luke+walker+animal+stick+up+for-er

Luke Walker (animal stick up for-er) is a very resourceful chap, so when he decided he needed a notebook to record all his outlaw activities, and he didn’t have any money to buy one, he just made use of an exercise book Mrs Tebbut gave him because he knew maths was a waste of time.

vegan book for children

This notebook has very private, secret things in it but Luke is willing to share it with other veggietareun outlaws who join his secret sersiety.  Every sersiety member should have one!

vegan book for children

Each new member can add their name to the first page if they agree to the pledge.

There’s lots of important information in it,

including how to make a code-maker/code-breaker,

plus lots of empty space for other outlaws to make their own contributions.  Luke’s lined it for you.

All secret coded messages can be written at the back of the book.  Members will be able to decode it when they’ve made their own code-breaker.

We have two of Luke Walker’s notebooks to give away 😀 Let me know if you want one, the draw will be on Thursday.  You’ve got two days: GO! 😉

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vegan, vegetarian, books, children’s books, vegan children’s books, competition

 

And the winners are …

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Thank you to everyone who entered the Reflecto Girl’s Lost Notebook giveaway draw.  The two lucky winners are Cheryl and Susan 😀

Congratulations!  You can give me your address privately using the Contact Form on the About page, or email me at violetsvegnecomics@gmail.com

And don’t be dismayed if you weren’t a winner this time, there are going to be more notebook giveaways this week, but different ones 😉

Have a lovely day, and don’t get too hot 😀

Reflecto Girl’s Lost Notebook GIVEAWAY!!!

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Miranda and I are off on holiday this week so we thought we’d leave you with this:  2 copies of Reflecto Girl’s Lost Notebook are up for grabs! 🙂

We have two of these cute little books to give away, (it’s only 14 x 18 cm), and if you want one all you have to do is tell me that you want to be entered into the draw 😀 But first of all, let me tell you a little bit about this notebook.

The thing is, it’s Renée’s, but she lost it.  She left it on the bus when she was on her way to meet George in episode 5  and she was really worried about it because she’d written about all her Reflecto Girl adventures so far in it.

Luckily George reminded her that as long as her real name wasn’t in it (which it wasn’t, she’d made sure of that) it didn’t matter if anyone else learnt that Reflecto Girl was out there.

Renée was still a bit miffed that she’d lost the recipes she’d written in her notebook,

and the important websites she’d made a note of,

plus it was a really nice little book which was a Christmas present from a friend.  But she couldn’t go to the bus depot lost property and claim it because that would reveal her identity to anyone who had read it.

So, there is this half-filled notebook (revealing the girl behind Reflecto Girl – her real life in her own words, an engrossing read 😉 ) with lots of empty space for someone else to write their journal, and/or shopping lists, and/or to do lists, and favourite websites, and favourite recipes, and fill with doodles and sketches of their own.

If you want it, let me know – two lucky winners will be pulled out of the hat next week 😀

See you then 😀

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vegan book, vegan children’s book, vegan notebook

 

A Little Sprite – again

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Last night I saw a little sprite

Who told me what to do:

“Eat only plant food,

It’s much better for you.”

****

She fluttered and she floated

And she smiled down on me,

“Plant food is meant for you,

Just try it and you’ll see.”

****

I woke up and I sat up

And I looked from floor to beam.

I saw no sprite, there was no sprite,

She must have been a dream.

****

But still I could not shake her

Which was because, I knew,

She was real inside my head

And what she said was true.

The Circle of Life

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Make your own compost 🙂

Save all your raw fruit and vegetable peelings, apple cores, tea bags, soapnut shells, etc etc

and take them outside to your compost bin (any container will do but make sure it’s got drainage holes in the bottom)

Toss your ‘green waste’ in there, (ie raw fruit & veg waste)

but also add some ‘brown waste’ (such as brown paper, black and white printed paper like newspapers or old paperback pages (no colour print), dead leaves) every so often otherwise you’ll end up with a wet soggy, stinky mess.  You want about 2 parts ‘green’ to 1 part ‘brown’ according to the science 🙂

Then eventually it will rot down to something moist and earthy, just teaming with baby earthworms (I don’t know where they came from) and ready to host your new plants.  Don’t ask me how long this took, I didn’t time it, but it was probably about a year.  We just eventually thought it looked composty and tipped it out of the bin and there you have it.  Click here if you want advice from experts 😀

Now you can pot it …

… sow some seeds in it, …

… and in a few days (this is less than 2 weeks later) your old vegetables will be providing you with new vegetables 🙂

I’d better thin these 😉

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vegan, vegetarian, recycling, home-grown, plant-food, plant-based, health, gardening, growing

Nutritious Still Life

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My friend drew a still life

Which she wanted me to see.

She told me I’d like it

Because it’s good for me.

There’s vitamin A, vitamin K,

And of course vitamin C.

Potassium, phosphorus, magnesium,

Lycopene and manganese!

🙂

 

She said, he said …

By

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So she told him, “going vegan would solve your bovine TB problem.  Leave the badgers alone and grow carrots!”

“Ooh, and what did he say?”

“Nothing yet, he can’t think of an answer.”

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vegan, vegan growing, vegan farming, cows, animals, badgers, food, health, vegan cartoon, vegan comic, vegetarian, plant food

It’s time to look at the apple trees

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Remember, way back in February 2014, we planted some apple seeds?

and they grew (well some of them died, but some of them grew)

And we checked in on them in 2015 and again in 2016 and they just kept on growing!

So we planted them outside in the ground.  We thought the chickens might like them for shade when they’re bigger, but while they’re still young we put some wood around them to keep the girls from scratching the earth off their roots.  There’s four in here (I wonder if you’ll be able to spot them all), and two of them are taller than me!  The 8 to 10 years wikihow said we’d have to wait for fruit seemed like a long time, but it’s been 3 years already and time’s just flying 😀

NB this is not my garden 🙂 but luckily we were able to plant them here.  So, if you don’t have anywhere of your own to plant them, look for a suitable spot on public property where they won’t get hacked down by farm machinery and then everyone can enjoy them.  Check out the Scottish Forest Gardener to see how he successfully plants trees on council property 🙂

Plant trees!  You know it makes sense 😉

Update 2024:

These trees are now ten years old so they might blossom and fruit this year but sadly we had to move away from that garden three years ago so we’ll never know for sure.  But check out the last pictures we’ve got of these trees here [in 2020] and you can see how big they’d grown as I photographed them with a six foot man standing next to them 😀

Press Conference

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For the whole story click here 🙂

The End.  For now 😉

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Right, that’s that taken care of, now we’re going to watch the new Wonder Woman film, maybe we’ll see Renee there 😉

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,

Quick! Switch the telly on!

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For the story so far click here 🙂

Story concludes tomorrow 🙂

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Feeling better?

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For the story so far click here 🙂

continues tomorrow 🙂

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Who are The Overseers?

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For the story so far click here 🙂

…. continues tomorrow 🙂

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Cull extended

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For the story so far click here 🙂

… story continues on Monday 🙂

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NEWS NEWS NEWS

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For the story so far click here 🙂

…. continues tomorrow 🙂

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Wait!!!

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For the story so far click here 🙂

…. continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,

Call me

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For the story so far click here 🙂

42 minutes later …

…. continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,

8.27

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For the story so far click here 🙂

…. continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,

Go Home!

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For the story so far click here 🙂

continues Monday 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero,

Earning a living

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For the story so far click here 🙂

to be continued …

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food

Mwps Ip Den

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For the story so far click here 🙂

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, bovine TB, badger cull, dairy farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food

Vegan Hippo

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For the story so far click here 🙂

continues tomorrow 🙂

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While you’re waiting, check out Vegan Hippo (it’s a real place don’t ya know) 😀

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming, vegan superhero, vegan cafe, vegan food

“Got ‘im!”

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For the story so far click here 🙂

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming, vegan superhero

Suit yourself!

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For the first five episodes click here 🙂

Episode six continues:

continues Monday 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England, bovine TB, badger cull, farming,

Sigh

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For the first five episodes click here 🙂

Episode six continues:

continues tomorrow 🙂

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Good Morning …

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For the first five episodes click here 🙂

Episode six continues:

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England

Are we nearly there yet?

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For the first five episodes click here 🙂

Episode six continues:

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story, London, Westminster, Natural England

Reflecto Girl episode 6 starts now!

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For the first five episodes click here 🙂

click to enlarge

 

continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, veggie kids, vegan children, vegetarian, animals, badgers, vegan, illustration, comic, children’s comic, children’s story

Explain

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For the first seven chapters click here 🙂

Chapter 8 continues:

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“Explain.  How is this the only waste you personally made this week?”

Luke explained.

“I told my mum not to buy the vegetables an’ fruit in plastic bags an’ nets an’ trays ’cause we don’t need ’em, we just throw ’em away as soon as we get home. So I jus’ put it all loose in the trolley; I laid it on top of a soft bag so it dint get bruises, and then I put it in our own bags when we paid for it.”

The fact that the bags to which he referred were actually pillowcases was an irrelevant detail unnecessary to divulge.

“Ok, good, loose fruit and veg – no need for packaging.  What else?”

“I told Mum to get the loose lentils and raisins that you can weigh, instead of the ones in packets, and we put it in our bags we took with us what we can re-use.”

He paused, waiting for her to acknowledge receipt of this information.

“Go on,” she urged.

“I told Mum to get me the porridge oats what comes in jus’ a paper bag instead of cereal what’s in boxes and plastic bags.  An’ we got flour an’ sugar in paper bags an’ bread in paper bags instead of plastic; an’ peanut butter in a glass jar with a metal lid; an’ vinegar an’ ketchup an’ apple juice an’ sunflower oil in glass bottles with metal lids – but we ‘aven’t finished all of ’em so I on’y brought the juice bottle today – an’ two tins of beans.  That’s everythin’ I ate an’ I made my Mum choose glass an’ tins because they can be recycled over an’ over forever an’ ever, back into bottles an’ food tins, but plastic is bad an’ can on’y be cycled to things like plastic bricks an’ stuff that can’t be recycled in the end.”

Mrs Tebbut was lost for words.  He had read the printouts.  He had done the work.  Impressively.  She looked at the three paper bags, one glass bottle and two baked beans tins and was amazed at how simple it could actually be.

“Well done Luke,” she said, “very well done indeed.”

At the end of the day when everyone else was going to get their coats, Mrs Tebbut called Luke to her desk.

“Good work today Luke,” she said, “is this something you’ve been concerned about for a while?  I mean before we started our project?”

Luke was unused to his teacher’s friendly voice being directed at him but he saw no harm in indulging her.

“Yeah.  Since I saw Spiker caught in the plastic rings an’ all the litter what hurts the animals.  An’ since so many people are jus’ stupid to keep droppin’ the litter I thought the best thing to do is to make shops stop sellin’ it, then there’d be nothin’ to drop, ‘cept maybe paper bags but that won’t hurt no one and it won’t last long.  So I’m teachin’ my Mum not to buy things with plastic.”

“Well, Luke, that’s wonderful, I’m very impre….”

“An’ I’m makin’ new things out of old things as well,” being impressive was new to Luke – he couldn’t stop now, “so I’m recyclin’ ’em myself and I’m reducin’ the buyin’ of new things ’cause of fixin’ things and makin’ new ones out of old ones.”

Mrs Tebbut smiled.

“Really?  What are you making?”

“At the moment,” he said proudly, “I’m knittin’ a blanket for my pet lamb to keep ‘im warm on chilly nights.”

“Wonderful!  And are you using recycled yarn from an unravelled jumper?”

“Kind of, but no, not yarn.  Strips of material.”

She looked confused so he tried to explain.

“I got the idea from me Nan’s magazine ’bout makin’ rag rugs by cuttin’ old material into strips an’ knottin’ ’em together to make long long strings of it an’ then knittin’ with it. It’ll make a thick, soft blanket for Squirt to sleep on.”

“Fantastic!  What material are you using?  What are you cutting up?”

Luke was glad she asked because he’d put a lot of thought into that decision.  He answered with the quiet confidence of a wise person enlightening a complete beginner.

“I decided the warmest stuff would be what blankets are made of and I found two big blankets in the airing cupboard what nobody was usin’ so I used ’em.  I’m nearly finished now.”

Mrs Tebbut smiled again.

“You’ve got a good heart Luke,” she said, “off you go.  Have a nice weekend, I’ll see you Monday.”

Luke, almost overwhelmed by the unfamiliar sensation of being approved of, went to get his coat.

Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er (£4) – the first eight chapters; and Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er: my privut notebook (£2.75) – every member of Luke’s secret sersiety of animal stick up for-ers should have one; are available from Amazon 🙂

   

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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs

School Project

By

For the first seven chapters click here 🙂

Chapter 8 continues:

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At Besco’s Luke watched her closely with his project in mind.  To Mum it seemed like every time she reached for something he said,

“No!  Not that.  Get this one!”

She found it very trying but at the same time was impressed with her son’s commitment to the project and didn’t want to curb his enthusiasm for anything school-related.  She bit her tongue and cooperated with most his suggestions.

At the checkout, when the lady asked if she’d like any bags, Luke spoke out before she could answer in the affirmative.

“No thanks.  It’s very bad to get plastic bags.  They make pollution.  You should ban ’em.”  Then he put his pile of pillowcases onto the end of the checkout and started filling one with loose vegetables.  Mum flashed the checkout lady an embarrassed smile and said,

“School project.”

When the day came for the presentations to the class, Luke, because his surname began with W, was one of the last to present.  His peers were getting restless.  They had already sat through twenty seven similar presentations in which they were shown similar empty packets, cartons and bottles being thrown out that week by each family.  Those to be recycled included cereal boxes with their internal plastic bags, plastic milk bottles, plastic ketchup bottles, plastic shampoo bottles, Tetra Paks, glass wine bottles, beer bottles, plastic pop bottles, drink cans, food tins and the like.  Those to go to landfill included toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, brillo pads, polystyrene food trays, plastic straws and crisp packets.  Mrs Tebbut herself was having trouble staying awake at this stage and decided that next year she would get the class to work on a single collective presentation for a school assembly.

Luke waited for Susan Vickers to take her family’s waste off the presentation table and then he walked to the front and stood awkwardly facing his class.

“Ok Luke, how have you reduced waste in your household this week?” asked Mrs Tebbut.

Luke reached into his bag and put onto the table three paper bags, one glass 1 litre bottle and two empty baked beans tins.  He looked at the class and spoke loudly to conceal his nervousness.

“This is my waste for this week.  The yellow and blue paper bag what had oats in will be recycled; the brown paper bread bags will go on the compost; the bottle and the baked beans tins will be recycled.”

Relieved that it was over he waited for Mrs Tebbut to tell him to stand down.  She didn’t.

“That can’t be all,” she said, “I told you to show the class how much waste your household had produced and how you’d helped to reduce it.”

“I did.”

“This is all your family’s waste for a whole week?”

“This is the reduced waste what I made ’em reduce.  I don’t think it’s fair to include the things I told ’em not to buy.  They’re not my fault.”

“Luke, that wasn’t the project.  You’ve misunderstood.”

“I’ve done it fair.  It’s not fair to say I dint do well makin’ my family’s waste smaller if my family won’t do what I tell ’em.  It’s on’y fair to see what waste was made from choices I made ’em make.”

Mrs Tebbut couldn’t argue with that.

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story concludes tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs

Bags

By

For the first seven chapters click here 🙂

Chapter 8 continues:

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Mrs Tebbut continued.

“Now can anybody think of ways in which we could reduce our waste in the first place?”

Several hands shot up.

“Yes, Andrew.”

“Draw on both sides of the paper.”

“Very good.  Yes, Katia.”

“Stick a note on your door that says ‘no junk mail’.”

“Good thinking.  Yes, Simon.”

“Get your shoes re-soled instead of buying new ones.”

“Ooh, yes, well done Simon.  Repair things instead of throwing them out.  Good one.  Ok, well done, you’re all thinking now.  What about the choices we make when we buy things like food.  We have to buy food, but how can we reduce waste before we even get it home?”

The class went quiet again.  Everyone was thinking but they weren’t quite sure what she was after.

“I’m thinking packaging here,” she explained, “we eat the food but we throw away the packaging.  How can we reduce that waste?”

“Buy food with recyclable packaging!” Butler shouted out.

“Yes, if we must, but what would be even better?”

Joe’s eyes suddenly lit up and he opened his mouth as if to speak but didn’t.  Mrs Tebbut noticed.

“Joe?  Did you want to say something?”

“Buy stuff without packaging,” he said quietly.

There were a few snickers.

“How ya gonna do that?  Everything comes in packets!” someone scoffed.

Joe went red and looked down at his hands.  Mrs Tebbut frowned.

“Quiet!  Pay attention to Joe, he’s got the right idea!” She turned to Joe, “well done, that’s exactly what I was looking for.  We need to avoid the waste coming into our homes in the first place by choosing things with the least amount of packaging, and even no packaging when possible.  Kenny – see me at the end of class!”

Mrs Tebbut went on to explain their class project: a week on Friday they would all make a presentation to the class in which they would explain how they had reduced waste in their household.  As visual aids they were to bring with them everything being thrown away in their house that week (after it had been cleaned if necessary) and tell the class where that rubbish was headed: recycling or landfill.  She gave them printouts which told them all about recycling.

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After tea on shopping night, Luke was rummaging through the kitchen drawers.

“Come on Luke if you want to come, I want to get this over with,” said Mum.

She hated shopping.

“I’m coming …” said Luke, but didn’t.

“What are you looking for?” asked Mum.

“The shopping bags.  I thought they were in here.”

“So did I.  Oh, I don’t know.  I think I put them in the wash.  I don’t know where they are now.  Never mind, just leave it.  Let’s go!”

“Hang on!” said Luke and he rushed upstairs.

Mum picked up the car keys and headed for the door.

“If you don’t come now Luke, I’m going without you!”  And she went outside.

Just before she released the handbrake Luke opened the passenger door and climbed in.

“What are you doing with those?” Mum asked with alarm as she looked at a large crumpled pile of flower-print and cartoon superhero pillowcases on his lap.

“Bags,” he said, “we need reusable bags.”

Mum inhaled deeply, checked the mirror and reversed out of the drive.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs

Last but not least: Luke Walker chapter 8 starts here!

By

Chapter Eight:

Luke Walker and the recycling

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“Ha ha ha ha,” Luke laughed, “stop it! I’m nearly finished! Let me finish!”

Luke was sitting on the straw in Curly’s shed, trying to knit a blanket for Squirt.

Curly had given birth to Little Squirt a few days after she arrived at her new home and he was the most playful, affectionate little chap Luke had ever met.  Curly hadn’t let Luke come near him at first but after a while she let Squirt go to him.

“Hey!  I nearly dropped another stitch!  Ok, that’s it! I’m putting it away.  I’ll have to finish it at home.”

Luke preferred to do his knitting in the shed on his plot because at home Jared teased him for it.  He had laughed when Luke first asked Nan to teach him.

“Knitting?  That’s what girls do!  You wish you were a girl don’t you Luke?”

“It’s jus’ like makin’ knots at Scouts Jared!  Don’t you make knots at Scouts?”

“Yeah – knots are useful, for camping and sailing and stuff boys do.”

“And knittin’ is turnin’ string into material to make blankets or mats or clothes or tents or anythin’!”

He believed an outlaw should have the skills to make his own things and be self-sufficient.  Knitting was a useful skill.  Nan had been very happy to teach him.

Luke put the half-made blanket back in his bag and played with Squirt until it was time to go home for tea.  He had to be home promptly today because it was Mum’s shopping night and he needed to go with her for his school project.

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This half term’s topic was The Environment and Mrs Tebbut had started by talking to them about rubbish, waste and plastic pollution.  This was of great interest to Luke.

On the board she wrote:

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

“This week we are going to think about how we can reduce waste by the simple choices we make in our lives,” she began. “Although the amount of rubbish being recycled in this country has increased in recent years, the amount being sent to landfill is also on the increase.  In England, we only recycle about 44% of household waste when in fact 80% of it is recyclable.  This means we all need to try a little bit harder.”

“Or a lot harder,” Luke mouthed to Joe.

“So today I’m going to tell you about The Three Rs: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.  Have any of you heard of this before?”

Lots of blank faces and shaking of heads.

“Ok, well the idea is that, although recycling is very important, we should first try to reduce the amount of stuff we buy in the first place by holding on to the stuff we’ve already got for as long as possible – taking care of it and getting it repaired instead of throwing it away.

“Then, once we have really worn out our stuff and it can’t be repaired anymore, before we throw it out for recycling we should try to think of ways to reuse it.  Old clothes, for example, could be turned into cleaning rags.

“And finally, when we can no longer find a use for something, we should recycle it.”

“Interesting,” thought Luke.

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continues tomorrow 🙂

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vegan, vegetarian, environment, recycling, children’s story, children’s book, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, humour, animals, children, sheep, lambs

Wide-eyed Joe

By

Chapter 7 continues (For the first 6 chapters click here 🙂 )

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“…. She belongs to ‘erself. I think she should be allowed to keep belongin’ to ‘erself, don’t you?”  He looked at Joe earnestly.

Joe looked back, wide eyed.

“Yeah, I do.”

Luke smiled, Joe was with him.  But now he really had to think.  Where would the sheep be safe?  If they just left her to wander, someone else was bound to discover her and return her to the farm.  No, he couldn’t let that happen.  He had to get her to a place of safety where the farmer wouldn’t find her.  Joe gently stroked the sheep’s forehead.  Luke was thinking hard.  There had to be a way.  There was always a way if you thought hard enough.  And then it came to him.

“I’ve got it!” said Luke, “I know how we can save her!”

“What? What will we do?” asked Joe eagerly.

“You wait here with her,” Luke instructed, “keep ‘er here, out of sight.  I’ve got to go somewhere and I’ll be back quick as I can.”

“Where are you going?” asked Joe, a little nervous about having sole custody of the refugee.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be quick,” Luke assured him as he turned to run back along the lane towards the village.

Joe continued to stroke the sheep, telling her softly that it would be ok, that Luke had thought of something and he wouldn’t let her down.  Obviously comforted by this, she resumed munching the grass.

It started to rain. Just a few drops at first and then it settled in to a steady drizzle.

“Hurry up,” thought Joe as he became gradually wetter.

The sheep didn’t seem to mind.  Eventually, after almost an hour by Joe’s reckoning (seventeen and a half minutes), Luke returned.  He was smiling and had with him a piece of rope.

“Where ‘ave you been? What are we gonna do?” Joe asked as Luke tied the rope carefully around the sheep’s neck so that he could lead her.

“I’ve got a place where we can take ‘er,” Luke told him, “come on.”

The rain ensured their independence by keeping other people indoors.  They walked back half way along the lane until they came to the back entrance of the allotments.  Luke opened the gate with a key and they went in.  He led his old friend and his new friend past many well-kept plots full of rows of cabbages and turnips and carrots and leeks and all sorts of plants that Luke didn’t recognise.  The sheep was keen to try a few.

“No! Stop ‘er!” Luke half-shouted as she bent her head to some turnip tops.

Joe stopped her just in time and the boys quickened their pace.  After a while the plots began to look a little untidy and, the further they walked, the more unkempt they became.  They stopped alongside Luke’s dad’s plot which was one of the unkempt because he hadn’t had it very long.

“Here we are!” said Luke happily to the sheep, “welcome to your new home Curly.”

“Really?” said Joe.

“Yeah!” said Luke, “I think it suits her.”  Joe shook his head.

“Not the name, the place!  Won’t your dad go mad?”

“Why would he?” Luke asked, a little irritated that Joe was being so negative.

 Then Luke realised that from where he was standing, Joe couldn’t see what he and Curly could see.

“No, not here,” he said, “there!”

And he pointed to something behind his dad’s ramshackle shed.

Joe stepped forward to look.  The plot behind Luke’s dad’s plot had been abandoned some time ago and was quite overgrown.  The former tenant had erected post and rail fencing all around it so that she could keep her Shetland pony there.  And there was a big shed that she’d used as a stable.  Luke beamed.

“This is my plot!”

Joe’s jaw dropped.

“But how? …. When?”

“That’s where I went.  To the ‘lotment committee man’s house.  To rent this ‘lotment.”

“But how … I mean, don’t that cost loadsa money?”

Joe knew the answer to his question almost before he’d finished asking it.  Luke was so happy as he led Curly to her new home.

“Won’t ‘ave time for bike rides now anyway,” he said.

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The first eight chapters of Luke’s adventures sticking up for animals – only £4! Click the pic!

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