Petits Haricots

this july has been v crazy-busy so far, and i could really do with a relaxing holiday. it seems that sept is my best bet! mon i had off work, so nipped the 2+ hours to visit sis, and then journey back. then after work again visited her again, this time with family. following that tho, we didn’t come home, but stayed at mum and dad’s house and raided their freezer! [they were already in charmouth with my nephew M and niece E].

following morning, nice and early we set off for seadown. I love seadown! it saved my sanity last year, and certainly provided me with some moments of happiness this time. it is also a fab campsite, with yes, lovely toilet block, flat pitches and also statics for my parents to stay in. but the main attraction is the tiny walk to the beach! and what a beach!! rock pools for rockpooling, fossils for fossiling, waves for boogie boarding for kids, sand for sandcastles, as well as retail opportunity and bijou museum. have i sold it to you yet?? Love it!

anyway, tent up, hugs with parents and craziness with 4 kids!! we went down to the beach, bought SB and BB a small board to mess about with.[ later we saw a surfer dad start to teach his kids to balance with a wooden shield like board. looks like a good idea!] both my girls near drowned themselves they had so much fun ‘catching the wave’ with SB trying to kneel as well. we might enrol her in a surf school one holiday… [hmm having checked newgale out due too many recommendations, see it does have a surf school nearbye, but doesn't take dogs anymore! that must be a blow!!] oh, i am being so distractable in my blogging! anyway, lots of messing in the sea. E not so keen tho! and BB and E hid in suntent to enjoy ice cream. us hardy adults thought the need for sun tent or wind break fairly evenly balanced! quickish tea - ken hom for us, pasta for them, and then me, mum and steward took the kids for an evening fossil walk. also fab!! we found quite a few ammonites, i found a composite belemnite rock, which i thought was cool!! SB found a cast of a bivalve, which was cooler!! although we found some iron pyrites, we didn’t find any in ammonite form though which was my goal!! called back by dad and husband who thought we had been out way too long! it was getting quite dark, so guess they were right.

earlyish start the next day to get the waves! sand castling also happened, but boogie boarding was the best activity! SB just soooo loved it. she is truly a water baby! i loved so watching her, gave me a huge hols smile. and in fact, one of my drives to get thinner/fitter is so that i can mess about with her - i think i would prob sink a board currently! unfortunately i broke BB’s bucket, and going to get another one was a disastrous 45 min wailfest as there was too much choice I think i did a passable impression of a calm and collected parent as we swept out of the shop to sit and cuddle on a seafront bench whilst calming down [yes, both of us!] before coming to an agreement, going in, buying bucket and quick exit!! after sarnies on the beach we went to the coastal heritage place, and SB, BB and E polished an ammonite slice there, and then looked at the activities. This time it was E’s turn to have a ‘retail moment’, but still mine to manage it it’s a great little place tho, and v helpful wardens, who looked at some of our finds of the previous eve. A bit more beaching/sandcastling and then home for BBQ for us and take away pizza for them! kids did some crafting - fab djeco mosaics from craft merrily! all round at our tent as venue. unfortunately [or fortunately, since we had all finished eating] the heavens opened and we proved that you could fit 5 adults and 3 children in the living space of a minnesota 4! [SB was outside doing a rain dance - lovely dance, crazy girl! ]

another day! another day at the beach!! this time we started with rockpooling. we found some likely looking pools with stewart, dad and M. [E having a bit of a moment stayed with mum, who then joined us when migraine a bit more under control] we were suprised by the wealth of life we found in the pools! crabs, anemones, various seaweeds and small fish. we had a great time searching, peering and finding! eventually the tide covered the rock pools and we let the variety of creatures go free. Mum and E had joined us, and we had a picnic before the plan was made to make more sandcastles and do more boarding, after having a perusal of the shops! money was exchanged! rocks, stones, fossils, stretchy dinosaurs etc bought!! happiness!! SB upset that M didn’t want to go in the water, but with chris and stewart, she and BB had a whale of a time! i hadn’t put in the swimming costume i had planned to, so didn’t swim, and slightly grumpy, tho the water would have been freezing!! [this is where i look up plus sized wet suits again!!]. went back to tent. kids crafted - finished the fab djeco mosaics! def a recommended craft! curry for tea - camp for us, takeout for them!! and then piled into bed exhausted. I had a bit of a teary night, and all unsettled. it did feel as if the holiday was my last drop of happiness for a while. I blame too much limoncello!!

having not slept, getting up and taking tent down did seem rather an effort! have to clear the pitch by 10! waved mum, dad, M, E and stewart off, and then our car didn’t start! i took girls to beach and left chris in charge of starting car - luckilly a nearby camper helped out! we went to the heritage museum, looked at bits and pieces and then down to the beach and rockpooled with chris. totally different beasties in this totally different area! a cafe lunch as picnic on beach, some sandcastles [leaving me to visit viv on way home with sandy knees still!!] a goodbye to the sea - one day we will live by the sea! - and we were off!! an easy drive home with a stop to see viv - she plans to go home on wed, all being well.

sunday at home a bit deflating, rabbits back home - snowy even bigger but far less fluffy, so went and watched shrek forever after, a bit of a romp of a film, only 1 sad moment [that's good!] not as good as first 2 shrek’s, but sequels are always trickier!! still, all happy and home to bed!

monday SB waved off to Brownies camp today! hope she has a really fab time!! BB slightly moochily lost, so a variety of crafts - some from playmerrily discont sale!! [so no longer there to link too! v well received!] and some glass painting things from yellow moon - always a hit! I did some freehand dolphins on a glass to give to Viv. then ds vs mario kart - BB ecstatic to win each race as i am totally crap at it!! ah, and now we have caught up - presses publish!!

this is becoming a bit of a stalwart arrangement in our home ed calendar! so we went to wicksteed park to camp and the lovely em and nic were already there! [just completed their feedback with a couple of minor nags] so we set up in what really was quite gale blustery weather! gradually the babs arrived, and the kirsty. the babs tent snapped, luckilly they brought 2, and kirsty’s was adjusted a few times, but when right was fab with the wind. kids had a merry time playing, we chatting, and the first night done! next day we got up bright and early, relieved to see tents still standing as had been VERY windy! and went to wicksteed rides

Due to some ticket thingies, we all had wristbands this time, which was a v good idea! bb was soooo adventurous! [go bb!] with going on the monorail cycle thing, the dodgem boats, the cars, bouncy castle, teacups and sort of the big slide [tho i did have to rescue her and go down together]. way more than she will normally do!! SB is always adventurous, but this year also did the canoeing and that single person boat that launches off a slide! great time, with much more running about by the older girls, not needing to be with adult, and making for a good friend filled atmosphere as well. SB had a ball!! i really enjoyed the company of em and the babs as we watched our offspring have a great time! the circus was enjoyed by SB, but not so much by BB. tho O was partic cute!! finally i ended up at the park with BB, and a few texts and calls made me a bit teary, but a nice hug from my husband let me put on my brave face! i so wanted to show happy times to my girls to make up for my teary snappy times!!

merry and family arrived, The Babs borrowed our frontier, which needs a little bit of tlc after a couple of years in the hayloft, jax arrived with new tent, then tea hidden in the tent with a massive rain squall, playing and then a lovely evening and toasted marshmellows for all the kids and pimms, chatting, loving, laughing and crying with lovely friends. an evening which reminds you of what good friends you have, and how the internet can be a fab thing. i wouldn’t have known you without it!!

the next day was festival of history, sad farewell to em, and a quick drive. we decided to make it easier for BB we would plonk at watch for the morning and wander for the aft. we very much enjoyed the new prince malik’s lancers and were just settling in to watch the roman century [mm, i love romans!!] when the most enormous rain drenching occurred, and although BB was waterproofed, it was miserable, and she wailed, so we decamped! hid in the artisans bit, and then when that drenching over, looked around. SB and BB made a wax seal, and heard all about their invention, dick turpin etc, the made tiles. The dyer shew SB and myself how to use a drop spindle, so we bought one, and a lucet. another huge rain squall, and SB and I hid with the plasterer, and had a 20 min talk all about plastering roman and renaissance and showing us bits. we were both enthralled. BB drilled a hole into a reindeer antler and made a necklace with chris there with a man with an exceptional beard and great friendliness! we then met up with others at the victorian beach as the rain passed, and bB played with the sand whilst SB listened to storytellers, and then both listened to the fab BZents. we had jax and family with us in the aft, and went to the stalls first, on our way to agincourt. i love how the stallholders are appropriately dressed, and happy to talk at length about their crafts. girls bought beads, and i bought the all odinseye bracelets. we didn’t get to agincourt since we were v much distracted by the alchemist on the way! he was v fab!! agincourt was won by this point, so we went to the games bit for BB, and then home. another lovely eve with friends and fireside laughter and jollity! some of the deependers and also the pies had joined us!

packing up took not so long the next morning, also helped show how to take the frontier down, as the wind was starting to wwhip up. then helped jax with her tent, unfortunately whilst we were in it, the wind whipped out the few remaining pegs, and it came down on us - owww!!! never mind! still, we went off, and went to the parade ground to sit, and watched the american war of independence [and chatted about it] some departed romans and then wandered around the jacobite and civil war camps before meeting up with the deependers for a restorative cup of tea, play in the sand, and a second attempt at agincourt - which we did manage to watch! it was rather good too. we didn’t watch harfleur this time, which SB then moaned about as we saw it last year [v excellent]. quite a good impression of raining arrows! we beetled back and SB an I saw the ww2 finale, whilst chris and bb went back to the games. SB also wanted to watch the parade, so we did. finally we all met up and chatted before leaving to come home. little chef meal with jax, home, and bed!

thankyou to all the friends who make me smile and help give me the strength to keep smiling!

i almost couldn’t face getting up today, and i almost couldn’t bear to go out today. luckilly i managed to ban the duvet from my mind and went out and we all had a lovely day at paxton pits. le ciel rouge, deependers, gina and a number of home edders i don’t get to see much were there, which was lovely, and also got to meet new ppl too - also lovely. and actually managed to spend most of the day giggling and laughing, which if you had asked me last night, i would have said was frankly unbelievable. so thankyou to those that made my day go with a giggle, friends and my lovely girls.

the weather seemed a bit unpredictable, so we had waterproofs and suncream - lol! and listened to italian on the way down, with some new things - colours! had to just look up on google blue and yellow in italian, it is quite unnerving to have yellow nearly the same! missed the paxton pits turn once off the a1, but had been looking at maps for geocaches, so told girls not to worry, could take another road. was just about to check with a stranger when z rung me to say i had gone wrong! when we beat her to car park she was most surprised!! joined our group, acquired 3 more children for the day - who were all fab and excellent! think we had had a really lovely group. sometimes the kids can be quite, well, disparate! so the mix is a bit oil and water, but today all went really well. the lady ‘in charge’ of our group did start off with a bit of ‘in charginess’ and TBH, although allegedly keystage 2 [i am not keen on all this keystaging either] it seemed best pitched for BB. [who named the icthyosaur]. luckilly she got less teachery enthiastic, and more facilitator as she reached what is prob her comfort zone of looking for beasties! then the day got far better!!

so we started by stepping back in time to the time of dinosaurs, and discussed in BB terms that paxton pits was a shallow warm sea, then we moved forwards a bit, but only so we could search for fossils in the gravel. TBH, I would have done this all quite differently, as the concept was good, but the delivery was a bit we have had a jolly good idea! then we moved to the iceage - not sure what that was about, but we then looked for insects around the woodland, under logs and shaking trees, and it started to work, with show and tell, identifying, and our facilitator was into her comfort zone! kids and adults obv didn’t have enough brekkie tho! as tummies rumbling. the final bit before lunch was in the bird hide, which sb really liked, and bb was wingeing. they had binoculars for everyone, and we saw cormorants, great crested glebe, heron and swans. then lunch = phew! they provided tea with real milk too!!

the afternoon was the best bit, the kids were happy, the adults were happy and the facilitator was happy - had the measure of us! and we started with pond dipping = fab! caught so many different things to last week as well. pond scorpions, caddis larvae [well cool!] water stick insects, swan mussels, as well as the more common water mite, boatmen, watersnails etc! and again a good show and tell, as well as lots of looking and helping to identify. she was really good at remembering the kids names too. so excellent. and then, what was prob the piece de resistance, bug catching with big swooopy nets! i have never done that before, and it was really ace. one of the other children-that-were-mine-but-not-mine confided that it was very much like animal crossing on the wii! caught lots of crickets and grasshoppers, as well as a variety of other bits and pieces. many happy children! we finished with a view of the future, how paxton pits might be when grows larger, and thanks to the organisers.

we all then congregated at cafe for icecreams and cold drinks! i managed to get sunburnt then, but due to the longsleeves and long trousers rule the girls were ok. chatting and finally drifting off. we had french on the way home. BB fell asleep and then when home we harvested potatoes from the potato challenge. i don’t think we will advertise our paltry weights!! rocket >>emerald tho! i had bought some sewing supplies [must ask merry where she got her aida from] and the girls argued and stropped over buttons etc - ok it was mostly BB, ending up with her wailing big style. chris couldn’t find brownies for SB, so was prob a trip somewhere we have missed, and then she got a splinter and was tired and washed out, so we elected to miss judo. instead all snuggled and watched toystory 1 together and then prehistoric park. but girls still not asleep in bed, so prob no better 2moro!!

ooohhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 edited to add - and how could i forget! - BB’s dinomite magazine arrived today as well, and the pic she submitted of a dinosaur was printed!! she is SOOOOOO proud!!

woke up far too early by my little lark BB. it would be alright if she came and just snugged, but she rolls over me, blows raspberries etc etc and thoroughly wakes me up! sun shining tho, so making hay required!! daddybean sailing again! i had girls up, dressed and breakfasted and got rabbits sorted. for the day, we have a day rn on the grass, and i used bits of slate etc to make a non burrowable bit around the inside of the edge. it seems to have been successful.

SB did a lovely clarinet prac, and then struggled with ledgerlines in her grade 2 music theory and BB did some cooking mama. i hung out washing, found NT cards and carpark thingy, packed bags etc and managed to liaise with Z despite BK failing! so we had a plan!!

we arrived first - always like that! was uncertain, as something has happened to the car clock in the family car, and i didn’t think 19:53 seemed likely! something also has happened to the rear mirror as well [shouts at the maintenance man!]. so i felt partic flustered driving out, and hope wasn’t speeding past the police [loads of traps about at the moment]. they were 5m short of where 30 becomes 60, so it is a possibility .

anyway, we had a look around houghton mill, and i had a camera fail after a couple of pics - battery ran out, and the spare was also juiceless. wasn’t too bothered as Z always has a camera on her. Unfortunately she had left hers at home, and wasn’t to upset because i always have a camera on me… luckilly she took a few shots with her camera-on-phone. With NT membership, it didn’t matter that it was a half hour dash! they were milling, and always v interesting. there are now some binoculars to look long the waterway - we mostly saw splashy humans!

Joining lecielrouge we set off to first geocache, which was a fail. we thought we could see where it might be, but it wasn’t, so after trying from 2 angles, we gave up and moved on! luckilly we got into our stride and had a really fab walk with not too much flagging from BB [and nearly 4 miles in total] luckilly, the longest distance was to next geocache, which was found v easily, and TB’s moved on. SInce Z had baked some choc brownies [delish!] we all had one and perked up, and i provided cherries and drief fruit - not quite so exciting!! an easy enough and pretty shaded walk to the next geocache, with a stop to admire a foal on the way. a nice scramble up thro brambles, but then easily found again. then a leisurely walk back, with BB getting into the groove of walking [i was a bit worried she would have a bit of a melt] and poor W being harrassed by the 3 bigger girls to carry them. it was a hot day to carry 3 girls with an average age of 10!

we didn’t do the 4th one, as BB needed a loo stop, and TBH, i was thanking lucky stars no melts had happened, and tho happy for the others to go on, and take BB to relax by mill, we all came back. another look for cache 1 - still a fail! so icecream and a bit of watercolour drawing. - mostly of tents rather than mills and cherry trees that were around a beautiful. then a final attempt at cache 1, and abandoned :sob: fab day tho, thankyou to le ciel rouge.

BB asleep in nano-seconds in car home [as anticipated] and daddybean home when we arrived. he has passed his sailing level one. rabbits still in day run - phew! so relaxed, SB coloured, BB ds-ed, then watched the last 2 episodes of robin hood whilst eating dinner, and to bed. Both SB and BB ‘won’ a book for doing lots of things on their home ed options list, so BB picked a dr who book [surprise] and waiting to see what SB will pic. the last one she chose was

which sparked quite a lot of discussion.

I can no longer remember who set the ball rolling for these, bt think it might be jax. we have done a photomeme day every year since 2005, except this one. SO I am remedying this error! As long term readers of the blog will know, daddybean is the main home educator, and i am the nagger/facilitator that gets carried away by buying supplies to assuage my guilt at being a working mum! but i don’t, as a rule, work wed and weekend. SO i thought i would blog today, as typical or atypical as any other home ed day. we currently follow an eclectically resourced child led approach for SB, and autonomous [with occasional nudges] for BB

so this morning. daddybean up and out as he has a sailing course to go on [lucky daddybean!]. my mum was next up as BB and I were having a tickle and raspberry blowing fight in my bed - TBH, i was trying to maximise my horizontal time! we also play love sums, as in i give her 2 sums, and she tells me which one is the one i love her [tradition says this is the one with the largest figure!] so 4 +7 or 10 - 3. she is pretty good at it. she then scampers downstairs whilst i get up, dressed etc and rouse SB. bless her. she goes to sleep late and wakes up late. an owl like her mother! [tho i actually wake with the sun, and then try and laze!]. a snuggle and cuddle, and she too is up and breakfasting. grandad is up too, so a full house! My mum and dad have been staying since thurs eve. a short break, as with my sister not so well, they are highly committed to helping out with her kids. Dad had a golf match approx hours drive away, so a cunning excuse to visit. mum had chivvied the girls thro loads of home ed stuff the prev day, incl music practices. it is good when the girls are enthused about doing stuff, as my parents are def in the unsure of home ed category [and maybe privately even less positive!]

anyhoo! we are on today, and today started with games. SB loved card games, in partic donkey, and cos she can’t hold all her cards, a subtle peak usually enables me to ensure that myself or mum donkey most of the time. and today it was mum! she, obviously, is doing similar and we got ourselves into a huge giggle about it and were told off by SB. we then did some ds animal crossing. mum i think is quite addicted! and her other grandchildren also play it. she now has a hairdresser, so i dusted down ’summerly’ and went to visit. also dropped off loads of different fruit and things with SB, who had deleted hers, and so restarted. dad moaned and groaned about dses being the bane of existance. he did this about videos, cds [audio and pic], laptops, digital tv etc etc. bless! so instead, he and SB played bowling on the wii!!!

lunch and we waved them goodbye as they needed to do some taxi-ing for my nephew now sis can’t drive. the girls had some money to burn at the sweetshop - at the end of the week we tot up BB dry nappies and SB fingernails [that are not down to the quick!] debate the answer and pay up! so some munching on sweeties whilst deciding what to do as too late to go out. so BB wanted to paint with glass paints some bug prints, and SB wanted to do oil painting and SotW. failed with the oils as couldn’t find turps. SB did some really lovely watercolours instead. i read about the ottoman turks from SotW and we did lots of chit chatting too, all sitting in the shade in the garden by the rabbits. Unfortunately, our rabbits have acquired digging! Skittles is now 19.5 weeks and Snowy is 15.5 weeks, and female spaying usually happens between 4 and 6 months, vet dependent, so will need to keep an eye on how old they are!

general playing in the garden, an ice cream break! SB wrote some of her journal, we blew some bubbles and then SB noticed a baby bird too young to fledge on the ground near the wisteria. Chris had noticed a birds nest there before - putting a bit of a hold on window, and i had seen whiskey cat looking suspicious there earlier, before i shooed away. so we carefully got bird to hop onto some cardboard and then into a box, which we had rabbit hay some suet treat bird food and partially closed in the shade near the nest so it could calm down. when i went back to check, it was calmer and chirping, so i opened the box, tho it couldn’t get out, and put on ground nearish nest, and we looked to see if a mummy bird popped by at all. to our delight she did, shew s roughly where the nest may be, and after a number of false runs, did at least 3 feeding runs in our presence. phew! chris was due back, so we left as is, as he knew where nest was to pt back, and i didn’t want to disturb any other babies.

SB did some mathletics, which she says chris has started her on too easy a level. i dunno which. BB trailed with me as i made the dinner requested by bb on the BBC vegetarian summer magazine - basically cheesy potato, broccoli, cauliflower and pea. was yummy! chris returned and placed baby bird in nest [removing a dead chick] and we saw several more feeding runs, so all ok. He also sorted out the concrete slabs under the rabbit run as we can’t have them on grass now they burrow. seems v mean! ate yummy dinner in front of bang goes the theory, and there you are, the end of the home ed day. bedtime stories of the children of green knowe for SB and an usborne puzzle book for BB. no idea any more if typical, but we enjoyed each others company, when played together, talked together and learnt together.

and yes, i do plan to add a few photos!

addendum - looking for the link on amazon, i find that this is based upon a house in hemingford grey. when we have read the books, we may go and visit [by appointment only] anyone else likely to read the books and want to visit??

where are we! i am blogging, so must be wednesday! so, so far this week, monday apparently at 2 days ago is unknowable! AH yes, primarily ballet exam, practicing for it, doing it, and then ballet lesson and some playing at the park. sylvanians spread over the floor suggest possible play! BB loving her new colouring book

SB did a viola prac with me and clarinet. i can’t believe how happy she is with the viola! again, i am not to play it so i am not! looking at the blogring we are gaining quite an orchestra! but she still has the good posture [more or less] she had on the violin, and the easy playing style. i plan to just let her get on with it, and then, if she carries on, suggest either a teacher, or allowing me to start! as always she loves the clarinet [tho wants to take up oboe when older! - i forsee someone who can play grade 1 on loads of instruments!] and is trying to practice more as got into the training band at holiday orchestra - woohoo!! and also gamelan and djembe drumming, so def v happy. we watched the first of the last of doctor who as well. i do like rory [sad but true!]

SB in partic had a good home ed day yesterday, seemed to have done lots of bits and pieces, clarinet, maths, english - galore park, french - collins, DK project book - the body as well as swimming - getting the certificates, and the new dance class [which bb isn't going to again] luckilly i wasn’t too late back from work, as DH had lost the house key whilst out, and they were on the drive waiting for me… BB did some reading to me of 1a magic key books. and i read to her, and more dinosaur colouring. we also made some scones together whilst SB at dance. these were semi-disastrous as i used a new to me recipe adjsted to be dairy free, i will not be using it again!

wed - ie today - we went pond dipping - woohoo!! and with the manor borns and le ciel rouge. we managed to meet up in a timely fashion, even tho i thought we would be late due to granting a cookie making wish of bb’s. even better, the place had its own longer nets and trays, so off we set after a restorative cup of tea. found somewhere to be dipping and started. we did really well! some red mites, damsel nymph, leeches, lesser and greater boatmen, newtpoles [lol], shrimpy things, sqiggley things and freshwater mussels. the fish were too fast for us. after a fair bit of dipping, then we had our lunches. hmmm, bakery fail! Z ate my scone with home made jam, bt clotted cream for watirose, bt michelle nearly died eating it, so was relieved of the effort i didn’t think it was sooo bad, jst a bit heavy! SB ate loads of mark 2 anyway. more pond dipping, bt some of the newtings had demised duje to getting too hot, and us not tipping them back into big water . then the girls did some drawing of what they had found. the manor borns left, we wandered back to cafe not that long after for ice creams and cold drinks - did i say it was sweltering?? cos it was! Z and i had plenty of time to chat whilst children [crazy loons] payed on the outside exercise stuff. V proud of BB as now happy to go on zipwire all on own, and v proud of SB for being so helpful and just all round lovely.

we nipped back to z’s to see where they lived and be nosy - yes, fab extension! v jealous of open plan kitchen, and hopefully will go back for longer! [if bb's enormos tantrum at leaving hasn't pt you off!!] BB fell asleep fairly instantly in car, whilst SB and i sang along to italian. sb had brownies, the pair of them jdo, but also investigating a couple of new books, BB loves the music theory and sb the scientists book and then second part of doctor who. ok, so how did he escape? hey??? and rory, ahhhhhh

sorry about that. and the h key is sticking, so having to remember to give it a jolly good thump! [if the word looks odd, see if it is missing an h!]

so , where are we - reads blog to check! o yes. forgot to say:

tues, SB got her 9a and 9b swimming
wed, she got presented her judo green/white belt
thurs she did something well at gym, but i can’t remember :blush:

she has tried hard with ballet practice, so i am really keeping fingers crossed she does alright in the exam, but… she has stubbed toes and twisted ankles non stop this week, and TBH, fairly certain she broke end of toe on thurs when dropped mayonaiise jar on it… anyway, she has worked hard for it, so hoping she goes ok. it is her grade 3!

i guess generally bits of home ed happened, bit of tidying up, extra ballet class etc on friday, and soon after i got home thebabs and family arrived = woohoo! we made sure to get the kids fed and watered this time before we got started gaming - alhambra, the children played outside, went on the wii, and were finally shooed up to bed to ds/sleep according to preference! they were somewhat disappointed that they couldn’t make jam and crumble with the wild plums they had harvested from the garden!

they still woke up early! i went into work, and then met up with them all at a historical reenactment fair going on near where i worked. it was soooo hot! i found them all in the shade lunching, so joined them, then we wandered around the encampment a bit, peered at some stalls, wailed that too hot [bb!] and then watched a reenactement of hereward the wake beating the normans. we were refreshed at that point with icecream or freshly made lemonade but although we fancied seeing the last reenactment thingy, we were all just far to hot and made our way home. luckilly paddling pools were supplied with freezing water, and children cooled down and recovered equanimity! loved watching the younger 3 ds supermario bros. laughed and laughed and laughed! the bigger 2 nade a wild plum. apple and fruit that needed using up crumble, pretty much all by themselves, which was yummy, and the younger 2 made wild plum jam, pretty much all by me - which was also yummy!! kids then sat infront of spiderwick chronicles after dinner, whilst we played another game! [v lucky not to be called into work!]. we used the interactive deck of agricola, and my hand was dreadful, so i admit to having a slight grump! i do love agricola, but only after about the second or third round, as always feel daunted before that!

when i went into work this morning not a dickybird [or child] was stirring! which is most unusual! they had when i returned tho - mixture of outside paddling pool, sylvanians, ds and wii play i think. geocaching as an option had been discarded due to the too hot factor. i facepainted 3/5 - and actually thought the flower/hummingbird far more successful than anticipated. BB seriously flagging tho. guests left 2ce and still forgot something SB did ballet prac, watched bang goes the theory, snaffled all the remaining toblerone bits, and went to bed [in a protracted kind of way] i am now going to bed too, but had a suprisingly quiet on call weekend [well, i still am on call, so shouldn't speak too soon!] and lovely guests, enjoyed by all. thanks for visiting.

not sure what happened on monday! girls did things?? ah yes, it was an HE gym session, and also SB ballet class. tues was mostly tidying the house [rofl] and a golf lesson, then in the eve swimming for both, but unfortunately BB doesn’t want to carry on the dance class after all, as she felt it was a bit too busy for her. SB enjoyed it though! And we were joined by the manor borns - well, 2/3 of them anyway! and it was lovely, and distracted me from being maudlin with a 1 year since little nanny died. I still v much miss little nanny, who was such a big part of my life, but she had a full life, full of laughter, fun and love as well as her share of tragedy to overcome. My sadness at her passing has been overtaken by my worry for my sister, but she is not at all forgotten.

the girls all played beautifully together, and we adults chatted - to way into the night in the end - a bit naughty, and left me a sluggard in bed the next morning. but i did manage to drag myself out of bed, and then set out some science. we did a young scientists kit on surface tension, which worked really well, and was a v bubbly mess! i think the boat bit was the most fun… SB had a half size viola arrive in the post - an ebay bargain! and she had great time playing that, and c played her old violin, which i nearly offered for her to take home… lunch was made ready and eaten - not pasta! michelle and i expended effort blowing up the pools, and then the girls had a great time splashing about. SB raced off for ballet prac, BB nd C then did some watercolour pencils and painting and general playing before SB returned, and then all 3 of them went off to Judo. simple tea and a late departure of the manor borns, who i hope had an easy drive home!!

now i am off to bed, after a lovely, rejuventing day

well, busy for us! i know lots of people doing crazier busy weekends
I had had some stressy work shifts the 2 days before, and pulled out my back and shoulder at work, so woke up feeling emotionally wobbly, and about aged 90 in the getting about stakes!
sat saw SB off and out for her grade 1 music theory exam. keeping my fingers crossed really, but think she should have passed. all her practice papers have been a pass anyway!
then, after hurrying and scurrying back, a quick lunch - SB made herby omelettes - yummy! - and out to watch the carnival procession through the village. some fab floats and costumes. bit of a fraught moment when blue lighting ambulance wanted to get past, but all sorted.
we finished lunch and then wandered down to the carnival field, dropping SB off to get ready for her ballet moment. BB wnet on some bouncy castles whilst we waited, and also got some gifts from surestart. the tannoy announced SB’s dance school and we all went across to watch. think they all did pretty well, and SB more confident that she was in the weeks running up to her grade 2.[she has her grade 3 exam on mon - bit of an aargh moment!] v proud of her for dancing in front of the carnival! after that, she went on some of the fun fair rides. BB , unfortunately, had a massive melt when she realised she could only choose some small animals at the darts thing, rather than the big tiger, oh well. we should have explained to her better. the heavens then opened, so we beat a hasty retreat home!!

Sun, after a bit of kerfuffle, and myself migrainous [again] we made our way down to my sis [ <3 ] for the day. brought lunch - chris made v yummy asparagus quiche! i did some baking with the older 2 [choc brownies] watched them wii, chatted to sis and bil, and we had a chilled day. My sister loved the knitted items from t-bird - thankyou v much, and also the dolphin stickers i had got for her dsi.

home rather late, and journey messed up, so we had to stop to eat and therefore even later home, to collapse into bed.

soo, what have we been doing?

well, the girls have added another thing to their schedule! BB decided she was old enough to do ballet, but the class time in the village was wrong for us. however, also in the village there is modern/latin dance class, which happens to fit. it’s an hour long, so we wondered how BB would go, but she loved it, and has been showing us the cha-cha-cha since! SB thought it sounded good, so is doing it as well! BB has also decided to add in judo, but wants to start this term before SB moves up. SO current standing SB: mon ballet, tues swimming and ‘modern’, wed brownies and judo, thurs gym, fri alt week golf 1:1. BB: tues swimming and modern, wed ? judo [?? might try rainbows again]

SB has done some ballet and music theory practice for respective exams. more worried about the ballet than music theory… she has done lots of colouring in of the victorian house [as has BB]

and a few bits and pieces, but i think having a pause after a full on home ed week last week! we have continued on with SoTW, falling a bit behind with maths i think [she is on singapore 4A] but has decided to give mathletics a go after visiting the deependers. BB has done a bit of letter work, and her reading is definitely easier now! [we are still cvc-ing!] we are enjoying the songbirds books tho. they seem to suit her!

so onto today. latinetc! the main business was music theory with gina, as exam this sat [eek!] i think she will pass if reads question properly! i took BB and L to play with waves whilst the others were theorising! and they worked v nicely together. We had been asked to bring some ‘classics’ books, and when theory was finished, i detailed c into reading. later in latin, they did reenact some of them.

I also took along these, which i think are fabulous, but better for an adult to read to child. really well written, and we have certainly enjoyed them and i highly recommend!

did wave and water experimentation with the older group, and this went down well, and they looked at most of the various properties we could assess - and some additional things besides!! chris joined us - in from his speed awareness course [tut tut!] and a bit of french that was a lovely time! SB had a balet prac for the dnce as part of the carnival, but judo cancelled [to bb's disappointment]. i was grumpy with all as had to clean out rabbit hutch - second time ina row, and SB [with BB a bit] are supposed to keep an eye on that! rabs are happy and healthy tho, and still friendly!

BB and i did some more sciency things - we did some of her primary electronics kit - i watch to make sure she doesn’t short circuit, but she hasn’t yet! and then made some bouncy balls from the elastics kit. we are now watching the oddly accented [ie american] disney animal robin hood!

ok, the productiveness tailed off a bit towards the end of the week, but it was good while it lasted!
for our weekend we went for a mini camp in the peak district to do some cycling.

campsite v reasonable, and we chose the flat lower field even tho it looked like a rowdy group there! [they were, but i wasn't that bothered, would be much MUCH worse if they strummed a guitar] apparently 6 tents complained, and they lost some deposit money. but actually looked like a reasonable place to have a group camp. the bottom field had some more tucked away camping places, and also lots of trees and mounds of earth for the girls to run about in!

we took the new-to-us minnesota 4, which was remarkably easy up! it was plenty big enough for a weekender, and was waterproof when it rained. slightly more condensation than i am used to , but guess that is the SIG and the fact it is smaller! the mesh doors would have let in less bugs if chris had remembered to shut them! anyway!!!

so sat we did some lovely cycling along the tissington trail to parsley hay, and then back along some of the high peak trail. it was only a gently cycle, as a family affair, but it was about 9 miles. and i loved the trails! we did geocache along the way, but only found 1 of 3. we didn’t have the clues with us, and TBH, we liked the wind in our hair cycling, so limited search time. the one we found was pretty easy, and released BB’s ammonite there. she is hoping it might go to places where fossils found, and even have a pic or 2 beside fossils. you never know! i think it would be cool to be found one day by any of our geocaching friends! [ooh, jut updating that it has already been picked up!!] we exchanged some beautiful marbles for a balloon - think that offsets the pinecone for pony! the stop at hartington for lunch had a signal box to explore, and icecream and tea… the parsley hay had a v good kiosk cafe!! nothing like an inducement when cycling! but my fav bit was sb and i setting off back down the high peaks, nearly reaching 20mph as we whizzed along! fab views and fab weather.

i’m not a natural athlete, but look, i am happy!

bye bye to BB’s travelbug

the next day we were not quite so succesful with the weather! we decamped and set off to do part of the manifold trail. we took the winding path route from hulme end to the cafe, but soaking rain caused us to take the quiet road back, which was at least much faster! the views there beautiful in a perfectly bucolic way! on the way back, i saw nothing, as had to remove glasses to see at all… [-3.5] BB was unhappy as not only drenched, but the trailgator made sure she was covered with a decent amount of mud from chris… we did stop briefly to find a geocache, but the rain was unrelenting, and BB lost the will to live. we pedalled furiously back to hulme to find that we were a bit too late for cafe, and so stripped off girls in car and dressed in pj’s. i stripped off in public loos and used driers on some of my damper areas! a v bedraggled girl and mum came into do similar. i also had ‘camping p’s’ as replacement clothes. finally we were all dryish and in car. thank goodness for flask of coffee and fruit and nut chocolate!!

before the rain

this is halfway back, sheltering in the tunnel, and then the rain became *really* heavy!

sometimes my blog must read like school at home, and maybe sometimes like an untrusting unschooler! but i do believe still that we ed SB in a child led fashion, and BB autonomously! ANd this week, with a music theory and a ballet exam coming up, focusing on that has led SB to be rather productive in her work! she has certainly worked hard at both ballet and music theory, and ‘in the working groove’ has been careering across her potentials sheet to do 18 of the possibles. quite a lot of music prac, some grammar, some languages, bit of maths, bit of history, and obviously lots of reading! good for her! And so BB has also been gripped by the productive flow - in her own inimitable manner! i have given both SB and BB a bit of a long overdue piano lesson.

today is a latinetc day, but with a bit of a serious reduction in numbers. so it seemed pretty quiet, and we merged the groups. i did music theory, and had to admit to not feeling at all comfortable with quarternotes etc, so we had to do the crotchet, quaver etc. but think i didn’t ruin too much of gina’s previous work… i thought science would be more fun than it was. i wonder if the reduced assembly reduced the pleasure? or because i had already enjoyed doing music theory, i had ‘run out’ a bit for science? it did work tho - more or less, might relook at trying to watch the waves!! certainly having an OHP so we could look at waves on the ceiling was fun. and the pyrex dish and pushing pencils made it work well. hmmmm. a latin play from all but BB [ ] some french and then a moan and groan from me to adult companions! and the day was done.

home and chris has now finished some rabbit hutchery stuff, so rabses are in new palace and seem v happy. Sb wanted to finish her grammar book, but couldn’t find it. i declined to help, so she faffed about with maths - for nearly 2 hours! [tho if she hadn't faffed, i imagine she would have completed what she did in perhaps a quarter of that time - lol!] BB also did some maths, some writing, some aggravating parents and narrowly escaping being caged with the rabbits… and then made a fab pass the parcel which we all played later. finally she settled down with some felting after half heartedly opening and starting numerous half finished crafts and she needle felted me a pumpkin face! SB by now at brownies and then judo. BB has decided she is nearly old enough to go to things, so would like to do trampolining, dance and maybe rainbows. finished the evening with bang goes the theory, and SB and i have now started the 4th bagthorpe book, having finished the flavia gemina: fugitive of corinth

SB had an absolutely fab time at her PGL holiday. it was a 5 day one, and she said it scored 9/10 and she would quite like to do the week next time as they didn’t do any swimming costume things… her favourite bits were the high swing thing she and maddy screamed down together, and the vertical challenge. she said the high wires were tamer than centreparcs. they loved building and floating the raft! the food was awful tho [she said, though the leek and potato soup nice]. she said the ppl supposed to enforce lights out told them as long as they weren’t wild they could have fun, so her room chatted way into the night, and she said the other 2 girls in the room were v nice. [only one shower required! - lol] it was a success! like all things, a few hiccups - a badly sprained ankle and a couple of more rowdy boy types.

we missed her tho, and were really really happy to see her back! and BB, who had been at nanna’s and had a trip to hunstanton on the bus. aww. so sat was mostly cuddling, reading and gen calming down [so a fair number of blast labs and horrible histories as well as me reading sotw and beowulf. played with rabbits etc etc!!

today SB did some music theory [exam coming up!] was excused ballet prac [exam coming up!] read some french, listened to me read a number of box books played with rabbits, and then BB decided she wanted a blue peter badge, so the ed ante ramped up! so we prepared something to say about a dinosaur pic for a blue badge, and we prepared a bit about her sowing dwarf golden french beans, and her being a golden french bean [lol] with some pictures as well, and then went to submit. horror of horrors, you have to be over 6. i submitted anyway in the end, let blue peter take the responsibility for her screeches!! so SB decided she should to, and has written out beautifully something about nature watching, which we will add pictures to and send as a green badge entrance and fingers crossed. not sure if via their website or by post the best??

now i am playing agricola online, and losing v bady!! rofl!!

i have got massively behind in flickring, but thought i would put a few photos up of things the girls have done.

SB did some felting, she hoped it would look a bit like van gogh style flowers, which it did before the felting process! we live and learn!

BB went for an apple tree, and got a bit distraught that they moved around, though was happy with the finish

SB did some marvelous baking

and BB did a fab picture of a dinosaur in watercolour pencils, which she sent off to dinomite magazine in the hopes it would be featured [fingers crossed!]

i have very much liked using this as a chronology backbone to history. We are now working our way through book 3. SB snuggles up and listens as i read the stories to her, and we often but not always supplement this by looking at other books we have for more details.

I imagine there are lots of ways of using this book, and certainly a quick google search brings lots of options! we are prob going for a fairly common approach! we have read it through and done a few bits of extra to tag on the side as a first read. we started when she was 5 - a fairly common start time! we have done less of the activities than i planned tho!

I don’t think we are going to do book 4 next tho, as my youngest is 5 already. instead i think we are going to go back and start book 1 again. this series is ‘designed’ to learning spiral around, and read 3 times in total in the classical way, but doing slightly differently on each turn, as the child is correspondingly 4 years older.

so next time, i plan to read to both girls, snuggled together and do the questions, and then ask SB to search in our books for more detail or another angle and read some of that to us [we have lots of other books!] and do the mapwork and some additional interest reading or writing herself [perhaps start the galore park book and work through the appropriate chapters as we get to them] and then hopefully with a group of friends have a monthly meet where we do the crafts as a mixed age thing. the friends needn’t have read SotW, but perhaps something about the age we are doing crafts on, and we can encourage some discussion on that. it might even work better if we have all used different sources.I can then maybe read some myths and legends whilst they are crafting. I think that would be fun!

I think I am quite excited! would tie in some visits - grimes graves, stonehenge, british museum, various roman bits and pieces! i think this would work well as a mixed age meet together, but adding on for those older. and we could always add a show and tell element to it as well for those that do nice things like lapbook, or who had visited something relevant etc.

[the galore park so you really want to learn... starts at 1066, so would move to book 1 of that when we move to book 2 of SoTW which we would hopefully do the next year]

this week as seemed a bit odd. it started on a tuesday after all! and we lost SB to PGL, going with her friend M from the puddles. SHe was sooooo exited and happy! the weather has been great for them, so I am hoping that they have had a fab time. SB can be a bit of a complicated person, so it kinda depends! we haven’t heard anything tho, so that must be good!

BB, having felt a bit odd and lost, has, i think, enjoyed being an only this week. she got her choice of everything, including bedtime readers, and i sang her to sleep each night. she has chosen tea, and daytimes were planned around her. currently she is with nana and grandad for a sleepover, haven chosen that ahead of a trampolining course. she has also done gym trials this week - hopefully she will then get a place.

Wed was a reduced not-latin - we will do latinetc next week! this time we were at mine so katy’s youngest and merry’s youngest could meet our rabbits and play. i think i should have got some stuff out and organised, as it took a little while for them all to get going. but they did in the end. I wonder if it was because they missed the older ones organising the games for them? i baked a choc spread cake, which is vegan, and actually quite biscuity rather than cakey, and BB baked choc sponge cake. it was all eaten… i also face painted everyone. some crafting with airdrying clay, and some colouring, but we adults got plenty of time to chat and hug. wish we were neighbours really. whenever i hear ppl poohpoohing internet friends i always have to break in and say that internet friends have become my best irl friends. even tho some of them i only meet a couple of times a year.

today i am at home, only just out of bed, as dreadfu migraine [again] typing this with eft ey closed and cold compress. just cos extremely bored with being migrainous. need to shut off laptop now tho. 30 mins is as much as can bear. will listen to the birds tweeting int eh garden.

hey, look, we have nearly caught up!

Sat it was raining, as anticipated! so we got up, sorted all the inner bits of the tent so just the shell left, and had breakfast. that gave us a break in the rain, so tent down! hooray!! Chris bought some things from much wenlock to take to the party, and we sang with c in the shelter of the toilets as now raining a fair bit! Our journey to SOTP was not so brill tho. M6 like a carpark, and when we came off, we were instantly diverted [not in a good way!] but we made it via a v scenic route!

popped up our little evolution in the party field - where lots of other tents popping up, and discussion on wind factors etc were taking place. then in for tea and cake and chat, whilst awaiting everyone to arrive. startling new haircut on one of hosts soon got used to! girls fell in love with trampoline, and after a bit of the usual hesitancy and parental proddings, got down to the serious business of playing. BB, J and R in particualr made a cute threesome bouncing around. SB had a bit more variance than normal in the friends she played with. Big and E, who she often hangs out with, were rather taken by an older boy present, and stretching away in age to be older, and SB really not entirely sure how this works as yet. So she played with a wider range than usual, and only needed an occassional shunt to get going in a different direction. Since she usually bemoans the fact that she hasn’t played with the full gamut, i am expecting her to have been happier with this outcome. She only had a couple of trampoline accidents too - not bad!

I was both sad and wobbly, and migrainous, so apologise for total lack of sparkling wit and humour [no real change there is there!] But did have a lovely time, so thanking everyone for that, in partic J and J. Did get to have lots of chats and friendhsip moments, as well as playing a game [always good!] It did mean chris got to have a late night or 2 instead tho. Think the patchwork cake worked better than anticipated! and looking forward to seeing the photos as they come out. Chris has flickred ours! will add one or 2 to this post! SB enjoyed the geocache walk with others, and was kicking herself about not going to the stables to see the new pony, as she thought everyone was going to staples  Also loved the swingball matches that went on! we have some sparkling athletes amongst the husbands - not!!

But mostly a lovely warm memory of hospitality and friendship. Thankyou

not sure how much i am going to blog, because i am utterly shattered! must go to bed soon. however, think i should get going to catch up with today! chris is hopefully sorting out photos from the weekend to flickr. think so behind with flickering may have to go backwards!

anyway, wednesday of our holiday! i had a late start as feeling a bit wobbly over various family things, so stayed in tent reading for a bit, but was ready to go out for a walk and geocache into much wenlock. the clues were mostly straightforward [shame that one was missing tho!] and we paused to have a rather fab lunch from the deli - i would recommend much wenlock deli! we had a picnic in the churchyard and the girls played climbing trees and catch. carrying on with the caching, we went past much wenlock priory, and decided to go in. they had those interesting audio thingies, which we enjoyed listening too, and even BB liked it. unfortunately she had a total melt in the shop over the issue of money. aargh. the worst for quite some time really. so with a bit of gritted teeth and quiet talking we managed to get back to a sense of balance and carry on! much of the cache was related to the olympics of much wenlock, but finished not far from a windmill and BB managed to swap a pinecone for a stuffed horse keyring [much to michelles disgust - but she had carreid the pinecone for ages specially]. most of us went back to the tent, but marcus took SB and C for a smoothy. SB loved geocaching tho, and remained her usual cheerful self. unfortunately the heavens opened and they got completely drenched. oh dear!! we have a fab kebab. BBQ tea.

thurs was a migraine day for me - grr! one which lasted in the end 5 days, with sat being the worst. but we went to enginuity. this was smaller than i expected, but the girls all found things that they really enjoyed about it. i liked moving the steam train best! the girls both liked the ‘xray’ viewer best. lots of interactive things, but like in a lot of places, the ones that needed you to move between levers were ruined by wild inconsiderate play by others. SB gave up with these! we spent a long time there though I am glad there weren’t many others. we had lunch at the museum of iron and then explored the museum. this was prob my fav one. i thought it was a really well thought out and interesting display of how the iron industry grew in the area, and how various bits of it worked. SB was quite interested in the wife and sister running the industry for a while, and making it make a good profit. by now my migraine reaching epic proportions, so although i enjoyed a wander around the darby furnace, i then went back to snooze in the car whilst chris and the girls went on to the darby houses with the manorborns, and enjoyed dressing up in victorian clothes. when they returned we went to the rather lovely tea emporium in ironbridge. we crossed and marvelled at the bridge as well. pasta for tea! as the manorborns ate out, we did some reading around victorians in the eve, and a couple of other books.

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friday saw us early up and out [ok, not so very!] as we decided to have a lazy breakfast at the tea emporium, which was v lovely! we explored the rbidge and walked down to the ironbridge gorge museum. quite a tiny museum, with a lot about fish! liked it too. then we took c with us to the tar tunnel - unfortunately closed due to low oxygen levels. i bartered with lady though that we could stand inside and not go beyond trucks! so at least we got an impressions. the girls all decided they could tell the oxygen was low and didn’t stay there long! a nice wander back along the canal to where we had parked the car past the china museum by the youth hostel - may stay there winterish! we then drove to the jackfield tile museum [lead me not into temptation!!] where m and m where having a sneaky quiet tea and cake! this was my second fav museum. i love tiles, and could v well imagine them throughout my house! by the end BB coming to the end of her museum ability, so we waved the manor borns off to the pipe museum and returned to tent for chilli and enchilladas [yum!] and a bit of a tent tidy as leaving early next day and rain expected.