February 2005

On house moving, our buyers have commissioned a full survey - taking place on wed, so better tidy up again. I can’t think there will be a problem.
Our sellers have rung about the negotiateable things. I was really surprised, as they are giving all carpets and curtains bar 1, some garden tools etc, and v reasonable prices for some furniture they wont have room for -which we might go for as the hospital gives me a ?500 furniture budget.

this actually tues, but funny. SB likes rhymes and poems, so we make up limericks together. When we’ve done a few, I throw in one that she can make a ‘naughty’ rhyme to for a giggle. [ps i am not v good at them] she gets to say last word in lines 4 and 5 in this game

there was a young man named Chris
who often was given a kiss
He drinks a lot of tea
so needs to do a ……….

I was expectng ‘wee’ but instead we got p***, so I think she got the rhyme rules muddled up, and I got a complete shock, as nether of us ever uses that word! Chris just roared with laughter.

Wonders will never cease.

i think after all the stresses of jobs, new babies, selling houses etc, it is nice to settle back into being us again. BB a fully paid up family member, so now part of the routine. In fact, she is totally gorgeous. She has a great interest in her hands, can hold on to rattles. Finds her playgym so exciting that she sounds like a steamtrain with all the huffung and puffing [she isn't the quietest of breathers - probably those 20 chins!] She smiles and coos, and loves being able to watch SB, though looks abit nervous if she gets too close - those python hugs.

SB is happier now she is getting a more normal amount of attention from us [a lot] and because of it, perversely, is happier to play on her own. We got the happy street out earlier in the week, and make up lots of stories for the people in it. She usually likes me to start, saying she can’t make them up, but is then quite happy to tell me I’m wrong and take over. I call this our drama sessions! to build on the shadows thing, we read together our DK book about seasons etc, and she seems happy with the spinning earth around the sun, and was concentrating on what was in the book. She does want me to make a circular inca calendar tomorrow though - a ‘gery’ big one please. We did some letter sounds - not any blending though, and a bit of writing. We also made houses with the lego, and decide to make one with lots of windows for the summer to let the breeze go through, and a bumpy roof like a castel [crenellations] [ I may have to buy more lego if she starts demanding turrets!] We excercised our inner domestic goddesses by making double choc and oat muffins - yummy. A bit of leappadding and cbeebies website, and our day was done. There was negligible fusses today either. I loved it.

However, thanks to Merry - who has opened a massive world of what if……. in my brain - I spent most of the day unsettled and miserable from a dream, so needed lots of cuddles, which luckilly I got.

Stringbean went to her gym session today. Enjoyed it as ever. I hope we can find something decent for her once we move. There is some sort of gymnastics centre in Huntingdon, so ought to be able to.

Anyway, after the class, we were on the way back to the car in Adsa’s car park. sun was shining, and she started talking about her shadow (it’s a topic that comes up pretty often lately). She started off wondering how big it was - she seems quite interested in measuremnts etc. often asking how big she is, crouching down etc. - not that she understands it when you tell her 106 cm or whatever. We went on to comparing her shadow with mine, then she started crouching down, and looking at what happened to the shadow - ending up with her lying flat on the ground. We marked out the height at different points with bits of twig, of course then daddy had to do the same so we could compare. The woman putting her son into her car by us loooked very bemused by this We talked about what happend to the length of the shadows, and I mentioned the related idea of the sun changing position in the sky through the year.

when this sort of thing comes up I try to present her with information that is probably just abit beyond her understanding - sort of planting little seed that we will come back to as she makes sense of more things. We had another discussion the other day about the mooon the sun and the earth. It was early evening the sun was still up, and the moon was in the sky. she still thinks this is a bit wrong as the moon comes out at night So we had a little chat about the Earth going round the sun, about days, about the moon going round the earth.

What i like is the way that a few weeks or months later bits of info will come back out again, as she has finally made a bit of sense of them.

afternoon was Tots club with Helen and Butterbean, I whizzed about posting DVD’s of the Fanatsy Education program from the other day, buying some more DVD discs due to demand and reorganizing SB’s party.

It’s her 4th birthday on 25 Feb (day after mine), with all that was goign on we were abit disorganised and late and so had had to arrnage her party for a bit later in March. We’d arrnaged it at a local soft play type place. But with our slowness, then waiting for their invites to get to us, then Melrose, we came back to find that one of her best friends at nursey had organsised her party at the sametime - arrgh!

It’s really joint birthday/leaving party We wanted as many of her friends from nursey to come as she has been quite upset few times about leavingthem all behind so we had to reorganise. I’d have liked to have had the party at home really, but with her nursey friends, other friends from Helen’s ‘new mum’s’ group her ante-natal group, many of who have been getting together all this time, plus other friends it wasn’t an option number wise. In a normal situation we’d just said we have to only invite fewer friends.

Of course the normal venue couldn’t accomadate a different date in our timescale, and in the end we have had to resort to
Wacky Warehouse. Now as a place I don’t mind these, ok on quiet weekday afternoon anyway (a Saturday afternoon is some version of hell…). but the food at the parties is dire and there is not that sense of shared experince becuase there are other kids there and there is not much shared party experince except the eating. However, SB does enjoy them, and will probably be very happy with it, so that is really the point I guess . She did say of the original venue the other week that she thought she was getting a bit big for it - probably becuase it doesn’t have such a big high slide.

We feel a bit bad at times taking her away from all her little friends, not that it can be helped. But in reality she would lose touch with lots of them anyway come September when lots will start school I imagine. And she will get new friends in her new home - probably easier than her parents. and she’ll see alot more of her grandparents, which will be nice.

OH ******* moment - the desktop has refused to boot up properly all evening - it just presents a variety of BSOD’s. We almost bought a new one before Xmas (it threw a major wobbly around BB birth), but then it started behaving better so we put it off. And now of course we are up to our eyes in house buying. It’s apain because we use the desktop as the server, though most stuff is backed up.

This follows on really with Nics post on Monster and Teeny [very unfair titles for 2 gorgeous children!! - or is it the parents???????]

we have also done a fair bit of thinking at melrose, its led to me starting to write a list of resources, subject headings, and now am going to think of different topics, what we have on them and what excursions etc, so a sort of charlotte mason approach, as I will try and kick it off with stories - not quite FIAR, but that kind of idea. [TBH I just didn't like how the FIAR manual read, rather than the idea].

We will also do other things - such as singapore maths, phonics reading and i think we will getty and dubay. keep going with german, based around Muzzy, formalise the music a little bit now, and do some art apprectation as well as hands on - seeing Merry’s resources there was v helpful!

What will we get over time having been to Melrose? I liked the berenstain bears science [as SB keen on Dr Seuss] , and if I’d known Katy was selling it, I would have bought it myself. Got DK books, but will also visit sonlight when I have an address for them for that people book. Have also got the usbourne time traveller from ebay. Sonlight can provide the getty and dubay as well, and perhaps the history of the world series, which I also think is great.

To start with, so that we can see what we do, and how it works, I think we will have a loose timetable - especially when I get more time off and chris and I share more. Since I can grab photocopier at work when on call, I think we will photocopy pages to put in folders, and try and have a monthly curriculum that we dip in and out of, but have sorted resources in advance. As yet, this is all wild and woolly, and hopefully will metamorphosize into something beautiful that suits SB’s learning needs, yet also doesn’t encourage our chaotic approach to life.

We went to fun parties on sat and tues with my postnatal group, then 3 already in march. What fun!!
Had another CP exposure on Sat, so waiting and seeing.

–
Helen Johnson

woohoo it worked!!!! though probably was a bit mean on the resolution. No idea how to put it in an already written blog though??

Sorry, we don’t really have good one, but she has a purple bobble in her hair a la Abbie at Melrose sometimes It’s funny becuase she didn’t really seem to play with her much, but obviously noticed this.

here. no names, and will remove any if requested to.

SB was very pleased that she got a medal today for being a good girl at nursery. We have a piccie of her with it [CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS]. notice that she is still being Abi [purposely]

Bad news is that she has been invited to a party on the same day that we arranged hers. so either none of her nursery friends will come, And she will be miserable, or we will have to move it. serves us right for being slow with invites.

Had a pressie for BB in the post - a rather lovely babygym. SB thought it v wsteful as we have one already [phew, we are instilling some notion of frugality] and have a nice photo of that too .[CHRIIIIIIIIIIS]

since otjer people’s melrose piccies up, and we haven’t received any objections, I think we should put up ours. [CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS - after all he is on the ‘puter upstairs with the pics!!!

BB had second vax today, and weighed in at 17lb 4 oz at 12 weeks. Still in proportion, but back breaking! Better learn to walk early. Georgeously healthy.

As have said in Merry’s comments, I have done it again. I am keen for SB to have more language skills than myself, so have been Muzzy german-ing. to supplement that, I bought a year ago some DVD’s from the greman amazon, including sesame street. I thought sesame street would be excellent, with all its letters and counting. The DVD doesn’t have any of this though, just the bert bits which irritate me. ANyway,lets SB hear german spoken I guess.

SO this time, I decided now she has a leappad to get a few in early german - sounds sensible?? On ebay, this chap sells them, and I bought a richard scarry one - ok, and a tad ABC one, which said it taught english. Excellent I thought, ideal for learning german. WRONG. It appears to be only in english - sigh, so I could have got it far cheaper over hear, and in fact think it might be part of a set I am getting for SB birthday. So will need to ebay it - how much I will get as cover in german I don’t know. Also don’t know whether to open to confirm all in english, and then sell it for even less on ebay.

SULK AND SWEAR

particularly mortgage application forms and solicitors forms. they all want the same bits of id, and the first lot haven’t sent it all back. Chris is grumpy and so am I.
SB went to great party yesterday, but said venue was boring. shame as that is where her party will be.
I just hate forms.
ALso, after all this hassle of getting contract done and rejigged, it has been sent to me - word for word identical with last one. SCREAM. [i got job in october FGS]

Friday night, on our return from Melrose, Stringben still in Muddlepuddle Camp fairy mode..

‘I want to stay and learn some more’ were Stringbean’s words when we had to leave the ‘dome’ where they had and audio/visual show at the end of Dynamic Earth, seemed an appropiate comment for an allegedly Home Ed blog.

Anyway, she did seem to enjoy herself there, it is very good, but in the way of these things does feel that it lacks a bit of substance. Maybe you need to view it more as a ’show’ than a museum type place. Fair enough I guess, but it seems a shame that more concrete info couldn’t have been included somehow.

Helen has posted a few comments on the Muddlepuddle Winter Camp at Melrose, so here are some snippets/impressions of mine.

It was a great week - children had much ‘running free’ and endless playing, parents (moslty) had some time for relaxing, chatting, eating, staying up late, and even a bit of discussion on HE, some even spent sometime with their offspring.

- A car park half full of people carriers can mean only one thing….

- We were one of the later ones to arrive on the Sunday, there was a wonderful sense of chaos when we entered the hostel - would we ever make sense of this?

- Stringbean was a bit bemused/overwhelmed at first I think by the number of children, and the amount of space to run around in and play, and as some of the children already knew each other, she seemed a bit of a loss as to how to fit in at first, but after a couple of days she?d settled into it all and became one of the ever present fairy/princess gangs running wild around the hostel, in particular she really seemed to hit it off with Jax?s Big (though they did make rather a mess of Jax?s room ? sorry?.). It was good to see her playing so well, and a learning experience for us as we realised we?d never been in a situation where she had been away from us for so much time and we didn?t know were she was.

- The food ? all seemed to work pretty well, Helen managed to cook various pots of curry that seemed to go down well, and there was plenty for lunch the next day. And thanks to all the other cooks as well, esp. Ros and co for the pancakes.

- The dressing up ? esp. numerous small girls running around as fairies or Princesses ? I hardly recognised Maddy out of her P&P dress and I forgotten which small boy it was who kept popping in a tiger or leopard suit. Quite a few knights were running around as well, ?not with real swords? though, as I was often informed.

- Cup cake decorating ? a bit of an impromptu activity as we had been meant to do them at home, but various others enjoyed joining in as well ? a bigger batch will be made for the next time.

- Making Chinese dragons ? SB was very upset when she thought she had missed out on this ? luckily she hadn?t

- Resources, it was good to be able to look at lots of various books and resources people had brought with them. Esp. I felt that we were maybe ?underbooked? ? didn?t come home with too big a list??

- Being part of ?big gang ? at Dynamic Earth was fun.

- Swimming, we also did the Galashiels tour before finding the pool. As Helen mentioned, SB tried drowning herself :-(. She wouldn?t normally go and get in big pool without us, but she saw a slide and probably assumed it was shallow like the pool she normally goes to, while I was deciding where to put the towels, she was down the slide, and I turned round to see the top of her head bobbing in the water ? she did quite a good job of using her arms and legs to keep herself from just sinking really?. She was unfazed by the experience and enjoyed the swimming. It was also Butterbeans first swim, and she also enjoyed it ? all her fat meant she seemed to be very good at floating

- Tea and cake, there was so much lovely baking people had brought, it was hard to have enough cups of tea to try them all. A particular favourite of mine, was Ros? Cinnamon swirl thing.

- Late nights - sharing a glass of wine and chewing the cud once most of the kids were in bed was a nice way to end the day. Doing it while staying up to 2 in the morning was enjoyable, though probably not sensible.

- A bit of quiet. Getting back before most of the others (for some reason) from dynamic earth meant we could enjoy the hostel in ?quiet mode? for little while.

- The Gruffalo?s Child ? bought the book half price from Waterstone?s earlier, brought it out for Melrose. SB loves it, as did various others given by the number of times it kept disappearing Highly recommended for any that enjoyed ?The Gruffalo? (is there a child that doesn?t?).

- Meeting all these people in real life ? esp. as some people, like Alison and Nic I?ve ?known? online for some years now in various places. It was good to put faces to names (and then try to remember who had which blog) Though sometimes I felt a little disappointed that people weren?t like how I expected them to be A few more real world friendships have probably been made here.

- Apologies ? I hope those with less amenable youngsters weren?t too put out by Butterbeans eat/cuddle/sleep relaxed approach to life. After Stringbean we are really appreciating it.

- Admiration ? for Barbara, Merry and anyone else coping with a number of small children on their own there, but it was good to see all the help given by all and sundry, and how happy the kids were (with a few exceptions….) to accept so many other adults. And yes Merry, Amelie is cutie IMO

- Mucking in. It all seemed to work, the food got cooked, it was kept clean, the kids were looked after, ?stuff? happened, people made allowances for various peoples abilities/time etc. without fuss ? we are obviously all such lovely people :-).

It was a great time, hope to see everyone, and some new faces in the future.

Well wrapped

This is really just a test posting from Flickr, which i’ve just started playing with.

The piccie is Butterbean at Muddlepuddle Melrose ‘camp’ well wrapped up when we went to the playground.

We had a great time. Hopefully Chris will add piccies [edit by Chris - link here removed for now as I want campers to have the chance to ok them first before publicsing outside the camp list]. Nice to meet everyone. Also nice no-one died from eating my curry!!

After a shakey start. SB got into the swing of things, and then it was hard to catch her. Enjoyed the trip to dynamic earth - thanks Kath. SB attempted to drown herself on swimming pool, but showed she can nearly keep head above water now. Mostly got to know people and looked at the various resources.

our offer on victorian house accepted. survey not too bad!!! some diy to be done. Ended up paying more than we had wanted, and on our v max. oh well.

We were pondering this as we loaded the car - how many potatoes will we need for curry for 35 portions? - 5 kg or 10 kg?

Anyway, car is pretty much packed, lunch has been eaten, we many even hit the revised dep time of 2 pm (no point in leaving to early as we can’t get into the YH until 5, and it’ll take about 4 hours to get there), feel totally disorganised, but a break from home will be good.

Will hear about the survey on monday or tuesday though - hope it’s ok.

Ok Melrose here we come…………

Tune in next week……..

SB and Chris have made cupcakes, SB and I have made a vegan carrot cake and a normal one [still in oven]. Thats all we’ve done so far, no packing or shopping for foods.

Earlier Mum and Dad left. SB played lots of dolly games, went through the usbourne 1001 things to spot, did some great colouring of viking patterns watched sesame street in german and did some adding games as well as the baking - which she is getting v good at. Also a fair bit of whingeing, crying over nothing and sitting on the stair in a sulk. I think i am going wrong somewhere.

I have also looked at our bank accounts and done a budget [ a bad move to do just before holiday, so will endeavour to forget it until we get back]

We will pro arrive at Melrose only just in time for the jackets, as we excel at leaving the house later than planned!

PS vegan carrot cake now out, and doesn’t look to bad - this is a my made up recipe first time use, so may be only useful for puddings! Have also sorted SB and BB clothes for packing, so don’t need to disturb her in bedroom.