Petits Haricots

just realised near the month end and not done the back flikr - aargh
sb and bb at nursery. me at work chris also at work
SB had ballet [with both shoes!]

we started lots of things, but not so good at completing! Sb still recovering from cold, and me from maudlin-ness. So a partial duvet day!!

We started off well though, had a look at various seed heads around the garden - the water iris and sweet chestnut the most fantastic. Picked up a few of other kinds too, and used them in a sticking picture of Autumn. We had a chat about seasons as we did it, what autumn meant, the how behind it etc. As we had done this in the conservatory, SB wanted to watch telly - so had a spanish Muzzy. Neither of us comprehended much, so we watched the english version - aha!! We were supposed to have the spanish back, but SB spied the bugs life video….. lunch was a good distraction, and after that we did some looking at our fly on the wall ancient egypt book and DK egypt book. We spied egypt on a map - SB a bit put out that it wasn’t ‘ancient egypt’. I tried to explain a bit about the country being more or less the same through the ages [yes, I know]. She did know the big river was the nile though - good-oh. She has decided that the first pharoah entombed in a pyramid was Josie Jo [close, as Djoser! - i wont let practical archaeology get to far Merry!!!!] We had a very brief look at the mediaeval bit of the DK history explorer - she was collecting stickers, and a blink at the solar system one. [and I mean a blink].

Moved on to Happy Street, and making stories. Getting better still with BB destroying as she goes [though the peace was uneasy!]. Some climbing about on the climbing frame, and then brought me the usborne greek myths and waved it about saying she wanted ulysses. i explained that was the other one, but she knows best and shows there is a woooden horse piccie in it. She’s right, the Ulysses story is in there too near the end. Odysseus here though - so we discussed name changing. She sat rapt by it, and insisted we went on to Theseus and the Minotaur.

What we haven’t done is any learning to read stuff and singapore or miquon maths for a while. I am gald we did some language though. knowing she would have it regularly at school does up the stakes doesn’t it. even for us, who are not trying to school at home. I know she will prob have a mad day of non-stop maths soon though, but I think we would like to encourage a daily habit as well. i have therefore taken photos of the front of some of these resources, and will cut them out into ? laminated magnetic stickers, or have a sheet with a certain number of them on, so she can get used to choosing which one to do, finidng matching book and getting on. How controlling. Once we’ve slipped back into the habit, we can just let go a bit again.

As reminded, it will be hard to keep calling her this, as she graduates soon into toddlerhood.

I feel really blessed with my girls. they are both happy and loving, and make my home life a joy. [yep, even when SB being super clingy/awkward/loud and BB being snack attack queen all night!]. Sometimes I concentrate so muich on the what we did/ HE bit of this blog that perhaps I don’t emphasise the gratitude i feel for the time we have, and the deep contentedness I have. OK, I want to spend far more time actually with them, and the work/life balance is totally wrong for me, but they have 2 loving, caring parents spending time with them, and are less fussed which one it is on the whole. Good thing I’m not on ‘just a minute’ as lots of deviation and hesitation in this post! I also think that the blogs concentrate more on SB because of it being a home ed blog. IRL is not so organised, most things are done with both of them, and splitting my time. I am trying to do seperate things too - easier with SB when BB asleep than the other way round. Anyway, in summary, life flows on here with lots of fun and laughter as often as possible.

BB is very mobile now - in a funny crawl way. She has her left foot leading, and drags her right knee - very odd. also tends to spin her round in a circle, so she has to sit up and readjust her direction frequently. She is very proud of this movement, so seems unfair for the family to laugh at it, but today needed laughter too. She regularly stops for a bottom in the air position too! She can pull to standing, and loves walking holding onto hands. She is a lovely communicator. Smiley and loving. she waves and gesticulates, rars, babbles, points. She strokes my arm gently while feeding, and when investigating something new, often uses this gentle stroke first. She loves music and rhythm. She is mad for chris’s throwing abouts. She, unfortunately likes all the flashing lights associated with laptops! She is an explorer, peering in and at everything with great concentration. She is also the great baby destroyer at the moment, scrumpling paper/books, SB’s jigsaws, puffling the games and constructions. pulling at hair and lips is also a favourite. She loves the limelight, but is quite happy to explore on her own. She has more freedom than SB - partly because we give her more, but also she likes it, whereas SB has always been an interact with me/join at the hip type. She also clearly adores SB - just as well it is mutual. physically she is still a lovely chubby bundle, but some of her bracelets are now disappearing. she has 5 teeth now [and don’t i know it sometimes!]

today was the funeral of aunty peggy. due to my not particularly good state, we managed to get the time wrong, and got to the crematorium 2 hours early, so went to pizza hut for a buffet lunch, and then tried again. SB still recovering from tiredness and cold, so the delay wasn’t good for her, and BB needed a sleep. however they wer both reasonably good, though at the end i did feed BB [seemed odd, but aunty peggy wouldn’t have cared, she was always showing her breast prosthesis to all and sundry after all]. I like singing the lord is my shepherd anyway. Oddly, at the end uncle robert and his family left one way, and aunty peggy’s side went to the wake arranged by her brother reggie. Does this mean that he doesn’t feel part of our family any more?? or maybe just to upset to go ahead with a wake at this time. brother reggie is an odd concept. All my life I knew Little Nanny had a brother who didn’t gel with the family and was?disowned. She han’t seen him for years etc. however she has been writing apparently for 5 years, and they finally made contact at uncle harry’s funeral earlier on in this year. So I got to meet him. lots of family came. including cousin Liz from Germany [Anne’s twin]. stayed late to talk. will flickr

Well, half of the 2 sets anyway.

Main event of the day was the moving of my parents. They have moved house from over 200 miles away to less than 20 (not coincidence of course, it was to be nearer us - well grandchildren really I suspect) It’s been a longish term plan of theirs, they’ve just been waiting for us to settle on where we would be living.

Nearest I lived since leaving home is about 70 miles, but for the last 10 + years it’s been about 250, so a bit of change there, kind of weird really. Stringbean is of course excited. I’m sure that there will be time of adjustment, but I’m pleased that they are nearer. My Dad has found long drives incressingly difficult in recent years. Now as well as us they are much nearer other relatives, so much less travelling for them. And it’s quite likley that he may have to give up driving at some point , so they are much better situated for coping with that (my mum doesn’t drive, though she once rode an orange moped). So me and SB were waiting today to pop over and visit them, but it was bit later than planned.

SB not been entirely well today, complained of painful throat when eating and didn’t have much breakfast or lunch, though seemed ok otherwise, though not keen on normally ‘keen on things’ such as baking cakes, so didn’t do that. Did make card for Nanny and Grandad for their new house, and we remade the Happy Street track (yep, still there Jax) that ‘Butterbean the Marbeliser’ had demolished last night like a mini Godzilla, and read few books before trying to entice her into breakfast. Me and BB had breakfast whilst SB fiddled about and ate half a small Petits Filou. She disappeared off to ‘Happyland’ and played for a quite bit by herself, so me and BB grabed the opportunity to have bit of one to one time playing. Always fun, as she is such smiley chuckly girl. She also enjoys a bit of rootling about on the floor, so she did bit of that whilst I did few a domestic chores, her baby grow distubingly grubby afterwards though (I hate kitchen floors, they just get to dirty too quickly….).

SB moved onto a Muzzy CDROM on the computer, and then onto the CBeebies website, BB had some milk and went off to sleep, so then I sat and helped SB with the above. After a bit, we went outside and poked around in the garden, looking for beasties, talking about Autumn and winter, where the weeds come from, what we are going to grow where etc. She was now flagging bit, so inside for some lunch, of which she ate little. So dosed up on Calpol, she settled down under a duvet on the sofa for an afternoon of vids and DVD’s.

When Helen came home later, she had perked up a bit, esp. as mum came bearing gifts of magazines, and Playdough (And Mmmmm, it was real Playdo, there is nothing like the smell of the real thing) Eventually my mum rang to say they were in their new house, so I got ready to go over (I had to collect some goldfish they had brouight up from their pond) SB had been goign to come, then said she was goign to stay, then decided at the last minute to come. She did a really good job of trying to stay a wake in the car in the way - just dozed off near the end. Saw the new house, sorted out a couple of simple things for them, had litle bit of chat etc. popped to the chippy for tea, SB ws trying to eat her chips, but was really tired by now, she was almost falling alseep over them - ‘can we go home now’…I think she fell asleep in the car in about 2 minutes.

House seems quite nice if you ignore the decor in some (most?) places. a bungalow would ahve been the sensible choice, but they could find one suitable in their price range. My dad has got his ‘bionic leg’ as we joke about it- nothign quite so grand really. He is paralysed down one side, and for many years now has had to wear a leg caliper to support his foot, but this is heavy and awkward. His been fitted with pretty new thing they are trying out, which basically stimulates the muslces in the duff leg to lift the front of the foot as he walks, which stops him tripping, and means he doesn’t need the caliper. He only got it this week, so early days but seems to be working well.

We are now getting to the stage where I am more likley to be popping to them to sort something out, rather than them helping us to do stuff, which feels a little poignant, though my Dad is disabled he was always active, and in my head is still the person who was up on the roof fixing it when I was teenager, or helping us fix rotten windows and build brickwalls in the garden in the old house. Though he’ll not be doing that now (though they did help us with the fixing up of the old one before we sold it). It’s Helen’s Aunty Peggy’s funeral tomorrow, what with this, and all the things happening for Little Nanny thisd year, there is a bit of a sense of the generational baton gradually being passed on here I feel.

BB looking very grown up today (though not as much as josie, not enough hair), pulled out a load of next size clothes to sort out for her. I put her in one of the favouritist pairs iof dungarees we had for SB, still looking cute Bit of a tear in my eye though as I remembered SB wearing them, was she really so young not so long ago - less than 2 months to BB’s first birthday - excited, sad? I’m not sure.

Had some great company, from the ‘making it up’ family. [who have also beeaten us to blogging!] SB and Big racing about together and BB and Small also doing a fair bit of interaction. Took so many photos, have given it a flickr set

On Saturday, all the children were fairly exhausted still from a late night, so we did ‘managed interventions’ [LOL] to keep the humour going and their awakeness untill an acceptable time for bed. This included sticker pictures, icing [and eating] muffins, book reading and indoor/outdoor changes of venue. It worked quite well really. Its nice to see how well they all get on bearing in mind the short time they have known each other, and the few times they have met. got some nice Flickr photos. Small was being a bit of the daredevil on the climbing frame, but escaped with minor bumps and bruises only [a relief!]

SB also restarted Stagecoach - she missed the first one last week. Having been reluctant to go, we were discussing this beign the last one, but she returned full of enthusiasm - we will wait and see.

Bedtime well managed, and peace had descended by 8pm - wow! Allowing for a fair bit of adult natter time and general gossip/setting worlds to rights and catalogue drooling. We weren’t quite as good at getting an early night. Jax appeared to also like the melon vodka.

Sunday
Well, Merry has beaten me to the blog! Anyway in the morning, the girls were still shattered, and played well for most of the morning, and then were played out really - well they have done well. We did though dress them in matching princess fairy outfits [bridesmaids dresses to you and me!]. SO I have now worn my voice out [as if] by reading every princess story in the barefoot book, half the faeries one and to general amusement, fox in socks, which I will consider sending Big as a present!

Merry and Co from Patch of Puddles joined us for lunch [chaos!] and then we went to the romano-british day at Hinchingbrooke Park. We were rather late getting there, and had missed the battle, but I did enjoy the rather gory Boudicca story. The lady in the roundhouse was informative, and SB enjoyed just looking about. She didn’t think there were any romans there, as they weren’t wearing togas, or the bright red of the army [though we did miss the fight - and she was disspointed about that] As we walked pased the spinner, she said she knew it was spinning, and she had seen it before, so didn’t need to again! So something def going in then!! ‘quietly making noise‘ were also there, and Sam, and SB had a jump over dinosuar pit/midden [depending on viewpoint] competition. They both lost!

The display room was good, and all the children enjoyed the sandpits/archaeological digs. there were some tesserae to make mosaics, and bits of moasaic tiles. SB particularly proud to get a free postcard. On the display, it said various freebies for schools and entry to various local digs etc, so may follow that up, as it seems there is quite an interest from the children. The archaeologists had fluorescent safety jackets with official archaeologist on the back - Kewl!!

Said goodbye to the various families as we all went back our different ways. SB just about persuaded to stay awake, and we used up the rest of the pyramid templates. The house is VERY quiet!! A total disaster zone, as 3 mini tornados and a baby destroyer of worlds have certainly left their mark [s]. I’d better start on the happy street [and flickr in a bit!]

well, for once I’m going to be succint as we have guests.

yesterday I finally went to the emergency dentist to have tooth done - should have gone ages ago as cracked filling was spearing my gum. Still painful today, but in an aching something done way, so much better. the emergency dentist at the hospital was a fab woman.

Jaw ached so much, that I called it a day at lunchtime though and came home, just in time to nip off with the beans to puddlers. [my first!]

that was very nice! will def go if free from work for whatever reason. It was an egypt session, so we made tammy’s fantastic sugarcube pyramid - from the story of the world activity book. Rather unfortunately, she told me that the activity boook comes with suggested stories to buy, all available from rainbow resources, so Jan may be main another order when this one comes through!

other bits of fun - heiroglyphics, scarab beetle seals, making a paper pyramid and sand camels. I rea d a few books as well. tick box, tick box, tick box!!!!!! Hopefully Merry took a photo with our beans, that I can nick from flickr!

Home again home agian quickety quick, as imminent arrivals from ‘making it up’. I say imminent, but although Tim did OK, Jax got caught in traffic from hell. Big and SB instantly disappeared to play, and eventually all 3 were intently happy streeting.

any thoughts they might wear tthemselves out were, of course,erroneous. eventually a midnight socks the survivor tape did the trick. they still woke up promptly though, an BB had given us a dreadful night. luckilly i am coming too whilst blogging. may even get dressed!!

guinness back as well

Bwahh! just shut the wrong window - goodbye post….. Luckily it wasn’t too much written.

Took the tandem out with the trailer as well for it’s first run as a full rig - ‘The Beanmobile’ To nursery and to ballet class - a few car-replacement miles to justify it’s purchase.Stringbean thought it was great having Butterbean as well. Lovely Autumn morning to be pottling along. SB seems much happier now about going off on her own into things. She’s happy now to run off to get cuddle from ‘her’ nursery nurse, always used to like me to stay for bit first, and goes off into ballet without a second thought. Good to see, as she was always happy to do this, but the move left her seemingly much less confident. Excited to have all the gear for her ballet class, though ‘Bad Daddy’ forgot to sew the little bits of elastic onto her shoes, but they stayed on fine. Quite why the teacher wants skirts above the knee when the skirts in the shop all seem to be longer than that I don’t know….. bit more sewing to be done eventually I guess. Supposed to have little basket as well. Outfit is mostly in blue though, I’m sure there are ploenty of disappointed little girls who would have preferred all pink

She of course looks just so cute in the outfit. Piccies will soon be on Flickr.

That’s about it for interesting things from today, a bit of mising catchup from Tuesday:

Morning started unsually with bit of TV - she asked to watch some TV, and had managed to pick the time when CBeebies starts on BBC2, so got to watch a bit of that first, prised her away for breakfast by promising to video a bit.

Breakfast was followed by finding library books, getting dressed etc. - always seems to be plaver when we want to get out, then she wants to take her dolly pushchair as we almost ready to go out , Amble round to library, drop off the books for checking back in, settle down for story time - BB seemed quite attentive as well. Then probably SB’s favourite bit of the colouring and glueing and sticking - it was a mermaid so she was happy with that. She is always the last to finish as she always wants to do two…..

Bit of a chat afterwards about HE and stuff, given pointer to a dance shop in local town, so planned a visit to finish kitting SB out with her ballet kit. home to give BB some milk whence she promptly fell asleep and slept for about 3 hours - she had had very bad night - a lot of crying - I’d ended up taking her into another room, but she still continued for bit. So me and SB had peaceful time, reading some of her library books, having lunch, watching the bit of recorded Cbeebies - Balamory, hanging out washing, whilst SB ‘helps’ - eventually decided she would be the ‘peg giver girl’ and clambers on the climbing frame - latest trick seem to be to climb along the top of the ‘jungle run’ handlebars with a foot on each one.

Main thing is that we finally started on doing something with the ‘Muddlepuddle postcards’ (a bunch of children on the Muddlepuddle email list sent postcards to each other) Pinned the map to the board, joined postacrds to location with some red wool. It’s looking very good, but still not finished as we ran out of pins - ands while we must have loads, they haven’t surfaced from the boxes yet. SB got very good at stringing the wool, tying knots and cutting it. Will do a piccie when it’s finished. However the list contained 28 other families we only seem to have 20 recieved - is it time to ‘name and shame’…?

Somewhere onong the way, SB disappeared upstairs to play with her dollies for bit, while I was on the telephone, so I left her to it to grab a bit of valuable ‘me’ time for a bit of quiet reading of the Grauniad and drinking of tea. Helen was due back from work pretty late, and a bit of kid free time is very good for keeping things on an even keel later on.

Once BB (eventually) woke it was some quick late lunch and then we whizzed off to do some shopping. Dance shop was tedious, becuase all the new classes have started and we caught the after school ‘rush’ - well it’s atiny shop, so only afew customers, but only one salesperson, so it wasn’t goign very quickly. So we had to wait what seemed like forever. SB - and BB were good though waiting so long. SB pleased to have the gear now. Popped into closing down baby shop and bought a couple of fleecy winter hats for the girls each for £1.50 each - SB talked me into buying this fluffy plastic Tiara thing as well……

Time for quick hit on Waitrose and then home for dinner. SB was fine really, but did come out rather to often with ‘can we have’, ‘I want these not those’ etc. I was flaggin g a bit, so came out with the old chestnut ‘ I’ve just spent loads buying you your dance stuff, I don’t want to hear anymore I want’s or we will take it back’ - one of those ‘did I really say that’ moments…… Ok empty threat , but it had the desired effect

Home for dinner, a bit later than normal, and BB seemed starving, she wolfed it down and was making a fuss > Helen didn’t get home until about 8 - 8.30, so SB pleased to still be up when she got home, so she had bit of late bed time. BB of course was just happy for some proper nosh. Spagehtti and sauce from a jar (Lloyd Grossman, rather nice actually) was just about all I could manage to get for tea for us by then.

well, i have been thundering about a bit at work recently, but calmed down today.

SB had nursery followed by ballet
Guinness [with 2 n’s] had his op, and is fine so far

i felt so miserable I bought the fruit trees anyway. i think they are as essential as a tandem bike, and although not got the money for either…..

Finished the pickled shallots.

SB in very manic mood this evening. finally asleep.

thats it really!

Had phone call from the vets this morning, yep he has dislocated his hip. Vet tried to put it back but it kept popping out (probably becuase of ruptured tissue flapping around and getting in the way). Apparently the recommended solution is to chop of the end of the Femur so that it doesn’t have to go back in the socket ! It seems that the ligaments and the cats muscles are enough to hold it in place and that they adapt to it quite quickly and are fine.

Sounds quite bizarre, but he’s the expert. Hopefully will get done today, though one of the vets is off so depends on emergencies etc. We will need to keep him indoors for a bit (we’ll try….) but at least we don’t have to keep him in small cage like we did when Whiskey broke her leg - she absolutley hated that.

Not cheap, but not dreadful either , and it’s the first time he has needed to see a vet, so amortised over his life time it’s ok. At least he was back home when it happend . If it had happened when he was still awol, who knows what would have been the result?

Edited

He’s had his op, all seems well, should come home tomorrow - then we have to just keep him indoors, with another cat and with the weekends visitors, extra children etc. Ah well we’ll try.

well, hopefully chris will finish the blog for yesterday and put up :¬)

today - well I had had such a crap night with BB feeding permanently, and rather a few work calls that I was no good for man nor beast and had a lie in.

Rousted up, and came too with nice cooked breakfast from Chris and played ‘round the mulberry tree‘ board game with SB. I read the last 2 disney princessess magazines [oh joy] cover to cover. SB loves them though, and it is all learning to enjoy the written /oral word after all.

I gazed with a suitable amount of impressedness at the map and postcards she and chris did yesterday [is that a spoiler?] whilst feeding BB [so she went to sleep for 2 hours- nice!]. we found where people lived, and those that sent postcards from areas other than their home address caused some consternation. Chris had aimed the postcard to Dartmoor, but it is now re-aimed somewhat closer to home. [you know who you are!]

We went outside to measure up the fruit bed - which looks a much more promising site for an archaelogical dig. I am going to buy minarettes, as although I think they are aesthetically fairly awful, they are the best functional use for that space, and then will have some espaliered pears and apples around the veg beds. Ken Muir are doing an offer with the kitchen garden magazine, which is effectively 6 at 12 each. I trimmed some more holly, and played catch games with SB, and stories for the climbing frame.

Found guinness, and unfortunately confirmed tht he has a very nasty leg injury, so is at present in the vets awaiting xray and then hideously expensive treatment. [so maybe fruit trees will wait]. Its either broken or dislocated - possibly from being run over. Rest of him seems ok - thank goodness. We will find out tomorrow.

SB had desire to make cupcakes, but settled for chocolate muffins. I have found out that she prefers to measure things in imperial - well there are far less oz than g! So returned to the past to measure in oz theingredients. They were delicious - so obviously an imperial recipe! Did some match and sort - AKA miquon while they were cooking - she def prefers singapore, but i think that is because miquon is so different to start with. She does, however, really like using the cuisinaire rods. Hooray - not a frip after all!

Whilst she ate her lunch, I got some of our shallots and started preparing them for pickled shallots - they are steeping in the brine overnight. prob 1/3 our shallot harvest, and will make 2 kilner jars. I will use some for shallot confiture. then discuss with chris whether to use the others fresh or pickle. Since we are a family keen on pickles and chutneys, I think its better to pickle and chutney, and use onions for everyday eating. We are going to replant some of them, as too late to do a shallot order.

BB keen on more feeding, so we read a book on earth sea and sky [well half], about, well, what is says on the tin - we didn’t get to sky part. She likes things involving the globe, so we looked at various features on there as well - though ours is such a cheap tesco globe that not very featureful, more political. We also played dinosaur ludo toghether. SB getting much better at understanding the flow of games. May even introduce the catching concept now. A ring on the bell, and the last of the redbook order [that had gone to leeds by mistake - I am sure i changed the address - LOL]. So we then read 4 of the anholts artists series. A real hit. A nice way to start thinking about art. She was particularly struck by the art in the Picasso one - asking why he painted the girl so many ways. [why not?]

We also have been listening to classic fm, and trying to discuss the type of music etc a bit. Must do a bit more stuff with the piano though.

BB has crawled alot today - getting very good at it. [in a slow lollopy way]. i am still making sure that I divert attention purposely to her, and SB getting better at following along, or doing something else [albeit reluctantly].

I’ve been out for a works meal - which was very nice. Given a slight grilling over home-ed, put played it as an even balance, not an anti schools thing, and something that just seemed right for us at this time. i wish Chris had never been a teacher though. I am p****d off with the, well its ok for you as Chris is a teacher - irrelevant!!! I keep plugging on about it just being an extension of what i’m sure they do for their own children without noticing anyway. no special skills, just time, patience, books and enthusiasm [well, ok there are some special skills in that lot - patience being one I have to master!] Some nodding there, so left it at that point.

Sundry messages and notices: I was having a dig at myself in the last post as a reaction to the school solar plexus thing. Do keep on posting your lists of what you do - i think it was the 10 pages of miquon!!! I like to see it, and although I do compare, on the whole I am not too stressed by it, as SB a wee thing. I can’t believe my blog stresses anyone - after all, we don’t often DO much of anything [ie 1-2 pages miquon with a lot of round the housesing] and its often me just reading lots.

If I was to be critical, I think i don’t do enough hands on demonstrations. This is why I am exited by the idea of a fake dig. I did look for old terracotta pots for painting and then breaking - with the idea that they could be dug up and glued together. However, we seem to have not brought any down from leeds with us. nor broken crocks. Will rethink. On a similar vein, having blanched the shallots in their skins and got a lovely deep coloured water, how much onion/shallot skins do you think you need to put in to make a dye??

Oh, and Kirsty, I only have 2 K books!!! [LOL] I thought I had more than that, but i have some 1’s and the usborne science ones making me think I have a lot!!!! My real flirtation with sonlight will start at about core 2, when the history and readers start to tie together. we might even try it then for that part.

i had a sudden argh moment when I felt somewhere in my solar plexus that if we were living a different life, I would have done a school run today for SB. made me jittery enough to suggest to her she do some explode the code. Luckilly, for my resolve, she refused! We are, in part, home educating because we think that formal schooling starts way to early, and here was I nearly school at homing! In part, I think, cos the blogs are full of families with children of SB age, but also older sibs, and I read these and feel inadequate [but only occassionally] because of the wealth of ‘work’ they are getting through. Standing back, I think SB is getting all the encouragement she needs at the mo, though I think I would prob like to be getting used to some element of structure ‘normals’ as Merry calls them.

I also really like the sound of sonlight curriculum. The books I have from sonlight I really like [and yes Kris, I am a watcher/bidder!!]. I’m reasonably sure I would enjoy doing it. I’m not sure about using it at the moment, as too much structure - though may grab an opportunity to look at someones instructor guide. I may do it later though - partic the later world history ones. i am not religious though, and would immediately have to give away loads of the books, so am unlikely to ever buy in in totality. So here I am, a natural list-maker, orgoplanner and structurer, who nevertheless feels a child led semi-autonomous [mostly autonomous in fact] approach is best. No wonder I have turmoil and conflict! luckilly, SB rather good at autonomous ed!

Actually Merry, our veg plot needs a good digging over, I offer it up for buried finds!!! [on subject of others blogs]

Well, we got up nice and early - which unfortunately always makes the day better, no no excuse for lying in bed! I took the breakfast opportunity of writing letters to Uncle Robert and Little Nanny, and found them hard. Although I thought I had prepared well for this one, I have found today my thoughts are centred around my loss of Aunty Peggy. Consequently, I just wasn’t up for any socialising, so we made our excuses for the iceskating trip. SB drew some pictures and coloured them in to include with the letters.

SB still very fond of patterning - and today we used the coloured Jenga-alike blocks. We did start off playing the game, but TBH, she hasn’t got the co-ordination as yet. She then built patterns, shapes and moved onto ships and a roman fort! She had quite a story for the fort, and was very proud of it. the barbarians [BB] did manage to destroy it though. Chris has a tangram set somewhere, but who knows where, that I think SB would enjoy.

We did quite a bit of rummy style happy families [as with 2, you can’t play the game otherwise]. She’s got the hang of my made up rules, but still tries to help me, so we will work on strategy!! Good at pattern matching, sorting and early strategy. [ie, 1 of these already in bottom of pile, so not a good one to collect - type thing]

We read some books - I love the DK street through time one. Usually we romp through, but were reading slowly and looking carefully, trying to imagine what might of happened, and how much of a shock roman culture must have been, what could you do about viking raiders etc. We only got to mediaeval and stopped there, as we had been concentrating for so long. Maps and globes are being interesting again, so actualy finding geography easy to cover.

After lunch we made biscuits and then iced them - so a rather yummy activity. SB getting more careful with measuring. Chris and I agreed we’ed be better off with different scales though, then perhaps she could be independent with measuring.

What else? A convoluted game with the phonics cards. she was a diver, diving into the ocean to bring them back from the deep [aka rug] for us to read. i got to be the learner for the blue ones, and her the red.
A mammoth legoing game - I built her a pyramid, but it wasn’t very practical for sleeping in, so converted to a tent.

yummy tea from chris!

Now its getting colder, we are in full jumpers mode, as this months bank balance is not healthy enough for heating unless it snows. Luckilly jumpers are all that is needed - I will put heating on for you Jax, don’t worry!! [your room hottest in house anyway]

Anyway, although we did no explode the code, or formal maths, we covered various concepts through play - equal sides for pyramid, SB’s roman fort [made with jenga blocks], squares, kites and diamonds. So waht was my panic all about then!!!! I don’t even think today was particularly full-on.

BB and SB played together intermittantly, and SB getting more tolerant [though ot really very] to BB’s new mobility and ability to puffle everything up. i am encouraging SB with playing peekaboo and hidden things under cups, and insisting on me having some one 2 one time playing with BB [if only short] where she has to do something else, or join in on BB level. Not entirely succesful, but trying to gently instill a sense that BB doesn’t only get attention when she is feeding - especially now she does that far less. that SB has her one 2 one time when BB asleep, and that is when the Mummy only with me activities are best - like cooking!!! BB is a happy and tolerant wee thing though, and does quite happily bumble about. I just want to make sure that i don’t rely on this, and give her too little attention. today she was giggling like mad with horsey horsey, chip chop cherry tree, raspberries and just liked being walked about. Peekaboo is a favourite too. putting BB into a cardie that my late cousin Anne knitted for SB gave me pause for thought too.

Flickr will follow! oh and mmmmm seed catalogues

We had a lovely day at the Portico yesterday, and caught Merry and girls there as well - so a really nice and wild time had by all the children. SB loved it. We were well chatted, well served on the food and drink, and general all round lovely - thanks.

The children where variously clothed in the copious amounts of dressing up options on offer, and spent a lot of time getting soaked by making waves with the pool. I didn’t get to see much of SB, so tickled Amelie as my surrogate daughter - she has a similar all arms and legs quality to her!

BB and Josie were obviously interested in each other, rather than playing together. A certain amount of anything you’ve got, I’ll have went on. Josie showed off her superspeedy crawl, while BB showed that she can at least crawl now [mercedes vs trabant!]. For 2 weeks difference, Josie looks decidedly older. i think its the more hair [as well as crawl and stand expertise!]

We were in Reading for a course of mine, so stayed the friday night in football stadium hotel - gratis [v nice]. The family are getting used to being conference families, and SB aquiring a checklist of expectations. Luckilly left to ourselves we usually camp or hostel, so the obvious differnces between what we are prepared to pay and what we accept are not so noticeable! Very nicely, the company paid for the families meal as well as me on the course dinner. Not expected - chris said he would have had pudding had he have known. While we were at the course, I had thought he would get to the Portico’s bright and early, however, since breakfast was free, he was doing the 6 breakfasts until I explode thing, and then BB crumbled a samosa over sparkly suite - oops.

Overt HE stuff - Today I have been at work most of the day, home hopefully for the night - but depends as on call. Chris took the beans swimming, and SB swam 2 widths - not bad. BB loved it [no surprise]. Not sure what else they have done? When I got home, we read loads of phonics books - with SB reading the hot fox one. played with her fairy castle, did part of a GB jigsaw, did the whole of the DK travel the world game, and played a sort of rummy with a set of happy families cards - which SB picked up the concept very quickly, so not bad. L:istening to classic fm, and did some discussion on happy/sad.

We also had a chat about Aunty Peggy dying. Sb asked if she was now in someone elses tummy. A moment to grasp she was thinking about rebirth [we have read some buddhist tales] I explained no-one really knew what happened, that you can believe that you go to heaven, or that you are reborn [but don’t remember], or that you think perhaps there may be nothing else, but memories. I believed that Aunty Peggy now lived in my heart, and the heart of those that loved her. SB liked this idea, but is going for the rebirth, as she is sure she has lived before. She then asked if God was real - so I admitted I wasn’t sure, but lots of people did, and lots of people didn’t, and it was something she would decide herself. She does. We had a cuddle and moved on.

BB has enjoyed crawling around and exploring the house. Her new found ability is causing SB some distress as all her things [like the jigsaw] are puffled up. I did suggest doing it on the table!

Am Flickring - so some photos being added to last week - especially a gloriously pouty SB photo - so go back and look!!!! [well, when you see some have been added to here though!]

Died quietly in her sleep. She has been very heavily sedated in the last week, so gently slipped away.
As I have blogged, she was unexpectedly found to have cerebral metastases from a previously unknown lung primary and was treated with compassion and steroids for the last few months.
i loved her greatly, as an extra set of grandparents [with Uncle Robert]. They had never been able to have children, and so have been surrogate parents for members of his family and closely involved in our lives, writing, seeing and generally loving.
She was always outspoken [if honest a bit too much at times] and could certainly play the eccentric aunt to absolute perfection. There was never any doubt about her generosity of spirit though.
I will miss her, and although another expected death, it is still very sad. Little Nanny is rocked by it - as if this seems a bad year to me, it has been a devastating one for her.
I am glad that Aunty Peggy managed to gently slip away one night with some diginity left intact.
I am glad for all the times I have met her and laughed with her
I am glad for all the fun and humour that she has injected into our lives with her eccentricities [particularly the ‘bloody quasimodo’ sketch that nearly made me inhale a sprout at the time and has gone down in family folklore]
I am glad that SB if not really BB has had a chance to meet and love this eccentric and individualistic woman.
I am glad that I had a chance to see her so recently, when I knew as I kissed her goodbye that it would be for the very last time.
Aunty Peggy, I love you, and I am glad that you have been in my life. Whatever happens - if anything following death, you are alive in my heart

webmarshall ate another post thinking there was gambolling [purposeful sp] going on!
AAArgh
anyway, nice time yesterday at the Portico, with Merry and co as well.
children had lovely time, as did adults.
lovely food provided.
was a really long post, so be glad it was eaten I guess, as I don’t have the heart to do again. [why didn’t it eat the aunty peggy one, I had copied that one just incase?]. I copied this one, and it published without a hitch??

might flikr tonight. At work [again] at the mo

i have finished huge presentation, and have a few moments to myself before must do it!
On mudpud camps page, I posted an idea about perhaps camping in central England near some attractions - maybe a theme park, and it got 56 responses.

I had seen 2 I fancied, as they seemed to primarily cater for 12 and under - about our age group really

wicksteed park in northants, which also has campsite on it - not sure if any statics. Also very cheap to enter and near M1 and M6 so easy access

The American Adventure - not as bad as name would suggest~! in Derbyshire, where a variety of other interesting outings not that far away.

I was trying to think of central England really, as then no-one can feel that the camp is just too far, and also the driving weill be easier as near motorways.
Also trying to think of cheaper places that might do a group discount

I like the sound of the first place, so will probably take beans on a visit someday
Where else??

Nursery day today. Increasingly find us getting to Thursday and thinking that it is getting in the way of all the other things we could be doing. Though of course the plan is that I am at work on those days, hasn’t quite worked out like that yet though.

Afterwards took Stringbean to her first Ballet class lesson. It’s in the village which is nice, as often for us now things are elsewhere and need travelling to.

She has wanted to do ballet for it seems like ever (she said to me on the way there that she had wanted to do it in Mummies tummy). most of the other girls going there already had there leotards and their little skirts.and shoes, so she was a bit disappointed that she doesn’t have hers yet, but they had a leotard that she could borrow. Didn’t get to watch it sadly, but they did all look so cute

Seemed to enjoy it, though seemed a little disappointed as ‘they didn’t do any ballet’, which I assume means they didn’t do any twirling around, dancing etc. - more simple movement stuff. did enjoy telling us how they all got to pretend to be a ballon going pop.

We are continuing with Stagecoach for bit, but will drop it, maybe after Christmas as more things come on stream - she has enjoyed it, and it’s an area that is diffcult/impossible to cover well at home, but it’s expensive and it really messes up the weekend as it takes out Saturday morning every week (it’s a 20 mile round trip). I think it is maybe something to come back to when she is older if she really shows an interest in this area. But once she is 5 in Feb she can start proper swimming lessons - she has managed to swim a width of the pool now and that was the deal They do do stuff for under 5’s but it seems more playing, confidence stuff etc. and she is well beyond that, also Rainbows, and if I can find one a Gymnastics class (there is special Gymnastics place , but nearer would eb nice - and there is a fair waiting list for the proper classes it seems.. plus various HE stuff as well. It should keep us all busy.

On return from Ballet, I gave the kids their tea and heaed straight for the bath as Helen is normally back later today. Once out of the bath she was home and BB could feed (priorities…) and SB could play with her. Not entirely sure what was going on all the time, SB mostly scampering around with no clothes on as far as I could see. She did play a nice ‘Hide something under the cups’ game with BB.

A few future thoughts are forming. We have accquired quite a bit of stuff now - esp. books (moslty thanks to a bit of an Ebay frenzy on Helen’s part, plus a bit of Barefoot books, Redhouse, Sonlight) We could open a DK/Usborne library I think - as well as general history/science/geography type things, we have Singapore/Miquon maths, Explode the Code, various phonics reading stuff, Getty & Dubay handwriting, Sonlight Timeline stuff. We want to put together a box of sciency stuff we looked at so that when something comes up we can have a go at it there and then. a lot is general household stuff, but somethings will need buying. We were looking at the science kits Sarah has mentioned before I seem to remember. And I’ve got a couple of years worth of Krampf emails stashed away.

So plenty of things. I need to spend sometime sat down looking at and thinking a bit about it, and I sense a plan for aiming at a modicum of mild structure coming over me. Nothing to intense - one of the reason for HE is that I think school starts being too academic too early, and I am a bit Charlotte Mason-y at times. But there are areas SB enjoys such as the maths ‘match and sort’ workbooks and related mathsy stuff in general, she is gradually getting a grasp of reading, she loves trying to write things down, she loves looking at books about various periods in history. I’d like to organise things so that we can easily do bits of stuff, do Getty & Dubay regularly, try to bring bit of structure to the way we approach the maths (the ‘pick a page, any page’ approach of SB is falling down more frequently as she progresses and the concepts get a little ‘harder’.

An area I think is suffering is that of ‘nature study’ - we do do various of bits of this as it comes up., looking at beasties etc. But I was concious when down in Somerset when out walking together that we don’t seem to have done much of that recently, since we moved. When in Leeds we had Country park we used to visit, and some local woods that we often used to walk round - with some excellent big rocks for SB to clamber on. Don’t seem to ahve done much of that, TBH, though we live in village now, I don’t think I fihdn the countryside very inspiring round here to get out exploring. Must make more effort. Though even our garden itself is a good resource.

And ther are things like churches and graveyards, that SB seems very interested in for some reason, and maps - which she seems to have really got the hang of conceptually which are jsut asking to be picked up on whille the iron is hot.

So a bit of a plan is needed me thinks. There are also domestic aspects to this, as too often the house gets to much of a tip, esp. the kitchen - I find it hard to concentrate on playing/doing HE stuff wetc. witht he kids when it is too much of disaster zone. Need to work on it staying tidier. more organised.

Haven’t Flickr-ered for a few days, something very amiss there……

oh dear on proper blgs!
SB
nursery
FIRST BALLET LESSON - she loved it
archael dig again - but did a more q and a imagine approach
story games
‘mummy, i am going to have 3 jobs when i grow up, one at a time. first i’m going to do ballerinerin, then doctorin, the archaeolololololin!’ love her!

BB
nursery
hide the ball under cup
stacking cups
fun with SB

have to do huge presentation, so in shorthand to string tale together:
SB home ed
make carrot cake
silk road stories x 3. discussion countries, china, gods
globe - long and lat, china
maps and globe book - long and lat, n and s, used globes and maps
archaeol dig book
europa jigsaw map - guess countries
drawing family week planner/timetable
stamps - made card
eliz 1 book
sing primary maths 1a - missing numbers
balamory jigsaws
tell time book
jason and argonauts
snail and whale and squeeze books
bike fixing
studydog
sudoku numbers
harvesting
cuisinairepatterns

BB
crawling
finger foods
strong willed!
stacking cups

other
chris’s parents move delayed
car service/mot

lovely day, i am so happy at home.
love my girls
will write up!!
and yes, photos

Suffering from ‘Bloggers Brain’ - as in I can’t remember what we did yesterday to blog it …..

I know we went shopping in the afternoon, Stringbean was very good, went to couple of shops and got some veggies from a market stall (3 caulis for 50p - bargain….) - helps out by counting out the requiste number of lemons or whatever - she always wants to buy lemons for some reason. Excellent help in Waitrose, they have small kiddie trolleys (proper trolleys, not those stupid ride in car type things), she pushed this around carefully while I had Butterbean in the buggy, carefully stacked everything in there as we went round, didn’t crash into anyone. This was quick in and out shop so not enough time to get bored and grumpy for either of them. Came home to find H home so of course BB had good munch, SB wanted to play with mum, while I did housey things (cook dinner etc. Cauliflower cheese of course, which pleased SB as it’s one of her current favourites.). Roughly put up the Kyham to air has it was wet when we packed (disadvantage with something like the Kyham, can’t just hang it up to dry) and I remembered it was still in the roofbox festering.

The main thing I rememeber about the morning is that BB went to sleep about 3 times, but woke up after about 10 minutes or so each time so got quite grumpy and so spent a fair while cuddling her, some ‘matching and sorting’ went on as did some more colouring at some point, and we didn’t fiddle about with the tandem to attach the trailer so couldn’t try out that to go to the shops in (and in fact went about 2-3 hours later than intended….) All in all it was bit of bitty unsatisfying day, to much mess around from the holiday still etc.

Today (Tuesday)

Read a chunk of the Osburne TimeTraveller Omnibus on Romans with SB over breakfast time, along with the associated little diversions of conversation that crop up. after getting dressed, pottering about erc. then found the library books (now I can look them up on the ‘puter to see which ones we have out I’m nuch better at getting them all back). Ambled round to the library, ‘Storytime’ has started up again so we sat and listened to that, did a bit of colouring and sticking to make sea horse for the undersea display before getting out some more books. Had couple of ‘going to school’ type conversations as of course various parenst kids have headed off this week. Responses to ‘We are home Edcucating’ were boringly uninterested

Had the though that things are bit like some sort of bad ’50s sci-fi, all the children once they reach a certain age, suddenly disappear from view - creepy

Home again, home again to sit down to give BB some milk and settle her down for snoooze and the a good read with SB. After lunch she found the magnetic Jiglets from when we moved and we played with them on the fridge. A slight confusion with the way words go. On the Zebra the word ran from the animals tail to it’s head, when she did fox it was the other way round, but she still did the word the same way so it was back to front , took a bit of convincing that words always go left to right A bit more dot-to-dotting and colouring (she is really into both at the moment) and maths workbooky stuff - she has a great collection of felt tips, most of which were cheap or free and are frankly rubbish, they run out in no time and clutter the place up, so finally convinced her to throw away any that have dried up and we will by a set or two of decent ones. (There are couple of Berol ones around whihc have been around for ages and are still going strong) while we played with BB then headed outside into the garden.

SB got most of the washing off the line for me (she stands on her little trampoline ), played in the still up tent, rolled around with BB, then when BB had another nap we went in and cooked tea. SB did a really good job of cutting up the tofu, carrots and cauliflower. H came home bit late as she was on call but just as were having dinner, so got to have it with us. Tidied up the playroom while dinner cooked, SB insisted I hoover soo that I could put the rug back down (wouldn’t countenance putting it back over the grub…) so it was softer for he ‘exercises’ - much jumping and twirling about, and seemi headover heels and handstands. Wa shoping to get her into soem sort of proper Gymnastics class, but haven’t managed to yet

After bath time was chatting with SB about HE and school, what she thought HE was, and what she thought school was like - no idea of course really - she did suggest we should ask M her cousin as he goes to school. Not sure what she thinks about it, but she is happy with telling everyone who asks she is not going to school and is being home educated, so we leave it at that, we don’t really mention school very often anyway, we don’t make big deal about it, just ignore it really. It’s just not part of our life.

We travelled a long way mentally in 2 years.

Horoscopes
Aries Aries

There’s no need to go pounding your head against a wall, dear Aries, your day today will be just as stubborn as the true Aries that you are. The planetary configurations today will push you to lay the foundation for the projects you have been planning over the last six months. Go with the flow. People say that Aries are good at lighting fires, but lousy at keeping them going: it’s time you proved them wrong!