Petits Haricots

A quick catchup. BB has been such an appalling sleeper that I just can’t concentrate. Made me a rather off colour guest too - sorry - as Nic and Ady good hosts.

Friday. puddlers. Chris and beans went, and must have nice time. No idea what we did that eve!!

Saturday Nic had put a great deal of time and effort in, and it went really well. SB had a whale of a time getting on with children she has got on with before, and noticing new children as well. They just got on - great at socialising these home ed kids!!Ros did fantastic face painting. Nice to see a few new faces too.

A lovely following day to Brighton - plenty of memories there for me and Chris - espec Chris as his Uni stamping ground.
When we got home, SB went off on a tangent re english dancing, so we spent the evening morris dancing, and she’s keen to see some. A local couple of groups have a plough day early jan, so if she’s still inerested, we will go.

Took SB to my Mum and Dads this morning, she is staying overnight. It’s her first night away from us. Will seem very odd this evening. BB napping right now - it’s so quiet….

She was so excited, went off with ‘her’ suitcase packed - clothes, cuddlies, books, a couple of workbooks She has been wanting to do this since they moved up here.

I know she will be fine and everything, but….you know how it is.

oh dear

Encapsulates my life. I think as a family we are a very good example of chaos theory, and the workings of entropy. however hard we strive for some order, it gets wooshed away.

good news
1.My sister and parents decided the bunks were a good christmas present and bought them [so I see some reasoning for my sister, who will get to sleep on them rather than blow up bed!]
2. Hooking and crooking we are going to halloween party [though I see Alvin shaking his head and sighing at me!]. Haven’t got a costume as such - may go as myself [though only Merry finds that scary, and although I wouldn’t want to scare Merry anyway, she won’t be there]. thought chris could go as an animal rights chappie, to be the anti-Chris (P) [who I believe is going as himself?] And as for children???

Bad news
1. Pay has dropped
2. Totted up likely cost for christmas for 16 at ours [shriek!] and staying 3-4 days.

Anyway, to the day. BB gave us another totally abysmal night. I was on call as well. In the end Chris took BB to the spare room as I just couldn’t feed her again, and I am supposed to be reasonably alert if called in! SO both of us starting with a small camel to begin with.

SB woke up really early, had me making up stories in bed at 7 - she now has to help with the plot, so getting good at this - , and then up at 8 - no rest for the wicked! So we came downstairs. Now I knew i should have made a list!! Hmmm, well the second thing we did was the maths joining cubes and some singapore 1A on add/takeaway/number bonds. however, we spent far more time just making realtionships between things, thinking about going up and down 0-10 in 2’s. and then doing clumps of 3’s. Preliminary tables really, and some odd and even stuff.

Aha!! first thing was numerous jigsaws!! Then - and how can I forget, we started a papier mache monster head. So that means the maths was the third thing. It was SB’s idea - of course, and I am in TCS mode [or was until desperate need for some quiet!] SHe was very careful tearing up the strips of newspaper and applying to the balloon [flour and water paste], and also helped tidy up. In fact SB has been really considerate all day, and helped with lots of tidying, and not done much grumping or weeping over inconsequential mundanities - really lovely! She is a really gorgeous daughter, and I don’t say it often enough in this blog. Everyone, I have 2 gorgeous daughters.

BB joined us so we had to put away the cubes and jigsaw pieces, so that led to a really good old tidy up. I was going to let Chris have a lie in, but he was downstairs before I had heard BB. breakfast next and getting dressed. SB and I made the first of the days halloween sweets - orange and black coconut ice hmm!!

Then some playing with BB time. She has just got the hang of walking with the walker - though a bit perturbed if it goes too fast! She is such an investigator as well - getting into cupboards, boxes etc. She’s quite good at furniture walking. She chatters and claps, and was having great fun with a pair of toy glasses. I put them on her a few times - immediately whipped off, anf then asked her to put them on - at which point she tried to balance them on her head - very cute! She talks to things as she goes round as well. She also likes posting things in holes, so tidying up suits her! SB also did some playing with BB in a reasonably succesful kind of way. She is also really proud and pleased when BB can do something that Josie can already do!!!!

edited - at this point she also did some drawing and colouring. She has cut out the free archaeolog postcards she got and made a collage - all by herself, finding glue and scissors. She has also had a look at the learn to draw things that go - and done a really good hot air ballon and submarine.

While BB preparing to sleep, SB read some red letterland books to me. She is reading the known stories rather than the words, but I do make her read out some letters and turn them into words. Not too much as sometimes this really annoys her. I then read some of the Usborne farmyard books [she has to sound out/read the title]. i’m mainly trying to show her that guessing the word is sometimes made easier if you sound it out a bit first.

With BB asleep, we did a lot with the marble run. We joined it up in different ways, sometimes steep or curvey or shallow or straight, and guessed how fast the marbles might go, and where they might come off. We had 12 marbles, so 6 each, and SB now good at 6 number bonds, but was easily seeing if we had enough by doing 2 lots of 3, and seeing what was missing or extra. SO more easy maths. Also picked up that the steeper the slope, the faster it went, but curves slowed things down, and curves on a steep slope were more likely to cause the marble to come off - must be science! [oh and we had lunch, and I actually read one of the 3 journals I must read today as getting behind!]

Finally we did the last 2 sweets for halloween - orange flavoured pumpkins and mint flavoured bat droppings and snails - yum! Don’t worry though, we kept our hands and bowls scrupulously clean, as others are going to share in the joy of eating these sweets. Whats more, as Chris looking frazzled, i had a rather good stab at keeping the kitchen tidy.

our next activity totally foiled this - making pumpkin and ginger chutney. What is it about pumpkin seeds - pinging off everywhere! Also so slimy. instant kitchen disaster. We haven’t finished it - SB whizzled the carrots, onions chillis and ginger up, i choopped the pumplkins, and we have added the spice and the vinegar. Chris in trouble, as I had made excess perfumed vinegar for the pickled shallots, so was going to use it, as popped in a jar, but he has thrown it away!! SO mixture of what we have got. CHillies and ginger tend to be predom flavour though. I think today i have earned a prairie muffin award for my kitchen endeavours!

SB now doing some leappad in the kitchen as I said I needed 5 minutes peace, and BB is pootling behind me [with plastic glasses in hand]. Since I have had 30, I had better go and rejoin the family. not many photos as the battery on the camera ran out, and we have lost our alternate rechargeable - a bit of a bugger. I’m sure I will find something to flickr later on - well, if I have time when finished chutney, and potentially thought of a 5 second costume for SB. realised Mum has sewing machine too. bugger! Oh, SB ran in really excited as she has completed one of the phonics books all herself with the games, and CHris [also in kitchen cooking tea] has given her the star for their chart. Very sweet! Back to life, back to reality…………………..

edited to add -OK, so the non-whinge disappeared over dinner, but prob cos she was tired! We then read Ulysses from Usborne’s heros, and for bed the magic faraway tree.

edit 2 - have done chutney [lovely vinegar aroma!] and journals, but no costume for SB!

Suffering ‘Blogger’s brain’ again re yesterday.

Monday

Both Stringbean and Butterbean slept a bit longer after Helen went to work -Stringbean hadn’t got to sleep until gone 12 (or was it 1 am?) as she’d slept on the way home and unfortunately woke up when i put her to bed . She did spend a long time in bed but just didn’t get to sleep so she caught up a bit. Both woke up all perky soon enough though. BB is such a total wiggler when it comes to getting changed, as so a you let go she rolls over and is off across the bed. She loves it so much - she does this thing where she sort of flops her head down on the bed while sticking her bottom up and then chuckles away. That and making beeline for the end of the bed so she can stand up holding the top of the frame. So with her and SB generally messing about and ‘helping’ it can take a while to get her changed.

SB seemed a little out of sorts after the weekend, as she often is after seeing people, And didn’t want to settle down to anything that I suggested in the ‘worky’ nature so after her breakfast while I finished BB and mine she pottered about in the playroom. She found some more pens and pencils in a small draw in the cupboard so dragged them out and sat herself down with some paper quietly to do some drawing. She did a great picture of a rabbit. It is apparently jumping up into the sky so the grass isn’t too long. She spent a fair while on this so me and BB got a little while to play little peep-bo, hiding games, taking and passing games etc. Bit of a blank spot here, though I do remember some reading of stories, though I got SB to try reading some of the words out as well.

Did go outside after BB went down for her nap. We filled up the bird feeders – talked about why we put different food in them, why some goes on the bird table or the ground, what different birds eat, why small ones need to eat often, why fat useful as a food for them in the winter, the names of some of the birds we see. And then spent ages poking around outside. Found a couple of big sticks and played a few ‘big stick games’ , balancing them on end. trying to find the point of balance (talked about why it is roughly in the middle), a bit of sword fighting. Various other things which I now forget came up as well.

After our lunch, BB then woke up, so SB settled down to play a few games, listen to stories etc. on the Cbeebies website while I fed BB. Tried to listen to a couple of the record BBC Schools Radio programs with her, she was half into it – particularly the one where we had to act out a little drama – making noises, being an elephant etc. but not really into it. A little bit later at some point Helen came home. Not sure exactly what was done there but they did some good lego Pyramid building at some point before dinner. There were plans to make some lemon curd, we even went and bought the eggs, but somehow didn’t get round to it.

Helen here - we actually did quite a bit, but can’t remeber so much either - oops. did do some explode the code, 3 pages, SB helped me write the numbers in the Kakuro game - she has grasped it is an adding game, so that made us do a bit of mental maths. I also read 3 or 4 stories from the usborne around the world, and therefore she had to read me a red nose reader [for every 3 I read, she has to read 1!!!] lots of squiggling about with BB as well. lego was fun though. We even put the characters in the pyramids with the lego animals to keep them company in the underworld.

Tuesday

Well girls esp. SB awake early enough this morning BB had a pretty poor night – she is doing this thing where she will wake up and have a feed, then when I try to take her, she will scream madly as she wants to go back to mum, so bad night.

After her breakie, SB went back to some more Lego. This time making a train and some ‘sofa’s for all the people to sit on apparently. Once me a SB had finished up we got dressed etc. and sorted out the library books she wanted to take back and which she wanted to renew – She uses hers and BB’s card and has various books taken out on different weeks, so we have fair pile of books to sort out, check etc. Still wondering what has happened to two Mr Men books that disappeared in the house ages ago. Did I hide them is despair and my dislike of then I wonder?

Got sorted, time to go out. First stop baby clinic. Have only been once since we moved here, no real need to go, but BB weighed and got HV to try and get the endless requests for SB to have jabs she has already had stopped (various people not doing/telling who they should it would seem) Missed SB 8 month check as GP does it – but she seems ok – Sb had an hearing test but don’t do that now, and we missed the birth one. But she seems to hear ok.

To library, where for once we managed not to cause delays and confusion as we normally seem to manage to do. Read few books – found some Red Nose Readers, so we read those in the library. Got out some more books and headed home. BB to snooze, me and SB to eat toast, drink coffee and read all the books at least once. My Mum rang asking if we could go over to help sort out some problems with wiring the TV, video etc. so once we ‘d finished and sorted out stuff to take we headed over there.

We played a bit of game that my parents got when I was around 10 called Hare and Tortoise . It’s a fairly cleaver race type game, but it’s not dice based, so there is much more strategy to it than chance. A bit to old for SB, but she saw it and wanted to try it .She got the hang of the general gist of the game - collecting and then ‘spending’ carrots to move around the board. And it gave us excuse to practice working out how to make up the right number of carrots from various denomination cards, talked about the idea of counting in tens again. Didn’t finish the game as I had to pop out and then she wanted to stop. Also impressed Nanna a bit later by slicing up the potatoes to make nice chips. Spent basically all afternoon there, not as planned. Was a nice afternoon and had had an idea to get out again and maybe do something like bark rubbings.

Managed to get home with out SB falling asleep. Tea, a bit of reading of library books again. SB made some pictures for me and Helen – I liked the ‘love to Babby’ Bit on mine

Butterbean note. She is so much into everything at the moment, put her down and she is off investigating, nosing about, getting stuck in places. She loves the dishwasher. As soon as it is open she is in there. Almost literally - I found her on the open door, head inide the machine…..

we visited my parents for the weekend. Such a nice time. put the worlds to right, wailed over children growing so quickly. Hopefully allayed some fears about home ed. Felt loved.

Friday:That was the short version! We wet down on the Friday and had a hideous journey due to a major smash on the M25 which we were luckilly not involved in. SB so excited to be visiting my parents, and BB, well being BB. lots of reading books and investigating the toys went on, and a very late SB bedtime.

Saturday: The next day SB cycled with my Dad to the swings. She was very proud that grandad was taking her, and had begged for us to take her bike with us for this very reason. Grandad proud to be so wanted too. SB ‘read’ a book to Nanny - well, at least sounded out some of the words, did a bit of explode the code, and also Mum had bought a colour in book, so that done too.

In the afternoon we went for a wallk along the river at Marlow - always something I enjoy. I played many concerts at the church, and spent a lot of my childhood walking there! SB likes the rather nice childrens play area. there were loads of swans and geese to be fed - but Chris had not remembered the bread [my mum and I travelled in a diferent car as we went to homebase first. hummed and hawed about a fantastic deal bunkbeds - abit like Ernest and Buttercups, which I thought were a great idea when we visited. Sense prevailed. After all, if we are too broke for a halloween party, then I cant buy bunkbeds. mum bought us paint as an early Xmas present!] Anyway, back to Marlow. A nice walk along the river. Some georgeous houses - how many home eds would have to live together to club for them??? SB running along the bank spotting things.

Nice family evening [though Chris doing the computer guru thing with my Dad, it was me that saved the day with the laptop on trial!!]. Played scrabble - I love it, so sad!

Sunday SB did some explode the code, and told Mum about Elizabeth the first. good girl! We also did sweetie maths. My sister Vivien and her 2 children came over, so basically lots of fun and merriment. I love my family! SB and my nephew M play together realy well, and my niece E is now a happy thing - playing with both SB and BB. BB went into adorable baby mode. She needed to make up for the horrendous night we had had! lots of photos I need to put on Flickr

Oh what fun. Let me say now, before you all switch off, it was fantastic. I loved it, just my cup of tea. the children loved it, and it was great fun!!

The background was that we [Merry, Tammy and I] had enjoyed reading archaeologists dig for clues with our children, and the children of the families thought it a great book. On meeting up for the Roman re-enactment thing a few weeks back, the children enjoyed scrabbling in the sand being archaeologists, so we thought, well why not?? And Tammy being an archaeologist……

So Merry and Tammy and families came for the day to have fun. First we covered arts and crafts, as the children painted their pots using red yellow and black [OK, real paints rather than natural glazes and dyes, but they were garden centre terracotta pots. When they are teenagers, they can make the pots as well!] this done, they hared around playing with each other on the bikes, climbing frame and indoors whilst they dried. SB, Sam and Fran also went looking for flints in the veg beds - and found loads. The ceremonial pot breakage came next - Amelie took a few goes - bless.

At this point all the children were supposed to disappear whilst I buried the pots, but SB and Sam helped out. we all helped mark out the squares - 2 test plots each. I dug the holes and they put in the broken pots, plus some hama beads grave goods [these were pre-christian!]. Some competition between Sam and SB ensured that there was plentiful grave goods!!

Lunch time - phew. Minimal trauma as pasta with help yourself toppings, so all eaten up. Second sitting for adults [after Tammy had read copiously to thechildren, the archaeologists book and moved on to fairies - Merry and I did contemplate leaving the building surreptitiously at this point, but it seemed unfair!] I got the recording things and the glue ready for the afternoon fun. Cheesecakes from Tammy [yummy] set us up for the archaeology.

As this is arable land, luckilly, artefacts are usually near the surface, and our dig was no exception [it was bad enough digging filling up 10 test pits without going too deep!]. A handy field walker [LOL] had left a clue as to which pot was buried underneath, so the children all found their pots, and started digigng. less adult help was required, and they all had a go at recording on the chart the places they had found things. Fran was the first real find - some pottery not buried by me, and also Amelie had some extraneous pottery. When each child thought all was found, we had a quick over dig and brought up a few more pieces and went to the glueing.

Glueing the pots with 5 children is much more hard work than glueing with 1!! Especially since they were tricky things to glue. I think to anyone else contemplating this bit of fun, I would suggest terracotta saucers instead. Easy to paint, and much easier to glue! Bearing with me, Fran and SB nearly completed their 2 pots. I had to admit to Amelie that half her pot seemed to be missing - and we couldn’t find it in the hole either! Tammy and Sam nearly completed theirs. Sam went to do a bit of sieving - since I had found 3 garden sieves. The others gradually went off to play. They all played together really well. [usual minor sharing traumas, but nothing major] We decided that the incompleteness of our pots [due to missing pieces and glueing trauma] was very realistic.

During this time, Josie practised her escapology tricks [rofl], and interacted with BB. They did seem to be having a game of pass the item at one point. BB asleep on sofa, and I don’t think her nappy has been changed since before lunch - Aargh terrible mother! They have both seemingly enjoyed the whirlwind of activity around them, and the interaction between them is cute.

Some chilling out and then the parting of the ways. Sb is at Ballet - having cycled there with Chris on the tandem, and BB is asleep. Peace - how wonderful!

Yep, I am flickring - its getting its own set!!!!

oh, the village lights committee came round to confirm our willingness to buy a christmas tree for over the front door, and pay for the yearly decorations. OK i said, when should I get the tree - well by the end of the month - what??? Where do you get an Xmas tree from in October???

What has become of me?

I’ve just found myself (for not the first time recently) puffing up the cushions in the sitting room before I go to bed….

Unfortunately our domain thingy was up for renewal last week. And he didn’t. Should come back tomorrow!! until then

our name at littleelf dot fsnet dot co dot uk

Apologies to karen o and tammy if trying to get through

bad chris!! i wondered why no-one had emailed for a week!!

Chris here - ahh sorry anyone who might have tried to email us. I vaguely thought the other day that it’s about time for hosting renewal. but I’d recieved more than one email to addresses on that domain past that date, so thought I was mistaken and didn’t get round to checking…….

normal service will be resumed shortly

well, couldn’t think of a title.
night with BB so crap that eventually Chris dragged her off to spare room.
we pottered about in the morning - some red nose readers and usborne farmyard stories.the went to Chris’s parents.

they have moved to be near us, and it was my first chance to see their new home. Chris and the girls have been once ? twice? It was certainly a much easier drive, though we were late.

SB settled to some colouring initially, then playing with the farm animals, and then ‘reading’ the books Nana got for her. BB had fun furtniture walking and just being delightful. ALthough chris went out to get more terracotta pots and UHU, he could only get the UHU, so a quick nip to the garden centre tomorrow, as I don’t know if Karen O will be coming or not. The weather forecast has gone off somewhat - terrific storm today though! i hope we get to do the dig after all.

Chris Uncle Ivor and Aunty Barbara also were visiting - though got there quite late, so that we left later than planned. Aaarrgh to house prep for tomorrow. Merry is aware of my general standards [or lack thereof] but also have Tammy visiting!

Obviously saying BB was finally getting better on Joanna’s blog gave her the wrong idea - aaarrghhh. SB also had a rare accident! So today harder work really. I was going to try and get us into the pattern of ‘normals’ but have failed totally on this. Feeling typically middle class on this issue, as feel we need to get this to be an easy habit to follow.

Anyway, lets concentrate on what we did do. Hmmm?? Well, we did some more train track, and SB went off to have her haircut - she told the hairdresser that it was to be like a princess, and then to the library with chris. unfortunately the normal storytime wasn’t on. I did get to spend a whole hour with undivided BB attention - which is unusual! She just blossoms with the attention, wreathed in smiles. She is letting go and standing unaided at them moment - so a number of falls! We destroyed the train track of course!

When SB returned we read some of her new library books. I am gradually persuading her that the ones in big print are for her to try and work out the words and read. It would help if they weren’t all the wierd ones!! We then did some more glass painting - so 4 bottles finished for pressies. I made the elderberry and blackcurrent jelly at this time [that the juice has been stored for ages in the freezer]. The usual setting crisis, and Chris went on an emergency pectin hunt. Honestly, they are supposed to have moderate to high pectin content, and I had included some apples.

Beans on toast for lunch, and made a play for some ‘normals’ - some monster maths book that chris couldn’t resist [its bad news that he is getting to be a resource collector as well!!!]. we did half a page! I did my normals too - the adding up one - bah what is it called! - in the Guardian. SB does prefer Sudoku, but I fancied a bit more brain stimulation. BB finally had a nap.

We moved on - she chose which terracotta pot to break, and we went outside and ceremonially dropped. it. it shattered on second drop into6 big pieces with 4 smaller - so fairly ideal. We then glued them back together. It didn’t feel too sharp, and some tiny fragments were lost - adding to the authentic look of the glued together result. I helped obviously since it was UHU. We did get some maths in, as it worked best if tacky on sticking together, so SB had to keep counting to 60 after I had applied glue before she was allowed to stick the pieces together. She was fine to 49, and now to 60!!

archaeology update - in case we forget, has anyone some more UHU they could bring- as that was the best gluer upper! We have half a tube, and will try and remember some more, but as loads of children prob need more tubes.

Poor Chris was sorting out the pantry crisis as I had a strop since with so much stuff around, I had knocked over some eggs I coudn’t see, and then preserving sugar on top, so a nightmare! Its all beautiful now though!

SB helped me with the final Jelly - Christmas Quince Jelly by measuring the juice from yesterday, and also the sugar to add and lemon juice. Even though quinces are high pectin, this was also reluctant to set. I must be going wrong somewhere? So more pectin added and voila! We plan for SB to decorate the jamjars, so trying to decided whether to do glass paint transfers, or paint direct. SB will prob choose to paint direct. [yep, more xmas presents]. OOh completely forgot till looked at piccies that we got SB to do our shredding - she loves this, and the she and BB had fun playing with the bits in a box. [Merry, do you need shredded paper for rabbits??]

Whilst I put the jelly in jars, SB went back to the train track, and made up a rather complicated story about what was going on.

We then played games with BB - more Ta, and jiggledy on lap games. It is nice when SB joins in nicely too. Whilst BB went off to wreck the traintrack, SB and I had read aloud time - 3 stories from the usborne stories from around the world, and the Sonlight Maps and Globes. Both encompassing geography. i then read one of Muzzy accompanying books in German and English, so we practised some phrases about ourselves. We tidyied up [hallelujah!] and had tea.

After tea, SB read me a red nose reader, and has gone to bed. So although no normals, I do think we covered reading OK. When Chris comes down, we need to discuss finances- in Alvin mode as well. [panic - panic - panic!]

Early start to the day, as SB really still not well, and both beans were unsettled last night.
We therefore started gently with some DVD’s ‘christmas Nemo - AKA ‘the Gift’ from the alpha - omega bunch [so thats religion then] and kleine hippo. A german TV programme for approx her age [and languages!]. we don’t understand many words, but the cartoon gives you the gist. I played ‘Ta’ games with BB - she’s getting good at handing over, and then waiting to be given back and things this is a great game. sometimes even saying ‘da’. though not convinced that it is language as opposed to copying at this stage.

I had taken in Story of the World and a dot to dot book, that is both numerical and alphabetical. I then read mummification [and thought both of Tammy, and also the crocodile experiment of the yorkshire group] and pyramids. SB keen on visiting Egypt. She was sad though that all Cheops jewels were stolen. She chose to do the alphabetical dot to dots. unfortunately, although she can relate the ABC song on the whole to abc, the fast LMNOP she doesn’t keep up with with her pen, so gets annoyed and lost!!

We were all more perky, and keen to include BB regualrly in SB’s games, we decided to make our brio/tesco/elc hybrid train track. SB likes convoluted patterns, so it is a bit stretching for me as well - as I get the job of finally making it meet. She is rather annoyed that since we have an even number of points, and an engine shed, that that means there will always be a branch line if we use all the pieces. She wants them all to join up [apart from the shed of course] but I’m not allowed to leave out one of the points, so there is always a sulk about the branch line. BB also not so helpful, as rather a puller aparter, but the buildings and one carriage usually please her.

When we had finished it, SB decided to finsih the glass bottle painting, so we have done ever more complicated designs. Whilst she was doing that, I started the Quince Jelly - what a lovely aroma!

We popped back to the trains for a bit, and listened to one of the schools singing radio programmes on native north americans. AHA SB remembered her violin, so we got hers and mine out, rejigged the way she holds it a bit, and did open strings. Not for long, but a good thing to do, as the violin now the right size [1/10]

What else? oh we practiced painting the terracotta pots to see how long they take to dry. SB did 2 - 5 secs each, so not great works of art!! We did have a look at ancient greek terracotta and black pots in the DK book.

She then went outside with Chris and got cold, as she only had a t shirt on and refused a coat.
Edit from Chris - well didn’t complain about the cold when outside it wasn’t actually cold anyway. She helped a bit hoeing some of the weeds on the ‘fruit bed to be’. She was keenly looking at all the stones to see if they are flints as she is keenly taken by the idea that people used them (and ‘it tells us people used to live here ‘ so likes to colect bits of flint. Talked little bit about why people used stones not metal tools, why it is called the Stone Age etc. Convinced that the little bit of glass bottle she found was Roman Pottered around watering some things in the greenhouse with her watering can before heading back indors.

i had a bit more of a play with BB with the trains. The when SB came in, we played a pass the parcel game between the 3 of us saying ta with rattles. Seemed to be enjoyed. Pasta for tea, and SB and I then did a Sudoku puzzle together [today’s guardian]. SB has grasped the rules very well, and i usually say - we can now put the 1 in this box [of 9] and she can generally work out where it must go. [is this logic now, since she knows her numbers?]

Anyway, she is supposed to be eating supper, and then another installment of the magic faraway tree. instead she is trying to get me to provve the underworld doesn’t really exist. Blogging may save my sanity, as I think she is far to advanced on comparative religion now for me to keep up. [I have previously been asked to prove evolution and disprove the adam and eve versiosn - aargh] I do firmly believe that the evidence towards evolutionary theory is the strongest hypothesis there is, but i haven’t yet managed to work out how to tell it to a 4 year old so it doesn’t sound far more fanciful that the god created line [no offence to creationists out there, but I’m not one. I do, however, tell SB that some people do believe in creationism].

At last, milk drunk. Bedtime!!!!!!

Have cheap terracotta pots. Have practiced painting them with only black today to see how long they take to dry [approx 30 mins], and will break one, to make sure it breaks only into a few pieces - these will I guess have the potential to scratch?

then grown ups can bury and thought of burying with each one a grave good? ie a few hama maxi beads or something. And we might try and bury a few stones or shells as well. If anyone else has anything else that they would like to bury as an idea we can accommodate that too. We’ll mark out some grids. I have a feeling that the younger ones ie SB, may do a dig up as quickly as possible thing, but we will see. We don’t quite have enough digging up things - ie garden trowels or holiday spades.

while waiting for the pots to dry enough to be buried by some of the adults [? about 45 mins??], we can read the archaeologists dig for clues to remind them of what we are doing and or some of the history resources - perhaps the early people ones, and then see if they will run about and play for a bit.

I can have drawing paper and implements in the conservatory laid out for them to draw what they have found - or anything else that takes their fancy. You can get in directly from the garden, so can limit the spread of mud throughout the house! [oh how likely!]

Potential other activities - I am going to make some shallot confiture at some point, so can keep the blanching water and skins for some tie dyeing [though I am aware Merry’s have already done this.]
we have prob bits of wood etc out in the garden that we can give them a stash and see if they can build a few small huts [ROFL!!!] for barbie!

Outdoors we have loads of daffodil bulbs to plant if more digging is what they fancy.

If rainy, we could have a go at making the egyptian sweetbreads in the history projects book. [or anyway]

You will all i hope bring spare clothes!!!! as i think this may be messy. and potentially something tlike an apron for the painitng? [we have 2]

I am hoping for Merry [3 girls +baby], Tammy [1 boy] and maybe Karen O [3 boys] to come

lunch could be pasta and either tomato sauce, grated cheese or just better depending on preference. We have lots of fruit.

if anyone has an activity they are desperate to do/try out I’d love to have a go too - except mummified chickens!

Quick bit of catch up before I get over takne by events. Bit of a downer as Helen was on call all weekend (home on Sat at about 5 or so, but not until after 9pm on Sunday) Upside of that though is that she is off all this week.

So Saturday, for us not at work was a pleasant day. Stagecoach in the morning, the time before passed with breakfast, playing, a bit of reading, finding various things to put in the car. Dropped Stringbean off at Stagecoach, me and Butterbean poopped into town for bit of shopping for lunch and further unsuccessful look for nice kiddies wellies (why is that so hard?) - problem is I know I’m not going to be able to trump her current stripey wellies, which are just so good Back to pick up SB and then off to meet Helen at work for lunch and a BB refill. Had a nice lunch there and SB did a little bit of the Gettay and dubay handwriting stuff (Helen blogged that bit below) .

Headed off after lunch into the country park so SB could ride her bike - lovely sunny afternoon. Plan was to take off her stabilisers, but she changed her mind, so we just rode/walked around the country park for bit which was good, though SB disappointed we couldn’t find any trees to climb. Also disappointed that all the bits that there were to play with in the education room the other week with the ‘Roman Britian’ thing weren’t there any more

Stopped off at the cafe for coffee/cake/ice cream then headed off again. Stopped off due to popular request at the playground on the way home for swings, climbing, more bike riding along the river etc. Eventually prised SB away from the playground and got home not that long before H got home from work. Tea for beans, then SB seemd to spend most of the pre bedtime on Barney Bear and such like websites. not in bed as early as expected given the late night the night before (Not sure when she went to sleep, but was stil awake when I went to bed at about 1 am.)

Sunday - we had an ill Bean. SB complained of a bit of tummy ache in the night. In the morning she was seemingly ok at first, but then was little bit sick and didn’t want any breakfast. A bit later she had glass of milk and was promptly sick about five minutes later - though the good girl did make it to the toilet each time. Said she still wanted to go swimming, so we got organised and did that Spent about half an hour there. BB as ever enjoyed bobbing about, splashing, almost floating and is starting to hang on the side all by herself. SB didn’t actually do that much swimming, but lots of jumping in, ‘Dolphin dives’ as she calls them - a sort of duckign unde the water move. Think she found it bit tiring though as normally we have to prise her out of the water. Once we got home she collapsed on the sofa under a duvet and watched various videos. BB was out like light as fter swimmign as usual. Spent some time pottering about doing few jobs, sitting with SB, and doing bit of reading to her as well. by the time BB woke up, SB was dropping off. Wouldn’t normally let her sleep in the afternoon, but she had a mildy rasied temp and hadn’t eaten anything and had been a bit sick again so I let her rest whilst I fed BB and played with her.

Don’t really know exactly waht happened for the early evening. SB did eventually eat couple of slices of toast and did by then seem to be perking up. Was hoping to try and get them both into bed before Helen came home, but SB had had a sleep and now felt bit better, she was going now where for bit . And BB was being very resistant to sleep as well, even though she obviously was ready for it. Was just about to try and get Sb into bed when H camwe home so she stayed up for bit longer. Still didn’t get to sleep until about 11 pm turned again though….

Today they are so far iostly playing with Helen whilst I try and knock this house into some sort of domestic order. Back to the grindstone :-0

You are a Musical Thinker
Musical thinker Musical thinkers:

* Tend to think in sounds, and may also think in rhythms and melodies
* Are sensitive to the sounds and rhythms of words as well as their meanings.
* Feel a strong connection between music and emotions

Like many musical thinkers, Leonardo loved to sing, and had a fine voice Other Musical Thinkers include
Mozart, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix

Careers which suit Musical Thinkers include
Musician, Music teacher, Sound engineer, Recording technician

How would other people score? Can you imagine friends or family members who might think differently to you?

Find out about the different thinking styles

SARS, avian flu pandemics, aaarrrrrghhhhhhhhh.
fragile parent mode.
aaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

you see, chris is sort of reliable at blogging, and then again………
have been at work all day, and now just on call.
very nice that SB and BB with chris joined me after stagecoach and had a picnic in my office [sorry Liz - my sharee]. well, BB mainly just guzzled milk.
SB then did some of the getty and dubay that I had printed off. We had a hysterical moment when she wanted to draw things beginning with K - kite, kangaroo [though my outline apparently more t rex], koala and… we were stumped. Chris made me giggle at the thoughts that the dictionary must have a very short K section. i googled, and came up with knight - to SB’s disgust, so then thought of knee. we had a bit of a discussion then about silent K. How will we manage to home ed, when we can’t even think of King?

I had to do some work, and they went off to the park - both cycling and swings I believe.

When I got home, SB finishing tea, and BB thirsty - LOL. After tea we looked at CBBC schools site, and SB has had fun with barney bear - in the new forest, in dublin [with some mapping] and in australia. it seems odd to be progressing from cbeebies!

Edit - Ahh, like buses, two blogs have come along at once - my take and Helen’s take below Ah well leave as they are I think

11 pm, SB still awake upstairs - and she’d had bit of late night last night as well. Fell asleep on the way back from the puddlers group and when we got back I just couldn’t get her to wake up. Ah well, means that she was full of energy for when Helen came back from work.

Morning disappeared soon enough, with a trip to Tesco’s, Staples, sorting out an activity for the puddlers group (and then leaving the materials behind…..Grrrr…..), a few house chores. Group was good, as Merry has blogged elsewhere, it’s turning into nice little group (or even not so little), Shame we don’t live little bit nearer when it comes to travelling to it. SB always enjoys it, she spent ages today cutting colouring etc. to make T-Rex stand up model. She took great care in carefully cutting it all out. Taken by Tammy’s comments re recent evidence that some dinosaurs had some sort of feathery covering rather than scales she stuck feathers on it -Fluffy T-Rex any one

She also enjoyed the ‘make a skeleton in the ground thing with bits of pasta’ activity, as well as making, and more importantly, noisly throwing around paper Pterosaur. I’ll get some piccies of them tomorrow, (forgot the camera again, but Merry has some nice ones)

Once home whilst SB snoozed, BB woke up, so me and here played for bit without interupption, she is getting gradually better at standing, and is happier about holding onto things other than people, and almost lost the lopsided crawl she had. Just starting to cruise the furniture a little bit. She had dinner while I had a cuppa, and then Helen came home just as I was starting dinner. Work seems to have been a crap last couple of days, and she is on call all weekend Does have next week off though, and no plans for us to go away anywhere until the weekend)

SB seems to have got into Story of the World, I was looking at it last night and she wanted me to read her a bit, so we did the first chapter, and I heard them reading the next bit about the Ancient Egyptians earlier. She’s been resistant to books with lots of words and not many pictures until now, so maybe we’ve reached another little milestone, she even let Helen read her a bit of the Faraway Tree at bed tiome last night. Might get hold of Winnie the Pooh and try that now, before she get’s too corrupted by Disneys efforts anyway, been looking at the SOTW Activity book and itching to ahve ago at some of those things - by the time we’ve finished hacking the garden some more should be plenty of long wooden bits and stuff - just right for building a nomads hut . What say you Merry and Tammy - maybe next week?

Chose a little Usbourne Pocket Science book about how cars work or somesuch as her bedtime reading - fascinates me how she loves to sit and listen to this sort of thing, even though some of it must go over her head. didn’t blog it on Tuesday, but we sat and I read her a Ladybird book about Aeroplanes. It was not at all simple stuff, and I didn’t read the text verbatim, but we did look at the diagrams and pictures whilst I talked about Aeroplanes, the shape of wings, lift and other forces on the plane, different types of engines, controls etc.

SB bedtime update 00.22 - still awake……….. Time for our bedtime though

…finding work hard.I’ve had a bad 2 days really. Feeling trammelled by forseeable work constraints, and not sure how to resolve any of these issues without having to move at some point - sigh. feel I have therefore made a crap choice for my family, as we are all settling here really nicely. hmm. Also been in terms of actual work a difficult 2 days. sigh. Also working this weekend. groan!!

Some things OK though - although been home very late at night, the girls have been up and enthusiastic. And tonight that has been really valuable for me, as I came home feeling hopeless and uncomfortably dejected, but just doing normal things with them has enabled me to relax.

SB very taken by the story of the world. Chris started reading it last night, and she asked me to read some more tonight. We are discussing writing - she actually seems to remember a lot - where the nile is, flooding and farming, and egypt, pharoahs, heiroglyphics etc. Anyway, we discussed the sumerian cuneiform writing, and she would like to do some. must but some clay, but playdough to start with! She also laughed at the hippopotamus being a water horse. these books are written nicely aren’t they.

We also read the usborne pocket science books what is the earth made of without prompting she named all the planets and that they were in the solar system. she even told me why we could only live on earth. not bad really. Each time we read the books, she picks up a little bit more, and asks a few more questions. The other one was how do cars work and she was quite taken with the idea of how the pistons worked, and naming car parts.

At bedtime I read a few more chapters of the faraway tree. She has finally decided she doesn’t need pictures for a read aloud as long as she likes the story. She’s still not really aleep though and keeps coming downstairs.

this is mainly as she fell asleep after the puddlers group. They did dinosaurs, and I’ve seen her t rex, pteranodon and muddy dinousar pasta bones!!

BB’s black eye is improving. She is starting to walk more around furniture - oh help!