BB has learnt how to climb to top of climbing frame!
Thinking of ways to make this impossible for a few more months!
Thanks to all who came to the party. It was lovely to have such a garden full. the flickred photos are here
The house now seems very quiet, and I am off to bed to read one of the books jax left me!
Yesterday we had Stringbean’s party, the excuse being her offically home educated status this term. Day started with scurrying around, stocking up at the supermarket, organising stuff, tidying, vacuuming etc. dunno why really, given the chaos that would later ensue 
Soon from all points of the compass (well 3 of them, anyway, given that we live on the eastern side of the country….) friends arrived, bearing children, food and of course alcohol.
Amd jolly lovely it was too , the kids ran around and played, in the garden, in the playroom, in the bedroom, so that the grown-ups could moslty sit around and chat, catch up, eat drink etc. and that was it really, we all spent a number of hours haveing a thoroughly lovely time. Last ones heading home left at about 10 30pm or so, though we weren’t really late to bed. THe last children SB and her friend Big didn’t go to bed until about 12 though, but they were having such a lovley time palying together it seemed shame to disturb them.
This morning we sat around, had breakfast, more playing, more tea/coffee drinking, chatting, families gradually headed off home. We waved a last goodbye to the making it up team after lunch (eating our way through some of the leftovers….) and then spent the rest of the day relaxing moslty. SB, was flagging somewhat and watched video’s/TV before dinner and an earlyish bedtime. A bit of tidying up - things are moslty back to normal, well at least no more disorganised than it normally is - finished the day, and then we’ve just blobbed around. Dinner was more leftovers 
So, thankyou to all those who came and made it such a lovley day, we missed those of you who couldn’t make it, I loved seeing all the kids milling about and playing together, and seeing everypne having a good time. I’m glad I’d got the swings together as they were popular with the children. This is such a good house for having parties in, lots of space inside and out - so it’s good to share it.
Here is to the next time.
Helen is currently flickring our photos as I post, so they should soon appear. Though I think this one from Mazportico sums up the day really:
It’s SB’s ‘Offically Home Ed-ing Party’ today, various Muddlepuddle HE friend from across the country
8.07 am, the sky is blue the sun is shining, party omens are good
Time to get organised.
May 2004:
April 2006:
Good value those shorts
SB was eating all of merry’s olives, and I was woebegone. chris was sleeping on the floor of an empty house in Leeds, and we were expecting to move in the following day.
we moved, guinness ran away [to return] and we have had one of the most difficult years of my life for a variety of reasons.
Anyway, here we are, preparing to celebrate with friends 1 year into new house, and SB being officially home educated. The weather looks good, we are totally disorganised - sorry - it has been a difficult week ++ for me! [including a visit to the Inner temple crown bar today- never something to wish to do, though the buildings lovely; and the start of my mediation process; first paycheque at new improved dramatically reduced rates]
Was moving here the right thing to do? Hmm, whilst work being so difficult its hard to see this clearly. but amidst all the difficulties, we have grown together with the house and the community, and it starts to feel like home. It took me a while to settle into Leeds, and by the time I left I belonged there, and think of myself as Northern now! SO given time and a fair wind…
Yep, in need of a celebration! looking forward to seeing all the people that can come, and will miss those that can’t.
Seem to have lost things a bit re blogging lately - a lack of inspiration? various concerns/stresses here re work finances, house never seems to progress beyond the slighty less disorganised state etc. even when an effort to knock some things into shape is made. Kids seem to be in a getting to bed bit too late mode at the moment - not enough evening time. A short update.
Yesterday Elinor’s Nanny, (Helens Mum) called in for a day, so she was much enjoyed. At the moment that’s about all I have in my brain about yesterday. Hmm, there was some maths and some more Explode the Code, she made a Hama flower for Little Nanny.
Today there was some more Hama-ing- SB did another butterfly, she carefully matched the pattern on both wings so we had bit of a discussion about symmetry. Might intoduce bit of stuff about that next week. BB was stacking the big Duplo bits carefully on top of each other, they both played nicely together with Lego/Duplo. SB did some maths - easy stuff really, but she wanted to finish off the book. We tried to amke some inroads into the enormous backlog of washed clothes around the place - the problem when you ahev blitz on the dirty pile…..
Played outside for bit. BB is desperate to be able to climb up onto the large climbing frame.
Went shopping for few bits, dragged the swings we got secondhand in Leeds before we moved and have yet to be reassembled (needs various rusty bolts replacing) out and now have bits all over the lawn. Try to get it together for tomorrow.
Ballet class this afternoon.
Trying to get head/house organised for the’ SB Offically HE party’ party on Saturday and failing somewhat. Ah well whatever state the house is in on Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon, 28 children will returned it to it’s normal entropic state no doubt …….
I did manage to upset SB a bit, when she thought I said we might send her to school 
She was calling her party her ‘Home Ed Birthday Party’, so we ended up talking about why we were having the party, talked about the law saying that at her age she has to offically ‘be educated’, that most children go to school, etc. she got the wrong end of the stick somewhat and seemed ‘But I don’t want to go to school’ . I do wonder what she imagines school is like. We don’t really talk about it much, if it comes up we talk about it, but we don’t say a lot of negative things about school.
Just in case anyone has emailed us and is expecting a reply.
the mail server dealing with familyfrench email is having problems and we aren’t getting mail.
If you want to email us and can’t wait :-) , ouremailnames at littleelf dot fsnet dot co dot uk works
Edit - working ok now.
After Helen’s exhaust falling off episode last week, I had to take the car off to Kwik fit for a new one. My mum came round to look after the kids to save them being dragged around with me.. I had an ok time - off to the garage, had a bit of wait - once I would have been ‘grr!’ now UI just enjoy the chance to sit and read the paper for 45 minutes uninteruppted - i was quite sad when the chap said it was done
Went off to do a bit of shoppign as well, a little while alter there was phone call from my mum, they were all shut in the playroom! The handle came off the outside of the door a week or so ago. I was waiting to get some new screws since it didn’t seem to have any, other the one I could find - coincidentally I had just got some when my mum rang me. THe metal rod that goes through the door, ahd of course come out and was sitting in the playroom. Of course my mum shut the door….. soemtie later they tried to open it and were trapped - so I had to cut short my shopping.
Whiel I was out they seemd to have fun. SB and Nanna did some more patterns on a couple of T shirts wuith her ‘Puff up paints’, BB did some ‘drawing’, some general playing, some reading etc. more playing after I’d freed them and we had lunch etc. SB did read one of here Red Nose Readers to Nanna, - other than couple of odd words she can pretty much do these now. We played a game where SB was apost man and briought lots of presents, seem to eb an excuse to empty out BB’s toy box….
Whilst I took Nanna home, she did some maths of some sort - ordinal numbers apparently from singapore maths 1a thinking skills. She also did some drawing of farm animals from a how to draw farm animals books, and also spent some time looking for OS symbols on some maps. Before bed whilst palyiong on the floor with SB and BB I managed to hit SB’s head on the door whilst ‘messing her about’- got a nice egg. Didn’t stop her coming back for more though after about 5 minutes. BB is so funny, we were on the floor playing about, she comes trotting across the room, shouting and then flops down on top of you. When she does it to SB she looks like a minature Big Daddy doing a ‘belly splash’
SB is getting into the Little Toe Radio Show on a whim, as the laptop was on the table (not having DAB radio or dig TV - anyway - listening when you want is much easier), I put it on last Thursday while we had dinner, she sat listening too it silenty almost for the whole hour. So we have been listening to that a bit which she is enjoying. She listend to bit this afternoon, what was funny was that becuase she wasn’t doing anything else she sat on the chair in front of the computer and looked up at the screen, even though it wans’t really doing anything.
I am not sure whether i can blog of aof easter, but we had a lovely time, and took some lovely photos - well I like photos! I love this one of my Dad and SB. there was a lot of running about! there’s also a nice one of me and Mum
We had a rather poor night. Not quite sure what was up with BB as she was twitchy and unsettled most of the time and permanently latched on - sigh.
So today, we started with SB playing story games with Sindy’s in her bedroom fro a vast amount of the morning, and I played with BB. We did book reading, fun blox, shape sorters and dollies mostly, with a little bit of scribbling for good measure. She and i sang to each other - she does seem to have a musical ear [as far as you can tell these things].
When SB came down, she got stuck in to some explode the codswallop and we also read a fair bit more from the usborne children’s encyclopaedia - formation of earth, tectonic drift, volcanos and earthquakes, the moon and its phases, formation of stars and government and politics - she chooses! We had lunch and I potted up some toms and peppers.
As BB fell asleep SB did some thinking skills singapore maths - a bit of an easy revision on subtraction under 10 in record time. i then offered her choice as to waht she wanted us to do together. First we painted her second ring box [from the tesco kit she got for her birthday], the we went to discuss ‘the carrot problem‘ [ie the rows are so overgrown in weeds we have no idea whether any carrot seedlings there] - we decided to sow some into eggboxes to see what we are looking for. Whilst out, we re-enacted a long fairy tale about a traveller princess with a pet lion who rescues a prince, marries him, and takes his money to give to her parents [well, its hard to make these things up!]We then went on to read the usborne book about healthy eating, and repeated the taste experiment - we did it last year for meme day! Sb was quite knowledgeable about why we should eat healthily.
BB woke up, and we finished tidying the playroom [Chris had started it] and hoovered, and then got out things for all of us to play together. We first listened to holsts the planets and discussed the fact he only knew about 8, and their roman names and atrributes. SB and BB did a rather good interpretative dance! When we get to vote on a new national anthem, I think I will go for I vow to thee my country! We followed on with the free horrible history romans CD, which we all blithely ignored whils arguing over fun blox, stacking cups and which of the girls should have prime lap/arm position!
We had an early tea to watch Jason and the Argonauts. SB enjoyed it. She was much put out that the story wasn’t entirely the same as in her book! We discussed the oral tradition and poetic licence, but she wasn’t impressed! She even moaned that their constumes were different. To give her credit, she knew it was a hydra, and it doesn’t come in this story, as well as most of the characters and monsters. She was also put out by the advert breaks!
We finished with bedtime stories of ‘great grandfather abraham’ and the cruxifiction and resurrection of Christ from her children’s bible. Discussing as honestly as possible [for an agnostic] the meanings behind things!
I think perhaps I should have chose today as meme day - though took very few photos - as we have covered pretty much the whole curriculum in one form or another. AND only the singapore maths and explode the code were suggested [2 pages of each], the rest entirely autonomous - though I think of us as child led.
hmmm, maybe i will see what photos I can russle up!
It was nice getting home from the conference. It was a good conference in Norwich, I listened, learnt, talked and networked. I even ate a rather dismal meal cooked by St Delia’s krew at Norwich City [i think the non-veg may have been better]
Unfortunately, although resolutely teatotal, had horrendous migraine for drive home, and to cap it all, exhaust half fell off car on way back! Rescue man came and said best thing was to finish the job, so slithered under the car and wrestled it off, somewhat in the manor of crocodile dundee!
So to today. staggered out of bed, suitably drugged. SB was watching cbeebies and then went onto some Dora DVD’s temporarily borrowed from Merry - thanks. so we say hola and vamanos all day [? spelling??] We really should get into gear as we have some spanish and german resources. SB finished her hama star, and BB danced and sang along to all the Dora music [very cute] and played with dolls and fun blox.
SB sowed some seeds for me, and BB pulled apart a tom - good thing we have plenty! SB also did some of the ‘learn to draw…’ pictures. yesterday she did a fantastic car and tractor, and then worked put herself a very detailed bike, with person and chain and pedals. I was impressed.
When BB fell asleep after lunch we went outside. We did some tidying up of the pond. Only 3 of the fish seem to have made it. SB was interested in the pond/roots/seeds etc visible, and went so far as to strip off and stand in it. She hated the slimy bottom so immediately got out!
We then went into the veg patch to weed and hoe and she did some singapore maths 1A - subtracting across 10. We got there in the end! Bit of use of seeds as props. Chris took over the digging though - result! SB then helped and between them they trampled over 1/4 row of carrots - mind you, I couldn’t actually see them for the weeds - rofl!
BB woke up, so we mostly then played in the garden, on the climbing frame and toys, and SB put on a show - swinging about making my hair even whiter!!
We seem to have loads of ladybirds in the garden, so SB and BB were looking at them. SB quite confidently remembered they would have 6 legs as insects and named various other body parts. They were 6 spots. We also looked at some ants and other creepy crawlies. So she asked why woodlice aren’t insects. i was a bit stumped, but thanks to google, I now know they are crustacea - amazing!
BB was getting too interested in the water fountain and eating ladybirds, so we went in, and looked up woodlice. We have NASA astronomy picture of the day as our homepage and it was a series of photos showing the apparently retrograde motion of Mars - so another difficult question to work out how to answer!!
SB ’styled’ the pizza for tea whilst BB played run across the room and jump into my arms. I read BB some books - in particular my little pony and a squeezy truck one. SB did some explode the code 2
We finished the day watching 1 and a half episodes of the blue planet - which SB really enjoyed, and was mostly ver attentive. Well, actually, BB is STILL awake and dancing to the chart show when not trying to retype my messages. She loves doing patacake and clapping, as well as high 5’s. She is also ’singing’ along. Has made writing this blog somewhat dificult. SB’s last dificult question of the day was to ask me to prove cats had belly buttons…
Although at the moment, I really could do with BB being asleep, i love both my girls dearly and we have had a lovely day.
I have 4 friends moving in the next 10 days at various times, so hoping it is all going smoothly for you!
calculate your ecological footprint
CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 0.7
MOBILITY 0.4
SHELTER 1.8
GOODS/SERVICES 1.2
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 4.1
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 5.3 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON. WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.3 PLANETS.
Last year, my result was 1.8 planets, so we are getting worse not better. our food has improved, as we buy from farmers markets and local farm store as much as poss, and also grow our own. the car usage up as I live further from work, and use it more days. The shelter also up - as Leeds house more modest.
Chris would do better, using the car less. Our house is somewhat larger than our needs.
Just BOLD those you’ve read, ITALICIZE the ones you’ve been meaning to read and ??? the ones you have never heard of.
Alcott, Louisa May – Little Women
Allende, Isabe l– The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret – Cat’s Eye
Austen, Jane – Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade – Salt Eaters ???
Barnes, Djuna – Nightwood ???
de Beauvoir, Simone – The Second Sex
Blume, Judy – Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
Burnett, Frances – The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte – Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily – Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S. – The Good Earth ???
Byatt, A.S. – Possession
Cather, Willa – My Antonia ???
Christie, Agatha – Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra – The House on Mango Street ???
Clinton, Hillary Rodham – Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia – A Voice From the South ???
Danticat, Edwidge – Breath, Eyes, Memory ???
Davis, Angela – Women, Culture, and Politics ???
Desai, Anita – Clear Light of Day
Dickinson, Emily – Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois – I Know What You Did Last Summer??
DuMaurier, Daphne – Rebecca
Eliot, George – Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi – Second Class Citizen ???
Erdrich, Louise – Tracks ???
Esquivel, Laura – Like Water for Chocolate
Flagg, Fannie – Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty – The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne – Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins – The Yellow Wallpaper ???
Gordimer, Nadine – July’s People ???
Grafton, Sue – S is for Silence??
Hamilton, Edith – Mythology ???
Highsmith, Patricia – The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hooks, Bell – Bone Black ???
Hurston, Zora Neale – Dust Tracks on the Road ???
Jacobs, Harriet – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ???
Jackson, Helen Hunt – Ramona/??
Jackson, Shirley – The Haunting of Hill House???
Jong, Erica - fear of flying???
Keene, Caroly - the nancy drew mysteries
Kidd, Sue Monk – The Secret Life of Bees ???
Kincaid, Jamaica – Lucy ???
Kingsolver, Barbara – The Poisonwood Bible ???
Kingston, Maxine Hong – The Woman Warrior ???
Larsen, Nella – Passing???
L’Engle, Madeleine – A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K. – The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper – To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris – The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope – Moon Tiger
Lorde, Audre – The Cancer Journals ???
Martin, Ann M. – The Babysitters Club Series
McCullers, Carson – The Member of the Wedding ???
McMillan, Terry – Disappearing Acts ???
Markandaya, Kamala – Nectar in a Sieve ???
Marshall, Paule – Brown Girl, Brownstones ???
Mitchell, Margaret – Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy – Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan – When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost ???
Morrison, Toni – Song of Solomon
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu – The Tale of Genji ???
Munro, Alice – Lives of Girls and Women ???
Murdoch, Iris – Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria – Mama Day ???
Niffenegger, Audrey – The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol – We Were the Mulvaneys ???
O’Connor, Flannery – A Good Man is Hard to Find ???
Piercy, Marge – Woman on the Edge of Time
Picoult, Jodi – My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia – The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne – Ship of Fools ???
Proulx, E. Annie – The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn – The Fountainhead ???
Ray, Rachel – 365: No Repeats ???
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea ???
Robinson, Marilynne – Housekeeping ???
Rocha, Sharon – For Laci ???
Sebold, Alice – The Lovely Bones ???
Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein
Smith, Betty – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ???
Smith, Zadie – White Teeth ???
Spark, Muriel – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna – Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth – Amy and Isabelle ???
Steel, Danielle – The House
Tan, Amy – The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah – You’re Wearing That ???
Ulrich, Laurel – A Midwife’s Tale??
Urquhart, Jane – Away ???
Walker, Alice – The Temple of My Familiar ???
Welty, Eudora – One Writer’s Beginnings ???
Wharton, Edith – Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls – Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary – A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia – A Room of One’s Own
as I said, got from JAX. Not usre why these particular books chosen, as can think of other great female authors - Sheri tpper, Julian May, and I don’t think necesaarily my favourite bokos by the author chosen. so maybe there should be an underline for read another book by that author!
Well, don’t we all feel like our reality could feel like augmenting sometimes? Seems a bit of posh term for it, but me and SB spent a fair while after lunch playing with this trial on BBC Jam which we came across yesterday.You need to sign up for it, and be accepeted to get the username and passoword. Though by the looks of it they are generic ones that everyone gets.
It is very much trial stuff at the moment, a bit crude and clunky, and the interactive bits sometimes don’t work that well, but it was enterntaining and you can imagine some good possibilities once it gets more refined.
Basically, what you have is simple story, that you read/listen to. Interspesed are little scenes where you use the printed materials to produce animated 3D characters on screen. You print out sheets of paper, with simple little block patterns printed on them. each one correpsonds to a specific charatcer/object , when put in front of the webcam, the software produces a 3D image on screen, by moving the printed image around, you can move the image on screen, rotate it etc. simple little actions/animations can be triggered etc. Worth a play, other than bit of fiddling about to get the webcam to work with it, it worked fine, though it is little camera on stalk, pluged into the laptopo and could done with being mounted higher..
Other than that, we didn’t do much this morning really, moslty pottering around, waiting for Helen to go of to her conference for a couple of days. BB insisted on getting up at about 7.30 after I gave in, and then fell asleep again in her high chair about 9 grr! Did some reading with SB, a couple of Red nose Readers, some Cbeebies. SB and BB played soem chasing games together, BB kept wanting to unload the dishwasher. By bedtime I was glad once they were both settled - BB took a while as she slept a bit too long while we were augmented.
Relaxed with a beer and The Apprentice Quite enjoyed this one, I loved the way Ruth just basically ignored the lads in her team and just went and got on with it. Poor old Tuan, just never had it in him, he was going to have to go, though I can’t see Syed making it - to inconsitent. i wonder who would ahve gone if it had been the other team, which it could easily have been it was so close.
Relocation being the phase Butterbean is now in. She is endlessy finding things, picking them up, investigating them dropping them all over the place, emptying things….. You know it is. I’d forgotten tiresome it is to have them endlessy scattering stuff about. and I suspect with Stringbeans stuff all around there is much more for her to scatter. But she is just so cute at the moment as well, so she gets away with it She is very much in the midst of the learning stuff everyday phase as well, so all the time you can almost see her learning about the world.
Anyway, apologies to those wondering where we have been - we have been away at Helen’s parents over Easter. We had a lovely time. SB spent ages playing with her cousin M, they get on so well. BB had fun ‘Rarring’ around with everyone and trying to join in with the bigger ones. I got to read lots of the paper. We all had good time. Though as we ended up going on Friday morning we got stuck in lots of slow/non-moving traffic on the M25.
Back home BB was up woth me this morning by 6.30 so we had a good start. She almost dragged me out into the garden after breakfast . She went and got her wellies, and shouted at me until i put thme on her, then wandered off to find her coat, got me to put that on, then pulled at me to come and pointed at my coat on the hanger - knows what she wants that girl She loves getting outside. whenever the door is open, whoosh - she is off. We spent ages outside in the garden while she pottered an explored. she particularly likes finding the odd bowls/buckets of water around to investigate. She helped me hamg out the washing too - picking up the clothes out of the basket and giving them to me - she is growing up and developing so fast. Rather nice pottering around in the early-ish morning sun
Eventually went back in - I think she was getting too cold once she got wet.
after that the day got bit frustrating actually, one of those days where time seems to disappear and it seems hard to get into things. SB got up her and BB played together for bit, more breakfast, Sb did some maths ( a bit more of of carrying on from last week) - she asked why she didn’t get a holiday like the school children When I pointed out that at school she would have to sit still at a desk fro a lot of the time, she’d have to do what she was told most of the time etc. etc. she seemd to think the amount of ‘work’ she has to do isn’t so bad She did bit of hama beading, started with star board, she was working on a pattwer, wwhen she discovered sh could make a hexagon pattern ‘inside’ it as well, which she thought was exciting. After lucnch she spent ages on the BBC Jam site, be better when they get some more content, but she was happy.
Had to go out to get a Freecycled stereo/CD player thing, and to the farm shop for veggies, where SB did her cute, helplful, chatty girl thing. Forget what else, but Sb watched a bit of the Clangers DVD. Which did spark a conversation about Earth, the Universe, about he concept of ’sky’ as SB had the idea about earth being ‘ in the sky’, though she also has the idea tht the ’sky ‘ is all around the earth. Bit of a tricky concept sky really. We all spent some more time out in the garden, i did a couple of jobs, B got wet again. SB triesd climbing in roller skates. BB sulked cos she could climb on the climbing frame. Then we had dinner and then tidied the playroom beforw Helen arrived homwe (rather late)
Wil try and get up todate with flickr soon, but Helen away from tomorrow to Friday
1. Someone posted on a local Freecycle list an unopened bottle of Cherry Coke.
2. The other day after managing to phone me twice in succession, ‘the cold caller with 2 brain cells ‘ rang back because he had heard what i’d said when I said I wasn’t interested! - so why did they think I put the phone down?
chris’s wednesday blog was about tuesday! I’ll make this one about wed shall I!!!
lovely day, some nice weather. SB and I got stuck into some singapore maths - adding to go over the 10 - ie 8 plus 4. It took a while, but she got there [and consildated it today] some she just knew, but some she had to work out how to think about them.
She also did her explode the code easily [or, as she put it, exploding codswallop!], and we read I wonder why the stars twinkle, and assorted bits about dinosaurs. She’s quite knowledgeable about stars and pointed out that there are blue giants on webland. it must have been ages since she looked at stars on webland!
We all sowed some seeds - nice big’uns so that BB could do it too. She was soooo rpoud of helping out. As I explained to an anxious SB, it didn’t matter she put loads in the wrong place, I coulsort that out later [and I did!] I obviously missed excess assistance from BB with the butternut squash, as some cells have 8 in!! - may well have an offer on butternut squash to grow to any visitors we might have in the next month!
BB is totally gorgeous, her speech is well behind josies [no, I shoudln’t compare] but she is very close to speech. rather funnily, she has started to wag her finger back at SB, when SB tells her no. She is very considerd about her actions, and knows where things should be etc. She totally adores SB.
We all went into the garden for a play, some weeding, and SB helped Chris chop up some branches. [very ineffectually!]
the a gradual winddown and games playing - mostly snakes and ladders and UNO - before bed. We also read all the stories in the barefoot book tales of wisdom and wonder!
Chris’s dad had an accident and in a and e. seen him, and i think he’s fine, but another xray to go. Hopefully he will be set free soon, and we will have them both to stay the night - keep my beady eye on him!!
Both Beans slept all night in their own beds, which was rather nice First bit of the morning was housework time - various bits a bit of a disaster zone. So I got on with that , SB started off with a bit of CBeebies. Apparently her favourite show is Lazy Town - she likes the girl - Stephanie - the main character with the pink hair It’s a bit of an odd show it seems to me, but then I’ve just seen that it’s made by an Icelandic company - everything out of Iceland seems a bit weird.
Once BB was up she did some more Hama whilst having breakfast. BB has got very good at using spoon to feed herself, so does seem to actually eat stuff like Weetabix, which she used to turn her nose up at. After breakie managed to tidy vacuum around/asisted by children. got fed up again by all the random ’stuff’ that collect on the flat surfaces in the hallway - we’ve 2 radiator covers, a shelf, a couple of small tables and a shoe cabinet, so there is plenty of scope for stuff to collect - I just went around with a carrier bag and put everything in it that didn’t belong. I think I’m going to make a weekly habit of it. Either eventually,most of our belonging will be in carrier bags , or it’ll have to be be put back in the right place.
Sat and played for a little bit whilst waiting the arrival of the chap from the council. Just clarifying whether we would need to apply for Listed building consent for the repairs we need to do to the conservatory various bits of rotten timber and repainting - a good summer project.
Then it was off to Nanny and Grandad’s. Pick up a couple of Easter Eggs, return the computer I had been tinkering with for my mum. SB ice some little cakes, played bingo game with Nanny, read some books, played for ages with the farm. She likes that becuase she doesn’t have that at home. They are all our old plastic farm animals, tractors etc. from when we were kids. I got the ‘pute back up and running, went to the Builders Merchants with my Dad (so he could put some timber on the roof bars on our car) Had lunch - with BB being a total pickle/PITA becuase she wasn’t strapped into a chair at all. BB failed to go to sleep - so was grumpy later on. SB got a little daytime fix of CBeebies on they Sky TV - which she always thinks is such a treat Came home.
Both Beans of course fell asleep straight away almost. When we got home BB was a pain becuase she didn’t want to be put down and sleep, nor did she want to be awake. SB just slept away in here dead frog postion but I could really get her awake whilst BB was being a pain. Rescued by the arrival home of Helen. Surprisingly, whilst not in bed early, both Beans did get to sleep at a reasonable time, considering the long ‘nap’ at the wrong time.
I was reading a post by Doc about goal setting, which has got me thinking about our broader educational goals, but that can wait for anothe post (as it happens I got to that post via Becky at Farm School who has a Homeschooling Country Fair - becuase of the Home School Blogger boycott)
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