Petits Haricots

at least I’ve blogged!

I was grouchy. SB was waily, and BB was more ignored than she should have been.however, not all gloomy. I had a crap on call last night [in my defence!] and am panicking about job related angst.

Sb wanted to play a gaime where she was home educated - whatever! So we read more of the city through time, and also the apollo 13 mission - which she enjoys. It fell apart a bit on what should have been revision maths on subtracting over a 10 [ie 23-6]. we got out cuisinaire rods etc to give a picture, but much wailing ensued. I have been concerned over the summer that she hasn’t been doing as much maths as she could, and this got to me, as we had sorted this back in June. So we did a bit, with me showing her just how easy it was if she picture the right thing - ffs she could do this in her head before! [you can glimpse just how patiently gritted teeth I did this] Luckilly, I realised that having done a few, I should call it a day, as she wasn’t in a receptive mood, and lets face it, a gloweringly gritted teeth mother is not the best teacher in these situations. [BB asleep]

So we had lunch, and then listened to little toe. the crstals are growing well, so we had a look at those too. Sb is looking forward to working out their shape - as the leaflet comes with crstal shapes to identify.

SB is very forgiving, and we were on best terms again rapidly. we went outside and she did me shows, clambering all over the swings and climbing frame, but has recently decided she is afraid of heights. grrr to that thought being implanted into her head. she went to a fair with Nanny F and her cousin O, and didn’t want to carry on going up the helterskelter, after all , it was tall, and Nanny wasn’t going up it with her, and O would have skipped ahead, so I don’t blame her for coming down. I would have told her it was better for when she was bigger, and not said anything height related, but unforunately the deed was innocently done. Now it is a BIG THING. I am trying to ignore it, or say, well roof height is a bit tall, and hope she recovers - it has taken me years to combat a fear of heights such that I’m now not bad [though not brilliant]

where was I? oh yes, she harvested an apple for her and one for BB from our new trees - jolly good, and then romped through her explode the code with no murmer. We listened to that free horrible history romans while playdoughing. She liked the legions song! BB enjoyed playdoughing, but the 2 were making a fuss about who had which bit - so 2 screechy wailers - aarrgh.

Back outside and i caught some of the fish from one of the waterbuts [6 of them] and we have put them in a fishtank to bring inside and look at for a bit. no idea what kind of fish they are. must have come from eggs on the oxygenating plants - any clues anyone? at least 10 still left in the waterbut. [we had loads of oxygenators, so put some in the waterbut as Bob flowerdew said a good idea. he also has goldfish in his too, so maybe fish not a bad idea either] BB was enthralled by them, and is very good at shrieking fish. SB also interested.

Chris came back with new bit of downpipe, so we all took turns tlaking into it, and listening. SB mostly as a dinosaur. BB giggling. We then ran around wildly for a bit and played simon says to release steam.

that was most of the day really. not brilliant mothering, but OK I guess.

well, Denny Abbey was lovely, but the mediaeval re-enactment sucked!! These things seem to do so periodically, so not desperately disappointed, but as the blurb was

I did think there may be some of the above there! well, there was coin stamping I guess. but not much pilgrim-ishness. however, the herbalist lass was good, and SB enjoyed making a headache poultice and looking at the surgical instruments. She also chatted with the cord maker and the the coin stamper - and liked looking at the coins. SHe would have had a go with a quill, but the chap was only giving to the crowd of older children, so we went off. Did like looking round the abbey again, and making arches etc. The farmland museaum bit had a basket maker - and SB told her all about the MP basket making! and she got to weave a fish - very easy, suitable for wee ones at MP camp that struggle with baskets! Also do the usual crafts there whilst we discussed rural life. SO it was a geat afternoon out, but seriously slack in the pilgrimage dept!

I am back-flickring at the mo - uploading is SO slow!

oh, and I REALLY rate the city through time book

TBH, I’m finding it hard to blog atm. Sure it will come back, but its the most expendable activity of my day, so I’m not doing it - or reading blogs much for that matter. i have had my nose stuck in as many alternate realities as possible - a good thin I have a wide number to chose from on the bookshelves! No, I don’t know yet. Though now very belated, I might find out Thursday - so rumour has it. luckilly, there has been a change in redundancy payouts so that they are not age discrimintory, and it looks like I would get 13 months now not 13 weeks as my notice period would be beyond 31st Oct - so there’s something to be greatful for. A soon as I can be bothered to fill out forms etc, I am going to plunge into the hitherto completely unwanted world of private practice. No idea how much of a living I can make from it, but feel I need to start at least, so that if the day comes, I might have some income. One of my colleagues made £2000 after tax last year - hardly encouraging! Also, where would be the time? finding it hard to keep up with everything at the mo. The bank balance however is not encouraging me to be slack!
Had a lovely party with parents last week, but too many people commiserated, so felt quite moody and fed up by the end. Day went really well for them, which was the most important thing. All my work days finish really late now, so don’t always get back in time for bedtime. Good wednesdays and weekends though. and when at home I try to be REALLY noticeable - cue much roaring and chasing.

Yesterday was crafts and books, and then a much overdue visit in the afternoon to flag fen. We all enjoyed it - BB shouting and running around, and SB spying the things to find and pretending to be ancient. I don’t know how much handling of the stuff in the roundhouses you are supposed to do, but we did a lot, but it was all put back. BB was most disappointed in the fake apple… SB and I had re-read the usbourne first people, and the DK story of a street recently, so she was fairly clued up anyway, but its nice getting a real visual.
we did buy a dinosaur egg thing [her money] and DK story of a city [mine] while out, so read some of the book when we got home, and otherwise played.

today was an in day, an easy HE day as well, as things seemed to flow - we started on her dinosaur egg - the tools with it are hopeless! form that moved on to some enchanted learning colour by numbers dinosaurs - but the numbers are sums to work out. We a read a bit more of story of a city - whch is quite different from the street as not UK, and then got out a crystal kit that we have had for a while - SB had a mad crystal phase and then cooled off a bit. we’ve read a number of other history through the ages type books as well - the ‘really intersting bits’. london and some more ancients people. SOme explode the code - SB is finally grasping that perhaps she can read as we near the end of book 3.

Sounds a lot, but threaded through the day were costume changes, being ballerinas/ fairies/ princesses and servants. Apparently she enjoyed being my servant best of all! SB was in her belle dress for a bit. BB refused point blank to be dressed as a pirate [which she normally seems to like, being able to say pirate] but was keen to be a fairy - thus it starts! We played outside and in, reading storybooks and making up stories. Quite a bit of chase…

We baked chocolate brownies - nice and quick! SB was rather proud to harvest some carrots from the veg bed. they are, well, diminutive! But certainly carrot, and more than bitesize - well, 2 out of the 3 plucked were! more yummy were figs.

bB has done a fair bit of peg boards. jigsaw and joint book reading today as well. She is always up for chase, dancing and singing with SB, and when SB doing a def not for BB activity, a good bit of playdough keeps her endlessly amused.

Tomorrow maybe to Denny Abbey.

No we haven’t all suddenly turned into rabid carnivores. Been doing some Dinosaury stuff this afternoon and it finished off before bedtime with a lot of chasing around upstairs with everyone being Dinosaurs.  SB and BB were baby T-Rex, we had to go and get meat for them to eat . BB loves being chased so that was very noisy.

Morning was domestic stuff - washing and stuff. then once we were eventually organised off to do some shopping. Sb had been inspired by something on Smart - or whatever the older version of Smarteenies (SB was quite excited to see Kirsten O’Brien from the Little Toe Show on there) is called which reminded us we needed to buy some more tissue paper, so we went to the stationery/art shop. Got said tissue paper - though they had  miriad colours so getting SB to choose which ones, rather than just one of each was time consuming, until the lady showed us the mixed pack.  Bought a couple of packs of Berol felt tips. We have the nremains of various cheap and free felt tip packs around the house in various places, but of course half don’t work, have lost lids, can’t find the colour you want etc. , weedy colour when it does work, and generally just a waste of time.And BB is  total pain with felt tips at the moment. So have been meaning to get some decent ones for a while. I know from school use that Berol last ages, even with lids left off, and have decent colour etc. So found some at a reduced price, so got some. SB is charged with keeping them in their packs and away from BB.

Must now try to colect all the pens/pencils/crayons etc. together and to try and rationalise them a bit and remove anything not BB proof from the general pool.

Continued via the fair trade shop in a local church - where BB entertained the woman behind the counter by singing various songs to herself - such as Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and Row, Row Row Your Boat - words not exactly intelliligible, but the tune is clear. BB seems amazingly good and picking up such tunes, I don’t remember SB being like that, -  their cafe for a snack stop - where I explained what Fair Trade was all about  and then went to see upstairs where there was an Art Exhibition by a local Art Group. Didn’t get to look at much as SB went to touch one of them, and the man who asked here not to (quite mildly) scared her apparently, so we left. She likes the stained glass windows though.

Next via the market stalls for some fruit and veg, where BB (again…) entertained the woman behind the stall by spotting the Strawberries and shouting ‘Strawb, Strawb, Strawb!’ (or somesuch) at the top of her voice , finished off with picking up some things in the supermarket.

Once home it was a lateish lunch with Little Toe Radio Show on listen again. Some Maths - Singapore Maths Weekly Revision book some bits about completeing number sequences. Then we looked a bit at some books/web pages about Dinosaurs as SB has been into them recently from watching the Walking With Dinosaurs series on DVD. Printed off a  few things from Enchanted Learning, while SB went off to draw a picture of a wobbly house made of Jelly with her new felt tips…… Then it was time for a bit of Explode the Code followed by colouring in a Dinosaur maths puzzle - T-Rex, her favourite, of course, which Helen joined in with as she got home about now.

BB’s milestone of the day was to ask for something on the TV. Doing her shouting, push/pull you thing she got me into the living room, pointed at the TV, pointed at the ‘on’ button, pointed at the DVD box . So I settled her down with the Clangers DVD. I went toff to get one with dinner, but she evidently wanted me in there becuase she kept coming after me shouting ‘Back, Back’. so in the end, I put it on the laptop in the kitchen. Which was ok until she started hitting keys and buttons…….

Which is where we came in really.

The 6th Homeschool Country Fair is open.

I liked this quote from What Did You do In School Today

‘creating an education that meets the child where they are instead of one that makes the child meet it’

Had Helen’s parent’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary party here yesterday, and a good time was had by all. Weather was looking wet and dodgy, but as forecast it dried up and the sun popped out at 12 as the first guests were arriving. It stayed dry until quite late so that was good. Helen’s mum was stressing quite a bit about the weather as she so wanted it to good enough for us all to be outside.

Was plenty of food - mixture of homemade and Waitrose Entertaining stuff (no we weren’t buying it) - which was pretty good.. Been quite a lot of preparation gone into the whole thing, so glad that it all went smoothly. Usual sort of eating, drinking, family catching up, chatting, laughing, kids playing, photo snapping, chillin‘ , sort of gathering.

By the end of we were absolutely knackered. So rather a shame that BB decided that once SB had gone to bed (rather late and very tired at about 10.30 - 11) she would wake up and wail and gnash and fuss for the next two hours……

Plenty of photos to sort out, so have just posted a few as a taster.

Getting dinner for the girls ready tonight, I put a bottle of tomato ketchup on the table. Butterbean (who was pottering around in the kitchen) pointed at it and started shouting ‘Chips! Chips!’ (Ketchup mostly comes out when we have chips - it was lamost I suppose - sauted potato)

Quite clever really I thought, as well as rather amusing.

well, my Mum and Dad are having a party here at the weekend. this means they are trying to make my house look presentable! So far, Mum has spent all day on just 2 rooms! i should have invited Ros and Joyce next week!!!! Dad is in the garden.

BB has spent today eating, running and shouting wildly, doing lots of pegboards and dance mat. I’ve read her lots of books, we have had roust about games and she has done some fun blox playing. She is adding new words all the time, but I am glad of apple and banana, as it doesn’t make it appear that we only feed her sugar!

SB has done halving and doubling maths today in a picked up workbook, some explode the code and 3 chapters of Story of the world - cretans and early greeks, followed by MoRE myths and legends. We also did some of the activity sheets. SB spontaneously put a ‘line with levels’ up the side to help me direct her on the map to the key cities! Not grid referencing yet! the maze was a hit, and she enjoyed the colouring in. Also quite a few board games and fun blox. lots of running about too. We made a Dundee cake together - well, actually SB did most of it, so fingers crossed. It doesn’t seem to have risen much though, and I’m sure the last one did. Oh well. Its for the party. Will make and decorate a sponge cake to go with it.

IMG 7353

Originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

It does look very sad doesn’t it!

Every time I listen to this I still get goosebumps up my spine - esp. the bit about 30 seconds in when were walking back through the assembled guests. It was the music (Overture from the soundtrack to the Kenneth Branagh film Much Ado About Nothing ) played at the end of our wedding ceremony - 9 years ago today (just about still) we got married. Though we’ve been together for 18 years. After 9 years we figured we were grownup enough to get married.

It was a wonderful day, great location, beautiful weather accompanied by family and friends, it couldn’t have been better really.

Love you as much as I ever have done Helen.

Musical wedding anecdote: THe DJ for the evening disco thing tried playing slow smoochy stuff near the end but there weren’t many takers. So he gave up and finshed of with ‘The Prodigy’ :- which was much more welcomed

One of BB’s early words has been ‘duck’ - as in ’stuck’, not the animal. Duck in the high chair, duck in the car seat, duck in your arms, duck getting out of buggy etc.

Well she really got duck today. Hear shouting and knocking on her door this morning about 7.15,, went up to find she had managed to lock herself in. (She sleeps in what is basically a bathroom, so it has a lock on the door. It ones of those lock/catch things that screw on the ouside of the door, rather than being fitted into the door, and it has slidy catch thing, that I’d forgotten about as we never used.

A bit oworrying as BB was the otherside wailing by this time. The bit the catch goes into was only screwed to the outisde of the frame, but it took a fair bit of kicking to get it to open (if it has been in the frame it would have been much harder). Helen was wondering about taking SB up a ladder and putting her through the window…..

The door did open rather forcefully, as part of the bit fixed to the frame broke rather than the screw pulling out. Luckily, BB had had enough sense to go back ino the room with the banging on the door so it just missed here.

time to check other possibly locking doors methinks…

SB was in the room next door asleep, with the door open. Did she notice a thing…..?

Katie (or is it with a ‘y’ - can’t remember), brought along some homemade chocolate sauce, which was rather yummy on the Saturday morning breakfast pancakes.

It comes highly recommended by Teeny:

Yummy Chocolate Sauce on Vimeo

about me - well still waiting, have offered up 10% paycut [yes another one!] and awaiting outcome.

SB this week has had a lot of fun playing with cousin Oren, including a fun visit to Hunstanton with grandparents and funfair adventure. Oren was here today as going back to France tomorrow.

We have been less match and sorty - though some going on! But I have read loads of books on history, geography, science, lots of chats and discussions and geomagging and brainbox electronics. We have also baked!

BB getting alot more words. She is very clear over some directions - like get up and move it!! She can shout ‘thumb out’ at SB [which causes a riot!] and lots of other small words appear to be peppered in her still largely incomprehensible [but long!] sentences. She is gettng good at shape sorting, and having a bash at pegboards - but not so good at rotation! She is a know-no-fear climber - loves steps of any kind! A passion second only to that for ‘bicbic, coctut, cake, fapjak’

SO to the weekend - a really fab time at SOTP. they have a great camping field, lovely atmosphere and a good guest list, so that we were too busy wathicng children having fun and nattering rather than taking pictures!!! one of the good things about having met each other a number of times before, is that I no longer am concerned about either of my childs little foibles [wailing/eating everythng in sight] and their responses to other children’s foibles, so it is far more relaxing, and this seeing them used to each othr and adapting, and occaissional nudging into better behaviour [after all, lord of the flies is better as a book than in real life!], should help SB avoid the social pariah trap that I didn’t if things didn’t go my way, or I didn’t ‘get’ the game.

Mmmm to food - pancakes was inspired! Was that a standard pancake mixture or a slightly thicker one? We have gazillions of guests this weekend, so thought i might copy!

ANyway, many thanks to the hosts, hope chaos has been magically transformed back to the oasis of tranquility! lovely seeing everyone. oh, I want one of these for xmas!

oh, and after lots of meddling, I still can’t get flickrbadge to work properly! link to my set.

As I just ran down the stairs, I trod on dead mouse. It made a squishing sensation and since partially dismembered, a blood an entrail imprint on my foot. YUK!

In town today, looking in estate agents window - as you do.

SB: ‘ That’s a good house, it has two garages. One for all the stuff and one for a car’

Personally I think she is being optomistic thinking that one car would have space….

Off to pick Helen up from work and then head off to SOTP for camping garden party, don’t know who else is going so looking forward to getting there

made 2 cakes today for the weekend with Sb - so usual variable ingredients. This one looked like a lunar crater, so my quality control boss [chris] decided we couldn’t bring it.

It is totally scrumptious delicious!!!

this is the other one

For all those who were wishing that the teacher would put a bigger piece of sodium in the water bath in the science lesson demostration. Scroll down to end to find the videos.

Thanks to the Grauniad’s  Bad Science column