January 2007

i knew i was being one all day, and though very contrite, had the tolerance level of kamikaze on acid. Mainly I think with worry that this is not going to be a weird one of joint thing, but…

Anyway, SB did lots more education city - she does really enjoy it, and getting there to the french without so much help [i nearly bought rosetta stone though Deb!]. She has also done some singapore maths MPH 1B - and as we are 2/3 through, have bought 2 series from half moon books - well, nearly, I have sent them an email! - so they are across in resources bit. I had bought the original 2a and b textbooks half price from sonlight when they went to the us ed, so though i had better have matching workbooks - so we will be doing a not MPH year - shouldn’t matter!

My mum and dad popped in on the way back from Little Nanny’s, and were a bit shocked at my cronkiness. Anyway, they played with the girls a bit and had a bite to eat before carrying on.

BB had a look at toddler cd - though prefers still just to irritate SB! we read some apple tree farm, she played ‘yego’, and had great fun with a magnetic break apart ball that SB also loved at that age from ikea. we all stopped for a ‘yup-a-tea’

SB and I finished the marco polo jigsaw in our explorers book and discussed that a little bit, before moving on to story of the world, where we got a bit stuck with the punic wars - cos unlike my usual ask very little questions, and minimal narration back, i got fixated on her remembering carthage! [why i don't know, as i hardly expect that telling her today will give her instant recall in 30 years time!!]. however, we made up over the Hannibal and the elephants story. She read me 1/3 of a level 8 ORT book - the magic carpet - and she is def getting more fluid. Apparently, whilst at Jax’s, she had a go at one of Big’s fairy books, but they are too difficult.

I got grumpy so left her and BB to play, and looked at sonlight core 1, rosetta stone and worried that we dip around a lot and aren’t organised, and maybe should be sonlighters etc etc [usual panic there]

BB wanted to play a game, so we got out the marble run, and SB made her runs and it all went predictably pear shaped, but they kept trying. eventually giving up to play bouncy ball games.

My sister rang to commiserate - well I think that was what for, but in a jovial way she said i have got it too, and it is worse than yours and yours will get far worse, so I pretty near hung up. tea really was ready, but I was rude, and feel bad as I just took it the wrong way rather than her meaning to make me even more grumpy. [she is a much lovelier person all round than me] I will ring tomorrow if I am less grumpy.

Ah well. the girls had a bath whilst I grumped. SB came down and saw big’s castle. she def wants a castle for her birthday, but no longer tower of doom, but perhaps the pintoys mediaeval one - which I also like. SO I guess that is on. She then got stuff ready for tomorrow, as BB goes to a toddler gym session first one, and SB will have to sit at edge as quiet as a mouse - fingers crossed for chris there, as it will be difficult for SB who will be desperate to join in.
I have now eaten loads of chocolate - which I had banned from my diet - sigh.

well, that rash seems to have been the start of a reactive polyarthropathy caused by an infection caught from children - viral or bacterial. seen a consultant rheumatologist today as just couldn’t hold pen properly - sigh.

luckilly no need to do anything overwhelmingly important with my hands till next tues, and he thinks it should be better by then.

The beans went to local group this morning all about favourite things. SB took heaps of jacket potatoes - and we had some of them for tea!
in the afternoon, when we had all got home, she did some education city - enjoying it, and I have stared with the easiest bits doing a my city. She wanted to do the spanish, but that doesn’t seem an option at her level. i might email and ask if we can have access to it. she did like the french though. i helped identify the sounds the first time and thenn left her to carry on so I could read apple tree farm to BB.
BB did some oogly googly gears and playdoughing, and SB looked at a DK history book with me - rather lovely - and we did early people in it, picking up the theme at bedtime by reading about otzi the ice mummy. She also did some letter formation with getty and dubay - they’re big letters, but I guess she needs to start in the right place, as she otherwise chooses bottom up. we all playdoughed for a bit.
tea of jacket pots, and then watched some more trials of life before bed.

This was from last week - Thursday I think, somehow it got left as a draft and dnot posted, so here it is.

Yesterday SB emptied out her purse and counted up all the money. She did very well, did it pretty much all herself. Got bit lost with lots of 2p’s, until I showed her how to sort out the money into piles of 10p each and then count them all up. She had the grand total of ?19.01 (there was ?10 of xmas money in there). WSo she was quite excited by that

She has just sat down with a Vertbaudet catalogue looking at all the kiddy furniture, bedding and stuff, deciding what is too much, what she can afford, and whether or not it would be really owrth it spending all her money on it.

So, you thought 2+ whatever GB was plenty eh? Well apparently 220,000 +spam is enough to fill it up 80 - as found out when emails were bouncing from it.

I’ve got an account that I use for redirecting email sent to our main email domain that doesn’t have specified account (yes I could just not collect it, but I find it useful to do so). It then gets collected via that onto or email system at home. G’mails spam filter is pretty effective without grabbing loads of real emails as well. The spam does get deleted after 30 days - so obviously it comes in quicker than it was getting deleted

we had a lovely weekend living otherwise with Jax and co. Big and Sb loved each other, and BB and small were also getting on well - even if they did like the same toys!

lovely bowling party on the sat for the birthday girls. SB has never been bowling, and really enjoyed it. I loved how SB, Big and C had a secondary game going on all about handing each other the balls etc, and cheered each other on. They did lining up, parallels and angles with each other to see if they could knock them all down. Really fab. BB wasn’t in the best of moods, but perked up. Will be flickring! Minor panic when Merry arrived, she pushed fran at me whilst she whisked off with maddy, and I suddenly couldn’t see Josie or amelie, or whether I should be seeing them - luckilly fran could tell me they were at home - phew!

?
Back to jax’s for cake with Jan and family and Kirsty and family. Not as much mayhem as you would anticipate, though finding SB, Big and Small’s beds that night proved difficult - tick archaeology there.

Next day we adults had a lie in, then a hurried getting up when we thought Merry was iminent - luckilly she got lost, so we were ready for her! Went home also, and had aching wrists - maybe a response to weird rash I got on the sun am. so early bed for me, but got up by SB to tell her stories, and ended up watching bones after that [found dad!] and a late beditme

?

Seem to ahev lost the muse when it comes to blogging, I’ve managed to not really blog all week Including fun science-y things we did last week. Hmm, anyway this is for now, cos going to bed soon. Also behind with Flickr as well…
My brother and his youngest son O are over on their way back over to France from Ireland (mother and son live in France, Dad in Ireland, makes life complicated…)? They came round yesterday, lots of playing, mostly happily :-)? BB splits her tiem between chasing the bigger ones about and? hanging around with the grownups.

Today me and the girls went over to my Mum and Dads were they are staying, mostly happy playing again. A bit of? split when O wanted to play with his video game football game thing(some cheapo thing, not a flash thing like a DS …) so she played with the Dolly. Eventually compromised, she was the Mummy, and he was the Daddy who was a computer programmer And an argument over the crackers (used up soem old xmas ones) over who had how many and which cheapo-plastic-toys-we-will-lose-or-forget-about-by-tomorrow-anyway

Did have a few interesting conversations in the car though. Had one about the reality of imaginary people like Santa Claus/tooth faeries/’this character made up by one of her granddads, who seems to be some sort of satellite/alien thing. Not fairies though - ‘I know they are real , I’ve seen them‘. Got a bit metaphysical? when we talked about the idea of liking things things to be? real in our imaginations even if we don’t believe them to be true in reality. We watched ‘The Snowman’ a few times this Xmas. BB likes it. So I mentioned that I liked to imagine that somewhere, Snowmen were really flying off in the midnight air, even though I didn’t really believe it. - just the same as I want to believe that there really is? town and inhabitants like those in Northern Exposure. I think she decided that she sort of didn’t believe, but wanted to so was going to anyway.

We also had one on the way back, after listening to a travel report on the radio about all the various roads closed in relation to the strong winds ‘ Ohh, there is lots of places closed, must be very windy‘. So we got talking about strong winds and hurricanes and tornadoes, she was taking with the idea of Tornadoes picking things up. So she mused on people being picked up, ‘They’d probably be dropped on a cloud, so then they would fall back down, so they would probably die I think, then the tornado might pick them up and then drop them again, up down , up down. Might be be a bit of mess at the end‘. Errr.. yes, quite :roll:

On that note, off to bed

Stringbean has had this Jump Ahead Starting Maths CD-ROM for ages - 3 years? dunno, but she was doing it in our old house anyway. She’s done it on and off in spurts, probably redone it at least a couple of times, so? a little bit of a fan fare when she finally completed the last bit tonight tonight, had got the 100 candles and had the party

we have a tell a friend code if anyone else wants to buy it which gives both the person who already has it, and the person buying it a free extra 3 months.

Your unique Tell a Friend code is C8A26B9D.feel free to use it!

education city = fab!! ?20 for 12 months, and 3 more free - go on!

Saw a piccie of my cousins new baby today at my Mum and Dad’s (didn’t email me one -? hmph!! ). But OMG she is so tiny !!!!! The head seems to be only about the same diameter as the length her Dads index finger.
Oh well they will get plenty of wear out of the first baby clothes.

Baby Abigail Phoebe. Born today to Chris’ cousin and husband. Weighing in at 4lb 5.

Hellooooo baby!

This was taken at 9.30 last night, she was still at it at 10.30 And yes she was actually reading it, not just looking at the piccies

She is so pleased with herself

I am having a lot of them again aren’t i. must be something to sort out. Actually have had all weekend, and as working it has been really difficult. I would have gone off sick Sunday it was so bad, but my backup rang in to say he was too unwell to cover, and I didn’t have the heart to ruin the only option available’s weekend. SO when I couldn’t open eyes or lift head off pillow this am without wanting to shoot myself, I took today off - and feeling guilty still. got out of bed after lunch though. Not sure what the girls had been doing in the morning - lots of screaming anyway! Chris had been tidying, and BTB was on the vid.

the ebay oogly googly arrived - wahey. [btw, there seem to be a fair number of wacky wigglers on there atm] so although an eyeball missing, still a bargain! we set to making an oogly googly - well, as I was still very rough I observed and enhanced/scaffolded from the semi recumbent position on the sofa! SB and BB both very happy to get on with it, and loved having weird eyeballs. I mainly got it as the cheapest way to have another motor so the girls didn’t argue. rofl.

blank mind - o yes, a late lunch. read BB some more apple tree farm - which she loves - and did jigsaws, then she went for a lap. SB and I then did roman sotw, with other roman book on the go and colouring in. She loves story of the world - she said today anyway. oh, before, she had started the getty and dubay how to form letters, as hers are a mishmash. she chose to do i, and then wrote as other i words, ivee and iys, with suitable pictures. She then read some ORT book to herself - rather well. BB came down and we did some blocks and building, and mostly jumping on mummy - very helpful for head! So then SB was detailed maths - argh 3/4 through MPH 1B, so have to buy some more! and BB insisted on doing her maffs too. So cutesy homeschool picture of them both at table doing workbooks. [if i ever get round to flickring them!].

we then all looked at our model heart and discussed the arteries and veins - I wonder if she will remember their names - she certainly remembers [atm] that the pulmonary ones are odd as the vein is red and the artery blue, and even why. we matched it up to all of us, and decided it probably was a 10 year old heart!! BB enjoyed wiggling her fingers down the holes. SB wants a body shlef - so far we have a heart and eye. I think i have been watching too much bones [yep Jax, it does get much better when you stick with it!] and a body bits shelf just sounded a bit, well…..

We did a fair bit of dancing around, talking about little house on the prairie [firmly identified with laura there!] making sure her plaits were like lauras!! We also did our french conversation, and have added how old are you, I am 5 to it.

more obligate kleine hippo watching for BB as room tidied [very very slowly by SB with many accompanying wails, but this is her LHOTP task - evil grin]. They both watch this, and SB has started asking me what some of the words are - eek, as if I know!! Promised SB I would pay for education city. she really likes the next stage webland too. story tonight was the lion witch and wardrobe, and they are both is SB’s bedroom. SB took some ORT books to bed to read though - rofl.

I looked on Gill’s blog about compulsory NC , and it gives me the shivers. I don’t think I could pretend we follow it, as we don’t do it in the ‘right order’. I could write an ed phil that should satisfy anyone, and I’m sure if we ever allowed a home visit that it would be hard not to show we were providing an education. However I realise that is the stated not actual goalpost. After all, I don’t have lots of evidence of work or progression, as it is practical based or verbal as SB not keen on writing. I am sure they would say ‘behind’ too. I would just say she has only recently shown an interest in it, and so it is appropriate for a starter position. I used to do a list of what NC areas I thought we had covered, and maybe will start that again, but I just don’t want too! I guess I have the tags. So here’s what it might look like [though TBH, I couldn't bear to look at the national curriculum for actual places on it!] and it doesn’t account for the actual time on any item [think bite-sized!].

PS, Chris has just checked on SB, and she is very proud of the fact she is reading her ORT book to herself. Is this an official reading milestone - reading in bed!!!!

maths [mph adding 10's and units]; literacy [ORT, LWW]; geography [SOTW] history [SOTW, roman flap book, LHOTP], design and technology [gears], science [gears, heart, carrot experiment [ongoing]], modern language [KH, conversational french], writing [GD], ICT [KH], arts [SOTW, photography]

OK, OK, linking to years 1 and 2 [SB in year 1] it is all really waffly, and I guess if I was BOVVERED, I could stuff lots of it in little category boxes of waffle. but it would still be pointless. At a push, I could change the categories to the NC ones. Still not BOVVERED. I still think the great thing about HE is the FREEDOM to follow SB’s interest at the time she is interested. I list and tag because I am weird like that [see below] rather than because I think its required.

oh, and as for citizenship, isn’t that what PARENTS and FAMILIES are good for. I don’t need to TEACH this, she just needs to live it - I quote the goals

1. to recognise what they like and dislike, what is fair and unfair, and what is right and wrong
2. to share their opinions on things that matter to them and explain their views
3. to recognise, name and deal with their feelings in a positive way
4. to think about themselves, learn from their experiences and recognise what they are good at
5. how to set simple goals.

etc etc!!!

Six weird things about me.

we’ve been tagged twice, so shall each do it.
THE RULES

Each player of this game starts with the ?six weird things about you? blog post. People who get tagged need to write their own six weird things post and state the rules clearly. At the end of the post tag six more people and don?t forget to leave a comment on their blog to tell them they have been tagged and tell them to read your blog.

1. I guess I don’t think I am weird at all, and what might be weird probably depends on where you know me from! I guess that I home educate does probably count as the weirdest thing. for this blog ring, that probably doesn’t count as weird at all. Certainly doesn’t seem tht weird to me though.
2. for the blogring, my job is probably the weirdest thing about me. Makes me a very atypical hippy really, and is the thing that defines me but least seems to go with the rest of the defining things, I guess. But I don’t think its weird, but possibly that I’m good at it and made the top seems weird.

3. also eminently sensible and normal is tagging and crossreferencing photos. Thus the flickr tags. Flickr is fantastic for me. I already have all the photos tagged and organised on the ‘pute, and then I get to set them as well on flickr. I can find any photo. A kind of exultant showing off of my list-making tendencies. but not at all weird.

4. Being a fat vegetarian. I keep being told you can’t be a fat vegetarian, and i’m the only one they know. I’m not sure whether being a fat vegetarian is weird, or the fact that people are so keen to be so absolutely crassly rude because of it? Oh, and I’m right with you there on the surgery. ?6000 and slimness. A factor of 5 on what I have spent on diet clubs and food, and I guess when you include gym membership I have not used, it begins to sound almost a bargain.
5. That I still consider myself to be shy. i think its more ‘cos I’m not very skilled at small talk and being, well, friendly. I’m quite boring. but saying that as a reason for being a wallflower is more, well, brutally honest, and being ’shy’ suggests I might be oK if you give me a chance.

6. I have a degree largely comprising of evolutionary psychobiology. But I think that is cool not weird.

I don’t know, are any of those truly weird, they’re normal for me?? maybe commenters can say what is weird? the other contenders are - i have absolutely no care about clothes. I want to be warm and comfy. it annoys me about being neat for work - which I do badly. And I hate shoes. I love bare feet [but in this cold house, the slippers are fab] I only have 2 pairs of shoes - and they are open toe no heel slip ons. a work pair and a home pair both I have had for > 5 years.

SO there you go.

who to tag? is anyone left?
well

Kath

Katy

Joanna

Barbara can do it in my comments box if aksimet lets her!

Tammy

Kris?

I have to say though, I think you are all normal

Well, almost, there is still? some tinsel lurking on the stair banister….. But having done by now is pretty promptly for us
Took down the trees over the weekend - I hate it, all the faffing about with having to put breakable things in boxes.

Well, suppose we really have to get back to normal now.

Chris, hopefully, is going to blog the science experiments and so forth going on here, so I am going to do a BB update.

She doesn’t want to wear nappies any more, and is potty training - at her insistance. On the whole she is quite good at it. She is naked, and clutches her bottom doing a funny wiggle saying she needs a wee. She is rather proud of this too. Her speech is coming on in leaps and bounds. I do like that she loves to emphasis things. ‘I like hadding bikbik, I dooo’ ‘I did ‘tar, i diiiiiid’ ‘ I like mugger doose, I doooooo’ etc. She really loves the apple tree farm books, and when she wins the lap battle outright [I usually try and have one on each knee], this is the guaranteed book choice. She does lots of cutie dances to music, and has special skips and jumps routines. Her and SB play together a lot, really well most of the time - though usually with great wildness. She loves joining up toys - doing things ie kid k’nex, gears, building etc and just getting into jigsaws. She is weaned, though periodically sees whether there is a milkie option - no. She really is quite babylicious.

I was late home from work today, as the registrar was a no show. for a while I thought I would have to stay forever, but we got a locum. I got home to the tree undecorating in the playroom, and the end of while the bear sleeps. I read to SB more usborne cut away roman book, and we finished her M and S body book too. She does read some of it too - and rather well. She is gradually stopping the happit of sounding out all words however easy [I was a bit bored with the t-h-e = the routine! She said she had read a yellow nose reader to Nana earlier. She told me all about her day, the new webland she has [the older magazine] and we looked at some of the puzzles.

Chris has set up a freecycled old ‘pute where the xmas tree was, so that SB can be on ours and BB on the new-old one. of course, they both battled for the new-old one!!! Mostly SB showed BB cbeebies. Also more kleine hippos watching - a firm favourite with BB. We are listening to German so often, I think we must restart Muzzy, as SB def picking up a few words and accents - mostly names and titles and politenesses - such as grossvater [no funny s on my keyboard] and es tut mir leid [no idea of spelling!].
more little house on the prairie - entailing SB’s request to know more around that time.

SB would like to learn more about the time to go with this. I am doing a quick trawl, but if anyone else knows any places, could they link in comments! I know there is a whole curriculum out there, but prob a bit oTT for our needs

http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1496.html http://schoolathome.blogspot.com/2005/01/little-house-on-prairie-lesson-plan.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_on_the_Prairie

http://www.hoover.archives.gov/LIW/

http://www.littlehousebooks.com/resources/resources.asp

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/index.html

well, this is the home-ed resolutions for last year

first view of a mission statement 2006

And this was the summary of how i think we have done

sum up for 2006

so now we need to think how to improve getting to the first, and what changes we might need to do to achieve that.

A relaxing day today. Some home-ed friends came by and M and SB vanished fairly immediately while we grown ups chatted, and H and BB stayed mostly close with lego and wacky wigglers. BB was VERY fond of the guacemole tortilla chips.

Before there was lots of playdoughing and faffing about, and after we have been watching kleine hippo, reading various rome books - best being the lift the flap one, and now watching little house on the prairie.

As Chris says, we are pondering our use of home ed resources!! SB rather likes the look of a DS [thanks Merry for corrupting them both!!] so she is keen to improve her reading to be able to use it, so thats high on her priorities. Also to do more piano-ing. Otherwise we need to look at the rest.

With Helen being off all the week before xmas, and only having two days at work last week and then the Bank Holiday it seems like we’ve al been at home for a long time we’ve had together, which has been good. So yesterday we started getting back to normal, in a fairly gentle way. Starting off with SB having a much needed bit of sleep catch up and not getting up until past 10.30 am. -Not sure exactly as she’d come down stairs before 11 and the TV had been left on, so she’d sidled into there and was watching Toms Midnight Garden on the TV

It did mean that I had a nice time playing with BB, with the animals, lego, books, playdoh and stuff. as well as exciting things like sorting out washing. Got SB moving when i mentioned the Library and she realised it was ‘Bic-bic day’ - they have a fund raising stall on the first Tues of the month - with drinks, biscuits etc. So we went round to the library, had biccies, coffee, chatted about xmas, the girls did their usual we are cute and lovely thing, and even got some books just before it closed

Home to lunch with Littletoe show, and then enforce nap tiem for BB - she just isn’t making it through. So I basically give her an enforced cuddle on the bed until she gives up making? big fuss about it and falls asleep. Seemed to work ok though. She was asleep by 1.30, we got her up before 3 and she went to sleep ok at about 8.30, which was rather better.

SB sat and spent ages looking at her library books, then me and SB did a fair bit of reading of them. She did a bit My Pals are Here, felt ages since we had done any so did it in gentle-ish sort of way. There was bit of something happening when BB got up, but I forget what exactly. Made a pasta bake for tea and then we sat down with tea/hot choc and toasted teacakes (BB - ‘I need choc-choc cup’) to watch the rest of Toms Midnight Garden. Then? a bit of tidying up before dinner. One of the targets for this year is to be tidier in general through the day, worked ok yesterday, kitchen ended the day pretty tidy, playroom was tidy (the main chaos areas).

Need to have a bit of think about where we are going with/approaching HE though. SB mentioned Education City again, so time to sign up to that I think.
Visitors due any minute now (M and family, a girl from a local HE group, almost the same age as Sb, and they hit it off from the first meeting) so time to be organized - at least the lunch soup is cooking