Monthly Archives: January 2008

to pack or not to pack

Posted on January 20, 2008 by | 3 comments

well, we mostly have! BB was so excited she immediately found all the swimming things, but on a swimming costume, sunhat, and some toys in a backpack. she was ready!! in fact was far too ready all days! I am having a small wibble with the cut of my cossie after eating much to much in my customary stress release. aargh. anyway, clothes all packed, have 2 meal options ready.

we did lots of mucking about playing, SB rattled off some handwriting and maths. she also did violin practice, and we read about the byzantine [buyzantine or bizantine?] empire and emperor justinian out of SOTW. we all enjoyed another of the i can read french books. BB and i read a fair number of books together as well. more block building, hide and seek and simon says. SB watched the ice dance competition, but all the talking bored her. Chris did some baking with BB
remembered to pay for the cars tax disc too – fantastic! little nanny not so well at the moment, and this is a hard time of year for her.

Well, I'm all set for Centre Parcs :-)

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Posted in Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

Protected: just because i am paranoid

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Posted in General, vivien

too much west wing

Posted on January 20, 2008 by | 3 comments

as  I am really enjoying following the primaries ongoing in the states. i obviously miss josh and cj and jeb, but there you go!!

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Posted in General

Burnt offerings

Posted on January 19, 2008 by | 2 comments

Well, late back yesterday from work, and work has been so stressful this last week, that it seemed the week would never end. however, at least got back in time to see both girls before they went to bed -BB has been consistently asleep. So we did some playing [tummy ache], read more lucie chat books – these from the book people have been a total hit! Read another usborne dragon story, SB and I read some more saxon stuff when BB asleep.

today I had a late start. BB and SB up with the larks watching kids terrestrial tv. I dragged myself out somewhat later… however, SB and I did a violin practice, leading to the post below! all 3 of us read lucie chat, this time all having a go at saying the french and the english all the way through. we also enjoyed a same kind of idea i can read french book. SB and I read about ALfred the great, BB and i did some stickerbooking. We all played various games on the floor, made block castles and towers [with BB rather keen to knock down] hide and seek, tummy ache etc. I did some piano practice [shock horror!]. Girls rampaged about a bit, SB settling on cbeebies website [she doesn't ever seem to grow out of it] and BB and I made a chocolate cake. SB then did some CIMT maths and BB bathed [necessary after making cake!] Dinner and BB to bed – sigh of release. SB and I made peanut butter cookies to share next week. unfortunately, i left them for CHris to take out when took SB up to bed… [yep, burnt offerings] she is going to be VERY unhappy. we read some knight stories, and she read to me a DK reader children through time.

having felt suitably educational, i am prepared to slump infront of the opium of the masses.

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Posted in Books, Butterbean, Cooking, General, history, language, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE

If we want to do some music at melrose…

Posted on January 19, 2008 by | 2 comments

I thought something really short and simple, so minimal practice at the time and then in the concert would work.

So I thought maybe the tambour from p17 a new tune a day for the violin. Has a variety of skills OK

so for confident – or those that have practiced [sill scan in!]
all on D string 4 crotchets then 2 minims : DEF#F#: G G : F#EF#D: E E : DEF#F#: G G : F#DEE: D D played twice

for those just starting opens stings only minim then 2 crotchets: A AA:D DD:A AA:A AA:A AA:D DD:A AA:A AA. played twice. for beginner recorders, playing a G instead of D may be easier

and for total starters, just play load of A’s OR D’S at random any rhythm!

lots of scope for tambourines and other percussion for littlies.

There is more of it we can do, but I was thinking short and sweet prob best.

A BA:G G :F#EF#G:A A :A BA:G G :F#DEE:D D : [REPEATED, THEN FIRST TUNE AGAIN X2]

D DD:A AA:D DD:A AA:AAAA:D DD:AAAA:D DD: [REPEATED, THEN FIRST TUNE AGAIN X2]

What do you think? Should suit any instrument ? if anyone really wants to do this, pop it on the camps list or in comments box. thanks

edited to add – written out [for Sarah], but you may want to write it out again yourself! [I appear to have no control with the mouse!!]. I think for those on strings, if we do the middle bit, might as well make it loud and play D and A strings together. Adds some fun for not tune.

melrosemusic

for me, it will always be mattachins from the capriol suite – I can’t remember how often I played it in diff guises growing up!

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Posted in General, music

Sometimes you just despair.

Posted on January 19, 2008 by | 16 comments

This morning, girl’s are happily watching TV, until BB threw a basket (smallish, wickerwork thing that came with flowers in) at SB – hitting her right next to her right eye. These things come totally out of the blue.
Yesterday, while eating dinner she threw a Fimo face that SB had made across the table, breaking bits off it – again, she just did it for no obvious reason.

This morning she got banished from the kitchen for a bit for again being horrible (forget exactly what now).

Sometimes she can be really horrible :-(

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Posted in Butterbean

notes

Posted on January 17, 2008 by | Leave a comment

not-v-local tots group with crafts and latin for girls

Panis romanae

Some Stirring
SB been good at piano practice this week, also done some maths and handwriting. both girls watching muzzy german.
fun playsession with rainbowsR

all done by chris as i have had dreadful week of slog! SB been up late, and have played games together

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, General, history, music, numeracy, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

walk the walk against breast cancer

Posted on January 17, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Joyce is doing her bit for breast cancer resarch. to sponsor her, click here, please

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Posted in General

don’t do it!

Posted on January 16, 2008 by | Leave a comment

cut off my scrabulous!

Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble.

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Posted in General

Return of the absent blogger?

Posted on January 16, 2008 by | 1 comment

Problem I have is that it just seems rather boring – but I did bold things :-)
Morning started with Sb doing some of the music theory book she started the other day with Helen . BB got me to help her with the Ikea wooden construction toy thing making a helicopter. Then they both moved on to the polyhedrons for a – BB wanted a house for lizard and then some general playing about with things. We sorted out books for returning to the library and then had breakfast, SB catching up on a few of the library books, chased them up trying to speed up the getting dressed and sorted procedure which can take forever left to their own devices.

Off to the library in the rain and wind, BB pleased to be using her umbrella to keep her dry. Storytime, selecting new books, home again in the rain via the shops for lunch supplies.

Home, SB settled down with a Rainbow Fairies book, which she knocked of in the hour or so before lunch. I drank coffee and read books with BB and did boring household tasks. After lunch they both did a bit of stuff on various websites, SB piano practised and then entered some kind of educational limbo where she spent 2 – 21/2 hours doing maths and handwriting that should have taken a lot lot less, so we didn’t really get onto anything else much before it was time to cook dinner.

After dinner, I rapidly chased BB up to bed. In one of her Jekyll and Hyde moments, one minute she was sitting happily eating dinner, next minute she was being some sort of annoying mad dervish, out to annoy SB in as many ways as possible. When she chased after SB waving a pair of scissors a swift intervention and imposition of bedtime was deemed appropriate.

SB watched a Roar episode, and then we did the Roman city jigsaw whilst awaiting Helen’s too late return from work.

Roman City Jigsaw

So she had late bedtime. Tonights excuse for coming down when she should really have been asleep was that she wasn’t warm enough (gloss over that it’s been much colder than tonight before) – told her to wear her fleecy bunny suit.

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Posted in Books, Butterbean, IT, literacy, music, numeracy, Out and About, photos, pre reading, Stringbean, writing