Petits Haricots

this is exactly what i want after a hard day at work. i can relax into the fab baroque chord progression. Zadok the priest!! obviously its the build up beginning i love best!! an alternative is this, once i have already relaxed, as a bit more chirpy! Arrival of the queen of sheba

well, that’s how SB says it anyway. it was a rainbows outing - though i think other rainbows and brownie packs etc all went. SB has been looking forward to it for ages. she got herself a sensible packed lunch, dressed in sensible clothes, got gloves a fleece in case it got colder, waved goodbye and had a total ball. she came back on cloud nine, re-enacted tobogganing, said how fab it was etc etc!

i was fairly surly today. i desperately needed a lie in and didn’t get it. i had a crap week at work last week and next week is on 9/10 of the stressometer. anyway, got potatoes planted, did dandelion printing with bb [which was effective and fun!] made more cupcakes with bb and just about interacted [bless her, trying so hard] i played monopoly with SB. scored negligibly on parenting - feeling even crapper.

Humph, can’t seem to post Flickr video to the blog. Does weird things.

I think I’m just going to get round to upgrading to the current version (2.51), since it works on that, and there is some weirdness with this install anyway.

the spider is gisnormous, come and see it . it has legs as big as mine!!

it is rather fabulous to be at le weekend at last. its also rather typical that where we wanted really brill weather - last weekend and next, it was cold and will be [don’t tell michelle!!] and this weekend of doing nothing it is so fabulous we have even put on suncream!

got up nice and early. merry had stayed over last night, which was also lovely, so we had got to do some gossiping and general chatting. she left pretty early this morning [well for us anyway!] so we were at least up with the larks. BB was anyway, SB stayed asleep and was much put out to find our guest gone.

no time for slacking though! a quick whizz through maths on her part, and BB doing dots to dots on poisson rouge. then piano and violin practice, then some crafting outside. we seem to have rather a lot of unfinished crafts, so will perhaps attempt to finish some before we start new ones!! There are the crocodiles still in progress. today we used 4pt milk to decorate up as animals - gleefully nicked idea from the pig at the manor borns. BB has done [drumroll please] a dinodoor!! SB is in the process of making liz the lizard from MSB. we sat outside on a rug. oh, i do like the outdoor HE!
a picnic lunch outside - woohoo!! then to the church where they were doing a bit of history of the village. more interesting for me and chris, moderately so initially for sb, and minimally for bb. they all liked the aerial shots, and spotting our house in photos though. on return we did a bit more french words - this time la maison book. TBH, these are v basic, with little context, but we pop a sentence around them and think the french sounds, so i am sure they are going to help! BB did some alphabet work as well. We also looked at a DK 4 book about dinosaur bone hunters.
Back and chris sorted out the paddling pool for the girls and they had a splash around for a bit. rather cold water though, so not enthusiastic for a great length of time! then a bit of tv whilst they warmed up - charlie and lola made a comeback! when I went outside, the pool seemed to have half emptied, and yess, huge hole!! it is the first time it has been used. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

we had tea infront of dinotopia, which both girls really enjoy. i think it is confusing the extinct thing for BB, oh well! she has been pretending to be a meeteater dinosaur and grring from behind furniture - rofl!

just a little one as i am seriously on edge - management meetings. i am just not the right type!

Anyway, the girls had a busy day, going to nots and tots, with a bit of french and a bit of latin amongst other things. SB did a piano practice as well.

when i got home they both wanted to do a craft, so some cards for fran are half made! Sb has used a stamping kit, and bB and i have done wax splodges so far. we had candles out for a bit of demonstrating that there was air and you can use it up.[bb is particularly keen on speriments] SB also did some maths. we all read a bit more of these baby french books [they are v much for 2’s but they are quick, and we try and do a sentence with the words, today we were eating or not eating various foods!] SB and BB watched some how things work based on the DK books, which they both enjoyed [and yes, some MSB] . Sb playd some chess, and read some 3rd grade detectives books.

hmm, i am trying to back flickr, blog, think about important meeting tomorrow at work etc etc, and multitasking is not compatible with BB awake. gorgeous though she is.

Anyway, we all got up, CHris to SB to drama, unfortunately he was running late and they went to the wrong venue. it is far enough away that there was much sighing! she got to half of it anyway.

meanwhile BB and I were having a much more satisfactory time. we started off playing silly games - hide and seek frog etc, then did some seed sowing. BB quite keen to do more experiments with seeds, so we have put some different ones to chit and we will see which one germinates first. [more details on gardening blog] after we had done that we did some ‘match and sort’ with singapore 1a. she enjoys this as v easy!! [though she did say she wanted to do SB’s book…] and we read one of the very starter french books on colours again.

Still desperately keen to do ’speriments, i got out an air book, so we saw how we could blow air on each other [degenerated a bit!] and then [b******, FORGOT ABOUT THE LINK THING AND JUST PUBLISHED. THIS IS WHERE I LAST SAVED!] i impressed myself with making some really good aeroplanes.

lunch and SB home. she wanted me to show her her piano hands afterwards, so we did a piano practce, then a violin. BB joined in the violin practice - always tricky! Both girls did afrench book with me on clothes and then ordered crystal experiments, so we set them up - very brave of me to handle chemicals with BB! SB read all the safety warnings v carefully. she remembered that we had hung the rock from string before, and wanted to repeat that, so we did.

Rainbows for SB - feels that there is no time for me in her current wed timetable, so will have to change that. A surprise visit by chris parents, so i made tea and dinner at the same time [grin] and got them to read [and i won’t link this time!] Katie and the dinosaurs and Digging up dinosaurs. we then read a red nose reader together before she wanted to bake pink cupcakes with smarty eyes. so we did. SB returned in time for the lickings, and we said goodbye to grandparents.

Bath, tea, BB bed, SB playing in garden, me potting up seedlings. SB bed. Apprentice, apprentice you’re fired and BB awake. playing drawing birds and dinosaurs with BB and looking at flickr pics of her as a baby. the end!!

chris had minor op this am - all well

his parents came and supervised. SB quickly rattled off maths, handwriting and piano. lots of games then with nana and grandad.

when i came home she got out a fossil find kit we had picked up from a museum, and enjoyed doing that. BB separated sand and iron filings using a magnet [maganet] and v much enjoyed that. she suprised me by using the word evaporated correctly. she also used her maganet [maginfying glass this time!] to look at plastic spider in more detail. SB off to ballet, BB and i read books and played games, and then stuc straws together to make panpipes. SB off to swimming [where her stroke has gone back to ‘unusual’!] came home to find nina and neurons in progress.

At SB request, box books have swapped from explorers to science books with experiments in.

its the musical monday thing, it makes me feel all alliterative!

we did have a wonderful weekend though, as we went and stayed with the manor borns, went to st georges day at wrest park on the sat and geocaching and bird walk on the sun. i would link, but blog being awkward on those kind of things! so thanks to our host family
so, st georges day [actually don’t even dare a bold!]. we were eonly 30 mins behind schedule, and although later than the manorborns, we were still one of the first arrivals. and no surprise because it was COLD. I felt v sorry for re-enactors and EH, as they must have made a massive loss. we still had fun though. SB and Chloe were actors in all 3 performances from rosie bottom and the variously named male actor [will ilink to their company eventually!]. they were excellent as usual, and the children all had great fun. SB giggled her way being lots of diff roles, and Chloe was a v proud horatio. I think they were the best bit of the day! Though actually the fire jugglers were great. SB had some fun dancing with some re-enactors, and also messing about with pikes etc. We watched some displays, and did some sheltering from cold and wet in the orangery. EH did a roaring trade in gloves and hats, and sold out! BB not so enthusiastic, so we spent quite a bit of time playing races around the rather beautiful gardens. kept me nice and warm anyway!

went back for dinner, cheffed in style by marcus. the girls played loads of games, and mostly kept themselves happy. following their bedtime, we played carcasonne with river, and really enjoyed that until 2!

so we were all rather subdued the next day! but did geocache walk - and found it! so our faith in marcus’s gadget using is undimmed. we then were going to do a customary walk around bird place, but decided to make it a bit shorter, like parental tempers! [i improved after flapjack]. lovely walk though, bluebells nearly out, lots of discussion on growing things etc, lots of bird sounds and some nice photos. we also eventually figured how to do that one game 2 ds thing [shame they have such hopeless parents, we did twitter, but none of the obvious experts twittered back, and we eventually had to be resourceful!]
home our separate ways, so we collapsed into a little chef as thought girls would keel over, and met the deependers having a similar thought following their warmer version of st georges day. car games there and back were in french - shouting out colours of cars!

i have been making up a story for SB after the book is read for, well at least 4 years! ANd for most of them it has been M,H and FB. caan you imagine how many of them there are? we had an alternative universe for them, 2 cats [spots and jet] with a caterskelter to play in. a resident fairy -maisy the maize fairy who builds an amazing maize maze every year. they had their house built for them, they grow their own fruit and veg, and i know their favourite colours, icecream flavours, what they would choose to do at crafts. they have been to various historical re-enactments, out to space, had angelina ballerina as a guest. well, at least 1000 diff stories i guess! in the last year i have sometimes been asked to do robin hood instead [which is much harder!!]. tonight she said she would always prefer an extra chapter of a book rather than a made up. SOB! i hadn’t realised quite how much i loved M, H and FB!

this growing up thing is hard on parents

Blog won’t post when it includes a link, very odd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0RgjrBu5uE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z5a-tLV7IY&feature=related

OK, having written this 8 times and its got lost, it doesn’t seem to like a titel or a link [fails to save or publish!]

Beethovens violin concerto, absolutely fab. I fell in love with it and learned to play it after my grade 8. Spent the whole weekend attached to my violin. eventually good enough to play it wth an orchestra. tempts me to get violin out again!

i get more cuddle time and being time with the girls! today i think they did some baking for tomorrow, BB made ‘interesting things’ SB read the whole of the barefoot shakespeare stories book, a magic school bus book and did some piano, some packing was done .

when i got home we had cuddles, SB did some violin practice whilst bB and chris picked up mondeo - yet another something needed fixing. grrrr. we all did some french - colours, numbers and saying hello. these are books for bb, but we all do them together, as sb’s french not at a high level! [and she requested language, and its really easy] SB played on the kinder egg website, and bb watched magic school bus. we had a tea infront of dinotopia - which both girls enjoyed, though bb impatient when the t-rex and other such creatures were not on screen, as she was having fun identifying diff dinodoors.

we have watched cold case, and i must pack and shower this eve otherwise we will be v late tomorrow rather than just marginally late!!

this is obviously referenced to the previous mission statement!

Taking us to feb 2010 - ie SB 9 [2 years]

I think full formal education starts too soon. the first period is about learning learning skills, and getting the information.

i think we have set a reasonably good ground for where we wanted to be. we have had a lot of fun. we have read widely, played madly, stuck, glittered, experimented and loved each others company. Along the way SB has learnt to read, and reads very well. this skill is a huge advantage as now she reads anything and everything. She has consolidated early maths skills, started the path to music and languages.

We still plan with our education to show the world as an exciting and interesting place to live in and imparting the knowledge without being overly concerned to the most part on how long it is retained! Some skills are built on - namely literacy, language, numeracy and practical things such as art, music and sports. Others will come and go.The key thing is to view the tapestry, not count the stitches. The basic warp and weft will be forming.

Although for ease of showing consideration to areas of curriculum, i have broken this down into curriculum links, a lot of them are fairly arbitrary. the order they appear is not particularly that of precedence. ALthough we will encourage regular maths and writing within the week and music and language practice, the details and timings of what to do will remain with SB . the ‘box book’ idea seems to work ok - though we must change them more regularly! new books or books round somehing she says she wants to read are popped into a box for a week and then supposedly rotated. when she claims to be at a lose end, i suggest she reads a box book, or choses something else. she invariably reads a box book - a its either new, or something that week she has wanted to read.

So we will remain child led rather than completely autonomous. I see it continuing that there are activities we try and accomplish on a regular basis, be this daily, weekly, fortnightly or what seems reasonable . The actual minutiae will not be programmed, and will be child interest led. Although I have rough idea of what we may get through as such in the next 2 years, it isn’t ‘must do or else’, and often I skip bits : more a guide to where i see us being. SB has a wide ranging thirst at the moment, and so it seems unreasonable to fix her attention on something she truly deems boring when there are many other things to catch her spark.

Play activities are still vital at this stage - as when else in the future are you given the chance to have free play without some pangs of guilt? Lets get rid of the guilt, so that is something that is part of the balance. many of the toys can be seen to have all sorts of possible educational benefits, as I think there is very little ‘play’ that doesn’t have some learning potential - from rehearsing life scenarios, honing imagination, fine motor control, etc etc.

the Nitty Gritty

literacy:

to read herself a wide a varied amount of literature, encouraging her to try new genres and authors, and to stretch her imagination. to still read aloud to her a variety of stories, again across different genres and writing styles.

to start to discuss the mechanics of style and writing in the books, stories, poetry etc we come across. not much to start with -don’t want to impede the reading explosion! but to start thinking about why she liked bits, what the story is about, what interests are sparked from it, and perhaps the use of language.

to start her on the path to writing her own stories - encouraging the use of grammer and spelling!

writing: SB has stated an interest in writing more legibly, and we are gradually working through getty and dubay. We are half way through c. i hope we carry on with this. i hope to add some story writing or copywork activitities if she fancies it.

maths: singapore maths 2b at the moment, and hoping to move through a year of singapore with each calendar year, so perhaps starting 4a. it just depends really! . we also plan to use some CIMT maths for different perspectives. Also incorporating lots of time just fiddling with manipulatives, and bring maths into the every day.

History: we have commenced the second story of the world as a reader, and perhaps aim to complete this, just seeing how it goes. alongside this we have lots of great usborne books and good piccies in DK eyewitness [the text is too rich at the moment]

Also readers set in different time periods, and myths and legends seem to go down well. we can use this to spark interest and discuss as and when she fancies
we may start to introduce timelines, and see where this gets us .

critical thinking: I would like to do some critical thinking. May buy a sonlight book! However, i think lots of games playing will be helpful here, learning to plan moves ahead etc. SHe has taken up chess recently, and we play lots of games together

science: I would STILL like to join the young scientists club, and use those and our usborne pocket series. crystal kits, dig it out kits, and general messing about kits - lovely! SB has a real interest in doing experiments and seeing how things work, and i plan to facilitate this regularly.

at present the magic school bus chapter books and programmes are a hit, and contain solid wodges of info in easily accessible formats. i think as she loves them, this is definitely something to encourage.

i would like us to get round to joining the astronomy group, and hopefully hiring one of their telescopes, as she is keen to do this, and we would all enjoy it.

Geography: will still be predominantly history and holiday based, but perhaps something such as geocaching may take SB’s interest? it also gets covered alot as part of other things.

languages: SB would very much like to give more attention to languages. we have good resources for french, german and spanish to start, and also i need to practice the latin in between sessions. it is something she needs our help and encouragement with.

we will try and back this up with local groups to encourage the skills, and consider camping holidays in france to make them practical.

music :- piano is probably SB’s favourite, and we will encourage regular practice

we will do violin and at some point in the next 2 years, i might pass the tuition on to the county music service

certainly we wish to utilise the county music service for their early ensemble string groups. I think SB would get a lot out of this.

we will also do lots of singing, and listen to a wide range of music methinks.

drama: at present she does this with the home-ed group, and does enjoy it. the timing of the session is poor for me, and i think it might go after this term. we should look potentially for something else.

PE: is covered well at the moment, and we will continue to encourage a core sports practice and trying out all sorts of new ideas.

current activities are ballet, swimming and judo. She goes for gym taster sessions, so we hope to add that.

she would also like to at least try horse riding, and see if she enjoys it.

the local group has a monthly mixed sports group, which she loves and will continue to attend

more ad hoc are yoga and dance videos [which i should do too!!], and perhaps finding someone to get her started with in line skating. half term and holiday leisure centre taster events also popular

IT: well!! whatever really. we have the internet, a variety of cd’s and webland to be getting on with. i won’t renew education city unless she has a sudden mad rush at it!

Arts and crafts: obviously a huge component of our days! we are a bit low on feathers and glittery bits…

I would like to add in some art appreciation, look at different artists and styles, and ‘have a go’

Domestic Science!!: slight rofl at title, but a fair bit of baking and cooking, gardening, some tidying and laying the table. SHe is interested in sewing and knitting too, so it is just about making sure the basics are available and accessible for her to do when the mood strikes, or re-introducing if there has been a gap.

Socialising: regular attendance at not quite local groups, local clubs [ie rainbows], national camps and making sure we have a steady stream of houseguests.

we probably should have a look at what we go to and when, as with the increase in after school activity groups, we probably should do a bit more staying at home to accomplish some of the above.

family is also important, and maintaining close family ties and bonds.

trips and outings: i think we should be a bit more proactive now BB more amenable to going out and about to places for experiential learning opportunities. this would add a bit of sparkle and pizazz to the whole thing, add external excitement for looking at some things, and generally be fun for all.

practicalities: we have lots of resources and opportunities, i think in the next 2 years we parents have to hone our presentation skills, storage solutions etc, so that they are all readily accessible for SB to find . i think we need a ruthless look at groups that work or not for SB, and keep an eye on the opportunities to play and socialise.

obviously we do a lot of ed by conversation and seeing where that goes - sometimes quite tricky, so the other thing is to make sure that we are available , enthusiastic partners in the educational process.

this is a boring bare bones thought. chris needs to look, add and ponder. it is harder to really look at this in any more detail, as SB really will become more and more the driving force for her education, depending on her interest. I think for me, it is enough to know that i think we have resources and information and enthusiasm to back her up, but also to at this stage continue to encourage and lead and offer where necessary. by 9, i would hope that for the most part she will be autonomous and enthused about continuing to learn and find out. That we will have facilitated her spending ages on minutiae, and whipping through huge subjects in nano seconds where less interesting to her.

usual work day, i think cloning might be in order - though hopefully i could have the version where they forgot to clone the body fat, and that is just halved between my doubles! so having done my duty, driving home i thought i should try and do a music practice with SB [usually i feel a bit up for nothing] so i did, and we had a lovely piano practice together [we don’t do these often enough!] then, whils waiting for dinner, i got some really easy first steps in french books and SB, BB and myself chanted words for farm animals, practiced saying if we would want one or not, and if we wanted an enormous one or a little one. SO feeling better that have done what they want!!

not sure what else they did with the day. SB did some french earlier, they had model crocodile making equipment out on the table! def some magic school bus watching!

After tea, sb and I watched the second half of the european womens gymnastics, which she really really enjoyed. telling me how one days he would be watching e and r, as they were v clever and were going to be in competitions! oh and that fran would be excellent at the floor! she read some of her new earth book [ours a fraction of cost as ex library!] mainly the volcano section, and the read to me the magic tree house hawaii one. following on from the fab gawain book, sb wanted some more king arthur, and we happend to have an orchard books legend of king arthur, so have started reading that to her. it is a nice read, but morpurgo def a better man with words! as i left, she was reading a chapter of the magic school bus volcano.

looking forward both to our st georges day weekend, and also to out camping trip at the bank hols

i had a chat with a local HE-er today, also wrote a reply to a list and realised we were overdue a overhaul!

this was our last look at what we were doing, and i think we should sit and think about what we need to do to improve things

Well, we overslept today as BB was having great highjinx wrt sleeping! i had migraine due to a hectic and long day at work yesterday.  but somehow we got up and out and were only an hour late to the deependers! luckilly they waited for SB for latin, unfortunately, i had not got any science ready, as thought this was a drama week. but will get all the bits ready, and will have them in a box for the next time!! SB and BB both in a weird mood, and really didn’t play or integrate much [giving me a flare up of social isolation fears!!]

katy and i did get some relaxed chatting, and i enjoyed playing the kids accordian. i realised our akismet has been overeager again in trapping people! email me if your comments have disappeared.

ermm, got home and there was a parcel with a sleeping bag for me and BB, and we enjoyed trying them out, and a few bits and pieces. the tent is STILL up in the garden, hope it comes down eventually! [its been up a week!] keeps raining. Looking forward to camping on the bank hols.

SB off to rainbows, which she enjoyed, as always, and BB did some science experiments with me - making things froth and bubble!! When SB got home we had a surprise visit from my BIL, who had gone for a site meeting at a village not far away. Makes a change from site visits in China I get! So had a chat about how things were going. Nice to see him.

Sb then went off to Judo for the first time. SHe really loved it, came back glowing about how fab it was, and how she dropped someone, demonstrating how she had to stand etc. She also won a game because she was very good at wriggling free, and was full of how impressed the boys were. obviously an immediate confidence boost for her. I am so glad I suggested it, and persuaded her to still go - as she has been most uncertain.

SHe’s gone to bed reading magic school bus books. we had a chat on the way back from Katy’s about this and that, and she wants to do a bit more language, poss ‘cos the others in that group are quite ahead with language. And we have also agreed to prioritise music practice more. I had better tell chris that then!!

pet shop boys. reminds me of a particularly fab job i had in wakefield, when we would listen to this in the mess.

work seems to be getting the better of me, but then, i have been doing A LOT of it! i have, in the middle somewhere, managed to do some connecting with the girls. SB has been racing through her maths and handwriting, and doing a bit of piano. Me being so busy, we have been rather less violining that we should. she has had a weird change for the worst in positioning her hands, so we have been working on that. she is making better and better tone though. both girls seems to have had a real hama fest, and SB has been most inventive with her patterns.

We have also done some much needed tidying. well, their bedroom and the playroom, but it has taken AGES! SB has been particularly loving to BB. today she bought her a kinder egg and made her an easter bunny trail to find it. yesterday she tried to make BB a hama dinosaur [BB threw it on floor mind you].

oh, after being somewhat temperamental on sat [ i had had enough] we did thing of girls choice sun afternoon when i wasn’t being busy at work. SB chose a tesco mini chemistry kit, which is identical to the mini chemistry kit i got from over the road last year. it is quite duff. mostly because it actually doesn’t have most of the ingredients in it [unlike other kits] so i don’t recommend it. having 2 though [as i kept last years] made it easy as both girls did in tandem, and also i had sourced the iodine tincture last year etc! So we had great fun. our bean from the growing science has finally made its way through the maze - hooray!
New tent still standing out in the garden. i hope it gets dry enough at some point to pack away!

SB been playing loads of chess. she really is enjoying it. i hope she is reading some of the book to, but i guess the best way to learn is just to play lots. i have a solitaire chess on this laptop that has a beginners mode, which is so easy she mostly draws on it, so is happy with that.

the last but if the amazon order arrived - some readers for SB - third grade detectives, magic school bus and DK 4’s, and some baby science books for BB. SB totally ecstatic. BB is good at comparative maths, and less ecstatic since her pile smaller!!!