Monthly Archives: November 2008

letting dreams go…

Posted on November 21, 2008 by | 31 comments

is a very hard thing to do. SB has decided she most definitely doesn’t want to play the violin any more. i am feeling more dumped and devastated by this than i thought i would. i aim to educate with SB so that she follows her dreams and desires. it is true that there are a lot of similarities between us, so perhaps i over empathise, but there are lots of differences – gym and ballet for a start! so i always have known that she will carve her own path. but her early joy in the violin was a joy for me too, and i guess i mapped out a future where we would play in orchestras together like my mum and me – something that brings me fantastic memories of joy. in fact my whole musical childhood is a joy for me. Her wanting to stop is a full stop to that joy. and she def wants to stop. so, being obviously more autonomous than i gave myself credit for, thats what we are doing, and i managed not to cry in front of her as well!! she is still keen to carry on music in the form of piano and recorder, but my heart was given to the violin! ANd you know, she was actually good at it. she had a lovely posture, hold and tone, and did it reasonably effortlessly – allowing far less practice! SO i feel that i have failed her somewhere, for her to definitely want to give up something she is good at means to me that i haven’t managed to show her the joy, maybe i am too intense? i dunno, but somewhere i have lost her the spark. i actually think it was at melrose last year, as she has been less enthusiastic since then. aargh it was supposed to be fun, and yet i ruined things for my own child. i sobbed all the way back from work about this too. useless facilitator, null points

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Posted in music

Happy Birthday BB!

Posted on November 20, 2008 by | 11 comments


IMG_3618, originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

4 years old today.

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Posted in General

what colour xmas tree are you?

Posted on November 20, 2008 by | Leave a comment

freom the little nut tree blog – thanks!


You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree


For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace.
You avoid family fights, and you don’t get too stressed out – even when things are crazy!

You like to make Christmas about making everyone’s life a little bit better.
You don’t get caught up in greed or commercialism. You’re too sincere for that.

Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel

You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It’s a Wonderful Life

What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

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Posted in Daft Stuff

penguins dropping from the sky

Posted on November 19, 2008 by | 3 comments

today was busy busy! after such a late bedtime, i am surprised we all got up, as sb also had v late bedtime, and bb woke up as we went to our v late bedtime! but, a fianl tidying push, stuff set out for science and sort of party food! BB opened her presents, and was particularly ecstatic but the sylvanian stuff from both sets of grandparents was a clear winner [as anticipated], and the mp3 from my sister. however, she is now working though the pepa pig set with great keenness! SB and i did some MORE pas de basques, cifras and clappy dance practice – and she has really got the pas de basque thing. just the rest to go! SB’s my pals are here 3 and 4 arrived from singapore and she was very happy!

the latinetc group arrived and we kicked off with science. i thought a fun session of dropping and consolidating the things we had learnt was in order, so we dropped crumpled vs tightly packed paper, and then made parachutes with different size and weight material squares. the children are getting better at making a hypothesis and thinking why they chose that, even if wrong! they certainly enjoyed all the dropping, and were confident with the concepts. then we made paper aeroplanes, which stretched me some, as the origami instructions were complicated! at this point merry arrived, so hers also had aeroplanes which whizzed about a bit. SLight mayhem and chaos later, and a latin session. i was v giggly to here amo amas amat [amamus, amatis amant] from the living room!

finally the ravening children were fed – we had missed out snack time – oops! and fully satiated went on to head shed loads of cake. though my pingu cake looked good, most children ate icing only. i tasted it and thought it was a lovely sponge! BB v keen on the full dark room and lit candeld cake being brought in and all, so we duly did this.

so mostly an afternoon of playing for children – inside and out – and chatting for adults. thankyou to Anne and A who also attended, and chris’s parents. we had a lovely chilled day. BB fell asleep pretty much as guests left, SB did some maths and the judo. BB is awake and playing again :roll:

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, language, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

goodbye to a pink child and a blogiversary

Posted on November 19, 2008 by | 1 comment

when BB began her adventure in 3-dom, when you asked her how old she was, she would always say pink. the pink numberjack is number 3. although she still likes number jacks, she is now 3, and about to be 4!

interrupted for a news flash! BB has just proudly demsonstrated that she can lick her nose!!

well, where were we, ah, another year time! i am not a great writing sentimentalist. but these early years are fab for watching the changes. we started the year with BB certainly testing boundaries! [and our parenting skills]. we worked with her, and realised the triggers of tiredness, hunger and a need to be the equal of SB, so home ed books for her bought, and as and when she wants have been done. this has been with increasing frequency through the year. now, although she can’t recognise most letters, she will sound out letter sounds of words spontaneously and has a go at writing – both squiggles like adults, and will get a book to practice copying letters. she is a very careful colourer and artist. she sings beautifully, and she plays intricate games with her little toys. her request of sylvanians suited her well, and she is still playing with them, entirely ecstatically now [having woken up]. she is a joyful loving soul, and although she and SB have lot of birth and pack order issues still, i am sure it will sort itself out.

SO, BB, happy birthday for tomorrow, this year has been another year of blessing from your presence.

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Posted in Butterbean, General

just a quick one!

Posted on November 19, 2008 by | 2 comments

busy busy this eve as BB’s party for her fourth birthday tomorrow! i have iced a pingu cake and made pingu cupcakes, and SB has been making viennese biscuits. i have also done a 45 min dance practice with SB. I am getting vERY good at pas de basques and cifras! let alone step hops and ‘the clappy dance’ we have wrapped presents [me and SB] and i have done a science lesson plan. chris is trying to excavate the dining room!

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Posted in General

musical monday – vltava by Smetana

Posted on November 18, 2008 by | Leave a comment

i love the way the swirling water of the vltava river has been captured in this piece of music. this is just a snippet. i would recommend searching for a copy of the whole thing though!

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Posted in music to love

BB writes!

Posted on November 18, 2008 by | 5 comments

i begin to wonder whether the second child in an HE family actually doesn’t have an advantage. BB has seen SB deciding to write more neatly and do spelling. Last night BB got a ladybird book, told me she was going to learn the ‘curly one’ it turned out to be a t. she drew little lines on a piece of paper, and then practiced putting a t in it. here she is creating her own workbooks!! so, she can write a lovely t, though she doesn’t know its name, and she can sound out words. I get the impression she might be learning to read and write!!

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Posted in General

Aargh to Ballet

Posted on November 17, 2008 by | 6 comments

As not sure that SB will pass this, but she wants to take it at least now as practice. I videoed pretty much the whole lesson today, and chris and i are going to teach her every day all week. I am not bothered about how well she does, but I would actually love her to pass!

Thing is, when others are doing the steps, she is dizzy and in a world of her own as well, so doesn’t learn by watching – and prob dizzies it all out of her head.

She loves and enjoys ballet though, and i hope that she still loves and enjoys it after the exam.

6 Comments

Posted in Stringbean's HE

a weekend of games

Posted on November 16, 2008 by | 13 comments

well, one in particular actually! we did really enjoy playing puerto rico, and it is definitely on our christmas pressie game list! SB really enjoyed playing it. we parents did too, and would recommend it. now hopefully the babs is taking it to helmsley. oh, did i say we were at the babs this weekend? we had a fabulous time with great company, great food and great games. we were also lucky enough to catch the SoTP family as well. lots of chatting playing and take away pizza. the take of pizza was required because we had all had such fun playing ticket to ride that somehow dinner was a lower priority for us, though not for the children.

SO, on the games recommendation list are :

and whilst we were there SB read this book How Did I Begin?
. She has never asked me any questions, and we have similar books of our own, Let’s Talk About Where Babies Come from
so i am guessing she knows what she wants to know then.

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Posted in General