Monthly Archives: May 2009

not quite as planned

i had a compassionate day off work today to go and say goodbye to uncle r. unfortunately he wasn’t well enough for all of us. and when i suggested yesterday at work that i didn’t need it, i think the sobbing went against me, so i was told not to come in. actually i should have gone in, as i had loads to sort out: otoh, actually in my job i need a fully functioning headspace, so could see their point.

SO i have had the bliss of part time working this week, and i really like it! hmm, to whether i will ever manage to negotiate it for a full time thing, and then how the money would stretch, but hey, one thing at a time!

i got up late, after having listened to sb playing her recorder. when i got down, she was doing some Junior Science Book 1 [we are still on chapter one, as it is an as and when thing! we plan to skip 2 and go onto 3 in the hopes that it ties in with our june holiday], and she happilly wrote through that. BB meanwhile got out her Get Set for the Code – Book B, and in her own way chose what she wanted to do! we then read some books together, whilst SB did some handwriting Italic Handwriting Series Book D

then total mayhem as my amazon order for me arrived. i decided to treat myself to an escape route, so have bought The Clan of the Cave Bear + The Valley of Horses (Earth’s Children series) on jax and merry’s recommendations, and these Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt) Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt) cos they looked interesting!
I didn’t forget the girls entirely, i bought SB this The Roman Mysteries Treasury as she really has been loving the roman mysteries, BB this French is Fun with Serge, the Cheeky Monkey! (Salut Serge) oh, and i also bought these!!Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set Although I agree with Gina more = better, SB often makes up her tunes in various modal styles, and thought the pentatonic might keep this musical awareness going.

SO BB bashed away with the boomwhackers, sounding surprisingly gamelan or chinese and SB stuck her nose in the flavia gemina book!! i did some work emails. following a melt when BB got rather too enthusiastic with the boomwhackers [Gina, exactly how robust are they] she retired to watch the french is fun DVD and SB did some maths. I read loads of fairy stories, then lunchtime [late!]

Afternoon for SB and I was a long game of Puerto Rico. you can’t really play it properly with 2, but it is OK for an child and adult scenario [or even 2 children] money much easier to come by! BB wandered off into the garden with chris, and then came back for some ivor the engine.

it being sunny, we then all decamped into the garden, bb had some flower seeds she wanted to scatter across the veg patch, i had cucurbits and beans to get out, and SB was keen to help. so that was what we did this pm. not got all the beans out, as had to spend some time untangling them from each other!

girls settled down to playing and chalking [ie making shapes out of hunks of chalk just like at the sustainability. and i read Honey in a Hive (Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science: Stage 2) while they worked. we had dinner out in the garden, bathtime [obviously indoors!] and SB had more of Black Ships Before Troy – The Story of the Iliad

A quick yesterday summary:
SB and Maddy had a great time playing together, lots of games where got out and played, and SB loved it. BB also pottered along, either with them or with chris, quite happy. BB had a gym taster session, and was really ecstatic about that. unfortunately M’s ear started to hurt and she went home before i got in from work, and so missed the astronomy night. we, however, all looked at the moon again, and some of the stars, seeing if we could find galaxies [no - must look more at the map next time!!]

latinetc day – mixing it up!

I didn’t do so well today. firstly, i thought we were having people come to show off their dvd, so had planned to do non-newtonian fluid mess in the garden. they didn’t come, and it was raining! and secondly, i was rather thrown off kilter by a family phone call.

luckilly, Merry came with a basket of fimo, gina with boomwhackers [Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set] , and katy with latin games. [those boomwhackers are tempting aren't they!!] SO the children had a lovely time rotating through the 3 rooms. I was Merry’s teaching assistant today, and def enjoyed it. I was also majorly impressed by the care and effort in fimo creating. And i LOVED the boomwhackers.

Today could have been so difficult, and i did nip off to do some piano practice, and field calls, but having good and understanding friends around was really helpful. snacks and playings took place, and we had a go at extracting dna from kiwi. this was successful in the stuff i whizzed up, but not as visible as i would have liked, so may fiddle with the experiment, and we will do it again at some point. [as an aside, i am watching that human evolution progra,,e on the tv, and am rather impressed at my 6 finger touch typing skills!]

everyone eventually left at 5, and we have maddy on a sleepover. the girls all played some more, initially a variety of imaginative games, then beetle drive and then monopoly. we looked up the lso concert for next monday, and SB and Maddy had a go playing ode to joy on the recorder with me – not bad, but diff to get up to speed, so we have a back up plan of playing an A. SB then got the trumpet out, and they trumpetted, recordered and jingled through the leonard bernstein version. dinner and eventually bedtime, which SB and Maddy seem to have done without any hitches.

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chris’s tuesday

well, we made the house tidy, thinking some ppl we didn’t know were coming tomorrow, but they’re not.
SB has done all her music practices, long division and verbal reasoning and swimming
bb has been bb.
helen has been to work!
we ate the first strawbs of the season – yum
May is H’s favourite month – probably!

off the path for the weekend

i don’t know about off the path, but thinking we might need an off road vehicle for next year!

we had a fabulous weekend off the path with friends, camping in the back field with our new tent. the children all had a fabulous time. SB blending in and out of various girl combinations on the whole [there gets less and less boy/girl crossover as the years go on. i guess this is normal] and BB having a fab time, particularly with J and M hosts and R. we adults also got plenty of time to gossip with our friends, drink pimms and enjoy J’s errr, rather eclectic musical taste :wink: which at one point got me and another parent to jump up to see which child was being murdered!! [tho thanks for the addition of plainchant, and another err to lovely mozart turning into wombles!!].

the children did a variety of outdoorsy activities. SB going on a walk as soon as we arrived, and returning completely drenched – she sat in the stream!! on another stream visit she must have been body surfing down it, the state she was in on return! BB also enjoyed visiting the stream, and also playing with J in the paddling pool. we obviously got through a fair number of clothes changes! neither of them participated in the caberet which i enjoyed compering, and listening to the ever increasing musical talent of friends’ children

the absolutely glorious weather was totally fabulous, though didn’t really give the new tents there much of a testing – as J and J’s are the HE equivalent of a wind tunnel test for tents! We were v pleased with ours though, and think that it will do the expected job. A tight squeeze but poss with all in the inner, chris happy to sleep in the outer, nice and warm, but we are still presuming the stability.

The Babs and I enjoyed playing my birthday game. i know various others thought we were slightly on the weird side, but no change there! and anyway, i can’t knit or crochet! lots of kids interested in the game, and lots of other games going on. good for the brain! i did also get to piano duet with J also, which was excellent fun.

sad to leave such a fab weekend.

we made a break on the way home at Bolsover castle and were pleasantly surprised to find it a re-enactment day. the children initially didn’t seem much interested, as they were v taken by the castle itself, bB declaiming loudly ‘ i LOVE it’ as she walked round. we topped to bottom it before watching the last bit of the re-enactment – a tourney. unfortunately i had read the leaflet quickly and promised a joust, so had to apologise. an icecream seemed to help! though there were a few spots of rain, it mostly held off. On getting back to the car, the girls declared hunger of such levels that perishing was imminent, so we bought a take-away pizza and ate it in the car as the heavens opened.

home and the house still standing – always a bonus. now just to get through the next working week! as a catch up, we did have the joy of my mum visiting briefly friday into saturday, and helping with the pre SOTP baking. i am busily trying to catch up on flickr [feels like a doomed enterprise!] and also blogs.

Many thanks to our hosts for a fab weekend, lovely to see them and loads of friends to relax in the sunshine.

a not-so-typical home ed day

well, i have finally faced up to the reality that chris is the home-educator, and i am just a facilitator [which does make me sad] BUT i do have wed and the weekend. so I am still going to blog my day, but perhaps he will do a more portico style week overview – well he might, if he blogs again!!

anyway, we start with the girls already up, SB is trying to log in to cbbc, and bb is watching charlie and lola.

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at 10-ish BB is beavering away at english type things – her book B of before the code, Book A of Getty and Dubay handwriting, and some maths – using manipulatives to think about adding up. After this, i leave her dancing to the radio whilst i do piano with SB.

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SB has a slower start, and is doing Bond verbal reasoning, which she finds difficult as she doesn’t seem to grasp spelling. SO she gets the dictionary out, and looks up all the possible words for the add a letter thing. all the others she does quickly and easily, but not this one. At least – i think – it gets her to think about spelling. we are going to have to work on it i think. eventually finishing, she and i go and do some piano practice – which she loves.

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As it is lovely and sunny, and the garden is looking desperate, we decide it is a gardening day. Chris finishes off the veg bed with rotovating [we haven't done that before], SB decides to rescue some aquilegias from the strawberry patch, and i am itching to plant out some of the seedlings.

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of course I don’t do that, I paint BB’s face!

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SB also does some handwriting, and whilst we have lunch I read some french to them, as i think it has been quite a while since we last did any french :blush:

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More playing and potting on, and i do manage to get some plants out. SB helps by planting out peas whilst i do sweetcorn and dwarf beans. BB is chasing ‘minibeasts’ = ants ‘antistons’ [aka woodlice] and slugs mostly with a mini magnifying glass.

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A sudden rush to shower SB and she is presentable for brownies, which is immediately followed by Judo. BB and I potter in the garden, sowing sunflowers and potting up the tomatoes, pressing some flowers, before giving everything a jolly good water. a snuggle with hairy maclary follows, and then a bath.

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bed time stories of Black Ships before troy for SB. BB collapses with winnie the witch. the apprentice for chris and me. thus ends our day!!

catching up – musical pilgrimage

we were lucky enough to be part of a guinea-pig group of Home Educators on a ‘musical pilgrimage’ to ely cathedral – rather fabulous! we started off in a side room listening to plainsong and discussing its changing to mediaeval music, and the different musical notations. then some settings of psalm 23. following that we learnt our own plain chant and in 2′s went down the full length of the cathedral to choir stalls singing [with all tourists watching - giggle!]

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there a fab organist took the children [and adults] through the working of an organ [and a weird short video] then in groups they got to go up to the organ loft or blow down various pies. sb and i were in the first group with a couple of deependers and a biff. he demonstrated the organ, they asked questions and pulled out a stop or 6 and then sb asked if she could play and he said yes! she was v thrilled by this [and i v jealous!!]

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we then went down and made execrable noises blowing the various pipes whilst the other groups went up [including bb and chris]. I think the various [few] tourists and and religious attenders were relieved when the 12 o clock bell went for 1 hour quiet time! we had lunch – initially planned as a picnic, but the heavens opened almost the instant we went out! so we backtracked to a classroom.

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after lunch we had the final portion of the pilgrimage. we listened to some other versions of psalm 23 [including vicar of dibley version] and sang some modern hymns from around the world, and then went and had a mini candle service in the lady chapel [who i must confess looked a bit like a clothed aphrodite]. excellent day.

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BB and SB finished with football and swimming respectively.

Go East

Well, that is what I did. yesterday we went east to see jax and co in their new home, a very nice home it was too. we did get their slightly early! so had a walk into the town centre before wandering back as our hosts arrived home. the kids got on with playing and we adults caught up. we had a v tardy pizza delivery! wolfed down when it arrived. the kids [particularly bb] were equally tardy in falling asleep but did so approaching midnight!

bb woke me at 6 am, proud that she had a dry nappy. i would have been proud, had i not gone to bed at 2am!! luckilly i fell asleep again. when i got up again life had stirred all around the house, and the realisation that breakfast from the bread machine was unlikely to appear :smile: and eventually, after some kids gaming mostly happily [though a few injuries sustained!!] we got ready to go out.

we went to E and R’s cave party and got there without a hitch. lovely to see baby o for the first time, as well as the whole family, numerous friends child and adult!! we had a lot of fun. chatted, and then me and wednesday friend mum found ourselves chained to the table doing face painting. all my fault of course, as i had brought them for BB and SB to look like cave bears. i think we did OK on the whole, and did escape in the end :lol: SB and BB also had some injuries and needed some tlc – luckilly available from others as i had no plasters. But a great w/e with friends, thanks all.

ooh, forgot to say that SB had made the present of vegan fudge [aka chocolate goo] sb and bb had made biscuits, and then sb had decorated the box in true stone age style, so did look utterly fab. she also did some science and maths and piano before we went out on sat. finding it hard to fit he in at the mo!

ooh, another thing, really recommend this book for starter face painters!

I have been spending amazon vouchers again

i do some market research nonsence that gets paid in amazon vouchers :smile: SB has always had a bit of a love of classics, and The Roman Mysteries Omnibus series has rekindled her desire to read more of them, so i have treated us to these versions, and I *love* them.

They were chosen in part due to the writer and in part due to the lavish illustrations, and we haven’t been disappointed!! Highly recommended.

exploding everywhere

today was a really fab latinetc. i do enjoy how it seems to be working, as the children all get on well, and have very fluid and flexible friendships withing the groups. it was at our house – which meant that i could get up later – phew!

so we started with littlies science, top set latin [rofl!] and SB had a piano lesson with gina [poor things squished into dining room currently completely full of tent!]

i LOVED todays science session. as did the children , i think! we did volcanos – always popular. having done the first one in the kitchen, we moved outside. all the children had goes at mixing, and got me to do the shaking as the eruptions ended up reaching huge heights!! then we moved onto lava lamps – more or less the volcano mixture, but with oil on top, so things bubble up and down in it – seductively calming on the mind! we all laughed lots and enjoyed it. the big group also enjoyed it, we did talk about the science behind it and i had written out instructions for the lava lamp / fizzing potion for them in 2 teams to follow and show that they could ‘do’ the instructions. i loved them working so nicely together, sharing tasks and deciding together how to get the right volumes from the variety of measures. loved it! the littlies did french i think [i was having way to much fun with science!]

after lunch and more playing, some of the deependers and all the biff crew left, with just merry and co, us , J and K. so we did some more playing, BB got her wish and a craft going, which most of the children joined in

and the gals version.
both my ‘gals’ did a pirate from the guys kit mind you. i know my mate sells them, by they really are fab kits, enough for 4 kids per kit, and loads of ‘extras’. highly recommended.

fran, J and I worked through playing as a trio together various easy piano pieces, which was much fun. merry also joined in, and finally SB, though i did simplify for her, as she isn’t at that level yet on the recorder. we did it out in the garden for ages, and all had fun [that way i could keep an eye on craft simultaneously!]

katy returned and did some latin with the middle group and then after restorative cups of tea, it was hometime! SB had her brownies and judo tonight, and BB and i made ‘bear shoes’ for her and then she watched alice in wonderland. SB watched the railway children when she came in. all in all a totally fab day.