some swift catching up!

ok, blogging is just ot going well is it i think in part from having so kuch work to do in the evening, getting back from work and being shattered, and missing posts from DH, who is the home educator, and catches the day to day nuances. please blog love x x

Anyway, SB has been working v hard actually recently, working through lots of the ticklist we have jointly made. she is enjoying her new geography book and taking a rest from the galore park book. Also practising her piano for grade 2 this term. We were ecstatic that she came top of her class in her grade 4 ballet exam recently. She passed her grade 3 music theory with merit last term, and is avidly working towards grade 4.

BB is getting to grips with reading. she is on the level 4 of songbirds and 3 of oxford reading tree. we often see her with a nose in a book, and we have lots of lovely books, with lots of illustrations, and she says she does try to work out some of the words. We are taking a break from singapore maths, as hundreds, tens and units have turned out to be a big stumbling block, and she lost confidence, so we have gone back quite a bit and starting with MEP to boost confidence and also consolidatet the early steps. so far she is enjoying it and tes me she is getting better at maths . she isn’t doing so much of music currently but lots of arts and crafts and writing.

Both girls have enjoyed a number of local home ed events. they love the arts award, and have most recently coloured paper and made collages, but aways come back withsomething well made. it is definitely worth the money. they aso enjoy going to the wild pace for oudoor/ranger/forest school type activities. they both also do multisports v happily. both continue with the after school clubs. sb with ballet, gym, swimming, guides and judo and bb with gym, swimming and judo. SB is uncertain about guides really, and would like to do a stageschool type thing, and bb is uncertain about gym but is thinking of cubs. luckily bb has become much happier with judo. she is a shy girl i think, and is much happier having the support of parent and sister to give her the confidence, and is always worried about doing something wrong. so i am reluctant to let her drop things as i think it does her good to gain confidence in groups.

we have also had some group meetings with home ed friends, a more musicky one at Gina’s with Katy and Michelle and another wodensmeet with zoe, merry and em [with added bonus of baby ben to worship ]

the first i took along some information about germs/microbes and we tacked to that a craft of making our own bugs out of socks and craft stuff looked pretty good too. there was also some music theory, a lesson for SB on piano and clarinet, and a recorder for bb, and a fair whack of latin. both girls very happy we are lucky with our home ed friends. then we nipped up to see merry and new baby ben for a first visit. i enjoyed some ne baby snuggles, but bb was a bit on the green and jealous complexion!

last week was another wodensmeet. i was v migrainous but luckily we had a the ingredients for science – talking about gravitational potential energy and smashing banana slices with cars it worked pretty well and was mostly fun. i felt a bit under prepped so couldn’t extemporise as much. Also did animation with em, and both girls [and the others] created a really excellent story using cut out balck card on white. brilliant idea. merry brought fimo and ben – both equally loved and i passed o the few size 0 kissaluvs i bought for bb [oooh so cute!] and some other bits and pieces. zoe did 2 heart crafts for valentines day, one a heary shape to paint red, and the other was to make fimo heart toppers to put on kebab sticks for potplants. we all enjoy messing with fimo . fab day again.

in other news, i am still sewing linen underclothes in the hopes we get accepted for kentwell! have played lots of board games with sb mostly, but also bb, and just danced together, read books, helped ds games etc etc. what time i have with the kids i want them to know i am there . today we did tidying, music prac together, tidying, board games and bb got the oil paints out – eek! she did a really really fab still life of dafodils with only minor trauma along the way oh and we have had lots of snow! cue snowmen on driveway and in garden . we have had a trauma in our rabbits have disappeared when out babbiting in the back garden no remains found, and not sure how could have scaped but that is all 3 of them