double music theory and an arts masterclass

My elder daughter, depsite reminders, did no music theory this week [grade 4 approaching!!] so when I got up [pretty late!] she started the day with ‘double music theory’ which she was quite philosophical about . she finds it relatively straightforward, and we did more sharps and flats and then ‘proper names’ for places on the scale. again fairly straightforward. prior to this i think she and BB were mostly playing/ computering etc.

BB brought alfie into the lovely conservatory for a prolonged run about, and also did some more of the collins spelling – pretty happily – and read me a book – pretty happily. We discussed alfie, and decided that due to a pun on her and SB names, he should really be aelfric [or so should any future offspring i might have - errmmm not likely!].

DH had been doing some sorting out of the unholy mess that he made of the conservatory moving stuff around [mixture of craft resources, half done kits, finished kits and rubbish! ] so BB then went on to do some more of a half done kit. After that she spontaeously decided to draw a variety of halloween themed pics with the djeco oil crayons onto black card. we also took the bathbombs out of their moulds from yesterday, and were hugely relieved that actually most held! so happy was bb that she went off with her favourite bath bomb and had a prolonged bath I sharpened loads of pencils!

SB in the meantime did some galore park history – currently half way through syrwtl history book 1 – and then gave alfie a wash and dry before back into his tortoise home. After that we played agricola together. it is only the second time she has played it, and it isn’t really made for 2 [there is a two player version around] so i adapted the cards slightly so no duplicate wood or clay piles, and tried to play my own game, but not ruin hers, as it were, rather than play to lose [cos if you do that, she has no chance of working out which strategies might be winners] i do often point out what i could do instead that would ruin her play so she can see, as agricola is a lot about the order! we haven’t played it enough that i know the winning strategies either tho btw.

following that, bb had come down prune like from her midday bath! SB decided to practice her teaching session she is going to put on for her arts award bronze. It was kind of based on this , but she wanted a halloween theme, and then different colours. I asked if i could do autumn leaves rather than halloween, and this was accepted . As we did it, i asked her to think about what lettering should be, whether prescriptive or free choice [free choice - her decision worked better than mine!]

whether we should have a thought about what colours to use where [free choice, but after we had done it, we decided that using different colours on wax resist and watercolour wash was better, and also possibly contrasting this with the accent pictures]

we discussed size of the accent pic [mine was too big] and also with hers, she decided to cut out the pumpkin mouth and eyes, and we discussed this may get me round my too big leaf [it did].

by weds she is hoping to have written down instructions with helpful advice on how to get the best pic, and use our 2 today as the demos for what the basics are, and pitfalls to avoid. we really enjoyed doing this together with her in the leader position. I am hoping that she might look around at more art sites and come up with some more plans we can do together . BB did do 2/3 of this before wandering off, says she is wanting to do it on weds with everyone else [edited to add on monday, she decided to finishe hers after all, so added

now we are doing our different things. BB is on roblox [surprise!] , but I have to say today she was far better at finding things to occupy herself with, and didn’t say she was nored at all. SB is computer chatting with her home ed friends, i think she is sorting out skype, and nagging DH to sort out a blog for her – she is thinking of doing her arts award bronze report that way. sounds fine to me! I am jolly cold, and uploading lots of older photos. we are going to watch strictly and have curry for tea

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