microscopes and more

today was a wodensmeet/WedEd day. We had a great time, even if i did have to nip to work for a meeting. It is great to meet up with friends, and we enjoy doing some joint home educating sessions and swapping skills . when driving to le ciel rouge SB and i were discussing FIL habit of storytelling about his life, friends lives etc. and what was the point. so we discussed family oral history, stories little nanny told me about her nan – that she couldn’t sing, had a wicked sense of humour and full of fun, her fil – true yorkshire character on who compo may have been based etc and how this added a sense of who people were, as these things were never going to be recorded by any historian as we are a family of peasant stock. that tho we might find out that little nanny’s great grandma was in gressenhall poorhouse, we wouldn’t know about her strong character, her family first drive. SB decided to find this interesting, and we spent the drive discussing snippet stories of long dead relatives, and i am thinking i should write some of these snippets – but where do you start! And moved onto how a blog, even if i only keep for a short time, will be something my great greats can gain something of who i am, what i care about etc. in fact even fb will allow this, and that aunty viv has a memorialised page so that one day she [and my nephew and niece] can read her direct words.

Started with Sb demonstrating her art project as part of her bronze arts award. I think she did very well. she said it was far harder than she thought to keep an eye on everyone and wait. But i think she explained it well, and remembered her tips and to encourage and say nice things about her friends art. it was nice to see them all together as well, as over the summer it can be a bit hit and miss. the finished halloween pics look great :). SB will be writing up in more detail on her blog

we had an early lunch, and as the weather was glorious, lots of playing in the garden before doing some microscope work in the afternoon. we had grown bacteria in petri dishes so i took the first group of children looking at the colonies, how they had formed and patterns, then learning how to make a microscope slide, which they did happily. using an extra torch we could view at x200 well on our microscope, and we have one from the portico – thankyou – that i am going to fiddle with so bring next time. we all managed to make successful slides, and then used haematoxylin to stain the nuclei and looked at the new slides. I was impressed by what we saw, and how careful they were at making the slides.

elsewhere sb and others were having a poetry session with merry, which both my girls enjoy v much. it was themed on autumn. BB did a sketch tuesday pic of a thing that bounced

swapping over, the other group did microscope work and merry did fimo witches with those that were free rather than poetry again. SB then did a v long recorder session with E.

I had to leave for my work meeting at this point, and only got back for a short natter and to pick the girls up and take them home. SB was in an odd mood – i think the child/adult changes in her brain not knowing where to put themselves! BB was then tired. great day tho!

Back home, SB and i snuggled with popcorn watching great british bakeoff and equanimity was restored whilst BB had judo. SB had judo also – feeling much perkier for the hug

other things have gone on this week. Noteably a pottery session yesterday that both girls really enjoyed. BB made a penguin and SB a mug after not managing to make a teapot. they were using terracotta clay and pinchpot technique. hopefully will be able to add photos. Some booky home ed has happened also, but not so much music prac. It is hard to juggle everything really. just have to hope for a balance over the longer timeframe!