SB worked hard, predominantly on English right up until the weds, when people started to arrive for christmas. Since she was leaving for spain straight after christmas, will do no english out there, and as soon as she returns there will be a month before the exam. eek! fairly hopeful she will pass, but clearly she would like to do better than just scrape a pass in english. her maths practice papers are going well, mostly a’s, and some time before the exam with ability to practice when she is in spain, as that wont disrupt the language acquisition! the chem papers are at the c level, and thinking that she will pick that up with full on revision and past papers on her return, as this is just a learning thing and was where she was at when we started the biol past papers [albeit with a months more revision time] last year. she is good at head down working tho! she got the monday off, meeting up with friends including C from SOTP at a point chosen because it was roughly equidistant, and both could get an easy train journey there. They all had a lovely time decided to visit a museum of the civil war, and then do an historical building trail. Yep, my role as home educator here is done, she is a self educating teen . oh, and we played some games!

BB and I did some crafting. we carried on with the wire crafting that SB had done fore weds4ed. we also made hama bead stars and little angles and shapes out of choc coin wrappers ( these were quite inventive!) . we had planned to do some baking – which we did eventually. We made a mary berry recipe yule log. we have LOADS of eggs currently as the hens are all laying each day, so 21 eggs a week. What delayed us, though, was a sudden fault in the wiring, so we helped DH chase wires all around the house. he did find the area, though not the specific fault. it was a good thing tho, as it was the kitchen that was affected due to weird wiring of the past!

we also gave ourselves a bit of a treat and went to see star wars! we all thoroughly enjoyed it, so a good time was had by all 

oh, and i bought some xmas jumpers in the sale on a whim

SB had a fab craft making xmas decs with wire, beads and bells

And afterwards they went skating whilst i had my mammo [unfortunately] and i didnt quite make it back in time to watch them skate. i did join them in the shop tho, and finished shopping for some luxury foods for sb to take to spain for her spanish family christmas.

it was unfortunate that so few people took up the messiah workshop that i think they changed it a fair bit. there were only 10 kids attending! when i had put in sb’s application, i said something about how much the messiah reminded me of xmas as a kid [i played it A LOT in the various orchestras i belonged to] so was told to bring my violin . clearly i am quite rusty, but i can still play! We had a fun morning running through the messiah and the pastoral interlude. [i would have liked for unto us as well...] really enjoyed it. lovely to be playing with daughter and also the home ed kids i see regularly . I snuck some photos

afterwards we walked into town and gave ourselves a treat lunch at the italian by the market, pizza and icecream – yummy . also popped into m and s to get some coins i had won on their silly internet game.

lovely spending some one to one time with my eldest she is very wonderful.

in other news, we have gradually been becoming festive. the trees are up and decorated, the parcels are wrapped [on the whole] and we have been doing some festive crafting. not enough tho, as i am driven to help sb with her work so bb getting a bit left out. must remedy!

DH finished making a home for the chickens, so they were moved in! they are free ranging during the day, and tucked away for night. in the spring they will move to the veg bed area, but whilst they are so new, we want to keep a close eye on them, and them on us!

weds we went to TB, and SB did english and maths. yes, I am having a bit of a wibble over english prep! G uses a different book, which SB prefers, so with little time to go, we swapped over! SB and friend did a lot of laughing over some goat thing on the internet and then we fimo-ed together. made some christmas tags/decorations and chatted. I find busy hands a good time for side-along chats with my kids, as no eye contact

thurs i had a v difficult work day, and when i cam home, i realised my right hip seized up. during fri at work ppl kept offering me a wheelchair, and I succumbed to a stick. It was extreeeeemely painful until monday and then just painful [a far better state of affairs] . no idea what i did, bandied about a few diagnosis, but luckilly it was improving at the point i would have battled a and e!

Sunday we went to christmas camp – woot woot! It had been a lot more last minute this year! In fact, I wasnt sure it would happen, but there was space at sheringham and off we went. Obviously we had to have some drama on the way there, it was so windy that the wind ripped open a crack in the roofbox lid, so we came to a stop. luckilly not far from home, and also lucky that dh keeps various strappings in the car. we went back home, hitched the trailer and set off again!

We had a fab time, ignoring my hip! i love being able to spend time with friends companiably, playing games, sewing, laughing, cooking and eating etc! The kids were all pretty happy too. This is the first camp with wifi, and BB was actually the one unimpressed, as after all she likes them not to have so much screens! Also could have done with hiding SB’s phone at times too…  We did give the kids a shock by taking the nerf guns and attacking… lovely food, it is a shame that the ovens set off the fire alarms on xmas day – they had just been working too hard! no actual flames – so we had to evacuate . looking forward to seeing the camp photo – still on SB’s camera! Also did carols, music and crafting – tho a bit less this year. everyone happy with their respective secret santas. very convivial.

I hadnt done any walks, but on the last day i decided we would drive our car to the beach so at least i could see the sea! not that i could walk down the steps…

People came back to ours afterwards for board games, birthday tea and a film and popcorn. BB decided it had been a fabulous birthday party, and we were all very happy.

The following week there was a lot of home ed done, particularly by SB! she has a lot to fit in before she leaves for Spain. Lots of hard work to be done wrt english in particular! we have started doing some papers to tailor her learning to being goal specific. something i never really wanted to do in home ed! however, english gcse is a required tick for what she wants to do next. She also got her next judo belt at grading and did her grade 6 ballet.

We had a great weds4ed. science was flame colours of metals, which we all enjoyed, and a more technical recap on various tests we had learnt for various things. SB did an arts plan, they all loved doing bells prac with E. shakespeare and some baking wrapped most ppl up, tho there were also maths sessions along the way. phew that sounds busy! luckilly there was lots of chatting a laughing too!

BB had her birthday, and a treat to build a bear, so we now have a new cuddly. she was delighted with her pressies from everyone, and played with them continuously. we gradually adapted to life without SPD.

then

now

n

temporary accommodation for 3 hens – a lilac rock that might or might not have lilac eggs, a mottled leghorn with white eggs with perhaps blue speckles, and a typical farmhouse with brown eggs