today, for a change we did latin and science at an outdoor venue. was rather a good idea [not mine!] though i was a bit stressed as got stuck in an enormous traffic standstill, that seemed to have no cause when we got to the front. not quite as bad as katy, who had key problems. got there and met up with ‘the gang’ and the children played for ages in the play area v happily. then after being tempted with snack did classical studies with katy, acting out the trojan horse and one of the many greek dolphin myths. we had lunch – michelle had brought the pasta out with us, and v well received. and then we did science. i thought we should do something easy to get us thinking chemicals, so we thought of the ones we knew – hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and some of the ‘mixes’ H2O and CO2 and then discussed with piccies what makes up an atom and then a molecule. we made H2O and then ethane with sweets and cocktail sticks before talking a bit about solids, making some more molecules with molemod for the older ones, and face painting molecules for those that wished it. we began thinking of ‘valency’ [i know we are not supposed to use that word!!] this seems to be a good website btw.
the children put on a show of the greek dramas for us, and then we said good bye to those going to baby music, and the rest of us looked round the animal shelter part of it, oohing and ahing at the animals we liked [sb partic fond of the dog idea, and bb of guinea pigs] and more playing in the park with adults chatting. v grounding experience for mums like me needing a bit of grounding!
BB fell asleep near instantly being put in the car, and stayed asleep for a bit [which is why she is snuggled in my ‘whiskey hole’ [leg curl space for cat to snuggle in] at the moment as i type!! SB is reading. SB did the customary brownies and judo and then we had chips with a side order of daleks! we need to fix our conservatory and the chap came today with a quote. it is on the steep side. so to recover from one astronomical thing we went out and looked at some more with our telescope.
so tonight we looked at craters on the moon – even bb was impressed, a previous night she had been disappointed at the small size of saturn. she remained disappointed at the small size of saturn tonight, but it was so clear that the rest of us saw one of saturn’s moons!! so we were all v excited.
other than that, as a backwards catchup from me, we have done bits of recordering, piano playing and verbal/non verbal reasoning. SB has moved onto chapter 2 of her Junior English Book 1
we have fimo-ed me some owls, bb a fish brooch and sb some beads for little nanny’s birthday, and also done some painting, seed tending and lots of games outside. we have also played a lot of games of Bohnanza
good news that my mammogram normal. less good that my working hours seem to always increase rather than decrease. may help us pay for conservatory though!!
;
;
;
] and this time was no exception, and i have spent some of my birthday money on nice books and also 
, 
,
and also a map. [i think alison is right, i have too many books! ] Following up on recommendations on the blog ring, we also looked at a bit of 
which i also like very much and would recommend.
kit. which BB was fascinated with for the hour or so i was reading the above books to SB. SB then also had a bit of a play. We are going to do some of our own! and then we had lunch 
and 
since i have no artistry. Speaking of lack of artistry i found all the ‘special’ paintbrushes had obviously been used on a previous occasion and not washed out. what is worse, they have glitter particles and glue – aargh! i think i need a mummy only shelf!
[which frequently makes me cry]. i guess we are pretty much done! chris read 
to SB for bed time, and now, having had a lovely sunny weathered, sunny mood day, it is apprentice time.
and built on that with a bit of conversation and description. also looked at some stone age books 
and i think just generally played in the sun. OOOH I remember!! we went easter egg hunting at ‘the big house’ [which is v lovely!] BB cycled there and back as she is ace now at cycling. she can also get herself going now. she was enjoying skidding on the gravel there, and did come off, unfortunately. the other thing we did was bribe the girls 1p for every dandelion flower they picked. this is chris’s idea to cut down on the seeds floating about. i think 10p per plant with some root might have been a better bet. this has cost us about a fiver so far!! SB did some VR [has finished the NVR book]
. this was about marco polo, and both SB and BB were quite enthusiastic about it, so i read around with 
, and then put up the play tent, and chris got out his spacepacker, so a fair bit of tenting and general play went on. i finished my book 
. actually will recommend this one 
, that i read whilst away, and also this one 
, but i left this one 
in the travelodge as disliked intensly – and gave me nightmares and an unsettled feeling which is no good if there is no husband to cuddle!! [i think the amazon reviewers are in agreement!]
, and 
[obviously one of BB's books!!] 
being a firm favourite, but also the train game – 
. and then when she was we played rummy and donkey. my B-I-L has decided he loves playing games when here, so that is fab, and we had a go at settlers and at 
, expansion and also 
animals!! thankyou v much for all the thought and love for the initiators, givers and organisers . i am indeed much touched. And whilst i am doing and oscar speech, i would also very much like to thank Kirsty and James for coming early and doing lots of helpful hoovering and sorting activities! [and to chris of course!]