Author Archives: HHaricot

wrong paint wednesday

Posted on October 18, 2008 | 2 comments

we are racing through the blogging aren’t we! mind you, i am prob forgetting great chunks of it, and may go back and add!!we were having a lovely time, v happy to have my parents here. dad working hard in toilet [poor man] chris up a ladder priming the window with linseed, mum playing with kids and measuring for curtains. so today [as in wed] mum was in charge of morning HE whilst chris and i went to homebase to buy paint for dad to use. mum did ok with HE, sb did her maths and spelling, and a violin with mum. chris and i did not so well, after a lot of humming and hawing, we chose a lovely colour, but worried it would look dark, so did the paintmixing thing to get a lighter version. rather than a khaki green but lighter, it is, well, white wth hint of blue. not sure how that happened at all. oh well. we can get used to most things!

girls did lots of painting in the afternoon for the painting exhibition in the church. i had got some textured wall paper for them to play with as well, and i cut out some basic shapes to get them started. they both made v different pictures. SB organised the sahpes to make a village of house with qarage, flats and a windmill. BB used the textured pieces as sand, and then had dinosaurs running about at the seaside. SB decided she didn’t want to use her village as the entry, and did a very freestyle picture, building up layers of blue, anding with her tipping the palette upside down on it. she was rather disappointed the paint spread out, and it wasn’t fully dry on fri evening, but she was v happy with it.

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we then went through 2 art books looking at the different styles used, and discussing which she would like to try out. she then went on to do some more fantastic contraptions – which she is rather fond of, and BB watched some night garden. Mum near enough finished the curtains, and dad did the first coat of paint!

judo for SB – always a busy lass!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, DIY/ house renovation, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

Touristy Tuesday – ely

Posted on October 18, 2008 | Leave a comment

whilst dad started with the diy – thanks dad! decorating our downstairs loo, and chris got sorted to do some windowing, mum said she fancied going to ely. again the girls raced through home ed stuff, violin prac with mum, maths, handwriting, and wizard whimstaff spelling books that i had got and SB loves and is racing through. Also some french story and conversation, and reading of a castle book.

so off to ely, and the girls got strict instructions on how to behave in a cathedral. so we were totally shocked to open the door and find 800 screaming primary schoolers!!! at least it was free entry. they were having a day on the victorian restoration – which was interesting. SB had a bit of a wobble [well, it was a wobbly day for her] because the children had worksheets and she didn’t – and they were the most boring worksheets imaginable!! oh well, on walking around, whilst the kids had their lunch break and were like wild animals chasing around, we noticed all the brass rubbings out and about, so the girls spent a happy 30 mins brass rubbing, whilst mum looked about more. we went and had lunch at pizza express and wandered about, including cromwells house.

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home in time to take SB swimming – she is getting really good, particularly at backstroke.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, DIY/ house renovation, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

Appley Monday

Posted on October 18, 2008 | Leave a comment

my parents arrived on monday, much anticipated and looked forward too! due to their likely early arrival we were up, and the girls v eager to see them! lots of cuddles and getting settled in. SB and BB showed the maths they had done, and SB did a piano practice with mum. Actually, all week they have been keen to do a lot of the HE ‘normals’ which i hope reassures my parents a bit!

in the afternoon we went to a local tour of an apple orchard with the owner. it was delightful. we were near the front of the tractor, so SB, mum and i plied him with questions between stops, and he told us the history of farm and family, planting and varietal changes, beekeeping etc etc and was charming. SB took a lot in, and both girls and adults enjoyed sampling the fruit!! he has planted lots of apricots, and is hoping potentially for a small crop next year…

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back by skin of teeth to ballet and then brownies – what a busy day!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, Out and About, photos, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Musical Monday – i love you mum, mozart

Posted on October 13, 2008 | Leave a comment

and here it is. this is the music that IS my mother to me. i knew it was mozart, and thought it had a country name in it as well so i just searched piano and youtube! [since there is no singing facility] isn’t it absolutely fab. you can imagine it played to show sheer joy and fun. Thankyou mum for my wonderful musical childhood. love you.

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Posted in music to love

still not doing tax return

Posted on October 13, 2008 | 5 comments

getting into a habit – but planning to ring and harass about doing it online when their offices open. i can’t work out the self employed bit. i will obviously need to make up some ‘books’ will a word doc do?? luckily i can put total expenses in a box as earnt so little. had bloody tax returns!

anyway, today we had another lazy day, with the girls watching way too much tv in the morning. must kick myself going sooner tomorrow! SB did a good violin and piano practice too, and she made up a tune for me very merrily on the violin – which i encouraged. i think her perfectionist streak makes both violin and recorder difficult for her at times – ie when the notes don’t come out perfectly. the piano isn’t as stressful in this respect. as promised, i did a piano practice too. that fast hunting songs without words.

we did some quick maths – well allegedly because sb was somersaulting and back bridging longer than doing the maths, so it took a while!! BB was quite focused, as she is v happy she has nearly finished earlybird 1A. SB nearly finished 2B. we did lots of making train tracks, and when they all got shouty, we had enforced book reading on my lap :lol: so we looked through the farming through time book, as they both enjoy that, and sneakily did animals in french!! we then did some french – lucy chat a la plage before SB went off to read one of her own books, and BB and i read kicking king.

then we went outside to feed fish, enjoy the sunshine and inspect the veg. we were desolated to find thaat something had been nibbling too much at our biggest and best pumpkin – aargh, so picked all the others, as well as plentiful sweetcorn. we also picked and ate lots of grapes in the conservatory.

finally collapsing in front of the tv again [naughty] to watch first merlin, and the house on the prairie. just SB and its the baby dies one, so lots and lots of discussion there. SB then chilled with fantastic contraptions

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Posted in General

i should be doing my tax return!

Posted on October 12, 2008 | 11 comments

but i hate doing the buggers, can’t use their website – i used it when first set up, forgot password, and somehow can’t be re-entered… and i have never filled out the self emplyed bit before, and it has all sorts of questions i can’t answer! i earnt about £1500 self employed over a year, and spent about £800. but the form has all sorts of weird bits in it!!

so i’ll blog instead. got up late, girls watching monsters inc, had shower [took ages to brush hair], did violin practice with SB – haven’t practiced for ages so lots of wails and gnashing of teeth there. read some books with BB, then lunch, and both girls did some maths and SB handwriting whilst BB did some french story with me. SB then did french conversation. i realsied what she actually got upset with on wed [or so she says] is that she couldn’t spell to write car experiment on the paper and thought j and chloe would laugh at her. no idea why, and chloe had j spell experiment for her. i will print it next time though. She does have entirely dire spelling though, and absolutely no way of working it out. since her reading is so fab, i am a bit of a loss as to why she can’t spell car… but we will make an effort to do diolch words spellings, as we let them slide a bit. i’m not overwhelmed by the fact her spelling is so bad if it doesn’t bother her, but if its going to make her wail and be miserable, then she has to learn!!

lots of running abour wildy, playing with kids k’nex and bb doing counting buddy blocks with the maths manipulatives and they wanted to go out roller skating. we got about 20 m and had to return for a wee stop :roll: but the next attempt far more successful. beautiful day for it too, and the churchyard has lots of slopy pavements to practice on. also a bit of gravestone investigation as well. should have taken the camera, as the light on the church was gorgeous, oh well! its not as if we don’t have a few photos tucked away!

returned when girls worn out, snuggled and read books – including a bit of SOTW as we have slipped a bit in it – it only takes a few seconds, but somehow… and a quickie recorder practice as well. watched a quite dire spanish lyrical video – bought ages and ages ago. but girls liked it, so i face booked!! yummy tea, and then bedtime. i am enjoying the pirates of pompeii reading to sb at the mo, and she read me some arthur in return.

PS, i am bolding again. i really miss it when i don’t do it!
:smile: oh, and BB bought me flowers :smile:

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, Ponderings, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

desperate DESPERATE for my annual leaves

Posted on October 9, 2008 | 2 comments

starts on sat with a lie in – bliss.

do have to do tax return though…

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Posted in General

blogging early to go to bed early

Posted on October 8, 2008 | 1 comment

we are having a run of dreadful nights with the girls, and its not doing their mood much good either. cue exaggerated behaviours from us all! And having negligible sleep, i also had a migraine – grrr. luckilly i caught it so early that by mid morning the meds were in full working order.

wed group at deependers we were slightly late due to migraine, but not bad, and the big’uns got started with their latin, and the middlies with science. they were wild but happy making cars race about. snacks and then middlies french and big’uns science. i was really pleased with how the science went today. they had so much fun making a force meter that TBH it took up most of the session. they were v good at doing it, and appeard to have much fun! then we looked at making an experiment up to look at friction, and rather than using a slope, they decided to blow the cars – and we measured how far they went on sandpaper, carpet and table. next time we will make our antigravity devices and have fun with slopes.

lunch came just in time, as SB was emotionally flagging, and remained a bit up and down for the session. she had baked cookies all by herself for the meeting, and they had all been eaten up. Some french was looked at, and then free play before coming home [all wailing!] i decided some r and r was required, so BB chose german muzzy after i veto-ed mr men, and then toy story 2 after tea whilst SB and judo – which she still loves. she now has her head in a book and soon bedtime for her, as i think todays upsets related to disturbed nights.

busy day tomorrow. beans have group, then BB has a gym session, the after short gap, sb has a gym session. BB is ecstatic at having gym again after this break. we decided whilst singing loudly all the way home in the car that we need to do more family fun swimming, and SB would like to try perhaps the odd horseriding – something i think chris has been planning to organise.

BB is being a doggie a lot of the time at the moment. she is often either a dalmation called spotty, or a little red dog called… clifford!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Cooking, early maths skills, General, language, literacy, little languages, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

i don’t like to be topical

Posted on October 6, 2008 | 5 comments

after all this is a home ed blog. but i am just a wee bit on the head needs to be rapidly inserted into sand persuasion. after all, i can’t actually make any difference can i

1. hold onto my job

2. budget well

3. hide money under the mattress?? or convert into gold??

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Posted in General

Musical Monday – Bach Italian concerto and mendelssohn song without words

Posted on October 6, 2008 | 5 comments

we were talking yesterday and led to as a child spotting my mothers mood by the music she played. she loved playing this whilst i was a child.  searching for her fav still

I wonder if my children will associate this and this with me? my mother also frequently played this suite, leading me to want to learn it.

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Posted in music to love