Author Archives: HHaricot

Musical Easter Mondays – well, it had to be cav!

here is cavalleria rusticana by mascagni. I won’t tend to link dates and music! but i love opera, and this is a particular tear jerker [aren't all operas??] so thought I would do a topical monday link!

[and as an easter bonus, a second composer!]

thurs summary

should have gone to nots and tots, girls nocturnal messings = far too tired

SB – maths, card design and printing, handwriting, hama beading, violin, reading council leaflet about being safe [bullies and strangers and touching], magic school bus, dora
BB – hama, magic school bus, dora , feeding birds, cuddlng, pre-expplode the code, counting, first reading books, poisson rouge.

packing!

Protected: sympathetic vibes

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hmm

i think i must be tired. have found today v difficult. want to wrap in a duvet a hibernate!

chris took sb to drama, which she loved, bb and i played with bricks and blocks, went into garden for a run around, recovered the veg patch where wind had blown off mulch, looked at spring plants and played hide and seek. we watered our seeds in the propagator and looked at how our science seeds were doing.

chris’s parents popped by to drop of easter eggs, and stayed for lunch and afternoon until sb off at rainbows. we did do some violin in that time, and bb did some of her ‘match and sort’ both girls looked at a road safety thing.

i cooked nasi goreng for tea, and realised i was temper challenged when bb wouldn’t eat it as she doesn’t eat rice – since when! so i have taken myself off to the naughty couch, and will eat chocolate and have an early night

i cheated, well, obviously i did!!

musical mondays was written on sat and the timestamp editied so it posted today!

i certainly didn’t have time to blog yesterday – leaving the house at 9:30 and returning at midnight! it was a wildlife walk day with the people over at the manor born. we went specially early this time, as last time the carpark was full, and it was busy when we got there. needn’t have worried, the blustery rain had put off all but the hardy and foolish…

So we all met up, and set out. Marcus and I doing that couple thing of wearing the same [and it is!] waterproofs, and michelle and chris looked v fetching in their matching trews!! [yep, michelle went a la daddybean!] . girls togged in their muddypuddles [fab waterproofs!] and i need some new wellies.

both girls decided sensibly that they didn’t want to take pictures in the rain, so marcus and I took a minimal number for the seasonal changes thing we plan to do at the end of the year, Jaffa cakes and choc bikkies helped keep the sprits going – but actually it was v enjoyable, i like blustery, and the drizzle cleared. Marcus won the choc bikkie race – which he was v happy with.

the girls played and raced and generally very happy with the 0 birdwatching. i did insist that they look at the daffodils and the cherry blossom – rofl, and we were all a bit deflated by the plantation pond. BB thought it a puddle. these walks are such a fab idea – thanks michelle.

back to there house for yummy lunch [thankyou v much!], and lots of games, the girls, the adults , everyone with a board game and other game fun filled afternoon and evening – finishing at 10.30 when it became apparent that the children were officially tired, so we went home! before tht, numerous games of blokus, yahtzee [which chloe won! - SB and I enjoyed, and we made the girls tot up and multiply themselves - so education too!], really enjoyed carcassonne, cluedo for the kids.

i’ve taken so long to blog, that michelle has beaten me to it, so she has a great pic of BB on blog!

IMG_4953 IMG_4925 IMG_4938 IMG_4944

Musical monday – Bach brandenburg concerti

I love them all, but have to say my first love will be my favourite. I first played this at the county string orchestra -? was i about 11? Anyway, this is number 3. I can still play a fair wack of it without music! tell me when we have enough home-edders to do this? I suppose number 2 a close favourite, and with our current recorders,violins and continuo set up [Jade had better keep up with cello!!] mix, could be the one for the future [sort of!]. for the other movts, can we find a trumpet? Actually, maybe number 5… did i say i love all 6??
And feel free to join in on the music meme – Sarah and Jax have. doesn’t have to be classical, doesn’t have to have a theme, just what you are liking, thinking about, singing now.

seeds and science

we are on a roll with science here. As you know, we are child led really in our education, with strewing and suggestion. we encourage regular maths [but tbh, minimal encouragement actually required] SB would like to improve her handwriting [her choice for what to get better at this year!], so she is reminded about that, and she wants to learn violin and piano, so i will suggest a violin practice and reasonably encourage her to get on with it. piano is self motivated entirely. anything else we do is suggested in a lull as a series of options, but most things she suggests and does. BB is currently – obviously – entirely autonomous. She does usually want to do anything SB does!

so today, SB wanted to do the other growing experiments, and obviously BB wanted to too! SB thinks she might like to be a scientist now, so I suggested she writes some of the experiments in a ‘science book’ she thought this was sa rather good idea, so i printed off some piccies for her to stick in, and some ring the answer type questions, and a few open ended. she loved it, and happily did the whole lot. BB also wanted a science book – so more photos duly printed! i can see that this might be where lapbooking starts!

I busily got the ingredients for the other experiments – soil, pots, relevant seeds, and copious newspaper around, and we were off! so today we have made a shoot maze, sown in eggcups [we will look at root strength] done a strawb and runner, and also sown the toms, peppers and artichokes that so desperately needed doing. thus finishing feb sowings! we are now onto march.

SB did some maths, bB did colouring – which she called maths, but was actually a hedgehog and then a spiky dinosaur – quite good! SB did a violin practice and then a singing practice – she can sing a note to match mine – woohoo! for some this comes naturally [me, BB] but SB has learned to do this, aided by her violin, and I am SOOOO proud. i have never once told her she sings out etc, and always encouraged her singing and it has really worked. she has a lovely singing voice. goes completely haywire when tries to sing with anyone, but hey, she is only 7! BB has done a lot of experimenting with sounds and twanging following on from that music set – it was obviously entirely worth the money as has really got her imagination going!
umm, a bit of tv watching, until i felt guilty [i was cleaning up some of the mess we made in kitchen!] so rousted children into tidying up by having bags i was stuffing things in . SB got the drift quite quickly and was like a dervish, even BB got the idea when i did throw some of her things directly in the bin [broken tat for the most part even if well loved. if i have to make a point, there a good place to start.

[we have torchwood on as i type this, and spike is in it!! - the best reason for watching buffy!]

where was i, oh yes, it looked lovely tidy, i hoovered, bb tried to get the solar panel experiment to work again, putting the panel closer and closer to the light [she watches and learns in between tantrums]. so we got the castle stuff out, they played and argued, SB read a book about ballet [surprise!] i made curry for tea and a not hugely succesful bread and butter pudding to take out tomorrow. oh well. Chris and SB played some games.

i have found my cousin on facebook – we haven’t spoken since i was 19 or 20. weird!

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gardening

have got the garden blog up and running. hopefully will now do a fair bit of gardening too!!

chris took the girls to group. SB and i did some violin when i got home. in the last week she has read all the magic tree house books at bedtime!! AT tea, SB decorated the table with flowers spelling our names. Magical.

my shoe type – from Michelle

You Are Clogs
You are a solid and down to earth person.
You seek – and almost always achieve – a really sound balance in your life.

You are stylish yet comfortable. Mellow but driven. Excited yet calm.
You are the perfect mesh of contradictions.

No matter what happens, you have the ability to stay well grounded in your life.
People know that they can truly depend on you.

You should live: In Europe

You should work: At a company dedicated to helping the world