Author Archives: HHaricot

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!

My elder daughter, depsite reminders, did no music theory this week [grade 4 approaching!!] so when I got up [pretty late!] she started the day with ‘double music theory’ which she was quite philosophical about . she finds it relatively straightforward, and we did more sharps and flats and then ‘proper names’ for places on the scale. again fairly straightforward. prior to this i think she and BB were mostly playing/ computering etc.

BB brought alfie into the lovely conservatory for a prolonged run about, and also did some more of the collins spelling – pretty happily – and read me a book – pretty happily. We discussed alfie, and decided that due to a pun on her and SB names, he should really be aelfric [or so should any future offspring i might have - errmmm not likely!].

DH had been doing some sorting out of the unholy mess that he made of the conservatory moving stuff around [mixture of craft resources, half done kits, finished kits and rubbish! ] so BB then went on to do some more of a half done kit. After that she spontaeously decided to draw a variety of halloween themed pics with the djeco oil crayons onto black card. we also took the bathbombs out of their moulds from yesterday, and were hugely relieved that actually most held! so happy was bb that she went off with her favourite bath bomb and had a prolonged bath I sharpened loads of pencils!

SB in the meantime did some galore park history – currently half way through syrwtl history book 1 – and then gave alfie a wash and dry before back into his tortoise home. After that we played agricola together. it is only the second time she has played it, and it isn’t really made for 2 [there is a two player version around] so i adapted the cards slightly so no duplicate wood or clay piles, and tried to play my own game, but not ruin hers, as it were, rather than play to lose [cos if you do that, she has no chance of working out which strategies might be winners] i do often point out what i could do instead that would ruin her play so she can see, as agricola is a lot about the order! we haven’t played it enough that i know the winning strategies either tho btw.

following that, bb had come down prune like from her midday bath! SB decided to practice her teaching session she is going to put on for her arts award bronze. It was kind of based on this , but she wanted a halloween theme, and then different colours. I asked if i could do autumn leaves rather than halloween, and this was accepted . As we did it, i asked her to think about what lettering should be, whether prescriptive or free choice [free choice - her decision worked better than mine!]

whether we should have a thought about what colours to use where [free choice, but after we had done it, we decided that using different colours on wax resist and watercolour wash was better, and also possibly contrasting this with the accent pictures]

we discussed size of the accent pic [mine was too big] and also with hers, she decided to cut out the pumpkin mouth and eyes, and we discussed this may get me round my too big leaf [it did].

by weds she is hoping to have written down instructions with helpful advice on how to get the best pic, and use our 2 today as the demos for what the basics are, and pitfalls to avoid. we really enjoyed doing this together with her in the leader position. I am hoping that she might look around at more art sites and come up with some more plans we can do together . BB did do 2/3 of this before wandering off, says she is wanting to do it on weds with everyone else [edited to add on monday, she decided to finishe hers after all, so added

now we are doing our different things. BB is on roblox [surprise!] , but I have to say today she was far better at finding things to occupy herself with, and didn’t say she was nored at all. SB is computer chatting with her home ed friends, i think she is sorting out skype, and nagging DH to sort out a blog for her – she is thinking of doing her arts award bronze report that way. sounds fine to me! I am jolly cold, and uploading lots of older photos. we are going to watch strictly and have curry for tea

[petits haricots has an affiliate link through these]

[isn't she gorgeous ]

today is my one chance of a lie in. But SB is up with the larks to go to ‘the big gig’ with guides. Its OK, i think, DH will get up. But no, i was needed to wave goodbye. I love SB and her big girl/little girl. She had a mountain of food to take with her, as the lead guider said they would need a lot. More than the 4 of us took to the olympics! She has been so excited about this

However, to go back. thurs was a home ed sports group day, then gym for bb and guides for sb, fri was wild place in the morning and then apparently their baths took up all afternoon! Home ed has happened, still ‘getting back into gear’ and I need to do a bit of nagging about the grade 4 music theory…

So today was a single child day, so having ‘persuaded’ BB that it wouldn’t all be about roblox and watching tv we got going with a game – we play games often, and board games are on our list of things to do weekly so we played giro galoppo twice, and she won fair and square

We had Alfie running about in the conservatory as well, nice and warm, some tasty things to eat on the floor [dandelion] and for 2 hours he was as happy as Larry Obv we kept picking him up,playing with him etc too…

Last weekend BB and I made some marbled ink card, and so we had a thought of what to do with them – matisse cut out bugs [my suggestion!] , planets, mosaic, draw directly on them… but we did plants. a made up solar system each where we may or may not choose to add rockets later

I saw her spelling book in the conservatory, and being v keen that we try and do a tiny bit of something reading related everyday cajoled her into starting. she found it easier than she had anticipated, so hopefully will be fine starting next time. she is quite worried always about whether she will be able to do something, so consequently we haven’t been pushing, but feel she needs to move forwards and over this now.

SO having decided it was after all easy, and she could do this, we had a pause outside in the sun. SHe bouncing and boinging on the trampoline, me putting alfie away and then helping take down the tent and then bimbling about.

having enjoyed the sun, BB then did some colouring of her new book of spacecraft, leading to an interesting discussion over the break up of USSR, the fact that the russian flag at the olympics was ‘all wrong’ for me but the anthem the same – i can sing it! and about cyrillic and then greek lettering.

BB decided that after all she DID want to make bath bombs [something declined in the morning] I had bought what looked like an industrial amount of bicarb and citric acid for the science cover and we followed this recipe. I think it worked ok – tho we may not have packed it in the mould quite enough – will turn out tomorrow and hope! we have made soap previously, so have some dyes and also essential oils from doing this. BB was v happy

Whilst we were finishing this, BB reminded me that one of the alternate things offered was making a cheese and onion pasty for tea – which she didn’t want to do. She wanted to make a brocolli quiche. SO we did that. I have ‘got the hang’ of flakey pastry now so BB was quite happy to do it. however, having made the pastry i found that our flan dish was broken some while back, so we had a much smaller dish and too much pastry! BB did a great job of assembling the quiche and it was in the oven, but declined to use the rest of the pastry, so i made a peach and custard tart with it for pudding. they were yummy

and finally BB was allowed to play on roblox. I am limiting it, because since she developed a ‘thing’ for it since cousins visited in summer, she has been losing her ability to entertain herself without it.

SB returned, having had a fabulous time at the Big Gig and very happy, and brought BB back a little teddy [she was ecstatic] we ate a late tea [quiche and jacket pot and then peach and custard tart] watching merlin on iplayer before scooting the girls off to bed. I have to say,. my SB has completely changed shape in the last year. I was looking at our canada pics seeing a girl starting to turn into a young woman, and today i see a young woman with the last vestiges of girl about her. She is a lovely, friendly, adorable young woman too and I am very proud of her. [except when it is bedtime, and she and BB turn the house into a screechy waily catfight zone - sigh!]

tomorrow is another day…

going round the blog ring I came across a post on ninny noodle noo that reminded me that I was going to look at the national trust 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4. NO time like the present then SB is 11 and more or less 3/4 , so how have we done? Bearing in mind we have not had this as a to do list, and this is just her life. looking at the parents part of the website made me sigh abit for the risk assessment alongside! ANyway, here are our 50 things. are they the same as yours? I am hoping to trawl through my photos to add to this.

1.Climb a tree

Both my girls love climbing trees. we have some climbers in the garden and they are always looking out for climbing trees elsewhere.

2. Roll down a really big hill

they have even persuaded me to join in too. I think the hill near SOTP should count as a big hill, though not sure if REALLY BIG

3. Camp out in the wild

hmm, we have done a lot of camping, but not wild camping. both girls are keen to remedy this. i think camping at SOTP field has often felt v wild!

4. Build a den

despite not having red the pdf on building a den safely, we have managed to do this and survive it probably plays a regular part in the ‘wild place’ session as well

5. Skim a stone

hmm, not succesfully, but not due to lack of trying

6. Run around in the rain

far too often! e need more sunny days – i might start a campaign for sunny days

7. Fly a kite

yep – lets go fly a kite

8. Catch a fish with a net

we have done this, wild ones in rivers/ ponds/ lakes to look at with our pond dipping kit, and also moving about our tropical fish [which probably doesn't count!]

9. Eat an apple straight from a tree

we have apple trees, we often eat straight from them [and the other fruit trees and bushes]

10. Play conkers

we have done a lot of playing with conkers, but not sure they have done the whole string thing. it is conker season! I can see if they are interested

11. Throw some snow

oh, i certainly think so!

12. Hunt for treasure on the beach

yes, fossils, shells, sea glass, interesting stones, amber, all have been investigated and hunted for as our beach treasure. occassionally we have found the odd coin as well.

13. Make a mud pie

essential part of child garden play i think!

14. Dam a stream

mostly those streams on a beach, damming and diverting and creating pools.

15. Go sledging

Aw, makes me remember that last snowy melrose. we didn’t know it would be the last, but what a fab time we had!

16. Bury someone in the sand

we haven’t burried up to head! but sat down legs stretched out are fair game – does this count?

17. Set up a snail race

urgh, but yes!

18. Balance on a fallen tree

an essential part of walking in woods fun!


19. Swing on a rope swing

quite a number of them – girls v keen on this!

20. Make a mud slide

slid down on bottoms on mud – yes, made mud angels [SB] yes! but don’t think we have actually made a mud slide

21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild

it has been a good autumn for blackberrying. SB is less fussy than BB.

22. Take a look inside a tree

we have looked inside holes and rotton bits of trees, and in some even stood in them!

23. Visit an island

also visited quite a few islands – BB pointed out we live on an island, but think the UK is a bit big to count

[this is on the island in the middle of pyramid lake]

24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind

yep, got a great pic of BB doing this on the seafront

25. Make a grass trumpet

my mum is particularly good at making these, sbb and bb have occassionally been succesful!

[i was sure i had a pic of mum and kids doing this at wicken fen, but can't see it. will put pic of that day in, as it was a lovely day]

26. Hunt for fossils and bones

yep, charmouth was a great place for fossils, there are slate areas at brickworks not to far away that are great to search for fossils in. ALso on our canada holiday we searched and found fossils at drumheller – fabulous experience.

27. Watch the sun wake up

i do this far too often to go to work! but we certainly did this going to the olympics and paralympics this summer [they were fab ] putting in random olympics pic of joy

28. Climb a huge hill

we do a fair bit of walking, so hills and mountains fair game. Haytor our most recent climb, and sure that counts.

29. Get behind a waterfall

Iam not sure we have really been behind one, we saw lots of waterfalls in the rockies, and at one point were ‘behind the curtain’ in a cavelet in the maligne canyon, but don’t think that for me that entirely counts.

30. Feed a bird from your hand

if chickens and ducks count – yes! otherwise our birds not so tame. we do feed them though

31. Hunt for bugs

oh, minibeasts [antistons as BB used to call them] we still periodically hunt and look in our bug boxes or under microscopes

32. Find some frogspawn

found, watched growing and released

33. Catch a butterfly in a net

we don’t catch butterflies as a rule as we haven’t got the correct nets. We have done , however, on a home ed visit to a nature reserve with a trained leader. one of the lads we were with said it reminded him of animal crossing [he was right!]

34. Track wild animals

we have, in canada we did a fair bit of looking at tracks and identifying the animals. we didn’t actually find them – which as one was wolf i was quite glad tbh

35. Discover what’s in a pond

pond dippers R us I like pond dipping, and we have dipped quite few, including our own pond. often something interesting to see find draw or look under a microscope

36. Call an owl

hmm, we hear lots of owls, and have seen lots of owls – both in the twilight in the fields, and at the local raptor centre where we have been members. i don;t think we have ever called an owl though and expected it to answer! will see what the rspb offer [we are also members of that!]

37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool

we love clambering around rockpools and particularly in our welsh holiday earlier in the year, looking for what we can find – anemone, crab, hermit crab, fish and shellfish.

38. Bring up a butterfly
surprisingly we haven’t done this. we have made several unsuccessful attempts from cabbage white in the brassica bed…

39. Catch a crab

we did this with my sister and family in our last shared holiday in mudeford. I miss you sis x x x.

40. Go on a nature walk at night

we have more often done this because we are late getting back than purposeful but have been out with moth traps and tried to catch murmurations. tempted to join a bat walk though.

41. Plant it, grow it, eat it

we have always done a lot of planting it, growing it and eating it. even this year when kentwell sewing took over. each child has their own bed, and share the sowing and planting and eating of my seeds too. we had a partic fine sweetcorn harvest – now finished. pumpkins and squashes looking good

42. Go wild swimming

i am sure all kids do this? swimming and paddling in rivers, streams and the sea!

43. Go rafting

white water rafting down the kootenay river in canada last summer to remember my sis doing something fun [must get dh to finish putting up canada pics from last year!]

44. Light a fire without matches

yep, flints, bowstrings etc etc

45. Find your way with a map and a compass

not done this ‘for real’ but have played about with – has gone on to do list

46. Try bouldering

girls v keen that this should be on a to do list

47. Cook on a campfire

sb has with guides, both have with marshmallows etc and we have used the fireboxes to cook dinner on

48. Try abseiling

SB has on PGL holidays

49. Find a geocache

lots of times

50. Canoe down a river

loved this so much in canada that desirous of own canoe since also more locally have hired canadian canoes. [need to put pics onto flickr!

So, not bad I don’t think
have highlighted in bold the things will try and do

i was working this weds – had a day long faculty meeting. less stressful than most of my working days, but i strongly dislike losing my weds. have a meeting for part of next weds too. grr! ANyway, i made a bargain with work, so took part of monday off instead. I worked from home in the morning and then went out with the girls to the trees group in the pm. this is the second session, last was on beech, a mixture facts and feeling the tree and then crafts after.

This time was walnut, and we found a nice tall walnut tree to sketch, feel the bark and measure. we were told various facts and folklore. SB particularly loves the group and concentrated and filled her scrapbook. BB a bit more variable! I did feel a bit of an alien though, as they were expecting DH, and know him not me in the group, though I have met some people before. I rarely get out to play . However, it was lovely to see the people I do know.

When BB started getting a bit too much of a pest i whipped her away to find a geocache, and some of the le ciel rouge as well, which we did find, and also a travel bug – i love finding travel bugs to move on :). came back to measure the tree and then do the crafts. Girls made wax resist leaves, a walnut shell tortoise and a walnut shell little ring box [v cute] . had a lovely afternoon in glorious autumnal weather, thankyou

other things this week – some bookwork from both girls [must nag SB to prioritise music theory as she is sitting grade 4 this term - eek!] , reading from BB. BB and i made some great marbling patterns on card – now we need to decide what to do with them! SB has had her ballet class, gym, swimming and judo, and BB swimming judo and gym. there was a HE multisports session yesterday which they both enjoy and tomorrow they have a wild place [sort of foresty school but not really]

edited to add: Hannah commenting below reminded me we saw a v cool caterpillar belonging to the pale tussock moth

Since I have spent ages thinking about SB’s HE this year, discussing books with her, subjects, plans etc, I guess I should also think about BB. the temptation is just to cut and paste the one for SB at this age! However, allthough the basic principles of our ethos are the same, the 2 children are v different in personality, styles and needs. Whereas SB was a keen people pleaser who wanted to learn, and was happy to learn however it was presented, and it has gradually taken time to find what suits her well, BB is really far more individualistic and internally motivated – ie as a translation is not going to do it because i ask! Also, I think we are more relaxed as a family this second time round. We understand the value of dead ends, false starts and rethinking, so there is less pressure to ‘get it right’ and more belief ‘in the process’.

anyway, here goes – normal disclaimers still apply!

Taking us to sept 2014 – ie BB 9 [2 years]

I think full formal education starts too soon. this first period is about learning learning skills, and getting the information – so reading is something we will build on! making the world an exciting and interesting place to live in and imparting the knowledge without being overly concerned to the most part on how long it is retained! Some skills are we want to start and hope to built on – namely literacy, language, numeracy and practical things such as art, music and sports. Others will come and go.The key thing is to view the tapestry, not count the stitches. The basic warp and weft will be forming.

In this, we are likely to be child led rather than completely autonomous. There are things i would like to keep moving forward with – reading, a bit of maths, encouraging french , and things that i know we will do a fair bit of – joint looking at books, art and crafts, and things in the inbetween’ and will be child interest led. I think we most closely could be labelled as automous. Although I have rough idea of what we may get through as such in the next 2 years, it isn’t ‘must do or else’, and often I skip bits : more a guide to where i see us being. BB has a clear idea of what she finds interesting at the moment, and so it seems entirely reasonable to look at these and follow the spark of her interest over the years. I have no prioritised information, or educational heirachy to worry about, so following her self led discovery seems as good a pointer as any. Also, with having a home educated older sibling, she can’t help but have some overspill from that input.

Play activities are equally vital if not more so at this stage – as when else in the future are you given the chance to have free play without some pangs of guilt? Lets get rid of the guilt, so that is something that is part of the balance. many of the toys can be seen to have all sorts of possible educational benefits, as I think there is very little ‘play’ that doesn’t have some learning potential – from rehearsing life scenarios, honing imagination, fine motor control, etc etc. For BB, who sometimes struggles to work out what other people might be thinking, play is a very important rehearsing tool

the Nitty Gritty

English literacy/language:

we will be increasing the emphasis here for at least the beginning of the next 2 years. BB in the last 2 years has got to grips with learning to read and made progress. She loves books, reading to herself etc. SHe is not so enthusiastic about reading aloud, as this shows where she struggles and has glitches. Obviously though this is how to progress. I think it is vital she progresses as quickly as possible. She clearly has a need to be able to read better, it would assuage her boredom, it might distract her from her current obsession with roblox… She has liked the songbird series which we used up to level6 [just seen amazon doing the 6 levels at an abs fab price!], but can’t find a 7, and we are currently on 7 of ORT magic key series [which we have used in parallel – she will only read a book once, so best to have more to practice with, and also reading usborne short chapter books. Might try the ORT snapdragons or give our magic tree house chapter books a try… Hoping by the next update she is a fully fledged independent reader, and that we will be starting or ready to start on Galore Park junior english! In the next year we will also start perhaps on the collins spelling series.

We are also encouraging a love of reading by separating the architecture of reading into the explode the code, so the books aren’t so tedious from the language lessons! and continuing to read aloud a wide and varied story matter that pleases BB and is chosen by her. We do use reading eggs and starfull websites as well. She is enjoying writing short stories in unique spellings, and also practicing handwriting with getty and dubay. we are encouraging a little reading or writing every day if possible.

maths:
singapore maths we are on the 2a, having had quite a hiatus getting the concept of HTU – for which we bought base 10 blocks, did a lot of spending money etc. She is not naturally keen on doing maths, and this makes me realise how pro-active we were with SB, and worrying that should be trying harder with BB! Also incorporating lots of time just fiddling with manipulatives, and bring maths into the every day. We also have some cuisinaire books and the pattern blocks to play with. I am hoping we will do approximately 1 level per year though.

History:
Mostly we will be doing this with SB, so story of the world 3 [poss 4] carrying on from the 1 and 2 with associated crafts we have done, looking though our various [amny] lovely books – i wonder why’s, usborne books, the through time series etc. Going to interested historical places and museums. This year we have reenacted tudor years at Kentwell which bb enjoyed more than i had hoped, and we will do again. we also have our island story on cd which they enjoy, and clearly BB is perfect age for horrible histories! [argh!].

science:
Actually we do regular science experiments, and BB enjoys these. We have again lots of early science readers i read to SB at this age. She also joins in with the scienc we do alt weds, which has taken us through real science for kids chemistry and physics which she has enjoyed, and we are currently using our microscopes. She has enthusiasm for astronomy currently as well, getting a telescope last christmas and learning a few of the simple constellations to spot. She says she wants to do galore park junior science books. we will see! [but not quite yet]

Geography:
will be predominantly history and holiday based

We should give languages a good crack
SB is doing french, and so sensible to do with BB, we tend to read the story books altogether, and listen to the CD’s – serge is a favourite! I have the first skoldo as a work book, and just bought the tatou books to see how that works [she is v happy to have her own books, but think they aren't intuitive!] . i just want us to pootle in a forwards direction!

music :-
BB currently appears to have perfect pitch, so i encourage lots of singing and note mimicry. she is leanring the recorder, and i would quite like her to consider another instrument. Currently she is resistant, so i am not pushing, but we try a huge variety of instruments.

PE:
currently swimming, judo and gym lessons and cycling. she is very fit and active, and seems a sturdy runner.

IT:
well!! whatever really, posion rouge, zoombinis cd, webland to be getting on with.

Arts and crafts:
obviously a huge component of our days! BB seems to have quite a flair for art and crafts. SHe can find t very difficult when it doesn’t come out as se plans it to, and so can be very frustrated. however, often I am amazed by her execution, and so encourage practice of different styles, techniques and she joins BB at arts award lessons. We have quite a few arts resources books as well

BB is v keen on hands on building and technical things, particularly lego, but also woodworking with DH, and taking apart old electrical items and exploring what is in them. An engineer in the making?

Domestic Science!!: slight rofl at title, but a fair bit of baking and cooking, gardening, and some sewing , but mostly eating the baking

Socialising: regular attendance at not quite local groups, local clubs , national camps and making sure we have a steady stream of houseguests.

————————————————————————————————

hmm, reading this I realise how different our approach has been to BB over SB. SB was child led, BB is totally autonomous. having looked at the mission statement above, i am not sure whether we will be considering a change from autonomous to child led at all. however, i would like to give BB a small try on the different structure to see whether she enjoys it or not. I can’t make my mind up!

I would like to try and read one or 2 of theinteresting ‘fact books’ with BB a week. i would like th encourage the french alongside SB, some regular maths and reading of some nature and recorder practice [plus other instrument if she fancies it]. i would also like to make available various iT resources for her to play with as well.

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We have stashes of crafty stuff in our house. I am suremany/most home educators are the same! When ever my girls shout about being bored, I first threaten to throw away all their toys [cos what is the point of having them!] then i offer maths [ssnigger] or if I am behaving, then I will offer crafts: fimo, painting, glass painting, sewing or hama beads. We first bought hama beads when we started home educating 8 years ago from Merry, a home educator selling from a shelf in the spare bedroom . we even stayed in that spare bedroom when we moved house!. when she moved house she had a room of delights that we loved visiting to see and buy the latest stock of hama then fimo. Now it is a full time family business. I would recommend her, and buy your hama beads there. Over the year we have bought and used kilos of midi hama beads, pretty much all the different shaped boards and some of the kits as well. Make excellent presents.

currently they have a deal on midi and boards. btw, this post isn’t sponsored! but a mate with a good online store and a good product [or 2]

its exciting! our bacteria have grown nicely

They had a great time

BB spent a lot of time in the week making her present for the birthday boy herself – with a bit of help from her dad.

SB also made a present for today’s party girl, she made a chocolate medal with the party girls name on it , a box for it to go in, and then a bag. here is the bag in progress and complete.