Author Archives: HHaricot

Bb kirtle ( essential)
New sleeves
3 inch extension across chest
2 inch guard
Iron!

Sb kirtle ( non essential)
Take in 1cm each side at waist ( non urgent!)
Button on sleeves
Either let down and extend kick panel or 2 inch guard around bottom ( non urgent)

FrB petticoat (essential)
3 inch guard
Add 2 inches to shoulder strap
Sew on skirt where coming apart
Wash bodice

Frb jacket
Lengthen sleeves by 1-2 inches
As fitted, fit to sb as doubt frb will fit!
Therefore redo hooks so actually abuts.
Take from 1cm above lowest hook to waist at curve to take 1cm at waist form each side and extra hook there

I should catch up and take some proper pictures of her fimo angry birds series. But until I do…

when we are feeling pulled this way and that, with gcse work and family and work commitments, it is good to take a day out to just be together and engage with each other in a non-expectant way.

So SB did start off with a geog paper [where she got a prob B] and BB started on roblox and skyping with a friend O from the minecraft homeed server. they were chatting and playing for several hours together very happily. SB finishing the geog paper was the signal for computers to stop.

BB happily played with her legos around us. she has made a capture room with a hypnotic cell as part of the inside of the death star from star wars, and also the gym where the clone stormtroopers keep in shape. She was finally looking in all the lego boxes for pieces she needed, rather than being fixed to making the structures in boxes I guess she is now a master builder I also love how she talks as she goes, drawing you into her story.

SB and I were doing some more of her butterick sewing pattern. i started this with a bit of trepidation, since i have only really done kentwell sewing, not following a pattern! I stuck some questions up on social media and was overwhelmed with help . it is, luckilly, a simple pattern, and sb and i got on fine so we are at stage 7 currently

After we had got to step 7, we called a halt for now, and went on to finish our painting. Some while ago SB and I started some trees, as it is good to do creative things on a regular basis to exercise those parts of the brain that might otherwise become cobwebby. We finished them today. They look much better with the tree added onto the background . we are both very pleased with them

BB had done something different from the start with art, and so had no background to ‘tree’ but instead did a pencil drawing of London, including the gherkin as an architectural reference [ok she said a spottable building]

SB and I finished the active part of the day with playing a game of ticket to ride – which she won though i have to say that I won alchemists last night against her, which is quite uncommon! We have then chilled out watching city of bones. Not BB, she has been minecrafting . But we have spent a lovely alongside day

so saturday was kentwell open day. it was a lovely sunny day, and friends were there – friends that after all this time feel like family . Even PP’s talk had a roseate hue to it. he must be cheering up, as he said lots of positive things and was all about looking forwards. He was very ill at the end of last year, and perhaps a brush with the working end of a hospital has caused some perspective changing. certainly my perspective changed with the illness and death of my sister in 2010, and various health related shocks of loved ones makes me constantly reevaluate and do my best to enjoy the here and now, not always look to the future or the past.

I didn’t really take much in the way of photos, but caught these 2 of my gorgeous oldest with friends.

loved seeing the manor born [as said prev i dont see them enough!] and jan from sotp do wish we lived closer and jax, who we used to see a lot and now too busy teen schedules kind of stop the interaction, as well as lovelyem :)  . v grateful for the friends who helped me out by going on a walk when i had a slight wobble! [difficult week meant i had 'anxiety issues' , sometimes you just have to keep working through things as best as you can] x x

enjoyed meeting the few new parts that were there, chatting with the dyers and inspecting the pots, and hoping i get to be dyering again

ddriving home in the golden glow evenhing sun, chatting to my eldest whilst the youngest snoozes and then enjoying a hug and snuggle together back at home. perfick

Tbh we have not been v ticksheety again as classical civ focused! Bb hasn’t done one at all.

SB worked hard completing her Aenead draft on Monday realised that she had written too many words, so edited and re-edited to be under 2000. She seemed happy with the results. It did mean that she had time to go to roller skating home ed group with BB. This is only monthly, but they both love it.

Tues was ‘The Big Day’ with SB having her controlled assessment for her Classical Civ . She was pretty happy with how things went, and thought she had got across the things that she wanted to. I am so proud of her starting on this exam journey. BB was happy that she got to go to a sweet shop

Weds was our weds4ed day, which is becoming a bit busy for our older, gearing up for exams kids. only SB and J are sitting exams this time [SB french, biol, geog and classical civ; J french, biol and maths] but some of the others are potentially working towards exams next year – like maths. SO there was lots of maths and biol for the older ones. Certainly SB loves doing maths with B, and is actually looking forwards to doing that gcse next year. they were working on histograms this time.

I loved doing the science with the 2 kids groups. they are both lovely, intelligent, inquisitive and challenging in different ways, and it is good for me to keep going and impart knowledge and fun [hopefully simultaneously] in a safe way. Hearing about how girls are still inhibited in science and also there is reduced science in primary schools makes me proud of what we achieve for our home ed kids. We dont have a gender bias, but just an interestedness bias.

So this time we did 2 speriments for gcse in the food and digestion section. Firstly we had our starch solution, tested to show it was starch, with iodine, then added an amylase solution [most commonly termed spit or saliva ] and demonstrated we now had a sugar solution tested with benedicts. appropriate controls along the way.

oh, and we had a third run of this, cos O [5] loved the idea

showing that you are never too young for real science

We simultaneously for the other 2 groups tested for protein, using the Biuret test [NaOH and CuSO4] with starch and sugar as controls. This meant we had a very pretty test tube rack at the end.

control buiret; protein = purple biuret; control test for sugar without amylase – negative; test for sugar with amylase – benedict is sweet – positive; test for starch with amylase – negative; test for starch without amylase – positive

K took all the non mathsy ones to start talking about van gogh, and doing some nature study art. BB took ages doing a very detailed drawing of a leaf.

no music today, as science and maths took a lot of time, and it is the older ones that like the joint music too. so we had a disfussion about that, and how a lot of what we do is really aimed and stretching for the older ones and we had a thought about adding stuff for them too if they want, but def at the others – currently considering animation and pottery with fire pit firing.

Then of course, the usual games playing, computers and board games. SB and I played her new birthday munchkin game

so a lovely day and in a week that was difficult for a number of unbloggable reasons [polyanna all the way ] it was very much needed

Thursday SB went down to her Oddesey workshop with the manor borns and really enjoyed it. she loves spending time with C, and it is a shame we haement managed to see them so much in the flesh recently, however they have skyped and had regular internet contact with this classical civ malarky. She enjoyed the workshop, found it v helpful, and with M, we have come up with a joint revision plan for the girls so they can do paper discussion over the internet. BB mostly legoed at home and did drawing.

Friday SB had french lesson in the city, whilst BB and DH went to the forest school for wild crafts and environmental things. they then all chilled at home after what seemed like a very busy week!

well, actually, I was working a lot of the weekend. I do think the cheerleading over classical civ has been all i have done other than go to work tho! Actually, that isn’t true. I told SB i needed to have an activity to do whilst just sitting there with her to encourage working. she gave me the divergent trilogy and I enjoyed reading my way through them. we also watched the divergent film split over 2 evenings. so i am fully up to date with my young adult dystopian futures

SO here is SB, who has out in prob 16 hours this weekend of classical civ organising for the exam [including daydreams and texting friends ] but v solid work, so has completed her essay planning and the research/quotes/context behind it.

BB has enjoyed being left to her own devices whilst i concentrate on SB [when not at work] and DH concentrates on renovation of BB bedroom. SHe has therefore had unlimited computer time. She has still done plenty of fimo and also drawing. This evening she created hot wheels ‘darts’ sort of, and gave areas a points score which she had to count back from 100. so i am classing that as maths too

Nanny french came across on monday to deliver and receive presents, as it was her birthday on the friday. I didn’t take a photo tho! It was a busy day for SB as she had ballet and then judo. the monday group is older on average than the weds group, so she has a much more strenuous workout there. she does enjoy it. Her home ed was mostly maths and also taking photos for her arts award.

Tuesday SB spent most of the day on her arts award project [bit of an argh, as this week should mostly be about classical civ controlled assessment and her piano exam!] pm is the arts award class which she really enjoys. Ctually, io shouldn’t argh, because when later on in the week i apologised that our home ed hadn’t been rigorous enough that essay writing was easy for her, and perhaps i had let her down compared to my schooling, she did point out that she had had lots more fun, and that my school type [grammar] wasn’t available, and there was no evidence that the local schools were better than us. always nice to hear our children affirming the choice to home educate, as it is SB’s choice now as to whether to continue.

Tuesday was also DH birthday. he was very happy with his teapot and eggcups and the birthday candles in the dinner!

weds was a lets get down to it classical civ controlled assessment planning fest. I was a bit panicky to find that she and the tutor hadn’t really covered this as much as i thought they may have done. SB has never done anything like this before, and I am pretty rusty at this kind of thing [see comments in the ticksheets for my mind mapping!] however, when we sat down together, i asked her to start in the middle and pick things in the book that helped her answer the questions, and she found some events for Dido and some for Aeneas, whilst i printed out for her the mark sheet and the spec, so she could then use that to come up with a plan for context. It slowly and organically grew from there, and although the whole plan not finished by sat morn as hoped for, it was at least clearly developed. She hasnt approached it as I would have, and the flow therefore isnt quite the same [this is when we had the convo about essay writing!] but i have a psych degree, and this had a fair bit of essays making an argument, so i have all that practice. this has to be her own work, with some help and guidance, and i have been very careful to cheerlead and help her decide and prompt about context, but not to actually interfere with her decisions, flow and what she wanted to include. I have no idea whether it is at the right level tho for this exam, just hoping so since she has done a fair bit of work for it. [home ed panic!]

After lunch on weds we declared it to be SB’s birthday and opened presents before going to see Jupiter ascendant at the cinema. She was v happy with her presents [especially since she thought she was just getting the replacement retainers for those she had lost!] . One of those presents was a lap desk with LED light – cool Jupiter ascendant is a feel good film which is best watched to enjoy rather than use any thinking or critique .

so happy birthday my glorious 14 year old . We love you very very much, and are proud to be your parents . evening activities – marching band for SB and judo for BB.

The day didn’t end quite so smoothly though, as somehow BB managed to severely wrench [or something] her shoulder and ended up in a and e at midnight

argh! and she has been in pain since, seen at fracture clinic, had bloods done etc etc.

Thurs – SB had french and multisports, and classical civ prep! due to BB feeling in pain and miserable, there was a friend chain to get her to all the activities – thankyou – and then the bus back. She is pretty good now at getting the bus in and out of town. Friday was a total classical civ prep day. not as much really as i would have liked done, I think she missed me sitting there chivvying, getting tea and biscuits and general cheerleading!

So what about BB? well, actually she has spent a lot of this week in arts and craft mode, with lots of pencil work  – mostly angry birds pictures, computer based pictures and fimo. I have been really impressed with her angry birds fimo set – will have to take a pic of them all, but here are some going into the oven.

There are no ticksheets this week tho – SB would be all classical civ, some maths, some piano and a bit of french! BB would be some conquer maths, lots of art and craft!

had to delay blogging the weekend, as we made some birthday presents for DH! SB had asked for something sewing related for her birthday – she wanted to find a pattern and some material to make it in. So we went to a local little sewing shop that has quite a lot of patterns, and bought a butterick pattern she fancied and also some shimmery material to make it in. we had a fab time in the shop looking at bits and pieces and discussing, and also then we spent ages pinning and cutting out lovely bonding for me and SB

my bonding with BB was over making birthday presents for DH – his wish list was an eggcup and a teapot with integral loose tea separator. so BB and I made egg cups out of fimo

other than that, we chilled together and played games

Bb has spent lots of this week making blogs, minecraft videos and some Lego ones. We have done some worky stuff, but as she is having an imagination/play explosion, this has also been lovely and vital
Sb has been working hard. The first of the past papers suggests we are on track for a comfortable b in geog if we keep going , which is a nice place to be! I haven’t marked the biol yet as not finished, but sb found it much harde as very factual, so we are prob on a hopeful c trajectory. Neither of us feel comfortable with that, so I have altered her tick sheet from next week to push the biol, being aware tho that we are close to her first classical civ paper and piano exam, so a bit to juggle! Told her that it is no big deal and just good to do your best.