Author Archives: HHaricot

I can no longer remember who set the ball rolling for these, bt think it might be jax. we have done a photomeme day every year since 2005, except this one. SO I am remedying this error! As long term readers of the blog will know, daddybean is the main home educator, and i am the nagger/facilitator that gets carried away by buying supplies to assuage my guilt at being a working mum! but i don’t, as a rule, work wed and weekend. SO i thought i would blog today, as typical or atypical as any other home ed day. we currently follow an eclectically resourced child led approach for SB, and autonomous [with occasional nudges] for BB

so this morning. daddybean up and out as he has a sailing course to go on [lucky daddybean!]. my mum was next up as BB and I were having a tickle and raspberry blowing fight in my bed – TBH, i was trying to maximise my horizontal time! we also play love sums, as in i give her 2 sums, and she tells me which one is the one i love her [tradition says this is the one with the largest figure!] so 4 +7 or 10 – 3. she is pretty good at it. she then scampers downstairs whilst i get up, dressed etc and rouse SB. bless her. she goes to sleep late and wakes up late. an owl like her mother! [tho i actually wake with the sun, and then try and laze!]. a snuggle and cuddle, and she too is up and breakfasting. grandad is up too, so a full house! My mum and dad have been staying since thurs eve. a short break, as with my sister not so well, they are highly committed to helping out with her kids. Dad had a golf match approx hours drive away, so a cunning excuse to visit. mum had chivvied the girls thro loads of home ed stuff the prev day, incl music practices. it is good when the girls are enthused about doing stuff, as my parents are def in the unsure of home ed category [and maybe privately even less positive!]

anyhoo! we are on today, and today started with games. SB loved card games, in partic donkey, and cos she can’t hold all her cards, a subtle peak usually enables me to ensure that myself or mum donkey most of the time. and today it was mum! she, obviously, is doing similar and we got ourselves into a huge giggle about it and were told off by SB.

we then did some ds animal crossing. mum i think is quite addicted! and her other grandchildren also play it. she now has a hairdresser, so i dusted down ‘summerly’ and went to visit. also dropped off loads of different fruit and things with SB, who had deleted hers, and so restarted.

dad moaned and groaned about dses being the bane of existance. he did this about videos, cds , laptops, digital tv etc etc. bless! so instead, he and SB played bowling on the wii!!!

lunch and we waved them goodbye as they needed to do some taxi-ing for my nephew now sis can’t drive. the girls had some money to burn at the sweetshop – at the end of the week we tot up BB dry nappies and SB fingernails [that are not down to the quick!] debate the answer and pay up! so some munching on sweeties whilst deciding what to do as too late to go out. so BB wanted to paint with glass paints some bug prints, and SB wanted to do oil painting and SotW. failed with the oils as couldn’t find turps. SB did some really lovely watercolours instead.

i read about the ottoman turks from SotW and we did lots of chit chatting too, all sitting in the shade in the garden by the rabbits. Unfortunately, our rabbits have acquired digging! Skittles is now 19.5 weeks and Snowy is 15.5 weeks, and female spaying usually happens between 4 and 6 months, vet dependent, so will need to keep an eye on how old they are!

general playing in the garden, an ice cream break! SB wrote some of her journal

we blew some bubbles and then SB noticed a baby bird too young to fledge on the ground near the wisteria. Chris had noticed a birds nest there before – putting a bit of a hold on window, and i had seen whiskey cat looking suspicious there earlier, before i shooed away. so we carefully got bird to hop onto some cardboard and then into a box, which we had rabbit hay some suet treat bird food and partially closed in the shade near the nest so it could calm down. when i went back to check, it was calmer and chirping, so i opened the box, tho it couldn’t get out, and put on ground nearish nest, and we looked to see if a mummy bird popped by at all. to our delight she did, shew s roughly where the nest may be, and after a number of false runs, did at least 3 feeding runs in our presence. phew! chris was due back, so we left as is, as he knew where nest was to pt back, and i didn’t want to disturb any other babies.

SB did some mathletics, which she says chris has started her on too easy a level. i dunno which.

BB trailed with me as i made the dinner requested by bb on the BBC vegetarian summer magazine – basically cheesy potato, broccoli, cauliflower and pea. was yummy! chris returned and placed baby bird in nest [removing a dead chick] and we saw several more feeding runs, so all ok. He also sorted out the concrete slabs under the rabbit run as we can’t have them on grass now they burrow. seems v mean! ate yummy dinner in front of bang goes the theory, and there you are, the end of the home ed day. bedtime stories of the children of green knowe for SB and an usborne puzzle book for BB. no idea any more if typical, but we enjoyed each others company, when played together, talked together and learnt together.

and yes, i do plan to add a few photos!

addendum – looking for the link on amazon, i find that this is based upon a house in hemingford grey. when we have read the books, we may go and visit [by appointment only] anyone else likely to read the books and want to visit??

where are we! i am blogging, so must be wednesday! so, so far this week, monday apparently at 2 days ago is unknowable! AH yes, primarily ballet exam, practicing for it, doing it, and then ballet lesson and some playing at the park. sylvanians spread over the floor suggest possible play! BB loving her new colouring book

SB did a viola prac with me and clarinet. i can’t believe how happy she is with the viola! again, i am not to play it so i am not! looking at the blogring we are gaining quite an orchestra! but she still has the good posture [more or less] she had on the violin, and the easy playing style. i plan to just let her get on with it, and then, if she carries on, suggest either a teacher, or allowing me to start! as always she loves the clarinet [tho wants to take up oboe when older! - i forsee someone who can play grade 1 on loads of instruments!] and is trying to practice more as got into the training band at holiday orchestra – woohoo!! and also gamelan and djembe drumming, so def v happy. we watched the first of the last of doctor who as well. i do like rory [sad but true!]

SB in partic had a good home ed day yesterday, seemed to have done lots of bits and pieces, clarinet, maths, english – galore park, french – collins, DK project book – the body as well as swimming – getting the certificates, and the new dance class [which bb isn't going to again] luckilly i wasn’t too late back from work, as DH had lost the house key whilst out, and they were on the drive waiting for me… BB did some reading to me of 1a magic key books. and i read to her, and more dinosaur colouring. we also made some scones together whilst SB at dance. these were semi-disastrous as i used a new to me recipe adjsted to be dairy free, i will not be using it again!

wed – ie today – we went pond dipping – woohoo!! and with the manor borns and le ciel rouge. we managed to meet up in a timely fashion, even tho i thought we would be late due to granting a cookie making wish of bb’s. even better, the place had its own longer nets and trays, so off we set after a restorative cup of tea. found somewhere to be dipping and started. we did really well! some red mites, damsel nymph, leeches, lesser and greater boatmen, newtpoles [lol], shrimpy things, sqiggley things and freshwater mussels. the fish were too fast for us. after a fair bit of dipping, then we had our lunches. hmmm, bakery fail! Z ate my scone with home made jam, bt clotted cream for watirose, bt michelle nearly died eating it, so was relieved of the effort i didn’t think it was sooo bad, jst a bit heavy! SB ate loads of mark 2 anyway. more pond dipping, bt some of the newtings had demised duje to getting too hot, and us not tipping them back into big water . then the girls did some drawing of what they had found. the manor borns left, we wandered back to cafe not that long after for ice creams and cold drinks – did i say it was sweltering?? cos it was! Z and i had plenty of time to chat whilst children [crazy loons] payed on the outside exercise stuff. V proud of BB as now happy to go on zipwire all on own, and v proud of SB for being so helpful and just all round lovely.

we nipped back to z’s to see where they lived and be nosy – yes, fab extension! v jealous of open plan kitchen, and hopefully will go back for longer! [if bb's enormos tantrum at leaving hasn't pt you off!!] BB fell asleep fairly instantly in car, whilst SB and i sang along to italian. sb had brownies, the pair of them jdo, but also investigating a couple of new books, BB loves the music theory and sb the scientists book and then second part of doctor who. ok, so how did he escape? hey??? and rory, ahhhhhh

sorry about that. and the h key is sticking, so having to remember to give it a jolly good thump! [if the word looks odd, see if it is missing an h!]

so , where are we – reads blog to check! o yes. forgot to say:

tues, SB got her 9a and 9b swimming
wed, she got presented her judo green/white belt
thurs she did something well at gym, but i can’t remember :blush:

she has tried hard with ballet practice, so i am really keeping fingers crossed she does alright in the exam, but… she has stubbed toes and twisted ankles non stop this week, and TBH, fairly certain she broke end of toe on thurs when dropped mayonaiise jar on it… anyway, she has worked hard for it, so hoping she goes ok. it is her grade 3!

i guess generally bits of home ed happened, bit of tidying up, extra ballet class etc on friday, and soon after i got home thebabs and family arrived = woohoo! we made sure to get the kids fed and watered this time before we got started gaming – alhambra, the children played outside, went on the wii, and were finally shooed up to bed to ds/sleep according to preference! they were somewhat disappointed that they couldn’t make jam and crumble with the wild plums they had harvested from the garden!

they still woke up early! i went into work, and then met up with them all at a historical reenactment fair going on near where i worked. it was soooo hot! i found them all in the shade lunching, so joined them, then we wandered around the encampment a bit, peered at some stalls, wailed that too hot [bb!] and then watched a reenactement of hereward the wake beating the normans. we were refreshed at that point with icecream or freshly made lemonade but although we fancied seeing the last reenactment thingy, we were all just far to hot and made our way home. luckilly paddling pools were supplied with freezing water, and children cooled down and recovered equanimity! loved watching the younger 3 ds supermario bros. laughed and laughed and laughed! the bigger 2 nade a wild plum. apple and fruit that needed using up crumble, pretty much all by themselves, which was yummy, and the younger 2 made wild plum jam, pretty much all by me – which was also yummy!! kids then sat infront of spiderwick chronicles after dinner, whilst we played another game! [v lucky not to be called into work!]. we used the interactive deck of agricola, and my hand was dreadful, so i admit to having a slight grump! i do love agricola, but only after about the second or third round, as always feel daunted before that!

when i went into work this morning not a dickybird [or child] was stirring! which is most unusual! they had when i returned tho – mixture of outside paddling pool, sylvanians, ds and wii play i think. geocaching as an option had been discarded due to the too hot factor. i facepainted 3/5 – and actually thought the flower/hummingbird far more successful than anticipated. BB seriously flagging tho. guests left 2ce and still forgot something SB did ballet prac, watched bang goes the theory, snaffled all the remaining toblerone bits, and went to bed [in a protracted kind of way] i am now going to bed too, but had a suprisingly quiet on call weekend [well, i still am on call, so shouldn't speak too soon!] and lovely guests, enjoyed by all. thanks for visiting.

not sure what happened on monday! girls did things?? ah yes, it was an HE gym session, and also SB ballet class. tues was mostly tidying the house [rofl] and a golf lesson, then in the eve swimming for both, but unfortunately BB doesn’t want to carry on the dance class after all, as she felt it was a bit too busy for her. SB enjoyed it though! And we were joined by the manor borns – well, 2/3 of them anyway! and it was lovely, and distracted me from being maudlin with a 1 year since little nanny died. I still v much miss little nanny, who was such a big part of my life, but she had a full life, full of laughter, fun and love as well as her share of tragedy to overcome. My sadness at her passing has been overtaken by my worry for my sister, but she is not at all forgotten.

the girls all played beautifully together, and we adults chatted – to way into the night in the end – a bit naughty, and left me a sluggard in bed the next morning. but i did manage to drag myself out of bed, and then set out some science. we did a young scientists kit on surface tension, which worked really well, and was a v bubbly mess! i think the boat bit was the most fun… SB had a half size viola arrive in the post – an ebay bargain! and she had great time playing that, and c played her old violin, which i nearly offered for her to take home… lunch was made ready and eaten – not pasta! michelle and i expended effort blowing up the pools, and then the girls had a great time splashing about. SB raced off for ballet prac, BB nd C then did some watercolour pencils and painting and general playing before SB returned, and then all 3 of them went off to Judo. simple tea and a late departure of the manor borns, who i hope had an easy drive home!!

now i am off to bed, after a lovely, rejuventing day

soo, what have we been doing?

well, the girls have added another thing to their schedule! BB decided she was old enough to do ballet, but the class time in the village was wrong for us. however, also in the village there is modern/latin dance class, which happens to fit. it’s an hour long, so we wondered how BB would go, but she loved it, and has been showing us the cha-cha-cha since! SB thought it sounded good, so is doing it as well! BB has also decided to add in judo, but wants to start this term before SB moves up. SO current standing SB: mon ballet, tues swimming and ‘modern’, wed brownies and judo, thurs gym, fri alt week golf 1:1. BB: tues swimming and modern, wed ? judo [?? might try rainbows again]

SB has done some ballet and music theory practice for respective exams. more worried about the ballet than music theory… she has done lots of colouring in of the victorian house [as has BB]

and a few bits and pieces, but i think having a pause after a full on home ed week last week! we have continued on with SoTW, falling a bit behind with maths i think [she is on singapore 4A] but has decided to give mathletics a go after visiting the deependers. BB has done a bit of letter work, and her reading is definitely easier now! [we are still cvc-ing!] we are enjoying the songbirds books tho. they seem to suit her!

so onto today. latinetc! the main business was music theory with gina, as exam this sat [eek!] i think she will pass if reads question properly! i took BB and L to play with waves whilst the others were theorising! and they worked v nicely together. We had been asked to bring some ‘classics’ books, and when theory was finished, i detailed c into reading. later in latin, they did reenact some of them.

I also took along these, which i think are fabulous, but better for an adult to read to child. really well written, and we have certainly enjoyed them and i highly recommend!

did wave and water experimentation with the older group, and this went down well, and they looked at most of the various properties we could assess – and some additional things besides!! chris joined us – in from his speed awareness course [tut tut!] and a bit of french that was a lovely time! SB had a balet prac for the dnce as part of the carnival, but judo cancelled [to bb's disappointment]. i was grumpy with all as had to clean out rabbit hutch – second time ina row, and SB [with BB a bit] are supposed to keep an eye on that! rabs are happy and healthy tho, and still friendly!

BB and i did some more sciency things – we did some of her primary electronics kit – i watch to make sure she doesn’t short circuit, but she hasn’t yet! and then made some bouncy balls from the elastics kit. we are now watching the oddly accented [ie american] disney animal robin hood!

ok, the productiveness tailed off a bit towards the end of the week, but it was good while it lasted!
for our weekend we went for a mini camp in the peak district to do some cycling.

campsite v reasonable, and we chose the flat lower field even tho it looked like a rowdy group there! [they were, but i wasn't that bothered, would be much MUCH worse if they strummed a guitar] apparently 6 tents complained, and they lost some deposit money. but actually looked like a reasonable place to have a group camp. the bottom field had some more tucked away camping places, and also lots of trees and mounds of earth for the girls to run about in!

we took the new-to-us minnesota 4, which was remarkably easy up! it was plenty big enough for a weekender, and was waterproof when it rained. slightly more condensation than i am used to , but guess that is the SIG and the fact it is smaller! the mesh doors would have let in less bugs if chris had remembered to shut them! anyway!!!

so sat we did some lovely cycling along the tissington trail to parsley hay, and then back along some of the high peak trail. it was only a gently cycle, as a family affair, but it was about 9 miles. and i loved the trails! we did geocache along the way, but only found 1 of 3. we didn’t have the clues with us, and TBH, we liked the wind in our hair cycling, so limited search time. the one we found was pretty easy, and released BB’s ammonite there. she is hoping it might go to places where fossils found, and even have a pic or 2 beside fossils. you never know! i think it would be cool to be found one day by any of our geocaching friends! [ooh, jut updating that it has already been picked up!!] we exchanged some beautiful marbles for a balloon – think that offsets the pinecone for pony! the stop at hartington for lunch had a signal box to explore, and icecream and tea… the parsley hay had a v good kiosk cafe!! nothing like an inducement when cycling! but my fav bit was sb and i setting off back down the high peaks, nearly reaching 20mph as we whizzed along! fab views and fab weather.

i’m not a natural athlete, but look, i am happy!

bye bye to BB’s travelbug

the next day we were not quite so succesful with the weather! we decamped and set off to do part of the manifold trail. we took the winding path route from hulme end to the cafe, but soaking rain caused us to take the quiet road back, which was at least much faster! the views there beautiful in a perfectly bucolic way! on the way back, i saw nothing, as had to remove glasses to see at all… [-3.5] BB was unhappy as not only drenched, but the trailgator made sure she was covered with a decent amount of mud from chris… we did stop briefly to find a geocache, but the rain was unrelenting, and BB lost the will to live. we pedalled furiously back to hulme to find that we were a bit too late for cafe, and so stripped off girls in car and dressed in pj’s. i stripped off in public loos and used driers on some of my damper areas! a v bedraggled girl and mum came into do similar. i also had ‘camping p’s’ as replacement clothes. finally we were all dryish and in car. thank goodness for flask of coffee and fruit and nut chocolate!!

before the rain

this is halfway back, sheltering in the tunnel, and then the rain became *really* heavy!

sometimes my blog must read like school at home, and maybe sometimes like an untrusting unschooler! but i do believe still that we ed SB in a child led fashion, and BB autonomously! ANd this week, with a music theory and a ballet exam coming up, focusing on that has led SB to be rather productive in her work! she has certainly worked hard at both ballet and music theory, and ‘in the working groove’ has been careering across her potentials sheet to do 18 of the possibles. quite a lot of music prac, some grammar, some languages, bit of maths, bit of history, and obviously lots of reading! good for her! And so BB has also been gripped by the productive flow – in her own inimitable manner! i have given both SB and BB a bit of a long overdue piano lesson.

today is a latinetc day, but with a bit of a serious reduction in numbers. so it seemed pretty quiet, and we merged the groups. i did music theory, and had to admit to not feeling at all comfortable with quarternotes etc, so we had to do the crotchet, quaver etc. but think i didn’t ruin too much of gina’s previous work… i thought science would be more fun than it was. i wonder if the reduced assembly reduced the pleasure? or because i had already enjoyed doing music theory, i had ‘run out’ a bit for science? it did work tho – more or less, might relook at trying to watch the waves!! certainly having an OHP so we could look at waves on the ceiling was fun. and the pyrex dish and pushing pencils made it work well. hmmmm. a latin play from all but BB [ ] some french and then a moan and groan from me to adult companions! and the day was done.

home and chris has now finished some rabbit hutchery stuff, so rabses are in new palace and seem v happy. Sb wanted to finish her grammar book, but couldn’t find it. i declined to help, so she faffed about with maths – for nearly 2 hours! [tho if she hadn't faffed, i imagine she would have completed what she did in perhaps a quarter of that time - lol!] BB also did some maths, some writing, some aggravating parents and narrowly escaping being caged with the rabbits… and then made a fab pass the parcel which we all played later. finally she settled down with some felting after half heartedly opening and starting numerous half finished crafts and she needle felted me a pumpkin face! SB by now at brownies and then judo. BB has decided she is nearly old enough to go to things, so would like to do trampolining, dance and maybe rainbows. finished the evening with bang goes the theory, and SB and i have now started the 4th bagthorpe book, having finished the flavia gemina: fugitive of corinth

SB had an absolutely fab time at her PGL holiday. it was a 5 day one, and she said it scored 9/10 and she would quite like to do the week next time as they didn’t do any swimming costume things… her favourite bits were the high swing thing she and maddy screamed down together, and the vertical challenge. she said the high wires were tamer than centreparcs. they loved building and floating the raft! the food was awful tho [she said, though the leek and potato soup nice]. she said the ppl supposed to enforce lights out told them as long as they weren’t wild they could have fun, so her room chatted way into the night, and she said the other 2 girls in the room were v nice. [only one shower required! - lol] it was a success! like all things, a few hiccups – a badly sprained ankle and a couple of more rowdy boy types.

we missed her tho, and were really really happy to see her back! and BB, who had been at nanna’s and had a trip to hunstanton on the bus. aww. so sat was mostly cuddling, reading and gen calming down [so a fair number of blast labs and horrible histories as well as me reading sotw and beowulf. played with rabbits etc etc!!

today SB did some music theory [exam coming up!] was excused ballet prac [exam coming up!] read some french, listened to me read a number of box books played with rabbits, and then BB decided she wanted a blue peter badge, so the ed ante ramped up! so we prepared something to say about a dinosaur pic for a blue badge, and we prepared a bit about her sowing dwarf golden french beans, and her being a golden french bean [lol] with some pictures as well, and then went to submit. horror of horrors, you have to be over 6. i submitted anyway in the end, let blue peter take the responsibility for her screeches!! so SB decided she should to, and has written out beautifully something about nature watching, which we will add pictures to and send as a green badge entrance and fingers crossed. not sure if via their website or by post the best??

now i am playing agricola online, and losing v bady!! rofl!!

i have got massively behind in flickring, but thought i would put a few photos up of things the girls have done.

SB did some felting, she hoped it would look a bit like van gogh style flowers, which it did before the felting process! we live and learn!

BB went for an apple tree, and got a bit distraught that they moved around, though was happy with the finish

SB did some marvelous baking

and BB did a fab picture of a dinosaur in watercolour pencils, which she sent off to dinomite magazine in the hopes it would be featured [fingers crossed!]