Author Archives: HHaricot

today should have been latinetc, but my persistent migraine problem became too great today to go out unnecessarily, and although i had been looking forward to seeing friends and enjoy the wed, i bailed out, sorry. i really try hard not to bail out of things due to migraine, but it just wasn’t going to work.

so, to catch up, SB has decided to do 40 things on her list this wee – something of a challenge i think! partly because she didn’t do any the week before, i said that wasn’t true, clarinet x 2, art x 1 craft x 1, planetarium could count as science [she demurred, trips are extra, not part of the count] the geocaching walk, playing the recorder? well, we agreed on 7! this is no big deal to me, as i keep stressing, that although n mature i like lists and ticking them off, this is SB’s process. just that if she is going to do it, she has to do it fairly [ie not tick off things she hasn't done] and properly [ie do what would be considered a ‘reasonable amount’ of something in a ‘best effort’ kind of way – ie no 2 second pencil scribble and call it art. she can do those of course, but counting means it needs to *count*, ie try reasonably hard to draw, or render an idea – abstract or concrete. i guess, to me, it is a lot behind the thought, that quality is more important, to try and reduce the desire just to see ticks? Anyway, for whatever reason, she has determined 40 is the number! She made a good start on Monday, doing a spread of 6 different things, less on tues as it was such an out and about day, and another good day of 6 things today. i know i could check on her chart what they are for the week, but i only know todays – maths, galore park science – which she is starting to realise how the book works to look for answers etc, and is finishing magnets, verbal reasoning [still 7-8 level is the right one for her here, spelling is the problem!], story of the world – henry 8 for the hampton court tie in! piano practice, box book and craft. BB also did some reading practice and singpore maths earlibird 2a. she is a bit of a monkey about reading, and is currently resistant, so still going on the v slow. i have a sneaky suspicion she will just do it behind our backs, not the least because today after completely failing to identify the s in six until i said, come on, it is in your name… oh, its that one then, s… she then found i and after me saying any guesses at the last one, she rolled her eyes at me and told me it was an ex. of course, she then made the word ixie! [knowing it would spell a number ]

but actually, in the morning, when i was trying to look alive whilst simultaneously slumping semi recumbent [or semi rutus] on the sofa, they decorated the christmas tree. they have elected not to have a tree in the playroom this year, as chris told them they would have to tidy the room before he would buy one [why i think i can give tidying advice to jax i have no idea!! ] anyway, so i thought about it, and since we are having one tree, its the girls tree decorated to their taste! we have loads of baubles and bits for 2 trees now, so have kept most of ‘mine’ packaged up, but did let them get out the 2 new sets i bought in the jan sales, and some of the angels. the tree is covered in decs, and looks absolutely fab. girls wer v pleased with their efforts. it smells lovely too!

after lunch, i made a valiant effort to interact more, rather than just being admiring! so i got out christmas craft from yellow moon! we painted with glass paints some dangly christmas themed things, and then some plastic tat things. the prob with the plastic was that i didn’t look at instructions suggesting acrylic first, and we 2 all sat down to paint, my poster paints worked fine, Sb’s did too, but BB’s… total melt down disaster. in the end sb [bless her] washed BB’s clean, and once she had done the glass painting one she was happy to start again with acrylic, luckilly successfully! funny girl copied my father christmas exactly, then came to the tree and told me i had done it wrong, as the tree one i was copying [actually i wasn't!] has green trousers. ah well! SB is much more individualistic, and hers is obviously aya napa party santa! both girls spent a lot of time and effort getting them to look how they wanted, we had carols in the background, and it was a lovely relaxing [mostly] 3 hours.

At the end, they wanted to know if they could go and feed rabs a treat, and we had to own up to rabs being missing since last night. we have said likely a call of the wild and rabs off with the local wild ones. hmmm. so we watched some wallace and grommet and had a snuggle followed by disney robin hood.

we decided to go the long route home from the christmas camp, via hampton court, staying at a premier inn. now, we don’t stay at premier inns, or any other kind, particularly often, perhaps 1ce a year! but BB asked if they were the moon ones, as they are her favourite. [yes!] we made good time, so spent the afternoon at hampton court, having been invited to the royal wedding. we had planned to attend the royal wedding in the summer, with more of the actors and spectacle, but the summer wasn’t as planned really! we still enjoyed it, and perhaps more as there were v few fellow guests, so got to feel important. SB wasn’t entirely sure that the actor wasn’t really HR, as he was big, slightly grumpy, and def had ‘a presence’. BB was persistantly reassured!! but we enoyed it a lot and also the bits on the side about dressing for court, who could wear what etc. both girls thought the bumroll and codpieces funny [haven't told them that bob has a codpiece too ] and the detachable fancy skirts a good idea. when henry and kateryn went off to consummate, we went off for a hot choc and then back to hotel, as with migraine only just under control, felt better to not risk it! usually high standard of room, good night sleep and early start, though opted for big breakfasts, and SB ate as if she had been starved for a week!

so the next day we got there with a plan, the girls wanted to look at the garden and the maze, then the kitchens and sb wanted to do william III’s rooms. so that is mostly what we did, tough did stop at the info bit and pick up some ‘worksheets’ which are actually more fun booklets than dull write things here sheets! we went into the display on the changing face of hampton court, and did loads of talking around things. the statues in the garden are all wrapped up against the cold, which made us giggle a bit! nice lunch at the tiltyard cafe, and race around the maze and on to henry’s kitchens. thought these v nicely presented, and the booklet thingy worthwhile. SB got to turn the spit a bit, and BB pretended her hand was a rat for me to catch could have done with a couple of labels in places. really emphasised the warrenness of the palace, and the fact it mimicked an undercover town in places – v odd, and so unlike the various castles and french palaces. we spent ages there before going to William’s suites. we had seen the dolls house version, so could put that into ‘real life’ but bb started to flag and at 3.30, we thought we had prob seen enough, tho i missed out on the young henry exhibition! a quick shop stop = knights plastic armour for bb [ecstatic] and a horrible history sticker book for SB. noticed more puppetry, but i am going to buy mine from play merrily!

home far too late and realised we had missed judo party, so SB sad.

today was mostly come down after camp, had considered christmas at audley end, but felt a day in was required! we did some christmas crafting tho – candle dipping!!

we went to christmas camp last week with loads of friends. allways a much looked forward to event! we had plenty of cakes and snacks to contribute, and also birthday party stuff for BB, and secret santa stuff for the pretend christmas day! SB had done some fab baking herself, and everyone complimented her or me on her millionaires shortbread as well as cookies.

monday was BB’s ‘party’ and she was v happy with the party games, the prizes and the dalmation birthday cake. she was also lucky enough to receive a variety of lovely presents – i think she just about murmured a thankyou to at least one family member of each of the families giving gifts! the children stayed up late, and the adults even later, catching up with friends and gossiping!

for the adults there was lots of chatting – friend based, advice based and also political – particularly around the shameful eo debacle; game playing – caylus, race to the galaxy and agricola; and just general chilling! the children played in v fluid groups and really nicely, there seemed to be a mix of big groups and then splitting to smaller groups or dyads and then rejoining – all v friendly and natural. SB had a great time, playing with everyone she wanted to! i saw her dsing, racing around, game playing, small dyad playing in private, all seemed v v happy and so i was too. BB took a little longer to warm up, but also enjoyed playing in the bigger group of littlies, with gwenny [aww] and particularly with J from SoTP – v cute!!

crafting was mainly done on the tuesday, with crafts brought by wednesday friends and em in the morning and then by merry and me as TA in the pm. i loved helping with the sorting, painting and stringing up, but the glueing was particularly tedious due to the pva rather than uhu! anyway, they were fab kits! similar to these in fact, and there were lots of puppet games thereafter! chris took the girls and any others for a bike ride as well.

wednesday was a trip out to the south downs planetarium. unfortunately the satnav postcode doesn’t take you there, so we were late. the other unfortunate thing is that one of the rudest volunteers on this planet works there, and was particularly sarcastic and snide and really spoilt the whole trip for at least 1 person, and seriously annoyed several others… but the actual planetarium show was fabulous. we really enjoyed it, and the chap doing it was v skilled in both that and the questions afterwards. Liked SB’s question, which was on whether if you had a big enough star its light could escape black hole. we went off with merry and family for a restorative cafe lunch in chichester in a crypt. lovely food, great behaving girls, and think a charming elderly couple were convinced we were mormons! back intime to get veggie curry going [yum, my favourite!] and watch the talent show, despite merry’s rather temperamental [or just plain mental] satnav! i was really proud of SB playing her clarinet, as she can’t have had it much more than a month [will check back in blog and see] and crazy play by some of the other girls had us in stitches.

thursday is pretend christmas – yes!! lots of fun, a walk across the downs [i am migrainous so stay behind with bb] chatting, baby cuddling etc etc. getting dinner started, putting the world to rights etc etc! kiddies watch a film whilst we adults continue with serious chatting elsewhere! then carols. i love carols, but this year, when playing the carol cd’s for the first time on the way down to sussex i just howled with grief, that this is the first christmas without little nanny, and that it is little nanny’s christmases that set my personal bar and template for what christmas should be. i really really miss little nanny. and that this year my sister will be in florida for christmas, and whilst i am really happy she is having the holiday of a lifetime, i will miss this too… so it was good to play carols altogether in fun and happiness, getting a way for everyone to join in – thank goodness for jan, as i have no clue whatsoever about guitars! christmas dinner done with minimal fuss and angst, and secret santas went with great joy and happiness, we were all happy with both what we gave and what we received – must be the best way really! packed a tired bb into bed, and suggested to sb that if we didn’t notice her, we wouldn’t chase her… [1 am!!] final game play and chatting eve, and sorry to nic and asilon that a maudlin moment was nearly had!

friday a pack up and away, not too painful for anyone but me, miserable with migraine. i do so hate having migraines. sad to be at the end of the week so quickly, waving everyone good bye. thanks to nic and ady for organising, as well as the variety of friends, helpers etc that make it all work

oh, dear, having checked prev post – a longgg time ago!
lets see, well,
thurs would have been nots and tots, with clarinet/recorder ?philosophy?? gym later on.
friday should have been an art session, but the home ed group was locked out, so went to an activity place instead and had loads of fun! loads of baking. various cakes, buns for the camp the next week, and finishing the secret santa gifts.

saturday we had arranged to meet up with a friend from schooldays who i haven’t seen since!we saw a lot of each other at school, doing many of the same subjects, but mostly bcause we both play violin and hared a desk for most of our school days – with lots of giggles as i remember!a lot has changed for both of us since then, and we hadn’t kept up at all, but the wonder of fb reintroduced us! [in a strange but true roundabout way as well!! we agreed to meet up at stanwick lakes, which took us less time than we thought it would, as convenient for her and family, nd looked a good place to cycle. we caught up, had a walk ate some lunch and it was remarkably easy for a 20 year gap!! we won’t leave it so long next time either! after they had gone, our girls were desparate for a cycle ride, so we cycled around before coming home.

sunday was another baking and making and doing day, finally being all ready for camp. sb did 37 of her items this week, and so is v proud! bb did 9.

ha ha i thought, how shall i make science invigorating, fun and accessible for all [is that being inclusive?]. I know, use sweeties!! but i get ahead of myself. we nearly didn’t make it, as BB had a complete wobble about going out. i am wondering if the family news has made her more wobbly, certainly SB has had uncharacteristic nightmares and sleep disturbance? anyway, wobble resolved and out we went. most of our journeys we are listening to salut serge in the car as both sb and bb like the catchy tunes, and bb joins in. i prob need a volume 2 for sb, but can’t see what that would be? the prob with salut serge is that most of the time at the mo i am singing these blasted catchy tunes!!!

the littlies group worked best, as it was simplified most. we made ‘mushrooms’ with proper filter paper and a wick, placed 3 different smudges of m and m colouring spaced around the centre, and then popped the wicks in the water. hey presto, it worked!! for the bigger group i had given them a proper testtube, filter maper instructions sheet, but their filter paper wasn’t so good, so the ‘affinity for paper’ was much greater than the ‘affinity for water’ but we had a good chat about what should happen, the technical words and the littlies results!! it was a bit difficult for me as bb was being v much attached by the umbilical cord! [a klingon as katy would say!], but as soon as i could give her attention, she skipped away merrily [grr] and did some beautiful sewing with merry, as did SB for their samplers. Also today was music and poetry with gina and latin and parachute games with katy. all v much enjoyed. BB did a clarinet session with gina, and is loving it and getting on nicely. must take clarinet next time we visit mum for a ‘masterclass’ – and today i got to have a good chat with the grown ups too – always nice! was really proud of SB when she sacrificed watching a film with the majority of children to go and keep the child who didn’t want to watch it company – though she said all she got to do was watch him ds, she knows a bit more about that game but i love the sensitivity she shew there. hugs for SB!

we returned in time to get sb to brownies – i drove her to the wrong venue, she skipped in, i drove off, and one of the owls had to take her to the right place and then took her back to judo! ah well, it will no doubt be put on my slate of parental misdeeds!! BB meanwhile was initially doing her k’nex dinosaurs she got for her birthday – she is really careful at joining these together, and v good at following the pattern – but refused to let me play :sob: nor was i allowed to play when she played with her doggies, making up stories for them about rabbitty babbity and turtle wurtle!! [v cute]

curry watching life in the freezer on SB’s return. i have still failed to sort out the personnel thingy crisis at work, coming at it from all angles tho!

monday was a catching up day. both girls did a reasonable bit of formal HE. SB some end of 3B workbook1, some schofield and simms grammar, some galore park science on magnets and piano practice, and BB did some french and before the code. BB then did her rather fab birthday kit of a dinosaur puppet, which i would highly recommend. she glued and painted for ages – though not finished yet, will try and get her to finish so we can show it off!! both had some great fun ds-ing together.

Then Chris took BB to his parents for a sleepover, and I took SB to ballet for her last lesson of the term, which is an open class. She looked really happy and confident, and the next exam is june or nov, so with the occasional extra practice, hoping she will be ok this time. i think last time i managed to go was the one after her broken foot – so obviously not her best one! SB and I then had a girls night in, with her choosing tea, and then we played settlers of catan – which she is currently enjoying a lot, before bedtime stories and then chris back.

tues – well hopefully chris is going to blog his and SB’s day in london and visiting the british museum montezuma exhibition.

it has been ages since we did an RSPB walk. the last one was cancelled due to various ailments, and the current one looked a bit iffy on the weather front. we thought we would give it a go though! we wrapped up v warm, took a flask of soup, and set off! miracle of miracles, the driving rain, biting winds and near sleet of it changed to sunshine! just in time for the manor borns to join us. it was perfect weather for a late autumn/early winter walk. the light was ‘just right’ and SB and C raced away whilst bb and i played hide and seek. its a ‘new route’ and i think we all thought it lovely. it did lead us to a previous infamous route, containing not only the most disappointing toad pond, but also the site of ‘brickie’ who is still there!! SB found some overwintering ladybirds in a fallen down tree, there were lots of mushrooms, some deer markings and just generally a lovely walk with lovely company. BB had a bit of a wail when she got her trousers wet but, bless her, she did recover from this, and she did walk the whole walk. so both girls got an icecream [yes, it was cold!]

we repaired back to the manor for another fab meal by marcus – we hadn’t got ourselves organised enough to remember a desert. C had made some delish focaccia bread as well, and many complements gained. good food, good company and then a retreat home. lovely!

how did that go so quickly! love you, oh wild one!