Category Archives: daubing and making

[ser]vile Victorians

Posted on November 3, 2010 by HHaricot | 3 comments

we went on a fab home ed group organised trip today to Burghley House for a Victorian servant experience. it was fabulous. Le ciel rouge were also there. We had a blast! the girls all dressed up, and over half of the other children had too. I was partic proud of SB’s costume and BB wore her pinny. We did have to get up at 7.30 – which was a shock to the system!!

First we had an introduction and heard a bit about various different servants, their jobs and what they would earn. then we were shown around the main house [no pics] which was really good. partic loved the kitchens and all the artwork Was very proud of SB, going round, asking questions and showing things to BB, and to BB for being so well behaved A very interesting tour of a very interesting place. We then went to the second bit, which was looking at a variety of items commonly used by servants in the Victorian times. SB and BB keen to pick some up and show around. Z and i did wonder if t41 would have approved of the ‘that’s a good question’ training.

Lunch time and we were all gasping for a cup of tea and food! unfortunately no chairs to sit on! In fact, it was cold stone slabs!! eek! After eating we went to our first afternoon session which was making fab sculptures out of wire. Unfortunately the session was a bit too short, meaning SB didn’t finish, and BB got stressed until i made the correct [after some trial and error on my part!] design xmas tree for her to hang baubles from. i also had a go, a butterfly on a flower. A really excellent session from a v hands on sculptor. Wish it could have had another half an hour.

The final session was also great, doing some servant chores, tho many reproducible at home All the girls started with polishing saddles and shoes, then using lemon juice to clean copper, the bigger girls then wrote letters, and BB did all the rest and dictated a letter to me. The chap leading was v knowledgeable and it was only that we were flagging at the end of the day and requiring cups of tea that made us want the day to end Children also tired, and BB fell asleep in car on way home [ok and me]. BB recovered at home with some old dr who, SB has had brownies and judo and has done a short piano prac [broken cords and trudging, her worst things still, and she doesn't want to change piece - it will be fine!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Another Artetc

Posted on November 1, 2010 by HHaricot | 1 comment

We gate-crashed Le Ciel Rouge and Merry’s regular art monday today following a piano prac for SB [i think she is fed up practicing for her exam tho ] and we weren’t too late, even tho i was doing the classic home educators trick of answering so many questions in the car that I realised we had gone the wrong way . Today was focussing on Klee and Matisse, and one of the advantages of being a gatecrasher was that I didn’t have to organise anything, just enjoy

The first bit was tissue paper pictures, which were great. I was surprised to see how similar my girls pics were tho [photos to be added when have finished blogging, then flickring!] As BB did a pyramid, and SB a fab tent in campsite. Children then had a bit of a play and we had the traditional pasta lunch before we did the adapted djeco klee craft kit that my girls have done and found fab in the past. Since we have done this together, I suggested each of them used their imaginations with the colouring and blending to complete them this time. BB did one blend, then declined. She really doesn’t like messy hands

final craft was fimo, in a cut in shapes workshop from merry, slightly matisse inspired, but also using this book

which isn’t one of mine, but is very tempting as it has loads of fab ideas in it. It is hovering around my amazon basket at the moment – but very little is escaping it, having done the finances last week [eek and wail!]. both my girls did a very diff style, BB’s being a far more literal and object referenced approach, and SB really getting the hang of cutting and swapping the pieces a la matisse. The other children did some really fab fimoing too, so we adults felt the need to join in. Mine, far miore like BB, and not really in the right style [oops] but I did enjoy doing it. I *need* all those cutters – lol! [have just spent a happy time filling a basket on craftmerrily, but like the amazon basket...] yes, I know, photos!! I loved hearing all the chitchat between the girls. in partic P, M and SB as one giggly group, adn BB and J having loads of fun together as well. tho BB did have a few minor melts when the fimo didn’t behave I do love that SB thinks about it, and then gets on in whatever plan she has made in her head. She isn’t a less is more girl either

Bade a fond farewell to Merry and Z, and drove SB to her ballet lesson, where she was v proud to be at the front as the step shower BB insisted we went to the park, and it was COLD!! eventually persuaded her back home to the warmth. SB brought back not too much later and we played settlers of catan together whilst BB ‘watched something’ and then BB and I played bohnanza whilst SB read aquila. we watched the second part of the Merlin, and then, bedtime.

This is my last week off work, so had fun today, and plan to fill the week. trying not to feel the anxiety in my shoulders and spreading. ho hum!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

relight my fire

Posted on October 27, 2010 by HHaricot | 3 comments

today was latinetc, and i had got a fun science all lined up! we were going to make oxygen – woohoo! and test for it. This completes a creating and testing for 3 gases – CO2, O2, H2 – series [yes, should really go for nitrogen, but it is trickier...] We’ll do it again no doubt in the future, but i emphasised the 3 and their tests today, and talked a fair bit about catalysts, being things that can make reactions go faster. We had hydrogen peroxide – which you can buy from a chemist cheaper than ebay [thankyou for t-bird for this nugget, only after i had purchased from ebay!] which will over time produce oxygen all by itself, faster if heated. But a catalyst will speed things up and make v much more ‘interesting’ . We had as our catalyst manganese dioxide – definitely going to be a winner, liver and kiwi fruit. [could use iron oxide but this doesn't do a lot, and lead oxide does do a lot, but i don't have any]. we put 15 mls of h202 with a bit of the catalyst [less than 1/4 tsp of the manganese dioxide] and a squirt of washing up liquid and some food colouring. it foams! we rated our catalysts in order of manganese oxide > liver > kiwi

The reaction is :
2H2O2(aq) -> 2H2O(l) + O2(g)
This is catalysed by a variety of transititional metal compounds and peroxidase enzymes found in many living things.

i also did an adapted genie in a bottle [as had less h202!] that i had practiced at home, so knew to be way safer!! still pretty dramatic, and we got to test for oxygen with glowing spills v successfully. [ps i had also given them my usual scary safety prep talk, we had safety specs, lab coats and gloves, and the foaming controls this a bit. I think we all enjoyed it [mind you, i did have to remind a most of the older group that safety specs are not so good if on the forehead rather than over the eyes ]

K did latin and french, Z did crafts – halloween and firework pics using oil pastels with a watercolour wash, and Merry did pasta and mastered K’s ecokettle! We are going to do the real science for kids next time, with all the children reading or having read to, chapter 1 of whichever level their parent thinks is ok, and then i am going to work out how we can model atoms in the interim, so we can each make one, and do some discussion around the periodic table and atomic weights as we do it.

SO after a bit of planning of groups, which K will tinker with and show and tinker with G, who wasn’t here today so needs to have an input, Merry went home, K did french and then we grown ups chatted as the children did a bit more craft. then we went geocaching for the elusive ones! and this time – fanfare – Z found it! still not quite where we thought it was going to be. SB led a group of children out of view, and BB got hurt, so was a bit cross with her for breaking cardinal rule of going somewhere that i didn’t know about out of eyesight and nearly earshot as well. . We then persuaded kfish to come to the next cache too, which i think she may have regretted… i had the coords only on iphone, which with classic timing ran out of charge when we most needed it [actually ] so Z rang chris and got coords, i had the gps which i don’t know how to use, and in the end kept marking waypoints and deleting them until they were more or less the coords. it was getting dark and looking a bit hopeless, so we gave up, but K and I spotted an interesting log arrangement, J investigated it, and tada!! a geotat cache! BB way too tired so i had a less than nice moment when little A – bless her – passed on what she had chosen mind you, we had had A in our car as she had had a moment too that she never got to go in other peoples cars. SHe and BB had a fab conversation which didn’t make 100% sense from the front… Though that was better than BB and L when i had those 2, who were on the cheeky end of the spectrum [not dreadfully, more mock outrage rather than actual required!!]

got home to find chris had tidied the front room and wrestled with putting the curtains up. oh i DO like a room with curtains!! we had chips, falling asleep half way through, and the rest of us watching a fab programme about optical illusions. now i plan to watch the apprentice on iplayer.

And yes, it is 2 months since my sister died, and have thought about her on and off all day.

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Posted in art and crafts, BB-PE, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, investigating, language, little languages, music, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

a setback

Posted on October 26, 2010 by HHaricot | 6 comments

TBH, although i had nightmares about it for the last few nights, i had hoped to be back at work and getting going again, however difficult. i had an occ health appointment, and i did a few of the objective tests, and she recommended not. slightly too anxious to be reliable on good decisions, and as she said, as soon as i start, the job takes no prisoners. i imagine the managers are going to be ecstatic so have 2 more weeks then a short phased return. hmmm. so, with that, and then the visit to gp for sicknote and then the emailing and phoning ppl that i had said last week i would be returning… we were nearly at lunchtime

SB, bless her, spent the morning in bed with a hurty head and tummy [reading avidly, so head can't be THAT hurty!] . she is so imprecise that it is difficult to work out why things hurt, but they seemed to get better when i got home… SHe finished reading the magicians nephew and is most of the way thro the lion, the witch and the wardrobe anyway. She snuggled up to me and did grammar before going to her bikeability session with chris. She really enjoyed this, and told me all the accidents other people had had, what they did, in that breathless it was great fun speech, and she has new boots
I love having snuggles anyway After her bikeability, she snuggled up with her galore park science too

Whilst SB off for her bikeability in the afternoon, BB and i did some bunny care – the little bunnies do look all cute and little and it is amazing how much less food is eaten, and correspondingly how much less poop there is . BB is such a cutie pie, and so adoring of the rabbits. We then did piano practice. BB has a current like of getting the metronome going and then making a funky rhythm with her 3 note repertoire. i love it must surreptitiously iphone vid it sometime [she usually stops!] and then she will sometimes do a bit of jibbedy f, but its up to her. She has a fairly natural musician flow, so i am working on just encouraging her to play, whatever, with the option of looking at new notes etc if she wants. it is really lovely to do together we then snuggled in the conservatory to read a fact book - i wonder why the sea is salty – together, and then we did some fimo. BB was making a fimo rabbit for her secret santa, but liked it so much, she is keeping it… this is not a surprise, she has kept the last 2 birthday presents she has made too

SB coming back and snuggling with me persuaded BB to do something on her own, and so she played falconer to her peregrin falcon cuddly, and that was v cute to watch. i do love watching the imaginative games . we finished the day with tea in front of horrible histories, each girl choosing a box book for getting the required number of ticks – bb v happy with a dinosaur maze book, and SB with the georgian horrible histories – the box set seems partic cheap currently

And i have watched a grand designs in falmouth – fab house! and then looked at videos of sis. But it was also a day of all those weird home ed conversations where lots of things flow on, and yet when you come to blog, you just can’t remember any of them!

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, noises and sounds, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Rabbit Robbed!

Posted on October 25, 2010 by HHaricot | 7 comments

well, ok we weren’t, we did give them away, but we are feeling bunny depleted!

Friday

as You have read, SB worked really hard on thurs so she could have a day of crafting etc on friday. unfortunately my failure to blog on friday has made me forget some of what we did :blush: but i know she did a piano practice and i am sure she did another something home-ed like! But the key thing she wanted to do was a papier mache head [i remember she did clarinet! did it before papier mache so as not to make clarinet sticky!]. She plans to be a headless something on halloween – must find the felt we have to make a very high collar cloak to hide her head [mostly!] anyway, we had balloon, paper and flour water, so the standard amount of mess was created

We then all moved on to baking. SB made a rather fab smoothy with honey, yoghurt and pears – mm mmmm! BB made some choc cookies – also lovely, and I made some choc rice crispie cakes. we even tidied up some of the mess

Chris, meanwhile, was scaring the living daylights out of me by clambering all over the roof to clear moss of places we think are leaking, and try and determine why. one is prob moss leading to spill over from the gutter, but another is uncertain still

Following that we did some more snuggling up together whilst drinking the smoothy, and then some fimo. i started reading SoTW 1, but due to phone call, SB took over and did the hammurabi rules with BB [giggle, BB signif scary!] and then before we knew it tbird and aprillia had arrived – woohoo!!

SO instantly bunny rules and were all out to adore the buns, Aprillia and tbird agreeing how gorgeous flopsy and fudge were, and all v happy so rabbit adoration, tea, more fimo-ing, and then girls made their own pizzas for tea. A fair bit more rampaging around before they were all confined to the bedroom – tho that didn’t mean sleep! we grown ups chatted and then also went to bed.

I was briefly diverted by reading a ‘mummy bloggers’ spat shock. Honestly, i am really not keen on the mummy blogger moniker, a bit eww and saccharine for me. most of the blogs i skimmed thro – linking from a good friend of mine – i found were just full of adverts and reviews or what seems to me very forced play ideas. not really a representation of being a mum or family life! And a quick peek thro the blogs just seemed too catty or too patty at the school gate when not being adverts are us. obviously these are the ‘big names’ in ‘mummy blogging’, are those making a living, which i don’t have a problem with, which are why all reviews and pretense and i am sure there are actually loads of real life blogs out there with the rather sugar coated mummy blogger moniker. But i think i will stick to being a little home ed blog of our days with the nice cosy home ed ring. I get plenty of ideas of reality from them and i will leave the paid blog world alone, well apart from harmony art mom, who i think combines income generation and real life in a very happy mix.

Saturday

we got up, got sarnies ready and were about to go out when rang by a work colleague about my return next week. I won’t say that i am looking forward to it, and have had nightmares last 3 nights, but feel i have been self indulgent taking time off – tho admit i had no real choice – and have to go back. he is a v supportive colleague and never knowingly makes me feel bad! but is a good barometer to measure what i should do against, and go back is right. lots of political changes afoot – never a good thing. i always wonder why we can’t just do the job we are good at – sigh – rather than have to defend and propose in areas that aren’t our forte. oh well! made us late out. I also had a migraine, so essentially quite seriously drugged up

We went to an egyptian festival of ideas event at girton college. we missed the start of the talk, otherwise i would have been a bit more insistant on it, so instead we went in the Lawrence museum, looked at the real mummy and the shabtis and a variety of anglo saxon grave goods. SB did a worksheet with aprillia, but BB had enough more quickly, so we went to the crafting area and she made her own air drying clay shabti and then got stuck into pot decorating. SB joined us with the pot, and then we rejoined tbird and aprillia with going out to the gardens to mark out where the ancient burial site was. SB got to wield a tapemeasure to triangulate to the roman grave, and both girls popped on pics of the grave goods, and then we went to a saxon grave of a man with his head between his legs – oops! the chap doing all the talking was v knowledgeable, v enthusiastic and had a way with children. I liked it . A final return to do some more, and i think aprillia did a shabti whilst the girls both did the skeleton drawing. there was a real life medical skeleton there and the girls drew round each others bodies with chris’s help, and then had to fill in the bones. Both did a fab job. BB was v careful to try and get accuracy, and i was impressed partic with her handbones [as was one of the facilitators - not really believing a 5 year old could show such care] and SB particularly enjoyed extending the brief by adding grave goods, and getting praise for originality made her beam from ear to ear i do love my girls getting stuck into things.

It was lunchtime, and all the girls giggled in the back of tbirds car, and we got slightly rained on. good thing we had lunch. walking past the girton refectory on the way out was a hardship! SB thought she might like to go there someday! [she had better work jolly hard then!]

ANyway, the next bit was the prehistory demonstration, where we met up with some other homeeducators [not organised, but not a surprise either!] chris turned out to be rather skilled at spear throwing [eek!], and BB and SB also had a go. I am not overly sure of the wisdom of teaching BB to throw a spear… SB and i most impressed by the smelters, and I was VERY impressed when i asked her what bronze was made out of that she knew the answer and then deduced the greenish rock in her hand [malachite] must have copper in it to be extracted. Well done that girl! [beaming with pride!]. i wonder how feasible smelting is???? All the girls made some soda bread and had it cooked in an earth oven – v yummy! SB painted a mammoth on the cave painting wall, BB made an excellent coil pot, with then a snake pic and her name on it, and we also chatted to the flint knapper and the skin preparer. All v enjoyable. All the girls had a flake earlier than expected – due to late night the night before i suspect! SO home and immed they had a pretend disco upstairs! The day did fit well with our Story of the World activities tho

We grown ups chatted, got dinner going [i had more tablets and reclined!] then girls joined us to watch the golden compass, which they all enjoyed, after i reassured t-bird that it was the book ‘reimagined’ with less angst, fear and the ending missing… i am afraid i fell asleep tho, as girls insisted on lights out :blush: Dinner and girls into bed we followed a fair bit later as i had had a second wind and enjoyed chatting with t-bird.

Sunday

next day all the girls got up FAR too early! so we parents trailed down with a bit of a yawn, directed them out to adore rabbits [grin] and then had fimo ready! We were waiting for some more friends to drop by to pick up a rabbit to have pancakes [the kids had first breakfast!] they arrived, total rabbit adoration ensued – awwww. pancakes were scoffed, with SB eating a few too many causing her to not eat until nearly bedtime [giggle!] some more playing and then bye bye to all guests and all the big babies they are all now in fab homes and will be v happy, but it certainly was a sad moment!

the girls did some more fimo – SB finishing the sarcophagus decoration, as well as a keyring etc. BB has made a snail, a teddy magnet and a girl with plaited hair. All happy with all makings. i read SoTW 1 [assyrians] and 3[prussia] whilst they did that, and then we gave all the rabbit hutches a through scrubbing and rebedding. the teen hutch is removed, and snowy looked a bit lonely. the little babies tho are bigger, and we added an additional step, so they were hoppiting in and out of hutch, v happy with their new space

the girls and i then all snuggled in front of the fire to watch the v retro voyages of sinbad dvds and have a pasta tea. I am reading sirens of surrentum to SB, toning down a bit the lovidoviness off it, as she isn’t really fond of kissing yet. I do think tho it is nicely written for a just preteen. it will be the last one we read for a while, as the plotline of the next is more challenging :(. she is now reading the magicians nephew as her bedtime book [i expect she will race thro it] as it is her fav one.

It has been a lovely weekend. I have loved having more time with my gorgeous girls, and going back to work a wrench – partic as still on the emotional wobble side. but it is time to go back. mortgages to pay etc etc. Just have to remember to live and enjoy each day whilst we have them.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

More Conservatory…

Posted on October 21, 2010 by HHaricot | 5 comments

SB decided that she wanted to try and do as much as possible today and spend tomorrow making her halloween costume. Fine! So she raced through various of her home ed books – trying to remember here! kS3 science workbook, maths, french workbook, gruesome grammar, piano practice, she read her last Aquila [that counts as a fact book] and I was sure there was something else?? no idea…

SB, BB and I got to do a lovely afternoon of fimo, SB made a mummy and started a sarcophagus. BB made a skull and also another skull in a black cloak – very great i used scrappy bits of fimo to make keyrings, either for geotat or geotags so very therapeutic. And I needed therapeutic, having flickred the pics of sisters funeral. feeling v low not aided by another BB exploring when people were going to die, and who was going to die first. anyway, fimo good and made all the better by the inconsequential but loving chit chat that goes on whilst we do it. and ooh that is good, or what on earth is that mummy@ [a snake canopic jar - lol!]

also baby rabbits! missed there being shadow/biscuit, but good to know she was rampaging around her new home the babiest babies still all doing well. on discussion, we are not sure whether sedna [gerda as was] is a giant, or whether hamster and the 2 black otters are just small?? all v beautiful. Aware we will be saying goodbye to the final 3 of the big babies this weekend, and feel slightly sad about that, but glad that they are going ro such good homes with friends.

Girls both had gym, and SB was v happy doing something or other on the bars [some kind of backwards twirl thing] and when she came home, did some non verbal reasoning asking that at the end if we could have a treat of story of the world, as she thinks that might be better than baking I did say lets do it now, but she wanted to do the verbal reasoning. so, unfortunately, she didn’t get the story of the world as it was dinner time, and then we watched a dvd about plants I have promised to do story of the world tomorrow.

BB hasn’t been mentioned much today in blog, as she spent most of it being either a monster, leopard or baby rabbit. TBH the baby rabbit was bearable, the other 2 challenging… but in between shrieking, rarring and pretending to eat her cuddly toys we did have some lovely cuddles and snuggles And we all had loads of interesting home ed type discussions, the ones where i wished i had google-in-the-brain! [like how many seeds are in a pomegranate, how long would it take to walk round the world etc] and the ones where i could answer, but could tell i was not being believed – ie why don’t fruit and veg tend to grow square…

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, literacy, music, numeracy, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

historyetc – egypt, joseph and sumer

Posted on October 20, 2010 by HHaricot | 18 comments

today was always going to be a busy day, and having an unsettled night didn’t put me at the best. FWIW hump day yesterday was for me, it is my lowest day i think. trying not to have a blog of sadness tho, as I am still overwhelmingly grieving but carrying on. but despite poor sleep, jumped out of bed as actually day too interesting not to put ‘get on with it’ head on.

first was Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. my girls have always been read greek myths and legends, and SB has had quite a passion for them in the past, and we have bacchus in the garden, so they ‘got’ a lot of the greek stuff. me, i loved it. yeah, it was a bit teen smolder at times, but a fun romp with some good effects. bit scary in places, SB said it was a bit scary, but she was hugging L who was quite scared, and that made her better BB found eating another choc button made her not so scared. hmmmm, chip and block springs to mind! lecielrouge had arrived first, and we had a backrow viewing. I would def recommend the film as a PG, with it actually having some pretty scary moments. the deependers also there, as well as some other home ed friends, so quite a crowd. it was a fab start to the day

we were then slightly late back to home for historyetc, and poor G and family getting cold on drive :blush: . had decided that we would be brisk at moving on, so had planned to do a full size joseph coat first with ‘peep head’ like seaside things, so cut up fabric squares, and Z drew an outline. the children then did some pretty fab gluing on of shapes. unfortunately BB put hers wrong, and wouldn’t try again, so i left Z in charge of glue happy children, and with S and G we made a pyramid out of sugar cubes, and equanimity was restored . pasta still not being quite ready, i lay out G’s pharoah masks crafts on <3 conservatory <3 table. and a number of children got going with those, some did the colour in egyptian gods on the coffee table, some did more sugar pyramids, and SB and E got completely messy gluing sand onto card to make a Giza diorama

we had a break for pasta, and the wolves were definitely ravening prob due to lack of snack time, having been in the cinema lovely rice crispy cakes for afters as well. then, back to it! fimo scarab beetles, amulets etc in the conservatory, card pyramids in the sitting room and more pharoah mask painting in the conservatory. K did some Sumerian rules in the kitchen whilst SB and L made the most ENORMOUS sugar pyramid, and then she made some honey cake – which was yummy – mostly with bB and J i think. I think pretty much every child did most of the crafts, which was good.

We also had a stab at making a handprint tree. not sure about final effect – we need G and M to be grass as well, and a handprint of C at least to come from france, or maybe she and R could do 2 to make a quadrant as a sun?? we are thinking we might get these made into business cards as official home educators cards. perhaps using the moo free offer – we need a motto in latin and some idea of blurb to put on them? i have put the pics up there to be fiddled with by merry, as she said she would, to get best effect, and if K can do a motto we are away!

All of us then got photographed being Joseph i LOVED that! and then much rabbit adoration took place we all agreed how v tiny hamster is, tho the twin black otters are not much bigger. and Gerda is enormous . At the end of the day tho, we had to say goodbye to shadow/biscuit, who has now gone to live with her new family I am sure she will be v happy. at myself tho, when merry said she had never put 2 girl rabs together, i nearly said ours had settled in OK but obv one a boy!! some adult chatting. I have really enjoyed both historyetc sessions, and hope not just be thinking how well they work, with the children getting chance to play, chat and have fun whilst doing something relevant

BB had swimming, SB only had judo, as brownies cancelled, but we did practice the broken cords for her piano exam, and they were much better then we snuggled in front of a DVD as she felt shattered – bless, so do I! i plan to watch apprentice, and do a bit of flickring, as need to get todays photos up before Z starts nagging

photoset on flickr

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

tuesday is my hump day!

Posted on October 19, 2010 by HHaricot | 2 comments

well, we got up earlier today, after an exceptionally late night. SB just didn’t settle at all, and so was a very tired bean when she got up. awww . anyway, bit more of a discussion on 5 a days and what counted, how big etc over brekkie, then a look at part of the first chapter of real science for kids level 2. SHe did understand it, and we talked around it, but then got a bit worried that if she didn’t she would have to change science group, as she loves her science group. ((SB)) so i reassured her that currently the groups weren’t changing, but that if she found the level 2 difficult, then we would read the level 1 version. And i think though the group BB is in will be doing the level 1 version for labwork, that i will be reading the pre-k explanation to her beforehand, and think the various families may want to bob between the different levels, as more important to get understanding than be pushed ahead. [such an advantage to have a flip book!]

We then got down to a sturdy morning of home ed in my lovely conservatory. Hmm, i think i have forgotten to mention how much i love my conservatory .

SB did some galore park science, history and english, and then some clarinet prac. BB did some maths – with some serious argument over whether nothing/zero existed, whether you were allowed to put it in sums etc, and she remains unconvinced over its validity. giggle! She read a 1a magic key story – again with a grumble over the word the [obv that shouldn't exist either!] and i read to her the next story in the chaucers canterbury tales, the one with the bottoms, so she particularly loved that we also finished painting her spider puppet, and later strung it together, tho as we had lost instructions, don’t know that it is quite right… Both did a bit of colouring as well.

we played with rabbits again – making sure we get enough rabbit love in before the bigger babies leave for their new homes.

after a nice lunch in our LOVELY conservatory we did some baking. SB wanted to use up left over rice crispies and marshmallows, so we went to do that, but we didn’t have enough marshmallows… and BB then wanted to make choc rice crispie cakes, but we didn’t have enough rice crispies or any choc… so we went to the shops and then made the cakes, and now have more marshmallows and rice crispies than wen we started 1 we also made some fruity snow from the galore park science book. SB really is quite an accomplished baker and cook, really good at following instructions and tweaking things so they work. it was a fun bake

SB and i also got in a piano prac before she went out for swimming. trudging is getting sort of a glimmer of hope about it, and the other 2 pieces are ok and should pass already, but time will make them better. so we started with arpeggios. she isn’t certain she will ever play them but we will see. we all did some ds-ing together with animal crossing and also mario bros games. we ate a chippery tea [totally ruining the 5 a day thing!] watching the primates episode of life.

now i must try and get things a bit organised for historyetc tomorrow.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, history, literacy, music, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

gotta get movin’ !

Posted on October 18, 2010 by HHaricot | 2 comments

hmm, the plan had been to do 3 bits of HE in the morning and then fun craft this aft as my last week off work. however, due to feeling somewhat fragile from the w/e i had a sleep in, so BB watched dvds and SB stayed in bed reading famous 5 till rousted at 11! some riot act read, and actually the home ed she then did was v good, but v long, and she had golf in the aft, which i hadn’t remembered, so no crafting . we plan to do better tomorrow as baking in the afternoon, but she and daddy have been reminded! laying in bed reading books all v well, but…

so, she did some more of the galore park geography, and was working out distances and place references all v happily, after a bit of extra encouragement and help. but must have taken an hour. maths took way over an hour, due to distractability etc! but was done really thoroughly. golf lesson was doing a half swing to develop her swing – which she needs to practice. SHe had snack and then ballet lesson. After that we did a piano prac together. pretty much nailed song of erin, gavotte getting there, and stomping needs a fair bit more work. scales, well the majors ok, so now going to do arpeggios and chromatic and then minors last.

BB and I did some music theory [little children book 2] and explode the code. she just can’t get her head round ‘the’ and has a hissy fit each time the word comes up! we painted some more of her kit spider, played with the bunnies and she played with various reptiles we also did a v short piano. She then had a VERY long bath! i read her some of the comic canterbury tales, which she v much enjoyed.

the bunnies themselves are all adorable. the big ones are so cuddly, will be sad to see them go and the littlies are old enough now for a tiny bit of a pet gerda is so much bigger, and hamster def the smallest BB loved picking them up. the big buns all love dandelions, and also eat the burgess rabbit food [for those picking up rabs this week] and have been acclimatised to all sorts of veg.

Anyway, lovely eve, nice dinner – which chris emphasised was at table rather than dvd, so we had a discussion about Newton, man and measurement and oranges and apples. Sb is now recording our 5 a day. we all did rather well today, lets see if we carry on . we did watch part of a DVD about fish before bedtime, and SB decided to read a fact book or 2 in bed – she took up a rubbish one and a horrible egyptian one anyway, as that will take her to 6 . we are back to another roman mystery now at bed time – sirens of surrentum, and it opened with a kiss, to SB’s disgust!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, geography, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE

permeability

Posted on February 7, 2010 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

today was for the girls a mostly sylvanianing day. they adore playing sylvanians! they tend to only start when SB has read her book for the day – she starts the day with a book and ends the day with the book. we are getting through loads!

i did want to do some science, as over a year ago won a very ancient kit on ebay about osmosis, and have been v keen to try it out!! today was the day! unlike newr kits, it has LOADS of actual science talk in it, explaining what you are doing, why, the scientific concepts etc – great! Anyway we had a thought about permeable and impermeable, and each selected a container of each and poured water into it. we saw we were right, but that some things were more permeable than others, and infact waxing a permeable thing [ie muffin cases] greatly reduced their initial permeability. We then looked at diffusion, to prove that the molecules moved around in the water [perpetual motion/ kinetic theory ] and that we don’t need to shake to mix up a solution we dropped a copper sulphate crystal into warm water and watched the water all gradually turn blue. Unfortunately we didn’t actually get to any of the osmosis experiments, as the girls were sylvanian needy again!!

other things done were some playdoughing, BB did more of her ‘secret’ , SB and I did a long recorder practice and some aurals [aargh!], SB wrote into her journal. I sorted out the science shelves abit, and chris turned the room of doom into a place where you might nearly be persuaded to go. Oh, and we spent a long time doing the RSPB gardenwatch – better late than never!

We finished watching tales from the green valley – the Jacobean farm series.

Category Archives: daubing and making

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a setback

Rabbit Robbed!

More Conservatory…

historyetc – egypt, joseph and sumer

tuesday is my hump day!

gotta get movin’ !

permeability

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