Category Archives: early maths skills

RSPB walk

Posted on August 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

yesterday morning we whipped through music practices, read some french book and did some maths before lunch :wink: SB had found zoombinis cd and working through that – bit of deja vu having only just read t-birds post!

in the afternoon we did our monthly rspb walk with the manor borns – after i had had i minor strop that chris hadn’t packed my fleece – we were obviously speaking in different languages to each other again! but the weather was lovely, so no fleece required. the girls all greated each other enthusiastically, and we were on and running. we did the quarry path – as i think it is all of our favourites, but especially BB, who did us proud in walking and running. it really was a joy of a walk, good friends and happy children.

back to their house for dinner – yummy – and more children playing fun.

today i have had some lurgy, so had a sick day. i hate sick days, as i have to make up all the work at a later date, and some work is particularly challenging to retimetable. but i wasn’t safe to practice as it were. today i slept till lunchtime, had 3 hours up – bb insisted on doing reading, maths, piano and violin with me!! SB was less speedy, and did french , maths and a lot of reading of asterix! we then all did a craft kit that both girls enjoyed painting and decorating wooden bugs. SB should have done some music but i ran out of effort. she is currently watching roar.

i went back to bed as she had her gym taster session – which hopefully will give her a gym place this year. i have now got up – sort of, as horizantal on sofa instead.

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too darn hot!

Posted on July 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

i know i shouldn’t gripe. but i think my ambient temp is between 18 and 22 degrees. when its colder i wrap up warm, but when its this much hotter… well, i hide in the shade and dip feet in the paddling pool.

but, what i really needed to do was give the garden a good weed. but with it being so hot and airless, and me only just shaking off a migraine, i didn’t think it worth the risk [and it would have been seriously unpleasant]. i could go out in the datk with a torch on i guess, but now feeling lazy!

so, the girls spent a lot of the day in the paddling pool – it did seem like the most sensible thing. though they came in for a 2 hour muzzy fest before i kicked them out again. there seems to be a new interest in muzzy, and they’ve watched 3 days on the trot. since we have series 1 and 2 in german, and 1 in spanish, this is a serious amount of muzzy! i do think my german comprehension has improved mind you!
so i chased them back into the garden and we swung, paddled, picked petals off flowers etc. i took out the airdrying clay – actually i love air drying clay, especially hen you buy it in a sale! as it is cheap, and the girls can fiddle about with it to their hearts content. BB immediately said she wanted to make a coil pot, and set about doing it – she remembered exactly how we did it before easter and got going. sb made a thumb pot. they both then made pizzas. i read some of my book – male sci-fi. you have to roll eyes once in a while, but it is excellent escapism.

helped chris net the raspberries before the birds steal any more, and played games with the girls until we went in to cool off [victorian house good at being cool, partic if we leave cellar door open] and we did some french books and SB did violin practice, but we had to do a bit less, as bb also got her violin out, and was demonstrating her new clock song! they fancied pancakes for tea [they don't often get to choose!] so i did that, and whilst i was getting ready, they both did some maths. BB very proud of how beautifully she can now write a 4. read dinodoors and hairy mcclary to bb, and a roman mystery 2 chptrs for sb. SB also had a chapter of SoTW – islam goes to spain.
bath and bed for both of them. though in the gap between the 2, sb and i played several hands of rummy, and then did a simple electronics kit

forgot to say that i have given BB a pretty short bob as well!

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where has the week gone?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by | 1 comment

for me mostly lost in la la migraine land. and for chris some vomiting thing. bb pretended to have a migraine today – v cute, if somewhat worrying for the tendency to migraine is familial here. please let both of mine not be affected.

yesterday was therefore a bit of a laidback day. actually bb wasn’t laid back, she decided to learn french. i read 3 books with her, and she did poisson rouge – she can count to 10 happily in french and knows some of the colours – although still insistant that blanc is black. i can see her point… SB also did the french books with me, and so i think we are starting to get somewhere in our rhythm of french, so am pleased with that. SB and bB also did some piano practice and handwriting. sb mostly wrote reminder notices to stick all round the house for daddy to take her to the hairdressers!!

we had got a new book from amazon about tectonic plates etc, which we have also enjoyed reading and – drum roll please – we have read some more story of the world!! about clovis the ex barbarian. mUST do more SoTW!! [though i liked the look of that galore park junior history. discussed it with sb, and she prefers me to read stories to her at the mo.

today they did some piano, and played alot, and SB has been sewing – it might be a cloak for A? oh, and sb has had her hair cut! [photo will eventually follow, but i have to do them in order - chris might not be so fussy!!]

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visitors!

Posted on July 22, 2008 by | Leave a comment

ok, i am going to alter the time stamp so they all appear right. amd i am prob going to add things, as TBH, my memory is a bit affected by the quantity of bloody migraine drugs ingested. i hate migraines. i hate their ability to suck away my life.

anyway, we tidied manically so kirsty and her family could see their way into the house. it still wasn’t actually tidy mind you! saturday was spent in eager anticipation of their arrival, so we did some home ed stuff to take away the constant are they nearly here yet chorus. SB and BB both eagerly did maths and handwriting – i think they thought if they did it quickly it would speed K’s car! SB also did a violin practice. no further memory of the day!! K and co arrived, so lots of playing and ds-ing! we had tea and wine. a v late night for the kids too!

the next day we went out to an rspb event to celebrate the opening of a new reserve. the worst thing about it was the prickles. they had just strimmed/mowed the field, and it was obviously v thistly, and k and i – and to a lesser extent the girls – kept getting prickles in our feet as crocs were really not the best footwear for us to have chosen! SB and A got facepainted. BB and M moaned at the lack of cake. we had fed the troupes before leaving, but obviously should have taken cake with us [we had loads at home!] as it was too temptingly on display, but ridiculously expensive. after a bit of discussion, we went towards the pond dipping and owl pellet zone. SB said it was owl puke, but he insisted it was not as the pellets were coughed up. i am sorry, but they still must be coughed up from some stomach affair rather than lungs! Anyway, SB and A were transfixed by the owl pellets, and found loads of bones in them. SB in particular found loads of skulls, and learnt the difference between field mouse and vole. the man was really friendly and knowledgeable so a great HE moment! we joined M and an extremely grumpy BB ponddipping, and found lots of damsel fly larvae,water beetles, water boatmen and a few fish. ALso a blood sucker – yuk!! We then played in some sand to find things, but most had been found already as it was getting to the end of the day, and then looked at loads of moths that had been temporarily captured the night before.

the mon i went to work, and BB and M got firmly fixed in matter/antimatter mode. mostly after rowing over the didicar we have. BB would try the patience of a saint at times, and M and her seemed to gravitate towards each other to shriek. not so restful! they also did lots of fab fimo-ing. i was so impressed by BB’s snowman – well, for a bit anyway, as she then overdecorated it into a blob! BB does seem to be v dextrous for these things. luckilly on the tues – when again i was at work – merry and girls came across, and all had a great time playing and bindeezing,

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making the most of it.

Posted on July 7, 2008 by | 1 comment

i had a much needed lie in today. my head, body and soul were not at all engaged. whilst recovering, i heard sb do piano practice. when i came down, chris and sb had gone through those lovely anholt books around artists. we did some HE – handwriting, french. i have to say that SB’s handwriting is really coming on. She has struggled at writing, but in her own time and on her own terms she is getting there. She likes the getty and dubay, and does lots of practice with cards and notes to people. She also spent a lot of time doing the colour in doggy clothes she got from merry’s girls.

BB also did french and some early numeracy with singapore early bird and literacy from before the code and letterland red books – which i managed to find. BB was very impressed to get some books, its a shame i can’t get sb gagged quickly enough before she says they were hers first!

we did lots of imaginative play altogether today. i am trying to jumpstart my immersion back into these games, as i have sort of gradually faded out of being a pinky ponk, or a doggie or a vet etc etc. so i decided this was ridiculous, so i have been a pinky ponk [or whatever it is!] bought and cared for doggies, played with cuddlies etc etc and made my girls happy.

we also baked carrot cake, watched some how things work, nina and the neurons and magic school bus, picked peas and broad beans from the garden.
aargh how did it get to be this late?? bedtime!

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migraines and mischief

Posted on July 3, 2008 by | 2 comments

i didn’t have wed off, but had to work – with migraine. so missed on what seems to have been a fab visit to a firestation, and also meeting friends to talk to grrrr.

instead i had a suprise day off today – a surprise as i was going to a conference far side of london, but, due to raging migraine and out of migraine meds, that just wasn’t practical. retired to bed with cold compress and gp appt booked. so i now have meds again and at least spent half the day compos mentis with the girls. [well sort of] what struck me was that having got out of the pistols at dawn to dusk for a bout 3 days, they have returned to that pattern. aargh to the levels of bickerdom. it isn’t all bb, the split is prob sb:bb 40:60. just that bb is noticeably more unmanageably horrid. mind you the wailing was also stratospheric today, so i might have been better at that conference in london.

in between bickers and wails and time outs [for me] we did have a lovely time! SB and bB had done some beautiful hama when i came too, and we ironed them b4 they were scattered on the floor – so result! SB then finished singapore maths 2b part 1 [at last - we have been being quite slack on the formal ed front] and bB and i did earlybird 1a -which is v easy for her, as it is predom counting to 10, which she can do in french or english quite happily. actually in english she gets to 20, then starts going up in 10′s. the more/less, most/least is quite easy too. so a romp really, but she likes having done hers whilst sb is doing hers.

after that we did some french – farm and wild animals. much taken by the fact that lots of the african ones had the same names, but with an accent. and we read SOTW on australian aborgininal beginnings – sort of! we looked at aboriginal art, read some dreamtime stories, and thought about doing some painting. but sb and bb had a fight over this, so the offer was withdrawn in a fit of pique [and regretted afterwards - must keep mouth shut!]

girls went out to play, i had a time out by hoeing – i have to say we have done the best so far with the veg and fruit beds. earlier this week chris harvested 3 1/2 lb strawbs!! we are harvesting peas, broad beans too, and the pots are prob ready to have an exploration!!

i then brought out some books on weather and ponds, and a pond dipping kit from ebay – which turned out fab [never linked to an ebay seller before, but actually the magnified tank is v fab] and this rescued the afternoon. we have quite a lot of pond life in our goldfish pond. unfortunately loads of mosquito larvae in the waterbutt, but we have lots of waterboatman – who eat them, a water spider, and pond skaters. we have a plague of large pond snails [oh dear!] and on one lily pad stem was the empty shell of what was some kind of dragonfly we think. so we all enjoyed this. BB liberated loads of pond snails, and then both girls played unhappily in the paddling pool until riot act read. SB had violin, and BB sitting on step… then BB made a card and SB and i played an alphabet game and then we played shops.
i redressed SB’s foot and put BB to bed. and there we are.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, music, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE

windy weekend

Posted on June 22, 2008 by | 6 comments

it has been v windy here today. from the weather forecast, i hadn’t thought we would be included, but we were! particularly in the morning. no trees down [cross fingers!]

so, what have we done? well, when i got up, BB was engrossed in a castle game – she really has got a lovely imagination for playing games and gets totally sucked into them. SB was doing animal crossing on her ds. luckilly she has spelled all letters correctly this time! so i went on ‘puter to be shocked by the news that a good friend lost her sister last night. many hugs Jax. i don’t have any wise words of comfort, but i am thinking of you, and if you can think of anyway i can help…

girls were both desperate to do one of the experiments out of the horrible science explosion kit. BB wanted the volcano, and SB the snot!! so both were duly done. the volcano is – of course – our vinegar and bicarb type approach, but bB v satisfied. the snot was prob polymer science [i do wish these kits would include some ‘real’ science explanation – equations, what we actually made – if only for me! so, google being our friend, i think we are talking non-newtonian fluids again! here are some possible instructions for prob similar [unfortunately the glue in the pack just said glue!! so not sure what kind it actually was] . on googling, think we would enjoy having a go at the bouncing balls next!

[ooh, on a different note – it was the instructions that reminded me – look here Michelle for stalactite experiment]

where were we, oh yes, we were making snot. we enjoyed it greatly. not entirely sure exaclty what we made! SB gave it a squidge about for a bit, and then declared herself done. so we read a bit about polymers from here, and reminded ourselves on what atoms where, so what molecules were, and got to poymers. we thought a bit about polymers we have about.

Both girls joined me for a bit of french, and we did la maison [again!]. some lunch, and an interminable time to get dressed and clean teeth possibly because i was outside hoeing the veg bed and planting the last of the cucurbits in that time! then i rousted them all outside saying it was a nice day, so we should be out. we failed to fly kites in the garden – too much turbulence from trees i guess. Sb settled on doing a stamping craft. bb raced about on her like-a-bike, paddled and played in the sandpit. we topped up the birdfeeders [they get through SO MUCH!]

girls played nicely for a bit, so i pruned the bay tree, and we made some herb bundles to hang in the utility room [where no doubt the spiders will make huge webs!] we harvested and ate strawberries, i rousted BB around a lot, and SB felt hot, so went inside to do webkinz, education city and webland. we got a tp swing cheaply from ebay and cannibalised it so that ours can be pegged into the ground and not wobble around as much. hung a swing off the climbing frame at a v low height so bb ecstatic. sb pleased that she can swing wildly on new set up!

i made curry whilst sb ds-ed and bb watched pingu and 64 zoo lane. think thats about it.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, gardening, General, language, literacy, pre reading, science

hmm today

Posted on June 15, 2008 by | Leave a comment

today in retrospect is not quite the same. anyway, we had a chilled and lovely day. we did reading stories together and cuddling, and had another science kit to try out. this was the burglar alarm half of the science kit. SB really enjoyed putting it all together and making the circuit – it was quite cool! unfortunately it didn’t work!! she said she still enjoyed doing it though. BB did some air drying clay, and made a head – also rather cool, as she fixed wiggly eyes into it. BB does seem to have a keen artistic streak really. As well as cuddle, swing them etc etc, i also did a fair amount of gardening. would blog, but SB calling for a cuddle.

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the week so far

Posted on June 11, 2008 by | 2 comments

good news on mon, and SB has the plaster cast off. this should help wound heal more quickly as not so hot and sweaty, negative is that it is far more easy to bash – so a mixed blessing really!

tues the girls and chris went to a roman event and enjoyed it greatly. sb was apparently a good hopping legionary! and both girls enjoyed clay pot making

today we had a far to early false start ith SB waking at 5. eventually got her to sleep again, and we had a second wake at 9. we all had a snuggle and a read downstairs – dinodoors with BB, history of london with SB. we read a french story, and did some numbers in latin. the girls have got the latest RSPB mgazines and read those. BB wrote on hers too. she is v keen on the idea of forming letters – usually AOUC.

both girls were v keen to do something crafty though, and BB had decided that this should be with some left over glass paint from suncatchers, so we spent a lovely morning decorating jam jars, and were all very happy with our results. the girls shared and got on well [which was a bit of a relief!] and we chatted and enjoyed.

after lunch, SB and BB did quite a bit of playing together, both with the castle stuff, and playing vet, with lots of giggling and laughing. i enjoyed listening and watching, and in boredom clicked often on H2Opia on facebook! – didn’t want to disturb! WOuld have liked to go out and weed, but knew my mvt would signal bickering. when it started slipping, SB and I went off and did some piano practice, and BB watched something. SB’s piano coming on nicely, she has got the notation fixed in her head now, allowing some really good sight reading.

i was surprised by chris’s parents arriving [though he wasn't!] and i was still in pj’s, so a quick change and chatting before SB off to rainbows. she took chris with her, as didn’t want to be left, and BB and i played dinodoors, building houses for them [and they knocked them down] and reading. bB really into rhyming at the moment, in pretty much ever sentence she is trying out rhymes, Both girls are execrably making up jokes! violin practice[short and seated] when SB returned, nd then more castle and vet games until tea and bed.

BTW, there were many good moments on holiday. it was v hard work though. i realised i wasn’t projecting enough joy though when SB sobbed for ages over me not being happy. i am making a concerted effort to be happy. when we came back we watched child of our time, and i was v sad for eve, and the loss of her mother. [we also watched a waking the dead about bosnia/serbia - neither of these programmes being a particularly good choice]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, music, pre reading, Stringbean's HE

backwards blogging

Posted on June 8, 2008 by | 1 comment

i should be gardening or weeding, or perhaps getting ready to go to work tomorrow, but i have post holiday blues, so will blog instead! actually, have just wasted 1 hour idly looking at rightmove!

anyway, oh yes, today. yeah, have headache = surrrprise! but got up, read to SB and looked at pictures in DK eyewitness WW2 – reading theatre shoes has made her want to find out ‘a bit’ about living in london in war and post. chris’s dad was an evacuee, obviously we have grandparents and sibs that did all sorts of different war efforts. [note to self - do nOT follow kirsty's book links!!]then read about dinodoors to BB.

we both read a bit of a french book. i am hoping this reg reading of basic french stories, and doing a bit of vocb round them will get us going. i wish i had more french though! they always want words i have no idea for. eg yacht not boat on holiday, and caravan, what about turtle mummy – aargh! why can’t they want tree, car and house!! anyway we did days of the week afterwards. realised i can’t remember months though v- oops.

girls then had a bath and we had lunch – so v lazy start! out into the garden, as staying indoors reminded me of unpacking to do! SB wanted a science kit, and BB ‘colourful painting’ [she did lots of magic painting on holiday!]. we started of with a magic garden kit – one of those you curse and swear over because the bits don’t quite fit, and you can see crystals in the solutions and wonder if it will work at all. Anyway, all in, and waiting for it to flower – which it did – thank goodness, though not much of snow on the mountain!

SB then did a fossil find kit that we picked up last oct from sedgewick museum in cambridge when we went visiting with mum. [i think it is a home made kit by the museum] we bought 2, and they are good and cheap. they each contain 3 fossils, that you have to identify and write a few things about – last time was a crinoid, ammonite and ohh, can’t remember! this time was a shark tooth, a belemnite and a trilobite. she was particularly taken by the trilobite as soooo old.

BB painted [oops the stuff is still on lawn] some air drying clay models we made last week. we all did some dot painting – a la impressionists. bb did huge swirls and sb muddy smears!! BB ran about while  i read to SB about edison, and she cut out things. BB also did cutting out, so we have a confetti lawn. icecreams, fruit, and then a final ‘speriment’ – a tiny electricity kit. the fan bit worked, but the pulling to make a bulb light didn’t. the kit is cheap though, we have its pair yet to do.

we finished after tea with watching the sound of music, as we had talked about the ‘axis of evil’ [oh, you mean there is another one now??] and hitler overrunning austria without much effort.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, science, Stringbean's HE