Category Archives: investigating

more splashing

Posted on July 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

today we did a lot of splashing in and out of the pool. even i went in. it wasn’t as hot as yesterday, but by the time i had hoed the veg patch, i really needed to cool down! oh, and SB cooked poached eggs for breakfast – fantastic.

last weekend apparently cousin m told sb that when he does really well, he gets a mars bar. she wanted to know what the home-ed equivalent was. hmm, we said, what do you think? so she has got the timetable idea out again, and if she does 2/3 of what is on there, she gets her mars bar. some of the splashing today has therefore been the tears when we pointed out we could see she had ticked off things she hadn’t done. claims that someone else had done that were discarded. also tears of ‘completing’ her english [section 3.1 of galore park] when i opened to find it wasn’t. it took an hour to complete it. we aren;t autonomous, but we are child led and normally we don’t have battles over what to do, and especially with wailing thrown in. but fibbing about it to me changes the goal posts. once she was done, she was all happiness and light, so it obviously wasn’t so traumatic after all.

things that sb did happily were: singapore maths – giggle at it suddenly becoming newsworthy!; music theory – having finally found again the My First Theory Book! listening to me read The Story Of the World – the Middle Ages V 2 (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child (Paperback)): Middle Ages v. 2 about the taking of constantinople and some french words about animals.

BB has also been busy HE wise. although i was tempted to ‘give them stuff to do’ and the read a book, i felt i owed it to us all to actually interact, so grabbed a science kit for BB, and she LOVED it. it is now her kit, as too simple for sb. it is a first electric kit, and she followed the pictures rather than the written instructions, with a bit of help, and made a circuit with a light, and then a motor, which whizzed cards on it and blended the colours – more excitement. but what was so fab was her total thrill and enjoyment that she COULD do it!

both girls made very glittery cards for my sisters birthday at the end of the week. am a bit stalled over what to do as a present. what do you get? hmmm. flip camera? digital photo frame? john lewis vouchers [snort!] just dunno. the cards, however, will give a lasting impression – certainly to the carpets! sb in particularly spent ages getting it just how she wanted.

we did lots of messing in the pool though. bb is being v adventurous in that not quite swimming way. sb learnt to swim by drowning under water and then standing to breathe, and i think this is bb’s technique too. she jets under water and then stands up, breathes, and does some more. she is booked into a 2 week intensive swimming course this summer [my word!] and might be able to swim after that! i love the fact that she went on that they would have to have her somewhere shallow as she had v short legs – :lol: so she does. SB is quite the water wild child, and having great fun twisting, rolling and cavorting in the water. i also got lots of cuddles. good!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, gardening, General, history, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, numeracy, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

difficult me

Posted on June 30, 2009 by | 2 comments

i had a compassionate leave day again today. work are being rather excellent and i am head in sanding about how much chaos this will cause. i will only have taken 4 days in the end for 2 deaths, so i guess i am not being too bad. but i am finding it hard not to grump and growl quickly. i have no tolerance, and am being crap unpredictable mum. aargh. i could at least use this time to be good mum.

anyhoo, i had a lie in/peace to reflect whilst chris and girls went to the library. bb did the craft thing making suns, and loads of new books. on return i was ready to interact. so we cuddled, bb watched her new vid, sb and i did some french and piano practice. after lunch they both got out their brainbox kits. sb ecstatic to make a mw radio and listen to tennis. also made a microphone. out to bb’s footie. her coach is v gentle with her. however after about 1/3 of lesson she was too hot and bothered and came out. sb did some nvr and read about alexander graham bell -one of her favs. the she taught bb to play duck duck goose, involving her shrieking ‘goose me bb, goose me’!!! giggle :lol: . another soon to be ex-homeducator was there. she home-edded for a temp purpose and it clearly was ace for her daughter, so congrats in order. she did point out there seemed to be huge amounts of fluff and waffle in the taster days! sb swimming – she is v good at backstroke. back home to icecream, ken hom and bed!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, investigating, language, music, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE

hmm, lets do some blogging

Posted on June 22, 2009 by | 1 comment

last week i was lucky enough to swan off to a conference to lake como. we ate at good restaurants and learnt a lot in a good conference. the hotel was way out of town though, and getting back from the station, it was safest to walk along the railway tracks of the goods yard… not something you expect really to do! the only day out trip to belagio was lovely. I did, however, spend the entire conference getting more and more worried about little nanny, she had seemed to be getting better monday and tues, but by thurs things were not rosy, and on fri i knew active treatment had been withdrawn, and i just wanted to get home.

so having travelled all sat, i was welcomed home by a fantastic hug and cuddle from my girls. migrainous and travel sick on discussion with mum, i was encouraged [tho didn't need much] not to set straight out. so we snuggled, watched dr who, ate curry and made an early night.

not too quick off the mark to go out, and was rung to say i was too late after all. i feel dreadful that i didn’t re-prioritise things and see little nanny that last time to kiss her goodbye. prob silly, as she had slipped into a morphine sleep by saturday. but… so as no longer visiting, imposed on the manor borns to keep me sane.

we had a lovely, tho v lazy rspb walk, and have had to promise C i will do better next tine :lol: the kids appeared to have fun anyway, and bb was being particularly gorgeous really. all 3 played together without any major kerfuffles throughout the evening too, and after a lovely relaxed meal we went home to pop all of us straight to bed.

and so today, we were going to norfolk, and then not as it was a getting documents day [i have 2 days compassionate leave] and instead going tomorrow. [later and later]. so we decided to do fun things, like baking. we all got up v late, had brekkie v late, and then sb made brownies from *her* recipe book, and bb and i made a yummy choc sponge. the girls then played with silly string until it ran out. BB wanted to read a french book Lucy Cat at the Beach: Lucie Chat a La Plage (Lucy Cat) falls off perch in surprise, but agreed! SB did a verbal reasoning book and then read It’s Elementary: Putting the Crackle into Chemistry (Dk Reference) and wants to try and turn her urine into phosphorus now. :roll:

more playing, and we made pictures with light reactive paper, Sun Print Paper, which i remember enjoying as a child, and we did today. SB off to ballet, and BB and i did some pond dipping, and then retired to watch donald duck. on SB’s return, we made another cake from her recipe book Marie Claire Kitchen and had ken hom vietnames stew for dinner [SB's favourite dinner in fact]

SB and I then looked at some tiny pond bugs that i had captured with her digital microscope. slightly tricky as they kept whisking about, but she did manage to take some photos. No idea what they were. very speedy though!

anyway, tomorrow to norfolk. thanks everyone for your good wishes and thoughts, I have REALLY appreciated it.

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Posted in Blogging, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, science, Stringbean's HE

and so today it rained

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | 2 comments

and we were therefore greatful not to have been camping! it rained torrentially in fact, and the drains couldn’t cope. and the roof leaked, but hey, it has been doing that since we moved it. it is on ‘the list’.

SO, what with the people across the way having something or other that meant drilling up the road – surely roads aren’t drilled up on sunday? it is sunday isn;t it?? i haven’t missed a day or something crazy?? anyway, that woke me up fairly early, and a poor night sleep anyway as cuddling sb through a load of nightmares.

oh yes, so actually we had a very good day today, the girls played with each other beautifully, whether it be with sylvanians, the castle stuff, wild games or dancing – and they did some of each!! they also both did some sewing with me. bb a yellow moon kit, and sb making a felt needle holder, and also a something [not quite sure what] for bb. they watched arial, and then sung it on and off all day. they both ‘putered a bit, got read to a bit – both went for these books


so we talked around that. Merry, have you got still one of my books? and is this the one you have

before they went off into their own imagination for a bit.

ermm, what else, oh yes, we played some games altogether, and got out previously pressed flowers, and put in some new pressed flowers, sb did a piano practice, getting along with triplets ok.

so there was our day. lots of snuggling, cuddling and general playing [and a LOT of noise!!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, science, Stringbean's HE

black dog day

Posted on June 3, 2009 by | 5 comments

i have tried v hard to shift it, but this day had a touch of the wrong about it. it didn’t help that yesterday at work stressful, or that dad woke me up at 7.30 :roll: well, actually bb had already woken me up, but i was dozing again, and then got a series of tasks and errands to try and achieve which i knew were actually unachievable. i’m having a poor sleeping phase anyway, oh, and john lewis messed up my flower order AGAIN. and, and, and!!!!

SO there is the wingeing. we should have gone to an RI lecture, but one of the other winges is that i had v bad migraine yesterday [under control today] and chris prefered a more contemplative day, and the girls have had a number of questions re death. So we didn’t go – though i wish we had, as it sounded fab.

ANyway, despite black dogs, i thought i should get going, and we chatted, tidied the playroom, openend some parcels [including my new bike that chris set up] and then got the fimo out. i thought SB would be finishing her fruit, but she has made a person, and BB made a fish. then we did some ‘work’ SB doing maths and handwriting, and BB before the code. SB really surprised me by telling me her weird and wonderful way of working out the 9 times table – only SB! [it does work]. then we did some more fimo-ing, with SB doing the fruit and veg, and BB making a v creditable turtle. our fimo stocks running low [now replenished by a shopping spree at beadmerrily] i didn’t fiddle myself, and instead subjected the girls to The Story of the World: Middle Ages from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance v. 2: History for the Classical Child (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child) – about the beginnings of russia, which actually sb enjoyed, and then The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet , which they both like. and just general following conversations – carrying on some they had had yesterday with chris about the big bang and laws of physics, and then some relating to illness and death. lots of cuddling [always good]

we had lunch, did some general messing about and fiddling, and then SB did some recorder practice [sketchily] and we did some recorder duets together, whilst BB danced with pompoms. Chris was joining my bike together, and we did some science, we looked at a few kits, and SB finally decided on the Perfume Laboratory, so i got a Crystal Growing – Complete Science Kit – Amethyst Purple to do with BB. BB was extremely careful, and didn’t spill any, and we reinforced the chemical thing! she was also finished first and went off cycling with chris. SB had to shake some card in water until it disintegrated, so that took 20mins of consistent shaking – i was impressed by her stamina! but then finally made the perfume essence, next time she turns it into something.

Brownies and judo for SB, disney film for BB whilst dinner got going, and i updated dad on the mostly failures of the tasks [HHaricot, you are fired!!] but he was happy that i had tried. i gave my bike a try, but the handlebars didn’t turn the wheel – so back to the mechanic for some tightening, rofl! the girls to bed, after watching some springwatch, and the apprentice for us.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

fun weekend

Posted on June 1, 2009 by | 1 comment

of course, writing this on monday, I am not quite sure I can remember saturday! :roll: at my poor memory. this is why i blog!!

sat was an outside day anyway, though SB snuck off to computer game. lets think [ie look at the mess, and like an archaeologist, go for a lower level!] ah yes, both girls did some more of their artwork for the village fair – a frog for BB and a green man for SB. both have boomwhackered, and SB made up a trio for her chris and me to play, whcih was fun! SB did some making things with an idea wooden set. [like first mecchano i guess].

Outside i planted out some artichokes, and read to BB some more bee related books and we looked to see what bees we could find in the garden. SB read a french book [her choice]. both the looked to press some more flowers, and just generally had a lazy playing sort of day. [ah, and as mentioned in the post below, i did some reading!]

chris cooked me a lovely tea of mushrooms in a cream sauce pasta, utterly delicious, but the quorn thing has passed on to wild mushrooms, and i had stomach cramps then all evening! we did watch the human journey – which i am enjoying. think we might get walking with cavemen for the girls to watch [but don't think they will be reading the clan of the cave bear any day quite yet!]

sun saw us go to the RSPB for a nature walk with the manor borns. chris and marcus both cycled there, and arrived a smidge before us dreadful car drivers [though set off somewhat significantly ahead, and without us, there would have been less picnic!] we picnicked – and ogled the roast dinner on the table next to us – before setting out. it was a scorching day, so we were well suncreamed, and took the favourite walk – has to involve the quarry – so BB was mostly happy. i thought she did really well. all the girls charmed the volunteers before we left as well [always a good thing - especially since sb lost her clipboard somewhere half way round!!] we found lots of good places to put our memorial benches – view good, shade better!

Back to the manor for a lovely evening. i think the heat had got the the girls, so they got an earlier bedtime than they expected – suprising michelle, who rode out the storm by sequestering herself in the bathroom!! obviously, none of ours stayed in the room they started, but that was fine, and the new bed arrangements in the spare room are v comfortable – thanks to SOTP :wink:

ooh! end of the weekend reached. not so hard!! [may have to add]

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, gardening, General, investigating, language, music, noises and sounds, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

latinetc day – mixing it up!

Posted on May 27, 2009 by | 4 comments

I didn’t do so well today. firstly, i thought we were having people come to show off their dvd, so had planned to do non-newtonian fluid mess in the garden. they didn’t come, and it was raining! and secondly, i was rather thrown off kilter by a family phone call.

luckilly, Merry came with a basket of fimo, gina with boomwhackers [Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set] , and katy with latin games. [those boomwhackers are tempting aren't they!!] SO the children had a lovely time rotating through the 3 rooms. I was Merry’s teaching assistant today, and def enjoyed it. I was also majorly impressed by the care and effort in fimo creating. And i LOVED the boomwhackers.

Today could have been so difficult, and i did nip off to do some piano practice, and field calls, but having good and understanding friends around was really helpful. snacks and playings took place, and we had a go at extracting dna from kiwi. this was successful in the stuff i whizzed up, but not as visible as i would have liked, so may fiddle with the experiment, and we will do it again at some point. [as an aside, i am watching that human evolution progra,,e on the tv, and am rather impressed at my 6 finger touch typing skills!]

everyone eventually left at 5, and we have maddy on a sleepover. the girls all played some more, initially a variety of imaginative games, then beetle drive and then monopoly. we looked up the lso concert for next monday, and SB and Maddy had a go playing ode to joy on the recorder with me – not bad, but diff to get up to speed, so we have a back up plan of playing an A. SB then got the trumpet out, and they trumpetted, recordered and jingled through the leonard bernstein version. dinner and eventually bedtime, which SB and Maddy seem to have done without any hitches.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

exploding everywhere

Posted on May 14, 2009 by | Leave a comment

today was a really fab latinetc. i do enjoy how it seems to be working, as the children all get on well, and have very fluid and flexible friendships withing the groups. it was at our house – which meant that i could get up later – phew!

so we started with littlies science, top set latin [rofl!] and SB had a piano lesson with gina [poor things squished into dining room currently completely full of tent!]

i LOVED todays science session. as did the children , i think! we did volcanos – always popular. having done the first one in the kitchen, we moved outside. all the children had goes at mixing, and got me to do the shaking as the eruptions ended up reaching huge heights!! then we moved onto lava lamps – more or less the volcano mixture, but with oil on top, so things bubble up and down in it – seductively calming on the mind! we all laughed lots and enjoyed it. the big group also enjoyed it, we did talk about the science behind it and i had written out instructions for the lava lamp / fizzing potion for them in 2 teams to follow and show that they could ‘do’ the instructions. i loved them working so nicely together, sharing tasks and deciding together how to get the right volumes from the variety of measures. loved it! the littlies did french i think [i was having way to much fun with science!]

after lunch and more playing, some of the deependers and all the biff crew left, with just merry and co, us , J and K. so we did some more playing, BB got her wish and a craft going, which most of the children joined in

and the gals version.
both my ‘gals’ did a pirate from the guys kit mind you. i know my mate sells them, by they really are fab kits, enough for 4 kids per kit, and loads of ‘extras’. highly recommended.

fran, J and I worked through playing as a trio together various easy piano pieces, which was much fun. merry also joined in, and finally SB, though i did simplify for her, as she isn’t at that level yet on the recorder. we did it out in the garden for ages, and all had fun [that way i could keep an eye on craft simultaneously!]

katy returned and did some latin with the middle group and then after restorative cups of tea, it was hometime! SB had her brownies and judo tonight, and BB and i made ‘bear shoes’ for her and then she watched alice in wonderland. SB watched the railway children when she came in. all in all a totally fab day.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

green weekend

Posted on May 13, 2009 by | 1 comment

i am getting a bit behind with this blogging thing! and chris is being even worse. actually chris and the girls have been having a v busy time of it. anyway, after finishing work on the friday, in some crazy plan we drove here! the sustainability centre it was on the crazy side, as even with not so much of a traffic hitch we still only just got there in time to put up our tent before it was pitch black! good thing we had friends there waiting for us, who helped out! We chatted to the parents whilst SB, BB, monster and teeny all caught up, ds-ed, played etc.

the next day was a lazy day. the children adventured and played, in fact the 3 oldest adventured for so far and long that i got a bit worried, so with bb went around the site calling for them – to no avail. TBH i was sure they were ok, but had that frisson of fear thing, so Nic and Ady also looked too – this time they allowed themselves to be found :roll: got to have a really good look round the site, and it had interesting looking tipis and yurts, and a v interesting composting toilet. bb absolutely and resolutely refused to use this at anytime. i wasn’t that keen as you couldn’t lock it! BB was fascinated by the tennis court covered in chalk flints, and investigated these alot until she eventually found one with a fossil, so was v happy. she also did some of her painting by numbers very carefully. so we had a really lovely happy day. The older 3 went back to adventuring after lunch, all carefully packed, and told this time if they heard us shout to PLEASE respond! [but mobile phone as a backup] and were v proud and happy to be going off doing their own thing in the woods. nic me chris and BB also went for a longer walk through the woods and burial area and thought it pretty idyllic.

there was one blip, and such a shame. the older ones played for a bit with an older group and both sequentially came a cropper from bullying games. i was most upset when sb recounted her tale of woe, but did manage to thank the girl for bringing back her glasses, and 3 of the children involved did come and apologise. grrr. luckilly they had better and kinder friends around. calmess prevaled!

chris and ady sorted out something with our ad hoc washing-machine-fire-pit, and what with wafting and oil pouring we eventually got a good blaze going to keep warm on and the kids could toast marshmallows. one of ours was v not tired, and the screams reverberated around the campsite! but we adults had a lovely evening, giggling as each loo stop resulted in ‘kindling’ being brought back – i think ady chopped a tree down in the middle of the wood! oh, and i saw a shooting star.

the next day i was woken at too-early-a-clock by a v sad voice saying she felt all hot and cold at the same time and not at all right. opning my eyes, SB was looking pale and interesting, though didn’t feel hot. a quick check and i thought she would be ok, but she did say he was sickly, so after a bit of recovery time finishing off The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina: Roman Mysteries 6 (The Roman Mysteries), we then decided to pack the tent up before 9am, so that we could get it in the car in case we needed a quicker exit than 6 pm [when we would next be allowed the tent in] chris and i were surprisingly speedy and all done and dusted. i think it is due to plan b. i tidy inner and gradually pack away all inner things and tent things [apart from 'grey box' and cooker] and then take tent down until the delta pegs. meanwhile chris is packing it all in. as taking and tidying seems to = actually getting it in the car time. so we gave the lie to Nic’s statement that we are the most laid back tent uppers and downers – though it is generally true, as why ruin a good holiday about stressing over upping and downing!

after all of this, when chris and i felt like we should be only just getting up, rather than having finished tent down, SB perked up. which i AM glad of, but… anyway we set out to the green fair and loved it [thanks N and A for organising the weekend] BB and i wandered over first as it was being set up to chat too the stall holders and eye up places to go to, then with the monsterteenies we wandered up to the story teller, who i did enjoy and then to the firestarters! moving on to have an icecream and more of a wander. we ended up at the area of the steward community woodland which had hunks of clay, dangerous tools and hunks of chalk. both girls were attracted by the chalk and spent over an hour hammering, chiselling, drilling and otherwise shaping it. v happy! this was BB’s most favourite bit of the weekend she said. the other fav – for both girls was the pond dipping bit. SB dipped an emperor dragonfly, and BB a newt [she loves newts!] and these were then caught on a camera rigged up to a ‘puter and screen so could be seen in BIG. gradually the fair came to an end and we were then pleased to have already taken the tent down as we had a long drive ahead! so good bye to friends and we were off home, relatively easily. so thanks for a fab weekend camp – i really do love camping.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, history, investigating, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

latin in the wild

Posted on April 29, 2009 by | 4 comments

today, for a change we did latin and science at an outdoor venue. was rather a good idea [not mine!] though i was a bit stressed as got stuck in an enormous traffic standstill, that seemed to have no cause when we got to the front. not quite as bad as katy, who had key problems. got there and met up with ‘the gang’ and the children played for ages in the play area v happily. then after being tempted with snack did classical studies with katy, acting out the trojan horse and one of the many greek dolphin myths. we had lunch – michelle had brought the pasta out with us, and v well received. and then we did science. i thought we should do something easy to get us thinking chemicals, so we thought of the ones we knew – hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and some of the ‘mixes’ H2O and CO2 and then discussed with piccies what makes up an atom and then a molecule. we made H2O and then ethane with sweets and cocktail sticks before talking a bit about solids, making some more molecules with molemod for the older ones, and face painting molecules for those that wished it. we began thinking of ‘valency’ [i know we are not supposed to use that word!!] this seems to be a good website btw.

the children put on a show of the greek dramas for us, and then we said good bye to those going to baby music, and the rest of us looked round the animal shelter part of it, oohing and ahing at the animals we liked [sb partic fond of the dog idea, and bb of guinea pigs] and more playing in the park with adults chatting. v grounding experience for mums like me needing a bit of grounding!

BB fell asleep near instantly being put in the car, and stayed asleep for a bit [which is why she is snuggled in my ‘whiskey hole’ [leg curl space for cat to snuggle in] at the moment as i type!! SB is reading. SB did the customary brownies and judo and then we had chips with a side order of daleks! we need to fix our conservatory and the chap came today with a quote. it is on the steep side. so to recover from one astronomical thing we went out and looked at some more with our telescope.

so tonight we looked at craters on the moon – even bb was impressed, a previous night she had been disappointed at the small size of saturn. she remained disappointed at the small size of saturn tonight, but it was so clear that the rest of us saw one of saturn’s moons!! so we were all v excited.

other than that, as a backwards catchup from me, we have done bits of recordering, piano playing and verbal/non verbal reasoning. SB has moved onto chapter 2 of her Junior English Book 1, but was distracted on looking up lotus flowers and read a book about nefret working for Cleopatra: Discover the World of Cleopatra Through the Diary of Her Handmaiden, Nefret and then about Captain Cook (Famous Lives) because the book was nearbye!

we have fimo-ed me some owls, bb a fish brooch and sb some beads for little nanny’s birthday, and also done some painting, seed tending and lots of games outside. we have also played a lot of games of Bohnanza and Castle Keep

good news that my mammogram normal. less good that my working hours seem to always increase rather than decrease. may help us pay for conservatory though!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, geography, history, investigating, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, online resources, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE