Category Archives: Butterbean’s HE

a setback

Posted on October 26, 2010 by | 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 :)

IMG_1040

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!

6 Comments

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 | 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 – :lol: 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 :lol:

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… :smile: 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 :roll: causing her to not eat until nearly bedtime [giggle!] some more playing and then bye bye to all guests and all the big babies :cry: 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. :)

7 Comments

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 | 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. :cry: 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. :lol:

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 :roll: 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…

5 Comments

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 | 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 :)

P1070564 P1070569

we had a break for pasta, and the wolves were definitely ravening :lol: 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!

P1070703

All of us then got photographed being Joseph :lol: 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 :cry: I am sure she will be v happy. :lol: 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

18 Comments

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 | 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 :roll: 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.

2 Comments

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 | 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!

2 Comments

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

Changing science at latinetc

Posted on October 18, 2010 by | 4 comments

i have loved doing the science bit of latinetc. doing crazy fun experiments and seeing happiness and laughter on the faces of the children there, as well as talking, discussing and enjoying science really has given me a buzz.
Latinetc orig started in oct 2007 had had a freeform starting point. The families were slightly different, we didn’t do science each time, and children way way smaller! We did taste testing then!

the families changed slightly, and as the children got older, we grouped them, and made it a bit more formal, but we have covered such a lot! I am grouping the flickr set here, mostly for my benefit!

Chemistry

acids and alkali 2007,1
acids and alkali – 2007, 2
starch and spies – 2009
atoms and molecules – 2009
volcano experiments – 2009
polymers 1 – 2009
separating – 2009
more polymers – 2009
acid base 2 – 2009
working out the substance – 2009
making invisible inks – 2009
reduction reactions with copper sulphate – 2009
chemical flames – 2009
chromatography – 2009
crystal structure – 2009
microscope crystals – 2009
co2 – 2010
acids plus alkali – metal salts 2010
density – sugar rainbow solutions 2010
cornstarch gloop polymers 2010
acids and metals and testing for hydrogen – redox 2010

biology

senses – taste 2007
heart – measuring and dissection 20082008
heart – anatomy and circulation 2008
lungs – physiology 2009
lungs – anatomy 2009
CPR and bones – 2009
fossils – 2009
anatomy craft – 2009
DNA – 2009
microbiology 1 – 2010
microbiology 2 2010
fish dissection – 2010
microbiology 3 – 2010
roots and shoots microscope – 2010
microbiology 4 – 2010
chlorophyll – 2010
choice chambers – 2010
pond dipping – 2010

physics

floating and sinking 2008
cartesian divers 2008
magnets 2008
electricity – circuits etc 2008
energy – 2008
forces – 2008
forces 2 – 2008
forces 3 – 2008
forces 4 – 2008
optics – 2009 fieldtrip
heat/fire – 2009
waves 1 – 2010
waves 2 – 2010
optics – 2010 [no photos!]

yeah, i think that is a good list to be proud of! i have a few more ideas planned, but talking to group and then firming up, it is felt that perhaps having a going away and thinking about it, and perhaps formailising experiment write up may be helpful for some. SO having chatted a lot and discussed with other friends, we are going to do it slightly differently. i think i have used up lots of my top-of-head ideas, so we are going to be trying out real science 4 kids. level 2 chemistry for older group, and level 1 for younger. this has the advantage of being internet accessible, for a trying and not buying option unless sure is working for us. and also the interesting ‘cog’ add ons. not sure whether the levels quite right, as we are a bit age diverse, but can see… I am hoping they will have had the reading bit done at home, i can check with the questions, and then we do the lab work, and if i can find other speriments to fit i will, to keep the sessions fun and practical. If it doesn’t work for the group, we can think again.

4 Comments

Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, General, investigating, online resources, science, Stringbean's HE

duvet day!

Posted on October 15, 2010 by | 2 comments

predominantly for my big girl, who finally managed to completely get up at lunch time, having been happily wrapped in her duvet reading a book since 10am, when i had woken her up – giggle, i can’t imagine who she takes after! :lol: It was supposed to be a mega catch up home ed day for all our lazy days this week! ah well, we have enjoyed each others company a lot this week, even if we have neither been ‘productive’ or gone out much! i am going to declare it a companionship week :)

BB, obviously, had been up, and was watching dvd’s on lizards and amphibians. she really loves them, and has asked for a bracelet like mine, but with lizard and frog charms for xmas [they are having something small from us, as getting 1/4 each of trampoline for birthday and xmas]. I don’t know of many small children who have remained as determinedly fixated on lizards/dinosaurs/amphibians for so long. pretty much since she could speak. she then went off to play a complicated game with her lizards and frogs. SB also fancies a charms bracelet, but wants quite an individualised one, so have handed over some likes from other bracelets, and we will see what happens [fingers crossed!]

We did do some home ed today – since this is a home ed blog, this is something of a relief. SB did some maths, science workbook, galore park english and non verbal reasoning – ooh that sounds like quite a lot! SHe still didn’t write the english in sentences tho, will have to remind her again next time! BB and i did some reading practice together, and a tinsy bit of maths. we all did story of the world 1 chapter 6, just need to do chapter 7 before wed :) . no piano got done, as we had made the mistake of lighting the fire in the front room, and that was sooooo nice and warm…

I spent a while on the phone today as uncle D has got a v bad knee infection where he had a knee replacement, so had a surgical debridement today, and has 2 weeks in hospital wth iv ants before they decide, presumably, whether to take out his replacement :( he is feeling rottenly unwell with it. I have got a pavlovian response to the phone ringing of my heart dropping to my feet, and it just isn’t pleasant.

i also painted a tiny square of glass to more or less match with the others to go in our window. very proud of it, as tho not identical, pretty much fits, and if i am lucky, will stay in the house even if we end up moving on. :) I played stork’s nest with BB and SB [i lost!] and a complicated game of blokus crossed with ludo frogs with BB [i lost!]. :lol:

chris bodged a temporary extension onto the rabbit hutch, as the 4 big babies quite big and need a teenager pad :) he has also put all the panes of glass back into window, so i guess paintng next :) .

the rabbits are adorable, and it is hard to part with the older babies, but glad to know what good homes they are going to. flopsy is def most the amenable rabs of them all. will be perfect for aprillia to cuddle :) . fudge just soooo fluffy, so t-bird can have a good cuddle too ;) . lupin has a bit of character, and is happy to be cuddled and also happy to pootle about doing her own thing. Biscuit is a bit shyer than the others, but does sit beautifully for a cuddle once persuaded to not hide. they all v much adore dandelion leaves, and have been handled and loved on a more than once daily basis, and have no bad habits! even more or less litter trained… awww. the baby rabs are quite a mixed bunch. they are now findng their way around the hutch, tho i have made it so they can’t get into the run yet. the white stripe baby [currently called Gerd due to her statuesque build] is 2ce as big as the other babies, and the fawn one is quite a bit smaller [attracting some of my worry, tho she seems quite healthy]

we finished the day with a snuggle watching jem do some explosions, and searched on ebay, and found all the ingredients required to do at home – hmmm!!! well, only the earlier explosives. it was quite clear watching the prog that the later explosives not such a good idea…

2 Comments

Posted in Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, literacy, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

ticksheets what are we doing??

Posted on October 7, 2010 by | 10 comments

SB timetable

SB Holiday Timetable

BB timetable

ok, the title to be said in a horrified tone!

After a couple of queries, i am popping our current form of ticksheet on the blog. These were my guilty secret that i fessed up to over a year ago! Home ed is a crazy thing, in that there are pretty much as many ways of doing it as there are home educators, and the way you do it may well change over time. Reading our mission statements you can see that we claim to be child led, not autonomous. it works here that instead of actually strewing the house with interesting stuff – cos it is enough of a mess anyway without hiding interesting stuff in piles – we write down what some of the possibilities are on a sheet. I am sure we could have come up with an interesting name for it, but ticksheet seemed to suffice! And just noticed it still says timetable on the file from the days when it used to try and be a timetable – some v long time ago, as timetables didn’t work for us!

What we did was to incorporate things that have been called ‘normals’ elsewhere, and that we thought should be ongoing with things that SB particularly wanted to learn/do. Actually, the ticklist is a far more collaborative work that you could be fooled into thinking, and all the elements of it have gone up or down in number or changed entirely as time has gone on. Also, you may notice, that apart from a few, there isn’t a timed or amount value placed by the elements. so for things like the english section, which Sb agreed she was ready to work on, having prev not been so keen on writing, these activities are not hugely long or onerous, because the aim is to encourage and improve, not wrote learn into hatred.

You may also notice there are loads of items! This is mostly to encourage variety, there will always be something there that will grab attention. SB is aiming for 25 things on the whole, and if does 30, gets a book – fab! SB gets to choose what she fancies doing, and if it isn’t on there, she can add it in a free box or on the bottom. It isn’t an exhaustive list, just a tidier version of strewing! You may notice the bolding and grin – I like bold! yes, this isn’t exactly a fair fight list, in that the bold things are things that SB and I agreed were important, and she should try and do enough of to get a fair balance. if a few weeks go by and say no maths was done, i would point it out, and ask her to do some. On the whole, tho, i haven’t had to do a great deal of nudging.

You may also notice that mathletics is the only computer thing on there. There have been more, loads of different kinds of ones, but they just never happened, and so they came off. periodically we have tried again – education city, cd-roms etc, but she isn’t so computer fixed.

Can she tick the same box more than once? yes definately if bolded box, with discussion for some of the others. yes, I do value arts and crafts, but actually we do a lot of those, so don’t need this strewing tool to encourage!

Can she change things – yes, have planned to add board game as one of the boxes, as she would like that put in. Is it in the national curriculum – well, it could be, strategy etc etc! but our education is about broad, fun, warp and weft still so yes, in it goes.

The holiday timetable – I don’t honestly expect them to do this do i? well, once i had a bribe of a book, then SB wanted the possibility of getting the book at holiday weeks, and so if you look, a lot of this easy to do in car travelling from place to place, inclusive of museum info etc etc.

BB’s ticksheet. DO you honestly think once SB could win a book that bB wouldn’t want to too?? hers is far simpler, but she does do it!

The underlined bit. i wanted to show committment in these to doing things together. actually alot of it happens together anyway, but somethings are easier to organise. the fact book with daddy is to perhaps look through a more complicated book that SB wouldn’t choose. The one with BB is to get used to reading aloud and discussing with sib – and actually this is new, and working v well.

Would i recommend this – well, it has been working for us for over a year. but it isn’t perfect, and not good for everyone. SB hasn’t yet displayed an overwhelming passion to just do loads of x. If she did, then this wouldn’t work! Having linked to them on the blog, has encouraged me to have a bit of a fiddle again, and will tweak and turn them a bit more to add things and subtract things!

SO, if you have ideas how to improve, want to share your method, or just comment that you are plain horrified, please do!

10 Comments

Posted in Butterbean's HE, General, Ponderings, Stringbean's HE

Our Home Education Resources update!

Posted on September 23, 2010 by | 9 comments

I think every so often I am going to post the core resource books we use. These are the workbooky or series books that we have found suits our childrens style, that they are happy to use. This is not the sum total of our home ed, or even, particularly, the majority. Just the bits that others new to home ed can grasp as a possible resource series that may suit them. September being nearly over, there are always a few parents out there who are wondering what their other options might be! I would heartily recommend home education. For a bigger look at what we use, what we do and our style, up there near the picture is a row of links to our Mission Statements and some other kinda key thoughts splurged on the computer! And also if you look at our pages down the side, you can see some of the more as it happens thoughts!

Key Resources for our 9-10 year

Core resources:
Singapore maths my pals are here 4 this is the cheapest place to buy this maths series from!

french – we haven’t really found a good home for her yet, still looking, tho spent a lot of money now!

Major Supplementals:

Are the variety of books by these publishers in these series, as she likes the layout and variety.

and then we use lots and lots of books! from the library, book people, etc and DVD’s etc!

Key Resources for our 5-6 year old

Singapore Maths 1

We don’t spend the majority of our day at the kitchen table with nose in workbooks, but we do snuggle up and do the above on a regular basis as a core progression through! SUpplemented with reading/visiting/playing/crafting/experimenting and all the other stuff that makes home ed such fun. But I’m also not saying that this is ‘chore’ work, it is just another facet! And hopefully those new to home ed nosing around blogs can look at this list and get some ideas! Anyone else care to blog there core and most used resources?

portico

9 Comments

Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, Stringbean's HE