pre reading

monday, hmm, think that must have been getting braces day for SB – bless her. these are removable, and top and bottom teeth, and she really isn’t that keen, but perservering. Did i say that BB now has glasses too? for long sightedness. I had a genetics counselling appt about risks of breast cancer etc etc. so when we all reconvened at home we were quorate for feeling self indulgent! Home ed stuff got done, fairly happily and i think BB might be about to ‘get’ reading once she does it is going to be v fast i think. ballet in the eve.

tues i was at work. various home ed bits in the morning, and then in the afternoon to the absolutely excellent home ed djembe drumming session. Nanna went along too, as it was an undersubscribed session, and they all loved it. swimming in the eve, and i was v late back from work as a long hard day [cue violins ]

wed already blogged

thurs was mostly drama about whether f-i-l would be sprung from hospital [and in the end wasn't] and whether i could make it through work feeling so v v bad from migraine [i did] oh, and SB had a music theory exam she can really easily do grade 2 theory, but veers between concetrating and doing v well, and not using brain at all!! and then not doing so well. i think she is a happy dreamer but she says she checked 5 times and was happy with it, so we will see. grade 2 music theory doesn’t ‘matter’ , it is exam practice and confidence, and stretching herself a bit. Just happy that she is happy BB had a fab time with the deependers and really enjoyed herself. In fact, I think she has inveigled herself into a home ed trip with them tomorrow, whilst DH finally springs his dad from hospital thankyou k

and adding friday, the girls had a fab home ed trip with deependers today to the cathedral and learnt about middle ages and cromwell. SB said she knew all the middle ages things, but the cromwell was new and v interesting. they both loved the trip, so thankyou k

chapter 6 of real science for kids was all about mixing it up . unfortunately, the mixing pattern spread out, and we are again in a quandary around groupings. however, i have the courage of convictions to believe that we can work all this out . it was also a wonderful welcome back to C and M from the manorborn. we have really missed them whilst C has been doing her en famille exchange. so woohoo and welcome back

The mixing it science involved seeing what a mixture was [homogeneous and heterogeneous] and what could mix [polar/charged or non charged - ie like with like] . it still involved ammonia tho!! The newtons unfortunately had me battling the most awful migraine, and i was therefore short on people skills. luckilly M intervened a fraction before BB got sent to the stairs – bad mummy moment. however, the science itself went well, and everyone was v happy with the workbook folders from merry . the cricks were next and went better, as they are a jolly and easy group to teach, usually remember at least something from the chapter and are v amiable about being corrected. enjoy perhaps too much thinking of hypotheses – the rutherfords had a hard time of it. there are too many of them, they just fitted round table, and didn’t get to finish experiment – they were the same size as other 2 groups combined, and with ascertaining what they remembered from chapter and explaining, and using the sheets etc, we only got half way through the experiments so feel quite bad about that really. Hence the mixing up the groups, so that it will hopefully work better. Mixing groups is never a process that goes smoothly, as so many things to consider. fingers crossed we find a good solution

Meanwhile the others were far more successful in getting their lessons in right and sb enjoyed skoldo french and minimus with k and 3d shapes with z. was even lucky enough to have a blow on an oboe reed of G’s [and now keen to learn to play that too - G is such a musical instrument temptress!] as well as a group recorder session.

BB also v happy with 3d shape making, and v v excited by her recorder session with G it is certainly giving her huge enthusiasm to get going on the recorder. she also enjoyed her french stories. next time will think of something else for her to take as well, as had a few footloose moments. maybe colouring or dot to dots.

I redeemed myself [hopefully] by doing music theory, and then some rousting vocal exercises and learning ‘early one morning’ [only the first verse!] which, encouraged by the kids, we went far to high on. But i mostly wanted to make the singing enjoyable, and also learn at least 1 verse of a few of our native folk songs.

Listened to our italian cd there and back, BB fairly happily did some explode the code at latinetc too, and SB had brownies and judo. BB and i snuggled, she ds-ed and chatted at 100 miles an hour too me – love those girls

photos may follow if lucky

I am trying to do lots on this holiday at home, so that it seems that i have really made the most of my time off. [tho perhaps should have pencilled in more bed time!] This does mean that if I blog the next day, I may have forgotten what we did!!! We had meant to go to a NT property, but the day was v miserable and awful! so we decided to do some home ed in the morning and go shopping with christmas vouchers in the afternoon. This is pretty much what we did – though not sure exactly what! SB and I did make a cake for DH whilst he was out picking up BB’s glasses. SHe is very happy with them, in mr bump styling. She is long sighted, so they magnify her eyes. SHe looks gorgeous, but v different! We tested it out by reading some more level 2 books . SB def did some maths on turning decimals into fractions and vice versa.

After lunch we went out to the city to waterstones and wh smiths to spend vouchers. SMiths first, where bb made herself v happy buying 2 lego things, which were on buy one, buy second half price and a winnie the witch in space book. SB bought the missing two harry potters and 2 enid blytons. We then went to waterstones, where BB v quickly bought herself an animal sticker book, the latest astrosaurs book, and the latest winnie book rather than picture book ‘for when she can read’ . SB took aages longer and in the end bought 3 jacqueline wilsons, a enid blyton audiobook, hmmm not quite sure what the other 3 were! would have to check [sometimes i can't bear to look at amazon price!! however, this was xmas tokens, and the girls love doing it person, as adds excitement to whole deal]

We had a restorative cafe stop before heading for the twilight at museums event [dropping baggage in the car on the way ] It is a good thing we had a restorative cup of tea, because allthough we arrived within 10 mins of starting, the queue was just over 30 mins! AND it was drizzling progressing to light rain. BB in particular was NOT iMPRESSED! Unfortunately, although we started at the dinosaur museum for her, this turned out to be a BAD PLAN as on entering she moaned that she had been there before, seen everything before, and it wasn’t that dark! not an auspicious start. we others happy tho, so she had to drag her feet around! I did like the lighting effects, but think that perhaps a something different – trail or craft or something – would perhaps have been nice.

We then moved on to queue for the zoology, after 20mins we met lecielrouge coming out, and had a jolly chat before they headed off to join the dinosaur queue. soon after, we were told the queue was prob an hour, and there was no queue for the bijou science museum around the corner. We decamped since both BB and DH had lost their will to live with queuing. [it had at least stopped raining!] . I loved it. Not been there before. txt to lecielrouge saw them abandoning their queue to join us, and the fishes also arrived, so a merry party children much happier as there was a sheet to go and find out things. BB happier as not been there before, and played with the zootrope and various other visual effects. Z and I completely failed to use a slide rule cylinder :blush: and we all got our happy back

SO much so that when we saw only a tiny queue on the way back to the car at the zoology, we decided to go there. it was still 20 mins tho! and so only 10 mins actually in, and they switched lights on after 5, oh well!! Kids happy making an angler fish head band, and actually queuing with friends .

so actually, what had seemed like a v stressed and over sold evening whilst queueing for zoology ended up being fun and happy and also the cause of BB’s griping became clear in the car – she was just desperate to make her new lego!! A chippery tea and late bedtime. I fell asleep on the sofa, woke up at 1am, plodded upstairs to hear SB switch off her light and pretend to be asleep!! naughty naughty! I think she couldn’t wait to read new books

as SB says all the time . today was a day spent at home with girls, doing presents, home ed, chatting, playing cuddling etc etc. I was feeling a bit blue today. miss my sis, needed really to have a more going somewhere holiday to focus my gaze externally etc, etc. But threw myself into doing stuff with girls. We did some fab home ed in my lovely conservatory and BB successfully read ‘the’ a few more times – we are classing this as a MAJOR achievement .

SB getting happier at doing her junior galore park [on book 2] which also bodes well [yes, i know for her school year she should be book 3, but orig she hated writing, so have been gently gently introducing ] she did some music theory also, but her fav bit of home ed today was her choice of fact book.

which she got for xmas but only just explored [she has been reading back to back canadian girl stories i think!] and surprised me with just how much she knows about this already. we do lots of talking, lots of reading but negligible testing, so it is always a relief when you see how knowledgeable she is. BB peering over her shoulder at one point selected a spiral galaxy to be the milky way because it was the ‘right shape’. SHe also did some of her dk project book, which she still loves, currently minerals, cleaned the rabbit hutch and did a great piano prac with me. Also finished [more or less as we need the printer to work proplerly to actually finish] P amd M’s birthday presents and also M-I-L’s.

BB started with piano prac, having heard me do some [yes, we must tune piano] and i must make sure to encourage this regularly as she remembered all what we had done and was ready to move onto a new note. She had the great reading breakthrough as above and we read why do spiders… She also did a lot of drawing with her watercolour pencils in her sketch book, and played a complicated weighing game with cuisinaire rods and a balance as well as making a birthday presnet for M-I-L.

DH excavated the room of doom, M-I-L the hallway, and as well as home edding and reading to girls [oh, we did 2 chapters of story of the world after swimming lessons] I sowed some more seeds, as blogged, caught a v disgruntled snowy rabbit [lol] and ‘found’ things . F-I-L seems to be better pain wise but a long way off mobilisation, predicting at least a week more in hospital.

tomorrow hoping for a going out day

some other books semi factual semi historical that SB enjoying that others of similar might

I am on annual leave but having a ‘staycation’ . A number of reasons for this – F-I-L in hosp and M-I-L staying here prob being the most important, followed swiftly by the eeeekk! canada trip so expensive!! SO since I havn’t planned going away nor staying, i do think i musn’t fritter the time away! SO today I ‘invited myself’ to artetc with lecielrouge and Merry. We do enjoy this greatly every time we manage to go Today was no exception tho we were late due to a complete inability to get out of bed [i am blaming the weekend!!] Great to spend time with 2 good and lovely friends.

So there were 2 main art works today, still focusing on architecture/buildings in art. the first was drawing a row of houses/buildings on card and then cutting out the windows [done by z] and putting tissue paper behind. Think this was the favoured one, and v impressed by the imagination and differences the children used with the same brief. I had a go at this one, and was v happy with it. My kind of art

the second was making wax rubbings of interesting textures around the house and then drawing on paper 4/5 buildings and using the wax rubbings to delineate some of the structure/floors. v interesting idea but quite hard to pull off! BB was being a bit wobbly about this one tho

SB did some music theory practice [after a bit of a reminder to concetrate and use brain!] we are thinking maybe of giving her elastic band around wrist which she has to ping on every new question to remind her to read it properly she scored 90 in the practice paper which she read and concentrated, and 63 in the one she didn’t .SHe took it all v well and happily, since she was doing this whilst others playing. BB did some explode the code and finally read ‘the’!!! woohooo!!

We finished with colouring in little boxes and making fimo keyrings for upcoming triple birthday celebration I wish we had thought of those mario mushrooms sooner tho!! they are cute and easy to do . merry and girls left, and we nattered to z for longer before heading back via the hospital. F-I-L doing much better and in less pain. early days tho… we listened to italian cd on the way there and back.

So, i have varnished the fimo, flickred and then to bed.

there is a half finished draft post on victorian day back here in the workings bit of petits haricots. 52 drafts altogether, nearly all with daddybean as the author. I am hoping he will get his blogging mojo back at least for some of the fun trips and groups he goes to with the girls.

Yesterday they went to multisport, i worked a v v long day, and f-i-l had surgery. today they went to the arts award group for the first time. it is 10+ but bb got to stay with DH helping. they were doing botanic drawing, so quite a challenge, particularly for BB. in the end DH drew the chilli i think, and she did the shading in. SB did a plum and strawberry, and I am partic impressed by the shading of the plum. they both enjoyed it and plan to return. I believe BB did have a melt moment, cos on paper not what in head, so hoping wasn’t disruptive to the group.

in the afternoon they dropped m-i-l into hosp. F-i-l has been in quite a bit of pain today, as the leg muscles all spasming i hope they can get it under control, perhaps with an epidural?? Looking forward to him moving to the rehab bit of recovery rather than the initial pain bit.

The girls had opticians appts. It turns out BB is long sighted, and needs glasses to read! SO we are getting a pair of Mr Men glasses for her. sb went to 2 diff opticians, but couldn’t find what she wanted, and is unkeen on the bendy ones again. I am v keen on the bendy ones, as they are the first pair not to be trashed and require recurrent visits back for fixing!

got home from work and we had cuddles, tickles and watched cartoons altogether. also a couple more canada books arrived. SB read one of the dear canada diaries last night and loved it, so was glad for another to arrive [they are 'preloved'] and BB is reading her prev ones again. I am loving going to canada in the summer, it is like a ray of sunshine in the dreary winter, giving us fun in planning, and learning and thinking

i don’t often work from home, but had a vast amount of paperworky/journally/knowledge stuff to do, and as long as i am avail to go back in, it is a possibility to do [v occasionally!] today was one of those occasions, partly cos have had severe heartburn all day, and easier at home where can drink milk and gaviscon , and partly cos had bb whilst sb taken to orthodontist. i was v v productive. far more, actually, than would have been at work as i would have been distracted into doing other stuff.

The girls also pretty productive with their HE. BB doing some maths about shapes – easy peasy! and then explode the code 1 – not quite so easy, but getting easier. SB did some music theory, recorder and galore park english 2 [the latter def not at all so easy!] . we did a secret craft [ ] in that it is going to be partly a present for daddy, and partly a present for her friends. SHe and BB both did it, and are v happy with their results That took a while, and we had to keep daddy occupied elsewhere, so sent him out for rabbit supplies, but he forgot the food!!

I went back to working, BB watched some sinbad and SB finished her english with one of those acrostic poems, which she quite liked. SB went to ballet, BB played in the garden, and then came in a mooched. SHe was bored, she needed me to think of something – piano, music theory, fimo, hama beads, wet felting, dry felting, sewing a felt heart, beaded bracelet, painting, bean experiments, electronics set, card game. nope all boring, and i was grumpy at this point that thought of LOTS of things to no avail. however, found a golden crown from the castle party years ago, so BB v happily decorated with stick on jewels!!

When SB returned from ballet we tidied up, and then looked at real science for kids chemistry chapter 5 with both girls, and then story of the world 1 with the Medes and Persians. We had a jolly good chat about how Cyrus’ grandad would have been better keeping him at home, and raising him with love! had an early chippery tea watching ray mears in the northern territories of canada in the path of Dr Rae, v interesting that!!

SB and the orthodontist – well, she needs removeable braces now, and will prob need fixed then. She has a grade 5 [worst] problem so def on the nhs. I think we are going to find braces traumatic!!! BB has her filling tomorrow, think that will be traumatic too.

Poor BB has had a gulpy sobby bedtime, as the little silvered resin piggybank i bought on sat is already desilvering, and she loves him v much, but is v unhappy the silver going. cuddles, songs and chatting haven’t entirely resolved this, but we have agreed you can carry on loving something even if not as silvery as it was – bless.

oh, and we caught 1 mouse in the trap, and released quite a long long way away

Having worked Monday [and then nagged daddybean to blog about his day at home ] i had a phased day off today. feels nice! part time work if and when financial woes to public servants decreases a bit and therefore makes it safer is def something i would much like to do 3 day week would be perfect .

And so to today, the girls started off the day with making more christmas cards, they are really beautiful, if not necessarily christmas themed SB has done a fab tree and present one that she spent some time on. BB spent a long time on one with a lizard on the outside, and you open up to a laptop inside. daddybean and i are hoping this isn’t another version of the capri sun ds trick . Lots of humming, singing and chatting as these got done in a very ‘isn’t this lovely’ kind of way.

We did some story of the world 1 - middle egypt this time, and nubia. We do try and do the questions and narrations as per the activity book, but BB often gets carried away by her story telling… BB looked at the realscience for kids chemistry chapter 1, we did the pre-K and then I read the level one but simplified it a bit for her. SB and I just had time for a really good piano practice before she went out to her last bikeability session. A lovely sunny afternoon for it anyway

BB and I read a book and fed and played with rabbits and then watched some starwars prequel 3 before going off to swimming, where i took charge of SB and watched both their lessons before getting home. Here SB looked at her level 2 chemistry whislt sitting snuggled up close to me, and we did the questions at the end together. I think we have got moles and atomic weight and numbers sorted, tho at 9, doesn’t really matter if not. I do like the text book bit of it tho, as nice and straightforward, and being for a ‘classical’ education, has 3 levels of ability to choose from. The ‘lab’ experiment for this first chapter is a bit dull-as-ditchwater, so think can be done at home with own families, and instead we are going to do an element treasure hunt [i think] and make an element window ‘decal’ [concentrating on the first 20] which unfortunately has left me cutting out loads of blobs this eve, and therefore late to blog! I do wish the most common isotope of them had the same number of neutrons as protons, would make life much easier! Have made a list to make the decals easier to do.

we finished with watching a sarah jane on iplayer with the girls and roman mystery for SB. And all evening spent prepping for tomorrow!

my parents here, which is always lovely they arrived last night after being eagerly awaited by the girls – who then took ages to settle down! the girls had spent yesterday morning playing with Jax’s children whilst i was at work, and then in the aft and eve when to their serial gym lessons, except that SB forgot her leotard, so after all she didn’t . Piano prac and then some home ed galore park english and we watched the edwardian shops on BBC as my parents arrived . BB still insisted on trying puerto rico, but it is too hard for her.

Today we were all a bit late up. SB the latest again, she def has got into not liking getting up but she did her piano prac really well, and then played for mum, also did some DK project book on minerals [me looking at it for the blog below reminded her!] some of a rather too easy murderous maths workbook and then a bit of revision of the french done last time at latinetc. Mum and i did some of the dialogue with her, so that was fun . BB did some explode the code, and listened to SB reading Story of the World 1. we all played ticket to ride [sb won] and then BB, mum dad and I played blokus. BB and i drew. we did a fair bit of dsing alltogether – must remember to charge mine – and general chatting and bb being rather wild. finished off this eve playing ticket to ride again with dad. he won! chris and i did dreadfully :blush: lovely day

Ok, so i just did some emails and admin type stuff, as due to phased return, the actual ‘first day’ is tomorrow. but i did open a number of the emails without that cartoon palpitation business going on, and managed to sort out a bit a long term reduction in my job plan. This is a 2 edged sword, in that although it gives me what i need – more time to do the things at work i need to do, so less bringing it home, less stress – it also gives me a far bigger pay decrease than the proportion of time change, and when there is all this public sector/pension stuff going on, it might turn out to be far too big to afford. However, if it keeps me sane…

The girls played dollies all morning [while the cat's away...] and all the giggling and laughter is a tonic in itself dreadful weather tho. In fact i am actually now too hot, as i have overdone the layers thing. [3 jumper layers, thick socks and slippers and the sofa 'comfort duvet' ]. I have to admit that a whip was cracked and SB did some of her gruesome grammar book – sighing when we got to nouns, she has never really recovered from our abortive try at first language lessons for the well trained mind. we never got beyond the 6 billion chapters about nouns She did some music theory with me – on harmonic minors, that actually did take far longer than i thought :blush: and consolidated the last chapter of minimus . I meant to do Story of the world to get us up to date for the next historyetc, but completely forgot.

BB wanted to read yesterdays 2 books again, so we did that and played the bean game, and then she did a bit of subtraction in MPH 1a and did some more of her dolphin window mosaic. SB also did a piano prac. BB and i baked a chocolate cake, and I made the mixture for some fruit scones. BB then wanted a reprise of Settlers of Catan, so we played that together.

When SB came back from ballet she cut out and baked the scones, and then played Puerto Rico with me. Neither of these games work so well for 2 adult players, as 3 + players, but settlers with bb is a ‘friendly’ consultative approach, and actually with SB also at puerto rico, i am much more about the game being fun and encouraging some thought about strategy rather than proving I can beat a 9 year old so again friendly and me not going for the jugular, and having 2 goes per ’round’ tends to make this work well as well, partic if you only get the bonus with the first thing you choose to do in the round… We do love playing boardgames in this house.

BB, meanwhile, was being an excellent street musician with a cardboard tube wiggling and singing. She is a great little performer at home, just has no intention of letting anyone outside home see but she has a great ear for rhythm and perfect pitching, so we shall see.

Now, having blogged, I plan to flickr, shower and have an early night in preparation for tomorrow

my sister loved this time of year, and the falling leaves are just so very symbolic of loss. Been a bit of a struggly weekend, tho doing my best .

Today, orig, i had thought we might go out somewhere, but have instead stayed in, as SB wanted to ‘just spend time with me’ awwwww. SO that is what we did. She has spent a fair bit of time playing with paper dolls. But we also did a long time of recorder duets together – half the book! we would have done viola, but have mislaid the book [again!!] was trying to find a nice starter violin/viola duet book, but can’t. So instead we did clarinet, and yes, it does need a service and the piano. Following that significant amount of music, BB wanted to play bohnanza again with me, having done enough ‘penning‘ [another sign] so we did that and SB started a window mosaic. BB and I then read some of A City Through Time which seems to be currently on amazon at a phenomenal price… and BB very successfully read to me another 1b book [it didn't have 'the' in it! ] before we went out to play in the garden, scrunch leaves and adore baby bunnies! It did start raining even though all else sunny – very weird!

Back indoors we ate ponigramits [bb's] in the conservatory whilst SB did the primary maths challenge. i am quite proud of her. She sat happily and did it for the allotted time, wasn’t stressed or worried and just carried on with it. A bit more stress and she might have concentrated slightly more, as she got 4 questions wrong she could do upside down waving her feet about – and even went doh when i went through them doing a quick check when she got a different [right] answer!! lol! I think she has got 15 tho even with the doh moments, and perhaps we should have done a few practices to get her head into gear, but I am proud of her relaxed and happy approach to it, and the fact that if she had engaged brain [on some of the easiest questions!!] she might have done and giggle ]

SB ate her pomegranate, and BB and I played settlers of catan, which she did quite well at, tho couldn’t see the point so we went back to bohnanza, sb went to playing with paper dolls and then we watched merlin. A very relaxed day indeed. I start my phased return tomorrow, tho actual work on tues. It is right that i get back into it, but very hard.

I just loved this pic of SB. I *love* that girl!

I was up late, but it took a serious amount of encouragement to get SB up and out of bed and stop reading , and was nearly midday. [i did get a lovely snuggle tho whilst persuading her ] It did me that we didn’t get to the cheap cinema tho . BB had managed to get up tho, as a little lark. BB and I had commenced calligraphy [or penning as BB calls it] when SB staggered down. She looked tired and wan, so I made her a cooked brekkie of sautes [from a left over jacket pot] and fried left over sausage with a fried egg. That seemed to go down well and she needed something hearty to be a combined brekkie/lunch. [seems somewhat early in a blog to say, and then we had lunch - giggle!].

SB joined in the calligraphy, doing a pen drawing and sort of poem first, and then deciding to do a big capital letter on nice writing paper. She didn’t finish tho. BB did lots of writing, then a capital letter and then used the nice writing paper to make a sign. All very happy and chatty. SB and I snuggled and did SoTW 3 with various fightings in america and canada, and the founding of pennsylvania, I found out the origins of the name Philadelphia. SB then did some of her DK project book – she is in the middle section now, on Earth and we had a bit of discussion about the different layers always shown, and how they might come to be there. [I winged it a bit]. Then we all did SoTW 1 about ancient China and had a thought about the realities of rice farming in freezing cold water .

We then did a bit of bunny adoration, and took a couple of pics. We have a definite home for one of the girls – now named Olive, but homes for the other girl and the 2 boys required. Am hoping to have a home for boy + girl, and then rehome boy on own if can. They are all v gorgeous

SB did some piano prac [trudging grad getting there, and thanks G for loan of sightreading book] and then galore park english, and BB did music theory and then explode the code. We felt like we had had a lovely snuggly day alltogether and recharged batteries BB and I then watched the david attenborough first life as recommended by Kirsty, and we enjoyed that. SB had been playing with paper dress dolls, but grad watched more of the DVD. BB did then fall asleep on me – awwwww. Woke up to have her bath tho as totally mucky from the ink! After that BB and i played some Bohnanza before bedtime, and SB carried on her doll game. A really lovely day . Oh, and I love the conservatory!! not sure I will move back into playroom when painted…

Though I had better start with Thursday first! we managed to get up really early to be off and out to T and N’s as G had offered to listen to SB’s exam pieces before it got going. Unfortunately there was a huge hold up on our way in due to roadworks so we were late. Luckilly we did get a bit of piano in, and with a bit more work should be ok for grade 1 – phew! Which also meant that i went to the group for the first time in ages. i hadn’t gone whilst off as have found new places stressful, and meeting ppl difficult, especially as haven’t really broadcast that I have been off work and why… [and now slightly stressed that due to the post a couple down, lots of people will be reading my blog that don't normally - eek and embarrased wave!] Anyway, chatted to lovely people, reminded me how much i would like to be the home educator! but back to work next week. SB did some french, suprised me by not doing the bookclub, but we are all in a bit of a funny mood i think at the moment, and BB went shopping with chris and returned with new boots and a fab dinosaur top – prompting the post below!

Home and SB did some more home ed – maths and galore park history, and then we gave the rabbits a good clean out. BB went off to gym, and SB wrapped her pressies for BB and then made a lovely hamabead card. We then went to gym. Finished the day watching the new BBC shopkeepers in shepton mallet prog. perhaps not good for veggies watching the pig being butchered!!

This morning was completely and utterly devoted to bedroom tidying! It was painful, it was shrieky, it was done!!! phew! After that SB and i did piano prac and then went out to play with rabbits and then find some pretty leaves for our autumn craft. We stuck leaves on into a pleasing pic [BB cat, SB random, me spiral] and then read Keats’ Ode to Autumn, had a bit of a chat about the poem, and then SB and I chose our fav lines and added them to our pictures. Looks good i think! Let me chill after some stressy interweb moments! I love occupational therapy through crafts

Friends arrived for the bonfire and fireworks at our house tonight, and we had a lovely time. The kids had fun playing together, that adults chatted, giggled and chilled. After dinner it was still raining, so we shrugged our shoulders and got on with it! enjoyed the fireworks in the rain, and then raced inside to do birthday cakes, more playing and then a tearful goodbye. we should prob have arranged a sleepover! A very pleasant way to spend an evening

actually it is the second time i have wrtten this blog, as i got to the end, and the blasted wordpress said i didn’t have permission to save and booted me to log in!!! it is going to be shorter this time [grrrrrr]

Anyway, as i said before today was another split child job, as it was bikeability for SB, in the rain – poor love! she didn’t find today as interesting, as she said it was ‘just yesterday’s stuff, but on roads’ I did say that that was the point… she does enjoy riding the bike tho, and chris and i thought it would be good to do some of the basics. Bikeability wasn’t the only thing today, she did some home ed stuff – maths - multiplying fractions, a bit of a surpise things come out smaller , grin, and some head maths on multiplying bigger numbers, which she gets to check afterwards with a calculator galore park history and a really good piano prac with me. so although the exam could be any time soon [eek] we have nailed 2 pieces completely, so only scales and the 3rd piece to go -eek! why does grade 1 recorder only have majors, when piano has majors and minors! In reading all the narnia books, she is now nearly through the horse and his boy

BB and i played together. we did a lot of home ed, but bb is autonomous really, and i can’t take any credit. i just get to watch, fetch and tidy up!! she had realised yesterday she had forgotten the colours in french, so today we learnt some of the again. [ah yes, i neeed to think of bike grease - with picture thoughts like that she could work for Collins ] we did some reading prac [without the dreaded 'the' word] and then when i was looking for chemicals for latinetc tomorrow, she ‘remembered’ the science kit cupboard, and had a load of fun making circuits with the primary electronics kit. as always, the flying saucer one a fav Finally she played with magnets for a bit, before declaring it rabbit-o-clock!! it absolutely pouring it down, we did a more cursory rabbit check and care rather than a long lovefest.

I took BB to her new swimming class. it is the same time as SB’s, so that ought to make life easier. It didn’t today, as bikeability finished too late and she missed it . BB and i listened to classicfm on the way in and she nattered about the music being a tom and jerry music – she was right, the presenter then said so. SHe fell asleep just as we got into the carpark – awww. I enjoyed watching her swim. only 4 of them in that group today, but the most common name was ‘BB’ to be shouted. mostly, i think, cos she must be at least 2 years younger than the other 3! they did backstroke, and her little arms went like the clappers. awww again i enjoyed watching every second.

We weren’t home long before chris and SB joined us. so me and SB snuggled on sofa, as she was feeling in need of a snuggle, and i agreed the SoTW request and we read about the Indus Valley. I do really like SoTW. we watched sinbad and then bedtime for the girls, a bit of wailing from SB – too tired i think, so a long cuddle and soothe, and extreme mania from BB – same root cause, so a bit of firmness, oh, ok, i did shout *in the end* and a dictat that no reading or dsing, and no noise! they fell asleep pretty quickly…

Still worried about Uncle D’s health, and just other blah things, but enjoyed watching QI with chris.

oh, and the first person to pick up Vivien Visits TB has added both a bead and a small donation feeling happy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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! 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!].

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…

on friday, i had booked the day off work thinking that we would be doing a ww2 evacuation day, but it was cancelled. we decided to make the most of it though, and do an overnighter to london! we had a number of possibilities and a definite. the definite was tower of london, as we have a palaces pass currently, and possibles thrown open included the globe theatre, tate modern, museum of london, imperial war museum, something found on a leaflet… and bookshops! bookshops were picked out as the girls each have a lot of book tokens to spend!

so we started at the tower, we were a bit worried, as the day started off v bleakly rainy at our end, but london just dismal rather than overtly wet – so v happy!! SB picked up a ‘thing to do’ so off to the treasury [has it always been called the jewel house?] to do the sheet. SB loves doing sheets, and this one has a sense of humour. we looked for the frog for ages before sb read on and said it was a joke !! BB lost patience before SB had finished, so some dividing and conquering, but think the sheets are good, mostly info and v little writing! SOme serious lagging later and we went to the restaurant for lunch – that set us back a bob or 2! the weather was too cold and wet to picnic out in any kind of fashion unless truly masochistic – and although chris and i alone may have been, the addition of BB warrants gentler treatment! [SB is pretty much game!] After that we went into the Henry VIII armour exhibition and hands on area – which was really good and SB spent a long time looking, and even BB made a fairly impressive coverage. The annoyance for me was the no photography rule. grr! finally, we went for a walk along the ramparts, and really liked all the info and background noises placed along them. i did wonder if there was a leaflet for that actually. We were chased out by warders for it being closing time. so we did only do that one thing!!

mooched back to the travelodge, with BB falling asleep on the tube, a rest, re-invigoration and out for a meal at a nearbye italian where they made a fuss over the girls being lovely – and they were. the travelodge is directly over the circle line, and initially BB insisted on looking out of the window at every rumble, but the game eventually palled…

next day up and to brekkie, when surprised by BB shouting there is k-! and there she was!! on breakfast TV, so we cheered her on defending her educational choices. SB had chosen the globe theatre, and by a slightly devious route we got there. loads of the tube was closed, either whole lines or stations, so we had to do some extra thinking! we decided to get to st pauls and then walk across the millenium bridge. we checked on a map our bearings, and BB made other tourists laugh by saying she now knew where the toilets were – she knows the important signs! [aside - though not the letter p however hard we try, she insists it is an r or a t - although she can recognise those]. we meandered around st pauls garden, had a look at the fireman memorial and ambled our way to the globe, just in time, as it started absolutely chucking it down.

we loved the globe! we started with a look around the top information exhibition. thought it was nicely done, could be read at a number of levels – pics for bb, skim read for sb, bit more for chris and i had we had the chance! then a break in the middle of more display items and then on how built. we then had a 40 min guided tour of the globe, and although abslutely teeming it with rain, the guide was excellent, and so were our children. so much so, that i bought them home ed books in shop at end [well, they are still on a no museum money as spent 4 museums as one at hampton court - currently £1 a museum, but with poss of slight extra if needed, so usually better saved up!] I chose 2, and agreed to SB’s choice off 2 as well. [what a moment of weakness!]
SB’s choices:

my choices [a bb and an sb book]:

[I will not look at cheaper-by-far prices on amazon!!]

and we read them whilst having lunch there, which was good, as SB’s had a printing error, and it was easy enough to exchange! we went back and did the musical uppersection and then the ground floor of the exhibition, discussing printing presses with a demonstrator – SB is fairly happy with discussing printing presses, she has seen quite a few in action as well as having it on the inventors story cd! then we popped next door to the tate modern – the printer recommending the black box, so we went in it. not quite dark enough as lots of ppl held their mobiles out to see [headdesk!!] and then we peaked at a couple of the galleries SB and i had a chat about what she could see, what she liked, if she thought there was an emotion there, and how might the art have been created, but BB becoming tired, so we had a restorative cake before moving to a bookshop.

i am going to gloss over finding the bookshop, suffice it to say that chris and i had different ideas of where to go, i agreed to choose chris’s idea, and we both regretted it, and the girls did a fair bit of extra walking before we ended up at the known fabulous waterstones by picadilly… SB chose nearly all famous 5 books [£40 worth!] and BB was dissuaded from buying all dr who story books – mainly because she can’t read, they have no pics and she doesn’t want them read to her, just turns pages, so we found a variety of doctor who alternatives, and she then picked 2 fairy based books she was also happy with. we had passed a buffet chinese on shaftesbury avenue earlier, so made steps back there, stuffed our faces, staggered back – well, we were going to get a bus at girls request, but by the time had walked to leicester square, decided to tube it! BB sang a v cute and jolly looking for a bus song, complete with looking actions. just made the train, easy journey home and there you go, a lovely 2 days in london!

I think he will! blog, that is, as there was another fab trip out this week to a waterworks, and also various other bits and pieces.

me, i have been migrainous and grumpy. really not sleeping properly! AMongst all the exciting trips HE goes on, lots of maths, fair bit of science, music, reading etc etc. actually, i am going to digress. i think i read somewhere that penny whatsit of dcsf independent schools said one of the advantages of us being forcibly registered was that we may avail ourselves of school trips.

1. what, with schools?? no thankyou
2. we already do ‘school trips’, but without schools, without crocodiles, in small groups with plenty of adults getting loads more value.
3. does anyone at the dcsf actually have any idea about home education ‘for real’?

back again from minor rantlet!

anyway, back from work earlier today, and caught SB doing her galore park science, which was fun. we got out various rocks – prev birthday presents, picked up etc and did the compare and contrast thing, which was kinda similar to our identify the chemical previously. she got really into it! maths, clarinet, english also happily done.

As blog readers will know, in the summer SB chose to revisit the idea of timetables so she knew what there was, we minimised and ameliorated the unmanageable, and had a list of about 50 things for her to choose 20 from a week – most of the 15-20 mins, or as long as she fancied. [this includes all her favourite things such as reading books, watching fact dvd, art, craft, baking, yoga , maths, english, science, music practice and french, plus whatever! ]this has been going really well. so well, that she wanted some rewards thrown on top! my nephew gets a mars bar for doing something well at school in the week. we hummed and ha-ed, and decided doing 30 things was our mars bar equivalent. she has done this every week for the last month. [why do i feel slightly soiled by this bribery? it was def not initiated by us - effectively it is 'normals' rather than school at home?]

today, bb finally cottoned on to the fact that she was being done out of a sweet!! massively massive tantrum, and with calming her down, but not making light of the work sb has put in to ‘achieve’ hers. so i thought 5 ‘things’ for a chupa chup, and 10 for an equivalent sweet [50p] to sb. cue massive more wials that she couldn’t do 10 and she needed a big sweet. [cue parent v tightly holding onto temper, as feeling cornered in the wrong place on the wrong foot]. Anyway, she now has a list too, where 5 is almost guarenteed, and 10 with the minimum of effort. so both got a sweet.

now, this is working really well for sb, in the way she can see a spread of what there is, chooses what she fancies, according to mood, time avail etc, and actually although i have asked for 3 music practices and maths a week is otherwise entirely hers to sort out and organise, and there are no ‘penalties’ for not doing the 3 i suggested – i only pointed out it lets her move forward, and she has noticed that if she does or more, she gets on more easily. no box other than above is stipulated as more valuable for her learning, and that above is only done so in a rational way. so her gluing window is equally valued to french for example. And I am really proud of the way SB looks, chooses, gets on with things and enjoys her home ed. But i guess today, with bb’s outburst, i wondered what juggernaut was on the loose! going to make sure sb is the only foot on the accelerator, and that i make sure occasionally that a brake is suggested! I really don’t want her to be confined by lists and expectation! but i guess, it is things she loves, we have always done them. hmmm.

BB had such a major strop, actually, that she didn’t go to football, too busy drumming on the floor with hands and feet. this too will pass, i am sure. But she did do some piano, read a few words and did some before the code with me, determined to get her 50p of sweets.

SB and I played games, hugged and then she finished her mecchano radio controlled car, which she is v v proud of. [thats on the list as 'making things']