hmm, thinking back to thurs and fri - obviously chris days as i got back from work v late both days. the normal things i think, the nots and tots group thurs, with crafting and recordering, but too late for frenching. then some gym for each in the pm. i think SB did some spelling and maths and maybe a piano, but not entirely sure! BB has done quite a bit of geomagging, and also making long neck dinodoors from the maize packing fillers in one of the boxes we had. friday they waited in interminably for my phone, and unfortunately meant a missed visit to a monks event, which sounded great. the phone came and had the back of it missing anyway! of course, when it arrived, chris nearly instantly found my old phone! after a great deal of fussing about - and i have complained via email re customer service - i now have a working phone - my old one on the old number. other than that, i think the whole day was spent tidying up, and it does look better for it, and the room of doom is a room of gloom instead as it just needs a bit of cleaning, but chris has organised most of it!

and so today . the big thing, i guess is SB’s grading for judo. it is her first ever grading, and she enjoyed it. i hadn’t realised you got to sit in, so BB and i stayed at home and chris took her. he snapped a couple of photos. After the grading they did a bit of shopping - including wellies and some christmas card making supplies - and had a treat lunch out to celebrate SB’s new white and red belt. it does seem to be enormously long ? adult size?

i have had insomnia most of the week, with a standard to sleep time of 5-ish and a get up of 7-ish. so am feeling in desperate need of sleep. i am also quite considerably grumpy - so another reason to try and get some sleep before being sociable! anyway, i was wondering how i would survive the morning with BB as i just didn’t have enough energy to power a biowatch. luckilly BB had some ideas! we made cuisinaire rod patterns, read books and then sorted out my 2 sewing boxes, which BB had great fun in dong, and is now the proud owner of the sewing box i was given when a child, and the pin/needle holder book i made whilst at infants school! following this BB chose to make happy maize pictures, and we have now run out of happy maize.

she then was v keen to do baking, so we did that, and made pink sugar sprinkles cupcakes, which were then iced with various greens. hmm! anyway, loads to take with me to yorkshire. we had a more boring lunch and i did a short violin practice which she danced to, before we read more books together all snuggled up. At this point chris and SB came home and mayhem ensued!

SO with a few card supplies, and the brass rubbings we did a while ago, we made a start on making cards, and between us have made 12 - so not bad! then a bit of grumpyness tidying up, followed by a bit more work on the secret santa things from the girls, as both decided they needed more paint. and actually they both look better for it. i think SB’s really is fab [even with one upside down zebra] and BB added some detailing to hers, which elevated it from looking like a paint accident to a design! SB did a piano practice with me, and had a go at a christmas carol she thought would be too difficult in a different book. SHe was very impressed she could play it [we 3 kings] so that was good. then she is making fudge [rather than tablet, which i prefer] and it is currently in the fridge. So more tidying and then bathtime, and i red meg et mog les oeufs de meg [or something similar!] which is Meg’s Eggs (Picture Puffin)
book in french from the little linguist shop that was fab at delivery times etc and comes recommended! and also hurry up molly, this subterfuge makes me seem interactive, yet doing something easy [reading] educating [french] and ensuring that for once the majority of the bath water stayed in the bath rather than cause further damage to dining room ceiling. fab!
dinner and the bedtime. i think i shall hope for sleep tonight. i feel i should be able to sleep for centuries! SB also at somepoint today fitted in some music theory.

having fallen asleep [wayhay for actually sleeping] playing civ 4 last night - a go at alternate reality, but actually i prefered the earlier civs - i was woken up by bouncing children at 9.30. managed to keep them bouncing in a mole game, rather than having to get up straight away! On coming downstairs, SB and i started with piano practice together. now she isn’t playing the violin [and i v much miss that] we are making a concerted effort to practice the piano daily. this is already paying off! bB was a bit grumpy that i was doing piano practice with SB, so once she had got going on it i played the most dificult game of hangman with BB. she was in charge of the hang, and the only letter of the alphabet in her 17 letter word was 1 m! so i lost.

BB then leappadded, and chose the phonics series. being BB she chose number 7 rather than actually look at some of the letters of the alphabet! she is def going to learn to read her own way. she wants the dinosaur leappad book that sb has but never looks at. SB meanwhile was doing maths. they have got to thousands - woohoo and all! so she raced through that, as having grasped hundreds, tens and units, thousands is really just more of the same. SB then insisted on more ballet practice whilst BB said she was doing her ‘writing practice’ - ie squiggles on a white board! SB settled into some spelling - she enjoys these wizard whimstaff, and BB and i did a bit of piano fun. I then did some violin practice [faint!] as have strings. boy am i rusty!! i think i now have finger strain - rofl!! WHilst i was doing that, bB was quite happily following instructions on the brainbox primary electronics kit to make a ‘whizzer’ with only a little bit of support from SB.

After lunch it was baking time. SB chose a recipe of chocolate marzipan biscuits - something nice and complicated! and through the afternoon did it pretty much on her own. BB and i opted for the simpler peanut butter cookies. SImpler in recipe, but obviously complicated by BB’s desire to lick things all the time [so i have a series of spoons that are single use licking spoons to keep the biscuits edible!] and her sometimes idiosyncratic weighing and measuring

SB’s mixture had to rest for a while in the middle, so we all read one of my french books from the little linguist - berthe makes a pizza - which we loved. [here it is on amazon] and SB did a recorder practice. the new outerwear from muddypuddles arrived, so SB now has some camo trousers, my pink girl really has vanished! BB got a free glove puppet, so equally happy.

SB finished her biscuits whilst bb and i had a romp and read a book together, then we all had tea before SB went out to Judo. BB off to bed, and SB watched some nina and the neurons when she got back.

SO there you go, a busy day in our household! flickr pics of the day

oh, and any advice on trampolines. still humming and hawing. jumpking ovalpod oval vs bazoongi deluxe 12 foot with funring [ouch for more money, but ? its worth it?]

Got an phone call later from the second place, their order system had had some kid of fit and missed out sizes on some things and mixed up others (a pair of 36″ waist boots anyone)  :-)

Managed to get children breakfasted and dressed in 45 minutes, and SB managed a bit of piano preactice, so we got out in time to get into City 1 for a Home Ed group trip to a Pizza Express restaurant. They talked a little about the pizza making process, (for some reason I was a bit disappointed to find they don’t make the dough and tomato sauce on site - I doubt making a big batch in a factory is much different to making a big bacth in the kitchen, nor is it likley to be any different in any other big pizza chain), showed us how to make the dough into a base - SB was pretty good at that.

Then we got to make up pizzas which they then took and cooked. They had a system of numbered hats so they could number the returned pizza boxes. It mostly worked, though a couple were mixed up. Had a little look rouind the kitchen area (pretty small as they basically just make up the pizzas in there)  - 4 minutes to cook a pizza in their ovens.

Kids seemed to find the big walkin fridge and freezer most interesting.

Then it was back to collect the pizzas. Not sure there was a massive educational value to the trip (making pizzas isn’t exactly something new to them) but I guess they got to see behind the scenes a bit and  have a bit of fun with their friends. And it was free (a bit of a promo for them I guess), so we got free pizza for lunch Then headed off into town for a bit of real, in a proper shop, shopping

Ambled down the road a found a bench to munch pizza on. They are apparently looking cheerful :-) 

Finally found SB a new hat that she liked (another bargain as it turned out when we paid that it was much reduced as was aold stock from a couple of years ago) Though it was an adult hat, that only just fitted SB, so maybe that’s why it didn’t sell. But BB a fleece like the one I got SB last weekin a different pattern it’s just a fleece really, but for some reason it seems especially nice according to SB (BTW, any YHA members you get 10% off in Millets). BB doesn’t get that many clothes bought for her as we have so many from SB,  so when she gets something she gets so excited about it. I finally found some slipper-boot things that I liked, and we looked at various gloves, but none where waht SB wanted.

Went through the market and found gloves (she wanted some thin alternatives to her thick gloves) as did BB - fit her perfectly, which is unusal for a littlie like her (more excitement). A quick hit on M&S, and then it was time for a coffee break (SB had spied a Costa, and she knows they do nice cakes…) I’d said we could have a snack in a cafe if they were good whilst going round the shops. Quite surprsingly !! they were on the whole (a bit restless in M&S), probably becuase we were on the hunt for particular things, and tried not to faff around too much. And I had the buggy, which I can stick BB in.

A pop into Lakeland  on the way back to the carpark, where a bit tired children meant I wasn’ tempted to buy anything unnecessary (it’s an odd mix really I think of decent quality kitchen stuff, and all sorts of useless tat and gadgets).

As an aside, wondering what is the best rolling pin. I used to have a marble ones, which was good, though heavy and coould be too heavy for rolling somethings, but the weiht meant it rolled things out without a lot of effort.Have been using one we bought for SB to use and it’s really not big enough and is hard work rolling out things, I’ve bought a plain simple cyclindrical wooden one for now, but I’m tempted by one of the silicone ones like the Sil-Pin. The kids one is cute

Just about got back to the carpek before it rolled into the next hour, and toolted home.

Kids where much more a of a pain at home (why is the default seemingly into argue about something, even when there is no need?). SB found a white board lurking, so wanted to draw on that, I didn’t feel like going and finding any suitable pens, but SB went and found some, so theyns  drew cats and things and argued over pens (plenty of them) cloths (how often do you need the cloth?)  and who knows waht else. I sat a read a few random books to them when I got fed up with it and had revived myself a bit with tea. But before we knew it it was time to head off for SB’sswimming lesson.

Out, back, Helen was home from work , chips for tea, watched Merlin, children in bed.

Flop.

the latinetc group arrived and we kicked off with science. i thought a fun session of dropping and consolidating the things we had learnt was in order, so we dropped crumpled vs tightly packed paper, and then made parachutes with different size and weight material squares. the children are getting better at making a hypothesis and thinking why they chose that, even if wrong! they certainly enjoyed all the dropping, and were confident with the concepts. then we made paper aeroplanes, which stretched me some, as the origami instructions were complicated! at this point merry arrived, so hers also had aeroplanes which whizzed about a bit. SLight mayhem and chaos later, and a latin session. i was v giggly to here amo amas amat [amamus, amatis amant] from the living room!

finally the ravening children were fed - we had missed out snack time - oops! and fully satiated went on to head shed loads of cake. though my pingu cake looked good, most children ate icing only. i tasted it and thought it was a lovely sponge! BB v keen on the full dark room and lit candeld cake being brought in and all, so we duly did this.

so mostly an afternoon of playing for children - inside and out - and chatting for adults. thankyou to Anne and A who also attended, and chris’s parents. we had a lovely chilled day. BB fell asleep pretty much as guests left, SB did some maths and the judo. BB is awake and playing again

AArgh to christmas coming. why do i get so behind with christmas thoughts! pressies to get etc etc. its at our house again this year, we were going to have a break, but i’m working boxing day, so no point going to my parents to come back late on xmas day!

ANyway, I digress - well, i don’t really digress, as i haven’t started. I just am not feeling bloggable. I want the blog to just write itself, i like a record of what we do to look back on. i am barely using the camera either. obviously something is not quite right!

SB is more cheery these days [ or else i have got used to her wails and abrupt emotional changes/fragility] she is more stroppy as well. perhaps this is an age and growth thing. i do love having my mostly happier girl back again. She is talking ten to the dozen again, it is often like being in a wind tunnel! [and yes, I do know pressure of speech is a psychiatric term!] SHe tells me her ideas, what she has done, how tshe thinks the world works, and is alive again. phew. I am sure we are not out of the doldrums completely [as her wail about not going to the shop to buy a magazine shows, she is v quick to be desolate], but i no longer have her tell me she doesn’t see the point of being alive. BB is a squirmy armful of self confidence, bounciness, determination and joy. she is grasping the world around her and making it work her way! i love how she has such a clear way of describing things, and using her older sisters vocab to strengthen the emphasis on what she wants to say, and also the gestures and facial expressions! nearly 4! how time flies.

SO this weekend i have been working, but not too busily. The girls have done a fair bit of playing and also HE stuff. we are castle reading in our history at the mo - always a fun thing to play and recreate! SB is doing lots of spelling practice and maths - she hopes to finish her 2B book in time for when the MPAH 3A arrives [she prefers the MP as opposed to the primary maths which i prefer!]. She has also done music theory and 2 violin practices with me. BB is really grasping sounding out words as they are said. she doesn’t know the alphabet and scanty letters, but is good on the sounds and joining them together. we have done a fair bit of the before the code book 1, and today when we were going to do it together she told me she could do her home ed stuff by herself, and did!

thurs was a divali day at nots and tots, which they enjoyed. SB mostly played with L and E, and BB mostly did the crafts. they went on to a fun playdate afterwards, which both were v keen to tell me how much they had enjoyed it. So that was good.

fri was already blogged by chris - SB was v scary i think. she had been desperate to buy the mask, and I agreed as long as she made the costume to go with it out of an old sheet - she had the idea to bespatter it with blood. Was so excited to have the costume and rarred at lots of people in it, and was most impressed with the squeeze the heart thing. BB got fed up with her costume, so we tore the eye holes so that she could poke her whole head through, and then she was a much happier little ghost.

SB got this book from the library.The Magician of Samarkand
i would strongly recommend it [as would SB] and we will look for more books by that author. it is one of our favourites on junior jackanory, and the book itself is written beautifully. we love!!

we have done some french reading and conversation. following a recommendation on another blog, i purchased some more french resources, and we are doing the l’art de dire. I like it. i guess this bit could easily be made up and done with someone confident in french - which I am not! and there may be cheaper alternatives [luckilly i bought before all the currency turmoils through canadian relatives!] but actually i think it is deceptively simple, in that initially i wondered what i had spent my money on [ i bought the lire ones at the same time, and they are more obviously a good buy for that kind of thing] but as i use it to formalise our conversation, both SB and BB seem to be getting on well, and I have more confidence to extrapolate and experiment. you know, by the time i have finsihed home edding, i might be able to speak french! i did suggest to deepend Katy that she could prob write a home-ed conversational french package and have a market ready! I think she may be lacking in time though!! we are still using a various books and reading lots in french.

today we started making mincemeat using Delia Smith’s Christmas
. it worked well last year, and smells gorgeous! unfortunately with the nutmeg grating, there was a small amount of SB grating… never mind!!

what else? ermm, both girls have done lots of playing. BB loves her little things to play with, so will no doubt love her sylvanians - though still tempted by those rather glorious anamalz for her birthday! am thinking what to get other children for presents as well, and yes, christmas is coming!! [i think that may be where this blog started!]

SB being a ‘Dead Spirit’, lacks a certain cuteness compared to last years Witch and the Angellina Ballerina Firefly from a couple of years ago.

The mask has a heart you can squeeze which squirts blood over the face

BB was cute though as a ‘Little Ghost’

This morning SB faffed about quite a bit, whilst doing some maths, handwriting and some of the Wizard Whimstaff spelling book she seems to be enjoying at the moment. Various phonecalls and people came and went dropping off  the repaired Yaris and collecting the hired A Class (slightly bemused that the vagaries of insurance company contract arrnagements meant  that the car was reapired 40 miles away and the hire car came from 70 miles away, but there you go). The A class was a nice enough drive, though seemed to be a lot of body roll. But the Yaris was much the better buy for the requirements we had. So H can rest easy there

After lunch we sorted out the Halloween outfits, carved Pumpkins, walked to the chemists, made the well loved here, Pumpkin and Toasted Sweetcorn Soup for dinner, and waited for H to come home. She had abit of a long and slow journey home, so once she was in it was pretty much straight out the door for Trick or Treating. A bit nippy, not so many Pumpkins out as last year (maybe ‘cos half term and holidays?), but some people make a real effort, and round here, everyone seems to repect the ‘only call at houses with Pumpkins’ thing annad it’s all good natured.

One house had some wonderfully carved Pumpkins:

We were pretty cold by the time we got back, so nice hot bowls of soup were welcome, prised childrens hands off of bags of sweets and packed them off to bed. Tired parenst of course still haven’t gone to bed yet

yesterday chris did some windowing - wahay!! and his parents came over, there was a bit of home ed stuff [sb maths, handwriting, spelling, piano and a castle box book, bb b4 the code and earlibird maths] and baking.

today was science and latin group, but we did french instead of latin. we nearly got to the deep end in time, but traffic and road works were against us, gina was later though. for science we made anti grav devices. this was fiddlier than expected, but worked more or less!! we learnt a gravity magic trick as well and discussed failures and bodges - aka the melting of the hadron collider. in between the science and french, the children made tickets and membership cards for a show that they put on at the end - a musical variety act i think! also at the end katy shew them doodle art, which the def enjoyed.

SB and BB had done lots of baking the prev day, which turned into a nice end of session treat for everyone, and i have to say that i thought her choc and orange cake was rather successful. She pretty much made it on her own, so looks like a baker -vgreat!!

back home we chilled with merlin and robin hood [maid marian has died!!!!] and then sb and i played games whilst bb took a long time to fall asleep.

wed group at deependers we were slightly late due to migraine, but not bad, and the big’uns got started with their latin, and the middlies with science. they were wild but happy making cars race about. snacks and then middlies french and big’uns science. i was really pleased with how the science went today. they had so much fun making a force meter that TBH it took up most of the session. they were v good at doing it, and appeard to have much fun! then we looked at making an experiment up to look at friction, and rather than using a slope, they decided to blow the cars - and we measured how far they went on sandpaper, carpet and table. next time we will make our antigravity devices and have fun with slopes.

lunch came just in time, as SB was emotionally flagging, and remained a bit up and down for the session. she had baked cookies all by herself for the meeting, and they had all been eaten up. Some french was looked at, and then free play before coming home [all wailing!] i decided some r and r was required, so BB chose german muzzy after i veto-ed mr men, and then toy story 2 after tea whilst SB and judo - which she still loves. she now has her head in a book and soon bedtime for her, as i think todays upsets related to disturbed nights.

busy day tomorrow. beans have group, then BB has a gym session, the after short gap, sb has a gym session. BB is ecstatic at having gym again after this break. we decided whilst singing loudly all the way home in the car that we need to do more family fun swimming, and SB would like to try perhaps the odd horseriding - something i think chris has been planning to organise.

BB is being a doggie a lot of the time at the moment. she is often either a dalmation called spotty, or a little red dog called… clifford!!

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

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

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

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

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

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