Category Archives: gardening

chris may not blog?

Posted on October 5, 2008 by | 4 comments

he says he might tomorrow! so i won’t steal his thunder!!

whilst not at work for a short patch, the girls were keen to ‘do’ things. my mum had brought up some 70′s craft books i had got one xmas [from aunty doris and uncle ralph, i know this, because the tag is still sellotaped inside] and BB chose to make tissue paper flowers with me, which we enjoyed lots, though i actually did most of it! one thing i like in this book is there is a making paper bag masks bit, and the illustrated page of kids wearing them has a toddler running away wailing!! SB wanted to do science, so she did the volcano thing, and got through half a bottle of sarsons! we need to source cheap vinegar!!

also today, after measuring the temp in the kitchen at 13, the heating went on. sb and i went round the whole house measuring the temp in each room – highest 15. def cold! we had a chat about what might make rooms colder – number of outside walls, windows without double glazing etc. once the heating has got going, we will remeasure.

bB and i played no-rules draughts [i lost due to non understanding of the rules, and penalties of my pieces being randomly removed] SB read LOADS of books [including a horrid henry joke book, and we had to listen to them - groan!!]. we picked our own sweetcorn for tea, and also raspberries, blackberries and apples.

i did lots of reading. we read our emilie books [en francais] – 3 of them, and then i read loads of the goblin and ghoul stories too. SB escaped SOTW and Latin, and also music practice – though i did some piano practice.

they had toasted marshmellows on open fire for pudding – though SB burnt tongue and finger despite many warnings to be careful. bless her, she is most accident prone.

And i worked – sigh

edited to add – i forgot to add that i mended one of bb’s stretchy dinodoors with copydex and then sutures. seems to be holding firm at present, and not leaking any more little rubber balls! successful surgery

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, gardening, General, language, literacy, little languages, Out and About, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE

ok, today is the day!

Posted on September 21, 2008 by | 2 comments

we usually get back from holiday at the last minute, and i really struggle at work for the first week recovering [maybe something to do with the type of holiday we take!]. so it was rather nice to have a relaxing day today and a return tomorrow instead.

we unwound in the morning, watching downloads, then playing castle games. SB had a total usborne lift the flap fest. the see inside science, the earth, the brain and maths. She is quite keen to have more of them, so if and when i do another book order [some time from now, as we are on the stony side at the mo] i might consider the acquisition of the under ground one. and also perhaps the usborne crusader reading book [i can always think of lots of books – will perhaps get chris to go to the big library and see if any there. there should be really?

together we did SOTW as she wanted to get to the battle of hastings – having read all about william the conqueror on hols. however, we did also go to richard lion heart’s castle at les andeleys, so she is muddling the 2 up a bit. we looked at our map book at the vikings.

we went outside and all picked veg – lots of apples are ready, a second crop of raspberries, loads of tomatoes [particularly the ilidi], runner and french beans, some courgettes and spouting brocolli. lots of running about, bb loves eating the ilidi yellow mini toms [they are gorgeous]

back in to play more games with the castle. practice makes perfect, and we played altogether quite happily whilst chris sorted photos of the holidays. the girls then had a bath, whilst i did some catching up with the internet. SB and BB back down, and we watched how things work, and then bb fell asleep and SB and i made some more of her viking brooches - painting and fimo beads. we have refound her science book, and so we stuck in the chromatography.

SHe has also done alot of reading of the arthurian legends, so whilst watching tea, we watched the new merlin from bbc1. now obviously i have a HUGE E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S problem with the basic plot premise, i will let you find that out elsewhere!! but actually, it is an enjoyable romp. i think it is even less true to the basic premise than the tudors is. but i guess the tudors is supposed to be history, and this is a myth, so… i am going to try and forget about the actual plot premise, and enjoy the series, as i think it is going to be v enjoyable. SB and BB quite transfixed.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, gardening, General, geography, history, literacy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

busy bees

Posted on September 10, 2008 by | 8 comments

we have had a mostly screech free day here today. BB is *very* piercing! when I got up, BB had been watching magic school bus – and I found another one i hadn’t seen – the microbe one! [yes, chris is going to get round to it!!] SB started off with doing a jigsaw book on ancient egyptian sites. We then read together a story about ramadan and eid, and she went on to look at a the what I believe book. Then did some self directed recorder practice – getting better at hole covering so not so many shrill bits. BB and I did maths at this point. she is starting to add 1 onto things, and subtract 1′s. BB and I then did some alphabet stuff, as she doesn’t know it at all yet.

SB then looked at our usbourne picture french dictionary [after me telling Katy that we weren't doing french reading - of course SB LOVES reading] so we did the a’s and b’s [she complained that only the english words were always a's and b's :roll: ] SO we did it together with my pronunciation :oops: and thinking of sentences to put it in.

SB did singapore maths – must buy the 3 series – whilst BB did starfall and i hemmed the Gi thingy for judo – so at least now she can walk without flappy arms and legs!

And then we had breakfast :wink:

OK, it was a late breakfast at 11! BB had already had breakfast earlier and SB and I had brunch. SB did violin whilst I still hemmed, and we are being inventive at the moment, with the majority of the time she is finding sounds, or making up tunes for me or playing scales – she likes scales. At this time an amazon bookseller order arrived from way back – one of the 3rd grade detective books, which she loves, so she tucked herself on the sofa and had finished it within 1/2 an hour. hmm! We also had a parcel from the manor borns, so SB moved onto melrose and croc, [most impressed with inscription from Clo] and BB spent most of the rest of the day in lizard related activities – very enthusiastic! [chris went shopping for gas canisters - so that was his day - rofl!]. SB made up some choc angel delight on her own – though BB sahred the task of eating it.

The girls are really in to playing with the castle and stuff at the moment, i was in charge of dragons, SB had romans and courtiers, and BB assorted lizards and dinodoors [as you do] and they had tea parties, swimming parties and hama bead diving competitions [i need to get out the hoover]. I in the end drifted away [i think I did VERY well to carry on for that long] and SB fancied knitting – so she brought back some yellow moon first cross stitch kits, she did the flower [well, at least she started it and did the centre]. BB played with the kit, but didn’t actually DO any.

They then did some convoluted liz game, I went out into the veg patch and picked loads of greenbeans, toms, brocolli and courgettes. they came out and did whizzing about the garden with lizards, but when i went in to cook the curry for tea they came in too. SB hama beaded, BB did liz dives into hama beads games, and i read them a book about remainder of one.

SB has gone off to Judo [first time since broken foot so fingers crossed] and BB watching the ways things work. I am pondering cars and how much i can stretch too.

edited to add: when SB came back, with free choice to watch whatever she wanted, and BB asleep, she chose Muzzy german level 2. and then we discussed protons and dark matter :smile: She has been a happy bean all day.

also, any recommendations on good balanced books – pref story related and good for 8 year old who has good vocab skills – about the crusades?

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, gardening, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

too darn hot!

Posted on July 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

windy weekend

Posted on June 22, 2008 by | 6 comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Getting on with it

Posted on May 19, 2008 by | 2 comments

Which is pretty much what the kids did today.

Up, a bit of screen time (Pingu and Magic school bus) before getting dressed so we could go across the road to buy bread, milk and marg to have breakie with a bit of Hama beading on the side.  After breakfast SB went off without the smallest reminder and did some maths (subtracting things like £6.13 – £4.85) and piano practise – though had to be reminded a bit how to borrow when subtracting. BB moslty played with the Geomags – she is really into them at the mo, we finally need to get some more I think. That and random 3 yo games with random objects, checked on the mushrooms in the mushroom kit – does;’t like to eat them, but fascinated by growing them.

Then SB started on some more Hama-beading, with BB also doing a bit. Whilst all this was going i was assisting in various ways, and being domestic – washing up, and cleaning out the fridge, cooking chickpeas etc. Sb then moved onto finishing off her T shirt that she was decorating for Amelie (late birthday present) . finished off the design on the front. Decided to write on the back – i wrote it down on paper for her, she spaced it out ok and then finished it off by writing Birthbag instead of birthday ! :-) – it was funny, but I tried not to laugh as she was really upset by it. Helen laughed even more when she got home which didn’t go down well. Will try to rescue it – it hasn’t been ironed to fix it yet. Helen was trying to convinve SB that Ams wouldn’t mind, SB not convinced. all the morning passed without too many arguments
They both went off and did some bits on the Starfall website until lunch was ready.

After lunch I sat down for a ‘five minutes peace’ cuppa and to write an email in my role as Merry’s tech support ;-). BB wanted to do a craft kit she found floating about – making bugs out of pom poms or some such. I said I’d do it once i’d had my tea, but then SB said she would help, so they went off to the kitchen to do it. Not sure how much BB did and how much SB, but they were both happy when I went in to see how they were doing so left them too until they stopped.

They both did some skating about for a bit at some point, so maybe that was now, then Sb helped me start to cook dinner – cutting up the Paneer and onion until H came home.

They played a Dinosaur ludo game – Sb didn’t like getting sent back it seems. Before long it was Ballet, more cooking, home from ballet, playing in the garden, feeding birds, Swimming, home to eat the curry that H finished off  – a treat of cookies that SB bought from the shop (with her own money)  when we got home. Bb to bed, while Sb and h played a game I think. Then I weeded the fruit bed, then time for coffee, chocolate and the last episode of Heroes Series 2 (a bit odd as it was cut very short by the writers strike.

and I’ve even blogged ! :-)

I’ve still got to blog my photo meme day from Friday, maybe tomorrow?

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, daubing and making, gardening, IT, music, numeracy, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

summer is here – now official!

Posted on May 10, 2008 by | 1 comment

well here anyway, as SB and BB had a row about it!

before i start, why is it that as soon as i friends ans family flickr due to an overly persistant re-contacter, chris links to our blog from an everone view photo!! sigh!

anyway, it was another hot one today! started off in the cool with piano practice with SB. she wants to do more piano than violin at the moment, so i am hoping to facilitate that, but keep the violin ticking over. certainly her piano playing is coming on in leaps and bounds at the moment, and i guess this increases the enthusiasm. i’m going to try and find an easy duet book as well for that. [actually if i did more violin duets with her that would prob be a good thing too!]

SB then got on with some maths and handwriting whilst BB and I made some cheese scones [had to hide some so we would have some for tomorrows picnic!!]. we then did some lucy chat books at the beach – v helpful i now know the word for shark! and BB did some alphabet recognition.

All piled out into the garden under the gazebo to do some more crocodile making. SB has embellished hers so much with papier mache that hers is more of a thorny devil. bB’s was more minimalistic, and then she wailed because it was too wet to play with :roll: general outside play. chris and i both did bits of hoeing fruit bed, chris weeded some veg patch, i planted and SB watered. we have started hacking at the yew trees as well.

had some camping pancake mix left, so added cocoa powder to it for a chocolate pancake treat [bB's idea] we all prefer plain! Then put up one of our tents in the garden for the girls to play with [the cheapy 2 person 'festival tent']

cooling down now – phew!

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must reclaim my wednesdays!!

Posted on May 7, 2008 by | Leave a comment

SB loves the drama group, but she leaves by 9.30 and returns at 12.30. at 15.20 she goes to rainbows and returns at 17.00, at 18.20 she goes to judo and returns at 19.40. ie, I get to see v little of her on my day free, and I MISS HER! especially today when crappy with migraine, and the heat really hit me just as she was about. we played castle keep and did violin practice, but that was about it. bleurgh. at bedtime we have nearly finished the orchard book of arthur and the round table [a good book, but it couldn't really follow on to michael morpurgo's fab gawain and seem fab]

BB and I have had plenty of time together, and BB is also a delight more often than a tantrum throwing stroppy 3 year old! today we sowed loads of seeds together, watered and potted on [some things might not survive!], she then chose to play with pattern blocks with me for ages [and i had to be careful to only do the allowed bits!] and then we made towers and walls with the wooden bricks. being still dirty from the seeds, we had a bath.
She started getting a bit, well, 3 so we went outside for a run, and read a book all about tigers. i made lunch in time for SB’s return home, but i think the outside bit was the last straw for the migraine i was desperately pretending wasn;t there, so i had to lie down for a bit – grr – in a cool room. cue much wailing and jumping on me to see if better yet. however, chris got out paddling pool and as the temp in the shade became more bearable, i sat out and we narrated stories for each other – BB mostly being a crocodile!

sorted tea and BB then watched a MSB and to bed, SB returned and watched MSB and to bed, and chris has gone out. SB not settling v well, as not used to daddy out.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, gardening, General, music, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation

a ‘post camp’ day

Posted on April 6, 2008 by | 5 comments

rainbows camps obviously take a lot more getting over than home-ed camps! even if they last only one night!! SO SB been perk free. i have been reading the worst witch too her, as she initially wouldn’t read it as it was too scary. she has decided that after all it isn’t scary, but quite funny. she is mildred and i am maud! So when ever i do another amazon order [i am booked out now!!] then i may buy some more, buy hoping a few might be found in the library. At least we now have a range of books which she likes to read [animal ark, magic school bus, dk 4 readers, rainbow fairies, horrid henry] that she is happy with for this stage of reading. the next stage i have lots of them still from my childhood!

SB and I played chess twice. i really am no good at it, but chris has bought her a book, which she has been reading on and off all day, so she may beat me shortly. we are relaxed on the no touching rule, and i tend to say ‘did you check all my pieces’ fairly frequently. the book suggests games to get the hang of all the pieces, but SB just wants to dive straight in. fair enough!

BB and i made YET MORE fimo numberjacks!! hopefully she wont break these ones quite so quickly. we also glued the airdrying clay coil pots back together again!! We rang my mum and all sang happy birthday down the phone. she was quite overcome, as my dad had arranged a surprise gathering of neighbours to wish her happy birthday. amazing! she liked the digital photoframe, though hasn’t worked out how to use it. [giggle, that'll give my dad something to do!!]

we all bundled out into the garden as it was gloriously sunny [no snow for us!] though the wind was bitter, and we wrapped up well. we fed the fruit bushes and planted the blueberries into their pots. no sign of the broadbeans and the carrots out in the veg bed. fingers crossed that they will come up!

A bit of wailing and BB-ing, so i came in and read stories to them both, and there was some magic tree housing whilst I cooked ken hom for tea – yummy. As an aside, why aren’t all tins stackable?? chris has been hoping that i will see the pantry like merry’s old sotck room, and enjoy putting away the huge sainsbury’s shop [it wasn't enjoyable!] and it really annoyed me that not all tins are stackable! its nicely sorted out now though!

SB turned down chess for who’s who for our evening games session. chris is now reading her peter pan as her bedtime story

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, gardening, General, geography, history, science, Stringbean's HE

seeds and science

Posted on March 15, 2008 by | 1 comment

we are on a roll with science here. As you know, we are child led really in our education, with strewing and suggestion. we encourage regular maths [but tbh, minimal encouragement actually required] SB would like to improve her handwriting [her choice for what to get better at this year!], so she is reminded about that, and she wants to learn violin and piano, so i will suggest a violin practice and reasonably encourage her to get on with it. piano is self motivated entirely. anything else we do is suggested in a lull as a series of options, but most things she suggests and does. BB is currently – obviously – entirely autonomous. She does usually want to do anything SB does!

so today, SB wanted to do the other growing experiments, and obviously BB wanted to too! SB thinks she might like to be a scientist now, so I suggested she writes some of the experiments in a ‘science book’ she thought this was sa rather good idea, so i printed off some piccies for her to stick in, and some ring the answer type questions, and a few open ended. she loved it, and happily did the whole lot. BB also wanted a science book – so more photos duly printed! i can see that this might be where lapbooking starts!

I busily got the ingredients for the other experiments – soil, pots, relevant seeds, and copious newspaper around, and we were off! so today we have made a shoot maze, sown in eggcups [we will look at root strength] done a strawb and runner, and also sown the toms, peppers and artichokes that so desperately needed doing. thus finishing feb sowings! we are now onto march.

SB did some maths, bB did colouring – which she called maths, but was actually a hedgehog and then a spiky dinosaur – quite good! SB did a violin practice and then a singing practice – she can sing a note to match mine – woohoo! for some this comes naturally [me, BB] but SB has learned to do this, aided by her violin, and I am SOOOO proud. i have never once told her she sings out etc, and always encouraged her singing and it has really worked. she has a lovely singing voice. goes completely haywire when tries to sing with anyone, but hey, she is only 7! BB has done a lot of experimenting with sounds and twanging following on from that music set – it was obviously entirely worth the money as has really got her imagination going!
umm, a bit of tv watching, until i felt guilty [i was cleaning up some of the mess we made in kitchen!] so rousted children into tidying up by having bags i was stuffing things in . SB got the drift quite quickly and was like a dervish, even BB got the idea when i did throw some of her things directly in the bin [broken tat for the most part even if well loved. if i have to make a point, there a good place to start.

[we have torchwood on as i type this, and spike is in it!! - the best reason for watching buffy!]

where was i, oh yes, it looked lovely tidy, i hoovered, bb tried to get the solar panel experiment to work again, putting the panel closer and closer to the light [she watches and learns in between tantrums]. so we got the castle stuff out, they played and argued, SB read a book about ballet [surprise!] i made curry for tea and a not hugely succesful bread and butter pudding to take out tomorrow. oh well. Chris and SB played some games.

i have found my cousin on facebook – we haven’t spoken since i was 19 or 20. weird!

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