Category Archives: General

He is the main home educator and does a number of trips and fun things with the girls that would make excellent blogs, showing the diversity and fun that is home ed. He doesn’t, and I think the blog is all the poorer for it . I am considering starting one of those online petitions, or suggesting a regular nagging from friends [i think he has some special force field barrier that means my nagging washes over!!]

Anyway, last week he dropped SB off for the rocket challenge which was part of the science festival. It was with a group of home educators/friends and was by all accounts great fun. SB had fun with her group, and said they all got to do a lot. Their rocket also shot the highest, she says, so she was v happy with that. The manor born may have some photos too .After that he had planned a picnic, but instead went back to a friends house to trampoline. She also got to do a recorder top up lesson, which was nice too, as currently not sure how we are going to rejig music lessons, also a bit of secundus as well. they then reushed off to gym, and were v please to get certificates for what they did best. They v much enjoy recreational gym. I think SB would have liked to do a bit more, but there isn’t an easy way to do that, and she is now doing that many different clubs and things! I managed to finish work in time to pick BB up, and she was fairly shattered so we read stories and snuggled for a bit, and I made canneloni for tea [as daddybean had looked wan when we exchanged kids!] which was edible

Friday they went to art group and SB could now register for the arts award I guess as over 10 [bronze] BB was challenging there I believe, and has had the riot act read to her about being able to continue going by us. It was doing some fun and messy things with acrylics which they v much enjoyed doing. BB’s probs are mostly when things dont work out entirely as she thinks they should, and her frustration is immediately translated to anger, shouting and wailing at high decibel. I think this is getting worse [like her immed response of no before considering things] and is quite wearing. Have a feeling of failed parenting about this alot. Don’t want to seek prof advice, but would like to work out how to improve things. Mostly so that she can be a happier child. After arts award they went to the playground with le ciel rouge and ‘other a’ which they always like having opportunity to play then came home and who knows what!!

I was on call this weekend, so lots of gaps in the what happened! Some home ed things in the morning, and on sat pm we then made cards and presents for my dad, who was popping in on his way back from Norfolk with his 72nd birthday the next day. SB decorated a terracotta pot in his favourite green and yellow colours with grandad is the best written round it, and 3 of her zinnia seedlings put in it. BB made a green and yellow fimo steam train. I did get home intime to see Dad and have a nice chat, and he liked his presents. Lots of trampolining and playing outside. We sorted out the greek chitons for both of them for the next historyetc, and some fimo brooches. BB is being a boy and SB Nyresa from the book Shield of Fire, set in this period.

SUnday was a bit of an awful day at work, so I will gloss over that! SB and BB decided to do craft kits. SB had some beautiful craft kits for her birthday, and chose to do the sewing one which is really beautiful and BB chose her chalk one. This chalk kit is really beautiful and I love it, but we just couldn’t get the chalk pens to work properly. They would start off ok, then stutter and it all went pear shaped with BB shrieking and wailing because it isn’t working We may have just been unlucky with the pens, cos the kit itself is a true djeco beautiful kit. Luckily the rather excellent playmerrily on contacting them offered a replacement kit, and BB has chosen the dragon felt tip kit so peace is restored [thankyou Merry] .

I also pricked out all BB’s seedlings and potted on all the toms, as documented over on the gardening blog and played settlers with SB

Today I am off work, sitting in the conservatory whilst SB is doing her maths [having finished book 2 of the galore park junior science] and BB has painted a pot and is now happily doing her explode the code book 1.

Happiness is…

we aren’t particularly giddy going about home educators, so these last 3 days have been particularly stay-at-home! the girls have done a reasonable amount of home ed [tho less music prac] and a lot of trampolining and being out in the garden in this great weather. having picked up the kind of bug that gets me excluded from work i was off unexpectedly yesterday, as well as normally today. not that i could take advantage of this really, as feeling decidedly off colour [obviously!] DH has done a bit more veg bed prep, and today we finished sowing all the march things, so that is good.

SB made a brill solar power kit, except that the motor doesn’t appear to work – grrr grr. i did love her history tho, letters between xerxes and themistocles – made me giggle .. she finished book 1 skoldo and listened to the entire cd. we will need to do some consolidation of some of the vocab, but she is generally pretty confident. as well as history this week, a fair bit of maths [she is keen to finish decimals] , galore park english and galore park science [keen to get to the level 3's] some nice piano prax [starting on the grade 2 scales and one of the pieces, but continuing to enjoy the easy jazz duets as our prime thing] , and started the grade 2 music theory book .

BB did some baking – chocolate cake as usual. meant to do crafting, but somehow the lovely sunny weather has captured us she started minimus. she has been desperate to, so have done some baby steps there. BB is getting confident also, in reading [as long as not pushed ] and is now on her level 2 books. ‘the’ is still a bit of a challenge… we did some recorder and piano prac today. i did have to persuade her that it is alright to learn a ‘new tune’ with me though, can’t listen to hot cross buns forever! she has got a bit ds fixated tho so that can be a challenge.

we are currently watching lotr 3 between sb’s brownies and judo. she will be moving up to guides shortly.

flag fen was open for a free day with things to do and people to listen to, so we decided to have a change from science and go out and enjoy it as we haven’t been to flag fen for ages. the freeness was the clinching factor . we got out of the house way later than planned and pootled our way there, discussing irrigation, water meadows, flooding and fertility etc etc [as you do] whilst intermittantly singing english folk tunes along with a rather lovely cd the sprig of thyme arriving at the carpark i was somewhat surprised to find the girls shrieking they could see zoe, and they could! we wondered who else we might find, but no other home educators jumped out and said boo .

We had a great time, i loved talking to the lady knotting, who also discussed nettles and making a beautifully soft ‘yarn’ from them. almost tempting… the clothes made from it certainly were. the story teller was fab as well – enthralling and told in the iron age round house lit only by the light of the fire. and a particular cheer dor the reenactor by the bronze age roundhouse who joined in a grumble that the re-enactor lads were doing lots of lying down dozing as there was no hunting to do! there was also a log splitter and lots of helpful staff. the soay sheep were running and leaping free – which was lovely to see.

the girls got to have a good look round the museum and the info around the wooden crossing, and life at that time. they also did some rubbings, some pot making and lavender herb bag making and all found things to keep them happy in the shop. SB bought 2 handmade knot brooches to use as part of her greek costume. the times are ok, and they could have been traded. bb bought a little rabbit and we finished with cups of tea and icecreams in the sunshine. lovely day.

all the emotion of latinetc has left me feeling without reserves, and struggling a bit at work. this has had the usual knock on effect to the happiness/clinginess/shoutiness of the rest of the family Also, this week has had some v v long working days in it. i fell asleep on sofa after putting kids to bed on thurs! [tempted to do the same now ] and i did, so writing this another day!

SO friday was a bit of a laid back eve for me, chris and the girls had been to visit his parents – his dad is doing rather well. my parents returned from malta and we had a long phone call and then it was tomorrow or science day we like the science festival and gradually trying out different bits of it. this time i thought biology, chemistry and engineering sounded fun, so we headed in. We arranged to meet Ali and family in chemistry, but in one of those typical ways kept just missing each other until lunchtime. did manage to bump into weds helen 2ce tho as a bonus . we loved the chemistry, so spent the majority of our time there the whole thing seemed v well set up with lots of different bits and loved the goggles and lab coats most of the demonstrators were happy to spend quite a bit of time talking and answering questions, and it wasnt packed, so not long waiting i liked the spraying chemicals on a flame best but i think sb loves the cornflour whenever she gets a chance I also liked this year that bb was getting a lot from it, and actually remembering a lot from the latinetc. [both of them, actually so it has been worth it] . so we went in lots of their areas, and at 2 decided we were really really hungry and so then had lunch… and met up with Ali! hooray

After lunch, and meeting a couple of other local home educators [as you tend to at events like these ] we went into the scott polar museum. well, bb and i went in, as she was v keen to, and SB dressed up as an antarctic explorer outside and got v v warm. liked the scott polar, and bb was v taken by it. it can be hard to predict what will grab her fancy, but that def did.

We wandered back to biology, but bb was v definite she wanted to do the bridge thing outside zoology – which she did, and SB the spinning chair, and then there was only about 30mins before our chaos experiment session, so we went into zoology, sb discussed evolution and bb drew a ladybird and then we did our final experimenting. bb declared that she had done loads of those experiments before [which to be fair we have] but loved the lifecycles one. sb was attached to microscopes and the physics ones mostly.

At the end of the day, with hurty feet we waited over 30 mins for our bus [every 10 mins humph!!] and collapsed at home feeling job well done, and slightly scienced out [if that can be believed!] next year, i think we shoukd try and book earlier a few lectures, as think bb will be up for them by then.

have to add that the enormous moon was absolutely gorgeous on the way home, an enormous orange at horizon height. had my camera had any charge left i would have attempted a photo

it is very hard to write this post, as i had imagined latinetc would go on for years and years. I certainly didn’t imagine that it would have such a hasty endpoint. So I would like to say publically here that which I have said privately elsewhere: Thankyou to k for hosting and providing the multiple languages, g for the multiple music options, z for art, m for sewing and crafts and m for being herself and all the fabulous things our children gained from our cooperative. my children have loved it, and I am deeply appreciative. I think that between us all we have provided commitment, enthusiasm and a great model of sharing skills. perhaps it was inevitable that as more children progressed to secondary age and we tried to achieve more and more within the group that minor cracks had the chance to become chasms, and have ultimately meant that it has become too tricky to hold together. i am proud and glad of what we achieved for so long, and think we gave ourselves and our children a fantastic opportunity. Thankyou everybody for this, particularly the children that I have loved and cared for as my own along the way.

Needless to say my children were confused and devastated by a sudden turn of events, and it seems pretty bewildering to the adults. However, things do not last forever and perhaps it is better to say goodbye currently, and see what the future offers. My children have had such a wonderful experience with latinetc tho, and I really do thank everyone for the length of time that we held it all together

SO today we had a playdate at an alternative venue, and the children loved being together and it was just great to see them all laughing and having fun in each others company. We have really built a good community there. I had science just in case, but no one asked and we did the end of minimus [well, k did ] and went out to a play park. We also did some dragon making with fimo, and called goodbye to latinetc. Much loved but we just didn’t manage to make it fly

sunday i got up v late having found it v difficult to settle to sleep the night before. when i did, we had a lovely family day of hugs, closeness, doing things together or next to each other – a real soul soother! BB was making her wallace and gromit kit kart, and doing a pretty good stab at it all on her own with pics only. the wheels are difficult to get on the axle, so i helped her there, and being tired, she wasn’t managing frustration well after that she wanted to do something crafty, so we thought we would make the 2 different plaster of paris plaques for historyetc. which both girls did [sb having been reading - something that currently we have to watch out for so that we stop her doing it all the time!! what a complete bookworm] . BB was then too tired to think, so watched a dvd, and sb and i went out into the garden and sowed seeds together. all the peppers came up – yay! She also did some galore park english as she is determined to move on with that. bb then had a go at painting her plaque, but she isn’t very good if it isn’t perfect, and it had some small fiddly bits and she threw a strop over it, so we snuggled and read a book instead . she then had the resilience to do a lot more of it SB also did some of hers as well. SO on the whole a lovely snuggly day

today sb has apparently done a lot of sloping off to read – lol! but otherwise both girls had some fun with circuits, and BB followed the instructions to make a radio, she has been very proud of that she also finished her plaque [fantastic] and did some maths. SB has done a science workbook bit, recorder practice, fact book and galore park english. When i got home from work she had a piano lesson [BB declined] , and we did story of the world altogether – alexander the great.

should back chat a bit really, and say the girls did a fab at home home ed day on mon, v productive and v happily. i also achieved goal of piano lesson for sb and story of the world for both. tues i was less productive, having had a 12 hour solid day, but still managed viola . they had done pretty well with home ed again, and had visited the post op grandad who is doing v well . when i came back from work i did have a fab welcome – a pancake and also the fab company of jax and family [and bottle of wine ] . i managed to relax for the first time in a couple of days, which was lovely and ended up with me finally getting some sleep. we chatted, played with the baby, the kids didn’t really get to sleep v early tho!!

so yes, back to today. we managed to get up and out, i had storming migraine – prob due to first night sleep after v stressed – but we did manage to get out on time, find a parking space [easier for me in the yaris than jax] and meet up with everyone before moving onto the museum of classical archaeology for an arranged visit. I was really fantastic, the facilitator was excellent and gripped all the childrens attention and enthusiasm. i thought she mixed the factual elements and myths and legends really well, as well as encouraging everyone to look at the statues. the kids quickly got over all the nude men [tho being asked to check out the musculature of some of the buttocks a bit weird!!] After the session the children all had a go at drawing one or more of the statues [rather well] before we went to have lunch in a covered area nearby. one of the porters saw us [i presume that was who it was anyway ] and allowed us to eat in a small lecture hall. BB was particularly happy with this, and has decided to go to university on the basis of that

we then went to a university wind orchestra concert aimed for schools, which was also excellent, and both of my children loved it, and bb [who i had had a few concerns about! ] was great in the audience, enthralled by the music, and then discussing v nicely what she had liked about each thing. she did like the faces at the back of the worksheet [and the worksheet, but i would have prob redesigned that a bit! it was slightly shorter than i thought too, so should have thought of something else to do in town. we def would recommend, and i was v impressed by the conductor.

SO we had ppl come back to ours for a cup of tea and chat, and the kids rampaged v happily. will add pics. SB at brownies then judo, and bb snuggling me but about to go to bed, as early start tomorrow . see some of you in london!