Category Archives: General

Satisfactory Six

BB’s birthday didn’t go quite as planned. her cousins had chickenpox, and she had been v excited about them coming :(
However, we got up, and she was v happy to see presents in front of the fireplace, and opened a few of them, planning to save the rest. SHe liked the craft kids, was overjoyed by the chocolate bar [grin] adored the sylvanians and was excited by the lego – see she didn’t save any of the presents ;) I was v pleased that I could watch her open the sylvanian windmill from my sister without sobbing. obv used up the sobs last night. She also loved the dinosaur duvet set and matching fleece blanket. All in all v successful!! She and SB got started putting the windmill together and playing a happy game, and were rather put out when we interrupted, until we said it was to see a film.

We went to see ‘despicable me’ in 3d, and we all enjoyed it. TBH, I loved it. It was a fun film, with a giggling premise and only a couple of moments of pathos. i actually laughed! BB was snuggled against me too, which was nice :) . I would def recommend this film.

After that we returned home and chris’s parents came across to give BB their present – a fab doll. BB has asked for a doll on and off, and has gone through dolly episodes before, so we suggested this, and she is absolutely delighted, playing with her for ages. made SB play more with her doll as well. both are from playmerrily – BB and SB so we enjoyed watching them play and have fun. birthday tea was BB’s choice of cheesy pasta and then birthday cake. By then she [and SB] starting to flag, so it was a bit of a tired and waily BB that we took to bed – though she denied this ;)

Happy birthday sweetheart :)

And happy blogiversary

It is easy to remember BB’s birthday, as it is the day that daddybean started the blog ;) initially i was rather dismissive, after all, who would read it , and we would never keep it up. I am not often wrong ;) :lol: but i do admit to it on this occasion – giggle!! 6 years and this currently says it is the 2275 blog post – not bad for something I wasn’t sure would keep going!

SO why has it worked??

I guess because there are 2 of us blogging. Daddybean has been less regular at blogging of late, and I am trying to encourage him to return. He IS the main home educator, even if recently mine has been the main voice here. We see things differently, do things differently and yet the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You just can’t tell that from just me. I am more ‘schooly’ and he is more ‘freeform’ and I think that is one of the strengths of how we go.

it has worked, perhaps, because we are careful in what we write, that we don’t wish to open windows to the inner sanctum of how the family works. We don’t blog the grumps and groans of wider family and work life. it could be argued that this is therefore a ‘pollyanna’ blog, maybe, but it is a pretty real representation of us.

It has worked because in blogging we have made new friends, good friends who have supported us through the difficult, laughed with [and at] us in the joyous, cried with us and we have laughed, cried and supported them too. Then in real life we have met, broken bread [and more importantly cake and chocolate] and drunk wine [lots]. This community is sustained through blogging. Although we might tweet or BK also, the who we are and where we are is there on our blogs and we keep real to each other that way to keep us going until the next cakefest/meet.

finally it has worked because as the blog has kept going, even though i may be one of the most boring bloggers in the ring, we can see it as a message to our future children that we loved and cared for them, and that we worried, hoped and worked to make the best now we could give them to hopefully give them the best options for the future, even if we are proved wrong in the end. One day our voices will be stilled, and even if this blog stutters and changes as they get older and perhaps wish for less discussion of their lives on it, it will remain for them, hopefully, a celebration of our family.

So, thankyou blog, writing you seems like a chore at times, reading you might also seem like a chore at times ;) but in whatever guise you are in currently, i am glad we have got this far :)

BB is 6

what is BB, butterbean for the chubby baby, blessing baby for the second miracle success of treatment, bouncing bean, for all her energy? She is gorgeous, adorable, frustrating and utterly unique :) Her addition to our happy family has been a great joy, the much wanted sibling SB begged for and we had hoped for without necessarily expectation.

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At 6 she is a walking contradiction still, the girl with the curl. She can be adorable, loving, sunny and smily, with her cutie dimple and beaming smile and then lose it in a second over something we struggle to notice as a problem. She plays endlessly and happily imagination games and can really concentrate on a craft, she loves playing with SB and is still v v keen on dinosaurs, lizards and amphibians, though big cats and rabbits get a look in too now. She is a musical little dot, and is often singing and humming as she plays or crafts. Ah, crafting, i am amazed at what she can produce on her own with crafting. I do sometimes help, as she has v exact expectations at times and this can frustrate her. She has had a pic published in a magazine and got a blue peter badge on the back of her painting skills.
She is still most comfortable staying close to home, and not really keen to join groups, apart from swimming and gym. She prefers to stay reasonably close to a parent until she ‘warms up’ which can take quite a long time. She is v physically affectionate and also ticklish. I adore her for her impish and intransigent nature. Even when feel driven up the wall and to the back of beyond she can deflate this with a smile. yes, she has me :) she has all of us :)

Happy Birthday BB
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6 years ago



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Happy Birthday BB!! x x x x x

And so to today

It should have been entirely daddybeans day, and so his blog. However, someone asked me the ‘wrong’ question and i just sobbed at work and so with permission bailed out of the afternoon as could do from home.

The girls had a bath in the morning, and when i came home they were baking BB’s birthday cake – she is having a marblecake with a tiger decoration [daddybean doing currently]. SB did a good piano prac and we did story of the world 3, whilst sorting out work stuff with the other half of my brain :) . SHe is very happy to have done 35 things on her sheet this week, predom as she wanted to have the whole weekend to play with cousins. Unfortunately, those cousins are now not coming due to chicken pox :( grr to chickenpox. However, she has chosen a good balance of things, said it didn’t feel like working too hard – grin – and was happy.

We then did some Xmas stuff preparation, and the girls made their secret santa things, now we have to see if they actually work… [then i will make mine - :lol: ] SOme tidying with assorted screeches, and I wasn’t v sympathetic as have spent the rest of the day rather too close to tears or in tears. We finished happily enough tho, playing the card game Dingo and watching Merlin before a rousting bedtime. BB is v excited…

Resources Blog – Art

I wondered what to do a quickie resources post on, and decided for art :) . Partly on the basis that I think my schooling and upbringing has left me with zero confidence in practical art myself, so i have bought a lot of books :lol: and partly because Kirsty reminded me of Harmony Art Mom, one of the 2 non UK home ed blogs I have on my RSS feed. SO here is a small selection of the books we have used a lot and found valuable :)

Beautiful art appreciation books for children

I think nothing beats going to a variety of art galleries and installations, because there you can see how big and impressive or small and detailed the various pics are. Historic houses – like Burghley that we went to recently as well, as SB was v keen to focus on the art and wants to go back. But it is also nice to pour over pictures, get ideas and inspiration from them, as SB has often done, with matisse, van gogh recently.

Artist Story Books

I have to confess to a complete love of the Anholt Stories about artists, as well as the Katie books. They can be read purely as stories or jump off to new and different directions. We have quite a few different ‘story’ books which are particularly good for BB now. The book people did some good deals on them a while back, so often in libraries.

How To… Art Books

Feeling terribly useless at art, I have compensated with books :) well, i had no idea how to use oil paints or watercolour pencils for example when the girls asked! SO some of these are ideas books from Usborne – owned by myself or friends! S0me are suggested by harmony art mom as well – thankyou.

SO go and enjoy painting, splodging and sketching, no excuses :) ALso please link fav’s in comments.

Previous resource Posts
Geography

Thinking Dinosaur

History resources

Resources overview

Latinetc wednesday – exploring the periodic table

cutting out electrons, protons and neutrons about 250 of each] took way to long last night, so to bed v late and hard to get up and out this am. However, I had got everything ready apart from SB’s minimus which i asked her to add… yep, she forgot :roll: !!

We trialled the 3 groups today, which TBH I found quite stressful as a lot to say and do in a small time, the dynamics will take a bit of settling down, the middle group got a partic raw deal and i was just ready to cry. Lack of sleep on my part prob didn’t help, but I now have migraine. Will give it a few more tries as it works better for everyone else, and I really want to keep latinetc going as a strong group as it is fab.

That said, all the children had read or had read to them chapter 1 of real science 4 kids chemistry and we romped through the periodic table, protons, neutrons and electrons and then atomic mass unit and moles. I do think the 3 levels of the chemistry first chapters are all really great, and so far like the text. we did pre-k and 1 with BB and 2 with SB at home. We then shuffled my deck of elements and chose the ones to make a window decal each. For the first and last groups we read up about the elements in my periodic table book, but ran out of time with the middle group. I have suggested they might want to do that :) . i think the decals looked really good when finished. Unfortunately my camera had a flat battery, and the spare also flat. :( partic as when i checked last night there was allegedly 2/3 battery power left. Luckilly le ciel rouge took some photos and we plan to nick them from her flickr stream :)

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[tho not periodic table view :) ]

edited to add at kirsty’s request :) to make the decals we got some of that bookbinding clear stuff [loads of it] and had an a3 size each. i cut out old 10p piece size protons out of yellow see through sweetwrapper plastic that you can buy, and the same with blue for neutrons, then 1/2p size in red for electrons, which we placed in shells, but talked about the unplaceability effectively of electrons and this was just for ‘display’. we put them on one a4 side, with the protons and neutrons clumped in the middle but accurately counted, and then folded over the other a4 side, and it worked :)

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SB did clarinet [with g's as hers is in service, and sounded quite good from the kitchen] minimus, tesselating art and skoldo french, all of which she enjoyed, tho she said the skoldo now too easy for her. K’s plan tho is to race through it looking for gaps in knowledge, so hopefully a fast consolidating race will work well for her and then move on. It is nice to hear her say french is easy tho :) . BB didn’t do french – no such get out again – but really loved doing z’s tesselating art.

We had a further chat about whether we could work into the afternoon whilst G and K take children to cello some short while of something else, either a bigger craft, a bit of music theory or perhaps some singing or group music. Whilst the morning stressy for me, i need the afternoon to be a bit less intensive, so it kind of depends how pans out, but really love the group, and it would be lovely to get a good working balance. SB and L shew each other their piano skills :) , poor J got *really* attacked by a thorn bush and i drew out a thorn of nearly a cm. He was *very* brave.

SB now at brownies, and showing off baby rabbits – one of the owls would quite like a rabbit she thinks – that would be good :), we are going to have a chippery tea shortly and then SB has judo. My imigran seems to be doing a good job on migraine and planning an earlier night tonight :)

Latinetc was brought to you today by:

also edited to add, with the chippery tea we watched the wallace and grommet inventions prog, BB and i played ludo before bed, and SB played with geomags after judo and before bed. I am having an early night i think :)

Out of Phase Tuesday

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.

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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!

remembering

SB was supporting the brownie flag at the village remembrance day service today, and we were very proud of her :) so mum and i went to the service at the memorial and the church. I have to say that the brass band went at a clipping speed! I think it is v important that our children get an opportunity to both take part in community events, but aso to think about the meaning behind some of them, like remembrance sunday and what lies behind it. last year we went to the service at duxford.

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Whilst we were out BB made dinosaur choc cookies. Dad finished painting the side door. When we came back, slightly cold, we were greeted with coffee and cookies – yum!! We did some dsing together and then played half a game of alhambra when SB leading and BB second. Mum and dad left, and I am now feeling blue :( . It is just such a hard time for us all, and being together can remind of us that.

twinkling fingers

my mother, somewhat poetically, tells me that i have twinkling fingers as i type. She is used to dad’s typing, one finger at a time, pausing to make sure the capital letters are there. i now ‘touch type’ to my own rhythm, i use only three fingers from each hand, and not the thumbs or baby fingers, this means some things i live without – capital letters :)

After a somewhat appalling night’s sleep, i got up late and hurried and chivvied the girls so we went out with mum to Anglesey Abbey national trust property to walk around the gardens and visit the working mill. i remembered to pack some sustenance, and some sketching materials, both of which were very handy :) . SB was in charge of the map, and led us down the v beautiful winter path towards the mill. There was some really beautiful planting, that took our breath away!

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The friendly volunteer at the mill soon had SB grinding the wheat by hand, and then taking us through various bits of the mill. We were lucky that they got it going fairly soon after we got there too. we then wandred aimlessly, reached the main house, which is closed in winter, and fed the troops. A meander around the formal gardens and then back to the visitors centre. We had a lovely lunch, tho the portions for the veg crumble were on the miniscule side :( , and a visit to the gift shop left us all happy.

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Returning home, chris and dad had made a start on painting the side gate, SB and i cleaned out the babies hutch and then did piano prac. SHe did some more mosaic and then played pictureka with mum, whilst bb made patterns with blokus. Chris made a delish delia recipe for tea, then we shipped children to bed and chatted.

Bedtime, will add photos from flickr tomorrow