Category Archives: General

Not sure if that really will stay the group meet name, as I did it to tease Merry, but i might keep it as the name for the blog :). it has already been blogged elswhere and elsewhere, but I am running quite behind with blogging/life etc. Am tempted just to link and run!

However, the day was rather different for us because SB had decided she would like to cycle there – all 16 miles! I did tell her that is a long ride to do to a set time… SO we all got up nice and early and she and DH did indeed cycle there He took a few photos with his phone, but these are mine at the setting off
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it took them 2 hours So proud of her, because at 14 miles she really thought she had had enough, but did manage to keep going. BB and I dropped some linen and a nearly tudorish recorder at the deependers and were then early to zoes and started on the day of the dead colourings

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SB and DH arrived, as did merry and family and Em and family, so all set for a fun day the kids all coloured, chatted and were generally happy. We did a quick french round of saying hello and some basic questions round whilst they coloured and will hopefully build a bit on aural french as we go along. I am prob not the ideal person, being not fluent myself but a no stress version of french anyway.

We then divvied the group into mixed age halves. Half went to do poetry with Merry, she read the witches from macbeth and talked a bit about it, and then helped them each to write their own poem or list and illustrate it. BB and J shared theirs, as neither of them write, so Merry the scribe and then each decorated. SB spent a long time doing hers, and was v happy with it.

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With the other half we made some small amount of black powder. Last time we did this it wasn’t particularly successful, so this time i changed the ratio a bit and we used wood charcoal. we also added iron filings, tinfoil and copper sulphate to them [not everything in each!] so the flames might have diff appearances. This time it was v v successful. we did use safety precautions and close supervision! we were within the law for amount made, and all was ignited in small batches at the end, so none stored.

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SOme leaf gathering and some made a nature art whilst others played. SB finished off her poem, BB had a cuddle and did some of her recorder [and had a minor eek over learning some new notes!] Then Em got everyone going who wanted to with bells. SB and BB loved it

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We had a great day, and finished with tea alltogether, lots of chat and play before leaving. Thanks Zoe

prehistory was fab, and we did a fair bit of playing and chatting afterwards. SB and I did some music practices together, she is enjoying viola, even if doesn’t do it regularly, and has liked also a mediaeval simple recorder tunes book. She can play them v easily, but was going to suggest to Em that we might arrange some for tudor/kentwell kids easy playing. [especially if we can get our recorders to 'pass' by a bit of sanding and planing!] . SHe spent sunday morning catching up on some ‘normals’ – particularly music theory as the exam any minute now! BB also did some reading prac and much bouncing on the trampoline. We read some of a street through time together, as she likes doing the spotting, and she got out the calligraphy pens to do some writing – in her ‘own language’ tho!

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today was supposed to be getting new fish day, as having come back from prehistory we cleaned the wter and added plants, however it still hadn’t settled enough to be able to add fish hopefully later in the week! It is warm water aquarium, so we are thinking to choose from guppy, danio, platys, molly [?too big], tetra fish but will start with 4-6 fish. Can prob have at most 12 smallest fish of approx 1 inch, or 8- 10 of a mixture of 1-2 inch fish. all of these fish like to have more than one of them, tho platy can be fine on own, so we can’t have many types of fish, and apparently can breed, but may eat the little ones. hmm!

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Then we crafted – decorating heart pots. BB has hers mario themed, and SB plans to give hers as gifts, so fitting with the person they are going to. Nice and relaxing all together, with some hugging, snuggling, contemplating thrown in for good measure in the lovely conservatory. I also started making a shift – in fact pretty much finished it. I think it could do with being looser, so will adjust that for the next shifts! If it is too tight next summer i have a plan to add an extra panel along the side. that ought to do the trick!

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SB and I did some piano duetting together with our Jazz book, which we both enjoy – DH took a pic which i should add here and BB mostly pretended to be a dog! then we read a bit together, watched a dvd about volcanos, but more specifically the hawaian islands, and i learned about basalt and runnier lava. girls played a wii game together.

Finally snuggling up to watch the week befores merlin, from being in hastings and have this weeks to watch at some point. A lovely chilled and relaxing day . However, didn’t play a wii game with them, or a board game . Must try harder!!

BB has got to that bit of maths where a strong knowledge of hundreds, tens and units needs to be consolidated. SB seemed to race through this stage, and although we heard lots of friends being v positive about base ten blocks, we just didn’t need them.

BB is a very different girl tho, and things visual really suit her, so as well as just doing lots of work on numbers and their placements into HTU, DH has bought some baseten blocks and uses this regularly with her maths. She really likes them, not only for helping visualise the maths, but playing number games. All in the name of consolidation . SO here as a recommendation [completely not a sponsored blog, just a happy home-edder blog]

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the festival of ideas runs annually, and has some great drop in and prebook things. This year, tho very tempted by the prebook, we were hoping my nephew and niece would be up so didn’t. They didn’t make it as their dad still in china and could have arranged with my parents if we knew differently, but didn’t. SO we went to the drop ins. I am having enough stressing at work that i needed a lie in on sat come what may! so we were all late up, and by the time i had got sarnies etc made i was eeling v sick, so we were delayed whilst i decided whether really was sick or just stressed and tired. Decided stressed and tired, so we went out far later than planned! and instead of going to 2 diff activities we concentrated on the prehistory.

It was great, as normal, tho both girls were initially a bit lacklustre at joining in and being enthused. A poke and a prod and we got going. had a great chat with the smelters and bronze makers, and also with the skin preparers. Both very enthusiastic about passing on their knowledge. Got shown the cave with a student with BB, and then a prof with SB, a very clear difference! Was strongly tempted to apply to be a mature student in archaeology. She mixed facts and figures with descriptions and enthusiasm that held us The student in charge of the patineting was simlar tho, and we discussed ochres and natural pigments, and both girls did some cave painting.

Whilst we were there, also caught up with various home educators in the region, which was fab. I don’t get to see them currently, and definitely miss them! Have had to accept husband is the home educator wish he would blog though!!

ANyway, some photos [iphone still, oh where oh where could our camera be!]

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SB is getting near to the end of lots of hospital visits. One problem, for which she has had 2 diff specialists and 2 MRI scans has been investigated and no clear answer demonstrated so presumed migraine. Migraine is not something i had wished to pass on, but could just be due to changing eye prescriptions. Her tooth saga is still ongoing. the tooth broken before christmas has finally had the nerve root dying, and so she had an abscess, and has now had a root canal drainage and a root canal filling!! She has 1 more appointment to have the tooth rebuilt again. these appointments have been fairly disruptive to the home ed during the week!

So it has been a ‘low’ home ed week for normals. Hopefully will do a bit better next week! However, we did have historyetc on weds, which was fabulous, and the girls also went to ‘the wild place’ for woodcraft on friday. They had a great time, making a veg soup, getting fires going and also coppicing. Lots of discussion and lots of things learnt. Think both girls fancy a firesteel now. Lots of the normal after school activities went on, and BB still enjoying judo. SB’s friend has left guides for a drama group, and SB really didn’t enjoy guides this week at all. She was predominantly the tidy upperer and assistant as it was a pairs activity… we may rethink guides. My SB is a lovely heart-on-sleeve girl, but she is a bit too shy to ‘break in’ to the pair groups at guides and the leader doesn’t really seem to see it as part of her role to help.

It being a history week we have had guests. We had Jax and family staying on the tuesday night which was great. SB and Big got straight down to playing their clarinet and bassoon respectively. They had a great eve together had lots of fun, but did then settle too late and we had some unfortunate moments before they finally went to sleep In the future Jax and i think we might see if SB and Big can do one of the extension bits of geog or history together in the eve, as these often say to do with class/partner etc. might then see if some ff distance learning interaction makes it work?? SB really does wish we lived in an HE village, tho is clear she doesn’t currently want to go to school. Hoping to make the most of the peer group that she loves that lives relatively locally. Jax and I got lots of time to chat over herbal teas, nice for us to meet IRL too.

Weds night we had 2 of the puddle chicks staying, and that was great too. They are much loved by my girls, and happy that history group is also giving them the sleepover and friend thing too. Lots of playing and finished with film night of ratatouille, and the all settled asleep v v quickly!

Today was quite a multifaith session as well, dealing with buddhism and the beginnings of islam, as well as china and japan [we haven't read those chapters in story of the world as a bit behind!] . It was an absolutely fabulolus day with truly brilliant ideas being brought along and great fun had by all.

I started as a helper outer, as we had all the ‘messy’ tables in use, and it was a bit too chilly to be going outside. M started us off with a fabulous koinobori craft. Making painted material carp kites to signify determination, vigour and overcoming obstacles – something all our children need. This took a lot of concentration to make, so were done in small groups and only got joined up at the end, and looked brilliant. I must take the girls outside in the sun and see them swim

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Merry got set up to make oasis scenes from a sinbad story which also worked really well, both for the older and younger kids. Out of fimo, of course

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My photos are a bit dire as lost our camera, so from the phone . Zoe was in the sitting room leading people making buddhist prayer flags to add to a banner. I think everyone did this one, including lots of the parents. The whole thing strung in my conservatory looks so fabulous i will be sad to divide it up!

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On the table G and I had our ‘slack’ crafts that would be done without a lot of adult assistance, some curly snakes, that twirl with heat and printed islamic tiles to hopefully have enough to stick and make a wall frieze. as it was, there were so many fab things to do, that we didn’t have enough ‘filler time’ . ALso on the floor was K’s ‘slack’ craft – kai awase – making shells to pair match with.

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K was in the kitchen making a sumptuous feast. Intially with SB and Big helping chop loads of veg to make sushi and spring rolls. they were both delish I do love the food side as well as the craft side, and will def have to buy some spring roll wrappers for the future.

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After lunch, when the kids had had chance to blow off steam racing around outside, we set up myself and G in the conservatory. She was making geometric styled bags, but the kids prefered to decorate them to become history bags sounds like a good idea. I was doing more tile making, as had bought some white tiles, and had carbon paper to transfer islamic designs across. however, quite a few kids experimented making their own designs, and i thought that it worked really well. I know jax was doing a buddhist prayer bead chain, but as strapped to my table, didn’t wander about.

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Both my girls and I thoroughly enjoyed the session, meeting friends and socialising whilst being productive

These are the texts we are predominantly using this year

I should point out that unlike galore park junior 1 and 2, GP 3 and syrwtl 1 deal only in english history to run alongside SOTW.

at the last moment we had decided to stay in sussex and have another day, which we got up slowly to, had a little chef brekkie, and then went to walk/find geocaches. in the end we did far less walking as bb had had enough – a v busy sat had obviously drained her of walking and coping skills.

we first went to see the wilmington man, had a gentle wlak there and found 1 and failed to find one, and broke into emergency rations for cheering up bbs!

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Follwoing that we went to birling gap and lazed on the beach, had picnic, looked at stones, chatted and only came off when icecreams called. when we got them it got cloudy!

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so we geocached, mostly along to beachy head they are v close to carparks, so cache and dashes. BB rarred and rampaged as a saxon warrior whilst we found the caches – all denuded of tat so we restocked them

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finally ended up in eastbourne for a chippery supper on the beach before driving home. A great day and great weekend

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this weekend we went to hastings, ok we went to Battle, and attened the English Heritage re-enactment weekend of the Battle of Hastings. It is true that the result was somewhat a foregone conclusion, but you never know We stayed in a premier inn the friday night. Had planned to camp, but finished work a bit too late for that, and putting up tent when cold in the dark is not a relaxing thought!

This meant that after the most enormous all you can eat breakfast we made it early to to the abbey at battle, and tht felt unusual! as we walked in the site, sb read the signs to us and we noticed a dad thought that was a good idea. think his elder daughter not so impressed as she then was reading them all to her family! onarrival we stopped at the viking ship for a bit. the lady there very informative about the navigation aids and chatting to the kids. Then the manor borns arrived to great joy

The kids took part in a pretend norman/norseman naval battle which looked fabulous fun and the chap leading it was v good. we then went up to the more children’s area and painted some shields, having heard the earlier banter, they told the kinght handing out shields their names were banana, gertrude and chicken! great painting done and just in time to listen to a storyteller recount the battle for pevensey. i loved he kept being interrupted by a tiny boy telling on ppl climbing walls [often bb] but was fantastic, and then he lead the kids battle. whilst the storytelling was ending the deependers joined us, also fabulous I seem to have missed them saying they were travelling there by train – possibly as all this working means i am just not keeping up properly!

we were peckish, and once the word tea had been mentioned there was no distracting some of us so tea and picnic lunch in a patch of shade as it turned out to be a scorcher of a day. BB then did archery and SB and i wandered around re-enactors selling area, not knowing which wool might be tudor and seeing lots of things to buy. C bought a fab double lucet and i bought linen thread.

We all joined to sit behind saxon lines for the big reenactment. initially it seemed like poor placement due to the view being almost all backsides! however since the ending is in the saxon area, we got to have a fab view of the end of the battle photos for this included as were on iphone.

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we had a final cup of tea and wander around a reenactment area, where the older kids were being shown how to do tablet weaving [i did try really hard to remember jax! but it is a bit beyond me!!] and we watched before saying good bye to the deependers catching their train, and looking for a handy restaurant with the manor borns

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what we hadn’t counted on was the reenactors booking out all the restaurants! we did take the last 2 tables at the curry house and had a lovely meal there before going on to a travelodge. a kerfuffle over lack of bed numbers made me remember why the premier inn is better… however a v comfortable night was had.

i really need DH to blog. I have no idea what happened for lots of last week, but i am sure that they were out fairly lots?? the usual home ed type stuff, some concentrated working for SB grade 3 music theory, general bits and pieces of going out and about, new glasses etc.

They spent a day with the local HE group fossiling and then pond dipping, which was great fun.ppl from le ciel rouge and patch of puddles were there too. Loads and Loads of fossils were found, mostly ammonites and belemnites. We had remembered to take along the geolog hammers and chisel, and BB in particular was in her element. I haven’t been along to a home ed thing for so long that i definitely had a bit of eek outsider feel! luckilly group v friendly, and i did know quite a few other people too.

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took a ginormous packed lunch out that got ravenously eaten. in pond dipping came back with quite a few fish and beetles, so satisfaction all round. SB also did some bird watching from the hide
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We returned in time to send BB out to judo, which she v much enjoyed, and is happy to go again. Sensei wasn’t enthusiastic about having periodic extra children tho, which is a shame. SB had judo afterwards. I do like both girls doing a martial art as think at various times it might have been useful to me to have learnt.

thursday was a tidying and gym day, and some home ed thrown in for good measure and then friday arts award. Made more exciting by the fact there was a chemical spill near where we live, so the girls couldn’t return until all over. it turned out not to be that dramatic… They did some fab art, and i enjoyed getting to see it on my return from work. My cousin’s partner sadly passed away from her brain cancer.

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and then we hopping in the car and drove down to sussex, but i think that might be another blog post