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Category Archives: General
As seen on jax’s blog
Posted in Daft Stuff, General
a tired day
due to the lateness of the girls actually sleeping last night, there was a fiar bit of tired behaviour going on. SB was totally shattered all day, as she was found reading her books when we went to bed at 1am! oh, and i forgot to say i gave BB her first all round haricut on sunday rather than just a quick fringe cutting. She wanted me to cut enough off to make a birds nest, needless to say i didn’t!
So today I nipped quickly to the dentist – no probs – phew!! ANd returned to find SB doing her singapore maths, and BB watching magic school house. SB took ages on one of the questions, she knew the right answer, but couldn’t see how to work it out to that [i realised after she cried over me] its taking away across tens and hundreds. SHe also did some handwriting. We were going to do the propeller science kit, but instead she chose a dig out a dinosaur to do. BB made some more things out of the air drying clay. BB continued doing that for a bit whilst SB went off to her trampolining.
BB and i moved onto a bit of reading, including a fun number book to do a fair bit of counting and spotting the numbers with. SHe then did an alphabet jigsaw and some thomas the tank jigsaws. we did lots of hug and tickling games – BB is of the age of hug and tickle games! oh, and she asked to do a violin practice, so we had a play of open strings.
SB returned in a fragile mood, wanting to go swimming, bt no swimming slots suitable for us this pm. SO we did some violin, but abandoned it half way as everytime it wasn’t perfect she was crying. So we had had a lovely hug whilst chris made lunch and read a sir cumference book. After lunch we read the first story in our king arthur book, and also a french goodnight book. Still not feeling up to much, SB sat down in front of some roar back to back, whilst BB and I made carrot cake. hmm, the house has smelled rather lovely ever since. Chris has been still trying to sort out the veg patch during this. we might tame it yet!
SB came to enough to want to do the propeller kit after all. SHe and BB took one thing each, with me helping BB and SB pretty much unaided. it as simple and quick to do, and worked. [always important] . SO we obviously went and had a bath so we could try out SB’s boat – worked, and BB’s dragster worked far better in the water too. Both girls were far too splashy in the bath [i am worried re dining room ceiling!]. That seemed to seal both their energy levels, so some more vegging infront of the square box and an early night for both. think chris and i should try that early night thing too!
weird
driving home late this evening there was a lot of fog about. however, as i was on a slightly higher part of where i live, the fog only went half way up the windscreen. so it was really thick in the bottom half – making it v difficult to actually see where i was going, but i could see stars. as i said, weird!
SB has had more trampolining today and a gym taster session. she enjoyed reading the magic school bus chapter books, adn read 2 last night, she has also read ahead ballet shoes, and is enjoying reading the magic faraway tree.
Posted in General
musical monday 1 = dives and lazarus
hmmm, i think Vaughn Williams has captured my soul. this and the lark ascending is some of my favourite music
Posted in General, music to love
bouncing, grooving and swimming
chris knows the initial bit of the day, as i got home mid afternoon. it involved shopping, and it involved going to the halfterm trampolining sessions at the local sports centre. SB and Chris also looked at a country file magazine set about UK animals and birds, and she also read gregs microscope again. BB is rather upset that she no longer goes to gym, so we might try again the gymtots type session.
When I got home, SB and i did some violin practice [ she is finding playing while i count v difficult - not sure how succesful the melrose music will be, but as long as it is fun...] and then opened my amazon box for the movin and groovin dvd! this is part of my try and get fit regime. I realised that i would only actually do it, if i did it with kids, and that my fitness level is at 0, so Jax’s choice of dirty dancing grt fit was never going to be in my league! once i had sent chris out for sniggering, it was much better. honestly, you would think i would get a bit of support – i do know how silly i must look! ANyway, we did half an hour, and SB was then tired, so not bad, and we hope to do this 3 times a week.
BB had been asleep and woke up for a bit of painting of her airdried clay dinodor balls, whilst SB did some maths. i took SB swimming, as we are gradually acclimatising her to the idea of changing on her own in the ladies. i was in there, but not helpful! i loved watching her swim, she puts a lot of effort in, but even the instructor looked dumbfounded at her doggy paddle /crawl arms paired with half breast stroke half butterfly legs!! she did survive a width with this though! There were only 2 of them today so they worked well, and the crawl visibly improved. I am v pleased with this instructor. SB also appears not bothered by the deep end thing anymore.
Home and we watched some TV, BB and i did a jigsaw and then some paper shredding! some fun and games with me singing a hornpipe faster and faster, and the girls dancing more and more wildly! SB has gone to bed with a worst witch book and a magic school house chapter book, to see if she enjoys them. [she gets through a book a night - thank goodness for the library!]
Posted in Books, Butterbean, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE
Sunday walking in the WARM
It was really warm for our monthly RSPB walk with chloe, michelle and marcus, and it was lovely! lovely to be out in the sun, lovely to have a nice walk, lovely being severely bossed by BB! She particularly wanted to be first, and to run up and down the quarry steps, so thats what we did alot of! She took her ‘noculars and SB took some real ones, so they could both look at the birds. SB and Chloe also did a finding things all the way round, which they enjoyed. i loved the fact that SB thinks of the R in plRnt and grRs rather than an a – would help if we were northern!
[lots of photos to come on flickr]
back to their house for the usual sumptuous feast – yummy – and lots of game playing. i particularly liked the fire and ice game. girls all got on very well, BB was only intermittantly ‘three’. we adult had plenty of nattering time.
on the way home, SB and i sang together, and its the first time she has ever held the tune with someone else singing with her as well. so i am v happy [BB has always been able to do it]
Posted in Butterbean, General, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE, writing
Happy 71st grandad
[a photo will be included here!]
so we went to the GP’s for a lovely day to celebrate grandad’s birthday. BB and SB were adorable, and had made cards. we also had a present!
After lunch we played games, including hare and tortoise [once i had re-remembered the rules!] . lovely day and lovely time.
Photos to follow.
Posted in General
a very ordinary post for a very ordinary day
and i really enjoyed it!
SB got on with some maths and writing for the first time this week, and whizzed through it whilst BB and i did an alphabet jigsaw together with some letter practice, and then read some books together – including the excellent there was an old woman with doll she got for xmas. SB also had DK cdrom/dvd on the rainforest which she enjoyed watching, and quoted various bits to us.
We then had a huge hoover of the playroom. out mouse traps are untouched, and there have been no sightings, but our house is a good place for mice to hide, so lets see! ANyway, both girls enjoyed the hoovering, as we opened the sofa bed to get the crumbs, bB had a good bounce too.
After lunch SB did some violin practice, and BB played pools with the dinodoors. then we all played with some airdrying clay bought with ELC vouchers. I can’t say what SB did, as it has to do with a birthday this month. BB in the end made dinodoor eggs – she is looking forward to painting them later! She has quite a dinosaur thing going at the moment, and flicks through the various dinosaur books we have. SB was reading the i wonder why… series, so BB and i read the dinosaur one.
A bath and some games with BB whilst SB did something else secretive and birthday related and then chris came home with a pencil sharpener. So we sharpened all the pencils and SB did a card of the aurora borealis for grandad’s birthday. then it was teatime. SB and i watched the last 2 walking with beasts. We read some more ballet shoes, and she read me some magic tree house knights and it was bedtime.
i have managed to get 3 triples in a row in a scrabulous game. SO feeling rather happy!!
car keys and divers
well, after 3 hours of ‘system’ i am cleared of health scares, and need only a biennial mammo [unfortunately not avail on NHS but def worth paying for for peace of mind!] being in a scatty frame of mind, i took all the car keys with me. oops. this meant that chris couldn’t go to group for latin. however, after latin, group came to us for science, which was lovely, as i got to see them when i returned from hospital. science experiments are always enjoyed when water is involved. our floor got a good wash too!
ANd yes, it did work, the divers did dive with pressure [mostly!].
Sb went off to rainbows, where she cried because she was teased. I think all the undercurrents are getting to her. I know all mothers prob project personalities on their children a bit, and i am prob guilty of seeing her as ‘sensitive’ and maybe that encourages it, dunno.
whilst SB was at rainbows, BB and i watched ‘dinodors‘ and had a nice snuggle, and looked at pictures. poor babe was missing out on the trip yesterday and then i was out this morning. She does like to know what is happening. she is gloriously cuddly though. She did – for once- demonstrate her demanding behaviour with others around. thing is, i think i need to focus on both girls for different reasons, and don’t feel i am doing either justice. parenting is just such an enormous responsibility.
SB returned and we watched the Australopithecus episode of walking with beasts, with SB cuddling me and BB on ‘fishy on a dishy [known elsewhere as poisson rouge!]. we talked about a few issues thrown up by the film. they do seem keen on recurrently showing mating don’t they? I can feel SB edging herself towards asking the mating question, so perhaps more sensitive to it! As an aside, one of the car bits was about having babies if you weren’t married, and did people have ‘to do the kiss and dance to fertilise eggs’. I very gently queried what on earth she meant, and she pointed out that in fairy tales and real life, all weddings have dancing [which she had realised had some significance] and was this the trigger to tell an egg to grow. SO i said no [and didn't giggle!], and the ‘special hug’ bit, but… [bit odd actually, as she knows the daddy provides half the DNA, so how an dance could do that? may be the kiss?]. mind you, BB with her thing about birds and eggs, is sure she was in an egg in my tummy and hatched there.
BB then fell asleep cuddling me, so has missed tea. SB, chris and i talked more about pressure, atoms and molecules, liquids and gasses, based on the earlier experiment, and then heated up our closed system with ebts on diver staying afloat or sinking – of course he sank, so we had a discussion about that too.
SB wandered off to read a book – and the read me salient facts from why is the sea salty. She has really loved that series of books. we then read together a bit more about anglo saxons then bedtime.
BTW I am really loving the american primaries. i wish i was voting there rather than here. i would obviously be a democrat. And what a fantastic choice on many levels – its as good as the west wing!
oh, and chris has spent a fortune on a bike for SB’s birthday. Michelle, not sure when chloe due her next bike, but maybe not having marcus and chris chat might be to your advantage… Before chris raises eyebrows, we did plan to buy a good bike, as for bb too in her time, and apparently they have good resale value. we had better buy a good lock!!












