Category Archives: Out and About

Aargh Blogging

Chris has loads of half written posts that need finishing!

I obviously worked a lot last week, but also tried to do as much as poss at home – playing games with SB after BB in bed a consistently good thing, and we have felted and hama-ed.

Errm, keeping going with violin, and she did some spontaneous piano practice tody – woohoo! musical instruments are gradually tuning in her brain too – she is much better at singing a tune, so hopefully wont be as tone deaf as Chris.
Maths and handwriting regularly done, we are nearing the end of first story of the world. DO I think she remembers it – not a lot, but hopefully setting the scene as it were! Quite a bit of crafting and arting. Read about pompeii -buried alive, and ring of fire from sonlight. and also the leap ahead volcano, and read through a volcano book. More playing with the ello and ds. Jump ahead and zoombinis on ‘puter, and watching various natural history progs. SB reading loads – fairy books, felicity ewishes, horrid henry and anything she can get her hands on.
girls and chris swimming at the weekend – we’re trying to get back into the habit of going on a sunday as BB loves it

Girls and chris went to see oliver twist yesterday – SB found it too scary, and had difficulty getting to sleep. we talked about our visit to gressenhall, and the rellies that were born there, but she was still unhappy – doesn’t want to learn about victorians! then playing with firends and shoe buying. SB eventually got some felicity wishes boots. they sparkle along the side!
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SB is rather frighteningly gaining a waist and indefinably ‘older’. PANIC!!

BB is also getting small girlish. She counts and pretends to read alot. SHe is great at switiching on her ‘puter, finding the kids downloads and choosing one to watch – scary! Her drawing and painting is very careful,, often with a story to it, that she chats or sings along with. BB excellent at singing. I think she may well have inherited my perfect pitch. She is also getting careful with hama beading. Her vocab is excellent – prob due to having SB as an older sister. Still well into her numberjacks addiction!

My Mum seems to be OK post surgery – phew. Unfortunately found today that my godfather has been admitted to my local tertiary hospital neuro unit and not at all well. intubated and ventilated for th last 5 days – so I would appreciate any positive thoughts.

hmmm, there have been loads of things I thought I should blog from both girls – can’t remember them for toffee!! Hopefully chris will [subtle nudge!!]

Another little Step on the Way to Indepedndence

Monday we had a HE group trip to a local fruit farm, before we left Stringbean had a phone call from one of her friends who wanted to make sure they synchronized outfits :-) They both have the same stripy purple outfit from H&M. I think it’s probably the first time she has ever had a phone call to herself from one of her friends. I was highly amused by it. didn’t manage to get a piccie of them together though
Anyway the trip was fun. kids enjoyed it and I learnt a few things as well.

Rode around the farm in trailers towed by tractors

Our Transport

The farmer told us about the history of the orchards, the different fruits they grow (they are trying out Apricots), why the newer trees are much smaller than the old ones etcIntroduction to the Farm

Picked and munched on apples

Expectant Faces watch an Apple Being PolishedBB MunchingApple Picking

Learnt about grafting different apples onto another tree

Explaining Grafting

Had a look at how they grade the apples

The Apple Grading Machine

And at the juice bottling

Juice Bottling

There were some enthusiatic helpers :-)

Lots More Helping Hands

Some went off to the playground afterwards, we headed home with the Deep Enders and plied Katy with tea :-) whilst kids ran around and played.

Helen came home, then Deep Enders left, SB went to Ballet class, girls made get well cards for Nanny S, SB I think beat Helen at Landlock whilst I put BB to bed.

Tuesday – Library day, normal finding books, reading them, chasing up kids etc. Iyt was raining so they wanted to get kitted up in their full Muddypuddles outfits. BB quite comical as hers much too big for her (it’s meant to be a 2-3 but they are sized very big – SB still managed to wear it earlier this year – though a bit small for her by then…) so we probably took longer for them to get dressed up than walking round to the library :roll:

SB chose, for the first time to sit out the Storytime story bit and read by herself (but then the stories are aimed at 2-3 yo) – did the colouring though :-) home via the shops.

A lovely bit of quiet whilst they sat on the floor in the playroom reading, and I hid in the kitchen for 20 minutes with a cup of coffee.

On the topic of SB’s reading, it really is zooming along. She got a Rainbows Fairies book out on Saturday, she wasn’t sure about it as she had found them a little bit hard when she had them before a month to two ago. She read the one on Saturday straight through in the afternoon. So we had a couple more of those, and i managed to convince her to try a few books from the Junior Fiction shelf, rather than the simpler ones.

Tuesday afternoon, was lunch, a bit of playing followed by maths and handwriting (it’s really easy multiplication and division but she likes to do it so leaving her be to finish it off), cook dinner for later, try and find out about some Gymnastics classes for SB and she got a book out about Gymnastics and was doing lots of moves out of there. There is a very good Gymnastics club nearby (-ish) but it’s popular and has a longish waiting list. Emailed about a couple of other possibilities as well.

Then the swimming lesson routine, followed by dinner and bedtime. BB didn’t want to go to sleep, and took ages, by which time I was feeling tired/rubbish as the cold/lurgy kicked in, so it was TV and then a (for me) early bed

trying to get back on track

before you all shriek, I just don’t think we are home edding to the best of our aptitude and ability. I’m not wanting to do school at home or anything, and quite happy with our mostly child led, but I’m not sure we are giving the wings as it were to fly. hmmm and more hmmm. lots of cogs and little whirring!

Anyway, we had a dreadful night. SB required feeding at somewhere between 3 and 4 am. BB woke up somewhere between 5 and 6am… So we were not at our peak!

After a very slow start to the morning, SB did some weighing things in kg and g, which we generously called maths. we have lost the 2a workbook – bugger!! Also need to scan some more Getty and Dubay. But we did read Usbornes who were the first people to go along with our magic tree house book. We looked onto the globe to see the spread of humanity out of Africa, and how it took a long time but in the end the whole world had humans on it – a bit of diversions about getting to America, australia and some islands but not all!! We also did some violin practice [onto the E string!] and some education city – english, which was tricky for her as she had decided earlier levels too easy, so on level 3 – decidedly not too easy! She read to me some stories, and I read some barefoot stories to her. This lead to a discussion about Hawaii, and islands being created by volcanos.

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BB did some chair fixing with daddy. We have had a trick broken chair for about a year now, and BB has fixed it – well done BB!! She was very proud. BB also did some ‘match and sort‘ counting up to 20 [she misses out 15 and 17, and looking at her numberjacks numbers to try and recognise which one was which as part of a game. She has also watched the magic school bus, and played snowman on starfall.
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After lunch :¬) we went to The Deep End to see their not so new anymore house and have a play. Also took some of the experimental carrot cake, which we all agreed didn’t taste a whole lot like carrot cake, but was quite edible even so! Children played, SB baby worshipped, adults nattered. ALl very enjoyable. Left an hour later than planned – oops.

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SB and BB therefore fell asleep in the car, so jiggled them about at home long enough to get tea into them. SB went to bed at 7, BB had a second wind, so watched 64 zoo lane and has finally succumbed. Regenesis and a coffee for us.

Christenings and Chatting

We went to A’s Christening [the Deep End] today. Sang one of my favourite hymns [always good]. Baby A had a comical expression when being liberally doused with the water. And after the baptism, when the children left for the creche/sunday school, there were periodic loud shrieks from that direction – often v clearly my two!

Chris was particulary impressed by the apple bread pudding cake – as were most of the rest of us, though the flapjack was my fav. Got to chat to Babs and Chris and some other home educators I haven’t seen since 1st Melrose. Children were like loons.

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Back to one of the godparents houses [did they know what they were letting themselves in for?] for a very relaxed bring something lunch and out in the garden afternoon. Apart from a bit of adjudicating periodically at the trampoline, the children were all v autonomous, having great fun. Also managed to give Melrose form to Babs – talk about speedy!
Thanks Bob and Katy for invite, and to godparents for hosting the afternoon.

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We are home now, still full from lunch – well, the girls are having tea, watching the dinosaur one of the magic school bus. I have to say, thanks to the SOTP crew for introducing us to the delights, but a lot of info is stuffed in these programmes. So tempted to buy all the books! SB also been making great 3d shapes with polydrons.

Need to do manic house tidying tonight as Canadian Aunt visiting on Wed – woohoo!! am really really looking forward to it. I haven’t seen her since my sister’s wedding

Don’t Forget The Bacon !

No, we  haven’t suddenly turned carnivorous, this has been Butterbean’s saying of the week, they got it from the eponymously named book that we had from the library recently. So she has been running around shouting this a lot :-)

Last couple of days they have been staying at my Mum and Dads, while I attacked a bit more of the arched window. Thursday they went to Mount Fitchet Castle, which was rather drier than when we were there last year.
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Friday I think they just pottered about at their house. SB never had the chance for this at BB’s age, as they were all to far away. They do both enjoy going to stay there.
Rest of week, Tuesday is library day, so much reading of old books before we go. Made masks at Storytime:

sb monkey mask

Then home to read the new stash of books:

lots of library  books

followed by a  bit of tandem Starfalling:

they heart starfall

After lunch, and bit of playing in the garden, Maths and Getty Dubay and then time to get going for swimming lesson, with a short play at the park in between.

Wednesday, umm….  There was some Maths and Getty Dubay, and Education city and maybe some other computery things in the morning, we did something else as well, which eludes me right now – I read something to SB. Afternoon seems to have disappeared. More reading though:

weird reading position

- Helen was back home from work by then. Until I took SB out for her Rainbows boat trip. She had a good time, hooked up with another girl there, R and they were getting on like a house on fire according to her mum who had gone on the boat as well. They had a bit more of a run around while we chatted until SB hit her head on a wall :roll: :roll: and we left wailing…. We will hopefully arrange a playdate soon. While we were out BB and Helen made another Chocolate Spread Cake:

IMG_9271look at my licky fingersyummy choc spread cake

A couple of snippets from Monday:

BB helped make scrambled egg:

cracking cooking

They made this construction from chairs in the kitchen. It is apparently some sort of cot/bed/desk/sofa thing, with built in drinks thing for the baby:

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Daleks at Dawn [in the style of mary pope osborne]

well, actually no, it won’t be in that style at all. Just the title.

We had a great weekend, SB got over her wobbles at a Dr Who party, and was most impressed to find that people thought her bridesmaids dress party outfit was a weeping angels costume. She was even happy with the thought that it was a baddy!!

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Nic’s dalek was seriously impressive, Ros’s face-painting equally so. All the children seemed to have a fab time, certainly SB and BB did. Nice to see lots of HE friends there, and also some that we don’t see anywhere else. BB intermittantly ‘very 2′ so I didn’t do quite as much chatting as planned.

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Afterwards we went back to Nic’s, with lots of other families, and yes, we did all squeeze in. The scrummage for tomato ketchup when the chips came nearly resembled the pinata episode at our castle day – rofl.

Relaxing morning the next day, and an easy drive home. SB and BB watching Nina and the Neurons, and I plan to have an early night. Better look for those photos!

Blogging for Chris – updated by Chris :-)

Edited to add:

Pah! Gone back to Opera, forgot it doesn’t play ball with the editor in WordPress , does weired things to the formatting of the text. Don’t like it that much anyway, might go back to Livewriter. Though WP editor is better for adding photos with Joe Tan’s Flickr Photo Album Plugin

He can pad this out perhaps?

He can try…. Can’t much get into blogging lately – always seems a bit insubstantial, haven’t really read any or Twitter much either, I did add some bolding though. And capitalised – which bugs me.

Libraryfinished Wild Read. No certificates, medals, presentations or anything! nic, do you have any spare certificates??

It’s all pretty low key at ours, then again it isn’t proper library and is run by volunteers, i’m not sure exactly how the whole thing is arranged anyway. Some of the local town libraries are having a presentation of some sorts. Anyway SB was excited with her magic bookmark :-) Girls sat down on the floor whilst having the ’1st of the month bikkies’ and sat reading books, so a good little advert for HE there :-)

SB done some maths and getty and dubay.Her writing is getting very neat know, when she wants to make is so. I was encouraging her to write smaller to fir the writing in the boxes in the maths book, which seemed to make it neater for some reason. Maths was measuring things and estimating measurements. One bit was about picking the right scale of units for things – so she got highly amused by the idea of very big and very small things for a while.
SHe is v proud bedroom now spotless.Yup, she has organised the wardrobe – he clothes (arranged of course) at one end, BB’s at the other, all the empty hangers in the middle – who does that remind you of… ;-). She was going on about tidying things away a few times a day, and I did hear myself saying one of those ‘OMG I said a parenty thing’ things ‘yes, if you put things away when you’ve finished it odoesn’t get so much of a mess’. Now if only this parent could apply that…..

random playing – some naked playing in the paddling pool, a bit too much screaming and shouting indoors. Some drawing/colouring etc. BB is very much into ‘cooking’ with the play cooker. Have to do something about storing all the food bits though. We’ve got more than we had with SB, and it all now seems to end up all over the floor, and then take ages to tidy up. BB is also very much into playing with various people/animals etc. characters and can sit for ages playing little games.

Swimming – has level 3 and nearly level 4 sign off.Shame dad didn’t have enough change (£2.50) to get the certificate and badge though (shame she didn’t get it to this term, they are included in the cost now). In some ways it’s good to get back to having some things to hang our week on and structure it around, but I do find trisping off to things later afternoon a bit of a pain.

lots of DS-ing, and has finally got her dog trained to some commands!she waited up until 9 for me to get home, and put her to bed, chatting all the while, proud of her swimming, tidying and DSing. we also chatted about rods and cones in eyes.

BTW, last week they stayed over with my parents, went to Hunstanton, for a summer seaside trip. SB likes the seafront fairground there, as was excitedly telling BB about what things she might like to go on BB stayed awake until about midnight it seems…. (sleeping on the way home)

re-edited by Helen – what on earth did you do to the length of the text lines Chris – a right old mess!!

Popping to add this – hunstanton with grandparents

SB and BB spent last thurs [30/31 aug] with grandparents to allow chris to do more windowing. They all had a fab time, particularly enjoying the fair and the sea. A proper day trip.

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SUN!!!!

Well, it was lovely to feel that there might be a bit of summer left, and chris has worked hard outdoors [not that i can tell, because it is dark - but there is greenery on the floor!]. Anyway its the start of painting of our personal the firth of forth bridge – AKA the windows!

i left as early as poss [10 - rofl] to drive to little nanny’s. the drive was uneventful, though I did have to stop numerous times in laybys to get various bits and pieces for girls as BB didn’t fall asleep.

Got there and had lunch – apart from BB, being in awkward mode. After that we set out for Gressenhall Rural life museum. i’ve been there before as a child, a couple of times. Last when I was 13. i still remember it quite clearly, and a lot has changed. I liked the mishmash agricultural huge ground hall as was better – and my enduring memory of harvesting mangels is from this! Also, very coolly, my Nan’s Dad made the wheels of one of the carts there.

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Also, for more family history my nan’s gran was born there, as were her first 2 children, so we have real family connection to the poorhouse there. ALso her gran’s first child [of 10] went back to help run the place, before going onto a v successful business career.

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Anyway, although I prefered the older version, this was still good value, and had children’s things laid on. the girls made wagons and gypsy wagons. then we went to the re-enactment of a working day of managing the poorhouse. i had to cry into BB’s head, and my dad was dressed up [yes audience participation] as a grandad fallen on hard times and made destitute with wife and 2 grandchildren, whose parents have died. And SB was the girl child. My dad turned out to be a brilliant actor, so was far too realistic for me. I guess i have never doubted my dad’s love for his family, and that he would put us above all else, so this did sound far too credible.

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BB started to play up [understatement], so i went back to car to pop her in the buggy, and then met up with family for some more looking around all the displays. my nan was disappointed not to see her mum’s butter churn, as it was there lat time we went, though we didn’t go in all the bits as walking with stops was still a bit strenuous for her. Dad took SB to the playground, and me, mum, little nanny and BB went to the cafe. From there back to Nanny’s home, and then finally back home here, with the sun in eyes for whole drive – aargh.

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Can’t seem to get photo’s into blog, so will ask my system administrator when he brings me coffee!!

Humm, he was fiddling! so they are now in.

Oh yes, back at home we had tea, and the girls watched an arthur and the knights of the round table narrated by the BT advert chap, and then a programme about wild elephants. SB then collapsed into bed, but BB took forever, having had all that sleep.

Merrily gossiping

because that is what i did today!!

We did a bit of stuff this morning . BB insisted on violin practice as soon as i got out of bed, and then on reading lots of books sitting on the loo [i have take a photo as it made me laugh so much – decent as she has a dress on! SHe is pretty reliably now potty trained, such that we are taking her out and about, even in the car without a nappy. Just one for the night. She particularly likes the red nose readers. Also she is singing merrily around the place, making up her own songs or singing snatches of others.

SB did some maths – singapore 2A. unfortunately she was so keen to finish that she didn’t look whether a + or – was in the sum, so did all addition and half wrong. ‘but mummy, would they be right if it was a +?’ She also keenly did some getty and dubay – J. She is keen to improve her writing, and happily does this at the moment. She wants to write nicely this year.

Both girls also had a bath before we headed off to Merry’s. I missed Merry’s last twitter, so we got there way too early, so SB did her violin practice while she waited. I had take both girls violins so they could play with Amelie if they wanted. They did – right at the end of the visit when Merry was frantically trying to get everything tidied up.

the girls all played – wildly and then more gently – mostly as doctors, nurses and patients. Fran was very keen to tell me how tiring it was to be a doctor – rofl. merry and I gossiped, and I raided her stock cupboard. This rather gorgeous window mosaic is even on special offer. I love the look of rather too many things at the moment! Also can’t wait for the play merrily site to go live

BB was fascinated by the geomags – as usual. i had a look at draw write now, but think too advanced for SB at the moment.

lovely day, thanks merry.