Category Archives: Out and About

raising the dead

Posted on February 5, 2009 by | 2 comments

well, that was the home ed lesson for today. quite a good one really!

it was a latinetc today, without the puddlegirls though. SO we had combined latin and games were played there, and the littlies did winter french – drawing pictures and then discussing what you could see in french. both language sessions were enjoyed by my respective daughters!

for the science bit today, I had loan of a resuscibaby from c’s badgers. so we did that. the younger group were v attentive to how to do it, and all had 2 goes each at remembering – the most vital bit for them being call for help! i wouldn’t really want to be in the position of them or no-one [but research shows really only 11+ or 13+ have the strength to actually do cpr on an adult], but I think learning about it, and coming back to it every so often is important. The older group were WAY more dramatic. for a minute I thought I was Merry asking them to act out a scene from casualty!! once I had persuaded a toning down of drama, we got on with it, and each of them successfully did cpr at least once, and practiced finding landmarks on each other – though we did A LOT of discussion on how you can’t actually do it for real on someone unless they need it! We did all the safety, calling for help, defibrillators and associated stuff. SO I think that was worth doing, and they did it well – all be it with ‘style’!

the other half of the science session was starting on bones. [thanks again sarah!] and we drew our own hand bones using an xray to model. we named and chatted about the different bones, and how we got our hand mvts. They decided not to label in chalk, so here are websites with the ‘real names’, so they can be labelled at home. Next time we are going to do the bone in vinegar thing, so will need LOTS of vinegar/ jam jars and chicken legs…

of course, a friend currently residing in the states had to go for a bit of one-upmanship, and their hE involved looking at strawberry DNA! luckilly she put out the ‘recipe’

1. Pulverize strawberries down to goo in a blender.
2. Mix 25ml strawberry goo with 50ml of water.
3. Add a pinch of salt.
4. Centrifuge for 60 seconds.
5. Strain out solids.
6. Add 15ml of liquid soap.
7. Centrifuge for 60 seconds.
8. In a test tube, mix 50-50 goo-you-have-made and ice cold isopropyl alcohol.
9. Gently mix (tip it back and forth a few times) and allow to separate. Broken cell bits are at the bottom, DNA is in the cloud at the top.
10. Pipe off a little of the top cloud. Put a drop or two on a glass slide.
11. View under microscope. DNA!

They used a kid’s science kit centrifuge [gulp!], and it didn’t seem to be going all that fast.

and now I am on the hunt for a cheap centrifuge!! This site also interesting! hmmm. It feels all exciting doesn’t it!

hermmm, well where was I before sundry flights of fancy??? Ah yes, after lunch, SB and chloe were keen to do some music, with G, but got started all on their own, and were being so fabbly autonomous with an EE mark :lol: that we left them to it. the were using the colour coded bells, and using felt tips, writing music for them [felt tip corresponding to bell!] we were v impressed!! Unfortunately we were all haring off, so i don’t think they realised quite how impressed we were!

home, SB did some piano practice, and drew some traffic signs for the next harmony arts assignment, and then did some sewing. BB watched some mona the vampire and then did some sewing also. SB had brownies – and we saw her make the promise, and she seems much happier in brownies than she ever did in rainbows, so that seems good. [maybe she is just a happier girl] she had judo, and a new boy is apparently a bit too rough, but the sensei seemed to have it in order. SO there we are!

in the rest of the week, apart from thinking about the future of HE in this country and getting depressed, political and activated, the kids have played – in snow, a lot with sindy/barbie and sylvanians. SB has done some maths and piano and is really loving reading her encyclopaedia of knowledge and coming up with odd facts all over the place. i have worked silly hours – must do something about that! Chris has baked cakes for Melrose.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, online resources, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

waves of fire

Posted on January 30, 2009 by | 16 comments

before i start on wed, i would like to poit out that i finished work at 10pm on tues, so somewhat knackered. i think i am finding work a bit overwhelming in the hours dept at the mo, and it will get worse. ho hum. but i am being resolutely polyanna that i do have a job, and a well paid one – well, i am trying to be anyway as i cerebrally know that is good!! but occasionally it is good to take a second to feel sorry for oneself, and wonder how i got here!

so i dragged myself up on wed early early and the kids so we could go to london, i knew it would be worth it!! we had brekkie of croissants and brioche in the train – such a good idea! a surprise as we saw the manor borns at one of the stations along the way, but they were waiting for another of their party, so we waved and carried on.

we had a plan you see! SB and I were going to an RI lecture on explosive sounds [or something like that] and chris and BB were going to the science museum so she had something fun to do. and then we were going to have a picnic lunch with friends – including the monster teenies – and then spend vouchers in waterstones before going home, SB having her brownie whatsit thingy and judo. well, that was the plan!

SB and i did duly go to the lecture and met up with michelle, c and their friends there. the monsterteenies were rain stopped play though. it was truly fab. being early, we had ringside seats, and the chappie was v enthusiastic, inhaling helium and oh tarnation I have forgotten what the heavy gas was sulphur hexa fluoride anyway we had squeaky and then low darth vade voices, and discussion of asphyxiation and drowning in gases. we all did various not mexican waves as well. the kids all v happy.

the piece de resistance was his home made flame wave machine. when uploaded to youtube, i will put it here. it was well worth the early morning start. we loved it!!

[imagine short video here!]
[flickr video=3239676358]

Afterwards i hired the pda’s and went down to the basement to interact with the museum exhibits. what a fab idea that was. we had to skip out to meet chris and BB, but next time would spend longer in the museum.

We ate at a place called cilantro [ :roll: that too trendy to be called coriander!] and then spent 90 mins in waterstones agonising over books. BB surprisingly rejected the latest Winnie’s Flying Carpet (Winnie the Witch) [which i wanted to read!] and instead had a dinosaur theme! Dinosaurs Love Underpants Dangerous Dinosaurs Jigsaw Book (Horrible Histories Novelty) Jungle (Sounds of the Wild) and SB sorted out a variety of books having melted down over the roald dahl books and not chosen any of them… We saw M and C for about 5 mins, had a wrong book trauma best glossed over and missed train by a minute.

oops, so we missed the beginning of brownies, SB missed her swearing in, and by the time she finished judo she was wiped out. we did read books on the train though!

BUT a fab day!

ooh, forgot to say, that I got this book. We had a bit of discussion round it on the tube, and you could see lots of peerers over!!

16 Comments

Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, General, geography, history, literacy, Out and About, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE

Splashing about

Posted on January 24, 2009 by | 4 comments

unlike some people :wink: we didn’t take laptops/internet access devices with us, so did not blog from centreparcs. so this is not going to be a blow by blow account!

we had a fab time. we certainly did A LOT of swimming. our swimming biorhythms seemed to cross across other families, so we saw a lot of our friends in the pool. it was a family holiday with contiguous friends and was very lovely. [ the making it up, deependers, going against the flow and manor borns on the blogring] we had a plan, and it failed, which was for us all to swim before taking the car round to the cabin, but my swimmies were missed out :cry: so i left chris and the kids swimming and took the car round, and realised i couldnt unpack it as i didn’t have key to the bike rack. grr! never mind. said hello to all arrivals, and generally chilled! we took one premade meal, and next time would take 2!

we swam on the whole 2ce a day, a morning and late aft/eve. this was in part because we like swimming, we liked swimming in the dark! and because it limited our desire to pay for other activities!! SB is a bit of a water nymph. she and clo went round the slides and rapids countless times. i did go down various, and most impressed with my white sliding, as i had been concerned that all the pool water would exit! i think each child got a fair crack at the attention!! BB got braver and braver in the week, and by the end was ‘diving’ in the shallows sans any life saving devices since she could stand back up. we must go more regularly, as she will i imagine begin to progress towards not quite drowning.
we all enjoyed the indoor river and the waves. the deependers and us were disappointed that our patience was not rewarded in the hot pool though. Michelle deserves a special mention as nose clip finder extraordinaire… oh, and the snow falling on swimming the rapids was apparently cool, but when me and bb got to the hot salt pools to investigate it was just v cold rain!

so, we also did some extras. jo suggested bowling one evening, and we loved that. it was partic good as it had no music track to be too noisy. that our family is fairly hopeless, but enjoyed it. i tore half my thunb nail off – still painful. BB and shannon kept swapping news and info – which was v cute.

SB walking past the aerial adventure was v keen on it. and seeing it reduced from 22 to 15 quid, we gave it a whirl, in fact, clo tagged on too since chris was there to be the adult. they both loved it. i was v proud of SB not giving up when she had difficulty with the spiders web, and getting round. she then had a bit of a wobble facing the zip wire at the end, and i felt for her [being 25 m away in distance and prob 15 in height] but clo whizzed down first, and she felt she could then do it. she was v happy to have done it, but thinks she would like to try just jumping off next time! jo also did it, and we stayed to cheer her round as well.

free activities were cycling, as chris took sb and clo on a cycle tour of cp that lasted some while. considering the mixture of on and off roading they seem to have done, i am surprised they made their way back. bb did a fair bit of cycling on her new bike. but she seems to be using it mostly as a like abike at the moment. my bike had a broke front wheel :roll: i am going to buy a bike to encourage a bit of usage!

then there was interaction with friends, games playing and grownup interaction too – mostly at jax ‘n’ tim’s as there were 2 families there. all v lovely. A brief swim and visit by Em, E and R was a treat as well.

bB slept in the car and then all eve, so has been awake till far too late, but we are all of the exhausted persuasion i think. will flickr at some point – ah yes, the camera! we bought a v cheap underwater camera there. it took dire photos, and then wouldn’t delete, so we took it back and got money back. they are on tim’s laptop though, and hopefully he’ll send us them, and we can post the 1 or 2 out of 26 that you can see identifiable shapes on!!

Here is the centreparc photo set

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Posted in General, Out and About, socialisation

Going to The Dogs (as BB put it)

Posted on January 13, 2009 by | 5 comments

Unusually both the girls ended up in different places today.

Someone was trying to organise an animation workshop with someone from the university, using the UNI equipment, but in the end that didn’t happen. But another HE family said they have them round as they had been doing some animation recently and has stuff set up. So took SB to their house, where she quickly settled down to making a flip book (apparently it’s a horror one :rolls:).

 

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Drunk a bit of tea, chatted and had serious house envy. They live in a lovely, built for them modern house, split level kitchen living area, glass wall, curves, high celings all that sort of Grand Designs sort of thing.

I swopped SB for another girl who decided she wanted to come to the dogs while her mum stayed and animated and we headed off. A popular event, must have been 50-60 people all told. The police showed of the equipment they have on their vest nowadays,

 

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talked about the dogs, answered lots of questions. Showed one of them attacking another policeman

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and showed another dog that they use for finding explosives sniffing ou hidden little bottles around the room.

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THe dog would sit and wait patiently once it found something, becuase all it was really interested in was playing with it’s ball after as a treat :-)

BB enjoyed it and seems to have prety much lost her fear of dogs, was not fazed by a big black Alsatian barking and attacking a man in the middle of the room.

Headed off back to see what SB had been up to. She’d finshed the flap book, done her own design for something to go inside a Zoetrope, and done some Lego stop motion animation. They’d not had time to finish off the latter into a movie, so we got a CD of the images, though the computers here don’t seem to be seeing any on there. A  quick more bit of tea and my lunch and playing before heading home. Another parent though had the best ‘chivving up the children’ line.

“Come on R and R, don’t you want to go to Africa” :-)

(They were leaving right then to catch the plane to go out to South Africa, where one of them harks from).

Dragged the kids away from playing, SB “I wish we lived in a house like that” :-) to head home to catch up with Helen. Which you can read about below :-)

It was quite pleasant only having one child with me for a bit really for a change.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Out and About, photos, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

Not where we planned to be!

Posted on November 29, 2008 by | 4 comments

i was thinking that we might be in yorkshire, but a number of events changed our plans somewhat, and we will be wending our way up on mon. not least is the total exhaustion i feel at the moment, and a couple of chilled days with the family seems to be a good plan.

hmm, thinking back to thurs and fri – obviously chris days as i got back from work v late both days. the normal things i think, the nots and tots group thurs, with crafting and recordering, but too late for frenching. then some gym for each in the pm. i think SB did some spelling and maths and maybe a piano, but not entirely sure! BB has done quite a bit of geomagging, and also making long neck dinodoors from the maize packing fillers in one of the boxes we had. friday they waited in interminably for my phone, and unfortunately meant a missed visit to a monks event, which sounded great. the phone came and had the back of it missing anyway! of course, when it arrived, chris nearly instantly found my old phone! after a great deal of fussing about – and i have complained via email re customer service – i now have a working phone – my old one on the old number. other than that, i think the whole day was spent tidying up, and it does look better for it, and the room of doom is a room of gloom instead as it just needs a bit of cleaning, but chris has organised most of it!

and so today . the big thing, i guess is SB’s grading for judo. it is her first ever grading, and she enjoyed it. i hadn’t realised you got to sit in, so BB and i stayed at home and chris took her. he snapped a couple of photos. After the grading they did a bit of shopping – including wellies and some christmas card making supplies – and had a treat lunch out to celebrate SB’s new white and red belt. it does seem to be enormously long ? adult size?

i have had insomnia most of the week, with a standard to sleep time of 5-ish and a get up of 7-ish. so am feeling in desperate need of sleep. i am also quite considerably grumpy – so another reason to try and get some sleep before being sociable! anyway, i was wondering how i would survive the morning with BB as i just didn’t have enough energy to power a biowatch. luckilly BB had some ideas! we made cuisinaire rod patterns, read books and then sorted out my 2 sewing boxes, which BB had great fun in dong, and is now the proud owner of the sewing box i was given when a child, and the pin/needle holder book i made whilst at infants school! following this BB chose to make happy maize pictures, and we have now run out of happy maize.

she then was v keen to do baking, so we did that, and made pink sugar sprinkles cupcakes, which were then iced with various greens. hmm! anyway, loads to take with me to yorkshire. we had a more boring lunch and i did a short violin practice which she danced to, before we read more books together all snuggled up. At this point chris and SB came home and mayhem ensued!

SO with a few card supplies, and the brass rubbings we did a while ago, we made a start on making cards, and between us have made 12 – so not bad! then a bit of grumpyness tidying up, followed by a bit more work on the secret santa things from the girls, as both decided they needed more paint. and actually they both look better for it. i think SB’s really is fab [even with one upside down zebra] and BB added some detailing to hers, which elevated it from looking like a paint accident to a design! SB did a piano practice with me, and had a go at a christmas carol she thought would be too difficult in a different book. SHe was very impressed she could play it [we 3 kings] so that was good. then she is making fudge [rather than tablet, which i prefer] and it is currently in the fridge. So more tidying and then bathtime, and i red meg et mog les oeufs de meg [or something similar!] which is Meg’s Eggs (Picture Puffin)
book in french from the little linguist shop that was fab at delivery times etc and comes recommended! and also hurry up molly, this subterfuge makes me seem interactive, yet doing something easy [reading] educating [french] and ensuring that for once the majority of the bath water stayed in the bath rather than cause further damage to dining room ceiling. fab!
dinner and the bedtime. i think i shall hope for sleep tonight. i feel i should be able to sleep for centuries! SB also at somepoint today fitted in some music theory.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, language, little languages, music, online resources, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

Shopping, Pizza , Shopping

Posted on November 26, 2008 by | 2 comments

Started the day with a bit of online shopping, new waterproofs for SB,  socks, mitts etc. some waterproof walking boots for SB as an alternative for her to wellies (managed to pick up some Clarks shoes for her on sale for £15 last week, so was goign to get some other boots for her with the saved money, and got the boots for £15 as well, bargain :-) ) some shoes for me and other bits and bobs.

Got an phone call later from the second place, their order system had had some kid of fit and missed out sizes on some things and mixed up others (a pair of 36″ waist boots anyone)  :-)

Managed to get children breakfasted and dressed in 45 minutes, and SB managed a bit of piano preactice, so we got out in time to get into City 1 for a Home Ed group trip to a Pizza Express restaurant. They talked a little about the pizza making process, (for some reason I was a bit disappointed to find they don’t make the dough and tomato sauce on site – I doubt making a big batch in a factory is much different to making a big bacth in the kitchen, nor is it likley to be any different in any other big pizza chain), showed us how to make the dough into a base – SB was pretty good at that.

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Then we got to make up pizzas which they then took and cooked. They had a system of numbered hats so they could number the returned pizza boxes. It mostly worked, though a couple were mixed up. Had a little look rouind the kitchen area (pretty small as they basically just make up the pizzas in there)  - 4 minutes to cook a pizza in their ovens.

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Kids seemed to find the big walkin fridge and freezer most interesting.

Then it was back to collect the pizzas. Not sure there was a massive educational value to the trip (making pizzas isn’t exactly something new to them) but I guess they got to see behind the scenes a bit and  have a bit of fun with their friends. And it was free (a bit of a promo for them I guess), so we got free pizza for lunch :-) Then headed off into town for a bit of real, in a proper shop, shopping

Ambled down the road a found a bench to munch pizza on. They are apparently looking cheerful :-) 

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Finally found SB a new hat that she liked (another bargain as it turned out when we paid that it was much reduced as was aold stock from a couple of years ago) Though it was an adult hat, that only just fitted SB, so maybe that’s why it didn’t sell. But BB a fleece like the one I got SB last weekin a different pattern it’s just a fleece really, but for some reason it seems especially nice according to SB (BTW, any YHA members you get 10% off in Millets). BB doesn’t get that many clothes bought for her as we have so many from SB,  so when she gets something she gets so excited about it. I finally found some slipper-boot things that I liked, and we looked at various gloves, but none where waht SB wanted.

Went through the market and found gloves (she wanted some thin alternatives to her thick gloves) as did BB – fit her perfectly, which is unusal for a littlie like her (more excitement). A quick hit on M&S, and then it was time for a coffee break (SB had spied a Costa, and she knows they do nice cakes…) I’d said we could have a snack in a cafe if they were good whilst going round the shops. Quite surprsingly !! they were on the whole (a bit restless in M&S), probably becuase we were on the hunt for particular things, and tried not to faff around too much. And I had the buggy, which I can stick BB in.

A pop into Lakeland  on the way back to the carpark, where a bit tired children meant I wasn’ tempted to buy anything unnecessary (it’s an odd mix really I think of decent quality kitchen stuff, and all sorts of useless tat and gadgets).

As an aside, wondering what is the best rolling pin. I used to have a marble ones, which was good, though heavy and coould be too heavy for rolling somethings, but the weiht meant it rolled things out without a lot of effort.Have been using one we bought for SB to use and it’s really not big enough and is hard work rolling out things, I’ve bought a plain simple cyclindrical wooden one for now, but I’m tempted by one of the silicone ones like the Sil-Pin. The kids one is cute :-)

Just about got back to the carpek before it rolled into the next hour, and toolted home.

Kids where much more a of a pain at home (why is the default seemingly into argue about something, even when there is no need?). SB found a white board lurking, so wanted to draw on that, I didn’t feel like going and finding any suitable pens, but SB went and found some, so theyns  drew cats and things and argued over pens (plenty of them) cloths (how often do you need the cloth?)  and who knows waht else. I sat a read a few random books to them when I got fed up with it and had revived myself a bit with tea. But before we knew it it was time to head off for SB’sswimming lesson.

Out, back, Helen was home from work , chips for tea, watched Merlin, children in bed.

Flop.

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Posted in Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, cute, music, Out and About, photos, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

not a snowy winter walk

Posted on November 23, 2008 by | Leave a comment

we woke up to snow, and were really hopeful that our monthly RSPB walk would be snowy, but then it rained and was just v cold! Whilst michelle and i did half empty glass brightkites, marcus was much more positive. and you know, he was right! apart from some setting out rain it was fine, and sunny in parts! by the end, my toes were a bit on the cold side though! BB had a walking crisis, but managed in the end!

i am getting ahead, we fitted in HE on the sly! we did a v short piano practice – for each girl, and did some french conversation for at least 30 mins in the car and french games. And, when we were at M and M’s SB did ballet practice.

AHA! i did nearly forget to blog that bB and SB had a delightful conversation about greenhouse gases in the car. currently, when sb grows up she is going to be a research scientist and sort out the problem with greenhouse gases. mms says bb, because they are naughty – yes says sb and does a bit of greenhouse gas talk and melting things. mm says bb, so it is good it has snowed because that sucks up the greenhouse gases, eerrrr, well not quite! v cute together anyway. bb is going to be a dinodoor bone finder btw! later bb decided the problem with greenhouse gases were that they were smelly! err, well, i guess some of them!

So we had a lovely fresh walk, with some coffee to warm up on the way. SB and C climbed trees – something they are rather keen on! well, one tree in particular, and then ran about a bit before going back to the car.

we went to M and M’s house for dinner, chat, world righting and the kids played well together, and lots of games. very nice evening, thanks v much!

now i just need to get flickring!!

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Posted in Dance/drama, General, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

putting your heart in it

Posted on November 12, 2008 by | 3 comments

wellll…..
We had a fab [if knackering day today, i am always surprised by how tired a day in london makes me!] we got up bright and early to catch the first possible train to london – which we did [1st poss with railcard that is], and managed to meet up with Michelle and Chloe succesfully en route. We got to the RI in good time for a KS2 lecture on the heart, including a dissection display. we v much enjoyed it, and met up with Nic, monster and teeny there. it was aimed at the ‘higher end’ of KS2 I think, but SB said it was fantastic and she really enjoyed it. they all loved the dissection, and to be fair, the home ed contingent was far less unruly than the school – possibly because being squeamish wasn’t going to be so funny as with a room of classmates!! Will flickr eventually, though notice Nic has started… BB and chris went bookshopping and cafe hopping, as the site now says no under 5′s. i asked about that, and they didn’t seem bothered, but we thought it might be a bit testing for BB, and it was the right decision, as she would have lasted 5 mins! Walking there and back we went past an art gallery [the selling kind] and SB was much taken by the contemporary art there. thinking we should go to tate modern again sometime

Afterwards we went to green park to let of steam and have a runaround, meet up with chris and bB, and have lunch. the children had loads of fun with the leaves, throwing them all over the place, burying themselves in them and climbing trees [getting told off by a couple in the process, that we then speculated about as they tried to eat their lunch!], and eventually said goodbyes and went our separate ways.

we went to the british museum. we only had a bout an hours museum time, so we wanted something to just dip into, and neither of the girls had been there before. It is, of course, an old haunt of mine! I lived in london for 7 years, and part of that time was doing a psychology degree at ULU – we went past the psychology building, the ULU building [i remember the bar and orchestra practice!] and told SB all about it – eyes agog at the thought of the enormous ULU library!

Anyway, we had a wander in and out of doors of the ground floor, just really getting a feel for the place, and stopping at things that caught their fancy. SB most taken by all the modern works of art / statues there – gold kate moss included. SHe particularly liked the piece of the man and woman and all the medicines they had taken rolled out, and pictures along the side [birth to grave stuff]. BB liked the african section best.

we spent a bit of time with the assyrians lion hunting, making sense of the frieze and counting dead lions. i was totally struck by how in the past UK and other ‘booty hunters’ had obviously gone round hacking enormous pieces off ancient cities, and couldn’t help but feel something was irretrievably lost. how much more majestic must the assyrian door entrance have been in situ etc. deed done and all, and maybe otherwise they would have been lost with ‘robbing out’ etc, but…

easy journey back on the train as we had a flask of coffee, books and nibbles to keep all happy. as we were getting off, one of my work colleagues got off too – having been in first class all that time!! irritatingly, BB fell asleep instantly on the way home and was unwakeable, but woke up at 9. grr, and SB didn’t have time to eat properly before judo, so by the time she had had dinner and got into bed it was nearly 10. after a going out day, you just need them to fall asleep quickly.

chris gone to bed, as the grumpy virus has reached him, and i am not sure they will make HE group tomorrow! both SB and BB said lots of funny things i would blog all day, and i have forgotten them all, sigh..

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Posted in General, history, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation

A Triangular Day

Posted on November 7, 2008 by | 1 comment

Unlike Monday, children managed to get dressed etc. quickly enough and early enough without too much faffing  for us to get away almost on time, with me not to grumpy ;-)  to head to City 1 for Tots and Nots. Quite a bit fitted into the session – some crafting – making little rockety things from foam sheets & sparkly pipe cleaners, wax crayon on card over painted with black paint – then scratched through to make patterns. Though SB proceeded to scratch all her paint off which I didn’t quite see the point of.

Someone else did a little session showing how a tune can focus soundwaves so you can hear things better, and both girls did some recorders (SB did two sessions) with our tame HE-ing music teacher. Rest of time filled with random playing.

Headed off promptly but at what I thought would be slighty late time to head to Town 1 for gym. BB has started  pre-schoolers  gym session at the same place that. It’s just a free play type session – they have structured sessions as well, but not at a time we can do. They have various soft play type things out, ladders and benches to climb up, but they can also go and clamber on the gym equipment, jump in the big foam pit etc. Slighty odd to have all the littlies runniung aruound whilst Louis Smith or one of the others their in the British Squads does their stuff at the other end though.

While BB and me do this, SB sits on the side (though grumbles a bit) and reads, does something out of a workbook or whatever. Today she was moslty reading the Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess I think.

After that headed into town for a modicum of shopping – picking up a new phone from Argos (being able to check and reserve things online makes it all so easy) though of course BB wanted to ‘buy something’ and they both decided they liked the ideas of remote controlled cars. Treated the girls to a cake in Starbucks on the way back to the car as we had a bit of time spare.

Then back to the gym for SB’s gym session. This is much improved for me as they have found some volunteers to run the tea bar, so I can get a cup of tea whilst waiting. Buy the time it finished I was glad to be completing the last bit of the triangle to get home.

Chips for tea whilst catching up on the second series of Robin Hood. Before bed, SB wrote her letter to a child from a school in Kenya that one of the local Home ed groups is rasing money for.  One of the parents is from Kenya, the school was set up by the headteacher for children who cannot aford to pay for school, many of them are orphans and live at the school as well. At the session a couple of weeks ago, they reported back from a visit to the school earlier in the year and brough letters that some pupils had written, so we all took one to reply too. So SB has written a nice reply, Helen said she made a really good effort with it. Will take it with us when we go to the group to morrow (in City 2 for a change, though hope to get back to City 1 for a HE group Celidh in the evening)

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean, daubing and making, history, literacy, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE, writing

busybees, science club and birthday parties.

Posted on November 6, 2008 by | 8 comments

oh, and woohoo to Barack Obama being the next president of the USA. It feels a v positive moment and I really hope that it turns out to be at least some of the wonderful that the moment promises!!

i got up and went into work before meeting chris and the girls at latinetc. i was there before him by some considerable time!! but all 4 families were there and i took the biguns off for water resistance and uplift thoughts – sorry gina for not having upgraded the section in the sidebar page on forces = will do it! it was, predictably, messy! All children appeared to enjoy it, and hopefully learnt something. snack time, and then i did it, but differently for the middle ones. even MORE messy! still enjoyed though. photos in usual place! the bigger ones got to do some latin as well. A nice lunch and then we all piled out in different directions. michelle and I going north for a birthday party.

we have teasingly said that BB one of muddlepuddle triplets, the others being Shannon on going against the flow [happy birthday for 3rd] and Josie on HE the puddle girls, whose birthday it was today [BB's due date, but i won't hold that grudge forever, well, maybe i might!!]. So we went to Josies house for a bonfire night birthday party and all had a lovely time. SB elected to stay there rather than go to judo [slightly naughty, and appropriately reprimanded for lack of commitment :grin: ]they pretty much all got on like a house on fire for the whole session. we adults had a good natter [well apart from Max, who did a good job of making party tea and enabling fran to sort out the birthday cake].

Max also did some wizardry with fireworks, and all the girls found them brill, though Ams and BB snuck indoors in wuss mode [they were v gentle fireworks! though one was a bit more bangy than the others] also toasted marshmellows and roasted chestnuts. yumm. Fran played a beautiful happy birthday on the cello too.

an easy drive home. as we were driving up, the other side of the carriageway was closed and some workmen appeared to be digging something off the road. on the drive home, all but one lane was closed, and road repairs were being done.

so, lovely day. chris has done something electricky in the loft and cellar while we have been out.

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Posted in General, language, little languages, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE