Category Archives: Stringbean

we’re getting a goat – or two.

well, SB wants to try out goats milk first. but if she likes it, she thinks we probably have room for at least one if not 2 goats, we could milk them and get most of our own milk. Not quite enough for BB as she drinks so much. Of course we wouldn’t need a cow as well, just one animal type will do. and anyway, we don’t have room for a cow. and they would only give us blue milk, with all the fat still in, and we need green or red. hmm, yes, a goat would be good.

we don’t really want bees, although we have some, because they might sting. daddy could get the honey, but maybe we won’t bother as we don’t use enough.

chortle chortle chortle on my behalf! we are raising a smallholder. possibly a good career path.

So I’m downstairs wondering where everyone is…..

Whilst upstairs…..
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Yet Another Chris Catchup…….

Tuesday wasn’t very exciting. Didn’t go to the library since awaiting DHL yet again trying to deliver something – they failed again, something about the van maybe (it appeared the next day on the doorstep, so much for signing for it…..). This was another wodge of the Magic Tree House Books – so we seem to have plenty of those now for SB to read. (we also have some spare – Helen managed to bid on two lots on Ebay, and there was a bit of overlap with some other we had).
A long bath with lots of bubbles for the girls.

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Some housework – not that it seems to show really. But we did put loads of washing away and tidy up the girl’s bedroom.

A bit more Maths. The girls got out the Happy Mais. Butterbean had started the other day spearing the bits onto cocktail sticks. They sat using up most of a box of cocktail sticks skewering Mappy Mais to Happy Mais Kebabs, then they set up a Kebab Shop :-) yum yum, tasty. some reading was happening at some point as well, but then it normally does. cooking dinner for later whilst they did this.
Swimming lessons rounded off the day. Not entirely convinced of the worth of this at the moment, doesn’t really seem to be a lot of progress, though I suppose it’s happening – we haven’t been swimming much lately so don’t get to see her in action much I guess.. Lack of feedback I suspect. Thing is, last year at the end of each term, they would tell you if your child had passed the next level, you got a card with the various criteria marked, on whether they had passed, needed to practice it a bit more etc. and then move onto another class the following term if necessary.

Now they have a rolling process. Once a child passes the appropriate level, then they move onto another class (assuming there is a space), but until you do, there is no arrangement for feedback (well not yet anyway). It’s feeling somewhat unsatisfactory.

Late finish for Helen today, meant BB in bed when she got home and a long day for everyone.

Wednesday we went off to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum with a local HE group – no Helen, she had to work today :-( . They had a session of about 1 1/2 hours with the museum staff, looking at pictures, amour and other things. apparently enjoyable, I didn’t get to see it as I had BB. Had coffee with a couple of other parents until the little ‘uns got restless and then took BB outside to run about. Climbed steps a lot (ekk! , got to the top, realized there was a sheer drop to the side….), played chase and boo around the sculpture. Wahted the lift for the building works which fascinated BB.

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I like the detailing on this little shed hidden behind the main steps, someone had made the effort to cut a nice little ventilation holes, not just drill a few holes

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Afterwards we lunched on the grass and then went for a visit to the Botanic Gardens. so I didn’t actually get to see inside the museum. Tried to do a bit of shopping but then it started to rain, so got the bus back to the Park and Ride. Girls had a bit of a picnic in the back of the car before coming home.

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Thursday seemed to mostly disappear into BB’s Toddler gym followed by shopping – nothing exciting, Tesco’s , cat food (cue lots of looking at the fish), DIY, Staples – where did the time go?

Home to a bit of playing, dinner cooking, maths, ballet lesson (see below re the cycling) dinner eating and another late finish for Helen.

Friday. Bad start, SB came into our bed crying about something I’ve since forgotten, at about 5.30. soon followed by BB, who drunk milk and then was a total pain, jumping, climbing around the bed, wiggling and kicking, so gave up and took her down stairs where I dozed in front of breakfast TV and BB fell back to sleep :roll:

Umm – lots of time doing maths, she had a bit of mental block re place value and how once you got ten units/tens etc. then it carried over onto the next column. So we played with cuisenaire rods and things . Did a bit more of First Language Lessons (well lesson 2 ….), it focuses on a poem Brown and Furry about a caterpillar, so we’ve read that a number of times, and talked about what it’s about. SB made a present for Mummy – an old container, wrapped and decorated and filled with M&Ms :-)

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We had an impromptu experiment outside to do with pendulums – aka the swings. she noticed that BB in the baby seat was going faster than her (the ropes are much shorter on the baby swing), so we investigated what happened when we changed the length of the ropes on the swing (shorter = faster if you wondered). They ran around and played for a bit whilst i did a few garden jobs. Greenhouse is looking good at the moment.

Another lateish finish for Helen, glad it’s the weekend now :-)

And a Big Raspberry….

….too the woman driving the green hatchback, who obviously was in a great hurry as she was also holding a mobile phone to her ear as well. Just because cycles look narrow doesn’t mean it’s ok to think you can try to squeeze them into a gap where they will just fit, you really can afford to wait the few seconds it will take for us to go past the parked cars. Esp. as once you’d started the maneuver you realize that you’ve now got a bike with a trailer behind it in your way, so you are going to have to stop anyway.
Stringbean has been riding her bike to places as much as she can the last few weeks, mostly she has ridden on the pavement, whilst I have ridden along on the road, alongside her, though we have ridden around on the roads on the quieter residential roads around the corner.

Today, we we going to her ballet lesson, the road most of the way has a little bit of traffic down it but not loads, some parked cars etc. so we tried it out with her cycling down the road to and from the lesson, my aim is to gradually get her used to roads, to other vehicles, judging their behavior etc.. Her in front, with me behind, towing Butterbean in the trailer.

It was fine, with me behind she doesn’t need to worry about what is coming up behind her, she can concentrate on her road position, on learning to pass parked cars safely, on watching for cars approaching from the front etc. and I’m always there to give guidance etc. as she is? along way from working out how to safely judge what approaching cars are doing, when it’s safe to proceed, when it’s time to wait and let the pass etc. Most car drivers were considerate and patient.

sociable sunday

I had a lovely sunday with some colleagues at their house/ garden with assorted other colleagues. one set had 4 girls in the 5-9 bracket – good fun for SB. It was a really lovely relaxing time. All thanks to the host and hostess..

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of course we had to stay off topic for as much of the time as possibile always difficult!!

Discussion wrt the fate of the NHS was universally gloomy.

Sb has read loads at home, and made a lovely hama present to take. The other girls tried to teach her cartwheels and handstands. somehow I think we have missed that key time to learn.

A typical home ed day? Photomeme thingummy

Actually, in many respects it was. We forgot about it to start with [fairly typical!] BB woke up way to early [fairly typical] Chris eventually went down with her leaving me to have a lie in [fairly typical for the weekend!] An brought me breakfast in bed of croissants – not at all typical! Bored now with saying the typical bits!

Errr, its amazing how much you can forget. Have got flickr uploading wildly. Honestly Chris P, I put up too many photos even for me, but its much quicker than sorting them out! One day I will, I promise!!!!

playing who's who

Anyway, at sometime after 11 we started taking photos, and not at all sure what went on before that, as that was with Chris whilst I was reading the paper! But when I was surfaced enough to remember we were taking photos and also to interact, we played who’s who. BB insists on playing, so not exactly to the rules, but enjoyed! BB and I then spent some time hammering baby toys and playing with the rainbow blocks to make lots of noise, and then constructing brio and making the trains chug around [always a baby train and a mummy train with BB!]. We also did a bit of looking after and watering the plants in the conservatory.

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I had suggested to SB that she might do some education city as we have paid for it and she hasn’t done any for ages and ages. SHe fancied webland, so whilst chris got the next edition downloaded, I read a story from the barefoot book of mothers and daughters - the persephone and demeter story which SB knows well, having had a mad love affair with greek myths and legends. SB then spent HOURS on webland! Not very interesting to photo! We had also missed april’s edition, so she did all of May followed by all of April. BB also did some poisson rouge. In a moment of pure inspiration I have put a hand sticker on the left click of all our mice! She now knows which bit to click – hooray! Also getting more controlled with the mouse movt. Does have her mother’s patience though. wiggling it wildly when it didn’t go where she wanted.

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Had lunch and SB returned to do some more webland. I was bored with this, and checked the mail – hooray her new sports sunglasses arrived. [should stay on as she twizzles about on swings and cycles]. The low start of ebay price was completely overmade up by postage – 6 times the cost!!! i did factor that in though.

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BB desperate to do some painting, and SB wanted to make a princess hat, so combined the 2 activities. At least half our paints were put into pots though – gradually getting SB to take responsibility for setting out and tidying away crafts. hmm She did sort of set out, I totally tidied! Anyway, she and BB painted the hats, and then carried on with further painting. SB did a particularly beautifully coloured handprint. Eventually they declared themselves painted out, and a quick hose down and they went outside to play.

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SB and BB scootered/triked about for a bit, but SB hurt her poorly knee, so I re-dressed it, and she read a book about food through the ages with intermittent waily patches. I made them some popcorn to eat. BB played Bob the Builder, moving dirt around the garden, and generally enjoyed rampaging about, playing hide and seek etc.

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SB got fed up reading the book, and wanted to make the egyptian breads we have made in the past from the 120 history projects book. it was sold to BB as a snail cake – the word cake enticing her in from the garden to join in! SO we added mess onto mess in the kitchen, and all enjoyed making the egyptian sweet bread. BB and SB enjoyed competitive flour and butter rubbing, so there was a fair bit of loss!!

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Daddy had been to the shops btw as we were all out of food. He returned as the egyptian breads were put in the oven, and didn’t blanch too much at the appearance of the kitchen. BB being up for over 12 hours was swept off to a bath, and SB has been outside again while I have done this and put flickrs onto the uploader. We do plant to perhaps sellotape the hats up before bed, and SB has promised a violin practice of frere jaques – she will moan when she has to do it after tea, but it has been the only non-negotiable thing to do today! SO since we have done all the autonomy, its time to do the violin! I will obviously be adding photos after the girls gone to bed!

follow up! Well, I had set that up, but chris rebooted ‘puter without checking whether I was doing anything! SB did the violin with enthusiasm – and very pleased that a nearly recognisable tune coming! read britannia, and she read a young usborne readers book [and is in fact still reading it]. Joining up the hats will need to wait till tomorrow, as will eating the egyptian breads!

Links to the last 2 photomemes in the sidebar, and this one will join it now the photo’s are added. Look forward to seeing others’ photo days.

A New Ancient Egyptian sweet bread!

reading the money guardian

never too young to start!! [photo to follow]

Babies

Had a lie in this morning, and overheard SB and BB playing with their babies. SB calls the gorgeous corolle doll from Bead merrily ‘Annie’. I could hear her giving instructiosn to annie on climbing stairs, with BB mirroring the instructions – same inflection and everything.? they loved the babies, gave each others a hug – all in that gorgeous little girl way. V cute

How do I love thee? let me count the ways

obviously I haven’t, as looking at my 2 girls today, I just loved them. But I guess that is a phrase that pops up now and again! I think at the moment they are one of the key things keeping me moving of a day. Being rung by work was a downer moment!

Anyway, another lovely day spent mostly outside. SB has done loads of starfall today [obviously inside!] and was very taken by the greek myths section – Mummy we’ve read these ALL before. [at least 60 billion times darling, luckilly I love them too] she could pronounce the names correctly too. She helped BB with cbeebie-ing as well. BB got bored with this though, so she and I sort of played ‘don’t wake dad’ with good counting to 5. She won’t press the button though, as she doesn’t like it when dad jumps up at her – fine at one of us though!

We moved on to reading once the imigran had taken effect for me – some more of the polar bear Magic Tree house [SB in love with the series] and then looked up traditional inuit lifestyles in some native american books we have. I read some more stories from assorted barefoot books to both girls.

We then piled outside and the girls ran around and I pushed BB on the swing. We had lunch and then a tin of pineapple [considered a HUGE treat]. Then – drumroll please – SB FINISHED MPH 1A!!! on the revision section, she still needs some work on subtraction across the tens [ie 43-27] but is pretty much there most of the time. BB and i were spotting bugs, bees and talking to the goldfish.

So some more running about and playing hide and seek – ably helped by BB [ mummy's over here]. then we planted up SB’s flower garden. SB and BB bailed out of digging fairly quickly- the soil was too hard! Its funny that the archaeological dig hole gets bigger and bigger. [both found dinosaur bones and flints today - cavemen. hmmmmm]. Anyway, i dug loads of holes [while they dug for treasure], and SB then planted up beautifully, and watered in. She also sowed up some more of her veg patch – a row of carrots and some onion sets.

Chris came back from the supermarket and made us berry smoothies and muffins for a snack – yummy, and dug a patch of the veg bed over. They all then played wild things, and i planted out the peas. I’ve been impressed with the germination rate in the propagator its near 100% of everything so far. I think that’s ‘cos we had the temp up a bit to start with all the harder to germinate seeds, and have now reduced it. The temp control I think has made all the difference. Even the florence fennel has all germinated.

Unfortunately ‘real’ gardening was cut short as BB hurt her wrist in a wild round and round. I did wonder whether it was broken. She did want a bath though, so as a deferring option we had a bath, at which point she played using the arm, and weight beared on it, so I was reassured.

She fell asleep very quickly after the bath – which was a bit weird as before tea. SB enjoyed some ‘only child’ time with 2 parents attention, playing outside, some more starfall and the lots of UNO. She did wake up though as Sb went to bed – sigh!

SO another lovely day. we are slipping a bit with the home ed – well, the music, language and story of the world! SB is so racing ahead and loving reading though that i don’t want to artificially cut that short, and i do want her to have plenty of play time. She was still on about heaviness of liquids at teatime – balsamic vinegar vs wine!!! we may have to do an experiment [there is a bottle of water and oil sitting on the windowsill, but she wants more layers]. hmmmm still, should be able to add 10 mins music practice [though it takes 15 to get ready etc etc].

Anyway, more britannia at bedtime – which led to quite a chat about prince of wales, the welsh language [which i demonstrated badly!] and the tie in with castle rising that we visited not long ago.

oh, and I forgot the great potty disaster – BB likes having a potty outside so she remembers to use it (mostly). I was helping SB with a sum, looked around and BB was on the potty, most clearly doing a poo, but not having made sure her dress was hitched up at the back. At least we were outside.

Now watching grand designs vid – lovely. Fossil hunting tomorrow is the plan.

One day…….

I’ll get the hang of bloggin every day…….

But as Michelle has been nagging me in Merry’s comments :roll: I’d better write something – can’t be doing with more extra women nagging me.

OK, Monday was our mothly HE group sports session, so we went along to that and SB ran around and did sporting things, BB pottered and I drunk tea and chatted :-). Followed by a trip to the park with the Katy and the crew from In at the Deep End. After that the plan was to head off get some lunch and go show shopping, plus a few other things. Went to the shopping centre where there is a decent sized Clarks, only to find that it was shut for refitting or something and wasn’t going to be open for 3 more days – so waste of car parking there then. Since we were there we got lunch and a few things, got back to carpark – it’s one of those get a ticket on the way in, pay on foot places. Realised I had no cash and it didn’t take cards, so had to traipse off to find cash machine etc. which meant of course we were welll over the hour, so that cost even more…. sigh.

So eventually escaped from the car park, headed off to the independent shoe shop we got SB’s last ones from – it’s out of the city centre and easy to park by. Got SB some shoes – a bit boring as she is now well into school age shoes, though they had better options last time, but SB really likes them so that’s fine. BB didn’t need any, though did discover that she has had a sock stuck in the end of one of them for who knows how long – it was squashing back here toes a bit and made it seems as if one fooot had loads more toe room…. :oops:

By now needed more tea – so took up an invite by Katy to pop round to theirs which is just down the road. Enjoyed Earl Grey (but no tea pot….. ;-) ) and admired the birthing pool masquerading as a family size birthing pool filling up the dining room.

home to, well not sure really – ISTR some computing stuff goign on with the girls.

Tuesday went round to my parents house for most of the day, did do bit of HE stuff here before we went – moslty more of the Singapore maths – still the money bit, and some reading.

Wednesday

Helen was doing job interviews today, so not at home as per usual. Helen got a Learning Resources book about using Cuisenaire rods to explore Area/Volume and Perimeter from Sonlight last week, so Sb wanted to have a go at that. She spent ages with it, not so much on the book activities as with all the pattern making and general playing around with them that ensues. also got to practice drawing straight lines with the ruler (in the right place…) . Funny how simple thing like that isn’t a simple as it looks – getting the pencil at the right angle, holding the ruler firmly, in the right place, lining it up etc.

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We sat and read a couple of the Anholt Artists books – Picasso and Van Gogh ones, and then spent some time looking for different pictures of their on the internet. There was some more Webland-ing and a bit of Ed City.

We finaly got some new swings seats (Ebay) to go on the swings, so we put one of those on so SB was happy to be able to swing again and spent some time on there. and generally playing outside – harvested some of the Purple Sprouting Broccoli which we have lots of right now.

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Never understood the whole ‘kids don’t like green veg ‘ thing, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, whatever it is out love them all.

Watched a bit of the Life of Plants DVD before bed.

Thursday

BB’s toddler gym thing, so that’s a 9.30 start. SB took her camera with her and snapped some photos, haven’t had a look at them yet and sat and moslty read some Letterland books she found in the cupboard this morning. She is such a good advertisment for a HE-ed childthere, sits quietly with her bag, reading, or drawing, or writing etc. :-)

Went into town after to do some shopping of various sorts. Noticed the stationers shop in town is closing, which is a shame – it was always useful for various bits, and very helpful in there as well. It’s our nearest town, and has survived pretty well with a range of indpendent shops as well as the normal high street places. But gradually the independents seem to be going.

There is a shop which sells gists etc. that has lots of stuff from different parts of the world – they tend to have little changing displys of stuff in one window. It was Chinese stuff for chinese New year last time. This week they had some Native American stuff on display, so looked and talked about some of those things, the photos they had etc. bought a few things in a charity shop, including a kit to make a worm observatory thing, so will hopefully be putting that together soon.

Once home had lunch, together me and SB read through a set of Quentin Blake books she got for Xmas and then Hellen got home early from work. There was somejigsawing – BB really getting into them now, head over heels practise, Sb did soem more of the Area etc. book before ballet class.