art and crafts

chapter 6 of real science for kids was all about mixing it up . unfortunately, the mixing pattern spread out, and we are again in a quandary around groupings. however, i have the courage of convictions to believe that we can work all this out . it was also a wonderful welcome back to C and M from the manorborn. we have really missed them whilst C has been doing her en famille exchange. so woohoo and welcome back

The mixing it science involved seeing what a mixture was [homogeneous and heterogeneous] and what could mix [polar/charged or non charged - ie like with like] . it still involved ammonia tho!! The newtons unfortunately had me battling the most awful migraine, and i was therefore short on people skills. luckilly M intervened a fraction before BB got sent to the stairs – bad mummy moment. however, the science itself went well, and everyone was v happy with the workbook folders from merry . the cricks were next and went better, as they are a jolly and easy group to teach, usually remember at least something from the chapter and are v amiable about being corrected. enjoy perhaps too much thinking of hypotheses – the rutherfords had a hard time of it. there are too many of them, they just fitted round table, and didn’t get to finish experiment – they were the same size as other 2 groups combined, and with ascertaining what they remembered from chapter and explaining, and using the sheets etc, we only got half way through the experiments so feel quite bad about that really. Hence the mixing up the groups, so that it will hopefully work better. Mixing groups is never a process that goes smoothly, as so many things to consider. fingers crossed we find a good solution

Meanwhile the others were far more successful in getting their lessons in right and sb enjoyed skoldo french and minimus with k and 3d shapes with z. was even lucky enough to have a blow on an oboe reed of G’s [and now keen to learn to play that too - G is such a musical instrument temptress!] as well as a group recorder session.

BB also v happy with 3d shape making, and v v excited by her recorder session with G it is certainly giving her huge enthusiasm to get going on the recorder. she also enjoyed her french stories. next time will think of something else for her to take as well, as had a few footloose moments. maybe colouring or dot to dots.

I redeemed myself [hopefully] by doing music theory, and then some rousting vocal exercises and learning ‘early one morning’ [only the first verse!] which, encouraged by the kids, we went far to high on. But i mostly wanted to make the singing enjoyable, and also learn at least 1 verse of a few of our native folk songs.

Listened to our italian cd there and back, BB fairly happily did some explode the code at latinetc too, and SB had brownies and judo. BB and i snuggled, she ds-ed and chatted at 100 miles an hour too me – love those girls

photos may follow if lucky

… one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Some how our children have passed by the lord of the rings. We did try reading the hobbit a while back to sb, but she wasn’t keen, so dropped it. However, today was bright and sunny, and I am making the most of the time off, so after a morning with M-I-L [F-I-L's progress v v slow post op, he has been in for a week, and I estimate a further week to go] we were to go out after lunch. I say a morning with M-I-L, but sb was singularly unable to get up! this was unfortunate, as although we had made DH presents previously, we hadn’t done cards, and she was allegedly getting up early to do them!! BB mostly finished making all her lego, and did a short piano prac. When SB did get up, we both made cards for DH, and M-I-L most appreciative SB finished her theory book as well.

A bit after after lunch [as it were!] we set off to west stow for their ring quest. It was only £8 for the whole family!! bargain there was a fab orc [the elf wore jeans!!!] the trail was fun and well thought out and we could flip between lord of the ring trail and anglo saxon easily as it was nearly empty, so we could make believe. [this is where the lord of the rings thing earlier was going too!] Had to do some telling the girls the back story, and after getting into giggles with DH, I took over [i may have read the book far more times ] SH enjoyed pretending to be aeolderman, sitting in the chair in the main hall BB was intermittantly wolfhound or warg – you decide which best fits her personality SB was in charge of runes and clues, and myself for daydreaming saxon or LOTR depending on what was called for We v much enjoyed it. Both the village – tho see might be better with re-enactors, it would also be busier – and the romping walk. Both girls did it at a fast trot, so obviously runes searching is better than geocaching for BB!! Def a good afternoon out.

this evening DH chose takeaway pizza for tea and we had yummy birthday cake made by SB of sweetspice victoria sponge with vanilla buttercream and home made jam – yummy . the girls happily watched the first dvd of LOTR extended version set. Not frightened was the verdict. we will see as we go along then .M-I-L says F-I-L a bit perkier, which is good, but no nearer walking – not so! planning another eventful day tomorrow as last of my annual leave. Think i have done the best with it

as SB says all the time . today was a day spent at home with girls, doing presents, home ed, chatting, playing cuddling etc etc. I was feeling a bit blue today. miss my sis, needed really to have a more going somewhere holiday to focus my gaze externally etc, etc. But threw myself into doing stuff with girls. We did some fab home ed in my lovely conservatory and BB successfully read ‘the’ a few more times – we are classing this as a MAJOR achievement .

SB getting happier at doing her junior galore park [on book 2] which also bodes well [yes, i know for her school year she should be book 3, but orig she hated writing, so have been gently gently introducing ] she did some music theory also, but her fav bit of home ed today was her choice of fact book.

which she got for xmas but only just explored [she has been reading back to back canadian girl stories i think!] and surprised me with just how much she knows about this already. we do lots of talking, lots of reading but negligible testing, so it is always a relief when you see how knowledgeable she is. BB peering over her shoulder at one point selected a spiral galaxy to be the milky way because it was the ‘right shape’. SHe also did some of her dk project book, which she still loves, currently minerals, cleaned the rabbit hutch and did a great piano prac with me. Also finished [more or less as we need the printer to work proplerly to actually finish] P amd M’s birthday presents and also M-I-L’s.

BB started with piano prac, having heard me do some [yes, we must tune piano] and i must make sure to encourage this regularly as she remembered all what we had done and was ready to move onto a new note. She had the great reading breakthrough as above and we read why do spiders… She also did a lot of drawing with her watercolour pencils in her sketch book, and played a complicated weighing game with cuisinaire rods and a balance as well as making a birthday presnet for M-I-L.

DH excavated the room of doom, M-I-L the hallway, and as well as home edding and reading to girls [oh, we did 2 chapters of story of the world after swimming lessons] I sowed some more seeds, as blogged, caught a v disgruntled snowy rabbit [lol] and ‘found’ things . F-I-L seems to be better pain wise but a long way off mobilisation, predicting at least a week more in hospital.

tomorrow hoping for a going out day

some other books semi factual semi historical that SB enjoying that others of similar might

I am on annual leave but having a ‘staycation’ . A number of reasons for this – F-I-L in hosp and M-I-L staying here prob being the most important, followed swiftly by the eeeekk! canada trip so expensive!! SO since I havn’t planned going away nor staying, i do think i musn’t fritter the time away! SO today I ‘invited myself’ to artetc with lecielrouge and Merry. We do enjoy this greatly every time we manage to go Today was no exception tho we were late due to a complete inability to get out of bed [i am blaming the weekend!!] Great to spend time with 2 good and lovely friends.

So there were 2 main art works today, still focusing on architecture/buildings in art. the first was drawing a row of houses/buildings on card and then cutting out the windows [done by z] and putting tissue paper behind. Think this was the favoured one, and v impressed by the imagination and differences the children used with the same brief. I had a go at this one, and was v happy with it. My kind of art

the second was making wax rubbings of interesting textures around the house and then drawing on paper 4/5 buildings and using the wax rubbings to delineate some of the structure/floors. v interesting idea but quite hard to pull off! BB was being a bit wobbly about this one tho

SB did some music theory practice [after a bit of a reminder to concetrate and use brain!] we are thinking maybe of giving her elastic band around wrist which she has to ping on every new question to remind her to read it properly she scored 90 in the practice paper which she read and concentrated, and 63 in the one she didn’t .SHe took it all v well and happily, since she was doing this whilst others playing. BB did some explode the code and finally read ‘the’!!! woohooo!!

We finished with colouring in little boxes and making fimo keyrings for upcoming triple birthday celebration I wish we had thought of those mario mushrooms sooner tho!! they are cute and easy to do . merry and girls left, and we nattered to z for longer before heading back via the hospital. F-I-L doing much better and in less pain. early days tho… we listened to italian cd on the way there and back.

So, i have varnished the fimo, flickred and then to bed.

there is a half finished draft post on victorian day back here in the workings bit of petits haricots. 52 drafts altogether, nearly all with daddybean as the author. I am hoping he will get his blogging mojo back at least for some of the fun trips and groups he goes to with the girls.

Yesterday they went to multisport, i worked a v v long day, and f-i-l had surgery. today they went to the arts award group for the first time. it is 10+ but bb got to stay with DH helping. they were doing botanic drawing, so quite a challenge, particularly for BB. in the end DH drew the chilli i think, and she did the shading in. SB did a plum and strawberry, and I am partic impressed by the shading of the plum. they both enjoyed it and plan to return. I believe BB did have a melt moment, cos on paper not what in head, so hoping wasn’t disruptive to the group.

in the afternoon they dropped m-i-l into hosp. F-i-l has been in quite a bit of pain today, as the leg muscles all spasming i hope they can get it under control, perhaps with an epidural?? Looking forward to him moving to the rehab bit of recovery rather than the initial pain bit.

The girls had opticians appts. It turns out BB is long sighted, and needs glasses to read! SO we are getting a pair of Mr Men glasses for her. sb went to 2 diff opticians, but couldn’t find what she wanted, and is unkeen on the bendy ones again. I am v keen on the bendy ones, as they are the first pair not to be trashed and require recurrent visits back for fixing!

got home from work and we had cuddles, tickles and watched cartoons altogether. also a couple more canada books arrived. SB read one of the dear canada diaries last night and loved it, so was glad for another to arrive [they are 'preloved'] and BB is reading her prev ones again. I am loving going to canada in the summer, it is like a ray of sunshine in the dreary winter, giving us fun in planning, and learning and thinking

today we tried to follow the new timetable for latinetc a bit better. It worked better than anticipated for a first go, but we did make a bit of a mess in the afternoon anyway. sure we will do better next time, and still went fine enough and the kids seemed to have fun. Have taken some good photos and science went well.

the science bit was acid base titration from chapter 5 of the real-science 4 kids. we did quite a chat around various bits. the rutherfords actually asked some v in depth questions, and i think got drowned by the answer but were really good at working out their aims and hypothesis. then we got going and all did very well at considering the science behind the practical. will be glad not to do ammonia again for a while tho

Art was paper weaving, and then placing into a bigger pic. i was v impressed with SB’s boat and both she and bb loved it. both loved the recorder too, and bb v happy that she could do what she ws asked to. i heard a raucous latin session and sb loves skoldo anyway. BB initially reluctant with the french stories, but was happy to listen to the end. Even the workybook bit in the middle went ok. the only prob was the drift we had, so didn’t do the song I had planned. Ah well!! I think the youngest ones had a much better balanced session to, with mice making with gina and zoe reading loads of books.

SB had made a cake on tues to bring, dairy free and with sparkler candles, so was v happy with that and the happy birthday singing. the children also all had occassion to run about and be crazy.

SB had brownies and judo. on arriving home m-i-l and f-i-l were hear, as f-i-l has knee replacement to go to tomorrow – hoping will go smoothly! BB was a whinge-bag really but did happily make sb a birthday present. take away chinese for tea was rather lovely, and bb fell asleep v v quickly

i don’t often work from home, but had a vast amount of paperworky/journally/knowledge stuff to do, and as long as i am avail to go back in, it is a possibility to do [v occasionally!] today was one of those occasions, partly cos have had severe heartburn all day, and easier at home where can drink milk and gaviscon , and partly cos had bb whilst sb taken to orthodontist. i was v v productive. far more, actually, than would have been at work as i would have been distracted into doing other stuff.

The girls also pretty productive with their HE. BB doing some maths about shapes – easy peasy! and then explode the code 1 – not quite so easy, but getting easier. SB did some music theory, recorder and galore park english 2 [the latter def not at all so easy!] . we did a secret craft [ ] in that it is going to be partly a present for daddy, and partly a present for her friends. SHe and BB both did it, and are v happy with their results That took a while, and we had to keep daddy occupied elsewhere, so sent him out for rabbit supplies, but he forgot the food!!

I went back to working, BB watched some sinbad and SB finished her english with one of those acrostic poems, which she quite liked. SB went to ballet, BB played in the garden, and then came in a mooched. SHe was bored, she needed me to think of something – piano, music theory, fimo, hama beads, wet felting, dry felting, sewing a felt heart, beaded bracelet, painting, bean experiments, electronics set, card game. nope all boring, and i was grumpy at this point that thought of LOTS of things to no avail. however, found a golden crown from the castle party years ago, so BB v happily decorated with stick on jewels!!

When SB returned from ballet we tidied up, and then looked at real science for kids chemistry chapter 5 with both girls, and then story of the world 1 with the Medes and Persians. We had a jolly good chat about how Cyrus’ grandad would have been better keeping him at home, and raising him with love! had an early chippery tea watching ray mears in the northern territories of canada in the path of Dr Rae, v interesting that!!

SB and the orthodontist – well, she needs removeable braces now, and will prob need fixed then. She has a grade 5 [worst] problem so def on the nhs. I think we are going to find braces traumatic!!! BB has her filling tomorrow, think that will be traumatic too.

Poor BB has had a gulpy sobby bedtime, as the little silvered resin piggybank i bought on sat is already desilvering, and she loves him v much, but is v unhappy the silver going. cuddles, songs and chatting haven’t entirely resolved this, but we have agreed you can carry on loving something even if not as silvery as it was – bless.

oh, and we caught 1 mouse in the trap, and released quite a long long way away

lol – next time I am going to be able to say that it is all greek to me!! ANyway, this time was about arshibanapal and the library at Ninevah, The hanging gardens of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar and the Minoans. It was a full house and some really interesting and different crafts/activities.

As usual, our chapters and crafts are based around story of the world, I am taking an archaeological activity from the kids book, and we are also reading some relevant myths

My girls and Big both agreed that their fv today was the plaster frescoes that Lecielrouge came with but that there was a great selection of different crafts to do. Merry brought fimo, and all the kids did some v careful ‘hanging baskets of babylon’ I did a slightly crazy hanging gardens of babylon, where we cut up those black plastic modules and then used a hot glue gun to glue them back together in a more ‘interesting’ configuration. we then put in compost and seeds, so a garden they will be . for the older kids we had some wordsearches and crosswords and a ‘maths-in archaeology’ scenario. Lots of the children drew labyrinths and mazes. The younger ones had a paint a minotaur mask as well and they all made minotaur peg dolls and books for the library at nineveh. All v successful .

unfortunately it was a bit too rainy, so no trampolining and then no clear skys to starwatch Also within 5 mins SB had had an accidental collision with one of the toddlers, and her broken but fixed tooth is now broken again. . It was pretty hurty, and hurt periodically thro the day, enough to keep dosing with nurofen so visit to dentist in the morning.aarghh and hope no damage done. now children playing before bedtime, Jax and i have imbibed a bit of wine in a phew, another successful session, now relax kind of way! Will add a few pics when flickred

it is that time of year, a bit behind on everything really [tidying, sending cards out etc etc]
Mon and tues, i don’t know what has been going on, i think mostly playing too cloudy for the telescope, which is a huge shame I have been doing loooonnnnngggg days at work as well.

But today see the logo it is historyetc. This week with the theme of christmas crafts. Not everyone could make it, as lots of christmassy activity all over the place, so we missed them, but still had fun

first craft out of the stable was chocolate making. we smashed 3 polos and stirred into 6 squares of melted milk choc and then filled a 12 days of christmas mould with them. was hoping at the end to take a pic of all the finished objects, but half of them were eaten within seconds

next we planned to do wreaths, and sent the girls out into the garden. Merry arrived and so her girls did chocolates. the girls did a fab job of getting lots of greenery. it became v clear that making the wreath bits out of straw would take longer than planned, so excavated out some old opitec kits, and the girls all happily coloured theirs in whilst Z mostly but i helped [grin] made the wreath bases.

Nanna and grandad bean arrived, having had a v relief inducing hospital visit [phew emoticon] and so hugs and joyousness

then we started the wreath crafting, and apart from some nasty stab wounds from the pyracantha and holly, it all went really well, and there were some very different yet all gorgeous wreaths created. BB and J went off and played instead, i think they did a bit of felting, as BB was finishing a mouse house. it took quite a while to do the wreaths, so lunch was pretty late. and didn’t have mildly alcoholic mulled wine and mince pies in the end, but did have carols blaring forth [even if some of them were sung by the monks of prinknash, and perhaps an acquired taste ] SB ‘judged’ the wreaths, and i think that went ok. not encouraging the ranking thing tho as always risks upset.

4th craft was making lovely bead christmas stars to hang on the tree. slightly complicated, but Merry worked them out, and then all did some lovely ones. we also started decorating the girls trees in the playroom. slightly scared by all the climbing up and down the ladder it was too cloudy though to wheel out the telescope.

cos she keeps phasing in and out – rofl. went in today to sort out various personnel nightmares. one done, the other spiralling further and further… but managed to do what i needed to do and return home at lunchtime [and do more in eve as 'working from home' ] and then for daddybean and i to go and ‘choose a carpet’ . The carpet in the home ed room has progressed from manky to unhygienically awful. SO a replacement required. aarghh it is a big room to carpet, and doesn’t precisely have a carpet budget… we have, after 90 mins, come home with 2 diff samples to ponder until wed. think we should go with the more hardwearing but less aesthetically pleasing option [both are suitable for heavy domestic use]

i forgot to say that all this gadding to carpet shops [the excitement] was only possible due to my dad having driven up this morning to do some painting in said home ed room – coving and gloss, daddybean in charge of ceiling. the girls have been v good whilst this going on. SB doing lots and lots of the easier home ed options both in morning and then in aft whilst we were at carpet emporium. [11 ticks today!] she was somewhat disgruntled that i yelled c# up the stairs to where she was practicing recorder as my hello, rather than something a bit more, well, motherly! BB did some more of her lego house, and started the chicken mosaic and played with her new doll. A very happy girl there

On return from the carpet not-quite-decision-making trip, SB and i whisked off to ballet for the end of show open lesson, which i really enjoy. SHe is definitely improving at ballet, just needs to have stiffer arms i think, but the rhythm and concentration is there. We then did a good piano practice before she settled down to do some colouring whilst i read story of the world and BB having found all her old bricks made various buildings. BB also doing manic inline skating [with SB's old inline skates - there will be an accident there!!] and I tried to sort out the photoshop database a bit more – daddybean stayed up until 3am last night doing something or other to fix most of it.

unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate skittles in our garden – it has lots of hiding places, but also a 6 foot wall enclosing it. So he isn’t safely in his hutch. grr, it is usually snowy we have to chase more, but skittles being black and now snuggled somewhere for the night is impossible to find. worried…

the last one got a little bit lost in ramblings. I often delete these, as they are a bit minddumpy, but thought one wouldn’t be too indulgent

SO to today, SB was soooo late getting up – she insists though that since she was reading in bed that should count as up BB insisted i get up to help her in a craft, tho as soon as i had dragged my stumps down here she changed her mind, and instead played with her yesterdays presents – sylvanians and baby. She did then finish her dolphin mosaic and then finished also a new dove djeco mosaic that was a birthday present. SB did manage to join us and did some more of her giraffe window mosaic.

the girls started some more sylvanianing, so i went out a played with rabbits and cleaned the hutches. If my iphone communicated anymore with the puter, i would even show you! They are really gorgeous, but I am glad they are the last babies, because actually i am worried about finding good homes for them all. we need to at least find a home for one boy, so that our worst case scenario is having 2 couples… Anyway, they are adorable!

Girls chivvied out after lunch to help gardening – rofl!! They did start weeding, after a half hour search for gardening gloves, and the right trowel, small fork … It being a lot of chick weed I then wowed them with the use of a rake [right tool for the job moment!] then pulled out the rest of the perennials. Daddybean had been sorting out the bird feeders, so SB peeled off to fill then, BB peeled off to play indoors, so we finished off the bed and put membrane on the top. Then had fun thinking about the bed, we already had a good idea, some structural herbs this year and slate mulch, and then when sure the weeds died down, some more holes through the membrane and plant creeping thyme through as well, tho next year have some pots with some herb varieties in. should look good have the bed infront of the conservatory to clear as well. Daddybean has been clearing around the greenhouse too. maybe next year might be the year that it looks like adults rather than squatters live here

We had tea and teacakes to warm up, and SB has finished her jade rune stones silk bag [very nicely] and BB is doing some of her birthday sculpey kit. We plan to watch the 1930′s shops programme, which we are all enjoying and have a takeaway pizza.

cutting out electrons, protons and neutrons about 250 of each] took way to long last night, so to bed v late and hard to get up and out this am. However, I had got everything ready apart from SB’s minimus which i asked her to add… yep, she forgot !!

We trialled the 3 groups today, which TBH I found quite stressful as a lot to say and do in a small time, the dynamics will take a bit of settling down, the middle group got a partic raw deal and i was just ready to cry. Lack of sleep on my part prob didn’t help, but I now have migraine. Will give it a few more tries as it works better for everyone else, and I really want to keep latinetc going as a strong group as it is fab.

That said, all the children had read or had read to them chapter 1 of real science 4 kids chemistry and we romped through the periodic table, protons, neutrons and electrons and then atomic mass unit and moles. I do think the 3 levels of the chemistry first chapters are all really great, and so far like the text. we did pre-k and 1 with BB and 2 with SB at home. We then shuffled my deck of elements and chose the ones to make a window decal each. For the first and last groups we read up about the elements in my periodic table book, but ran out of time with the middle group. I have suggested they might want to do that . i think the decals looked really good when finished. Unfortunately my camera had a flat battery, and the spare also flat. partic as when i checked last night there was allegedly 2/3 battery power left. Luckilly le ciel rouge took some photos and we plan to nick them from her flickr stream

[tho not periodic table view ]

edited to add at kirsty’s request to make the decals we got some of that bookbinding clear stuff [loads of it] and had an a3 size each. i cut out old 10p piece size protons out of yellow see through sweetwrapper plastic that you can buy, and the same with blue for neutrons, then 1/2p size in red for electrons, which we placed in shells, but talked about the unplaceability effectively of electrons and this was just for ‘display’. we put them on one a4 side, with the protons and neutrons clumped in the middle but accurately counted, and then folded over the other a4 side, and it worked

SB did clarinet [with g's as hers is in service, and sounded quite good from the kitchen] minimus, tesselating art and skoldo french, all of which she enjoyed, tho she said the skoldo now too easy for her. K’s plan tho is to race through it looking for gaps in knowledge, so hopefully a fast consolidating race will work well for her and then move on. It is nice to hear her say french is easy tho . BB didn’t do french – no such get out again – but really loved doing z’s tesselating art.

We had a further chat about whether we could work into the afternoon whilst G and K take children to cello some short while of something else, either a bigger craft, a bit of music theory or perhaps some singing or group music. Whilst the morning stressy for me, i need the afternoon to be a bit less intensive, so it kind of depends how pans out, but really love the group, and it would be lovely to get a good working balance. SB and L shew each other their piano skills , poor J got *really* attacked by a thorn bush and i drew out a thorn of nearly a cm. He was *very* brave.

SB now at brownies, and showing off baby rabbits – one of the owls would quite like a rabbit she thinks – that would be good , we are going to have a chippery tea shortly and then SB has judo. My imigran seems to be doing a good job on migraine and planning an earlier night tonight

Latinetc was brought to you today by:

also edited to add, with the chippery tea we watched the wallace and grommet inventions prog, BB and i played ludo before bed, and SB played with geomags after judo and before bed. I am having an early night i think

Having worked Monday [and then nagged daddybean to blog about his day at home ] i had a phased day off today. feels nice! part time work if and when financial woes to public servants decreases a bit and therefore makes it safer is def something i would much like to do 3 day week would be perfect .

And so to today, the girls started off the day with making more christmas cards, they are really beautiful, if not necessarily christmas themed SB has done a fab tree and present one that she spent some time on. BB spent a long time on one with a lizard on the outside, and you open up to a laptop inside. daddybean and i are hoping this isn’t another version of the capri sun ds trick . Lots of humming, singing and chatting as these got done in a very ‘isn’t this lovely’ kind of way.

We did some story of the world 1 - middle egypt this time, and nubia. We do try and do the questions and narrations as per the activity book, but BB often gets carried away by her story telling… BB looked at the realscience for kids chemistry chapter 1, we did the pre-K and then I read the level one but simplified it a bit for her. SB and I just had time for a really good piano practice before she went out to her last bikeability session. A lovely sunny afternoon for it anyway

BB and I read a book and fed and played with rabbits and then watched some starwars prequel 3 before going off to swimming, where i took charge of SB and watched both their lessons before getting home. Here SB looked at her level 2 chemistry whislt sitting snuggled up close to me, and we did the questions at the end together. I think we have got moles and atomic weight and numbers sorted, tho at 9, doesn’t really matter if not. I do like the text book bit of it tho, as nice and straightforward, and being for a ‘classical’ education, has 3 levels of ability to choose from. The ‘lab’ experiment for this first chapter is a bit dull-as-ditchwater, so think can be done at home with own families, and instead we are going to do an element treasure hunt [i think] and make an element window ‘decal’ [concentrating on the first 20] which unfortunately has left me cutting out loads of blobs this eve, and therefore late to blog! I do wish the most common isotope of them had the same number of neutrons as protons, would make life much easier! Have made a list to make the decals easier to do.

we finished with watching a sarah jane on iplayer with the girls and roman mystery for SB. And all evening spent prepping for tomorrow!

Still following Story of the World, we did the Anansi Spider stories, African ‘tribal art’ [re-imagined] and shaker instruments and from the early china we thought about the discovery of silk and chopsticks, ate a rice dish, drank jasmine tea and made a ‘silk’ bag to store our ‘jade’ pictograms in

It was a rather fabulous day! obviously, having had such a killer migraine yesterday, i did far less planning than i had thought i might, and after all, i was at work [as blogged, woohoo, by daddybean] . I think we were 2 crafts short of an ideal number, tho we did have 1 of them, but at the point ppl were mooching around, i had forgotten about it. An Jax has come up with the fab idea of doing a costume pegdoll at each historyetc, so we should end up with hundreds of them to have a clothes timeline washingline!

We started with the early african crafts, doing tribal designs to make a variety of shakers. All the children seemed to enjoy this, and less mess was made than anticipated the children were also excited by the fact that this also necessitated buying some more pringles which were on a buy one get one free across the road Whilst they did this, i read some stories from these books

We also made little spiders to be Anansi and hung them from the vine – which did look rather fab Lots of giggling and laughing and chatting amonsgst the children. Too many adults had headaches, so we smiled and chatted and drank tea as well as educating, found the oboe to lend out, hopefully still in working order more or less

We had lunch and in the afternoon I explained about this time of the chinese dynasty the story of the empress ‘finding’ silk and then we mde ‘silk’ bags to put jade pictograms in to tell each other’s fortunes. the children pretty much chose loads and loads of hideous fortunes so in the end we adults were not so keen to have our fortunes told any more. We made some papaya fried rice and drank the jasmine tea and ate lots of cake. J and M read us further stories, and that seemed good too.

Jax is staying overnight, so we have a yummy curry and are trying not to hear the kids screeching upstairs whilst we serially blog [or are we in parallel??]

SB has also done some piano prac, been to brownies [and is going to be walking with the flag bearer on remembrance day] and judo. BB and Big have also had great fun on the wii.

my sister loved this time of year, and the falling leaves are just so very symbolic of loss. Been a bit of a struggly weekend, tho doing my best .

Today, orig, i had thought we might go out somewhere, but have instead stayed in, as SB wanted to ‘just spend time with me’ awwwww. SO that is what we did. She has spent a fair bit of time playing with paper dolls. But we also did a long time of recorder duets together – half the book! we would have done viola, but have mislaid the book [again!!] was trying to find a nice starter violin/viola duet book, but can’t. So instead we did clarinet, and yes, it does need a service and the piano. Following that significant amount of music, BB wanted to play bohnanza again with me, having done enough ‘penning‘ [another sign] so we did that and SB started a window mosaic. BB and I then read some of A City Through Time which seems to be currently on amazon at a phenomenal price… and BB very successfully read to me another 1b book [it didn't have 'the' in it! ] before we went out to play in the garden, scrunch leaves and adore baby bunnies! It did start raining even though all else sunny – very weird!

Back indoors we ate ponigramits [bb's] in the conservatory whilst SB did the primary maths challenge. i am quite proud of her. She sat happily and did it for the allotted time, wasn’t stressed or worried and just carried on with it. A bit more stress and she might have concentrated slightly more, as she got 4 questions wrong she could do upside down waving her feet about – and even went doh when i went through them doing a quick check when she got a different [right] answer!! lol! I think she has got 15 tho even with the doh moments, and perhaps we should have done a few practices to get her head into gear, but I am proud of her relaxed and happy approach to it, and the fact that if she had engaged brain [on some of the easiest questions!!] she might have done and giggle ]

SB ate her pomegranate, and BB and I played settlers of catan, which she did quite well at, tho couldn’t see the point so we went back to bohnanza, sb went to playing with paper dolls and then we watched merlin. A very relaxed day indeed. I start my phased return tomorrow, tho actual work on tues. It is right that i get back into it, but very hard.

I just loved this pic of SB. I *love* that girl!

I was up late, but it took a serious amount of encouragement to get SB up and out of bed and stop reading , and was nearly midday. [i did get a lovely snuggle tho whilst persuading her ] It did me that we didn’t get to the cheap cinema tho . BB had managed to get up tho, as a little lark. BB and I had commenced calligraphy [or penning as BB calls it] when SB staggered down. She looked tired and wan, so I made her a cooked brekkie of sautes [from a left over jacket pot] and fried left over sausage with a fried egg. That seemed to go down well and she needed something hearty to be a combined brekkie/lunch. [seems somewhat early in a blog to say, and then we had lunch - giggle!].

SB joined in the calligraphy, doing a pen drawing and sort of poem first, and then deciding to do a big capital letter on nice writing paper. She didn’t finish tho. BB did lots of writing, then a capital letter and then used the nice writing paper to make a sign. All very happy and chatty. SB and I snuggled and did SoTW 3 with various fightings in america and canada, and the founding of pennsylvania, I found out the origins of the name Philadelphia. SB then did some of her DK project book – she is in the middle section now, on Earth and we had a bit of discussion about the different layers always shown, and how they might come to be there. [I winged it a bit]. Then we all did SoTW 1 about ancient China and had a thought about the realities of rice farming in freezing cold water .

We then did a bit of bunny adoration, and took a couple of pics. We have a definite home for one of the girls – now named Olive, but homes for the other girl and the 2 boys required. Am hoping to have a home for boy + girl, and then rehome boy on own if can. They are all v gorgeous

SB did some piano prac [trudging grad getting there, and thanks G for loan of sightreading book] and then galore park english, and BB did music theory and then explode the code. We felt like we had had a lovely snuggly day alltogether and recharged batteries BB and I then watched the david attenborough first life as recommended by Kirsty, and we enjoyed that. SB had been playing with paper dress dolls, but grad watched more of the DVD. BB did then fall asleep on me – awwwww. Woke up to have her bath tho as totally mucky from the ink! After that BB and i played some Bohnanza before bedtime, and SB carried on her doll game. A really lovely day . Oh, and I love the conservatory!! not sure I will move back into playroom when painted…

Though I had better start with Thursday first! we managed to get up really early to be off and out to T and N’s as G had offered to listen to SB’s exam pieces before it got going. Unfortunately there was a huge hold up on our way in due to roadworks so we were late. Luckilly we did get a bit of piano in, and with a bit more work should be ok for grade 1 – phew! Which also meant that i went to the group for the first time in ages. i hadn’t gone whilst off as have found new places stressful, and meeting ppl difficult, especially as haven’t really broadcast that I have been off work and why… [and now slightly stressed that due to the post a couple down, lots of people will be reading my blog that don't normally - eek and embarrased wave!] Anyway, chatted to lovely people, reminded me how much i would like to be the home educator! but back to work next week. SB did some french, suprised me by not doing the bookclub, but we are all in a bit of a funny mood i think at the moment, and BB went shopping with chris and returned with new boots and a fab dinosaur top – prompting the post below!

Home and SB did some more home ed – maths and galore park history, and then we gave the rabbits a good clean out. BB went off to gym, and SB wrapped her pressies for BB and then made a lovely hamabead card. We then went to gym. Finished the day watching the new BBC shopkeepers in shepton mallet prog. perhaps not good for veggies watching the pig being butchered!!

This morning was completely and utterly devoted to bedroom tidying! It was painful, it was shrieky, it was done!!! phew! After that SB and i did piano prac and then went out to play with rabbits and then find some pretty leaves for our autumn craft. We stuck leaves on into a pleasing pic [BB cat, SB random, me spiral] and then read Keats’ Ode to Autumn, had a bit of a chat about the poem, and then SB and I chose our fav lines and added them to our pictures. Looks good i think! Let me chill after some stressy interweb moments! I love occupational therapy through crafts

Friends arrived for the bonfire and fireworks at our house tonight, and we had a lovely time. The kids had fun playing together, that adults chatted, giggled and chilled. After dinner it was still raining, so we shrugged our shoulders and got on with it! enjoyed the fireworks in the rain, and then raced inside to do birthday cakes, more playing and then a tearful goodbye. we should prob have arranged a sleepover! A very pleasant way to spend an evening

we went on a fab home ed group organised trip today to Burghley House for a Victorian servant experience. it was fabulous. Le ciel rouge were also there. We had a blast! the girls all dressed up, and over half of the other children had too. I was partic proud of SB’s costume and BB wore her pinny. We did have to get up at 7.30 – which was a shock to the system!!

First we had an introduction and heard a bit about various different servants, their jobs and what they would earn. then we were shown around the main house [no pics] which was really good. partic loved the kitchens and all the artwork Was very proud of SB, going round, asking questions and showing things to BB, and to BB for being so well behaved A very interesting tour of a very interesting place. We then went to the second bit, which was looking at a variety of items commonly used by servants in the Victorian times. SB and BB keen to pick some up and show around. Z and i did wonder if t41 would have approved of the ‘that’s a good question’ training.

Lunch time and we were all gasping for a cup of tea and food! unfortunately no chairs to sit on! In fact, it was cold stone slabs!! eek! After eating we went to our first afternoon session which was making fab sculptures out of wire. Unfortunately the session was a bit too short, meaning SB didn’t finish, and BB got stressed until i made the correct [after some trial and error on my part!] design xmas tree for her to hang baubles from. i also had a go, a butterfly on a flower. A really excellent session from a v hands on sculptor. Wish it could have had another half an hour.

The final session was also great, doing some servant chores, tho many reproducible at home All the girls started with polishing saddles and shoes, then using lemon juice to clean copper, the bigger girls then wrote letters, and BB did all the rest and dictated a letter to me. The chap leading was v knowledgeable and it was only that we were flagging at the end of the day and requiring cups of tea that made us want the day to end Children also tired, and BB fell asleep in car on way home [ok and me]. BB recovered at home with some old dr who, SB has had brownies and judo and has done a short piano prac [broken cords and trudging, her worst things still, and she doesn't want to change piece - it will be fine!]

We gate-crashed Le Ciel Rouge and Merry’s regular art monday today following a piano prac for SB [i think she is fed up practicing for her exam tho ] and we weren’t too late, even tho i was doing the classic home educators trick of answering so many questions in the car that I realised we had gone the wrong way . Today was focussing on Klee and Matisse, and one of the advantages of being a gatecrasher was that I didn’t have to organise anything, just enjoy

The first bit was tissue paper pictures, which were great. I was surprised to see how similar my girls pics were tho [photos to be added when have finished blogging, then flickring!] As BB did a pyramid, and SB a fab tent in campsite. Children then had a bit of a play and we had the traditional pasta lunch before we did the adapted djeco klee craft kit that my girls have done and found fab in the past. Since we have done this together, I suggested each of them used their imaginations with the colouring and blending to complete them this time. BB did one blend, then declined. She really doesn’t like messy hands

final craft was fimo, in a cut in shapes workshop from merry, slightly matisse inspired, but also using this book

which isn’t one of mine, but is very tempting as it has loads of fab ideas in it. It is hovering around my amazon basket at the moment – but very little is escaping it, having done the finances last week [eek and wail!]. both my girls did a very diff style, BB’s being a far more literal and object referenced approach, and SB really getting the hang of cutting and swapping the pieces a la matisse. The other children did some really fab fimoing too, so we adults felt the need to join in. Mine, far miore like BB, and not really in the right style [oops] but I did enjoy doing it. I *need* all those cutters – lol! [have just spent a happy time filling a basket on craftmerrily, but like the amazon basket...] yes, I know, photos!! I loved hearing all the chitchat between the girls. in partic P, M and SB as one giggly group, adn BB and J having loads of fun together as well. tho BB did have a few minor melts when the fimo didn’t behave I do love that SB thinks about it, and then gets on in whatever plan she has made in her head. She isn’t a less is more girl either

Bade a fond farewell to Merry and Z, and drove SB to her ballet lesson, where she was v proud to be at the front as the step shower BB insisted we went to the park, and it was COLD!! eventually persuaded her back home to the warmth. SB brought back not too much later and we played settlers of catan together whilst BB ‘watched something’ and then BB and I played bohnanza whilst SB read aquila. we watched the second part of the Merlin, and then, bedtime.

This is my last week off work, so had fun today, and plan to fill the week. trying not to feel the anxiety in my shoulders and spreading. ho hum!!

today was latinetc, and i had got a fun science all lined up! we were going to make oxygen – woohoo! and test for it. This completes a creating and testing for 3 gases – CO2, O2, H2 – series [yes, should really go for nitrogen, but it is trickier...] We’ll do it again no doubt in the future, but i emphasised the 3 and their tests today, and talked a fair bit about catalysts, being things that can make reactions go faster. We had hydrogen peroxide – which you can buy from a chemist cheaper than ebay [thankyou for t-bird for this nugget, only after i had purchased from ebay!] which will over time produce oxygen all by itself, faster if heated. But a catalyst will speed things up and make v much more ‘interesting’ . We had as our catalyst manganese dioxide – definitely going to be a winner, liver and kiwi fruit. [could use iron oxide but this doesn't do a lot, and lead oxide does do a lot, but i don't have any]. we put 15 mls of h202 with a bit of the catalyst [less than 1/4 tsp of the manganese dioxide] and a squirt of washing up liquid and some food colouring. it foams! we rated our catalysts in order of manganese oxide > liver > kiwi

The reaction is :
2H2O2(aq) -> 2H2O(l) + O2(g)
This is catalysed by a variety of transititional metal compounds and peroxidase enzymes found in many living things.

i also did an adapted genie in a bottle [as had less h202!] that i had practiced at home, so knew to be way safer!! still pretty dramatic, and we got to test for oxygen with glowing spills v successfully. [ps i had also given them my usual scary safety prep talk, we had safety specs, lab coats and gloves, and the foaming controls this a bit. I think we all enjoyed it [mind you, i did have to remind a most of the older group that safety specs are not so good if on the forehead rather than over the eyes ]

K did latin and french, Z did crafts – halloween and firework pics using oil pastels with a watercolour wash, and Merry did pasta and mastered K’s ecokettle! We are going to do the real science for kids next time, with all the children reading or having read to, chapter 1 of whichever level their parent thinks is ok, and then i am going to work out how we can model atoms in the interim, so we can each make one, and do some discussion around the periodic table and atomic weights as we do it.

SO after a bit of planning of groups, which K will tinker with and show and tinker with G, who wasn’t here today so needs to have an input, Merry went home, K did french and then we grown ups chatted as the children did a bit more craft. then we went geocaching for the elusive ones! and this time – fanfare – Z found it! still not quite where we thought it was going to be. SB led a group of children out of view, and BB got hurt, so was a bit cross with her for breaking cardinal rule of going somewhere that i didn’t know about out of eyesight and nearly earshot as well. . We then persuaded kfish to come to the next cache too, which i think she may have regretted… i had the coords only on iphone, which with classic timing ran out of charge when we most needed it [actually ] so Z rang chris and got coords, i had the gps which i don’t know how to use, and in the end kept marking waypoints and deleting them until they were more or less the coords. it was getting dark and looking a bit hopeless, so we gave up, but K and I spotted an interesting log arrangement, J investigated it, and tada!! a geotat cache! BB way too tired so i had a less than nice moment when little A – bless her – passed on what she had chosen mind you, we had had A in our car as she had had a moment too that she never got to go in other peoples cars. SHe and BB had a fab conversation which didn’t make 100% sense from the front… Though that was better than BB and L when i had those 2, who were on the cheeky end of the spectrum [not dreadfully, more mock outrage rather than actual required!!]

got home to find chris had tidied the front room and wrestled with putting the curtains up. oh i DO like a room with curtains!! we had chips, falling asleep half way through, and the rest of us watching a fab programme about optical illusions. now i plan to watch the apprentice on iplayer.

And yes, it is 2 months since my sister died, and have thought about her on and off all day.