Category Archives: art and crafts

tears before bedtime – edited

It has been one of those days. I think all this socialisation and frenetic living is getting to all of us – time for some r and r!! Not helped by BB’s return to sleeping nightmare!

Initial Hama-ing. SB wanted to use the circle to do a face of BB – which she did really nicely, and started a new flower. A struggle over going to stagecoach – she definitely doesn’t want to go any more, and even the promise of a Christmas show isn’t wuite doing it. We will notify them she won’t be coming back next term. While she is there, she does seem to enjoy it, and goes off quite happily. For one reason or another, we are missing quite a few though anyway. We also have found the messing up of the weekend a bit of a pain.

This afternoon she has dissolved easily into tears. SHe has wanted to play with me non stop, but if I break one of her unspoken rule games she is heartbroken and sobs dreadfully. All very difficult, as I do also want to play with BB. When BB qwent to sleep, we did a shortlived word game with the boggle dice [she spelled cat and dog, and me bird, and then she did seeds] I then wrote a word without saying the letters I was looking for, so a standoff and it was put away. We had a nice game of dominos, and then I turned a corner without permission – game over! We read quite a few books though – the skeleton hiccups one she actually read quite a few of the words before she realised, and then abrubtly stopped. SHe has also done some colouring.

The other activity- mainly to give myself some headspace – was baking carrot cake – which we have done, wone to eat and one to freeze. At least that was enjoyed and tear free. the results were very nice too. Not so easy with dinner, as a cry when she realsied the spaghetti i had cooked weren’t tinned ones – sigh. She ate it all though. Some home grown grapes for pud. At present I am breathing[!!] as Daddy does bath before I do the stories.

I did get to have a short bit of BB only time – which is always nice. She is such a smiler. We were playing with the stacking cups, and a 4 high stacker toy. She enjoys this. Today she did the stacker toy herself!!! She was most impressed, particularly that I clapped, so did it lots more – until I went for the camera that is! Sb had been in the garden with Chris, but it rained, so she came back. we then did singing with actions for BB – wind the bobbin, twinkle twinkle etc.

It is clear that SB loves BB, but she can be so rough with her. I think as BB gets more mobile, she gets more of a threat as well -IYSWIM. Not that SB will be putting it in those terms, but I do have limited BB alone time [ i am trying for perhaps 2 x 15 mins slots - shouldn't be too hard??]. Hmmm – thinking cap!

Anyway, getting the call for stories, so a good thing I have blogged quickly!

edited: she wasn’t quite up for bed. so we looked at the DK pop out body book a bit, and discussed the spinal column and spinal cord mostly. then read roald dahl’s revolting rhymes – which are an unusual take n the standard fairy tales.

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october blogbumping

has been rather grand!
we have kirsty and co staying, and merry and co round for the day.

it was nice to get in from work to a houseful yesterday. Kirsty’s 2 and SB were demonstrating nicely one of the reasons we bought the house – it is a fantastic place for children to run around madly shrieking!! They played together, watched shrek and investigated the house together. unsurprisingly very late bedtime. foolishly i’d said we read 1 book for each – andthey all chose long ones. kirsty giggled as i started to paraphrase! not that they then fell asleep……… We got in a good natter before my eyes refused to stay open anyway. I did check out the sonlight manuals though.

Today they all demanded we bake so i checked ingredients and recipe. SOme nice drawing occurred while we adults had a cup of tea! they then ran around indoors and out like loons while I tidied some of the disaster from yesterday! once the floor was visible, it was quite clear that happy street should be done, and the 3 worked nicely to get the track to go around the mat – even with BB ‘helping’!

Kirsty here! Helen forgot to add in the huge conversation she and Marcus had about hearts and discussing the different parts of it using her freebie heart model she got ages ago. We must get one of those! This was started by looking at a big body book so loads of discussion there too. Marcus was beign very brave I must say, talking to both Helen and Chris like they were normal people (which of course they are lol!) and not like he normally talks to adults! He’s getting better!

oops edit no 2 – forgot to also add that on asking for a paracetamol for a headache Chris supplied me with 2 double strength cocodomal (sp?) which resulted in me being stoned for the whole day!! erm, oops!

When Merry and co arrived, Fran settled down to read numerous books to SB [what a great idea!], before they got more adventurous. the littlies demolished the happy street of course. While we grownups discussed sonlight, usborne and brownie-style badges for bloggers. was a great natter.

Chris edit – Whilst those adults nattered. This adult was in the kitchen organising lunches for the hoards. Much uproar was caused over instant needs for Pitta Bread ! there should be some sort of rule that all children will eat baked beans….

Children went outside and climbing framed and sandpitted [great!] when started to look overly excited we went to plan B which was drawing in the conservatory – some great pictures done. Included discussion on growing grapes, why they have pips, the solar system and order of planets.

When Merry went we had pasta tea, and the children counted to 10 in all known languages. Chris read some of our pre-loved ladybird books – greek legends and dinosaurs. They all did a lot of counting and adding, and some shops playing. I insisted only one book read to nigt, but they still spread it out by doing a full home-ed thing by discussing each page – counting, spotting differences etc etc. sigh!! Still awake. Anyway we actually did a lot of autonomous home ed.

now, have flickred, so may do a badge whilst drinking wine!

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ok, better late than never!

A life less chaotic

would be nice.
updates
HE
Sat - some explode the code [2 pages] and some singapore maths [2 pages] read 2 of the red nose readers. I read loads of other books. Discussion around romans. Army and costume mainly. Watched Muzzy. Went to stagecoach. mostly played though – chris feeling ill.
Sun – Chris a zombie, me with migraine. 2 pages explode the code 1, and 2 [just] of singapore earlybird 2b. read another red nose reader, some phonics cards. painted a lovely picture which she told me was a dreamtime story – and the story involved. heard her tell inlaws about how days and nights worked

Chris’s parents came over for sunday lunch and prob wished they hadn’t as we were in a bit of a state – house in uproar and dishevelled parents and children.

BB getting good at crawling forward now – at last! and likes to push along a car or other toy as well. good fine movt fingers – picks up the smallest speck of rubbish off the floor to eat!!

unfortunatley no sleeping skills – i closed my eyes at 6.30 am for alarm 15 mins later. dead on feet. In fact so dead, hace reallised i hav gone to work with trousers inside out – and done a whole clinic like this!!!! ROFL

Welcome to the mad house

we started lots of things, but not so good at completing! Sb still recovering from cold, and me from maudlin-ness. So a partial duvet day!!

We started off well though, had a look at various seed heads around the garden – the water iris and sweet chestnut the most fantastic. Picked up a few of other kinds too, and used them in a sticking picture of Autumn. We had a chat about seasons as we did it, what autumn meant, the how behind it etc. As we had done this in the conservatory, SB wanted to watch telly – so had a spanish Muzzy. Neither of us comprehended much, so we watched the english version – aha!! We were supposed to have the spanish back, but SB spied the bugs life video….. lunch was a good distraction, and after that we did some looking at our fly on the wall ancient egypt book and DK egypt book. We spied egypt on a map – SB a bit put out that it wasn’t ‘ancient egypt’. I tried to explain a bit about the country being more or less the same through the ages [yes, I know]. She did know the big river was the nile though – good-oh. She has decided that the first pharoah entombed in a pyramid was Josie Jo [close, as Djoser! - i wont let practical archaeology get to far Merry!!!!] We had a very brief look at the mediaeval bit of the DK history explorer – she was collecting stickers, and a blink at the solar system one. [and I mean a blink].

Moved on to Happy Street, and making stories. Getting better still with BB destroying as she goes [though the peace was uneasy!]. Some climbing about on the climbing frame, and then brought me the usborne greek myths and waved it about saying she wanted ulysses. i explained that was the other one, but she knows best and shows there is a woooden horse piccie in it. She’s right, the Ulysses story is in there too near the end. Odysseus here though – so we discussed name changing. She sat rapt by it, and insisted we went on to Theseus and the Minotaur.

What we haven’t done is any learning to read stuff and singapore or miquon maths for a while. I am gald we did some language though. knowing she would have it regularly at school does up the stakes doesn’t it. even for us, who are not trying to school at home. I know she will prob have a mad day of non-stop maths soon though, but I think we would like to encourage a daily habit as well. i have therefore taken photos of the front of some of these resources, and will cut them out into ? laminated magnetic stickers, or have a sheet with a certain number of them on, so she can get used to choosing which one to do, finidng matching book and getting on. How controlling. Once we’ve slipped back into the habit, we can just let go a bit again.

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What an excellent weekend – edited to add photos!

Had some great company, from the ‘making it up’ family. [who have also beeaten us to blogging!] SB and Big racing about together and BB and Small also doing a fair bit of interaction. Took so many photos, have given it a flickr set

On Saturday, all the children were fairly exhausted still from a late night, so we did ‘managed interventions’ [LOL] to keep the humour going and their awakeness untill an acceptable time for bed. This included sticker pictures, icing [and eating] muffins, book reading and indoor/outdoor changes of venue. It worked quite well really. Its nice to see how well they all get on bearing in mind the short time they have known each other, and the few times they have met. got some nice Flickr photos. Small was being a bit of the daredevil on the climbing frame, but escaped with minor bumps and bruises only [a relief!]

SB also restarted Stagecoach – she missed the first one last week. Having been reluctant to go, we were discussing this beign the last one, but she returned full of enthusiasm – we will wait and see.

Bedtime well managed, and peace had descended by 8pm – wow! Allowing for a fair bit of adult natter time and general gossip/setting worlds to rights and catalogue drooling. We weren’t quite as good at getting an early night. Jax appeared to also like the melon vodka.

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Sunday
Well, Merry has beaten me to the blog! Anyway in the morning, the girls were still shattered, and played well for most of the morning, and then were played out really – well they have done well. We did though dress them in matching princess fairy outfits [bridesmaids dresses to you and me!]. SO I have now worn my voice out [as if] by reading every princess story in the barefoot book, half the faeries one and to general amusement, fox in socks, which I will consider sending Big as a present!

Merry and Co from Patch of Puddles joined us for lunch [chaos!] and then we went to the romano-british day at Hinchingbrooke Park. We were rather late getting there, and had missed the battle, but I did enjoy the rather gory Boudicca story. The lady in the roundhouse was informative, and SB enjoyed just looking about. She didn’t think there were any romans there, as they weren’t wearing togas, or the bright red of the army [though we did miss the fight - and she was disspointed about that] As we walked pased the spinner, she said she knew it was spinning, and she had seen it before, so didn’t need to again! So something def going in then!! ‘quietly making noise‘ were also there, and Sam, and SB had a jump over dinosuar pit/midden [depending on viewpoint] competition. They both lost!

The display room was good, and all the children enjoyed the sandpits/archaeological digs. there were some tesserae to make mosaics, and bits of moasaic tiles. SB particularly proud to get a free postcard. On the display, it said various freebies for schools and entry to various local digs etc, so may follow that up, as it seems there is quite an interest from the children. The archaeologists had fluorescent safety jackets with official archaeologist on the back – Kewl!!

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Said goodbye to the various families as we all went back our different ways. SB just about persuaded to stay awake, and we used up the rest of the pyramid templates. The house is VERY quiet!! A total disaster zone, as 3 mini tornados and a baby destroyer of worlds have certainly left their mark [s]. I’d better start on the happy street [and flickr in a bit!]

Short Blog

well, for once I’m going to be succint as we have guests.

yesterday I finally went to the emergency dentist to have tooth done – should have gone ages ago as cracked filling was spearing my gum. Still painful today, but in an aching something done way, so much better. the emergency dentist at the hospital was a fab woman.

Jaw ached so much, that I called it a day at lunchtime though and came home, just in time to nip off with the beans to puddlers. [my first!]

that was very nice! will def go if free from work for whatever reason. It was an egypt session, so we made tammy’s fantastic sugarcube pyramid – from the story of the world activity book. Rather unfortunately, she told me that the activity boook comes with suggested stories to buy, all available from rainbow resources, so Jan may be main another order when this one comes through!

other bits of fun – heiroglyphics, scarab beetle seals, making a paper pyramid and sand camels. I rea d a few books as well. tick box, tick box, tick box!!!!!! Hopefully Merry took a photo with our beans, that I can nick from flickr!

Home again home agian quickety quick, as imminent arrivals from ‘making it up’. I say imminent, but although Tim did OK, Jax got caught in traffic from hell. Big and SB instantly disappeared to play, and eventually all 3 were intently happy streeting.

any thoughts they might wear tthemselves out were, of course,erroneous. eventually a midnight socks the survivor tape did the trick. they still woke up promptly though, an BB had given us a dreadful night. luckilly i am coming too whilst blogging. may even get dressed!!

guinness back as well

Late starts and early finishes

well, hopefully chris will finish the blog for yesterday and put up :?)

today – well I had had such a crap night with BB feeding permanently, and rather a few work calls that I was no good for man nor beast and had a lie in.

Rousted up, and came too with nice cooked breakfast from Chris and played ‘round the mulberry tree‘ board game with SB. I read the last 2 disney princessess magazines [oh joy] cover to cover. SB loves them though, and it is all learning to enjoy the written /oral word after all.

I gazed with a suitable amount of impressedness at the map and postcards she and chris did yesterday [is that a spoiler?] whilst feeding BB [so she went to sleep for 2 hours- nice!]. we found where people lived, and those that sent postcards from areas other than their home address caused some consternation. Chris had aimed the postcard to Dartmoor, but it is now re-aimed somewhat closer to home. [you know who you are!]

We went outside to measure up the fruit bed – which looks a much more promising site for an archaelogical dig. I am going to buy minarettes, as although I think they are aesthetically fairly awful, they are the best functional use for that space, and then will have some espaliered pears and apples around the veg beds. Ken Muir are doing an offer with the kitchen garden magazine, which is effectively 6 at 12 each. I trimmed some more holly, and played catch games with SB, and stories for the climbing frame.

Found guinness, and unfortunately confirmed tht he has a very nasty leg injury, so is at present in the vets awaiting xray and then hideously expensive treatment. [so maybe fruit trees will wait]. Its either broken or dislocated – possibly from being run over. Rest of him seems ok – thank goodness. We will find out tomorrow.

SB had desire to make cupcakes, but settled for chocolate muffins. I have found out that she prefers to measure things in imperial – well there are far less oz than g! So returned to the past to measure in oz theingredients. They were delicious – so obviously an imperial recipe! Did some match and sort – AKA miquon while they were cooking – she def prefers singapore, but i think that is because miquon is so different to start with. She does, however, really like using the cuisinaire rods. Hooray – not a frip after all!

Whilst she ate her lunch, I got some of our shallots and started preparing them for pickled shallots – they are steeping in the brine overnight. prob 1/3 our shallot harvest, and will make 2 kilner jars. I will use some for shallot confiture. then discuss with chris whether to use the others fresh or pickle. Since we are a family keen on pickles and chutneys, I think its better to pickle and chutney, and use onions for everyday eating. We are going to replant some of them, as too late to do a shallot order.

BB keen on more feeding, so we read a book on earth sea and sky [well half], about, well, what is says on the tin – we didn’t get to sky part. She likes things involving the globe, so we looked at various features on there as well – though ours is such a cheap tesco globe that not very featureful, more political. We also played dinosaur ludo toghether. SB getting much better at understanding the flow of games. May even introduce the catching concept now. A ring on the bell, and the last of the redbook order [that had gone to leeds by mistake - I am sure i changed the address - LOL]. So we then read 4 of the anholts artists series. A real hit. A nice way to start thinking about art. She was particularly struck by the art in the Picasso one – asking why he painted the girl so many ways. [why not?]

We also have been listening to classic fm, and trying to discuss the type of music etc a bit. Must do a bit more stuff with the piano though.

BB has crawled alot today – getting very good at it. [in a slow lollopy way]. i am still making sure that I divert attention purposely to her, and SB getting better at following along, or doing something else [albeit reluctantly].

I’ve been out for a works meal – which was very nice. Given a slight grilling over home-ed, put played it as an even balance, not an anti schools thing, and something that just seemed right for us at this time. i wish Chris had never been a teacher though. I am p****d off with the, well its ok for you as Chris is a teacher – irrelevant!!! I keep plugging on about it just being an extension of what i’m sure they do for their own children without noticing anyway. no special skills, just time, patience, books and enthusiasm [well, ok there are some special skills in that lot - patience being one I have to master!] Some nodding there, so left it at that point.

Sundry messages and notices: I was having a dig at myself in the last post as a reaction to the school solar plexus thing. Do keep on posting your lists of what you do – i think it was the 10 pages of miquon!!! I like to see it, and although I do compare, on the whole I am not too stressed by it, as SB a wee thing. I can’t believe my blog stresses anyone – after all, we don’t often DO much of anything [ie 1-2 pages miquon with a lot of round the housesing] and its often me just reading lots.

If I was to be critical, I think i don’t do enough hands on demonstrations. This is why I am exited by the idea of a fake dig. I did look for old terracotta pots for painting and then breaking – with the idea that they could be dug up and glued together. However, we seem to have not brought any down from leeds with us. nor broken crocks. Will rethink. On a similar vein, having blanched the shallots in their skins and got a lovely deep coloured water, how much onion/shallot skins do you think you need to put in to make a dye??

Oh, and Kirsty, I only have 2 K books!!! [LOL] I thought I had more than that, but i have some 1′s and the usborne science ones making me think I have a lot!!!! My real flirtation with sonlight will start at about core 2, when the history and readers start to tie together. we might even try it then for that part.

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gentle type of day – now with added photos

i had a sudden argh moment when I felt somewhere in my solar plexus that if we were living a different life, I would have done a school run today for SB. made me jittery enough to suggest to her she do some explode the code. Luckilly, for my resolve, she refused! We are, in part, home educating because we think that formal schooling starts way to early, and here was I nearly school at homing! In part, I think, cos the blogs are full of families with children of SB age, but also older sibs, and I read these and feel inadequate [but only occassionally] because of the wealth of ‘work’ they are getting through. Standing back, I think SB is getting all the encouragement she needs at the mo, though I think I would prob like to be getting used to some element of structure ‘normals’ as Merry calls them.

I also really like the sound of sonlight curriculum. The books I have from sonlight I really like [and yes Kris, I am a watcher/bidder!!]. I’m reasonably sure I would enjoy doing it. I’m not sure about using it at the moment, as too much structure – though may grab an opportunity to look at someones instructor guide. I may do it later though – partic the later world history ones. i am not religious though, and would immediately have to give away loads of the books, so am unlikely to ever buy in in totality. So here I am, a natural list-maker, orgoplanner and structurer, who nevertheless feels a child led semi-autonomous [mostly autonomous in fact] approach is best. No wonder I have turmoil and conflict! luckilly, SB rather good at autonomous ed!

Actually Merry, our veg plot needs a good digging over, I offer it up for buried finds!!! [on subject of others blogs]

Well, we got up nice and early – which unfortunately always makes the day better, no no excuse for lying in bed! I took the breakfast opportunity of writing letters to Uncle Robert and Little Nanny, and found them hard. Although I thought I had prepared well for this one, I have found today my thoughts are centred around my loss of Aunty Peggy. Consequently, I just wasn’t up for any socialising, so we made our excuses for the iceskating trip. SB drew some pictures and coloured them in to include with the letters.

SB still very fond of patterning – and today we used the coloured Jenga-alike blocks. We did start off playing the game, but TBH, she hasn’t got the co-ordination as yet. She then built patterns, shapes and moved onto ships and a roman fort! She had quite a story for the fort, and was very proud of it. the barbarians [BB] did manage to destroy it though. Chris has a tangram set somewhere, but who knows where, that I think SB would enjoy.

We did quite a bit of rummy style happy families [as with 2, you can't play the game otherwise]. She’s got the hang of my made up rules, but still tries to help me, so we will work on strategy!! Good at pattern matching, sorting and early strategy. [ie, 1 of these already in bottom of pile, so not a good one to collect - type thing]

We read some books – I love the DK street through time one. Usually we romp through, but were reading slowly and looking carefully, trying to imagine what might of happened, and how much of a shock roman culture must have been, what could you do about viking raiders etc. We only got to mediaeval and stopped there, as we had been concentrating for so long. Maps and globes are being interesting again, so actualy finding geography easy to cover.

After lunch we made biscuits and then iced them – so a rather yummy activity. SB getting more careful with measuring. Chris and I agreed we’ed be better off with different scales though, then perhaps she could be independent with measuring.

What else? A convoluted game with the phonics cards. she was a diver, diving into the ocean to bring them back from the deep [aka rug] for us to read. i got to be the learner for the blue ones, and her the red.
A mammoth legoing game – I built her a pyramid, but it wasn’t very practical for sleeping in, so converted to a tent.

yummy tea from chris!

Now its getting colder, we are in full jumpers mode, as this months bank balance is not healthy enough for heating unless it snows. Luckilly jumpers are all that is needed – I will put heating on for you Jax, don’t worry!! [your room hottest in house anyway]

Anyway, although we did no explode the code, or formal maths, we covered various concepts through play – equal sides for pyramid, SB’s roman fort [made with jenga blocks], squares, kites and diamonds. So waht was my panic all about then!!!! I don’t even think today was particularly full-on.

BB and SB played together intermittantly, and SB getting more tolerant [though ot really very] to BB’s new mobility and ability to puffle everything up. i am encouraging SB with playing peekaboo and hidden things under cups, and insisting on me having some one 2 one time playing with BB [if only short] where she has to do something else, or join in on BB level. Not entirely succesful, but trying to gently instill a sense that BB doesn’t only get attention when she is feeding – especially now she does that far less. that SB has her one 2 one time when BB asleep, and that is when the Mummy only with me activities are best – like cooking!!! BB is a happy and tolerant wee thing though, and does quite happily bumble about. I just want to make sure that i don’t rely on this, and give her too little attention. today she was giggling like mad with horsey horsey, chip chop cherry tree, raspberries and just liked being walked about. Peekaboo is a favourite too. putting BB into a cardie that my late cousin Anne knitted for SB gave me pause for thought too.

Flickr will follow! oh and mmmmm seed catalogues

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lest i forget 14/9/05

have to do huge presentation, so in shorthand to string tale together:
SB home ed
make carrot cake
silk road stories x 3. discussion countries, china, gods
globe – long and lat, china
maps and globe book – long and lat, n and s, used globes and maps
archaeol dig book
europa jigsaw map – guess countries
drawing family week planner/timetable
stamps – made card
eliz 1 book
sing primary maths 1a – missing numbers
balamory jigsaws
tell time book
jason and argonauts
snail and whale and squeeze books
bike fixing
studydog
sudoku numbers
harvesting
cuisinairepatterns

BB
crawling
finger foods
strong willed!
stacking cups

other
chris’s parents move delayed
car service/mot

lovely day, i am so happy at home.
love my girls
will write up!!
and yes, photos

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2 day catch – up

Suffering from ‘Bloggers Brain’ – as in I can’t remember what we did yesterday to blog it …..

I know we went shopping in the afternoon, Stringbean was very good, went to couple of shops and got some veggies from a market stall (3 caulis for 50p – bargain….) – helps out by counting out the requiste number of lemons or whatever – she always wants to buy lemons for some reason. Excellent help in Waitrose, they have small kiddie trolleys (proper trolleys, not those stupid ride in car type things), she pushed this around carefully while I had Butterbean in the buggy, carefully stacked everything in there as we went round, didn’t crash into anyone. This was quick in and out shop so not enough time to get bored and grumpy for either of them. Came home to find H home so of course BB had good munch, SB wanted to play with mum, while I did housey things (cook dinner etc. Cauliflower cheese of course, which pleased SB as it’s one of her current favourites.). Roughly put up the Kyham to air has it was wet when we packed (disadvantage with something like the Kyham, can’t just hang it up to dry) and I remembered it was still in the roofbox festering.

The main thing I rememeber about the morning is that BB went to sleep about 3 times, but woke up after about 10 minutes or so each time so got quite grumpy and so spent a fair while cuddling her, some ‘matching and sorting’ went on as did some more colouring at some point, and we didn’t fiddle about with the tandem to attach the trailer so couldn’t try out that to go to the shops in (and in fact went about 2-3 hours later than intended….) All in all it was bit of bitty unsatisfying day, to much mess around from the holiday still etc.

Today (Tuesday)

Read a chunk of the Osburne TimeTraveller Omnibus on Romans with SB over breakfast time, along with the associated little diversions of conversation that crop up. after getting dressed, pottering about erc. then found the library books (now I can look them up on the ‘puter to see which ones we have out I’m nuch better at getting them all back). Ambled round to the library, ‘Storytime’ has started up again so we sat and listened to that, did a bit of colouring and sticking to make sea horse for the undersea display before getting out some more books. Had couple of ‘going to school’ type conversations as of course various parenst kids have headed off this week. Responses to ‘We are home Edcucating’ were boringly uninterested

Had the though that things are bit like some sort of bad ’50s sci-fi, all the children once they reach a certain age, suddenly disappear from view – creepy :-)

Home again, home again to sit down to give BB some milk and settle her down for snoooze and the a good read with SB. After lunch she found the magnetic Jiglets from when we moved and we played with them on the fridge. A slight confusion with the way words go. On the Zebra the word ran from the animals tail to it’s head, when she did fox it was the other way round, but she still did the word the same way so it was back to front , took a bit of convincing that words always go left to right :-) A bit more dot-to-dotting and colouring (she is really into both at the moment) and maths workbooky stuff – she has a great collection of felt tips, most of which were cheap or free and are frankly rubbish, they run out in no time and clutter the place up, so finally convinced her to throw away any that have dried up and we will by a set or two of decent ones. (There are couple of Berol ones around whihc have been around for ages and are still going strong) while we played with BB then headed outside into the garden.

SB got most of the washing off the line for me (she stands on her little trampoline ), played in the still up tent, rolled around with BB, then when BB had another nap we went in and cooked tea. SB did a really good job of cutting up the tofu, carrots and cauliflower. H came home bit late as she was on call but just as were having dinner, so got to have it with us. Tidied up the playroom while dinner cooked, SB insisted I hoover soo that I could put the rug back down (wouldn’t countenance putting it back over the grub…) so it was softer for he ‘exercises’ – much jumping and twirling about, and seemi headover heels and handstands. Wa shoping to get her into soem sort of proper Gymnastics class, but haven’t managed to yet

After bath time was chatting with SB about HE and school, what she thought HE was, and what she thought school was like – no idea of course really – she did suggest we should ask M her cousin as he goes to school. Not sure what she thinks about it, but she is happy with telling everyone who asks she is not going to school and is being home educated, so we leave it at that, we don’t really mention school very often anyway, we don’t make big deal about it, just ignore it really. It’s just not part of our life.

We travelled a long way mentally in 2 years.