Dance/drama

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

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…

Monday

None of us have really got used to H being back on work time yet. So it was a bit of a struggle getting up this morning. Even BB slept in a bit longer than normal, and SB took multiple wakings to get out of bed  by about 10 !

THe first bit of the morning  after I saw H off to work (first morning to de-ice the car) is a bit vague, having breakkie, houseworky bits (which don’t really tend to stick in the brain) I guess. Looked at stepladders on the web as going to paint the playroom ceiling and woodwork next week and we don’t really have one that reaches properly to that height (being  rather higher than our old house), which means being balanced a little bit to high on the one we do have. Other then the girls room a ffew years ago, we haven’t done any  decorating since we moved in really. Alos need a deeper standoff for the ladder (well, borrowing the Deependers ladder) as the one I have isn’t  deep enough for our wide eaves. So perused, but didn’t decide.

BB mostly played a game with the chess pieces (not chess, some imaginary game). SB got up at last after much poking, did piano practice,  I cooked boiled eggs for not long enough (I normally use method one that Delia gives here ) but forgot to turn off the stove at one minute, so carried on letting them boil for longer. But not enough, so  weren’t cooked quite enough. will stick to my normal method, which looks more complicated than neccessary, but isn’t , and is reliable.

After breakfast, they both contrived to go upstairs to get dressed and then both ended up coming downstairs complaining that the other had poked them in the eye, or kicked them in the head (!!) and various other complaints. I didn’t really have patience for this, so told them to take it in turns to get dressed so as to avoid conflict.

Then it was outside into the garden, into a lovely sunny, if a little chilly day. Playing with bunnies, cleaning out Skittle hutch, a bit of playing etc. The kids disppeared back inside after a bit, and I carried on with my gardening plan for this year. Which is to try to do at least  1/2 hour in the garden most days (well those that I’m around, and when it isn’t horrible outside) and to gradually work at getting tasks done. So today I cleared an over grown area behind the greenhouse and put some of the black  woven sheeting down, I can now move some other stuff onto their, throw away the rubbish, and then clear the rest of the area behind the sable, where at some point we plan to grow a fan trained Apricot or something. I’ve already cut down the fig, so that it can regrow from the base and we can hopefully try to train it against the wall, rather than have it grow up 20 feet and shade the greenhouse. I’ve also  cut back some of the holly bush that had grown out so much it was getting in the way. Will need to cut back the top as well, but right now it has lots of berries on, so will leave them for Xmas stuff and the birds for now.

The pile of stuff in the RH picture to be sorted stored  by the greenhouse, then clear the stuff at the end and the ivy along the walls. No idea what to do with the great big roller, hide it soemwhere else in the garden I guess. It’s been there for years I imagine, feels like it belongs in the garden. There is also a path down there as well, probanbly the middle is roughly where the edge of the black plastic is.

Was getting  hungry, so warmed up with a cuppa in the conservatory and then got lunch.

after coming back inside, and after lunch, SB did maths, DS French game, DK project book and Art de Lire French and played recorder.  BB was in best pottering about mode. She decided to make an xmas card, found the card, the colours and sat and happily did that without any input from me.- it ended up as an interesting xmas (outside) and Halloween (inside card She made a couple more later on in the day. They are fab

She also drew out the design she wants for her birthday cake (a Tiger this year, she managed the first 3 letters of Tiger, but needed help on the ‘er’ .

SB also played a bit of some imaginary game with the Chess pieces, and then it was time for Ballet class. Cold, getting dark to early sort of day, we rushed there and me and BB rushed back, to find H home from work in the mean time.  Cups of tea, retrieving SB, BB settled down to watch a Star Wars film again,  tea cooked, and we watched Edwardian Farm on the trusty iPlayer.

Interesting to see Morwellham Quay. I rember visiting there on a school trip around 1975/6. It must have been in the early years of the restoration, I remember the quays being full of squelchy mud.

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!!

hmm, the plan had been to do 3 bits of HE in the morning and then fun craft this aft as my last week off work. however, due to feeling somewhat fragile from the w/e i had a sleep in, so BB watched dvds and SB stayed in bed reading famous 5 till rousted at 11! some riot act read, and actually the home ed she then did was v good, but v long, and she had golf in the aft, which i hadn’t remembered, so no crafting . we plan to do better tomorrow as baking in the afternoon, but she and daddy have been reminded! laying in bed reading books all v well, but…

so, she did some more of the galore park geography, and was working out distances and place references all v happily, after a bit of extra encouragement and help. but must have taken an hour. maths took way over an hour, due to distractability etc! but was done really thoroughly. golf lesson was doing a half swing to develop her swing – which she needs to practice. SHe had snack and then ballet lesson. After that we did a piano prac together. pretty much nailed song of erin, gavotte getting there, and stomping needs a fair bit more work. scales, well the majors ok, so now going to do arpeggios and chromatic and then minors last.

BB and I did some music theory [little children book 2] and explode the code. she just can’t get her head round ‘the’ and has a hissy fit each time the word comes up! we painted some more of her kit spider, played with the bunnies and she played with various reptiles we also did a v short piano. She then had a VERY long bath! i read her some of the comic canterbury tales, which she v much enjoyed.

the bunnies themselves are all adorable. the big ones are so cuddly, will be sad to see them go and the littlies are old enough now for a tiny bit of a pet gerda is so much bigger, and hamster def the smallest BB loved picking them up. the big buns all love dandelions, and also eat the burgess rabbit food [for those picking up rabs this week] and have been acclimatised to all sorts of veg.

Anyway, lovely eve, nice dinner – which chris emphasised was at table rather than dvd, so we had a discussion about Newton, man and measurement and oranges and apples. Sb is now recording our 5 a day. we all did rather well today, lets see if we carry on . we did watch part of a DVD about fish before bedtime, and SB decided to read a fact book or 2 in bed – she took up a rubbish one and a horrible egyptian one anyway, as that will take her to 6 . we are back to another roman mystery now at bed time – sirens of surrentum, and it opened with a kiss, to SB’s disgust!

I had booked last and this week as annual leave back in easter for a trip to france, or as my sister worsened, one to wales or isle or wight, and then as the time drew closer i thought it would be to spend her last days together. but instead it has been for me to grieve, to not put on the work face and not spend my day listening to and trying to sort out others problems, but to concentrate on those closer to home. grieving though is detrimental to my children, well any prolonged bursts are, partic to BB. both my girls look hard at my face frequently to see if there are tell tale signs of grief. I therefore mostly parcel it up to now, when they are in bed, tho it escapes at other points in the day. i tell them grieving is normal and reasonable, but so is laughing and enjoying their company, tho i am finding that difficult. not their company, but listening to them when they screech or bicker, or just over exuberance. i have currently a small supply of tolerance and patience, tho i love and adore them just as much. SB has been v lovely and gentle, she is a blessing really. BB has been wildly herself, over the top in her emotions and spinning like a weathervane in a cyclone. she really doesn’t like me unhappy, and doesn’t know quite what to do. keeping busy is generally what to do! so we have done that.

so we have done looking at the baby rabbits and seeing how they are growing and changing, and getting them used to being stroked. we have done a fair bit of home ed, and a lot more arting and crafting, predominantly with crafts bought from my friend merry at craftmerrily listened to music for the peace of my soul – including a lovely birthday present cd – just what i needed

SB got the results of her grade 3 ballet – she passed, and only a couple of marks off a merit – woohoo!! i have bought the next RAD DVD as think this was the thing that made the difference BB started at gym – and was v excited, and SB moved into the older class and is hoping to be stretched a bit as it is an all or nothing kind of gym,and they are both in recreational classes. SB did entirely mangle her glasses there how does she do it!! think we might have to splurge on flexiframes for her they both had swimming – BB getting her level 5 [i think] certificate, and SB judo – again in the older class, so came home tired.

so we went camping to suffolk. we stayed here a bit surprised with the pitch, as ours totally grass free and a raised bark chipping base to pitch on under trees – actually seemd to be camping in a wood. perfect size for the minnesota, but would have not been so good for anything bigger. also glad to have an underground sheet, as would worry that the chippings may perforate the integral groundsheet of the minnesota. however, once over the initial surprise… i quite liked it. i liked the nearness to the beach and a good reserve to walk about in. and it was an ‘easy’ campsite IYKWIM. certainly it was good for chris and the kids to run about on the beach whilst i cooked tea and had a few moments of quiet contemplation.

one of the things i contemplated was my regret that my sister and i had not been better friends. we loved each other, and that has always been a constant, but we lost touch with communicating the minutiae when i went to uni, and those 7 years, and then my next 8 until the birth of SB we did phone and meet, but not regularly, a kind of long distance love. we knew each was there and living our own happy lives as it were. when we both had children we started to knit our lives back together at bit more closely. we were always chalk and cheese, and our parenting styles mirrored that, but we were gradually working our way out of childhood sib rivalry into adult friendship as well as family love. my sisters diagnosis 2 3/4 years ago accelerated that process dramatically, but one of my regrets, perhaps my largest, is that i didn’t grow up quickly enough to be a friend for my sister for who she was, rather than who i thought she should be soon enough in our lives. i am sorry for failing her there. maybe we managed to make up for it. we certainly both loved each other hard enough, and on my phone i have nearly 600 texts from her in the last year, mostly conveying love and fear. ah, my sister i do love you so.

the first day we went to sutton hoo. really enjoyed it. good little museum with really friendly staff. since not v full, also making sure the girls got to see interesting bits, including the raptor display outside. SB has always had an interest in the saxons, so this was right up her street. lovely walk to the burial mounds – grr to not taking gps as we walked right passed a geocache lovely cafe as well. so we were all happy.

next day we did some beaching – crazy girls body boarding in freezing sea~! i looked for interesting pebbles, and found some amber though chris was reluctant to believe it was poss to find amber. ah, but i come from a long line of east anglians. some things you just know

Don’t forget as well to look out for amber. This is fossilised resin and you can find it all along the beaches in Suffolk. It has a similar specific gravity to coal and because it’s light it floats in the water. The best place to look for it is at the very top of the strand line. It’s a little yellowy coloured stone and looks vaguely translucent.

we then went on a geocaching walk/cycle to dunwich heath. both circles cycled v carefully along the only v v lightly used road, with us walking behind. v pleased with them both. ok, SB always going to be ok, but she was v caring looking after her little sister as well, and BB also v careful. they tended to pull in to side and stop when one of the infrequent cars went past. mostly so car driver not scared picked lots of wild blackberries as went along, and thought of aunty marylyn, now safely back in canada. just in time to have a pit stop at cafe tho lots of wasps, and then found the first part of the geocache easily. we went wrong with the second part, as it is a bit of a high road/low road thing, and we didn’t choose the right one… however, had a great walk and saw some excitement! a bird never before seen in suffolk, and rare anyway, the king eider, and loads of twitchers in high state of excitement!! without their long lenses, we saw a ducklike blob on the water! anyway, we went back to the campsite to drop bikes, and for me to start dinner, whilst they did the alternative low road/high road route and found the cache – phew!

on other things, me ‘n girls played a fair bit of animal crossing in those in between moments, and BB still crowing that i caught her a blue marlin, but haven’t got one myself, well i have now! but i might give her the pleasure for a bit longer!! Merry gave me the idea of suggesting mum give it ago as evening brain switch off, safer than tv for this last difficult year, and once she got into it, viv and her 2 gave it a go, and SB already had it, so i joined in. viv couldn’t keep it up, so em now runs her town rather than her own. but it has been a something we can do together without saying those difficult things we have been thinking, so a good distraction. my nephew ‘in the lead’ he might have 2redboots acquisition fervour…

this blog post has become rather long, and realised i haven’t blogged viven’s farewell. will have to do that next time. no current strength to revisit.

anyway, onto today. we packed up and went to framlingham. v nice and simple english heritage! again nice ppl in shop and nice chats, and both girls were on the adorable side of the spectrum! SB being model HE and reading all the plaques, and BB being smily! in the shop they spent some money from aunty marylyn. BB finally got The Bird [a peregrine falcon - cf our english heritage shop woes in june] and SB their wooden bow and arrows. so i had an archer and falconer displaying in the green as we ate lunch. chuckling older ppl as they watched 2 such happy re-enactors!

we got back to find baby rabs even more hoppity and skippity. hope to get decent photo perhaps tomorrow.

Sb has been v busy today, she has done her music theory, some of her schofield and simms book Animals and Plants (Understanding Science)
, read some box books – including where do babies come from, so all clued up there! she also did some piano practice and bond verbal reasoning. oh, and made up a story for her galore park english [we are currently doing a question a time - so 3.4 this time!]

In the afternoon she bought postcards for postcrossing – we have nabbed the idea from the babs as a gentle way to introduce some geography into our life! she also wrote one of the cards as the crossee is 9. and also did some sectret ‘stuff’ which she has sent to cousin e as a birthday present. i think that took most of the afternoon before ballet.

together we read some french – a berthe and a lucy chat book [links in my books we read section], story of the world – isabella and ferdinand and i did some of her before the code c with BB.

BB also made some plaster of paris dinosaurs and other moulds whilst sb at ballet – lets see how they turn out! [hopefully they will turn out!] She watched the walking with beasts first one [her favourite] and also played with the science magnet kit.

tea early enough that bb could go to bed afterwards and sb and i had time to play ticket to ride. we drew! we both really enjoyed it, and need to get back into the games playing habit together. in our roman mystery, jonathan has survived being executed – as sb predicted!

last week i was lucky enough to swan off to a conference to lake como. we ate at good restaurants and learnt a lot in a good conference. the hotel was way out of town though, and getting back from the station, it was safest to walk along the railway tracks of the goods yard… not something you expect really to do! the only day out trip to belagio was lovely. I did, however, spend the entire conference getting more and more worried about little nanny, she had seemed to be getting better monday and tues, but by thurs things were not rosy, and on fri i knew active treatment had been withdrawn, and i just wanted to get home.

so having travelled all sat, i was welcomed home by a fantastic hug and cuddle from my girls. migrainous and travel sick on discussion with mum, i was encouraged [tho didn't need much] not to set straight out. so we snuggled, watched dr who, ate curry and made an early night.

not too quick off the mark to go out, and was rung to say i was too late after all. i feel dreadful that i didn’t re-prioritise things and see little nanny that last time to kiss her goodbye. prob silly, as she had slipped into a morphine sleep by saturday. but… so as no longer visiting, imposed on the manor borns to keep me sane.

we had a lovely, tho v lazy rspb walk, and have had to promise C i will do better next tine the kids appeared to have fun anyway, and bb was being particularly gorgeous really. all 3 played together without any major kerfuffles throughout the evening too, and after a lovely relaxed meal we went home to pop all of us straight to bed.

and so today, we were going to norfolk, and then not as it was a getting documents day [i have 2 days compassionate leave] and instead going tomorrow. [later and later]. so we decided to do fun things, like baking. we all got up v late, had brekkie v late, and then sb made brownies from *her* recipe book, and bb and i made a yummy choc sponge. the girls then played with silly string until it ran out. BB wanted to read a french book Lucy Cat at the Beach: Lucie Chat a La Plage (Lucy Cat) falls off perch in surprise, but agreed! SB did a verbal reasoning book and then read It’s Elementary: Putting the Crackle into Chemistry (Dk Reference) and wants to try and turn her urine into phosphorus now.

more playing, and we made pictures with light reactive paper, Sun Print Paper, which i remember enjoying as a child, and we did today. SB off to ballet, and BB and i did some pond dipping, and then retired to watch donald duck. on SB’s return, we made another cake from her recipe book Marie Claire Kitchen and had ken hom vietnames stew for dinner [SB's favourite dinner in fact]

SB and I then looked at some tiny pond bugs that i had captured with her digital microscope. slightly tricky as they kept whisking about, but she did manage to take some photos. No idea what they were. very speedy though!

anyway, tomorrow to norfolk. thanks everyone for your good wishes and thoughts, I have REALLY appreciated it.

and we were therefore greatful not to have been camping! it rained torrentially in fact, and the drains couldn’t cope. and the roof leaked, but hey, it has been doing that since we moved it. it is on ‘the list’.

SO, what with the people across the way having something or other that meant drilling up the road – surely roads aren’t drilled up on sunday? it is sunday isn;t it?? i haven’t missed a day or something crazy?? anyway, that woke me up fairly early, and a poor night sleep anyway as cuddling sb through a load of nightmares.

oh yes, so actually we had a very good day today, the girls played with each other beautifully, whether it be with sylvanians, the castle stuff, wild games or dancing – and they did some of each!! they also both did some sewing with me. bb a yellow moon kit, and sb making a felt needle holder, and also a something [not quite sure what] for bb. they watched arial, and then sung it on and off all day. they both ‘putered a bit, got read to a bit – both went for these books

so we talked around that. Merry, have you got still one of my books? and is this the one you have

before they went off into their own imagination for a bit.

ermm, what else, oh yes, we played some games altogether, and got out previously pressed flowers, and put in some new pressed flowers, sb did a piano practice, getting along with triplets ok.

so there was our day. lots of snuggling, cuddling and general playing [and a LOT of noise!!]

today, for a change we did latin and science at an outdoor venue. was rather a good idea [not mine!] though i was a bit stressed as got stuck in an enormous traffic standstill, that seemed to have no cause when we got to the front. not quite as bad as katy, who had key problems. got there and met up with ‘the gang’ and the children played for ages in the play area v happily. then after being tempted with snack did classical studies with katy, acting out the trojan horse and one of the many greek dolphin myths. we had lunch – michelle had brought the pasta out with us, and v well received. and then we did science. i thought we should do something easy to get us thinking chemicals, so we thought of the ones we knew – hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and some of the ‘mixes’ H2O and CO2 and then discussed with piccies what makes up an atom and then a molecule. we made H2O and then ethane with sweets and cocktail sticks before talking a bit about solids, making some more molecules with molemod for the older ones, and face painting molecules for those that wished it. we began thinking of ‘valency’ [i know we are not supposed to use that word!!] this seems to be a good website btw.

the children put on a show of the greek dramas for us, and then we said good bye to those going to baby music, and the rest of us looked round the animal shelter part of it, oohing and ahing at the animals we liked [sb partic fond of the dog idea, and bb of guinea pigs] and more playing in the park with adults chatting. v grounding experience for mums like me needing a bit of grounding!

BB fell asleep near instantly being put in the car, and stayed asleep for a bit [which is why she is snuggled in my 'whiskey hole' [leg curl space for cat to snuggle in] at the moment as i type!! SB is reading. SB did the customary brownies and judo and then we had chips with a side order of daleks! we need to fix our conservatory and the chap came today with a quote. it is on the steep side. so to recover from one astronomical thing we went out and looked at some more with our telescope.

so tonight we looked at craters on the moon – even bb was impressed, a previous night she had been disappointed at the small size of saturn. she remained disappointed at the small size of saturn tonight, but it was so clear that the rest of us saw one of saturn’s moons!! so we were all v excited.

other than that, as a backwards catchup from me, we have done bits of recordering, piano playing and verbal/non verbal reasoning. SB has moved onto chapter 2 of her Junior English Book 1, but was distracted on looking up lotus flowers and read a book about nefret working for Cleopatra: Discover the World of Cleopatra Through the Diary of Her Handmaiden, Nefret and then about Captain Cook (Famous Lives) because the book was nearbye!

we have fimo-ed me some owls, bb a fish brooch and sb some beads for little nanny’s birthday, and also done some painting, seed tending and lots of games outside. we have also played a lot of games of Bohnanza and Castle Keep

good news that my mammogram normal. less good that my working hours seem to always increase rather than decrease. may help us pay for conservatory though!!

For a couple of years, the first Monday of the month has been a HE sports session, with sessions for younger and older kids, with the cut off age around 7-8. But the older session didn’t really get enough support anymore, so that has been dropped (just as SB has started doing them…..) . The re-jigged session now has Streetdance for older ones, followed by a younger ones sports session.

So it was off to that Monday morning. SB enjoyed the Streedance, BB enjoyed the sports, so that was good. SB has taken some stuf in her bag to potetially do after Streetdance, but mostly played outside the hall with some of the other kids, who she doesn’t really know so well as they ahve tending to do things aimed at the older kids. Not quite the normal attendees, so we didn’t have our usual playmates for a post sports park trip. I’d brought the bikes, so we went to the playground (busy as sunny and warm and the last day of school holidays by the looks of it for some kids) and then they cycled around the park paths. Where we discovered a little stream lake bit with some rather over fed ducks and geese who weren’t very interested some peanut butter sandwich leftovers.

Home, where SB did something of a booky nature (probably one of the VR or NVR books) before it was time to get ready and go out to Ballet. I managed to do passable pig tails in her hair.

Jax sent a fortuitous email that reminded me we were supposed to be going out on a trip the following day 

Tuesday

Was  a HE trip to Ecotech, which was advertised across multiple East Anglian groups and so popular they there is a second one this week.  It was a fair drive for us, but managed to get out pretty much on time (which was generous in terms of travel time). Combined with  quicker journey than expected we even had enough time to pick up a few bits in the next door supermarket before joining the group.

After an intro, we split up, out group did an activity building model wind turbines first.

It was fun, though for an activity that they must run loads of times I felt it was not as well run as it could have been. Maybe he was a bit unsure of dealling with such an age range of children.

We tested and modified  our various versions. The kids got to choose how they arranged the blades, Our first one didn’t work at all. I was an even pattern, though not with them eqully spread.

 
After a bit of reorganising and it worked:

THere was also a bit of fiddling about with the angle of attack of the blades with one of the other turbines. Bottom line was that the number of blades didn’t seem to make a lot of difference.

After this we had lunch (we had packed lunch, but the cafe seemed fine a reasonably priced)

After lunch we headed out side. Those seven and older could go up the inside of the turbine tower – 305 steps (the only one the public can go up it seems).

SB went up, BB wanted me too stay, even though there were plenty of people she knew staying down, so I didn’t.

So whilst SB was up the tower, we pottered around the bottom, looked around the organic veg garden, where the kids all got Rhurbarb leaves, BB’s lasted about 10 mins before she had mangled it too much. Waved at those up in the tower, a sat in the shade in the Willow den.

They finished up with a session on recycling, but we had to head off to get back.

We made it nicely in time. BB has started doing a Little Dribblers football skills course at the sports centre, which she was very excited about (after years of traipsing around after SB she is pleased to be doing her own things now.. Once the instructor realised that she didn’t really have much idea what she was doing, and wasn’t very good at listening to what she was supposed to do she was fine. It’s a 4-8 yo class, so a couple were they same age I’d guess as her, though a bit more skilled football wise She felt a little left out as they all their football kit, so that has been rectified via Ebay for next week. I do find it a bit of a shame that all these things get so gender differentiated so early. There was only one other girl there, probably 7-8 and obviously been playing football a bit. Can’t believe there aren’t more young girls who would like to have a go if offered. 

Anyway, SB was pleased as she finally got to go and have something from the sports centre cafe, which BB has been doing whilst SB has her swiming lesson. SB watched a bit of BB, and then did some Getty and Dubay handwriting practice.  Then me and BB waited whilst SB did her swimming. 

Got home to find H already home (unusual for a Tuesday) and glad that dinner just needed warming up to be ready.

Thursday.

Was back to Tots and Nots which haven’t attended for a while due to the possibility of Chicken pox and needing to be careful becuase of family gatherings before and at Easter.SB did a long piano practice before we left, which made us a bit late.  SB made a fold out thing showing how the Union Jack is made from the different flags for each country, BB made a shield and sword which she then used to run around chasing people with Both got to do some recorder lesson with Gina, SB did a little piano, then we had lunch there before heading off to another new thing.

A new ‘multisports’ session started up earlier in the year, the replace one that ran before for 8′s and up, seeing as the older sports has stopped on Monday, SB wanted to try this. Shame that it is right the other side of town, so we had to drive 20 mins to get there. SB enjoyed the session, played a bit of hockey, did some basketball skills, though we had to leave just as they were to start a game, to head off to another town for SB’s Gym class. (of course it’s back the way we had come…) 

Friday

Was planning on not going anywhere, but realised we had something to take back to the Red Cross. Which sadly has temporarily moved from a 10 minute drive to a 30 minute drive.  SB did some of her verbal reasoning book, and some music practice before we went out. We headed via a Citylink depot to pick up some Amazon parcels. Then over to the Red Cross. Since we were out and SB had been complaining of needing new trainers we went shoe shop hunting. Had feet measured in Clarks, of course in typical fashion they only had hardly any she liked in her size (one in fact, and that was one with the funny bit in the heel with a toy in which she doesn’t like). The sales assitant also seemed to have a problem accepting that she didn’t want anything too girly – most had too much pink or purple, or where excessivley ‘boy-ey’ red and black, shiney silver etc which she doesn’t like either. Can’t help thinking that a they need to arrange to have a better system – there have been a number of times we’ve not bought shoes there just becuase the available selection was so limited. Though I do see you can now order shoes on thre website to try on in store.

However, BB was pleased as she got some ‘Croc’ type foam Doodles there which she really loves.

Headed off home stopping in another town, where we found some reduced price trainers in Millets for SB, and some Sandals in the cheapy shoe shop, didn’t find any suitable Crocs though.

Home where they sat and read various books from the Amazon Order before dinner.

We’ve had  a few car conversations on the way to various places. SB heard and advert for the National Lottery, so we had a discussion about how that worked, why you were unlikley to win the jaclpot and what she would spend £6 million on. An expensive trampoline and a dog apparently to start with.  Also somehow got onto what happens to all the male chicks and chickens that aren’t needed.

i think the girls went out to the local town market, and to get SB some new ballet shoes for most of the day! in typical SB style, she seems to have come back from ballet with 2 shoes of diff sizes , and last week, no-one else seemed to have the wrong size?? [how does she do it??] so new shoes in order! also a new gym leotard, because her lovely rainbow one seems to have totally vanished and again!!

ermmm, when i got home, SB had just got her recorder out to practice, and asked if we could duet, so i thought that was a fab idea, and we played the first piece a couple of times, and then moved onto the second. rather fab this! [no, i haven't got over the violin, just making the best!] I might even stop trying to play the notes on the treble as they are played on the descant one day soon! She then did some galore park english [yes we still are on chapter one!] and chris has decided she did it at the rough speed of 1 word a minute. I think he was being generous!!

SB off to ballet [it took 15 mins to go upstairs and bring down bag -:roll: !!] and BB was being massively waily. compounded by me i :blush: to add. i couldn’t quite grasp what she wanted to do with boxes to make a stage, and in trying to find out, she wailed that much she had to admit she had forgotten [to more wails]. we compromised on reading some stories, cuddling and then making crystals. she is rubbing her eyes a lot at the moment [and actually temporarily stopped fimo-ing because of it] so insisted we were only using salt and sugar, but we could dye them, so we will see how succesful they are. we were all cheered up then, and played silly games until tea. Chris drew taking a ‘not tired’ BB to bed.

SB and I started by playing buckaroo, and then went on to ticket to ride – nordic countries – which did delay bedtime by an hour whilst we enjoyed playing! i love playing games with SB, and this eve time is v precious to me. Def a good game!!

When i got in from work today, SB was desperate to tell me all she had done, and she had worked hard! She has finished her theory book, Theory Made Easy for Little Children Lv2 , so i have bought her a new one, My First Theory Book . She has also finished her spelling book, but think i will encourage a bit more of GP and dictionary use! But if she really fancies another spelling workbook, i think we can float the boat out a bit, as it is an area she isn’t so certain on. SHe has done her piano and recorder practice and some handwriting. Also, she read a french colour book, Colours/Les Couleurs (Bilingual First Books) , to BB. that girl deserves a gold star!! SHe hama-ed beside me, and we did some chapter 1 and 2 revision of Minimus Pupil’s Book: Starting out in Latin, as she is variable in her recall but i have to say, when i read our french book, Berthe Fait Une Pizza , she was excellent, so I do think that french, at the mo, is working for us, even if inefficient, and i wish i knew more words!!

Sb went off to ballet, and BB snuggled up and we decided she was right royally dirty! so a bath was in order. After that we snuggled up to a variety of not-mummy’s-thing type videos! on SB’s return she happily ds-ed away with animal crossing. she has wiped her old town as too weedy!

i am happily flickring last week at the moment, but have a fair amount of paperworky things to remember to do!

we have had a busy and productive day here chez haricot. i had today off work – yippee!! and having worked the weekend, decided to use it well – ie stay at home. really i should have gone into town and done some fairly urgent banking stuff, but don’t know where the forms are

SO we thought we would start with a bit of normals. SB keen to show me she had moved onto the next piano piece [i am trying to play this v cool - cf violin!] and she has played it v nicely. BB was a tad jealous, so brought me her maffs to do – so we did that, and SB went onto Junior English Book 1 [we are doing this in tiny bites so on 1.5! but we are at least considering things]. I suggested that for the galore park, that although i am unbothered by her spelling elsewhere, she might want to use the dictionary to spell things for this [cue wails as couldn't find circus]. bb and i did jigsaws and then a marble run and sb did some maths – see we have been productive! then we had lunch

both girls wanted to do some science, but ‘on their own’ and bb chose to investigate magnets and sb an eino burglar alarm that she has done before. after this they fancied craft. BB chose air drying clay and initially made more fossils. SB looked at a Middle Ages Activity Book (Crafty History)
and chose to play 3 mens merrels. we decided it was a fun game, so she has made a board and counters out of air drying clay too. then they have both spent ages sticking jewels into air drying clay as middle ages treasures!!

Now BB is watching magic school bus and SB is at ballet. plan to make some scones when chris comes back with cheese. actually chris been gone a while – might have forgotten and gone into hayloft. hayloft currently has a dead animal aroma [something of a concern] so he is investigating!

edited to complete! we made cheese scones – yummy – as planning to visit science museum wed unless things go pear shaped! BB did a short nice recorder practice and then a v long hideous one, so banned to the stairs!! SB grumpilly did 5 mins recorder practice, and then decided to make up music for me to copy, and then made up some more etc etc so did about 40 mins in the end!! i love the fact she is so unthinkingly confident about making it up, and also often modal rather than modern tonal. much reading – she is working through the roald dahl books she happily got for her birthday.

BB was particularly spectacularly ‘not tired’ at tea tonight and after screaming and shrieking in the pantry for about 10 minutes while we all pretended she didn’t exist, came back and let me feed her before falling asleep at the table – so not tired! tho she woke up and pretended she had been pretending and was again not tired, so we got the whole rigmarole 2ce!

this week does seem a bit busy! there are 3 family birthdays on sequential days, one of which also pancake day, and then a friendly family party at the weekend. we are also having visitors tues and wed – so v sociable. i think i need sociable at the moment. a glass of wine and some opportunity to be not me as it were!!

good news is that the GP has now agreed that i am high risk, and is initially requesting an appt at the geneticists re the various familial breast ca genes, and also, if no joy, would support a request for a bilateral mastectomy – though sounds scarily drastic, so would want to make sure i ponder this rather than knee jerk. A bit weird, because the only thing i think of when i think of a bilat mastectomy is that i couldn’t breastfeed again, and i really enjoyed breastfeeding. as this is not really likely to be an issue! it was the nice [male] GP rather than the annoying female one that assumes everything is my fault because i am fat!!

hmm, the girls were busy whilst i was at work. SB did some piano and some handwriting, as well as make a fimo present for chris. bB, well, bB’d!! when i got home, BB and chris went out for cycling practice and SB and i looked at her eggsperiment. v weird!! the egg lost its shell and felt quite unnerving. we then looked at a Rainforest Adventure (Code Master) book she has loved in the past, and she really loved it again!! we worked out the code again – i surprised myself by remembering it though

when BB came back, we decided to see whether our shell-less egg would bounce, unfortunately it went splat!! i think great experiments are remembered by the failures!! anyway, we put the remaining no-shell egg in water and have seen it gradually swell up. so proven that the shell is the waterproof bit.

hmm, I went to gp [see before] Sb and BB cycled off to ballet for SB and park playing for bb and I made SB’s cake. the girls were a bit wild on return, and didn’t manage to settle infront of that salmon documentary. BB ended the day spectacularly with the amazingest tantrum so far of her life wrt to going to bed. she was still tantrumming about being not tired when she fell asleep… horrible. todays sb game was uno.

i saw the wren whilst getting dressed, so will agree on yesterday’s sighting! also 2 bluetits, a coal tit and 3 chaffinches so that is our lot!! we feed these birds well for the privilege of a quick peak at them!!

SB and BB have sylvanianed again today, and also done some maths and piano. when i got home SB chose to do SOtW as it was richard lionheart to robin hood. since we have done less crafty things with this castle phase than i thought we would, she has decided to do some stop animation, so then spent a fair while working out what she needed – ie now to paint a background. she has the story apparently sorted.

Whilst SB at ballet, BB and i did some painting together, and then played tummy ache and operation. SB came back a bit deflated with her grade 2 ballet result [just missed passing] be we reassured her that all was ok, and actually they get a certificate for taking part. SHe had the RAD dvd for xmas, so will do a bit of that occassionally for fun! [OMG, does that mean i need to do more ballet?]

Chris put up some shelves in the girls room, and I am feeling a bit mis to be back at work, but…

i am feeling a bit glum it has to be said wrt this parenting lark. but what ho, i am sure we can focus on improvement!

girls had a fun day today – that I am REALLY hoping that chris will blog. SB went to an animation workshop and loved it – they did a flip book and stop animation. chris dropped sb off and then whisked BB off to a police dog handling session which she really enjoyed. particularly telling me that the dog bit his arm… anyway, quite a first, SB being left at a totally new venue without parents, but she did know most of the other kids. not sure how many of their parents were there as i think they were all ferrying their kids to the dogs session.

so, when we all reconvened at home, SB did some piano practice, and then decided to make an off the top of the head baking, which ended up being hot chocolate, yeast, sugar, self raising flour and
mixed fruit in random quantities. it would have had breadstick bits, but as we are supposed to eat this, i nixed this! [ it is, however edible as we have all eaten some] BB did primary brainbox electronics.

SB had some good news in that she can move to the wednesday brownie pack, and some bad news at ballet, that she didn’t pass. she is quite philosophical about this, and will practice more next time! bB and i read a fair number of magic key books and on SB’s return we did some french together reading Leo Le Chat Goes to School (First French Story) and recommend it. ermm, i think from there we went on to watch harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, and eat tea and SB’s cake. where i am at the moment! oh, i have flickred xmas day, and now onto the rest of xmas. will get there!

ooh, forgot tosay that SB got her ds back, but bb not got dinosaur duplo. bb has had some more goes at weblanding, and has v much enjoyd it

it looks like it has been a while :blush: . luckilly, some HE has been going on!! SB has done a fair bit of maths, piano practice and handwriting, and a bit of spelling and music theory. she has read her new usborne books on samurai and aztecs and crusaders. She as also read hundreds [ok i exaggerate] of library books, done a lizard picture for sketch tuesday.
on Sat SB had her judo party, and really enjoyed the disco, and we have some fab photos at some point to flikr [well behind on helmsley though] and she has had a swimming lesson today and an HE playdate yesterday.
BB has carried on with loads of letter writing, some maths – she is considering how adding works at the moment. i really must remember her phraseology! she is deciding whether it makes sense anyway. but what if i add 2 things? will it still be 6?? [after 5 plus 1]. and also poisson rouging, jigsawing and crafting – an angel at library crafts, and painting all the animal picture frames she got as a birthday present. she wants to do recordering and music theory too now. there is no holding her!
we have as a family read some french books and had some french conversations – bb suspiciously asking – are you doing that in french again [ ] mind you, she has chosen to watch 2 videos in german – heidi and some crazy fairy story one.
As a family we have put up and decorated 2 christmas trees and got out the nativity scene. BB insisted the baby had to go in it as it might cry. i have been to a rather excellent planning meeting for the wednesdqay stuff, and chris is off to a planning meeting tomorrow. so, amidst the excitement of violin case buying, other stuff has happened!!

as you can imagine, after yesterday, my black dog on the shoulder seems to have turned into a clydesdale horse! so i decided to be as computer free and child available as possible, with my facilitator hat on. it has actually meant we have had a v productive yet fun day, but i am totally bushwhacked from being so engaged! in reality, i think disappearing off to an alternate reality with a book might help my weariness, but not my heartache.

having fallen asleep [wayhay for actually sleeping] playing civ 4 last night – a go at alternate reality, but actually i prefered the earlier civs – i was woken up by bouncing children at 9.30. managed to keep them bouncing in a mole game, rather than having to get up straight away! On coming downstairs, SB and i started with piano practice together. now she isn’t playing the violin [and i v much miss that] we are making a concerted effort to practice the piano daily. this is already paying off! bB was a bit grumpy that i was doing piano practice with SB, so once she had got going on it i played the most dificult game of hangman with BB. she was in charge of the hang, and the only letter of the alphabet in her 17 letter word was 1 m! so i lost.

BB then leappadded, and chose the phonics series. being BB she chose number 7 rather than actually look at some of the letters of the alphabet! she is def going to learn to read her own way. she wants the dinosaur leappad book that sb has but never looks at. SB meanwhile was doing maths. they have got to thousands – woohoo and all! so she raced through that, as having grasped hundreds, tens and units, thousands is really just more of the same. SB then insisted on more ballet practice whilst BB said she was doing her ‘writing practice’ – ie squiggles on a white board! SB settled into some spelling – she enjoys these wizard whimstaff, and BB and i did a bit of piano fun. I then did some violin practice [faint!] as have strings. boy am i rusty!! i think i now have finger strain – rofl!! WHilst i was doing that, bB was quite happily following instructions on the brainbox primary electronics kit to make a ‘whizzer’ with only a little bit of support from SB.

After lunch it was baking time. SB chose a recipe of chocolate marzipan biscuits – something nice and complicated! and through the afternoon did it pretty much on her own. BB and i opted for the simpler peanut butter cookies. SImpler in recipe, but obviously complicated by BB’s desire to lick things all the time [so i have a series of spoons that are single use licking spoons to keep the biscuits edible!] and her sometimes idiosyncratic weighing and measuring

SB’s mixture had to rest for a while in the middle, so we all read one of my french books from the little linguist – berthe makes a pizza – which we loved. [here it is on amazon] and SB did a recorder practice. the new outerwear from muddypuddles arrived, so SB now has some camo trousers, my pink girl really has vanished! BB got a free glove puppet, so equally happy.

SB finished her biscuits whilst bb and i had a romp and read a book together, then we all had tea before SB went out to Judo. BB off to bed, and SB watched some nina and the neurons when she got back.

SO there you go, a busy day in our household! flickr pics of the day

oh, and any advice on trampolines. still humming and hawing. jumpking ovalpod oval vs bazoongi deluxe 12 foot with funring [ouch for more money, but ? its worth it?]

And she did. SB was happy with the dancing exam, though she had done everything as well as she could. so we were all properly appreciative and cooked her ken hom for tea. i am really happy, as it looked for a while a bit shaky, and although i’m not bothered about her passing the exam, or doing really well, i am bothered about her being dejected, upset or put off if she fails. SO the week of 30 mins ballet practice a day appears to have paid off, and both BB and i are also much better at the steps! for her, she knew it was going to be fine, when the teacher watched her pas de basques and cifras and was happy with them. phew!! SO she had her first grade 3 lesson this pm with the others [though we obviously don't know the outcome of the exam]

in the morning i think she had done piano practice, ballet practice and book reading, and when i got home, after a blow by blow ballet re-enactment, we also did a quick piano review, and then BB and i did piano practice. bB was v keen to do ‘home ed’ with me, so we did a couple of pages of earlibird 1B and before the code 1. [before the code 1 does annoy me a bit, as it has k for kitten - but of course it looks like a cat! and also on a pick of a boy playing football and kicking a ball, bb was supposed to choose the letter k for kick. she chose f for football, so i was happy with that, but the 3 choices were k,f and b!]

All 3 of us sat in a huddle and read out book of opposites in french, and the SB came up with a game of me saying the french word, and her finding something that suited it ‘leger’ ‘grand’ ‘pousser’ etc. SO we had fun doing that. She still remembers her a droit and a gauche from saturday, and sunday we did french converstions in the car – including de quelle couleur est les arbres etc etc. so i am feeling french virtuous!

when SB went for ballet and brownies, bB requested fimo. She had an idea in mind [she does tend to the bossy...] and she wanted to make a christmas tree shaped christmas tree decoration, like SB made in the past. we didn’t have an exact match fimo green but she did settle eventually on one of the 3 [!] other fimo greens, and we each made a tree. she didn’t want a hole through it, so we will have to stick string on the back somehow. Then, sorting through our cookie cutter collection, she did a gingerbread boy, and i did a gingerbread girl, and we ‘branded’ them in mary and joseph wear. I think BB’s joseph might be more of the technicolour dreamcoat variety… i am always impressed by the care and detail that BB puts into crafts and arts. she spent some time getting it how she wanted to, and looking at mine and deciding what she liked in it, and doing something similar with hers.

fimo cooking, we read a couple of big picture books together, and then a red red nose reader for her to show me she can read [still keen on a ds] unfortunately, although she was convincing with the 3 big pigs, she forgot it was a wolf not a fox…

SB came back from ballet and brownies, and read some of this book Cracking Up: The Story of Erosion (Science Works): The Story of Erosion (Science Works)
, which she said was good, and now both are in bed.

Unfortunately my strings haven’t arrived yet. so i haven’t done any violin prac, and i have just realised i need to blog yesterday, and do some fiddling with time stamps! AND do a musical monday post – all go here!!