Category Archives: geography

Another lovely day

Chris took BB to toddler gym and SB and I did a piano practice. Since we could do it uninterrupted she did really well with concentrating. We then played games – mostly guess who as she has loved that ever since we went to SOTP last summer. I then suggested SOTW or some more of yesterday’s explorer of north america book, but she fancied our DK exciting bits of history book instead [mainly battles!] So we looked at egyptians in it and the first world war. After that she fancied some science experiments.
SO we got out an experiment book on forces, and the first thing was making a weighing device in Newtons. SB looked at it, found the ‘ingredients’ [with my help] and set too making it. We used some weights we had recently got from home ed bring and buy and some scales weights to calibrate. She was rather thrilled by it, and we ended making 1N of oranges weighed out. [no apples!] We mentioned Newton’s great find with dropping apples though. The only hitch was the loop of hysteresis [i think that is right - prob should google!] and the fact that our elastic didn’t go back to exactly what it was before! She has remembered gravity well, so we had a run about the way gravity holds things together. Chris and BB came back to be impressed by our new weighing machine.

SB did some primary maths 2A particularly quickly today. We unfooded, with her having left over Ken Hom, me curry, and when BB returned she had ken hom and chris curry! We thought we had been so productive in the morning, we piled outside to play after lunch. In all the playing we had a quiet down time, when I read some egyptian myths and legends, and SB confessed she had spent the whole time looking at the birds and hadn’t heard a word!! I was interested anyway.

BB played with some Happy Street and silly games with me – mostly sticking her freezing cold feet up my jumper – aargh!! Lots of cycling, swinging, climbing and general whizzing about. Sb read some more magic tree house book.

When SB went to ballet class, BB and I made chocolate cookies. She was rather proud we were making them without Sb as a surprise – and did them very nicely. Obviously our measurements were flexible. i don’t find usbourne recipes overwhelmingly reliable. However, 5 mins after i thought they would be ready they were. SB and BB enjoyed them on her return.

Anyway, tea time!

A home day

wahay! poor old chris had the dentists first thing, but the girls watched tv and gave me a later start than I thought – 9.30. After brekkie of fried eggs and toast as a treat, i suggested to SB that she bring her maths or story of the world to the kitchen table, but she called me to the sofa with a book about the exploration of america. So we read that, looked at the map of various explorers and discussed native americans [and did some more inuit throat singing!].

We went outside and played for a bit, and the SB did some maths – rather easy greater and lesser than in primary maths 2A. She then demonstrated great trapeze artist skills – and was swinging holding on only by her knees, and somersaulting off – weyhey SB. She does always ask if Violet Portico can do these things -I tend to say yes. BB and I were being Bob the Builder, making things with the Bygga set from Ikea.
SB whizzed around the garden on her bike, and BB on her trike. We started to decorate our papier mache pots, and had some lunch, but due to spotting rain, came in and did both in the kitchen.

BB did some playdough whilst SB and I did some sudoko. When she started to join in more, we called it a day! BB and I played boxes, and also SB and I. good game from schooldays!

I did some weeding and gardening whilst the girls played. BB often helps me off and on. Gardening is going to get it’s own blog post i think. We played chase and confetti with the cherry blossom which was fun, and the just lots of being together. BB played in the sand whilst SB did some piano. We had lots of home-ed type free ranging conversations. e of which i swore I would remember to blog, but I have forgotten them!

edited to add – one of them was about debt – credit cards, mortgages and saving for rainy days. our credit card debt is now 1500 – woohoo , and being steadily paid off. so we discussed why i only want the mortgage as a debt, and how much rainy day savings were thought to be a good idea [3-6 months expenditure!] and that we owned 1/4 of the house. She asked sensible questions and got – hopefully – sensible answers.

A bath, chippery tea, britannia and SB reading to me. BB fell asleep at the table – poor love!

How do I love thee? let me count the ways

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

first day of short break!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. was just so nice to have some relaxing days off in a row.

got up at 9 as chris off to collect a bed from little Nanny. SB was already doing lots of webland [which she has always liked - been on the upper age this year]. BB was playing skittles.

After a while, BB and I played with lego instead, SB read another chapter of he polar bear magic tree house, and having got stuck on the word caribou, we then looked in a polar animals book. it is sooooo fab to have a reader, who reads most of it out to you, much easier with 2 now!

Both girls decided they were ravenous, so we had lunch before 11! Then we got dressed, did nail varnish [take note of how I learn Nic!] and piled outside in the sun. we slipped slapped and slopped [or whatever that australian advert was] and rampaged about a bit, swinging and climbing a lot [whilst singing at top of voice - poor neighbours - well, not the pub]. I read an inuit folk tale [in the spirit of the today's theme!] and SB read some more of the polar book. She also did a fair bit of the 1B revision pages of maths. Both girls also did a lot of splashing in water boxes [we haven't sorted the pool yet] and BB wore herself quite out, so fell asleep in my arms.

Chris returned with bed, and SB carried on splashing on the whole. We had a discussion wrt tea, and she agreed to try something very mildly thai spiced, so thats what i did, with wild and red rice. She loved it. Next time will increase the intensity of the spices, as when she had seconds, she had the more spiced version. SB cbeebied and read to BB, and BB and I read some books.

Finally bedtime, with the britannia and usborne young readers routine. So we had a lovely day. SB is reading like mad, we have lots of wide ranging conversations about all sorts – like what is the heaviest fluid – i made a guess for mercury – so we discussed that it isn’t just a planet/roman god, and she remembered that it was in shi huang di [sp!] burial in Xian. mind you, I am not entirely sure what the heaviest liquid [at room temp and sea level pressure!!] is. ANd so I think we do have a very interactive education – I just need to have google in my brain!

i have very happily watched the apprentice, and will gently relax on the sofa.

Not forgetting Gordon Ramsey of course!

Behind or Ahead?

Behind. Had a nearly 4 hour phone call yesterday eve, which although lovely to speak to my friend, made me 2 hours late for bed, and also a fair number of tasks unfinished – including blogging!!

Yesterday was a fairly relaxed day. We spent lots of it in the garden, looking at the seeds sprouting, the flowers, and organising SB’s flower and veg beds by the playhouse. Hide and seek and lots of swinging! We need more of Merry’s cardboard boxes for the veg patch! I did some weeding though.
We also sowed some more seeds – our cucurbits [butternut squash, another squash, pumpkin and courgette], finished the packet of mangetout and also the fennel [which might not germinate as such an old packet! All the last lot of peas sown have germinated, and the spring onions. The broad beans are outside in open greenhouse to acclimatise before being painted.

SB’s new 1/4 violin arrived – in purple with flowers. It was fairly cheap [and sounds it compared to her stentor 1/10] but the size is much better for her, and she loves the girliness. We couldn’t actually play it, as the bow needs way more rosin to make a sound! It also came not set up, so I had to fiddle with bridge etc – a while since I did that. It was fine for me, and I was happy with purchase, but someone else may not have been so happy with setting it up. We had a grand violin session anyway – BB on the 1/10th, SB on 1/4 [plucking] and me on mine [which has a fabulous sound, but an additional 00 on price tag!!]

SB also has done lots of reading, playing with the pattern blocks, geography jigsaws, and I have read lots of barefoot stories. BB has been an adorable pickle! She has also done lots of playing with pattern blocks, singing and dancing and playing with kids k’nex. We all watched some usbourne first fun with french as well.

Today, we have sowed the sweetcorn? – including some bicolour from kirsty and some self supporting peas. i need to pot up the toms – anyone needing toms passing this way…

Most of today was spent enjoyably at Chris’s parents, who have nearly finished the doing up of their house – new carpets and all [so BB in a nappy!!] A cut throat game of ludo took all afternoon – though Grandad kept threatening to go home! A bit of Nick Jr fix [hideous adverts!]

The girls are playing at the mo with both pattern blocks and k’nex, and we re expecting Joanna and family soon-ish for an overnight stay.

yesterday’s blog

grr to the F12 button which I mistakenly pressed instead of the backspace. it switched the laptop off, and therefore my blogpost evaporated, so I sulked!

Anyway, tues for me finished, as always, WAY LATE, so everyone asleep when I got in. Had appalling migraine wed, but took as many drugs as possible to keep it at least vaguely under control and got up near lunch time.

Actually, we did have a lovely day – though I had to keep head as still as possible! We played, SB read a fairytale book beautifully, did some more maths MPH1A [neeeeeaaaaarly finished!], a violin and piano practice [G and F added!] SOme colouring.

We spent a while making the dizzy funland Gears thing. SB followed the instructions very well, and i tried to distract BB from wrecking it! She was going to ‘maggle it’ [mangle it!]

We all went and ran about in the garden – unfortunately I left the camera out there too [blame the headache! - it rained last night] Anyway, a bit of sorting out, lots of swinging, rollerskating and running.

We watched a robin hood – lots of discussion about the crusades. should have had merry and girls! BB was exhausted and went to bed, SB and I ended up reading a french usborne first words, as SB and BB had got the usborne first words and usborne first french words between them – I of course did ham up slightly the french accent!! [Heaven help her]

then britannia and pirates book finished.

THE APPRENTICE

Hunstanton

well, the weather was MUCH better than we had been led to believe! OK, so it was quite a bit windy – particularly Tuesday! and it was hailstormy, but…

We had a lovely time, thanks to Nic and Ady for organising it. SB ran around having fun, BB is a total camp baby now, and I hardly saw her [unless she wanted something...]. SHe did enjoy playing with Josie, J and R. Fran also played with her – mostly chase!

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The Sealife place was good too – with SB just about holding a crab. BB would probably have held it and then pulled it apart. SB raved around, but did make a good stab at reading many of the boards, and enjoyed the variety. some how we missed the pregnant seahorses – which is All My Fault! She carefully chose how to spend her holiday money – on some sweets which she shared out very generously, and good book on a shipwreck which was a bargain price. Also a ring – which fairly quickly broke, and I have the pieces to try and fix.

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We had 2 good blustery sea walks. The first on the Tuesday, Chris and BB had to turn back as it was too windy and ‘owy upside’ for BB. SB and I carried on and splashed briefly in the waves before retuning to the hostel for hot chocolate. The second we were joined by puddles and SOTP, and was far less blustery. we got to see jelly fish and a starfish, and some very weird tiny springs coming up in the sand! Also a man digging up lugworms who SB very bravely asked him what he was doing, and declined to believe the answer of harvesting potatoes!

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We did sneak some educational resources in there – I even have a piccie of Ady looking at a Latin scheme – with Nic disapproving in the background! I liked the lingua angelica , and may get that, but prob wouldn’t use the lovely latina christiana source, because… however, may see what I can remember about cambridge university press – maybe get a book from the library. I enjoyed it, and I liked learning about caecilius and roman ife in Pompeii. I am worried it might be to ‘formal and difficult’. Obviously, not a hurried concern as next resources time is next jan! on the ed front, SB read every evening to me, and is really enjoying it.

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However, since that wasn’t in the spirit of NicCamps [rofl!] we also ate cakes, drank tea and a small amount of wine. i cooked a yummy curry [oops, cauliflower and chickpeas in it - not Nic Camps]. Anyway, thanks again for Nic as the grand organiser and Ady as best man! Thanks also to Em for raising the abr way high in hairstyles for children! SB is desperate for Merry’s landlock game as soon as she stocks it! BB is on a cake and frips [sic] high, and reluctant to return to normal eating.

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Oh, and SB wants a DS!

And photo’s will increase as they trickle onto flickr!

Happy mother’s day all out there

today we went and said happy mother’s day to little nanny, and she was thrilled. The weather has been interesting! She taught SB how to play rummy – and SB was delighted. The lasagne went down a trick. She loved the card from SB, but chris packing cards forgot to take BB’s. I think she was just thrilled to see us though. Both girls were mostly delightful – as always.

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its a long old day for me though, with a good drive either side, and the keeping both girls at perky best, not putting sticky fingers anywhere [although they are fed chocolate and icecream!] without seeming too manic and making them unhappy! Cooking, washing up and being a full prairie muffin dervish [so not me!]

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But it is all worth it, Little Nanny totally delighted – has already rang a number of family members to tell them full details, and I love seeing her, and whats more, she is sooooo much better than this time last year. She has even got into town and back [though won't in the snow - I left her with provisions!]

learning rummy

on an educational front – we discussed – watermeadows, ditches, canals, draingage, ploughing and sowing, use of polythene and polytunnels, cathedrals and multiplication of time differences between driving at 60 and walking at 4! SB has read to Nanny there and me at home. And learnt rummy! It was also lovely having 3 of us singing baa baa black sheep et all on the drive as went in car with no stereo [or anything!]. SB also gave me a lovely card at Little Nanny’s – all written [and spelled] by herself. will photo and flickr – aahh.

Invasion of the bobbles

Well,that was Chris’s cry as he organised the home ed room – there did seem to be rather a lot of them about! In fact, chris has spent most of the day organising and tidying the room [and is still doing it] so 3 cheers for him!

resources reorganised!

What have we done? well the morning was mostly playing for the girls, running about and having fun. The new violin shoulder rest came through [its a bit big!] but we fiddled it [rofl] and both girls did a violin practice, and I managed to get some nice bow arm movement from SB. We had unearthed some DJ readers level 3 [a long ago book people order] and SB had a go at reading the carnivorous plants book, and she did some education city. We looked at the worms again, and our cress has started to sprout [the only thing sprouting so far. Have read kirsty's gardening blog and feeling well behind again!]. I read a variety of books to BB, and she did handstands while SB did a bit of singapore maths 1B final stretch!
After lunch, I distracted BB with playdough, so that SB and I could so a fairy clothespeg dolly from tesco’s. The playdough distracted SB too though, so we didn’t! BB has made a plaster of paris handprint, and we will do SB’s tomorrow or fri perhaps. We did our french conversation, and added in the age again. I know that isn’t really much for language, but still…
We then got out a microscope we had picked up from freecycle and had a play about with it. The lenses aren’t brill, but SB enjoyed messing about, seeing what she could see etc. intended to read greg’s microscope, but didn’t, and BB fell asleep.

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With BB asleep, we went and snuggled altogether on the sofa and did some story of the world [it has been ages!] and read about China and the great wall. we also have the great wall of china book from sonlight, and assorted bits from enchanted learning that she has done. We looked at the globe, messed about with our own calligraphy and I change the I am romulus and this is rom to I am chin shen and this is china [said, but she'll remember!] we even compared and contraste with romans, and looked at google earth – took up about 2 hours of interest. I guess this is what it should be like all the time!

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With BB then awake, we did tidying and had a chippery tea. Girls had a bath, and more britannia and ORT for SB bedtime, but BB still up and about due to 2 hours of sleep before! Other than that, both girls have been singing around the house, dancing and generally being lovely [mostly!]

Oh for some sleep!

v difficult to get up and go to work, but did so. [though had a mad phoner on my mobile while I was there - i think it might have been Josie! I put it on silent - rofl] The beans did a bit of maths, not sure what else and then went to the playbarn to meet with a friend. they had a lovely time

When I came home, Chris was reading the tree of life [about evolution] well, SB read half of it and he finished when she got tired. Its a really nice book actually – the evolutionists answer to a creation story. I would recommend it. They then all looked at places on google earth – my parents are off to Syria, which started the search.

We did some violin practice – both of them. SB has a stiff bow arm, so am doing various weird waving excercises as well, being a swan, wrist sighing etc etc.

We read some more of the science encyclopaedia all about atoms [woosh over her head I think, but she liked looking at the pictures - especially the rutherford model]. We looked at the worm world again, they seem to be fine, and pulling the leaves down their burrows. Other than that mostly played dolls and loved me! [the ed is all bitesized if you were wondering how it all got fitted in!]

They also helped Chris make a pineapple upside down cake [BB only ate the pineapple!] All very noisy and wild. Early bed for all of us.

oh, a late update! we have played around the world board game [draw] and connect 4 – and SB truly beat me [rather than a tactical lose] for 1 game out of 3! Hooray. More britannia and ORT reading for bedtime stories, and she is now listening to Horrible Histories CD [so I might tick history!]

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