Petits Haricots

i didn’t have wed off, but had to work - with migraine. so missed on what seems to have been a fab visit to a firestation, and also meeting friends to talk to grrrr.

instead i had a suprise day off today - a surprise as i was going to a conference far side of london, but, due to raging migraine and out of migraine meds, that just wasn’t practical. retired to bed with cold compress and gp appt booked. so i now have meds again and at least spent half the day compos mentis with the girls. [well sort of] what struck me was that having got out of the pistols at dawn to dusk for a bout 3 days, they have returned to that pattern. aargh to the levels of bickerdom. it isn’t all bb, the split is prob sb:bb 40:60. just that bb is noticeably more unmanageably horrid. mind you the wailing was also stratospheric today, so i might have been better at that conference in london.

in between bickers and wails and time outs [for me] we did have a lovely time! SB and bB had done some beautiful hama when i came too, and we ironed them b4 they were scattered on the floor - so result! SB then finished singapore maths 2b part 1 [at last - we have been being quite slack on the formal ed front] and bB and i did earlybird 1a -which is v easy for her, as it is predom counting to 10, which she can do in french or english quite happily. actually in english she gets to 20, then starts going up in 10’s. the more/less, most/least is quite easy too. so a romp really, but she likes having done hers whilst sb is doing hers.

after that we did some french - farm and wild animals. much taken by the fact that lots of the african ones had the same names, but with an accent. and we read SOTW on australian aborgininal beginnings - sort of! we looked at aboriginal art, read some dreamtime stories, and thought about doing some painting. but sb and bb had a fight over this, so the offer was withdrawn in a fit of pique [and regretted afterwards - must keep mouth shut!]

girls went out to play, i had a time out by hoeing - i have to say we have done the best so far with the veg and fruit beds. earlier this week chris harvested 3 1/2 lb strawbs!! we are harvesting peas, broad beans too, and the pots are prob ready to have an exploration!!

i then brought out some books on weather and ponds, and a pond dipping kit from ebay - which turned out fab [never linked to an ebay seller before, but actually the magnified tank is v fab] and this rescued the afternoon. we have quite a lot of pond life in our goldfish pond. unfortunately loads of mosquito larvae in the waterbutt, but we have lots of waterboatman - who eat them, a water spider, and pond skaters. we have a plague of large pond snails [oh dear!] and on one lily pad stem was the empty shell of what was some kind of dragonfly we think. so we all enjoyed this. BB liberated loads of pond snails, and then both girls played unhappily in the paddling pool until riot act read. SB had violin, and BB sitting on step… then BB made a card and SB and i played an alphabet game and then we played shops.
i redressed SB’s foot and put BB to bed. and there we are.

today in retrospect is not quite the same. anyway, we had a chilled and lovely day. we did reading stories together and cuddling, and had another science kit to try out. this was the burglar alarm half of the science kit. SB really enjoyed putting it all together and making the circuit - it was quite cool! unfortunately it didn’t work!! she said she still enjoyed doing it though. BB did some air drying clay, and made a head - also rather cool, as she fixed wiggly eyes into it. BB does seem to have a keen artistic streak really. As well as cuddle, swing them etc etc, i also did a fair amount of gardening. would blog, but SB calling for a cuddle.

had a busy week and a v long day yesterday - my excuse! oh, and really need to be sorting holiday snaps.

today was a bit manic making SB’s scarecrow costume with us all sewing on patches and then manically getting out! SB was sitting on the rainbows float - the theme for our rural village’s fete was … farming! Anyway it was a good turnout, a load of stalls for village groups, all with tombola or raffle, and cakes for sale! there were a couple of extortionately priced kiddie rides too. the girls both got a ride on each. I think SB was happy to be on the float this year, though she said it was hot.
BB has not been in frame today, she has been v waily, so we left earlier than we might have done. she fell asleep on the way back. SB and i read the stories in barefoot book buddhist tales, looked at bits about tudors and did some piano practice before bb woke up. we then replenished the bird feeders [tht takes some time!] and the girls played whilst i planted out sweetcorn. SB really is a lovely older sister to have.
i think that about finishes today. execrable band in one of the pubs playing

Monday, other than hospital not much seemed to happen. spent ages on the phone getting a hosp appt. for that day as they had given us one for next week. Then phoned various people to tell them SB wouldn’t be attending her various classes because of her foot. hospital appt ended up not being until afternoon, which was good as it meant Helen could make it as well. I think SB finished off some hama beading she’d started off about 5 times.
My parents came round in the morning as they were going to look after BB when we went into hospital. Chatted, girls played games, read etc. with them.

I took SB into hospital, consultant happy with her progress, should be no need for skin graft on the heel, healing up nicely. Removed the back slab. Heel injury still painful but getting there. she is now able to place her front part of foot on the ground. Can’t think what else we did when we got back home.

Tuesday we went off for a HE group event on Romans at a local museum. Almost didn’t go, I felt like staying home, but SB keen to go so I made the effort. Interestingly, rather than taking longer as might be expected, we got out quicker than normal with SB partly out of action. In 35 minutes they were dressed, washed, hair brushed etc., we’d also gone over the road and bought stuff from the bakers for lunch and got them in the car ready to go. Obviously should not leave SB to get herself sorted. She said it’s because she and BB go and play….
First session was good, it was done by a chap who does talks etc. with kids about Romans.

He was dressed in a Centurions outfit, was mostly about life as a roman soldier, their clothing/armour, their weapons etc.

The local Roman legions’ standard.

How they used the different javelins.

Sb was a hopping Legionnaire

some others formed a Testudo and we all threw stones at them (well foam balls….)

Demonstrated the Scorpion.

Demonstrated the various bits of personal kit they would have carried. He was a bit coy about saying what the big T shaped nails were for (crucifixion) - i reckon it’s those gory bits that kids like best - SB wasn’t fazed by it hen I told her - BB would probably want to try it out on someone… (it’s already come up before, and it’s a pretty fundamental bit of Christianity)
Had a pleasant lunch outside in the sun. followed by a session making roman pots using coil or thumb/pinching as the romans might have done. Enjoyed by the kids but would have been better I think if we had a bit more time and could have looked at the sorts of pots the Romans made/used.

We then had a litle look at the musuem, particularly the Roman bits and the fossil bits. tried on a roman helmet and did some rubbings.

Afterwards I considered going to find WH Smiths so SB could spend her voucher, but decided I didn’t want to push her around in the big buggy whilst dragging a tired and grumpy BB with us. So went straight back to car and came home, Where we all flopped for a bit, do to warm car, being generally tired - it’s hard work for us all i think taking SB out in her current state. Did manage to play some chess and Uno with SB and look at some books with BB.

Finished up the day watching a bit more of Sound of Music with SB, finished just before the bit here the fighting starts, which is apparently her favorite bit

good news on mon, and SB has the plaster cast off. this should help wound heal more quickly as not so hot and sweaty, negative is that it is far more easy to bash - so a mixed blessing really!

tues the girls and chris went to a roman event and enjoyed it greatly. sb was apparently a good hopping legionary! and both girls enjoyed clay pot making

today we had a far to early false start ith SB waking at 5. eventually got her to sleep again, and we had a second wake at 9. we all had a snuggle and a read downstairs - dinodoors with BB, history of london with SB. we read a french story, and did some numbers in latin. the girls have got the latest RSPB mgazines and read those. BB wrote on hers too. she is v keen on the idea of forming letters - usually AOUC.

both girls were v keen to do something crafty though, and BB had decided that this should be with some left over glass paint from suncatchers, so we spent a lovely morning decorating jam jars, and were all very happy with our results. the girls shared and got on well [which was a bit of a relief!] and we chatted and enjoyed.

after lunch, SB and BB did quite a bit of playing together, both with the castle stuff, and playing vet, with lots of giggling and laughing. i enjoyed listening and watching, and in boredom clicked often on H2Opia on facebook! - didn’t want to disturb! WOuld have liked to go out and weed, but knew my mvt would signal bickering. when it started slipping, SB and I went off and did some piano practice, and BB watched something. SB’s piano coming on nicely, she has got the notation fixed in her head now, allowing some really good sight reading.

i was surprised by chris’s parents arriving [though he wasn’t!] and i was still in pj’s, so a quick change and chatting before SB off to rainbows. she took chris with her, as didn’t want to be left, and BB and i played dinodoors, building houses for them [and they knocked them down] and reading. bB really into rhyming at the moment, in pretty much ever sentence she is trying out rhymes, Both girls are execrably making up jokes! violin practice[short and seated] when SB returned, nd then more castle and vet games until tea and bed.

BTW, there were many good moments on holiday. it was v hard work though. i realised i wasn’t projecting enough joy though when SB sobbed for ages over me not being happy. i am making a concerted effort to be happy. when we came back we watched child of our time, and i was v sad for eve, and the loss of her mother. [we also watched a waking the dead about bosnia/serbia - neither of these programmes being a particularly good choice]

i should be gardening or weeding, or perhaps getting ready to go to work tomorrow, but i have post holiday blues, so will blog instead! actually, have just wasted 1 hour idly looking at rightmove!

anyway, oh yes, today. yeah, have headache = surrrprise! but got up, read to SB and looked at pictures in DK eyewitness WW2 - reading theatre shoes has made her want to find out ‘a bit’ about living in london in war and post. chris’s dad was an evacuee, obviously we have grandparents and sibs that did all sorts of different war efforts. [note to self - do nOT follow kirsty’s book links!!]then read about dinodoors to BB.

we both read a bit of a french book. i am hoping this reg reading of basic french stories, and doing a bit of vocb round them will get us going. i wish i had more french though! they always want words i have no idea for. eg yacht not boat on holiday, and caravan, what about turtle mummy - aargh! why can’t they want tree, car and house!! anyway we did days of the week afterwards. realised i can’t remember months though v- oops.

girls then had a bath and we had lunch - so v lazy start! out into the garden, as staying indoors reminded me of unpacking to do! SB wanted a science kit, and BB ‘colourful painting’ [she did lots of magic painting on holiday!]. we started of with a magic garden kit - one of those you curse and swear over because the bits don’t quite fit, and you can see crystals in the solutions and wonder if it will work at all. Anyway, all in, and waiting for it to flower - which it did - thank goodness, though not much of snow on the mountain!

SB then did a fossil find kit that we picked up last oct from sedgewick museum in cambridge when we went visiting with mum. [i think it is a home made kit by the museum] we bought 2, and they are good and cheap. they each contain 3 fossils, that you have to identify and write a few things about - last time was a crinoid, ammonite and ohh, can’t remember! this time was a shark tooth, a belemnite and a trilobite. she was particularly taken by the trilobite as soooo old.

BB painted [oops the stuff is still on lawn] some air drying clay models we made last week. we all did some dot painting - a la impressionists. bb did huge swirls and sb muddy smears!! BB ran about while  i read to SB about edison, and she cut out things. BB also did cutting out, so we have a confetti lawn. icecreams, fruit, and then a final ’speriment’ - a tiny electricity kit. the fan bit worked, but the pulling to make a bulb light didn’t. the kit is cheap though, we have its pair yet to do.

we finished after tea with watching the sound of music, as we had talked about the ‘axis of evil’ [oh, you mean there is another one now??] and hitler overrunning austria without much effort.

i am going to nominate today as the home-ed day in photos meme [please see previous in sidebar!], and will hopefully get the photos up! it is atypical, because i was at home, because i bailed out of a group today and declared duvet, and rainbows was cancelled. maybe chris will do one as well! thing is, i prob need the photos to remember what we did
8:00 they were both up with chris, so they prob watched something! had breakfast

9:00 I’m up! BB is doing alphabetting [using alphabet stencils to write the letters] SB is colouring in a rainbows picture, and then looking at the difference between the roman alphabet and ours. i read some dinodoor books with BB, we all do family members in french.

10:00 getting dressed and cleaning teeth. i look round at house and decided to spend the day in the garden! [ in fact t-bird gave me the idea with her tent-ed] SB makes a great go at putting up mini-tent [with BB being not too unhelpful, and even nearly helping on occasion!] . I shew them my bag of selected options [not exclusive, they could have gone and got somethig else], and both started with colouring. BB with crayons in a bible book [bought by chris’s parents] and SB in pencil on nice paper. She drew the garden first, and then started drawing my portrait.BB did some before the code.

11:00 sees us discussing the weather in french - well, learning some of the weather words and popping them into saying it is hot and sunny. we read part of a book about food chains, and then had a fruit break. SB chose the ladybird book about the spanish armada [no I’m arder!] for me to read to her. BB liked the guns, and then went off to play in the garden. [I am concerned about her!]

12:00 sees SB doing singapore maths 2B [halfway through] and BB and i looking at the extremely greedy starlings eating all the fat balls, and deciding to have a go at making our own. with a break for a who has the silliest face competition. SB finishes her maths and does it with us.

13:00 mostly lunchtime. SB made lunch whilst i put lard [yuk what a truly awful smell, but the birds have never eaten them when made with veggie fat] over our nut, fruit, seed and mealworm mix. SB made peanut butter sarnies for BB, avocado sandwiches for me [using same knife, so slightly unusual!] and cheese for her [fresh knife!] and we watched some nina and the neurons. About now i thought, ooh, we have done alot today, lets make it our photoblog day! luckily i always take a lot of photo when i am at home to prove i was there. BB did some fab geomags - she wanted to make a square [cube]

14:00 BB did a short violin practice - mostly just enjoying making noise. chris and BB went off to get some pallets from the orchard down the road to use to make an ad hoc empty compost bin [we have filled all of ours] . SB was going to do violin, but took rather a long time getting organised about it! we did do a violin practice too.

15:00 has us back out in the garden. BB in the sandpit and SB drawing with fabric pens on a white t-shirt. both then did lots of playing in sandpit, with water, on slide etc. chris made compost bin, i played hide and seek, and took some flower photos.

16:00 children happily playing, SB did some pot watering and had an icecream. i potted up the yard long beans and put into greenhouse [oops, forgot to say that in the garden blog - must put that right!]

17:00 no more photos. both girls in desperate need of a bath!! after that some tidying up in the garden by me, whilst they watched pingu. a recap on french words we have looked at today.
18:30 judo for SB, i read bob the builder books to BB, we had tea and I put BB to bed.

19:30 SB home and fed, a short look at zoo tycoon for DS and then also to bed [by chris] whilst i potted up toms and cucurbits.

21:00 with the binging of the church bells, the tv switched on and we watch the apprentice and blog. the end of atypical home ed day. with thanks to katy for being understanding of me need to duvet, as we should have been doing science and latin in the morning, which we do all really enjoy. i just needed some home time.

photos to be sourced and added [of course, to make it actually a photoblog!]

chris had minor op this am - all well

his parents came and supervised. SB quickly rattled off maths, handwriting and piano. lots of games then with nana and grandad.

when i came home she got out a fossil find kit we had picked up from a museum, and enjoyed doing that. BB separated sand and iron filings using a magnet [maganet] and v much enjoyed that. she suprised me by using the word evaporated correctly. she also used her maganet [maginfying glass this time!] to look at plastic spider in more detail. SB off to ballet, BB and i read books and played games, and then stuc straws together to make panpipes. SB off to swimming [where her stroke has gone back to ‘unusual’!] came home to find nina and neurons in progress.

At SB request, box books have swapped from explorers to science books with experiments in.

its the musical monday thing, it makes me feel all alliterative!

we did have a wonderful weekend though, as we went and stayed with the manor borns, went to st georges day at wrest park on the sat and geocaching and bird walk on the sun. i would link, but blog being awkward on those kind of things! so thanks to our host family
so, st georges day [actually don’t even dare a bold!]. we were eonly 30 mins behind schedule, and although later than the manorborns, we were still one of the first arrivals. and no surprise because it was COLD. I felt v sorry for re-enactors and EH, as they must have made a massive loss. we still had fun though. SB and Chloe were actors in all 3 performances from rosie bottom and the variously named male actor [will ilink to their company eventually!]. they were excellent as usual, and the children all had great fun. SB giggled her way being lots of diff roles, and Chloe was a v proud horatio. I think they were the best bit of the day! Though actually the fire jugglers were great. SB had some fun dancing with some re-enactors, and also messing about with pikes etc. We watched some displays, and did some sheltering from cold and wet in the orangery. EH did a roaring trade in gloves and hats, and sold out! BB not so enthusiastic, so we spent quite a bit of time playing races around the rather beautiful gardens. kept me nice and warm anyway!

went back for dinner, cheffed in style by marcus. the girls played loads of games, and mostly kept themselves happy. following their bedtime, we played carcasonne with river, and really enjoyed that until 2!

so we were all rather subdued the next day! but did geocache walk - and found it! so our faith in marcus’s gadget using is undimmed. we then were going to do a customary walk around bird place, but decided to make it a bit shorter, like parental tempers! [i improved after flapjack]. lovely walk though, bluebells nearly out, lots of discussion on growing things etc, lots of bird sounds and some nice photos. we also eventually figured how to do that one game 2 ds thing [shame they have such hopeless parents, we did twitter, but none of the obvious experts twittered back, and we eventually had to be resourceful!]
home our separate ways, so we collapsed into a little chef as thought girls would keel over, and met the deependers having a similar thought following their warmer version of st georges day. car games there and back were in french - shouting out colours of cars!

Well, we overslept today as BB was having great highjinx wrt sleeping! i had migraine due to a hectic and long day at work yesterday.  but somehow we got up and out and were only an hour late to the deependers! luckilly they waited for SB for latin, unfortunately, i had not got any science ready, as thought this was a drama week. but will get all the bits ready, and will have them in a box for the next time!! SB and BB both in a weird mood, and really didn’t play or integrate much [giving me a flare up of social isolation fears!!]

katy and i did get some relaxed chatting, and i enjoyed playing the kids accordian. i realised our akismet has been overeager again in trapping people! email me if your comments have disappeared.

ermm, got home and there was a parcel with a sleeping bag for me and BB, and we enjoyed trying them out, and a few bits and pieces. the tent is STILL up in the garden, hope it comes down eventually! [its been up a week!] keeps raining. Looking forward to camping on the bank hols.

SB off to rainbows, which she enjoyed, as always, and BB did some science experiments with me - making things froth and bubble!! When SB got home we had a surprise visit from my BIL, who had gone for a site meeting at a village not far away. Makes a change from site visits in China I get! So had a chat about how things were going. Nice to see him.

Sb then went off to Judo for the first time. SHe really loved it, came back glowing about how fab it was, and how she dropped someone, demonstrating how she had to stand etc. She also won a game because she was very good at wriggling free, and was full of how impressed the boys were. obviously an immediate confidence boost for her. I am so glad I suggested it, and persuaded her to still go - as she has been most uncertain.

SHe’s gone to bed reading magic school bus books. we had a chat on the way back from Katy’s about this and that, and she wants to do a bit more language, poss ‘cos the others in that group are quite ahead with language. And we have also agreed to prioritise music practice more. I had better tell chris that then!!

rainbows camps obviously take a lot more getting over than home-ed camps! even if they last only one night!! SO SB been perk free. i have been reading the worst witch too her, as she initially wouldn’t read it as it was too scary. she has decided that after all it isn’t scary, but quite funny. she is mildred and i am maud! So when ever i do another amazon order [i am booked out now!!] then i may buy some more, buy hoping a few might be found in the library. At least we now have a range of books which she likes to read [animal ark, magic school bus, dk 4 readers, rainbow fairies, horrid henry] that she is happy with for this stage of reading. the next stage i have lots of them still from my childhood!

SB and I played chess twice. i really am no good at it, but chris has bought her a book, which she has been reading on and off all day, so she may beat me shortly. we are relaxed on the no touching rule, and i tend to say ‘did you check all my pieces’ fairly frequently. the book suggests games to get the hang of all the pieces, but SB just wants to dive straight in. fair enough!

BB and i made YET MORE fimo numberjacks!! hopefully she wont break these ones quite so quickly. we also glued the airdrying clay coil pots back together again!! We rang my mum and all sang happy birthday down the phone. she was quite overcome, as my dad had arranged a surprise gathering of neighbours to wish her happy birthday. amazing! she liked the digital photoframe, though hasn’t worked out how to use it. [giggle, that’ll give my dad something to do!!]

we all bundled out into the garden as it was gloriously sunny [no snow for us!] though the wind was bitter, and we wrapped up well. we fed the fruit bushes and planted the blueberries into their pots. no sign of the broadbeans and the carrots out in the veg bed. fingers crossed that they will come up!

A bit of wailing and BB-ing, so i came in and read stories to them both, and there was some magic tree housing whilst I cooked ken hom for tea - yummy. As an aside, why aren’t all tins stackable?? chris has been hoping that i will see the pantry like merry’s old sotck room, and enjoy putting away the huge sainsbury’s shop [it wasn’t enjoyable!] and it really annoyed me that not all tins are stackable! its nicely sorted out now though!

SB turned down chess for who’s who for our evening games session. chris is now reading her peter pan as her bedtime story

we got up in good time, and then looked likely to get there on time, however at the last moment, BB threw sugar all over SB, so a shower in order, and… we were late! luckilly, our hostess is v accommodating. latin commenced, SB said on the way home that we need to remember to do more at home. since katy had had a chat about possibly accelerating the older few, i might see if sb can do the pace they may set as she seems keen. at least i have bought another copy of minimus. we did science on magnets, i tried to have a mixture of more complex for the bigger ones, and easy for the littlies, but BB was really not in the mood to let me continue on. however, we struggled on, and think it went ok, i might try electromagnets next time.

so then some yummy soup and general play and chit chat with adults. so very nice. SB had a number of accidents and BB perked up . Dressing up went particularly well. bB then totally lost it, we were about an hour later than i thought [body clock not adapted ] and in the end swept mine out when i should have helped a bit with tidying, as thought more prolonged BB howls might be less welcome than the tidying up would have been welcome. BB fell asleep on the way home [and has therefore taken for ever to get to bed tonight] and SB also had an early night due to the wailies once we got home.

we had an ebay parcel when we got home, so i thought it might perk bB up, but no, it didn’t work! aaarghhhhhhh. anyway, the seller will replace the pen.

today i thought i had better get organised and be as active and there mother as i could. plan to exude a calm environment and not screech. started off well with chris cooking me breakfast, as i am a bit knackered cos i slept with sb last night at her request - always leads to a dreadful night sleep for me, but it is an occasional treat for her, and i am trying to climb up the motherdaq.

i think i am going to lose track, as it has been a busy day, should have twittered! i know SB did a fair amount of education city. once she found the bit that said what the games were going to be about, she chose grids, multiplication etc, and enjoyed it. i will pay to go up a level, as this one def too easy. BB and I did lots of playing with merry’s borrowed digicolour, and i realised that BB not only can count to 10, but does recognise all the numbers as well [even if it is 1, orange, pink, 3,4 etc…thanks numberjacks! i liked that 12 was purple orange - sigh!!] BB did some games on the ‘puter whilst SB and I read the india chapter from SOTW2 [which i know she has done with chris before] and looked at some pictures of the caves and findings from the gupta empire. we also played a bit of spin the globe with SB and BB, finding which countries we landed on. SB read and did the jigsaws in an explorers book whilst BB and i played, and then SB did violin practice with me. she did some very good sight reading, and we are working on rhythm - at the moment it is easy bits quaver speed and hard bits minim, rather than whats on the page!
then we had lunch…

in the afternoon, the girls were keen to go out skating. there was a fine drizzle so SB was in charge of seeing when it had cleared up. this was obviously a mistake - or perhaps the mistake was in me not confirming, as we ended up going out in heavier than light drizzle! oh well, there i am walking the village with a v straight leg skating sb - who was just starting to losen up as we approached our front door on the way back, and bb, being v cute on her skates.

on our return, BB and I made cookies, i think SB was doing something on cbeebies. then i was bored, so i suggested we made coil pot easter eggcups. luckily both girls thought this was a fab idea, so we all sat down and did coil pot eggcups with air drying clay. SB made hers independently, and BB insisted that i roll her sausages [shes not so keen on mucky hands - despite always painting them!] put proved to be totally fab at winding up the coils. they decided to keep the ridged look and only smooth slightly. SB went on to make a really good model pig for nana, and BB an enormous but fab coil pot. we did this for nearly 2 hours, and I realised that joint craft sessions are what really make a home ed day for me, sitting there altogether enjoying fiddling with stuff. And so sweet that bb said thankyou to me at the end for helping her and enjoyed it. think this might be a cue.

whilst doing this, we had some lovely symphonies in the background to listen too - possibly aiding my chill factor.

washed hands and ate the baked cookies - yummy. SB back on cbeebies and bb and i read some red nose readers together and she was wild for a bit. i think she is a bit like animal from the muppets at times, maybe she needs a drum kit. SB’s birthday money burning a hole in her pocket, and she was thinking of ds games, and stuff merry sells. i remembered that i had found the other 2 games we were given with SB’s ds, and got them out. SO intially SB did a lot of brain training - hence the title, and then went onto the mario game, which she has enjoyed. BB, bless her, pretended to be playing her ds with a picture of a ds. my heart went to her, as she was being totally adorable playing it. she has been told she can’t have one till she can read, so she was making do. i am feeling the need to buy her a present. either a couple of this range, or the new range merry was considering - which is unbearably cute. gah - more of my excellence money spent on the girls!! it did pale sooner than the real deal did for SB, so she watched some bob the builder and magic school bus. At tea, BB insisted that i write her maths questions whilst she ate, i wondered whether she was in the right blogring family! did 2 pages of assorted match and sort!

Anyway i worked really hard today at keeping cool, especially at SB’s diddley daddleyness, and contrariness, and BB’s threeness, and i think it all came together. but i am truly knackered. couldn’t keep this up every day!

i just liked that name of the group that SB went to today, already blobged elsewhere! BB went to her playgroup, which she does v much lie. SB went to n&t to do some french, not finish making a roman sandal and discuss hadrians wall. she enjoyed it, and didn’t moan to me there had been no latin (edit - ah, but she did mention the lack of it at N&Ts). might have been my fault as i told her to be careful to remember it all as we hadn’t been for so long! I was left at home, and we will draw a veil over why i was too sick for work…

on their return, they were all ravenous, and sb ate 3 oranges - so multivits and body shop cocoa butter lip slave must have done the trick for the angular stomatitis then! BB immediately got back into her skates - which she totally adores, and skated about. SB and I did a violin practice [with me sitll lying on couch!] and then she skated off too. they all went out for a good skate about in the sun with chris.

BB did some singapore earlybird, and SB singapore2A. Then SB dived into the pile of books we had picked up from nots and tots, and really bookwormed her way through the rest of the day. BB and I read some books together as well. BB and SB both had a short recorder session - I am trying to instill that recorders can make music as well as shrill shrieks. And yes em, i do remember you saying they should explore the noises, but shrill shrieks are killing me!!
The girls did a final bit of skating on a walk with Chris before tea, BB was cream crackered so I then took her off to bed, and Chris and SB started a huge k’nex edifice - a space needle, to find some bits missing right at the end. this is from the k’nex given on monday, so we haven’t had chance to lose them yet, so chris is going to write and complain!

I am feeling very fatigued, but not particularly v, so hopefully things on the up. have watched 2 episodes of damages - which i really enjoy, we are heading to the denouement at juggernaut crash speed. excellent.

i have put piccie possible ideas in a set on flickr, i need to work out what i actually want i guess!

Edit- added by Chris

BB had a bit of a strop when we got to playgroup. She stayed today for lunch for the first time (gives us a bit more time before we have to pick here up if we are out), excited to be taking her lunch in her Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox. But they are supposed to be put in the kitchen and anything requiring refrigeration put in the fridge. she was not pleased to have to give up her box Of course being BB, she wasn’t that interested in eating her lunch it seems. she said she got grumpy because they wanted her to eat her sandwich - and when BB doesn’t want to do something she can be grumpy I had meant to say to them to not worry about what she eats of her lunch. So. after getting grumpy, she then fell  asleep so I arrived to find her zonked out on the table

we had a pre-melrose weekend at hadrians wall, staying in once brewed youth hostel with the deep enders. we all had a bit of a problem finding it, so arrived pretty much simultaneously after texting to and fro from laybys and pub carparks! children joyously and noisily enthusuastic to be on hols, a lovely hostel with nice wardens. in fact especially nice wardens considering i set off the fire alarm cooking pasta [oops!]. i think we will use it as a base again for a holiday.

early nights for all, as i was very very migrainous.

next day we upped and breakfasted [and i took bucketfuls of tablets and my new nasal things which seemed no better]. The Babs texted an ETA so we went to Hadrians wall whilst waiting - a rather bracing walk given the windiness! the children did scampering, katy and i chatted ans handed out restorative chocs as we walked back. Obviously we were out of signal, as the Babs had already got to vindolanda [and lost husband en route] so we quickly piled there.

gloriously sunny so we all said hello, children again joyous and enthusiastic to see each other, and a packed lunch eaten. As soon as we paid and got in it tipped it down! so we looked at the covered courtyard and watched the introductory video whilst rain settled.

children scampered about - and since it was muddy itwas not a positive experience for all… lots of pointing out and imagining. the hypocaust for the baths and the mock fort towers were ‘the best’ and also the recreated rooms. SB had a very thorough look at the museum with Beth and then me, and we saw the tiny ‘postcards’.

copybooks blotted by some raucous child behaviour from SB amongst others engendering a telling off from one of the staff. [and then SB got a very full telling off from me too, so was crying and sulking - great]

off to melrose, noticed our front number plate had half fallen of so fixed that. then after about 20 mins stopped for a weird tapping noise on roof - the camera!!!

otherwise a very straightforward drive to melrose . both girls disappeared with friends v quickly.

to be continued…

well, i had a lovely lie in [thanks love] and when i got up both girls were about to start some k’nex models. so BB and i made a dinodor/bird [4 legs plus wings, so a bit unorthodox!] with kids k’nex, and then we all helped make a ferris wheel with SB’s k’nex. I was really proud of how SB managed BB and found her a role and help. we all enjoyed doing it, and it worked! SB the project manager! SB then put various things on the ferris wheel in different places, saw how they slowed the motor or made the wheel wobbly - good hypothesis testing going on! BB played alot with an alphabet bus with me, looking for letters and numbers.

Actually, i do love SB’s totally adoring attitude towards BB. She loves her totally unconditionally, always tries to excuse BB’s outrageous behaviour, and protect her from the consequences [mostly toys in cellar!] loves her, hugs her and incorporates her in loads of her activities. We had a tidy up and then a cafe game before lunch.

After lunch was swimming, would have gone better if chris hadn’t lost the back door keys. by the time he had found them, me and the girls had already gone swimming, the pool was full and wouldn’t let him in.

do you know i am fed up writing this, i have already written it once, for it not to get uploaded, followed chris instructions and lost the lot. so now grumpy. can’t be bothered to particulralry blog all the long swimming blog again. blah blah.

home, and the girls helped chris for a bit drag things to a bonfire and because it was cold both came in and did some painting, followed my watching raven [called raisin by BB] and magic school bus. BB did some numbers and colours match and sort with SB. Out to set fire to the bonfire and generally be pyromaniacs for a bit before coldness took over. we popped some jacket pots to cook as the fire was cooling down. they were yummy for tea!

After tea we packed SB’s bags, as she is going to stay with my mum and dad for 4 days [sob!] SB read her inventions book - which she likes, and then we read ballet shoes at bedtime, and i left her reading the mummies at morning magic tree house book.

well, after 3 hours of ’system’ i am cleared of health scares, and need only a biennial mammo [unfortunately not avail on NHS but def worth paying for for peace of mind!] being in a scatty frame of mind, i took all the car keys with me. oops. this meant that chris couldn’t go to group for latin. however, after latin, group came to us for science, which was lovely, as i got to see them when i returned from hospital. science experiments are always enjoyed when water is involved. our floor got a good wash too!

ANd yes, it did work, the divers did dive with pressure [mostly!].

Sb went off to rainbows, where she cried because she was teased. I think all the undercurrents are getting to her. I know all mothers prob project personalities on their children a bit, and i am prob guilty of seeing her as ’sensitive’ and maybe that encourages it, dunno.

whilst SB was at rainbows, BB and i watched ‘dinodors‘ and had a nice snuggle, and looked at pictures. poor babe was missing out on the trip yesterday and then i was out this morning. She does like to know what is happening. she is gloriously cuddly though. She did - for once- demonstrate her demanding behaviour with others around. thing is, i think i need to focus on both girls for different reasons, and don’t feel i am doing either justice. parenting is just such an enormous responsibility.
SB returned and we watched the Australopithecus episode of walking with beasts, with SB cuddling me and BB on ‘fishy on a dishy [known elsewhere as poisson rouge!]. we talked about a few issues thrown up by the film. they do seem keen on recurrently showing mating don’t they? I can feel SB edging herself towards asking the mating question, so perhaps more sensitive to it! As an aside, one of the car bits was about having babies if you weren’t married, and did people have ‘to do the kiss and dance to fertilise eggs’. I very gently queried what on earth she meant, and she pointed out that in fairy tales and real life, all weddings have dancing [which she had realised had some significance] and was this the trigger to tell an egg to grow. SO i said no [and didn’t giggle!], and the ’special hug’ bit, but… [bit odd actually, as she knows the daddy provides half the DNA, so how an dance could do that? may be the kiss?]. mind you, BB with her thing about birds and eggs, is sure she was in an egg in my tummy and hatched there.

BB then fell asleep cuddling me, so has missed tea. SB, chris and i talked more about pressure, atoms and molecules, liquids and gasses, based on the earlier experiment, and then heated up our closed system with ebts on diver staying afloat or sinking - of course he sank, so we had a discussion about that too.

SB wandered off to read a book - and the read me salient facts from why is the sea salty. She has really loved that series of books. we then read together a bit more about anglo saxons then bedtime.

BTW I am really loving the american primaries. i wish i was voting there rather than here. i would obviously be a democrat. And what a fantastic choice on many levels - its as good as the west wing!

oh, and chris has spent a fortune on a bike for SB’s birthday. Michelle, not sure when chloe due her next bike, but maybe not having marcus and chris chat might be to your advantage… Before chris raises eyebrows, we did plan to buy a good bike, as for bb too in her time, and apparently they have good resale value. we had better buy a good lock!!

isn’t it so stupid being depressed about reminders of mortality. surely the response should be to get out there and enjoy life to the full. instead i have this gripping anguish. hmm.

i had a lie in, well, i am finding sleep near impossible at the moment. heard sb piano practice - she is practicing the bit before she started to find it difficult! will have a piano practice together more often i think! we did a good violin practice as well, but most of today was a lot of playing with train tracks, snuggling and watching roar, schools tv geography and walking with dinosaurs, and BB’s pod mission frenzy.

SB did do some zoombinis, with bb yelling encouragement - which is rather cute! Also she read the usborne beginners elizabeth 1, and tried to follow the quick links, they didn’t all work in firefox, so she went on to a go diego game isntead. a lot of playing outside.

BB and i read a fair number of books, and we looked at polar animals again, with the globe. which she enjoyed.she has spent quite a bit of the day being challenging. i did try and enthuse them on a science experiment, but was unsuccesful. before bed we played set and mastermind.
Chris has been trying to tame our veg patch - a job which may take a while! i beeswax polished all the wooden panels on the main staircase - that was quite a bit of effort! looks better for it.

my sister is home, which is good. i wanted to visit this weekend, but she would prefer it on tues, so the days i think are dragging because of that, and i have my own appt on wed.

i should be at work this weekend, but a dear friend at work is doing my shifts for me, for my head and body are not fully connected. i was going to see my sister, but she would prefer i went down later in the week when she is out of hospital. I have arranged the time. Also workwise, i have had my continuing professional development record checked. i have to accumulate 250 points in 5 years, this was a 3 year spot check, although they discounted all those i had lost the evidence for, I still end up with more than double the points needed over 5 years, so they have attached a warning that they don’t expect me to stop for the next 2 years!!

erm, yes, so home ed. we seem to have a bit of a flow going on at the mo. SB is doing her violin practice and lots of reading pretty much every day. Also lots of science things going on, either with reading or experiments. The k’nex has seen alot of play, as has the train track. BB on the challenging side of 3 today, possibly because i have worked all hours this week, so that she hasn’t seen me at all some days. Neither of them wanted to share me today. Since my headspace messed up already, i found it stressful, but mostly negotiated and pleaded.

BB and i played train tracks, we all read the candlemas and end of while the bear sleeps today, and had a cursory discussion about imbolc and candlemas, and a rather longer one on what we think means spring is here. SB did a violin practice. BB was very determined to show me where we lived on the globe - so we looked at the UK, she told me the polar bears lived in the top cold bit, and the penguins on the bottom cold bit. I was quite impressed!
SB and BB painted spring pictures [well, SB did, BB experimented with putting colour on paper, and mixing] whilst i made some jelly [grape and plum] that hasn’t set well, SB doesn’t like and chris prob wont eat, so will bring it all to Melrose .

SB read to me then I took over a book about pasteur and his microbes. we then looked in a microbiology book, but i had no coloured pictures - well, the virus pictures were electron microscopy, which din’t have a colour version then! [it might do now] but we looked at my cold virus, verucca virus and the rod bacteria talked about in the book. We think when we get a microscope we are going to look at yeast cultures budding. We also had a look at the cell in her usborne science flap book.

more traintrack playing with BB whilst SB read born with a bang and then we all looked together at from lava to life. I really love those books, thanks em for the recommendation. We moved on to a bit of an embryology discussion, but i resisted the temptation to hoike out another textbook.

the sun was shining, and Chris was outside doing some garden tidying. So the girls went out and played whilst I got some sense of proportion feeling shrieked out by BB! i went out and joined them, and we looked for signs of spring - snowdrops, hellebores, primroses and one crocus!

eventually back in for hot choc and popcorn to warm up. decided to slob infront of downloads, so it was pods mission from schools tv [well i think thats where it was from!], tea in front of timeteam, and then bed. SB is having alternating stories from chris and I, he is reading gullivers travels, and i am reading ballet shoes. She says she likes the variety, and it stops chris and i getting confused!

Never seem to have the energy to get a blog out of my head to the ‘puter by the time I settle down of an evening.

Friday, a bit of Milkshake/CBeebies TV before breakie. Over breakie BB got me to help her make a ‘man’ with some wooden sticks. Then they have made cars (well SB’s was a trike) using their K’nex - Sb made one mostly herself following the plan in the booklet, I helped BB with her Kids K’nex - hers of course had to have eyes - she likes her creations to have eyes. SB’s car used the friction motor unit which is very good - the cars is quite speedy and goes a long way - good to have a nice long wooden floored hallway.

SB has done some Getty and Dubay handwriting, some Webland and reading and an online page of Exeter maths, I finally found the missing Singapore “B maths book - hiding underneath some other books. They went outside to run a around for a bit, and feed fish and birds - rather cold and windy - though sunny. In between times they have played with the wooden train track, that has been out on the playroom floor for the last few days (it has managed to move from one end of the room to the other whilst staying in the same layout) BB kept asking SB to play, but then wouldn’t let her have any trains - SB - “she wants me to play but only lets me have the turntable…”

This afternoon we cycled (it’s not far) up to the farm shop for veg, cold and windy. I did suggest the tandem, but SB wanted to take her bike. She was fed up with a headwind on the way home though - she’s learnt that lesson now though. Home to warming hot chocs and cups of tea. Watched a couple of episodes of Pods Mission - about food chains and temperature sitting on the hard drive. One of them had some character is wearing a space suit or something speaking in a funny voice saying they needed to go to the loo - BB thought this very funny and wanted to rewatch it a number of times. Me and SB read chapter of SOTW - on medieval India, looked at the gloe to find India, and where the Byzantine Empire has been. She then coloured a SOTW picture of a Roman soldier - complete with blood on his sword - he’d been in a battle and hadn’t cleaned it yet.

After dinner, while Helen put BB to bed I sat down with SB to read to her - i was reading Fairytale News - but I kept stopping and dozing off so she gave up and read it herself

Other bits of the week:

BB has had a couple of half day sessions at a local playgroup. She seems to be enjoying it - she especially likes the trikes that she gets to ride outside. First time we stayed for about 30 minutes, and then she was happy for me to go - though when i picked her up she said she had cried a few times - though she seemed to have done plenty as well, so I don’t imagine it was anything major. Second time she was not letting me go anywhere at first, but we sat playing, and after about 20-30 minutes she was happy for us to leave her. Seemed fine while we were away.

We’ve told her it’s ‘her group’, as we think she feels she misses out a bit with SB going to Rainbows, ballet, swimming etc. So she is pleased to have her own group to go to. They get given a playgroup t-shirt, which BB is very pleased with as now she has special shirt like Sb has for Rainbows - she had fun posing with it once we got home, and went to bed in Thursday and wore it most of Friday as well.

Other Thursday things, - having to get BB to playgroup for 9 am means we are up and at it nice and early. Was funny going to playgroup as it coincided with the school run for the local primary school so we wandered down the road pretending to join in - kids causing havoc madly scootering down the road.. SB glad we don’t have to up and down the road this time of the day every day.

On way home went into bakers. Most of them in their know that we home educate, but someone had obviously missed it, as they asked SB about not being in school, this wandered into a conversation about home ed, primarily about how we do it - tried to explain how we approach it, but i suspect that most people never really grasp it as we have the whole school model so ingrained  that it’s hard to imagine anything else. Back home (it’s so quiet when only one of them is in the house) helped SB do one of the reduced Science Museum kits - the magnetic calendar:

One tiny bit was missing, but not crucial, and i can make one if necessary - doesn’t seem worth contacting the makers. I think these Science Museum kits are good value as they do seem to do what they say on the tin, unlike some others.

Much fiddling and general playing about with magnets afterwards. Then it chucked it down with rain, so SB put on her waterproofs and went out to have a splash in the puddles:

Then it was time to get BB - luckily the rain had mostly stopped by then.

in the afternoon, Sb spent ages making a birthday card:

Me and BB wrapped the pressie, she put a few a stickers on the wrapping:

Posted these, then not sure what happened after that. There was some piano practice at some point.
On the topic of Science kits, we did a very cheap from Yellow Moon Horrible Science heart kit on Tuesday - which wasn’t so successful, though entertaining . It had round tubes which go into square holes so leaked a lot of ‘blood’ , and it has small valves, which unfortunately once they got wet stuck open due to the surface tension, so the blood didn’t really circulate.

Best bit was when SB first squeezed it and we had jets of blood squirting out all over the place.

SB is reading loads at the moment -forever has her nose in a  book. Been polishing off various Rainbow Fairy books lately from the library, and some other things about Unicorns, or magical ponies or some such. In the library at story time on Tuesday she was complimented by one of the other Mums on her reading (she’d been sitting reading something out the other week) - said she thought she must have been about 8.

Saturday morning - Nice and sunny, but I guess cold day, must get something done in the garden this weekend - no snow