Category Archives: history

The pressure is on

i’ve got to try and blog in the time it takes SB and BB to have their bath – 5 or 10 mins probably!! i’m going out to night, so dressed up, and having a nice meal.

BB a disaster last night, and thought I’d managed a lie in when I got up – 8:30!! Oh well.

Spontaneous learning pre breakfast when SB brought out some getty and dubay to do. practised the V mainly. I would help if she didn’t go off in the wrong direction to start with. We drew as many v things as we could think of. Moved on to drawing and then colouring in the Pudsey bear for nursery. She did a really good drawing – so will flickr it [surprise]. She also wrote her name nicely on the bottom, and then had a dicky fit that her middle name didn’t fit, so turned over the paper and wrote her first 2 names – mirror writing! Even with taking a picture of them both, she just couldn’t see that they were any different. hmm.

After breakfast she watched a Hoobs video, and we did a lot of playing with BB. BB is enjoying trying out the shape sorter – unfortunately the technique of ramming with as much force as possible in nearest hole is not particularly successful, but she was happy with the ‘if you don’t succeed, stuff it through the door at the side’!

While BB was supposed sleeping, Chris and SB made the Xmas cake [and its still cooking!] BB woke up fairly instantly, and squiggled about in the pantry. [SB is down from the bath, naked and soaking- 8 minutes]

I went outside to take some sunny pictures – mainly of pond reflections and fish, and was soon joined by both SB and BB. SB dancing around being a pond fairy, and BB catching up with Josie in the ‘I can now throw myself in’ stakes [she didn't]. SB and I discussed pond reflections, mirrors etc, and what happened when the fish popped up – which the fish did a fair bit as SB threw in about 2 weeks worth of food. So we went back in and had lunch.

More playing with both SB and BB – side by side, as SB didn’t want BB to actually play with her as she was in a convoluted imagination game with elephant finger puppet cat and eagle. BB and I played hammering and beads mostly, and a fair bit of Ta. BB fell asleep, and I read a number of story books to SB, and she read outloud 2 spot books – with assistance on the longer words. We also read the first people by Usborne. Otherwise for maths we have talked about shapes and patterning, and done some counting and finger adding and taking away.

Whilst I cooked tea – nothing exciting, just pasta – SB wrote a letter to Nanny and drew a boat – a normal one on one side, and then turned over to draw an egyption one. It did look a bit like a felucca too. We played memory cards and my bastardised happy families rummy. BB was generally jolly and babbled and fiddled about.

SB now making patterns with the connect 4. Time to feed BB and then go!

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The Church Bells Ring

and its time to get up. i think I am going to stop being vaguely hopeful about BB’s sleep, as whenever I do, she turns back to snack monster!! Anyway, with the 10am peals calling to the faithful, I rejoined the world. SB had been playing nicely with her barbies and my sindys.

We did manage to go swimming, and had a good splash around. SB very confident at swimming a width, and now keeps her legs up more, so just looks like she has a doggy paddle stroke rather than always on the cusp of drowning! We practised various ways of swming together – so now if we have to plunge off a boat, we can swim to shore together [rofl! - as a trained lifeguard, I don't think I would have planned the stroke we have both decided on - her holding my shoulders and kicking to the side while I do breast stroke] We applied for swimming lessons. BB doesn’t float any more – a reduction in her natural buoyancy since she has become more active. She loves the water though, and enjoys kicking and is fearless and unfazed on going under.

After lunch we did some DK science explorer – taking further the discussions we had had on electricity while getting changed at the swimming pool, and any other bit that took her fancy. She wants to make electricity. Hmmm, may start with a brainbox thing and do circuits.

We read some books – usbourne time traveller castles, and the first quarter of the London through the ages – but this degenerated somewhat into a game with me being her cat – no, i don’t know quite how, but we played cat and owner for a while! With BB waking up, SB did some Hama while me and BB played, and then came and joined us. BB rolling a ball to and from, and doing some hammering. Also a game she finds hysterical of standing on her own and then leaning forward until she falls over into my arms!

SB read 2 letterland books to me, and I read her a barefoot book on dun and ice in return. We planned what sweets we should make for Christmas, did a lot more role playing with her being the cat, and finally both to bed – a bit earlier than normal at 7.30, as Chris and I both tired, and SB whinging about trivia, so we decided she must be tired too.

Ooh, and Dad has offered to help paint SB’s room, and Chris’s dad the bathroom. SO thats good!

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Did some of the things!

We actually had a nearly decent night sleep – wonders will never cease! BB not so fidgetty, though I can’t actually do a feed count, as all nights merge into one!

SB went to Stagecoach this am, for lets go and fly a kite and chim chimeny. She now agrees it is about sweeps not sweets as they had a sweep prop!! [And we had been discussing sweeping chimneys with our fire - including the fact that children used to have to do it, but not that the boys got testicular cancer and died].

Whilst she was engaged, BB and I had fun. we played peekaboo, chair climbing and stair climbing practice. Standing practice and Ta games. Cuddling, tickling and lots of giggling. I do like this age! BB good at standing unaided, and several times took one tentative step as well.

I did then start the grape and lemon jam [which i have done on and off all day]. The recipe calls for seedless grapes, but our victorian vine is obviously seeded, so I spent ages deseeding 2kg of grapes. SB did not help, as said it was too messy [??!!??], but she did measure out the sugar in cups and do the stirring.

In the afternoon, we planted about 1/4 of the bulbs together, and played a very prolonged game of mummies and babies – I was the little girl of 13, and she was my 15 yr mother! She very sweetly called me darling all afternoon, which I rather liked. Looking at the veg beds [in desperate need of attention!] some of the Runner bean pods were big and dried enough to pick and shell. The plan is to save seed for next year. We imagined we were jack and the beanstalk though, so buried a few! After having a discussion about how they grow, we have repeated the beans and damp kitchen roll experiment.

While I finished off the jam – which actually is a sweet/sour type eastern marmalade really – SB and BB played beautifully together in the pantry – well SB I think might have been keeping her prisoner, but there was no wailing, and SB was being very attentive, so I was encouraging! I realised I had miossed a few seeds, and they came to the top in the initial boil, so next time wont seed at all!

Various neighbours have had fireworks. I really do miss living on the top of a hill in Leeds and seeing the city’s fireworks all around! SB and I were counting the time to the next firework – and she is reliable to 59, so not bad. we did a bit of playing with numbers – adding and subtracting while waiting too. Tea, bath and bed!

Now I am hungry – shall I forage or ask Chris???? Hmmm.

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Lots to do

We have done a fair amount of life and discussion home ed, but not a lot of bloggable! SB been interested in the history behind fireworks night – particularly as it follows on from Elizabethan stuff. She has been writing lots of things – with me or chris spelling the words for her, and is very excited that she has some ringbinder files – for the photocopy for writing, latin and ‘things’ as she put it. She’s also making up lots of stories and songs – both for herself and for me and BB. She has been to ballet – and continues to enjoy it.

We have been lighting our fire in the evening – SB very much enjoys our ‘ancient fire’ and is now keen to tell everyone how to make it and keep it going. i’m sitting here with candlelight and the fire in a very warm room. have just watched the gunpowder plot [whilst blogging] – very enjoyable. The light is on in the conservatory – so it looks quite magical. the vine leaves are loosing the chlorophyll, but back to the veins – so very pretty. must photo.

BB can now stand up unaided, and today did her first step – woohoo!!! crash landed against Chris’s leg. I am so happy to have seen it rather than be told about it. She is an armful of delight. I think her and SB are enjoying playing together – which is nice.

Tonight, seeing both my daughters laugh, giggle, cuddle and tickle [ok and strop!] i just wanted to blog again how lucky we are, and the joy they bring to Chris and I, who just over 5 years ago thought we may never have children. I think its something in those trusting, happy eyes that does it.

We have lots to do this weekend – not sure how we will get through. The dafodil bulbs, garlic and shallots need planting, and ideally the broad beans need to be sown. We should make the xmas cake and the grape jam, and possibly the onion chutney. i’d like to go swimming as well.

At some point, I would like to repaint SB’s bedroom [since we've got the paint] and put up new bunk. Also Mum bought paint to cover the lurid bathroom – so would like to do that too. the rest of the Ivy and the wisteria need trimming. We need to write wills, put BB’s baby bond somewhere [can't believe we haven't done either of those]. And at some point to some Home Ed!! Where shall I find the time?

A weeks beginning.

Suffering ‘Blogger’s brain’ again re yesterday.

Monday

Both Stringbean and Butterbean slept a bit longer after Helen went to work -Stringbean hadn?t got to sleep until gone 12 (or was it 1 am?) as she’d slept on the way home and unfortunately woke up when i put her to bed . She did spend a long time in bed but just didn’t get to sleep so she caught up a bit. Both woke up all perky soon enough though. BB is such a total wiggler when it comes to getting changed, as so a you let go she rolls over and is off across the bed. She loves it so much – she does this thing where she sort of flops her head down on the bed while sticking her bottom up and then chuckles away. That and making beeline for the end of the bed so she can stand up holding the top of the frame. So with her and SB generally messing about and ?helping? it can take a while to get her changed.

SB seemed a little out of sorts after the weekend, as she often is after seeing people, And didn?t want to settle down to anything that I suggested in the ?worky? nature so after her breakfast while I finished BB and mine she pottered about in the playroom. She found some more pens and pencils in a small draw in the cupboard so dragged them out and sat herself down with some paper quietly to do some drawing. She did a great picture of a rabbit. It is apparently jumping up into the sky so the grass isn?t too long. She spent a fair while on this so me and BB got a little while to play little peep-bo, hiding games, taking and passing games etc. Bit of a blank spot here, though I do remember some reading of stories, though I got SB to try reading some of the words out as well.

Did go outside after BB went down for her nap. We filled up the bird feeders ? talked about why we put different food in them, why some goes on the bird table or the ground, what different birds eat, why small ones need to eat often, why fat useful as a food for them in the winter, the names of some of the birds we see. And then spent ages poking around outside. Found a couple of big sticks and played a few ?big stick games? , balancing them on end. trying to find the point of balance (talked about why it is roughly in the middle), a bit of sword fighting. Various other things which I now forget came up as well.

After our lunch, BB then woke up, so SB settled down to play a few games, listen to stories etc. on the Cbeebies website while I fed BB. Tried to listen to a couple of the record BBC Schools Radio programs with her, she was half into it ? particularly the one where we had to act out a little drama ? making noises, being an elephant etc. but not really into it. A little bit later at some point Helen came home. Not sure exactly what was done there but they did some good lego Pyramid building at some point before dinner. There were plans to make some lemon curd, we even went and bought the eggs, but somehow didn?t get round to it.

Helen here – we actually did quite a bit, but can’t remeber so much either – oops. did do some explode the code, 3 pages, SB helped me write the numbers in the Kakuro game – she has grasped it is an adding game, so that made us do a bit of mental maths. I also read 3 or 4 stories from the usborne around the world, and therefore she had to read me a red nose reader [for every 3 I read, she has to read 1!!!] lots of squiggling about with BB as well. lego was fun though. We even put the characters in the pyramids with the lego animals to keep them company in the underworld.

Tuesday

Well girls esp. SB awake early enough this morning BB had a pretty poor night ? she is doing this thing where she will wake up and have a feed, then when I try to take her, she will scream madly as she wants to go back to mum, so bad night.

After her breakie, SB went back to some more Lego. This time making a train and some ?sofa?s for all the people to sit on apparently. Once me a SB had finished up we got dressed etc. and sorted out the library books she wanted to take back and which she wanted to renew ? She uses hers and BB?s card and has various books taken out on different weeks, so we have fair pile of books to sort out, check etc. Still wondering what has happened to two Mr Men books that disappeared in the house ages ago. Did I hide them is despair and my dislike of then I wonder?

Got sorted, time to go out. First stop baby clinic. Have only been once since we moved here, no real need to go, but BB weighed and got HV to try and get the endless requests for SB to have jabs she has already had stopped (various people not doing/telling who they should it would seem) Missed SB 8 month check as GP does it ? but she seems ok ? Sb had an hearing test but don?t do that now, and we missed the birth one. But she seems to hear ok.

To library, where for once we managed not to cause delays and confusion as we normally seem to manage to do. Read few books ? found some Red Nose Readers, so we read those in the library. Got out some more books and headed home. BB to snooze, me and SB to eat toast, drink coffee and read all the books at least once. My Mum rang asking if we could go over to help sort out some problems with wiring the TV, video etc. so once we ?d finished and sorted out stuff to take we headed over there.

We played a bit of game that my parents got when I was around 10 called Hare and Tortoise . It?s a fairly cleaver race type game, but it?s not dice based, so there is much more strategy to it than chance. A bit to old for SB, but she saw it and wanted to try it .She got the hang of the general gist of the game – collecting and then ?spending? carrots to move around the board. And it gave us excuse to practice working out how to make up the right number of carrots from various denomination cards, talked about the idea of counting in tens again. Didn?t finish the game as I had to pop out and then she wanted to stop. Also impressed Nanna a bit later by slicing up the potatoes to make nice chips. Spent basically all afternoon there, not as planned. Was a nice afternoon and had had an idea to get out again and maybe do something like bark rubbings.

Managed to get home with out SB falling asleep. Tea, a bit of reading of library books again. SB made some pictures for me and Helen ? I liked the ?love to Babby? Bit on mine :-)

Butterbean note. She is so much into everything at the moment, put her down and she is off investigating, nosing about, getting stuck in places. She loves the dishwasher. As soon as it is open she is in there. Almost literally – I found her on the open door, head inide the machine….. :-)

A Family Weekend

we visited my parents for the weekend. Such a nice time. put the worlds to right, wailed over children growing so quickly. Hopefully allayed some fears about home ed. Felt loved.

Friday:That was the short version! We wet down on the Friday and had a hideous journey due to a major smash on the M25 which we were luckilly not involved in. SB so excited to be visiting my parents, and BB, well being BB. lots of reading books and investigating the toys went on, and a very late SB bedtime.

Saturday: The next day SB cycled with my Dad to the swings. She was very proud that grandad was taking her, and had begged for us to take her bike with us for this very reason. Grandad proud to be so wanted too. SB ‘read’ a book to Nanny – well, at least sounded out some of the words, did a bit of explode the code, and also Mum had bought a colour in book, so that done too.

In the afternoon we went for a wallk along the river at Marlow – always something I enjoy. I played many concerts at the church, and spent a lot of my childhood walking there! SB likes the rather nice childrens play area. there were loads of swans and geese to be fed – but Chris had not remembered the bread [my mum and I travelled in a diferent car as we went to homebase first. hummed and hawed about a fantastic deal bunkbeds – abit like Ernest and Buttercups, which I thought were a great idea when we visited. Sense prevailed. After all, if we are too broke for a halloween party, then I cant buy bunkbeds. mum bought us paint as an early Xmas present!] Anyway, back to Marlow. A nice walk along the river. Some georgeous houses – how many home eds would have to live together to club for them??? SB running along the bank spotting things.

Nice family evening [though Chris doing the computer guru thing with my Dad, it was me that saved the day with the laptop on trial!!]. Played scrabble – I love it, so sad!

Sunday SB did some explode the code, and told Mum about Elizabeth the first. good girl! We also did sweetie maths. My sister Vivien and her 2 children came over, so basically lots of fun and merriment. I love my family! SB and my nephew M play together realy well, and my niece E is now a happy thing – playing with both SB and BB. BB went into adorable baby mode. She needed to make up for the horrendous night we had had! lots of photos I need to put on Flickr

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Archaeology Day

Oh what fun. Let me say now, before you all switch off, it was fantastic. I loved it, just my cup of tea. the children loved it, and it was great fun!!

The background was that we [Merry, Tammy and I] had enjoyed reading archaeologists dig for clues with our children, and the children of the families thought it a great book. On meeting up for the Roman re-enactment thing a few weeks back, the children enjoyed scrabbling in the sand being archaeologists, so we thought, well why not?? And Tammy being an archaeologist……

So Merry and Tammy and families came for the day to have fun. First we covered arts and crafts, as the children painted their pots using red yellow and black [OK, real paints rather than natural glazes and dyes, but they were garden centre terracotta pots. When they are teenagers, they can make the pots as well!] this done, they hared around playing with each other on the bikes, climbing frame and indoors whilst they dried. SB, Sam and Fran also went looking for flints in the veg beds – and found loads. The ceremonial pot breakage came next – Amelie took a few goes – bless.

At this point all the children were supposed to disappear whilst I buried the pots, but SB and Sam helped out. we all helped mark out the squares – 2 test plots each. I dug the holes and they put in the broken pots, plus some hama beads grave goods [these were pre-christian!]. Some competition between Sam and SB ensured that there was plentiful grave goods!!

Lunch time – phew. Minimal trauma as pasta with help yourself toppings, so all eaten up. Second sitting for adults [after Tammy had read copiously to thechildren, the archaeologists book and moved on to fairies - Merry and I did contemplate leaving the building surreptitiously at this point, but it seemed unfair!] I got the recording things and the glue ready for the afternoon fun. Cheesecakes from Tammy [yummy] set us up for the archaeology.

As this is arable land, luckilly, artefacts are usually near the surface, and our dig was no exception [it was bad enough digging filling up 10 test pits without going too deep!]. A handy field walker [LOL] had left a clue as to which pot was buried underneath, so the children all found their pots, and started digigng. less adult help was required, and they all had a go at recording on the chart the places they had found things. Fran was the first real find – some pottery not buried by me, and also Amelie had some extraneous pottery. When each child thought all was found, we had a quick over dig and brought up a few more pieces and went to the glueing.

Glueing the pots with 5 children is much more hard work than glueing with 1!! Especially since they were tricky things to glue. I think to anyone else contemplating this bit of fun, I would suggest terracotta saucers instead. Easy to paint, and much easier to glue! Bearing with me, Fran and SB nearly completed their 2 pots. I had to admit to Amelie that half her pot seemed to be missing – and we couldn’t find it in the hole either! Tammy and Sam nearly completed theirs. Sam went to do a bit of sieving – since I had found 3 garden sieves. The others gradually went off to play. They all played together really well. [usual minor sharing traumas, but nothing major] We decided that the incompleteness of our pots [due to missing pieces and glueing trauma] was very realistic.

During this time, Josie practised her escapology tricks [rofl], and interacted with BB. They did seem to be having a game of pass the item at one point. BB asleep on sofa, and I don’t think her nappy has been changed since before lunch – Aargh terrible mother! They have both seemingly enjoyed the whirlwind of activity around them, and the interaction between them is cute.

Some chilling out and then the parting of the ways. Sb is at Ballet – having cycled there with Chris on the tandem, and BB is asleep. Peace – how wonderful!

Yep, I am flickring – its getting its own set!!!!

oh, the village lights committee came round to confirm our willingness to buy a christmas tree for over the front door, and pay for the yearly decorations. OK i said, when should I get the tree – well by the end of the month – what??? Where do you get an Xmas tree from in October???

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Back to today… edited

Early start to the day, as SB really still not well, and both beans were unsettled last night.
We therefore started gently with some DVD’s ‘christmas Nemo – AKA ‘the Gift’ from the alpha – omega bunch [so thats religion then] and kleine hippo. A german TV programme for approx her age [and languages!]. we don’t understand many words, but the cartoon gives you the gist. I played ‘Ta’ games with BB – she’s getting good at handing over, and then waiting to be given back and things this is a great game. sometimes even saying ‘da’. though not convinced that it is language as opposed to copying at this stage.

I had taken in Story of the World and a dot to dot book, that is both numerical and alphabetical. I then read mummification [and thought both of Tammy, and also the crocodile experiment of the yorkshire group] and pyramids. SB keen on visiting Egypt. She was sad though that all Cheops jewels were stolen. She chose to do the alphabetical dot to dots. unfortunately, although she can relate the ABC song on the whole to abc, the fast LMNOP she doesn’t keep up with with her pen, so gets annoyed and lost!!

We were all more perky, and keen to include BB regualrly in SB’s games, we decided to make our brio/tesco/elc hybrid train track. SB likes convoluted patterns, so it is a bit stretching for me as well – as I get the job of finally making it meet. She is rather annoyed that since we have an even number of points, and an engine shed, that that means there will always be a branch line if we use all the pieces. She wants them all to join up [apart from the shed of course] but I’m not allowed to leave out one of the points, so there is always a sulk about the branch line. BB also not so helpful, as rather a puller aparter, but the buildings and one carriage usually please her.

When we had finished it, SB decided to finsih the glass bottle painting, so we have done ever more complicated designs. Whilst she was doing that, I started the Quince Jelly – what a lovely aroma!

We popped back to the trains for a bit, and listened to one of the schools singing radio programmes on native north americans. AHA SB remembered her violin, so we got hers and mine out, rejigged the way she holds it a bit, and did open strings. Not for long, but a good thing to do, as the violin now the right size [1/10]

What else? oh we practiced painting the terracotta pots to see how long they take to dry. SB did 2 – 5 secs each, so not great works of art!! We did have a look at ancient greek terracotta and black pots in the DK book.

She then went outside with Chris and got cold, as she only had a t shirt on and refused a coat.
Edit from Chris – well didn’t complain about the cold when outside :-) it wasn’t actually cold anyway. She helped a bit hoeing some of the weeds on the ‘fruit bed to be’. She was keenly looking at all the stones to see if they are flints as she is keenly taken by the idea that people used them (and ‘it tells us people used to live here ‘ so likes to colect bits of flint. Talked little bit about why people used stones not metal tools, why it is called the Stone Age etc. Convinced that the little bit of glass bottle she found was Roman :-) Pottered around watering some things in the greenhouse with her watering can before heading back indors.

i had a bit more of a play with BB with the trains. The when SB came in, we played a pass the parcel game between the 3 of us saying ta with rattles. Seemed to be enjoyed. Pasta for tea, and SB and I then did a Sudoku puzzle together [today's guardian]. SB has grasped the rules very well, and i usually say – we can now put the 1 in this box [of 9] and she can generally work out where it must go. [is this logic now, since she knows her numbers?]

Anyway, she is supposed to be eating supper, and then another installment of the magic faraway tree. instead she is trying to get me to provve the underworld doesn’t really exist. Blogging may save my sanity, as I think she is far to advanced on comparative religion now for me to keep up. [I have previously been asked to prove evolution and disprove the adam and eve versiosn - aargh] I do firmly believe that the evidence towards evolutionary theory is the strongest hypothesis there is, but i haven’t yet managed to work out how to tell it to a 4 year old so it doesn’t sound far more fanciful that the god created line [no offence to creationists out there, but I'm not one. I do, however, tell SB that some people do believe in creationism].

At last, milk drunk. Bedtime!!!!!!

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Sleep…? how quaint an idea

Edit – Ahh, like buses, two blogs have come along at once – my take and Helen’s take below :-) Ah well leave as they are I think

11 pm, SB still awake upstairs – and she’d had bit of late night last night as well. Fell asleep on the way back from the puddlers group and when we got back I just couldn’t get her to wake up. Ah well, means that she was full of energy for when Helen came back from work.

Morning disappeared soon enough, with a trip to Tesco’s, Staples, sorting out an activity for the puddlers group (and then leaving the materials behind…..Grrrr…..), a few house chores. Group was good, as Merry has blogged elsewhere, it’s turning into nice little group (or even not so little), Shame we don’t live little bit nearer when it comes to travelling to it. SB always enjoys it, she spent ages today cutting colouring etc. to make T-Rex stand up model. She took great care in carefully cutting it all out. Taken by Tammy’s comments re recent evidence that some dinosaurs had some sort of feathery covering rather than scales she stuck feathers on it -Fluffy T-Rex any one :-)

She also enjoyed the ‘make a skeleton in the ground thing with bits of pasta’ activity, as well as making, and more importantly, noisly throwing around paper Pterosaur. I’ll get some piccies of them tomorrow, (forgot the camera again, but Merry has some nice ones)

Once home whilst SB snoozed, BB woke up, so me and here played for bit without interupption, she is getting gradually better at standing, and is happier about holding onto things other than people, and almost lost the lopsided crawl she had. Just starting to cruise the furniture a little bit. She had dinner while I had a cuppa, and then Helen came home just as I was starting dinner. Work seems to have been a crap last couple of days, and she is on call all weekend :-( Does have next week off though, and no plans for us to go away anywhere until the weekend)

SB seems to have got into Story of the World, I was looking at it last night and she wanted me to read her a bit, so we did the first chapter, and I heard them reading the next bit about the Ancient Egyptians earlier. She’s been resistant to books with lots of words and not many pictures until now, so maybe we’ve reached another little milestone, she even let Helen read her a bit of the Faraway Tree at bed tiome last night. Might get hold of Winnie the Pooh and try that now, before she get’s too corrupted by Disneys efforts ;-) anyway, been looking at the SOTW Activity book and itching to ahve ago at some of those things – by the time we’ve finished hacking the garden some more should be plenty of long wooden bits and stuff – just right for building a nomads hut . What say you Merry and Tammy – maybe next week?

Chose a little Usbourne Pocket Science book about how cars work or somesuch as her bedtime reading – fascinates me how she loves to sit and listen to this sort of thing, even though some of it must go over her head. didn’t blog it on Tuesday, but we sat and I read her a Ladybird book about Aeroplanes. It was not at all simple stuff, and I didn’t read the text verbatim, but we did look at the diagrams and pictures whilst I talked about Aeroplanes, the shape of wings, lift and other forces on the plane, different types of engines, controls etc.

SB bedtime update 00.22 – still awake……….. Time for our bedtime though

fridays child is …

…finding work hard.I’ve had a bad 2 days really. Feeling trammelled by forseeable work constraints, and not sure how to resolve any of these issues without having to move at some point – sigh. feel I have therefore made a crap choice for my family, as we are all settling here really nicely. hmm. Also been in terms of actual work a difficult 2 days. sigh. Also working this weekend. groan!!

Some things OK though – although been home very late at night, the girls have been up and enthusiastic. And tonight that has been really valuable for me, as I came home feeling hopeless and uncomfortably dejected, but just doing normal things with them has enabled me to relax.

SB very taken by the story of the world. Chris started reading it last night, and she asked me to read some more tonight. We are discussing writing – she actually seems to remember a lot – where the nile is, flooding and farming, and egypt, pharoahs, heiroglyphics etc. Anyway, we discussed the sumerian cuneiform writing, and she would like to do some. must but some clay, but playdough to start with! She also laughed at the hippopotamus being a water horse. these books are written nicely aren’t they.

We also read the usborne pocket science books what is the earth made of without prompting she named all the planets and that they were in the solar system. she even told me why we could only live on earth. not bad really. Each time we read the books, she picks up a little bit more, and asks a few more questions. The other one was how do cars work and she was quite taken with the idea of how the pistons worked, and naming car parts.

At bedtime I read a few more chapters of the faraway tree. She has finally decided she doesn’t need pictures for a read aloud as long as she likes the story. She’s still not really aleep though and keeps coming downstairs.

this is mainly as she fell asleep after the puddlers group. They did dinosaurs, and I’ve seen her t rex, pteranodon and muddy dinousar pasta bones!!

BB’s black eye is improving. She is starting to walk more around furniture – oh help!