Category Archives: history

has she, hasn’t she

Posted on August 26, 2009 by | 4 comments

bah humbug to swineflu. as far as i a concerned i have a viral URTI with cough, headache and a bit of a temp – common with viruses. just because DH has swine flu, doesn’t mean that this is. after all, even if mild, surely i would feel more dead on my feet.

humph, puter having a problem with m and v – having to hit keyboard especially firmly.

so took sb to holiday orchestra, and gina and katy still spoke to me – which was v nice! and SB still v enthusiastic. made me wish to be a child again and take my instrument and join in! SB again had a lovely day, really enjoying singing today, and sang all the songs on the way home.

bB had another not so fun day – chris with swine flu! so when i got home we played together and did a craft kit, which proved to be a bit on the difficult and disappointing side of things, and bb gave up on it. craft kits can be so variable!! why i like hama and fimo! they are exactly what they set out to be. But she had fun with her hatched turtle egg anyway.

we had home grown sweetcorn for lunch – lots of purple and blue corns, and bb had a strop about that too… sb and i v happy tho! sb got on with some box book reading


and then we read the bit about henry V from SotW and discussed the reenactment of harfleurs at FoH, and at that moment my order from the little linguist arrived [v promptly, fab company!] NIC was right, bb just wants to read the farm books herself, not in french, but SB and I read the berthe book. i really like the berthe series! and then played the where is game with a way way older edition of this book!!

both girls keen on tv, so we watched walking with beasts. sb had loads of asparagus soup for tea and toast. bb had toast and yoghurt. shrug!! chris is looking a little bit better, and i am having a little slump!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, language, little languages, music, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

rolling back the years

Posted on August 23, 2009 by | 4 comments

here is some background music for you… my dad had a dansette [which my sister blew up in our childhood] and we listened to this. aw, feeling sentimental and nostalgic again for lost times.

anyway, the morning start was rough. bb woke up just before 12, and so i took her and me into the spare room for what turned out to be 3 hours of not sleeping. aargh. i got up at 10, very slowly! but bless them, sb and bb made me breakfast in bed [i chose weetabix as a v simple choice!]. Actually, i will say here that sb has been trying v hard to be polite and considerate all day, and it is really lovely. please, thankyous and consideration make such a huge boost to the mood! i did get up, we let monsterrabs out, SB did some music theory, we got ready, and at 1 !! managed to leave the house!

we went to a 1940′s weekend and met up with merry. i did enjoy it, it had some really good bits to it. i loved the lindyhop tuition session, the jam sandwiches cafe, the various enactors – specific gold stars to the field nurse/red cross woman and also to the german telephonist for the patience, question answering and general enthusiasm for subject when being interrogated by us all! i loved the recon 40′s caravan too. there was a fab singer or 3 that i remember, singing lots of the classics my dad tried to tempt us over to the jazz dark side with [light swing things] , and some marching scots with bagpipes. we had a general wander, poked our noses at various things, oohed at some really ground hugging flying and aerial displays. the girls got 2 icecreams due to the baking heat, and we bought extra water out. I also loved the fact that so many visitors dressed to era as well. I wondered what my grandparents would have made of it really.

there were a few negatives – it is expensive, you can’t check on the website what is happening when, and the entrance is a bit, well, derelict! but a good day out was had! we finished off with a go on the minature fair. sb had a chair carousel ride – which was hand powered! BB hooked a duck, and they both hammered to hit the bell. so home with goodies too. fab!

chris under the weather, so went to bed on getting home. me and the girls cooled off in the pool, had some pasta and then failed to get bb to bed, and played the bean game with sb. still have migraine from overheating, and AM going to have an earlier night!

SB has been impressing me recently with coming out with lots of facts. obviously lots of things do sink in! she said its because she loves reading…

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Posted in General, history, Out and About, vivien

SO, trying the new leaf

Posted on August 17, 2009 by | 5 comments

BB again had swimming, and was doing backstroke happily [with buoyancy aids]. Chris took SB to GP as cough doesn’t seem to be improving at all. only a nuisance when she laughs or lies flat, but last night i found a stethoscope and listened, and heard a number of creps! SO has antibiotics. she is well though, so ‘pneumonia’ conjures up a bit more of an alarmist position, so i am going to call it a chest infection…

Anyway, this didn’t stop her doing things, and when i got home from work she was finishing some maths and had done piano practice. BB did some maths with me, and we all went outside. monsterrabs was petted and made a fuss of, i read about the black death from SoTW2, and we all declared interesting. think i have some other books around this to pull out for SB. also read the first chapter from

which seems to have a bit of crossover with our island story with some of the alfred the great bits, and SB loved it. and we also did read together the first few pages of Handa’s Hen, a bilingual french book from little linguist [link in sidebar to fabulous language resource shop!!] and have added morning, afternoon, evening and night to our vocab. the one prob with these french books is the past historic tense they are written in! this is as we are really after learning vocab for conversation!, but as we are not in the position of declining verbs or anything, when we look at the french, i tend to pick out nouns and then transfer the verb to present tense as we would us it to talk so that hopefully the girls get used to the stem meaning something. BB is doing some decoding of cvc words at present, but as yet refuses to remember all the alphabet, so a bit hit and miss!!

much playing on the swings and in the garden whilst this going on, honestly SB is well!!

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, little languages, music, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading

being normal!

Posted on July 29, 2009 by | 2 comments

i don’t really feel that i have been normal for quite a while now, and i am probably still not normal. i am still grieving for little nanny, and worrying for my sister. but have made a clear decision that life just must go on as normally as poss for the family, as i feel i wobbled a bit too much last year, with far less justification. so having had a number of exciting weekends and exciting weeks, we have settled this week to trying to be a bit more ‘normal’ and actually get some HE done!! I know, we have had lots of fab experiences which are all educational and have loved them all, but wanted to touch a reality base!

SO, chris has been tidying – well, it seems a bit like the firth of forth bridge really! BB has moved onto the next maths book – singapore earlibird 2A and is v happy with herself, and SB also moved onto the next one – singapore 3B, which seems a bit revisiony at the moment – no bad thing considering what slowcoaches at maths we have been!! She has also been doing some piano and recorder practice, and is v proud to play one of the pieces in Recorder from the Beginning: Tune Book 3. As always she is reading, and has also done a small section in each of Junior English Book 1 and Junior Science Book 1. today we have also done a bit of french, reading this book from a fab series Jill and the Beanstalk and

I read these whilst the girls were hama beading to make cards for their cousin’s 9th birthday. also – at SB’s request, some story of the world. we rather liked the imagery of mehmed’s boats in the taking of constantinople. it appears we have come to the end of the middle ages, and not really done much english based since the battle of hastings! luckilly we have other books… BB and i did some more french – spotting the picture for the word from a 1000 words book, and also some lego, whilst SB and chris shopped.

so there, a normal, boring but oh so lovely day! full of conversation, cuddles and time. now i am flickring – aaargh!! oh, and we are harvesting potatoes and beans and courgette/marrows!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, science, Stringbean's HE

Festival of History Camping Jolly

Posted on July 28, 2009 by | 4 comments

i love this, and think it is such a fab idea. really more people should join us!! the site has upped its shower and portaloo numbers further, and they were immaculate. we went camping at wicksteed park, joined by nic etc, jax etc and a brief portico. we got there in good time to tent up, eat, settle and get that holiday vibe. i was still migrainous, but standing – as it were! and SB – bless her – was really helpful putting up the tent. none of my children are perfect [just like their parents!] but i have to say how impressed i can be with SB’s thoughtfulness and helpfulness. nic was late, so got to stay in the guest wing of our tent – :lol:

Friday chris and girls went out to the park to have a go on some rides, and i joined them after a particularly bad shower when the migraine tabs kicked in – you know i really hate migraines. work takes loads of days out of my life, and then migraine attempts to decimate the rest. i just refuse to be ground down. i arrived to see them all on the carousel with rain pouring off the sides and just roared with laughter for the duration of the ride. i took BB, as neither of us are particularly keen riders!! and SB and chris gallivanted off. this tends to work well, with a few moments joined together, so i could watch SB and teeny be scary on the umbrella ride, but mostly BB wanted to play in the free park. we still have some of the ride tickets left from last year! i do love that wicksteed lets you carry these on. meant bb and i were ‘free’ effectively this year.

eventually we slumped off back to the tent, and jax and kids joined a bit later. SB demonstrated her helpfulness again putting the tent up [well, a bit of pegging anyway!] before all children ran amok. i got dinner started and had all 4 kids in the tent whilst jax and chris went off shopping. unfortunately the petrol ran out, and chris had the spare in the boot. darn! i earned my brownie helpfulness badge by rescuing a family [and their dog!!] and letting them wait in our tent for torrential rain to pass before they could put up their own. dinner did get cooked, friendly chit chat evening and then all up bright and early for kelmarsh

Saturday i was v excited this year, as noticed that instead of the trenches was an agincourt re-enactment. something a bit different hey! and so had planned to start the day with the siege of harfleur part 1. unfortunately an hour on the slip road scuppered that! but part 2 was fab, and i LOVED the raining arrows. thankyou thankyou the english bowmen! SB heckled harry, king of england AND FRANCE by suggesting he should, after all, hang the citizens of harfleur – where do they get this bloodthirtiness from?? thought he did v well with his speech and prancing on horse etc. once more into the breach indeed! so we chatted then to various re-enactors and then met up at the victorian beach and punch and judy. BB v happy with beach, SB with punch and judy, me with meeting up with friends, including unexpected ones from wales! SB wandered off to BZents – always a firm fav. we had already watched the robin hood one, and she went for what ho henry, with chris whilst i supervised BB jumping and playing with Shannon from going against the flow. they had a whale of a time.

SB specifically wanted to talk to people in tents and watch the jousting, so that is what we did, but she got taken by the boer war commentary, so we sat and watched that too. shame we didn’t get to see the balloon up, and we were all on the side of the plucky bitterienders, and discussed the meaning of concentration camp. one of the things i like about lifelong learning and wikipedia are the fact that i have just been whizzling around boer war sites for about an hour, and now know much more than before! it was not something that i had planned to watch, imagining it to be a bit jingoistic [it was], but have been glad that i did, as now have an increased understanding of that bit of history – something i guess festival of history wants to encourage!

anyway, we then hotfooted to the jousting arena, were entertained by peterkin the fool [very funny man] watched our french knight dress, and then really loved the joust. v different from previous jousts we have watched. SB entertained by the idea that there were 2 king henry’s on the field! BB was a grumpalump of immense proportions by this stage, but turning the buggy into a den kept her v entertained. after the joust i called it a day. it was very hot, and it was my first post migraine day, and i really didn’t want migraine to return! so back to wicksteed for dinner and children playing – not quite as smoothly, prob because all tired. Poor SB ended up on the wrong end of some of the fall out, and so i hugged her to sleep as she was all upset and washed out. She hadn’t been perfect to start with, but had had a fright. so she chose the secret garden for me to read to her to calm her down. i did point out that this book starts quite badly, and she said she knew, as listened to story cd. so we had more trauma, because she ‘needed’ to know who would look after her and BB, and would we ever forget they were there etc – i think not! just as i popped out to relax, became aware jax’s big unwell, so a mad dash to get them all packed and in car to drive off home. life is all go here!! did i say the portico’s had arrived?? they had guest wing facilities. :lol:

Sunday morning tent went down fine, the bigger kids went to park on their own – cue MASSIVE meltdown from BB. luckilly portico parent took pity on her and took her off to the park. we all finished detenting and set off for kelmarsh. no traffic at all, so got there pretty much at the same time. I was determined to bring back the legions, so singing the terry deary song we parked ourself infront of the excellent ermine street guard. we were initially with porticos, but ernest immed got stung by wasp – aargh! but ability to swallow nurofen helped. we loved the romans. sb again enthralled, bb not so. since bb so obviously not really wanting to re-enact, we often divided and conquered. we all mosied up to agincourt, talking to redcross and russians on the way. SB being pegged as a lad got offered far more guns to hold than she ever does as a girl :roll: . the weaponsmaster v patiently took them through 1 1/2 swords etc and both girls signed up for childrens drill. we admired the calligraphy.

children’s drill saw BB looking cute. she knew she didn’t have to do it, and just as i said to chris, i think that BB’s had enough and moved forwards, she burst into tears and ran into my arms. awww. i took her off to the craft tent whilst chris watched the rest of the drill, which sb enjoyed. was v impressed by the kaleidoscope craft. it was easy and it worked. on being joined by other family members we said hello to the deependers and then bought icecream and went to the beach~! BB had more fun in the sand, but SB was tempted by the dancers to join in georgian dancing. SB elected to watch another punch and judy, and BB to bob between that and the sand. our final plea from SB was to watch the parachute drop event, so we went down and did that whilst chris and BB stayed in the family zone. we had a good spot, and were impressed, as always, with the parachutes. from this vantage point also watched the grand parade, when the rain started. met up with chris and went via shop [pretty much all gone to bb's disgust] and finally home.

things i missed – the actual agincourt battle. the roman charioteers, the victorian gymkhana, the whole of the parade ground stuff and the archaeol tents. but i think we got loads out of it, again!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, noises and sounds, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

a curiosity shop of fossils – part 3

Posted on July 28, 2009 by | 3 comments

OK, so we have seen a lot of fossils, but we haven;t exactly found many have we!! so the next day – wed- sees us fossiling on the beach. the weather looks ok, we go to the museum on the waterfront to get an idea what we plan to find first. it is a lovely little free museum, so we spend a bit longer than planned there before moving out. and yay!! we find fossils. no dinosaurs for BB, and in fact no fabulous fossils of ammonites made of iron pyrites, but some ammonites and belemnites, and some fossilised wood! some sand castling, rockpooling and playing chicken with the waves. we were def having fun! a lovely relaxed beach day.

SB had been promised a trip to Monkey World, so thurs was the day for that. the weather was abysmal as we set out, so a bit worried whether it was going to be OK! but it was fine. a few whippings out of raincoats, but rain only set in really at the v end, so alls well! loved looking at the chimps, i loved the orangutans and babies. sb loved the lemurs, and bb the marmosets. the children in partic loved the climbing frames, both for the animals and for the children. we listened to a couple of the talks, and the keepers were v friendly and approachable. the orang talk was completely drowned by some v noisy gibbons calling! BB had a minor moment, as had run out of holiday money, and couldn’t buy a monkey, but such is life! she has a priority list – money, dinosaurs, chocolate and then mummy and daddy!!! another great fun day. when we got back to the campsite, the rain stopped and we saw a fab rainbow. so with some good weather i persuaded everyone to walk to the beach before dinner. we had an ace night walk along the beach before a quick dinner and a fall into bed.

friday i had my first proper sulk with the weather, it was still raining and i just wanted an easy day! we decided to go to the dinosaur museum in dorchester as that was what bb wanted to do. it was my least fav museum of the hols as the staff was the most grumpy, but actually otherwise was another fine little museum, with plenty to read and good for SB< who is enjoying doing museum leaflets and trails. not quite so for BB, whose idea it was! and i resented the lack of chairs for exhausted adults. but actually it has some good exhibits and is interestingly done. we had a debacle in the shop though, as the lady had cashed up, and i only had a 20 pound note or 86p, and sb wanted to spend 90. i was at the point of walking out, when the lady uncashed up and changed the note - i think she saw a fast disappearing sale! chris cheered me up with a cream tea yummy indeed!] and the girls had an icecream sundae. when we returned, we were invited down the beach with the campsite friends the girls had made, so did a bit of hammering of fossils. v happy to find some! sat and our last beach day, joined by my friend shaula. not seen each other for ages, so v happy to be catching up, chatting and fossiling in a lazy way! the weather was execrable actually, and in the end beaten off the beach into the cafe and then museum. SB and BB both got a self chosen book

girls happy with treats and declared last lovely day. that eve, sb organised all her campsite friends into making a curiosity shop, selling the unwanted stones and fossils, and they made £5, which wasn’t bad, and had a lot of fun doing it. they really both had a fab holiday, cycling, making friends and doing fun things as a family. i do love camping!!

home on the sun, stopping for too long at the royal signals museum, which was again a really fab museum, with lots of info on the ground floor – which again sb spent ages reading and doing a quiz, and interactive things on the second floor – bbs driving left me quite travel sick!! we could easily have spent longer there. but as it was we got home v late, thanks to the carpark arrangements known as the m25!!

so as you have all read, a really fab holiday had by all.

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Posted in art and crafts, General, history

more splashing

Posted on July 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

today we did a lot of splashing in and out of the pool. even i went in. it wasn’t as hot as yesterday, but by the time i had hoed the veg patch, i really needed to cool down! oh, and SB cooked poached eggs for breakfast – fantastic.

last weekend apparently cousin m told sb that when he does really well, he gets a mars bar. she wanted to know what the home-ed equivalent was. hmm, we said, what do you think? so she has got the timetable idea out again, and if she does 2/3 of what is on there, she gets her mars bar. some of the splashing today has therefore been the tears when we pointed out we could see she had ticked off things she hadn’t done. claims that someone else had done that were discarded. also tears of ‘completing’ her english [section 3.1 of galore park] when i opened to find it wasn’t. it took an hour to complete it. we aren;t autonomous, but we are child led and normally we don’t have battles over what to do, and especially with wailing thrown in. but fibbing about it to me changes the goal posts. once she was done, she was all happiness and light, so it obviously wasn’t so traumatic after all.

things that sb did happily were: singapore maths – giggle at it suddenly becoming newsworthy!; music theory – having finally found again the My First Theory Book! listening to me read The Story Of the World – the Middle Ages V 2 (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child (Paperback)): Middle Ages v. 2 about the taking of constantinople and some french words about animals.

BB has also been busy HE wise. although i was tempted to ‘give them stuff to do’ and the read a book, i felt i owed it to us all to actually interact, so grabbed a science kit for BB, and she LOVED it. it is now her kit, as too simple for sb. it is a first electric kit, and she followed the pictures rather than the written instructions, with a bit of help, and made a circuit with a light, and then a motor, which whizzed cards on it and blended the colours – more excitement. but what was so fab was her total thrill and enjoyment that she COULD do it!

both girls made very glittery cards for my sisters birthday at the end of the week. am a bit stalled over what to do as a present. what do you get? hmmm. flip camera? digital photo frame? john lewis vouchers [snort!] just dunno. the cards, however, will give a lasting impression – certainly to the carpets! sb in particularly spent ages getting it just how she wanted.

we did lots of messing in the pool though. bb is being v adventurous in that not quite swimming way. sb learnt to swim by drowning under water and then standing to breathe, and i think this is bb’s technique too. she jets under water and then stands up, breathes, and does some more. she is booked into a 2 week intensive swimming course this summer [my word!] and might be able to swim after that! i love the fact that she went on that they would have to have her somewhere shallow as she had v short legs – :lol: so she does. SB is quite the water wild child, and having great fun twisting, rolling and cavorting in the water. i also got lots of cuddles. good!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, gardening, General, history, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, numeracy, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

and so today it rained

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | 2 comments

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, science, Stringbean's HE

black dog day

Posted on June 3, 2009 by | 5 comments

i have tried v hard to shift it, but this day had a touch of the wrong about it. it didn’t help that yesterday at work stressful, or that dad woke me up at 7.30 :roll: well, actually bb had already woken me up, but i was dozing again, and then got a series of tasks and errands to try and achieve which i knew were actually unachievable. i’m having a poor sleeping phase anyway, oh, and john lewis messed up my flower order AGAIN. and, and, and!!!!

SO there is the wingeing. we should have gone to an RI lecture, but one of the other winges is that i had v bad migraine yesterday [under control today] and chris prefered a more contemplative day, and the girls have had a number of questions re death. So we didn’t go – though i wish we had, as it sounded fab.

ANyway, despite black dogs, i thought i should get going, and we chatted, tidied the playroom, openend some parcels [including my new bike that chris set up] and then got the fimo out. i thought SB would be finishing her fruit, but she has made a person, and BB made a fish. then we did some ‘work’ SB doing maths and handwriting, and BB before the code. SB really surprised me by telling me her weird and wonderful way of working out the 9 times table – only SB! [it does work]. then we did some more fimo-ing, with SB doing the fruit and veg, and BB making a v creditable turtle. our fimo stocks running low [now replenished by a shopping spree at beadmerrily] i didn’t fiddle myself, and instead subjected the girls to The Story of the World: Middle Ages from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance v. 2: History for the Classical Child (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child) – about the beginnings of russia, which actually sb enjoyed, and then The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet , which they both like. and just general following conversations – carrying on some they had had yesterday with chris about the big bang and laws of physics, and then some relating to illness and death. lots of cuddling [always good]

we had lunch, did some general messing about and fiddling, and then SB did some recorder practice [sketchily] and we did some recorder duets together, whilst BB danced with pompoms. Chris was joining my bike together, and we did some science, we looked at a few kits, and SB finally decided on the Perfume Laboratory, so i got a Crystal Growing – Complete Science Kit – Amethyst Purple to do with BB. BB was extremely careful, and didn’t spill any, and we reinforced the chemical thing! she was also finished first and went off cycling with chris. SB had to shake some card in water until it disintegrated, so that took 20mins of consistent shaking – i was impressed by her stamina! but then finally made the perfume essence, next time she turns it into something.

Brownies and judo for SB, disney film for BB whilst dinner got going, and i updated dad on the mostly failures of the tasks [HHaricot, you are fired!!] but he was happy that i had tried. i gave my bike a try, but the handlebars didn’t turn the wheel – so back to the mechanic for some tightening, rofl! the girls to bed, after watching some springwatch, and the apprentice for us.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

not quite as planned

Posted on May 30, 2009 by | 12 comments

i had a compassionate day off work today to go and say goodbye to uncle r. unfortunately he wasn’t well enough for all of us. and when i suggested yesterday at work that i didn’t need it, i think the sobbing went against me, so i was told not to come in. actually i should have gone in, as i had loads to sort out: otoh, actually in my job i need a fully functioning headspace, so could see their point.

SO i have had the bliss of part time working this week, and i really like it! hmm, to whether i will ever manage to negotiate it for a full time thing, and then how the money would stretch, but hey, one thing at a time!

i got up late, after having listened to sb playing her recorder. when i got down, she was doing some Junior Science Book 1 [we are still on chapter one, as it is an as and when thing! we plan to skip 2 and go onto 3 in the hopes that it ties in with our june holiday], and she happilly wrote through that. BB meanwhile got out her Get Set for the Code – Book B, and in her own way chose what she wanted to do! we then read some books together, whilst SB did some handwriting Italic Handwriting Series Book D

then total mayhem as my amazon order for me arrived. i decided to treat myself to an escape route, so have bought The Clan of the Cave Bear + The Valley of Horses (Earth’s Children series) on jax and merry’s recommendations, and these Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt) Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt) cos they looked interesting!
I didn’t forget the girls entirely, i bought SB this The Roman Mysteries Treasury as she really has been loving the roman mysteries, BB this French is Fun with Serge, the Cheeky Monkey! (Salut Serge) oh, and i also bought these!!Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set Although I agree with Gina more = better, SB often makes up her tunes in various modal styles, and thought the pentatonic might keep this musical awareness going.

SO BB bashed away with the boomwhackers, sounding surprisingly gamelan or chinese and SB stuck her nose in the flavia gemina book!! i did some work emails. following a melt when BB got rather too enthusiastic with the boomwhackers [Gina, exactly how robust are they] she retired to watch the french is fun DVD and SB did some maths. I read loads of fairy stories, then lunchtime [late!]

Afternoon for SB and I was a long game of Puerto Rico. you can’t really play it properly with 2, but it is OK for an child and adult scenario [or even 2 children] money much easier to come by! BB wandered off into the garden with chris, and then came back for some ivor the engine.

it being sunny, we then all decamped into the garden, bb had some flower seeds she wanted to scatter across the veg patch, i had cucurbits and beans to get out, and SB was keen to help. so that was what we did this pm. not got all the beans out, as had to spend some time untangling them from each other!

girls settled down to playing and chalking [ie making shapes out of hunks of chalk just like at the sustainability. and i read Honey in a Hive (Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science: Stage 2) while they worked. we had dinner out in the garden, bathtime [obviously indoors!] and SB had more of Black Ships Before Troy – The Story of the Iliad

A quick yesterday summary:
SB and Maddy had a great time playing together, lots of games where got out and played, and SB loved it. BB also pottered along, either with them or with chris, quite happy. BB had a gym taster session, and was really ecstatic about that. unfortunately M’s ear started to hurt and she went home before i got in from work, and so missed the astronomy night. we, however, all looked at the moon again, and some of the stars, seeing if we could find galaxies [no - must look more at the map next time!!]

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