language

monday, hmm, think that must have been getting braces day for SB – bless her. these are removable, and top and bottom teeth, and she really isn’t that keen, but perservering. Did i say that BB now has glasses too? for long sightedness. I had a genetics counselling appt about risks of breast cancer etc etc. so when we all reconvened at home we were quorate for feeling self indulgent! Home ed stuff got done, fairly happily and i think BB might be about to ‘get’ reading once she does it is going to be v fast i think. ballet in the eve.

tues i was at work. various home ed bits in the morning, and then in the afternoon to the absolutely excellent home ed djembe drumming session. Nanna went along too, as it was an undersubscribed session, and they all loved it. swimming in the eve, and i was v late back from work as a long hard day [cue violins ]

wed already blogged

thurs was mostly drama about whether f-i-l would be sprung from hospital [and in the end wasn't] and whether i could make it through work feeling so v v bad from migraine [i did] oh, and SB had a music theory exam she can really easily do grade 2 theory, but veers between concetrating and doing v well, and not using brain at all!! and then not doing so well. i think she is a happy dreamer but she says she checked 5 times and was happy with it, so we will see. grade 2 music theory doesn’t ‘matter’ , it is exam practice and confidence, and stretching herself a bit. Just happy that she is happy BB had a fab time with the deependers and really enjoyed herself. In fact, I think she has inveigled herself into a home ed trip with them tomorrow, whilst DH finally springs his dad from hospital thankyou k

and adding friday, the girls had a fab home ed trip with deependers today to the cathedral and learnt about middle ages and cromwell. SB said she knew all the middle ages things, but the cromwell was new and v interesting. they both loved the trip, so thankyou k

chapter 6 of real science for kids was all about mixing it up . unfortunately, the mixing pattern spread out, and we are again in a quandary around groupings. however, i have the courage of convictions to believe that we can work all this out . it was also a wonderful welcome back to C and M from the manorborn. we have really missed them whilst C has been doing her en famille exchange. so woohoo and welcome back

The mixing it science involved seeing what a mixture was [homogeneous and heterogeneous] and what could mix [polar/charged or non charged - ie like with like] . it still involved ammonia tho!! The newtons unfortunately had me battling the most awful migraine, and i was therefore short on people skills. luckilly M intervened a fraction before BB got sent to the stairs – bad mummy moment. however, the science itself went well, and everyone was v happy with the workbook folders from merry . the cricks were next and went better, as they are a jolly and easy group to teach, usually remember at least something from the chapter and are v amiable about being corrected. enjoy perhaps too much thinking of hypotheses – the rutherfords had a hard time of it. there are too many of them, they just fitted round table, and didn’t get to finish experiment – they were the same size as other 2 groups combined, and with ascertaining what they remembered from chapter and explaining, and using the sheets etc, we only got half way through the experiments so feel quite bad about that really. Hence the mixing up the groups, so that it will hopefully work better. Mixing groups is never a process that goes smoothly, as so many things to consider. fingers crossed we find a good solution

Meanwhile the others were far more successful in getting their lessons in right and sb enjoyed skoldo french and minimus with k and 3d shapes with z. was even lucky enough to have a blow on an oboe reed of G’s [and now keen to learn to play that too - G is such a musical instrument temptress!] as well as a group recorder session.

BB also v happy with 3d shape making, and v v excited by her recorder session with G it is certainly giving her huge enthusiasm to get going on the recorder. she also enjoyed her french stories. next time will think of something else for her to take as well, as had a few footloose moments. maybe colouring or dot to dots.

I redeemed myself [hopefully] by doing music theory, and then some rousting vocal exercises and learning ‘early one morning’ [only the first verse!] which, encouraged by the kids, we went far to high on. But i mostly wanted to make the singing enjoyable, and also learn at least 1 verse of a few of our native folk songs.

Listened to our italian cd there and back, BB fairly happily did some explode the code at latinetc too, and SB had brownies and judo. BB and i snuggled, she ds-ed and chatted at 100 miles an hour too me – love those girls

photos may follow if lucky

I am on annual leave but having a ‘staycation’ . A number of reasons for this – F-I-L in hosp and M-I-L staying here prob being the most important, followed swiftly by the eeeekk! canada trip so expensive!! SO since I havn’t planned going away nor staying, i do think i musn’t fritter the time away! SO today I ‘invited myself’ to artetc with lecielrouge and Merry. We do enjoy this greatly every time we manage to go Today was no exception tho we were late due to a complete inability to get out of bed [i am blaming the weekend!!] Great to spend time with 2 good and lovely friends.

So there were 2 main art works today, still focusing on architecture/buildings in art. the first was drawing a row of houses/buildings on card and then cutting out the windows [done by z] and putting tissue paper behind. Think this was the favoured one, and v impressed by the imagination and differences the children used with the same brief. I had a go at this one, and was v happy with it. My kind of art

the second was making wax rubbings of interesting textures around the house and then drawing on paper 4/5 buildings and using the wax rubbings to delineate some of the structure/floors. v interesting idea but quite hard to pull off! BB was being a bit wobbly about this one tho

SB did some music theory practice [after a bit of a reminder to concetrate and use brain!] we are thinking maybe of giving her elastic band around wrist which she has to ping on every new question to remind her to read it properly she scored 90 in the practice paper which she read and concentrated, and 63 in the one she didn’t .SHe took it all v well and happily, since she was doing this whilst others playing. BB did some explode the code and finally read ‘the’!!! woohooo!!

We finished with colouring in little boxes and making fimo keyrings for upcoming triple birthday celebration I wish we had thought of those mario mushrooms sooner tho!! they are cute and easy to do . merry and girls left, and we nattered to z for longer before heading back via the hospital. F-I-L doing much better and in less pain. early days tho… we listened to italian cd on the way there and back.

So, i have varnished the fimo, flickred and then to bed.

today we tried to follow the new timetable for latinetc a bit better. It worked better than anticipated for a first go, but we did make a bit of a mess in the afternoon anyway. sure we will do better next time, and still went fine enough and the kids seemed to have fun. Have taken some good photos and science went well.

the science bit was acid base titration from chapter 5 of the real-science 4 kids. we did quite a chat around various bits. the rutherfords actually asked some v in depth questions, and i think got drowned by the answer but were really good at working out their aims and hypothesis. then we got going and all did very well at considering the science behind the practical. will be glad not to do ammonia again for a while tho

Art was paper weaving, and then placing into a bigger pic. i was v impressed with SB’s boat and both she and bb loved it. both loved the recorder too, and bb v happy that she could do what she ws asked to. i heard a raucous latin session and sb loves skoldo anyway. BB initially reluctant with the french stories, but was happy to listen to the end. Even the workybook bit in the middle went ok. the only prob was the drift we had, so didn’t do the song I had planned. Ah well!! I think the youngest ones had a much better balanced session to, with mice making with gina and zoe reading loads of books.

SB had made a cake on tues to bring, dairy free and with sparkler candles, so was v happy with that and the happy birthday singing. the children also all had occassion to run about and be crazy.

SB had brownies and judo. on arriving home m-i-l and f-i-l were hear, as f-i-l has knee replacement to go to tomorrow – hoping will go smoothly! BB was a whinge-bag really but did happily make sb a birthday present. take away chinese for tea was rather lovely, and bb fell asleep v v quickly

i don’t often work from home, but had a vast amount of paperworky/journally/knowledge stuff to do, and as long as i am avail to go back in, it is a possibility to do [v occasionally!] today was one of those occasions, partly cos have had severe heartburn all day, and easier at home where can drink milk and gaviscon , and partly cos had bb whilst sb taken to orthodontist. i was v v productive. far more, actually, than would have been at work as i would have been distracted into doing other stuff.

The girls also pretty productive with their HE. BB doing some maths about shapes – easy peasy! and then explode the code 1 – not quite so easy, but getting easier. SB did some music theory, recorder and galore park english 2 [the latter def not at all so easy!] . we did a secret craft [ ] in that it is going to be partly a present for daddy, and partly a present for her friends. SHe and BB both did it, and are v happy with their results That took a while, and we had to keep daddy occupied elsewhere, so sent him out for rabbit supplies, but he forgot the food!!

I went back to working, BB watched some sinbad and SB finished her english with one of those acrostic poems, which she quite liked. SB went to ballet, BB played in the garden, and then came in a mooched. SHe was bored, she needed me to think of something – piano, music theory, fimo, hama beads, wet felting, dry felting, sewing a felt heart, beaded bracelet, painting, bean experiments, electronics set, card game. nope all boring, and i was grumpy at this point that thought of LOTS of things to no avail. however, found a golden crown from the castle party years ago, so BB v happily decorated with stick on jewels!!

When SB returned from ballet we tidied up, and then looked at real science for kids chemistry chapter 5 with both girls, and then story of the world 1 with the Medes and Persians. We had a jolly good chat about how Cyrus’ grandad would have been better keeping him at home, and raising him with love! had an early chippery tea watching ray mears in the northern territories of canada in the path of Dr Rae, v interesting that!!

SB and the orthodontist – well, she needs removeable braces now, and will prob need fixed then. She has a grade 5 [worst] problem so def on the nhs. I think we are going to find braces traumatic!!! BB has her filling tomorrow, think that will be traumatic too.

Poor BB has had a gulpy sobby bedtime, as the little silvered resin piggybank i bought on sat is already desilvering, and she loves him v much, but is v unhappy the silver going. cuddles, songs and chatting haven’t entirely resolved this, but we have agreed you can carry on loving something even if not as silvery as it was – bless.

oh, and we caught 1 mouse in the trap, and released quite a long long way away

Today was a game of 2 halves day, which made me feel v much like the more outgoing home educators whose blogs i read blogs! very adventurous Morning was a compressed latinetc and pm was a CHEF event about Insectiverous plants at the botanical gardens. lunch was going to have to be in transit! I thought i had been v organised getting things ready, but unfortunately i forgot all the music stuff

anyway, we are continuing with our real science 4 kids. Having looked carefully through, I advised all the group to read level 1 and then only go onto Chemistry Level II Student Textbook (Real Science-4-Kids)
if partic keen. it was molecules, and the level 2 does a fab detailed discussion of s,p and d electron orbitals and how it all works before then showing you the sigma, pi and hybrid covalent bonds when it happens. a totally brilliant explanation, but past GCSE standard, and since we are talking predom primary here, seemed a bit far to go! we chatted electrons, protons, neutrons, atomic numbers again, to get more fixed in, and then our covalent and ionic bonds before making some molecules and using some rules. we made freestyle molecules with only CHO and saw what different molecules the groups ended up with, methanol, glyoxilic acid, ethylene, propanoic acid etc etc. If they hadn’t followed the rules, i was allowed to add and subtract the ‘fail’ bits. Still stressful doing the 3 groups, but worked hard on the middle group to redeem last week. this time i think the oldest group not so well balanced and looked like it might wobble over. on the ball this time tho, and i think the compressed timings didn’t help. Third time would be lucky, but just found out i have mammogram that week, so making me v v stressy already. [hate mammos, have had 2 so far, both ok, but now always expect worst and near sick with nerves by the time i have it, and it hurts!]

Lots of other things go on at latinetc, I write more about the science because I am sitting there doing that! But i know SB did some recorder, and some music theory [i think] and def some latin but not sure about the french? [thankyou katy, she did do some french! ] BB did french and also art and she did bells for music with J and they loved it! We took iced cupcakes with dinosaur sprinkles and some candles to sing happy birthday to BB at snack, so she was v happy had so much cake that she only had fruit for lunch…

So on to the second half of the day, and mad drive to a nearby city botanic gardens for the middles and older children to learn about insectivorous plants whilst the littlies played outside. SB was with her friends and lecielrouge mum as a supervising adult. i gave her the phone to take ‘a few’ pics with so i could see some of what she did. she took 182 – in 120 mins. i am hoping she remembers something!! however, she did say it was fab. she enjoyed the ‘lecture’ and film, not so keen on the collecting part – so took loads of photos then, and enjoyed looking round the glasshouses – raking photos – and the insectivorous plants collection. She liked the sarrecenias best. great, cos i do too. for a while i had some pitcher plants whilst we lived in leeds, but they did die off. maybe we can start another collection in the conservatory She also took loads of crazy videos too !

Meanwhile i had BB and J, and various other adults with their youngest. we went out and went through the glasshouses first, having a peek and a look at quite a few things and chatting as we went. loved the tropical bit and the fish i had planned to do some nature art with the children, but they were having so much fun exploring and racing around that we didn’t do that at all. finally made it to cafe for restorative cup of tea and cookie for the children. BB did some pics of some of the leaves we picked up and chatted to her friends. i suddenly realise what a ‘big’ girl she is getting to be, rather than my baby as she is proud and happy to sit with friends on own table, and that i can now be reasonably certain she won’t be crazy

returned to pic up SB and chat to parents and thank A for organising. All families returned with a carnivorous plant – a sundew. easy drive home, but quick turnaround for SB with brownies, and then judo grading – she now is a yellow belt – woohoo!! i am baking this eve- banana cake

cos she keeps phasing in and out – rofl. went in today to sort out various personnel nightmares. one done, the other spiralling further and further… but managed to do what i needed to do and return home at lunchtime [and do more in eve as 'working from home' ] and then for daddybean and i to go and ‘choose a carpet’ . The carpet in the home ed room has progressed from manky to unhygienically awful. SO a replacement required. aarghh it is a big room to carpet, and doesn’t precisely have a carpet budget… we have, after 90 mins, come home with 2 diff samples to ponder until wed. think we should go with the more hardwearing but less aesthetically pleasing option [both are suitable for heavy domestic use]

i forgot to say that all this gadding to carpet shops [the excitement] was only possible due to my dad having driven up this morning to do some painting in said home ed room – coving and gloss, daddybean in charge of ceiling. the girls have been v good whilst this going on. SB doing lots and lots of the easier home ed options both in morning and then in aft whilst we were at carpet emporium. [11 ticks today!] she was somewhat disgruntled that i yelled c# up the stairs to where she was practicing recorder as my hello, rather than something a bit more, well, motherly! BB did some more of her lego house, and started the chicken mosaic and played with her new doll. A very happy girl there

On return from the carpet not-quite-decision-making trip, SB and i whisked off to ballet for the end of show open lesson, which i really enjoy. SHe is definitely improving at ballet, just needs to have stiffer arms i think, but the rhythm and concentration is there. We then did a good piano practice before she settled down to do some colouring whilst i read story of the world and BB having found all her old bricks made various buildings. BB also doing manic inline skating [with SB's old inline skates - there will be an accident there!!] and I tried to sort out the photoshop database a bit more – daddybean stayed up until 3am last night doing something or other to fix most of it.

unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate skittles in our garden – it has lots of hiding places, but also a 6 foot wall enclosing it. So he isn’t safely in his hutch. grr, it is usually snowy we have to chase more, but skittles being black and now snuggled somewhere for the night is impossible to find. worried…

Kids have got too used to lying in a fair bit lately (even BB, for whom it was unsual to sleep in past 8am), so they were soemwhat bleary-eyed and difficult to raise when I woke them up at 8 this morning

Tots and Nots in the morning, which means a 9.30 am depature, which is early enough to be getting us all out in the morning thankyou very much. After prising them out of bed  1/2 hour later a bit of chivvying saw us leaving just about in time. (though SB thought she had found her missing music theory book, becuase she had found an orange book, if she had read the cover she might ahve noticed it was a science book ….)

SB did piano practice with Gina (G1 exam  in a few weeks). BB not feeling interactive and lay on my lap for the first  1/2 hour. After a brief play with the Tots and younger Nots who had spent ages with  a block of ice and some knive and forks (really, they spent ages just palying with this,) she then did soem recorder as well. BB warmed up by now, so she was having a play as well. After snack and a play, SB ffinsihed up with a Grammar book. Little ‘uns with stories and then songs, BB still loves to join in with the songs

Bit oF  a run around out side , whilst I watched out for traffic wardens, as the car was round the corner on an expired ticket (they are pretty hot on the parking, so you need to watch out).

Into the car, drive home, listening to more French Songs on CD.  Home, lunch,  a bit of DS-ing and tea drinking. Then SB did something else, which for the life of me I can’t now remember Whilst I got dinner prepared. managed to be fairly efficient in the kitchen and got veggie shepherds pie made and Brussel Sprouts prepared in about 45 minutes. A quick pop into the garden to see and feed the bunnies.

Then it was into chivvying the girsl (well moslty BB) into getting ready for Gym. Having told her to put anything she wanted to take whilst watching SB into a bag, 5 minutes before we went she had one thing in her  hand and didn’t have leotard I’d told her to get in the morning as she said I’d had it, which I’m pretty sure I hadn’t. But, chivvy, chivvy, chivvy and we out the door again.

With H at work, it means an almost 3 hr session at the gym whilst they both have their sessions. Supplied with Gruaniad, flask of coffee and snacks the first half is bearable, but it begins to pall after that. SB did some singapore maths whilst we watched BB.

After the swap, luckily H picked BB up on the way home, so I didn’t have a tired and grumbly BB as well. Anyway, they both got slips to say they had got BGA badges and certificates, so paid for those and then headed home. Shepherds pie was nicely cooked (I always worry I didn’t set the oven timer to come on properly), so just had to cook sprouts. BB declared she doesn’t like sprouts, but seeing as she’s eaten them a number of times, and she likes to seemingly  randomly pick things she isn’t going to like, this sort of thing gets resisted – she likes to complain about potatoes as ‘they don’t tatse of anything’   (SB tends to the pragmatic approach to such things, saying  that ‘she might as well eat it as you will tell me to eat it anyway’ ) So I  poo-pooed this. In a spirit of believable parenting I told her that there was a law that said you aren’t allowed to not like sprouts, but I don’t think she believed me

Dinner and next episode of Edwardian Farm to finish off the day

cutting out electrons, protons and neutrons about 250 of each] took way to long last night, so to bed v late and hard to get up and out this am. However, I had got everything ready apart from SB’s minimus which i asked her to add… yep, she forgot !!

We trialled the 3 groups today, which TBH I found quite stressful as a lot to say and do in a small time, the dynamics will take a bit of settling down, the middle group got a partic raw deal and i was just ready to cry. Lack of sleep on my part prob didn’t help, but I now have migraine. Will give it a few more tries as it works better for everyone else, and I really want to keep latinetc going as a strong group as it is fab.

That said, all the children had read or had read to them chapter 1 of real science 4 kids chemistry and we romped through the periodic table, protons, neutrons and electrons and then atomic mass unit and moles. I do think the 3 levels of the chemistry first chapters are all really great, and so far like the text. we did pre-k and 1 with BB and 2 with SB at home. We then shuffled my deck of elements and chose the ones to make a window decal each. For the first and last groups we read up about the elements in my periodic table book, but ran out of time with the middle group. I have suggested they might want to do that . i think the decals looked really good when finished. Unfortunately my camera had a flat battery, and the spare also flat. partic as when i checked last night there was allegedly 2/3 battery power left. Luckilly le ciel rouge took some photos and we plan to nick them from her flickr stream

[tho not periodic table view ]

edited to add at kirsty’s request to make the decals we got some of that bookbinding clear stuff [loads of it] and had an a3 size each. i cut out old 10p piece size protons out of yellow see through sweetwrapper plastic that you can buy, and the same with blue for neutrons, then 1/2p size in red for electrons, which we placed in shells, but talked about the unplaceability effectively of electrons and this was just for ‘display’. we put them on one a4 side, with the protons and neutrons clumped in the middle but accurately counted, and then folded over the other a4 side, and it worked

SB did clarinet [with g's as hers is in service, and sounded quite good from the kitchen] minimus, tesselating art and skoldo french, all of which she enjoyed, tho she said the skoldo now too easy for her. K’s plan tho is to race through it looking for gaps in knowledge, so hopefully a fast consolidating race will work well for her and then move on. It is nice to hear her say french is easy tho . BB didn’t do french – no such get out again – but really loved doing z’s tesselating art.

We had a further chat about whether we could work into the afternoon whilst G and K take children to cello some short while of something else, either a bigger craft, a bit of music theory or perhaps some singing or group music. Whilst the morning stressy for me, i need the afternoon to be a bit less intensive, so it kind of depends how pans out, but really love the group, and it would be lovely to get a good working balance. SB and L shew each other their piano skills , poor J got *really* attacked by a thorn bush and i drew out a thorn of nearly a cm. He was *very* brave.

SB now at brownies, and showing off baby rabbits – one of the owls would quite like a rabbit she thinks – that would be good , we are going to have a chippery tea shortly and then SB has judo. My imigran seems to be doing a good job on migraine and planning an earlier night tonight

Latinetc was brought to you today by:

also edited to add, with the chippery tea we watched the wallace and grommet inventions prog, BB and i played ludo before bed, and SB played with geomags after judo and before bed. I am having an early night i think

Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

my parents here, which is always lovely they arrived last night after being eagerly awaited by the girls – who then took ages to settle down! the girls had spent yesterday morning playing with Jax’s children whilst i was at work, and then in the aft and eve when to their serial gym lessons, except that SB forgot her leotard, so after all she didn’t . Piano prac and then some home ed galore park english and we watched the edwardian shops on BBC as my parents arrived . BB still insisted on trying puerto rico, but it is too hard for her.

Today we were all a bit late up. SB the latest again, she def has got into not liking getting up but she did her piano prac really well, and then played for mum, also did some DK project book on minerals [me looking at it for the blog below reminded her!] some of a rather too easy murderous maths workbook and then a bit of revision of the french done last time at latinetc. Mum and i did some of the dialogue with her, so that was fun . BB did some explode the code, and listened to SB reading Story of the World 1. we all played ticket to ride [sb won] and then BB, mum dad and I played blokus. BB and i drew. we did a fair bit of dsing alltogether – must remember to charge mine – and general chatting and bb being rather wild. finished off this eve playing ticket to ride again with dad. he won! chris and i did dreadfully :blush: lovely day

Ok, so i just did some emails and admin type stuff, as due to phased return, the actual ‘first day’ is tomorrow. but i did open a number of the emails without that cartoon palpitation business going on, and managed to sort out a bit a long term reduction in my job plan. This is a 2 edged sword, in that although it gives me what i need – more time to do the things at work i need to do, so less bringing it home, less stress – it also gives me a far bigger pay decrease than the proportion of time change, and when there is all this public sector/pension stuff going on, it might turn out to be far too big to afford. However, if it keeps me sane…

The girls played dollies all morning [while the cat's away...] and all the giggling and laughter is a tonic in itself dreadful weather tho. In fact i am actually now too hot, as i have overdone the layers thing. [3 jumper layers, thick socks and slippers and the sofa 'comfort duvet' ]. I have to admit that a whip was cracked and SB did some of her gruesome grammar book – sighing when we got to nouns, she has never really recovered from our abortive try at first language lessons for the well trained mind. we never got beyond the 6 billion chapters about nouns She did some music theory with me – on harmonic minors, that actually did take far longer than i thought :blush: and consolidated the last chapter of minimus . I meant to do Story of the world to get us up to date for the next historyetc, but completely forgot.

BB wanted to read yesterdays 2 books again, so we did that and played the bean game, and then she did a bit of subtraction in MPH 1a and did some more of her dolphin window mosaic. SB also did a piano prac. BB and i baked a chocolate cake, and I made the mixture for some fruit scones. BB then wanted a reprise of Settlers of Catan, so we played that together.

When SB came back from ballet she cut out and baked the scones, and then played Puerto Rico with me. Neither of these games work so well for 2 adult players, as 3 + players, but settlers with bb is a ‘friendly’ consultative approach, and actually with SB also at puerto rico, i am much more about the game being fun and encouraging some thought about strategy rather than proving I can beat a 9 year old so again friendly and me not going for the jugular, and having 2 goes per ’round’ tends to make this work well as well, partic if you only get the bonus with the first thing you choose to do in the round… We do love playing boardgames in this house.

BB, meanwhile, was being an excellent street musician with a cardboard tube wiggling and singing. She is a great little performer at home, just has no intention of letting anyone outside home see but she has a great ear for rhythm and perfect pitching, so we shall see.

Now, having blogged, I plan to flickr, shower and have an early night in preparation for tomorrow

Though I had better start with Thursday first! we managed to get up really early to be off and out to T and N’s as G had offered to listen to SB’s exam pieces before it got going. Unfortunately there was a huge hold up on our way in due to roadworks so we were late. Luckilly we did get a bit of piano in, and with a bit more work should be ok for grade 1 – phew! Which also meant that i went to the group for the first time in ages. i hadn’t gone whilst off as have found new places stressful, and meeting ppl difficult, especially as haven’t really broadcast that I have been off work and why… [and now slightly stressed that due to the post a couple down, lots of people will be reading my blog that don't normally - eek and embarrased wave!] Anyway, chatted to lovely people, reminded me how much i would like to be the home educator! but back to work next week. SB did some french, suprised me by not doing the bookclub, but we are all in a bit of a funny mood i think at the moment, and BB went shopping with chris and returned with new boots and a fab dinosaur top – prompting the post below!

Home and SB did some more home ed – maths and galore park history, and then we gave the rabbits a good clean out. BB went off to gym, and SB wrapped her pressies for BB and then made a lovely hamabead card. We then went to gym. Finished the day watching the new BBC shopkeepers in shepton mallet prog. perhaps not good for veggies watching the pig being butchered!!

This morning was completely and utterly devoted to bedroom tidying! It was painful, it was shrieky, it was done!!! phew! After that SB and i did piano prac and then went out to play with rabbits and then find some pretty leaves for our autumn craft. We stuck leaves on into a pleasing pic [BB cat, SB random, me spiral] and then read Keats’ Ode to Autumn, had a bit of a chat about the poem, and then SB and I chose our fav lines and added them to our pictures. Looks good i think! Let me chill after some stressy interweb moments! I love occupational therapy through crafts

Friends arrived for the bonfire and fireworks at our house tonight, and we had a lovely time. The kids had fun playing together, that adults chatted, giggled and chilled. After dinner it was still raining, so we shrugged our shoulders and got on with it! enjoyed the fireworks in the rain, and then raced inside to do birthday cakes, more playing and then a tearful goodbye. we should prob have arranged a sleepover! A very pleasant way to spend an evening

today was latinetc, and i had got a fun science all lined up! we were going to make oxygen – woohoo! and test for it. This completes a creating and testing for 3 gases – CO2, O2, H2 – series [yes, should really go for nitrogen, but it is trickier...] We’ll do it again no doubt in the future, but i emphasised the 3 and their tests today, and talked a fair bit about catalysts, being things that can make reactions go faster. We had hydrogen peroxide – which you can buy from a chemist cheaper than ebay [thankyou for t-bird for this nugget, only after i had purchased from ebay!] which will over time produce oxygen all by itself, faster if heated. But a catalyst will speed things up and make v much more ‘interesting’ . We had as our catalyst manganese dioxide – definitely going to be a winner, liver and kiwi fruit. [could use iron oxide but this doesn't do a lot, and lead oxide does do a lot, but i don't have any]. we put 15 mls of h202 with a bit of the catalyst [less than 1/4 tsp of the manganese dioxide] and a squirt of washing up liquid and some food colouring. it foams! we rated our catalysts in order of manganese oxide > liver > kiwi

The reaction is :
2H2O2(aq) -> 2H2O(l) + O2(g)
This is catalysed by a variety of transititional metal compounds and peroxidase enzymes found in many living things.

i also did an adapted genie in a bottle [as had less h202!] that i had practiced at home, so knew to be way safer!! still pretty dramatic, and we got to test for oxygen with glowing spills v successfully. [ps i had also given them my usual scary safety prep talk, we had safety specs, lab coats and gloves, and the foaming controls this a bit. I think we all enjoyed it [mind you, i did have to remind a most of the older group that safety specs are not so good if on the forehead rather than over the eyes ]

K did latin and french, Z did crafts – halloween and firework pics using oil pastels with a watercolour wash, and Merry did pasta and mastered K’s ecokettle! We are going to do the real science for kids next time, with all the children reading or having read to, chapter 1 of whichever level their parent thinks is ok, and then i am going to work out how we can model atoms in the interim, so we can each make one, and do some discussion around the periodic table and atomic weights as we do it.

SO after a bit of planning of groups, which K will tinker with and show and tinker with G, who wasn’t here today so needs to have an input, Merry went home, K did french and then we grown ups chatted as the children did a bit more craft. then we went geocaching for the elusive ones! and this time – fanfare – Z found it! still not quite where we thought it was going to be. SB led a group of children out of view, and BB got hurt, so was a bit cross with her for breaking cardinal rule of going somewhere that i didn’t know about out of eyesight and nearly earshot as well. . We then persuaded kfish to come to the next cache too, which i think she may have regretted… i had the coords only on iphone, which with classic timing ran out of charge when we most needed it [actually ] so Z rang chris and got coords, i had the gps which i don’t know how to use, and in the end kept marking waypoints and deleting them until they were more or less the coords. it was getting dark and looking a bit hopeless, so we gave up, but K and I spotted an interesting log arrangement, J investigated it, and tada!! a geotat cache! BB way too tired so i had a less than nice moment when little A – bless her – passed on what she had chosen mind you, we had had A in our car as she had had a moment too that she never got to go in other peoples cars. SHe and BB had a fab conversation which didn’t make 100% sense from the front… Though that was better than BB and L when i had those 2, who were on the cheeky end of the spectrum [not dreadfully, more mock outrage rather than actual required!!]

got home to find chris had tidied the front room and wrestled with putting the curtains up. oh i DO like a room with curtains!! we had chips, falling asleep half way through, and the rest of us watching a fab programme about optical illusions. now i plan to watch the apprentice on iplayer.

And yes, it is 2 months since my sister died, and have thought about her on and off all day.

SB decided that she wanted to try and do as much as possible today and spend tomorrow making her halloween costume. Fine! So she raced through various of her home ed books – trying to remember here! kS3 science workbook, maths, french workbook, gruesome grammar, piano practice, she read her last Aquila [that counts as a fact book] and I was sure there was something else?? no idea…

SB, BB and I got to do a lovely afternoon of fimo, SB made a mummy and started a sarcophagus. BB made a skull and also another skull in a black cloak – very great i used scrappy bits of fimo to make keyrings, either for geotat or geotags so very therapeutic. And I needed therapeutic, having flickred the pics of sisters funeral. feeling v low not aided by another BB exploring when people were going to die, and who was going to die first. anyway, fimo good and made all the better by the inconsequential but loving chit chat that goes on whilst we do it. and ooh that is good, or what on earth is that mummy@ [a snake canopic jar - lol!]

also baby rabbits! missed there being shadow/biscuit, but good to know she was rampaging around her new home the babiest babies still all doing well. on discussion, we are not sure whether sedna [gerda as was] is a giant, or whether hamster and the 2 black otters are just small?? all v beautiful. Aware we will be saying goodbye to the final 3 of the big babies this weekend, and feel slightly sad about that, but glad that they are going ro such good homes with friends.

Girls both had gym, and SB was v happy doing something or other on the bars [some kind of backwards twirl thing] and when she came home, did some non verbal reasoning asking that at the end if we could have a treat of story of the world, as she thinks that might be better than baking I did say lets do it now, but she wanted to do the verbal reasoning. so, unfortunately, she didn’t get the story of the world as it was dinner time, and then we watched a dvd about plants I have promised to do story of the world tomorrow.

BB hasn’t been mentioned much today in blog, as she spent most of it being either a monster, leopard or baby rabbit. TBH the baby rabbit was bearable, the other 2 challenging… but in between shrieking, rarring and pretending to eat her cuddly toys we did have some lovely cuddles and snuggles And we all had loads of interesting home ed type discussions, the ones where i wished i had google-in-the-brain! [like how many seeds are in a pomegranate, how long would it take to walk round the world etc] and the ones where i could answer, but could tell i was not being believed – ie why don’t fruit and veg tend to grow square…

we went down to my parents for the weekend. They have been much worried about me, and I think they are reassured that all will be OK given some time and a better break! We went for the 25th anniversary concert of an orchestra mum and I were founder members of, and viv joined a bit later. I had a lovely time playing before with them, including the first mvt of beeethovens violin concerto and even after i left, returned for a number of concerts, including
the 10th and the 20th reunion concerts, both with mum and sister. Mum and I [and viv as offer made in July] were asked if we would like to play this time. we said no, tho i sort of wish we had said yes, tho on the other hand the tchaik 1 is total nightmare – and that was the only bt we thought we would be playing, but as it turned out those returners played the whole concert, including mendelsohn violin [ooh] and butterworth banks of green willow [aah]. Anyway, mum, dad and I took SB with us, and enjoyed the whole concert, and SB was really good at not jiffling and looking interested, even tho tchaik 1 on the turgid side! but what reduced us to tears was the dedication of the green willow – a strings heavy piece – to my dear sister vivien. Still SAK as i write this. I think all 3 of us had tears dripping down through the whole piece, beautiful that it is.

Once we had recovered – in the lovely Mendelssohn, we could enjoy the rest of the concert. it was fab meeting people again, some who we had seen recently at viv’s funeral, but some others that i went to music centre, or were taught by. And also one of mum’s school friends there too. After the concert, all old members were invited ‘backstage’ to enjoy some champagne to toast the longevity of the orchestra and hug previous friends and desk partners and too our total shock, mum and i got flowers as founder members!! SB found all this chatting bit quite boring. luckilly i took ds for her .

we got home late to find BB still awake, so i sang her to sleep – aw like doing that and SB went to sleep fairly instantly too.

next day chatting and playing games with my parents. SB caught up her 25 on this weeks ticksheet by doing 2 piano pracs, verbal reasoning and spelling book – good girl!! [actually took her to 28]. Dad set up a measuring and finding game in the garden which they both enjoyed. SB was a bt tierd and fragile with wailing at every knock, and BB had a right roayl strop, so i told her off for being ungrateful and greedy oh well!! lovely lunch from mum.

We then took a too boisterous BB and a slightly droopy SB on a geocache walk with my mum, a lovely walk across fields near where they live. i remember doing this walk loads as a child, and then courting chris I think we went too as a short cut to a nice pub. Rather more hideous memories of it being the cross country route of middle school! Actually the middle school maintain this geocache, and we found it easily, exchanged tat, and put in the daddybean TB. As we walked back, we walked past the scout hut, and the road to it has been named after a friend and neighbour who died suddenly in 50′s – another tearful moment. SO feeling quite a memory lane weekend, and wish that you could sometimes just pop back in time, just to relive and feel the moments, not necessarily to change.

straightforward drive home, and my fav [i think, tho this does change!] overture played on classic fm. i will leave you wth that at end! girls in bed, but not asleep. rabbits all safe, and chrs and i cold, so heating on from 2moro!

part one

part 2

Since we went to the tate modern in jan, and admired some of matisse, SB and I had thought we could have a thought about looking at making art ‘in the style of…’ starting with Matisse this year. Art is not my strongest point [ ] but I do enjoy it. SO we planned that for today. before we began, however, some tidying was in order. We all hate tidying, it is true, so it was well past midday before the room was enough tidy to move on! then as the kitchen wasn’t, we had to do other things first!

SB and I did a great recorder practice, the scales [though not arpeggios] and the 3 exam pieces. gradually coming together. mostly notes and rhythms right, so now to work on phrasing and dynamics! BB and I also did a recorder practice together, and SB did some french.

BB started with her own craft project, which she tells me daddy musn’t know anything about, and SB and I looked at a few matisse pictures and she said she knew what she had in mind and didn’t need to see any more, thankyou very much! BB also had a clear plan, so they got on with that whilst i read

The Pasteur book fits nicely with the science i plan to do later in the week as well. SB and BB both liked these books, and periodically stopped cutting/glueing/sticking to peer at the pictures and have a snuggle. The we moved onto story of the world and queen elizabeth 1. i corrected the succession order from henry VIII story, and then we enjoyed reading it, and then a bit about francis drake and sir walter raleigh from these books

BB’s has gone up on the wall, but SB’s has rather a lot of glue on it, so should be placed on the wall tomorrow! Having covered the kitchen table in Matisse style art, we ate our stirfry watching Dr Who in the living room before off to bed!!

As ppl might have read below, on monday chris bought fish from the fishmonger at the market. Today we dissected them at latinetc! i was really impressed, particularly by the younger [and more sensible group] at how carefully this was done in the main. i think the younger group were aided by being on 4 wanting to do it and 2 adults, to the older groups impatient 6! We started with looking at the beauty of the mackerel, the camouflage elements, and how we thought these might work, at the shape and dynamics of the fish – muscled and bullet shaped, likely to be a fast swimmer we thought. at the various external features – vent, protected eyes and gills, the various fins and the fabulous mouth. Then we started cutting!

we started with gills, talked about their purpose and investigated them – they are v beautiful! then we did our eviscerating slit – careful mostly not to eviscerated! amazingly we found the swim bladder, gonads, stomach and heart. may have found liver! def found lots of muscle and spine. and then after discussing those, they merrily set to on destruction! actually, that’s not entirely true, E did a beautiful dissection in the littlies, BB was a bit wilder! in the older group i think J and J did well to hang in their, being uncertain about dissection [and i have promised that will be the only one this term - so no eyeballs yet!] and the smell got to chloe. SB and maddy really enjoyed gutting etc their fishes…

other than that, they did music theory and latin and for the littlies french. we stayed and chatted whilst katy went to baby music, which was nice, i like the opportunity for a good natter. i listed to M and then J doiing their violin practises. we brought Maddy home with us, and she did brownies and judo v happily with SB, watched charlottes web with tea, and now all is finally quiet upstairs…

today was a latinetc day, always enjoyable for all of us. we were still late, because somehow our kids don’t get out of the house, and my poor sleeping is making me just want to curl up in bed unless matter transported! We started with SB doing some music theory, which apparently she struggled to do there, but at home raced through the sheet, so as gina says, prob due to arriving half way thro. BB similarly shy in french, doing opposites, but got going, and for the rest of the morning toddling about quite happily!

I like being in the kitchen with michelle, though think she may have been a bit more dubious about our proximity as we were looking at bacteria! i reassured everyone that they were actually dead! fixed on a microscope slide in fact, and we had a peer at some, but my microscope not really powered quite highly enough. we did a fun bacteria division game with peas and paper ‘cells’ obviously these were intracellular bacteria! and that was enjoyed. then i got out the petri dishes and swabs and we all thought of somewhere that might harbour bacteria, swabbed and plated it. now, with any luck, the petri dishes are in airing cupboards gently warming! the plan is to look every day and draw what you see. we may, or may not, have the older group try and make a microscope slide depending on how well it goes! unfortunately, it used up way more agar than i imagined! so i have had to buy lots more, and am waiting for it before we do part 2 – grow bugs and then put in something we think is bacteriocidal – what do you think? teatree, lavender, breast milk, alcohol gel, soap?? oh and an antibiotic and see if we can kill them! so we will dissect a fish next time instead. we had lots of discussions about bacteria, and it is always great to see what info kids already have and can pull together, we had a bit of evolution, yoghurt making, pasteurisation, ‘good and bad’ bacteria…

latin and music also happened, tho not clarinet – will happen 2moro. we came home, and sb did the clarinet and theory sheet whilst BB got going with painting a plaster of paris frame she had made. she really paints v carefully, and acrylic paints are so much better for this!! just as SB was about to get a kit to finish out, we had the deependers arrive after baby music, so supplied tea and refreshments. M very taken by that maze ball thing we all have! J,K and SB played bohnanza for a bit, and L and BB played together v happily. apparently the frame is prob for L, but don’t get too excited, as BB often keeps the things she makes for others…

Other things this week – SB had and really enjoyed her first golf lesson. she has done loads of maths on angles. BB done lots of crafting and finally starting to learn some letters!! chris put up the new bookcases, so looks fab in hallway, and currently he has started on room of doom! work been stressful as always, but have some time off coming up – woohoo!! oh, and it snowed – somehow that is no longer newsworthy, and i have hardly mentioned this prolonged cold snap in the blog, but it hasn’t really affected us, not like so many others!

before we get to today, i thought i would just like to say i went out to a restaurant both monday and tuesday! monday with chris, as girls at nanna’s so we made the most of the evening by going out to a local turkish, which was delish! tuesday was work night out at a chinese-malaysian – mucho yummy! had mock peking duck for the first time and liked it [have always steered a bit clear of the mock things!] must take chris there, it was near where the deependers live so would recommend it, tho a bit on the pricy side! mind you, the non veggies all had lobster as one of the courses, so i am guessing if i had been with chris it might have been half that price!

and so to wed, thought would raise christmas cheer with the science, and thinking hard for a good end of year finale, decided on crystal structure! went really well. we looked at crystals with SB’s rather fab microscope

now, this has mixed reviews, so anyone considering one, i think digital with usb port is a fab thing, it works quickly and easily and the laptop we run it on is our oldest one. the x200 doesn’t have enough light, so i agree there, but if you see one of these going cheap, snap it up, as far more fun than something you have to look down eyepieces for! all the children were v interested in it, from the v youngest, and it was quite some time before BB declared boredom! tho i notice that when they moved to slides, she was still watching!

we discussed crystals, how they form, and that if i had a powerful enough microscope [they don't do toy electron microscopes yet!] we could have seen the actual crystalline structure – which we discussed! then, whilst gina did music theory we them, i prepared my ace card – we made the crystalline structures out of maltesers held with royal icing. great fun! enjoyeed thoroughly by all, and hoping that they might remember some of them [i said them till blue in face!] simple cube, face centered cube, body centred cube, hexagonal close packed. and here are some examples!

actually it was a busy session and v much enjoyed by all. Gina also did bells with the big’uns and clarinet with the SB. Merry continued with sewing samplers with everyone – remarkably patient with all the needle traumas! BB also remarkably patient with hers. katy did latin christmas carols [well, latin translations!] and french and also boiled sweetie window biscuits. All went down really well, lots of happy laughing kids learning lots.

we were not only first to arrive [as hadn't seen any morning emails!] but also first to leave, as BB wanted to go to the rainbows christmas party. she didn’t join in any game, but when we ate, a girl sat with us, and they got on well, as she was really outgoing and friendly. not sure if bb will ever go to rainbows again, but she was much happier having had this interaction. i think she is just much younger than the others – prob directly due to home educating as we don’t push the outward facing thing.

SB had brownies party afterwards, which apparently didn’t have enough games. we watched doctor who, a crazy long bath was had, and the day was done.