Category Archives: language

science wednesday

Posted on September 24, 2008 by | 2 comments

well, latin and science anyway! we managed to get up and nearly there on time – the girls and i would have managed it, but chris stopped to buy apples at the orchard! latin kicked off with revision of what has gone before, as last term things got a bit rusty! at present latin etc is 4 family strong, and it has smallies, middlies and big’uns. the middlies did a quick bit of science on energy, where to find it, and what it might be whilst the big’uns did the latin. a fruity snack and a run about, and the groups swapped, so the big’uns did science and the middlies did french. SB is a big’un, and BB in a bit of a gap between being a smallie and a middlie, so a bit of a loose cannon really. she’ll be a middlie with me for science, and a smallie prob for french. maybe we can get something hands on and crafty going on that she will stick with too.

we did energy anyway. it seemed to work well. we did lots of investigating and looking at things, and the kids have their sheets to go home with and stick in a book! so the session 1 worked well. think session 2 will be even better – and must gradually shape that up!

plenty of nice food and lots of play before we set of with michelle and chloe for the monthly rspb walk.

we adults agreed that it was probably the least enjoyable walk we have done there, though SB with her revisionist history thought it had been great, and couldn’t remember that every single one of the children had had their stand off waily moments [BB>SB>C] poor bb’s trousers kept falling down, leading to 2 nasty falls when running. SB got herself into a wrong side of the bed kind of mood, and had to be gently cajoled into joining the living, at which point she got the wrong side of a bramble… but we kept on. us adults [well mostly me, and maybe michelle] were totally unimpressed when the 1.6km walk ended up not a nice circuit, or going anywhere, but at the road! humph. somehow, back at the carpark the girls all recovered their jollies and played really beautifully for an hour – prob the cause of revisionist history!

we came back, quick tea for SB before judo – which she does really enjoy, so that’s good. BB and I had a snuggle and watched ‘the snowman’ before her bedtime.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, General, language, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation

busy bees

Posted on September 10, 2008 by | 8 comments

we have had a mostly screech free day here today. BB is *very* piercing! when I got up, BB had been watching magic school bus – and I found another one i hadn’t seen – the microbe one! [yes, chris is going to get round to it!!] SB started off with doing a jigsaw book on ancient egyptian sites. We then read together a story about ramadan and eid, and she went on to look at a the what I believe book. Then did some self directed recorder practice – getting better at hole covering so not so many shrill bits. BB and I did maths at this point. she is starting to add 1 onto things, and subtract 1′s. BB and I then did some alphabet stuff, as she doesn’t know it at all yet.

SB then looked at our usbourne picture french dictionary [after me telling Katy that we weren't doing french reading - of course SB LOVES reading] so we did the a’s and b’s [she complained that only the english words were always a's and b's :roll: ] SO we did it together with my pronunciation :oops: and thinking of sentences to put it in.

SB did singapore maths – must buy the 3 series – whilst BB did starfall and i hemmed the Gi thingy for judo – so at least now she can walk without flappy arms and legs!

And then we had breakfast :wink:

OK, it was a late breakfast at 11! BB had already had breakfast earlier and SB and I had brunch. SB did violin whilst I still hemmed, and we are being inventive at the moment, with the majority of the time she is finding sounds, or making up tunes for me or playing scales – she likes scales. At this time an amazon bookseller order arrived from way back – one of the 3rd grade detective books, which she loves, so she tucked herself on the sofa and had finished it within 1/2 an hour. hmm! We also had a parcel from the manor borns, so SB moved onto melrose and croc, [most impressed with inscription from Clo] and BB spent most of the rest of the day in lizard related activities – very enthusiastic! [chris went shopping for gas canisters - so that was his day - rofl!]. SB made up some choc angel delight on her own – though BB sahred the task of eating it.

The girls are really in to playing with the castle and stuff at the moment, i was in charge of dragons, SB had romans and courtiers, and BB assorted lizards and dinodoors [as you do] and they had tea parties, swimming parties and hama bead diving competitions [i need to get out the hoover]. I in the end drifted away [i think I did VERY well to carry on for that long] and SB fancied knitting – so she brought back some yellow moon first cross stitch kits, she did the flower [well, at least she started it and did the centre]. BB played with the kit, but didn’t actually DO any.

They then did some convoluted liz game, I went out into the veg patch and picked loads of greenbeans, toms, brocolli and courgettes. they came out and did whizzing about the garden with lizards, but when i went in to cook the curry for tea they came in too. SB hama beaded, BB did liz dives into hama beads games, and i read them a book about remainder of one.

SB has gone off to Judo [first time since broken foot so fingers crossed] and BB watching the ways things work. I am pondering cars and how much i can stretch too.

edited to add: when SB came back, with free choice to watch whatever she wanted, and BB asleep, she chose Muzzy german level 2. and then we discussed protons and dark matter :smile: She has been a happy bean all day.

also, any recommendations on good balanced books – pref story related and good for 8 year old who has good vocab skills – about the crusades?

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, gardening, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

i-viking we will go

Posted on September 5, 2008 by | 3 comments

i’ve been working, but chris and the girls have been busy busy. a visit to nots and tots at one of our not so close HE groups. picked up our suma order from Katy – pleased so see that it is enormous, as it was expensive! Also pleased that chris left in the dried mango slices – yum yum. SB put out that she didn;t finish the science experiment on heat loss as she had to go to the dentist. SB was fine at the dentist, and was oK with the discussion that her front teeth stick out and will need some work when she is older. [aargh to thumb sucking, if i could go back in time i would be there with the dummy] bB wouldn’t open her mouth. she decided she only will when she is f and bigger :roll: for an overwhelmingly confident bean she is remarkably scaredy about these type of out of family/friend things.

in the afternoon, SB did maths, handwriting, piano and violin - she is def motivated at the moment! When i got home they were recreating the heat loss experiment. weirdly paper did best, our socks obviously not v good!! BB and i had lots of stories from library books, and she played chase the A through the book.  SB did some more of our viking brooch craft, and also made a paper kit viking ship i picked up from greece some time ago. SB particularly likes the idea of i-viking as a phrase! She amazed me by saying that she knew how the vikings and normandy tied up, and telling chris about it. it is in SOtW, but i don’t test recall, and make no significance to remembering, and i get a sad thrill about things remembered! We did some french altogether, with SB snuggled on my lap.

I really like an SB snuggle, and I don’t get one so often any more [oK. i still get lots, but i like LOTS] and i had a distinct moment of looking at her and seeing the lovely, charming older girl looking back at me. i cherish every second, because one day this older girl is going to leave home! i am not sure that we do the best that we can all the time, and i know my parenting and ed could be better, but i think we try hard, and love well. Though she is still emotionally up and down, i hope that this gorgeous and sensitive child is being done the best by that we possibly can. ah, i had a real mummy moment!

whilst bB went to bed, it was games time, and SB did some of the horrible histories viking sticker book with me and then chose a multiplication game. we read a bit more of the second roman mysteries book and did a made up story.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, little languages, music, numeracy, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

odin’s day

Posted on September 3, 2008 by | 6 comments

we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym – woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.

today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!

BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.

we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.

SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.

SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.

a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.

chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

after the excitement…

Posted on September 1, 2008 by | Leave a comment

… comes the eating up of spare party food – never so enjoyable!! though katy’s cheese bread that i missed on the day has been wolfed down!

chris and the girls went shopping for some non party food, and also try out a different library. SB has done maths and handwriting, and we have printed out the first Dolch set of words for her to learn how to spell. Since they are allegedly common words, we thought we could start with those, especially since a lot of them are easy!

both girls have done a lot of playing with shops today, and also castle stuff, and also being puppy dogs. SB has bee doing a lot of french knitting, and made BB a bracelet, and also some painting of kits and bB has made pompom creatures.

When i got home we did some french altogether – BB ‘woofed’ her responses – hmm. We read some viking stories, a section of SoTW and did recorder practice. Bit of playing outside, and a game of SET. BB also did some blowing on the recorder.

i am STILL flickring. i will delete duplicate photos when up i think.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, Stringbean's HE, writing

busy bees

Posted on August 27, 2008 by | 1 comment

we have been very busy today. i had a lie in as still feeling bleurgh, but medication overcomes all eventually! SB was v industrious, and did her maths [woohoo, she can finally reliably tell the time, so she is due a watch], handwriting [still getty and dubay] and piano practice before i got up.

i got up at 10, because that is when the amazon parcel arrived. the girls were falling over themselves desperate for me to open it! it had 2 french/english story books, SB’s recorder books and 2 michael morpurgo books – beowulf [which we will save as a bedtime book, we are currently on the second roman mystery, and chris on the first narnia] and blodin the beast. Oh i also bought a pompeii book to go with the current theme on a different bloggers recommendation, and we enjoyed that.

SO today has been rather book oriented! I read the blodin and pompeii book to the girls, we did the red riding hood with cd [but prefer me to do it] and sb read me some of a volcano fact book we have. both girls read a pirate flap book we have as well. BB did some maths and some letters. SHe also did ‘extra’ french, as she insisted on doing the maths counting in french.

All this took the morning, and a late lunch and then a bit of the afternoon. we went outside to run about, play football etc, and then returned in for a snack.

At this point the enormity of the total tipness of the house, and the imminent guest situation turned me into a bit of a panic, so i reorganised the bookcases in the playroom [why i couldn't just lump the books on i don't know] and also we sorted the child ‘bits’ – you know, fimo art blobs, broken hama, numerous tiny plastic tat animals etc. the girls found homes for them all :roll: . i realised i was getting snappy, so told sb to choose some music – and we had a french cd [rofl!] but i calmed down, and we have done not a bad job! i have also polished some of the staircase woodwork. i hasten to add that this house is actually not going to live up to many peoples idea of tidy, but it will at least have somewhere to place feet!!

BB did maths jump ahead, and SB whichever jump ahead she has got to, then they both argued over who could practice recorder with me first and def couldn’t under any circumstances be doing it together. it was sb’s turn to ‘win’ a nonwinnable situation, not that it made her happier. but once we had settled down to it, it was fine. some magic school bus to watch, and a treat of curry take-away for all our hard work.

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Posted in Books, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, writing

RSPB walk

Posted on August 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

yesterday morning we whipped through music practices, read some french book and did some maths before lunch :wink: SB had found zoombinis cd and working through that – bit of deja vu having only just read t-birds post!

in the afternoon we did our monthly rspb walk with the manor borns – after i had had i minor strop that chris hadn’t packed my fleece – we were obviously speaking in different languages to each other again! but the weather was lovely, so no fleece required. the girls all greated each other enthusiastically, and we were on and running. we did the quarry path – as i think it is all of our favourites, but especially BB, who did us proud in walking and running. it really was a joy of a walk, good friends and happy children.

back to their house for dinner – yummy – and more children playing fun.

today i have had some lurgy, so had a sick day. i hate sick days, as i have to make up all the work at a later date, and some work is particularly challenging to retimetable. but i wasn’t safe to practice as it were. today i slept till lunchtime, had 3 hours up – bb insisted on doing reading, maths, piano and violin with me!! SB was less speedy, and did french , maths and a lot of reading of asterix! we then all did a craft kit that both girls enjoyed painting and decorating wooden bugs. SB should have done some music but i ran out of effort. she is currently watching roar.

i went back to bed as she had her gym taster session – which hopefully will give her a gym place this year. i have now got up – sort of, as horizantal on sofa instead.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, language, literacy, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

too hot to blog

Posted on July 27, 2008 by | 2 comments

too hot to think.

i had the tremendous privilege of working in borneo for 2 months when a student, and spent part of that plying my future trade up and down the deepest interior of the rainforest in a motorised canoe from marudi and sibu. perhaps i was more acclimatised, but i feel hotter and sweatier and stickier than then! we have had a torrential downpour, which doesn’t seem to have reduced heat or humidity. there i always stood under the mandy to tip cold water over my head to let me sleep! [you can see i was a honoured visitor to the iban and dayak longhouses, as more commonly all bathing is done in the lovely leech infested rivers!]

anyway, it was too hot to think all day, so we did butterfly half paintings, where you fold to get the mirror image. that took up lots of day! sb also did a paint a fairy kit, and bb lots of paddling pooling. we read about camille and the sunflowers and looked at our fab sunflowers. i did a sunflower picture that we then took a print from.

we did a bit of french about clothes, but its been too hot to think, so we also did harvesting = beans and pots for tea. and i did some weeding after all.

i am now going to collapse infront of a prog about australian wildlife and hope bb goes to sleep soon – she had a siesta unfortunately!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, Stringbean's HE

too darn hot!

Posted on July 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

i know i shouldn’t gripe. but i think my ambient temp is between 18 and 22 degrees. when its colder i wrap up warm, but when its this much hotter… well, i hide in the shade and dip feet in the paddling pool.

but, what i really needed to do was give the garden a good weed. but with it being so hot and airless, and me only just shaking off a migraine, i didn’t think it worth the risk [and it would have been seriously unpleasant]. i could go out in the datk with a torch on i guess, but now feeling lazy!

so, the girls spent a lot of the day in the paddling pool – it did seem like the most sensible thing. though they came in for a 2 hour muzzy fest before i kicked them out again. there seems to be a new interest in muzzy, and they’ve watched 3 days on the trot. since we have series 1 and 2 in german, and 1 in spanish, this is a serious amount of muzzy! i do think my german comprehension has improved mind you!
so i chased them back into the garden and we swung, paddled, picked petals off flowers etc. i took out the airdrying clay – actually i love air drying clay, especially hen you buy it in a sale! as it is cheap, and the girls can fiddle about with it to their hearts content. BB immediately said she wanted to make a coil pot, and set about doing it – she remembered exactly how we did it before easter and got going. sb made a thumb pot. they both then made pizzas. i read some of my book – male sci-fi. you have to roll eyes once in a while, but it is excellent escapism.

helped chris net the raspberries before the birds steal any more, and played games with the girls until we went in to cool off [victorian house good at being cool, partic if we leave cellar door open] and we did some french books and SB did violin practice, but we had to do a bit less, as bb also got her violin out, and was demonstrating her new clock song! they fancied pancakes for tea [they don't often get to choose!] so i did that, and whilst i was getting ready, they both did some maths. BB very proud of how beautifully she can now write a 4. read dinodoors and hairy mcclary to bb, and a roman mystery 2 chptrs for sb. SB also had a chapter of SoTW – islam goes to spain.
bath and bed for both of them. though in the gap between the 2, sb and i played several hands of rummy, and then did a simple electronics kit

forgot to say that i have given BB a pretty short bob as well!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, gardening, General, history, language, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE

where has the week gone?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by | 1 comment

for me mostly lost in la la migraine land. and for chris some vomiting thing. bb pretended to have a migraine today – v cute, if somewhat worrying for the tendency to migraine is familial here. please let both of mine not be affected.

yesterday was therefore a bit of a laidback day. actually bb wasn’t laid back, she decided to learn french. i read 3 books with her, and she did poisson rouge – she can count to 10 happily in french and knows some of the colours – although still insistant that blanc is black. i can see her point… SB also did the french books with me, and so i think we are starting to get somewhere in our rhythm of french, so am pleased with that. SB and bB also did some piano practice and handwriting. sb mostly wrote reminder notices to stick all round the house for daddy to take her to the hairdressers!!

we had got a new book from amazon about tectonic plates etc, which we have also enjoyed reading and – drum roll please – we have read some more story of the world!! about clovis the ex barbarian. mUST do more SoTW!! [though i liked the look of that galore park junior history. discussed it with sb, and she prefers me to read stories to her at the mo.

today they did some piano, and played alot, and SB has been sewing – it might be a cloak for A? oh, and sb has had her hair cut! [photo will eventually follow, but i have to do them in order - chris might not be so fussy!!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing