literacy

today was for the girls a mostly sylvanianing day. they adore playing sylvanians! they tend to only start when SB has read her book for the day - she starts the day with a book and ends the day with the book. we are getting through loads!

i did want to do some science, as over a year ago won a very ancient kit on ebay about osmosis, and have been v keen to try it out!! today was the day! unlike newr kits, it has LOADS of actual science talk in it, explaining what you are doing, why, the scientific concepts etc - great! Anyway we had a thought about permeable and impermeable, and each selected a container of each and poured water into it. we saw we were right, but that some things were more permeable than others, and infact waxing a permeable thing [ie muffin cases] greatly reduced their initial permeability. We then looked at diffusion, to prove that the molecules moved around in the water [perpetual motion/ kinetic theory ] and that we don’t need to shake to mix up a solution we dropped a copper sulphate crystal into warm water and watched the water all gradually turn blue. Unfortunately we didn’t actually get to any of the osmosis experiments, as the girls were sylvanian needy again!!

other things done were some playdoughing, BB did more of her ’secret’ , SB and I did a long recorder practice and some aurals [aargh!], SB wrote into her journal. I sorted out the science shelves abit, and chris turned the room of doom into a place where you might nearly be persuaded to go. Oh, and we spent a long time doing the RSPB gardenwatch - better late than never!

We finished watching tales from the green valley - the Jacobean farm series.

we have had a v busy day today, and i took a day off work to do it! we had a locally organised trip to the nene valley railway - not quite so close! We were going on a mail train, where we would stamp our own letters, pop them in the mailbags, onto the train, then see how mailbags were picked up and dropped off at speed, and then sort the mail. [oh, involving a train ride]. It was absolutely fabulous. we all enjoyed it, although both girls were suffering from tiredness with tired wingy wobbles from BB and tired no-one understands me from SB with tired unsympathetic parents but still… i loved meeting loads of group people i haven’t seen for ages - waves!! there were loads of spouses, some never seen before [by me, obviously other people had seen them before!] i was fascinated by the bag pick up thingy, and enjoyed the convivial atmosphere of the whole trip really. absolutely fab!! the weather even was with us, a lovely warm lunchtime picnic!

we returned home for a quick turnaround, SB did some galore park english [3.4] piano and a bit of science reading, whilst BB made herself sums in her books and used toes and fingers to answer them - bless [like 10+4] she didn’t want to use her real book obviously! then whilst SB went to ballet, myself and BB played oodles of traintracking. i love the way her trains are either chuggering or truckling round the lines - v cute!

And after tea we were out to the michaelmas fair. also fantastic. there was probably the most terrifying ride in fairgrounds in the world - called extreme. a big NO from me!! SB and chris did loads, bB did a few really baby ones, and instead one things hooking nemos and penguins! we spent more money that planned, as the fair was quite big, and through the town centre, making it more interesting and exciting!

SB has nearly finished her sugar and spice book and am wondering what to get next? a working towards grade one??

its obviously another chris day, but you may have noticed he has stopped blogging. this is a problem, as i am not there!! but i believe they went to the library, read loads of books, sb did some piano practice, spelling and maths. they didn’t get the microscope at to look at crystals though. and then they went swimming. this is the once a month i might get back if i push things, so i arranged to meet them at the swimming pool and chris took our swimmies. i just made it for the end of their lesson, and then we all had a lovely family swim. bb can swim 2m now, but hasn’t worked out how to swim and breath, so tends to have to stop swimming, stand up and breathe - rofl. she also has a weird jelly fish swimming stlye, in that she scrunches herself up then extends and by some miracle she is a bit further along. a bit like dolphin stroke i guess! after having a lovely time we returned for slow cooker lasagne - which was delish. bb exhausted, so fast asleep, and sb should be too. she has been enjoying listeing to anne of green gables on her mp3.

Sb has been v busy today, she has done her music theory, some of her schofield and simms book Animals and Plants (Understanding Science)
, read some box books - including where do babies come from, so all clued up there! she also did some piano practice and bond verbal reasoning. oh, and made up a story for her galore park english [we are currently doing a question a time - so 3.4 this time!]

In the afternoon she bought postcards for postcrossing - we have nabbed the idea from the babs as a gentle way to introduce some geography into our life! she also wrote one of the cards as the crossee is 9. and also did some sectret ’stuff’ which she has sent to cousin e as a birthday present. i think that took most of the afternoon before ballet.

together we read some french - a berthe and a lucy chat book [links in my books we read section], story of the world - isabella and ferdinand and i did some of her before the code c with BB.

BB also made some plaster of paris dinosaurs and other moulds whilst sb at ballet - lets see how they turn out! [hopefully they will turn out!] She watched the walking with beasts first one [her favourite] and also played with the science magnet kit.

tea early enough that bb could go to bed afterwards and sb and i had time to play ticket to ride. we drew! we both really enjoyed it, and need to get back into the games playing habit together. in our roman mystery, jonathan has survived being executed - as sb predicted!

well, its not happening, its 23:45 so i have bowed to the inevitable and am watching back eurekas whilst hoping she will fall asleep lying on me snuggled in a duvet. humph. we are more or less ready to go on hols, ok, a bit less, but hey! i can manage about 30 mins of something before requiring a rest, but at least i did do several 30 minute bursts, as though chris is better, he isn’t precisely well…

anyway, the girls have been playing a lovely babies game, slinging their babies around the place and generally getting on well, except when i ask them to pack… to tidy their bedroom… etc etc anyway, i am going to copy kirsty’s today motto and only blog the good!!

SB did some HE spontaneously today, she did some maths, some music theory and some of her mediaeval project book, and we watched the mesopotamian what the ancients did for you [v fab] and sb then watched some of shakespeares stories as bb and i had fallen asleep on the sofa [hence current awake bb prob - well, actually, shhh, but i think she is nearly asleep!]

ermmm, slight contretemps about the not at all tidied playroom, ermmmmm that’s it i think. exhausted, but we are holidaying - woohoo!! expect to hear of torrential rain and flash floods along the loire…

today i have had another sofa day. am feeling better, but has we should have gone on hols this eve and pushed it back to thurs, didn’t want to push my luck!!

the girls have mostly played with baby dolls today. bb devastated cos she can’t find her baby sling, so rustled up one with a fleece scarf. sb adapted my hugababy. would like to say this was accomplished with out wails,tears and gnashing of teeth… but compromises made, peace restored and game continued on and off for most of day. at some point the girls might realise we never interfere or interupt a good game…

in between this lovely sibling play were peppered some HE moments. BB did some real and unreal maths, SB did some galore park english and science [bitesize] and piano practice.

Both girls at swimming lesson now.

edited to add - found babysling in airing cupboard, so today v happy

grump and grump. i have found myself exceptionally challenged by vertical, noise, physical contact and sibling squabbles today. i even resorted to hiding under the sofa duvet. i am not well!!

bb has been desperate to play with sb, having missed her loads and her being out and about a lot of last week and then an impromptu sleepover. so could they do it?? absolutely no. both being miserable and waily, not agreeing to any compromise, so got sent out. came back and have been toddler playing - ie beside each other rather than with. so i have hama-ed with both girls, fimo-ed with bb, read to sb. sb read a bit of her mediaeval project book [a few posts below] and also wrote a letter to a magazine - spontaneous writing!! wonders will never cease. well done sb!

i tried a change of position and went outside. managed to do a science kit with both girls. typically sb was the one to spill her solution, but easily sorted. we liked the kit, though tbh easily replicated with food dye and ice cube tray for those wanting to save money! SB in particular loved doing it, and was a good way of teaching pipette control, and drop counting. covered both colour mixing, something on light and wavelengths, and then a bit on dilution. we did like the little tray though!! was a charity shop [at work] find though so ok! the correct response to this link is … HOW MUCH!!!

edited to add: if you do want to buy it, buy this one from a mate of mine, much cheaper!

i painted bb’s face as a tiger, chris messed about with our new camping acquisition - see below and i realised vertical was not my thing. so i slumped big style, and still haven’t left the horizantal. girls watched a fair bit of oceans dvd and then robinson crusoe.

aah thank goodness for pills, diet coke and the evening, i hope to watch eureka and wake up tomorrow with a bit more patience. sb has tried v hard to be patient and loving to me, as has bb. the both of them together is just over my limit, and it is so unfair to them. chris well on the mend

i have just finished a v weepy phone call with my mum. i still miss little nanny like a raw wound. today was a little nanny day, as some of the inheritance money has arrived, so i bought things for the girls with it. i bought some sylvanian things, knowing they love them, and that my nanny loved to watch the play with the little itty bitty toys and the imaginative games that they make up. the girls knew they were ‘from’ little nanny, but that i had bought them. so they spent a lot of time playing with them, and i spent time thanking my nanny for all the love she spent on her family and wishing for one last hug. if i try hard i can still feel her hug and her cheek against mine. i think i am feeling emotionally a bit raw at the moment with ongoing issues as well. where is the chocolate!!

lets rewind and start the day. we got up, messed about and then piled BB in the car to watch her swimming lesson. i was WELL impressed! she behaved well, tried hard and has so obviously improved and is at the just about swimming stage! they were doing front crawl today, initially with a board float [bb had to have an especially small one for her arms to reach the end] then with noodles for arms and legs, and then with nothing! she did at least 6 wild kicks before having to stand. and she was putting her face in the water to go further. i am SO proud!! she did a creditable face down star float for a few seconds too. go BB makes it even better that she can carry on with swimming lessons next term. they are at the same time as SB’s.

so back home to find that SB had been working hard as well. she had done a bit of galore park Junior English Book 1. i have to say she is not that keen on this, as the only thing she really wants to do with english is read. but we are asking her to do little tiny chunks every so often [if poss 1ce a week!!] and so today she wrote a poem about wizards wee but she enjoyed it, it rhymed and scanned so we are all happy. she also did a section on vertebrates in the galore park Junior Science Book 1 - not such a prob! so she was congratulated!

BB took exception to this, so we did some singapore earlibird 2a, which is suddenly seeming to easy for her! SB read 2 science story books

and

then we had lunch

and then we played sylvanians for pretty much the whole afternoon. i played too, as i felt left out, and stroking monsterrabs wasn’t the same. did pick kilos of runner beans which i have just remembered i was going to blanch and freeze never mind! i ran a fossil museum and tea house for people to visit, so there was quite a bit of looking at fossils in this game [reminds me to purchase some liquid resin - hmm, looked at ebay and don't understand what i am after - anybody used? its a craft resin i want to tip into a mould to look like amber?]

at 5-ish, the decision was to do craft and science, bb got some fingerpainting kit out, and sb a chemistry set i got cheaply from ebay [john lewis chem set, and i really rate it!!] we started with the does it dissolve or not for some chemicals, and bb also wanted a turn, so she got to dissolve salt, sugar and pepper!! sb then went on to separate out copper sulphate and pepper [we have done something v similar at latinetc at merry's with sugar and sand] and we are now seeing if we can recrystalise the copper sulphate. loads more experiments to do though.

dinner out in the garden. i put bb to bed , falling asleep myself, and was awoken by sb wanting me to play recorder duets. so we did. i think that was a fairly full on day, and i am now exhausted of all desire to interact.

obviously i was at work today. bb had another swimming lesson, and was told if she kept messing about she would have to sit on the side. she apparently behaved after that. they were learning breast stroke. chris thinks she might be the youngest there, so i’ll give her some leeway! good news is that she is booked into regular swimming, and at the same time as SB! fab

they did some maths today each, apparently quite a bit. bB particularly proud of that! also SB did some recorder practice. Playing with monsterrabs happened, and also a library visit. following library visit was book reading.

my day at work slightly stressed by waiting for the outcome of my sisters appointment. it wasn’t as good as we would have liked, but also not as bad as we feared, so we are being positive. when i got home i implemented the engaged mummy plan, which involved doing some before the code with bB and then reading

with SB - her choice. this may not sound v interesting, but i like reading so that’s good, and it is a very structured activity, so ideal to a stressed mummy. after dinner whilst bB off to bed, SB and i played castle keep and rummy. finished the day reading some more of our roman mystery

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 - 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!!

last week i was lucky enough to swan off to a conference to lake como. we ate at good restaurants and learnt a lot in a good conference. the hotel was way out of town though, and getting back from the station, it was safest to walk along the railway tracks of the goods yard… not something you expect really to do! the only day out trip to belagio was lovely. I did, however, spend the entire conference getting more and more worried about little nanny, she had seemed to be getting better monday and tues, but by thurs things were not rosy, and on fri i knew active treatment had been withdrawn, and i just wanted to get home.

so having travelled all sat, i was welcomed home by a fantastic hug and cuddle from my girls. migrainous and travel sick on discussion with mum, i was encouraged [tho didn't need much] not to set straight out. so we snuggled, watched dr who, ate curry and made an early night.

not too quick off the mark to go out, and was rung to say i was too late after all. i feel dreadful that i didn’t re-prioritise things and see little nanny that last time to kiss her goodbye. prob silly, as she had slipped into a morphine sleep by saturday. but… so as no longer visiting, imposed on the manor borns to keep me sane.

we had a lovely, tho v lazy rspb walk, and have had to promise C i will do better next tine the kids appeared to have fun anyway, and bb was being particularly gorgeous really. all 3 played together without any major kerfuffles throughout the evening too, and after a lovely relaxed meal we went home to pop all of us straight to bed.

and so today, we were going to norfolk, and then not as it was a getting documents day [i have 2 days compassionate leave] and instead going tomorrow. [later and later]. so we decided to do fun things, like baking. we all got up v late, had brekkie v late, and then sb made brownies from *her* recipe book, and bb and i made a yummy choc sponge. the girls then played with silly string until it ran out. BB wanted to read a french book Lucy Cat at the Beach: Lucie Chat a La Plage (Lucy Cat) falls off perch in surprise, but agreed! SB did a verbal reasoning book and then read It’s Elementary: Putting the Crackle into Chemistry (Dk Reference) and wants to try and turn her urine into phosphorus now.

more playing, and we made pictures with light reactive paper, Sun Print Paper, which i remember enjoying as a child, and we did today. SB off to ballet, and BB and i did some pond dipping, and then retired to watch donald duck. on SB’s return, we made another cake from her recipe book Marie Claire Kitchen and had ken hom vietnames stew for dinner [SB's favourite dinner in fact]

SB and I then looked at some tiny pond bugs that i had captured with her digital microscope. slightly tricky as they kept whisking about, but she did manage to take some photos. No idea what they were. very speedy though!

anyway, tomorrow to norfolk. thanks everyone for your good wishes and thoughts, I have REALLY appreciated it.

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!!]

well, i have finally faced up to the reality that chris is the home-educator, and i am just a facilitator [which does make me sad] BUT i do have wed and the weekend. so I am still going to blog my day, but perhaps he will do a more portico style week overview - well he might, if he blogs again!!

anyway, we start with the girls already up, SB is trying to log in to cbbc, and bb is watching charlie and lola.

at 10-ish BB is beavering away at english type things - her book B of before the code, Book A of Getty and Dubay handwriting, and some maths - using manipulatives to think about adding up. After this, i leave her dancing to the radio whilst i do piano with SB.

SB has a slower start, and is doing Bond verbal reasoning, which she finds difficult as she doesn’t seem to grasp spelling. SO she gets the dictionary out, and looks up all the possible words for the add a letter thing. all the others she does quickly and easily, but not this one. At least - i think - it gets her to think about spelling. we are going to have to work on it i think. eventually finishing, she and i go and do some piano practice - which she loves.

As it is lovely and sunny, and the garden is looking desperate, we decide it is a gardening day. Chris finishes off the veg bed with rotovating [we haven't done that before], SB decides to rescue some aquilegias from the strawberry patch, and i am itching to plant out some of the seedlings.

of course I don’t do that, I paint BB’s face!

SB also does some handwriting, and whilst we have lunch I read some french to them, as i think it has been quite a while since we last did any french :blush:

More playing and potting on, and i do manage to get some plants out. SB helps by planting out peas whilst i do sweetcorn and dwarf beans. BB is chasing ‘minibeasts’ = ants ‘antistons’ [aka woodlice] and slugs mostly with a mini magnifying glass.

A sudden rush to shower SB and she is presentable for brownies, which is immediately followed by Judo. BB and I potter in the garden, sowing sunflowers and potting up the tomatoes, pressing some flowers, before giving everything a jolly good water. a snuggle with hairy maclary follows, and then a bath.

bed time stories of Black Ships before troy for SB. BB collapses with winnie the witch. the apprentice for chris and me. thus ends our day!!

today, for a change we did latin and science at an outdoor venue. was rather a good idea [not mine!] though i was a bit stressed as got stuck in an enormous traffic standstill, that seemed to have no cause when we got to the front. not quite as bad as katy, who had key problems. got there and met up with ‘the gang’ and the children played for ages in the play area v happily. then after being tempted with snack did classical studies with katy, acting out the trojan horse and one of the many greek dolphin myths. we had lunch - michelle had brought the pasta out with us, and v well received. and then we did science. i thought we should do something easy to get us thinking chemicals, so we thought of the ones we knew - hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and some of the ‘mixes’ H2O and CO2 and then discussed with piccies what makes up an atom and then a molecule. we made H2O and then ethane with sweets and cocktail sticks before talking a bit about solids, making some more molecules with molemod for the older ones, and face painting molecules for those that wished it. we began thinking of ‘valency’ [i know we are not supposed to use that word!!] this seems to be a good website btw.

the children put on a show of the greek dramas for us, and then we said good bye to those going to baby music, and the rest of us looked round the animal shelter part of it, oohing and ahing at the animals we liked [sb partic fond of the dog idea, and bb of guinea pigs] and more playing in the park with adults chatting. v grounding experience for mums like me needing a bit of grounding!

BB fell asleep near instantly being put in the car, and stayed asleep for a bit [which is why she is snuggled in my 'whiskey hole' [leg curl space for cat to snuggle in] at the moment as i type!! SB is reading. SB did the customary brownies and judo and then we had chips with a side order of daleks! we need to fix our conservatory and the chap came today with a quote. it is on the steep side. so to recover from one astronomical thing we went out and looked at some more with our telescope.

so tonight we looked at craters on the moon - even bb was impressed, a previous night she had been disappointed at the small size of saturn. she remained disappointed at the small size of saturn tonight, but it was so clear that the rest of us saw one of saturn’s moons!! so we were all v excited.

other than that, as a backwards catchup from me, we have done bits of recordering, piano playing and verbal/non verbal reasoning. SB has moved onto chapter 2 of her Junior English Book 1, but was distracted on looking up lotus flowers and read a book about nefret working for Cleopatra: Discover the World of Cleopatra Through the Diary of Her Handmaiden, Nefret and then about Captain Cook (Famous Lives) because the book was nearbye!

we have fimo-ed me some owls, bb a fish brooch and sb some beads for little nanny’s birthday, and also done some painting, seed tending and lots of games outside. we have also played a lot of games of Bohnanza and Castle Keep

good news that my mammogram normal. less good that my working hours seem to always increase rather than decrease. may help us pay for conservatory though!!

For a couple of years, the first Monday of the month has been a HE sports session, with sessions for younger and older kids, with the cut off age around 7-8. But the older session didn’t really get enough support anymore, so that has been dropped (just as SB has started doing them…..) . The re-jigged session now has Streetdance for older ones, followed by a younger ones sports session.

So it was off to that Monday morning. SB enjoyed the Streedance, BB enjoyed the sports, so that was good. SB has taken some stuf in her bag to potetially do after Streetdance, but mostly played outside the hall with some of the other kids, who she doesn’t really know so well as they ahve tending to do things aimed at the older kids. Not quite the normal attendees, so we didn’t have our usual playmates for a post sports park trip. I’d brought the bikes, so we went to the playground (busy as sunny and warm and the last day of school holidays by the looks of it for some kids) and then they cycled around the park paths. Where we discovered a little stream lake bit with some rather over fed ducks and geese who weren’t very interested some peanut butter sandwich leftovers.

Home, where SB did something of a booky nature (probably one of the VR or NVR books) before it was time to get ready and go out to Ballet. I managed to do passable pig tails in her hair.

Jax sent a fortuitous email that reminded me we were supposed to be going out on a trip the following day 

Tuesday

Was  a HE trip to Ecotech, which was advertised across multiple East Anglian groups and so popular they there is a second one this week.  It was a fair drive for us, but managed to get out pretty much on time (which was generous in terms of travel time). Combined with  quicker journey than expected we even had enough time to pick up a few bits in the next door supermarket before joining the group.

After an intro, we split up, out group did an activity building model wind turbines first.

It was fun, though for an activity that they must run loads of times I felt it was not as well run as it could have been. Maybe he was a bit unsure of dealling with such an age range of children.

We tested and modified  our various versions. The kids got to choose how they arranged the blades, Our first one didn’t work at all. I was an even pattern, though not with them eqully spread.

 
After a bit of reorganising and it worked:

THere was also a bit of fiddling about with the angle of attack of the blades with one of the other turbines. Bottom line was that the number of blades didn’t seem to make a lot of difference.

After this we had lunch (we had packed lunch, but the cafe seemed fine a reasonably priced)

After lunch we headed out side. Those seven and older could go up the inside of the turbine tower - 305 steps (the only one the public can go up it seems).

SB went up, BB wanted me too stay, even though there were plenty of people she knew staying down, so I didn’t.

So whilst SB was up the tower, we pottered around the bottom, looked around the organic veg garden, where the kids all got Rhurbarb leaves, BB’s lasted about 10 mins before she had mangled it too much. Waved at those up in the tower, a sat in the shade in the Willow den.

They finished up with a session on recycling, but we had to head off to get back.

We made it nicely in time. BB has started doing a Little Dribblers football skills course at the sports centre, which she was very excited about (after years of traipsing around after SB she is pleased to be doing her own things now.. Once the instructor realised that she didn’t really have much idea what she was doing, and wasn’t very good at listening to what she was supposed to do she was fine. It’s a 4-8 yo class, so a couple were they same age I’d guess as her, though a bit more skilled football wise She felt a little left out as they all their football kit, so that has been rectified via Ebay for next week. I do find it a bit of a shame that all these things get so gender differentiated so early. There was only one other girl there, probably 7-8 and obviously been playing football a bit. Can’t believe there aren’t more young girls who would like to have a go if offered. 

Anyway, SB was pleased as she finally got to go and have something from the sports centre cafe, which BB has been doing whilst SB has her swiming lesson. SB watched a bit of BB, and then did some Getty and Dubay handwriting practice.  Then me and BB waited whilst SB did her swimming. 

Got home to find H already home (unusual for a Tuesday) and glad that dinner just needed warming up to be ready.

Thursday.

Was back to Tots and Nots which haven’t attended for a while due to the possibility of Chicken pox and needing to be careful becuase of family gatherings before and at Easter.SB did a long piano practice before we left, which made us a bit late.  SB made a fold out thing showing how the Union Jack is made from the different flags for each country, BB made a shield and sword which she then used to run around chasing people with Both got to do some recorder lesson with Gina, SB did a little piano, then we had lunch there before heading off to another new thing.

A new ‘multisports’ session started up earlier in the year, the replace one that ran before for 8’s and up, seeing as the older sports has stopped on Monday, SB wanted to try this. Shame that it is right the other side of town, so we had to drive 20 mins to get there. SB enjoyed the session, played a bit of hockey, did some basketball skills, though we had to leave just as they were to start a game, to head off to another town for SB’s Gym class. (of course it’s back the way we had come…) 

Friday

Was planning on not going anywhere, but realised we had something to take back to the Red Cross. Which sadly has temporarily moved from a 10 minute drive to a 30 minute drive.  SB did some of her verbal reasoning book, and some music practice before we went out. We headed via a Citylink depot to pick up some Amazon parcels. Then over to the Red Cross. Since we were out and SB had been complaining of needing new trainers we went shoe shop hunting. Had feet measured in Clarks, of course in typical fashion they only had hardly any she liked in her size (one in fact, and that was one with the funny bit in the heel with a toy in which she doesn’t like). The sales assitant also seemed to have a problem accepting that she didn’t want anything too girly - most had too much pink or purple, or where excessivley ‘boy-ey’ red and black, shiney silver etc which she doesn’t like either. Can’t help thinking that a they need to arrange to have a better system - there have been a number of times we’ve not bought shoes there just becuase the available selection was so limited. Though I do see you can now order shoes on thre website to try on in store.

However, BB was pleased as she got some ‘Croc’ type foam Doodles there which she really loves.

Headed off home stopping in another town, where we found some reduced price trainers in Millets for SB, and some Sandals in the cheapy shoe shop, didn’t find any suitable Crocs though.

Home where they sat and read various books from the Amazon Order before dinner.

We’ve had  a few car conversations on the way to various places. SB heard and advert for the National Lottery, so we had a discussion about how that worked, why you were unlikley to win the jaclpot and what she would spend £6 million on. An expensive trampoline and a dog apparently to start with.  Also somehow got onto what happens to all the male chicks and chickens that aren’t needed.

well, i got up gloriously early and was up and at’em. thing is, i am not sure i can remember much of yesterday!

ermm, i know SB did some piano practice! oh, and i made some ’stone age’ tabards out of fake fur material for the girls - yay, the sewing machine worked!! umm. oh yes, we sowed lots of seeds - sweetcorn native american [for its blue and yellow colouring] squash festival, pumpkin mars and a golden courgette. also climbing bean cobra and runner beans lady di and sunset. pea misty. so that was quite a lot of things!! we read some french, as haven’t done much there for ages Les Amis De Berthe and built on that with a bit of conversation and description. also looked at some stone age books Prehistoric Peoples (Exploring History) and i think just generally played in the sun. OOOH I remember!! we went easter egg hunting at ‘the big house’ [which is v lovely!] BB cycled there and back as she is ace now at cycling. she can also get herself going now. she was enjoying skidding on the gravel there, and did come off, unfortunately. the other thing we did was bribe the girls 1p for every dandelion flower they picked. this is chris’s idea to cut down on the seeds floating about. i think 10p per plant with some root might have been a better bet. this has cost us about a fiver so far!! SB did some VR [has finished the NVR book]

anyway, so to today. another fabulously warm day!! we started with porridge - always a good start, and then went out to play, filling up the bird seed feeders, and immediately getting a rush of birds. then BB wanted to paint her dinosaur volcano - the dinodorium that she hasn’t done for ages, so excavated that, and SB did some painting by numbers. Striking the HE iron as it has been quite cool for a while :blush: i read some The Story Of the World - the Middle Ages V 2 . this was about marco polo, and both SB and BB were quite enthusiastic about it, so i read around with marco polo and The Picture History of Great Explorers . both v happy. we did a bit more french with Space Postman/Le Facteur Spatial (I Can Read French) , and then put up the play tent, and chris got out his spacepacker, so a fair bit of tenting and general play went on. i finished my book Postmortem (Dr Kay Scarpetta) . actually will recommend this one The Other Queen , that i read whilst away, and also this one Henry: Virtuous Prince, but i left this one The Wise Woman in the travelodge as disliked intensly - and gave me nightmares and an unsettled feeling which is no good if there is no husband to cuddle!! [i think the amazon reviewers are in agreement!]

Anyway, it being a clear evening, we finished off the evening looking at the stars - and in particular saturn through the telescope. BB was decidedly underwhelmed by the size of it!! that is 4 year olds for you!! prior to that BB and i did jigsaws whilst SB read Your Head (See Inside), and See Inside: The World of Dinosaurs (Usborne Flap Books) [obviously one of BB's books!!]

When i got in from work today, SB was desperate to tell me all she had done, and she had worked hard! She has finished her theory book, Theory Made Easy for Little Children Lv2 , so i have bought her a new one, My First Theory Book . She has also finished her spelling book, but think i will encourage a bit more of GP and dictionary use! But if she really fancies another spelling workbook, i think we can float the boat out a bit, as it is an area she isn’t so certain on. SHe has done her piano and recorder practice and some handwriting. Also, she read a french colour book, Colours/Les Couleurs (Bilingual First Books) , to BB. that girl deserves a gold star!! SHe hama-ed beside me, and we did some chapter 1 and 2 revision of Minimus Pupil’s Book: Starting out in Latin, as she is variable in her recall but i have to say, when i read our french book, Berthe Fait Une Pizza , she was excellent, so I do think that french, at the mo, is working for us, even if inefficient, and i wish i knew more words!!

Sb went off to ballet, and BB snuggled up and we decided she was right royally dirty! so a bath was in order. After that we snuggled up to a variety of not-mummy’s-thing type videos! on SB’s return she happily ds-ed away with animal crossing. she has wiped her old town as too weedy!

i am happily flickring last week at the moment, but have a fair amount of paperworky things to remember to do!

we have had a busy and productive day here chez haricot. i had today off work - yippee!! and having worked the weekend, decided to use it well - ie stay at home. really i should have gone into town and done some fairly urgent banking stuff, but don’t know where the forms are

SO we thought we would start with a bit of normals. SB keen to show me she had moved onto the next piano piece [i am trying to play this v cool - cf violin!] and she has played it v nicely. BB was a tad jealous, so brought me her maffs to do - so we did that, and SB went onto Junior English Book 1 [we are doing this in tiny bites so on 1.5! but we are at least considering things]. I suggested that for the galore park, that although i am unbothered by her spelling elsewhere, she might want to use the dictionary to spell things for this [cue wails as couldn't find circus]. bb and i did jigsaws and then a marble run and sb did some maths - see we have been productive! then we had lunch

both girls wanted to do some science, but ‘on their own’ and bb chose to investigate magnets and sb an eino burglar alarm that she has done before. after this they fancied craft. BB chose air drying clay and initially made more fossils. SB looked at a Middle Ages Activity Book (Crafty History)
and chose to play 3 mens merrels. we decided it was a fun game, so she has made a board and counters out of air drying clay too. then they have both spent ages sticking jewels into air drying clay as middle ages treasures!!

Now BB is watching magic school bus and SB is at ballet. plan to make some scones when chris comes back with cheese. actually chris been gone a while - might have forgotten and gone into hayloft. hayloft currently has a dead animal aroma [something of a concern] so he is investigating!

edited to complete! we made cheese scones - yummy - as planning to visit science museum wed unless things go pear shaped! BB did a short nice recorder practice and then a v long hideous one, so banned to the stairs!! SB grumpilly did 5 mins recorder practice, and then decided to make up music for me to copy, and then made up some more etc etc so did about 40 mins in the end!! i love the fact she is so unthinkingly confident about making it up, and also often modal rather than modern tonal. much reading - she is working through the roald dahl books she happily got for her birthday.

BB was particularly spectacularly ‘not tired’ at tea tonight and after screaming and shrieking in the pantry for about 10 minutes while we all pretended she didn’t exist, came back and let me feed her before falling asleep at the table - so not tired! tho she woke up and pretended she had been pretending and was again not tired, so we got the whole rigmarole 2ce!

very quick actually, am going to see whether i can do one of these fabulous 10 min blogs, the craze of which is sweeping the early years blogring in that typical blog meme way!! [23:10]

so thurs is chris’s day, so will be swift for me to write! nots and tots, both girls told me lots about recordering - and rather fabulously they have both practiced every day since!! BB is somewhat challenged to keep all her tiny fingers over the holes, and i am somewhat challenged by 10 mins of b’s and a’s, but hey! SB working on her low d at the mo, and just enjoys playing through book 1 - long may it last. actually, she has also done piano every day too. sb made sausage rolls, she def prefers them with linda mccartney sausages [good as much quicker to make!] i think she also did some french.
thurs also gym for both girls - i believe all costumes present and correct! and i did something with them when i got home ? read stories?? and then panicked about my friday!

Fri, i think was a sorting at home day, sb doing lots of reading, both music practices and some maths, and then lots of playing with polydrons and geomags. bB has done lots of fimo-ing. merry left us a fimo booklet thingy, and BB is gradually making them all - i think this is a sales technique! we watched dr who, and BB impressed us by knowing it was going to have the Ood in it! SB has enjoyed reading The Battle for Radio: Marconi’s Story (Science Stories) and Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude and Antarctic Adventure: Exploring the Frozen Continent (DK Eyewitness Readers: Level 4)
My friday wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and i will leave it as that on the blog.

Today I have been working. SB spent AGES doing some maths, and has again piano-ed and recordered. A fair bit of sylvanians playing and reading also. BB and I have fimo-ed [again!] read a lot together [ including this series Duckling (DK Watch Me Grow)] and recordered [more a's and b's] SB wrote BB a recorder piece in a’s and b’s - lovely of her. we read some french alltogether, did a fair bit of playing and reading altogether. watched the second ood thing, read some SOTW [ages since we did that, are reading about gengis khan] and SB currently in bed listing to our island story vol 2. [23:28 - but interruptions from chris - also blogging same days - and SB - can't sleep as windy]

yep, i am feeling challenged with title finding! in fact, feeling challenged wrt blogging at the mo. but we have done things, so should do it.

Fri - well, the morning was chris’s - looking at his bright kites [cos thats how i know anything!] SB took ages to do some maths, BB fimo-ed more snowmen [merry, you need to teach her to make something else now!!] and chris tidyed up the room of doom!

chris’s parents came over, and my sister and family on the way back from their family holiday, which was lovely, but we had family news to impart to each other which meant hugs were in order. the kids ran about wildly and then collapsed in front of the tv, we adults drank lots of tea. my sister left, nana and SB played games and me and BB played games. I think we did some french all together, and SB did some piano for nana, i think that was it!!

later that night i consumed too much chocolate. i wish stressful things made me not eat, as i would be really thin rather than really fat.oh, and nana bean went off and did the dcsf consultation!! well done. she did laugh at mine, as i printed it off, and it was a bit ranty!!

Sat - a rude awakening as there was an emergency at work, and although not rostered, it was an all hands affair. so i sobbed all the way home in the car some 3 hours later. i was hoping for a better year this year, but … I will just have to hope for more resilience instead. BB was adorable, and hugged and kissed me loads. SB rolled her eyes, and carried on reading her book [ ? this one Narga the Sea Monster (Beast Quest) i bet the author is laughing all the way to the bank, there's loads of those books, a bit like those rainbow fairies, and SB and other of her friends love them], hmm!! but, proudly, i did then spend the afternoon being at least moderately cheerful, and def interactive!

yep, we were rang by chris’s mum about going out that evening for an early celebration of her 70th at a local italian, so we had no pressies, and set about making them. BB made a fab fimo butterfly pendant, and SB a princess pendant - also fab and took her ages. they painted cards and then both did a painting of a tropical bird for sketch tuesday. i was most impressed as bB did a humming bird how much she seemed to know about them. SB did ‘one of those with hair’ and hers was rather dramatic, and def exotic. we had nearly run out of green paint, so i have overordered paint from baker ross!!

getting into the car, BB realised she didn’t want to part with the butterfly pendant, and instead gave nana bean the snowman she had made the day before. there i was thinking we could make snowmen our geocache theme!! we took flowers.

so we went to the italian and actually the girls were pretty good for the 2 hours we were there - service a bit slow, and waitress obviously new. but they liked the garlic bread and the pizza and ice cream. it is a shame that sb and bb decided to draw toilets and then proceed to scream that quite loudly and BB lost it totally at the end over something trivial, so i carried her out, and then she was sweet as pie again!! bless her, but SB fell asleep in the car on the way home, she is so exhausted and has a bit of a hacking cough. hope it clears up soon.

Sun: i overslept. so wasted the morning, but did need the recuperation time!! got up and got going, we did some snuggly HE on the sofa, as BB wanted to do maffs, so we did some earlibird 1B - getting towards the end, and then a little bit of her before the code before she got bored and went off to skate around in way to big inline skates. she is pretty good at skating in these inlines. if she had a nearer birthday, and wasn’t going to get a ds, i would be tempted to buy a pair. [hmm, googles!]. SB had another go at a bit of galore park english - i think we are chapter 1 part 4 now, and this was underlying nouns. we had a bit of discussion about whether day was a noun, since it isn’t a person, place or thing, but a time . SHe also did some music theory.

after lunch SB and i did some baking - well, TBH, SB did it with me being companionable and listening to Handel’s firework music. we then set of the egg in vinegar experiment - btw it still hasn’t finished bubbling, and the shell still hard, so we are leaving it in vinegar overnight. BB went off practicing pedalling with chris, and then had a ride on the back of the tandem [my heart in mouth, its not been used since SB's accident as she won't use it again]. they watched a bit of magic school bus, then chris and BB baked cup cakes, and me and SB started her new piano book!!Sugar and Spice: Rhythms and Tunes for Beginners

SB and BB did a lot of skatering about, and we then read a french book on days of the week [ Les Jours De La Semaine (Max et Mathilde) ], and then listened to the correct pronunciation on the CD! we finally finished with tea and the second part of the cybermen part 2. Oops, SB and I also played a lot of games today, blokus, castle keep and landlock.