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
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
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!!
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. 
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.
and built on that with a bit of conversation and description. also looked at some stone age books 
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]
. this was about marco polo, and both SB and BB were quite enthusiastic about it, so i read around with 
. both v happy. we did a bit more french with 
, 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 
. actually will recommend this one 
, that i read whilst away, and also this one 
, but i left this one 
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!]
, and 
[obviously one of BB's books!!] 
, so i have bought her a new one, 
. 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, 
, to BB. that girl deserves a gold star!! SHe hama-ed beside me, and we did some chapter 1 and 2 revision of 
, as she is variable in her recall 
, 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!!
and 
and 
] 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] 
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!
], 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.
[which i wanted to read!] and instead had a dinosaur theme! 
and SB sorted out a variety of books having melted down over the roald dahl books and not chosen any of them… We saw M and C for about 5 mins, had a wrong book trauma best glossed over and missed train by a minute. 
and 
she is going to make a list [who does she get that from] of all the roald dahl books we have, and then spend her book vouchers on getting the ones we don’t. not that she has stuck with fiction, other nose in a book moments with 
and 
. but actually what she has mostly done this weekend [and this is a falling of perch moment plus extra drumrolls] is writing!!!!!!!! My daughter, the not keen on writing one, must have spent about 8 hours this weekend writing. SHe has written thankyou notes to all her friends who went to centreparcs [all of her own volition, and the one i caught site of was v effusive] as she wanted to let them all know how much she loved them – aaaah. please remember agape! those whose children receive them, will hopefully receive them more happily than the rainbow friend, who when SB told her she loved her, said that that was highly inappropriate [raised eyebrows emoticon!] lots of 2 way explanations involved which i thought rather saddened the whole thing. ANyway, proud of all her writing, we carried on with all the christmas thankyous. SB has also done some piano practice [last pieces in the gbdf book] and maths – spurred on by BB with her head in the clouds declaring that she was catching up!
which she is particularly keen on as there is a dinosaur on the front! we had done lots of reading together, including most of the quentin blake books we got from the book people, incl this one 
. 
and we played lots of games [
, 
, 
] we tcikled, giggled, sylvanianed – the girls doing good compromise and cooperation – phew! BB did some brianbox electronics, and was most pleased to get a circuit that could light [she wasn't following instructions]
[bah to all that text in the link!!].
