Category Archives: music

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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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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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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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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getting excited!

Posted on August 28, 2008 by | 2 comments

i like parties, even if they are a bit hard work to organise – and a bit worrying when one essential piece of craft equipment hasn’t arrived yet!

felt lurgified but better, so went to work, and realised i had used up all my energy by lunchtime. luckilly it was a front loaded day, and i rearranged the pm things for next week, came home and snuggled on sofa with girls to read books. SB has a sort of tick box timetable again – she was nagging me! we then had to go through the blog to see what she could tick off for the week. it is simpler than the last one anyway. She had done maths and handwriting in the morning, and lots of reading. we did some recorder together.

then, having perked a bit, we did some baking – shortbread, and i also whizzed up some black cupcakes to decorate. cue mess everywhere. girls played alot with the castle.

so another rest, and i have done a bit more tidying, and plan to do a bit more baking tonight, and a bit more wood polishing [beeswax]

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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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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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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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visitors!

Posted on July 22, 2008 by | Leave a comment

ok, i am going to alter the time stamp so they all appear right. amd i am prob going to add things, as TBH, my memory is a bit affected by the quantity of bloody migraine drugs ingested. i hate migraines. i hate their ability to suck away my life.

anyway, we tidied manically so kirsty and her family could see their way into the house. it still wasn’t actually tidy mind you! saturday was spent in eager anticipation of their arrival, so we did some home ed stuff to take away the constant are they nearly here yet chorus. SB and BB both eagerly did maths and handwriting – i think they thought if they did it quickly it would speed K’s car! SB also did a violin practice. no further memory of the day!! K and co arrived, so lots of playing and ds-ing! we had tea and wine. a v late night for the kids too!

the next day we went out to an rspb event to celebrate the opening of a new reserve. the worst thing about it was the prickles. they had just strimmed/mowed the field, and it was obviously v thistly, and k and i – and to a lesser extent the girls – kept getting prickles in our feet as crocs were really not the best footwear for us to have chosen! SB and A got facepainted. BB and M moaned at the lack of cake. we had fed the troupes before leaving, but obviously should have taken cake with us [we had loads at home!] as it was too temptingly on display, but ridiculously expensive. after a bit of discussion, we went towards the pond dipping and owl pellet zone. SB said it was owl puke, but he insisted it was not as the pellets were coughed up. i am sorry, but they still must be coughed up from some stomach affair rather than lungs! Anyway, SB and A were transfixed by the owl pellets, and found loads of bones in them. SB in particular found loads of skulls, and learnt the difference between field mouse and vole. the man was really friendly and knowledgeable so a great HE moment! we joined M and an extremely grumpy BB ponddipping, and found lots of damsel fly larvae,water beetles, water boatmen and a few fish. ALso a blood sucker – yuk!! We then played in some sand to find things, but most had been found already as it was getting to the end of the day, and then looked at loads of moths that had been temporarily captured the night before.

the mon i went to work, and BB and M got firmly fixed in matter/antimatter mode. mostly after rowing over the didicar we have. BB would try the patience of a saint at times, and M and her seemed to gravitate towards each other to shriek. not so restful! they also did lots of fab fimo-ing. i was so impressed by BB’s snowman – well, for a bit anyway, as she then overdecorated it into a blob! BB does seem to be v dextrous for these things. luckilly on the tues – when again i was at work – merry and girls came across, and all had a great time playing and bindeezing,

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the trouble with brownies

Posted on July 9, 2008 by | 1 comment

BB is just a little too lark like at the moment, and SB and owl like her parents. i think this house prob only has 3 hours of all asleep inhabitants, so chris and i are a bit on the zombie side at times. i felt i had had a lie in by 9am, and went down to join the fray, actually, i think the fray came up to join me!! we did jigsaws on the bed, played imaginary games about frogs that hide in the duvet etc, until my imagination was worn out and we went downstairs. you know, i was far more imaginative with Sb more easily. i must work on this!! SB did piano whilst i was still in bed!
we did some ‘normals’ as it were, with SB enjoying handwriting practice whilst BB and i had fun with an ancient first alphabet workbook that sb had not done at the time. BB is getting to grips with at least considering what sounds might start a word. and she also has much more interest in writing – sb had none at all at this time, but bb is having a go writing letters and numbers – not often recognisable to anyone but her!. she has a runic signature that she does all the time as well, which has a near capital A in the middle.

SB had a bit more of a struggle with maths, so i sat her with me, and with prodding she did it all fairly painlessly. we thought of different ways to make a quick guess to see if the answer was right. i like singapore maths, as i think it makes manipulating numbers easier.she borrows and makes up to hundreds and tens in swirls as it were, and gets it right. ie in 4.25-2.35 she was quite happy to add ten to the 25 to make the answer 2, and then remember to take it away again for 1.90, yet at 6.60-4.90 she borrowed 1 from the 6 and did 16-9=7 so 1.70 . bb was playing quite happily with a bus, being the magic school bus!

we then did some more imaginative play, involving me walking the girls round the house on ribbon leads and pretending to feed the doggies. bb quite often needed to do a poo… i decided i didn’t fancy playing any more, so the doggies had to go to puppy school and listen to some french about a monkey wanting a banana!

some point after this [o think] the girls went to get dressed [it is lunch time obviously!] and after lots of kerfuffling i went up and read riot act AGAIN about bedroom such that both girls wailed, bb inconsolable and i tidied half, bb made a slight effort and sb a reasonable one. so only 1/3 bedroom left to go…

lunch and i became reasonable again!! we did hand painting – because i really didn’t want my face painted. my left hand was done by bb, and my right was a poppy field by sb. we had a lovely time. i painted a rainbows rainbow on her cheek ready to go to said rainbows. it was her last rainbows today and she was quite sad. also because we had got some treats to handout, and she forgot. bless.

whilst she was out, bb and i baked some chocolate brownies, and though i tried and tried to get the timing right, this time they are raw in the middle – sigh. i just can’t time brownies. please, what should be the optimum moment for pulling out? they wer for the guests this weekend, and the mixture yummy!! so we watched magic school bus.

Cuddled sb on her return and more mSB before bathtime before dinner. after dinner she was searching merry’s website for aquabeads. i have told her that if she wants jobs to earn money, they will only count if playroom and bedroom tidy! and after bb going on, she has the same deal if she wants a longneck! i have to asy, i adore the anamalz range!

anyway, where were we?? oh yes, bedtime!!!!

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