Category Archives: music

Scrunching the leaves

Posted on November 7, 2010 by | 6 comments

my sister loved this time of year, and the falling leaves are just so very symbolic of loss. Been a bit of a struggly weekend, tho doing my best :) .

Today, orig, i had thought we might go out somewhere, but have instead stayed in, as SB wanted to ‘just spend time with me’ awwwww. SO that is what we did. She has spent a fair bit of time playing with paper dolls. But we also did a long time of recorder duets together – half the book! we would have done viola, but have mislaid the book [again!!] was trying to find a nice starter violin/viola duet book, but can’t. So instead we did clarinet, and yes, it does need a service :) and the piano. Following that significant amount of music, BB wanted to play bohnanza again with me, having done enough ‘penning‘ [another sign] so we did that and SB started a window mosaic. BB and I then read some of A City Through Time which seems to be currently on amazon at a phenomenal price… and BB very successfully read to me another 1b book :) [it didn't have 'the' in it! ] before we went out to play in the garden, scrunch leaves and adore baby bunnies! It did start raining even though all else sunny – very weird!

Back indoors we ate ponigramits [bb's] in the conservatory whilst SB did the primary maths challenge. i am quite proud of her. She sat happily and did it for the allotted time, wasn’t stressed or worried and just carried on with it. A bit more stress and she might have concentrated slightly more, as she got 4 questions wrong she could do upside down waving her feet about – and even went doh when i went through them doing a quick check when she got a different [right] answer!! lol! I think she has got 15 tho even with the doh moments, and perhaps we should have done a few practices to get her head into gear, but I am proud of her relaxed and happy approach to it, and the fact that if she had engaged brain [on some of the easiest questions!!] she might have done :roll: and giggle ]

SB ate her pomegranate, and BB and I played settlers of catan, which she did quite well at, tho couldn’t see the point :) so we went back to bohnanza, sb went to playing with paper dolls and then we watched merlin. A very relaxed day indeed. I start my phased return tomorrow, tho actual work on tues. It is right that i get back into it, but very hard.

I just loved this pic of SB. I *love* that girl!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, history, music, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, vivien

A (very) late start!

Posted on November 6, 2010 by | 2 comments

I was up late, but it took a serious amount of encouragement to get SB up and out of bed and stop reading :), and was nearly midday. [i did get a lovely snuggle tho whilst persuading her :) ] It did me that we didn’t get to the cheap cinema tho :( . BB had managed to get up tho, as a little lark. BB and I had commenced calligraphy [or penning as BB calls it] when SB staggered down. She looked tired and wan, so I made her a cooked brekkie of sautes [from a left over jacket pot] and fried left over sausage with a fried egg. That seemed to go down well :) and she needed something hearty to be a combined brekkie/lunch. [seems somewhat early in a blog to say, and then we had lunch - giggle!].

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SB joined in the calligraphy, doing a pen drawing and sort of poem first, and then deciding to do a big capital letter on nice writing paper. She didn’t finish tho. BB did lots of writing, then a capital letter and then used the nice writing paper to make a sign. All very happy and chatty. SB and I snuggled and did SoTW 3 with various fightings in america and canada, and the founding of pennsylvania, I found out the origins of the name Philadelphia. SB then did some of her DK project book – she is in the middle section now, on Earth and we had a bit of discussion about the different layers always shown, and how they might come to be there. [I winged it a bit]. Then we all did SoTW 1 about ancient China and had a thought about the realities of rice farming in freezing cold water :) .

We then did a bit of bunny adoration, and took a couple of pics. We have a definite home for one of the girls – now named Olive, but homes for the other girl and the 2 boys required. Am hoping to have a home for boy + girl, and then rehome boy on own if can. They are all v gorgeous :)

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SB did some piano prac [trudging grad getting there, and thanks G for loan of sightreading book] and then galore park english, and BB did music theory and then explode the code. We felt like we had had a lovely snuggly day alltogether and recharged batteries :) BB and I then watched the david attenborough first life as recommended by Kirsty, and we enjoyed that. SB had been playing with paper dress dolls, but grad watched more of the DVD. BB did then fall asleep on me – awwwww. Woke up to have her bath tho as totally mucky from the ink! After that BB and i played some Bohnanza before bedtime, and SB carried on her doll game. A really lovely day :) . Oh, and I love the conservatory!! not sure I will move back into playroom when painted…

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, history, literacy, music, noises and sounds, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

remember remember!

Posted on November 6, 2010 by | 2 comments

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

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

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

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

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, gardening, history, language, literacy, music, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

An Early Blog!

Posted on November 2, 2010 by | 4 comments

Mostly due to nipping out this eve, better to get it done and dusted!!

This am SB struggled to get up again, she has had a cough for over a month now, and apart from making her tired and not sleeping well, she seems ok otherwise. thinking, on and off, about going to docs tho, as it has gone on for soooo long! She did – in a very quick whizzy way – some grammar, galore park science and dk project book. can’t have taken more than 5 mins each ?? [btw, tick sheet last week <20, and anticipate same this week as loads of other things to do] . BB entertained herself with a rabbit game.

I [and here we need a drumroll!!] got out little Nanny’s sewing machine, with the purpose of making SB a pinny to wear tomorrow. i have never made any items of clothing before, nor used Little Nanny’s sewing machine [a singer 401 of some vintage] so slightly nervous! I was going to make more of a tabard look with frill – which does seem more of the era, but a combination of bits and pieces, and actual worry, has turned it into more of a maids pinny. oh well! I am just jolly glad with myself for actually making it. it ended uptoo big as well, so have had to nip up various bits, so it doesn’t look as good as it did… The sewing machine is a dream tho! i love Nanny, she even had in her kit prewound singer bobbins <3 <3 as one of the things i dread is all that bobbining. tho they needed diff tension. Tension on a sewing machine is one of my bete noirs, but that fab singer instruction book – yep, little nanny kept it, made it so easy, i sorted it!! It is a rather fab sewing machine. i might even sew more things :)

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SB, BB and I went to Djembe Drumming, arranged by CHEF and old home ed friend T was there, so had a hug and a chat. Miss seeing her now her daughter has gone to school. We all enjoyed the session greatly, as we had before. Learnt some new rhythms and both girls v happy.

returned home and the girls have gone off to swimming. I have added buttonholes [badly] to ribbon, and tempted to glue the fraying bits! I don’t think i will try making the mob cap!! Did a good piano prac with SB tho, gradually getting there! She also started her galore park history, and i silently chortled listening to her explaining the rosetta stone to BB. That is good home ed :)

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Posted in Butterbean, history, literacy, music, noises and sounds, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Another Artetc

Posted on November 1, 2010 by | 1 comment

We gate-crashed Le Ciel Rouge and Merry’s regular art monday today following a piano prac for SB :) [i think she is fed up practicing for her exam tho :( ] and we weren’t too late, even tho i was doing the classic home educators trick of answering so many questions in the car that I realised we had gone the wrong way :roll: . Today was focussing on Klee and Matisse, and one of the advantages of being a gatecrasher was that I didn’t have to organise anything, just enjoy :)

The first bit was tissue paper pictures, which were great. I was surprised to see how similar my girls pics were tho [photos to be added when have finished blogging, then flickring!] As BB did a pyramid, and SB a fab tent in campsite. Children then had a bit of a play and we had the traditional pasta lunch :) before we did the adapted djeco klee craft kit that my girls have done and found fab in the past. Since we have done this together, I suggested each of them used their imaginations with the colouring and blending to complete them this time. BB did one blend, then declined. She really doesn’t like messy hands :)

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final craft was fimo, in a cut in shapes workshop from merry, slightly matisse inspired, but also using this book

which isn’t one of mine, but is very tempting :) as it has loads of fab ideas in it. It is hovering around my amazon basket at the moment – but very little is escaping it, having done the finances last week [eek and wail!]. both my girls did a very diff style, BB’s being a far more literal and object referenced approach, and SB really getting the hang of cutting and swapping the pieces a la matisse. The other children did some really fab fimoing too, so we adults felt the need to join in. Mine, far miore like BB, and not really in the right style [oops] but I did enjoy doing it. I *need* all those cutters – lol! [have just spent a happy time filling a basket on craftmerrily, but like the amazon basket...] yes, I know, photos!! I loved hearing all the chitchat between the girls. in partic P, M and SB as one giggly group, adn BB and J having loads of fun together as well. tho BB did have a few minor melts when the fimo didn’t behave :roll: I do love that SB thinks about it, and then gets on in whatever plan she has made in her head. She isn’t a less is more girl either :)

Bade a fond farewell to Merry and Z, and drove SB to her ballet lesson, where she was v proud to be at the front as the step shower :) BB insisted we went to the park, and it was COLD!! eventually persuaded her back home to the warmth. SB brought back not too much later and we played settlers of catan together whilst BB ‘watched something’ and then BB and I played bohnanza whilst SB read aquila. we watched the second part of the Merlin, and then, bedtime.

This is my last week off work, so had fun today, and plan to fill the week. trying not to feel the anxiety in my shoulders and spreading. ho hum!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

relight my fire

Posted on October 27, 2010 by | 3 comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Posted in art and crafts, BB-PE, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, investigating, language, little languages, music, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

its raining

Posted on October 27, 2010 by | 4 comments

actually it is the second time i have wrtten this blog, as i got to the end, and the blasted wordpress said i didn’t have permission to save and booted me to log in!!! it is going to be shorter this time :) [grrrrrr]

Anyway, as i said before :roll: today was another split child job, as it was bikeability for SB, in the rain – poor love! she didn’t find today as interesting, as she said it was ‘just yesterday’s stuff, but on roads’ I did say that that was the point… she does enjoy riding the bike tho, and chris and i thought it would be good to do some of the basics. Bikeability wasn’t the only thing today, she did some home ed stuff – maths - multiplying fractions, a bit of a surpise things come out smaller , grin, and some head maths on multiplying bigger numbers, which she gets to check afterwards with a calculator galore park history and a really good piano prac with me. so although the exam could be any time soon [eek] we have nailed 2 pieces completely, so only scales and the 3rd piece to go -eek! why does grade 1 recorder only have majors, when piano has majors and minors! In reading all the narnia books, she is now nearly through the horse and his boy :)

BB and i played together. we did a lot of home ed, but bb is autonomous really, and i can’t take any credit. i just get to watch, fetch and tidy up!! she had realised yesterday she had forgotten the colours in french, so today we learnt some of the again. [ah yes, i neeed to think of bike grease - with picture thoughts like that she could work for Collins :lol: ] we did some reading prac [without the dreaded 'the' word] and then when i was looking for chemicals for latinetc tomorrow, she ‘remembered’ the science kit cupboard, and had a load of fun making circuits with the primary electronics kit. as always, the flying saucer one a fav :) Finally she played with magnets for a bit, before declaring it rabbit-o-clock!! it absolutely pouring it down, we did a more cursory rabbit check and care rather than a long lovefest.

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I took BB to her new swimming class. it is the same time as SB’s, so that ought to make life easier. It didn’t today, as bikeability finished too late and she missed it :( . BB and i listened to classicfm on the way in and she nattered about the music being a tom and jerry music – she was right, the presenter then said so. SHe fell asleep just as we got into the carpark – awww. I enjoyed watching her swim. only 4 of them in that group today, but the most common name was ‘BB’ to be shouted. mostly, i think, cos she must be at least 2 years younger than the other 3! they did backstroke, and her little arms went like the clappers. awww again :smile: i enjoyed watching every second.

We weren’t home long before chris and SB joined us. so me and SB snuggled on sofa, as she was feeling in need of a snuggle, and i agreed the SoTW request and we read about the Indus Valley. I do really like SoTW. we watched sinbad and then bedtime for the girls, a bit of wailing from SB – too tired i think, so a long cuddle and soothe, and extreme mania from BB – same root cause, so a bit of firmness, oh, ok, i did shout *in the end* and a dictat that no reading or dsing, and no noise! they fell asleep pretty quickly…

Still worried about Uncle D’s health, and just other blah things, but enjoyed watching QI with chris.

oh, and the first person to pick up Vivien Visits TB has added both a bead and a small donation :) feeling happy.

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Posted in BB-PE, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, General, history, investigating, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Rabbit Robbed!

Posted on October 25, 2010 by | 7 comments

well, ok we weren’t, we did give them away, but we are feeling bunny depleted!

Friday

as You have read, SB worked really hard on thurs so she could have a day of crafting etc on friday. unfortunately my failure to blog on friday has made me forget some of what we did :blush: but i know she did a piano practice and i am sure she did another something home-ed like! But the key thing she wanted to do was a papier mache head [i remember she did clarinet! did it before papier mache so as not to make clarinet sticky!]. She plans to be a headless something on halloween – :lol: must find the felt we have to make a very high collar cloak to hide her head [mostly!] anyway, we had balloon, paper and flour water, so the standard amount of mess was created :)

We then all moved on to baking. SB made a rather fab smoothy with honey, yoghurt and pears – mm mmmm! BB made some choc cookies – also lovely, and I made some choc rice crispie cakes. we even tidied up some of the mess ;)

Chris, meanwhile, was scaring the living daylights out of me by clambering all over the roof to clear moss of places we think are leaking, and try and determine why. one is prob moss leading to spill over from the gutter, but another is uncertain still :(

Following that we did some more snuggling up together whilst drinking the smoothy, and then some fimo. i started reading SoTW 1, but due to phone call, SB took over and did the hammurabi rules with BB [giggle, BB signif scary!] and then before we knew it tbird and aprillia had arrived – woohoo!!

SO instantly bunny rules and were all out to adore the buns, Aprillia and tbird agreeing how gorgeous flopsy and fudge were, and all v happy :) so rabbit adoration, tea, more fimo-ing, and then girls made their own pizzas for tea. A fair bit more rampaging around before they were all confined to the bedroom – tho that didn’t mean sleep! we grown ups chatted and then also went to bed.

I was briefly diverted by reading a ‘mummy bloggers’ spat shock. Honestly, i am really not keen on the mummy blogger moniker, a bit eww and saccharine for me. most of the blogs i skimmed thro – linking from a good friend of mine – i found were just full of adverts and reviews or what seems to me very forced play ideas. not really a representation of being a mum or family life! And a quick peek thro the blogs just seemed too catty or too patty at the school gate when not being adverts are us. obviously these are the ‘big names’ in ‘mummy blogging’, are those making a living, which i don’t have a problem with, which are why all reviews and pretense and i am sure there are actually loads of real life blogs out there with the rather sugar coated mummy blogger moniker. But i think i will stick to being a little home ed blog of our days with the nice cosy home ed ring. I get plenty of ideas of reality from them :) and i will leave the paid blog world alone, well apart from harmony art mom, who i think combines income generation and real life in a very happy mix.

Saturday

we got up, got sarnies ready and were about to go out when rang by a work colleague about my return next week. I won’t say that i am looking forward to it, and have had nightmares last 3 nights, but feel i have been self indulgent taking time off – tho admit i had no real choice – and have to go back. he is a v supportive colleague and never knowingly makes me feel bad! but is a good barometer to measure what i should do against, and go back is right. lots of political changes afoot – never a good thing. i always wonder why we can’t just do the job we are good at – sigh – rather than have to defend and propose in areas that aren’t our forte. oh well! made us late out. I also had a migraine, so essentially quite seriously drugged up :(

We went to an egyptian festival of ideas event at girton college. we missed the start of the talk, otherwise i would have been a bit more insistant on it, so instead we went in the Lawrence museum, looked at the real mummy and the shabtis and a variety of anglo saxon grave goods. SB did a worksheet with aprillia, but BB had enough more quickly, so we went to the crafting area and she made her own air drying clay shabti and then got stuck into pot decorating. SB joined us with the pot, and then we rejoined tbird and aprillia with going out to the gardens to mark out where the ancient burial site was. SB got to wield a tapemeasure to triangulate to the roman grave, and both girls popped on pics of the grave goods, and then we went to a saxon grave of a man with his head between his legs – oops! the chap doing all the talking was v knowledgeable, v enthusiastic and had a way with children. I liked it :) . A final return to do some more, and i think aprillia did a shabti whilst the girls both did the skeleton drawing. there was a real life medical skeleton there and the girls drew round each others bodies with chris’s help, and then had to fill in the bones. Both did a fab job. BB was v careful to try and get accuracy, and i was impressed partic with her handbones [as was one of the facilitators - not really believing a 5 year old could show such care] and SB particularly enjoyed extending the brief by adding grave goods, and getting praise for originality made her beam from ear to ear :) i do love my girls getting stuck into things.

It was lunchtime, and all the girls giggled in the back of tbirds car, and we got slightly rained on. good thing we had lunch. walking past the girton refectory on the way out was a hardship! SB thought she might like to go there someday! [she had better work jolly hard then!]

ANyway, the next bit was the prehistory demonstration, where we met up with some other homeeducators [not organised, but not a surprise either!] chris turned out to be rather skilled at spear throwing [eek!], and BB and SB also had a go. I am not overly sure of the wisdom of teaching BB to throw a spear… SB and i most impressed by the smelters, and I was VERY impressed when i asked her what bronze was made out of that she knew the answer and then deduced the greenish rock in her hand [malachite] must have copper in it to be extracted. Well done that girl! [beaming with pride!]. i wonder how feasible smelting is???? All the girls made some soda bread and had it cooked in an earth oven – v yummy! SB painted a mammoth on the cave painting wall, BB made an excellent coil pot, with then a snake pic and her name on it, and we also chatted to the flint knapper and the skin preparer. All v enjoyable. All the girls had a flake earlier than expected – due to late night the night before i suspect! SO home and immed they had a pretend disco upstairs! The day did fit well with our Story of the World activities tho :lol:

We grown ups chatted, got dinner going [i had more tablets and reclined!] then girls joined us to watch the golden compass, which they all enjoyed, after i reassured t-bird that it was the book ‘reimagined’ with less angst, fear and the ending missing… :smile: i am afraid i fell asleep tho, as girls insisted on lights out :blush: Dinner and girls into bed we followed a fair bit later as i had had a second wind and enjoyed chatting with t-bird.

Sunday

next day all the girls got up FAR too early! so we parents trailed down with a bit of a yawn, directed them out to adore rabbits [grin] and then had fimo ready! We were waiting for some more friends to drop by to pick up a rabbit to have pancakes [the kids had first breakfast!] they arrived, total rabbit adoration ensued – awwww. pancakes were scoffed, with SB eating a few too many :roll: causing her to not eat until nearly bedtime [giggle!] some more playing and then bye bye to all guests and all the big babies :cry: they are all now in fab homes and will be v happy, but it certainly was a sad moment!

the girls did some more fimo – SB finishing the sarcophagus decoration, as well as a keyring etc. BB has made a snail, a teddy magnet and a girl with plaited hair. All happy with all makings. i read SoTW 1 [assyrians] and 3[prussia] whilst they did that, and then we gave all the rabbit hutches a through scrubbing and rebedding. the teen hutch is removed, and snowy looked a bit lonely. the little babies tho are bigger, and we added an additional step, so they were hoppiting in and out of hutch, v happy with their new space :)

the girls and i then all snuggled in front of the fire to watch the v retro voyages of sinbad dvds and have a pasta tea. I am reading sirens of surrentum to SB, toning down a bit the lovidoviness off it, as she isn’t really fond of kissing yet. I do think tho it is nicely written for a just preteen. it will be the last one we read for a while, as the plotline of the next is more challenging :(. she is now reading the magicians nephew as her bedtime book [i expect she will race thro it] as it is her fav one. :)

It has been a lovely weekend. I have loved having more time with my gorgeous girls, and going back to work a wrench – partic as still on the emotional wobble side. but it is time to go back. mortgages to pay etc etc. Just have to remember to live and enjoy each day whilst we have them. :)

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

More Conservatory…

Posted on October 21, 2010 by | 5 comments

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

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

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

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

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

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, literacy, music, numeracy, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

tuesday is my hump day!

Posted on October 19, 2010 by | 2 comments

well, we got up earlier today, after an exceptionally late night. SB just didn’t settle at all, and so was a very tired bean when she got up. awww . anyway, bit more of a discussion on 5 a days and what counted, how big etc over brekkie, then a look at part of the first chapter of real science for kids level 2. SHe did understand it, and we talked around it, but then got a bit worried that if she didn’t she would have to change science group, as she loves her science group. ((SB)) so i reassured her that currently the groups weren’t changing, but that if she found the level 2 difficult, then we would read the level 1 version. And i think though the group BB is in will be doing the level 1 version for labwork, that i will be reading the pre-k explanation to her beforehand, and think the various families may want to bob between the different levels, as more important to get understanding than be pushed ahead. [such an advantage to have a flip book!]

We then got down to a sturdy morning of home ed in my lovely conservatory. Hmm, i think i have forgotten to mention how much i love my conservatory :) .

SB did some galore park science, history and english, and then some clarinet prac. BB did some maths – with some serious argument over whether nothing/zero existed, whether you were allowed to put it in sums etc, and she remains unconvinced over its validity. giggle! She read a 1a magic key story – again with a grumble over the word the [obv that shouldn't exist either!] and i read to her the next story in the chaucers canterbury tales, the one with the bottoms, so she particularly loved that ;) we also finished painting her spider puppet, and later strung it together, tho as we had lost instructions, don’t know that it is quite right… Both did a bit of colouring as well.

we played with rabbits again – making sure we get enough rabbit love in before the bigger babies leave for their new homes. :)

after a nice lunch in our LOVELY conservatory we did some baking. SB wanted to use up left over rice crispies and marshmallows, so we went to do that, but we didn’t have enough marshmallows… and BB then wanted to make choc rice crispie cakes, but we didn’t have enough rice crispies or any choc… so we went to the shops and then made the cakes, and now have more marshmallows and rice crispies than wen we started 1 :roll: we also made some fruity snow from the galore park science book. SB really is quite an accomplished baker and cook, really good at following instructions and tweaking things so they work. it was a fun bake :)

SB and i also got in a piano prac before she went out for swimming. trudging is getting sort of a glimmer of hope about it, and the other 2 pieces are ok and should pass already, but time will make them better. so we started with arpeggios. she isn’t certain she will ever play them :( but we will see. we all did some ds-ing together with animal crossing and also mario bros games. we ate a chippery tea [totally ruining the 5 a day thing!] watching the primates episode of life.

now i must try and get things a bit organised for historyetc tomorrow.

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