Category Archives: numeracy

Some ed achieved

Posted on November 29, 2005 by | Leave a comment

yesterday we did a hama spiral glaxay [rofl], some addition and takeaway with beads, and read many books including the buddhist tales from barefoot.

Today we did 4 pages explode the code, 4 pages singapore maths, making letters with maxi hama, christmas cards – stamps and sitckers – for the early HE list. A sudoku grid. Nanny took her to the park to wear her out [failure]

BB has dreadful conjunctivitis, but is trying to be a gorgeous smily star anyway. She got to push the dollies pushchair today – what a big girl! A few single steps, and finally got the swapping hand on hidden thing gag!

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Posted in art and crafts, General, history, literacy, numeracy, SB-PE, writing

TBH

Posted on November 23, 2005 by | 3 comments

I’m really not in a blogging mood.

We mostly played with Sindy’s today. in a fit of ‘i really wanted one these as a child’, I bought SB a 70′s sindy cooker with grill and lights from ebay – nice and cheap and came really quickly. I was going to stuff it in as an xmas pressie, but forgot about it, so when a parcel arrived this morning, assumed it was a late BB present. Oops, anyway, she/ [we :?))] has/have had great fun with it. I said it was a christmas present she has had early, and hse is happy.

She did a fair bit of mathsy stuff as well. she did the cubes with chris – not sure exactly as SB explained some massively convoluted game to me where I lost the plot. Later, we did sticker subtraction maths together – with bonus sweets to help with the first 5 before all eaten [rofl].

We also read both Hercules and Jason and the argonauts from our usborne cartoon style book. She really likes her greek myths, and def getting the pantheon of greek gods sussed! We looked on the globe where greece was, and Tiryns, colchis, atlas mountains etc. Sb couldn’t wuite understand why Heracles walked to gibraltar and crossed to africa rather than getting a bot, and have to agre with her. Mind you, we decided that the island he went to was maybe one of the canaries, so not in the med anyway. In the book there is a map of the voyage of the argo, and SB a bit grumpy beacuase all the land was white. She says that unless its ice, it shouldn’t be white. So we did a bit on different ways to look at maps with the maps and globes book. Like her mother, she is still sure she is right.

She made a fuss as she wanted a ‘thing’ that she saw at the library. After some delibertion on what this thing was, it was a paper shuffler – no idea of their proper name, but I made a few of the paper shapes I know, including the ‘shuffler’ that i used to play with at school – you know, the thing with numbers and colours that then said something awful inside. It was the right thing, so we undidn it again, had a look at how the squares and triangles were over it, and then coloured and put back together. She is very happy with it, even though it has no messages anywhere!

Other things – well we discussed photos together – looked at Nics baby photos – very cute!! Which led back to a discussion about cords, why they were there etc. And the to us looking at some older ones of SB and her helping decided which ones she liked and we should put up. She doesn’t understand why i tag so much either, but one day she will be a tag convert!!

Other miscellany – playing with BB, she likes the toy radio she got and jigs to that. She has eaten numerous crayons. She can get spoon in mouth without losing all the contents, she has a lovely smile!

Well, TBH, my unwilling blog not so diferent from a willing one, eh! Chris and I slowely returning to land of living – losing migraine makes life bearable again. A cold only is not so awful.

Oh, and the DVLA lost my driving licence application [as moved] and with it, bloody passport!!!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, General, geography, history, numeracy, Stringbean's HE, writing

Ballet Day

Posted on November 16, 2005 by | 7 comments

Well, The usual night [sigh] but with much less screaming, since as I wasn’t working today, I was quite happy to do endless amounts of feeding [?] Got a lie in though.

Went downstairs and immediately was pressganged into cuisinaire rod patterns. Thankyou Merry for showing me new ways to spend money, so have looked at icthus website. Not actually parted with money, as waiting until next paycheck.

I then read some of my least favourite books – the Mr men series. Argh – Mr chatterbox is even dense text [I paraphrased!]. The we looked at crusades in the DK History really interesting bits, as SB really likes the bloody bits in history.

from there we moved on to Hama, and did another star, and a face – Nanna and grandad F had arrived by then, so did the face with SB, and thought it was a great idea. Chris – in his infinite wisdom – mentioned some of the shaped boards SB has for Xmas – sigh. What do you do with men like that?

Lunch and then we went into cambridge for the Moscow City Ballet. We parked and road, and neither of has been in central cambridge before – looks really nice, and as the park and ride so easy, am tempted to do it again. BB left with Chris’ parents. Lots of little girls in their angelina finest – SB insisted on the bridesmaids dress, and I thought great, another outing for it!! She looked gorgeous [biased mother alert!], and lots of people thought so too, and asked her if she was a ballerina, so she did the wooing thing [rofl]. The ballet was good. [heresy, but its not really my thing, and I never did the wanting to be one phase] A bit long really – Tchaikovsky Sleeping beauty. Interest was maintained for 2/3 of the time, which I actually thought was rather good. I did encourage though with whispered explanations, questions and what do you think when her prefidget signs showed up, and also allowed her a bit more wriggle latitude – it was a matinee, and the seat behind me was empty, and I had told the lady next to me and behind where SB should have been to indicate if she was getting to much! They didn’t seem to mind when she occasionnaly popped up to do a few of the ballet moves [I think I may have heard a giggle!]. Whens she was really flagging, she decided to do sums – I kid you not, there in the ballet we are doing whispered sums using fingers and toes!! She is variably correct when going over the 10, but enjoys trying to keep all the numbers in order. We rode back to the car on the top of the bus at the front – which she loved.

Back at home we went to the chippie for tea, and SB then played with her Europe Jigsaw, getting very good at the more obvious countries, and making chris’ parents guess which ones they were. We then played with the alphabet bingo we had from sonlight. i read a few more books, and that was our day done and dusted.

Although i haven’t mentioned BB much, we had a good play in the morning and again in the evening, and she was a good girl for nanna and grandad. Lets hope she sleeps!

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Posted in art and crafts, Dance/drama, General, geography, history, literacy, numeracy, Out and About

from SB – plus short addendum

Posted on November 15, 2005 by | 1 comment

SB wants everyone to know she has had a glass accident just like Amelie! Chris dropped the cafetiere ans she went to investigate rather too quickly. unlike Amelie, she didn’t get to ride in an ambliance [her word] since i could get it out and wrap it up without all the torrential bleeding. Have made it look good with a bandage, so they can compare notes!!!

edited: having decided to go to bed any second, will log my evening. managed to leave work at 5 – so not bad. got home and SB had drawn a piccie for me, told me about her stickign at library. they had made pizza dough, so we had pizza for tea – yummy. SB did some maths – yahay – primary maths 1a number bonds of 6 and 7. she has really got the concept of these, and plays with the joining units to see differnt wayws of making things. since i have been doing the kakuro, she also does 3 way splits too. Otherwise we had the spontaneous first aid display – and discussion of circulation and levels of the heart. BB jolly wee thing – more ta, passing things, and she was very interested in the first aid display too. At present asleep in cot [lay your bets please!!]. Now I will say goodnight too.

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Meal Swapping

Posted on November 12, 2005 by | 10 comments

In a blogring way, we cooked Sarahs aubergine and chickpea casserole for tea – very nice, and now see she is planning beetroot rissoto.

I think Chris and I are too tired. Work is very full on – and I guess will always be so, so I feel that I am full on in every aspect of my life, with little opportunity to catch my breath and just waste time! BB not sleeping, and my dreadfulness at going to be early combine to make me permanently sleep deprived as well. I notice that Chris and I get short with SB at times when we wouldn’t have done before. I shouted today, and have felt dreadful since, as it was just about putting her coat on – not life shattering at all. She had refused, I said fine, we got to the car and she was complaining she was cold, so I shouted. Sigh.

Chris and I need to work on this, as SB doesn’t respond well to being shouted at, and it is usually entirely unneccesary, just a release of our frustration. With my working, she is always keen to stay up as late as she can push it to play with me, and I can’t help but want to play with her. This, though, is also not helping, as I think she is sleep deprived too, and much more likely to wail at the slightest thing, therby setting mine/Chris’s teeth on edge, etc etc – you see how this goes. I think, as soon as I’ve got the things at work vaguely running, I can try not to stay late – I’m often back at 7ish on Tues and Thurs, so that we avoid those being late nights, and potentially try and leave a bit earlier on the Mon and Fri to be back by 4:30 – 5ish if i can.

Anyway, to today. I got up late – another poor night, not helped by SB going to bed so late, that i stayed up unneccessarily later etc etc! We went to stagecoach [and I shouted about coats]. SB always reluctant to go, though enjoys it whilst there, and we haven’t renewed to go next term. We might try it or something similar again when she is older. I am not totally happy with stagecoach anyway, as I think they teach the children bad singing techniques – ie louder and false american with smiles, rather than concentrating on tunefullness. However, thought she would love it – how wrong! While SB there, me and BB had a nice walk around the nearby country park – good for my cobwebs, and giving BB her own time.

the weather was so lovely I promised SB we could eat outdoors for lunch – so we did, warmly wrapped. Chris had made potato and leek soup – yummy.

I the afternoon, I read SB a magazine and a story whilst BB fed and then dozed and she did spiral drawing. We then spent quite a long time painting and did blow painting and stamp painting. a rather imaginative under the sea picture with handprints as seaweed and the fish/shell stamps. she even drew a safe path for divers.

She then coloured in a picture for a present for me. BB woke up so we had a fair bit of playing all together. Mostly with the stacking cups and the moving tortoise, with SB also using the spacehopper to bounce up and down the hall – to BB’s bemusement.

Later I read most of the Roman Usborne time traveller to SB, and we had a look for Italy and Rome on the globe, discussed empires vs kingdoms, capital cities, slaves and the rather horrible roman games! We did a page of thinking skills in maths 1a. I am feeling guilty about the lack of formal maths at the moment, so will try and gradually creep it in. Yep, I know not autonomous, but then I don’t pretend to be autonomous, just generally child led, but would feel more comfortable with a ‘normals’ set up in addition.

Tea was the well received aubergine and chickpea casserole, and then some story reading and general looking at our globe before bed, and the magic faraway tree at bed.

To tell the truth, I am wondering whether we are a bit slack to be home educators, as SB such a bright spark that part of me thinks we should really be managing to do normals, and let the rest be child led. Somehow, we don’t. its not a worry so much now, as she isn’t even compulsary ed age, and I do think formal education is pushed far too early, and yet….. [everything we did today bar stagecoach was truly autonomous]

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Posted in art and crafts, Dance/drama, General, geography, history, music, numeracy, Ponderings, Stringbean

yay, weekend’s here

Posted on November 11, 2005 by | Leave a comment

but sb not asleep.

Beans had fun at muddlepuddle and then afterwards round at Merry’s. Chris will no doubt blog or edit.

When we all got in, we actually did a lot. I told some stories and then SB and I played a geography game followed by hungry hippos and number 1o number bonds. BB was potterng around playing with musical toys. We then had a lot of fun all together, taking it in turns which child to throw/jiggle and swing.

SB then wanted to write a letter to her friend R in Leeds, and aso drew her a picture. Oh, and she also drew the beans we have growing and their roots – which are the first things to appear. 1 has a long root, one a tiny blip and the other nothing.

No wonder bedtime was so late and she is still awake! I am shatterd as a long and hard week at work. B edtime soon methinks!

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The pressure is on

Posted on November 9, 2005 by | 9 comments

i’ve got to try and blog in the time it takes SB and BB to have their bath – 5 or 10 mins probably!! i’m going out to night, so dressed up, and having a nice meal.

BB a disaster last night, and thought I’d managed a lie in when I got up – 8:30!! Oh well.

Spontaneous learning pre breakfast when SB brought out some getty and dubay to do. practised the V mainly. I would help if she didn’t go off in the wrong direction to start with. We drew as many v things as we could think of. Moved on to drawing and then colouring in the Pudsey bear for nursery. She did a really good drawing – so will flickr it [surprise]. She also wrote her name nicely on the bottom, and then had a dicky fit that her middle name didn’t fit, so turned over the paper and wrote her first 2 names – mirror writing! Even with taking a picture of them both, she just couldn’t see that they were any different. hmm.

After breakfast she watched a Hoobs video, and we did a lot of playing with BB. BB is enjoying trying out the shape sorter – unfortunately the technique of ramming with as much force as possible in nearest hole is not particularly successful, but she was happy with the ‘if you don’t succeed, stuff it through the door at the side’!

While BB was supposed sleeping, Chris and SB made the Xmas cake [and its still cooking!] BB woke up fairly instantly, and squiggled about in the pantry. [SB is down from the bath, naked and soaking- 8 minutes]

I went outside to take some sunny pictures – mainly of pond reflections and fish, and was soon joined by both SB and BB. SB dancing around being a pond fairy, and BB catching up with Josie in the ‘I can now throw myself in’ stakes [she didn't]. SB and I discussed pond reflections, mirrors etc, and what happened when the fish popped up – which the fish did a fair bit as SB threw in about 2 weeks worth of food. So we went back in and had lunch.

More playing with both SB and BB – side by side, as SB didn’t want BB to actually play with her as she was in a convoluted imagination game with elephant finger puppet cat and eagle. BB and I played hammering and beads mostly, and a fair bit of Ta. BB fell asleep, and I read a number of story books to SB, and she read outloud 2 spot books – with assistance on the longer words. We also read the first people by Usborne. Otherwise for maths we have talked about shapes and patterning, and done some counting and finger adding and taking away.

Whilst I cooked tea – nothing exciting, just pasta – SB wrote a letter to Nanny and drew a boat – a normal one on one side, and then turned over to draw an egyption one. It did look a bit like a felucca too. We played memory cards and my bastardised happy families rummy. BB was generally jolly and babbled and fiddled about.

SB now making patterns with the connect 4. Time to feed BB and then go!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Cooking, General, history, literacy, numeracy, photos, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

Did some of the things!

Posted on November 5, 2005 by | 2 comments

We actually had a nearly decent night sleep – wonders will never cease! BB not so fidgetty, though I can’t actually do a feed count, as all nights merge into one!

SB went to Stagecoach this am, for lets go and fly a kite and chim chimeny. She now agrees it is about sweeps not sweets as they had a sweep prop!! [And we had been discussing sweeping chimneys with our fire - including the fact that children used to have to do it, but not that the boys got testicular cancer and died].

Whilst she was engaged, BB and I had fun. we played peekaboo, chair climbing and stair climbing practice. Standing practice and Ta games. Cuddling, tickling and lots of giggling. I do like this age! BB good at standing unaided, and several times took one tentative step as well.

I did then start the grape and lemon jam [which i have done on and off all day]. The recipe calls for seedless grapes, but our victorian vine is obviously seeded, so I spent ages deseeding 2kg of grapes. SB did not help, as said it was too messy [??!!??], but she did measure out the sugar in cups and do the stirring.

In the afternoon, we planted about 1/4 of the bulbs together, and played a very prolonged game of mummies and babies – I was the little girl of 13, and she was my 15 yr mother! She very sweetly called me darling all afternoon, which I rather liked. Looking at the veg beds [in desperate need of attention!] some of the Runner bean pods were big and dried enough to pick and shell. The plan is to save seed for next year. We imagined we were jack and the beanstalk though, so buried a few! After having a discussion about how they grow, we have repeated the beans and damp kitchen roll experiment.

While I finished off the jam – which actually is a sweet/sour type eastern marmalade really – SB and BB played beautifully together in the pantry – well SB I think might have been keeping her prisoner, but there was no wailing, and SB was being very attentive, so I was encouraging! I realised I had miossed a few seeds, and they came to the top in the initial boil, so next time wont seed at all!

Various neighbours have had fireworks. I really do miss living on the top of a hill in Leeds and seeing the city’s fireworks all around! SB and I were counting the time to the next firework – and she is reliable to 59, so not bad. we did a bit of playing with numbers – adding and subtracting while waiting too. Tea, bath and bed!

Now I am hungry – shall I forage or ask Chris???? Hmmm.

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Posted in Butterbean, Cooking, Dance/drama, gardening, General, history, numeracy, photos, science, Stringbean's HE

Mayhem and Madness

Posted on October 26, 2005 by | 6 comments

Encapsulates my life. I think as a family we are a very good example of chaos theory, and the workings of entropy. however hard we strive for some order, it gets wooshed away.

good news
1.My sister and parents decided the bunks were a good christmas present and bought them [so I see some reasoning for my sister, who will get to sleep on them rather than blow up bed!]
2. Hooking and crooking we are going to halloween party [though I see Alvin shaking his head and sighing at me!]. Haven’t got a costume as such – may go as myself [though only Merry finds that scary, and although I wouldn't want to scare Merry anyway, she won't be there]. thought chris could go as an animal rights chappie, to be the anti-Chris (P) [who I believe is going as himself?] And as for children???

Bad news
1. Pay has dropped
2. Totted up likely cost for christmas for 16 at ours [shriek!] and staying 3-4 days.

Anyway, to the day. BB gave us another totally abysmal night. I was on call as well. In the end Chris took BB to the spare room as I just couldn’t feed her again, and I am supposed to be reasonably alert if called in! SO both of us starting with a small camel to begin with.

SB woke up really early, had me making up stories in bed at 7 – she now has to help with the plot, so getting good at this – , and then up at 8 – no rest for the wicked! So we came downstairs. Now I knew i should have made a list!! Hmmm, well the second thing we did was the maths joining cubes and some singapore 1A on add/takeaway/number bonds. however, we spent far more time just making realtionships between things, thinking about going up and down 0-10 in 2′s. and then doing clumps of 3′s. Preliminary tables really, and some odd and even stuff.

Aha!! first thing was numerous jigsaws!! Then – and how can I forget, we started a papier mache monster head. So that means the maths was the third thing. It was SB’s idea – of course, and I am in TCS mode [or was until desperate need for some quiet!] SHe was very careful tearing up the strips of newspaper and applying to the balloon [flour and water paste], and also helped tidy up. In fact SB has been really considerate all day, and helped with lots of tidying, and not done much grumping or weeping over inconsequential mundanities – really lovely! She is a really gorgeous daughter, and I don’t say it often enough in this blog. Everyone, I have 2 gorgeous daughters.

BB joined us so we had to put away the cubes and jigsaw pieces, so that led to a really good old tidy up. I was going to let Chris have a lie in, but he was downstairs before I had heard BB. breakfast next and getting dressed. SB and I made the first of the days halloween sweets - orange and black coconut ice hmm!!

Then some playing with BB time. She has just got the hang of walking with the walker – though a bit perturbed if it goes too fast! She is such an investigator as well – getting into cupboards, boxes etc. She’s quite good at furniture walking. She chatters and claps, and was having great fun with a pair of toy glasses. I put them on her a few times – immediately whipped off, anf then asked her to put them on – at which point she tried to balance them on her head – very cute! She talks to things as she goes round as well. She also likes posting things in holes, so tidying up suits her! SB also did some playing with BB in a reasonably succesful kind of way. She is also really proud and pleased when BB can do something that Josie can already do!!!!

edited – at this point she also did some drawing and colouring. She has cut out the free archaeolog postcards she got and made a collage – all by herself, finding glue and scissors. She has also had a look at the learn to draw things that go – and done a really good hot air ballon and submarine.

While BB preparing to sleep, SB read some red letterland books to me. She is reading the known stories rather than the words, but I do make her read out some letters and turn them into words. Not too much as sometimes this really annoys her. I then read some of the Usborne farmyard books [she has to sound out/read the title]. i’m mainly trying to show her that guessing the word is sometimes made easier if you sound it out a bit first.

With BB asleep, we did a lot with the marble run. We joined it up in different ways, sometimes steep or curvey or shallow or straight, and guessed how fast the marbles might go, and where they might come off. We had 12 marbles, so 6 each, and SB now good at 6 number bonds, but was easily seeing if we had enough by doing 2 lots of 3, and seeing what was missing or extra. SO more easy maths. Also picked up that the steeper the slope, the faster it went, but curves slowed things down, and curves on a steep slope were more likely to cause the marble to come off – must be science! [oh and we had lunch, and I actually read one of the 3 journals I must read today as getting behind!]

Finally we did the last 2 sweets for halloween – orange flavoured pumpkins and mint flavoured bat droppings and snails – yum! Don’t worry though, we kept our hands and bowls scrupulously clean, as others are going to share in the joy of eating these sweets. Whats more, as Chris looking frazzled, i had a rather good stab at keeping the kitchen tidy.

our next activity totally foiled this – making pumpkin and ginger chutney. What is it about pumpkin seeds – pinging off everywhere! Also so slimy. instant kitchen disaster. We haven’t finished it – SB whizzled the carrots, onions chillis and ginger up, i choopped the pumplkins, and we have added the spice and the vinegar. Chris in trouble, as I had made excess perfumed vinegar for the pickled shallots, so was going to use it, as popped in a jar, but he has thrown it away!! SO mixture of what we have got. CHillies and ginger tend to be predom flavour though. I think today i have earned a prairie muffin award for my kitchen endeavours!

SB now doing some leappad in the kitchen as I said I needed 5 minutes peace, and BB is pootling behind me [with plastic glasses in hand]. Since I have had 30, I had better go and rejoin the family. not many photos as the battery on the camera ran out, and we have lost our alternate rechargeable – a bit of a bugger. I’m sure I will find something to flickr later on – well, if I have time when finished chutney, and potentially thought of a 5 second costume for SB. realised Mum has sewing machine too. bugger! Oh, SB ran in really excited as she has completed one of the phonics books all herself with the games, and CHris [also in kitchen cooking tea] has given her the star for their chart. Very sweet! Back to life, back to reality…………………..

edited to add -OK, so the non-whinge disappeared over dinner, but prob cos she was tired! We then read Ulysses from Usborne’s heros, and for bed the magic faraway tree.

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edit 2 – have done chutney [lovely vinegar aroma!] and journals, but no costume for SB!

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Posted in art and crafts, Blogging, Butterbean, Cooking, General, literacy, numeracy, photos, science, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

A weeks beginning.

Posted on October 26, 2005 by | Leave a comment

Suffering ‘Blogger’s brain’ again re yesterday.

Monday

Both Stringbean and Butterbean slept a bit longer after Helen went to work -Stringbean hadn?t got to sleep until gone 12 (or was it 1 am?) as she’d slept on the way home and unfortunately woke up when i put her to bed . She did spend a long time in bed but just didn’t get to sleep so she caught up a bit. Both woke up all perky soon enough though. BB is such a total wiggler when it comes to getting changed, as so a you let go she rolls over and is off across the bed. She loves it so much – she does this thing where she sort of flops her head down on the bed while sticking her bottom up and then chuckles away. That and making beeline for the end of the bed so she can stand up holding the top of the frame. So with her and SB generally messing about and ?helping? it can take a while to get her changed.

SB seemed a little out of sorts after the weekend, as she often is after seeing people, And didn?t want to settle down to anything that I suggested in the ?worky? nature so after her breakfast while I finished BB and mine she pottered about in the playroom. She found some more pens and pencils in a small draw in the cupboard so dragged them out and sat herself down with some paper quietly to do some drawing. She did a great picture of a rabbit. It is apparently jumping up into the sky so the grass isn?t too long. She spent a fair while on this so me and BB got a little while to play little peep-bo, hiding games, taking and passing games etc. Bit of a blank spot here, though I do remember some reading of stories, though I got SB to try reading some of the words out as well.

Did go outside after BB went down for her nap. We filled up the bird feeders ? talked about why we put different food in them, why some goes on the bird table or the ground, what different birds eat, why small ones need to eat often, why fat useful as a food for them in the winter, the names of some of the birds we see. And then spent ages poking around outside. Found a couple of big sticks and played a few ?big stick games? , balancing them on end. trying to find the point of balance (talked about why it is roughly in the middle), a bit of sword fighting. Various other things which I now forget came up as well.

After our lunch, BB then woke up, so SB settled down to play a few games, listen to stories etc. on the Cbeebies website while I fed BB. Tried to listen to a couple of the record BBC Schools Radio programs with her, she was half into it ? particularly the one where we had to act out a little drama ? making noises, being an elephant etc. but not really into it. A little bit later at some point Helen came home. Not sure exactly what was done there but they did some good lego Pyramid building at some point before dinner. There were plans to make some lemon curd, we even went and bought the eggs, but somehow didn?t get round to it.

Helen here – we actually did quite a bit, but can’t remeber so much either – oops. did do some explode the code, 3 pages, SB helped me write the numbers in the Kakuro game – she has grasped it is an adding game, so that made us do a bit of mental maths. I also read 3 or 4 stories from the usborne around the world, and therefore she had to read me a red nose reader [for every 3 I read, she has to read 1!!!] lots of squiggling about with BB as well. lego was fun though. We even put the characters in the pyramids with the lego animals to keep them company in the underworld.

Tuesday

Well girls esp. SB awake early enough this morning BB had a pretty poor night ? she is doing this thing where she will wake up and have a feed, then when I try to take her, she will scream madly as she wants to go back to mum, so bad night.

After her breakie, SB went back to some more Lego. This time making a train and some ?sofa?s for all the people to sit on apparently. Once me a SB had finished up we got dressed etc. and sorted out the library books she wanted to take back and which she wanted to renew ? She uses hers and BB?s card and has various books taken out on different weeks, so we have fair pile of books to sort out, check etc. Still wondering what has happened to two Mr Men books that disappeared in the house ages ago. Did I hide them is despair and my dislike of then I wonder?

Got sorted, time to go out. First stop baby clinic. Have only been once since we moved here, no real need to go, but BB weighed and got HV to try and get the endless requests for SB to have jabs she has already had stopped (various people not doing/telling who they should it would seem) Missed SB 8 month check as GP does it ? but she seems ok ? Sb had an hearing test but don?t do that now, and we missed the birth one. But she seems to hear ok.

To library, where for once we managed not to cause delays and confusion as we normally seem to manage to do. Read few books ? found some Red Nose Readers, so we read those in the library. Got out some more books and headed home. BB to snooze, me and SB to eat toast, drink coffee and read all the books at least once. My Mum rang asking if we could go over to help sort out some problems with wiring the TV, video etc. so once we ?d finished and sorted out stuff to take we headed over there.

We played a bit of game that my parents got when I was around 10 called Hare and Tortoise . It?s a fairly cleaver race type game, but it?s not dice based, so there is much more strategy to it than chance. A bit to old for SB, but she saw it and wanted to try it .She got the hang of the general gist of the game – collecting and then ?spending? carrots to move around the board. And it gave us excuse to practice working out how to make up the right number of carrots from various denomination cards, talked about the idea of counting in tens again. Didn?t finish the game as I had to pop out and then she wanted to stop. Also impressed Nanna a bit later by slicing up the potatoes to make nice chips. Spent basically all afternoon there, not as planned. Was a nice afternoon and had had an idea to get out again and maybe do something like bark rubbings.

Managed to get home with out SB falling asleep. Tea, a bit of reading of library books again. SB made some pictures for me and Helen ? I liked the ?love to Babby? Bit on mine :-)

Butterbean note. She is so much into everything at the moment, put her down and she is off investigating, nosing about, getting stuck in places. She loves the dishwasher. As soon as it is open she is in there. Almost literally – I found her on the open door, head inide the machine….. :-)

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean, Dance/drama, history, literacy, numeracy, Out and About, photos, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE