Category Archives: numeracy

I am appraised!

Posted on December 18, 2008 by | 3 comments

and was not found wanting, thank goodness!!

so what have we been doing – checks to seen when anything blogly written!

AH yes, well the brownies christmas carol concert went well, though i wasn’t there to see it. chris took his mum and nephew instead. it was apparently much fun to sing in, and it didn’t matter that she didn’t sing her solo bt – good. bb joined in with all the carols too. i got home very very late, and then had to do lots of appraisal related stuff.

wed was latinetc, which i enjoyed as always. was a bit tired, but the children had fun. they listened to their hearts with a stethoscope and then excercised and listened again – always easier than failing to find pulses, though we had a go at that. unfortunately the sphygmanometer failed to work after the littlies session, but still with some effort we proved blood flow!! we talked about the names of the vessels, red blood cells, oxygen and lactic acid. All the kids got together to do the horrible hearts and similar kits in the garden, and giggled about them, as they don’t do multiple use well!! [and i got pink hands - which are still pink!]

SB said she really enjoyed the latin, always good. we must have a resume obviously of grammar words, as we haven;t done much on that having been bored with language lessons, but i will jump ahead and find bits for her! BB was v v in need of hugs and cuddles, and i didn’t think we were going to be separated, but she did stay to hear katy read meg et mog, and then play the french game. Katy, i think we left the book at your house?? [no urgency for return, but don't want to have lost it!]

Children did lots of outdoor play, and some did crafting indoors – including bB. when we went home I was VERY impressed that i fitted the whole suma order into the car, as well as the girls! When we got home, BB insisted on doing recorder practice, so SB did some maths. we then cuddled, read books and generally chilled.

Last night i went out with work colleagues to a turkish restaurant not far from here. and it was utterly delicious. apparently there is belly dancing on a thurs night…

today the girls are with grandparents. chris is feeling a bit better having been quite under the weather. we are planning to wrap the girls pressies tonight, do xmas cards for work and perhaps have an early night for a change…

edited to add – still wrapping, and chris has a lovely haircut!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, language, literacy, little languages, noises and sounds, numeracy, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

briefly as time is short

Posted on December 16, 2008 by | 5 comments

and it really is, the full OMG of what needs doing hit me when i updated our christmas planning list! i am going to see how many of the meals i can make whilst glittering with the girls from sat onwards!! chris will prob do the mince pies and perhaps cheese scones for the freezer, but he isn’t well at the moment. i am not allowed to make him laugh as he then has this weird woofing cough.

brr, it is cold in here tonight, missing the fire, and my insomnia struck again last night grr! today the girls seem to have done bits and pieces. SB has done her piano practice and maths and handwriting. she also appears to have told the leader of brownies that she doesn;t want to do her solo at brownies party last wed. apparently it didn’t go down well and she was told off. i suggested that next time she discuss with us, as i had no idea she wasn’t doing it, and nor did chris, until sunday. i think it because she lost the words. anyway, i am being proud of her for telling the leader her self, headbanging that she has done it so late, and made life tricky, but tbh, if i was brownie leader, i would prob have backup plans for things like this, so not too bothered. shame she didn’t tell us though!

and i think they have spent a vast amount of time doing xmas cards. they watched some science clips or other which they both enjoyed, and we all played games. i read – a bit late – the st lucia bit of While the Bear Sleeps: Winter Tales and Traditions to them. SB has really enjoyed the usborne books we bought from joanna. SHe has now started the Crusaders (Usborne Young Reading: Series Three) one, after we read the start of the section on crusaders in SOTW2 [The Story of the World: Middle Ages from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance v. 2: History for the Classical Child (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child (Paperback)) ]. I see what you mean Merry!! I think the Usborne version is a bit more even handed!! we had also finished the samurai section, which went well with one of the other books Samurai (Young Reading (Series 3))
from jo. i would really recommend the usborne young readers books. they seem to have a nice reading style, enough pictures for the facts! we have also been dipping into Crusaders, Samurai and Aztecs (The Childrens Picture World History) that we got as a remaindered book from a library.
bit more french practice in a mild way, and the day was done. chris is doing the big sainsbury order at the mo. i should still be doing appraisal stuff [boohoo]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, history, language, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

A post with some HE in it!

Posted on December 10, 2008 by | 1 comment

it looks like it has been a while :blush: . luckilly, some HE has been going on!! SB has done a fair bit of maths, piano practice and handwriting, and a bit of spelling and music theory. she has read her new usborne books on samurai and aztecs and crusaders. She as also read hundreds [ok i exaggerate] of library books, done a lizard picture for sketch tuesday.
on Sat SB had her judo party, and really enjoyed the disco, and we have some fab photos at some point to flikr [well behind on helmsley though] and she has had a swimming lesson today and an HE playdate yesterday.
BB has carried on with loads of letter writing, some maths – she is considering how adding works at the moment. i really must remember her phraseology! she is deciding whether it makes sense anyway. but what if i add 2 things? will it still be 6?? [after 5 plus 1]. and also poisson rouging, jigsawing and crafting – an angel at library crafts, and painting all the animal picture frames she got as a birthday present. she wants to do recordering and music theory too now. there is no holding her!
we have as a family read some french books and had some french conversations – bb suspiciously asking – are you doing that in french again :roll: [ :lol: ] mind you, she has chosen to watch 2 videos in german – heidi and some crazy fairy story one.
As a family we have put up and decorated 2 christmas trees and got out the nativity scene. BB insisted the baby had to go in it as it might cry. i have been to a rather excellent planning meeting for the wednesdqay stuff, and chris is off to a planning meeting tomorrow. so, amidst the excitement of violin case buying, other stuff has happened!!

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shaking off the rain and making the most of things

Posted on November 26, 2008 by | 5 comments

as you can imagine, after yesterday, my black dog on the shoulder seems to have turned into a clydesdale horse! so i decided to be as computer free and child available as possible, with my facilitator hat on. it has actually meant we have had a v productive yet fun day, but i am totally bushwhacked from being so engaged! in reality, i think disappearing off to an alternate reality with a book might help my weariness, but not my heartache.

having fallen asleep [wayhay for actually sleeping] playing civ 4 last night – a go at alternate reality, but actually i prefered the earlier civs – i was woken up by bouncing children at 9.30. managed to keep them bouncing in a mole game, rather than having to get up straight away! On coming downstairs, SB and i started with piano practice together. now she isn’t playing the violin [and i v much miss that] we are making a concerted effort to practice the piano daily. this is already paying off! bB was a bit grumpy that i was doing piano practice with SB, so once she had got going on it i played the most dificult game of hangman with BB. she was in charge of the hang, and the only letter of the alphabet in her 17 letter word was 1 m! so i lost.

BB then leappadded, and chose the phonics series. being BB she chose number 7 rather than actually look at some of the letters of the alphabet! she is def going to learn to read her own way. she wants the dinosaur leappad book that sb has but never looks at. SB meanwhile was doing maths. they have got to thousands – woohoo and all! so she raced through that, as having grasped hundreds, tens and units, thousands is really just more of the same. SB then insisted on more ballet practice whilst BB said she was doing her ‘writing practice’ – ie squiggles on a white board! SB settled into some spelling – she enjoys these wizard whimstaff, and BB and i did a bit of piano fun. I then did some violin practice [faint!] as have strings. boy am i rusty!! i think i now have finger strain – rofl!! WHilst i was doing that, bB was quite happily following instructions on the brainbox primary electronics kit to make a ‘whizzer’ with only a little bit of support from SB.

After lunch it was baking time. SB chose a recipe of chocolate marzipan biscuits – something nice and complicated! and through the afternoon did it pretty much on her own. BB and i opted for the simpler peanut butter cookies. SImpler in recipe, but obviously complicated by BB’s desire to lick things all the time [so i have a series of spoons that are single use licking spoons to keep the biscuits edible!] and her sometimes idiosyncratic weighing and measuring :smile:

SB’s mixture had to rest for a while in the middle, so we all read one of my french books from the little linguist – berthe makes a pizza – which we loved. [here it is on amazon] and SB did a recorder practice. the new outerwear from muddypuddles arrived, so SB now has some camo trousers, my pink girl really has vanished! BB got a free glove puppet, so equally happy.

SB finished her biscuits whilst bb and i had a romp and read a book together, then we all had tea before SB went out to Judo. BB off to bed, and SB watched some nina and the neurons when she got back.

SO there you go, a busy day in our household! flickr pics of the day

oh, and any advice on trampolines. still humming and hawing. jumpking ovalpod oval vs bazoongi deluxe 12 foot with funring [ouch for more money, but ? its worth it?]

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

happy top post

Posted on November 21, 2008 by | 4 comments

i don’t like the blog to look sad for long! today has been productive for the beans. SB has really got the hang of pas de basques and cifras, and done some tidying up of a number of other steps. feeling more positive! so thats good. she also has judo grading weekend following helmsley so stop over plans curtailed unfortunately. she has done some piano practice and finally has finished singapore maths 2b – woohoo! done spelling and handwriting. we have together read a book about castles all snuggled up [as i needed a hug!] and both girls have been to gym. BB has been mostly investigating all her presents happily.
and tonight i did some christmas shopping courtesy of M and S online 3 for 2 and 20% off. i only bought items that i would have bought anyway, as it is so easy to get sucked in [so i halved the amount of stuff initially in the basket!] i am hoping amazon does a similar sale at some point!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, early maths skills, geography, history, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

penguins dropping from the sky

Posted on November 19, 2008 by | 3 comments

today was busy busy! after such a late bedtime, i am surprised we all got up, as sb also had v late bedtime, and bb woke up as we went to our v late bedtime! but, a fianl tidying push, stuff set out for science and sort of party food! BB opened her presents, and was particularly ecstatic but the sylvanian stuff from both sets of grandparents was a clear winner [as anticipated], and the mp3 from my sister. however, she is now working though the pepa pig set with great keenness! SB and i did some MORE pas de basques, cifras and clappy dance practice – and she has really got the pas de basque thing. just the rest to go! SB’s my pals are here 3 and 4 arrived from singapore and she was very happy!

the latinetc group arrived and we kicked off with science. i thought a fun session of dropping and consolidating the things we had learnt was in order, so we dropped crumpled vs tightly packed paper, and then made parachutes with different size and weight material squares. the children are getting better at making a hypothesis and thinking why they chose that, even if wrong! they certainly enjoyed all the dropping, and were confident with the concepts. then we made paper aeroplanes, which stretched me some, as the origami instructions were complicated! at this point merry arrived, so hers also had aeroplanes which whizzed about a bit. SLight mayhem and chaos later, and a latin session. i was v giggly to here amo amas amat [amamus, amatis amant] from the living room!

finally the ravening children were fed – we had missed out snack time – oops! and fully satiated went on to head shed loads of cake. though my pingu cake looked good, most children ate icing only. i tasted it and thought it was a lovely sponge! BB v keen on the full dark room and lit candeld cake being brought in and all, so we duly did this.

so mostly an afternoon of playing for children – inside and out – and chatting for adults. thankyou to Anne and A who also attended, and chris’s parents. we had a lovely chilled day. BB fell asleep pretty much as guests left, SB did some maths and the judo. BB is awake and playing again :roll:

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, language, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Sketch tuesday

Posted on November 11, 2008 by | Leave a comment

well, its monday here, preparing for sketch tuesday there.

SO today i went to work, and found that for some unknown reason clinic was cancelled, so i decided to agree to a day off [well, sort of, because i am doing tonight!]. ANyway, i came home and surprised the family and we did a whirlwind of catching up with HE! infact, we did so much so that i am lost for starting points!! Well, i think we started with reading BORN WITH A BANG: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story (Sharing Nature With Children Book), having recommended it on the EYHE forum. And yes, it is totally fab, and it does have fab illustrations. we had a read of the scientific bits at the back. SB is developing an enquiring mind, as she wanted to know how people knew that was true, so we discussed physics and maths experiments that pointed to the likelihood, and rediscussed the particle accelerator at CERN, in particular the hadron collider. we then looked into a book about the sun and black holes, Space, Stars, Planets, and Spacecraft (See & Explore)
, and we both got quickly lost with considering string theory – well, it is a bit to advanced, but she liked the idea that it was called a string, and TBH we didn’t do much more than a brief skid across the surface of an idea [i am not sure i could go particularly deep in it!]

SB did a fab violin practice. She practiced slurring, and then saw how many notes she could slur and string cross, so in fact most of the violin practice was having fun with this new skill! the practice was more than double our usual because of it!

in this time BB was happily jigsawing away, with me giving her the odd hand, but after the violin practice was sure it was her HE time!! SO SB settled herself with singapore 2B [last few pages] and BB did earlibird 1B, and then did some before the code whilst SB did Magical Skills: Ages 7-8: Spelling: Ages 7-8 (Magic Skills)
. She is really enjoying this series, so we might buy her the odd one or two more on other subjects! bB then did some pattern blocks and playing with little things making stories, whilst i read SOTW to SB on the subject of knights.

And then we had lunch :wink: very late!

After lunch we thought we would do some art, BB was v keen to make a rocket, and SB to do sketch tuesday [though a bit late!]. SO SB and i first investigated watercolour washes. [i must buy some more nice watercolours for us to do this properly!] and then over the arctic colour she hummed and hawed deciding which icy creature she wanted, initially thinking plankton, and working her way up to penguins. it meant she read a fair bit of Polar Wildlife (Usborne World Wildlife)whilst her wash dried! She did 2 versions of her drawing, and we emailed her favourite version off to be added [hopefully] to the group! We did a short bit of french altogether Bonne Nuit a Tous: Goodnight Everyone (I Can Read French) showing that SB does actually know more vocab than i thought she might!!

Gah, can’t get flickr pics to come here! will try again

BB meanwhile was doing some fab painting of her own, of a v colourful house, and then multicoloured butterfly prints. finally we made and painted her rocket whilst SB was at ballet [see below!] and then BB watched some 6 zoo lane whilst SB was at brownies, and we read books together, snuggled and tickled. oh, and she did a recorder practice – a couple of a’s and b’s!!

tea was curry in front of saturday’s merlin. A nice and full day i think! Keeping it so full, gave less chance for post weekend fallout day! 2 more chapters of pirates of pompeii to go!

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Christmas is coming

Posted on November 3, 2008 by | 5 comments

and the mincemeat is being made.

AArgh to christmas coming. why do i get so behind with christmas thoughts! pressies to get etc etc. its at our house again this year, we were going to have a break, but i’m working boxing day, so no point going to my parents to come back late on xmas day!

ANyway, I digress – well, i don’t really digress, as i haven’t started. I just am not feeling bloggable. I want the blog to just write itself, i like a record of what we do to look back on. i am barely using the camera either. obviously something is not quite right!

SB is more cheery these days [ or else i have got used to her wails and abrupt emotional changes/fragility] she is more stroppy as well. perhaps this is an age and growth thing. i do love having my mostly happier girl back again. She is talking ten to the dozen again, it is often like being in a wind tunnel! [and yes, I do know pressure of speech is a psychiatric term!] SHe tells me her ideas, what she has done, how tshe thinks the world works, and is alive again. phew. I am sure we are not out of the doldrums completely [as her wail about not going to the shop to buy a magazine shows, she is v quick to be desolate], but i no longer have her tell me she doesn’t see the point of being alive. BB is a squirmy armful of self confidence, bounciness, determination and joy. she is grasping the world around her and making it work her way! i love how she has such a clear way of describing things, and using her older sisters vocab to strengthen the emphasis on what she wants to say, and also the gestures and facial expressions! nearly 4! how time flies.

SO this weekend i have been working, but not too busily. The girls have done a fair bit of playing and also HE stuff. we are castle reading in our history at the mo – always a fun thing to play and recreate! SB is doing lots of spelling practice and maths – she hopes to finish her 2B book in time for when the MPAH 3A arrives [she prefers the MP as opposed to the primary maths which i prefer!]. She has also done music theory and 2 violin practices with me. BB is really grasping sounding out words as they are said. she doesn’t know the alphabet and scanty letters, but is good on the sounds and joining them together. we have done a fair bit of the before the code book 1, and today when we were going to do it together she told me she could do her home ed stuff by herself, and did!

thurs was a divali day at nots and tots, which they enjoyed. SB mostly played with L and E, and BB mostly did the crafts. they went on to a fun playdate afterwards, which both were v keen to tell me how much they had enjoyed it. So that was good.

fri was already blogged by chris – SB was v scary i think. she had been desperate to buy the mask, and I agreed as long as she made the costume to go with it out of an old sheet – she had the idea to bespatter it with blood. Was so excited to have the costume and rarred at lots of people in it, and was most impressed with the squeeze the heart thing. BB got fed up with her costume, so we tore the eye holes so that she could poke her whole head through, and then she was a much happier little ghost.

SB got this book from the library.The Magician of Samarkand
i would strongly recommend it [as would SB] and we will look for more books by that author. it is one of our favourites on junior jackanory, and the book itself is written beautifully. we love!!

we have done some french reading and conversation. following a recommendation on another blog, i purchased some more french resources, and we are doing the l’art de dire. I like it. i guess this bit could easily be made up and done with someone confident in french – which I am not! and there may be cheaper alternatives [luckilly i bought before all the currency turmoils through canadian relatives!] but actually i think it is deceptively simple, in that initially i wondered what i had spent my money on [ i bought the lire ones at the same time, and they are more obviously a good buy for that kind of thing] but as i use it to formalise our conversation, both SB and BB seem to be getting on well, and I have more confidence to extrapolate and experiment. you know, by the time i have finsihed home edding, i might be able to speak french! i did suggest to deepend Katy that she could prob write a home-ed conversational french package and have a market ready! I think she may be lacking in time though!! we are still using a various books and reading lots in french.

today we started making mincemeat using Delia Smith’s Christmas
. it worked well last year, and smells gorgeous! unfortunately with the nutmeg grating, there was a small amount of SB grating… never mind!!

what else? ermm, both girls have done lots of playing. BB loves her little things to play with, so will no doubt love her sylvanians – though still tempted by those rather glorious anamalz for her birthday! am thinking what to get other children for presents as well, and yes, christmas is coming!! [i think that may be where this blog started!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, online resources, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Growing up?

Posted on November 1, 2008 by | 7 comments

 

Dead Spirit

 

SB being a ‘Dead Spirit’, lacks a certain cuteness compared to last years Witch and the Angellina Ballerina Firefly from a couple of years ago.

The mask has a heart you can squeeze which squirts blood over the face :roll:

IMG_0405-1

 

BB was cute though as a ‘Little Ghost’ :-)

 

IMG_3251 

 

This morning SB faffed about quite a bit, whilst doing some maths, handwriting and some of the Wizard Whimstaff spelling book she seems to be enjoying at the moment. Various phonecalls and people came and went dropping off  the repaired Yaris and collecting the hired A Class (slightly bemused that the vagaries of insurance company contract arrnagements meant  that the car was reapired 40 miles away and the hire car came from 70 miles away, but there you go). The A class was a nice enough drive, though seemed to be a lot of body roll. But the Yaris was much the better buy for the requirements we had. So H can rest easy there :-)

After lunch we sorted out the Halloween outfits, carved Pumpkins, walked to the chemists, made the well loved here, Pumpkin and Toasted Sweetcorn Soup for dinner, and waited for H to come home. She had abit of a long and slow journey home, so once she was in it was pretty much straight out the door for Trick or Treating. A bit nippy, not so many Pumpkins out as last year (maybe ‘cos half term and holidays?), but some people make a real effort, and round here, everyone seems to repect the ‘only call at houses with Pumpkins’ thing annad it’s all good natured.

One house had some wonderfully carved Pumpkins:

 

IMG_3252 IMG_3254 IMG_3253 

 

We were pretty cold by the time we got back, so nice hot bowls of soup were welcome, prised childrens hands off of bags of sweets and packed them off to bed. Tired parenst of course still haven’t gone to bed yet ;-)

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Posted in Butterbean, Cooking, cute, literacy, numeracy, Out and About, photos, Stringbean, writing

where is that blogging muse?

Posted on October 30, 2008 by | Leave a comment

ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

yesterday chris did some windowing – wahay!! and his parents came over, there was a bit of home ed stuff [sb maths, handwriting, spelling, piano and a castle box book, bb b4 the code and earlibird maths] and baking.

today was science and latin group, but we did french instead of latin. we nearly got to the deep end in time, but traffic and road works were against us, gina was later though. for science we made anti grav devices. this was fiddlier than expected, but worked more or less!! we learnt a gravity magic trick as well and discussed failures and bodges – aka the melting of the hadron collider. in between the science and french, the children made tickets and membership cards for a show that they put on at the end – a musical variety act i think! also at the end katy shew them doodle art, which the def enjoyed.

SB and BB had done lots of baking the prev day, which turned into a nice end of session treat for everyone, and i have to say that i thought her choc and orange cake was rather successful. She pretty much made it on her own, so looks like a baker -vgreat!!

back home we chilled with merlin and robin hood [maid marian has died!!!!] and then sb and i played games whilst bb took a long time to fall asleep.

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