Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

a curiosity shop of fossils – part 3

Posted on July 28, 2009 by | 3 comments

OK, so we have seen a lot of fossils, but we haven;t exactly found many have we!! so the next day – wed- sees us fossiling on the beach. the weather looks ok, we go to the museum on the waterfront to get an idea what we plan to find first. it is a lovely little free museum, so we spend a bit longer than planned there before moving out. and yay!! we find fossils. no dinosaurs for BB, and in fact no fabulous fossils of ammonites made of iron pyrites, but some ammonites and belemnites, and some fossilised wood! some sand castling, rockpooling and playing chicken with the waves. we were def having fun! a lovely relaxed beach day.

SB had been promised a trip to Monkey World, so thurs was the day for that. the weather was abysmal as we set out, so a bit worried whether it was going to be OK! but it was fine. a few whippings out of raincoats, but rain only set in really at the v end, so alls well! loved looking at the chimps, i loved the orangutans and babies. sb loved the lemurs, and bb the marmosets. the children in partic loved the climbing frames, both for the animals and for the children. we listened to a couple of the talks, and the keepers were v friendly and approachable. the orang talk was completely drowned by some v noisy gibbons calling! BB had a minor moment, as had run out of holiday money, and couldn’t buy a monkey, but such is life! she has a priority list – money, dinosaurs, chocolate and then mummy and daddy!!! another great fun day. when we got back to the campsite, the rain stopped and we saw a fab rainbow. so with some good weather i persuaded everyone to walk to the beach before dinner. we had an ace night walk along the beach before a quick dinner and a fall into bed.

friday i had my first proper sulk with the weather, it was still raining and i just wanted an easy day! we decided to go to the dinosaur museum in dorchester as that was what bb wanted to do. it was my least fav museum of the hols as the staff was the most grumpy, but actually otherwise was another fine little museum, with plenty to read and good for SB< who is enjoying doing museum leaflets and trails. not quite so for BB, whose idea it was! and i resented the lack of chairs for exhausted adults. but actually it has some good exhibits and is interestingly done. we had a debacle in the shop though, as the lady had cashed up, and i only had a 20 pound note or 86p, and sb wanted to spend 90. i was at the point of walking out, when the lady uncashed up and changed the note - i think she saw a fast disappearing sale! chris cheered me up with a cream tea yummy indeed!] and the girls had an icecream sundae. when we returned, we were invited down the beach with the campsite friends the girls had made, so did a bit of hammering of fossils. v happy to find some! sat and our last beach day, joined by my friend shaula. not seen each other for ages, so v happy to be catching up, chatting and fossiling in a lazy way! the weather was execrable actually, and in the end beaten off the beach into the cafe and then museum. SB and BB both got a self chosen book

girls happy with treats and declared last lovely day. that eve, sb organised all her campsite friends into making a curiosity shop, selling the unwanted stones and fossils, and they made £5, which wasn’t bad, and had a lot of fun doing it. they really both had a fab holiday, cycling, making friends and doing fun things as a family. i do love camping!!

home on the sun, stopping for too long at the royal signals museum, which was again a really fab museum, with lots of info on the ground floor – which again sb spent ages reading and doing a quiz, and interactive things on the second floor – bbs driving left me quite travel sick!! we could easily have spent longer there. but as it was we got home v late, thanks to the carpark arrangements known as the m25!!

so as you have all read, a really fab holiday had by all.

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Posted in art and crafts, General, history

more splashing

Posted on July 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

today we did a lot of splashing in and out of the pool. even i went in. it wasn’t as hot as yesterday, but by the time i had hoed the veg patch, i really needed to cool down! oh, and SB cooked poached eggs for breakfast – fantastic.

last weekend apparently cousin m told sb that when he does really well, he gets a mars bar. she wanted to know what the home-ed equivalent was. hmm, we said, what do you think? so she has got the timetable idea out again, and if she does 2/3 of what is on there, she gets her mars bar. some of the splashing today has therefore been the tears when we pointed out we could see she had ticked off things she hadn’t done. claims that someone else had done that were discarded. also tears of ‘completing’ her english [section 3.1 of galore park] when i opened to find it wasn’t. it took an hour to complete it. we aren;t autonomous, but we are child led and normally we don’t have battles over what to do, and especially with wailing thrown in. but fibbing about it to me changes the goal posts. once she was done, she was all happiness and light, so it obviously wasn’t so traumatic after all.

things that sb did happily were: singapore maths – giggle at it suddenly becoming newsworthy!; music theory – having finally found again the My First Theory Book! listening to me read The Story Of the World – the Middle Ages V 2 (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child (Paperback)): Middle Ages v. 2 about the taking of constantinople and some french words about animals.

BB has also been busy HE wise. although i was tempted to ‘give them stuff to do’ and the read a book, i felt i owed it to us all to actually interact, so grabbed a science kit for BB, and she LOVED it. it is now her kit, as too simple for sb. it is a first electric kit, and she followed the pictures rather than the written instructions, with a bit of help, and made a circuit with a light, and then a motor, which whizzed cards on it and blended the colours – more excitement. but what was so fab was her total thrill and enjoyment that she COULD do it!

both girls made very glittery cards for my sisters birthday at the end of the week. am a bit stalled over what to do as a present. what do you get? hmmm. flip camera? digital photo frame? john lewis vouchers [snort!] just dunno. the cards, however, will give a lasting impression – certainly to the carpets! sb in particularly spent ages getting it just how she wanted.

we did lots of messing in the pool though. bb is being v adventurous in that not quite swimming way. sb learnt to swim by drowning under water and then standing to breathe, and i think this is bb’s technique too. she jets under water and then stands up, breathes, and does some more. she is booked into a 2 week intensive swimming course this summer [my word!] and might be able to swim after that! i love the fact that she went on that they would have to have her somewhere shallow as she had v short legs – :lol: so she does. SB is quite the water wild child, and having great fun twisting, rolling and cavorting in the water. i also got lots of cuddles. good!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, gardening, General, history, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, numeracy, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE, writing

hot hot hot

Posted on July 4, 2009 by | Leave a comment

For those that stumble on my blog [not many do!] the protected ones are that, as they are there for a record for me, and do not ask for the password. that which i want friends, family and strangers to read is all there, laid bare. that which i don’t is protected, and i feel bad at refusal. I could private it – and yes there are a fair number of private posts dotted through this blog that only i see – but a sprinkling ppl have my passwords, for the benefit of their love and advice. these passworded blogs really aren’t that interesting.

so, having done the safety messages, what have we been doing. well, we have been being very hot!! chris has got some scaffolding up at the window, and done some putty work – hoorah! and the girls have mostly been in our paddling pool. indeed thurs i was so hot that i was in it too!!

sb has done a bit more maths and piano practice, and also teaching bb to read. we had a new arrival yesterday – a metronome, which they had fun investigating, a star kit, and a geography book – both looked through the astronomy – bb recognising saturn which she has seen, and sb some of the geography – it does look good.

SB has had gym and yesterday they went to nana’s and grandads [so no doubt watched alot of cable tv!!]

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, DIY/ house renovation, General, geography, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE

better day.

Posted on July 1, 2009 by | 2 comments

i worked hard today at trying not to let my total lack of tolerance be so obvious. was tricky in parts, but pretty much managed, and only suspected of nipping off for a breath/sob once. and we did loads of happy things together. starting with me having to get up way too early as chris dropped mondeo in for aircon refurb. after brekkie, we tidied up the playroom, sb read Cinderella: Level 1: Learn French Through Fairy Tales [With CD] (Slangman Kids: Level 1) rather well to BB. it doens’t have a good write up on amazon, and wasn’t what i expected, but sb likes to read it, and although it has perhaps 10 words in french in it, we count it!!! SB then did some maths, where it appears she has suddenly completely lost the plot wrt to long multip and division. it took her ages!!!

BB chose to do some art out of First Book of Art she started with the fingerprint dragon – which looked really fab when she had finished, and then moved onto the paper elephant. this was incredibly over the top, with glued jewels and feathers. she had a great time. when sb finished her maths, she moved onto this art book Art Treasury and chose the project to emulate the great wave at kanagawa by hokusai, which i think worked really well. she drew waves onto polystyrene, then when happy with design, she the dug out channels in the polystyrene. she mixed up some blues, and then used the polystyrene like relief printing woodcut. obviously it worked so well that BB did it too, so we discussed related ideas of prints/engravings and got messy!! had a great time doing this.

After lunch we went out to an event organised by Michelle, and met some old and new HE people, and the children ran about having great – and noisy – fun! this was the cloth place, and a revisit for the girls, although new to me. i had my map on me in case we got lost, and on the park and ride in, sb was charged with following its route to make sure we got off at the right place [tho the get off is v obvious!!] she really enjoyed following the road names, roundabouts etc and did it v well. training her up as next mapreader in the family. we were early so they got to have an icecream treat. as well as a park and ride treat – which they always like! was a lovely, and v noisy, session!! got to do a bit of chatting, but for quite a while played with bb. loved the sarcophagus and snakes [not maggots]. SB suggested to them an ice exploratory would be fun – ice sculpture, melting and freezing etc! needless to say, bb fell asleep on the way home. we got sb late to brownies, but they were mostly messing about in the sun or sticking pictures – as she was hot and bothered she went for sticking pics. and i collared brown owl who accepted the list of 10 brownie badges, but doesn’t have most of them.

bb came home and bounced and messed about in the paddling pool. i was allowed to stick my feet in and read book, but then my feet took up too much space – !! – and i had to just watch [read book] and then we started to make a fimo copy of a henry moore family group bronze – all bb’s idea, and only in the starting bit – will be v interested to see how it turns out. SB had judo, and we all went along at the end for the certification, as she now has the yellow/white.

so, phew, that is our hot day!

Books!!
oh, i am reading these, on load from merry. i am really enjoying them.

in return i have sent The Other Queen which is ok, tho not the best of her work [nor the worst, i actually threw one of her books away], and this Azincourt , which i really enjoyed and would recommend, i enjoyed his arthur series The Winter King a lot as well. oh and also book 2!The Valley of Horses (Earth’s Children)

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, language, little languages, numeracy, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

difficult me

Posted on June 30, 2009 by | 2 comments

i had a compassionate leave day again today. work are being rather excellent and i am head in sanding about how much chaos this will cause. i will only have taken 4 days in the end for 2 deaths, so i guess i am not being too bad. but i am finding it hard not to grump and growl quickly. i have no tolerance, and am being crap unpredictable mum. aargh. i could at least use this time to be good mum.

anyhoo, i had a lie in/peace to reflect whilst chris and girls went to the library. bb did the craft thing making suns, and loads of new books. on return i was ready to interact. so we cuddled, bb watched her new vid, sb and i did some french and piano practice. after lunch they both got out their brainbox kits. sb ecstatic to make a mw radio and listen to tennis. also made a microphone. out to bb’s footie. her coach is v gentle with her. however after about 1/3 of lesson she was too hot and bothered and came out. sb did some nvr and read about alexander graham bell -one of her favs. the she taught bb to play duck duck goose, involving her shrieking ‘goose me bb, goose me’!!! giggle :lol: . another soon to be ex-homeducator was there. she home-edded for a temp purpose and it clearly was ace for her daughter, so congrats in order. she did point out there seemed to be huge amounts of fluff and waffle in the taster days! sb swimming – she is v good at backstroke. back home to icecream, ken hom and bed!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, investigating, language, music, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE

hmm, lets do some blogging

Posted on June 22, 2009 by | 1 comment

last week i was lucky enough to swan off to a conference to lake como. we ate at good restaurants and learnt a lot in a good conference. the hotel was way out of town though, and getting back from the station, it was safest to walk along the railway tracks of the goods yard… not something you expect really to do! the only day out trip to belagio was lovely. I did, however, spend the entire conference getting more and more worried about little nanny, she had seemed to be getting better monday and tues, but by thurs things were not rosy, and on fri i knew active treatment had been withdrawn, and i just wanted to get home.

so having travelled all sat, i was welcomed home by a fantastic hug and cuddle from my girls. migrainous and travel sick on discussion with mum, i was encouraged [tho didn't need much] not to set straight out. so we snuggled, watched dr who, ate curry and made an early night.

not too quick off the mark to go out, and was rung to say i was too late after all. i feel dreadful that i didn’t re-prioritise things and see little nanny that last time to kiss her goodbye. prob silly, as she had slipped into a morphine sleep by saturday. but… so as no longer visiting, imposed on the manor borns to keep me sane.

we had a lovely, tho v lazy rspb walk, and have had to promise C i will do better next tine :lol: the kids appeared to have fun anyway, and bb was being particularly gorgeous really. all 3 played together without any major kerfuffles throughout the evening too, and after a lovely relaxed meal we went home to pop all of us straight to bed.

and so today, we were going to norfolk, and then not as it was a getting documents day [i have 2 days compassionate leave] and instead going tomorrow. [later and later]. so we decided to do fun things, like baking. we all got up v late, had brekkie v late, and then sb made brownies from *her* recipe book, and bb and i made a yummy choc sponge. the girls then played with silly string until it ran out. BB wanted to read a french book Lucy Cat at the Beach: Lucie Chat a La Plage (Lucy Cat) falls off perch in surprise, but agreed! SB did a verbal reasoning book and then read It’s Elementary: Putting the Crackle into Chemistry (Dk Reference) and wants to try and turn her urine into phosphorus now. :roll:

more playing, and we made pictures with light reactive paper, Sun Print Paper, which i remember enjoying as a child, and we did today. SB off to ballet, and BB and i did some pond dipping, and then retired to watch donald duck. on SB’s return, we made another cake from her recipe book Marie Claire Kitchen and had ken hom vietnames stew for dinner [SB's favourite dinner in fact]

SB and I then looked at some tiny pond bugs that i had captured with her digital microscope. slightly tricky as they kept whisking about, but she did manage to take some photos. No idea what they were. very speedy though!

anyway, tomorrow to norfolk. thanks everyone for your good wishes and thoughts, I have REALLY appreciated it.

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Posted in Blogging, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, science, Stringbean's HE

A Funny Old Week

Posted on June 20, 2009 by | 9 comments

Well, I guess with Helen away most of the week in Italy ata conference it was never going to be a normal week, but still. I had vagur idea that I would try to keep the week fairly empty, have a relaxed time, get some housey jobs done etc. But was not to be.

Funeral

Monday was my Uncle Robert’s funeral, and we were all going.  My Dad has stopped driving now, as it is just too painful for his arm to steer the car. A tad annoying really when you onky functioning arm stops functioning properly. So I hired an MPV to take us all , plus my neice Liana down to the funeral.

I relalised on the Sunday, that I didn’t really have anything to wear, at least in the legwear stakes. So headed to Tesco first thing on the way to get car to find something. Ended up with a suit, which was fine, except that in the shop it just looked black/grey next to all the others. In the daylight when I  it was a more browny colour, nice enough, but not quite what I had intended. Ah well.

Funeral was, in the context of funerals, good. Some affecionate and moving speeches from a Son-in-law and a couple of other people who knew him well. Some proper hymns to have a good sing to (if you are going to go to church I really think you need to have some proper hymns to sing) and a few hugs and tears. SB managed fine. BB mostly sat on the floor of the pew and coloured, but she was tired, and started to complain of being hot etc. in the church. But didn’t want to go outside with Helen, but fell a sleep after a bit.

The coffin was wrapped in a big picture of a steam train, and the organist played the theme tune to Thomas the Tank Engine at the commital at the crematorium – get the theme here :-)

He was a good man, with a strong faith. It does seem sad that after waiting years for a grandchild they probably had given up on getting, he only got to spend a couple of years with her. If you are somewhere else now Uncle Robert, I hope it is as good as you would have hoped it was.

After refreshments I had to take Stringbean over to Birchanger Services where I handed her over to Michelle. She was going to stay with them for 2 nights whilst she did a Sailing training course. I then headed back to my Aunts house for a bit. Took Helen to the tain station so she could go and stay in some posh hotel room at Heathrow. Eventally the remnants of the party headed back to our house, where we all went to bed pretty much straight away.

Tuesday

More driving about.

Took hire car back, did a bit of shopping, had hair cut, sat in cafe and drunk coffee, read The Gruaniad without any children - bliss :-) Home to find Butterbean has been spending Grandads money. Take parents and liana back to their house. stay there until time to take BB to her football class. True to form she did manage to somehow knock her head within the first 10 minutes – so ws of woith an injury having a cuddle.
But did convince her to go back and do some more . She almost finished the rest, but stopped part way through the short game they have at the end. She doesn’t like this bit as she can hardly ever get the ball, and if she does it gets tackled away fro her in no time. So basically runs around a bit and then gets bored :-)

Had dinner at the cafe there, a bit of TV and then bed for her. SB rang up from the Old Manor, upset becuase she had bashed her toe (a classic SB-ism) and wanted to come home. This wasn’t really that practical as they are an hours drive away and there was just me, and anyway I expected her to get over it and she did it sounds like. I guess this is something you need to learn to deal with really.

Wednesday

Out again. via the Park and Ride, where we met the Patch of Puddle gang on the bus, and then were reunited with SB in town. We were going to The Cloth Place, a project by Big wide Talk, the took over 2 floors of a lovely old building, that was a shop. Filled it with all sorts of cloth things – animals, vegtables, food, various props, and the kids get to use it how ever they want as long as they don’t hurt each other and repsect the stuff. I forgot the camera but borowed Michelle’s. She has been more organised than me and posted some piccies.

It was great fun :-) Afterwards we had a picnic in the park, including a good strop by BB as she chose a drink, and then wanted to change it after it had all been paid for and I said no. We then went to the Archaeology museum, which I’ve not been to before. And had an interesting hour there.

Then back on the bus to head home, SB to brownies and general flopping abolut until dinner and bedtime.

Thursday

Yup out again. Kids all tired, and not wanting to get up.  Off to Tots and Nots, only really went becuase it was the 3rd and last of three sessions that SB has done on philosophy. They were finishing early as they were off to the Coth Place again. Then into the car, and the hour or so’s drive to my parents to leave them with BB. A short time there, then off again to take Sb to gym. They have started building work there and there isn’t much space on the balcony anymore so rather than be hot and squashed I popped into town, a little bit of shopping and another peaceful coffee :-)

Home dinner, played a game with SB, a bit of TV and bed.

Friday

Not out :-)

SB has commented that she gets given stuff to do while we do something else (!).  With all the other boring stuff of life that get in the way and never seem finished (housework, washing etc. etc.) I find myself ending up putting stuff off with them, so decided not to spend today tidying the house (sorry H) and spent mucho time with SB whlst BB was awayPottered about in the morning, a modicum of housework, reading and playing a game with SB, plenty of music practice. SB cooked lunch, where she learnt how to cook scrambled egg on toast. Then we spent all afternoon working on a project she has been wnting to do for the last few weeks. I won’t say what as it might give the game away for someone, but involved much sawing and nailing and gluing.

Once we had finished what we could, we needed to get a couple of bits, so off to the DIY shop. Then we decided to find somewhere to ahve dinner for a treat. Realised that we don’t go out in the evening much and din’t really know what was around that would have things SB might like. But found a pleasant Italian place, and a dinner with just the two of us, which was also rather pleaant.

Home, to SB’s bed time and me trying to blog a bit of the week, which I’ve managed just about  – shock!!

Shortly we are off to get BB, then this afternoon it is the carnival procession. SB is on the Brownies float and I think she might be doing a ballet display. Helen should be back homw sometime this afternoon as well :-)

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, General, music, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean

and so today it rained

Posted on June 7, 2009 by | 2 comments

and we were therefore greatful not to have been camping! it rained torrentially in fact, and the drains couldn’t cope. and the roof leaked, but hey, it has been doing that since we moved it. it is on ‘the list’.

SO, what with the people across the way having something or other that meant drilling up the road – surely roads aren’t drilled up on sunday? it is sunday isn;t it?? i haven’t missed a day or something crazy?? anyway, that woke me up fairly early, and a poor night sleep anyway as cuddling sb through a load of nightmares.

oh yes, so actually we had a very good day today, the girls played with each other beautifully, whether it be with sylvanians, the castle stuff, wild games or dancing – and they did some of each!! they also both did some sewing with me. bb a yellow moon kit, and sb making a felt needle holder, and also a something [not quite sure what] for bb. they watched arial, and then sung it on and off all day. they both ‘putered a bit, got read to a bit – both went for these books


so we talked around that. Merry, have you got still one of my books? and is this the one you have

before they went off into their own imagination for a bit.

ermm, what else, oh yes, we played some games altogether, and got out previously pressed flowers, and put in some new pressed flowers, sb did a piano practice, getting along with triplets ok.

so there was our day. lots of snuggling, cuddling and general playing [and a LOT of noise!!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, science, Stringbean's HE

riding along on my pushbike

Posted on June 6, 2009 by | 24 comments

well, that was then plan, well, plan B. plan A had been to go camping in derbyshire this weekend and play about on bike rides there. With the death of Uncle Robert, we didn’t really feel right to go on holiday. Mind you, having planned to go camping, i didn’t look at anything else, and now realised we have missed strawberry fair – again! oh well!!

we got up, got ready, got in the car, drove out of the drive, drove back into the drive and then attached the indicator/reg plate thingy. :roll: but we did get going, and went to thetford. TBH, i feel nervous about cycling after all this time. this prob is silly [after all, i survived cycling in london for 7 years!], but i wanted to wibble and wobble off road, where we could stop in the shade, and find something interesting to comment on and do, and no sense that we had to get from a to b or go round something. and where if my unfitness was too dreadful, that i didn’t need to feel mortified!

so, anyway, we got there, nearly died when it seemed that parking was nearly 10 pounds!! shrugged, and got on with it. we had a picnic lunch, twiddled and fiddled with the bikes, and set off on the 6 mile family route. it says this is a really easy family route for beginners etc, but , as you will read, it isn’t exactly.

we identified a problem early on. bb is incapable of going a steady speed, watching where she is going, or even going in a vaguely straight trajctory for any length of time. both sb and i did emergency stops early on. chris didn’t, and was the first cycling accident, obtaining a war wound, which we all decided to ignore. and then we got to the path :lol: it was very sandy, and very sandy means very easy to skid and slip. and so they did! alot! so we did about 50m at a time. no worries that i might look foolish or out of breath there was there! by the time i had got on bike, i was off, hugging a wailing child. SB had got new pedals with clippy bits, and she didn’t like them. BB at least didn’t mind falling into the sand. luckilly chris brought tools with him, as SB managed to turn her wheel right round and wedge it with one fall, and bb managed to push her wheel and handlebar out of alignment with another :roll: finally we had bb on the trailgator – and another stop to sort out the alignment of that and we were really off. i think at this point we had done 15 mins cycle and 40 mins pause! the next stop was a mercy mission as i stopped a dad going past whose trailgator was on so badly that the child was almost sideways. chris fixed that too. lots of kids, and even some adults were skidding/falling in the sandyness. so yes, it was mostly flat, and an easy trail to follow, but not an easy trail to ride.

We had a single hilly bit and stopped at the top for chocolate and refreshment, having actually managed a cycle. sb was being grumpy, so we decided her blood sugar was too low, so fed her and made her drink! it did the job. we saw a couple of despondant families turn back, as this was only a third way round. we looked on the map, found a ‘shortcut’ down a firebreak and forest road, and had the best bit of cycling! not sandy, a bit flinty at times [another sb fall] and even bb came off the trailgator and cycled happily all the rest of the way – about another 2 miles – and we did this bit happily and quickly. so next time would try and avoid the sandy bit!

I got brave enough to adjust the height of the saddle to the correct position, rather than worrying i needed to put feet on the floor. and i also really enjoyed it, and i was right about being crap going uphill – so def more no pressure rides for me first!

we had icecreams back at base. SB was really jealous of those on go ape, and so they played in the adventure park for an hour or so until we left. a chippy pick up since it was late and we were hoping kids might be tired enough to extract from car to bed [nope, slept all the way, woke up at home and now really irritating me!] and had it a carpark which is free, and you can join the cycle trail from after the sandy bit [i guess that will be where we are parking again - though actually we did get the parking free at high lodge anyway due to being so late out and jools holland concert goers arriving.]

so that was our first cycle outing, and we all enjoyed it.

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Posted in General, Out and About, SB-PE

black dog day

Posted on June 3, 2009 by | 5 comments

i have tried v hard to shift it, but this day had a touch of the wrong about it. it didn’t help that yesterday at work stressful, or that dad woke me up at 7.30 :roll: well, actually bb had already woken me up, but i was dozing again, and then got a series of tasks and errands to try and achieve which i knew were actually unachievable. i’m having a poor sleeping phase anyway, oh, and john lewis messed up my flower order AGAIN. and, and, and!!!!

SO there is the wingeing. we should have gone to an RI lecture, but one of the other winges is that i had v bad migraine yesterday [under control today] and chris prefered a more contemplative day, and the girls have had a number of questions re death. So we didn’t go – though i wish we had, as it sounded fab.

ANyway, despite black dogs, i thought i should get going, and we chatted, tidied the playroom, openend some parcels [including my new bike that chris set up] and then got the fimo out. i thought SB would be finishing her fruit, but she has made a person, and BB made a fish. then we did some ‘work’ SB doing maths and handwriting, and BB before the code. SB really surprised me by telling me her weird and wonderful way of working out the 9 times table – only SB! [it does work]. then we did some more fimo-ing, with SB doing the fruit and veg, and BB making a v creditable turtle. our fimo stocks running low [now replenished by a shopping spree at beadmerrily] i didn’t fiddle myself, and instead subjected the girls to 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) – about the beginnings of russia, which actually sb enjoyed, and then The Drop in My Drink: The Story of Water on Our Planet , which they both like. and just general following conversations – carrying on some they had had yesterday with chris about the big bang and laws of physics, and then some relating to illness and death. lots of cuddling [always good]

we had lunch, did some general messing about and fiddling, and then SB did some recorder practice [sketchily] and we did some recorder duets together, whilst BB danced with pompoms. Chris was joining my bike together, and we did some science, we looked at a few kits, and SB finally decided on the Perfume Laboratory, so i got a Crystal Growing – Complete Science Kit – Amethyst Purple to do with BB. BB was extremely careful, and didn’t spill any, and we reinforced the chemical thing! she was also finished first and went off cycling with chris. SB had to shake some card in water until it disintegrated, so that took 20mins of consistent shaking – i was impressed by her stamina! but then finally made the perfume essence, next time she turns it into something.

Brownies and judo for SB, disney film for BB whilst dinner got going, and i updated dad on the mostly failures of the tasks [HHaricot, you are fired!!] but he was happy that i had tried. i gave my bike a try, but the handlebars didn’t turn the wheel – so back to the mechanic for some tightening, rofl! the girls to bed, after watching some springwatch, and the apprentice for us.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing