Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

bamboozled

Posted on June 1, 2009 by | 2 comments

we went on a jaunt to london today [yes, i took an annual leave day!] to see the LSO in action as they whizzed around the world. we really enjoyed it. early start from the manor instead of ultra-early from ours! got to meet her friend B and R again – which was lovely. and got to chat more this time. the girls played in the water at the barbican, nearly getting drowned, and only not on the promise of being able to play again afterwards.

The concert was really enjoyable, and SB said she really loved it, did wish that we had had Ode to Joy so she could have recordered, as we didn’t – i hadn’t managed to def work out whether we would or wouldn’t. she liked seeing the harry potter music she said, as she could see who made the wind whirl. [lovely way with words]. she was grumpy with me for only playing her winter before :roll: BB wasn’t quite so sure. she enjoyed the first 2, found petroushka a bit harder to deal with [as anticipated] and went out in bamboozled. we might try a family one/key stage 1 and see how she does. me, i just loved the jumping sheep in candide…

glad to see so many friends – when your friends are e-friends more often than not, it is lovely to catch them in the real. and actually, we have had a social may for catching friends in the real – june will seem really weird in comparison! and thanks to the organiser. well done!

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Posted in General, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, socialisation

fun weekend

Posted on June 1, 2009 by | 1 comment

of course, writing this on monday, I am not quite sure I can remember saturday! :roll: at my poor memory. this is why i blog!!

sat was an outside day anyway, though SB snuck off to computer game. lets think [ie look at the mess, and like an archaeologist, go for a lower level!] ah yes, both girls did some more of their artwork for the village fair – a frog for BB and a green man for SB. both have boomwhackered, and SB made up a trio for her chris and me to play, whcih was fun! SB did some making things with an idea wooden set. [like first mecchano i guess].

Outside i planted out some artichokes, and read to BB some more bee related books and we looked to see what bees we could find in the garden. SB read a french book [her choice]. both the looked to press some more flowers, and just generally had a lazy playing sort of day. [ah, and as mentioned in the post below, i did some reading!]

chris cooked me a lovely tea of mushrooms in a cream sauce pasta, utterly delicious, but the quorn thing has passed on to wild mushrooms, and i had stomach cramps then all evening! we did watch the human journey – which i am enjoying. think we might get walking with cavemen for the girls to watch [but don't think they will be reading the clan of the cave bear any day quite yet!]

sun saw us go to the RSPB for a nature walk with the manor borns. chris and marcus both cycled there, and arrived a smidge before us dreadful car drivers [though set off somewhat significantly ahead, and without us, there would have been less picnic!] we picnicked – and ogled the roast dinner on the table next to us – before setting out. it was a scorching day, so we were well suncreamed, and took the favourite walk – has to involve the quarry – so BB was mostly happy. i thought she did really well. all the girls charmed the volunteers before we left as well [always a good thing - especially since sb lost her clipboard somewhere half way round!!] we found lots of good places to put our memorial benches – view good, shade better!

Back to the manor for a lovely evening. i think the heat had got the the girls, so they got an earlier bedtime than they expected – suprising michelle, who rode out the storm by sequestering herself in the bathroom!! obviously, none of ours stayed in the room they started, but that was fine, and the new bed arrangements in the spare room are v comfortable – thanks to SOTP :wink:

ooh! end of the weekend reached. not so hard!! [may have to add]

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, gardening, General, investigating, language, music, noises and sounds, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

not quite as planned

Posted on May 30, 2009 by | 12 comments

i had a compassionate day off work today to go and say goodbye to uncle r. unfortunately he wasn’t well enough for all of us. and when i suggested yesterday at work that i didn’t need it, i think the sobbing went against me, so i was told not to come in. actually i should have gone in, as i had loads to sort out: otoh, actually in my job i need a fully functioning headspace, so could see their point.

SO i have had the bliss of part time working this week, and i really like it! hmm, to whether i will ever manage to negotiate it for a full time thing, and then how the money would stretch, but hey, one thing at a time!

i got up late, after having listened to sb playing her recorder. when i got down, she was doing some Junior Science Book 1 [we are still on chapter one, as it is an as and when thing! we plan to skip 2 and go onto 3 in the hopes that it ties in with our june holiday], and she happilly wrote through that. BB meanwhile got out her Get Set for the Code – Book B, and in her own way chose what she wanted to do! we then read some books together, whilst SB did some handwriting Italic Handwriting Series Book D

then total mayhem as my amazon order for me arrived. i decided to treat myself to an escape route, so have bought The Clan of the Cave Bear + The Valley of Horses (Earth’s Children series) on jax and merry’s recommendations, and these Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt) Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt) cos they looked interesting!
I didn’t forget the girls entirely, i bought SB this The Roman Mysteries Treasury as she really has been loving the roman mysteries, BB this French is Fun with Serge, the Cheeky Monkey! (Salut Serge) oh, and i also bought these!!Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set Although I agree with Gina more = better, SB often makes up her tunes in various modal styles, and thought the pentatonic might keep this musical awareness going.

SO BB bashed away with the boomwhackers, sounding surprisingly gamelan or chinese and SB stuck her nose in the flavia gemina book!! i did some work emails. following a melt when BB got rather too enthusiastic with the boomwhackers [Gina, exactly how robust are they] she retired to watch the french is fun DVD and SB did some maths. I read loads of fairy stories, then lunchtime [late!]

Afternoon for SB and I was a long game of Puerto Rico. you can’t really play it properly with 2, but it is OK for an child and adult scenario [or even 2 children] money much easier to come by! BB wandered off into the garden with chris, and then came back for some ivor the engine.

it being sunny, we then all decamped into the garden, bb had some flower seeds she wanted to scatter across the veg patch, i had cucurbits and beans to get out, and SB was keen to help. so that was what we did this pm. not got all the beans out, as had to spend some time untangling them from each other!

girls settled down to playing and chalking [ie making shapes out of hunks of chalk just like at the sustainability. and i read Honey in a Hive (Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science: Stage 2) while they worked. we had dinner out in the garden, bathtime [obviously indoors!] and SB had more of Black Ships Before Troy – The Story of the Iliad

A quick yesterday summary:
SB and Maddy had a great time playing together, lots of games where got out and played, and SB loved it. BB also pottered along, either with them or with chris, quite happy. BB had a gym taster session, and was really ecstatic about that. unfortunately M’s ear started to hurt and she went home before i got in from work, and so missed the astronomy night. we, however, all looked at the moon again, and some of the stars, seeing if we could find galaxies [no - must look more at the map next time!!]

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

latinetc day – mixing it up!

Posted on May 27, 2009 by | 4 comments

I didn’t do so well today. firstly, i thought we were having people come to show off their dvd, so had planned to do non-newtonian fluid mess in the garden. they didn’t come, and it was raining! and secondly, i was rather thrown off kilter by a family phone call.

luckilly, Merry came with a basket of fimo, gina with boomwhackers [Boomwhacker – Pentatonic Set] , and katy with latin games. [those boomwhackers are tempting aren't they!!] SO the children had a lovely time rotating through the 3 rooms. I was Merry’s teaching assistant today, and def enjoyed it. I was also majorly impressed by the care and effort in fimo creating. And i LOVED the boomwhackers.

Today could have been so difficult, and i did nip off to do some piano practice, and field calls, but having good and understanding friends around was really helpful. snacks and playings took place, and we had a go at extracting dna from kiwi. this was successful in the stuff i whizzed up, but not as visible as i would have liked, so may fiddle with the experiment, and we will do it again at some point. [as an aside, i am watching that human evolution progra,,e on the tv, and am rather impressed at my 6 finger touch typing skills!]

everyone eventually left at 5, and we have maddy on a sleepover. the girls all played some more, initially a variety of imaginative games, then beetle drive and then monopoly. we looked up the lso concert for next monday, and SB and Maddy had a go playing ode to joy on the recorder with me – not bad, but diff to get up to speed, so we have a back up plan of playing an A. SB then got the trumpet out, and they trumpetted, recordered and jingled through the leonard bernstein version. dinner and eventually bedtime, which SB and Maddy seem to have done without any hitches.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

off the path for the weekend

Posted on May 25, 2009 by | 9 comments

i don’t know about off the path, but thinking we might need an off road vehicle for next year!

we had a fabulous weekend off the path with friends, camping in the back field with our new tent. the children all had a fabulous time. SB blending in and out of various girl combinations on the whole [there gets less and less boy/girl crossover as the years go on. i guess this is normal] and BB having a fab time, particularly with J and M hosts and R. we adults also got plenty of time to gossip with our friends, drink pimms and enjoy J’s errr, rather eclectic musical taste :wink: which at one point got me and another parent to jump up to see which child was being murdered!! [tho thanks for the addition of plainchant, and another err to lovely mozart turning into wombles!!].

the children did a variety of outdoorsy activities. SB going on a walk as soon as we arrived, and returning completely drenched – she sat in the stream!! on another stream visit she must have been body surfing down it, the state she was in on return! BB also enjoyed visiting the stream, and also playing with J in the paddling pool. we obviously got through a fair number of clothes changes! neither of them participated in the caberet which i enjoyed compering, and listening to the ever increasing musical talent of friends’ children

the absolutely glorious weather was totally fabulous, though didn’t really give the new tents there much of a testing – as J and J’s are the HE equivalent of a wind tunnel test for tents! We were v pleased with ours though, and think that it will do the expected job. A tight squeeze but poss with all in the inner, chris happy to sleep in the outer, nice and warm, but we are still presuming the stability.

The Babs and I enjoyed playing my birthday game. i know various others thought we were slightly on the weird side, but no change there! and anyway, i can’t knit or crochet! lots of kids interested in the game, and lots of other games going on. good for the brain! i did also get to piano duet with J also, which was excellent fun.

sad to leave such a fab weekend.

we made a break on the way home at Bolsover castle and were pleasantly surprised to find it a re-enactment day. the children initially didn’t seem much interested, as they were v taken by the castle itself, bB declaiming loudly ‘ i LOVE it’ as she walked round. we topped to bottom it before watching the last bit of the re-enactment – a tourney. unfortunately i had read the leaflet quickly and promised a joust, so had to apologise. an icecream seemed to help! though there were a few spots of rain, it mostly held off. On getting back to the car, the girls declared hunger of such levels that perishing was imminent, so we bought a take-away pizza and ate it in the car as the heavens opened.

home and the house still standing – always a bonus. now just to get through the next working week! as a catch up, we did have the joy of my mum visiting briefly friday into saturday, and helping with the pre SOTP baking. i am busily trying to catch up on flickr [feels like a doomed enterprise!] and also blogs.

Many thanks to our hosts for a fab weekend, lovely to see them and loads of friends to relax in the sunshine.

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Posted in history, Out and About, socialisation

a not-so-typical home ed day

Posted on May 25, 2009 by | 2 comments

well, i have finally faced up to the reality that chris is the home-educator, and i am just a facilitator [which does make me sad] BUT i do have wed and the weekend. so I am still going to blog my day, but perhaps he will do a more portico style week overview – well he might, if he blogs again!!

anyway, we start with the girls already up, SB is trying to log in to cbbc, and bb is watching charlie and lola.

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at 10-ish BB is beavering away at english type things – her book B of before the code, Book A of Getty and Dubay handwriting, and some maths – using manipulatives to think about adding up. After this, i leave her dancing to the radio whilst i do piano with SB.

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SB has a slower start, and is doing Bond verbal reasoning, which she finds difficult as she doesn’t seem to grasp spelling. SO she gets the dictionary out, and looks up all the possible words for the add a letter thing. all the others she does quickly and easily, but not this one. At least – i think – it gets her to think about spelling. we are going to have to work on it i think. eventually finishing, she and i go and do some piano practice – which she loves.

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As it is lovely and sunny, and the garden is looking desperate, we decide it is a gardening day. Chris finishes off the veg bed with rotovating [we haven't done that before], SB decides to rescue some aquilegias from the strawberry patch, and i am itching to plant out some of the seedlings.

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of course I don’t do that, I paint BB’s face!

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SB also does some handwriting, and whilst we have lunch I read some french to them, as i think it has been quite a while since we last did any french :blush:

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More playing and potting on, and i do manage to get some plants out. SB helps by planting out peas whilst i do sweetcorn and dwarf beans. BB is chasing ‘minibeasts’ = ants ‘antistons’ [aka woodlice] and slugs mostly with a mini magnifying glass.

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A sudden rush to shower SB and she is presentable for brownies, which is immediately followed by Judo. BB and I potter in the garden, sowing sunflowers and potting up the tomatoes, pressing some flowers, before giving everything a jolly good water. a snuggle with hairy maclary follows, and then a bath.

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bed time stories of Black Ships before troy for SB. BB collapses with winnie the witch. the apprentice for chris and me. thus ends our day!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, gardening, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, photos, pre reading, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

catching up – musical pilgrimage

Posted on May 25, 2009 by | 2 comments

we were lucky enough to be part of a guinea-pig group of Home Educators on a ‘musical pilgrimage’ to ely cathedral – rather fabulous! we started off in a side room listening to plainsong and discussing its changing to mediaeval music, and the different musical notations. then some settings of psalm 23. following that we learnt our own plain chant and in 2′s went down the full length of the cathedral to choir stalls singing [with all tourists watching - giggle!]

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there a fab organist took the children [and adults] through the working of an organ [and a weird short video] then in groups they got to go up to the organ loft or blow down various pies. sb and i were in the first group with a couple of deependers and a biff. he demonstrated the organ, they asked questions and pulled out a stop or 6 and then sb asked if she could play and he said yes! she was v thrilled by this [and i v jealous!!]

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we then went down and made execrable noises blowing the various pipes whilst the other groups went up [including bb and chris]. I think the various [few] tourists and and religious attenders were relieved when the 12 o clock bell went for 1 hour quiet time! we had lunch – initially planned as a picnic, but the heavens opened almost the instant we went out! so we backtracked to a classroom.

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after lunch we had the final portion of the pilgrimage. we listened to some other versions of psalm 23 [including vicar of dibley version] and sang some modern hymns from around the world, and then went and had a mini candle service in the lady chapel [who i must confess looked a bit like a clothed aphrodite]. excellent day.

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BB and SB finished with football and swimming respectively.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, General, history, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, photos, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Go East

Posted on May 17, 2009 by | 1 comment

Well, that is what I did. yesterday we went east to see jax and co in their new home, a very nice home it was too. we did get their slightly early! so had a walk into the town centre before wandering back as our hosts arrived home. the kids got on with playing and we adults caught up. we had a v tardy pizza delivery! wolfed down when it arrived. the kids [particularly bb] were equally tardy in falling asleep but did so approaching midnight!

bb woke me at 6 am, proud that she had a dry nappy. i would have been proud, had i not gone to bed at 2am!! luckilly i fell asleep again. when i got up again life had stirred all around the house, and the realisation that breakfast from the bread machine was unlikely to appear :smile: and eventually, after some kids gaming mostly happily [though a few injuries sustained!!] we got ready to go out.

we went to E and R’s cave party and got there without a hitch. lovely to see baby o for the first time, as well as the whole family, numerous friends child and adult!! we had a lot of fun. chatted, and then me and wednesday friend mum found ourselves chained to the table doing face painting. all my fault of course, as i had brought them for BB and SB to look like cave bears. i think we did OK on the whole, and did escape in the end :lol: SB and BB also had some injuries and needed some tlc – luckilly available from others as i had no plasters. But a great w/e with friends, thanks all.

ooh, forgot to say that SB had made the present of vegan fudge [aka chocolate goo] sb and bb had made biscuits, and then sb had decorated the box in true stone age style, so did look utterly fab. she also did some science and maths and piano before we went out on sat. finding it hard to fit he in at the mo!

ooh, another thing, really recommend this book for starter face painters!

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, General, music, numeracy, Out and About, science, socialisation

exploding everywhere

Posted on May 14, 2009 by | Leave a comment

today was a really fab latinetc. i do enjoy how it seems to be working, as the children all get on well, and have very fluid and flexible friendships withing the groups. it was at our house – which meant that i could get up later – phew!

so we started with littlies science, top set latin [rofl!] and SB had a piano lesson with gina [poor things squished into dining room currently completely full of tent!]

i LOVED todays science session. as did the children , i think! we did volcanos – always popular. having done the first one in the kitchen, we moved outside. all the children had goes at mixing, and got me to do the shaking as the eruptions ended up reaching huge heights!! then we moved onto lava lamps – more or less the volcano mixture, but with oil on top, so things bubble up and down in it – seductively calming on the mind! we all laughed lots and enjoyed it. the big group also enjoyed it, we did talk about the science behind it and i had written out instructions for the lava lamp / fizzing potion for them in 2 teams to follow and show that they could ‘do’ the instructions. i loved them working so nicely together, sharing tasks and deciding together how to get the right volumes from the variety of measures. loved it! the littlies did french i think [i was having way to much fun with science!]

after lunch and more playing, some of the deependers and all the biff crew left, with just merry and co, us , J and K. so we did some more playing, BB got her wish and a craft going, which most of the children joined in

and the gals version.
both my ‘gals’ did a pirate from the guys kit mind you. i know my mate sells them, by they really are fab kits, enough for 4 kids per kit, and loads of ‘extras’. highly recommended.

fran, J and I worked through playing as a trio together various easy piano pieces, which was much fun. merry also joined in, and finally SB, though i did simplify for her, as she isn’t at that level yet on the recorder. we did it out in the garden for ages, and all had fun [that way i could keep an eye on craft simultaneously!]

katy returned and did some latin with the middle group and then after restorative cups of tea, it was hometime! SB had her brownies and judo tonight, and BB and i made ‘bear shoes’ for her and then she watched alice in wonderland. SB watched the railway children when she came in. all in all a totally fab day.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

green weekend

Posted on May 13, 2009 by | 1 comment

i am getting a bit behind with this blogging thing! and chris is being even worse. actually chris and the girls have been having a v busy time of it. anyway, after finishing work on the friday, in some crazy plan we drove here! the sustainability centre it was on the crazy side, as even with not so much of a traffic hitch we still only just got there in time to put up our tent before it was pitch black! good thing we had friends there waiting for us, who helped out! We chatted to the parents whilst SB, BB, monster and teeny all caught up, ds-ed, played etc.

the next day was a lazy day. the children adventured and played, in fact the 3 oldest adventured for so far and long that i got a bit worried, so with bb went around the site calling for them – to no avail. TBH i was sure they were ok, but had that frisson of fear thing, so Nic and Ady also looked too – this time they allowed themselves to be found :roll: got to have a really good look round the site, and it had interesting looking tipis and yurts, and a v interesting composting toilet. bb absolutely and resolutely refused to use this at anytime. i wasn’t that keen as you couldn’t lock it! BB was fascinated by the tennis court covered in chalk flints, and investigated these alot until she eventually found one with a fossil, so was v happy. she also did some of her painting by numbers very carefully. so we had a really lovely happy day. The older 3 went back to adventuring after lunch, all carefully packed, and told this time if they heard us shout to PLEASE respond! [but mobile phone as a backup] and were v proud and happy to be going off doing their own thing in the woods. nic me chris and BB also went for a longer walk through the woods and burial area and thought it pretty idyllic.

there was one blip, and such a shame. the older ones played for a bit with an older group and both sequentially came a cropper from bullying games. i was most upset when sb recounted her tale of woe, but did manage to thank the girl for bringing back her glasses, and 3 of the children involved did come and apologise. grrr. luckilly they had better and kinder friends around. calmess prevaled!

chris and ady sorted out something with our ad hoc washing-machine-fire-pit, and what with wafting and oil pouring we eventually got a good blaze going to keep warm on and the kids could toast marshmallows. one of ours was v not tired, and the screams reverberated around the campsite! but we adults had a lovely evening, giggling as each loo stop resulted in ‘kindling’ being brought back – i think ady chopped a tree down in the middle of the wood! oh, and i saw a shooting star.

the next day i was woken at too-early-a-clock by a v sad voice saying she felt all hot and cold at the same time and not at all right. opning my eyes, SB was looking pale and interesting, though didn’t feel hot. a quick check and i thought she would be ok, but she did say he was sickly, so after a bit of recovery time finishing off The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina: Roman Mysteries 6 (The Roman Mysteries), we then decided to pack the tent up before 9am, so that we could get it in the car in case we needed a quicker exit than 6 pm [when we would next be allowed the tent in] chris and i were surprisingly speedy and all done and dusted. i think it is due to plan b. i tidy inner and gradually pack away all inner things and tent things [apart from 'grey box' and cooker] and then take tent down until the delta pegs. meanwhile chris is packing it all in. as taking and tidying seems to = actually getting it in the car time. so we gave the lie to Nic’s statement that we are the most laid back tent uppers and downers – though it is generally true, as why ruin a good holiday about stressing over upping and downing!

after all of this, when chris and i felt like we should be only just getting up, rather than having finished tent down, SB perked up. which i AM glad of, but… anyway we set out to the green fair and loved it [thanks N and A for organising the weekend] BB and i wandered over first as it was being set up to chat too the stall holders and eye up places to go to, then with the monsterteenies we wandered up to the story teller, who i did enjoy and then to the firestarters! moving on to have an icecream and more of a wander. we ended up at the area of the steward community woodland which had hunks of clay, dangerous tools and hunks of chalk. both girls were attracted by the chalk and spent over an hour hammering, chiselling, drilling and otherwise shaping it. v happy! this was BB’s most favourite bit of the weekend she said. the other fav – for both girls was the pond dipping bit. SB dipped an emperor dragonfly, and BB a newt [she loves newts!] and these were then caught on a camera rigged up to a ‘puter and screen so could be seen in BIG. gradually the fair came to an end and we were then pleased to have already taken the tent down as we had a long drive ahead! so good bye to friends and we were off home, relatively easily. so thanks for a fab weekend camp – i really do love camping.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, history, investigating, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE