Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

rice pudding and strawberries.

Posted on June 6, 2007 by HHaricot | 3 comments

Apart from madly thinking about various deadlines at work, I have had a gresat time.

SB is getting there with frere jaques – half speed though! hmmm for kessie! Hope Joe will be forgiving.

Girls did lots of playing – shops, families etc. also lots of playing with the book people boxes. In fact the boxes were prob the most looked at bit of the book people order! SB did get stuck straight into the poetry collection – she has athing for poetry at the moment. She is planning to recite a poem at Kessingland. its true that some of the books are more ‘future books’ – some diana wynne jones for me [rofl! i loved her charmed life as a girl] and the roman mysteries collection. But the DK animals collection really lovely, and the where on earth – so we had a look at those.

We also looked at SOTW again – its been ages, but Julius caesar – SB quite good on this from the horrible histories CD! Also continued with primary maths [i do think i prefer it to MPaH]
The strawberries in the title, well, we have LOADS ripe now, so our little birds were out picking them! At least i did get 4 this time. And I made rice puding with BB – yummy!

BB did lots of colouring and magic painting – which she is becoming very careful about. SB did colouring and made this sun catcher from beadmerrily. well i thought it was beadmerrily but I can’t find it!! Shame, because its lovely, and SB really enjoyed it!

forgot to say that we gave SB her DS today, she has been saving up beautifully and will now put that money towards a trampoline! Thankyou very much to Claire for her generosity. We have nintendogged until i went crazy!!!

3 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Cooking, gardening, General, geography, history, literacy, music, numeracy

To the reader, read.

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Daddybean | 1 comment

Stringbean reads lots to us know, but mostly new books rather than old ones.

Last night she read one of the Percy the Park Keeper stories to me, i like these, they are nice gentle stories. Anyway, she was given the book with a? story tape of it by my parents. I guess when she was 3. It was one of her favorite bedtime stories for a while and I read it to her lots.

And now she is reading it back [wipes eyes].

And very fluently as well. Still bemused by how that seems to happen.

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Posted in literacy, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

splashing in the sun

Posted on June 2, 2007 by HHaricot | 2 comments

i filled our 2 holey pools and lots of splashing in the sun ensued. we played games – including BB’s fav game of the moment, hisss.

First harvest of peas from the garden – well, 2 pods! and the first strawbs reddening.

SB had a sulk that she couldn’t buy some toffee, so we made some – more crispy toffee than sticky, but yummy.

BB counted to 26! [a couple of errors] she was counting her jumps on the trampoline.

SB wants to join the local trampoline club. a sat so not ideal, but she has really loved the half term trampolining course she was on, so i guess so.

BB still addicted to the usborne farm books, and also the little music book.

Lots of reading going on – at present titanic lost and found, what makes you ill and magic tree house ninjas, as well as whatever she just happens to pick up. we are going to have to start censoring the material left around!

Also some zoombini’s and webland today. violin and maths chugging along too.
oops i made a book people order.

Question – if we were to save and splash out on a trampoline for sb at home, or keep our eyes out on ebay, any good makes or suggestions out there?

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Posted in Butterbean, Cooking, gardening, General, history, literacy, numeracy, science, Stringbean's HE

Not quiet yet!

Posted on May 29, 2007 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

should be soon. Merry and co just left, our girls in the bath.

SB LOVED the trampolining, so money well spent, they are in 2 groups of 4, with an instructor each. She said they did different shapes and it was fun. She goes every day this week.

When she returned, Merry and co were here. BB and I had baked a dairy free choc and raising cake, and got pasta and sauce ready, so instant lunch for starving masses. Tye chocolate cake was quickly demolished as well.

The older 4 ran about playing complicated games, mostly successfully, and the better weather certainly was a blessing as they could let off steam outside. Merry, Josie, BB and I played Hisss. A snake game where you colour match. BB loved it, and since my landlock order for SB was in the box, I had a soft moment, ignored the state of my overdraft and purchased it! We have played it since merry left, and BB still very happy wiht ‘her’ game.

merry and I played a lot of a castle game [I'm sure she will pop it somewhere for me to link to!] and she trounced me roundly! Another great game, but for a bit older I think. And then PDQ, which is my kind of game – thinking words!

Whilst we did this, the younger 2 did lots of magic painting with us, and then got a bit grouchy, so I made some popcorn for then and some choc choc chip cookies for tea [vegan]. Jacket pots were done and kids called in for that. SB didn’t notice she missed swimming. the popcorn and cookies all eaten!

Has been a delay in finishing this blogpost! SB has played a few rounds of landlock happily. and both girls in bed. full day at work for me tomorrow, so must have an early night. no violin – oops

Happy birthday fran, eve and rei

Posted on May 23, 2007 by HHaricot | 1 comment

apart from dentistry, we went to a party in ipswich, and very enjoyable it was too. SB loved the slide, though it was a bit scary! She very carefully took BB round a couple of times too – what a sweetheart. lovely company and lovely day, thanks Em. will flickr.

girls screamed all the way home – sigh. neither asleep yet either

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Posted in art and crafts, General, Out and About, socialisation, writing

blah some more

Posted on May 21, 2007 by HHaricot | 6 comments

bur SB has had a good home ed day with Chris – maths, reading, playing, colouring. She made me a present too – bless.

We did violin together – how fast does Joe play frere jaques then? we are at dirge speed with various tuning issues!! At least she is getting used to the bigger violin size now. And it is recognisable!
BB and I had lots of cuddles. SB did lots of ball catching practice. I had promised SB a maths experiment yesterday to show why I knew she was cheating at uno, so we did some probability with coins. We grasped the half heads half tails chance = 50:50, and then threw 3 coins at a time. I got SB to work out how many different patterns there were. We considered how likely we were to choose certain coins out of the pile. At the end of this we looked at the idea of how many uno cards there were, and how many 2+ and 4+, and although we didn’t do the maths [ernest can!] it was quite clear that the chance of a hand of all 2+ and 4+ very unlikely! So there we go, a good start a probability.

The coins were grubby, so we have set up the salt and vinegar to clean them, as SB remembered how good this was at cleaning last time.

Girls now using stencils and colouring in.

I am being grumpy on ‘puter

6 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, General, literacy, music, numeracy, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE

Feeling blah

Posted on May 19, 2007 by HHaricot | 7 comments

hmm, i spent most of last night awake or having parent type nightmares, so not full of any joys today, and have found it hard to engage. this on its own annoys me, as i have so little time with the family that i should use it to the full.

Girls did painting and playdough, handstand practice. SB can do that climbing up doors thing that Pea did with the portico walls a couple of years back. SHe read a DK book called time travellers, we did the roman and viking bit, then went to the exploration of america book about the vikings, and the eric the red and leif the lucky sonlight book. [i read those]. girls did lots of self directed play whilst i mooched.
piled out into the garden. chris mowed the lawn, i planted out some runner beans, and the girls helped/hindered each of us in turn. I mostly snuggled bb as she didn’t like the unaccustomed noise of the lawnmower!

thats about it. i made up a bit at bathtime and bedtime though. Sb and I are having a break from britannia and reading roald dahl

forgot, Sb has been goign on a bit about improbabilty of tooth fairies. and she noticed that father christmas seemed to have got some things from yellow moon. So she begged me to tell her the truth about tooth fairies. i temporised, but now after several days, with a direct tell me the honest truth, i have. so much desolation.

7 Comments

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

Boughton House Open day

Posted on May 17, 2007 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

We all went with the not very local group yesterday to the open day of Boughton House – looking at how an estate works. weather so so! Very interesting.

The girls particularly loved the dogs I think, gun dogs and hunting dogs, sheepdogs etc. They stroked ferrets, grassnakes and slowworms as well as all the dogs, and also some owl chicks and an owl [all supervised!] SB was v good at asking questions, whether it be about dog training, bees, logging or sheep shearing! There was a good not quite enactment of the problems with the enclosures act – something not commonly done, and sparked a few conversations. SB was most happy to get a freshly logged mushroom! Good chris comment – you know the dog chap sounded scottish [yessss] well, thats because he came from scotland [duh!] Apparently chris meant their scottish estate! I chatted to what was prob the duchess about the wonders of home-ed whilst BB played with her dog.
Anyway, pictures to follow on flikr.

We got home and SB did her violin practice and read books. We britannia-ed at bedtime and read when the tiger came to tea.

Today BB has been to baby gym, they have shopped, and SB has been to ballet and done violin. not sure what else. We had lychees and asparagus for tea [separately] 2 treats! yummy. Game playing and more britannia and tut’s mummy at bedtime. we are with sir francis drake in the first, and about to enter the tomb in the second.

rainy day

Posted on May 13, 2007 by HHaricot | 8 comments

well, we have had a fun day, though it seems unusual not to have been outside much! When I got up [i know, I know, really late!] SB was copying out the caterpillar poem from first language lessons for the well trained mind [lesson 2!!]. She really wants to improve her writing, but it doesn’t come easily to her. SO we are doing writing and getty and dubay to help.

Hmm, trying to remember! SB certainly has done a fair bit of reading today. Ah, that’s right, she then got out an M and S body book and the DK pop out body book. SHe was particularly enjoying the fun facts. She has always had an interest in how the body works. I was reading to BB, who has been my little limpet today. SB also finished the polar bears magic tree house book – which she was very impressed with.

We had pancakes for lunch [rofl!] and then the girls did lots of playing with bricks. SB did a bit more writing, and BB and I sowed some melon and more runner and french beans. BB got a bit sleepy, so I read to her, and then she snuggled and fell asleep. SB did her gym practice – handstands, shoulder stands and trying backwards head over heels. SHe also did her violin practice.

I read the page of underground rivers from our lovely active geography of rivers book. We discussed the piccies, caves, what an acid was – remembered the coin in acid experiment! When BB had woken up, the girls played whilst i found the ingredients for the next experiment – making stalactites and stalagmites. Luckilly ours should be done within the week, rather than in years! SB did a line of writing on and off through the day. BB was keen to get out the gears, so we all ended up doing gears gears gears!