Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

Gym day today, so SB had a good workout in the morning. I’m so used to us being late, that i managed to be early!! Sad that she has only one more class to go. Must find somewhere when we move. only an hour between getting home and setting off for Home Ed viking workshop. SB insisted on me cutting out her coloured in henry 8th and armour to stick on. She did do it beautifully, while I chanted ‘eat’ like some demented mantra. We touched on a bit of who he was, as she asked – 6 wives, beheaded them, tudor [not roman - lol] castles, jousting etc on a freeform.

vikings – Managed to get out of the house – at last – and we weren’t desperately late for a change. this lady has only done school groups before, so at one point asked whether we were happy with that level of mayhem! I think she did really well as it was supposed to be for 7 up, but she had a very mixed age group. It was on runes and games, so learnt each others viking names and appellations – SB decided to be ‘the beautiful’, not a surprise! We looked at runes and matched them up, and wrote our names. At this point SB wandered off and played with the gears and trainsets set up for the littlies. She returned when they got to the games, and enjoyed pulling the oar – especially as the older lads kept letting her win! She decided she must be very strong. They weren’t mad enough to let her throw the rolling pin, instead she was the fetcher. She did get 2 goes at throwing the spear outside, so is now a warrior!! Def a good afternoon for her.

On returning we were supposed to be starting on her birthday party cake – she wants a carrot cake. Instead we did some more of the exeter maths bigger or less than, and too my eternal shame [LOL!!!] i haven’t yet made cards with the signs on that she can use, or sorted out bits to do with them. Better had tonight then.

She also made a freeform ‘something’ with the Ikea starter meccano-alike set. First time she has just made something up from imagination with it, so although it is unrecognisable as something, I am very pleased.

Chris came home, and so fed up with loony tunes school that he has cancelled returning thurs and friday. Must be really bad then, as he’s never done that before, and the money is needed. Cup of tea and teacake to the rescue!

So, finally started on carrot cake – trying to make it and tea [pasta and sauce, so not high cuisine] at the same time, when SB says we are making one for Jax and Big tomorrow. We haven’t got enough baking powder, light brown sugar or wholewheat flour. Aaargh. She was insistent, so this really is a bodge job. had some tartare powder and baking soda, and it says you can make baking powder from that, so I have [I hope!] Some bread flour – perhaps a bit stodgy, and some preserving sugar! Anyway, try it out on Jax tomorrow. Managed to mix things in the wrong order due to severe levels of distraction, so really will only work if a cooking miracle happens. I will be the only parent to have provided a homemade cake, so I will just feel superior, even if inedible! [ps, i mixed all the ingredients, so no cake superior to another, as rereading this it sounds like Jax getting poisonous variety]

The the 10% frustration bit- why do we have to have such a song and dance about actually eating???? She always ends up eating it all up. She does like it, but after 2 spoonfuls shes full, and wants to mess about instead. Antoher Aaarrrgggggggggh. Especially when she says in a sweet, enquiring voice ‘are you cross yet mummy?’

SO Chris is doing bath [and getting earbending at volume 11] while I breathe in seclusion if not peace.

SB
nursery in the morning – which she had fun with, and showed off how good she is getting with numbers apparently. Also played a lot with her 2 best friends making sparkly pictures.

I picked her up after lunch and we went to gingerbread cottage – a really nice fun soft play area, v safe. it was my postnatal group!! She manically ran around wiht her friends while I got up to make sure she was still OK once in a while.

My Aunty Margaret visited when we got home, and did the Ikea version of beginners meccano to make a digger. SB started off helping, but then left Aunty to it!
MANY THANKS TO NIC as the crazy creatures got here today – that was quick!! So we made some crazy creatures together. I actually like playdough when we make crazy creatures with it!

We then showed Aunty Margaret how good at maths SB is, as she found the next 10 worksheet pages of 1a exeter maths, and proceded to romp through it. Our main problem is that it is obviously written for a child with reasonable manual dexterity and pen control – SB’s is all over the place. Normally i would have a manipulative around for her to show me she was getting it right. And I was going to go through the sheets and see how we could adjust them, rather than being caught on the hop. i prob help her a bit with the reading of instructions though, but he did seem to be understanding the more than less than sign and equals, it was just when they were more than or equal to that there was a glitch. I hadn’t planned to do all these in a row though, so we will backtrack and do some of the supporting activities. i do wish though that early maths books were written for those without much manual dexterity.

Still awaiting chris to sort out the cdroms – apparently joyce might have a patch he says, so fingers crossed!!
our chilli seeds have sprouted – so we decided that was exciting. We now need to put them ins ome compost – they actually have sprouted much more quickly than they do when sown – the power of chitting!

Ken Hom for tea – yummy, and the SB coloured in the armour of Henry 8th to stick on tomorrow. No we are not doing tudors, but got these sheets from visiting the royal armouries. there are quite a few work sheets on their website.

BB
giggling with jiggling skills training today [for my fun] and lots of grasping. She seems particularly fascinated with her left thumb! Still drinking well, and being a jolly baby. Was v well behaved when I was at Doctors, and had receptionist cuddling her for about 30 mins.

Me
mirena fitted this am – oh what joy. not particularly painful, and no probs now, so thats sorted! played with SB in the morning and had lots of cuddles, then picked SB up from nursery. I do like chatting with my postnatal group – so relaxing. ALso seeing the kids growing up together. 2 things in post, one from life insurance saying I need a medical as too fat – so excessively depressed. they are right of course, but I don’t like knowing about it, and a medical plus the fact I know they will hike premiums when we are already going to have such a tight budget is a real pain. The other was my purse – i had left it at my parents again – oops.

Chris
Still at dreadful south leeds loony tunes school. We are right to home ed!

edited for last word! SB obviously picked up the sign word for look, as kerfuffling not finding her pj’s, so stropped out of bedroom with hands on hips, shouting look, then doing the sign over and over, but with both hands at the same time – very emphatic! It is chris’s turn for the frustrating business of getting SB from naked into pj’s!

Sat was lovely. We went girly shopping with Chris’ cousin, as SB being her bridesmaid. SB v good at girly changing room shopping [i really hate it, but then am not a twirly girl like her!] She got a bridesmaid outfit. The nipped to ELC, as was going to buy her those insect bits that you stick in playdough/soft stuff. However, they stopped making them in nov. prob the only thing that would get me to enjoy playdough. A digression – the reasons I hate playdough are the mixing as well as the fingernails I decided.

Officially 4
When we got back, chris’ parents were there, and we opened up SB’s presents. They had found the ELC dolls house for knock down price of ?20, and we had ebayed look alike furniture to go in it and also gave her a leappad book[ebay]. Chris’ cousin gave her an art set. My parents gave her a junior pogo and a pink barbie princess [princess and pauper series], my sister gave her a leap book as well, and her godmother gave her an indoor/outdoor croquet set. She loved every single present and has played with them all. The pogo is at present confiscated though as she threw it down the stairs at me, and I realised my other thing against barbie, apart from the americanism pushing outrageous ‘feminine’ ideals, is the fact that there are bits to be lost, hair to go all scraggy as SB doesn’t treat too beautifully!!

After an afternoon of playing, we went to local restaurant for a meal. they are an italian franchise, greast with kids, so always loads there. V well behaved. My Aunt and Uncle joined us, as live just down motorway south of Wakefield. SB made her own pizza, sweetcorn and olive! yummy food, some wine for us adults, and got away with only 1 feed for BB. Aunty M bought 2 lovely ooks, an Angelina Ballerina and one about hearts of glass [which I might try a before FIAR thing with][hope chris adds some photos at some point]

Sunday, and we abandoned family to C’sPs as 1. no food in house, 2. closing down Allders sale. Although we have NO spare cash, we plastic fantasticked a sofa bed for new house as 65% off – not bad really! the did a v hurried shop for food. We were both exhausted as 1. we hate shopping IRL 2. SB woke up at 4am and didn’t go to sleep again. [see I am a listmaker, even if they are short - in fact, if we have to go for a nom de plume, I might ditch the somewhat derogatory broadbean for Queen Listmaker!]

Monday, and Chris went to work. Sleep de[rived this time by BB, who fed 3 times in the night – AARRRGGGHHHHH! i was told I was a good girl by dentist [new noisy toothbrush a good thing] and we did some home ed.
With C’sPs we finished a clock making activity bought for a fiver from sainsbury’s as someone elses b’day pressie! [photo please chris] SB v impressed that it actually works. How long for is anyones guess as she keeps twiddling the hands round, so not actually reliable for time!
She impressed Nanna with Webland, and how good she was at the activities on it. She got far more scaffolding from Nanna than me, possibly cos I can see how far she has come on with letters and sounds since their last visit.
We also tried some of the Exeter maths from the webpage.The 1a, and SB whipped through the first 5 pages. Since recently she has been messing about with Singapore maths – redoing ad nauseum some of the pages, and not moving on – I thought I would try a change of tack. [Sarah, all the patterns have a blank middle line - are we supposed to invert the line 1 and 3 paterns, or leave blank?] Anyway, I will continue to use them for now.
Our word sounding is finished for now, as SB says she doesn’t want to read at the moment. However, still keen on reading books together, so I imagine only a short break.

We mostly played lots with new toys. oh, we also got her some switches for tesco/ELC wooden train track, so have a complex pattern of track on the floor to jump over. Barbie has been singing her song all day, and I have memorised it to SB’s satisfaction. I really think this was a succesful gift giving.

Update on June list [see below] in that I got from ebay 2 of the explorer CDroms for ?8 including postage to try out, so even if not too good, we can prob ebay on for not much loss.

SB seems to be getting the hang of blends. I’ve been using JP flashcards, and have 3 piles we rotate, and have been adding to them. we now have 39 cards on the go, of which the alphabet is ok, some of the easier combinations are ok, and she quickly remembers on prompting the others. This has carried across to reading, and simple words can be sounded, and with a bit of encouragement, read. Feel really proud of her. She also did some letter tracing [though not getty and dubay as not june], which she normally avoids.

Got my ebay usbourne time traveller, so we read some of the castle bit as bedtime story – her choice – followed by a first hymns cd.

I’m happy as my research submission to the international continence society uk arm meeting was accepted – even if only as a poster presentation, so we will be going to the glasgow secc end of March. Any ideas for SB while I’m at the conference?? [obviously with chris]

Chris adds:

Regular cafe stops for me and SB are an essential of course…….