Category Archives: SB-PE

science wednesday

Posted on September 24, 2008 by | 2 comments

well, latin and science anyway! we managed to get up and nearly there on time – the girls and i would have managed it, but chris stopped to buy apples at the orchard! latin kicked off with revision of what has gone before, as last term things got a bit rusty! at present latin etc is 4 family strong, and it has smallies, middlies and big’uns. the middlies did a quick bit of science on energy, where to find it, and what it might be whilst the big’uns did the latin. a fruity snack and a run about, and the groups swapped, so the big’uns did science and the middlies did french. SB is a big’un, and BB in a bit of a gap between being a smallie and a middlie, so a bit of a loose cannon really. she’ll be a middlie with me for science, and a smallie prob for french. maybe we can get something hands on and crafty going on that she will stick with too.

we did energy anyway. it seemed to work well. we did lots of investigating and looking at things, and the kids have their sheets to go home with and stick in a book! so the session 1 worked well. think session 2 will be even better – and must gradually shape that up!

plenty of nice food and lots of play before we set of with michelle and chloe for the monthly rspb walk.

we adults agreed that it was probably the least enjoyable walk we have done there, though SB with her revisionist history thought it had been great, and couldn’t remember that every single one of the children had had their stand off waily moments [BB>SB>C] poor bb’s trousers kept falling down, leading to 2 nasty falls when running. SB got herself into a wrong side of the bed kind of mood, and had to be gently cajoled into joining the living, at which point she got the wrong side of a bramble… but we kept on. us adults [well mostly me, and maybe michelle] were totally unimpressed when the 1.6km walk ended up not a nice circuit, or going anywhere, but at the road! humph. somehow, back at the carpark the girls all recovered their jollies and played really beautifully for an hour – prob the cause of revisionist history!

we came back, quick tea for SB before judo – which she does really enjoy, so that’s good. BB and I had a snuggle and watched ‘the snowman’ before her bedtime.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, General, language, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation

New Mondays, with added spice

Posted on September 23, 2008 by | 8 comments

Been a bit of rearrangement of Monday since before the summer, SB still doing ballet (3.40 – 4.25), but this is now followed by Brownies, which she started this term. Rather annoyingly there is a 30 minute gap between the two (the venues are right next to each other) which is  short enough to mean it isn’t worth going home, but seems long enough when you have to go back out to the ballet class to pick her up to wait for Brownies to start. OK at the mo when we can go in playground, but in winter will need to ask ballet teacher if we can waitin the hall I guess. So it leaves me feeling a bit like a yo-yo, and SB hungry by the time we get dinner :-)

The added spice is that the Punto now has no MOT so only one car on the road at the mo, and the HE sports sessions started up again today. Luckily Helen is working just down the road from there on Mondays, so 7.45 (eeek!!) saw us all in the car. Dropping Helen at work we popped in to the supermarket to buy some stuff for breakfast/lunch. Said they could have doughnuts for breakkie 8-), but then in the car the decided to eat the Wotsits and Quavers they had bought to ahev with lunch – so a nutritious energy packed breakfast before doing sports then :-)

BB tried out the sports session today (guide age is 4-7 for the younger group) stayed in there almost to the end, though she had SB with her, showing her what to do and helping her. Don’t think she’d have been up to doing it all by herself though yet. But seemed keen to do it again, she was so pleased to be doing the same thing as Stringbean. SB was going to try out the older group as well, but decided not to after all, I think she decided she’d rather run around and play instead :-) So there was some  rather noisy and raucous playing, with some grown up HE talk then headed off to the park for a bit. Helen’s text to say she was finsihing work came at the same time as the Deependers were departing, so that was good timing.

Home via Tesco’s just in time to start the above Ballet/Brownies yo-yo. BB fell asleep in car, watched something or oher and did some Fimo-ing with Helen. While waiting for Brownies to start, had a bit of a conversation about what the Scouts etc. are, the Guides, relationship between the two, why maybe the guides etc. have stayed girl only whilst the Scouts etc. accept girls as well now. She did say that she liked the idea of doing wild things with boys ! :-) AS an aside, it’s be interesting to see how the Cubs activities compare to the Brownies.

Children all in bed at appropriate times tonight, so getting things back to normal, I was going to go to bed at sensible time, but haven’t managed it. Have blogged though :-) And have discussed possible science activities with Helen for the Wednesday group

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Posted in Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, Out and About, SB-PE, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

busy bees

Posted on September 10, 2008 by | 8 comments

we have had a mostly screech free day here today. BB is *very* piercing! when I got up, BB had been watching magic school bus – and I found another one i hadn’t seen – the microbe one! [yes, chris is going to get round to it!!] SB started off with doing a jigsaw book on ancient egyptian sites. We then read together a story about ramadan and eid, and she went on to look at a the what I believe book. Then did some self directed recorder practice – getting better at hole covering so not so many shrill bits. BB and I did maths at this point. she is starting to add 1 onto things, and subtract 1′s. BB and I then did some alphabet stuff, as she doesn’t know it at all yet.

SB then looked at our usbourne picture french dictionary [after me telling Katy that we weren't doing french reading - of course SB LOVES reading] so we did the a’s and b’s [she complained that only the english words were always a's and b's :roll: ] SO we did it together with my pronunciation :oops: and thinking of sentences to put it in.

SB did singapore maths – must buy the 3 series – whilst BB did starfall and i hemmed the Gi thingy for judo – so at least now she can walk without flappy arms and legs!

And then we had breakfast :wink:

OK, it was a late breakfast at 11! BB had already had breakfast earlier and SB and I had brunch. SB did violin whilst I still hemmed, and we are being inventive at the moment, with the majority of the time she is finding sounds, or making up tunes for me or playing scales – she likes scales. At this time an amazon bookseller order arrived from way back – one of the 3rd grade detective books, which she loves, so she tucked herself on the sofa and had finished it within 1/2 an hour. hmm! We also had a parcel from the manor borns, so SB moved onto melrose and croc, [most impressed with inscription from Clo] and BB spent most of the rest of the day in lizard related activities – very enthusiastic! [chris went shopping for gas canisters - so that was his day - rofl!]. SB made up some choc angel delight on her own – though BB sahred the task of eating it.

The girls are really in to playing with the castle and stuff at the moment, i was in charge of dragons, SB had romans and courtiers, and BB assorted lizards and dinodoors [as you do] and they had tea parties, swimming parties and hama bead diving competitions [i need to get out the hoover]. I in the end drifted away [i think I did VERY well to carry on for that long] and SB fancied knitting – so she brought back some yellow moon first cross stitch kits, she did the flower [well, at least she started it and did the centre]. BB played with the kit, but didn’t actually DO any.

They then did some convoluted liz game, I went out into the veg patch and picked loads of greenbeans, toms, brocolli and courgettes. they came out and did whizzing about the garden with lizards, but when i went in to cook the curry for tea they came in too. SB hama beaded, BB did liz dives into hama beads games, and i read them a book about remainder of one.

SB has gone off to Judo [first time since broken foot so fingers crossed] and BB watching the ways things work. I am pondering cars and how much i can stretch too.

edited to add: when SB came back, with free choice to watch whatever she wanted, and BB asleep, she chose Muzzy german level 2. and then we discussed protons and dark matter :smile: She has been a happy bean all day.

also, any recommendations on good balanced books – pref story related and good for 8 year old who has good vocab skills – about the crusades?

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, gardening, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

odin’s day

Posted on September 3, 2008 by | 6 comments

we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym – woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.

today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!

BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.

we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.

SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.

SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.

a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.

chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

RSPB walk

Posted on August 26, 2008 by | 1 comment

yesterday morning we whipped through music practices, read some french book and did some maths before lunch :wink: SB had found zoombinis cd and working through that – bit of deja vu having only just read t-birds post!

in the afternoon we did our monthly rspb walk with the manor borns – after i had had i minor strop that chris hadn’t packed my fleece – we were obviously speaking in different languages to each other again! but the weather was lovely, so no fleece required. the girls all greated each other enthusiastically, and we were on and running. we did the quarry path – as i think it is all of our favourites, but especially BB, who did us proud in walking and running. it really was a joy of a walk, good friends and happy children.

back to their house for dinner – yummy – and more children playing fun.

today i have had some lurgy, so had a sick day. i hate sick days, as i have to make up all the work at a later date, and some work is particularly challenging to retimetable. but i wasn’t safe to practice as it were. today i slept till lunchtime, had 3 hours up – bb insisted on doing reading, maths, piano and violin with me!! SB was less speedy, and did french , maths and a lot of reading of asterix! we then all did a craft kit that both girls enjoyed painting and decorating wooden bugs. SB should have done some music but i ran out of effort. she is currently watching roar.

i went back to bed as she had her gym taster session – which hopefully will give her a gym place this year. i have now got up – sort of, as horizantal on sofa instead.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, language, literacy, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

ahh, hmm, ohhhhhhhhhh

Posted on May 19, 2008 by | Leave a comment

yes well, sunday.

i was at work for a lot of the day [and lets gloss over that shall we!], but did get to spend the afternoon and early evening at home with the girls. Although it was yesterday, my brain a bit weak on what we did! i know there was a lot of geomagging, kids k’nex and pattern blocks. SB did an excellent violin practice. we read some books together – and did some french simple words and a lucy chat. i think she had done some maths earlier? not sure!!

Anyay, we bailed out into the garden and played in the tent, and hama beaded. i watered some of the potted veggies. ermm, i think there was more, but the day at work proved stressful, and i guess i have just got a poor memory! i do know that when i got home at nearly midnight both girls were back up again, so i went to bed with sb, and chris with bb. i do believe i would have had no sleep at all without the reassuring presence of a child.

today i have been told SB has done maths and piano. she also has hama beaded, pompom crafted and made ams a t shirt, and we promised not to blog what she wrote on the back [bless her spelling mistakes] but i believe chris alluded to it in a twitter. since that bit wasn’t ironed [fabric pen] might it come out in the wash??

BB also did her t shirt and hama-ed, and happily geomaged and k’nexed. oh, and starfalled some alphabet stuff.
when i got home we played dinosaur ludo, SB to ballet, then to swimming. me and BB just pottered and played on the swings mostly, and collapsed in front of pingu and magic school bus. i must go to bed now as shattered!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, language, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

today [quickly]

Posted on April 21, 2008 by | Leave a comment

chris had minor op this am – all well

his parents came and supervised. SB quickly rattled off maths, handwriting and piano. lots of games then with nana and grandad.

when i came home she got out a fossil find kit we had picked up from a museum, and enjoyed doing that. BB separated sand and iron filings using a magnet [maganet] and v much enjoyed that. she suprised me by using the word evaporated correctly. she also used her maganet [maginfying glass this time!] to look at plastic spider in more detail. SB off to ballet, BB and i read books and played games, and then stuc straws together to make panpipes. SB off to swimming [where her stroke has gone back to 'unusual'!] came home to find nina and neurons in progress.

At SB request, box books have swapped from explorers to science books with experiments in.

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

judo joy

Posted on April 16, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Well, we overslept today as BB was having great highjinx wrt sleeping! i had migraine due to a hectic and long day at work yesterday.  but somehow we got up and out and were only an hour late to the deependers! luckilly they waited for SB for latin, unfortunately, i had not got any science ready, as thought this was a drama week. but will get all the bits ready, and will have them in a box for the next time!! SB and BB both in a weird mood, and really didn’t play or integrate much [giving me a flare up of social isolation fears!!]

katy and i did get some relaxed chatting, and i enjoyed playing the kids accordian. i realised our akismet has been overeager again in trapping people! email me if your comments have disappeared.

ermm, got home and there was a parcel with a sleeping bag for me and BB, and we enjoyed trying them out, and a few bits and pieces. the tent is STILL up in the garden, hope it comes down eventually! [its been up a week!] keeps raining. Looking forward to camping on the bank hols.

SB off to rainbows, which she enjoyed, as always, and BB did some science experiments with me – making things froth and bubble!! When SB got home we had a surprise visit from my BIL, who had gone for a site meeting at a village not far away. Makes a change from site visits in China I get! So had a chat about how things were going. Nice to see him.

Sb then went off to Judo for the first time. SHe really loved it, came back glowing about how fab it was, and how she dropped someone, demonstrating how she had to stand etc. She also won a game because she was very good at wriggling free, and was full of how impressed the boys were. obviously an immediate confidence boost for her. I am so glad I suggested it, and persuaded her to still go – as she has been most uncertain.

SHe’s gone to bed reading magic school bus books. we had a chat on the way back from Katy’s about this and that, and she wants to do a bit more language, poss ‘cos the others in that group are quite ahead with language. And we have also agreed to prioritise music practice more. I had better tell chris that then!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, SB-PE, science, socialisation

like the manor born

Posted on April 7, 2008 by | 2 comments

SB

HE group sports session [which she always enjoys]

ello

violin practice

swimming [when i had a dizzy moment and wondered whether i had come home from one workplace, but should have gone instead to the other, so had to ring them to see if i was late [i wasn't!]] oh, and her front crawl now recognisable, but breast dtroke still makes me giglle, and feet first sculling totally creases me up – and I am sure i saw the instructor giggle too.
finished the worst witch, played chess

oh, and we must take her to optician – she has gone yearly – because think there is a definite reduction in vision!

BB

magic school bus. i do hope chris did something fun with her at some point!

read a dinosaur book from DK, which actually has lots of tiny books stuffed in it, so we will lose them all [already anal - not a good gift for BB, but cheap at the book people!]

fell asleep in the sling whilst i was feeding her tea.

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Posted in General, literacy, music, SB-PE, socialisation

bored blogging

Posted on March 31, 2008 by | 1 comment

though will no doubt get back into the flow. SB did some maths and handwriting first thing, watched magic school bus and raven, bB wailed about her lost dinodoors [she has only had them 2 seconds!], did a bit of earlybird maths and watched the same things. was going to do some music practice, but my parents arrived after my mothers hosp appt. chatted, sb played games, bb wailed about lost dinodoors, and wanting to paint her volcano.

so we started to paint her volcano, and SB started to do some brainbox electronics. 5 mins later, bb wailing as wants to do the electronics – do you see a pattern? anyway, i negotiated a settlement and we did lots of the whirring one until the batteries ran out, then a wild run about outside. read about the rainforest to BB. most of the rest of the day was spent outside, but we did do some messing about with a science kit on magnets and compasses. have left it out to have a bit more of a look at tomorrow. SB has changed all her box books to ones about explorers, and a couple of the new books.

we did actually have a lot of fun running about in the garden, and rescued the day really. BB and SB ‘helped’ chris by making manure cupcastles :roll: but ots of swinging, dipping feet into v green pond water etc. We refilled the bird feeders, and played games.

I took SB to swimming – her new speedo goggles far better [thanks all], and also i can see a v definite improvement in her stroke, she doesn’t appear to be drowning half so often.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, literacy, numeracy, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing