Category Archives: SB-PE

CHEF Sports Day

On Friday, we had a clash, Sports day with one HE group, or a visit to Sacrewell Farm with another. SB chose the sports day, as she really enjoyed it last year, and the farm will always be there to go again to. So me and girls (H at work :-( :-( :-( :-(? ) went to the second of the local home ed group CHEF sports days that we have attended. Last years was very hot. Not so today, though the weather was fine, sun even came out eventually.

Plenty of classic sports day things, like egg and spoon races,

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sack race,

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3 legged race ,

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tug of war etc.

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and of course the obligatory ‘get the parents to do silly things dressing up race‘.

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Finishing up with a ‘bash the watermelon’ game.

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Butterbean wasn’t that interested in the sports, she just pottered about happily though :-)
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And lots of chilling, eating, chatting, running around playing .

Rounded off the day up with a play at the playground/paddling pool area.

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Met a chap there who is considering home edding his currently in school
daughter. So he’d chatted about that with various of us. At least we
will have answered the ‘socializing question’ quite comprehensively :-).

His daughter is quite happy in school, though the parents have concerns
about the education being provided in school. Seems a harder decision
to make than if child is obviously having problems with school.

It’s all good fun, and like the camps, a good way to enjoy and celebrate being part of the home ed community.

very tired!

well, i guess it’s poetic justice that I worked this weekend following kessingland, and its been the busiest weekend I’ve worked for ages. In all daytime and called all night. So today I decided to leave slightly early from work and have a short nap. 30 mins later, SB woke me up as they were back home.

it was sports session this morning – must ask Chris whether SB tried the older group? She loves the sports sessions, and BB also likes the careering around she gets to do with Daddy. After it, they went back to the deep end’s new abode. Chris texted this to me, but i must have been at a superlatively busy moment and missed it! Anyway, they had a lovely time, BB was frightened by a cat – we have 2!

both girls did some colouring with chalks on black card to start with – very lovely. SB did do some firework pictures – nothing like being topical! bit of a tussle over BB purposefully squiggling over SB’s picture.
We inspected the garden – i didn’t get to see it at the weekend. french and runner beans shooting up, and some flowers on the runner beans. the broad beans had loads to harvest – so we did that, as did the mangetout. the girls ate them in thier playhouse. still more strawberries and also our weird not quite plum tree – as yet unidentified, but prob if i could be bothered would be! has some ripe fruit that the girls ate. Sweetcorn looking most unhappy – far to wet and miserable for them. things in the greenhouse on the whole happy – toms romping away and some ripening fruits. BB could only be persuaded that the grapes weren’t ripe by eating one.
SB happily did some singapore maths – adding hundred tens and units, whilst BB and I podded broad beans for tea and read books. BB fell asleep on my lap eating dinner – so whisked up to bed, and we’re hoping she will stay asleep.

Sb and I read our birds book from the DK animal series – part of our book people order. She also read the penguin lifecycle book as we read the inroduction and she chose penguins. We followed this up with a bit of david attenborough and his flying with birds [or whatever!] first episode.

Thinking home-eddy thoughts, in part brought on by hearing a girl shout at her mother IN FRENCH!! what a skill. must start thinking more seriously about approaching modern languages and poss latin. [whether i do remains to be seen. hoping that the possible local jolie ronde group may get set up in the location of the possible leader's home as v conveniently located!!]

OK, so kessie weather worsening

aargh, but I will still have great fun, SB and BB won’t notice. the pool is good!

SO into work this morning, reasonably smoothly, but 1.5 hours longer there than planned. Met up with chris and the girls in town, and he had picked up my new glasses. I put them on and SB immediately laughed, told me I looked silly. Apparently they are too noticeable and go perrr-chinggg at you. sigh. that was good for the ego. Have been wearing them all day to get use to them. After lunch in town we left chris shopping and came home.

We did violin practice.SB has cold feet over playing the violin at kessie, and it is prob too wet anyway! so she will prob make up a dance. we did lots of playing outside and made up an adventure course – great fun for both. in breaks, I read some more SoTW – augustus caesar, and also some of our emperor book. SB read me a life cycle of rabbits book. She also did some maths and reading whatever took her fancy.

I did some weeding, planted spare beans in the gaps. the girls helped me with watering – always good for a laugh!!Actually SB very responsible at it, BB watered weeds, SB’s feet etc etc! I think we may have glutted ourselves on strawberries! and also bought cherries today.

Chris was sorting out camping stuff – yes we will bring poles! and girls aslo helped him and pottered about in the hayloft. what else? oh yes, BB and Imade some nice sausage rolls. I think that is it.

difficult day anticipated at work tomorrow. will def have wine at kessie!!

weather

Me and my smelly shoes

well, me and Sb got some not-quite-crocs from ebay. very cheap unfortunately the seller had a problem with knowing colours, as we were supposed to have lime green and pink respectively, but she just focused on the pink! I can live with pink feet I guess!

Anyway, an early start as SB reading at the library [see, public speaking at 6!] she read a Clifford book, a couple of dog poems and a kipper book. i liked her way of getting the children to take turns with the flaps, and BB her little helper. She then did a sticking material onto cut out dogs craft. The session is obviously for under 5′s!!

We did some singapore maths 2A – finally we get to do adding up and carrying in columns! i breath a sigh of relief at this. SB though good at doing it in her head with the tens and units, but columns help with the hundreds. The only real difficulty is with doing 5 and 2 variably back to front, it can be difficult seeing what her answer is!!

BB did lots of colouring in and cutting, and playing games with the pencils being people. She has also just got keen on ‘galloping’ either with the hobby horse or broom! She also helps SB’s maths by shouting out random numbers. [not welcomed!!]

We played outside, picked some broad beans and mangetout – the girls ate the mangetout directly, the broad beans for tea! Lots of fun with watershooters for the girls – chris got a bit carried away [surprise suprise] so I was drenched. Though was nice after boiling alove in the greenhouse.

SB had swimming, and I watched in the gallery. she is a bit of a flibberdygibbert! the coach kept an eye on her, as she was doing duck dives as often as anything else! WIll try and at least get front crawl pinned down on holiday. And mushroom floats, as SB thinks the idea is to curl up in a ball, and then fling out as wildly as poss!

When we came back she did some jump ahead 1 CD – which she finds nice and easy, so a fun thing . And we did some violin practice, with me playing it with her a bit – mostly to try and pin down the timing. She was a bit freaked by this, so haven’t tried a canon yet! I think she has done really well to get so far,but not sure it will be up for a canon with Joe, but she is keen to go ahead. Back to positives though, we only really started practicing the violin vaguely seriously when Sarah suggested a duet, so I think to be playing a recognisable tune with a reasonable bow hold, though varying violin hold and enjoying it is a real achievement.

erm, more reading to each other, playing games and tidying up. ’bout it.

oh, and its the new crocs-a-likes that have a weird smell!!

cycling and roasties

my migraine abating now – having fair ruined the weekend!

Anyway, sadly without me, chris and the girls did the village carnival cycle ride, and SB did 10 miles! good going – with some stops at the official drink stops etc where she chatted to anyone who would listen. She was the youngest single cycler – someone younger on a tagalong. Chris pulled BB in the trailer. . He found out that our village has a power station in it!!!!!!!! Apparently at a landfill point in the old gravel pits. hmmm.

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We went to chris’s parents for lunch – hence roasties. The girls enjoyed playing in the mini stream and waterfall they have had built. Relaxed nattering, and finally home. SB has practiced her violin and done a lot of reading and baked cupcakes. Also a fair amount of nintendogs – BB also rather keen on nintendogs!

Not quiet yet!

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

blah some more

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

rainy day

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.

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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!

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don’t know what to blog

me and blog me are getting more dissociated these days. SO I apologise about the humdrum nature of my blogging!

Anyway, as Chris said, I have had a tough week this week. Wasn’t helped by insomnia for part of the week, and on thurs, waking up at 2am convinced I had missed a call from work, so ringing in – to their bemusement. i spent 2 days interviewing. on the thurs we interviewed for 11.5 hours, with a sum total of 50 mins break spread out amongst that! I could have cried for some of the candidates. these are those that we didn’t shortlist, but everyone now has an interview at their first choice. i think when we do the specificity and sensitivity we will have good specificity, and reasonable sensitivity. Well, in our area [geographical and discipline] anyway.
[ps I am watching the eurovision while I type - which may cause neural disturbances!]

so today was a lovely rest. i have done bits with SB in the week -mostly games and reading, but violin hasn’t happened! As well as the magic tree house [and yes, you can borrow some books merry if you want!] i also got some leap through time books, one about pompeii which I think is partic fab. SB and I have read britannia at night, and she is working through reading sonlight tut’s mummy lost and found to me. i loved my present. I think there is real artistry in the gold shapes on the silver tinfoil. She has also done handstand practice [rofl] every evening.

So to today. I had my saturday lie in, both girls were reading books on the bunkbeds, and then stickering. SB did some maths. it was a revision adding /subtracting/ number bonds type bit, so she raced through it. BB and i were making walls and towers with bricks, and reading. SB also did some lovely brick building – though BB knocked down as fast as they went up! I read SB and BB another story from the barefoot mothers and daughters book. SB and I the read some of the Xray buildings book – starting with pyramids. [i might link some of these books!]

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We had lunch and then spent most of the rest of the day outside working and playing in the garden. I failed to do some violin with SB. I weeded, chris and the girls spread much for the french and runner bean trenches, chris put in the canes. We looked at the fish, a waterworm and various garden beasties. SB and BB sowed some round carrots. Actually there is a half price seed sale on the thompson and morgan site! [cough]SO I bought some more seeds [cough]. SB was ecstatically happy with the round carrot seeds as she has wanted some for ages, as well as the dwarf french beans that can go in her plot! That’s my girl. She danced about with the packets in excitement! Actually, the carrots they sowed in their plot ages ago have started to come up, as have the runner beans [goodness knows where they will run too! might give each a cane!!]

sowing 'round' carrots
Anyway, lots of outdoor play, handstands and headoverheels practice [BB also determined to learn!] races, climbing and messing about. After a grump about whether SB could be naked outside like BB [I sort of feel she is at the age of knickers, but admit that I don't have much of a defence here] we then cheered up with a hand of rummy together, and then all painted outside. SB did mirror paintings of butterflies and caterpillars. BB painted a caterpillar too.

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We had a raucous bath as the girls insisted i got in too as my feet were dirty [they were]. Thank goodness for an enormous bath hey!! We even put the bubble machine on – not for long as BB wasn’t convinced by it. tea and more tut’s mummy and britannia [liz 1] and bed.

so, now well into the voting for eurovision -rofl still. Oh, and it turned out quite well for a not knowing what to blog blogpost!

And a Big Raspberry….

….too the woman driving the green hatchback, who obviously was in a great hurry as she was also holding a mobile phone to her ear as well. Just because cycles look narrow doesn’t mean it’s ok to think you can try to squeeze them into a gap where they will just fit, you really can afford to wait the few seconds it will take for us to go past the parked cars. Esp. as once you’d started the maneuver you realize that you’ve now got a bike with a trailer behind it in your way, so you are going to have to stop anyway.
Stringbean has been riding her bike to places as much as she can the last few weeks, mostly she has ridden on the pavement, whilst I have ridden along on the road, alongside her, though we have ridden around on the roads on the quieter residential roads around the corner.

Today, we we going to her ballet lesson, the road most of the way has a little bit of traffic down it but not loads, some parked cars etc. so we tried it out with her cycling down the road to and from the lesson, my aim is to gradually get her used to roads, to other vehicles, judging their behavior etc.. Her in front, with me behind, towing Butterbean in the trailer.

It was fine, with me behind she doesn’t need to worry about what is coming up behind her, she can concentrate on her road position, on learning to pass parked cars safely, on watching for cars approaching from the front etc. and I’m always there to give guidance etc. as she is? along way from working out how to safely judge what approaching cars are doing, when it’s safe to proceed, when it’s time to wait and let the pass etc. Most car drivers were considerate and patient.