Category Archives: socialisation

Just another Tuesday

Posted on April 9, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Morning, off to the Library. SB on her inline skates, BB on scooter. So took much longer given SB’s skating speed at the moment. BB very funny, she is very much into mad scootering at the moment. Zooming along shouting madly, she was scootering along, going ‘look I can steer’ when she crashed straight into a telegraph pole :lol:

Library, storytime for BB – SB sits and reads other things now, a bit of craft sticking making tulip pictures. which BB insisted we bring home and put up over the cooker taking down old artwork. Finding some more books – SB brought home 9!! Mr Men books. I told her she would have to read them all herself as i wasn’t going to read them (really dislike the Mr Men books), a bit of nattering and home.

Met Trish, other HE mum and child C in library, and they came back a bit later for coffee/lunch and playing. Trying to play indoors didn’t quite work, but decamping to the garden and the sun was much more successful.

After they’d departed they made birthday cards for Helen, and wrapped presents. SB had to go over the road and buy some more wrapping paper. except for crossing the road (which she can do fine at the zebra crossing, but just likes you to watch her in case she isn’t sure about it) she manages such shopping trips OK. BB stuck a strip of paper together and wrapped it up to make what was apparently a fish for Mummy.

SB got on with some more Getty and Dubay handwriting, followed by some maths. Stuff on money (Dollars and Cents – it’s Singapore maths, but it’s all decimal so she’s happy with that) all pretty easy stuff. Was a litle stuck on what writing say 65c in Dollars meant and why it was $0.65 – she got the hang of it though. Though I mad a bad job of trying to explain decimal points. which reminded me we need to do stuff stuff on fractions reallys.
Meanwhile BB played one of those impenetrable 3yo kiddie games with a seemingly random selection of objects, in this case something like a teaspoon, a plastic dinosaur, a plastic tub, a pair of nail clippers and wooden lolly stick.

I did stuff like get dinner going, hanging up washing etc.

Sat and read a bit (of one of the numerous new Book People books) of a book about Rainforests, which some how involved a conversation on rabbits eating their own poo :? They then sat and read some of their library books before dinner.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean, Daft Stuff, daubing and making, geography, literacy, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

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

latin, science and haircuts

Posted on April 2, 2008 by | Leave a comment

we got up in good time, and then looked likely to get there on time, however at the last moment, BB threw sugar all over SB, so a shower in order, and… we were late! luckilly, our hostess is v accommodating. latin commenced, SB said on the way home that we need to remember to do more at home. since katy had had a chat about possibly accelerating the older few, i might see if sb can do the pace they may set as she seems keen. at least i have bought another copy of minimus. we did science on magnets, i tried to have a mixture of more complex for the bigger ones, and easy for the littlies, but BB was really not in the mood to let me continue on. however, we struggled on, and think it went ok, i might try electromagnets next time.

so then some yummy soup and general play and chit chat with adults. so very nice. SB had a number of accidents :roll: and BB perked up :smile: . Dressing up went particularly well. bB then totally lost it, we were about an hour later than i thought [body clock not adapted ] and in the end swept mine out when i should have helped a bit with tidying, as thought more prolonged BB howls might be less welcome than the tidying up would have been welcome. BB fell asleep on the way home [and has therefore taken for ever to get to bed tonight] and SB also had an early night due to the wailies once we got home.

we had an ebay parcel when we got home, so i thought it might perk bB up, but no, it didn’t work! aaarghhhhhhh. anyway, the seller will replace the pen.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, history, language, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

a blog filled day

Posted on April 1, 2008 by | Leave a comment

we are awaiting the ending of an ebay auction which we would have liked to have won. we have placed a max which is low, but reasonable, but is obviously lower than the reserve. i hate reserve auctions. i refuse to ‘bid up’ to see where the reserve is. And I think in this case it was obviously at something unrealistic, as we are nowhere near our max bid yet. grumble grumble moan moan!!

we had a playdate today with rainbows friend [RR for short]. she was obviously in a bit of a weird mood from the start, dropped off by her mum early in a tearing hurry [our girls stilll in pj's!] (Note From Chris: Early here was 10.20 :-) )they started playing ok, but after a bit our girls keen to go outside and enjoy sun, couldn’t understand why RR not so keen. but apparently she had watched a film on volcanoes. we prob live in one of the least likely areas for a surprise volcano in the world! it was oK if she wore S’s clothes though, and I went out too. fair enough, i sowed some seeds and interacted in minimalistic reassuring fashion. [a tsunami would be much more of a worry really]. SHe’s a lovely girl really though, just caught on an ‘unusual’ day – and no more off planet than SB can be. However, she did graze herself on slide, so i carried her in and settled her in front of magic school bus, and upset mine by insisting they watch it with her. pizza decorate yourself for lunch perked things up, and then after lunch i did an ad hoc weaving with scoobido fish dreamcatcher thing – which sort of went ok, BB and RR both gave up, and i finished theirs, but they tod me which colours and when to put pony beads on. SB did hers beautifully, but with a fair tension on it, so it is more of a tube fish!

BB showed RR her magnets, and a long discussion about magnets ensued, and a bit of iron detectiving. am planning to do some magnet stuff tomorrow. wish i had sorted out stuff to make an electromagnet, maybe next time. the older ones prob know it all already. hmmm

they went off and played happily for a bit, then a something or other, and I ended up hugging RR and chris SB whilst watching magic tree house and eating apricot scones [lovely] . so peace and happiness returned, chris and sb walked her home, and played for a bit there, as she was much happier back on home turf [obviously being about 200m away, no risk of volcanoes!]

BB and I did other bits and pieces together during the day. she was still wailing about lost dinodoors [if anyone goes to magna, or anywhere else that sells them, could we pay you for a 50p stretchy lizard?] so we made some about of fimo – a t -rex and 2 babies, that could also be eaten! we then went on to make the yummy apricot scones. mmmmm. We read alot of books together, and did some counting and guessing starts of words, and lots of singing. we also made a fish out of airdrying clay, whcih she insisted had a sad mouth [like prunella scales in that supermarket advert!]
Chris picked up BB from the floor at some point in the afternoon, and she really hurt her arm. not a dramatic pick up or anything, but she was really tearful, and held it as if broken. i checked all over and it seemed fine, so calpoled. after an hour of no mvt i decided we should go to have it xrayed, and she wailed and stormed she wasn’t going, and suddenly it was fine to push me away with it etc. yep, it isn’t broken!

anyway, relaxed bed time. chris has started on peter pan with SB, and we played battleships for our evening game.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, noises and sounds, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

easter loveliness

Posted on March 25, 2008 by | 1 comment

was lovely and difficult at the same time.

loveliness: children playing together, easter eggs, family, weirdness of snow, dad taking children out to loose energy!

the first day we went to the park and got hailed on! then realised bb had gone out in slippers!!! lots of games playing, rummy, dominoes, ludo, word yahtzee [with some help!] landlocked, and hiss. also built a lot of things with k’nex and my nephew fell in love with both it and the maze ball!!

the children enjoyed the chocolatey goodnes that is easter, and i had bought yellow moon crafts [remember!] that we did a lot of whenever the moment required it. i think it went well, and kept everything ticking along, and hopefully all the kids will remember it as fun. the dinosaur eggs were particularly cherished.

difficulties: my sister’s diagnosis, and the effect is it has had on her and her family already. She was just tired btw, nothing dreadful in the end on her emergency admission, and thanks for all the well wishes. she had plenty of rest this easter anyway. magic wands would be nice.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, literacy, noises and sounds, numeracy, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, vivien, writing

hmm

Posted on March 19, 2008 by | 3 comments

i think i must be tired. have found today v difficult. want to wrap in a duvet a hibernate!

chris took sb to drama, which she loved, bb and i played with bricks and blocks, went into garden for a run around, recovered the veg patch where wind had blown off mulch, looked at spring plants and played hide and seek. we watered our seeds in the propagator and looked at how our science seeds were doing.

chris’s parents popped by to drop of easter eggs, and stayed for lunch and afternoon until sb off at rainbows. we did do some violin in that time, and bb did some of her ‘match and sort’ both girls looked at a road safety thing.

i cooked nasi goreng for tea, and realised i was temper challenged when bb wouldn’t eat it as she doesn’t eat rice – since when! so i have taken myself off to the naughty couch, and will eat chocolate and have an early night

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, music, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

i cheated, well, obviously i did!!

Posted on March 17, 2008 by | 4 comments

musical mondays was written on sat and the timestamp editied so it posted today!

i certainly didn’t have time to blog yesterday – leaving the house at 9:30 and returning at midnight! it was a wildlife walk day with the people over at the manor born. we went specially early this time, as last time the carpark was full, and it was busy when we got there. needn’t have worried, the blustery rain had put off all but the hardy and foolish…

So we all met up, and set out. Marcus and I doing that couple thing of wearing the same [and it is!] waterproofs, and michelle and chris looked v fetching in their matching trews!! [yep, michelle went a la daddybean!] . girls togged in their muddypuddles [fab waterproofs!] and i need some new wellies.

both girls decided sensibly that they didn’t want to take pictures in the rain, so marcus and I took a minimal number for the seasonal changes thing we plan to do at the end of the year, Jaffa cakes and choc bikkies helped keep the sprits going – but actually it was v enjoyable, i like blustery, and the drizzle cleared. Marcus won the choc bikkie race – which he was v happy with.

the girls played and raced and generally very happy with the 0 birdwatching. i did insist that they look at the daffodils and the cherry blossom – rofl, and we were all a bit deflated by the plantation pond. BB thought it a puddle. these walks are such a fab idea – thanks michelle.

back to there house for yummy lunch [thankyou v much!], and lots of games, the girls, the adults , everyone with a board game and other game fun filled afternoon and evening – finishing at 10.30 when it became apparent that the children were officially tired, so we went home! before tht, numerous games of blokus, yahtzee [which chloe won! - SB and I enjoyed, and we made the girls tot up and multiply themselves - so education too!], really enjoyed carcassonne, cluedo for the kids.

i’ve taken so long to blog, that michelle has beaten me to it, so she has a great pic of BB on blog!

IMG_4953 IMG_4925 IMG_4938 IMG_4944

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Posted in Butterbean, General, numeracy, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean

windy wednesday

Posted on March 12, 2008 by | 1 comment

SB at drama – she really has enjoyed the 2 taster sessions she has had so far, so fingers crossed there will be more opportunities for the younger group. ALso hoping they don’t continue to be on Wed – a bad day for us!

BB and i did some more musical instrument making, looked at vibrating rubber bands and saw how the sounds differed as stretched it out, and how ‘fat’ the vibration was. wish we had a copy of fantasia!

We went outside to sow broad beans – v windy. She had been desperate to go outside and do it, and it looked sunny, so no persuading her it was cold coat weather until she got buffetted by a particularly huge blast, and then she put a coat on! We are sowing the broad beans through cardboard again, as they did OK that way, and it significantly reduced the weed growth – weeding is not a forte of mine! Came back in and watched magic school bus arctic.

She then went back to the music experiment box, and we did the filling loads of glasses with water. she was v careful as they are ‘breakaful’ but onfortunately with one of her dongs did put a crack in a glass, so experiment over! Did demonstrate that immediately loses power to make a note. We then did some general messing about!

SB and Chris came home in time for lunch and then watched some dora the explora both singing and actioning along. The goggles have arrived, and SB is trying out some similar to ernests, and a back up plan to whip ‘bb’s’ if the above don’t work. We all played Hisss, though BB got grumpy towards the end when SB got ‘her’ snake. SB chose to do some maths and then was off to rainbows. Seemed like i hardly got to see her.

BB knows its baking when SB off at rainbows, so this time we have baked pink and chocolate cupcakes. yummy. SHe particularly enjoyed the lickings… We played peebo, read a book and then it disintegrated a bit… So we painted her large coil pot and got things temporarily back into balance.
SB returned and there was general raucousness, a bit of horseplay and tea. BB nearly got put in the cellar [ok she didn't but it feels tempting! goggles on a high shelf for whacking SB with, numerous toys in a similar position for being thrown etc] So after tea I took BB to bed for snuggle and story and she fell asleep v quickly.

Sb has been reading and teaching chris landlock in the meantime. time for her bed. We have had a lot of lovely music on during the day, which the girls have danced to etc. They enjoyed looking at some of the utube clips. [no music practice again!]
Back to work for me tomorrow. These last few days off have been a bonus for me. BB is v challenging to parent at the moment. She is utterly adorable but 20% destructiveness and temper, often taken out on SB. It is totally knocking my confidence as a parent and I am concerned about balancing the needs of each. It is clear that only 100% attention really improves BB, but this wouldn’t be achievable if she was an only, as it means 100% full on. However, stretching her with activities and having something at the ready does seem to make a difference, both to BB’s behaviour and the amount of positive attention both girls get. So having this time has helped me see I can still get a rhythm, and although its not perfect, it feels positive. It might be exhausting, but I only do it 3 times a week.

We seem to have been incredibly science-y, bit that is what was requested!! Must make more of an effort to suggest the lovely french reading books again, and a few language vids…

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Posted in Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, daubing and making, early maths skills, gardening, General, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, Ponderings, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

diddle daddlying

Posted on March 8, 2008 by | 2 comments

is what i have been doing this eve, rather than blogging. oops. diddle daddlying is what SB does a lot of. especially when she is supposed to be actually doing something! like getting out of the house for not-so-local-group-north. We got there to find the patch of puddles already there [escaping from their LEA inspection!]. SB and BB took a bit of time to settle in, and its a group i don’t usually go to [being at work] so i did that mooching uncertainty thing [along with max]. the girls got to sow some seeds, start a leprechaun puppet, and do some egg dyeing. The egg dyeing was pretty adventurous stuff, what with melting wax crayons as well as using turmeric or beetroot dyes. Lots of playing outside as well, and then back to merry’s. We had planned to go home and do some home-ed, but that didn’t really happen. oh well!

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Posted in art and crafts, daubing and making, General, Out and About, socialisation

nots and tots

Posted on March 6, 2008 by | 5 comments

i just liked that name of the group that SB went to today, already blobged elsewhere! BB went to her playgroup, which she does v much lie. SB went to n&t to do some french, not finish making a roman sandal and discuss hadrians wall. she enjoyed it, and didn’t moan to me there had been no latin (edit – ah, but she did mention the lack of it at N&Ts). might have been my fault as i told her to be careful to remember it all as we hadn’t been for so long! I was left at home, and we will draw a veil over why i was too sick for work…

on their return, they were all ravenous, and sb ate 3 oranges – so multivits and body shop cocoa butter lip slave must have done the trick for the angular stomatitis then! BB immediately got back into her skates – which she totally adores, and skated about. SB and I did a violin practice [with me sitll lying on couch!] and then she skated off too. they all went out for a good skate about in the sun with chris.

BB did some singapore earlybird, and SB singapore2A. Then SB dived into the pile of books we had picked up from nots and tots, and really bookwormed her way through the rest of the day. BB and I read some books together as well. BB and SB both had a short recorder session – I am trying to instill that recorders can make music as well as shrill shrieks. And yes em, i do remember you saying they should explore the noises, but shrill shrieks are killing me!!
The girls did a final bit of skating on a walk with Chris before tea, BB was cream crackered so I then took her off to bed, and Chris and SB started a huge k’nex edifice – a space needle, to find some bits missing right at the end. this is from the k’nex given on monday, so we haven’t had chance to lose them yet, so chris is going to write and complain!

I am feeling very fatigued, but not particularly v, so hopefully things on the up. have watched 2 episodes of damages – which i really enjoy, we are heading to the denouement at juggernaut crash speed. excellent.

i have put piccie possible ideas in a set on flickr, i need to work out what i actually want i guess!

Edit- added by Chris

BB had a bit of a strop when we got to playgroup. She stayed today for lunch for the first time (gives us a bit more time before we have to pick here up if we are out), excited to be taking her lunch in her Thomas the Tank Engine lunchbox. But they are supposed to be put in the kitchen and anything requiring refrigeration put in the fridge. she was not pleased to have to give up her box :-) Of course being BB, she wasn’t that interested in eating her lunch it seems. she said she got grumpy because they wanted her to eat her sandwich – and when BB doesn’t want to do something she can be grumpy ;-) I had meant to say to them to not worry about what she eats of her lunch. So. after getting grumpy, she then fell  asleep so I arrived to find her zonked out on the table :-)

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, early maths skills, General, history, language, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE