Category Archives: socialisation

young anatomists club

Posted on March 4, 2009 by HHaricot | 4 comments

this is a brief blog [probably!] as i have loads of work related stuff i need to do every evening at the moment.

but today we had lovely latinetc. SB says the latin was lovely but she wants to do a lot more [i think katy does so much that she is v lucky as it is!] so i suggested that we do a bit in between. not sure that was so well appreciated! she loved the bells with gina [sorry that we hadn't practiced the hand stuff, it only seems 2 seconds since the last one!] and had fun with the anatomy t shirts. i had got felt and body part templates. the littlies had theirs cut out apart from A and K, and it was clear that cutting out took way too long [and BB having a total tantrum melt at the beginning was not entirely helpful for my patience levels!] luckilly, my teaching assistant helped cut out, and we got all the bits stuck on – i think we need to sew them a bit if they want to last though. we also looked at the bones, which were bendy – i left that to my teaching assistant though too [aargh :blush: because i was trying to be quick as their were time constraints, i forgot to go back outside at the end and bin the bones - really sorry]. they would prob be even better if left another fortnight. the t-shirts looked cool though. merry did a lovely fimo dinodoor craft, and BB was ecstatic!

returned to here with Merry and girls, and fran and I practiced her piece, [stress on sight reading accompanying part!] but it went well, we ran through it lots of times, and fran got happier with it each time, so we vidded it for her to refer to in practice. hopefully she will smile more! the other kids played together, BB and J seem to finally be noticing each other in a play possible manner, and SB and M seem to be far more pally recently. we moved onto playing with watercolours, trying to see how they worked and doing brushwork. sort of from Watercolour (Klutz), but a lot from merry, who actually knew how to use them [i cannot believe how little i know about art!!]

evening wobble about sick relatives and work stresses [in the awful mode] and so bailed out of going for an extremely expensive meal in a very very nice restaurant that i have already paid for at my silliness.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, little languages, music, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

wonderful friend filled weekend

Posted on March 1, 2009 by HHaricot | 10 comments

i am getting a bit stressy about something work related, so it was wonderful to have such a busy weekend with negligible time to sleep!! Sat SB went to the young astronomers club for the first time, and really enjoyed it. she did point out that they wouldn’t ever get to see the stars because it was in daytime – amazing bit of sense!! it was based around the royal astronomers i think. chris helped out by being the timer, and read his paper.

bB and i had an adventure, and went into town [by bus having found the bus stop eventually] and then wandered around the ‘dinodoor museum’ which she loved. she partic loved spotting fossils with a passing resemblence to ammonites and belemnites and saying v loudly, ooh we have those! there is an elasmosaurus [well i think that is what it is, might be a pleiseosaur] and she thought it looked like a fab jigsaw and she wanted to be a dinodoor bone person when she grew up. The museum has quite a few books in its hands on bit, and so we read a number i have in my amazon basket! The Birth of the Earth (Cartoon History) The Day of the Dinosaurs (Cartoon History) The Rock Factory: A Story About Rocks and Stones (Science Works) Monster Stones: The Story of a Dinosaur Fossil (Science Works). the last 2 i could read to BB as is, but the first i simplified a bit. we went into the shop, and she spent christmas money on a bag of gems and a bouncy ball with a dinosaur pic in it. these have made her overwhelmingly happy, and she has clutched those gems everywhere. Also a haematite ring present for SB.

BB and I totally failed to find the bus stop leading back out of town, so chris picked us up! we went to diff bits [as i had no map] and when finally did meet up, in a blinding something of fate, there was the bus stop! well, i know now!

we bought a picnic lunch and headed off to the RSPB place. BB was cold, as it was colder there, and we didn’t have enough layers, so wrapped her in a blanket while we ate. The manor borns arrived, ate a bit and we set off. bB declined to wear any extra layers, but ran about happily. we did do BB’s favourite walk, which is the quarry one, and prob my favourite too. it is the longest walk, though we did a ‘shortcut’. We started with a talk with the ‘birdman’ who identified the call of a nuthatch for us, and the shew us 2 treecreepers. we climbed the usual climbing tree and scared the birds from the bird hide and then raced around the quarry. actually, we didn’t race at all, there were that many diversions, looking at things and sitting thinkings that i did wonder if we would get round in the daylight!! but we did, and i really enjoyed it.

moved to the manor for tea and conversation. BB pootled reasonably happily on her own, using michelle mercilessly to get her things that she then abandoned! [though did a good geomag twirler] SB and C played lots of games together, finally settling on Ravensburger Labyrinth Game. it was too cloudy to go to a possible astronomy evening, to the disappointment of the older girls. We cheekily did a masterchef critique of both main course and pudding, but i have to say how lovely it i to have effort lovely expended for us.

today the girls did the birthday cards and that actually took all morning and so we were late to the party , but i won’t expand!! was a lovely birthday party at the deependers, and loads of muddlepuddle/blogring friends and local friends. Pah to home educated children not getting to socialise. its stopping them and getting them to do their maths that can be the problem [as g and I giggled to each other]. lots of party games, party food and 4 fabulous cakes!! SB gave the v lovingly made dolly cloak to L. all cut and sewn by her, so truly a labour of love. we went back to the deependers for a spot of tea and cake [more cake!!] before the children got noticeable enough to be shepherded into the car and home!

PS, sorry for nearly making Katy vomit describing BB’s awful book, and also if you think you may have been caught speeding, you can check here

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Forensic Fun

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Daddybean | Leave a comment

Thursday we were going to go to Tots and Nots in the morning, but we had had a rubbish night, with both kids waking up, bed moving etc. and Stringbean still not quite right and seeming very tired. We also had something on in the afternoon and I thought that it might all get a bit much

So we abandoned that plan. I’d started reading some more of Inside the Beagle with Charles Darwin, which we had started the night before. We spent the next 2+ hours ! reading the book and talking about various bits Butterbean sat and listened a bit, pottered around with Lego, looked at some books of her own etc. Lots interesting discussion about sailing boats, navigation, time, clocks, fossils, variation, species, islands, evolution, scientific evidence (which is why we spent so long). SB can happily read such books, but often prefers you to read them to her.

By the time we had finished we were hungry so had breakfast and the rest of the morning soon went with SB doing maths (until she got stuck in a sort of Limbo land where nothing much seemed to be happening, perusing a couple more books, while BB did some more fimo-ing and I got dinner ready to put in the oven.

Then a quick lunch and out. We were just in time, which then turned out to be plenty of time, as the time for the session said 1.30, but it was starting a 2, the time before was for setting the stuff up.

The session was about Forensic Science, normally the leader of the session spends all day doing this in school and we had a couple of hours – so it was obviously a bit contracted. Though the younger ones wouldn’t have coped with longer session though.

Basically, we had an introduction to some forensic techniques and did things like make paster casts of prints, took our finger prints (a little bit of chalk dust on the finger tip, push onto Sellotape, stick it to a piece of acetate sheet – look at with a hand lens.

She showed us a simple DNA extraction from Kiwi fruit. Whizz up the kiwi with a bit of water and salt (to break open cell membranes). Strain the mixture through a cloth, and a bit of detergent to the mix, then carefully pour in a little methylated spirits to make a layer on top. you can see a some white stuff in the methylated spirit that is DNA.

Then they had to investigate a crime.

There was a sheet of suspects with a bit of info about them. We had to look at 5 sets of evidence and try to wrok out who did it. Footprint, fingerprint, car paint, DNA, clothes fibre. We didn’t manage to get round them all (spent too long peering at fingerprints). But we did the footprint:

The car paint left on a wall:

And the fingerprints:

By which time it was time to go home, both kids were seeming a bit tired. SB in particular looked a bit pale and washed out when we got back. So they vegged a bit once we got home before dinner. BB of course slept in the car so didn’t go to sleep til too late.

Friday

My parents were coming round, so tried to get a bit done before hand. SB did some maths, and read some bits out of her Encylopedia of Knowledge (or some such) which she had for xmas, and we tried to tidy the playroom. Was supposed to do some music but we had a phone call from H to say her Sis and family were stopping off on the way home from Centre Parcs. About 20 minutes later they appeared

So they arrived and the kids were all off playing. A bit later my Mum and Dad appeared. A little while after lunch H got home as well Once Sis and family had gone on their way, SB played kiddie Monopoly, can’t really remember what else might have happene. Parents stayed for dinner, then off to bed for children

fossilised daleks

Posted on February 19, 2009 by HHaricot | 2 comments

what a fab title! today was latinetc, and we should have been on time, but a section of the road we were travelling down was being lifted up, and it was only when we got to the front of a several mile tailback that we found this out. harrumph.

As usuall SB enjoyed the latin – and apparently did know more than one word! and loved the music and bells, and was trying to tell me all about the hand signals – is that the doh a dear stuff? thanks gina for link!] the littlies started with a fimo workshop from Merry, where they made snowmen. BB was most happy, and impressive snowmen turned out by all. we then did science. we have put chicken bones in jars of vinegar and sealed, and in 2 weeks will see what has happened. we discussed the properties of bone, what it might be made out of, and then made wild guesses about what might happen to it in the vinegar. A little segue, and i got out some of our fossils – a lot of belemnites, some gryphea and some ammonites. much impressed by ancientness – though obviously the many stones in the garden they have touched are ancient also!! [could side track into ramble on relativeness of ancientness]. we looked at pictures of what it is imagined they looked like, different ways fossils are made and then we got to work making our own fossils out of air drying clay, real or imagined! when i did the bigger group, pretty much along the same lines, but with more detail J had fossil designers block. I suggested instead he could contemplate what might be fossilised today for the future. so he as done a dalek! rofl!! I had in my head that i would get loads of ammonites, trilobites and a few extras, but i should have known that this group has their imagination always on!!

an interesting aside, is that we always have some free questions and answerings in science, and the biguns surprised me by asking about madeleine mccann, and the evidence her parents killed her. I am of the opinion that they didn’t, and that there is no evidence to say otherwise. we talked about how it focuses minds of parents to keep children safe, and not leaving them completely unsupervised, however ‘free’ it might seem. they then moved onto shannon, it is always an honour to hear a group of children discuss these things with you as an equal. i do wonder whether some of them knowing about the current consultation has perhaps kickstarted some thinking.

some fab playing, some french games for the littlies – bb now doesn’t have a problem with staying glued to me, which is nice! BB found a newt in the garden, which she thought was a toy [like her stretchy lizards!] but C then took charge, and all the children got to hold and have a look before it was released into mud world. BB was quite liberally covered in mudworld…

SB was getting a bit worn though, as she wasn’t at her best [though this has meant lots of bonus cuddles for me, always nice!] but she had a bad night on mon, so i slept with her last night, and she did wake and stir most of the night [so not so good for me! but it did settle her more quickly]. SO for once she asked to go home, and so we did. Some of the group were moving on to a museums thing, and we had considered going, but SB was too fragile really for crowds and tramping about.

Merry and co came back with us, as she had a late pass!! and a bit more fimo-ing was done by the children – another fab snowman by BB. She really has quite an eye for detail, and is keen to get things right. playing around and about. but merry’s girls had loved the music at melrose, and were keen to repeat, so a quick sort out of merrily we row, and off we went! a full house of players. J is obviously another keen glockenspiel player, BB had SB’s violin, she recordered, and Merry, ahh, she brought a viola. it was fab. we will hopefully keep this going, and perhaps this will enthuse and encourage.

BB went to bed without too much wailing [ok, i fib slightly] chris read The Beagle with Charles Darwin (Inside) to SB, and she carried on, having really enjoyed it. we are looking forward to Darwin and Evolution for Kids: With 21 Activities: His Life and Ideas (For Kids Series) and The Evolution Revolution arriving. talking of arrivals, my rspb order arrived with ripped packaging – sigh – so now going to get a replacement. the felt also arrived ready for next latinetc.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

and back again

Posted on February 15, 2009 by HHaricot | 2 comments

sad to leave Melrose, especially as next year it will be closed for refurb, so maybe not the opportunity to go again. our journey there and back have been made much better with the acquisition of a few audio CD’s that we all enjoyed a lot [well, BB was mostly asleep, so it is not tested on her!]. We learnt a lot, they’re not in depth, but enjoyable, with background, yarns and the important stuff!! i would highly recommend!!

go, on!! they’re worth it!! 2 CDs in each etc etc. SB loved the scientists one best, then the inventor one. it is amazing how many were home educated!!

We stopped off at the angel of the north to start with as migraine needed a break. it is rather a fabulous art piece, and SB in particular loved it. we had a long chat about how to commission art.
we then stopped at scotch corner as a lunch break. I often grumble about it being called scotch corner, its not as if it is anywhere near scotland. no doubt there is a reason, and i could probably google it! SB and I missed kirsty and family, whilst chris and bB didn’t.

luckilly we got to meet later on, so SB didn’t feel left out. as we got near wetherby the car started to wobble alarmingly. chris thought it might be a puncture and kicked the tyre on the hard shoulder, and then we wobbled all the way to wetherby services. having brightkited, we had loads of messages of support and assistance – thanks guys. kirsty rolled in and provided chocolate and moral support, and chris eventually decided a weight thingy was declared missing from a wheel, and the wheel changed and we set off – thankfully wobble free!!

SO we arrived far later than planned to SOTP for feeding, playing, chatting and book swapping. as well as a discussion on evolution resources – listed below. some of which are overtly and some perhaps covertly anti-creationist rather than ignoring it. [i think we all know i favour evolution ]
the next day lots of play, particularly sweet with J and BB. and SB, C and M put on a show. I was impressed with SB’s modal tune, which she reprised later. As always C sang beautifully, but M also has a voice to be proud of.

Finally we set off home, and got in at 11. unfortunately BB has got her times all wrong, and was then awake! but never mind. we had a fab week, and lovely to visit friends on the there and back again.

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Posted in Books, General, music, Out and About, science, socialisation

Melrose 2009

Posted on February 15, 2009 by HHaricot | 14 comments

well, where do you start? it was utterly fabulous. I have always been greatful to mrs muddlepuddle for starting out the melrose early years winter camp. this year was no exception. and we had snow!

we arrived just in the nick of time to put the pasta sauce on for the starving hordes, and well received! we met and gret [meeted and greeted?] new faces, old faces and firm friends, made from the very first muddlepuddle camp we ever attended 4 years ago [did i mention i was greatful?] then we got down to business, children playing elswhere and parents chatting, wine timing and playing games. the kids might call this ‘the snowy melrose’ but for us adults, it might well be ‘the games melrose’.

snow: oK, i am not going to do a blow by blow account – quite! we all had fun in the snow. the sledges [i got more off as it came to under a tenner for 2!] i bought at the last minute – and nearly sent back due to colour arguments – were well worth the pennies, and were used a lot every day by our kids and others – was pleased how well the sharing thing worked. the portico also brought sledges – rather cool silicon mat type thingies. so yes, snow was a key part of the melrose experience this year.

Gaming, was a v adult part of the experience! i really REALLY enjoyed stone age and Pandemic, and would be happy to play those lots. others played carcassonne and mission 44 and blokus, but i settled for those 2! lots of the adults got involved, and what with those stitching beside giving helpful commentary, it was all v sociable.

communal food was all delish. thanks to all the other makers. luckilly i didn’t over cater on the cooking front quite so outrageously. things to remember for next time 3kg rice is plenty. 5kg potatoes, 4 tins peas, 12 tins toms, 3 caulis, 1 tube garlic paste, 1 bag red lentils, 1 bag split yellow peas or channa, 10 onions, 1 tube tom paste, 1 spice pot bombay spices, 1 spice pot korma. only need 1 large yoghurt pot! with 1 little bag mint leaves and 1 cucumber.

crafts/activities. three cheers for nattyandplusone [avoiding google hits there!!] for providing felting and a computer gaming workshop. both my 2 got a lot out of them. i particularly loved the care and effort and significant attention bb put into her dinodoor scene [shh, its a secret present for daddybean], and they both worked hard on their ideas and looks for the computer game. finally they, courtesy of bead merrily, fimo-ed for ages, particularly BB as SB was off playing and practicing for the show at the end of the week. i also fimo-ed some aliens, and did a special one to one workshop with Jpie on fimo snowmen.I also did an ad hoc activity, and prepared skye boat song for the instruments available. in the end it was done when none of the guitarrists, or my children, where present. oh well! however, fran did a fab job with the sightreading of a lovelty cello part, various adults held the tune, and various children played d and e at mostly the right time. we heard e’s glock for the first time too.

music: i got to play the violin some more with em. always a joy. we snuck off and remained hidden for a fair while until required to be parents again! next time, if fran there, may simplify the continuo and see if she is interested…

escaping the hostel. well, we didn’t do dynamic earth this year, and though i planned to visit jedburgh and mary queen of scots house, a migraine put paid to that. and somehow – prob due to the snow, we didn’t swim in galashiels either. However, chris, SB and the manor borns walked up to a trig point, and then scudded down on their bottoms in the snow! i had an amble around Melrose with merry and 2 of her girls, and that was about it for us as i failed to persuade SB to walk to trimontium.

playing: well, the girls appeared to do a lot of that. Seemed to be mostly very smooth as well with little flouncing and bouncing – always good. BB also packed in some TV watching. There was a cabaret at the end put on by the kids and compered excellently by gwenny – nice to see the portico holding on to their traditional roles SB did a fab gym routine and also a leaping lunatics dance, and finally a bit of recordering. after some rather good clowning act moments – including heckling by small – BB also did some recordering. lovely acts from all in it i thought.

challenging moments: well, i thought i had better before BB was outed too!! ‘i’m not tired’ wail shriek and full tantrum. lovely! I saw you all giggle, particularly Marcus! to say that BB was challenged and challenging whenever she didn’t get what she wanted from her parents is an understatement. Luckilly no more than 25% of the time – but am wondering what she was doing when out of our view…

So there was melrose. do you wish you had gone? you would have enjoyed it!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

the way there

Posted on February 15, 2009 by HHaricot | 3 comments

i really don’t like blogging in such retrospect!! but here goes. we were out only a little bit late, but the whole world seemed to be going to tesco and the shell petrol station, and this added a fair bit onto our journey time! But we got to The Babs street, but it was still absolutely covered with snow, and a steep incline, and we so nearly got there before slipping back!

Anyway, we got there, and got gaming straight away! i think we might have played pandemic first, and then a beany game with the kids, a bit of children playing, lovely dinner and more pandemic and bean game then powergrid. i do love playing games, and although did a wild game plan, nearly won!! we only stayed up until 2.30!!

next day and we didn’t get up v early, well, BB had kept me up half the night, and on normal getting up time i had shoved her across to chris and had an hour of 2 more sleep. but eventually we got up, dressed, had a pancake brunch and set off for Melrose.

SO, thanks to The Babs and family for a lovely night stop.

the journey up to Melrose was v straightforward, with snow only when we crossed the border, and entertained by multiple brightkites all the way up. Very happy to arrive.

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Posted in Out and About, socialisation

raising the dead

Posted on February 5, 2009 by HHaricot | 2 comments

well, that was the home ed lesson for today. quite a good one really!

it was a latinetc today, without the puddlegirls though. SO we had combined latin and games were played there, and the littlies did winter french – drawing pictures and then discussing what you could see in french. both language sessions were enjoyed by my respective daughters!

for the science bit today, I had loan of a resuscibaby from c’s badgers. so we did that. the younger group were v attentive to how to do it, and all had 2 goes each at remembering – the most vital bit for them being call for help! i wouldn’t really want to be in the position of them or no-one [but research shows really only 11+ or 13+ have the strength to actually do cpr on an adult], but I think learning about it, and coming back to it every so often is important. The older group were WAY more dramatic. for a minute I thought I was Merry asking them to act out a scene from casualty!! once I had persuaded a toning down of drama, we got on with it, and each of them successfully did cpr at least once, and practiced finding landmarks on each other – though we did A LOT of discussion on how you can’t actually do it for real on someone unless they need it! We did all the safety, calling for help, defibrillators and associated stuff. SO I think that was worth doing, and they did it well – all be it with ‘style’!

the other half of the science session was starting on bones. [thanks again sarah!] and we drew our own hand bones using an xray to model. we named and chatted about the different bones, and how we got our hand mvts. They decided not to label in chalk, so here are websites with the ‘real names’, so they can be labelled at home. Next time we are going to do the bone in vinegar thing, so will need LOTS of vinegar/ jam jars and chicken legs…

of course, a friend currently residing in the states had to go for a bit of one-upmanship, and their hE involved looking at strawberry DNA! luckilly she put out the ‘recipe’

1. Pulverize strawberries down to goo in a blender.
2. Mix 25ml strawberry goo with 50ml of water.
3. Add a pinch of salt.
4. Centrifuge for 60 seconds.
5. Strain out solids.
6. Add 15ml of liquid soap.
7. Centrifuge for 60 seconds.
8. In a test tube, mix 50-50 goo-you-have-made and ice cold isopropyl alcohol.
9. Gently mix (tip it back and forth a few times) and allow to separate. Broken cell bits are at the bottom, DNA is in the cloud at the top.
10. Pipe off a little of the top cloud. Put a drop or two on a glass slide.
11. View under microscope. DNA!

They used a kid’s science kit centrifuge [gulp!], and it didn’t seem to be going all that fast.

and now I am on the hunt for a cheap centrifuge!! This site also interesting! hmmm. It feels all exciting doesn’t it!

hermmm, well where was I before sundry flights of fancy??? Ah yes, after lunch, SB and chloe were keen to do some music, with G, but got started all on their own, and were being so fabbly autonomous with an EE mark that we left them to it. the were using the colour coded bells, and using felt tips, writing music for them [felt tip corresponding to bell!] we were v impressed!! Unfortunately we were all haring off, so i don’t think they realised quite how impressed we were!

home, SB did some piano practice, and drew some traffic signs for the next harmony arts assignment, and then did some sewing. BB watched some mona the vampire and then did some sewing also. SB had brownies – and we saw her make the promise, and she seems much happier in brownies than she ever did in rainbows, so that seems good. [maybe she is just a happier girl] she had judo, and a new boy is apparently a bit too rough, but the sensei seemed to have it in order. SO there we are!

in the rest of the week, apart from thinking about the future of HE in this country and getting depressed, political and activated, the kids have played – in snow, a lot with sindy/barbie and sylvanians. SB has done some maths and piano and is really loving reading her encyclopaedia of knowledge and coming up with odd facts all over the place. i have worked silly hours – must do something about that! Chris has baked cakes for Melrose.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, investigating, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, online resources, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Splashing about

Posted on January 24, 2009 by HHaricot | 4 comments

unlike some people we didn’t take laptops/internet access devices with us, so did not blog from centreparcs. so this is not going to be a blow by blow account!

we had a fab time. we certainly did A LOT of swimming. our swimming biorhythms seemed to cross across other families, so we saw a lot of our friends in the pool. it was a family holiday with contiguous friends and was very lovely. [ the making it up, deependers, going against the flow and manor borns on the blogring] we had a plan, and it failed, which was for us all to swim before taking the car round to the cabin, but my swimmies were missed out so i left chris and the kids swimming and took the car round, and realised i couldnt unpack it as i didn’t have key to the bike rack. grr! never mind. said hello to all arrivals, and generally chilled! we took one premade meal, and next time would take 2!

we swam on the whole 2ce a day, a morning and late aft/eve. this was in part because we like swimming, we liked swimming in the dark! and because it limited our desire to pay for other activities!! SB is a bit of a water nymph. she and clo went round the slides and rapids countless times. i did go down various, and most impressed with my white sliding, as i had been concerned that all the pool water would exit! i think each child got a fair crack at the attention!! BB got braver and braver in the week, and by the end was ‘diving’ in the shallows sans any life saving devices since she could stand back up. we must go more regularly, as she will i imagine begin to progress towards not quite drowning.
we all enjoyed the indoor river and the waves. the deependers and us were disappointed that our patience was not rewarded in the hot pool though. Michelle deserves a special mention as nose clip finder extraordinaire… oh, and the snow falling on swimming the rapids was apparently cool, but when me and bb got to the hot salt pools to investigate it was just v cold rain!

so, we also did some extras. jo suggested bowling one evening, and we loved that. it was partic good as it had no music track to be too noisy. that our family is fairly hopeless, but enjoyed it. i tore half my thunb nail off – still painful. BB and shannon kept swapping news and info – which was v cute.

SB walking past the aerial adventure was v keen on it. and seeing it reduced from 22 to 15 quid, we gave it a whirl, in fact, clo tagged on too since chris was there to be the adult. they both loved it. i was v proud of SB not giving up when she had difficulty with the spiders web, and getting round. she then had a bit of a wobble facing the zip wire at the end, and i felt for her [being 25 m away in distance and prob 15 in height] but clo whizzed down first, and she felt she could then do it. she was v happy to have done it, but thinks she would like to try just jumping off next time! jo also did it, and we stayed to cheer her round as well.

free activities were cycling, as chris took sb and clo on a cycle tour of cp that lasted some while. considering the mixture of on and off roading they seem to have done, i am surprised they made their way back. bb did a fair bit of cycling on her new bike. but she seems to be using it mostly as a like abike at the moment. my bike had a broke front wheel i am going to buy a bike to encourage a bit of usage!

then there was interaction with friends, games playing and grownup interaction too – mostly at jax ‘n’ tim’s as there were 2 families there. all v lovely. A brief swim and visit by Em, E and R was a treat as well.

bB slept in the car and then all eve, so has been awake till far too late, but we are all of the exhausted persuasion i think. will flickr at some point – ah yes, the camera! we bought a v cheap underwater camera there. it took dire photos, and then wouldn’t delete, so we took it back and got money back. they are on tim’s laptop though, and hopefully he’ll send us them, and we can post the 1 or 2 out of 26 that you can see identifiable shapes on!!

Here is the centreparc photo set

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Posted in General, Out and About, socialisation

Smokin’ Science!

Posted on January 15, 2009 by HHaricot | 3 comments

today was rather busy, another latinetc day, and i had 2 ‘speriments up my sleeve. katy was a bit worse for wear with a migraine [and merry got the start of something too] so since michelle and i were migrainous last week there is something in the air!

latin for the big ones to start, and science for the littlies. except i couldn’t get experiment one to work! it is from sarahs young scientist kits, and i know i need to search through her blog to find it![gotcha!!] as i was trying to use ballon over the bottom as well, and then used a plastic bag far more successfully! so the younger group got to see it work, but didn’t have the fun in it. luckilly merry to the rescue, and they all loved doing her sticking craft. i heard a great deal of fun happening in the music section too, and SB loved playing the bell tunes.

the big group used my model diaphragm/lung and did it. and due to chloes exceptional amount of hot air [i mean puff!] she inflated the balloon fully inside the bottle, and demonstrated the mvt of the diaphragm. not quite the way the speriment is supposed to demonstrate, but actually they all got far more out of that than seeing the little bit of mvt from moving the diaphragm! we chatted all the while about lungs and function and muscles, and then moved onto smoking. i had decided a sprinkling of health messages would be good, and had googled for smoking experiments, and abandoned that route!! so looked for anti smoking science fair, which was more successful, and adapted some recipes. so i made a pretend lung and it smoked a cigarette [outside] we talked about various illnesses, looked at a packet and a cigarette and smelled it unlit. interestingly, the only child that didn’t think it smelled dreadful has a smoking relative. then outside it burnt away and we saw our lung filling up with yellowy smoke, and our cotton wool around the cigarette was convincingly yellow and black. the children were most offput! when i catch up on flickr, there will be a set! a number of them thought, said or wrote some reasons not to smoke. SB did a flip book but on 1 page to cut and arrange of a lung getting more and more damaged.

lovely lunch, chat and separated to our diff afternoon events. merry and girls came here, and the girls played tho fran not so well, and did reading. and merry and i chatted about this and that, including the books in the post below! we also thought we might do a relaxed art activity here in the afternoon, as fran is spare parting at the mo, as SB plays down prob, with a love of barbies/sylvanians etc. in a fun relaxed way anyway!!

had a bit of a thing from work, so have been in once this evening, and might need to go in again. but hoping not.

SB had her new brownie pack this eve, and says she misses the old one, but we’ll see, and then judo – a firm fav. BB watched some numberjacks.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, little languages, music, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

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