Category Archives: socialisation

Sketch tuesday

Posted on November 11, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

well, its monday here, preparing for sketch tuesday there.

SO today i went to work, and found that for some unknown reason clinic was cancelled, so i decided to agree to a day off [well, sort of, because i am doing tonight!]. ANyway, i came home and surprised the family and we did a whirlwind of catching up with HE! infact, we did so much so that i am lost for starting points!! Well, i think we started with reading BORN WITH A BANG: The Universe Tells Our Cosmic Story (Sharing Nature With Children Book), having recommended it on the EYHE forum. And yes, it is totally fab, and it does have fab illustrations. we had a read of the scientific bits at the back. SB is developing an enquiring mind, as she wanted to know how people knew that was true, so we discussed physics and maths experiments that pointed to the likelihood, and rediscussed the particle accelerator at CERN, in particular the hadron collider. we then looked into a book about the sun and black holes, Space, Stars, Planets, and Spacecraft (See & Explore)
, and we both got quickly lost with considering string theory – well, it is a bit to advanced, but she liked the idea that it was called a string, and TBH we didn’t do much more than a brief skid across the surface of an idea [i am not sure i could go particularly deep in it!]

SB did a fab violin practice. She practiced slurring, and then saw how many notes she could slur and string cross, so in fact most of the violin practice was having fun with this new skill! the practice was more than double our usual because of it!

in this time BB was happily jigsawing away, with me giving her the odd hand, but after the violin practice was sure it was her HE time!! SO SB settled herself with singapore 2B [last few pages] and BB did earlibird 1B, and then did some before the code whilst SB did Magical Skills: Ages 7-8: Spelling: Ages 7-8 (Magic Skills)
. She is really enjoying this series, so we might buy her the odd one or two more on other subjects! bB then did some pattern blocks and playing with little things making stories, whilst i read SOTW to SB on the subject of knights.

And then we had lunch very late!

After lunch we thought we would do some art, BB was v keen to make a rocket, and SB to do sketch tuesday [though a bit late!]. SO SB and i first investigated watercolour washes. [i must buy some more nice watercolours for us to do this properly!] and then over the arctic colour she hummed and hawed deciding which icy creature she wanted, initially thinking plankton, and working her way up to penguins. it meant she read a fair bit of Polar Wildlife (Usborne World Wildlife)whilst her wash dried! She did 2 versions of her drawing, and we emailed her favourite version off to be added [hopefully] to the group! We did a short bit of french altogether Bonne Nuit a Tous: Goodnight Everyone (I Can Read French) showing that SB does actually know more vocab than i thought she might!!

Gah, can’t get flickr pics to come here! will try again

BB meanwhile was doing some fab painting of her own, of a v colourful house, and then multicoloured butterfly prints. finally we made and painted her rocket whilst SB was at ballet [see below!] and then BB watched some 6 zoo lane whilst SB was at brownies, and we read books together, snuggled and tickled. oh, and she did a recorder practice – a couple of a’s and b’s!!

tea was curry in front of saturday’s merlin. A nice and full day i think! Keeping it so full, gave less chance for post weekend fallout day! 2 more chapters of pirates of pompeii to go!

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

A Triangular Day

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Daddybean | 1 comment

Unlike Monday, children managed to get dressed etc. quickly enough and early enough without too much faffing for us to get away almost on time, with me not to grumpy ;-) to head to City 1 for Tots and Nots. Quite a bit fitted into the session – some crafting – making little rockety things from foam sheets & sparkly pipe cleaners, wax crayon on card over painted with black paint – then scratched through to make patterns. Though SB proceeded to scratch all her paint off which I didn’t quite see the point of.

Someone else did a little session showing how a tune can focus soundwaves so you can hear things better, and both girls did some recorders (SB did two sessions) with our tame HE-ing music teacher. Rest of time filled with random playing.

Headed off promptly but at what I thought would be slighty late time to head to Town 1 for gym. BB has started pre-schoolers gym session at the same place that. It’s just a free play type session – they have structured sessions as well, but not at a time we can do. They have various soft play type things out, ladders and benches to climb up, but they can also go and clamber on the gym equipment, jump in the big foam pit etc. Slighty odd to have all the littlies runniung aruound whilst Louis Smith or one of the others their in the British Squads does their stuff at the other end though.

While BB and me do this, SB sits on the side (though grumbles a bit) and reads, does something out of a workbook or whatever. Today she was moslty reading the Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess I think.

After that headed into town for a modicum of shopping – picking up a new phone from Argos (being able to check and reserve things online makes it all so easy) though of course BB wanted to ‘buy something’ and they both decided they liked the ideas of remote controlled cars. Treated the girls to a cake in Starbucks on the way back to the car as we had a bit of time spare.

Then back to the gym for SB’s gym session. This is much improved for me as they have found some volunteers to run the tea bar, so I can get a cup of tea whilst waiting. Buy the time it finished I was glad to be completing the last bit of the triangle to get home.

Chips for tea whilst catching up on the second series of Robin Hood. Before bed, SB wrote her letter to a child from a school in Kenya that one of the local Home ed groups is rasing money for. One of the parents is from Kenya, the school was set up by the headteacher for children who cannot aford to pay for school, many of them are orphans and live at the school as well. At the session a couple of weeks ago, they reported back from a visit to the school earlier in the year and brough letters that some pupils had written, so we all took one to reply too. So SB has written a nice reply, Helen said she made a really good effort with it. Will take it with us when we go to the group to morrow (in City 2 for a change, though hope to get back to City 1 for a HE group Celidh in the evening)

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean, daubing and making, history, literacy, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE, writing

busybees, science club and birthday parties.

Posted on November 6, 2008 by HHaricot | 8 comments

oh, and woohoo to Barack Obama being the next president of the USA. It feels a v positive moment and I really hope that it turns out to be at least some of the wonderful that the moment promises!!

i got up and went into work before meeting chris and the girls at latinetc. i was there before him by some considerable time!! but all 4 families were there and i took the biguns off for water resistance and uplift thoughts – sorry gina for not having upgraded the section in the sidebar page on forces = will do it! it was, predictably, messy! All children appeared to enjoy it, and hopefully learnt something. snack time, and then i did it, but differently for the middle ones. even MORE messy! still enjoyed though. photos in usual place! the bigger ones got to do some latin as well. A nice lunch and then we all piled out in different directions. michelle and I going north for a birthday party.

we have teasingly said that BB one of muddlepuddle triplets, the others being Shannon on going against the flow [happy birthday for 3rd] and Josie on HE the puddle girls, whose birthday it was today [BB's due date, but i won't hold that grudge forever, well, maybe i might!!]. So we went to Josies house for a bonfire night birthday party and all had a lovely time. SB elected to stay there rather than go to judo [slightly naughty, and appropriately reprimanded for lack of commitment ]they pretty much all got on like a house on fire for the whole session. we adults had a good natter [well apart from Max, who did a good job of making party tea and enabling fran to sort out the birthday cake].

Max also did some wizardry with fireworks, and all the girls found them brill, though Ams and BB snuck indoors in wuss mode [they were v gentle fireworks! though one was a bit more bangy than the others] also toasted marshmellows and roasted chestnuts. yumm. Fran played a beautiful happy birthday on the cello too.

an easy drive home. as we were driving up, the other side of the carriageway was closed and some workmen appeared to be digging something off the road. on the drive home, all but one lane was closed, and road repairs were being done.

so, lovely day. chris has done something electricky in the loft and cellar while we have been out.

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Posted in General, language, little languages, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

bloglet

Posted on November 4, 2008 by HHaricot | 1 comment

city1 not so local home ed sports session for the girls this morning, SB had ballet and brownies pm. bB and i did glittery cards when i got home from work, made dahl together, read a book or 2 and watched numberjacks, as well as a fair amount of tickling and cuddling – she is such a gorgeously cuddly child. SB returned, told me about her day, did my farm n facebook, gave me a cuddle and read me a book, before settling to do a bit of felting before bed.

ps, i loved BB’s B for Bitamin [this is what she calls vitamins] chris persuaded her it is a v for vitamin, and i think he has confused her forever, because she now happily says it is v for bitamin!

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Posted in Dance/drama, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, literacy, pre reading, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Christmas is coming

Posted on November 3, 2008 by HHaricot | 5 comments

and the mincemeat is being made.

AArgh to christmas coming. why do i get so behind with christmas thoughts! pressies to get etc etc. its at our house again this year, we were going to have a break, but i’m working boxing day, so no point going to my parents to come back late on xmas day!

ANyway, I digress – well, i don’t really digress, as i haven’t started. I just am not feeling bloggable. I want the blog to just write itself, i like a record of what we do to look back on. i am barely using the camera either. obviously something is not quite right!

SB is more cheery these days [ or else i have got used to her wails and abrupt emotional changes/fragility] she is more stroppy as well. perhaps this is an age and growth thing. i do love having my mostly happier girl back again. She is talking ten to the dozen again, it is often like being in a wind tunnel! [and yes, I do know pressure of speech is a psychiatric term!] SHe tells me her ideas, what she has done, how tshe thinks the world works, and is alive again. phew. I am sure we are not out of the doldrums completely [as her wail about not going to the shop to buy a magazine shows, she is v quick to be desolate], but i no longer have her tell me she doesn’t see the point of being alive. BB is a squirmy armful of self confidence, bounciness, determination and joy. she is grasping the world around her and making it work her way! i love how she has such a clear way of describing things, and using her older sisters vocab to strengthen the emphasis on what she wants to say, and also the gestures and facial expressions! nearly 4! how time flies.

SO this weekend i have been working, but not too busily. The girls have done a fair bit of playing and also HE stuff. we are castle reading in our history at the mo – always a fun thing to play and recreate! SB is doing lots of spelling practice and maths – she hopes to finish her 2B book in time for when the MPAH 3A arrives [she prefers the MP as opposed to the primary maths which i prefer!]. She has also done music theory and 2 violin practices with me. BB is really grasping sounding out words as they are said. she doesn’t know the alphabet and scanty letters, but is good on the sounds and joining them together. we have done a fair bit of the before the code book 1, and today when we were going to do it together she told me she could do her home ed stuff by herself, and did!

thurs was a divali day at nots and tots, which they enjoyed. SB mostly played with L and E, and BB mostly did the crafts. they went on to a fun playdate afterwards, which both were v keen to tell me how much they had enjoyed it. So that was good.

fri was already blogged by chris – SB was v scary i think. she had been desperate to buy the mask, and I agreed as long as she made the costume to go with it out of an old sheet – she had the idea to bespatter it with blood. Was so excited to have the costume and rarred at lots of people in it, and was most impressed with the squeeze the heart thing. BB got fed up with her costume, so we tore the eye holes so that she could poke her whole head through, and then she was a much happier little ghost.

SB got this book from the library.The Magician of Samarkand
i would strongly recommend it [as would SB] and we will look for more books by that author. it is one of our favourites on junior jackanory, and the book itself is written beautifully. we love!!

we have done some french reading and conversation. following a recommendation on another blog, i purchased some more french resources, and we are doing the l’art de dire. I like it. i guess this bit could easily be made up and done with someone confident in french – which I am not! and there may be cheaper alternatives [luckilly i bought before all the currency turmoils through canadian relatives!] but actually i think it is deceptively simple, in that initially i wondered what i had spent my money on [ i bought the lire ones at the same time, and they are more obviously a good buy for that kind of thing] but as i use it to formalise our conversation, both SB and BB seem to be getting on well, and I have more confidence to extrapolate and experiment. you know, by the time i have finsihed home edding, i might be able to speak french! i did suggest to deepend Katy that she could prob write a home-ed conversational french package and have a market ready! I think she may be lacking in time though!! we are still using a various books and reading lots in french.

today we started making mincemeat using Delia Smith’s Christmas
. it worked well last year, and smells gorgeous! unfortunately with the nutmeg grating, there was a small amount of SB grating… never mind!!

what else? ermm, both girls have done lots of playing. BB loves her little things to play with, so will no doubt love her sylvanians – though still tempted by those rather glorious anamalz for her birthday! am thinking what to get other children for presents as well, and yes, christmas is coming!! [i think that may be where this blog started!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, geography, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, online resources, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

where is that blogging muse?

Posted on October 30, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

yesterday chris did some windowing – wahay!! and his parents came over, there was a bit of home ed stuff [sb maths, handwriting, spelling, piano and a castle box book, bb b4 the code and earlibird maths] and baking.

today was science and latin group, but we did french instead of latin. we nearly got to the deep end in time, but traffic and road works were against us, gina was later though. for science we made anti grav devices. this was fiddlier than expected, but worked more or less!! we learnt a gravity magic trick as well and discussed failures and bodges – aka the melting of the hadron collider. in between the science and french, the children made tickets and membership cards for a show that they put on at the end – a musical variety act i think! also at the end katy shew them doodle art, which the def enjoyed.

SB and BB had done lots of baking the prev day, which turned into a nice end of session treat for everyone, and i have to say that i thought her choc and orange cake was rather successful. She pretty much made it on her own, so looks like a baker -vgreat!!

back home we chilled with merlin and robin hood [maid marian has died!!!!] and then sb and i played games whilst bb took a long time to fall asleep.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, General, history, language, literacy, little languages, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

martyr to migraine

Posted on October 23, 2008 by HHaricot | 6 comments

well, i am trying hard not to be, but i really do think migraines are a blight on my life. in the last 7 days, only in 2have in not had a migraine – but i had a sort of lurky head. these were obviously the days at work! So instead of the planned outing to little nanny – who i really do have to see – i felt crap at home. so i went to the doctor, who was a new one, asked me if i had tried simpler analgesics. i explained that i had had migraines since 12, yes i did know the triggers, the initial for this one was prob gloss paint, and the yesterday i worked from 8am to 8pm without a drop of food or drink. and yes, if i had a hip flask i could have slurped something, but i was doing 2 jobs in 1 time slot for the whole day, and thought i had done well to survive it. she suggested i saw occy health!!!! and then said my migraines might be due to high BP [i have had them since 12!!!] i told her i knew my BP ok, but i guess i am at the age to measure it for a QAF point, so she did, and was surprised to find it so low. hurrumph. at my look of raised eyebrows she rapidly qualified, tried to teach me to suck eggs and suggested amitryptiline might help [antidepressant - bad one - but also chronic pain med, you have to take it every day] i politely told her that i preferred the treatment to be less bad than the thing it aimed to treat, and could i have MY REPEAT PRESCRIPTION since i was here as 5 days migraine used up ALL the tablets i was given. AT LEAST I persuaded her to give me 6 more tablets- like blood from stones!! grrrr. feel a bit better now.

Ah yes, rantlet over. yesterday chris took the girls to the library for book exchanging and crafts, and then went round to another HE family in the village, where they looked at the chickens with desire, BB scootered and nearly rode C-J’s stabiliser free pedal bike – garden not long enough to really get going. BB is too small for the bike that SB had as a present from BB at her birth [she is significantly shorter! - still in 2-3 clothes], so we are contemplating getting her a bike for birthday or xmas – it seems birthday a better timing! SB has done maths and spelling- she likes the 6-7 whimstaff book both yesterday and today. She also swam.

SO to today [minus wittering on about migraines] the girls were self sorting for most of the morning, lego-ing, colouring and reading. SB is reading some really REALLY scary books called goosebumps. they are a bit too scary for me, but if she can read these, i think she is ready for harry potter!! i have to say that I have a 0 tolerance for horror – it is a genre i just can’t do in book or film, so i am quite surprised by SB! She did more spelling and maths, and BB did some before the code with me, as chris had found it, and we read lots of red nose readers together as well. i was slightly more perked and did piano practice with SB, which she did beautifully [couldn't quite face the violin!] can’t find our minimus AGAIN! i am not buying a third one though, as am sure it will turn up.

luckilly, what did turn up after lunch was our fimo order. I really should have ordered more than one black though. didn’t think of spiders!! Anyway, we all spent most of the afternoon twiddling fimo into pumpkins and pumpkin snowmen [BB!]. We did a bit of french conversation as well, but mostly chattered and followed the flow of conversation. the girls lead it all over the place – i need a computer implant into my head though scifi like, so that i can google in real time! i have often forgotten what i should be googling for when back near a puter.

SB had a brownies trip roller skating, and took along her roller blades. chris says the practice has really improved her previous straight leg look. and then judo – where they have started throws. bb and i read books, cut her fringe and went to bed.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, socialisation, writing

suddenly saturday

Posted on October 19, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

and it is the end of my week of annual leave. how time flies. the problem with being on annual leave and home educating for a week is that it reminds me how much i enjoy it and how i would rather be at home doing the edding than working. but that bed is long made i guess, and a time of financial turbulence is definitely not the time to rock the boat.

anyway, pounding headache or not, i didn’t want to spoil the last weekend, so saturday i was contemplating doing a recreation of the bayeux tapestry [for fun] and decided to see if the deependers fancied it. they did, so came over. however, they played beautifully, and whenever i suggested paints [all-be-it a bit half heartedly due to the pounding of my head] no-one took up the offer. SB was keen to go to the church to see her picture, and persuaded the others to want to go too, so we walked round to the church and looked at all the pictures. SB was the last to notice a first prize sign on hers – woohoo!!! So we were all proud, and she go a how to draw animals crayola book, that she was v keen on. BB rather more grudging in her praise, as would have liked to have won, and got a book, but i thought she took it remarkably well, for a 3!!

snack and playing and then teaching J and K how to play rummy, which seemed to go well. then suggested SB get her violin out for K to have a go with, and a mini violin try out my most of the children. TBH it didn’t hurt my head half as much as one of BB’s dreadful fake miaowing piano toy did!! I am sorry for getting the deependers here under false pretences, and not doing the bayeux tapestry though. must do it another time.

we did chat about moving into art techniques for the children, and seeing what they make of it in an experimental way. one reason i think SB may have won is that her picture is entirely non-generic. she has not be told or instructed what or how to paint. so if we were going to do this, i think a how to investigate and use a medium might be a fun way to go. i have been tempted by elle into something along the lines of a sketch tuesday…

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, General, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

thoroughly lost thursday

Posted on October 19, 2008 by HHaricot | 3 comments

which is what i was trying to find the venue for the snakes session on thursday! a slight disagreement with DH, and we made it! by the time we made it, i was feeling harassed plus plus!! but we were just in time for the littlies session, and i went down with BB whilst mum vaguely supervised craft with SB. we really liked the snakeman. and BB loved the opportunity to hold the snake and lizard, and said it was the best thing ever!! [we do know she has a thing about reptiles though!! both current and the extinct - well, i know dinosauria aren't strictly reptiles, but...] Any way, we really enjoyed our session. i think SB’s with mum was harder work as more people in the session, but she still really enjoyed the opportunity to touch and hold the snake and lizard, and would like to have had ore time. they both did get the chance to go back and meet some more of the reptiles, and also do some lovely lizard based crafts. Thanks to the organisers and enablers.

i left early as still in somewhat of a dither from contretemps with DH, and parked in a short time only spot etc etc. when we came home, we did science – always soothes me!! SB and BB did some of the horrible science explosives kit, and i loved the lava lamp take on the volcano favourite!! Mum did more curtaining, and dad was still painting away [bless]

we also did LOADS more HE, as the girls have been in a v productive mood! SB has loved her wizard whimstaff workbook – the first spellings one, and raced through. she is also enjoying the maths section on shapes and areas, and found chris’s tangram book, and had a lot of fun making the shapes with that. bB joined in with her maths and also pattern blocking. in fact, BB has been so keen on maths, she has taken the book to bed several times to do ‘bedmaths’ and is now on earlybird 1B. She has a much better pencil grip and easier writing effort than SB at a simialr age. most of SB’s maths was oral, but BB likes doing a certain amount of the number writing [within limits of course!] BB has also had something of a letter sound moment, and is more and more reliable in identifying the sounds at the start of words, and realising words are made up of sound sequences. she can’t recognise many letters yet, so we are still doing a bit of that, but she loves to hold books and look at pictures and say she is reading, and I have read countless books to her.

ANother thing we have done a lot of this week is french. we have done french conversations and read a lot of stories in french. i am not sure this is the best way in the world, but it suits us. it seems to mimic how we might pick up our native language, gets us comfortable with a foreign language all together, and doesn’t frighten me – who finshed with o-level only! SB and BB do it together. SInce SB only just getting comfortable with writing in english, i am obviously not going for writing and reading in another language yet! SB did piano with mum and then read loads of books, including stories to BB.

SB had gymnastics – which i haven’t got to watch before, so happy to do that! [and also chill]. i was impressed by the amount they work out, and clear to see what sb’s strengths and weaknesses are. we will work perhaps on headstands and poised balance!! [BB missed her session - oops]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, DIY/ house renovation, General, history, language, literacy, music, numeracy, Out and About, photos, pre reading, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Appley Monday

Posted on October 18, 2008 by HHaricot | Leave a comment

my parents arrived on monday, much anticipated and looked forward too! due to their likely early arrival we were up, and the girls v eager to see them! lots of cuddles and getting settled in. SB and BB showed the maths they had done, and SB did a piano practice with mum. Actually, all week they have been keen to do a lot of the HE ‘normals’ which i hope reassures my parents a bit!

in the afternoon we went to a local tour of an apple orchard with the owner. it was delightful. we were near the front of the tractor, so SB, mum and i plied him with questions between stops, and he told us the history of farm and family, planting and varietal changes, beekeeping etc etc and was charming. SB took a lot in, and both girls and adults enjoyed sampling the fruit!! he has planted lots of apricots, and is hoping potentially for a small crop next year…