Category Archives: writing

ISQ

Posted on March 29, 2008 by | Leave a comment

well, SB reading loads- we got given some animal arks, and she has loved them, and read loads of them. also she has read the sonlight third grade detectives, all the magic tree houses, and all the magic school bus chapter books i had so far, and also horrid henry. these are all nice easy reading books for her. she has stretched herself with reading ballet shoes again, but 21 balloons was a bit difficult [well, its language is quite ornate!]. so i have bought some more 3rd grade detectives and magic school bus from amazon, as well as a couple of other things…

SB has done an enchanted learning booklet about african animals, [nearly a lapbook!!] and continued to read the ‘box books‘ about them [she chooses something to be interested in and we together find books around that and stick in the box for her to find and read as and when she fancies] she also wanted some explorer stuff, so a couple of explorer books threw themselves into the amazon basket too [all that disappointment from non-tent buying as we can't find a khyam ridgipod porch, and geting the rest without doesn't make sense for us]. She has regularly done her maths, still a fair bit of webkinz. oh, and although short we have done a lot of violin practice together, and she has done piano independently, and some with today. i think she prefers the piano at the mo, well, there is no setting up to do.

BB has continued her dinodor fest, and with chris has started to make a papier mache landscape for them to live in, she got 2 more from Merry as part of my bonus spending. SB bought herself castle keep, so we have played that every evening, and she is getting very good at it. in fact, if you click on the links, you can see my order at the mo! SB and BB have obviously got a bit more of a surprise coming! BB also been entirely fixated by watching magic school bus, though have persuaded her to let me read her lots of dinosaur themed books [katie and dinosaurs, picturepedia dinosaurs, various dinosaur fact books]

they went on an egg hunt today – as chris twittered, it wasn’t entirely successful…

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, General, geography, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

surprisingly productive duvet day

Posted on March 26, 2008 by | 3 comments

after a really lovely, but emotionally challenging easter, i have found relaxing and sleeping difficult, so having overslept this am, i declared duvet day.

[oh, just in case chris doesn't blog, he and sb did loads of map related things yesterday, as well as library and a power cut]

so, when i got up, they were breakfasting [and SB was reading at the same time] BB and i did jigsaws, read books [with a bit of alphabet and number recognition] and tickled. SB did some maths and made and wrote in a birthday card for my dad using paintshop. crafts was a clear request from BB, so i got out an easter craft we hadn’t got round to at my parents, and painted easter window decs. still having glass paint, we then painted some of our takeaway boxes – bb plans to put dinodoors in hers!

BB and i read about birds [another fascination of her is eggs], and SB read a ‘box book’ about why tigers have stripes. SB and i played about with violin practice, and then a viola that mum has given me so that i can play a lower line than before. i realised that although i have messed about with a cello, i have never played the viola before. BB baked scones with chris, and we enjoyed them as a snack afterwards.

we all looked at our science growing experiments. the ones in the dark had grown very tall to try and find light, and had pale leaves [but still tasted ok], the ones in the fridge had only just started to sprout, the dry ones hadn’t done anything, and we have topsy turvied the bean, and discussed the effect of gravity. we also started our grow your own mushroom kit. they decided the spore and straw smelled yukky. chris and i rather liked it! lets see if it works [our previous mushroom forays in leeds failed totally]

since it was duvet day, we then watched numerous episodes of magic school bus back to back [thanks to some friends oop north]. i really recommend them. yep, they are in the all pervasive american, but there is a lot of science in there, they use the proper words, and it is still enjoyable rather than worthy. i had BB trying to tell me all about the crabbity zooey ones [zooplankton] following one about food chains in the sea. and i learned something in the how hens eggs are made one!

SB did a bit of education city, and then a lot of webkinz, which she has really got into and enjoys. we also did a good tidy up. so, all in all a very productive duvet day i think! [oh, and we did lots of my favourtie things - like snuggling, cuddling, tickling and laughing]. oh, and chris set fire to the rubber seal on our pressure cooker, as he lit the wrong gas rig – sigh!!! [also cue much choking and spluttering]

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Posted in art and crafts, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

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

seeds and science

Posted on March 15, 2008 by | 1 comment

we are on a roll with science here. As you know, we are child led really in our education, with strewing and suggestion. we encourage regular maths [but tbh, minimal encouragement actually required] SB would like to improve her handwriting [her choice for what to get better at this year!], so she is reminded about that, and she wants to learn violin and piano, so i will suggest a violin practice and reasonably encourage her to get on with it. piano is self motivated entirely. anything else we do is suggested in a lull as a series of options, but most things she suggests and does. BB is currently – obviously – entirely autonomous. She does usually want to do anything SB does!

so today, SB wanted to do the other growing experiments, and obviously BB wanted to too! SB thinks she might like to be a scientist now, so I suggested she writes some of the experiments in a ‘science book’ she thought this was sa rather good idea, so i printed off some piccies for her to stick in, and some ring the answer type questions, and a few open ended. she loved it, and happily did the whole lot. BB also wanted a science book – so more photos duly printed! i can see that this might be where lapbooking starts!

I busily got the ingredients for the other experiments – soil, pots, relevant seeds, and copious newspaper around, and we were off! so today we have made a shoot maze, sown in eggcups [we will look at root strength] done a strawb and runner, and also sown the toms, peppers and artichokes that so desperately needed doing. thus finishing feb sowings! we are now onto march.

SB did some maths, bB did colouring – which she called maths, but was actually a hedgehog and then a spiky dinosaur – quite good! SB did a violin practice and then a singing practice – she can sing a note to match mine – woohoo! for some this comes naturally [me, BB] but SB has learned to do this, aided by her violin, and I am SOOOO proud. i have never once told her she sings out etc, and always encouraged her singing and it has really worked. she has a lovely singing voice. goes completely haywire when tries to sing with anyone, but hey, she is only 7! BB has done a lot of experimenting with sounds and twanging following on from that music set – it was obviously entirely worth the money as has really got her imagination going!
umm, a bit of tv watching, until i felt guilty [i was cleaning up some of the mess we made in kitchen!] so rousted children into tidying up by having bags i was stuffing things in . SB got the drift quite quickly and was like a dervish, even BB got the idea when i did throw some of her things directly in the bin [broken tat for the most part even if well loved. if i have to make a point, there a good place to start.

[we have torchwood on as i type this, and spike is in it!! - the best reason for watching buffy!]

where was i, oh yes, it looked lovely tidy, i hoovered, bb tried to get the solar panel experiment to work again, putting the panel closer and closer to the light [she watches and learns in between tantrums]. so we got the castle stuff out, they played and argued, SB read a book about ballet [surprise!] i made curry for tea and a not hugely succesful bread and butter pudding to take out tomorrow. oh well. Chris and SB played some games.

i have found my cousin on facebook – we haven’t spoken since i was 19 or 20. weird!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, gardening, General, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

taking each precious moment as they come

Posted on March 11, 2008 by | Leave a comment

so today i laid late in bed! not actually the plan, but probably did me some good. chris took the girls off to library for BB to listen to stories and do craft, and sb mooch along the shelves! the parents take turns doing the stories, and are always with the children, but apparently need to be CRB checked – uproar. TBH, I cannot see why you would crb check someone doing a free story reading session, not employed by the library, where the children are still supervised by their parents. i suggested SB should do one, and see if they want to CRB her??? She doesn’t want to do it though, as her arms aren’t long enough for the books – fair point. ANyway, she also did some jump ahead – year one so v easy and enjoyable.

they came in and BB woke me up with love and cuddles and kisses and games. she can be v adorable when she has a mind to be. So got dressed and made it down for the 11 o clock church bells! SB got her singapore maths done and her handwriting - finished book c! we are going to take a short break before D and have a go at some copywork – starting with thankyou letters. we had lunch and BB then went off to playgroup. SB and I did violin, and BB returned from playgroup. she wasn’t happy for chris to leave, so it seemed pointless for them to stay.

Nana and grandad arrived and were just sitting down chatting when my order of a new birdfeeder arrived . They have a sale on, so i bought the complete patio feeder, since the birdfeeders we have bought in the past go with them, a couple of seed trays as well. [you can have any hanging feeder for the candelabra bits, but you need theirs to go in the 3 uprights. we then had fun joining them all together and sorting out in the garden, refilling various feeders. then the girls had a bit of a play in a sunny patch, a robin and blackbird investigated. at the same time i bought some dried mealworms for a bird treat. [yuk!]

Back in and BB was showing just how challenging she could be, so i bought out the emergency tesco science kits as they are non messy, and easily done. BB did the music kit, and SB did the dynamics kit. mostly scream and squeak free, but not entirely, as BB had a bit to much of Ghengis Khan about her today. they were cheap and cheerful kits, and you could prob replicate them easily, but nice to have around as stop gap, and at least these had all the ingredients [as opposed to the chemistry one, where i then had to get hold of some iodine!] . the girls did some more skating, and a bit of game playing with the grandparents.

Wehn they had left, my tolerance to BB’s ravening hordes approach to anything SB looked at decreased, so we stuck on numberjacks, had tea and whisked her off to bed. SB then did the music kit, which she enjoyed, and we did the filling glasses with water as well. Nearly finished ballet shoes!!!

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, gardening, General, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

bliggety blog

Posted on March 10, 2008 by | Leave a comment

i just can’t think of titles!

So, we have had a fun day today. i have decided i really like sitting and crafting or sciencing with the girls, with a easy divisible or multilevel task! SO thats what we have mostly done today. I would love to play the board games, but BB not so helpful – though i am encouraging playing as a team, she gets bored and then destructive! best saved for post her bedtime.

so SB whipped through maths and handwriting, and there was painting of the airdrying clay [after i had glued bits back together again!]. i sorted out seeds, and SB and BB chose what they would like to plant as well. do you know, I have a bit of a blank! SB read her stories from scotland book that she got as a present from Melrose, BB sort of played operation. they both fiddled about with continuo.

After lunch we got out a science book on growing, and the girls, very enthusiastically, wanted to do every single one! We haven’t, but i have found most of the ingredients, and we have started lots of them off. we have beans in jars – of course! some of which we are going to turn upside down when sprouted, we have sunflower seeds that are dry, just right and drowned, we have mustard seeds in  the sun, the dark and the fridge. we have strawberries ready to plant, and carrot tops. and we plan to do the dye thing with a white flower. we did a rather exciting yeast experiment. too bad we haven’t got a working microscope.

SB went off to ballet, and BB and I went into the garden and dug some soil, looked at flowers, and generally nattered and chattered between rainfalls. we then made some more cheese scones for SB to have between ballet and swimming. I took SB to swimming, and she really is coming along in her strokes – they are recognizable now, and she tries really hard. She is by no means the strongest swimmer there – all the others at the present are lads who are possibly a bit older. It doesn’t put her off, and I am v impressed with the coach. SHe does need new goggles though.

Home, tea and BB to bed. SB digicoloured i think with chris. What we didn’t do today – music practice!! and BB was more waily and tantrummy as well.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, daubing and making, gardening, General, literacy, numeracy, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

bring me fire!

Posted on March 9, 2008 by | 4 comments

today had a raucous wake up call, and both girls were kicked out of our bed and went downstairs to watch raven, until SB complained BB was la-ing too loudly [which she was].

we started with crafts, as both girls keen to hama. SB used the fab gold beads from merry to make a lovely heart. BB also hama-ed a heart and played with the maxi hama too. BB then did a sticking play [bits of polystyrene to other bits!] should bin it soon… kept us all occupied for a bit, with general chatting.

i was reading elsewhere disclaimers on what is blogged, and i have to say that i am presuming people will know that i hug, tickle and play silly games, we talk non stop [like wind tunnel here some days] and there is low to high level sibling bickering depending on what kind of day it is. no, i don’t really know why i blog. perhaps in case i get alzheimers, or if there is some external need to remember? i don’t know whether this blog would actually do what i guess i would most want it to, to say to my girls how much i love them, have always loved them and always will. and that i attempted to be the best parent i was capable of being, and i tried hard! it possibly wouldn’t cos i bang on about what we have done, but i guess that is the focussed HE bit. And yes, because i don’t blog our stream of conversation [which i couldn't even if i wanted too] i guess this isn’t the full picture either. but, i am this kind of blogger, so this is what you get. i think if you know me you are more likely to fill me and mine around the words, rather than try and make us out of the words?

anyway, we did some work. I have been encouraging bb, in the hopes that stimulation will improve her stroppiness. but trying to balance this against SB’s needs too. SO today BB and i have played alot with the digicolour, done some pre-handwriting practice, done basic counting and matching and sorting, and looked at some letters. She declined violin or recorder practice. we read loads together and sang and did geomags shapes. when SB first had geomags – and for ages afterwards – she mostly used them to make lollipops. BB is entirely different [well, she is about lots of things!] and really wants to make 3d objects – today she made 3d star and a pentagonal house. [3d]

SB and i did a violin practice together, looked at some of the languages section on education city together. SHe also did some handwriting practice and singapore maths. she has read loads of the magic tree house books, so bang goes the plan of reading books around them, as she’s not so keen on re-reading, ho hum! planning to get some magic school bus chapter books and some dk level 4 readers. we get loads of books from library too, but she is a bit of a reading machine. would like some interesting fact based books to offset rainbow fairies and animal ark a bit! SB declined moving and grooving, latin, piano, science kit and barefoot buddhist tales.

both girls did some cbeebies website and colouredsome printouts, and some fighting over the digicolour. [i failed to buy one from sarah years ago!] we had a long discussion about birds as we fed them, and i bought this patio stand to put some of our defender feeders on, as they are hidden in the trees – good for birds, and not so much for watching girls! but it was significantly reduced! [as are some of the bird feeders]

chris doing some more de-ivying around veg bed and a big burn. both girls helped and played with fire [cringe] but no burnings! [bb was keen to discuss burning and dying] they sort of climbed a tree and messed about a bit. prepared for the big storm if it happens by putting toys away. bit concerned as we have plastic bag instead of a pane of glass in the big window, and the conservatory looks like it might fall down if you breathe on it. hmm.

i think that might be it?

oh yes, Sn did a fiar bit of ds-ing, and she is thinking of buying mariokart with her birthday money. we played continuo for our evening game

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, early maths skills, General, language, literacy, music, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

a tired day

Posted on February 13, 2008 by | Leave a comment

due to the lateness of the girls actually sleeping last night, there was a fiar bit of tired behaviour going on. SB was totally shattered all day, as she was found reading her books when we went to bed at 1am! oh, and i forgot to say i gave BB her first all round haricut on sunday rather than just a quick fringe cutting. She wanted me to cut enough off to make a birds nest, needless to say i didn’t!

So today I nipped quickly to the dentist – no probs – phew!! ANd returned to find SB doing her singapore maths, and BB watching magic school house. SB took ages on one of the questions, she knew the right answer, but couldn’t see how to work it out to that [i realised after she cried over me] its taking away across tens and hundreds. SHe also did some handwriting. We were going to do the propeller science kit, but instead she chose a dig out a dinosaur to do. BB made some more things out of the air drying clay. BB continued doing that for a bit whilst SB went off to her trampolining.

BB and i moved onto a bit of reading, including a fun number book to do a fair bit of counting and spotting the numbers with. SHe then did an alphabet jigsaw and some thomas the tank jigsaws. we did lots of hug and tickling games – BB is of the age of hug and tickle games! oh, and she asked to do a violin practice, so we had a play of open strings.
SB returned in a fragile mood, wanting to go swimming, bt no swimming slots suitable for us this pm. SO we did some violin, but abandoned it half way as everytime it wasn’t perfect she was crying. So we had had a lovely hug whilst chris made lunch and read a sir cumference book. After lunch we read the first story in our king arthur book, and also a french goodnight book. Still not feeling up to much, SB sat down in front of some roar back to back, whilst BB and I made carrot cake. hmm, the house has smelled rather lovely ever since. Chris has been still trying to sort out the veg patch during this. we might tame it yet!

SB came to enough to want to do the propeller kit after all. SHe and BB took one thing each, with me helping BB and SB pretty much unaided. it as simple and quick to do, and worked. [always important] . SO we obviously went and had a bath so we could try out SB’s boat – worked, and BB’s dragster worked far better in the water too. Both girls were far too splashy in the bath [i am worried re dining room ceiling!]. That seemed to seal both their energy levels, so some more vegging infront of the square box and an early night for both. think chris and i should try that early night thing too!

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Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, daubing and making, early maths skills, gardening, General, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

Sunday walking in the WARM

Posted on February 10, 2008 by | 1 comment

It was really warm for our monthly RSPB walk with chloe, michelle and marcus, and it was lovely! lovely to be out in the sun, lovely to have a nice walk, lovely being severely bossed by BB! She particularly wanted to be first, and to run up and down the quarry steps, so thats what we did alot of! She took her ‘noculars and SB took some real ones, so they could both look at the birds. SB and Chloe also did a finding things all the way round, which they enjoyed. i loved the fact that SB thinks of the R in plRnt and grRs rather than an a – would help if we were northern!
[lots of photos to come on flickr]

back to their house for the usual sumptuous feast – yummy – and lots of game playing. i particularly liked the fire and ice game. girls all got on very well, BB was only intermittantly ‘three’. we adult had plenty of nattering time.

on the way home, SB and i sang together, and its the first time she has ever held the tune with someone else singing with her as well. so i am v happy [BB has always been able to do it]

IMG_3535 IMG_3540 IMG_3550 IMG_3588 IMG_3614

I'm waiting for EVER IMG_3629 IMG_3644 IMG_3666 IMG_3696

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Posted in Butterbean, General, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE, writing

a very ordinary post for a very ordinary day

Posted on February 7, 2008 by | Leave a comment

and i really enjoyed it!

SB got on with some maths and writing for the first time this week, and whizzed through it whilst BB and i did an alphabet jigsaw together with some letter practice, and then read some books together – including the excellent there was an old woman with doll she got for xmas. SB also had DK cdrom/dvd on the rainforest which she enjoyed watching, and quoted various bits to us.

We then had a huge hoover of the playroom. out mouse traps are untouched, and there have been no sightings, but our house is a good place for mice to hide, so lets see! ANyway, both girls enjoyed the hoovering, as we opened the sofa bed to get the crumbs, bB had a good bounce too.

After lunch SB did some violin practice, and BB played pools with the dinodoors. then we all played with some airdrying clay bought with ELC vouchers. I can’t say what SB did, as it has to do with a birthday this month. BB in the end made dinodoor eggs – she is looking forward to painting them later! She has quite a dinosaur thing going at the moment, and flicks through the various dinosaur books we have. SB was reading the i wonder why… series, so BB and i read the dinosaur one.

A bath and some games with BB whilst SB did something else secretive and birthday related and then chris came home with a pencil sharpener. So we sharpened all the pencils and SB did a card of the aurora borealis for grandad’s birthday. then it was teatime. SB and i watched the last 2 walking with beasts. We read some more ballet shoes, and she read me some magic tree house knights and it was bedtime.

i have managed to get 3 triples in a row in a scrabulous game. SO feeling rather happy!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, geography, literacy, music, noises and sounds, numeracy, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing