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Bb was slightly demotivated this week but sb has been committed to working. Hope it is going in!

so, we had fun this week juggling things all over the place! Monday DH took the girls to his mum’s. as winter is drawing in, trying to see more of her as losing john is a huge gap. the girls did home ed and enjoyed her tv package!! [as well as seeing nanna of course] . tuesday was a staying in day [mostly] doing bookish things.

weds was a weds4ed day.

we had a great time doing the modroc degas with kfish, and they worked really well. SB enjoyed the music consort work and then did really well with TB with maths. she was a quite relieved when I said TB was pleased with her, as she was a bit worried that hadn’t got a high percent – think she said 68 – but she was def within the pass on a GCSE paper, and she is planning to do it next year, so think on course there!

Science was quicker and simpler than last year. thought i would go with an autumnal theme and look at the different chorophyls and also other colourants within the leaves. we had yellow, variagated, red and green leaves and used acetone for some and isopropranolol for others and it worked beautifully.

thurs was an out day, with french and clarinet lessons for SB, and multisports for both of them. so lots of out and about and socialisation. Friday also with conservation group. SB decided to take some of her gcse subjects with her as she was feeling the need to do a bit more on them – good for her!

SB has been thinking a bit about the future, and liking her psychology book. she says she wants a job where she makes a difference and helps people. she doesn’t fancy medicine as that is a mugs game and has decided not for nursing either. SHe and bb had quite a chat about how to choose a job where you arent on call. BB is quite keen to be a zookeeper in the future in her ideal world. SO psychology seemed to SB to be something where she was helping people with controllable hours! [not a bad plan] she still has police/MI5 as a backup!! or baker . BB has been moving on with her piano as the big thing recently, which is lovely as she is no longer having such stress over it, and actually turning pages in the book and trying new things! very happy. otherwise she is being slightly more emotionally wobbly than normal. do hormones switch on at 10 then? [she is a titch, so hopefully some more growing to do!] . She getting a science kit in the post from the electronic wizards apprenticeship as she is an expansionist phase! she always likes science, and we were looking for something handson that she would enjoy. with gcse starting, a lot of focus is on SB, but actually BB needs a fair bit, as she is still missing the companionship and play with FrB now she has left, and SB is so teen. unfortunately young engineers hasn’t restarted after the summer, so we need to find something BB-ish to keep her interest.

Bb def into a routine! Sb is certainly working hard. We are aiming for 30 rather than 35 in a good week and trying to keep a core 20 as these gcse and prep for lessons and clarinet exams take time. Proud of them both

hip hip hooray! my cousin martin is visitng from the states with his daughter O we last saw them 2 years ago, when O was a few weeks old, and just before martin emigrated to the states. His then wife J is american. unfortunately the marriage didn’t last when she was back home, so Martin is doing his best to be there for O whilst working his socks off so he can stay in the states. We were all v v happy to see him and O. Also lovely to see aunty and uncle M so happy as well. we stayed at the premier inn not too far away. SO here are some happy family photos

the kids walked around the nearbye park for a break. On sunday, after a quick drop in, we went to the national coal mining museum. intially mum, dad, m and e were going to come, but circumstances changed, and instead we were lucky enough to meet up with the SOTP crew. we went for an underground tour, which was really good. it is a previous working mine, and 140m below ground and takes us through some history of mining. no photos tho, as anything with a battery is contraband. def well worth a visit!

I think. to be honest, this week for me has passed in a blur. Skating [roller] happend monday, but otherwise i think it has been home ed group free, tho there are all the evening clubs and sports.  BB has had a very good worky week. I think SB is perhaps struggling a bit still with the various things for her GCSE summer, and so devoting most time to that. SHe is where she should be for biol and french. not sure about classical civ, as no idea there and relying on tutor! and a little behind with geog – but since she was ahead, think that is still OK. Plan to download some papers for her to try on that soon. She has done a maths paper for TB, but didn’t know how to do those bits, so has left them, so it can be seen where her gaps are. She has done a fair amount of baking, including a birthday cake for kyoshi at judo – enough for the whole group. Generally happy!

So weds, we did a worky morning and a crafty afternoon – a lot of chatting, enjoying company and also starting to glaze our tiles.

here they are so far

Oh dear! we really need to start spending more time together as a family. This weekend was a 3 way split. My mum and dad came up on the friday, as they were providing babysitting services – for the first time! lovely seeing them, house was chaos when they arrived, but dad mowed the lawn, mum cleaned the kitchen, so i tlooked much better when we returned!

we were at my university reunion. we stayed in a posh hotel in london. on sat we visited the saatchi gallery for the pangaea exhibition. Hmm, i have a tolerance for lots of modern art rather than a love, [well to be fair, art as a whole there are lots of tolerances and some loves!] and lots of pangaea was a stretch. but it is always good to go and be challenged . so my fav bits

we had lunch in a rather fab lebanese small chain – worth a look when you are in london! and in the eve went to the reunion. Unfortunately a couple of the people i most wanted to see didn’t make it for one reason or another, but i did meet some people that made me laugh and perhaps some of my memories of uni were reframed. I think i am both the same person and very different at the same time! the organisers did a fabulous job. pics only on flickr as i tend to keep worky type stuff v separate from this blog, and this, i guess , is worky. nice tos spend some time just with my lovely DH

the next day we got up late, had an enormous brekkie and then spent a while in the upper floor of the british museum before going home.

My SB had spent saturday at the guides big gig in wembley. she had a fab time, and is a lovely way to end her time in guides. SB has been with the organisation since rainbows so many years ago, but finally something else has a stronger pull – air cadets – so she is saying goodbye to guides now. They were in the third row – how fab is that!

and BB had a lovely day computering at home, mum and dad let her chill in her own way, and apparently mum talked to her in snorts for the whole afternoon [reciprocated] love is having slightly crazy grandparents . They all went golfing on sunday, and had lunch in the club. lucky girls and lucky all of us for having our different lovely weekends.

SB was clearly at kentwell still on monday and staying at friends tues and came back for air cadets, where she has coveralls to wear. she is not hugely impressed by coveralls, but they are very practical, and air cadets has lots of great things about it.

BB meanwhile did 2 good home ed days, as she is getting into habit of the nitty gritty. we are looking at some more exciting bits to do alongside it since she seems to have an expansion home ed phase going on at the moment, and we need to make the most of that! DH is investigating a science club thing, as currently young engineers not ongoing. Our lego storymaker kit arrived too, and that seems to have enthused her. She has also carried on with her board game roll, and piano practice. I do like expansive phases

Weds was a weds4ed day, and lovely lovely lovely Kfish was taking them through degas, and they were planning their models to make from modroc. I did science on nerves – differentiating stimuli etc. and a cool 1 to 2 marble trick!

TB did some surds maths with the older ones, who spent a long time on it! SB did some recorder with Em, but we really must start with ensemble next time! I was teaching O how to walk on stilts, and Afish did fimo whilst ffish did some knex as i had put both outside for drifters to do when finished other things. As I said, lovely day together

thursday was a multiple tutors and multisports. BB enjoys this [well, the multisports not the tutors!] Friday was conservation and classical civ tutorial for SB, and quite some time skyping with friend C over the classical civ too. think she is enjoying that part of it!

on saturday SB went to a clarinet workshop, which she really enjoyed. she was one of the better players, so she had a lot of confidence from that, and it was all ages. V good thing to have done, and she has the appetite for doing a few more if possible.

Then she went to Kentwell, where she was without either parent, but watchful eyes of a number of adults, and kfish as guardian. she had a great time, worked hard, had fun in the evenings, and was – by report – fairly model daughter, including classic SB type accident. She was apparently chasing the chickens and waving a wooden sword when she fell and hit her head on a stone, so was looked over in the still room! Oh SB!!!

After Kentwell finished [mon eve] she went and spent time with Em and E and R  at their house. the original plan was that since they were coming to our house on weds, she would be returned then. However, instead she had induction into air cadets on tues, so caught the train back on her own [second time solo train journey in a week, I think this means she is now independent!] on tues evening in time to get there.

BB opted for a very laid back snuggly weekend, and declined the various possible outings for instead snuggling and playing lots of games. [mostly board games too]. we played with rabbits and mostly spent some mum and daughter time together.

I am hoping that DH has some sb clarinetting, and maybe there might be a pic of her at Kentwell, tho prob not.

Just as I start to wonder how we are actually going to fit in working for these exams, life seems to get busier. I am still breathing! trying not to let my increased heart rate steal away my external cool nor show SB how daunting this bit feels! ir is going to be fine! I cnnot do the work for her, I cannot learn it for her. I can just facilitate the resources, learning times and hopefully some of the techniques for exam based knowledge. I think there is quite a leap to go from understanding what is presented and remembering the broad outline – which gives you the feeling you know it – and being able to regurgitate minutiae! oh yes, breathe!!

So this weeks ‘hit the books’ days were mon, weds and fri – nice and evenly spaced! As you can see, both SB and BB are doing well with this. SB is prioritising french, classical civ, biol and geog and clarinet followed by music theory, maths and english. the first 4 are her potential igcse subjects for the summer – definitely the first 2, and one of the second 2. She is taking her grade 4 clarinet this term. We have decided not to stress ourselves, but to take grade 6 theory next term or even next november. I think she could just pass if we crammed it this time, but the stress is unnecessary. Better to understand fully and then take the exam, as there is no hurry. Maths and english to keep going! then she picks and chooses what else in the time left – craft/boardgame/another academic/piano. I don’t think she will get much time to look at her MOOCs at this rate! It is all feeling a bit pressured squeezy at the moment, but hoping that it becomes comfortable, and we work with it! BB has done another great work week – she interprets her ticksheet in her own individualistic way. My total home ed plan is really just to keep the envelope where it is, and a gentle stretch once in a while, against her natural inclination to shrink down. In reality this means us encouraging some maths and something writing related weekly and some music, and then being very happy with whatever she determines is home ed on top of this. She would, in preference, probably spend her whole life in front of a computer screen, and although we let her have quite a lot [i think] i can’t bear for this to be her only interaction, even if it is often with friends on skype co-playing. She really misses frb, her partner in crime! her best HE mates either live at some distance or are now in school. I think that when I get my head sorted with SB and exams, I need to devote a lot of headspace to BB and meeting her needs.

SO Tuesday was a last hurrah for the botany group, which won’t be running this year. They all went to Kew Gardens for the day. Initially BB thought that this was going to be really boring, but actually she loved it! she has shown me her pics of things that interested her – the glass houses, interesitng bark and leaf shapes, tall trees, low flying aeroplanes, the vegetables… and talked a lot. SB has been too busy to talk to me about anything or that is how it seems. Sounds like a great day out, even if they did walk their legs off [bb]

thursday SB had a biot of a change as she caught a train alone to meet up with the manor borns for a classical civ study group with steve from portals, who is being her tutor. She said she really enjoyed the session, that he was interesting, and she understands what she needs to do – apparently listen to the oddysey dvd he has made whilst reading the book. i hope that is it, as SB has a memory lapse sometimes on these things. She also went swimming with C and played boardgames. She does love her friend C, adn it is a shame we just dont get to meet up as often as we once did. i am not sure where time goes really.

Another change for SB this week – and another huge time commitment! – is that she is going to stop guides and instead go to air coprs at the locasl RAF base 2 evenings a week. I( am a bit of a peacenik myself, so more breathing over the potential to learn how to handle guns etc. But she is keen to do this, meet new people, learn new skills. So off she goes

Good week by both girls. Proud of what sb managed to achieve despite being out 2 full days and no weekend catchy uppy!