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unfortunately BB couldn’t quite do cub camp, not sure whether it was cos she continues to be unsettled, or because she felt it was too far away. Sb was a bit worried because we had planned a shopping trip. luckilly BB didn’t really fancy it, and preferred the idea of a home day. she mostly ‘putered, sorted the rabbits with daddy and chilled and destressed.

SB and I, on the other hand, spent a fortune! [well, not really] and painted the town red. We were mostly clothes shopping for essentials, and SB had some of her money to spend on not essentials . So we went into lots of different shops, and lots of different changing rooms, and put in our memory things that were nice but too expensive without a sale but we did actually buy quite a bit [well, SB had quite a bit!] and aftr some humming and hawing, SB got her ears pierced. We had lunch at a rather nice italian by the market [and slightly pricy! but it was a special treat day] and finished with a latte and smoothie at costa. we made sure we brought back something for BB and DH too. [which turned out to be just as well!]

the next day we did a bit of bookishness, as there are a number of home ed bits and pieces each girl only wants to do with me, played some board games and snuggled up with the stonehenge programmes currently on tv.

A home a lot week, so some good solid work by both girls

This week has been a bit of a head down and hit the books weeks. One problem with home educating is that you can be out too much to be effectively bookish! This hasn’t really been a big deal before, but clearly SB has the need to be motoring through some work, and to do that she needs to be at home. SO usual weekly things happened – SB has 2 ballet classes, guides and judo [she likes to do both mats] and also weekly lessons in french and clarinet. BB has swimming, judo [currently she only wants to do the first mat] and cubs – though she is considering football.

Monday and Tuesday were hitting the books days, so not really so much to be said about them!

Wednesday, though, was our weds4ed day, and it was full house yay . Unfortunately I had a massive migraine of mega proportions, so we put science to the afternoon and I just drank tea in the morning and was barely fundctioning. I didnt get properly dressed either, so hoping not in too many photos as couldnt brush hair! Kfish did art about Friedrich Hundertwasser, with links and links . The girls both enjoyed doing this. BB did hers on her own, and SB did hers with a group with lfish and e.

TheBabs did something mathsy, but I am afraid that i was a bit to medicated to enquire, and at this point BB went off outside to bounce a bit on the trampoline.

In the afternoon my topic was homeostasis, and we talked a bit about it in general, and with the kidney specifically. We had a demonstration experiment in progress of showing permeability across a membrane whilst dissecting a kidney. We had some pics also of nephrons etc, and i took people through how they worked.

After this SB and jfish did some french, and then everyone ended up playing games. All started with rapidough and then went onto computing for some. We adults chatted at some length outside and enjoyed the last of the sun.

Thursday was also an outing day, in that they went to SB’s lessons, with multisports home ed sports group. Basketball and dodgeball. BB spent some time recounting it to me, and this was really lovely . SB and I did some latin together as she has got to a new difficult point in theory exam, so we decided to park music theory until the weekend!

unfortunately friday didnt quite pan out it was a wild place discussion session, and although BB played happily, sb forgot to take any book stuff to do. oh well! Then BB excitedly got ready for cub camp and was on such a high as she left. but as DH drover her there, and it took 90 mins, the sense of how far away it was got to her, so he ended up bringing her back in great disappointment . at least she tried tho. SB and I had a girls night in with pizza and wedges watching a film

Here’s the deal. List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t think too long or too hard. They don’t have to be the “right” books, or great works of literature, just books that have affected you in some way. I was nominated by my cousin and have chosen books I have enjoyed in the past 30 years…
it is difficult to choose, because i have loved many books over the years, some more flawed than others, but have love being thrown in these worlds. they arent in any specific order, exept perhaps age when first read!
1. the bagthorpe saga by helen cresswell – the first 4 anyway! these were my sisters’s books and i nicked them and got caught out due to excessive laughing under the duvet! absolute zero – what a hoot!
2. the dark is rising series. totally fab books. like my cousin I also started with book 2 and then accumulated the rest. I still read these .
3. rosemary sutcliffe – most of them! prob the roman eagle of ninth series best by a whisker, but also mark of the horse lord [ok also slightly roman!]. I bet half of them were bought by aunty M
3.5 Anne of Avonlea and the rest. I loved these books and searched to buy more. SB was really happy to have been given a set by canadian aunty m – they do say cousin k in the fly!
4. sharon penman – prob sunne in splendour, but could be falls the shadow – both books belonging to my mum though have subsequently bought and enjoyed the elinor of aquitaine series
5. lord of the rings. tolkein .sorry, love it. loved it so much i set fire to my bed with my lamp whilst sneaking it under the covers. mum confiscated the book! bought every scrap of related writing i could find!
5.5 the lion witch and wardrobe and the last battle in partic by css lewis. they have stuck. prince caspian for the film…
6. i’m not quite so keen on them now, but at the time I couldn’t put down the thomas covenant books. i have them all… [i jsut cant stop a series, even if it ends up not feeling quite worth it – all of dune – yep! you can rely on me to have the lot!! how can i be more than half way through, they are not going to fit?
6.5 gate to women’s country by sheri s tepper. some very good ideas in that book! I share a love of this book with Jax
7 the handmaids tale by margaret atwood – again dystopian future with some hope, read whilst i was a teen i think. [do you know, i dont think any of dad's books are going to end up on here. me and mum would greedily read our holiday books, and then sigh and read his when we had run out. he brought kane and abel by jeffrey archer with us 3 years in a row!]
7.5 neal stephenson. probably anathem, though quite a few i have liked. i think i bought this for my cousin one xmas as so enjoyed it
8. peter hamilton, quite a few of these as well, but probably the greg mandel series. it is serious work to make peterborough cool! [ok, so it is in the future
8.5 iain m banks – everything! but am going to say feersum endjinn, just because of the spelling [or not] as well as the storyline. i like his non sci fi as well – perhaps whit
9 peter hamilton and blue remembered earth. I am thinking that is enough sci fi. I really enjoy reading sci fi tho!
9.5 I have very much enjoyed wolf hall and bring up the bodies by Hilary mantell as well
9.75 the kitchen gods wife by amy tan. oh deear, I am getting desperate to fit in all these other books i loved. who was that cake book i stayed up all night reading of yours Jasotp?
10. sir gawain and the green night by michael morpurgo, for the joy of reading it aloud to the girls. it is a wonderful thing to actually say the words of.

comments

• clan of the cave bear nearly made it [but not so keen on sequels] and the wolf series of michelle paver in the historical fiction section
• alan garner and robert westall were near squeaks into my childrens section, and have gone back to add lion withc and wardrobe, as think that has stuck with me. prob the owl service  was always flowers not owls!

probably, well for most of us. SB is going to Kentwell for their michaelmas recreation. She is going to be one of the peddlars at the backbridge [near the dairy and bakhaus] so anyone visiting, look out for a teen in a green kirtle.

Back to the point! we went camping to the north norfolk coast, near brancaster. brancaster is my favourite beach [though if i lived nearer to bamburgh, that might be instead!] it has long sands to walk along, some dunes and a gently shelving water so good paddling. we camped at deersglade which we have camped at before. have to say that there really isn’t enough toilet blocks for campers! we werent in the rush periods, but still 3 loos and 3 sinks is a bit minimal!

sat we went to bircham windmill after bb voted for it from the leaflets. she mostly liked teh idea of watching the sheep milking. we did get to watch the sheep being milked, and the lass that did it was really informative, clearly cared for the animals and was good at answering questions. we tasted cheese made on site and bought some too. enough lunch choices for all of us to eat and be happy, and a most massive pot of tea for two . we enjoyed going up the windmill and the sturdy ladders [eek] and the upper workings were definitely interesting. the cake from the bakery was interesting too so a great day out.

we did some succesful geocaching on the way back to the campsite as well – always good! but realised had left the geo trackable at home [i hope]

the next day we went to brancaster beach, which is well known for being my fav tho, tbh, if we lived nearer bamburgh, that might be too! something about the long sands, gently sloping beach and dunes! [and a plus of parking, kiosk and loos!] kids made a sandcastle edifice, ran around in the dunes and just generally chilled [it was a bit windy] and had holiday treat of chips-on-the-beach. perfect

Yes, I had a full on panic with sb as to whether we can achieve gcse this year! We are hoping for 2 good weeks if she wants to do Kentwell Michaelmas. BB was strong and steady – note her reignited interest in doing some music

This week turned out to be a poor work week for SB, and we can’t afford to many of those this year! she did, however, have quite an interesting week as she had volunteered to be part of a medical research trial, which meant she spent the majority of tues and weds in the teaching hospital [including the night] having loads of measurements as part of a normal child baseline project. so many tests must cost a fortune! she could have done some work, but i think she mostly facebooked and watched tv!

weds bb and i spent a lovely day together, and then when SB came back we planned to go to the local snake place, but unfortunately when we got there it was closed. BB was quite devastated about this, as this is the second time we have got there and it is unexpectedly closed. so we arranged to go to a local farm that has a few crocodiles and miscellaneous other animals! [it mostly is a farmer/butcher, the crocodiles were a side line that didn't take off!] it satisfied BB anyway i was glad to have bb out and happy, as this week she has been very reluctant to leave home, so not gone to swimming or cubs

She did have her french lesson with tutor and clarinet on the thursday, and both of these went really well, and she has some work to do! bb went shopping for new shoes at this time, and is really happy with some cool brown boots with mustard lining. also so M and the r’s – all happy with that! Apparently it took most of friday to pack – rolls eyes!

I was working this weekend in the mornings and available for call backs [which happened sunday night] but took SB in with me on the saturday so we could go to a BBQ at a retired work colleagues. I think she was a bit bored sat in the office, but was very happy t te BBQ. He had hired a steel drum player – who was really good – external caterers and had lots of people i knew, and none SB did, but luckily the brought kids with them. so some nice socialising, chatting and great to see him so well since retirement. lovely afternoon.

on the sunday we were extremely happy to welcome the puddle family – yep, all of them . At first just merry and the younger 4, but max and fran joined after rugby. weather was lovely, chilled in the garden. the kids bounced on the trampoline and chatted. SB and Maddy talked as if they would never stop – sb has v much missed maddy since she went to school. BB and Josie took their usual pairing too, and loved being together. Bene loved our little tykes car – which had once been merrys! lovely to see them and to have them. I so miss that!

home education is wonderful in primary years. it is fun, enthusiastic, no pressure and full of adventure. But at some point it is likely that one of your children will either want to, or need to do some exams. SB [see MS 2014] wants to go to university. she is otherwise not particularly clear what to do, but this will needs some planning. Quite a lot of home ed kids go to university with traditional exams to back them up before, and some go with not so much, but with good talking. SO it isn’t a done thing that exams are definitely needed. for a number of reasons, we are doing the exam route, and decided to get some out of the way this year. Spreading is good [apparently]. However, in our area there isn;t a home ed exam centre, and the LA is currently not that interested in getting it going. SO I have been emailing schools. 28 to be precise! So far I have 10 definite NO, and 6 variably YES -  2 quite likely possible to cover, 2 not really able to accommodate us this year, but prob would another [but v expensive] and 2 with so many ifs and buts and not able to accommodate us at all. our problem is that the schools don’t really want the hassle of an external candidate – they can charge what they like though, and 2 in partic seem to be doing that. in particular, accommodating things other than the final writtens is a nuisance, and we have a french oral and a classical civ controlled assessment to juggle. My main 2 schools aren’t entirely definite, but it seems probable that one, or other or both will accommodate us with some accommodations on our part – we might need to do the classical civ controlled assessment elsewhere,  but it looks like that might be possible to do, and we might need to provide our own french teacher for the oral at one place, and pay for a half day supply/bank at another place – pricy but also I think possible. So I am starting to breathe again about the whole thing. for those that do home ed, I am putting the details on the local group when they are all back, and also the national exams group – will make it easier for others!