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A surprising hit. Aunty m had bought it for my parents. All 3 girls loved it does need manual dexterity!!

Weds was a weds4ed day. FrB has now met all the children the come to it through different meetings – centerparcs holiday and skating – so building individual relationships of her own with the other kids. There are 3 families that regularly come, and another family that pops to those they can make. It was nearly full house today!

We started with kfish talking about Warhol, showing examples of his art, why he worked as he did and the impact it made. I hastily printed off a black and white photo of each child. Kfish then got them tracing over the key elements of their photos and transfering this to paper and using colour blocks. they were very effective! there was lots of talking and happiness whilst they did it too – always lovely. Art is a good starter session for mixed age groups. As always, the children had their own take of the brief.

Following this, some children played board games, and some electronic games whilst we made pasta for lunch

Following lunch we had some musicians playing together whilst some did science, and then as the musicians bowed out, they had science and the noisier ones got their minecraft fix! This time in science we had a discussion about neurons, sensory, motor and relay, their structure and jobs. We then did some experimenting to test our reaction times, and try and work out the average speed of the signalling along the neurons.

All 3 girls had judo in the evening, BB is in the younger class, so whilst she had judo, FrB and SB did some latin with me. we are using my beloved cambridge and caecilius .Clearly people in France and England don’t pronounce Latin words identically, so we have agreed to ‘roll with it’ for various things, and concentrate on learning something rather than arguing over it . The girls had judo, which FrB enjoyed, and said the kyoshi was very helpful and the group was friendly. SO all happy they watched a bit of the british sewing bee before bedtime – FrB is keen to do some sewing.

some resources:

I think that needs a drumroll perhaps , but he is going to blog the days when I am at work, so will put this in as a holding space!

Monday: home ed things; skating; karaoke; ballet; [DH blog]

When I got home from work, the kids were v excited about ballet, FrB enjoyed it, and felt comfortable there, as it is a very small group of 4, so lots of individual attention. They were pleased to tell me how hard they had worked. FrB felt her english book was a bit difficult for her, so we rooted around and found a selection of different style english books from years 4-6 and she is going to start simply with DH and change book as she gets more confident.

The girls were also keen to do some more of their history journal, so we looked at tool making from flints, found an excellent website – museum of the stone age and cut out some pictures of tools to stick in the journal. We then watched the first half of the first episode of sacred wonders of britain . It was a bit too wordy for FrB, but I talked over the top, and we looked at the places it would be interesting to visit.

FrB was keen to get started on piano lessons, so we played piano together and she got started on the beginning book. Once she has mastered notes, I imagine she will race through the book, as she is already skilled in playing the oboe. SB and I also did a practice together, starting a previously learnt grade 3 piece to get her fingers back, and enjoying playing our jazz duets. I have really missed playing them with her, as they make me smile

Tuesday: home ed things, local home ed botany group field trip. bread making, pancake tossing [DH blog]

Weds: weds4ed, latin, judo -> has own post coming next

Thurs: home ed things whilst BB local home ed young engineers, cubs/guides [ DH blog]

Friday: conservation group am – FrB hasn’t quite got enough ‘scruffy’ clothes, so we suggested she use some of SB’s old clothes to do conservation work in – apparently she just couldn’t wear bootcut jeans, they need to be skinny ah, the return of teenagers to this house . she was shattered in the pm and had a snooze whilst SB did second ballet class, she has decided to do monday ballet, but not the friday.

A family favourite, known as the bean game. enjoyed by many, simple to play, not fiddly to set up and relatively swift.

just like universities, we have a ‘trombinoscope’ – well, sb says tht’s what they were called in france . Here are the group of kids – some photos old, but were created for art today

Having come back from centerparcs, we had a lowkey weekend. We had hoped to go out walking with friends on the Sunday, but their daughter wasn’t very well, so we didn’t go ahead.

On Saturday we started our Grand English History Project with the prehistoric. It went really well [better than envisioned actually] and we started reading about the generality of what it was and when, and the migration in waves too and from what is mainland europe now, tho then joined. We then went to the specifics of cave art, had a go at making our own ‘rock pigments’ and painting in the style.

the rest of the day was chatting, playing games, ds-ing whilst I sewed, looking through some of the resource books, and also looking through our reading books to find something that FrB thought suitable. She has decided to start with angelina ballerina, and have also put out felicity wishes, thrid grade detective, magic tree house and magic school bus. they are still a ‘bit young’ but i read some aloud to sb years ago, and they are all right still.

Sunday was also relaxed. the girls went out into the garden to bounce on the trampoline and enjoy some of the good weather. We played another board game – bohnanza. FrB and I made welsh griddle cakes together. She is quite accident prone!

SO a nice, relaixing weekend

This is SB’s game. it does take a while to play, and needs some gaming nous, so not a first board game! There are a variety of ways to win, but it is fairly straightforward to play.

Looking organised

Our annual holiday to centerparcs was as a family of 6. We borrowed R from TheBabs to keep BB happy and friended as we had FrB and SB as a pair. It worked really well. We were also lucky enough to have friends in the directly opposite chalet – we could wave to the deependers and SOTP – made socialising v easy! couldn;t have picked a better chalet arrangement if we tried.

We went swimming as DH did all the moving in. great swim had by all and we kept that up all week with swimming 2ce a day as a minimum – 3 hours morning and 2 hours evening – apart from thurs where we were in the pool pretty much all day. The kids [and dads] had a fab time racing around on slides, flumes, rapids and the cyclone. I mostly pooled, hottubbed, lagooned and rapids with some lazy rivering . I do think it is a fab holiday for all. lots of laughter and love and happiness. Also very wet! we all have a few bumps and grazes and a chlorine skin itch i think!

I took the kids to the play area in one of the swimming free breaks, and DH took them cycling around the park.

other than that, we celebrated birthdays. DH had his birthday on the Monday, and SB had hers on the tuesday, so we had 2 birthday cakes and candles and presents. Made for a party atmosphere. SB chose to have a pizza takeaway for birthday tea, and friends round to share the cake.

We played board games, watched some DVD’s, started FrB on an animal crossing craze on the ds and did lots of laughing and socialising.

On the thursday TheBabs and B joined us for the day as well, and that was great fun. Centerparcs is definately a ‘the more the merrier’ kind of holiday place.

On our final day we swam, the girls shopped and then we went to the pancake house for a ceremonial dinner. TBH I don’t thenk the pancakes are a nice as they used to be [or perhaps mine are better??] but it is fun for the girls. I think SB chose the best pancake.

The holiday for me was a lovely relaxing time with friends and family. Welcoming FrB into our home and life with love and attention, laughter and equality. I hope she has a wonderful time with us, that we get the balance of her, SB and BB right. Having been an only for 6 months, BB is having to do a rapid readjustment.

They are absent! Week 8 SB returned, and although some bits and pieces might have been done, we declared it a holiday . [it was half term in southern England. Week 9 FrB arrived, so we declared that a holiday – well, it is in North England – and went to centerparcs and did lots and lots of physical exercise [swimming] and cultural exchange