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this week has been a pretty good home ed week [i believe!] I am still wondering how to capture the weeks home edding when DH is clearly never going to blog again, or put any photos of what they do anywhere. i get the ‘ok’ when i ask about the day. or if i ask what they have done ‘stuff’ [they stopped saying nothing a while back as i just got things for them to do!] Clearly i can look at a ‘tick sheet’ and trust it has been fairly faithfully completed, or i can look in books. but still, ths is second hand blogging! Things that do stand out are DH specifically telling me how well BB read an apple tree farm book. SB enjoying her clarinet lesson with her new teacher [she will be going fortnightly for now]. And i have done 3 piano practices with BB, so she is happy again . Tomorrow I will take a pic of both ticksheets and add in here.

Other things – socialising and having fun with friends. It was a good week for that too. We had J from the puddles here, and they had SB. both were v happy with this. J didn’t take off her husky hat except to sleep. BB inculcated her into minecraft and they seemed to have a lovely time. SB and M chatted, crafted and planned their PGL holiday. Merry had planned to come to ours on the weds, but her car let her down, and we happily went to hers instead. Stayed a lot longer than perhaps originally planned as it was lovely just to sit and chat, and have Bene kisses .

groups – it was a quieter week groupwise this week. it seems things are all bunched on alternate weeks. still the ‘afterschool’ clubs tho. BB really enjoyed at night hike with cubs from neighboroughing village across the fields back to this one. it was very muddy! swimming, judo for both, ballet, guides and gym for SB. she would like to add in a saturday music centre, so we are looking into that.

much as i would like to leave DH testy test post on the top, some things are too good to hog the limelight forever . In fact, he was testing a flickr app thingy to put on SB’s art blog – currently she can’t get the flickr pics on, so woefully behind!

Anyway, we have enjoyed all the comic relief GBB this week, leaving us with the desire to bake also. SB chose to make biscotti and macaroons, and BB the yummy looking chocolate cookies that claudia winkleman made

so that was all rather yummy, tho the biscotti and macaroons are presents!

We also did the RSPB birdwatch. Unfortunately it was the lowest turnout of birds we have ever had. Perhaps because it was so windy. whilst we were counting, SB did some sewing, BB moaned [ ] and I hennaed SB’s arm.

SB did a few home eddy things so she could have book out of book box , helped redesign her ticksheet [as did BB] and did a piano prac with me. BB also then did one, and having not done it for months, she realised she couldn’t find the note, had a massive wobble, and well, lets gloss the next hour I have promised to practice with her regularly.

We tried on all our kentwell clothes. BB seems to have lost a shift! As does DH! luckilly mine and SB’s fit. I need to make her one, ideally 2 new posher shifts, and a partlet. I took the taking in stitches out of her jacket. Her kirtle is tighter now so she is happier as thought it slightly loose! the new way of doing that tudor coif works better [tho still abit short at back] . also need to fiddle with my sleeves [have decided girls will still be pointed tho] so mine can be pinned. will also add black guard to my kirtle.

tortoise had a run around, a bath and some fresh dandelions from the garden for the first time in ages. BB was v happy that DH added a new mod on minecraft [woosh over my head] . we watched africa and monster in paris and generally chilled this weekend.

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Last week was a getting back into gear week. Both girls are using conquer maths at the moment a bit. Mostly for BB, as she likes learning on a computer [doing anything on a computer] so thought we would trial it instead of singapore maths.SB we hope will continue with singapore maths. however hasn’t done any for ages it turns out, as has lost her protractor! [if she had only said!!!!] sigh. lots of activities. Monday SB has ballet and gym, they are working for grade 5 ballet and her bronze gym. from next week she will start fornightly clarinet lessons on monday as well. tuesday is pottery day [i think alt weeks, but sb thinks weekly now] both love this, and this time they were making witch pots [or something] which they then shaped. tues eve is also swimming for both. weds is wodensmeet – more later, then judo for both. thurs pm is multisports for both and then in the eve cubs for BB and guides for SB. BB has only just started to go to cubs – breath holding moment for dh and I as in the past she has been so reluctant to start and get going to new things [cf judo!] but she is happy and enjoying it. We have agreed she can give up gym, which used to be on a thurs, on a one club in, one club out deal – not that she had to give it up! friday is ‘wild place’ – a kind of forest school idea i think. since they meet crossover groups of friends on tues, weds, thurs and fri, i can’t think of this as being unsociable, let alone unsocialised! It does however making settling down to do some bookish stuff more difficult, as there needs to be mooch time, fiddling about time, reading book or kindle time, wasting time on the internet, finding stuff time etc etc

Anyway back to wednesday and wodensmeet.

Merry and girls there as well this time, so BB particularly happy as she loves J and misses her when she isn’t there and comes alive when she is . they did most things together, and were particularly cute when they were playing penguins in the snow, and having snow eggs they needed to pass between each others waddling feet – awwww.

for the science this week we looked at a couple more food related experiments – the benedicts test and the biuret test. since merry has the delectable bene, i think we will all remember that benedicts tests for sweetness . we used the biology experiments website for the tests, made up our own benedict solution, and used powdered eggwhite instead of albumin. the children had all had a chance to look at a variety of websites eg s-cool and bbc bitesize as well as chapters in their [different] biology books so they had some background and wider interest in things. I was v impressed at what they knew, and also remembered from the starch experiments. the first group of 5 did the glucose and protein test, but also did an additional sugars test, to see if benedicts worked on all sugars, using fructose [fruit juice] dissolved sugar and the glucose – it doesn’t work for sucrose. the second group did an additional protein test -chees [we didn't have any meat] and it did work for that. The reactions were a hit because they are obvious, pretty colours and clearly work. also the doing the experiments are interesting. I love science .

Of course, science wasn’t the only thing going on there was drawing of trees and snowflakes, SB and E did some recorder together, SB some music theory, having remembered a board game, ‘survive’ was played. lots of adult crochet going on! but mostly there was lots of play and snow play since it was Ams last visit as going to school – we will miss her liveliness!!

But my iphone ran out of charge, so no more pics!

we have been drifting a bit in organised home ed since dec, and TBH we are not anywhere near as organised or formal as the ticklists might have you believe. They are a bit aspirational, there is no negative consequence or anything for failure to ‘achieve’ . However, having done well and achieved the aspirational does have a positive – something from ‘the book box’ which is a selection of book people books, some ‘stocking fillers’ also in BB’s case, and lots of well dones.

for BB, this is just to guide really, we hope to do something reading and something mathsy most days and ‘something else’ and mostly she gets on with whatever she fancies and is pretty autonomous. SHe likes the idea of a ticksheet and doing 4 things a day, and she liked the idea of having different boxes to choose from, so we will see…

SB is part her choice, and part the fact that she needs to gear up as she wants to go to university, so will therefore need to get some qualifications along the way. this means contemplating getting us organised enough that some gcse’s will happen. Unfortnuately for SB, she has 2 expert procrastinators for parents. Only the pressures and organisation of school and then uni got us where we are, and left to our own devices we would prob both be dreamers and wished we had done x-ers. so hoping that the ticksheet will get SB going into reg doing something and help her to where she wants to be. Ideally she should do 7 things a day [eek! i imagine some spillage to weekend] and ideally 5 of these should be from the bolded group, and she can choose 2 out to the unbolded – tho TBH, think this is going to be v aspiational rather than actual . i think we still have some fiddling to do to get it to work for her. [SB made me add days of week to top, and don't think that works! - having said that to her, she says she is going to bob around - so why it needed days i don't know! (maybe because BB's had?)] so it is a ‘work in progress’ . Anyway, we worked on it together, and she thinks it is reasonable and is quite happy with it. we try to ensure she actually likes the resources we use, and actually is happy looking and learning those things [hence no latin as tho i would like to do it, she isn't keen at the mo]

welcome comments as always and thinking i should say that sb usually goes for a 20-25 things as an average – so definitely aspirational… – and that others do lots of their home ed at museums, in groups, and in many other inspirational ways, but due to our split age group and rural locale and general not v good at going a distance, we tend to do socialising and arts and crafts or sports in groups. [many strokes for different folks and all that]

i am a very fussy human. I have a remarkably narrow temperature window for happiness. currently i am sitting at TOO COLD! and it is snowing again! the snow does look beautiful, and the kids have got lots of enjoyment out of it – today BB played ice penguins wth her friend J very happily. But i only like snow to look at, not to drive through, get up early in the morning into a freezing car. and most partic, have to have duvet on whilst on sofa as well as a jumper and a fleece and still have cold hands and nose. brrr brrr brrr. i need a tiny warm cottage that i can afford to heat and big roaring fire.

hmm, moan over!

We got 3 new games for christmas – woohoo!! Having put some pics up a number of people have asked what they were like, so i have decided to write a blog post about them for other games made families [I do have to say at this point, that I have nothing to declare! My DH bought me one of the games, and my BIL bought us one and my SB the other, so all fully paid for! however, the links are amazon affiliates and would earn pennies if you bought through them]

These are 3 very different games. I like having different kinds of games – some are fairly fast, some cooperative, some easy on the brain. SOme take a long time, have in depth strategies, and some are pretty back stabbing!

Survive regularly takes less than an hour. It is fairly quick to set up, it is easy to get the hang of the rules, perfectly suited for mixed age and gaming ability. It is a definite back stabber of a game! it takes 4 players, but if you have peepl in other games you can use them to be extra players [sort of] . the plan is to place your people on the island of atlantis in such a way that you can get most of them to escape successfully to any of the 4 corner islands. what stops you? well, island tiles are taken away every turn so the island sinks. if you are standing on that tile, you end up in the water. sharing the water are sharks, whales and sea monsters [more as the game goes on] all ready to tip you out of boats and eat you. its a game to giggle over and although some strategising is helpful, ganging up on the most astute player by the others will make strategising to no avail! we all really enjoy this game. It is a good game for people who rarely play board games too as it doesn’t look intimidating or difficult, and everyone likes making the shark eat someone else!

7 wonders is a game that requires a bit more strategy and thought. played happily by my 11 year old, and it looks more complicated and although has minimal rules to learn, there is a lot of what is best to do itis! don’t let it put you off. if you enjoy playing games, and fancy something different, this is an excellent choice. there is no cental board, you each have a wonder to build and then have to choose cards to ‘build’ things to create points [either directly, or by increasing science or military might]. i like that 7 can play too. it is more complex, and strategising to do. however it is pretty quick, taking under an hour each time we have played, and not a long set up time either. options in your strategy to backstab and derail others strategies.

stone age possibly the most complex of the games due to number of strands tho perhaps les strategic decisions to make than 7 wonders, definitely the longest game. this is more of a tradiotional boardgame – choose what taks you want to do, put ppl on the tasks, a bit of luck as to whether it works etc. v enjoyable game to play. definitely one thats length means you want your beer/diet coke and nibbles on hand! less backstabbing possible, possible for those less strategically minded to do well without constantly asking you what you think is best just needs longer concentration, and therefore best for those that know they like playing games.

do i have a favourite?? well, it depends on the situation which I will choose but think they are 3 very good games.

I am determined to be on schedule for blogging, so that i can concentrate on all that other paperwork that is waiting for me [tax return, appraisal, etc etc!!] so last week was centerparcs week, eagerly awaited, our 6th one we loved it and were duly shattered at the end. what do i love about it?? being with my family, and did love the family only swim we did when everyone else too shattered being with friends – shrieking down the rapids and giggling giggling giggling with our kids, all the lecielrouge family and the older making it up kids is fantastic. just wish we had got jax down too – next time tim, you need to nab the babies! it is great blimping and bumping along with swift porpoise like kids all laughing and chattering . i loved chillaxing in the lagoon with friends – tho really miss the salt pool .

i loved the snow made it really magical. our crazy loon kids still played on the park!

i loved games with friends and family – have christened 7 wonders now, tho haven’t worked out strategies yet . i loved it even more that wayne won the first game despite having gone to bed and having the moves discussed and done for him

I loved that BB and small had a really good friendship this time, as BB can be a bit left out as the big kids get bigger but also that all the kids seemed to have a really great time, and SB loved making the birthday cake for big too i loved sharing time and dinner with le ciel rouge – who aren’t in the blog pics not due to lack of importance, but because they have an exchange daughter currently so i am being careful

i loved that this time having deposited dh in starbucks, the end of hols spend some money was v v straightforward with both girls enabling an earlier get to pancake house. BB so shattered she fell asleep after eating hers!

less keen on forgetting bb’s swim bag last day – she had her costume on tho, so dh detailed to go back to chalet. I did fall over on ice once – the ppl behind said i was v graceful – think they may be being kind I miss the salt pool and dh felt that the new ride would be far too scary for me so i didn’t do it tho he and SB were great fans!

so there you go, a quick blog post about a fab holiday

my SB loves me she loves me because when she is coldy and hacking a cough and in need of tlc I give her love-in-a-cup. Otherwise known as honey ginger and lemon drink. v simple 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger and pour over boiled water. Add 2 tablespoons of honey [if you are SB!] and freshly squeezed lemon. One happy SB . for adults, feel free to add a dispersible aspirin, or a measure of brandy [not both!]

OK, so route 51 doesn’t sound quite as swish as route 66 but we did have a lovely cycle down it. It was jolly cold, and we were an hour later than planned so that my migraine tabs would at least kick in a bit [which they did, a bit!] and we met up with the manor borns in the carpark by danish camp before cycling to bedford along said route 51

it was jolly cold! and there was mud about, but not much as it was a good surface for most of the route. we did a couple of geocaches on the way, finally moving on the geobug that lecielrouge took over a year ago ad then didn’t log! felt much better when that was moved on

we got v quickly to the park, the kids played a bit on the slide wire there and cycled round the lake whilst i had another tablet! we cycled back in time for tea and cake at the danish camp which was delish

Back to the manor borns for a delish meal, playing munchkin booty and chatting. v convivial and lovely thankyou:)