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since the jubilee post we have been doing things ‘bookwork’ has been going on, SB has started 5B singapore maths, BB has finished 2 explode the code, and is also now reading level 5 of oxford reading tree and songbirds quite happily. Lots and Lots of clarinet practice with grade 3 imminent. I am practicing too, as accompanying her – eek!! the girls have been to some home ed groups for multisports, a forest-school type thing and arts awards, which they do regularly and really enjoy with our local HE group CHEF. We topped up our fish tank with some platys as have found a new home for at least some of the baby mollies

SB did an additional fab workshop set up through a fab musical friend last week which was to make a recorder. They went somewhere where mollenhauer recorders can be made from kit form, and also more basic recorder type heads. SB loved this, and came home with a great recorder having enjoyed the day. BB instead was treated to a day at Duxford since she is too young to make recorders. She loved that, loved the tanks and guns, and bought an airfix spirfire kit from the shop. All happy

That evening we were joined by E and family, ostensibly to fix a kirtle but actually to chat, eat dinner a bit late, have kids not go to sleep and then be cranky the next day etc etc

Next day was wodensmeet’WedEd at zoes. I had to go into work first so was v grateful that E could take my girls. they did some watercolour painting and some sewing of lavender animal pockets. all great science was making electromagnets which worked well until the plastic around the wires at the top of the batteries started to smoke… oops! luckilly we had a solution and the experiment worked. We have nearly finished the physics real science for kids. Merry did a poetry session which both girls enjoy. I think there may have been homework, we haven’t done it. BB had a too tired fail moment, but did eventually recover. we also made mediaeval cheese and onion pies using hot dough white flour this time] which was actually really yummy. hoping this will be an acceptable recipe for kentwell [in a making it up kinda way ] we left to go to judo – bb predictably falling asleep, but loved the judo.

fas forwarding to the weekend. i was def feeling rubbish, migraine for too long and just no energy whatsoever. like living in a treacle-arium. . however, lots of final crafts for craft show needed making, so the girls decorated their 5 buns, made sure they knew what they were entering for what, and I assisted SB in making sweets out of her elderflower cordial. They worked pretty well TBH, as i had to completely make up the recipe. the day was enlivened by a surprise visit by TheBabs and family who stayed over as well. We got to play Aqua Romani, which we all enjoyed, and is a really interesting game [and short] chatted, put the worlds to right, hoped someones static moving was going fine [:( it didn't, but hope it wall all be alright in then end] and shepherded very tired kids to bed a bit late they were a bit cranky the next day, but we did provide pancakes It was the craft fair, as always fun, some odd decisions, but light hearted and merry. The girls were happy, BB had a first and 2 second places, SB a first and a third place. we also won a prize on the rraffle – quality street so a good weekend.

mon and tues have been tidying days, clarinet prac and some bookwork, but glorious weather so a fair bit of out and about in the garden for the girls. BB also made her airfix spitfire I was at home today and we had a part historyetc and part playing in the garden as only Z was here, and both our families felt up for more of a playdate. The girls did make an aztec game together and tortillas, and SB did read all about them from a history book. But jumping in and out of the paddling pool screeching was altogether more fun . SB pieces are sounding pretty good most of the time for her clarinet exam this sat, and scales are getting there. both girls judoing, and then having a frisby competition Also today we have finished the pyrography of our plates for kentwell, and SB has been a bit over enthusiastic on her belt. oh well!!

DH has been making some yummy meals from hugh fearnly whittingstalls veg book as well

book links [i am amazon affiliate but bringing in diddlysquat currently etc ]

wow, that was a big blog

Hmm, having not blogged much for a long time, i am dreadfully out of the habit of sitting here and blogging in the evening. Mostly, I am doing work now not sewing so much!

We had a fantastic jubilee weekend with friends, camping in their parents backgarden – poor parents! they were great hosts, I wonder if they truly knew what to expect? we were first to arrive and pitched our tiny tent, helped sort out a few things and then just enjoyed people arriving. Lots of friends, lots of adults chatting, lots of kids playing. A fair bit of sewing I hope the twins enjoyed their birthday. I certainly did SB slept with the birthday girls in their bell tent – tho sleep might be too strong a word, as i think she and another girl decided to read their whole books… BB – who had had a fab time playing with her friend J – was fine with SB not sleeping with her, and after her story, fine for me to go and rejoin adults – albeit only 5m away – but a big step in confidence for her. I also loved how she had brought sleeping bags for tigger and yoshi

The following day, tho the weather on the dire side, we went to the oyster faire. no crowds meant an excellent view of mummers, falconry and storytelling. thought the mummers great actually also various tudor dances and sounds about the place. lots of opportunity to look in reenactment tents and buy stuff – points for DH, suhat for SB. SB and some of her friends went dressed for the occassion too, and looked fab. BB bought herself an axe and SB a tiara – my girls, not from the same pod!

We went back to clear away tent and chat some more before leaving rather late. good weekend tho

I had both bank hols of work – woohoo! so spent it with girls, doing some catch up on gardening, playing games, crafting, reading and exhorting a bit of home ed ‘normals’, oh and loads of clarinet practice . SB and I made elderflower cordial – which smells divine. i had another go at making a mediaeval pie with BB [she still didn't like it!]. lovely pottery days

weds was also off work – lucky me, and we made it a jubilee themed musicetc. I brought crafts to make jubilee inspired banners and also a patriotic cushion. music lessons, french games, music theory also done.

this weekend we meant to do a bit of activity and geocaching, but for the first time in ages migraine free so celebrated by doing nothing! [well, clarinet prac, tidying up the kentwell stuff and making sure we had all i thought we had ] enabling the girls to get started on crafts for village country faire as it is next weekend. BB is going for the scattergun approach – hundreds of quickly dashed off entries! we have tried to make sweets from elderflower cordial, but think i burnt the sugar – might need to try again we have made olympic medals, golden temples and pictures. also played more games and had lots of snuggles and i read to them about Henry 5

In blogging this, I have realised that with the upgrade, all our blog pages on the side seem to have disappeared as do lots of photos from the blog. hmm!! Every year in May since 2005 I have blogged a home ed day. This was last years. Here is this year’s home ed day. It is not at all typical as I am not the main home educator, and perhaps not the home educator at all. Over the last 2 years I have had too many balls to juggle, and I have thrown some hard at greenhouses, and others have slipped through my grasp tho still precious to me. Home education is one of the things I have let slip . Wednesday is still my home ed day though, and nearly every wednesday we go out to someone elses house, be it WedEd at Zoes or Music at Ginas or once a month History at mine. Today should have been WedEd, but i notified in advance a duvet day was needed, as working the weekend either side I felt i needed a connect day with the kids. So we were atypically at home. Also not a typical day, because many days they are out. this week Tues they were at a museum event, Thurs they are at a circus skills taster, fri is ‘the wild place’ so actually spending a whole day at home is unusual. What is usual, is that I only thought of doing it part way through the day, so the number of photos are a bit sparse!

We were all up by 9am as BB had a haircut. SHe has been hating brushing her hair or having it brushed, so she went out for a cut. When she came back we got going. Typically I was migrainous, so took tablets and attempted to recover. Our plan was to do a fair bit of bookwork in the morning, as so much of the week was out-and-about-ing, and then cook mediaeval pies in the afternoon, in preparation for Kentwell.

BB, therefore, started with painting . She had a paint by numbers kit of superheroes, and used her art easel [that was a good buy!] to steady it before doing the painting. SB started with clarinet prac for her grade 3 [no photo!]

Both then did a morning of bookwork things and we sat in the conservatory, which was just perfect . BB said she planned to complete explode the code book 2, but after 4 pages declared that after all she wasn’t , SB has nearly finished Singapore Maths My Pals are Here 5A. BB then did some spelling and took down a dictated sentence. we had a bit of a disagreement that her ‘d’ looked to me like ‘p’ tho she said they were ‘D’ – leading me to read about hot-pogs. She then went outside to make things in her den and bounce on the trampoline. SB did a section of Galore Park science 1 on heat conduction, and then Galore Park English 1 . I hemmed my kirtle so a bit shorter and then poured walnut oil on our Kentwell wooden bowls to season them in the hope that they don’t crack when we use them. She finished her Rome Dk project book and joined bb outside whilst I sorted lunch.

Lunch had, we went outside and the girls swung, bounced and made dens and then we had a go at making our mediaeval pie. I planned to make one savoury and one sweet, but both insisted that they wanted to make an apple pie! so we made 2 apple pies . We followed a recipe for hot dough pastry tho we used wholemeal flour – to try and get used to it really, as we do prefer white flour pastry. It was straightforward to make, and that recipe made 2 good size pies. we sweated the apple with sugar and cinnamon before putting in the pie, but not sure how sweet the pies will be [or edible]. with the spare pastry the girks made a jam tart each.

Back out in the garden SB and I took turns reading a chapter of story of the world 2 – we are a long way behind where we should be for historyetc! BB listened and fished and went in her den. SB also bounced and ate pomegranate. Then there was a fair bit of bouncing whilst I sorted out some of our seedlings in the greenhouse.

Time for a final bit of bookwork outside. SB did some of her collins grammar, and BB did some singapore maths 1B, and then made a maths game to practice tens and units. we have gone back a step as realised she was struggling with HTU. more bouncing . I made some wool little bags out of scraps.

finally BB went to judo for her grading – here she is in her white belt for the last time. SB is being graded as I type, fingers crossed, as we had thought her grading was next week, but it has been brought forward and she hasn’t practiced her patterns

Phew SB passed grading so we are watching star wars .

books used today:

i have an affiliate link, and any order thro a click garners me pennies

i think may is my favourite month. i love the smell of mayblossom early on and then the elderflower. only mayblossom out at the moment, but this year there are that many fields of rape that the smell of them is overpowering. I do wonder whether that is why i have had a migraine nearly solidly for 2 weeks.

mayblossom reminds me of my childhood. my school playing field was surrounded by a hedge of them, and also some hawthorns making a dingly dell to play games in. It reminds me of little nanny, whose birthday was may first. it smells of the promise of summer, and the need to be getting those summer seeds going of squash, sweetcorn and climbing bean.

I love the smell of the mayblossom

I am sad not to have posted blogs for the last 2+ months, as you forget bits, and somethings never get captured that you would have liked to say. so i am going to randomly say things!

We had a great holiday in wales, near newgale in a cottage just a step or 2 from the beach. we relaxed, had fun as a family and enoyed each others company. I remembered thinking i should blog about the joy of having bb’s hand in mine, walking along the coastal path and then the road [as she got irritated by the flies!] as she told me all the things that were catching her imagination or wanted to know more about. the joy of rock pooling with sb and bb, finding shells, stones, crabs and just picking about. letting them set the pace, and what to do. dreamers all 3 of us! playing board games with sb, laughing and beinghappy together, or jointly eyerolling at bb feeling proud of my girl reaching the cusp of teenagerdom, walking towards womanhood andd being v lovely. Also having time to talk with my husband, board games and just remembering why he is the perfect man to have married. we also got to meet the portico parents – v lovely, and sb quite taken by gaffers programmes. I also got opportunity to sit and let thoughts flutter around my head. It has been v v hard losing my sister, as well as losing little nanny, and i have been finding it all much harder again recently.

we went to the big bang science fair in brum – fab! staying at a travelodge with friends fairly centrally. we got the most from the science fair, both girls being enthusiastic, interactive and gaining alot from it. we also visited a museum in the jewellry quarter which was fab. we also had a shopping day, where i enjoyed spoiling the girls

otherwise, home ed has been carrying on, we have had history days, weded days and extra days out

BB has got more confident in reading, and is really keen on drawing and planning out designs – particularly for rockets. she is keen on space things currently. she has become happy to be left at judo and gym – big deal for her .

sb has passed her piano grade 2, and working on clarinet, home ed is ticking along, and she has read everybook we possess that is suitable for her! she is definately showing us the teen she is going to be , much more confident about who she is and what she likes, a real pleasure.

we have done a fair few family things – a family party for my side of the family at easter, celebrating my cousins pregnancy – woohoo – and missing those family members who are no longer with us, and celebrating dh’s parents golden wedding with his family. cross over of the families at each party, as with all these years, we really are one. v happy to see those we love x

and obv my work doesn’t get anyless stressful.

there we go, a catch up! i guess i have missed out loads!

All my time not interacting with kids, or being at work has been taken up by sewing. I have made pretty much all by myself [with a bit of help here and there to get tricky bits cut or sewn right], pretty much by hand, and pretty much in authentic wool and linen, 4 complete costumes for us to be tudors and take part in the annual recreation at Kentwell Hall.

I am VERY proud of myself

and speedily catching up!

Home ed
usual things really, SB doing a fair bit. struggling with the galore park history syrwtl 1 level of now detail and interrogation, so helped her out a bit, with a mixture of other resources and wikipaedia, think she has got the measure. Also need to sit with her over music theory. otherwise she is independantly cracking on, and we review bits and pieces. Reading loads and loads, as always. Also practicing well for her piano grade 3 that is coming up, and clarinet, as her teacher suggests she might do grade 3 next term. BB is reading lots of apple tree farm books now. Definitely getting the hang of this :), and she is also doing lots of careful crafting, drawing and sewing.

we had another great wodensmeet, continuing on with the real science for kids physics, this time investigating inertia and momentum with marbles. Preparing a storyline for 3 little pigs animation, and making some fab rabbits and assorted other critters from old socks. other art, chatting etc also went on.

home ed groups – arts award, forest skills etc and usual after school activities – BB is really enjoying judo and doing it without sb now. both got some more badges at gymnastics. sb level2 and bb level 5. SB is loving the spanish element in her ballet class currently and would like to learn to flamenco.

I had d and v for 3 days which was a nightmare from a work perspective, not v pleasant, and also stopped us going to an interesting looking CHEF thing on calendars and clocks, that i was told nails would be involved it didn’t stop us going to the CHEF science faire, which turned out to be absolutely fabulous and we all really enjoyed. talked to interesting parents and interested children. picked up some experiments to repeat at home and had a great time. Thankyou

we had a musicetc, where i repeated one of the science faire experiments and we talked about surface tension, also some latin was done and practical music. i almost failed to leave in time for my sewing fest with a lady with a skill at tudor corsetry, and we spent 10 hours setting the reeds into the bodies. hoping the next sessions go more swiftly!!

my parents came for the weekend, and lovely to see them. particularly as dad getting over a big op – nephrectomy for cancer. we now have the histology, and completely removed, so we can all breathe more easily we didn;t know when he came up, so a bit stressful. this may have been another impediment to blogging.

oh, and we have played lots of board games, in particular carcasonne and forbidden island. BB is getting to be a good game player too . I think this will do for a catch up

lots of things happen, i think, i should blog this, but i dont
why not?
1. trying less screen time when kids up
2. loads of documentation stuff for work to do in eve
3. sewing for kentwell instead!
4. just feel uninspired.

we have blogged since BB was born tho, in a variety of different styles! so we will carry on.

yesterday we went to Kentwell Hall as we are applying to be participants in the tudor reenactment. I have already made lots of the linen clothes, and have a ‘costume elf’ helping me with my buxomy kirtle and bodies . but why i mentioned it was because i was v proud of both my girls, and it defines how they are moving on. SB is growing into teenage hood, independance, and thoughtfullness [well, mostly!] in a lovely way. I have always thought her beautiful in both body and spirit, and think she is blossoming. She was helpful and accommodating all day, knowing that much of our parental skills might be needed to gee bb through something that has a reputation for extreme tediousness. She also appreciated the freedom to interact with her friends with me knowing that should would act responsibly and return appropriately. SHe smiled, questioned and answered with keenness and maturity when quizzing stationheads about what to do, and was happy with her decisions. She even took the teasing at the end in good part when she shew her only streak of noncompliance over helping carry things . i jsut love the person she is, and the glimpses i see of the person she is coming to be. Yes, she has inherited a streak of this from me and that from DH which would be better not, but hey ho .and BB, she is a charming mischievous imp irrepresably wearing her emotions on her sleeve. This is not necessarily a good thing! SO i talked to her a bit about the day, the need to entertain herself quietly [with ds] queue without groaning, sulking or worse still, wailing! And to speak nicely to stranger adults about what she would like to do, including an interview with the boss. She did it all fabulously. this was something likely to wobble her, as all new, expectations varied etc, and talking to strangers, but she was happy, smiley and did it. What is more, she found some of her own solutions and proffered them – for example sitting by our bags whilst i queued for her for lunch. SO proud that she did it

so anyway, we went, more positive than i thought, less queueing too and pretty well structured. We talked to loads of people, tho failed to find dairy, which i think counted a bit against choosing that. BB was ultimately v taken by dyers and gardener, so we put those dairy and cott as places we would like to be stationed. Sb talked to loads of people independently. I was there when she successfully chatted to the stillroom, which had been her favourite. However, she fell head over heels for the charms of annie the pedlar, and now hopes to be a peddlar too, thinking that will be excellent. DH is tempted by being a steward or a woodsman or alchemist [just happy he is tempted by something!] . since sb no longer keen on still, i would go for dyer or still or cott, or maybe house musician, though apparently that has long spells of boring, so perhaps not! So feeling more confident about the whole thing, especially since talking to a lovely costume checker, who said what i had already done for girls fine, tho i should iron more

I was very good, I nearly gave DH the best birthday present ever 11 years ago. However, i only laboured, delivering the following day, so now his birthday is always swallowed by prep for SB’s. Still, I tried . This year he gets closer and closer to the next decade… [perilously close you might say ] and got lots of cards from family. BB gave him an oil painting of daffodils [done by herself] SB was going to give him a book of vouchers to be redeemed, all with tasks for her to do for him. she took loads of great photos of the sylvanians doing these tasks, but because he saw the photos on the camera, instead gave him a home made owl. Although he loved the owl, i have a sneaking suspicion he would have loved the redeemable vouchers too I gave him carcasonne, a game we have eyed up lots but somehow never owned. Ideal in the quick game for casual game players. He was happy

Next day was SB’s birthday, up, opened presents and she was v happy with what she got, including a new quieter ‘trick’ scooter [hopes not a bone breaker!] and a fair number of books. birthday lunch of pancakes always good to be healthy does maple syrup count towards 5 a day?? we took the scooter out for a trial at the nearly always completely empty carpark around the corner, and she and bB had a great time scootering before returning home. She had Big from liveotherwise coming to go out with her to watch a film and met P and S from le ciel rouge there. She had a max guest number, and she found it v hard as there were at least 3 more ppl she would have loved to come too, however, they either had siblings she felt bad about not choosing too, or else weren’t good with scary films, and she was initially planning war horse. Hard choices! but she had a fab time with her 3 chosen friends, in the end they saw journey 2 to the island, which they all seemed to love, and had popcorn and fizzy drinks and went in without adults home to a dominos pizza tea with extras, icecream and cake. initially the plan had been a meal out [which is why restricted numbers] but at the last minute, the devastation of bb of not sharing sb’s birthday treat meant sb changed to birthday tea at home so she could join in. I was happy about that too BB played with small, i chatted to Jax and also entertained SOA whilst the big girls where at the theatre.

so all in all a fab birthday obviously jax stayed over until lunch the next day = great to catch up. Next time we meet she might have a baby! [that would be great!!] DH’s parents came over for the afternoon and evening – played carcasonne and had more presents

otherwise bits missed out in the week include arts award – learning about watercolours, and fab work done. SB can now officially sign up for the bronze award, so we should do that. guides, where sb made loads of cakes to take, and actually really seemed to have enjoyed it, BB’s gym and they bailed out of multisport due to sb foot still hurting. lots of piano practice

oh dear to all the not in time blogging! to hharicot he days! we had in half term a historyetc day. I plan to add pics as we have the capability back, but thought better blog! numbers seriously reduced due to BB’s chickenpox. . theme was vikings to post battle of hastings, so we had some viking and normal ships to build and a viking house. we had fimo thors hammer charms, bayeaux tapestry design and using those packing noodles to make a motte and bailey castle. also baking bread. I was significantly under the weather with migraine, but i think it was a much quieter session than normal. i think missing the other families and their crafts as well. loved seeing the people that came tho, and i love seeing the kids keeping fingers busy but being happy with their friends. think we could do with shaking it up a bit tho maybe adding a bit of show and tell as a v short vignette [can be acted a la horrible histories] would be quite fun.

the following week was a wodensmeet, with key themes of physics forces, animation and sewing. Started with SB, P and S doing some french speaking aloud – reading a french storybook to each other. they all then made a person and a scene for what will be a project of animating 3 pigs story. lots of discussion and v great drawings. Sb did piano prac, and had me and em nagging her and some music theory – putting rhythms to poems, something i admit is nearly as easy to me as breathing, but she really struggles with. need to get her rapping or something! After lunch the deependers joined us as well, which was really fab, and we did science in 2 sessions, rolling different mass and size marbles along a tube, seeing what our confounding variables were, and talking about momentum and inertia. the experiment demonstrated it v well. whilst i was doing that, z was leading some sock critter making from a book of e’s . this was greatly successful, with many fab critters being made. we grown ups did some chatting over ben, sb finished her galore park history and we socialised before going off to judo

BB made me v proud at judo, because she did it without SB, changed with lots of partners and clearly enjoyed herself. the big lads were also v v lovely with her

friday was arts award, looking at watercolours.

this post needs some pictures!