after all this is a home ed blog. but i am just a wee bit on the head needs to be rapidly inserted into sand persuasion. after all, i can’t actually make any difference can i
1. hold onto my job
2. budget well
3. hide money under the mattress?? or convert into gold??
Posted in General
we were talking yesterday and led to as a child spotting my mothers mood by the music she played. she loved playing this whilst i was a child. searching for her fav still
I wonder if my children will associate this and this with me? my mother also frequently played this suite, leading me to want to learn it.
Posted in music to love
we obviously weren’t too dreadful guests, as we went back to the second messy party at the deependers yesterday. i was at work in the morning, and being called in the afternoon, but luckilly didn’t have to go in. a bonus babs and family were there too, lovely to see them again as well! also some local HE. this time the messy stuff was in the tent [lucky as the day started off v rainy, but it did improve] babs had got some geli baff – weird stuff. i couldn’t get at all messy in case needed to troubleshoot at work. SB got messy eno0ugh for the both of us, in fact she prob was The Most Messy! thats my girl!! certainly was great fun, and nice to have opportunities to sit and chat while children have fun.
[btw chris's thunder is blogging about team read, there are some photos on flickr. girls will be in newspaper etc]
Home and i finally finished fantastic contraptions – woohoo!! read more pirates of pompeii to the girls.
today i was knackered as called at night. but came back from work in tieme to say a quick hello to sb before her ballet and brownies. BB and i read books, leappadded, looked at a dog book and a dinosaur book [her favourite things!!] before picking more sweetcorn, beans and broccoli from the garden for tea. [have offered spare broccoli seeds to Nic...] we have rousted about and snuggled under duvet with the clangers. sb should be back soon, and we must do a quick bit of latin and i need to sort and resource session 2 on forces[a page in sidebar] for wed.
chris might add the things he has done with girls to his blog post – if we are lucky!!
the totally grr bit of today 
and :rant: was that some old chap was in a dizz whilst parking car at work and forgot to put his handbrake on 
– rolled back into my back bumper, all bent and scraped. havce only had the car for 11 daYS However, it being NCP, the people there had seen it, and couldn’t move his car so bollarde etc, and put warnings on his and mine and did an incident form. he went and fessed up [though otherwise i would still have had numberplate] so will get chris to chase up tomorrow. still sobbing!!
Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, gardening, General, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, socialisation
he says he might tomorrow! so i won’t steal his thunder!!
whilst not at work for a short patch, the girls were keen to ‘do’ things. my mum had brought up some 70′s craft books i had got one xmas [from aunty doris and uncle ralph, i know this, because the tag is still sellotaped inside] and BB chose to make tissue paper flowers with me, which we enjoyed lots, though i actually did most of it! one thing i like in this book is there is a making paper bag masks bit, and the illustrated page of kids wearing them has a toddler running away wailing!! SB wanted to do science, so she did the volcano thing, and got through half a bottle of sarsons! we need to source cheap vinegar!!
also today, after measuring the temp in the kitchen at 13, the heating went on. sb and i went round the whole house measuring the temp in each room – highest 15. def cold! we had a chat about what might make rooms colder – number of outside walls, windows without double glazing etc. once the heating has got going, we will remeasure.
bB and i played no-rules draughts [i lost due to non understanding of the rules, and penalties of my pieces being randomly removed] SB read LOADS of books [including a horrid henry joke book, and we had to listen to them - groan!!]. we picked our own sweetcorn for tea, and also raspberries, blackberries and apples.
i did lots of reading. we read our emilie books [en francais] – 3 of them, and then i read loads of the goblin and ghoul stories too. SB escaped SOTW and Latin, and also music practice – though i did some piano practice.
they had toasted marshmellows on open fire for pudding – though SB burnt tongue and finger despite many warnings to be careful. bless her, she is most accident prone.
And i worked – sigh
edited to add – i forgot to add that i mended one of bb’s stretchy dinodoors with copydex and then sutures. seems to be holding firm at present, and not leaking any more little rubber balls! successful surgery
we tootled [or chuggered - to use Bb'S moving verb of choice] down to london for the day to see/hear/participate in a lecture at the royal institute for science. it was on sound, and by these guys. we were pleased to be making our inaugeral venture with friends – meeting up with Nic, monster and teeny, em, E and R, the deependers and a local home ed family. As it happened, we had failed to assess which session Nic was going to make! so she took the early showing, but we did all meet up at the park for an hourish of running about wildly greeting friends. chris and i now have oyster cards, which feels v londony!! i am going into london 2ce more this week for work, so will prob use mine up – i wonder how you recharge the things?? Em having driven quite a way then parked and tubed, i wonder whether that would be cheaper for us – as there are 2 adults?
i really enjoyed it. i think the presenter was excellent. even if the regional accent threw me once :blush: it was the herrs in the ear! in the warm up, there were q and a’s on the wall, and i was totally appalling at them! the kids all had a go though – we had them all sitting in a row together with adults behind. they loved it. K and SB both got to go down and interact. we were slightly concerned that sb had been given scissors and an instruction not to cut his nose off, and she said that when she got close, she did consider it! 
bB managed really well too. she liked putting her arm up to answer questions and volunteer slightly releived he had more sense than to choose her. she did some remarkably loud yawns, but it was only after her loo break at 40 mins that she lost concentration, and insisting on scrambling over people for a mummy cuddle, rather than the next to her daddy 
but i was really impressed with her staying power. both girls would def like to go again. i did think he had a lot left to do, and rushed the last 10 mins or so, but it was good. and he didn’t mind the home ed third of the audience shouting answers rather than hands upping! but yes, SB was enthralled by the whole thing, and lovely yo meet up with friends, however briefly, so def worth the price of travelling.
afterwards we went down to the not opened museum in the basement, and alll the children really REALLY loved the singing periodic table, where you had to bash the elements found at the RI [all 10] as the appeared in the song. most of the rest doesn’t look particularly interactive, but worth another look another time! we think we will try out the am heart one, and pop to a museum pm in Nov – hopefully limiting the pain of travelling costs by the 2 for 1 thing! Any friends doing the same also a bonus!!
all the kids were fantastic on the journey back. we had a really crowded train, and a lovely chap gave up his seat for me, and also someone gave up theirs for Katy [who needed it more with A, but 'mine' was backwards facing] the children had books read to them, and the SB carried on reading books out loud for the rest of the journey, and BB fell asleep on my lap. [due to sleep bB is STILL awake, and show us how she balances things. i am going to bed soon, and will try for a second time with BB then - SB asleep though] SB made it back in time for judo, which she v much loves.
otherwise this week maths and handwriting and piano practices have happened, lots of reading, and some violin. BB is so into sounding out syllables and what words might begin with that we are doing more before the code with her again.
Posted in General, history, literacy, music, numeracy, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, writing
i am sorry, i am feeling v stringy. nearly went for some ballet music, but… this time of year always reminds me of string residential courses, as the leaves turn and it starts to get nippy!
SO here it is, the piece of music we played on my fist residential string course, and loved ever since. the st paul’s suite. written for the similarly named girls school where holst was musical director. this is the second half
Posted in music to love
we had a fab time at the deependers trashing their garden. i am hoping it recovers. i personally didn’t trash anything you understand, but pretty much all the children took a starring role. there was mess aplenty, lots of spaghetti, soap suds, etc etc. then a huge water pistol fight. SB was happy in the thick of things, but BB not so keen, and mostly had hugs and snuggles and book reading. i stayed unmessy, and had a good chat with the adults!
thanks katy and bob for arranging such a fabulous day.
Posted in General, Out and About, socialisation
so english to be pathetically glad about such a lovely day. but it was soooo lovely!! i had a lie in too – even lovelier! when i got up, the girls had been geomagging and playing with plasticine. SB was desperate to do some maths, as this section has a lot of messing about measuring things with water. she did piano first though, and is playing v nicely there with both hands nd sight reads well. we really should do more practice though. aarrghh. then we all went out into the garden, she did her measuring experiments, and bb enjoyed disposing of the water randomly around the garden.
when she was soaked, i picked some fresh sweetcorn from the garden [really happy about that!] and the girls had it for lunch. we might have had more of it for lunch, except that somehow bb’s ended up in the pond… we also had freshly picked apples from the garden, and i picked yet more beans! we did some french and then painting. both said they wanted to paint their feet. sb’s got transferred to paper, and bb’s to the patio!
more messy water play later, and we made some viking bread – which is yummy. SB realised how much work grinding would be, as i had a cupful of seeds to pestle and mortar. she did some, but i did most!! both girls made shapes with it before it was cooked.
A bit cold, we went inside for a snuggle, and i read loads of stories from the barefoot buddhist story book, and then we watched how things work, and SB did a sewing kit – very nicely! soup and viking bread for tea. yummy. i made a viking lucet from a plastic fork. i think we have very nearly finished our viking section. must do a bit of rune writing before we move on with SOTW.
chris has been busy putting up some extra shelves in the pantry so we can move the suma order from the hallway! i am worried it will attract mice in.
Posted in General
yep, thanks v much! need to work out what some of the buttons do, obviously.
had an early finish from work, which was much needed after a dreadful night sleep! SB had a nightmare and came in to chat at 3am!!
she obviously got a lie in, which i didn’t. but she was probably more productive, doing maths, handwriting and a maths experiment in the morning. when i got home she did a really lovely violin practice, and she is getting to have a really comfortable looking posture.
we were then going to do a science kit. i suggested trying out one of the young scientist club ones from the egg booklet sarah sent up with steve [thanks v much sarah - i will def use the ideas in them for the science group and am v v greatful!], but she decided to do a build a robot kit we have, got it all out and then had a strop and put it away again. fair enough. she still wanted to do science, and bb now also desperate, so she went to get an enviroment kit, and got it all out, realised some of it has to be done outside, had a strop, put it away. then got a much used physics kit out and… had a strop because half the pieces must be scattered round the house, and she couldn’t do any of the experiments she wanted to – sigh! however, she found a game and was quite happy sorting it out. then she did lots of building with our fun blox sets. BB and i did a pompom craft, as she was in a fever to do something!
we finished the afternoon with a slump infront of muzzy. i def think its improving my german comprehension anyway!!
our camera seems to have disapparated. we can’t find it anywhere. chris said he took a photo with it this morning, i am fairly convinced that i saw it beside the cooker when i came in from work. but there is no sign of it anywhere at all. humph!! SB won’t let me borrow hers either.