busy busy baking

well, mostly today we have been baking and making mother’s day cards. BB loved sticking, and SB just enjoyed making the cards. chris’s parents came round and got their card, and saw SB’s birthday pressies [they bought her the gorgeous corolle doll . SB read to Nana whilst BB and I made and baked brownies.

SB did some education city and then we baked a choc chip banana loaf. we checked on our worms – nicely making tunnels and taking down food, our seeds – some evidence of phototropism in the spouted cress, and the tomatoes and sunflowers have started to appear.

I made a lovely lasagne, and the girls did some colouring, and then watched bob the builder on the ‘puter. BB singing along at top voice. i have to say, BB sings beautifully, and she is really vocal. We have listended to little toe and classic fm as well, so not all BTB!

We read more britannia [battle of hastings] and an ORT at bedtime.

not packed though.

just perfect with raspberries ;?)

to do

card for little nanny – yep
card for chris mum – yep!
card for my mum – yep
flowers for my mum -yep [she's in libya, so for when she comes home!]
dinner for little nanny – yep, lasagne
choc brownies [vegan] – yep
banana loaf [vegan]
choc banana loaf [vegan or dairy free] -yep
? carrot cake if em not making one

pack!

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“We are tidying, we are tidying..”

Could do with the Mice? from Bagpuss, to sing songs and help us out since that is what we have been mostly doing this week. in particular, as mentioned by Helen, tidying, and reorganising the playroom, which seemed to be disappearing under piles of ‘stuff’, boxes etc. I seemed to have moved most of the books around, organised things to be more accessible. There are now some shelves just for ‘Butterbean’ toys rather than being thrown in a box, which means she does actually now play with them. Also been tidying other places, like spending about 2 hours other day, just putting away piles of clean washing, sorting out the cupboards in the girl’s room – which have loads of space which was mostly filled up with boxes/bags of outgrown/waiting to be grown into clothes.
Basically, things got so messy and disorganised that it’s hindering getting on doing educational stuff, either you can’t find things, or you can’t face getting something out and adding to the chaos, or it just sits there praying on your brain as it needs doing or you end up doing a bit of sorting out or tidying, instead of doing stuff with the kids, but not enough to make an impact – it needed a concerted effort. Yes I know we have plenty of space and storage space, but that just means you can put off things for longer…..

So still things to do, but much improved.

So abandoned attempts to do much ed stuff really, some maths, reading here and there about this and that. As part of the maths stuff on money, SB did a shop the other day, priced up somethings, including putting barcodes on them,

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then I had to buy things and she gave me the change. Realized when she had done it that we haven’t really done decimal addition or subtraction yet which we needed to do to calculate things. We could have done it all in pence, but SB decided she wanted to use the toy till, which has a calculator bit on it, to do them, so she did that, and I explained what the ‘point’ was – or tried to anyway

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Today, so far, SB gave me a ballet lesson, SB and BB have made mothers day cards, my parents popped round this morning, and Helen has baked/cooked, assisted in various ways. BB is a real Bob the Builder fan, so to add to the couple of well played videos we have I’ve downloaded a couple BTB things so they’ve been watching some odd thing where they all go off on some sort of Cowboy holiday in America.

Ahh, Helen has been cooking with SB, she has just come in to say the ‘kitchen is all mine’ , which is rather ominous.

I hate kitchens, no sooner do you get it cleaned and tidy, you blink and it’s a disaster zone again. I want two kitchens, one we use and spends most of it’s time messy, the other would be just for going in and enjoying the pleasure of sitting in a nice clean and tidy kitchen. No cooking, or children allowed ;-)

say its not so

hunstanton 5 day weather forecast

Invasion of the bobbles

Well,that was Chris’s cry as he organised the home ed room – there did seem to be rather a lot of them about! In fact, chris has spent most of the day organising and tidying the room [and is still doing it] so 3 cheers for him!

resources reorganised!

What have we done? well the morning was mostly playing for the girls, running about and having fun. The new violin shoulder rest came through [its a bit big!] but we fiddled it [rofl] and both girls did a violin practice, and I managed to get some nice bow arm movement from SB. We had unearthed some DJ readers level 3 [a long ago book people order] and SB had a go at reading the carnivorous plants book, and she did some education city. We looked at the worms again, and our cress has started to sprout [the only thing sprouting so far. Have read kirsty's gardening blog and feeling well behind again!]. I read a variety of books to BB, and she did handstands while SB did a bit of singapore maths 1B final stretch!
After lunch, I distracted BB with playdough, so that SB and I could so a fairy clothespeg dolly from tesco’s. The playdough distracted SB too though, so we didn’t! BB has made a plaster of paris handprint, and we will do SB’s tomorrow or fri perhaps. We did our french conversation, and added in the age again. I know that isn’t really much for language, but still…
We then got out a microscope we had picked up from freecycle and had a play about with it. The lenses aren’t brill, but SB enjoyed messing about, seeing what she could see etc. intended to read greg’s microscope, but didn’t, and BB fell asleep.

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With BB asleep, we went and snuggled altogether on the sofa and did some story of the world [it has been ages!] and read about China and the great wall. we also have the great wall of china book from sonlight, and assorted bits from enchanted learning that she has done. We looked at the globe, messed about with our own calligraphy and I change the I am romulus and this is rom to I am chin shen and this is china [said, but she'll remember!] we even compared and contraste with romans, and looked at google earth – took up about 2 hours of interest. I guess this is what it should be like all the time!

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With BB then awake, we did tidying and had a chippery tea. Girls had a bath, and more britannia and ORT for SB bedtime, but BB still up and about due to 2 hours of sleep before! Other than that, both girls have been singing around the house, dancing and generally being lovely [mostly!]

At last.

Flickr have launched a way to group/organise your sets.

Which will give H something more to fiddle with :-)

Oh for some sleep!

v difficult to get up and go to work, but did so. [though had a mad phoner on my mobile while I was there - i think it might have been Josie! I put it on silent - rofl] The beans did a bit of maths, not sure what else and then went to the playbarn to meet with a friend. they had a lovely time

When I came home, Chris was reading the tree of life [about evolution] well, SB read half of it and he finished when she got tired. Its a really nice book actually – the evolutionists answer to a creation story. I would recommend it. They then all looked at places on google earth – my parents are off to Syria, which started the search.

We did some violin practice – both of them. SB has a stiff bow arm, so am doing various weird waving excercises as well, being a swan, wrist sighing etc etc.

We read some more of the science encyclopaedia all about atoms [woosh over her head I think, but she liked looking at the pictures - especially the rutherford model]. We looked at the worm world again, they seem to be fine, and pulling the leaves down their burrows. Other than that mostly played dolls and loved me! [the ed is all bitesized if you were wondering how it all got fitted in!]

They also helped Chris make a pineapple upside down cake [BB only ate the pineapple!] All very noisy and wild. Early bed for all of us.

oh, a late update! we have played around the world board game [draw] and connect 4 – and SB truly beat me [rather than a tactical lose] for 1 game out of 3! Hooray. More britannia and ORT reading for bedtime stories, and she is now listening to Horrible Histories CD [so I might tick history!]

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Sunny Sunday

yay, spring is in the air. the daffs have been around for a while, the cherry blossom nearly over and the magnolia budding. Hooray for the rebirth!

I had a lie in today – well, BB did wake me, and we sang songs for a while, but she got up with Chris and I didn’t. When I did finally stir my stumps, I had heard them playing dollies together for a while – no idea what else.

So a slow start, with me reading books to the girls and them playing more dollies and castles. We also did a violin practice [for both] and started SB on twinkle twinkle – but will do merrily we roll along as well. She enjoyed trying starting on different strings.

We looked at the paperweight mosiac from yesterday, and peeled off the paper – unfortunately some of the little mosiacs came out too, but I think that was because the paper wasn’t damp enough. Can glue them back in easily enough. It looks fab anyway.

After lunch we piled outside to make the most of the weather. Mostly playing – hide and seek – where I giggled so loudly in my hiding place, but she still walked past twice :rolls: BB kept giving the game away as well. Chris washed the cold frame, and BB her dolly [thank goodness not SB’s new one! – we should have bought her a bathable one from Merry!]. Much swinging and looking at sprouting broad beans and radish – some suitably investigated by BB, so probably also ‘not working’

We sowed some more broad beans – into roottrainers, and some aubergines. Gradually catching up! Need to do some peas and brassicas ideally before hunstanton for the earlies, but fine to wait. BB got really carried away by the broad bean sowing, so happily sowed the rest of the packet into little pots which she filled with compost. the bean family are so ideal for little fingers! She was sooo proud of herself too, and told me about it over and over again.

BB is such a jolly little thing, SHe loves to talk [good thing in this house] and tell stories. In the garden she had 2 little boats that kept going on adventures round the garden with her, and you could overhear snippets of conversation between them. She is being a bit mean to SB but we are being firm that isn’t tolerated. Chris thinks that she actually enjoys doing the kiss, so now she has to go out into the hall and then come back in and kiss, and SB is encouraged to ask for a kiss at other times – maybe that’ll work. She loves being upside down at the moment, and does adore SB [mutual], following her around, and wanting to do everything with her. She’s also been my shadow – mostly because I have had so little time with her this past fortnight. Back on even keel now though I think.

We kept back some of the broad beans, and have done the beans in a jamjar experiment again – to again look at shooting and rooting. wonder whether to have a go with carrots as well this year like that – though the seeds are so fiddly?

We came in for hot cross buns, and SB cbeebied. BB – poor thing – started to flake, and was trying to eat and be asleep at the same time. Both girls got early baths, and BB stayed awake [just]. A quick pasta tea, and she was much perked, so we all looked at the first animal picture atlas together – BB spotting animals [mostly snakes and frogs!] and SB having to do continents as well.

SB then asked complicated genetics questions, so we discussed chromosomes, DNA and mitosis [sort of!] and looked at pictures of DNA [getting her to practice saying it out n full - BB had a go too] in our science encyclopaedia. We worked our way around one copy from each parent, but we each have 2, and so there can be ‘hidden genes’ ie blonde and curly! so you get a ‘surprise’. At the back are some experiments, starting with cress and the need for light and phototropism. Chris took BB up to bed, and we set up the relevant experiments, having a pack of cress handy.

SB then fancied doing some piano, and we have turned over another page, so have added G to our list of notes![ GABCC#DE] . We looked at our worm world again [well, we had looked at it several times] Ours aren’t the most active, so I might add one or 2 that have never met BB before, in case that is the problem! it might just be they are slow to recover from such a shock. We re-read all about earthworms, and I felt a need to make a home-ed poster about it as a project. We will see whether I can persuade SB thats a good idea too.

Bedtime, for the big girl, and I read her some more from Britannia [which I can't really class as history - more British myths and legends!] , and she read me another ORT book. She told me she REALLY REALLY loves these books. She’s geting good at it. there was hardly any sounding out, or mistakes, but she has been reading books on and off all day and loves to read the farm books to BB as well.

only a week before annual leave – wayhay!

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