Petits Haricots

having got a bit behind on blogging, and so much has happened, this is going to be a bit of a quick one!

SB worked hard, predominantly on English right up until the weds, when people started to arrive for christmas. Since she was leaving for spain straight after christmas, will do no english out there, and as soon as she returns there will be a month before the exam. eek! fairly hopeful she will pass, but clearly she would like to do better than just scrape a pass in english. her maths practice papers are going well, mostly a’s, and some time before the exam with ability to practice when she is in spain, as that wont disrupt the language acquisition! the chem papers are at the c level, and thinking that she will pick that up with full on revision and past papers on her return, as this is just a learning thing and was where she was at when we started the biol past papers [albeit with a months more revision time] last year. she is good at head down working tho! she got the monday off, meeting up with friends including C from SOTP at a point chosen because it was roughly equidistant, and both could get an easy train journey there. They all had a lovely time decided to visit a museum of the civil war, and then do an historical building trail. Yep, my role as home educator here is done, she is a self educating teen . oh, and we played some games!

BB and I did some crafting. we carried on with the wire crafting that SB had done fore weds4ed. we also made hama bead stars and little angles and shapes out of choc coin wrappers ( these were quite inventive!) . we had planned to do some baking – which we did eventually. We made a mary berry recipe yule log. we have LOADS of eggs currently as the hens are all laying each day, so 21 eggs a week. What delayed us, though, was a sudden fault in the wiring, so we helped DH chase wires all around the house. he did find the area, though not the specific fault. it was a good thing tho, as it was the kitchen that was affected due to weird wiring of the past!

we also gave ourselves a bit of a treat and went to see star wars! we all thoroughly enjoyed it, so a good time was had by all 

oh, and i bought some xmas jumpers in the sale on a whim

blogging on a roll today! SB is doing an english paper at the moment, so i am distracting myself from trying to help. so, what other things have happened? clear weds4ed. we had a lovely pre-christmas meet, where we looked at some properties of sulphur, and discussed how we made sulphuric acid etc whilst making plastic sulphur and a terrible smell . we did quite well at it tho.

SB had a fab craft making xmas decs with wire, beads and bells

And afterwards they went skating whilst i had my mammo [unfortunately] and i didnt quite make it back in time to watch them skate. i did join them in the shop tho, and finished shopping for some luxury foods for sb to take to spain for her spanish family christmas.

SB and i went to a messiah workshop that had been advertised through the county windband. i think i forgot to say that SB got into the county windband – woot! and that she had a fab time on their first weekend just after xmas camp. DH took and brought her back, and we have no photos. She was feeling a bit blurghy with a cold and headache, so clarinetting all weekend wasnt ideal. still, she really enjoyed it.

it was unfortunate that so few people took up the messiah workshop that i think they changed it a fair bit. there were only 10 kids attending! when i had put in sb’s application, i said something about how much the messiah reminded me of xmas as a kid [i played it A LOT in the various orchestras i belonged to] so was told to bring my violin . clearly i am quite rusty, but i can still play! We had a fun morning running through the messiah and the pastoral interlude. [i would have liked for unto us as well...] really enjoyed it. lovely to be playing with daughter and also the home ed kids i see regularly . I snuck some photos

afterwards we walked into town and gave ourselves a treat lunch at the italian by the market, pizza and icecream – yummy . also popped into m and s to get some coins i had won on their silly internet game.

lovely spending some one to one time with my eldest she is very wonderful.

and there is so much work to do! not helped by the fact that our electrics are old, and clearly put in by an electrician many years ago without an obvious plan. so DH has had to take half the house apart chasing a fault which was stopping the kitchen plugs [including oven] from working. argh! he has identified finally where it must be and gone for isolating that area, as pretty impossible to get to without demolishing the kitchen. argh some more! so some photos of nooks and crannies to celebrate his persistance.

in other news, we have gradually been becoming festive. the trees are up and decorated, the parcels are wrapped [on the whole] and we have been doing some festive crafting. not enough tho, as i am driven to help sb with her work so bb getting a bit left out. must remedy!

Poor SB has been really stuck into working on return from xmas camp. there just isnt very much time before she goes to spain for 3 months, and whilst she is there she wont be doing any english or chemistry. this leaves only 1 month on return before her igcse exams. i think it has finally hit that this is a really short time. [and that all my nagging was justified, even if unwanted and ignored] so we have dropped physics. The plan is to take maths papers to do in spain, and i have bought some spanish workbooks to be working through so that when she returns she is ready for spanish and maths. they will then be on the backburner to chem and english.

the next week had a lot of lasts in it – mostly SB’s temporary last judo and actually forever last ballet. Still ploughing through the home ed, playing a bit catch up for the fun she had when SPD here.

DH finished making a home for the chickens, so they were moved in! they are free ranging during the day, and tucked away for night. in the spring they will move to the veg bed area, but whilst they are so new, we want to keep a close eye on them, and them on us!

weds we went to TB, and SB did english and maths. yes, I am having a bit of a wibble over english prep! G uses a different book, which SB prefers, so with little time to go, we swapped over! SB and friend did a lot of laughing over some goat thing on the internet and then we fimo-ed together. made some christmas tags/decorations and chatted. I find busy hands a good time for side-along chats with my kids, as no eye contact

thurs i had a v difficult work day, and when i cam home, i realised my right hip seized up. during fri at work ppl kept offering me a wheelchair, and I succumbed to a stick. It was extreeeeemely painful until monday and then just painful [a far better state of affairs] . no idea what i did, bandied about a few diagnosis, but luckilly it was improving at the point i would have battled a and e!

Sunday we went to christmas camp – woot woot! It had been a lot more last minute this year! In fact, I wasnt sure it would happen, but there was space at sheringham and off we went. Obviously we had to have some drama on the way there, it was so windy that the wind ripped open a crack in the roofbox lid, so we came to a stop. luckilly not far from home, and also lucky that dh keeps various strappings in the car. we went back home, hitched the trailer and set off again!

We had a fab time, ignoring my hip! i love being able to spend time with friends companiably, playing games, sewing, laughing, cooking and eating etc! The kids were all pretty happy too. This is the first camp with wifi, and BB was actually the one unimpressed, as after all she likes them not to have so much screens! Also could have done with hiding SB’s phone at times too…  We did give the kids a shock by taking the nerf guns and attacking… lovely food, it is a shame that the ovens set off the fire alarms on xmas day – they had just been working too hard! no actual flames – so we had to evacuate . looking forward to seeing the camp photo – still on SB’s camera! Also did carols, music and crafting – tho a bit less this year. everyone happy with their respective secret santas. very convivial.

I hadnt done any walks, but on the last day i decided we would drive our car to the beach so at least i could see the sea! not that i could walk down the steps…

So, well, catching up time! what did we do after SPD left? carried on as we did.  got some chickens. BB had a hurriedly thrown together birthday party. We arranged a nerf gun party in the village home. we had bought some extra guns and darts, set up some obstacles, and generally had a fun time. I know! I am a pacifist hippie, and my eldest is in cadets, and my youngest loves nerf guns. Lots of fun was had during the nerf party . Most of the adults stayed in the kitchen drinking I loved that Nanna played a charlies angel, and had a great time.

People came back to ours afterwards for board games, birthday tea and a film and popcorn. BB decided it had been a fabulous birthday party, and we were all very happy.

The following week there was a lot of home ed done, particularly by SB! she has a lot to fit in before she leaves for Spain. Lots of hard work to be done wrt english in particular! we have started doing some papers to tailor her learning to being goal specific. something i never really wanted to do in home ed! however, english gcse is a required tick for what she wants to do next. She also got her next judo belt at grading and did her grade 6 ballet.

We had a great weds4ed. science was flame colours of metals, which we all enjoyed, and a more technical recap on various tests we had learnt for various things. SB did an arts plan, they all loved doing bells prac with E. shakespeare and some baking wrapped most ppl up, tho there were also maths sessions along the way. phew that sounds busy! luckilly there was lots of chatting a laughing too!

BB had her birthday, and a treat to build a bear, so we now have a new cuddly. she was delighted with her pressies from everyone, and played with them continuously. we gradually adapted to life without SPD.

SB was really keen to do ballet when she was little, so enrolled into the ballet school in the village approximately 10 years ago. She took her grade 6 last week. Due to time pressures, not least exams and air cadets, she is now thinking of finishing ballet. The teacher is having a year sabbatical, and the class will clash with air cadets for the new teacher. Another end of an era! She has taken lots of joy from ballet, and I am glad for the poise, posture and skills she has developed as well.

then

now

n

temporary accommodation for 3 hens – a lilac rock that might or might not have lilac eggs, a mottled leghorn with white eggs with perhaps blue speckles, and a typical farmhouse with brown eggs

well, my spanish daughter! we had a fab time, and hope you come back to visit