and deserves its own blog as the words made me cry.
“for a special granddaughter with love and pride. With memories of the wonderful granddaughter you’ve always been, with pride for the accomplished young woman you’ve become. ”
I needed that really.
i had a lovely day with the girls yesterday, and aprt from a bit of grumping over ‘match and sort’ having a good day so far. Though i think I need some time of work to re-centre and gain my balance. Have submitted my offiial request for mediation.
Posted in General
and she is only just 5. Does this mean we haven’t been brushing teeth porperly, or that she’s going to have problems with teeth in the future? I’m sure 6 is more of a normal tooth out age.
Posted in General
Friday was last nursey day, Helen has posted a nice piccie of SB with Vicky her keyworker below. Sums up her nursery experience for us really, she has enjoyed it, and it has been a positive experince for her. Both of her nurseries have been lovely relaxed places, with lovely caring staff. BB of course being Miss Laidback has seemed happy there as well. Thankyou to Kids Academy (dreadful name – so not what they were like)and silks Farm.She seemed ok about finishing, though I think she is worried about missing the playing time with other kids. she is really keen to start Rainbows etc. I had to wipe away the odd tear when I? picked them up. Silly I know, but I’m hopeless at this sort of thing. It’s that old end of something feeling, even though it’s exciting to be entering a new period.
Anyway, Helen wasn’t going to back until late, so just me and the girls for dinner and bedtime rituals etc. BB is? a little bit of a pain whne i haveto put her to bed becuase she still doesn’t really want to have bottles , so then just makes a big fuss for a while a lot of the time .
Saturday – Helen off to work, she was on call all weekend 
:-(? – what did we do?? can’t quite remember – would have no doubt played her 3D Snakes and Ladders since we seem to play that every morning. I do remember that I sat for soemtime with SB and read through an old Ladybird book about how aeroplanes work (aimed at much older children)- she doesn’t like to be fobbed of she likes you to explain things properly. So much talking about the diagrams – about the forces on aeroplanes, about how they move and are controlled etc. she’s remembered from a while back about the shape of the wing being important. This tiem the thing that seemed to stick in was about? lift and gravity. They did say at nursery that she was always coming out with odd facts about things.
We went into the local town for a bit of shopping – went round the farmers market? – did well not to by any nice looking cakes, preserves etc. just some nice organic veggies, failed to buy any sock for BB in woolies – losts of new born socks, lots of 2 yr old +, none in the middle – odd. SB didn’t find any toys she wanted to buy, nor books in the bookshop with her remaining money – which given all the pink dolly tat in Woolies surprised me.
Went into the cafe for some lunch, hadn’t intended to , but it was too late and we still ahd to pop into the supermarket – lunched (cafe man gave her two little crispy cakes for free so she was pleased by that),supermarketed – Waitrose so they have good little trolleys for kids to use , which is actually useful? when you’ve? sleeping child in a buggy as well.. She is quite sensible with it now as well.
Time we got home SB was flaggin a bit, she’s no been entirley well, with a sore throat and a ‘funny tummy’ – sat and cuddled read for a bit Then we went and paid a visit to the ‘home dad’ as was – A&C and their new(ish – 4 weeks almost) baby. Spent a nice time there for a bit, but SB had a bit of a wobbly when we had to leave, as usual SB didn’t want to leave – then got all upset becuase they weregoign out for a walk and we weren’t. Obviously all to much for her, as when we got home she was just crying and saying she wanted, mummy, so we sat and cuddled on the sofa until she came home.
Had? a bad night? – she couldn’t seem to stay alseep by herself for more than 15 minutes, and wanted Helen all the times, so not a good night.
Posted in Books, Butterbean, science, Stringbean
Nursery day today, so kids have been there moslty. Last day tomorrow.
It was Stringbean’s last Ballet clss of the term, turned up there a found that it was a session for parents to sit in on while they should us the sort of things they ahd been doing, so much dancing and skipping around by cute little girls in ballet outfits 
Also cute was Butterbean who did her ‘wobbly dance’ to the piano. I relaised afterwards that we had missed the last lesson last term – so it probably is a regular end of term thing. Helen will be disappointed to have missed it. And of course no piccies as I didn’t realise it was happening
That’s it really, SB made a goodbye/thankyou card for the staff in her room at nursery – She did some good conifer treees on it – apprently it was a christmas tree shop.? The sun was also setting she informed me so there wasn’t much sky below it.
On the topic of sky, yesterday I think it was she started talking about the sky and said that ‘we breathe in the sky’ – which I thought was an interesting way to put it. I did introduce the idea of the atmosphere being all around us and mentioned about the sky looking blue. But realised that it’s a rather intangible concept – ‘sky’ as more of a visual effect than a thing.
Had a little chat over dinner about things she might like to learn a bit about now that she will have finished nursery and we will have more time at home. She said that she wants to learn some more about space and said she wants to learn from the ‘picture books about things’ – which I assume meant the Picturepeadia and alll the other nice DK books we have. So we will see where that takes us.
Other than that Helen is away tonight, she has gone up to soem conference or training thing or something – in Leeds as it happens. so won’t be back until tomorrow night. So a bit late getting both kiddies to sleep – but me and SB had nice snuggle and read for her bedtime stories – a rather nicely illustrated book by Nick butterworth/Mick Inkpen as it happens retelling some of the parables Jesus tells in the bible. She did complain a few times, that the story of the Good Samaritan said the chap was bleeding where he got hit, but none of the pictures showed the blood! 
Followed by a lift the flap book of the nativity story (I think it’s the same one) – she’ll be wanting to go to church next
I’ve whiled away much of the rest of the time, fiddling about and wandering around some new blogs starting from the 13th Carnival of Homeschooling over on Why Homeschool
This amused me , among other posts. I liked the album thing here – I liked her time line idea as well. There is a good debunking of anti home education critiscisms over on the Bonny Glen and talk of the idea of tidal homeschooling struck a cord.
One of the above is hosted on Homeschoolblogger and I’m wondering if I should be linking to it or supporting the boycott, but I’m generally dubious about the effectiveness of boycotts. Though it seems here that this is boycott as a form of publicity tool to highlight the issue, rather than to ‘bring down’ HSB
Posted in Blogging, Books, Butterbean, Dance/drama, Stringbean's HE
I think today is hte first task that I would have had dificulty doing. Not the selling per se – as that seemed to be a matter of confidence, and ‘qualifying’ [which seemed eminently reasonable], but selling cars. I know very little about cars. I would have become unstuck with the patter of what the car had, and as for valuing trade ins!
i was very impressed by Ruth’s sales – she just did know how to sell, and does exactly what she says on the tin. Not sure that this makes her the best candidate for Alan Sugar’s apprentice, but would certainly make her my top choice for a car saleswoman! [there were 9 candidates, 20 cars in total sold, and she sold 6 of them - just under 1/3!]
well, not sure why its worth a blogpost! Just becaus I can I expect
Posted in Daft Stuff, General
well, for me anyway.
Lovely day today. Sun shining and all is well with the world. Sb happily did her Singapore maths 1A – we are still in term one allegedly, though doing this for some time. Not in a hurry. SHe’s confident enough to do the subtraction on her own, and was getting grumpy ‘cos it was all under 10 answers. So time to jump ahead! She then did a bit of a jolly phonics workbook – but said it was too easy. So after that mostly played with the dolls house and snappit donkey until lunchtime. sometimes with BB, and sometimes most definitely not.
After lunch she wanted to use the egg shells to grow cress in – no cress, so they now have basil. I didn’t supervise/help at all, and she quite happily got it all done, watered and ready for the propagator. i potted up a couple of the toms. She said she wanted to take a ‘window picture’ so here is one by her.
She then fancied going to the park, so we all got dressed, and she cycled there with the stabilisers on, got to the field, they came off and have stayed off. BB stayed for ages in the swing – SB hated swings at this age, but BB loves them. SHe was also particularly thrilled with the slide. She clinbed up with chris’s supervision, and I made sure she didn’t fly off too fast – well, i took a puiicture once and she did…
they both seesawed, and then Sb had a great treasure hunt game, and we lefted righted and walked 6 ‘places’ etc to find the fruit snacks. BB had a whale of a time running about and trying to climb up.
SB was grumbly at home, and BB asleep, so some book reading went on, and another snack. We then decided to cook for tea, and she chose aztec tortillas. Like a good HE Mum, i went to find various books with Aztec bits in them, so she read the romans pages! [ok extrapolated from pictures!], while I got the stew going – beans, corn squash and pepper. When she started doing the tortillas, I the read various Aztec facts to her, and she remembered a few to tell Chris. DInner was a resounding success anyway!
We have finished the day watching the planet earth on video, and it was a great one, all about caves. I was lucky enough to study in borneo for 3 months of my training, and have seen the bats exit and swifts ingress into the caves. We did race all the way back to the hut in the dark absolutely terrified though [4 girls without guide!]Now i know that bloody huge wierd thing was a giant centipede! luckilly didn’t have to climb the guano mountain, though did have to throw away a daypack, as never got the guano stains out of it… Confirmed my belief that even if I was thin, I could never be a caver.
Now going to watched a videod Apprentice [I fell asleep with SB...]
Oh and this having more than one blog business is a nightmare!
About yourself – you are an inventor
Your imagination, self-reliance, openness to new things, and appreciation for utility combine to make you an INVENTOR. #
You have the confidence to make your visions into reality, and you are willing to consider many alternatives to get that done.
# The full spectrum of possibilities in the world intrigues you?you’re not limited by pre-conceived notions of how things should be.
# Problem-solving is a specialty of yours, owing to your persistence, curiosity, and understanding of how things work.
# Your vision allows you to identify what’s missing from a given situation, and your creativity allows you to fill in the gaps.
# Your awareness of how things function gives you the ability to come up with new uses for common objects.
# It is more interesting for you to pursue excitement than it is to get caught up in a routine.
# Although understanding details is not difficult for you, you specialize in seeing the bigger picture and don’t get caught up in specifics.
# You tend to more proactive than reactive?you don’t just wait for things to come to you.
# You’re not one to force your positions on a group, and you tend to be fair in evaluating different options.
# You’re not afraid to let your emotions guide you, and you’re generally considerate of others’ feelings as well.
# Never one to be found in chic boutiques or trendy clothing stores, you take an extremely practical approach to getting dressed.
# Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.
how you react with others – you are generous
# Your awareness of those around you, along with your nuanced perceptions of the world at large, makes you the GENEROUS person that you are.
# You value time to yourself and understand how rich your private world can be?you know that you don’t have to go wild to have a good time.
# You are excited and energized by ideas and often enjoy things more through observation than through experience.
# This tendency gives you an appreciation for different perspectives and opinions about the world.
# Being as aware of others as you are doesn’t mean you find it easy to trust them immediately?this is something that happens more slowly for you.
# Despite this, you are aware of the complexities of many situations and are reluctant to pass judgments on others.
# Although you have fewer friendships than some people, those that you have are meaningful and are important to you.
# You value spending time alone?it is while reflecting on the world around you that you often learn something new about yourself or begin to understand something that’s been bothering you.
Posted in General
