Petits Haricots

I spilled tea over my laptop. complete disaster, non functional laptop, so am now begging sb for use of her notebook [which she has agreed] so that i can blog and then get on and do some work for work – if possible. It has actually been a bit of a disaster of a week in several ways, but good bits also!
1.Illness – migraine from wed, and from thurs terrible virus with much coughing, temp and general blurgyness! I have coughed so much that have sprained all the muscles in my chest i think . now sneezing and cold as well. Coughing with migraine is a particularly mean torture I find.
2.short-temperedness – related to illness above i imagine, but I let my buttons be pushed, and shouldn’t have done really
3.work stress – c’est la vie! and may have contributed to 2 above!

so good things

we had a fabulous weekend with friends and a surprise party for DH and SB. Hoping he blogs it to be honest – i have left a subtle hint . Thankyou to all the great friends who could still come as illness was rife that weekend! and thanks to the house decorators and cake makers and the being there is fab people . trying to skype some of the lurgified families fun also. I managed to do pancakes pretty promptly on the sunday morning, despite having gone to bed way too late, so that was good too . all presents enjoyed, both party presents and family presents given when the mayhem over. SB made DH a fab teacosy, and she has a phone [amongst other bits and bobs]

We had wodensmeet on weds and had a go at painting shadows. didn’t quite get it to come off! better luck next time and also final amylase experiments with differing pH’s.

Em stayed at ours with the family afterwards as thurs morning was an early start for them all to go to yo sushi for a sushi making workshop which they all really enjoyed. bb decided to eat a prawn, which she didn’t like, and one of her friends is egging her on a bit to eat meat. we will see! [not that i plan to buy it or cook it ever for her] . however bb doesn’t like sushi, so i got to eat it . Not sure if DH took any photos mind…

this weekend i have mostly been feeling v blurgh. went into town as had a hosp appointment [sat!] for migraines, and now must make gp appt to get antiepilepics they have recommended. so girls did some shopping and i joined them for cafe lunch and a mooch around waterstones spending their birthday and Xmas book vouchers. Both v happy with that. BB had an acute slump and pretty much fell asleep as DH carried back to bus. she has been much perkier since [unlike me]. we have crafted, done music practices with the girls, watched fact things, and played starship munchkin [another birthday pressie for SB] . now back to horizantal on sofa with SB notebook. the crafts and sewing may get other bloggage, who knows!

daddybean to blog…

dh’s parents visited friday afternoon and we had a while chatting, the girls playing before we went out for my birthday pressie to dh – a family meal out at a turkish restaurant, we all had a fab and yummy meal. bb was kept happy with some mammoths that we had bought from playmerrily . the food was utterly delicious SB was v adventurous and liked her choices.

the next day was more birthday feasting, with SB choosing a film at the local cinema, followed by going with dh’s parents for ice cream sundaes. sb chose a doubke size one, but she didnt finish having told the waitress it was both her and dh’s birthday they were each given a helium balloon and had a candle in their sundaes . they both liked that

thursday the girls went out to multisports. SB prior to that mostly worked on her present for DH :), a teacosy [he has been given it so can say] which took a lot of time effort and practice with her sewing machine. i carried on with the 40 bags and managed to do some more sorting out of craft suppkies in the conservatory.

Thurs eve BB was inducted into cubs she said her promise, got her woggle, and was very serious and proud about it. I love that she is stepping into independence. there was a time when she just couldn’t do things on her own, and she still is v v cautious about new things and new places, but just getting there one thing at a time is a great relief.

friday was freezing cold. totally and utterly but the morning was conservation group. we loppered and sawed down to fence height saplings along the perimeter, put up some bird boxes and had chilli cooked open an open fire. had a great time with everyone [ if vv cold]

I really enjoyed this weeks historyetc. Jax and co [minus Big] arrived the night before, always lovely, and we had an added TheBabs and her 3 children. Zoe and Katy and families made up the crew . I like a busy house . I was a bit late to get going, despite having done some pre-prep, because I was hennaing SB’s hair when people arrived. She spent all day with it then wrapped in clingfilm [and i have to say it looks really lovely]

Zoe was in the kitchen making curry and chai [i took no pics!] to represent the east indian company getting a firm toehold in India. both curry and chai was delicious . I started with making St Basils-like cathedral plaques from fimo. Whilst we made this, I discussed the story and life of Peter the Great and his ‘modernising’ of Russia, so the end of the eastern style cathedrals. They were quite tricky to make, but the kids had a great go at it. They enjoyed the overly dramatised fighting with sweden as well .

whilst i was fimo-ing, the babs came round with croissants and told the maybe myth/legend of the viennese bakers hearing the turks burrowing and saving the city, naming a ‘new bread’ . the croissants tasted delish . Jax was moving on with the ottomans to the tulip king, and the younger children made flowers to represent this from a baker ross craft

Having had a good morning we had lunch, cleared away the morning things and got started with the afternoon. Katy had turkish delight on the go, and decorating commemorative paper plate for charles xii victory over peter. I loved BBs plate, where Peter cried so much that he has made a puddle :).

my afternoon craft was painting tulips in watercolour and discussing Ahmet 3 of the ottoman empire. I had a number of different style images, and also discussed tulip viruses and tulip bulbs as a version of stocks and shares. i mistakenly used paper for oil paints without initially noticing, but we decided that actually the texture added ‘old master’ appeal.

think it all went well. TheBabs stayed for tea, and played 7 wonders [which she won] and the kids played smallworld [which sb won] SB and BB went to judo, and we ate tea in front of brian cox. Thanks all for a great day.

with the warm weather our tortoise alfie is getting v sprightly, so running around a lot. must reweigh him! he was just under 90g when we got him, and about 150 when last weighed. he is a greedy guts, and has wolfed down the dandelions we found for him . he also v much knows where things are and has a map of the playroom in his head as makes a beeline for the exit. unfortunately the shell not being v flexible, he just can’t get out. [and no, we can't shut the door, it has no handle]

well, most home educators know that rule however, it did start well with pottery. I have been v envious of DH and the girls going to a local potter who also home educates to learn a variety of pottery techniques. just s’not fair

so i was delighted that pottery fell in my staycation. we all went and susan gave us an idea to make puppet heads and limbs. none of us did that but i used her next suggestion of making 2 pinch pots and joining them together , making something out of them, then giving it a hole before firing. as you could see below, I made an owl and really, really enjoyed it . BB made a mask and a handprint plate, SB started a number sign for our house and put the slip on her hand plate. i really enjoyed chatting with the other families there too. a brilliant way to spend a morning

the afternoon was less calm as BB was in a noisily reluctant mood. however, we got some fimo out, and she calmed happily making daffodils and then a fab cello practice – tho i am still singing the 4th finger notes . SB did a large amount of faffing and a smaller amount of home ed and then planning, as she has finally decided on her dad’s birthday pressie [5 days to go!] . I had go at decluttering and decrufting the conservatory – 2 bags out on the 40 days challenge. Loads still to do, but that is my room for the challenge really.

i took the girls to swimming, both girls seriously power through the water. i only see them play swimming, and when i am there BB likes to come for a ‘rest’ every so often, so it was lovely to see her so confident. I sewed some more kentwell shifts as i watched, and SB finished off her galore park history, and we did a fair bit of chatting and being companionable. I love moments with SB like that. BB was a bit more squawkalicious…

in the evening we watched the newer version of the parent trap altogether and enjoyed that, whilst i planned my resources for historyetc.

I am off work this week, and thought that we would have a bit of a staycation. partly finances and partly needing a breather and to feel i belong at home. SO i decided that perhaps monday i would do a photoblog day. partly to show what we are doing currently, and also because it was a mostly home day, and i am more wary of taking photos of other kids, partic those whose parents don’t blog etc.

we got up and breakfasted. my parents were still here, so we chatted with them. BB happily got started with her collins grammar and punctuation. it is a book that i hope will be very simple for her to give her the confidence to run through it and feel good about herself. she enjoyed it, she found it easy, and she was happy to do it

SB meanwhile was also doing some bookwork, with first the igcse geography about paris and then igcse biology about yeast.
this does take a while, and we looked at balanced equations for a bit. we also had a chat about how to do the description of the city etc. i like home educating . SHe chose both these books as she decided she liked the format of them, and they are easy to read. However, the answers aren’t always in the text, and this can be a bit frustrating for her [and me, trying to remember!!] but the books are well written, and they make sense about why you are learning what you are learning, and how they are presented.

obviously BB was finished far more quickly, so got to have a zelda phantom hourglass masterclass from my mum . it was quite extended, thought she did have a break to read aloud to me, and she chose an apple tree farm book. SB was still beavering away with the geography and biology.

finally sb finished the biology and took a phantom hourglass break with mum and BB came and did a piano practice with me. She is moving on quite quickly with me doing the practices with her, and will hopefully get over all the starter humps and feel a bit secure.

We stopped and had lunch – delicious home made butternut and sweetcorn soup – we all love it . The dad took SB into the garden for a swing and put of some golf balls. A last game – or 3! – of Uno and then we sadly said goodbye to mum and dad, but we had had a lovely time alltogether

SB and BB then did a massive count up of their money. DH has been sorting out the kichen and ‘room of doom’ [utility] and divvied up the small change found between the 2 of them. I counted it as BB’s maths as she was sorting into piles of 20p and then multiplying up [or adding] SB did do some more work in her singapore maths 5B, which she has pretty much finished bar a few pages.

SB did some clarinet practice, TBH, not sure exactly what she should be practicing, but thinking all playing has to be helpful, and hopefully she will write down what her teacher says next week! mostly she was doing all the things she likes at the end of team woodwind

BB went on to do some baking. For xmas, dh and i got a cupcake stand and BB was v desperate to use it. so we made chocolate cupcakes. She pretty much does most of it herself, and she claims to be ‘addicted to cracking eggs’ lol

SB went off for her ballet lesson followed by gym, where she got her bronze award :). In ballet the teacher wants her to enter a competition, so she is having a couple of extra friday lessons too. she seems very happy about this idea. BB went off whilst i was clearing up, and i came back to find her reading aloud a magic key book Glad she is really getting confident about reading. we went upstairs to put dirty clothes in laundry basket and give the bedroom a bit of a sort. She then showed me the horrible science book she is reading in bed, as she had bookmarked an experiment she wanted to do . did i say i loved home ed?

we had curry and rice for tea, and then watched a pretty weird film of SB’s choice on lovefilm – all about ‘holly boy’ . it is innocuous enough i guess, but not coming with a recommendation from me. .

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