Petits Haricots

I Like having a new shiny blogring, and lots of old friends on it . for the new friends on it, I do have an admission. I am a polyanna blogger. Pollyanna (Wordsworth Children’s Classics) is book about a child who consciously makes a decision to always look for the positive. So this is how i blog. I don’t have time to blog all the in and out moments of our day, i try and blog some of those moments of tenderness and love, the gorgeousness of a child’s hand tucked up in yours, or snuggling on the sofa or getting a fit of the giggles together. These moments of love i wish to remember forever. I don’t want to remember the grumps or fights particularly. SO i just don’t blog them.

We are a normal family. i snap, grit teeth and say things i shouldn’t and wish I hadn’t. particularly when I am tired or migrainous. My SAH DH really isn’t bothered about a tidy house, so it isn’t, and also can stride about wave his arms about dramatically or growl, partic when tired and needing a break. My SB can cut off her nose to spite her face, tease her sister when she shouldn’t, pretend to have done things she hasn’t – or not done things she has! My BB is a child with all her emotions on her sleeve, and trying days ensue when this is frustration or anger. but at least 75% of our time, and often more is spent snuggled, hands tucked, giggling and loving and probably less than 10% grumping, snapping, arguing etc, and most commonly as bedtime approaches… the rest is variable. SO yes, BB doesn’t always want to read and shouts and screams instead [sometimes it can seem like the whole day], SB might have a teenage pout or flounce, and me a tired mum rant and you won’t find it here. Nor the mention that our house looks like it has been ransacked by toddlers. But it happens, so just add that in to your narrative if you read and find this blog a bit rosy! Oh, and the days when absolutely nothing interesting happens or gets done? yep, we have those too!

catching up . The girls had a fab arts award on friday on pointillism, which both were really taken with. they had a magazine photo which they reimagined. They also loved the fact that they went by bus for a change. so successful was this, that i see them doing this again in the future. Here are the finished works of art.

SB has worked hard with her home ed bookwork this week, and certainly powered through some music theory, feeling slightly hopeful about the grade 4 theory on november! SHe has started on galore park syrwtl english book 2 [thankyou alison] and is enjoying it. also maths and science and her new italian workbook are popular. less so geog, french and history. she has started blogging too [link on the side] , and is planning to expand the blog so it will be able to be printed out for her arts award later on. she does need to add more about the artists and techniques, but think it is a good start.

At the weekend – hence title above! – we went for a walk with friends to an RSPB place. we used to walk monthly there with them, which we v much enjoyed, but went a bit by the wayside over the years. It was a lovely reminder of good times shared going round on saturday, laughing over the various waily disasters we had had. We also were looking for funghi [sort of ] and birds [m did best there] and generally chatting as we strode forwards . It was a lovely day for a walk and the initial sun only turned into torrential rain and then hail when we had made it back to the cars

and for a bit of now and then… [last photo added as the first pic bb joined the pair in the throne tree ]

Ending with a lovely meal, more chatting and games playing back at their house – great day/evening

Every single meal cooked so far from this book has been a winner.

River Cottage Veg Every Day! (River Cottage Every Day)

I bought the book for SB as part of her cook every friday idea. I ctually thought we already had enough cookbooks, there were no such things a new recipes, just rehashed ones, and wouldn’t hve bought it except that it delighted her I had bought it for her Needless to say, she has barely used it. Luckilly DH has. I am amazed by the deliciousness of the food and recipes, and the easiness to prepare. If you are vegetarian, cook for vegetarians, or just like vegetarian recipes… I don’t believe your collection is complete without this book!

today was a wodensmeet/WedEd day. We had a great time, even if i did have to nip to work for a meeting. It is great to meet up with friends, and we enjoy doing some joint home educating sessions and swapping skills . when driving to le ciel rouge SB and i were discussing FIL habit of storytelling about his life, friends lives etc. and what was the point. so we discussed family oral history, stories little nanny told me about her nan – that she couldn’t sing, had a wicked sense of humour and full of fun, her fil – true yorkshire character on who compo may have been based etc and how this added a sense of who people were, as these things were never going to be recorded by any historian as we are a family of peasant stock. that tho we might find out that little nanny’s great grandma was in gressenhall poorhouse, we wouldn’t know about her strong character, her family first drive. SB decided to find this interesting, and we spent the drive discussing snippet stories of long dead relatives, and i am thinking i should write some of these snippets – but where do you start! And moved onto how a blog, even if i only keep for a short time, will be something my great greats can gain something of who i am, what i care about etc. in fact even fb will allow this, and that aunty viv has a memorialised page so that one day she [and my nephew and niece] can read her direct words.

Started with Sb demonstrating her art project as part of her bronze arts award. I think she did very well. she said it was far harder than she thought to keep an eye on everyone and wait. But i think she explained it well, and remembered her tips and to encourage and say nice things about her friends art. it was nice to see them all together as well, as over the summer it can be a bit hit and miss. the finished halloween pics look great :). SB will be writing up in more detail on her blog

we had an early lunch, and as the weather was glorious, lots of playing in the garden before doing some microscope work in the afternoon. we had grown bacteria in petri dishes so i took the first group of children looking at the colonies, how they had formed and patterns, then learning how to make a microscope slide, which they did happily. using an extra torch we could view at x200 well on our microscope, and we have one from the portico – thankyou – that i am going to fiddle with so bring next time. we all managed to make successful slides, and then used haematoxylin to stain the nuclei and looked at the new slides. I was impressed by what we saw, and how careful they were at making the slides.

elsewhere sb and others were having a poetry session with merry, which both my girls enjoy v much. it was themed on autumn. BB did a sketch tuesday pic of a thing that bounced

swapping over, the other group did microscope work and merry did fimo witches with those that were free rather than poetry again. SB then did a v long recorder session with E.

I had to leave for my work meeting at this point, and only got back for a short natter and to pick the girls up and take them home. SB was in an odd mood – i think the child/adult changes in her brain not knowing where to put themselves! BB was then tired. great day tho!

Back home, SB and i snuggled with popcorn watching great british bakeoff and equanimity was restored whilst BB had judo. SB had judo also – feeling much perkier for the hug

other things have gone on this week. Noteably a pottery session yesterday that both girls really enjoyed. BB made a penguin and SB a mug after not managing to make a teapot. they were using terracotta clay and pinchpot technique. hopefully will be able to add photos. Some booky home ed has happened also, but not so much music prac. It is hard to juggle everything really. just have to hope for a balance over the longer timeframe!

My elder daughter, depsite reminders, did no music theory this week [grade 4 approaching!!] so when I got up [pretty late!] she started the day with ‘double music theory’ which she was quite philosophical about . she finds it relatively straightforward, and we did more sharps and flats and then ‘proper names’ for places on the scale. again fairly straightforward. prior to this i think she and BB were mostly playing/ computering etc.

BB brought alfie into the lovely conservatory for a prolonged run about, and also did some more of the collins spelling – pretty happily – and read me a book – pretty happily. We discussed alfie, and decided that due to a pun on her and SB names, he should really be aelfric [or so should any future offspring i might have - errmmm not likely!].

DH had been doing some sorting out of the unholy mess that he made of the conservatory moving stuff around [mixture of craft resources, half done kits, finished kits and rubbish! ] so BB then went on to do some more of a half done kit. After that she spontaeously decided to draw a variety of halloween themed pics with the djeco oil crayons onto black card. we also took the bathbombs out of their moulds from yesterday, and were hugely relieved that actually most held! so happy was bb that she went off with her favourite bath bomb and had a prolonged bath I sharpened loads of pencils!

SB in the meantime did some galore park history – currently half way through syrwtl history book 1 – and then gave alfie a wash and dry before back into his tortoise home. After that we played agricola together. it is only the second time she has played it, and it isn’t really made for 2 [there is a two player version around] so i adapted the cards slightly so no duplicate wood or clay piles, and tried to play my own game, but not ruin hers, as it were, rather than play to lose [cos if you do that, she has no chance of working out which strategies might be winners] i do often point out what i could do instead that would ruin her play so she can see, as agricola is a lot about the order! we haven’t played it enough that i know the winning strategies either tho btw.

following that, bb had come down prune like from her midday bath! SB decided to practice her teaching session she is going to put on for her arts award bronze. It was kind of based on this , but she wanted a halloween theme, and then different colours. I asked if i could do autumn leaves rather than halloween, and this was accepted . As we did it, i asked her to think about what lettering should be, whether prescriptive or free choice [free choice - her decision worked better than mine!]

whether we should have a thought about what colours to use where [free choice, but after we had done it, we decided that using different colours on wax resist and watercolour wash was better, and also possibly contrasting this with the accent pictures]

we discussed size of the accent pic [mine was too big] and also with hers, she decided to cut out the pumpkin mouth and eyes, and we discussed this may get me round my too big leaf [it did].

by weds she is hoping to have written down instructions with helpful advice on how to get the best pic, and use our 2 today as the demos for what the basics are, and pitfalls to avoid. we really enjoyed doing this together with her in the leader position. I am hoping that she might look around at more art sites and come up with some more plans we can do together . BB did do 2/3 of this before wandering off, says she is wanting to do it on weds with everyone else [edited to add on monday, she decided to finishe hers after all, so added

now we are doing our different things. BB is on roblox [surprise!] , but I have to say today she was far better at finding things to occupy herself with, and didn’t say she was nored at all. SB is computer chatting with her home ed friends, i think she is sorting out skype, and nagging DH to sort out a blog for her – she is thinking of doing her arts award bronze report that way. sounds fine to me! I am jolly cold, and uploading lots of older photos. we are going to watch strictly and have curry for tea

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[isn't she gorgeous ]

today is my one chance of a lie in. But SB is up with the larks to go to ‘the big gig’ with guides. Its OK, i think, DH will get up. But no, i was needed to wave goodbye. I love SB and her big girl/little girl. She had a mountain of food to take with her, as the lead guider said they would need a lot. More than the 4 of us took to the olympics! She has been so excited about this

However, to go back. thurs was a home ed sports group day, then gym for bb and guides for sb, fri was wild place in the morning and then apparently their baths took up all afternoon! Home ed has happened, still ‘getting back into gear’ and I need to do a bit of nagging about the grade 4 music theory…

So today was a single child day, so having ‘persuaded’ BB that it wouldn’t all be about roblox and watching tv we got going with a game – we play games often, and board games are on our list of things to do weekly so we played giro galoppo twice, and she won fair and square

We had Alfie running about in the conservatory as well, nice and warm, some tasty things to eat on the floor [dandelion] and for 2 hours he was as happy as Larry Obv we kept picking him up,playing with him etc too…

Last weekend BB and I made some marbled ink card, and so we had a thought of what to do with them – matisse cut out bugs [my suggestion!] , planets, mosaic, draw directly on them… but we did plants. a made up solar system each where we may or may not choose to add rockets later

I saw her spelling book in the conservatory, and being v keen that we try and do a tiny bit of something reading related everyday cajoled her into starting. she found it easier than she had anticipated, so hopefully will be fine starting next time. she is quite worried always about whether she will be able to do something, so consequently we haven’t been pushing, but feel she needs to move forwards and over this now.

SO having decided it was after all easy, and she could do this, we had a pause outside in the sun. SHe bouncing and boinging on the trampoline, me putting alfie away and then helping take down the tent and then bimbling about.

having enjoyed the sun, BB then did some colouring of her new book of spacecraft, leading to an interesting discussion over the break up of USSR, the fact that the russian flag at the olympics was ‘all wrong’ for me but the anthem the same – i can sing it! and about cyrillic and then greek lettering.

BB decided that after all she DID want to make bath bombs [something declined in the morning] I had bought what looked like an industrial amount of bicarb and citric acid for the science cover and we followed this recipe. I think it worked ok – tho we may not have packed it in the mould quite enough – will turn out tomorrow and hope! we have made soap previously, so have some dyes and also essential oils from doing this. BB was v happy

Whilst we were finishing this, BB reminded me that one of the alternate things offered was making a cheese and onion pasty for tea – which she didn’t want to do. She wanted to make a brocolli quiche. SO we did that. I have ‘got the hang’ of flakey pastry now so BB was quite happy to do it. however, having made the pastry i found that our flan dish was broken some while back, so we had a much smaller dish and too much pastry! BB did a great job of assembling the quiche and it was in the oven, but declined to use the rest of the pastry, so i made a peach and custard tart with it for pudding. they were yummy

and finally BB was allowed to play on roblox. I am limiting it, because since she developed a ‘thing’ for it since cousins visited in summer, she has been losing her ability to entertain herself without it.

SB returned, having had a fabulous time at the Big Gig and very happy, and brought BB back a little teddy [she was ecstatic] we ate a late tea [quiche and jacket pot and then peach and custard tart] watching merlin on iplayer before scooting the girls off to bed. I have to say,. my SB has completely changed shape in the last year. I was looking at our canada pics seeing a girl starting to turn into a young woman, and today i see a young woman with the last vestiges of girl about her. She is a lovely, friendly, adorable young woman too and I am very proud of her. [except when it is bedtime, and she and BB turn the house into a screechy waily catfight zone - sigh!]

tomorrow is another day…

going round the blog ring I came across a post on ninny noodle noo that reminded me that I was going to look at the national trust 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4. NO time like the present then SB is 11 and more or less 3/4 , so how have we done? Bearing in mind we have not had this as a to do list, and this is just her life. looking at the parents part of the website made me sigh abit for the risk assessment alongside! ANyway, here are our 50 things. are they the same as yours? I am hoping to trawl through my photos to add to this.

1.Climb a tree

Both my girls love climbing trees. we have some climbers in the garden and they are always looking out for climbing trees elsewhere.

2. Roll down a really big hill

they have even persuaded me to join in too. I think the hill near SOTP should count as a big hill, though not sure if REALLY BIG

3. Camp out in the wild

hmm, we have done a lot of camping, but not wild camping. both girls are keen to remedy this. i think camping at SOTP field has often felt v wild!

4. Build a den

despite not having red the pdf on building a den safely, we have managed to do this and survive it probably plays a regular part in the ‘wild place’ session as well

5. Skim a stone

hmm, not succesfully, but not due to lack of trying

6. Run around in the rain

far too often! e need more sunny days – i might start a campaign for sunny days

7. Fly a kite

yep – lets go fly a kite

8. Catch a fish with a net

we have done this, wild ones in rivers/ ponds/ lakes to look at with our pond dipping kit, and also moving about our tropical fish [which probably doesn't count!]

9. Eat an apple straight from a tree

we have apple trees, we often eat straight from them [and the other fruit trees and bushes]

10. Play conkers

we have done a lot of playing with conkers, but not sure they have done the whole string thing. it is conker season! I can see if they are interested

11. Throw some snow

oh, i certainly think so!

12. Hunt for treasure on the beach

yes, fossils, shells, sea glass, interesting stones, amber, all have been investigated and hunted for as our beach treasure. occassionally we have found the odd coin as well.

13. Make a mud pie

essential part of child garden play i think!

14. Dam a stream

mostly those streams on a beach, damming and diverting and creating pools.

15. Go sledging

Aw, makes me remember that last snowy melrose. we didn’t know it would be the last, but what a fab time we had!

16. Bury someone in the sand

we haven’t burried up to head! but sat down legs stretched out are fair game – does this count?

17. Set up a snail race

urgh, but yes!

18. Balance on a fallen tree

an essential part of walking in woods fun!


19. Swing on a rope swing

quite a number of them – girls v keen on this!

20. Make a mud slide

slid down on bottoms on mud – yes, made mud angels [SB] yes! but don’t think we have actually made a mud slide

21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild

it has been a good autumn for blackberrying. SB is less fussy than BB.

22. Take a look inside a tree

we have looked inside holes and rotton bits of trees, and in some even stood in them!

23. Visit an island

also visited quite a few islands – BB pointed out we live on an island, but think the UK is a bit big to count

[this is on the island in the middle of pyramid lake]

24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind

yep, got a great pic of BB doing this on the seafront

25. Make a grass trumpet

my mum is particularly good at making these, sbb and bb have occassionally been succesful!

[i was sure i had a pic of mum and kids doing this at wicken fen, but can't see it. will put pic of that day in, as it was a lovely day]

26. Hunt for fossils and bones

yep, charmouth was a great place for fossils, there are slate areas at brickworks not to far away that are great to search for fossils in. ALso on our canada holiday we searched and found fossils at drumheller – fabulous experience.

27. Watch the sun wake up

i do this far too often to go to work! but we certainly did this going to the olympics and paralympics this summer [they were fab ] putting in random olympics pic of joy

28. Climb a huge hill

we do a fair bit of walking, so hills and mountains fair game. Haytor our most recent climb, and sure that counts.

29. Get behind a waterfall

Iam not sure we have really been behind one, we saw lots of waterfalls in the rockies, and at one point were ‘behind the curtain’ in a cavelet in the maligne canyon, but don’t think that for me that entirely counts.

30. Feed a bird from your hand

if chickens and ducks count – yes! otherwise our birds not so tame. we do feed them though

31. Hunt for bugs

oh, minibeasts [antistons as BB used to call them] we still periodically hunt and look in our bug boxes or under microscopes

32. Find some frogspawn

found, watched growing and released

33. Catch a butterfly in a net

we don’t catch butterflies as a rule as we haven’t got the correct nets. We have done , however, on a home ed visit to a nature reserve with a trained leader. one of the lads we were with said it reminded him of animal crossing [he was right!]

34. Track wild animals

we have, in canada we did a fair bit of looking at tracks and identifying the animals. we didn’t actually find them – which as one was wolf i was quite glad tbh

35. Discover what’s in a pond

pond dippers R us I like pond dipping, and we have dipped quite few, including our own pond. often something interesting to see find draw or look under a microscope

36. Call an owl

hmm, we hear lots of owls, and have seen lots of owls – both in the twilight in the fields, and at the local raptor centre where we have been members. i don;t think we have ever called an owl though and expected it to answer! will see what the rspb offer [we are also members of that!]

37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool

we love clambering around rockpools and particularly in our welsh holiday earlier in the year, looking for what we can find – anemone, crab, hermit crab, fish and shellfish.

38. Bring up a butterfly
surprisingly we haven’t done this. we have made several unsuccessful attempts from cabbage white in the brassica bed…

39. Catch a crab

we did this with my sister and family in our last shared holiday in mudeford. I miss you sis x x x.

40. Go on a nature walk at night

we have more often done this because we are late getting back than purposeful but have been out with moth traps and tried to catch murmurations. tempted to join a bat walk though.

41. Plant it, grow it, eat it

we have always done a lot of planting it, growing it and eating it. even this year when kentwell sewing took over. each child has their own bed, and share the sowing and planting and eating of my seeds too. we had a partic fine sweetcorn harvest – now finished. pumpkins and squashes looking good

42. Go wild swimming

i am sure all kids do this? swimming and paddling in rivers, streams and the sea!

43. Go rafting

white water rafting down the kootenay river in canada last summer to remember my sis doing something fun [must get dh to finish putting up canada pics from last year!]

44. Light a fire without matches

yep, flints, bowstrings etc etc

45. Find your way with a map and a compass

not done this ‘for real’ but have played about with – has gone on to do list

46. Try bouldering

girls v keen that this should be on a to do list

47. Cook on a campfire

sb has with guides, both have with marshmallows etc and we have used the fireboxes to cook dinner on

48. Try abseiling

SB has on PGL holidays

49. Find a geocache

lots of times

50. Canoe down a river

loved this so much in canada that desirous of own canoe since also more locally have hired canadian canoes. [need to put pics onto flickr!

So, not bad I don’t think
have highlighted in bold the things will try and do

i was working this weds – had a day long faculty meeting. less stressful than most of my working days, but i strongly dislike losing my weds. have a meeting for part of next weds too. grr! ANyway, i made a bargain with work, so took part of monday off instead. I worked from home in the morning and then went out with the girls to the trees group in the pm. this is the second session, last was on beech, a mixture facts and feeling the tree and then crafts after.

This time was walnut, and we found a nice tall walnut tree to sketch, feel the bark and measure. we were told various facts and folklore. SB particularly loves the group and concentrated and filled her scrapbook. BB a bit more variable! I did feel a bit of an alien though, as they were expecting DH, and know him not me in the group, though I have met some people before. I rarely get out to play . However, it was lovely to see the people I do know.

When BB started getting a bit too much of a pest i whipped her away to find a geocache, and some of the le ciel rouge as well, which we did find, and also a travel bug – i love finding travel bugs to move on :). came back to measure the tree and then do the crafts. Girls made wax resist leaves, a walnut shell tortoise and a walnut shell little ring box [v cute] . had a lovely afternoon in glorious autumnal weather, thankyou

other things this week – some bookwork from both girls [must nag SB to prioritise music theory as she is sitting grade 4 this term - eek!] , reading from BB. BB and i made some great marbling patterns on card – now we need to decide what to do with them! SB has had her ballet class, gym, swimming and judo, and BB swimming judo and gym. there was a HE multisports session yesterday which they both enjoy and tomorrow they have a wild place [sort of foresty school but not really]

edited to add: Hannah commenting below reminded me we saw a v cool caterpillar belonging to the pale tussock moth