Petits Haricots

ok, blogging is just ot going well is it i think in part from having so kuch work to do in the evening, getting back from work and being shattered, and missing posts from DH, who is the home educator, and catches the day to day nuances. please blog love x x

Anyway, SB has been working v hard actually recently, working through lots of the ticklist we have jointly made. she is enjoying her new geography book and taking a rest from the galore park book. Also practising her piano for grade 2 this term. We were ecstatic that she came top of her class in her grade 4 ballet exam recently. She passed her grade 3 music theory with merit last term, and is avidly working towards grade 4.

BB is getting to grips with reading. she is on the level 4 of songbirds and 3 of oxford reading tree. we often see her with a nose in a book, and we have lots of lovely books, with lots of illustrations, and she says she does try to work out some of the words. We are taking a break from singapore maths, as hundreds, tens and units have turned out to be a big stumbling block, and she lost confidence, so we have gone back quite a bit and starting with MEP to boost confidence and also consolidatet the early steps. so far she is enjoying it and tes me she is getting better at maths . she isn’t doing so much of music currently but lots of arts and crafts and writing.

Both girls have enjoyed a number of local home ed events. they love the arts award, and have most recently coloured paper and made collages, but aways come back withsomething well made. it is definitely worth the money. they aso enjoy going to the wild pace for oudoor/ranger/forest school type activities. they both also do multisports v happily. both continue with the after school clubs. sb with ballet, gym, swimming, guides and judo and bb with gym, swimming and judo. SB is uncertain about guides really, and would like to do a stageschool type thing, and bb is uncertain about gym but is thinking of cubs. luckily bb has become much happier with judo. she is a shy girl i think, and is much happier having the support of parent and sister to give her the confidence, and is always worried about doing something wrong. so i am reluctant to let her drop things as i think it does her good to gain confidence in groups.

we have also had some group meetings with home ed friends, a more musicky one at Gina’s with Katy and Michelle and another wodensmeet with zoe, merry and em [with added bonus of baby ben to worship ]

the first i took along some information about germs/microbes and we tacked to that a craft of making our own bugs out of socks and craft stuff looked pretty good too. there was also some music theory, a lesson for SB on piano and clarinet, and a recorder for bb, and a fair whack of latin. both girls very happy we are lucky with our home ed friends. then we nipped up to see merry and new baby ben for a first visit. i enjoyed some ne baby snuggles, but bb was a bit on the green and jealous complexion!

last week was another wodensmeet. i was v migrainous but luckily we had a the ingredients for science – talking about gravitational potential energy and smashing banana slices with cars it worked pretty well and was mostly fun. i felt a bit under prepped so couldn’t extemporise as much. Also did animation with em, and both girls [and the others] created a really excellent story using cut out balck card on white. brilliant idea. merry brought fimo and ben – both equally loved and i passed o the few size 0 kissaluvs i bought for bb [oooh so cute!] and some other bits and pieces. zoe did 2 heart crafts for valentines day, one a heary shape to paint red, and the other was to make fimo heart toppers to put on kebab sticks for potplants. we all enjoy messing with fimo . fab day again.

in other news, i am still sewing linen underclothes in the hopes we get accepted for kentwell! have played lots of board games with sb mostly, but also bb, and just danced together, read books, helped ds games etc etc. what time i have with the kids i want them to know i am there . today we did tidying, music prac together, tidying, board games and bb got the oil paints out – eek! she did a really really fab still life of dafodils with only minor trauma along the way oh and we have had lots of snow! cue snowmen on driveway and in garden . we have had a trauma in our rabbits have disappeared when out babbiting in the back garden no remains found, and not sure how could have scaped but that is all 3 of them

weekend 1: following on from centerparcs we had another january tradition family christmas for dh’s mum’s family at her house. very lovely. it is nice to see the family regularly, get to chat, break bread together and share a few select presents – dh and i don’t do so well here, but the girls do which is what keeps the day happy!! the girls had received some really thoughtful presents too, which suited their different personalities. the family were all looking well, we had some laughter about monarchy and daily mail reading etc. this year dh’s dad looked so much better than last year, being the other side of a knee op and a gallbladder op. i love family occassions and this was no exception. it is a shame that dh’s brother and his kids are so far away tho [ireland]

weekend 2: to ring the changes! having had a v exciting week, with friends taking home their gorgeous new baby, we shared a different birthday with a friend and had a games weekend it was a shame we started our journey from great yarmouth, as i had spent the day there for work. and the kids and DH had gone to a local museum and spent time on the beach. it was a looooong drive! however, got there, sent the kids all up to bed and played some games back to back def played escape from atlantis and forbidden island – both of which we really love! and was sure there was something else! we finished v late tho. next day the kids all beat us with the number of games they were playing back to back! we played some more games awaiting other friends arrival, and then carried on until far too late at night, so had to bail out of a game half played! more games the next day until time to leave. we had a fab weekend with friends, and lots of merriment I finished another shift more or less too perfick :):)

great games for mixed age and ability

games with specific kid appeal

hardened gamer types

i do still have blog blah, but trying to close january before we get to feb, as it were. tho i prob should be doing stuff for work. [urgh]
[ and i didn't make it!]

centerparcs is a fb hol in jan that gets me through the post xmas downer and is a fab highlight of the early year. this year was no different we love sharing with friends, and have always shared with making it up, but now the soa is countable, we don’t fit luckilly le ciel rouge stepped into the breach and bravely agreed to share we had a fab time, with the jax and co just round the corner and meeting up with other home ed friends in the pool.

lots of swimming – twice a day, morning and night swim. was a bit knackering! the bigger girls mostly rapids and slides etc, popping by for a hello i am ok check and bb mostly with me initially. to our great disappointment the salt pool was closed but rumour has it that they are building a ring flume thing, so not all bad. she splashed in ring, got admiring looks for her sharks fin, dived for seals etc and by midweek had a play thing going with small over it. but then they both decided they could do rapids!! and had a fab time. i also enjoyed the rapids more this year, and giggled and hooted my way down on numerous occassions [in a not very gainly fashion!]

in between swimming we did lots of board games playing and sewing – i had taken the wherewithal to make needlecases and most of the children made a needlecase or a little purse beautifully. i should have taken more embroidery thread tho! I also managed to sew a fair part of my first shift. love chatting and playing the games, tho some went on for aaaages! and we also got some films on dvd.

food was mostly prepped in advance, so we ate v v well, in fact had too much cake!! I loved the mixture of friends with a family holiday. get to see way more of my children than i do at camps, and still giggle and gossip with our respective friend groups. SB, as always, was a delight and once over the pyjama trauma of the first night bb was mostly too . fab time with a group of lovely friends thankyou

i have had 2 fab wodensmeets this jan, a group meeting at le ciel rouge of currently 4 active families, tho 3 others remain ‘on the books’ for if they ever make it. I don’t think that they will any more tho which is sad, because i miss you. however, one of the fab things about home ed is the ripples of water over pebbles effects, and you may run well in a channel for a while, you may meet a pebble and separate for a while, but you are still part of the overall stream, and you never know when you might run close again in the future.

Anyway, the theme for this term is physics and animation [sort of!] with me doing the physics using realscience4kids [tho actually i don't the experiments are as good as the text, the text is fantastic and easy to understand and grasp, and the experiments are easily jazzed up a bit!] and nattye doing animation with her fab hue box

So we have looked at the first 2 chapters of physics, thrown balls in the air, attached string and thrown the, whirled them around, then weighed and used slinkies to show fruit doing work, and calculated this in Nm and joules. [no pound yards or other weird stuff for me!] and hopefully ppl might make their own newtonmeters! the online forum for us to encourage children was initially succesful, but thinking i am a bit lone voice currently!!

We have animated eggbox critters [well, i had had to go to work that afternoon!] going to a disco and being sick! and then animated a drawing – bb volcano, and sb a house. hoping to work out how to put them on the blog. v v succesful! have the hue thing sitting in the amazon basket awaiting me to feel a bit more flush!!

for art, organise by lecielrouge we had portraits the first week – sketching in any style one of the other kids and then seeing if identifiable – they all did a fab job with different styles. then last week we first did some natural weaving with dowsing sticks and wool – some fab results to put on flickr! and some afircan art inspired animals [with a bit of australia creeping in

we did some poetry the first week with merry, but the second she was inconveniently planning to give birth woohoooooo and little dance to the safe arrival of Ben music usually gets done in some form – sb does piano prac and often some recorder with e, and a singsong around the piano. and just milling about going on a tangent etc.

Currently i think it is working nicely. i would like the opportunity to build in a little something french – even if it is just listening as you craft. v happy

you may have noticed a dearth of posts! i have blog blah! this has a multifactorial aetiology
1. not a lot of free time, far too much work
2. lots of things that are eating up my headspace but i can’t blog about them. being there means i can’t have enough headspace free around them to blog
3. i can’t get lightroom to work on so our proper flickr pics about 7 months out of date
4. i have some canada posts left to blog, tho haven’t because no flickr pics
5. even if i did have flickr pics, the blog doesn’t seeme to be able to see them or accept them any more
i have blog blah

i think i have one, but now it is not ‘mine’ to have as it were, but a v definate shared venture, as the mission statement only works if we all are behind it. so we will be having a long discussion with SB to see whether she thinks it is ok, what she would change and prioritise etc. This isn’t a radical departure, all prev mission statements have been v influenced by her interests and desires. But i am v well aware that at the end of this one [mine last for 2 years - phew!] she will need to be in a place to make real choices about what she wants to do and where she wants to do it.

So my new years he resolution is to come to a consensus about the broad strokes of the next 2 years. For us all to agree that we can do this, HE into secondary years. I know we can if we want to and try to, but we do need to put some effort in!

When we have it, I will pop it up as the mission statement!!

i have never been a christmas present before and actually I wasn’t this time either but SB and BB were . one of their friends had asked for xmas that they could visit us, so this was arranged for the first day when my niece and nephew had gone home. girls were v excited and inpatiently awaited their arrival. We had a great day with good friends. me and em got to chat and drink tea etc and put the world almost to rights O got to stick things down, play and have lots of attention, and the girls all had fun. Both of them were really happy I had wondered if BB would be a bit left out, but she had just as much fun, so all good.

I was aseked to do a treasure hunt, and so wrote lots and lots of clues that sent the girls with O trailing all around house and garden until finally successful. some of them were better clue spotters than others . they all did a bit of christmas crafting that was in the conservatory, and then settled down to play smallworld v happily. well, it is a world of slaughter whilst BB ds-ed. We handed on a cornet that had been handed along for them to try as a temporary swap for a bass recorder – much enjoyed

Finally after tea they went home. I don’t seem to be able to add photos still, but they are here

I am struggling to find time to do justice to Xmas! mum, dad and m and e came up on the thurs before xmas. I had bought loads of crafts for all the children to do, and got the conservatory all ready for this, so when at a loose end they could plonk themselves in there and craft. Mum helped DH sort the house out for xmas, and i went to work. we started to feel all xmassy :). my b-i-l and his dad arrived fri eve and my m-i-l sat am. we were full . i don’t know my bil’s dad v well, but he was a perfect xmas guest, he seemed genuinely delighted to be sharing xmas with us. thrilled with presents from us, and more importantly, a great help with the washing and tidying up after meals!

sat was chatting, playing games all settling in and hunkering down, the prep for the next day done, we had made food in advance and frozen wherever possible. house was all glitzy and christmassy and carols blaring :). sherry, mince pies and carrots left out for santa, and reindeer food courtesy of le ciel rouge scattered outside.

christmas day worked well, so much of the prep had already happened, that the meal etc wasn’t such a big stress, and that takes out a lot of the day stress. the kids all were told they couldn’t go downstairs for santa until 8, and had to get us first . so they did and we piled downstairs. unfortunately i used mums camera for father xmas sacks – small, lovely and not full of tat . breakfast of croissant and pain aux chocolate for veggies and gammon for carnivores. the kids v happily got dressed and teeth cleaned and present opening began! think next year might do kids then adults or go back to adults on xmas eve! however everyone really happy with what they got. SB had a netbook, bb a telescope and camera and then some crafts, books and ds games from us, lego and sylvanians and various exciting things from family, and all happy. mum like the lizard i had made, and dad liked his choc brazzles in a bowl marked ‘grandad’s nuts’ !! we also added a family game of forbidden island

dad was in charge of nibbles and champagne half way through the present opening I had set the oven to be ready for 11 – what a fab think to be able to do and then we could enjoy seeing what we had and kids getting out the lego to make etc before lunch, on time at 2 the rest of the day was spent watching kids, playing games, doing jigsaws [bil's dad and my inlaws] and was actually v chilled for such a number. I missed viv, and could see mum and dad did too. none of us managed much tea boxing day was more of the same. bil and dad went home earlier than anticipated – before lunch – so some moments with e and m, all sorted and sunniness resumed. a day of craft, lego and wii

tues onwards had holiday orch, all 3 girls booked in, but bb dithered over going, and in the end stayed with m, and now def wants to go another time. e went, but came out of 2 of the 3 sessions in tears [i was in with her] only enjoying the choir. i think she was wishing bb there, and missing her dad. sb loved it strings, samba and gamelan. e didn’t go back the following day.

dad took us out bowling on weds, which was great fun, and i even got a strke! only dad was watching tho! the kids had great time, and bb did better than i thought – thank goodness for rails a lovely time out.

christmas was full of fun, laughter and good cheer. i tried not to be grumpy when the few ppl either barely helped, or helped making a meal of how much they did as a favour. really, it isn’t a favour. helping out is a sign of love and respect, my house may be the venue each year, but the care and effort is better shared. but small gripes! lots of game playing, lots of happy kids, and therefore happy adults. moving on step by step but still missing viv and especially at this time little nanny. x x

i have been lucky enough, as has DH, to be born into families where family was valued, where those church calendar events have been grabbed to become a celebration of family [as well as christ on DHs side, and somewhat secular on mine]. Childhood christmasses were always spend with one side of the family or the other. with often cousins auns and uncles as well as grandparents. when christmassing with little nanny, there was the advantage of great aunts and uncles too. who could ever forget uncle robert telling aunty peggy he had bought her a new winter coat because she looked like bloody quasimodo in her old one. particularly as the sprout i was eating didn’t manage to completely stay in my mouth.

family christmas feels like little nanny to me. she was the matriarch and the role model. she made xmas work, with care, love and food. the house was warmed with a coal fire downstairs and hot water bottles and multiple ppl sharing the 2 bedrooms upstairs. the pantry smelt of flour, raisins and baking, the kitchen of roasties, and there was copious tea and cake. as a 2 up 2 down council house, we were crammed, adults got seats, kids got the floor, and we played games, giggled, had christmas carols and felt wrapped in the warmth of family. popular games of tell me, chase the ace, rummy and taste testing. indoor fireworks were a hit, though dad and grandad chuntered about them. the presents were smaller, more carefully chosen, and often included the nice’ clothes for next year and reading books.

maybe i only remember the good bits, but i remember warmth, laughter, love. i remember you always x x

We had a great Christmas history day as a break from the usual history etc, and brought loads of fabulous crafts. It was a lovely convivial spirit and felt very Christmassy. We did a bring and share lunch, and had some hot spiced berry drink as well [to simulate mulled wine J ]

Starting with my craft I bought red and green felt which I had cut into star shapes, various coloured embroidery threads, a bag of mixed jazzy buttons, and a bag of sewable bling and some stuffing to make hanging decorations. We put them together however fancied and had a very jolly display. They worked really really well J I had forgotten [obviously] that I had bought something similar in mass numbers from baker ross – doh! I did have one lad tell me that boys don’t sew… so he definitely did, and it wasn’t as completely unenjoyable or difficult as he had thought!

Michelle brought oranges, red ribbons and cloves to make scented Xmas pomanders. These made the conservatory smell absolutely delightful! Lots of very intricate designs were done, and in the end I did one too J. SB spent hours on hers.

Zoe’s first craft of colouring in a matisse stained glass window en masse was done in bits and pieces through the day, and finished off by us and the manor borns in the evening, it looked really lovely.

Katy was dipping pinecones into candlewax to make firestarters. We haven’t used ours yet, but BB was particularly taken with this activity, so we do have rather a lot of them. Due to the number of guests over Christmas, we had our heating on to a hotter setting than usual [too hot for me!] so no fire. We did think afterwards we should have added some copper sulphate to the mix.

Merry brought some fimo J to make plaques with holly leaves and the word ‘joy’ on as a tutorial, and then optional penguins or snowflakes for those who wanted to do more. Many did. BB in particular does enjoy the clear instructions.

Gina brought some cross stitch bookmarks [with ones predone by her DH J ] and also provided Christmas music practice for those with woodwind instruments.

In the afternoon, most did Zoes fabulous wreaths, even better than before J my garden isn’t completely stripped of all greenery…

So a fantastic day. The manor borns stayed for a jacket potato supper – so unusual for them not to have to rush off so that was lovely J. Certainly got us in the christmass mood. Such a shame I still had work to go to!

hmm, my blog def seems to have forgotten how to add photos