Petits Haricots

i thought the blog had locked us out, but something to do with moving servers etc. Anyway, over the weekend i was a lot at work, but we did lots of nice pottering together, some gardening, some reading, so watching dr who. DH and i put the fencing around the veg bed, so that we could let the rabbits back out into the garden. they were v happy

[flickr id="5752442006" thumbnail="small" overlay="true" size="small" group="" align="left"] sunday dh and the girls went to pick up an ebay purchase – an islabike for SB. She is very very happy DH also fixed up SB’s first bike – a puky for BB. Another happy girl. hoping to go for a bikeride on weds to test tyhem all out. i got home and we did some playing together and crafting – sb with a window decorating kit and bb with a dinosaur sequin kit. there were a few stresses with that, as bb is such a perfectionist. SB being a darling caring girl gave bb one of her painting kits. was still a bit stressy!

[flickr id="5747661262" thumbnail="small" overlay="true" size="small" group="" align="right"] SB then went out to make a ladder!! she hammered and nailed together some wood, and it does appear to be sturdy – not that i would try it, nor would any health and safety expert!
She stopped doing it as she had a playdate with G from guides and it all went v well. they ds-ed, trampolined, wii-ed and made own pizzas, and most of the time plated with bb too.

today has been a good home ed day. BB had hosp appt and discharged, tho needs yearly assess by GP for HSP folllow up. SB has done maths, GP french, recorder prac and BB explode the code and read a level 2 book with ease. i read to SB SoTW3 and to both SoTW1 . more crafting – painting glass jars. SB and I made elderflower cordial, and bB and i made choc and cinnamon cake. trampolined with bb whilst sb did ballet. Done a piano prac with SB. Now going to chase rabs back into hutch and then have tea infront of the birds episode of life I do love just spending time with my family. Doesn’t have to be exciting. Just love them truly, madly deeply and they make me smile .

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obviously most of the girls home ed is not blogged! [frowns at DH] .
Monday i think was mostly a work at home sort of day, with ballet.
tues was a home morning and an afternoon HE group. the group is often a bit young for SB but fine for BB. they used to go more often, but it is a bit of a distance. BB had made meringues for the party there, saying goodbye to some home educators. they were v v yummy as she saved one for me :). eve is swiming, and BB was v proud to ome home with 2 swim-for-life badges, her levels 5 and 6. She gets moved up a class. SB has a couple more things to do for her final one, and is then considering swimming club.
weds – i blogged
thurs – mostly at home in the daytime, some home ed but no tidying and then gym
fri – arts award – both did fab pics, it was themed around illustrations. Love SB’s, it is really atmospheric. BB drew a reasonable dog. apparently it looked initially more like a dog body with a dinosaur head, so was coaxed and coached on how to doggify it. still has dino claws…
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recently I have had quite a few ppl, not necess blog followers!, ask what magazines the girls like, and what we subscribe to. I think there are loads of good magazines out there, at the end of a google search! Currently we change yearly, so if you have some suggestions… SB tends to read them all, BB looks at the pics of them all, and I tend to choose which one i can get a good deal on…

BB [6]

Know – we had this last year, and i hadnt remembered it was a 2 year subscription. It is a really good and easily accessible science magazine, perfect for its age range. definitely recommend.

Click – a young persons science/nature magazine. This year’s choice, and enjoyed by both girls, but def well aimed at BB’s age. I couldn’t decide between ask and click, but think click v good, and cn get ask another time perhaps…

dinomite – kind of odd magazine, but loved by BB, partly due to plastic tat on front, but also because it is dinosaur themed – i think this might be ‘special interest’ ! we have had this one for 2 years.

SB Magazines

yes SB def enjoyed this, so is not unhappy to have for another year it is the big brother to ‘know’ v sciency again, accidentally for 2 years at self

dig this year SB decided to have something non-science, so we have gone for this archaeology mag [from the same ppl as BB click]

aquila last year, for her second mag, SB had this one. Much enjoyed but she wanted one with ‘stuff’ like bb’s din0mite, so has been replaced this year.

Animal Planet so she decided on this one as she got a meerkat jigsaw and dvd and is looking forward to getting the first mag

We have been doing these home ed photo-meme days every year since 2005. This was the year we officially started home educating and when Jax started the meme going we were v happy to take part and have a look around. Every year since , some or other of us on the early years blog ring have completed a photo meme. This year Merry is drawing them altogether into a carnival. I have done a number of days this month as our offering, but have been rather inconvenienced by the breakdown of our adobe photoshop. So this time this one has been done with i-phone – so dreadful pics! [and a lot of effort getting them into the post.] we might pop one of the other days in when the pics are available. this post is a post that shows that our home educated days are not spent all inside or on our own but quite often in collaboration with others. This is obvious from the blog!

Today was a notlatinetc day and remarkably depleted since Merry and K were under the weather G and family have other weds commitments and the manorborns visiting family. So just me and Z today. We were slightly late due to a phone call from work, and last minute remembering of SB’s viennese biscuits. We listened to our Italian CD on the way there, happily singing the songs.

Z had the first activity all ready on the table, making fairy tealight holders. we painted the jam jars and put beaded wires around them. V easy and v v effective and the children did all enjoy it. They all spent some time crafting and chatting together whilst Z and I also chatted and drank tea!

They then did the questions in a jar, with z pulling out the questions, and the children deciding on the answer. I am sometimes surprised by the odd mix of things they know, which are unexpected and the things they tell me they dont – like how many weeks in a year?? General knowledge useful for Home Educated children doesn’t involve so much timetable, and when at school the number of weeks may have relevance. Not that i dont want my children to learn these things of course…

Then as the different children finished at different times, they gradually peeled off to do some workbooky things whilst waiting for the ‘next moment’ .

BB has nearly finished explode the code book 1 which has definitely become a lot easier for her has we have gone through it. She had a bit of a grouchy moment with it, but a hug and a cuddle soon made things better

SB brought some music theory, as she is sure C from the manor borns is going to get ahead of her She is learning her grade 3 theory stuff, and not seeming to have any problems with it so may sit that next christmas term. SB then added the whipped cream into her biscuits – yummy!

Z’s girls did some english and spelling. It was perhaps 20 mins and then lunch was ready – pasta! some bouncing about on the trampoline and playing. realised the deependers weren’t going to be able to make it

hmm, these pictures are really rubbish aren’t they! must replace at some time. After lunch we did chapter 8 of real science for kids. this was about nutrients and mostly carbohydrates. we read the chapter last night and the experiment was done today all together. Basically using dilute iodine to see which foodstuffs contain starch [and paper!]

At the end for fun we made some invisible ink pictures with lemon juice.

We sat on sofas to discuss our findings, writing our objectives, hypothesis, results and conclusions. even BB wrote a little bit of hers before giving it to me to do

our final planned activity for the day was french. I read with BB one french book, with her repeating with me some of the words, and extrapolating on food words. SB, P and S took turns reading from 2 other books [which also have english translations] and seemed to get in the swing of this and enjoy it. One of my key things is for there to be no embarrassment to speaking in a foreign language, so i am v keen to encourage the oral/aural compenent of learning a language.

After that Z and I tidied up a bit and the girls played and also ‘developed’ their lemon juice pics with the diluted iodine. A lovely day, though we did miss all those that couldnt attend for one reason or another, as always more fun with more. Hoping they all feel better soon.

Then, all too soon we needed to be off as SB had a play date with a guides friend.  We listened to classic fm on the way home. She had a fab time playing, and is pleased that they are both going on the guiders camp. hoping we maintain the playdate thing really.

[flickr id="5743540362" thumbnail="small" overlay="true" size="small" group="" align="left"] SB is back, BB has been a bit snoozy so we have snuggled under the comfort duvet chatting, blogging, watching ice age 3. I am about to do a piano prac with SB, she will then go off to Judo and I will go for a works dinner to say goodbye to a colleague. Hopefully this blog has been a nice different one showing how family cooperatives get together. i had planned to showcase historyetc instead, but ppl will just have to read it instead I had also suggested to DH as the main home educator he might like to be the one to do the photomeme…

Anyway! resources used in the planning and outcome of today [i am an amazon affiliate btw etc etc]

i hope you have enjoyed this peek inside home ed, feel fre to read more on our blog or the home ed blog ring.

I am finding titles currently a bit challenging! Anyway, fab weds historyetc as blogged, worked all day thurs – v late day too!! girls had CHEF multisports and then gym. BB was a bit wobbly about it as had fallen asleep in the car, but think it all went OK. SB had guides. She says she preferred Brownies, but it is OK. I do like the fact that she has reconnected with an old friend, and a playdate has been made for next week . My parents were here when I got back from work, which was lovely and stayed until today [sun] lunchtime. My mum cracked the home ed whip friday, tho the girls spent pretty much all morning in the bath! They both did enough of their ticksheets tho to liberate a book

Saturday we went to oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. A fab national trust property, the ancestral home of the Bedingfields and originally tudor, tho much added and altered the tudor shines through loved seeing the tapestry work that Mary queen of scots did whilst held captive. v interesting house [ tho dad outraged that couldn't take photos, even with no flash] and some gardens to run round. looked fab with the moat. The weather was a bit showery, so had hopes it may have rained on our veg patch, but it hadn;t :(  Home and some gardening with parents and then played ticket to ride, which sb won. Lovely day

Today mostly gardening early on and then companiable watching of doctor who in the evening
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Today was a historyetc day with Nazca and Olmecs. TBH, as we discussed this, i admit to feeling a bit under-resourced for crafts, but after some brainstorming on our discussion group, and google searching we came up with some good ideas. Today they worked brilliantly [mostly!]

You may notice a lack of photos currently on the blog, and that is because i am currently having a hitch putting photos onto flickr due to adobe , and the wordpress upgrade seems to have caused a problem with the flickr plug in. Argh!!

SO, back a bit, Monday was a pretty good getting HE done kind of day, with various of the maths, english, music etc being done by both girls quite happily. SB also had ballet. Tues was a tidying house kind of day, and in the afternoon djembe drumming, much enjoyed by the girls, and then swimming. The manor borns came back to stay at our house. SB had an unfortunate accident on the climbing frame and has a v sore looking arm now. Her swimming teacher also suggested she had got wheezy, so she spent a while googling asthma – argh!

Today BB should have had a hospital appointment, so said the card. unfortunately, the card was wrong. it was monday . rung, apologised and rearranged.

However, i woke up with a migraine so had a bit of a lie in, but when i came downstairs the girls were all watching a programme about Nazca lines, and I found a book so that we read up a bit more about Olmecs and Nazca with each of the bigger girls taking turns to read, and then deependers and le ciel rouge arrived, we had a cup of tea and then got stuck in!! so, crafts:

Olmec papier mache heads

we looked at olmec heads and then using papier mache aimed to recreate. the younger ones didn’t put facial features on, planning to paint in grey, the older ones did. Unfortunately not a scorching day today, so not quite hot enough to dry them enough to then paint, but hopefully ppl will paint at home and we will get some pics.

Olmec Fish

We had a go at replicating this Olmec Fish out of fimo. It worked pretty well with all the kids both young and old doing a really good job. We didn’t quite do what merry intended with it, and I had wondered what the acrylic paints were for, and think her idea def better, but it was still fun and enjoyable, and we did a fair bit of talking about diff fish types!

Mesoamerican Weaving

We made sylvanian families rugs out of wool woven around cardboard. Lovely craft that all the children again concentrated v hard on and did a great job. They looked really effective. Zoe tweaked the weaving on this site and it worked brilliantly. SB hasn’t finished hers having chosen a rather big design… hopefully she will do tomorrow. BB did a fab job concentrating on hers and is v proud of it

Cornmeal cooking

K made cornbread and mini corn tortillas with many of the children, all without any other flour so gluten free, and also baked some sweet potatoes to go with them. V Yummy I do like the addition of food to historyetc

Nazca lines in sand

M organised sand pictures, with the children looking at a variety of nazca lines and then drawing their own pattern, following that in glue and then sprinkling sand on. SB didn’t get round to doing this one, but BB did. SHe did a beach scene rather than a mazca line, but C’s spider recreation was utterly fab.

Nazca lines with string in the garden

This was rather brilliant, but could have done with brighter string to show up against the grass. various children took a spider pic and then walked with the string to ‘trace’ the lines out on the grass. Have taken a pic from an upstairs window tho [when can download and upload!]

pegdolls

This also worked well [trying not to overuse the word fab, tho it was!] Jax had looked up the materials, and they often had embroidered birds, 2 headed snakes or anthropomorphic characters on there. SO everyone had a go at embroidering something. BB embroidered a 2 headed snake, and SB an anthropomorphic character of a rabbit-man. They also worked well.

SO in the end, i think we did a rather good job of nazca crafts and olmec crafts . The children also had lots of opportunity to bounce on the trampoline, play together and giggle lots, and as well as the usual snack options, there was also popcorn . grad ppl left, I did some sewing for kentwell costumes for a friend [and she left them behind so i finished off all the sewing!] and showed off the veg patch . Ended with a lovely soup for dinner,  SB had judo, the kids are still awake, i am going to shower, take some more migraine tabs and go to bed. Night all

Hoped to get the bulk of the gardening/veg sorted this weekend, and think we have prob managed it. OBbviously loads of things still to plant out etc, but is def coming together v nicely. WOuld have liked to have gone geocaching or cycling, but SB has hurt her foot. 3 years ago she had a v nasty accident and scraped off the side of her right foot and also broke her heel bone. SInce then this foot has been v sensitive to knocks and bumps, so it is always difficult to decide how much problem there may be. She also gets very worried about anything with that foot. Anyway, from friday she has been not weight bearing and using crutches. I examined it, and it isn’t swollen, there is no bruising, and it has a full range of movements [even if pain is reported] . Anyway, has v much limited what we have done this weekend. if no improvement, we will go to the GP on Mon for a second opinion. I am less worried as she did a fair bit of trampoline bouncing in the middle of the day. [in fact now occais she forgets and weight bears]

Friday was arts award, and both girls enjoyed their art. SB did a warholised pic, and BB a hamster version. I believe that both really enjoyed it, and there was not too much stress from BB when her first go went wrong. Although the girls had wanted to go swimming, my inlaws needed a few jobs doing, so instead they went round there for the day.

This weekend we have done some music prac and a bit of home-ed – such that both girls have done enough to ‘win’ a box book.SB and I had fun duetting on the piano, and then she played the clarinet and I had to come up with the accompaniment. BB also done a piano prac and glock. SHe is currently not sure about the cello. Always best not to push things with BB! We all did music theory, BB read and did some conversational french and SB did galore park and maths.

However, this has been quite a relaxed weekend and we have done quite a bit of crafting. Yesterday we did both wet and dry felting all together. I do like wet felting, but we now have no working needles for dry! Today we did a bit more, and BB and I now each have a small felted bag as we have sown together 2 squares. . SB plans to make a quilt! BB and I also made some more fimo cane toppers. SB used some of the old seed packets to make a collage, and she has also done the advert for the spare plants we will sell on the drive again. The girls have played with the sylvanians for AGES – allowing DH and i to do the bulk of the gardening work. We have had lots of cuddles and snuggles, watched Dr Who, and currently girls watching prince caspian whilst eating bean wraps for tea. Think Sedna still loose in the garden tho…

merry at patch of puddles reminded me far too late on wednesday about the typical day photomeme, so i didn’t do it. or i didn’t start early enough!

Both girls got some home ed things done [i should have blogged at the time so that i remembered!] in the morning. BB is confidently reading her level 2 books, so will soon move onto level 3. SB finished junior science 2, did some history 2 and maths. BB also did some maths – subtraction. SB also did some of her japanese ds game ermmm clarinet prac

Whilst they were doing this, i was busy in the garden . we’re doing well with the growing this year, and hope that it isn’t all ready to harvest or all dies when we are on our summer holiday!

The afternoon was a casual craft afternoon, and we got out the hama beads and happily chit chatted whilst we did various patterns. some bouncing on the trampoline etc etc. BB and i did some french with wild animals [with SB chipping in] and we all did some story of the world. feeling relatively unenthused re the next historyetc and it is this wed! better find some ideas [nazca and olmecs, and the lines have already been bagsed!] . Jax from Making it Up popped over on her way back from sorting passports, and that was lovely, so we had tea in the conservatory, and the kids played. SB had judo

there may have been other stuff! but i have forgotten

SB and I are having great fun with it