Petits Haricots

from my fav online toy and craft stores [owned by friends, so yes this is a plug, but a freebie unsolicited one!] i purchased a raft of craft sets from playmerrily to do with my 2 girls and niece and nephew over the summer holiday. At some point i will aim to add some pictures even! But i thought that I would like to specifically say how beautifully designed and realised these craft kits are. they work, they have the right bits, they are packaged properly, the stitching kits have real needles, the sandcraft box kit has a small hole in the box, so you can use it as a tray and then tip sand back into pot, and the instructions work. and the materials feel good, the craft is engrossing and enjoyed by 4 v different children, and the results look good.

SO far we have done some mosaic kits – the lion one doesn’t seem to be available any more, but E and BB loved doing that one, and M and SB had a great time doing the fish one. It was easy and straightforward to do whilst camping, and they didn’t have to concentrate so hard that they couldn’t chat loads!

The next kit is the rather adorable 5 continents mandala sand kit. we divvied up the designs with some slight nudging, so that E was doing one of the simpler ones [with my mum] i initially assisted BB, but actually she was fine. M is doing his so very carefully, and SB did the african one first as she just loved it so [and it is gorgeous] and now the american. i love how the designs actually do reflect the continents, and we had a huge long discussion about that, since mum has visited them all, and i have i guess too, so we could chat about places, native styles to there etc. I love how the actual kit was designed so well, and I also love how beautiful the end product looks. BB and M haven’t quite finished their first, and SB their second, but they are coming back each day to do some more, and really, they are beautiful. BB has requested one for her birthday!

[pics to follow]

The third kit we have on the go [rofl!] are the jewelled animals stitching cards Having originally got it with BB in mind [due to the lizard] i then thought it actually looked perhaps a bit more tricky. but we got it out, and i broke it down to starting with the ‘easier bits’ and BB happily sewing sequins on the lizard, and E enthralled with the chameleon. she hasn’t really done much sewing, and this is really grabbing her imagination. i have to admit to getting more sequins out for E, as she loves glitter, and i think it is adding to her enjoyment having it overkill sparkly. however, i think for most children, they would be happy with the original design! again a really well thought out, and beautifully made craft kit. photos to come, and also perhaps another 1 or 2 kits this week – though also doing other crafty non djeco things, as the kits do come at a price.

bottom line, as a ‘treat’ craft kit or present, i would definitely recommend!

SB has been doing rookie lifeguard and really enjoying it. this takes up most of the morning, as at a not-quite-so-close swimming pool. by the end of the week they had done a fair bit of swimming, a fair bit of first aid and used a number of the flotation and rescue devices. i was surprised that they didn’t get some kind of certificate at the end tho. it was obviously perhaps a mini taster course, tho that wasn’t clear. she absolutely loved it .

BB has busied herself with lots of crafting and also writing. Explode the code continues to be popular, and she also had fun writing a list of words in ‘fairy writing’ copying the style of SB’s surprise sleep fairy present to her. ALso some sewing. i must ask merry where she got the big holed binca from as BB v keen to do more of it.

Both SB and BB made some lovely fimo jewelry for a friend who is off to france en famille for 6 months. SB’s took hours – literally – as she did cane work or mille fiore i think it might be called? and made some ace beads. I love how when she has an idea for a task she really sits down and concentrates. she did a great job with loads of love in each bead BB loved the bracelet she made so much that she hasn’t quite managed to part with it… BB did however make me 4 bead caterpillars and wrapped them up beautifully as an extra birthday present – awww, how gorgeous! ANd sb bought us all an icecream treat I do feel v blessed in my family.

SB has also had another pretty productive home ed week, working on galore park books as well, her writing skills seem to be really coming on now, and she makes a concerted effort at spelling as well. she has read loads, we have story of the worlded all snuggled up, she has done me loads of clarinet and viola concerts

wed was latinetc, last of last academic year i guess! lovely that merry and girls were there and we all got stuck right in. science was chemistry, using our ‘mystery’ chemical – obtained from watering our wood fire to put it out, and collecting and diluting that water… [and testing that it wasn't caustic!] we reminded ourselves on pH, what that meant, acids and bases/alkali. also using litmus papers pink and purple, and then mixing varying amounts of our acid [trusty acetic acid] and mystery alkali [almost certainly potassium hydroxide] ad showing that although our base was more alkali than our acid was acidic [pH13 vs pH3] that the acid neutralised the base such that most outcomes were neutral or acidic. and then, because i love chemstry, we added equal amounts of our base to a saturated solution of copper sulphate, this probably gave us copper hydroxide – it is certainly supposed to, but reading round the internet suggests that actually this doesn’t always do it! luckilly it did precipitate out and was rather cool all round. we then discussed solubility etc etc. lots of ‘real words’ bandied about, double displacement etc. i just want the terms to all seem familiar and normal really. we filtered the solid… science wasn’t the only thing, latin, french, music theory, clarinet for SB, and then a fair bit of art – was supposed to be nature, but BB had a wobbly, so did dinosaurs instead, and had a bit of a wobbly over that too! lovely session tho.

ANother good bit of news is that BOTH girls now have blue peter badges. SB has a green one, and BB has the ‘blue’ one [tho we agree it is white!] since she is under 6, she will get the card to go with it when we apply after 6. thanks blue peter for that bit of thought and care

i hope that when my children look back on their childhood that they view it mostly with a rosy warmth, that they remember they were loved and cared for. I hope that the choice to home educate has worked out for them, even if they choose not to repeat it for their own children, and that they don’t regret too many of the choices we have made for them! But also, i hope that images like this are at the forefront too, the times we have spent laughing and having fun with friends.

not a lot to add really since yesterday! having slept really badly and feeling a bit lurgified, decided not to go out, bue spend the day crafting and cuddling! so we did some crafting – including using sun reactive paper to make patterns. have to say, it is never as successful as i hope! snuggled ds-ing together, reading together – including story of the world. SB did some singapore maths and some mathletics. BB played with an electronics kit. SB also did some clarinet. but mostly bumbling about together. chris has done some more puttying at the window. 2 pieces of glass to put in and then some painting – woohoo!!

i am currently annoyed by the huge number of flies, but can’t see any cause for so many in the house.

chris and the girls went to his parents for the day on thurs, and they did more crafting, watching tv and playing. friday was a bit of a tidy and sort day, however, both carried on with their HE, BB currently being fascinated by explode the code. it worked really well for SB, and as the children are so different, i really didn’t expect BB to be so taken by it as well. They have done music practices and also first books for this years reading challenge.

today, tho shattered due to heavy duty work shift i gave each of them a piano lesson. This is the first time that BB has actually tried to follow a book, so we are going ahead with jibbedy f ad ace

SB, despite concentrating on clarinet recently with a bit of viola on the side, took to the grade 1 pieces very happily. we spent a while just concentrating on getting the rhythm of triplets [nice-cup-of-TEA, or look-we-go-HERE] to make sure there wasn’t a ‘pause’ before the next beat. Since she got it, i imagine learning that partic piece will now be v straightforward. we’ll see how it goes, and ask Gina when we have to commit to taking it this term?

much playing in the garden following rabbit cleaning and maintenance – SB v good at, BB not at all! SB electing to stay out and get drenched by the rainshower whilst the rest of us came in. SB has done the first gloss topcoat layer of her shelves, and it looks good! unfortunately, she did transfer some of this topcoat gloss to the kitchen unit doors… luckilly we hate them, unluckilly we can’t afford to replace for quite some time…

BB also did some painting – suncatchers with glass paint pens from yellow moon. she is very fond of these! and then we did some ds-ing together, and then some reading together.

I am shattered now, so glad got both girls into bed, and may snooze before dinner!! hopefully will have some energy tomorrow, as think might quite like to go out for some fresh air if the weather good. maybe a geocache?

this weekend was a safari at home themed weekend! we had planned a home ed party on a will it/won’t it basis dependant on the needs of my sister. we tidied the house. [since it is currently tidy by our standards, am going to see whether we can keep it that way! a slight fly – or louse – in the ointment was that my niece E had had a bad infestation of nits and lice, and with persistent combing i eventually found 4 eggs on BB one day, then 1 nymph the next. thankfully no more! My head has been persistently itchy, but no findings.

SB’s we couldn’t assess, as she had Brownie camp week! and she loved it – woohoo!! she is quite sensitive to teasing/bullying as we don’t do this at home, and nor do her home ed friends on the whole, so she is always totally devastated. there are a couple of brownies who are more teasing/bullying who i just advise her to avoid. I am entirely at a loss to the best strategy for this as although i was teasted/bullied/ostracised at various times at school, and it made me ‘sad’ it was more that i knew my parents would be sad, and TBH, i think i might be too slightly on the spectrum for me to have thought it my be an issue with me! SO currently i tell SB that this kind of thing happens, and will happen a lot in life. but… it is not related to her, and that some teasing is just that, and should be laughed and shrugged off as part of friendly banter – and some is someone trying to make themselves more important. the way to tell is if it is done with a smile and laugh and moves on to someone else by someone else v quickly, and the latter is not done with a smile, but by one person to one or several, and occais others join in. and that is best dealt with ignoring at the time, and telling me or a leader that it isn’t nice and is making you uncomfortable, or, if with other friends, linking arms with them and laughing it off and changing subject. dunno. advice? but it wasn’t a big issue this time, just one thing that made her cry when telling me, but she had a ball otherwise.

anyway, we tidied hard! cut out and painted an elephant to drape over the climbing frame, cooked and baked and generally made ready. and on saturday our guests started to arrive. we had a lovely time, and were v happy to see all those that came again, and missed those that didn’t. the kids ran around having fun and laughing, and negligible spats or unhappiness or swing injuries! there was plenty of utterly delish food – bring and share such a fab thing! and obviously for us adults, loads of charming company! the kids had lots of pool fun, then we face painted – i had expert help from le ciel rouge, so picked up a few tips! the weather was with us, the company great, the kids lovely and thanks all!! a ate night with a fire pit, a gaggle of non sleeping kids got shunted into our room an early start and then some more playing/chatting/chilling and also much needed support from much loved friends. thanks all x x