.Boyceview Home School

The Sun...

2009-03-08T09:50:00.003Z

.... doth shine upon this little corner of our green and pleasant land. Looking like a good day to get tidying the garden, although bedrooms are first on the agenda and we decided on a trip to Hobbycraft as the girls have birthday money burning a hole in their pockets.

I haven't blogged for a while 'cos we have been getting stuck into clearing the loft. For once we're going great guns and stuff is shifting. Its taking some time to get rid of it although L at the Art Factory took a lot for eco art which is her thing!

Hettie went to her first art award session there and apart from having a slight return to old nervous habits - which I haven't seen for a long time now - mainly rolling her tongue around and twisting her sleeves, she got pretty geared up for it. Strange isn't it suddenly your child matures without you really noticing. She's very much aware she's doing this a year early, but keen to prove she can do it. She has to choose an art hero or heroine to research and she's picked her nanny - aah. You're right up there nanny beating Leonardo da Vinci, who came a close second.

Issy will be doing a similar project, and while Hettie chose pastels and watercolours, she has chosen textiles and fashion.

In the course of loft clearance I found my tapestry frame, and after an hour trying to remember how it went together I finally managed it. Now to find something to get my needle busy creating.

They also went to a second maths session, which was a little more chaotic than the first. The main problem was basic maths skill were not good, although you have to remember most of these kids are dyslexic. This has in turn sent me on a maths drive here. They had to design a garden and work out areas and costings. Hettie did really well and persevered even though she has never done this type of maths before and Issy after a slight meltdown in the middle of class, also gathered herself and got it finished. They must have enjoyed it because we repeated in on Saturday. Maths on a weekend, never been heard of here before!

So I was busy last night printing off worksheets for Issy - she loves them - and writing out lists of sums from Hettie's GP maths book, so she's ready to go.

They went into the garden and cut some grass for the guineas - I was hoping they would trim the lot but it takes a while with scissors I suppose!

The guineas turned their little noses up at grass and more or less demanded spinach and curly kale, which are their favorites. They ate it eventually once they realised they weren't getting anything else.

So back to the garden, I really must get it sorted this year and get growing. Mrs D as usual has reminded me of her fantastic canning skills. Not sure I'll ever 'can' but sure I can grow enough to eat and freeze. Plus I can't afford to keep buying veg for 5 hungry guineas.

Well off to do something or the day will drift by and I'll miss the sun, it might be gone tomorrow!

We started....

2009-02-28T21:38:00.003Z

..... clearing the loft today. It was postponed slightly as dh had managed to delete the drivers on his computer 'cos he 'didn't think we used those'. Still once I sorted that out we got stuck in.

Deciding it would be best to work down one side at a time, we dragged it down, and got filthy in the process. I think we had about 6 boxes of videos, and no longer own a video player. Also boxes of books. But I found some old letters and photos, a couple of diaries from when I was about 10, which the girls fell about laughing when I read them aloud. I found some autograph books - remember those - which my nan and grandad had signed! One letter was from my nan and was a lovely find. I'd forgotton how funny she was. She wrote 'Thank you for the book, I really enjoyed it and finished in a couple of days. Mind you, some of it was a bit saucy' Obviously I had sent my nan a risque book to read!

I found this lightshade which I rescued from a clearance some years ago:

Unfortunately although it was perfect when I acquired it, Hettie kicked a ball at it and broke a panel, and its been in the loft ever since.

I will get it repaired, because for one I love it and for two it will go nicely in the house.

And the girls have generally dossed about, got in the way, sneakily saved things from the 'dump' pile and cuddled the pigs!

Pastels Today!

2009-02-26T22:49:00.004Z

I had to work this morning which is always pretty boring for the kids, but they were very good and so got MacDonalds for lunch as a treat. This afternoon they played with the baby guinea pigs for a while and then it was back to art!

Hettie had taken a liking to a picture of The Scream she had seem in an art book we got from the library and decided to make a copy in pastels.

She loves using pastels and its one of her favorite ways to produce art work. Issy seeing the pastels out thought she'd have a play about with them and came up with this:

Which I kinda like! Looks like something I'd paper my wall with!

Birthdays and Art....

2009-02-25T21:47:00.004Z

It was Issy's 8th birthday - at last! She was much calmer than last year and we only had a couple of outbursts of tears the night before. She more or less knew all her pressies, but still had a lovely time. My mum was in hospital so we went round on Monday and had cake etc and as it was pancake day on her actual birthday I did my best to cook and toss them! Ok so the dog got to eat two that ended up on the kitchen floor. Well actually one landed on the bin, but he still managed to scoff it.

iPod Nano complete with Dolly Parton greatest hits!

Monsoon top (which as matching bag at considerable expense) - her favorite shop!

Now, this is dh, in bed in his work clothes, family tradition we sit in our bed while they open birthday presents and he was already dressed for work so had to get back in, having just learned he has games on his iPod which he has had for a year now. Hettie informed him!

Today we went to our HE meet. Group is going great and we have lots of regular turn out which is nice for parents and kids. We usually go to nanny's for lunch but she has just come home from hospital after having a kidney op, so we gave it a miss. After lunch we got down to some art and craft work.

Issy made geometric shapes from paint stamp sponges.

Working on a rabbit mask.

Hettie had some good news this week, thanks to Lyn at the Art Factory - she can start the Art Award, broze level, a year early. This means although she may not be able to register until she's 11, she can do the work, and then register and have it assessed when she turns 11. Great because she is very keen to do it, and some of her HE friends will be starting Monday so she'll join with them. This meant she immediately started looking at art, so we looked at cubism type work and she produced this:

Today she started on a bigger piece, looking at how she can use different textures and materials to produce a similar effect. I'll blog the finished pic - well when she's finished it! Note the straightened hair Nanny Norfolk!

That's about all folks!

Thriller and Dolly Parton.....

2009-02-21T23:14:00.002Z

... strange combination, but that's what happened here tonight. We watched Let's Dance For Comic Relief where some well known and lesser known stars dance famous dances, a type of dancing X Factor for charity over 4 weeks. If you missed it, available on BBC IPlayer.

Dh and I quickly realised the girls didn't know the famous dance routines, having not seen the films they were from, with the exception of High School Musical. The Flashdance routine performed by Robert Webb of Mitchell and Webb fame was the funniest thing I've seen for ages, and boy has he got legs I'd kill for! He somehow seemed to look strangely attractive in a leotard and leg warmers. Anyway I digress, and so after the show I scanned You Tube for the original dance scene clips.

Its been some years since I've seen the M Jackson Thriller video and so I popped it on. Unfortunately it scared the living daylights out of Issy -surprisingly Hettie laughed all the way through it and she has nightmares if she watches Scooby Doo. They howled with laughter at the Blues Brothers though, and at John Travolta strutting his disco dancing in Saturday Night Fever. Thought it was even funnier when I said all the girls loved John Travolta. There was a sudden outburst of the strut and dance routines in the lounge.

So we stayed on You Tube because Issy asked me if they have Dolly Parton on there. I wondered where she had heard of Dolly Parton and discovered unbeknownst to me she's a closet DP fan. Nothing wrong with that, I like her myself! Turns out DP is Hannah Montana's aunt in the tv show. So we got over my scaring the life out of her by watching half an hour of DP on You Tube, whilst Issy told me how glamorous she is, what lovely hair she has and how slim she is. Hettie pointed out she has big - well lets call them Dolly's - as well!! We checked out a few Billy Ray Cyrus videos as well, and I learnt more about Hannah Montana. Seems to be Issy's specialist subject, maybe she can do a lapbook ;) We also checked you can buy a DP album from itunes, just in case she gets an ipod for her birthday next week.

So click here if you want to see a much younger DP singing Jolene, which is my favorite! I was 8 years old as well when this was on, and I thought she was pretty glam too - sadly, I never grew such a nice pair of Dolly's though ;o)

I've been tagged!

2009-02-21T08:48:00.004Z

OK, so I got tagged - more thanonce, thank-you blog friends! You take the 6th picture from your 6th folder and post it. Here's me in Bath!

And I'm tagging, anyone who wants to have a go as almost everyone I know has been tagged already ;o)

Thank Heaven for Mrs Beeton...

2009-02-20T23:05:00.003Z

... now she may have been born in 1836, but boy she's handy when you're having a cookery crisis. The girls both begged - sorry asked politely - for those cake mixture boxes when we were in the supermarket. I gave in and Hettie bought Butterfly cakes and Issy bought some Barbie mix. Both from a well known cake mix company.

So today we started. Hettie made hers and the mixture just didn't look right to me. She licked the bowl out and said it tasted funny. We removed them from the oven, and they were rubbish, and so ended up in the bin. Issy started hers and the mixture looked like slop tbh. And yes I did follow the instructions carefully!! I didn't even bother baking them.

We'll go back to the proper old fashioned way of baking fairy cakes I said, reaching for Mrs Beeton. In fact we really did go back because I had no self raising flour, so it had to be plain and add baking powder. Well Mrs Beeton won the day and we finally produced 12 cakes which looked like they were edible. Actually being on a diet the ones I threw in a bin looked quite edible to me!
After finally producing something worth decorating we made Issy's pink butter icing from the pack. It was Yuk, no-one liked it, so after my arm nearly falling off beating it, the whole lot went in the bin. By now I was getting a tad grumpy. So I made normal butter icing for Hettie and pink icing for Issy!

Girls spent a happy hour decorating their cakes. Unfortunately I can't find my camera, so no pics but the girls and dh said they tasted good. No I didn't eat one, I'm on a diet.

Other than taking 3 hours to produce 12 small cakes, I washed and ironed all day.

Our loft conversion starts in 3 weeks and so I really need to get sorting all the stuff that is stored up there. Strangely enough one of the builders employees is the grandparent of HE children and so hopefully there will be minimal disruption. Ok who am I trying to kid? They've already told Hettie she can go and learn carpentry!!

Nits...

2009-02-18T22:01:00.002Z

... those little blighters have struck again. So far in scoring tables Issy in lead with 33 - yes 33 and some of those whoppers - Hettie 2 and Dh 0. Me - I'm waiting for the hot water!

Spent a nice day at my friends and we let the kids ride their bikes over to the common alone, 2 minutes away. This involved crossing one road. 'What on our own!' they cried, 'Yes on your own, clear off and play' we replied. We followed that up with, 'Check back in half an hour, stay together, don't talk to strangers' and much watching out for their return and so on. They had a great time judging by the rosy cheeks and thick mud.

My friend and I spent some happy time discussing the correct use of apostrophies and commas!!

Stuck to my diet - Day 3 and could kill for a bit of chocolate!

Birthdays, Diets & Waffle....

2009-02-17T20:36:00.002Z

The girls had a party at Build A Bear on Sunday with 6 friends. It was really nice and they all had a good time. We weren't going to have a party this year, but my arm was twisted! So they had 3 friends each and I got the big bear!!

Although they insisted dh was in attendance he sloped off to amble round the shops. I forgot my camera, but fortunately my friend had hers in her bag!

Yesterday we had friends round for lunch and the kids all played out and got some fresh air. Issy having a bit of a meltdown week, think the big bear may have set her off and all the excitement of the party, and she spent an hour this evening cleaning the bathroom and lining everything up in straight lines. She said could everyone stop leaving the toothpaste oozing on the side of the sink, cos it makes a mess. Pretty rich really coming from the one who leaves the toothpaste on the side :O Anway the bathroom's sparkling LOL

Managed to get out in the tank - sorry car - I've borrowed and get to the supermarket, which was necessary because a) I didn't go at the weekend and b) I started a diet.

So bringing me nicely onto dieting. Since my wedding 6 years ago I've gone up 4 dress sizes and put on 2 stone and 4 lbs. Now I don't expect to be 40 years old and be that slim again - I was breastfeeding 2 babies and burning up 600 calories a day in milk production -but lets face it, its not good is it? I used to just basically 'cut out the crap' and loose weight, but now that no longer seems to be working - mmm maybe a little middle age spread then, harder to budge. So I dived onto the book shelf and found Rosemary Conley's original hip and thigh diet, and decided I'd better stick to it pretty drastically!

I like this diet because you can have no fats or oils ever - easier than being allowed 4 grms of butter on your toast. Lets face it you never weigh the 4 grms so proably end up having 20! Also you can have 1 small glass of wine a night - yipee! Its pretty straight forward 1 breakfast, 1 lunch and 1 dinner. OK now I've blogged it I'll have to stick to it!

We're out again tomorrow to friends - girl's twigged its half term and don't want to do any work - so I should be hoovering and mopping now, but its nearly time for my small glass of wine and I want to savour it!

Sleet???

2009-02-12T21:06:00.004Z

The weather report said 'sleet' this evening. Well it looks suspiciously like more snow to me:

It looks very, very pretty and girls are extremely excited at the chance they may be sledging again tomorrow. It is very unusual for this part of UK to get so much snow this time of year, so off to check the only pair of warm trousers the girls have each are clean and dry for tomorrow.

Good work by the girls today. Hettie worked hard with maths, history and science. I had to rake about deep in the recesses for teaching photosynthesis!! Issy completed all her Sonlight. She read the history/geography out loud beautifully and worked hard with her handwriting today. Hettie went to a party so Issy got a whole hour piano tuition all to herself.

Ah well back to slipping and sliding tomorrow!

The Bard is hanging out at our house!

2009-02-11T18:29:00.002Z

I haven't blogged for a while, been a bit busy ;)

Girls have been to their Shakespeare workshop, seen Romeo & Juliet and The Tempest at the theatre - Shakespeare 4 Kidz theatre company - and old Will is the latest hot thing in reading round here. We stated reading children's versions by Andrew Matthews and Tony Ross and they give a good outline of the actual stories. Hettie wanted something a bit more so I bought No Fear Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet This is the full play plus modern translation on the opposite page and we started today, and Hettie wants to attempt the whole play. She's got a good grasp of the language and even if we get through some of it I'll be pleased. I also bought Macbeth from Comic Book Shakespeare which is abridged but good for getting the story and the original language comic book style. She really wants to read Macbeth - thinks its the witches!

Hettie followed up by making a character poster for R & J, and is making a collage of the balcony scene. Not usually her type of thing but I think the artist in her over ruled the 'yucky' love bit.

Good day for Hettie HE wise today. She produced some good history work and we managed to finish the chapter on cells for biology. Issy didn't do a great deal today but we did complete all her allocated Sonlight work, and we remain on schedule!

Returning to the saga of my eternity ring, the car died on the way to dropping off the girls. I just about gave up hope of ever getting the ring. My BIL rescued us and fortunately had a spare car to lend us. So we managed to get my ring, which is lovely. I'm not overkeen on driving the borrowed 4 x4 or 'tank' as I call it. Much bigger than I'm used to driving, but I've stuck with it. That was until that died on me yesterday as well. My mum had to rescue me. So not much luck in the car department this week!

Oh well its only a car. Sure I am able to get a bus if necessary, but we got lots of HE done today 'cos we couldn't go out anywhere ;)

Birthdays All Round...

2009-02-06T21:32:00.003Z

.... Hettie was 10 today and my mum was 70 today, so double celebrations!

We went to see Shakespeare 4 Kids production of Romeo and Juliet last night with our HE club and back to see The Tempest today. Highly recommended, we loved them both. So what with that and fitting in birthday shopping and the snow at the beginning of the week we haven't had 5 mins to do anything else.

Hettie is over the moon with her ipod nano, although I'm frantically trying to sort out how to upload stuff onto it! I have managed to put some audiobooks on, so tomorrow I'll try to sort a bit more if I can. Girls are off to stay with their old nanny, as in a childcare nanny - not a grandma, tomorrow am until Sunday am, so dh has promised to take me out to buy me an eternity ring. He's been promising for about 3 years now so so long as it doesn't snow I should finally get one. If it does snow I probably will just trudge through it and break in the shop if necessary LOL

Got lots of pics of my nephew travelling in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand today. My sister cried as mums do and then got cross as we pointed out he seemed to be with a different girl in every picture - there were about 25!! The girls pointed out he was laughing in every picture - well he would be wouldn't he! Male members of the family muttered 'lucky so and so' under their breaths and wandered off. We women closely scanned the pics to decide who we thought looked worthy of him. Also some great pics of him bungy jumping, so I'm glad he is having a fabulous time.

I'm off for an early night, ready for shopping tomorrow!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

2009-02-02T22:03:00.003Z

... and it did today! Good thing about a garden with a steep slope is when it does snow for one day you can at least get some sledges out!

Dh took the girls off to the woods - with a mass of other kids and dads - to do more sledging, steeper slopes! We took the dog out with us this afternoon, but he was just a yob! He pulled the girls physically off the sledges by yanking at their coat sleeves with his teeth, and kept knocking us all flying. He was sent in for bad behaviour!!

Not good news for adults, but all the kids in the South East of England have a had a ball. We only had 3 or 4 inches of snow, but the girls have never seen that much before. So tomorrow comes the black ice and slippy stuff, which the country is equally unequipped for ;o)

We got some video, nanny and grandad as well. I'l get a copy in the post!

An awful lot of biology....

2009-01-31T00:13:00.002Z

..... this week in our house. In addition to the guinea pigs, who apparently are not calling to their babies, as my maternal instincts decreed, but are in season and calling to any boy available, we had our Labrador neutered.

Now I had explained to the girls that he had to go to the vets for a little operation because he was barking a lot and was trying to find a girlfriend lady dog, which was also making him wander off when daddy walked him.

Unfortunately he returned with a great big plaster stuck on the affected bits. Hettie roared with laughter and said 'I didn't know they were going to cut those bits off' and Issy asked if he could still 'poo'. Oh, and 'Why did you do that?' looking shocked.

The dog, looking distinctly fed up at the intimate examination, returned to his basket. I added further explanation that those were the bits that made him want to find a lady dog to be his girlfriend. 'Is he a girl now?' asked Hettie. 'No he's still a boy' I replied. A long silence ensued, before all eyes turned to daddy, and then there was an outbreak of hysterical laughing.

While myself and the girls fell about laughing dh joined the dog!

So after guinea's breeding and dogs neutered, it was time to return to school today. Hettie worked hard and Issy finished Week 3 of Sonlight with no complaint, so that was good. I spent a lot of time talking to many people about maths club, art club and science for the HE group and didn't seem to get anywhere tbh. Still sure it will all get sorted in the end.

I ordered some larger protractors and set squares from a company having a clearance sale, not realising quite how big they were. The long side of the triangle being about 2 foot long!! Dh asked if we were planing to do the loft conversion ourselves :o) OK so they're a little bigger than I thought. I'll blog some pics!

Weekend plan: Housework as usual!

Faith, Snails and Guinea Pigs!

2009-01-28T21:56:00.004Z

An unlikely combination in some ways, but they've all been discussed this week in our house.

I don't really discuss religion as a rule - or blog about it - I always feel it's a thing personal to myself. I was bought up within the Church Of England as a child and my faith is my own. I don't call my dh an atheist as I don't care much for the word, so I usually say, on the rare occasion someone asks, that he has no religion. A general discussion between us some years ago led to us to agree we would bring the children up and allow them to decide which religion, if any, they wished to follow. Not all of you may agree with that, however that is the mutual decision we came to.

Now, both children have been given the same answers to questions, information and so on, but Hettie, it has become apparent, believes passionately in evolution, and Issy believes just as passionately in the Creation. So we have somewhat of a split in belief around here. Further discussion between dh and myself. Decision remained the same really, but we've had a long chat with the girls about understanding and tolerating the beliefs of others. So Hettie has continued her study of Charles Darwin and Issy & I - well we snuggled in bed and read the Bible. We re-read about the creation and her comments were 'that's much better' and 'I think God probably should have had 3 weeks rest, he was probably really tired, the earths pretty big' Oh and obviously 'Did God create Guinea Pigs?'

And so onto snails, more precisely our Giant Land Snails. Created or evolved, they sure are rapidly increasing in size:

A little bit of science - Hettie built a model of DNA and amazed me by pretty much remembering the parts of a cell.

And Issy made a sheep that grows crystal wool, its not working that well so far!!

And lastly we come to the guinea pigs. We let them out in the indoor run and I'm not sure whether it was the sudden freedom and space but it became quickly apparent that at least one baby was a boy - if you see what I mean ;o) Dh woke me with a cuppa at 6.30am and the phrase 'Your guinea pigs are at it' OK time for action! All babies are boys and so they have been separated from their mummies. This in turn led to mummies standing on their houses and squeaking loudly - into the early hours of the morning! This morning dh woke me by saying 'Your guinea pigs sound like they're going to explode' He was right - the mummies were making the strangest noise like a phone ringing, which got louder and louder. They really did sound like they might pop!

All seems quiet this evening at last, children, snails and guinea pigs. Peace at last.

I'm Becoming Obsessed....

2009-01-25T21:43:00.002Z

.... with 3 ring binders or folders as we call them in the UK. You see I order a fair amount of the girls curriculum from the US - you may have noticed :o) Sonlight is great because it comes with a binder for the instructors guide and I think I got a binder for science or was it language arts?? Anyway I digress, what I hadn't realised was that the US have 3 and 5 ring binders and we have 2 or 4 ring folders.

I tried re-punching the sheets and basically it made a mess and it was easy to tear. I'm a bit fussy about things like that. Hettie's Real Science 4 Kids workbooks have 3 holes punched. The problem is if you want to add any work, you need a 3 ring hole punch. OK so after chatting with some other HE mum's we decided you could make a template and use a single hole punch - I have one already, never used before - for punching additional work.

This still leaves the binder problem. Dh said just order them from Sonlight if you really need them, I think I only want about 4, but they only do blue and we like different coloured binders for subjects. Now that sounds really finicky but it helps the girls quickly find their work. Besides blue is for boys - only joking ;)

Tonight I had another brainwave! PING - Amazon. Oh goodness there's a vast array on there, with sizes in inches and all sorts. Are all US 3 ring binders the same size??? Help me out here I just want some 3 ring binders!! OK I do like the ones with the clear pocket on the front, but we can live without those.

I must have something better to be doing - aah yes a chilled glass of wine!

Now I'm Mad...

2009-01-24T20:27:00.003Z

... there's yet another 'consultation' [and I use the term loosely] by the government about home education in the UK. The difference this time is it is being heavily insinuated children are more at risk from child abuse and neglect and are more likely to be enforced into marriage. Its insulting to home educators and other minority groups who are being targeted, with no evidence to back up these opinions. Home education groups are asking for the evidence of this, but they have none of course. Having worked with abused children and adults in the past I find it very worrying that apparently if you attend a state school you're less at risk. Who is looking out for those children who attend school and ask their teachers for help only to be ignored? or those children who attend school and are too frightened to ask for help?

Please, please fill in the consultation - we need to make ourselves heard - here Children can give their views - here

Its quite amazing to me that schools are failing to reach standards yet we as home educators are apparently failing our children by removing them from a system that fails them day after day.

Hettie made an observation this week which for me entirely validated every reason I have for home educating. Her friends at Brownies (schooled) asked her what she was doing 'at school' She replied world geography and for history Ancient Mesopotamia:

H: 'Mum they didn't know what I was talking about'
M: 'What did you say?'
H: 'I said it was ancient Iraq - they looked blank'
M: 'What did you say then?'
H: 'I said there's been a war in Iraq, don't they watch the news or read the kids newspaper?'
M: 'What are they doing in school?'
H: ' They didn't really know - must be really boring, they just watch tv all the time'

On a lighter note our baby guineas are growing fast. Here's dh helping out - ha ha ha:

The Alphasmart Neos went down a storm - and they're actually using them:

We went to a Shakespeare workshop day and met some new HEers. Girls had a great day, Hettie swopping email and phone no's with some boys she met and I made friends with some new mums. We've been invited over to their houses so that's great. Issy joined in and had a fab time.

We're planning a loft conversion and the architect came today to measure and give us plans. Fantastic news is the building regulations have changed and we probably won't need planning permission, so it should all go through really fast. Mrs D - have I got some organising to do, best buy dozens of storage boxes!

And finally laugh of the week goes to Issy! My cousin - Little D [6ft 2 and stocky] - a builder came to take some measurements for the conversion. He is loud and chatty and makes the girls laugh anyway. But Issy was completely amazed when he sat at the key board [dirt and mud and all] and knocked out some 'rag time' and a variety of music. She could not stop talking about it, she was so shocked - 'he doesn't look like he can play the piano' was all she could say. I can see my building work is going to be constantly interrupted by piano playing:

Off to write to my MP!

A Long Day Out!

2009-01-21T21:41:00.003Z

Meeting up with other home schoolers on the train and at the museum went smoothly thank goodness and we all gathered in London's Natural History museum. Issy was delighted because her new home school friend J - who happens to be [in her own words] 'a real life American' - came along for the day.

We managed to get a good discount and went into the Darwin Exhibition. I have to say it was very impressive. Firstly there was no feeling of this is definitely what happened in the past, more of a this is what Darwin did and what conclusions he came to. The children all went off and did lots of work - well they looked like they were anyway! Very fortunately Issy and her friend J were taken by J's 'mom' and went off to see the dinosaurs and bugs in the museum. I had the buggy - great it had no children attached, just a heap of bags and coats!

We perused the shop and obviously came away with a couple of books each, and then off to the science museum. We went straight to the 'Launchpad' and the kids had great fun playing with everything, we mums' sat and chatted. Great thing is there are lots of people who work there with bright orange T shirts helping out the kids and encouraging them to try things.

Issy and her friend J, who is 5 years old and Issy is 8 - they sure grow them tall in US!

We obviously then went to the shop here as well - more science kits than you've ever seen in one place! We got a couple more bits here and then time to head home through the London rush hour. Not fun with a group of kids but they were all really good. Issy managed well although she was a little stressy with all the crowds.

Kids all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we mums' had a great laugh with R who is American, while we compared what we thought Americans did and what she thought British did!! We discussed God, evolution, queuing, online dating, jogging, diets, teeth and the weather, amongst other things. Isn't it nice when you make new friends!

We Were...

2009-01-20T23:08:00.002Z

... surrounded by teachers at the London Bett Ict Educational exhibition, which made my SIL and I chuckle no end, especially when presented with a badge each with HOME EDUCATOR stamped on the front. They could have just stamped 'leper' on our heads. No offense to anyone suffering with leprosy, but you get my meaning.

Still we had a great day. We purchased a Neo 2 for each of our children, a variety of books and a copy of Word Shark and Number Shark each. Neo's should arrive tomorrow, and the 'sharks' have been a great success here already. Amazing if you tell chidren its a 'treat' rather than 'school work' how much they can do! Have to say these computer programmes are very very addictive - I've been playing with them :o)

We loved Writeonline but refrained from subscribing! Well at least for now - we blew our budget on the Neo's. Managed to stop for a bite to eat and a quick drink on way home though!

Hettie has managed to write about an A4 side for history today about the laws of ancient Mesopotamia - great work! Issy has completed all her Sonlight work and more.

Tomorrow we're off to the Natural History Museum to see the Darwin exhibition and hopefully will have some time to spend at the science museum. Some difficulty here, because I have one child who believes in Evolution and one who believes in the Creation. However the lesson has become one of respecting the beliefs of others and that is no bad thing. So packed lunches are ready, worksheets ready to print out early in morning and lifts etc arranged.

What actually is....

2009-01-15T22:04:00.002Z

.... a curriculum?? We structured home educators bandy the word around and after a recent post of Luke's I got to thinking what actually is a curriculum? Is it the whole package meaning the plan and all the resources or is it just the plan alone? I did a bit of web searching and found a guy wrote a book in 1918 called The Curriculum. Maybe we all need to get a copy :o)

The word curriculum has its roots in the Latin for race course. This guy described the race course as the deeds and experiences whereby children learn to be members of an adult society, or some such thing. It seems to back up home education nicely I thought. The deeds and experiences of my own children do not need to follow a state school system to be part of adult society. In fact with their learning difficulties/challenges that definitely doesn't work for us. For some children it works and for others it doesn't.

But not so much info on what a curriculum actually includes. I had always really believed that the curriculum was the plan and schedule, and not the resources needed to carry out the plan. With Sonlight its a bonus because you get the plan/schedule and all the resources in one [or two] boxes, ready to go. Same with some others - Winter Promise, FIAR and so on. Then you come to classical education, like Well Trained Mind and Ambleside Online and there's no actual resources included. Does that make the second any less of a curriculum or does it mean that no-ones cashed in and packaged a curriculum? Not that I believe the first have cashed in by the way, I think they've offered something needed by Home Educators and offer good products.

I can't really decide if the plan/schedule alone classes as a curriculum because you have to get the resources in order to implement them. What I do know is there is a severe lack of curricula which include resources for UK home educators. We constantly turn to the US for both curricula and resources. Maybe there's an opening for someone?

As for me - well I have my 'in a box' Sonlight for Issy, it works and it's easy, saves time and she's learning. For Hettie I've 'made' a curriculum and resourced it from a variety of sources and that works for her. They're both learning.

Not much learning this week actually, as the baby guinea pigs have taken up a lot of time - 5 guineas eat far more than 2, and they're just so sweet! Issy had to have an anaesthetic and have 4 teeth extracted, which was another day gone and its been mad.

So we will try to get some sort of 'curriculum' met tomorrow and Saturday I'm off to an educational exhibition in London with my SIL. Theory being we can look before we buy - Ok maybe just an excuse for a day out with no kids, a nice lunch, and a credit card :o)

Enter the Babies!!

2009-01-13T13:29:00.003Z

As you probably guessed they've caused quite a stir and a rush to the supermarket to buy lots of nutritious green veg for the mummies.

Lovely for my girls and Issy came down at midnight to have 'one last look' Babies are venturing out today, so lots of time to watch them. Of course Issy's baby is bouncing and leaping about the cage and started nibbling some veg today. Hettie's are quieter but following mum out. All look healthy and well!!

Issy preparing lunch:

Hermione and Baby 1:

Baby 1 is very nosey and seems to always have her nose poking out the door!

Ginny and Babies 2 & 3:

Baby 3 or 4, we can't tell the difference yet!

Hopefully all will settle down again in a couple of days. Oh well its all science!

We Got A Great Deal....

2009-01-12T21:51:00.003Z

.... because I paid for two guinea pigs, but today:

This little guinea pig had one baby,

And this little guinea pig had two!

So now we have 5!!!!!! Oh yes, I definately had two girls, no not me, I didn't get conned into buying a boy and a girl, but actually I had two pregnant girls! Dh commented 'only you could get 2 pregnant ones' A big shock when I looked in the cage and found a minature of Hermione. My friend looked on in shock having never seen a baby guinea pig and said she never had that last night! My SIL whipped Ginny out to check 'she' really was a 'she' only to find a fat and squirming tummy. Ginny obliged us by having twins this afternoon.

The pet shop gave me a free cage for compensation and offered to take them off my hands but is that going to happen?? - I think not :0)

Anyway mummies and babies doing well. Baby 1 has been out skipping and hopping around the cage and getting squeaked at by mum. Babies 2 and 3 have not been out, but mum as been stuffing her little piggie face!

I was a little concerned in case I was doing anything wrong and the book I've got just gave detailed instructions on how to resuscitate a baby GP - I think not - so I rang dh's Aunty A who said 'how lovely', leave them to it and they'll manage fine on their own!

So no Maths, English or Sonlight today but - don't tell dh - we had a fantastic zoology lesson!

PS Pics to follow - I didn't want to scare them with the flash,

Remember....

2009-01-08T20:29:00.004Z

..... the TV series of Little House on the Prairie. It's available to collect now with a magazine each week. My sister and I loved it - apparently dh can't stand it, which I can't really understand. Anyway we went out at lunch to buy the first issue - American pioneer history in educational terms - and popped in the bakers with Hettie carrying it and its excessive packaging. Much to the girls amusement the 3 ladies behind the counter and 2 in the queue all started shouting 'oh that was my favorite' and other such phrases.

Hettie having enjoyed the books asked me if the TV series is the same to which I unfortunately had to reply its about 30 years since I watched it! Isobel, with full confidence in her mummy, said 'well it must be brilliant if you still like it'. So it was with some trepidation I sat down to watch it with them. All turned out well, and it was as great as I remembered. The girls sat riveted and we really did have a good discussion about what life must have been like for Laura and Mary.

The morning had gone fairly well and Isobel carried on with her Sonlight Language Arts and then went onto some Montessori maths, using a home made tens and teens board and then did some spelling work.

And she did some addition using the beads. We worked on number bonds to ten and she grasped it pretty well.

Hettie opted out of Galore Park Maths, but happily got on with some division work using the Montessori board.

Isobel played with the cylinders, which she loves. We have a small set rather than full set which I purchased at Absorbent Minds.

It's actually quite tricky to fit the non coloured ones back in their gaps although Hettie is fantastically quick! We did some matching work with them.

We read our Sonlight history and Read Aloud, and Hettie worked on her geography project and notebooking.

So, after lunch it was a well deserved DVD afternoon I think. Hettie's Chemistry book and workbook arrived today. This is most definately not my area, so I'm wondering if I should have bought the teachers book as well. Oh well I'm sure it can't be to difficult - after all its aimed at children :o) OK I've looked - I may need to use the web for back up here!

I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and have a nature walk, even if it's just around the garden!

Why On Earth....

2009-01-06T19:29:00.003Z

.... would anyone want to read a 100 classic book collection on a Nintendo DS?? Now I'll read pretty much anything classics, bestsellers, rubbish and even the back of a shampoo bottle if necessary. Can you imagine if you drop your Nintendo in the bath while having a sneaky quiet read away from the family? Or worse, if you dropped one belonging to your children. Are they water tight? Apart from that I'd have to wear glasses to see that tiny screen and they would steam up - I like a hot bath. I realise you can change the font size, I'd probably only fit a few words on the screen!

Today I was up and raring to go, OK probably not raring to go, but ready. Girls still sound asleep at 9am. Did I wake them? No I did not. Did I do housework, washing and ironing? No I did not. Sorry Mrs D :0) I read my book. Slovenly without a doubt. Still at 9.20am, which must be like midday to you early risers we were breakfasting and eventually got going.

Issy did some English work

Hettie ate another pencil during maths!

Issy did some Montessori maths.

And they both busied themselves while I read aloud.

And yes, we had another successful Sonlight Core K day!! I am chuffed. Hettie wondered why anyone would possibly want to bind their feet to make them smaller, after I'd read about Gladys Alyward being a foot inspector in China, and Isobel surreptitiously eyed her rather long narrow feet! No doubt she will cut up a pillow case and they'll be bound up by morning.

I definitely had the wrong Core before. Its working much better to aim at Issy and add work in for Hettie. Because if Hettie does nothing else she still gets to do Issy's history/geography and read aloud, which I'm sure is much more in depth than she would be doing in school anyway.

Hettie worked on some of her biology course book today, looking at cells and how they work. It was a bit too much to do a whole chapter in one sitting so we did about half, and will finish the rest later this week.

We finished the afternoon with 3 rather riotous games of Frustration, where I ended up very frustrated because I got beaten by 2 girls and a teddy who was making a fourth for the game. Oh well can't win 'em all!

A Good Start...

2009-01-05T22:29:00.004Z

Well sort of. It snowed here and although we managed to get to Art Group, it was only to find it had been cancelled. Thankfully its only just down the road.

I had planned to pick a little ease back into it work from my planning while they were at art. So a bit of faffing about but we got stuck in, including Issy.

She started with her Sonlight Language Arts and reader, and it all went swimmingly. Core K level is much more suitable for her than Core 1. Some of it was a little easy, but she copied her spellings and made them using the Montessori wooden letters. Surprisingly although she can discuss topics in depth and has a fantastic memory, and can read fairly fluently she still struggles with letter sounds so I decided it won't do any harm to re-cap. She loves hands on stuff!

She then did some work from Jolly Phonics - her choice!

Hettie meanwhile, worked on her Galore Park maths, subtracting eleven mentally. 10/10 and then 7/10 so I was really pleased. She wasn't very happy with the 7 until I explained that would easily be a 'pass' mark. She carried on with Explode the Code but fell back a bit on reading and sounding out, so I nicked Issy's Core K reader and she did much better. Then she carried on with her Geography World Trail and a quick verbal test showed she had remembered the names of all continents and oceans as well as lines of latitude & the Equator. Not bad for someone with memory retention problems, so we moved onto lines of longitude.

Hettie has decided she would rather do a week of geography and then a week of history because otherwise she finds it bitty. Geography is not my favorite subject but hey ho.

She then started on tracing and cutting the continents to make a Pangea picture, while I read Issy's Core K history/geography book Hero Tales and then they both marked Gladys Alyward's journey from England to China on their markable maps. We all liked this book, it was clear and easy to read, though they thought from the picture Gladys was a man!

That was enough for Issy and after lunch she disappeared off to her bedroom, but not until I read a chapter of her Read Aloud - The Boxcar Children, which she sat with her hands over her eyes because she didn't want me to read it, but then promptly started to discuss the 'nasty bakers wife' when I finished. I know, I know, you would think she'd put her hands over her ears if she didn't want to listen, but no. Hettie then finished her picture and we looked at her First News newspaper.

In between all this I managed to get the Frost Free freezer defrosted and scrub the utility room, cook lunch and hoover through. It was great they both got on with it in the morning, but I felt like I had a bit of invisible elastic bouncing me back and forth between them. Of course dh came home from work and uttered those immortal words 'Been doing anything today?' which I ignored rather than be impolite and swear at him.

So will tomorrow go as well? - mmm I won't get my hopes up :0)

A Good Read....

2009-01-04T22:06:00.003Z

... and I like a good read!

When Hettie was assessed as having dyslexia I read an awful lot of books around the subject. So it follows I ordered a lot of books about Aspergers Syndrome, particularly those about girls with Aspergers, which I haven't actually read properly yet.

So this weekend I started to read Pretending To Be Normal by Liane Holliday Willey It was one of those books you just can't put down - funny, moving and to me familiar. Worth a read even if you don't have a child or know anyone with Aspergers.

Rest of the weekend - well I decided to tidy and organise. I made a good start. I actually boxed the Christmas deccies properly before storing in the loft, Issy's room got an overhaul (with dh helping) although half an hour after I finished she started pulling everything out again!! It makes her feel physically ill if its tidy - don't ask, we just live with it. At least it's clean underneath, oh and the 'frost free' freezer is defrosting. Hettie wants her room sorted, so I've promised next weekend hers will be turned out. She likes it tidy.

I did a mountain of ironing and hopefully can finish the last bit tomorrow. I'm thinking of getting a 'lady who does' in this year, and for once dh didn't murmur, so I take that as 'go ahead'.

So hopefully tomorrow will be back to normal. Girls are off to their art course in the morning and hopefully that will give me a couple of hours to sort their work boxes out!

Edited to add: You really all should read the We Are Here blog for a frank and funny look at home education and family life in general.

You're Not....

2009-01-03T20:58:00.004Z

.... staying up next year kids - far too boisterous! Actually they thought it was great fun staying up until one in the morning. Although Hettie struggled a bit, it was normal bedtime for Issy so no problem there!

How long now?

Happy New Year!

Dancing at midnight is obligatory!

But jumping on dad is more fun!

Ok enough now - get to bed!

New Year Past and Present....

2008-12-31T08:34:00.003Z

When I was a little girl we always went to my nan and grandad's house in the East End of London to see in the New Year. My cousins and I used to love it, not only was it the last family get together of the season, but we got to stay up late! As midnight approached we all used to go into the front street and be armed with metal dustbin lids, two each, and as midnight struck we used to bash our lids together and my uncle used to shout Happy New Year. My nan's neighbours would come out and it was a great moment every year. I was laying in bed this morning pondering where all those dustbin lids came from, my nan certainly didn't have enough bins for two each - there was quite a few of us - presumably my memories have left me with an impression there were more lids than there actually were in reality or my uncle's and dad 'borrowed' them from the neighbours!

As time passed and we inevitably preferred to go out with our mates at New Year, years were spent in the pub squashed, merry, and trying to hang onto your drink that had taken half an hour to buy and trying to avoid the bloke who came out once a year to snog girls that he would usually have no chance with!

By the millennium New Year dh & I had a 10 month old baby and went into our little back yard to watch the fireworks our neighbour inevitably set off - he went all out for millennium - and drank champagne.

And for the past several years we have stayed in, neither of the girls enjoy parties and so we watch Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny, dh is usually asleep and I wake him up just before midnight. Last year however my neighbour from two doors away was rather inebriated and flashed her chest at dh through the front window at midnight, being a rather buxom lady he woke up rapidly :0) Her 80+ year old mother was also extremely unsteady, having decided she no longer needed a walking stick , and was unable to get up her stairs - she lives next door - so dh and I (me in pjs) ended up in the street, singing and shouting out Happy New Year and pushing and shoving a drunk OAP upstairs to bed.

It seems I've come full circle, back out in the front street at New Year!

So whatever your age, and whatever you do, here's wishing you all a very happy and peaceful New Year x

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

2008-12-28T10:41:00.004Z

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday time. Hettie was up at 5.30am, which is much better the the usual 4am, and sat with my in laws chatting until 6.45 when we woke up Issy!

Issy checked the mince pie and brandy had gone from by the fire - there was just half a carrot left. Present opening commenced. The dog had to wait for his walk, and as some pretty horrible smells were eminating from him dh hurried us along after an hour.

Everyone round for dinner which was lovely - we ate, drank and were merry - and we had a smashing day!

Mmm, where to start!

Bear boots!

Just what I wanted - its a robotic dog thingy!

Just what I wanted!

Guinea Pig calendar!

This seems to be a Bag Puss outfit!

An obscure book, about an obscure guitar legend - just what dh wanted!

These are hot water bottles - which looked pretty funny in the microwave!

Oh and me - well I got a lovely set of Global chef knives from my mum & dad, and a years membership to English Heritage from my in-laws - brill. Dh bought me a lovely jewellery box which I really wanted and lots of other bits, including the Mamma Mia dvd which I watched last night and cried with laughter, and sang along - loudly!

The Best Gift Ever ...

2008-12-24T23:39:00.003Z

... I got this gift today, a little early, but still I have to say my gift this year was the best I have ever received. In the midst of the mayhem of tidying and organising on Christmas Eve, and Issy's extreme over excitement, I went in search of Hettie to give me a hand. When I opened her bedroom door - there she was, laying on her bed, engrossed in a book, so intent she didn't hear me come in.

This may not mean much to other mother's, but to a mother of a child age 10 with severe dyslexia, this was absolutely fantastic. I was so shocked I couldn't speak. Never have I seen her read a book, so this was a first for us and a brilliant present - nothing else she can ever give me will mean more than that sight of her engrossed in a book.

So, a very Merry Christmas to you all - keep your faith, because sometimes the impossible becomes possible. Maybe it's my own little Christmas miracle!

The Best Gift Ever ...

2008-12-24T23:39:00.000Z

You Know Its Nearly Christmas...

2008-12-20T20:19:00.002Z

... when you lose it and have a tantrum at your family. Dh doesn't just have the horrible virus everyone else has got, no he has MAN FLU. The girls sat in pjs watching tv and playing Wii until 1pm. Did I moan, no. I rapidly wrote all the Christmas cards and rushed off to post them, bought nice fresh bread and cooked a variety of fillings for everyone for lunch, wrestled the rest of the deccies up and stepped over things.

I dosed everyone, and cuddled and cooed. I cleaned the windows, including frames, in the front room - admittedly dh helped a bit, but he huffed and coughed loudly while doing so - and I hoovered and dusted. I ordered and paid for Chinese take out and went to have a cuppa.

Dh disappeared and then a loud crash in the back room, and silence. No-one shouted so I thought I'd best investigate. The Christmas tree had fallen over and landed on Isobel, who was quietly sobbing in a corner that the tree had tried to 'eat her', Hettie was engrossed in the tv and dh was deaf to anything - deafness due to man flu I expect. As no-one had carried any left overs to the kitchen there was a fair amount of rice all over which the dog was rapidly trying to hoover up before he got sent out of the room.

I sent Hettie for dh, comforted Issy and explained the tree doesn't like to be moved around and then directed Hettie to clear away. Dh picked up the tree while I disappeared to clean the kitchen. So why did I have a tantrum, well I returned to find dh disappeared, girls engrossed in tv and tree deccies everywhere.

I flipped and screamed Mrs Darling's one touch rule, ie while you're touching it you may as well put it back where it came from (bit basic explanation but you get my drift) While I stomped around the house ranting about tidying up the girls re-decorated the tree, tidied up in double quick time, went to bed and dh mumbled something impolite about Mrs D and her one touch rule under his breath.

Now all is calm, girls in bed, dh in bath sniffing and me - well a glass of wine and plotting new house rules for the new year!

So I have a bit of a Plan!

2008-12-19T17:50:00.002Z

I haven't got it quite sorted down to a daily schedule type plan, but nevertheless it's a plan for Issy. Hettie's is pretty much sorted already, but I have warned Issy that the New Year we start, up early and work done, no arguments. And after some recent posts here it may be a bit surprising :0)

I've been looking at everything we own HE wise which is a lot LOL. When it was just Hettie at home we were 'doing' mainly Waldorf curriculum and it was going great, until we added the little minx Issy into the mix and then it didn't work at all. Hettie didn't like losing our time alone together, Issy wasn't wanting to do much at all and we've kinda drifted since September, although Hettie has been doing well with any work I've given her.

We've got a couple of practical problems which are their tables and chairs are really too small for them now and we haven't got enough shelf space. A traditional style desk hasn't really got enough workspace - they need lots of room, dh wants a dining room table that's not folded up behind the sofa & has to be dragged out every night, and they can't work together at the same table without one distracting the other. As for shelf space, well just not enough, I've cleared and cleared books out but I'm buying at a faster rate than selling! So that needs some thought although I've got my eye on some tables and chairs!

So back to what we have curriculum wise. Its got a bit can't see the wood for the trees round here. I bought Sonlight Core 1 thinking they could both work together, which they did but Issy kept drifting and ambling off, didn't like the read alouds and Hettie couldn't concentrate. I was reading bits of books all over the place, Hettie didn't like the Bible reading which matched in with Language Arts and Issy loved the Bible. Added to the mix was trying to read the book for our HE book club. Hettie can't read well enough yet to do the reading on her own, Issy can read but flits from one book to another and its never the one she's meant to be reading. So after 8 weeks I gave it up as a bad job, and thought we can still use all the lovely books and readers.

However after some 'Sonlight' discussion with HE friends, some of whom have used Sonlight for a long time, I came to think my error had been firstly in expecting them to work together when they are 2 years apart, and Hettie has been out of school for 2 years and Issy a couple of months and secondly in not realising that although intellectually Issy is way ahead of her age in terms of actual ability of grammar, writing, etc etc she is about average with her peers, and emotionally she is average with her peers, and she has a learning difficulty which means her concentration levels are poor - well actually about on par with a gnat tbh.

So I purchased a lot of Montessori equipment and its worked well. Issy loves getting down something to 'play' with whilst actually teaching herself maths, and I have about 10-20 minutes input before she gets on with it. We started some of the Zoology Montessori curriculum and again we actually started to get somewhere. So, back to Sonlight discussion after which I began to think I had perhaps aimed a little high and been to slavish to the plan. Issy likes a timetable and knowing what shes doing everyday - she needs the structure, so finally after much waffling here's her plan:

Sonlight Core K for history/geography/language arts & readers

Montessori Language Arts as it fits in with Sonlight K

Montessori Maths and Zoology (science)

Living Maths books to reinforce maths work

Any time left over for arts/crafts/lapbooks

Not sure if that sounds a bit much, but we can just slow down when necessary. Now to fine tune Hettie's :0)

Christmas Time ....

2008-12-16T19:49:00.005Z

I feel like we haven't stopped for weeks, home education has gone out the window and we seem to spend all week rushing from one place to another! Monday art club & meet with a couple of HE friends at mine in the afternoon, Tuesday catch up & Brownies, Wednesday HE club, Thursday catch up, Friday Science Club, weekend housework and anything else we haven't managed to fit in.

So the New Year will be one of order and planned education & activity - well that's the plan :0), maybe I could make it a resolution! I need to get the HE sorted for definate, I thought Hettie's was pretty much sorted, but have been browsing again at the Waldorf that works so well for her - and me! Decisions, decisions!! Mind you who wants to do anything when you can just watch tv with your piggie all afternoon! No neither moved for about 2 hours :0)

Brownie Nativity play tonight which dh managed to get to, they were about 18 Brownies down sick but the choir, including Issy sang brilliantly, well loud enough to hear anyway and Hettie was Joseph (a non reading and speaking part) She looked pretty bored I have to say!

Dh is off trying to assist Santa with the last of the pressies, as usual what's on our list is sold out! Oh and me I'm off for some of that organising, so here's a little snippet of some of our deccies which have been a total disaster this year, so I'm not blogging the 'grown up' front room tree cos it looks dreadful and I can't seem to salvage it!

This tree was my mum and dad's - its 48 years old, not one branch lost!

Decorated dog!

Favorite Christmas Toys

Door wreath, made by Hettie, which the dog growls at!

Home Made Angel!

Home Made Star!

Got better at stars!

Picture is the right way up, robin RIP!

Children's finished tree!

At Last...

2008-12-14T21:49:00.002Z

... we managed to get the Christmas deccies up this weekend, well bar a couple of swaggy things to put up tomorrow. I worked this morning and so its all been a bit hectic, but at least its looking festive and jolly. Just the shopping to finish now. I'll post some pics tomorrow of the tree and such.

Hettie made a lovely wreath which dh hung on the front door. It covers the glass panel and the dog has spent the evening growling at the door 'cos he thinks someone is standing there!

I need to really get a plan sorted for next years home ed, so I'm organised. I need to sort out what I've got - which is quite a bit - what we're using and when, at least for the first half termy bit. Hettie is fairly organised and working well, so I just need to double check what we're doing and Issy I'm going to have to get thinking about, she really has taken to the Montessori things I've bought and loves getting them out to 'play'. So off to read up!

Oh Yuk....

2008-12-12T14:46:00.003Z

.... Issy went to bed feeling unwell, and then I heard sprinting towards the loo! I sprinted as well but unfortunately didn't see the pile of vomit on the floor and stepped in it with a bare foot!

Oh well, that's kids for you! Although she was up nearly all night throwing up, she made it to the loo the rest of the night, approx every half hour. Still unwell today but no more sick, thank goodness. Thought best not spread the bugs round science club so fortunately my SIL picked Het up and my friend is dropping her off.

So not much HE today either but I have managed some housework! I'm off out tonight with old work collegues so best go and decide what I'm wearing as I only have 3 1/4 hours left til I've got to be there!! Leaving the sicky child with DH - may have to forget my phone :0)

Still musing...

2008-12-10T22:38:00.003Z

.... we bought the girls a digital camera each in the summer. They've used them to make an endless variety of short video clips, mainly funny - but only to themselves! So we had an Autumn walk to a local ruined castle for a photography lesson, and here's what they came up with.

Hettie first:

Issy next:

Although it looked sunny and warm, its actually very windy up at the castle sometimes. We need to go back now and have a Winter photography walk, but I'll try to catch a frosty day. Issy isn't usually up before the frost has gone though!!

I've decided tomorrow we can clean through and rake out the deccies and take down our Autumn wall display and make a Winter one instead. Lots of craft and Christmas activities for now, after all excitement levels are rising :0)

Musings of 2008.....

2008-12-08T23:10:00.004Z

.... well HE has been pretty much at a stand still last week and I've got a lot to do this week, work and buying the trees etc. Excitement is at a premium here already, which reminds me why I don't put any deccies up early. But we are going to start some Christmas work tomorrow and continue for the next couple of weeks.

So to musings. I was thinking about what was really good this year and my 40th birthday weekend to Bath had to come very near the top. Not at the top 'cos the girls weren't there, but we had a fabulous weekend away, the sun shone and we walked miles, and I immersed myself in Jane Austin! So here's a few pics of my weekend....

At the Roman Baths, which were brilliant!

I so, so wanted to just dip a toe, but security people everywhere!

English tea at the Assembly Rooms is a must - the scones were great.

You have to stand here to believe it, honestly its just fantastic!

Here's Mr Darcy at the Upper Assembly Rooms, worn out from my enthusiastic wanderings!

We walked here, 'cos I thought it was a great idea, a romantic Austin stroll, tbh I could hardly breath by the time we got to the view, let alone enjoy it.

And obviously you have to surreptitiously stand outside Jane Austin's house for a piccie - I also have pics of about 4 other houses she stayed in, but hey that may get a bit boring :0)

It can't be nearly Christmas!!

2008-12-07T20:41:00.002Z

I did some Sunday morning blog reading to find it seems nearly everyone has their deccies up and preparations in full swing. As usual I seem to start off ahead and then all of a sudden I'm behind!!! Oh well dh and Hettie went off to a fencing competition for the day and so I blitzed the house while Issy made Christmas cards. And as I'd been at work nearly all off this week it really was a tip everywhere. Now I just need to sort some shelf space for all the books I've just got through from amazon.

Not sure how the girls will get on with me adding a bit of Living Maths with the new books, but I'm really enjoying reading them first!

Hopefully this week we can start sorting out the Christmas stuff. And of course I must order the turkey this week, otherwise we'll end up with fishfingers!

Hettie came 3rd in one round and 4th in another and then 12th overall in the girls fencing competition. Dh video'd her matches and we had good fun watching them back, especially listening to her coach cheering her on from the sidelines!

Time to start slackening off on the HE and replace with Christmas activities.

A Funny Thing Happened Today....

2008-12-05T17:55:00.003Z

.... life with Issy is never dull, however frustrating it sometimes is :0) I've been really busy with work all week but managed to get along to one of our HE groups for science club today. A new little boy came along. He also has Aspergers and finds it very difficult in a group. It was the first time he had been to science and he really wanted to join in and did really well. He unfortunately has sprained his ankle and is on crutches. Now Issy desperately wants some crutches for some reason and has for a long time and here was someone with their very own pair!!

Afterwards we were standing outside and I ended up with some of the kids waiting for mums to get organised and the conversation between two 7 years old with AS went like this:

Issy 'Are you ill?'
S 'Yes very ill, I've hurt my ankle' (swinging the crutches around his head & shooting people with them)
Issy 'Do you like being ill?'
S 'Yes I really do'
Issy 'I like being ill as well, and I'm often seriously ill'
S 'I'm am the illest though because I've got crutches'
Issy ' Mmm I've always wanted crutches'
S 'You can have a go if you like'

Much hopping up and down the path went on while Hettie and I howled with laughter.

They strolled off down to the cars, chatting away and smiling and laughing while myself, S's mum and Hettie trailed behind. It took about 20 mins of standing in the cold to persuade them it really was time to go home. Hettie requested ear plugs! Issy was completed amazed that she had found someone who viewed the world in exactly the same way she does and obviously has gone on, and on, and on about it. Oh and then she went on some more about it.

Hettie remarked 'Its probably because you both come from Mars and the rest of us are from earth', followed by 'Perhaps we could put him in a cage next to the guinea pigs!'

Ooh New Stuff...

2008-11-26T17:37:00.004Z

I know its nearly Christmas but some things you just can't turn down, so when a friend decided to sell her unused Montessori Geometry Cabinet, how could I turn it down!! Anyway it arrived today, while we were out of course, but was unpackaged by this afternoon. So now I need to print and laminate all the bits to go with it tonight. Oh and learn about the shapes, as my geometry knowledge is about on par with my geography!

Hettie had a good go though and measured and compared angles, which is something we've done very little on. Don't ask me why she's wearing her coat indoors, we have got heating now!

Issy drew round shapes and named them all.

I've been having a look at Living Math for Issy to run alongside the Montessori math curriculum and it looks pretty good. I've got a couple of the books, although not nearly all of them, but think I can use some of it.

Off to laminate and find somewhere to put the cabinet which may mean clearing another bookshelf !

Counting, History and Christmas!

2008-11-25T18:35:00.002Z

We were up and about early today and so got on with some work! Hettie made a good start on her new history project on Ancient Mesopotamia. We started using some notebooking pages and she produced some lovely work. She started making a Sumerian coracle out of clay, and after a bit of maths work got on with making her Christmas Tree decoration. I've bought a lovely book - The Christmas Craft Book from Myriad.

OK, so we may need to change it from a tree bauble to a ceiling decoration, but at least she made most of it with no help! I may need to check dimensions on the next project.

And Issy faffed about all morning and played on the laptop, but we did manage to get some maths done:

Christmas countdown begins soon, so I must sort out some shopping over the next week and get organised, and I'm hoping to make an advent hanging decoration at the weekend. And I've just put my cuppa on the side and missed completely so off to wipe up tea!

Change of Template and Wool Dyeing...

2008-11-23T21:01:00.004Z

I've been having a bit of trouble with blogger this weekend, but all sorted now, thanks go to CJ for her help late last night!! Anyway I changed the template again in an attempt to get it all going again. I've started a new blog to show our planning for anyone who's interested. Its not perfect and it doesn't list everything but its just, well, what we're doing - at the moment anyway!! Its here at Boyceview Planning.

Amidst a fair bit of time spent on the computer today - I haven't indulged for ages - and cleaning the house from top to bottom I maaged to find time to supervise Hettie dyeing some wool from a kit she got last Christmas - OK it's probably about time we got round to it!!

White wool - soaked

Dyes mixed

Poured over the wool, then wrapped in cling film and microwaved.

Rinsed and hung up to dry 'til tomorrow

Actually Hettie did most of this herself with minimal help, except from getting it out of the microwave. It worked pretty well and hopefully she can roll into a ball tomorrow and knit into a scarf.

And Issy, well she watched Kung Fu Panda and practised with the piggies - don't ask!

Brownies and Visual Timetables....

2008-11-22T16:04:00.003Z

... Brownies is great isn't it? The girls have been gone nearly all day and had a lovely time, coming home with pressies from Santa (apparently not the real one 'cos you could see the strings holding on the beard), made cakes and generally had fun. Dh got called to work and has had to go miles away so we won't see him again til midnight. That left me and the piggies and the dog, bliss, I mean it was really quiet round here.

The cakes were pretty yuk, very, very sweet!

I cleaned all through downstairs and no-one made a mess behind me, sorted out the girls schoolwork boxes & a heap of school stuff I had hanging around, whilst watching Columbo. I know its old but I love it!

There's been a discussion on the Structured Home Ed Group about a variety of things but visual timetables cam up, so here's the pics of Hettie's. Issy's are a bit different and more focused on listening, sitting still, as well as subjects.

Basically its a Tesco display folder to start. Then I laminated 7 A4 day tables, I think from Do 2 Learn get organised section. Then I used sticky velcro and added 2 strips on each table.

Then I printed a whole heap of little cards and laminated them, and backed them with sticky velcro, got cheap from the local market. The cards are available from Do 2 Learn and Meyer-Johnson Boardmaker, they have a free trial. You can make them for older children/teens to fit in a filofax type folder. I pull out the box of velcro pics and set out what that day's work is, or sometimes Hettie sets out her own.

Then they have a coloured A4 laminated sheet with 12 pics on (see above) and a strip (see below) which they can use for any communication needs. It works quite well with Hettie, because she uses this as a memory prompt, and it usually has hungry and thirsty on it most of the morning. Issy has more emotions on her board, and a 'I need time out' card.

I also make A5 cards, just printed - no velcro -for when we go out on trips for Issy, eg first we're getting a train, then we're getting a bus, then we'll get to the museum and so on until home again. Its all in pics with simple words and she says it makes her feel much better about going out because she knows exactly what is going to happen. Only problem is she wants to stick to her plan rigidly, so if it says we're getting the tube - then we are getting the tube!

Its been a Busy Day...

2008-11-21T22:00:00.007Z

I rushed around all morning at work and then rushed off to take the girls to their science course. It's called Mad Science and the guy who does it is called Professor Kaos. The kids love it, as its all hands on - no reading and writing! Also lots of experiments. It was quite amusing to hear lots of the kids saying 'cool we can do this at home' and poor Prof Kaos explaining it could be dangerous and so they couldn't. We (parents) explained after that as we all HE we probably would repeat a lot of it at home and he was pleasantly surprised, because when he'd encouraged school children to experiment at home their parents had complained!

Hettie & her cousin

Issy, not looking too impressed!

(They got to keep the rainbow glasses, great after a glass or two!)

I had arranged both the girls separate work stuff into a plastic box with lid, but as I can't lift them off the floor I think there's a tad too much in each. Fortunately both girls are off to Brownies for the day tomorrow and dh is at work, so I could sit on my behind all day reading or I could sort the school stuff and do some housework. Lets face it, it'll be ten times quicker doing housework if I'm in on my own!! So I should have time to sort the school stuff in peace, well except for the squeaky guineas!

Edited to add: This template is driving me mad - none of the gaps will save, maybe I'll do that tomorrow instead of housework!

Piggie Pics & Sonlight!

2008-11-19T19:56:00.004Z

Today we have been to our home ed meeting at the library, which had a great turnout today. We went off into town to check the Works for any cheapy books and got a few bits. There was a huge truancy sweep which coincided with our HE meeting day, but they were nice enough to those HE'rs they stopped, although the girls and I zig zagged up the high street and deftly avoided them:0) This afternoon I went off to work for a few hours and the girls went to nan & grandads. Piggies are thriving and re-named.

This is Ginny Weasley

And this is no longer Ruby, or Mrs Squeak (her 2nd name) but is now Hermione Granger!

As for Sonlight, after a comment left here I feel I should explain a bit further. The things I love about SL is it comes in one big box and the book titles are great, both fiction and non-fiction. The whole curriculum is well laid out, easy to organise and above all you can just pick it up off the shelf and carry on from where you left off. The language arts programmes was good and the girls got on well with it, and we love the timeline book and geography mapwork. Issy loves the bible reading and I wouldn't send anything back.

My problem with it is a) it is an awful lot of reading, and then more reading. We didn't find we had much actual 'doing'. b) When we added more 'doing' ie a lapbook or project we got behind with the reading. c) I didn't like the science curriculum.

Having said that I think Issy will come back to it, as I think she will be able to work through it better next year and as she begins to work more independently. So I would recommend it with reservations that you need to be quite dedicated to keep up with it all and it is mainly an American curriculum not a British one.

I hasten to add this is only my humble opinion and I know many UK HE'rs who love using SL!!!

Gee thanks...

2008-11-18T18:58:00.004Z

... for all your nice comments, I'll be reading round later! So some of you may have noticed a slight change in education round here. Waldorf worked fantastically with Hettie for a year, with the exception perhaps of maths. Home edding two children is very different to one, especially when the new addition can be a tad difficult a times - well most of the time actually :o)

So I had decided Sonlight was the way ahead, unfortunately 8 weeks in we were all falling asleep from all that reading, its a little bland tbh. I ended up adding so much in that we were nowhere near on schedule. However the books I bought are great and so I began to tweak it a bit, well a lot actually. So I have a new schedule.

A friend mentioned that maybe Montessori would work well for Issy and its one of the few curriculums I haven't tried yet. So I set about gathering some materials etc. The maths equipment is great and is working well for both girls and we're making some good solid progress. Hettie is following Galore Park Maths and using Montessori equipment as she needs and for extra practice. Issy is following Montessori Elementary maths.

So today we threw in some Montessori zoology work and looked at Living and Non Living things, which proved quite an eye opening while they tried to decide whether a planet is a living thing!

More on the new schedule next time! The piggies are thriving and very well cuddled!

Lapbooks....

2008-11-17T18:16:00.004Z

.... I'm not over keen on lapbooks myself but the girls seem to like them - and if it gets Issy concentrating on anything its worth the effort. So she has completed a Guinea Pig Lapbook and Hettie completed a Volcano one. Here's the results:

Hettie asked me what the banking crisis is this evening, so I gave her a brief explaination about it and she decided it would be easily sorted out if the Prime Minister gave each bank fifty pounds each !!!!!!!!!!!!!

New family members........

2008-11-16T23:47:00.003Z

.......... Ok so I gave in! And we have two new baby piggies. I have to say they really are sweet and despite being new to our house, and being only 7 weeks old, they are putting up with an awful lot of mauling, sorry I mean gentle handling to tame them. Issy has not left them alone for a second unless forcibly removed from the room. Hettie was out with her friend, so Issy and I went to get them. Fortunately they only had these two girls so no choice - we could have been there for a week deciding otherwise. Presumably they actually are girls because I haven't personally checked.

They have been carried around since early morning, Isobel was the first up today and I don't think that's ever happened before. In fact I thought she was Hettie. They may meet an early demise from over indulgence of carrots and they have spent a large part of their day being carried around in dressing gown pockets, so suffocating is another possibility. Then there is a very probable chance we're going to loose one.

Fortunately the dog isn't taking too much notice of them - he's about the only one, even dh seems besotted by them. I, however, am not enamoured by sweeping up piggie poo all day and scrubbing piggie wee off the sofas.

Issy's first cuddle!

This Issy's piggie called Ruby, well she was last I heard. Strangely enough Ruby is blonde, jumps and skips and wriggles, and constantly talks to us - mmm just like her owner.

This is actually Hettie's piggie, which as yet has no name at all. She is content to lay on the sofa, eat and grunt occasionally and has fluffy hair - mmm just like her owner.

Wow - Its been a while...

2008-11-14T23:02:00.005Z

...since I blogged. Why? Well I stopped in summer 'cos we were away a lot and then it sort of drifted and drifted and so on, and on, and on...

But we're back, can't promise to be as regular, as things are all a bit hectic here as usual. So what have we been up to? Lots and lots actually. Too much to list.

As far as school work goes we're definately of the 'eclectic group now, using a bit of everything and after over two years now of home education, I think I've bought everything! OK maybe not everything. Our most recent buys have included a lot of Montessori equipment, in particular for Issy who is a very visual learner and some lapbook packs for both girls to back up work in Hettie's case and to form the main part of Issy's work.

Spelling cards!!

We made a model Tudor Town with Modroc.

Hettie with the Montessori multiplication and division boards.

Issy with the Montessori addition and subtraction boards.

Issy made a rainbow on the back window, she actually covered both after this and I didn't buy the cellophane sheets for this - but it made a lovely indoor rainbow.

Someone recommended montessori for Isobel and I'm really pleased with the bits I've bought and the bits I've made, which I'll post at a later date. She's mainly working on Montessori for maths, some worksheets I made based around Aesops Fables for English and lapbooks for the majority of her work. Her current obsession is Guinea Pigs. 24 hours a day is talking about Guinea Pigs, reading about Guinea Pigs and on and on, until Hettie and I both dreamt about them last night!! The deal was a great project about them and you may get some. So tomorrow we're off to get some. Hettie's out for the day with her friend so I get to pick hers. I decided probably not good for Santa to bring them down the chimney! Not surprisingly Issy managed to produce a lovely project within a fortnight.

Hettie is working well and I'm really pleased because at long last we're getting some progress.

This week the boiler packed up - on Monday! So we've been living with 2 fan heaters and the woodburner all week - and yes I'm married to a heating engineer! Still the new boiler is on the wall, not connected, but its up there. So tomorrow I've got friends for dinner in the evening, a boiler being fitted, Hettie's out for the day, and Isobel, well its Guinea Pig D-Day!

Oh yes and we've also acquired a couple of African Giant Land Snails, Sponge bob and Gary...

... guess who's looking after those now!

High Heeled Shoes....

2008-07-17T09:02:00.003+01:00

...are something I have loved since being very, very young. I used to slop about in my sister's - she's older than me. I desperately wanted a pair like Sandy in Grease (and still do). I can't resist a pair and usually buy the shoes first, and then the outfit to match. My friends used to call me Emelda Marcos. I like flat shoes as well, just about any shoes, but high heels are my favorite.

Unfortunately they are deadly when you have two bad knees that often dislocate. Which leads me to my prolonged absence from the blogging world. Due to a hectic social calendar in June - not sure why we never usually go anywhere - and lots of wearing of the said high heels, my back went into spasm and my one fairly good knee popped out. Fortunately over the last eleven years of living with my dislocating knees I'm fairly good at popping them back into place. The back however had me immobile for nearly two weeks, followed by a week of hobbling about.

During my immobility the girls very kindly managed to make me cold drinks, wrap me up in blankets and bring me books to read. It was pot luck what I got to read from the book shelf, varying from Harry Potter to romance to classics to Dan Brown. Still, its good to read a variety of literature. We managed to carry on with some school work, Sonlight came into its own as the girls got the books down off the shelf and I read to them. Between then they also managed to trash the house. I must teach them to make a cup of tea.

Once I was hobbling again we managed to make a HE meet at the library and take a HE trip to a nearby farm.

The ferret was a huge hit!

This huge bouncy pillow a bigger hit!

Even I held the ferret - it stunk!

We all went bug hunting!

The next night (Friday) dh and I were off to a charity ball. I haven't got the pics yet but it was a wonderful evening in remembrance of my friend's daughter Emily - The Emily Begg Fund. It was a true honour to be invited and lots of wonderful prizes will hopefully have raised lots of money. Dh bid in the auction and won afternoon tea at the Lanesborough Hotel in London, which I am really excited about. Ok, Ok, I shouldn't have given into and worn high heels but it was impossible to wear flats with a full length evening gown and I couldn't resist them when I saw them in the shop.

The weekend came with slight hangovers, alright big hangovers - the wine was free all evening, and the arrival of my friends two daughters (both HE) while she went off the Open University summer school. The girls have very rarely been away from mum so they were a bit upset when she left. But Saturday went well they spent lots of time in the woods and found a 'fantastic' rope swing. Dh told me not to go and look, it went so high. F said it felt like flying!!

All was going well but on Sunday, A locked herself in the toilet for some time, missing mum. But a cuddle and fortunately getting hold of mum on her lunch break for a chat then left me reassuring my friend not to worry, enjoy yourself, make the most of it etc etc. I put the phone down and F literally walked through the door crying, having let go of the rope swing and dropping from a great height. So off we went to hospital and she had, as I suspected, broken her wrist. So much for my reassurance to my friend! But we managed to deal with that and I told my friend later that night, giving her more reassurance that all was well despite that little mishap. Some child minder I turned out to be. The rope swing was banned, despite much pleading from four girls, even F with her broken wrist. Dh stayed in our bedroom for most of the weekend, but commented Thank God I'd been sterilised after 2 children!! Not sure what he means?

Monday the girls went off to the next friend and lets hope she makes a better job of it than me :0) Its very quiet here again. So this week I have been doing housework - lots of. I'm catching up on three weeks of washing and ironing - lots of. My back's hurting and I'm fed up with it now. I've got to work today at least for a couple of hours and then I plan to buy Spiderwick Chronicles, make popcorn and slob out.

Oh & definitely give myself a good talking to about the perils of high heels, well until the next party anyway!

Fencing and Folk Weekend...

2008-06-29T21:01:00.004+01:00

Hettie had her first ever fencing competition on Saturday, which meant she fenced Weds & Thurs night at her club. Friday night she was up from midnight til 4am, with excitement. Which meant everyone was a little over tired, but off we all went. It's great when kids take part in sport but lets face it, a tad boring when you're the parent sitting about! However Issy and I hung around nearly all day in support, we didn't make it quite to the end. Hettie was the youngest there and about a foot or more shorter than all the other girls! But she scored points for her team and they ended up with bronze medals - I should point out though that there were only the 3 girls teams!!

So we all had a lay in this morning and decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Leigh Folk Festival. Last time we went Issy was in a buggy! We had a great afternoon, met a few friends wandering around, watched all the morris dancing, listened to bands, danced, ate chips and finally after much queuing managed to get a beer!

Blue Candy Floss - the additives kept them going 'til the evening!

Our mate Pete on drums!

Issy just loved the belly dancers - so did I - the thin dancers got shoved up the back! And boy could those girls dance!

We didn't get home until late, but dh managed to chuck some pasta together for the girls who were surprisingly still hungry and I'm comtemplating the washing, ironing and housework I didn't do today!

Hiding Mr Ten...

2008-06-26T21:00:00.003+01:00

As we seem to have been slipping into a more autonomous way of Home Ed I decided we needed to get back on track today. Tbh the girls have been playing so lovely together it seemed a shame to break up the many role play games they've been having, but they've had an unofficial break so back to work.

We started with some maths (and some groans). Fortunately Hettie pulled out her Singapore maths books and mainly got on with it herself. I say fortunately because Issy's maths is not quite up to the level school had suggested. She's also on 1b but was really struggling with understanding addition when the units add up to more than 10. So we used Base 10's and I explained and explained, and then explained some more. May have been bad teaching on my part but she just wasn't getting it. So I pulled out the blackboard (if we use the white board side we all get high on pen fumes) and taught old fashioned column addition. And we played hiding Mr Ten. Issy loved hiding him in the sum after the units kicked him out of their column and we made a little progress - hooray!

Language arts, english or literacy or whatever you want to call it went well for Hettie today. I was dumbfounded when she correctly named a compound sentence and tbh I didn't know that's what you called them myself. So heaven knows where she learnt that from. We read 3 chapters of Charlotte's Web while they made collages and both did their reading.

Piano was cancelled until tomorrow so we ploughed on (it was now mid afternoon) with some science. I'm fairly disappointed with Sonlight Science. Its bitty, weeks and weeks about birds, and so I'm now swapping it all about. So we watched the dvd and read the experiments which were all about skin and I found the pages in Usbourne Book of Knowledge to read. Then we did the experiments:

They painted caterpillars on their arms to demonstrate how skin stretches.

We took our fingerprints.

Now the good thing about Sonlight Science is the kit had all the bits we needed that I didn't have indoors so we could actually do it, without dashing to the shops. The girls loved the Usbourne book and they even liked the dvd, which is slightly odd! The magnifying glass was really great, shame the schedule is messy and to be quite honest boring. So I'll rearrange it.

They worked from 10.30 til 4.30 - Wow. Bet tomorrow they gang up on me!

Sweet Caroline !!

2008-06-25T17:44:00.002+01:00

Last night dh and I drove up to the O2 Centre in London to see Neil Diamond. We've never been to the O2 before and it was so much better than we thought it would be. It's vast, and was a bit like a small village in a huge tent. Apparently there are 548 toilets in there! Lots of restaurants and a huge cinema.

It was rammed with people and we managed to meet some friends for a quick drink before we went in, and then separated off to find our seats. You're technically not allowed to take a camera, but hey this is my phone!! Our seats were terrific, just above the stage and boy, am I glad we weren't at the top which was extremely high up!

Every seat was full by the time it started. Although I was going to be quite sensible I'm afraid I leapt up and cheered with them all when he came on stage. All I can say was it was absolutely fantastic, we sang, cheered and clapped for two hours solid with no intermission. I can't possible decide which bit I enjoyed most, but have to say that Sweet Caroline had the whole place rocking and screaming for more. I had a lump in my throat when he sang love On The Rocks, it was so beautiful. Dh beared up well ;0)

Pics aren't very good as we were all sneakily taking them while a handful of security men tried to stop a million middle aged women using their phones!! I think they secretly looked a bit scared myself. Our nearest security man unfortunately tried to tell off the crowd to his left and promptly all the phones were out on his right. As he spun round all the people to his left promptly took out theirs! It was a loosing battle, but the poor lad tried his best.

So, today my feet are killing me but it was sure worth it, and I've been singing all day!

Back again!

2008-06-23T21:02:00.004+01:00

It's just been work, work, work lately - me not the girls!

But as promised some piccies of our Ascot Day. It was in aid of breast cancer and was great value for money. We arrived to as much free Pimms and Champagne as you wanted and then had a fabulous 3 course lunch, then strawberries and cream, and then tea. We placed bets on every race, watched live on a big screen and I won a total of £1.84 - so not so good. There were about 200ish women there and my friend won the best hat, and it really was lovely.

Me in the green!

This was were we ate - and drank!

End of the day and me in the winning hat!

In fact at the end of the day we sat in the gardens swopping hats for some time, before the mini bus arrived to ferry us home, not looking quite as lady like as when he dropped us off !

A Little Bit Of Dancing !

2008-06-18T19:46:00.005+01:00

We had a little look at dancing around the world today. It was a little dry so I added some You Tube clips of various folk dances and then the girls pranced about the lounge!

We went to the shops to collect new Brownie uniforms which I'd ordered weeks ago and ambled about a bit. Popped into nannies to get the Brownie trousers turned up and hemmed.

Dh got home early and had a look at Hettie's electronics kit with her - she has had it since Christmas!

And a little bit of filn Isobel made this weekend in the garden, excuse the building site bits, we're saving them in case they come in handy!

If it was dark it could be the Blair Witch Project.

Times Flying By ........

2008-06-17T18:54:00.005+01:00

Not sure where the time is going lately. Still we had a fairly quiet weekend, dh and Hettie went sailing on Sunday and spent the day having dads v kids races. Kids won, I think dad's got disqualified for cheating!

We spent some time looking at steam power using a little boat we have that runs from a tea light candle and wind power using a boat Hettie bought in Norfolk, which runs via a balloon. We raced them around the pond for a bit. This followed on nicely from looking at wind power at the windmill last week.

A friend of ours keeps frogs and Hettie had a hold, Issy wanted nothing to do with them at all. Obviously Hettie then wanted to keep frogs! No way.

African Bull Frog

Tree Frogs, Kermit and Fraggle.

On the school work front we've done fairly well this week so far. Issy is still finding it a little hard to concentrate, but I thing she'll settle down - hopefully she'll settle down. They both went off to Brownies tonight and enjoyed seeing their friends, after spending the afternoon at nanny's playing with a huge cardboard box.

I went last minute panic buying because I'm off to an Ascot Ladies Day, although not at Ascot but at a big posh Spa place, on Thursday. Fortunately I found a nice dress and bought it in the first shop. Great I thought and bought a pair of those huge knickers that go up to your bust to suck it all in. No I'm not posting a piccie of them and they cost almost as much as the dress.

Unfortunately the dress is white and green which meant finding matching shoes, hat and handbag! Would you believe it I couldn't find one pair of white high heels - I do live in Essex after all, and we are renowned for our love of these shoes. But after 2 1/2 hours I managed to get a green pair of shoes and bag, and a white hat. You wouldn't believe how many hats are cream, and how expensive those little feather things are. I flatly refuse to spend £15 on a feather on a hair slide! My nephew has just got engaged - lets hope its a summer wedding and I can use the hat again, which dh describes as a dinner plate on a head band.

So now I've read this back it sounds like an awful outfit but I may even post a piccie on Friday! Ok off to work out how to get this curly mop pinned under the hat.

Why Did I Think This Was A Good Idea?

2008-06-13T17:44:00.005+01:00

When I started reading about Waldorf doll making I knew pure wool stuffing was the best and reading further, and looking at the price of wool to buy, I decided getting a fleece was the cheapest way. Also this is great education and good for farming work in Waldorf 3rd Grade. We had to wait for shearing to start and my MIL managed to get a fleece for us, which we bought home.

So today was the day to start washing it. Anyone thinking this is a great idea, it is but believe me it stank! Its fairly hard work as well.

We tipped it out of the bag onto the decking.

We sorted one third into one laundry bag, and another third into another bag. Apparently it's good to lay it out and put it 'sheep shape'. That was fairly impossible to do. It was caked in mud, grass and poo! And was very, very greasy with lanolin. Third left over to wash tomorrow.

Then we did the first wash. We needed a detergent, not soap which would cause it to felt, and gallons of very hot water. Its a bit of an art, because if the water cools the lanolin sticks back on the fleece and goes hard apparently. If it's agitated too much it felts. This is the first wash.

And this is the first lot of water, it was revolting!

Finally after three detergent washes, 20 minutes each, checking the water isn't cooling so it doesn't felt, and scooping it out into the sink to change the water, we were finally at rinsing. We tipped it out of the bags, because it had shrunk considerably and we could manage it better.

Two rinses later we wrestled it back into the laundry bags and onto the decking. We spread it out onto an old towel to dry.

It took 2 1/2 hours. There are still quite a lot of gooey bits in it and a lot of twiggy bits but we'll pull them out when its dry. So what are we going to do with it. We need to card it now and make it all nice and fluffy. Then we can store it. Some we're going to dye using vegetable & fruit dyes and then the plan is to spin some as well. Hopefully they'll be enough for me to make a couple of dolls.

The fleece smells much, much better - but my bathroom smells like a flock of sheep are living in there!

Home Again ...

2008-06-12T10:29:00.007+01:00

I drove to Norfolk, bearing in mind dh has driven every time we've been over the past 12 years, and didn't get lost once. Hooray! And we arrived late morning to lovely sunny weather. Nanny cooked a lovely lunch and the girls played in the garden. We had a walk around the local shops - full of bits for little girls to spend their pocket money on. Late afternoon when it cooled down a bit we went off to the beach and collected shells. The girls played on the sand dunes and had a great time.

The next day we went of to Bircham Windmill. We climbed to the top, not a good idea to look down from that high up. The girls made some bread and they bake it for them. Delicious smells wafted through everywhere! I left half a cake at nannys so grandad will have to finish it off!!

We got up to the little platform at the top.

From the first platform.

Baking bread.

Isobel did a little quiz.

Hettie, as usual, was like a magnet to the animals!

We had lunch at the windmill and then went off to a nature reserve for the Hawk and Owl Trust and saw the Marsh Harriers that are currently appearing on Spring Watch. No pic of them, just too far away for my camera.

Issy managed to capture this nice pic!

An obigatory game of Pooh Sticks!

We got to look at this lovely baby Kestral, just 5 weeks old.

On our last day we went to visit the Earl of Leicester - OK we didn't actually visit him, but nosed around his house and garden!! We didn't have time to go inside, but boy has he got some great views out of his windows.

Holkam Hall - nice pad!

One of the many garden views!

You can see more professional pics at there website here. We're planning to go back in summer and spend a full day there. Issy dreamed of marrying a handsome Prince and Hettie wondered how you get a job on a big estate.

And so it was time to come home again. I took a wrong turn and went 3/4 hour out of my way 'cos I got stuck on a major long road where I couldn't turn around Duh!! Still dh was overjoyed to see us again (well happy anyway) - for about 15 minutes I guess, when he disappeared with his guitar upstairs in the back room!

And no we didn't do any of the school work I took!!

Our Birds Have Flown The Nest....

2008-06-08T22:02:00.005+01:00

After many days of frantic flying to and fro with beakfuls of caterpillars and worms, and lots of cheeping outside the kitchen window, suddenly silence and no activity. So we left the box for a week and half to make sure no-one came back and today we investigated. Fortunately all the babies have flown, but there were 4 tiny eggs left behind. Definately cold and left by the way!

The girls were made up to hold such tiny eggs.

We cleaned the box out and pulled the nest apart to see what our little Blue Tits had used to build it with.

Hettie got stuck in to have a good look.

So a bit of nature science today! We had a lovely sunny day today. Dh and Hettie were sailing yesterday and this afternoon. I did mountains of washing and ironing - a lot of it I watched all of Primeval weekend. Issy made a collage magazine which kept her busy.

We spent this evening packing to go to nanny and grandad's at Norfolk tomorrow - and by the time they read this we should be on our way! I'll ring you if I get lost.

At Last The Sun Did Shine!

2008-06-05T20:30:00.004+01:00

We were up early (bit of a shock to our systems) to take Issy to play therapy, which entailed me dragging her out from under the duvet protesting strongly that she was 'ill'. Still we got there and with a little persuasion she went in. Advice this week is to get her up at 6am every morning, as a late riser myself my immediate response was 'You are joking!' to which our lady replied, 'No I'm not'. So I've decided best to start with 7am after we come back from Norfolk.

Everyone brightened considerably when I said we were off to the garden centre to buy some plants. Its a lovely big place wih lots of playhouses to try out, a huge shop and plant area. Oh, not forgetting the fish and water section, which luckily is not far from the toilets, as Issy almost always has to go after wandering round that bit.

We bought a bargain book on dinosaurs, a garden bird sticker book and a princess letter writing book, some bird seed. That was before we got to the plants and after I'd said we are definitely, definitely not buying anything in the shop! We spent a good couple of hours and all dithered about which plants to buy for around the pond area. Eventually with a boot load we left. Have to say Hettie had quite a good eye for choosing plants and just needs to learn a bit more about full sun, shade etc.

We had a tidy round, and went for MacDonald's, I know rubbish but I fancied it and there were no complaints. We actually got to sit in the garden and eat, and I read our read aloud's. Issy had her first piano lesson after Hettie and enjoyed it. While each one was playing the other sat with me and did some maths and english work.

Dh finally got home and we decided where to put the plants, taking a long time looking at height and spread etc, and then just bunged them in where we thought!

Friends over tomorrow, so we'll have to be up early, 1) I've got to pop to work, 2) I've got to get something for lunch and 3) Obviously I've got to tidy up as usual. Maybe we'll start getting up at 7am tomorrow after all.

Library Choices.......

2008-06-04T19:54:00.002+01:00

Today we went off for the home ed group meeting. It was the book club meet so we didn't need to take anything along with us, and there was a great turn out 12 adults and about 18 kids! Issy has decided she doesn't like doing work about dinosaurs, so I said pick some books for a project to do while Hettie finishes up her work.

She came back with 3 book on 'allergies', 'cuts, bumps and bruises' and 'tooth decay'! Someone commented she's either going to be a doctor or a hypochondriac when she grows up LOL!! Still she picked the books herself so we'll roll with it for now.

The sun shone this afternoon at last and we sat on the trampoline when we got home and read our read aloud and they both read to me, so we've managed to keep more or less on our schedule so far this week. We planted one lone grassy plant in our new flower bed - donated by my dad so I'd best look after it.

We've got a family sailing day on Saturday again, if there's not torrential rain of course and we're of to Nanny Norfolk's on Monday for a few days, hopefully there won't be rain there either!

Still Waldorf Inspired?

2008-06-02T15:56:00.006+01:00

This is something I've been giving some thought to lately. Sonlight is, well much much easier to use. You look at the days plan, get the books off the shelf and do it, adapting it a bit to suit yourselves. On the whole its well written and the extra resources are great. So can you use a mix of the two? I think you can use the principles behind a Waldorf approach and apply them to teaching anything in the main. So for instance today I read Charlotte's Web while they made beeswax models of Wilbur and Charlotte. We've been doing copywork, something we would do with Waldorf and I read out loud/teach and then we discuss it. We have no tv except at breaktime and no computer games until we're done. Both the girls are still knitting away and we're getting our sheep fleece to look at wool making. I take more account of their maturity in approaching a subject and never push them to do more than they can manage. We spend time together as a family. I constantly refer to all my Waldorf books for teaching ideas.

Isn't that the beauty of home education that you learn and adapt as you go along. Hettie will probably revert to a Waldorf curriculum again in the future, she enjoys it and it suits her. But I feel we need more focus on the maths, english and reading at the moment. I need them working together for most areas or it will be mayhem, and its working out pretty well so far, although there is now a lot of giggling! Both girls are doing really well with the Language Arts and readers so far. They're loving map work and reading about different people around the world. We fit all the scheduled work in a day easily with time to spare for other more Waldorfy things.

Something that really struck the heart of me this week in Jenny's wonderful 'Taking Stock' post was, if a square peg doesn't fit in a round hole, change the hole and leave the peg just as it is. She's spot on right - our children are all unique and wonderful.

We're following Sonlight but are we still Waldorf inspired? You bet we are! Purists of Waldorf may disagree, but I never claimed to be pure! So here's todays pics of my lovely, unique girls:

Busy with a writing assignment about describing an animal.

Looking up countries around the world. We read about various forms of make up and jewellery, and so that led to face painting this afternoon. (The tv isn't on - it's paused until lunchtime)

Isobel painting Hettie.

A Clown!

A Flower!

Oh, and a few tears when I had to get it all off.

OK - Enough of the sailing now!!

2008-06-01T21:23:00.005+01:00

Yes, there was more sailing on Saturday, Cadet Day at the sailing club. But the kids had a great day despite the very early start. These pics are taken by my SIL, she's getting really good now at this photography lark, and there's a couple I'm going to frame.

Ben and Jess.

Cadets sail off!

Hettie and Abbie with righted boat, after capsizing!

Issy, as I thought, didn't go to theatre club. So we tidied, or rather I tidied and she swanned about chatting to me. We went to the shops, came back and settled down to make a princess door hanger from her princess make and do book. It turned out pretty good:

Then as she was in full collage swing and wanted to make another picture, she happily agreed to make a dinosaur collage for our science work:

OK, so a dinosaur in a pink stripy dress and hat wasn't quite what I had in mind.

Hettie was off to a party in the afternoon and then stayed up to watch a variety of talent show finals on TV. So we all had a lie in this morning, dh decided to give the garden some attention rather than even more sailing. So we weeded, put some scaffold boards to protect the fence and lined the flower beds around the pond. We filled the empty bed with old left over turfs, any old soil we found lying about and then dh & Hettie popped out to buy some top soil. They also came home with a new Ghost Koi. Our other one (the disappearing one) sadly passed away last week.

So now we just need some plants!

Dh worked hard mowing and strimming, so we actually look like we have a garden for a change.

So week 2 of Sonlight tomorrow and a proper school week here - well that's the plan anyway.

More Swallows!

2008-05-30T21:47:00.005+01:00

This evening we all went to the sailing club for a 'family evening' sail. Why did I go? - my friend, her dh and daughter were coming along and dh doesn't know them very well, so Issy and I went. Fortunately for dh they sail a lot so there were plenty of hands to help rig up:

J has been on board various yachts since she has been six weeks old so is very confident and happily hopped in with dh and Hettie.

Off they went, sorry about the pole! Think dh could have done with a pair of ear muffs with two little girls chattering away at him for an hour and a half. Still he could have had Issy aboard as well who was busy asking to go home the whole time. So we had a very short walk along the cliffs to pass the time and chatted with C & E. My SIL was there as well, and our niece and nephew who were off sailing with friends they've made at the club. Hence Hettie wants to go sailing again tomorrow with J and her cousins. Which means she misses Theatre/Drama Club which I've paid for, still Issy said she'll still go so fingers crossed she actually will.

The girls had friends from school over yesterday and had a nice time with them. Today we caught up with our Sonlight schedule and managed to finish all of this weeks work off bar a couple of worksheets and couple of chapters of Charlotte's Web - which for you regular posters was my favorite childhood book! Which leads me to believe that we should finish Core 1 in less time than is scheduled. Hettie has been reading really well this week, nothing like a little bit of sibling rivalry. In fact when reading out some questions today an argument broke out about whose turn it was to read!

In a very short time I've noticed that Issy has an extremely difficult time listening without interrupting or drifting off or wandering off and we need to work on some listening skills. She also rushes through any work at top speed which I seem to remember Hettie used to do when she first left school, presumably they need to rush at school to get through the work.

So up early tomorrow, Hettie and Dh have to leave about 7.30am to catch the tide and Issy to drama by nine. Never mind, no more school run.

School Work In Holidays????

2008-05-28T22:53:00.004+01:00

Yes we actually achieved some school work in official half term. Maybe because Hettie was curious about the Sonlight stuff and Isobel, well she just spends most of the day asking for 'school work'.

So we followed our Sonlight schedule and covered everything and a bit more. They did find it a bit unusual that there wasn't reams of writing to do, just read and discuss. They enjoyed the map work and Charlotte's Web read aloud. The Singapore maths Isobel fairly flew through which gave me chance to work through Hetties with her. But we mostly managed to work together, although they both read to me in the other room separately. I used some letter cubes to back up the spelling work on compound words - well they're only sitting in the cupboard and the girls like them.

They weren't overly keen on science which starts with dinosaurs, so I may have to adapt that a bit. It was nice to get up and work without having to put hours in the night before.

Today we went to a local park (big park) and met a bunch of kids and another home ed mum. We managed to get them all fed in the cafe and they had one of those huge bouncy castle/slides set up, so we paid for them all to get in and then kept our fingers crossed that the heavens didn't open on us. Fortunately it remained very overcast but no rain so we got our full 2 hours worth. Isobel refused to go on anything but did manage to join in some games later on. She was a bit nervous even though she knows all the kids, I think she felt a bit like the 'new kid'.

This evening for once the girls were perfectly happy to listen to their read aloud chapter and start a book about missionary stories. We even managed to have a discussion about who missionaries were and where they went, and why. Isobel was a bit upset when Wilbur the pig escaped his pen and was crying but managed to hang on in there! Then they both did their reading as well. So I can't moan today.

Oh, We Had A Fab Time .....

2008-05-27T19:40:00.007+01:00

We did miss the girls of course!! But we had a fab time on the Norfolk Broads with our lovely friends. We arrived on Friday afternoon and the boys went off for a quick driving lesson. We laughed so much we've all come home with our ribs aching. Obviously we drank and ate lots!

Here's our boat, 46 ft long with 3 double beds!

Boys trying on their life jackets.

Dh at the helm!

Some of the beautiful properties along the river bank.

Dh mooring us up against the bank with no mooring except a tree.

Lots of local wildlife, too many pics to post.

Some came for a closer visit, in fact this one nearly landed on our heads!

We managed to find an ice-cream man! And very lovely ice cream it was.

The boys barbecued of course.

And of course I managed to find a ruined abbey to amble around, keep that in mind for the girls education!

Last Day Tomorrow..

2008-05-21T17:35:00.002+01:00

So tomorrow is Issy's last day. She seems fairly OK with it, I think she's wishes she could still go on the school trip. So I had to explain that to go on the trip she'd have to stay for the rest of term, she said she didn't want to do that! But we can have lots of days out now, especially as the weather seems to be getting better. I'm thinking of taking them for a day down to Hastings for the 1066 Exhibition and Battle Castle, which is a lovely old ruin and great for playing hide and seek, and obviously Norman invaders!! They love to go to London but tbh, I have to really force myself to go, get the train, sort lunch etc. But our first lot of science planned is about dinosaurs, so it seems a shame not to go to the Natural History Museum.

We're also planning to go to Nanna's in Norfolk after the half term for a few days, although Hettie doesn't want to leave dh and the dog behind for too long.

Issy wanted to buy a present for a couple of her teachers, so I sorted that out for her today, and some sweets to take in class.

I've been at work yesterday and today, so its now going to be a mad rush to get ready for the weekend but still I can't wait!! Mind you I'll probably miss them, as usual.

To Be Honest....

2008-05-19T22:17:00.004+01:00

This hasn't been the best of days. Issy was up late last night yet again. I have this plan that its best not to keep going upstairs to her because then she has an opportunity to chat. So I wait downstairs until I can't hear any movement at all before going to bed. Last night this was at midnight and when I went up I found this.

She had been busy all evening decorating the upstairs landing as a theatre all ready for a 'show' on Saturday. As she know's very well she'll be at nanny and grandads 'cos we are away for the weekend & I presume its her way of making us stay home. Bit sad really. So I left it there all day with the intention of saying lets have a little show tonight. You have to be sitting on the toilet with the door open to get this view! That didn't happen anyway because I had a 'mummy blue fit' after tea when the girls complained I never do anything for them. Mmm bad move girls. This led to the 'theatre' being dismantled, me stomping about a lot and still tidying it all myself while stomping and shouting! Not handled well by me, but hey we're all 'over' tired.

Hettie has had a rubbish HE day. Maths was a huge struggle today with much umming and aahing over 2x3 and so on. Her reading was slow and faltering, and generally got herself in a right old muddle. Thought I would carry on reading the Railway Children but she kept day dreaming and I had to re-read most of what I had just read. So after struggling through copying 4 short sentences for her main lesson - which we discovered she had written with the book upside down - we moved onto Leonardo Da Vinci and finished building his flying machine. Well I did really while she carried on day dreaming.

But my Core 1 Sonlight shelf is good to go - think I may miss the Science 2 reproduction of humans, because 1) I think Issy is too young, 2) She will probably spend the next month asking all and sundry if & how they reproduce and 3) I can't put up with crys of 'Gross' every time dh is within 6 foot of me!

I de-registered Issy from school today and so she finishes on Thursday. This is obviously an added anxiety for her even though she wants to be at home. She also has a show lined up and her first Brownie camp, so as I commented to someone else recently about their son, she has got a lot on her plate at the moment. Although she overheard a mum asking me how her 'therapy' was going and later remarked 'Cool, I'm in therapy just like children on tv' - we really have to cut back on c**p tv. I relented on the theatre bits and helped her put them all in a box ready to put up Thursday evening for a show before we go away. Hettie said 'mum, its a bad week, don't stress'. Ok I thought don't stress, had a long bath, got in my pjs, mildly threatened Issy about going to sleep and settled down to watch Waking the Dead.

Cue Dh - 'What are you watching?'

Me - 'Waking the Dead, I watch it every week'

Dh - 'I've seen this one'

Me - 'No you haven't, its a new series'

Dh - 'No its a repeat, I'll check the paper'

Me - 'You do that'

Dh - 'Says its a new series'

Me - 'I told you that'

Dh - 'Well looks like its a remake of something else'

Me - 'Aren't you practising your guitar tonight?'

Dh - 'No I thought I'd watch this with you'

Cue Issy back downstairs - 'I can't go to sleep'

Cue Hettie back downstairs - 'Can I get a drink'

Dh - 'I'm sure I've seen this one'

Ok, Ok I snapped and shouted again!! Good job I love 'em.

Blog Slacking !

2008-05-18T14:22:00.004+01:00

I've been slacking on the blogging front this week. Well I've been fairly busy. I'll post again later about sorting my Sonlight stuff.

Hettie had some sort of rash appear on her back, which I thought possibly could be German Measles (Rubella) and then on Thursday Issy got the rash as well. The GP thought it was probably a virus, so who knows. Its gone anyway and they're OK but Issy had to have another day off school!!! We nearly made a complete week as well LOL. Hettie got in a muddle and asked me if I thought she really did have Russian measles, to which I replied I didn't actually know what Russian measles were! Issy calls germs 'germans' so she got a bit confused as well. All this and I only said it 'might be'.

I went out with some old work colleagues on Thursday evening and we had a lovely meal, and a good chat and it was great.

So that aside Issy couldn't have her friend to play on Friday, so she was fed up about that, stayed up til 2am and then didn't want to go to drama group on Saturday morning. Hettie did go to drama and dh took Issy food shopping. I had friends over last night so yesterday was spent, you've guessed it, cleaning and more cleaning. Both girls went to Brownie Revels in the afternoon, where the theme was pirates:

Not a very good few days with Issy, she didn't want me to leave when we got there, back to clinging on etc etc. So she's missed ballet, drama and I was determined she wasn't missing Brownies. Very forunately for me the 'Owls' who run our pack are lovely and they managed to get round her to stay without me. She enjoyed it but didn't like the noise in the hall.

We had a really good laugh with our friends last night, I decided not to cook and got Chinese take away instead. We drunk a fair bit, dh and A played guitar, S played the keyboard and we planned our long weekend on the Norfolk Broads, which is this Friday. T and I aren't too good with our feet off dry land so we're packing travel sick pills!! Hettie came downstairs and played the keyboard for everyone and got a big round of applause. She's getting really confident playing in front of people now. Issy refused to come down except to collect a big bag of sweets from Aunty S !! The girls ate chinese in my bedroom watching tv - rice everywhere - and then followed that up with popcorn, so with the sweets as well they ended up feeling a bit nauseous. But they both were very well behaved and I only had to shout up the stairs twice!

Today I've been doing washing and dh has been sailing. He wanted to race so Hettie didn't go today. The girls decided to get the clay out:

I really, really should do some ironing this afternoon and there is an old episode of Morse on tv to watch!!

There's been a lot on the news about aliens...

2008-05-14T19:52:00.004+01:00

And I think they may have been in our garden. Because despite dh cleaning out our pond and fishing (no pun intended) about Holly the fish is gone - or she was until this afternoon when she's made a sudden and unexpected reappearance. Hettie thinks it was aliens and Issy thinks she's been on holiday! But in any case it has us puzzled because there is just no-where she could have hidden, the pond is as clear as clear. So it will no doubt remain one of lifes little mysteries.

Yesterday Issy was enrolled into her Brownie pack. She said her Brownie law and promise very beautifully, and very seriously. I was really proud of her.

Back to today - well home ed was a bit of a write off. But we did manage some maths, although today handwriting was a no go. So Hettie watched a couple of Tv programmes and then did some oil pastel art after lunch, and we read some more of the Railway Children. She has been a little under the weather and has a rash on her back which I think (and hope) is just a heat rash. So if it's no better tomorrow we'll have to visit the doctor.

I spent last night and today sorting out the huge box of Sonlight curriculum, which started as good fun (looking at all the lovely books) and then a bit of work (while I put it together and started reading it all). However I think I've got the hang of it now, well sort of. Once we get going I'm sure it will be great.

A Fish Called Holly...

2008-05-12T20:05:00.002+01:00

Oh dear, it seems I spoke too soon because Issy's fish called Holly has disappeared overnight. Tbh we didn't notice until this evening when we were feeding them and Issy said 'Where's Holly gone?' So dh raked about and stirred them up but no Holly. It may have been the dreaded heron, but I think he probably would have ate them all, well more than one anyway! Lets hope she's hiding, dh is especially hoping this because he'll have to replace her at the weekend if she's not.

Other than the missing Koi, we've had a nice day with HE friends over. We didn't do any school work but all enjoyed the sun - well it might be gone tomorrow!

Issy is counting down her last days at school (9 to go) and has told some of her friends she's leaving. Fortunately I get on well with one of her closest friend's mums and they only live a short walk through the woods, so we're planning some meet ups. My Sonlight curriculum for her is now at Stansted Airport - I love the Fed Ex tracking.

So we're sort of prepared. Hettie is drifting along a bit so we need to get back to it, but I'm working tomorrow morning and she's off to do planting with grandad, although I've insisted maths workbook and reader goes too. Not sure what exam results she'll end up with, but she'll sure know all about gardening!

Lets Hope and Keep Fingers Crossed...

2008-05-11T21:19:00.003+01:00

... that the heron who flies over our garden every morning and evening doesn't decide to pay a visit to our pond, because today dh splashed out on four Koi Carp. They're medium sized, so fairly expensive. The girls were delighted because they hand feed my dad's and have been waiting to get some.

Waiting to release the new fish.

Here's the four newbies, one is named Dodger and one is named Holly. Dh and I still have to name ours. Rosie and Jim the goldfish were named some years ago.

Freed into the great unknown.

Dh was working this morning do girls and I whizzed to the supermarket. It was like Christmas in there. Not sure what's got into everyone, I know its hot but for goodness sake the shops are open every day and theres only so much food you can barbeque. Then we went straight to the little garden centre and bought some bedding plants for our pots to replace the spring flowers.

Hettie and I planted up the pots and tidied up the decking and both sets of grandparents came over for the afternoon. Dh obviously arrived home after I'd humped a great big bag of soil and all the pots about.

We had a lovely afternoon sitting on the deck, chatting, eating and of course had a few drinks. The girls played in the paddling pool and ran about. My dad measured up to build the chicken coop - Hooray.

And so it continues...

2008-05-10T21:48:00.002+01:00

... what lovely sunny and hot weather, after all the wind and rain.

I had to take Issy for a blood test yesterday, which was just to check her general health. She was very good and was rewarded with a lolly, certificate and sticker. It was a bit of a pain because I had to drive to the clinic, go to my mums where I'd left Hettie, then apply the 'magic' cream an hour before the 'blood ladies' could fit her in, then go back to the clinic, and it was hot! Anyway all went well.

Then I took Hettie to the chicken farm as promised and we had a good look at coops, roosts and runs. We saw a wide variety of chickens, geeses, ducks, goats and lamas. I also missed treading on a huge rat asleep in the sun by about 1/4 inch. We decided with grandad's help we can probably build our own coop much cheaper. Much perusing over our chicken books followed and much discussion of the best and worse traits of various breeds. Dh joined in the chat, albeit reluctantly because 'I'm having nothing to do with any chickens' is his standard phrase.

Today the girls went off to drama and dh was working so I took the opportunity to clean through the house while everyone was out. It was so hot in our garden that I had to put the sunshade up so we could eat lunch in the garden. Not long before I had to drag the paddling pool out, donated by my brother, find a foot pump and fill. Not sure an 8ft pool is going to do much for the new grass though!

Sunny Days...

2008-05-08T22:25:00.004+01:00

I just love it when the sun is out. It makes me feel happy when I wake up and the sun is streaming in through the windows.

We whizzed off to Issy's play therapy first thing and I managed to have a fair chat with her therapist which was really helpful, and I got lots of useful advice. You know some actual helpful information/direction rather than the old 'you really must make her...' otherwise known as 'its all your fault'. So I felt much happier after we had been today and Issy managed to go to school with minimal fuss.

I ordered Sonlight Core 1 with language arts and science 2 for Isobel today in preparation for her home ed.

My in-laws are down for a week and so Hettie and I went round for a cuppa and ended up staying for lunch (fish and chips - mmm) and Hettie went bug hunting in the garden. When I moaned about our lazy day with no home ed, she said bug hunting is science and she had done some art work as well. The girls caught on I think!!

We rushed home for a quick tidy and piano lesson. Issy went to ballet after school and is excited because they're having a show and she's going to be a fairy. She spent some time making a tissue paper bottle filled with glittery water.

Hettie and I checked her weather equipment, we had a South Westerly breeze, no rainfall and our barometer (no pic) had actually moved indicating a raise in air pressure. We have to fix our weather vane on a post but we held it for now!

And at the weekend I managed to get a pic of Issy missing her teeth. The bottom two grew incredibly quickly. Unfortunately the dentist referred her to another surgery to remove the four at the top which are causing problems and they don't take children under 10, so now we have to make a bit of a trip but it should be within the next 3 weeks so at least it will be quick.

Tomorrow Hettie and I are going to check out chicken coops!

Weather Reporting...

2008-05-07T21:10:00.002+01:00

... was the subject of today's home ed meeting. C gave a talk about how weather works and then set all the kids making various weather devices for measuring. She done a really good job and we've come home with a variety of things to fix up in the garden tomorrow. The idea is the kids will take recordings over the next few weeks and compare their results.

Issy was over tried, sick and has a flare up of her eczema so was off school again! Obviously the school is getting grumpy as its SATs time. Fortunately we have a good LA Home Ed advisor and I've had a long chat with her and she gave me some very good advice and support. So hopefully we can make it through 12 days until half term without too much upset with all parties being 'reasonable'. Issy has read lots and lots today, which is great and we did a little maths together. Hettie therefore made a concerted effort to read half of her reader and did some work on her buildings main lesson.

However everyone is finally in bed at least, Hettie has been fencing so its a late night for her and Issy, well she's still reading. But hey she could still be chatting to me!

Back to normal?

2008-05-06T17:44:00.002+01:00

After feeling extremely nauseous along with Issy, I missed most of the lovely weather this Bank Holiday weekend. Dh took Hettie sailing Sunday and both girls Monday, which meant I had a day off. But because I felt horrible I didn't sit in the sun at all. Never mind, back to normal today.

We started off a little late for school so we stayed on the main road and didn't take the short cut to avoid another schools traffic congestion. Unfortunately a young lad got knocked off his motorbike in front of us which meant I had to swing into nurse action, abandon girls in the car and sprint up the road. Fortuately he was ok, apart from being a bit shaken although the lady that hit him was very upset. So then I had to wait for the paramedics and police, give a quick report etc. By now there was a huge traffic jam and we, of course, were late for school.

Well normal day then for us, nothing ever quite goes to plan. Hettie and I thought we may as well stop at grandad's for a cuppa then. But eventually we got back home to school work.

Hettie struggled through subtraction and then we did some of her buildings main lesson. We followed that with another experiment from her solar power kit and finished her reader about Tigers.

I've more or less definately decided to buy Sonlight Core 1 for Isobel, and Hettie if she wants to join in. Although I love Waldorf and Hettie does well with it, I can't see it working for Issy. She's too intensive in the way she learns, but after all isn't that the good thing about home education, its adaptable.

Swallows and Amazons .... Happy Birthday Nanny!

2008-05-03T21:42:00.006+01:00

Happy Birthday Nanny Norfolk! Aaaagh Years Old Today!!

No waving family members nanny, but thought you'd like to see the adventures of your very own Swallows and Amazons, taken by S last weekend. As she took over 300 pics I've just picked a few of the best!

This is a tale of two brothers who were once Swallows sailing together, and now we have them with their own offspring, and so have split into the 'Swallows' and the 'Amazons'. (NB: The Swallows belong to me and have an old mirror dinghy bought off ebay, and the Amazons belong to my SIL and have a flash new boat thingy bought at the Boat Show, flash so and so's)

Now in all days out which are mainly organised by men they have to stand about and discuss the day for some time before they actually get round to doing anything, sorry I meant they plan in detail so nothing goes wrong. Here they are making a detailed plan:

Now if its your first trip out as a Swallow its pretty exciting:

But invariably you start to get in Swallow Seniors way and have to be given a job to do:

Finally, the Swallows are launched and off on their maiden voyage:

Safety boat looks like he's following them! There's no exciting island to sail to, but Kent's just across the water so maybe he thought he'd just keep an eye, after all you would have to pass through a shipping channel to get there. The Amazons follow shortly after:

Swallows and Amazons together:

Mmmm now whats happening, the brothers seem to have abandoned their children and are making their escape by sea:

So what do Junior Swallows and Amazons do when they've been abandoned, play 'swimming in a buoyancy aid' of course, and most probably get in everyones way:

So this weekend they're off again to sail of course!

And as for Arthur Ransome's book, sorry but as those of you who know me already know boats of any type are not my thing, and this must be the most boring book I've ever read, I've had to pass it over to dh to read aloud because I start yawning as soon as I pick it up!!!!!!!!

An Eventful Day.....And a Strange Happening

2008-04-30T21:34:00.003+01:00

Goodness, I've been so busy with end of the year book keeping and accountants I haven't had time for anything else. Monday I worked and Hettie tagged along, Tuesday I worked and Hettie tagged along again - mmm not very structured!

The rain has just fell and fell, but fortunately two mornings running I've bumped into a friend who has taken Issy into the school and class, therefore no need to park. This morning Hettie wanted to stay home alone - Aaagh! - while I did the school run and I decided a 15 minute trial alone would be OK. Well I've got to leave her alone at some point and by her age I'd been walking to school alone for 2 years. So with repeated instructions to not answer the door or the phone or leave the back room I left. At the bottom of the road I started to think what if I have an accident or the car breaks down, she won't answer the phone, perhaps we need a phone code, you know 2 rings, then ring again sort of thing. I should point out with have a huge very protective dog as well. Fire, what if there's a fire, will she know to leave the house?

Got home, rushed in and she was coming down the stairs. What are you doing out of the back room? What would you do if the house catches fire? Did you answer the phone? I demanded. 'Mum I was going to wee on the sofa if I waited any longer, the phone hasn't rung and if there's a fire I'll leave the house and go next door to J' and plonked herself back down in front of the tv.

So the first time is over. Isobel said 'When I'm 9 1/2 can I stay in on my own?' 'No you can't, you need to be 24!' was my reply.

So, off to our Home Ed group at the library. We had a great meeting, 29 adults and kids attended. My friend C did a great activity about electric circuits and they made a little lamp, which Hettie is made up with. She took it apart on the way home and even I managed to figure out how to put it back together again! It was a really, really good meet until a young lad snatched one of the mum's handbags from pratically under our noses. Fortunately another mum spotted him on her way out and the police were called - and actually caught him! The kids all rallied around and pointed out several times where fingerprints could be obtained! I really hope T gets her bag back because amongst other things she had a photo of her daughter which was special to here. Fingers crossed x.

So that wasn't a nice ending to the day.

The strange happening. Well I looked at Hettie yesterday, and she was reading a book, yes she had actually picked up a book and was reading it to herself. I very nearly shouted 'You're reading, you're absorbed in it!' But my brain kicked into gear and I said nothing. I left it a while and said 'What are you reading?' 'A book about tigers, its quite good' Its a Level 2 I Can Read Book and boy, am I glad I bought that!

That Was The Week That Was ....

2008-04-27T09:44:00.003+01:00

It didn't get any better this week. Hettie woke me at 2am to say she felt sick, and hopped in bed with us. At 3am dh and I awoke to the sound of profuse vomiting. Dh muttered someones ill and nodded back off. Fortunately Hettie is old enough to run to the toilet now, but it meant I was jumping in and out of bed all night, wiping faces and giving sips of water. Until my half awake brain realised the sip of water was setting off another bout. However inbetween vomiting she was bright eyed and bushy tailed, wanting to discuss the books she's read and what are we doing for school work this week? 'Not sure at this precise moment I'll have a look tomorrow.'

So that meant the science museum trip was off. I was hoping we could leave later and catch the others up but she continued to be sick and then slept for 4 hours. I took the opportunity to ransack their bedrooms, sorry tidy up their bedrooms.

Saturday Issy was up at 6.30am talking, and talking, and then talking some more. She talked all day and then fell asleep at 10.30pm. She was still talking in her sleep, but at least she had an early night for a change. We all went to see Andrew Lloyd Webbers Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with nanny after lunch. I couldn't get parked anywhere so I dropped the girls and my mum off while Isobel protested loudly because she thought I might get lost.

Eventually I found a spot and caught up with them and she sat on my lap throughout the show, yes still talking. 'Its dark in here', 'Yes its always dark in the theatre, we've been before' I whispered, well shouted down her ear. 'Its too loud in here', 'Yes well it'll be lovely when the songs start' I whispered again. 'Ooh look thats Noah', 'No he's called Jacob', 'Well I'm calling him Noah, because he looks like Noah', 'Fine you call him Noah then, now lets listen' I hissed, sorry whispered. I felt her take a deep intake of breath, and on it went. Fortunately I couldn't hear her at all so just agreed with everything, trouble is I'm not sure what I've agreed to now. Then on came the King of Eygpt (Elvis for those of you who haven't seen the show) 'Ooh look there's Elvis', 'Yes he's good isn't he', 'I didn't know Elvis was in the bible, can we read the Elvis bit when we get in?', 'Elvis isn't in the bible.' 'No you've got that wrong mum, he must be he's up there' 'We'll talk about it later'. Inbetween all this I'm whispering bits of the story to Hettie so she can keep up with it all.

Hettie gave it 9/10 and said it was better then reading the bible, Isobel gave it 100/10, blasted out the Cd all afternoon, accompanied it with the recorder and looked through the bible for Elvis. I also got completely ripped off by the two of them for a t-shirt each, cap for Hettie and stuffed camel for Issy, a programme each and a Cd.

Hettie doing a hip hop version, the t-shirts were a little large but still they'll grow into them!

It was my dads birthday so we rushed home and tidied and got ready for my mum and dad to come round for chinese take away. Hettie had learnt to play Happy Birthday on the keyboard, OK a slower version than the more popular one but we all enjoyed it.

Of course the girls helped grandad unwrap his presents. We bought him My Island Story by HE Marshall, a nice hard back copy which he was delighted with.

So now its Sunday morning and the gang have gone off to Morrisons to get the weekly food shop. Usual mad morning. Hettie never knows what to wear, despite much instruction about looking out the window at the weather and in the drawers to pick something. Dh can't find any socks, Issy has dressed herself, but dh says he's not walking round Morrisons with her looking like that, so I persuade her to change thick woolly tights with summer shorts over the top, for a skirt and socks. Dh can't get in the bathroom because the girls are cleaning their teeth and I've told them to do it properly and they are! Can I write the shopping list in order of the aisles so they don't miss anything, where are the car keys?

They've gone now and I'm sitting here quietly drinking tea. Its calm and peaceful. I'm just bracing myself to find some sort of explaination as to why Elvis doesn't turn up in the bible.

The Return of the Dentist...

2008-04-24T19:38:00.003+01:00

It was D Day and I had to return to the dentist this afternoon.

But the girls went this morning. Hettie was fine with not a problem, this is the child who eats a tonne of chocolate, has no high calcium food and the one you have to nag to clean her teeth. Isobel, the child who eats lots of fruit and veg, has milk on her cereal every day, and cleans her teeth regularly had to have one filling replaced and needs four top milk teeth removed. Both the dentist and myself tried to gently persuade her to have an injection and have them out there and then. But she wasn't having any of that. So we have to go to the dental clinic for sedation and extraction. That's going to be a fun day!

I was re-injected, re-drilled and filled. It took 3/4 of an hour in total and left me with a newly throbbing face. I have to have a crown but she didn't want me to 'waste my money' in case I still need it removed, so I have to go back....again.

Issy didn't want to return to school this afternoon, obviously the filled tooth was much much worse when it was time to go back. So we gave up on school, home ed and anything else really for today.

Tomorrow Hettie and I are off to the science museum with some friends so I must go and rake through the cupboards for a packed lunch!

Whats going on this week?

2008-04-23T20:39:00.002+01:00

It was another mad day, well morning. I had everything planned to the minute to fit it all in. Started all wrong when Issy limped about yawning saying she couldn't go to school 'cos she hurt her knee and her leg felt funny. She fell over yesterday and has a minute cut on one knee. You really need a magnifying glass to see it. She was then up 'til gone midnight. So I rang and made our excuses - again!

By now I'm well behind schedule, and we had to print Hetties work out for our HE group's library display. We did have to do this because we hadn't done the book review either, which she must do for the children's competition on the SHE group. We had all the writing typed up but needed to add some pictures of tigers. They're raising money for endangered animals. I googled for some pics and this took forever while she ummed and aahed about which pictures to use. I feel like I looked at a million pics of tigers. I had to be in work for a meeting in 15 minutes and Issy and I were still in pjs.

I ended up half an hour late, but better late than never. This in turn meant we left late for the HE meeting. Not usually a problem, but I was the mum with the stuff for the wall display! It poured with rain, you know when you can barely see with the wipers on top speed, and so couldn't even 'hurry along' a little. However we eventually arrived and got sorted. The children had their book club meet, and we got a smashing display up, well we like it anyway.

We drifted home, fortunately I didn't need to return to work after and went to nanny P's for a cuppa and a sandwich. On returning home the girls decided to play shops. While my back was turned this involved getting play food and tea set out, a variety of toys for sale, my birthday cards, and a lot of stuff back out of the re-cycling bin.

It was a pretty good department store but by now it was 7pm and I was beginning to think I'm never going to get all this put away, but as they both clearly pointed out to me 'this is maths'. So that told me.

Just a quickie tonight ...

2008-04-22T23:09:00.002+01:00

'Cos I'm tired. I spent the morning trying to log in online to my bank account. When I finally rang she wanted details of transactions, and I explained I was trying to get to my bank account to look at that and basically she cut me off. Eventually I got in and then paid all the tax for our business for the year. Fortunately we'd earnt enough to pay it, so thats good.

Hettie in the meantime got bored and so got the modelling sand out. I think she threw it around the lounge.

Then I had to go and buy stationary stuff for work, so we rushed out before lunch and got that. then we came home and had lunch. Then we remembered the library has given us a huge display board for the home ed group and we should have done work on endangered animals, so we started that. Time to pick Issy up and by the time I'd chatted in the playground realised I had 10 mins to get home & iron Brownie uniforms and get them to the fire station for a trip. We now own 3 pairs of Brownie trousers. They put them on - No swop I screamed wrong trousers, No swop back even worse I screamed, - we need to label everything and Hettie needs bigger trousers. Rushed to drop them off and came home remembering I was having a staff meeting at my house. Mmm sand everywhere, in fact it looked like a beach!!

Hoovered, picked up girls, got their tea and had the meeting. Dh arrived home at 10.30pm tonight so I didn't moan at him about anything tonight!

I've stuck to the diet for two whole days now. I'm starving but I feel thin already!

One of those Monday mornings....

2008-04-21T21:14:00.003+01:00

The weekend wasn't too bad.

On Saturday I spent a lot of computer time on our local HE group uploading links and re-arranging the yahoo group files section, organising bits and pieces. Dh took Hettie to buy a spray suit for sailing, to go over the wet suit and all the other kit she has. No sailing though because it was the wrong type of wind - sounds like a British Rail announcement! Oh and I had a little play about with my blog.

I decided the time to diet is way over due, must be my age! Plus I have a ladies day thing to go to in June and I refuse to buy a new dress when I have a lovely one, I've only worn once because now it doesn't fit. So I planned Week 1 weight watchers. I've only got 12lbs to loose, well 19lbs would be fantastic but lets be realistic here. I started today - for some reason I have to start a diet on a Monday - and yes I'm starving, possibly because I've used some points for a glass of wine tonight instead of food.

Sunday the wind was 'OK' for sailing, but it was really cold, so Hettie extremely well wrapped went off sailing with dh, his mate and brother and her cousins. She did quite well for a first trip although apparantly it was a bit of a rough ride. Still she wants to go again, so thats good as dh has bought her a full kit! Issy and I stayed in the warm, cleaned through and generally didn't do too much.

So one of those Monday mornings. We were up late to start with, as usual Issy wasn't asleep 'til gone 11.30pm which meant we were both tired this morning (I know Ruth, sounds like an early night for you LOL!) This led to her stuffing toast in her mouth as we ran out the door. Dh forgot to sign a cheque for dinner money and I didn't have any money. The car was as dead as a dodo - nothing. No money so we couldn't jump a cab, or even a bus. Dh miles away. Fortunately my friend rushed around to collect her. She now has a late mark against her name - do I care? No not really. My diet started so I felt hungry, even though I wouldn't normally. Hettie is having what we call a 'dyslexic' week, meaning maths was impossible, handwriting long and laborious.

But Hettie and I have started reading The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente which is great and we're both really enjoying it. It's about an artists apprentice in Renaissence Florence and led nicely to us spending an afternoon looking at Leonardo Da Vinci (not very Walsorf I know). So we read a lot of that today. We also started A Child's History of the World by Hillyer which Hettie liked so that was successful. So although we struggled with our Waldorf main lesson, we did get it completed and spent the afternoon with Leonardo and our Book of Time which seemed to click with her once a timeline was laid out in front of her and she was actually filling it in herself.

Still 'tomorrow is another day' and I think we'll skip maths etc and just read and carry on with Leonardo! Hopefully the car will start.

Birthdays Come and Go...

2008-04-17T19:52:00.003+01:00

I had a biggy birthday yesterday - 40!! Everyone wanted to make a fuss, which was nice. I woke up to some lovely pressies. Two chickens from my girls, now named Henrietta & Isobel, in lieu of the real ones (chickens not daughters). Think dh is hoping these will do!!

Dh has arranged for us to stay in a lovely hotel in the middle of Bath, in September, for the Jane Austin Festival My mum is having the girls for 4 whole days while we're away. Aren't I lucky!! Don't think we'll go the whole hog and dress up, although a real regency ball at the assembly rooms sounds very tempting. They also have a costume promenade you can take part in.

We went to my mum's for dinner with all the family. My friend S and her dh came as well later in the evening, which was lovely. All over now!

Home school as usual though. We did some work looking at temperatures from a solar power kit Hettie has, fortunately the sun was shining.

And we got on with our buildings and shelters work, Hettie wanted to put something about Teepees in.

We've moved onto house building with Hettie drawing her dream house and a floor plan neatly into her main book. We also had a look at architects and what they do. Our Singapore maths (not very Waldorf) is going well and giving us some structure on that front. She's moving pretty quickly through the book and I can see some progress at last, although we're still behind.

We still start our mornings ball throwing and times tables, followed by verse or tongue twisters. Then do 20 minutes maths work before our main lesson work. I've found she's wanting to do more in the afternoons now so we've added the solar power it which should last a couple of weeks or longer if the sun goes in! We finally finished On The Banks of Plum Creek Laura Ingalls Wilder today and both girls have listened to Stig of the Dump on audio CD.

I'm off to read my new 'How To Raise Chickens For Eggs & Slaughter' or some such title, which my sister bought me - and no I don't intend to slaughter any of mine!!

At last ...

2008-04-15T19:04:00.003+01:00

... I managed to drink several cups of tea without my face falling off. Ok bit of an exageration but that's what it felt like. I still can't close my mouth properly, dh pointed out this is an ongoing problem - ha ha. Anyway hopefully the antibiotics have kicked in at last.

Not much to talk about today, cos I've been to work. The girls have been to Brownies and Issy has her Brownie Promise to learn. Not sure she'll actually stand up and do the promise but we'll just have to see.

Pop over to Thea's and have a look at her lovely new Chinchilla babies - 3 this time, wow!

So here's a pic of where we're staying in August. I can't wait.

More than....

2008-04-14T22:59:00.002+01:00

...one child is more tricky! Well when it comes to home ed that is. My friend came today and disappeared upstairs with her OU assessment to complete, leaving me with two extras. As this was a bit of a last minute arrangement we weren't very organised but muddled through Ok. Hettie got going with her buildings & shelters work. She wanted to include Native American teepees before going onto housebuilding. A (11) and F (14) joined in and drew and wrote about teepees, so Hettie finished hers as well. F decided to start a chapter from Galore Park English and A decided she would do the same. So as they could pretty much get on with that, Hettie and I started her Singapore maths. More on that in a minute. So I was jumping from table to table a bit, with 'can you just explain', 'I can't quite get this' etc etc, but we all managed to get a mornings work in and after lunch they disappeared off into the woods until it rained. So then we rounded the day off with popcorn and TV. Those of you I know who HE 3+ kids, I take my hat off to you ladies!

My Sonlight order arrived this morning, four days from shipping to arrival, pretty impressive. We had some nice reading books, timeline books, a book about Leonardo da Vinci, A Child's History of the World, Maps & Globes and Singapore maths. So coming back to the maths, we've started at 1b which is way below where Hettie should be but there's not much point ploughing on until she's got it and it will be a good starting point for Isobel. She completed the first 5 exercises fairly easily although less than, fewer etc still cause problems.

I love Waldorf maths but we really need something to back it up, and more regularly. I struggle a bit myself with maths so find it a bit difficult to teach without something solid to work through. We'll give it a go and see how we get on.

Isobel went back to school reluctantly this morning only to find her teacher who has been off sick has in fact not returned, although the children were told she would be before the break. She didn't have a particularly good day either.

As for the tooth, despite having taken 3 days antibiotics it's still driving me mad. Thanks C for the tip about Anbesol which is helping and alongside pain killers & hot water bottles I'm getting along. If its no better tomorrow I'll have to have another emergency appointment - no doubt having to pay an extortionate price for the privilege of going back early!

Teeth...or rather a tooth!

2008-04-11T20:12:00.002+01:00

The last couple of days I've had a niggling toothache, which by lunch time today turned into full blown facial agony. So I had to ring round for an emergency appointment, 'cos we can't get an NHS dentist where we live. Fortunately I struck lucky and found one. Not only that they took the girls on the NHS list although I had to pay £90 just to be seen! So no more ordering of anything because the treatment followed which was Part 1 of root canal. Part 2 follows in a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately it's also infected so I then had to pay for a prescription as well for antibiotics. Which leads me to how I feel now - which is horrible with a fat face following 3 injections. However the girls have now gone off to bed so at least its peaceful at last. Obviously today they decided they fancied doing some 'work'. Isobel worked on a spelling book and Hettie carried on planning her dream house ready to copy into her main book next week. They played with modelling sand for quite a while although nothing in particular was built.

Not so lucky on the bird box front as a big crow landed and started hopping about, and then he went and stuck his head in a starling nest on next doors roof. Neither blue tits or starlings have been seen since. Oh well, at least we had some interest.

We've Got Guests...

2008-04-10T20:19:00.004+01:00

Much to our great excitement we've had a pair blue tits flying in and out of our bird box. Their little beaks all full of moss and twigs. I'm not sure whether they'll stay to lay their eggs or not, but at least we've had some interest. To be honest I've never really watched birds closely in a bird box. They seem to be really busy from early morning til lunchtime, and then disappear for the afternoon. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if they return tomorrow.

Pics are a bit blurry I had to take them through the kitchen window.

We haven't done much else today, normal housework stuff and basically lazing about. Hettie started drawing up some rough sketches of her dream house for her buildings and shelters block next week, and made a list of which workmen she thought were needed to build a house. She had her piano lesson and is getting on really well. She's itching to start violin as well, but I'm holding out at the moment - 1) cost, 2) we've got a pretty full week anyway and 3) we'll probably need ear plugs when she practices!!

Issy has played in her room all day which meant it was pretty quiet, but her room looks like a bombs gone off in there. Still you can't have it all ways.

The Secret Six ....

2008-04-08T18:45:00.005+01:00

We had some friends over for the day. Six kids all ran straight out in the garden and down into the woods, taking the dog with them. Reminded me a bit of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven stories. The dog made seven! The weather stayed fine and they only reappeared for lunch and later in the afternoon for drinks and crisps. I didn't manage to get any pics, but the day ended with a lot of muddy kids and one extremely muddy dog, who had been rolling in the ditch - Yuk!! My friend's kids were extremely well behaved and a pleasure to have round.

Mum's? Well we do what we do best, sit round drinking tea, feed kids, water kids, discuss HE and various resources and curriculums, good bits and bad bits, feed kids, water kids, wipe dog, pass on some life stories and shared future dreams, gather kids up for home time, wipe dog. Make a pile of things they left behind.

Dh came home at the tail end and was amazed how tidy it was - well they were outside all day, and put the bird box up, which maybe a bit late for this year but never mind, at least its up. We may be lucky.

Its outside the kitchen window so we can keep an eye out!

For those of you who were interested, here's our 'school' room. We don't actually sit out there to work all the time, often prefering the lounge, and technically it was a play room when the girls were younger. Then it very nearly became a dining room, but then fate intervened and it became a school room.

Off to mop the floors, get two grubby girls in the bath, so I can settle down with a glass of wine and watch 'How to look good naked', new series tonight.

PJ Day ...

2008-04-07T22:30:00.003+01:00

Ok it was a lazy PJ day today. But when the postman gave me a funny look (when he delivered a parcel - guess what books!) as if to say it's nearly lunchtime, we got going. Well we got dressed. I looked at my new books, Issy played on the computer and Hettie watched Animal Planet.

Books were great because they are for Hettie's Waldorf Grade 4 and I really love our Waldorf curriculum, and I need them to plan her work. I got Roy Wilkinson's The Human Being and The Animal World, and The Norse Stories and Their Significance, and Eric Fairmans Path of Discovery Grade 4, all from Bob and Nancy's. I think I'm beginning to get my head around her Man and Animal block now, which is a bit daunting when you first look at it.

I printed out their Nature Detectives weekly challenge which is all about ladybirds and they settled down to it. I sorted the washing & done some ironing.

I've put an order in with Sonlight, but decided against buying a Core for Issy for the time being. So I ordered some Readers, Read Alouds, Singapore maths, Time Line books and another markable map. I've got 8 weeks of Issy's curriculum completed now and am ploughing on.

So far we have Issy:
6 week block on Animal Fables and Legends
6 week block on Saints and Hero's
Individual readers

Hettie:
6 week block on Man and Animal
6 week block on Norse Myths
Individual readers

Both together:
Daily verse/poem/tongue twisters
Singapore Maths
Grammar and Spelling using Galore Park Junior English Book 1 and Grammar Ace
History for both using Galore Park History Book 1 and HE Marshall Our Island Story
Read Alouds for both
Art/Craft/Cooking for both
Science/Nature Study for both

Hettie has an option to miss the history bit if she wants, because she's doing fine with Waldorf and its not part of her curriculum. I think she'll probably listen in & skip activities!! Sounds good in theory LOL.

The weather remains what can only be described as bizarre, snowing and freezing this morning, sun shining and roasting by 3pm. I went to work this afternoon which meant we missed our local HE trip to the theatre for a back stage tour, but we've friends coming for the day tomorrow or next day, so that will make up for it!

All Dressed Up & Nowhere To Go ....

2008-04-06T20:29:00.004+01:00

Oh dear, all kitted out with her new stuff, and ready for her first sailing lesson with dad.

We got up to snow! One day we're sitting on the deck in the sun and then the next it snows. It was pretty steady all morning, so that put an end to the sailing. Unfortunately because it's tidal they won't be able to go next weekend either. Mind you, I don't think Hettie fancied going out in the cold anyway, so she didn't put up much resistance to the change of plans.

So dh and I decided as we had a day free (at last) we would have a good reorganise of clutter and cupboards. My in-laws had a sideboard going free, so we wrestled that into the 'school' room and I sorted it all out, actually it wasn't too untidy so it didn't take long. We then decided our bedroom was desperately in need of help, it was becoming a storeroom. I haven't got any pics but boy is it tidy now!! Much easier with two on the job. Dh took all the old stuff for recycling at the tip, several bin bags full. In the middle of the mess my niece came with her boyfriend and took the girls to the cinema.

One built in cupboard was so full of old sheets, duvet covers etc we couldn't actually get in what we use. The downstairs loo has been turned back into a cupboard for the time being - us girls don't use it anyway - and so the ironing board etc has now gone from my room, at last. The hoover has a home!

And I have two nice empty shelves to put on all the curriculum stuff I'm planning, most of which is in a heap in the front lounge -

I'll take another pic when it's all organised & labelled.

So I'm hoping to keep going now. The kitchen cupboards are pretty much organised but need a clean out & tidy, and I've got the bathroom to clean, and of course that never ending washing and ironing pile.........

Two Front Teeth....

2008-04-03T23:07:00.002+01:00

Issy is missing them. I haven't got a picture yet, but she does look odd somehow. The bottom ones fell out but not in the normal manner, they leant further and further forward and the new teeth were nearly fully grown behind them. So she had 4 bottom teeth for some time.

Last night at 11.30pm she came down to say a top one had fallen out, she 'had been asleep but suddenly woke up when it fell out' - likely story! Still at least its school holidays. At 10pm tonight the other one came out. Anyway she doesn't like the whole business of teeth falling out and it's made her feel quite ill. Added to that she's vain and I had to sit with her until 11pm tonight when she finally plucked up the courage to look in the mirror. I'm now waiting for her to go to sleep so the tooth fairy can visit.

She has got odd teeth - she was born with five, all in a row. They came through four or six at a time and she never moaned once. Hettie on the other hand, screamed and created for about 3 months prior to every single one. It was a long painful process.

Other than teeth, we've had a pretty lazy day. Girls managed to complete their jobs again and Hettie had piano this afternoon. Dh was home early and mowed the new grass - first cut. It seems fine though, all growing nicely, no patches anywhere. The dog rolled and rolled on it !! I'm ploughing on with Issy's curriculum, working on a six week block of Saints & Hero's. There's some terrific stories, we're going to enjoy that block.

We're off to the country park with some friends tomorrow, so hopefully the lovely sunny weather will hold.

Nice day today...

2008-04-02T20:35:00.002+01:00

We all went to a friends today for lunch. All the kids played together and had a great time, luckily enough it was warm Spring weather and they got to play in the garden. They all ate lunch watching a DVD about tigers which meant mum's got to chat. So it was a nice leisurely day. I took the Galore Park books and everyone agreed they look good and were reasonably priced. Hettie's gone off to fencing and Issy is playing with her Polly Pockets. She's particularly looking for a miniscule yellow shoe, which I think has possibly been hoovered!

So not many chores done today, and I've run out of washing powder, so shops early tomorrow. I figure we'll do extra, and early, tomorrow to catch up.

I'm beginning to peruse Grade 4 Waldorf for Hettie and trying to sort it out in my head. I think she's going to really enjoy it though, not as practical as this year but a bit more of a mix. I'd like to keep the local geography block for this time next year so we can get out and about.

I'm also pondering on a summer project for them both to do this year. They're both still in 'it's school holiday' mode, but will end up 'bored' if we don't do something. Hopefully we will have our veg growing and garden to tend for some of the time at least. If we can get onto the grass we can sit about and read some good books as well, which is just what hot summer days are for!

Day Two of Chores....

2008-04-01T22:49:00.002+01:00

Well it hasn't worn of yet. Bedrooms have been tidied, playroom has been tidied, tables set, cleared and wiped, dishwasher emptied and oh boy what a difference. I taught Hettie to iron today. She got her clothes out of the tumble and folded them, and carried them up to either put away or iron. She ironed in more creases than she ironed out, but in the end we got there. I think she was quite chuffed with herself, but her arm was aching LOL!! Not sure they've both quite realised they've got more washing to do tomorrow before we go out to our friends for lunch.

Mrs D's blog made me laugh today, which was basically about doing housework and being unorganised. But although I thought she may have popped to our house like a fly on the wall I took some of her advice, i.e. get on with it! So we are tidied and fairly clean, washing is nearly at the bottom of the basket, sorry huge heap. Just the ironing to tackle now! I even did some of that today.

The girls painted, and cleared away after, and then they both helped make lunch. Hettie spent the afternoon building lego and Issy practiced her dance. I managed to get 6 weeks of Issy's curriculum completed.

I've based the language arts on Grade 2 Waldorf and for the first 6 weeks we're going to cover Aesops Fables, Lessings Fables, African Fables and some Beatrix Potter tales (not strictly Waldorf). The plan is that for this 6 week block Hettie will complete her Man & Animal work. I'm waiting for some books from Bob & Nancy's to arrive before I can plan this. I plan a shared block on Native Americans, and then Hettie will have a block on local geography & history. I'm deciding whether to let Issy join in here or do her own block. No doubt it'll come together eventually!

Another afternoon free!

2008-03-31T21:20:00.003+01:00

Well today my niece took the girls for the afternoon. Issy is doing a little dance for her theatre group (Hettie doesn't want to get up in front of everyone) and my niece is a dancer so she helped Issy plan a little ballet dance. So I found myself alone again. What did I do, well tidied and mopped through and sorted out business tax to pay, all boring but necessary, and I did get to do it all in peace. I also managed half an hour with a cuppa and rubbish tv.

This morning I got our new reward charts out. I think really it's way past time they start helping around the house and really they should do it without reward. But I figure I buy comics and dvds etc anyway and give Hettie some pocket money for helping at the weekend - so pocket money is now the reward which they can then spend on what they want. Or that's the theory!

They started with great gusto today!

I haven't taught Hettie to iron yet - that's for tomorrow.

Issy couldn't do the shoe rack, 'cos tbh she needs some help to start.

Surprisingly enough they were quite knowledgable about how to use the washing machine and sort their darks and lights. Mmm I think we could have started this some time ago!

We're on Spring Holiday so no official HE work today. A reader I ordered for September schedule was read by Issy about 10 mins after it came through the door! I need to go up a Grade or two for her, and hide the readers as they arrive. My Galore Park books (history & english) also arrived and I'm fairly pleased with them. So I may need to have a look at my curriculum again and tweak. Hettie will probably want to use them as well, 'cos dh spent some time reading them and they usually like the same type of layout when it comes to books.

I worked yesterday and dh & girls did the weekly shop. They made dinner, chicken, garlic bread, new potatoes and salad. It was an interesting salad, the girls did all the chopping and included carrots, about an inch thick, some apple and quite a few other things.

Dh actually sat with me for a while and looked at Sonlight and other stuff I'm dithering about. And looked at the curriculum I'm devising. So that was helpful. Surprisingly enough although he would have hated something like Sonlight he thought it looked good for Isobel, and didn't blanch at the cost LOL.

I'm off to look at my new books!

Alone at last .....

2008-03-29T09:41:00.003Z

Its very quiet here, everyone is out. The girls are at theatre group for 3 1/2 hours (well worth the money) and dh is working at my mum & dad's. Therefore I have allowed myself 1 hour computer time and 2 1/2 hours housework - I really need a day for housework! This afternoon I plan to have a little rearrange of bookshelves etc. Unusually for me I was awake with the lark today at 7am, discussing re-arranging bookshelves - dh unkindly said could I shut up and go back to my normal pattern of sleep! Think I was disturbing his quiet morning time!

We went to the theatre yesterday with some of the Home Ed group to see the Birmingham Stage Company's version of Roald Dahl's Danny Champion of the World. It was brilliant and we all enjoyed it. They also bring the Horrible Historys to the stage as well, which are also excellent. Worth checking out if they're in your area.

We (dh & I) have decided that Issy needs to finish her last term if possible, although she's finding it hard going at the moment. But her regular teacher will be back after the Spring break and there's lots of fun things this term, so it will be a shame if she misses all the best bits. That said I am busy working on a curriculum for her now just in case we have a change of plan! So tune out now if you're not interested in home ed curriculums.

I keep going back to look at Sonlight. My main concern is it looks like a huge amount of work and is fairly expensive if we're not going to end up using it. I'm also torn at not wanting to leave our lovely Waldorf behind. But Issy likes to work, probably late at night - at 11pm last night she told me she was 'inspired' to write a story. I need a plan to fit both girls in or I can see us getting no-where, so I've been making up my own which as you will see I've 'borrowed' heavily from others.

Each will have a folder with plans and activities. Issy will probably be able to do a lot of hers with less support than Hettie needs. So in theory she can get on with at least some of it, allowing me to carry on with Waldorf with Hettie. Hettie then will have her folder so when I'm with Issy she at least can pick something to be getting on with. Hettie doesn't need to do the history work if she doesn't want to as long as she does her normal main lesson work. I'm using Grade 2 Waldorf for Issy's main work (lets face it I have most of the curriculum already). Its a 3 day schedule with 1 day that's for Home Ed group activities, and can be used as a 'catch up' day if needed. Leaving me 1 day and the weekends to go to work.

Main idea is morning verse, maths, read alouds will be together, as will arts/crafts in the afternoon. I'll swop history for geography every few weeks or so when I get that far, and the plan is to have week blocks for various festivals throughout the year.

Ok so thats the theory. Will it work, who knows? but I'm thinking that if I say this is what we do they'll get on with it. Experience shows me if I say what do you want to do they amble about dithering, I dither and we get nothing done. Oh well I've had a nice time buying lovely folders, coloured stickers etc etc. Now for housework (groan) and C another new book just arrived throuh the door LOL

Happy Birthday Grandad!

2008-03-26T22:41:00.004Z

Happy birthday Grandad Tom (dad), 80 something years young (we won't reveal your age)
Love us xxx

A Quiet Day...

2008-03-25T21:41:00.003Z

Probably because Issy was back at school LOL. Hettie was really keen this morning to do some work. So we had a look at some times tables - again! Still on 3's but we're getting there. Then we carried on with our measurements block which I'm hoping to get finished up this week. We looked at a mile:

We did laugh and say this was a very thin, tall Roman pacing out his mile! Then Hettie wanted to finish building a Knex car she had started and do some colouring (Scooby Doo, not very Waldorf!) I think we were just enjoying the quiet. We carried on reading On The Banks of Plum Creek which seems to be taking forever to finish, after lunch.

I spent the spare hours working on a curriculum for Isobel. I'm trying to mix Waldorf with worksheets and a Sonlight approach. I know sounds mad but it is coming together. I've ordered some readers and read alouds from Amazon and am going to get a few bits from Sonlight. I'm thinking that Hettie liked lots of worksheets when she first was home ed and it gradually wore off and it could go either way with Issy, so I don't want to spend lots of money until I'm pretty sure of how she is. Books don't count by the way when it comes to spending, you can never have too many books!

I took a leaf out of L's book and tried to cut down on internet hours today and even got some ironing done! Good plan to self limit internet time.

The girls had their Brownie fete tonight, a very small affair, but they had all worked hard to get stalls sorted out. I did buy about 8 books for 10p each, all on my read aloud list!

Oh and yesterday I spent cleaning through again post party and wiping lots of smears of chocolate off door frames etc and realising its not a good idea to leave a chocolate fountain 'til the morning to clean 'cos the chocolate is rock solid!!!

At Last ...

2008-03-23T23:33:00.005Z

... we had some snow! Not much compared to some places around the globe but enough to make a snow angel, which was Issy's dearest wish! The girls jumped up to see what the Easter bunny had delivered and Issy promptly got dressed and rushed outside. Dh followed and as it fell more Hettie got her act together and joined them. All went well until the cold and wet suddenly hit Issy and she rushed back in crying because she was 'stinging'. Hot baths for all !!

I tidied and cleaned through before our family turned up to spend the afternoon and as it happens the evening as well, 'cos no-one went home until 10pm. Fortunately dh's cousin and SIL bought all the food. We set the chocolate fountain up later and they all stuffed themselves full of more chocolate - well it is Easter. The snow was gone by this afternoon! The children all played nicely together and the house looks vaguely like a bomb has gone off, but as the adults polished off quite a large amount of wine, I'm not too bothered.

Mmmm Yum Yum !!

J may have been the smallest but he ate the most marsh mallows!

My BIL suddenly became a maestro!

Happy Easter!