Nature Detectives

Chloe has spent much of the last 3 days exploring the Nature Detectives website.

In particular she has enjoyed the Badger Wood exercise, printing off a front page of a local newspaper that she had helped to produce by writing a paragraph for inclusion.

Falling Mildly in Love

On Sunday I briefly interrupted television viewing to give C a list of the 5 things I wanted her to do that day. I stressed that I didn't mind what order they were done in but I did want all of them done that day.

-Bath / hair detangle.
-Guitar.
-History - put in bag and ensure any homework done.
-Nezert Maths.
-Drama - write anything but it must be funny.

The Nezert was done first (by the time she stopped watching television mid afternoon) as she knows it required less effort than anything else. However, the easy addition page she made lots of silly mistakes on so had to come back and try again. The long division, the harder page, was finished with no mistakes :-).

I was getting jittery as the day wore on into evening, suggesting three times if she wanted to do the bath/hair detangle I was available then to assist/do it but she never took me up on my offer, even though I'd reminded her how matted her hair was from swimming at CP and that after swimming tomorrow it would be next to impossible and I wanted to do it on Sunday or I wouldn't do it at all.

By evening she'd declared history homework as optional and she didn't need to take anything with her, not done any guitar (so over a week of not practising = very sore fingers when she next picks it up), hadn't gone anywhere near the bathroom but had decided to have first stab at her drama homework (as blogged previously).

I gathered swim things, tennis things and packed breakfast and lunch things (M had made cheese scones and I cooked some sausages plus other bits and pieces from the cupboard). I communicated my frustration with C and reminded her that I would have nothing to do with her hair given the state it was in.

Monday

At the swimming pool whilst Chloe, Ruby and Beccy were getting dried, I was expanding on my opinion of Centerparcs, when a lady in a cubicle joined in and said they'd had their bikes stolen at Elveden.

Got the girls to history where they did some work on Babylonians and Assyrians. Quite funny in the car coming back when the girls are telling me about their session and arguing about what was or what was not said. C said someone had fallen mildly in love and R disputed this saying someone had fallen deeply in love. C gets very cross and insisted she was right - tiredness and hunger means arguing with her is pointless. She was insistent it wasn't deeply as the word didn't start with "d" but "m". Later over dinner, discussing this exchange in a calm measured manner, Marcus suggested the word may have been "madly". C rather grudgingly conceded it could have been madly - but it definitely wasn't deeply! LOL.

Dropped R home and we went to the supermarket on the way to tennis. After tennis club night she came in seething saying she's the only girl, the boys are all older than her and they make comments and sigh dramatically when she misses a shot. She also said being home educated doesn't help. I suspect it's one of those situations where any difference this boy (11) is going to pick up on and make her feel bad about herself. Jenny, who usually runs this session, wasn't able to and her younger sister was doing it instead. Jenny doesn't let the comments build up to that level. I think I must investigate other clubs and see if we can find more 9yo female tennis players.

Tuesday was another early start with a two hour round trip to get M to a train station. Did manage to fly by my friend's house to drop off presents for her little girl left from when we failed to get there before Christmas due to the snow and ice. All this time the bag has been glaring at me from its corner in the hallway reminding me that I am an abject failure so was glad to have an opportunity to drop it by. C was pleased too as although my friend wasn't there, Dan (I'm now absently wondering if he'd be able to get into Nic's blog? Always wonder who the Dan in "Your name's not Dan and you're not getting in!" refers to) was, so she received a bag of pressies in exchange. :-). Made her happier about 2 hours in the car and the 6am start :-).

Had C not had Drama, we would have stayed in the area, visiting a museum or a friend, waiting until school finished to have a proper catch up and wait until M's train came in. Unfortunately, Drama was too important to miss so home we trotted to have 50 minutes to finish her homework before heading back out again.

This is her final version she took. We ran out of time to do more to it. She was 15 minutes late as it was (which earned her a lecture about punctuality and keeping on time and how rude and disruptive it is to arrive at things late - I then started having a go about the state of the birds nest on her head but stopped myself). She's a perfectionist. A very good manager said to me about my reports, "better not perfect and on time than perfect but too late". She will have the same struggle I fear.

Squeaky, Squeaky, Squeak, Squeaky, Squeaky went the ball as Eel (who’s real name was Eelea but was called Eel for short) bounced up and down on the wooden floor boards, as she played on the computer. Then quite suddenly she shot up out of the roof up though the sky, went around the moon 50 times, then, before she had a chance to fall to earth, a strange old wrinkly hand grabbed her with a tight grip and pulled her up. Meanwhile Eel’s parents were getting very worried as they looked up at the hole that their daughter had gone through. Their bottom lips were trembling as they looked up at the hole. “She’ll be back soon”, said Sedrik (Eel’s father), “she’s probably gone to tea with the girl next door.” (He was not very bright as you can probably tell). “I don’t think she would have done that”, said Mable (Eel’s mother (she was a tiny bit brighter than Sedrik)), “perhaps she went to have a chat with aliens”. (Ok maybe they are both as dumb but she was not far off) .

“WHO ON MOON ARE YOU?” asked the very scared but intelligent Eelea as she was put down by an old wrinkly man. “I”, he said, “ am the man on the moon”. “I know you’re the man on the moon because I’m here on the moon but what’s your name?” Said Eelea. “The man on the moon” he responded. “Ok.” Said Eelea. “My name is Eelea. What’s your name?” “Umm, I don’t know” said the man on the moon. “I don’t know. That’s a strange name” said Eelea. “No what I mean is, I don’t know what my name is; I would like one though” he said sadly. “How’s about I give you one?” said Eelea. “That’s a great idea” said the man on the moon (whose name was soon to be changed). “Let’s see”, said Eelea, “Dominic?” “No” “Tom?” “NO” “James?” “No - I want to have a name to-do with my surroundings”. “Ok” said Eelea “How about sunny?” “That’s a nice name” said the man on the moon (whose name now was Sunny). “I really should be going now” said Eelea. “No please don’t go!” (Sunny is down on his knees begging Eelea not to go). “I have to go” said Eelea. “Why do you HAVE to go?” said Sunny? “Because my parents will be worried and it’s 3 minutes till dinner time AND it’s roast beef tonight” (Eelea shuts her eyes and dreams of Yorkshire puddings and broccoli . . .
“Eelea Eelea EeleaEelea!!”said Sunny. “W W What Yes?” (she said in quite an awake but sad voice). “You’re going?” said Sunny. “Yes I am” said Eelea. “I don’t want you to go” said Sunny, “Can I come with you?” “I suppose”, said Eelea, “We have an annexe, which is a side home at the side of your house”. “That’s a brilliant idea” said Sunny.
And so that is how the story ends the end.

I have a cousin named Illia. I wonder if that was a conscious or unconscious memory? Which reminds me, she wants to do family tree project.

This piece of writing (under time constraints = stress) did produce a spelling query:

C "How do you spell haft?"
M "Spell what?"
C "haft"
M "as in?"
C "I haft to go".
M "h a v e"
C "NO! NOT HAVE. HAFT?"
M "There's no such word as haft. It's have. I have to go."
C "Why do we say "haft" then?"
M "We don't. It's just your ears hear the "t" at the beginning of "to"".

Mutter, mutter, grumble. I slugged tea. Too much shouting too early.

Though it turns out (thanks to Daddybean!) that haft is a word. It means the handle of a weapon or tool. And Katy pointed out that it should have been "hafta", "I hafta go".

Drama ended up not being successful. They have decided not to do the play they've been working on as it is too difficult to manage with erratic attendances (such as ourselves having last week off). Instead for now they are writing plays and putting them together - all very good stuff and certainly C would not have written the Eelea piece without being told it was her drama homework. The drama teacher told me afterwards that C had said she didn't want to do writing, but that it was okay as she could tell her story into a dictaphone instead. I'm wondering if C was expressing more dissatisfaction with the change in what she is expected to do. She doesn't deal well with sudden changes of plan or a plan changing from what she had expected. Outcome is that she doesn't want to go to drama next week. This is tricky as the numbers are low and although I have said to B that I want my Tuesdays back as it is very useful to have a full empty day to go avisiting friends or museums, I did say I would keep going until numbers got up to keep it running. So now I feel majorly guilty about putting it in a less viable position.

We then went into town to take M's work coat to the dry cleaners as he (and someone else) had been sprayed with beer in London, discovered Starbucks seem to have discontinued the only panini C will eat, bought a pasty from the new Pasty store to eat on the bench in the market square, for C to have a fit about the pigeons, such that a man tutted about her behaviour before walking away in disgust. She is too big to behave like a toddler in public. At home it's one thing but when out I would like her to learn to demonstrate some restraint. We've had yet another discussion about coping strategies.

So that was just great.

Home and C went on the computer. I popped my head around the doorway and reminded her that she doesn't like being alone on a separate floor of the house when it is dark so she should think about doing her hair sooner rather than later. About 10 minutes later she came into the kitchen (that I was clearing) and growled that we could go do her hair now if we have to. However, I had not forgotten Sunday so quickly and restated that she would have to do her hair this time on her own as I knew it would have been easier on the Sunday and she hadn't let me do it when it was easier so I was hardly inclined to want to do it when it was even more matted after another couple of days.

She was cross with me as I wasn't doing what she wanted (I empathised but held firm) so she stomped upstairs and I didn't hear anything for ages (turned out she'd fallen asleep). I finished clearing the kitchen and moved onto the hallway as I wanted to clean the floors too. (Kitchen and hallway both have slate floors and get done at the same time). I then heard some movement and heard water being run into the bath.

After quite a bit of time I decided to check progress and offer sustenance. It was also growing dark so I though I'd draw curtains, turn all lights on so she wouldn't notice once the sun set that she was alone on a floor in the dark. She'd done half her head and was pleased to be offered milk and her sweets bought earlier. Her bath had also got cold so we topped up with hot water. I then left her to continue, providing the radio for company whilst I went and vacuumed.

She did her hair brilliantly and I have a clean kitchen and hallway :-).

Marcus had offered to get a bus to a nearer town from the train station so we only had a 1 hour round trip to bring him home than another 2 hour round trip.

In the car we discussed the case of the two brothers sentenced for brutally attacking two boys in South Yorkshire. She knows my sister works with children that have committed horrible crimes and that she really enjoys her work. I know I could never do it. Chloe and I discussed how I don't think babies are born anything other than good, so their upbringing and environment influences how they turn out. To that degree I can accept that they are victims themselves, of inadequate and abusive parenting. Obviously this doesn't excuse what they did, nor do I think they have been harshly sentenced, but they didn't have the same start in life as Chloe or her friends have had, they were not offered the same opportunities and to that end I feel sorry for them.

Was an opportune moment to reinforce the message that you should never go with people you don't know, even if they are children of your own age or even younger, as the victims had been lured away from a safe public playground by the promise of seeing a fox. I don't want her to be scared of her world, but at the same time I do want her to be aware of how to protect herself as far as is possible. They run Crucial Crew workshops nearby that may be a good idea for her to do.

Despite it all, I actually felt as if Tuesday had been a good day - probably because I'd got a tidy kitchen. I am happier when the house is in a better state of order.

Drama Homework - First Draft

Squeaky Squeaky Squeak Squeaky Squeaky went the boll as eel (who’s real name was Eelea but was called eel for short) bounced up and done on the wooden floor boards, as she played on the computer, then quite suddenly she shot up out of the roof up though the sky went round the moon 50 times but then before she had a chance to fall to earth a strange old wrinkly hand grabbed her with a tight grip and pulled her up. Meanwhile eel’s parents were getting very worried as they looked up at the hole that there daughter had gone through there bottom lips were trembling as they looked up at the hole she’ll be back soon said Sedrik (eel’s farther) she’s probably gone to tea with the girl next door (as he was not very bright as you can probably tell) I don’t think she would have done that (she was a tiny bit brighter than Sedrik) said Mable (eel’s mother) perhaps she went to have a chat with aliens (ok maybe they are both as dume) but she was not far of . WHO ON MOON ARE YOU? said the very scared but intelligent Eelea as she was put down by an old wrinkly man “I” he said am the man on the moon I know you’re the man on the moon because I’m here on the moon but what’s your name said Eelea the man on the moon he said I know you’re the man on the moon but what’s your name, the man on the moon he responded. Ok said Eelea my name is Eelea what’s your name? Umm I don’t know said the man on the moon I don’t know that’s a strange name said Eelea . No what I mean is I don’t know what my name is; I would like one though he said sadly. Haws about I give you one said Eelea. That’s a great idea said the man on the moon (whose name was soon too be changed) let’s see said Elea Dominic? No Ira? NO James? No I want to have a name to-do with my surroundings ok said Eelea haw about Sunny that’s a nice name said the man on the moon(whose name now was Sunny)

Trying not to be grumbly

because Latinetc had changed dates from previously agreed and that was why I couldn't be there for another excellent sounding day. :-(. This week's session should have been last week. Grump. Grump. Grump. Not grumping at anyone, just at the way life works sometimes.

I didn't wake with a migraine - which was good, but a terrible band headache that still meant I couldn't get out of bed until gone noon.

The wrist was vastly improved with the night's rest (phew!). Think the driving the day before, with it being my left wrist and having a manual transmission, aggravated it.

C made me scrambled eggs on toast and I drank tea so I knew I was not too ill ;-).

We were supposed to have been at a friend's coffee morning. Beccy would have come too, but with me not well we cancelled. Rather relieved tbh as the thought of having to defend our decision not to school our children in a house full of the friend's school using friends was not exactly something we had been looking forward to. Lambs to the slaughter was more what it felt like. Been there, done that too many times to quite frankly be bothered any more. And if I were to, I would need to be in top health, able to festoon my audiences with sparkling anecdotes of the joys of HE life.

Bed far more preferable :-).

I also cancelled the afterschool catch up with D as I was not up to socialising. C then asked if she could still go as she was not headachy, but D didn't pick up the text. C rang mid afternoon and was delighted to hear she was still very much welcomed.

D brought C home too :-).

M was out yet again so we had a fish and chip dinner (all I was up to doing) and I was so fragile and unable to put up opposition that we ate in front of the tv, watching Kung Fu Panda. I've not seen it before - liked it.

Still headachy at bedtime but vastly improved with the quiet day.

Chloe has done:

An excellent guitar practice (she has been practicing every day for a few days and it makes such a difference).

Maths - Nezert and Bond No Nonsense

Started her own petition, writing the "prayer" too and space for signatures to keep play days with Ruby. I've disputed the value of spending time doing this as I'm not wanting to stop play days, just move it to a more convenient time. Guess it's all educational.

Lots of copywriting from Berol Handwriting for the National Curriculum, Intermediate Practice Cards. I'd bought them years ago from Ebay. They have poems, book excerpts and morals. She's done 8 cards. She uses largely her own letter formation.

Read more Heartlands books. Think she's half way through now.

Hours of Club Penguin as I said she's to play on it as much as she likes as it's only a month membership she has. Am hoping she'll overdose and it wont preoccupy her thoughts so much once the membership is over.

In Politics Today

Found my constituency's petition was belatedly in Hansard:

"Petitions presented to the House on Monday 7 December 2009 but not read on the Floor

Badman Report (my constituency)
The Petition of persons resident in the . . . parliamentary constituency,

Declares that they are concerned about the recommendations of the Badman Report, which suggests closer monitoring of home educators, including a compulsory annual registration scheme and right of access to people's homes for local authority officials; further declares that the Petitioners believe the recommendations are based on a review that was extremely rushed, failed to give due consideration to the evidence, failed to ensure that the data it collected were sufficiently robust, and failed to take proper account of the existing legislative framework.

The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families either not to bring forward, or to withdraw, proposed legislative measures providing for tighter registration and monitoring of children educated at home in the absence of a thorough independent inquiry into the condition and future of elective home education in England; but instead to take the steps necessary to ensure that the existing Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities are properly implemented, learning from current best practice, in all local authorities in England.

And the Petitioners remain, etc."

Doesn't state the MP's name and says it wasn't read out on the floor. I'm surmising, though could be wrong, that this meant it was just bagged (placed in the bag for petitions held behind the Speaker's chair). Not quite what I was led to believe.

However, for now I am just going to be relieved it's in Hansard and can be counted. I believe there are now over 200 recorded in Hansard. The ones that get sent directly to DCSF I suspect will get filed under wpb and had been utterly frantic that my MP had done that at one point.

I am not really happy with my MP and the PA. I very much got the feeling they wanted me to go away and stop bothering them. It's such a safe seat I guess the extra effort is deemed unnecessary to make.

Big news of the day was that the enquiry had finally published their report.

The Independent having a pretty good over view of it.

Also: Kelly Green and Gold - an overseas perspective,

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

8am swimming lesson - that Sheila forgot about as she's been in Egypt for 2 weeks and hasn't got back into routine yet. Fortunately it wasn't a History day so we could afford the time to wait for her. Marcus came too to watch which was great - but not so great given everything delayed. When we'd discussed arrangements last night, he had been going to cycle to his office from the pool once the lesson had finished but we left the house in heavy rain so he went off that idea and decided to wait for us to shower/change before getting me to drive him there. When we came out we had blue skies and sunshine! Ah well. He decided to walk instead.

C & I came home and she had a chocolate croissant warmed up for her, during which her parcel of Heartlands books arrived. She'd ordered them from eBay as the library didn't have them in stock and ordering them would take ages, especially as she wants to read them in order. Hope she doesn't tire after a couple.



She did eat her croissant in the end - else I'd have eaten it for her!

She then went on Moshimonsters, then I took over the PC and blogged whilst she did some Nezert maths.

She then unpacked yet more Christmas stuff whilst playing the Christmas CD's repeatedly. You now cannot cross to the stairs without it feeling as though you are on an agility course. She has put some decorations up and made a stable for her nativity scene, we had lunch and she went back to that before heading out to tennis. We had originally been planning on heading into town but the house was so calm and tranquil and she was so content that I didn't want to add time constrained errands in that would inevitably add to stress. We can run errands tomorrow instead.

Met M at the library and then home for guitar practice and M made dinner whilst C went on Club Penguin. Much time on the telephone with Rubes to arrange where to meet and to discuss what they were doing.

Jake came by just as we were about to sit down for dinner, so C ate quickly and they played Monotony until his mum texted me to ask me to send him home.

Clo then did her drama homework, so now I know she can write quickly when she chooses!

Not so neat though.

Over the past week we have . . .

Made a toy to her own design and entirely by herself with me not seeing the bunny until it was finished (Design and Technology). Made from recycled fabric and stuffing she then asked me to take this photograph to submit it for a Blue Peter entry. The entry she managed by herself and looked up the criteria on the website by herself (IT), wrote by hand her evidence (writing) and packaged up photos and paper, sealing the envelope also by herself so neither M nor I saw what she's written. I'm a bit worried she's not covered off all the criteria she should have done.



Been delighted to get an airdry clay pig, created especially for Chloe and carefully painted for Chloe by her friends over the summer. She reflected on how lucky she is to have so many lovely friends. I echoed that sentiment on my own behalf.




We've been to Latinetc for Latin, Music Theory and Science. Due to it being half term, everyone had time to go into the playing field for parachute games (in French!) with much laughter:



We spent a very enjoyable afternoon into early evening at new friends trialling the Big Bubble kit I'd bought for camp. I had intended to trial it at Latinetc but it turned out it needed washing up liquid and the environmentally friendly stuff just doesn't give good bubbles. Was relieved to find it works with earth destroying Fairy. Now I need to purchase more Glycerine as they only provide enough in the pack for one use :-(.



She cried in the car about Music Theory as she didn't understand it. She was fixated on the staves being strings (as in guitar tabs the lines represent the guitar strings). I promised to help her the next day, but remembered when dropping her off at AL's house, so delegated and AL's mum kindly helped explain the treble clef. When I got home she did her homework, getting the bass clef words wrong (finding the words in the music), so revisited her understanding getting her to write on the keys of her kiddie keyboard and now she loves Music Theory!



C and Rubes enjoyed an hour long snorkelling session at our local pool. I grumbled to Beccy about the state of the pool. The passageway exiting the ladies changing rooms has had the drain gaffer taped since the beginning of term, which is an improvement as when it hadn't been gaffer taped it was an accident waiting to happen as if you stepped on the drain it skedadled away leaving sharp tile edges exposed. They spent millions refurbing the reception area but nothing was spent where I think it really needs it - the drains and the changing rooms. One of the advantages of switching her swimming to mornings is that it is cleaner and hasn't yet acquired that ammonia smell from people letting their kids urinate on the floor. C&I always wear flip flops.

Photo evidence. Will see if it is repaired before Christmas.



After snorkelling, Rubes came back to ours and they spent the entire day sewing. Ruby made bride and groom outfits with a bridesmaid outfit too. C is unable to smile because she cut her lip with her own fingernail (side effect of having guitar as your instrument - long fingernails on your right hand) when getting changed at the pool.



She went dressed up as a pumpkin to a bonfire party at Beccy's. Marcus made the pumpkin soup. It was delicious but led to a stupid argument when I said I couldn't cook and carve the same pumpkin as getting hte flesh out is too difficult. M said I could - he has a recipe where you scrape the pumpkin and make the soup, putting it back into the pumkin as a tureen. He hasn't actually made that though. Roll on next year. We usually hide in our back room from all the scary trick or treaters. Has to be said I don't like Halloween at all and would happily abolish it, or rename it Pumpkin Night, which is the only pleasurable part about it.

Outfit, of course, was too itchy;



So she opted for thermals underneath, which, given it was an outside party, was just as well:



She rediscovered a ceramic pumpkin mask she'd made last year;



We have also been to a Ceilidh which was lots of fun but meant the next day I rested up in bed until 5:30pm so as to be mobile enough to drive. I had strained my back painting the windows the weekend before and the dancing proved to be inadvisable (though lots of fun at the time). Beccy has lent me some magnets that are held under clothing. She says they help. I will try them but they require granny knickers (the magnets velcro inside the top band) that I don't possess (so you all know far more about my choice of underwear than you ever thought you would or should!). So I need to go on a big knicker purchasing trip.

Sunday again I was careful all day as I needed to go out in the evening. Being in pain puts me in such ill humour. I was very horrible to M as he was drifting through the day not doing anything productive and I was frustrated by not being able to do anything myself. The house is a state and I had been assured a man was coming to do skirting boards in the bedroom, so I thought M could use the rainy, stay at home Sunday to move the bed. He questioned the sense of doing it now when he hasn't got a date for the skirting board man, I wanted it done as there is a lot of other furniture to shift and other things need doing in there too that will be easier with the room empty (eg rescuing my heart pendant that flew down under the floorboards via the space that would be blocked by skirting boards had we any). I got upset (possibly hormonal as well as in pain, we'll see) realising that the agreement with the skirting board man perhaps wasn't as agreed as I'd been led to understand. For example the radiator cover - I'd said to M I wanted a brass radiator cover infill, not the mdf ones. He'd said at that time he'd clarify that with the carpenter as he hadn't stated brass. It transpired he didn't say radiator cover at all. I hate being lied to or deliberately misled and got very upset and said I just wanted a nice house and if I had my own I could just get it nice the way I wanted, to which he responded that I could get a job and buy my own house. I don't think retelling the rest of the exchange would do either of us any favours, me the least. I lost it somewhat and got personal :-(.

The bed has now been moved.

I still don't feel happy as I've achieved what I wanted by having a total uncontrollable breakdown and I wish he'd just want to push forward on these things as I do. He doesn't even notice it all.

In any event, the bed will now stay there as when the bedroom is finally done, I am getting a new bed - a two singles together type as I think I'll sleep better on my own mattress than sharing a mattress with him. If I sleep better perhaps my mood will improve. It's worth a try eh?

Blogging from the phone

It's not easy, but certainly possible so whilst she is in Club Night I may as well . . .

Ruby arrived as we were all waking up. She got C up for me (who showed astonishing foresight by putting her tennis clothes on ready for this afternoon). They then went outside to finish playing with the happy maize and White packing noodles. They were putting a coloured maize in the middle of 4 White noodles then when dried , they had made little surprises - bit like a filled doughnut.

They then came in to do junk modelling ( with a hiatus when I asked them to clean up outside). Ruby made a camera. Not sure what C made.

Lunch happened and R ate all hers. C ate v little. Then they did the cake and it looks fab. Pleased with it.

Timing nicely to take R home and get C to tennis. Her lesson was poor. Showing that she needs more sleep or food or more likely both.

She still wanted to stay for club night though. She made a get well card for Meg as she has had an op to pin the broken arm. Clo will get it signed at Badgers and we can drop it off on the way home.

A symmetrically grumpy day

Three things went wrong before the day really got going. Thing number one, I made C cry in the car as I want to do some mental maths - I meant me shouting out times table questions, she wanted me to weave a maths story but I did not have the mental capacity to do that whilst driving. A Maths story is where I invent a sequence of things that involve Chloe and Maths, eg "Chloe was given £20 from the bank that had accrued 10% interest, How much did she then have in her pocket?""Then she decided to go to the zoo and got a bus which cost her £1.50 return" and so on. She has to work out how much money she has after each section of the story. I don't mind doing them and they are quite fun but I'd only had one cup of tea this morning and had discovered that the one in the beaker I'd brought in the car tasted horrible, probably because I'd cleaned the beaker with dental cleaning tablets and there is residue that tainted my tea :-( (the horrid tasting tea was thing number 2). So she didn't want to do maths questions fired at her (that I was capable of doing) and I lost it somewhat and was a bit unpleasant saying she'd fail everything and not get a good job, not meet someone decent who may be able to keep her in the manner to which she clearly is trying to become accustomed and that I didn't give a monkeys. Except I used a word other than monkeys.

So basically I did not cover myself in glory. Tea deprivation has terrible consequences.

The third thing that went wrong was her fleece was coated in guinea pig hair from cuddling Ruby's GP's and she didn't want to wear it as it was too hairy, so I'd brought sellotape with me and we were late by 10 minutes as I was at the car trying to de-hair the fleece.

At least we were clear then to enjoy the rest of the day.

Latin and Science happened and she enjoyed them. She also enjoyed fimo-ing and playing.




Home and C did her music theory work - drawing treble and bass clefs. She was sad to have missed music - she said she didn't hear it being called but I said I think it didn't get called. I'm not really aware of what happened.

She and M spoke to my mil (ie her Grandma and his mother) to wish her a happy birthday. She apparently loves her present so I did okay there ;-).

C then did a page each of the 500 sums books for subtraction, multiplication and division. Then lots more of the Survival Skills Using Maths book.



She wrote the outline for thank you notes that she then couldn't print out because there is no magenta and she wouldn't change the colour. Probably because then she'd have to do more writing.

So she watched horrible histories and put hole reinforcers on the paper in her history folder that is pulling and beginning to tear.

I am still trying to clear the utility room counter. I am hoping to borrow an urn for Saturday and turn the utility into a beverage making area. M is not being as proactive. He is getting stuff done now but only after I shouted and stropped.

Ending the day as I started really :-(.

How Is The Air Up There?

C had a biodiversity session at our most local museum in the morning. Looking through what she brought home I can see that she has looked at woodlands, "What Eats What in a Wood". There are lots of pieces of partly cut out coloured card and a Chloe made a book entitled "My RECORD BOOK" with red, green and yellow card cut into leaf shapes stuck on the cover with a hedgehog drawn on top of them, inside which there is a drawing of "the river wye" on a concertina of card showing the river from the source going past "Feoilds", "Rosonwye" where houses have been drawn, past a factory and then to the "Sea". It's a bit like lapbooks I've seen other children make. Then there are some sheets of white card with some drawings done by an unknown hand (I'm now told they are drawings of "prime species"); plankton, worm, bee, rice, ground beetle and rabbit. Then the children chose a prime species and drew lots of animals that would die if that prime species died out. C chose plankton and then drew and labelled "Blue Wale", "ShrimPs", "Fish", "PeoPle", "Pegwin" and "Shark". We've just now discussed the inclusion of people and she says the Japanese and the people who need to fish for their jobs would die.

Beccy then kindly gave C lunch (Shepherds pie I believe and apparently it was delish), passing by the library on the way so C could collect her Questseekers medal, certificate and magic pen that she should have had when she finished the books but the library staff member couldn't find them.

Meanwhile I went up a ladder and painted the outside of a window as it was such a fab sunny day, then I collected her after lunch to take her up to tennis. Fridays are much quieter at the club so I sat and read a magazine that had been left behind by someone else. She was pleased because she won Club Night, just beating a 10yo boy, so got a key ring as a prize. Though now she's 9 that doesn't sound anywhere near as impressive!

Went to Trish's for play and pizza before I took both girls to Badgers. Meg has a broken arm so is very unhappy about not being able to come to C's party. I have promised a consolation of a Pots of Art trip for when the arm is better - something C has been wanting to do for a long time herself and is (maybe? - C doesn't always like doing things with friends - usually if I have the friend's parent to chat to I think she misses the attention) more fun with a friend.

Over dinner we discussed politician Niccolò Machiavelli in answer to C's question asking why in "The Sound of Music" Max referred to the Baroness as Baroness Machiavelli:

Max: I get a fiendish delight thinking of you as the mother of seven. How do you plan to do it?
Baroness: Darling, haven't you ever heard . . . of a delightful little thing called boarding school?
Max: Baroness Machiavelli.

Funny the things she notices and thinks/ponders/worries about. I can't think when she last saw that film. It's one she watches in the car on long journeys so possibly when we went to sustainability last month.

Walk Like an Egyptian

8am swimming lesson. I didn't go in due to not yet feeling 100% and if I went in, it could finish me off for the day - which was busy and needed to be got through. Sheila was pleased with her. After she'd showered and got dressed, we decided we were both very hungry and in need of breakfast but found the swimming pool cafe does not open until 10am. So we went to that American fast food place. I couldn't think of anywhere else to quickly provide sustenance that she would like (she likes their hash browns and their milk). So that was an unexpected treat and we were still on time to pick up Beccy and Ruby at 9:30am.

Dropped the girls off at History where they looked at the Egyptians, lots more writing/listening. Looked at the Who's Who of Egyptian Gods, map work sowing Upper and Lower Egypt, Nile and Nile Delta and the end of session quiz that C likes to test us with over dinner on Monday nights. Taryn had also made clay bodies for them to mummify - far better than the usual skeleton you get in Egypt kits - and even the Playmobil pyramid has a skeleton. Not right! Mummification was done using modroc and they each made a paper sarcophagus for their mummy to go in.






Whilst C was busy doing that, I went to buy her some Bday presents as it occurred to me that she was at risk of having nothing to open on her birthday. Next year I'll ask her whether she just wants money but arrange for a party on her birthday as that will be easier! I had success and negotiated down at John Lewis so was very pleased.

Collected girls and drove Beccy and Ruby home, before we dashed home for a speedy lunch then going to tennis for 1:1 and Club Night. Whilst she was in Club Night I popped around to see Alison and Daniel, returning to their house with Chloe after she'd finished. Spent a long time there - haven't managed to see Alison properly for months so really enjoyed the catch up (and C collected a gift so that was another one to have on the day ;-)). Teased A about the terrible pruning job some "gardeners" had done to the garden. Asked her where she'd found them and they'd posted a bit of paper through her door. Rolls eyes at her.

A Wednesday in Your Garden

C awoke me at just after 7am saying she had a stuffy nose and a sore throat. I was beginning to suspect she was coming down with something last night as she was a bit sneezy. Tried to convince myself that it was from the dusting I'd done earlier but clearly she was becoming coldy :-(.

So she had a sick day and didn't go to Latinetc. She wanted to but it annoys me when other people bring their poorly kids along to something in clearly transmitting germs mode so can hardly do the same to others.

So she's missed Latin, science and music theory - including what sounded like a rather fun composition session with Gina. Grr to illness. Not only that but today was the Not Back To School nationwide bubble blowing picnic so she was going to miss that too. Blue skies overhead just to make us feel worse :-(.

I let her watch television, then she did a verbal reasoning paper (on the floor)



- getting cross with "What is the word in front: ship; light; burst; fish."

I think her problems are due to an insufficient exposure to star trek type stuff. Though when told answer, she remembered a computer at the RI family day that had times to get to the moon by various forms: eg train, car, plane, starship. Starship quickest at 1.2 secs ( she thinks) but not technology currently available. She said Starburst is a sweet - and a proper noun (she said "proper name") so that can't count ;-).

Having BKed this, Jax responding that starburst is something to do with how stars or galaxies were created and Bfish saying or an Opal Fruit, I was reminded of having C&R in the car sharing out tictacs. One likes orange, one likes green. I said I always liked the green Opal Fruits best to which R responded "what?" and C drily said "She means Starburst". I'm so out of touch and can't move with the times.

A Snickers bar will always be a Marathon to me ;-).

After a cuddle to get over the verbal paper difficulties she reminded me of a question asked at bedtime last night "Why do you sneeze when you're getting a cold?". I didn't have an answer so we googled it (Google is my friend).

The Kids Health website turned up trumps.

"Getting a cold works like space travel — the virus actually has docking points that stick to the inside of your nose — just like a small spaceship attaching to a mother ship! The virus takes over the cells lining the nose and begins creating more viruses.

White blood cells charge to the nose's rescue and cause cold symptoms, while also killing the virus that caused the cold. Runny noses and sneezing actually help to prevent viruses from invading other parts of your body.

You sneeze because your nerves detect the irritation in your nose and get the lungs to push a blast of air out through your nose and mouth. Your body can sneeze over 100 miles an hour (161 kilometers per hour) — faster than a car travels on the road, unless you're at a racetrack!"

We then had to go get groceries and fuel so did that, M&C choosing Sushi for lunch (bet that's not a school dinner option), which M ate in the car on the way to his meeting. C and I came home and had our own Not Back To School picnic in the garden. Blew bubbles at 2pm to join in (it is a national event with picnics and bubbles being blown to celebrate not going back to school, to create a united front across the country, raise awareness of Home Ed generally and of course continue to protest about the review).

But would have been much more fun in a large group. Hey ho.




Made our heads hurt at Exploratorium as C said she observed a blue bubble combining with a pink bubble and got a purple bubble. Talked about light waves (reinforcing some space red shift/blue shift thing we'd looked at recently) and different thickness of bubble walls. I think it's possible we don't understand but figure if we expose ourselves enough times maybe we'll get it one day!

Having hurt our heads there we liked this; bbc focus magazine ""Why do bubbles have colours in them?" by James Witts, Herefordshire

It's because light waves reflected from opposite sides of the thin bubble wall interfere with each other. Some wavelengths (colours) cancel each other out, while others are reinforced.
The bubble wall is actually a thin film of water, protected from collapsing by a layer of detergent molecules on each side. And which colours are reinforced depends on the thickness of the water film. If you look closely at the bubbles in your bath, you'll notice that the colours gradually change as the water films drain under gravity. Isaac Newton noticed the same thing one day when taking a bath and turned the observation to good use by setting up an experiment where all of the water eventually drained from the top of the bubble. It left a black spot (now called a 'Newton black film') consisting of just the two layers of detergent molecules. By following the change in the colours, Newton was able to calculate the size of the detergent molecules - a truly remarkable achievement.

Submitted by Len Fisher"

So I'm not sure that she did see a blue bubble combining with a pink bubble to give a purple bubble. But she said she did and I didn't see it. Don't really want to question what she thinks she saw.

She harvested some tomatoes from her tomato plants :-).

She went on the PC to the Pombears website (having eaten Pombears for lunch). She chose sushi having had some with Eliza last month. Today she declared she loves sushi :-). But not the wasabi paste. Nor the soy sauce. The seaweed got picked off as not really to her liking and the rice was too sweet after a while so that got left too. Doesn't like cream cheese so that one wasn't even tasted. So I noted that although she declared she loves sushi, she essentially only likes the prawns and salmon. Hmm.

Writing of more invitations was done and she read some of her World War II Bunker book (bought at The Cabinet War Rooms). She also looked at a Beethoven book and briefly tried to work out the music.

Collected M and she played on the guitar - just playing and working on her song she developed last night, not a proper practice. Just as beneficial though. Love her just enjoying the instrument :-).

Groovy Tuesday

Marcus and Clo did guitar practice before C and I walked into town to meet Deb for coffee (C wrote some invitations) and get C some winter boots.

Back for lunch and I did a bit of a tidy up and dust/vacuum before new friends came over for a couple of hours. Children all did drawing and L did a whole A4 page of writing effortlessly. I was very impressed. It was small print too - so lots of words on the page (instructions for a Tamagotchi game she'd developed).

L&V have enjoyed developing programs with Scratch. (I think that's the right link). I know Jax's children have also enjoyed that but can't search on her blog by keyword to remind myself what she said about it but think it was recent.

They left and we wrapped Kiera's gifts, gatecrashing her party. Heard my name being called out to me as we crossed the carpark. Novelty hearing people sounding pleased to see me - was lovely :-). Normally it's C's name called out . . .

Spent time talking to Steph's parents - particularly her Dad. Her parents are ace so it was great to have a catch up.

We then left for home via Trish's. Glad I got C those boots today as Trish told me Badgers this week is presentation evening with important people there to present awards from the last year. Must check to see if uniform needs ironing.

C did more guitar as apparently it is a Talent Show as well at Badgers and rather than playing a piece she's learnt already she decided to compose her own piece of music. Her other idea was to learn the words for Lola so she could sing along whilst playing. We really must find some decent guitar songs that have lyrics suitable for an 8yo. I am not keen on her singing along to Lola.

She did a verbal reasoning paper. Spent about 30 minutes on one question: "_able, _ray, _hen, _an" What is the missing letter? Was so painful to sit there while she worked through the alphabet. Twice. "terhen". At least she laughed when she got it.

Spent time looking for Stravinsky's Petrouchka in our CD collection and also on the itunes library on both PC's. I was sure we had it but despite also having Rite of Spring, no Petrouchka. I'm convinced it was an LSO piece once but maybe that was one we didn't prepare for.

On the plus side, I did at long last find my Bernard Cribbins CD in one of C's jewel cases.

Now listening to The Smithereens.

Silent "b"

Another early start as M didn't want to cycle to the train station (due to having customer meetings) so we took him in the car, then C did a verbal Bond paper over breakfast. Spelling problems meant she got 3 wrong such as "det" for "debt". But she completed happily and maybe she now knows how to spell "debt". Will ask her later.

Ruby arrived during this (she knew debt had a "b" in it). They both declared to not like maths which surprises me as actually I think they are both quite good at it.

They then played upstairs for a little while whilst I found the biggest spider I have ever found whilst vacuuming the skirting boards (there is a large gap under one and I guess I disturbed it). It was far too big for putting under a cup and taking outside so I took the end off the nozzle and vacuumed it up. Which left me with a very large and possibly antagonised spider in the Dyson dust catcher. Sometimes it's really a bad idea to be able to see what you've vacuumed up :-(. Left the machine running whilst I pondered options, meaning C came to ask me why the vacuum was still on (energy conscious). She then was a bit upset I'd vacuumed it as she has lectured me twice recently that she doesn't want me killing the things I don't want in the house, just remove them. But this spider was too big even for a bowl so I think options were limited. In the end I unclipped the catcher and put it on the bench outside. The spider didn't seem to be moving but I think that's just a cunning ploy. My stick insects used to do that, pretend to be dead then jump out of the tank when you took the lid off.

Girls ventured downstairs once the noisy vacuum was silenced and made "stained glass windows" with pva glue and tissue paper.

Girls then spent the rest of their time upstairs, coming down for lunch. They seem to have been playing some sort of detective game from the many pieces of paper I have picked up.

Next door took over the courtyard with scaffolding trucks. I moved my car at one point as I was worried it would get damaged. They are having parts of their house effectively rebuilt. It has transpired after one part becoming lopsided that it had been previously repaired with gaffer tape that was then painted black. Reinforces my feeling to never move house. Better to know all the problems with this one that to discover anew with a different house.

Took them to sailing club. C had a bad time of it being stuck on a lee shore for about 30mins and the kids supervising the activity didn't notice so she got more and more frustrated and ended up crying :-(. Not that R noticed either [rolls eyes]. Still, another 2 hours logged. I got prime parking spot overlooking the lake and sat in the car with my flask of coffee, listening to radio 2 whilst doing my tapestry kit. I'm so geared up for grandparenthood ;-).

They were running late so didn't let them shower, wrapping them up in my fleeces/cardies in the car with temperature set to 26 (I sweltered - they were still frozen!). Dropped Rubes off and dashed to the station to pick up M. Home. Bath for C and I plaited her hair in the hope it'll last for 9 days (she read a puzzle book which included a page about choosing the right hot air balloon for a round the world trip. It explained you needed one with the most downward thrust), speedy spag bol for dinner courtesy of M and C actually asked to be put to bed.

I have found a list of silent "b" words for KS2 level and printed it out to look at in the morning at
firstschoolyears.com.

Stream of Consciousness

Didn't really feel like a Bank Holiday on Monday as she did guitar with M and then she had her guitar lesson after lunch. She had an hour and a half lesson and was flaking towards the end. Her practices had been good over the previous week. I like her to do at least 4 and I think she's had 4 excellent practices (sometimes they are a bit half hearted), especially the Monday morning, Sunday night and Friday morning practices.

Actually the last 10 minutes was Gad showing her the multiplication on your fingers thing (there is a link on side). This was a reminder as we've discussed it before but as usual forget [rolls eyes!]. She's since been begging me to ask her lots of multiplication questions. She even used the finger method to work out sums she knows by heart. She didn't know why worked out answers she knows by heart but agreed knowing was much quicker than finger methods but that if she does finger methods lots and lots and lots she will eventually know them all by heart. Couldn't argue with that really.

I filled up the car with diesel for 102.9 which I was pleased about as saw later in our town BP selling for 111.9! We then did a small shop in Waitrose before coming home.

So no different to a regular Monday. That's the problem with Sundays and Bank Holidays. You used to do long walks with the family and wander around the town with the shops all shut. Now everything seems to function just as normal and there's no pause in life's pace. I understand if you're self employed a Bank Holiday means no wage. Certainly I was happy to have the lesson as we would otherwise have done given that last week was missed as will next week's, but it's a bit of a shame at the same time.

She finished the Letts The World of Mathematics Revision book for 7-8yo. Just before the start of a new academic year when she should be on the next one. To finish it completely I want her to copy out the weights and measures table as that sometimes proves tricky. Then we can put that on the wall and I can ask random questions such as "How many ml in 3/4 of a litre?" as that needs a little regular work to help the facts stick.

The other subject books are woefully incomplete - except the science one. Maths and science being her preferred subjects. They are also the most over provisioned in terms of resources so a she has a good pick and mix opportunity to maintain interest. For example, for maths she has the Letts World of Revision books, Stile Maths, Cuisenaire, Bond test papers and workbooks, lots of ad hoc (eg in car) mental maths/multiplication, maths stories (eg Sir Cumference series), the excellent Using Maths in various careers guides from ticktock publishing and a couple of sticker maths books (DK).

Hmm. Might lift that last paragraph for a mission statement type thing. I have today been mightily impressed by all the thought going on at Petits Haricots. It's been a while since I've pulled together anything like that. M would like it.

Mission Statement to end of KS2: Continue winging it.

Worked so far . . .

The Fridge Freezer in the utility room has now found a new home thanks to Freecycle. I can't abide freecycle. You get lots of badly written emails and daft email names. You also have to arrange for someone to come to your house. Hence I choose only people with proper names. Dunno if it's their real name or not but it looks a bit more sensible and safer. I also chose someone who wrote sensibly - none of this text speak as I can't stand it. I closed my eyes to the sob stories "please choose me to have this fridge freezer as my boyfriend and I just been allocated our first housing association place and I need somewhere to put the bottles for our 9 week old baby daughter". Refrained from responding she should be breastfeeding. Of course, if she said "please choose me to have this fridge freezer as my boyfriend and I just been allocated our first housing association place and I need somewhere to put the milk so I can enjoy copious amounts of tea" I may have felt differently ;-). M is very unhappy about it. He has now lost his beer fridge. But two full sized fridge freezers for a family of three is crazy and running it when the freezer is predominantly empty is also crazy. He'll live.

It was collected whilst I was at Jax's so M had to deal with it, helping the guy who came for it extricate it from the house and into the car. Then M had to clean where it was - he told me it was filthy back there. Well, it would be as I've never pulled it out to clean behind - is that usual? There was also a long dead mouse there so I am very glad to just have got back to a beautifully clean space.

C has written and crafted lots of birthday cards. It's that time of year now when we have a glut of children's birthdays.

She has been laughing out loud lots reading "There's a Viking in my Bed" by Jeremy Strong. Need to get to the library so she can complete her Quest Seekers reading challenge.

We spent an afternoon visiting Trish - Megan and Chloe playing brilliantly for over 3 hours. Then we came home and Jake came by. They played Labyrinth (Jake won) before M said dinner was ready and he had to go home. We are going to miss him loads. :-(.

Then today, she was collected at 7:30am to have a day at Legoland. It was Jamie's birthday treat and he was told he could have one friend and she was so pleased he chose her. He goes to school so she was competing with 31 other kids at least (there being 32 in his class I believe). I suspect Michelle felt comfortable having C (she's looked after her often enough so knows her very well - we swapped having the kids when they were little to go to the gym and she has had C when I was ill) so maybe she engineered things a bit? Still C was made up about it and I have to confess to being pleased too as she is so pleased. She's never been before. In fact I'm not sure she's ever been to a theme park type place before. I don't like them so they don't feature on my list of top places to go. I would like to go to Legoland though and nearly did one year but M was upset about missing her first visit there so I pulled out. In the end he's missed it anyway. At least if I'd gone before we would have had pictures.

I got my hair trimmed whilst she was at Legoland as it was getting very dry and matted on the ends. Even after deep conditioning.

I also bought lots of chips and peas to fill up the freezer so it runs more efficiently, finding some Indian meal items at the bottom that I had for lunch/mid afternoon snack. The potatoes were inedible but the rice and chicken in pepper were ok even if a little freezer burnt. That's the problem with too much freezer space - you end up not managing it well and food deteriorating. C and I had steak and hash browns yesterday and the hash browns were almost inedible. They may have been in there years . . .

Do I hum?

Saturday after lunch we had a double guitar lesson for M and C. I went into town and did some shopping (peppercorns for the grinder type shopping - I don't do anything much more interesting than that!) and mooched around the shops saving money (by not spending it. It's easy to save money that way).

I did stop at Starbucks and had an iced latte overlooking the gardens with a vista up to the fountain. That was nice, then into John Lewis to try and buy more JASON deodorant.

I'm trying to avoid the aluminium/paraben antiperspirants. Not that I'm convinced of the arguments that they can cause cancer but I would be really annoyed if I got breast cancer and wondered whether avoiding them would have prevented cancer from developing. Also, it doesn't make much sense to interfere with the natural function of my skin. My Dad has always maintained you should allow your body to sweat - especially during exercise which is when some people apply more anti-perspirant.

So I've been trying a few brands. The first two products, Jason and Green People, have been on long term trial.

JASON Aloe Vera Deodorant stick was my favourite and I would like to buy it again. It was bought from Waitrose but now I can't find it sold in any of 3 Waitrose stores I've tried and it wasn't in John Lewis either.

The Green People Organic base No Scent Deodorant roll on has proved to be a waste of money. I would not recommend nor buy again.

Purchases at Waitrose (along with the peppercorns) were PitRok and Weledda.

I used the PitRok Natural Crystal Deodorant today and have been surprised that it was effective. Not been the hottest of days though so will continue to test.

On Sunday, I used the Weleda Wild Rose Deodorant. It's a spray. I do like that one. Again will continue to test.

On Monday I used the antiperspirant I keep for days when I need to be confident of staying fresh. I would used an antiperspirant for example at an interview.

Back to Saturday, after the guitar lesson we headed to my Dad's house for a barbecue. Gen, Ady and Meg were there and James turned up too. Was a good afternoon/evening. Clo took her Week on the Wild Side book with her and Dad started correcting her spelling. I used to loathe that happening to me so I told him to stop as I was happy she's so happy writing and the spelling will come. Also if she has a spelling test she spells more words correctly, but writing for enjoyment seems to mean thinking about spelling doesn't happen. If she was made to feel the spelling is important she would get hung up on that and I know she wouldn't write as much. However, Dad worries about this as if it's a sign school would be better. Unfortunately, he has no one to compare her to, so she will always fall short of his expectations. Grr. Wish I hadn't encouraged her to bring her book.

So, Sunday I gardened. Pruning is satisfying. Marcus sanded a bargeboard that needed sanding down and repainting (repainting done today). Chloe finished reading Budge Wilson's "Before Green Gables". She has loved that book. We have also read some of the Tudors and Stuarts section of "The Usborne History of Britain", all of "Through Time Pompeii" and she has found Wally in all the variants of the "Where's Wally?" book mum has bought her in the past (think she has 3).

Monday I dropped C off at my sister's house and then ventured over to collect a friend and take him to a court hearing. In the end it was adjourned for 2 weeks as certain pieces of evidence had not been provided in time (CPS for you . . .). Spent some time with him at his solicitor's office then he bought me a late lunch. Very stressful day. At my sister's house, C watched Aristocats and then Gen took Clo and Meg swimming. I ate at theirs and it was a late night back.

Today, Tuesday, C went to Ruby's house, taking her book as Beccy had asked her to. Where she had a totally supportive and admiring response to her writing to counter Dad's judgemental approach on Saturday (Not that he thinks he is being critical but that is how it comes across. He thinks he is helping). I spent my time trying and largely failing to get my head around this coming term and trying to fit everything in that C wants to do and seeing all the people we want to see. Collected her mid afternoon and we went to the library and postoffice, getting drenched in the downpour. It had been sunny when I left home!

"My Mummy is like Sunshine"

With C now home, I felt I was permitted to tidy her room. That way, if I inadvertently bin something that looked like rubbish but was in fact a valued treasure, she had always had the opportunity to help me instead of watching "Scrapheap Challenge". Guess Scrapheap Challenge is a physics lesson of sorts.

Amongst lots of other bits of writing, veterinary appointment lists and hand made game bits I found a pack of post-it notes, on top of which was this:



Which made me really glowy. Even more so than the kind words written about me on the local list the other week :-). I love my girl.

So did a massive pick up, even making inroads on her desk. She has a penchant for collecting useful receptacles. Such as the plastic containers all the Geomag came in. She also has a love of boxes and packaging. The last order from Merry I opened when she was in bed as I couldn't have her rescuing another brown paper snake. One is perfectly adequate for any household:



So, I managed to fill a carrier bag of what I determined to be rubbish and vacuumed. Her room is quite pleasant to be in when it's clear and this inspired game playing so we played "Cadoo" and "Guess Who?" until dinner was served after which we watched the third episode of Gryff Rhys Jones' "River Journeys" that M&I had promised not to watch until she got back. It was good as it featured the river she'd been based by during her PGL week. Only a week behind on this series so far. I think we may have given up on Springwatch. It'll be Autumnwatch soon.

One of the programmes she'd watched this morning whilst I was excavating her room inspired these:





It's a picture taken through a sheet of acetate smeared with Vaseline to make it look as though she'd just broken a pane of glass.

Wandering through Wednesday

My days seem to be either maniacally busy or containing one run of minor aggravations after another, impeding my ability to actually do anything about the review - write letters, print postcards and so on. Still grumbling about my MP not being available to see me when I wanted to. Will make another attempt to get a meeting after recess.

An example of one of the minor aggravations is that a couple of weeks ago I ordered some Letts study workbooks from The Book People (the World series workbooks she likes so much). I ordered 9-10 years and 10-11 as the price was good.

Unfortunately, they delivered 8-9 years, which we already had, although the delivery slip did state 9-10 years. So called and they arranged to sent 9-10 years out and arrange collection of the 8-9 years pack. We agreed this would be collected on Tuesday (yesterday) and I left the parcel in the porch and it no longer is there.

This is the email I have just had to sent to The Book People:

"Hi - I left the 8-9 set you'd inadvertently supplied in the porch yesterday (Tuesday) as agreed with you. It was collected whilst we were out.

Today I have received in our postbox a "sorry we missed you" card from HDN (though we were in and no one knocked). So now I'm a little concerned and puzzled as to where the parcel has gone as I can't think of anything else I am due to have collected from us.

The HDN website does not allow comments or questions, just dates to arrange for another collection.

Kind regards [name]"

Turned out the parcel had been collected yesterday so I think they left that card then saw the parcel sitting on top of the postbox but didn't pop an amended card in. Really, really can't stand Home Delivery Network. They are the worst of the lot.

Anyway, today.

Chloe has watched quite a lot of television. Finishing with "Get 100". She likes it and usually tries to work them out. Today she drew pictures whilst watching.

It has been an incredibly lazy day. We've both had baths and washed hair - C wanted her hair braided so did that after she'd washed and conditioned. Am making sure I praise this managing to wash and dry herself thing as the novelty may wear off soon. She even dries down the edge of the tub. :-)).

She then needed to write her card to her friend, having made the picture yesterday.




We then had lunch and C was desperate to do the science kit that arrived recently.



It's an Essential Chemistry Colour Mixer Kit. She struggled using the pipettes consistently but with practice she was able to more reliably get consistent sized drops out.

There are 4 colour tablets so you can use the kit 4 times but obviously you can supplement with food colouring once the tablets are used up. The tablets fizzed (and smelt rather pleasant) but after the initial big reaction they took ages to dissolve. I would use hot water next time.

The booklet talked about pigment colours (as used in the kit) and the primary colours of light - which she remembered most vividly from the Colourbox session where they had 3 huge spotlights of red, green and blue that you could mix and direct anyway you wanted. So she knew all three together makes white light. The booklet also talks about wavelengths and that we see colour with the cone cells in our eyes. Very few words but giving a lot of information. Brilliant. Succinct and well phrased. imho.

The instructions were clear and it actually worked! So many kits prove to be a disappointment. This one occupied her for over an hour (and even then she only stopped because we had to do the school run - grr to school interrupting learning!) and demonstrated linear and exponential dilution.

A lovely kit. Would be the sort of thing I'd keep in the cupboard for those moments when she wants to do something new but it is reasonably contained and doesn't take half a day. Would also make a fab gift or stocking filler.








My only other thought is that the multi well micro plate should be white. Fortunately I have a white cat litter tray that we use for pond dipping and such like activities where you need to be able to see clearly, so just put the elements of the kit in that.

That cat litter tray is the best purchase I've made when it was acquired never with the intention of using it as it was designed and sold for.

Popped over the road to collect her friend from school, home, A changed out of her school uniform, they assembled items for their cache (not geo just a cache in their secret, rather unpleasant place in the park.), we went to the library where C signed up to do the Reading Challenge - Questseekers, played in the park, went to buy some handy wipes for their cache and went into Pizza Express for a birthday treat for A. Even better, found online that they are doing 2 for the price of 1 until 19th July so got one kids meal free :-). You need to print off as many vouchers as you want to use and take them in.

Took A home almost an hour later than I'd originally said, picking M up on the way. Home and another Tour de France evening.

Traipsing through Tuesday

Went to shop for milk and fruit.

C made a card thanking a neighbour for the watering she did whilst we were away. Assembled a basket of fruit/veg to go with card and left on doorstep.

She read bits out of "30 days has September. Cool ways to Remember stuff". Mostly the spelling acrostics that I said I always found it easier to remember or "see" the correct spelling than remember the acrostic that was supposed to help. Talked about different mnemonics as included in the book.



Stile Math 3 pages

Played "Touring England" again. She won.



Sticker division maths workbook by DK. Much faster and more confident today.

Played the Viking BBC game again, changing her options and failed her mission. She found this interesting as I think she suspected she would always succeed even though I told her I'd failed it in one variation of choices.

Lunch. Pasta and pesto obviously.

Yahtzee. Made her do the adding up to prove I won.

Gardening - Chloe planted out her tomato plants in the garden. I then realised the amount of growth that needed pruning back. Whilst I pruned, she read a book called The Kitchenmaid by Angela Bull, set in 1870.

She then made a sequin festooned birthday card for her friend.

Fimo-d whilst listening to "The Aardvark who wasn't sure" by Jill Tomlinson on CD and "The Gorilla who didn't want to grow up". The second story about the Gorilla twice. I pruned the box hedge tops and cleared prunings away into brown wheelie bin (this means carting all through the house as no back gate. This makes it even harder work!).

M cycled home and is now cooking dinner, sausage pasta, after which they will do guitar practice and catch up on more TdF stages. It will be another late night. Fortunately the only thing we need to do tomorrow is the afternoon school run.

gnikroW

Working backwards.

Today. Tuesday.

Has not started well as C has stropped off and shut herself in her room. It's days like this when I wonder why school doesn't feature in our lives. Mind you, she's not actually directly bothering me and it's gone 10am and I'm still not dressed. Not so bad really.

Monday.

An early start as C had an opticians appointment at 9:10am, So allowed enough time to deal with rush hour traffic to not find any and parked up with no trouble, with enough time to go to the dry cleaners and then to the opticians still 10 minutes early. This is the opticians I blogged about before. They left a message when I was in Dorset saying they needed to cancel Chloe's 2pm on Friday appt. I determined to find another optician and didn't bother ringing back as they had asked in order to rearrange. They then called me offering a Monday morning one instead. I did say that's one of the times I originally wanted but they had a contact lens fitting at 9am which only takes 10mins so the 20mins after could be for C.

She is still slightly long sighted and we were told to come back in a year. M and I are both very short sighted so I'm intrigued as to how she's staying long sighted so long. Though I think I was older when I started wearing specs and M was in his teens. I asked about the red patch on her right eye. She's had it for ages. Possibly since birth but it's becoming more noticeable now and a couple of people have asked if she's got hit there. I wondered if there was anything that could be done - whites of eyes are meant to be white not a bit bloody! Unfortunately there isn't so she'll just have to live with it. Hey ho. If beauty ain't going to be her thing we'll just have to push her towards academia. And to look forward to, that area, a collection of blood vessels, may get lumpy as she gets older. Euch! Rules out contact lenses then.

A fly around Sainsburys then when home she wanted to make Gingerbread Pigs and of course we didn't have all the ingredients so over to the village shop (twice) to get everything she needed.

Put Wimbledon on and admired the new roof (wait for no rain at all during the tournament) and the rather fab new number two court, sunken so presumably it can double as a swimming pool if the rains do come ;-).

We then got time constrained and as C hadn't read her recipe ahead, I hadn't realised the dough needed 30 mins in the fridge. So said it would be okay left for the rest of the day (BKing to make sure as I was really worried I would have a waily child later), we had lunch and headed out to guitar.

Going out was very hard for me. It was sunny and I was happy at home. I'm ok if I keep going but the going out and coming home made it really hard to go back out.

Guitar went well, as did tennis afterwards. Catherine came so it was lovely to have her to chat to (won't from next term as tennis is expensive and free activities start to come up at school once the kids hit juniors and they are likely to avail themselves of that - though she did say she wasn't sure all activities should be school related things, it being healthy to have outside school activities too, so maybe I can persuade her to continue at the club.)

Home to finish the gingerbread (nearly waily moment as it was hard to roll out and it needed to warm up a little), 9 yo neighbour came round and helped to test the biscuits, they played with their diabalos (sp?) and his mum came to collect him and collected a biscuit at the same time. Have set aside 14 gingerbread pigs for etc tomorrow else I think we were at risk of eating them all up.

Whilst she did her cooking I cleaned out the larder and we chatted very companionably :-). I have filled a trug with out of date and other stuff (mostly pulses) that we are not eating and then on Friday when Ruby is here they can play with them all outside, mixing and grinding to make potions (child designated name for containers filled with differing types of gunk).

Car ed today. "What does retrospectively mean?" From a photo permission form floating around in the car from Badgers that she was reading. I think if compulsory visits to the place where education occurs, I may be taking the LA bod up and down the motorway in our car :-).

Sunday

Started off badly with me in a grump that M wanted to doa bike ride and I wanted him to do some DIY. He says he does want to get the work done but it seems to me he doesn't as he never is motivated to just bloody well get on with it. Day redeemed by Beans needing company and so M cycled to RSPB, we all convened for lunch and walked a 2hr 41min time to do a 1.97km distance. 'twas nice.

Back to ours. Girls all played well. An equally pleasant evening was had.

Saturday

M put the water feature back together as it had needed sealing at a split join. The sealing was done already, but he didn't want me putting the rocks back in. Grass got mowed, Chloe washed the car - the wheels look lovely. I gardened, cleaned bathroom and it was a reasonably productive day. Clo did complain later on. She really doesn't like days at home and makes it such that we don't much either. So discussion was had.

Friday
Clo went to Beccy's. Every now and then Beccy decides it might be more fun for Ruby to do her work if she does it with Chloe. I don't really mind - though have said I don't want her to test Chloe, I am happy, if C is, for work to be done there. She came home with multiplication where she got 47/50 right (though Beccy marked it 48/50 so the girls had the same mark), a story planner with interesting spelling "sceliton", "seiad" (she used to write "sed" for "said", she now knows there's an "a" and and "i" there, just needs to drop the "e" and reorder the others) and a dancing routine. The dance form is fully attributed to Ruby and much thought has gone into it. The "Rutien" has the intro and the movements to the dance with a "Grand Finalay" and "Spech". There was a lot of writing and organisation so I am quite impressed. I'd known in advance as I bumped into a neighbour walking up the slip who told me she'd been to their show. Shows are getting better, they are better thought out and not the interminable experiences of the past.

Collected C, took her to tennis after which we went to have pasta at Trish's, took C, Megan and AL to Badgers, I came home and panic tidied (ie brought trugs into action - the lift and shift tidying technique), moved sofas into optimum tv screen watching positions, dusted and vacuumed, then collected Badgers peeps and dropped them off home, getting back just before friends arrived for a Mamma Mia evening.

C was most put out that she wasn't invited so she organised her own party, puroportedly with a better guest list than mine. Her attendees were, Daddy, yellow blanket, piggy, poley and various others. She organised party games and pilfered my party food collection. Mamma Mia was still good second time round (we were watching as Michelle has never seen it) though this set of friends are not very voluble on the singing front! It was largely me and even then I wasn't belting it out as I CAN'T SING. Jan's singing was very much missed. I had had quite a bit of wine though.

Thursday

Stitch and Sew, swimming and lifesavers.

C has been most excited watching all the sprouts sprouting in my tiered sprouting thing. She has been watching all her plants outside growing (potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes, spinach and sweet peas). Some have been more successful than others depending on the type of planter and how much water they've benefited from.