Off we go

by Dani

We’re setting off bright and early in the morning, so this is just to say farewell for a week or so. Everything is finally packed, in two big rucksacks, two small rucksacks, a bike trailer, and a coolbag. Plus we’ve got Pearlie’s bike, and a pop up tent for our gear to overspill into. I hope we can move about with all that – our plan is to walk between stations in London, rather than trying to negotiate escalators etc. The trailer and bike can be connected together, so one person can manage both those plus a rucksack. Should be OK.

The archaeological dig went well. Here’s the ring before it went into the ground.

Today was another group-filled day, with Kids Club for Leo (he and his friend R. made an epic film), another games session and Woodcraft Folk for Pearlie, and last minute shopping, packing,cleaning, and going to work (in Allie’s case) for us.

Pearlie asked an interesting question about whether you would be more likely to get sunburned if you were very tiny, which led onto a bit of conversation about surface area and volume at different scales, and about why doubling the area of something on a photocopier requires an enlargement of 141% (a number Pearlie recognised as the square root of 2).

Anyway, that’s all for now. See you on the other side!

Church, maths, history and more

On Tuesday evening we went to a local church to hear cousin S play the violin in her strings group. The church in question is ‘high anglican’ so it has lots of pretty bits and bobs around the place. After a little while, both the children produced pencils/pens and started to draw things. Leo was sitting beside me, quietly sketching away. He’d done the crucifix, various hanging things and then he started to draw a wall hanging of Saint Martin. Underneath the representation of the man, was his name in quite curly, old-fashioned writing. Leo finished his drawing and started to copy the writing and I had to stifle a bubbling giggle as he printed out, in nice, clear letters.

“SAINT MARGIN”

I think he would be the patron saint of the periphery.

There’s been a lot of excellent conversation going on here recently but, as usual, most is forgotten. On Wednesday morning I was walking along the road with Leo, when we got onto matters of belief, faith and proof. Leo is of the opinion that he should not question the existence of God in front of believers as he wouldn’t want to upset them.

Pearlie and I did some of an MEP maths book about multiplication involving numbers with digits to the right of the decimal point. This led to a conversation with Dani, in which she explained to me why one of the many rules of my school maths lessons actually works. Once again, I was struck by the fact that I memorised far more than I ever learned about maths. Anyway, Pearlie was happy with the stuff we covered, so she was pleased. She uses a box method for multiplication. We are doing this regular maths at the mo because, as I have mentioned, P is keen to know that she could handle all that the kids do at school. We are keen for her to know that we will give her any support she wants/needs in whatever she chooses. It’s good for me, because I’m learning things that I didn’t know I didn’t know! Maths will never give me the joy that writing does, for example, but I like the feeling of being on firmer ground in my own head.

Leo is very happy because Kids’ Club is planning an ‘archaeological dig’ in the sandpit next week. He wants to make a, rather intricate, object that he has seen in a history book. The plan is for the kids to discover the hidden things and discuss them. He went to bed very tired tonight as he was busy doing the Olympics at Kids’ Club today and then he and Dani had quite a long walk this afternoon, followed by playing with cousins and learning a new computer game.

Pearlie went to her 10-13s group again today and continued work on her board game. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished article. She also went to Woodcraft Folk tonight, where the group discussed motions for the Annual Gathering and instructed their leader on how to vote.

HESFES packing is well underway here. Right, too tired to think about anything else. Had a two and a half hour meeting at work this afternoon and my brain is jelly now. That is probably also because I stayed up until two last night watching a rubbish tv movie and spent this morning working on a new story. Time to fall asleep in front of This Week.

Enjoying my leave

I had a day off today and missed the discovery of an unexploded 2^nd ww bomb on the campus!

But, anyway, we had a lovely day. Leo went to Kids’ Club this morning and had a good time doing some treasure island themed things and playing with his chums. Pearlie and I popped to town to get a pressie for a friend of hers and them came home to brush up our division skills with an MEP book.

We met Dani at the cycling park, once she had finished work. It was wonderful weather and both the kids had a great time cycling about the place.

Pearlie took some beautiful photos of things like bluebells and damsel flies - but I'll let her blog those. Leo got more and more confident and was whizzing off, away from us, in no time.

Yesterday deserves a quick mention. Kids had Squeezebox sessions and Leo went to Green Pig writing group. We also spent a few hours in the park with lots of home edders and scoffed cafe treats.

We are having lots of great conversations at the mo but I can’t remember any details to blog, I’m afraid!

Our new tent arrived today. It is wonderfully old fashioned looking object with the kind of poles that tents had in my childhood, rather than the spindly things they have these days. We need to find some time to get to a park in a quiet moment so we can have a go at pitching it.

Weekend

It’s been a fab weekend here.

On Friday night, Dani and Pearl went to see friends in a gig. They did very well, apparently. While they were there, Leo and I went to the cinema to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. I remember reading those to Leo several years ago and not being hugely impressed. But, the film was very good indeed. The creatures were brilliantly done and it was well acted. I was particularly pleased to find it had Mary Louise Parker in it. Leo has re-read most of one of the ones we own, in a single sitting, this evening. He also spent some birthday money on a little book based on the movie. During the weekend he has also made himself a beautiful little Field Guide – like the one in the story. He’s written little descriptions of various creatures and done drawing to go with each.

On Saturday, I had to go to work. Dani and the kids had friends A and C to play. They had a great time playing at home and making mud soup in the park. I came home to excited kids performing rather strange little sketches for the adults.

Today I didn’t have to work because the uni term doesn’t start again until tomorrow. Dani and I have decided we have done all the painting we can face and declared our room finished so we spent some time tidying and organising. I am so happy that we now have this finished room – four walls, door, everything!

Dani's Kandinsky picture finds a wall - at last!

I have decided that the green isn't showing through - I hope! It took three coats of yellow.

It isn't suffering to badly from boxitis. Or, if it is, at least they are tidy...

In the afternoon we popped round to see local cousins S and D. My brother was struggling with a curtain rail. We drank tea and chatted to S and D’s mum. Pearlie and her cousin S were devising codes based on different number bases. This isn’t something we’ve ever talked about much but P picked it up quickly and wrote a list of numbers in base three up to thirty. Leo and cousin D did some lovely dragon drawing. When all the kids had gone outside and got muddy, we came home.

I made roast spuds, steamed broccoli and carrots, frozen peas and green beans, tinned sweetcorn and cold Quorn chicken for tea. No matter how many roast potatoes are made they are all, always, eaten! It's been a great day for veg eating here. Pearlie was thrilled to find Lamb's Lettuce at lunchtime and Leo declared the tea-time broccoli 'delicious'.

While I was cooking, the others played a game Leo was given for his birthday – Sardines. It is a visual memory game so P walked it. She can just remember what she sees. I think it was about eighteen months ago that she memorised all the flags of the world. I wonder how many she can still remember?

Dani is working away on this massive blanket project that will apparently use up lots of wool. It is looking wonderful.

Pearlie blogged tonight, which involved the scanning in of photos. Check out her blog.

OK, got to watch The English Patient. I went through a real Michael Ondaatje phase before the movie was made and didn’t expect to like the film. But it is very captivating to watch – especially Kristen Scott Thomas.

Partay!!

Yesterday we spent the day getting unpacked, doing some laundry, shopping, baking and icing a cake, re-painting a stairway, cleaning out the guinea pig, tidying bedrooms, sorting out heaps of recycling… It is amazing how much four people can achieve if they just work all day long! Oh yeah, and we didn’t even work all day long because Dani and Pearlie investigated how the length of a pendulum affects the frequency of its swing. They plotted their results on a graph. Leo flopped about watching various things on his new DVD player.

Today we had a local(ish) family gathering in honour of Leo’s birthday. There were six grandparents, two uncles, an aunt, three cousins and the four of us. We provided lots of tea and heaps of party food, which has largely been eaten. It was lovely to spend some time with family and the kids had a great time. The girls organised an easter egg hunt for the boys. There was hide and seek and similar games, involving children behind and under virtually every chair!

Leo got some lovely presents from everyone. He got a Doctor Who fob watch, Primeval series one on DVD (he has watched most of it tonight!), a Iorek Byrnison action figure, some found roller blades, a clinometer and length of pipe that can be set up to catch the sun, book tokens and cash. Thanks to all.

We’re off to the British Museum tomorrow, which is Leo’s choice of birthday trip. Better get some sleep soon. I feel vaguely sick from the amount of party food I’ve been grazing on all day. Luckily, I found the stash of cakes and biscuits that the boys had hidden in Leo's room to 'eat another day'...

Too busy to blog... again...

It’s been very busy round here lately. Here’s some stuff that’s been going on…

On Saturday, Pearlie went on a bouldering trip with Adventure Unlimited, to Harrison’s Rocks. This would have been higher climbing but it was too wet. She went with a friend from Woodcraft (the only two girls, apparently) but happened upon several boys she knows from other places. She had a great time.

While Pearlie was there, Leo went to a friend’s house to play. They watched some old Doctor Who together, as well as the start of Jurassic Park. (Luckily, Leo and Dani happened upon a copy in a charity shop yesterday, so he’s seen it all now.) They also went under covers and told each other very scary stories by torchlight.

I was at work and so Dani had a couple of hours alone in town. She bought a beautiful wool coat, ‘vintage’ velvet jacket and black/black baseball boots. This was all in honour of the evening…

Once the kids had finished climbing and playing with friend, we dropped them round at their cousins’ house for a sleepover. We ate a quick meal and went out to an International Women’s Day disco. Sadly, this was not the exciting event we’d hoped it would be. I have amazing memories of an 8^th March cabaret event in Leeds where this tiny, stocky, leather dyke put on a big wig and belted out Shirley Bassey numbers. This didn’t really come close… So, we had a quick drink there, cut our losses and went to the pub. Pubs are much better now they’re not full of smoke, aren’t they? Then we came home and watched some series three L Word episodes. It was lovely to have some time to ourselves. We talked about how lucky we are and thought about other women who aren't. (There is a petition online but I'm not sure how current it is.)

Sunday was pretty quiet. I went to work exhausted. I can’t imagine how I used to go to work on so little sleep when I was younger. D and the kids relaxed at home.

Yesterday, Pearlie went to Kids’ Club in the morning and to the grandmothers’ in the afternoon. At Kids’ Club she did some work on a magazine they’re making. At the grandmothers’ house she played a French game they’ve been making together – as well as cards and with the trusty, red animals. The red animals arrived in the family in my childhood. They came from Terry, who was a sort of adopted family member, having been on my mum’s caseload when she was a social worker in the 1950s. He had a succession of factory jobs and the red animals were meant to go singly into cereal packets, I believe. He arrived with a big bag full. That was always the way with Terry. When he worked as a meat packer he used to turn up with huge joints. He was such a skinny bloke, I guess there was plenty of room under his jacket! Anyway, those red animals have provided hours and hours of play for children in the family, for the last thirty five years.

Leo and I had a lovely morning at home. We did some maths together and I was amazed at the increase in his speed and skill in things like subtracting two digit numbers in his head. Then he did some more excavating for plastic dinosaur bones, while I read him some of the book we’re sharing. I wasn’t too sure of these books at first (they’re full of American childhood cultural references, so a bit hard to grasp at points) but they are actually very clever. I like the way the author has taken realities of modern children’s lives (like absent parents and diagnoses of ADHD etc) and held this ancient mythological glass in front of them. Leo is picking up loads about mythological monsters and likes to check on the free Guardian wallchart we got recently, to see if there’s a picture of each one that gets mentioned.

In the afternoon, I hurriedly sploshed a bit more yellow paint on our bedroom walls (yes, we’re still decorating that room!) and then went to work. Dani and Leo did some more experiments from his Christmas chemistry set. So, the kitchen is now full of crystals growing and stuff in test tubes.

Pearlie’s forays into the world of veganism are proving a bit of a mixed bag. She’s happy with vegan marg on her bread and toast, which is good. She had some soya yogurty stuff which she said was ok. We all tried some Cheezly vegan cheese and found it revolting! Dani made some of her lovely bread on Sunday, which is super-nutritious.

P is off tidying her room at the mo, as a friend is coming to play on Thursday. The living room is covered in piles of stuff as we are mid-pack for our holiday at the end of the week. There are a hundred things I should be doing, but I think I’ll have a cup of tea. Oh, fab, Leo has washed up all the breakfast things.

No title

I found yesterday a bit draining. I was on the rota as parent helper at Kids’ Club, which was fine. The sunny weather meant outdoor play – drawing life size outlines of dinosaurs, in chalk, on the ground. But it was chilly and at times I felt my lack of ability in handling ups and downs in groups of kids.

I rushed off to work for a presentation by a supplier. Had to leave that early (which is embarrassing when someone has travelled miles to give you their spiel) to do an enquiry desk session with new colleague. Spent a while floundering when trying to find source of quote by Francis Bacon (why do we mess things up when we’re being watched?), only to have it rejected by student as ‘too old’. Entirely my fault for not checking that student had vague notion of who Francis Bacon was when she presented me with the quote in the first place. Ho Hum.

During the evening, as I battled with inbox and heap in my post tray, I was afflicted with sneezes. It was odd – great bouts of sneezing for no apparent reason. At least it was entertaining for my colleagues. Librarians are easily amused. Anyway, staggered through to end of day and we went to bed when the kids did. After ten hours of sleep I feel ok(ish) – just a bit congested.

Dani and the kids had a bit of a stressful afternoon too. A sudden row disrupted plans to go swimming. All was calm by the time I got home. Pearlie had plaited herself a lovely bracelet out of embroidery silks and finished it with a home-made paper bead.

Tuesday was a good day. Kids each had an individual session at Squeezebox, as the rest of their band members are away this week. I spent half an hour reading to Leo, while P had her lesson. I spent half an hour doing fractions with Pearl, while Leo had his lesson. We looked very LEA approved…(joke, joke, I know we don't need approval.)

Leo had a super time playing Primeval with friends, in the park. Pearlie came home with a friend as they were both too cold – and played in her room. She set up a cable car for her Sylvanians. Leo went to Little Green Pig, where he wrote limericks, apparently. This led to limericks over the dinner table in the evening. I have to be watched or they get rude. Well, if you have a family member called Dani…

Monday included a trip to the grandmothers’ for Leo. Pearlie bought a new notebook – something that keeps happening here! She’s enjoying having a new blog. Thanks to all who’ve paid her a visit. Oh, yeah, and I went to town in search of jeans. D and I have a night out planned. I got a pair of brand new Levi’s in a charity shop for a fiver. This was after I almost laughed in the face of spaghetti-shaped sales assistant in the Gap. Here’s a tip for all such beings:

“Woman of thirty seven years, who is five foot nothing, with big bum, is not interested in skinny jeans.”

Busy

Very busy here at the mo. Dani and I have just grabbed an hour to sit and make lists together – as we were in danger of running up against deadlines.

Lots of happy stuff going on here at the moment.

Pearlie made a beautiful dressing gown for one of her bears. I will blog a picture when I can find the camera…She had a fab time in the park on Tuesday afternoon – playing cops and robbers with a big gang of kids. She and I enjoyed a morning together – buying cakes at the bakers, doing some stuff about fractions in an MEP year 7 book, playing rummy and chatting. She’s enjoying a series of books that appear to be quite teenage.

Leo has made a network of ‘CCTV cameras’ around the house – including a control box and taping device in his room. He also had a wonderful time in the park on Tuesday, playing Primeval with some friends. He went to writing group, which P has decided to drop. A man came in (Leo couldn’t remember his name) to read them the beginning of a story (Leo can’t remember what it’s called) and encourage them to continue it themselves.

Here’s Leo’s story.

“He opened the door. He saw a red and black treasure chest. It was padlocked. He looked up and found a digging fork. He pulled it down and stuck a prong into the lock hole. It twisted, and fell to the ground with a clang. A light switched on in a bedroom. He had to be fast. He grabbed the chest and the lock, and closed the door behind him. Then he crept up the stairs and dived into his room. He jumped into bed and hid under the covers, about to open the chest. He pulled up the heavy lid and let it land on the blankets. He saw a bundle of cloth. He pulled a scrap off it and it began to unravvel. He saw a small furry stoat, whimpering in the moonlight. He promised the small animal he would bring it some of his supper the next day.”

Leo declared himself bored of sandwich lunches when he’s at Kids’ Club and we have tried to rise to the challenge. Yesterday he had gujerati carrot salad and sweetcorn risotto. Today, Dani got up early to make creamy potato salad.

Got to go to work now.

Science and dancing and a bang on the head

On Sunday morning, Dani got the kids up and out to cross town to visit the Brighton Science Festival. They saw lots of cool stuff. Leo designed a chair and made a model of it out of paper. He also saw some silk worms, apparently. Not sure that Pearlie was as keen on the event.

I was at work in the afternoon and rushed into town on the bus afterwards, to meet the others for another bus east. We were headed to a seafront café a few miles along the coast, where a friend was having her eleventh birthday party. This was a lovely event - but sadly marred for us by Leo tripping over a skateboard while playing a chasing game in the dark outside. It was one of those horrid moments when you thought something was a bad idea (kids running about on uneven surface in very dark area) but didn’t say anything. He grazed his face (forehead and nose) and got wet and muddy as he fell into a puddle. He screamed and was very shaken. He told me this morning that he thought that all the water running down his face was blood and it was too dark for him to see. We cleaned him up and he sported a big, blue catering plaster on his forehead! He’d just eaten some chocolate birthday cake and he went very pale… Happily, a kind friend offered to drive me and Leo home. He perked up in the warm car but went very shaky again as I got him into bed. I think it was just exhaustion – as he is fine today. We’ve got the plasters off and none of the grazing is very deep at all.

Today, Pearlie has gone off to Kids’ Club, where a local environmentalist and campaigner is coming in to talk to the kids. She’s taken in a clipping from our local newspaper, of a letter by my mum. The grandmothers are opposing a development in their street, which eliminates a small green corridor beside the railway line. It is a horrible, money grabbing thing, cramming people onto this little scrap of land, down a steep slope. The access will be by means of a lift! The land has had slow worms, and other wildlife – though the developer seems to have slung a load of weed killer over the site now.

After Kids’ Club Pearlie’s off to visit the grandmothers. Leo is having a day at home – making comics and so on. He is a bit miffed to find that a ‘design a monster’ competition on the Primeval web site is only open to people over ten. I helped him do some maths in an MEP book this morning – something he’s quite keen on at the mo. I’m having a lazy time – until I have to go to work – as I can feel a migraine lurking. This is no surprise, really, as I had a huge adrenaline rush and swinging blood sugar yesterday night. We’re expecting Dani home from work any minute. She’s popped up to the post office to collect a parcel, which I hope is our new duvet set. Something very strange has happened to me recently – and I chose a duvet with embroidered flowers on it. I used to be much more into primary colours and plain things but this seems to be changing with age. If I start to like doilies I think it will be time to end it all…

Catch up

Catching up again…

I worked both days of the weekend – and felt a bit out of sorts with some sort of vague illness.

Pearl spent a large chunk of Saturday playing with her cousin S – in the park and round at her house. Leo had one of his friends round to play – one of the many J’s he knows! This was a fine Dalek and toy rat fest in his room and L was very pleased to see his friend.

Dani and I had been planning to go out on Saturday night to a women’s club night. I felt too crap to enjoy that, so we stayed at home with a takeaway. We got curry from one of our favourite places and it was a bit disappointing – seemed like packet naan bread!

Pearlie went out on Sunday too – a cinema trip in honour of cousin S’s birthday. They saw the Simpson’s Movie again, which P enjoyed. She came home tired out and well fed on pizza, chips and cake.

Dani and Leo went into town in search of Car Free Day events. Leo was really looking forward to riding on a Segway – as the Doctor rides on one in The Runaway Bride. There he was, in full Doctor Who costume, and they turned him away because he was under twelve. He had a good cry about that but there was no way round the rule, so they came home again.

Monday was another open session at MMs – with loads more new people. The venue we use had just had a new bouncy castle delivered and the staff asked if we’d like to try it out for them. So we did! I hope the new families don’t expect such things every week.

I had to go on to work from MMs. Now that term has started I work until 8pm – and I was pretty tired by then.

Pearlie went to Kids’ Club where one of the kids brought in a magazine about an acid desert, which sounds horrible! She then went on to the grandmothers’ house, where she did some French.

Leo went to Woodcraft in the evening. He did some map making there, which he seemed to enjoy. His map included the Tardis at regular intervals!

Today has been a good day. Dani went off to work and the kids and I cracked open a pack of balsa wood and got making. They both made little beds – Leo for his newest toy rat and Pearlie for a Sylvanian creature. The kids appreciated the softness of the wood and the ease with which they could saw and tack it. Leo rattled out creations (a bedside table for his rat and a ‘community table’ for all the rats to share) and also enjoyed just banging in tacks and playing with the wood. Pearlie took accurate measurements and took great care in producing her bed (with headboard) and then a ticket booth for entrance to Sylvania.

I played them selected songs on You Tube while they worked. We all like Mika’s Grace Kelly. I had a moment of despair at all the rampant homophobia in the comments – but decided not to let it bring me down.

The kids had a fantastic session at Squeezebox. Their band has recently started playing without the support of their teacher – and they have really come into their own. Three out of the four of them are singing, which means less pressure on one of them and really fills out the sound. They were told that they have a guaranteed place in the gig so left on a high.

We spent the afternoon in the park with an assortment of other home edders – lots of chat and play.

Bedtimes at the moment feature The Magicians of Caprona for Dani and Leo. Pearlie and I finished the MEP maths book on linear equations and are now doing word puzzles out of an old Nelson spelling book that I acquired in a stock weed at work. P and I got on really well with the linear equations book – certainly ended it far better equipped to tackle such things than we were before. The only sticky moments were around negative numbers – and we’ve decided to do a MEP book on that at some point soon.

Oh, I keep meaning to mention a little conversation I had with Leo the other day. Leo is not really a one for puzzle or work books – unless they overlap with a current passion. This means that we’ve done very little in the way of maths books with him. He still isn’t interested in adding things in columns, for example. However, the other day he told me that he knew that 50% was a half, which was the same as five tenths or four eighths or ten twentieths. He also knew that 1.5 was one and a half and that eight was half of sixteen. He tends to do quite a lot of calculations in his head as we go about in the world. These often relate to time or money – and are sometimes quite mysterious. Today, as he was sitting on the bin in the park, he said:

“Do you know how old I am in Ducky Years?”

“Erm, no.”

“Forty two.”

So, that’s Leo’s approach to maths!

Pearlie went to swimming club tonight, where her usual elderly teacher was absent and a girl of about sixteen took her place. Sad to say she was quite hopeless – lacked the pace and direction needed to keep everyone focused and active.

Anyway, must drink tea and sleep. Sorry it’s a rambling catch up – such is life at the mo.

Daleks in West Sussex

Leo and I had a lovely time at Monster’s Doctor Who extravaganza. Everyone seemed to have a camera, so no doubt it will be extensively Flickred, but here’s a couple from me.

All hail to Mrs MT for phenomenal amounts of preparation, and a truly splendid dalek.

Other doings this week have included:

• Pearlie and her cousin S. have started a stop-frame animation project, which seems to be going well.
  
• MMs, Capoeira and Kids Club resumed – they are going to be designing houses at Kids Club. Swimming and Squeezebox continued.
  
• Some happy Sylvanian and lego play.
  
• Leo and I began our planned cooking project with some hearty pizzas.
  
• An afternoon of swimming and library, which is another new planned routine. Both kids were pleased to get their Big Wild Read certificates and medals.
  
• Allie went back to work after her summer break.
  
• A man came to talk about kitchens, and things are progressing nicely on that front.

Books we’re reading:

I’m reading Leo The Magicians of Caprona at bedtime, while Allie and Pearlie are working through MEP Book 7B, Unit 16 at the moment, instead of a story. Leo snaffled up Horrid Henry’s Nits on the day he borrowed it from the library and is now on Goodbye Tommy Blue. He’s enjoyed finding and reading the whole Shock Shop series at the library. Allie finished Chronicles of Fairacre and is now reading Naming the Dead. Pearlie’s in the middle of Coram Boy. I’m between books, but keeping busy with knitting projects.

TTFN

We’re off on holiday in the early hours of Tuesday morning, so probably won’t get a chance to post tomorrow.

In the last couple of days we have been:

• Doing a bit of algebra, and thinking about prime factors
• Reading a book about ancient Crete
• Not learning any more Greek, even though we kept meaning to
• Having a lovely time at a friend’s 11th birthday party
• Scared witless by Doctor Who
• Enjoying the Springwatch event at Stanmer Park (this was just Pearlie, who went with her aunt and cousins and had a great time).
• Playing a very long Doctor Who/daleks/Sylvanians game with friend J (this was just Leo!)
• Packing
• Stuffing ivy into the compost bags that eventually arrived
• Shopping for last minute holiday things
• Swimming with cousins
• Tidying and cleaning the house, so it’s not such a terrible tip when we get back

… and no doubt lots of other things that I have now forgotten.

See you all in a week or so!

Bits from the scraps box

Here are some random things that have happened recently and never made it to the blog.

The kids made homes for solitary bees out of tin cans and rolled up strips of newspaper.

The huge tangle of ivy got pulled off the back wall of our garden by the wind, and brought our washing line down. Allie and I then spent several happy hours balanced on ladders with a hacksaw, and later with some fearsome long-handled secateurs trying to cut it down. Now our garden is full of ivy branches and we are being ignored by the community compost scheme who promised to bring us bags to put it all in.


We went swimming.

Leo has been doing some beautiful pictures.


I ran a session at Leo’s Woodcraft Folk, where we made soda bread and butter to eat with it.

I printed the latest edition of HEdline News, and put it up on HEdline’s new website.

Here’s a picture of our teapot, by popular request.


Pearlie has been helping out around the house – washing up, putting clothes on the line, clearing the table, etc.

I am enjoying knitting my Penrose Tiles blanket. Here it is so far. I was going to stop there, but it’s not big enough to be a blanket, so I’ve revised my design and am carrying on until I run out of wool.



Allie got stylish new glasses.

We all watched a lovely DVD of the Minotaur story.

My new bike trailer arrived. Our tickets for Crete didn’t. We are supposed to be flying next Tuesday and are feeling quite anxious.

Doctor Who was great – the best this series, I reckon.

Leo is becoming quite speedy on his scooter.

Allie and Pearlie finished Granny Reardun and are now on Barnaby Grimes: The Curse of the Nightwolf. Leo and I are still working our way through Eldest. I read Miss Garnet’s Angel and Mr Golightly’s Holiday.

We set up Pearlie’s webcam and she had a brief video conversation with her cousins in Leicestershire. It didn’t work very well, but they were all excited to be able to see each other.

Tuesday in the rain

Tuesday was another rainy day here. I don’t mind this as I think we need the rain – but the kids are getting a bit fed up with lack of outdoor play.

Leo started the day with a couple of scrambled eggs. He made them himself – with a bit of support from me. Pearlie had some Weetabix and they both helped drain the orange juice lake that had formed in the fridge!

Leo added some new creations to his Doctor Who toys. He used an old cereal box to make the interior of the Tardis, old silver foil to make a destroyed Cyber Controller and he drew a destroyed Dalek and a Cyber Leader. He made an exhibition poster inviting people to see his display.

Pearlie is spending a lot of her time adding things to her new personal organiser. She bought this herself and loves it. This reminds me of Dani – a love of schedules, diaries, and organisation generally.

Both the kids put in some time practicing their instruments. They are both feeling quite confident about the gig at the moment.

After a quick lunch we set off in the drizzle for their Squeezebox session. We called for another band member on the way and the drizzle turned to serious rain before we got to the studio.

Their band is sounding good. They are playing a mix of stuff at the gig – ‘Patience’ by Take That, ‘Holiday’ by Green Day and ‘Hardest Button to Button’ by The White Stripes.

Back at home I helped Leo work on a Cyberman and Dalek poster – by finding images on the internet. He cut those out, glued them to his poster and added text and drawings.

Pearlie went to watch TV but accidentally missed the Roman Mysteries – much to her annoyance.

I was working away on some pasties for tea (lazy shop bought pastry but home made fillings) when Leo revealed, tearfully that he thought I’d said I was making pasta – which he fancied much more than pasties. I decided to be accommodating and made him pasta (using the pasty filling as sauce), and two different kinds of pasty for me, Dani and Pearlie. Pearlie likes cheese and potato pasties and I also made a veg version with black eye beans, tomato, onion and courgette. I made some little tartlets with spare filling and some cheesy pastry too.

After that we were all full!

Pearlie, Dani and I planned out an article that we are going to submit to our local community newsletter. We have measured the street (got one of those wheel thingies and P did most of it), cars, pavements and so on and done some interesting calculations. We want to highlight the way the streets have become dominated by cars – and how the traditional play space of local children has been lost as a result. We have found an account from a 1930s childhood of a local child, which talks about play in the street. We live in an area with terraced houses that open straight onto the street and back yards/gardens of about 6m by 5m. There is no way the children can run in the garden, or play in a group of more than two or three – so in previous generations they played in the streets. Sometimes I feel our children are literally hemmed in by cars. Cars park bumper to bumper so sometimes we cross the street and find we can’t get back on the pavement. Anyway, I’ll save all that for the article!

I also followed a link that someone had put up on a list. It took me to some revision site for KS3 SATS, which I think are the ones people do at 13/14. Leo seemed perfectly able to manage most of the questions in the ‘English’ game. This was spelling, grammar and name the punctuation stuff. I was struck by the fact that several of the questions were no challenge at all to a middle class, southern, seven year old – just because they reflected the way he speaks. If he happened to speak differently he would have found them more of a challenge. What is really being tested?

I printed out an algebra worksheet and was looking through it. I was interested to see what I could remember and quite pleased with the method recommended to solve the equations. It was a typical maths moment for me – finding that I had was challenged by something that I must have done hundreds of times. I worked hard at school and got an A in my maths O level – but I never really understood much beyond simple arithmetic– just memorised methods. Pearlie came to see what I was doing and astonished me by looking over my shoulder at this equation:
39=3(2x-1)
and announcing, “x is 7”. It seems algebra is something she enjoys – no method, no writing, all in her head. We looked at a couple more and she solved an equation that involved negative numbers, and one where the answer was less than 1. Then she went to do something else.

Anyway, having trouble working on this pc – keeps struggling to be a pc! New hard disk should solve it in the next few days.

Camping, blading, digging, creating, thinking...

The weekend was a great one – for all of us.

Dani and Leo went on a Woodcraft youth hostel camp to Alfriston. They did canoeing, den building, pond dipping and a walk up to a white horse on a hill and listened to local legends. It was all very exciting and involved Leo getting soaked three times and bumping his head while fleeing from a wild chasing game. Dani said he was not the only casualty – she doled out a lot of plasters! They got home on Sunday – exhausted and with a pile of washing to do.

I had managed to get a weekend off work. Pearlie and I went off to investigate a home ed rollerblading meet up, which was near our family beach hut. Pearlie did really well – only one tumble – and she is keen to go again. It was lovely to spend some time at the beach hut. I hope we’ll get to spend lots of time up there this summer. Pearlie and I made pancakes for tea, watched Doctor Who and then Fawlty Towers.

On Sunday P and I ended up back at the beach hut, in the company of cousins. Poor cousin S fell over and got a long graze down her arm. The weather was amazing – like high summer.

Sunday night saw me making paper plate snappers to share with everyone at MMs, and Dani making flexagons for the Woodcraft session. Both went down quite well. Leo made a Dalek evolution flexagon, inspired by this week’s Doctor Who.

Monday was a lot of rushing about for everyone. Leo and I went to MMs, while P went to Kids’ Club and Dani to work. In the afternoon I went to work, Dani and Leo prepared for a Woodcraft session, and Pearlie went over to the grandmothers’. She did some French vocab revision and caught eleven newts in the neighbour’s pond. After Woodcraft they all came home but were tempted out again by the sound of the Morris Dancers from the pub at the end of the street. I missed my bus home and eventually got home at nearly nine to find them rolling in!

Dani was at work today. Pearlie and Leo both started the day with some music practice, while I ordered some food online. Leo then settled down to some book making – ‘The Dark Night of Death’ and ‘The Shadows of the Graveyard’. These are fact books about such charming things as zombies and vampires. I helped by finding ‘facts’ on the internet! Pearlie and I then looked at one of our maths books together. P decided she’d like us to go through a page on ratio. This became a good hour and a half, discussing ratio, fractions, decimals and percentages.

Then we realised it was lunch time.

After the kids’ Squeezebox session we went to the park, which was alive with home edders – at least ten families. It was hot and sunny again (yawn!) and the kids played for hours. Eventually they got involved in a lovely, collaborative sand creation. This was a mixed sex, mixed age creation involving digging and building and trips to the toilets for cups of water to add to the creation. In the end we stayed until Dani had finished work. She came to find us and we all ambled home.

Got to get some sleep now – another busy day tomorrow – but we’ve got seduced by ‘Dead Poets’ Society.’

Doctor Who and Mr Bean

I am feeling quite a bit better – and we’ve been enjoying the weekend.

We have done all the groups, as usual. The kids both enjoyed a workshop making light-switch covers at Kids’ Club. These are supposed to remind us to switch off lights we aren’t using.

Pearlie has been:

Doing loads of Kakuro.
Showing me how you could work out a percentage from a fraction. This was just a snippet of conversation and a quick sum on a bit of paper.
Collecting up lots of cuddly chicks and rabbits to sit in our front window for Easter.
Doing a bit of touch typing practice – using a free bit of software off the internet called Kiran’s Typing Tutor.
Putting in work on Club Penguin – she’s saving for an igloo upgrade!
Keeping a close eye on the news. – reading the paper and watching tv news a lot. She took the TES up to bed to read the nonsense stories on home ed.
P has also suggested that we have a ‘Greeks day' – like we have for Romans and Vikings in the past. She came up to my work and found resources for us to use.

Leo has been:

Reading lots of the books he got for his birthday, and ones he bought with birthday book tokens. There are so many of these I can’t remember them all! I know he read the ‘Horrid Henry’ collection in a flash, and gobbled up the latest ‘Captain Underpants’. He has read most of ‘Ottoline and the Yellow Cat’ and started on ‘The World According to Humphrey’. He is dipping in and out of a book of Doctor Who scripts from the time of Tom Baker – he is very impressed with this book.

Writing a great deal. He has been very pleased with a birthday pressie diary with an ‘invisible’ pen and revealing light. Of course, I have no idea what he’s been writing!

Here’s some of the things he’s written and shared with the rest of us.

First, a political piece – typed on the pc .

"Poo poo ruler:tony blair.
tony blair is a poo poo ruler . he caries on with trident and all his other ideas . even a cocroach would be a better ruler. If he wants to stay being the prime minister then he should brighten his ideas up. Also think about that demo about trident. He ignored it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Here’s a job advert for some of his toys – also typed on the pc. Sancatphrax is his rock city, currently dangling from the banisters.

"Sanctaphrax jobs for action figures 5 inch to 12 inch action figures can not go to the upper level bigger ones are welcome to the upper stage. Ask leo the pay."

Here’s a handwritten piece:

"Once upon a time an elf was walking along and tripped over a paving stone and he discovered a thick boot. A thick leg extended out from it. And a strange evil looking man stared at him."

I’m itching to know what happens next but no more has appeared.

Last night we had a roast dinner to celebrate the return of Doctor Who. It is great to have that series back.

Today we went to town to get clothes (needed) and books (rather more wanted than needed!) and replace Dani’s phone (five years old, so not bad by today’s standards). I had the irritating experience of trying on jeans marked ‘ankle length’ and they still trailed on the floor! Anyway, we all got sorted.

Then we went to see ‘Mr Bean’s Holiday’ – which we all enjoyed.

We’ve got a lot to prepare in advance of our trip to Edinburgh next weekend, so blog may get even thinner…

Full up life

Tuesday 27th March 2007

Full up life

It’s been a very full day. We got up slowly –Leo has been very tired for the last couple of days. I think it’s fall-out from his party – he was so excited and had such a great time. He eventually woke up at about ten. He set about writing thank you notes.
Pearlie spent the morning working on invitations to her party (their birthdays are five weeks apart) and trying to make sure that all the complicated instructions were clear! Leo watched some Class TV, which was a bit of a mixed bag. We like the old ‘Look and Read’ programmes and both the kids enjoyed a ‘Middle English’ programme last week. But today it was ‘Starship’. Here’s what the web site says about the aim of that programme:
the aim of making learning fun and provide plenty of opportunities for children to practise and remember things, as they prepare for their National Tests at the end of Key Stage 1.
All I can say is that the test element is very much to the fore. I eventually lost patience when they delivered the message that children should have their whole story mapped out before they embark on a piece of creative writing. Of course, that is because they need to complete their SATS writing in a restricted piece of time. The timed essay is a vital element in public exams, but isn’t it sad that children of seven should get the message that they should have their stories all mapped out before they start? I have written several stories that took me somewhere I had never planned to go – and they have often taught me something quite surprising about myself.. But there’s no time for self-discovery when you’ve got your KS1 SATS to complete.

The kids drifted off to their rooms to practice drums and keyboard respectively.

We had a quick lunch and then the kids spent a lot of time trying to get ready to go out to Squeezebox. When we finally got underway I realised we’d forgotten Leo’s folder and the cash we needed to pay for the lessons… We had, however, remembered the heavy skateboard with handle that Leo bought recently – joy!

Once we got to Squeezebox things perked up! P and her band had a really good session. I read some of ‘Eragon’ to Leo, while we waited for his class. I am quite looking forward to reaching the end of ‘Eragon’. It is a good book but I think it could have been edited quite ruthlessly and gained from it! I guess I’m not very used to the fantasy genre – the books always look like doorstops, so it must be necessary. I think I was rather spoiled by the ‘Edge Chronicles’, which are beautifully written and so well crafted that they never seem to drag. ‘Eragon’ does occasionally include passages that seem to have been written to impress… Mind you, who am I to criticise? I couldn’t begin to write such a thing!

While Leo had his class Pearlie and her band mates walked round to the park. I was a bit anxious about the big, dangerous roads, but P assured me she’d use all the crossings. She is very sensible and, of course, experienced at crossing roads. Being aware of traffic, kerbs, safe crossing points and all that is one of the benefits of living car free. Of course that doesn’t guarantee safety but I think that knowing all the routes we walk, and being so used to walking round town, does help her confidence.

Leo had a great session and is going to play with P’s band, in preparation for the June gig. We’ll see how that goes. But the one to one lessons have really helped him and he and the teacher are more used to each other now – so I think it’ll be fine. He told me today that Squeezebox is better than lots of chocolate bars and £20 pocket money a week – so I know he’s enjoying it!

After Leo’s session we went round to the park and found P running about with her friends. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the schools had just chucked out, so it was heaving. Leo ended up finding two cousins (B and D) and he was happy playing with them and various home ed friends. P accidentally dropped a heavy metal catch on her friend’s head but he seemed ok after a while – poor thing. I scoffed choccy cake and drank tea and chatted to people.

On the way home I was just pleading with the kids not to load me down with their possessions and run off , when I realised I was standing next to the LA home ed officer! Whoops!

When we got home P went out again to meet Dani from work, but somehow they missed each other. Then there was a ‘Fawlty Towers’ type half hour as they took it in turns to come home without each other! Poor Dani had taken a detour on her walk home, to post a letter, and missed P. Eventually they both came home together.

This evening Pearlie and I spent time doing Kakuro together and Dani and Leo played Mousetrap. P is very slick at doing Kakuro these days. Leo triumphed at Mousetrap – again!

Leo complained of a headache and ‘feeling hot’ at bed time. I really hope it isn’t the start of some illness. He’s gone to bed with a dose of Nurofen and one of those cool sheets on his head. We’ve never used those before but I got given some that came free with a nursing magazine at work!

Bloggily catching up and a bit about work

Here's an update, through the snotty haze of my cold...

Wednesday was a good one. In the morning Leo watched some of the schools' TV programmes – including Watch, which was about making books. He got out the Pritt stick and scissors and made a flap book all about spooky things in the night.

Meanwhile, Pearlie and I had taken a Maths book out into the hallway and started looking at it. Somehow we never really did look at it – but got sidetracked into written methods for division sums. Pearlie has a method she likes to use to multiply numbers – using boxes. She wanted to be able to somehow use this ‘in reverse’ to do division. When she couldn’t make this work we discussed the way that I do division sums. I know I’ve shown this to P before but we had a really good conversation about how and why it works. I remembered that I’d once seen a good illustration of this on the Portico blog – using a base ten set. We don’t have a base ten set so I drew pictures. But I think a base ten set would be a good thing to own – I can see it being useful for explaining and experimenting. Anyway, P and I enjoyed a bit of conversation and then we did use the book to find some sums to use the method we’d been discussing. It is odd that I remember there being a lot of fuss at school about ‘long multiplication’ and ‘long division’ and yet the distinction doesn’t really mean anything to P. She uses her box method for all multiplication of whole numbers and division is all the same to her if she’s dividing by 6 or 16.

I had to rush off to a meeting at work and Dani took the kids to Sports. After the session they went to the park, where one of the other kids got bitten by a dog. She was more frightened than hurt (luckily she was wearing jeans) but it was a horrible thing to happen.

Capoeira happened as usual and P played a good game with one of the adults.

Thursday is the day I barely see the family, as I do cleaning and then my real job. Dani was on the rota at Kids’ Club, where there was lots of outdoor play to take advantage of the sunshine.

When I got home tonight, P and I had the following conversation:

A: “How was Woodies?”
P: “It was the best ever.”
A: “What did you do?”
P: “I went to the pub with Callum.” (ten year old friend at Woodies)
It turned out they’d been touring local businesses begging for things to auction in aid of Comic Relief, rather than just training for adult life in this part of Brighton!

I don’t usually blog about work but I want to say a bit today. I have been working on enquiry desks for about 10.5 years now – in academic libraries. It has its down sides - every job does. But today I was struck, when helping train a new colleague, that I have learned loads from this part of my job. I help people find the right information sources, use the databases efficiently, locate the journal articles they need – and so on. But what I really enjoy is the fact that my role is essentially an enabling one and when I do it well people go away feeling more confident – more able. I do some teaching (in the sense of showing people how to use things - telling them things they didn’t know) at the moment when they really NEED to know the answers and have come to find them – and so what I’m telling them is usually very much appreciated. They then take what I’ve shown them and go away and use it for themselves – that’s the point of librarians like me. I think I’m lucky to have a job that enables me to be useful in that way – and I think that maybe there is a link with the way we home ed.