Making It Up

as we go along

Small steps

Education courtesy of science kits and jigsaw puzzles.

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One of the plus points of being sent items for review is that very often I can work them into our educational plans. So it was great that we were offered a Wild Science Lip Balm Laboratory for Big to take a look at, as there are all sorts of educational experiences in a kit like that.

First of all there’s the following instructions. Then there is some understanding of the science behind it all, plus the actual activities of the measuring, melting and blending. And at the end of it you actually have a product that you can use! Which is rather better than doing most science experiments that I remember from school 😉

Wild Science Lip Balm laboratory

Only criticism we had of the kit is that it suggests you heat water in a microwave to melt the wax beads, but gives no indication of length of time at power level. And in the end, we found using hot water from the kettle was far more effective, and even then the melting took a lot longer than described. It is true that it was a cold cold day, so the beads may well have been fairly well chilled, but apart from that, the kit worked well.

I liked the tray that contained everything and kept it organised. And unusually, it fits back in the box like this, rather than having to dismantle it again.

And here you have the scientist in action.

Big making lip balm with a Wild Science kit
ravensburger puzzleclub

So that was one educational activity. Independent working – although I was there. The second activity, a Ravensburger jigsaw for the Ravensburger Puzzle Club, turned out to promote cooperation and team work, and if you’ve got older children, you’ll know how important that can be!

It continued the laboratory theme 😉

The puzzle was great – not so complex as to put them off, but definitely challenging enough to interest them and keep them occupied for a while. So that’s a 200 piece XXL – ideally targeted at slightly inexperienced 8 and 12 year olds.

Ravenburger Loopy laboratory puzzle

I’m a big jigsaw fan, but it’s not something I get much chance to do these days. I couldn’t resist directing operations from the sofa though, just to get them started, with sorting out edge pieces and so on. Once Small was fully engrossed though, I pretty much left them to it. And the sense of achievement they both had when they got it finished was palpable. And since they refused to take it to pieces again immediately, it’s just as well we’ve got the Ravensburger Puzzlestore 😉

Home education or domestic servitude?

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One of the reasons given by the labour government for their investigations into home education and proposed legislation about it was to protect children from domestic servitude. I wonder what they’d have thought about the two hour home economics lesson that took place over yesterday and today, and resulted in Big providing tea for the family tonight?

She looked through our recipe books and chose macaroni and cheese with an apple crumble dessert. She wrote out shopping lists (which we obviously then forgot to take out with us!) and came with me to do the shopping. We substituted reginette pasta for macaroni (neither aldi nor lidl sell macaroni as far as I can tell) and pancetta for bacon as it was pre chopped. That was the only thing that pushed the price up actually, but otherwise it was a pretty cheap meal.

She did all the preparation – I helped her work out what order to do things in, and sat in the kitchen offering what I fondly hoped were helpful words of advice. I remember my first home economics lesson way back when – we made baked stuffed apples. I also remember my sister’s at the local comp, they made angel delight. From a packet.

We had to adjust the recipe somewhat – the dairy cookbook advised 75g of pasta to feed 4 which seemed somewhat optimistic. And the half pint of milk was a bit miserly sauce wise. I’ve suggested that she uses an exercise book to write up her versions of the recipes after she’s cooked them, then she should end up with a really good resource for the future. And of course she has to adapt for the finicky vegetarian in the family (that would be me 😉 ).

The apple crumble didn’t require any tweaking. And was lovely. As was the custard she made to go with it.

Basically, the meal was a success. And as such she wants to do it every Tuesday (that being the day that she has no evening activity, so actually has time to be in the kitchen). Which sounds like a definite result to me.

Actually, it’s been an excellent education day all round. Small is learning about nutritional needs and how to do research and structure an essay around it. I’m hoping this might also improve his eating and drinking habits. Smallest did crafts with Big while I was at osteopath (yes, dp was in the house, I didn’t just abandon them to look after each other before I get a second black mark against my name…) and I also bought a pair of scissors with soft handles and she spent quite literally hours cutting. Meaning the kitchen floor could do with a sweep now 😉 I do love the montessori approach with that sort of thing, recognising that children will spend time on a new skill that interests them. I foresee lots of little bits of paper in my future.

So, apart from the fact that all of this structured organised education rather gets in the way of me loafing about online during the day, it’s all good. And it’s the way it’s going to be from now. Lists are already written up for tomorrow 😉

Skinned knees and dry nappies.

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Today Smallest wore a pretty dress. She loves her pretty dresses. Unfortunately they don’t offer a lot of protection to the knee area, so when she tripped while we were out in the garden she skinned her knee pretty thoroughly. She was very brave about it, well, after the wailing stopped courtesy of a quick feed 😉 Her first skinned knee – seemed like quite a big milestone, but there was more to come.

Later on in the day she discovered she could get to her nappy, and try to take it off. Cue much chasing her around the house, trying to persuade her to either keep it on, or sit on the potty. In the end we compromised with a sit on the potty, then a dry nappy on, with the promise of more sitting on the potty after tea. And when we did that (a good couple of hours later on) the nappy was dry, and the wee went in the potty. Obviously we all had to make impressed noises and tell her what a clever girl she is.

Two big milestones in one day. Smallest is suddenly growing up. It’s a bit scary actually – the language is coming in leaps and bounds, we have phrases as well as just words. Actually, most of the phrases are commands. So we get “sit down Mummy” or “come now” to do whatever it is she wants somewhere else. There are new words daily, and this evening Small was reading with her and was very proud to tell me that she can say “donkey” and “house”.

Small had a lovely evening with her. Big isn’t well, and has spent most of the day in bed (am hoping it’s a quick bug, but keeping a close eye on her) so Small got to spend time with Smallest on his own. It doesn’t happen often, and we were both impressed at how well he manages. (When I say on his own, I’d like to point out that I mean without Big running the show, both Tim and I were in attendance, we didn’t clear off and leave an 8 year old in charge ;).) He played ball, read books, did “pinning” (spinning around until you all fall down) and generally was enchantingly entertaining. It was very cute.

They all are. And now, because whatever it is that Big has got is creeping up on me, I’m off to bed too. I have to grab every chance for snuggling with my baby girl in her bedside cot, before suddenly she’s all grown up and sleeping in her own bed without me.

Hectic hurried days.

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Have had a couple of horriedly hectic days this week, with appts in far flung places and odd gaps in between. Fortunately have managed to fill some of the gaps with friends, like the Puddles and the Beans 🙂 It’s cost a fortune in diesel as well – meaning that when I can I drive veeerrrrry sloooowwwwly to get better efficiency. It does work, but it’s mind numbing.

I was beyond tired when I got to bed last night, and then had an awful night with Smallest – first time in ages. I think it was all the driving around that did it, with short odd naps folded up in her car seat iyswim. So I didn’t feel an awful lot better when I got up this morning, with another appt to go to, then back for only a couple of hours before tramping down to the leisure centre for yet another instalment of rookie lifeguard.

It’s just as well Big started rookie in September rather than waiting til this year. She’s two lessons off finishing the standard course now, with just her gold challenge test session and then the 1500m test session to go. Oddly her teacher had been preparing them for the mile, and I know that a child in her swim squad did just that in March, but when the letter came out it only said 1500. I’m going to ring up and query it, as she’s ever so disappointed to think she might not get that. I don’t care if they’ve discontinued the badge, they can let her swim the extra four lengths and write it up themselves if necessary!

So that’s the water related news. Although I’m not sure if I mentioned that when we were at a sandy beach at the weekend Smallest paddled for the first time (I know I shared the image) and had to be carried out of the water shivering and screaming to go back in 😆

Small has had a tough week, but it was hugely brightened this morning by the arrival of Shadowmagic: Prince of Hazel and Oak, ostensibly for me to review, but in reality it looks like he’ll be doing it. I won the first last year and he stole that and read it, emailing the author, John Lenahan, to say it was one of the best books he’d ever read. (For his age he has actually read quite a lot of books. He’s not desperately discriminating though 😉 ) Anyway, it kept him very happy in the car today, so that was a huge bonus. Thank you Friday Project, full review to follow very soon.

Not been a good week for the garden – accidentally left the seedlings out overnight instead of returning to the porch and something ate several of them 🙁 Tomorrow I must see what I can salvage. That’s if I remember to bring them in tonight.

And I do believe we might get some rain too. That would be good. I miss it.

Kentwell and 1553.

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Today I dragged the children out of bed just after 7, nearly three hours earlier than their preferred rising time in order to drag them 45 mins across country to an open day for potential re-enactors at Kentwell Hall. It was a cold start to a long day, as we drove the bright sun was scaring the frosts of ploughed earth into wisps of mist, setting a scenic background to our travels.

I’d have appreciated it if that had been as interesting as the journey got, but sadly Smallest decided to license up the proceedings further by regurgitating her early breakfast banana all over her lambswool jumper 🙁 She seemed fine once she’d done, the jumper not quite so good. Thankfully we made it the rest of the way without further incident, pulling up to park a couple of cars away from our friends Marcus and Michelle with their daughters. Big was thrilled to catch up with them as it was the first time she’d seen C since her stay in France.

First order of the day obviously a cuppa as we started to gather and peruse handouts on making authentic Tudor costume. For my sins I have 4 of us to clothe, and even if I make everything from scratch the whole venture is going to set us back a couple of hundred pounds – I’m not up to making shoes, and we’ll also need wooden bowls, pottery cups, knives, spoons and other sundries. A friend and experienced Kentwellie, Katy had managed to snap up a secondhand kirtle that she thought would do for me, so at least that’s a start.

Tea drunk, time for the first talk of the day, this one aimed at new participants. A chat about how Kentwell came to host re-enactments and how they work, and what we could expect from the rest of the selection process. And then we were sectioned off into small groups and sent off for a tour with one of the existing participants, getting the real lowdown on the house and its immediate environment. Tbh, if we don’t get to go any further, the tour made today’s trip out worthwhile. Although both Big and I would still be very upset to not make the cut.

After the tour another talk, this time a briefing on the chosen year, 1553. Big and I have been doing research on it already – it’s an exciting year! Three monarchs, including the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey, and Kentwell in the middle of the region in the thick of it all.

And then we had lunch 😉

Actually to be more accurate and then we queued for lunch. And while we were queueing I caught up with dyers and weavers – two of the stations that I’m most interested in. Regular readers will know that I’m quite into my yarn crafts – goes right back to carding and spinning wool at primary school, round about the same age I learnt crochet from my step-grandmother. The queue moved very slowly so I also had plenty of chance to chat to friends and the kids had lots of time to explore around the house.

After lunch, a chat for new participants this time more about the shape of a day during a recreation, with a Q and A session. And then more queueing, this time for a personal meet with the head of Kentwell, who does a quick interview with every applicant which feeds into the decision he makes as to nay or yay and if yay, what the station will be.

I’m hoping for something working with wool. Big was as well, but as it’s preferred to give older children a bit more distance from their parents, if I get woolshed or felting, she may well get something else entirely. Cross that bridge when we come to it I suppose.

And very eventually, we wended our way back to the car and home – last off the site (along with our friends 😉 ) Admired the supermoon on the way home, but didn’t stop for pics, only for food at macdonalds when we were nearly back. And now I’m flagging, but the baby is still bouncing frantically around the floor. I’m hoping this blogpost isn’t as disjointed as I suspect it is, but I’ve been interrupted half a dozen times when writing it, and rather lost the thread.

I wanted to talk about everything I think we’re getting out of this process. An enthusiasm for history. Bringing the past to life. Chance to socialise with ppl from all walks of life, learn new (and very old) skills, understand politics, conservation, all sorts really. But I think I might have to leave that for another time when my brain is working. And instead, I’ll finish with a pic. Always a good way to end.