time in the garden

Due to a busy week planned next week we're having most of this week at home. On Monday we did our usual round of gymnastics, lunch with friends and swimming. At gymnastics Little was very pleased that she won the handstand competition. Small is chuffed that he can still do a backwards roll into straddle stand. They also had loads of fun doing teddy bear rolls with their partners. Little's partner was a girl who had not been before so Little made a new friend there, and Small bonded with his partner over their shared unwillingness to be doing gymnastics that morning. After gymnastics we went to see our friend K and the sprogs spent time dressing up, playing on the climbing frame and kicking a football around her garden. When she went to pick her boys up from school we walked to another friend's house who's cat had a litter of kittens last week so that the kids could peer in to see them. While Little and Small were having their swimming lesson I went and signed them up for a week's intensive lessons during the summer. I hadn't realised that the lessons would stop over the summer holidays, but I hope a week's intensive course might help them both. When we got home Podd had put some pasta on to have with our sausage casserole that I put in the slow cooker that morning.

Yesterday and today have been largely spent the same. Some playing, some gardening, some cooking, some Reading Eggs/Eggspress, some Minecraft. I really love the fact that we can just talk about whatever we want to for as long as we want. Yesterday we caught a bumblebee in our dining room. We trapped it in a cup and then transferred it into a jar so we could see it's features. It had a yellow stripe on its thorax, another on the top of its abdomen and an orange bum. Then today we caught another bumblebee in the living room. This one was very similar except it's stripes were brighter and it had a white bum instead of an orange one. We had a look on www.bumblebeeconservation.org and identified the one we saw yesterday as an Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) and the one we caught today as a White-Tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). This lead to a conversation about how bumblebee nests differ from honey bee nests, and how both are different from lone bees. We also talked about life cycles and what bees need and what they do (which involved a quick recap on pollination and how flowers reproduce), and we then talked about why bees are declining. We agreed to plant more flowers to help the bees, and Little suggested building some bee nest boxes (you can use bird nest boxes or build a bee specific one with an entrance lobby) plus we talked about why we wouldn't be using pesticides on our home grown produce. After that we decided that we wanted to build ourselves a bee hotel as well as a bee nest box. It's actually too late in the year for bumblebees to start nesting - any boxes needed to be in place Jan/Feb kind of time - but we thought we could build it and then save up for a camera so we could watch any nest that got built next year. The bee hotel is used by lone wasps and bees to nest in, but also by other insects to hibernate in over the winter. We'll collect together some pine cones from the tree at the bottom of our garden, and use leftover pallet wood to build them.

Having come to bed this evening I remembered I had tried to take some pictures of the second bee, and had a look at them. Here is the best one:

Upon looking at this picture I've realised that our identification was incorrect. This is actually a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) - you can tell because it has a narrower abdomen and a faint orangey coloured edge to its white bum :)

The kids thought bees could be a good topic for our board so I will see tomorrow if they would like to follow through with that. We are also having company in the form of 2 very good friends tomorrow.

more busyness

I've a few days to catch up on here.

On Wednesday morning the sprogs and I did some Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress, we tried Mathseeds again for both Small and Tiny, but it still wasn't working properly. The games were loading off the screen for Small and they wouldn't load at all for Tiny. I must confess to being a touch disappointed as the Reading Eggs bit has always been really good*, so I expected more from Mathseeds. There is a lot of work to still be done on it.

*Apart from that one incident on the Driving Test section where Small had to complete the word, which began with the letters CR, and one of the endings was AP - made me laugh, a lot, but not entirely appropriate for a children's reading website!! Cue email with picture to their customer services dept asking them to rectify it asap!

In the afternoon a local friend came round with her youngest for coffee and a chat and the kids played out in the garden until it was time for her to go on to the local school to collect her older boys. I told the sprogs we were going to walk to school with them, so we all got our shoes on and off we went... it was actually a surprise for Little as we were picking up M, her best friend from when she was at school. After picking him up we were invited to go up to to local play area with another local friend and her son, so off we trotted and spent some time playing on the play equipment. We eventually had to leave as Small walked in front of the big woven swing and was very upset that his back bone was broken and his life was over. When we got home the sprogs were all really very warm so I mowed the lawn nearest the house, and then fetched out and blew up the paddling pool and filled it with water which went down a treat. They all got swimming costumes on (including O, our neighbour, who went home to fetch her costume so she could join in the splashing) and had a whale of a time splashing each other. Meanwhile I mowed the rest of the lawn as it was predicted to rain on Thursday and the grass was looking a bit jungle-esk.

On Wednesday evening, Podd and I frantically tried to finish preparing for the science group on Thursday. Podd soldered together some light boxes using battery packs, resistors, push-to-make switches and 3 coloured LEDs. He also soldered resistors to several more battery packs as the LEDs were burning out without them. I collected together all the items we had for the various activities, packed them up, printed out the instructions we had and generally panicked. I'll write about the science group in a separate post.

On Friday we had a bit of a lazy day. We got up late, having spent most of the week getting up reasonably early. The kids decided they wanted to spend the day in their pyjamas, which I was fine with. They did some Reading Eggs/Eggspress again and Small had a play on a couple of the lessons on Maths Whizz. Must say he wasn't overly impressed, but that may have been because he really wanted to watch Little on the floating island rather than do maths. In the afternoon a friend and her baby son were supposed to be popping round but actually she ended up not doing and we just lazed about. I also did some interviews with the kids after reading Crappy Pictures' interviews with her boys. I need to figure out exactly how to incorporate the answers to these questions onto our About Us page.

Yesterday we went to a friend's during the day as she was hosting a housewarming for her fiancé who has just moved in with her. We didn't stay too long as Podd was exhausted from not sleeping well and I was on call for a client last night. Today we have been mostly lazing about as well - I've spent much of today researching chickens, chicken health, coops, and other chicken related things. We are planning on rehoming some ex bats soon :) we (when I say we, I do of course mean I... he mostly just nods and agrees because he knows arguing isn't worth it!) want to build our own chicken housing setup as well. There will be a build post when it happens. For the moment I am thinking, talking and breathing chooks!

interviewing the kids about us: summer solstice 2013

After the success of the previous interview I thought I'd also ask the kids to each do a bit about myself and Podd to go on our about us page. Here's what they said. I shall edit our about us page later to reflect these new facts :)

What does mummy like?
Little: Purple.
Small: When daddy goes AHH!
Tiny: Mushrooms.

What does daddy like?
Little: Purple too.
Small: When I do funny stuff like pull funny faces.
Tiny: I can't remember.

What does mummy do for a job?
Little: Mummy's a doula.
Small: You do for a job to try and get us lots of money.
Tiny: Paint my nails.

What does daddy do for a job?
Little: He fixes computers.
Small: He fixes computers.
Tiny: Work.

What does mummy do with her friends?
Little: You ask pregnant ladies if they would like you to be their doula.
Small: Talk to them.
Tiny: Colour their feet.

What does daddy do with his friends?
Little: Talks to them about computers.
Small: He talks to them too.
Tiny: Play with them.

What does mummy dream about at night?
Little: Being the happiest lady in the world because you be every lady in the whole world's doula.
Small: Getting lots of money.
Tiny: Going to sleep.

What does daddy dream about at night?
Little: Me eating play dough.
Small: Buying a new laptop.
Tiny: Me and Little talking about daddy in the fire.

What is mummy's favourite thing ever?
Little: Aunty L. [best friend]
Small: Watching me play Reading Eggs.
Tiny: Watching films.

What is daddy's favourite thing ever?
Little: R and M. [best friend & fiancé]
Small: Doing lots of work.
Tiny: Watching films.

What does mummy like to read?
Little: Books by George RR Martin.
Small: Big heavy books.
Tiny: The same like me cuz I'm 4.

What does daddy like to read?
Little: Lord Of The Rings
Small: Big heavy books too.
Tiny: To me.

What does mummy do for fun?
Little: Help me and Small on Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress.
Small: Play on Minecraft.
Tiny: Play with me.

What does daddy do for fun?
Little: Looks on Facebook.
Small: He tidies up.
Tiny: Play with me and mummy on the slide.

What is mummy's favourite food?
Little: Cottage pie.
Small: Tomato soup.
Tiny: Nothing.

What is daddy's favourite food?
Little: Lasagne.
Small: Tomato soup again.
Tiny: Mummy's food.

What is mummy's favourite place to go?
Little: To people's houses.
Small: To the park.
Tiny: To buy something for me.

What is daddy's favourite place to go?
Little: Work.
Small: To the park as well.
Tiny: Flower things.

I also asked them the same questions but about themselves:

What do you like?
Little: Dogs and mice.
Small: Minecraft.
Tiny: Lots of big pink flowers.

What do you want your job to be when you get older?
Little: A farmer.
Small: Making computers and games on them.
Tiny: Go climbing.

What do you do with your friends?
Little: I like to play games with them and ask them questions and tell them about my day.
Small: I play with them.
Tiny: Play.

What do you dream about at night?
Little: M. [best friend #1]
Small: Getting my own laptop to play Minecraft on.
Tiny: Castles.

What is your favourite thing ever?
Little: My friends.
Small: Minecraft.
Tiny: My blue shoes.

What do you like to read?
Little: Any books.
Small: The Mr Men books.
Tiny: Nothing.

What do you do for fun?
Little: Play with friends and play Minecraft and draw and read.
Small: I play on Minecraft.
Tiny: Play in a circle.

What is your favourite food?
Little: Tuna and pasta mixed together.
Small: Tomato soup.
Tiny: Satsumas.

What is your favourite place to go?
Little: O's house. [best friend #2]
Small: The park.
Tiny: Flower garden.

interviewing the kids: summer solstice 2013

Today I decided to interview the kids, ala Crappy Pictures.

Here are the questions and responses:

1. How old are you?
Little: 8.
Small: 6. 
Tiny: 4. [??? actually she's 3!]

2. What's your favourite colour?
Little: Baby blue.
Small: Green.
Tiny: Pink.

3. What's your favourite thing to watch on the TV?
Little: Lord of The Rings.
Small: You've Been Framed.
Tiny: Pink.

4. What makes you happy?
Little: My teddy.
Small: Playing on Minecraft.
Tiny: Pink.

5. What makes you sad?
Little: Being told off.
Small: Not being able to play wioth my friends, and not being able to play on Minecraft.
Tiny: Blue.

6. What makes you mad?
Little: My brother and sister.
Small: When Tiny breaks my duplo towers down.
Tiny: Green.

7. What is the best thing in the world?
Little: Cheesecake.
Small: Minecraft.
Tiny: Pink. And orange. And red. Red and orange and pink.

8. What is the worst thing in the world?
Little: Mushrooms.
Small: Tiny breaking every single thing I make.
Tiny: Flowers.

9. What is the funniest thing ever?
Little: O. [Neighbour's kid]
Small: When mummy throws the spider thing at daddy and goes "AHHHH SPIDER!!"
Tiny: Dragons.

10. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Little: A farmer.
Small: A game maker.
Tiny: Charla.

11. If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
Little: To have a pet unicorn.
Small: To play Minecraft whenever I wanted.
Tiny: Flowers.

12. What is the best thing about being home educated?
Little: I don't have to go to school.
Small: That I can stay at home and not have to get dressed really quickly.
Tiny: Pink and orange and red.

13. If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?
Little: Buy a humongous farm.
Small: I would buy ten thousand laptops and then get loads of TVs and connect them all together and put all the films on and watch all the films at the same time.
Tiny: Buy a chocolate pink egg.

14. What is the meaning of love?
Little: Jess (our cat).
Small: Getting married.
Tiny: Love is cuddling teddies.

15. What is the meaning of life?
Little: Dogs.
Small: Having babies and getting a wife.
Tiny: Life is cuddling lots of teddies.