T-Bird Anni Rides Again

today we had more from the 20th Century Lit book which was lovely, also some "Time Traveler" - we finished the read aloud part of Core 1 faster than the rest because we just don’t "do" stopping half way through chapters!  then we performed a scientific investigation into if malt or white vinegar works better for making volcanos.  Malt was definitely better!

We also hit on a huge bargain in the freezer shop, packets of frozen fruit for smoothies at 10 for £1!  They are really very good.  This was all due to my MIL finding a "MAgic Bullet" mini blender at the back of the pantry and giving it to us.  It’s just perfet for making single serving smoothies as it comes with multiple goblets jut the perfect size.

She cheerfully did the lang arts stuff, it’s just fairly straightforward copying out 2 sentences and picking out things like punctuation marks.  It’s good for her handwriting though, I’ve been typing it out in dotted font for her to trace over and then she copies it out again and already she’s improved how she forms a few of her letters really dramatically.  Then she did some pretty simple maths, we are working on building up the speed on teh simple number bonds to speed up the more complicated stuff as she’s still prone to "finger maths" which I’d like to break her out of.  We finished off with a bit of Magic School Bus, have I mentioned how much we like MSB?!

We declared it too nice to be inside this morningn so took our books, 2 camp chairs and some warm woolies and basked in the spring sunshine in the back garden.  The wind was a bit brisk, hence needing woolies when we were sat still, but once we got going with a spot of gardening, we warmed up.  She romped through 12 pages of Miquon Red, it really is too easy for her all of a sudden, it’s mainly revising odd and even and doing simple sums at the moment so I want to push through it quickly before she declares it too boring (sigh)  She also did several pages of Starter Stile, that looks to be getting easier all of a sudden too, I think there has been a growth spurt of the grey matter!

Anyway, schooly bits done, and some attempts made on the garden, the weather turned yuck so we headed inside fast.  She decided some TV time was required so I snuck off and attacked the TMA.  Then made pasta bake for lunch (I do wish I could find a low fat version of pasta in cheese sauce that had anything like a decent flavour….) and, as it seemed silly to have the oven on for such a small bowl, I made carrot and apply muffins too!  you know, i can almost declare them healthy, wholemeal flour, carrots, apples, oh, but then there’s teh 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of oil….. well, healthy-ish then! 

i made a brief attempt to get Aprilia’s printer working but alas it thinks it’s out of ink (it’s not, it has a continuous ink system) and I can’t beat it into submission so that’s a job for Duke then! 

I finally finished the TMA after a few more asaults on it and got it sent quickly before I could be tempted to mess with it and "improve it worse"  It’s not terific but it has hopefully answered teh questions this time! 

And now I’m about to play hunt the phone.  I’ve no idea where it is but it’s obviously under something as it’s somehow got turned on.  Who on earth thought that cordless phones were a good idea for this house I really don’t know……. 

After a hectic morning we spent the afternoon knitting together.  Aprilia is now at the point where she’s reasonably reliable at the knit stitch, just as soon as she drops the habit of muttering the rhyme (by which piont I’m assuming it will be automatic) I’ll introduce the purl stitch, then thd fun really begins!

this morning was Jungle Jims where we had teh Winsford Home Educators’ Christmas lunch.  Erm, that’s me, A and her daughter L (her son was poorly so couldn’t come)  so an exclusive sort of home ed club then!  I can honestly say that it was a mistake to have Christmas lunch there.  No matter where we go to eat now will be a total let down!  It’s possibly the best meal I’ve had in a loooong time!!!!  I’m forever spoilt for dining out

I made gingerbread last night so I would have something to take on duty today.  It’s an almost copy recipe of Grassmere Gingerbread which is one of those closely guarded secrets.  I’d taken the recipe I had, my spice rack and a bag taht once contained said delecacy and hve been trying to get as close as I could by a sniff test method for a few weeks.  Today a Grassmere Gingerbread coneseur (aka Rick the crazy Welshman) informed me that it was "Bl**dy close Woman!" as he reached for a second piece.  He thinks there is a hint of orange in teh original so I’m going to try a teaspoon of orange rind in the next batch…. when I get it right I’ll blog the recipe.  I do think though that at some point I may hve to buy some more as the aroma from the empty bag is fading a little!!!

more like a sherbert geyser!  Wow, but home made sherbert is powerful stuff!  Next time I’m adding more sugar to dilute the fizz a bit more!

Learning stuff is going well still, the Miquon is way easy for her but I like to do a bit of easy stuff with her to build up the confidence, we move on to "harder" stuff soon enough!  Wizard Whimstaff is still popular, the English is getting hard for her now but the science is still well within her reach.  I’ll dig out the next age group of those in a month or so I suppose (think I still know where they are…) Incidentally, I just Googled on the venerable Wizard so I could link through and you know what?  a fair portion of the Blogring seems to be represented on that search!!!!

There was a fair degree of sleepiness in the morning, in fact I was VERY RUDELY AWAKENED at 8:30 by MIL phoning to see if I had had a good weekend, she only ever phones that early if Aprilia is sleeping late…..   So we took it easy and mainly lolled about in the sunshine.

We made the Darlek biccies packet mix that she insisted i bought last week.  They are very average really but I can do them again with decent cookie dough now we have the all important cutter.   Duke likes them but won’t take them to work in his buttie box for som reason - apaprently people would talk…. poor boy, 40+ and still bothered about people giggling at him….

We did a concerted effort on the bathroom spured by me taking the new toothbrushes up stairs and using the old one to give the taps a quick doing.  I do that every time, it’s a sort of token effort towards shiney chrome taps, but this seemed to trigger a full scale sorting out betwen teh pair of us and it looks much better now. 

Somehow the day slipped away at that point hence I’m blogging late.  Oh, and I’m abstaining from eraly morning PC time in an attempt to get more done. 

Busy day again.  think I like busy though, it saves peevish wails of bordom.  Books went well again and we spent ages in the kitchen doing "science" which I really should have took some pics of as it was really dramatic at points.  We did various bits about water’s ability to find it’s own level (tiping bottles, part filling a bit of tubing etc) then dug out last year’s science book and did the fizzing page.  Taht included such excitement as watching raisins bobbing up and down in fizzy pop - well, she found it exciting anyway!  Also the moderately dramatic bicarb and vinegar followed by the much more dramatic baking powder and hot water - took a while to clear up after that one….. next time I’ll use a bigger container!  didn’t make sherbert as we didn’t have any in-date bicarb and I draw the line at the stuff that’s been in our science kit for 3 yaers for human consumption.  Grabbed some fresh whilst we were out so I can do it next week.

We did a bit of baking for the forthcoming party darn sarf and need to do more for Duke as I didn’t get round to doing the second batch of flapjack (seeing as it’s his absolute fave I can’t really not do some for him!)

Then there was costume making…. results are below - leave a comment here if you need the password, if I know you I’ll let you know but it may be on Monday if you aren’t quick - I need an early-ish night so may not be on line too late this evening (and probably won’t be in teh morning either!)  Actually, leave a comment and if anyone else knows you and knows the password could you pass it on please! 

teh first order of the day was to find my way through the most torturous one way system in existance this morning in order to find an optician who does "colourimetry testing"  - a test to see what, if any, colour makes reading easier for some.  I had a choice of this office in the back end of Macclesfield or a special clinic at Manchester Uni.  I figured parking had to be easier in Macc!

Aprilia was at her utterly charming best and quietly occupied herself throughout the entire thing between colouring and resting her chin on my shoulder to see all the pretty colours in the box of tricks.  The result is taht I am right, blue is my colour although a slightly darker shade that what I have now worked better.  I think i knew that, I find I still get glare (quite painfully so if I’m tired) and disturbance with my current specs, it just takes a while for it to get un-manageable.  It was teh oddest thing though, she kept flipping between different coloured lights in the box and the text would go from okay to awful really dramatically.  I’ve never experienced it tripping out that fast before but aparently that’s really common with this test.  The lenses have to be specially made, there is only one company in the UK that does it, so I won’t get my new specs for a month or so.

Got home with an hour to spare befroe swimming.

Aprilia wanted to do one of the activities from one of our books which was to make stars and a moon from "sugar cookie dough".  I had a recipe for "Quick Sugar Cookies" and thought it had to be worth a go.  We made up the mixture and got something the consitancy of fairy cake mixture so rolling out wasn’t going to happen really!  In a fleeting moment of inspiration though I suggested rolling in sugar so taht they would sparkle like stars instead.  They are lovely!

So thn it was swimming which was good although she seems to have forgotten that she can swim without a floatie again.  Will have to forget to put it in the car next week so she remembers…. Mean?  Maybe but I hvae the same trouble, if I don’t do something for a little while I forget that I can

After swimming it was playing in the garden then Duke came home with chicken and big mushrooms and non-too-subtle hints about me BBQing them for tea.  Chicken got cut into strips and scewered, once they were pretty much done I stuck them to the top of the chimney and put the mushrooms on the grate.  Very nice but you know, it’s an expensive way of eating all this BBQing in teh chimenea, I’m sure grilling would be cheaper!  (not the save flavour I grant you but still…)

Then I realised we hadn’t done "school" so whilst Aprilia played on the swing I read to her.  After which the water was hot enough for her bath.  She had 4 chapters of Roman Mysteries whilst in the bath and then still managed to con a chapter of HP2 out of Duke at bedtime!

Now it’s nearly 9pm and the day is almost done and I’d really like to collapse in a big heap now if that’s okay?  

We like the chimenea!  This evening I put 3 spuds on the grate at the top of the chimney and left them to bake then when they looked done stoked it up a bit and bar be qued some fish.  Nice tastey tea without steaming up the kitchen!  If we ever get a really good summer ever again I can see it being used a lot for that sort of thing rather than getting the house all hot.

Puzzles got forgotten until nearly bedtime today but she always seems more keen to do them at bedtime for some reason…. couldn’t be a sneaky way to go to bed later now could it?  Whatever, she did really well and put in a lot of work to her reading so she has finished off the next set and earned another wretched Fairy book.  Wouldn’t mind but Duke is reading HP2 to her now so it’s not as if the fairy books are even being enjoyed/endured but hey, if tacky books are what it takes….

I spent a few hours today turning the compost in the boxs of stuff for Rainbows.  I got 6 boxs and a lot of it is tat so I’m trying to condense it as much as possible.  Today I went through several folders of Guiding Magazines pulling out the activity section in the centre and filling the second recycling bag with the rest (filled the first one with tatty, half finished colouring pages from a box last week!)  Just got 5 folders full of idea sheets to rummage through now, i think I may scan in the pages and write them to CD so that they don’t take up so much space and I can catalogue them by theme or something.  It’s just silly keeping all that much stuff - they only meet 30 times a year and I’ve got enough suggestions for a good 10 years at that rate!

I also had the "joy" of taking my neighbour in my car to collect her son from college.  The entire journey was spent with ehr ranting about how he could read and write a little when he started college 3 years ago but now he can’t even write his own name (he as some fairly severe SEN, as does his brother)  Of course, now he’s past 19 no one quite knows who to send him to for an assessment of what he is and is not capable of so he’s just ambling along at college doing some sort of "after Special School and before we find you a job" sort of course.  I do feel sorry for her but I also feel that if he can totally lose a skill within 3 years of leaving an intensely supported school environment then a few hours of extra literacy practice isn’t going to do him a lot of good adn it may just be as well for him to learn a few useful life skills in those hours and not put the poor kid through hell trying to do something that he just can’t.   But maybe that’s just me.  i dunno, I’m sure I’d be kicking up stink in her place until i at least got a straight answer!

And now I’m going to ahve a nice hot shower and settle down for CSI! 

Okay, verbal snapshots, must remember the day in pictures though (this weekend isn’t it?)

I’ve noticed that both me and Aprilia clean our teeth for longer if we do it at the same time, no idea why unless it’s because I’m concious of setting her an example and she’s following my lead but hey, I can live with this!  It’s a bit startling though when you lean forwards to get rid of the toothpaste so see a little head blocking your access to the sink!

I’ve lost the ability to shop cheaply.  I need to get a grip on this, my budget is £35 not £45!  Doesn’t sound much but over a month that adds up.  Hey ho, my excuse this week is that I had to throw away the last "SmartPrice" pan as it too had gone rusty inside and the "non stick" was peeling off.  Went for the Asda’s own but better quality £7 one to replace it and treated Duke to Teasers and Pringles as it’s his birthday this weekend which tipped me over budget yet again

We got very politely accosted when I went to vote in our local elections, the police have to pop into each  station regularly and were coming out as we were going in…. "Oh, hello there" (speaking to Aprilia) "aren’t you well today?  No?  Oh," (turning to me)" why is she out of school?"  Sigh, naturally I didn’t have any proof of home ed on me but he seemed happy enough with "Oh. we home educate and I consider the electoral process to be part of her PSE curriculum" as I wafted past to case my votes (lots of them, local and parish voting, each with multiple votes allowed - I am so glad I’m not doign teh count for that one!) 

She was particularly lively in teh swimming pool with lots of dive bombing as well as a lot of super fast swimming.  Shame it doesn’t seem to tire her out in teh slightest really!

She’s managed to take several more chunks out of her legs somehow, she’s doing that bashing herself to bits whilst playing at the moment.

I dropped somethign heavy on my toe whilst unloading the shopping and it’s now a lovely shade of purple.

Got a lovely e-mail from my tutor with her tutorial notes relating to the next TMA (I told her I was too much of a wuss to drive into city centre Manchester so she’s sending me notes!) congratulating me on the last one.  I know this probably sounds really daft but I’m still doing a lot of feeling amazed about how well I’m doing in this course and just a bit of feeling cross with myself for not trying an Arts course sooner, it’s fun (shriek!  I’ll be sewing patches on my jacket elbows next!) 

I’m doing nights at OP again this weekend so have stocked up on coke (the fizzy stuff!) and am hoping to get either loads of crochet or loads of study or a bit of both done.

I picked up something at Asda tday teh name of which totally escapes me, it’s an Indian pudding aparently, made from ground almonds, spices and nuts and you mix up the contents of the pack with an egg to make dough then drop flattened balls of the dough into a lot of milk with serious ammounts of sugar in it simmering on the hob.  We were sutiably impressed with this as a pudding!  It didn’t end up like the picture on the packet (do these things ever??) but seriously yum! Now if only i’d not put the packet in the wheelie bin I could look waht it was called and see if I could make it without hte aid of a packet mix!

I am teetering on the edge of sugar coma just now. 

Today we baked!  Started off with Snickerdoodles made entirely by Aprilia’s fair hands which turned out very nicely.  Then we made some "lower cholesterol" flapjack (substitute half the butter for sunflower oil - still tastes buttery but less saturates!)  Then I decided to get brave and make meringues.  We followed the instructions here and I had intended to do these for Easter Eve but was working and somehow only just got round to it!  My only comment on the recipe was that turning off the oven and leaving them just didn’t work, my oven was stone cold way before the meringues had dried so I put in on really, really low, just to keep it cosy in there and they are really rather good.  Trouble is, I had to test all the various produce, and Aprilia didn’t like the meringue (cos of the lumps of pecans in them) so I had to finish off hers too, and they were a little on the large-ish side.  So I’m just coming out the other side of a huge sugar rush and heading rapidly towards the slump phase.

In other news my despair about her reading seems to have been premature (now there’s a surprise ) as she read another booklet today and was noticiably more fluent even than yesterday.  She then went on to read half of Green Eggs and Ham, again, but actually taking note of the words, reading with expression and noticiing when she had read the wrong word.  So it seems I have to take my hat off to the Waldorfy types who say wait until their big teeth start springing out before reading….. Now if only she would get magic E, "sh" "th" and "ch" we would be sorted….. Ah well, maybe next week!

And her new bike lid arrived today, and she is in lurve with it!  it is PINK and then some!  Even the padding inside is PINK.  it wsa a total faff to get the fit right as she is right at the bottom end of the size scale for it but once we had cracked that it’s a really good fit.