Could this be the start of a change of heart?

I have, on a number of occasions, talked with my girls about the necessity of some tragedy in fiction and how without it many, many stories would be much less interesting.  They are both reasonably comfortable with the idea of death in fiction within certain parameters, usually either it's a 'baddie' (their word) who dies or a character that they're not emotionally invested in (my words not theirs), preferably before the start of the story.  Examples that haven't caused any upset despite containing death and, in some cases, violence include The Secret Garden and The Little Princess (both by Frances Hodgeson Burnett) and some of C S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia  We had a conversation this evening when K informed me that her new favourite film is The Lion King and M agreed that she liked it very much too.  Given their reaction when we first watched it together (M in floods of tears asking me 'Mummy, why did you get this film?' and K with her eyes closed at a particularly sad and scary part), this is something of a surprise.  We're still nowhere near considering Hamlet or Macbeth (both of which were inspiration for The Lion King), but I'm hopeful that it won't be too long before I can share one of my favourite's with them: Anne of Green Gables.  In the meantime, we're still going with Just William, where death and violence really aren't an issue!

In other news, we also talked about anthropomorphism regarding The Lion King, when K correctly deduced the meaning, despite saying she didn't know the word, and on that topic, we've started watching The Aristocats that K & M bought earlier this week.  Both K & M have been making more Christmas cards and are planning on continuing with them tomorrow.

Getting Christmas crafty.

K, M & I had a pyjama day today, something we haven't done for ages, since we have something on most days!

The oven was on for most of the day, as I made:

Mincemeat and...

...The Christmas cake

While I was making the cake, K & M were curled up on the sofa watching videos.  Either side of the videos, we got crafty!  I got the Christmas books and craft things down, so that we could start making cards etc.  K did some more work on her pasta bead creation, she's still at the preparing the pasta stage at the moment.  M and I had a go at making one of these:

 K has started making Christmas cards, using the Christmas shape punchers:

 The girls have also started putting together a push-out-stick-together Christmas mouse house, that we were given last year or maybe even the year before, but I neglected to give them!



A bit of a break from bodies.

Yesterday was jam-packed from mid-day onwards.  Both K & M got crafty in the morning, with M in the kitchen working on a Christmas present for K, a decoration with beads.  K was in the playroom painting some pasta to use as beads among other things.

We had a quick lunch, which K & M finished off in the car on the way to Asfordby.  The theme was Christmas decorations and both girls coloured a wooden decoration and K did a stencil picture of a Christmas tree and made a heart out of a sparkly pipe cleaner and beads.  After that M joined in with a group of children starring in a film trailer, using an app on the ipad belonging to one of them, who directed it, K was involved too, although I'm not sure how.  They had a whale of a time, both inside and out (getting rather muddy!) making this trailer and there are plans for making another one next time and K is considering taking part as a performer next time.

After Asfordby, we went for play and tea to friends', where all five children headed outside to play on the trampoline, zip-wire and more, not in the slightest bit put off by the mud, cold or indeed increasing darkness!  There were a couple of sibling squabbles (mostly between my two!), but mostly they all got on fine.

We'd just finished tea, when we had to dash off to get back in time for Brownies for K & M and speech therapy (post laryngitis, still not got my voice back properly nearly 4 months on) for me.  There was more Christmas decoration making at Brownies.  A has just told me, that when he dropped the girls off, the parents had to hang around for a while for insurance reasons, because of the two 'Owls', of whom one always needs to be there, one was running late and the other wasn't well.  During this time, they played a ball throwing and catching game and then 'wink murder', A said that K sat out for that game, she didn't make a fuss, but didn't want to take part.  Clearly her principles of avoiding tragedy extend to this sort of parlour game too!

Today, we had a much more relaxed day, with K & M playing with playmobil this morning.  This afternoon we headed out to the library, where they had a couple more Secret Seven books in for M, who is enjoying working her way through them. 

We then shopping, making a tour of the numerous charity shops, bumping into another HE family, who I recognised but don't really know, on several occasions, as they were doing the same!  The girls pooled their resources and bought 3 videos between them for £1, 101 Dalmations, The Lion King (despite having been very upset when we watched in the first time when we had it from lovefilm and I had been severely chastised for having got it!) and The Aristocats.  M also bought a couple of Dick King Smith books, and K bought a Christmas present for Great Grandma, a little lavendar doll with a bar of lavendar soap.  I also bought a few more Horrible Histories books (we were given a load a while back, the girls won't touch them, but I'm quite enjoying them at the moment and they might change their minds!), plus The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Tom's Midnight Garden.

When we got home, the girls watched their new 101 Dalmations video, while I started making Christmas mincemeat and put the dried fruit to soak in brandy ready for Christmas cake making tomorrow, and then later they had korfball. After watching the film, M came and questioned me.  She asked: If you were a dalmation and you already had 15 puppies, would you adopt another..(pause while she worked it out, bearing in mind there are, I believe, 3 adult dalmations in the film)..83 dalmation puppies?  I said I thought not, as that would be rather too many in my view.

Finally, I have decided that I am going to start reading to the girls again, but have an absolute limit of one chapter per day (and not necessarily every day).  So today we started Just William, which they loved.  I've really missed reading to my girls and they've really missed it too. 

Moving on to muscles and more.

We haven't finished with bones yet, but this afternoon we got some tins of beans out, got A to take off his shirt and talked about muscles.  K & M felt their own and Daddy's biceps and triceps as they were lifting and lowering the tins of beans.  We used our encyclopedia and talked mostly about skeletal and how they often come in pairs and can only contract and they need a partner to pull them back to their relaxed, longer state.  We talked about where the muscles that we had just used must be attached to the bones, talking about the bicep M said that it's attached to the humerus at one end and K worked out that the other end must be attached to the raduis or ulna.  We looked at the pictures and saw just how much of our body is covered in muscle (a lot of it!) and talked about how the muscles are attached to the bones with tendons, such as the Achilles tendon (we haven't ventured into Greek mythology yet though).  Previously we'd discussed the fact that paeleontologists work out how dinosaurs moved and looked because they can see where muscles were attached to fossil bones.  We also talked briefly about the two other types of muscle; cardiac muscle (that never gets tired) and smooth muscle (that forms part of organs such as the stomach). 

Speaking of the stomach we also had a lovely talk over lunch about the digestion process, with M correctly identifying the start of it as taking place in the mouth and then we talked about where our stew would be (still in the stomach) and where it would be going next and of course ending up!

In other news we got Carcassonne out for the first time in ages.  It was a really good game with M & A, who were a team, narrowly winning.  I have also played Phase 10 with M again a couple of times after a long gap because M went off it seemed that I really was winning all the time, fortunately she has won on both of these occasions, so now we have proof that I don't in fact win all the time and she's much happier about playing with me!

Making edible model bones.

Last night K & M requested that A & I have a lie-in this morning, because the two of them wanted to do secret things on their own first thing.  I'm never going to argue against that sort of suggestion, so A and I had a time for a nice chat, while K & M were doing 'secret things' which included practising Christmas songs on the piano, but other than that I am still in the dark.

Once we did get up, K & I had a look at the body that we'd been lent along with the felt skeleton.  There are various bones (or collections of bones), a brain, muscles of the arm and leg, trachea & oesophagus, heart, lungs, diaphram, liver, stomach, intestines, kidneys and bladder.

I think that's it! We'd come across most of these before in our chats, except the diaphram.  So K & I did some breathing using inter-costal muscles and then using our diaphrams instead, M was busy on the computer at this time, but she and I did the same later.  K did a pretty good job of putting everything back where it came from.

Fitting the rib cage on after everything else had fitted in!

We also looked at our body encyclopedia again and this time, looked at the stomach a bit.  This covered a different sort of muscle, sphincters, so we talked about the obvious one, the anus, and then the pyloric sphincter.  We have a particular interest in this particular muscle as K had a pyloric stenosis as a baby and needed an operation at just five and a half weeks old.  We also discovered that the diaphram is involved with vomiting as well as breathing, as the diaphram and the abdominal muscles contract forcing the stomach contents back up when the stomach lining is irritated by something bad we've eaten.  We found that accidents can occasionally be very useful in making medical progress, as the encyclopedia told us about a man who accidentally shot himself in the side, causing a fistula (permanent hole) in his stomach, which allowed a doctor called William Beaumont to conduct experiments into digestion. 

Last night we talked about the composition of bones: tough outer membrane, compact bone, spongy bone with the red bone marrow in its spaces, yellow bone marrow and blood vessels.  Today, inspired by this blog we made edible bones!  Here is the result.

 

 

You can see the blue arrows pointing, from the top, to:

the tough outer membrane - a wrap

yellow bone marrow - plum jam

blood vessels - strawberry laces

spongy bone with red bone marrow in its spaces - brioche

compact bone - shortbread fingers

In a couple of weeks time, we will hopefully have a good sized bone (or part of one at least) to have a good look at, as A asked one of the stall holders at the Farmers' Market if they might have one we could have, and, since they usually just bin them, they were happy to oblige.

An extra body.

Daddy is home!  He's been away with work a lot for the last couple of weeks, in fact more than he's been here, which is very unusual, but we've got him for 10 days now before yet another trip to Hong Kong this time.  He got back yesterday evening, after M was asleep, and was out before we were awake this morning, so the girls didn't get to see him properly until he got home from work for tea this evening.

K & M had a bit of a break from bodies for most of the day, prefering instead to get the lego out and build houses for most of the morning.  We returned to the human body when I showed them another website I'd found, with games about the human body and under instruction from them I had a go at all of the ones relating to the skeleton, they helped with the word search and we talked about the answers to the crossword.

Over tea we talked about some of the things we'd been finding out about bones and skeletons and then again later, when Mr Fox (a puppet that A plays with with the girls) was being a doctor.  Then using this book  again we talked about various things including the different type of joints and also what a bone is made up of, while Dr Fox took an x-ray of M's leg, which she claimed was broken!

Very busy bodies!

I was woken this morning by M reminding me that I had *promised* we could go to the park with friends after the 2 hours of gymnastics this afternoon and she was very unhappy when I reminded her that I had indeed said that we could *if* it wasn't raining. 

Before we got to that point though, K discovered the felt skeleton that I had left out in the front room and wanted to dive straight in and put it together before breakfast.  However, since she wasn't up until not far off 10 o'clock and we needed to have an early lunch to make it to gymnastics for 1 o'clock, I insisted that she have breakfast first.  While she was having breakfast, M, who is a much earlier riser than her sister or me, got busy sticking down the paper skeleton from yesterday.



K managed to finish breakfast and get herself half dressed before she got going with the felt skeleton.  She did pretty well assembling it, only needing a bit of help getting some of the pieces the right way round on the correct side and with the shoulder blades and collar bones.  She needed a bit more help with the labels, which come in 'English' and 'Latin', for example skull and cranium, although there is also 'ribs' and 'Ribs'! 

M came along and, once I'd taken it all to pieces again, had a go too.  She had seen K doing the last little bit of the labelling, which I think helped a bit. 

We have agreed that we're all finding this subject interesting, so we're going to carry on with it, concentrating on different aspects as we go along.  For the moment we're going to stick with the bones and then add the muscles.

After lunch we went of to gymnastics, which they are both still enjoying immensely and both have completed British Proficiency Core Gymnastics Level 8.  After the two hours of gymnastics, it was not raining fortunately, so we did go to the park with friends for half an hour or so, before coming home for a cup of tea and some bread and jam before heading off for their swimming lesson.  I usually have a sit down and read for half an hour while they swim, but today had to dash back home because I'd managed to forget to pick up the bag with their towels in!  Not the first time I've done that, but fortunately the nice lady at reception lent them swimming hats, because you're not allowed to swim without them, and the girls' were in the bag with the towels.  I just about managed to get back in time for the end of their lesson.  Phew!

Still going with the human body.

Sometimes I get rather down about the amount of mess and clutter that there is in our house, when A is away (as he has been quite a lot lately - he's home tomorrow after 4 nights away) it tends to be worse, since his mess tolerance threshold is lower than mine.  Other times, if it's the right sort of 'stuff' that's spread over the kitchen table, books about the human body for example, it does seem that it can be very conducive to learning.  And it's that sort of mess at the moment!

K has been looking at the books again, including our Human Body - A Children's Encyclopedia.  We've also got a small child-sized skeleton print out in pieces on the floor, which M has put together but we haven't got round to sticking it on to the big card I have got ready yet.

We also had a look at this website, which we all found really interesting, particularly the sections on the heart.  While looking at the part about the digestive tract and reading bits aloud to the girls, K announced (correctly!) that the alimentary canal is about 4 times as long as we are, as she'd read that in one of the books on the table earlier on.

Other than the body, K & M had a friend, Z, round to play for a while this afternoon.  Among other things they played The Game of Life and the only problem (apart from a fairly easily resolved hiccough when M didn't want to play that, but decided she would if she could be on Z's team, which Z was happy with) was when Z's mum came to pick her up and K & M didn't want her to go!

This evening I had to go out for a meeting and happened to mention to S (who we saw on Monday) that we were looking at the human body at the moment and, having given her a lift home, came home myself with a felt skeleton with labels and a small perspex body with innards that you can remove and replace for us to borrow!  And speaking of felt, I'm wondering if K and/or M might fancy the idea of making their own version of this, or I might just do it myself!

A little bit organised!

Yesterday, on the way to meeting friends from school, we talked about the idea of doing a bit of a project on the human body.  Often when we have conversations like this, I think something along the lines of 'I must dig out the books we've got on the topic this evening', but things happen, bedtime comes and I've forgotten about it and when I remind the girls about the conversation they've made other plans for their time or the moment has gone.  Last night, however, just before I went to bed, I actually remembered and found 4 books from our 'non-fiction section' and left them on the kitchen table for the girls to find in the morning. 

I found a couple of sheets to print out - one with the human skeleton and one of the heart - which we looked at together.  K and I in particular looked at the one on the skeleton, she didn't want to have a go herself, but was happy to talk about it and check whether I got things right when I had a go! 

We also talked about various bodily functions, including the circulatory one and about how our arteries and veins have valves in them to keep our body flowing in one direction, and I demonstated this using my wrist and K & M were able to identify which way the blood was flowing in this particular case.

Blood filled vein.

Valve stopping section of vein filling up again.

We also had another look at The Happy Scientist site, this time looking at videos specific to the human body:  Foot circles (draw clockwise circles with your right foot, draw a 6 in the air with your right hand and see what happens), Just a suggestion (which is about the power of suggestion and is making me want to scratch my nose right now!) and The Stroop Effect (how it takes longer to say a list of colours that words are written in if the words themselves say are a different colour e.g. blue green yellow).  K was also very keen an watching the video on how to make a laser projection microscope, so we've ordered a green laser pen from ebay, so we can make our own. 

In addition to this, K in particular spent some time looking at the books I'd left out (mostly whilst eating, which is a slight bone of contention as she takes an inordinately long time eating when she isn't distracted!), mostly a very old copy of the Usborne book, The Flip Flap Body Book. 

This afternoon was a complete change of topic, as we went to see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream at Lakeside.  It was set in the Second World War, with Bottom et al as an air-raid warden and the home guard for example.  K showed just how strongly she feels about tragedies as she was completely unwilling to watch even Pyramus and Thisbe, the play within the play which is ostensibly a tragedy, but which was farcical to point of hilarity.  Sitting where we were she could just lean back and not be able to see, but didn't cover her ears at least, which is progress!  We all enjoyed the production in any case, which is the main thing!

Some Happy Science.

M and K are really rather different in their needs for company/alone time.  M, although perfectly capable of and happy spending time on her own when she wants to, more often wants to be with and play with others.  K is much more likely to want to spend time on her own, not necessarily physically but just doing her own thing and she is very good at tuning out what is going on around her.  So two play dates in two days is great as far as M is concerned and K's happy with it too, as she still has plenty of time for herself should she feel the need.

Sunday afternoon a friend, I, from a couple of doors down came to play and then when we walked her home K & M stayed there for another hour as they hadn't finished!  Today we met friends, S, A & J, from school (it gave them a bit longer together!) and went back to their house for play (or tea and chat for S & me) and tea, before Brownies. 

This morning I reminded K & M about The Happy Scientist.  You can watch some of the videos for free, but it's definitely worth the $20/year subscription to be able to watch them all, I think.  We watched a few videos together, including one about attracting a woodpecker, one about friction (with an experiment with two books like the one we did), another about lighting a bulb with a balloon and two about light, which K wants to follow up but we need to get some polarised sunglasses first in order to do so.

Gentle exercise today - for a good cause!

This morning both K & M did some more discovering with the electronics kit and M, with just a little bit of help baked some chocobanana cookies.

She had a particular reason for wanting to bake, as this afternoon was a Children in Need three-legged fancy dress walk around the lake at the university, along with a cake sale, organised by some of the older local HE girls.  M threw herself whole-heartedly into the event, she dressed up as a dog (I forgot my camera, so unfortunately no pics) did the walk round the lake with S (who is about 11 I think, who we first met when A & I were first considering HE and his mum kindly agreed to meet up with me at a local soft play place to talk about it).  K decided she didn't want to do the three-legged part, but I paired up with another M (same name as my M), and my M and S went together because they were somewhat better suited in size.  They must have got on well, because a bit later they went round again and now M considers him her friend.  The whole event went very well and with donations for taking part and the cake sale both to the HE families there and passers-by we raised over £175!

Electronics experimentations.

As I mentioned previously, we have borrowed an electronics kit for a month or two and as a thank you I'm replacing a couple of bulbs and a blown fuse - a bargain!  While we were in town for ice-skating on Wednesday we got the things we needed (more in the case of the fuse as they come in packs of 10!)

K has been enjoying finding out what various components do and we will be continuing with this and hopefully finding some answers to some of the questions she had (with a trip to the dentist this mornin and 2 hours of gymnastics and a swimming lesson this afternoon we didn't have that long to play with it today).

M liked it too, but she mainly concentrating on making the fan fly as high as possible.

Quite high this time!

While M was having her go, K had a look at the booklet with me and on the first page there were 10 'revision' questions: 10 pictures of circuits mostly with one bulb, but a couple with two, and you had to decide whether the bulb or bulbs would light up in each one.  Most of them were quite straight forward, as there was a gap or the battery missing, but she was confident and correct in all her answers, even the slightly more tricky ones at the end.  Afterwards I recreated each of the circuits to show that she was right.

We're not quite so busy tomorrow in theory, so will probably get this out again and have another go!

What to do on a lovely autumn afternoon?

This of course!

 Lots of times!  K wanted this one in particular to go on blog.

M discovered yesterday that she can now do this.  My guess is that gymnastics has helped improve her strength, and I said as much to K, who thought she might try it sometime soon.

And of course she likes to climb this tree.  Can you spot her?

She's about here.

You can just about make out her head in this close up take immediately afterwards.

 

Then we headed home with hot chocolate and Fantastia on dvd.  K & M both loved it (except the last part, which they weren't so keen on), I must admit that I fell asleep (I'm fighting a chest infection, so will plead that as an excuse). 

Before all that though, it was the monthly ice-skating meet.  For the first time I didn't skate with the girls (see above), but they clearly didn't need me.  M was concentrating on increasing her speed and doing a pretty good job.  K decided today was the day to try skating backwards and again was doing really well.  She tends to wait until she thinks she's ready to try new things, whether physical or otherwise, before giving them a go.  Occasionally a nudge will encourage her to try something, but more often than not it results in digging on heels, so I've learned that it's usually best to wait for her to make the decision.

Why go to groups.

Twice a month we go to a HE group, which the girls and I really like, and there's another monthly one we all like too.  In some ways it's a bit of a pain to go, because it's nearly a half an hour drive away and it starts at 12.30, which is a really awkward time for lunch.  It is definitely worth going though for various reasons.  K & M really like it because they get to see their friend C (or she might be a K, I'm not sure!) and there's lots of outside space.  I like it because I get to chat to other HE mums.  The two groups that we go to regularly that aren't for a specific activity (such as ice-skating or gymnastics) usually have a particular theme each time.  Invariably there's at least one thing, usually several that K and/or M are interested in and engage with, since there is generally a variety of activities related to the topic to choose from.  Today was one of those rare times that both K & M only found one thing that wanted to do (this time it happened to be a wordsearch), but they still got plenty out of going.  Sometimes they want to do the activities, sometimes, like me, they just want to spend time with people they enjoy spending time with.

In other news, I am currently reading Michael Morpurgo books, because M has really enjoyed The Butterfly Lion, which she really enjoyed, but some of his books are what K & M would consider 'tragedies' because a 'goodie' dies.  So far I have read This Morning I Met a Whale and The Dancing Bear, both of which have been ruled out as readable by M for just that reason.  

Not your average Sunday evening!

Firstly the very important question of the lemon meringue birthday pie - it was good, but I think I might try a different version if (okay - when) I make another one, as the lemon part could have been better in my opinion.  Everyone liked it though, which is the important thing!

This evening we had a trip out which started with a bit of physics, when we spotted a dog walking about the parcel shelf of the car in front, which lead to a conversation about car safety generally and specifically  momentum.  We then talked about how if there are no other forces acting on a moving body it will keep going forever and about how it is friction that generally slows things down, for example for something on wheels there is both 'rolling resistance' (the friction between the wheels and the ground) and 'air resistance'.  A and I could remember that this was pretty much one of Newton's laws of motion (although not which one!), we moved on to Isaac Newton generally.  I think we may soon be paying a visit to Woolsthorpe Manor, as both girls were quite interested in the idea.

The destination of our trip was East Midlands airport for a visit of a maintenance hanger, with a HE dad, D, who works there.  We got to see a couple of aeroplanes (Airbus A321), inside and out, at different stages of refurbishment and we found out rather a lot about aeroplanes in general and how they work.

An almost completely stripped out inside.

M up close and personal with an engine!

K examining the rubbery pointy bit - rubbery so that it wobbles about so that ice can't form on it.

My turn at K & M's insistence.

The outside of one of the aeroplanes we went in.

M in the pilot's seat

What an engine looks like without the cover - it's attached to the plane with just 3 bolts!!

It was a really interesting visit and on the way home we talked about how, in macro terms (as A put it), an aeroplane stays up in the air in the same way that a piece of paper stays up underneath an up-turned half full glass of water, the shape of the wing means the air has to travel faster further and therefore faster over the top, therefore lowering the pressure above the wing because of the shape, which lifts the aeroplane and the engines are 'just' to move the plane forwards.  Pretty amazing stuff!

Competitions and tears.

What a hectic morning!  First thing we (M & I - K wasn't up!) went to deliver our church's Autumn Fayre Bake Off entries, which we'd spent the majority of yesterday working on.  Then it was back home for a short while, before heading back for the Autumn Fayre, which opened at 10am, via the farmers' market because we wanted to give a piece of my entry (these chocolate brownies) to Barry, because he was bemoaning the fact that nobody ever bakes for him and he's been very helpful with advice )as well as having *very* good chocolates!).  It was his wife there though this time, instead of him, but she promised to try to resist eating it herself and pass it on to him and did say that it's true nobody ever bakes for him because he's just so good at it himself!

It was packed at church but fun and the girls and I all spent some money on various tombolas and other bits and pieces and then started getting a little bit stressed.  The cause of our stress was that the judging for the bake off was happening upstairs and was due to be completed by 10.30am when we could go and see the entries, which would then be up for sale, but by 10.45 we still weren't allowed upstairs and M had a ballet lesson at 11 a 10 minute walk away!  Finally at about 10.50 we were allowed in and found that all three of us had a rosette by our entries, K & I with a 'Well done' and M with 'Highly Commended'.  I quickly, at the insistence of K & M, bought their entries back again before dashing off with M to get her to ballet just a little bit late, leaving K at the fayre with a friend's mum keeping an eye on her.

Once I'd returned and located K, she and I went back upstairs to have another look at the bake off entries and K noticed that although all of the adults' entries had a small piece cut out of them, the children's ones didn't and so realised that the children's entries had been judged on appearance alone.  She got extremely upset at this, pointing out (quite correctly in my view, and the view of some of the judges of the adult categories who we spoke to, who had pointed that out to those judging the children's competition) that you can't fairly judge a cake competition without tasting them!  A couple of the judges were still around fortunately and were happy to taste some of K's creation and they also filled out a judging form, giving her a score that would have given her a 'highly commended' had it been in the adult competition.  The making of the gingerbread was a bit of a team effort, but the cutting out, assembling and decorating was done with very little help.  Next year, I am going to suggest they chose something to do that they can do completely on their own, I think their choice will probably depend on whether we watch The Great British Bake Off and if so what they do on there!

K's gingerbread thatched cottage with it's bear owner and his toy rabbit

M's gingerbread thatched cottage with it's triceratops owner

This afternoon, I am baking again, as it's A's birthday tomorrow and he's requested a lemon meringue pie, since I mentioned that I made one once while at school and it was rather good!

Exercise, etymology and sisterly love.

Just a little blog today.  If K & M don't sleep well tonight then exercise has no bearing on how well children sleep!  They had a second hour of gymnastics as well as the usual one and half hour swimming lesson.  They're both really enjoying the gymnastics and making slow but steady progress with it. 

We had an interesting conversation in the car on the way to swimming, whilst listening to The Famous Five, about the word 'awfully' and 'awful' which lead to a discussion about the etymology of words, their meanings and how they can shift over time.

Finally, while K & M do get on well a lot of the time, it's not exactly a rarity for them to argue or fight either.  Something that they do both have is a very strong sense of fairness, which extends to sharing things (at least edible ones!) that they are given, which is lovely to see.  Just a couple of recent examples, when we went down to London recently, while we were on the Eye M was offered a fondant fancy but wouldn't take it to start with as it was the last one and therefore K couldn't have one too, even though K was on the other side of the pod and was unaware of what was going on, in the end she did take it, but went and shared it with her sister.  This evening after swimming K was given a single twix by a friend there and the first thing she said having caught up with M & me was 'Look what C's given me, M & I can have half each for pudding after tea'. 

Cinema and sewing and competitions.

This week is National Schools' Film Week, which we've been enjoying for the past few years.  This year they wanted to change the rules to allow only groups of 10 or more, but changed their minds following some vigourous feedback from home edders.  We met up with a couple of dozen other home edders to see Brave, a film which both of my girls had been very keen to see! 

Following two mornings when we'd (particularly K on Monday) been cutting it fine getting up, dressed, breakfasted and ready to get out for morning events, this morning K was already up and had eaten breakfast (with Daddy) and was doing sewing when I put my head round her door!  Apart from a go on the computer with Moshi Monsters, she has been sewing pretty much all day.

K concentrating on her sewing.

It was a kit that she was given yesterday as a late birthday present, and she started it last night instead of reading in bed.

By bedtime this evening she'd finished!

While K was busy with her sewing, M was studying her Puffin Post, looking at the competitions and deciding which she wanted to enter and getting cracking.  She has already entered an easy quick question about Roald Dahl online (doing an online search to find out when his birthday was) and I've printed off a colouring sheet for another one.  The thing that M spent most time on was making a model out of lego, which we then photographed and sent in by email.  I am not allowed to say what she made or post the photo yet, in case her idea is stolen, but will do so after the competition deadline, which is 4th January (if I remember).  She has also started work on a poem for another competition, which involves taking a photo and writing a poem about the subject in it.  She came  up with the poem pretty quickly and we talked about writing a first draft and then trying to improve on it before coming up with a final version.

Fun Science at Fun Club!

First Tuesday of the month = Fun Club!  Today's theme was Science, with families bringing in something for everyone who was interested to see or do and there was plenty of variety.

There was an experiment to observe showing how much carbon dioxide was produced when yeast was mixed with different types of sugar (or none for the control).

Yeast experiment

There was an electronics kit which K spent a long time experimenting with and which we've borrowed for a month or two.  I dredged up from the recesses of my mind memories of physics lessons, that told me that two or more bulbs in parallel would all burn as brightly as one, but that in series they would burn more dimly, but couldn't for the life of me remember why!  A has had a go at explaining and I think I've got it and I'm very much looking forward to having a go with the kit.

K and the electronics kit

There was an experiment to show that things expand when they absorb water.  There were several experiments or demonstrations about density, such as seeing whether oranges float with and without their peel, and showing that a (fresh!) egg sinks in water, but floats in a salt solution.

M & Z watching things expand in water!

There was catapult making, using wooden clothes pegs and lollipop sticks, to fling marshmallows, along with an explanation of the three different classes of lever. 

K's marshmallow catapult.

M and lots of others planted pea-shoots to take home and observe (and eat!), there were magnets to experiment with, various instruments to use to find out about sound, including measuring how loud children can be (answer: very!), a microscope to observe micro-organisms in pond water and more!

I had hoped to take along the wherewithal to do some chromotography, but unfortunately the blotting paper I'd ordered from ebay didn't arrive in time (it was waiting for us when we got home), so we took along two forks, a wine glass, a cocktail stick and matches to do this - still amazing!

There wasn't time to do everything, but both K & M had a go at several different things and we've come away with plenty of ideas to follow up, as well as the electronics kit (thank you H!).

Just when I was thinking that I should do something...

...like suggest a science experiment, that sort of thing, when K & M had disappeared to play for a while, M appeared with an announcement that she knew the 7 times table.  She had written it out from 1-12 x 7 and proceeded to read it to me.  It was correct and she also told me 13 and 14 x 7 as well.  She and K had also both been doing some hama beading, having been given a tub recently by a friend.

In other news Puffin Post arrived today, which is always exciting.  M has had a second joke published, but her first experience of editing (which she wasn't impressed with!).
She sent in: What's a pirate puppet's favourite thing?
What was printed: What's a pirate's favouite body part?
Answer:  An arrrrrm!

Mr Fox looks just like this.

I tried to explain that when she made up the joke she had been playing with Mr Fox (sometimes known as Dr Fox and sometimes Captain Fox), who needs an arm (usually Daddy's), but not everybody would have that sort of puppet, so they might not understand, so the Puffin Post people had changed it so that everyone could, I don't think she was convinced though.

I thought we'd not done much today...

...educationally speaking, I mean.  We did pop to the shop and the library and do some bedroom cleaning and tidying, but that was about it, until we went to the firework do at A's cricket club this evening.  Then while there and while walking home we covered physics, chemistry and geography!

While we were watching the fireworks, there were some others happening a bit further away, so I pointed out that for the ones that were further away, we saw the fireworks before we heard the bang.  So we talked a bit about how the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound.

We talked briefly about how different elements/minerals burn different colours and that's how fireworks get their different colours.  If K & M are interested we'll follow that up a bit more.

Then on the way home we talked about our plans for the weekend.  We're going north this time, for a christening and staying overnight in Durham.  I mentioned that it's often a bit colder the further north you go, so K & M should bear this in mind when deciding what to take to wear.  K immediately said 'Or if you go further south' and then paused just for a moment before adding 'if you're south of the equator!'

In other news, I made sourdough bread for the first time in a while, and more to the point for the first time since watching Paul Hollywood's kneading tip on The Great British Bake Off Masterclass.  I definitely felt that it helped with my kneading, I'll let you know whether the bread is any better for it!

And finally, following our trip down to Uncle B & Aunty R's, where K & M shared a bedroom, K has been to M's room for a sleepover twice.  They have tried to have a midnight feast, but they didn't manage to wake up for it.  Tonight they're sleeping in their own rooms, but have each set their alarms and are trying again.

Another trip down south!

At the weekend we headed down south for the second time in just 3 days, for a bit longer this time though.  We went to stay with my Uncle B & Aunty R not far from Wokingham.  We had a lovely time with them and had some great trips out too.

Our first trip was somewhere that the girls and I had been before, but it was the first time for A, The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

Dahl's writing hut, painstakingly recreated piece by piece in the museum.

M is as tall as James (as in the one with the Giant Peach)

K is as tall as James' friend the Old Green Grasshopper.

 In Miss Honey's Classroom, there was an enormous outline of the BFG for people to colour in and add to.

The BFG - a work in progress.

K's addition to the picture, The Queen in the BFG's pocket.

 As well as spending time in the various parts of the museum, We went for a walk following the Village Trail which took in various places in the village that provided inspiration for Dahl, as well as his grave.

K & M on the BFG footprints that lead to Dahl's grave in the churchyard.

The petrol station that inspired Danny's father's pumps in Danny, the Champion of the World.

The inspiration for Sophie's 'Norphanage' in The BFG.

The library Matilda went to everyday when her mum went to play bingo in Aylesbury.

 There was lots to do in the Story Centre, including dressing up.  M was particularly taken with the pigtails and persuaded Daddy to be the Trunchbull (apt as that's who he's as tall as!) for a photo. 

The Trunchbull throwing Amanda Thripp by the pigtails like a hammer.

The next day we went to Legoland!  It was a shame that half term down there and up here weren't at the same time, because it meant that we didn't get to miss the queues (one of the lovely bonuses of HE!).  It was a bit cold, but still fun and K & M really enjoyed themselves.  We've said that we'll go back another time, when it's a bit warmer and not during school holidays!

You can still have fun in a queue!

A styracosaurus on the Dino Safari

M & I on the Squid Surfer - K was setting off water bombs, but ended up wetter than us!

There were plenty of very impressive constructions to see in some of the queues, such as the one for The Dragon.

K & M decided this was Merlin...

...and this was Archimedes from The Sword in the Stone.

K in particular was very taken with the various baby dragons.

On our last day, unfortunately A had to go to a work meeting so it was just me and the girls.  The day didn't go entirely according to plan, partly down to me not looking at the National Trust handbook properly (if I had we wouldn't have turned up at 10.30am for a property where the gardens opened at 11am and the house not until 1pm on a day when rain was not far off a dead cert!), but partly due to no fault of mine.  We had a wander round Henley-on-Thames in the morning (the plan had been to do that in the afternoon) and had a look in the teddy bear shop and a bookshop and then as the rain started went to the library for a while before pizza for lunch.  After that we headed back to Grey's Court (which I discovered had been used as a location for Downton Abbey!) for a nose round the house. 

Grey's Court, aka the 'small country house' from Downton Abbey!

We saw the horse wheel, which was quite interesting, and then went to see the donkey wheel, which I anticipated would be similar but smaller.  But no!  It was like an enormous hamster wheel!