Swimming, SOS, poetry and farm trip

Last Wednesday, F had lovely Forest School, and then when she came home, we got packed and headed off to my mum's for a few days. Whilst there we went swimming twice. Mum came and watched from the cafe area the first time. F is really swimming now without armbands - she does a sort of doggy paddle that seems to get her along OK, not much with her legs, but definitely able to get across the width of a pool under her own steam. Very proud of her. Maidstone pool is lovely, really like it, sunshine pours in, there are lots of features including a little side 'river' and waterfall/fountains, etc. The second time we went we timed it right for the wave machine too.

Whilst at my mum's, F managed to shut herself in the under-the-eaves cupboard - you can't open it from inside. She was playing dens in there apparently, and had slammed the door behind her somehow so that the latch caught! I knew she was in there but didn't know she'd got trapped, so was vaguely aware of the odd bang coming from there. When the banging got loud enough for mum to notice and worry, I went up and found the door shut and F had slid 2 cards from an old game out under the door - a 50 and a 5 - to spell 'SOS' she said! Still making me laugh now, thinking about it.

Also whilst at mum's, F did this poem:

(have adjusted spellings)

SPRING is here at last!

This is the Rainbow clear in the sky

Red the colour of newly ripened strawberries

Orange the colour of the calmly setting sun

Yellow the colour of bright yellow daffodils

Green the colour of the grass beneath our feet

Blue the colour of the flowing river and endless sky

Indigo the colour of beautiful fuchsias standing out in grass

Violet the colour of lavender and violets in the garden

Pink the colour of spectacular spring roses

We came back from mum's on the Saturday and had a very relaxed Sunday. J's mum came on Monday and we had a lovely walk on the local railway land nature reserve, looking at the river and the trees, then had a pizza together. We also saw J's mum's photos from her recent holiday in New Zealand, which were interesting.

Today we went to Tablehurst farm, to see how farming looks when animal welfare is a lot higher in priority than the previous farm we went to (and most farms). It was good to see piglets running around in fields. We had a tour of free-range pigs, then sheep (lambing - saw some new-born lambs), then beef cattle (very healthy and allowed to keep their horns, so rather beautiful). Think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't get misty-eyed at baby lambs and lamb births - they'll be on your table in 6 months, where's the miracle in that?!

We finished Deep Space Nine at the weekend and are trying Smallville to see if we like it.

Anne of Cleves House

Anne of Cleves House is just a few minutes walk from us, so we've been quite a few times, but today we went to some home-ed workshops on the Tudor kitchen and Tudor architecture and other incidental Tudor stuff. The workshops were absolutely excellent, the woman talking to us was very knowledgeable and never dwelt too long on any one thing, so the pace kept us all engaged. I wish I had taken pictures, but my camera had hardly any charge, should have charged it while I was up all night working really! Screen is bashed up from hitting the pavement when I did on Sunday, ouch!

Oh stop rambling.

So, first we had a quick 'what we're going to do' introduction, then we split into 2 groups, one older and one younger. Must admit it was kind of nice to be with over 7s, it doesn't happen that often. For this type of event, I think it really did make a difference, the level of engagement and focus in the room was really high. Our group started with 50 mins independent wandering around the house, visiting the bedroom, the iron gallery and the Lewes gallery, before swapping with the other group and having a really good session about the Tudor kitchen - covered so much stuff, and all very interestingly told, was fascinating. I learned loads. Lovely to sit right in the kitchen, in front of the big fireplace, surrounded by all the artefacts and talk about it. The children had a go at grinding herbs and making little musliny bags of them, plus a few other activities, but that was our favourite! 

After that it was time for lunch - we ate outside, beautiful spring day here. Was lovely. I really like the company of the loose group of home-ed people we seem to most often be at things with these days.

After lunch, our group had a building/architecture workshop, which I had worried might be too dry, especially as the younger group had history of toys. But again, the same woman made it interesting and informative and provided a couple of lively (competitive!) hands-on activities just when people might have been getting a bit restless. F was in a small 'team' with her friends E and M and they worked together really well and were the quickest at putting different wooden joints together every time! 

People started to disperse after the workshops, but F appeared to summon me, C and S to watch a show they were doing in Tudor costume (there is a dressing-up corner in the bedroom there), so we went and enjoyed that - it was mainly comedic in effect! They would do a few bars of stately Tudor la-la, then a couple of bars of modern jigging around crazily, all 3 wearing their Tudor outfits and giggling.

Time to go after that - we had E with us, coming back to play, which we haven't managed to do for ages, with so much else on. E had a bit of money to spend at the shop, but it was closed till half two so we decided to have a 20-minute play in the park. Then C and M turned up there too, so I had company, which was good! Went our different ways again when the shop opened, and then came back home.

F and E played ponies, chess, Battleships (against me as a team) and generally had a good time together.

Really lovely day, so much to enjoy in it! 

Cambridge Weekend

Back from a not-long-enough weekend in Cambridge where we attended the Cambridge Science Festival, met up with the lovely PetitsHaricots and an online friend and her family, plus went to cinema and saw Davros arguing with teenagers.

We had an OK journey over on Friday but crowded, can't remember much about it now, but know we arrived in late afternoon and went straight to our apartment. Every time I look for holiday apartments it seems to get harder to avoid ones with leather sofas - which they clearly see as the height of luxury and I so do not. I moan about it A LOT in various places too. But imagine you walked into an apartment and there was a decorative 'luxury' severed human head on a stick by the fireplace - mmm, how relaxing, home away from home...

Anyway, I had managed to find one that was leather-free and they also provided us with soya milk instead of cow's milk in the 'welcome' offering, so hooray for being able to have a cup of tea before having to go shopping. Good location for buses and walks/shops too, would recommend the apartments there and others by the same company.

F and I went for a sunset walk, but pretty much missed the sunset, nevertheless a lovely view over river, then some shopping, getting cash out, etc. Back at the apartment, J ordered some Chinese food, which turned out to be really good and we watched some DS9 on his netbook. We were all quite knackered and generally in bed by midnight every night, with F konking out earlier.

Saturday got off to a rubbish start as I'd booked something - we failed to get to it and I wouldn't book a morning thing again, knowing us and our collective response to time pressure, particularly F (hoo-ha about wanting to talk about something with me, when we needed to be catching a bus, so I just got to the point of saying 'right - this is what happens - we miss the thing - we've missed it now' - as I think too often I do 'mummy makes everything alright' and we rush along and be late, etc, etc. 

So we kind of restarted the day and got going on the second go, headed for the chemistry building, in text contact and semi-coordination with the Haricots. We spent most of the afternoon doing hands-on chemistry.

Was fun to see F in lab coat and goggles and gloves. She particularly enjoyed taking a copper coin, zinc plating it to look 'silver' and then holding it in a Bunsen flame for a short while so that the zinc and copper form brass and it looks 'gold'. I loved seeing her do all the different things, she did really well at handling things and taking in what was happening.

After a couple of hours of that, we managed to catch up with the Haricots outside as they were lunching. Was lovely for me to have a good chat and a couple of hugs with H, though J and F were rather at a distance (J and I were in miscommunication mode All Day Long actually, was a weird one).

Back in the building we went to Smash, Crash and Flash (might not be the right order), where we saw things being frozen in liquid nitrogen and becoming brittle or hard (daffodils, banana, orange, apple, blu-tack 'nail' able to be hammered, etc.). Also looked at crystals a bit.

We then walked over to another building back in the city centre, where we went to Materials: me, this, that, all! which was also excellent. Lots more hands-on stuff about new materials - memory alloys, metallic glass, thermochromic sheets, etc. 

By the time we finished in there we were all quite knackered and headed home. F and J had pasta cooked by J in the shiny apartment kitchen, while I went out to a lovely Meze bar for Mediterranean food with a very good online friend, SW. Had a great evening, since we both love chatting and eating, pretty much equally and incessantly. Had delicious dolma, aubergine and rice and mushrooms, pitta, houmous...

Got the late bus back, which made me feel oddly youthful - buses in Cambridge were great, very easy and useful. In fact, we really loved the feel of the city generally, more like a European city, so much green space, beautiful buildings, river. We will definitely go back for the science festival again next year but will stay longer, to have more exploring time, as we didn't get enough slow strolling around opportunities.

Sunday we were able to have a bit of a lie-in, then went to look at a photography exhibition that was inexplicably closed. We waited around for a while, tried ringing the contact number, no luck, and lots of other people coming and going disappointed too. 

We went on to the Doctor Who display provided by The Hyde Fundraisers - fab, with a Sontaran welcoming us in at the door, and very startling when Davros and a Dalek suddenly moved through the crowd and Davros proceeded to hold forth in characteristic manner, getting into arguments with some of the young audience. Great fun! 

We were supposed to go straight to my friend SW's house after that, but J and F both needed food, so we quickly dealt with that, missing our bus in the process, and got there late, with the added complication of me tripping over a roadsign and falling on my knees, breaking my phone screen :(

Still had a lovely time with SW and family - she has 2 young boys - we all went over to their local park, where much climbing was attempted and eventually achieved. Lovely park, with play spaces, stream, ducks, trees, big open spaces, very good. Back at SW's house we had their homemade flapjacks and cookies and a nice cuppa. Was very proud of F, she was in very good form. Was a happy couple of hours. Although I've met SW twice, she is mainly an online friend so it was fun and a bit of a novelty to do real life stuff and bring our families together like that.

Back in the city centre, we went to the cinema and saw Rango, which J and I really liked a lot, but F more ambivalent about - but she did drink too much Sprite and had to go to loo twice. Recommend it for older children and adults, definitely.

Back at the apartment, we watched more DS9 (we're nearly at the end now - what on earth will we do when it finishes) and had Chinese food again (!).

Monday was just the journey home really. 

Was a very good weekend, photos here and here.

Restorative weekend

A really low-key weekend, which did me the world of good. I can't remember anything about Friday though, hmm. Think I did some chores, not sure what else - might have been the day that lots of deliveries came - new rucksack for me, but I'm really not sure I like it - and a few other things for me and for J.

Over the weekend we did lots of nothing and watched a couple of Shrek movies. I had a 2-hour bath! I managed to actually get rid of some books, a new thing for me that the existence of the Kindle and similar has allowed me to do, somehow. An Age Concern charity bag came and I filled it with books, felt good.

Today was MMs Monday group, bit of a hectic session with a plate breakage, tooth loss and my daughter getting mud all over her trousers. Good spirits though and almost everyone joined in with pizza-making and/or sewing. Journey back for me (F got a lift with C, cheeky sod!) was lengthy due to the new ticket machines.

Bit of a can't be arsed post, sorry!

Other things - we've played Battleships and F made a DIY Bop-It by sticking various things onto a piece of cardboard: a bottle with screw top for twist-it, a gear from Gears Gears Gears! for spin-it, one of her special left-handed Stabilo pens for flick-it and a piece of string for pull-it, plus a green base in the middle for bop-it, all labelled very nicely. On the real thing, in the space of a week, using her difficult hand she has progressed from scores of 3 and 4 to today's high score of 120! That's a massive achievement, must have good effects on her use of right hand.

She has been playing very involved conversational games with me, where I have to choose between various imaginary options, a bit like old-style text-based games on early computers.

Visit to The Big Bang in London

The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, to give it its full title.

We were still breakfasting at half past nine, and had a bit of a rubbish journey (surprise!), complete with both my travel companions respectively being out of sorts in different ways at the very start, plus having to stand on the train. 

We got to the venue shortly before our first booked event, which was Wallace and Gromit related. Think the description there talks it up a bit, but possibly they were running a slightly briefer version as it was so late. The facilitator was good, although he did keep referring to 'like you do at school' despite us being fairly obviously all home educators (didn't know them but we just gravitated together by avoiding the 3 schools groups!). We had a brief wander in the BBC zone before that, and then after it went off for a prolonged exploration of the main show floor.

We started off at the Science Museum where they were doing AlkaSeltzer rockets and making a water vortex in two water bottles joined together, amongst other things, so we spent a while there, F liked both those activities a lot and they're both things she has wanted to do at home at some point but we've not had the right things, etc. The facilitator/demonstrator people on the stand were great, chatty and friendly and informative - this was true of pretty much all the stands we went to, in fact, I felt F was really listened to and her questions taken seriously, etc. She was the expected audience and so there was no patronising behaviour or ignoring her, and she responded accordingly by gaining confidence quickly as we wandered. Lots of attention and conversation and communication of people's own enthusiasm and interest in science and engineering. 

They were also good with adults - had a few interesting conversations: in particular one about how computer processors are made, looking at sand and silicon, looking at silicon wafer through microscope, diagrams of the process, old processors to touch and fiddle with, all facilitated by people who really know their subject; and another with a guy about the ExoMars rover, standing by the prototype - oh how I love to actually be close to space hardware, even prototypes that aren't going anywhere, they make it so real and exciting! The plan is for the rover to be lowered onto the surface by some kind of space crane this time, rather than the balloon approach, but not sure how much of that is at risk from funding cuts.

F's favourite things, apart from Science Museum stand, were (spot the kinesthetic learner):

cycling to generate electricity - 2 bikes, one linked to 4 traditional lightbulbs and one to 4 LEDs, so a great way to compare amount of power required to light all 4 of each, to actually feel the difference;

going on a treadmill, also to generate electricity, think she managed to light the lightbulb briefly;

following the Festo flying penguins about (this link shows them at a different event but very similar experience);

going on the surfing simulator (basically Wipe Out, standing on a surf board with plenty of movement, balancing, etc.);

supercooled water, being poured out and becoming ice instantly;

lots of other stands we had brief looks at, or quick chats with the facilitators. Managed to catch up with The Portico, who were doing a pentathlon.

We ended our day, along with home-ed friends, with Brainiac Live!, which, despite a couple of dodgy moments that I thought were ill-judged, and a general InYerFACE attitude that I'm not a big fan of, was great fun and featured loads of explosions and smoke and stuff. Particularly left me wanting to experiment with powered office-chair spinning and giant Air Zooka smoke ring blowing.

We emerged from the huge venue (ExCel) into the last bit of the sunset and the journey home was a lot better than the other way, thank goodness. Got delicious Tofu Jahang on Victoria and ate it on the train. J and F played travel chess and then F read, think I dozed.
Pictures here, thanks to J

Since Saturday

Since Saturday days have gone to:

MMs Monday group, via very sunny bus journeys, but F having her almost regular now hoo-ha on bus after the session. Good company there though missed L. I had a new recipe book to peruse so that was enjoyable, have also just ordered this one. And the last episode of The Sparticle Mystery which F and I have watched on i-Player snuggled in bed on weeknights over the last 3 weeks. Glad they've left it open for a 2nd series as F is very into it.

A quiet working Tuesday (and Sunday now I remember), finishing the last of the current run of work, while F played with her ponies and read.
(edited to add: We did pancakes! I did making the batter (soya milk and flour) and J did the being brave about very hot oil and F did a bit of flipping)

Wednesday Forest School for F, they made bird feeders I think and at least she didn't come home with trashed trousers like last week! 
Also F trying out local Chatterbooks and liking it, so she will go to that, but not sure whether it's every 3 weeks or every 4, so will have to get a bit better informed. While she was being outsourced so effectively I did 2 lots of washing, hoovered up the cat's latest deposit of fluff, washed up and had a nice bath. F had a bath too, between her two outings. And she played on Bop-It with her difficult hand, when she came home, deliberately trying to improve her ability with it. And she is very newly reenamoured of the library and they've told her about the 6 books mummy hasn't brought back! Bad Mummy! But I know where they are, so will send them back or take them back very soon!

Earth theme Day 1 and Day 2

Day 1:

Out and about on a particularly loose connection to the theme of Earth (land, soil, planet, geology..., anything we fancy really), we went to Hastings, motivated by the fact that the first thing F had thought of as an association with the theme was to go up the cliff on the funicular railway, having that feeling of travelling up through the strata and then standing on the cliff, where the land ends and drops away. I researched a few other theme-related possibilities in the area and we decided a few options we'd try.

So we headed off on the train. F had packed a 'surprise activity', which turned out to be chalk pastels (on-theme, chalk being very much part of the land around where we live) and paper for us to draw landscapes (on-theme!) with. So we did, doing views from the train window and landscapes associated with the theme, e.g. cliffs, different colours of ploughed fields, etc.

When we got to Hastings we headed down to the sea and then along to the West Cliff Railway - unfortunately East Cliff railway was closed for maintenance so we only went up the West Cliff one which gives less of that feeling of moving up through the strata. Nevertheless we enjoyed the Victorian engineering feel of it. 

At the top we paused for hot chocolate and chips and ate them outside on a terrace overlooking the cliff and beach and Old Town. We had a prolonged conversation with and about a seagull, who was very chatty, despite having a limited vocabulary of: 'Want!'; 'whatever' and 'OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!'. The gull occasionally took a few steps out of its designated corner but could be sent back with a few firm words. Good entertainment! We threw him our last chip, but he missed it. All talk.

We then went to Smugglers' Adventure, to be inside the cliff in the caves and tunnels. I've never been very interested in smugglers but this was excellent, actually and I learned a lot. Good interactive exhibits, particularly one called The Smugglers' Secrets, a series of little pictures that lit up when you pressed a button and then changed from a picture of an ordinary 17th or 18th century scene to a picture of the same scene showing where goods would have been hidden. Loads of other button-pressing things and lots of information, so F was quite happy with it. The best bit was the earlier years of the smuggling, which seemed very much one of those phenomena that you can appreciate the mischief of - huge import taxes to pay for wars, the population still wanting their tea and other goods, so a bit of rebellion and no harm done. But later it all turned sour and more violent, so we went through the later bits a bit faster.

Good, although we both felt we'd have liked more about the caves themselves and the chance to just be in a bit of tunnel or cave without the interactivity too. The last cave we visited had a section where all lights were turned off and you could take a moment to imagine living in the caves.

After that we took the funicular back down to beach level again and wandered a bit in the Old Town, discovering various incidental and interesting things such as the large outdoor chessboard at Butler's Gap which was a great find, as F has only recently got interested in chess, so she spent a few minutes being all the different pieces in turn and moving accordingly around the board.

 

It seemed to suddenly get too late to do Rock-a-Nore (geology, fossils) or the museum (ditto), so we went back to the station on very tired legs and headed home.

Day 2:

F and I were doing soil testing today, for Earth theme science, so we went out for a walk to get some soil samples from: Poo Lane (bridle path behind our house); Juggs Lane (chalky downland path up high on windy hill); the allotments and our garden.

On the way we managed to find a geocache that we missed last time we looked for it, which I felt disproportionately pleased about, so am probably on way to being geocaching addict now. 

Juggs Lane was freezing, the wind really whizzes across the top of the hill there, even the sheep were a bit giddy. We stopped to look at a windmill that is being reconstructed there.

Just as we were wondering about it, a man stopped and was able to answer our questions. He said that there had been a lot of public opposition and skepticism about the project, and the fear was that the people building it had only wanted to build themselves a nice house in a place where the only way they could get planning permission was via the windmill reconstruction angle. I hope that the skeptics are wrong, would love to see a 6-sailed windmill turning up there. It's a beautiful building anyway and was great to have a good chat with the man, who was quite knowledgeable and said that the site owners had also promised school parties would be able to visit, etc. It is also intended to generate electricity apparently. Intriguing, will keep an eye on it! Talked a bit more with the man and then he went on ahead.

We hadn't done that walk for ages (long enough to build a windmill in fact, or else it was just not so noticeable before) so it was good, but very cold. We turned back and went down through the horses' field, crossed the footbridge and into the allotments. Who should we see there but the same windmill man and his wife, who then offered us the chance to get a soil sample from their allotment, so we popped in and did. 

After that we wandered home along the winter stream, where F couldn't resist a quick paddle.

Had a quick pop in the local shop and got potatoes for dinner and washing tablets. Then home to do the soil testing, starting with pH. All 4 samples seemed slightly alkaline (chalk I guess?), coming in at about pH 8. We have tests for N, P and K to do too, but leaving the soil in water overnight to settle for those.

 

Have found 2 pics I should have taken off phone to put on blog for the previous post: heart-shaped apple puff and mummy at Egyptian-themed Livewires

Rest of February

Oh dear, this won't do, have got behind again.

OK so since I last blogged days have gone to:

MMs twice - once with fairy cakes. The little group that F hangs and wanders with have started a game where they are all from different 'era's and they can meet out of their times at MMs and then return to their own era, apparently. So one is Victorian, another Tudor I think and F says she's from the modern era! We're enjoying MMs quite a lot at the moment, going 2 out of 3 or 2 out of 4 weeks.

Often we've been having lovely bus journeys to MMs and awful bus journeys away after MMs, with full-scale argy-bargy and such. This week though no argy-bargy, so hoorah! And we went to bookshop afterwards and bought books for F (2 JWs (inc. Hetty Feather) 1 Anne of Green Gables and a Disney princess journal, this year's version of one she had a couple of years ago) And some chocolates which we ate at the bus stop, sharing them with Greenhouse Dani who appeared on her way somewhere on a complicated schedule.

F being back at Forest School, which was as lovely as ever by all accounts. They were blessed with good weather for first session.

Cake at Spring Barn (we committed a while ago to taking a cake to Spring Barn every month but missed a couple of the more wintry months). The cake this time was actually a large heart-shaped apple puff (literally chopped apple between 2 sheets of Jus-Rol ready-rolled puff pastry), so a pastry not a cake I guess, but we thought it would do and it did. C's mum and dad came along with E, M and D. C's dad nobly helped us eat the apple puff. Was a lovely couple of hours and C's mum kindly gave us a lift home, after it turned very cold as the sun went down.

Egyptians themed session at 'Livewires' the new monthly group we go to, which we are so far very much liking. B, one of the mums, had done a lot of excellent preparation, so the children were able to participate in a burial ritual, putting organs in canopic jars and mummifying, led by B. Have got some pics, but phone needs charging, oops. I took gold card for arm bangles and some hieroglyphic books. There were lots of activities provided, and the children all seemed to engage with at least a few, I thought it was excellent. Think next one is going to be Space.

A numeracy themed day at Raystede animal sanctuary, which was a bit less wonderful, but not helped by schmizzly weather I guess.

'Bright Sparks' and 'Play with your Food' - 2 Saturdays in the Brighton science festival, where we made sherbet, attended a talk on molecular gastronomy, worked out a mirror maze challenge, went in a camera obscura, enjoyed a 'maths, magic, mystery' session, did yeast breathing thing with balloon and a few other things. Good fun!

Attended the Bye Then party to wave off those Gallivanting Gees - lovely to see people and to be part of the send-off.

And apart from that I've done a months work in ten days in an attempt to make up for awful January work-wise. F was very very good while I worked. She played chess on computer (she's just learning) and read and wrote stuff and watched films and played Wallace and Gromit Grand Adventures again. We've also watched lots of Season 6 of DS9, plus The Simpsons and The Sparticle Mystery.

And I'm sure there were other things, but can't remember. F and I have been intermittently planning our next themes: Earth, Fire and Air. We have quite a few ideas, really enjoying putting them together.