making snakes, starting projects, and spending a fortune in the oxfam bookshop

GIANT CONNECT 4!!! And the discs look like massive fruit polos!! We were quite excited by this.

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Today, we were making snakes at home-ed group, in honour of the new Chinese year of the snake. We did paper spiral snakes, and cuddly toy snakes made from old socks. Bee's creation was epic! She even did most of the sewing herself (I started her off and tied the knots).

We then missed our bus home - as we do nearly every week - so we had a mooch around the local charity shops and I accidentally bought about a million books in Oxfam. So many books, in fact, that we had to buy a cheap overnight-bag-trolley thingummy from another charity shop because I realised we couldn't actually carry them all home!

I also visited a (very overpriced) craft shop to buy supplies for my new project. I think I'm going to start with my favourite character: Han Solo. I am slightly intimidated by the scale of the project (14 characters to make!!) but if I don't make a start, then I'm guaranteed to fail!

And we had lunch in the cafe we often stop in (where a very sweet young man always flirts with me, which I enjoy because it reminds me that I'm young!) and read some of the new books together. Bee's reading has improved considerably since last week, despite not having done any at all... not even Reading Eggs!




We've been so busy being sociable, lately, that we've only really had time for bedtime stories, which are usually "big books" that I read *to* her, rather than "little books" she practices reading with me.

I was reminded of an important part of the learning process, which my Bestest refers to as "percolation". Whenever Bee learns something new - or goes through an intense period of focus on learning a new skill - she'll suddenly back off from it completely (and sometimes claims she doesn't know how to do whatever it is at all) and turn her attention to something else. During this period, all the new ideas and skills gently settle-in and fall into place, in the background of her mind.

Then, after a certain period of time, she'll surprise me by having it all worked out! Whatever skill or idea it was has settled down, put out roots, and found some context. It's germinated.

Minds are mysterious and awesome treasure-troves, aren't they? Though admittedly mine is mostly full of Lego, unicorns, and boobies.

also, here's an owl

I've got my eyes on you

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Ohmygosh this is so cute I NEARLY DIED.

We made superhero lollipops yesterday. I strayed from the instructions a little by adding googly eyes and they looked so awesome. The recipients were very pleased. We invented superhero names for them all, based around the names of the kids... so we had WonderWilliam, for example. When I asked Bee what she wanted hers to be called, she confidently decided on "L-kuhu"! Well, alright then!

We may have got a bit carried away with the googly eyes...

Probably not, though.
And today we went to home-ed social group. Here is what Bee decided to wear:

Cutest stormtrooper ever. Oh, and she's got lipstick on under that.

We did painting and chasing and tickling and dancing. We played cars, built a marble run, watched Wild Kratts, ate handmade Delicious Things and fussed a very nice dog. There were also a number of noisy racing-around games I didn't fully understand, and some sort of leapfrog game too. Good times. Home-ed rules.

hurrah for lovely love

Bee woke me this morning with a question: "How old are you, Mummy?"
So I told her. She said "So you're getting closer to when you'll die one day."
And off she went to play. Thanks for that, darling!

This cheered me up, though...

(Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, along with Wild Kratts, is Bee's most recent obsession)

So it's been a gentle recovery day, today.
I ordered some pretty ribbonses from Scrapunzel (the pics are clickable)

...and I'm starting to get all Valentinesy. 

I think Bee and I need to make some of these!! From Spoonful.

I know it's not very cool or whatever to enjoy Valentines Day. I know I'm supposed to say "it's all commercial nonsense, capitalist trickery, I don't need to be told how to show people I love them, I do it every day etc. etc." but you know what? Holidays are what you make of them, and you get to choose whether to participate. And I *love* an excuse to spoil people and spread happies.

Which brings me to the February Love Project.

Last February, we painted rocks (in acrylics and nail varnish, for waterproofness) all different colours, with hearts on them, and we left them all over the place for people to find. I decided to make this a tradition every February. This year, we're doing the rocks at our monthly home-ed group (tomorrow) and then some laminated cards to tie to railings and bus stops etc at our weekly group (on Valentine's day) as well. Yay! Want to join in? I'd love to hear about it, and see photos :)

We got started a little early this year, as you can see in this post.

HURRAH FOR LOVELY LOVE!

gee thanks, kid

Today, Bee and I have been knitting together - she's been winding the yarn around the needle, while I take care of the fiddlier bits. I had forgotten until she suggested it, that I'd done the same when I was her age, with my lovely Nana/Bee's Greatnana, who we don't get to visit as often as I wish we could.

"Are you the nicest Mummy ever? Even nicer than Greatnana?"

 
- "I don't know. What do you think?"
 
"I think Greatnana is, definitely. You are nice, but she is the nicest ever. Let's phone her and tell her that, Mummy."

Since we're nearly in the month or lurrrve, we did a quick valentinesy craft today - just a little sewing card made from a cardboard box, which Bee decided to hang in the window when she'd finished. 

We've also been playing a lot of Reading Eggs and Star Fall (which is free and quite fun, but confusing for English children as all the phonics sounds are American!) to supplement Bee's reading practice. And look who I remembered today...

 

I loved that guy.

As for *my* reading - I'm revisiting Wuthering Heights, to see whether I still love it as much now I'm no longer a dramatic teenager. And I came across this wonderful quote:

"He was, and is yet, most likely, the wearisomest, self-righteous pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses in his neighbour."

Isn't that wonderful?

And look what arrived today: our first fruit and veg delivery! And oh, doesn't it all look scrumptious?! And we're FINALLY almost well again, so I reckon this is just what we need.

So now Bee's in bed, I'm going to have a cup of tea, and get to work ripping all the CDs my bestest has leant me...here are about a quarter of them. Yeah, that's gonna take me a while.

three moments

We made the paper bird at home-ed group. Cute, isn't he?

Here are a few other nice paper bird ideas I found...
All Things Paper
Spoonful
Fabewelous (a bit more complex!)