Does anyone now where I can get plain old fashioned (not MPAH or US Edition) Siingapore maths? I want 2a & b workbooks & textbooks & need them asap?

Had a pretty good day today The cats killed some small rodents, I reorganisedthe kitchen, Jasper slept for three hours this morning & then an hour in the afternoon (whisper - he’s sleeping all night now as well). Claudie has been lovely, day one of close supervision & random fun things complete . Si took them both swimming this evening.

We’ve had a total maths day - loads of mental maths & miquon - Claudia got a little calculator at G’s party yeterday & has been doing sums on it all day Lots of word problems & multiplication. She read well & has been doing bits & pieces in The Anti Colouring Book & loads of drawing (Stone Age scenes & Victorian dresses mainly). We read a load of Egypt books, played Lego (Val gave us another box of duplo), and did some BrainPopping.

Yesterday I baked in the morning (with various interruptions) then we went to my parents for brunch. Mum weighed J again (still slap bang on the 75% centile ), tried to make him crawl, then we hurried home for G’s party which was fun by all accounts . Ate cakes & caught up on happenings

Saturday, ballet, shelf building, moaning about the weather I think - the rest of the previous week and a half is lost in the mists of a bad memory.

SOTW Vol 1 & Activity Book
What Families Were Like in Ancient Egypt
Usborne BeginnerEgyptians
Great Rivers The Nile
Who Built The Pyramid? Meredith Hooper
How We Lived - Tribes & Empires John Haywood
History Detectives, Ancient Egypt Philip Ardagh & Colin King
A Journey Through Times, Excavating Life on Earth
Food & Feasts in Ancient Egypt R. Balkwill
The Mysteries of the Hieroglyphs Carol Donoughue
All in a Day’s Work Pharaohs & Embalmers
Living Long Ago
Horrible Histories #3 The Awesome Egyptians, Mummy Mania

If you join the yahoo group you can download the TM for free (with author’s permission of course).

Just FYI

Oh & no hangover

(it’s a guinea pig )

Claudia has been having a lot of nightmares recently and is in with us again - amazingly she slept until after seven this morning. She’s been fascinated by a grammar book we’ve got & I was woken up by it being thrust in my face, I was a little less grumpy than usual.

I’m trying to remember what we’ve done today - the guinea pig obviously, C’s played Sims & Pharaoh on the computer, made some ‘perfume’ from my roses (grrrr) and checked her snails (she’s been trapping them to see if they mate); they’ve had the train set and the farm animals out. Jasper ate a lot of falafels and Claudia made her own lunch (pita bread, cheese and a tomato (which ‘aren’t disgusting’)) . Our avocados from weeks ago have germinated and Claudia’s in particular is doing well - looked in Linnea’s Garden to see what we are supposed to do with them next. I managed to get the washing done & hung out and water some of my pots. We gave Jasper a ’shower’ out in the garden to de-slime him after breakfast was very entertaining & he really enjoyed it Jasper watched half an hour of Baby Einstein - I hate putting it on - but it gives us some peace and quiet so C can read to me (he still doesn’t really nap).

Claudie finished the 5-6yo mental maths book (days of the week & telling the time), did some Miquon and started the next Singapore (subtraction word problems - something has clicked because they weren’t as nightmare-ish as they usually are), read a bit, did some phonics & DWN. We read the Earth From The Air books - lots of discussion fodder there - talked about countries & continents, alphabetical order, how to use a dictionary, what circuit board components she wants to buy, what independence is, erosion, magnetic poles, the weather in Connecticut, how salt kills animals and plants, why her mud bricks (we have a large hole in the garden) collapse, what different parts of the plant do, why people don’t believe her when says she’s home educated, what Darfur is (isn’t Radio 4 great) and what clothes she wants to buy I made her cry by telling her she needs to pay more attention in swimming lessons We read the myth of Osiris & Set; C did some colouring, a SOTW map of ancient Egypt and a narration about King Narmer & the Double Crown. I’m exhausted.

I did a reception and KS1 literacy assessment with C & was pretty pleased; the only dodgy areas were some of the longer vowel sounds - which are coming - and a few words from the KS2 reading list (months of the year mainly) which she’s never come across before.

Jelly Legs was this afternoon & while C was there I went to the library to have a look for some readers she might like - got some Leap Frog Fairy Tales and a lovely book with pictures of life on the Nile. Then I took Jasper to have his feet measured (purely out of curiosity) - he’s a three and a half - mooched around John Lewis (didn’t buy anything) and WHSmith (bought a magazine) and fed the pigeons. Simon picked us up to save my feet - something bad has happened to my trusty Crocs and I have horrid blisters - must buy new shoes. C & J watched a bit of Ice Princess and read Who Built The Pyramid? (well J chewed it), complained a lot (because I dared to have a ‘phone conversation) and ate fish cakes & asparagus for dinner. I got the video camera out & filmed them being silly - Simon & I have been watching all of Claudia’s baby films recently, she was such a cute baby

We were debating camping this weekend but the forecast doesn’t look good (it’ll probably be packed as well) so the plan is too tidy up the garden, get all the toys out again (we’re going to get a trampoline ) and go to the British Museum at some point. Si has never been and I haven’t been since I was at university.

SOTW vol 1 & Activity Guide
The Dicovery of the Americas (Maestro)
Horrible Histories #13 (The savage Stone Age) #34 (The Awful Ancients)
Usborne Starting Point History Who Were The First People?
Snapping Turtle Guides Archaeology
Eyewitness Guides Early People
Usborne Internet Linked Fisrt Encyclopedia of History
The Time Trekkers Visit the Stone Age
Make it Work! Stone Age People
Usborne Book of Living Long Ago Everyday Life Through The Ages
Walking With Beasts
BrainPop - Ice Age, Human Evolution
West Kennet Long Barrow
Avebury
Silbury Hill
Stonehenge
British Prehistory
Britsh History Timeline

Thursday we did the trek to football then to Jelly Legs … miles & miles & miles … then home (I don’t use the car now, J is just too awful).

Friday we had Lily. I mostly felt ill. Lost J’s favourite rattle.

Saturday I spent most the the day snivelling about how ill I felt and when will it stop. And I drank wine and unpicked a jumper I’d just finished because I hated it.

Sunday I felt a bit better we did a massive shop at Tesco, first time this month. Then I felt ill again.

Today I felt ill but we carried on anyway.

Claudia had a great day, bit of maths, reading, DWN, some phonics. We read about Stone Age people & made a photographic family tree. Si has taken them both to swimming I have eaten nutella and I will now have a bath (seems like a very big deal).

Books we’ve liked recently - Life Story Virginia Lee Burton, Barefoot Book of Heroes, The Discovery of the Americas Betsy & Giulio Maestro.

Knitting stuff

Romper suit in Lidl cotton , bag for Natalie pre-felting (adapted from here), top for Claudia inspired by Monica (I didn’t have enough yarn to do the frill so I added a fancy bottom instead )

Jasper at 6 months, I think my parenting must have significantly improved since C was a baby because he is the happiest baby in the world ev-er

Well I had loads planned for today but ended up being scuppered by waiting for the courier - who guess what didn’t turn up - all day.

Instead - C did some more clay models and made some Chinese new year craft stuff (I even got the glitter *shudder* out & J is now very sparkly again). We did some Singapore maths - haven’t done any since the beginning of October - I was so pleased there’s obviously been some brain development going on because she got it straight away & worked completely independently for 20 minutes. She also did a bit of Getty Dubay. I read some more HP - she’s decided to keep a reading journal with what she thinks of the books we read (loves HP - wants to read it again as soon as we finish it ).

In light of all the China stuff going on (her two favourite books at the moment are Ping & Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin) I suggested she write a book (lapbook) about it - she liked that idea & so far so good she found China on a map straight away & knew what continent it was in. I printed loads of Enchanted Learning bits - a couple of books etc - so she worked through some of that (got some sneaky reading in - word searches & fill in the missing letter).

Ended up going to Tesco at 6:30 (Si had to work late) which was just about the last thing I wanted to do - now nursing chocolate wine & plans for Daniel Craig. I’m really tired today.

C & J watched Return of the Jedi & I managed to get some knitting done. Made pizza & noodles (? - C’s idea) for dinner.

Thanks for the b-day wishes & cards

C had a good day (I think), obviously no party but she had chocolate cake & an MP3 player & princess dresses and The Simpsons. Simon took C & J to the park this afternoon while I finished decorating her cake. I didn’t managed to get a nap which I need, I haven’t been v. good at taking the ferrous sulphate & am feeling rather wobbly - had a crazy day yesterday which didn’t help.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt town, ERAPA & Girls’ Brigade, I’m not looking forward to it tbh I’m so tired I’ve lost the ability to communicate coherently. I have a feeling I’m going to spend the weekend in bed.

Today ~ woke up very early (as usual) despite being utterly exhausted (x trips to the loo + y doses of gaviscon + z checks on C to the power late night & entertaining). Made breakfast & put some washing on then I helped C build a den downstairs and half watched a film with her while trying to catch up with email. Was sick between 10 and 11 then went back to bed - C brought a stack of books up & we read together (Franny B Kranny & others) until she decided she was starving. Made lunch & put some more washing on (pattern emerging here) the C decided she wanted to do some reading (!!! ). We whizzed through six 100ELs (we’re almost back up to where we stopped last time), three Bob Books and a couple of pages of Franny B Kranny. Did some Getty Dubay and a marathon maths session. C declared herself tired and ‘rested’ in her den while I read a couple of chapters of HP Philosopher’s Stone which she is really enjoying. C made a pile of bookmarks while I packed a bag for her to take to her grandparents, then Simon got home to take her to her swimming lesson. They stayed for a swim after the lesson & C very proudly announced that she jumped off the middle (3m) diving board she wants diving lessons now.

Sunday - woke up to the chatter of kids & cries of ‘Xbox!’, fed them unsuitable breakfast foods then tottered down to A&C’s for brunch. After lunch we headed off to buy paint & Si spent the afternoon doing odd jobs while I dozed & C moped around being horrible. Bed time was good.

Saturday - spent the morning cleaning (nesting hahahahaha) & shouting at Simon. C got more and more hysterical at the prospect of having N&A to stay. They arrived, wine was consumed then we walked around to play at A&C’s. The kids left fairly willingly with promises of Xbox - Nic & I got tarted up & met up with the rest of the party to hit the Town . Had an amazingly cheap meal, then wandered home (the men having got accidentally too drunk to collect us) reasonably early (it was still Saturday - just) with sore feet but baby still in utero

Friday - did chores in the morning, C did some maths & writing, read some HP. After lunch we went to home ed group which was amazingly busy (17 families!), C painted the pots she made last week. We left late & had to rush for GB - not sure what she did but it involved a ’secret for God’ ??? Rushed around Tesco then picked her up.

Thursday - had a very quiet day - C mostly played with jigsaws, geomags & her babies. She did lots of writing & a few pages of Singapore maths, I persuaded her to read to me.