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- Yesterday
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the last twenty
I have visited many places on my own. I would never have believed I could just get up and go like that. I have been in many sticky situations during my stay in these places. But always been fine. I got on a wrong plane whilst on a business trip in Ch
- August 28th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the fourth twenty
I wash up three times a day. At least. I want nothing more for my kids than they be happy and healthy. Most of the time I am in love with life. When I am not ranting about something. Eckhart Tolle provided me with many, many answers I had about the n
- August 27th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the third twenty
I read the ‘Mists of Avalon’ by Marion Zimmer Bradley in one night. I didn’t sleep. Another book I stayed up all night to read was ‘A night to Remember’ by Walter Lord, about the sinking of the Titanic. I wrote my thesis
- August 26th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the second twenty
My first crush was on my teacher, I was ten. He was a part-time fireman. He used to bring watercolors of birds which he had painted into the class for me to see. I have scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine. I wore a full torso brace when I wa
- August 25th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the first twenty
I spend most of my time in my pyjamas. I was born in October, a hugely significant month for me. I love autumn. I used to sit on the window every Hallowe’en night and wait for witches to fly over the rooftops. I have Gilbert’s Syndrome. I
- August 24th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
one hundred small, yet immensely important things
I have been tagged by Roses around the Door to write one hundred things about me. One hundred things!! Wow, well - I love writing about myself, so this shouldn’t be too hard. I have done memes before and I am always up for the next challenge. I
- August 23rd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
the unprocessed child
Even though I should be packing to go camping tomorrow, I have been totally absorbed in ‘The Unprocessed Child’ by Valerie Fitzenreiter, a radical unschooler. Even though I have been in the past rather frightened of any phrase with ‘
- August 22nd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
trust
I did an amazing thing yesterday. We sat in the patisserie with the other mummies for our weekly get together, Bubble and Squeak playing with the other children. After half an hour, Bubble asked me if she could go back to the parked car and get anoth
- August 21st, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
My little friend
You know the time has come to do something when your eldest child points to your stomach and says, “Is there another baby in there Mummy?” The time has come to do something about my little friend who has taken up residence around my middl
- August 20th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
between sisters
I have been so saddened by myself and my two girls’ behaviour recently that I have only just plucked up the courage to write about it. Two days ago we made a trip to the shops to buy a promised new toy each after Bubble and Squeak cleared out t
- August 19th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
A storm in the making
Oh, a huge bolt of lightning has just struck our power cable somewhere - the electricity circuits in the house have just shorted out. We have been sitting through this storm for hours now it seems. I am up under the eaves listening to the water drumm
- August 17th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Autumn
I am here ’showing up to write’ at 5.30 a.m., unable to sleep. I tried, but I have just been lying in bed, head swimming with thoughts and plans. I was woken by the sound of an airplane cruising high above the valley and it reminded me of
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Results
We did it. Yesterday after six hours of intense activity (and some scuffles) we sorted all the girls toys out, every single one of them. I was on a mission and by the end of the afternoon, they too were infected with my enthusiasm. After some advice
- August 16th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Of course
Of course my whole life has been leading up to this moment. Of course I have been waiting all this time to find myself. Of course I have felt the call of the wild before, but never - until now - answered it. Of course I found it difficult to fit into
- August 15th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Freedom
One month before Bubble’s sixth birthday and she has finally learnt to ride a bike. What a difference it has made to her life. Now she goes out every spare minute to cycle up and down the path outside our chalet into the hamlet and back again.
- August 14th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Toys
Toys. Always a problem in our household. The girls really don’t have many and most of them are stored away in boxes never seeing the light of day. But the ones that are played with are fought over tooth and nail. We are moving home at the end o
- August 13th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
A curriculum of sorts
I have discovered the most perfect unschooling curriculum. Yes, I know the words ‘unschooling’ and ‘curriculum’ should not go together in the same sentence but, lest I be struck down here where I stand, let me explain. I use t
- August 12th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Fully nourished
In the daydream, a small figure stands on the a deck of a boat, looking somewhere out into the middle distance, watching the hull cut through the otherwise still ocean. The steamer pulls on through the water, relentlessly, without respite. The woman
- August 11th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
les rencontres chanceux
That’s lucky encounters to you and me. It was only hunger that made us come back home today. I sat out in the town square for most of the morning. The girls ran around under the Grenette, which is the town’s covered square and I settled d
- August 10th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Clean Sheets
Things really have reached rock bottom between dOH and me. I feel as if we are at the lowest of the low since the children finished school and we started deschooling. We have been house-sitting for a friend who lives near to us and on Friday night we
- August 9th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Bad hair day(s)
You know, I have been having a bad hair day for the last, oh 20 years. I went grey when I was 21, about the same time that my brother was given three years to live after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. Since then, I have struggled to come to ter
- August 8th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
An au pair to share
OMG, I received two bits of very good news today. Firstly, we have possibly found a house to rent next winter and, boy oh boy, what a house! It is further down the valley nearer to civilisation, perfect for the work that dOH will be doing come Decemb
- August 7th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Petals floating on water
I mentioned yesterday that we had a beautiful day. We did. We stopped by a fountain in the village and Bubble and Squeak played there for two hours, floating petals on the surface of the water and filling their boots from the tap. There was no hurry,
- August 6th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Autonomy at the bedtime hour
I think my family is spiralling downwards into oblivion. And it is all because of me. We had a beautiful day yesterday, but it all went wrong at 10.30 p.m. We came back from an evening with friends at ten and the girls asked if they could watch ̵
- August 5th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
A little bit of what you fancy
At the BBQ, all the children sat round to eat their (undercooked) chicken and spuds at a picnic table together. Bubble and Squeak ate a little and then ran off to play. The food was not very appetising. I did not call them back, unlike the other moth
- August 4th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
In one month my kids will be…..
There is exactly one month to go until school starts again. We went to a BBQ last night and after having explained to the fourth person what we were doing next year I asked myself, what exactly am I going to do with my children come September 4th whe
- August 3rd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
What’s in a name
Nearly finished “Eat, Pray, Love.” What a great book. I know I keep going on about it, this post is a little more light hearted than the last. I was particularly struck with the chapter where the author discusses the idea of giving cities
- August 2nd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
The Post Box
I pay heed mostly to books that have come to me out of the blue, like ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ This book has been lying on my shelf for a month before I picked it up, but now I know why. It had something to tell me about the relationship betwee
- August 1st, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
The book of the blog
I have been given the book ‘Ask your Guides’ by Sonia Choquette recently. She says, “When you ask for something and it is given”, so I made up the cover (and back) to my *forthcoming book from the blog* on PhotoShop, (yes they
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
T.V. Blues
The children have become t.v. junkies. They are watching about 3-4 hours of movies every day at the moment. Although I have not tried to curb any of their habits during this deschooling period, I am hoping that soon they will become bored of the old
- July 31st, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Accidents will happen
We spent sometime in les urgences yesterday whilst dOH had his arm sewn up after he fell off his bike half way up the mountain. The gash was so deep that it nearly severed his artery, it was open down to the bone. I at this moment have a very wounded
- July 30th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Finding a space to hide away
I read today that a homeschooling friend has created a ’schoolroom’ for her boys to work with their father. Something that has never even crossed my mind. Maybe I should be thinking about doing the same. I always envisaged that the girls&
- July 29th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Let them own something
I came across a blog yesterday called ‘Home School Coach’, which has a some really interesting posts on it. It is written by a mum of eight children who has homeschooled them all. She knows what she is talking about, there’s no doub
- July 28th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Letter from my mother
I wrote to my mother last week, it was the only thing I could do to try to tell her how I felt after all these years of grief. Trying to talk to her had never really got me anywhere; we just ended up arguing every time. So, I refused to talk to her o
- July 27th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Eat, pray, travel
I feel like I have been thrown to the lions. Feelings I have not had for a while have surfaced again, feelings that always hit me to the core. Feelings for the sensuousness of travel. Today, dOH and I sat in the morning sunshine and talked, we often
- July 26th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
pins and needles
I am still tired from the horse fly bite. A severe sore throat shows that the poison must be working its way out of my body. I have had to sleep during the afternoons recently and yesterday, whilst I took a short nap Bubble and Squeak hid themselves
- July 25th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
A french friend
I am so excited, I have at last, after 3 years of living in this country made a french friend. She is officially my friend because yesterday she phoned me to ask if her daughter could play with mine. I have at last succeeded in taking the first step
- July 24th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Bubble and Squeak
In a kind of strange, unvoiced celebration of my blog’s new domain name change to bubbleandsqueak.fr, I cooked bubble and squeak last night. I say unvoiced, because not one of my family or friends know about this blog. I long to tell them, but
- July 23rd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Bag Lady
Yesterday, I made it to the beach again whilst Bubble rode a horse around the lake. I sat there in my long leggings batting wildly at every single fly that dared to come within two feet of me. One thing I am damned certain of - I ain’t getting
- July 22nd, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Ballet
Yesterday, I hobbled round to my friend’s house to celebrate her birthday with her and her husband, Bubble and Squeak and dOH. At the end of the afternoon we watched a dvd. It was Swan Lake, a production shown on Broadway, where all the swans a
- July 21st, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
The rant continues
What is about (dear) other halves? He is desperate to have some kind of order in this chaos that he calls a home, but he is the most disorganised person I think I have ever met. He was in a grump last night when the children were still playing at 10
- July 20th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Uncertainties
I have been lying in bed now for the best part of three days, tired from the anti-histamines that I have been taking for this bite and swooning from all the horse fly poison that is coursing through my body. I have been in such a grumpy mood that I h
- July 19th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Constant State of Flux
Moving
This blog has moved to a new site: BubbleandSqueak.fr Thanks for visiting and see you at my new place!!!!
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Boredom and the idle parent
I have been bitten by a horse fly, of all places on my knee. It has swollen up to huge proportions and walking is absolutely excruciating. If I lie with it propped up at 90° it is better. So I have been lying in bed for as long as I can, keeping it
- July 18th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Leaving them alone to explore by themselves
Something to add to the last post. I came across a great article on the ‘Life Without School’ Blog today. Laureen (Elemental Mom) writes about the way that her son, whilst exploring the world of writing, interprets the alphabet and sounds
- July 17th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Leaving them to learn to read by themselves.
Confusion with the reading thing continues. A comment today from mischrisc has got me thinking. Here is what she said: I know you’re excited about phonics but I also know from reading that John Holt and a lot of unschoolers are anti-phonics becaus
- July 16th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Making a to do list
I read in John Holt’s ‘Teach your Own’ book on Monday about a woman who made a ‘to do’ list with her children, detailing everything that they wanted to learn in the next year. This sounds like a great idea to me. She had
- July 15th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Gunpowder, treason and plot, Bastille Day style.
DOH and his good friend, who is visiting us for a few days, sloped off into town last night to try and catch a glimpse of some Bastille Day Fireworks. By 11.00 p.m. they came home, fed up with waiting for the display to begin. Even the lure of catchi
- July 14th, 2008
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Why?
Squeak has started to say “Why?” after everything I say, everything dOH says and everything Bubble says. This is cute and adorable and I am so excited that she is now entering the phase where she can articulate her curiosity about the wor
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beatrixkiddo has posted a new entry on: Bubble and Squeak
Horse Riding
When does it ever stop raining in the mountains? We have booked Bubble onto a ’stages poneys‘ - a course of five mornings of two hours each where girls of 6 and 8 learn to care for and ride ponies by the local lake. Of course, we turned
