Frog spotting and leaf collecting

Title: Not a song lyric or book quote today rather the response me and daddy came up with to the question, "what hobbies do you have in common?" We were asked this when we first told people we were engaged and we couldn't think of a real answer so decided this would be it. We had rather imagined ourselves out and about putting spots of paint on unsuspecting frogs. But back to reality.


As well as the usual one hour in at gymnastics, followed by an hour in the play park, we met went frog spotting at Warnham Nature Reserve today with fellow home ed friends. The plan was to go frog spotting as it happened the mums were rather frog marched around the reserve. The children moved at an alarming rate along the paths and thoroughly enjoyed a good walk around, dipping in and out of hides and climbing the occasional fallen tree. Pumpkin did spot a snail shell when he was riding in the buggy and Bean came for a closer look using his magnifying glass from his National Trust explorer kit that grandma and pops got him for his birthday. We decided that as the snail was missing it would be okay to collect the shell and bring it home so he doned his gloves and put it into an appropriate sized pot to bring home.


The day had begun with some craftiness. Bean emptied a box of craft bits and constructed a picture of our garden and a picture of daddy's steam train (the one that takes him to work.) What I love about the craft movement is that although it took Bean almost five years to show any interest in anything arty he is really finding things he is good at, home ed allows there to be little restriction in the time he spends on it or which medium he wants to work with, and there is only room for exploration and his own sense of accomplishment in his work. There is no-one to tell him he can't use pink or draw flowers or put the sandpit in the sky or daddy on a steam train. I think these things combined has helped him move on in his art work and not stunted or hindered him from continuing.

The remainder of the day saw us entertaining friends, making chocolate cakes (again), watching some iplayer, playing games on mummy's phone, and Pumpkin finally falling asleep at 5pm and not waking up... I feel a 3am wake up call approaching!