Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Monday 30 September 2013

Here be dragons





Pumpkin has really got into drawing lately and I'm thinking of investing in some sketch pads for him, not only to place value onto what he does but also to limit the amount of paper flying around the room! Today's master piece was a dragon. Inspired by yesterday evenings viewing on iplayer: Dragons. His picture came in the castle scene including doorbells. The dragon had wings and claws and talons and fire and ears and a tail and spots. 

Plum saw her brother hard at it and decided that she wanted to draw too. I had been to town at the weekend and purchased new pens too, phew.

And whilst all this was going on Bean was busy with lego in his bedroom.

The afternoon was spent with our home ed friends in the park. Three hours of play and i barely had any interaction with any of my smalls. Plum mastered the slide and went down it repeatedly. Pumpkin spent a large amount of time happily on his own and Bean alternated between being on his own and being invloved with the other. Bean even made arrangements with a friend for a play date and I notice more and more so his desire to extend his social circle beyond the few get togethers we have in the week.

Back home and the new den was put into action again and we found the box of duplo that has been hiding for some months now and this spurred the boys into two hours of play together mostly building and playing with the town scene (including a farm.) 

And my triumph of the day was finishing the curtains for Pumpkin's bottom bunk bed so that he can have his own den without having to dig out sheets every time. He loves it.

Sunday 29 September 2013

We're collecting conkers

For a while now Pumpkin has been requesting to take photos of various things, mostly food. Food art has been a part of our lives now for well over a year but Pumpkin is also interested in food that comes in its own interesting shapes or sizes as well as baking. This is this weeks selection:




We have had many excursions this week and a lot of exercise! Tuesday took an unexpected turn at breakfast when we were invited to meet friends at Horsham Park and instead of going to a National Trust site we spent six hours riding our bikes, climbing and playing in the park.

Wednesday took us to Worthing sea front, where the sea mist was so thick we couldn't tell if the tide was in or out. Bean conquered the climbing wall and our walk along the front saw us collecting stones and making up our own games with the stones. 






Thursday was gymnastics day and a trip to Tilgate Park. The interesting thing for me was Pumpkin bringing together all the clues that Autumn is here and me realising that, once again, real life learning is so much more real and we get to have a really cool time and climb trees and crush leaves in the process.




This is Plum's thing atm. She has gone from a real dislike of sand to spending most of this week in one sand pit or another. Every morning we go into the garden to play with Alex and Charlie and every morning Plum ends up in the sand pit. This week she has played here every day plus two days in the sand pit at Horsham Park and the sand at the Worthing play area. We now take bucket and spades with us everywhere! 


Daddy has been busy this weekend helping Bean build a lego lighthouse, taking us all out to dinner and creating a new den area for the smalls. All very successful :)




Monday 23 September 2013

you can keep your hat on

It seems to me that we have done very little today but, how the smalls busy themselves. 
Plum is loving this hat at the moment and puts it on herself. She has been seen wearing it whilst eating and playing and piano playing and watching tv. It is a bit small for her but i daren't take it away as she is enjoying it so much. 


Pumpkin is keen on taking photos of his food and daily takes a photo of two. Today he went one further and took a selection of other pictures too: 







We took a trip to the park today to meet up with some fellow home ed families and spent a beautiful warm and sunny afternoon enjoying the company in the park. Plum found a girl of similar age in the sand pit and they played happily together for half an hour, covering each others feet with sand and filling a bucket up with sand and emptying it.


Plum was asleep by the time we got home and i spent an hour with the boys playing 'talking people' I was the character with the pick up truck who came to rescue the boys characters when they got stuck or broke down.


It's interesting to me in how the last few months the boys have evolved their play to building whole scenes to accommodate their story lines. 
The last few days have been a bit of a blur and it surprises me how much you can forget, i'm struggling to remember what we did on Friday! In fact, we spent the afternoon with our friends and the smalls had a great time, as always. 

Yesterday we visited Bignor Roman Villa as part of their Heritage weekend, entrance was free. The boys loved it. Bean had a go at hand spinning wool and weaving and took to it rather well. The lady was really impressed with him. Pumpkin played with the mosaic tiles and we all walked around the maze and labyrinth. As with most things Roman, I was pleased to have taken daddy. He has more head knowledge and interest than me and can answer the boys questions more readily and without having to read through masses of information to not find the answer that they are looking for. Definitely a daddy venue though as I was struggling to muster up enthusiasm for it (can you tell I'm not into Roman history?)

And today was church day. We joined our friends at their church and for the first time in months I stayed in the service and heard the message. The boys, rather to my surprise, went confidently into the Sunday School with their friends. 


Friday 20 September 2013

Sail away

Wednesday 11th September 2013

What an amazing day! The afternoon spent with friends at Southwater Country Park. Mostly playing in the play park and spinning each other in the egg cup and on the pole and making camp in the crows nest. Plum found a tunnel and played happily there for hours. There was a small incident when Plum fell over and cut the back of her head. It's really hard to assess a bleeding injury in amongst hair but she was okay. There was a lot of crying and the need for some medical attention (anticeptic wipes, painkillers and breastmilk...not in that order) 

Bean had taken along a boat that Pops and cousinB had made him (and I had bagged a few toy ones) to try on the lake. The smalls all had a great time wading in and playing boats. Bean and Pumpkin had both independently packed their swim shorts and I had put in a towel, everyone else, including Plum went in with their clothes on. Plum travelled home in just her nappy and slept peacefully for two hours. 

Pumpkin fell asleep on the sofa at 6.30pm and missed dinner.

















Turkey Lurkey

Thank goodness, gymnastics day is here again. Pumpkin has been asking periodically throughout the summer months when it will be gymnastics again. The boys both eagerly got ready and they both went straight in. I had wondered whether we would return to the sitting and watching phase again, due to the break, but they were fine and Bean coped well with the new group structure that has split him and Pumpkin up. 

Afterwards we went to Tilgate Park. We did the maze and the Nature Centre today and all three smalls loved it. Except being chased by the turkeys, we did not love that! 

Pumpkin announced that he is going to make a picture with all the feathers that he has been collecting and asked if there was a way of keeping flowers. He has been busy today with the hama beads.









Colourful living

Thursday 19th September 2013

The morning bagan like this...
balancing jenga bricks

Pumpkin's telephone pole

Pumpkin's factory

Pumpkin's castle with drawbridge

Bean's temple

Pumpkin wrote Vatroli (factory) in Jenga bricks

 And the afternoon ended like this...with florescent powder paint and water







And in the middle was some playing with Alex and Charlie indoors, gymnastics and minecraft.