Soldier on

It's not always easy. I have spent two days listening to a new home ed mum recount her experience of a visit from the LEA. To be fair i've never heard a bad experience before in our area but then i've only heard of three families who have had visits. Predominantly I couldn't help but think that so much time and effort is now being put into liasons with the LEA when the time and effort could be better spent home educating her children. 

Bean has been particularly aggressive today. I'm not sure how best to handle it. Half the battle is me remaining calm, which i managed today but i'm exhausted and i've run out of ideas. 

The backdrop for the day was a two hour trip to the park, a quick visit to Seawhites to buy scrap books and home to watch Tom and Jerry race around the world. We had to get the map of the wall and find and name all the cities they went to. Pumpkin could name a fair few, recognising them by the landmarks on the cartoon.

Bean told me today that he uses his imagination very day and Pumpkin has been rhyming words non stop. Plum still has her cough but soldiers on...and I need chocolate.

All quiet

We have had a Total Home Day! A rarity for us that becomes more common as the winter months draw in. Also a rarity for us on a Thursday as it is gymnastics day. Both boys decided against it today, Bean is still fighting with a cold that is now causing him to have a sore throat and Plum is coughing away too. 

I spent most of my day cleaning the bathroom, planning our diary for December (extra treats as daddy has a few days off ) cooking yummy soup and carbonara, and getting a bookcase out of the loft and assembling it, all with Plum's help. The boys spent 99% of their day playing minecraft or watching minecraft videos on youtube as well as watching shows on cbeebies. There was a time, not so long ago, that the request to do this would have sent me crazy but I see so much learning in everything they do that it's not an issue anymore. For them, we are only two weeks in to their total freedom to choose what, when and why they use various technological devices so between the excitement of having total freedom over it and testing out whether mummy and daddy really mean it, they are using these devices above other choices at the moment. Part of me knows that this will probably change as time goes on, as the novelty wears off and as they come to realise that we did mean it, and the other part of me isn't worried about it either way. Today Bean and I worked out how to build a track in a cave and are puzzled by why you can eat cake but not other foods, we also figured out how to cook fish...all on minecraft! My involvment with Pumpkin was more food orientated today, he was keen to keep his minecraft exploits a secret and I suspect that he has been building something in mummy's world as a surprise. 

We did spend a few minutes looking up a picture of a centaur after seeing a model of centaur bones at the auction house this week and read a few library books together (Mr Tick the Teacher,The Diabolical Mr Tiddles, and Charlie and Lola) and Bean told me that he already knows how to write 'cat.'

Dinosaur very, very, long

Who could resist a second (and last) look at the diplodocus skeleton? What an amazing opportunity to get close to something so special. We managed to work out that we could fit Misty in our back garden. I took far more photos today and realised that Bean was predominantly interested in the taxidermy, Pumpkin spotted anything skeletal and Plum enjoyed the statues of people. The number of photos still wont capture the eclectic feel of the place. Bean insisted on taking notepad and pencil with him but didn't use them when we were there, however, he did use them on the car journey to and from to draw pictures. We talked about the possibility of extending a  porch on the front of our house and he draw a version for me. 

The dinosaur visit led to watching a few news reports on the subject, the BBC and Newsround both reported on it, and we discussed the process of filming and interviewing and editing and journalism. I'm hoping that it'll make at least the local paper this week too. Bean and I have played dinosaur snap and pairs, as well as getting out the dotty dinosaur game that we have. There has been a lot of minecraft today from both the boys and other than a brief moment when Pumpkin went and did a pencil drawing of a tractor, he has been engrossed with games on the ipad today. 

Dinosaur roar

i felt like a real home ed family today. What a crazy thing to say! So many days seem to go by with doing relatively little but today we found ourselves in the most exciting place and it was only a stones through from our house. Today we went to view a real diplodocus skeleton was on display. All 17 meters of it. It definitely had the WoW! factor, it was awesome to think we were looking at real dinosaur bones rather than the casts that are usually in museums. The whole auction house was full to the brim of eclectic pieces, a real treasure trove. I only took five photos as we got entirely carried away with  our wanderings and wonderings (as it should be.)

I wish i could tell you all the things i now know about dinosaurs that i didn't know this morning but i don't have time for that. Along with the dinovember, which continued today with our dinos trying their claws at knitting, our morning visit inspired a conversation about auctions, which led us to watch an episode of Bargain Hunt where they were selling an amethyst broach. This fitted perfectly with our morning as Bean had been particularly taken with the amethyst stone and asked the staff a lot of questions about it (as it happened, we asked so many questions that they ended up giving us a catalogue for free!) It was interesting to compare prices and discuss value. The visit also led us to dig out a dinosaur set that Pumpkin was given last January. Bean put together the skeletal model and Pumpkin and I used air dry clay to mold the fossils whilst Plum spent a content 45minutes with the playdough. We also searched the picture cards for the dinosaur with the bump on its head (Brachiosaurus) and emptied our dino box to see how many diplodocus we had. 

We're not the only home ed family to have gone either

http://taketwobods.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/meeting-misty.html?spref=fb

http://thegallivanters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/stone-to-bone.html

And right in the middle of it all, clear as day, Plum pointed to a laden apple tree and said, 'apple'

Oh Happy Day

Woo Hoo...daddy is home before 11pm which leads to many a happy thing, one of them being that i am able to post on the blog. There is so much to blog about and so little time especially when i haven't posted for over a week. Our big thing time investment at the moment is dinovember, which involves our toy dinosaurs coming alive during the night and getting up to fun and games. We have always been truth tellers with our boys and things such as the tooth fairy and santa claus belong firmly in the myths column and with this in mind we haven't mentioned the dinosaurs coming to life but they are enjoying getting up each morning to see what the dinos have been up to. 

making a cake

game playing

helping themselves to cereal

The boys continued the breakfast theme and the dinos joined us for some porridge and milk

dino concerto

Lending a hand with the laundry

PLaying Drs and nurses

Hide and seek

Wrecking the bathroom

Spot of late night lego 

There has been a large amount of superhero/ goodvbad interest in the house. Star wars continues to dominate and we have finally managed to get a copy of IV, V and VI, which we are in the process of viewing (with huge success.) The boys have been discovering spiderman and Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles amongst other things. We watched The Incredibles together too. Daddy took them to the Dr Who exhibition at Horsham Museum and it ticked all these boxes neatly included the robots element.

We have ventured out of the house on a few other occasions, Pumpkin requested ice cream so we tripped to the shops in the car, Bean was upset by this so we went again in the afternoon on their bikes this time to the play park. We have managed to meet with fellow home ed friends at the park and continued our weekly gymnastics session and are enjoying our (indoor) Winter Wednesday meet where Pumpkin has enjoyed crafting with felt and Bean has experimented with more fimo creations but mostly they love playing with their friends. 

At home there has been some Christmas gift making and card designing, Hama beads, lego, baking ...more of the usual suspects but there has also been a lot more activity on the ipad and computer, mostly minecraft and other games but watching tv and films too. This is because, two weeks ago, we decided to our restrictions on the amount of time that the smalls have on these devices and allow them the freedom to choose how, when, why and what they use them for (but that's a whole post for another day!)

Moving on

I had a wonderful evening with Bean last night. Daddy was out and Pumpkin and PLum had both fallen asleep earlier than usual leaving Bean and me to an evening of pancake eating, uno playing and toy story 2 together. It was nothing short of perfect.

Plum's earlier to bed mode resulted in a two hour awake period from 3am-5am consequently i was fast asleep when Bean got up. He forgets to eat in the morning when this happens but he enjoys the alone time before anyone else is up and his desire for alone time has continued during our periods of time at home today.

We had a fantastical play date at friends house today with much lego, Wii,, cars cars, hobby horse riding, dancing and brick building. A playdate I was secretly anxious about as it involved six smalls ranging from 22 months -9 years in a confined space (not an outdoor park meet!) We timed our exit just right as both Plum and Pumpkin were showing signs of tiredness and predictably both fell asleep in the car on the journey home. Pumpkin's afternoon naps are becoming just that mostly now, naps. The journey home was enough for him and a little lie down on the sofa. 

In the eye of the beholder

Middle of the day post...as daddy is in short supply at the moment i am taking the opportunity as it arises to blog about some of our favourite moments from recent days.

The boys have been fighting a cough/cold and have been reluctant to move far from the sofa. We have had two pyjama days and spent a large percentage of time watching Dennis the Menace and playing mineraft. Bean and I also built a railway track to fill the bedroom floor and Pumpkin and I made a night time cake with stars on. 

Plum requested a play on the piano and we played together for about half an hour, followed by her drawing in a sketch pad for another half an hour, with me drawing too. She is not often far from pencils and paper at the moment hence the need for the sketch pad.

The boys spent two hours in the bath on Monday night playing lego together and in between all this i have had time to clean the house and put my mind to booking legoland, ordering a few educational freebies (mostly books and posters) and begin planning December's festive treats and January's birthdays.

Today we had a planned meet with friends for an autumnal walk but neither of the boys wanted to be outside so I tentatively suggested Fisher's Farm (I needed some air even if the boys didn't) and they were both keen. We bumped into a fellow home ed family and had a great time in the soft play area. We stayed for two hours before coming home and finding one (out of two, always awkward) legoclub magazines to have arrived and retreating to the sofa once again. Viewing Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, playing bad piggies and minecraft. Bean and I have spent some time exploring the pc version, in the meantime Plum has been decorating our hallway wallpaper with her new found artistic skills.

night time cake with sates and moon