Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Friday 28 October 2016

Spontaneous rhythms

We had a trip to sheffield Park planned today. We had only been there for the first time recently but wanted to explore more. We arranged to meet Mr T. Pippin jad had a disturbed night so we slept in until 8.30. This put us a little behind schedule. The smalls all watched tv and played dens for the morning whilst i prepared a picnic and got everyone dressed. We were almost an hour late leaving.

On the way we played i-spy with the spotter sheets i made two years ago for a long holiday journey. We talked about American road signs and vehicles and the similarities and differences bewteen ours nd theirs. It was busier than last time when we arrived and we had to park in the overflow car park. We walked to the entrance where there were toilets and picnic benches. We meet our friends and climbed trees and ate lunch. Sheffield Park tie orange ribbons around the best trees to climb. Bean especially seems happiet up a tree at the moment.

When food seemed to come to a natural end, we went to move on and find the Nature Trial but Bean had put his head on the bench and said he was tired. We looked at where we were planning on heading on the map and reassured Pippin that we were not going near the ponds (he has a recent fear of people drowning) and suggested we walked back to the car and then see how we feel. The reality was that going home was not an option but Bean did not know this and i couldn't really explain that to him either. When we got to the car he lay down on the back seat. My friend rescued us by offering for us to come to their house to play. So, dispite us being an hour late, and travelling 45minutes to our destination just to have lunch, we then accepted the invitation back to play. Everyone was happy. And i am glad to have friends who understand us.

Plum spent our time at home making dens today under the coffee table. She took her cuddly toys in and her tablet to watch on. We watched Bolt in the evening and the boys both opted for a bath.

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Where are you?

We have got ourselves into a lovely rhythm lately. On the whole we stay at home in the morning and, if we are going out, we go out in the afternoon. Today Bean and I tried installing a coding course for him with the intention that he would have some time on it, however it took over an hour so there wasn't enough time to start on it. It is now all set ready to go when he's next ready. I also found an HE friend who is in the process of setting up a coding course/club.

This afternoon we went to our Christian Home Educating Friends (CHEF) meet. We had two new families and it was quietly busy. Hamma beads was very popular. Pumpkin made a ladder from lolly sticks and Bean bagan making a house from lolly sticks, a proto type of his tree house. Plum missed making her ladder so we have plans to find the lolly sticks at home and make one there. Plum spent her time playing with the dolls and soft toys.

Bean and Pumpkin played on the wii when we got home and Plum played cbeebies games whilst Pippin pottered around and watched some more Bing and played hide and seek with me, calling "where are you?"

Tuesday 25 October 2016

Changing Rhythms: school holidays

School holidays change our rhthym too, as does the changing seasons. We don't celebrate halloween, for lots of reasons, the dressing up part scares the children. For this reason we avoid anywhere that has decorations up during the half term holiday which mostly means we stay at home or have play dates. Today we met church friends and used the church hall as a space to play together. The big ones began with an extended lego session, Plum and me built a railway track with the brio. Games soon turned to dressing up and chasing the one dressed as the tiger. Bean was Superman and then a clown. Pumpkin was a pirate. Plum a policewoman. We also played four rounds of uno.

Bean had a problem with his phone today and tried several ways to fix it. He patiently waited for daddy to come home who spent some time with google and fixed it in 30 seconds. We spent a large portion of the day watching cats being funny in compelation clips on YouTube and moved on to You've Been framed in the evening.

It all began with Pumpkin and DanTDM and the Don't Laugh challenge, which is very hard and very funny.

Plum slept in late this morning, i was glad it wasn't Little Verse day due to half term, she would have hated being woken up but hated missing it too. She pottered around with the happy land people most of the morning. She is mostly into nesting them and her dollies at the moment.

And Pippin is watching Bing on a loop.

We ended the day watching Wreck it Ralph and all four smalls having a bath. Neither of the boys felt they had had long enough to finish the games they were playing so we will probably repeat it all again tomorrow.

Monday 24 October 2016

Changing rhythms

In terms of learning our weekends are no different to any other day, in terms of the rhythm of our days the weekend does not change things but having daddy home opens up possibilities that i can't orchestrate on my own. Today it was mummy going to the optician for an eye test and new glasses (as my current ones are broken) Daddy was left home with the smalls getting the dressed and a picnic ready to go to Box Hill and meet friends.  We spent five hours in the cold mist/warm sun/ autumnal shade on the nature trail. We didn't make it all the way around and, although the smalls and their friends had a great time playing forts on/in various wooden structures on the way around, Bean was upset that we didn't make it as far as the rope swings, so we have agreed to return soon. home to a roast dinner and a film. tonight was Disney's Robin Hood.

Sunday is church day in our house. This week i packed pens and colouring/activity books in everyone's bags. It worked out well except Plum didn't have her own pens. It definitely shows on a Sunday morning that we rarely have to be up and ready to do things in a morning. Pumpkin was very tired. We came home earlier than normal because he was ready to leave. Pumpkin picked up a large leaf from church and we looked up what it was when we got home, an american red oak.
In the afternoon i took Bean shoe shopping. He is currently wearing two mismatched crocks of different sizes. He has his feet measured (size 1 1/2) and we found a pair of trainers that he likes. Plum came with us and we played on the cedar tree before buying kinder eggs and coming home. Plum is keen to play lots of sweety games this week, carve pumpkins and a melon.
Daddy went out with Pumpkin on a bike ride and then took Pumpkin, Bean and Plum to the green with their bikes. Plum rode her bike, with stabilisers, for the first time.

Plum has slept three nights in her own room on her own. she creeps back to our bed in the early morning. Last night she fell asleep cuddling mummy and daddy as we put lydia to bed in our bed.

Sunday 23 October 2016

Rest and relaxation

A day at home can sometimes be a very relaxing and welcome rest. however today all the smalls were incredibly busy and needing help with things.

Bean wanted to try coding for the first time. We were recommended a programme and it has a free trial so we downloaded it. That was as far as we got because our computer wouldn't run it and i didn't know how to fix that. We navigated the disappointment by moving on to videoing his tutorial for building the lego model that he designed yesterday evening.

Pumpkin needed his bike wheels washing after riding through poo. We also made a cake and he iced it using the icing bags (like they do on the bake off)

Plum and i had played various card games throughout the day, snap, pairs, and variations of these that Plum made up the rules to.

It all sounds fairly ordered when written down but it was peppered with food distribution and Pippin climbing on me, a lot, helping Pippin to sleep, sorting out electronic devices, and some peace making.

Friday 21 October 2016

Down on the Farm

A monumentous day as we bought Pippin her membership to Fiser's Farm. We have been members for just over two years now and it is an all year round favourite, although my personal winter favourite. It is our most costly membership but also our most used by far.
Today we met Plum's friend V for a play. thre was a bit of a tricky start when Plum wanted to play indoors and V outdoors but it was navigated with some seperate play and then we got together for pony rides, crazy golf, pirate ship, toddler cars, bouncy pillows and 'Bob the Builder' in the sand pit.

Bean (9) has been fiddling with lego most of the day. He has completed a little more of his lego chima set and then created his own set. During the evening he began drawing instructions but it became too difficult so he swapped to taking photos and has plans to do a YouTube tutorial tomorrow. Daddy has found a website where you can submit your lego set designs too.

Pumpkin (7) has also been fiddling with lego, mostly creating minifigures with accessories. And this evening we continued watching The Great British Bake Off semi final.

Plum (4) has decided to sleep in her own room, so we made a make shift bed on the floor and she slept a large portion of the night in there. We left a green night light on in her room, door open and nght light on in the hall. Daddy had special instructions to make sure that there was still room in the bed for her incase she wanted to come and sleep with us.

Mr Maker

We haven't watched Mr maker for a long time, this morning he was on a loop. it seemed fitting as ever had our first version Explore and Play session today. We have set up a monthly meeting for the winter months for friends to meet together and are providing an invitation to explore and play in the space. today it was all things long and wiggly: wool craft (yarn monsters, flower bouquets,  American Indian decorations), spaghetti messy play, orange and green play dough it has straws, large boxes for modelling (and putting on our head), large paper roll with pens, lego, duplo, skittles, large balls.

Bean played piano again today and made two flowers at the wool table this afternoon. He also made ply dough monsters and played a game he named BBB in the garden, that is Ball, Bounce, Brick, which involved bouncing g a small ball odd he wall of the building.

We made Strawberry milkshake in the morning, Pumpkin's choice. He said we hadn't put enough strawberries not it so next time we will try two punnets. No one lose liked it either but we had a lovely time chopping it and blending it, Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin.
Pippin struggled to find his space at Explore and Play. he made play dough monsters before everyone else arrived and drew on the group art but struggled with the large group and was very at sea when Bean was concentrating on his wool craft.

Plum equally enjoyed making play dough monsters  and drawing.  She returned to the playdough through out the afternoon. we also played a lot of skittles together. back home she watched her Hello Kitty dvd and then The Incredibles.


Wednesday 19 October 2016

All things Japenese

We've got into a bit of a routine on a Monday. Plum goes to Little Verse with SGG and SGS. Bean then puts on a film that we know Plum does not want to watch. We are working our way through Lord of The Rings. Today was the second halfloor of the Two Towers, we watched the first half yesterday whilst Plum was at a birthday party.

We spent the afternoon at a HE Japanese Event. Some children and their families had put together several table with various Japans related items for display. Some even came dressed for the occasion. The boys spent most of the time at the Pokemon display, looking at annuals, but Bean and Plum also did some origami and we all played retro games on the wiiU.

( In the evening daddy and I went out. Not because it was our birthday or anniversary but because we could. SGG and SGS came and no played with the children)

We tried to go slower on Tuesday. Mostly the children plaged on tablets for the morning. We went Pokemon hunting in the afternoon mostly encorporting PokeStops as we needed the balls. We also stopped for guinea pig surplies at the shop which including spontaneously purchasing grapefruit for the smalls to try. And, thanks to Pippin's endless watching of Bing, webrought strawberries to make smoothies with. We also played in the play area for a while where we met a lady with boy twins who had the same names as our boys. We've never met anyone with the same name as Pumpkin before so finding a brother match is probably a one off.

Bean came home and got busy measuring the garden so he can make a tree house. It will go under and around a tree as we don't have a big enough tree to climb and put one in. He drew a design, inside and out, and put measurements on it. Daddy looked at resources with him.

We rounded the day of with a viewing of Beethoven and all four had baths/showers.

Amazonian

The boys went to the cinema on Saturday morning. Daddy went with them and they met friend T there. They saw The Secretary Life Of Pets. Plum stayed at home and we made popcorn and watched Nanny McPhee.

Sunday was super busy. We went to church in the morning and then Plum had a birthday party to attend and then back to church for afternoon tea. On reflection, it was too much. Plum was overtired and after all that activity and getting up at 6am, she became really upset when a friend choose not to play with her. We left and sat in the car but she wasn't happy with this either. Meanwhile,  Pumpkin had had his fill of sitting and was throwing things at Bean, so daddy left with him. Bean, on the other hand, was really interested in staying and listening to the speaker talk of his life in The Amazon. Balancing everyone's needs can be tricky sometimes.

We ended up doing a parent swap. I took Pumpkin to look at the Amazonian artifacts the speaker had brought, including spears and a crocodile skull. Daddy calmed Plum and went and sat with Bean and Pippin.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Revisit

 One of the things that I have notived in the last year is how games in our family have become established. One of the smalls will call "let'someone play houses/wrestling/babies/families" and everyone immediately knows what the game so,  where we play it, what role they play, what the story line is, what the rules are.  And each time they play the game evolves. It'seems a beautiful process to watch.

Today it was Bean and Pumpkin wrestling at Nyman's gardens.  We joined friends for a visit and played Pokemon as we walked. The smalls (all four of them) climbed trees and ran around chasing with their friends. Plum wore a summer dress even though the weather was cold and everyone else was wearing coats.

The trip out was topped and tailed with Bean and Pumpkin playing Magic: the gathering. I think it was Pumpkin'so first go at playing but he knew the game play really well from watching so many times and understood the cards in the pack. Bean is keen to introduce new cards to the pack.

Friday 14 October 2016

Down the road

The boys play a series of five donut games every morning, best of five wins. Pumpkin immersed in watching walk through Simpson's game play of Simpson computer games and Bean is working his way through Poke money episodes.

Today we went to see friends that we haven't seen for far too long, and they only live 15 minutes down the road. The county we live in is teaming with Home Educators and the ever growing means we are oil to for choice for activities and friendships.  The smalls all played in the playhouse and climbed trees, swung on the swing, played hot wheels and played with weaponary.

Pippin only slept in the car and then woke and was sick. We cleaned up and cuddled.

We ended our day enjoying The Great British Bake Off.

Thursday 13 October 2016

A day at home

We now spend one day a week at home without the car, enforced by daddy needing it for work. It has worked out really well.  We can walk to town if we want to, play poker on,  go to the library or the museum, or walk/bike/scooter to one of four parks within walking distance. But today we settled on staying at home.

The big three were all up after 9.30am. The boys relaxed and watched YouTube for a few hours. Punprinted is continuing to find gamers who walk through Simpson'so games and Bean is working through various comedy series and testing out the humour by repeating the jokes on us.

Plum and I played doll'so house whicheck she turned into the three bears cottage and we retoldon't the story of goldilocks. It ended with baby bear and goldilocks playing at her house in the swimming pool and diving in. This has beena recurring theme in her play for a few months now. She builds diving boards in mine craft and usespecially the padding pool, bath, and water trays to build diving boards for her toys.
After playing doll'so house, Plum and Pippin made white chocolate chunk brownies.

Lydia isn't well again and hasn't been for a few days. Today I noticed white spots on her tongue so we went to the doctors and he diagnosed thrush and gave a course of medicine for her.

Bean has spent an hour working on his lego Chima today with me finding specific pieces for him. He spent about one and a half hours (in segments) learning to play Yankee Doodle on the piano. This encompassed learning to read the music, learning the keyboard, the names for notes and noteven length as well as figuring out the tune by ear once he realised what tune it was.
It also led to questions and discussion on American Independence, explorers, and St Patrick's Day.

Makes clearing of the piano worth it.

A day at home

We now spend one day a week at home without the car, enforced by daddy needing it for work. It has worked out really well.  We can walk to town if we want to, play poker on,  go to the library or the museum, or walk/bike/scooter to one of four parks within walking distance. But today we settled on staying at home.

The big three were all up after 9.30am. The boys relaxed and watched YouTube for a few hours. Punprinted is continuing to find gamers who walk through Simpson'so games and Bean is working through various comedy series and testing out the humour by repeating the jokes on us.

Plum and I played doll'so house whicheck she turned into the three bears cottage and we retoldon't the story of goldilocks. It ended with baby bear and goldilocks playing at her house in the swimming pool and diving in. This has beena recurring theme in her play for a few months now. She builds diving boards in mine craft and usespecially the padding pool, bath, and water trays to build diving boards for her toys.
After playing doll'so house, Plum and Pippin made white chocolate chunk brownies.

Lydia isn't well again and hasn't been for a few days. Today I noticed white spots on her tongue so we went to the doctors and he diagnosed thrush and gave a course of medicine for her.

Bean has spent an hour working on his lego Chima today with me finding specific pieces for him. He spent about one and a half hours (in segments) learning to play Yankee Doodle on the piano. This encompassed learning to read the music, learning the keyboard, the names for notes and noteven length as well as figuring out the tune by ear once he realised what tune it was.
It also led to questions and discussion on American Independence, explorers, and St Patrick's Day.

Makes clearing of the piano worth it.