Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Wednesday 8 November 2017

I don't speak monkey

Hibernation is setting in. There is less desire and motivation all around to go out, and when we do it is for shorter periods of time.

We made it to the skatepark, at bean's, 10, request on friday, followed by the play park, where we bumped into a fellow HE friend. Bean would like to go back again next week. All four took their bikes and all four rode them. It won't be long (a year??) Before i could take my bike too and we can all ride together. The ran and slid up and down the ramps and rode their bikes down and a little up the ramps. We watched some people doing tricks on bmx bikes (one did a backward somersault😯)

Bean and i spent all of saturday looking at houses. We travelled all over west sussex, beginning in shoreham on a house boat and ending in kirdforf at a cottage. The decision has been made and the deed has been done. We came home and got a take away and had a family film night.

Sunday was church day and rest day, both bean and i were exhausted.

Monday we had our friend T to play for the afternoon and tuesday was an At Home Day.

There has been a lot of gun orientated games, nerf wars, shooting games, prisoner games, tying up games mostly we have been watching films.

Aladdin,
Pete's Dragon,
A series of Unfortunate events,
The Cat in the Hat,
Dorethy's return to Oz,
Rango.
And others
Some of them we have watched twice.

And something completely unexpected happened and caused great excitement and a moment of joy and wonder. Two of the films, completely unrelated, share the line: 'i don't speak monkey.'

Friday 3 November 2017

Hectic

Gymnastics day and bean, 10, asked if we could go to Tilgate Park afterwards, so we did. They collected sticks and played pirate ships on a fallen tree trunk. Bean, pumpkin, 8, and plum, 5, played on the large twirly slide together. Pippin, 3, enjoyed the rope swing, swings and smaller slide.

That was topped and tailed with watching Plum watching Elf, bean continuing The Matrix 2 with daddy, bean making a daily calender for himself using coloured paper, a hole punch, the paper slicer, and string. Plum drawing pictures and making cards. Pumpkin organising a nerf war for us all to play and pippin co tinuing to enjoy colouring, play dough and baths with her anna doll and repunzel barbie.

We had a quiet relaxed day at the beginning of the week, now i have overwhelmed with requests to play or help or for food. Sometimes it's quiet, sometimes it's just plain hectic.

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Light in the darkness

We had an At Home Day today.

Bean, 10, talked about working on his skatepark more but didn't get around to it. We played Harry Potter trivial pursuit and he had a bath. He watched The Simpsons and The amazing World of Gumball and we played Minecraft together.

Pumpkin, 8, played a new gun game with bean and plum, 5. They shot at each other using toy guns and you have to lie down for five seconds when you have been shot.

Plum came and worked in the garden with me. We washed out the old rabbit hutch and then pruned the grapevine and cleared some dead bind weed. We made a den in my room in the afternoon and she and pippin, 3, played in it for hours. We also finished watching Turbo.

Pippin had a bath and played with her repunzel barbie, anna doll and peppa pig toys together.



Tuesday 31 October 2017

All sorts

Bean, 10, continues to build his skatepark with cardboard ramps and fixing them together with a glue gun. He took the ramp and remote control skateboard to his friends house to play and also found the finger skateboard too.

Pumpkin, 8, spent most of the day watching and playing on his tablet. He enjoyed nerf wars at his friends house and continued to play when he got home.

Plum, 5, is loving looking after the rabbits in the mornings. She played parties with pippin, 3. They got dressed up in special outfits and put on make up and nail varnish and decorated their hair together.

We spent three hours at our friend, O's, house. Plum went and played with the three big ones this time and took on the roll of healer in the nerf game. It seemed to work really well.

Daddy was home late but had arranged to watch The Matrix 2 with Bean so they started on that. I curled up downstairs with plum and we started watching Turbo together.

Monday 30 October 2017

There's no place like home

We had two consecutive days at home followed by two consecutive highly busy days.

Thursday and friday were At Home Days. Thursday was very relaxed with lots of watching and computer games, play dough, colouring. The children were relaxed and i got to spend concentrated and uninterupted time with each of them. Plum, 5, and i put together the new rabbit hutch which took 2 1/2 hours in total. Bean, 10, popped out every now and then and gave us a hand and pippin, 3, kept an eye on proceedings in between cartoons and playdough. Bean went out with daddy and bought a pumpkin in the evening.

Friday bean carved a pumpkin with me as his did not turn out as expected earlier in the week. Pippin and plum and i baked a marble tray bake to take to fireworks at the church in the evening. Pumpkin didn't get up until after midday! And in the wvening we went to the church with friends and had fireworks and sparklers and soup.

Saturday we were up and out looking at houses and home for a late lunch. Bean and i went into town to spend his pocket money. He had been planning on saving it to buy a nerf gun with pumpkin but three days from getting the next instalment he decided he wanted to spend it. He bought a remote control skateboard, a lolly for himself and kinder eggs for the other three. Then it was back home for a quick feed up before daddy took the big three to fireworks at the cricket club with their friend T.

Sunday was church day followed by a trip to Polesden Lacy where we meet friend A and J and did the Wizard of Oz trail, perfect for Plum who has recently watched the film several times. We had a great time rolling down the hill and walking along the trim trail in the woods. Plum climbed a tree higher than i have ever seen her climb and bean helped guide her back down again. By the time we got home everyone was exhausted and we relaxed all evening with food and The Simpsons.

Thursday 26 October 2017

Elongated

Our mornings and currentl elogated (at i don't imagine that changing in the foreseeable future) Pippin, 2, wakes anytime between 6.30 and 8am. Bean, 10, about 8/30am, plum, 5, gets up between 8 and 9am, and pumpkin, 8, didn't wake until 10.45am. Consequently our mornings are a relaxed mix of gaming, breakfast, toys, breakfast, five minute crafts, breakfast, chores and breakfast, which then blends into lunch as the first risers are ready for more food by the time the later risers have emerged!

Today we had a viewing booked in on our house for midday so it was mostly breakfast and chores and packing a lunch ready to go and meet friends so we could be out of the house. We met our church friends K, T and R at the church for a few hours of playdough, hide and seek, slenderman, grandma's footsteps and bull dog. I also timed the boys running different circuits around the inside of the building. They are a pretty even match, we had to start including the milliseconds to declare a winner.

Back home there was more playdough with pippin and pumpkin, and the marble run game returned for an hour or so. Everyone had a bath in the evening and bean continued to increase the amount of time that he can hold his breath for.

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Carving Pumpkins

Bean, 10, and i spent an hour hollowing out pumpkins this morning. I have learnt a few things about carving pumpkins in the past few years and today i learnt more. I remembered that it takes an age to hollow them out and that carving out a large lid is best. Today i discovered that the large pumpkins (which i have previously avoided) have the same amount of fibres and seeds in them as the smaller ones and are therefore easier to scoop out, they are also easier to carve as they have a larger canvas space.

Our friends, A, J, and H came over to play. They all choose pictures for their pumpkins and then their mum and I sat for hours carving them out. Pippin, 3, chose minnie mouse, plum, 5, chose the cheshire cat, pumpkin, 8, chose a scary face and bean chose another scary face. I didn't do so well with Bean's so we have plans to purchase another pumpkin.

Whilst we carved the children played marble run and a fighting/war/battle, there was some tablet games and discussion going on, and a new game based on the enderman character is minecraft which they called Slenderman. And there was food. Pippin got the Bing and peppa small world toys out and was singing Frozen songs over and over.

Later pippin and pumpkin played play dough together. Pippin creates characters and models and pumpkin was dissecting them or performing surgery on them. Sometimes it was a heart transplant and sometimes full amputation, head transplant or swapping limbs. It was brutal.

Bean and i played minecraft and he had a bath, continuing to practice holding his breath.

Plum took herself to her bed and watched/played on her tablet.

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Doing okay

Ours days are swinging between full on, everyone wants to do everything at once and i am stretched thin, to quiet, restful, everyone is engrossed in their own thing and i'm wondering if i have time to start a little project of my own (i haven't actually done it yet, mostly i potter around tudying and cleaning)

Thursday was gymnastics day, we took a quick detour to collect some handmade gifts (first Christmas pick up) and we also popped in on daddy to collect the rabbit food he had bought in town but couldn't carry home on his bike. Back home Plum, 5, and i sorted through her current wardrobe as the seasons are changing it is a good moment to do a full check. We pulled out items that she has never worn and others that are too small and did a stock check on warmer clothes. It turns out she only owns two long sleeve tshirts and no dresses so we planned a shopping trip.

I also did the same with the Bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, but they have no interest in the contents of their wardrobe. Bean will wear whatever we put in there (although he does develop favourite items over time) and Pumpkin will decide when he pulls them out and puts them on and i will slowly gather a pile of items that he has rejected.

Friday we had a Big Day Out with other Home Ed families at Drusilla's (zoo). Bean and Pumpkin zoomed around the animal enclosures with the friend T and his mum. Plum and Pippin took a slower pace and we saw a few animals up and about that we haven't seen before (and we have been many times) It was rather windy and cool. We met up with the boys in the play area and we went in the indoor play area and then we went on the rides. Bean, pumpkin, plum and me went on the leaping cheetah several times and a hippo ride (similar to a magic carpet) Pippin was tired by this point and stayed largely in the buggy, T's mum and i took in turns to ride with the children. We also rode the hello kitty rides (cars, teacups and hopper) and ran around the maze several times.

Friday night the big three slept downstairs with the intention of staying awake as long as they could. Pumpkin figured out that if he took a nap in the car on the way home from the zoo then he would be able to stay awake the longest. Pumpkin and plum went to sleep about 1am, i don't know what time bean went to sleep.

Saturday we had no plans and everyone was tired. Bean and pumpkin did begin a lego scene together. Minifigures in battle. It has been an ongoing project since then. Bean also made a vehicle that transforms from a wolf style machine to a scorpion, rather like a transformer robot.

Sometimes i think we are not so busy, are we doing enough? And then i write it down, and i'm sure it's not half of it, and i realise we do a fair amount, we are doing the things we love, and we have time and space to play hard and relax hard and we're doing okay.

Thursday 19 October 2017

Lego club

Post holiday week, always a bit bumpy! Lacking the extra loving pair of hands to do....everything!

Monday we hosted the seasons first lego club. Five families came along, two new faces. There was a lot of rolling wheels on the floor in competition and several rounds of build battle. It ended with group games organised by the children outside, stuck in the mud, zombie it, grandm's footsteps. All played under a sepia sky, turned orange by the sand stirred up in the sahara dessert storm.

Tuesday and wednesday were our first home days in two weeks. We played minecraft together, made chocolate milkshake, played horses and doll's house and taboo. Pumpkin is still trying to find answers to stonehenge but we haven't got around to it yet. There was roblox and doghnut games and nerf games. We watched nanny mcphee and pirates of the carribean V.

Mostly it has been laundry, laundry, laundry and faciliating baths for everyone.

Sunday 8 October 2017

Questions, questions, questions.

Bean, 10, is on a crafing role. Today he began his day by makin a snowglobe for Plum. After alt of years of harbouring and collecting crafting items, they are now being used. Bean was notinterested in making using paint or glue when he was younger but recently asked if we could have a desigated crafting table.

Pumpkin, 8, was in a question asking mood. Do fish close their eyes when they sleep? What is nitroglycerin? What doyou call itwhen the moon is moretan half amoon but not a fullmoon?

Plum, 5, played doll's house and dollies with pippin, 3.

In the afternoon our friends came to play. A, J, H and their mummy. The big four played upstairs making traps and hideouts and playing roblox and sims4. H, plum and pippin played play dough pizza making and ice cream sets they also played momentarily in the garden with the small world.
We took themall to the park. Bean took the boomerang and they played a real life version of a roblox game similar to winking murder. This continued when we got home.

Saturday, daddy took all four smalls to bedgebury pinetum and meet FA#3 with cousins C and H. They had a good day exploring and climbing and doing a gruffalo trail. We watched Men In Black in the evening together.

Friday 6 October 2017

In the house

The gaming computer is back in the house and fully functioning so bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, spent most of the day on the sims4 and roblox, plum, 5, joined them on her tablet. We researched new rabbit hutches and watched Back to the Future 3 (having watched the previous two at the weekend.) I watched The tinkerbell movie with Plum and Pippin, 3.

Bean has discovered 5 minute crafting videos on youtube and has made telephones using paper cups, origami book mark animal faces and is now attempting a snow globe.

Pumpkin is enjoying roblox: cowboy showdown and murder mystery and warfare.

The big three all went to gymnastics and pumpkin and C played chess afterwards before we headed home. Bean, pumpkin and m

Plum and pippin played more doll's house together and misfits board game.

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Weekly

I seem to be managing to post weekly at the moment. Not the plan but it's better than nothing. The problem is that i forget the detail of what the smalls have been up to.

Bean, 10, enjoyed Fisher's Farm with his friends. The tabogan ride, cannons, indoor play, crazy golf, bouncy pillows and waiting all day for skyfall to be open. He took the boomerang out for a spin again on Saturday and Sunday. Monday he had a good go at bowling without the bumpers up and the gaming computer had its first go on in months as it is now fixed. Sims 4 and roblox were the first games to be played. We met friends on tuesday and walked to an abandoned tank where they smalls played for an hour and a half. Bean also got out the dominoes again and attempted to make a run with operating parts. He also made a balloon catapult and telephone set using paper cups and strong.

Pumpkin, 8, is back to full health. Fisher's farm with friends included the tabogan, twin swings, cannons, gold, indoor play, feeding the animals, and bouncy pillows. He had a try at the skyfall by climbing to the first ledge but decided against it. He took his bike out on saturday and played boomerang with bean. He went out with daddy on sunday to play boomerang together. He thrashed us all at bowling on monday and thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the tank to play. He has been on the gaming computer playing roblox and has had his grossery gang out to play on the chess board and pirate ship.

Plum, 5, played all day with her friend V at fisher's farm. They fed the animals and rode the ponies, played in the tree houses, tabogans, bouncy pillows, cannons, twin swings, indoor play, golf, and probably more. She had a great time playing with her cousins C and H. They mostly played small world and role play games. We went to the play park and took a bath together too. Sunday plum went to the green and played boomerang with daddy and did hama beads with both mummy and daddy. Monday she enjoyed bowling with FA#2 and tuesday she rested a lot but also played doll's house with pippin.

Pippin, 3. Pippin is now three. We celebrated on her birthday with a HE trip to Fisher's Farm. She choose all the things she wanted to do. Pony rides, tabogan, feeding and stroking the animals, ice cream, chips, indoor play, tree houses, bouncy pillows, twin swings. After four weeks of not eating she is now eating like a horse! We had a family birthday party on Saturday. FA#1 and FA#3 with cousins C and H came to play. We played pass the parcel and a few other spontaneous games. We went to play pooh sticks and boomerang and to the play park before heading home for more play and dinner and a bath. She had a great birthday.

Friday 29 September 2017

Day 5

Today was our last day of quarantine.

Bean, 10, made a birthday card for Pippin with moving parts. It took several attempts and reworking to get the length of the pulling parts correct and make sure they didn't get pulled out but he did it. He also ent about half an hour playing piano with me. We looked at all the keys and put coloured dots on the matching ones. We looked at notation and how it related to the keys. We played tunes together that we have played before and tried a new one. And then we had fun with the 'excercise' book. In the afternoon he did several 100+ piece puzzles, some with me, some on his own and some with Plum. He had a bath and was counting holding his breath and using a straw as a snorkle.

Pumpkin, 8, is currently immersing himself in 'The amazing world of Gumball,' i think he watched it all day except for when he put the film 'the house of magic' on. He did have a bath. Pumpkin also regained hos appetite today so hopefully, after fuelling up and resting today, he will be better now.

Plum, 5, played doll's house with me in the morning and then continued playing with pippin. They made a cinema for the figures using the doll's furniture and a tablet, the created a beach area using face clothes as towels and daddy's blue blanket as the sea, and they made a play park area too.
Plum played a shooting game with bean. They used unloaded nerf guns and had bases and were chasing each other around the house shooting. And then plum did a 100 piece puzzle with a little help from pumpkin. She then completed a few more with me and bean.

Pippin, 2, had a bath this evening, played doll's house with Plum, cut up veg for dinner, tried her hand at a few puzzles and watched Topsy and Tim.

Thursday 28 September 2017

Quarentine

We have had sickness, that is vomiting, in the house since saturday night. Plum, pumpkin and pippin have all taken a turn. We have consequently been quarentined and a little lethargic. Today we had a terrible morning with squabblong and arguing and tear so i suggested a walk to the play park, not far, some fresh air and a change of scenery. I can't say that it helped massively. The same irritableness between siblings continued and then, after a trun on the roundabout, pippin was sick on the floor. We went home.

Bean, 10, was upset and took himself to his room, pumpkin, 8, lay on the sofa and watched tv, plum, 5, was tired and went and lay on her bed, pippin, 2, had a bath and a change of clothes and some breastmilk and a sleep. I made food for everyone and there was peace.

And the pumpkin was sick again in the night.

I had a doctors appointment to attend. Plum and pippin came with me. Plum has been fearful of the doctors for a while, we rarely go, and i'm not sure where the fear stems from but today was a triumph. We talked about why we were going and she helped hold pippin's hand on the way there and the doctor was super amazing at talking with her, and she came away happy and we now have a lovely experience to refer to when we need to go again.

We went to collect medication and bought doghnuts and dvds to continue our quarentine back home.

Bean went to the green on his own for 20 minutes to throw a bomerang around. We managed to fix his watch so he could tell the time.

Tuesday 26 September 2017

Quick update

Six day blog post. We have had rest days and full on busy days so here goes:

Bean, 10, has been rediscovering his electronics kit. He spent one full day on it and then it came to grandma's house with us, of course Pumpkin and plum managed to get a look in too. He likes to follow the diagrams in the book but also branched out into creating his own circuits. He has astonished us by riding on rides at Paultons park that went high and fast and reriding them many times. He has grown in confidence swimming in our friend's pool and enjoyed a new game called Marco Paula. He has been inspired by our recent theme park visits and designed three rides and a theme park map. He organised a surprise treasure hunt for daddy with written clues and we recorded together a scenerio of mummy eating breakfast but Bean as my hands.

Pumpkin, 8, enjoyed a bike ride to the park on the new estate. We have played minecraft together, building houses and build battle together. He enjoyed Paulon's park, the spinning pirate ship and the catopillar roller coaster. He has played terreria with his friend A at his house. And he has immersed homself in The Amazing World of Gumball. He instigated doing a 200 piece puzzle with bean.

Plum, 5, has had two chapter books read to her in the last week. Paulton's park was a big hit and we enjoyed all the Peppa Pig rides. She disappeared to play with her friend J at her house, and she enjoyed the pool. She spent an hour playing with pippin in the bath yesterday, followed by a room tidy (inspired by youtube) and puzzles with pippin too. She also helped me choose some party items for Pippin's upcoming birthday.

Pippin, 2, continued her love of thrilling rides at paulton's park. She enjoyed the peppa pig theme but definitley enjoyed the bigger rides better. She has been using a lot of play dough in the last week and making worlds from duplo and wooden blocks to play with the people figures in.

The big three all took part in gymnastics.

A bit of a whistle stop tour of the last six days.

Tuesday 19 September 2017

Happy Loud

We are somehow in the midst of a really busy few weeks. It began last Thursday with our first gymnastics session after the summer holidays. Our friends S and E met us there and then came home with us for 24 hours. It was Happy Loud and everyone went to sleep later than they should have and were up earlier than they should have been too but they were all so happy to see each other and play.

After they had left on Friday lunch time we began getting ready for our evening. Plum, 5, and pippin, 2, got dressed up in their Elsa outfits. We drove pudding and booster seats to church, then drove to Crawley to meet daddy, Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, stayed with daddy for the evening. They got a McDonald's together and went to an outdoor cinema viewing of Tangled and met Elsa whilst they were there.
Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, and mummy got the train back home. We ate fish and chips and waited at the church for SGS who collected the boys and took them home and stayed with them for a few hours until mummy and daddy seperately made their way home. Everyone was later to bed than normal, again.

Saturday, bean and Pumpkin spent the afternoon with their friend O. Mummy and daddy went to the play park with Plum and Pippin. Followed by church on Sunday.

Monday was a legoland fantastic day. Daddy came too. Pippin was above the minimum height requirement and she enjoyed the turning, rocking pirate ship and the rollercoaster the best, she went on both several times. Bean and pumpkin are now above the maximum height restriction and can ride all the rides solo. They rode the log flume with daddy for the first time this visit. Bean rode the rapids for the first time too. They enjoyed the new lego ninjago 4d ride and the driving school area. Plum tried the rides with pippin. She enjoyed the pirate ship and the train that went in circles. She liked the submarine and driving school.

Today is tuesday and we are finally taking a rest day.

Thursday 14 September 2017

Drenched

There was a time when getting caught in the rain would have resulted in a lot of angst and tears and big emotions. Today ot was an adventure. We walked to the library in sunshine, pumpkin, 8, completed the Summer Reading Challenge for the first time, all the children choose a large number of books (considering i had to carry them) and then we made our way home in the pouring rain. Pumpkin asked bean, 10, to ride his bike because he was worried about slipping. We all got drenched. We all had a change of clothes, hot chocolate and marshmallows when we arrived home. No trauma. No tears.

Back home pumpkin put on the Angry Birds followed by bean putting on WallE and everyone ate a hearty dinner. Pippin, 2, came and said she was hungry and asked for broccoli and ham so we cut up some broccoli together and boiled in, put ham on a plate, and she was happy with her meal.

Pippin and plum topped and tailed our trip out with dolly play, doll's house play and role playing mummy's. It was effectively the same narrative but in different forms and places in the house.

Up and down

Tuesday we managed to get up and out to make it to Guildford Air Hop where bean, 10, pumpkin, 8, and plum, 5, bounced for an hour. Pippin had to sit and watch, we did well with stories and sticker books and videoing plum but there were also some moments of sad because she couldn't go on...it'll be another two years before she is eligible for bouncing with the HE crowd!

Bean and pumpkin spent a lot of their time playing in the dodgeball court and plum bounced with her friend V and his mummy. She also enjoyed the pit.

Back home they were all shattered and spent more time in the den that bean created yesterday, more games on the pc, we said goodbye to Zuko, the crested geeko that we have been pet sitting and played chess with pumpkin and then plum for a few hours in the evening.

Bean requested biscuit making so he could use the cutters. We found a suitable recipe and he set about reading it and making the biscuits himself. I worked alongside hom baking my own batch of breakfast biscuits and being on hand for words he couldn't quite read and instructions and techniques he needed help with but i felt significantly more redundant than any previous biscuit baking afternoon.

Pippin nd plum both bathed and i sat on my bed with bean, plum and pumpkin and read stories all curled up together. Bean and plum read Each Peach Pear Plum together, it was beautiful and made my heart happy.

Change of plan

Monday we had planned to go to fisher's Farm for the afternoon, however everyone was relaxed and cosy at home after a busy weekend. I had thought we might need the space and the stretch but as the day went on it became evident that everyone was happy doing their thing and there wasn't a need to interupt it with a trip out. I asked all the smalls individually if they were happy staying home today and they all said yes.

So, it turned out to be an At Home Day in pyjamas. Bean, 10, made a mega den in the living room from dinning chairs and a coffee table and sheets and blankets. The lower level was for himself and pumpkin, 8, and the upper level for plum, 5, and pippin, 2, with a balcony to sit on and watch tv. We played minecraft and pippin and bean had baths. Bean and pumpkin and plum took it in turns to play games on the pc and it turned out to be a quiet day.

Monday 11 September 2017

Weekend Round Up

Friday. We had a playdate at one of the boy's friend's house, O, they played nerf wars mostly. Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played with musical instruments including a thumb piano, and some ukuleles. Daddy was out for the evening, bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, played in the dark in the garden and picked the pears fromPumpkin's pear tree.

Saturday was manic. Bean and Pumpkin and Plum were all really busy. Pumpkin made up a new nerf war game which involves rolling a dice to do certain moves, we also had several all out shooting matches covering the whole house. Plum made and decorated chocolate cup cakes, we had the rabbits in to brush and play for a while. Bean put on Indiana Jones to watch.

Sunday we had a double celebration. Sunday School Anniversary, where the children got to show the project work they have been involved with over the summer. Bean read a sentence out to the church, pumpkin talked about a lot of the things he did and even plum joined i  a little. Pippin wet whilst sitting on my lap and then i had to stand at the front and present the tabernacle collage. We headed to Worthing for our annual Not Back To School celebration of fish and chips. This year we ate inside as it was extremely windy. We stopped at the arcade and made it back to the car just before the rain came.

Back home we all snuggled down and watched Indiana Jones and ate soup.

Friday 8 September 2017

People are important

We made it out of the house today and smoothly past the For Sale sign that caused so much distress yesterday. Pumpkin, 8, ride his bike to town, the rest of us walked. We visited the library where Pumpkin chatted to the librarian with ease and joy about the four books he has read for the Summer Reading challenge, the librarian happens to also be his Sunday School teacher so that made all the difference. He choose a dvd and everyone gathered books to bring home. Bean, 10, continues to gravitate towards graphic novels.

We also visited The Works for a new fidget spinner for Bean, the pound shop where he also picked up a joke kit, and the toy shop for some blind bags. Plum, 5, is collecting shopkins, pumpkin got more grosseries, and pippin picked up a peppa pig mystery egg.

Back home we watched Hop, the dvd pupmkin had chosen, pippin slept and we played minecraft together.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Challenges

Our mornings are fairly predictable at the moment. Pippin, 2, wakes first usually around 7am, give or take half an hour, Bean, 10, wakes next normally about 8 am, followed by Plum, 5, anytime between 8 and 9am, and finally pumpkin, 8, waking anytime between 8am and 10am (sometimes later) The day tends to begin with a box of toys for Pipipin and the others join in or play on their tablets or the computer. I usually have at least one helper to prepare breakfast with and load laundry and feed rabbits. And then the real business of the day begins.

Today was an At Home Day, Bean and I had faced challenge of putting up a new (to us) tent without instructions. Pippin joined in too by passing us tent pegs as we requested them. Tomorrow we will wash and reseal it and attempt to pack it away.

Bean spent hours working on a comic strip he has devised, entitled "oh no!" Each page begins with one disasterous scene followed by two short disasterous stories. Plum joined in and created her own comic strip about a monster chasing a person.

Pumpkin spent the majority of the day playing on his tablet, he is immersed in escape games recently. He did suggest we made cakes but we were out of eggs and alternative suggestions were dismissed. He spent a large portion of the day (three hours) crying as the For Sale sign went up today. We cuddled a lot and he slept for a chunk of time too.


Wednesday 6 September 2017

Jumping straight in

We have entered a lovely rhythm during the summer holidays and as we move into september i am hoping to keep it going, even if only for a short time before the warm weather ends and autumn draws near. So, our week normal includes, a trip to fisher's farm, a day out or possibly two somewhere, one gymnastics class, a trip to town primarily to the library, a couple of play dates with friends, and at least one At Home Day and a whole bunch more of whitespace for relaxing or playing or ongoing crafts/lego/minecraft etc.

Today we went to fisher's farm. It was raining. The type of rain that is non commital. More like various forms ot wet air. The type that, once you've been in it for a couple of hours, you suddenly find yourself soaked to the bone. In short, we got wet. But during the process, bean, 10, went on the skyfall for two hours today. The second hour he jumped for the first time from 6m. He has been up to the platform and back down again many times since the attraction was installed but today was the day that he jumped, andi got his first jump on camera too. He then spent the next hour jumping from 6m. He also went on the tube tabogan and took pippin, 2, with him. Pumpkin, 8, enjoyed the octopus ride and spent 30 minutes on that and played in the sandpit with pippin and went on the rube tabogan too. Plum, 5, rode the carosel with pippin and rode the go karts with bean. She also instigated the crazy golf round that we all played together and had a pony ride today. Pippin also had a pony ride.

Plum also made a card and a bead necklace for a friend's birthday tomorrow and we delivered it.  Bean and pumpkin did a bath challenge and took a bath fully clothed.

Thursday 31 August 2017

Not Back to School





This year we will officially have three children who are Not Back to School: Bean, 10, Pumpkin, 8, and Plum, 5. And then there is Pippin, 2, tagging along for the ride.

None of the children have ever been to school or preschool, we decided that home education was for us before Bean was even two. That makes this officially our sixth year of Home Ed (7th if you include Reception too) For this reason, i have no idea what school year my children would be in now, i could work it out if i wanted to but it seems unnecessary.

We chose to Home Educate for many reasons. We discussed the education system, which i taught in for 11 years, and reflected on things we did and didn't want for our children. We discussed child development and cognitive development and educational approaches. We discussed our own educational journeys and reflected on our experiences and paths. We discussed the spiritual implications and social implications of attending school. We discussed the character and personality of our eldest. And as we brought together all these things we came undoubtedly to the conclusion that Home Education was the way forward for us as a family.

We fell into Unschooling naturally as we continued to live and learn together as we moved from babyhood to toddlerhood to preschool age to school age. Fundamentally nothing changed for us in our day to day. The children are learning all the time and we, as the adults, support and facilitate and provide the things they need to be able to achieve the things they want to achieve.

Unschooling means that our days look different, each and everyone. One day we could be at the beach, playing in the water or collecting stones and shells, or playing in the arcade, or scooting along the promenade. The next day we could be at gymnastics class followed by a picnic and play in the park. Another day we could have friends over and do playdough and craft and board games or role play. And then we could spend a day going to the library and the local museum, into town to buy supplies. Another day we could spend reading and watching films and playing computer games or building dominoe runs and lego models or playing barbies. We have busy days and quiet days; frantic moments and calm moments; full on, all in, consuming, immersed passions, and then relaxed, laid back, contemplative hours. We don't really have a typical day, we do the things we love and we do them as and when we want to. We dance and play and watch and bake and explore and craft and sing and read and run and rest to our own unique schedule. 

You can follow us (almost) daily here and find out more about our Home Education here.

Friday 14 July 2017

Blessed

Mostly today was gymnastics and nerf wars and jumangi. We were actually a few minutes early for gymnastics too. Not bad for the final session of the term. Pippin, 2, busied herself with climbing the guard rails and walking along the squash court seating areas, jumping down the steps, she ate lunch and we drew a few family pictures together. Plum, 5, left her bag on the grass verge next to the car so after driving back home via the butchers we did a quick u-turn and returned to the lesuire centre. The bag had been given in to reception.

Tea and biscuit bŕeak was required when we got home.

This was followed by a nerf war. Pippin hasn't quite got the hang of not running into the shooting zone so it was a bit fraught at times. There is now an elaborate set up required which has developed over the last few weeks of playing. There are barracades and set hiding spots, den building and base points. There is also a sequence to game play, attack and defense procedures.

We watched Jumangi whilst eating dinner. Daddy and the smalls had watched it last week and they were keen to show it to me. It was 8.45pm before we began tidying up the nerf forts and food and plates and other toys but everyone helped. Daddy was out for the evening so bedtimes were solo mio. Pippin first, breastfed and sleep, plum next with Bible story and prayers and then she lay in bed whilst i read stories with Bean (who is currently listening to treasure island with daddy at bedtimes), back to plum to cuddle whilst she went to sleep and then i said goodnight to pumpkin at about 11pm and i went to bed. Daddy was home shortly after.

Thursday 13 July 2017

Rememberall

Today was an At Home Day, daddy took the car to work and we had packing to begin for our first camping trip of the year. Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, helped unpack and clean and repack the camping boxes. We did four boxes in total throughout the day.

Pippin began the day by watching Bolt whilst eating breakfast and drawing. When Plum woke up, pippin and plum played with the cogs set and watched the different patterns as they spun the cogs.

Bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire whilst also playing games on Pumpkin's tablet which he was sharing with Bean as i had dropped his and smashed the screen last night.
Bean followed this by playing minecraft on the pc whilst Pumpkin sat with him and played Clash of Clans.

Plum set about trying to find mislaid polly pocket peices around the house in the miscellaneous boxes, this resulted in her tipping all the miscellaneous boxes onto the living room floor and everyone collecting their spoils.

Pippin requested painting in the afternoon and produced about ten papers of black stripes.

We tried to Skype our friends that we had spoken to yesterday and arranged to continue today but they had gone out. There was a lot of Sponge Bob in the evening and Pippin had a bubbly bath.

Bean has been busy building his Star Wars tie fighter model and x wing fighter in the last week. Everyone has bathed, bean enjoys wearing his goggles in the bath and pippin loves the bubbles, plum likes to bath and play with pippin, whilst pumpkin likes the idea of having a bath alone until bean turns up and jumps in and then they have lots of fun together. We have also spent hours watching America's got Talent and been enjoying the ventriloquism and magicians especially the children performers in the last week. It's difficult to remember all the things that happen in a day for four small people, sometimes it feels very unproductive but it is extremely difficult to actually do nothing, as writing this blog serves to prove, and remembering it all is a real challenge.

Wednesday 12 July 2017

7 is perfection

Wednesday: We went out to meet friends at Southwater Country Park and played in the heat of the dinosaur park. Pippin, 2, was improved but remained cuddly. Our time was brief as it was hot and bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, were adjitated and fighting each other. We spent the rest of the day hiding in cool spots around the house, settled each doing their own thing. Playing doll's house, napping, watching films, playing the amazing frog.

Thursday was gymnastics day followed by a picnic in tilgate park. The children played in the woods and on the play area with friends. Plum, 5, and her friend found a frog . Pippin felt much better and played and played and played. Pumpkin found a friend and played zombie games together with bean, fighting and chasing and acting like zombies.

Friday we went to town and bought birthday presents and spent pocket money on toys and silly string and got new dresses for plum. Plum and pumpkin and pippin played with the new pizza play dough set at home and they all played silly string in the garden.

We went to a friend's Harry Potter birthday party. Plum painted clay owls and pippin coloured a werewolf finger puppet, there was a pinata and pass the parcel and food and a treaure hunt game and flying on broomsticks. Everyone was happily exhausted, the journey home was epic and pippin fell asleep for the night.

Sunday was church day, daddy was preaching so we all went together. R from church came over to play for the afternoon. There was a lot of creative kitchen using the cherries from the garden and dress up and nerf and knights tornaments. We saw a hoglet out with mrs tiddywinkle in the evening.

Monday was a home day. The four smalls all played the same game for five hours: piling every duvet and pillow and beanbag in the house on the sofa and sitting on the top of them and sliding off. We ended the day by watching Swallows and Amazons.

We began the day by watching Swallows and Amazons. And tuesday we went to Fisher's Farm. It was raining on and off but this didn't seem to deter anyone. We began indoors but only briefly. We played on the slides, the go karts, the bouncy pillows, bumper boats, carosel, squirrel scramble, toddler tractors, sand pit, cannons, tractor ride, and pony rides.

This week we are mostly packing for our first camping trip of the year. Lots of laundry and cleaning of camping equipment ready for our holiday next week.

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Chasing Butterflies and Robots

Thursday and the Big Three did gymnastics.

Friday we went to a Robot Wars workshop. It was originally booked for bean, 10, however Pumpkin, 8, said he'd like to do it too. I managed to secure a last minute spot for him during the same session as bean and our friends A and J. The venue allowed for me to have the girls outside on the meadow. Plum, 5,  and i made a daisy chain crown and pippin, 2, chased butterflies around the meadow.
Inside the hall, the boys got to watch a few robots built for Robot Wars in action including 'Matilda.' Then they worked in a group to build their own robot (125g) and battle it against other group's robots. They had met everyone in their group before and they all had a turn or more at operating the robot. Pumpkin won every one of his three battles.
We played in the play park after and ate more of our lunch and then headed home.

Saturday. We went to a friend's 60th birthday party in the afternoon and then went on to a bbq on lancing beadh with our church friends. Bean and plum and daddy all went in the sea. Pumpkin wnjoyed playing on the rocks.
Unfortunately pumpkin was sick in the night.

Sunday. Church day as always, except daddy, pumpkin and bean stayed at home and mummy took plum and pippin. We spent the afternoon resting and fixing FA#3's car. Daddy also fixed the wii so Pumpkin spent several hours playing lego harry potter.
The children decided that they would like to try staying up all night again. Plum was still awake at 12.30 but asleep by 2.30. Bean and pumpkin were still awake at 4.45am but asleep soon after. Bean woke at 9am but he took my suggestion to go and rest on his bed and went back to sleep until 12 noon. Pumpkin woke just before 12 noon.
Plum and Pippin had spent the morning with me playing Polly Pocket and doing various household tasks. Pippin took a nap between 11 and 1. By 1pm all four children were awake at the same time. We watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban together.

Tuesday we took another At Home Day as Pippin keeps spiking a temperature and is ever so lethargic and keeps napping at unusual (for her) times. Plum and pippin and i face painted each other as tigers and the girls mixed kitchen ingredients and cooked them. Bean began setting out the base of his tree house and marking which sections he would like to cut and/or replace. Pumpkin suggested a game of nerf wars but it has been put on hold until the morning. He also has plans to build his own robot using a remote control car as the base. We watched some robot wars clups together on youtube.

Thursday 29 June 2017

Unintended

Pumpkin, 8, mention this morning that he didn't want to watch Toy Story 2 as it was playing for the second time, it would later play for a third time too. I jokingly replied by beginning to name all the other options and toys and craft and construction and puzzles etc that we have in the house. He and bean, 10, responded by systematically getting out toys and spent the rest of the day building railway track and marble runs.

In the evening, when daddy arrived home, all six of us built a railway track that encompassed the boy's room and mummy's room and joined up along the corridor. Lots of fun.

Wednesday 28 June 2017

Untitled

We met with friends on Friday. They were one of the first families that i met when we first stepped into the HE community and although we have seen each other frequently at HE events it is not until now that our children have connected. Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, spent more than an hour at their house whilst i took plum, 5, and pippin, 2, to the nearby play park with K, 12. We had a great time at the park and played on the zipline, roundabout, swings, slide, pirate boat and the adult gym equipment before we got a call to return to the boys. We then stayed a little longer watching a film before we left. The plan eas for pippin to sleep, which she did on the return journey but promptly woke when we got home.

Saturday we went to Pilgrim Hall for our church away day. The children played all day with SGG and SGS who did clay models and kite flying and pictures and junk modelling with them. Daddy and i sat next to each other all day and we took the children swimming in the outdoor pool. Pumpkin didn't want to swim so swang on the tree swing a while and then went and played table tennis and table football with a friend.

Sunday we went to church and then collapsed in the afternoon. All the children took themselves to their own corner and lay and played on their tablets. We did the same Monday too. Both saturday and sunday we had had to wake the big three to get them up and out for the day, monday was blessed relief.

Monday their was some Magic: the gathering, playing in the paddling pool, painting, playing mummies and daddies, minecraft, and a lego zip wire. I also took plum and pippin to the park for an hour.

Tuesday we took Archie dog out for a walk in the woods. We had to go and buy him some tennis balls as he didn't have any. It started to rain just as we were leaving. The remainder of the day was spent with water beads and den making, minecraft, youtube, gaming, and film watching.

Friday 23 June 2017

Raw

Some days take a whole lot more energy than others. Some days you can be packing the car up to leave and then be presented with a Pippin, 2, who has, at the last minute jumped in the paddling pool fully clothed and then you realise that Pumpkin, 8, has no socks on and because you have mentioned socks, pippin now wants some too even though she doesn't need them.

Sometimes one child can change their mind about doing an activity, because we are all tired and it is hot, and then the other is upset because they want to do gymnastics but they don't want to do it without their brother. Then pumpkin spends an hour crying on the floor in the lesuire centre because he is disappointed and angry and really wants to go home but plum, 5, is still in the class and you have arranged to collect lego cards from a friend (although this could have been reaaranged if we had gone home.)

Some days we manage to get to an HE meet so plum can see her friend and i did promise we would go to the park today. I bought ice creams for everyone so we were all happy with the suggestion. Then you sit and try to help plum and her friend find a game they are both happy to play whilst bean, 10, is throwing pine cones at pumpkin and upsetting him.

Fortunately my day was also full of HE mums who had encouraging and kind words to say and distracted the boys with dog walking. Fortunately i don't feel guilty about given them pizza for tea and everyone settled once we were home. Fortunately pippin went to sleep at 6pm leaving only three children to cater for. Fortunately i had a night out booked and went for a run. Fortunately we have a daddy who steps in to help when he is home. Fortunately tomorrow is a new day and His mercies are new every morning.

Thursday 22 June 2017

Summer solstice

Today, the hottest and longest day of the year, bean, 10, gets all active. We wrote another chapter of his minecraft story which we haven't worked on in months; he finished whittling his tent peg and began work on a spoon; and he spent five hours putting together a solar powered robot dog.

Pumpkin, 8, found his usual spot on the sofa and settled down to watch and play on his tablet, he also played roblox and the amazing frog on the computer, he joined bean putting together the dogbot for a while, played in the garden and the paddling pool for a bit too. His favourite part of the day was eating the chocolate brownies that daddy brought home from work after his birthday so we must get the recipe.

Plum, 5, played in the garden and the paddling pool with pippin, 2. Mostly she spent the day lying on her top bunk in the breeze of an open window, watching on youtube. She did ask if we could go to the prk but was happy with the suggestion of going after gymnastics tomorrow and meeting friends.

Pippin watched frozen twice and madagascar 2 twice today as well as playing in the paddling pool and playing with my wool, pretending it was a dog on a lead.

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Summer Days

I have't posted for a week! Life has been busy. The day light hours are getting longer. Today is the summer solstice. The weather forecast is set at 34° today. Our home ed aim for today will be to stay cool.

Bean, 10, has spent the last week mostly involved in oreparing and displaying his Bakugan project. After weeks of trawling ebay, Saturday we found an auction listing in nearby Shoreham and they accepted our buy it now offer. Daddy took Bean down to collect a new case and 18 bakugan. Monday he displayed his project.
He has also been watching a lot of extreme sport tricks and world record holding stunts on youtube. Tight rope walking over niagra falls and the grand canyon, rock climbing without equipment up sheer rock faces, jumping without parachutes, skateboarding into the grand canyon, extreme mountain biking etc. He says he wants to overcome his fear of heights so that he can climb higher.

Pumpkin, 8, has helped taste test cakes for me for daddy's birthday party and we have been trying to faciliatate as much time as possible at home for him in between a very busy schedule. Friday we stayed home all day and made cakes and wrapped daddy's presents, Saturday morning i stayed at gome with him whilst the others went out and he and i stayed at home sunday morning whilst the others went to church. Then we drove FA#3 and family to the airport and had a beautiful drive home, just the two of us.
Monday, Pumpkin and Bean played with a HE friend that we have known for years but for the first time really connected and they have plans to go and play at his house.

Plum, 5, busy busy busy as always. Plum helped make and ice all four cakes that we made for daddy's birthday. She played relentlessly with her cousins C and H and enjoyed having them for a sleep over at the weekend, she made a new friend at the project showcase who shared their hoola hoop with her. She also took her my little ponies to display and another HE teen helped her to mix slime. She has met a friend at fisher's farm and played in the new indoor area together. And when she needs a rest she takes her tablet up to her room and watches youtube.

Pumpkin, 2, is a delight. She's there mixing cakes with us and hanging the laundry, she hides every nappy change under the duvets and sheets and then i have to hide from her too, she chops vegetables for dinner and feeds the rabbits with me, she colours and loads her own films to watch. She has begun to copy the dancing in films, her best being madagascar' "move it, move it," nut job's "gangnam style," and frozen "do you wanna build a snowman?" Her sleeping patterns are unpredictable as she transitions from regular afternoon nap to no nap through late afternoon nap which the heat is contributing to.

We have also managed to complete our lego card collection, pending promised cards, watched lego batman together, played at Fisher's Farm Splash Attack and go karts, where bean gave plum and pippin rides around the track, and went to the animal handling, held daddy's birthday party and played with lots of friends.

Today we will stay at home and rest, with no specific plans, except to stay cool in the heat.


Thursday 15 June 2017

Getting Ready

Tuesday was our weekly imposed At Home Day (daddy has the car for work.) It works out really well as it forces me not to over plan days out. Today, we had lots in the pipeline though. The weekend holds both daddy's 50th birthday including party and Father's day and on Monday Bean, 10, is displaying project work at a HE showcase. It may seem like we have days to get things together but when, realistically, your life revolves around preping food and one outing a day, there isn't much concentrated time left. So, today we choose and ordered presents that will arrive tomorrow (very thankful that our free trial for amazon prime is on); we choose three cakes to make for the party and added ingredients to the shopping list; each of the smalls made their own birthday card for daddy, each of their own design; and bean worked on his Bakugan display, searching for pictures on the internet and copying and pasting them into a document and resizing for printing.

Wednesday we took a picnic to Horsham park and met with four other HE families. Plum, 5, met up with V for the second time this week and they played bubbles together and in the sandpit for a while, pippin, 2, followed them around and played in the sand pit for a long while. She had taken her bucket and spade with her. Pumpkin, 8, played for a long time on his own, mostly on the zip wire, he also played chasing games with bean but it was very hot for running around. Bean, pumpkin and mummy played charades in the shade for a bit. Plum and pippin went on the swings before we came home.
Back home we made daddy's Father's day card, which was lots of fun (can't say much more as it is a surprise) but we laughed A LOT. Pippin chopped vegetables for dinner and the smalls watched films from amazon prime.

Bean has become very helpful in recent weeks, especially as we get ready to leave the house or when we are out. Not helpful in the sense that i have asked him if he could do something but he sees something that needs doing and he does it. It is lovely. He helpes Pippin into the car and straps her in (when she is willing), he fills drinks bottles before we leave and puts any bags i've placed by the door to take with us into the car. Today the open picnic bag fell out of the car and emptyed all over the car park. I was consoling a tired, hot Pippin and bean and pumpkin both jumped out of the car and picked up the contents of the bag and puzzled over how to reach the container that had rolled under the next car and they couldn't reach. They ended up using one of the many sticks that have been collected and put in the car.

Tuesday 13 June 2017

Sleep

Friday
We took a second attempt at going to town, after last weeks unsuccessful trip i was a bit nervous, however, this time we went in the car, we had two things on our list and the need to spend £10 in sainsbury for the parking, this means kinder eggs. We headed to the toy shop first. The big three set about in search of either a pet/animal related item or a craft set. It was for our friend's 6th birthday party. There were a few suggestions here and there butnothing hit the mark quite like the play doh pet shop set that Plum, 5, found. We also picked up a grossery blind bag for pumpkin, 8.
Next was feet measuring at the shoe shop. All the smalls had their feet measured but it was pumpkin that we needed new shoes for. The idea of going to the Root Hill BBQ tomorrow has spurred him to get shoes with velcro. The first shop had none that fit the right description for him. Sainsbury had none either. Tk max had a selection but none of them felt right. Clarkes were the winner with a fantastic shop assisstant who looked at his feet and said "he has a narrow heel and a wide foot with a high instep, i know what shoes will feel best" a brought a selction of three, all of which fit and he liked. Hurray.
And then the big three set about trying to stay awake all night. They were all awake at midnight and all asleep by 2.30am.

Saturday
Bean, 10, and daddy drove to brighton to collect some palettes for bean's tree house project. A quick turn around and then we headed to root hill family bbq. Back home we watched The BFG together.

Sunday
Church day. The result of a late night followed by a busy day led to some short tempers this morning. Bean was very angry at Pumpkin, 8, and decided not to go to church so they could be seperate. Pumpkin, then presented with the option of staying home, decided to stay home, consequently bean came to church with mummy, plum and pippin, 2.
After church we drove to our friends house J for her Roblox birthday party. There was lots of trampolining, cake decorating, party games, pinata and swimming. Back home we ate pizza for tea and watched Paddington together.

Monday
A home ed outing to Fisher's Farm. We aimed to spend as mucch of the day as we could there. We arrived about 11.30. We met up with friends A, J and H. Plum met her friend V and made new friends with some HE girls and the boys were able to play on things without off on their own. We enjoyed the tube slide and castle and elastic tower, the bouncy pillows, go karts, indoor slides, new indoor sensory woodland area, the carosel, rock climbing, squirrel scramble, and sky fall. Bean went repeatedly on the sky fall, mummy went once.
Pumpkin and pippin were asleep by 8.30, bean next at 9 and plum followed about 9.30. Hopefully they'll all sleep l9ng and be well rested.

Friday 9 June 2017

Relax

We had a fairly relaxing day. It took us all morning to eat and dress and prep to go out. We played a bit of terreria together, bean, 10, pumpkin, 8, and mummy. Pumpkin gave me two grappling hooks and showed me his costume wardrobe.

Pippin, 2, got the roller skates out for the second day in a row and had various success on the carpet. She tried on all three pairs. And then she played babies with plum, 5. Pippin has been playing a lot with the dog soft toys and putting them on leads and playing with rocky (the rocking horse.)

We then went to gymnastics. Bean, pumpkin and plum all went into the session and pippin played with another toddler. Pumpkin really enjoyed it. We ate our lunch at the lesiure centre before coming home.

Everyone disappeared to seperate corners when we got home watching/playing on their tablets. I took plum and pippin out to vote and when we got back bean, pumpkin and plum played sims 4 together. They created a new toddler character for their household.

Dispite having been fed all day, there was a lot of additional eating from all the smalls in the evening before pippin fell asleep on the sofa, bean and plum had stories and pumpkin went to bed after me (as per normal) Bean is currently reading through the Chronicales of Narnia with daddy and plum stil has brown bear, brown bear every night and we make up the animals.

Thursday 8 June 2017

Responding

Bean, 10, made himself scrambled eggs for breakfast. He decided he didn't want to feed the animals today because Charlie is gone (Charlie was his pet) and he had a little cry. He watched Bakugan and decided that that is what he would pike to do his next project showcase on, he came up with a few ideas and i contributed with a few more, some better received than others. Bean then made batter with me so that we could have battered sausage for lunch.

Pumpkin, 8, and mummy played terreria today. I died a lot. He showed me his pet museum and and gave me a tour of the world and showed me his outfits. It was pumpkin's suggestion to have battered sausage and it seems to have been successful and well received by everyone except pippin. In the evening he drew Native American face designs onto plum's face and a heart onto pippin's face with felt tip pen.

Plum, 5, and pippin, 2, played role play together. They were walking the dog on his lead. Plum organised her bedroom bits today and seperated her hair ties from her nail varnish and jewellry. She put them into her hello kitty case. She also played dolls's house today and played cbeebies games online.

Pippin watch madagascar twice and toy story with woody and she got the toy story puzzles out. She did some colouring and pippin had a bath with plum in the evening.

Wednesday 7 June 2017

Rainy days

Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, spent over an hour role playing together. Today's theme was schools. They reasranged the letters and words on the fridge and had 'lessons' and then took their babies and fed them and put them to bed. They then repeated this over and over again.

Pippin and mummy made a marble cake together that Bean, 10, declared to be his new favourite cake.

We buried Charlie the guinea pig. Pippin played guitar and sang a 'goodbye charlie' song and bean got his prayer book and we said the 'thank you for our dead pet' prayer.

In the afternoon we went to Fisher's Farm. We played in the new indoor area and then all the smalls went for a pony ride. It was pippin's first time on a pony ride. We then played on the go karts for half an hour before heading home.

Back home bean and pumpkin, 8, played terreria together. Plum and pippin played together before she went and lay in her bed and watched on her tablet. Pippin fell asleep on the sofa and the boys watched more Simpsons.

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Over and over again

A morning at home: plum, 5, and pippin, 2, playing together all morning. The schools game was prominant today. Plum takes pippin to school and then has to pick her up again. The conservatory and the garden are the school. Pippin is only there briefly but is allowed to play with any of the toys that she wants to. They both ended up getting the playdough out.

After lunch we too bean's, 10, and pumpkin's, 8, bikes to Worthing seafront to cycle the route we walked last week and spend the boys' pocket money in the arcade on the shooting game. Bean and pumpkin rode their and then back again in the dreary rain. Lydia walked there and back again. Plum took a sheltered ride in the buggy on the return. Plum and pippin took barbie and lottie doll with them and also played air hockey together.

Back home daddy painted plum and pippin's nails and stuck nail stikers on them. Plum lay in bed watching on her tablet and bean put on the simpsons.

Returning to favourite places and repeating things that we enjoyed his one of the reasons we love home ed. Having the space and time in a schedule to play and play and play the same game or visit the same place or do something we love as many times as we are able to is part of our learning process. Emersing ourselves in the things we enjoy includes places and games and activities.

Monday 5 June 2017

Back again

Friday
Bean, 10, planned to stay up all night so Pumpkin, 8, and Plum, 5,joined him. We set them up in the living room with duvets and pillows and a matress for Plum. Plum was asleep by 11.30pm.

Saturday
Daddy was home for the first weekend in a four weeks. The children rested in the morning. Plum and Pippin played role play all over the house for the morning: mummies and daddies, babies, doggies, cafes. Pumpkin, 8, was particularly busy playing roblox and lego. He wanted to take daddy to see the den that they had built at Sheffield park on Thursday. So we spent the afternoon den building at Sheffield park and playing on the huge rope swing in the tree. Back home bean, 10, worked some more on a lego model of his own design and then recorded a tutorial video on how to build it.

Sunday
Church day is getting easier. Bean, Pumpkin and Plum packed their own bags, snacks, drinks and toys. Church was follwed by a bbq at church, again the easiest year yet, not breastfeeding one or holding a tired youngster whilst trying to help little ones get food and then unable to leave them whilst you get your own food. This year the boys got their own plate of food and the girls sat happily together whilst daddy and i got our food. They also all got their own dessert and then played with the other children. We ended the bbq playing cricket with the other children.
Pippin took a huge nap late afternoon and i took Plum, Pumpkin and Bean to the play park. We spent the evening watching films chosen by Pippin and Horrible Histories chosen by Pumpkin. Daddy helped Bean to upload his videos onto his youtube channel.


Friday 2 June 2017

Turn around

I was slightly nervous about today's adventures, after yesterday's unsuccessful trip out. However, it was, in fact, super amazing.

We began the day with Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, playing dogs and schools and running around the house and garden. They had the dollies out too and were dressing them and pushing them around in the house. At one point Pippin was attempting to take the scooter up the stairs. They hung the laundry up with me and fed the animals. They had a very busy morning.

Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, watched scoobydoo (again) and Bakugan and played minecraft together. Bean got out the hotglue gun to stick a plastic snake to his tablet cover. He tried it three or four times but it wouldn't work. The hotglue would not stick to the cover. He realised that he could make things with the hotglue using the cover and then peel it off. He made an emoji for Pumpkin, a poo emoji for daddy, and a tellytubby for Plum and Pippin, he made mummy a heart. He used the marker pens to colour them in and Pumpkin came and had a go too.

After lunch we went out to meet FA#1 and cousinB at Sheffield Park. Bean got everyone's drinks ready. This is the third time we have been to Sheffield Park. The first time we went into the grounds and Pumpkin was nervous about the ponds. The second time we ate lunch in the picnic area in the car park and climbed the trees and then came home. Today we made it to the playtrail in the woods. We spent over an hour watching all the children making a huge den, complete with outdoor fire with fire guard, indoor seats, sofa, and bed.

After this we found a pub and went and ate out. I had mentioned that we would have battered sausage as we had originally planned to meet at a beach. FA#1 broke the news to Pumpkin and they agreed that next time we would go to a chip shop. The pub we found had a play area and did a children's menu including ice cream. It was all good. Bean got Harry Potter trivial pursuit cards as his birthday present from FA#1 so we played that in the pub garden whilst we waited/ate food.

Thursday 1 June 2017

It takes two

It turns out that we needed two days to recover and regroup after bean's, 10, weekend away. Tuesday was a designated Home Day. Bean spent a lot of time lying on the sofa, watching Bakukan and playing on his tablet. He also put on Harry Potter. Pumpkin, 8, sat with him for most of the time. Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played role play games all day. The made a picnic in the conservatory, played cooking, mummy and daddy, schools, dogs. And bean, Plum and Pippin had baths in the evening.

Wednesday we attempted to go to the library. We took the bikes and scooters. It was an unsuccesful trip and we didn't make it. We were out for an hour and a half and travelled probably five minutes away. About a third of the time was spent sitting on a green area. Fortunately the weather was beautiful and i had packed drinks and snacks. As soon as we got home everyone was composed and had decided on a movie to watch together, scoobydoo, we ate food and snuggled.

Pippin had a long afternoon nap, plum watched on her tablet and played doll's house in her room. I took the girls to the play park around the corner when Pippin woke up and then made more food whilst the smalls all set up dens for a nerf war. We played for about half an hour. Plum and Pippin played in the garden, tying their feet together with a fabric belt and laughing hysterically.

Bean downloaded a fun fair world on minecraft and bean and pumpkin played together whilst watching the Simpsons.

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Bank Holiday

Saturday

Bean, 10, and dad headed off to Roothill Christian camp for three days. Pumpkin, 8, planned our day of roblox and cake making. Plum, 5, chose to make the chocolate cake with white butter icng and the she and Pippin, 2, decorated it with chocolate chips. Plum placed hers in a perfect ring on the edge of the cake.
Pumpkin and I played roblox. We played Natural Disasters, Zombie Rush and cake baking.

Sunday

I took Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin to church. They all went to Sunday School without me, things have changed and i now attended the adult bit. Situations changing all the time. We came home and had soup and then we cut Pumpkin's hair. He last had it cut April 2016, 13 months ago.
This was followed by everyone making giant chocolate chip cookies together ready to take to the play park, except it rained a lot so we stayed home instead.
We also watched a hedgehog in our garden today, weeding the herb garden and making a nest in the store.

Monday

Pumpkin up and dressed himself, even though i hadn't asked him and we had no plans to be out and i usually have to dress him. We made a spontaneous trip to the play park for an hour and took the cookies we had made yesterday. The smalls pushed 3ach other on the swings and the roundabout and played hide and seek together.
Back home Pippin slept long, Plum got out her horses and combed their hair, Pumpkin put on The Simpsons to watch.
Then we went to collect Bean and daddy, had a picnic tea and played on all the equipment. I was completely stumped when a child asked me why my children don't go to school. Pumpkin stepped in and told him how we like to be together and you don't get to see your family much if you go to school and everyone tells you what to do all.the.time and that is boring.
We headed home and all collapsed on the sofa/bed.

Sunday 28 May 2017

See the sea swash

After a bit of  rocky morning and putting a lot if effort into encouraging Pumpkin out of the door, we ended up spending five hours on Worthing seafront. Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, ate bubblegum flavoured ice cream, Plum, 5, had chocolate and Pippin, 2, had strawberry. They all bounced on the trampolines and then we headed to the beach for a late picnic and everyone put on their swimmers and went paddling, splashing, running around, in the sea.

We then headed to the arcade. Plum beat both Bean and Pumpkin at air hockey and Pippin was her usual successful self on the 2p machines and they enjoyed the horse racing game together. Then, Bean and Pumpkin found a shooting game that they could play together and they loved it. They played it three times and have arranged to come back with their pocket money for another go.

And all of that took five hours. Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin all fell asleep in the car on the way home and we only got home tw minutes before daddy. Fortunately i had thrown meatballs in the slow cooker so easy food prep for a meal.

And, dispite the rocky morning, the children are in the midst of planning two more beach trips.

Friday 26 May 2017

Noteworthy

I played minecraft for half an hour with Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, this morning. They were both building gladiator arenas. I was helping Bean to build his and had a gladiator fight with Pumpkin in his arena.

Later in the day Bean and i built a replica arena on a new world that he created. His use of levers and redstone is becoming quite complex.

It was also gymnastics day. Bean and Plum, 5, joined the session as usual and Pumpkin and Pippin played in the foyer with the other siblings. Pippin played with her friend Th and drew pictures and sat with Pumpkin. Pumpkin sat and played/chatted with another HE boy of similar age to him who was showing his nexo knight lego cards. They were together for most of the hour. Next term Pumpkin has asked to join gymnastics.

Back home was get lots of drinks, find a missing drawing pin, log in to various pc accounts, watch youtube, plan next week, try and keep cool, read books, play doll's house, pack for Bean's camping weekend, kind of afternoon.

Thursday 25 May 2017

Nerf War

Today was a nerf war kind of day. We made dens in the living room, kitchen, large bedroom and Plum's top bunk. Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, teamed up and mummy and Plum, 5, were on the opposing team. We made barracades and shields from pillows and cushions and hid behind doors and walls and shot at each other. This game lasted for about three hours (although i did manage to call a food break in the middle and another break to breastfeed Pippin, 2, in the hope that she would go to sleep, which she didn't until i found her in my bed at 4.30pm)

We also hot glued more youhurt pots onto Bran's pot tower. It is now over 2m tall. He measured it with the tape measure. His aim is to reach the ceiling. Pumpkin then picked up the tape measure and measured the coffee table and himself and the width of his knees and various other objects he found.

Plum and Pippin hung the laundry outside with me and played on the slide and the see-saw. Plum set up a shop in the large bedroom and Pumpkin went and played with her and then they moved on to playing roblox (natural disasters) together.

Having the time and the space to move between one activity and other as necessary is one of the many reasons we love Home Ed. Playing on the see saw for one minute and then moving to the slide or emersing ourselves into three hours of a nerf war or continuing a project with yoghurt pots that we began weeks ago, having the freedom explore and play and create and managing our own time and pace is essential.

Skip a few

So, we landed badly last week (metaphorically not literally, we only went to pagham, remember?) or maybe it was me who landed badly. We took a trip to Fisher's farm and Bean, 10, and Pumpkin, 8, spent an afternoon at friend O house (we should do this more regularly) Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, joined mummy and daddy at a funeral, their second this year, my third, daddy's fourth. We had one home day, returned to gym class after a five week break, and reunited with Archie dog for a very musdy walk in the woods. Whitespace was filled with films, pokemon series, power puff girls, drawing, drawing, drawing, roblox play altogether, books and books and books, dollies and mummy's and daddy's and a host of other things.

We spent the weekend at FA#3 with cousing C and H. Swinging in the hammock and having a tea party in the garden, watching films on netflix (rise of the guardians, tmnt, barbie as rapunzel) scooting up and down the hallway, role play games and eating a lot of pizza.

Monday we stayed home and relaxed and recovered from our hectic weekend. It was very peaceful. All activity was rather calm and calming: listening to music, watching a film, drawing pictures, reading books, playing computer games, taking a bath (and practicing holding his breath) I took the opportunity to put together a bookcase, Bean and Pippin helped. We moved some games and books onto it, which promted us playing a few board games and reading a few more books. And Bean designed a self drive car that you can sleep in. He drew three or four different models. Daddy then showed him self drive cars and how they have been developed so far.

Tuesday, another at home day. Friend O came to play. They all played cranium together and watched Mr Bean's holiday and played nerf war. O brought with him a surplus copy of Finding Dory so we had a family film night and tried different flavours of popcorn. Pippin and mummy and O's mummy reaaranged the animal pens and set up Charlie's summer residence and dismantled his winter one ready for storage.

Tomorrow we will have another at home day. Summer feels like it is arriving as this week is rather sunny and warm. I have suggested a beach trip to the smalls but only one seems keen so far.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Happy 10th Birthday Bean

Bean turned 10 on Wednesday, which seems rather significant, moving into double figures. Not for the first time, we were on holiday on his actual birthday. We celebrated with a pokemon birthday party, that he organised, at the weekend but we also made his actual day a bit special too.

We began with a swim. The boys are happy and confident now in the water as long as they are not out of depth and Bean is on the verge of swimming a short distance. It occured to me that i might be able to take all four swimming on my own at the right pool. We bought some sinking rings of Bean's choosing so played a lot at picking them up with our feet at holding our breathe with our faces in the water whilst wearing googles.

We went to Pizza Hut for lunch, another day, another pizza for Bean who is currently working his way through comparing margeretta pizzas from different establishments. The children weren't that keen on the garlic bread but the onion rings were devoured.

And then 18 hole crazy crazy golf. Everyone joined in and we had to keep everyone's score.

We enjoyed party tea with party rings, white chocolate oreos, egg mayonnaise sandwiches, skips, and lemon cake, ten green ballons and birthday presents. We got Bean a whittling knife and he got Rouge One, a starwars lego set and story dice from his siblings.

We went to the arcade again in the evening. The boys played the fishing game, splat a minion and crossyroad, acruing more tickets and adding them to the stock pile.

Bean continues to love lego, he loves building things and figuring out how things works. He devours films and he is constantly looking for new films to watch. He likes, action, adventure and comedy films and he enjoys watching the extras and looking them up on youtube for interesting facts about the film or actors or how the film was made, special effects and spotting continuity errors. Harry Potter is still a big feature in his life, currently reading through the books, rewatching the films regularly, collecting cards, quizzing each other on trivia and planning a visit to the studios. He plays computer games on his tablet and pc: the escapists, the sims, minecraft, roblox, age of empires. He enjoys watching cartoon series Pokemon and Power Puff girls, the amazing world of gumball and finding extreme videos on youtube and world record attempts. And his new love this year, playing with his borrowed dog.

And he still golds my hand when we go out walking.

You can read his birth story here.


Monday 15 May 2017

Pagham Holiday

Pagham is on the South coast, West Sussex, right next to Bognor Regus. It is approximately 1 hour from our house. A quick get away. Trip to the coast. And a chance to explore the other end of the county! We stayed in a caravan. Daddy and Pippin, 2, shared a room, mummy and Plum, 5, shared a room and Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8 shared a room. Bean turned 10 whilst we were away.

Monday was travel day. We took our time to finish packing and get last minute things done. Mummy went food shopping and Bean came too. We organised the animals and ended up having our picnic lunch at home before we left. The children all packed their own back packs and off we set. We went and enjoyed the arcade games and had slush puppies and ice cream smoothies in the evening. Bean and Pumpkin found a fishing boat game that they liked and gave them lots of tickets. They decided to save their tickets until the end of the week before cashing them in.

Tuesday we all went to the Weald and Downland Museum. There was lots to see and do. Pumpkin enjoyed making a roof segment with roof tiles, Plum made an arch bridge that she could then sit on and Bean put together the timber frames of a model house about 6ft high. We had two staff members helping us out with all these things and explaining how they worked and where we could see them on the buildings around the museum. The chilsren all liked the gypsy caravans and we watched the carpenter and the blacksmith at work. We found a mechanism that needed a horse to pull it and Pumpkin recognised it from Pirates of the Carribean. Bean enjoyed the toilet that led straight below into the outside and we all enjoyed ice cream.
We went for a swim back at the holiday site, which turned out to be a bit crowded. Mummy went and found the nature reserve and coastal walk after dinner and then we all went to the arcade in the evening.

Wednesday was Bean's birthday. I will write about his special day here.

Thursday we took a more restful day and stayed on site. We swam in the morning again and Bean and plum chose to wear googles today. Bean was determined to hold his breathe and used the sinking rings again. We spent a long time counting how many seconds he could put his face in the water for. His record was 9 seconds but he only felt comfortable in the shallow end for this length of time, any further out and it was 3 or 4 seconds. Both the boys went on the slide again, Pumpkin repeatedly. Pumpkin also spent a lot of time moving around the perimeter of the pool.
Daddy took Bean and Plum and Pippin to the play area whilst Pumpkin and mummy went and prepared lunch. Bean caught us up and met us just as we reached the caravan.
The boys had a go at riding the easyscooters in the afternoon. These were motorised scooters. They were very cautious but had fun zooming around the basketball court on them and racing through the obstacle course. We found the coastal walk back to the caravan which was longer than we had anticipated and involved avoiding taking the buggy across stones. We stopped and played skimming stones on the lagoon andwatched the investation of moth caterpillars crawling everywhere. Bean became upset with our choice of route but we got back eventually and Plum had some lovely encouragment for him along the way.
We went to the arcade again in the evening where the boys cashed in their tickets. Bean got a rubix cube and Pumpkin exchanged his for a large pencil sweet for himself and a sweet each for Plum and Pippin.  Plum was pleased to see that the show involved the singing of Frozen songs on the stage. We got ice cream for the children and stayed to watch the singing for the next show too. Pippin, Pumpkin and Bean all opted to leave first as they were tired and Plum and mummy followed on a little later.

Friday we packed up and checked out followed by a final swim, where Bean swam a width and almost a length of the pool and spent more time holding his breathe under water whilst wearing googles. Pippin spent large amounts of time climbing out and jumping in, Plum being pulled around the pool by daddy and Pumpkin on the slide and circuiting the perimeter again. Bean and Pumpkin made a pool dare game together. We had a picnic lunch in the play area before heading home.

In between all the activity, there was playing chess and draughts and reading Harry Potter and 'Brown bear, Brown Bear', watching cbeebies and Poptv, discussing advertising and advertisments, twirling ribbons, colouring, playing hide and seek and 'scaredy cat.'






Celebrate

We began this week by packing our bgs ready for a three day visit to grandma and pops house, which turned into a two day visit at the last minute. We played lots of games from their games cupboard and each of the smalls took a dvd to watch, we went down to Lepe and played on the play equipment and the beach and ate ice cream. Mostly we climbed trees. There are trees of all shapes and sizes and we tried them all!

We have been party prepping for about two weeks on and off. There has been a lot of drawing and colouring pokeballs and making them from old cds. Bean, 9, drew Pikachu faces on the yellow party boxes and we printed Pokemon pictures and drew a Charmader for 'Pin the tail.' Today we finalised all the bits and pieces and put it all in one box. Bean and Plum helped. Bean then went party food shopping with daddy in the evening. Our involvement as parents in party planning is changing more. Bean has all his own ideas and executes most of them now.

Saturday was party day. 12 children. 6 party games. Food. And lots of playing in the venue garden. It was a relaxed and fun party. And Pumpkin, 8, told me that the cake was amazing and looked like a cake on the front of a cake making book. Bean organised a Pokemon game on his tablet and Pokemon photos, we played pin the tail on Charmander and pass the parcel with Pokemon forefeits inside.

Whilst we were out partying we had a friend come and knock down the fire place brick work so we returned to a house with furniture, fixtures and fittings all the wrong place. Bean, Pumpkin and Plum, 5, all helped to rearrange and return everything to make a new look living room.

Followed by a Sunday of church and relaxing and playing Carcasonne with Bean and watching a film extra late (and mummy and daddy packing for our holiday) And celebrating the first night in over five years where, Pippin slept all night,

Monday 1 May 2017

Spining Plates

The other morning we overheard Pumpkin, 8, explaining the process of photosynthesis to his siblings. These moments encourage us on our unschooling journey as we don't explicitly set out to teach our children a particular topic or curriculum. It is fascinating to watch how qnd what they learn in their own space and time and from their own sources.

We have had lots of whitespace interspersed with a shopping trip to town with Bean, 9, for party supplies, an evening trip to a friends party, church and a film night at a friends house. Ostly it feels like we have been managing expectations especially with Bean as he is trying to flex his independence but is restrained by siblings. It helped that we had a pizza date during the shopping trip, just me and him. As part of our morning out we also took part in some market research, in which he was very thoughtful in his responses and i gave him half of the cash, which pleased him as he is very money motivated.

Plum, 5, went supply shopping on Sunday with daddy and they made a cake together in the afternoon before going to eat pizza and watch a film at T's house.

Plum still reads Brown Bear every night except now we substitute each of the animals for different ones every night and then we try to remember them all on the last page before we hold hands and go to sleep.


Friday 28 April 2017

Four in a Row

We started this week with a trip to town, visited the library and Bean, 9, ordered some Pokemon books, we searched for a gift for Grandma's birthday and the smalls were all great and finding items that matched the criteria (Pumpkin, 8, found an exact match), we bought a few party supplies for Bean's up and coming birthday party, had our feet measured (eek! Pippin had gone up three and half sizes), bought Pippin a pair of crocks, searched for polysterene balls and came home all in two and half hours. We were stopped by market researchers to ask if we'd like to test a juice drink product in exchange for cash. Bean, being motivated by money, said yes so we are booked in on Saturday.

Tuesday we met friends at Nyman's woods. I have never been into the wood area before and we all loved it. We had a small hic cup leavig as Bean is/was very tired and refused to go. Not a situation that i handled well but i apologised when we arrived and things were instantly better. He was then the one who wanted to stay and play longer than the others. We met with one family and the children made a bridge by pulling fallen tree trunks to one space and laying them out together to form a walkway across the stream. The climbed rocky slopes and caves and sand banks and tree roots and paddled in the water. Bean and i sang 'when the road is rough and steep' on the way back up the rocky hill and dicussed what it means to keep our eyes on Jesus.

We had a home day on Wednesday. Pumpkin and i played a lot of Terreria and roblox together. The big three played roblox together a over an hour. There was lots of drawing going on and playing dollies. I had a phonecall to say my great uncle had passed away and they couldn't get hold of my parents (who were away for a few days) and could i go and sit with my aunt. I spent a long time trying everyone i knew to try and find someone to have the smalls but no one was available. My mum returned my call late afternoon. In the meantime, Pippin and i had dusted and hoovered the living room and Bean, Plum and Pippin had drawn and coloured a mountain of Pokeballs and Pikachu in preparation for Bean's party.

Thursday we were up early, the same time as those on the school run, we were off to Drusilla's with an organised HE trip and daddy came too. Dispite having to wake all the children up they did really well and we had a great day out, as always. Bean is still insistant that we follow the planned and mapped zoo route, plum is a little more keen to go off piste and do the things she loves only. Penguins are still a firm favourite with Bean and we discussed doing the special feed an animal or zoo keeper for a day. Pumpkin especially liked the owls and the new giant anteater which eats 30,000 ants a day (who counted them?) We played for hours in the play areas, indoors and out, rode the safari train (Thomas has been moved on) and rode endlessly on the hello kitty cars with Pippin whilst the other rode the tea cups and then the cars. Lastly, they strupped down and played in the water area, it was about 8°C today. We bought twisted slush puppies for the journey home.



Monday 24 April 2017

That's no moon

Friday became our second enforced day at home with mummy's bad back.

Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8, and i watched Satr Wars 4, Plum, 5, watched Youtube and played in the garden and with the kitchen set.

Bean has taken over the morning feed of the animals this week and fed and watered them every day, often without reminder too.

Plum and Pippin and mummy painted their nails together and braided two plaits in Plum's hair.

Saturday we took a familt trip to plant flowers on nana and grandad's grave. Bean and Plum made a wreath together from willow and plants and flowers from the hedgrow and field.
We spent the day at FA#3 and mostly played in the garden with cousin C and H.

Sunday was church day, our friends renewed their marriage vows and mutual friends came to celebrate too. Plum and daddy took archie for a walk in the afternoon. Pumpkin played the head/ body/leg/feet drawing game with me and bean and pumpkin and i played mastermind together for a while. We watched the original Charlie and the chocolate factory together in the evening.




Friday 21 April 2017

My Favourite Things

Hours of play with Pippin, 2, in the morning as the big three slept long. We drew pictures and face painted and watched Winnie the Pooh as we buttered toast together and played Charlie and Lola Snakes and Ladders.

The Big Three woke up several hours later. Plum, 5, spent most of the day lying on the bed or sofa and watching on her tablet. This was interspersed with playing in the garden and playing with the kitchen set with Pippin. They picked the tulips and Pumpkin put them in a vase for us.

Pumpkin, 8, played Roblox and we tried to load The Amazing Frog but there is an issue that, dispite my best efforts and following all the suggestions, we cannot access the game. He has also been helpful as i hurt my back and suggested that i think about something else instead of the pain so we sang Raindrops on Roses.

Bean, 9, dictated the Fifth chapter of his minecraft story to me which was trickier than the previous four as it involved a flashback and he wasn't sure how to make sure the reader knew that it was a flashback. We got there in the end. He also made me a flower vase from lego.


Thursday 20 April 2017

That snail is fast

Sometimes our days are slow and steady, some days are all go. Today we all busy, all day.

Plum, 5, was up 3 hours earlier than normal as she had a birthday party to attend today. So at 6am this morning we were making cards and wrapping presents because we didn't want to forget to do it.

Bean, 9, has been building mechanisms with lego and elastic bands and turning them and timing them and ading more elastic bands and working out which combination of elastic bands and number of turns gives him a mechanism that turns the slowest and how long this takes. This led to us trying to make our own kitchen timer with a kit we had but we were stumped by not having a soldering tool. We have since sourced two that we could borrow but for now he moved onto his electronics kit and mostly tried things out with the magnet and reed switch today.

Meanwhile, Pumpkin, 8, got out a range of pots and pans and spoons and created a junk drum kit. Plum, 5, joined in and Pippin, 2, too. He made some music, deliberate, repeatitious, purposeful music. Plum tried out all the different sounds that she could make and we watched some Stomp clips on YouTube together.

Plum and Pippin played on the see saw and washed plates and cups in the garden and played on hoppers.

After lunch, which today was ice cream, we went and met friends and played in the church garden. I took a picnic with us too. Bean took his remote control monster truck which worked well on the paved car park area. Pumpkin took hulabaloo which everyone enjoyed. They played It and Stuck in the Mud, hide and seek, and Grandma's footsteps. Pippin played catch with Bea and then Bean and Pumpkin went to our friend's house whilst i took Plum and Pippin to V's party.

We played searching for dinosaurs and on the swing and the trampoline mostly before party tea and birthday cake. Then we collected the boys who had had an amazing time and thanks to our friends we managed a win:win for the afternoon and avoided a sticky situation.

Quick stir fry cooked by daddy to celebrate our 14th Wedding Anniversary and then off out to friends for the evening.