Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Tuesday 31 January 2017

Spending Time

How we choose to spend our time is vital in Unschooling. Working out and watching for what really makes each of the children tick, what sparks their interest, what they enjoy doing, allows us to create more time and experiences that give them the opportunity to do more of that thing.

Today we chose to spend our day with our friends. Actually, they had stayed the night again after to coming to play yesterday afternoon. They got together the escapist game. The three boys were the guards and the girls were the prisoners. Bean, 9, made a list for each job the prisoners had to do and a behaviour chart with emojis on it. The second time they played they swapped roles. Bean, Pumpkin, 8, and S, 8, had the lego out. M, 10, joined them to watch Star Wars. Bean got out his stone collection and washed them with E, 5. They then played piano together. There was a lot of piano playing from all of them after this, taking in turns.

Pumpkin watched star wars and played roblox and did lego all with S. In the evening he played parkour with Plum in the living room and made an obstacle course all whilst watching Beethoven. He did skipping with Bean, they had to try and beat each others record. They both got to 100 before they stopped. They then did push ups together and we had a conversation about being strong and healthy. After this he played a pirate board game with Plum and then watched DanTDM before bed.

M played polly pocket and dolls house with Plum, 5. Mostly Plum spent the day playing with E on their tablets trying out the games from each others collection. I then downloaded a few onto Plum's tablet. We had lots of stories before bed and she slept on the floor in her bean bag in her bedroom.

Pippin, 2, watched Peppa Pig and played with the Peppa Pig toys, she cut cake and cooked breakfast and lunch with me, we drew pictures and she played with the others.

Most children spend there days with children in the same age bracket as them, their peers. This group of children doesn't include any who would be in the same school year group. Seven children ranging from 2-11 years all playing together or in pairs or groups, sharing interests and passions and friendship and getting along perfectly well, just the way life should be.

Sunday 29 January 2017

2016 in Numbers

88 Playdates with family and friends

62 Organised events
We had our first trip with just mummy to Paulton's Park, 3 visits to drussila's zoo and our first family trip to Marwell zoo, we joined Waterlea this year and loved it, Bean attended 3 rock climbing sessions, we joined the HE Youth Club and got involved with Japan Day.

63 outings just us
Fisher's Farm is almost a weekly visit (on average), swimming is becoming more manageable as a family, the library is a monthly outing, family bike rides were daily during the summer, the beach is a family favourite and we continue to be members of the National Trust.

4 holidays
Bean went on his first trip awayfor two nights, we enjoyed 4 days camping with friends at HE camp WOWO, and two extended trips to Grandmas's house.

The year will be remembered for PokemonGo, epic cake making, Bean learning to swim and Pumpkin riding his bike for the first time.

Saturday 28 January 2017

We're all friends

Thursday was a happy happy day for us. We had friends to play who we haven't seen for 18 months. The friend that Plum, 5, has skyped weekly since her birthday.

Bean, 9, Pumpkin, 8, and S, 8, have taken in turns on the gaming pc and been playing an epic war fighting territorial game all day. Plum and E, 5, played mummiea and babies and watched on their tablet and played minecraft together and played schools and birthday parties. Pippin, 2, and C, 2, watched peppa pig and played with the peppa pig toys. S and E slept the night and we watched Tangled together and ate popcorn and pretzels before stories and bed. S slept on the boys floor and E topped and tailed on the top bunk with Plum. Everyone slept soundly.

Friday continued the same games until lunch time when our friends left. Plum was especially upset and began a mixture of tears and anger and cuddling for the afternoon. Pippin fell asleep for a daytime nap and the boys both appeared downstairs to watch on the pc. There were a lot of toys out in the afternoon. Bean got out the shop and postoffice set, peppa pig toys were on the floor, the duplo was out, and that was the living room. Upstairs Plum and i did a few puzzles together, the lego was out and the farm set. And in mummy's bedroom there were soft toys everywhere.

Mummy and Plum also did a bit more rearranging in her bedroom ready for the bunk bed move.


Thursday 26 January 2017

All is not lost

A quiet morning, all the smalls were busy doing their own thing. Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8, taking it in turns to play roblox. Plum, 5, lying under the duvet on my bed watching Youtube and asking if we can make giant gummy bears. Pippin, 2, playing Peppa Pig toys.

In the afternoon we went out to Explore and Play. There were four families there today. Bean made a coaster covered with twigs for grandma and pops. Pumpkin covered a coaster with a single measured sheet of tissue paper and then drew a emoji face on it. Plum made a coaster look like a rabbit using two lolly sticks for ears and a twig standing on end for it's nose. Bean and Pumpkin also played a game of monopoly together. Plum and Pippin painted pictures and make pizza and ice cream with the playdough. Plum's friend V arrived and they made a playdough village together and painted and did duplo.

Coming home was difficult. I upset Bean as i hadn't heard him ask if he could lock the door of the church venue. Plum was topless and it was freezing so i took her to the car and left Bean to do the door again but he was upset that he hadn't done it in the first place. Plum was then upset because Bean was supposed to be thinking about whether or not to play a game with her when they got home but now he was crying, and so was she. Pippin was crying because she was tired.  Bean disappeared to his room when we got home, Plum sat on the stairs, i cuddled Pippin on the sofa. We found Peppa Pig on dvd and ahe calmed after a while. I went and saw Plum and tucked her back under the duvet on our bed with food and a drink. I took drinks to Bean and Pumpkin. Pumpkin came downstairs and played his minecraft card game with me. After the children had eaten dinner Bean and I had a cuddle.

In the evening Pumpkin made a slide upstairs by turning a chair side down and then they made a second one by placing pool noodles on top of a pile of bedding and bean bags on the double bed.

When it came to tidying up it appeared that Bean had lost both his bean bag and his watch. His bean bag was fairly easy to locate as it is big, it was in our wardrobe. We will have to look for his watch in the morning when we have light and there aren't others sleeping. He's a bit upset about his watch but the good news is that it is in the house somewhere.

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Sleep tight

The morning was Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8, playing in turns on Roblox interspersed with food and drink requests and "mummy come and look at this" and "mummy can you read yhis for me?" Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played mummies and babies. They use the wardrobe in our room as the school and the bus, the laundry basket is the bath, the bed is the bed. They use the toy laptops as their ipads and the dollies go too. We made chocolate chip muffins together and played with the peppa pig toys too.

Then FA#2 came to visit. She brought birthday presents for Plum and Pumpkin. Pumpkin got a superhero lego set and got to putting it together straight away. Plum played board games with her all afternoon: orthello, jumior cranium, snakes and ladders, princess games box, gobblt, monopoly. Bean played the minecraft card game with me and then we played monopoly together uninterrupted for a whole game. Pumpkin had an uninterupted game of Roblox on the pc.

With FA#2 here i managed to fit in hoovering and dinner prep and laundry (of sorts) too. Our new tumble dryer was delivered yesterday, a welcome delivery after over a week of no dryer, and just in time for the washing machine to break down.

Bed time was a bit epic even by our standards. I bathed with Pippin after we had finished Plum bathed followed by Pumpkin. Meanwhile i planned to read Pippin stories and breastfeed and sleep. Plum sat on her top bunk and watched youtube whilst i put Pippin to bed. Pippin finished breast feeding and then started crying for daddy, "daddy home" for over half an hour before we left the bedroom. Pumpkin had been waiting almost 45 minutes by now for me to help him out of the bath. I took Pippin and Plum downstairs, five minutes later Bean came to ask if he could go to bed now (cue stories for Bean) I asked if he could wait five more minutes as daddy would be home soon. Daddy came home and took Bean to read him stories and Pumpkin became upset because he wanted his last turn on Roblox. There were a lot of tears from Pumpkin. We offered him to play on the pc downstairs and tried to distract him with the offer of food but neither of these worked. We talked through him having the first go tomorrow and all his feelings of disappointed and frustration and anger. Finally daddy offered to do stories in another room so he could have a few minutes play. This resolved the issue. I made toast for Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin. Daddy took Pippin to bed who went peacefully to sleep. By now it was 2 hours after her normal bedtime circa 10pm now. Pumpkin took himself to bed a few moments later (about an hour earlier than normal) and Plum asked if we could go to bed too, we read a story first and changed our pyjamas.  By 10.30pm everyone was sleeping including daddy.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

All together now

Monday morning and Plum, 5, is off to Little Verse with SGG and SGS and had a lovely time, Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8, watched Pirates of the Carribean: Journey to World's End. I mostly sat and watched it with them in between replenishing drinks and snacks. Pippin, 2, was lethargic and cuddly and sat on my lap the entire morning until she finally fell asleep just as the film was ending.

By this time Plum was home. She put on turbo to watch and then sat in the dinning room playing with her ice cream and cake making playdough sets. Next she put on Nanny McPhee three times, she has begun reciting parts of it now, she continued playing playdough all afternoon too. At one point she was taking prints of dollies hands, feet and face and then covered his head in playdough.

Pippin woke with a temperature and we breastfed and cuddled a lot more whilst watching nanny mcphee. We then went and had a look at different programming websites for Bean. We booked marked all the ones that have been recommended to us and began playing on a few of them. We got a lot of suggestions from a fb group called My Unschooler is Interested In. We got plenty of suggestions for us to investigate and find what works for him. His current favourites are Scratch and Codecombat. We also found roblox and i left him and Pumpkin playing games on there.

Plum and I sat on the sofa and cuddled in the evening whilst Pippin had a bath and bed. Bean and Pumpkin had a bath and were watching Dude, That's My Ghost. Pumpkin came downstairs to play a minecraft card game with me that he got for his birthday but it was no where to be seen. We looked for it for about 30 minutes before we gave up. We will resume our search tomorrow.

Monday 23 January 2017

Dragon Slaying

Most of our December and January days are for movie watching and snuggling, board games and computer games but not Saturday. On Saturday we went Dragon Slaying. Pumpkin had a knight's birthday party. There were 13 children altogether, mumy eas the jester, daddy was the king, Plum, 5, dressed as a queen, Bean, 9, was the Black Knight. The King received a scroll from the Fiery Green Dragon to say that it was him who had stolen the king's treasure and he would only fight the bravest and most fearless knight's. They also needed to solve the puzzle of the key to enter the dragon's lair. So we set about training to be knights. First we became agile, we ran an obstacle course jumping rushing waters, climbing mountains, crawling through caves and balancing across lava. Next we toned our fighting skills with sword fighting and jousting and then we got in some target practice with javalin throughing and knocking over toy animals with a ball. After all this we had collected lego parts of the key but we were still missing one large part. The King knighted all the squires and then we went to find the dragon. On the way we met the Black Knight, most renowned for his jousting skills. Our best jouster challenged him and one and we aquired the last part of the lego key. On to the dragon's lair where we unlocked the door and slay the dragon. We celebrated afterwards with a banquet of dragon scales, dragon toes, dragon's eyeballs amongst other things. There was also stilts and diablo toys to olay with. Everyone had a great time and it was a great success.

Saturday 21 January 2017

Pumpkin

Yesterday 20/01/2017 Pumpkin, aka Asher Matthew Timothy, celebrated his 8th birthday. I'm pretty sure most of our conversations revolve around food, "what are we doing tomorrow?" and his progress on various computer games and apps.

Food. He loves food. He eats almost anything but can be particular about how it is served. So, milk always comes in his gruffalo cup, ham sandwiches are on toasted bread with mayonnaise and the crusts cut off, bacon is soft not crispy. And he eats constantly, "i'm hungry" is declared multiple times a day.

His current favourite apps to play are Clash Royal, Pokemon Go, Roblox, Clash of Clans, Skylanders Creator, Toca Mini, Toca lab, Toca Kitchen, Toca Vet, Minecraft, Terreria. He likes to play lego games and mario kart on the wii. But he also likes watching game play on Youtube. His favourite is DanTDM but he also enjoys Stampy, Squid and a few others. He likes watching them play Happy Wheels, The Escapists, Minecraft, building theme parks, Pokemon, Pokemon Go, Roblox and various others. He advises Bean, 9, on how to play them.

He also loves nature. He likes butterflies and mushrooms and the beach specifically but has a growing interest in birds and enjoys pond dipping. He mostly goes outside so he can play Pokemon Go.

He loves things that make him laugh. Mr Bean is still as big hit and recently he has taken an interest in the Simpsons but he also likes cartoons like Wayside, Phineas and Ferb, Diddy tv, and You've been Framed. He enjoys Zach King and funny cat and animal videos. He can quote jokes and funny scenes to you and re enact comedy moments, dances and routines.

He continues to grow his hair, brushes his teeth religiously, asks all his questions when he's being tucked into bed at night, he goes to bed between 10 and 11pm most nights, sometimes later, he wakes between 8 and 8.30am, he doesn't like to go out but he doesn't like to come home either (it's a transition thing), he likes to collect stones and shells and pine cones and sticks, he likes board games, he can't stay still and will most likely only talk to you on his own terms. This year he has learnt to ride a bike, he has begun reading actual words, he has made more friends, and got closer to being a swimmer. His favourite person in the world is Bean and he loves his family. He feels all the feelings, that is when he is happy he is the happiest, when he upset he is distraught, when he is angry he is the angriest, there is no sliding scale.

We are blessed to have him in our clan. He reminds to smile and laugh and slow down and eat. He takes care of his siblings and keeps our family bonds strong.

Friday 20 January 2017

Smooth

This morning was full of playing Lego Batman in the wii, dollies and dinosaurs, Bing, Clash Royal, Lego, all fitted around breakfast, getting dressed and brushing teeth and hair.

Plum, 5, went to gymnastics for the second time. I went in with her. She's not keen on the warm up games but did try a few of the stretches again. She did balance and beam work and bar work this week. I thought the bar work might be tricky for her as she hasn't done that before but she swumg and twirled with great poise and strength. She said she had been practicing on her bunk bed. The staff have asked if she could come in without me next time <sigh> but it seems that the issue is having Pumpkin, 2, in the gymnasium too so phase one will be to see if we can find a way of Pumpkin playing elsewhere.

We swung by daddy's office to collect a few bits that he had been shopping for and then home. Pippin slept the journey home and then woke up. Plum spent 2 hours hammock like in the blanket box watching on her tablet and eating. The boys disappeared for nearly three hours playing more lego batman on the wii and watching The Thundermans and Henry Danger. I managed to get a bit more party prep done and dinner.

Pippin happily played with the dinosaurs. She fed them and breastfed them and brushed their (non exsistant) hair and then took them all one by one to the toilet. She wrapped them in cloths and blankets and put them to bed. We sat on the sofa together and watched Bing and then read stories. Plum came and joined us. The girls sat in a box and pretended it was a boat as we read Mr. Gumpy's Outing and we matching toy animals to accompany the story and put them in too. We did this twice before Plum began adding her own animals and changing the story several times.


Thursday 19 January 2017

It's a New Day

Honesty blog post: today i fed the children constantly and cleared up food plates and drinks cups constantly, i tried to play a game with one of them however the other three pulled me in three other directions, i cleaned up a lot of wee and i'm drowning in laundry. That's how the day felt.

However, more than that did happen. Bean, 9, got out a box of magnetic shapes which comes with a strong magnetic base so you can build magnetic structures. Him, Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, took in turns to build. He also got out the cogs and wheels and the electronic set. He built circuits and then invited Pippin to connect the switch and made lights come on or buzzers sound or the motor twirl. This was topped and tailed with watching The Loud House.

We got the grey paint out and all of us painted rectangle peices of card in preparation for decorations for Pumpkin's, 7, birthday party. Bean and Pumpkin went and found their outfits and Pumpkin discovered that his helmet is now too small and was upset. We will buy him a new one for his birthday party.

Plum and Pippin played babies, Plum pushing Pippin in the dolly buggy again and using our wardrobe as their home. Watching lots of Bing whilst hanging on to toy Bing, Zula and Coco.

I began building a mansion with Bean on minecraft PE. I couldn't get minecraft to load on my tablet so i read the instructions whilst Bean built. It was xomplicated and even after half an hour we had barely figured it out. We wil try again tomorrow.

Plum and me moved a few more items in her room and she talked 3xcitedly about her bed being in the room. She asked again if today was her gymnastics day. We had plans to skype a friend but we couldn't get the timing right and Plum was really disappointed however this friend is coming to play and sleep next week so we have something to look forward to.

One of the reasons i like to blog is to put the day into perspective. It might feel like i spent the day torn between a million things and not much happening but when i pause and reflect and write it down our day was full of intention and moments of involvement and play, even if i am still drowning in laundry.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Groovy

After a very disturbed night, we woke up later than normal, about 9am. We did all the things we normally do, breakfast, feed animals, laundry, we all got dressed too, made dinner together with Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, and packed a picnic. Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, went and watched The Simpsons in their room. My days are interspersed with "mummy, come and see this" "mummy, let me tell you this funny thing that hapoened" "mum, on this show i was watching..."

Pumpkin got dressed by himself, BY.HIM.SELF. Both boys slept on their bedroom floor last night and they have plans to do the same tonight. Plum, 5, has plans to move her bunk bed into her room so we started to move out some of the toys and dismantled her chair as we prepare to make room.

We went to CHEF in the afternoon and met with two other Home Ed families. We hadn't prepared a story or crafts but Bean was keen for us to do them. He doesn't appear to be that interested when we do do them but it seems that he does enjoy it. The boys mostly used the space to play chasing and fighting and wars and wrestling. They moved outside and played basketball and knocking over cones like skittles. We all painted pictures and dressed up as pirates and tigers and fairies. And we played duck duck goose with our friends.

We came home to eat pizza (after much diliberation between the boys as to whether it should be pizza or fish fingers) The boys went to watch more Simpsons, Plum put Nany McPhee and the big bang on again, Pippin, 2, clung on to Bing, Zula, and Coco and got the Peppa Pig toys out to play with.

After they ate Bean and Pumpkin had a bath, followed by Pippin who then had stories and bed as she hadn't slept today at all. Bean had a headache and went to bed about 9pm with Pumpkin too although he was struggling and tearful so didn't actually go to sleep until 12pm. Plum snuggled on the sofa with mummy for an hour, followed by daddy for another hour before going to bed about 10pm.

Pippin spent the day without a nappy again with no success until daddy came home when she used the potty three times.

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Home on the Ranch

For some Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, this is th fourth consecutive At Home Day. They are definitely in an At Home groove. Mostly, Age of Empires, Cartoon Network, The Simpsons, Lego building, weapons play, board games, Top Trumps, Mastermind, hide and seek, code writing and code breaking, planning future adventures, taking baths, watching films (Nanny McPhee and the big bang and Star Wars 2), researching the price of a new tablet screen, amongst other things.

Plum, 5, went with SGG and SGS to Little Verse and came home with a birthday present which she opened and played with immediately. She also tidied her room twice with the intention of making a space so that she can sleep in there (she didn't). She watched games and toy reviews on her tablet and chose themovie for us and joined in board games with the boys.

Pippin, 2, continues to refuse nappies. After a day of clearing up wee and me guessing correctly when she needed to go and her sitting on the potty or toilet for ages and then getting off and immediately going on the floor, she sat on the potty for daddy and did a wee. I didn't know whether to rejoice or cry.


Monday 16 January 2017

Age of Empires

Saturday

Daddy loaded Age of Empires onto the computer and spent more than 6 hours playing it with Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, looking on. Pumpkin also played Lord of the Rings top trumps for an hour or so with mummy, played with the lego and ran around the gouse with his double ended axe.

Plum, 5, spent the morning watching onher tablet tucked up in bed. Her and Pippin, 2, played with the brio set in the afternoon. They also played pushing Pippin around in the toy buggy and played babies with the soft toys, the baby cot and using our wardrobe as a home.

Pippin was in pants all day and, dispite yesterday's initial success, there was no success today.

In the evening we got fish and chips and wqtched Bean on Holiday together before baths for everyone, stories and bed.

Sunday

Church Day. Mummy, Plum and Pippin went to church in the morning. Bean divised a top tumps role playing war game in which he mixed Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, and Narnia cards. He then sorted them into good and eviland lay them face up in two opposing teams. Then battle commensed.
Pumpkin mostly played on his tablet in the morning and watched Winnie the Pooh and The Heffalump movies in the afternoon.

Bean wanted to record and edit the Backson and the heffalump songs so we used Bandicam to record them from the film recordings and then movie maker to edit them and run them together.

Plum played games on my phone and sat curled up with daddy. Pippin slept for three hours. Plum put on Frozen in the evening but then proceeded to play Orthello for an hour with mummy and Pumpkin. This was followed by Mastermind with Bean joining in too. We then restarted Frozen and the boys went to watch cartoons and play Age of Empires on the computer.

Friday 13 January 2017

Joy in our Heart

Biggest news today is: Plum, 5, went to her first ever gymnastic class and she loved it. We found out at the beginning of the week that she had been given a space at the HE gymnastic class. I had told her and she had lots of questions and was clearly a little excited and nervous. What if everything was too big for her? What if she couldn't do it? Would there be a teacher? Would they show her what to do? What would they be doing? Can mummy come and help? Can mummy sit and watch? Can mummy be near by but not help? Can she wear her leotard? Can she not wear her leotard? What if she needs a drink? What if she needs a rest?

Mummy did go in to the class with Plum and we took Pippin, 2, in too. Plum sat on my knee and watched the warm up games. She attempted the stretches whilst on my lap but it was not very successful so she sat on the floor with the others a little distance away. We found her group and we went of together. She did forward rolls and climbing and jumping and handstands and walking on her hands and bunny jumps and bunny hops and trampolining and rings. She is a strong and agile thing. She loved all of it. Watching her do bunny jumps over a soft box was amazing. She has never done them before and jumped splitleg over the first time. She did it again and again and again and again. She watched her friend do it too. And she did it again and again and again and again. She was enjoying it so much and then, she did it, a bunny jump over the soft box with her feet together, and then she came and gave me a high five and a huge hug.

Meanwhile, Pippin, 2, climbed over the soft stuff, very happily. Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, sat outside the gym hall. They ate lunch and coloured and played on tablets. They ran around and played games together.

The children went for a MacDonald's after with daddy whilst i went and viewed a house. And then back home to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with Bean. Pumpkin watched Squid, Plum watched toy reviews and Pippin was playing on her bike and scuttle bug.

Thursday 12 January 2017

Relax

A needed At Home Day. Everyone found their comfy spot and resided in it for most if the day.

Bean, 9, watched movies under his blanket. He would periodcally appear to tell me what had happened in the film, or quote scenes at to me, or tell me what he was going to watch next or ask for food. As i was cooking in the evening he found the lego magazine that had been delivered today. He worked his way through mazes and colour codes and then he found the code breaker. He spent the next hour writing coded messages to mummy and daddy.

Pumpkin, 7, began the day by checking in on his progress and updates and upgrade in his apps, particularly Clash of Clans and Clash Royal. He watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Bean. He was watching film trailers later in the day and we have put in the diary the release dates for three films this year. Our calendar is filling up already!

Plum, 5, played with her horses and Peppa Pig toys when she woke up. We organised a skype play with E and they compared their My Little Pony and Shopkins collections. She watched on her tablet lying next to me and Pippin, 2, in the afternoon as Pippin had an extra long sleep.

Pippin, 2, has run around all day wearing pants. I have been running around after her clearing up wee. She slept for 2 hours 45 minutes in the afternoon.


Wednesday 11 January 2017

Rejoice with those who rejoice

Sunday 8th January 2017

There are lots of things that we love about Home Educating and especially Unschooling. There are lots of things that are a direct result of us choosing Home Education, choosing to spend our days together. We can rejoice together in our good times and comfort each other in our sadness without the interuption or forced separation of school.

Today we travelled back to Kent and dropped daddy off at Nana's place where we left him with FA#3 and drove to her house. We unpacked, Plum, 5, immediately found CousinC and CousinH and picked up playing where they left off yesterday. Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, went and settled in their beds and were playing on their tablets. It wasn't long before daddy called to tell us that Nana had died peacefully. And not long after that that daddy and FA#3 returned home.

Over the next few days we stayed at FA#3's house. Ten of us in total, 11 on occasion. We cooked and played with the children, there was a lot of negotiation and refereeing, mummy took the children out for a walk to the beach, we collected stones and caught Pokemon, walked along the wall and climbed steps and stairs, and played hide and seek. We talked about fishing boats and the wind whistling, islands and land masses, oyster shells, harbours and housing development. We walked down Harbour Street and the boy's thought it could pass for diagon alley and renamed all the fabulous looking shops. We stopped and bought food at the supermarket and cousinC asked to buy flowers so we got some for FA#3, their daddy and our daddy. We played board games and puzzle games, magic:the gathering and top trumps and cheat. We watched movies and cbeebies, Pippin followed the cats endlessly around the house. By the third day the boys were beginning to long for their space at home. They were too tired to successfully take out but not comfortable or relaxed enough in the space they had created for themselves. That evening we came home.

Romans 12: 15


Mission Possible

Friday 6th January

We invited new people to our house today. We have chatted on line a reasonable amount and it was time to meet in person. It would have helped if i had provided the correct house number and address but the postcode was good so it wasn't as problematic as it could have been.

Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, both came and said hello before returning upstairs to watch Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban. They then formed themselves a club and made flags and signs and posters and contructed a trap of selotape across the landing, like lazer beams in a great hall.

Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played cars and colouring and read books with T, 5, and R, 2. We talked and ate and played. It was a very harmonious occasion.

After our friends went home, we played minecraft together and took baths and cooked dinner. Mummy and Plum packed a suitcase to go and stay at FA#3 for the night and when daddy came home we made our way to Kent.

Love is an open door

Saturday 7th January

Plum, 5, and I had travelled to stay with FA#3 and Cousin C and Cousin H for the Friday night. In the morning we went to see sing a long Frozen together. Plum wore her new Elsa dress and FA#3 supplied blue and silver pompoms and we took snowflake shaped ginger biscuits. We had listened to the Frozen songs 4 times on the journey to see FA#3's house and Plum sang along in the cinema. It wasn't all roses. Plum was very tired and was upset during part of the film and missed 'Let it Go' which was equally upsetting but we managed to steer the course and she enjoyed the experience overal. This was followed by lots of mummy and daddy and sister play back at the house, this seems to be quite an established game between the three of them now.

Back home, Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, began work on a robot dog and completed some origami.

We travelled home in the afternoon. Nana wasn't well so we came to collect the others so daddy could go and see nana. We then decided to sleep at home and wait until the morning.

Thursday 5 January 2017

It's Oh so quiet

At Home Day #3 Pumpkin, 7, was positively bouncing with excitement when i said we had no plans today. Bean, 9, discovered that he can watch dvds on their computer so he and Pumpkin chose two that Plum doesn't enjoy and they watched those, star wars and harry potter. They also play the espcapists and watch dantdm and stampy. I set up skype for Bean on his tablet and we play a skateboarding game together. Bean also has a bath today. And him, pumpkin and plum, 5, watch Kermit Swamp Adventures together in the evening.

Pumpkin is in his happiest when we stay at home. After watching films and youtube he plays a capture in the dark game that he has made up with Bean and Plum. This then turned into wrestling. Followed by general climbing, running, chasing, fighting, energetic games.

Plum mostly watched on her tablet today. She has been very restful. She has been watching Steve and Maggie. She helped me make cupcakes in the evening ready for her party tomorrow. We read stories before bed and she read Ketchup on your Cornflakes to me.

Pippin, 2, has been colouring and playing Bing. She has watched Bing and Topsy and Tim today and also found the Peppa Pig dvd on the shelf so we watched that together.

Wednesday 4 January 2017

All by myself

At Home Day: i spent 40 minutes this morning setting up Skype accounts for children whilst simultaneously trying to fix the wii and playing with Pippin, 2, in the boys' room, that is trying to distract her from playing with their toys. It is our first day with daddy back at work. It will take sometime for us to get back into the swing of an adult:child ratio 1:4. However, downstairs, Pumpkin, 7, and Plum, 5, were playing with her cake making playdough kit together and Pippin went to join them. Bean, 9, was lying on his bed playing on his tablet.

With Skype accounts finally set up, Plum had a playdate with a friend, E, who moved away 18 months ago, yet she still talks about her all the time. They showed each other their Christmas presents and then both got pens and paper so they could draw together. Plum made a playdough cake to show her and E shared a book with Plum. It was delightful and will become a regular thing. It fulfilled Plum's social need whilst we were also able to stay at home. During the afternoon she lay next to me and watched on her tablet as i rested whilst Pippin slept.

Bean and Pumpkin played escapists together on the computer and continued watching Gravity Falls, coming to get us to show us the funny parts. It was a restful afternoon.

In the evening Bean took all the dvds that Plum doesn't like and found a box for them and took them upstairs. Bean and mummy played two rounds of poopyhead. Pumpkin had a bath. Plum watched cbeebies hair and the tortoise ballet.

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Five Years

Although our decorations are still up, today really marks the end of Christmas for us as daddy's 11 day staycation is over and he returns to work.

Yesterday we celebrated Plum's fifth birthday. Some of us stayed at home all day enjoying a much needed At Home Day. Plum wanted to go the the play park at Sainsbury's with daddy and Pippin, 2, went too. We had birthday lunch with presents and cake made by daddy. Plum got a ballet dress and Peppa Pig puzzle, toy horses, a cake making playdough set and some tights. She spent the morning curled up in bed eatching on her tablet after an initial board game of dinosaur races with Bean, 9, and mummy. After the trip to the park she came home and played with her playdough and horses.

Pumpkin, 7, decided on an app to buy with some of his Christmas money. He chose toca lab and sat and played it most of the day. During the evening he organised his apps on his tablet into different catergories: fighting games, toca games, building and block games, round games.

Bean played the escapists again in the afternoon for a while. But mostly he wanted to be left alone today.

Monday 2 January 2017

Celebrating You (Plum)

Celebrating Plum, aka Anna Grace, today who turns five, FIVE!! Having not spent a full day at home since... i can't remember...over 10 days, which is unusual for us plus the busyness of Christmas and all the tiredness that that brings, we have plans to stay at home all day. It is bank holiday so daddy is here to. There will definitely be presents and birthday tea with cake (i have seen the cake daddy has made.) There is a party planned for Thursday to celebrate with friends and family.

Plum, 5, has recently moved into her own bed. She has spent the Christmas period sleeping on the boy's bedroom floor and has already mentioned that she wants to sleep in her room when she has to move out of theirs. I still have the privaledge of holding her hand and lying with her though as she falls asleep. She tends to go to bed between 9 and 10pm with Bean and wake up about 9am although she has been know to sleep until 11am on occasion.

She is incredibly social. She loves being out of the house and in large groups of people. She has friends of all ages. She enjoys playing with older girls and just recently she has taken to successfully organising small groups of friends in the game that she has devised. She equally enjoys friends of her own age and younger. She is just as happy to play with Pippin, 2, and her cousins C, 4, and H, 2. Plum particulary enjoys small world and role play/ dressing up games. She plays through family scenerios a lot in these games, most of them revolving around a 'mummy's and daddy's' theme. Her favourite things to encorporate in her play (other than other people) are dollies and soft toys with accompanying equipment, polly pocket, doll's house, kitchen set and she is loving her new collection of My Little Ponies. Plum also likes crafting and making. She loves painting and sticking and junk modelling and especially play dough and face painting. She is a natural goal setter. She is able to tell you what she is trying to achieve and then will set about working on it until it is accomplished. She is a natural gymnast and enjoys tumbling and is currently trying to perfect a head stand.

She has definite preverances in what she wears. She loves dresses and most things pink or sparkly but she also loves to wear items with pictures of her favourite things on, Hello Kitty or My Little Pony. She likes to "decorate" herself too. She likes to wear nail polish and braclets and necklaces. Sometimes she will ask for hair clips too.

Plum likes watching Youtube. She enjoys watching toy reviews and often asks for things she has seen on there. Her favourite though is Family Fun Pack. She also enjoys playing cbeebies games and dressing up and make up game son Friv. Her favourite thing to watch is the cbeebies pantos and ballets.

She is a very busy little one. Most of the things she does happen all at once with a board game thrown in too. There are often several moments a day when she requires everything to happen simultaneously before she settles on one game or activity. However she also knows when she needs to rest. She likes to curl up cosy somewhere, on a bed or make a den or cuddle on the sofa or watch a dvd. She knows her own mind and how to articulate what she wants but is also able to show huge consideration for others and suggest plans and ideas that will suit everyone. One of her most used phrases is "why don't we...." as she proposes what we can do so everyone is happy with the outcome. She also likes to say "why don't you....whilst i...." as she organises everyone.

Five years seems to have gone incredibly quickly and also marks the beginning of our HE journey and meeting the first of our HE friends.