Our Tribe

Our Tribe

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.