One of the things that I have notived in the last year is how games in our family have become established. One of the smalls will call "let'someone play houses/wrestling/babies/families" and everyone immediately knows what the game so, where we play it, what role they play, what the story line is, what the rules are. And each time they play the game evolves. It'seems a beautiful process to watch.
Today it was Bean and Pumpkin wrestling at Nyman's gardens. We joined friends for a visit and played Pokemon as we walked. The smalls (all four of them) climbed trees and ran around chasing with their friends. Plum wore a summer dress even though the weather was cold and everyone else was wearing coats.
The trip out was topped and tailed with Bean and Pumpkin playing Magic: the gathering. I think it was Pumpkin'so first go at playing but he knew the game play really well from watching so many times and understood the cards in the pack. Bean is keen to introduce new cards to the pack.
Our Tribe
Showing posts with label Nymans Gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nymans Gardens. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 October 2016
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
How does your garden grow?
Yesterday we went to Nyman's Gardens. Yes! Again. I'm not sure what it is exactly about it that I love so much but I do love it! It was just over a year ago now that we learned of the home education membership that the National Trust offer and decided to go for it (I know this because we have just renewed it) i can't say I was ever really interested before but it is too good an opportunity to pass by and now I am a avid fan. Nyman's Gardens is our closest haunt and we go regularly but we have also taken advantage of the membership and visited several local and some further afield properties.
Nyman's garden has it all for us. Architecture, gardens with wield and wonderful collections as well as beautiful commonly seen plants, woodland, nooks and crannies, a fairy tale house, and lots of space. And on a day like today, shade.
The staff are always amazing with the children and today was no exception. The house normally hides a toy fox named Foxy that the smalls enjoy looking for but they have a new art exhibition displaying E Shepherds work for The Wind in the Willows and so they had character toys for them to find. It's the details that I love. The boys laughed their heads off at the large Toad escaping from the upstairs window, hanging on to bed sheets. They also enjoyed the art exhibition and we walked round it and then returned later to see it again. We have had the stories before but I think a revisit will be in order.
We spent a large amount of time out in the shade of the Cedar tree in the lawn. The smalls made friends with another girl and played, hide and seek, what's the time mr. Wolf, tag, and horse and donkeys. It was the perfect place to be on such a hot day.
This outing was topped and tailed by a town trip including signing up for the summer reading scheme at the library, and lots of minecraft, reading, lego building, all sitting in the cool of our living room.
Nyman's garden has it all for us. Architecture, gardens with wield and wonderful collections as well as beautiful commonly seen plants, woodland, nooks and crannies, a fairy tale house, and lots of space. And on a day like today, shade.
The staff are always amazing with the children and today was no exception. The house normally hides a toy fox named Foxy that the smalls enjoy looking for but they have a new art exhibition displaying E Shepherds work for The Wind in the Willows and so they had character toys for them to find. It's the details that I love. The boys laughed their heads off at the large Toad escaping from the upstairs window, hanging on to bed sheets. They also enjoyed the art exhibition and we walked round it and then returned later to see it again. We have had the stories before but I think a revisit will be in order.
We spent a large amount of time out in the shade of the Cedar tree in the lawn. The smalls made friends with another girl and played, hide and seek, what's the time mr. Wolf, tag, and horse and donkeys. It was the perfect place to be on such a hot day.
This outing was topped and tailed by a town trip including signing up for the summer reading scheme at the library, and lots of minecraft, reading, lego building, all sitting in the cool of our living room.
Sunday, 22 July 2012
Croquet, anyone?
Wednesday 18th July
Today we took daddy to Nyman's Gardens. You might be right in thinking that I love it there. Daddy wanted to see what the fuss was about and I don't think he was disappointed! The staff as always were lovely, we did the quiz in the house again and found foxy and learnt some new bits of information from the staff. Bean loves listening to the tales they tell about the house and enjoys retelling them to anyone who will listen. We went on the bamboo trail today which was new for us. Who knew there are so many different types of bamboo? We also hid in the trees, playing the most complicated game of hide and seek. Daddy and I kept being told off for hiding in the wrong places or counting too much, or not enough. We also enjoyed running through the meadow and a role play game where daddy and me were passengers on a ship sailing the sea, visiting an island and travelling home again. We saw a cat dragging what looked like a rat but in fact turned out to be a baby rabbit. They had put up child sized teepees on the green too where the boys enjoyed cooking jelly babies and other such delights.
Daddy headed home with the boys and I took Plum to meet a new friend and first time mum (someone we met in our unfortunate admission to hospital when Plum was born) I decided to have Plum weighed whilst I was there out of politeness really. It seemed wrong to be at the clinic and decline the service. I wish I had though. Her weight was more than fine, according to their charts and graphs, although it just occurred to me that the charts they now use in the red books are for formula fed babies not breast fed ones, anyhow the health professional (nursery nurse) enquirered how weaning was going. When I explained that we were blw and it was going well, thank you, I got a lovely 'you should purée and spoon feed too' response. The best part was the reasoning.
1. We need to make sure that she is getting enough.
2. She needs to learn to use a spoon (something to do with speech development was mentioned here too)
3. She needs to experience a range of textures and flavours.
4. Make sure she is drinking water with every meal.
I did try not to get too cross and respond in a calm and adult fashion. I think I did quite well but the nursery nurse didn't argue back. Maybe she realised that it wasn't going to make a difference. So, for reference these were part of my response.
1. I'm more concerned with developing a life long positive relationship with food not dictated by me force feeding my child to make sure that they 'get enough.' She will manage her own appetite and I will continue to breast feed when she demands it.
2. Me spoon feeding her does not teach her to use a spoon! She will pick up a spoon when she is developmentally ready and (thank goodness she has older siblings) her brothers have no problems with their speech development because I didn't use a spoon at six months. Do you think Adam and Eve worried about their children using a spoon? -I didn't mention that, just an after thought.
3. She eats exactly what we eat, giving her a wide experience of textures and disearnable flavours instead of all the same consistency, flavours mushed together.
4. I breast feed. Breast milk gives her exactly what she needs, when she needs it. It's another amazing part of the human body. Water from a cup can wait. (Although she was grabbing after daddy's water the other day so she had some then.)
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| Egg boxes provided to put collection of natural bits and pieces - another great idea from the NT |
Today we took daddy to Nyman's Gardens. You might be right in thinking that I love it there. Daddy wanted to see what the fuss was about and I don't think he was disappointed! The staff as always were lovely, we did the quiz in the house again and found foxy and learnt some new bits of information from the staff. Bean loves listening to the tales they tell about the house and enjoys retelling them to anyone who will listen. We went on the bamboo trail today which was new for us. Who knew there are so many different types of bamboo? We also hid in the trees, playing the most complicated game of hide and seek. Daddy and I kept being told off for hiding in the wrong places or counting too much, or not enough. We also enjoyed running through the meadow and a role play game where daddy and me were passengers on a ship sailing the sea, visiting an island and travelling home again. We saw a cat dragging what looked like a rat but in fact turned out to be a baby rabbit. They had put up child sized teepees on the green too where the boys enjoyed cooking jelly babies and other such delights.
Daddy headed home with the boys and I took Plum to meet a new friend and first time mum (someone we met in our unfortunate admission to hospital when Plum was born) I decided to have Plum weighed whilst I was there out of politeness really. It seemed wrong to be at the clinic and decline the service. I wish I had though. Her weight was more than fine, according to their charts and graphs, although it just occurred to me that the charts they now use in the red books are for formula fed babies not breast fed ones, anyhow the health professional (nursery nurse) enquirered how weaning was going. When I explained that we were blw and it was going well, thank you, I got a lovely 'you should purée and spoon feed too' response. The best part was the reasoning.
1. We need to make sure that she is getting enough.
2. She needs to learn to use a spoon (something to do with speech development was mentioned here too)
3. She needs to experience a range of textures and flavours.
4. Make sure she is drinking water with every meal.
I did try not to get too cross and respond in a calm and adult fashion. I think I did quite well but the nursery nurse didn't argue back. Maybe she realised that it wasn't going to make a difference. So, for reference these were part of my response.
1. I'm more concerned with developing a life long positive relationship with food not dictated by me force feeding my child to make sure that they 'get enough.' She will manage her own appetite and I will continue to breast feed when she demands it.
2. Me spoon feeding her does not teach her to use a spoon! She will pick up a spoon when she is developmentally ready and (thank goodness she has older siblings) her brothers have no problems with their speech development because I didn't use a spoon at six months. Do you think Adam and Eve worried about their children using a spoon? -I didn't mention that, just an after thought.
3. She eats exactly what we eat, giving her a wide experience of textures and disearnable flavours instead of all the same consistency, flavours mushed together.
4. I breast feed. Breast milk gives her exactly what she needs, when she needs it. It's another amazing part of the human body. Water from a cup can wait. (Although she was grabbing after daddy's water the other day so she had some then.)
Friday, 6 July 2012
A Rose by any other name
Thursday 5th July
We said goodbye to Km today but before she went we managed to fit in a game of pirates, hiding treasure around the house and going in search of it, dressed up and cutlass in hand. Bean also built a train track and we managed two breakfasts.
Plum had had another disturbed night, waking every two hours. She is starting to take in some of the food she is playing with and I'm wondering if her stomach and digestive system are in shock! But you can never be 100% sure, it might be a growth spurt or just the need to find mummy.
After saying goodbye to Km and dropping her off at 9am, fav Auntie #3 has come to play. We took her to one of my current favourite places, Nyman Gardens. Today's children exploration included a flower spotting quiz which both the boys took up and a flower art creation which I have collected the pieces for and hope to complete with the boys later. We explored many a flower, leaf and tree and ran around the rose garden whilst mummy and fa#3 collected handfuls of fallen rose petals. The aroma was overwhelmingly delightful.
The house as always was beautiful and both the boys were able to recount the story of the burning roof. They have a great game for the children, 'find foxy' which is as simple as it sounds. The staff regularly move a toy fox around the house and you have to find him. It originates from the days of the last owner who played it with visiting children of family members. It's a great way of getting the boys to look at each room and discover a multitude of other things along the way.
We also managed to explore some new areas and found a round house, where the boys climbed trees, swept the floor, spied on passers-by and played mummy's and daddy's. Pumpkin was the daddy, got the breakfast and swept the floor.
The rest of the afternoon was helped along by some I player and fa#3 going for a walk with Plum. I managed to squeeze in making the dinner, baking snacks, and cheese scones. Daddy surprised us by arriving home early and we all had dinner together. This was followed by some playing in the garden with fa#3 and daddy bathing Plum. I was suddenly childless! Plum has been continuing her food journey and has been enjoying the smell, taste and texture of nectarines, plums, porridge, soup, celery, sausage and chicken.
We said goodbye to Km today but before she went we managed to fit in a game of pirates, hiding treasure around the house and going in search of it, dressed up and cutlass in hand. Bean also built a train track and we managed two breakfasts.
Plum had had another disturbed night, waking every two hours. She is starting to take in some of the food she is playing with and I'm wondering if her stomach and digestive system are in shock! But you can never be 100% sure, it might be a growth spurt or just the need to find mummy.
After saying goodbye to Km and dropping her off at 9am, fav Auntie #3 has come to play. We took her to one of my current favourite places, Nyman Gardens. Today's children exploration included a flower spotting quiz which both the boys took up and a flower art creation which I have collected the pieces for and hope to complete with the boys later. We explored many a flower, leaf and tree and ran around the rose garden whilst mummy and fa#3 collected handfuls of fallen rose petals. The aroma was overwhelmingly delightful.
The house as always was beautiful and both the boys were able to recount the story of the burning roof. They have a great game for the children, 'find foxy' which is as simple as it sounds. The staff regularly move a toy fox around the house and you have to find him. It originates from the days of the last owner who played it with visiting children of family members. It's a great way of getting the boys to look at each room and discover a multitude of other things along the way.
We also managed to explore some new areas and found a round house, where the boys climbed trees, swept the floor, spied on passers-by and played mummy's and daddy's. Pumpkin was the daddy, got the breakfast and swept the floor.
The rest of the afternoon was helped along by some I player and fa#3 going for a walk with Plum. I managed to squeeze in making the dinner, baking snacks, and cheese scones. Daddy surprised us by arriving home early and we all had dinner together. This was followed by some playing in the garden with fa#3 and daddy bathing Plum. I was suddenly childless! Plum has been continuing her food journey and has been enjoying the smell, taste and texture of nectarines, plums, porridge, soup, celery, sausage and chicken.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Take a walk on the wild side
FridayIt has been recently reported that today's children can suffer from Nature Deficiency Disorder, not so in our house. Today we saw a second visit to Nyman Gardens and loved it all over again. Bean and Pumpkin made me read all the signs they could see on trees and plants and where the plants were from (really must brush up on my Latin) and we felt and smelt and observed and described and hid and climbed and fell. (Asher fell out his first tree.)
We shared our lunch time with a Robin and two field mice, all of which were less than a foot away from us. The mice running around in the hedge row behind the benches we were on. The boys spent about 15 minutes watching them and I had fresh satisfaction and delight in our choice to home educate.
Our house is full of collections of sticks and leaves and cones and seed pods and various other natural findings. I can remember David Attenborough once talking about the importance of collecting things. In fact Nyman's Gardens itself is a huge collection of plants from far and wide. So our house may be full of odd bits and bobs but it is the beginnings of great discoveries.
Pumpkin has spent a lot of time with Plum today, holding her hand, singing to her, cuddling her and playing 'boo.' I love watching the boys relationship grow with each other and their sister and am glad that the transition from two to three has been a smooth and natural one for them all. The drawing is one of Bean's, it is the Horsham Museum. The bricks are a skate park built by Pumpkin. Bean also asked me to write "all the numbers" so he could copy them. As a teacher I was always quite apposed to giving the children worksheets of numbers or letters to copy but in the spirit of 'unschooling' I dutifully wrote down the digits from 0 - 9 for him to copy. Sometimes I think it's me that needs de-schooling, not my children!
Friday, 18 May 2012
It's adventurous
We took a trip to Nyman Gardens. Beautiful, stunning, fabulous, wow, amazing, fantastic, were just some of the words the boys used to describe the place. Awe and wonder were abound at the gardens, trees, and flowers, as well as the building and views. The ruins of the house are perfectly fairytale like currently ridden with wysteria. The grounds that we got to explore had everything from rhododendron to rose garden, magnolia and camelia, cedar tree, rock garden and we missed most of the grounds! The building was mostly ruin and one member of staff took time to tell the story of how it happened which Pumpkin went on to recount to me perfectly. She wasn't the only friendly member of staff there, in fact we didn't find one who wasn't pleased to see us all. The house had a quiz designed for the children which took us three trips around but we did it with a little help and a few pointers. It was perfect for the boys and they loved there clipboards and pencils. Pumpkin enjoyed the game of 'where's foxy?' most of all. They regularly move foxy around the house for the children to try and spot...brilliant!
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