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.

Tales of the Unexpected

We had a play date planned at Fisher's Farm today. Plum, 4, was going to meet her friend M. We headed straight to the slides, it was freezing ourside and it had been quite difficult for Bean, 9, and Pumpin, 7, to agree to coming out. I played with theidea of them staying at home but it would have been at least 3 hours which would have been the longest i have left them, plus Fisher's Farm is the furthest i would have gone and the phone reception there is terrible, in conclusion, i decided against it. We agreed to stay indoors and everyone took tablets as they have wifi. They ran off and played as soon as we got there. We had been there about half an hour before Pumpkin executed one of his usual moves and landed badly on his neck. He was in a lot of pain and couldn't move it without causing more pain. I gave him painkillers and we sat and ate food. All the while he was screaming. Bean came over and sat with us, playing games on my phone. Our friends had arrived but we decided that it would be best to go home. On the way we stopped and bought Tiger Balm. Pumpkin sat all afternoon, stock still, on the sofa.

Back home Pippin, 2, slept. Plum played face painting and painted herself a pirate and me some flowers. Bean and Pumpkin took the Potersmore quizes to discover what house they are in (Hufflepuff,) what their patronus is (bean was an hare, pumpkin was an otter) and what type of wand they would have (mine is hazel  10 1/4 inch, unicorn hair core, unyeilding)

Bean and i also read the first chapter of the coding book that his friend bought for him.

We ended the day with dinner and a film, Bean had a bath, Pumpkin had more painkillers and tiger balm before bed.

Where are you?

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

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

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

Rest and relaxation

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

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

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

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

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