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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

Seemlessly

An At Home Day today, much needed although we did end up popping out to collect the car which included a trip to the shop for apple supplies.

Bean, 9, has been a whirlwind of activity. He began with making a projector using a tutorial he had seen on YouTube. He needed a little help with the craft knife but it was a really simple idea. The image came out upside down and he fiddled with it on and off all day until he had worked out how to get it to project the correct way up.

I had made moonsand for Plum, 5, and her friend J who was coming to play. Bean immediately began construction on The Great Wall of China and a whole heap of questions ensued about who built the wall and why and can you climb over it.

Bean showed me a riddle he had heard on The ANT Farm about Antoni and Cleopatra and Ceaser, we worked it out together and then Bean was asking questions about who they were so we pulled the Egyptian book off the shelf and looked them up.

Next we searched for the Usbourne book on castles as Bean wanted to build a castle in minecraft. This was followed by 5 card draw which Pumpkin, 8, joined in and we used pennies to bet with.

I played Top Trumps (superheroes) and Plop Trumps with Pumpkin and we tried to all hook up via multiplayer on Terreria and Minecraft but for some reason we couldn't.

Our friends A and J came to play. Plum and J played together for hours, Pippin, 2, joined in too. They played moonsand and in the rabbit hutch and then doll's house and Grosseries.

Pippin put on Peppa Pig and we watched The Angry Birds movie. Pippin got a giant floor puzzle out and we put it together and then took it apart more than a few times.

It was an unexpectedly active day.

Let the sunshine

Thursday is gymnastics day for Bean, 9, and Plum, 5. The smalls spent the morning playing. Plum and Pippin, 2, played a mummy and baby game which largely involved Pippin sitting in the laundry basket and being pushed around by Plum. Bean and Pumpkin, 8, played Doughnut games, Terreria and minecraft together. Bean also worked on a growing lego creation.

Daddy made it to gymnastics today in his lunch break. Bean was doing forward somersaults into the pit and jumps off the spring board. Plum was doing piroettes and then jumping into the pit.

Back home the big three played the role play pirate game again and then we took our bikes to the park for a couple of hours. Plum's chain came off her bike so we fixed that when we got home.

The big three then played the Prison Game together (based on The Escapist) until food was ready and then Plum put on The Mr Men dvd being inspired by finding a Mr Men book at the park.

Both boys took a bath, Pippin, Plum and Bean all had stories before bed.

Home on the Ranch

Still at home. Day 7. One full week for the girls. But Pippin, 2, is still sporting fresh spots. Plum, 5, is truely on the mend and now itching to go out.

We started the morning with The Winnie The Pooh movie followed by more moon sand play. We built different shaped sandcastles using the moulds we have and then Plum got her mini My Little Ponies and Pippin got her Bing toys to play with. Plum hid her toys in the sand and then mummy had to find them.

Plum has also signed up to Teach Your Monster To Read and in the afternoon she and Pippin played mummies and babies together using the soft toys, cot, baby blankets, dummies. There was a brief moment when Plum watched SevenSuperGirls on YouTube and then we put on The Heffalumo movie but she didn't watch it all as she returned to her game with Pippin.

Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 8, played minecraft on the temple map. They built a tree house, tamed two dogs and a horse, played hide and seek and allowed Plum and mummy to play too. We spent some time trying to work out how to take screenshots from Bean's tablet but were unsuccessful. Bean and i read more Harry Potter in the afternoon followed by a deep bath so that he could practice putting his head under the water and holding his breath. We played more of the paper game he made yesterday and then made a couple of flip books together.

Bean and Plum played lego together in the evening. Plum made a race track with action posed runners and a finish line. We read stories and, for the first time since she got chicken pox, she slept in her own bed.

Down Days

Some days are less intense than others. Following our natural rhythms allows us to accept that some days are more restful than others and quite rightly so. I can't deny that the early signs of Spring and the sunshine are encouraging me to consider outside more but for today opening the window and the back door will have to fill that need.

Chicken pox continues to leave our nights sleepless and our days restful. Plum, 5, spent all day watching films and on her tablet. She managed about 5 minutes of playing cbeebies games on the pc before returning to her duvet on the sofa. Later in the afternoon we made chocolate cupcakes together with Pippin, 2, too.

Pippin took one two hour sleep today and has spent the remainder of the day sat or lying on the sofa cuddling mummy. Breastfeeding has increased significantly. We have been allieviating the itch with camomile and daddy has bought some moiserising soap for bathtime. I'm hoping this will relieve some of the night itching and support more sleep.

We found a Treasure Trail company online and have purchased our first trail around Horsham for Bean, 9. We sat and played minecraft together,bean, Pumpkin, 8, Plum, 5, and mummy, on a jungle temple map that Bean had downloaded. We played for over an hour. Bean and Pumpkin played Terreria together and Bean spent an hour or more building lego. We continued reading Harry Potter.

Pumpkin has been enjoying watching the Try Not To Laugh videos on YouTube. He fails miserably but it's beautiful listening to him laughing. He has played Roblox today and watched minecraft songs on YouTube. He played with his new Skylanders with Bean. He watched Cars with us in the afternoon and made a soft landing using all the duvets and pillows so the smalls could all jump off the sofa.

The girls had a moisterising bath after dinner and Plum fell asleep on the duvet pile in the evening.

Pancake Day

Tuesday

Reason number 457 that Home Education is amazing: when we have sick days there is no informing anyone or having to provide proof. I'm not in a pickle trying to organise getting the boys ready and to school whilst the girls are ill.

Although being ill does have its own misery. Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, (who has presented with spots overnight) have largely sat and watched films and cbeebies today interspersed with board games but the energy levels are low and even sitting up for board game play is tiring. Pippin has had two two hour long sleeps as well.

Bean, 9, has sat next to us and watched films and played on his tablet. His new excitement is finding and downloading minecraft PE maps and playing and exploring and building on them. He has also ventured into using redstone to create doors on a temple after us playing a levers map together.

Pumpkin, 8, has been enjoying Terreria more and joining Bean on the downloaded minecraft maps. He has played extensice amounts of roblox and been watching minecraft songs too.

The sticking points during the day are when i need to get food for  anyone as Plum purely wants me to sit with her. I have tried to limit the number of times i get up by preparing food and drink in bulk but this then means that i am away for a longer period of time. Not easy.

Daddy made us all pancakes when he got home. The smalls love pancakes any day of the year and had all said today that they would like some but i couldn't manage this with crying girls and clinging to my legs whilst doing it so we waited and enjoyed sharing together with daddy. Pippin didn't want any. Plum had chocolate spread and sugar and lemon all together, Pumpkin had chocolate spread and Bean ate them plain.

Doggy days

Part of Bean's, 9, unschooling journey has involved us recently connecting with dog owning families via borrowmydoggy. Today we met Archie for the second time and went for a walk with his owner Kat and her children. It was the first time that Pumpkin, 8, Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, met Archie. He is a young cockapoo with soft blond curls who has lots of energy but is really friendly and well behaved, he's a perfect match for our family. The excitment of meeting him also ment that we all managed to get dressed and out with everyone on side. Next time we will have Archie all to ourselves for a play.

Bean fell in a pile of freshly sprouting stinging nettles and stung his whole hand back and front which continued to bother him for the remainder of the day. We also read an9ther chapter of Harry Potter together.

Pumpkin played on the Pokemon minecraft mod for the first time and loved it. He played Terreria with Bean and they watched cartoon network together.

Plum and Pippin played together all morning. They made dens from umbrellas and blankets and put their teddy bears in with them.

Pippin fell asleep on the sofa under a blanket early evening. She had said she was tired and wanted to sleep after lunch but because we had a date with a dog the best she got was a rest whilst in the buggy.

Game play

Monday. We had friends to play today and had a very succesfullay date. I created Roblox accounts for each of the children and they joined together across platforms to play together. The boys on one game and the girls on another. It was good watching them play together and interesting to see that dispite there being 100's of games to choose from they enjoy the same ones, surviving natural disasters being today's favourite. The girl's enjoyed a city game where you are a character in a city and are able to live in this virtual world.
We also played in the garden together using the slide and playing ball with a beach ball and the sticks came out to play too. Bean, 9, asked if we had any large marshmallows for the fire pit. Plum, 5, and J, 5, played in my wardrobe and lottie dolls and cats.

Tuesday. Today we met friends at church. We also had C, 10, over for the day. We all made pizza together and played uno and beanbag diving and hide and seek and it. We came home for the afternoon and played minecraft multiplayer Bean, Pumpkin, 8, Plum, 5, C and mummy on a map that Bean has downloaded. There was pvp battling in a tnt filled arena which was good fun.

Mummy and Bean continued reading Harry Potter and Plum and C played upstairs together. They then played wrestling and murder in the dark before C went home. The evening was full of Mr. Bean episodes.

Pippin, 2, has not been napping on days at home and this has resulted in lengthy crying episodes at around 5pm which is also the time that the others start requesting food. Monday evening didn't go so well as i attempted to cook food (put chicken dippers in the oven) whilst Pippin cried continuously and Pumpkin was pretending to be a ghost and whhhooooooood loudly in Pippin's face which increased the crying and upset me. So, Tuesday, i made sandwiches mid afternoon which Pumpkin ate immediately so i made more and then when hunger time came they helped themselves to sandwiches and bits and i sat with Pippin and we watched Peppa Pig and ate food. Much better.

Come a long way

A day without the car usually enforces a well needed At Home Day however the sun was shining and Bean, Plum and Pippin were keen to go the play park around the corner. Pumpkin was persuaded with the idea of playing PokemonGo and simultaneously not wanting to stay at home on his own.

It had been Pumpkin's, 7, idea to bake biscuits in the morning to take with us to the play park. Plum, 4, and Pippin, 2, rolled and cut the dough with me. Pumpkin spent the morning watching Dan TDM (trying not to laugh) and You've been Framed amongst other things.

Bean, 9, has been playing a lot of minecraft again. He found and downloaded an app to record his game play on PE and then spent most of the morning recording in his bedroom.

Plum, 4, played doll's house and babies and watched on her tablet on her bed.

We went to the play park for an hour or so. We swung on the swings, span fast on the roundabout, raced down the slides, rode the see saw, played hide and seek, and played hide Peppa pig, and ate biscuits. Pippin fell asleep on the way home with Bean and Plum singing made up lullabies to her.

When we were home Bean went and watched on his tablet in his bed, Pippin watched on the computer and Plum sat on the sofa with headphones on. I sat in the reltive quiet and drank tea, uninterrupted.

I was reminded today how things have changed for us as a family, how the passing of time, children growing older and me not being pregnant and feeling a little more rested and having more time (because i'm not breast feeding every few hours day and night) allows us to manage things differently and more satisfactorily. The passing of time has also enabled us to see that all the worrying we did about qhether we were doing the right thing and were the boys doing enough was wasted. They are fine, happy, engaged, motivated, enquisitive, all the things we would hope them to be.

Did you know?

At Home Day:

Bean, 9, played a lot of minecraft PE today, i played with him for about an hour we created two new worlds, one specifically to make cake on. He has started a new series of Pokemon and is continuing to enjoy The Simpsons. He had his hair cut whilst Pippin was sleeping. We played Hide and seek in the afternoon and there was wrestling. He asked to play with me on the wii repeatedly but we didn't get around to it today. He watched Star wars: The Clone Wars in the evening.

Pumpkin, 7, played Lego:Batman and we played mariocart on the wii together. We played several games of Chess this morning, i tried looking at our Chess book for some instruction but it was really confusing. He has been enjoying creating characters Tocomini.

Plum, 4, watched on her tablet curled up in a onsie on the sofa all morning. Her friend V came to play in the afternoon. There was duplo and minecraft, play dough, blindfold drawing, hide and seek, cafes, puzzles, and Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland.

Pippin, 2, worked out how to say the word Topsy today.

Tangled (again)

Monday.

Bean, 9, is keen to watch prison break films however we don't own any so we settled for heist movie instead and watched Oceons 11. He is also constantly asking about coding but we are struggling with how to carve time for him to do this so that we can help him and the others are not distracting. Today he also reminded me that we haven't been swimming for a while, he would like to be keeper for a day at Drusillas, when are we going to Harry Potter World, can we go to LegoLand next year? He's definitely a boy with a plan (or two!) We also downloaded Carcasonne today and played it several times.

Pumpkin, 7, had a playdate today. Our friends A and J came to our house to play. Pumpkin and A played Terreria together, build battle on minecraft (their own version multiplayer LAN) and discussed and compared Pokemon. They also played Skylanders on the wii and Bean introduced A to his home made Skylanders role playing game.

Plum, 4, still isn't well. I think she has had this cough for over six weeks now. She is finding it draining and irritating and she is tired. However, she still musters the energy for the things that she loves and so this morning she went out with SGG and SGS to Little Verse. Predictably she crashed on the sofa when she got home, snuggled under a duvet and watched on her tablet for a couple of ours with pizza and apple juice.
When Plum had rested and refuelled she played with her friend J. They played at being dogs together and then playdough and cafes. Plum fell asleep on the sofa after our friends went home.

Pippin, 2, has spent time drawing today and cutting up grapes into small pieces, watching Bing and Topsy and Tim. She managed to stay awake until about 4pm when our friends had left and then she fell asleep on the sofa.

Bean put Tangled on again and Pumpkin asked for his hairbrush and spent the whole film brushing out his knots. Bean and Plum both had a bath tonight and we were all in bed by 10pm dispite the girls late afternoon nap.

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.