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.

Spining Plates

The other morning we overheard Pumpkin, 8, explaining the process of photosynthesis to his siblings. These moments encourage us on our unschooling journey as we don't explicitly set out to teach our children a particular topic or curriculum. It is fascinating to watch how qnd what they learn in their own space and time and from their own sources.

We have had lots of whitespace interspersed with a shopping trip to town with Bean, 9, for party supplies, an evening trip to a friends party, church and a film night at a friends house. Ostly it feels like we have been managing expectations especially with Bean as he is trying to flex his independence but is restrained by siblings. It helped that we had a pizza date during the shopping trip, just me and him. As part of our morning out we also took part in some market research, in which he was very thoughtful in his responses and i gave him half of the cash, which pleased him as he is very money motivated.

Plum, 5, went supply shopping on Sunday with daddy and they made a cake together in the afternoon before going to eat pizza and watch a film at T's house.

Plum still reads Brown Bear every night except now we substitute each of the animals for different ones every night and then we try to remember them all on the last page before we hold hands and go to sleep.

All by myself

The Sims4. Six plus hours of playing the Sims4. Bean, 9, predominantly with Pumpkin, 8, looking on and advising or contributing ideas.

Pumpkin also squeezed in a few goes on Roblox and had an hour to himself to play in the evening.

Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played with the farm set and playmobile together. Plum tidied her bedside shelf whilst Pippin played with the bears. Plum and i also made chocolate cupcakes together and did some puzzles whilst sat in the garden. Pippin read The Little Princess to herself "no, i want to do it by myself" (that is the repeated phrase in the book that she read to herself)

Daddy made a den with them all in the living room in the evening following a roarcus game of hiding and chasing throughout the house and garden.

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.

Up

Continuing on the up and up health wise but our spirits are also lifted with daddy being home and those who are fit and healthy (and not contagious) finally being able to leave the house.

Bean, 9, is glad that the weekend is here, daddy is home and took the Bean and Pumpkin, 8, swimming. They were out for three hours and had a great time. Plum, 5, was a bit upset but as Pippin, 2, was asleep we were able to spend a lot of 1:1 time which is always a welcome treat in our house.

I had popped out in the morning and bought a few things for the smalls. I had We're Going On A Bear Hunt on dvd and we watched it three times. We then opened up the origami that i had bought for Bean and had a go at making a giraffe and then then Plum made a card for daddy whilst i made a string of paper hearts.

Bean and Plum slept on the living room floor again.

Daddy went to church solo on Sunday. Bean had an extra long bath and was submerging himself and playing under the water with his goggles. We played Akinator together and Bean read a lot of the questions himself. He played Akinator for most of the day. We read the next chapter of Harry Potter and i remembered that we read a chapter on Friday and Bean had made me his first cup of tea for me...best cup of tea ever. Later we made some origami animals, today was a bat, a fish and a fox. This led to making a paper game that probably has a name but i don't know what!

Pumpkin, 8, spent all day on his tablet, playing games and watching youtube.

Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, played with home made moonsand for two hours in the morning together and we returned to snuggling on the sofa in the afternoon where Pippin fell asleep on my lap. Plum went and washed Charlie and helped daddy to clean out the hutches. When Pippin woke up her and Plum played watering plants in the garden together.

Joy to the World

Monday with a twist today. Plum, 4, dressed up as an angel (a pink one) and Pippin, 2, dressed up as a donkey (with a bright green cardigan and no ears but a beautiful painted black nose) and we all went to Little Verse to join in the Christmas Special: Nativity. Bean, 9, took his tablet with him and he had downloaded a few programmes to watch. Pumpkin, 7, was fidgetty and poking his siblings so we redirected him to another room to go and play, Bean went with him. The adults at the group read the Christmas story and the children went to the front and joined the nativity scene when the part they had dressed as was in the story/whenever they wanted. Plum took Pippin to the front to join the stable animals and they both sat with SGG for the rest of the story. Plum also inteoduced me to some of the children that she plays with regularly.

The rest of the day was spent wrestling in mummy's bedroom; playing 'run away from Pippin'; watching Pokemon, DanTDM, The Simpsons; Plum is loving the Christmas Tree and has made herself a cosy nook just below it; Bean requested a bath; we all played minecraft together; Pippin enjoyed her usual round of stories (current favourites Brown Bear, Brown Bear, We're going on a bear hunt, dinosaur roar); Pippin jumping everywhere and giggling; Plum and Pippin drawing at the kitchen table whilst i prepared food, Plum drawing her family below a rainbow with flowers and drawing a picture to put in a bottle for her friend who lives far away, bedtime stories for the boys (continuing Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Bean has been playing with words a lot today. He came to ask me why we had the word 'yoj' on the tree, he was teasing me. And why do we have the word 'leon' hanging up? And the sudden realisation why DanTDM is called DanTDM, it never even occured to me that they wouldn't know but he does now.

Read Read Read

Friday 29th June


Having a reading kind of day today. Bean has built a reading den and we have had a friend over to play and he spent a long time reading books with the boys. As well as this they played hide and seek together and some kind of adventure involving the moon man! I'm not 100% sure as I was upstairs doing some planning for camp this year but there was a lot of laughter and excitement coming from the garden.


Plum has a cold and it probably accounts for why she was so grizzly yesterday. She is definitely a little under the weather but is sleeping better today so this helps.


Pumpkin was up at 5.30 this morning feeling hungry (he had refused last nights dinner) consequently he feel asleep during one of the stories and slept for 1 1/2 hours on the sofa. He must have been really tired because he fights sleep more often than not unless he's on a car journey.

A Pirate's Life for Me

Friday 8th June

Bean has had an interest in pirates for a few months now and is always keen to find new story books about pirates. Today saw the pirate game resurface, turning the sofas into boats and the table into an island and the floor was the sea (which I have to swim across to get from one room to another.) Eventually the pirate costumes came out, Bean went to make a flag for the ship and Pumpkin found treasure (a book...I love it!)

I wanted to make some banana muffins today to use up the over ripe bananas we had. The boys are never very keen in activities I may have set up for them si when I casually asked if anyone wanted to help make them I wasn't expecting the enthusiastic response that I got. Bean joined me first followed by Pumpkin a little later. The recipe I've got is mostly in cupfuls and spoonfuls so worked really well. Bean did most of the measuring and Pumpkin did the mixing. I was even more surprised when Bean stayed to help make the lentil loaf for lunch too. This time we used the scales and he measured and mixed everything, I cooked the lentils and chopped the onion. He was so very pleased with himself and said, 'I'm a very good chef like cousin J.'

This was quickly followed by an unexpected arrival in the continuing pirate game. Inspired by his new cowboy birthday outfit (thank you fav auntie #3) the wild west met the high seas! The drawing is of the horse that Bean wanted me to get for him, the giant bear is what we improvised with using some children's reigns we had lying around.

A trip to the library in the afternoon led to more reading than we normally do (more than the recommended 5 a day is common in our house) Bean found Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and a couple of picture books he liked the look of and I found an atlas which had flags from every country on the end pages and pictures and statistics and global placement ...I was really quite pleased with it...we'll see how Bean likes it. The following two pictures are taken by Pumpkin who prefers to use my phone for pictures and video than for games. In the second of the two photos I am reading to Bean whilst feeding the purple dotted Plum.

Plum has just started to reach out and touch my face which is such a lovely feeling. We met a lady today, who we met during our unfortunate time in hospital. She was asking me when they (that is our babies) should be rolling over. This is a question several people have asked me in the last week and it is something I am glad to say we have avoided most successfully third time around (when should they...? Is yours...? How long before...?) As it happens she rolled for the first time last Saturday from her front to her back but I still have no idea if this is considered normal, early or late and nor does it bother me...she is happy and healthy and a pure delight.

And can it be that I should gain

Feeling very blessed today. I read in a magazine ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’ – and that’s certainly how I feel. How blessed am I that I am in a position to be with my children all day every day? And I don’t mean I don’t ‘work’ because as any stay at home mum or home educator knows we work very hard but how fortunate not to have to work long hours at something I don’t enjoy just to survive or slave for the fortune of someone else? 

I’m also feeling blessed at the beautiful gift of children. I’m blessed to have three healthy, happy children and a wonderful extended family. Today was the birthday trip to the in-laws, a large gathering, party lunch and wonderful cake courtesy of favourite auntie #3. I have mentioned how important family are to us before and there is no exception here. Some people have been surprised by my fondness for my in-laws as if it is the written law that everyone should be at odds with theirs, well I am not (so nerr) 

The boys today got busy drawing, something that I know nana and granddad will appreciate greatly being that way inclined themselves and the accompaniment of classical music in the background gave a very relaxed feel to the room. There  was also some individual pursuits in building and reading but mostly there was playing with L and J in the garden, all having a lovely time and all getting along fantastically considering it’s only the second time they’ve met. On the way home Bean asked, ‘how old is L?’ We weren’t sure so suggested we could ask fav auntie#3 or bfg. Bean suggested we could ask L. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

I rounded off the day attending church with Plum whilst daddy put the boys to bed. Had an update on a charity we support, Raising Hope Foundation, which only added to my feeling of how blessed I am. Daddy also cooked some supper for us. A very blessed day indeed.

Clowning around

We spent the afternoon at the local play area. Bean turned it into a big top and Grandma was the ringmaster. He rode the white horse and performed tricks: riding backwards, riding standing on the saddle and riding facing the horse...until he fell off and the horse hit him in the face! The swings became the trapeze, the crows nest was the tight rope, the slide became the arena for his acrobatics and the trim trail used for his clowning around sequence, I can't remember what the round-a-bout was for but it was in the routine somewhere. He repeated his circuit several times. 

Pumpkin spent most of the time sitting in the buggy having fallen over and grazed his hand on the way there. It was the wrong time of day for a swift recovery of such an injury. He did eventually emerge but only after Pops had pushed him energetically several times around the play area pretending to fly him to one country or another.  I couldn't even tempt him on to the swings!

Pops hadn't quite realised the Plum was in the buggy too and the high speed turns, bumps and bangs woke her up so I fed her in the park which was interesting as there were no seats at all.
The day was topped and tailed by fuzzy felt pictures, dominoes, drawing, cutting and reading books. 

Babble, books and baking

Today's biggest pleasure has been listening to Plum babble all day. At some points it almost sounds like she is imitating her daddy when he says her name. She gets the intonation perfectly. She literally hasn't stopped. The boys continue to love their little sister and I continue to love watching them with her. They often sing her songs and hold her hand or lie down next to her. Pumpkin is often a little over bearing towards her and seems to be constantly in her face or kissing her or full body hugging her. It has been a challenge for us to encourage him in his affections towards her whilst also protecting her from being squashed! Today's development has been Pumpkin's idea to read to her. 

We love reading. It is one of my favourite things that I wish I had more time to indulge in! We have books or reading material everywhere and one of the boys favourite outings is to the library. Bean has recently become fascinated with Australia (I don't know why or remember where the interest was stimulated from) and this morning I came downstairs to daddy and Bean looking at pictures in a back issue of the National Geographic in which Bean was total enthralled. 

cheese scones

honey cookies

After a week of eating chocolate eggs and a party bag full of sweets from yesterday I got busy in the kitchen in the hope that the phrase, 'Mummy, I'm hungry,' can be met with some home baked goods this week. Pumpkin still insists he's hungry pretty much all the time and he pretty much eats all the time too. I don't know where he puts it all! "Hollow legs," that's what his daddy would say.

And whilst we're on food, Plum has taken to feasting on one side only and then wanting her pudding up to an hour later! I don't remember the boys doing that. She really does have her own rhythm and it goes to show from the outset that our children are all different. Just for the record, after the normal (for me) rickety start, I am loving the breast feeding once again. This time especially, I feel it gives me and Plum dedicated time together and I wouldn't have it any other way...even when I fall asleep on the job in the middle of the night (as I did last night) and forget to even offer the pudding, much to Plum's disgust who proceeded to make it clear that she wanted it! :)