Frog spotting and leaf collecting

Title: Not a song lyric or book quote today rather the response me and daddy came up with to the question, "what hobbies do you have in common?" We were asked this when we first told people we were engaged and we couldn't think of a real answer so decided this would be it. We had rather imagined ourselves out and about putting spots of paint on unsuspecting frogs. But back to reality.


As well as the usual one hour in at gymnastics, followed by an hour in the play park, we met went frog spotting at Warnham Nature Reserve today with fellow home ed friends. The plan was to go frog spotting as it happened the mums were rather frog marched around the reserve. The children moved at an alarming rate along the paths and thoroughly enjoyed a good walk around, dipping in and out of hides and climbing the occasional fallen tree. Pumpkin did spot a snail shell when he was riding in the buggy and Bean came for a closer look using his magnifying glass from his National Trust explorer kit that grandma and pops got him for his birthday. We decided that as the snail was missing it would be okay to collect the shell and bring it home so he doned his gloves and put it into an appropriate sized pot to bring home.


The day had begun with some craftiness. Bean emptied a box of craft bits and constructed a picture of our garden and a picture of daddy's steam train (the one that takes him to work.) What I love about the craft movement is that although it took Bean almost five years to show any interest in anything arty he is really finding things he is good at, home ed allows there to be little restriction in the time he spends on it or which medium he wants to work with, and there is only room for exploration and his own sense of accomplishment in his work. There is no-one to tell him he can't use pink or draw flowers or put the sandpit in the sky or daddy on a steam train. I think these things combined has helped him move on in his art work and not stunted or hindered him from continuing.

The remainder of the day saw us entertaining friends, making chocolate cakes (again), watching some iplayer, playing games on mummy's phone, and Pumpkin finally falling asleep at 5pm and not waking up... I feel a 3am wake up call approaching!

Climb every mountain

This morning was just one of those mornings when everything had to come out of every cupboard and toy box but nothing was played with. I have yet to understand the need for this as a child behaviour but apparently it must be necessary. The photos do not do justice to the devastation that was every corner of our house.

We headed off mid morning to Arundel to join home ed friends and took a walk around Swanbourne lake. It was beautiful and perfect for Bean. Being with others really spurs him on to do things he often muses he wishes he could do but will look at and not do them. This is the case with climbing and I think having others do it in front of him enables him to see that it is possible and gives him the confidence to have a go. Every time I turned around he was climbing a new tree or roots or hill. Pumpkin even joined in for a while.

We also saw lots of wildlife. Pumpkin made me take a photo of one of the ducks so that we could 'find it in a book when we get home.' We found a dead rabbit which fascinated the boys, guts out and flies. Pumpkin and I spotted a coots nest with baby coots in it. I've never seen baby coots before, they have red heads, who would have thought? There was also a baby slow worm and a honey bee nest. 

Pumpkin sharing his ice lolly

The walk around the lake was followed by an ice-cream, a play in the play park and a non paddle in the river. Although others did go in for a paddle, we decided that it was too deep and stood and watched praying that they didn't slip and fall (they didn't.) Bean was really interested in the fact that the River Arun flows here as this is the same river that runs past our house. Must must must look it up on a map for him.

Pumpkin was getting tired and we left the group in the river. Bean decided that he was very tired and couldn't walk anymore. I couldn't really blame him as he had walked, climbed, run for most of the day. He was also saying his arm hurt. A very unpleasant 55 minutes followed as we walked the 1/4 mile to the car along a road with no path. We had to stop three times just to wait for Bean to stop crying and shouting and walk with us again. He out rightly refused to move even when our friends caught up with us and offered to walk with him. It was helped a little however when I remembered that I had a snickers bar in the bottom of my bag (peanuts for energy) and a bottle of water and finally Pumpkin let Bean jump in the buggy whilst he walked a little. It was a real test of my patience but I honestly had no other options and as much as I felt like screaming and shouting at him I knew it would only make things worse. Lots of deep breathing, counting to ten and admiring the beautiful setting that we were in. (This was the mountain that I had to climb today!) Fortunately Plum was asleep at this point. I later discovered an enormous bruise on his arm as he made me inspect it when he was in the bath and it was still hurting. It's got a bit of a bump to it too.

For a hot day Plum had very little feeds and very infrequently until we got home and then she had two huge feeds within an hour of each other. Plum and I shared a bath tonight, which was lovely and our bed time rhythm was slightly disrupted by Plum's late afternoon marathon sleep and Bean's sleep on the journey home.

Rainy days and Mondays

 Roopt

'A word is dead once it's been said, some said, I say it just begins to live that day.' Emily Dickinson.

After a lazy morning for me (thank you daddy for the lie in) in which the boys got busy building railway track and drawing pictures we headed for Owlbeach and Leechpool woods dressed for rainy weather. 
         
It was a good job as not only did it rain but unsurprisingly the woods were wet and muddy. The boys loved it. Bean and Pumpkun both struggle with walking (as such) and either stand still or run! Standing still involves looking at a twig that could be a slug, or watching where the river runs, smelling the flowers, discussing which path to take, listening and looking for the birds, splashing in a puddle, squelching in the mud or just pausing to climb the fallen tree or drive in the rotten tree stump. Bean was particularly taken by the 'blanket of bluebells' (his words) and Pumpkin interested in the puddles and mud.              
           
Bean's use of words to describe the bluebells really impressed me and daddy. Our children's language development has always impressed me, it seems to be something they are good at and enjoy playing with words. Bean regularly asks what words mean or who might use them.I felt sorry for the boy in the synthetic phonics training video who was marked wrong on his hestitation to pronounce 'roopt,' which is a great non-word but is clearly a word he knew was wrong and therefore hesitated to read it as such. I think the world may have gone slightly crazy when it asks a child to read a word that is not a word and tell them they got it right and when they pause to question the non-word tell them they are wrong. I think maybe we have forgotten we are dealing with people and not processes (rant over.) 
          
We ended up in the play park where I fed Plum under the play equipment in the only 20cm squared patch of dry bench I could find. Bean hasn't been too well and rode back in the buggy but Pumpkin managed the whole walk there and back again.