It's a family affair

Friday 12th October 

Oh my! What a busy day! I went of with Plum today to a Pink and Pampered Fundraisers to sell some wears and help raise some money and the boys went to spend the morning with SGS. They had a great time building train tracks and performing in a band. 

This was followed very swiftly by a visit to friends where we spent a wonderful afternoon drinking tea and the children playing in the den behind the sofa, with their collection of cars and octonaughts with each other. 

We had a hugely busy evening preparing for tomorrows CAC meeting at our house but both Bean and Pumpkin chose to stay up later than usual tonight, this is especially rare for Bean. Plum also decided to join the party so what had looked like a free evening to plough through lots of jobs turned into a family affair! Bean and Pumpkin both relaxed and watched iplayer and Plum played on the kitchen floor whilst I found an excuse for the third weekend in a row to make a giant cinnamon cake...mmmmm.

No photos today as I was toooo busy.

Even roses have thorns

Thursday 11 th October

Oh dear! What a day.
Having a very busy week and lots of disturbed nights (not just Plum) I'm very tired and hold my hands up to  being a little grumpy and short tempered, patients is wearing very thin! There has been some shouting (mostly me) and some tears ( mostly the boys) but also a lot of hugs and making friends.

It's not all been bad. We ventured out to pastures new today and met home-ed friends in the rain and downpour and drizzle. The boys sat in my friends car playing lego! Pumpkin got into the spirit of things just as we were leaving and ran through a very large and deep puddle several times with great excitement.

The afternoon plan was to watch tv but we had hooked up the computer to another laptop yesterday and I couldn't get the sound to work so the boys went and happily did various other things: lego, drawing, dressing up, making. 

Gullivers Travels

Wednesday 10th October

Beautiful day with friends at Petworth House. After deciding not to venture into the house today and explore the grounds some more we did infact go into the house. Bean enjoyed dressing up again and we found some of the paintings that matched the outfits in the wardrobe and the guide told us some information about the previous owner. Pumpkin joined an organised school group and listened in on some of the stories about the sculptures and then told his brother all about them.

We visited the rotund twice. We talked extensively about its position and the great views. Bean loves a great view and really appreciated this one. The second time we went it was covered in an array of ladybirds, all different colours...magical. 

We also spotted a few different mushrooms and have sent pictures to pops for identification.

A little more independence

Tuesday 9th October

In recovery from our trip yesterday I had nothing planned today except to go with the flow. Bean however had other ideas. I talk about money a lot because it is something that is always on our mind. Last week a (very unhelpful) shop assistant gave the boys a sale magazine from the toy shop and they have had their noses in it ever since. It was a real opportunity totalk to Bean about where money comes from and where it goes. As it was the month end I promised him I would see if we had any pennies left for him to spend on a new toy. To be fair this is something that never happens in our house, we avoid toy shops, toy aisles and gift shops where ever we go unless it is a gift for someone else. It so happened that by some miracle we had some money left and we decided to let. The boys have some to spend on something of their choice. We also knew that our trip to Legoland was coming up so we talked to them about taking the money with us but Bean was adamant that he wanted a toy from this magazine he had been given. We managed to persuade him to wait and yesterday standing in the large Lego land shop full full full of merchandise all aimed at enticing children Bean said 'no thank you I'm keeping my money for the toy shop' daddy was particularly amazed. Pumpkin bought a Lego tractor.
So today Bean requested the promised trip to the toy shop and so off we went, on our bikes of course.

Legoland

Monday 8th October

I can not rave enough about how great our day at Legoland was. Made all the more better by the fact that there were hardly any queues and we didn't have to pay anywhere near full price we got real value for money. We managed the day well and it was a real success. The boys sat with daddy the night before and looked at a map of the park and YouTube videos of the rides. This helped to give them an idea of where we were going and what to expect and the boys were able to choose a few things that they wanted to go on before we got there. It helped to manage their expectations and stopped them from being too overwhelmed when we arrived. 

The journey there was raining raining racing in but it held off the entire time we were there so except for being a little colder than I would have liked and overcast, it was dry. Bean was true to form and didn't ride on anything fast and made me ask every operator if the ride was fast before he got on it! He also refused anything wet or loud...and some of the rides do have loud accompaniments to them, what could have been a pleasant ride around storybook land was quite deafening! Pumpkin was also true to form and bounced around like he was in kiddy heaven and thoroughly enjoyed all the fast rides he had time to go on. He had decided that he would like to go on the roller coaster so we took him on the infant one first . 

Having rode that twice, once with mummy and then once with daddy, he announced he wanted to go on the big one, so we did and he loved it. I was quite pleased as I like roller coasters too.

Word has reached us that the offer we took advantage of is a perminant one now for those operating in the home educating world and so I can see us frquenting Legoland throughout the year and I am very much looking forward to it. 

The Wheels on the bus

Measuring how tall we are compared to the bus wheel

Playing with mirrors on the bus

Having a go at Morse Code

Paper folding at the print workshop

After much lego making, some origami (areoplane making), colouring and sticking we ventured out to Amberley Museum today. It was Pumpkin's choice as he specifically asked to go on a bus ride. I had to think about the logistics as taking a buggy on the bus is not possible and where do you put bags when you don't take a buggy? So, we lunched in the car and then reduced stuff to one bag and put Plum in the sling. It worked out very well. For one frightening moment I thought the bus wasn't running as when we arrived there was a sign up saying the train wasn't in operation today and I only half read it as we passed by and I had a heart fluttering moment, but all was well. 

Bean and Pumpkin enjoyed playing with the water pumps again and Pumpkin made me read the information on it. 

The bus ride was great and being the only people on it the conductor came and sat with us and told us all about the bus we were riding on. Bean was very keen to tell daddy that it was the bus was the same age as mummy and very old (thanks Bean!) The conductor also let the boys stamp their own ticket. I'm always grateful for others that engage with the smalls.

Bean's choice of activity was to visit the pottery. So after walking around the train shed and exhibition we went to the pottery, stopping at the brick making building as we passed. Bean was keen to make something but had his heart set on a jug and after a few attempts and fails he became a bit disheartened and asked me to do it so we sat together and I made it under instruction. Pumpkin declined to make anything.

We stopped off in the communications building and finally worked out how to use the exchange (mostly thanks to the new and comprehensive instructions) and had lots of fun phoning each other.

After a return bus journey to the entrance we stopped by the print shop, as it had been closed for lunch when we arrived, and for the first time a volunteer recognised Pumpkin's name (the normal response is 'oh that's unusual. We probably don't have that one') and our day ended in much the same way as it had begun- with origami, this time it was a hat.

How does your garden grow?

We spent hours at Wakehurst Place today, lovely lovely lovely grounds and it transpires we walked around less than a quarter of it and we didn't go to see the seed collection. We will definitely be going again although it has to be said that it is the first NT place we have been to that made mention of the fact we are supposed to book when using an educational pass, they then neglected to give us a map or any information on the activities for children. This is directly opposite to our experience at other NT properties where the volunteers actively engage with the children and go out of their way to help us. 

Mostly Bean and Pumpkin were interested in the sculptures and the water. Bean is very interested in water wherever we go. Always looking at where the river goes and watching how it moves. We also managed to find a couple of dens but they are explicit about not climbing any trees in order to preserve all growing things. There are plenty of other things for them to play on though like the willow tunnel.

jumping with our shadows

Our mornings are currently taking on a very relaxed feel as Plum continues to sleep until somewhere between 8 and 9. It works well though as it is generally warming up nicely in the world by the time we venture out. We also thought Plum was going to crawl today...she didn't, but she is very close.

The lego building theme is continuing this week. The bathroom is once again filled with various boat designs, some of which float successfully and some if which don't.

Pumpkin found the box of metal trains today that haven't been out for a while and happily played solo for most of the morning.