Living with lions

Thursday 7th March

The other morning Pumpkin woke daddy at 4.30am to tell him that he wanted to go bowling again! so, today's adventure was a return trip to the bowling alley where we went neon! The boys thought it was great and Plum glowed. I took the buggy this time and Plum got out for an explore. The boys are really independent at the bowling routine now and need little help and are enjoying playing around with the  bumpers and angles... sorry, not 'playing' but experimenting!!! We also played air hockey today which they both loved but Pumpkin was especially animated.

The afternoon saw a friend come to play which will probably turn into a regular Thursday event for a few weeks. He especially likes train sets so on Bean's suggestion the train set was resurrected and the boys built and enormous and complicated track layout incorporating the new mountain road system. The two hours our friend was here we squeezed in playing with the train set, reading eggs, football in the garden, drawing and dot to dots and colouring, lego building, and cooking and eating dinner. Phew! I was extra prepared though and had drinks and a platter already to go so that i didn't have four  separate smalls demanding food at four separate times, except Plum helped herself to more than the lion's share!!  

I'm only sleeping

Friday 8th March

My day stated by being woken with the boys laughter from downstairs, this is unusual as it usually starts with the boys calling from their room or the bathroom or coming in to ask for something or by daddy leaving for work. Today it was 7.50am and i thought maybe daddy was still at home but then spied a cup of tea which after sampling and finding it cold realised he must have been gone a while. The boys were happily playing downstairs and Plum was still asleep next to me after 12 hours of sleeping. She woke shortly after me.

Today has been a wet day but as Bean said, 'it's good for the plants and the ducks'! I had a long list of errands to do in town so we braved the rain and made our way from shop to shop. It went a lot better than i had envisaged. I had pre-warned the boys and told them the exact order of proceedings and it went well. They joy of home ed is that we can take our time so in amongst my long list we stopped to examine posters and colour pictures and discuss shoe shapes and fittings so that Bean could make an informed decision about his new shoes, we drew pictures for cousinB and wrote his name, taking time to work through what letters/sounds we need to do it. We took time to jump over puddles and tiptoe through them and read and read and read and read in the library. The only sticky point was leaving the library to return home, our car parking running out and me feeling the pressure of time probably didn't handle Pumpkin quite as well as i could have and we made it to the ticket machine with one minute to spare but still had to struggle across to the car with a cross/refusing to move boy, but all was well and we had smiles and laughter by the time we had driven the 1/2 mile home.



The afternoon was spent with friends who we haven't seen since before Christmas but the children all disappeared upstairs to play and we didn't really see much of them for two hours. Even Plum has a playmate here and enjoyed playing drums and bricks and giggling together.

Both Pumpkin and Plum slept on the 15 minute car journey to our friends, this was the only nap that Plum had today.

All day long

Saturday 2nd March 2013

Today's  adventures have been woven around 9 hours of reading eggs. It came on at 8.30am and finally turned off at 17.30. The boys spent hours on it each, whizzing through games and levels at an alarming rate. It was most interesting to see both Pumpkin's ability using the computer mouse (as his brother usually hogs it) and also his knowledge of phonics and letters and other basic reading skills. Having blogged repeatedly about how Bean is progressing with his reading skills it appears i may have missed Pumpkin's growing progress and confidence.

if i had planned 9 hours of phonic work as part of an early years class everyone would have thought that i was mad...and i would have been, but under their own steam 9 hours is quite clearly just enough.

Pumpkin did go for a bike ride and a visit to the park around the corner with daddy this morning and helped mummy make a giant cinnamon cake this afternoon yum yum.

Bean went swimming with daddy. they rode to the pool and swam for an hour and then rode back again, in some vain hope that he might go to bed a little earlier/ sleep longer but it was not to be.

Plum slept a lot again today. She continues to suffer with coughing at night and although she is in good spirits during her waking hours she is playing catch up on the lack of night time sleep.

And lastly, my own little adventure, as daddy took me to the cinema to see my all time favourite musical Les Mis. I don't think i've ever realised just how miserable it truly is! still my fav though.

Brave

Saturday 23rd February 2013

Today's adventures took us to a soft play area. if i was into writing reviews of the places that we frequent this would get a good review. i'm not overly keen on soft play areas as a general rule, they normally smell of wee! This was clean and had something for everyone and even though it was busy it was not overcrowded (in the play areas)

Pumpkin spent almost the whole time taking mummy, daddy or fa1 down the bumpy slide. He wouldn't go down it alone and had to sit on someones lap, until his last slide and then we went down holding hands. He also took Plum down the much smaller bumpy slide in the toddler designated area, which they both loved.

Bean explored everywhere and much to my surprise decided to go on the highropes course with daddy. A network of various bridges, about 12 foot high, where you are attached to a rope that connects to a bar above the bridges. it involves height and balance and daddy was very brave at taking Bean up there. Bean made it slowly across one wobbly bridge and back again with daddy patiently encouraging and supporting him along. we were very proud of his achievement. Cousin B had also gone up and independently worked his way around most of the course. really pleased with both of them.

we also bumped into some old friends and had an entertaining time playing home ed bingo. i love talking to people about home ed, especially those who are genuinely interested but it is a secret sport to play bingo. Between daddy and i we were asked:
what about socialising?
are you registered?
What curriculum do you use?
Do they do SAT's?
What about secondary school?
How will they do their GCSE's?
How do you know they're learning enough?

They definately scored high.

One day, when i've got a free evening (ha ha) I'll write a response to each of these questions.

Come away with me

Friday 22nd February 2013

Today's adventures were at home adventures, and we have been adventuring! Dens and books and doll's house, marble run and marble games and more books.

Pumpkin wanted his bed turned into a den. He didn't play in it much but insisted we kept it up for him to sleep in, which he is doing.

Plum is into the dolls house which had some microscopically small pieces in it but she loves emptying it all over the floor and then putting it back again. She has also taken to daily emptying the kitchen cupboard and banging the pots and pans very loudly. Pumpkin loves this and frequently comes to join her and add to her collection by bringing in the spoons and utensils.

Pumpkin was keen to play marbles today and patiently waited until Plum was sleeping do we could concentrate on the game and not have to police the marbles around Plum. We played for almost an hour.

Bean got busy with marbles too and built various marble runs and videoed their descent. It took him a while to master the videoing of the runs but he persisted and achieved what he was aiming for in the end.

The boys started drawing a few pictures to post to grandma and pops to say thank you for letting us stay and the gas works continued outside with many diggers and tipper trucks and the laying of the pipe today. Very exciting for small boys.

And lastly, we began reading Peter Pan. It was a book I picked up in the library and has been loitering around for a few weeks. Today I started reading it to Plum (yes, I know, but see what happens) I thought I might get through one chapter but within a few sentences I had two eagerly listening boys and five chapters later we were still going. So excited to be reading books I love to my boys. (And just as an aside, did you know, Never land is not second star to the right and straight on until morning?)

Questions

Thursday 21st February 2013

We drove home today from grandma and pops house, a journey of about 2 hours. The whole way was filled with questions about yesterday's film, Up, and I struggled to remember some of the details that the boys were quizzing me on but I think we did okay.

The remainder of the day was spent at home. We jumped over bean bags to see who could jump the furthest and highest. We made pizza together, including the base and the boys new WildTimes arrived so we read stories and did quizzes and drew and coloured pictures and filled jars with water to make music. We also played a lot of guess who? Which makes me laugh as Pumpkin always chooses the same person/animal and gets cross if he has to close the door on the one that he has chosen. Bean is starting to understand which doors to keep open and closed after each question.

Up, up and away

Wednesday 20th February 2013

The plan for today was to take the boys out on their bikes in the New Forest for a ride. However Bean. Woke up at 6.30am and then stayed in bed until 8.30 am (unheard of) he ate some breakfast and then went back to bed. He didn't feel well. Pops and I decided that we'd still go out with Pumpkin and Bean moved onto the sofa because he was lonely. Grandma stayed at home with him and he played a few games with her and watched a bit of tv before crashing out again.

We weren't out for long. The wind was biting and Pumpkin became nervous of the ponies and was too cold so we pretty much returned as soon as we had arrived!

We spent the afternoon watching Up. Yes, we watched a new movie with Bean. He sat the whole time with his fingers in his ears, asking a million questions, but we did it, we got all the way to the end of the movie. His response was that he didn't like it and doesn't want to watch films. So I guess it'll be a while before we watch another one.

Grandma also made a sail for his boat and pops fixed up the broken mast for him just the way he wanted. He was so pleased with it and is desperate to go and sail it again on a river.