climb every mountain

Tuesday 5th March

today we met friends in Rackham. we spent an incredibly welcome warm few hours eating, playing, climbing, hiding. the winter months have hidden some development in the boys, bean is happily disappearing off on his own, mosty playing alongside others in his own game but not yet with them (although many of today's group were new to us) but pumpkin is also happily making his own way. last year this worried me, that pumpkin was a bit at sea and lst but he seems very independent and happy with how things work out. we'll see as we get out more with others in the coming months.

bean mastered the rock face climb and enjoyed playing around at the top of the rock. pumpkin scaled it twice with me in tow but was very unsure and was nervous coming down the path too so finally settled for burying his feet in the sand and playing hide and seek. plum sat on the picnic blanket and was very unimpressed with the sand!

Relax

today's adventures took us to nana and grandad's house where we had an unexpected day of relaxing. the boys played with cousinJ on arrival followed by building a train track together and a fantastic lunch with fa#3 and cousinC too. the afternoon was filled with computer games and 'resting our eyes' (daddy)  and tea drinking and cuddling babies. 

A short recount today because sometimes doing nothing is enough.

Sing out my Soul

Wednesday 6th March

oh how happy i am! After many a cold day and wintery months we returned to Nymans Gardens, i would truly miss this place if we ever moved from here. The house is open again after being shut for the winter which is the main reason for us to return as it breaks up the outdoor visit. It also happened to be the first thing that Bean asked when we got there and as i was trying out a new idea (a visit after lunch) we actually only had half an hour before the house shut. They have been working at their activity sheets again and have gone laminated as are the new information sheets in the house, all in all   positive improvements. Even after two hours and only half an hour of closing time Bean and Pumpkin were disappointed to be going home, definitely a picnic and full excursion next time.

The morning saw us spend an hour in the garden, continuing to prepare it for planting and playing football. Pumpkin played indoors on more reading eggs but did come and join us after 10 minutes and we sat Plum on a blanket and she played with a selection of balls. Bean and Pumpkin insisted on lunch being an outdoor affair!

Lunch Alfresco

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.