Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Friday, 21 October 2016

Mr Maker

We haven't watched Mr maker for a long time, this morning he was on a loop. it seemed fitting as ever had our first version Explore and Play session today. We have set up a monthly meeting for the winter months for friends to meet together and are providing an invitation to explore and play in the space. today it was all things long and wiggly: wool craft (yarn monsters, flower bouquets,  American Indian decorations), spaghetti messy play, orange and green play dough it has straws, large boxes for modelling (and putting on our head), large paper roll with pens, lego, duplo, skittles, large balls.

Bean played piano again today and made two flowers at the wool table this afternoon. He also made ply dough monsters and played a game he named BBB in the garden, that is Ball, Bounce, Brick, which involved bouncing g a small ball odd he wall of the building.

We made Strawberry milkshake in the morning, Pumpkin's choice. He said we hadn't put enough strawberries not it so next time we will try two punnets. No one lose liked it either but we had a lovely time chopping it and blending it, Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin.
Pippin struggled to find his space at Explore and Play. he made play dough monsters before everyone else arrived and drew on the group art but struggled with the large group and was very at sea when Bean was concentrating on his wool craft.

Plum equally enjoyed making play dough monsters  and drawing.  She returned to the playdough through out the afternoon. we also played a lot of skittles together. back home she watched her Hello Kitty dvd and then The Incredibles.


Wednesday, 19 October 2016

All things Japenese

We've got into a bit of a routine on a Monday. Plum goes to Little Verse with SGG and SGS. Bean then puts on a film that we know Plum does not want to watch. We are working our way through Lord of The Rings. Today was the second halfloor of the Two Towers, we watched the first half yesterday whilst Plum was at a birthday party.

We spent the afternoon at a HE Japanese Event. Some children and their families had put together several table with various Japans related items for display. Some even came dressed for the occasion. The boys spent most of the time at the Pokemon display, looking at annuals, but Bean and Plum also did some origami and we all played retro games on the wiiU.

( In the evening daddy and I went out. Not because it was our birthday or anniversary but because we could. SGG and SGS came and no played with the children)

We tried to go slower on Tuesday. Mostly the children plaged on tablets for the morning. We went Pokemon hunting in the afternoon mostly encorporting PokeStops as we needed the balls. We also stopped for guinea pig surplies at the shop which including spontaneously purchasing grapefruit for the smalls to try. And, thanks to Pippin's endless watching of Bing, webrought strawberries to make smoothies with. We also played in the play area for a while where we met a lady with boy twins who had the same names as our boys. We've never met anyone with the same name as Pumpkin before so finding a brother match is probably a one off.

Bean came home and got busy measuring the garden so he can make a tree house. It will go under and around a tree as we don't have a big enough tree to climb and put one in. He drew a design, inside and out, and put measurements on it. Daddy looked at resources with him.

We rounded the day of with a viewing of Beethoven and all four had baths/showers.

Amazonian

The boys went to the cinema on Saturday morning. Daddy went with them and they met friend T there. They saw The Secretary Life Of Pets. Plum stayed at home and we made popcorn and watched Nanny McPhee.

Sunday was super busy. We went to church in the morning and then Plum had a birthday party to attend and then back to church for afternoon tea. On reflection, it was too much. Plum was overtired and after all that activity and getting up at 6am, she became really upset when a friend choose not to play with her. We left and sat in the car but she wasn't happy with this either. Meanwhile,  Pumpkin had had his fill of sitting and was throwing things at Bean, so daddy left with him. Bean, on the other hand, was really interested in staying and listening to the speaker talk of his life in The Amazon. Balancing everyone's needs can be tricky sometimes.

We ended up doing a parent swap. I took Pumpkin to look at the Amazonian artifacts the speaker had brought, including spears and a crocodile skull. Daddy calmed Plum and went and sat with Bean and Pippin.

Sunday, 16 October 2016

Revisit

 One of the things that I have notived in the last year is how games in our family have become established. One of the smalls will call "let'someone play houses/wrestling/babies/families" and everyone immediately knows what the game so,  where we play it, what role they play, what the story line is, what the rules are.  And each time they play the game evolves. It'seems a beautiful process to watch.

Today it was Bean and Pumpkin wrestling at Nyman's gardens.  We joined friends for a visit and played Pokemon as we walked. The smalls (all four of them) climbed trees and ran around chasing with their friends. Plum wore a summer dress even though the weather was cold and everyone else was wearing coats.

The trip out was topped and tailed with Bean and Pumpkin playing Magic: the gathering. I think it was Pumpkin'so first go at playing but he knew the game play really well from watching so many times and understood the cards in the pack. Bean is keen to introduce new cards to the pack.

Friday, 14 October 2016

Down the road

The boys play a series of five donut games every morning, best of five wins. Pumpkin immersed in watching walk through Simpson's game play of Simpson computer games and Bean is working his way through Poke money episodes.

Today we went to see friends that we haven't seen for far too long, and they only live 15 minutes down the road. The county we live in is teaming with Home Educators and the ever growing means we are oil to for choice for activities and friendships.  The smalls all played in the playhouse and climbed trees, swung on the swing, played hot wheels and played with weaponary.

Pippin only slept in the car and then woke and was sick. We cleaned up and cuddled.

We ended our day enjoying The Great British Bake Off.

Thursday, 13 October 2016

A day at home

We now spend one day a week at home without the car, enforced by daddy needing it for work. It has worked out really well.  We can walk to town if we want to, play poker on,  go to the library or the museum, or walk/bike/scooter to one of four parks within walking distance. But today we settled on staying at home.

The big three were all up after 9.30am. The boys relaxed and watched YouTube for a few hours. Punprinted is continuing to find gamers who walk through Simpson'so games and Bean is working through various comedy series and testing out the humour by repeating the jokes on us.

Plum and I played doll'so house whicheck she turned into the three bears cottage and we retoldon't the story of goldilocks. It ended with baby bear and goldilocks playing at her house in the swimming pool and diving in. This has beena recurring theme in her play for a few months now. She builds diving boards in mine craft and usespecially the padding pool, bath, and water trays to build diving boards for her toys.
After playing doll'so house, Plum and Pippin made white chocolate chunk brownies.

Lydia isn't well again and hasn't been for a few days. Today I noticed white spots on her tongue so we went to the doctors and he diagnosed thrush and gave a course of medicine for her.

Bean has spent an hour working on his lego Chima today with me finding specific pieces for him. He spent about one and a half hours (in segments) learning to play Yankee Doodle on the piano. This encompassed learning to read the music, learning the keyboard, the names for notes and noteven length as well as figuring out the tune by ear once he realised what tune it was.
It also led to questions and discussion on American Independence, explorers, and St Patrick's Day.

Makes clearing of the piano worth it.

A day at home

We now spend one day a week at home without the car, enforced by daddy needing it for work. It has worked out really well.  We can walk to town if we want to, play poker on,  go to the library or the museum, or walk/bike/scooter to one of four parks within walking distance. But today we settled on staying at home.

The big three were all up after 9.30am. The boys relaxed and watched YouTube for a few hours. Punprinted is continuing to find gamers who walk through Simpson'so games and Bean is working through various comedy series and testing out the humour by repeating the jokes on us.

Plum and I played doll'so house whicheck she turned into the three bears cottage and we retoldon't the story of goldilocks. It ended with baby bear and goldilocks playing at her house in the swimming pool and diving in. This has beena recurring theme in her play for a few months now. She builds diving boards in mine craft and usespecially the padding pool, bath, and water trays to build diving boards for her toys.
After playing doll'so house, Plum and Pippin made white chocolate chunk brownies.

Lydia isn't well again and hasn't been for a few days. Today I noticed white spots on her tongue so we went to the doctors and he diagnosed thrush and gave a course of medicine for her.

Bean has spent an hour working on his lego Chima today with me finding specific pieces for him. He spent about one and a half hours (in segments) learning to play Yankee Doodle on the piano. This encompassed learning to read the music, learning the keyboard, the names for notes and noteven length as well as figuring out the tune by ear once he realised what tune it was.
It also led to questions and discussion on American Independence, explorers, and St Patrick's Day.

Makes clearing of the piano worth it.