Dinosaur roar

i felt like a real home ed family today. What a crazy thing to say! So many days seem to go by with doing relatively little but today we found ourselves in the most exciting place and it was only a stones through from our house. Today we went to view a real diplodocus skeleton was on display. All 17 meters of it. It definitely had the WoW! factor, it was awesome to think we were looking at real dinosaur bones rather than the casts that are usually in museums. The whole auction house was full to the brim of eclectic pieces, a real treasure trove. I only took five photos as we got entirely carried away with  our wanderings and wonderings (as it should be.)

I wish i could tell you all the things i now know about dinosaurs that i didn't know this morning but i don't have time for that. Along with the dinovember, which continued today with our dinos trying their claws at knitting, our morning visit inspired a conversation about auctions, which led us to watch an episode of Bargain Hunt where they were selling an amethyst broach. This fitted perfectly with our morning as Bean had been particularly taken with the amethyst stone and asked the staff a lot of questions about it (as it happened, we asked so many questions that they ended up giving us a catalogue for free!) It was interesting to compare prices and discuss value. The visit also led us to dig out a dinosaur set that Pumpkin was given last January. Bean put together the skeletal model and Pumpkin and I used air dry clay to mold the fossils whilst Plum spent a content 45minutes with the playdough. We also searched the picture cards for the dinosaur with the bump on its head (Brachiosaurus) and emptied our dino box to see how many diplodocus we had. 

We're not the only home ed family to have gone either

http://taketwobods.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/meeting-misty.html?spref=fb

http://thegallivanters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/stone-to-bone.html

And right in the middle of it all, clear as day, Plum pointed to a laden apple tree and said, 'apple'

Oh Happy Day

Woo Hoo...daddy is home before 11pm which leads to many a happy thing, one of them being that i am able to post on the blog. There is so much to blog about and so little time especially when i haven't posted for over a week. Our big thing time investment at the moment is dinovember, which involves our toy dinosaurs coming alive during the night and getting up to fun and games. We have always been truth tellers with our boys and things such as the tooth fairy and santa claus belong firmly in the myths column and with this in mind we haven't mentioned the dinosaurs coming to life but they are enjoying getting up each morning to see what the dinos have been up to. 

making a cake

game playing

helping themselves to cereal

The boys continued the breakfast theme and the dinos joined us for some porridge and milk

dino concerto

Lending a hand with the laundry

PLaying Drs and nurses

Hide and seek

Wrecking the bathroom

Spot of late night lego 

There has been a large amount of superhero/ goodvbad interest in the house. Star wars continues to dominate and we have finally managed to get a copy of IV, V and VI, which we are in the process of viewing (with huge success.) The boys have been discovering spiderman and Teenage Mutant Nija Turtles amongst other things. We watched The Incredibles together too. Daddy took them to the Dr Who exhibition at Horsham Museum and it ticked all these boxes neatly included the robots element.

We have ventured out of the house on a few other occasions, Pumpkin requested ice cream so we tripped to the shops in the car, Bean was upset by this so we went again in the afternoon on their bikes this time to the play park. We have managed to meet with fellow home ed friends at the park and continued our weekly gymnastics session and are enjoying our (indoor) Winter Wednesday meet where Pumpkin has enjoyed crafting with felt and Bean has experimented with more fimo creations but mostly they love playing with their friends. 

At home there has been some Christmas gift making and card designing, Hama beads, lego, baking ...more of the usual suspects but there has also been a lot more activity on the ipad and computer, mostly minecraft and other games but watching tv and films too. This is because, two weeks ago, we decided to our restrictions on the amount of time that the smalls have on these devices and allow them the freedom to choose how, when, why and what they use them for (but that's a whole post for another day!)

Moving on

I had a wonderful evening with Bean last night. Daddy was out and Pumpkin and PLum had both fallen asleep earlier than usual leaving Bean and me to an evening of pancake eating, uno playing and toy story 2 together. It was nothing short of perfect.

Plum's earlier to bed mode resulted in a two hour awake period from 3am-5am consequently i was fast asleep when Bean got up. He forgets to eat in the morning when this happens but he enjoys the alone time before anyone else is up and his desire for alone time has continued during our periods of time at home today.

We had a fantastical play date at friends house today with much lego, Wii,, cars cars, hobby horse riding, dancing and brick building. A playdate I was secretly anxious about as it involved six smalls ranging from 22 months -9 years in a confined space (not an outdoor park meet!) We timed our exit just right as both Plum and Pumpkin were showing signs of tiredness and predictably both fell asleep in the car on the journey home. Pumpkin's afternoon naps are becoming just that mostly now, naps. The journey home was enough for him and a little lie down on the sofa. 

In the eye of the beholder

Middle of the day post...as daddy is in short supply at the moment i am taking the opportunity as it arises to blog about some of our favourite moments from recent days.

The boys have been fighting a cough/cold and have been reluctant to move far from the sofa. We have had two pyjama days and spent a large percentage of time watching Dennis the Menace and playing mineraft. Bean and I also built a railway track to fill the bedroom floor and Pumpkin and I made a night time cake with stars on. 

Plum requested a play on the piano and we played together for about half an hour, followed by her drawing in a sketch pad for another half an hour, with me drawing too. She is not often far from pencils and paper at the moment hence the need for the sketch pad.

The boys spent two hours in the bath on Monday night playing lego together and in between all this i have had time to clean the house and put my mind to booking legoland, ordering a few educational freebies (mostly books and posters) and begin planning December's festive treats and January's birthdays.

Today we had a planned meet with friends for an autumnal walk but neither of the boys wanted to be outside so I tentatively suggested Fisher's Farm (I needed some air even if the boys didn't) and they were both keen. We bumped into a fellow home ed family and had a great time in the soft play area. We stayed for two hours before coming home and finding one (out of two, always awkward) legoclub magazines to have arrived and retreating to the sofa once again. Viewing Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, playing bad piggies and minecraft. Bean and I have spent some time exploring the pc version, in the meantime Plum has been decorating our hallway wallpaper with her new found artistic skills.

night time cake with sates and moon

long long time ago

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted but daddy has been working super hard on a project at work and working long hours and optimum conditions for a post often require the smalls to be with him. I'm going to round up our activities and write a little bit about each of the smalls.

We have been on walks in Slindon woods and Swanbourne lack, play dates at the park, local home ed group and friend's houses and our house, fimo and felting and sewing and knitting and painting and pumpkin carving, lego and angry birds and reading and film nights and minecraft, giraffe hunting and den making, visiting family and baking and guinea pig cuddles and gymnastics and boys brgade and french lessons. And probably a few things that i have forgotten!

Bean is continuing to want to learn to read, although actual progress is slow his enthusiasm is rocketting. We spent one and a half hours reading just the other day and the library is a big(ger) hit than ever. We are currently enjoying reading Paddington to him and loving it. He tried out "real writing" the other day in the park. His real passions currently are star wars, lego, minecraft and dragons. Daddy purchased 'how to train your dragon' and we have watched it twice in the last four days. We are working through some of his current aggressive outbursts and there are hugs in abundance.

Pumpkin has reignited his baking urges and we have baked chocolate butterfly cakes and minecraft cakes and biscuits and he has been keen to try decorating them like they do on The Great British Bake Off, so we bought a piping bag and gave it a go. He too is submerging himself in lego and star wars and minecraft but has become more of a home boy as the days get shorter and after much pondering as to why theis might be have decided that trusting him in this is really as much as i need to do at the moment.

Plum is busy trying out new words and riding on her scuttle bug and climbing (more) She is keen to help out and things upset her if they are out of place. She dances at the first sound of music and sings when she can.

And that is all I have time to scrawl.

Sweety games for Halloween. Avoiding the hideousness of scary elements, Pumpkin managed to articulate that it was the sweeties that he was interested in so an evening of apple bobbing, pinata, sweety hunt and floured sweets ensued!

Our first family firework trip. Ear defenders worked so well that Bean cried when it finished because he loved it so much!

Bean's "real writing"

Pumpkin's sewn campsite with rushing river, camp fire and golf course.