May the Force be with you

I'm not sure i can cover two weeks worth of adventures in one post especially as it includes our first ever home educators (Unschoolers) camping holiday and Bean's Eighth birthday. I think i'll post those separately.

The Smalls had asked to go on the rides at Worthing Lido when we had gone for our Anniversary visit so we took a return visit specifically to ride and play at the amusements. I was especially proud of myself as I parallel parked the bus. Bean, Pumpkin and Plum all went on the trampolines, Plum got off almost immediately. They all rode on the car track together and then Plum solo. Plum also rode on the western wagon and the boys went on the inflatable slide. After this we went indoors and played on the penny arcades and air hockey. Plum won a shell. 

On the way out I bought them each a new bucket and we headed for the beach. Pumpkin was tired and mooched about on his own, Bean started work on a sandcastle and Plum draw lines in the sand with her spade. Pippin fed. We were there 5 1/2 hours.  The following day was torrential rain all day.

We had the second of the Blast Science workshops, which we couldn't recommend enough. The boys are full of questions and enthusiasm and are loving the demonstrations and activities. This week covered Forces. It was full of exciting things. Bean is still a little apprehensive of some of the drama but he's happy to retreat to mummy and be reassured. This week included swingin a bucket of water over our head, removing a table cloth from under a tea set, sitiing on a chair of nails and making a structure to hold 1kg bags of sugar using cocktail sticks and sweets. Bean and Pumpkin's team (inc four others) did really well. They had ten minutes to make it and it held 4kg. Bean and one other boy were insistent that triangles had to be everywhere.

We met friends in the park afterwards and then when we came home Bean had a bath, Plum was asleep and Pumpkin and Pippin played rolling around on the living room floor.

Our time at home has been filled with gardening and car washing and lego and minecraft and youtube and legostar wars wii (Bean received this for his birthday and spent almost two days on it.) and baking with Plum and mario cart wii and doll's house and with four Smalls on the go it's rather hectic and chaotic and full full full of busyness.

And I believe the learning still goes on.

Goodness Gracious...

(...Great balls of fire)

A whole week ago I took Pippin, 7 months, upto London to support FA#1 as she ran The London Marathon. It was a long day out and I carried her in the sling all day. I was grateful to FA#2 for all the cuddles she gave Pippin throughout the day as this helped to lighten the load. We had a lovely time together and came home tired and achey.

We spent a few days at home earlier in the week. Plum and mummy were in the garden a lot, planting seeds, weeding and watering our growing vegetable seedlings. The peas are starting to come up and the pumpkins, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes and dwarf beans are all making appearances. 

Wednesday we went down to Goring GAp and meet friends. The weather was horrid all morning but The Smalls were all keen to go and the sun came out for the afternoon. We cooked sausages on a fire pit and climbed trees and played frisbee and football and ran around.

Bean, Pumpkin and Plum had a great day out on Thursday at a play date at their friend's house. I went to collect them and had to judge a mud pie competition.

Friday was the first in a series of science workshops that we have signed up for. Both boys have a keen interest in sciency stuff at the moment. Bean has lots of questions that he is able to articulate and Pumpkin likes to explore stuff on his own (mostly emptying bottles of stuff out in the sink in the bathroom!) The workshops are run by Blast Science This week we covered 'Stuff' and it included holding fire and making our own slime to bring home. As we left Bean asked me "How did he hold the fire?" so we did a u-turn and Bean went and asked the science guy. Pumpkin went with him.

When we got home Bean opened his birthday present from Grandma and Pops. They had got him an electronics kit. He was busy playing with it for the rest of Friday and Saturday. 

Bignor Roman Villa

Wow. Today we actually did something educational. It's been a while since we last joined a group instructed session (Pizza Express.) Today we went to Bignor Roman Villa. It totally ticked all of Bean's boxes. He even chose to spend time looking at the mosaics and the water system whilst his friends ran around playing. It was the perfect combination of instructed/organised time and walk around at your own lesuire. The staff were really helpful and able to answer the children's questions and there was a goos selection of dressing up/games/puzzles/historical items to play with.

All three smalls spent time copying and completing mosaic patterns, trying on Roman helmets, amd Bean and Pumpkin wrote Roman numerals and Pumpkins name in Latin script. Bean was especially interested in the map and the model and working out the building and its situation. The organised part allowed them the opportunity to crush wheat corn to flour, something that Pumpkin knew lots about thanks to minecraft, and spin wool.We came home with an activity book about the Romans, some Roman coins and some Roman figures. That time line that i've had in mind for the past two years is getting a bit desperate.

We followed this with a play at Pulborough Park with the same group of friends. Pippin sat solo for 20 minutes whilst eating her lunch and Plum waited patiently to go on the roundabout this whole time. Plum enjoyed the roundabout and slide today. The boys played with their friends for the whole two hours that we were there. And a trip to the Butchers on the way home.

Back home late afternoon the Skylanders (scheduled to arrive on Monday) had arrived and the boys disappeared to play on the Wii. They gave the double they received to Plum. There was a small amount of playing in the garden but mostly it was dinner prep and baths and helping the smalls to bed. Pumpkin was exceptionally and was constantly running to the kitchen to ask for more food. Bacon sandwiches were a big hit.

Dizzy

An At Home Day today and the only one this week. I think we need at least two. 

Today was the day that Bean decided we should begin to build his Eiffel Tower project. We have been collecting toilet rolls since Christmas and with help from friends we have sourced a fair amount. So the building, knocking down, building, falling down, building, toppling over and building began. 

He wanted the free standing and balancing. He had the ruler out so that he could measure them all because, being from several different source, they were different heights and this effected the tower. He then moved on to joining sets together with elastic bands. And I was reminded that we are running low on basic craft materials,

And in the background Plum, 3, was trying to build a castle. We found a picture on Pinterest that she liked and then we collected additional boxes and tape and glue and cotton wool and set about making a castle. It does bare some resemblance to the Pinterest version but the turret placement and use cotton wool was all her own design. She was so excited that she wanted to ring daddy to show him. I managed to get her to settle for me messaging him to ring us when he was available, which he did. 

This is Bean's doodles on the calendar for when his Skylanders figures are due to arrive. You can also read what else we are up to next week :) 

Other things today included weeding and planting flower seeds with Plum in our garden, and then playing bubble blowing too. Puzzles and games with Plum. Leaf collecting and chocolate sharing with Plum. Feeding Lydia and watching cbeebies with Plum. And Pumpkin seeking me out every so often to tell me something amazing about a mod he has seen for minecraft. 

Legomania: take two

We adventured our way to Milestone's Museum yesterday for a second trip to Legomania. I had, by chance seen on Trip advisor that a return visit was free for the smalls. I didn't have a receipt to prove it but they honored it anyway which was a blessing. In all none of the smalls were that interested in the exhibition this time around. 

We all worked hard to put this viaduct together. Plum collected the foam pieces that we needed, Bean and I held them in place and Pumpkin told us where to put them.

We spent most of our time in the lego building area. They loved the finished spaceship. They spent about 15 minutes playing and reenacting the story of The Three Little Pigs. Each of them was one of the pigs/wolf and they all swapped roles and acted it out again and again. Then Bean built a basic story board from the lego and used the peices as characters and retold the story again and then Plum copied him. 

Plum, 3, building 3 pig houses plus a cave for the wolf

Bean, 7, built a Creeper

Plum, 3, copied him

Taking our time building minifigures. 

The boys built several minifigures each and then spent some time discussing and deciding which one they would take home with them. Pumpkin, 6, decided that really he had made one for Bean. After some consideration Bean decided to accept this gift as his choice to take home but swapped the minifigures weapon with Pumpkin's consent. 

In truth we spent a large portion of our time dressed up and exploring the more permanent exhibits. They were particularly interested in the household items. One lady dressed in character took us into her house and talked to the smalls about her life and her family. She showed them around the house and demonstrated the household items that she had and let the Smalls have a go. When we left Bean said "that was really interesting." 

We spent an equally long time in the penny arcade. Plum enjoying the ride ons and puppet shows, Pumpkin and Bean spending their coins on the puppet shows and sweet machines (which seem quite lucrative!)

It was the first big trip out for me in our new vehicle. It was well worth doing a long stint in it as it feels really comfortable to drive now. Not much longer before I will feel totally at ease with it. 

Don't do that

I spend a lot of time writing about all the things that we do, but home ed and life are not all about being busy and 'doing.' What follows is a list of things that we don't do.

In this household:

We don't teach our children.

We don't follow a curriculum

We don't quiz our children

We don't have bedtimes

We don't finish projects

Sometimes we don't even start projects

We don't stay at home all the time

We don't always get dressed

We don't tell our children what to do or when to do it

We don't do chores

We don't do math drills

We don't always tidy up

We don't always eat our savoury before our sweet

We don't have a timetable

We don't have reward charts

We don't sit at tables and do worksheets

We don't all learn the same thing at the same time

We don't all get up at the same time in the morning

We don't tell our children what or when to read

We don't have sweety days

We don't do handwriting practice

We don't limit screentime

We don't seperate learning from living

We don't do subjects

We don't do tests

We don't do school


We get busy living and the learning goes on.