Imaginative play

They are very into their imaginative play at the moment- especially since we handed over the very rickety old shed to them. Currently camping in there- the basket is a 'fire' and the green ring in her mouth is a 'dummy' (!!!!!)- apparently..... A couple of weeks ago I found them mixing up a big batch of mud pie- and then they started plastering it on the walls of their shed - partly from watching daddy plaster- but also because we had been watching some of Human Planet with children helping to mend their mud house walls.......

Baby play is very popular too- with carrying in slings being high on their list. SJ was going to scoot his brother and sister to Playgroup whilst having flopsy rabbit slung on his chest- until he became worried that she might fall out ( and that would be a disaster!)

Tired & plodding

Other than the general tiredness following multiple acitivities mentioned in the last post- we have also been having some wakeful night periods with TP- deciding that mummy & daddies bed is better- but then kicking us and trying to perform 360 degree manouveres........needless to say we don't particularly want to bed share with a whirling dervish- so there is some element of returning going on- of course that is dependent on how asleep the adult opening the bedroom door is as sometimes letting him in seems like the easy option..........

The perfect family shot- I nearly have smiles all around and I am where I am supposed to be- out of sight behind the camera!!!

Have been doing a fair amount of life contemplation at the moment. We are feeling a little like we are stagnating at the moment. Ms Masters is in its final push and one thing we have learned is that we are ALL DONE with formal study until the kids are older - it costs too much to family life. We knew it would be hard- as he started it when TP was a month old- but we are ready to have a daddy back now......

Have been doing a little rethinking on the education front and am trying to be a little less suggestive...... Have been doing quite a bit of reading around philosphies etc and I guess ideally would like to go a little more and more towards unschooling (what I really mean is that I don't want to hear myself uttering the words "if you were at school you would be there from 9-3 and all I'm asking is 20 mins now") on a motivational (coersion) front. However I am not sure that I am thinking this as a 'now he can read we can relax towards this approach'......... I guess to a point I am not sure how we are filling the days as they seem to fly past. I seem to have great intentions but not a lot to show -however then I think and say well he hass done a tremendous amount of K'nex ( the latest craze)- in fact more or less the whole instruction book ( 8+ yrs- not bad for a 6 yr old).

I think my priorities for the next few weeks are.....

I'd like to think up a meal planner for us- more specific than anything we have done previously. I'd like to get better at cycling things through my cupboards/freezer and spend less time thinking 'what shall I cook tonight?'

I'd like to address some of the house things that are bugging us- a little decluttering, general maintenence- then we can think about some bigger projects.

I'd like to start coming up with some longer term goals than merely getting to the end of Ms Masters.

I'd like to revisit our priorities for shopping choices as I feel we have slipped since the recession/economic downturn (whatever the trendy phrase is) began.

Busy, busy march

Busy couple of weeks here- have hardly been at home. Spent a few days in London- which we had been promising ourselves for a while- but were waiting for the children to grow a little ( wanting them to have some memories as well as making it physically easier). We inflicted ourselves upon my brother for five days (Zone 2) and tramped around. We had done quite a lot of discussion prior gauging the various family members priorities thus visited Natural History Museum, Imperial War Museum, Tower of London, HMS Belfast, climbing the Monument and walking past Houses of Parliament/Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Nelsons Column and Downing Street. Higlights for the children were probably HMS Belfast and London Bridge (looking down the 'gap' where the bridge lifts), Mark liked the new wing at the Natural History Museum (Darwin Wing)- am not sure what mine was-probably seeing little awe inspired faces as each marvel unfurled in front of them (probably with the Underground at the top of the list). Lots of tramping and lots of pale stoical faces- who are still recovering 2 weeks later.

We then immediately went away in the caravan- over to Boston Lincs and had a few days near the beach, visited the Seal sanctuary at Skegness and some lazy mooching plus making friends on the playground at the campsite. Then Daddy took them to Devon for a few days to do a round the reli's tour- sounds like an interesting time was had..... Then I traipsed them upto Haworth yesterday for my aunts funeral- gosh we really must allow them to have a few quiet home days.

Half term and upcoming events

The two littlies at one of our Favovourite Places- Rufford Park (Nottmshire). A Lake that is big enough for little legs to toddle around with encouragement- lots of ducks and swans, little wooded areas with lots of sticks and leaves to collect, dens to build and the absolute number 1 best feature- a ford with a viewing platform where cars know that they are expected to 'perform' for the onlooking child audience. We often go with friends- or equally not with friends- we have our set 'routine- traipse around the lake to the viewing platform, lunch, walk back through the little bridges/den building and then (in the summer) onto the playground- complete with sandpit and litle log cabins- hmmmmm I think I have just persuaded myself to buy a season ticket again this year (car parking rather than an 'entrance fee'). We went this week with some schooled friends and had a great time- such a shame that T goes to school- spoils all our fun! Also managed to catch up with another schooled friend E and visited her new house- came away with my older two saying 'why can't we see E more'- well unfortunately E goes to school......

Have been doing a mini 'St Davids' day theme with Daddy today- SJ & FI found 0ut about St Davids story, national emblems of Wales and planned and cooked welsh themed food for today. Themes do seem to work well for us at the moment- maybe it is about concentration span, maybe it is about the ability to add great variety I don't know- but it works for us, for now. Tomorrow we are off to a local historical Victorian life museum- where the older two are trying a couple of work shops (arranged by another local HE parent) which will be quite a new experience for them- will see how that one goes- especially as I have to stay out of the way as toddlers are expressly excluded- fortunately the older two know one or two of the others fairly well from Forest school- so hopefully that will go OK. Then the rest of the week I plan to do some preparatory reading about our visit to London next week. We have been planning to go for a family 'holiday' for a couple of year- but this year we think that TP is old enough not to be too difficult to manage on the Underground/buses etc. It has been a really family planned holiday with requests taken from all members (except TP bless him). SJ wants to see where the Queen lives and the Dinosaurs (Natural History Museum)- he also wants to do a boat ride through Traitors gate and see the Ravens at the Tower of London ( we have persuaded him that he will probably have to be happy with 'seeing' Traitors gate). FI wants to see the Crown Jewels and the big whale (Natural History Museum) and they are both intrigued by the thought of seeing the Houses of Parliament. We also intend to do the Imperial War Museum as we have done a lot about WWII over the last year- especially from a childs perspective- and the IWM has a childrens war exhibition on at the moment. I have been trolling through their websites and have been pleasantly surprised by the wealth of material and projects on them- I think we could be kept going for a while. I need to remember to take cameras and video for them!

And chicken pox came to visit......

And here I had all good intentions of keeping up with the blogging this year......
Chicken pox has run amok in the household ( as beautifully demonstrated by a recovering SJ above). Started by FI- from beloved playgroup and then the boys went down 12 days later. Started off as quite amusing- in the context that I had dealt with Felicitys pox whilst Mark started a stretch at work- so he missed out. Then at the start of my four day stretch at work Mark texted me to say SJ had spots then two hours later to say that TP had them too- so I was fully expecting to have 'missed' the process- however on the Wednesday TP was really poorly with (literally)black spots and raging temperatures and a reddening ear and orbits- on the Thursday we decided that he was at the limits of our ( 1 ICU nurse practitioner, 1 A&E NP) professional comfort (with the very limited home drug cupboard!) and we were admitted to hospital that afternoon for high dose IV antibiotics and close observation. I don't like giving antibiotics lightly but my slowly mottling child persuaded me otherwise!!!
Anyway I have a private little photo on my phone to remind me how sick he got- and to not take my kids for granted........a reminder of how we take our health for granted.
Anyway back to family- Sjs 'flowers' above were done as a present for my cousin who had lost her beloved dog Ceri. We are not great doggie people- but Ceri was more than just a dog- absolutely trustworthy with small children (and that coming from the most cynical dog/child mixer). Felicity made her a 'handbag' ( decorated paper envelope) and they came up with some beautiful words between them- showing a real understanding that surprised me. We have always talked to them about death- especially in the context of what we both do for a living- especially mine being related to babies- they have an understanding that even young people can die. SJ is adament that they go off to heaven- even though that one hasn't necessarily come from me- as I am open verdict on that one!

Doesn't look much- but this is a totally self-directed craft project- done by teamwork (hence the dual pose)- a sword made from the Beastquest annual ( a new year £1 bargain that has so far produced an awful lot of self-directed activity!!!)- bless them- they got it soo far then came to ask me what the newpaper strips bit meant ( was supposed to be covered in paper mache) and meanie mummy said no ( well I could hear Tristan waking- and in my book paper mache is a summer outdoor activity not to be combined with a rampaging two year old??

Beloved play group and self directed play- apparently once Felicity had produced her robot- a craze caught on and a run on the cereal boxes was made!!

Well another epic- really need to get back to the small but often posts - so that they are shorter and don't take half of my precious evenings- then I will be more motivated to do them more frequently!!

Currently fighting the conscience are a pile of books- some parenting, some educational, some activity preparation ( I don' t timetable -but I do 'strew' or suggest things- things often then evolve into a new activity altogether- SJ has his eye on a cardboard castle model from a library book at the mo- it is making me turn pale at the thought-very complicated assembly!!!). I could add my work books to the pile ( I always have further reading I could do)- but they are soo far down the list I just forget them!! Am trying to get going with the crafting again- have managed to move my crochet on to a new level- pattern following and circular (3D even) and am toying with the idea of making them each a chick for Easter -trying to be realistic here- so we will see. Would like to try soem feltinga and would also like to make some things for the season table. Have a few novels waying me down, need to plan our front garden, declutter motivate and lose some weight and improve my fitness- gosh am setting myself up for failure

Such a hectic schedule some days! Bless- TP is used to a 2 ish hour nap most days- then all of a sudden starts playgroup and some just get missed out! And then you get dragged onto 'after school' activities where you have to 'behave' for an hour. One of the slight drawbacks of HEing can be that some days you sepend half the day waiting to go out for the regular activities late afternoon- which inevitably means that tea ends up being a huge rush-but thats the price of trying to leave weekends free.

The start of a Chinese New Year mini theme week. Doesn't particularly look like it but this was a fairly cleverly folded origami fish-however we got slightly carried away with the cutting and sticking- such that some of the origami-ness of the original piece was lost! Need to decide where we are taking this further.....

Felicity's beautiful felted necklace- made at the last forest school session. As usual with these things (having 'given notice' of intention to quit)- they had the best session and made us quaver in having made our choice- but it was costing the best part of £30/day plus lengthy car journey plus was a total nightmare if TP was there too.......so we'll see if other Forest opportunities arise that are either cheaper or nearer to home....

Local HE events have gone bonkers- I think everyones new year resolution must have been to organise some activities- we are having clashes and am actively rejecting stuff as I am concerned about balance. We were to have done a science session last week- but chicken pox came to visit instead (x1)- so have the potential delightful prospect of the other 2 going down next weekish.

Have been having some ponderings re our approach to HE recently- maybe will try to do another post over the next couple of days- have so many posts that I plan that never come off- something else eats the time and the 'jobs list' seems neverending and I need to squeeze in one or two early nights. Chicken pox meant a little lady co-slept every night for nearly a week- which we are rather out of the habit of nowadays... and quality of sleep really suffered- and tempers accordingly!

Home Ed

I think this photo sums up quite a typical HE day for us at the moment- all of the essential criteria seem to be there- a den (am sure that their pillows from the beds and a handful of 'cuddlies' are in there too. Lego- SJ cannot get enough of the stuff- cars/trucks/boats/ cranes-would quite happily do it all day and all night and all day the next day too. We have some Meccano too but that doesn't get him going quite as much as the lego. Low grade fairy thing going on with the outfit of the day plus the obligatory bag in the background-required whenever playing dens- whether it is camping or going on a holiday (usually to south america!?!) DS3 is also sneekily hidden within the tent- as per usual these days he is to be found within arms length of the other two.

This is one of SJs creations that I was particularly proud of- a very unschooling moment. SJ received some book tokens for Christmas- so I had taken him into a large bookshop to peruse- when I noticed that all of the annuals had been reduced to £1.50-having said that I would buy him one and after a little persuasion of changing his selection from the 'lego' one ( lots of spot the difference and not a lot else) to a BeastQuest one- he came home and was looking through and then one hour later had produced his dragon- complete with concertina nose and neck ( having remembered how to do these from last Feb at Chinese New year!)

FIs pictures are progressing well-lloking more recognisable- although she does seem to have a thing going on with fingernails/toenails- as carefully detailed above!

And finally my baby has started playgroup! He has his lunchbox and disappears quite happily and adores being told what a big playgroup boy he is.........

And Christmas has become a distant memory- even if it does seem to have taken us nearly a month to get over the mad rush and routine disruption that came with it