Saturday 30 September 2017

Busy busy

We started the week with the installation of a £3k boiler.  Ouch.  After several months using the immersion, having hot water on demand feels amazing!

We met up with Fred's friends at Legoland again.  I hardly have any photos of him, as he and E spent much of the day off by themselves.  They had a great time.










We went to a Wildlife Trust centre for a home ed day.  They ran several activities, some self guided, and some run by their staff.  It was really good.  The kids made cute clay hedgehogs, dissected owl pellets (and found LOADS of shrew bones), became red kites and made a nest, did a really cool leaf identification activity, became moles, used sweep nets and examined the caught minibeasts, and did a tracking activity.

Meg found a really interesting fungi spore specimen, and the head of education hadn't seen anything like it before!





















Then we went to Zoe's house, and after lunch took B home with us for the weekend.  Here are Fred and B, enjoying a hailstorm!


First apples from the allotment.


Betsy and I have been water testing.  We did our pond, and the canal.  We have one more body of water left to do.




Betsy had a trial piano lesson.  She enjoyed it, and will be starting the week after next.


Fred's been handling Lyra most days.  She seems to enjoy getting out and about!


A bit of Lego building.



We've started at a new weekly home ed day on a farm.  So far it's quite forest-schooly, as we have the sole use of a wooded area called the Dell.  Liz, the facilitator, brings lots of resources that the kids are free to use.  So Fred and some other kids have used the tarps, ropes and caribiners to make shelters.  We have a fire (and therefore tea!).  Meg and Betsy used branches to make the beginnings of a shelter.  We walked to the fallow field that the farmers have given over to us, and marked out the area we'd like.  We'll be able to sow wheat, or peas, or barley, or oats.

The farm day is on a Wednesday, the same day as swimming and diving.  It's a bit of a scramble to get there in time, but worth it!










New shower cap!

Granny and Granded came for a visit.  These are getting precious now, as Rob's dad has Alzheimers.   

Betsy and Meg collaborated on a smash journal, inspired by Red Ted Art.







We took the short walk in the Autumn sunshine to the end of the canal.  Rob's parents sat on the bench, the girls scooted about, Fred kayaked.







They took Betsy and Meg home with them on the train.  Fred was due to go too, but had a cold and preferred to stay home.  Rob picked them up the next day.

We stayed away from TVAP on Monday - kid's snotty.  Tuesday was BSL, with a bit of magnatiles play afterwards.



Wednesday we were back at the farm.





A truck was taking away a load of grain crop as we walked across the yard.  Very cool.


Measuring.
 Tea!

Making a fairy home, with acorn cap bowls, food, bark beds, moss pillows, leaf blankets etc.  And a playground, with a swing, a seesaw and zipwire.




Autumn crafts.

Whittling.  Weapons, obviously!






The farm is gorgeous.  It's on National Trust land, part of the Ashridge Estate.







The kids are at a different parkour group now, as our old one clashed with farm day.  They LOVE the new one.  It's less gymnastics, more clambering and strength training.






Friday - extreme chill day.  Plus evening energy boost resulting in a craft session.





Fred made flapjacks for me to take to my work's Macmillan coffee morning.  They gave me this lovely note for him today.