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We went to Waddesdon House today.  We've not been for a while.  On the drive into the grounds there were two tractors, one with a baler and one with wrapper.  It was so interesting, we stopped and watched for a while.
Then we headed for the woodland playground.  On the way we walked past some coaches.  We spent some time looking at the wheels, seeing how tall they were compared to Freddie and Betsy.

The kids went down the massive slide over and over again.  Meg travelled on Freddie lap and loved it!

After our picnic we had an ice cream, and  got the landtrain from the stables back up the hill to the house.

There is a sculpture exhibition on in the grounds at the moment, with some huge interesting pieces of arts to explore.  Our favourites were the teapot, the big chair/packet of cigarettes (odd!) and the brick fist.  We played football for a while, using the teapot as a goal.  Maybe not its intended purpose, but never mind.

Meg liked watching the birds in the aviary. 

Nearby there are two big bird shapes that are normally covered in plants and flowers, a living sculpture.  Today they were being restocked, so we watched the gardeners working.

Freddie and Betsy rolled down a hill, and we had one last look at the beautiful house before heading for home.

Reconnecting

We saw friends from our home ed group for the first time in weeks today.  We've not been at the group since before easter - either we've been unwell, or the kids haven't wanted to go.  
One of the families hosted a woodland afternoon at her house.  Her garden backs on to some farm land, and the farmer lets her walk the dog and play as long as they don't damage any of the trees.
It's a lovely spot.  The field next door has resting race horses, and they are friendly enough for then kids to get close to.

Meg loved the freedom to explore the area.  It was full of nettles, but somehow she avoided getting stung.

Betsy enjoyed making lots of treasure hunts in the sandpit, complete with an x to mark the spot.  The treasure was a big stone, and she asked me to find it over and over!

Freddie spotted a mayfly on the grass.  I've never seen one before, it was beautiful.

The afternoon culminated in the kids making a fire in the garden.  Freddie loved this.  We all had such a wonderful afternoon, it was so lovely to see our friends again.

Some firsts of the year

We had another day outside in the sunshine.  It was a beautiful, warm spring day, and we went for a lakeside walk with my mum and her dog.
We fed the swans, who were very hungry.  Betsy is very cautious around swans and geese, while Meg went right up to them.  She's fearless at the moment!

We walked further round the lake, where there is a fallen tree.  It's perfect for climbing,and for watching the geese swimming nearby.

We had our first picnic of the year.  It was lovely although a cup of tea would have made it even better.  I'll remember the flask next time!

We left mum to walk with the dog, and crossed the bridge over the river to the playground.

The playground is great - large, lots to do - but actually pretty hard to manage as one adult with 3 children of different ages.   More than once one of the kids was rescued (from a wasp) or helped (on a climbing frame or a slide) while I was busy with one of the others.  After about 45 minutes I phoned mum and asked her to come back so we could move on to the cafe!

We had tea and brownies at the cafe.  The kids found a jetty to sit on with long sticks for fishing.

They came over with a daisy each they'd picked for me.  A very happy moment!

First daisies, first picnic, first day of the year for T shirts.  Woop!

Sticks and sunset

Today was our home ed group that meets monthly at a local nature reserve. It's the second time we've been, and we all really like it. It's very relaxed, with a few activities and lots of time outside.

We started by looking at leaves (and plastic snakes!) under the microscope.

Then we went outside to an area they're developing into a forest school. Freddie spotted a birds nest.

There were some really tall thin branches to move around, and make houses with.

The kids found sticks to bang on trees.

Meg got a little frustrated as she kept falling over (wellies+sticks underfoot=unsteady toddler), and Betsy was getting cold, so we left Freddie playing with the the rest of the group and went back to the barn.

Meg loved running along the path (no sticks to fall over!).

And so did Betsy...

Back at the barn, I had a cuppa, Betsy drew some pictures and Meg worked hard to dump stuff on the floor and clamber up on to the tables. I'd forgotten how challenging the toddler months can be! Though I do think Meg is slightly wilder than the other two were.

It was such a warm day for November, sunny and clear. On the way out the sun was setting, and looked beautiful over the lake. This photo doesn't do it justice.

We met a lovely family there, and the kids really enjoyed playing together. We've swapped numbers, and hopefully we'll meet up at the zoo sometime soon.

A day at the nature reserve

We had a lovely day at College Lake with our friends. We went to a puppet making workshop, and Freddie stayed for approximately 90 seconds before going outside again! While Nicola made a very sweet fox finger puppet, Freddie and Betsy chased butterflies, watched hens and looked at interesting old farm equipment.

A 19th century winnower:


A corn hopper:


An ex-battery hen:


Chasing butterflies:


After a picnic we went for a walk. We found a charcoal kiln, a house of sticks with a kettle and other bits and bobs in it, and another wooden house (hide...?) with a circular hole cut out of the wall and a roof you can stand on if you are small.

We rounded off the day at Nicola's for a cuppa and a play. Lovely.

A stroll to the chalk pit

We've had a lovely couple of days here. Yesterday it got cold again - well, not cold but it felt freezing after the hot weather of the last couple of weeks. The kids played at Jarvis's, the last day before he goes to school full time. Freddie will be bereft.

I made an enormous ragu with the leftover roast beef, enough for 6 meals! I froze 4, and we'll have 2 later in the week with rice. I almost prefer that to the original roast *yum*.

In the afternoon we went to the garden centre. I picked up some seed potatoes half price. It's late to put them in but I'm sure they'll be fine.

In the cafe I took advantage of the others going to the little soft play area to think about Freddie. He's regularly complaining of boredom, and is really going to miss having Jarvis to play with most days.

I made a list of the things that he likes the best:

I checked it with him and he had nothing to add. So I somehow want to work his favourite things in to our every day, whilst thinking about Meg's naps and Betsy's wants. Hmm. I'm going to spend some time mulling this over. I joined a couple of unschooling lists (alwayslearning and unschoolingbasics) to help me. I feel like we're in a transition to something closer to unschooling, but am increasingly feeling that I could do with some serious deschooling! Again, will be mulling this over.

Betsy hung out with me for a while, making me a nice cup of tea.


Today was our home ed co-op day. We went to Joelle's in the morning for a play with Archie. They had a ball in the garden with the hose.

At the co-op about half the families were away (3 were moving house, something of a coincidence). We decided to leave the planned stuff and play outside instead.

Meg had a little al fresco boob.


We played some parachute games.


Then we took a walk to the chalk pit, just a short way down a lane.

It was fab. The kids climbed up a 'cliff' (according to Freddie)

and they found a big mountain of the chalk to scramble up.


We took a big chunk home with us.

Meg (teething, poor love) was out of sorts and really tired by the end, thank goodness for wraps!


We'd left Rob at home to get on with some jobs. He put up skirting boards, hoovered everywhere and took my pea seedlings to the allotment on the bike.
Here they are planted up with foraged pea sticks.