Different every day

One of the things I love about home education is that every day can be different.  We rarely do the same thing two days running.  This week is as good as any other to show the variety of things we get up to.

On Monday we went to the library.  The quickest and prettiest way is along the canal.

Along the way we saw some plants growing in a pair of old boots on a narrowboat, some newly formed blackberries, a purple flower that looked like it didn't belong where it was growing in the grass.

We spent a while at the library.  Betsy chose some early reader books, Meg picked up a selection including a board book about baby animals, and a Noel Streatfield novel!  Fred chose a couple of shark books, and a playstation game.

After lunch I asked Betsy and Meg if they wanted to do a paper doll theatre.  I'd found this book for just a couple of pounds recently and thought it looked fun.

They got straight into it.  The characters were inside the book, and the inside cover turned into a theatre stage.  Very clever.  Betsy wrote a note to Jarvis (Betsy and Meg's theatre.  Please come) and posted a ticket though his door.  We did a rehearsal, and the proper performance when Jarvis came over after school.  It was great!  Meg operated Little Red Riding Hood, Betsy did the Big Bad Wolf, and I was the narrator.

On Tuesday the girls fancied doing some hammering with the tap tap set (still in pjs here!).  

Fred played a new game he *loves* on the PS3 called Dungeon Defenders.  You can play co-op, which is what he enjoys the most.

We took Betsy's bike to the bicycle repair shop.  The man there was lovely and chatted to the kids about what was wrong with it.  There was a kite shop a few doors down so we had a look and got very excited about buying a new one before we go camping.

We popped into Morrisons to get some bread, and I was amazed by their salad!  Instead of it being in a fridge, it was being cooled by dry ice (which Fred identified straight away, thanks presumably to the dry ice experiments we did at Zoe's a couple of months ago).  It didn't feel cold to the touch, but you could see the frost on the leaves.  

Wednesday I took the kids to Legoland without Rob.  I was a bit apprehensive - would the kids mind taking it turns on the rides?  Would they want to do different things and be fed up that we had to stay together?  I would I be totally overwhelmed??!

In short, no.  It was great.  We arrived at 10am, and made straight for the dragon roller coaster at the back of the park.  It was a good move - no queues.  The ride operator looked after Betsy while I went on with Meg, Fred being tall enough to ride alone.  Then he waited with Meg while I went on with Betsy.  This worked for all the rides.  It's a great system.

For the first time we had a quick look around the mini city section.  The kids were impressed with the sheer number of lego bricks involved, and Betsy said it must have taken years.

We went to the splash park bit (drench towers) which was brilliant.  Water slides, fountains, squirters, and a huge lego brick that fills up and dumps loads of water every few minutes.  
It almost goes without saying that Fred was in his element.  He was in there for about 2.5 hours.  Betsy and Meg would get cold, come out and warm up, and go back in, and did that several times.

All three did the driving school.  I couldn't leave Meg to grab photos of Fred and Betsy.

We did the boat school too. That was the longest queue of the day, and was probably only 15 minutes.  Luckily they have duplo in the queue.   

I went with the girls first and they both did some driving, and then me and Fred.  

Ice cream, slides, the submarine, the dinosaur safari and the squid riders rounded the day off nicely.

Then up on the hill train.  We stayed right until the last rides closed so there was hardly a queue, and managed to get seats in the front.

It was a long day - out the house at 8.30am, home again at 8.10pm, but totally worth it.

On Thursday we did NOTHING!  Sat around watching TV, playing Minecraft, chilling out.

After school we looked after two friends for a few hours, and Jarvis came over.  They played on the PS3, on ipads, on the trampoline, and Jarvis's dad took Fred, Betsy, Jarvis and Will to the playground.

Today was Camp Mohawk.  Beautiful sunshine, heated outdoor pool, friends, sensory room, soft play.

I ran a clay craft session, using leaves, pine needles, pine cones etc to make impressions in air drying clay.  Hopefully the kids that joined in will paint or varnish theirs when they're dry.

The weekend plans include a nerf gun party tomorrow, and swimming on Sunday.

So, there's a 'typical' week.  It doesn't look much like last week, and I expect next week will be different again.