Going with the flow

I made a conscious effort to hang out with Freddie today.  Writing that down, I feel bad that it is even worth commenting on.  Surely that's what I do every day?  Well, yes and no.  I play, I provide food, I read words to help him in his games on the Wii and the laptop.  I chat, answer questions, laugh at jokes.  But it's not been enough, or not quite right.
I took some washing up to put away in his room, and he was watching a Christmas DVD Betsy has picked up in the library yesterday.  I watched it while I sorted the laundry, and when I was finished I sat and watched the rest of it with him.  It was lovely.
Later, he asked me to play him at Dinosaur Strike on the Wii.  He thrashed me of course, and it was another lovely moment in our day.
We were due to go to our home ed group this afternoon, but everyone seemed so relaxed and happy that I was unwilling to clock watch and get us out of the door on time.
Instead, Betsy built a castle from a kit I got at Wilkos the other day.

I'd also bought a cool looking build-a-skeleton kit and asked if they wanted to have a go.  It would be about the same size as Betsy!  They both said no, so I'll put it back in the cupboard to strew another day.  

Freddie peeled a hard boiled egg that I was having for a snack, and he used the shell as the base of a rather grusome concoction of water, food colouring, washing up liquid, milk, an egg, various spices, lemon juice and other items he found in the kitchen.  He spent ages on it.  The kitchen is very aromatic!

There was a gorgeous sunset today.  Betsy spotted it and took some photos on my phone, while I took some with my camera.  Freddie came back from Jarvis's to tell us about it, and Meg loved the colours.  I told mum about it and she said that her grandchildren appreciate beautiful things.  She's right, and it was a lovely thing for her to say.

The other thing of note is that Meg is starting to use the potty.  Hooray!  I don't think it will be too long before I have no children in daytime nappies.

Unschooling in the woods

We went to an unschooling meet up today, our first one.  It was at the woods at Bracknell, where there is an excellent playground and a very hands on science centre.
The kids loved the playground, which was divided into 3 big areas.  There was much swinging, climbing and king-of-the-castling.

We met some new people.  We'd all come from far and wide, most from much further south or west than us, but it was lovely to see some new faces and make contact with other families.

After lunch we went into the science centre.  It's fantastic.  There is a big water play area, where you can see how canal locks work, how water flow can move heavy objects, and just generally play and get really really wet!

Freddie played around with a cool exhibit.  It's a huge cylinder of water, and when you turn the wheel it creates a water funnel that can get bigger and smaller.

I took a photo of Freddie through this water tower, I like the effect it had.

The main bit of the science centre had loads to do.  A ball floating on a air stream, a hot air balloon that we heated the air up for (to 70 or 80 degrees), a big keyboard, a bubble making pump and a whole bunch of other bits and bobs.

The kids really enjoyed the day.  The journey home was good too - Freddie played games on my phone (and won at Uno and back gammon yay!), while Betsy and I sang along to her Silly Songs tape.  After listening to it countless times she knows lots of the lyrics.

Not going out (mostly)

We're experiencing an energy dip this week. The kids don't want to go out, and I'm not that keen either! I'm not sure if it's a general post-Christmas thing, or if we just need some time to catch our breath. Either way, we all seem to want to stay home. It's unusual for us.

So we've been doing bits and bobs at home.

Freddie, Betsy and I made some more brownies. I just love the brownie book Mum gave me for Christmas. This is the third recipe I've used, and they came out perfectly.

We got Netflix through the Wii, on a free trial. So there's been a lot of slobbing around in pjs, watching Dora the Explorer and the Wonder Pets. These are the kind of days you don't tell home ed doubters about!

I finished putting together the thank you cards. Freddie had typed the message, Betsy did the art work. I stuck everything together, and Betsy stamped the envelopes. All in all a good team effort.

I made a sort of tent/rainbow roof in the living room, to see if it would change the mood or the energy at all. It didn't!

The kids played some games - together, and separately.

We did go out on the little road behind our house the other day, for a run and a scoot. Meg likes to walk around the block - along the little road to the end, up the road to the canal, along the tow path to our alley, and along the alley back to the little road. We did that a few times, then came in for lunch. And that's as busy as we've been!

Painting, and numbers

Nearly the end of the week now, and I'm glad of it. I'm still really tired, and getting broken sleep every night.

We've had a relaxed few days. On Tuesday Betsy did lots of painting with some leaf shape sponges. I'm going to use her pictures to make thank you cards for her birthday presents (must get on with it, her birthday was a few weeks ago now eek).









Freddie played a game with a couple of his dinosaurs and the playdough. He started out by comparing their footprints, then got into a dino/volcano/fighting bit. Then he made a nest of dinosaur eggs (pebbels we had collected from the beach on our holiday)


On Wednesday we had our home ed co-op. Annoyingly my phone lead isn't working so I can't get the photos, but the kids made a ziggarut from boxes and blankets.

On the way home Freddie and I had a conversation about time - how many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, days in a month, days in a year.....He's very interested in numbers at the moment. He explained odd numbers to me the other day, and oftens asks me different questions about numbers.

Today my mum came over. We played, had lunch and then headed out to the woods. It was lovely: no one there, not too cold, beautiful colours. Again, no photos because of the lead grrrrr. And there are some great ones of course! Oh well, if I get the lead sorted I'll add the photos another day.

Trick or treat!

It's Halloween today. We pottered about this morning, playing dinosaurs and playdough.

After lunch we made some flapjacks and fairy cakes.

Freddie designed and carved the pumpkin, with a very tiny bit of help cutting from me. He worked very hard on it, even when his arm got sore. I think it looks fantastic.


I'd put up a spooky window deocration a couple of days ago.


The kids got dressed up, and we went trick or treating. We've never done it before, but they were really up for it.






We put the pumpkin outside on the doorstep.


Lots of trick or treaters came calling, all dressed up and looking scary. Rob and I had pumpkin and sausages for dinner, a real Halloween feast!

Crafting, cooking, playing and walking

A relaxed but full day here today. I took about a million photos and have found it hard to get it down to 12!

Freddie and Betsy played together this morning. It doesn't happen all that often that they find a shared game that they both enjoy. Happyland and cars worked for them this morning, for a good half an hour or so. Lovely.

Betsy made a wall with the cuisinaire rods. She was delighted to make it all fit, as in she jumped up and down with joy!


We made popcorn, as the kids love it. Betsy measured it out, Freddie poured it into the pan and turned the hob on.



Here it is, in all its popped yumminess.


And here they are, enjoying the fruits of their labour.


I dug out a few halloween craft supplies I bought a while ago from Crafty Crocodiles (really lovely stuff and very well priced). Betsy loved the spooky stickers and made a few pictures with them.


They both sewed a pumpkin decoration for the window.

We also made a hanging pumpkin decoration, made from craft foam and beads. It looks fab. I cut out a couple of paper ghost chains, to hang across the ceiling. They want more decorations, so I'll do some research tonight for easy bits and bobs to make.

Later in the afternoon it poured with rain. Freddie got his rain clothes on and was out the door, heading towards some puddle fun. I stayed in with a cup of tea.



The rain didn't last too long. The sky cleared and the sun came out so we took a walk along the tow path to the supermarket. Meg waved at all of the ducks.



The other two were on scooters, whizzing through puddles.







When we got back Freddie headed next door to see Jarvis. The girls watched Peppa Pig on youtube. I find it very sweet when they do this.



I haven't posted any of my crafty stuff for a while. I finally finished my granny srtipe blanket (it can be seen in the photo above, in the background). It turned out to be huge - 2m x 1.8m and it gets used every day for playing or snuggling. I'm so glad I made it.

I'm part way through a Holden Shawlette for mum's christmas present. It's made with laceweight silk yarn (Natural Dye Studio Precious Lace, in Dragonfly). It's so light and fine it's like knitting with cobwebs! I love it, and hope they'll be enough to make me one too.

Heroes

Another day another group, this time a family community day at Heroes, an animal/education centre.  It's one of Freddie's favourite places to go.  He gets to play with Archie all day, scoot or cycle, help feed and clean out the animals and beedle about doing what he likes.  Unforunately they're ending the family days for the forseeable future, and we're all disappointed.

  Betsy and Meg play in the playhouse, and both love the pushalong car

Meg loves the animals.  Today she was picking grass to feed to the piglets.

 And she adores Rudy the dog.  Every time I take my eyes off her for more than 30 seconds she's zoomed off the play with Rudy.  Rudy is a very patient dog!

Meg is under the weather today though and by the time we got home she'd had enough.  Teething plus a cold is no fun.

I'm glad we have a day at home planned tomorrow.