Rainy Days

We seem to be having a sort of autumnal version of April showers at the moment. They come on as suddenly and as hard as if someone's turned on the tap at full blast and end just as abruptly. We got caught in one coming back from the Home Ed group meet yesterday. We'd been playing in the playground not long before and when we got home- a ten minute drive- the pavements were dry, it hadn't been raining there! So extremely localised, too. The home ed friends who host Mine Craft club had it raining in their front garden but not in their back the other week!

Karate today, and tomorrow Petal and Dot are off to play with the little girls who used to live downstairs, so that will be nice. We also had lots of discussion round the dinner table about meals for the coming week, who's cooking what and what treats and puddings we are going to bake.

All I Ask

Ooof, I'm glad we've managed to get to the end of the this week! Not sure if it's the turn of the weather or the general 'back to school' vibe but it seems to have been especially busy.

Not that we have all been back to school, of course, but as the girls do a lot of ballet and Fluff does football and those things are all term based there's still been a certain amount of that 'scrambling back into routine' effect!

We've also been trying really hard to dive into Conquer maths and plug away at that. Today we have the Home Ed meet and although I'm only working very part time it does seem to take up a lot of time... wouldn't it be nice to have extra hours?! Especially to sleep in! Or maybe just some more elastic hours that stretch a bit, if you could only choose WHICH ones stretch and which ones don't. One of the nice things about home ed is that you have plenty of time, you don't have to panic... but this year seems to have flown past rather faster than I was expecting.

The Lonely Sea

We caught up with some table time yesterday, and did lots of conquer maths, too as well as massive sorting and folding session as it had backed up some. Nephew wasn't in school as he had to go to the doctors (minor eye infection, nothing serious) and then came and hung out with us, so that was nice. We went to the allotment and picked tomatoes. I've left the butternut squash on the vine but I don't think they're going to get any bigger which is annoying. The globe courgette I've left on is expanding nicely, however, and we had lots of cornflowers. They've been a delight. Only half the patch I sewed came up but that was enough to made a sizeable bush that has just been peppered with flowers, we've had bunches and bunches out of it for the kitchen windowsill.

The weather is patchy at the moment. Windy, with bits of sun and sudden heavy downpours.Typical English end of summer, I suppose!

I'm struggling a bit at the moment. I'm very glad indeed for the work I'm getting and I'm fitting everything in as far as housework and home ed are concerned and everyone's on board and helping out but I'm still getting that 'I'm not enough' feeling. Could be just the time of year, however. Home ed, parenting in general can be lonely sometimes. Life can be lonely some times, I suppose is what I'm really saying.

A Merry Yarn

Lewes Castle was great! I had to drag them all away in the end otherwise we were going to get snarled in the homeward bound rush hour and Petal had a ballet lesson at five.

I was slightly confused as to why the workshops were Saxon based when the Castle is Norman built but the attached museum does cover from the Neolithic up, finds from all over Sussex, and the workshops were excellent. We tried drop spindle spinning, handled Saxon weaponry and jewelry and enacted bits of Beowulf. A good time was had by all, particularly Hoof who had a whale of a time being an archer. Fluff was half of Grendel and the girls limpeted to me and were audience. Wasn't surprised that Petal did that, was slightly surprised that Dot did too but I'm sure they still got lots out of it. I, of course, got stuck in and was part of the Queen's hall. (Yes we had a Queen instead of a King.)

We also got plenty of exercise, parking out of the paying zone and walking down and therefore up a slope on the way back to the car. There were also one hundred and eight steps from the bottom to the top of the tallest tower and we did it twice, plus probably about a hundred steps in the second tower that we did once as well. Hoof loved going to the tops of the towers, all our quads got a good work out.

The journey was fine both ways, it was windy but we also got some sun and we used a double treadle spinning wheel in the afternoon. There were plenty of nice flowers and trees to spot on the walk and we had an interesting discussion about the prison. In the evening we all slumped on the sofa and watched Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and I sobbed my way through the last ten minutes as expected.

Saurus pulled all the stops on out being helpful today, he picked up the nephew that has just started school round the corner and is on half days (so we're helping out) and looked after him until we got back, he took Petal to her ballet as I was exhausted and, along with Roo and Wig, he even vacced- hoorah!

White Clouds Flying

I see I didn't blog yesterday. Oh well. I started a few days after the first day in this month so I already wasn't going to hit every day and I'm not surprised- we spent yesterday finishing off the room move and moving books up and down the stairs!

We also went to mine craft club, that was fun, had a nephew over, went to the park and Fluff had his football. I did dance class and show rehearsals in the evening and am proper, PROPER knackered now.

No peace for the wicked, however, as we are off to Lewes Castle today! I'm quite excited, I've never been that I can recall.

Blown Spume

Upstairs bedroom is now painted! Rather than a nice but now rather shabby purple it is now yellow. I chose the yellow, a bathroom paint from Wicks called Summer and both Dot and Hoof profess to love it, but I'm not sure I do. Certainly it looks better under natural light than electric and in future I'll pay the extra and get Dulux, their colours seem better suited to my eyes somehow but it's mold resistant so it if lives up to those claims it will be worth every penny.

It dried quickly too, Papacrow finished the second coat off while we were at a birthday party and we moved all the toy boxes up after dinner. Books to sort tomorrow but they'll all be divided up differently- Dot and Hoof have a bookcase each now and Petal has her own shelves so they can all grab what they want and I'll divvy up the rest.

The birthday party was a lot of fun, another home edder so the usual crew and we all had a good old chat. It was Hawaiian themed and the organising mum had put a lot of thought and effort into it. It was perfect for a grey, rainy day- a real splash of sun and fun. Plus I won the adult's towel surfing, go me!

Flung Spray

Well. Yesterday's return to our regular Home Ed meet was lovely and there was lots of catching up, playing and planning for future activities.

Today was all about the upheaval but tonight everyone is sleeping in their new rooms! The upstairs bedroom needs to be repainted tomorrow, the front room is FULL of all the stuff that is going to go into it when that's done and Wig is sleeping on an air-mattress because there is NO point buying a new bed until we've sorted the chaos.

I'm exhausted and I'm definitely not the only one, still, Petal is delighted with her new room, Hoof loves his new (to him) proper bed and Dot is jacked to be promoted to the top bunk. Hopefully we'll get most of the rest of mess conquered... we've already filled our wheely bin and will have to go begging for space in Grandad's as the bins aren't collected until Thursday!

Grey Mist

It's rainy and windy this morning. It just about held yesterday so that we could play in the outdoor bits at the Science Center which was fortunate as the water tables and the Discovery Park are definitely our favourite spaces there! It was lovely to catch-up with lots of other Home Edders too, people from all over go to the discount days so it's a good opportunity to chat with people I don't get to see often. Plus things are inevitably quieter in the summer with our usual meets grinding to a halt, people going away on holiday and general hiding from the crowds, so it was nice to see how everyone was and share news on what we had all been up to over the summer.

Today our weekly home ed meet starts up again and Petal is excited to talk about her Book Club plans. Ballet, too, although Saurus is taking them as I'm working. Then we're gearing up for the great bedroom reshuffle of 2017...

The Running Tide

Have kept trying to go for a run this week but haven't quite been able to make myself yet. Maybe today.

Mind you, we are also off to the local Science Center as they are having another Home Ed discount day, hoorah! They like to try out their new talks and workshops, we like to get in for only a fiver a head :D

It's looking grey and we had to have the quilt on the bed last night, just along the bottom. We may even need to dig out coats! Mind you, Roo went off to his first day at college this morning without one... that could prove a mistake seeing as how he's walking, but oh well. Live and learn, etc.

The Gull's way

So here we are in September, and some of the chicks are spreading their wings again. Saurus is looking for work and getting ready to go to America to visit his girlfriend, Roo is off to college and Wig is back to school.

I can't imagine how hard and potentially soul-destroying it is to have to drag children out of bed every day who really don't want to go to school. As Wig is at school because he wants to be, there's very little fuss even with him being a teenager who likes his sleep... he's all bouncy and bushy-tailed this morning, excited at the thought of going back!

For the rest of us we have new sticker books- Medieval History, fashion in the 1970's, Villains and Outlaws from through history and Cavemen. That last is Hoof's choice and rather cute. Rather than having to put certain stickers in certain places each double page spread is an empty scene which he can populate however he likes with the stickers assigned to those pages. We had a reindeer hunt yesterday and he wasn't at all sure he wanted his cavemen to actually catch any! That lead to some interesting discussions around diet and eating to survive from what there is versus eating for pleasure from vast choice.

I am also determined to sort out some of the huge quantities of produce we have from our allotment, and some from other people too- there are apples to be turned into apple sauce, a HUGE marrow from my sister that we're going to attempt Milly Molly Mandy style marrow and ginger jam with, courgettes to slice and freeze and Dot wants to make carrot cake again. We're certainly not going to starve in a hurry!

Windy day

The seasons are inescapably turning here. Despite the fact it's still officially summer until the solstice, summer is definitely over. Jumpers are required for a start, sometimes even coats- though admittedly more for the rain than for the cold.

Conkers are in the park. We're blessed with a great many horse chestnut trees... it's a square really, originally belonging to the adjacent Victorian houses and the Victorians did like their trees! The place is stuffed full of them, including a truly splendid copper beech but it's the horse chestnuts we gather under now, scanning about bent over almost double, searching for small, brown, shiny objects or, even better, prickly green cases to stamp on and liberate the contents. They are still white and soft in places but there are plenty of ready ones to find if only you look carefully and it's almost impossible not to, to seek them out and start a collection is simply irresistible.

Mind you, not that we play conkers in this house. It's not banned, exactly, although one particular person is banned for life for getting waaaaay too competitive.... *cough* Papacrow *cough*

Down to the seas again

If you home educate, happy not back to school week!

If you use schools- happy back to school week!

Not doing things by halves here, we are of course doing both.

Wig is back to school this week, going into year nine- this year is all about options apparently, choosing what you want to do for GCSEs and he already has a clear idea of what he's going to go for, so that's good. He did of course grow like a weed over the summer holidays so he has new shirts, new school shoes and a new (much bigger) rucksack. He doesn't need new trousers because I cunningly got HUGE ones earlier in the year and he might need new PE trainers but we're going to deal with that next Saturday.

Roo has finished school, got the GCSE results he wanted (phew!) and is off to college this week to study architecture. He needs some new clothes at some point because despite being nearly six foot he is still going on up, and we need to have a root around in the attic today to see if we've got any spare steel toe-capped boots in there that fit him. If not, we'll need to get him some.

Saurus has all finished college, he's looking for work and preparing to go visit his girlfriend in America.

Fluff, Petal and Dot are all carrying on Home Educating and Hoof, who will be five in January, now officially joins them! Of course he's been doing all sorts of things for ages but now he's in the 'legally obliged to provide with an education' bracket. We have lots of fun things planned! Petal now has her own tablet and will be doing lots on that, we need to get back into Conquer Maths with a vengeance for a start.

So, I wish you all a happy and productive Autumn Term!

Vagrant Gypsy Life

It's going to be all move again... though admittedly only inside the house!

Hoof really needs a full size bed. Petal really needs her own room. After much discussion, Papacrow has come up with a solution!

Saurus and Roo are coming down from the upstairs bedroom to the downstairs bedroom and Wig is joining them. We will separate the bunk-beds in the downstairs room and buy another full size bed from our local second hand furniture shop. The piano is going out into the hall, the cupboard set there back into the front room. The toy cupboard and clothes cupboards in the downstairs bedroom will be used to divide up the space and to store their clothes.

Dot and Hoof are going upstairs. The bunk-beds in that room are currently separated so will be put back on top of each other, most of the toy boxes will go up to the fitted cupboard, some will go in the front room. Their clothes will go in the chest of drawers in the fitted cupboard and they'll take one bookcase from the downstairs bedroom with them (giving them two, the downstairs bedroom one).

Petal is going into Wig's room. It needs a thorough tidy up and I'll probably take out the broken white shelves. We need to go through the children's dvds anyway and make some decisions, we don't use them much anymore.

Fluff is staying where he is, as he's quite happy in his little room (though it could do with a tidy!), there'll be lots of pictures and shelves to move around, the upstairs bedroom needs repainting and the downstairs one needs sound insulation putting under the carpet.

The move, painting and sound insulation is scheduled to be done next weekend and the jury's still out as to where the monks bench, coat hooks and shoe rack from the downstairs bedroom are going...

A Wild Call

One of the table-time tasks Fluff, Petal and Dot do most days is handwriting practice. Those books, with all the lines... it's one of those things that kills several birds with one stone because we use poetry for this. They choose a poem out of one of our many anthologies and I write out a line in pencil each time for them to trace over with biro or a gel pen until we've finished the poem.

It's always interesting to see what they choose... Fluff has a love of D.H.Lawrence and Robert Frost, all of them adored Bishop Hatto and Dot likes nonsense verse. Petal is currently working on 'What Is It?' by Joan Poulson and I thought these lines from it were deeply profound and very apt, especially as applied to home edding-

and I'm always being told

that I should be more sensible

use less imagination

but that's the way

I find out things

a sort of education