It's begining to look a lot like..........

No strike for me today (for overseas readers most schools in England are closed today due to industrial action by teachers.) but I did manage a full nine hours of snooze action last night. Bliss. Shattered after shopping, an activity once considered as leisure and recreation seems, suddenly, to have become very hard work! Foolishly though I listened to the news before bed. Seriously depressing. Forecasts for economic growth next year massively reduced, Greece's major bailout, record youth unemployment. I am a recovering news junkie.

Grandma was with us first thing and saw the rainbow in the garden then, rescheduled from last week, we had 2 hours of home ed help during which O slept and S & E made Christmas crackers and paper chains and did Christmas crafts and dot to dots and I made a photo album using actually printed out photographs with written descriptions for an elderly relative of The Daddy One's to receive in Chicago before Christmas. Quite a novelty for S to see me writing. Inspired she is now making an album for the Barbie's. S has been a bit odd today, telling a couple of lies. Not sure what that is all about. Our friend that came today also bought a photo of our house pre-second world war I'm guessing. very interesting. S is playing with the Barbie swim school an O is taking photos "Smile for the camera please" She has already read many of the library books from yesterday and the librarians phoned to say how much they liked the card she and E made for them.

Please don't think we haven't been doing other bits and bobs by the way but with an important family birthday next week they are Top Secret.

It was all going very well, E asked to do second helpings of word game, we watched The Snowman together then....I fell down the stairs. (We have 17 of then old 1905 house) I have ruined my left side, bruised my foot, a big lump on my back and I can't bend my left index finger. I taught the smalls a delightful of new expletives as the pain hit. The Daddy One has been in charge of supper, bath and bed with the added complication of cleaner day tomorrow and i'm in bed feeling very sore and cross and stupid. Sorry for lack of photos tonight - hope to feel better in the a m.

Reading Matter. Reading Matters.

On my way home from Brighton today I stopped in our village to pick up the books that S & E had ordered from the library. Some more Flat Stanley's for E who chuckled out loud at the Japanese Ninja Suprise and some more titles by new to us authors Anne Fine and Ros Asquith for S that I discovered using "Who Next?" in the library. Should last a day or so. S & E made a card for the librarians to say Thank-You for all their help.

These are the books Big Small has read since I last published a list of the books she has read

4 Magic Kittens, A Jacqueline Wilson, a Linda Chapman and a Mermaid story.

S H O P P I N G

Excluding the hour or more in bed reading story books first thing it has been me on my own today. Christmas shopping whilst The Smalls had a day with their Grandma at Fishers Farm. My first stop was Seawhite in Partridge Green, then I stopped in Steyning for a look in the Book Shop and a cappuccino with Almond croissant. Yum. I read an article in the Daily Mirror about how only 50% children get 5 gcses at c or above. See! This is what happens to me when I'm left alone I start reading tabloids! Then, on to Brighton where my shop included lego store. So Christmas is pretty much under control here. It was so windy in Brighton along the seafront (where I parked) that I could hardly walk against the force. It was rather a novelty to engage with shop keepers and chat rather than removing small hands from fragile objects and so on.

On Track

These home winter days as I walk around the house it dawns on me that I have a new stance. That you see on the evolutionary history of man posters the kind which illustrate the progress the human race made in standing upright. My stance is a low stoop, ever ready to gather up stray socks and lego. According to this chart I stopped evolving somewhere about 4000000bc

Friends over today, first social day in a while. I love home educated children. From upstairs comes the cry "Mum, the Barbies need their daily timestables and additions." So, ignoring that I am organising lunch for seven some are quickly written down. Brilliant!

E has been great today. I was apprehensive as the friends are the same age and gender as Big and Baby Small but he has been peachy. Surprising for a 5am starter. We've had the brio out for the first time in a while.

Fabulous decadent Monday lunch today. Home made butternut squash and bacon soup with home made pear tarts to follow.

Did I tell you I have a "day-off" tomorrow? For Christmas shopping purposes.

Children (pt2)

Children

Family movie night last night was "The Incredibles" The bits I managed to see where really funny and the brilliant Pixar skill of squeezing in a few jokes for the adults too but O fell asleep whilst we were watching it only he didn't really. He was very unsettled. All night long even convincing me somewhere circa 1am that it was morning. Two nights of fractured sleep. Argh. Consequently I missed most of the one and only thing I really enjoy on TV at the moment The Killing on BBC4 trying to sooth him.

First thing (before 9am) I headed out to collect a Christmas present for S that a friend had alerted me to. A Barbie plane! It is incredible, only just fitted in the car boot. Those Barbies, driving a newer car than me, a wardrobe of gorgeous gowns, a pony and an oven that has the pizza (which is now a vegetable apparently) ready cooked for their arrival home. Those dolls have it sorted. So, the shopping has commenced.This morning turned out, for various reasons, including a cash machine with a red plastic grid over the slot, to be an epic adventure. Let's hope the rest of the shopping is smoother. So acustomed to considering three small people in my every move then when alone it feels a bit strange. At one moment it was pouring with rain then, without warning the cloud broke to a clear blue just as the uplifting tune "Children" by Robert Miles was warming up and I pointed out a real cool looking tyre swing to no one in particular.

Then, later, the outside the boxers made decorated boxes inspired partly by S's jeweled affair from yesterday and adding the third dimension to cutting and sticking. E made lego ninjago and lego alien conquest. They are really impressive. My might varnish them. O covered his becks box in lego Cars cars. We have (or should I say had!?) a big collection of lego catalogues so the raw materials were easy to come by. Do you have weekends off?

In case you were still worried, by the way, the puffa jacket is puffed again. Maybe the 20th winter a puffa jacket has been my warmth of choice. You can take the girl out of the rave......

Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear.

Skyping with Grandma & Grandi A box S made The arena has been back in action today

Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear.

"Five days you work. One whole day to play, come on everybody wear your roller skates today"

Weekends are so similar to the rest of the week but somehow my expectation of R&R (that's rest and relaxation not rock and roll by the way!) remains.

We landed up with a pretty cool afternoon yesterday. Made chocolate chip cookies and established, beyond doubt, that the weighing scales are broken. One of the worst things about 21st century living is the replace not repair philosophy that underpins pricing.

No photos of the cookies. They were that good! We also did some cutting and sticking and reading. Operation family re-group has been great this week, when people ask about socialisation I used to reply that the kids were fine but I found the lack of sensible adult company hard to take after more than two days without a meet-up!

The Daddy One took E to the dens in the woods today and E did some great reading first thing as well. A little (big) thing happened too. As E awoke first, (well actually O woke first but that was 4am and he went back to sleep after the lack of traffic on the road outside and silence from the central heating gave me the clue it was still night time!) and he was watching Indiana Jones but we told him if Baby Small woke up he'd have to turn it off. When we turned it off he flew from the room in a rage (I didn't blame him it was at a good bit) then, less than a minute later, he came back in and said "I'm okay now Mum I was pretty cross but I'm okay now." I was seriously impressed.

He asked me some questions today too - I notice he has been doing this more and more

"What does peppered mean?"

"Why can't dogs climb?"

S has been making things for the Barbies and playing on the Barbie website.

Part Two of The Killing on BBC4 today. After family movie night that it......

Welcome to Our World

Welcome to Our World

So it goes. Our very own midnight cowboy finally fell asleep at 12:07am this morning. Confirmation, if one were needed, that afternoon outings, with the resultant drive home siestas, are not working well (on a regular basis) for our family dynamic at the moment. Fine in the summer, of course, when it is possible to spend 2 or more hours at the allotment after supper but certainly a trickier proposition with the dark evenings to factor in. Much better to be out after 9:30am and home well before darkness! Our winter groove. This is how we roll.

Et said a funny thing today about some sweets

"They are really sticky because I licked them clean with my tongue."

The trees opposite are looking trimmed and tidy, only when you see the branches on the ground can you (I?)visualise the true scale of their size. The crows that had made a habitat there 3 or so years ago have not been seen for a whole season now. Banged with the gun I suspect.

S asked at breakfast if Baby Small is still 2 and a half and with the help of the fraction cubes we established that yesterday was actually his 2 and seven twelfths birthday but probably it is okay to say half as 7/12ths is not how people usually describe their age!

We went to Whiteways this morning in our matching wellies, around ten, for a play in the woods and a hot chocolate with marshmellows (well, I had some of their divine espresso but I am not certain it is legal to feed that to under tens.) E (5) is so much more pleasant for even an hour of physical activity in the morning that the benefits are actually for all. A friend posted a great photo of her home educated girls knitting in the coffee shop on her blog yesterday, home educating a single gender family must be such a different experience from spinning plates not without its other challenges though I am certain. Sadly our regular Friday help is poorly with a nasty cough so I was solo mio today, and although S moaned for almost the entire time "Why would anyone want to go outside in Autumn you certainly won't be expecting me to go outside in the winter will you?" "Why can't we go to soft play?" she cheered up for hot chocolate and we called into the library to order in more books and South View dairy on the way home. She suggested it would be a good place to film an episode of Tractor Ted. I left them the article from yesterday's Guardian about unpasteurised milk. 2 x £0.85 they have a honesty box.

We also filled up with fuel on the way home. In the attended Murco, no dirty hands equals joy! Exactly £100.oo on the nose, a few ml shy of 70 litres which I am fairly certain is the tank capacity! Doh. S exclaimed "I know The Daddy One works hard but how can anyone have £100?" We talked about wages and what they are spent on and then I remembered I had forgotten the tax man's percentage. She was genuinely horrified and hasn't said much about it since. The forecourt attendant produced his calculator to work out miles to the gallon. Odd really as I have been a bit concerned about maths lately and then there is it. Everywhere.

Fiction Books S has read this week

These are the fiction books from the library S has read so far this week.

Anne Fine, Ros Asquith an Bali Rai are new authors to us and S enjoyed them so much she has asked if we can order in some more of their books

Anne Fine - Bill's New Frock

Anne Fine - Jennifer's Diary

Trixie and the Amazing Doggy Yap Star - Ros Asquith

Dream On - Bali Rai

Eva the Enchanted Ball Fairy - Daisy Meadows

Fairy Charm "The Unicorn" - Emily Rodda

Star Island - Amy Tree (this is part of a set of 12 books and S has now read them all)

The Otter who Knew to Much - Jill Tomlinson

Cathy Cassidy - Scarlet

New Power Generation

O's chose a book from the library yesterday which contained a picture of a Baby One asleep in a cot "What's that?" He asked me. Then, "but where does The Mummy One go?" How many 2 1/2 year olds in the western world in the 21st century have never seen a cot before!

He, clearly, has never seen a cot!

E chose this DK Rainy Day book with a Domino rally project and I spent ages looking for the dominoes, by the time they had been located he had rather lost interest in the idea.

S & I had a chat about the number 12 and why it features in the 2, 3 and 4 times tables.

The Daddy One and I watched Colin Firth in A Single Man after The Smalls had fallen asleep chuckling away to Flat Stanley the Japanese Ninja Surprise. What a hilarious book and a very stylish movie, the whole set radiated the colours of a giant Gucci store.

Today was our no power day so we headed to Play - the soft play in Worthing first thing. All 3 smalls really like it there and it is only £12 for all of us which includes a free cappuccino and free town centre parking (probably worth a £5) before heading over to see the BFFs in Goring~by~Sea for a few hours lego and barbie on our only play date of the week. I am pleased to announce that Operation Family Re-group is working well and my trio slid down the slide together, squabbling has been minimal to zero and they even played with each other at a friend's house today.

Home from friends around 3:30pm to find lights and other 21st century trappings all fully functioning and trees trimmed. Home made pizza for tea. Pear and dolcelatte for me. Yippee.

Long As You're Livin'

I popped to the loo whilst The Smalls were in soft play, this is the reading and drawing scene that greeted me upon my return. You can take the home educated out of the home but you can't..........

"Doesn't it just melt your heart?" S said it E - (that white lump is actually a baby rabbit, curse my camera)

Reading, reading. S loves reading. In this Charm Seekers book there is a character called King Orin. S finished the whole Charm Seekers series today.

Long As You're Livin'

So it goes. In the game of life that is good cop bad cop it appears that I may have switched sides . Laws were laid down last night. Nuff Said. Harmony is returning. It is rare and hopefully more effective for being so.

Surprising, I know, to read of someone who has not engaged in paid employment for over seven years and whose three children are committed to little in the way of clubs groups and classes and obviously no school runs suggest that they may have overdone it but certainly the behaviours at home would seem to suggest so. The family dynamic is at the core of home education, just as the school teacher dreams of removing the one disruptive pupil from the class room it takes little to upset the equilibrium at home. I am doing my best to restore it and have, pretty much, cleared the schedule in an attempt to refocus the sibling balance.

E has been about stories this past 24. He was inspired to dictate the following to me at Hove Museum yesterday

from the provided beginning of "They came at dawn, The invasion was silent at first, but then..............." He added "Boom, The robots decided that the other robots were not nice so they built a gun and they fought, then they fought some more, then they fought really hard and then they built five space ships and used them and they decided that was enough fighting and they could have a break."

He has also worked on a short stories collection with The Grandma One this morning in comic strip format using speech bubbles and played some word game with me. The games are very strategic the playmobil knights almost chess-eque in their assigned moves now, if we could just crack the basics like aiming our stream of wee in the loo rather than using it to decorate the walls and floors we'd be swimming. Well, actually we are probably closer to swimming at the moment but that is a mere technicality.

S has been doing some more art sticker book with Grandma this morning and we have all been to Fishers Farm for soft play and small animal handling, the small animal area is being redesigned and S drew up some early plans for the new guinea pig city, inspired by her reading of "I love Guinea pigs." before lunch in the restaurant. A visit to the library en route home bumping into our cleaner and local home ed friend during the visit. We also met a neighbour at Fishers who has had a completely different communication about lack of electricity tomorrow which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence as her letter mentions disruption to supply overnight............if there is no blog tomorrow you'll know why. (Direct complaints to UK Power Networks 0800 7 838 866!)

Return to RobotsVille!

We missed these little mouse holes upstairs on our first visit and O spotted that the drawers were full of delights too.

Tuesday a.k.a Grandma day today and we have been back to see the Robots at Hove Museum! We could have gone pretty much anywhere but that was the specific request. A burst of cutting and sticking and drawing activity first thing and then we headed out to show Grandma the robots, Which were obviously a highlight of the week last week. We bumped into some of our lovely home ed friends as we were leaving who were visiting as a result of seeing our blog post last week - I think is three or four families now that have been thanks to the power of blogging. We were going to go to the park afterwards but it was raining so we spontaneously came home via Seawhites (Partridge Green) to replenish our stocks of art and craft supplies. They have some fabulous bargains at the moment if you are local.

Thinking of You

Thinking of You

So, by 4pm yesterday E was snoring on the sofa. Rule Number One - If your children are driving you insane they are probably tired, hungry, growing or about to be really ill! So, I let him sleep :) - He went all the way to 6:30am - with a few interuptions that involved me saying "It's dark, go back to sleep."

The Daddy One and I had an epic three course lunch at the The White Horse, which is not to far from us, so we walked there and back.

Shortly before Grandma & Grandie were about to leave The Daddy One managed to swallow some lego, I thought he'd filled up at lunch........not a crucial component fortunately.

We (me & The Smalls that is) are having a home day today. O was a little bit snotty this morning although he seems fine now and S had a bit of a cough first thing but she too seems okay. We were due to see some friends after lunch but one of their number has an upcoming hospital check they need to be germ free for so I thought it best we steer clear. Before I had children of my own I assumed that young children were always ill and that ill health was almost a feature of childhood but my own 2, 5 & 7 year old are really vibrant and have never had antibiotics in a total of 14 years of parenting. When they seem tired and off colour we just clear the diary and lay low, the advantage of being a SAH(ha ha)M I guess.

S has been funny with Stacie (Barbie's little sister) today. She asked for school sums and times table homework for her and a mini version of her own breakfast (jacket potato, orange cheese and orange juice) I made her a mini straw and ice cube and S said "Thank-you school waitress, you look just like the headmistress!"

Am really hoping that clearing out for a few home days will see S & E back in their playing groove which, for a whole variety of reasons including separate days out, the first year of very personal gifts for birthdays and different sleep cycles has been really out of kilter in recent weeks.

We have done some cutting and sticking and reading and playing today and all the while the delicious birthday left overs have been winking at me from the fridge. I have also established, following the delivery of a screwed up scruffy photocopy through our letter box, that we are to be without electricity for a minimum of 6 and half hours on Thursday.

Happy 39th Birthday to The Daddy One

The Daddy One is 39 today. Many Happy Returns. We are going out for lunch, on our own, the first time in seven years.

"Be Excellent to Each Other"

And I do know better than to classify a whole day as good or bad, and there are moments. Moments of such happiness and fun that you wonder how it was before and then, then there are moments like several which occurred today. The shouting, the tantrums, the loss of control. And that was just me. Yes, I am talking Middle Small, to be fair this has been building for a while and I managed to avert it yesterday afternoon possibly fueling it for the bigger thing that it turned out to be today. I think I forgot to tell you that I hurt my knee at Bury Hill on Wednesday and it has been getting worse. The bruise is massive, probably 10cms x 20cms and today I just wanted to put my feet up. Well, that was where the trouble started! Without my constant distraction and stimulation before 10am we had a seismic fault line of a tantrum on our hands. I don't need to go over this. I have blogged about it before. Sometimes I am there with suggestions of drawing pictures of our angry feelings, taking deep breaths, clenching our fists and sometimes. Well, sometimes I just can't be arsed. We patched it over but every event leaves a scar and, just before bed it blew up again. What are realistic expectations for the behaviour of a 5 year old? We did all watch "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." a film from 1988 that I have never seen before. It was pretty cool. Keanu Reeves, I had to explain what a phone box was as, at nearly 25 years old, the film is almost antique! S enjoyed the history angle but read a book or two whilst watching it. E liked the rock music which is a concern. and I liked the sentiment "Be Excellent to Each Other." I try. I do try. In other news

S has been reading through her crop of new library books. She has also announced that she intends to become a vegetarian, this is no major change as she only ate pork in two forms before that of wafer thin honey roast ham and sausages with the skins removed but only the sausages from our local butcher so the change will not be huge but it comes at a time when her brother is asking for more meat!

Be my guest

Today's blog is written by the Daddy-One, who's spent a fabulous day with S on a whirlwind tour of London that took in two museums, a park & a certain toyshop. Our journey up flew by as we entertained ourselves and, judging by the sniggers, those around us by playing hangman, noughts & crosses and taking it in turns to draw each other in more & more bizarre situations including the Daddy-One's face being covered in angry red warts and, well I'll let you look at the photo & make up your own minds of what else but no, that's not a green body under one of my heads.....On the way up we'd discussed what we wanted to see & worked out the best order so our first stop was to be the Natural History Museum but "only to see if the Cora Sun Drop is still on display". Unfortunately it was not, but S quickly said "don't worry Dad, it was a bit too yellow anyhow and, besides, my favourite display is still here": The Aurora Pyramid of Hope. After The Vault, we spent a good while looking at the various other gems, crystals, meteors , etc on display in the cabinets and then that was it - on to museum number 2........ Which, as anyone who's familiar with Exhibition Road may have guessed, was right next door: The Science Museum. As you'll see from previous posts, we've been here quite a few times and have often spent the entire trip up seeing a fair bit of what is on offer. Today, however, we were here to see one of the temporary exhibitions that the Daddy-One had listened about during a recent Material World (by far my favourite R4 programme on the drive home): The Hidden Heroes - The Genius of Everyday Things. Regrettably there was a sign saying, and I a paraphrase here, "No Photos" and S was most insistant ant that I stuck to this which was a shame as I'd have liked to have been able to a take a few snaps to help convey why we left so underwhelmed. In short, this exhibition was a huge disappointment for both of us. We were hoping to find out a lot more about the lives of the inventors behind some of the objects on show but instead there was very little of any substance to any of the individual displays and, surprisingly for this museum, none had any ability to interact. Worse still, all the display objects were set back within wooden crates and, for the majority, these boxes were mounted so high up it meant S could barely see what was inside. And, if you did try to get a bit closer, an alarm would be set off - something that I've never heard anywhere else in the museum. Who'd have thought that paperclips, zips, tissues and pencils would be worth so much. All told, I think we spent just about 10 minutes trying our best before S gave up and asked to move on. If it had been free (as opposed to £10.50 for the two of us) and shown more consideration towards children I'd have been less aggrieved. Heh-ho, off we went.... .. one of S's favourite outdoor spaces: Diana, Princess Of Wales Memorial Playground, Kensington Gardens. I've been here a couple of times but S showed me some areas that I hadn't seen before that are behind the centrepiece that is the pirate ship. We had great fun playing follow-my-leader where the route naturally forced the Daddy-One to take in slides, poles, bars that needed to be limbo'd under and the like in my stride much to the amusement of his daughter. We tucked into the snacks we brought along and, feeling refreshed and recharged, headed off for our final place of interest for the day to spend someones saved up pennies on who knows what. A short bus ride later we were at Hamley's on Regent Street and we were soon on our way up to the third floor to see yep, you guessed it, their stock of Barbies. After several spins round the aisles, the selection was made and, after a quick look at the Lego on the Lower Ground, we were off back to the train station where S had deemed it would be safe to open the packaging without fear of any items being lost. Upon arrival at Victoria, and before I'd barely started to read along the various train options on the screens above, S announced that we may as well go and get some chips as our train had been canceled due to the driver being taken ill . This is one of the side benefits the Mummy-One & I had hoped the trips out and about would generate - S is now so familiar with the surroundings she knows where to look, what to read, etc and to make alternative plans should the original not go as hoped. Chips were duly ordered and the three of us were on our way back home.

The Ones

Here they are "The Daddy Ones!" L to R The Mummy One, The Grandma One, The Daddy One, The S One

A few people have asked me about the origin of "The Ones" on the blog. That is The Daddy Ones, The Grandma Ones etc. It is nothing fancy really. They were names invented by Big Small, when she was about 18 months old, for the fisher price little people and they have sort of become part of our family vocabulary. The Little people are great toys and really I feel that the current crop of popular toys in our household (i.e Playmobil, lego mini figures and Barbies) are just variants on their theme only with moving arms and legs or clothes but essentially they are a vehicle for role play.

Talking of Daddy Ones, it is The Daddy Ones 39th birthday this weekend, yes, a toy boy from the school year below. It is fortunate that we did not attend the same school as well, you just didn't go out with boys from the year below in my school days. This will be the 11th birthday that we have shared. We bought a different legacy of birthday celebrations to our relationship and ultimately into our family. Growing up in my family birthdays were a big deal. Cards, parties, presents etc but certainly a more mellow approach from The Daddy One's side so, on his first birthday that we shared, I decided to fill our flat with balloons. Tricky, as it only had one bedroom, to find privacy so I decide to inflate them whilst I was in the hot, steamy bath. Looking back a minor miracle that I didn't faint.

Seems like ages since the Robots post, we arrived the 16 miles home from Hove yesterday just before 2 o clock and some of our loveliest long standing home ed friends came over very shortly after. They played barbies and the super Mummy One made lego hoth ice planets with E. We read loads in bed last night including several robot books! S has had a London day with The Daddy One today. They have been to the science museum. So, the boys had super fun with Friday's extra pair of hands in the shape of our home ed helper. They have made cards and played playmobil castles whilst I walked down to the dry cleaners in the village with my blood stained white puffa jacket.

It bore the brunt of Baby Smalls slip in Hove Park yesterday. It has been a week for puffa jackets really. E's red one feared lost until we tracked it down to Fishers Farm and my white one turning red. The dry cleaner suggested I wash it and tumble dry it with tennis balls. I have washed it and the blood has come off but it is still bouncing around in the dryer with the balls. I'll let you know how it goes. As I was in the village alone I called into the library to have a look at "Who Next?" in peace! I looked up some of the authors S has been enjoying and, based upon its recommendations, was able to select 10 or so more books I think she will like. In fact she has already started reading them. Who Next? Is fabulous. I believe most libraries hold a copy.

I noticed another book on the shelf with tips for starting school. On the front it suggested that failure to control angry feelings appropriately can mark a child out as immature. Odd that as I thought being a child was a sign of immaturity. Fortunate I am usually too busy reading to my children to have a chance to notice such books.

Had a bake-a-thon & laundry-a-thon home day after that. Made some cottage pie, plum crumble, chocolate brownies and roasted the last of the red peppers from our allotment. After lunch our Italian friends came for a visit bearing Italian biscuits that are rather delectable when spread with brown paint. They stayed until the day trippers returned.

We have a totally clear day tomorrow, this week has been brilliant but I am not sure the pace is sustainable. Looking forward to a lazy one tomorrow.

Upstairs at the Museum

We went to Hove Museum today to see the robots but actually the display of toys upstairs in the Wizard's Room was pretty neat too. A tunnel to crawl through, fabulous attention to detail on information sheets and a glass dress full of action men.

Robots

E (5) fell to the floor in delight when he saw C3-PO in the cabinet Robot Movie Brothers on the sofa S's Lady Robot

Today we have been to Hove, actually. To the fabulous new Robots display at the museum. I am really not sure why we have never been to Hove Museum before as we have been to 20 museums this year but, thanks to the power of information sharing on twitter, we will be back!

It was fabulous. It is rare indeed that all 3 Smalls are captured by an event and it is often the case that I will only take one or two to a particular museum or gallery but they all really enjoyed today. S & E wrote both a story and completed the quiz and S joined in the cutting and sticking activity. They are normally both pretty resistant to prescribed activities but today E even wrote bomb on his story.

The exhibition is in three rooms, the first has about 20 glass box cabinets full of robots grouped thematically, it has been thoughtfully set up as many of the displays are low down perfect for smaller people. Few of my photos are worth uploading as the cabinets are back lit - but that is okay - more reason for you to check it out in person! The second room has two displays of robotic blaster guns and three beautifully painted wooden robots with their faces cut out for Brighton Pier inspired fun. In the third room there is a projector showing many of the robots from the cabinets doing their thing on film with a mini red sofa for younger viewers. E & O watched two revolutions of this whilst S joined in with the activity.

Whilst we were there we also had a look upstairs at the display of toys and found some Barbies to add to our collection of Barbies we have seen in museums.

We parked right outside on a parking meter but the museum is not that far from the train station, we bumped into some home ed friends who were arriving just as we were leaving. Afterwards we had a snack in the museum garden then headed to Hove Park for a run around. Sadly O fell off the roundabout and has a bit of a fat lip, bumping it in the same place he landed on when he fell over at Bury Hill yesterday.

Really impressed with the robots and more importantly I can see that S & E are really inspired and E has been talking about Asimo.