Hang on in There

In the tree house.Helmeted trio (O is examining a flap of skin on his palm caused by taking a tumble earier on) O's first pony ride.

Hang on in There

• A pretty neat home ed day to record for today. Aside from one blood sugar roller coaster moment Middle Small has been pretty cool and the rest, well, seems to follow.

• The greatest mystery for Scooby and the gang to solve is how it is I have no muscle stiffness after last night's pretty tough spin class. Either the whole experience was a dream or fitness is improving :) Rather a novelty engaging with other adults in the evening but it was a scramble so I have booked the morning class for next week.

• O fell asleep before I left and was still gently snoozing when, as I climbed into bed next to him, he said "Am so glad you are here Mum," before falling back to sleep. There is something of the mother cat and growing kittens about O and I at the moment with a sense that every time I sit down he asks for "Side please!" Despite a seven year breastfeeding career solo feeding a two year old is virgin territory for me.

• E and I had a great start to the day. A game of chess, some phenomenal word game and a cartoon strip cutting and sticking story all complete before the time that regular 5 year olds would be heading out the front door for school. His chess is improving (as is mine :))

• S finished reading this Georgia Byng book she has been into for the last couple of days so we googled her and found she has written a few more. Always a joy when that happens.

• Regular Wednesday morning coffee at Fishers Farm Park with Grandma and, after she headed home, O did his first ever pony ride.

• Home via the library for more book collections and orders. S & E were thrilled to discover they were doing a world book day quiz and had hidden character pictures all over the building for them to find and fill in the answers. This will hopefully make up for me registering too late for both world book day tokens and a raspberry pi

Keep on Walking

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Keep on Walking

Am pleased to report a seriously improved day today despite the news that The Daddy One has to be away for a while with work at the end of this month. Further explanation for yesterday's shortest of fuse appeared at bedtime when I asked S what had happened to her bed.

"Don't you remember Mum?" she replied.

"I had a nose bleed in the middle of the night last night."

7 years of mothering and I appear to have developed the ability to problem solve in my sleep! The boys were all gently snoring at early o clock last night so S and I watched Antiques Roadshow via iplayer on the tablet under the covers and played "guess the price" which we like to do.

S said a really insightful thing about her latest wobbly tooth last night.

"When teeth aren't wobbly Mum they look like a full tupperware but you know they are about to come out when all nerve connections are broken and they seem like an empty tupperware."

Grandma day today. A lazy start, protracted breakfasting, interrupted by an epic grocery shop delivery, at the end of which the first sitters were back again ready for more!

Swimming for the biggest two, who were very happy to have bumped into one of their best home ed friends at the pool, and a couple of mile walk for O and I via several shops and the park. E swam on his back unassisted for a while too :)

E has been: making cutting and sticking pictures with speech bubbles from the new toy catalogues he collected yesterday, baking and decorating fairy cakes and going for a walk with Grandma and generally being more content than yesterday. He is enjoying the latest clutch of Dinosaur Cove books from Storrington library as a bedtime read.

S has painted this brill portrait of Scooby and the gang. She waited for the paint to dry before adding the glasses in pencil afterwards, she has some new Barbie animals courtesy of a goodie box leftover from birthdays from Grandie who have needed welcoming and settling to the Barbie home. It has been mild enough for her and O to play in the garden for the first time in what feels like ages.

It's all there, an "efficient" and "suitable" education as the 1996 act lays out. I'm pretty sure we've covered it all today.

and me, well aside from the mental preparation for my second spin class tonight, when my crew are happy then I'm happy too or is the other way round? I forget.

Let You Go

Let You Go

S has played this tune over and over in the car today. :)

So it goes. Monday. I could tell you that we have been to Horsham today and that, as a result S, 7, has some more ideas for her local time line project and O, 2, a better grasp of numbers thanks to a nature walk but that would be to miss the point that, pretty much from eye opening o clock, Middle Small has done his best to suck any joy from my day.

Picking stupid arguments, spoiling other people's games, teasing and just generally being awful company. :(

We made hot chocolate for the flask today and put the marshmallows in mini Tupperwares. E found some letter stickers Smart Sandals bought and set about labeling them with names so we would know whose was whose (he only likes white ones you see!) In town, we started off in the toy shop, no purchasing, just window shopping. E was thrilled to find new lego and new playmobil 2012 catalogues featuring plenty of products he hasn't seen before.

Then we headed to the museum. S adores the drawers of fans, jewelery and accessories and O likes the toy display and E, well, he just screamed about how scared of the jail he is. Perhaps he can see the future.

So we left there, before we were asked to, and headed for a millennium sculpture that I remembered and thought S might like to see as a different representation of a time line. (it is the surrounding photos) It has many of the events we picked out. Roman armies marching on Stane Street, arrival of the railways and so on then, via the letters mosaic that the smalls like to jump on, we headed to the park where something very bizarre happened. A sunshine variety club coach arrived and a group of children with varying special needs came into the park then one ran up to this ladies baby pram and bit through the rain cover! It really was most odd. The lady was obviously very shocked and the carers told her it could be paid for and replaced but it was enough for the crew to want to head on so we took our car picnic to Warnham Nature Reserve where we had hot chocolates in the bus before doing the whole walk. Many snowdrops but not to many other signs of spring. O was insistent that everyone have a photo next to their number.

Warnham works well as a nature walk for us at the moment as it is flat and not too muddy for our not really fit for purpose buggy. As it was O managed the whole walk. This is the beginning of my 8th week without wine and I have not fancied a large, cold glass of something crisp and dry and white as much as I do right now!

It has been interesting talking about what we will do with the time line. For me it is like deschooling part two in a way. You see I know that S knows what she needs to know. We don't need to print stuff out and stick it in a project book for me to know that she has done her homework, nor does it need to be repeated and memorised for an exam. It is enough just to enjoy it. If she wants to make a project book or sketch somewhere we go then that is fine but we don't need to see something tangible as proof she is learning it. Her enjoyment is reward enough.

Cherish the Day

Cherish the Day

There is a slightly virtuous feeling that accompanies leaving the gym at 9:03am on a Sunday morning having completed your workout for the day. That was me this morning. It is a great time to go because (A) the gym is near empty and (B) when I returned home not long after S and E didn't even realise I'd been and gone!

There have been two strong incentives to gym this week:

Firstly in bed O, 2 , said to me "Look Mum you are a smiley face look!"

Pointing to my nipples he said "Eyes" my belly button was labeled "nose" then all the saggy overhanging flab that shouldn't be there he traced round with his finger and said "Smiley mouth see"

and then, a couple of days later, there was the nearly getting stuck at the top of the lighthouse slide at Fishers Farm Park.

Am defiantly changing shape though but it is accompanied by feeling a bit stiff and achy. Post lunges and squats crashing on to the bed or the sofa is okay but a hard chair or the loo. OOWW! I notice I do still have a bruise on my bum from when I fell down the stairs well before Christmas! I think it was hiding under the flab.

So much of the exercise and weight loss challenge is about the mental state of mind. Of course the hunger and the stretching are physical but, for me, once I have made up my mind then my mind leads my body. It has been a cause for much reflection though, you see, last time I gym-med and exercised in a regular and committed fashion was with my gym buddy Ree, back in the late nineties early noughties and, ten years this September, tragically Ree died leaving behind a young baby son.

She was a fabulous gym partner, she gave up one to one coaching with Madonna's pilates trainer to stretch with me, a successful fund manager responsible for millions of pounds of other people's cash she sang out loud to the tune in her headphones oblivious that others were listening. These last few gym sessions she has been much on my mind. I really miss her. Our gym sessions were the first time in my then almost quarter century on the planet that I had discovered being fit could be enjoyable. Despite years of compulsory PE lessons at school I never knew. One of the Dad's at the last adults evening social summed up the impact of team sports at school when he said hearing the words "We'd rather have ten on the team than have you." is not going to be 'character building' for anyone.

Yesterday we went to a new to us library in our neighboring village, Storrington, and came home with a vast selection of- new books including several by Terry Deary, a great one about Spies. You may know him as the author of the popular and successful Horrible Histories series. He recently wrote an article very critical of learning in a school setting. This is a bit of a long quote

More than this, though, Deary is profoundly opposed to schools. That is, to the institution of school itself – to the extent that he will never accept an invitation to give a talk in one.

“I get 200 requests a year and the answer is no,” he says. “I detest schools with a passion. I’d rather cut off my left arm and eat it with Marmite than go into a school. And I don’t even like Marmite.

“Schools are an utter waste of young life. Learning things that will never be any use to you. The only reason they are there is to keep kids off the street. They were a Victorian invention. The Industrial Revolution took kids from their families and made the parents work in factories long hours. Then they said, ‘we can’t have these little kids working here.’ So what do we do? Lock them all up in the same room all day and we’ll call it school. I spent hours learning trigonometry, physics, none of which prepared me for life. Relationships, talking to people, managing money, planning your career, how to help someone who has cut their leg open. I have had to learn these things by default.

“There won’t be any schools in 25 years. There will be mentoring. Older people passing their skills on to younger people. Teachers know nothing about life and the real needs of pupils.”

After the library we went to the park then came home for two Scooby Doo films and the next installment of Saturday family movie night was Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix with the fabulous Delores Umbridge. Only S stayed up for it in the end though!

The Daddy One used the day to start to prepare things for this growing season at the allotment

Today after the gym we headed down to a sunny Littlehampton beach for a couple of hours playing in the park and on the bikes and scooters but S fell over and scabbed her knee and E speeded off far far to far ahead on his wheels so we came home!

S and I have been building up this time line of the history of our village. Although there is evidence that Bronze age man settled here we have started with the arrival of the Romans in AD34 and mentioned the building of Stopham Bridge, 1423 or 1309, the local church, 1180, the arrival of the railways, 1859, and the building of our house in 1905. There is a bit of a gap between the Romans departing around the year 400 and mentions in the Domesday book after 1086 but we will keep searching. We have Bignor Roman Villa and Arundel Castle not far from us and in. the next village West. Petworth a hoard of Roman coins was discovered so there is much for us to continue investigating. S is really enjoying the chronology approach, I can see her filing the facts in the boxes in her brain as she calls them. She is so inspired by history, there is a bit of geography here too but those schooly boxes don't matter to us. Interest led learning. and I might add it is interesting being lead. I hope the chairs are comfy when we get there!

Optimistic (ii)

Optimistic

Late post today, a busy one, few bullet points and photos.

• An upside down Friday today in which E had lamb mince for the breakfast of champions and O had porridge for tea. There was I thinking I had tonight's supper all organised when a voice says "Mum, what is that smell? I need to have some now!"

• Yesterday's castle strewing has inspired S, 7, today we talked about John Nash (the architect of Knepp Castle)and how he was also the designer of Regent Street and therefore Hamleys.

• Made it to the gym for my 6 week induction program despite forgetting my trainers and having to come back for them. My old gym from life pre children had lockers that were yours full time meaning you could leave your things there. This new system is taking some getting used to. The novelty of Mummy being out regularly has probably worn off a little sooner than I hoped, the trio were a handful in my absence today, but given the hitech, expensive looking gym scales say I am down 1.1kg on last week we might hit the target sooner than April 24th.

• S has, it appears, abandoned vegetarianism as she ate six of our local butchers gorgeous sausages last night and then asked for ham sandwiches today. "Oh Mum she said I hate that they are a dead animal but they are just so tasty."

• The Scooby Doo passion continues with two episodes, colourings and the discovery of a Scooby Doo game on the Barbie website

• S showed me today that she has been keeping a daily diary for a few weeks now.

• After lunch we met our friends from Muddy Sandy Life at Fittleworth Park for an hour before they came back here for a play. E, 5, was a bit boisterous at the park charging around with sticks but, for the first time in months and months, The Boys were able to ride their bikes and scooters whilst the children in the adjacent school had a PE lesson.

• O, 2, has been into chalking on the blackboard and black paper and can draw his letter. An "O" or circle.

Optimistic

Three. Is the magic number?

The Magic Number

Fabulous, sunny February weather has seen us on a great three castles gallivant around the glorious West Sussex countryside today.

The Daddy One and I spent two hours last night resorting the lego into its category boxes.

Today, being Thursday, was cleaner day and the trio gave me serious grief about going out. The weather forecast was favorable and a rough sketch out of the day agreed they grumbled as we collected lunch supplies from our local supermarket.

Stop one Arundel.

6 or 7 families from the Home Educating in West Sussex had said they would be at Mill Road Swings to met up ready for a walk around Swanbourne Lake. Of course, once S and E saw how many of their friends were there they were keen to do the walk as well. My hunch was that they wouldn't manage it and felt I had already had enough moaning for a morning so we stuck to the agreed plan! Before all the friends arrived the trio were playing happily together but soon abandoned each other once new inspiration appeared. I am mindful of this and felt, given the balance of our week, some family time was right. It was great to see the cool Mums though, many of the children having grown visibily over the hibernating winter months since we last saw them.

So, we had a snack in the car and headed over to, stop two, Bramber Castle, where we have never been before, and had fun in the sun climbing, and running down, the motte, talking about the strategic view and examining the ruins. Then, back in the car we headed, via our favorite Seawhites for some gold and silver tissue paper to finish the Roman sword project, didn't stop three at Knepp Castle, which we would never have found without Sat Nav doubling us back across a dual carriageway! The ruin of Knepp is visible from the A24 and, even though we regularly use that road, we had never noticed it before until we were leaving the centre of the estate today. Knepp was the hunting area for Bramber and we saw many signs warning of free roaming animals.

The first castle, Arundel, is a major tourist attraction providing income to a whole town, the second has been in ruins since the 16th century and the third turned out to be, we strongly suspect, someone's family house!

My hunch was right, both boys were gently snoring on the way home at 1:30pm. All the photos except the one of the slide are Bramber Castle. Bramber is a gorgeous stopping point for a run around but was dissapointingly dog pooed.

Ninja

Sometimes the route in is not the one expected, especially true of autonomous education. A classic example in our family would be Walt Disney's adaptation of Hercules which provided a springboard and catalyst for S who is now pretty expert on Ancient Greece and Greek Myths for a seven year old. And so with Ninjas. Lego Ninjago with its mini figures, spinners and books opened E's eyes, Flat Stanley and the Japanese Ninja adventure continued it and now he is taken with this Chris Bradford book he found in the library last week.

Well, I made it to my first spinning class in 8 years. All this gymming and swimming sure does make for much laundry. I can report that it wasn't too bad, no diving out of the room needed. Felt odd though, coming home late. S and O waited up for me and, consequently have been a bit sleepy today.

A home day today. Grandma this morning and Smart Sandals (aka Weed) this afternoon. We have (in no particular order of importance or chronology)

• Ordered in more Samurai series from the library.
• Play-dohed (including this rather fabulous flat earth map E requested and SS obliged.)
• Fought with the Roman swords from the Usborne book that The Daddy One made.
• Completed the Europe jigsaw more times than necessary!
• Been on the Barbie website.
• Scooby Doo colouring, E and I were up early enough to see an episode in which Fred and Daphne kissed and Fred proposed. It has rather burst the "will they won't they" bubble.
• Requested some world book day vouchers and had a mooch around the games on the world book day website.
• Talked about going to see some local castles tomorrow.

Babies Keep Smiling :)

E age 1 and S age 3 in 2008 on the wooden tractor at the RSPB, Pulborough Brooks

Baby Keep Smiling

A year ago I wrote this post about a local family we know. Back in the day, five or so years ago, on a regular Monday, we often walked around our local RSPB nature reserve together. This was when I had a duo not a trio who were happy tucked in their double carriage sleeping and snacking and this affording me chatting time and, most of all, I observing. I observed someone confidently autonomously home educating being led by their children's behavior and questions.

A year ago this week they abandoned home comforts and set off for a year of WWOOFing and who knew where their adventures would lead. Personally, I thought it was unlikely they would return to their previous routine but who knows what lies outside our comfort zones?

Well, now we do! They are going to build, and live in, a croft on the island of Rum. You can follow their blog and find out how it unfolds here.

Children..................

Children

For a while now S has been asking to make old scrolls, she read about staining paper with tea to replicate parchment in a story book and was keen to try in out. So, yesterday upon our return from Intech we borrowed a bag of Grandie's PG Tips and set to work. In the end we had to soak it twice. It was dry this morning but not very dark so we gave it a second coat which dried whilst we were at Fishers Farm.

S wanted to make a historical map so, after our visit to Cowdray yesterday we agreed upon castles and royal buildings in our area. We discovered there are ten or so under one hour's drive away and we talked about why, in many of S's history books, there is a gap between Roman times and the 12th century where not much seemed to happen!

The ten castles on her map are

1. Arundel Castle
2. Amberley Castle
3. Bramber Castle
4. Guildford Castle
5. Farnham Castle
6. Windsor Castle
7. Kneep Castle
8. Bignor Roman Villa
9. Fishbourne Roman Palace
10. Cowdray

We forgot Brighton's Royal Pavilions.

We used: books, leaflets and the web to find out more about them. S has been to: Arundel, Windsor and both the Roman entries. Amberley is a, rather grand, hotel and we plan to check out the rest over the next month or so.

It has been a Grandma day today and the plan was for S and E to swim then we would all meet at Fishers Farm for lunch and come home. Only it didn't quite go to plan. E had a epic temper tantrum shortly after Grandma arrived so he stayed home with me. Boy am I fed up with these fits of rage from Middle Small. So draining. Understandable yes, he has been poorly and is probably tired but argh! I read and I read about ideas for helping him with his angry feelings but the reality is that I am fed up! Of course he was fine once we made it outside and were running around but..............

He took this funny photo of me and O at Fishers. In Other News

I am going to my first spinning class in more than 8 years tonight. These 6 hours a week I have planned to gym (3 hours exercise the rest is traveling and changing etc) are feeling strange to me. Being away from pulled in every direction. S came into me about 2am following a nightmare about a tiger and complained there were rotten apples in the bed.

We found a mobile phone at Fishers Farm which is handed in. It could have turned into a Scooby Doo / Enid Blyton adventure otherwise. S and E are still really into chess. Continuing the castle theme?

Tides