Routine, please...

I saw a cartoon last week that goes as follows:
"I love routine.
Until I'm bored, then I love excitement.
Until I'm overwhelmed, then I love routine."
I can't think of any other way to sum up my experience of Home Education so succinctly - and right now I am well-and-truly in the 'overwhelmed & craving routine' phase.  For weeks I have been saying "next week we'll get back to normal"  Now I know there's not really any such thing as normal - but some good ole reliable routine is what I've been after - and no, I still haven't got it.  A series of downright inconvenient interruptions have conspired to keep me away from the routine I'm hoping for...

Firstly, my laptop broke down.  This is the main reason for my not being on here for so long.  I can use eldest's computer in the study, but this removes me from the front room where the boys do most of their hanging out, learning, playing etc - so that's not so good until after they are in bed, at which point I have had LOADS to catch up on & not enough time. 

Then the project I had on last week took even longer once my laptop died - finally being completed early this week, so I will hopefully have spare time again (well - spare time as in time to blog, clean, plan etc)...

Also, last week we had the most gorgeous interruption to routine that came in the shape of a hedgehog.  Knowing that hedgehogs are generally in trouble in this country, and being the lovers of wildlife that we are, we have been keeping an eye out for our regular nocturnal visitors, and weighing them (they have to be 600g or more for them to survive hibernation - if interested in helpng hedgehogs, you can get good advice here).  The first hedgie we weighed was over 900g, so no worries there - but the second one was 407g & therefore not big enough to survive without help, so we took him in & started phoning round for a place to take him.  What we hadn't realised was that there have been a great deal of late litters this year, and all the local shelters were full - so we realised we'd have to give it a go looking after him ourselves.  I wasn't keen on the responsibility of rehabilitating a wild animal with no previous experience, but we all fell in love with "Tiny" as we named him, and promptly researched as much as we could, drilled holes into the lid of a plastic storage box, lined it with newspaper plus hay and leaves, added some water and cat food + hedgie food - and committed to weighing him & cleaning him every night until he reached the desired weight.  Unfortunately he just didn't put weight on, and after a week without real success I regretfully decided he would be better off in a proper 'hedgehog hospital', so we rang around some more and finally found someone to take him in yesterday.  I'm relieved that he will be getting expert help, but we really miss him - and Eldest has been leaving forlorn little commemorations around the place. Talk about tugging at the maternal heart-strings!

As if that wasn't enough upheaval, we had a fun weekend away visiting some lovely friends, which was planned - so all well there, and much fun was had with tractors, fireworks and exploring the beautiful Pensthorpe Nature Reserve - but on Sunday Youngest started having problems with his breathing. I resolved to take him to our local out-of-hours surgery on the way home, but when we phoned them they wanted to send an ambulance.  As we were by then only ten minutes away we drove to A&E ourself, where I spent the next six hours while they stabilised his breathing again.  He had never been diagnosed with asthma, and it seemed to appear out of the blue... it was pretty horrid, really, even though it wasn't what one would call a bad attack.  Hubby has lived with asthma all his life, and we know it's manageable, but it still upset me.  Hopefully I will learn to resist the temptation to become an obsessive, over-protective Mama - but right now I'm still slightly traumatised from seeing my baby in a hospital bed, unable to breathe clearly.  Still, children that young don't know how to do 'being ill', so despite his wheezing etc he had a lovely time using the disposable sick bowl as a hat, charming the nurses, putting stickers over his new inhaler spacer, and eventually trying to work out what all the knobs and levers did on the bed - at which point I knew he was about well enough to go home!
Incidentally, while we were there one of the nurses made some comment about whether Youngest was in school yet, and when we mentioned home education there was a slight awkward pause - I could almost hear him mentally writing it on our notes for follow-up.  If we get a call from the LEA shortly, we'll know why!
Anyway, Youngest is doing much better now (my emotions are taking a bit longer to recover - I coped fine while we were there; as usual it was only afterwards that I just wanted to cry - delayed shock I guess), and he was thrilled when we went to the chemist today to get a new inhaler, and we found & bought a cheap toy doctors kit.  Bring on the role play!

So, all of the above has left me craving some "boredom"!  I haven't been paying attention to the boys' learning, so feel like I'm failing them somehow (not too seriously though - I'll get over that feeling soon enough, I'm sure).  Eldest has been devouring books and documentaries on TV; Middle has been reading too, and drawing endless pictures, and Youngest has just been exploring everything he can get his hands on.  I'm not sure I dare suggest that "next week we'll be back to normal" - but it would be nice!

"Iceberg Land" by Middle

- prompted by "Operation Iceberg" that we watched on catch-up TV today. 

You need to have seen the programme to appreciate the detail that went into this - eg that's not scribble on the left; it's an artist's impression of the enormous dirty, crumbling glacier about to give birth to an iceberg.  The fish, whale, narwhal & submarine are all artistic license, but proud Mummy moment for his putting them in the correct habitat ;)

 

"Owl for Mummy" by Middle

Pause to Reflect

So we're half-way through manic week!

I have cake and brownies cooling in the kitchen ready for my HE friends who are coming over tomorrow (NOT impressed with the kitchen scales that refused to work just as I started my third bake though - grrrrr)  Meanwhile the boys (and their two friends who are visiting) are currently sat having movie-time (Yogi Bear + popcorn).  I guess I could be tidying up (again!) but thought I'd pop in & update while I can...

On Monday my good friend and her girls popped in to say 'hi'.  We haven't seen them since we visited them in Scotland at Easter (just as we left school)  One of the first things she said was how much more calm this house and its inhabitants seems now.  It's true, too.  We've been doing this for a while now, and it's so easy to get caught up in the very minor stresses of HE and forget the much bigger stresses that we had in our pre-HE days.  The house was much messier, I was a lot more stressed, the boys were tense - life was generally much more chaotic.  We are comparatively so chilled now!  I was chatting to a friend online earlier this afternoon, sharing techniques that I have used to help my boys when they've had a strop & lost control of themselves.  It's made me so grateful that by Home Educating I've had the time to spend with my boys getting to know them better; I've had time to invest in them and help them through difficult behaviour.  Before, we didn't have the time as everything was so full (not in a good way) so we just lurched from one emotional crisis to another (including my own).  Now, although I am still really far removed from being a perfect parent, I have a few successful moments under my belt, and I'm so grateful for that!  Just a happy 'taking stock' HE moment :)

Yesterday we had our fabulous day at Legoland.  The journey there was a bit stressful as they were all really excited (it's over an hour's drive from here).  At one point they were really bickering and kept asking me to tell the other off (not filling me with hope for an enjoyable day), so I just interrupted (not very patiently) and said that no-one was allowed to say anything else until we had taken turns for each of us to say one thing that they liked about each other person in the car.  It turned into a really lovely time.  Even Youngest came up with some really sweet contributions, and Middle got so enthused by the idea that he asked to have another turn at the end :)  Peace was restored - at least until we got to Legoland where I was actually pretty surprised how busy it was, even off-peak - but of course we had a lovely time, and with only two or three queues all day!  It was Youngest's belated birthday celebration, so he got to choose most of the rides that we went on - that was one happy boy by the end of the day (actually three happy boys), hooray :)

Today the boys had their friends over to play for the day - there was lots of dressing up, trampolining and jigsaw puzzles (well, emptying the puzzles all over the floor at least, so then they all got practice picking up the pieces and sorting them into the appropriate boxes), and quite a bit of creative play.  Eg they all had a big bunch of grapes at the end of their lunch, and Middle found some wooden skewers and stuck a grape on each end to make a "dumbbell".  The visiting girls then decided to thread grapes along the length of the entire skewer and make 'caterpillars'.  Eldest then decided to make a bow and arrows out of the skewers, and then all sorts of creative chaos ensued involving stickers, string, shredded paper and lots of skewers.  The boys are pretty good at creating new things out of whatever they find lying around anyway, and they really enjoyed having others around to bounce ideas off, to inspire them towards new creative ideas :)

So that's the week so far - really busy, but in a really good way.  More fun planned for tomorrow's coffee morning, although with less cakes than I had planned, thanks to the scales going on strike - and then I get my hair done on Friday ready for the photos on Saturday.  It's AGES since I had my hair done, so a little pampering is going to go down really well :)

Normal Service to be Resumed Shortly

Hooray for time off!  My brain is starting to return to normal again - we've had a lovely week just enjoying being together, with no pressure - I guess it was a sort of half-term, in that we had got to a point of needing a break.  It kind of felt a little naughty, as the schools here aren't on half-term for another week and a half - but then, the boys were gearing up their 'learning' before the schools went back in September, so it's not really surprising that we were a bit tired sooner.  And anyway, one of the many things that I love about HE is that we can just take a break whenever we need to, rather than dragging our feet for weeks until we get scheduled time off :)

So anyway, if you've been following, you'll know I've been thinking about restrictions, suggestions, structure etc, and I think I've decided on the 'tweaks' that I started suspecting we needed a week ago in Not-so-helpful Suggestions. 

Firstly, we had been running a "no-screen-time until after lunch" rule, which kind of bit me on the bum as it seemed to generate a desire for screen-time AS SOON AS allowed.  I'm going to tweak that so that although Mummy will still have no laptop time before lunch (otherwise blogging/ facebook/ photobooks would leech all my time with the boys), the boys are free to watch TV/ go on the PC whenever they like.  After all, it really wasn't an issue when they were deschooling: they watched less then than they do now.  The thing I do have an issue with is the games consoles.  A chat with my wise friend helped me to realise that PC time is actually OK - pretty much the whole time they are on it, they are learning something valuable.  Games consoles however seem to shut down their ability to think creatively.  They're OK for encouraging teamwork occasionally (depending on the game), but on the whole they seem pretty mind-numbing.  So I'm not going to ban them or place set restrictions specifically - but I am hoping to just try to distract the boys away from playng on them if they are mentioned - with the aim that maybe we'll save them for weekends/ holidays... we'll see how it goes, anyway.

Secondly, I was concerned that by making suggestions so frequently, the boys were depending on me for ideas instead of thinking creatively for themselves, and finding their own inspiration.  Where I had viewed suggestions as just a verbal kind of strewing, it turns out that actually they carry more weight than books/ resources just left hanging about, as the boys perceive that I want them to do the things I'm suggesting.  And it's true, I do - although usually just because it looks like fun, and we do usually have fun - but by relying on my suggestions every day they were making noticeably less effort to discover their own interests.  It's not the worst thing in the world in terms of Home Education, but it's just not what I want for them.  So I think I'm going to restrict myself.  Some kind of schedule really does help me, albeit a very gentle, flexible one - so I think I'm going to limit my suggestions to my favourite days, Mondays, and see how it goes.  Tuesday - Friday it will be all about the boys finding/ developing their own ideas, but that still leaves me with a day when I get to suggest things that I've seen that I think they'd like that they otherwise wouldn't have thought of.  I'm not totally convinced about this, but we'll give it a go and see what we learn :)

Thirdly I was thinking about structure: the small amount of online curriculum that I ask of them.  I never get into a fight about it with them - if they really resist, I don't push it - but I do ask them to do an hour each of Reading Eggs & MathsWhizz per week, and I still feel that for us, that is about right.  I've been reading comments from people who home educate in a much-more structured way, and I have to say, it does appeal to my routine-loving teacher-head; I'm just not convinced that the boys would go for it...  actually, I'm convinced one of them would really struggle - so we're going to keep it light and do the minimum that I am happy with, leaving them the rest of the time to be as "autonomous" as they like (as long as that doesn't involve games consoles!!!)

So that's where we're at now - hooray for wobbles that cause me to step back and reboot :)  Tomorrow we have our regular '360 soft play' HE group trip, which is always lovely, and then next week is going to be really busy with Legoland (hooray for them letting Home Educators visit at school prices!), visiting best friends, HE coffee morning & Usborne book sale, barbers visit and non-school photos - so all of the above is on hold until the following week anyway, but I feel better for having had the chance to sort my brain out!

Also, today I received my copy of A Funny Kind of Education by Ross Mountney.  Ross wrote the first book I ever read on HE, Learning without School, when we were first serously considering Home Education early this year.  It was absolutely the best book I could have read at the time - answered all of our practical questions and encouraged me that we could do it.  Ross's experience as well as her practical, humorous, non-judgemental style makes her one of my favourite Home Ed authors (she has a brilliant blog too: here), so I'm really looking forward to reading this new book, a more personal account of her HE journey with her own family.  Actually *whispers* I read a few chapters earlier when the boys were occupied with other things - I couldn't resist - and I can already see that it's going to be a fun and encouraging read.  Having met Ross online since reading her first book, I know she is such a lovely person that she often reads other HE blogs and offers encouragement, so I'm fairly sure she'll be reading this, blushing away (Hi Ross, *cheeky grin*) - but this isn't flattery: I honestly and strongly recommend her books!

Finally, mini-blogger's fans will be pleased to know he has written some more in his diary (so much for my concerns in September that he wasn't interested in writing) - so I'll leave you in his entertaining little hands...

13th October
11:02am
played predator with (Middle).  I was
     1st - snowleopard
     2nd - octopus
     3rd - lion. 
     Yep, (Middle) was the prey and would not survive in the wild.

17th October
8:08am 
at the 14th, 15th and 16th I didn't feel writey!  Feel a bit writey now.

7:05pm 
normal day.  I did
two days ago - waking up, eating, sleeping
one day ago - waking up, eating, sleeping
today - waking up, eating, sleeping
tomorrow - waking up, eating, sleeping
Where's entertainment when you NEED IT!

7:26pm
calmed down
Bored, have a cold, and MESSY room.  "BOOOO!"
I'm so annoyed that my room is a mess, I'm reduced to a puddle.

7:41pm
froze to normal shape, no longer puddle

18th October
9:12am
at night, hedgehog in garden - amazing
morning, woodpecker in woods - amazing
5 min ago, tidy up - not amazing
VERY WRITEY ME

Fresh Air and Friendship

Lovely day today - it was really nice to get out of the house - we went on a group trip to the RSPB Rye Meads reserve.  I was a bit concerned about the boys, whether they'd be able to 'behave' within the group.  It's not that they're naughty, but they're not the quietest of boys.  I love that they are full of life and enthusiasm, but it does bother me slightly in scenarios where their behaviour may be judged as out of control.  Anyway, they were fine (it helped that our fabulous lodger came with us & provided a welcome second pair of eyes/ hands etc)... and we did have a really lovely time, identifying lots of birds, bugs and other things, stretching our legs and generally enjoying the fresh air.  Youngest and Eldest were very keen to talk to the helpful man who showed us around - no shyness there!

heron enjoying the view at Rye Meads

We had a picnic while we were there, including some yummy flapjacks (see below) made first thing this morning by Youngest with help from Mummy...

After lunch we came home to spend some time with a friend who is looking at Home Education for her children.  It was a lovely afternoon too - all of today's socialising kind of making up for the rest of the week's reclusiveness!  My boys played really nicely with her two young daughters (who are younger than any of mine) - the girls took a particular shine to Eldest and he was really good with them, letting them sit on him, hug him, climb on him etc.  My friend was pretty amazed that her two were so relaxed and not-clingy, especially as she'd been told that as they were too clingy she should send them to nursery! (weird logic or what: "if you have insecure children you should remove yourself from them so they can get over it"!  How do people buy into this kind of advice?).  It was also really encouraging to see Middle (who six months ago had become quite introvert and lacking in social confidence) just leaning up against my friend (who I don't think he'd ever properly met before) and showing her his game - utterly relaxed and confident that she would accept him... it really blessed this Mummy's heart.

 

That was pretty much it for today's activities, other than Youngest also having time on Reading Eggs, Middle spending some time drawing, and Eldest taking his diary everywhere with us to keep writing in it - you can tell he was snatching time to fill in brief updates, but there is still a little bit more included below for his growing fanbase! Busy weekend ahead, so I'll be back when I get the chance - meanwhile, I'll leave you with Eldest's version of today's highlights...

 

September 21st 2012

8:24am

Thinking about the pos. and neg. things about the colourful slugs.

1. p. they'd look great

2. n. they would have no camouflage

3. n. Birds could see them easily

4. p. wait, then so can I

5. p. Everyone would like them more

6. n. they'd probably show off

 

10.17am

Going to Rye Meads now

1.21pm

Finished at Rye Meads

I saw...

adult coot

adult moorhen

juvenile moorhen

juvenile shoveler

juvenile tufted duck

juvenile little grebe

adult heron

adult swan

adult gadwall

mystery duck

adult cormorant

juvenile cormorant

adult  greater spotted woodpecker

5 newts

10 different plants

16 different pond insects

WOW

1.45pm

Kestrel flew right next to my window

WOW

5.30pm

the girls came round at 1.58pm AND CLIMBED ON ME!

Busy busy...

We're definitely getting back into our stride now :)

Yesterday we had a lovely trip with a few other Home Ed families to one of our favourite woodland haunts.  It was a lovely ramble, and the boys had LOTS of fun playing with friends on a rope swing and in the root system of the coolest tree in the world (in our opinion - see photo below to decide for yourself), learning by experience all about how the root system of a tree works, without consciously thinking about it.  I wasn't so happy when we eventually got back to the car park only to discover that Youngest had left his back-pack at the cool tree - but I am blessed with a lovely friend who took all my boys to her home down the road so I could quickly get back to the tree on my own to retrieve it, rather than having to drag three tired boys with me!  When I picked the boys up after, they were having a great time - Youngest in particular didn't want to leave, and kept asking throughout the afternoon if we could go back, or if our friend could come to us.  It's the first time I've felt able to leave the three of them playing anywhere other than at home or at Grandma's - and I was really happy at how well they did :)

Coolest Tree in the World?

Other than that, we've been busy at home too - Youngest keeps revisiting Reading Eggs at every opportunity, as well as the CBeebies website, and also drawing, looking at books - and today it was his turn to bake, making an impressive "Dotty Cake" with Mummy's help...

Dotty Cake

Eldest has also had a couple of really good days - he's been doing well on MathsWhizz, reading like books are about to disappear, and practicing his sketching techniques, re-visiting the How to Draw Rainforest and Ocean Animals DVD kit that he used a few months ago.  Funnily enough I had only looked at it the other day and wondered if he was ever going to open it again, or if it was a 'single-use' product in Eldest's eyes.  I didn't even have to 'strew' though - he pulled it off the shelf himself that same day and asked to have a go.  This time not only did he draw the four animals as demonstrated on the DVD, he also had a go at a couple of extra animals from the accompanying booklet, and then he tried drawing one of his own toys - for someone with no confidence in his ability to draw, it was lovely to see him so 'hooked' :)

Top l to r: 'Gorilla', 'Shark', 'Macaw' and 'Elephant'

 

'Toucan' and 'Dolphin' - not attempted before

 

'Stingray' - portrait of a toy

 

Middle has also been having fun on Reading Eggs and drawing (see self-portrait below), playing with dice and experimenting with magnets (he really liked the extra-strong magnet that worked "through him" - ie he held the magnet on one side of his thumb and it held a washer in place on the other side of his thumb! We hit a hiccup with MathsWhizz today though - he was apparently being tested on subtraction and addition using carrying - well, he was just staring blankly at the questions, and when I tried to help jog his memory it was clear he had no recollection of ever learning how to do it.  I have emailed the helpdesk as I can't immediately find how to help him on their programme - but every other topic he finds really easy, so I think I'm just going to help him myself, until he's confident enough to rejoin the program.

Self-portrait by Middle

Today we also all sat down and painted our now dry clay creations (as made last week in "Art and Structured Autonomy".  Eldest wasn't interested in anything other than getting his gun finished - although he's happy with the end result, so that's fair enough. 

'"Pistol" by Eldest

 

Youngest had a whale of a time painting his snowman - at one point it looked like a gory horror film victim, with black and red everywhere - and then he enlisted Mummy's help to smother it with LOTS of white paint until it looked like a snowman again (I think he was disappointed that as the clay dried white, he didn't need to paint much, so he painted it multi-coloured before restoring it to snowy-white with more paint!

"Snowman" by Youngest

Middle (as always when doing arty things) took his time to get his works of art just the way he wanted them.  It's times like this when his absolute focus-on-only-one-thing-at-a-time comes in handy - he didn't care that everyone else had finished; he was happy just to keep painting until he felt he was done :)

"Bob", "Burger and Chips on plates" and "Loveheart", all by Middle

And I had fun too - painting is quite therapeutic, although it would probably be more so if I didn't have to keep getting up and down to change water, wash out pots, wipe up spills, check that boys who have wandered off are in fact paint-free... etc etc!

"Barn Owl" and "Hedgehog" by Mummy

Desite all the busy-ness though, I do still feel as if we're not quite settled though - I think it's mostly because I have no idea where the boys' learning is going - and while I keep reminding myself that that isn't really a bad thing (as we're not the fully-structured type), there is obviously something niggling at me that I haven't put my finger on yet - I'll let you know if I figure it out!  Meanwhile, for a family who don't seem to have a clear direction, we're having lots of fun learning - and that's my number one priority.

Can't Beat Experience

What a week!

Any feelings of boredom that were lurking from July are now well-and-truly gone!  I'm exhausted & ready for a nice mundane routine - but it's been totally fab and worth all the chaos!

Our lovely Dutch friend went home today - we're missing her already.  I was glad the boys loved her as much as I do :)  I'm hoping their interest in the Netherlands will continue: we're planning to go out to visit at some point, to Eldest's surprise, who had assumed that we wouldn't be able to go there as everyone speaks a different language - great learning opportunity right there!

We also had another friend stay over who is originally from Jamaica - cue an impromptu geography lesson with globe at the kitchen table, finding UK, Netherlands and Jamaica (and then other countries) - I just love the way experiences can spark interest and prompt learning opportunities, right in the middle of life going on!

Anyway, we took a trip to West Wales with our two friends, dropping them off at a B&B & then finding our campsite: cue MUCH RAIN!  Fortunately it was dry for long enough to get our outer tent over the inner tent - and then the heavens opened!  That first night we had a massive downpour of rain followed by a thunderstorm directly overhead and then heavy hail.  Apparently there was a river of rainwater running through the camp during the night, and when we woke in the morning we discovered more than one tent had been flooded... I' m so grateful our tent held strong!  I'm also really grateful that the boys slept through it all! (I certainly didn't).

The following two days saw us meeting up with a group of friends (including those we travelled over with) to visit some nature reserves: Ynyslas nature reserve, RSPB Ynys Hir and Cors Dyfi.  Thw weather held off and we all had a fabulous time.  The boys were the only children there, but far from that being a handicap, actually they were a bit of a star attraction.  They were totally confident and comfortable relating to the other adults, and behaved really well (apart from the odd over-tired melt-down when we tried to get them into their sleeping bags at night).  Very proud Mummy here :)

beautiful Ynys Hir

So over the last few days and evenings Eldest has accompanied my friends and me on some evening nature experiences (a badger-watch where we saw eleven badgers, a fox, muntjac deer and rabbits, and a guided walk where we were hoping to see barn-owls but sadly didn't see any).  He loved it all :)  A couple of times he was 'shushed' by the others, but he handled it really well.  (That was the main reason for not taking Middle and Youngest: they wouldn't have been able to be still or quiet enough - and would have found the puddles irresistible too).

The younger two joined in the rest of the weekend's walks though - and especially enjoyed trying to catch lizards, as well as spotting slugs, newts, pond-skaters etc, not to forget their impressive acquired collection of sticks, stones and shells (including Youngest's king-of-all-sticks that was alternately a gun, a camera, and a musical instrument)  And then today we all had a fabulous shared experience when we visited the Shuttleworth Birds of Prey collection, where we listened to a talk on Eagles and saw various birds being flown - and then had the opportunity to hold a couple of owls.  The most keen (after Mummy) was Youngest!  He absolutely loved it, holding a tawny owl and then 'flying' a barn owl.  Middle also flew the barn owl (as did I - hooray).  Eldest wasn't in the mood, but I gave him a quick lesson in using my DSLR camera, and he thoroughly enjoyed getting some really nice shots of the rest of us holding the birds.  After a quick stop at the shop where the boys all bought a little owl each, it was home-time (via the airport to drop our friend off).

So today was pretty full-on, with not much chance to "teach", but the boys absorbed so much! Eg after putting them to bed I went to check on them and found two of them in bed wearing a single knitted glove each on their 'flying hand'.  It was so cute when I realised they had been trying to replicate the bird flying experience, hawkers glove and all - using knitted gloves and cuddly toys.  Eldest even whispered to me that he's found some feathers to stick together to make a 'lure' that he could spin around to train his (toy) bird.

So that's my quick catch-up from the last few days - I wanted to write down how grateful I am for the boys' increased confidence around adults they'd not previously met, and for the opportunities that are expanding their minds and their imaginations.  Given the choice between having them stuck in a classroom being force-fed facts or being out in the fresh-air (in all forms of weather) meeting new people and having new experiences - well, I know which form of education appeals the most!  We may be tired but we're all very happy: it's been a great and memorable week :)

Caterpillar Crazy

Our new 'Painted Lady' baby caterpillars arrived today... they are super tiny!!! The last set we received had been in the Post Office depot for a couple of days by the time we got them, so we never saw any this teeny weeny (5mm long - Eldest measured them)!  For some reason Insect Lore decided to send me a huge 'pavilion' net (which I hadn't ordered) as a thank you.  I would get rid of it as clutter is the bane of my life, but I have a feeling it is quite likely to come in handy soon - you see, not content with having a new set of  baby caterpillars in the house, we now also have a second little net cage with caterpillars in!  We had the spare enclosure already from when Eldest used to have Stick Insects a couple of years ago, so the tiny Painted Lady ones will have their own home next to our newbies that have taken up residence...

caterpillar corner

the new teenie weenies

As yesterday afternoon was nice and dry, we went out to one of our favourite bug-hunting locations, Mardley Heath and had a glorious time there, just enjoying nature & the big outdoors :)  Mummy caught a little froglet which delighted the boys, and we saw LOTS of bugs including bees, snails, soldier beetles, wolf spiders (we think) carrying egg sacs, and some beautiful stripy caterpillars!  There were loads of these caterpillars everywhere we looked, so I was confident they were probably not an endangered species, and we brought a few home with us along with some stems of ragwort that they were feeding on (ragwort being a weed so we were OK to pick it - and I made sure we all gave our hands a really good wash when we got home as it is slightly toxic, but only really to horses and cattle who eat it in vast quantities).  Anyway, once home we discovered to our delight that our newly-acquired caterpillars would turn into Cinnabar moths.  I'd had a feeling that as the caterpillars were so beautiful, they would probably turn into boring moths - but although I happened to be right about the moth bit, Cinnabars are actually really pretty - I do hope they make it!  Of course, we're not experts, but we're keeping the habitat topped up with fresh ragwort - and we can only hope that they will pupate and emerge given time.  I was concerned about whether they would need something special to hang from before assuming chrysalis form, but it tunrs out they usually pupate on or under the ground - so they should be fine :) Obviously, as wild creatures I'm drumming it into the boys that assuming they successfully metamorphosize, they will be released back into the location where we collected them.
Wild creatures or not though, the boys have given them names (the five Painted Lady caterpillars are named after the five members of our family).  The cinnabar caterpillars are now called Hermie, Wormie and Frank, from a series of films that the boys love called "Hermie and Friends", about a Caterpillar who thinks he's too common and boring, until he realises that God made everything special in some way.  It's a nice gentle lesson for the boys in accepting themselves for who they are, and of course it was especially enjoyable because of the boys knowing all along that he was going to turn into a beautiful butterfly, such is their expert knowledge now ;)

Hermie (so I'm told)

So with all our new creepy-crawlie friends in the house, this afternoon went a bit caterpillar-crazy too!  Middle and Youngest had a lovely time making a giant caterpillar made of paper plates to display above our caterpillar habitats (seen above), and Eldest made some smartie cookies that were quickly displayed in caterpillar shape before being hastily eaten :)

cookie caterpillar

You know, even if we were structured in our approach to learning, I'm not sure I could have planned this as a 'project'.  Maybe I'm just not confident enough yet in the boys' willingness to go along with my plans - but whatever the reason, the fact that we're 'deschooling' still helps me to stay chilled about what we do - so any suggestions I make (like the paper plate caterpillar) are presented very casually - if they want to do it, great - but if it doesn't appeal to them, that's fine too.  My suggestions are a kind of verbal strewing: I put the ideas out there and just stand back to see which ones (if any) are picked up and enjoyed.  If they don't pick any up, I don't take it personally - I just go hunting for more ideas.  And actually, as they did pick up these ideas, I'm still going to hunt for more.  Once I've posted this, I'll be spending this evening surfing for further caterpillar inspiration!  I'll just keep going until they're ready to move on.

PS for the sake of keeping records (in case I wish I had, in future), today the boys also played on Maths Whizz (Eldest and Middle) and the CBeebies website (Youngest), made playdough models, turned paper plates into frisbees, and watched Deadly Art, Alphablocks & others on TV, read books, played games... and generally had fun!

The Unrainy Day

Hooray for a day of no rain!  we've been outside for most of the day, and feel SO MUCH BETTER for it!

Before I go on, for those who read yesterday's post, The Parable of the Butterfly with a mind of His Own, I am pleased to announce that our last butterfly has today flown off into the big wide world (sniff - I was quite fond of him by the time I finished writing yesterday's blog entry!)  Knowing that we were going to be out all day, we put his net enclosure out into the garden and opened the lid just before we left this morning... when we got home at teatime he had gone.  So, we were a little sad to miss the big moment, but pleased for him that he'd made the most of the privacy that he obviously liked, and fluttered off to freedom :)

Anyway, back to today.  We were seriously overdue a lovely family day out in the fresh air, so I'd had a search online yesterday and found the Ashridge Estate, Berkhamstead.  We took a picnic and had a good explore, including all climbing 172 steps up the very tall (33 metres) Bridgewater Monument to enjoy the views from the top.  Well, I say 'enjoy' - I really am not good with heights, so I was hugging the wall at the top somewhat, but was determined to set a positive example to my boys (Eldest and Middle weren't keen either) so did it anyway and tried to concentrate on looking ahead to the horizon instead of down!  Then it was time for an icecream and wander through the woods, taking lots of time to repair a falling-down den, and practice balancing on fallen logs (and jumping off them).

All relaxing at home now - Middle and Youngest are engrossed in Richard Hammond's Blast Lab on TV (nice bit of Science there), which Eldest is also half-watching while assuming the usual 'nose-in-book position.  Something has changed in him by the way: he's gone from being a boy who almost exlusively read reference books, to really getting into fiction - such as the 'Secret Seven' book that he read start-to-finish in one afternoon the other day!  Middle has also started picking up books to read for himself far more frequently lately, rather than bringing them all to me.  I think his confidence is slowly growing - it's so great!
Anyway, we're pretty tired now - but in a healthy way: not the tiredness that comes from being a bit fed up of our confinement indoors for most of the week, but the tiredness that comes from stretching our limbs and stimulating our minds with new experiences outside in the fresh air :)  If we hadn't had our day out today I don't think even I would have enjoyed our traditional 'lazy Monday' at home tomorrow.  Now, I feel my equilibrium has been restored by our un-rainy day :)

A Day of Small Celebrations

What an exciting start to the morning!

First of all, Eldest's tooth fell out.  This may not seem much of a celebration to you, but it had been wobbling away, hanging in there for AGES!  So long in fact that the second tooth had fully grown into place behind it!  We kept having a poke, loosening it a bit at a time, and this morning it finally gave up.  Of course, Eldest is also very pleased about the £1 that the tooth-fairy-who-he-doesn't-believe-in will be bringing tonight! 

Anyway, even more exciting than that, our 'Painted Lady' butterflies emerged this morning (well, four of them did).  Three of them were already emerged when we came downstairs, and we kept popping into the kitchen to see if we could spot the next one coming out, but it did it when we weren't looking (and we were looking at least about every twenty minutes).  We were amazed by how quickly they pop out - and a bit frustrated to have missed the experience!  Ah well, if we miss the last one we'll probably get some more - it's been a fascinating experiment, and you can buy replacement caterpillars online direct from Insect Lore.  The only problem we've had was today after the butterflies had emerged, when we had to figure out a way to get some chopped up fruit into their habitat without them escaping when we unzipped the lid!  It was fun :)

 

Next we had a delivery in the post that I'd forgotten I'd sent off for - our free How Nature Works booklets from the Open University, linked to the recent BBC series, "Secrets of our Living Planet".  OK so it's a little thing to celebrate, but Eldest and I loved the TV series, and nice glossy nature booklets that we didn't have to pay for - well, they're more exciting to get through the post than bills!

Following that I received a link to a 2-for-1 offer for entry into Knebworth House (the park and gardens anyway) this weekend.  Exciting because I was after inspiration for somewhere to go, and we've been to Knebworth House before and loved it - the boys all really enjoy the dinsoaur trail, maze, train, adventure fort, giant slides etc - and now we can get in for a reduced price!  I'm holding back the excitement on this one for now though - the weather being the way it has, there's really no guarantee we'll be able to go... a Mummy can hope though...?

Finally we were inspired by a friend to do some baking.  Freshly-baked cakes are always cause for celebration in this house.  Incidentally, I love how much Maths goes into baking: Eldest measured out 70g of flour and then the electronic scales reset themselves (!) so he had to work out how much he now needed in order to have 115g in total.  Then he had a 200g bar of chocolate and needed 50g so (as the scales were failing) he needed to work out what fraction of the bar to use - and how many squares that equated to (out of 32 total squares)... great mental maths moment! Anyway, having looked through my recipe books, Eldest had decided to make Choc/orange cupcakes and Middle wanted to make Vanilla cupcakes... and as no mother likes having to referee (that's my excuse), they made a batch each!  Not convinced on the celebration front?  Let me tantalise you with some photos, so you can see why we were excited to get them into our tummies...

PS The boys may not have been particularly excited by their turns on Reading Eggs, watching Backyard Science, reading their books and playing card games etc - but I was!  Well, maybe not excited exactly, but I do love seeing how their learning is progressing naturally - especially since we're still deschooling so we are completely free from any obligation to 'work' at learning.  I do hope I can remain this chilled - we're learning LOADS as a by-product of all the fun we're having :)

Experiencing and Learning Together

Hooray for a successfully planned fun day :)  We went to our church group this morning - was lovely to see everyone as always - even if the boys' socialising there does seem to comprise almost entirely of heads bent over the various nintendo d/s consoles... :/
This afternoon there was a big 'birthday party' to go to: Mill Green (Hatfield) was 250 years old (in its present guise), so there was a big celebration with children's activities, re-enactments, demonstrations of Georgian crafts and music, and an exploration of the working watermill... it was all fascinating and we had a lovely time there. 
We heard some very noisy guns as we arrived (the boys couldn't wait to see them but Youngest was glad they didn't fire them again - he's really not keen on very loud noises). Inside the building, we really liked the model of the whole mill so we could see how it all linked together. 

Youngest was utterly enthralled by the perspex panel in the floor at the top of the mill, that allowed you to look through between your feet, and see the watermill going around.  All three boys were fascinated by the crafts being demonstrated around the place especially the spinning wheel; Eldest also enjoyed the bread-making (and I was a bit in awe of the cooks in those days who had to prepare the oven four hours before they could use it - and then had to get the week's cooking and baking done in the folowing 24hours!); Middle liked watching the woman churning butter, and they all had fun making their own paper crafts in the children's craft area:)  Finally just before we left, to Eldest's joy, we finally found the brick that we'd been looking out for, laid by the chap who restored the mill 250 years ago...

Given that none of my children seem to be that bothered about history in general (so far), the costumes and demonstrations of today certainly held their attention for a good while.   As usual, we grown-ups learned lots too (e.g. did you know that British people were eating curry and kebabs 250 years ago?) - I do love learning alongside the children, and I personally believe that showing them our own enthusiasm for learning is one of the best ways to get them interested as well!  If I was more confident in structured Home Ed, I'd probably be able to get a good few extra 'lessons' in next week off the back of today's visit.  As it is though, I'm just glad that they had a really good time today and  that Eldest and Middle were really interested (Youngest was too, but just not for as long, which is understandable given his age).  Anyway, we'll definitely go back another day (and hopefully it'll hopefully be quieter which will give Mummy an excuse to indulge in a cream tea)!

Learning while Deschooling

Well, Middle got off to a flying start today!  Before he even got out of bed he was reading a book, and then as soon as he came downstairs he found two paper plates and decided he wanted to make his own frisbee.  He asked if he could do it straight away, and following my principle of not saying no unless there's good reason, I said that was fine - so before even eating breakfast or getting dressed he sat down with said plates, crayons, glue and scissors (for experimental 'go-faster' flaps), and made his frisbee :)   Another benefit of Home Ed: learning can and does happen at any time!

While it dried he had breakfast, and then asked if he could go on the computer.  On went MathsWhizz, and he spent a good hour 'playing' on that!  Meanwhile Eldest and Youngest were in a bit of a mooch, so I decided some strewing was in order (see my Covert Education post).  With Eldest it's more of a case of exploring interesting stuff in front of him, as he doesn't seem to notice stuff that's just left laying around in the same way that Middle and Youngest do.  Anyway, I went into their learning room and while I asked him what he fancied doing today, I started pulling things off the shelves for 'me' to look at.  The first things I found was a birthday present that he hadn't got round to looking properly at: a How to Draw Rainforest and Ocean Animals kit with instructional DVD.  He immediately grabbed hold of it and asked if he could do it (oh, all right then!)  Youngest could not be prised from watching Middle on MathsWhizz, so Eldest had the lounge all to himself, and spent the next hour at least watching, learning and drawing.  In fact he watched the whole thing, beginning to end, and produced four pencil sketches of a gorilla, macaw, shark and elephant...
 

Given that art really isn't his subject, I was particularly pleased at his ability to stick with it - if you've read my last few posts, you'll understand my current feeling of abashed-ness (did I just make that word up?).  I think he did just great :)
Once it was Youngest's turn in the PC (Reading Eggs and CBeebies), Middle got into the arty mood again - he is a big fan of the craft box - and decided he was going to make a collage of a desert camel, using lollipop sticks, craft paper, glitter glue and extra sparkly bits (and two fish in the bottom left corner to show that he made it for his big brother, who loves undersea creatures!).  I love his creativity :) 

After Eldest's DVD finished he resumed mooching and was quite quickly joined by Middle.  Time for Mummy to reveal what was in the mystery package that a lovely friend brought round yesterday - "Electronic Battleships" - to happy squeals and shouts of "Cooo-oool!  Can we play it now?" (oh I do love being able to say 'yes' so often!)  Eldest and Middle absolutely loved it - and of course, it's great for practising Maths skills etc.   The only problem was that they had only been playing for ten minutes when Youngest got bored of the computer and immediately wanted to play with his big brothers, which really wasn't viable.  The older two needed me to stay with them as they were still getting the hang of the game, and I now had a whiney little one needing attention too - so that wasn't my favourite part of the day, even though Eldest and Middle had such a great time.  Next time will be better now they know what they're doing though - it was only a temporary stress :)

By the time they finished (Middle won, to his great delight) it was afternoon, and it was getting seriously HOT! (high of 84C in our garden today), so we ate lunch quickly and headed to Fairlands Valley Park, to play in the aqua playground.  There were lots of little ones there, so I had to warn Eldest in particular to be careful not to knock them over as he ran around, but other than that, they had a fabulous time and cooled down nicely - no being stuck in stuffy classrooms for us - and we got away before the after-school rush began... perfect :)

So all in all, that was another lovely day!  A day to put concerns to rest (yes, Middle will regain an interest in learning - and yes, Eldest will be able to concentrate when he is interested), and most importantly, another chance to just enjoy being with my lovely boys :)  It's funny really, the less stressed I get about their learning, the more they learn - which isn't that funny at all, is it? In fact it's obvious when you think about it:  If I'm stressed about their learning, so will they be, with the result that they won't learn, and they certainly won't enjoy learning!  And most of all, I want them to enjoy learning, otherwise how will I expect them to want to pursue it?  Deschooling for us has really become a sort of prolonged 'unschooling' experiment (again!) now. I still have concerns, but our confidence is growing all the time - it's not about leaving them to their own devices; it's about providing them with an environment conducive to learning (we have just a few flexible rules, such as TV off for most of the day, one hour max on computer etc), and then letting them explore - with help when requested or necessary. Anyway, deschooling/ unschooling/ whatever version of Home Ed this is, we're all learning lots, and relaxing lots too... it just gets better all the time :)

Bedtimes and Bug Hunts

This happened last night but was so lovely I had to share it...
Middle and Youngest were both late to bed, and ended up going at the same time, together - it was so late that we'd run out of time for a bedtime story (I had a friend coming round and needed to get downstairs to tidy up), so I said I would make up a 'Mummy story' to tell them with the lights out and Middle's "Star Master" on (it's a little night-light that projects stars onto the walls).  Thinking I'd keep it short., I made up a story about two boys who went camping and had a gentle adventure (the tent blew away and landed on a cow) before going home for hot chocolate.  It's not something we usually do, so I thought it was particularly cute when they both broke into spontaneous applause at the end of the story!  My 'problem' came when Middle asked oh-so-sweetly, "can I have my turn now please?".  I ask you, what mother with half a heart could have refused?  Well - maybe one with more resolve than me, but I'd far rather invent stories with my children than tidy up (it was a good friend and fellow mother coming: I knew she'd turn a blind eye to the mess).  Anyway, Middle started his story quite differently, with the Mummy in the story having three babies who all 'popped out' one after the other... (that features in many of his stories)... and then they all went camping - and the rest of the story was very similar to mine, wth a few embellishments, such as the tent landing on several animals.  Youngest was absolutely silent during both stories - surely, I thought, it was too much to hope that he might have fallen asleep... but no, when Middle finished (to our applause), he asked for his turn.  Again, his story was very similar to mine, except for the introduction of a 'normous' storm that crashed the neighbour's house down! (I'm still trying to work out where he got that bit from) - and instead of going home for hot chocolate, they went home for ham and sausages (he's such a carnivore - he gets it from his Daddy!).  I can't describe what an absolutely lovely and special time it was with my two younger boys.  I don't want to overcook it by planning to do it more regularly - but I do hope it happens again!
This morning we checked in on our caterpillars (as mentioned in Nature Projects) - they're fairly still most of the time so it's difficult to tell, but we think we may have a corpse as one is not growing at the same rate as the others!  (not surprising really - they tried to deliver on Saturday while we were out so took them back to the depot for the rest of the weekend... we didn't open the parcel until Monday!).  We've also had MathsWhizz (Eldest) and Reading Eggs (Middle and Youngest), and played zoos with Duplo - plus Eldest made a life-size model of himself lying on his bedroom floor - he was extremely pleased with himself when our lodger did a genuine double-take on her way past & told him she thought he'd been vaporised ;) 

Middle found the craft box, and grinned happily when I said yes he could make something.  He had a lovely time rootling around in it, and then found some 'animal pattern' card that I'd picked up in some sale a while ago - he made a sparkly snake and a 'cheetah-ghost'!  When Eldest saw what he was doing he quickly got inspired and made his own lizard-complete-with-habitat :)

   

This afternoon we went to Ivel Springs (near Baldock), for a gentle stroll and bug hunt with some other Home Ed friends.  I'd bought the boys some little bug viewers with cords that they can wear around their necks as I was getting a bit fed up of them losing them bug catchers, magnifying glasses etc, and this seemed like a good solution - it worked well and we had a really lovely walk, seeing lots of bugs: ladybirds, ants (Youngest was especially pleased to catch a fast-moving ant in his pot!), snails, honey bees, a red admiral butterfly, as well as some that we hadn't ever seen before - small green iridescent beetles and little striped crickets... we're still trying to ID them, but it's not easy!  An utterly lovely way to spend an afternoon though.  As we watched the chidren running happily through the long meadow-grass, my friend turned to me and said, "that's childhood!" - and she was right.  Opportunities like these are just the best :)

 

PS If you're interested in having a look, I've just updated the Royalty and Pottery post to include the boys' finished articles which they got back yesterday :)

Learning through soft play

This morning I took the boys to 360 Play, a huge soft play centre in our area.  As mentioned yesterday, one of the benefits of Home Ed is the option to go to places while others are at school/ work, and we certainly enjoyed being there when it wasn't hugely busy.  I had not planned it as an educational trip per se - just a chance to let off some steam on a rainy day, and also get some socialising in with other Home Edders.  Yet again though, now that my eyes are more tuned in to notice learning opportunities that just come up through play, I was surprised when I took a vague mental tally of the things that I saw them learning...
I immediately noticed all three boys learning and refining their gross motor skills as they tore around the enormous multi-level play frame & slide.  They also enjoyed the dodgem cars (I have to accompany Youngest as he's too small to go on his own, but he's still insistent that he steers the car!  So, co-ordination practice for all was very much in evidence - particularly as Eldest and Middle were enjoying the benefits of having the track mostly to ourselves, so they had the space to practice 'doughnuts' and other fancy steering techniques, without the supervisor telling them off for causing confusion on the track.  Later on, Youngest and Middle found the 'shooting balls into holes' games, and spent quite a while enjoying target practice (hand-eye co-ordination etc).  There was even a bit of science involved in the ball room, where three balls seem to float on their own, actually suspended on columns of high-pressure air - and the younger two loved getting the balls into the collection tubes as quickly as possible (learning to balance speed with accuracy).
Those were just the obvious points that I noticed... I'm sure there are many more ways that active play helps children to develop - research has shown that the benefits are physical, mental, social and emotional.  I was just happy to see them having a good time, and expending some of that ever-present energy.  I don't really feel the need to justify their play - I just find it interesting to take note of how much learning is going on all the time.
This afternoon the children watched some nature documentaries, and other educational programmes, then Eldest spent some time on MathsWhizz (he has automatically carried on doing half an hour of that, followed by half an hour of Clone Wars) while Middle, Youngest and I got to grips with their bedroom, and we actually uncovered the floor!
So, on the one hand it could be said that all we did today was basically played, watched TV and tidied up - and even if that were entirely true, I would just revert to my mantra from the other day: "and that's ok because we're deschooling".  However, it's all about how you look at it.  I am greatly encouraged in this deschooling lark, that an absence of learning structure is nowhere near the same as an absence of learning - I've just got to learn to see it through different eyes.  I may not be putting pressure on the boys (or myself) to perform to my preconceived standards of learning, but that has not stopped them from learning - far from it!  And I am learning at least as much too!  Learners are us :)

Accidental Educating

Well, this weekend we've started in a very organised way (unusually for us)!  Hubby and I had actually managed to make plans before the weekend arrived, and we'd agreed that we wanted to do an all-day trip to Hatfield Forest (National Trust) - all-day as it's quite a trek for us, being about an hour's drive away - and as the forecast for today was mostly dry, we packed a picnic and headed off.

It really was a lovely visit!  On the one hand it was just a lovely family time - which is what our main aim was, but I've also been thinking just now about how much curriculum can be covered in a simple "walk", without even trying.  Most obviously perhaps, there were some great Science opportunities: we took magnifying glasses (unfortunately we lost one - sigh), and much time was spent finding bugs and identifying them.  We also saw some ducks, geese and a grebe on the lake - and we were delighted to see that all of them had babies.

DS1 took his camera (there's Art for you) & learned the importance of patience when photographing living creatures... there were quite a few blurry shots before he caught this lovely one (first of the four), and when we got home he had a play on our photo editing programme to try out some special arty effects on it. I think they look great!

 

 

We also had a Maths opportunity, working out if we had enough money for certain souvenirs (yes) or to buy everyone a hot chocolate (no); we did some English, reading signs and talking about what they might mean (eg 'concealed hazards' in the lake), and Design & Technology, discussing why they thought chickenwire had been put on the wooden walk-ways; we played frisbee with DS2's purchase from the gift shop; we also played hide & seek in the woods, made dens, and used fallen logs to balance on and then jump off. And we walked for miles! In fact, we didn't stay all day as we ended up walking further than expected and we were all too worn out to go any further, so we got home by 3pm, at which point we all collapsed in the lounge with a hot chocolate :)

So considering we were just after a nice family walk in the fresh air that we'd been longing for yesterday, we managed to accidentally cover an enormous amount of 'curriculum' at the same time!  None of it had been planned (unless you count grabbing the cameras & magnifying glasses on the way out of the door), it just came up as we were wandering round... what a great start to the weekend though - we must try this day-trip organising lark a bit more often!