Flower power!

Well today was the day we had to kiss our oldest at child goodbye as she returned to her school term to recieve some GCSE results .
She loves school,and we are supporting her desire to be a part of this more formal style of education, but we just feel sad cos we love her being part of what we all do together .Having a child who does attend school makes the division between the holidays and so called term time seem more distinct for those of us at home.




So today as therapy and clebration of our lifestyle,we had a not back to school outing to RHS gardens in Wisley Surrey.We met another home educating family there so the children had peers to share their experience with.
DS and DD delighted in the many blossoms and flowers we could see while we were there.
We visited the Hot house, succulents and an educational root exhibition with interactive elements.
We also had a good look at their vegetable patch and there were next to no plants visibly growing there!
Thee were lots of perfectly raked and tilled plots though and a few containers with fleece covering the tender plants groing up.
DD and DS were amazing in their observations about seasnal change in these gardens!
We observed mallard ducks,Canadian geese a swan and a bird we have never encountered before but intend to identify.
We also observed adult managers trying to crisis manage when a power cut affected the area and the cafeteria was forced to close its doors to the public.
We discussed the cultural uniqueness of the style of queing and crowd formation amongst those present!
We talked about the problem solving we saw occurring and the need to bring in a shiny stand with a red cordon to control the queue formation!
We discovered the library and in particular the childrens corner and our children spent a long time there DS reading horrible science books and DD drawing and writing about her visit in the childrens visitor book and then reading childrens books about nature and gardening followed bu adult books which listed nearly every type of flower imaginable!!The children have taken about 121 photos of the gardens today.
I will ask them to chose some for me to add to this blog!
DS is now playing an interactive game on line with his Father and a friend.
YD is out with her friend who attends a nearby school for a playdate and tea.
ED is upstairs doing home work chatting on socail networks and trying to allow her body chance to recover from the day she has had at school!

The circle of life

Bethan our pet goldfish has sadl died,there was a terrible incident which ended up with finding the poor goldfish being found trapped in the filter of the tank.
This was a very sad day for YD who had this fish as part of her birthday present.
Ds was also very sad as he loves fish and has been terribly concerned about the whole incident change and transition for Ds is hard as he is considered to have Aspergers syndrome or difference.
ED is very familar with this situation and offered lots of things to try to eas the discomfort.
There was a brief but touching funeral and the children all went out to the garden for a goodby to the fish bounce on the trampoline together.
It may seem dramatic but even such a small animal dying has led to the children discussing our mortality as they have in the last two years witnessed the death of their very much loved grandfather so are aware that life has a finite period to it in this bodily form.
Later they all went into the garden and did a coke and mentos experiment in honour of beloved Bethan the Goldfish.
I feel touched that the children are able to clearly express such a variety of feelings and needs.
I am touched that even a small pet dying matters to them.
I am confident that even a sad day like this for them will prove helpful in the lessons they will need for life ahead.
I feel I can learn much from children who can move from sad feelings of loss to silly giggles and happy memories.

Milestones an adventure in history for our children!

Old fashioned sweet shop,where the children had to use old coinage to make thier purchases!

the only occaision our youngest daughter will have attended school this year!

finally helping witha few domestic chores!

Bubbleology

Just an updated album of lovely bubbly fun from our home education group called Popcorn when we met in our local park on Monday!
Happy days!

Learning everywhere we go!

We have been very busy indeed so
here is a summary of the story so far...

Monday :
Dotty had a sunny walk pouncing on every shadow she saw !
We had a brill morning with pancakes for breakfast,fed chickens,played music,read ,and prepared for Popcorn our home education group where we held a bubble bonanza in our local park!It was all goodclean fun honest!
We filled a paddling pool with home made bubble solution gave, the children a step and a hulahoop and they created bubbles large enough to stand inside!the children had bubble wands of every size and shape including home made ones!We also had a solution of paint and bubbles in a smaller container so that the children could blow bubbles and print the images onto paper!

There was a lot of joy and giggles amongst our group that day!
Then to top it all one lovely family bought every child present a yummy ice cream!

Tuesday:
Dotty nearly caught a squirrel on her morning walk!!!Squirrels aren't prepared for how high she can spring!
We read ,youngest daughter continued working on ideas for home school musical,we played musical instruments together,played games and started to make fruit syryp fro fruit tea and sugar for snow cones! Yummy!
Youngest daughter decided she wanted to learn how to prepare cottage pie so I helped her as she learnt....the results were amazing!
DS was very busy building lego and using his computer on an interactive game to do with pirates!

Wednesday:
Dotty had glorious walk,with some of her canine comapnions and enjoyed eating half of my banana with her breakfast!

we packed up a picnic and headed to Basingstoke to the Milestones Museum which is an interactive history Museum startingf rom victorian ages to the present day.
Both daughters dressed up in victorian clothes and really entered into the whole thing,DS spent
We learnt about work conditions,care for employees etc.
We met with three other home educating families and ate lunch in the education picnic room!
The children had the experience of using authentic antique money to but sweets weighed out in a reconstructed sweet shop, interacted with people dressed up and playing victorian roles and generally enjoyed the numerous displays including and amusing display of hair treatment equipment !!!
We paid for a culture passport which will give us fee entry and parking at numerous attractions in hapshire and unlimited entries to Milestones from now on.his time exploring the mor eengineering based exhibits and trying to build a viaduct using the foam bricks provided for this purpose!
Both daughters attended school for an hour victorian style!
Ds refused saying he was only happy to renact history as a home educated child!!!
We also watched a presentation about Taskers a Company form Hampshire who durig the victorian period produced a huge variety of parts and products made of iron!
This could be a great place to visit.
After our trip YD went to a home educated friends house for a play date and DS and ED came home for a well earnt rest!
Thought you might like to see the progress of our propogated seeds!

Learning by living

This is more of anouncment than a blog.....our family has had its own little rethink and we have decided to step into a whole new life style so we are now unschooling in the greatest sense.
The stuff we tried to do to tick the boxes would please any school minded person but if school was right for our children then they would be there.
They seem to know what they need to learn right now and we are willing to support their interests and help them access resources as they need.
This is not a method of education it is a tranfsormation in life style .
The children will learn thigs that interest them and will be learning alongside them.
We will need to resource ourselves not with school schedules but with,enough human and spiritual resources to respectfully hear their ideas about life and join the journey they are on.
This is not a passive thing it takes investment of time emotion and real presence in our parenting.
Dotty will love this journey becuase she gets to come along to and add to and enhance our lives together.
What sparked this was our children getting flu!
?Our daughter age 9 had a very high temperature but in her pyjamas she wroked on more craft art and started preparing an outline for her latest theatre project which will be called Home school Musical!!!
She has written a script andlyrics and has persauaded a local home educating mum who is a drama teacher to help her and they plan to do a two week workshop with performance in the summer.
She also discussed the science of how her body was fighting the infection.
She asked about reproduction in mammals and humans ...she totally led the questions and once she felt she had accessed enough info walked away as though it was all every day...she has age books and appropriate web sites where she can find out more but seems content for now!
Then she asked if we could go and see the film..How to train your dragon.
So as soon as she got better we took the family to see the film which we all loved.
Fred ordered the book at the childrens request when we came back and today it arrived at 9am and DS had rea dit by 12 noon! In the middle of the woodland trail where we had gone for a walk and picnic with two other home educating families.
DD loves the book but has read it a little more slowly, in the tranquility of her home . She has enjoyed sharing he rbook by reading it aloud to me and even asking me to read a page or two to her she loves showing me the illustrations and commenting on them.
DD's favourite thing to do at night is to snuggle up on the bed with me and read or chat until she is alomost or actually asleep then we helpher move to her room .
This is an imporatnt part of her day as she loves to share her ideas and feelings during this time.
I go to bed quite ealry as I get up really ealry to walk the dog with the pack of dogs she loves to socialise with!
Tommorow we travel to Bournemouth to visit our four week old puppy called Daisy we can't wait to see how much she has grown since we met her last!
Dotty will come with us and get to take a walk in the new Forest!