Against the Grain

Home Ed - Cooking Workshop

2011-11-16T20:17:00.001Z

Last Wednesday we had our regular Home Educators meet up with our local Worthing group. Last themed workshop was 'Family History'. This one was a 'Cooking Workshop', and it was just as successful as the Family History one! The big difference was the take-home items from this workshop were Yummy & Edible!

I pre-baked 22 small pizza bases the night before (in foil cases), as well as 22 chocolate chip cookies. (whew!), and also chopped up the fruit for our Fruit Kebabs.

We started the Workshop off with the Pizza Making Table. But before everyone embarked upon making their own scrumptious pizza, I did a little pitch about how Cooking involves Science, Language, Math and History. I handed out a little pamphlet I printed out at home, that had a Science Experiment using the same ingredients you make pizza dough with, a few puzzles, a temperature conversion table, some information on Nutrition and Vitamins from fruit & veggies, and the recipes I used for the Pizza and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Further below I put a link to the pamphlet which can be used by anyone who would find it useful for their own home ed (or other) group. The artwork on the pamphlet was created by one of our young Home Ed children (isn't it fabulous!)

I also just so happen to have some refrigerator reference magnets from a business I started years ago (and am trying to revise these days!), one magnet was a 'Cooking Conversions' table (since my measurements are always cups/spoons but here in England it's weights/volume), and the other was a 'British Seasonal Produce' magnet listing all the local seasonal produce by month.

Okay!... so back to the Pizza Making table.....after the children got a squirt of anti-bacterial hand wipe on their hands (Health & Safety!), the each got a pizza base and then headed to the table where they added sauce, cheese and toppings of their choice. Everyone really enjoyed making their own pizza, especially the young lady who shaped her tomatoes and bell pepper in to a happy face, putting the fresh spinach as hair :)

After Pizza, everyone got to make a Fruit Kebab, because, as I mentioned at the Workshop, we always make sure we eat the healthy snacks before the Cookies!

After Kebabs, everyone ran off to enjoy some Birthday party games that another Home ed Mum had brought to celebrate her daughters birthday. This was great timing for Pass-the-Parcel, because it allowed me to clean and and get ready for Chocolate Chip Cookies!.

For the cookie making table, each child got to put an ingredient in the bowl. One young man impressed us with his ability to separate an egg! (he did it so gracefully). When it came time to putting the chocolate chips in, I knew there'd be some problemo's if one child got to put those in and not the others. SO, I acted quickly and handed the person to my left a tablespoon and said 'Here, put a spoonful in and pass the spoon', and it worked perfectly! Each and every person around the table got to throw some chocolate chips in the dough, so was smiles all around.
Thankfully, I had pre-baked some cookies that morning so everyone could eat one then and there. I put some dough in foil containers I brought, so each family could bring dough home to cook later.

Well that was it! Pizza, Cookies and Kebabs.....a winning combination for a 2 hour Workshop. Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their pamphlets and magnets as well.

Next Workshop is a 'Detective Academy' where kiddo's will complete detective courses for Fingerprinting, Invisible Writing, Decoding and Handwriting Analysis......as well as complete a challenging obstacle course. Once completed, they receive a Certificate of Completion.......how cool is that!

But that's a week away from now. In meantime, I must get back to my businesses I'm determined to launch sooooooon.

Here's the Cooking Workshop Pamphlet. I printed back-to-front then folded as a booklet.

Cooking Workshop Pamphlet - Cover Cooking Workshop Inside 1 Cooking Workshop Pamphlet-Inside-2 Cooking Workshop Pamphlet - Inside 3

Secret Agent Birthday Party

2011-11-15T11:56:00.001Z

Ooohhhh, I have SO much to catch up on posting. It was a wild and crazy few weeks getting things ready for Indigo's 9th birthday, followed immediately by putting on a 'Cooking Workshop' for our home ed group. Whew!

Indigo's 'Secret Agent' birthday party was a big success. She had five of her girlfriends and Cypress attending (Zephyr opted out) for a day of being 'Secret Agents'. Of course, this meant yours truly had a LOT of work to do setting it all up! And I didn't get many pictures of the actual day because I was busy running around with 7 clever detectives that day, solving the 'Case of the Stolen Gems', which they successfully found in the end :)
I found the I-SPY DETECTIVE AGENCY Logo on another website and I'm trying to find it again so I can post up credit for it here! I'll add later. The rest of the ideas I came up with by myself.

Invitations I made. I cut some file folders down to size, decorated as Top Secret, then inserted the invitation (see below)

I also included a 'Secret Agent Security Badge' with each invitation, that had a picture of the Secret Agent (since they've been to previous birthday parties, I had photo's of each agent on hand!), their 'Years of Service' (their age) and the date the badge was effective (Indigo's birthday). I laminated the badges then hole-punched a hole on each side, slipping a pretty ribbon through for the necklace part.

Look closely you can see 'Security Badges'.
Oh, and Indigo got some Face Paints for her b'day so she has a rainbow on her face
(that's her holding her birthday flowers from a friend :)

I also decorated the outside of our front door to look like official 'I-Spy Headquarters'

complete with red warning 'Authorised Personnel Only' signs

but I can't seem to find a picture of my cool door

When the guests arrived, they decorated their own 'Spy Journals' with some craft materials (pretty papers, stickers, glue, tape, etc.) I had laid out on the table. I made the journals by cutting some bright red file folders I happened to have on hand, then I folded in half and stapled printer paper inside for the perfect sized 'Spy Journal'.

Decorating Spy Journals

I then read the 'Spies' this letter that was sent for them

Dear Secret Agents

The note above also had a handwritten in red pen: ''P.S. Agent X asked me to give you this puzzle piece, he said you would need it later today''

(I had hand painted an old puzzle the night before then wrote the last clue in huge text, so the Agents would be collecting all 17 pieces throughout the day to get to the last clue)

Then one of our guests went to the loo and found this note taped to the mirror

Dear Secret Agents, This is Agent X. Your First Clue is hidden in the
front garden. You will need to pretend you are trimming the hedges, but look closely
and you will see the hidden strings that contain your next clue.

Thankfully, one of our Agents is very clever and figured out to hold the message up to the mirror to read!

All the Agents quickly went to the front garden and 'pretended to trim the hedges', and sure enough, there were 7 ends of dark green string poking out for them to pull. Each Agent pulled a string, and out popped another clue taped to the end of one of them. The other 6 strings had a puzzle piece taped to the end.

The clue read

"You've found the next clue! Now head to Goring town centre and make sure you take the Woodlands. The Golden Arrow will direct you to the next clue''

Then I was off chasing after 7 Secret Agents who ran towards the woodlands.

There, they found many arrows scattered around, made out of sticks, pointing towards various Oak trees, but none led to a clue. FINALLY, one of the Agents spotted the Golden Arrow, which pointed to an Oak Tree containing a small colourful box with the next clue!

(Golden Arrow was 3 large sticks painted gold then sprinkled with gold glitter and wired together in to an arrow)

The clue inside the box contained a Cipher Wheel (<--I created!) and a message saying

"Great Job Secret Agents! You'll need this Cipher Wheel for your next clue which is at the Coffee Shop where one of our Secret Agents is waiting for you now, but you'll need to give her the secret password again. Do you recall what it is? When you get the next clue make sure the Cipher Wheel is set at Code Z''

My Mother-in-Law was waiting at the Coffee Shop with 7 Party Bags filled with surprises, AND each bag had a piece of the next clue, which was written in code. We took a break (I grabbed a cuppa to go!), then the Agents put all clues together and deciphered them

The clue read ''YOUR NEXT CLUE IS AT THE CAKE SHOP''

So off we went to the Cake Shop. The Secret Agents repeated the secret password 'Birthday Party' and the cake shop lady handed each Agent a bag of chocolate golden coins. Taped to the tag of each bag was a portion of the next clue, which the Agents had to put together in order. Once they figured out the order, the clue read

"An Apple a Day keeps the Doctor Away. Who on the High Street would have an Apple?''

The Birthday Girl declared "The Green Grocer!', so we walked across the street to the Green Grocer, who handed each girl a paper bag each that contained a big juicy apple.

And taped to each apple was the next clue! It read

"Take the Footpath. X marks the spot'

So off the Agents went down the footpath,

and sure enough there was a big orange X on the ground. At first they couldn't find the next clue, but then one of our clever agents found a green jar hidden behind the lamp post, and taped to the jar was a message that read

"You've had the next clue all along! Pour this secret purple potion on page 4 of Agent GoDini's Spy Journal to find the hidden message''

Sure enough, the agents poured the potion on page 4 (which I had secretly written the night before and had to make sure that Agent GoDini decorated that particular journal and took it with her!)

and there the secret message was revealed reading ''Head Back to Headquarters''

Agent Niky found the Secret Purple Potion!

Secret Message Revealed (message was written in baking soda/water mixture
purple potion was just lemon juice with splash of Ribena)

So the Agents ate their delicious apples (some ate their toffee's, that the Agents explained to me were the BLECH toffee's....I apparently need to learn more about Yummy toffee's!) on the walk home, and when we arrived we found an envelope taped to the door that read 'FINAL CLUE'

Inside was just 1 puzzle piece, and a message saying 'The Final Piece to the Puzzle. you know what to do next!'

Secret Agents then spent many quiet moments working together to put the puzzle in place,

then they read the final clue which was

"The gems are hidden in a book where the wild things are, and it was my idea''

Well, a few days before the party I had carved out a secret nook from an old book I no longer wanted called 'The Idea Catcher', and I hid the shiny (acrylic) gems inside, then placed it on my daughters bookshelf next to 'Where the Wild Things Are' book.

The Agents raced upstairs, found the book and Voila! found the gems.

At about that time their Mums showed up with the brothers (Zephyr returned home), and we had Tea and Cake whilst all the kiddo's ran around playing for awhile. I went overboard with my baking (as usual) I baked Lemon Bars, Jammy Dodgers, and Chocolate Chip Cookies, plus the scrumptious chocolate birthday cake (some recipes are further below).

But Indigo (errr, I mean 'Agent GoDini') had the best birthday. At least that's what she tells me :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here is Agent X

Zephyr (aka: Agent X) went out with his Daddy right before the Secret Agents went on their Spy adventure......and he hid all the clues. (his face here is painted thanks to Indigo getting Face Paints for her b'day)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Lemon Bar Recipe

Jammy Dodger Recipe (aka: Linzer Tarts)

Hogwarts School

2011-10-29T22:39:00.003+01:00

Today my children got to go to Hogwarts School!

After getting their Magic Wands, they completed all their lessons successfully, including Divination, Potions (which Zephyr actually drank!), Transformation, Charms, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and battling Dark CreaturesAfter wearing themselves out with such incredible fun, My Griffindor's (Indigo & Cypress) and Hufflepuff (Zephyr) got to enjoy a magical feast of Bat Sandwiches and other yummies, including some Butter Beer from the Leaky Cauldron.
I didn't capture nearly enough photo's of the entire event. I'm hoping some other guests post pics of the Sorting Hat and also those incredible Lesson Books and stickers.
Well, Hats Off to our friend Dee who put on this incredible party for her son, Harry. My children ADORE Harry and wish him the happiest birthday ever.
For now, they are sitting here in the complete darkness with me trying to get to sleep.....whilst playing with their neon glowing bracelets they picked up at Transformation class :)

Sea Classics

2011-10-28T01:45:00.000+01:00

Our recent interest in Family History has me inspired to collect information about my side of the family to share with my children. Since we now live thousands of miles away from my family, I try and do little things here and there to keep memories alive, because, quite frankly, we can't afford air fare for a family of 6 to just pop back home to visit. Like last year for Christmas we decorated 25 envelopes I hung from clothespins as an Advent Calendar. I assigned each envelope to a family member and then stuffed the envelope with pictures and written stories, newspaper clippings, etc. about that family member. Each day as a countdown to Christmas, my children opened an envelope and learned some Family History. (oh, and there were also candies and crafts in the envelopes too:)

We recently decorated Family Questionnaire booklets to send out to family members back in the states, which I hope to do this weekend. I can't wait to show you the artwork my girls did on the booklet covers, hand decorating each one.

I also do a LOT of storytelling with my children. Often making up magical fiction stories, but also find time to tell family history stories to not only educate my children about their ancestors but also to remind myself of fond memories I have of my own family.

My maiden name is Howard, an English name though the family was in Cajun country coming from Daisy, Louisiana (look it up on map....it's in middle of nowhere near Port Sulphur, Louisiana) before settling in 9th Ward, Louisiana. My mother's maiden name was Lafferty (Irish, settled in Mississippi), her mother's maiden name was Southern (I'm told she came from a Scots-Irish family) and my father's mother's maiden name was Brown (English, from Mandeville, Louisiana area, I'm told were gypsy's who travelled in tents and sold homemade candy until settling in New Orleans), with her mother's maiden name as Thibodeaux (as Cajun as Cajun can be). So if you're reading this and you come from any of those families, holla!

I'll leave you with an interesting article my Dad's brother, my Uncle Ragan Howard, published about my Great-Great-Grandfather Howard, in a magazine called 'Sea Classics'. I recall reading this article in a magazine when I was a teenager, but looks like it was republished back in 2003. I had no idea back then that I would be living so close to all the places my GGGrandfather Howard came from. I've been to a few places mentioned in the article, and hope to make it to a few more. Maybe I'll discover some other interesting family members to wow my children with stories of :)

Uncle Ragan Howard's Article

Bwu-hahahahaha

2011-10-26T21:54:00.001+01:00

We celebrated Halloween a bit early today, but WOW, what a celebration.
One of the mums from our little HomeEd group put on the most fantastic Halloween Party this evening, and I only WISH I had taken more photo's that captured the entire experience.
All three of my children have declared that this was the best day of their Life (wow!)
Lots of lovely nibbles, pumpkin carving, lantern decorating, face painting, fire pit, roasting marshmallows, trick-or-treating through the woods via a lantern lit walk, hot cocoa.....and best of all time spent with great friends.
Sending our Home Ed group a big hug tonight.....they truly are spectacular people.
And an extra hug to the mum who put on this amazing event. Indigo, Cypress and Zephyr will most certainly remember this always as a lovely childhood memory.

Making Spooky Halloween Cookies

Spooky Halloween Cookie Making

Cypress wanted to be a Cowgirl for Halloween.
I made this outfit for her with a charity-shop ladies dress I cut up

Indigo wanted to be a Native American, so I made this
outfit with some old fabric I've had for a decade or so

''Howwww''

Share the love

Zephyr decided to be....this

I gave birth to this

Oh, and Cypress made this 'gun' for her costume (recognize the toilet paper rolls?)

We made some 'Ghosts' to hang in the woods for the party

The food table (check out the spider web in background...)

Bwu-hahahahhaaaaaaa

The cookies (or biscuits) the children made

Most fantabulous outfit this evening

Drink Table

Ninja!

Party!

A few of the carved pumpkins

Indigo and Zephyr's pumpkins

All da pumpkins

Just before we set out for the Lantern Walk/Trick-or-Treatin

Night at the Museum

2011-10-24T22:46:00.000+01:00

The museum looks more like a messy house, but I found a bit of clean floor space I could lay out the kiddo's latest drawings/paintings and take photo's.

whew!

I'm going to quickly pop these up here, for I MUST get to bed early tonight. One of the Home Ed mums is putting on a spooktacular Halloween party this Wednesday and I want to head over in the morning to help with the set up. I also have to zip over to the post office to mail our Halloween Matchbox Swaps, AND, the invitations to Indigos' 9th 'Secret Agent' birthday. She's having 5 of her girlfriends over to be 'spies' for the day, and I can't WAIT to post pics of the invites.....they are fantastic! It's going to be a fun birthday.

But, in meantime, enjoy the artwork :)

Zephyr drew this picture for me then asked me to colour it in

Zephyr drawings

Indigo's illustrating a book she's writing.....about a Unicorn :)

The Unicorn's having a picnic. And the 3rd picture of the Unicorns playing football won't post for some reason (I'll add later)

Indigo's latest water colour paintings

My fave...the rainbow duck looking at his reflection in the water

Momma and her chicks

Lots of BFF paintings lately

painting of a little stuffed squirrel they picked up from the charity shop

Cypress' coloured pencil drawing of a Haunted House...she drew the picture below on the backside

All the rooms of the haunted house....filled with ghosts

Cypress' water colour paintings...she calls this her new style of painting

Cypress' new style of painting

Cypress painting

Cypress' marker pen drawings....yet another 'new style' she says she created

The entire picture is done in swirls

Cypress draws China

Cypress draws an Indian village

Reading Picnic

2011-10-22T17:22:00.000+01:00

Today is Saturday, the weather is perfectly Autumn, and the kiddo's and I are getting through a lot of our 'to-do's', and a bit more.

I was asked yesterday if we could to a 'Reading Picnic' today, so the lovely Indigo baked us some chocolate muffins whilst I prepared sandwiches and other nibbles. Then we enjoyed reading stories aloud in the back garden whilst enjoying the yummy picnic too.

After a few hours of working on various craft projects, we took a break and head over to Rustington to run a few errands. I swore we would not buy anything other than what was on our list (yeast, cooking apples), BUT, we saw a box of books for 10p each at a charity shop, so we scrounged up pocket money to bring home a few. Oh, and then Zephyr changed his mind about being Harry Potter for Halloween, when he found a skeleton mask, which he's been wearing ALL day, including when we walked through our neighbourhood to the post box. The neighbours already think we're nutters so I suppose it doesn't matter.

Kiddo's are quietly reading their new books. After my relaxing tea break I must get back to finishing up to-do's. We're finishing up our Halloween themed Matchbox Swap, and also on the list is to create 'Security Badges' for Indigo's girlfriends she's invited to her 'Secret Agent' birthday fun next month. Oh, and also finally finishing all of our 'Family Questionnaire' booklets to send back home to my side of the family. My children are quite keen to get to know more of their Family History since our home ed event last month!

Here's a snapshot of our finds :)

Cypress picked these out

Indigo LOVES ponies AND Enid Blyton

I picked this one out :)

10 pence each. We were too excited about a vintage Danger Mouse :)

Danger Mouse had a Halloween Story (perfect timing!)

Danger Mouse also had a Family Tree with story!

AND Danger Mouse had a Secret Agent section

In meantime, Zephyr read about naught Denice the Menace

Confusing Cans

2011-10-19T16:27:00.004+01:00

My children started towards their CREST 'Star Awards' today as CREST Star Investigators. We signed up with our local Home Ed 'Science & Technology' Group.

The first activity completed today was the 'Confusing Cans' and what I thought would be a simple activity turned in to something complicated and fun, with smiles all around.

They started off shaking the cans to guess what's inside, and even though I had informed my children that the cans were either Corn, Soup, Coconut Milk or Baked Beans, somehow they guessed Peaches and Tomatoes. We were off to a great start!

We tried rolling the cans indoors, but our messy house had too many obstacles in the way, so we headed outdoors. They rolled cans, measured distance, then headed back indoors to weigh cans, and in the end finally concluded that Indigo had Coconut Milk, Cypress had the soup, Zephyr had the corn, and Mommy had the Baked Beans. AND, we found the Coconut Milk to be perplexing but found out it's normal to start off as a solid then turn to liquid the more it's rolled and shaken.

Whilst the activity suggested we open to cans to see, that seemed like a waste because none of us were in the mood to eat those things, so my children had a better idea to remake labels to tape back on the cans.

And I had a great idea to end our activity with an afternoon snack of chocolate chip cookies and milk :)

We're all really excited about the first star......now bring on the 2nd star activity!! (and more cookies-n-milk :)

Home Ed-Family History Workshop

2011-10-13T07:00:00.001+01:00

Yesterday our local Home Ed group met up for a 'Family History Workshop'. Children and Parents alike learned how various cultures capture their Family History, and then enjoyed some hands on messy crafts, a 'Monster Moshi Family Tree' game followed by enjoying some yummy vegan chocolate cupcakes.

Now, I say 'we', because it was a cooperative day of everyone joining in; however, I forgot to mention that yours truly put together the workshop, which means, I've been VERY busy creating posters, booklets, instructions, and running around getting craft supplies, etc. But it was all great fun, and I look forward to future workshops (we have many planned!)

Here's some snapshots from the Family History Workshop fun, and a few links just below so you can put on your own workshop if you fancy :)

We started off learning about how various cultures capture their Family History; such as

Native American Totem Poles

Medieval Coat of Arms

Scottish Tartans

Family Trees


Children making Family History crafts

A lovely mum who taught us all about Scottish Tartans

Making Coat of Arms

Blogger keeps showing this pic sideways! but it's a Unicorn Coat of Arms

Before she cut it out and taped to cardboard tube

We then decorated some Family Questionnaire Booklets

designed so you can mail these to relatives who answer the Family History

questions, then mail back to you, allowing you to collect information about your Family

My attempt to make a poster explaining it all :)

Our younger Home Ed members enjoying some Mommy/Toddler time

Parents having a chat over coffee and tea

Taking a break to play football

I created a Family Tree Game of the Monster family with 'Moshi Monster' being our lead character.

I printed 3 generations of Moshi's family members, including their family title with their picture.

Each child got a picture of a family member, and the object of the game was to

sort out which family member went where on the Family Tree.

Here I drew the Family Tree diagram, with Moshi at the bottom


It was a bit pandemonium but we got it sorted eventually

Paternal side of of Moshi Monsters family

Maternal side of Moshi Monsters Family

Enjoying Moshi Monster Vegan Cupcakes!

All in all a fun day, and we all learned something. We have some more fun workshops planned in the coming months, but First, shall be planning for a fun Halloween Party!!

BINGO!

2011-10-10T20:55:00.002+01:00

Was another Busy Day! the corporate job had my full attention with lots of that ''corporate stuff'', but I did manage a quickie lunch break so the kiddo's and I could mail off our Periodic Table 'Matchbox Swaps' (without taking a photo, unfortunately :( because they were so beautiful!), and we picked up the perfect little 'Mascot' that's to become our Worthing Home Ed Mascot. At each home ed event, our little Mascot will get to go home with someone new who can keep a diary of activities in the mascots journal before bringing it back so it can go home with yet another member. Can't wait to introduce 'Sunny Squirrel' as our new Worthing Home Ed Mascot!

Today, Indigo put our 'Autumn Scavenger Hunt' cards together for an event tomorrow morning. We're scheduled to meet some Home Ed friends in the little woods behind our house to enjoy this scavenger hunt. Albeit's a bit earlier than we're use to doing events, but I'm having to squeeze in what I can between conference calls at work :)

I'm going to attempt to post our Scavenger Hunt Cards, and if I'm successful, then also our recent Tide Pool Bingo cards will be posted further below :) Must go now, because I have lots to also prepare for our 'Family History Workshop' this Wednesday!

The Fairy Village

2011-10-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

Wild Chestnuts!

We took a break today from indoor projects and head out to the forest to forage for wild nuts. We scored!

Yummy Beechnuts

A few hours later, we came home with not only a tasty harvest of chestnuts and a snack of beechnuts, but Cypress and Zephyr came home with a new costume of scary beechnut claws, and Indigo some more twigs for her back garden Fairy Village.

The Fairy village started out as just a few houses after one of their BFF's spent the day with us yesterday. Since weather was warm enough, we took their BFF on a woodlands walk to gather 'supplies' (feathers, acorns, twigs, rocks, leaves) and then spent the day building Fairy Houses. I've reassured my children that the Fairies of Goring-by-Sea are thoroughly enjoying their little village at night. Here's a few photo's of the growing village (just in case you're a Fairy passing by and need a place to stay :)

I love the fence of bird feathers in the back

in case you're wondering, the trail of acorns is leading to a
Squirrel Trap that Indigo built (she's sort of moving on from
Fairy Houses and on to Squirrel Traps)

The Squirrel Trap

Behind the scenes of the Fairy Village

Fairy Village Supplies we gathered

Getting down to it

One of their BFF's

Even Zman got in to it

Z's Fairy House

Bad picture of the Fairy Village

Wish I had a night-vision camera to capture
the fairies having big parties here

Clubbing

2011-10-09T05:30:00.001+01:00

So, another reason I've been distracted of late, is due to kids clubs starting back up. We spent the past year with only one weekly commitment of Badgers, which is sort of like Scouts or Brownies, but is all First Aid related activities associated with St. Johns Ambulance. It's one of the few activities I found myself appreciating, because it's cheap! it's fun, it's education, and, it's accepting. as home educators, we often find ourselves sticking out like a sore thumb in many club activities where most children know each other from school, and typically I find the adults nearly fear me because home educating is so foreign to them. But not at Goring Badgers. Yes, we are the only home educators in the group, but it rarely shows itself. My children have made friends with school children who come for play dates at our home and it's a nice feeling to see camaraderie.

We had tried moving over to Worthing Badgers for awhile so Indigo and Cypress could make a Ballet class as well, but that club was BORING, beyond words. Was very strict and more 'sit down with instructions' type activities; whereas, Goring is relaxed and room to run around. Surprisingly; however, the club leader manages to easily maintain a sense of order but she uses humour versus the authority method of Worthing Badgers. We went back to Goring Badgers, and Ballet took a back seat. We may explore Ballet again one day, but, to be honest, I wasn't happy at all with that scene. Too much hairspray and I got a bit concerned when I noticed how incredibly skinny adult ballet dancers are. combined with a friend who started ballet very young and complains of what it's done to the womanly part of her body, mainly her hips not forming correctly. I dunno if I'm over reacting, but my girls aren't fussing about missing out on ballet, so we enjoy Badgers for now.

Oh, and Gymnastics, and Musical Theatre, and Young Embroiders Guild. Somehow we wound up back in a busy weekly club schedule, but I'm enjoying it this time. Perhaps because my children set up this schedule for themselves, versus me setting up clubs for them. The Gymnastics is fantastic this time around. We found a club that is truly hands on and focused on the actual sport, versus the previous Gym club we were signed up to in Lancing that was overcrowded (money money money!) and the club owner always had a sourpuss look and never said anything to you, other than handing out slips of paper with 'amount due' on them. The club owner we're in now is friendly, chatty and hands on involved.

Musical Theatre is just my girls, and is a mere walk through the trails and trees to get there, which I'll probably complain about now that it's winter. But, for now, weather is decent and it's fun listening to Indigo and Cypress sing all 'The King and I' songs. Zephyr wasn't even remotely interested.
Young Embroiders Guild is just once/month, and also the same walk through trails and trees. What I REALLY appreciate about this one is that it's a hall full of girls of all ages (again, Z not interested), and they are working towards productive goals because they love what they do. I'm glad Indigo and Cypress are being influenced to see teenagers spending a Saturday afternoon sewing and crafting, and showing off their hard work.

Well, there you have it. We're back to a busy schedule but it's not feeling chaotic at all, just productive and fun and healthy. We spend most days at home together just chilling out, so that probably helps, and we still have time to meet up often with friends

I've already updated a mouthful here, so will save it for next post to chat about all the other fun and exciting Home Ed activities we're starting up; such as, Tide Pool Bingo, Autumn Scavenger Hunts, a twice/monthly HE Cooperative with exciting events I've planned (next Wednesday a 'Family History Workshop' with some fun crafts and a wacky game the kids will love).... Not to mention a 'Home Ed Matchbox Swap' club I started up. We just finished the first Swap themed box of Periodic Table I'll post up next week after our swap partners receive their boxes.

Ciao for Now!

Field Notes

2011-10-08T22:03:00.000+01:00

Once again, Catching Up

Winter is here, so will catch up by posting some recent outings we did.
This one, my weeuns got excited to learn that we would be exploring a 'place unknown'
and they grabbed their binoculars, journals, microscopes....then we headed outdoors.

Here's a few photo's of our adventure in Fittleworth

'Twas the Night Before School Started.....

2011-09-06T12:12:00.002+01:00

An un-schooling friend of mine posted this on her Facebook status today, and whilst I cannot advise who actually wrote these, I hope okay to post for all to read because they sum it up rather well. (at least in my opinion!)

Back to School Poem

Twas the night before school started, when all through the town, the parents were cheering... It was a riotous sound! By 8, kids were washed and tucked into bed... Where memories of homework filled them with dread! New pencils, new folders, new notebooks too! New teachers, new friends...Their anxiety grew! The parents just giggled when they learned of this fright- and shouted upstairs: Go To Bed! It's A School Night!

Not Back To School Poem

‘Twas was the night before school started, but at places in town, some families weren't affected; they didn’t frown. The kids understood they wouldn’t be trapped;
... their home educating direction was already mapped.
New projects, new field trips, old friends and new--
hour after hour their excitement grew.
The parents said gently, let’s go to bed.
We have plenty of adventures that surely lie ahead

Make and Do

2011-08-24T21:48:00.003+01:00

Been trying to update my blog, BUT, my children seem to be tugging at me at all directions these days.
This is because they seem to have all reached a peak of 'Making Things'.
I mean, they ALWAYS make things. Our house is arranged so our children have access to oodles of craft and art supplies, and they certainly make good use of their freedom to create create create.
Which means I'm usually left to clean up a lot of messes, but I don't mind because I'm so impressed with everything my children make and do. I'm sure it's probably not as impressive to the rest of the world out there, but to ME, it's all amazing. Anywho, I thought tonight I would have at least 5 minutes to update my blog now, but as I type, I'm hearing 'Mommy, come see this!' - lately the kiddo's just seem to be Making & Doing oodles of their own fun things.

Indigo Making & Doing

Turning an old puzzle frame in to a pretty picture frame

Her Lincoln Log house she made for her foxes (check out the fox listening to the boombox)

She whipped this up today - her own idea, own design.
I didn't even know she was doing it until it was done!

Wet Felt picture from an ad-hoc class yesterday

Cypress' Making & Doing

she's very girly - so making a glittery girly princess mirror

Cypress makes a lot of necklaces from the bin of beads. She likes 'designing'
Here's a couple from yesterday

Heating up some rocks

She and her siblings drew on the hot rocks using wax crayons

she likes to paint rocks as well

The finished product (a princess!)

Zephyr's Making & Doing

It's all about Lego for Zman

and paper dolls. Z loves making paper dolls - his own.
here's a crab he made from some scrap paper &amp; felt pens

Goofy Boy + Homemade Playdough

No clue what he's make here (but notice Lego nearby)

Mommy's Making & Doing

Strawberry shortcakes &amp; Blackberry Scones

(I only make when the berries are in season here - so it's a big treat for us!)

Zephyr trying to eat the loaf of bread I made (we were taking to Gran)

Thankfully I snatched it from him in time

My latest obsession is making Monsters.

I've since made 50 of these little felt monsters...I love them!

Always Look on the Bright Side

2011-08-14T11:20:00.002+01:00

We've had a creative few days over here that has lingered over in to Sunday. I'm upstairs sewing whilst the kiddo's are downstairs making 'Mermaid' decorations for dinner tonight. They've decided to have a 'Mermaid Dinner Party' complete with fancy decorations they are making, and a menu of fish fingers, hotdog octopus' and shell pasta......and have now just announced we need a 'Mermaid Cake'....sheesh!

Before I go find the cake baking tins, here's a few photo's of our recent meanderings.

As a way to meditate and spread positive thoughts to others (versus rioting! as we've recently read about in the UK news), we collected rocks from the beach near our house, and spent time together painting them pretty, then writing positive messages on the bottoms before tossing them randomly back along the beach. Hopefully the strangers who wind up finding the rocks in years to come are enlightened by the peaceful messages.

Unfortunately, not my picture. My camera is acting up, but this is
exactly what we did with our rocks

The rock I painted (pic taken before camera packed up!)

The children's rocks

My daughters then decided to spread the love with the Fairies that live in

our garden. Here they are making a Fairy Feast, that includes their fave...Fairy Bread!

Making Fairy Bread (Indigo's stuffed puppy is nibbling some
fallen sprinkles :)

All set up for the Fairies

Fairy Bread - so easy. Just spread butter or chocolate spread
on bread, cover in sprinkles - very yummy even for humans

Then Indigo made us a Blackberry Pie using up the blackberries we picked during the day when we were exploring Angmering village on foot.

Indigo's Blackberry Pie!

Will post more about our Mermaid Feast tomorrow.....have to go make that mermaid cake now!

Tooth Fairy

2011-08-12T23:27:00.003+01:00

Alight alright......we believe in the Tooth Fairy over here. I LOVE the Tooth Fairy, and all Fairies, and Unicorns, and Santa, and Leprechauns.......anything and everything sparkly and magical. I know there's this whole debate about ''but what damage does it do to the child when they find out their parents have been lying to them all those years''.....well, I go by my own experience.
I grew up believing in the Tooth Fairy and never had one begrudging thought about it even when I later found out it was me mum and dad leaving me little coins beneath my pillow. It still remained cute and exciting and felt like a big 'rite of passage' when I was let in on the secret.
After ''being'' the tooth fairy for a few years now.....I gotta tell ya I'm amazed my parents pulled it off all those years. I hope my letter tonight makes things right again

Dear Cypress,

I am terribly sorry it’s taken so long to fetch yourtooth. I have to tell you that Ididn’t intend to leave it behind, but on the night I tried to collect it,something drastically terrible happened.

The evening had started off lovely and peaceful with a bigbright moon lighting the sky, and a warm breeze helping me to fly to and fromhouses. I had just collected alittle boys tooth in Worthing (the 2^nd tooth he lost that month!),and was heading towards your house on Aldsworth Avenue when I heard the ‘FairySecret Alarm’. To humans, thissecret alarm probably just sounds like an owl screeching at night, followed bya foxes bark and then a magpies cackle; however, when the owl, fox and magpiemake these sounds in the right sequence, us fairies know it’s the ‘SecretAlarm’. I wish I had time to tellyou this fascinating story about how many moons ago our friends, the Owls, theFoxes and the Magpies, agreed to give us this secret alarm, but I’ll have tosave that story for another day, because I am urgently trying to catch uptonight to pick up all the teeth I left behind weeks ago.

As I mentioned, that night, I was nearing your window when the alarmsounded. Upon hearing the firstalarm, us fairies know to wait and listen for the next message. Now, I must tell you that this was thefirst time I’d ever heard the alarm sounded at all!! So I was quite surprised, but I was already near your windowso I decided to go ahead and pick up your tooth. I always do love visiting your house, because there arealways so many interesting toys and drawings around (p.s., my forest fairyfriends did want me to mention to you that they DO enjoy the fairy houses youset for them sometimes. They always make sure to put things back EXACTLY asthey found them!).

I had just dropped off two large coins for that lovely toothof yours when I heard the second alarm message sound from outside. I couldn’t believe it…….it was worsethan I could ever imagine! I quickly raced outside to make sure I was hearingthe message correctly, and sure enough, the message was clear..’’Head back toFairyVille NOW. Repeat, Head backto FairyVille NOW……..Goglock has found the secret element. Repeat, Goglock hasfound the secret element’’

Oh NO!

Was all I could think, as I flapped my fairy wings as fast asthey could flutter. This was theworse news ever.

Goglock use to be a member of Fairyville. He is the cousin ofFluflella, a beautiful fairy princess who is now Queen of the entire FairyKingdom, and her brother, Maclin. But whilst Fluflella and Maclin grew up nice and kind and peaceful,Goglock grew in to a dark quiet ominous creature. Goglock grew jealous of hiscousins and one day he kidnapped Maclin, who remains trapped in Goglocksfortress. Goglock learned that Fluflellaand Maclin both had a secret formula that only royal fairy children were privyto, and he thought that by kidnapping one of them, he could steal the secretformula. He kidnapped Maclin firstbecause he and Maclin always had hung out together as young boys. But after he kidnapped Maclin, helearned that Maclins secret formula was so secret because it required anelement that only was available once a year, and even then, it was guarded byMatrabites who were fearless fairy warriors.

Somehow, though, Goglock had managed to steal the secretelement, and this was very alarming because no one knew what Goglock would doonce he became an official royal fairy! But we all suspected he would start trying to control Fairy Kingdom andwe didn’t want that. We wanted ourFairy Freedom!

All of us fairies quickly raced back to Fairyville, and tomake a long story short, it has taken weeks to track down Goglock and capturethe secret element back before Gloglock could control everything. I will try to find time very soon totell you the WHOLE story, but it was just yesterday that I myself managed toescape from Goglocks fortress……but at least it was ME who escaped with thesecret element before Gloglock could use it for evil purposes!

I’m scheduled to receive a big award from the Queen of FairyKingdom tomorrow (the lovely Fluflella), but tonight I couldn’t sleep well if Ididn’t at least try to come back to your house to collect your tooth! As luck would have it, your sister,Indigo, lost her tooth tonight, so I wound up having to come anyway.

I’m going to go quickly now collect all the teeth fromWorthing and Goring, but will return soon to tell you more about the excitingadventures of Goglock and the secret element!!

Yours always

The Tooth Fairy #42

(aka: Giglianna)

P.S. Twitterpam wanted me to let you know that HE is the onetyping my story for you…..I don’t know how to type yet and my handwriting is sovery small you wouldn’t be able to see it. So Twitterpam (who invented this fantastic Fairy Printer)agreed to type my letter and print it for me so you could read it. He’s very proud of his printing machine

(letter was folded, sprinkled with glitter and left for Cypress whilst Indigo also has a coin for her tooth......that was taken! I look forward to leaving lots of follow-up stories to this one, and with three children losing lots of teeth.....this may become a book series of tooth-fairy adventures ;)

Folcmoot

2011-08-06T21:06:00.003+01:00

Hubby surprised us today with a spontaneous trip to Folcmoot over in Wiltshire. Unfortunately, 'spontaneous' wound up being a 3 hour drive, but we eventually got there. The festival was small and quaint, celebrating English culture. The entire event wound up being light on the pocketbook (other than that petrol bill), because the rides and games wound up costing pennies versus pounds. Indigo, Cypress and Zephyr enjoyed Duck Pond Lucky Dip games, Tea Cup rides, Bouncy Castles (no time limit!), and other exciting activities. My fave was the Birds of Prey event. Indigo and Cypress were brave enough to participate and can't stop talking about it. Having an owl swoop down and fly over you just a centimeter from your nose is quite an experience. Hubby and our teen, Derek, got a go with Archery, and yours truly made off with some Honey Fudge made by a local honey farm selling their wares at the event (nom, nom, nom). All of my kiddly-winks proclaimed 'this was the best day of my life!' on the way home, before they fell fast asleep on the long journey home. (I'm off to go find that fudge now :)

Humans riding in Tea Cups.........makes perfect sense!

Boat Swings (I asked hubby if he could build this in our back garden)

Indigo and Cypress listening intently

They then met the star of the show (the owl, not the lady)

no one got hurt!
click photo for larger version - it's pretty neato this owl

Thank goodness the bird was toilet-trained

Hubby got a go

Derek got a go with Amber the Falcon


Archery

Enjoying a Penguin bar

Super Zephyr had a blast!

Where the Wild Things Are

2011-08-05T20:50:00.009+01:00

The Weather is warmer (notice I did not say it's actually WARM.....but it is warmer, which is good considering it's summer here in England; however, you won't see me putting my warm sweaters away anytime soon.

This means more time outdoors for us Bailey's. We do venture outdoors during all the seasons but just tend to get more adventurous in the summer.

Yesterday we found a ragwort field near our home, that was filled with these beautiful yellow-and-black caterpillars. My children asked if we could 'try butterflies' again, so after shaking the gruesome images from my head of the last time we tried this (*), we toted the ragwort caterpillars home.

We brought home the ragwort
it came with 7 caterpillars!

one of our guests

Indigo painted the experience

They now enjoy their days in the comfort of a tattered aquarium being observed quite inquisitively by my offspring. We did look up what sort of butterfly we are to expect fluttering about after metamorphosis is complete, and learned we have some beautiful cinnabar moths in our care. Will keep you posted!

their new home
notice the large plastic green caterpillar peering in at them?
that is my children's sense-o-humour

Today was more of a 'playground' yearning, so after a full days work, we ventured off to find one of our faves romps. Unfortunately, we do need to drive a quick 5 minutes to get there, because the playground where we live is eensy-weensy and pathetic, not to mention this time of year it's brimming with foul mouthed teenagers who have no where to hang out.

Our playground trip was even more eventful by the discovery of red and yellow wild plums covering the ground. LOADS of them everywhere, and, as usual, no one bothered with them. Free Food!! I filled my backpack up (which required a good washing down later.....thanks to lots of squishy plums).

We brought these AND a backpack full of plums home

And yes, we shall be enjoying a wild plum tart later this evening (yum!)

(*) Okay, now to explain the 'gruesome images' from last time we tried to 'do butterflies'. We basically had found a cute little caterpillar, brought it home, put it in a nice home full of sticks/leaves/water droplets.

Watched it grow, and grow.......then it just stopped doing anything. Then, it started showing these strange squiggly outgrowths that multiplied. Over time, it began to look absolutely frightening. I later found out that the poor little thing had been injected with a parasitic wasp before we ever found it. What we witnessed was the poor little caterpillar being overtaken by the wasp larvae......ewwww. here, take a peak if you want to see what it looks like. Parasitic Wasp Larvae Emerging From Caterpillar

The Usual Suspects

2011-08-04T13:47:00.001+01:00

I recently had a profound realization that my daughter, Cypress, has not suffered from extreme asthma/allergies in a long while. Up until about a year ago, it was frequent visits to Emergency doctors with a limp child struggling to breathe. Or it was sympathetically watching her continuously wipe a raw and red nose that constantly dripped. I remember when Cypress was barely one and wound up on 3 x's daily breathing machine treatments, then again at age 3. The allergy seemed to always stem from a different circumstance, which baffled us. We don't smoke or have pets, nor do we wear perfume so it was easy to rule those out. Once she had a really bad allergic reaction to petting a friends cat who had been indoors several weeks (lots of hair), but she didn't explode around all cats, all the time.

I thought maybe it was something
I did or ate whilst preggers :(

We also tried testing for food allergy by eliminating common culprits but there was zero impact. We didn't go the route of pin-prick food allergy testing because the doctors said they're not that accurate, and it just sounded painful. Chiropractic adjustments seemed to help when she got really congested, so that was a 'relief' but not a cure. (by the way, as an aside, Chiropractic adjustments did cure Zephyr's ear infection he got at age 1, and they never came back. MUCH better than antibiotics or tube-surgery). We eventually moved to the seaside so Cypress could have 'fresh sea air' since this was highly-suggested by numerous professionals. However, Cypress not only continued to suffer from asthma/allergies, she seemed to get worse! I thought 'oh no, she's allergic to seaweed!'.

We didn't even consider
petrol fumes

We all reached desperation one evening when I stayed awake all night, listening and watching Cypress trying to breathe, almost carrying her to Emergency in the middle of the night. I really should have. My husband took her to the local doctor the next morning and they put her on emergency oxygen straight away, saying next time don't wait. I couldn't figure it out. What made her have such bad reactions?

Thought maybe the cat

A dear friend from Atlanta, Georgia saw me post on Facebook about the symptoms, and he highly suggested I try a Kinesiologist who specialized in children and asthma/allergies. I contacted someone he suggested in London, who gave me a name nearby to me. This Kinesiologist was no longer taking new clients, but she listened to our story and wanted to help. It was a bizarre experience. I wasn't sure what to expect, and found it a bit awkward going through all the testing she did. The good news is that it's painless! Cypress got to sit on my lap or next to me, and they used me as a 'medium' to see the reactions she had from various 'culprits'. After 30 minutes of testing, the Kinesiologist confidently proclaimed that Cypress was allergic to Hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbons?

Thought maybe piles of moist leaves

I was lost, I had no clue, but thankfully, my super smart hubby explained it all to me on the drive home (ensuring windows were rolled up when we passed a diesel truck!). The day before Cypress had had her really bad reaction, three major culprits occurred:

1) She had rec'd some cheap girly pretend makeup that she put on herself and all her toys (sparkly lipgloss = petroleum=hydrocarbon)

2) The kids had painted their pillow cases with some fabric paint pens (= hydrocarbons)

3) The grill had tipped over outdoors burning some fat on the coals producing massive smoke (=hydrocarbons)

Didn't realize some paints
were the problem

As hubby continued to explain typical 'hydrocarbons', the lightbulbs started going off over my head. Wow, so all this time we tried all the 'usual suspects' we had completely ignored hydrocarbons.

Since that trip to the Kinesiologist, we now avoid hydrocarbons as much as possible, and Cypress is educating herself about it all.

Thankfully, we live a lifestyle that doesn't come in to contact with many hydrocarbons on a regular basis, but just the few we were unaware of were causing big problems. Since the diagnosis, and the changes, Cypress hasn't suffered ANY attacks. She occasionally struggles to breathe when she's running around playing, but that is getting better as well. Oh, and I also notice that her hyperactivity has improved too. Cypress has always been like a bull-in-a-china-shop with her hyperactivity. Full of energy that wears me out. Probably could have been easily diagnosed with ADHD, but now she's calmer. Still energetic, but constructively so (usually!).

All is better now....Yay!

That's my blog for the day. Inspired because of the noticeable improvement, and also thinking to post about it in case anyone else is struggling with similar symptoms. I would HIGHLY suggest to pay a visit to your local Kinesiologist.

Fairies and Rainbows

2011-08-02T23:04:00.003+01:00

My cherubs are sitting in the family room with me this evening, but they pay NO attention to me, because they are absorbed with the goody bags they got today at their cousins birthday party. We all had such a fun filled 'Fairy' day.

The children and I volunteered to make some of the nibbles and games, which I post below in photo's.
I am also posting pics of the gifts we made for my niece. Not only did we have lots of fun making everything, but it was time-well-spent together as a family. I really enjoy spending time with my children 'creating'.

The table of Nibbles. We made the Flower Garden, Ladybirds,
Rep Capped Mushrooms and Snail Sandwiches
(went perfect for a Fairy Garden)

These were easy. Just slice cherry tomato in half, scoop out seeds,
put dab of cream cheese, then stick on a bit of cheese stick

Snail Sandwiches. Which are just cheese spread on tortilla, wrapped up
and sliced. Unroll a bit, stick on gherkin, then stab some toothpicks in for antenna)

Ladybird Apples!
slice apple in half, carve out 'wings' use chocolate spread or peanut butter for 'glue'
stick on sultana/raisin for spots
Stuck a red grape in for the 'head' and used toothpicks for antenna.
Cherry stems would have made better antenna but forgot to get cherries :(

Rainbow Marshmallow Flower Garden
We coated mini-mallows with coloured icing, stuck on sprinkles.
The melted chocolate on the plate was 'glue' so the 'flower pots'
wouldn't tip over. I added green dyed coconut for 'grass'

Indigo getting in to the spirit!

Zephyr ate way too many mallow-flowers
but he survived :)

Indigo and I made a 'Fairy Wand Ring Toss' game.
We glued paper flowers to the wands, each had a number that indicated how many
points you got. (wands found in 'party favour' section of store)
I made the 'rings' with pipe cleaners, beads and then felt 'petals' hot glued on.

Here the children are on a 'Fairy Gem Treasure Hunt'.
We took a packet of acrylic gems (various shapes/colours/sizes) and
hid them throughout the garden
some hidden under leaves, some tossed about,
some stuck to trees (gems had sticky backs). The kids LOVED this.
I bet they find hidden gems in their Grans garden for many years
(because we hid 100+ and stopped counting)

Then the children played with the gems afterwards.
Sticky backs helped the girls turn the gems in to 'earrings'

My fave picture of the day. Indigo helping her Gran to the festivities.

Next, a game of 'Fairy Bubbles'. Play some fun music, children toss the Fairy Bubbles (balloons)
in the air, batting them to-and-fro. When the music stops, they grab a bubble (balloon)
I had a handful of pipe cleaners behind my back that matched the balloon colours, so I pulled one out, and
whoever had that coloured balloon stepped out - and then they got to hold the pipe cleaners behind their back to pull
the next colour (no tears!). Eventually, only one child is left standing with their balloon - thus the 'winner'
but everyone had fun

Then there was an egg-and-spoon race.
Whilst these were plain eggs, I would next time decorate them to look
like Fairies.

Hubby joined in the race

My mum-in-law got this cake from the local 'Waitrose' store.
It was very very pretty (but way too sweet)
The candles were awesome though. called 'Angel Flames'
(the flames were all different colours)

One of our homemade gifts to my niece.
Hand stitched felt to look like 'houses'
and then glued-to-matchboxes
these became Fairy Houses (with ribbons to wear as 'necklace')
Each house had it's own 'fairy' inside

The 'Orange' fairy

The Green Fairy

The Pink Fairy

The Green Fairy

The Red Fairy

It was too much fun making these fairy houses

We also painted an old 'Backgammon' board with Chalkboard paint
Indigo painted a 'Rainbow' frame.
I don't have a picture of the back (unfortunately) but we painted
with some fab folkart designs.
The Eraser is a plain white kitchen sponge I hot-glued some
purple felt to, then put a green 'P' for my nieces name.
We wrapped it with a gossamer bag of chalks in every rainbow colour.

All-in-all was an incredible event, and I hope my niece enjoyed it too. It was all smiles all day, if that is any indication :)

Science does not know its debt to imagination. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-07-28T22:59:00.003+01:00

Gracious me, I blinked and a month has passed me by. We've been busy, having fun. I'll catch up more soon, but in meantime, check out the fun we've been having.

Top of the list: 'Magic Potion Table'

I filled up empty jars, bottles, and bowls with coloured waters, bubbles, flour, sugar, baking soda, vinegar, coffee grinds, flower petals, dandelion fluff.....you name it, and stuck it on the OUTDOOR table. Gave the children some 'Science Lab' goggles, and just let them get to it.
They had so much fun, and even discovered ON THEIR OWN (with no instructions from me or a book) the chemical reaction when you mix vinegar and baking soda. Sure, we've done this before with our volcano experiment, but that was all planned out with mommy doing most the work. It was pure joy when I hear them 'GLEE' with excitement upon seeing their 'potions' foam up.

A little bit of this

A little of that

Mommy, I'm going to be a Scientist when I grow up
(her words, not mine!)

Unfortunately, they didn't manage to invent some magical potion to clean up the mess afterwards, but I was happy to do the cleaning. (not) Surprisingly, they offered to clean up for me when they saw me get the water hose.

did I mention I gave them glitter too!

The sandbox filled with dirt from the garden then caught their eye, as did when I sprinkled a 'magical fairy road' in to the dirt with some silver glitter. My children proceeded to add on lots of other magical fairy land bits and bobs, and then entertained themselves (whilst I finished cleaning the science lab).

They ended the day with this beautiful flower-turned-blue (food colouring, test tube, white daisy)

I catch up again this weekend with a lovely 'Rainbow Treasure Hunt' (fascinating game that also encourages children to learn reading colour names), AND some 'Hot Rocks Painting' AND some Alphabet Rock Painting. All great fun that sneaks in learning too :)

Sunday School

2011-07-03T14:46:00.000+01:00

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher" - William Wordsworth

This Sunday has turned out to be 'perfect weather' day, so the children and I grabbed a rucksack, threw on our shoes and headed outdoors. Zephyr fussed at first saying he wanted to stay in bed, but I assured him he'd enjoy the adventure, so he sauntered to the car with us, moaning about it until we all saw some ladies on horses trotting down our street. The children are always delighted to see horses. Any horse. We can see a million horses in a day, but they are just as excited to see the next one.

Typical scene on our street

We didn't drive far, just a few short minutes and we were at Ferring Rife. A place we'd yet to explore.

Before arriving at our destination, I popped in quickly to the local shop for some warm fresh French bread and local English strawberries to take along on our adventure.

Within minutes, Zephyr was saying he was glad he came. We saw many various butterflies, birds, and even frogs, before arriving at a muddy bank that clearly said 'Explore'. And so, we explored.

The water was crystal clear, shallow, and COLD, but kiddo's loved every splashing moment. Cypress stroked the lilly pads and was quite chuffed saying 'the first time I ever felt a lilly pad!'. Apparently, this had been a life-long goal of hers to get up close and personal with a lilly pad.

After a nice spell of chasing water bugs and dragonflies, my little cherubs decided some mud play was on the agenda. As usual, I had to endure the stares of well-dressed people walking by in their Sunday best, that clearly said ''oh dear, what a mess''. But my happy children didn't seem to mind the muddy mess, nor did I.

On the way back to the car, the children chatted about their many theories of this and that, before we met a friendly horse who talked to us, then a nice lady came by with a bag of apples the children could feed the friendly horse with. She talked for a long while with the children, listening to all of their experiences.

Then Zephyr started moaning again to go home,

Zephyr never leaves home w/out his football anymore

so here we are. Back from our outdoor Classroom where we learned lots just from observing and exploring, and which has inspired Cypress to paint a lovely picture.

We met the black dog when he came splashing in the stream with us

Our Holiday

2011-06-19T16:25:00.000+01:00

Happy Father's Day to all those fab dads out there. After a week of holidays, then returning yesterday to quickly set up a big surprise day for my dear husband today, I am just now getting a quick moment to catch up over here. Hubby woke up to fresh baked bread, some thoughtful prezzies, a surprise picnic to Highdown Gardens, and now looks forward to a gourmet meal this evening (which I've not even planned, but will be Haddock).

Our holiday last week in Dorset was lovely, though it was a bit nerve wrecking to not have ANY internet (at all!) for the entire week. Apparently none of us caught the fact that this self accommodation holiday had everything but wifi. The house itself was lovely in most respects. It was certainly located in a beautiful rural setting across from an RSPB reserve and minutes from a hidden beach in Wareham, which is an old Saxon village. It was a roomy 5 bedroom house with lots of space to run around indoors which is good because it rained a LOT. We managed to get out and about on all sunny days to enjoy local attractions, like Corfe Castle, a model village and enchanted fairy garden, a steam railway ride, nature reserves, fossil hunting on the Jurassic coast and sandy beaches! We spent a lot of time at Swanage beach which is a lovely English seaside town. We tried to head to nearby Studland beach one day but decided to keep driving to Swanage when they tried to charge us outrageous fees just to park. (Swanage was free parking). Oh, and on the last day, which drizzled with rain, we toodled on over to a supposed Aquarium in Wool. Took us forever to find it, and 'it' was just a tiny fish aquarium in a run down fish shop (which was right next to a fish-n-chip shop!) Their website said it would take a good hour to see 'it all' but we were outta there in about 5 minutes. When Indigo asked to see the seahorses they advertised she was told 'oh, they are hiding, you should have come at feeding time'. Needless to say, we didn't pay the hefty donation they asked for to support 'seahorse conservation'. What a laugh! Otherwise, a fab holiday. The children even loved the 2 hour train ride there and back (hubby drove himself and my mum-in-law). They're enjoying time at home now, playing with all the new 'holiday' toys they received here and their from their Gran. We now have more dinosaurs, Lego and Barbies to add to the ever growing collection in our home. Which reminds me, I need to go try and sort some house cleaning out before Monday starts tomorrow. I came home to 500 work emails which I am soooo (not!) looking forward to reading. Here's some pics of our fun week

On the train to Wareham, Dorset

Finally arrive!

Swanage beach (sand!)

Local Strawberries

Croquet

Game of Draughts

Corfe Castle mini-sized

Steam Train!

The REAL Corfe Castle (ruins)

3 Zephyr's

They love their Gran

Teamwork at the beach

English seaside

On our way to hunt for fossils in Kimmeridge

Father & son on a fossil hunt

Kimmeridge Bay

A bit disappointed when the sheep ran off

On the train home

Down the Rabbit Hole

2011-06-10T00:24:00.000+01:00

Event Brochure Cover

But now I'm back! Have been having some fun hanging out in Wonderland, at a 'Mad Hatter Tea Party' event for our local home ed group. I've also been busy beforehand as I was the one putting on this event! I'm mad, I know. But was so much fun.

I'd planned this for a loooong while, the children helping me here and there along the way. Had set up a 'Don't Be Late' event invite, then got to work creating. Indigo and Cypress helped make a 'Queen of Hearts' tablecloth using a potato-stamp we created. Indigo also painted a charity shop tea trolly we picked up super cheap. Indigo also decorated most of the 'Humpty Dumpty' eggs for the egg-n-spoon race. Her friends and sister each decorated an egg too..they were clever works of art!

Indigo's Humpty Dumpty

A dear Home Ed mum and good friend came over and drew the Cheshire Cat for our 'Pin the Grin on the Cheshire Cat' game (used paper taped to a magnetic board to draw the cat, then cut a large grin out of magnetic paper..Voila! instant fun happy game).

The smile is magnetic paper!

And this lovely friend also, with the help of hers and my kiddo's, put the 'Painting the Roses Red' game together. Paper flowers print outs stuck to lolly sticks, taped to side of planters covered in happy paper.

Getting ready to Paint the Roses Red

We had a 'Mad Hatters Hat Making' tent next to a canopy decorated to look like a nice living room (happy rug, child size recliner, tea tables, and a lovely buffet table next to a big red treasure chest that was the 'Lucky Dip'. Two fantastic Home Ed mums set up a 'Face Painting' canopy as well, and WOW, the face painting was so amazing.

Children enjoyed Pin the Grin, the Humpty Dumpty egg race, a 'Don't Be Late' white rabbit sack race, a 'Find the Sleeping Dormouse' (hidden beneath teacups), 'Painting the Roses Red' and a 'Tea Time Race' game, where you filled a teaspoon from a teapot then raced across to a fill a teacup.

Each child got a colourful event booklet listing all the games in whimsical design with a place to put golden star stickers for completing the games. And extra stickers for winning. All the children got to enjoy 'Lucky Dips' for having stickers and we saw no pouty faces!

The day ended with a Wonderland Scavenger Hunt in the woods, then the grand finale of the 'Hat Making Awards' (little trophies for all the lovely hats).

Oh, and I even threw in some lovely little 'chocolate coin' bags I made that had colourful 'Mad Hatter Winner' tent cards attached - so they looked rather professionally done!

It was all brilliant good fun, and best of all......All the children got on so well the entire day! I couldn't believe it actually, with so many children and parents.....it flowed nicely with smiles and laughter the entire time. Helps that the weather wound up perfect!

Now I'm madly packing for a one week holiday. We leave Saturday!

I'm going to come back and post more pictures as soon as a Home Ed mum can send, as I wasn't able to take pics at the event since I was busy handing out golden stickers and Lucky Dips :)

Fallen Rainbows

2011-06-04T22:41:00.001+01:00

our Colour Wheel made from fallen flower petals

We've enjoyed a FAB Saturday over here in our little neck-of-the-woods (and beach!). The kiddly winks and I were inspired by our recent 'Colour Wheel' fun, so decided to go out and capture a Fallen Rainbow (aka: fallen flower petals) from our neighbourhood that we turned in to another colour wheel.

This adventure started after Cypress finished some sewing she had started earlier this week, and after Zephyr enjoyed hanging up some 'Alphabet Laundry' that his sisters cut out for him to enjoy.

Z giving me a High-Five after he had sorted the Alphabet Laundry.....
I SWEAR I feed this boy...he looks too skinny!

Indigo drew her own 'Hieroglyph' alphabet today

Whilst Cypress created a series of 'Alligator' stories

Reading the Alligator stories to her sister

Then we were off to the beach!

And up some trees

Up and Down some hills

Finally at the beach

which we love

Then back home to turn Deli Wraps into edible faces

Before enjoying a proper meal outdoors (complete with
a homemade wild Blackberry pie!)

Whilst this sweet Robin sang us beautiful songs during dinner

Hellooooo

2011-06-02T20:26:00.000+01:00

My day was filled with corporate job conference calls......though I got to take a few breaks here and there to play Chess with Zephyr, at his request. Chess is my fave game, so this is a great feeling for me that my children are now at an age to play games with me! Spending time with Zephyr today was amusing with his comments that sprung from nowhere, yet filled the air with awe.

Whilst playing Chess, Zephyr asked a few times about how a piece could move. He has most of it down, but still trying to figure the entire game out. When he asked if the pawns could retreat backwards, and learned that they could not, he declared 'Ohhh, so they are the bravest of all'.

Zman w/ his Seester

I'd never really thought about pawns like that. I've always seen them as sacrificial, but I suppose that does make them the bravest of all. The Queen, Knight.......Bishop......all retreat but the pawns keep moving ahead.

When Z awoke, the first thought he mentioned to me was 'Mommy, I wonder where the first humans came from. since a woman and a man had to make the humans, then where did they come from?'


Z's other sister (he idolizes)

Later, whilst playing with his sisters, I overhead Zman say ''that's because the Earth is spinning, I bet it's Scary when we spin upside down if we didn't have that big magnet inside the Earth' (?? - I've no clue)

Though, not all of Zephyrs comments amused me today. He's suddenly taken to saying in a condescending manner a long drawn out 'Helllooooo', as in 'Hellooo, is anybody in there' (with total attitude of 'come on, don't you realize the obvious?'). Finally, when we were enjoying a few hours on the beach after work, and he said this 'Helloooooo' to me, yet again, I said 'Zephyr, seriously, where's this 'Hellooo' coming from. it's really annoying and rude and I don't know where you get that from but PLEASE'

His immediate response?

''Well, you say it all the time, Mommy''

and he's right! I had no idea but I do say it allll the time, and I now recall it all.

so, there ya go. my little mirror showed me how annoying I can be, so I need to watch what I say!

I'm going to go back to the children now. they are full of laughter and giggles in the back garden. The weather outside is Delightful!

Goodbyyyyyeee for now.

~ Those who wish to sing always find a song. ~

2011-05-31T22:57:00.000+01:00

We had another exciting day with 'Honey' the horse over in Barnham, though today was even more thrilling, because Honey's friends, 'Storm' and 'Tacot' (pronounced 'Tak-ah', and I've no idea how it's truly spelled), were part of the riding experience today. Cypress got to ride 'Honey' and Indigo rode 'Tacot' - ON THEIR OWN! My girls were beaming with self-important smiles the entire time, and then they were lost in silent daydreams the entire drive home.

Back home, they absorbed themselves in drawing lots of horses (they drew horse pictures before visiting Honey, and after...it's all about horses, horses, horses), and they also enjoyed engaging with each other in imaginary playlands that involved lots of.....singing.

My children sing a lot. All throughout the day, whilst they play with each other, or on their own, they sing, sing, sing.Indigo will even break out in to song at strange moments when we're on play dates with friends.

I don't sing.

I DID sing all the time when the children were itty-bitty babies, but it didn't come easily at first. I remember how awkward it was for me the first time I was rocking Indigo as a newborn, and my husband was sitting nearby. I felt like I should be singing to this child of mine, but I caught myself battling with 'embarrassment' to just 'start singing'. I think this moment lasted for a few seconds, when I looked at my husband and said 'pardon but I'm going to sing'. He responded with 'Sing! by all means sing!'. And, bless him, he's not once commented about how awful I sing. Though I must say, when I was singing to my babies, I had such confidence in my voice and the words I was singing. I made up all sorts of songs, my children remind me every once in awhile to 'sing that song you made up'.....(about this or that).

The Sound
My husband, on the other hand, is a ''retired'' musician. (more on his band here -----> The Sound, hubby is Graham)

Admittedly, though, neither hubby or I really sing much at all anymore. (hubby also sang to the children when they were babies, with his own made up songs). Whilst both of us can be found whistling tunes throughout the day, we don't sing.

Our children; however, do a LOT of singing. Singing is an integral part of their day that has no start or stop button. I try to capture their songs and singing on video, because I'm always mesmerised at how clever and lovely their songs are. Seriously! Their songs have so much emotion mixed with practicality, and wit! But the minute they catch me trying to video them, it all changes to a 'stage performance'.

why we leave instruments laying around the house
All of this left me thinking today..........would my children sing so often and so lively if they were in school all day? Because I'm imagining the answer is 'No'. They wouldn't be 'allowed' to sing in the classroom unless part of a group effort, or a 'staged' production. Otherwise, they'd be told to 'stop singing' (and 'stop humming' and 'stop whistling' because it interrupted the class). They wouldn't even DARE to start singing on the playground (for the few short moments they would spend on the playground), or if they did, they would quickly stop because likely their peers would laugh. I doubt seriously if the other children would start singing along, but maybe I'm wrong.

Children are basically not allowed to sing for the majority of their day. And, likely, when they get home, they aren't given sufficient time and space to 'sing'. That time is replaced by electronic entertainment or after-school clubs. Yet, singing is such a part of our evolution! And I now know why I'm so inhibited to sing. I never really had an outlet to nurture my voice growing up. I'm convinced my singing would be lovely if I just gave it a go......with confidence. So, I've decided to learn from my children who spend their day breaking out in to songs with zero fear.........I'm going to start singing more. For the friends and family living nearby....don't worry, I won't start turning our visits in to a Broadway musical. I am pretty sure I'll never sing in public, but I'll start enjoying more singing with my children and at home. Singing with purpose and pleasure during the daily chores, in the shower, when I'm driving....... Because in the end, our children emulate us. It's wonderful enough that my children have the freedom to sing, but it's one step further in the right direction that they grow up with a momma who sang. (and not just of faded memories from when they were babies!).

I'm going to get my voice back, whilst being ever so grateful that my children have never lost theirs.

Highdown Gardens

2011-05-29T21:13:00.001+01:00

What started off as a day of heading towards the Laundry Mat (washing machine broke)
Wound up as a day of painting 'Wild Flowers' from inspiration.

Where did we get our inspiration?
Well, that happened when I passed the washateria (on purpose) and kept driving only 5 more minutes to 'Highdown Gardens'. This place is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, and it's free! Truly some amazing English Gardens at their best.

After enjoying a delightful stroll through the gardens (we lost track of time!), we managed to get laundry done, and head back home to paint 'Wildflowers' (using chalk, cotton-buds, paint on coloured paper...I got the idea here.....http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2011/05/kindergarten-wildflowers.html)

Here's a photo journal of our beautiful Sunday stroll through Highdown Gardens

Honeysuckle and Strawberries

2011-05-28T19:20:00.000+01:00

Today the children and I enjoyed a day that lingered from some fun last night.

Yesterday evening was filled with immense laughter and fun playing 'Go Fish' and 'Stealing Casino' card games. My cherubs were clowns with each other, displaying an amazing sense of humour. My 7 year old also enjoys 'Solitaire' so we ended the evening with her playing a solitaire game or two, whilst my other two built 'Houses of Cards' (well, one of them built Tee-Pees). They woke up this morning getting right back to it.

Afterwards we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and then a lovely walk through the woods to our local shops for English Strawberries! (we only eat strawberries that are local and in season, so this IS a truly special moment today), we then returned home to find Honeysuckle growing in our attached 'lean to'. To have Honeysuckle and Strawberries in a given day can only result in a day worth blogging about.

We then spent the day learning all about the 'Colour Wheel'. This is such a basic thing to learn, but one we didn't want to skip before we embark upon our big adventure of 'Art Appreciation' (stay tuned for more!). Eyes lit up and lightbulbs went off when my children had some hands on experience with 'Primary' makes 'Secondary' makes 'Tertiary' colours. So we proceeded to make our own colour wheels. The girls used tissue paper, glue, glitter, whilst Zephyr and I found strips of colour to cut out of magazines.

After putting our colour wheels up, we settled in for some story time (it was cold and windy out today, so we hunkered down indoors most of the day). We enjoyed 'When the Root Children Wake Up' which complimented our 'rainbow colours' day (''Dipping their brushes into the rainbow, the Root Children paint the bugs until they sparkle like jewels').

So far, no bickering or squabbling today. We're now eating Jaffa Cakes and going to search 'YouTube' for something interesting to entertain us before grabbing our 'Nancy Drew' book we've been reading a chapter of each night for awhile now (we love mysteries!)

I hope all of you are enjoying this lovely weekend! (what wind? what rain?)

Licking the Spoon

2011-05-27T16:11:00.002+01:00

I had forgotten one of my favorite memories of childhood, until I witnessed my own children experience the tasty joy of licking the spoon after pouring the brownie batter in to the pan. My mother did a lot of baking growing up, as I do with my children. And to strategically ensure that each of my three youngest have a go with licking the batter, I let one lick the wooden spoon for mixing, another lick the bowl and the other lick the spatula used for smoothing out the batter. There's nothing left for momma, but momma's hips don't need to be tempted anyway :)

Today has been one of those lovely relaxing days at home where we managed to bake brownies , put a puzzle together, make some paper dolls and at the request of my 8 year old, do some math worksheets

We hardly EVER do worksheets, but my children sometimes approach me with a desire to 'do math' so I print out whatever I can find. This desire stemmed from the morning when we were trying to decide if we do the 250 piece puzzle or the 500 piece, and one of my weeuns thought 250 was more than 500 because 25 is more than 5 (doh!). Didn't take long at all to explain greater than/lesser than, which found me printing out a cute little poster showing the age-old alligator that eats the 'greater than' number. Indigo LOVES animals. Anything to do with drawing animals, she's right there absorbed. I gave her some 'greater than/lesser than' worksheets, which she took upon herself to draw the actual alligator. (too cute).

The oven timer just started beeping, which means Brownies are Ready! I may not get to lick the spoon anymore, but I will go enjoy one of my cherubs lovely brownies :) And some of their big accomplishments today

Animal pictures Indigo drew today

Cypress put the circle of our 500 piece puzzle together!

Zephyr is having a 'Knights' sort of day

Carpe Diem

2011-05-24T21:47:00.000+01:00

Many MANY years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, a coworker of mine said 'I don't have any of that baby-advise you'll get from others, but I can tell you.......change your expectation about Sleep'. After having my first baby, I then quickly understood what this coworker was trying to tell me.

For anyone starting out home educating (life without school).......I don't have any of the typical advise you will get from others, but I can tell you........change your expectation of what a 'clean house' means.

You see mess? I see imaginary play

When you're juggling the days around identifying and pursuing things your child is interested in, taking your child on social outings, inviting friends of your child over for social outings, etc upon etc. you do learn to prioritize. For example, you could spend the morning cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms then organizing all the craft supplies, OR......you could quickly get dressed and head outdoors to enjoy nature or a few hours at the playground with friends.

Or possibly a spontaneous moment comes up; whereby, you suddenly realize that the local museum (or the one an hours journey by train) has a temporary exhibit on Egyptian artifacts, and your weeun just so happens to be interested in Hieroglyphs.

''What's more important''?, you may ask yourself.
''Cleaning the house and sorting toys, OR, going out and seizing the moment''

THIS, my friends, is why you will often find our house in total disarray.

We don't get out and about as often as other home-ed families , but, for sure, we 'seize the moment' when opportunity comes knocking. In the bigger scheme of things, I fall back upon the age old saying of 'a messy kitchen is a well-loved kitchen'.

A messy outdoor table means some creative children expressed themselves
A messy living room floor means some creative children enjoyed playing with their toys in imaginary play.
A messy bedroom floor means I decided to spend time reading with my children in bed rather than cleaning the bedroom.
Messy children mean children who've had fun and weren't afraid of getting messy.

I do find a few strategic moments each month where I say 'STOP, that's it......I'm cleaning and sorting', but I reserve those moments for when the weather is awful and we stay indoors anyway.
Oh, and in case you're thinking ''well, you should make those children clean up their own messes''
Rest assured, they do often surprise me without being coerced and CLEAN surprisingly well.
BUT, if they are otherwise occupied creating and enjoying imaginary play.......I'd rather they spend their time in that world than in the mundane world of cleaning-n-sorting. Trust me, they will later in life have the ability to keep their own homes clean. That moment will come when they have their own place.

On that note, I am going to be doting mum here and post a few pics of the other side of 'messy'

dipping marbles in paint and rolling. a bit 'preschool' but still fun!

Cypress

Indigo

Zephyr

Playdough, Crayons, and Grandma

2011-05-22T21:41:00.000+01:00

By the time I finish writing this, I'll surely need to change the title to 'Grandma, Playdough, and Crayons'...but for now

Let me start by updating you with the latest wacky-nature phenomenon Cypress found (that's her thumb below). Remember the lovely orange Ladybird eggs from previous blog? Well, the orange eggs are now empty white shells, and there are numerous aphids doing what appears to be 'devouring' the eggs. NOT what we expected, nor have we had time to research. That's because we quickly rushed off to spend the day at Grandma's house.....though she goes by 'Gran'

My children LOVE their Gran, who is my husbands mum, aka: my 'mum in law'. We moved from America to England simply to be near the children's last remaining Grandparents.

It's that simple.

I'm often asked ''why did you move here?'' (that's because my very thick country-bumpkin accent of someone who was raised in the Honey Island Swamps of Louisiana, USA sort of gives it away that I'm not from England)

And whilst I will often respond with ''I moved here for the lovely English sweeties!''......we really moved here to be near the elders.

My own parents had died way before I met my husband and had children. So this decision to move to England from America was a natural next step.

At the time we moved, both my children's Gran and Grandad were still alive and full of hugs. Since being here, we've sadly lost their Grandad, but their Gran still lives near-enough by and LOVES her Grandchildren. And her Grandchildren (and us!) love her in return.

I won't deny that it's been difficult at times, because, quite honestly, my mum-in-law is very aged and has LOTS of ''conflicting'' comments about home-educating. I've learned over the years to just let the comments simply bounce off of my 'Home Education ROCKS!' shield, and to get on with it. Sometimes I become defiant. Sometimes I bounce back a few facts and figures that prove Home Education is NORMAL, and school is Weird....but, in the big scheme of things....it's not important.

Today, as a family, we piled in to the car and drove to Gran's house
Their Gran opened the door of her large home, (that must feel extra-large to someone who lives there by themselves like she does)......and had the biggest hugs for my children....her grandchildren. She always has big hugs for her grandchildren. She also always has lots of sweeties, and lots of stories about the 'old days' and also lots of 'advice' from someone who lived through 'the war'. She also has a small set of toys that are always there. The same toys, in the same spot. My children gravitate towards these lovely toys they associate with 'Grans' house, and, unlike at their own home, they always put these toys away properly before leaving. They have a lot of respect for their elder Gran.

When they become teenagers, they likely will have little patience for ''going to Grans house'', but that's a long way off. At least for my youngest. My 18 year old is going through the stage of ''I LOVE my Gran, but visiting her is BORING''.

In case you're wondering how the heck Playdough and Crayons fit in to all this.

My mum-in-law gave us the usual ''goodie bag'' of odd things she is sorting through but was going to throw away. She always gives me this bag of 'oddities', because she knows I'll find a way to turn 'trash to treasure'. In today's goodie-bag, there were two packs of 24-count crayons she had found in a drawer, and an unusual toy of things (feet, hands, ears, nose, hat) that you stick in to Playdough to create 'Playdough Things'

When we got home, my girls took straight away to colouring, whilst my son took straight away to pestering me to 'Make Playdough'. SO, I mixed flour/salt/tartar/oil/water in to some dough......added some food colouring and 'essential oil', and Voila! instant playdough.

I'm convinced that my mum-in-law is going to outlive all of us.........at least I hope so. She's a right pain-in-the-arse sometimes, but she's the elder. The Gran! the last remaining. And, quite simply, we love her.

I'll end my sappy-moment with a picture of a lovely gift my children gave their Gran last year. They took some of their drawings of Happy-Things (they have LOTS!), and rolled them in to paper-beads. Then strung the paper-beads on to a necklace with other beads they decided were 'perfect' - turning it in to a 'Necklace for Gran'. I know Mothers Day and Mothering Sunday have passed, but am posting here in case an elder's birthday or other special day is coming up and you look for inspiration.

A Day in the Life

2011-05-21T21:10:00.000+01:00

Yay! it's Saturday
As someone who has been working 8AM-12AM nearly every day for few months now........

Yay! it's Saturday

As I type, the sun is beginning to set at 8:00 PM. My children are upstairs playing (interspersed with squabbling), whilst I'm enjoying a moment of quiet time and the lovely entertainment of birds feasting on the goodies our back garden provide them (at the moment I'm watching a blackbird, a robin, two crows, two pigeons and poppa-gull)

It's been a lovely day all around.

Cypress and Zephyr woke up as 'Friends'. As 'Buddies'
This is a rarity, so I took notice as they played together in some imaginary land that only they probably understand entirely.

Indigo (the oldest) enjoyed some independent-time in the kitchen making her own breakfast, whilst I enjoyed......Coffee! and my dear Hubby's convo's about things I rarely understand, but I still find interesting (usually is about physics, math...or Lego)

<---(This makes sense to me),

I did enjoy my morning Yoga.

This is NOT me...but this is what I
aim for (he's 83!!)

I cannot stress enough (as a 42 year old, half way through year 43).......DO YOUR EXERCISES. If you can't walk, run, bike, dance......at least do Yoga...the kind that keeps your muscles stretched and body limber.

In between my Cappuccino and my Yoga this morning, my lovely Cypress came and showed me a Fabulous Lego horse-n-cart she built ''all on her own''.

I have to say, I'm impressed! and I'm also pleased that I never managed to buy my girls a 'horse-n-cart' toy in the past (they have asked me for one on numerous occasions). The lack of such toy has obviously spurred on some creativity here.

Cypress and Zephyr went on for a couple of hours making all sorts of interesting Lego creations (whilst I enjoyed an espresso....or two). Indigo and I managed to slip out for a 'Mommy & Daughter' errand together, searching for colourful envelopes (which we didn't find), but came home with a PLETHORA of art supplies we found cheaply at some store called 'The Works' (yay!)

We also came home with a nice juicy Pomegranate

Indigo spent the rest of the day doing a 'Paint by Number' (she LOVES to sort things...and pleaded for this Paint-by-Number, so I gave in......none of the rest of us have the patience)

Cypress, in the meantime, did some scratch-pad art, then some 'make princess frilly things' craft (and lots of other things...'cause she has no patience!)

Whilst Zephyr either swung on the swing, built Lego things, or..............

For the most part we just hung out together in the back garden

But some of us have achieved a life-long goal

Hugs for Truth

2011-05-20T19:57:00.000+01:00

The kiddo's and I have been Blissfully Busy putting the MOST AWESOME Art History project together. I can't Wait to post the end result (and all subsequent end results) of our project....soon!.

In meantime, I wanted to pop in and share a lovely moment I had with those kiddo's mentioned above (the loves of my life!)

Sneak Preview

We were hanging out in our new 'art studio' setting up our 'Art History' project (I will not post pics of our 'art studio', because to-be-honest, it's not absolutely fabulous like a lot of art-spaces I see on other blogs, BUT, it's still a dedicated 'art' space, filled with lots of unorganized 'art stuff' in an area otherwise known as 'the stair landing')


SuperHero tray I made Z

I just so happened to look level into a cubby that contained a wooden tray I had decorated for my son a few holiday's ago,

and instead of marveling at my handiwork I had put in to the tray.........I GASPED at a nasty looking banana peel sitting inside the tray.

What doesn't belong?

I asked ''Who put this here?''
Which was met with three responses of 'It Wasn't Me!'

hmf

I have to admit here that I wanted to yell, I wanted to scream
NOT because of the banana peel, but because of .............the lie

BUT, I managed to contain myself (I was in 'lovely momma' mood since witnessing that morning a pair of seagulls nesting on the roof next door had just hatched their babies.......and we LOVE our family of seagulls)

After asking again in a few sweet, but strategic, ways of 'who put that there?' followed with 'Not Me's
(yeh, sure, I should have not asked and simply put the peel in the rubbish and got on with things......BUT, I didn't)

I explained in a voice I use with my children often......that is the same voice I use with my friends, family and colleagues.....''I don't care about the banana peel. I am; however, upset that out of three of you, one is obviously not fessing up, and in this family, we tell the truth! because this world needs more people who tell the truth'
I stopped myself from lecturing (because I HATE lecturing!) and just said ''come on....Hugs for Truth. I've got big hugs for the truth''

Zephyr didn't hesitate to say ''well, I didn't put it in THERE, but I did put the peel above the tray, and somehow it fell in''.

(insert big hugs all around)

yeh, yeh...they were posing for this one

This moment I cherish, because, quite frankly, I had been feeling like 'mean mommy' for a few days thanks to some chronic foot pain combined with monthly-cycle-icky's. I don't know how I managed to transcend it all, (because I certainly haven't read any parenting rule books), and probably the parenting rule books would poke holes............BUT, it was a lovely empowering moment.

Empowering my children to tell the truth.
Empowering my children with unconditional love.

Some may say that Truth hurts, but I think I may disagree.
I will; however, agree that the Truth will set you free :)

As Sweet as Honey

2011-05-16T20:01:00.000+01:00

It's rare I'm out and about with the kiddo's on a Monday, because yours truly is usually working. Albeit, I work from home, so I still hang out with my children, BUT, days out are special treats for us.

Today was one of those lovely treats.

We had signed up to attend a 'Horsing Around' home education event in nearby Barnham; whereby, the children would get to meet a pony named 'Honey'. Not only were my kiddo's beyond excited for WEEKS now, but they wanted to learn everything possible about Horses. Because, today, they wouldn't just meet Honey, but they would get to groom and ride Honey as well. This was an extraordinary experience they were looking forward to.

One of our 'Family Projects' I'd been putting together wound up fitting in rather well with our 'Horsing Around' event. The project centres around the fact that we don't do fast food, but my children still do want the novelty of a 'Happy Meal' toy. I don't mind treating my children to a fun toy now and again, but instead of 'Happy Meals', we were going to have 'Healthy Meals'. I found some colourful fun meal-boxes online I ordered, then built a 'Geography' plan around our 'Healthy Meals'. I was planning for 9 meals out during the Spring/Summer, and the children picked 9 different countries they wanted to have a 'Healthy Meal' packed for. The first country they picked from their list was 'America'. Go figure (thinks their American mum). Since I couldn't really think of anything portable and typically 'American' to pack, I used our trip to visit Honey as a tie in.

We started off looking up American Horse Breeds, and even their American mum learned a thing or two. I had no idea that horses were introduced to America by the Spanish in the 1500's! After looking up and learning about a few American horse breeds, we moved on to some Spanish breeds French breeds, Australian, Japanese, English, Scottish, and ended with the Welsh pony. I printed out pictures of all the breeds and the children were off to identify where the countries are on our world map.
They then decorated their first 'Healthy Meal' boxes with the pictures, though Indigo preferred to draw her horses instead.
For the portable meal, I put in fresh cut carrot batons (America has carrots! and Horses like carrots), apple slices, a few other healthy bits and bobs, then a special treat of homemade 'Oatmeal' cookies (made with honey, in honour of the horse, of course). It seemed fitting since horses also eat oats.
Now, I'm not in favour of fast food establishments tempting children to eat their dreadful disgusting food by inserting a cheap plastic toy (usually wrapped in too much plastic). However, I don't compare our 'Healthy Meals' really to these 'Happy Meals' and my kids already eat healthy anyway, so I justified putting a fun surprise inside. I popped a 'Filly Fairy Pony' in each of my girls boxes (seemed fitting for the day), but Zephyr was not really in to horses, and I knew he wouldn't get that excited about it, so I put a surprise I knew he's been wanting for a long long (looooong) while, which was a Lego Ninjaro set.

I was really impressed that my children took their 'Healthy Meal' boxes in the car and even though I said 'you are welcome to open those whenever you want', they wanted to wait. On the way to our event, Cypress was going on an on about how her favourite horse of all (she had taped to her box) was the Welsh Pony. Zephyr's was the French Meren's and Indigo 'loved them all'. All the children were chattering about everything they had learned and were asking some fab questions.

We found a lovely playground near the stables, and since we were there an hour early, we enjoyed some fun play time. AND, the children ate their 'Healthy Meals', AND they were thrilled with their little surprise.

Then came the biggest surprise of all. We arrived at the stables to meet Honey.....who turns out to be a Welsh Pony! Looking EXACTLY like Cypress' favourite horse in her picture. It was amazing. Honey was amazing. She is such a gentle loving sweet pony, and the children learned so much today, not to mention they enjoyed a fab horse ride. Well, the girls did, at least. Zephyr stayed in the car playing with his Ninjaro Lego.

We look forward to going back for 'Part 2' of 'Horsing Around' in a few weeks time.

We also look forward to going back to Barnham as well. It's such a lovely village, so lovely in fact that we stuck around another hour or so to play in another playground we found.

All in all, another lovely day

Interview With Myself

2011-05-15T21:31:00.000+01:00

Dear Louise, thank you for finding time in your otherwise hectic, yet blissful, day, to answer these questions. P.S. your grey hair is cool. and is that eye-twitch real?

When did you start home educating your children?

Hmmm..I'm not so sure I like this word 'educating', because I didn't educate my kids to walk, or talk. I did; however, applaud when they took their first steps, and said their first words. That's called 'encouragement', not 'educating', and that's no different than now. When lightbulbs go off, I step in to show my kiddo's the various resources that are available to pursue their interest/curiosity. If you're looking for a calendar date of when I started, then count back to when my now 18 year old was about 9 years old, and I had been his stepmum for a short while. He couldn't read, write, or speak, and only had experiences of 'bullying' from his school days. Not to mention my previous life of 'No Kid's' seemed suddenly thrown in to 'Having a Kid' ... with a lot of 'Get Up! (by 6:30 AM) , Get Dressed! (by 6:45 AM), Eat Your Breakfast! (by 7:30am), Brush Teeth (by 7:45) 'Go! Go! Go!' (so you're at school to sit in the 'drop off' line by 8:00). Every single day other than when your kid was sick...and then you needed to provide a written excuse to prove your kid was sick. (?)

What a bunch of malarky to put children (and parents) through, and for what?

Families miss out on the most important things with that sort of lifestyle. I mean, seriously.....there is ZERO family value time when you're rushing to get out the door, there is zero time to stop and observe the world around you. So, you miss out on the morning hours together, then you miss out on the largest chunk of the day together, then you're all so tired and distracted when you finally get home in the late afternoon...oh wait! no no no.....of course, you then do afterschool clubs/activities...THEN get home and eat supper, do homework, then television for most families, then early bedtime so children can get up and do it all over again the next day.....BLECH. Why am I the one being interviewed here?

Why did you start home educating your children?

2001, when my son was 9-ish. The school he went to said 'yes, he's a genius, but he can't read/write/speak, so we don't know what to do with him other than let the school bullies beat him up'...

Anyone could spend 2-seconds with my stepson and quickly recognise that he's a genius.

No ordinary genius....but a WOW genius.

After enduring the typical scene of 'get up and go-go-go in early morning so your kid can sit in a classroom all day with zero stimulation because he's genius and schools are 'standard'....only so that he can get beat up by the school bully on the school bus and at after-school care'........, and also after convincing my husband that 'homeschooling' is legal. My stepson quickly dropped out of school and has thrived in every way since then (despite the pathetic comments from friends/family/strangers suggesting he needed school).

All of our younger children have never gone to school.(despite the pathetic comments from friends/family/strangers)

I should mention that in 1998, before I had children, I introduced 'homeschooling' to my sister who was a stepmum to two boys. It was an accident of sorts how I learned about it really. I was living in Atlanta, Georgia, and was searching the internet trying to find some old friends back in Austin, Texas. One of them was named Jeff Gorvetzian, and in my searches, I stumbled upon an interview with Jeff's biological father who is John Taylor Gotto. Well, out of curiosity, I looked up other interviews, which led me to reading about the whole concept of 'homeschooling'. Which, I might add, made absolute PERFECT sense to me, because I had dated a highschool dropout for several years (who also just so happen to be one of Jeff G's best friends, which is how I knew Jeff)......and this fella I dated was a super-uber-genius who didn't need some piece of paper to prove his smarts. I always found it fascinating that not only did this boyfriend not go to highschool, but his upper-middle-class parents Supported his decision.

There are so many 'ways' to Home Educate,what do you sign up to?

Nothing. I sign up to nothing. Other than what my daily intuition leads me to (which is often different than my children's intuition, so we make it up as we go). I am influenced by what I think is the 'best' of many home educating styles, though none map to a curriculum. Text Books and Curriculums are NOT ALLOWED in our home.

I'm somewhere in between child-led and autonomous learning with a twist of Charlotte-Mason garnished with Waldorf.

I heavily see the issues with a fundamental 'child led' approach, and this stuff called 'radical unschooling' .....and for sure the issues of all 'waldorf'.

If my children led me wholeheartedly, you'd only find us gawking daily at things on the toy and candy aisles of stores.

I don't understand 'radical unschooling'; which reminds me much of my own upbringing....that allowed me the freedom to do ANYTHING I wanted. All I can say is that I craved 'Parental Guidance', that I feel comfortable giving my own children, but I'm certainly not a 'Bully Parent'.

And though I see the beauty of the 'natural approach' to life that the Waldorf folk offer (Nature Tables are Cool!) I think most of what they sign up to is total-crap. My children have always thought that dolls without eyes/mouths/noses are creepy, so Waldorf would not do here.

I haven't quite pin pointed anything creepy or wrong with Charlotte Mason, but also haven't had time to dig deeper. I guess I like her 'practical' ideas of what's important to learn, but I certainly don't sign up to anything rigid.

I approach Home Educating lifestyle with how I like to learn, which is 'Project Based'. An inspiration will hit me, I do some initial research, then if the wheels of creativity continue to turn, I embark upon creative projects. My children do the same, the only difference is that I know a lot more about the 'outside world' and its many resources, so I introduce my children to what I know. However, I would like to add here that my children do come up with their own projects around their interests. I put up a few 'family activities' we can all enjoy together (which I don't force my children to participate in), but, for the most part, my children come up with their own projects.

What are your 'challenges' with Home Educating?

Well, other than the fact that I work a Full Time job, leaving me limited time to go out and about with the children.....I would say the biggest challenge is that I have multiple ages close together and for as much as they love and hug each other......they spend just as much time squabbling and driving me crazy.

For anyone who does not, or who does home educate, you can understand what I'm saying here.

There are points in the day where all children go at it at the same time.....and I wonder ''Ohhhh.....send them away NOW!''But the moments are short lived, and we get on with it......

The other big challenge is for older children......and by older, I mean starting age 8-ish until 16.

(sometimes I refer to 'older' as age 11....which is a different conversation)

Older children want a place to go and explore their individuality and independence, but there aren't any places for 'home ed'. Would be utopic if there were a permanent large building local councils 'gave' Home Educators, that could be used for multi-purpose home educating events.

Until then, we all scramble for play dates, and attending home-ed outings for the 'group discount' (sigh)

Regardless, you won't hear me saying that 'School' is the right solution.

What are some bare essentials you couldn't live without for 'Home Education' ?

Marker pens, water colour paints, paper, double-stick tape (amongst other things).....in bulk.

Stock your home with a few basic necessities; such as, Chalkboard, compass, timer, magnifying glass, world map,.......ah-heck, I'll list what I have in stock later. You won't find many differences between what you already have in your home to what's on my 'Home Ed' list. If you're looking for me to endorse anything here, I'll amplify my enthusiasm for the Natural History Microscope. It's small, portable, cheap.....and powerful!

If you're starting off with toddler age, then alls I can say is you don't need anything but lots of time for walks in nature. Let your weeuns collect their toys from nature, though a few things well worth investing in NOW so they are useful later......Lego, Playmobil, GeoMags, Wooden Blocks, Dressing Up.....books! and lots and lots of board games and card games. Play lots and lots of games together.

Your blog is rather 'unforgiving' of anything outside of Home Education. Is there anything else you're unforgiving about?

Local Shops......stop driving to super stores and please start supporting your local shops (no excuses)
No Television......get rid of broadcast television altogether. I gave it up in 1994 and love the life it's led me to. (kill your TV!)
Grandparents.....it's all about Grandparents. Move to where they are. Let your children grow up with grandparents, and let parents grow up with grandchildren. If grandparents don't exist, then redefine what works for your family dynamics, but put the elders first, even if they drive you batty.
Charity.....give back to your community.

Sunday Phlog

2011-05-15T16:40:00.000+01:00

As promised, a photo of the egg that hatched
(can you see it?)

My girls decided to take their baby unicorns for a walk

So we explored the woods behind our house

That sort of becomes a jungle

With lots of hills to run down

and trails to explore

dandelions to blow

logs to climb

bugs to discover

daisies to pick

the unicorns had more fun than any of us

they especially loved where the woods dead ends too
(the beach!)

Time to head home, through the woods

weeeeeeeee!!!!!

oh! but who stopped to say hello on the way home?

although I think he was saying 'feed me' instead of 'hello'

baby brother wasn't left out today, he was more in a snuggling
and reading at home sort of mood

he especially was fascinated by the little
kittens in this story

so we read the story with the cute little kittens

before doing what baby brother does best

Z asked me to come see his amazing trick, so I
took a photo of what I THOUGHT was the amazing trick

But he quickly said 'no, that's not it.
this is my amazing trick'

Paint Chip Notebooks

2011-05-14T11:05:00.000+01:00

I should be cleaning the house right now, but like many home educating mums with a full time job who also loves to craft, paint, write, observe nature.....(insert anything but clean house).....I'm grabbing a few moments to show you our latest craft adventure.

Bookmarks by Tilly's Cottage

I love paint swatches: aka paint chips. Every time I find myself at a paint store, I gravitate towards the lovely colourful strips of paper and gawk at all the fabulous names of paints these days. I'm reminded of a moment when I was 11 years old, having just moved in to a brand new bedroom that my mother had painted in an 'Apple Green'. Before then, walls were 'cheap wood paneling' or 'white'. I was convinced my walls smelled of apples.

Paint Chip City by
Oops I Craft my Pants

These days paints come in such an array of colours and tasty names; such as, Milkshake, Death by Chocolate, Chilled Chardonnay, Peppermint Beach. You feel as if you're reading the menu of some trendy cafe, but, alas, you're just in a paint store gawking at paint chips.

The many swatches of paint chips that have lingered for years in a craft box in our home finally spoke to me. I needed ideas, and after finding some clever crafts using Paint Chips; such as Paint Chip Framed Art from Craft Envy, or these Paint Chip Journals from Lollipoop Designs, and Paint Chip Bookmarks from Tilly's Cottage. Oh, the possibilities are endless! Like this Paint Chip City from Oops I Craft My Pants (one of my faves!).

My kiddo's finally settled on making these adorable, yet useful, matchbook notebooks (<---go to link for instructions) we found at Pink And Green Mama. We love these!

Our Matchbook Notebooks

They LOVE these (ignore the messy house in background)

Can you tell we LOVE these?

Nature Princesses

2011-05-13T22:45:00.000+01:00

Warmer weather is intermittent here still. The flip-flops were just about to say 'neener-neener-neener' to the sweaters, just before realising that the socks still haven't quite taken a holiday.

I was working a full day at my j-o-b recently, stuck up in my corporate cave (aka: home office) behind the computer, when I finally had a chance to pop downstairs and behold!...I happened upon my beautiful children enjoying the outdoors.....in their new Clubhouse!

Apparently, dear hubby had given our cherubs a large empty box (with a door and window he cut out) and let them have at it. WOW, they didn't waste time to set up an entire village of homemade tents all centred about their new....Clubhouse!

Brilliant minds were scampering about to decorate the Clubhouse...(complete with a door bell they handmade)..and by the end of the day, they had fully planned out a club the girls decided would be called the 'Nature Princesses' (with token Nature Princes). They had designed crowns they then made out of leaves, and badges made with safety-pins and flower petals....and had even come up with a list of things their 'Nature Princess' club would do to save Nature. (which reminds me, I must go find some rubbish bags so we can go clean up the beach near our house tomorrow)

My children amaze me, especially when left to their own devices.

Whilst decorating their 'Nature Princess' clubhouse, Cypress found a leaf filled with tiny orange eggs. We were all so excited to learn that they were Ladybird eggs! (thanks to Googling)

Kiddo's have now just showed me their plans to move their Clubhouse up in to a Treehouse. Such a clever idea.....that starts with first 'planting a tree' (I LOVE that the very thought of planting a tree for their treehouse is not considered an obstacle, but just a 'Let's do it!')

After all was said and done, the afternoon of fresh air, sunshine and creativity apparently wore my lovely Cypress out.....she fell asleep in mid-pose! But she looks forward to showing you (on the next blog!) a new picture of those orange Ladybird eggs above that she took the next day....where you can clearly see that one egg has hatched!

A 'Growth Spurt' nap

Back 2 Reality

2011-05-08T21:26:00.000+01:00

I was reading a discussion-thread from our local Home Ed group that had subject heading of 'Back 2 School'. Many families who start off home educating go back to the system for various reasons, though the most common are:
1) Worried the children aren't getting enough time with their friends (translated: if the children are not out and about meeting up with people or going on field trips every day, then they are deprived when compared to sending-them-off-to-school every day)
2) The children ask if they can go back to school
3) I need more 'Me' time (translated: school at least babysits the children several hours each day)
4) Financially, it's a must for the children to go back to school. Either a parent is now single, or has a job, or lost a job.....these are sudden decisions.

My personal reflection on the topic as a whole is:

for #1 above) It's perfectly okay, and is actually GREAT for children to stay home enjoying the surroundings of their familiar environment, for the majority of their time. If children spend most of their time at home, with the special visits to friends for playdates, then this is NORMAL, and okay. Children do not need daily contact with their peers. They need daily contact with their immediate family. They need daily contact with their sacred space, which should not be a schoolroom or with school teachers. It should be.....Home.
Taking children out of the home every single day to experience some sort of 'external environment or stimulus' is actually teaching them that Home is not good. Home should be avoided. Home is boring.

You'd be surprised to know that children actually would enjoy to stay at home. EVEN if your children mope about saying 'I'm bored'......that is normal and okay. EVEN if your children start squabbling with you or (as mine do) with each other.....that is normal and okay.

Don't fall in to the regime of getting dressed and going somewhere simply to 'distract the kids' from being bored or squabbling. If they are squabbling, at least they are practicing the art of squabbling with someone who unconditionally loves them. If they are bored, let them figure out how to entertain themselves. If you, as their parent, make yourself comfortable at home and enjoy being at home, then your children will learn to emulate you. Find yourself a hobby, find yourself a sacred space, and learn to appreciate it yourself. Your children will do the same. Not overnight. Not on your terms. But in their own space and time, they will emulate how you approach life.

If you get bored being at home, and find yourself getting dressed to always 'go somewhere', then don't be surprised later in life when your children are too busy to come visit and just 'hang out' having tea and conversation and time together at home. They won't know how to.

for #2 above) My children sometimes ask questions about 'school' wanting to know 'what it's like'. This is normal given that School has become so commonplace in society (despite its shortcomings), and I'm glad my children feel comfortable to question out of curiosity. They tell me they don't want to GO to school, but want to know a few things here and there (and would like to have a uniform or two for pretend play)

If my children asked to go to school, I'd say 'No'. Why?

Because I'm the adult who's been through it all and knows better, and there is always that top 5 list of things a parent will say 'No' to with their children. For example,

If mine say 'can we start going to the Scientologist church Mommy?', my response is 'No'
If mine say 'can I start wearing clothes that show my midriff and have 'Juicy' written across the bum Mommy?', my response is 'No'
If mine say 'can I eat candy for breakfast Mommy?', my response is 'No'
If mine say 'can I try smoking Crack Mommy?', my response is 'Hell No'

Fortunately, my children have never asked any of the above. But, in comparison, I think school is just as bad as cult-religions, slutty-clothes, candy for breakfast, and crack cocaine, so why would I say 'Sure' if my kids wanted to go?

Now, I do understand that a LOT (if not MOST) parents think 'School is okay', but if they really believe this, then why did they Home Ed in the first place?

for #3 above) Okay, I fess up. I sometimes DO daydream about 'wow, what if the kids did go off to School every day leaving hubby and I here at home for MANY hours each day'. WOW, we'd have a clean house, we'd have fit-n-trim bodies from having all that time to Work Out, and we'd have........

well, I honestly don't know what we'd do with all that time, but, for sure, I'd vacuum more and possibly read more books.

But I don't REALLY want my kids to go to school, so these are short lived daydreams of 'Me' time.
And I'd probably get super-bored with all that 'me' time anyway.

Parents need breaks from kids, and kids need breaks from parents. But not hours-long-each-day breaks. If you find that you need to be away from your children for hours each day, then there's something YOU as the parent need to change. Don't ship your kids off to school every day whilst you figure it out. They deserve better, and you're the adult who should just buckle up and deal with it. There's no time for being 'selfish' when you're a parent who cares. Sure, kids drive you crazy, but that's why you should link in with your partner for support, your immediate family for support, and your local community of like-minded folk for support. Don't ship your kids off to school just 'cause you need 'a break', and if you DO, then don't try to justify it.

4) If your only choice due a financial set back is to send your kids off to school, then don't fret. Use school as the tool you need, but don't depend on it to do right by your child. Use it only as a supplement to your overall Home Education path; e.g, see it as the babysitter it is and don't force your child to adhere to the faculties. You can still foster the life-long-learning philosophies from Home Education outside of school and work hours. Look at every possible sacrifice you can make, but don't try justifying School as 'okay' just because it offsets the financial situation. Only your know what's right for your child.

Wow, so I've just said more than a mouthful.....filled with opinions. I'm good at that!
I suppose if I summed it up, it would really be to say 'Relax, your children will experience boredom, your children will squabble with siblings and friends, and it's okay. Let them. Let them get bored, let them squabble, let them make mistakes, let them pave their own way. Be their Parent, be their friend, be their mentor in life who protects them from harms way. Don't be afraid to say 'No' whilst also being confident to explain 'Why'. Let them make their own choices but don't forget that they also may choose to run out in to busy streets, but you stop them. or they may also choose to put choking hazards in their mouth, but you stop them. or they may choose to spend all the food budget on sweeties, but YOU stock the house with nutritious food instead. If you chose to keep, or take, them out of school, then pat yourself on the back and stick to your intuitive choices. If you need a break from your children, then take some time to set up some breaks for yourself. Simply say 'I need a break'. Don't translate that in to 'the kids must go to school because it's cheap babysitting'.

This blog post is obviously not intended for my friends/family who believe in the school system, and think I'm nuts, but love me anyway :)

Cascarones!

2011-05-07T22:46:00.000+01:00

Cascerones in Mexico

As mentioned in my previous blog about the 'L' word, we made cascarones for the recent Easter holidays. Naturally, the children wanted to know Everything possible about cascerones, so we Googled, and amongst other things, we learned that cascarones originated in China. This surprised me, because I've only ever known them as originating from Mexico. It's thrilling to learn new things!

I was introduced to cascarones back when I lived in Los Angeles, California (1988-1993), which has a large population of Mexican culture. Before moving to Los Angeles, my only exposure to anything Mexican was 'Taco Bell' which is a fast food restaurant in America that serves....Taco's! Well, after living in Los Angeles for a long while, (briefly married in to a Mexican family from El Paso, Texas) I picked up a lot of customs and culture along the way. And, I learned that the stuff Taco Bell serves isn't even CLOSE to real Mexican (yummy) food.

Taco Bell Taco

Mexican Taco

I appreciate the Mexico (pronounced Meh-He-Co) culture. It's colourful and the mariachi music paired with a margarita goes really well together. The food is spicy, but I come from the Cajun culture of Louisiana, which invented the word 'spicy'. (though the Thai's may claim they did). Mexican culture is passionate and soulful with their music, food, dancing, and their spiritual connection to all rites of passage. In Los Angeles, I lived near a large park (Los Feliz), and was always fascinated by the Quinceanera's held there on the weekends. Girls dressed in glorious bridal gowns enjoying their 15th birthday, with the entire extended family celebrating with her. Seeing those parties I wondered what a real wedding party must be like, and I was later fortunate enough to attend one in El Paso. The wedding lasted 3 days! It was during those 3 days of festivities that I also learned I do NOT like the traditional Mexican hangover cure, which is a soup called Menudo. Give me a Bloody Mary with spicy green beans any day, but hold the Menudo (blech). But other than the Menudo, I can tuck in to some Mexican cuisine.

One of my brothers is married to a Guatemalan lady he met in Los Angeles, and she was the one who introduced us to cascerones one Easter. Cascerones are hollowed eggs filled with confetti that are then covered in colouful tissue paper. After playing hide-n-seek with the eggs, everyone breaks the eggs over each others head, and confetti flies everywhere. It's fun, colourful and festive, albeit a bit messy.

My children thoroughly enjoyed making cascerones this year. From emptying out the egg innards, to covering the eggs with colourful tissue paper and glue, to filling them with birdseed (and later eating lots of omelets and quiches). Yep! we used birdseed instead of confetti so our garden could be enjoyed later by hungry birds, versus littered with colourful confetti.

notice how intent on concentration
my children are with this project.
it was lovely watching them 'take over' and teamwork
together to make the cascerones. with little involvement from me!

The funnest part, of course, was cracking the cascerones open with friends later. Unfortunately, one of our little guests learned the hard way that English eggshells are a weebit harder than American eggshells. I tried to demonstrate on his head how to crack the eggs over someones head, and....um...errrr, well, let's just say I'm glad he didn't have a concussion. Thankfully, I was then quick witted to instruct everyone to crack the cascerones open with their hands instead of over heads.

cascerones and flowers we left for E.B.
notice the Chinese vase (and a Smarties vase)

Well, I'll end with explaining why I may seem a hypocrite after my post on avoiding the 'L' word. I learn now that you're suppose to break cascerones over someone elses head to give them good luck. I didn't know this before making them, and, anyway, I think our little friend who left with a cascerone headache probably wouldn't agree with the whole cascerone luck theory. Regardless, they're great fun!! (just remember, when using English eggs...use your hands to crack the cascerones. otherwise, suffer the unlucky headache)

The 'L' Word

2011-05-05T03:41:00.000+01:00

When I was a child, there were a few words that were not allowed said in our home. My parents didn't mind hearing the occasional curse word (at least not from me, but I'm told I was spoiled), but we had to avoid the 'F' word. We also could not say the 'N' word, though none of us really ever wanted to say it so that wasn't an issue. Other than those two words, that's about it. And it wasn't like a scary rule in our home, it was just a mindful respect we lived by, knowing that mom and dad didn't want to hear those words.

With my own children, I haven't heard myself ever saying 'don't say that word'. They've never heard the 'N' word, so wouldn't know what it is, and though they've heard me say the 'F' word on occasion (okay, maybe I do say it now, but reserved for things like when I stub my toe), but so far my little cherubs don't repeat the 'F' word. My 5 year old certainly uses the word 'Dammit' a lot, and he's likely picked that up from me. Instead of admonishing him for it, I'm just taming my own use of the word.

Most recently; however, there was a word one of my daughters used and I found myself instantly addressing the use of the word. I didn't fuss at her, I didn't get upset, and I made sure I didn't make too big a deal of it other than gently interjecting my own thoughts about the word. And whilst my children may now grow up calling it the 'L' word, the word is actually 'Luck' or 'Lucky' (insert me cringing).

I was probably in my mid-twenties before I realized the negative impacts of using the word 'Luck'. Until then, I wouldn't think twice about saying 'Oh, you're so lucky', or 'lucky bastard' or about myself with 'how lucky am I!'. I'm not sure what pivotal moment happened, but I recall it was in an instant when I suddenly became absolutely enraged at hearing those words to describe.....anything. I consciously chose to stop using the word 'Luck' and over the years I reprogrammed my brain to replace the word 'luck' with words that give me or others due credit for good fortune. I suppose in a way it's very similar to when I stopped thanking the word 'God' all the time, and started thanking myself instead. With the word 'luck' I sometimes (not often) will still slip up, but I suppose since I spent half my life unconsciously using it, I'm likely to have a slip now and then.

Possibly if my children don't grow up putting so much weight in to 'luck', but learn to give themselves credit for making things happen, then their self esteems will be stronger then mine ever was. When they find themselves feeling euphoric about something, they will reflect upon how THEY made it happen. Whether it's landing a great job, launching a successful business, kissing their soulmate, or even being handed a big bag of money from a total stranger - they will reflect on what steps they made to make these events happen. They won't 'thank god' or won't say 'oh how lucky am I' (hopefully, they do thank the stranger). They will say 'I worked hard to get that job', or 'wow, that was easy to get that job, how smart am I to make it happen so easily' or 'I'm so happy with my soulmate, I'm glad I was smart enough to be in the right place at the right time and to recognise my mate'. or quite simply, they may have sudden thoughts of 'how fortunate am I to be where I am', but those thoughts will always be backed up by 'I made it happen'. And when things go sour, or terribly wrong, there's the other side of wisdom I'm also showing them at a young age which is 'everything happens for the right reason, you need to listen and look for the good of it all'. I'm sure they will still search for 4-leaf clovers, because it's like searching for the hope diamond or holy grail - the big mystery to discover. But they're not out there desperately looking for one like I was as a child.

I've chosen some beautiful photo's of a recent outing we took to see the bluebells. Once upon a time, I probably would have looked at my beautiful children and said 'I'm so lucky to have such beautiful children'. Or looked at the beautiful bluebells and thought 'I'm so lucky to experience this sight'. But, instead, I'm actually saying 'I love my beautiful children and I enjoy watching them play in the forest and I'm patting myself on the back for choosing the right mate and right path in life that finds me here with my children' (and when they are squabbling with each other I give hubby all the credit....ha-ha, okay, just kidding). And when I look at the bluebells and the beautiful nature I'm enjoying I think 'way to go you, for making the right choices in life that finds you here able to enjoy this view'. And whilst I may not be saying 'thank god' for these things, I do have my own way of appreciating the entire realms of the universe and everything that brings it all together but I also think my energy contributes to it all. I take the time to thank myself, which is really really hard for me to do, because I grew up eating a lot of humble pie. I'm not so sure that's such a good thing, and maybe it's okay for children to grow up patting themselves on the back and believing in themselves to think that they are the ones who can make good things happen. That it's not just luck.

And this will leave you wondering if there's any hypocrisy about my next blog I'm posting which is going to show you the cascerones we made recently. But, I promise...there's not. 'tis just good fun.