Monster & Teeny

Monday we returned from our camping trip with friends. It had been a lovely week and we got back in the evening having stretched the day as far as possible by having a last swim in the sea and walk along the beach before finally leaving for home. Unfortunately we were brought back to Earth with a bump when we got home to find our cat was suffering from yet another set back in recovering from the car accident.

Tuesday I spoke to the children about the very real possibility of euthanasia for the cat, how it would work, what would happen etc. We took her to the vets where we chatted about the various possibilities and came away to discuss it further having arranged to take her back later in the week. My parents stayed for dinner and the children enjoyed showing them photos of our week away and telling them all about it.

Wednesday - our regular weekly get together which purports tp be a Home Ed meeting but is infact regularly just Lucy, SIL and I getting together in the park. The weather was distinctly un-August like, Teeny didn’t want to ride the bike she’d begged me to take with us, Monster told me he couldn’t ride his bike on the grass as it hurt his legs and I was shamed into not eating my chocolate bar after listening to SIL and Lucy talk about healthy eating and sharing a pate made from carrots, chickpeas and lentils or something on their crispbreads

Thursday - In the morning we gathered all the library books from around the house together and I read a couple to the children, then we headed off to Lucy’s to walk with her, R & R to the local library for storytime. Monster insisted we’d read the story they were reading before so he and I went and sat somewhere away from the main group and quietly looked at a couple of other books together, and it wasn’t long before Teeny joined us. I think there is a real art to reading aloud, particularly to children. My Dad is excellent at reading aloud, I still love to him now, his voice changes in pitch and you feel utterly drawn into the world he is reading about. Unfortunately the librarian, although quite good with the children generally did not have that magic quality to her reading aloud and just didn’t hold my two. We selected a few more books to take out, renewed the ones we still have, one of which I cannot find anywhere so need to make a concerted effort to look out, or come clean and pay the consequences in three weeks time.

Back to Lucy’s for lunch and a play and chat which was lovely as ever.

Once home Monster and I looked at various coins from his money box talking about the values on them and putting them into piles to show how 10 pennies were worth one ten pence etc. We then counted them all up and I told him what he could buy with various coins including things like a McDonalds Happy Meal, a Wallace and Gromit comic etc. All very low key really but at his speed and pace which is nice as I often wonder in my doubting autonomy moments just how such things will come up if not deliberately introduced by me.

Friday - A was working from home which allowed me to take Monster over to ToyrsRUs for a wander round the aisles looking at potential birthday gifts. It’s years since I walked up and down every single aisle of a toy shop and I enjoyed his measured and considering approach to things he liked but wouldn’t be desperate to have, things he was not remotely interested in despite me thinking he’d love them and things he begged to have there and then, not even able to wait the couple more weeks until his birthday! We came away with a list of things he would be very pleased to open on his birthday at least so that  was good. On the way home we stopped at Sainsburys and stocked up on clothes for both children for next summer in their half price sale.

Back home for lunch and then my Mum came over to come with me to the vets. The vet and I decided that he would look over our cat under sedation in the morning and make a final decision as to whether this latest set back should be operated on or if this was the time to put kindness to her and responsibility as a pet owner over our own emotional attachment.

Teeny did lots of painting and Monster played with geomags for hours.

Saturday - we took the cat to the vets early in the morning and then killed some time by wandering round a car boot sale and some charity shops. We got a few videos and came home to await the phonecall from the vets. Sadly it was the news we had been semi-expecting and after some dicsussion the vet and I decided that it was time to let our cat go. We arranged to go and collect her body and A dug a grave in the garden while Monster drew a lovely picture to bury with her. The children have dealt with this in very different ways. Monster is pretty upset generally although I think at least part of this is reflected grief from me. Teeny is very stoic about it all although she does keep talking about it in a matter of fact sort of way. We’ve discussed various beliefs about what happens after death including God and Heaven, reincarnation and nothingness. We brought the body home, all had a stroke of her and said goodbye and could clearly tell it was simply an empty shell. We all threw some earth on the grave and said our final goodbyes.

My parents came over to say goodbye to the cat too - we have had our cats from a rescue centre for 12 years, long before children so they were very much a part of the family.

In an attempt to inject a bit of normalcy back into the day as well as because the children needed them we then went off to do some kids shoe shopping, which is always a fairly stressy activity. Teeny got some boots and some trainers, Monster got a pair of smart trainers with a promise that we will get him some boots too when we next see some nice ones.

Sunday - A trip to a car boot sale again in the morning. We are looking out for a few camping bits and pieces we think would make tenting a bit easier, none of which we ever seem to find but inevitably we end up finding other must have items. Today it was more videos - Barbie Swan Lake and Barbie Rapunzel, a lovely winter coat for Teeny and a skirt - all for under £4.

I dropped A, Monster and Teeny off at my parents and went off to do food shopping, popped home to unload it and then went back to join them all for lunch. A nice couple of hours there and then home for roast beef.

I managed to list a few of the toys that have been piled up in an ebay pile for ages, bid on a couple of things for Monster’s birthday and have intentions to get the rest of the stuff listed this week. 

We were away camping with friends last week in Wales. Plenty of beach exploration, socialising, life skills, living in a tent in a field, dealing with extreme weather conditions (including floods! ), swimming, running about and generally having a wonderful time.

As such I have no particular recall of what happened on which day so it seems a but pointless to try and attribute anything other that a fantastic week of childhood with lots of memories they’ll carry forever of sitting round a campfire lit on a beach, toasting marshmallows and singing songs with a large group of friends, finding crabs in rockpools, tasting seasalt on their lips, having their tent flooded then moved by a team of complete strangers who happened to be camped on the same field as us to a safer part of the campsite, a wonderful day at a theme park riding rollercoasters and eating ice creams, finished off with fireworks that lit up the sky and their faces.

That to me is what childhood is about and I love that although this week coincided with school summer holidays anyway it was with a group of Home Educating friends and rather than being exceptional it was a slice of what has become our rather wonderful lifestyle year round with the freedom, friendships and voyage of discovery that we’ve adopted since we chose to Home Educate.

Back next week with a return to normal blogging.  

I’ve been tagged by Katy on this meme. I think it is more for the ‘Home Schooler’ than the ‘Home Educator’ and for someone with a bit more structure than me but here goes:

ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED

I have a whole shelf on a bookcase groaning with a variety of Home Educating books. I have some John Holt, some Montessori, plenty of US curriculum-y type manuals, infact a whole host of the books listed by Merry on her reading page from Muddlepuddle.   I bought them all, along with various other perceived Home Ed essentials in a first flush of spending frenzy shortly after making the decision to Home Educate. And they are pretty much all in pristine, pages never touched by a human hand, words never viewed by my eye condition.

Probably the only Home Ed book I read much of is Free Range Education. I dipped into it rather than sat and read it cover to cover but it contains lots of anecdotal Home Ed life stories rather than any defintive ‘this is how to do it’ text and I now know, in real life, a couple of the contributing families. I like it’s realism, it’s not glossing over the crappy bits and it’s honesty. I have misplaced my own copy and currently have Ali’s on a borrow nestled up there with the rest of my Home Ed library. 

The other book which I have on that shelf is not specifically Home Education themed but contains some of the wisest and most inspirational words I have ever read, many of which have shaped my parenting and educational style. I stumbled across Leo Buscaglia’s writing in a Home Ed magazine (probably EO newsletter) and was moved to track down a copy of Living, Loving and Learning. His lecture about an Animal School remains my most quoted reading to anyone when explaining why we do what we do. 

ONE RESOURCE YOU COULD NOT BE WITHOUT

Slightly torn here as personally I couldn’t manage day to day life without my computer with internet access. But we make huge use of the local library too. And then there are all the children’s toys which help unlock their imagination, give them wings to fly on, dragons to snare and adventures to go on. And of course their friends. And the TV - I think the TV is a huge resource. But actually I think I’m going to say our freedom. Our freedom to choose to Home Educate rather than send our children to school, our freedom to decide not to follow the National Curriculum, or indeed any curriculum and our freedom to decide what to do with our time today. 

ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT

Hmmm. Despite just how much money I have spent on various essential ‘Home Ed kit’ I can’t think of any single thing I plowed money into which has not been used at all. I’ve never invested in a reading scheme or a curriculum and even the various workbooks I’ve bought and which have not been used remain on the shelves as something we could still dig out at a future point. I think I would have regretted buying curriculums, maths or reading schemes though so I guess I’m just glad I stopped myself from doing so.

ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR

I guess our most used educational toy is geomags without a doubt. They are played with two or three times a week, I have watched the way they are played with evolve over the last year or so and see how they appeal on so many levels as a toy, all the while teaching mathematical ideas, magnetic properties and posing challenges about structure that are overcome and dealt with in the scope of simply playing. We have used them to demonstrate ideas, create towns, cities, creatures and people, make patterns using shapes and colours, challenge ourselves with how many balls a rod can hold, how many rods stretch end to end across our lounge and estimate how many pieces we’ll need for various creations. 

Geomags. Get some!

ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR

Tricky to say really. I don’t have any big plans to add anything new to our already groaning supply of toys and books. I guess I’ll continue getting the most out of free resources such as the library, the museums and the world around us generally.

ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY

Ha! If money were no object and I had a spare two rooms to house it all then of course I could come up with a list! I like construction toys which have scientific elements like Gears Gears Gears! There are huge amounts of places I would like to visit to get every last drop of educational value out of. I’d love to have properties scattered across the globe to spend time in honing geography and understanding other cultures. I’d love a really well stocked craft cupboard with scrap and junk to make stuff with, paints, glitter and glue and someone to clear up all the mess afterwards. Yeah, you’re right, this should be in the category below really.

ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED

Well I don’t have dreams of education centres or on tap tutors to cover all the stuff I can’t. I’d love more space really, and maybe some sort of Tardis to spirit us all off to wherever in time the children have a question about, or whichever part of the world they want more information on, or so we could learn what it’s like to be a fish by actually being one for a day.

ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING

Well I don’t actually browse any more. When you can’t afford to even look at what’s out there let alone buy it sometimes it’s better to stick the catalogues straight in the recycling! But I did used to love getting Baker Ross, Bright Minds and Book People catalogues.  

ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY

I don’t really. I have various blogs I read which have undoubtedly given me the most support and confidence in embarking on the Home Ed journey and I have found individuals - many of whom I am lucky to count as friends now - by far more inspirational and amazing than any of the websites, manuals or curriculums I have seen. A specific educational website would be Enchanted Learning but actually google is probably the best online resource around! 

TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS

Dani & Allie
Ali
Alison
Lucy
Ros

 Monday Back to the vets again for our cat, this time for eye removal (yes that is not a typo!). The children and I walked round our little local town having a quick charity shop trawl where I picked up a couple of exercise videos.

Once home Monster got out the alphabet magnets and sat trying to form words with them on the metal fireguard. He put together I, X and E and asked what it spelt so I said ‘Ixe’ which he realised was the middle sound from Pixar who make all his favourite movies so he set about digging out the P and the R to complete it. OK it wasn’t spelt right as such, it had an E rather than an A but it was ’spelt right’ in terms of sounds. He then decided to spell ‘vets’ and managed that one all by himself, although he wrote it backwards. Then he decided to write a sentence and wanted to write ‘pixar man went to the vets’. He decided to write ‘man’ first and found the ‘m’ and the ‘a’ no problem but we didn’t appear to have a ‘n’ so he used a ‘c’ and turned it on it’s side. Next he wanted to spell ‘went’ and again we were short of letters so he made a ‘w’ and an ‘e’ by getting me to write on paper and sticking them up with magnets but then lost the ability to get the ‘n’ as the next letter. This whole episode must have taken half an hour with the getting of little bits of paper etc and I was actually trying to sort something else out at the same time so unfortunately when he started to get giddy about what sound came after ‘w’ and ‘e’ to make ‘went’ I lost patience and we called it a day. One of those learning curves when retrospectively I should have stopped what I was doing and been more supportive really, but often when I do that he realised just how monumental the steps he is taking are and it scares him into stopping anyway. Ah well, there’ll be a next time.

We then had to collect our cat from the vets and sat in the waiting room for ages reading the books they have in their childrens corner. I think we have now read them all, there is quite a strange and ecclectic mix of literature there which has given us lots of entertainment over the weeks.

Once home again I dug out a game of Set which I’ve had in the house for well over a year having bought it when Jax did a bulk order. I’ve never actually played it with cards before having only ever used the online version so a quick google for the actual rules of play as they appeared to be missing and we were away. Teeny was our dealer, putting another 3 or 6 cards out as and when and Monster, who adores games like spot the difference grasped the idea of the game straight away and really got into it.

Tuesday - a very last minute - as in A came home about 6pm on Monday and said he was working in her home town so would we like to go up with him for the day and visit, an email to check she was free and we were on - trip to Alison for the day. A lovely time had there with the children playing, inside and out while Alison and I barely moved from the kitchen table chatting. We left straight after the children had had some tea and were home both sober and early which is a very big change from a normal day in that company .

Wednesday Was planned to be a trip to a local-ish park with Lucy, R & R but due to threatened bad weather we called it off and they came to us to play for the day instead. Another really nice day with a trip to the local park in the afternoon which Monster rode his bike to and a play in the garden when we got back as the weather had been OK after all. Whilst there I relented from my usual stance of not pushing children on swings - an activity which lost novelty value once they reached about 18 months old and the initial buzz of the delight on the face of a toddler being pushed on a swing had worn off. Also they are both actually capable of swinging without assistance now anyway. But I made a deal with Monster that I would push him for as long as he could count. Now Monster insists he cannot count past 12, although he does know that 13 comes after 12 So I was staggered, and he really earnt his extended swing when with fairly minimal assistance he counted to 100!

Thursday Over to Ali’s for the day which was lovely as ever. The usual playing, drawing, messing about outside, creating things using water and some bonus for Monster X box gaming for the children all of which they thoroughly enjoyed. Ali and I got to chat and catch up and we left very promptly to take out cat back for a post-op check up at the vets.

Friday - A worked from home in the morning which was lovely as it enabled me to go to the supermarket with just one child instead of two and do a load of baking ready to take to the SOTP party in a field weekend. Car packed up we set off around 1.30pm and despite having to use both the M25 and the M1 on Friday afternoon we made fairly decent time and enjoyed a lovely evening with added tent pitching in the near darkness and lots of great company.

Saturday - after a night in the tent it was lovely to enter J&J’s house in the morning for freshly made pancakes for breakfast with loads of our friends. The theme of lovely food, lovely company and lovely scenery continued throughout the day and a fab time was had by all. Some pics here if anyone wants to sit and flick though. Day turned to evening and a second night under canvas, braving rather a windy, rainy night which is actually surprisingly cosy to be camping out in as long as the wind and the rain stays on the outside of the tent!

Sunday Un-pitching the tent in continued wind and rain and enjoying another lovely breakfast before setting about finding all the many things the children had taken into the house and promptly put down again without remembering where they’d left them and we headed for home mid morning. With a stop for lunch and a very slow period around Heathrow airport when the road almost flooded with the sheer volume of rain falling we still made good time getting home again. A very deserved and needed bath and an early night all round

Monday - a first thing dash to the supermarket followed by the arrival of our friends Barbara and Chris, with children E (6), B (4) and R (2) who some of you know from MP camps etc. B and Monster became firm friends at our first Melrose in 2005 and it has been an enduring friendship over the subsequent camps and get togethers.

Lots of inside and outside playing from the children with lots of chatting from the adults followed by a very late night for everyone with Monster and B still awake chatting at way past midnight.

Tuesday - We’d all been invited to Lucy’s house for the day so we descended on her and made full use of her downstairs kitchen leading into lounge leading into garden set up. We had children aged 1,2,3,3,3,4,5 and 6 with various games going on, some of which included all in a pack, some with them splitting into various groupings and generally lots of rowdiness and laughter. Thanks Lucy

It was interesting to observe while there that some other dynamics are appearing within the five children Monster, Teeny, E, B and R. Teeny and R spent some time together over the couple of days with Teeny starting to see R as a potential playmate rather than a ‘baby’ and I observed Monster and E (who are actually closer in age than Monster and B) playing together a couple of times. There was a particularly nice moment when Monster, Teeny, E and B were gathered round an etchasketch style toy with Monster telling a story and the others taking it in turns to illustrate it.

Wednesday - having waved goodbye to Barbara, Chris and co fairly early in the morning I made a birthday cake for Lucy and we headed off to the park for a picnic. Lucy, R & R, SIL, J & M were there and we had a lovely couple of hours with the children playing and the grown ups chatting. There are several patches of sand or dirt in the grass in that particular park and like magnets attracting iron filings the children were drawn to them, so by the time we got home Monster and Teeny were filthy. I made a deal with them that if they could play nicely and not soak the bathroom floor by splashing they could stay in a bath with all the bath toys until tea time. Which they did

Thursday Having had such a lovely afternoon together the day before Lucy, SIL and I arranged to meet up again and go to storytime at the local library. I went a few times a year or so ago - it happens every week and is for under fives. The librarian reads a couple of stories, they do some colouring and singing songs and it is always pretty popular. Given it was the school holidays it was heaving!

Before we’d gone out we’d gathered all the various library books from all corners of our house and sorted them into piles of ones we’d read, one’s we hadn’t and some we wanted to keep a bit longer. I dug out the childrens’ Reading Mission cards and they both chose one book each we’d already read and two from the not read yet pile. So we sat and read all those and chatted a bit about the stories and the illustrations and then headed off to Lucy’s with SIL following us in a convoy. Parking at the library can be a bit of a nightmare so we all parked at Lucy’s and walked to the library together. 

As storytime was so busy and Monster and Teeny were more than happy to squash in with their friends and cousins without a backward glance at me I was able to have a peaceful browse in the adults section for a few minutes and then I took advantage of getting in there before the inevitable rush when the stories finished and hoiked Monster out to come and talk to the librarian about his Reading Mission books and then did the same with Teeny too. Monster was fairly talkative and with some prompting was able to recount the stories and talk about what he liked about them all - he’d rated all three as ‘Spy High’ which was the best rating available. Teeny pulled her current slightly amusing and slightly irritating act of pretending to be shy and all but refused to talk until the stickers and bookmarks came out when she suddenly found her voice again . So they both got a little haul of RM branded goodies including book marks and colouring in sheets.

By then the library had cleared somewhat so Teeny set herself up on the computer and Monster and I looked at the shelf of brand new books choosing some to borrow and reading several there and then. We then all walked back to Lucy’s for lunch and a play and chat. Another lovely afternoon with the children all getting on really well and some interesting chatter about educational styles, parenting and feasible employment for primary Home Educators.

When we got home the children got out their pretend playfood, a pretend till with pretend coinage and a large oversized calculator from ELC. They played at ‘tea parties’ for a while pouring water from teapots into cups etc and setting up weird combinations of ‘delicious food’ such as a bagel served with peas and a tin of cat food! Then Monster asked me what my phone number was so I told him and he tapped it into the calculator. I explained that he needed to press a decimal point to get the zero to stay at the front which led to a very brief explanation of what one was in the first place. I then showed him how to use the calculator. I wrote out some sums for him and showed him plus, minus and equals so he did those. Then he asked what the times button did so I explained that with the aid of a pen and paper to draw ‘lots’ of things. I was anticipating explaining divide next but he asked about the square root button instead, so I struggled to explain that in context he’d be comfortable with and I think he at least got the gist of it. I then got him to add up the various number bonds to ten and he noticed the pattern so that was a nice healthy dose of naturally occuring numeracy!

They played with the leappad which seems to be enjoying a renewed burst of interest for a bit and then A read Monster a Wallace and Gromit book we’d picked up at the library while I read Teeny a lovely version of Thumbelina I’d chosen for her in bed.

Friday  Over to Ali’s for the day having dropped our still suffering cat off at the vets first. Her eye had gotten infected and needed some attention.

The children were in a fairly boisterous mood, Monster in particular. I think he may have just been overwhelmed with being part of a gang of children all week. They played outside for a while and then Ali made a bath bomb with them which they all enjoyed (particularly Ali I suspect! )

I then read them a couple of Elmer stories before they headed off for a final play before home time.

Saturday Was a very productive day. We spent the morning having a really good sort out, tidy up, chuck out and move around session in our playroom. We now have a pile of stuff ready for photographing and listing on ebay, a rail with all the dressing up clothes hanging up and two units with neatly stacked toys inside. And we got rid of loads more. The children, particularly Monster really want a X box and I’ve said if we can raise enough cash from getting rid of outgrown toys then we will get one. My Mum and brother have volunteered to join in with fundraising efforts for Monster’s birthday so hopefully we will be able to sort that out soon. If nothing else it is now a pleasure to walk into that room again rather than feeling like you have stumbled into a messy cupboard!

In the afternoon we went over to BIL & SIL’s where the children played in the garden. SIL and I took them out for a walk round some local fields and in mentioning in passing that I wanted to get a bike for Monster as the one we had given to us a few years ago is just too small for him and far better suited to Teeny, BIL pulled out one of his famous ‘carboot sale bargains’ he’d put away for J having bought for £3 and is perfect for Monster. So we brought that home and spent a very happy half an hour with Teeny on the old bike and Monster on his new one riding up and down the pavement outside our house.

Sunday My Dad’s birthday! We spent the morning with me baking a birthday cake and some rather lovely chocolate gingerbread while A supervised some birthday cake making and writing. Then we headed over to Mum and Dad’s in the late morning arriving in time to help prepare lunch. My Great Granny (Mum’s Mum) also arrived to join in and we had a lovely lunch.

Mum, A and I took the children to the park with their bikes for an hour or so in the afternoon. Monster did so well riding all the way there and back, completely without assistance using his brakes and pedals and steering. Probably not the hugest achievement for a boy his age when plenty of boys are probably already riding without stabilisers but given he has never really ridden a bike before I think he’s doing really well. I’ve tasked him and A with getting those stabilisers off by the end of the summer! Teeny still has a way to go, but she is very determined and I’m sure once Monster is riding without stablisers her pride won’t allow her to be too far behind him!

Back for tea and more cakes and Monster and I went to have a play on the piano at my parents house. I taught him the first few notes of the Wallace nad Gromit theme music which he picked up surprisingly quickly - wish we had the space for a piano here as I’m sure regular access to play around with it coupled with some correct finger positioning and practice of scales would quickly pay off.