fun

There is no such thing as bad weather…

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

… Just unsuitable clothing (Alfred Wainwright or an old German proverb, but either way it’s so true!)

As we head into autumn our home ed days have to alter slightly. That doesn’t mean we spend more time indoors, probably the opposite; I just have to ensure that I’m more organised and have all the appropriate wet and cold weather gear!

Last Thursday on our weekly visit to Westonbirt Aboretum I was not prepared. In the morning the weather was warm and sunny so we headed to Westonbirt in lightweight clothing with thin waterproofs just in case. Well,as quite often happens at this time of year, the weather changed and it not only began drizzling but it also got bitterly cold! I was freezing. Luckily the big Ps were so busy playing with their friends, whittling and using tools that they didn’t really notice. Piccalilli was warmed up with a big cuddle and we cut our visit short.

Having learnt that the weather is changeable (you’d think I’d know by my age really!) or finally accepted that we are in autumn, I was ultra organised when we visited the SS Great Britain this week 🙂

So off we went to Bristol for the second time in as many weeks (this time by car thankfully!). We had the most amazing glorious sunshine for the morning and thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be Victorian passengers on a huge ship.

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We definitely all enjoyed the First Class experience more than the Third Class Steerage accommodation (Pickle was especially freaked out by the sounds and smells being hyper sensitive to them!) The experience has definitely affected them and they wrote a wonderful diary this morning which I will post after this.

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After a few hours on the ship we were all hungry so ate our picnic in the sun – I started to wonder why I’d bothered carting a huge, heavy bag of warm tops and waterproof around with me!

After lunch we went under the ship and learnt a bit more about how a steam ship would work. The Ps kept imagining they were working on the ship and I was amazed by their increasing knowledge of technical facts.

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After a while my mum and me were craving a cuppa! So we headed up to the cafe for tea, Babychinos and cake. We decided it would be nice to get a bit of fresh air and walk along the waterfront. At which point my bag of preparedness finally came in handy as the rain started just as we left the cafe!

I’ve realised that the easiest thing is to have the bag packed and ready so I can just grab it every time we’re heading out the door. I know as the weather gets colder that the bag will probably get bigger!

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How did I get an eight year old?!

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

I have an eight year old! How did that happen? To think that eight years ago I had a (five weeks early) one day old child – I was in the first throes of becoming a new parent, learning things at a hundred miles an hour and feeling hugely overwhelmed by all of it.  Do I feel any less overwhelmed now? Not really!

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Poppet has not been a child to play with toys for a long time; in fact the last time I really remember her doing so was when she was about three and played with plastic dinosaurs. That’s not to say she doesn’t like role play (dragons, mums and dads, dogs, anything really!) or playing with construction toys such as lego, but she would never ask for a doll or small world toy. All she wanted for her birthday this year was a whittling knife and a chemistry set (a bit more than last year when she asked for some new books because “I really don’t need anything else do I?”) and a trip to @Bristol Science Museum.

Pickle decided to buy her a soft toy cat (which she actually hasn’t put down yet!!) and Piccalilli chose to buy her some sweets (ulterior motive there I think!).

Yesterday we went to Bristol on the train (Poppet really wanted to go on the train; I didn’t, but we had to due to a broken car!) The journey in was great, mainly due to bumping into a friend on the train who helped out with getting the Ps on and off and walked most of the way with us at the other end 🙂

@Bristol was fantastic (and such good value with home ed rates). We met some other home ed friends and they were all so happy and engaged for nearly four hours.

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When we’d had enough we went for a walk along the waterfront and enjoyed the sunshine.

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Then it was time to head back for the train. We made it with about five minutes to spare, got on the train, sat down and then I felt like something wasn’t right – the train didn’t feel like the right train! I asked someone and he confirmed my worries! So we ran (me carrying Piccalilli and the buggy) down the stairs, four platforms down, up the stairs and heard the whistle… luckily a kind man, who had been running just ahead of us, held the door so we all managed to jump on!

It was an amazing day out with only a minor error at the end!

Poppet’s only issue was that she couldn’t take her new whittling knife, but we’ll take that to Westonbirt tomorrow…

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Learning to tie shoe laces in 10 minutes… honest it is possible!

~ lornafowkes ~ 2 Comments

Recently Poppet has mastered the art of tying shoe laces. She’s been able to tie knots for over a year but bows were a write-off at that point! Last week she learnt to do her bows in about 10 minutes!

‘How is this possible?’ I hear you cry. Well, here are my three top tips to make this challenging task a lot less stressful (for child and parent!)

1. Wait until they’re ready!

Over a year ago Poppet first asked if we could teach her how to tie laces. So we dutifully bought her a fake wooden shoe (well, she didn’t have any real ones with laces – they’re all velcro these days aren’t they?!) and showed her how to do it.  After a lot of tantrums (from her and us!) the wooden shoe was relegated to an under bed storage drawer and forgotten about. When she said last week that she wanted to learn to tie laces again we had a little hunt and luckily retrieved the shoe!

2. Make it fun 🙂

There are lots of ways to make learning fun and with lace tying it’s actually remarkably easy:

  • Before getting on to actual lace tying, spend some time playing lacing games – cotton reels or beads on laces and lacing cards are great. You don’t have to buy lacing cards as it’s easy to make your own (although the Early Learning Centre ones are strong, cheap and colourful), but the most important thing is to have a firm, fray free end to your laces.
  • Try tying on a large scale – we had a go with skipping ropes in the garden. It was fun and we had a lot of laughs getting out of the knots we found ourselves in!
  • There are also some cute rhymes (some of which I remember from 30 years ago when I learnt to tie laces on a cardboard picture of a shoe with holes punched in it!) The rhymes mainly seem to revolve around bunnies but, with a bit of imagination, I’m sure they could be adapted to suit any child’s interests. We stuck with a version of the bunny rhyme from my childhood: Over, under, around and through, meet Miss Bunny, pull her through.
  • If you need to model the process it can be best to sit behind your child with your arms around them – Poppet found this hilarious!

3. Stay calm!

I know this can be easier said than done, but I would say that if things are getting too stressful then maybe your child isn’t quite ready.

Good luck and let me know if you beat our 10 minutes!