woods

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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We’re back to it, with a day whittling in the woods!

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

Of course ‘learning’ is happening all the time, even when we take a ‘break’ over the summer but we started back to home education this week with a renewed enthusiasm all round!

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Our #notbacktoschool photo 🙂

There have been some changes in the way we’re doing things and everything is fluid and constantly altering so who knows where we’ll be tomorrow, let alone next week! But currently the plan is for the big Ps attend less groups and spend more time learning at home, but in an informal way! Piccalilli is going to be attending a Steiner kindergarten, initially for two mornings a week but this could be upped if things work out well. The time that she is at kindy will be the times that the big Ps can focus more easily on their learning projects (that’s the idea anyway!)

So, for the new ‘learning’ year (it seems funny that we still work with the school calendar, but when you have a husband working in education it seems to make sense) our plan is to focus on local history and geography with our days as follows:

Monday – Piccalilli will attend kindy. Nanny will spend the day with us so the big Ps can both have one-on-one time to do their learning projects; they will go to Beavers in the evening

Tuesday – Piccalilli will attend kindy. Me and the big Ps will either learn at home or go out for some living history/geography days with friends

Wednesday – Home ed social group. Also recorders/band (cornet!)/drama/sports groups

Thursday – A day to meet friends/go on day trips/learn at home followed by swimming lessons

Friday – tennis lesson followed by home learning/chilling! Monthly Art group

Saturday – ballet for Poppet and gymnastics for Pickle

Sunday – family day

It’s a much less full week that last term, but the Ps have requested not to attend as many groups. I’m hoping that we will have enough going on to keep them busy and entertained but we’ll see! We can always add some more activities if needs be…

Our closest home ed friends, who we used to see at least once a week, have sadly moved to Berlin over the summer. There are lots of other lovely people that we enjoy spending time with so hopefully we’ll have plenty of social activities to attend. I don’t really know why I’m worrying. Yesterday we spent the day at Westonbirt with friends, where the Ps had a great time den building and whittling (now they are  requesting their own penknives!). Today we are meeting with a large group of home edders for a ‘not back to school’ play in the park and picnic 🙂

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Whittling in the woods at Westonbirt!

At the moment I’m enthusiastic and clear on the way we are doing things (child led with some adult input to direct their learning) so hope this remains until half term – wish me luck!

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The obligatory silly faces shot 😉

Weekly Review!

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

Today has been a hectic day of going to a baptism, followed by afternoon tea and then fish and chips at a friends house with the 3 Ps. The Stinker stayed home to play footie, but didn’t ’cause it was called off, so did jobs around the house! I’m exhausted so I thought I’d follow in my friend at Too Long Didn’t Write‘s footsteps (who is also doing the 30 Day Challenge of writing daily) and give you a round-up of my week…

So  Last Sunday it was all about how our lives seem to be going in Different Directions more and more these days, with Poppet heading off to Beaver camp while the Stinker spent time with Pickle and I spent time with Piccalilli.

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On Monday I reflected on Piccalilli’s language development in Language of love or hate?! and considered the need to begin assessing kids so young!

On Tuesday we had another visit to the fab museums in the city (Adventures in the City Take 2!) which thankfully went to plan with no illness or accidents 🙂

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Wednesday was all about thanking my wonderful mum for all her help over the years, in Mum’s the Word…

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On Thursday I enjoyed thinking about how I’m Feeling the love again… with teaching.

Yesterday was fantastic Forest School Friday… so I shared my thoughts on the importance of rewilding.

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I hope you’re enjoying my ramblings as much as I’m enjoying writing them (most days!!)

 

Forest School Friday…

~ lornafowkes ~ 1 Comment

When Pickle started in Year 1 at school in September, I was most concerned to be told that they would no longer be doing Forest school sessions due to lack of time! (see Where the Wild Things Are…) Being stuck indoors all day was one of the big contributory factors to her dislike of school and our decision to home ed her along with Poppet.

Since that time we’ve been hunting for a good Forest school session to attend. Although we can, and do, do lots of the activities ourselves at home, there’s nothing like having someone else to do the hard-work and clearing up afterwards and a group of friends to share the fun with.

We’ve been very lucky to find a great group, not too far from home, organised by a friend we’ve made through another home ed group and a trained forest school leader.

So, despite the weather finally starting to feel more like winter than spring, the Ps were mega excited this morning about Forest School Friday. We wrapped up extra warm, packed the waterproofs and headed to the forest, via the shop to buy sausages to cook on the fire for lunch!

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The girls had an amazing 3 hours: Pickle particularly loves the mud kitchen and water (hence the need for warm waterproofs!); Poppet had a great time whittling and making a toadstool to put next to the fairy door in our garden; Piccalilli enjoys spending her time putting little sticks into the log with holes in it! I just love seeing them outdoors, being free-range, enjoying nature and rewilding; I also enjoy sitting around the campfire, cooking, chatting and singing songs I remember from my childhood (“Do your ears hang low?” – anyone else love that one?!)

Forest School Friday – one of the best ways to spend a day, as long as you’re prepared to wrap up warm and come home to hot chocolate in front of the log burner to warm up those toes 🙂

Different views…

~ lornafowkes ~ 2 Comments

The other day my dad and I were discussing someone I know who is very opinionated and dad mentioned that I used to be the same way. I have to agree that I have strong opinions about certain aspects of life (thanks for the upbringing dad!), but I am also (increasingly, as I get older) very open to the fact that others have different views and (usually!) respect these alternative viewpoints.

To me, being opinionated means that you are unwilling to even consider others’ views or simply accept that sometimes it’s okay to ‘agree to disagree’.

Since I’ve been a part of the home ed world I’ve come across more opinionated people than ever before. And, interestingly, the majority of these people have actually been encountered in the online home ed world of support groups on social media! Many of these people claim to be this way because of the hand they have been dealt, but to me, no matter what you’ve been through in life, there is no need to be negative with everyone around you…

This morning I was part of an online discussion regarding one aspect of home ed (I won’t go into detail as it’s really not that interesting!). I made a simple comment to support the lady asking the initial question; I knew not everyone would agree but really I wanted the lady who was worrying to feel some support as this is what I’ve always thought these groups were for! The negative (and downright rude in some cases) responses to my and other comments shocked me and left me feeling disappointed that I am linked to some of these people by the association of home ed. It made me seriously question my place within that particular online group and I have since left it.

The thing that riled me most was people being so narrow minded and making assumptions about me and other people who were supporting the lady who had asked the question… One response made the assumption that, because I’m an ex-teacher, my children must spend their days stuck at desks doing formal learning. She couldn’t be further from the truth, but I stayed calm (the Stinker will be proud!), removed myself from the discussion and took the 3 Ps for a walk around the old, local quarry site with a friend. They climbed, swung, fossil-hunted, drank hot chocolate, pretended to be dinosaurs (oh, and Piccalilli had a little strop!) and didn’t once sit down at a desk to do any writing!

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When we returned home we spent hours doing formal sit-down maths… only joking! We designed mehndi patterns and had a go at decorating our hands for Diwali – Poppet commented how it was much more fun than anything she’d ever done in school!

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Teaching my children about different views is important to me… sitting at desks to do so is not!

Wet and Windy Woodland Walks.

~ lornafowkes ~ 1 Comment

We are really lucky to live in a beautiful area of England (Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds) and try to take advantage of this – whatever the weather.

Despite the unseasonably warm weather at the moment, it has been quite wet and windy. In my opinion one of the best places to be in this sort of weather is the woods, sheltered by the trees. So today we wrapped up in warm, wet weather gear and headed to meet my best friend from uni days and her family (who have sadly moved a few hours away but were in the area visiting family).

Our three girls get on so well with their two (aged 1 and 3 years old) and it always amazes me how they just slot together and play so well despite seeing each other infrequently.

Today’s walk included a lot of playing ‘home’ (I’m sure it would have taken  at least half the time without the playing!). I loved the way they used the roots of a huge tree as their kitchen, huge leaves (really big – bigger than our heads!) as plates, sticks as spoons. At one point they disappeared off under a large cluster of evergreen trees which became their house of course!

They collected leaves and twigs and collaborated to make a Stickman picture (inspired by the Gruffalo’s child sculpture in the wood). They staged their own photo shoots, organising themselves into positions and demanding all the adults took a photo while they chanted “Stinky smelly socks!” They played together in the playground, helping everyone to join in at their own level.

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There was no arguing and everyone joined in in their own way with no expectations. I’m aware this is often the case with mixed age groups – they seem to get on better as there’s less competition.

Days like today really make me appreciate how kind, caring and supportive my girls can be. It also made me miss my friend even more 😦