Well, the boy has departed for army cadet camp this weekend, just got back from dropping him off at head quarters.  So today was filled with running around like a loon getting things ready for him to go and we ended up having to buy him a new rucksack and sleeping bag too.  He had a list as long as your arm to take with him and it was quite comical to see him struggling to put it on his back :-)

Can't quite believe sometimes that my boy is growing up, its a bit sad in a way too that he is slowly becoming independent and that one day he will be flying the nest.  But that won't happen a yet a while, all the more reason to enjoy our time together while he is still young :-)  So, here is my little boy, who is not so little any more, ready for his weekend adventure:

I hope he has fun and doesn't miss being home very much and am very much looking forward to seeing him again on Sunday and hearing about his escapades...

Another beautiful day, another park to play in :-)  Today we met up with Lindsey and her gorgeous children at Whitecliff play park.  There are gorgeous views to be had from here over the harbour, but my camera doesn't do it justice at all.

While we waited for Lindsey to arrive, George got his new books out that we found at the army surplus store earlier today and studied them closely.

The other thing we love about this park is that we can hear the birds in the trees behind us.  The trees seem to be alive with them singing their tunes, it was lovely to hear.

George spent ages in the sand play area on the digger digging up the sand and making mountains.  Because it is close to the shoreline, it can get mighty cold at Whitecliff, so after an hour or so, us mums were getting a tiny bit cold.  It always seems to be a bit cold there, even in the height of summer.


We had good news today though that our favourite place to go is fully open again as over the winter they were renovating the play area.  So looking forward to heading over there next week, as long as the weather is good, of course.

I love spring, the blossom on the trees, the daffodils, the birds singing and lovely days with a clear blue sky and sunshine where you can get away with not wearing a coat :-)  

 Today was one of those days, so after swimming, the boys and I went to the park for a run around, well, I say run around, they ran, I sat and watched.

Even the swan wanted to come over and say hello, so we fed him some bread, which he had to fend off the marauding seagulls for :-D  

Its days like this that make the winter waiting worthwhile.  Soooo looking forward to more days like this.  Fingers crossed tomorrow is good too.  Who wants to be cooped up in school on days like today, when there is the outdoors to enjoy?  Having the whole world as your classroom, there is nothing better :-)

Today I had an appointment at the bank to open an ISA, so dragged the boy along with me, as everything in life can be turned into a learning experience:

 He found a newspaper to read, so got himself up to date on the latest news and pointed out articles of interest to me while we were waiting.  The advisor asked the dreaded question:  'which school do you go to?' to George, to which we replied that he is home educated.  She then asked whether it was true that it was law to dedicate 4 hours daily to teaching a child at home.  It is nice sometimes to talk to someone who is open to home education, and have the opportunity to dispel the myths that they may have heard.  She was worried about her son going up to senior school and the effect it would have on him.  I hope that from talking to me, she might give home education some more thought and at least know that it is a viable option should senior school not turn out well for her son.


This afternoon we are going to watch a b movie, The Blob, from the 1950's, with Steve McQueen in it :-)  George has been telling me what to expect from it because he has seen trailers for it before.  Then we are off to do some more socialising (I know, very naughty of me indeed!) with my friend and her son, and that means that George will be off down the park to 'hang out', one of his favourite pastimes :-)

Army Cadets

Well, tonight is Army Cadet night for George, but he tried very hard to get out of it this afternoon because a big wig was visiting and he was worried that the big wig would ask him a question that he didn't know the answer to.  He had put a lot of thought into how he might avoid having to talk to the man, and I just hope he doesn't decide to spend naafi break in the toilets!  


(As an aside, when I dropped him off this evening, I popped in to see his C.O. to hand in his medication list ready for camp this weekend and saw the big wig in the office, and, boy, he was a bit yum!  What is it with a man in uniform? lol)


I get the feeling that he is getting a bit apprehensive about camp this weekend.  It will be his first proper time away since he went away on cub camp 4 years ago.  He has been looking forward to it, but now it is getting very close, he seems to be getting cold feet.  I am sure though that once he gets there, he will have a wail (whale?) of a time and the time will go too quickly :-)  As for me, I have an evening out planned while he's gone, so he *is* going, whether he likes it or not...

Mother's Day, schmothers day

So, today passed with not much of note happening.  Have been compiling a mental list though of things to do for George and I in the coming months.  I must ring a few places to find out about educational rates and whether they apply to home educators.  One place I would love to go to again is Beaulieu Motor Museum.  We haven't been there since the boy was much, much smaller and this year they have an exhibition of Bond cars which I think will appeal to him.  I am also thinking of taking him to Bovington Tank Museum in a couple of weeks time for the Tiger Tank day, but it is on a Saturday *shudder*  We don't tend to do much stuff at the weekends because it is generally busier with school children, much prefer term time week days :-)  But sometimes weekends are unavoidable.


But then sometimes visiting somewhere in term-time can be problematic when a quiet place suddenly gets mobbed by a school group visiting lol  This has happened a few times and the boy gets most disgruntled by the invasion.  Partly because he has such an aversion to anything to do with school and partly because they appear to be masses of them, and sometimes the children aren't much interested in what they are being shown, which confuses him because he loves to look around at the things on show in museums, etc and can't understand why others may not enjoy it as much.

Shhh, don't tell anyone, but today the boy was let out to socialise with other children :-)  Its the first time we've seen home ed friends since Monday as the week has been hectic with other things.  I love the way that home educated children can play so well together regardless of age.  This was the only picture I could get without them trying to escape the camera lens lol, these lesser spotted children are a bit camera shy.  

I have been dipping in and out of Dayna Martin's book recently, 'Radical Unschooling: A Revolution has Begun', and when I picked it up today, a quote that she used stood out to me:

'Take the hand of your child and invite her to go out and sit with you in the grass.

The two of you may want to contemplate the green grass,

the little flowers that grow among the grasses, and the sky.

Breathing and smiling together - that is peace education.

If we know how to appreciate these beautiful things,

we will not have to search for anything else.

Peace is available in every moment, in every breath, in every step.'

Thich Nhat Hanh

Maybe it is because it is a lovely sunny day today that this quote has especial resonance with me, or maybe it is because this quote reflects the life that George and I have together, peaceful co-existence.  There is nothing better than spending time with each other, just contemplating the world around us and helping George work out his place in it and the way it works.  He learns so much better by doing and experiencing things and that is the beauty of home education: he isn't confined to the indoors, sat at a desk, learning things he really has no interest in at all.  He would probably spend most of his time looking out of the window wishing he was out there, enjoying the sunshine.  Just because a child is sat at a desk with a teacher giving a class, does not mean that the child will take in anything that is being taught.  


Today he asked me if children are given the day off school if it is a beautiful day and I said no, that they have to go in regardless.  He was surprised that children didn't get given the oppportunity on days like this to go out and enjoy the lovely weather and the nature all around them. 

So, here's to a fab, warm, sunny summer where we can spend more days outdoors with nature, learning, laughing and connecting as a family :-D

Golden Hinde trip

Earlier this week we went to London to meet up with a local home ed group that had arranged a tour of the Golden Hinde:

Even though it was a rainy, wet morning, we had a fab time, the tour guide was brilliant.  He told us lots of facts about being a crew member on a ship in Elizabethan times through engaging both children and adults alike with stories of what went on:

George particularly liked the gruesome parts, like the description of keelhauling!  We were interested to hear that walking the plank never happened and that touching wood comes from sailors touching these wooden figure heads on the boat deck for luck:

Needless to say, neither of us fancied the job of crewman, too many pitfalls!  George didn't like the fact that you could die from literally anything, from falling off the mast and drowning in the sea, to getting one of the horrid diseases.  And anyway, the lookout point on the mast is far, far too high up for my liking:

After lunch at Wagamamas,...

...we had the afternoon free, so decided on a walk along the river to look for interesting things.  We had fab conversations about the uses of the river and the boats that we saw going up and down.  Along the way we added to our list of things to do and see in future visits to London when we have more time, like Fleet Street, the monument for the Fire of London, Somerset House, among others.

We spotted this police call box on our travels, which looked like a slimmed down version of the Tardis :-)  We spent a bit of time watching work being done on one of the many bridges that span the Thames:

George loves all things mechanical and likes to work out how things work and how things are made.  He was telling me how he thought the workmen got their equipment over the bridge.  We spent time looking at a First World War memorial further along and he noted that some men had the same surname and wondered if they were of the same family and thought it was sad that families lost more than one person in the war.  We also spotted this building which was interesting as it looked tudor in style:

Its great to walk in London, we do it every time we come and often we do the same walk, but a year or so apart and its amazing what we spot that we didn't on a previous occasion.