Warwick Castle

We went for my birthday, the scope for learning was enormous, so where do I start? The boys as usual made the very most of the visit and we stayed for most of the day.

Woodcraft Folk Ceilidh Dance

A great time was had by all!!!

Millie and Reuben danced solid till 8.30!

Isaac cruised below the surface, of tables mainly...

Writing

Reuben seems to have developed an interest in writing in the last few weeks, this has taken the form of scribbles on notepaper (letters to me mainly), making letters in the ground with a stick, and tracing letters in the magazines I buy for him, we were at the museum the other day and he wanted his own note pad "to write Reuben in it"!

Sealife Centre

As the boys have a great fascination with fish (and my parents sent us some money for Christmas) I thought it would be nice to visit the Sealife Centre in Birmingham. Forgetting for a moment the nightmare that driving into (and out of... a bit like Dante's inferno, lose all hope of ever getting out!) Birmingham is, we had a great day. The boys absolutely love going to these sort of places, I feel uneasy about zoos, but as we keep fish at home ourselves I can't really moralize about animals in captivity.



So lots of high points, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures as I was worried about losing the boys, Isaac likes to walk now more than being carried so I have two wild things running about the place. We all enjoyed handling the crabs and touching the anemones, the interactive pool with the Rays, the seahorses, the scary sharks and above all the beautiful turtles, one came up to the glass and seemed to nod at Isaac. And amazingly the boys sat through a 4D film with vibrating chairs, splashes of water and funny goggles... and liked the mirror maze at the end, it made me dizzy and a little worried but Reuben really enjoyed trying to find the way out.

Muddy puddles

We have recently discovered a real love for the woods, we try to go once or twice a week, so much so that the boys now have to wear waterproofs as the lure of muddy puddles is too much to resist. My dream is to have a cabin in Swithland woods (could be a reality if I mount a serious enough campaign to convince my other half...) so we can spend as much time there as we want. The boys are not interested in going for walks, they want to be part of the woods, they want to pick up every single leaf and twig, they want to experience the place, not just pass through it as us adults seem to do. We can pick a spot and stay there for hours, it's wonderful! And they are learning so much about the natural world, I cannot even begin to list the things we discuss. The other day I took them to the playground in the village where we live, they both ignored swings, slides and climbing frames and instead decided to climb the trees and make a "campfire" with twigs and leaves. And we haven't even started on dens yet!
























This was taken at Watermead County Park, we've just discovered the north entrance with more dinosaur sculptures including a giant woolly mammoth, this has led to getting books from the library about mammoths and finding out about ice ages.

Better get started then

Ok, so the blog looks all nice and pretty, but what have we been doing? I can't even begin to list all the things that the boys know already so I'll just do it day by day.

Reuben has recently started going to a gymnastics group, I thought he might struggle with the structured lesson but what a surprise! He loves to take things seriously, he listens carefully to all instructions and concentrates enormously on getting it all right. But more and more now I have started noticing the things he does differently, most children were happy to make their way across the trail in the gym, but often got stuck and waited for one of the instructors to come along and help, also there are some pictures strewn across the way, with positions the children should attempt (like touching toes and similar), I noticed that none of the children, unless prompted by and adult, attempted any of these positions on their own. Reuben is quite different in the sense that he's happy to take instructions from the adults but he very much does the trail on his own, he never seems to get stuck and if he's not sure what to do he will still do something, and he was the only child who attempted all the position he saw on the cards. I imagine this is because he does not spend the day being told what to do so he is not reliant on adults to give him instructions all the time. I compare Reuben and Isaac's experience of the world with the one of schoolchildren and I am so glad I can give them this freedom. Hopefully they will never know that learning is supposed to be boring.

Reuben has also started to "write" in the sense that he writes little notes he leaves all over the place, it's just scribbles at this stage but he thinks they have meaning, so of course they do! And drawing, here's another surprise. Reuben has never shown much interest in drawing, painting, colouring, anything like that, he likes to mix the paints to see what happens and he likes the feel of clay and play dough but he doesn't attempt to make them into any sort of recognizable figure or picture. Well, recently he has started to draw what he calls "little Reubens" and they're wonderful! Little people with giant heads and little legs who do actually look a bit like him (the curly hair gives them away).

Isaac is going through an obsessive phase, his loves are trains, play dough and the i-pad!!! You would not believe a 21month old could sit still for such long stretches of time. I have struggled with the boys using the i-pad and computer but have come to the conclusion that as these things are in the house they might as well start self regulating when it comes to them. And if I think they have been on them too long I will resort to distractions, lets make biscuits usually works!!

Changes made

Ok, changed the name and the look of it, not really happy with it yet but I'll tinker with it more when the little people have gone to bed. I think that what I'm trying to do is to keep a record of what we all do together, what the boys have done and learnt. I tried keeping a log but it's impossible as we don't like to separate thing into subjects, so this seems like the ideal format.

Blog changing

I've been very slack with this blog, I think that as the children grow up, the focus of this blog is a little vague. As the biggest thing in our lives (and for many years to come, I hope) is home education, it makes sense to keep a record of what the boys (and us) are doing and learning, so I will change the blog to a home ed record, I hope it will be of some use to those who are embarking on a similar journey or just to see what the crazy hippies are up to!!!

Our babywearing exhibition

Kangaroo Kids is an exhibition that brings together photographer Martin Zalesny with the Leicester Sling Meet, a group of parents with a strong interest in carrying their babies and children (babywearing) in slings, carriers or wraps, who meet regularly in Leicester as well as virtually in their facebook group.

The aim of this exhibition is to show babywearing as a natural, beautiful, useful and fun aspect of parenting.

More details here http://www.kangarookidsphoto.com

It is opening on the 1st December at the Leicester People's Photographic Gallery