Today was busy but successful. In the morning I took Tiddler to his Musicbox class while a lovely friend looked after 6 children in my house (3 of mine and her 3). The music class is a relatively new thing for us, and I really enjoy doing something with and for my littlest one, as most of our activities revolve around the older ones. I’ve wanted to do it for a very long time, but it seemed impossible. I’m so glad I’ve finally made it happen (and very grateful to the kindness of my friend, and in other weeks my mother-in-law, in looking after the big three children.)
When I arrived back home, the two of us gathered up our collection of children, coats, packed lunches, etc and got ready to set off for the city farm. A friend joined us with her two little ones, and when we got there we met up with several families from another local home ed group which has recently been set up (there are a lot of us about!) It was fun to meet some new people and we were fortunate to be able to join in the farm tour which they had arranged.
The children enjoyed feeding the animals (sheep, goats, alpacas… I’m not sure if any of them were brave enough to feed the cows, they were a bit too slobbery…), looking at the tiny newborn piglets and their enormous mother and watching the ducks for a very long time…Tiddler in particular kept coming back to them. They also had fun stroking a rabbit, visiting “chicken village” (love the name) and feeling a newly laid egg which was warm.
Next we headed into the classroom to eat our packed lunch. The peace was spoiled by a classic Tiddler tantrum, when he spotted a chocolate bar and therefore refused to eat his sandwiches. I would like to apologise to the other families (if they happen to be reading) for the terrible noise, but would also like to claim experienced parent brownie points because I WON and he ate his sandwich and apple in the end. Of course he got the chocolate bar afterwards so he was happy!
The final activity at the farm was clay modelling which was a great hit with the older three children. They were asked to make models of animals, and were absorbed in the task for a long time, before heading out into the fresh air and sunshine. It was a lovely outing, and we returned home in time for the children to enjoy some downtime and a Friday afternoon free choice of activities. Monkey continued to work on and perfect his clay model, and he and Owl did some drawing while Rabbit played with her favourite doll (Holly – who probably deserves a post of her own sometime) and Tiddler had a very long sleep.
I managed to fit in a session tutoring a lovely nearly 10 year old girl (while her mum looked after my children) and the day ended with some fun playing in the garden, enjoying the evening sunshine, until Rabbit demonstrated clearly that it was bedtime by biting her big brother’s arm. Oh dear – but at least she was tired enough to settle down quickly, as was Tiddler despite the afternoon sleep. The big boys stayed up a little later to enjoy 20 minutes computer time which they had earned earlier in the day, before going to bed quite cheerfully. So all in all it’s been a good day!
Monkey’s Cat in a basket
Owl’s Ducks in a duck pond
Rabbit’s Very Big Pig and Very Small Piglet