Monkey goes to London

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This post is written by Monkey.

On Tuesday I went to London on a train with Granny.  On the way we played I-Spy and we sang “Yellow Bird.”  When the train stopped we got off and went on an underground train.  We walked past Tower Bridge and we saw that the bridge was open so we walked nearer to it.  We saw two boats go under it and we watched it close.  I noticed there was an Olympic sign on the top part of the bridge.  We went to the flat and I saw my bed and bedroom, and also Grandpa.  Then I had supper which was pasta with cheese and tomato in.  After supper, Granny read me a story called “Katie and the British Artists” by James Mayhew, and we watched some football on the television.

Next morning at breakfast I had Oatibix and Weetabix, and then I had a bath and hair wash.  Granny checked that everything was in my backpack and then we went out.  We went on an underground train and a bus to the National Gallery.  First we went to the cafe and I had some lemon cake and juice which I shared with Granny. Then we went in a room with some pictures and we saw one which is in the book about Katie.  It is a picture of a horse and it is called “Whistlejacket.”  It is by George Stubbs.

We found all of the pictures from the book, except for “The Painter’s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly.” I also saw another picture I liked which was called “The Archers” and I decided to draw it in my notebook.  It is by Sir Henry Raeburn.

When we were going out of the gallery, we heard the sound of bagpipes, and a few minutes later we saw the piper.  Then we went home on the train.

Where to start?

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The last couple of weeks have been so busy that I have been struggling to process any of it enough to write about it here.  I am now sitting on the sofa watching the football, and almost falling asleep, but I really want to write something.  I have no idea where to start, but I thought I would just jump right in and see how it goes.  It may not be the most coherent post ever…

Half term went very fast, with the long weekend at Granny and Grandpa’s house, extended because daddy was working nearby on the Wednesday, a spy-themed afternoon at a local home-ed group on the Thursday and a couple of reasonably quiet days at home catching up on the washing – we must have done other things as well, but I can’t remember much.  We didn’t make it to Dramabuds or football on Saturday, but Owl went to choir and Monkey and Rabbit went to ballet, where there was a guest appearance by Angelina Ballerina herself (which was a little bewildering to say the least).

After some frantic unpacking and repacking we went back to Granny’s house again, visiting RHS Wisley on the way.  We spent three days at Granny’s while Suburban Dad was away at a conference.  We got quite a lot of work done, had our new friend over to play again, played stuck-in-the-mud, grandmother’s footsteps and Lego, Lego, Lego…  We arrived home late on Wednesday night, and I spent Thursday at home with my four and an extra two-year old while my friend had a hospital appointment.  The boys got some work done, the children all played nicely and the small visitor built a very tall Duplo tower and was extremely proud of himself.

This weekend we have had a wonderful time at a family wedding, and we were extremely lucky to be able to stay with friends of the bride and groom for two nights – accommodation for the 6 of us is very hard to come by.  The wedding was lovely, the bride was beautiful; Rabbit was a flower girl and she was beautiful too, and very good.  We went to the reception and had a very enjoyable evening catching up with all the family, and I remember saying many times, we will stay as long as the children are good.  At about half past ten, we thought it was probably time to go back as our hosts had already left!  The following day we returned to the reception venue which was at a farm and they were having an open day.  We spent some more time with the family, and had a lovely and unexpected afternoon of learning and fun.

Highlights of the farm day:

  • watching the sheep shearing
  • looking at the puppies, ferrets and chickens
  • seeing live bees and buying honey (Monkey was very interested in this)
  • making bread and eating it (Rabbit particularly enjoyed this)
  • watching a working blacksmith (who allowed Owl to have a go)
  • chatting to a man making a fence
  • seeing some people making baskets
  • playing with farm toys
  • colouring lots of pictures (Tiddler)
  • collecting wool, feathers, straw, flowers and grasses and using them to decorate sticks

Finally we left the farm rather late in the day, and we had to stop at a service station for supper.  As we set off for home at 7pm, the car broke down, so we ended up making use of the facilities for a further two hours while waiting for the AA.  It could have been worse, I suppose.  If you have to break down, a safe place with toilets, coffee and a play area is ideal!  In the end we were towed home which rounded off the children’s weekend perfectly.

Another thing I have forgotten to blog about is our painted lady caterpillars which arrived about ten days ago.  It has been fascinating to see how quickly they grow, and the children are loving it.  I’m wishing I’d been organised enough to take photos of them at different stages because they have changed a lot already.  Well, it is such a popular activity that I expect we’ll be doing it again next year, so perhaps we’ll do some better recording then.  For now, we are just enjoying observing them.

In the last couple of days, we have done a fair bit of Maths, a little Geography and History and some drawing and writing about our weekend, and this afternoon we went to the local Ecology Centre with another home educating family.  We did pond dipping and bug hunting, and explored the sensory garden (we may have eaten rather a lot of the mint and chives), before an urgent need for the toilet forced us to repair to the pub across the road.  I am sorry for the disturbance we caused with our seven children aged 2 to 8, and I’m not sure the six pounds we spent on a pot of tea and two packets of crisps was quite enough to compensate but that was more or less all the money we had with us!  We then walked home to meet Granny who was taking Monkey on the train to London.   They are spending the night at the flat with Grandpa and going to the National Gallery tomorrow.  (Note to self: get Monkey to blog his Gallery visit when he comes home!)

Lego museum plans

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This is a guest post by Owl – the first of many, I hope.

My new Lego creation is going to be a museum room, called room 11.  It will be a medieval themed room.  It will have:

  • a star-shaped fort
  • a star-shaped information board about the fort
  • an old portrait of a knight’s head
  • a suit of armour on a pole
  • a table laid for a feast with a golden goblet
  • a statue of a horse
  • information about drawbridges
  • a toy drawbridge to play with

If I can manage it, I will make the museum with an opening front so that you can see the things inside.  Of course, this is only one room.  I will be making some more rooms later.

My baby boy is eight

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I’ve been a bit quiet on here over the weekend.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the celebration of the non-retirement of a certain elderly lady had something to do with it, and that is partly true, but it was overshadowed for me by the birthday of my firstborn.

So little Owl, it’s been eight years, hard to believe…here are some random things I remember… the smile on your daddy’s face when we found out we were expecting you; feeling you kicking along to the music when we were singing in a concert a month or so before you were born; your daddy singing to you in my tummy; the first time I kissed your little head, the first time I held you, you holding my finger – they could be anyone’s memories, but they are mine and I will never forget them.

The first outing with you in your pram; drinking champagne to celebrate when you were two weeks old; a sunny outing to Canterbury when you were two months old, and your first holiday – a week at Granny and Grandpa’s house – around the same time.  I remember your baby smile, your laugh, you thought that “Row row row the boat” was the funniest thing ever.  I remember how happy you were nearly all the time, lying in your carrycot, sitting in your blue and green chair, having cuddles, being carried in the lovely Wilkinet sling, splashing in the bath… I always said that you were an easy baby, though now I’ve had four and found you all to be easy I’ve come to the conclusion that I just really like babies.

I could go on all day and all night writing about you over the last eight years, but I have to admit that would be interesting only to me, and your daddy perhaps.  So I’ll skip forward to the here and now… my biggest boy, you are clever and thoughtful, you ask amazing questions, you read so much that I learn many things I never knew just from listening to you talk, especially about Science and History.  You sing beautifully, play the piano and violin very well and even compose your own pieces of music.  You get this from your daddy, along with your practical skills (you get your screwdriver and fix things without having to ask for help; you are even beginning to provide valuable IT support when daddy is out) and also your tendency not to listen to a word I say, but at least I know because you have the same expression on your face as he does when you are daydreaming.

From me you get your desire to learn everything all at once, especially languages.  It’s great fun starting to learn new things, but perhaps together we need to try and finish a few of them!  You also have my love of reading, especially late at night, everything from Secret Seven books to Science encyclopedias, and of course Lego books.  You can concentrate for a very long time on things you really want to achieve – building complex Lego models, drawing complicated and detailed pictures, designing and building models out of anything you can find.  When you have something important you want to say, you talk and talk without stopping, but you are also a good listener.  You are very sensitive and caring, and you love your brothers and your sister.  You love meeting new people and playing with old friends; you are confident and friendly and good at joining in everything with enthusiasm.  You enjoy tennis and football, church and music lessons, choir and Beavers.

You chose to have a bowling party, after trying it for the first time a few weeks ago.   That seems like a very big boy thing to choose; we are entering a new era of parenting and it’s fun.  You had a good time with the friends you took bowling, and with lots more friends and family members who came back afterwards for a barbecue.  And then your birthday celebrations continued over the weekend at Granny and Grandpa’s house.  You went to a street party and made a new friend; got your first Hornby set, a draughts and chess set and even more Lego; went out for lunch with your family and then spent the afternoon playing with the friend you had met a day earlier; even found time for a Latin lesson with Grandpa.

And now we are home and you are sad that your birthday is over.  Except it isn’t, quite.  There will be another bowling party later this month, because we couldn’t manage to take all your friends at once on the bus!  And then it really will be over, until next year.   And then you will be nine… I can’t comprehend that right now.  I hope you know how much your mummy and daddy love you.  I think you do.  We have different ways of showing it.  I tell you I love you a lot.  Your daddy mainly expresses his love through cake.  We both think we are the luckiest parents in the world because we have you and your brothers and your sister.  Thank you for being such a lovely son.

Jubilee Alphabet

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This is a work in progress by Monkey.  He is having trouble sleeping so we have been composing a Jubilee Alphabet.   I’m not sure if this is the finished version, as I’ve left him thinking about it, with a view to continuing tomorrow if he is in the mood.

Anniversary

Balloons and bunting, blue

Celebrations and cake

Diamond

Elizabeth, England

Flags, fun

Golden crown

Hats

Ice-cream

Jubilee

King

London

Music

Nice day, Northern Ireland

Overtired

Party

Queen

Roundabout, red

Songs, Scotland

Tents

Union Jack

Vicar

White, Wales

eXcellent day

Yawn

Zzzzz…time to go to sleep (the Queen is tired)

Extended breastfeeding and the art of conversation

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We’ve been having a quiet week at home so far, with Rabbit off Pre-school with a sickness bug.  She’s fine now, and the children have enjoyed extra unstructured time to play together which has been interesting to watch.  There has been lots of imaginative play, some good sharing and co-operation, wonderful if messy creativity, and reasonable attempts at clearing up after themselves.  I must admit I can’t report exactly what it has all been about.  We’ve done some Maths at the start of each day but then I’ve mainly left them to their own devices while I’ve attempted to catch up with housework.  In the afternoons, they have been doing Reading Eggs, Mathletics and Spellodrome, and a lot of playing in the garden.  The big boys have also been to Beavers this evening and had a tennis lesson which they really enjoyed.

Tiddler has been joining in more and more with everything the older ones do – he has even been demanding the right to “do Maths”!  His speech has also suddenly moved on again, with lots more sentences now.  When daddy left for work one day, he said “I want to go and look out window” and there have been lots more like that.  He also tries to join in every conversation, and copies everything he hears.  He’s been asking to sing certain songs over and over again, and is obviously trying hard to learn them.  He loves “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, and joins in loudly with the bits he knows, especially “WHAT YOU ARE”. He also likes “The Wheels on the Bus”, shouting “ALL DAY LONG” with great enthusiasm.

The strangest conversation I have had with him today occurred during his evening breastfeed.  There has been a lot of debate about extended breastfeeding recently, and I haven’t really commented on it yet.  Maybe I’ll do a serious post about it sometime…Anyway, this evening, he kept stopping to tell me something which was very important but I couldn’t understand it at first.  It was something about monkeys and dinosaurs outside, and then he started saying “Ribbit ribbit said the frog”  which he told me was at Granny’s house.  He then said there was a frog and a fox (no doubt about which Granny he was thinking of) and the fox was having breakfast.  He carried on feeding for a while and then stopped to tell me that the fox had porridge for breakfast, with honey, and some water.  Having communicated this important message, he was happy.  I could feel his satisfaction at knowing enough words to be able to tell such a long story.  I love this stage of development (I think I say that about every stage!) – it’s so interesting to find out what is going on in their funny little heads.  It cheered me up anyway!

A day out with Thomas and a day to recover

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Yesterday we went to a Thomas the Tank Engine day at the Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway.  We set off early and arrived in time to eat our packed breakfast in the blazing sunshine while waiting for the tickets to go on sale.  We had a good view of the miniature trains, including Thomas, Gordon and Henry, which kept the children entertained while we were waiting.  Once inside we met up with my aunt and uncle and two cousins, one of whom is over from Australia with her two smallest ones, and it was lovely to see them all.  The children had a wonderful time – they went on three train rides, played in the playground, had a walk round the lake (where we saw a swan with her seven babies), saw a Punch and Judy show and a magic show, had lunch in the cafe, and later on an ice cream.  Half way through the afternoon, we decided to decamp to the nearest pub so that the adults could have a proper catch up (as we usually only see each other once a year) and that was very successful too.  Luckily we found a pub with a nice beer garden, which had a bouncy castle and a playground so the children were happy.  We set off home when we should really have been thinking about supper, so we stopped at a service station, where we met – completely by chance – another cousin who was returning from a family wedding with her three little ones, so the children had fun playing together.

Today was quite a contrast as we had a day at home, and daddy had the day off work which was great… particularly as Rabbit was sick three times and very poorly all day.  So she stayed home from Pre-school and lay on the sofa watching Cbeebies all day, the boys did some work (rather slowly as they were very tired) and Tiddler pottered around quite cheerfully, and helpfully had a four-hour nap in the middle of the day – we really did wear him out yesterday!  So we managed a satisfying amount of washing, tidying, cleaning, cooking and garden chores – though of course not as much as I hoped, but maybe my list was a bit ambitious.  I’m now studiously avoiding looking at it until tomorrow.

Time for a round up…

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It’s been a mad week, and I haven’t blogged anything that happened after the Museum visit on Tuesday.  I can’t remember everything we’ve done, but there are a few bits and pieces I want to record here.  On Wednesday, we had a home education group meeting at our house.  The children had a lot of fun playing in our overgrown garden, and luckily we managed not to lose any of them among the long grass and rather impressive array of weeds wild flowers we are currently cultivating.  Monkey and Owl set up a very good obstacle course and all the children had a go, the older ones helping the younger ones so that they all succeeded in completing it.  We had a teepee at the half way point, and I suggested that each child could go in there and either sing a song or count to ten before continuing.  I particularly enjoyed listening to Jingle Bells sung very quietly and sweetly by a lovely four-year old boy!  After the group left, we went to the Beavers’ Jubilee party and the children had fun playing games and eating lots of cake.  When we came home, Monkey decided he had to write a very important note for the milkman before he could go to bed.  I believe this is known as “writing for a purpose”!

On Thursday, Granny (my mum) came to visit so we had a peaceful and productive morning. In the afternoon I decided that, instead of fighting against it, I should use the overgrown garden as an educational resource, so we spent a long time drawing wild flowers and trying to identify them.  Owl, Monkey and Rabbit all did some really good drawings, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it with them.

On Friday, the other Granny (I need some granny code names…) came to take Owl for his violin lesson, and afterwards she looked after Owl and Monkey while Rabbit was at pre-school and I took Tiddler to his Musicbox class, which he loves.  Grannies may not be essential requirements for home educating, but they certainly make it easier!  Later in the day, the boys continued writing their Lego stories and worked on their Prehistory project a little.  Owl and Rabbit did reading eggs, and they all played in the garden a lot.

Today I took Rabbit and Tiddler to Dramabuds, and Suburban dad took Owl and Monkey to football.  Then they all had their haircut, before the big boys went to another Beavers and Cubs Jubilee party.  Rabbit painted a box for some treasure that she had collected on the way home from Dramabuds (sticks, leaves and a stone!), before going to her ballet lesson.  She then spent the rest of the day playing in our new train paddling pool, joined by Tiddler after his sleep.  I pottered around for a bit trying to do some domestic tasks, before admitting defeat and joining in with them.  I pulled up a chair and sat with my feet in the pool, and for a while the two of them did the same with their little chairs, which was very sweet.  It took a long time for Tiddler to decide to get in but he did in the end.  Rabbit was in and out constantly, jumping and splashing so we all got quite wet anyway!  They also spent a long time playing with the plastic balls that came with the pool (we have loads already, but there’s nothing quite so exciting as new stuff!)  When the big boys finally returned home, we had a rather late but very nice supper in the garden – although the boys had taken a packed tea with them, we guessed they would be hungry enough for a cooked meal, and they certainly were!  Banana smoothies for pudding went down well too.

British Museum

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I am beyond exhausted but I really want to blog the British Museum visit that I did with the boys two days ago.  This is the kind of “home education” I want to do more of – getting out and about, and making the most of the many interesting places there are to visit, which we would not have so much time for if the kids were in school.  However, at the moment I would struggle to take all four of them up to London on the train, so we still try to fit in all the outings we want to do into the holidays, and occasionally at weekends.  I know this will get easier as the kids get older, but in the mean time I am very grateful for the help of the friends who made it possible to spend some time with the big boys, doing something just for them….

My friend collected the two little ones, and then the boys and I walked up to the station and caught the train to London.  The boys enjoyed the train ride, during which we played Thomas the Tank Engine top trumps and discussed our Prehistory topic which we are just starting.  We then had a short (thankfully) ride on a crowded tube train, and a pleasant walk in the sunshine to the museum.  By the time we had arrived, had the obligatory toilet stop and met up with Owl’s godmother, we decided we were ready for an early lunch.  We had a relaxing cup of coffee while the children ate their packed lunches, but had to speed up once they were finished as they were showing signs of needing to move on (let’s just say some running around, chasing each other and fake slipping on banana skins was involved…)

I had already identified the two rooms we wanted to go to – I knew that would be enough, and I was determined to keep it simple.  The rooms were Britain and Europe 800 BC – AD 43 and Europe and the Middle East 10,000 – 800 BC, and we spent most of the time in the first one.  I asked them to draw pictures of anything they liked, and they both spent a long time drawing the Lindow Man which was gruesome but fascinating.  They then drew a selection of other objects including shields, mirrors, coins, spoons and a helmet.  It was a successful activity, and gave them something to focus on, though it came more naturally to Monkey.  Owl likes everything to be perfect, which is quite a challenge when you are trying to draw something quite detailed and difficult, but we got there in the end.

                            

We then had a look at the hands on table, and were able to touch and find out about several artefacts including an axe head which I think was 5000 years old.  We then went into the second room and had a look round more quickly, before giving in to demands to visit the shop!

We stepped out of the museum into a beautiful sunny afternoon, and walked up to Euston station to wait for daddy’s train to arrive.  We spent half an hour or so on the grass outside, eating the rest of our packed lunch and doing some of the Usborne Grammar and Punctuation cards which proved very popular and filled in the time peacefully.  We then walked into the station to meet daddy for a quick coffee (grown-ups) and giant chocolate coin and drink of water (children) before getting the tube and then the train back home.  It was rather hot and crowded, but not too bad and we played top trumps again (woodland animals this time) to pass the time.  We arrived home in time for the boys to have supper while daddy collected the little ones who were also worn out and happy after a busy day with their friends including a long walk and a farm visit.  It was a very tiring but lovely day.

I don’t know how you do it…

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If you are home educating and have little ones, you’ll have heard this a few times…  “I don’t know how you manage to home educate at the same time as looking after your baby/ toddler/ pre-schooler.”  There are so many ways to answer this, that I never know where to begin.  So every time someone says it to me, my reply is probably something different, but may include the following:

  • I’m quite good at multi-tasking – I’ve been doing it non-stop since my first child was born nearly 8 years ago
  • I remember vividly the stressful (to put it mildly) experience of having a child in school, a pre-schooler and a toddler, and being pregnant… that was much much harder than home educating
  • Home educating 4 children is no harder than parenting 4 children (of course you may be one of those people who say “I don’t know how you do it, I couldn’t cope with 4 children” – I don’t know how to answer that one either.  What can I say?  I’m not you… you might find it impossible to cope with, but to me it’s rewarding and fun and I think I’m the luckiest mum in the world)
  • I’ve been a teacher with a class of 35, so a one to four ratio is easy
  • The gap in ability between children in the same year group can be so great that complex differentiation is always required when planning lessons…in some ways it’s easier, or certainly no harder, to plan home ed activities for ages 2 to 8
  • My toddler sleeps for two hours in the morning, and my pre-schooler spends four mornings a week at pre-school
  • My older children teach the younger ones/play with them/ read to them often without being asked (yesterday Rabbit went through a whole vehicles poster with Tiddler, asking him “can you say car?  can you say fire engine?” … and he solemnly repeated every one!)
  • I have brilliant friends, including other home educators as well as friends who send their children to school, and my parents and my mother-in-law, who help with childcare and education in many different ways

If you asked me that question today, my answer would be the last one on the list.  Today my two oldest boys enjoyed a brilliant educational and fun experience, visiting the British Museum with me and a very good friend, while another lovely family looked after my little two and took them on a wonderful walk through a National Trust park to a farm.  I will blog the Museum visit later, but for now I just wanted to say how lucky I am to have great friends who made this lovely day possible.