Fishfingers and custard - the photos!

Ok just imagine everything I wrote was wrapped around these photos! I'm too tired to mess with these now.... still figuring out how to use Picasa ...

Fishfingers and custard, trains, and lavender soap

Well its been an eventful week round here. We were treated to a fantastic day out on Sunday at the Leatherhead Miniature Railway, where there was a fantastic funday. Lots of families having a day of train rides, picnicing, eating cake and enjoying the sunshine together. We went with Pete's parents and our friends Dave and Janine with their children.

This week I also ran an organic soap-making workshop for a couple of fellow home educating families. I was a bit panicky about the wisdom of doing such a 'dangerous' activity with children as every soap book says don't do this with kids! I needn't have worried as they were really great, very sensible, and we had no mishaps at all - in fact it was loads of fun :-) We're doing another one next Wednesday. I think this activity is going to become seriously addictive!!!

Our lovely smelling lavender soap! How exciting! It will be cured in time for Christmas.

We have also been doing some table activities, messing around with the 'hot dots' set that we bought ages ago and rarely use, playing with lacing cards, and plasticine. Our last playdough batch was a sticky gloopy mess but we played with it anyway. Thank goodness we finally chucked it, I was getting tired of washing up the dreaded stuff!

Herb astounded me by getting Henry Hoover out all by himself, and tidying Finn's bedroom with him, without being prompted. I took some photos but they came out too dark. The whole room was arranged and sorted unbelievably neatly, bed made, even the pillows and cushioned were symetrically arranged and placed just so ! Who abducted my kids and replaced them with these ones?!!!

Finn wanted to make apple pancakes, so we did. He also made some top notch smoothies, and served everyone brekkie. Bless him.

We watched THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR DVD three times in one morning, on repeat play. Normally this would bother me, but this dvd is really special. I may have to do a 'Motherfunker's Guide' of the best children's DVD's sometime. This would be up there. I won't praise it too much for now. But it is FAB!

The boys play a lot of chess (and beat me!!!) , and just lately they have discovered Yahtzee. I guess it's a more gentle way of learning multiplication than robotically memorizing them the old fashioned way.

Indie made a rainbow card for someone very dear to us, and the children sang the song ROY G BIV by They Might Be Giants to help remember the order of the colours.

Generally we don't use schoolbooks in our daily learning in this household but every now and then they can be a nice way of complementing and consolidating all the organic freesyle learning they do. When they're adults they'll no doubt need to fill forms and may choose to study in this way so best prepare
them a bit for that now.

We have also been enjoying our new decking area, which is a nice change from the pile of rubble thats been there for the last year! 

 

 

 

Mummy having a relax for once!

Last night, Pete made a delicious soup made with all the different veg we've been harvesting from our garden. Yum!

 

And finally, here is Herbie trying out fishfingers and custard.....it's a Doctor Who thing!!! 

See you soon!

X

Before we were mamas

Sweet dear Mamas.

This is a love letter to you.

All of you.

I know it can be hard. There are so many layers to us. We were not born as mamas, but we have been born into it so to speak, with the mental, physical and psychological stretch marks to prove it. Some of us keep these better hidden than others. Being born into a mother role involves a labour of sorts and a kind of being squeeeeeeezed into our new role, from our old life into this new one. It has it's dangers. But it is a new start, a fresh start, a new beginning. Something beautiful, pure and clean.

And that can be hard to deal with when we carry around hurts and scars that won't heal. Pain from before. It doesn't entirely dissolve or go away. Some hurts run too deep. Some pains run so deep nothing and no-one can touch them easily. They are too hard to talk about. Too awkward. Too painful. The is almost never a right time to discuss them, because those things stray so far from the path of polite conversation, conversation that can be discussed near children, etc...

I know you all have your hurts. Your own disappointments that you carry around under your busy mummy exterior. Painful things that hurt like hell. Things from before we were mamas.

Remember you are not alone dear mama. We all carry these things. We all have scars we hide from each other - ourselves even.

When old hurts (whether they be a month, a year, ten years, or twenty) come back to haunt you, remember how far you've come. Remember what you've achieved. Feel proud of who and where you are now. Don't let the past hold you down, don't let it keep you there. Your time is now. Look into your partner and your children's eyes and drink deeply. Look at yourself in the mirror and really smile. Remember you are beautiful. You're alive! That is a gift. It really is.

August Gratituesday....

Welcome to my second Gratituesday, the idea of lovely mama knitty over at 

The Knitty Gritty Homestead

Ooh I am grateful for a good many things today.

I am really mindful today of the potential power of the kindness of strangers. We really enjoyed this vibe today. I'm grateful for those who have faith in people's good nature. I'm grateful for new friendships, new insights, new people in my life. New philosophies and wisdoms. Of multiple wisdoms and truths.

I'm grateful for my little boy and the newly growing love since we clashed spectacularly of late and we are finding a path to each other again, falling in love again. I'm delighted again by his cheeky spirit instead of simply being exhausted and exasperated by it.

I'm grateful for kind folks who donate their time and energy for things they feel passionate about, without financial reward.

I'm grateful for the goodies that are coming forth from my veg garden, waves of gifts, that seem utterly magical and mysterious and full of good energy!

I'm grateful to be able to live the lifestyle I live. I moan about how hard it is, far too much. But I am lucky. I am grateful that I learnt to drive and have been able to go off having so many days all over the place with the kids. I'm grateful for those quiet days too, when nothing much happens. When we can catch our breath and daydream a little. Consolidate and re-group. Re-gather our thoughts. Get our house back in order.

I'm grateful for everyone in our family's life, for their time, thoughts, and loving care. For their kind words. For sharing this life with us and making it worth living for.

What are you grateful for today?

Motherfunker's guide to the best kids music albums - Part 2

Hello, how nice to be back. How are you? 

We've been off galavanting in Wales and Herefordshire, having a disastrous tent experience in the  beautiful Brecon Beacons, but enjoying the stunning views and natural beauty of the area. I went on my own with the children and put our bell tent up wrong (Yes, I know) - bending all the tent pegs in the iron-hard ground in the process. Two windy, rainy nights with puddles in the tent (wet bedding made wetter when Alf shook half a bottle of smoothie all over the inside of the tent) and the logistics of doing everything with a toddler in tow was a real test, but luckily the daytimes were fun and we had loads planned. Climbing activity days at a local centre, a horse-riding lesson for Herb, a trip to a water mill, a trip to the cinema to see Cars 2, and a fantastic day trip to the showcase caves/dino centre high up in the beacons, which was stunning. We spent nights three and four of our hols in a cheap and cheerful B&B room, which the children treated as one big bouncy castle. I returned home feeling frazzled but having really enjoyed some parts of the holiday - watching the newly full moon rise over a hill whilst walking in a horsey meadow with abundant wildlife was the highlight for me :-)

And while we were off doing this my biggest boy Finn was off for a whole 7 nights all by himself with a bunch of total strangers, on an activity holiday called "Young Inventors Week", sleeping in dorms, and doing all sorts of new things. He had an absolute blast, and loved the independence from us. Being home educated, experiences like this are really good for him, since he has to put up with three younger brothers in his hair for a great deal of time, and much as he loves them, they all need some distance and times apart to appreciate each other!

Anyway.....this is meant to be a post about music!

I wanted to share some more gems with you, albums that get played to death in our household.

Here is the first. It's called African Playground, from the fantastic world music label Pututmayo. (Click on their website, it's lovely. They have an online radio show if you look on their main site) It's the most feel-good album I think you could buy for kids, so joyful and exhuberant and upbeat you'll even find yourself playing it when they're not around. We know all the words by heart, and as with all the Putumayo Kids albums there is a little booklet which tells you about each song, something about the artist, the lyrics etc. 

African Playground is in my opinion, the best, but there are loads of really good albums on this label.  

Animal Playground has some stunning tracks on it, my favourites are 'Eagles' by Terri Hendrix, which I cannot sing without getting a lump in my throat at one particular point... and also 'The littlest Birds" by The Be Good Tanyas, which is just gorgeous. "No more monkeys" by Asheba is also great fun and below I have included a vid link to it, just for you. Just click on the little linkbelow :-)

Moving on... the World Playground Multicultural Activity Kit is a really nice little package. The children learn about the different countries by learning about the songs and the lyrics and by ticking off countries in their "passport" that they have visited. I haven't used the book that much because I don't want to detract from their pure enjoyment of the music at this stage, but I think a time will come when they're a little older, when they may well read through the book from their own desire to do so, and will find it a very interesting and educational little bit of fun I'm sure. The CD is great.

Putumayo are great because they donate a potion of their proceeds to different charities. Read up on the albums first though. They have made A LOT of compilations and some can be a bit generic. It depends what you like.

I have included links to Amazon here but only do so because you can see reviews etc... You can often find these albums in lovely wooden/boutique toyshops, where they will be much more expensive. It depends where you want to put your dollar.

Hope you enjoyed my list anyway, see you soon!

Oh, ok just one more link. This is from Animal Playground. I just love it too much not to link it here. It's by the BeGood Tanyas. Enjoy!

xxx