I was beyond tired when I got to bed last night, and then had an awful night with Smallest – first time in ages. I think it was all the driving around that did it, with short odd naps folded up in her car seat iyswim. So I didn’t feel an awful lot better when I got up this morning, with another appt to go to, then back for only a couple of hours before tramping down to the leisure centre for yet another instalment of rookie lifeguard.

It’s just as well Big started rookie in September rather than waiting til this year. She’s two lessons off finishing the standard course now, with just her gold challenge test session and then the 1500m test session to go. Oddly her teacher had been preparing them for the mile, and I know that a child in her swim squad did just that in March, but when the letter came out it only said 1500. I’m going to ring up and query it, as she’s ever so disappointed to think she might not get that. I don’t care if they’ve discontinued the badge, they can let her swim the extra four lengths and write it up themselves if necessary!

So that’s the water related news. Although I’m not sure if I mentioned that when we were at a sandy beach at the weekend Smallest paddled for the first time (I know I shared the image) and had to be carried out of the water shivering and screaming to go back in

Small has had a tough week, but it was hugely brightened this morning by the arrival of Shadowmagic: Prince of Hazel and Oak, ostensibly for me to review, but in reality it looks like he’ll be doing it. I won the first last year and he stole that and read it, emailing the author, John Lenahan, to say it was one of the best books he’d ever read. (For his age he has actually read quite a lot of books. He’s not desperately discriminating though ) Anyway, it kept him very happy in the car today, so that was a huge bonus. Thank you Friday Project, full review to follow very soon.

Not been a good week for the garden – accidentally left the seedlings out overnight instead of returning to the porch and something ate several of them Tomorrow I must see what I can salvage. That’s if I remember to bring them in tonight.

And I do believe we might get some rain too. That would be good. I miss it.

Even when I realised it would mean driving into London.

Had I realised that it would mean driving right through the centre of London I might have thought twice…

Grr to the satnav. It was not a good journey. Can I claim it was educational in itself? We drove past Nelson’s Column after all. And apparently Buckingham palace, but I may have been paying more attention to the lanes, the traffic and the satnav to identify it at the time.

And if we hadn’t turned into a sainsbury’s carpark at a roundabout that the satnav didn’t know existed, or if I’d followed the signs to cinema parking in the enormous carpark of London Westfield Shopping mall, we’d have made it on time. As it is we were minutes late – and Small, bless his heart, didn’t have a meltdown. In fact he even said I understand when I said I was sorry, and he coped with every minute of stress.

I love my boy. And those who have met him previously will be ever so impressed by that achievement.

There was a lovely lady from Lego waiting at the cinema, and when I produced my VIP pass they beamed. And make sure they get the VIP goody bags at the end, she said, and we were ushered in to our reserved VIP seats

Big was impressed by the HeroFactory branded popcorn and bottle of water at every seat. Small was just absolutely rapt – I had to steer him into his chair as he was staring at the screen over his shoulder and tripping up the stairs He really enjoyed the film. Smallest just enjoyed exploring the cinema – sadly it was rather more empty than it should have been I think, so we went up and down rows of seats and up and down stairs to her heart’s content.

I quite liked the film. It’s nicely put together, with suitably heroic activities, the classic older guy picking on promising youngster, and even a robot who appeared to be wearing jedi style robes. Not quite sure what that was about. Small told me all about all the Heroes in the movie – I’ve no idea how he knew about them beforehand, I assume he has to have been exploring the LegoHeroFactory website and playing the games on there.

And at the end, we exited to a minor disaster. Somehow there was only one VIP goody bag, and the staff were mortified. If the kids hadn’t known there was anything special coming, or if indeed the staff hadn’t been quite so upset, I don’t think they’d really have noticed, but as it was, they did. Big stepped up to the plate and let Small have the bag that was there, and Small assured the staff it really didn’t matter, we were OK and he would share. PMM indeed – he really is coming along pretty well atm.

From there, we went out into the ridiculously large mall.

We found a Next and spent a giftcard I’ve been carrying around for ages, and bought Small a Haynes Manual for the death star T shirt. It seemed appropriate somehow. And then we tried to find child friendly eating places and failed dismally. As shopping centres go, it really didn’t seem to be set up for children. In the end we bought a party platter of sandwiches from M&S (and do not get me started on what an absolute and utter ripoff that was) and legged it to the car, to escape London via the A1 and South Mimms services.

It was, all in all, a fab day out. Stringer, the hero who came out of the goody bag, has been played with pretty much continuously, although occasionally he has mutated into Spider Stringer with the addition of some parts from LEGO Ben 10 Alien Force Spidermonkey who already lives here.

And just to prove how very lovely the ppl at Lego are, when I explained what happened with the goody bags, they too apologised and are sending one for Big in the post. Which will make for a more harmonious household at least!

Disclosure: we were VIP guests of LegoHeroFactory and received travel expenses to attend this showing.

I won.

I like winning competitions

So on Thursday we used the vouchers – we took Tim’s brother and sister-in-law to Sutton Hoo, spent some time in the exhibition hall

and then retired to the restaurant.

We have visited before, and we have eaten there before. So we knew we were going to have a good day out.

It was more than good.

The kids had a fab time in the exhibition – even smallest enjoyed herself and crawled around and drew. As you can see, Small dressed up, although we couldn’t find the tunic dress for Big, so she settled on just trying on the headdress. And then the meal was absolutely fantastic.

When we went in I went up to the till to explain I had the voucher, and was greeted with “we’ve been expecting you” which was a pretty good start to the conversation. The voucher was for 4 ppl to each have a meal up to £20 including a drink, but the guy on the till said that we could just have whatever we wanted and he’d keep track and let us know when we ran out of money.

We tried quite hard, but we only went 15p over. Think that was Smallest’s gingerbread man

The rest of the adults had a steak and ale pie, while as the token veggie I settled on leek and stilton bread and butter pudding. I was slightly disappointed when mine came out as it looked like I had more salad than pudding, but tbh the portion size was actually about perfect. Although I did have room to squeeze in apple and berry crumble for dessert. I gave up on my beer though (Tim was heartbroken to have to finish it for me ) and was impressed to discover that they have jugs of water and glasses on offer, so you can just help yourself. It’s a good touch.

They also have Tripp Trapp high chairs, so smallest got to sit right up to the table, all the better to steal food from everyone’s plate. Apparently mushrooms, steak, and potatoes are good, and custard is even better, either cold from Aunty S’s trifle, or warm from my crumble.

All the staff were friendly and helpful and the children enjoyed their meatballs too – proper meatballs with chunky bread and cheese on top. And they had jelly for afters.

All in all, I can’t speak too highly of our day out – we had a wonderful time, and I would really recommend Sutton Hoo, both for the education, and for the food.

So I sorted through piles of clothes into different ages and he sorted through piles of stuff generally and then dismantled the bed and manhandled the mattress downstairs. Didn’t get as far as reassembling the bed downstairs as we had a date some distance away, so at 4 o’clock we loaded ourselves into the car and set out for a swimming birthday party. (Which reminds me of one of the things the children must have done – make birthday cards!)

Fantastic pool (very warm and comfortable) and once the children were separated a very pleasant swim. Even managed to chat with a few other parents in between wondering where Small had scampered off to now! He’s definitely lost all fear of the water which I suppose is a good thing on his way to swimming, but makes for some hair raising moments for me

Michelle had definitely not over (or under for that matter) catered, and there was a lovely birthday tea, and I managed to meet Grit Slightly odd to introduce myself to someone IRL using my blog address, but not completely unheard of. Long tradition of meeting ppl online first in this family anyway Nice to compare short notes on blogging, although it wasn’t really the environment to sit and chat, with a huge number of excited and still slightly damp children about. (Whoever says that home educated children don’t get to have friends should have been a fly on the wall there last night, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary for all to see )

And after the food, and the most excellent cake, back to the manor for cups of tea and chat. Small was over excited and needed to stay sitting next to me, but once he’d got over the immediate huff he was quite calm and played tangrams for a while. We didn’t stop desperately long, or at least, I didn’t think we did, but it was after 10 when we left, and that meant it was after midnight when we got in with very tired children. So it was a lie in for everyone this morning

Big settled quickly to her work again this morning – it seems possible that I’ve now found the right level of things to be working with her on both spelling and handwriting so she enjoyed it today. We did some work on a_e and ay words – I gave her lists and she tried to memorize them and write them out herself, and then she thought of a couple more words of each type. I pointed out that she’d used a capital B in the middle of a word and she said that that was because she’s never sure which way round that one goes, so it’s easier to use the capital to get the right one. Hm, that must be indicative of something surely? And then I printed her more jardotted stuff to write over, this time just the alphabet and we agreed that any time that she’s going to do some writing she’ll go over the alphabet first to help her remember how it works. Apparently the little arrows to show which way to write the letters really helps, as she doesn’t remember anyone ever showing her that before.

Am wondering if because she could already read and write she just skipped lots of the montessori starter stuff, and therefore doesn’t have the sound foundations on this any more than she does on maths. Sigh. Hoping that we’ll whip through it now we know what’s wrong anyway.

She did some maths as well, and then got stuck into the Nature Detectives autumn/ winter mailing, complete with lots of top trumps on fungus. By this time Small had come to join us, and he started with another telling time sheet, then did two maths practices (each was only a page long mind ) although he did at one point complain that his writing was too big to fit the answers on the page. At this point I discussed handwriting with him and printed him a sheet out and he’s decided he would like to learn how to form letters. I know he hasn’t learnt before, it’s all just been acquired as he’s gone along, but I also know that there’s never any point in trying to introduce anything before he’s interested in it.

Not sure how much of the handwriting he did before he got distracted by the top trump mushrooms They then went on to play cards for another hour or so

Eventually got them organised and headed out to the park to meet up with local home educators. The car park was heaving – had to wait for a woman to leave before there was anywhere to park, but then again, it was yet another glorious day. There were lots of families in the play area, including a family with a 6 year old boy who would like friends of his own, which of course explains why he and Small headed for opposite ends of the play area and ignored each other for the hour they were both there. Sigh. Have had a bit of a chat with Small about that this evening, he was quite pleased with himself for making friends with a little girl there but she was just someone we bumped into and may never meet again, while A is someone that we are likely to meet on many occasions.

Lovely lovely afternoon in the sun and the children played in the water with only minor intervention needed, then we headed for home. I’ll gloss over the carpark which I’m going to blog separately, then when we got back home, the kids watched James and the Giant Peach from this collection while Tim pampered me with tea and toast.

Children are now in bed and I’m trying to work out if there’s anything I fancy to eat.

Took Big down to the library to pick up her next Lady Grace Mystery, Deception. She is absolutely adoring these, and getting lots out of them historically as well

Of course, a little later we had a row, when I told them that we were going out, and they didn’t want to, but Tim and I wanted to go to Orford Ness, this being the last week that it’s open during the week, and it was a glorious day for it as well. Departure was hindered by the fact I’d put the temporary membership sheet into a safe place, and couldn’t find it again but we got away eventually, to arrive after the last ferry crossing :’(

Making the most of the day out anyway, we retired to Orford Castle. Tim had taken the kids before, but I hadn’t been. He disappeared with Small to do a high speed tour, while Big and I took our time with the audio tour, which was excellent. I managed all the steps apart from the basement, but was aching somewhat by the end so we gave up on a plan to pop into the town for an explore and headed home via a moderately scenic route showing the kids where Tim grew up and his walk home from school.

It was a lovely afternoon out and although I was in some pain, it wore off a little on the ride home. Wimped out on tea though as didn’t want to risk really setting my hip off, although I still went out for a walk to pick up a baby bath from freegle, while Tim marshalled the kids into the shower.

Afterwards they wanted to sit in the living room with us, while really I just wanted some child free time. Big was quietly perusing catalogues, but Small isn’t very good at quiet, and tried to assist Tim with his scrabble (which was very funny ) before finding Space (DK Eye Wonder) and reading selected excerpts of it out loud. Eventually they did retire to their bedroom for a short time playing, allowing me to heave a sigh of relief and start hunting out the resources for my last TMA for MS221.

Have had enough of this maths now. Am trying not to get stressed about the exam, but can’t help feeling it’s going to be a disaster as I really haven’t understood or acquired skills during this course. I have to score 40% to pass, and I need at least 40% on this TMA too, which should be feasible as it’s at least partially on imaginary numbers which I did at A level (surprised to find that they are now being introduced at level 2 of OU courses. But don’t worry, there hasn’t been any dumbing down of qualifications in the last 20 years since I did A levels….) but it’s so very difficult to focus on something I’m enjoying so little. Taking a year off OU next year, don’t think it would go too well with new baby anyway, and then will ponder after that.

And then we watched TV and I went to bed.

Yesterday was a wonderful example of that. It started with children bickering and squabbling, at which point I declared we were going on a nature walk to the nearby Grove. Obviously this announcement was greeted with cries of joy (not ) but I was resolute, and we all went out together.

Once out the grottiness disappeared, and I had happy children again. Which meant happy parents. We took one of the nature detectives spotter sheets with us, and Big worked on seeing how many she could spot, while Small gambolled about and told us stories about trolls.

We even found The Magic Faraway Tree
.

Once done with woodland gambolling, Tim headed for home, while the children and I spent an extra half hour in the little play area. The sun was out, the wind was gentle, it wasn’t like September at all!

Home for lunch and a quiet day, can’t actually remember much of the afternoon, although reasonably sure it involved yet more laundry.

In and amongst, there were conversations about what a Baroness is (courtesy of me ranting about Delyth), democracy, Small had questions about all sorts of things (none of which I can bring to mind right now, sigh, really must note them down at the time!) and I cooked tea which was sweetcorn, followed by burgers (for meat eaters) with new potatoes, kale, green beans and raw carrots.

It was, overall, a lovely day.

Anyway, with this weekend being Heritage Open Days weekend, and therefore Sutton Hoo being free rather than costing £15 for a family, we decided we’d go and see it.

Small slept in rather late (obviously tired from the night before!) but was reasonably obliging when he woke, and not averse to the idea of going out as long as he could watch WALL-E (borrowed from Big’s friend C the night before) when we got back. We looked up on our tourist attraction map how far it is and he thought maybe 7 miles, as it’s 3 1/2 miles to an inch, and it looked to be about 2 inches. When we got in the car the satnav said 8.8 miles, so we decided we had done quite well with the map

Journey is about quarter of an hour, which is perfectly acceptable, and the sun came out as we were on the way there.

There was lots going on as well as all the stuff that’s there all the time – there was a 1939 archaeologist about somewhere, an art exhibition and chance for the children to get involved and falconry displays, as well as the big exhibition hall, the shop, the cafe and the (small but well formed) adventure playground.

We started in the exhibition hall – the children were given clipboards with quizzes on them, and I discovered that this isn’t a particularly good idea now. Big got very stressed about finding the answers and was not taking in the exhibition in general at all. Small just handed me his clipboard and belted off to find a replica helmet to put on

Small in helmet

Once that was done we had a quick look at the special exhibition on feasting while trying to find Tim and Small, but didn’t spot them and wandered outside where the falconry was about to start. Tim caught us up when I texted our location, and we watched a Harris Hawk, a hybrid falcon, and my personal favourite, the eagle owl. He landed on a post right next to us, so we got to have a really good look at him, which was fantastic.

eagle owl at Sutton Hoo

Big was incredibly brave and when they called for volunteers, went into the display area and sat down so that the owl could fly close over her head, was very proud of her Unfortunately our angle wasn’t good for a picture, but she really enjoyed it. Small declined the opportunity.

Next thing we did was retire to the cafe for an excellent lunch. if we’d paid for entry I wouldn’t have felt happy about the £20 lunch bill, as it was, I thought it made the day a really good family treat And when we’d finished eating, Tim popped off and joined the National Trust – got a £20 or so discount for joining on the day, so we only need to make three more visits to Sutton Hoo as a family and we’ll be well up I can see that we might well do that during the year, particulary as I think we can take other children in with us, much as we did taking Scott and Princess in to Landguard and only paying for visiting adults.

We visited the shop as well, and Small impressed me by buying himself a cardboard press out version of the helmet which I think he’ll really enjoy making. Big bought herself a bookmark and pin to remember the day and we started a family postcard collection – we’ll try and get one of all these places that we visit, which will be a rather nice memento.

After the shop we went out to walk to the mounds. Turned out that this was rather more of a walk in the by now blazing sunshine than the kids and I were up to, so we retreated to the playground (I seem to have missed out the playground, we had already visited it though!) while Tim went for the walk. Big thoroughly enjoyed more time on the aerial runway, while I spent a lot of time waiting for Small outside the toilet (!) and then we had another look at the birds of prey.

And that pretty much did us for the day. We’d been there probably 4 and a bit hours, Small was getting more than a little antsy to get home to his DVD and the rest of us were just hot and tired. So we came home for screen time, Tim strolled out and picked up some reduced price food from the coop for tea and we all slumped for the evening.

But it was a really lovely family day out, and we’re looking forward to doing it all again

We also saw the biggest caterpillar I’ve ever seen – it tried to commit suicide in one of the watering cans, but I tipped it out and although it was a little dazed a little while later it was humping around the garden again.

After lunch (pick and mix sandwiches with home made bread) we sauntered via the fruiterers to the seafront, where we found hotrods parked all along the promenade. There were several fabulous VW camper vans, and various more obviously hotroddy cars as well as just some classics. The children played in the sand and the sea – the girls made a fabulous castle complete with moat and drawbridge, and Michelle and I were entertained by a completely batty old lady who talked to us for a while.

Tim came down and met us just as we were finishing up – sadly for the children we declined the opportunity to buy them ice cream on the grounds that they’d had access to strawberries, biscuits (for a little country market stall pitched on the grass beyond the prom), grapes and apples, so Small munched the entire bunch of grapes on the way home

Michelle, C, Big and I stopped off very briefly at the remnant shop to raid the bargain bin of 10p scraps of fabric to make patchwork skirts for dolls, and then we sauntered home again. Good way to spend an afternoon.

Evening vanished in cooking while the children watched a film or drew or read – I am so slow at everything! Bubble and squeak, the remnants of the carrots and beans, lamb chops and sausages for the meat eaters (except Small wouldn’t try a chop and Big didn’t like it) and I’ve remembered that I had a country vegetable pie the night before. There we go.

Children to bed relatively early – sea air tired them out, or maybe it was the lack of sleep the night before? Was quite amused to find some pictures that had been drawn of the film, Magic Roundabout, and to be quite unable to decide who’d done them. Ppl in Small’s drawings don’t usually have arms and hands other than stick ones, but in this one he’d done fingers and everything, so I’d assumed it belonged to one of the girls. But no. Not sure whether this is an evolution in his drawing or just a one off, but fascinating none the less.

Lovely chatty evening again but an earlier night than before, as adults were rather tired too.

As is usual, had the argument with Small about leaving the house. It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether I tell him about the activity in advance or not, whether it’s something he’s familiar with or not, whether there are ppl he likes going or not. Hohum. In this case we were due to meet up with WFHelen, Em, Merry and Michelle, so we were definitely going whether he liked it or not!

Of course we didn’t have bread ready for a picnic, so I gathered up fruit and water bottles and we set off, with me having a rough plan that we’d go to one of the many little cafes and grab something for lunch. In the end Michelle had surplus sausage rolls which she was happy to share, and that took care of food needs for the day.

Big was very happy with the highwaymen activities that were going on, while Small just wanted to do the wall walk and the moat walk. He did sit through some of the first talk, and a bit later on WFHelen was taking her two up on the wall, so he went up with them.

While the girls partook of the race to York, I managed to stagger around the moat walk, which kept him happy, though it did mean I missed the mummy race. Not sure I’m in quite the right shape to take part atm

Once all the highwaymen activities were done (and the brief but heavy rain shower (rain? In Suffolk? Surely not!) had passed over) Michelle and C set off to do the audio tour and Big went with them. Small and I watched the virtual wall tour, which didn’t have sound, and then he said he wanted to do the audio tour, which I couldn’t help with. I really can’t get up the steps to the wall walk any more, it just can’t be done Fortuitously at almost exactly this point, Merry and her girls walked past all ready to set off for it, so I managed to tag him on the end, then bought myself a nasty cappucino from the machine in the shop and sat on a slightly damp bench to watch my children from a distance being educated with other families

Em and WFHelen had departed by this point I think, though it was lovely to see them. O is really growing so fast it’s slightly disconcerting!

Once audio-ed out, it became obvious that Small was very ready to leave. He’d done pretty well throughout the day though. It’s getting difficult to match his needs with Big’s needs – will be even more amusing next year when I’ve a small person to cater to as well

So we headed for home and arrived about a minute before Michelle, who was bringing her tent to our garden for the weekend. Tent pitching and tea (I cooked, though for the life of me I can’t remember what!) and a very late night for all the children, but very pleasant chatting for the adults. Lovely.

So instead we had a quiet day at home, apart from the screaming There were some arguments over DVDs as Small had started watching one while Big was at Brownies and she didn’t want to watch that one from halfway through, while I thought it was reasonable for him to finish it, and she didn’t want to be out of the room to let him watch it in peace. I did remind her that she’d said she wanted to spend some time working on her diary, but that led to much more loudness, and stress.

Eventually sorted with much dvd watching, mainly Spider-Man 1 and 2. While they were doing this I got increasingly wound up trying to work out how to get to where we needed to go on public transport, and eventually gave up and decided we would just leave really early, so got us organised, and we left just after 4.

Found the right bus stop and sat at it for over half an hour, as a bus just didn’t come There were lots of other ppl waiting too, but most of them got on the bus about 15 minutes before we could – that one was going to the wrong side of the other town. That left us sitting with a lovely older lady, who started conversation with me by complaining that the other woman who had been sitting next to her was a less than cheery soul who could do nothing but talk about the way. “I lived through the war too,” she said “but I don’t need to go on about it all the time!”

Good opening gambit. We chatted some more and it turned out that the scout camp we were aiming for is very near her house, and she said if we got off with her she’d show us where to go.

Children already looking bedraggled by now after 30 minutes of waiting in the hot sun (whose idea was it to design bus stops that are first cousins to greenhouses anyway?) she took further pity on us and decided she would walk us most of the way along, as she’s a rambler, she likes walking, and she didn’t have anything else to do that evening anyway.

Turned out it’s probably about a mile and a half from the bus stop to the scout camp, mainly as the scout camp is over a mile off the road Small walked uncomplainingly along as all these cars carrying beavers passed us by – Big was pretty uncomplaining too, but she’s got much longer legs than he has! We finally said goodbye to our good samaritan as she struck off across the fields to her house, and I delivered a hot and bothered Small to his troop only a few minutes late. I suspect that I will now forever be the mad woman who walked from the bus while pregnant on a very hot evening!

Big and I struck back out towards the road, investigated the neighbouring campsite in hope of finding a bar (didn’t open for another 50 minutes) and finally wound up in the country park to wait for Tim to come and pick us all up.

This meant we could employ our new Usborne Spotter’s Guide – Trees and investigate the trees around us – slightly ashamed to discover she couldn’t recognise an oak tree. Still we worked out how to use the book and identified a number of trees and she took pictures of ones we weren’t sure of so that we could do further research. And then we walked back to the scout camp and watched the comanche explorers guiding cars to park safely until Tim arrived.

Small had had a wonderful evening – “there were two bouncy castles!” and he was quite pleased to see Daddy home too. And then we came home and put hot tired children to bed.

Can’t remember for sure, but don’t think I was all that long behind them!

After that I pottered around and put together a picnic lunch, and we slowly gathered ourselves and went off to Kentwell via Hadleigh. I think the Hadleigh detour was partly so that L could say hello to somewhere she used to live, partly so that I could buy extra salad for lunch, and partly so that Tim could show me an area of Suffolk with gentle rolling hills

Hadleigh seemed nice. They are still fighting off Tesco as apparently they have been for years, and I popped into the Solar coop which was absolutely heaving at just before lunch on a Sunday. Good range of stuff though.

Then we had a very circuitous drive to Kentwell, with probably half an hour added by various road closed signs, where apparently the roads were not closed at all. Irritating. But we got there, and indulged in our cloak and dagger operation by going and picking up a very large not-very-tudor bag from near Ye Bob. Took that back to the car and ate lunch in the baking sun before going in to start our wander around the grounds with a second visit to the military pavilion.

Lovely to catch up with Bob, although a little disconcerting meeting a friend with a cod piece. Small was desperate to head off round the grounds to find some topiary he’d spotted on his plan, but we insisted on going a little more slowly and taking in some of the sights. This resulted in us being accosted by a tudor dentist/doctor offering remedies for his “melancholie humor”. Took a little while, but brought a smile to his face eventually. Then he was distracted by the Leonardo da Vinci air screw and accompanying tent, complete with skull and heart in a jar. Those fascinated him, as did the model platonic solids, some of which are at least passingly familiar from Montessori

Then we went on to find the topiary, passing the rather hungry carp on the way. Quick trip inside the house to see the gentry and then out through the front door where we came across the maze. Small was having a great time exploring it, then one of the men from the da Vinci tent stopped to tell him how to do it properly and that mean he was there for ages.

Worked our way round past the dyers and sculpture, via a peacock to see if the fayre was starting. It got underway eventually but in the meantime I went and found Ye Katy in the cott. She was on her own, so we had five minutes for a chat, although I was very impressed she stuck with the tudor lingo throughout Eventually the rest of the family came to find us, and managed a drink from Katy’s pot which was lovely. After that Tim took Small for another trip around the maze, and the rest of us went to find the stableyard cafe, but got distracted by the forge.

Was worth getting distracted there – they had a chainmail set and when Small caught up with us, let him try the head piece on. It was very heavy and rather oily, but he didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, or at least not until it was time to try to get it off his hair!

Drink and icecream later and we walked back down the front lawn past some women weaving/ sewing. Tim went back to Bob to look at more pointy things while the rest of us went off to spend tudor coins in the market. At around about this point the heavens opened and there was a brief heavy shower. We should have cut and run for the car at that point as it did stop for a little while, but we didn’t, and we played run from tree to tree and then Tim made a dash and heroically brought the car round to where the rest of us were sheltering.

Rain didn’t dampen our spirits though, and a mile down the road it wasn’t raining, so we had another detour and called in on the graves of Lily’s grandparents in the grounds of a very beautiful Catholic church.

I was quite surprised by my emotional reaction to the graveyard, which was that really, I wanted to be somewhere else, but Big provided ample distraction by having a meltdown over needing the toilet despite having gone less than 10 minutes earlier.

I honestly wish she would just get over this particular little concern. We’ve been to the doctor’s and checked that there is no physical problem, if anything I suspect that she doesn’t drink enough so has rather confused her body’s signals, but bar holding her down and pumping liquids into her I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Whatever I was supposed to do in that graveyard I certainly didn’t and all in all, it was a very difficult 20 minutes or so.

Back in the car and back home, very tired all around. Family pizza night which was lovely, and then tired children packed into bed and tired adults got to unwind in the living room for a while, but a much earlier night that we’d been having, as L had a train booked for 10 in the morning.

So we didn’t go swimming – didn’t think it would help the cold or the tired but eventually it becamse obvious that getting out of the house would be a good plan, so after a leisurely lunch time (and finally getting through to the swimming teacher and arranging Small’s lessons starting Tues at 5), we dragged ourselves off down to the beach. At the house it was grey and a little foggy almost, so we all set off in jumpers, and I didn’t even pick up the sun tan lotions or hats, and I laughed at Big who insisted on taking a towel so they could paddle.

Halfway down the high street and I wasn’t laughing any more, nor was I wearing my jumper. The sky was blue, the sun was out and it was seriously warm. Only problem with that was the lack of suntan lotion, and I tried two shops, neither of which had any. Ah well, it was quite late in the afternoon, so I just hoped

We spent about an hour on the beach and L was the only one who didn’t paddle as converse all stars and skinny jeans are not really conducive to the endeavour. Small was having a fantastic time, hoiking his trousers up around his knees and leaping and screaming. Even Tim enjoyed it I think Eventually L and I dragged Big away from the water so we could visit the Remnant shop, and Tim followed on with Small a few minutes later. Got the rest of the fabric needed for the teddy bear (yet to work out where I’m going to source the enormous amount of stuffing required!) and discovered that they do teddy bear joints in there. And animal eyes. So we bought large blue eyes, and looked at the joints, and the woman helping us this time said she thought the pattern (Simplicity 3787) was just plain wrong, and that joints of that size would result in a russion body builder bear. She advised getting started with it and then looking to see what size joints appeared to be required and coming back in at that point. Which seemed like good advice

Called in on D and S on the way back for a drink and sat in the garden while the children played, mainly amicably. And then home for a chinese take out – slightly better than the indian take out from the night before, so looks like I’m just going to have to get my curries from Sainsburys. Or learn to make them myself!

Of course, this glosses over the fact that I got up at 7.30 (shock, horror) to do tidying and making of lunch and so on and ended up running around like the proverbial wrangling children. Small has got to a stage where he doesn’t want to get dressed first thing, so that’s a battle every morning (but don’t worry, when his eardrums settle down, all these problems will be solved, ).

So, Forest School. It was a gorgeous day (weather sites were forecasting between 17 and 21 degrees, Em’s car said 28 by mid afternoon, and I think I agree with the car!) so being under the trees was lovely. Anna the ranger started off with a health and safety talk and elected me fire marshall, only person allowed to feed the fire and responsible for making sure everyone followed the fire rules, although one of the two older boys immediately volunteered as my assistant. This meant that I got to spend the session sitting on a handy tree stump next to the fire, handing marshmallows to my (and Em’s) offspring (I am a good mother, this time I remembered food to cook on the fire) and bossing other ppl’s children around. Right up my street really Amused by the fact that this was only my second campfire though – I did used to have an open fire way back when I lived in Durham, but I’ve never done open air fires before. Oh well, I learn fast!

So two hours of smoking later, plus assorted playing with mud (both children made mud faces on trees, I have pictures) and Small spending time with puppets (he does like puppets) and we retired to the picnic area to have lunch. Em rushed off to attend a slingmeet in a localish park, and I had a pleasant couple of hours with Helen and Nadine. We did talk about the idea of a home ed fete, similar perhaps to the Brownie fun event the other night, and open to the public, time to put across a friendlier view of home education to the public?

There was also chat of how to find a celebrity campaigner – it is time to recognise that there is no such thing as democracy in this country, and what we need is a headliner who can get us positive headlines in the newspapers and make it obvious that the government is just being a bully for no good reason but to deflect attention from its own failings. Various names being bandied about atm, but I don’t see how we get anyone on side.

Em came back about half two, and we loaded up and ran for home so that we could have cups of tea and further chatting. Even got on with a bit more crochet! Big had a nice time playing with R (E had gone off with Helen previously ) and Small was thrilled to find L at home, so he did what he used to do with my mother and brought as many toys as he could to show her. Funny boy.

Em headed home, and Tim and L took the kids for a walk down to the beach, leaving me to discover that Murray had just come on court for his match. Took me about 10 minutes to stabilise the media centre enough to be able to watch, but then I was very happy, and I got to finish the pieces for the crochet item Just sewing up to do now.

Tired kids home for pizza, shower and bed, which did result in some wailing from Small at one point or another, but in the end they settled and we adults enjoyed a pleasant take away and lovely evening chatting

So obviously I didn’t. Did have a bit of a lie in, but then after that, decided I would go round to the Summer Fayre that we’d baked the cake for. Couldn’t talk Small into joining us, but Big was up for a walk, and so I thought we’d walk on to the beach on the far side of town, then walk around the coast to the bit we know and back again.

So we did.

Apart from the bit about going to the Fayre – the letter I’d had said 10 – 12.30, we got there about five past 12 to find it had actually finished at 12. Probably just as well we didn’t have Small with us at that point, he doesn’t deal with disappointment well. So we just continued on until we found a beach, then turned right and walked around the coast.

There is a part where you can’t follow the front any more as it becomes rather too clifflike, so we had to climb up a lot of steps and walk through some lanes of incredibly grand houses (think we’ve found the posh part!) until we made it back onto the promenade and walked along the front to the parts we recognised. All in all, I think we walked around 3 1/2 to 4 miles, and Big was a bit tired towards the end, but she didn’t complain. It was a lovely walk, looking at different types of buildings and houses – some very old ones, and also all the different plant life along the edge above the coast. I figure it fits into her wish to learn more about the local environment as well

We got rained on briefly, but not enough to even dampen us, so we rather enjoyed ourselves. And it would have been too much for Small.

Back home we lunched, and then they started with crafts. Small was really happy with some plastic trays and cups which he sellotaped together to make a spiderman boat. Big wanted to make something else, so I handed her Really Cool Felt Crafts in the hope it would help.

I could not have been more wrong

First of all, everything in the book is made with a glue gun. Which surprised me rather, I think of felt as a fabric that you sew. I can see that some things would work well glued, but not clothes, surely? She wanted to make dolls clothes, which is fine, and we have felt, but we ground to a halt over the idea of making a pattern first. Which is odd, as I’m sure she’s been around when we’ve done this sort of thing before.

Anyway, after the obligatory loud unhappiness, we gave up on that idea, and I reluctantly dragged them both out to the remnant shop to get patterns and fabric.

Small came back with Simplicity 3787 to make bears and fleece and fusible interfacing (??) although it turns out we’ve forgotten the bit for the ear fronts, paws and soles. Which considering I had one of the girls in the shop helping I find slightly disappointing

Big came back with Simplicity 4707. Annoyingly she does already have a pattern for a baby doll layette, but it hasn’t been seen since we moved. Like many other things And of course there’s a pile of remnant fabric as well.

I feel that we will need to get the sewing maching from Auntie S!

Small was very disappointed that I couldn’t produce him a 30″ teddy bear this evening. Hah! He’s going to be lucky if I can do it in a week! At some stage I may have another try at the batman costume that we bought fabric and pattern for at Melrose some time ago. But at least I know what most of our time is going to be taken up with around everything else that we’ve got planned this week.

Hm, just remembered that L is coming. She’s crafty. I wonder if she sews…

There isn’t really another way around, without going a very long way round, so I mooched and hung washing out and failed to find the swimming goggles and stuff like that, until we all got bored of waiting and set off anywhere.

Think the traffic sites were a bit pessimistic, the road was completely open and clear when we went through, without a hint of a traffic jam. We stopped at Tesco’s for fuel, and then headed off to our final destination – playworld and ocean adventure. Arrived third of four families, so not too bad, though next time I’ll know to keep driving to the carpark at the back of the building

Softplay looked good but was full of 30 very loud children, so we moved into the main hall where there was a gokart track, trampolines, and Small’s personal favourite an area where you got to fire soft balls around. So the kids were well set up while we adults tangled with the cafe to order food. Somehow there didn’t seem to be much chatting time, not least due to wailing child but it was a good session nevertheless. Once we’d allowed enough running about for the food to go down we moved through to the swimming pool and spent an hour in the water as well, which went down very well with all including O. (Not that he was in the water for an hour!)

On the way home, quite impressed with myself to find the way to a local camping shop in search of a replacement pole for the tent, but not nearly as impressed when they told me I needed to bring the poles in to make sure I got the right one. Bleargh. Suppose I should have just bought the longest one they had in the right diameter, but given I’ve only just thought of that (don’t you hate it when that happens) I didn’t.

Did get Small his promised Spiderman Buff and Beaver shirt. That’s him committed to Beavers for a little while at least then. Oh and returned the call to the swimming teacher who wanted to move Big up a group, but missed her again.

Home, tea, swimming teacher phone call (yellow hat needed this time, and new lesson is at 5.30, checked that there is room for her friend C if we can hothouse her into being ready to move up ), children into bed, then rang friend C’s mother to arrange a quick hothousing session for tomorrow evening. So tomorrow is looking like a busy day as well – need to bake a cake for the Beaver cake stall (a requirement of the hall that they use apparently), then if it’s nice park in the afternoon, back to pick up C and take her and Big swimming, then she’s coming back here for tea, and being picked up around bedtime.

It’s all good. But as I’m already knackered, I’d better get off to bed myself to recharge my batteries for another long day tomorrow.

Courtesy of the book ppl, I ordered Usborne Internet-Linked French for Beginners with CD, French club, Hide and Speak French (Hide & Speak) (which comes with a collection of activity books, looks a bit young, but Small does like activity books ), George’s Secret Key to the Universe on Jan‘s recommendation and a bunch of Usborne Spotter’s guides because it includes Shells and the seashore as well as a bunch of others that will come in handy.

Looking forward to all that arriving, hope we can keep the momentum up til they do!

Anyway, I got up out of bed to get Big organised for Brownies, and we strolled down to find the assistant leader waiting outside. Now, I should wind back a couple of days, and note that Tim took a call from this woman, saying that contrary to what the Brownies would have told us, they weren’t going to the beach this week. Given that our Brownie hadn’t told us anything about it, we were quite pleased to get the call. But note the *not* going to the beach bit, because the first thing the leader said was “so do you want to go the beach then?”

No, I’m not following either. And neither was Big. When we’d quizzed her about the beach thing following the call she said that they’d said they might be going to the beach but not when, and we certainly hadn’t gone equipped this evening. She was wearing a gilet and short sleeved shirt, no cardigan and doodle shoes, not really beach wear for a cool slightly damp evening.

Anyways, when offered the beach, she looked decidedly less than impressed. The one other little girl there was bouncing up and down with excitement, and Big just started moaning that she didn’t have a cardigan. So I said I would wait with her and if all the other Brownies wanted to go to the beach, then I’d take her home, as we didn’t have time to go back to fetch a cardigan.

Helpfully at this point, the leader said they wouldn’t be going for 15 minutes, meaning that I *did* have time to go back, if I got a move on, so I promptly did, going home as swiftly as I could (which, let’s face it, is not very swift atm), chucking her coat, cardy and boots in her bag, then leaping (yeah, right) into the car and heading back to drop it all off.

Was really glad I’d had that lie down!

Dropped the bag off and was told in passing that I’d to pick her up somewhere else than usual, and came out a little less than impressed at the whole shebang. There was a group of mothers clustered at the gates having a very similar conversation, so I joined in, to check whether anyone else had known about it, and basically, no they hadn’t. One of them was very complaining but I didn’t join in with that bit. Beginning to wonder whether this Brownie group is just going to evaporate away from us though

Home and thought I’d pick up and deal with the swimming forms as I’d to pick Big up from near the swimming pool. Then of course discovered that we didn’t actually have the direct debit form So went early for the pick up, paid for her first two lessons and coastal card with cash, and picked up the direct debit form which I’ve to drop off tomorrow all filled in and signed up.

Picked up Big to find her in another negative spin, this time about the singing practises they’ve been invited too, which run from 5.30 to 7.30 on a tuesday evening for 4 weeks. Only slight hitch being that her swimming lessons start a week before that and are at 5. Given the practise is 2 hours long (2 hours? And they want Rainbows to do that too? I can’t see that that’s going to go down well with very many parents) I daresay she could get by with arriving half an hour late, but she’s not impressed with the idea. I’ll try to talk with Brown Owl next week.

So that was our evening. Got home to find Small listening to Meat Loaf again, think he really rather likes it

I tried for a bit more sleep, but it was a no go really, and I drifted down to sit at computer as Tim ran around to get ready to go to London for the day. The children were extremely upset by his departure, and it lead to some rocky moments, but I thought they’d pulled it together, and they got the lego out and I got my TMA out and we all settled down together.

I wouldn’t have thought a lego game could give rise to as many problems as this one did. I lost count of how many times I sent one or the other of them out of the room, or explained again what compromise means, or negotiated different ways of doing things. Then I made the monumental mistake of leaving the room to go and prepare my lunch, and they were at each other’s throats again. Or arms to be more precise, for some reason they seem to grab for each other’s arms mainly.

Big was the attacker in this instance, so she was sent out and as she went she went into full on attitudinal aggression at me, and carried on for ages. I’m sorry to admit that I totally lost it and descended into screaming harridan status, throwing things and slamming a door

That finally seemed to get across the message that I’d had enough of the behaviour. Once Small had cleared away the lego, I sat down with my lunch and had them both find paper and pencil and write down what they want to learn about. For some reason, although they are both very clear on their interests, and we have many resources, which are freely available to them both at all times, they do not, even when they complain of boredom, follow up any of these interests. I’ve no way of telling if this is because they spent some time in school and now feel the need to be directed while learning, but whatever the reason, direction is obviously required.

Big came up with a long and detailed list of subject headings, while Small had a more specific list of questions. I think what I might do, to save this being a really epic blogpost is write two further posts on each of their interests individually and what we did to carry them forward, and keep this as a high level overview.

ETA links to individual posts: Big wants to learn and Small wants to learn. Tempted to fiddle with post order to put this one above the other two, but think I’ll resist.

So, having gathered lists, we did a quick overview of what they each already had in terms of textbooks and exercise books, and then started the laborious process of getting ready to go into town. What do they do with socks???

Once in town we bought exercise books, weathered a Small explosion in the cheap shop, and went on to the library. Again, I’ll split the list of resources according to what they both chose, although I did also pick up a possible readaloud, Cloud Busting, which I thought looked very interesting, Read Me and Laugh: A Funny Poem for Every Day of the Year which may come in useful and Really Cool Felt Crafts which I hoped might give some craft ideas that they can both manage.

From the library to the coop for pasta and broccoli for tea, and then, against my better judgement considering how much I was now carrying, on to the park for 15 in the playarea for them and a collapse on a handy bench for me.

Surprising how far it seemed home while carrying shopping that included 4 pints of milk, but we made it somehow, and I made tea, then attempted to sit down while they both investigated their library haul. After food, shower time, and before they’d even got the shower on, more fisticuffs, resulting in me telling Small that he can’t be alone with another child without supervision, as I’ve had it up to here with him attacking ppl. This really upset him, and got to them both when later Big hit him as well and I awarded another days tv ban. I’m fed up with this though, it’s not getting through to either of them, and I couldn’t be more involved than I had been this evening, unless I’d actually been in the shower cubicle with them!

Anyway, eventually into bed, and I only had to go in four times to remind Small that he was supposed to be in his bed, not leaning over into Big’s and boy was I glad to see 9 o’clock and lights out. Here’s hoping that they are as tired as they’ve made me and they are actually going to settle down and sleep!

I then got up at 7 o’clock this morning. I’ll repeat this, 7 o’clock. Not that it made all that much difference to our eventual departure time, which somehow slipped from 9.30 to 10.30 with a need for petrol and to drop off the merc at school. This did mean that we had to stop in at school for the first time since we’ve left – I got hit and run hugs from lots of children and some staff, a lovely smile from one of the children who I didn’t realise I’d connected with, and a coincidental hug from a parent I’ve been worrying about. There appeared to be two new members of staff, and I missed a couple of others, but I’ve to pick up the car next week, so I’ll hope to see them then.

So eventually we were all in the car and we set off, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Unabridged 8 Audio CD Set) for company. I have to say, I don’t particularly rate Harry Potter as literature, but read aloud by Stephen Fry it is excellent long journey material. I’m quite looking forward to seeing it all transferred to the small screen.

We stopped off at a services on the way, and then abortively at a Tesco looking for swimming stuff (our local one had them cheap so I assumed they all had) and eventually ended up at CP at 14.55. I don’t know how we do this. We do this pretty much every time. Nevertheless, we got in and found the hut, and were just setting off swimming when Michelle and C arrived, so we paused briefly (this caused extreme anguish for Small who thought the promised swimming had been cancelled) and ended up taking C with us. They had a fab time – Small realised that with a ring on he could swim and Big enjoyed showing C all around, although she also got a bit upset when she realised that both of the younger children could deal with the water better than she could.

Came back to the hut and ended up with all the families round to do cake for Big. That went well, though only briefly, as many of the children were quite hyper. Parents managed some wine so that was quite good too.

Quite quiet evening once we managed to insert the children into bed, but someone appears to have stolen a couple of hours, so given we’re swimming early-ish I think I’d better go to bed.

Meeting of the Northern Montessori Association Forum went on til 4, but I got lunch out of it, which was good. (It was supposed to be a bring and share, so many ppl had brought so much that my only required contribution was an appetite!)

Came home, got on with assignment. Finally mailed it in around 5pm, which is still quite early on the 4th in America, so no problems there, and I got an acknowledgement email promising response in a couple of days. On a roll, I even made a start on the Maths questions, answering the ones that I could without the file. Easily my strongest area, funny that I’m hoping to finish the whole thing off in the next couple of weeks and then discuss doing the Lower Elementary course.

So I saw the kids mostly in passing yesterday, which at least minimised the opportunities for us to fall out, although we still managed over the state of the living room, after I asked them to pick their things up off the floor.

Today was Big’s first church parade as an enrolled brownie. We were there bright and early as requested at 9.45 and there was no sign of her leaders or anyone from her pack. In the end they turned up as I was going over to the church, having left Big with the mother of one of our staff members (which is how we found out about Brownies there in the first place). Church was packed. It was a joint service with another church down the road, and as far as I can work out, is a joint church anyway, Anglican and Methodist. Although it could just have been that was how it was today. Anyway, I was sitting next to a lovely pair of ladies (word chosen carefully) who were very kind and interested, which helped when, part way through the last hymn I lost control completely and dissolved into a crying wreck. It was the bit in Love Divine about having a place set in heaven, and I just couldn’t stop thinking of Katrin. Yes, I’m crying again now. Anyway, a pair of arms came around me and held me and this complete stranger prayed for me and for my sister and my family, which was a little odd, but very kind as well.

By the time I’d pulled myself together, we were stuck for getting out of church, and the Brownie leader snapped at me when I finally located Big. Urgh. Not required. Silly woman. We started walking home and rang Tim for a lift – think we should have just walked it actually in the end, but never mind. Lunch, and I looked up nearby music shops, finding one in the Piece Hall in Halifax that was open, and has 1/2 guitars in stock. So that was our afternoon trip out, and we were highly amused to discover that the Piece hall was having a Kris day – it was full of landrovers. We spent a little time exploring, and Small gave us another giggle when he found a book in the second hand bookshop that “has passwords in it, look.” So:

* * * * * * *

He spent ages looking for another one!

Then we came home via Sainsburys, where I sat in the car with a recalcitrant Small and nodded while Tim shopped. Once home I tuned the guitar and then Small fiddled with it for a while. He’s determined he doesn’t want music or lessons, he just wants to make up his own tunes. Guess we’ll leave him to it until otherwise requested. He seems very happy with it anyway, although I found it incredibly fiddly to tune – couldn’t get my fingers on the strings! Electronic tuner here we come methinks.

Then I went to bed for a lie down, having not had a lie in either morning. Got up and rowed with Big which appears to be a pretty much standard part of our day atm, sadly. Best part of the argument must have been when I said “please take that doll out of the bathroom and get ready for your bath” and she left screaming “It’s not a doll, it’s a barbie, don’t call it a doll!” Please tell me all this is hormonal and it will pass?

Now they are in the bath, and I have a cup of tea and a vast choice of television programs before me. Oh, decisions decisions. And I suppose we’ll have to work out what we’re going to eat as well.