• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Making It Up

as we go along

  • Home education: facts and contacts.
  • About me/contact.
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate links and disclosure policy.
    • Read52 โ€“ the challenge and the books.
  • Cookie Policy (UK)

places we like

Skating, friends and a doodlesome evening

3rd October 2017 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

First Tuesday of the month meeting, for the first time in a while (it doesn’t run in school holidays, and got caught out in September by inset days). Small declined on the grounds that none of his specific friends were going today, so I was able to offer a lift to one of Smallest’s friends, which she enjoyed hugely. So much so in fact that she gave skating a go again, and made it round the rink a couple of times, with only one unintended sit down. It was particularly lovely to see her hand in hand with another boy she’s met a few times who turned out to be an accomplished skater and happy to offer assistance.

Tigerboy made me laugh – I was chatting with a new family and he came up and said “I’m very sorry for interrupting your conversation but could I have a drink please?” Very formal for a five year old!

Building up to writing something specifically for families pulling kids out of primary school and worried about keeping up with the curriculum – my experience is that in most areas it’s pretty easy to cover without a lot of sit down work, but it’s tracking down the resources that suit that will allow you to do that. I have some thoughts ๐Ÿ™‚

Anyway, easy family meal tonight of macaroni cheese, and I’m hoping my tomorrow’s yoga video will work as today’s was corrupted. And I’ve spent quite a bit of this evening doodling, partially inspired by sktchy again.

How is October kicking off for you?

Tweet

Filed Under: art, Doodling, drawing and decoration., places we like, tigerboy Tagged With: drawing, home education, sktchy

What I wish I knew before my first camping trip with kids – by Kirsty from Get Kids Outside

10th August 2017 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

It’s not often I host non book related guest posts on this blog, but I think actually it might be a nice way to introduce my readers to some of my blogging friends – and Kirsty is someone I’ve known since before I started to blog. Yes, we really do go back *that* far. We’ve done a lot together over the years, and had many shared camping holidays, so it seemed like a great topic for Kirsty to write about here. So here you go!

The first time I went camping was actually with Jax over 10 years ago now – we shared a pod in her tent as we attended a home educators festival. I was really nervous camping, I’d not even done it as a kid and I had no idea what it would be like, especially with my own kids to entertain too. Would it be awful? I’d heard stories of how bad camping would be and that it’s what you did when you had no money for a ‘proper’ holiday. I’m glad to say it was a great experience and we’ve since camped lots as a family and had fun each time. We’ve done camping in small tents, big tents and camper vans over the years and all this applies!

Here’s some things I never knew about camping before I started and wished that I did:

It gets cold

*Shiver* I can still remember that cold feeling now – maybe it was just me as I can also picture the kids being fast asleep and laying half in and out of their sleeping bags and in just some normal pyjamas. There was me with about 3 layers on, a wooly hat and blankets and I was still cold!

Even if you’re going camping in the height of summer it can get really cold at night. I always bring wooly hats and blankets nowadays. It’s especially a good idea if you think you’ll be chatting in to the evening while the kids rampage around. Cups of tea help too!

Early means early

Oh my. When someone says to be prepared when your kids get up early while camping they really mean it. I didn’t think it could be worse than them getting up at 6am like they did normally. Could it?

Yes. Yes it could be worse! When the sun begins to rise and the light gets in to your tent you’ll know about it. You might stir, hear the birds singing and think – wow I had such an amazing sleep, it must be really late. Then you see the time and it’s about 5am! Actually, if it happens like that you really are lucky – what normally happens is that the kids see the sunrise and want to be up, playing, fed, toileted all before 5.30am while you’re still dead to the world. Coffee?

You can hear everything

I’m someone who worries all the time what others think of me so when I first started camping and realised that I could hear everything that was going on in the tents around me I realised that that meant they could all hear me. They heard every line of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ as I read it before bed, every time the kids woke up crying and every time I got myself stressed.

Of course, your camping neighbours are probably more worried about their own noise than you, so as long as it’s low noise I don’t worry about it too much now! But be aware – sound carries a long way in a field!

Bad weather means nothing

I used to worry about bad weather and bored kids but really that means nothing when camping. What is more fun than puddle jumping? Especially when you have new found friends to do it with and no wellies because your mum forgot them! Listening and watching thunder and lightning is also fun and never normally lasts that long.

You can never have too many spare clothes (or waterproofs)

And with the previous point in mind – take clothes. Lots of clothes! I’d assumed a couple of spare pairs would be good but you can go through those in a day! A week long holiday can feel like forever when you’re faced with the fact that *all* your kids clothes are dirty.

And if you run out – start being ok with kids in clothes with dried on mud. Seriously – they’ll blend in with the rest of the campsite – no-one expects immaculate kids.

Or you could buy some good waterproofs – they’ll be worth their weight in gold!

Those early mornings are something else

There’s no doubt about it, the early mornings can be stressful. But I wish I’d known how amazingly peaceful they are too. Sat with a cup of tea, the kids pottering about quietly (we can wish), the birds singing, no-one else up on the campsite and watching the world come to life. It’s just amazing.

It *really* tires them out

Being outside all day long can really tire your kids out. Now this can be great, it might mean naps when you’d given up that thought years ago or it could be slightly worse if your kids just get grouchy when tired. Or you might be lucky and they’ll just be off playing all day, come back in the evening and drop off straight away while reading the bed time story. One thing is for sure, it’s not like a normal day at home so be prepared for it.

It makes memories that last

Finally, I never knew how much camping would create amazing memories. For some it might seem like a compromise because it’s a ‘cheap’ holiday but it’s definitely not second rate. The friends, the moments and the laughter are priceless. We still talk about those trips now. If you’ve not tried it, definitely do.

***

And thank you for that! About time we organised a get together in a field, no? If you want to hear more from Kirsty, maybe check out her tips on camping with kids and toddlers? and if you are in need of a packing list, here’s the original camping with children list I put together all those years ago.

Tweet

Filed Under: guest posts, places we like Tagged With: camping, camping with children, Get outside with kids, Kirsty Bartholomew

Getting Christmas crafty – no 1 peg doll fairies.

14th December 2016 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

So, last night I had plans – how did it all pan out?

Well, we did some of it ๐Ÿ™‚

I started the day with my physio mandated exercises. Then I did a bit of crying when my shoulder went into spasm ๐Ÿ™ I’d been gentle, honest, but obviously not gentle enough.

Pulled myself together and somehow motivated the small people to get themselves ready to walk to home education soft play, (a walkable home education activity!) under 10 minutes by myself, and nearer 15 with a Tigerboy in tow. It was a grey miserable day out there, though if you check instagram (over there in the sidebar) you’ll see that we did spot some flowers on our way. Vibernum, if I recall correctly, and very strongly scented. Which was nice.

For a little while we were the only family at soft play, and then another little girl arrived. She’s someone that Smallest has really hit it off with, so they had a lovely session basically running and shouting with a very involved Pokemon based game. And why not.

Home for lunch, and then I gradually assembled craft equipment. Tim needed to pop out for salt for the water softener to the local hardware shop, and I asked him to check if they had dolly pegs (I am sure I have some, *somewhere*) and it turned out that they do, so peg doll fairies (or clothes pin fairies, depending ๐Ÿ˜‰ ) were a go.

The starting out heap looked a bit like this.

craft materials needed to made peg doll fairies

Obviously I then had to pause to gather the bits I’d forgotten….

The printed instruction sheet, in case you’re wondering, comes from the 30 Christmas Ornaments (affiliate) by Maggy Woodley of Red Ted Art as mentioned yesterday. Each craft is set out with a materials list and easy to follow instructions with pictures, on a printable page as you can see. This one is from the School Age section (which I think *ought* to read primary school age, given there’s also an older kids to balance out the preschool section) and was perfect for Smallest, who is a very careful child when she’s working. Spot that concentration ๐Ÿ˜‰

Of course, it would have helped if she’d listened a *little* more closely, as she wouldn’t have very carefully taken out the second piece of cardboard from the pom pom maker that I’d given her, and she wouldn’t then have had to do it all over again ๐Ÿ˜‰

She didn’t seem to mind. We painted the faces, hair and bodices on first, then while that dried did the pom pom skirts, from some fab material I bought years ago for a dress up outfit. My tip here would be to keep to light material – we tried another out of ribbon and it was far too heavy and not nearly as effectively.

Pom poms from material are a lot quicker to make than pom poms from wool, although there is a moment of absolute terror as you’re cutting round and trying to tie the wool/ thread round the middle. I did it though – I think that bit was a bit too hard for Smallest, but she is only 7.

And our final results?

I really rather like them. What do you think? And which one is mine?

I made time to run down to poundland for some cheap tights as well – tomorrow’s target craft is Austrian Angels.

Finished up the day with Stick Man (Amazon affiliate) for tonight’s #picturebookadvent – one of Tigerboy’s all time favourite. Incidentally – he was invited to take part in the craft, but apparently gaming is far more interesting. Sigh. Might have to have a think about that.

So, what have you all been up to?

Tweet

Filed Under: Doodling, drawing and decoration., Making things, places we like Tagged With: 30 Christmas Ornaments, clothes pin fairies, peg doll fairies, pom pom angels, red ted art

Animal adaptations – home education at Colchester Zoo

21st January 2016 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Colchester Zoo is our local zoo, if you can refer to something 40 minutes drive away as local. We’ve only been once before, as guests of First News when we had a fabulous amphibians experience. Then just last week I learnt via facebook that they were offering (free) home education sessions, targeted to age group, so 11-16, 5-7 and 7-11.

I booked in for Small (11-16) and Smallest (5-7) and on Monday we headed out to take part.

It’s not a bad drive thankfully, and we arrived with time for a quick look around before the first session – we popped in to check on the iguanas and tortoises.

ย  Yes, he is lying on a radiator. I was kind of jealous. It was a very cold day.

ย  This is my only decent shot of the tortoise. He was actually moving too fast mostly to get focus in the dark ๐Ÿ˜‰

ย  And this is the workshop we went for. On the left is Small, dressed as the ultimate predator, with his huge ears, big teeth and eyes at the front of his head. It was a really good session, Smallest got a lot out of it too, so much so that we didn’t stop for her session, which was immediately after Small’s. Shame in a way as there were a lot of younger children waiting to come in and it would have been nice for her to meet them, but after sitting for 90 minutes she needed a break.

(Tigerboy paid attention for about quarter of an hour, then played on Tiggly for a while.)

ย  Her favourite animals. Honest. That’s a happy face.

ย  This was cute. They move fast too don’t they?

So we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the zoo. And it went so well that we signed up for passes, and will be signing up for more workshops. The passes are quite expensive but if we make six workshops that will bring the price down something in line with skating.

ย  Lots of thing to do at the zoo as well as look at animals. This is a great play area, and there are several really good climbing frames, and an indoor softplay. No doubt we’ll get to explore that some other time.ย 

Best bit of the day – we managed to arrive at the elephant house just in time to join in with the feeding. I got to feed an elephant! Smallest declined the chance, Small did it twice. Tigerboy tried, but didn’t quite manage but did get to have an elephant trunk go across his hand.

All in all, it was an excellent day out. We didn’t see more than a fraction of the animals, but that’s the other benefit of the passes is we can pop in when passing and not worry if we can’t make a day of it. I suspect it’s going to become our new favourite place.

ย Big birds. Handy to see them as we’d been talking about birds that can’t fly the other day and they’d come up in the discussion.

I’m really impressed that Colchester Zoo is putting on events for home educators in this way, and I’m looking forward to taking advantage of them ๐Ÿ™‚

Tweet

Filed Under: It's where it is, places we like Tagged With: animal adaptations, colchester zoo, home education, homeschool, workshop

Fun with felt at home education group

7th January 2016 by Jax Blunt 4 Comments

First meet of the year, a workshop run by a felting expert. Now, I’m reasonably familiar with felt after my Kentwell experience, but I’m never going to pass up on the chance to work with an expert, and this turned out to be great fun.

Smallest designed a picture, I just love the way the colours and textures of felt interact.

  

I think she was quite pleased with it :))

 

Mind, Tigerboy looked pretty pleased  with his flower too.

   

(Green on the outside, colours swirled inside, and some yellow and orange for the middle.)

 

And then you apply water, soap and pressure. The picture stays flat, once the flower is felted together, you work it round your thumb to give it form.

   

Nothing to do with the felting process – just couldn’t resist this shot of light on fibres. Who could?

 

It was a lovely start to our group home education year. One of my promises to myself at the solstice was to get a bit more involved in our local groups for the sake of the younger children – I want them to have a strong local network like the one we had when the oolder children were young up in Yorkshire. Many of the people we met through our early years education group, locally and nationally, are still our friends now, we are in touch regularly, go to youth hostels and camps together. Yes, I want that all over again ๐Ÿ™‚

And on the way home, I picked up fruit and mushrooms from a roadside stall, and stopped for a picture of the big Suffolk skies.

  

A good day.

This Homeschooling Life
Tweet

Filed Under: places we like Tagged With: art, craft, felting, home education, wet felting, yarn

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 10
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

This site contains affiliate links.

Archives

Categories

Affiliate search on bookshop

Footer

Copyright © 2022 ยท Lifestyle Pro on Genesis Framework ยท WordPress ยท Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}