Small steps

Home education, how’s it looking these days?

January 14, 2019 By Jax Blunt 8 Comments

I still get a fair few contacts via social media about home education, so I thought it was probably time for a bit of an update on where we are, how we’re doing and what it looks like these days. Also, I was inspired by Adele over at Beautiful Tribe who wrote a beautiful post […]

Filed Under: Big, how we do it, It's where it is, rhythm of the day, Small steps, Soa, tigerboy Tagged With: bujo, emma donoghue, home education, homeschooling, library books, noel streatfield, rick riordan, science, spyder, the lotteries more or less, unschooling

The purpose of this blog

December 1, 2018 By Jax Blunt 2 Comments

Was to keep track of our home ed days and chat over the garden fence (virtually speaking) with other home educators. Most of those people have moved on, in that their children are more of an age with my teens and I’ve let the home ed aspect lapse. Today one of those teens used the […]

Filed Under: family, how we do it, Small steps, Soa, tigerboy Tagged With: ambassador's apprentice, computer club, creative computer club, Dr Seuss, lady grace mysteries, ludum dare, reading, Trudi Canavan

Wildflower hunting, sculpture trails and music festivals – some summer plans

July 12, 2018 By Jax Blunt 3 Comments

I love wildflowers. This is not a surprise to anyone who follows me on instagram. (Handy link over there in the sidebar if that isn’t you. If you’ve arrived here from instagram, nice to see you!) Today I got sent a press release about a great way to get kids into the idea of wildflower […]

Filed Under: rhythm of the day, Small steps Tagged With: Great British Wildflower Hunt, Ipswich Guitar School, Sax Music Fest, Sculpture trails

Gravity by Andy Briggs

October 28, 2016 By Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Buy from Amazon here We very much enjoyed being part of the blog tour for Inventory: Iron Fist last spring, and I leapt at the chance for Small to read the sequel, not least because I love his reviews. I think you’ll agree with me that he has not disappointed 😉 I tried to go […]

Filed Under: 2016, Book club, It's where it is, Small steps Tagged With: Andy Briggs, blog tour, Gravity, MG, Scholastic, the inventory

Cinderella and the Hulkbuster with Sky backstage at The O2

December 10, 2015 By Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

A little while ago I took the three younger kids down to the O2 in London for a look around Sky Backstage. It was a fab day out – turns out the O2 is really accessible from here, we got a mainline train down to Stratford, changed to the Jubilee line and it’s 3 stops […]

Filed Under: Small steps, Soa, tigerboy Tagged With: Cinderella, Hulk, newsreader, sky, the O2

Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden.

May 7, 2015 By Jax Blunt 5 Comments

A little while ago, I set Small a project – to explore the Second World War primarily through fiction. To get him started, I dug around our shelves and our many secondhand bookshops, and I found a few good titles. The first one he started was Carrie’s War. Carrie’s War (A Puffin Book) at Amazon […]

Filed Under: 2015, Ages past, Book club, read52, Small steps Tagged With: book club, Carrie's war, fiction, history, world war II

After the silence

July 28, 2014 By Jax Blunt 12 Comments

the words. At the weekend I said that I thought Tigerboy was heading for a developmental leap. Today he took it. This morning it was the usual signing, pointing and grunting to decipher the breakfast requirements. He’s happy with it, mostly, although we have been having a few tantrums recently. Maybe the frustration has built […]

Filed Under: Small steps, tigerboy Tagged With: brothers., development, language, small, speech, tigerboy

Happy 40th Playmobil – a fun day at the Pirate Castle, Camden

May 1, 2014 By Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Yesterday was a very long day. I got up at 4.10 to work out what the alarm noise was, but it shut off before I could find it. (Don’t you love that?) Then I lay in bed afraid that I would sleep through the alarm, so just dozed until 6. Great start! So then, getting […]

Filed Under: Small steps, Soa, the public face, tigerboy Tagged With: Camden, Pirate Castle, Playmobil playologist, playmobil40th

Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Science Kit

March 12, 2014 By Jax Blunt 4 Comments

Buy at Amazon When we were offered the Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Science Kit for review, I glanced at the covering release, thought Small would enjoy it a bit, and expected something with a fossil kit in maybe an A4 sized box. Then it arrived. And it’s huge. And it has loads of activities in it […]

Filed Under: Ages past, Making things, Small steps Tagged With: dinosaurs, prehistoric expedition, Ravensburger, science, triops

This is my child.

August 19, 2013 By Jax Blunt 6 Comments

This is my child. My beautiful boy. Who didn’t speak until he was over three – we signed and he had speech therapy, and it’s just the way he is. He has always trodden his own path. I’ve just been reading his fifth birthday post, which makes it very clear. (Wish I hadn’t stopped doing […]

Filed Under: blog for good, Small steps, tigerboy