A better week

These past couple of weeks have held some beautiful memory making moments .

Such as our trip to a local garden party where Eva had her first pony ride.

And charlie being able to handle Monty the parrot.

 

 

Charlie being invited out for a days fishing and snorkeling with his uncle and auntie has been one of his highlights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We have spent many , many hours basking in the beautiful sunshine and sheltering from it too in dens.

 One evening i decided to light a bonfire , this turned out to be the perfect evening. with an impromptu visit from my brother and sister in law and toasted marsh mellows.We stayed outside until it grew dark and enjoyed each others company.

A library visit turned up a very welcome bargain. They were selling books as is the norm at our community library. I stumbled up on this  'The kids nature book' its fantastic , it has an activity for every single day of the year. And fits in so well with our Waldorf inspired learning .

Charlie asked the librarian to help him find some puzzles with with big peaces. ( the majority of puzzles are adult ones) and she kindly helped him find two vintage plywood puzzles. The girls have also enjoyed playing with these.

Charlie is really confident around adults. He had a full on conversation about bird watching and making boats with one of the volunteers. The gentleman was very knowledgeable and offered charlie lots of advice on these subjects. i was surprised at how much charlie took away from the conversation and i was proud at his ability to communicate so well with an older member of the community.

All the children are developing a new found love of puzzles and i happily purchased a couple from our local charity shop on Monday.


Jasmine continues to bake us some scrumptious goodies.

 

And we have been harvesting some of our own crops from the veg patch .

 

 

Masks have been made.

 

And afternoon naps have been taken.

 

 

 

last week unfortunately came with a few downs, we said goodbye to our Guinea pig, Blackie.I'm very grateful that she passed away in the night after an afternoon of being cuddled and having a lot of fuss made of her. She was showing no signs of being poorly and she did live a very long (over six years) and happy life.The car broke down and i was the victim of Internet fraud. I was a bit down about it all come Saturday morning but with lots of supportive friends on line, a dad who has kindly lent us money until i receive my new bank card and a mechanic who managed to fix his own car,  i soon stopped feeling sorry for myself and was back to my normal happy self.

The children have been spending the vast majority of time in their pool, and who can blame them when temperatures are soring to almost thirty degrees Celsius.

 

Today has been an amazing day , it started with breakfast in the garden for me and my two youngest, then i hung out the washing whilst they played. As requested i woke Jasmine up at eight thirty and while the girls ate breakfast and readied themselves for a stroll to the beach charlie and I harvested our garlic...it smells so good!!! 

At the beach ,Eva had her first propper dip of the year. We made new friends and studied the shore,we tried to catch fish and saw a school of little baby fish of some verity, charlie insists they are baby electric eels , but i have my doubts!, we tried to identify the sea creatures and the birds we saw and we discussed the tides.

Charlie was happily playing with his new friend and i chatted to his mum. she asked if we lived here and if the kids had already broken up for the summer holiday.Upon explaining that i home educate our children came the usual questions. "Do you have to work set hours?", " Do you have a set curriculum" e.c.t. The lady listened to all my answers and they were greeted with nods and smiles.

Part way through the conversation she commented on how nice it was that Charlie was playing with her nearly four year old son. of course not being cooped up in a class room week after week, term after term, year after year with 25 plus other six year old children charlie sees everyone as his friend regardless of age.

The lady went on to tell me that her mother, a retired school teacher says that if she had her time over again she would have home educated her children. That speaks volumes to me, a woman who knows the education system in place in schools being given her time again would choose the path I'm taking with my children!!!

I was saddened though to hear how this would be the family's last  pre-summer rush holiday here, because come September their little one would be starting school and they would have to come in holiday time.

After hearing this i felt so grateful that myself and my children and i have the option to do what we want when we want and that my babies (yes i do consider an almost four year old a baby) will be in the safest, nurturing caring environment...at home !


After a lovely couple of hours on the beach we headed to the shop, for some pic-nic supplies all chosen by charlie. We enjoyed our lunch in the garden and then jasmine practised her ukulele ( a couple of Weeks ago jasmine decided to save her pocket money for a ukulele and teach herself to play at the moment shes learning twinkle twinkle little star) before her and Gypsie headed back off to the beach for a swim with their auntie and cousins.

Charlie, summer and i fed the chickens and the fish  (shishes as Eva calls them) and then i tried to get Eva of for a nap (not successfully)

My sister arrived soon after with my beautiful little niece and nephew  and we spent all afternoon in the garden watching the kids splash in the pool.
Charlie decided to get some shade and asked that i put on one of his star wars Cd's for him.

My sister departed and i was made a cup of coffee by Paul who had just returned from work. we sat in the sun and i decided that after this drink i really should go inside and make a start on our dinner.

By this stage Eva was getting quite tired and grumpy , i managed to calm her down by getting out the wooden train track which she decided to sit in ...never a dull moment!

We have had such a beautiful day.

xxx