Mud &bloom

This morning Eva and Robbie opened their first Mud & Bloom box.
 https://www.mudandbloom.com

Mud &Bloom is a subscription box for 3-8 year olds delivered at the beginning of every month which includes a couple of seasonal activities.

One which is  gardening and another which is a nature craft The activities have been designed by teachers and support the national curriculum but the thing that really made me subscribe was that it is influenced by steiner ,Montessori and forest school education.

For me celebrating each season and growing your own herbs and plants is pretty high on the agenda and I hope my children take these lessons in to adulthood with them .

I had opted for a sibling box which contained enough materials for them both to do all the activities.

June's box was so much fun .

They wanted to make lanterns first .Eva painted the day time on one side and the night sky on the other which I thought was very sweet .They both enjoyed sniffing the citronella candles too.

They planted the calendula seeds in to two big plant pots and gave them a good water .

And used the organic compost disks provided to plant the beetroot seeds .

They both had a great time .

We all decided to leave the nature walk activity for a sunnier day though .

Instead we plodded of to the shop ,trying to fly from our brolly's, for supplies.Eva saw an experiment in a magazine and  she wanted to try to make her own chocolate ice cream.It was a tad on the runny side so we froze it in lolly moulds and according to my little ones they are yummy !

I feel so blessed to spend my time with these two little ones learning and exploring every day .

And the four older ones too of course !

Love and light ,

Gem x

Preparing for fathers day .

Yesterday amongst other things (like helping to load a van up with all the rubbish we had accumulated in the garden ,walking nannies dog,splashing in the pool and jumping on the trampoline)Eva and Robbie made cards and a certificate for their daddy .
The  best dad certificates were printed from www.skiptomylou.org and the little cards I found on a website called SquishyCuteDesigns.com. Both are free printable that don't require any time spent signing up for accounts.
I am of the opinion that time spent making or in this case colouring a gift or card far outweighs purchasing a mass produced one from the shop.And the children have something they are proud of at the end !

They are looking forward to giving them to paul on Sunday and I'm sure he will appreciate their efforts .

Love and light ,
Gem x

Treasure hunt and theatre play

Today has been a lot of fun. Eva was outside early this morning with the treasure map she made from her toucan box. (you can get one free here http://www.toucanbox.com/friends/gemma-c8x6) 

She really wanted to find some treasure. Robbie asked me if I would make them a treasure hunt.
I drew a simple map of our garden and hid the treasure in the duck enclosure.

They had a wonderful time following the map and were extremely happy with there treasure which was a magnetic theater that cost me all of £2.50 in a charity shop a couple of days ago.

They played out the story's of Cinderella,sleeping beauty ,The three little pigs and little red riding hood and then they set up a talent show and a judging panel .

Robbie favourite little wooden character peg doll is Pinocchio.He tells me it's because he has a long nose and he's good at dancing .Robbie and Eva are not familiar with the story of Pinocchio so tonight I will rectify that .

The theatre garden picnic and the pool have kept them entertained pretty much all day long. We have had a beautiful day !

Love and light ,

Gem x

Our first Toucan box

Last weekend Eva received her first Toucan box in the post. I'd signed up just a couple of days before and hadn't expected it to arrive as quickly as it did.

She's a lover of art and crafts just like her mum so I knew she would be happy with her very own package of goodies.

According to the website www.toucanbox.com Toucan box is a flexible subscription encouraging crafting, creativity and learning in children aged 3-8.
Inspired by montessori learning and championing STEM each toucanbox is build by educational experts to help deliver key skills.

I was very impressed, mainly because you got everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you needed for the craft projects in the box. I can't count the number of times we have brought art or science kits and the children have excitedly opened them up to find out that we needs bits and pieces that weren't included like glue, paint, chemicals for an experiment and so on thus resulting in a shopping trip before they can crack on with the activity.

(So as I said everything was included, even the tea bag for staining the watercolour paper for making a map!!! )

As well as the high quality non toxic craft materials for your projects and instructions  you also receive a little magazine with suggestions for experiments, games, puzzles and recepies. Oh, and there's stickers, because who doesn't like stickers!?!

The fist box is free and because Eva enjoyed it so much iv chosen to subscribe to a monthly box (there's also an option for fortnightly). This box has a regular price of £5.95 which includes the postage cost.

Her kit was a pirate team and she made a beautiful bright feathered parrot and an aged treasure map. She was happy and engaged for a long while and enjoyed reading the little magazine aloud.

You can cancel or pause your subscription any time and manage your account online which Is very handy because Robbie has requested a box of his own next time too.

Eva was very kind and let him use her left over feathers to create his own parrot from which I'd cut from a cereal box. He was happy but he will be even happier when they both received their own boxes in a months time.

If you would like to try a toucan box for free then just use this link, https://www.toucanbox.com/friends/gemma-c8x6

Love and light 

Gem x

Starting Afresh

My goodness me it's be a while hasn't it ?
I'd almost forgotten what this web page looked like .
Those of you who are more observant will notice iv changed the name of my blog ."Our home ed journey " is now officially renamed "Free Range Education ".I feel that FREEDOM is the biggest and most important aspect of our life's right now .
Its been such a long time since I used this space but since I've given up social media I feel like I need a place to keep track of all our day to day adventures .A Diary of sorts .
So welcome back .Here's to a new look blog where  I 'll be sharing more of our unschooling days as well as craft projects,recipes and tutorials.

Love and light ,
Gem x

Monday Monday..

This Monday morning was wet and windy to begin with and I was forced out of my comfy bed from beneath two snuggly little ones to answer the door to delivery man. An hour or so later another knock at the door was from a guy who came to measure up for our new bathroom floor...i think it was the second knock that stirred the sleepy ones from there sleeping places. And eventually by about half ten I had greeted all the kids a good morning. I actually am so in love with our very slow mornings.

After Eva had had some breakfast/brunch we sat at the table together and talked about shapes. She drew around her shapes from a peg puzzle board and then wrote each shapes name and a little face about it. (Such as a hexagon has six sides, and the star has five points.)

Charlie had filled his morning with cereal, cups of tea, YouTube and xbox gaming. When he woke first thing he showed me a game he's downloaded to his phone called 'little black Smith shop' but unfortunately it didn't work so he spent quite a while trying to find a substitute. He's still very passionate about learning to forge one day.

Jasmine and spent the morning watching TV and doing her maths and English course.

In the afternoon Gypsie spent a while crocheting and Charlie, Robbie and Eva decided to venture off out in the windy garden. Charlie made a cool Axe from a bit of a toaster he had taken apart and a piece of wood. Eva and Robbie had a jump on the trampoline with the hoola hoop.

Eva and Robbie also spent a long time playing with a ladybird. The poor thing has been in the house since yesterday and I think he would really like to break free. Yesterday we learnt all about the seven spotted butterfly which is the most common here in the UK and we also leart that the name lady bird originated from 'our Lady Mary's bird' as Mary is often depicted as wearing red and the seven spots represent the seven sins. (interesting stuff, possibly more so to me than to my 3 and 5yr olds)

My mum brought my nephew round in the afternoon and we drank tea and chased him around the house as Is the usual protocol for an energetic one year old boy!

Summer is baked us vegan banana bread and biscuits and she baked a chocolate cake for Paul as a surprise for when he got in from work tonight.

I had some time to work on some illustrations I'm doing this afternoon, Robbie noticed I was painting a pumpkin and he and Eva both decided they would like to do the same.

This evening I read a beautiful book 'seasons come, seasons go TREE' its a story of all the animals and the tree in the woods and all the seasonal changes. It's a lovely book Eva and Robbie both enjoyed it.

I'm absolutely shattered. And am giving myself repeated pep talks on how I WILL make it through my dentist appointment tomorrow..... Wish me luck!

Pinch me

Hello.. Remember me.

I'm just going to step right on in to what we got up to last week and pretend like there hasn't been a massive four month gap in my blog. That's OK right?

We had a busy week even though due to Robbie being unwell we didn't really leave the house very much.

Since early spring is here and we have changed up our nature table I thought it may be fun to take a closer look at daffodils with some dissection. Summer, Charlie, Eva and Robbie all decided they wanted to join in with this activity. We followed directions I found on line and learnt about each part of the daffodil and its purpose. I actually learnt a lot myself in the process and Charlie especially enjoyed learning how and where new seeds are made and about the male and female part of the flower. He laid all the pieces out on a piece of paper and labeled them as you can see in the photo below.
I also pulled out a couple of daffodil related crafts that I had stashed away.

Gypsie and summer have completed there citizen maths course.And we are now looking for other online courses that they can do independently. Gypsies keen to do an art course and summer hasn't really expressed any preference in a course of any type yet.

Summers spent a lot of time this week making YouTube videos and trying to sort out whatever it is that's happened to her old account. For some reason now people have to pay to view her videos and she is desperate to have it reverted back to free viewing.
Gypsies mostly been painting and drawing at the moment she's working on a large batman painting.
Jasmine been keeping on top of her maths and English courses and has been doing a lot of baking.
Wednesday was my sisters birthday and she made her this awesome pigs in mud cake. (bonus... It was vegan!!!)

Thursday was a bit of a stressful day. We woke up to water dripping through the kitchen ceiling and after many phone calls we had various workmen in and out all day and by about two in the afternoon after cutting a hole in the kitchen ceiling and taking up the laminate floor in the landing and the vinyl from the bathroom one had determined there was a leak under the bath! We were looking after my nephew that morning which passed the time but the afternoon was a long one which was spent awkwardly trying to avoid getting it the plumbers way and of course we were all stuck down stairs and couldn't use the loo!!!
The pipes fixed now and we will be getting the floors and ceiling fixed soon.

With Friday being St Patrick's day Eva set up a very beautiful leprechaun trap. She spent a long time setting up and rearranging the elements of her trap. The idea was that the leprechaun would use the ladder to climb in to the glass jar in order to get the gold (sequins, bells, gem stones) and there he would be stuck.
The next morning she woke very excited. She didn't find a leprechaun but there was a trail of lucky charms leading to reheat trap and a note from a leprechaun with the first clue of a treasure hunt.
After following the clues she found some yummy treats (gold bars, rainbow drops and lime éclairs) in the bottom tray of the fridge.
The cheeky leprechaun had also turned the milk green!!

Whilst the three little ones munched on their very unhealthy breakfast we read all about St Patrick and also a story called "The little dancer" about a poor little goat girl  who is gifted some dance slippers from a leprechaun as a token of appreciation for all the joy she brought to his life for her singing and dancing she did whilst tending to her goats.
We took my brothers dog for walk as he had to go to the mainland and then helped Eva make a leprechaun lunch . I brought some gold spray ice icing which she sprayed over some ores to make gold coins and then she made a fruit and veg rainbow bow. Following this I then spent most of the afternoon  painting. Iv been given the wonderful opportunity and am illustrating a children's book. It really is like a dream come true. While I painted Paul and the boys took our broken TV apart.. The boys love  to see what's inside appliances and Charlie made sure to keep the speakers and some wires to add to his electronics kit.
Yesterday was mainly spent tidying the toy shelf and box and bookshelf and we had a visit from two of my sisters and my nephew as well which was lovely . I also helped Eva follow instructions in a magazine to make a cereal and yoghurt sandae. We used lucky charms to keep it festive. In the evening while Robbie caught up on some sleep (this weeks been pretty horrendous sleep wise with his horrid cough) Eva cuddled up with me on the sofa and we watched a couple of episodes of call the midwife before bed. I'm always amazed at how much she takes in from watching adult programs. We talked all about how when she's older she wants to have her babies at home like the lady in the program. And how she has lots of dolls so she can practice being a good mum. She melts my heart!