Busy week...

Just wanted to tell you all about our week.

No photos.
No links.
Just us.

So, on Monday we got together with our friends and went out for the day. Trentham Gardens. Its become a regular hangout for us as its so close. Less than 10 minutes in the car and its absolute heaven. In the week its even more heaveny as its not so crowded.
Today was full of the more mature crowd soaking up the sun. It really was a lovely dry day (although I insisted on the kids wearing waterproofs, just in case). We started at the playground as usual, picking at sandwiches and fruit that we'd taken for lunch. Instead of taking a walk around the lake or heading to the minature train we went for a walk amongst the gardens. I'm so glad we did. The kids really enjoyed letting off some steam. They ran around, just out of sight sometimes, and we walked behind listening to their games. Our smallest child pointed excitedly at the ground. He'd found a beetle. A huge beetle! Later on via a google search we found out it was a Dor beetle. It was a great find.

Just to say we'd had a day like this would have been enough for me but there's more...

Then, on Tuesday, my littlies went to Grandma and Grandads for the day. I had my big girl for the day and she was desperate to get sketching. I'd puled up some blogs from pinterest the night before so I had an idea what sketching which children could be like. We collected her friend and we all set off to the loal market town of Stone. It was market day and so there was lots to draw. The began sketching some buildings from a bench. Sometimes they were happy with the results, sometimes my girl got frustrated. Many blogs had said she was at the age where kids strive for perfection in a drawing. They weren't wrong! I did my best to encourage and took my sketch book along too. Its a long lost skill of mine. I've been to art college and used to love life drawing. I'm a little rusty now but it was great to pick it up again. Learning together is fun whatever age you are I guess!
A trip to the canalside finishe our day in Stone. We all went home with a watercolour sketch of barges and bridges.
At home we found time to squeeze in a quick go on the Monopoly board before going to pick the littlies up from their fun time at the Grandparents.

Day two and everything was going well. There's more...

Our co-op group on a Wednesday. Its always great fun. We were supposed to be out on an Autumn foraging hunt but the weather was awful. We stayed indoors instead. Following our Autumn theme we made some cold and flu remedy from Elderberries. It came from a book I've had on a shelf here for a while. We'd picked some elderberries on the way and called at a local supermarket for our extra ingredients, sugar, ginger and lemons.
It was delish! We made enough to be split between the three families. Its currently in ice cube bags in our freezer waiting for our colds to start. I'm sure it won't be too long *sniff*
We also managed another recipe from a beauty book containing home made recipes. Beetroot lip tint. Made from warming beetroot and glycerine in a double boiler. Looks fab and its the kind of cosmetics I don't mind my big girl playing around with. Subtle. Something that most kids have no concept of with make-up.

Here's our Thursday...

Bit boring. I managed to get on top of the cleaning. While I did, the kids played on minecraft, built lego, read books, did lots more sketching, made lunch and helped with the bed changes that needed doing. Very productive for a 'down day'.

Friday. Yesterday. Another great day out with friends...

We met up with some other home educating friends and went for an afternoon at Gladstone Pottery Museum. We have an annual pass and so decided it would be good to finish the week off with another day out. We took a packed lunch and muched as we walked around so we wouldn't have to sit down anywhere for too long.
We did the museums trail which we haven't done before. It involved looking out for letters hidden around the museum. It kept them busy and made them see different parts of the museum that they hadn't taken notice of before.
Moving into the tile exhibition there, we found some wax crayons and paper on the school table. This got us doing some rubbings of the floor tiles that are set into the floor. Excited gasps could be heard each time they found a good pattern. Kept them good for ages!
The 'Flushed with pride' exhibition is still on there too. A few room stuffed full of things to do with toilets. You may think that sounds daft, and it probably is, but its part of our local history. Part of the potteries manufacturing industry was the production of sanitary ware for bathroom all over the world. Within this exhibition is a reading corner. I was blown away by the amount of books on one subject....poo! There were loads of them. We sat for half an hour just reading toilet humour. Great for our littlest as she's almost over her potty learning now. Although it does make you want to go for a wee!!
Home again for us. Not for my eldest. She had a teatime date with a friend from her previous school. They see each other at Brownies each week and are constantly emailing each other. I dropped her off and took the littlies home in time for Daddy to get home from work.

Wow! What a week. I'm almost sad its over. I need to keep this enthusiasm going for next week. Its been awesome. Everyone having a different story to tell Daddy over the dinner table and a much more relaxed Mummy. I've hardly raised my voice this week.
Days like this make me glad we took the choice to home educate. Not everyone gets the opportunity to spend time with their kids all week in lovely locations like we do. I'm honoured and also very proud that my children are going up into well behaved kids that I'm happy to take anywhere.

Fun with fungi...

Yesterday was a really rainy day. The kids didn't really fancy going out. I persuaded them to put their waterproofs on whilst I sorted out the packed lunches. Jam or ham, as always!

We got in the car and put the windscreen wipers on all the way to Barlaston downs banks. We were meeting our home ed friends there. I'd discussed a few 'autumn projects' with one of the mums just the day before. We were fired up for loads of activities. The kids weren't. One of the little guys wouldn't get out of the car. We tried to stay chirpy though and talked him into just half an hour, "see how it goes. If you want to come back to the car that's fine. Just give it a try ok?". It was still raining.

We started by walking a route some of us hadn't been before. The kids loved it amongst the woods. There had been some den making going on so they busied themselves amongst all the shelters, occasionally grabbing a jam or ham.

We took quite a walk upto the millenium point. A monument erected in the year 2000. On a clear day you can see all the way to Wales. Not today.

The millenium monument

The kids had begun looking for mushrooms back in the woods. On this side of the hill we found our best one yet. A beautiful fly argaric. I decided it was time to start taking photos of the ones we found so we could do some identification later on once we were home.

Here are some of the ones we found. I'm on the lookout for a field identification guide so we can hunt some more and maybe even eat some.

The kids managed to pick up all kinds of things in their little bags. Blackberries were amongst the common finds. Acorns, pinecones, leaves of all shapes and sizes and some puffball mushrooms that we could cook up at home.

We couldn't resist a paddle in the stream before heading back to the car. We were already wet. Wellies were on but soon they were overflowing with cold stream water. Wet socks ensued and so it was time to go.

Getting back to the car we talked about the things we found and looked them up in a couple of books we had, as well as autumn sheets I'd printed off from www.naturedetectives.org.uk which is a great site with lots of free seasonal printables for outdoor play.

The pictures say a lot. The weather didn't put us off. We had a great day.