Remembrance day...

Today is armistice day. Yesterday my daughter went up to the cenotaph in our village with her brownie unit. Its always a good turn out in our village. A tradition that i hope never dies out.
She decided to write a note to the soldiers, which is what your can see on our piano:
" we remember all the soldiers that fight in the war for our country and so please be happy for what we've got. On the 11th of the 11th please stop what you are doing for just two minutes and remember all the soldiers. Please think about them. "

I think today has made a real impact on our eldest.
The little ones tried hard to keep quiet for two minutes. They knew it was for soldiers past and present. We've decorated some paper plates to look like poppies.
They're on our newly acquired piano which none of us can play (yet) but we already love. I managed to play the last post with the bare minimum of notes.

We will remember them....in our own way.

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.