A lateish start this morning as the children finally slept in past 7am (only 8.30 mind you, but better than it could have been!). I did my usual act of sitting reading emails and stuff rather than getting organised and having read several references to happymais on Merry and Claire’s blogs I followed some links and found the homepage through Beadmerrily including some fab pictures. So I showed them to the children which meant they went straight to the playroom and got out our ELC equivalent and started making various bits. I still don’t think they’ve totally got the idea of quite how versatile they can be so I might well sit with them tomorrow and show them a few more things with them but Davies made a mini mummy and Tarly sat and stuck some on a dinosaur template sheet thingy. I made some banana cakes as I’d rescued 3 very brown bananas Ady was about to throw away last night which really were very past their prime but wanted to make the point they were not wasted ;-).
So we were about an hour later to Lucy’s house than I think she was expecting us and arrived about 11am. We’d only arranged to go there today by a late night email exchange yesterday and she normally has a toddler group style gathering of about 4 mothers and small children there on a Monday morning. Today there was just one other, a very nice woman called Sam with her 1yo son A. She is a nanny, very, very Gina following but also very interested in Home Ed. So Lucy introduced us and left us to it really 😆 She had all the usual questions and some very ingrained ideas, several of which I distinctly disagreed with but one of those situations where someone presents their viewpoint as a fact rather than an opinion. She certainly went away with a lot to think of though and actually wants to come along to local Home Ed group too – ah recruitment for the cause continues 😆 She left and Lucy and I took our four to the local park for half an hour or so where Davies and Scarlett both mastered climbing over the top of the rope ladder style climbing frame. Scarlett with her usual bravery and ‘because it was there’ style attitude, Davies with a lot of coaxing and encouragement and huge pride in himself once achieved. So indicative of the different personalities and tempraments of my children that. 🙂
We went back for some further chatting but Davies particularly was tired and grumpy with the weekend catching up with him and as he had the last Badgers of the term later we called it a day slightly early and came home for a calm down first. He’s not behaved great today generally but I’m prepared to put it down to heat and tiredness and after a chat this evening I think I finally got across to him why I’d been angry earlier. Scarlett brought me an great big pile of books so we sat and looked at them for a while when Lucy was dealing with R or R, Davies did some drawing and writing and Lucy and I had a long chat about adult education, careers for us and what happens when the children grow up and you’ve still got 30 years of working life ahead of you.
Really glad we did come home early as shortly after we got home the doorbell rang. The children had their usual scuffle to get to it first, I was sitting with my laptop and heard them yell ‘Daddy!’ so assumed it was Ady home slightly early. Only realised it wasn’t when a far larger than Ady sized figure appeared in the doorway wearing motorbike leathers and removing a crash hat! It was our friend Matt, who’d driven past on his way home from work, spotted my car in the drive (he reckoned unusually), so stopped to say ‘Hi’. 🙂 And show off the lovely motorbike he is ‘bikesitting’ while a mate’s on holiday. So we sat having a lovely chat about education (his son, same age as Davies is finishing reception year at the local private school as paid for by Matt’s parents), further education for adults, why we both semi-regret not having gone to university if only for the lifestyle and why actually neither of us were remotely in the right time or place to go to university after A levels (we met working at B&Q when he was 19 and had dropped out and I was 17 and was on the verge of doing so). Ady came home and we continued chatting about various mutual friends one or other of us has got up to date news about and I took Davies and Scarlett to Badgers leaving them to it. I think he’d still be here now if his wife had not rung to ask where he’d got to 😆
As it was the last Badgers of the term / year all of them received a certificate and badge for ‘Global Badger’ which is what they’ve covered this term. The assistant leader was leaving to go off to university so he was presented with a toaster and a tin of beans while parents and siblings sat and applauded and took photos. Tarly demanded she take our pictures and she did a pretty good job – I’ll upload some and add to this post tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have Mel coming over in the afternoon with Liam and Lily for tea and playing. I want to do some baking and I want to read some of the library books we’ve got stacked up around the place and maybe even get some of them returned. I have several draft posts in my head just now, either for here or one of the other blogs so if I get the peace and am in the right frame of mind one or more of them might appear too.