One word? When seven would do…

We went to our usual car boot sale this morning but a combination of it being rained off so many weeks this summer, a brilliantly hot August day and the long weekend meant it was heaving. Heaving with sellers aswell as buyers though and many a bargain was to be had. 🙂 I’d taken about £7 with me and spent every single penny. Ady had some left over but we probably spent a tenner between us. Ady and Davies walked round together and got various bits and pieces including a couple of little Wallace and Gromit figures (for Davies’ playhouses) which we’d only ever seen on ebay at well over £5 each before – for 10 pence! They also got a book for Scarlett on Spirit which is a firm favourite of her and Maisie and something they play at most times they get together. We also got a superplexus ball which I’ve been hankering after for ages for 25 pence. Scarlett got a mosiac coloured tangram puzzle for 26 pence (the bloke wanted 50 pence but she had 26 pence clutched in her hand and smiled sweetly so he gave it to her for that 🙂 ), we got a little Polly Pocket playset with some tiny dogs for 50p but bargain of the week was the clothes this week. At one of the first stalls I found a man selling his two daughters outgrown clothes for 50 pence an item. All the stuff was immaculate and Next, Monsoon etc. Most of it was little stuff but I got 5 items for £2.50, all gorgeous frilly skirts, mirror and bead bedecked tops and so on. If I’d had more money with me I’d have bought loads of the smaller stuff off him to ebay. A bit further round we found someone selling every item for 20pence so got a full length fleecey lined winter coat, a reversible fluffy gilet and two black dresses for 80 pence. Finally we came across a woman packing up to go home who first of all told me 50 pence an item and then said I could fill a bin liner for two quid. And fill it I did! I actually gave her £2.50 because I was so pleased with what I’d got and when we came home and laid it all out we’d got six pairs of trousers, three fleeces, three jumpers, two skirts, a tracksuit, two dresses, seven tops, a coat, a gilet and a long cardigan for the princely sum of £5.60 – so that’s Scarlett sorted for winter then :). I’d picked up various items aged up to 6 years including most of the trousers (she’s currently wearing 3-4 in most trousers but they’re all cropper summer ones) so we had a trying on session when we got home cos they all looked huge and I was preparing to put lots of the stuff away for winter next year, but everything fitted now! She has been looking quite long of leg lately and all her skirts have been a bit on the short side so she’s been wearing them with leggings but I had no idea she’d grown quite so much! Also the style of the jeans is that of a girl rather than a toddler so suddenly every last trace of a toddler is long gone. Davies looked at her and said ‘those trousers make her look all tall and thin, she’s like Barbie!’ 😆 and indeed she did suddenly look like a child who could well be about to start school in two weeks 😯 But she’s my baby!!! Final bargain was a Wallace and Gromit pop up book – the full story in cartoon strip of A Close Shave with all sorts of pop ups and moving parts. She wanted £2, took £1.50 and Davies was utterly delighted with it. Id planned to smuggle it in as a birthday present but he spotted it in the bag and wanted it there and then. He’s spent the whole afternoon entranced by all it’s moving bits and planning how to make pop up pictures of his own. 🙂

Home for lunch and then I headed back into the garden taking my papier mache dalek with me. I got a load more done and am now up to the domed top, which I’m still unsure how to tackle – it’s too big to use a balloon but I think a beach ball may do the trick to papier mache over. I’ve then got all the detailing to do, so am hoping for a nice couple more days as it dries so quickly outside it is making the whole project loads quicker. I spent about 4 hours outside, with music playing and found it all very theraputic. Both the children came and helped at various points – Davies grew bored of it very quickly, a thing of this size isn’t very exciting as it’s lots of repeptive tearing and sticking strips of paper. Scarlett stuck around for longer, although she was more interested in picking dried bits of paste off of my skin and clothes (she loves picking at things that child, never did grow out of that) and then making up more paste with the flour and water and chattering away to me about nothing. There’s another car boot sale on in the morning so we’ll be looking out for a beach ball and a sink plunger to complete it. Davies has decided he wants it to be a gold dalek rather than a black one so I’ve been googling for images for the detail.

Came in around 7pm for roast beef cooked by Ady and we all ate together. Davies had roast beef with potato waffles and yorkshire puddings – he loves beef but doesn’t like roast potatoes. Scarlett who is a total carboholic had mashed potatoes, yorkshire puddings and pasta! She filled the yorkshires with mash and then filled all the pasta shells with mash too – strange little girl! 🙄 We all watched Child of Our Time together with various comment and conversation about it. I’ve enjoyed watching that show since it started when I was pregnant with Davies and it’s great to be watching it with him now.

Tonight I’ve been doing some more Tardis goody bag making and started reading And The Skylark Sings With Me in the bath. I borrowed it from work ages ago when I did a subject search for Home Education books and whilst I’m probably coming to David Albert pretty late so far I’m finding it an inspiring and interesting read. I discovered when Mum took me out for dinner last week that Dad is still very much opposed to Home Education, which probably bothers me way more than it should. It’s not that I value his opinion on this topic particularly because I don’t. I think he is being ignorant and arsey by not talking to me about it properly, not learning more about the idea and not having any sound basis for his opinion. I just think it’s a real shame that he doesn’t get what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I’m also aware that the older the children get and the more obviously different they start to become as a result of our autonomous style the more I may be called to question over it. Again, I’m not terribly bothered what people think of it as such but I do feel very passionate about what we’re doing and would like to have as much information over and above simply presenting the children as living, breathing, learning examples of why it’s the right way for us to cite at people as evidence. Also it is always a pleasure to read such positive, convinced parents filled with joy and passion about their children and how they approached home education.