Joining…

Today we had a Winter Walk on the agenda. 🙂 It was the second Monday of every month Home Ed meet up at Pulborough Brooks. On the way by sheer coincidence I found War of the Worlds in the car so put that on – it was disc 2 so we were straight into Martial rule and although she insisted she wanted to carry on listening to it Scarlett was a bit upset by it. She’s a funny old mix that child, brave as a lion about many real life dangers but very scared little girl about imagined ones. We also spotted blossom as we drove through some lovely bits of the Sussex countryside. We’d popped into the library quickly first to take down Davies’ display which needs a portfolio or similar folder type thing to keep it flat and safe really, must get that sorted.

We arrived and found Caz and her boys already there along with a couple of other families. I heard a shout go up ‘Davies and Scarlett are here, yay!’ which made me smile :). Another couple of families arrived and Julie, Jack and Maisie were there too. I had a brief chat with the volunteer there about joining RSPB but she was a bit crap at actually selling me the idea and thrust a leaflet at me instead. Although I said how old Davies and Scarlett were she insisted on only taking payment for me and Davies but that still came to £4.50 and on checking the website at home I discovered monthly family membership for all four of us is just £4.20 and we get free membership joining goodies and loads of other freebie magazines etc. as well as free entry to the sites and discounted events entry so it seemed too good an offer to miss when we’ll actually save money just on the once a month HE meet up before any of the other benefits. I’ve signed us up for a proper guided walk next week and an invite came through by email for a Green Diggers event there next week too so potentially we could be there again twice just next week :).

The children all dashed off ahead and I walked most of the way with Caz, Julie or both which was very nice :). I did talk to Davies and Scarlett once about general rowdiness – I know we paid to be there the same as everyone else but it is a nature reserve and I do feel quite strongly that we should respect both the plants and animals there as well as the other people who have paid money to be there and observe the animals that noisy children are sending scarpering away. I think loud running screaming games are probably more appropriate at the park somehow. We saw deer, robins, various plants and other wonders of nature but by far the biggest attraction for the children was the ice 😆 There had been a pretty heavy frost last night so all the puddles, ditches and slower moving bits of stream were coated with a thick layer of glass-like ice which made a satisfying musical sound when shattered. They also did plenty of tree climbing, stream scrambling and general getting muddy with friends in the woods. About halfway round we were joined by others including a couple of much older boys who really befriended our younger six children – lovely to see :).

Just before the end of the walk Davies found a large patch of ice and broke off a big bit and announced he was ‘setting myself the challenge of getting to the end of the walk with some ice still left’ with gained a bit of interest from the other children with a running commentary on what the remaining lump of ice looked like at each stage of it’s rapid melting (now it’s a pteradactal, now it’s a person with one leg). He did it though 🙂

There is a wooden play area at the entrance where we meet and where today we lingered awhile. Everyone except us had brought a picnic lunch which they normally do apparently but as it had been fairly cold and muddy last month and noone had done so I hadn’t realised it was a usual part of the plan and had come unprepared. Caz kindly shared her rice cakes with Davies and Scarlett but I was mindful of getting home to get a beef stew cooking for dinner tonight and when what had previously been a wonderful example of all ages of HE kids cooperating and playing together beautifully degenerated into a competition to see who could chuck the biggest thing into the pond near the entrance and smash the ice up I took that as our cue to leave! Davies and Scarlett were most disappointed as in fairness they had been spectating rather than participating but there was a small crowd of elderly people looking disapprovingly at the rainbow clad ‘yobbos’ and I was keen to disassociate ourselves from them 😳 a middle class moment of worrying what other people think surfacing there :lol:.

We came home via town for some veg to go in the stew and a quick nip to the bank to pay in a cheque that someone had paid for an ebay win with – seriously can’t believe people still have cheques when there is paypal! 😆 We listened to the end of War of the Worlds for closure for Scarlett and followed it with some Queen for loud singing along to forget about martians purposes.

Once home I got the stew on, the kids X boxed and DSed, we looked at a book that had arrived in a parcel from ebay for us, I offered to read to them and they declined so I spent some time online joining the RSPB and then having heard back from NT that their Home Ed discount only means you can visit during term time weekdays so is no use to us I joined that online too and spent some more time planning places to visit and booking a couple of days out in advance. I also visited my neglected Monster and Teeny blog for a general boast about how well HE is going for us just now. Davies and I had a bit of a chat about how much he’s enjoying having some local same age boys who are home educated friends – a combination of the new friendship with Caz and her boys and the lads at Thursday Home Ed group (very specifically Andrew too :)) mean he is really enjoying not feeling torn between grown up and younger children company quite so much and is able to be himself instead of feeling he is pulling himself down to 5 year old level or trying to hang out with me and my friends – both of which he does very well and enjoys to a point but it’s nice for him to have the balance of both :).

Beavers time was upon us before we realised so we walked him round there, in daylight, which was lovely :). Scarlett and I watched some Dora together, Ady came home and she posed for lots of photos of her jumping and him trying to catch her midair before it was time to collect Davies. He’d been making grass heads and generally having a good time and came out clutching a note about a couple of upcomming Beavers events. I overheard the leader talking to one of the mothers about problems with her son there in the group too so that is positive, it seems like they are tackling some of the bad behaviour issues there that have been spoiling it for all the boys.

Davies and I walked home starspotting and when we got home Ady and Scarlett came out too. We spent about ten minutes identifying various things before finally spotting the International Space Station as it went over. Very exciting to get something real and tangiable back from yesterdays visit so quickly as we’d never have known to look for that otherwise :). We came in and found a NASA video on youtube all about it so we watched that and then I showed Davies and Scarlett the video I found last night about hubble and just how big the universe is. Mindblowing stuff :).

They had hot chocolate and I read the end of the Aardvark who wasn’t sure to them with Davies slowly managing to read the chapter titles out to us. I have a feeling Scarlett might wake in the night having said she would much earlier in the day she seems to be able to programme herself to do just that. Tomorrow we’ve managed to keep free aside from swimming so weather and mood depending we may or may not go out or stay in and have a quiet home day.