One word? When seven would do…

For two reasons really – the first is that having enjoyed beautiful weather up north all weekend as soon as we hit south of London on the M25 we entered the grey drizzle zone – odd, thought the north was supposed to have the crap weather!

The second reason is that my lovely husband bought me home this as a surprise pressie on Friday. So I have spent all weekend reliving being about 8 years old, gazing up at my life size Shaky poster on my bedroom wall and singing Green Door into my hairbrush – bliss 🙂 Sadly the long on the blink cd player in the car died yesterday so we also had to buy on of these to facilitate continued listening to it! Kids now in love with Shaky too 🙂

So, a catch up on the last couple of days then; Friday was a good one. TT1 in the morning which was OK. Next week is the start of the split age groups and I am inclined to give it a fair go but unless there is something a bit more engaging for D & S I will probably not bother paying for the next block of sessions. Particularly as Scarlett is now quite happily doing TT2 as well which gives us an hour between the two classes which is not long enough to go home for and as we need to eat lunch during it will probably involve me either buying them lunch out every week or packing sandwiches to be eaten in the car so it’s a bit of a kerfuffle unless it is really worth it. Mum met us when TT1 finished and we went into town for lunch and she bought the kids a being poorly pressie each for them having CP while they were away – slightly redeemed herself there then 🙂 Davies got a Robot toy to go with the one he got when he didn’t see the film the other day and Tarly got two (BOGOF offer) My Little Ponies. She has got a couple of dinky ones from when McDs were doing Happy Meal toys of them and loves them so now she has two full size ones which she is carting around, brushing their hair and generally loving.

Mum stayed with Davies while Tarly and I did TT2 – which she again did really well at and seemed to really enjoy. She is very agile – loads more so than Davies and now she has got her head round the whole structured taking it in turns issues is doing well at it all. She was practically lapping some of the other littlies her climbing and clambering was so speedy. Once again really nice to be just her and I for a while with her getting loads of praise and attention lavished on her – so a positive all round for TT2 🙂 She was not to be bribed with the sticker (as I predicted) but I did persuade her to go up and get it for me instead so I proudly wore it for the rest of the day! Davies, as ever loved it and was commended again on being good, polite and ‘having the memory of an elephant’ for some fact he had recounted from about two months ago in terms of where the equipment was!

The journey up north was erm, interesting… I had looked up a route finder and jotted down key bits of info from it on the basis that having lived up there and been to Miranda’s house several times when we got close we would sort of find our own way in – WRONG! 🙂 About an hour and a half and 30 odd extra miles later we arrived! We still managed to have the kids asleep, an alcoholic beverage inside us and be in bed ourselves just after midnight though so it was not too bad!

Saturday – we had breakfast and dashed off to The Trafford Centre for an hour which was a real memory lane type trip. Davies remembered everything (which I suppose he would having been there at least once a week for most of his life up until a year ago), then we headed off to Lynda’s for lunch. We had a great time there with the kids running around the garden and playing with the lego remnants left behind by her two sons. Then their oldest son and his wife to be (wedding next weekend) arrived so we got to meet them for the first time too which was lovely having both heard lots about each other.

Then back to Miranda’s for a huge trekking walk (pics below) which was mad! Four adults, three children, two dogs, lots of unsuitable footwear, mud up to your knees and gates which were tied shut necessitating lifting dogs and children over fences 🙂 Great fun though! Kids were all totally worn out by that so after food and a hosing down in a bath all three of them were asleep by 8am leaving us to enjoy dinner, wine and lots of chats. We inevitably talked HE to death – with Miranda being one of the most horrified people I ever mentioned HE to in the beginning slowly becoming someone who is actually quite convinced by the whole thing now. She is the polar opposite in terms of being a product of one of the most expensive boarding schools in this country and sending her daughter – albeit not as a boarder – to an equally *good* private school to being quite sold on the idea of autonomy, learning through life and being allowed to ask questions and then go and find out the answers to them. Gradually over the last year all of her horrors at the very idea have given way to a curiosity and last night a full acceptance of the benefits. She even said (after quite a lot of wine I admit!) that she almost wishes she had the patience and parenting skills to consider it as an option for Francesca!!!

One of the very positive things about telling people about HE at the moment is that Davies can be a very good advertisement for it in action. A typical child of his age would be ‘in the system’ by now and when he wants to be Davies is very capable of demonstrating lots of intelligence, articulacy and general knowledge which impresses adults who are expecting something very different. He did the same this weekend and on the walk yesterday he took Miranda’s hand and walked with her for a lot of the way talking to her about the sheep and lambs, the grass and scenery and general chit chat. I find Davies very good company when he is on top form and she did too. I was very proud of him and prouder still last night when she was singing his praises and commenting on what a confident, very comfortable in talking to anyone, composed child he is and I was able to attribute that to HE, to giving him time to reach this stage instead of continuing to force a seperation he clearly was not ready for and in continuing to nurture his love of learning and quest for knowledge – something which even she can see her 7 year old beginning to lose through being at school and having to learn certain things at certain specified times. I have a HE glow to me today 🙂

Funnily enough both Stuart (Lynda’s husband) and Harmen (Miranda’s husband) were both very interested and intrigued by the idea of HE. I have (and this is a generalisation but a definite pattern) found that men tend to be far more accepting of it as a concept, with several stating that it would probably have suited them better as children themselves and able to see all the percieved benefits and less concerned about the usual worries of HE (socialisation, blah blah blah!) Not sure if this is because women can feel somewhat defensive about not doing it for their children (if they have them) or whether perhaps HE is an even better option for boys (are girls more sociable, do they get more out of the school mentality than boys? Hmm interesting that one) but certainly something I have noticed the last couple of weeks having spoken about HE both in practise in our family and in theory as something happening nationwide with three different couples of varying ages.

Today has been equally manic. Breakfast with Miranda and co, then dashed off to Lynda and Stuarts (via Halfords!) for lunch, left there a full hour and a half later than the very latest we had planned to be away by but somehow managed to keep the kids awake all the way home by feeding them lollies and fruit polos (which sugar high tactic backfired and had them both still awake at 9pm 🙂 ) and singing and dancing along to the Tumbletots Actions songs cd (D’you know if I hear about Peter Rabbit and the fly on his bloody nose again for at least a month I may well go mad!) in the car all the way home. Stuart had got out a tent and he and Davies put that up in their garden which Davies loved doing, I taught the kids how to make daisy chains and Scarlett ran around with a bucket trying to catch bumble bees and ladybirds!

We got home early enough to shove roast beef in the oven, have had a bath and watched Dr Who on video and am about to fall into bed after a quick whizz round the blog ring (who am I kidding, I’ll still be sat here at gone midnight 😉 ) Tomorrow I am planning to do the HE day in pics, but for now there are a few taken this weekend posted below.