Off to visit our new friends who live on a boat today. Abbie is 8 and gets on really well with Scarlett, sharing a love of animals and talking non-stop. They have met three times now and still fill all their time together nattering away like two old women :). Helen’s middle daughter, Alex, who is 12 and has just done a short stint in school for 8 weeks before coming back out again to be ‘boat schooled’ was there so we met her too today and she is lovely :).
We had a couple of hours on the boat and Helen had put out various crafty bits and pieces for the kids to make stuff with while the rain drummed the boat windows and we drank tea – something very lovely about the little cabin and the smell of meths from the cooker. We had lunch and the children all spent some time out on deck watching the swans, ducks, coots and moorhens that hang out in the marina. The weather had finally cleared up so we went for a walk alongside the canal, through the woodland and sat on the beach.
We saw various wildlife including a pair of moorhens and their chicks and loads of ducks. At the beach the girls spent ages looking at shrimps and crabs. Helen and I chatted and idly watched a group of firemen doing a rescue training exercise to a stranded fireman out on the sand flats. All very watchable ;).
By then it was getting close to us needing to head off so we said goodbye and arranged to meet up again soon, then we drove back to Worthing to the beach where we had time for 20 minutes before swimming lessons. Davies said his arm was still hurting – he has been using it fine and no real bruising has come out but it clearly is still playing him up a little. I am fairly certain it was a bad fall that will sort itself out rather than anything requiring attention and have been watching him closely to make sure he is using it but was prepared to agree swimming might be painful. He was also being a bit wobbly about Scarlett playing with Abbie and not really needing him so I used the opportunity to sit and have a chat with him while Tarly had her lesson.
We talked a bit about Home Ed generally, how I feel he sometimes coasts along with things rather than using the immense freedom he has to best advantage and how coming up to ten I would have expected to see more strides out for independance from him. I think he often forgets how liberal I am about letting him try things if he only asks, but not so proactive at pushing him forward, prefering for him to make these leaps and bounds on his own. Last year was a big year for him with things like Badger camp and I think he maybe overreached himself slightly and has fled back to me again and safety. I am more than happy for him to plod along with all things at his own pace but would hate to feel he is missing out on opportunities or may one day regret not being more adventurous or demanding of new things. We talked over a couple of things he wants to learn more about, discussed some ways he can make things happen for himself and I will let him go away and digest some of that and maybe follow it up again in a few days to see how he is feeling about it all. I think Davies can be a lot like Ady – excellent at acheiveing when someone puts him on the right path but not so good at working out what he wants and how to get there. His self-motivation isn’t huge and sometimes he needs a prod to remind him that he wanted to do something and therefore he really should get out there and do it. I don’t want to be prodding particularly but maybe I do need to do it every so often.
Scarlett had a good lesson, her backstroke is coming along really well. She now gets herself changed for her lesson and dried and dressed again afterwards which is nice – she is counting down the months until she is 8 and can be in the pool herself. When Davies was first 8 I couldn’t contemplate leaving him but I can easily see me letting the two of them go to the pool by the time Scarlett is 8. Can’t really see how or why I might need or want to but I could see it being perfectly possible dropping them off outside and collecting them again an hour or so later.
Back at home I cooked various versions of eggs for the kids’ teas while Scarlett played outside with the ducklings and Davies watched Astroboy. Ady arrived home and Tarly and I nipped up to the allotment to cut down some grass. Back home again I read some story and they went to bed to listen to an hour of audiobooks each. They are both listening to various Harry Potter cds so it is quite soothing to listen to Stephen Fry’s voice drifting from various parts of the house. For once I did make them both turn off after an hour or so though as we are off to London for the day tomorrow so will have a far earlier start than any of us are good at.