things to do, places to go update

Just a couple of months of the year left so I thought I’d review how we’ve got on with our stuff we wanted to do this year list:
Things we want to do this year:

South Downs Planetarium – I’ve wanted to go here for years and as it says suitable for 6 plus on the website I think it will finally be something we can all go along to together now Scarlett will get something out of it too. There are a couple of shows which look particularly interesting:
Stars on frosty nights
Tour of the planets
The Northern Lights
Prices are £6 per adult and £4 per child so £20 for the four of us, nothing on the website about season tickets but worth investigating.
Well we managed two trips there; once for frosty nights and one for the planets. Ady, Davies and I enjoyed the whole thing, Tarly did get something out of each show and they both still refer to things they learnt there now but an hour is a long time to sit still and quiet in the dark when you’re five so we didn’t push it with any more visits this year. I’d still like to see the Northern Lights show and will move that across to our list for next year.

Fishbourne Roman Palace – must make full use of our season tickets and get along to some of the many events they have on this year. Interesting ones I’ve already earmarked are:
Family Fun Days through the February half term
Celtic Spring Festival
Thursdays in Summer holidays
I think the children and I have got to Fishbourne twice this year, once with Ady as well. We never managed any of the summer events and as it’s now 3pm on the last day of October half term I’m guessing we’ll not manage to get there for that this year ;). I think we’ve done all it has to offer though and made the most of the years ticket we got.

Lambing at Coombes Farm This was excellent last year, we’re still talking about it now. It’s on for a whole month in 2008 so we must ensure we go again on a nice day during that month.
Yep, we managed that, albeit a slightly stressy visit this year with the Beavers. It did mean we got a cheaper rate on the tractor ride though which we’d not done the year before. I think this could well become a staple part of our Springtime every year.

Drusillas – must justify that outlay of season tickets and manage at least another 3 trips over there before they run out in July. Having checked the events listing there is nothing of great interest so will probably try and avoid busy time and go midweek in term times instead.
I think we made use of our season tickets fairly well with various trips to Drusillas before they ran out. We won’t renew them again until summer 2009 at the earliest but Scarlett does have her birthday present day out there and I have plans to look into their volunteer programme if she enjoys that to see if there are any openings for children.

Pulborough Brooks – we’ll carry on going to the regular monthly Home Ed meet up walks there but have also been looking at some of the other events – it might be worth looking at RSPB membership.
We got the RSPB membership and along with the regular magazines Davies and Scarlett get and devour every month or so they have also joined the Wildlife Explorers Group at Pulborough Brooks which meets once a month for crafts and wildlife activities. We’ve been to Family Fun Days and a couple of other scheduled events through the year aswell as the monthly home ed meet up and family trips there throughout the year. A wise investment of a fiver or so a month :).

Chichester Harbour There are some fab events held in and around the harbour like the early Sunday morning walk we did last year. Must aim to get along to more of them, including the splendid sounding solar powered boat rides.
I’m on the monthly email newsletter for the events here but nothing appealed this year, or those which looked interesting clashed with my working days or other commitments we already had. Still want to try those solar powered boat trips though!

Looking at National Trust and/or English Heritage membership. We’ve almost enough Tesco points to pay for EH membership and there are various local places that NT membership would pay for with just two days out so probably worth investing in including:
Petworth House which has some fab events lined up including Bat walks which is something Davies and Scarlett have specifically asked to do.
We joined, we made use of the NT membership with various visits to Petworth including their open tunnels weekend. We also used our membership for visits to St Michaels Mount, Bodiam Castle and are still planning various other trips to places before it runs out next year. We will probably join English Heritage next year instead but I still want to visit Corfe Castle before our NT membership lapses. Never did manage a bat walk, but Pulborough Brooks has them and is nearer than Petworth anyway so we’ll transfer that across to next years list.

The Safety Day that’s been planned by a HEor in Basingstoke in April. Looking forward to that on.
Was a good day, I particularly enjoyed the firemen’s bit! 😆

Legoland – we’ve definitely got a trip in March planned (must get it booked)
We had our March trip and it remains a family favourite day trip. The children are real coastermaniacs and would like to try Chessington next but I suspect an annual Legoland trip will still make it onto 2009’s list.

Kelmarsh Festival of History weekend – it’s my weekend off so we’re planning to camp along with friends and make a whole weekend of it.
What a fab weekend that was! Definitely up for that again next year including the Wickstead day aswell with as many friends as possible :). Will hopefully have our own EH membership to keep the cost down too.

Eweleaze – aside from other camping trips planned this year (hopefully a May / June trip up near CAT) we’ve got a few nights extreme camping planned here in August :). We also want to do the Eden Project again so will aim for a September camping trip down that way if the weather is good.
We didn’t manage CAT so that definitely goes across to next years list. I am still humming and hawwing over booking their ecocabins actually. Everything else happened along with various other camping excursions.

Bedgebury Pinetum – meant to go there all last year and never made it, will definitely get there this year when it’s warm enough to be out all day without gloves!
Been there, done that! It was good but quite a long way to travel. Would like to go again when children are old enough to Go Ape with us :).

Other random requests from Davies and Scarlett include:
Ice Skating – our nearest ice rink is eitherGuildford or Gillingham and a quick peek shows that to be a costly activity.
I have it on good authority (thanks Liza!) that there is a regular Home Ed meet up at Guildford ice rink on Fridays as discounted prices. We’ve not managed to get there yet and as Fridays are an every-other-week work day for me it may end up being another one moving across to next year as there are probably only about 4 Fridays left this year we could potentially get there and we have plenty of stuff already booked up for the next 2 months which could well leave no spare cash for such excursions.

More pony riding – well that’s nice and easy and cheap 🙂 will arrange weekly if possible with Julie.
We are definitely managing fortnightly and it’s going well. Both Davies and Scarlett are making progress and it remains something they are enjoying.

Swimming – yes, really must do this one.
They are still having weekly term time lessons and they are now spaced in such a way that it is possible for me to have half an hour with each of them in the pool each week. Illness and can’t be arsed-ness aside we’ll try and make that a weekly thing I do.

Beach walks – just as soon as it’s a bit warmer we’ll aim to get to the beach at least once a week again.
Not weekly but certainly fairly regularly. Other outside-y things have gotten in the way of beachwalking but it can certainly go onto next years list and we’ll endeavour to continue to use the beach as much as we can.