Working and walking on Wednesday

I worked this morning. It was busy but went very quickly. Ady took Davies and Scarlett out with him for the morning and dropped them off at the library at midday for the last hour of my shift. Unfortunately they squabbled and I did some hissed grring at them which upset Tarly. Childcare is being problematic again at the moment 🙁

That aside all was well and I had a nice productive morning including some writing up of the Chatterbooks first session for my own records so I can submit some kind of detailed report to my bosses about how it’s all gone when the six weeks is up.

We nipped home for lunch and to get changed and then went up to Rose’s. Rose is my Not-Swinger friend who works 3 days a week as a primary school teacher. She is one of the most ardent supporters of both Home Education generally and autonomous Home Ed specifically I know. And all due to meeting and talking to me and my kids :). She’d sent me a text at the weekend asking if I was free to get together during this week with the kids as she has two dogs she knew Scarlett would love to walk and thought we could take the kids and dogs for a walk on the downs and then go back and watch one of the several books-made-into-films we’ve been talking about seeing together for ages on dvd while the kids played.

We walked up the downs, the dogs had a splash in a dew pond, we looked at the amazing panoramic views of the downs, sea, airport and all around. Rose was saying they try and bring the schoolchildren up there as it shows all of the aspects of the countryside in one quick hit – the river Adur running into the sea, the airport, main A27 road with various bridges, roundabouts and other feats of civil engineering aswell as ferries out to sea and boats on the river to demonstrate transport, open downs and farmland to show argiculture and farming complete with cows, sheep and horses, Lancing college and the amazing chapel to show historical buildings and architecture aswell as Lancing and Sompting bungalows, houses and flats to show towns and villages where people live.

We walked back down the very steep hillside through some woodland where the kids paused for some tree climbing and then paused awhile at the playpark for some swinging and climbing frame activity for Davies and Scarlett while Rose and I sat on a bench and talked about teaching and Chatterbooks.

Back across the fields including one which is full of rabbit holes along with countless old fashioned glass bottles, jars and old ceramic plates and bowls. Apparently it was a tip going back a couple of hundred years ago and is just full of ‘treasures’ to be excavated including all sorts of fancy shaped bottles and jars. The kids and I collected about 10 different shapes and sizes and are keen to go back for me. All currently soaking in cleaning chemicals to bring them back to life they are going to look fab filled with Tarly’s potions. Might try and fashion some stoppers from fimo or similar to finish them off. Photos to follow when they’ve been cleaned up :).

Back at Rose’s we had tea / hot chocolate and cookies, then she showed them the massive stash of lego left from her son Jamie (now 19 and living with his girlfriend) while we watched The Time Travelers Wife which we’d read for book group. Thought it was quite good as far as book adaptations go actually, although it’s been a while since I read the book so can’t recall how true to the format or book it was.

Davies and Scarlett were stars, loving playing with the lego or cooing over the dogs :). We said goodbye and came home about 530pm. I had a lovely text from Rose later telling me how fab my kids are :).

Ady arrived home soon after us and I dashed off to the supermarket for a couple of bits while the kids had tea. I read a chapter of the Ted Hughes book we’re reading and the children went to bed. Obviously not to sleep ;).

As half terms go it’s being quite a good one considering we normally hate them and go into hiding for the week 😉