Home ed meet up at Leamore Pavilions this morning. The kids got black clothes and hands from sliding down the ramps on the skate park, played on the playground and played with toys. I wished I’d taken my camera to capture Alfie sitting on the ramp of a rubbish strewn skate park doing some lacing

This afternoon was the usual mix of chores, play and reading.

H made spaghetti with vegetable and tomato sauce, whilst Alfie made dough balls from some pizza dough we made in the breadmaker. The kids ate loads of the dough balls!

Another gloriously sunny (if freezing – Alfie’s raincatcher water had frozen when we hung the washing first thing) morning so we headed to Hatton. The children have been wanting to go for weeks but it’s been too wet. The place becomes a bog in the rain and most of the stuff there is outside. Stupidly, I left my camera in the car so no photos It was a fantastic day though – trampolining, bouncy castles, golf, building sandcastles, giant in flatable slide, swing boats, stroking guinea pigs, feeding sheep, watching the piglets feed as mommy pig snoozes, snowy owls, climbing and sliding, riding tractors, picnicking and more Happy days.

A gorgeous sunny day today with blue skies (although a distinct nip!) We met Bex, Nathan and the four greyhounds in Sutton Park for a long bike ride. Alfie did amazingly well considering he hasn’t ridden it for so long, and H even managed to master pedalling the trike (although mainly scooted along with her feet lol!)

Back home we made bread, sorted laundry, read books, cleaned the kitchen (see Upsy Daisy helping below lol!), Alfie did more snipping and sticking, H did jigsaws, we all watched Baby Mozart and generally worked and played together.

Picnic, playground, deer, completing the Eye Spy sheet in the big house, cellars, tunnel, gardens, wildlife photographs in the riding school, tea and cake. Fantastic day

A lovely morning at Think Tank with Nanny and the children. I forgot my camera so no pictures I’m afraid but there was lots of recycling, bee keeping, playing at being a dentist/cafe owner/mechanic, water play, designing aliens, operating steam engines and lots more fantastically fun and educational activities We also saw this in the Planetarium, which both children were rivetted by, and Alfie was still discussing as he went to sleep We also saw Grandad this afternoon, giving me a chance to sort the home ed pizza making session LOL!

On the downside both children were very overtired today and we have had constant fighting and tantrums this afternoon. Holly tipped her dinner (deliberately) all over the floor and table, threw everything in sight and screamed her head off (admitting that she was over tired herself lol!) whilst Alfie just tantrummed about his dinner being disgusting and just wanting sugary stuff, then ate it all once Rich fed him at his own request (and this from a child who was BLWed and NEVER fed lol!). So, an early night and a skipped bath until morning. And a lot of reflection from me about the bits handled very well, and those bits where my unconditional parenting skills slipped a little…..

Bird group on Wednesday. The children enjoyed it as usual, especially the stencil painting. We also did lacing around pictures of animals, and my two had me read every book in the place It was great to see Harriet and her 3 – baby Olivia was munched by H as usual, who even tried to row the boat with her during the singing!!! H refused to walk a step on the trek to/from the group and the walk to the birdhide. She spent the whole time on the hip seat. Typically, when we were at Mom’s in the afternoon she ws running around like a mad thing lol! Rich was having his photo taken for the newspaper so we had lunch and a play at Nanny’s to keep out of their hair

Last night I had a yummy curry with Tracey, Maxine and Mel. Lovely company and great food, but sometimes you feel a world apart from people. I find myself retreating more to real life and online home edders and attachment parenters, to where I belong. Thank goodness for the internet leading me to real life and virtual support and friendship from people who share my beliefs, views and aspirations. It is good to have lots of different friends though, and I value the differences and love the people – cheers girls

Today we went to see Sal and Evie, bringing donuts We were meant to go to Think Tank but Evie has the chicken pox. It was good to see them both though. Real friends are a precious and wonderful thing H spent the entire day dressed as Upsy Daisy – at Sal’s, in the Co-op……….What else can I say? Just lots of cleaning, reading book after book, unpacking organic vegetable boxes, painting, scissoring, the usual “events” (spilt wee from the potty, kicked over cold peppermint tea, a few fights…) Wonderful, precious times

After going to the car wash and for a drink in Asda coffee shop next door, we headed to Pype Hayes park. The children were thrilled to see that the playground had been completely refurbished. They spent ages playing and running their energy off in the gorgeous spring sun.

Back home we made up H’s bed with hre new Peppa Pig bedding, updated our weather chart, chitted the potatoes

planted the sunflower seeds in the terracotta pots they’d painted a while ago

did a shape art project from Alfie’s art magazine

then H wanted to join in so Alfie practised his scissor skills on an old magazine cutting triangles and squares for her to paste into her scrap book

then H made some bottom wipes

chopped the mushrooms for the vegetable korma I was making

and made a cherry tart

Doesn’t she look about 40 rather than just 2 lol!

A fantastic day at the Home Educator’s Discovery Day at the New Art Gallery in Walsall. The children love the Disco gallery there anyway, but today there were loads of activities around the whole gallery. We started off in the discovery gallery, then went up to the activity room where there was coffee (Yay!) and clay, colouring and balloons to blow up for the kids. Around the galleries there were craft activities. Alfie loved the potatoes and sticks to make animals from. He spent ages building various animals with amazing concentration. Holly built a couple then we went off looking at the art work, doing jigsaws and playing with her balloon whilst Alfie carried on. We went up onto the roof terrace, made badges in the art library, went into the balloon room (2000 giant purple balloons in a small room! The kids loved it and were screaming their heads off. I wasn’t too sure myself and kept losing them which was a bit scary lol!), did more clay sculpting and building with zoobs, read some books, chatted to lots of the other lovely home educators we met there (many old friends, some new). A truly fantastic day

Back home, we put the first sticker on our weather chart, made play dough dinosaurs, made vegetable and butterbean soup, spring cleaned the lounge (OK, we were searching for a lost Peppa Pig DVD which resulted in us clearing out various cupboards and moving furniture to be faced with thick grey dust and fluff we just couldn’t ignore so had to get the polish out lol!)and read the new books we got for free with World Book Day tokens

Last night I felt my tonsils and glands swell up whilst I watched Casualty (not psychosomatic honest lol!) Today it became obvious that both Rich and I have a Lurgy. Joy!

We headed to Asda to pick up my glasses (the ones that were faulty and needed replacing) and recycle some plastic bags and “accidentally” popped into the restaurant for veggie breakfasts We found Rocks organic lemon cordial with long dates at 47p instead of £2 in the clearance section – bonus!!!!

Afterwards we headed to Dobbies for some organic compost (50% off – bargain!) to plant Alfie’s potatoes, which we start chitting this week. We used most of the “ready” compost out of our own stash to prep the veggie beds so needed a little extra. We also had a nose at different sheds to pad out our ideas about future workspaces for Rich. Afterwards we popped to Plantasia to feed the fish

Looked at the big pigs, did the treetop walk (very slippy!)

then decided to come back and do the outside bits when it’s not flooded and we have more time and suitable clothing

We went into the interactive exhibition before returning home.

Back home, Alfie and Daddy put the robin nest box up whilst H rode her trike. The children did some of their magazines (Peppa Pig for H, CBeebies Art for Alfie). I sorted a ridiculous amount of laundry. Alfie did a game on the Woodland Trust website where you have to save a wood threatened with a bypass being built through it. We made dinner and ordered next week’s organic boxes. Alfie “cooked” us dinner in his wooden kitchen which we ate off a blanket in the lounge.  Just a normal Sunday really

A lovely day today at Kedleston Hall with some of the Mums Club April’06 gang  – Kinza with Erin and Elliot, Joanne with Zac and Ethan, Gayle with Amy, Jill with Joey and Cath with Julian. I started posting on this board back in July 2005 when I was first pregnant with Alfie and still post on there now. We’ve all known each other for 4.5 years but have never met up. These ladies have been very important to me throughout my pregnancy and Alfie’s childhood. Yes, my parenting has gone down a different path from a lot of others on there and I’ve drifted away from my other boards onto Green Parent forum (via attachment parenting board which has now become far too mainstream for me!). Despite the differences though we’ve always all got on so well, and today was no different. We were covered in mud and freezing cold but had a lovely picnic (thanks Cath!), the kids all got on great and it was a great day Holly was grumpy all day and needed carrying, apart from when there were muddy puddles to jump in, which was a shame. I wanted people to see her usual sunny personality, but the last few weeks have been pretty grumpy due to teeth and tiredness. She enjoyed herself in her own little way though. Alfie was so shy at first, hiding behind me, but before long he was sword fighting with Cath with sticks (!), running round with the other kids and chatting to everyone! He said he wants to meet all his new friends again, especially Amy lol! He was also very excited to discover snowdrops, his favourite flowers

Jo took lots of pix so I’ll try and pinch some to put up here

Alfie told me tonight that he was very happy at the reduced numbers of tantrums in recent days and said that his body was turning his tantrum brain into a non-tantrum brain