Scratch, Triv, Mote Park and Old Friends

Picking up from last Monday then...

Monday 7th

We all went into town for a few bits, mainly cardmaking essentials, and then had one of our very leisurely Monday pizzas. Very nice afternoon.

Tuesday

C kindly gave us a lift to Kids' Club, where F had her usual happy time, mainly playing with E and H and spending a lot of time out in the playground. I am so torn about Kids' Club - on one hand, obviously she really enjoys it, so there's no actual reason to stop going. On the other hand, since she tends to spend so much of her time just in the excellent playground, it feels like a particularly expensive trip to the park or something - £6 per week for 2 hours there, plus £5 bus fares, although C has given us a lot of lifts, so that brings it back down. And it's nobody's fault at all that it feels like that, just that the playground equipment and play space is very good quality and attractive, especially as we've had a lot of dry Tuesdays. And F can always do crafts at home, so logically she's almost always going to choose to be out there. And at the same time I don't want anyone stopping her, paradoxically, and making her Do Crafts Now with Everyone Else Because it's Craft Time and That's What We're Doing. Cos that's just school!

So there you see I'm torn, but it feels better to have gone through why, so thanks for reading. Having written all that, I actually feel more positive about it, funnily enough!

Whilst F was being Clubbed, I had a cuppa with C and nice chat, whilst D explored the tinsel and tissue paper possibilities around him enthusiastically. Can't believe he's already pretty much walking.

After Kids' Club, C took us all back into Lewes for our local home-ed group - I had started to feel a bit rubbish so sat with A, who was also feeling rubbish, in our self-declared Rubbish Corner. The Non-Rubbish were allowed to visit for brief intervals and demonstrate dancing as different trees and crocheting stars. Somebody had brought in a really nice wooden marble run set, which I admired from afar. It looked beautifully made. F was in and out, mainly out. The group is really thriving and I like it very much.

E and F had arranged for F to go back to E's after group and C had confirmed that that was OK, so I left group early due to Rubbish status and had a quiet afternoon at home on my own, feeling slightly queasy, but it helped to eat something and have a hot bath.

Wednesday

I still felt a bit 'not right' so we had a day at home and played a very long game of Mario Party, amongst other things. We talked about the Nativity story, particularly who visited Baby Jesus and why and what they brought. 

F also did a bit of programming using Scratch - really recommend downloading that if anyone hasn't yet and your children (or you!) might be interested in trying a bit of simple games/storytelling programming. It works really nicely and is very easy to use. F has done a couple of things with it, mainly involving C, K and how to look after baby D, e.g. when the baby character makes a crying noise you have to click on a bottle of milk (despite never having seen baby D drink from anything other than his mummy, C!). Her most recent version features a very well-drawn picture of C and a much less representational picture of K, who is mainly legs. F gets very absorbed in programming, really concentrates and seems to work problems out by herself.

Also talked about time zones in the context of the New Year starting earlier or later in different countries, and about the word 'sonic', 9 being the square of 3 and other such random items. She also spent a bit of time stretching rubber bands over arms of a computer chair and testing length of stretch for change in note and telling me about it.

Thursday

We went to my mum's for a couple of days. Had an easy journey over there, after a tricky start when F got very stubborn about a tree that was apparently growing the wrong way and might eventually in 20 years fall over on the road, so I should ring the council about it NOW. Hmm...

When that 5 minutes that felt like 20 was over, it was all fine and we arrived at my mum's in good spirits, having caught the bus that gets us nearly to her house, and spotted some nice Xmas lights here and there on our way.

Had a nice evening, can't remember what we did. Think F did some pastel drawing/painting, or that might have been the next morning. I know we stayed up late both nights - generally lately F has been short of sleep, which doesn't make for good days, or at least leads to Moments. 

Oh I know, we played Trivial Pursuit, family edition, which was quite fun. F was fairly successful with questions like 'How many King Henries?' and 'Which Royal family was Henry VIII part of?', and also with a question about which county is next to Cornwall. Sports was harder, for all of us, predictably! Think F also did OK with some weather/environment questions.

Friday

Friday is swimming day, by default, so we all set off for mum's town's leisure centre, with swimming stuff carefully bagged. Got there after bus and a bit of a walk to find that the pool was closed! Grrr, not mentioned on website, grrrr.... F was very disappointed. Had looked forward to grandma watching her swim, going in different pool, etc.

We managed to get past that after a bit of hoo-ha and walked into the park - Mote Park is probably Maidstone's best asset, really. It's a large landscapey park, with a lake and beautiful trees. More like a city park in many ways. Considering what Maidstone has chosen to do with its potentially beautiful riverside area (ASDA!) it's amazing Mote Park has survived. It's lovely, anyway, and looked very beautiful in the December sunlight. We managed to have a nice walk, fed ducks, had food, but F was really still rather feeling the disappointment over the swimming, along with not being at her best with cold/cough and tiredness, so there were some more Moments. Still nice overall.

Then we walked back into the shopping centre and took F to see Father Christmas, just for the fun of it. He was a nice Father Christmas and she came away a lot happier. Nice idea to sell snow-globes with photos of child and FC together!

Back to mum's by bus and F made a board game - very complicated, elements of Trivial Pursuit, Animalia and her own stuff. It was called F----world. There are 7 sections, coloured in each colour of rainbow and you start at red and work round. You move a number of spaces determined by throwing your little paper character (F, mum, grandma or daddy) onto some numbers 1 to 7. There are dark spaces that send you back to the beginning and shortcut spaces that take you to the next colour section, gems/spores that you collect if you answer a question correctly on a question space and different sections including Friends, Dance, Pets, Clothes, Sports and Babies. So we played that in the evening I think. It was classic F in that much more attention/interest had gone into the gameplay than the aesthetics. I have the same priorities myself tbh!

Saturday

F and I came home on the train - had been a very nice visit to my mum's - really want to go more often next year, instead of her having to come to us. Two nights makes a good short stay, with still plenty of time to do something. 

Back home, we had the official Switch-On of our new LED white star on the top of the tree! Ta-dah! Very pretty, rather serene or something. Well, it's static and white, so compared to the hectic craziness of flashing colour that is the rest of the tree and living-room at the moment, it would seem serene I guess. Sedate even.

J's friend M came over for dinner and to stay over, arrived at about half 6. We had a lovely evening, though I had trouble convincing F that she really needed to sleep...

We had curry and watched Strictly Come Dancing, then Moon - really enjoyed the film, very good. M is lovely easy company, feel very relaxed with him.

Sunday

Next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, then M went off to do his things and we set off to the station. Went into Brighton and met old friends A and C and their son R and daughter E, for a pub lunch at The George - many vegan options to consider! Had a lovely time with them, was so nice to catch up. Determined to do it more often. We went back to theirs for cuppa and more chat.

Really nice weekend.

Am nowhere near ready for Christmas, so lots to get done this week, in terms of presents, cards...

Work really dried up for about 3 weeks or more, but there's 2 jobs hopefully in my Inbox today/tomorrow, which should bring December up to a basic level.

We came home on Friday from a very enjoyable Christmas NicCamp at Truleigh Hill Youth Hostel. Nearly 50 of us were there - a dozen or so families I think - and it was a great holiday for F and me.

Last time we went to a Truleigh Hill NicCamp, F was very ill with a temperature and we came home after 2 nights, which I was terribly disappointed about, so it was great to do it properly this time. I think F must be ready for these things now as this time she was just off playing with people for hours at a time, every day. She came and found me when she wanted me.

Monday I went and handed my petition in to Norman Baker MP, whizzed around Waitrose and emerged in a complete downpour, so got bus home. Sat around for a bit, then packed clothes, Secret Santa prezzies and fruit (as our group food contribution since I'm not much of a baker) and set off - we arrived at a reasonable (still daylit) hour and settled in. F didn't finish unpacking before she headed off to explore. People continued to arrive over the next few hours and various versions of pasta (with meat, pesto, tomato, cheese or plain) were provided from the NicKitchen. 

Tuesday was a day just around the hostel for us, so we mooched around, not sure what we did, except that I seemed to be continually getting plates of food for both of us and ending up eating them on my own! F and I went for a sunset walk through some unnerving cows - the views are glorious up there. We saw the evidence of lots of flooding down in the wide flat valley. I did a bit of veg. peeling and made friends with the dishwasher...

Wednesday most of us went to a localish planetarium - very good talk and show by the young guy there. The children were very engaged throughout and asked some good questions at the end. Shame the man who 'welcomed' us to the place was such a git! I really wanted to be very sarcastic to him, but contented myself with a bit of eye-rolling, as you do. Nevertheless, a good group trip out, I thought.

In the afternoon, the children put on a show, with various acts, including cat-themed comedy carols, jokes, carols played on glockenspiels, a play (which F was in, having done proper practices and everything) and a version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer with extra bits.

I stayed up very late playing Agricola, good game!

Thursday was Christmas Day! The children watched a film projected on the wall in the afternoon, F and I went for another sunset walk, in a less cowy and more horsey direction this time, and Secret Santa prezzies were given out to all. F was delighted with her little toy stuffed kitten and we both loved my 2 decorated candles. 

Nic and co managed the admirable feat of serving up nearly 50 Christmas dinners (meat and veggie versions) with all trimmings, and we had crackers and it was lovely.

Stayed up less late playing Caylus, was very tired that night. When I went to bed, F was still awake, playing some bizarre dancing game with a few others in another room, so I gave her 10 mins notice and read for a bit. Think she got kicked out soon after as others were going to bed!

Friday we packed up, helped with the clean-up and had a much-appreciated lift to the station. Then we came home and didn't do much at all, watched a film and did some washing I think.

Thanks Nic, for a lovely camp, we enjoyed it very much.

Other than that, we've been doing craft/kits here and there and playing Wii quite a bit. F has been blogging a bit, but her blog isn't public. She has initiated some excellent/interesting/difficult conversations but I can't remember enough detail - think we covered bits of constellations, governments, saints and some other stuff.

Mystery Trips, Relationships, Badman and Free Children

Quick uprounding round-uppy catch-up. I don't want to have to change the blog title to Where the Months Go, but the days go so fast.

Two Wonderful Wednesday mystery trips:

One organized by F - swimming followed by soft play with friends. She packed a bag for us and everything, only thing she forgot was a towel, so we bought one of those micro ones at the pool. Lots of local friends at soft play, we stayed for about 3 hours in the end and it was nice to catch up with some people I'd not seen  much for a while.

One organized by me - into Brighton and first to the Booth Museum for an hour...

This is a small museum but they have some good stuff there - F particularly enjoyed the 'connections' area where we could look at ancient teeth, bones, etc. and modern semi-equivalents - e.g. mammoth tooth and elephant's tooth, also liked the button-pressing bit with other objects and info, nice to handle things, makes a big difference always - also good to wander around the skeleton displays.

...and second to the theatre to see The Forest by Fevered Sleep, where our favourite bits were the mysterious rolling golden balls, the swinging light, the falling leaves, the sunrise and morning mist and of course the fantastic ending in which suddenly a sound almost like loud applause fills the space as hundreds of small hard objects fall heavy and fast from above onto the stage - a few seconds later we realize that they are conkers, beautiful, glossy, every one unique and full of potential - wonderful sound and overall a lovely theatre experience, playful, movement-based and very engaging - the class of 6 year olds who made up the audience with us seemed enthralled too.

Kids' Club - F is gradually conquering the climbing rock and seems to enjoy Kids' Club. I don't much like it. I don't like getting up early, or the cost of getting there or waiting around for 2 hours in Brighton or any of it, tbh. But if she likes it, she likes it, so she will carry on for now.

Wedding! We went to my half-brother's wedding and had a lovely time there - J couldn't come as he had a really nasty virus, knocked him out for 18 hours a day. F and I danced a lot, she filmed quite a lot on her Flip, then deleted it all on the way home!

What else? F playing with E - some ups and downs of friendship, which we've had good conversations about, with me pointing out that real friends do have differences, and differences of opinion, etc. They seem well-matched in that they don't always agree, but enjoy each other's company enough to get past that, finding ways to do so, e.g. a couple of times they've sent apologetic e-mails to each other. We did some soapmaking when E came here, and they also 'put on a show'.

One morning, A and T came round, that was fun, they brought Wii Fit Plus with them, so A and I did very safe middle-aged skateboarding. Much giggling. Might put that on our Xmas list.

We've played a lot of rock, paper, scissors.... on our train journeys recently. We now play as follows: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pig, Stinky Vegetables, Knife, Spock, Lizard, Dog, Nasty Man, Dozy Mog, Badman, Free Children! The sign for Graham Badman is hand like sock puppet moving jaw and saying 'blah blah blah' and the sign for Free Children is lots of fingers moving around all over the place. Needless to say Badman doesn't stand a chance against Free Children and goes down every time under the mass of crazy fingers, with great relish on both our parts. Most other combinations require a bit of negotiation, which is at least half the content of the game as we play it now, e.g. "hmm, Dozy Mog and Paper - he could scrunch it up, or he could hide under it..." etc.

How to make the most of a wet day

Go swimming and visit a good friend.
That simple.
Normally, for me, a wet day is a perfect excuse to just stay in, watch a film, play Wii, do a bit of painting or drawing, that kind of loungey stuff.
But today had been assigned to a necessary clothes shopping trip to Brighton, so I was already prepared for being out in a bit of rain, so when J decided the clothes could wait till Monday, I decided F and I could go swimming, as she is keen to go once a week, generally on a Friday.
Also, having noticed Nic mentioning online that they'd be at home today, and having had an earlier invite to theirs that I missed, I decided we could go there after swimming. I promptly rang Nic and told her that since she was stuck at home, she'd be unable to escape a visit, so there.
F and I had a nice time at the pool, she did a couple more 'improving confidence' things including getting her head under twice (accidentally, but the point was that she didn't panic or make a huge fuss about it and she did explore a bit of deliberate putting nose under and/or eyes too) and jumping in. Good stuff. She also had a quick go without her armbands but is not really ready for that yet.

After a good hour in the pool, we headed round to the station and had a good journey over to Lancing, with no long waits or delays, popped into the new Asda, which used to be a Co-Op (and therefore used to have better vegan snackage) and found a few bits to eat (tuna/sweetcorn sandwich for post-swimming hungry girl and pistachios and garlic bread for me!), then on the Pulse bus and over to Nic's.
F spent most of the afternoon with S and D up in D's room, where they were all making Viva Pinata gardens with various bits of paper, card, plastic - a brilliant idea (of D's I think) which engaged them all, it seemed, all afternoon. F very happy about it and has only finished playing with hers about half an hour ago!
Meanwhile, Nic and I talked and talked - last time we went over there was disastrous from a chatting point of view, but today we had loads of chatting time. And wine after wine o'clock. Splendid!

Now hoping for a low-key weekend without having to do much other than things like watching Dr Who on Sunday, please.

F has started going to Kids' Club, which is a Tuesday morning group where they stay without parents (except once or twice a half-term on rota) and do painting and games and making stuff. It was her idea, I wasn't entirely keen for various reasons, but she seems to be loving it so far, so that's fine. Must admit I hate practically any weekly commitment anyway.
Had some good conversations lately, talked about college and how it's different from school in terms of choosing exactly what you want to study and (Big Plus Point according to F) not having to wear a uniform.
Can't remember what the context was but F used the word 'literally' correctly, which surprised me somehow.
We laminated some autumn leaves - F chose one she particularly liked and arranged it surrounded by some others, and wrote 'I love Autum' on the plastic. Then I got overambitious and nearly broke the laminator with forced foliage.
We went to the Nov. 5th Lewes Processing hoo-ha, met C and co. up there and the girls had a handy bit of street furniture to stand on, giving them a good view. Some nice effigies - MP with Expenses and Fat Cat with Bonus. I had got very behind with work due to software crisis and therefore had to miss the fireworks. F went up to the bonfire site for the first time! With J and our friend M so well looked after.
I went away for a night with some of my Imaginary Friends, which was lovely - felt like we spend most nights together chatting and watching telly (Oh yes, I suppose we do actually). Fab food, good company, cocktails, wine, singalongage. Very very nice. While I was away, J and F did facepainting and coped with Fidget and Rorschach suddenly going into predatory overdrive and offering up 3 mice between them, or the same one 3 times, twice alive and then dead. F also used a construction straw kit to spell out I LOVE DADA and J took a picture and they printed it out for her diary, plus she made a nice rainbow with beads, also pictured and printed.
Not sure what on earth else we've been up to. Saw Christmas Carol in 3D, had various meals out for J's birthday with his mum and then with his dad (he has very separate parents).
J bought F a beautiful Periodic Table book, it's just so gorgeous. She wanted to take it out to lunch with us today, but it didn't seem advisable. She's got a Horrible Histories book - Savage Stone Age - which she seems to quite like.
Went to Lewes group on Tuesday, straight after Kids' Club so a bit overgrouped tbh. But OK.
Blast Lab, swimming, F started a blog (not sure who is allowed to read yet...), painting, kits, beads.

Kits, Zombies, Spring Barn

Wednesday
my mum came and did various things with F while I got a bit of work done. They did a kit - in fact we've been doing kits lots every day since tidying them up a bit and seeing what we've got. Mum and F did a kit where you paint these ceramic eggs and they have seeds in with messages on - bit of a mixture of ideas going on, hmm. Also F spent a lot of time trying to teach her grandma how to play Animal Crossing on the Wii and we all played Mario Party.
My poor mum missed her train back though, as taxi got stuck in traffic.

Thursday
F's friend E came down for a few hours. They got off to a bad start - not with each other but with me! I had to do warning that I was going to shout and then shouting and describing a potential consequence sternly. Which left me in a bad mood - for some people shouting gets something out of their system so they can cheerfully go on, for me it tends to eff up my whole day on some level.
However, once we had got through that, they had a really lovely time and did a bit of pony stuff, some filming (including film of them 'being' E's parents and other members of her family), and then went kit-crazy, painting a 'decorate your own' pony together (they did so well - they come to arty/crafty stuff from completely different approaches and anything where you join forces on something like that is such a test of friendship in many ways - they were remarkably pragmatic and tolerant of their different abilities/intentions and mistakes!), and then doing glass-painting - each painting a couple of glass objects.

C stayed for a cuppa when she came to pick E up, which was nice as we just about managed a catch-up chat in short gasps between various child-led interactions! Baby D astonished us all by letting go of something he was propping himself up by and staying stood standing for a good 2 seconds before flopsing down. Very exciting!

On Friday
I had lots of work to finish and had been up all night, but I finished about half 2ish in the afternoon and after a brief delay when my glasses broke (boo and arrgghhh), we went up to Spring Barn again to meet C and co. again, this time with K. It was lovely up there - unfortunately we missed that afternoon's trailer ride (but decided that F and I would definitely come back for the after-dark version on Hallowe'en, the next day), but F still had time to go on the zip wire and hang out with E and do a 5-minute rush-around version of the quizzes, plus we all sat and ate lovely food and the children got to play with the witch's slime whilst waiting to be served.
They were going on to Lewes Library to an 'Out of this World' event, which F had dismissed, when I'd offered it to her. So we set off home, waving to them as they passed. About halfway home, F decided that she'd like to go to the Library event after all, so we carried straight on past our turning and arrived at the library after a rather invigorating walk during which we'd discussed all sorts of things I can't remember (*tuts at self*).

The evening at the library was really good: a talk with slides, which F just about stayed paying attention to in between sneaking looks to see what baby D was up to; a chance to look through telescopes outside (unfortunately a bit cloudy); alien face painting; space/alien themed cakes!; draw an alien sheets and alien puppet-making; plus an excellent mechanical solar system simulator thing, showing all the planets and moving them at their relative speeds around the sun. I liked the children's interest in the fact that Mars bumped into the Earth a lot due to blu-tac having been used for repairs at some stage. Also lots of posters and books around on the theme.
And all Free!

Hallowe'en Saturday
I decided to go into Btn to get my glasses fixed, which proved a waste of time really. Not sure what I will do next about them. I guess I need to decide whether to shift to same optician we've taken F to, in Lewes, or not, and go through all the sight test stuff again - will all take ages and I definitely need to do a bodge in the meantime, whatever happens. Am using my contact lenses, but I don't like having to put them in first thing.

Just remembered why journey into Brighton wasn't a total waste of time - we got off the bus and were immediately engulfed by a crowd of about 200 zombies in fab costumes and make-up for the 2009 Brighton Zombie March! They were going our way so we joined them and then watched as they stumbled on to their destination - filming a scene for a film apparently called 'Zombies!' (I'm assuming it has an exclamation mark). An actress was winched up by a crane and then filmed as she 'fell' towards the horde with their arms upraised, some brandishing half-eaten limbs, etc.
Which was nice.

Disappointing, despite lengthy, visit to the optician's ensued, then HMV to buy Monsters Vs Aliens DVD and decided to get the 3-DVD Scooby Doo box set.

Back home, J re-greened F's face as I had removed the library green to take her into Btn. And she wore a black top of mine, which I think she might now have adopted, black leggings, witch's hat and some pumpkin and skeleton lights.

We set off into a lovely moonlit night to walk up to Spring Barn. Up there we generally larked around a bit, F took part in the Fancy Dress business - was called a 'parade' but didn't really parade in a processing fashion, more of a line-up and be judged. Prizes seemed to go mainly to those with bought costumes, which is always a bit wrong. F didn't mind at all but would have liked a bit of parading.

The scary tractor-trailer ride was the undoubted highlight of the evening. We'd done it on Monday in the daytime and this was their extra-scary version for older kids in the dark. It was fab. The scarecrow attacked the trailer several times appearing out of the rustling maize, they had introduced a leaf-blower attacker with chainsaw sound effect, which was excellent, and Bones the skeleton once more got his bones back, with a bit of help from us. The woman opposite us screamed 3 times, it was that good!
After that, we shared a portion of chips and chatted to 2 of the Spring Barn workers who we sort of know, who were both at the tail end of 12-hour shifts and looking forward to a break.

We walked back again in the moonlight - the pumpkin and skeleton lights finally died on us, they've been the best 'Hallowe'en tat' we ever had. We do miss Woolworths. Will check the online one at some point.
Back home F stayed up and we watched Monsters Vs Aliens - love it, even without the 3D.
Sunday
I mainly worked and did some other laptop stuff and J and F made a TechnoRobot kit, which was very fiddly and J was about three times as patient with, as I would have been. We watched the first of the Scooby Doo box set, which was an OK evening watch.

Today
is a hanging out, watching films kind of day, and next I'm having a nice relaxing bath.

Yesterday and today:

F and I went up to Spring Barn Farm Park yesterday and had a really lovely afternoon. We went on the spooky trailer ride and it was excellent fun - a trailer full of 20 or so kids and 8 adults and a witch, driven slowly around the slightly creepy dried-up maize maze that rustled in the wind now and then. Our mission was to help Bones the skeleton to find his missing bones, whilst interacting with a scary scarecrow who kept appearing and attacking the trailer with a bone. At one stage the kids were exhorted to throw old corn cobs at scarecrow targets and tell the scarecrow to go away.

Apart from that, we did both Hallowe'en quizzes, finding all the creepy creatures and the ingredients of the witch's brew. F also did 'Meet the Animals', holding and stroking a rabbit, a guinea pig and a tortoise. And I had Creepy Curry, which was delicious and vegan, and she had a honey sandwich and an ice cream.

And of course F bounced on the jumping pillow in glorious October sunshine while I chatted with a few mums at one of the picnic tables, and she also went on the zip wire and various other play equipment items.
Splendid afternoon indeed.
And not a row all day!

We walked there and back too, chatted about all sorts, wish I could remember.

Earlier in the day F had done the 'Make your own Morph' kit that her Uncle I had given her. She wasn't impressed by Morph, so made her own 'Dolly' instead, which she's been playing with ever since. She wants to try clay again now. Her dexterity has improved a bit.

Today we sorted through most of our art kits and science kits and threw a few odd bits away and reminded ourselves what we have, which was good. We have loads! So we coloured in an umbrella (kit) together, more chat, can't remember that either. Need to get back into the blogging habit, clearly.

Also we watched a couple of films and F bounced and read a bit.

History, MPs, Sleepovers, Fireworks

Catching up again!

Since coming back from Devon (which seems like months ago now but was only 3 weeks) our days have gone to:

- Mass Lobbying on 16th October as part of a group of 450 home-educating adults and children, as shown here:

F was pleased "finally" to be taking the protest to the Houses of Parliament, as she had been highly unconvinced by both the bubbles and the picnics, on the grounds that, if the MPs are in Parliament then that's where we need to go. And, as so often, she does have a point.
We spoke to Norman Baker, along with 2 other families from his constituency. He wasn't hugely keen but was vaguely positive and supportive. He had signed the EDM.
The Mass Lobby was excellent, huge thanks to Clare and everyone else who helped her in the cat-herdinglike task of organizing it. A great achievement, along with the excellent Right To Reply document which is being given to MPs now. I'm in awe of the commitment and dedication that went into this collaborative work, well done to all concerned.

- to lots of history in various forms: reading about Medieval castles, Inca cities, Lady Godiva, King John and The Wash, the Great Fire of London, the Romans, Stone Age life; watching Horrible Histories a lot; writing down the order of various periods of history; me learning about Cromwell and Charles I and II and passing it on. F wants to make a history book and write things down in it as she finds out about them. I need to buy a decent hardback book for that.

- to various multiplying and dividing activities that have followed on from fractions, so she's fairly comfortable now with things like a third of 24 and that kind of thing, mainly done through conversation and 'fiddling with groups of things';

- the cinema (Up - I cried almost all the way through, thank goodness for black 3D glasses), swimming, opticians, Pizza Express, the dentists (a really bright sunny day and we made shadow shapes on the floor during an overly long wait)

- fairy drawings and a pot painting kit

- to Palula scores - this is a thing that F made up, don't know why it's called palula - you give yourself 1 point for each category: energeticness; logic; writing art; drawing/painting art; socialness; and 2 others I'll have to ask her to remind me of (just did - singing/music art and handiness (fixing)). So each day you give yourself a score out of 7. She hasn't done it for a few days though now, think it's last week's news maybe...

- F doing cooking - helping whichever of us is cooking dinner, recognizing ingredients, chopping veggies, learning about the different herbs and spices, different methods of cooking. It's hard for her doing chopping and peeling but improves with practice, finding her own ways to hold things.

- to reading Mr Gum books, very amused by Chapter Four: Mr Gum has a cup of tea, and also by the secret bonus pages at the end of the first one.

- to Nic's where we had to come away early as the 3 children just could not all settle at once, I said 'well, if blah blah blah then we'll have to go home' and instead of achieving blah blah blah it achieved having to go home :( No prolonged wine and conversation for me and Nic. Never mind. Felt sad for D as he'd tried really hard out of the 3 of them.

- to Nic coming here the following week, which went fine but doesn't include the wine option, but we did get a good chance to chat at least.

- to sleepovers - E came to us one Thursday and F went to E's one Tuesday - much fun was had on both occasions

- to me attending an EO organized event in the Houses of Parliament (again, it was good having been there already and knowing my way around from the previous week), attended by 11 MPs from the main 3 parties, as well as a researcher representing another one, and Lord Lucas. There were 20 or so home-ed people there and we had the chance to talk to some of the MPs informally after the presentation of Ann Newstead's excellent survey

- to a localish drop-in group to try it out - we didn't feel very comfortable there, but it's good that we tried it. F wants to go to more groups, so am working on that...

- to meeting my (half)brother's fiancee (awww she's really lovely and they're going to be very happy together) yesterday and spending time with both of them - a nice walk into town, pizza and chat, and then up to meet C's family and watch the Nevill Juvenile bonfire procession. Thanks for having us all visit, C!
Our group then went on to the actual fire site, which was a bit lairy but OK once we found a safer spot to stand! F was remarkably unbothered about people throwing bangers around, which made me twice as bothered and fairly twitchy.
Fireworks were excellent, very good display this year. Back here we all shared some wine and slightly Christmassy chocolate snacks that they had brought, it was a lovely evening.

- to launching this - please contact me if you're interested

No Thank You Mr Balls

Because asking Graham Badman to review home education was like asking Nic to give a lentil casserole a mark out of 10.

Because my daughter just learnt to swim in her own inimitably autonomous way and I saw at first-hand how I can be a useful resource in her life, whether I'm being told 'Stand exactly 10 steps away and don't grab me unless I'm drowning' or being asked 'Is Oliver Cromwell in my history book?' whilst queuing to go in for the Mass Lobby.

Because almost all of Badman's statistics are flawed by failure to adjust for the fact that we don't know how many home-educated children there are overall, failure to adjust for the fact that his samples were self-selecting and failure to adjust for the fact that local authorities included everything but the kitchen sink in some of their figures.

Because the parental role belongs by default to the parent, not the state, and that's how it needs to stay.

Because Every Child Does Matter and mine likes her life and education just the way it is.

Because you aren't listening to our children and I don't think you will.

Because a terrifyingly high number of children in this country are being bullied, abused, neglected and murdered - at home and at school - and your proposals will just cover the needles with a couple of extra cartfuls of hay for poorly trained local authority personnel to sift through, whilst another 60 visits to a vulnerable child somewhere continue to add up to nothing.

Because you and your government constantly ask for our input and talk endlessly about listening and consulting but you don't take on board anything that jars with your mission to take control of bloody everything.

Because you have managed to take a life-long Labour supporter and make her contemplate voting Tory.

Because I cannot and will not predict what my child will do over the year ahead, other than to say 'I will offer her all sorts of things that I haven't even thought of yet and she will continue to amaze and inspire me with her determination, imagination and spirit and take us off on crazy tangents together' or perhaps 'we will continue to live as if we were free in this country'.

Because I can, Mr Balls, and as long as I can, I say:
No
Thank
You

Holiday in Devon

We had a wonderful holiday last week, based at Goodrington Sands, Paignton.


Saturday

We had a good train journey and arrived at the holiday apartment at about 3pm, so all we did was settle in, go get some shopping, eat, swim and try out the hot tub.

Meals of deli stuff, fruit and bread, eaten at the table on the terrace, enjoying the view over the bay, were regular features of the week, along with playing Professor Layton on DS and swimming and hot tubbing. The absolute highlight was seeing F get to the point of being able to swim (just) with armbands on.

We all went in the pool every day, sometimes twice a day, and her progress was brilliant to see. She quickly took control of the whole process and it was one of those real 'autonomous learning in action' times, when you can very clearly see how that works. She was very specific in her instructions to us and we were largely obedient and useful, I like to think.

Swimming is obviously one of the areas where F's difficult arm and leg make it slightly harder for her than other children, so she had to find her own way of doing some things and may not swim as well as others, but basically she is doing it and we were completely thrilled to see her get there. J managed to take a few short films of her gradually gaining confidence and ability too, which are a fab record to have, for her especially I think.

Sunday

We had arranged to catch up with one of J's ex-colleagues, who left J's work a couple of years ago and moved down to Plymouth. They've been in touch online and regularly play XBox or PS games together. After a slightly misdirected but very beautiful walk up around Roundham Head, we managed to catch the train over to meet up with R, his wife C and their daughter, little R (14 mths). We had a lovely afternoon, walking around the harbour area and having some pizza/pasta. Little R was cute and funny and they were good company.

We walked up over the Hoe, stopped to listen to some very cheesy crooning at a waterside cafe, and managed to buy F a float (which turned out to be not very useful but maybe it served a brief psychological purpose). Nice to spend time with them, wandering and chatting.

Back at the apartment we had a late swim and hot tub. F used the float a bit and we could already see her confidence and determination growing.

Monday

In the morning, after breakfast on the terrace, J and F went for a walk along the beach, leaving me to have a long soak in the bath with my book.

When they came back, we got the bus to the zoo and had a lovely day there, seeing elephants, giraffes, lions, a tiger, crocodiles, huge pythons, ostriches, peacocks and many other beautiful animals.

The elephants were gorgeous - they go in and out via a weighbridge so always a chorus of excitement as the LED numbers flicker up and up. They were 2 females, one Asian, one African, and had lived together for years and years - we wondered if they ever discussed their ear differences. The lions were wonderful - a pair and they were quite playful with each other - the female came up to the male and bopped him one to start a chase. Some goats were playing 'let's each stand on top of our own pile of rocks and see who can shout loudest about it' (conference time again). The baboons were fascinating - a huge colony of them there and interesting to see the biggest, oldest males keeping an eye on the fights that broke out when they were fed. A tiny baby was on its mother's back and they were clearly 'allowed' to share one of the older ones' food, with no challenges from others.

Usual concerns about zoo spaces aside, it was a good day out. F did some climbing she wasn't sure she could do in the playground, too. Whilst there, I managed to call old friends to arrange meeting up with them.

Back at the apartment we had more swim time, think we watched something on i-Player and played some Professor Layton on DS.

Tuesday

We had a pottering-type morning, bit of swimming (F definitely setting challenges for herself by this stage), socializing with the holiday cat (he was like some kind of Westworld robo-cat, perfectly catlike, auto-miaow function, repetitive rolling on back, inviting tummy-stroking, etc.) and playing more Prof. Layton.

Then we walked up to Goodrington station to catch the steam train - quite a nice ride, not really worth the money, but pleasant and scenic enough. If we'd gone earlier we might have combined it with a riverboat cruise, which would have been good, but we just did the train to Dartmouth/Kingswear and back.

When we got back to Paignton, our plan was to have some Italian food - well we trudged and trudged around Paignton, googling and GPSing determinedly, but found only one Italian restaurant open in the evening and that was very tiny and didn't do any options that we liked between us.

So we ended up with chips and then went to the cinema to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was fun.

Back at the apartment we had a late swim and J and I watched a bit of a film - it was weird having Sky on holiday as we've not had it at home for a few years - oh my goodness what a high percentage of shite there is at any given moment! Definitely good for the odd thing though, especially films. We didn't really watch much, except for a few old episodes of Fawlty Towers, appropriately for our location. F watched a bit of Nick Jr, nostalgically, a couple of times.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, after breakfasting and swimming, we headed off by bus to Torquay and went to Kent's Cavern which was very good. Think F would have liked a bit more 'stone age stuff' but it was very atmospheric and the guide was excellent, with a mixture of educational, informative and entertaining content to share, well presented and enjoyable. The caves are huge. The best bit was experiencing the complete darkness, far underground, hearing about all the different animals that had lived down there (cave bears, hyenas...), then seeing shell candles bringing light to a small area of the cavern. Also liked seeing a mammoth molar and hearing about the woolly rhinoceroses.

Afterwards, a short bus ride took us to Torquay harbour area and we had a lovely pizza and pasta dinner there, before getting our bus home for a lovely coastal ride as the sun was setting.


Thursday

We had planned to do the steam train/river cruise/bus ride trip, but we decided to have a pottering day instead, with our friends coming over that evening. We swam and had a lovely leisurely walk along the beach, picking up shells, paddling, looking at rock pools, etc.

Then we had a snack and went in the small amusement arcade to waste some money - J and F played arcade games, racing each other and teaming up against various enemies and I went on the slots mainly, think they had more fun by far!

We went to the supermarket and stocked up on a few bits for the remaining couple of days of the holiday, then went back to the apartment and swam again - F was really swimming by this point, still wanting one of us close by but getting better and more confident all the time. Fantastic!

Our friends arrived earlyish at about half five. J and F were still hot tubbing and I'd just about got out of the shower! It was lovely to see them and catch up (and to have a curry delivered from a really good Indian takeaway place, Cilantro - really special food, we loved it). We hadn't all been together for a few years, so lots to catch up on. We've known B for about 16 years and it's funny that her lifestyle hasn't changed that much in all that time really. Consequently she is about twice as well-preserved as the rest of us, I think!

F had pizza and went to bed (at least 3 times).


Friday

Our last full day and we headed off on the bus to Woodlands Park to go on water slides and other such delights. Had a lovely afternoon there and the water slides were definitely the highlight - we wished we'd taken more clothing or waterproofs to go on more times. They are brilliant fun, never been on anything like that before!

Also, F went on some indoor slides and a few other things and we all went on the swing ship. I got off after 1 go, but J and F stayed on for about 6 or 7 I think.

Back at the apartment, we had a final swim and hot tub, I cooked up the leftover curry and F had pizza again.

And that was our holiday! Journey back wasn't so good, delayed for rather tragic reasons in Somerset and nobody had any helpful information for over an hour. Although fresh veggie sausage sandwiches from the cafe on Axminster station were fairly remedial.

Since we got back I've had a 'sticky eye' and F and I both had rashes (pool? hot tub?) but are improving now. J also has a cold/cough and joint pains. So we're not a great advertisement for it but did have a really excellent holiday. Pictures are here.

And today

Today I did paid work in the morning, whilst F played Viva Pinata, read a bit of various reference books, watched some CBBC and did some puzzles in an Eyewitness DK book. She has a couple now - Medieval Life and Prehistoric Life - and seems to quite like them. When I finished work, she and I looked at the Prehistoric Life one a bit and did the puzzles on Tools and Weapons.
Then we played Viva Pinata, attempting to get a Roario, and possibly a Badgesicle, didn't get very far and seem to have a lot of thistles in the garden. After that we played a board game of her choice - she chose this Carol Vordermann 'Fractions and Decimals' one that we have - hmm this is all sounding very educational! However, Dozy Mog and a soft toy baboon did play too and that involved a lot of chat between them, so not exactly strait-laced or curricular. F has a good start on fractions and just picking up decimals, but not always 'with it' about them and can calculate herself in a circle and end up thinking the answer was a question - this could be down to the baboon factor though, it does get confusing.
F was very helpful with various things and it was a nice day.

Things I forgot to blog

Lovely sociable evening at Spring Barn Farm Park where we met up with C and co. for the last chance to go around the Maize Maze by torchlight this summer. It was one of those golden September evenings, glowing with autumn sunshine and friendship.
And Pimms!
J joined F on the jumping pillow, then we had vegan burgers, sausages and salad, J caught up with one of the chefs who he sort of knows, and a bit later in the maze, baby D decided his mum and mummy must have gone mad to bring him out to stumble around in a field in the dark but smiled indulgently most of the time. The girls enjoyed being the leader at various points and nobody tripped on the corn stalks.
Another Spring Barn trip was when we went up right at the end of the day after working to a deadline then spending ages putting leaflets in envelopes in the Post Office - was lovely to finally get there and meet up with C and co., F had been very patient about it all and was nice to see her patience rewarded with time there on the bouncing pillow, etc. Nearly left Dozy Mog behind!
We always play word games when we walk up there and back. We have one where you give a word as a clue and the other person has to guess, they can ask for another word but then get less points. We also still play the one where we describe something according to all 5 senses.

Also forgot to blog that we did a bit of a crystal growing kit - it was kind of pre-preparation so will have to go back to it and see what we're meant to do now.

Other than that, lots of board games, some fractions and decimals, Land Girls and Goodnight Sweetheart.

Time to catch up...

End of August:

Whizzed by - we had a difficult fortnight or so with F having a lot of meltdowns, resulting in a 'consequence' of me saying we wouldn't go out for a week and might not go camping the week after, depending on how things went. The issue was not that I expect her not to get cross/upset about things, but about trying to move past it when it happens. Not going into more details here, but things are loads better now, thank goodness. We only went out once that week, and we did miss camping, but I think it was necessary and worth it.
One of the things that really helped was that we started doing some art activities together using prompts such as the following:

Draw a picture of a bad day, then draw a picture of a good day

Draw a picture of something that you did together with somebody else - did you both enjoy what you were doing? What did you like about it? What did they like about it?

Draw a picture of yourself in the middle of a large piece of paper, then draw lots of pictures of things/people that you like all around it

Close your eyes and remember a place where you had a happy time, imagine everything about it, the colours, smells, feelings, and then open your eyes and draw it/paint it
Write your name on a big piece of paper, then decorate it so that it fills the page

and lots more similar - basically good for self-esteem and for thinking and talking as you draw/paint about what you like, your feelings, other people's feelings, etc. They've really worked well for us - just giving you that time together plus activity that you are both doing, to distract and allow proper conversation to go on whilst conscious brain engaged elsewhere, that kind of thing. Highly recommended, got the idea from M's blog having just happened on this post when stumbling about on the Internet trying to think how to tackle these things.

Beginning of September:

F has returned to some of her more philosophical themes - has initiated conversations of the 'why are we here' and 'out of all the planets in the universe, isn't it weird and amazing that here we are on this one' type, along with wondering what it is like to be dead, and other such things. I am rubbish at philosophy - I always want a finite solution, give me maths any day, but I have made a big effort to open up and just accept that we can talk about something without it seeming to me that we 'get anywhere'. I can do it with feelings, quite happily, but am a bit rubbish about doing it with ideas. These days, anyway - maybe it's too much sobriety! But have done a lot of listening and wondering along with her as she covers this stuff.

Other things F has been doing:
drawing the world, freehand, from looking at her globe - had a few goes and got one she is satisfied with now, so has pinned it up on her noticeboard - it's great
reading a bit of history (think it's Usborne 'History of Britain') and got as far as the Romans
doing a bit of maths - J got her some sets of resources for fractions and multiplication including a board game - she has a very good grasp of how numbers/maths works I think - I got her a book on patterns in maths as I think that's her 'in' to it, having seen the patterns in the multiplication number square, for instance - she's interested in symmetry too
playing with magnetic words on the fridge (magnetic poetry set)
playing Viva Pinata a lot on XBox
bouncing and swinging - we finally managed to put up her swing, though it still isn't finished - we need more ready-mix concrete stuff to stick around the legs! But it's OK for gentle swinging so she's enjoyed that
being supportive to me as I worked through the last stages of the national Not Back To School Picnic event - she got involved and in the last 2 weeks I kept her up-to-date every time new picnics were added to the map and told her how many we had - we both got very excited when we saw the numberr get to 30, then 35, then 40!
helped me cook dinner

Me - got a cold/cough now but thoroughly enjoyed doing the picnic event and am so pleased that everyone seems to have enjoyed it - and you never know, all the publicity about it might even have played a part in getting Graham B worried enough to make his plea for more evidence...
It was good to get a chance to speak live on LBC about home-ed for 10 minutes last week - really enjoyed that one, nice to have an interviewer who listens and uses her brain.
Really enjoyed our local picnic too, we have a lovely local community of home educating families here and it was great to see so many of them turn out for the afternoon - many of our children know each other well and see each other frequently. Also good to have grandparents there, including my mum, and to be able to talk to a local MP. I got about a dozen texts from other picnics saying 'bubbles' which was very satisfying, somehow. Photographs and a short piece on our picnic were in Friday's Argus. Whilst at the picnic I took a short phone interview for the local BBC news website - they didn't do a great job but it's here.

This week, I'm catching up with some paid work, then we're off on holiday to Devon next weekend - hooray, can't wait!

Days have gone to:
continuing board games and Wii Sports Resort
uncle Jack and his wife F coming down for an overnight stay - curry, chat, drink, nice
a lovely afternoon at the Pells Pool with friends, not even spoiled by F having huge public strop
multiplying numbers, and other bits of maths that seem to have been floating around in our conversations
alphabet games
Bear Behaving Badly
getting our aerial improved - we can just about get CBBC now and we have better reception of our trusty old analogs, even down in our ditch here - roll on 2012 when we should get proper digital even when there's leaves on the trees
various interesting conversational snippety stuff
and J has bought us a Periodic Table shower curtain!

Questionnaire responses breakdown

If you go here you can see a breakdown of the information submitted in the six questions questionnaire for the notorious review - it will take you maybe 5 or 10 minutes to look through it properly - what you will instantly notice is that the vast majority of responses have fallen on deaf ears entirely.
Thanks to Maire for this.

The weekend after my birthday was spent largely playing new games and reading my new book and eating the birthday truffles, etc. Played lots of Sports Resort, very good fun. Not sure what else we did - oh, watched Star Trek films of course!
Then Monday came and F and I set off on the train to meet N and S in Winchester. We had a lovely comfy and happy journey, arrived at middayish and spent a bit of time wandering before our arranged meet-up time. We stopped to admire some beautiful hanging baskets of flowers, then noticed a very old house with the date on - exactly 500 years old. Then we went to the City Museum and did a bit of a rushed history detectives trail thing which was fun, though we were shamelessly ignoring the proper history and just looking for the items on the trail! When we came out of there we interacted with this sculpture by texting words to it.
We then met N and S and went to Pizza Express, only to discover that it was full and we'd need to come back in 40 mins or so. The City Mill museum was next door so we all went in there and F and S did a lot of grinding with various implements and a bit of looking at information and counting how far one revolution of the main wheel drove the other wheel by gearing, etc.
We went down and looked at the water rushing and the wheel turning and spent a bit of time just by the river there while F and S did various essential clambering activities on the wall there and N and I enjoyed the river scenery.
It must officially still have been my birthday as N not only gave me some gorgeous nail varnishes but was treating us all to birthday lunch at Pizza Express. Had lovely garlic bread and a Soho pizza w/o cheese, followed by a not quite so vegan lemon ice with a lot of limoncello - mmmmm, all very nice. F was a bit tricky but not too bad. S did some very lovely 'Thank you's. It was a lovely lunch, really enjoyed it.
N and I felt very full, leaving the restaurant, so it was probably quite good that we all walked around the city for quite a while, did a riverside walk, considering the speed of the water in various ways and then wandered erroneously into some ruins and out again, before heading back to the car.
N drove us all to the Marwell Hotel next door to Marwell Zoo where we were booked in overnight on one of their 'Zoofari' deals, including dinner. We checked in and hung out for a while, I had a quick bath and so did N, and the girls went off on various 'adventures' in the woodlandy bits around the hotel. The room was a bit poky, but adequate, and the bathroom was nice.
We went and had an early dinner in the end - food was really good and plenty of vegan or nearly-vegan options and a reasonably good children's menu. F and S were quite funny as they had moments of looking very civilized - both were wearing skirts for dinner - but then would suddenly disappear on the floor or wander off singing something. It almost makes you suspect that their primary same-sex role models aren't the best examples of ladylike behaviour in such scenarios.
Back at the 'family room' some of the 'family' felt that other parts of the 'family' should probably lie down and get sleepy, with a big day at the zoo ahead of them. Some parts wanted to chat outside with the hope that the others would get dozy inside, but it wasn't really happening - F can easily stay up till 11 or midnight. So she was Pictochatting with me whilst I chatted with N, then she settled to read for a bit, but on the whole there was ongoing resistance and various prolonging and pushing of boundaries ensued until we were all in our respective beds and eventually asleep. It was very hot, as it so often is when you stay somewhere other than home, in fact it was so hot that F didn't even crowd me on my side of our bed, preferring to have some space to be cooler in.
Next morning we had a really good hotel breakfast and checked out, then we were off to the zoo, which was just next door to the hotel. My favourite part of the day was being so close to tigers - they are just such beautiful animals, to be really close to one's face and those huge paws was just fantastic. Also enjoyed riding past the rhinos on the little train and spent a lot of time by the giraffes, which were F's favourite, watching the way they arranged their knees and got up and down. F had a happy 40 mins in the playground too, whilst I sat in the shade nearby. She was not in the best of moods as her leg/foot was bothering her, think it was the aftermath of falling down C's stairs the week before, plus tripping on the trampoline. Lots of falls lately. She still enjoyed it though and coped well with walking around, with the odd 'moment'.
We met up with the Half a Goddard Family for lunch but it was very wasp-heavy, leading to various uncongenial consequences. No vegan sandwiches either, so had jacket spud.
N gave us a lift back, as pre-arranged, so we got home before 6, quite knackered and watched my favourite Star Trek film, no.4 The Voyage Home.

Since then, we've been spending a lot of time on Cluedo, Game of Life, Monopoly, Mah Jongg and Backgammon! Plus a look at multiplication on a number square and some lovely hours spent on Endless Ocean, which we're enjoying very much.
F is really into board games at the moment and I'm loving that. Am eyeing up a few more, feel free to recommend!

Pics on Flickr.

Hectic times

Catching up again...

Friday 7th August
F and I went off to the local shop in the morning to see if we would be in the Brighton and Hove Argus - got there to find only one copy left, and there we were! A big double-page spread about home-ed, bubble demo, interviews with several of us and photos of us, T and T, and lovely P blowing bubbles. Really good feature, covered loads of points, am very pleased with the coverage that the event got generally. Had a quick chat with local shop woman about it and took it home to enjoy at leisure.
Rest of the day was spent checking that F had something to wear for the next day (wedding in London) and mooching.
In the evening (I think) after a bit of a brainstormy chat with Jax on Facebook, I set up the Yahoo list for the Not Back To School Picnic group with the aim of setting up a whole lot of local home-ed picnics on one day (now we've changed this to one week, but still focusing on one day) in September - it's going pretty well so far, we have some definite picnics set up but could do with more. The idea is to invite friends and family along too, anyone who supports you in your home-ed life. Also to encourage those considering home-ed to give it a try - even if the children are in school, the parents can come along, see what it's about, talk to us. And of course we hope to get plenty of local and national press coverage, maybe get some MPs attending. It's in very early stages though, but does look like it will happen. And there'll be more bubbles, so I'm happy!

Saturday 8th August
We all went up to London to the wedding of John (my ex and one of our oldest friends - J shared flat with him back in college days) and Fiona. F behaved so well all day, really patient about all the hanging around you get at weddings. J was semi-official photographer for the day (photos on Flickr) and did a great job, I think - have suggested he should take it up as an alternative career!
We didn't know that many people there but did meet up with one old friend and got on fine with the people at our table. It was all very nice, summer wedding, informal, lovely to see John happy.
We got home about 8ish and had a half hour turnaround for me and F before we headed out to Proms in the Paddock, where we met C and K with E, M, baby D and C's parents and other members of family. K and I chortled at our mutual reluctance to sing certain lyrics in the more patriotic (flag-wavingly) part of the repertoire, the kids all did various going off and coming back stuff until it got late/cold enough for them to prefer a lap and a cuddle. It's an enjoyable local event, now established as a bit of a tradition for our two families I think.

Sunday 9th we were at home without visitors and just chilled out. Bit of Wii, bit of telly, chat, reading.

Monday 10th we went to the circus in Eastbourne, with J's mum. It was the Chinese State Circus. We particularly liked the swinging poles act, but the end of the show seemed to come very suddenly without any tightrope walking or trapeze. J said the contortionists were particularly boring and he was not entertained by their ability to hold chandeliers in various folded up body configurations. F liked the aerial silks. Grandma Ju liked most of it, but we all agreed that it wasn't as good as the Moscow one we saw a while ago. There was a lot of relating things to the Olympics and vaguely propagandaist business going on.
Afterwards we went to Pizza Express and had a lovely meal.

Tuesday 11th
Had to get up early and go into Brighton to be on the radio. We met up with A, T and H and all went in on the train together. The radio interview went OK, but would have liked F to be on a separate mic, so that there would have been a bit less of her giggling and asking when it would be her 'go'! I guess she did a good job of representing fairly normal child behaviour and at least nobody would think she was being hothoused and turned into a miniature adult. She declared her favourite subjects 'art and science' and thought she might like to be a hairdress or pet-sitter. N and T (11) did brilliantly I thought. I struggled with the whole context - DJ-type presenter, no time for actually listening to what we said really - but it was what it was and we did OK.
We all split up when we came out and F went instantly into fairly stroppy mode, which was no fun at all. She and I went to buy her friend C a birthday present as we would be heading straight over to her party from Brighton in a while. Then we went and had 20 mins or so on the beach, where F paddled and collected seaweed, a nice chilled(ish) break in the middle of a busy day - rang Nic to debrief, as I wouldn't be able to listen to the interview till late afternoon.
After that we had a quick lunch with A, T and H, but F was far from sociable, in a bit of a world of her own.
We went and caught the train over to C's in Lancing, bumping into L and A at Hove station, which was good. F was over the worst of her stroppiness by then and it was good to have more company, don't get to see much of L and A these days as I don't get to MMs much.
We made our way to C's house from Lancing station, I had no clue where we were going but L steered us efficiently and F seemed to have some sort of internal radar.
The party was great - C and family had gone to great efforts and the children all had a lovely time. A really good variation on musical statues where instead of going 'out' children had to put on some item from a dressing-up box, really liked that. I had to spend some time with my new phone as various e-mails and texts were requiring attention, which was a bit shit, but never mind.
Lovely to see lots of mates there and chat. Made me laugh that E said to me 'I'm not doing anything' when she regularly puts more effort into the local home-ed community in an average week than I do in 6 months. But I am doing my bit at the moment and it feels good.
Went back on the train with E, L and T, having lost L and A to the lure of the shiny new Asda at the station.
Was good to get home and know we had less busy days ahead.

Wednesday 12th August
My mum came, we would have been going out for pizza but neither she nor I really felt very keen so it was a more usual afternoon, where I worked (had got behind with work unsurprisingly) and she and F spent time together. We will probably do something nicer next time she comes.

Thursday 13th August
Very relaxed day, didn't need to go out, no visitors, did a bit of housework, F went up to E's from half 1 through till 7. J was taking Friday off for my birthday so we started celebrations early with a beer and a curry, which was lovely, as I had finally caught up with my work and had no more media appointments! And so could properly relax...

Friday 14th August
My birthday! Would quite have liked to go to cinema but nothing on that we could all enjoy, so suddenly had the idea of Crazy Golf - I actually love Crazy Golf, but have only played about 5 times!
I started the day with a nice bath, which got cut short when my magazine fell right in and turned into a gungy mess! Followed shortly by F having a huge strop about not wanting to go into Brighton and then by the discovery of a big pile of cat poo in F's room!
Things improved though, as I opened my prezzies and was very pleased to find lots of things I'd wanted: a book ('The Help' by Kathryn Stockett), several games (Wii Endless Ocean and Sports Resort, Game of Life board game), DVDs (Oliver!, Season 1 of Deep Space Nine :) - we are already on Season 6 of ST:TNG) . Also some dairy free fudge which we all had a piece of before heading out into Brighton by bus.
We went straight down to the beach and had chips and mushy peas (F had chicken nuggets - chicken is a bit of a favourite at the moment!), then caught the Volks railway to the Peter Pan station and played Crazy Golf there. Had a lovely game, J beat me by 1, F did pretty well and beat us on a couple of holes. Really enjoyed it.
Then we went and did a bit of shopping - J got the Star Trek TOS movie box set for us to watch over the weekend! Yes, we do like Star Trek! A lot! I went to Marks and Spencers and spent some of my £50 gift card from my mum - got two T-shirts, some lemon body butter and a lovely grapefruit and ginger scented candle and room spray. I really wanted a colourful summer shirt but I'm a fussy, picky shopper and couldn't find what I wanted.
Next stop was Montezuma's for vegan chocolate truffles - got lots! I plan to spend the whole weekend playing games, watching The Shat get increasingly fat in the series of Star Trek films and munching chocolate, thanks.
Then we went and had one of the best meals I've ever had in Terre a Terre, where they have improved their range of vegan offerings again, really good! We had everything - nibbles (hoi-sin tofu), cocktail (alcohol-free lychee blush), starter (skordalia and sesame aubergine), main (miso pretty - ginger sushi, hot miso, lots of twiddly lovelies on the side), pudding (Thai ice thingy) and coffee (soya cappucino). Felt very very birthdayed!
Got the bus back and were home about half eight, so watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture - awwww William Shatner just loved being James T. I got almost teary at all the lovingly shot slow pans along the new Enterprise from lots of different angles and the close-ups of Kirk looking at it and at the 'love you but I shall only show it in small manly doses' bits between Kirk and Spock.
Long film though, F did very well to last till the end at 11ish. They really did take their time with some of those effects sequences 'look at this model of the spaceship, no really look at it, see the detail, now from this side with some swelling music, perhaps you didn't notice this bit at the top, etc.'
Eeee it were lovely and we ate truffles.

And that's us.
What else though - oh yes, F has finished all her encyclopedias now and has moved on to books about periods and body changes of the 'What's happening to me' type. Next she wants books about looking after animals and babies, apparently. She's been on the Animalia site, was very good at the code game there and we did that and the core spore game together. She has been pretty challenging but it has been very hectic, so hoping that things will improve with a bit less rushing around soon.e

Wednesday morning was largely spent blushing as mentioned, catching up on various boards and watching the YouTube clip views number rise and rise (now nearly up to 1000 views).
Then I had to do a phone interview for the local paper, which was fine. Although I generally feel I'm not a phone person I discovered I quite like it as long as nobody talks over me (that would be a monologue then I guess).

In between various publicity-related activity I was blowing up the paddling pool and filling it (almost at the same time, in fact there was an overlap, possibly not as efficient as I was hoping it would be, but it did work).
Then F's friend E arrived and they proceeded to have all sorts of crazy fun, most of which was charming and delightfully mischievous and the other bits of which I shall gloss over as it's over 24 hours in the past now and the bed was just about dry enough to sleep in... I did confirm to them that a line had been crossed, etc. Much grave nodding from them both.
All in all though, they did have such a lovely afternoon, much crazy giggling and splashing, bouncing, playing with imaginary babies and watching of The Simpsons and The Secret Show. I kind of think girls often get rebellion squished out of them too much, so a bit of wildness is all to the good, in small doses as long as nobody gets hurt and any damage is repaired by those that did it. I did swear three times though, not sure if E has reported that back to C!

Today we were supposed to have local paper photographer coming, which meant I woke up expecting to spend a couple of hours doing housework. So when the reporter rang at 9ish to say they would just be using a photo from Tuesday after all to save time, I was mainly relieved. The double-page spread should be in tomorrow's edition.

The paddling pool was still out so F went in it again, in between bouncing and reading more of the big Usborne Internet-linked Children's Encyclopedia. She's just started using their QuickLinks system and is really liking that, exploring the extra video, games, quizzes, etc. for each section - really nice and easy for her to use too. Her spelling has really improved lately from all the reading she is doing too - she sent E an e-mail tonight and just 'knew' how to spell all the words.

We were expecting friends at half past two - don't think they will mind me saying that the standard of housework required for their arrival was definitely not local paper standard!
It was warm enough for her two (T and H) and F to go into the pool and stay there most of the afternoon, with occasional forays to the trampoline and a bit of bubble-blowing.
Was a very lovely afternoon, except that I had to spend much of the day trying to get people to go to do a radio interview on Tuesday, so I was connected to various communication devices most of the time.

Still felt nice though, friends round, pool, bubbles. Loved seeing H (4) doing the giant bubbles, amazing! F was very chilled and loved floating in the pool. I eventually got a definite 'yes' from a fellow adult to represent home-ed community with me on Tues, then could not get an 'older child' as required until our friend T very kindly said she'd give it a go. Phew! Really kind and brave of her, she's 11 - articulate and mature and I think she'll do a great job, so we have our 'team' now.