Thursday
We had invited some of F's friends over for a firework-themed meet-up, but unfortunately had chosen a bad day at short notice so most couldn't come! However we had N and M and all had a good time. After a bit of snacking on sandwiches, nuts, fruit and home-made rocky road that Freya and I had made the evening before (and cut into heart shapes to be displayed proudly on a Jacqueline Wilson fit-together cake stand supplied with latest edition of JW mag given by J's mum!), we started with a game - they had to choose a sad or serious song chorus that all knew well enough to sing together, then we sang it through then replaced a word in each line with a firework noise and action, mainly just to give us a giggle, which it did. 
We sang:
"Who do you think you BANG!?
Running round leavin' Crackles
Collecting your jar of Sizzles
Tearing Whoosh apart."
Then I put some of J's firework photos on the telly on slideshow and we all decorated a glass jar each with beads, sequiny things, silver thread, cellophane, to make candle-holders.
Then they played a bit and also N shared a few YouTube favourites with us all - Gangnam style...
When they came down again, I lit tea-lights in their jars, which looked lovely and I should have taken a picture, what an eejit.
Then we did some indoor fireworks that turned out to be quite good, mainly ones that flash intermittently, usually greenishly, but also the ever popular snake (or poo as most children correctly identify it instantly). We had four of those so Good Times People!
Finished up with a silver fountain and sparklers for all outside, then they played again till it was time to go.
This was an unusually structured bit of hosting for me, but it's nice when a bit of preparation and planning pays off and that seemed to be the case this time.

Friday we had J's dad visiting as his birthday had been on Weds and he was also bringing prezzies for J whose birthday is tomorrow, so there was an exchange of prezzies, all good, then we went and had a nice meal at Pizza Express with wine, so also all good. 
2 of the prezzies that I have got for J were supposed to be surprises but each surprise has been revealed unfortunately (I think) - the second one when he suggested watching a particular film on Netflix last night and Freya and I went rabbit-headlights.
I stayed up and got all my work for Monday done so I can enjoy the weekend properly, looking forward to J's birthday tomorrow and Freya and I are going to make a cake today I think.

More days that have gone:

Friday
Freya and I had a leisurely shopping trip in town, we each had a fixed amount of cash supplied by me for the purpose and we went in 5 or 6 shops buying nice treaty things mostly. Bath bombs, fluffy socks, new cutlery, books, small holographic jigsaw, etc. It was fun just enjoying a lot of browsing and choosing - Freya got more items for her money than me. We ended up in Costa for a drink and snack, was a lovely afternoon.

Saturday
Freya practised on her skates in the park, then went to Rollerdisco - this is now a regular fortnightly thing for quite a few of our friends, seems to work well. Freya's skating is improving, her confidence is a bit wobbly but I can see her getting better and better with practice. 
Enjoyed Strictly and some curry dishes from local shop, picky bits for Freya as she's gone right off curry.

Sunday
I had lots of work to do, but first we needed to do a bit of tidying. J's mum came over, partly due to a computer problem that needed J's attention. She brought Freya a Jacqueline Wilson magazine and it has some baking recipes in that Freya is keen to have a go at.

Monday
Didn't make it to Monday group as I had too much work, Freya was sad to miss it, so I felt bad but sometimes it just isn't possible.
In the evening it was the Lewes bonfire processions and fireworks. J and I made a deal that I would take Freya up to watch the processions and then he would take her to bonfire and fireworks. It worked fine, I couldn't go to fireworks as still had too much work left to do (the job was a sod really, legal Russian, ugh, but I needed to take it, sigh, what can you do).
Anyway, we enjoyed the processions, Freya had a perch up on a telecoms cabinet with L and co. so a good view, and it didn't get too hectically busy. Although I had felt very not bothered earlier, once I was up there I did enjoy the whole bizarre thing as usual. This time round it really hit me how old some of the traditions are, how generations of families join the same bonfire society one after another, all the history of it.  We spotted K and F, which was fun. Had various snackage to keep us going.

When that all finished (about 3 hours of processing, with the odd break of 10 mins while they regroup) I took Freya home for a 10-min handover to J and loo-break. I worked as the kabooms got more and more Kaboomish and then KABOOMINGLY LOUD and house-shaking. 
J got some good pictures at the Southover Bonfire Society display, experimenting with longer exposures.

They both came back safely about 11ish having enjoyed it all. I was up till 5am working, booooooo!

Tuesday
Took Freya to drama where they are doing a Cheshire Cat piece at the moment. Then picked her up with L and M and walked them all down to LGP writing in town, via a cafe where they had frozen yoghurt or hot chocolate variously and all sat and looked over their writing and added bits, as they had had 3 weeks to do a story over the half term break.  
When we got down to the venue, it still had lots of stuff lying around from the night before, when there had been a hog roast outside - so the items left around included various meat-eater debris such as recognizable bits of pig. Girls not impressed as they are mostly vegetarian and/or animal friendly!

Wednesday
Had a massive to-do list: rescue poor easy set pool from rotten leaves (yes this should have been done end of September, oops); defrost freezer; clean kitchen floor; various corrections to job delivered on Tuesday; random other things including unpacking lots of delivered things of various kinds and disposing of packaging. So mostly stuff that involves practical physical work, not really my thing. But I did pretty much all of what I had to do.
Freya was at Forest School in the morning, lovely weather for them, sunny and dry though very chilly. She had made a doll with various mostly natural materials.

Slipping behind again, oops.

Last weekend:
Saturday we went to M's party - main features were a bouncy castle and a glitter tattoo table, plus lovely food. Everyone had a good time. Before we got on the bus to get there, Freya and I shopped a bit and had a quick drink in a cafe, which was all nice. Enjoyed Strictly when we got back.
Sunday I can't remember, think I worked and had a bath, plus J and I sorted our bedroom out a bit, got rid of quite a lot of clutter.

Monday and Tuesday:
Freya went to a writing workshop at Fabrica art gallery for most of Monday and a bit of Tuesday. She came up with some nice images and voices, I love her writing. As an example: "pale lips like empty pea pods". On Monday she then went for an impromptu play at N's afterwards.
K and I did a deal whereby he took Freya and his N into Brighton by train for the workshops and I took them out by bus Monday and he took them back Tuesday with his van so that they would be able to maximize time at C's Halloween party, which was fun. Had some nice chats, mainly with M. The children enjoyed a variety of activities including making various Halloween themed craft things, apple-bobbing and riddles.

Wed and Thur:
Can't remember yesterday much at all! I worked all morning and a bit of afternoon I think. And then I think Freya and I watched some Goodnight Sweetheart as we often do at home.
Today, Freya went with L to a Creepy Creatures day at the animal sanctuary. They examined an owl pellet and had a bone chart to use, identifying bones of small rodents and frogs and birds. They also gave in the £20 that they raised with their park sale last week. L's grandpa D kindly gave them each a £1 to spend in the charity shop there and Freya bought a lovely soft Eeyore toy.
I took delivery of our new mattress and did lots of consequent changing of bedclothes, so we have new mattress, new duvet, new pillows all ready for tonight, hope we sleep well. Old mattress was 12 years old and really not doing the job so well any more, so when I got an extra good month's pay, the mattress was on the list near the top.
I also went up to a review meeting with mum and a really rubbish social worker, have ranted elsewhere about her, but basically, mum started out in usual cheery mood, but social worker projected such an air of tragedy and also a bit of seeming like she was 'testing' mum (staring without saying anything, taking notes, asking mum questions with right/wrong answers, not joining in when we had a giggle), that mum picked this up and became quite anxious by the end, it was so different to our usual times up at the care home, I was very peed off about it. Fortunately mum will forget the details, though might be residually anxious for the rest of the day.

Things to do with Freya that seem aaaaaaages ago:

car seats! I now seem to be constantly surprised when a friend offers a lift and I open a door to see a car seat. Look! Special seats! Oh yes, I remember them, my brain goes each time

buggies - awwww buggies, so much you could carry on them, we did hang on a bit longer than average but still it's such a long time ago now

her learning to read - can remember it well but it's definitely years ago

her coming up to chest height on me - even that is ages ago

In fact, even her learning to swim is in relatively distant history now, 3 years past

It would be lovely to round off this little list of history memories with some wisdom and reflective words but I got none, soz, do yer own.


Today went to Freya practising rollerskating again in the park (hence me remembering the learning to swim, which she autonomized in very similar fashion to how she is doing with the rollerskating), then us realizing it was actually a very wet day and cancelling our original plans for the afternoon (shopping mainly), and coming home to watch The Truman Show and have hot chocolate and picky bits lunch.

Yesterday Freya and 3 friends held a sale of Halloween deocrations and edibles in the park. They all worked very hard and raised £20 for the local animal sanctuary and £10 for themselves. The money for the animal sanctuary included a £10 donation made by a lady who first bought something then came back specially to give it, as the animal sanctuary had looked after her cat for her. We didn't have as many customers as last time she did it with L last year as the weather was less conducive to people walking through the park rather than doing the school run by car I guess. Anyway it was all very exciting and much fun was had.

Before that, Freya attended a WWII workshop at Brighton museum, involving artefacts, oral history and other forms of evidence to be put together. Freya's friend L said they liked it because the woman doing it didn't over 'lead' it but did it more alongside them, which sounds good. I brought Freya and L back on the bus and once we'd persuaded Freya off her new roller skates we made apple turnovers for the sale, they were scrummy.

Today's plans include more rollerskating practice and buying good new felt pens, proper ones, plus buying a present for a friend having her birthday party tomorrow.

So, with Pollyanna blog filter firmly turned up high... today has gone to:
Checking out the Village People on YouTube and another music video that Freya wanted to show me, because N had shown her.
Freya practising roller-skating in the hall twice though we didn't get to the park - the hall floor is more like the rollerdisco floor so it has some pluses
Us making Halloween decorations to sell at the park sale tomorrow, spiders, wands, skulls. All we have left to do is make apple turnovers now, tomorrow just before we go, and I've remembered to get the pastry out of the freezer.
Watching Come Dine With Me and Goodnight Sweetheart whilst we made things.
More 'connections' type puzzles - Freya came up with a good one that featured names of Friends characters, with cryptic clues e.g. Currency + vehicle = Money car = Monica
More Mountain of Adventure
Mostly harmonious times except for when they weren't.
New duvet arrived for Freya, plus new pillows for all of us, so we all went up and changed hers over, then had sparklers out in the yard as they had arrived too. Also watched a couple of Mork and Mindy episodes and Freya had a bubble bath before bed, plus she played some games on the girlguiding site, where you had to judge what to buy to make a population happier

Today went to:
Freya making 7 Halloween bracelets ready for park sale on Thursday, me making 1. I helped her with bead-hole clearing and knot tying at first but she got the hang of it herself quickly.
Us watching a few episodes of Come Dine With Me while we did our various things (I was working for a while) and a couple of Goodnight Sweethearts.
Freya trying out her new rollerskates - we went to the park, she practised for ages, then we came back, think she will improve quite quickly if we do that a few times a week, she really wants to be able to skate at the rollerdisco without having to go round the wall slowly, as she misses out on the social side of it as her friends whizz round. She is so good at doing something like this with such determination, I admire it hugely in her. It certainly isn't easy for her, but she keeps going and gradually gets better.

Last night Freya read me a poem from a Horrible Histories book, as she had been reciting/singing a bit from it on the bus during the day. It is about the ordinary men who went to war and what they came back to.

I think this is it:

"He was Mr Jimmy Johnson and he earned a weekly wage 
And his life was as eventful as a squirrel in a cage. 
He possessed a wife and kiddies, living somewhere Brixton way, 
And he drew his humble pittance weekly, every Saturday. 
And that was why he added rows of figures nice and neat 
He was Mr Jimmy Johnson – life was sweet. 

Then somewhere a bugle sounded and he kissed ….. goodbye 
His stool he kicked from under him – no time to wonder why 
He embraced his wife and kiddies, and told them not to pine 
He was Private Jimmy Johnson, number 12129. 
He didn’t quite appreciate the stuff he’d got to eat, 
But he was Private Jimmy Johnson – life was sweet. 

Now he’s Mr Jimmy Johnson, and he’s got an empty sleeve, 
And he’s smiling very bravely, and it’s so hard to believe, 
He’s forgotten by the stay-at-homes – who not so long ago 
Said they didn’t want to lose him, but they thought he ought to go. 
You can see them all around you, some sell matches in the street, 
There are many Jimmy Johnsons – is life sweet?"

We have just finished Sea of Adventure and I'm now reading her Mountain of Adventure for some bedtimes. Tonight we were in fits as no fewer than 4 paragraphs repeated exactly how many donkeys were needed for the children and adults to go off on a camping trip from the holiday farmhouse. I think by the end of that page, we were unlikely to forget that they were going to need 6 donkeys for the group, 1 for the guide and 2 for carrying loads, as several characters had repeated that information exactly.
We've also played more of our connections/odd-one-out game - here's one: 
1. A silver medallist
2. A herb
3. Something belonging to us
4. Sort of castle + Darkness

Freya did a good one involving palindromes and another one where the connection was wheels.

Monday
Off to Monday group this morning, bit late but not too bad. Was odd not having my phone with me to keep checking the time, but also slightly freeing.
On the bus and at other times today we played a game where one person thinks of 3 connected things and an odd one out and tells the other person, cryptically if necessary, and the other person tries to guess the odd one out and the connection.
E.g. 1. Local stream 2. A town we see every day 3. A word for might or could 4. A word for making a short version
1. Winterbourne 2. Springfield 3. May 4. Summarize
So the connection is seasons and the odd one out (3) is a month. Spelling isn't necessarily key, so summarize is OK.

We had some good ones, on themes of numbers, colours, etc. Freya also did one that involved 1. A large tree. 2. An old church 3. A rusty iron bar 4. Some scrunched up sellotape. Her connection was along the lines that age had created the complex textures of the first three, but the fourth was just quickly created and disposed of. We talked about other differences too, as I was guessing flaking or roughness.

Monday group seemed to whizz by, then we caught buses back over to Lewes (with an interim snack stop) for Lewes home-ed drama/movement, which seemed to go well. The children all showed us some of their pair/group work, which was good to see. While Freya was in there, I went to retrieve my poor phone and also bought a few craft bits for Halloween stuff.

We walked back continuing to play the odd one out game, my feet were tired after tramping up and over the top twice on phone retrieval. Back home Freya's new roller skates had arrived, so she has just had a few goes up and down the hall, hoping she will be able to practise and improve instead of feeling she is starting again every time we do a Saturday roller disco. 

Freya has asked questions today about when glass was first made and how plastic is made, but we haven't managed to answer either properly yet.

On Wednesday, Forest School was cancelled, so Freya had an unexpected day at home. In the morning she did a makeover of some sort on me - first doing endless things to my hair, which I don't get on well with but I did sit and put up with it, though perhaps not with very good grace, it has to be said. She braided and twirled and beaded me, then turned her attention to my feet which had to be bathed and then my nails painted - I chose purple, green and gold.
What else did we do - painting by numbers, watching Goodnight Sweetheart.

Thursday, Freya had her final art workshop of a series of three, and then she went to her friend's to play for the afternoon, had a good time. I did various documentation tasks related to mum's move and fianancial stuff. Was good to get it done and afterwards I had time for a bubble bath, which was really lovely. 

Friday, Freya had the final Friendship workshop session of three and I picked her and N up by taxi to take them to yoga as it was raining relentlessly by then. 

Saturday, we went and bought a new mattress in Brighton, an expensive one but reduced significantly. Then we went to YO! Sushi, which none of us had done before, so that was fun, spotting the dishes we wanted and capturing them from the belt. Fun to share it as a new experience for all 3 of us too. Good food choices for us all, as Freya likes fish so she had some of that, and we like miso and tofu and we all like various other things like tempura and gyoza , so plenty of variety for all of us, without much dairy or meat to have to look through.
We came back and then Freya and I went out again to wave at our friends who were in the Nevill Juvenile Bonfire Procession. Freya had printed off maps and drawn on the routes of each of the 3 processions, so we did a lot of map consulting, made a few mistakes between us, but managed to catch them 3 times at least, and saw them from the back a couple of other times. It was a lot of rushing around in the rain but good fun nevertheless. We didn't stay up for the fireworks though as the rain was getting worse.
We got separated at one point, I had said to Freya that if we were separated I would text or phone her and she should do the same. But she had a problem with her phone at first, then managed to text me once, I rang her and texted her, then we found each other. She reported that she had been slightly anxious finding her phone not working and also there were youths around swearing and smoking, so she hadn't been keen on that. But neither of us were too panicked.
Back home we watched Strictly, recorded earlier, and Freya had hot chocolate. She was falling asleep by the end, it had been a lot of rushing around.

Today I took Freya to the swimming pool, to meet her friend L, for the "Super Splash" (inflatable thing and music). I managed to get some writing done while I sat in the side area, which was satisfying.
Came home about 5ish, and realized a while later I think I've lost my phone, maybe left it at the leisure centre. Botheration.

The last 2 weeks have gone to:
New drama/movement group sessions, which are working well for us. It gives me a very good time to go and see mum (had a lovely visit recently with one of her art books, we looked at all the colour photos and talked about which ones we liked best), and I love the sound of the stuff they are doing, proper expressive drama and fun movement stuff.
Art workshops focusing on portraits and characters, have liked the pictures Freya has brought home. I did a stint as 'extra adult' last week and the quietness of a dozen 9-13 yr olds all concentrating on drawing was quite something.
Friendship workshops, looking at how we relate to our friends, how people upset each other or make each other feel good, how people can be honest about what they want without upsetting others too much, what constitutes bullying, etc. Lots of stuff for discussion, the sessions include games, role play, writing and drawing and more.
Monday group, Creative writing group, Forest School, Yoga, Rollerdisco, Apple Day.
Freya had to deal with an incident recently and did really well. She went to post a letter on her own (about a minute's walk away). On her way back an elderly man leaned out of his window, without his top on, and offered her sweets, then invited her in to play on his Playstation. She kept walking and called 'no thank you' to both offers. I have mentioned this man to her before as there have been offers of sweets when I've been with her, that have made me feel uncomfortable. Also I have seen teenage boys there in summer, with their shirts open, apparently playing on the Playstation, I just generally get a bad feeling about the situation there, whether there is dementia involved or not (I think there is). I don't like that he saw her go past one way and then was ready to lean out as she came past the other way. Anyway, I am just very proud of her for walking on, not panicking too much, though she did feel shaky and was glad to get home. I reported it to the police the next day as a matter of procedure really, but wasn't surprised to hear that the man is already known.
J's mum came to watch Strictly, and helped Freya to address her envelope to Jacqueline Wilson for a letter she had written in Creative Writing group (this was the letter she posted as mentioned above).
We had various people round and visited various people and travelled with various people, we generally see people a lot!
Other than all the above, Freya has been doing hair braiding and beading, playing The Simpsons on XBox again, making fashion paper dolls, reading Emerald Star and we've been watching Wolfblood, Goodnight Sweetheart and Mork and Mindy.

Another 2 months unblogged.
A difficult 2 months in some ways - my mum is now in residential care, but at least it is only 20 mins or so walk from us. She was in hospital for about a month after wandering and getting lost only a couple of streets from her home. Dementia is a terrible disease. I am so glad that my mum only got it relatively late, and before that, was so healthy, active and had a great life after retirement - 20 years of a well-lived life - travel, a passionate relationship, art classes and exhibitions, friendships and holidays. But now she needs a great deal of help with her day-to-day life, so she is in a place where she can have that, and I can visit her much more often than if she was still at home. It's a good place, there are activities and events and trips - we went to the Perfect Pets' day there a week ago, a lovely sunny afternoon in the garden with various animals brought round for residents to stroke and play with. A dozen kids, a family/community feel to it. It is hard in so many ways to deal with dementia in a loved one, but mum seems content and I enjoy visiting her, as long as I let go of the past, visiting the person who is my mum now instead. I think it is particularly hard on Freya though, very hard.

August and September for F went to:
swimming, rollerdisco, a friend's birthday sleepover, Monday group starting again, a Shakespeare workshop at the British Museum
for me they went to:
my birthday, a lot of work, a nasty virus

Ahead of us is a fantastic couple of months with some great new activities/groups starting.
This week we have/had:
Monday pm social home-ed group - today a friend brought Mentos and Diet Coke and we all admired the whooooosh of the resulting explosive fountain, we also looked at a reaction producing carbon dioxide inflating a balloon on top of a bottle (though to be fair I think the kids weren't even there for that one, but we had fun!), and I took some water testing strips and we found out rain is a bit acidic and soapy water is a bit alkaline.
Monday later pm new drama/movement group - this looks good so far, lots of fun drama games and expression stuff. Also it is just 5 mins walk from mum's home so I/we can visit easily.
Tuesday am LAMDA drama
Tuesday pm creative writing group
Wednesday am Forest School
Thursday am - a series of different workshops every Thursday, starting with 3 weeks of art, then there will be history and cookery
Friday - am 3 weeks of workshops on the theme of friendships and related issues (invaluable!)
Friday pm yoga

Just looking at that makes me think we're so lucky! And even more things are being firmed up, ahead: a book club I'm going to lead, monthly; a regular slot (monthly or fortnightly) for home-ed swimming, rollerdisco and table tennis; other Friday workshops on a regular basis.

It is a bit on the busy side, but it's all so good!

June and July catch-up

OK some attempt needs to be made to catch up here.

F's days have gone to:

Her birthday! (should have blogged, but lately I just do not have that ability to just blog things as they happen somehow) - we went to Spring Barn and the cinema with a group of her friends and she had a sleepover, which was a bit of a mixed experience tbh! She is now Eleven, which is a lot of numberage.

Little Green Pig writing workshops in Lewes and Brighton. The Lewes ones are now officially continuing after summer, roughly fortnightly I think, which will be great. It's a nice group, about 7 girls, most of whom we also see at various other things. The Brighton ones were a series of 3 workshops at a gallery, based around the idea of weaving, inspired by the current exhibition (link to workshop, link to exhibition, making of exhibition)

A Raystede animal sanctuary day

A friend's party and sleepover

A Livewires session on mythical creatures - a friend got F and his daughter N doing a good exercise, one describing an animal without saying its name, the other drawing from the description

Floating and swimming in the pool, which we've only had out for the last week or so, weather has been so weird (the local winter stream is flowing - in August!)

A few nice afternoons at Pells Pool, especially with friends.

Other things of many and various sorts, mostly social I expect. F is very very social indeed.

There are also some good new things in the pipeline being talked about, interesting potential workshops and groups and activities. More on them as they emerge in Sept/Oct. There seems to be a resurgence of local home-ed energy.

My days have gone to phenomenal amounts of work, like nothing I've had before, in July - can't wait till September when July invoice gets paid! I will have mentally spent it ten times over before then.

My mum is not doing so well, she wandered the other day and ended up in hospital, though without coming to harm, so I think she now needs different/more care, which I'm hoping will go smoothly but probably won't! She is still mostly content and giggly though, which is such a blessing.

Poems, Swimming, Bubblebugs

Tuesday 29th May

Freya and some friends had their last writing group session and I had suggested all going to the pool afterwards, while the weather was still good enough. 

The writing session seemed to have gone well and plans are being firmed up for some form of continuation.

These are 2 poems Freya wrote at the group sessions:

Squirrel Committee

On Monday

I found a fallen acorn

The bottom was smooth and shiny. 

The top was bulgy and rough.

On Tuesday

I found an old dead robin

I took it to a tree stump

and covered it with leaves

and pretty flowers

On Wednesday

I found a beautiful star leaf

flushed with orange and pink

on one side...

a stern and steady frame

on the other...

On Thursday 

I found a big brown bull

with big creamy brown horns

and a big saddle-shaped patch on its back

I named it Scotland

I loved that cow

On Friday

I found an owl's feather

in an old hollow tree

It was brown with white

On Saturday

I found a family of foxes

in a hole in the ground...

Stripes on their tales

1, 2, 3 males

6 were female

On Sunday

I moved back to the city

I set off for Department Stores Inc.

filed my report

so that little family could save squirrel committee!

***

What is the Word NO?

It's the final boundary

When you are almost at the top of the tree

It catches you

and refuses to set you free

One quick word...

and the leader now has spoken

your spirit is strong

But all your hopes are momentarily broken

***

I think they're really good, am all proud :) I do like her voice and the ideas she expresses.

Oh, while she was in writing I had a bit of time and chatted with S over a cuppa, was all very leisurely.

Then we headed over to Pells Pool again, joining 3 other families and ended up staying ages, as it didn't get quite as horrendously busy as Friday had, being slightly less hot. Was just a perfect afternoon really, adults chatting lazily, fruit eaten, swims swum, ice-creams slurped, cartwheels spun on grass. I felt I was storing up lovely memories.

Wednesday 30th May

Freya went to Forest School. I went into worky work mode and worked and am still mainly working but not as intensively as yesterday. I took on 2 urgent jobs this week, glad to have them as need to be earning a lot at the moment.

Freya came home excited about 'bubblebugs', which turned out to be cuckoo spit bugs. 

Today 31st May

Freya has her friend L for a sleepover tonight, so far they have hung out, chatted, giggled, looked at more bubblebugs, looked at Scratch games and now about to play Animal Crossing on Wii pretending to be GameCube I think. Oh they have also had a successful mission to the local shop to buy cow's milk, juice and treats, coming back the 'poo lane' way and having adventures such as looking at the goats, encountering jumpy dogs (boo!), being said 'hello' to by walkers and missing the entrance back into our garden first.

Other than that, Freya and I have been reading Five Go Off in a Caravan, much entertained at the thought of parents sending 4 under-13s and a dog off in 2 horse-drawn caravans for a holiday. Freya said if she did it she'd like me or friend's mummy C to be there in another caravan to do food preparation! 

Going to stay up and work a lot tonight to clear the decks even though one job isn't due till Monday, want to go into the long weekend with no work and fancy drinking wine in the evenings as opposed to staying sober to work.

Lewes Castle

Saturday 26th May

Freya and I went up to Lewes Castle as they were having some special activities for Battle of Lewes day, most of which we didn't take part in, but still. Good atmosphere up there, though, with drummers drumming and soldiers being trained and Medieval games being played.

First we went up to see the tapestry that is being created - there were 5 or 6 people working up there on different sections of the Battle of Lewes tapestry. They were using a fluffy loose chain stitch for smoke and lots of little French knots for bushes and flowers. There will be panels along the bottom that show local wildlife and plants. 

We came down from there and just enjoyed the drumming for a bit, flopped in some shade. Then we went up to the top of the barbican gate tower and enjoyed the views from there, being such a clear sunny day. We came halfway back down and watched a film of The Battle of Lewes 4D Experience, which I had wanted to go to a couple of weeks ago but it was age 11+, so we didn't. It looked fun, judging by the film, with battle scenes and castle damage projected onto the castle, lots of projected and real fire and fighting and running.

Annoyingly by the time we came out of there the drumming had stopped, which was a shame as Freya had wanted to stand right by the drummers and see how loud they were. Still we headed up the steep side of the other bit of the castle. There used to be very minimal safety measures at the side of the steps, between our toddler and the long drop down, but now they have had some funding and installed very attractive and safe railings. Quite a relief even with no toddler to worry about. We dawdled our way enjoyably up to the top, stopping to chat and enjoy the views, me being a 1264 person and her being a 2012 and comparing notes on what our houses are made of and what that thing in the sky could be ("Deeeeemon!" "No that's a plane, it's a machine").  

After a pleasant couple of hours we went to a cafe on the way home for cold drinks and ice-cream.

Managed to take some photos with phone.

Went home via park and shop, I picked up lovely Indian snacks and parathas to add to leftover curry for dinner, and Freya did 'swing-throughs' on the climbing frame, which seemed quite difficult and she did 3 of them, so I expect that was good.

Sunday 27th May

Was my and J's 18th anniversary - we were going to go out for a meal but J's mum couldn't come over to look after Freya, as her exhaust had fallen off her car, and we decided to wait, might go next weekend.

Freya went on Scratch and made some good sprites - a dolphin, a girl and a fox - and played with making them spin and move.

A quiet day at home, had a nice long bath and we watched more Voyager in the evening. Did pie and salad for dinner, nice and easy and delicious.

Monday 28th May

MMs Monday group - originally we weren't going to get to today's session as we had booked a theatre thing, but Freya was keen to go to MMs and the show looked a bit aimed at 5 or 6 yr olds, so we gave it a miss and headed off to group after the shopping had come and Freya had had a bath.

Both had a nice time at group, bus journey back was disrupted by a lorry stuck at the top of a narrow road, so a bit of entertainment watching that all get sorted out, which delayed us long enough that we were able to wave to other MMs people coming in on their bus in Brighton just as we were leaving.

Attempting some detail

Sunday 21st May

C very kindly picked Freya up at 9:30 to go to a party at 10am - it was a joint party of 2 young siblings and Freya is friends with one of their older siblings. She had a lovely time, there was a magician and a Punch and Judy I think. 

In the afternoon I had 'one of me baths' and at 6ish I took Freya to see some of her friends, especially her best friend, in a dance show. Saw lots of people we knew as we waited to go in, one of those local events, felt nice.

The show was good, I liked the street dance and Bollywood best. And the very unpredictable lego animations between the dance pieces, done by lovely local B, who we see at occasional things.

We came out and I had just enough time to get a taxi to Brighton to see some friends of mine in their show in the Festival Fringe, so I rang for a taxi, only to be told there wasn't one available for 40 mins. 

So I didn't get to see this but am hoping they will tour it a bit and I can get to another performance. One of those things but I was quite upset, texted J and he offered Chinese takeaway as consolation, which helped. At least it meant we got to see Freya's friends coming out and tell them they did well.

Monday 22nd May

We set off for Monday group, had fun at the bus stop making up things to give points for like beards, vans, pink cars, sunglasses.

On the bus I upset Freya somehow by asking whether she would like to try Bollywood dancing. Eventually we got to the answer that she would but only with a group mostly of friends. But first there was a lot of upset, which was hard to understand as I wasn't pushing her to try it, was just offering a possibility. She has said recently that she doesn't like choices at the moment and finds them hard - although I think no choice would usually be harder. She also hates it when I try to move her on or distract her from being upset. I try not to, but on a bus you just want it to be over really!

Anyway that wasn't too bad and we were soon at Monday group where she had a great time with some friends. I brought in sherbet Dip Dabs for general consumption. Had a good catch-up chat with L, who isn't often there now as she is studying. Particularly enjoyed talking about maths with her and the possibility of enjoying beautiful complicated maths even if the simpler stuff never went in. Really interesting. Also lovely to chat to K and L as usual. Freya went to the charity shop with friends, which is becoming a regular thing, really hope they are behaving appropriately when they go down there.

Back in Lewes we met J at Caffe Nero (Just realized I forgot to blog that the Monday before - 14th - we had met him after group in Brighton and all gone to see The Hunger Games and then had dinner at GBK. I enjoyed the film, am still finishing the 3rd book, but have really liked them. It wasn't entirely Freya's type of thing but she watched it and only felt that she wished they could have resolved things more completely in one film, even if it was 3 hours long).

Then we went to J and Freya's physio appt, they have exercise to do, which we don't achieve very consistently. Freya's exercises are to build strength and stability in right arm/shoulder mainly. Things like: on all fours, raise diagonally opposite arm and leg and hold for 10 seconds, trying to keep stability; write in the air with right hand or hold torch and write on wall; put right hand against someone else's right hand and move them together, writing or drawing shapes in air; on a seat lift self self up with hands and hold.

We went to ASK for dinner and I had rosemary and sea-salt bread, linguine with pesto and green beans and potatoes and honeycomb cheesecake! Was really nice, we were all playing Draw Something between courses too.

Tuesday 22nd May

Freya was picked up by best friend L's grandpa to go to writing group, think she had a good session there, though haven't been shown anything from it, they were doing poetry is all I know. Then L came back with her for a couple of hours' play. They had a lovely time, think it went a bit quickly for them. They did a bit of writing and quite a bit of enjoying the garden and sitting in bushes, not sure what else. They are signed up to go on an excellent half-term workshop organized by the Writing Group People too, a train journey for inspiration.

Freya also did some writing at other times on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I think.

For bedtime at the moment I'm often reading her chapters of "Five Go to Smugglers' Top", which is particularly exciting in terms of secret passages, mysterious characters and having to hide Timmy a lot.

Wednesday 23rd May

Freya had Forest School and I had lots of work to do. Can't remember much about it, wonder what we did. Some of her friends were going to the beach but we couldn't because of my work - bit hard on her, but I guess that's life sometimes. She spent quite a bit of time in the garden I think.

I got an e-mail about the possibility of writing group continuing in some form, which I was really pleased about as I think Freya and her friends get a lot out of it. Hope that will happen somehow...

Thursday 24th May

I had some work to finish and was done by 2:30, so we went and spent an hour at the local outdoor pool. I couldn't go in as have mislaid or mistakenly thrown away swimming costume! When the hosepipe ban was announced it became apparent that we wouldn't be able to have our pool up this year, so I promised then that we'd try and get to the pool fairly frequently. Freya had a good swim, perfect weather for it. Left a bit later than we should, headed home but I was flagging rather having sat in the sun too much.

We met J at the bus stop to go into Brighton to see some Shakespeare in the park. Unfortunately we ended up having to rush a bit too much but at least we got in just as it was starting.

I did enjoy it! It is wonderful, magical, to me, to watch a Shakespeare play outside as a warm evening turns to a cool night. I didn't think the production was particularly brilliant but it was plenty good enough for the context. Funnily enough, the first outdoor Shakespeare I ever saw, was Twelfth Night, when I was 16 or so I think, at a castle near the river in my home town.

We had a picnic of bread, salad, wraps, houmous, crisps (warned Freya to eat as quietly as possible!). The rushing and heat hadn't done J much good as he has current foot/shoe problems as well as joints sometimes being bad, so he had to sit away a bit on a bench, which was a shame. I had given Freya a children's book of the basic plot, which she had read on the bus, we both referred to it a bit now and then, to see where we were. She did really well with such a long play, as before she has really only seen shorter Shakespeare productions I think. This was two and a half hours, nearly three all in all. She remained mostly engaged, not fidgety and enjoyed some of the comedy bits especially. Lovely evening for me, though was sorry J couldn't fully enjoy it.

We got a taxi home as we were all knackered from having done a bit too much walking too fast in too much heat. 

Today 25th May

My day started with Freya coming in for a cuddle at 9ish, and an interesting conversation about Added Value and the effect of rarity. I had another little bit of work to finish but that didn't take long, then I got some washing up done, a bit of washing processed and had a quick bath, then Freya had an equally quick bath and soon after we set off for the pool again. This time we had to go into town first to get me a swimming costume. Found a reasonable one in sports shop that we hoped would fit me, man was very helpful. From there we got some suntan spray, some water and a frozen orange and raspberry drink from Costa and then headed the rest of the way round to the pool (the long way via town is a bit of a slog but at least avoids the up and down).

Freya was able to get straight in as had very sensibly put clothes over costume before setting out - in fact she was in a very sensible mode generally today as she had 2 helpful ideas (one was thinking of a good shop for me to get swimming costume in, can't remember the other) and also got herself out of the bath and dressed without any assistance or accompanying required from me. 

I went and changed and was just glad my costume fit. I am slowly trying to get a bit fitter/lose weight but it is very much a work in progress. Still, at the Pells I don't really care, it has that community feel, for everyone. LOL felt like literally for everyone today as when it got to school end time the queues to get in started building and building. Must have been 100 people in the pool by 4:30 and another 300 on the grass and around. It's just exactly where Lewes wants to be on a hot sticky day. 

I had a lovely chilly dip, gradually got used to it but then felt cold and got out, just before it got really lively. Think we will aim for earlier most times that we go...

Freya stayed in, got out for hot chocolate, then back in for a short 2nd swim, but it was too lively really then, with 'bombing' etc. thought the guards do blow whistles, but too much was going on I think.

Dawdled home, me because of a blister forming, am going to have to get new sandals! Having gone from my very comfy Skechers trainers to my Birkenstocks this week, my feet feel shredded.

Back at home, curry and Voyager. Ah Friday you are lovely.

Other things that I couldn't put a date to:

Freya asking about origin of the QWERTY keyboard layout, me not really knowing so perhaps ought to research; 

Freya keeping some pet snails in the garden the last couple of days secretly, and telling me all about them today in great detail (Celia, Sweetie, Sunshine, Samantha (the panther), Shelley, Sandy, can't remember more names) but unfortunately they died while we were out due to having been put in an airtight lunchbox. Their first zoo enclosure had allowed some air in, which obviously suited them better;

Freya asking about apostrophes and letter frequencies.

It's been a very harmonious week here, Freya and I have mostly not upset or annoyed each other since Monday.

And that is the week in greater detail than recent blogging, phew!

Multimedia, Theatre, Writing, Drama

4th May Multimedia workshop at the British Museum

This was an excellent session where children worked in pairs, with help when/if necessary from adults, using digital media to make an online interactive poster about Buddhism. They collected images, videos, sound recordings of interviews about their subject and then put them together with text to make the digital media poster (for some reason I can't find the link to theirs but this is the Glogster site link if anyone wants to use it to make one themselves). 

7th May Theatre trip to Brighton

Freya and I went into Brighton and saw 2 productions - And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out and 15% of The Seagull. Had a lovely afternoon/evening out and was really glad as I had been determined to book some theatre trips in the Festival Fringe this year and actually managed to. The first show was rather multimedia and modern, with stuff about stars and space juxtaposed with relationship stuff in an entertaining and interesting way and a toy train with a camera on it running on the stage floor, with its film projected onto a screen behind the actors. The second show was fun and funny and we laughed quite a bit. In between we spent some time on the beach, had some chips and then went to a lovely cafe (The Marwood, with all its fab things on the walls and ceiling, decorated skateboards, Etch-a-Sketch, Death Star, celebrity photos, toys...) for hot chocolate. We encountered lots of different strangers who admired Freya's shoes (her light-up Skechers with rainbows and peace symbols!) during our trip. I asked her to take them off in the theatres though in case she fidgeted and the lights flashed! Was a really lovely Monday out, very harmonious and enjoyable. For me it was lovely to go to more adult theatre with her.

8th and 15th May First and Second of 4 Little Green Pig writing sessions in Lewes

Freya and most of her friends are going to these sessions on 4 consecutive Tuesdays and seem to be enjoying them. It's great to have got LGP over to Lewes! Thanks are due for the efforts of local K in arranging it. Hoping for more though...

11th May National Gallery workshop

This was not so much an active workshop, i.e. with an activity, but an enjoyable close look and guided consideration of 3 paintings, with a very knowledgeable guide getting us all, adults and children alike, to think about the meanings in the paintings. The 3 paintings we looked at were: this altarpiece, this Titian and this. A lot of thinking about the details of the paintings and what they meant. Liked it very much. Didn't like NG cafe so much as very expensive and stressful somehow.

19th May Lamda exam

Freya and 2 friends had prepared for this in drama sessions over the last few months. They each had to learn a short Verruca Salt monologue. At the exam they each had to go in separately, perform the piece and talk to the examiner about the character. Quite a stressful day but am so proud that she went ahead and did it, despite feeling very anxious earlier on. I am so glad that she managed to go in and do it and that it seems to have been a positive experience overall. She was very upset in the morning and didn't want to do it but I really wanted it not to become the Great Unknown Terror for her, so kept saying I was asking her to do it in the hope that she would find out that it wasn't as bad as she had been fearing. And if she never wanted to do another drama exam she wouldn't have to, ever. We get the results in 5 weeks or so, but for me it was very much about it not becoming the bogeyman for her, so as far as I'm concerned she has succeeded brilliantly.

Apart from that there has been a new small book club started by one of Freya's friends, and the usual Forest School and Magical Mondays and social things and a visit to my mum's which started badly but ended OK.

Freya wants me to blog in more detail again as she has been enjoying reading my earlier posts, but I think it will take a while for me to get my head to do that properly, and I might have to change privacy or something, so bear with...

Magazine, Science Centre, Livewires India

April was our less busy month, May ahead looks madly busy but all things that I am really happy to have there, so not stressfully busy.
Since I last blogged, days have gone to:

Livewires session on India - really good mix of activities/resources and the children did lots of different things, covering Hindu gods, Indian food, a bit of music, art, architecture, geography, wildlife...

Herstmonceux Observatory and Science centre visit - with 40 or 50 home-ed kids. Didn't see much of Freya as she was very much enjoying being there with so many of her friends at once and also enjoying going off on her own to climb to the top of the double helix climbing frame at regular intervals. She did the bridge-building workshop (putting together a truss bridge as a group and all walking over it, talking about strength gained from structure composed of triangles in trapezium) and we attended the science show on materials. I sat next to A again for old times sake as it was at a similar big home-ed day out there that I met her for the first time, and she is off to Dubai later this year. Circular things and closure and stuff. The materials show was great, very well done and children all very engaged with it.

Freya and L producing a magazine for Monday group, including articles, makes, funny pictures, interview, puzzles, colouring... They really worked hard on it and it was a big success at group as 8 copies were snapped up at 10p each! Love that they put so many good ideas together and saw it through to completion.

Me having another sunny hour in Baxter's field while Freya was at drama - remembered to take a notebook and pen this time and actually did some writing. Beautiful day and there are lovely views from the bench there, good place to sit and be a bit contemplative.

Usual social things, though a bit of a lull in Easter holiday and I was working quite a bit, wish the Euro would clamber itself back up a bit as my work is losing value by the day.

Me booking theatre tickets for May *excited* Brighton Festival Fringe things for us to go to.

Days have gone to:

A lovely day out, when J had a Friday off and came with us to riding, then we went to the cinema to see The Pirates! In an adventure with Scientists! and had a meal out too. Perfect day for it, all sunny for country bus rides.

Freya going to a Raystede Rangers day focusing on rabbits, with her friend L, and going back to L's to play afterwards.

Having another friend M over one afternoon.

A day when Freya had a good drama session, whilst I sat on a sunny bench with a view, then we had lunch out in a cafe that happened to have live singing, caught a bus over to Brighton and just managed to get in as the last 2, because 2 people didn't turn up, for Battleship Island.

Freya playing 7th Guest and Fez with J. Playing Only Connect walls with me.

J's mum visiting with chocolatey items for all :)

J's dad visiting and us all going for a walk at Seven Sisters :)

Me having a lovely evening out with Mrs Wanderer/Wonderer in Brighton. They are off now! Exciting times ahead, again!

Me having 2 large pieces of work, which was A Good Thing.

 

Lots more but I can't think of much!

More Tudoring

with a bit of diversions to Vile Victorians and Egyptian Excavations (plus completely non-historical "Dogs" session at local animal sanctuary)

Vile Victorians was good, particularly the 3D Tay Bridge disaster with girders flying out at us. We were in the front row so very immediate.

We had pizza beforehand, followed by hot chocolate in a coffee and ice-cream lounge just across from the theatre, which had the most outrageous menu of 40 or so different ice-cream desserts you could order, so we spent a bit of time choosing our 3 favourite and comparing notes on what we would have, though not actually having any. We noticed that alcohol in the ingredients upped the price significantly.

The show was much enjoyed, as Terrible Tudors had been the day before.

As well as the usual things, in the week after that, we also had Tudor-themed Livewires, which went well, with excellent activities in areas such as Tudor food, heraldry, Tudor language/words/slang (mine), Tudor clothing. A parent who is an actor did a good turn as Master Will Kempe. A really good session, that group is working really well.

On Tuesday we went to Raystede, local animal sanctuary, for a dog-themed day, which was fun. The children made treats for the dogs in the morning (stinky!) and did a bit of training/playing with one dog, plus feeding the treats to the other dogs later. Then a session where they all got to do different bits of grooming of a very amiable, patient dog, and learned about what is needed to look after dogs properly. Plus picnic and play area time and it was another good day.

Friday we headed up to The British Museum for an excellent Egyptian Excavations workshop, with artefact handling, learning about archaeology and considering how decisions are made about which items to show in the museum. Afterwards we had a good wander through a few galleries, then headed back on the train all together as a rather riotous group.

Apart from that, our usual Monday group and Weds Forest School and Chatterbooks, plus Thurs play at friends after Livewires, made for a busy happy week.

The weekend was quiet, we watched Tintin, which I thought was quite good, better than I'd expected.

Today, back to Monday group, where Freya and her friend started making a magazine. Coming home, Freya went ahead with my key, which she does quite often now. She also wrote 2 letters, one to her grandma Jo and one to her friend and went out alone to post them. Then she and J cooked pasta together and now she is out enjoying the late daylight, on swing and trampoline.

We are now through our very busy March time, and I'm looking forward to a slightly slower pace of life, with more time for proper chats and maybe walks and geocaching, etc.

Another couple of months then

Suddenly felt like a quick bit of blogging again, so...

End of January

We went to Westminster Abbey for a WW1 Remembrance workshop session. Freya wrote a poem as part of the workshop, from the point of view of a WW1 soldier:

The very site of another man killed will make me sick
The very smell of the piss has me holding my breath
The very taste of the stuff we eat makes me want dirt
the very touch of crawling lice wriggles all over me
The very sound of the shotguns deathens me.

It was a good session I thought, managed to get us all thinking about what it must really have been like.

We were taken to the Grave of the Unknown Warrior by an enactor playing the part of the Padre who initiated it, who also showed us a lot of other interesting bits. Later, as we were going round the Abbey, a kind official took our little group under his wing and showed us to a boxed-off seat that the Queen sits on for certain official ceremonies and the children were allowed, one by one, to stand in the box and imagine being her looking out at everything else. 

Lots of symbols in the Abbey, interesting, heraldry, shields, tapestries. Engaging place for a wander.

February

We went into February with a bad cold, and ended it with another, even worse one, so we missed a few planned things, sadly.

Still, in the middle, Freya attended a Little Green Pig workshop - she experienced the horrible feeling of wanting to have finished a piece of writing but not managing to in the time allocated and didn't like that at all. They went out into Brighton to get inspiration from found texts (in written and oral forms - e.g. posters, labels, signs, eavesdropping, snatches of radio, etc.). LGP are great, we are really hoping we can get them to come and do a regular Lewes session soon.

It snowed and Freya went sledging. It hadn't snowed since we'd given her the sledge, so was good to finally get some use. Also we went to the local soft play place one day for a friend's birthday - meant I got to have a few hours just chatting with C, which we somehow often don't manage to do properly. Various other social engagements happened too including a cake-making session with a few other families, a free play session at a gym. Freya is very much into seeing her best friend L and her other friends a lot at the moment, and not just at *scathing tone* "Learning group things!". Lots of e-mails between them too, appointed times on Moshi Monsters for chats, etc.

Freya managed to fall off her mid-height sleeper one Friday, was painful and sore but could have been so much worse. Cancelled riding that day though! 

Livewires' February theme was "Whodunnit?". There was fingerprinting, matching silhouettes to pictures, felt pen chromatography, all sorts going on. I prepared a mystery with a set of enveloped clues and some codes to solve, for older reading children. It was good, the children were all very engaged and enjoyed the variety of activities. 

We went to another workshop at Westminster Abbey, about Dickens, the enactor was good, but the written workshop session not so good this time.

 

March so far

So far in March, we've visited my mum, who is doing wonderfully well, and seemed quite 'on the ball' apart from memory. She and Freya spent a happy half hour playing DS, and we all enjoyed watching silly telly together too.

Today we saw the Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors show in Eastbourne - very good especially once they started using the 3D! Vile Victorians tomorrow evening.

Yesterday was a Tudor Day at Museum of Kent Life - really fabulous day, and weather to match, we were very lucky. The sessions covered Crime and Punishment, the Militia, Clothing (quite bawdy!), the Barber Surgeon (gory!), Music and Manners, Food and Drink. The enactors there are fantastic, have their skills down to a fine art and ad lib brilliantly at times! Was lovely to see Freya throwing herself into it and doing all sorts of things, with and without her friends to give her confidence. She was the volunteer for demonstrating learning to curtsey and bow and I was so proud of how she managed to follow the instructions and focus through her naturally giggly demeanour, especially with the nature of the task being quite tricky for her. In the Barber Surgeon's session she spontaneously decided to be 'smoke' rising from the cauterizing, and the enactor liked it so much he had her do it again a couple more times! In the Food and Drink session, she was one of four who went up and held goblets of various liquids, hers was wine and she was meant to smell it but tasted it too!

I thought it was the best of the Kent Life days we've had, not sure how much of that was down to the weather, but I get the feeling the enactors love doing the Tudors, just a bit more than the Romans and Victorians. We have World War II coming up in a while there, will be interesting...

Apart from all that, it's been the usual Monday group, Forest School, Drama, Yoga, etc.

I've had lots of work the last 2 months or so, has been good from a financial point of view, but lovely now to have a weekend ahead of me with no work, no deadline approaching.