Moments...

28 October 2013

...this week of...

...happiness cooking with veggies from the garden still, my children playing together for longer and longer periods of time, a visit from my parents

...sadness at conflict however big or small

...creating art with watercolours, knitted slippers and baby cardigan, shortbread biscuits, bread, dens, Lego models

...reading 1222 by Anne Holt

...learning about fractions, why leaves change colour, volcanoes and earthquakes and insects

...thinking about how people grieve

...hoping we have a safe journey this week as a storm is forecast

...looking forward to some friends coming to stay for the night


Gratitudes

27 October 2013


Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...the continuing produce from my garden, we have had two meals made of entirely vegetables from the garden this week.

...our plentiful supply of wood that my husband collected and chopped throughout this year.

...warm coats and hats.

...a walk in an interesting local moss, a wetland area, we had never visited before.

...my friends and being able to spend time with them each week.

...my parents coming to stay for a few days.

...reading time.

...quiet time each morning.

...my local library.

...homemade apple sauce on my morning pancakes.


Soup

26 October 2013

Every month we visit our local farmers market to buy some of the wonderful produce.  We buy cheese, eggs, some meat, I know I am vegetarian but the rest of the family do eat meat very occasionally, and vegetables.  We buy cheese, eggs and meat all year round but the vegetables in late autumn and winter only.

Each week we have a veg bag delivered from a local farm co-op (five miles down the road) with eight different vegetables.  I find that the bag is not quite enough for our needs so in the late spring, summer and some of the autumn I supplement from the garden.  The rest of the year I visit the farmers market and use the veg I buy there to make soup, enough to last the month.  I bulk cook as much as I can with the veg I buy and then freeze it.  I was a bit late to the market this month so it was thin pickings at the veg stall I walked away with carrots, swede and broccoli and along with a very large courgette from my garden I have made the whole lot into soup.  Spicy Carrot, Broccoli and Stilton, Swede and, Courgette and Brie.

I have made up three of these recipes as I could not find one I liked or could eat in any of my cookbooks or on line.  I am not able to eat tomatoes, peppers, lemons or limes and use alternative ingredients in most recipes but with soups I prefer to just make up a recipe in the absence of one that uses ingredients that I can eat.

Spicy Carrot Soup
1 onion
500g carrots
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Pinch chilli powder or more depending on your taste
1.5 pints vegetable stock

Fry the onion in butter in a large saucepan until soft and clear.
Roughly chop the carrots.
Add the spices to the onions and stir in, fry gently for a minute.
Add the carrots and mix throughly to coat with the onion spicey mix.
Add the stock and cook until the carrots are soft.
Allow to cool a little and blend.

Broccoli and Stilton
Largish Head of Broccoli
1 onion
2 pints vegetable stock
100g Stilton

Roughly chop the broccoli heads and stalks into pieces and dice the onion.
Put into a pan with stock and boil until the broccoli is tender.
Allow to cool a little, blend and return to pan.
Chop Stilton and heat gently until melted.

Swede Soup
1 onion
400g swede
1 small potato
1 small carrot
Freshly grated nutmeg
2 pints vegetable stock

Dice the onion and fry gently in butter in a saucepan until soft and clear.
Peel and roughly chop the other veg, add to saucepan and fry gently for a few minutes.
Add the nutmeg and stir through.
Add the stock and stir, cook for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
Allow to cool a little and blend.

The fourth recipe is from this marvellous soup cookbook.

Courgette and Brie
450g Courgettes sliced
350g potatoes peeled and chopped
1 onion finely chopped
2 pints vegetable stock
225g Brie

Put all the ingredients except the Brie into a pan.
Bring to the boil and cook until the vegetables are tender.
Stir in the cheese until melted.
Allow to cool a little and blend.

I should add that both the cheeses used in these soups were also bought from the farmers market. This post has been included in a challenge Shop Local #2 hosted by Elizabeth at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

Knitting

23 October 2013


It is more of the same on the knitting and reading front this week.  The Garter Stitch Cardigan is growing I have completed the back and am now working on the right front.  The body of this cardigan is worked in one to the armholes at which point you divide the work and each section (fronts, back and sleeves) are worked separately.   I always forget, as I don't knit them that often, how quickly baby knits knit up.  When I read on blogs, folks who have knitted a baby garment in a week I wondered how they do it but if it is all you are knitting I can see now how easy it would be to do that.  

I have also been working on Slippers I have cast on the first of pair number four, the sole and heel are complete, the cuff is now growing.  I have finally got round to sharing my finished off Antler Cardigan in this post.

I am still reading The Elephant Keepers' Children and I am struggling to put this down now.  The story thus far has been building each of the characters weaving them into the narrative.  There are many characters in this book and they have such wonderful names, such as Professor Thorkild Thorlacius-Claptrap, a builder Svend Sewerman, a computer scientist Leonora Ticklepalate, a detective with a weakness for food and drink Albert Winehappy, I have found it easy to remember them!  Now all these characters are enmeshed into the narrative the pace is picking up to the point that it has become more of a page turner, I am intrigued as to where it will go next and have no idea how it will end.

Joining in with Tami and Ginny.

Finished

22 October 2013



I finally got round to finishing off two knitting projects that had been languishing in a drawer needing some attention.  It is so much easier to cast on a new one and exciting than to weave in ends, block and sew up seams.  After taking stock of how many Christmas projects I still had on my to do list I realised that if I did not pay some attention to my two large projects that I had finished knitting they would be ignored until January.  If I left them that long then, in the case of the jumper for my youngest, it wouldn't fit anymore!


Both these projects were my first attempt at cables.  I have long loved the patterns you can create with cabling one of my favourite jumpers is one that my granny knitted me for my eighteenth birthday, a traditional aran jumper.  I had always thought that knitting cables would be too difficult for me, that I would never reach those heady heights how wrong I was.

The purple jumper is taken from the book Easy Kids Knits by Claire Montgomerie and is my sixth project from this book.  As with all knitting patterns they are a matter of personal taste and this book is one I love.  I had to adapt the pattern slightly to get it to fit.  The body and sleeves are knitted to the wearers length but at the raglan opening you are meant to sew the buttons straight onto the raglan shaping on the sleeves without making a button band.  When I tried this garment on for size there was a gap between the buttonhole band and the top of the sleeve.  I had blocked it quite hard as I was worried it would not fit in this area but despite being a good fit everywhere else it was to small around the shoulders.  Luckily for me the addition of a button band on the edge of each sleeve fixed that and it now fits.  I am hoping that my daughter does no grow any wider in this area over the coming months as it won't fit her, if she doesn't then it may even fit her next autumn and winter too as the sleeves and the body have some growing room!  You can read my Ravelry notes here.

The green cardigan is a pattern from Tin Can Knits which you can buy on Ravelry.  The cables on this project were more complicated as was the structure.  The jumper was knitted as pieces which were sewn together, this cardigan was knitted in the round joining the sleeves in and then completing the cabled yoke.  This was not a portable project especially towards the end!  I love the way the cables create a beautiful yoke, this is defiantly a shape which suits me and a style I like.  The sizing of this pattern means that I could make them for my children too which I would love to one day.  Again this pattern was written so that you knit the sleeves and body to fit the wearer, I find that garments I buy are too long in the body and too short in the arms it is great to have a cardigan that covers my wrists!  I bought some beautiful blue yarn in the same sale that I bought the purple yarn used to knit the jumper I am really tempted to use it to knit another one of these for myself!  You can read my Ravelry notes here.



Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Moments...

21 October 2013

...this week of...

...happiness reading books together, the lovely comments on a post last week, my birthday flowers still going strong, watching the children splash in puddles, the opportunity to enter a generous giveaway

...sadness and mourning

...creating Lego models, watercolour pictures, printing with apples, bread by hand, apple cake

...reading the rather wonderful Elephant Keepers' Children

...learning about fractions, snakes, skinks and lizards, South American cultures, eels, how to knit

...thinking about maths games

...hoping I can remember to drink more water this week

...looking forward to my parents coming to visit at the weekend

Gratitudes

20 October 2013


Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...the few hours of sunshine we have had.

...a quiet hour each morning to myself it gives me time to prepare for the day.

...the continuing development of our weekly rhythm.

...listening in my children absorbed in play.

...enjoying art together.

...a fun afternoon out with friends despite finding our intended destination inexplicably closed.

...story time, a chapter a day I need to make a conscious effort to fit this into each day as the children really enjoy it.

...the realisation that you can fit into the day what you want to and that it is not about making time to fit things in it is about consciously deciding.

...hearty soups and stews in these cooler days.

...silence.

Preserving

17 October 2013



Welcome to the October 2013 Natural Living Blog Carnival: Meals that Keep.
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month, our members are talking about how they preserve food to reduce waste and stock their kitchens! Check out all of the posts to get recipes ideas and learn more about putting up food for your family.
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We eat seasonally and as locally as possible, we love the changes of vegetables and fruit this gives us that as we come towards the end of a season we can look forward to the vegetables from the next one.  Our local food comes from a variety of sources and this autumn we have been using many, we have some we have grown, some from a local veg bag scheme, some we have been given and some we have foraged from hedgerows and trees.  What we also have is a glut, an abundance of produce that we could not eat before it perished so we have turned our hand to preserving some of it to last us through the coming year.  We have tried old and tested methods and new ones.

Freezing

We are lucky to have the space to own a chest freezer, it sits in our garage and at this time of year is often quite full.  I am not very good at methodical storing in there so it is often in a mess, I know what is in there just can't always find it easily!  This year we have frozen fruit, we do so by spreading it out on a tray and placing in the freezer before bagging up and labelling, we do this in one pound quantities.  The exception to this is apples which I core, peel and slice thinly place in a bag and freeze.  This fruit usually ends up in puddings over the course of the year our favourite being crumble, I can empty the bag straight into the dish for defrosting cover with the topping (4oz flour, 2oz of butter rubbed in and 2oz of Demerara sugar for crunch).  I sometimes use the fruit in flapjacks, stirring it in to the mix from frozen.  This year we have frozen, black and white currants, rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries and apple in total over 20lbs of fruit.

Chutney


These are made using a combination of ingredients usually fruit, vinegar and sugar with added flavour from spices which are all cooked to thicken them and intensify the flavour.  I usually make apple chutney each year but we still have several jars in the pantry from previous years so with the weather turning cool and my tomatoes still being green I made some green tomato chutney using this recipe, which is an amalgam from those I found in my recipe books:




Green Tomato Chutney
750g green tomatoes chopped
500g shallots or onions peeled chopped
200g cooking apples peeled, cored and chopped
300ml vinegar
small piece of ginger peeled
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
100g raisins
1 dried chilli
1 tsp salt
200g brown sugar

Put tomatoes, onions and apples in a pan with half the vinegar, bring to the boil and cook for 30 minutes until tender.
Put chilli, ginger and mustards seeds in a muslin bag and tie, bruise with a rolling pin and add to pan with raisins.
Cook on a low heat stirring from time to time until mixture thickens.
Add salt, sugar and remaining vinegar stirring until sugar dissolves.
Cook until thickened again.
Remove muslin bag.
Pour into sterilised containers and seal.

Pickles


Towards the end of the summer when the temperatures start to cool we always have a glut of cucumbers. There are only so many cucumbers a family of four can eat in a week. Sadly these fruit do not store well for long periods, neither do they freeze. A few years ago we tried making picked cucumber and found they were delicious and make a good present as I have never seen thesefor sale. We use this recipe, my mother gave this to me and I am not sure where it came from:




Pickled Cucumber
3 large cucumbers
1 large onion
salt
570ml white wine vinegar
200g soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tbs mustard seeds

Slice cucumber thinly with the skins on, slice onion thinly.
Lay in layers in a colander sprinkling each layer with salt.
Put a plate with heavy weight on top and another underneath and leave to drain for 3 hours.
Put vinegar, sugar and spices in a pan and stir over a medium heat to dissolve sugar.
Add cucumber and onion slices bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and lift slices with a draining spoon into sterile jars.
Return vinegar to hear and boil for fifteen minutes, uncovered.
Pour over cucumber and onion slices and seal jars.
Leave for a month before using.

Ketchup

The chutney didn't really make a dent in my supply of green tomatoes I still had lots left. I cannot eat tomatoes so did not want to make any more chutney as we had plenty for my husband to eat. I searched for other recipes for preserving green tomatoes and found one for ketchup. This was tested a few days after making it at a barbecue, I am told it is delicious!  The bottle I made is in the middle of the Chutney picture above.

Green Tomato Ketchup
3lbs green tomatoes roughly chopped
1lb apples roughly chopped
1 medium onion roughly chopped
1/2lb sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
Pinch each of coriander, mustard, allspice, clove and ginger powders
1 dried chilli
1/2 pint cider vinegar

All the recipes I found (this is an amalgam of several) suggested finely chopping the tomatoes, apples and onions. Three pounds is a fair amount of tomatoes and after finely chopping a couple I went for the rough method and threw the whole lot (toms, apples and onions) in a food processor to let the machine do the work for me.
I put this and all the other ingredients in a large pan, bought it to the boil and simmered gently for a hour stirring occasionally.
Then you sieve the mix and return to the pan.
Reboil and simmer until mixture is desired thickness.
Bottle into sterilised containers.

Syrup

I tried making Rosehip Syrup a few years ago and it was so revolting that we threw it away. I think it probably didn't have enough sugar in it. Inspired by a friend who had made some this year I thought I would give it a go. Rosehips are high in Vitamin C and during WWII the government encouraged people to make the syrup due to the lack of citrus fruits. We have a Rosehip hedge growing down one side of our garden it does a good job of keeping some of the wind at bay, we live in a very windy place! So I picked some hips, trimmed them, weighed them, chucked them in a pan covered them with water and bought them to the boil. I left them of about twenty minutes boiling gently, then sieved the mix and returned to the pan with a little more water and the same weight of sugar as the weight of the rosehips at the start, heated gently to dissolve the sugar and poured into sterilised containers.
I have been enjoying this on my porridge for the last few weeks!


Jam

I have made a few jars of jam during the year, we don't eat much of it, a couple each of strawberry and raspberry. We picked a huge amount of apples from a local orchard and I wanted to find different ways to preserve them other than freezing and making chutney which is what I usually do. A search through my cookbooks found a recipe for apple butter from this book which is no longer in print.  My copy is falling apart it was the first vegetarian cookbook I bought, as a student, back in the 90s. Despite the name this is actually a thick, firm and delicious apple jam.



Apple Butter
3lb Cooking Apples
1 3/4 pt Water
Approx 3lb Golden Granulated Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon (optional)
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves (optional)

Wash and chop the apples without peeling or removing the cores.
Cover with water and simmer gently until pulpy.
Sieve and weigh the pulp and return to pan.
Add 3/4lb of sugar for every pound of apple pulp.
Add spices if using.
Heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved.
Boil until thick and creamy.
Pour into sterilised jars and seal.

I don't think this will last long in our house we have already eaten one jar!

Fruit Leather

I had never attempted to make these before and understood them to be easy to make. I did a lot of Internet research to work out what I needed to do before starting. The recipe, if you can call it that, was to cook your fruit sieve it, spread it on a baking tray and place in oven for the lowest setting for 12 hours simple right? It took me three attempts to make these. The lowest setting on my oven is 40°C which is not really warm enough I have found the ideal to be 60°C. All the blogs etc I looked at suggested spreading the fruit to a 1/4 inch which I did but again it did not dry as it was too thick, perhaps the writers do not actually know what 1/4 inch is! The ideal thickness for me was between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch.

I used apples to make these leathers but now I have found the best method to make them I will try this with other fruits next year as they come into season. My children love to snack on these.

I have had real fun making all these different preserves, I just hope they last the winter!
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Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival!
Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed:

Knitting

16 October 2013


I managed to finish off three projects this week, my Antler a Cable Jumper for my youngest, and a hat for my husband, all perfect for the colder weather we have had over the last week.  I will share pictures later in the week.  I had thought I would cast on a jumper for my eldest next but I realised that I still have quite a few projects to complete as Christmas presents so they are going to take priority for now.  I am going to stick to two projects on the needles one that I will do when my husband is around and slippers for when he isn't, he is receiving a pair so I don't want him to see them!  I have nearly completed the sixth slipper, the second of a third pair and then will be half way through, with so many other projects on the needles I have neglected these of late they are quick to knit if I work on them!

So I cast on a baby knit this week, a Garter Stitch Cardigan which I decided to do in stripes.  I had a few odd balls of baby suitable yarn in my stash one of which has lost it's ball band so I have no idea what it is.  I hope I have enough to complete the project, one of these balls could be a bit too short.  The pattern suggests three colours but you needed two balls of one colour which I didn't have.  I think I will make the arms a bit shorter if it looks like I am running out.

Reading, I am still enjoying the quirky The Elephant Keepers' Children by Peter Høeg.

Joining in with Tami and Ginny for sharing yarn projects and reading.

Moments..

14 October 2013



...sometimes just sometimes
a week is hard
it is long
emotions in high peaks and low troughs
sometimes

life has a beginning 
it has an end
a lifetime is the living in between

we celebrate the beginning 
as we go through life

we might marry
we celebrate the passing of the years

and then the end
we are sad
emotions tumbling

the news comes
the end is near
traveling through the night 
the worry

support through a wire
suddenly distances seem so vast
snippets of contact
nothing physical

the last breath was taken
no struggling or gasping
a peaceful end

talking much talking
making sense
rebuilding bridges

in the midst
a celebration seems wrong
my birthday 

my emotions are dancing
my actions are slow

my friends rally me
with small heartfelt gifts
I am surrounded by love

all this in the space of a week
sometimes just sometimes
a week is hard
it is long
sometimes

Gratitudes

13 October 2013


Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition,

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful,

This week I have been grateful for...

...rosehip syrup, made with foraged rosehips, on my porridge each morning,

...a peaceful start to the day as I get up before the children,

...a lift when I needed it,

...the solace of my friends in a difficult week,

...flowers and lovely presents from my wonderful friends on my birthday, totally unexpected,

...time to think,

...peace and calm when we all needed it,

...a wonderful afternoon out in some beautiful woods with a huge group of home educating families it  is a lovely community to be part of,

...my local farmers market,

...books.

Strength

11 October 2013

I often think about what my grandparents would have made of the choices and decisions I have made as a parent, sadly they all died before my children were born.  Would they have tried to impose their own views on me, would they have disapproved of what I am doing, are the choices we make when raising our children the same for each generation despite the different times we live in.

I was fortunate to know one of my great grandparents, my great gran was alive throughout my childhood we visited her often and I knew her well.  She was born in the 1890s which was a vastly different world to the one I grew up in and the one my own children are growing up in.  My granny, her daughter, was born at the end of WWI, my own mother her daughter at the end of WWII, they became mothers at the ages of 23, 25 and 26 respectively I waited until I was in my thirties.  All of these women gave up working when their children were born, they were expected to stay at home with their children and there was no such thing as maternity leave, my mother returned to work when my youngest sibling started school.  Do all these differences make us different parents?

I remember, when I was in my early twenties, staying with someone who was pregnant she was talking about co sleeping with her baby and that it was unusual in mainstream British society.  I talked to my mother about it and discovered that I had co slept with her for the first three years or so of my life and then I shared a bed with my brother.  My granny had done the same with all of her four children for the first months and years of their lives, they had a big family and very little room so it was practical for them on many levels.  It is what my mother knew so even if no one was doing so when she became a mother it was natural for her.  She didn't bat an eyelid when we did the same.

We have decided to home educate our children for now, a decision we did not take lightly.  I was worried about telling my mother especially as she had taught in primary schools for twenty five years thankfully she was totally supportive and informed me she would probably not send a child to school now either, she also told me that my great gran had fought with the authorities not to send her children to school until they were at least seven as she felt they were too young at five!

It is hard to know about the day to day parenting, how they spoke to their children, how they treated them, were they gentle, kind, considerate mothers or did they see their children as a nuisance and ignored them, were their children expected to be seen and not heard, were they deemed good if they behaved well (translates as doing what they are told all the time).  What I do know is how I was raised and that my mother does not intrude into the way I parent if she does not agree with what I do she does not tell me just lets me get on with it.  This could of course mean that her mother did and she hated it, I would prefer to think that this not the case that the women in my family have been and are strong mothers.  I don't mean in the physical sense I mean that we know our own minds and parent as we see is right rather than following the crowd because that is how we have been raised.

The challenge is to be yourself in a world that is trying to make you like everyone else

To raise a child to be an individual is hard work.  To raise them to be able to walk in the world as a confident person takes effort.  I am extremely fortunate to have been raised in such a family and I hope I can do the same for my children to continue in the path of my ancestors.


Knitting

09 October 2013


I have been doing as much finishing off as knitting projects this week.  I have some yarn to knit a cardigan for my eldest which I have really wanted to cast on this week but I have been disciplined, I have three projects that have been off the needles for some time that needed attention.  They have been languishing in a drawer for a few weeks so I set to and have been weaving in ends, blocking and sewing up.  I hope to be able to show you these in the next few days once I have sewn the buttons on my Antler Cardigan, sewn a lining in this hat and knitted some button bands and sewn the buttons on this cable jumper for my youngest.  The pattern did not call for button bands but there is a big gap on the jumper between the button hole band and the raglan edge of the sleeve, the jumper fits everywhere else so I guess my youngest is bigger in the shoulder area than the pattern.  I am hoping that creating a button band on each side will get rid of the gap, if it doesn't not sure what I will do then!

I finished reading Free to Learn and have returned to the The Elephant Keepers' Children this week luckily this is a book that you can dip in and out of and still keep up with what is going on, as like my knitting, it has been rather neglected of late.  It is an odd and surprisingly enjoyable read with some wonderfully named characters.

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along a sharing of knitting and reading.

Screens

08 October 2013


Welcome to the October 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Kids and Technology
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about their families' policies on screen time.
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If I was to draw up a list of the things that have given me the most to think about as a parent I think screens and screen time would be high up.  I have no experience to draw on from my own life.  I grew up in a screen free house, well mostly screen free.  There was no TV and a computer made an appearance some time around my early teens but it was not a computer as we know it today.  It was an early one of these which you had to program.  I spent a small amount of time on it early on but I preferred to be outside.  I did not really use a computer intensively until I started my first office based job in my late twenties, up until then I used them a little as a student and at work which was largely based outside.

We have no TV in our home, I have never lived with one but how you watch TV has changed with on demand software such as iplayer.  In some ways this is more addictive than watching 'programmed' TV as you can decide what content you watch and provided there is enough good content you could watch for hours.

We have a computer or a PC as they are now called which again is vastly different from those early days, you can purchase programmes written by others to enable you do a vast array of activities.  The advent of the Internet has changed our use of computers forever, it has become such a key part in the lives of so many around the world and changed the shape of the world for ever.  This again can become addictive as you weave your way around site after site playing games, reading blogs, researching etc.

We also have a digital projector and a large screen (which scrolls away) connected to one of these.  This system allows us to play DVDs, visual content on USBs and from an iPad.

All of these gadgets are easy to use and children can get to grips with them and navigate round them quickly.  They have been part of their lives since they were young so they have known nothing different, so what approach to managing them?  My eldest started to access the PC at around the age of five he watched a few programmes on CBeebies a BBC channel with programmes aimed at that age group.  The quality of the content on these programmes is high and I was happy for him to watch what he liked.  He would watch two or three at a time and then switch it off, at his behest.  As he got older and learnt to read he started to search the Internet himself mostly for research on topics he was interested in at the time.  Then at some point, I am not sure how old he was, he found the world of games and in he was sucked, rather than spending short bursts on the computer the periods got longer and longer and when he did finally come off he could be aggressive, demanding and not a particularly pleasant person to be around.  I knew what was causing it but I was unsure how to manage it.  I read about different strategies and we tried various methods.  I was reluctant to impose limits so we tried a period of self limiting, he decided when to come off but he stayed on for longer and longer periods I think the longest was three hours.  He has always wanted to go on the computer first thing after breakfast so I tried offering other activities but he was not interested he just wanted to go on the computer.  After trying various ways he now has an hour of games and no limit on other use.  The PC we have allows us to limit use so he uses that for games and after an hour it will shut down.  If he wishes to research or watch anything he does so on an iPad and will dip in and out of that during the day or sometimes not at all.   I have noticed that since introducing this he will happily come off the PC, and straight away engage in another activity. We have purposely not downloaded any games apps on the iPad and it does not support the type of games he likes to play.  I hope that as he gets older, he is nearly nine, he will use the PC less for games and then we can take the limit off, I have noticed recently that occasionally he is not playing games on there at all.  When we go away we do not take the iPads with us and they are not missed and if we are staying in a house with a PC he will not ask to use it. We are fortunate to own two different types of hardware for accessing the Internet which has allowed us to put this is place.

My youngest is not using the PC at all at the moment, she watches a few programmes occasionally on  iPlayer and the odd DVD.  I would say this happens about two or three times a week at the moment, her access is not limited and for the moment she is not particularly interested.

As a family we spend an evening or two a week watching a programme together, this is usually a documentary type programme from iPlayer often on wildlife, science or history.  We have watched and learnt about Romans,Greeks, Celts, Burrowing animals, Whales, Sharks, the Sea, Rivers, Endangered Species and much much more. We rarely if ever watch films as a family as we have found very few films that the children are happy to watch without them hiding behind the sofa. Like all aspects of parenting this is where we are at now, if you were to ask me what we were doing in six months I have no doubt it will be different.

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Carnival of Natural Parenting -- Hobo Mama and Code Name: MamaVisit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants (list will be updated throughout the day on October 8):
  • Has Technology Taken Away Childhood? — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama worries that technology is intruding on the basic premise of childhood - active play in all forms! Join her as she takes a brief look at how play has changed as technology becomes more integrated into the daily lives of our children.
  • Fostering a Healthy Relationship with Technology — Jenn at Adventures Down Under describes her children's love of screen time and how her family implements their philosophy and policies on technology.
  • Kids Chores for Tech PrivilegesCrunchy Con Mommy shares how tying chore completion to iPad privileges worked in her house to limit screen time and inspire voluntary room cleaning!
  • Screens — Without the benefit of her own experience, sustainablemum explains her family's use of technology in their home.
  • Screen Time - The Battle of Ideologies — Laura from Laura's Blog explains why she is a mom who prioritizes outdoor natural play for her kids but also lets them have ample screen time.
  • The Day My iPhone Died — Revolution Momma at Raising a Revolution questions the role technology plays in her life when she is devastated after losing her phone's picture collection from her daughter's first year.
  • Finding our Technological Balance — Meegs at A New Day talks about how she finds balance between wanting her daughter to enjoy all the amazing technology available to her, without it overwhelming the natural parenting she's striving for.
  • Raising kids who love TV — Lauren at Hobo Mama sometimes fears what children who love screentime will grow up to be … until she realizes they'll be just like her.
  • No Limits on Screen Time? Is that Natural? — Susan at Together Walking shares misconceptions and benefits of having no limits on technology and screen time in their home.
  • Screen Time — Jorje of Momma Jorje shares what is currently working (and what hasn't) regarding screen time in her household.
  • Positive Use of Technology with Kids — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells about her family's experiences with early technology, shares helpful resources from around the blogosphere, and speculates on what she'd do as a parent with young children today.
  • why i will never quit you, TV — How Emma of Your Fonder Heart came to terms with the fact that screen time is happening, and what balance looks like between real and virtual life for both her toddler AND herself.
  • Technology Speaks — Janet at Our Little Acorn finds many uses for technology - including giving her child a voice.
  • 5 Ways to Extend Children's Screen Time into Creative Learning Opportunities — Looking for a way to balance screen time with other fun learning experiences? Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares 5 fun ways to take your child's love of favorite shows or video games and turn them into creative educational activities.
  • What parents can learn about technology from teachers — Douglas Blane at Friendly Encounters discusses how technology in schools enhances children's learning, and where to find out more.
  • 5 Tips for a Peaceful Home — Megan of the Boho Mama and author at Natural Parents Network shares her favorite 5 tips for creating a peaceful home environment.
  • Technology and Natural Learning — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling writes about the importance of technology as a tool for natural, self-directed learning.
  • Babies and TechnologyJana Falls shares how her family has coped, changed their use of, relied on, and stopped using various forms of technology since their little man arrived on the scene
  • Kids and Technology — Rosemary at Rosmarinus Officinalis talks about the benefits of using technology with her preschooler, and includes a few of their favorite resources.
  • Using Technology to Your Advantage: Helping Children Find Balance — At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy discusses how technology can be used or abused and gives a few tips to help children learn balance.

Moments...

07 October 2013

...this week of...

...happiness finding some blackberries when out foraging, a walk in the woods, listening to the children playing together, a free supply of apples.

...sadness at my father in law I cannot get my head round what is happening, the police visited this week.

...creating lots of preserves, leaf prints, a railway track with town, a wild flower posy, a wristwarmer, a lining for a hat, apple and cheese cake.

...reading Free to Learn

...learning about trees, making fruit leather, snakes, dinosaurs, vitamins and minerals, reading maps.

...thinking about my father in law.

...wondering what to do on Wednesday.

...hoping to get a few knitting projects properly finished off this week they have been off the needles for ages.

...looking forward to a local wool event at the weekend!

Gratitudes

06 October 2013


Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...being able to join friends for their Michaelmas celebration,

...our weekly singing group,

...some advice on what to do with the sheep fleece I have been given,

...a lift to a friends house,

...a restful day at home with the children,

...a friend looking afternoon the children in the library whilst I did the shopping,

...an afternoon foraging for blackberries and rosehips with the children, although we did not find any we had a lovely walk in the sunshine they hadn't wanted to go but loved it once we were out,

...a rare treat of lunch out as a family,

...a free supply of apples from a neglected orchard near to us,

...a lovely posy of flowers picked by the children,

...finding a good spot for foraging blackberries and spending the morning picking them,

...a walk in a woods with my youngest she is able to identify so many trees now it is wonderful.


Creating

04 October 2013





We have been making a few more pieces for our autumn seasonal table this week to add to the pieces we made last week.

The fabric mâché bowl has now dried and been trimmed around the edges.  We are using it to store our finds from walks so far we have conkers, ash keys and three types of acorn from English, Sessile and Turkey Oak trees

We have successfully felted the little knitted bowl that I made.  I have made one of these little bowls before with a 100% wool yarn which felted fine, this time I used a yarn which contained 20% silk and was not sure if it would felt successfully.

I made two mice using a pattern from this book.  They are in the autumn section of the book but I suspect they will stay on our table all year round as they are a feature of our lives all year round.  Last winter we went away at Christmas and New Year and they moved into the house, in Spring and Summer they busy themselves eating as much of what we grow as they can.  We live on the edge of a village, surrounded by fields so it is hardly surprising.  The pattern suggests using beads for eyes but we did not have any of the right size and shade so I made french knots with some embroidery thread and I think they work fine.

We also made some little toadstools using acorns and and idea from here.  We painted the acorn tops red and added the white spots when it had dried.  The tops were glued to acorns, we chose narrower ones to give them a toadstool shape.  We had to sandpaper the bottom of the acorns to get them to stand up.

The leaves in our little tree were knitted using a pattern from here and we made the little acorn people at a friends house they were inspired from this delightful book.

Knitting

02 October 2013


It's funny how some weeks I knit lots and others practically nothing, that has been the case for me these past two weeks.  The 'lots' of knitting was in part due to two long car journeys to visit my parents, I mananged to knit up a pair of slippers one in each direction!  These were knit for my nephew for Christmas, I am now wondering whether they will fit him by then, his feet have grown a whole size since I last saw him, if he carries on growing they will be too small.  I may give these to my eldest and knit my nephew another bigger pair, oh these children who grow.  I have knit nothing much since until yesterday when I cast on another pair and have knit most of the sole.  I have also been knitting a wristwarmer and a few rows of a sleeve on a jumper for my youngest, in between times.

I have not been reading much lately either, writing this I am wondering what I have been doing!  I have been dipping in and out of Free to Learn an introduction to Steiner education.  I have read about several different types of education recently including Charlotte Mason and Montessori, we don't really have a particular style or method to our home education and it is always interesting to read about the different methods and how they work in practice.  I pick and choose the bits that I like the sound of and that might work for us!