Deciphering

As a mother I spend a large amount of time trying to work out what the words my children use actually mean.  When they started to talk it was about working out what they are actually saying.  As the main caregiver this was usually pretty easy as I spent so much time around them.   But as there speech became  more confident they started to talk about and use words that did not relate to what we were actually doing and it gets more challenging to work out what the words were.  Then you get a stage when they have a limited vocabulary but they use words in a more imaginative way, using the words they do have to comment or discuss something that is new to them.  Most of the time I get it right and when I don't it doesn't really matter.

Last night my youngest said something to me which really threw me, as we talked about what had been the best bit of the day for her she said, 'Nothing, I didn't have anyone to play with'.  We had been out for the afternoon to a home ed group, there was a real mix of ages about ten children in total.  We were walking and playing in some woods.  I had thought she had had a good afternoon but maybe I was wrong,  I am not entirely sure what she actually meant by these words, whether she felt excluded from the play that was going on, whether she didn't know how to join in, whether she felt intimidated, whether she felt overwhelmed by the number of children.  It may also be that she is comparing herself to her brother who, at four years her elder, has made friends and plays happily and confidently with them.  At her age though he was the same, watching from the edges, observing play, sometimes engaging and slowly but surely he made friends with other children.  He did not like big groups at her age especially if he did not know anyone.

My youngest is a sociable child, she loves to be around people.  She will chat happily to complete strangers when I am near.  She will play with other children she meets at parks, soft play wherever.  These are things her brother never did, we left the park if other children came along he needed it to himself.  All her play at the moment however is one on one and I can't help feeling that this is what she is most comfortable with and when there is no opportunity for this, and there wasn't really in the woods yesterday, she feels excluded.  She is still very young and learning about playing and cooperating with others these are really hard skills to learn and I hope that I can provide opportunities for her, as I have for her brother, to build lasting friendships.

Windows

The rhythm that I described last week continues to work well for us.

We have baked again this time cakes and biscuits, this is a good start to our week as it gives us a supply of snacks.  Before joining our singing group we sat and did a craft together making acorn people which we have placed on our seasonal table.  We have put our autumn books on our table but the tree is still looking summery.  We have some autumn leaves to put on it but as the leaves are still green where we live we have not changed them just yet.

We have lots of birthdays and other celebrations coming up in the next few weeks so we sat and made a few cards on Tuesday morning.  I am usually scrabbling around at the last minute to make a card or I don't send one at all, I will try and remember to do this each month in preparation.  In the afternoon we join our friends for our usual play date.  I was given a whole sheep fleece by one friend which I am hoping to dye, felt and spin.  I need to do some research before I can start this so if you can recommend and good websites or books on this I would love to hear about them.

After retuning home from all our various trips I asked the children what they really wanted to do once they were home.  My youngest wanted to go on a train ride and visit a castle which is what we did on Wednesday.  We were lucky with the weather as it has been really wet lately and it was a rare dry, sunny day.  We explored the castle and museum, had lunch and then found we had some spare time before returning to the train, we spent it in a secondhand bookshop close to the castle.  It is an absolute warren of a shop, as most secondhand bookshops usually are we came away with three books, I could have bought many more!

We managed to fit in a swim on Thursday as part of our trip into the local town.  Last week the pool was closed so we had to give it a miss, this week we had the pool to ourselves.  It is a great time to swim, between 3 and 4 pm only the small pool is open at that time as the larger pool is in use for adult swimming lessons.  It is unlikely to ever be that busy as most of the users of that pool will be picking their children up from school.  We have not managed to fit in swimming for a few weeks now, we missed the last few weeks of our outdoor village pool which is now closed for the season it will be good to fit this into our week once again.

Today we have stayed at home for the day.  We did some more science experiments this morning, we looked at vibrations and air waves which included playing some loud music!  We also looked at forces, inertia, acids and alkalis.  Our crystals did not grow that we set up last week we will have a go at them again with different materials this time.  In the afternoon my youngest and I had a go at making a bowl using strips of material and glue, fabric mâché an idea from a book we got out the library this week.  I hope to put this on our seasonal table to store our finds from walks.  If it works I can think of other bits and pieces that I could put in them, we need to wait for the glue to dry to find out.

At the beginning of the week the children got our farm set out.  This is a collection of animals, vehicles and buildings that we were given by some friends their children have grown now and they no longer had space for it.  They set up a farm using fences to make fields for various animals and the buildings for storage and sleeping.  Throughout the week in between other things that have been going on they have spent time together playing with their farm.  They have milked the cows, sheared the sheep, baled hay, fed the animals and driven vehicles around on various jobs.  The fields have changed shape and position through the week as have the animals within them.  It has been lovely to listen to them interacting throughout the week as they have managed their farm.

We have been mainly......

We started the week with our usual trip into town for shopping and the library.  We found a great story sack this week based on the story of the Little Red Hen which we have read several times.  We have played the game that came with it loads too, it was a number lotto game which I adapted to make it playable for my youngest.  She has loved that there is a game that she can play, she always wants to join in when I play games with my eldest but it is not always possible to adapt a game to allow her to join in whilst myself and my eldest play with other rules!  As we headed up for bed that evening my youngest decdied that the living room needed tidying up and put everything away!  

The next day we headed south for our usual play date with friends.  It was a much better week than last week.  Sadly this is the last time we will all meet up for a while and the last time at that house.  Our friends have bought a new house and need a break from us all meeting at theirs whilst they pack up and move!  We hope to be back together at their new place next month.

On Wednesday we were joined at our house for lunch and play with friends.  We had hoped to go out but it was very wet and the children seemed very happy to play inside.

We headed south the next day to join friends for lunch at their house before heading out to a local to them nature reserve.  It looked like it was going to be a wet afternoon as it started to rain as we arrived but it was short lived.  We had a little walk round before stopping at the adventure playground for a play and snack.  We headed back once we were starting to cool, and once we had managed to rustle up enough money to leave the car park, I ended up 'borrowing' money from the centre to pay for it!  We stayed with our friends for tea which was most welcome, any food that I do not have to cook is welcome for me!

Friday we had a quiet day at home, playing, reading and chilling it was great.

The weekend started with an inspiring day out to the farm where our veg box comes from and finished with Daddy coming home.  He set off very early in the morning and was a welcome suprise and joined us for lunch.  We now have a week at home together before setting off on a family holiday.

We have been mainly.........

creating this week,  most of it involving a mess!

I have made a new set of playsilks for the children this week, which involved the sewing machine sitting on the dining room table for a few days, fighting for space with the paper, coloured pencils, drawings and lego. The silks were the object of much joy as always.  Many dens have been made in various parts of the house and then filled with random objects.  If I can't find something usually go look in the den!  I had a small amount of material of each colour left after making them this time, I think I will make some streamers with them and see what play evolves from them.

At a friends house we made a fire outside and cooked toast and crumpets on it covered in butter and jam they tasted delicious.

We had a go at making sourdough bread.  The starter has been growing on the side for a week or so.  The dough was a bit sticky at first and got everywhere, my youngest thought it was great fun (I am still finding harden bits of dough in the oddest of places!).  Eventually we managed to knead it to something resembling a dough with less stick and some gluten.  It turned into a very palatable loaf and lasted a day!

The home ed group were making mini pizza's when we met this week.  We put spinach sauce (spinach, onion, garlic and nutmeg) cheese and olives on ours, they were very tasty.  I will make them again as a lunch as they were quick and easy, with homemade dough from the breadmaker.

Lego has been played with extensively this week.  My youngest loves the minifigures.  Setting them on a board with various objects either those that come with the figures or using bricks.  My oldest made and played with models some built from instructions, but most from his imagination, we have watched Cars 2 recently so has been making various models of things in the film using bricks and other pieces.

I bought the children some new colouring pencils at the end of the week.  They both love to draw and my eldest spends hours each week drawing complex pictures.  I felt the investment would be worth while.  It is wonderful to watch the pictures coming out the paper and watching them as they are concentrating hard on what they are doing, totally absorbed.

My eldest took a recent drawing to Beavers to show the colony for a badge he is working towards.  I thought that he would only want to talk about it to the leaders.  How wrong I was he showed it to all the other children and talked about what was in the picture.  I wish I had been there, he was really confident about it.  He would not have wanted to do that even six months ago he has blossomed with confidence recently, I am so glad he has been able to do this at his own pace.