Flying times again.

You know it's been busy.

There has been sickness, there has been HesFes, there has been trips to castles in far off lands (Wales is another country, after all) and many little things inbetween.

I've also taken an intentional holiday from the internet, as I was suffering from information overload, as highlighted in this clever lady's blog post. I spring cleaned my reader, and unsubscribed from some feeds. This was incredibly hard for me to do! The sense that I may "miss some thing" was nagging away at my brain, but in truth my paper journal and my online bookmarks are overflowing with more ideas and inspiration than one person will ever need in a life time. So, with this in mind I went through and purged. Then I made myself keep away for a while, and actually DO things in the real world. It was fun.

I've been a Domestic Goddess and baked lots. (That's about as far as my D Goddess status goes. I baulk at house work and especially window cleaning - mostly as Shrek is rather taken to licking the cleaned windows as he likes our cleaner - a lemon and vinegar combo - may be I should switch to Windowlene, that would give him a shock.)

I've given up punctuation and coherent sentences too, by the looks of things.

I've been scheming and planning activities for the children, and a history timeline is in the offing.

I went on a short photography course, to learn about taking wildlife photos and landscapes. It was inspiring stuff and made want to learn more and buy a macro lens, but that will have to wait as the washing machine died and apparently clean clothes are more essential than close ups of bumble bees. Pah. So you will have to be content with these:


I chopped through my middle finger when cutting up apples for the smalls - right through the nail which was unpleasant.

I've been contemplating our learning style (ha!) and looking at our achievements over the past academic year. There has been more than I realised. By far the biggest one is in my outlook. I started out believing that the only way to prove we were learning was to do a worksheet. We still have some knocking about, but the best way for me to see what my children know is by talking to them.

Until yesterday lunch time, I had no idea that Eb had such intimate knowledge of the early Triassic period. I didn't even realise he understood about prehistoric time periods, but apparently he does. He is also able to group dinosaurs from each period by carnivore and herbivore. Most of this has been learnt by playing (gasp) a computer game. This kick started his interest in dinosaurs beyond T-Rex and Diplodocus and took him on a quest to read up and study the less well known dinos. He did most of this studying in his bed, surrounded by books and models and a notepad stuffed full of diagrams and notes. It is self motivated learning, and I can see the benefits. He has absorbed the information far better this way than my tick-box-worksheet method of old.

Mb created two of these monsters:
With the help of a beloved Uncle (my little brother) who came to stay. It took them four hours, and there were many, many concept cars drawn on paper before the dream was realised. Eight Glue gun sticks later, and this was the end product. They are both very proud. Next in production is a helicopter.

Shrek has taken to wearing his big sisters old cycle helmet. In this photo he is at least on a trike, but he is trying to wear it every where, including the bath.
Od has been working hard, practising her violin and teaching herself sketching from a little book each day. If she lets me, I will publish some of her drawings in a future post.

We've been out walking nearly every day - save for the sick days. There was trespassing in a field of corn:


Life is good.