October: Finding Our Rhythm Again

We've begun to find our feet again or at least I finally have and feel a lot more focused and ordered about home ed etc. We don't usually take a big break over the summer but this year we had to and it feels good to be running at normal pace again. 

Gabe is really enjoying history and started the year with a mini Romans project so we headed over to the Rockbourne roman villa just in time as it happened to be their last day of the season.

We moved into a new caravan which is a little bigger than the last which has us all sighing with relief. 

And we went to a new teens group which happened to have a few young siblings the perfect age for Ayla and a helper so they could make cookies for everyone.

Playing with autumn leaves.

The young two and I started a Studio Ghibli four week art course as everyone in the house loves the movies, and we began with soot sprites.  

Good old Baker Ross for some quick and easy halloween crafts to buy me work time. 

Feeding the ducks while waiting for Rainbows to start. 

A pause on the way home when we saw the fog creeping in and making the forest magical. 

They've been watching and talking about Peter Pan a lot and we randomly found this cardboard ship to build and decorate, which lead to a great day of pirates and lost boys. 

Pumpkin carving and pie making at Embers. 

Ayla's Kiwi crate this month was carnival themed and she made a bunch of games, this hook the duck being her favourite. 

Teaching Ayla crayon resist art with spider webs. 

Getting ready for her Rainbows Halloween party with Orion's help. 

And straight from there to discounted seats in the gods to watch the Northern Ballet's production of Little Mermaid which all four loved. 

Inspired by his biology work this week we created some eye pictures. 

And made black pompom soot sprites. 

Class two of the Ghibli course was of course Totoro and we drew three different types which naturally lead to rewatching the film.  

Orion took part in the National Boys In Dance day and was named a finalist in there search for this year's ambassador. 

We finally managed to watch a solar eclipse. It was only partial but the clouds cleared and we used coloured lens to be able to see the 'bite out of the apple' so clearly. 

Another halloween themed art project, to make a layered spooky cauldron picture with cottonwool wisps of smoke.

There's nothing like the forest at this time of year. 

September 2020 part one

 September completely caught me off guard. Somehow I had told myself that everything would be 'back to normal', the kids would have their classes and the world would make sense again. That did not happen. Everything was the same but different. Everything off to one side instead of inline. That combined with our first year of GCSE exams for Orion and September became a very hard month. But with the smallest forcing us all to play and get outside, we made it through. 

Who wouldn't want to drive a giant acorn?

I started following a nature curriculum with the small two again in September. I've been doing it off and on for the last few years with the middle two and I think even with Orion for a while, but this time a group of parents have gotten together to make a weekly meet up on a Monday to do themed activities based on the subject of the week. 

This was 'seeds' week, so they made bird feeders to hang in the trees.

This is my proudest moment of September... all four in one photo OUTSIDE!!! I'm always on the move but rarely with all four at the same time which is great for them but leaves my life pretty hectic and intense. Getting everyone to come out just for a wander is special and much loved by me. 

Climbing back into the fairy tree of last month to show the big sibs.

A very happy Mum and Gabe after lots of blackberry picking.

More seeds week work, this time making sycamore and acorn peg people.

A very funny moment at a theatre history workshop I organised with Treehouse Theatre to learn about the Great Fire of London. 

Back at nature group on bugs week and collecting things for a bug hotel.

Investigating the dead beetles they had found and putting the finishing touches to their hotel before putting them in the garden.