Tuesday 20 July 2010

We are back...

What the Home Educators Summer Festival (HESFES) means to us...

Practising circus skills:



Developing stunt skills (strapped with bungee cords to a water carrier!):

Creating marvellous things out of balsa wood:

Secret rendevous in children's tents:




Sharing campfires every night:



Making and listening to music:


Sweatshirts nearly as loud as the music:




Watching movies at the Groovie Movie tent:


Dusting off those big hats and old (2005) HESFES t-shirts:


Making hula hoops:

Remembering old skills:

Making new friends:

And joining up with old ones:

Searching for the Home Education crock of gold at the end of that rainbow that appears every year (and trying to forget about the stomach bugs, scary toilets, home-made arrows shot in eyes, children's minor punch ups, the tears, tantrums and nits):

Staying up way past bedtime:
And finally...
recovering from a busy week:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been waiting for your update! I hope you are all feeling well in the belly area now :) I missed you over on the yahoo group as there was no one there to back me up in 'No, the the LA *really* aren't visiting you to be your friend' thread :(

MadameSmokinGun said...

Well hello!!! I have finally found a way of accessing you - albeit a bit wind-y. And what alot of blogs I had to catch up on.....

Looks like you had a great HESFES - my Minx did too. we also have a wonderful hula-hoop in the garden, not to mention a thousand other wonderful things.

Maybe see you there myself next year - will send Mr GPants off on a golfing holiday without us.

Big mamma frog said...

parasombra, yes I noticed you were rather alone on that argument without all the regulars on the list :)

It's just SO important for newbie HEers to know that they don't have to have a visit. Having been in the school system so long I would easily have fallen into the 'Eager to please the LA, pat me on the back and give me a gold star' mentality, especially during my first wobbly uncertain years of HE. Thankfully I was never put in that position and gradually stood on my own HE feet thanks to the support and advice from the people who could actually help me, i.e. the HE network.

Big mamma frog said...

MSG - yes perhaps we might meet over a wobbly bits hula-hooping session next year.

My kids rejected most of the workshops this year in preference to running feral, so at least I didn't come home with a car full of woven nature crafts and half-finished clay items.

Lynn said...

Sounds great fun! All pics fab but just adore the last one:-) xx

MadameSmokinGun said...

I just showed your pictures to my Minx.

'Is that B's tent?'

'Is that our swingball?'

and a big 'Awwwww' for the last one. You HAVE to have that framed - it's so gorgeous.

Big mamma frog said...

It quite possibly could have been anyone's swingball, although I think our next door tenters claimed it as they left.

Quite bizarre don't you think that something considered to be a weapon of mass maiming in the early 80s is reintroduced as a plaything in the Health & Safety obsessed noughties. I never have discovered the purpose of swingball, but I still have the scars from childhood encounters.

Carol said...

Sounds SOOOOOO idyllic!

Wish we could have been there.......oh, hang on a minute........we WERE there. My memories are a little different.

Still, our stomachs have landed, all eyes are in tact and so far there are no holes in the side of the house.

Anonymous said...

HESFES looks really good fun! We are still working up to doing something like that. Ok, I now need to look up how to make a hula hoop as they look lots of fun...