Spacesuits, wet feet and that darned BLUE PETER BADGE

A bit of catch up blogging and some photos of our recent trips away.



A few weekends ago - while dh decorated the lounge - I went away with the kids to visit friends in Nottingham. We went via The National Space Centre at Leicester. Well worth a visit and good value as you can exchange your day ticket for a year's pass. Unfortunately, although the home educator's discounts are very good, we couldnt' make use of them AND have the year's pass, so we paid in full.

Ok, so we live quite a distance from Leicester, and I don't think we'll be having frequent visits to the centre, but it'll give us an excuse to go and see our friends again.

Ds1 being David Bailey (though I'm guessing David Bailey would have chosen a more attractive model to photograph)

And ds2, trying on a spacesuit for size. Hmm...perhaps black would be more slimming?

Here's ds2 (and ds1 below) exploring a local park, just over the county border.

One thing I can say about Nottinghamshire and its nearby counties is that they seem to have amazing areas for kids to play; both the formal playgrounds and the less-formal parks. This particular park had lots of man-made follies, huge earth mounds, tree trunks, little streams, a huge lake, and rocks placed perfectly to be climbed on and explored. And so much space!! What would our equivalent be around here? A dishevelled piece of 1970s play equipment (disabled because it's considered too dangerous to play on), some pathetic attempt to entertain teens, and some muddy dog-poo encrusted grass. Ok, ok, exaggerating maybe, but I can't help thinking that the people who design our local playgrounds obviously don't have any contact with children...

Anyway, rant over..here are some more photos of our outings when we were in Nottingham:

Crossing the stepping stones.

Unfortunately you can't see it in this photo, but at one point across the river the stones were under water. And yes, I did get wet feet!

Fab scenery! And ds2 posing.

As you can see the sun was shining, but that wind...brrrr...hence the coats.Yep, I could certainly tell we were Up North; there was a definite temperature difference for us soft southerners lol.

It seems the older I get, the less hardy I become.

And the best bit of all. Eating ice cream afterwards!

Well that was our trip to Nottingham. I have more photos which may appear on the blog at a later date, AND I still need to post about our weekend in London. But maybe that'll be tomorrow.

AND some FAB news!

Do you remember ages and ages ago ds1 sent in a letter to Blue Peter with copies of the animations he'd worked on? Well we hadn't heard and I just assumed as months had gone by that either they had lost the letter, or it just wasn't good enough to get a badge. Anyway today he was sent a Blue Peter Badge!!! Naturally he's well-chuffed. And I'm pleased too cos it gets him in free to loads of places (with a paying adult of course, but hey, still good news). Ds2 is feeling a bit put out though, so we'll have to come up with something for him to write about or do. Anyway, it shows it's worth doing these things. If you're interested in your child(ren) having a go see http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/central/badges/

And you can see the long drawn-out process that it took us to actually getting the badge from these blog pages. Here are all the blog references to the Blue Peter badge, starting in March last year!!

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/03/you-call-that-snow.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/04/long-time-no-see.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/04/back-in-action.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/05/today-has-been-day-of-doing-very-little.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/06/been-few-days-since-ive-written-on-blog.html

http://the-chicken-shed.blogspot.com/2008/06/as-we-were-coming-back-from-trip-to.html

Well, my laptop battery is dying so I'd best end this blog entry now. Will try and play more catch-up tomorrow.

Postman Pat (should be given the sack)

As we were coming back from a trip to the library and the post office I let dd1 post a couple of letters in the post box near our house. She stood on tip-toe and hurried to do it as the Postal van pulled up.

Seeing the postman coming to collect the mail, we waited and watched as he unlocked the door and began to put the post into his sack. I thought it might be interesting for the kids to watch. He opened his sack, grabbed handfuls of letters, screwed and scrunched and stuffed them into the sack pushing them down firmly with his fist until the handful was squashed down into the sack as much as possible. We watched as our letters (2 DVDs) in the next handful were given the same forceful treatment. He waved his scanner at the barcode inside the postbox, slammed the door shut and got back into his van.

As we walked away up the road ds1 piped up 'The postman isn't very gentle with the post is he?'
'No, he's not', I replied, wondering just how badly our post was treated when there wasn't an audience watching!

I finally got around to posting ds1's Blue Peter Badge 'letter' at the Post Office this morning. I'm so glad I only paid for 2nd class post - looking at how the mail is treated I think I'd feel really ripped off if I'd paid for 1st class...

Bracknell Forest and Blue Peter Badge

[this was edited March 2009 to add a title to the blog entry]

Been a few days since I've written on the blog (explanation later), but we had a lovely time celebrating dh's birthday on Saturday at Bracknell Forest. The kids spent quite a bit of time playing in the fantastic playgrounds, running around with sticks, climbing up the wooden fort etc. We probably could have spent all day outside doing just this (for free), but I bought some tickets for the 'Look-Out centre' - a hands-on science centre that far excels anything we have locally.

Trying out the drum machine

Demonstrating on the drums, before being pulled off by his brother!

(Sorry, video is wrong way around!)

I even splashed out and bought them tickets to the 'Spies' science show that was put on at regular intervals, though I did have regrets about this afterwards as we all found it rather disappointing. I suppose having 2 scientists for parents everything aimed at my kids' age group is a bit dumbed-down for them. It did do one thing for me though, I left the show freshly inspired that even a wallflower like me could do a better job (momentary feeling of smugness and confidence) and with ambitions for future job-hunting... Plus it gave the kids the idea that setting fire to baking powder was a good idea. Do I want to encourage that? I'm not sure.

Change the pitch of your voice

The Castle fort in the playground

Chilling out!

Stopped on the way home for a pizza which was lovely.

Sadly not so lovely at 3am. I suppose it's a sign of our financial situation when I'm more concerned about how much the pizza cost that I'm throwing up - and what a waste of money it was - than the fact that I feel dreadful. By 6am I had visions of one of the Italian chefs doing something really nasty to my pizza to get back at dh for trying to teach the kids Italian in a very loud voice in the restaurant (he can't speak Italian), but that was probably just a moment of paranoia {g}.

So, Sunday was a washout and I spent all day in bed feeling lousy. Thankfully dh took the initiative and got the kids out with their bikes to the park, something I've been promising them for ages, but with the 'bad back' situation haven't been able to. Actually I think dh was avoiding having to 'nurse' me (not something either of us are good at) and probably felt that taking 3 boisterous kids out for the afternoon was a preferable option!

Still feeling washed out today which hasn't made it a great day for home educating. ds1 finally finished typing out his Blue Peter badge application after some gentle nagging by me. The words 'blood' and 'stone' come to mind lol, but at least it's done now and ready to post tomorrow. Sometimes I try and visualise him in a typical school setting and wonder how any teacher would cope with a child who can take an hour to write a single sentence. Bless him. The school system must be full of lots of square pegs trying to fit into round holes. The only holes we have here are the ones that ds1 keeps chewing in the top of his t-shirts and the black hole that all the odd socks disappear into, oh and the hole that should be there if I ever get around to clearing all that clutter that I keep promising to. That's enough holes for one household.

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Recently I've been revising my thoughts about our home education and wondering how I can possibly meet the needs of 3 very different children. How do other home educators manage? I'm not sure if they ever do. Of course school is always an option lurking in the background, but still very much a last resort, however many times I threaten the kids with it {g}.

There are a couple of village schools we could check out, and I suppose there is always the possibility that they might be so desperate for pupils that they would consider a flexi-school arrangement, so I like to keep this as my emergency plan for when things get really bad. Plan B or C or even a bit further down the alphabet, around S.


Of course my children have been out of school for so long now that I'm not sure how easy it would be for them to integrate into the system. Or perhaps it's me who would find it difficult to integrate back into the system. Just the thought of being told what to put in their lunchbox each day or told what colour socks to dress the kids in could potentially put me into a very challenging mood! Could I wash school uniforms and sew on all those name labels in without some feeling of resentment? Could I conform and let someone else tell my children what to do? Methinks not!


Our education has mostly been ruled by the learning style and needs of ds1. I guess this happens with most home educating families, the eldest child dictates the path we take.When I 'offload' to friends who have kids at school, their automatic solution to everything, to every problem, is for me to put the kids into school. But again and again when I look at this I realise it wouldn't solve anything, all it would do is exchange one set of problems for another.

So school is out of the question right now. And with ds1 only a few years off secondary schooling, I can't see any change of decision then. Secondary schooling around here is an even more scary prospect. Would I willingly and knowingly feed my kids to the lions? Daft question really.

So we have to decide how to move forward. How to meet their needs, so that each of them gets the best chances to develop their talents. I'm still trying to work out how that can be done.

A day of doing very little...

Today has been a day of doing very little it seems.

I had grand plans to make it to our local regular home ed group, but the car was still at the garage being fixed (broken cam belt) and we were waiting to find out just how serious the problem was. Apparently broken cam belts often 'write off' a car engine and the thought of having to spend £1000+ on fixing the car - or having to buy another one - has been at the back of our minds for the past week since the darn thing packed up. Fortunately it seems as if the car has escaped further damage, and although we're wary that there might be some other problems with the car I drove it to work tonight after the garage put a new cam belt in it. Actually I don't know anything about cars or how they work, and don't really have any inclination to learn. I figure I have enough jobs around the house and if I start learning about the car it will then become my job as well. Nah! Sometimes there are advantages to staying ignorant about these things. I just know that it's a bummer when my back AND the car break down at the same time and that I'm relieved when one - or preferably both - are fixed!

Go-karting down the driveway

So no home ed group today. Ds1 was prompted by me to spend some time this morning writing out his application for a Blue Peter badge. It was a long slow laborious task. First we discussed what he would like to/ought to write. Then, consulting with him, I wrote a couple of paragraphs on a scrap of paper. All he had to do then was type up the sentences in a word document. Boy, it took ages! I think it must have taken over an hour and he typed up about 6 or 7 sentences! I sure hope these Blue Peter guys appreciate the effort (child's and parent's!) that has gone into this application. Still, if he gets a badge and I can get him into Legoland for free then I guess it'll be worth it. Just have to come up with an idea for ds2 then, so they can both get in free.

The rest of the day the kids mostly just mooched around. Dd1 spent some time drawing pictures of her brothers and the dog, which are really rather cute - big smiley lopsided people and animals! At the moment I'm keeping them all pegged up from a string that hangs across one of the walls in our lounge, but if she gets too prolific I might have to thin them out a bit. She's only started drawing things over the past fortnight, before then we just had a few scribbles and the occasional amoebic blob with eyes. The progress is quite spectacular. Still, it's often the way with most of the things the kids learn. If I keep well out of the way they seem to suddenly make great leaps in their knowledge or ability. If I try to teach or interfere, then all is lost!

Spent much of the day today trying to browse the internet for dh's birthday present. I'm always lousy at getting him something decent for his birthday because for whatever reason, May is either very busy, or in some way a complete washout due to illness, pregnancy or other reasons. This time I've ordered something off the internet (I'm running out of time and energy and health to go shopping in town) and spent far more money than I was intending. Oh sod it. Sometimes when you're skint, being even more skint doesn't seem like a big deal does it? {g} Ah well, so much for all my frugleness of the past few weeks! Anyway, I sold the travelcot to a guy today for 20 quid, so that's a little bit to go in the pot (yeah the bottomless pot, that's the one!)

Have managed over the past few days to put a few bean poles in the garden where dh has dug and also planted some quite large tomato plants, but haven't got much further with the garden. Moved some of the rampant jerusalem artichokes to a more useful place, but there are still loads of stray plants that have taken over one of my raised beds. Even total neglect doesn't seem to kill them off! Looking on the bright side, at least they are pretty, even if they are in the wrong place. And all these plants came from just from a few uneaten organic veg-box tubers that I threw into the compost bin. Boy, they are survivors!

Despite trying to downsize a bit this year, I have lots to be planted at the allotment - greens, tomato plants, runner beans, french marigold plants, leeks, onions, seed potatoes (found another 2 bags of them in the shed - arrgghh!), and well, lots of other things. Have also been trying to pot up my pepper/chilli pepper plants into their permanent pots in the greenhouse, but I'm finding it all difficult work with my back still not too good. Sciatica came back with a vengence this afternoon (probably because I'd been sat in one position too long in front of the computer) and the terror of yet another fortnight in agony on the sofa is ever present. I need to phone the doctor to go back and see him to 'review options' (as he put it), but am putting it off. He's a bit of a tosser, totally unsympathetic and he's managed to drive me to despair on several occasions ( I'm not sure that patients sobbing on the way home from the doctor is one of the NHS targets!). I have a new surname for him, but don't think it's appropriate to post on a blog! So, will try and summon up some courage tomorrow to make an appointment and then if I get no luck I'll try another doctor. Someone human perhaps...{g}

As for the 'flight' project that we started a while back, well, it's been making slow progress. I really need to focus and get the kids doing something more structured as we seem to be drifting from day to day. They are still learning things, but with the back and car 'situation' we've got out of our routines recently and it's been hard for us all to be so housebound. Ranted big time at the kids yesterday. Apologised afterwards, but I think at least some of it was warranted. The kids really need to start pulling their weight around the house, helping me out and cooperating, or the situation is just going to become impossible. Even the threat of school didn't seem to have much of an effect. Darn! Must have used that one a bit too much!

Back in action

Wow! I can't believe how long it is since I added an entry to the blog - 2 weeks at least!

Well, mostly it can be blamed on my continuing back problems, which are becoming a pain in the u know what! I am mobile - stiff but mobile - and the chiropracter has to a certain extent fixed me a bit, but it feels like it will be a long time till I'm back up to full working function again. However I am finally off all painkillers, apart from the occasional ibuprofen, and glad to be so. Felt so rough the week after I stopped the strong stuff that I thought I was coming down with something yukky, but I think it was just the after effects. I still have dry skin across my knuckles and I'm sure some of my hair fell out while on these horrible tablets. Hmm..didn't see either of those side effects listed on the leaflet inside the box, maybe I'm unique in my reaction!

So we have been out and about a little and I'm able to drive (stiffly) now. We've started going back to a fortnightly home education group that we haven't been to for ages. I'm not sure if the boys will participate in any of the activities (they seem to prefer to run around outside on the fields!), but I figure we'll give it a try and see how it goes. Poor Jack the dog has had fewer walks and run arounds than usual, but I'm hoping things will improve slowly. I managed to take him 'round the block' today without coming back in too much pain, so I guess that's an improvement. Thankfully now he's turned into a big boy and learnt to cock his leg, we have frequent stops all the way around the block to 'mark his territory', which suits my awkward gait and pain aversion strategy at the moment!

The MRI scan that I had a few weeks ago (not such a long waiting list afterall) apparently showed a bulge in one of the discs. The doc said that this disc wasn't impinging on any nerves (oh yeah? well something bl**dy well has been!). So as you may have guessed the doctor's not been particularly helpful or sympathetic so far - he was the one who visited while I was laying in agony on the sofa, waggled my legs around (lots), appeared to have no idea about backs and when I said 'but I home educate and I've got 3 kids to looks after' said ' ah well, gotta go now'.

Having looked up 'disc' and 'bulge' on the web, I can't say I'm much more informed, except that lots of people have it asymptomatically, and it's basically a sign of getting old and worn out - well if I didn't feel old and decrepid beforehand I certainly do now. Not yet 40 and having had restricted activity for the past 10 years, I'm desperate to get a little bit of youth - or even a bit of middleagedom - in before I'm consigned to being totally and truly OLD. Looks like my dream of owning a smallholding might have to be downsized considerably!

So I have to make an appointment mid May to 'discuss options' with this doctor, which sounds rather a rather gloomy prospect. If it's the usual NHS options, then I have a pessimistic suspicion the advice will be 'take painkillers and work through the pain'. After 10 years of on-off back pain, and several fobbed off attempts at getting some help from doctors/midwives/other health professionals, I have very little faith that anything will be done to help me on the NHS. Looks like more expense for alternative therapy then...

Despite all this I'm glad to be up on my feet, off the crutches and at least a partly capable parent. I'm not sure I was much of a capable parent before my back problems, but at least I could pick Lego up off the floor which does come in handy in a house with two Lego-mad boys! On the subject of lego, I'm keen to take the kids to Legoland before the boys' annual passes run out at the end of May. However, considering that the last trip we made to Legoland was in the week running up to my back meltdown, it's probably not such a good idea. Still trying to get ds1 to finish off his application for a Blue Peter badge, so that I don't have to use up all our Tesco vouchers to get more Legoland passes. I've copied what I needed to onto CDs and he just needs to write some blurb to accompany it. Ah, well that's the tricky part, getting ds1 to do writing. Even typing is fairly tortuous, so it might be a while before it's done.

We've had a few things going on in the home ed 'area'. The boys have made some mini rafts with some friends who came over and we have ambitions to make full-size products eventually that will really float and carry people. We're yet to find the perfect launching spot, or indeed anything to make the full-size rafts out of, but the idea is there.

The kids have several 'overdue' letters owed to penfriends. Mental reminder to get them sweating over pens/keyboards some time in the next week.

I have plans also to do some ongoing 'project' on aircraft, perhaps incorporating a workshop or two and a museum visit (that'll be a job for dh I reckon). Also some model plane/paper plane making and other science projects. Not sure exactly when we'll get started on these as the ideas are coming from me and we - or should I say I- seem to have lost momentum at the moment. I'm sure it will all fall back into place soon. (Or fall off the precipice!)

The allotment is looking quite good at the moment because the weeds haven't started growing yet where my parents have dug over. The kids and I managed to plant some beans and mangetout peas the other day, but there are lots of 'chitted' potatoes to go in and I'll have to get dh to dig the trenches (daren't take a spade to it myself). I'm really not sure how it will all pan out with the gardening this year. There are loads of seedlings in the greenhouse to be planted out once frosts have gone, and I'm hoping I'll get to plant carrots, beetroot etc at the allotment soon, but I think I'll have to restrict my ambitions for the next few months. The kids' plot needs some attention too and we need to find some topsoil or compost for their raised beds, but again, that all feels rather daunting at the moment. No doubt the other allotmentees will be grumbling soon about 'perennial weeds' and other moanings about my plots or my children or my dog (sadly some seem to make a fulltime career out of complaining), but there's not much I can do about it and we only have a limited amount of weed suppressant material to cover the dug areas.

Well we're off camping for a few days very soon to try out our new super huge (embarrassingly huge) tent, so have been doing a little preparation/packing over the past few days. The kids are so keen that they have already packed -ds1's bag was quite well packed, but I think ds2 may have got a little distracted as he'd only managed to pack 2 pairs of pants and socks and that was it! It could have been quite a minimalist camping trip if I hadn't checked. I'm hoping my back will hold out for the trip.

My exploration into 'ethical shopping' (see 10 March posting) has been rapidly curtailed by being sofa-ridden and then hobbling on crutches. I haven't managed to get back to the greengrocers (I knew I wouldn't be able to shift all the shopping back to the car) or the Coop (ditto). Sadly I ended up going to Tescos last night and shuffling around with a trolley trying to stock up on vaguely ethical - but mostly not - products. AND to top it all, Jamesons wasn't on special offer. Having gone off wine as a result of several weeks of painkillers accompanied by no drinking (yet another weird side-effect), I really fancied a drop of whisky to finish the evenings off with. Anyway, it was probably just as well I didn't buy any. I realised as I filled the trolley on the last aisle that it was getting so heavy I wasn't sure I could actually push it across the carpark to the car, let alone lift all the bags out. Oh I am so feeble! So, I guess I can add 'ethical shopping' to my list of things I have to be patient about till this 'back thing' is fixed.