Boat-building adventures at the weekend

 The boys got hold of some huge thick sheets of foam from the scrapstore and set about boat building. At the weekend they got a chance to test them out on the lake.

I can walk in them, honest.

Ds2 in his kayak, dd on ds1's boat and ds1 realising that dd has forgotten to take the paddle (the green bit of plastic nailed to a bit of wood!)

 A slight mishap in the reeds.

Dd shortly before losing both her crocs in the mud. Half an hour of mud-poking later and they rose to the surface!

Steering is always a problem :)

And what else...

...has been happening with the children for the past few weeks (apart from all the art!)

Ds1 plays drums at Rock School for a week. (The staff praised him on his talent and were gobsmacked he'd never had any lessons - just a teeny proud mum moment :) ). Meanwhile ds2 went rollerblading in the local park, and dd went for playdates with her friends.

We go to a local festival, held at a large allotment. Dd stays at the festival with friends for the rest of the day, while we made our way home.

We pick courgettes from the garden. (Note the closeness of the yellow football. Plants in our garden have to be hardy to survive!)

Ds1 continues with his IGCSE chemistry and Geography reading

  Blackberry picking, to make crumble and wine.

Ds2 empties the counties' libraries of books about manga. Then teaches himself.

He makes a short list of equipment he needs to do animation 'old school', then goes onto the internet to do a price comparison.

 Ds2 decides he wants to make shortbread.

We move paving slabs to make a base for the new chicken coop that we're making out of a packing case that was being thrown out (our 10 hens need more space).

 And discover a huge ants' nest:

 Lots of reading - Guinness World Records, British History, The Aztecs, and a 4-inch tome called "3D Game Development"...

Lots of talk and plans for the kids' new Minecraft server:

 Thoughts on design:

We took down our posters and information about Australia and New Zealand:

 And replaced them with posters on space and art:

We started a chart of moon phases. The moon decided to hide behind cloud for the next three nights :)

The children caught flies and fed them to the garden spiders, overcoming their fear of spiders and experimenting with size and type of fly.

We walked to the park intending to pick blackberries. But came home with elderberries for wine.

 Swimming in the lake (bit chilly, but fine once we got over the initial shock!)

And catching crayfish

Ds2 took the screwdriver to the waterpistol to try to fix it.

Wine, all bottled up and fermenting happily under the piano.

Dd and I have a discussion about wine-making, fermentation, yeast, gas and the similarities with the chemistry of bread baking. So that's chemistry, biology, self-sufficiency and home economics in one 5-minute conversation.

Dd continues on her reading journey. Having finally decided she wanted to learn to read (or at least was willing to give it a go), in a matter of weeks she has gone from simple words like cat and bed to reading words like 'couldn't' and 'everyone'. She seems to have an excellent memory for sight-recognition of words, less tendency I think towards phonics deciphering. Each of my children has been different and found their own combination of what works for them. I haven't been teaching her. I just sit with her while she reads. She'll do it at her own pace when she wants to. Being, at the peak of "reading readiness" (which she, herself, has recognised) I expect there'll be no stopping her now.

Spring activities

Carving and then painting replica guns (a traditional Spring activity if you are a 12-year-old boy) :

A mid-week trip to the lake:

Making the most of the glorious weather:

Kayaking:

Pond dipping with friends:

Crayfish in tupperware:

Bulbs from our last planting session, now in flower:

Planting cornflowers in the front garden:

More seeds in pots:

Candle-making in the kitchen:

toothbrush-shaped candles (dd's idea!):

Mr Blue Sky

'Mr Blue Sky' by ELO was playing on the radio in the van.

Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' ev'rybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day hey,hey

Ok, so it was raining. Raining quite a lot. And cloudy and grey and cold. But we were out, heading towards the woods, the greenery, the fresh air. Such a positive feeling, I could almost have imagined a blue sky.

We arrive. Meet up with one other family. Perhaps I'm antisocial, but sometimes I like to meet up with just one family. There's time to talk. Proper talking. The group dynamics for the kids is easier, less wild. The different genders will play comfortably with each other without the option of gender division of the larger groups. With large groups the kids scatter and there is a tendency for the parents to opt out. With a small group we can all interact, take part, discuss, plan, create.

It's been so long we have to fight our way through the undergrowth. Retread the path into the woods. I can't remember when we were last here.

The children run free.


They work to patch up the 'den'. Most of the moss has gone, but the basic structure is there from our visits last year. Each visit they do this. One winter we came here every week, even through the snow and ice. I miss it.

Gloopy fungi. Shiny, gelatinous, wobbly. The best sort.

The den, finished (for now). 'If you see any holes those are our fire escapes' says ds1.

There's nothing like having a camp fire on a rainy day, especially when shared with friends.

Cooking onion bhajis

And toasting pancakes

Then just time for ds2 to make an assault course for the younger ones.

Of course, we're all the winner.

Here's to more gentle days in the woods, shared with friends. More Mr Blue Sky please.

Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for

Hey there mister blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around see what you do
Ev'rybody smiles at you