What do your surfaces say about you?

The Kitchen

(lettuce seeds, black bananas, an empty film canister, dried dates, past-their-best plums, remains of a pack of salted peanuts, bar of chocolate)

(burnt toast, empty bowl of apple flapjack, tubes of mediteranean soup, glass of butternut squash seeds, recipe book holder containing everything except recipe books)

 

(3-day-old egg white from a recipe that required egg yolk, plate of bread crusts, unwashed cup, bottle of pepsi, empty bottle containing dried popcorn, a tuning fork, a burnt-down home-made candle in the shape of a dog, a piece of paper with bookshelf dimensions)

(ladle, carnations in a measuring cylinder, egg from our hens, marmalade jar with paintbrushes, plastic tub of unknown seeds)

The Conservatory

(black shoe polish, modelling foam, jam jar lid, roller, kids' paintings, on top of bank stuff that's been waiting a year to be filed)

(home-made camera obscura, aquarium bridge, jam jar with chrysalis, build-a-volcano box, modelled scenery, wire trees in a tupperware tub)

The Lounge

(globe, edible money, indian takeway pickle tub containing cardboard parts to a make-it-yourself siege tower, an Egyptian Mummy wordsearch, two camers and a video camera plus leads to connect to tv, a biscuit tin lid with magnetic calendar, a mug of squash that someone has forgotten)

(a smaller globe, an origami snapping crocodile, a jewelled egg bought at a carboot sale, a sewing machine foot that's not for our sewing machine, a fold-up clothes brush that doesn't work)

(two home-made felt penguins, a plasticine dragon, a wax sticks sculpture of a three-legged dog, pieces of a Christmas cracker jigsaw puzzle and a half-finished felt butterfly)

(Sherbert dip, a model of a heart and intestines, a painting on a mini-canvas, a Game gift card)

(potatoes, a plastic test-tube rack with iron filings)

(a home-made cardboard pyramid)

(stones and a stained-glass knight picture)

(Art mannekin and box of assorted 'stuff')

The Hallway

(Deodorising foot spray, tennis ball, door stop in the shape of a cow, a calendar notepad, tubs of pens, a light bulb, a carefully balanced filing system of 'probably important' stuff in a slightly-overwhelmed letter rack)


I think our surfaces say 'we've been busy' and 'there are more important things in life than housework'.

What do your surfaces say about you?

Perhaps this is a sign of a good day when you home educate.

You're driving home from a busy home ed event, with a few extra children than you left home with.

You know when you get home you'll have bags to unpack, food remnants to pick out of rucksacks, folders and papers and coats to rehome, children to entertain and a dog - who hasn't seen you for all of 3 hours - to calm down.

Then you'll have to scramble around for snacks and drinks for everyone. You might have to hassle a child to finish a bit of 'homework' or do their chores that they negelcted to do that morning before you left. And you'll probably have to start preparing dinner before packing up the next set of bags to head out to the evening's activity.

Back to the driving...

There you are, anticipating all this packing, unpacking, meal-making, dog-entertaining etc ahead of you, when from the front seat of the car, your dearest middle child holds up something between finger and thumb.

"When I get home I'm going to microscope my toenail"

Yay.

Education - don't you just love it?

Light Night, Nottingham, 2013

Today my daughter read a book.

And later:

"Where's my book? I want to read it again"

So? I hear you say. What's so special about that?

My daughter is 9.

I've been waiting a long time.