HESFES 2011

Belatedly, here are some piccys from this year's Home Educator's Summer Festival. We had a fab time. Ds1 turned feral (returning only to grab meals and disappear again), dd adopted several other families (we saw very little of her) and ds2 hung out with a few mates designing computer games (in a field with no computers).

A few of the marquees:

Bongo and band workshopping with the HESFES band (the HESFES band consisting of children from tots to teens, including about 13 drummers!):

Ds1 as one of the many drummers:

Why did you bring me camping?
Because I'm worth it:

But I've got more hair (ds2):

And I'm rougher and tougher than both of you (dd):

Making copper bowls, i.e. bashing a bit of metal for a very long time until it looks slightly more curved than it started off(note the hair wrap, patiently created by a member of one of her adopted families):

Ds1 with his home-made (tin can) drum kit before he got promoted to a proper drum:

Twirling home-made poi thingimagigs:

A demonstration of 'rocket stoves' (made from tin cans):

The result of our group effort and the dog eating an awful lot of king-size cheap dog food (our stove is the shiny one):

Lighting it wasn't so easy:

Hand-painted bandanas:

Beautiful sunset over our tent and van:

It's all been too much:

Small acts of kindness...

Well we're now on about our third day of icy snowy weather. Yes! Proper Snow!

Yesterday I rushed out in to the back garden so that I could be the first to tread in the pure white fluffy snow. Very childish, but I don't care. I snuck down and took some photos of the garden, and our pond which is frozen solid. I hope all the frogs will be ok.

Of course by the time Jack had snuffled around in the lovely white snow and left some little yellow puddles, it just wasn't the same.


There was a lovely little finch singing in the apple tree, despite such a freezing morning. Unfortunately you can't hear it very well because Jack wanted to join in too:

The whole of England has ground to a standstill because of the snow (what a surprise...). The radio announced yesterday that most of the local councils have already used up a year's worth of gritting salt, and are fast running out. Public transport is struggling to have any services at all, lots of roads are closed and some villages cut off. I'm sure the rest of the world must find our incompetence at dealing with a few inches of snow highly amusing.

Many of my friends, even if they can get to work, have decided not to. I think with the credit crunch the attitude is 'Oh stuff it! They'll make us redundant in a couple of months anyway!'
Even the more workaholic among them have been enjoying a few extra days off work (as one said 'It's been great - a bit like the Christmas holidays, but without all the stress').

Most of the local schools have been shut, so my bunch have been playing in the snow with the neighbourhood kids.

They made giant snowballs in the local park. And with the neighbours' kids my bunch made a big snowman on our street. We had problems finding things that would stick in well enough to be his eyes and buttons (the eyes ended up being those little skewer things that you stick corn cobs onto!). And yes, that is a tomato and two potatoes balanced on his tummy!

This morning we found him crushed into a heap. But I'm glad I've got some photos.

And here's proof that it has actually been snowing. It would have been nice if the snowman could have been more animated (some tap-dancing perhaps?), but I guess that's the disadvantage of having no legs.

Yesterday all the neighbourhood kids set to task clearing the snow from our next door neighbour's path with shovels and brooms. Our neighbour is virtually blind.

It was lovely to watch the kids as they worked together. One of them said 'If she comes out with money we mustn't take it. We're doing this because we're nice and we're her neighbours.'

Later she dropped a card through our door for the kids. It said: 'Thank you for clearing the snow and thank you whoever gave me a snow angel - I am told it was lovely'.

On a letter from her today she said 'I hope the children understood what I had written on their cards, I am very grateful, it restores my faith in the youth of the country.'

Small acts of kindness can make such a difference, can't they?

Doggy visitors, scrapstore visit, and that darn machine again!

Over the past few days we've had a large, but very friendly, lodger staying with us. His name is Arlo.

Arlo is a lurcher crossbreed and one of Jack's friends. He's the one dog we've found that truly puts Jack in his place (usually on his back in 'submissive' pose) and who tolerates his 'puppiness'. No matter what Jack does to annoy, Arlo can bite his ears (quite a large surface area to get hold of there) and literally squash him into submission. It all makes for a fairly good relationship.

Arlo does have the distinct advantage that he can easily outrun Jack. A few gentle strides for Arlo is equivalent to a 100-metre sprint for Jack. Poor chap, no wonder he's been so exhausted since his friend arrived!

Jack 'discovers' Arlo's bone. Nope, not giving that up.

Jack 'discovers' Arlo's food. "Mmm...tripe...yum.

Much better than that dried dog food I get fed."

"Ok, ok, I'll share it. Darn it! Got my ears in it now!"

We took a visit to the local scrapstore on Thursday and I bought 3 carrier bags of material with the intention of making some new cushion covers (cushion covers currently in use are pretty scuzzy, even by my not-very-high standards). Of course, I'm totally ignoring the boxes and boxes of material we already have in the loft and which I also bought under the guise of making cushion covers/curtains/clothes for the kids/bags to sell. As dh says, reassuringly, 'It all makes for very good loft insulation'.

S0, while the kids were quiet and otherwise occupied I thought I'd sneak into the conservatory and start making a cushion cover. Bad idea. Or perhaps a good idea. John Holt says in one of his books (I forget which one) that the best way to encourage kids to learn is by doing the things you love. Not doing these things with the intention of 'teaching' your children, but purely because you enjoy doing them. Holt predicts that if you do this children will see what you are doing and try to emulate it. Or...in my case they will spot that I'm no longer focusing on them, but that I've sneaked off to focus on something that I want to do. They will immediately want to interfere/destroy/ sabotage the activity or - if I'm fortunate - want to do it too!

So, I got as far as measuring and cutting some material and that was it. Then they were begging me to get the hand sewing machine out and I was cursing it, trying to thread the darn thing, untangle the bobbin and master it's stubborn, antiquated personality. The neat pile of material on top of the newly-tidied art cupboard, was pulled down, cupboards opened, and my finally-clear-after-3-weeks table was once more full of stuff. Home education and a tidy house just don't go together.

Ds2 decided he was going to make a sleeping bag for dd1's toy dog. As you can see, it all went fairly smoothly (thank you scrapstore for felt! I don't think I can cope with stubborn sewing machine AND trying to show a short-tempered child how to hem fraying material in one lifetime).

Just had to take a film of it doing what sewing machines are meant to do, cos usually it's angrily chewing up thread and rucking up material.

Dd1 helps