A good day

Today was a good day in home ed land. A relaxed morning of play time and pancakes followed by a wander to the farm for a home ed group. I was concerned as to how it would go today as we had to walk. Although the map said it was only 1.5 miles we took a slight wrong turn and walked almost 2 miles. On the plus side it was a beautiful walk along the loose valley with lots of plants and animals to discover along the way. Both girls did really well with very few complaints, even on the steep incline.They enjoyed looking at the map and made me keep checking we were going the right way. (OK so it was the GPS on my phone but that counts as map reading/geography right?)

We came across a steep staircase which took us from the back of a housing estate to the wilds of loose.

The girls were initially confused by this gate

And surprised to find a gypsy wagon protected under cover.

Once at the farm we wet through the country code again before heading back down the road to the farm nature reserve.

The girls learnt different bird calls and had to fill a small container with as many different things as they could find. The afternoon was spent playing, doing chores and cooking before a well earned bath...although tinkerbell fell asleep briefly before bath and woke up very grumpy :-(

Birth Art and "the chat"

During my break from blogland I have been lucky enough to attend several sessions Birth Art through my local NCT group, which has been a very positive experience.

I struggle sometimes with depression, largely due to the difficulties involved with my OH's illness and general anxieties about life (don't we all?) but BA has been a chance to get together with a small group of ladies and have coffee/cake/chat and a short meditation after which we draw/paint/model our visualisation. It sounds very new age, which I guess it is but is not totally out there either if that makes sense?

It has been a very positive experience, where I often find things seem better afterwards, I feel more earthed' a bit like a reset button. The object of the exercise is to use the emotional, artistic, feeling, right hand side of the brain rather than the logical, fix it, solution finding left side. Artistic talent is not necessary (thank goodness, I was at the back of the queue when talent was handed out) it is about the feelings and connexions made.

Also whilst washing up and preparing dinner last night Munch and I had "The Chat". A first for her in regard to asking questions etc as usually if the subject comes up she gets very embarrassed and refuses to talk about, which is one of the reasons I bought her the Usborne book of Growing up. (I remember my aunt buying me a copy at about Munch's age as my mum was rubbish at explaining these kinds of things.)

I have also been looking at A Mighty Girl on facebook and their websites to seek out positive female role models for my dd's and inspiration in addressing the issue of gender stereotypes as well as celebrating new moon passings and the our inner goddess.

Well I am finally back in blog land, hopefully some o e missed me at least. A combination of no internet service, new baby and lack of sleep whilst trying to find d a new family rhythm has meant I am very behind and now playing catch-up. I missed reading all about what you guys have been up to.

So much has been happening it would take to long to and be too boring to fill in all the blanks so I will simply say we finally moved into a home of our own, luckily managed to get an allotment and happily welcomed  Blu into our family at a healthy 8lb 13.

I hope to get more organised with blogging etc and look forward to catching up with you guys soon xx