Not at school picnic

On Friday we had our 'not at school picnic'. It was in the centre of the city and because hubby needed to borrow our car because his car had a flat, we went on the bus and the tram!

Outside the town hall were these two wonderful plant people that the children insisted I photographed.

Meeting friends at the home ed picnic.
Not everyone was in the picture as a lot of the children couldn't be dragged away from the fountains :o) A film crew arrived to interview and film the children.









The kids were all given some t-shirts. They make a great school uniform ;o)

Stoat, cranefly and paddling

Champ read in his nature diary that tiger beetles can be found in May and September. His sister let his last tiger beetle free (accidentally) so he was desperate to go to the river and look for another one.
As it turned out we didn't find any tiger beetles but we did spot a stoat which was very exciting! It went down to the river to drink, then spotted us and dashing into the hole that Champ is bending over to look at. There was something else in that hole too but we couldn't work out what it was.
Googs was more interested in the rocks that any animal or insect :o)
It was even warm enough to take off t-shirts.
The stoat ran out of the hole and up the hill but it was so quick that champ couldn't work out where it had gone.

Kiki told me that she was swimming :oD she crawled around like that for ages, "swimming" in the river.
She then went to chat to the sheep and was upset that they ran away from her!
Boo caught a great crane fly
Investigating the animal hole.
I brought along the tent for Kiki. She loves little spaces and this tent has been one of the best things that I have ever bought.
Baa baa black sheep came to say hello.
Boo feeling brave went for a swim. Her brothers always stand at the side building up the courage to join her :o)
It was VERY cold!

Natural Art and summer pudding.

At the home ed nature reserve day the kids were set the task of creating some natural art.


The girls were having a creative block.
Kiki showing me some fish skin :oo


The little boy's artwork with added fish skin and, of course STICKS!



Champ made some natural paint and some cement.

Of course Googs had found a stick. It is a rare photo of him without a stick or stone in his hand when outside :oP
Off to pick blackberries.
The boys :o)
Making summer pudding with their foraged blackberries. Just after this picture Kiki got stung by a wasp which was a little traumatic. She told me that the bee was hiding, waiting for her in the blackberry bush. The sting was so enormous that I thought that it was a thorn at first! Poor little thing :o(
Flying ants
A dress that Boo designed when we got home.

building, books and main lesson

The recent castle trips have influenced the younger two's preferred style of construction :o) castles all the way!


My Mom gave me a few teaching books after a clear out :o) I need more bookcases!!!
Just as the school children go back to school we get glorious weather. I wanted to enjoy the weather while staying on our own school schedule so took our school work and hiked up the hill to the castle to do our main lesson. I guess our first block is going to be local history :o)
The boys asked to be allowed to take their bow and arrows with. I had two rules : no firing at anyone and no firing over the castle walls as we would not be scaling down any cliffs to retrieve them. They had great fun firing them out of the keep :o)
It was actually a very warm afternoon, Googs just chose to keep his jersey on because he had a sticker on it.

I just let the children play for a while when we first got there...

and then settled down to do some work.
Drawing the Keep