Well, we survived the Hesfes experience!! For me, the two things that made it really lovely were being part of a group of friends, and the weather. It was a fantastic, hot, sunny week, and despite plenty of suncream we must have missed bits – I am definitely pink in places and so are the children! Overall, we enjoyed our week – the girls probably enjoyed it the most though.
I’m not sure I’ve completely assimilated the whole thing yet, we got home this afternoon and my first priority was to get all three children bathed, and some washing on! I’ve also had a bath and a glass of wine, Steve had the afternoon off work, so it’s been lovely to have him around this afternoon. There are some things about hesfes that I think I’ll never ‘like’, but other things that make it so nice that we will have to make it a regular thing – because overall the positives outweighed the negatives (although had it been a rainy week I’m not sure I would have lasted). Don’t think I feel like philosophising though, so on with the highlights …
Katy’s tent – I know she warned us – was really massive! During the first day after everyone had arrived we ended up moving things around to give ourselves a lovely little circle of tents with space in the middle. We were right next to the playground – which was good for our children during the day but not quite so good at night …
Chris did a great job of being ‘camp dad’ during the first few days when he was around, followed by Bob who arrived as a surprise for Hannah on Wednesday – reducing Kirsty, Jax and I to tears watching the moment when Hannah realised what the ‘parcel that was too large to post’ actually was! Steve came up for the day on Sunday and I was pleased that he saw where we were and the sorts of things that we were up to.
We had a Muddle Puddle Barbecue on Monday night which was really lovely – as you can see the children all tucked in ;o)
Actually, one of the nice things was how well all our children played together, there were all sorts of combinations that seemed to work, and it was interesting to watch the relationships develop. By the end of the week the little ones were quite happy jumping all over one another like this:
Obviously there were lots of things laid on in up in the marquees, from bands, to a children’s cabaret in the evening, I think there might have been a solar powered cinema too – and all sorts of craft workshops. Anna really enjoyed the dancing sessions, particularly the Egyptian dancing ones, but to be honest I didn’t really get to much! I made it to half of one of the ‘conference’ sessions but it was difficult to listen and look after Joe at the same time. There was some excellent face painting going on up in the big field, Anna, Abbie, Poppy and Tilda all had arty faces on different days:
Mainly I just enjoyed a camping holiday with friends, so here are a couple of pics …
Personally, I think my children really enjoyed the freedom they were allowed while we were away. Abigail made a friend at the beginning of the week, and that little friendship kept us all amused for the rest of the time! It was built on a common love of sweets, I think, but Abbie has come home with Piers’ address with every good intention of writing to him, so we’ll see what happens!
Anna played with Hannah, Poppy, Matilda, and a friend from our local HE group who was there, Alice – and generally just enjoyed being herself.
Joe was ready to come home slightly before the girls, having had enough of camping, I think! But he did enjoy himself – tonight we were talking about his birthday which is only a few weeks away and he wants to invite Adam, Marcus and Alex! I’m wondering about a birthday party while we’re at muddlepuddle camp – I know there are lots of June birthdays – anyone fancy joining in?
Meanwhile, I enjoyed just hanging with my friends, reading, getting sunburnt, but mostly getting to know everyone a bit better – particularly Simon (!!) – who has to win the prize for being the cutest camp baby in his little bandana! It was fab to see Roslyn and her crew when they came up on Wednesday, even if it was only for a short time. And I met up with a couple of people from other email lists too so it was nice to put faces to names there.
The downsides were the noise at night – it didn’t *really* affect me personally but I guess I still think that a bunch of home-educated teenagers should somehow have more sense than your average group of teens, and be able to be different – I hope my kids will be, when they’re that age. Personally I found the ‘drift in and out’ approach to everything difficult too – I’m more of an organised person – but I guess it worked, so maybe I should just lighten up on that score. The campsite annoyed me too – but again, maybe I’m just too picky! I do wonder what sort of picture of home education Hesfes gives, though …
So all in all, a long post (sorry) but a jolly good time. I will be looking out for a tent soon in preparation for a couple of camps later this summer, and next year – despite all my misgivings I started sentences ‘next year …’ all too many times!!
I’m having a great weekend so far – it rained pretty much all day yesterday which was really miserable, Steve came over to take us out for lunch and ended up taking two children home with him – one was supposed to be going back but the other was lured by Dr Who on the big screen. I hear they’re going to the grandparents’ for a roast dinner today! Anyway, they’ll be back later tonight, but in the meantime I’ve been feeling very strange without them! At least Abbie stayed here, she kept me warm last night 
The kids, perhaps?! 
