just another morning here

I am going to gloss over the fact that today is going *really* badly, the boy is in his room and I feel that blogging about the lovely day we had yesterday will be a much better idea than paying any more attention to today.

So, we went on a home ed group trip to Cookworthy Forest yesterday, where they have a Celtic Roundhouse and run educational stuff as well as the working forest, and had a fantastic time.

The morning activities consisted of: leaf/tree identification, an un-nature trail, pretending to be bugs with ‘sky eyes’. Then came lunch, including cooking over the fire for some people – bacon, dampers, and marshmallows.

After lunch we went back into the forest for the ‘meet a tree’ activity, and then making micro-nature trails in the deer meadow.

All in all it was a great day out, as usual tinged with slight regret for me that the girls were stuck in a classroom rather than enjoying it with us, while on a normal day I still struggle with Josiah being on his own, I really don’t know how much longer I can carry on with both approaches to education at the same time in our family, roll on half term.

LOVEFiLM, that is. If anyone out there is thinking of signing up to a postal DVD rental service soon, we can recommend Lovefilm. Please use this lovely link and if/when you subscribe we’ll get some freebie or other.

Right, now that’s out of the way. It’s been busy here as usual over the last few days. On Wednesday and Thursday we spent some time looking around the two secondary schools we were considering, so that was interesting. Thankfully Anna and I agreed on which one we preferred, so our first choice on the routine application form is decided. Home education again may yet be an option but we’re all unsure at the moment so we’re applying for a high school place and we’ll make a final decision about taking it up or not nearer the time.

On Wednesday Josiah and I went to home ed group; Joe played with a bunch of boys which was good. Thursday saw us back in school making more momos with another group of children from a different class as the school didn’t get enough volunteer helpers. On Friday we had a trip to Creative Stitches with some friends, who then came back for lunch/chatting/playing, so that was a lovely day. The boys especially enjoyed the sugarcraft penguin they made – Josiah ate his before we even got out of the exhibition hall!

Today has been Orchestra for Anna (can see why she likes it, looked like loads of fun, I was jealous!), a trip into town for the rest of us, Kids’ Club film at the Picture House for Abbie, and a Happy Meal for Joe (compensation for my mistake in thinking over 5s could stay at the Picture House, then finding out it was only over 8s). Got home to do the uusal Saturday chores which aren’t finished yet so I must get back to them.

On the outbound ferry back in the middle of August, we discovered that our well loved little fuji f30 camera was broken. It suddenly decided not to power up at all, so we couldn’t use it on holiday – and therefore it got put away in the trailer. Once the trailer finally got back home I unearthed the camera and tried changing batteries, etc., but to no avail, it was just completely unresponsive.

We looked on the fuji website and found their support section, so registered it and sent it off to them. It is under a year old so should have been under warranty, although if I’m honest I was prepared for them to say wear and tear had caused the problem, as I carry it around in my handbag all the time so it could conceivably have been dropped or something (although not to my knowledge).

Anyway, the fuji site has a good tracker system which told us that the camera had arrived and was in the service department. Within a week the message had changed to ‘your camera has been fixed and will be despatched to you by Special Delivery’, which it was, this week – with a brand new lcd screen and back section, all under warranty. Very impressed with that service – and very happy to have it back!

Steve, Joe and I went to the Roman Baths in Bath today so made good use of it there – random photos I know but it was naff light for actually photographing buildings, plus most of these were actually taken to illustrate Josiah’s trail/sheet thing! It was a good visit, we enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Steve enjoyed driving home ‘in time for the girls’ afterwards – luckily we made it only 5 mins late, as I’d supposedly given them a back door key just in case but it was the wrong key so they were waiting for us in the front garden!

Lots of other stuff has been happening but I’m not sure I can be bothered to catch up on all of it. In brief: home ed group on Wednesday plus extra coffee with friends including an introduction to some home ed blogs (waving to you, J!!), a trip into school on Thursday to learn how to make ‘momos’ (indian pasty things) which we have volunteered to help with over the next few weeks in Abbie’s class, baking, workbooks, shopping of various sorts, music practice, roman lapbook stuff, building an indoor run for the guinea pigs, nights out with friends, and there, phew, we got to the weekend.

Joe spent this morning at Steve’s office using Education City to educate himself, as I was driving around with Russ doing last minute errands for the Motor Show this weekend. Oh, and having coffee with a friend! We ate fish & chips for lunch in the office before heading back into town to meet our home ed photography group at the Cathedral.

I had taken the wrong lens for indoor photography (doh) and Josiah was intent on following the leaflet he was given with numbered points of interest to look at in the Cathedral (in unswervingly numerical order and without looking at anything else, honestly, sometimes I worry about that boy), so we didn’t take many photos inside, and then it started drizzling, so our outdoor photos are a bit rubbish too, but we had fun anyway. I wished I had my f30 actually, but it is mysteriously broken and has been sent back to fuji to see what they can do with it.

Back home in time to meet the girls, then I helped them get their homework done and they had soup for tea before going out to Friday Fish (the church’s children’s group), which they really enjoyed. And tonight we have just crashed, as we have got a really early start tomorrow!