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.

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.

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.

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!

In other news … there isn’t much, in fact I can’t even think what we’ve done. Wednesday was home ed group and music lessons, Thursday was Steve’s birthday, and today has been a combination of Crealy and getting the van ready to go away. Could comment more on all of that but I don’t think I can be bothered! The girls made it to the end of another half term of school, and we’re going camping in the morning, so we are manically trying to pack this evening. Feels like so much work to go camping, but I know it will be worth it when we get there – I’m even looking forward to the rain that’s forecast as it means we won’t feel we have to go out and do stuff, we can just laze around reading and watching DVDs I am going to allow myself one (or maybe two if Steve’s not watching ) text-twitter every day … so if you want to know what we’re up to, sign up and find me there.

Joe, Robyn and I joined a home ed group trip to Overbeck’s today, a NT property on the South Devon coast – because it’s Devon it seemed close but it was more like driving to Bristol and back in a day, and some of the roads were interesting to say the least! Had a fab day, but I can’t be bothered to get my (very few) photos off the camera yet so look at Jo’s, here instead

Steve left early this morning and worked most of the day – then he has built a new porch roof and was here for the girls when they came home from school; Anna had cello lessons and I think Abbie went to play with Caitlin & Riona for a bit. He also managed to find dinner in the freezer and cooked it, timed perfectly for our return. And then cleared up and sorted the children out while I dashed out for the evening … so he definitely wins some brownie points today

Josiah and I have had Robyn with us all week so we’ve kept busy which is good all round, it means Joe and I don’t annoy one another too much, Joe and Robyn annoy one another instead

Monday was shopping day, then we baked cookies, then just played at home. As usual breathed a sigh of relief when Anna got home as she is so great with Robyn! Mollie and Ruby came over too, and they all played with Robyn’s playdoh for hours

On Tuesday we went swimming in the morning, which was pretty fun although Joe just seemed out of place and huge in the little pool with a bunch of toddlers.

Anna had cello after school; the rest of us went to the park while she was there and I met an old friend, so it was nice to have someone to chat to (makes the park bearable!), and generally catch up with her and her family.

Wednesday‘s activity was home ed group at the park; Josiah made another new friend (hurrah) and Robyn enjoyed bimbling around the park too. Came home in time for Robyn to have a sleep, a little bit of Zelda (have been playing lots this week!), piano and recorder lessons, had tea, then went out for violin/Stage by Stage/Wind Group as usual. Appreciated the return of my chauffeur after two weeks doing that run without him

On Thursday we met up with our friend Becca to do something with her in celebration of her birthday. The weather didn’t look great so we ended up at Crealy – then it actually turned out to be a nice day! We played in the play areas, treated Becca (and ourselves) to a panini in the cafe, walked across the bridges to the lake where we fed the ducks, came back up and the children played in the sandpits for a while, then we rode the carousel and Becca even took Joe on the log flume, she was obviously feeling reckless

Today was County Show Day. We had a great day; Josiah took photos of everything he thought Steve would have liked to see, which was mainly cars. The highlight of our day was probably Andrei Burton (a top mountain bike trials rider) doing a display at the Cycle Exeter stand, he was amazing! Robyn loved all the animals, predictably. Oh, and our other fave stand was a science education one where there were all sorts of primary science type activities, as well as circus skills and a clown, we stayed there for a really long time, almost as long as the queue for the face painting

Home to generally veg out and then Joe lost his first tooth. For some reason this makes me stupidly emotional, my baby losing his baby teeth. He is quite excited that the tooth fairy has gone out to play poker tonight, as the tooth fairy promised that if he won, he’d be in a good mood *and* have some money by the time he came home to look under people’s pillows!

Oh, and I almost forgot, Anna got a Thank You Certificate at school for passing a Librarian’s Test and therefore being awarded the honourable title of Library Assistant, complete with shiny badge

Also went to Home Ed Group in town for the first time in ages, having told Joe that whether or not he wanted to (he didn’t), *I* needed to go. Was nice to see people that I haven’t seen in ages, and of course Josiah had a great time too once he got there. Interesting to hear that there is a local GCSE exam centre that some of the teenagers have accessed recently, I’m looking forward to finding out more about it before Anna makes decisions about schools etc in the autumn.

Abbie is super-happy at the moment, as she’s just been loaned Aunty Emma’s flute. She’s planning to do Grade 1 on her recorder this term but after that she’ll be swapping to flute lessons. She’s also enjoying school; she’s part of the newly formed PEG (Pinhoe Environmental Group) at school which means she gets to do exciting things like make posters to remind people to use the right bins for paper etc. They spent a day last week going through the school bins and analysing the rubbish, sounds fascinating doesn’t it? And her teacher has apparently named her Fraction Superstar, she’s doing letter writing in literacy, and pop up construction in Art/Design/Technology/whatever it’s called these days – and just seems happy with all of it. Which is great

Joe’s been fine this week too, getting work done early in the morning and then enjoying other stuff we’ve done. Our swimming trip had to be aborted yesterday as the open air pool we’d tried to go to doesn’t open until 12th May! So instead we trawled charity shops in the town and he was thrilled to find a Super Soaker in really good nick for £1. Cheaper than swimming! I bought an LP of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for Abbie as she was moaning the other day that she only knew three of them, and a book for myself

Today Josiah’s done some Draw Write Now, which started off as an apple tree and turned into Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree with apples raining down all around, made me laugh anyway. He’s having his first official piano lesson with Laura today as I write, which he has really been looking forward to. I think he thinks he might be able to do less violin practice if he’s got piano to fit in as well, but I don’t think so

Steve’s been in Rotherham today and won’t be home for a while, so I have to do the Great Wednesday Lesson Run singlehandedly, thankfully Anna’s not here so there’s one less place to drop off and pick up.

Spent the first hour of the morning sorting out stick insects after we found some of the babies outside the tank – oops. Have rehoused them and chucked about 200 eggs, couldn’t possibly keep all of those if they all hatched!

Kids all did music practice and I faffed around with a couple of parcels; dashed out between downpours to post them. The girls made some scrunchies by tying scraps of netting around plain bobbles, and they also made a couple of thank you cards (which I have failed to deliver as requested you just can’t get the mothers these days).

We had lunch then headed out to our EO group – it was very wet and muddy in the park but it managed not to rain while we were there, thankfully. Anna had dance and cello lessons … came home, cooked tea (turkey portions and couscous with roasted veg, very yummy) and have dashed out to babysit for Robyn this evening. She’s fast asleep

Planning to get an online grocery shop done this evening (if the wireless internet here would stop dropping out, double grr!) as we have Stuart & Liz and their girls coming to stay tomorrow until Saturday; I am nowhere near organised!