In the morning we went orienteering around the grounds at Killerton, they have a few different courses and we followed one of them, finding posts as markers along the way. There were a few too many hills for the children’s liking, but they did really well. I piggybacked Joe or Abbie most of the way round though so I was fairly worn out by the end! The compass/mapwork was a bit above my little ones, but they enjoyed finding the markers.

We had lunch together at the picnic area which was nice. Anna made friends with another little girl whose mum I had met once before, she’s the Education Otherwise contact for our area. We also met a fellow muddlepuddler for the first time which was great!

After lunch we went to the house for the Victorian tour – first of all we were shown round the house and the children learned about what it would have been like to be a servant at Killerton in Victorian times. They looked at different details of the house and were really interested in the things they were shown.

We also had the chance to see the laundry room in detail, with help from a very knowledgeable laundrywoman. The children were able to use the dolly, mangle, etc., look at old fashioned irons and airers, and talk about the differences between Victorian household maintenance and today’s.

After all that we spent a good hour chilling out on the lawn with a couple of other families, which was lovely … then a drink in the cafe, then home. A really enjoyable time – we should do things like that more often. That’s one of the reasons I’m changing childminding arrangements for September, it will mean that we can be a bit more involved in the organised home education things that are going on nearby.

Better go and get some tea, tidy up etc., we have a family games evening planned tonight (well, Joe will be bundled off to bed first!).