New school year

Well I didn't do very well with keeping up did I? I am aiming I do better this year. I love to look back on our days out and the photos of the small things I forget. I think it will be great for the boys to look back on this in years to come and remember our home ed days. 

So yep, we are continuing to home ed. Big man is still happy at school, well happy may not be the right word, he's not looking forward to all the work this year as he goes into his last year and GCSE's. But he is doing well, and is on track for what he wants. As much as I'd love him to stay home and join our adventures I have to support what he wants. We miss him though. It was lovely having him home to be part of all our summer fun. We did so much, camping, castles, seaside, farms, forests, parks, paddling, picnics, I wish summer lasted forever! 

But this past week hubby's gone back to work, and big man is back at school, so it's time for us to settle back into our 'normal routine' haha whatever that is! 

We kicked off the new school year with a Not-back-to-school-picnic at Dartmouth park. It was a lovely day. 

We picnic'd, played in the playground and splashed in the water play. With so many other home ed families it was wonderful! 

There were old friends and new, Squashy was most pleased about meeting up with a lad he's been playing Minecraft with for months. They had great fun.

 It's set us up well for the fun and adventures we have to come in the year ahead. 

Sand, batwings and lemurs

This was a busy, fun week. 

We tagged along with hubby to Colwyn bay again. The weather was a bit dull, but it was dry and we had a lovely, refreshing walk along the beach. It wasn't warm enough for bare feet in the sea today (and I discovered a hole in my wellies!) but that didn't stop us having a paddle and splash about. 

We hunted for treasures as usual, my favourite was this sea glass that I picked up with the intention of making into a pendant. 

The tide was further out than last time so we enjoyed a little trek down the narrow concrete pathways that were covered last time we came

It was a little chilly so we warmed up with a hot cocoa and a biscuit 

We spotted some lovely mosaics along the seafront.

Squashy really likes mosaics, they always capture his attention. This one had a lovely bright sunshine

I just loved all the colours and patterns in it

We were lucky enough to be treated by hubby with lunch at their local Wetherspoons. This one is in an old cinema and it's such an interesting place to eat. It still has all the staircases and balconies and there are lots of little alcoves and sweet places to sit.

I love the Art Deco signs and little touches that are left over from the cinema days. 

We finished the day off with a wander at the local shops, this window display caught my eye 

And a little mooch in the charity shops, where Squashy scored a bargain signed copy of a Harry Hill book that kept him occupied on the trip home. Momo usually sleeps, hubby drives, so I sneaked in a little hooky time! 

This week we also had a trip to the zoo. We haven't been to Dudley Zoo for a few years now so I was looking forward to seeing what was new. 

One of the boys' favourite parts is Lemur Wood. You walk through and the lemurs are just wild, not caged inside. 

It's amazing how tame they are. They almost ignore you and just carry on like they are totally used to people!

They have such quizzical little faces, really full of character. 

Momo was desperate to cuddle one! This was as close as he got though. 

We were lucky enough to see the new baby giraffe too, they are such graceful creatures. 

We had a bit of drama towards the end of the day. We stopped for a hot chocolate in the farmyard and Momo was rolling down a hill, when he bumped his head on the fence at the bottom. He had a few cuts and there seemed to be loads of blood, I guess because of his blond hair it showed up more. He was fine within 5 minutes, the zoo first aider came and cleaned him up a bit and a lovely keeper cheered him up by bringing out a giant bunny for him cuddle, he then soon forgot all about it!

I finished up my week finishing this beautiful shawl. It worked up so quickly and was really pleased with the results. I'll add a completed picture when we get a sunny day. 

Been AWOL!

After my last post back in April I've been very up and down, lots of feeling cranky and down and not very sociable, and I didn't really want to make a record of that, I wanted this to be a diary for me and the boys' to look back at and remember out home ed days, not whingy, moany complaining. So I chose not to post. 

But in amongst those we've also had lots of brilliant, awesome, fun, happy days! So I'm now choosing to focus on them and thought that if I record them I've got happy things to read if I have a down day again. 

So my plan is to spend the next few days catching up and recapping all the adventures we have had in April and May. And here's a bright, pretty picture to get me started. 

Autism Awareness Day

So today, April 2nd is Autism awareness Day. My Facebook news feed is filled with people sharing memes, links, photos, quotes and more. Some say 'light it up blue', some say 'paint it red', it's all great in theory, I'm all for spreading the knowledge. But tomorrow they will have forgotten about it. Autism is everyday in my house. Not just one day. And right now I HATE it. 

Fun on the farm

We went on a trip with Friday Club to Hatton Country World today. We have been before but not since before Momo was born. Once, Squashy cut his eyebrow open in a nasty accident with a digger in the sand pit, so he had wanted to give it a wide berth ever since! 

But we talked him into coming, with the promise of him keeping out of the sand pit. And he was very glad we did! He had a great day.

The sun was shining and it was warm enough for the kids to play without their coats on. It was lovely and quiet being a school day, there were only a few other families there besides our group. 

It was lovely being there with lots of other children, so the boys could play with lots of others. 

It's funny as Squashy tends to enjoy playing with slightly younger children and Momo likes the older kids! 

Everyone loved the guinea pig handling (except maybe the guinea pigs!) Momo wanted to keep one! 

The boys' guinea pigs were 'kissing' here apparantly 💗

There was lots of opportunity for outdoor, boisterous, crazy playing, which the boys love and knowing that a lot of the other he children are very similar means I can relax a bit more and not feel the need to tell them to calm down every two minutes.

Most of the group spent a long time on the bouncy slide and castles, which were all soaking wet but that just seemed to add to the fun! 

Squashy and some of the other boys spent a while panning for gold. 

If they found 10 pieces of gold they could exchange them for a medal, so they all spent a long time hunting and working together so they would have enough for one each.

They were all pretty pleased with their medals at the end. 

There were lots of friendly animals, all happy to say hello and be stroked and patted, much to Momo's amusement

Momo also decided to brave the sandpit, with squashy nervously looking on, bless him. 

He really didn't want to go in. I can't say I blame him, it was a nasty cut he got years before, although I think he was more upset that we had had to cut out day short by going to the local A&E to get it glued! He always seems to latch on to negative events at places we visit, obviously this one was quite horrible, but even smaller things like them having food he didn't like, or a funny smell, or he might remember there being someone there with a coat he didn't like the colour of! It's always really difficult to try and talk into coming somewhere again when he gets like that, but I try to persevere as 9 times out 10, once we get there he completely changes his opinion and ends up having a great time! 

We ended the day with a mad half hour in the soft play, there's some brilliant slides that they enjoyed.

It was nice to enjoy a sunny day out, with other families in relaxed settings. We are lucky to have Friday Club local to us. 

Big Bang

Today we have been to the Big Bang Science Fair at the NEC. 

It was a free show for all ages who are interested in the sciences. It was crazy-busy, it felt like every school in the midlands were there and sadly some of the kids seemed to be completely wild when allowed away the teachers. A lot of them didn't seem to get the concept of queuing and taking turns, what do schools teach them?! Anyway, the crowds and unruly kids aside we managed to have a good day.  

Squashy really enjoyed the robots, it was a challenge to use the remote controlled robot to pick up a ball into a pot. Squashy won a Hex-Bug! 

Look at that concentration! 

Of course then Momo wanted a go too

There were loads and loads of hands on things for them to have a go of. 

Buttons to press, games to play, 

things to touch and turn and poke, 

perfect for my inquisitive little monkeys! 

They powered robots

Had a go at driving a crane

Cuddled some cool creatures 

And even met a real life astronaut. They asked Momo if he wanted to ask the astronaut, Jon McBride, a question about his time in space. So he asked him 'had he met any aliens?' :) it made him laugh and he said 'no, not in space'! 

There was a lot of experimenting 

It was a good but very full on day, too much to see in one day and also a little too crowded and noisy for some little people (the sling and ear defenders got us through the day) but deffinately worth going, for free, and we look forward to next years.