Old Moor, pond dipping

Along with our lovely friends, inspired by a local home educator letting us know about this wonderful place, we headed to the Wetlands, Old Moor.  Timing was great, and didn't encounter traffic going or coming home (worked it around school times, as that is something I often forget to do, and regret when stuck behind traffic for far too long.  I have never, to my knowledge spent time at a Wetlands, and wasn't quite sure what to expect, but we got stuck in.  We got the kids explorer packs which included: binoculars, stethoscope, key information with pictorial stuff, drawing materials, bug holder, large magnifying glass, thermometer and compass.  The bags they came in had ears and tails resembling wildlife you might encounter in this place.  It was very sweet.

This magnificent sculpture was one of the first things we encountered and enjoyed on our wander.

Autumn and Amy got stuck in doing some painting and drawing whilst we admired the pond in front of us.  The boys ran off to make some discoveries on their own.  They love to have that bit of freedom where they are doing something on their own.  They found many pond skaters, and Evan later described this bit as his favourite part of the day.  Apparently at the time he said "They must be putting on a skating show for us!"

After observing a school group pond dipping, and the boys being super eager to try it out, Su kindly popped back to hire a pond dipping kit.  We came to this pond which was literally teaming with life, and very exciting to see that we had most of the creatures on the check list... hmm let me see.  We found Water boatman, damselfly nymph, wirligig beetle, Cadisfly larvae, shrimp, pond skater, Ramshorn snail  & another snail (not sure what that one was)

Autumn and I discovered some fluff in the playground and after a bit of exploration realised that they had seeds attached, she found a bullrush, and noticed they were connected, and then experienced pulling it apart and watching the fluff drift off in the wind.

The playground was a big hit.  Not shown, there is a fantastic play wooden tractor which prompted a game of cats, as there was a wooden cat sat upon it.

As you might expect in a RSPB Wetlands site, there were plenty of hides to attempt to spy some birds.  Despite our efforts to see them, and efforts to be quiet, we failed to achieve this aim, though Autumn maintains that she managed to see all the birds on the spotting list in the hide!

This was my view.  I did spy a lovely spiders web in the corner and explored how it moved when I touched individual threads... Oh my goodness they are strong.  Nature is simply marvellous isn't it.

Then we headed to another hide, this time with bird feeders attempting to supply the birds, but I suppose at this time of year birds are getting rich pickings of wild berries all over the place, which make a welcome change from bird feeder fayre.  This makes me realise that we should visit in the winter, as we may have more luck observing birds with less available in the wild.  Another great bird spotting area is at the cafe in Longshaw estate.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day, despite the hard sell from the staff in the shop to buy membership at the beginning of the day.  I realise that they are clearly just very passionate about their work, hence the very strong argument to buy.  With reflection we did decide to buy membership to the RSPB, as an educational thing for the children, and encourage us to visit more.  

Thank you to everyone who works at The Old Moor for all the work they put into such a brilliant resource ,for people and nature alike.  And thank you to Su and her fabulous children for such great company on our trip today, especially Su for the knowledge of all the creatures during our pond dipping explorations.

Sunday nugget 29th September 2013

I have just read a lovely  blog (will link later)  which has a weekly snippets of their lives,  to give an overview away from the special outings and other stuff like that.   I realise that my blog is missing something without that,  do very inspired, I'm doing a Sunday nugget.

Me: enjoying the harvest part of autumn in all its abundance.  Apples,  elderberries,  blackberries galore.
Settling into our new home ed week,  fine tuning activities.
Abundance at Zumba,  and new project in the making of dance style workshops,  dusting off my lesson plans. Glad strictly is back on.

Evan : stepped away from constantly making things...  Having a chill out a bit at home.  Enjoying outings,  and the outdoors in general. Calmed down on the destruction of recent past,  with extra supervision when with friends. Helping me to plan and organise autumn's birthday party,  and presents.  Loving origami,  able to follow pictorial instructions.

Autumn : constant motion.  New dance class.  Enjoying strictly.  Joyful,  enthusiastic.  Reading well on reading eggs. Doesn't like pippi longstocking. :( mostly played Tweak 'burny'  and Cotton tail.

Autumn days

Oh how I love Autumn... and not just my daughter!!!  The colour changing - the day by day mini changes, the excitement of the weather changing, and also looking forward to Strictly Come Dancing! Today was definitely a day to be outside as the weather was probably as hot as a good Summer's day, nice and still as well.  We popped to swimming first thing to take advantage of the nice empty pool at Dronfield early in the morning now that it is school time again. There is nothing like getting into a still pool and behind the only thing to disturb the stillness of the water. I am so grateful that we home educate as it gives us so many opportunities to explore and really enjoy activities without the crowds.  Swimming is no exception.  The lovely small pool there, is heated and always has a good selection of toys, including balls in a sock type thing, which the kids say are Sea Krates (a type of Sea Snake). For a change the kids play included a fair bit of swimming, but also a fair bit of maths - they were orderng, sorting and dividing the toy ducks into different groups.  A bit of science going on too, working out how many Sea Krates are needed to allow the kids to relax on and float on the water.  At the moment, they both use arm bands, and Autumn generally does more swimming about because she is shorter and can't touch the floor in as much space as Evan can.  Autumn has always had utmost confidence in her swimming abilities, apart from a blip for about 6 mmonths when we didn't go very often and she forgot that she could swim.  When this happened I made a pact to go frequently to give them a chance to build on their confidence each time.  We try and go a few times a month.

We aren't allowed to take photos in the pool, so I made up for it by this photo of the kids "hair"drying themselves.

Next we popped to Dronfield library.  I have discovered why we keep getting overdue books today... you only get 3 weeks loan, which in my experience is fairly short, and shows reminds me when we don't get round to going swimming for a while.  We brought back a few books, and got a load for Evan's Tiger project which he started last month, but kind of stopped after a short time, but he is eager to reinstate it again.  Hunger took us home.  On the way, on this beautiful morning I asked the kids if they fancied going to Chatsworth for the afternoon, and they thought it was a good idea so we had an early lunch and headed off.

Chatsworth was brilliant, and there are some amazing sculptures on display as part of a Sotheby's exhibition.  Around this piece we met a helicopter load of very rich people, who no doubt were among the few who were seeking to decide on a sculpture to purchase.  I say helicopter load, not just for fun, but because later in the day we heard them heading off in a helicopter back home.

This was Spiral of the Galaxy, which we overheard a guide explaining about... the idea of one side of the shell was rough and weathered, as if over time, whilst the other side was shiny and new with such brightness.  Obviously this reference to life is a useful one to reflect upon.  Looking at life through the lens of a child, everything is brand new, shiny and exciting, and as time goes on, things become duller and less interesting.  That is not to say that as we get older we have to think in these ways.  My recent journeys through personal development, with particular help from The Magic, is helping me to see life all shiny and new like children do, rather than always through cynical eyes.  I feel so incredibly blessed that I get to experience my children's childhood with them so fully, as it brings a new perspective and vigour for life that I don't believe I would have without this amazing wonderful experience.

Evan asked me to draw a picture of it, and he wanted me to show the fact that it echos too.

This is a mound that has something to do with the pond close-by, but we couldn't work out quite what.  However, the kids loved playing here, and exploring different ways of getting up and down the very steep sides.  Sliding and running seemed to be the most effective methods, Evan talked about the forces involved here (bit of science going on!)  I loved hearing from Autumn that it was okay for her to get dirty, as her clothes could be washed, so she happily slid down the muddy bank on her bum.

The Dream machine - (La Machine de Rever) or something like that, here was made in 1970.  Autumn enjoyed the colours and was interested in the wheels.  I feel like we have a dream machine in our home, and we can set it to work every day making all our dreams come true.  What an exciting experience.

Then we explored a lovely tree - it became the Octobuggy; Went in the maze; Went through the coal tunnel - Evan managed to go through as well, despite being scared; paddled in the Cascades; Ate enormous ice cream; foraged for Sweet Chestnuts.

Further on through the gardens in the Kitchen garden we found these flowers which were completely teeming with bumblebees and butterflies, not that this shot shows it too well - there were quite often bees and butterflies on the same flower, and it would have been impossible to count them.  Evan commented that he thought we should definitely get some of these flowers for our garden so we could encourage such wildlife.

The Kitchen garden was really stuff dreams are made of.

A Diamond, which seemed to act as a scarecrow, fascinated us all, and held such beauty.

Upon seeing these carrots bursting from the ground, they were firmly placed in our list of vegetables to grow next year.

"At harvest time there’s no better taste,

Than an apple fresh plucked in the fall. 
It’s just as delicious ‘round the world,
No matter in what language you call. "

Excerpt from Ted Sherman's Apple Harvest 

Nothing makes me feel more alive than seeing my kids really enjoying nature and all it has to offer.  This is just divine, surrounded by trees, and fruit in beautiful sunshine, kids together. Amazing days. 

This lovely collection of mushrooms were the best specimen we found today, but it has inspired us to go on a mushroom hunt in the next few weeks.

After the sculptures we managed to do the maze, and Evan was a complete pro.  I managed to lose them both a number of times when they ran in different directions.  But we were reunited.  Mazes are great fun.  But this mini maze as Evan referred to it as was his favourite.  He really appreciates the beauty in the world, and this was no exception.  He said it was his favourite bit of the day :)

Here is Autumn in a fanatastic Willow withie sculpture, there were loads of them around, it was fantastic to explore a new bit of the gardens, despite being here only a few weeks ago.

I almost feel faint recalling all this beauty in our afternoon. And these pictures are only a small snippet of what we saw.  I am grateful beyond words for this magical day.

Exploring the interesting texture of the snake - an important emblem at Chatsworth we discovered on our last visit, there are quite a few.

The beauty didn't even stop when we went to the toilet.

These fun chairs are made up of half dollars, the kids love them.

Among all the many sculptures there is this propeller - there were no signs around it, so not sure if it has always been a sculpture or if it had a former life on some aeroplane somewhere.

A little bit of History and Biology

We set off for Chatsworth today,  to take advantage of our year pass,  part way there I realised I had forgotten the membership card,  so we turned tail and headed back.  On the way home we passed Beauchief Abbey,  and as I had been meaning to go there I suggested that we go instead...  To my surprise Evan was agreeable.  So we changed plan and headed that way.  Unfortunately the Abbey itself wasn't open,  so we explored the churchyard,  and the old excavated walls. We started by noticing the differences between the newer and older walls,  and what clues told us that changes had been made to the building.  We went on to find the older walls,  which were surrounded by a variety of trees.  

 Since I had our tree identification sheet in my bag,  we used the key to work out the names of the trees.  This was good fun,  and encouraged Evan to look really closely at the different parts if the leaves,  as well as learn some new vocabulary  like : lobed and leaflets.

This really was great fun, and encouraged a much closer inspection of the different features of the leaves, stems and fruits than we have ever done before.  I feel that I could now at sight identify some trees that previously I would simply have an uneducated guess.  I've always loved trees.  The lungs of the world to me represent so much more than the brown things with green bits on we like to see. 

Constant

Growing

Breathing

Living

Loving

Breathing

Drinking

Soaking in

Breathing

Being

Becoming

Breathing

Seasons

Life

Breathing

Strong

Awesome

Breathing

Power

Floating

Breathing

After these wonderful moments we moved on to explore the Tombstones.  This one we found was incredibly detailed and ornate, with some passages from the bible pertaining to life after death.  It was the earliest we found at the point with the death being in 1826.  Dorothy Fox would have been born in 1763, and lived a good long life.  We noticed the difference in engravings, particularly the minimal ones versus the ones with a lot of text.  I suggested that it cost more money the more letters that were engraved, and therefore they needed to have more money to have lots of writing.

The Abbey yard was fairly empty of graves, which I am sure is no accident, I'd be interested to find out why that is, as most graveyards I've ever visited have been pretty packed.  Near the end of our search we found this one from 1801, which as far as we could read was the oldest one there... however, there were quite a few which were flat to the ground and therefore very weathered were no longer able to be read, but they could have been earlier.  We discussed the differences between the tombstones, and noticed how you could have a guess at the age from the amount of degrading that had happened to the stone in many cases.

We left, in need of a spot of lunch, and went on to Whirlowbrook Hall for a bit of an explore.  Still on the nature detective mode we attempted to identify more trees.  However I realised the limitations of my identifcation key, as it is just for common british trees.  So we took some photos of ones which weren't obvious so that we could find out more at home.

A little incongruous, a rose in a fir tree.

At home later Evan explored some new K'nex we had found in a charity shop with a battery powered motor.  He was able to construct this car with minimum support from Pat.  This was his most successful creation so far.  He was extremely proud of his achievements.  As are we :)

I loved today, as it just flowed, I had no real plans apart from to make icecream and take Autumn to her dance class.  Both of those things happened, but obviously a lot more besides.  Learning, as we do, naturally and doing things we enjoy, means that the learning is most likely to be retained, and definately enjoyed.  I believe my role is to facilitate learning rather than make it happen.  I know that sometimes I go a bit heavy on the information, rather than waiting for questions, but I am working on stepping back and trusting more.  Trust has been a key theme in my parenting journey, and I believe that the more I trust my children the better we all feel.  It does take a real leap of faith at times, for example when thinking about trusting our children to learn to read or behave in a socially acceptable manner, but I do try and work with this principle at the heart of what I do.