A relaxed day at Chatsworth

When we visited with friends last week, Evan and Autumn found that there were a number of things they wanted to do, but our friends weren't particulalry interested.  So I promsied we would have a choice session at Chatsworth, where they could choose to do what they wanted and I woudln't hurry them on to another thing.  Evan really wanted to watch the globe fountain and play in the squirrel nutkin tree.  On Tuesday, that is exactly what we did, after a quick stint in the playground and farmyard, we headed to the gardens and we spent 2 hours at the squirrel nutkin tree whilst I ate lunch and did some craft.  Then we moved on to the maze and then rock garden.  The kids had a wonderful time plopping little rocks into the pond, watching as the ripples got larger.  Finally we went to the globe fountain.  No paddling today, as the cascade was turned off whilst they cleaned it out.  

At the globe fountain we decided to time the different intervals of the sequence of movements it made.  We watched for 20 minutes, and with the cycle being about 4 minutes long we had a few different sets of timings to work from.  We got to the point where we were able to countdown to each of the next things in the process.

A beautiful relaxed day.   It made a nice change to let the children set the full agenda rather than compromising.  I think we need to do that more often. Thank you Chatsworth, once again, for making our week pretty amazing.

 Evan was concerned about this nest having fallen out the tree, no eggs in it though.

Am I doing enough?

I've just posted this on a lovely Home Ed group on facebook that I am on, in reply to someone who is concerned that they are not doing enough.

Beth Roche Sounds like a lot. It is surprising how much time flies. Don't forget you'll be also doing things like, cuddles, reading books, popping to the library, following up on interests that have cropped up, cooking dinner, developing friendships, going on organised trips, project work, visiting farms, reading, freeplay, exploring, going to the park, enjoying a non-busy sheffield, shopping, tidying, cleaning, taking a slow walk to places, taking your time rather than rushing, volunteering. Most of these things will just happen rather than being organised to happen. We do far less organised stuff and I still struggle to do as many of the more relaxed things as I want to. It is common to feel the need to fill every second as at school they have to organise all their time. There is a good reason why school does this, and it doesn't necessarily mean they are learning all the time. A time and space for relaxation and enjoyment and reflection can be of tremendous benefit to the whole family and can produce far greater, deeper learning than fitting as much as possible in. I need to remember that on a regular basis when I fill our week up to the full. It'll come in time, and does take a bit of a shift in perspective, but little by little you can learn to let go of the leads a little and let things flow. (speaking as a previous control freak, this is still taking its time for me, but I am enjoying the transition)


It is a series of thoughts I come back to again and again, so I thought I'd put it here as a point of reference, and one I can add to as my thoughts grow on the subject.

Sunday nugget 12th January

We've missed a few weeks as christmas and the guinea pigs have somewhat taken over our time and home.  I'm not going to fill in the blanks as it is unnecessarily onerous.  This week has been our first week of the year back in the swing of things. 
Monday we did a load of jobs in the morning, and had the afternoon with friends.
Tuesday we tidied our bombsite of a home before going to highfields playground,  then library,  the garage and street dance.
Wednesday was ballet and tap then walled garden. 
Thursday gymnastics,  then friends over.
Friday was going to an open day at wild about play,  which will be running a home education group in a  few months,  followed by a very exciting science club on the subject of elastic energy.
Week is a bit packed at the moment,  with little to no time at home doing anything other than chores.  Need to create a bit more space in the coming weeks if possible.

I have undertaken a new meal planning  and cooking regime yo help me out of the meal anarchy which has been raging for longer than I would have desired.  It involves little movable squares with meals on which I put on a calendar according to the time i have available to cook. Then attempting to cook breakfast lunch and dinner in one go,  hopefully cutting down my cooking time.  So far I feel like I've ignored the kids every morning.  Hmm,  might have to review this.