Finding me

When I was a young teenager, I had a very young cousin who died of a brain tumour. From that day on I was determined to become a children’s nurse and make the lives of children with cancer better. By the time I was around 17, I realised that I was never going to cope with children who don’t get better and so I started to look at other careers with children. From a very young child, all I really dreamed of being was a mum, like my mum, being able to stay at home and look after them myself. To be that mum with a pinny on, with flour in her hair and myriad of pets to take care of. It took some doing and during the first 9 years of being a parent I was, through necessity, a working parent. Also within that time I managed to work part time while studying and managed to gain a honours degree in Early Years and Health. One of my jobs over those years was in the NHS as a newborn hearing screener and for a while I loved the clinical environment and continued to consider health care as a future career. Then my youngest was born, we managed to juggle our finances and then with my husband’s new job I was finally able to stay at home with them, which in turn grew into home educating all three of them (not the original plan). This took me on a whole new pathway as being at home meant all four of us (myself and my three children) were able to really follow our own paths and dreams rather than those that are set for you through schools and employment.

Throughout the years I have kept up with my interest in health and over the last few years it has turned more into natural health to keep us all healthy, rather than health care itself.

Over the last 3 years I have very gradually introduced new healthy practices to my routine. It started with yoga and meditation, and then spread to optimal nutrition, cold water therapy and movement. I will return at a later date to discuss these in more detail.

One of my hobbies is reading and every morning as part of my routine I either read a non fiction health related book, or listen to a natural health related podcast. It’s just what I do. Just recently, I have discovered that I may have the chance to do a health science degree which is something I never in a million years thought would be possible for me to be able to do. Our income is not high enough for the uni fees and I really didn’t think I would be entitled to get a student loan seeing as I already had a degree under my belt. However, it seems that there are government loans out there providing you choose a subject that is on the list, and health science happens to be on that list! Who would have thought!? Health science is in my bones and has been since a teenager. When I first qualified as a nursery nurse my nephew was born and spent many weeks in the Special Care Baby Unit. This only heightened my interest in health care. When, 8 years later, I was studying for my childhood studies degree, I opted to stop after my Foundation Degree in Early Years and top up to gain an honours degree choosing health options through the Open University, rather than staying at my original uni and going the education route. And my interest in health has never stopped.

With my third child I took part in a baby massage course which I absolutely loved. It made so much difference to my own and my baby’s wellbeing. I used a sling to carry him, which is another area I’m passionate about as it makes so much difference to the health and wellbeing of both mother and baby. Both areas I would love to explore in more detail at a later date.

I am so excited that this might be something I canpossibly start as soon as October this year! I have no idea where this degree may take me. I have a passion for the first 3 years of life and the health and well being of both mother and child. The wellbeing and happiness of both is an area I desperately want to be part of but right now I have no idea what job in particular I would like to do within that area. But the exciting thing is taking that step and seeing what the future holds for me. Maybe it will be some form of writing within the early years/parenting/health area. Maybe it will be within the NHS or Children’s Centres or even back to day nurseries which is where my career started. Who knows… but I’m excited to find out.

Transformation

I feel something is happening in me at the moment. Sounds a bit drastic, I know. It’s probably not quite as dramatic as that sounds, but I feel I’m approaching a new stage in my life. I’m fast approaching 45 years old (isn’t that how old your mum is!!??? Not yourself!!) and my youngest baby is 9. He’s at that pre-teen stage where he’s desperate to be more independent but we’re not quite there yet. Having 16 and 18 yr old siblings and mainly older friends is also assisting his advancing years. The time when I am no longer needed to be the parent I once was is very very close on the horizon, and quite frankly, that terrifies me!

For 18 years my children have been my number 1 priority. Especially the last 9 years where I have had one or all of them at home with me. My eldest is still going through some intense anxiety issues (the main reason she was home educated) but is slowly moving forward with helping herself come through the other side. My middle one starts college in September so is moving up to bigger and better things. And my youngest, as I say, is becoming more independent day by day.

So now I turn to myself. What do I need (or want) to do? I haven’t worked out of the home for 9yrs and so I’m unsure what (if anything) to return to. I have my etsy shop which I love and I hope to keep on working on it, but do I want that to be my sole income? I love writing and spend a lot of my life doing it in one form or another. Sometimes for money, sometimes for pleasure – but again, would I be happy just working by myself in my little workshop/cabin/yoga/art studio all day every day without seeing another human being? I very much doubt it.

I’m quite an introvert, but I also need some people around me at times throughout the week and so I really feel I will need to return to the workplace at some point. Probably within the next five years. So now is the time to do things to work towards that time. So I’m ready physically and mentally.

I’ve been doing quite a lot of yoga and meditation recently to help clear my head so I can think clearly as to where I want my path to go. This is work in progress so watch this space to see where it takes me.

Anyone else feeling a life shift at the moment?

A dog is for life…

I mentioned my rescue dog in my last post so I thought I’d come on a say a bit more about her. She is a crazy Romanian rescue who was dumped in someone’s garden as a tiny puppy. She lived in a rescue centre in Romania for most of her life until she was 7mths which is when she was sent to a British rescue centre, which is where we adopted her from. She had only been with the British rescue for 2 weeks in a foster home when she came to live with us. She was a nervous little thing but who took to us very quickly thankfully. We’ve certainly had our ups and downs with her with regards to training. We were first time dog owners. I’d had a dog throughout my childhood until I was 18 but I wasn’t the main carer then so I didn’t really have much of an idea on dog training. Added to that we went into lockdown due to the pandemic when we’d had her for 2.5mths and so we never managed to get to any training classes until she was about 18 mths old. I turned to the internet to research dog training. We had a LOT to work through .

Firstly, she was terrified of the car. Drooling and vomiting on every journey. She was very nervous in the outside world on the street. However, we soon discovered that on a beach on in an open field, she was like a different dog, suddenly confident and excited. However, her excitedness was what got her into trouble in the end. Due to her tendency to panic at sudden noises, and try and bolt, we had to keep her on the lead at all times. Which meant we couldn’t allow her to play with other dogs, because even on a long line, it meant we were tied up in knots. We did allow play with a friends dog, but it was not helping anyone as by the end of the walk my hand would be ripped to shreds from the lead as she galloped about trying to chase her friend (who had a habit of running off miles in front). Sadly, we had to stop that play date in the end. We were ok if we found a secure field, but there is only one free one near us which they decided to lock for no apparent reason, and so she can never have any off lead play time these days. But due to no play time with other dogs, she is always so excited to see them when we’re walking on the lead. This creates an issue as she bounces around like a crazy girl and pings about at the end of the lead trying to get to them. I wouldn’t mind it if she just wanted a bum sniff like most other dogs. But she’d much rather ping around pulling my arm out it’s socket and tying everyone up in knots, and so we began avoiding other dogs at all costs. Which I’m sure doesn’t help her frustration.

Around September time last year we saw a massive improvement shift. She was walking past other dogs on the street quite well without the normal pinging around, we’d found a lovely very local field to walk round where we rarely saw any dogs so we had nice uninterrupted walks on the long line, almost felt like I had an off lead dog. Due to her being so relaxed at the field (and it only being a 2 minute car journey away) she had started to be happy getting in the car and had begun hopping in on her own accord. All was good. Then firework night happened and she had 2 solid weeks of local fireworks that sent her over the edge. Every night she was a quivering wreck in the corner of the room. This triggered her intense fear of bird scarers – which we’d always heard daily as we live in an area with farmers fields surrounding us. We hear them from the garden and even from in the house. She’d never been particularly scared of them until after firework night. All of a sudden she wouldn’t go to the field, she got scared of the car again as the car meant a walk somewhere where there were bird scarers (even though she still wasn’t scared of them in the garden). Her street walks got worse and worse and we basically didn’t know what to do as she was terrified to leave the house.

After advice from a behaviourist, we gave her a complete break from all walks and started doing “click the trigger” an “open bar close bar” when we heard loud noises. If you’re not familiar with these terms, click the trigger is when you use a clicker (or marker word) when a scary thing happens (in our case the bird scarer) and then feed the dog something very high value to them. So, for 2 weeks while she didn’t go out for a walk, every day when we were in the garden training/exercising every time we heard a bird scarer I’d say my marker work “here” and give her some nice chunky chicken pieces. Every time. In the house or garden. This meant keeping the chicken in my treat pouch at all times as I needed her to know that the sound meant something yummy. This worked well as she wasn’t scared at all by the sound in the garden, but she learnt that she needed to look at me when she did hear it. Open bar close bar is similar but it is more for longer noises. So when an aeroplane or helicopter goes over, or the church bells chime, I “open the bar” and feed her continuously tasty chicken or sausages. As soon as the sound stops, I stop feeding her so she absolutely knows the sound results in something nice.

After 2 weeks of that, she had started to look at me whenever she heard the noises. So we started, tentatively to leave the house again. Just walking the 10 minute walk between our house and my mum’s house (which is her other safe place). We still hear the bird scarers in both the street, and in mum’s garden, so I kept up with the click the trigger/open bar close bar. Finally, after a few months we seemed to be able to do a whole hour walk around the streets and through a few green spaces before even getting to my mum’s house.

We’ve just this week began to put her in the car again to drive to either my mum’s or to a local beach again so she can associate the car with somewhere she’s happy in. The guidelines for car training a dog is much much more slow and long winded, rewarding every time she walks towards the car etc etc. However, the way our house/driveway is, it really wasn’t working doing it that way and so we are trying it this way for now, as this is what worked before with the local field (before the fireworks put a stop to that one!) I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

Does anyone else have a rescue dog? Or any dog really? When we decided to get a dog I had such dreams of going for long country or beach walks, chatting to other dog owners, making new friends. But when you have a nervous rescue, it can be quite isolating at times. However, the love she gives me more than makes up for that and I wouldn’t send her back for anything! xx

Finding time to write!

Why oh why is it so difficult to find time to write these days? I am fully aware that this blog has not been touched since 2018! My gosh, the years have flown! My children are now growing up. They are 18, 16 and 9 now! How did that happen? My eldest is still studying from home, mainly concentrating on her art, my middle one is starting college in September. He’s applied for both media and carpentry as he has an interest in both. Watch this space to see what he ends up doing! And my youngest is still home educated and thoroughly enjoying his forest school and dance classes. We have a new addition to the family. A gorgeous, but very nervous rescue dog called Betty. She is my little soulmate who came along just at the right time for me. My dad was very poorly from the chemotherapy he was having for his very early stage cancer (funnily enough, the cancer hadn’t made him ill at all). He sadly passed away in January 2020 due to sepsis caused by the chemo (and the other concoction of pills and potions they were pumping in to him). It didn’t matter that he was 85 or had cancer, still nothing prepares you for the death of your dad.

Back in the latter part of 2019, we decided that we wanted to get a rescue dog. I knew ultimately, it would be me who ends up walking it and feeding it, so I suggested we get a tiny pocket sized dog. We were used to cats previously and so I thought a tiny chihuahua or yorkshire terrier would be a good compromise! So, when we were searching the rescue pages online and we came across a not so tiny but still very cute mixed breed who needed a home, we all fell in love! We had our first meeting and despite her nervousness, she seemed to like us, and we LOVED her and so after our home check and a big chat with the rescue, we were able to bring her home for a 2 week trial. By the end of that day (1st January 2020), in our hearts, she was already ours. Fast forward 16 months and she is approaching her 2nd birthday. She’s around 18kg, so not the tiny cat-sized pup we were planning. She’s been the biggest challenge so far as due to her past we have (and still have a LOT of issues to work through). But she has kept me busy all through the lockdowns and has taught me SO much about life, and what is important. She came along at the saddest time in my life so far, and for that I will forever be grateful.

Due to her issues, we don’t go for long country walks like I had planned to do with my dog. We can’t walk along the beach very often and we are still training her with being ok in the car. I will admit, I was sad at first, that we couldn’t do all the things I’d dreamed of with my dog, but I have now come to enjoy what we CAN do. I love her with all my heart and we spend long afternoons together while I write or craft.

While I’m on the subject of crafting, I will let you all know about my selling platforms. I still have https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RubysAtticUK . I also sell a bit on ebay. My current listings are here – https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/rubyintheattic12/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= There will be much more added in the near future as I am beginning to have a spring clear out! A much needed one! I also have an instagram account which you can find me if you search rubysastticUK on Instagram, or click on https://www.instagram.com/rubysatticuk/

I think as time goes on, this blog will be less about the children as they grow up and do their own thing, and more about life in general so it would great if you would stick around. I’m hoping now we are coming out of lockdown that life we resume to some kind of normality again soon. I don’t know about you, but I know I certainly need it.

How have you all been getting through this past year? Have you started anything new that you think you’ll keep up with? Any plans for the future?

xxx

Adventure 9 Railways and ice cream!

This was a rather special adventure. Mainly due to the fact that it was F’s 6th birthday. He’s always been rather keen on trains. Fast trains, steam trains, fancy trains, you name it, if it’s a train, he’ll like it. So on his 2nd birthday we took him to Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. It’s a miniature railway run by many volunteers and at 2, he loved it so much he declared it “my birthday train place” which has stuck until now. So, when we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday treat he asked to go to “my birthday train place”. So that’s what we did! Getting a Romney Rover meant we could hop on and off all day if we so wanted.

We stopped off at New Romney station to look in the model railway exhibition (the highlight for my son!)

We got to ride on the blue “Hurricane” and the red “Winston Churchill”.

And we got off the train at Dymchurch to have an ice cream while sitting on the beach!

Adventure 7 & 8 – Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with a road trip and overnight stay!

I’m playing catch up a bit here, as these two adventures were back in March. Life’s been a little hectic recently what with planning my new Etsy shop, working on various other writing projects, taking on more commitments for the children’s clubs and groups and life and HE in general! However, I would now like to tell you all about our trip to Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard. For anyone who has never been you need to go!! It’s amazing. I’m documenting this as two adventures, purely because the excitement of a road trip and a hotel stay was all too much to bear!

I have been fortunate to go to Portsmouth a couple of times in my life but this one was special because I got to take C with me. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before, but a while ago, C began Sea Cadets. He wanted a space to go regularly which was without us as a family. A place to call his own and to “belong”. We looked long and hard at different clubs and groups, including scouts, air cadets and sports clubs and he chose sea cadets based on the activities they tend to get up to. Lots of adventure-style activities and boating being the most appealing to C.

So, to take him to Portsmouth was something he’d been wanting since joining and I’m so glad I did. Firstly, I’d like to point out that we are on a constant tight budget and so every excursion we do, I plan to it’s death to make sure I’m not spending unnecessarily. To make this trip more affordable, we used our Tesco clubcard vouchers. You only need to use £7 worth of vouchers for one entry into the dockyard. To add to this, that one entry lasts you all year! So if you live locally it’s fantastic, and if you don’t you can plan a couple of weekend trips there. Even if you only manage to get there the once, it is WELL worth the money. Ideally, plan it over 2 days minimum as there is so much to see and do, you really would be hard pushed to do it all in a day.

On top of that, we went with a friend and her son. We shared a budget hotel room which at the time, only cost us £50 between us, however, that will obviously vary depending on hotel and time of year you visit. Premier Inn’s and Travelodges tend to do their lowest prices on Sundays which has really helped us to find affordable places to stay. At times we’ve managed to get a room for 4 of us for £29 for the night which is an absolute steal!  We took pastries and snacks to keep us going and used budget pubs for dinners, again to keep costs to it’s minimum.

I can’t say which was the best bit about the historic dockyard, as it is all so amazing that I couldn’t possibly narrow it down! However, For that £7 worth of tesco clubcard vouchers (or £32 an adult, £19 a child or £76 a family of 5) you get unlimited annual entry into 11 attractions including a submarine tour, 

Action stations, which has mast climbing, wall climbing, helicopter simulator experience, various obstacle courses and interactive games,

the Mary Rose museum, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, boat trips and various other museums. It really is value for money, even if you’re paying full price. We spent 1.5 days there and still didn’t have time to do everything (although we did do all but one boat ride and one museum).

We definitely intend to return to Portsmouth with the rest of the family and very possibly again with the same friends we went with this time as it was truly an unforgettable experience.

New Etsy Shop!

So excited to share my new shop! Home Ed Resources UK I’m never happier than when I’m planning activities and topics for my children! (That doesn’t mean they always jump at everything I suggest we do!) But it does mean that I have a string of things on hand if I feel the need. Therefore, I have decided to begin selling my plans to the HE community. It’s nothing fancy but it does save you all trawling through endless websites or book and programmes trying to find things to link into a theme. Here’s a little snippet.

 

 

Pop over and see what you think!

While I’m on the subject of Etsy shops, I also have a second shop which I’ve had for a while now. Rubys Attic UK I sell my hand made jewellery and gifts. Again, pop over and have a nosey! x

Trusting yourself as a parent

Looking through some old notebooks, I found something that I wrote a few years ago. The ages of my children have changed, but my thoughts are still the same.

 

Trusting yourself as a parent

I am a mother of three children aged 2, 9 and 11. My parenting style has changed dramatically over the years that I’ve been a mother. When my daughter was born 11 years ago I had been trained and had worked for 8 years as a nursery nurse/early years educator and a nanny. When I went on maternity leave and after she was born I carried on in “work mode” doing everything by the book…that is, the mainstream book. I set my daughter routines to follow, I provided endless activities and trips out for her. She had set meal times and nap times and “messy play” times and was in bed at 7pm every night on the dot! By 3 months old she was in her own room and we occasionally went through the total trauma of trying to settle her to sleep when she obviously wasn’t tired!

When she was quite small I went back to education and did a Bsc (hons) degree in Early Years Education and Child health. At university I learnt how to be critical about everything I did concerning children. By the time I finished my 4 ½ year course I had 2 children aged 5 and 2 ½ and my whole outlook on how to raise and teach children had changed completely.

I’d gone from doing things like all the books told me to, to doing things my way. This wasn’t because my tutors told me what to do, but because they’d taught me to analyse and to question everything I was doing. Each time you analyse your actions you can make improvements somewhere. Life changes, personalities change and therefore so should the way you parent. Just because you do things a certain way now, doesn’t mean you can’t change it later on down the line.

My degree taught me to ask myself questions when things weren’t going how I thought they should. Why do I do what I do? What will it prove? Will it encourage the children to develop valuable life skills? Am I saying “no” for my benefit or for the benefit of my child? Would you treat an adult like that? When my children are adults would I want them to be passive and “do as they’re told” or would I want them to make the right choices based on knowledge and experience? Would I want them to not hurt others in fear of being in trouble? Or would I want them to not hurt others because they’ve grown up not wanting to hurt others as it feels wrong.

Before and while I was completing my degree I worked as a childminder and then on to a day nursery with under 2 year olds. When I finished my degree I went to work in a pre-school and continued to feel disillusioned by my new found knowledge and understanding of vital child development and psychology. Even though I had happily worked with children for the past  13yrs, I was suddenly disillusioned with it all. Why were 2 year olds made to sit down in a group and listen to a story just because an adult thought they should? Even though sometimes it was plainly obvious some children weren’t ready to sit for any length of time to listen to a story. Why were parents being made to believe that nursery is what your child needs to socialise and learn how to fit in to school? Why were parents made to believe that all children needed to go to school at all? Why were the other options such as Home Education not suggested as a perfectly reasonable alternative? Why do parents not get a fully informed choice as to how to raise and educate their children?

It appears to be the “norm” for professionals to encourage parents to mould their children into a “one size fits all” type of persona right from birth. Only the other day I overheard a health visitor telling a new mother to try “controlled crying” with her 6 week old baby! If another adult was trying to tell you something, would you tell them to go and sit in a room on their own until they learn to be silent? Do you think it’s ok to teach a child not to tell you something is wrong? Do you want them to grow up thinking what they need to tell you isn’t worth listening to? Would you like someone to tell you that what you are saying isn’t important?

It is thought that controlled crying encourages babies to sleep through the night and to not be clingy, but in actual fact it is telling them that if they need a cuddle they’re not likely to get it! If they need food and drink or they need comforting because they are scared of being in a room on their own, you’re telling them it is tough luck – no one will come to comfort you. It will teach them to keep their emotions to themselves regardless of how they are feeling. It will teach them to over eat at their set meal times because they don’t know how long it will be until their tiny tummies will get more food again and it will tell them that their cries (their opinion) is not valid in this big scary world that they know nothing about. The one person they thought they could trust. The one whose heartbeat they listened to for 9 months, is the one who is pushing them away and not listening to their cries. Why do health professionals feel it is ok to encourage that?

So through my experience of working in the early years, by being a parent and my learned ability to analyse and question what I do, I am now doing it my way. I will trust my instincts the way a mother should. I will have my baby sleep in my bed just because I want to and because I instinctively feel that is what he wants too. He was inside me for 9 months. He is used to the sound of my heartbeat and my voice and the rhythm of my breathing. That makes him know that it is me, the one who carried him. Most other mammals sleep with their young, why shouldn’t I? I will wear my baby in a sling because I love to hold him close. It’s not only him who has an attachment to my movements, I have an attachment to his too. When he wriggles while in the sling it is similar to the wriggling he did in my womb. As he grows older I will learn to trust that he will be safe away from me, just as he will learn to trust himself. Push him away too early and both he and I may not be confident in being apart.

Many people think that if you keep holding them and picking them up they will become a clingy child but in actual fact, the opposite is true. If your baby knows he gets regular cuddles and can come for a cuddle and a carry whenever he wants – be that all day in the early days – he will learn to be more confident as he always knows you’ll be there for a cuddle when he needs one. He won’t have to cry for it, or have a tantrum for it or show negative behaviour…he will know that he can be close to you whenever he needs the reassurance that you are still there and you still love him – because “I love you” are just words to him. It’s how you show it that matters.

I’m not claiming any of the above is the right thing to do for your family. I am claiming it is right for mine. I’m not claiming that my children are perfect or will turn out to be perfect adults but I am claiming that if a child, or in fact, an adult, feels loved and wanted they will find it much easier to face the challenges that life throws at them, whatever that may be.

So my message is this: Follow your heart and your instincts as a parent and you will know that you have done your best for your children. xx

 

Education comes in all shapes and forms

As are most home educators, I’m a member of many HE facebook pages. I think I’d certainly struggle without this membership as I have learnt virtually everything I know from these wonderful virtual social groups. Some are more than virtual. I am a member of a local group where activities and meet ups are arranged. Without these I would have not have made the many friends that I have in the world of HE. Neither would my children have.

It was while reading through some posts today on one of my many groups, that there was a conversation about how worrying it is when your child “doesn’t want to learn”. I know that feeling. C will often state “but I don’t like learning” on a regular basis and each time it makes my heart sink a little. I am the complete opposite. I love learning. I didn’t love school (really didn’t like my primary years but tolerated my secondary schooling) but I did like finding out new things. I was an avid writer in my teens and early 20s. After I left school I went to college (back then not everyone moved on to something else, it was perfectly acceptable to be in a full time job at 16). While in my first full time job I began a writing course. However, when I fell pregnant with N I put this to one side with the intention to continue at a later date, but I never did.

When N was a few months old, I started an art course which I loved! I reignited my love of painting and drawing which I’d had at school but lost enthusiasm for when I only gained a D grade in my GCSE. When N was 18 months old (and I was 27) I went to university for the first time in my life, to do a foundation degree in early years education. I absolutely adored being a student again and although it was tough juggling a job, a toddler and uni (and later in the course being pregnant and having a new baby as well!) I did relish my uni days. After I finished my foundation degree, I had a few months break and then continued my study with the open university topping it up to gain a BSc(hons) Open Degree in childhood and health studies. It was all this research that led me to question the state schooling system.

After my degree, my studies went by the wayside for some time while I concentrated on being a mum (and my part time job). However, when N and C were 6 and 8 I found out I was pregnant with F and I decided that this time i was going to do it my way.

Back to my point (I do have a habit of drifting off at times so please forgive me!) C will often tell me he “doesn’t like learning” and so the thread I was reading on facebook this morning was good to read. I need to step back a little when he says that. My initial instinct is to panic. However, this is exactly why I deregistered him. He was never the child who loved “lessons”. School was just a place where he had to go. He liked his friends and his best part of the day was playtime, but over the 7 years he was there, he never once said “guess what we did today?” with any information about something he enjoyed. Instead, you’d ask him how his day went and he’d shrug and say “it was ok”. You’d ask him what did he do? “not much. I can’t really remember”. This always made me feel a little sad.

At home he enjoyed writing stories and drew endless pictures. He’d build with lego and “act out” a scene with his action figures or while dressed up in a costume of some sort.

And now he’s not in school he still says “I don’t like learning”… but when he says that he only thinks of the English and Maths that I set him to do. The things he does enjoy (which I don’t let on is learning too!) is how to build a game on his PC, how to fix problems that go wrong on his laptop by googling or looking up on you tube. He goes to a drama class through his own choice and he is once again acting out scenes with his peers with the dream of one day being on the big screen. He’s also looking forward to his first show which will be in a big local theatre with a big audience.

He loves going on big walking expeditions and we have plans to do overnight trips while exploring new places. He goes to sea cadets which I know he would never have joined if he had been at school still. He adores going there and has just signed up to do his first weekend camp. Something that is a big thing for him as even sleepovers with friends often reduced him to tears a year or so ago. He’s learning how to be a sailor and hopes to learn power boating and life saving.

My little boy is growing up so quickly and the 11yr old who I withdrew from school less than 2 yrs ago is already turning into an independent man, making his own decisions and instigating his own adventures. If that’s not learning, I don’t know what is!!

Adventure 6 – Mud glorious mud!

I feel like our adventures are getting a bit “samey”. However, one of the ones I have on my “list of adventures” is do puddle jumping!! Well, last week, we went to another country park. Being England and February, we were greeted by an abundance of mud and puddles! So puddle jumping was a pretty easy one to tick of the list! F was dressed in his fleece lined snow suit and wellies with a very waterproof rain coat on top. But even he managed to get water down his welly after a rather adventurous jump that went a little wrong!

Even so, it was great to get out in the fresh, albeit cold, air!