Books, books, books.

My lovely postman delivered a fab parcel today :). You cant really see from the photo but the little pot of herb salve from the inspiring April at http://flowoflove.blogspot.com/

Books I'm reading.

I'm re-reading these wonderful books just to remind me to continue on my peaceful parenting journey.

Growing and playing.

Fingers crossed our first attempt at growing peas and beans.

our herb collection.

My garden Buddha, bringing a sense of calm and peace to our little patch of garden.

Charlie loves to play with his cars and play mat, he spends hours having adventures, meeting people and animals along the way, its wonderful to just watch him discovering a whole little world.

Book Share Monday...ok its Tuesday but I'm taking life slowly.

We've chosen to share 2 lovely books this week, In the Nest, By Anna Milbourne and Laurence Cleyet-Merle and In the Pond by Anna Milbourne and Mat Russell.

These wonderful books are usborne books and are full of just gorgeous illustrations of wildlife. They are simply really lovely insights for young children to discover the life of birds and pond creatures, charlie never tires of looking at them.

Giving Thanks..

for the wonderful gift of motherhood.

A couple of old pics for Gina lol.

charlie discovering the washing machine at around 9 months old lol!

Book Sharing Monday.

Our book choice this week is a wonderful fairy tale.

Mother Earth And Her Children. A quilted fairy tale.

By Sibylle Von Olfers.

Mother earths children, who have been sleeping all winter awake and experience the new life, the colour, and the joys of spring.

The gorgeous illustrations in the book are actually photographs of the 'quilted fairy tale'.

''Deep in the woods

All cloaked in green

Flowers blossom.

What a wondrous scene!

A violet hides

Behind a tree,

Scared by a snail, So strange to see.

Beside the brook

Those earthly tots

Skip among

Forget-me-nots.

This is one of a few books by sibylle von olfers, they are just beautiful fairy stories that charlie asks me to read again and again :)

Walking the dog....and erm,,cat.

We do get some strange looks when we take Toby out for a walk as very often one of our cats joins us. Here's Woody our lovely ginger tom enjoying a stroll with Toby.

our season table....

please excuse the very poor quality of my photo's as I've had to use my phone as my dd kirsty has borrowed my camera for a trip to London (fingers crossed it comes back in one piece lol).

A bit of fun..

Charlie wearing my old glasses so he could be just like his big brother Ben watching football :)

Time to slow down...

Just lately it seems that this house is so chaotic and rushed, I dont think its doing anyone any good. I didnt even take part in Book Share Monday this week and I love to pick one of our many gorgeous books to share :(

To be honest I'm lucky if I get chance to use the pc as there's normally a teenager on it and then when its free I tend to have a very adventurous little boy needing my undivided attention.

So Charlie and I have been doing a little more exploring the area where we live and discovered a beautiful woodland area with a river perfect for paddling and throwing stones.

my lovely award :)

I've been given this award by the lovely Gina at http://ourunschooledfamily.blogspot.com/

It is an award for bloggers who distinguish themselves for showing cultural values, ethics, great and fun writing skills, as well as individual values, through their creative writing. Thank you Gina, so very much :)

Here are the award rules: To accept and show the distinct image. Show the link to the blog from which you were given the awardChoose 15 blogs to give the award to.

I would like to pass the award on to these lovely blogs: http://daisymoon-benpixie.blogspot.com/ ,http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/ , http://livingtemple.blogspot.com/ ,http://honourandinspiration.blogspot.com/

Unschooling Credo.

I came across this wonderful credo the other day and just wanted to share.

I am an unschooler, and so is my family. Please, indulge me for a few moments while I explain. I am an unschooler. I believe in my child's ability and desire to learn. I believe that she is an intelligent, capable human being, and I believe that when the time for her to learn a certain thing arrives, that she will learn it. I am an unschooler. I do not believe in force feeding my child a bunch of useless facts and rote learning that will be forgotten next week, next month, next year. I am confident that when my child learns a thing, that it stays learned, because she chose to learn it and put her entire being into discovering what its secrets and mysteries are. I am an unschooler. I refuse to force my child to grow up before she is ready. I will not put her into situations where she is forced to compete instead of play and learn. I cannot push her to achieve and in so doing lose sight of the child in the quest for rewards. I am an unschooler. I encourage my child to be a self starter and self aware. I guide her gently and offer assistance when she requests it. I do not tell her that she is doing it wrong just because that isn't how it was taught to me. I am an unschooler. I threw away the clock years ago. I do not believe that a child can learn to read only between the hours of 10 and 11, or 1 to 2. Our days are a crazy quilt of activity, ranging from a day doing nothing but drawing pictures or playing computer games to doing fifty different activities ranging from staring at a snail to counting the number of rice grains in a cup. I am an unschooler. Our textbooks include old catalogues, junk mail, and encyclopedias. Our on hand science materials are made up of a beaker, some magnets, and a few goldfish. We create our learning materials and we buy them. We find them in fields and in flea markets. We see the educational value in everything, because children will learn from anything that you hand them, even a Barbie doll. Please don't try to force your curriculum on us. We don't need it. I am an unschooler. Our family has its own moral values which we share openly among ourselves, and with those who are genuinely interested. We do not want to have our souls saved, or our lifestyle condemned. If you wish to be our friend and share our journey, we welcome you, no matter what your philosophy. All that we ask is that you allow us the space to be ourselves just as we will give that to you. Share with us, please, but don't ram it into us? I am an unschooler. My child has many friends of all ages, and from all walks of life. She is not a person to be pitied for her "isolation". She is a person experiencing the best that life can give and enjoying it to its fullest. She is happy, healthy, and well adjusted. She is bright, eager, and intensely interested in her world and universe. She is incredible, and she is a source of amazing joy and interest to everybody who knows her. I am an unschooler. And I am glad to be one.

Book Sharing Monday.

The book Charlie and I have chosen this week is the very lovely 'The bog Baby' By Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward. This is one of the many books we read together every night snuggled up in our bed together. It is about two little girls who go fishing in the magic pond, they find something better than a frog or a newt. They find a Bog Baby, and decide to make him their secret...

If we really loved the Bog Baby, we had to do what was best for him. No matter how much it hurt us. That was real love. That's why we let him go.

We found the pond. It was squelchy round the edge. The bluebells squeaked under our boots.

This is a wonderful book about a childs imagination, real love, blubells, woods and inspired us as a family to go searching for the magical Bog Baby.

Feeling better.

As Charlie started to seem a little better and on the mend from this horrible cough and cold (and croup!) we decided that a bit of fresh air and a little adventure would do us all a bit of good. I have to admit I was starting to get 'cabin fever' staying in the house with a poorly little boy.
We went to a gorgeous woodland near to us called Hardcastle Craggs, it really is the most peaceful and beautiful place, I always feel like I've 'come home' when we're here.

One of Charlies bedtime stories is a book called 'The Bog Baby', its about a tiny creature who lives in a wood amongst bluebells, so we went looking for some of these magical creatures. We had so much fun searching but then charlie just said ''they are fast asleep in their little houses''.

After our walk we went into the town and did some shopping, we bought, vegan marg, spelt flour, agave syrup and a few other vegan goodies as tomorrow we're going to do some baking.

Looking for Bog Babies.

Daddy and charlie making little boats......

Discovering ants...

stepping stones.....

Warren's beautiful photography......

Beautiful bluebells, my favourite flower.