Enjoying our HE life.

 We have found a lovely little pottery group in a nearby town. Charlie was so very shy at first but after gentle encouragement he was soon joining in, although he wasn't keen to touch the clay itself he enjoyed using the tools and became very engrossed in his art.

 Charlie taking a little time to contemplate on his plate designs :)

 Yaay, my left handed boy has mastered using scissors so well and now doesn't get frustrated with himself but enjoys cutting out and have we been doing 'lots' of cutting.

One of the reasons he enjoys baking is so that he can wash up afterwards, yes, he really does love washing up, even if he does mostly play in the water for an hour :)

Light and love

A candle has been lit here for all who need a little light. My wonderful father in law who has been diagnosed with oesophagus cancer, my auntie Hilary who has found out that her cancer has returned, for my family, our friends, for my MS symptoms. Light and love sent out to you.....
We are also praying for the safe return to her family for little April who has gone missing.

Autumn living

 It has been a very windy and rainy few days here and so we have played indoors mostly, playing with toys that have been forgotten about for a while. These beautiful tree blocks had been put away in a box underneath a pile of other box's but when we discovered them again, there was much joy and imagination play. I was so sorry we hadn't used them for so long but then realised maybe that is what made them even more wonderful, like a new toy :)

 Such a marvelous tree house was created for all the animals, from owls to lions.

 Our Autumn nature 'shelf' is slowly coming into place.

 Charlie is so very proud of his latest project. His favourite animal is the wolf, he has always loved these wonderful, magical creatures and so it was a real adventure for him to discover all about their lives and habitat. As you can see from the photo Charlie drew a lovely picture of a wolf for the front cover.

Lots of pages containing gorgeous cut out pictures of wolves. It was quite interesting to see that Charlie liked the 'fantasy' type pictures best and wanted to print off many of these not just for the project but to stick on his bedroom wall!

Circle Time

 This is our circle time basket, we have little squirrels and foxes in here and sing songs to wake them up, normally 'squirrel nutkin'. Then Mother Earth wakes and we sing to thank her for all she gives us. We are getting in a nice routine now and if we have an early appointment and have to be out of the house quickly Charlie misses the familiarity of circle time. I did wonder, at the beginning if circle time would actually work with just two of us but yes it does work , very well :).

Hmmm..All ready for circle time joined by the dog and cat!!

 We play lots of games at our house, so its a good job I actually enjoy games as it generally consists of two players, me and charlie lol. We love this game, its Animal Animal by Haba, such good fun.

 Good old Jenga, Charlie is really tactical with this and is really very good!

 Oh and of course, one of the best games of all is playing in an enormous cardboard box :)

Part of our weekly routine is cleaning out the guinea pigs, I always try and get Charlie involved as after all, they are his pets but he struggles with the actual shovelling of dirty bedding bit, he has a very strong gag reflex and cant cope with unpleasant smells. Charlie has many little quirks but this all adds up to make our beautiful boy just who he is...gorgeous.

Things that made me smile

 Gorgeous hand made crafts from a wonderful mama came to our house this week. thank you Sarah.

 Exciting things from Myriad. Lyra watercolour pencils, stockmar crayons and lovely main lesson books, I have to admit that I was far more excited than Charlie, I just adore new arty materials, I cant wait to start using them.

Oh and just because I LOVE stripes, some socks to warm my feet this Autumn. Whats the betting that I misplace the odd sock and end up wearing odd stripes...Oh well, it adds to my sometimes unusual/hippy dress sense that does make me stand out a little where we live lol.

books

These are the non fiction books books I am reading at the moment. I have to say that I am really enjoying both of them.

 We love this beautiful book, it's so Autumny and sweet.

 Ahh, ok, this has to be one of my very favourite childrens books ever, the illustrations are just gorgeous. This is just a lovely book to have.

Elsa Beskow books are just..well..beautiful.

This is my escape from reality book :)

And this is a gorgeous, soul lifting read.

Charlie drawing an ammonite.

Ammonite drawing

We discovered a fab quirky little museum whilst playing at a park, it is the Rossendale Museum. Charlie was so happy when he came accross an ammonite in the floor, he then had to draw it.

Arty stuff

 

We bought a set of lacing cards, just to leave them lying around and see if Charlie showed any interest in them....well yes he did, he really loved sitting there lacing away. I sat with him, not helping but just chatting, it was a lovely way to spend an hour.

 

 

We also had a go at Waldorf style wet on wet painting, which was very relaxing, in fact I am discovering a side to me that I didn't know I had. I was always told at school that I just wasn't artistic!! Well look here my old teachers...I am good because I am having fun...so there!

 These number cards are just beautiful, what a gorgeous way to play with numbers.

Charlie insisted that we bought this children's magazine while we were in the coop the other day, I had visions of it being ignored when we got home but when he found the robot activity we set about making him the jazziest robot ever.

A beautiful necklace made by my clever son.

Grateful for...

Grateful for friends. Clever, patient mama's who create beautiful shawls to warm shoulders on a chilly Autumn day. Thank you lovely Sarah.

Learning together

Well I suppose you could say that from now on we are a home educating family. To be honest we were part time home educating last year as Charlie only went to Steiner kindergarten 3 times a week but hey I feel we learn all the time, in set rules or no set way. We still follow a Steiner approach to play and gentle learning but we also unschool as in we don't have a timetable or follow a curriculum. We use media and IT for learning programmes and games and we also watch some TV. Mainly we just love being together all the time and doing our own thing :)

I am excited, tired, inspired by lots of wonderful HE mama's, happy, and a probably a hundred other emotions right now but I feel we are doing the right thing for us.

Not back to school

 lots of countryside walking.

 A masterpiece....robot.

 Charlie helping to build yet another bookcase to house just a few more of our many books :)

 Playing writing with sticks in the dirt.

play dough time

this and that

 Our boy

 Me having a 'good day'.

 The usual fun with daddy on the go karts.

 Charlie looking quite serious here on the bars.

 Future Olympian?

Charlie and daddy having lots of fun at the play gym.