Who’s Normal Anyway?

M’s come out with a few things that have made me giggle recently, so I thought I’d blog them so I can laugh again later.

“She’s going to have a pierced nipple if you carry on like that lad” said to L when he was going through a bit of a biting session.

M: “Do you know what a woo hoo is Mum?”
K: “A woo hoo, no, what is it then?”
M: “It’s when you pretend to have sex in a hot tub”
K: (mind boggling and trying to keep a straight face) “Is it, who told you about that then?”
M: “It was at Muddle Puddle camp” (so educational this home ed lark!) “and Rio told me about it”
K: “Rio, who’s Rio?”
M: “You know, Steph’s big boy” (I see where he’s gone wrong there then LOL)
The things you learn, eh? From Googling apparently it’s Sims related?

In Morrison’s cafe today we had this exchange over a packet of sandwiches M couldn’t open
M: “Can you open these?”
K: “I think you’ve forgotten a little word?”
M: “Can you open these please Mummy?”
K: “OK, there you are”
Pause
K: “I think there’s another word you’ve forgotten?”
After another pause
M:”Thank you”
Another pause
M: “Your… your…” looking at me.
K: “Get on and eat your sandwiches and stop messing”
M: “Your… your…”
K: “What are you on about?”
M: “You’ve missed a little word. You’re w…”
K:” You’re welcome” with a giggle
M: “I got you back there didn’t I Mummy”

Yesterday we were out of the house by 7.45am (!!) to drive to Bury St Edmunds for a home ed outing. Thankfully this one was more successful than our previous visit there. We went to the cathedral to a Hands on the Past Tudor morning set in 1540. It was excellent! We had workshops on Tudor food, an ex-monk making hurdles, weapons, fashions and a guide to Henry’s wives and peddlar goods. The historical reenactment group were really excellent again - the same group we saw for the Norman day in Norwich. Afterwards we got some lunch and looked around the shops for a while and then drove home.

Today we’ve had a day in and M has done lots of fractions, we’ve played Age of Empires together and I’m not really sure what else. M was caught in an upset in the park involving a large post of wood with nails sticking out of it and some boys waving it around and threatening people, but I only got the details when the next door neighbour came round to tell me about it. So he’s not going to the park unsupervised for a while.

Can’t think of anything much to say about the last couple of days. On Saturday M went to cricket again in the morning and I read a magazine in the car while A and L went for a walk round the shops. In the afternoon we tried to go swimming in Thetford because it has a big pool and flume things but it was closed for an all day swimming gala. We went to the garden centre for a bit because it’s close and had a cuppa and bought bark chippings for the garden. When we got home we did some garden stuff and that’s about it I think.

On Sunday I went to church with the boys and A was on a scouting training course. He’s volunteered as an asst group scout leader and is going to help the other leaders in the group through their training and make sure everyone has a plan for covering the basic stuff they need to know. The course was to teach him how to sort out everyone else I think and he’s some stuff to be assessed on over the next 3 months. When he got home we went for a bit of a walk and had some tea and then it was just about time to put L and M to bed.

Today started badly when I woke to M stropping over a computer game yet again. Some of the day went OK - we finished off his ancient greeks topic apart from making the poster, did some fractions (they confuddle him each time they come up, not sure why, I think he might just need lots of repetition til the idea of it has chance to stick somewhere?) and finished off the cooking expts for his BA First Investigators silver award. He cooked eggs (fried and poached) for breakfast and described what happened and we also made mars bar cake and talked about how the ingredients changed. He had some interesting ideas about what was happening to the egg.

When L went for a nap we cuddled up on M’s bed and I read him 2 more chapters of Swallows and Amazons. I’m enjoying reading it, it’s making alot more sense now I’m an adult and I hope reading it together means it’s making sense to M. He seems to be following the story fine.

This afternoon we went out into the garden briefly, L got cold and wet and we came in again. M took his bike out to the park and then came back to play here with the lad from next door. While he was out, L and I played with the shape sorter and sang some songs and things so that he got a bit of attention of his own. While A cooked tea M and I played fractions dominoes and they were a hit (surprisingly) so that was fun to do together. At times today I have been so frustrated I’ve just screeched like a fishwife, so as well we had some nice stuff together. This evening I’ve blogged and watched the baby mind reader programme and been thankful he’s not here reading L and M’s minds - don’t think I want to know!

Today was a day of two distinct parts. This morning M was in a strop generally and about lots of things specifically and I was losing my temper pretty rapidly. He didn’t want to do anything I asked and was falling apart about the simplest things.

In and among he did have a few calmer patches such as playing a game he and L made up while I cleaned the bathroom. He sat part way down the stairs and L sat at the top behind the stair gate and posted through figures from M’s wild west town. I love to see them playing together.

We did some more about Ancient Greece today following on from starting it yesterday. We began by getting out the air hardening clay to make a knuckle bones game but M sulked about how it was impossible to mould the clay how he wanted it and then deliberately wiped his clay-y hands down me. So he got to peg out 2 loads of washing and load the washing machine in return. It didn’t get a whole lot better as M can drag things out for ages when he thinks he has too many “hard” things to do. I think he did enjoy the British Museum’s Ancient Greece website stuff though. He also did a page of maths with number line sums.

Towards lunchtime L went for a nap and then M and I had lunch and worked through some of the above. Once L woke back up and had come round a bit we had a complete change of pace and all went out into the garden to do some water play. M was doing science and one of the BA First Investigator activities about boats. I dug out the BA folder and sorted it out and have suggested M finishes off some stuff he started ages ago and then I’ll send off for his silver award. We really ought to do it more often as it usually works well if I hit the right level of helping vs encouraging him to think for himself.

M made a couple of boats from foil, trying one with a keel and another with a wide flat bottom. The flat one held alot more marbles as cargo, possibly helped by it having higher sides too. This is the first boat attempt, with a keel (we’re reading Swallows and Amazons aloud for bedtimes at the moment).

L was eager to be involved and started off with various items to play with in his own side of the water. He played at filling a jar with water and trying to drink it and then watered the grass from the apple juice container. After that he decided sitting in the water would be much more fun and got soaked through, then came out cold and dripping for a cuddle (no, get away from me!) So when he wanted to go back in I put his sun top on and off he went to disrupt M’s experimentation. We tried a paper boat which went soggy and disintegrated and then L and M played at dreging bits of paper off the bottom of the pit.

A came home early while we were still outside and we tidied up and went into town to get a few bits, calling for fish and chips on the way home.

Today we’ve been to a fabulous Native American Pow Wow with the home ed group at the Norwich showground. It was done by the Native Nations Dance Theater group who came over from the States - there were I think 10 of them, representing 16 native nations in all. We started with a display of different dances, flute playing and singing. Their "regalia" and dances were from several different tribes and regions and I would have loved to have found out much more detail about the origins of the dances and details of what they were wearing, but it was aimed at mid primary level (I’d guess from the school children there) and didn’t get too deep.

Then we split into 3 groups and rotated around sessions on hoop dancing (what he could do with bendy hoops was awesome LOL), circle dancing and story telling, with a long lunch break. We didn’t get to hear any stories in the storytelling because that session was cut short because of time and we’d spent so long looking in the tipee and asking other questions they didn’t get started. During the circle dancing M joined in and looked to be having an excellent time.

During lunch we looked at some handicragts the group had out for sale from their tribes or made by themselves or their families. M chose a necklace made from a leather thong and a piece of wampum to buy with his pocket money. He chatted with one of the men about wampum and had his picture taken - all the people we spoke to were really friendly.

I found the would-be storytelling session the most interesting because we got to speak to a couple of people in more detail. The elder lady spoke about her dancing competitions, and told us more about her regalia. She had a fan made out of imitation eagle feathers (large white turkey feathers painted dark brown at the ends) because if she had brought her proper feathers they would be confiscated by customs on leaving the UK. The real feathers are sacred to her people and no one else can touch them and they are not allowed to touch the floor. Feathers and other items of regalia are gifted down through the generations and held in high esteeem. She also spoke about the Seminole tribe which was really interesting.

Lots more to blog from last week but posts are still in draft til I finish them. I’ll post them in date order as I get them done.

Oops. Sorry! I did know it was coming up, but being directly after camp and our mad trip to Birmingham I just didn’t get the boys sorted with cards etc. I did suggest M sort out a card a couple of weeks ago, but he generally doesn’t want to do things til the last minute. So sorry A. Hope you had a lovely day anyway.

In the morning we went out to the supermarket instead of church. The afternoon was spent in the garden, so that suited A as he loves doing this and that at the garden and keeping it all tidy.

In the evening we had a bbq and salad with some things from the garden. M helped A with the barbecueing, it’s a task they usually do together. M enjoys turning things over and poking them to see if they are cooked yet. I stay out of the smoke and leave them to it, the food is always lovely.

We left Muddle Puddle camp early on the Friday afternoon so that we could drive home and unpack and then repack and drive to Birmingham, because I wanted to go to the ABM breastfeeding conference. It was a bit of a mad dash and the weather was so warm and draining too. We got set off OK but a little later than intended from home and so we ate at Little Chef on the drive over, much later than we usally eat.

We got to the Travelodge in Sutton Coldfield about 9.30pm. It was really difficult getting everyone settled. M was feverish and kept tossing and turning and moaning/whimpering. He finally threw up (in the loo, he’s well trained!) and eventually went to sleep. L bounced around the bed massively overtired but not giving in, even when we turned all the lights off. He crashed during Jonathon Ross, but none of us slept soundly during the first part of the night. So in the morning there was much difficulty waking - I got up about 8ish and woke everyone else about 8.30am for 9 kick off. The conference started at 9.25am somewhere else in Birmingham so there was no time for breakfast. I spotted a bakery across the road from the Travelodge though and got Belgian buns to eat on the way.

We had something of a domestic trying to find the conference hotel because I’d printed off a small map linked from the hotel’s website and it was too detailed and pretty impossible to link with our road atlas. The motorway junction the map said was nearest turned out to be a junction where you couldn’t actually leave the motorway and so we went past and I tried to navigate us back through the top of Birmingham. Eventually we parked up and I asked a postman for directions and it only took us about 5 mins from there. So I skirted in to the first talk of the conference by the skin of my teeth but luckily someone had saved me a seat.

Overall there were excellent speakers and I really enjoyed it all. I didn’t hear much I hadn’t heard before but then I’m more of an overview than a fine details person and the latest research just fits with the bigger picture. I went for the general affirming of breastfeeding being normal more than anything and to catch up with all my ABM friends, and because I thought it would be mad to miss a chance to hear Dr Jack Newman speaking. He’s a Canadian paed who is well known in breastfeeding circles for his support and I love his down-to-earthness.

There’s never enough time to chat to people at the conference! I was glad to finally meet Ilana after bumping into each other in various places online for about the last 5 years. I caught up with Trog and talked potties and slings. Had my new wrap admired by lots of people and had several chats about best slings for midwives/HVs to tell their mums about. I hope I avoided being filmed by Monkey Productions who had talked an ABM member into being filmed for their attachment paretning documentary. Had a brief chat with them in the corridor about what they were doing but didn’t mention I was just coming out of the loo from weeing L LOL - originally I think they were looking for someone who breastfeeds, home eds and ECs and generally does AP-type things. L was a star all day and coped really well with the conference, though he was a bit of a distraction crawling around under people’s chairs and I kept having to follow him as he wandered out the back patio doors outside.

A and M spent the day at Think Tank which is a science museum. It was air conditioned and spending the day inside was spot on for M to recover from whatever was up with him - possibly some kind of heat exhaustion thing or maybe an extreme attack of his wierd tummy thing he has going on. Think Tank was really quiet and they went to a planetarium show and an interactive presentation about the planets as well as looking around.

We set off to drive home about 5pm and stopped at a Little Chef for tea again. At 7.30pm it was still measuring 27C on the car thermometer! We were glad to get home and go to bed.

Thought I’d better get caught up and write about our week away before I completely muddle everything up it’s been so long ago. We don’t seem to have stopped since we left camp and by the time I have some computer time I’ve been too tired to blog.

Saturday

In the morning M had cricket practice so we all went to that as usual. We came home for lunch and to finish packing, but I had several things to finish on the computer that took me alot longer than the things A wanted to get done, so despite saying “we’ll take our time, there’s no rush” A was getting fed up about how long I was taking to be ready. We finally set off while the football was on and the roads were pretty much dead. It’s amazing how far you can get in Norfolk in an hour when there’s no traffic on the roads! It was hot and we were glad of the air con in the car.

Sunday

M had us out to the pool first thing in the morning so we did some swimming and it wasn’t too cold once you were submerged and moving. L came in and bum shuffled about in the shallow end until he got cold and tired and fed to sleep for a nap, wrapped up in a towel. M’s fairly new trainers fell apart at the heel on the way back to the caravan so in the afternoon we went out to Lowestoft to buy some new ones.

We got back late afternoon to hear that most people were doing sand castle building on the beach, so M wasn’t impressed that we’d gone out and missed it. We met Jax who’d just arrived and was erecting her tent, so A stayed to help her and I took Big and Small and M & L down to the beach. Got chatting with Tracy W on the beach and they came back for a drink I think. It was good to catch up again and have some time to have cuppas in each others statics and chat. John can wind me up so easily though, lovely as he is! He does it on purpose I’m sure LOL!

Monday

Monday was tie dyeing day. We ran this from outside our static - lovely long space with grass and a fence to stand all the dye buckets up against so they weren’t knocked over. At lunch time A went out to Lowestoft to buy more dyes because the popular colours had been used up. I hadn’t given much thought to how the dyes work but it was amazing to see how they came out of the water and just left buckets of no colour. I really don’t think it was anything to do with dampening the T shirts first - a few comments we got about how it all worked were rather wearing. I think most people enjoyed doing the tie dyeing. I found it a bit draining at times.

Tuesday

It’s become traditional to have a day out in Great Yarmouth when we go to Kessingland, so we decided to do that on Tuesday. But we didn’t pick very well weather wise, because half way through the morning it poured down. We were playing the pirate crazy golf on the seafront at the time and huddled beneath some scenery for the first shower and were just finishing our game off when it started to rain steadily. We ran for the American diner where we wanted to eat lunch but were soaked before we got there. So we steamed through huge club sarnies and fries and then came back to camp. I took M down the camp field to make his own kite and then we all went out to the beach to fly our stunt kite and look at the sea.

Wednesday

We went to Africa Alive with a lift kindly given by Steph - we were carless because A had driven home to go into work for the day and do a sponsored walk. His office were dressing up as Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. Africa Alive was OK for a 3rd visit. We mooched about and M bonded with Steph’s boys a bit.

Thursday

We were up and to the camp field earlyish for Yoga which I dropped M off at, then I went back for needle felting mid morning. It was much easier than I thought it might be and I only stabbed myself a few times LOL. M made an abstract flat design and I tried to make a fairy.

In the afternoon we went out geocaching and walked through the woods, so we missed basket weaving, which I was hoping to have a go at. Still, A was desperate to go out and “do something” after sitting around watching L all morning while M and I crafted in the marquee.

In the evening M, L and I went to watch the cabaret in the marquee and it was very good. Lots of the children stood up to do a turn. I particularly liked Maddy’s singing - very impressed with her knowing all the words, singing in tune and standing there so long doing the whole song! M declined to take part.

Friday

This was our final morning because we needed to pack up and come home to go to the ABM conference in Birmingham. We chatted to people, M took part in some of Violet’s sponsored events and we got everything packed.

In Summary

Glad we didn’t do much Sparky this year. It was lovely to see people and to meet some newer home edders there. I still found it hard to chat properly to people - I think in a static we were on a different meal/bedtime type thing than the tents and by the time M and L were off to sleep I didn’t want to go out again and people don’t really come round your static for a cuppa if they are tenting. I was pleased to stick to using cloth for L in the day like we usually do at home - the weather was great for drying nappies though we didn’t go through them too fast. Having the organised activities and crafts made a difference because there were joint things to turn up to where you knew you’d catch up with people and you could feel less like a spare part wandering among other folks’ tents.

I expect we’ll be along next year to do it all again!

Today we’ve had a quiet day at home. M was really pleased with himself first thing, because he completed all of one of the characters in his Sonic game and was so happy to have got through a tough section. And without shouting and bashing the computer!

Apart from working on M’s Japan project, we’ve played computer games together and spent a while in the garden. I tried out the new washing line and then tried to play swingball with M, but L was either crawling in front of the ball or else taking too close an interest in my peppers, strawberries and veggie plot. He sat on half the radishes and then found a lump of soil to try and eat. He’ll have a go at dirt and grass no trouble at all. We gave up trying to play and I decided to water the garden instead. L got even more filthy, because he wanted to dabble in the puddles from watering the veggie patch. He was solid mud from the waist down.

Late afternoon M brought a friend round to play while L was napping and I agreed they could have a water fight if they brought in my washing first. The only trouble was I couldn’t find equal sized water pistols - we had one small one that still worked and then M’s blaster gun with shield. I don’t know what happened to all the rest but I’ll have to get some more in the supermarket when we go tomorrow.

They decided to take turns with the guns, but got rather silly and when M got a face full of water from the blaster he got revenge by turning on the hose pipe. His friend was drenched, so I sent M back with him to apologise to his mum - don’t want to fall out with the neighbours! M also managed to trip over something and cut his leg, but it mopped up easily.

We had chilli and spaghetti for tea (odd combi, but it tasted OK) and watched Blue Peter and then it was baths and bed. They’ve both dragged out going to sleep tonight though.

Looking up information for learning about Ancient Japan with M today, I found lots of interesting websites so I thought I’d post about them.

Ancient Japan was handy for an overview of Japan’s early history and the different periods the history is divided up into. We started off by talking about this briefly and comparing what the Japanese were doing with what was happening in the Roman Empire and Britain at the same time.

Then we talked about traditional Japanese religion and Shinto shrines. I read M 2 slightly different versions of a story about the mythical beginnings of Japan and the Shinto religion and afterwards he narrated it back to me and coloured in a Torii picture to go with it on his poster.

We also talked about the festival of Hina Matsuri, which may be based on the tradition of making grass dolls and then throwing them in the river to cleanse evil spirits/bad fortunes, which dates from the time period we were talking about. I found these origami dolls to make.

In and among all the different sites I ended up at, I found these that I specially want to mention/remember.

Religious Tolerance.org was a site I found while looking up Shinto, but I could spend ages reading articles here. I like how they try to put all sides of religious beliefs and I spent a while reading their comments pages.

Then I found this website with an interesting theory on similarities between Shinto rituals and Jewish observances, the idea being that one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel settled in Japan. Fascinating, though I’ve no idea really if he’s completely bonkers or not, I don’t know enough to read around it properly.

Finally I came across Mama Lisa’s World Blog when I was looking up Hina Matsuri and have spent a while browsing her info on children’s songs and traditions from around the world.

So I think I’ve home educated myself pretty well today LOL!