Will Dig Life

In a virtual mother's group I attend, we've been talking about the Ascension and what Jesus did in leaving the disciples in charge of the building of the church... and about our own wisdom in letting our kids make their own mistakes and backing off, versus keeping close - as Jesus himself said, he would "be with you to the end of the age". So which is it? I think like so many things, it comes down to balance: the both/and. Each person, each family, each mother and child may have a different timetable with that. One mother shared that she felt her 3.5 year old needed to go to nursery and be away from her, so he could grow in his own personality. As for me, I approach the whole thing very differently.  Letting Go From when they were very small, I made it a point - learned from the wonderful Charlotte Mason, and probably the only part of her approach that I consistently use - to be available but "uninteresting". We would attend todder groups pretty much every d...

This doesn't need much introduction, except to say, I simply staple together a few A4 sheets and N(6) creates (illustrates) a story. She then dictates to me the words, and I write them down. She doesn't feel confident enough yet to write, but she reads what I write and makes sure I get every word right! Pay particular attention to the expressions. I think it's incredible how, in a few brushstrokes, she fully conveys a sense of people's emotions.

Back in January I decided to close down our private Facebook group and stop posting personal content there ( Why I'm Stepping Back from Facebook ) and that's continued throughout Lent. The idea was never to make this a limited time thing, to end at Easter, but this is a good time to review what I've learned and where we are now - and what we might be doing in future. Lent is over - happy Easter from these two colourful Eggs! This blog remains the primary place for me to post things. It has history - going back to before I had the children, this is really what I want to continue building up so the children can read back when they're old enough and get to know me in a whole different way. To see their childhoods through my eyes a little bit, and to relive memories. I want to own these things, both the pictures and the words on the posts, and be in charge of how they are organised and presented, and a blog is just the simplest way to do this. Particularly because it's...

It's nearly 10pm and I'm in bed with the kids but I only just get to write now: and I think that fact sets the tone for this quite well. Because we've been busy, out. Meeting friends outside As much of mainland Europe has already or is considering going into another Lockdown, the UK is surprisingly efficient about vaccinations and the so-called roadmap for reopening has been confirmed again today; as of 12th April, nonessential shops get to open again and restaurants / pubs can serve food outdoors. We had mother's day a few weeks ago, and for me that kind of marked a sea change. We saw the kids' grandparents again for the first time since November. Along with most people, we had been in lockdown before that and had not met with anyone in the flesh. Schools reopened on the 8th March, which doesn't affect us as we educate the kids ourselves, but it felt really silly to continue adhering to lockdown rules so completely when all over the country kids were mixing aga...

March has finally brought us a bit of outdoor fun, with the weather getting nicer and lockdown easing somewhat - being able to see the grandparents and a few friends has certainly been our highlights! Outdoor Fun We enjoyed seeing the tadpoles again... last year we followed them pretty much from frogspawn to maturity, going to the Pond every few days - this year they're much less interested (not so much of a novelty?) but we still visit occasionally. The outdoors is of course a lot more fun when you can see friends! So what they really enjoyed was two trips to Cheddar Reservoir, where a local home educating mother lives and has invited a few of us for some outdoor fun - climbing a high hill for amazing views, checking out the wildlife on that hill (beetles and lots of rabbit droppings, though we never did see a rabbit) and playing, at last, with other kids.... But we also had a few lovely times out just as a family. Some creativity at home The weather wasn't universally amazing...