New ventures

This week has seen the beginning of a couple of new classes for Caden. A little bit of what we usually do and some new stuff too so it's been pretty eventful.

 

We started off with an attempt to try out a Karate class but that was closing so we visited Kirsten and the boys and Megan filled the sink with water and had fun jumping on the trampoline. Then we went to Leighton Buzzard playground in the afternoon and the lads had so much fun playing with the bigger boys and girls. Here are some photos of the fun they had.

 

I was so happy to find this playtime in Leighton as its only 15 mins from our house so it solved a problem of driving to Mk every Monday which we hate (although we love it when we get there usually). We just loved doing stuff close to home so much! It got me thinking about simplifying our lives by reducing the Mk (Milton Keynes) travelling..

You might remember from a previous post that Caden had found a maths problem overwhelming so we gave it up for a week or two. Well, we went back to it to see if he was ready to tackle it this week. The problem was to add 9 to a number (using the formula add 10, take 1 away). Well we struggled through the first couple of the ten problems, then by number 5 he was getting it, then it happened. The solution became clear to him, I almost saw the moment it clicked. The test straight after the learning was 5 questions long and he flew through it. What a joy it was for us both. This is the moment he got his result which he was justifiably proud of :)

 

The rest of the day he was so happy about his achievement and we went out for a sunny walk on the canal with my lovely friend Jo who has Freddie, Betsy and Meg. We walked to a playground and spent a long time having a really good play. They did a really funny game where they were washing in the washing machine and we threw in smelly clothes and washing powder while it tumbled and spun. You can see how much fun that was. We also saw lots of bird, collected flowers and talked about how the locks worked. It was a great opportunity to teach the kids about canal safety.

 

Caden and I had a brilliant conversation this week where he asked me if the sky was matter. He was asking I presume because we had previously discussed what a black hole can attract and I said anything that is matter. So his question about the sky led us into a discussion about the atmosphere, density (demonstrated with hard plastic, a carrot (medium density) and a sponge. Then we got talking about how the Solar system spins around in the Milky Way and how we are a spiral galaxy. This led to us talking about centrifugal forces (he knows about these from our chats around the roundabout) and gravity which meant he had an introduction to orbits and why we aren't just being 'sucked' into the super massive black hole (phew)! It is impossible to learn nothing! I loved this question and answer session particularly so it's here for the record!

On Wednesday we had a mammoth session in the woods with my other fab friend Ang and her son Brandon. Climbing trees, 'fishing', Brandon falling in the lake, playing hide and seek but counting in German and looking at algae from the nature reserve pond were all features of this morning. We had a fantastic time. So much so we have decided to take them all to the woods and nature reserve every two weeks over the Summer. Open to all... :) here are some snaps of us in the woods!

 

Looking handsome in his tree.

 

 

 

Important fishing work to be done. This is just before poor little Brandon fell in. It's only about a foot deep though so there was no real risk. They love chucking in the sticks and getting more.

Caden lay here for a long time just looking at the tree tops and the sky. I thought how wonderful it was that he could just relax and enjoy being a part of it all like that. He seemed so chilled out and happy!

 

 

 

 

So other things we did this week included Caden starting a new yoga class. He. LOVED. It. And I am so happy to have found a class he loves this much. After the drama class fiasco. (I wanted him to do it, he didn't really want to. I learned a good lesson about Caden being his own person with a right to say no to a class whether I like the content or not). With the exception of English and maths which I consider a must, he can choose. I wonder if they do a GCSE in yoga? just kidding ;) here is Caden doing his downward facing dog.

 

We did some more playing for the rest of the day at the park and made some new friends. Paul and I were very proud of Caden and his first cricket lesson this week too. He had his long curly locks chopped slightly and with his sporty kit on he looked quite grown up all of a sudden. He was so excited about cricket all week and by Friday was awaking if we were going every hour. Finally the big moment came...

 

He was pretty nervous actually so I sat with him until the coaches took the groups off. He threw the balls well although he didn't get the idea of sticking to one team yet. He had an accident half way through and came off but decided to bravely go back on and finished his lesson. Afterwards he was very happy to get fish and chips with Dad on the way home. We thought cricket Fridays would be a good evening to have our weekly treat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's the May bank holiday weekend so we went to Waddesdon manor with the amazing Sarah Ward and family. Sarah was looking incredible after losing some weight on her slimming world programme and has motivated me to do more exercise. It's mostly yoga around here but maybe a bit of a Davina workout is in order. Ill have a look in my DVD cupboard tomorrow :) This is a pic of the kids looking at the birds in the aviary.

 

I also realised I forgot to add on last weeks blog about Caden seeing the herons. Here are a couple of clips of us at the Woodcraft Folk Heron evening. It was wonderful. We saw the chicks craning out for food from mummy Heron. We saw them in their nests and learned about how they build their nests and what they eat. Plus Caden and Miles got to try out proper binoculars and an amazing telescope. (I want one but they cost ££££££s). Here they are ...

 

 

I wanted to say I was so happy to get my Big Book of Unschooling from Leticia who had borrowed it from me. Phew too as I totally thought it was lost! It's been a great week!

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great week yourself!

 

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