Last Mohawk for a while?

Wow, what a day we had. The drive was something else today! With the flooding and rain across England so many motorways are affected right now. We were a bit late getting out of the house. I wanted a coffee and had promised the kids some chips to eat in the car. The food place we got to had run out of coffee and didn't sell chips! Bah! We ended up driving into Dunstable (on our way to Reading) to get diesel, chips and coffee! The travelling essentials. I must be careful what I promise them to get them moving out of the house!! Note to self! 

Anyway, it was Camp Mohawk time again. We haven't been for a couple of months so it was good to see everyone. The kids went straight to the soft play area to see their friends. 

Miles mid-leap!

They found Freddie and another older boy and began attacking them (in a boy-ish wrestly way) - it's safe enough and of course very good for the little boys to rough and tumble with the older boys. Very good for their development and learning fair play. I do catch myself becoming referee though, screeching and probably sounding really annoying to everyone else as I yell, that's too hard, no smacking, no kicking, remember he's only 3... etc. etc. etc. 

Here is a clip where Miles and Caden launched at the two older boys simultaneously!

And were promptly defeated and pushed down the slide (where they regathered for another assault) The older boys loved it too! 

When the games got a bit rough I took the boys into the sensory rooms, there are light and dark ones. The dark is UV and actually we were talking about the light spectrum recently following a conversation about rainbows and refraction. Caden learned then that the light we see are a tiny portion of the wavelengths on an enormous spectrum. He learned that some birds and butterflies can see UV and some animals can see Infrared. It was cool to then be able to show him the UV light. We enjoyed looking at all the white parts of our clothing that were now luminescent! 

The light sensory room. It reminds me of the inside of a star trek ship or some 70s space based TV programme! Its so exciting in there with lots of different moving lights. 

They can change the colours of the light bubbles. Miles is using his foot to change the colour. 

Miles got his own chair to join two boys playing table football while Caden sat down for a rest after all the running about and playing, with his bottle of water. 

Miles finds a little rocking boat outside. 

The kids playing together with a ball and swords. 

At one of the many playgrounds. 

Caden in particular wanted to visit the music garden. He LOVES making music. Miles too but especially Caden . 

We found this little musical sculpture hidden in the plants today. We jingled it! 

Caden and I had a game of noughts and crosses. This is him finishing the game and beating me, of course. He was pretty chuffed about it! 

He already understands cogs and makes models of them at home sometimes but he enjoyed telling me about how this works and making the tiny ball bearings in the large cogs move about. 

Mirror garden, Miles and his many reflections! 

Both of them getting hands on with the light and reflections. 

We found a raised bed and identified strawberry plants. We felt their furry stems and talked about how the leaves look like brambles and nettles. They are dark green with jagged edges but they don't sting or have thorns. 

Some of the children did archery today. Caden stood and listened to the health and safety talk with me and watched the children do the activity but he didn't want to join in. I tried hard to get him to join in but he really didn't want to at all. 

Miles eating a bit of cucumber at lunch time. 

Me having a little cuddle with Miles with the Winter sun behind us. 

We might make this our last Mohawk for a while. It's £16 a month plus about £20 in travel which is prohibitive and then any food/drinks we buy and with the 4 hour round trip today I think I will find a way to make what little money we have now go further. I was thinking about getting them annual passes to Thinktank in Birmingham plus I have got us a Friends and Family Railcard on a discount offer. This means train travel is much cheaper for us now and if we can go to the home educator days at Thinktank every few months plus regular visits to do science work (plus the London Museums) then I think that will be easier and cheaper for us. We will return to Mohawk for a Summer one though. 

We have plans to visit London next week. Caden has really got into his Dinosaurs (especially Sea Monsters) lately. He knows all the names, when they existed, what their features were and is very, very excited to see if the NHM London has any exhibits of the dinosaurs he knows. I hope it's a straightforward trip so we can go every few weeks. There are so many amazing and educationally valuable resources available freely, when you have a train station locally and the ability to travel cheaply.