What a haul!

Wow! What can I say. We've had an amazing weekend. It started yesterday when we made a Scarecrow. Nathan had been asking most of the week so yesterday with the sun shining we made Sam the Scarecrow!

What do you think? We were bowled over with our first attempt and although I thought he'd terrify the boys they seem to love him-phew!

I've recently met another mum who has a 2.5 year old little girl called Jessica. They are also going to homeschool and it's been really nice meeting up with her. Jess and Nathan have forged a beautiful friendship, they walk along hand in hand and insist on kisses goodbye, it's so cute. I'm lucky in that Lisa is so easy to get on with it's a pleasure spending time with her. Anyway she has some amazing toys and educational activities in her house and when I questioned where she had managed to find them she told me at our local car boot sale. Rachael (my Twitter friend) is also always posting the bargains she's picked up from boot sales and she always manages to find bits I've brought brand new!

I decided to give it a go so this morning I was up and out by 7am. Was it worth the early wake up call? It certainly was! Here's most of my haul, there are a couple of other books and animals but they're been hijacked already!

These bookswere brand new, still in cellophane and were £3. I'd been looking at buying them off of Amazon anyway so couldn't believe it when I stumbled across these!

I've also been looking at increasing the bricks we have as we don't have many. I got these and another bag for £2!

Picture isn't great but these are solid wood and lovely. Ethan will love them although as he's asleep Nathan has claimed them at the moment! 50p I think!

We have some of these books already and both boys love them. They're like brand new so they are going to be one of Ethans Christmas stocking presents! £1 I think!

Two of these puzzles are still wrapped and will also be a Christmas pressie but the number one is already being used! £1.

 A selections of books. These were just pence. The Christmas carol one is brand new and has a CD with it. I can't wait to bring this out in December!

This is a Thomas track that was £1 and suprisingly has all the parts. It also came with the original train and Nathan loves it. I only mentioned to Kenny last week I wanted to buy a new track for him! So glad I waited.

There were a couple of other bits I haven't taken pictures of. I really can't wait to go to another one but I'd take lots more bags with me!

I'll leave you with a picture of my youngest who was trying on the Pirate hat that I brought the other day.

Have a great week and thanks for reading.

Lisa x

A Great day out....

I'm not sure if I've mentioned in previous posts (probably) but Nathan, our eldest is absolutely besotted with animals. Any animals, he's not fussy he loves them all. In fact his first words were animal sounds! We have a local zoo to us called Drusillas and we've been several times, the excitement Nathan has over this place is infectious. Anyway I decided this week that not only would I take the boys there I'd also take them to Middle Farm which is on the way.

Cue Tuesday morning. When the boys woke up I told them what our plans for the day were. I should of waited. Every ten seconds Nathan thought it was time to go! Luckily we were leaving at 09:30 so we didn't have too long to wait. My sister also came along for the ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

A bit blurry but I love this picture :-)

A selection of the animals. There really are so many different monkeys there. All of us were most impressed though to see the new baby flamingo that had been born at the end of July. I really love this picture.

It was a hectic and tiring day but I still got a smile from our little baby :-)

What a great way to end this post!

Have a great day and thanks for reading.

Lisa x

Lesson learnt....

Since making the decision to home school the boys I've been looking at our local "home ed" groups to see what activities there are and what local meet ups etc are available. Although I won't go over the top trying to incorporate "social time" into our day, trips out with other children and families will be fun for everyone.

I was invited along to one on the 1st June. It was just a meet up at a park local to me. I decided to take Nathan along and leave Ethan at home so off we went. I was full of apprehension and excitement at meeting people that were already well in the thrust of home schooling their children and Nathan, well he was really excited to be going to the park! We went to the main park first and it was heaving! There were tonnes of families there, all different age groups and I was completely at a loss as to who were just at the park or who was there for the meet up. I decided to have a walk round as there were also some horses, a paddling pool and a soft play area to explore. Nathan is besotted with animals and spent an awful long time just talking to them.

We then got close to the paddling pool where somebody had forgotten to close the gate to it. Nathan did no more than turn to look at me and make a dash to the water. Yep he went in full clothed, shoes and all! I hadn't taken a change of clothes as I knew I wouldn't be staying that long and it wasn't a sunny day so I didn't think the paddling pool would be involved in our trip! I decided it was best to just let him play in there as otherwise it was a trip back home and he was having so much fun I didn't want to spoil it.

I then found out the people I was due to meet were in the soft play section. Ooops. After about half an hour Nathan was getting cold so I had to entice him back to the car where luckily I had a spare pair of pants and then I had to get a very sad little boy back home to warm up.

I didn't get to meet the people I was supposed to meet but I did learn a valuable lesson that I should of remembered when I was a cub scout (yes really I was!) Always be prepared!

What a lovely morning. I'm sitting here at this crazy early hour (05:30) not because my children have woken me but because the birds have decided to sing. I'm not complaining, I love that the weather has finally turned. The boys are loving being in the garden endlessly playing and having fun. It makes me wonder what we did in the winter months.

As you can imagine I've been reading, and reading and reading some more. I'm finding out so much information and there are so many amazing websites around. If you're stuck for things to do with your little ones I found this website on Tuesday and you select your childs age and they list activities accordingly, there are hundreds of things there to do and the bonus is that it's free. It really does make it easier to be able to select the age too.

I've tried Treasure Baskets with Ethan this week. I'm not sure I've introduced them at the right point of the day as there always seems to be something going on to distract him so he doesn't get the proper time. I'm going to schedule this a bit better, maybe I'll read to Nathan whilst he's rifling through. I'm also going to add more things to it so there's plenty of texture, size and weight for him to explore.

Our eldest Nathan actually goes to a Montessori Pre School, he has done since October when we took him to show him around and he was completely taken with the environment.  I'll keep him there for a few sessions a week and will also be incorporating the Montessori method in and around our home as I just love how it is completely open to the child. This was the reason that we signed Nathan up, it's just amazing to see how it works. There are some phenomenal Montessori blogs out there and so many that I have yet found the time to read but my favourites so far are Counting Coconuts, Chasing Cheerios and My Montessori Moments. I'm still struggling with what can be introduced at this age but I'm getting there.

I'll leave you with some pictures of our recent trip to the duck pond. Nathan loves going and Ethan looked happier than the last time we went!

The perk of going so early!

A gorgeous sight.

Our gorgeous baby who grows before my eyes!

My highlight. The baby Signets.

Nathan chatting to the ducks

 I hope you have enjoyed my latest ramblings and thank you in advance for reading. All comments are gratefully received :-)

Have a great day.

Lisa x

A Sad Realisation.

I opened the curtains to our baby boys bedroom this morning and was greeted with a beautiful smile and a great big raspberry blown in my face. I felt the most intense wave of love wash through me and just grip my heart. Moments like these I cherish. 

As the weather has finally warmed up I have seasonally changed Ethans wardrobe over now so that he is in the summer clothes. He's 10 months but is getting snug in 12-18 month clothing, he's a big boy and so is his brother. Nathan will be 3 in August. He's in 4-5 yrs clothing. Anyway I digress. What hit me as I bagged up the next lot of clothing to go into the loft was the stark, sad realisation that the boys are growing up so so fast. Too fast. I suppose I'm seeing this more with Ethan as I'm physically bagging clothes up and moving him onto the next lot.

There are days that I plod along through, not necessarily taking my life for granted but maybe not appreciating quite what I have. I don't give myself credit for the job that I'm doing in bringing the boys up. It sinks in when they learn a new skill or when I have a conversation with Nathan just as I did this morning and he started to talk to me about bees. He went on to tell me that bees collect pollen to make us honey but that he shouldn't touch them. Amazing. Well to me it is anyway. I've started to notice the little things. The way that Nathan now interacts with Ethan as he is moving a bit more so is more interesting to his big brother. Nathan now knows if he sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Old MacDonald had a farm Ethan will dance. It's just so cute.

When I have told people that we will be Home Educating our family, the biggest response is "god I'd hate to be around my kids all day' Well, I'm one of those people that loves to be around them all day. I love seeing them learn new things, new words, new movements. I can't wait to help them become the men they will be come.

Today I discovered this blog here which is just fantastic. It follows one family's journey through their Home Ed experience so for a newbie like me it is very interesting reading. It's also great to see how they have overcome any difficult situations. It'll definitely be added to my regular list of reading material.

Since I've been researching and reading up on all things Home Ed my crafting has taken a bit of a back seat but I seem to of found a better balance now and feel a lot happier. I tend to get all consumed and bogged down with things trying to absorb everything in a day. I've realised I don't need to do that. I have plenty of time. Nathan guides me everyday on his interests and I know Ethan will too. I will use my natural instinct to follow their lead and then be the best mummy I can be.

I appreciate you reading and would love for you to leave me any comments that you may have.

Lisa xx

Amazing....

Well, I can only say that I am completely overwhelmed with the positive support that I have been receiving via this blog and also Twitter, I honestly can't thank you all enough! It's certainly encouraging to know that I'm not going to get lynched lol.

I've been trawling through the forums, internet search engines and other home ed blogs recently and there really are some wonderful inspirational posts to be found. I am quite disturbed though on how peoples comments can start a witch hunt on a personal individual blog. I've actually found this extremely daunting and hope I'm never on the receiving end!

I've been busy finding local support networks and have a social gathering arranged on the 1st June where I will meet other Home Schooling families. The difficulty at the moment is that my two are so young there are very few people that are starting to think about it at this stage. That said, I have been told that as soon as they get to 'school age' there is far more awareness.

I'm also trying to look at everything I do in a different light and to see how I can make everyday excursions and activities into an educational but fun experience. It's all a learning curve but I'm really glad that we decided to look into it now so that it can be a slow process rather than feeling like I've been thrown in at the deep end.

I'd be really keen to hear of any suggestions, websites or tips on introducing new experiences. My next post will be a lot sooner and I have some great pictures to share too.

Until then, have a great day and thanks for taking the time to read!

Until next time........... xx

A New Beginning...

Wow, I've decided to just do it and start a mummy blog! Another one I hear you sigh.....Well that may be the case but this is just for me, just for my family. I'm hoping in years to come we'll be able to look over this and use it for what it is intended. Just a log of our life and events. In the meantime I'm hoping to be able to provide some laughter and happiness to any of you lovely people that decide to take the time to read and comment on my posts.

A bit about myself, well I'm 31 and happily married to my husband Kenny. We live with our two boys in a house we love on the sunny coast of Worthing in West Sussex. We're literally a 5 minute walk from the seafront and live opposite a nice big park. Perfect for burning off all that toddler energy! We're also pretty much decided that we will go against the grain and home school our children.

We started looking into home schooling a little while ago and I've now become all consumed with reading and absorbing everything that I can about it. That's what I'm like, I'll surround myself with as many books and articles as I can and then try to soak it all up. The reason for us going down this route really is of personal choice, our class sizes here are set to be close to 40 children, a teacher will barely have time to spend any one to one time with our boys, they might not like to be forced to learn the same things, at the same rate and at the same time as every other person around them. I'm still reading a lot about it but I'm finding all of the blogs out there really interesting and useful. Any positive advise or links will be greatly received!

In my spare time I love to cook and do all things crafty, I also have a blog for this passion over on Wordpress. www.lisarye.wordpress.com is you fancy checking that out!

I'm not a writer so you will find that these posts will be more ramblings but hey I'm only trying to be The Best Mummy I Can Be......

Thanks for reading and I wish you a fabulous day.