Myself and the boys have both been poorly over the last week….always a dilemma when I’m trying to be teacher and mum, and my children are lively and well! Reading together is a good option, but my voice hasn’t been holding up to that either. So, read aloud audio books come onto their own; we’ve continued with Lorna Doone on audible, and I recently bought the whole set of Narnia books on CD, massively reduced, in which Dancing Toes is enthralled. HWH is reading the series to the girls, so I’m allowing them only to listen to the ones he’s already read to them.
One of the lovely things about having children is being able to read fantastic books to them; I’ve read lots of classic children’s books to the boys (including the Narnia series), as well as more contemporary ones, and now onto some classic adult literature. And I’m enjoying reading some of the same, and some different to the girls. We’ve just finished “Polly Anna” and are now reading an old Brownie novel, complete with excellent morals!
Continuing with the subject of books…on a Saturday morning we all have a late breakfast of porridge (made by HWH). Amidst the squabbles over the syrup, the spilt milk and general family meal time mayhem, we manage to listen to an audio series and then talk about it. We are currently listening to an abridged version of “The Pilgrims Progress”. It’s remarkably true to our time, despite being written nearly three hundred and fifty years ago and stimulates some good discussion.
A home ed friend of Dancing Toes’ came one afternoon last week. Her mum brought the collection of books she’s using for her daughter’s history learning. They are also doing the Middle Ages (she was the friend who persuaded me not to skip this period). It’s something I love about home ed culture; we get so excited about books. She tipped them all out over our counter, and I poured over them, getting ideas and being inspired. We then chatted animatedly further about other books; she is very well read, and I love to learn from her knowledge.
It was bonfire night at the week end, and we had some old friends over. I made sausage and veg bake and Parkin and Dancing Toes made chocolate finger sparklers. Sparkly Eyes then wanted to make them for her friend on Monday; we had run out of sprinkles, and so had our local shop, so we chopped up strawberry laces instead. Very messy, but good fun had in the making and the eating.
Back to bonfire night. We watched a short firework display which conveniently appeared out of the window (warm and no mud), and the children waved sparklers around outside, drawing big circles in the night sky. It was lovely to catch up and reconnect with friends from our Big City days, who, like us, have also moved out into the country.
Rhythm Dude, inspired by his college course, has been “upcycling” a broken dining chair and making it into a piano stool. Most useful. The cake was made and photographed by Dancing Toes.
Mothering through the seasons 