On Tuesday 22nd, we made the long journey to Wrantage again for the children's horse riding lesson at Oakhill Farm.
Matthew couldn't stop smiling the whole way through, savouring every moment of the experience.
I am so glad that there was a space for us to join this activity when we did.
After the horse riding session, we had a little wait until Sarah's tennis lesson.
I can't remember for the life of me what we did to pass the time before the lesson.
But I know we went to make sure there was an indoor court available.
We were determined not to let rain stop play!
Success! We got back in time for Sarah to play tennis indoors.
While she played, Matthew enjoyed watching telly and drinking hot chocolate.
The life of Riley or what!
And then our friend Vicky turned up and we had a good natter with her.
Her son Andrew, who is the same age as Sarah, is helping to coach the junior tennis squad.
It is pretty impressive and always good to see children taking responsibility like that...
Mum was a glutton for punishment, as we returned to her house for the night as, the next day, we had our last Science and Art sessions of the year....
After dropping the children off, I drove out into the dark to pick up a couple of sacks of Bramleys from a remote address in Spaxton. It did feel rather foolhardy, as the weather was still rather treacherous. But I am glad I did it. I wanted to take some to offer to our friends the next day... It was good to be able to give something back and pass on the wealth as it were, even if the bounty had belonged to someone else ....
So on Wednesday 23rd, we travelled to Taunton for Science and Art, laden with a sack of apples....
In Science, the children explored different ways of getting an egg safely to space, which was great fun. Much hilarity was involved in their experiments and their ideas were tested out on the lawn...
In their Art lesson, the children took "a close-up look at a piece of Alce Harfield's beautiful artwork and the different textures and layers she uses", before creating their own "vibrant paintings"
For us, these were to be the last sessions of the year, as we would have to miss the final Art session and party the following week, This was rather sad, as the children were going to be looking at The Snowman paintings by Raymond Briggs. It would all be rather Christmassy too.
When we got back home later that evening, we enjoyed watching several episodes of Hank Zipzer together in the one warm room of the house. It was very entertaining.
On Friday 11th November, Sarah had her second cornet lesson of the month.
It is always a joy to listen to her playing alongside her teacher in the little Music Room...
.
Then after a few catching up activities, we went to pick up our friend Mandy from Wheddon Cross. She had promised to tend to the guinea pigs with the children,
then plant bulbs with them
before taking them for a walk.
They were very excited, as they love her company and she has an amazing way with them.
They set to with planting up all the large pots with bulbs
and made themselves hot chocolate to take on their walk.
They ventured right to the top of the hill and Matthew apparently raced all the way back down a very steep slope.
While they were thus occupied, I had the opportunity to do some writing, and make some phone calls, which were well overdue.
On Tuesday 15th November, the children went horse riding, an activity they thoroughly enjoy.
Matthew is always excited to meet up with his friend Acey, which makes the session even more enjoyable.
After trying out the new outdoor sand arena there, we drove to Caroline's to help make some decorations for the Taunton Home Ed Christmas Tree.
This will feature as part of the Round the World Christmas Festival at The Brewhouse in Taunton.
I think it must be related to the Round the World in Eighty Days production there.
Matthew really enjoyed this activity:
making a snowman with polystyrene balls,
decorating a tree offcut circle with another snowman, fingerprint style,
Found this example on the internet.
This medium provides endless opportunities for creativity...
making a hamabead snowman
Example from internet
and a glitter pinecone.
Sarah also enjoyed making her own unique decorations.
On Thursday 17th November, we took pizza to our friend Barbara's house.
Sarah and her friend made muesli bars and they all made an attempt at playing Junior Monopoly... This was cut short, as Matthew became rather restless and sadly sabotaged the game for some reason. Barbara took it all in her stride, which was very reassuring, as I tend to panic, when behaviour is unexpected and mystifying...I am not quite sure why Matthew chose this course of action...
Thankfully, peace was soon restored...
We always have such a lovely time at their house.
The whole family are welcoming and fun to be with.
We had planned to attend an engineering activity morning, hosted by EDF in Angel Place in Bridgwater the next day.
Grandma had kindly said we could stay the night at her house again.
On the journey over the hills to my mum's,
I began to feel quite unwell and dizzy.
I had to drive very cautiously.
It was dark and we had just left Kingston St Mary and were climbing up towards Buncombe Hill.
It was a wild and remote stretch of road, particularly at this time of year.
But we made it.
The children were wonderful, taking charge of our overnight stuff and helping me into bed.
Sadly, I was still feeling awful the next morning, and so we had to miss this innovative session.
I was really disappointed.
My sister Ruth kindly dropped into EDF to check it out. She saw a hive of activity with a lovely group of children all happily engaged at different work stations.
She explained the situation to the organiser, who told her the children would be welcome to attend in the afternoon with some school children from Nether Stowey and my sister offered to take them.
I was really touched by her offer, but knew that Sarah and Matthew would find it difficult to relax amongst a group of children they didn't know.
So reluctantly we had to abandon the idea....
However, a few days later, when we were discussing the event on Facebook,
the lovely lady who organised the session assured me we could go another time.
We were also sad to miss out on visiting our friends in Bridgwater, with whom Matthew has recently struck up a firm friendship.
The weekend of the 19th - 20th November,
I had the luxury of being able to rest up at mum's,
while my dear husband Paul took over the responsibility of childcare...
It was a very welcome break.
I so enjoyed sitting quietly with my mum, just sharing the space companionably together.
They were moments to be treasured.
Lying in the bed next to hers, I enjoyed the feelings of safety and togetherness.
I wanted them to continue forever.
While I was resting up at mum's, Paul took the children to the park in Dulverton,
He told me that the River Barle was so swollen, that Drury Lane was shut and they had to drive the long way round...
Apparently the Lane up to the farm had the appearance of a stream and the little brook near our parking area, was twice as full...
The children felt adventurous and trudged past the flooded ponds and noisy waterfall in front of our house, to play with their walkie talkies in the woods...
Sounds as though they had a wonderful Sunday.
Paul took the day off on Monday 21st November
and so I drove the journey back to Exmoor in the early afternoon.
It was lovely to feel so unhurried,
despite the fact that the driving conditions were particularly treacherous.
The little streams were fit to bursting, particularly at Cedar Falls, where I joined the main road to Minehead.
From Ralegh's Cross, conditions became worse,
as there was standing water at regular intervals.
The light was poor and it was difficult to anticipate when it would be necessary to pull into the centre of the road, to avoid the deeper areas of standing water.
Fortunately, I didn't meet many other cars.
Arriving back home, I was confronted with the sound of raging water, as the streams close by the house had formed new water falls.
The children had been excited to tell me about the ponds, which had merged into one.
They were very disappointed when the farmers appeared the next day
to clear the weeds and the water settled back into its usual state.
Sarah had so enjoyed playing with our neighbours' dog
and watching him skim through the shallow water on the bank, which divided the two ponds.
She loved watching the spray of water from the overflow pipe.
She came up with some funny names to call the farmers,
all because they had 'ruined the fun!"
After such a long rest, my energy had been revived and I was ready to get stuck back in.
I enjoyed tidying up here and there and helping the children with their tasks.
I was rather bossy though, and need to allow peace to characterise my deeds and actions.
Sarah was struggling with her Maths lesson, which was unusual.
The questions didn't seem to match the taught lesson. We were rather bemused.
A few days later, I decided to ring Aaron, the Conquer Maths Coordinator in Scotland,
to find out if there was a mix up with the questions.
But he told me that they were intentionally tricky, to encourage students to think outside the box.
In the end, Sarah and I managed to work out a formula to solve the questions.
This was quite satisfying...
even though her first attempt, meant that her overall score was still lower than usual,
despite getting 100 % on her second attempt.
We were so sorry that daddy had to go back to Bristol to work on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It would have made such a lovely change to have him around.
He had a course to attend on Wednesday
and some essential paperwork to see to...
But he would be back on Thursday to watch the long awaited performance of Peter Pan at Oake Village Hall.
We had been collecting Craft materials for our second Cubs Meet in Bampton.
We were due to help the whole pack make a snowman each.
We had got the idea from Caroline's Arctic Antic's session last Christmas.
The snowmen were to be made out of socks stuffed with rice.
Sadly however, the pack leader took the decision to cancel the session, due to the inclement weather. Although disappointing, it was probably the right call.
The last day of October was spent picking apples in the orchard at Pile's Mill,
with our friends from Porlock.
The children loved climbing the trees and aiming the apples down into the buckets and bags below...
Apples have featured a lot in our activities this Autumn -
It is so lovely to occupy ourselves with seasonal activities,
which reflect the rhythm of the year....
However the 31st of October and first day of November were also tinged with great sadness.
Our beloved guinea pig Silver sadly passed away in the early hours of the morning.
We couldn't bring ourselves to bury him here on the farm,
but left him lying peacefully in his basket.
I kept checking on him throughout the day.
He just looked as though he was in a deep sleep.
It was really hard to believe that he had actually gone and very difficult to accept....
Sarah's cornet teacher arrived to give her an impromptu lesson and she expressed sadness for our loss.
I decided later, that we would take him to my mum's house for a special burial,
as he had enjoyed wandering freely in her garden and finding shade under her rosemary bushes.
Afterwards, the children did their usual tasks.
Matthew started writing his secret agent story, which he loves doing.
We had purchased some thick artist pencils from a shop in Dulverton;
And he has a large red A4 exercise book, in which he records his ideas.
It's brilliant to watch him at work!
He becomes totally engrossed...
He fills each page with large writing and pictures,
noting down his excited ideas with incredible determination.
He loves numbering the pages and deciding when to write a new chapter heading...
It has turned out to be a winner....
Sarah has set herself some Maths targets, which is fantastic ...
She works best, when she is self motivated....
She also loves duo lingo, and is working hard to learn French.
On Wednesday 2nd,
we drove to the Museum in Tiverton for a Home Ed History Event.
It turned out to be a day of both highs and lows.
Some of the activities were amazing, others a little tedious,
bringing out the restless side of Matthew's personality.
Too much talking and little doing is not a good combination for him...
However all in all, we were very glad to have participated.
An added bonus was the opportunity
to catch up with some new friends we had made at the Home Ed Science Day in Bristol...
Matthew's favourite activity was handling Victorian toys,
He asked lots of questions and enjoyed playing with the wooden toys.
He learnt that the toys modelled what was happening in the world at the time.
Pretty obvious of course, but until cars were invented, horses were a popular toy.
The toys were made in materials around at the time, like wood and metal and toy makers liked them to be Scientific:
They were something like this:
and this:
They enjoyed looking through a Victorian viewfinder:
He also enjoyed asking questions about all the household items he was shown...
Sarah enjoyed re-enacting the school day, as she could really imagine what it was like to be there.
I didn't realise how much she had absorbed, until we got back to the car.
The first thing Sarah did was to write a whole A4 page of writing about everything she had learnt!
They found out about what it was like to go to a Victorian School,
the clothes people of different classes wore,
home life
and the toys they played with.
They got to experience some of this through role play
and the handling of objects gathered together in the Museum.
A few days later, the children also watched the whole series of The Victorian Slum,
broadcast on the BBC.
They really enjoyed each episode....
This is a n American preview, but will give you an idea of how brilliant the series was:
On the way home from our trip to the museum, the lovely Maeve took us to her house,
where she had been saving some Where's Wally Folders for us.
Another Home Ed Family had kindly offered them to any family who would enjoy reading them.
I think they are on long term loan.
They are amazing and I would highly recommend them:
Sarah was engrossed at once!
Each of the 52 magazines, covers a different time period in History.
They are absorbing and fun.
They build on the knowledge Sarah has already gained from the amazing Horrible Histories...
Her passion for history is growing day by day....
On Thursday 3rd, we went to Dulverton.
The children always enjoy visiting the town.
We had made an appointment with the doctor's,
as we wanted to refer Matthew for an assessment for dyspraxia.
I went armed with an extensive list of observations and hope that we will be able to find the help he needs.
Afterwards, we went to the park for a play, which is always fun.
Back at home, the children continued their allotted tasks.
What a busy week it proved to be:
The following day, Friday 4th,
we drove to Cannington to find out about Bridgwater College 14-16 Facility.
We met up with a large group of home educators from various towns both in West Somerset, Bridgwater, Taunton and one or two surrounding towns and villages.
It was an informative experience.
We remain undecided about whether it is the right option for Sarah.
But we have plenty of time to decide.
A good friend of ours sent her daughter there and she did very well.
But we want to explore the various options available.
The obvious advantage of the course is that it is fully funded for three days.
The short week also makes it Home Ed friendly;
The classes are small, which is another definite advantage.
The disadvantages are that the choice of subjects is limited and it would be a lottery as to the chemistry of the group...
But we will see.
We have three years to decide...
After the session, the children had great fun playing a game of tag in the car park.
It was a joy to watch them interacting so well with each other.
Later we walked to St Matthew's Field in Bridgwater to watch a free firework display.
We met up with my sister and one of the children's cousin's and her friends.
We all enjoyed the bright colours lighting up the night sky.
This week, to save driving back up onto Exmoor, we had stayed an extra night at my mum's.
After Music School, Sarah and I popped back to mum's to say goodbye to Silver.
Sarah and I dug a hole in the flower bed, where he used to hide under the rosemary bushes.
We wrapped him in a pillow case, filled with rosemary, lavender and lemon balm.
Grandma and I rocked him gently and sang a special song, just for him,
before placing him lovingly in the soft earth - in the spot he felt safe.
He would be forever in a place he liked to roam free.
Grandma placed some more sprigs of rosemary on top, and
Sarah decorated the finished grave with shells and pebbles.
Thank you for all the joy you brought to our lives, little Silver.
We are sad you had to leave us and miss your gentle presence.
We love the way you pottered from room to room,
finding your way to your favourite places.
We love the way you let us cuddle you so quietly,
sharing with us the peacefulness of your sweet disposition.
We love the way you whistled so determinedly when we approached,
a piercing, but joyous sound....
We will not forget you little Silver
Later that evening we met up with several families
to watch a firework display at Oake Manor Golf Club
It was spectacular.
We enjoyed hot dogs and burgers and the company of good friends.
It was a lovely evening.
On Sunday 6th, the children were very excited to discover a white world outside.
They had gone out to the car to find the kindle, but instead came racing back.
They cried out excitedly that the fields were covered in frost and they were going to go sledging!
All thought of screen time were abandoned for sledging in the field amongst the sheep.
The last I saw of them, they were in the far distance.... Having dragged their sledges deep into the field, appearing as tiny figures in the distance, they became engrossed in their new activity.
Sadly, the activity turned out to be short lived on this occasion, as they hadn't managed to find a steep enough slope.
They made a mental note to find a better one next time.
Recently, we have been trying to go for a walk on Sundays.
One Sunday in November,
we walked a circular walk from Hawkridge down into the woods to the River Barle.
It was stunning.
First there were far reaching views over the moor:
We enjoyed glorious views like this over East Anstey Common
Then we descended into the autumnal woods and continued down to find the River Barle.
Along the way, the children had great fun clambering between the beech trees perched high on their mud boundaries and so typical of the area.
They got quite excited at the thought of bringing their friends out to share this particular adventure and asked whether we could return the next day.
There were meant to be the remains of two ancient castles nearby, but as the light was soon to be fading, we decided to stick to the paths and leave this exploration for another day.
There are two interesting bridges at the bottom, where the River Barle meets Dane's Brook.
Castle bridge was one.
This other bridge spans the River Barle after a steep descent to the forest floor.
We wended our way back along Dane's Brook, following the bridleway to Hawkridge. The children were rather put out by the very steep climb back up to the common above.
And so we have decided that when we return, we will try to complete this walk back to front....
We walked along a path like this beside Dane's Brook.
The only difference was that the trees were adorned in glorious rustic finery.
Having a close view of the brook as it wended its way beside the path, was also magical...
It was a special place and one we hope to return to soon.
We returned home in time for daddy to cook us a scrumptious roast dinner on the Rayburn.
On Monday 7th we went to visit our friends in Porlock at lunchtime.
The children got the chance to use an apple press
using some of the apples we had picked the previous week.
Turning the wheel was quite hard work, but rewarding to see the liquid pooling at the bottom.
We took it in turns to have a go...
A big thank you to our lovely friend Catherine
for creating these apple themed opportunities
and inviting us to her lovely home.
We really appreciate your friendship...
Photo of Sarah, Matthew, our friend Maddie and me,
all hard at work with the apple press
On Tuesday 8th November, the children were busy bees at home.
I really must make a note of all the activities we do, as it is so easy to forget.
I know that Matthew was keen to continue his story
and they both mixed chemicals from their new Chemistry set, which was very exciting....
On Wednesday 9th we drove to Taunton for Science and Art lessons.
In Science the children had a taste of Food Science:
They explored what a calorie is,
making a calorie meter to measure calories in food
and finding out about foods that release energy quickly and foods that release energy slowly and why.
You can find out more about the amazing lesson and what the children learnt here: Food Science (Thanks to our lovely Caroline Ellis for the comprehensive write-up).
Cocoa-cola and Milk
Egg yolk
Measuring calories in marshmallows and fruit drops (boiled sweet)
Oil
Popcorn
In Art, the children were fauvists. Looking at Andre Derain's artwork, they studied the colour wheel theory, then used primary and secondary colours to create their own work.
As we were going to go to drama the following afternoon,
we stayed over at Grandma's after Art.
It always feels like such a trek to drive there and back to Taunton two days in a row.
So we often choose to stay over at Grandma's.
First we met up with our friend Barbara and her girls. We had chosen rather an unusual venue:
ASDA!
We ate lunch with them and enjoyed lots of good conversation, food and play... before we had to head over the hills to Mum's.
Making the most of this location, we arranged a play date with our friends in Bridgwater.
So before we went to drama on Thursday 10th November,
Matthew had the chance to play lego and hang out with some friends.
During the drama session, Matthew was as focussed as ever.
Acting seems to come quite naturally to him and it is exciting how he has learnt his lines.
He speaks out confidently, in a clear, loud voice
and is learning to come in at the right time.
He was a bit upset this week, however,
feeling that everyone laughed the one time he happened to come in with his line a little too soon.
He felt so bad, that he said he wanted to quit.
But the following week, he was soon back into the swing of things....
Sarah was a little reticent about her part backstage, uncertain as to her role.
But after a word with our lovely teacher,
she soon entered into the spirit of things and was up and running...
