Nice trip out today....

We went out today with our home ed group to a local country park. We had arranged an Egyptian Hieroglyphics trail which involved the children working in teams to solve clues and run around answering questions. One of the dads worked very patiently with some of the children who are dyslexic & some younger ones, and surprisingly they all managed to do some writing and reading out loud without a trace of embarressment. The older ones organised themselves well and everyone joined in.

Fortunately the sun shone all day and so we could eat our lunch outside. We had 15 children of varying ages and they all mixed together really well, which meant mums and dads could chat and drink tea from polystyrene cups!

The park has a huge adventure playground so all afternoon was spent running about, climbing and swinging. Hettie and one of the others took their bug catchers (ours is fast becoming part of my handbag) and some of them set off to look for things. They came back with a collection or pond snails and wet feet. The snails were returned to their pond with no prompting after being examined.

Hettie is tired out. Dh bounced with Issy on the trampoline after school and played 'dollys birthday' which involved more tea party food made from sand, pass the parcel, and playing a board game. To my great amusement dolly managed to beat them all and won the game. She didn't eat much sand cake though.

Busy day lined up for tommorow, Issy has a taster session at a new dance school her dance teacher has set up and Hettie has asked to go along to try the dance, drama & singing classes for the older ones. Now I never ceased to be amazed when friends say 'I don't know how you stand being with the kids every day', because I prefer being with them than being apart from them, but 3 hours child free every Saturday morning does sound like a wonderful idea. Hettie then has a party and we have a wedding so I really must go and sort the clothing situation for tomorrow out. Last time we went to a wedding I put my dress on just as we were about to leave only to find I must have grown a bit cos I couldn't do it up, and I think if I do that tomorrow dh may go on his own!