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Gently raising 3 girls to be joyful spirits in this challenging world.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Waverley Abbey

The pictures from Waverley Abbey were taken by Liv, how cool is that. Each of the girls now has a nice digital camera and they absolutely love them. I love to watch them taking care about shots and getting down in the dirt to take pictures of very small plants or really interesting rock formations. I don't really believe in living your life totally through a lens but I love how nature and art go so well together with a camera in hand.






A few more pictures from today





Just a few more pictures from our day today!

Jane Austen Day







Today we had our own little Jane Austen day! We live 5 minutes away from her house which has a really great museum. Liv was having a day at her Nannies where she was spoiled rotten. So I took the two bigger girls off for the day.
There is a really lovely park over the road where we had our lunch.

We then took Indy for a woodland walk where Jane was rumoured to take her daily exercise. It was absolutely lovely and I think we will be regular visitors from now on.

The house was lovely, very peaceful. There have been a lot of renovations and a new education room added and it really makes the visit more worthwhile. We wandered around following in Jane's footsteps and the girls took advantage of a quiz which resulted in a small prize. We sketched the house from the pretty garden and breathed in the history.

From there we walked up the lane to the church where Jane's mother and sister are buried (Jane is buried at Winchester Cathedral). There is a certain peace about Chawton and I wonder if this contributed to her writing. I believe she was only productive as a writer in that house and you can certainly feel the creativity in the air.

We really need more days like this in our lives rushing around here, there and everywhere is not making us happy but times like this spent together in the company of people you love is priceless and necessary.

Thursday 4 March 2010

Who'd of thought...

... home ed would be so stressful?! Well stressful if you let it. Stressful if you constantly compare yourself to other people and constantly tell yourself that you're not doing enough!

This year has been a real learning curve for me and I feel I am finally finding the strength to say 'No, I'm doing it this way!'. I am really bad at saying no so I quite easily find myself over committed and as a result my children lose out. Home ed is cliquey and don't let anyone tell you differently, it really is no different from the school gate if you allow yourself to be drawn in. I so admire the people that can stay of the peripheral and do their own thing as they ultimately have the happiest children. That's not to say that those people don't join in and contribute they just have the courage of their convictions and don't let other people sway their opinions about how their children learn best.

This sounds like a real rant about home ed and home educators, it really isn't I love everything HE I just wish there was a little less public preening when things are going well and bitter looks when things aren't going so great for you but better for others (does that make sense?). Let's all just celebrate that we all do things differently and no one has the right answer because no two families are the same!

Monday 1 March 2010

Library


We love the library and are really lucky to have such a good one in our little town. For many years it was a rotten old porta-cabin but a few years back they built a shiny new one. I'm not sure that people still use the library to it's full potential, there is so much to choose from, I could quite literally spend an entire afternoon wandering around.

This is what we have this week!