A very busy summer!

It's been a crazy few weeks through the second half of the summer holidays and into September. 

A lot has changed for us, not least because our lovely guide dog puppy Viking has moved on from us and started his training with Guide Dogs staff at Leamington. He's doing really well and we're really proud of him, but we miss him loads!! 

Just a week after he left, extension work started on our house. We're having quite a bit of work done and new rooms built. So far it hasn't affected us too much as they work on the exterior as much as possible. It's exciting! 

My freelance nutrition work has been keeping me busy. I love working, and feel very blessed with my job! It requires a fair bit of organisation and planning to fit it in around the kids, but I wouldn't have it any other way. This month I've had the opportunity to revisit my university campuses. I graduated 10 years ago and it's been great to take time to reminisce and to see how far I've come and where my studies have taken me! 

We've also fitted in 2 breaks away, making the most of not having Viking's needs to think about. Mid-August we camped in the Peak District at a beautiful place next to some caves and waterfalls. The kids loved playing with other kids on the camping field. We cycled the Tissington Trail (I was SO proud of Eden and Asher cycling 4 miles!!) and we loved exploring the caves. 

At the beginning of September, we went on our annual 'StrickCamp' family getogether. We had an awesome time on a trek all together as a family! The staff at Ride on the Beach trekking centre did a brilliant job meeting everybody's needs from age 3 to 70+ to give us all a great experience, shared together! 

We also had a fantastic time following this at WEHEC home ed camp! 

Final update and exciting news is that Luke and Eden, who podcast at www.homeedmatters.co.uk won FIRST place in the kids and family category of the UK podcast awards. Super proud of them both! Here they are with their trophy! 

With the schools being back we're back into full swing with our home ed activities now. Today we went along to a new group we've started with our friends, called Woodpeckers. It's kind of forest school like, but also just a great time for the kids to get together and enjoy the outdoors with each other. The group is working SO well and the kids and grown ups are all having a blast. Here's a pic from today: I've never seen so many kids get so muddy, but it was fabulous fun! (and nothing a bio wash can't fix at home!)

So all in all as you can see, we've been very busy and in the midst of it all I've lost track of our time outdoors total for the year. Maybe I'll restart next week! 

The Great Outdoors wk 29-33: 25 hours

The summer holidays here are well underway which is a strange time of year for us. We're spoilt in term-time when we're out and about, in the school holidays everywhere is so much busier, we tend to hibernate a little. The weather has been cooler and cloudier for the last few weeks which hasn't tempted us much out of our hibernation! Added into the mix, I've been working and we've said goodbye to our lovely guide dog puppy who has gone off to carry on his training now. It was a sad day and we've needed to keep busy. 

There have been plenty of fun times out and about though. We've visited Warwick Castle with friends. We've been to the local park play days also with friends. And the kids have been practising their bike riding which has made me feel very proud. 

Last Monday we went into Birmingham to find some Owls on the Big Hoot trail. It was lots of fun, we all really enjoyed it! We found 27! A good start! The trail is on until the end of September, so plenty of time for us to find some more over the next few weeks. 

The Great Outdoors wk 26-28; 37 hours

The downside of all the lovely weather we've been having over the last few weeks is that I'm forgetting to post our time outdoors total at the end of each week, although I am still keeping track. The last few weeks have included a lovely heatwave, which we made the most of by going to a nearby Lido, and had an amazing time there!

We've had lots of other outdoor adventures too, trying to make the most of the lovely summer weather that we're having. 

The great outdoor wk 24 and 25: 27hrs 15

The last 2 weeks have been a bit hard because chicken pox has hit the household, limiting where we can go. We've harvested our first fruits from the garden and allotment, the strawberries as always are a winner and we have lots this year as the plants establish in the garden. Hopefully next year we'll have even more on the allotment too! 

The kids have really come in loads in their cycling ability. Eden's learnt to push off by herself and Asher's learnt to whizz along instead of walk his balance bike. 

We've also managed some fun times at the parks with friends, inbetween bouts of infectious chicken pox! 

We have at least another week ahead at home, as Asher now has chicken pox. Fortunately the kids are loving the garden which helps a lot. 

The Great Outdoors wk 23: 27 hours

A fantastic week of fresh air spent in Cornwall! The weather started pretty badly - with weather warnings for rain and strong winds! Despite this, we started off our holiday with a lovely nature trail walk close to where we were staying and mostly under the shelter of trees. 

The weather picked up by mid-week, and we enjoyed lots of outdoor time at The Eden Project, a farm park, Tintagel, a couple of national trust properties, and of course, the Beach! 

The Great Outdoors wk 22: 8.5 hours

Half term week is always a strange one for us, out of routine and we avoid anywhere likely to be busy with the kids being off school. This week we've had lots of lovely quiet play dates with friends,  enjoying outside time in the process. A highlight has to be the sculpture trail we found at a nearby nature reserve that we hadn't visited before. The kids and their friends loved running ahead to find the next one. There was also a lovely bridge over a stream that we spent quite a while playing on, throwing leaves and twigs into the water and balancing on rocks. We've finished off our outside time this week with a trip to the allotment, to put the pumpkins and courgettes in and to do a little weeding. However, rather than joining in the kids instead played happily in the sandpit, listening in they were creating mountains in the sand for adventures. 

The Great Outdoors Wk 21: 13 hours

I've been back and calculated our total time spent outdoors so far this year, playing, learning and exploring in various ways - the current total stands at 154 hours and 15 minutes. 

Regular readers will have seen on my home ed posts that we are big fans of Charlotte Mason, a 19th century educator. She recommended that children between the ages of 0-7 should spend 4-6 hours outside everyday. In today's day and age this seems an unrealistic amount of time. But this daily length instead calculated over 3-4 times per week works out at about 1000 hours per year. 

Over on the 1000 hours outside blog, you can read more about where this figure comes from, the research supporting it and the developmental benefits of outdoor time on this post here http://1000hoursoutside.com/join-the-challenge/why-1000-hours/ 

I think we will still be a long way off the 1000 hours total by the end of the year, but nevertheless I'm enjoying keeping track of our time outside and seeing the difference it makes in the kids, in both the short term and over a longer period. Some of those benefits that I've seen, and many other good reasons for getting outside, are listed on this blog post from the 1000 hours outside website http://1000hoursoutside.com/2015/01/21/100-reasons-spend-1000-hours-outside/

The Great Outdoors Wk 20: 13 hours 15

Highlight of the week has to be the super Batwalk that Luke and Eden went on at the local park on Friday night, coming home with lots to tell! 

Here's a collection of pics from the week..

The Great Outdoors wk 18-19: 21 hours 20 mins

Last week we took advantage of the 'Sun' holiday scheme to visit my grandparents in Southport, staying right next to the beach. The kids loved exploring the dunes. We took along our Axiski to test out on the dunes, a little sceptical as to whether it would actually work on sand as promised, but it did and we had a lot of fun with it. 

Eden sliding down the dunes on the Axiski:

The Great Outdoors wk 17: 14 hours

The lovely spring weather continues. We spent Tuesday with lots of home ed families at Sandwell Valley, which has such a great set up of park play equipment, sand pits, a splash pad, woodland to explore and a farm. 

We took Viking for some good behaviour training at a park nearby. 

After 4 years since we relocated to the Midlands, last weekend we re-visited Southampton and had a lovely weekend catching up with friends, and showing the kids our favourite places in the city. 

The Great Outdoors wk 16: 22 hours

A big total this week! The good weather has continued and after the busy Easter holidays finishing, this was our first week back into our home ed routine, and we made the most of the weather! We've had an intentionally-quiet week for seeing people, instead choosing to have some space, and enjoy family time together. We've had our first bbqs and picnics of the year. A highlight of the week was visiting Witley Court and Gardens. It was a beautiful day, and such fun to explore the grounds and ruins, the place has such a tragic tale to tell, which both of the kids took an interest in. 

Read alouds in the garden:

Exploring Witley Court and Gardens:

The Great Outdoors: week 13-15, Easter, 31 hours

We've had a busy few weeks over the Easter period! There's been some really lovely spring weather, warm and sunny. We've installed a new trampoline in the garden, which the kids are loving! (So am I!) We've been away to a church event called Spring Harvest, held at Butlins Minehead. We took the scooters and spent lots of time outside and on the beach. I've had quite a bit of my freelance work keeping me busy, so the kids and Luke have been on their own adventures while I've been working. 

Spring bike rides:

First bounces on the trampoline (finished just before bedtime and going on holiday the next morning!)

Minehead beach:

Planting seeds:

Seed collages, making use of very old seeds that I found:

Finding bat boxes at a community gardens:

The cats enjoyed the sunshine too!

The Great Outdoors: Weeks 10-12: 14 hours 35 mins

I've got a bit behind in my updates for the last few weeks, we have still been getting outside in that time though. The first week I was very poorly with nasty flu which left me bed bound :-( fortunately the kids escaped it. Spring has sprung and we're loving the better weather! Here's some pics from our recent outdoor adventures: 

An impromptu walk over the fields opposite our house, so impromptu the kids still had their dressing up clothes on, they loved it! 

On world book day we met up with some other home educating families at the park for the afternoon. 

Enjoying the outdoor gym with my family. I especially love Eden's enthusiasm in this photo! 

Both busy making mud pies in the garden

Lovely spring sunshine for bike rides. I think the last time Eden was on her bike was New Year's Day. She did great balancing and braking. Looking forward to lots of bike rides practising now the weather is better! 

This week coming *hopefully* we will finally have our trampoline arriving that we've ordered for the garden, we ordered it weeks ago, it's been a long wait! 

The Great Outdoors Week 9: 3 hours 50

Recently the kids have been LOUD at home, usually when they're inbetween activities, or we're getting ready to go out somewhere. It can be really stressful and headache-inducing when they're like this. While I'm sure it's completely normal behaviour developing into a bit of a habit at the moment, I'm also aware how great they respond to being outdoors, letting off steam, playing nicely together, enjoying each other's company and that this results in calmer, more settled behaviour at home. I'm so excited that the first signs of Spring are appearing. Clumps of bluebells, daffodils and tulips have sprouted up from the ground in our garden. I have lots of plans for us to spend the majority of our days outside once the better weather is here. I've got lots of fun memories of us spending time in the garden last summer, chilling out under our big sportsbrella, cooking on the gas BBQ, playing on the decking, in the tuff spot and the sand pit. It's a little tricky being out in the garden at the moment with our guide dog pup here, he wants to join in our play in the garden but the grass is taking a bit of a battering and needs time to recover!! 

I'm pleased with our total time outdoors last week, we had lots of sunshine, it's been the sunniest winter on record according to countryfile last night! I didn't take many photos this week, but this is a favourite, on our walk on Saturday there was a buzzard being mobbed by crows ahead of us, and this is Asher impersonating the crows "caw caw" :) 

The Great Outdoors week 8: 2 hours 20

Quite pleased with last week's total and still managing to fit outdoors time in despite it being a really busy week for us with my freelance work commitments. 

We saw the first signs of spring:

The kids thought it would be great to take their binoculars out with them:

We had fun exploring a new park locally that we haven't been to before, and we built dens in some local woods. 

We even managed to have more garden time this week than the last few weeks. 

The Great Outdoors week 7: 30 minutes

A little late posting last week's total - just 30 minutes last week. A trip to the park with the kids and Viking on Thursday. I'm not sure why we weren't outside much, I think a combination of weather, disruptions to routine and other weekly commitments. I don't like to see the weekly total that low though! 

The Great Outdoors Week 6: 4:45

We've had some memorable moments outside this week. It's only been getting a couple of degrees above freezing (Eden's latest thing is to ask me the temperature everytime we get in the car) but we've had lots of sunshine. 

Monday morning we blew away the cobwebs and embraced a new week with a trip to the park with Viking in tow. He was very glad it was free-run day! 

On Tuesday we took the scooters to Mary Stevens Park in Stourbridge. This is one of our favourite parks as there's so much to do, we spent nearly 2 hours there before feeling it was time to go home to warm up! 

Thursday we took Viking up Walton Hills, it was sooooo icy! I loved the observations that nearly-3y.o Asher was coming out with about the effects that the ice has had on the usually squelchy mud. We spent longer out than I'd planned as we were having so much fun with the ice! 

Today's been much warmer, almost spring-like. We had lunch in the garden and a lovely family walk over the local fields, discovering a cow, calf and bull in one of the lower fields