Slow cooked carrot and lentil soup

I popped this on first thing this morning to use up some carrots on the turn and it was a lovely winter warmer to come back to at lunchtime after spending 2 hours at the park with an icy wind.

I chopped up 3 carrots, added a large handful of well-rinsed lentils, a stock cube and some boiling water and cooked on high for 4 hours before blending.

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 

The great outdoors week 5: 2hours30

Some snow this week, although it melted far too quickly for a good play; clearing the back garden of hedge continued and a muddy walk up Clent Hills. Asher learnt to bounce on a space hopper this week! Last Monday we did enjoy a nice couple of hours playing in the garden. Still a long way off the amount of time I'd like to spend outside, can't wait for spring! Although I'd like some proper snow first! 

The Great Outdoors Week 4: 3hours55

We were expecting heavy snow this week so I was anticipating lots of snow play. Sadly Tuesday night we had an hour of lovely thick snowflakes before the temperature rose and the snow became rain all night instead :( 

This week we've been out on our scooters. We discovered a hidden garden at one of our local parks. And we've cleared our back garden of an overgrown hedge, reclaiming a fair amount of space ready for the spring. 

Sunrise:

Our Gruffalo Day! A Gruffalo Collage and Homemade Gruffalo Crumble

I love having themed days with the kids. They don't have to take too much planning (I only decided on our gruffalo day yesterday), but I find them a lot of fun and I'm sure the kids get a lot out of them. I mentioned before bedtime last night that today we'd have a gruffalo day, and it was lovely hearing the first thing Asher say on waking up this morning 'is it our gruffalo day?!' 

We started with reading the story over breakfast, and stayed at the table to do a quick pen-control worksheet from Twinkl. It was only Asher's second-ever attempt at something other than scribble, it was just last week that he got our wipe-clean alphabloks cards out of the cupboard to write on. Today I was really proud of his writing, just goes to show his fine motor control is there developing through other activities that he's interested in. Then it was time to get the scissors and paints out and start our collage. I love the kids' copying of the wood scene from the book. 

Asher's writing:

We played abit with our gruffalo toys and magnet book and sat down to watch the short film with a snack. Eden did a gruffalo doodle on my ipad. 

After a snack, Asher helped me make gruffalo crumble. It's nice to spend a bit of 1:1 time with him, explaining what we're doing a bit more slowly, he really understood what the ingredients that we were adding represented and said making the crumble was his favourite part of the day. We used carrots for orange eyes, kidney beans for purple prickles, spring onion for claws, potato for terrible teeth and peas for poisonous warts. It turned out to be really tasty! 

This afternoon we finished off our collage and stuck it up in pride of place to enjoy on our piano. 

The Great Outdoors Week 3: 5 hours

We started the week looking for signs of flower fairies, following the arrival of a new book which really captured the kids' imaginations! We had a cold wintry walk accompanied by Viking over the fields by our house, practising our observation skills. I love that Asher often finishes these walks proclaiming 'That was fun!' - long may his enthusiasm continue. Eden would happily spend longer out on these walks, which bodes well for the better weather. 

Mid-week saw the arrival of our first snow of the year. Sadly it didn't last longer than a day, but was enough to cause much excitement first thing in the morning and lots of outdoor time on Wednesday playing in the snow, and a walk tramping through the snow to the local pub for lunch. 

The week finished with time in the garden helping Daddy clear the hedge which has slowly been creeping out taking over our garden. Plans are underway to reclaim the space for spring. We've also had a scooter session at the park. Motivation has been quite low this week as Asher and I have both been fighting off colds/flu making me particularly very tired. The weather forecasts more snow later this coming week so fingers crossed for some more snowy pictures this time next week! 

Enjoying the Great Outdoors Week 2: 2 hours 15

After last week's great start, I thought this week would prove to be more of a challenge to get outside and I was right! Our normal home ed activities have restarted following the Christmas break and this week has made me realise that I need to be more creative, and organised, to fit outdoor time into our day, particularly with the shorter and colder days over winter. 

Monday, is our 'free' day - I like a slow start to the week, we potter at home, or out and about doing our own thing. The day was really sunny and I'd planned for us to go to Clent, some local hills, and do some stick activities. Unfortunately I was expecting a delivery, ironically a new pair of wellies for Asher, and it unfortunately didn't arrive until early afternoon, so we'd waited in for it. We still managed to fit a trip to the park in afterwards though, squeezing the visit in before Eden's opticians appointment. 

As I was really disappointed not to have made it to clent on Monday, on Tuesday first thing, as soon as it was light, we headed over there, and set up camp in the natural play space. The kids loved the early start, as did I! We made bird feeders, drank hot chocolate, squelched through amazing mud (Asher testing out his new wellies) and watched bugs scuttling along logs, they really captured Asher's attention, which was great to see. While there, we bumped into a tutor setting up a forest school activity for his pgce students. The activity looked intriguing (coloured wool hung on branches) and he took the time to explain to the kids what he was doing and asked them about the feeders they'd made for the birds. 

The early start on Tuesday had been such a success with the kids that we did it again on Thursday. This time taking our guide dog pup with us for a wet and muddy walk in the rain over Walton Hill, which is the adjacent hill right next to Clent, and always much quieter. I wasn't sure how the kids would like the cold and wet first thing in the morning, but they didn't complain once and again seemed to love the experience! 

Total time this week has been 2:15, much less than last! However the positive is that we've all discovered we like being outside first thing, whatever the weather, and the benefit of this is that we have the rest of the day ahead of us, not affecting our other home ed activities. Intending to be organised enough to keep this up in the coming week. 

Enjoying the Great Outdoors Week 1: 11.5 hours

I love Charlotte Mason's approach to education. One aspect is plenty of time spent outdoors in all weathers. I try and include some enjoyment in the fresh air everyday whenever I can. Some weeks more so than others depending on what else we have planned. Inspired by the families over at 1000hoursoutside, I thought it might be interesting this year to keep a record of how much time each week we spend on activities outside. This week Luke was off work so we did some extra visits which clocked up our total time spent outdoors. 

Last Sunday we visited Croome, a National Trust owned house and gardens. We took Viking, our guide dog pup, with us and enjoyed a sunny afternoon walking around the grounds. 

Monday we had family visiting us for the day for Christmas. It was a great opportunity for us to blow off the cobwebs and go for a family walk across the fields by our house. It was fab to watch the cousins enjoying each other's company having not seen each other since the summer. 

Tuesday was another sunny but cold day. We visited Warwick Castle with my folks, making use of our annual pass that we won recently in a competition. I especially enjoyed watching the kids playing with the ice in the pond in the peacock garden. 

Wednesday, New Years Eve, we took our scooters to the park, Luke and I now have our own too (to keep up with the kids - beats running after them) and they are sooooo much fun!

Thursday, New Years Day, Eden and I popped to the park with her new bike to get some cycling practice in - she recently learnt to cycle without her stabilisers. Later that day we enjoyed a visit to Hanbury Hall, another National Trust owned property. We had a very interesting tour of the house, learning the story of the families who owned it, and a hearty lunch in the restaurant before a walk around the gardens. 

Friday afternoon we took Viking for a walk across the fields nearby, then straight into the car with the scooters for a scoot and play at our local park. The kids played desert islands on the climbing frame there, Asher's idea. 

It's been cold but sunny and mostly dry week this week. Yesterday was the exception - it was very wet. Our enthusiasm for being outside was dampened too, so dashes between shops and front doors was enough activity for us! Luke being off work has given us a good excuse to get out and about this week, especially as our usual home ed activities haven't restarted yet after the Christmas break. But I'll try and keep up momentum next week. 

A busy Christmassy day of Home Ed

Today has been a loooong day. For some reason both the kids woke early, I'm not sure whether it was linked to Eden remembering we were decorating the Christmas tree today or if it was just coincidence. 

Last week we were given a very large cardboard box from a friend. Yesterday I had the idea of turning it into a santa's workshop role play area. I had to be very self controlled in waiting for the kids to go to bed before starting it as I was so excited about the idea, haha! It looked really great all set up and the kids thought it was brilliant when they came downstairs this morning - so much so they didn't even notice at first that the tree was up too and ready to be decorated! 

After breakfast Eden and I took Viking for a training session at Merry Hill shopping centre. His behaviour is quite challenging at home at the moment, fortunately he's still very well behaved when we go out. Eden had been a little reluctant coming along with me with the excitement at home, but being able to choose something to spend her pocket money on (now she's 5) was a big incentive. I was very proud of her choosing something herself, taking it to the till and speaking to the cashier, getting her money out of her purse and handing it over, receiving her change and remembering to say thank you. 

Back home, we all decorated the tree before lunch. I love that we have a few new decorations each year to add to the tree - they make for lovely memories looking back. 

This afternoon we'd booked to go ice skating at Webbs of Wychbold. Asher was very eager to get on the ice!! He'd been pretend 'ice skating' around merry hill earlier this week and was keen to try out the real thing. He was unphased when he tried running in his special double blade skates and fell flat on his face. That was before he even got on the ice! On the ice he was so keen to be like everyone else skating along. A little beyond his capabilities! He was doing so well until he fell very slowly, not landing heavily, but managed to get an ice burn on his face. That ended his ice skating session as he'd had enough! Eden's confidence grew through the session - by the end she was guiding herself around the outside along the wall, and enjoying going at a bit of a speed, for her and managing to stay upright. I love ice skating! I don't remember ever 'learning' or goin regularly growing up, but I must've just picked it up on a couple of occasions. And Luke... Let's just stay ice skating isn't his favourite thing. 

Once back home, we sat down to watch the BFG (childhood fave I wanted to introduce the children to)  with hot chocolates and cups of tea. 

Oh I nearly forgot to mention one more Christmassy thing today... I made a Christmas pudding in my slow cooker! It was in there for 9 hours. It looks great, wish I could taste it but that will have to wait until Christmas week! 

The Little Match Girl theatre production

Today we went to see The Little Match Girl at Birmingham hippodrome. It was a dance adaptation to the classic Hans Christian Anderson story. I loved the music, which was done entirely, and very cleverly, by just one musician. I wasn't sure how we'd get on with having Asher with us, he's only 2.5 and sitting still for any length of time is rarely on his agenda, plus all week we've been telling him to stop shouting, he's suddenly got very noisy! Not the ideal scenario for a theatre show. We thought feeding him might keep him quiet, so I'd brought along snacks that would take a while for him to munch through. But on sitting down we discovered we weren't allowed food in the theatre. It was a pleasant surprise that he sat through the whole thing, and was really quiet, putting his finger to his mouth and going 'shhh'. He was definitely quieter than the school children around us ;) It probably helped that he hadn't napped and was feeling tired. But mostly, he was really interested in the show, taking it all in. Right from the start the big moon lit up in the background caught his attention. I think the fact that the story was told through dance and music, not words, meant that he could 'keep up' and kept his interest, rather than him losing the plotline and becoming disinterested. I was very proud of him. Eden enjoyed it too, she was as good as gold as usual :) We didn't get around to it today, but tomorrow we'll read the original story together.