Boys...

Ben, my youngest is a boy...obvious you may say with a name like that but Ben has long blonde hair and blue eyes, looks like an angel (at times) and is often mistaken for a girl by people who don't know him! In reality he is a 'real lad' and loves nothing more than playing lego, sword fighting, den building, cycling, scootering, play fighting and chasing aorund like a mad thing. I know there are plenty of girls out there that love these as well but really if you knew Ben you know he is the male variety!!

I'm just a little confused however......after a rare successful trip to the 'Fun Factory' last week (one of my least favourite places due to past experiences) I thought we had cracked it....Ben happily ran, tumbled, chucked himself around and nobody minded...in fact he had a little baby laughing and following him around thinking he was the best thing since Farleys Rusks! I managed to drink my coffee and read trashy magazine in relative peace feeling quite stress free.......

Stupidly I agreed to go back today, (it's miserable weather here at the moment). It's Saturday...what was I thinking?? The place wasn't too busy but there were a few little lads about the same age as Ben so off he went. The next hour was spent watching every move Ben made in case he upset one of them. They would chase Ben and then go and 'tell' on him when he chased them back, they would push and then go and 'tell' if he pushed them back.......is this what kids are taught to do in school?? His home educated friends play for hours, fight, argue, talk it over, comprimise, play again.,without involving us adults...where have kids got this idea that when faced with any confrontation they have to get someone else to sort it out?? Unfortunately that's not the way it works in the real world.....Apart from feeling a bit angry and fed up it did make me wonder if some boys in some schools are being girlicized (new word!) ....not allowed to play fight, to climb trees, rough and tumble so they just don't know how to handle it when someone else does? A lot of boys need to do these 'boy' things to get through a day without feeling frustrated and angry. Makes me so glad I home educate!!

       The ever so gorgeous Ben...!

Typical!!

Typically, on a day which has been mostly spent at home doing all the lovely Home Schooly things other people seem to do on their blogs, my camera decided to eat it's batteries and refuse to work! So no lovely pictures as proof but some links and some waffle instead.....

Eilidh started the day feeling yucky, complaining of stomach aches and feeling sick so we thought we would be in for a miserable day sitting in front of the telly not doing much at all. Ben decided a marathon session on the computer would be more enthralling so got stuck in to racing cars, motorbikes and anything else he could find. I got on with some hooked pictures I had started and Eilidh just sat and groaned for a while (bless her!) Obviously feeling a bit better an hour later she then decided to draw her own picture onto some hessian which we will get started for her tomorrow and had a go at mine in the meantime. This seemed to spur the motivation and by the end of the morning she had gone to level three on a typing tutorial (Dance Mat Typing), Ben had printed and built some great paper cars from PaperCars.net and Eilidh had decided to build an Ocean Box (like the one on this blog...Our Homeschool Fun) They both proceeded to paint a box blue, taking it in turns and went off in search of some books about the Ocean to use for reference. So.....all in all not a bad kind of day...we even fitted in a trip to the local park and ice cream!!

Tomorrow we are heading for the library to find more books and (dare I say it?) may even turn into a great little project, learning whilst making and having fun.

And just so you don't feel deprived of some visual stimulation, here is a beautiful Rhododendrum flower, taken the other day. I love these flowers and there are some gorgeous ones around the Lakes at this time of year.Makes me smile every time I see one......

Disaster at the Fun Factory!!

 

One way to get rid of an annoying little brother!!!

New Blog...sort of!!

At last!! I have finally re-started the old blog, slightly different look and slightly different reasons but here we are. All the old posts are still here to have a look through but I decided we needed a 'new' blog to record all the things we get up to in our Home Educating as well as keeping family and friends in touch with our life. So here goes, I'm not promising to update it every day but will try to keep on top of it as much as possible.......

For all you crafty people I do also have my blog over at: Woollylakes  so do come and have a look!