I seem to be too busy..... · Wednesday August 22, 2007 by Ann
I seem to have been too busy to get here and blog anything-let alone catch up in several bites!
In the period I was away from my home computer, Lucy joined some friends back at the site where we went to Peak Camp in Derbyshire in June. She organised herself completely, arranging her tent, equipment, food, clothing and even her transport there and back.
This time round the weather was much better-so much so that they were able to view the Meteor shower.
We had looked at this before Lucy left home, after other home educators posted about it on the main lists. We have an enormous amount of light pollution here, living as we do in close proximity to a main trunk road and to a busy motorway. Rarely do we have an opportunity to do any night sky watching because of it, unless we are away from home. As Peak Camp is held in a beautiful part of the Derbyshire countryside, we knew that Lucy should have a real opportunity to see something spectacular this time. So we read about it and discussed it before she went. Lucy was worried that she wouldn’t remember to look but was reminded that the teenagers often stay up very late, so remembering shouldn’t have been a problem….....or so i thought.
The Sunday evening that the meteors were at their most spectacular was a fine clear night, the teenagers were up late and Lucy saw a ‘shooting star’ and then another and then another and thought “wow” that’s a lot-she had completely forgotten about the
Meteor shower!! Her short term memory problems struck again!
Eventually one of the other teens enlightened her-and then she remembered what we had looked up and discussed.
At home Alice has been offered her old job back in the handmade soap and nice smellies shop. She has been away so often this summer, she had given up the job so as not to mess them about too much. They wanted her back though and offered her first refusal on working for them again. This she has agreed to do until her 18th birthday, which is coming up next month, giving them time to look for and train someone else. She’ll be working three days a week until then. Basically the lovely lady who owns the shop, can’t bear to come back from maternity leave and so needs Alice’s help. Three days a week means that Alice can save a bit of money but still have time to enjoy the holidays whilst she decides what course to take in September.
When we were staying in Malvern, we have been house sitting for some home ed friends of ours. We usually do this whilst they go off to a home ed camp in September-but that may not happen this year as their daughter starts college in the autumn. However we were very lucky as they wanted someone to house-sit and look after and milk their goat whilst they went off to Paris to fetch a spinet.
This time their children aged 16 and 15 stayed with us. Both youngsters are friends of Lucy’s, so it all worked out really well.
The house has about 9 acres of garden, orchard and woodland and is situated on a hill overlooking Malvern-with a beautiful view.
It is lovely and peaceful.
Whilst we were there, Lianna was showing Lucy how to play some pieces on piano, she also accompanied Lucy’s singing. Together they researched more music that they liked and did some work on their website.
They also went shopping in all the charity shops for material for dress making-they found some real bargains and so have started to design the dress they intend to make together.
We also investigated all of the excellent second hand bookshops whilst we were in town and found bargains in Tai Chi, Ballet, Science experiments, Warhammer novels, sociology and law. All very useful for different family members interests.
Whist we were in town, we met up with another HE friend who joined them, staying with us overnight.
The girls all then spent an evening watching DVDs -ranging from scary movies, to Shakespeare. Watching Shakespeare has meant that Lucy was asking more questions about language and the roots of English and how a modern language changes.
Alice joined us after work one day and Robin patiently spent time trying to teach her to play the drums-in return she was teaching him to do cartwheels and other athletic activities-our girls really enjoy all of the space available in this house!
Tom and I milked the goat, picked the organic vegetables and we all went on long rambling walks-discussing organic gardening, recycling, composting and wind turbines (friends are currently measuring the wind to see if they could run a wind turbine to provide electricity for their home)
So we had a busy but peaceful stay and it was lovely to catch up with our friends, over a meal, when they returned from Paris.
This week, step granddaughter Nancy has been here all day on Monday and Tuesday-and stayed overnight with her mother Louise. Stepdaughter Verity and her son Jacob who is six, joined us all last night-so along with my brother in law, are making this a very crowded place at the moment!
We have been looking at all of the photographs Jacob took at HesFes and editing some of them-such a pleasure to relive that holiday.
We went off to the street theatre this afternoon and now they have all gone off to see The Simpsons’ movie this evening-leaving me with a little spare time to catch up here!
Tom and I were not at all sure of the suitability of the Simpsons when it first was broadcast (back in the days before we were totally autonomous of course) Our children soon showed us how moralistic and educational it is!
Tomorrow we are off down to the caravan at Stourport, on the river Severn for a couple of days-Jacob loves staying there and going swimming in the pool, walking down the river and watching the canal boats going through the locks-and visiting the local pick your own farm!
