Treasure Hunt

The other day we had an Autumn themed treasure hunt. I organised it for some of the other younger home educated children from our local group, children from around Audrey's age up to 5-6 year olds. The basic idea was that we each had two lists of things - one list of things to find and put in our baskets (things like pine cones, red leaves, feathers) and the other of things we had to look out for, and tick off when we spotted them (birds, bridges, dogs, evergreen trees etc).

Audrey loved it so much - the fun, the exploring, but mostly seeing her friends.

They played in the burn until they were tired. They played houses by the big, old trees, the exposed roots were little sofas, and they pulled the tops off acorns and filled them with stream water to make cups of tea. Two of the bigger boys helped Audrey and one of her little friends over to the far, deep side of the stream and up onto the steep bank, where they found treasures like dead bumble bees and toadstools.

On the walk home she fell asleep, thoroughly worn out. I carried her sweet, sleep-heavy little self home and put her to bed, then collapsed exhausted and aching onto the sofa. It was one of those days where I felt like super mum. The other sorts of days come often enough that I savour that feeling.

Look at all those colours

Audrey and I have been cooking today!

I've been making a real effort to decrease the amount of screen time Audrey has during the day lately. It's all too easy to sit her down in front of a dvd for ten minutes while I get the tea on, hang up the laundry, clean out the animals. Involving Audrey in all of these tasks is possible, if I can just let go of my need to have everything done right now, my own way. And they present so many great development opportunities!

Audrey actually loves to cut and stir vegetables, to help me hang out laundry, even to scrub rabbit cages. She just wants to be involved. It's a great reminder to find the fun and the joy in more of my day-to-day tasks.

Helix Park

Today we went to the celebrations at the opening of Helix Park in Falkirk with our good friend Toothball - or, as Audrey insisted we call him, Mr. Ball.

There were a lot of people in very beautiful and interesting costumes doing performance art all over the place that was fascinating and weird, and that Audrey was rather captivated by.

Some truly strange music, some of which was wonderful and some... well, some we weren't so keen on, but very interesting to experience nonetheless.

And Toothball even got some rollerskating in.

Audrey teaches me so much. With everything that was going on today, I would have been in a rush to see it all, to check each thing off on the map until we had worked our way round the most efficient route possible of the entire park. But Audrey had other plans - she meandered, she doubled back, she spent hours throwing pebbles into the lake and watching the ripples they made, she stood at the shore and watched the boats, she petted puppies and had hushed conversations with "snakes" in trees, she played in fountains and when she wanted to sit down and rest she did it, without worrying what she might be missing. I could learn a lot from this young woman.

There was a spiralling track for the children to play on, a series of connecting and ever-decreasing circles that they raced on. "This is MY motorbike racing, Mama," she told me proudly, and wouldn't let Ian or me come with her onto it. Some of the children had bicycles, scooters, skates. Sometimes most of them were running. Audrey chased her own brave little way around, getting very annoyed at "that little girl in yellow who is catching me". When one of us crept closer to see if she was okay we were instantly shooed back. The message was very clear - she might be little, she might sometimes be shy, but she's got this covered thankyouverymuch.

Here's hoping your weekend is as full of your favourite things as ours has been.