Easing back in

So I haven't been in this space for a few months. So many visitors, swimming class and then la rentrée! September is always a hectic month trying to get used to new activities and find new ways of organising our time. I've come to the conclusion I'm a bit slow as it does seem to take me a long time to get used to changes. 

Beach football with friends

 

She enjoyed it so much more than it looks in this photo!

And changes we've had with quite a few new activities thrown into the mix. Our youngest in particular has upped from two to four activities this year which makes for very interesting Wednesdays (no school in France) as I ferry kids around from one place to the other.  

I also had a birthday which didn't seem such a big deal this year, why is it that birthday's finishing in 0 always seem so much more special? Here I am at the beach having a very nice time thanks to great weather, some cycling and a wonderful cake backed by Noah. We had a very hard time lighting the candles! And in case that kind of thing interests people, my hair was expertly plaited by Maya. 

Not much more to say today, we've been at the beach a lot! But we have also done quite a few experiments that I'll be sharing too as well as some craft and arts projects. In the meantime, check out this amazing piece of beach art curtesy of Maya and I, having fun on a lovely day out to the wonderful Ile Kerner.

 

Moments of Magic - One way to make great family memories

Last week Frank and I celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary. As we got married after ten years together it was also a twentieth anniversary celebration. We wanted to do something special so that we'd remember the day for a long time to come. 

It got me thinking about how we make our special occasions stand out. How do we create moments of magic? How do we make great family memories? 

Following on from my previous post Learning all the Time, on Thursday we decided to go somewhere new, to visit a place we've never been. Like this we felt this time spent together would be different. 

The place we chose very last minute, was the Ile de Berder, a tiny island in the Golf du Morbihan (the little sea) which is only accessible at low tide. We checked the tide info and lucky for us the times fit, we would have an hour and a half on the island if we set off quickly. 

We discovered a mysterious, quiet paradise full of amazing trees, beaches, shells and views. We were all quiet as we walked around the island marveling at the beauty we found and feeling privileged to be there. 

Afterwards we all talked excitedly about going back, exploring the wreck we saw, finding more oysters and having more time to spend on the beach. It felt as if we'd made an amazing discovery. Doing something new, something we'd wanted to do for a while but never seemed to find the time for really did make our day special.

begin again

It's been a long time. There have been a fair few changes in our lives and just generally a lot of busyness. This blog fell by the wayside for a while as other projects took centre stage. I wasn't sure I'd come back here. And then I was looking through all my photos and thinking about the amazing time we've been having home educating this school year. It seemed to me there was still something worth sharing with you. And so I'm back with the intention of being here regularly again. I hope you'll be here too and enjoy a little insight into our daily lives.

For now here are a few photos to bring you up to date...

We now have 2 cats! Introducing... Ziggy

Ziggy

The little black guy was found in our garden by neighbours who were taking care of our lovely part Maine Coone beauty Oksa (named for Oksa Pollack the French Harry Potter). It's been a bumpy ride as he was malnourished and definitely not toilet trained. Adding a new member to any family, human or not, is never easy but he has reminded us what it is to watch a small thing grow into himself and for that we are all grateful.  Oksa is still not convinced taking him in was a good idea but she's slowly coming round...

Oksa

 

It snowed in Brittany!

Snow covered garage

Oh so white!

And I mean for more than 2 minutes. We actually woke up to a white garden for the first time since we moved here. 

 We still spend as much time at the beach...

 

Amazing winter light

Birds, birds, birds

Constructing buildings, constructing themselves - How kids build skills through building activities

To conclude my series of posts about building, I'd like to share some of the observations I've made about the positive effects of construction play on my children. As I've mentioned, building, like making stuff, has been and continues to be a popular activity in our home. Child psychology and development specialists have a lot to say about why building helps children develop a wide variety of skills. They often focus on playing with building blocks but many of the things they talk about can also be applied to building with other materials. 

Self-designed Lego Plane

With my own children I've observed how building develops their problem solving skills, their capacity to learn through trial and error, their creativity, imagination and self-expression as well as their motor skills (fine and gross depending what they're building with) and their spatial awareness. 

Building with Montessori materials

In the first case, problem solving skills, it might be at the planning stage - how do I make what I want with the materials I have? Or in the spur of the moment - how do I stop my tower from leaning over? How do I make my wall more solid? There are several ways they might find their way to their solutions all of which are interesting learning processes. Trial and error is probably the most common method. Although it might sometimes be frustrating in my experience it means the child really owns their solutions and doesn't forget them. 
 

Building at the beach

Alternately, in our household, a sibling or parent might demonstrate something to them either directly because they are asked or inadvertently by modelling through their own construction techniques. Both these are interesting visual ways of learning. This kind of learning happens a lot here when our building sessions are cooperative and we try to construct things together be they block towns or Star Wars replicas. 

An outdoor table and chairs

Lastly, my older kids also turn to books or the internet for inspiration - Noah recently had a lot of fun with a book of lego models we got out of the library and he also uses his favourite graphic novels to find models for airplanes, boats and space rockets that he builds out of lego. This is also a technique they've used for building cabins and other outdoor constructions.

Kapla Towers

In terms of creativity and self-expression as I mentioned about the sandcastles last week, I can clearly see how the children are using this activity to process information they've received elsewhere and then express their own design ideas. Furthermore, we often build to play with. For example, Noah and Lotta might build some lego planes so they can play a mail delivery game or a cardboard island with stones for rocks and leaves for trees to play at Playmobil pirates. In this way the construction activity is a gateway to realising their creative vision, concretising their imaginary worlds. 

Montessori COunting Rods and Steiner Rainbow Toy

Motor skills are put to work in many different ways as is spatial awareness, when placing blocks, when trying to have things balance, when working with tiny pieces of lego. In bigger outdoor projects, motor skills are further developed through tool use.

Building with Montessori Materials 2

Of course a lot of this is happening without any of us really thinking about it or naming it at the time. Like the best of learning (speech, walking, etc) the children are doing it for themselves in a natural and fun way. Our job as parents is just to provide the materials and as much enthusiasm as we can. 

Building a dry stone wall

*There is so much more I could say about why you should get building with your kids and why I'll continue to make it a priority here. This article on parentingsciene.com is a great place to go for more information and has a good set of tips for construction play with your kids.

Building an obstacle course

Building a Shelter

The Power of Giving our Children a Foundation of Joyful Living

First of all an apology. I left for holidays in the Ardeche region of France with the intention of posting as normal here. Unfortunately the internet connection in our rural, hillside house wasn't up to the job at all. I couldn't upload a single photo or even really get blogger to load properly. It was frustrating though in fact the lack of a good internet connection did make for a very relaxing holiday and a really good rhythm to my days - early to bed and early to rise, yoga every day and lots of poetry reading. The light over the mountains facing our rental house was amazing and I also spent a lot of time out there with my camera getting some great flower shots and some amazing portraits (more of the flowers this weekend). 

Lotta rolling in delight

Time away from home is always different. It moves more slowly and is full of new experiences which renew and restore us as individuals and as a family. We were lucky to spend this trip with our extended French family - grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins. For the children these kind of trips are magical. These are the halcyon days of childhood they will look back on throughout their lives with fondness and that sense of well being those of us lucky enough to have had a happy childhood carry everywhere with us. They made forts out of sticks, bows and arrows, paper hats and went in the swimming pool three times a day. There were horses and donkeys to befriend as well as getting reacquainted with the family. They were surrounded by happy, loving adults, ate well, played well and fell asleep exhausted as the sun set each day. Noah even fulfilled a lifelong dream to ride in a tractor thanks to the friendly neighbouring farmer.

Baling the hay - Noah gets a longed for tractor ride

Maya loving up the donkey

There is something about the carefreeness of childhood that most people consider sacred. We want our children to be free of worry, to live in the moment and enjoy these years because we know the burden of adulthood. We know what lies the other side of innocence in its most widest sense, the weight of carrying our problems on our own shoulders and also of the knowledge of all the bigger problems surrounding us. Of course children have their own concerns and problems, the business of growing up is a preoccupying and at times frighteningly difficult one. And few children live in a bubble outside of what's going on in the world around them. I did however take the choice during our trip not to share the news about Manchester and London with them. For me it cast a shadow over our holiday, over its lightness giving it a sense of other worldliness almost. I wanted my children to enjoy it unfettered. It doesn't mean I haven't talked to them about this now we're all back home, nor that in general I don't talk to them about current affairs. 

Noah using his bow

Louna and her arrows

Sometimes I think that in this world of suffering and pain, of terrorist attacks and insecurity it is even more important to ensure our children have a childhood, are allowed this magical time of play and lightheartedness. Why? Because it is these moments, these memories that will sustain them through any darkness and suffering they face. You know that memory, the one you can close your eyes and think of when times are very hard, when sad things happen, when the world seems such a terrible place? For me it's running through an arc of water, my friend Paul's hand in mine laughing and laughing and squealing with delight as my sister sprayed us with the hosepipe. Or the feeling of being snuggled into the belly of my Grandad's border collie Nellie her scratchy tongue licking my cheek. It's the memory of walking for hours round the garden of the house we now live in with my best friend Catherine talking and laughing about all the things we were going to do when we were very soon grown up.

These are the kinds of memories I'm interested in creating for my children as much as is humanly possible. Not just because I love them and I want them to have a happy childhood but because I also really believe, that a foundation of joy is the key to our most humane humanity. That it is from that full fountain we can give our best selves to the world, all our love and compassion, all our joy.

Giving our children agency on their birthdays

Last week I wrote about sharing touchstones for joy with our children through sharing our passions. Another moment when we try, like all parents, to create happy memories for our kids is on their birthdays. We mark these special days with our own family traditions and by giving the day over to the birthday person, that is to say letting them choose the food we eat, the places we go, the activities we share. 

Maya wearing her crown

Our traditions are simple; bunting, a birthday crown, opening the presents one by one in the morning after breakfast (if it's possible to wait that long!), taking a moment to each say something we’re grateful for about the birthday boy or girl. In general birthdays are spent ‘en famille’ because this is what the children prefer. If they want a party then it’s held on another day.

Origami horse birthday decorations

When I look around I can see that our way of doing things is very simple compared to some of the enormous birthday celebrations going on out there. But whether a celebration is big or small, simple or elaborate is not the most important thing to me. What really counts is giving the birthday child agency. 

Noah chooses Lego and apple cake

Children live each day in a world where many decisions, big or small, are out of their hands. What time they have to get up, what they get to eat, where they have to go, all these things are decided for them. This is true for home educators as for school educators. Okay, we don't usually get up so early! But we do have places we have to be and it is Frank and I who plan our menus. Of course we try to include our children in these decisions as far as possible, to offer options and discuss how we do things. We try to include foods they like to eat and to talk about our activities and what they mean for how our time is organised. But its not the same as being fully able to decide how things go down, even if for only one day.

Lotta picks the beach and a big sister pony ride

 
In fact I think that giving our children agency over the big and small decisions for one day is a very special gift. I know that my three all really enjoy telling us in the weeks before their birthdays what the menus will be and what they'd like to do. It makes their day extraordinary and it is such a small thing for us to do.

Maya on her first birthday

This year, as she turned eleven, Maya wanted to be just us on her birthday. She had a small party two days earlier with a couple of friends one of whom slept over. We spent a lot of time making things for her party bags and decorations for the house using our origami skills and this book (in French). Aside from horses we also made cranes and origami flowers to put in the party bags along with homemade earrings (I made tiny cranes using a quarter of a square of origami and added some beads sorry no photos). There was also some chocolate and sweets in little origami bags (I'll post a tutorial for these soon as I couldn't find anything in English). 

Origami flower gift

Origami decorations

On the actual day she opted for crème budvig for breakfast, goat’s cheese salad followed by pavlova for lunch and pizza for tea. She wanted to stay home and enjoy the nice weather. We played molki in the garden and Mr X, one of her favourite board games, twice. In the evening we got her little brother and sister to bed and watched Rogue One. It was a simple, quiet day.

Maya 11

 

What we pass on to our children

Parents, whether they choose to home educate their children or send them to school, teach them so much day after day in the way they live their lives and the homes they create. They share their own passions with their children just by being with them, it might be a song, or a book or an interest in old maps, ancient ruins, cathedrals, manicuring your nails, gardening, old westerns... the list is endless. 

Lotta and me doing the tree

But listen to any interview or read any biography and almost every time people talk about the things their parents passed on to them, the things they taught them or the passions they shared with them. I wanted to write about that today because I think it's something beautiful and precious.

Maya the artist

We may not realise sometimes how significant the moments we share together may turn out to be. Little did I know as a small girl that watching my dad take photos would inspire me to love photography too. Or that being in the living room with him at the weekends when he played his records would give me a lifelong love of jazz. 

My dad with his camera

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Ella Fitzgerald's birth and as I've been listening to radio shows about this woman I've long admired, I was surprised how many of the songs were so familiar that I could sing along line for line. Even all these years later those impressions from childhood are incredibly strong.

Many people were interviewed about what they loved about the First Lady of Jazz's music and over and again people mentioned the word joy. And it hit me then, that when my dad shared this wonderful music with me, not only did he introduce me to jazz, to a beautiful voice and it's amazing scats, he also shared his joy with me and gave me a touchstone for that feeling throughout my life. 
I wonder sometimes which of my own passions I'll pass on to my children, I hope my love of words, I hope my enjoyment of the natural world, I hope some touchstones for joy.

Noah collecting shells

Birthdays

Birthday weeks are always busy ones. Blogging takes a back seat to cake making and present wrapping, card making etc. They're fairly simple affairs with the principle that the person who's birthday it is gets to steer the day. That is choose what we eat and what we do. So Frank chose homemade brioche for breakfast, lasagne for lunch, chocolate cake and then pancakes for tea. That was a lot of cooking especially as a second cake had to be made for the one of us that doesn't like chocolate cake (I know it's incredible some one doesn't like chocolate cake!).

He chose to play board games in the morning and head to the beach in the afternoon and we finished the day off with the very enjoyable Nim's Island.

Our cards are always homemade and that means an adult needs to make time to help out the kids, it's usually me except when it's my birthday. Sometimes they make presents too but not every time, it's up to them and this bit can be very last minute or something they work on weeks or even months in advance. I love handmade giving but I don't want it to be something they have to do rather something they love doing. And as with so many things in parenting, our actions speak louder than words.
 
So just a few photos today and the promise of good things to come ... some news on our spring activities, lino block printing and much more...

Frank - birthday at the beach

Collecting

Collecting ii

King of Tokyo

Making the cake