October 2015 – In At The Deep End

Parliament

I took our younger 3, H and C (the Beans’ Spanish daughter) on a trip to Parliament that the local Home Ed group had organised. I think one of the highlights was A saying “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be”, which was nice.

We got down to Embankment on the train and Tube, then walked along the river to Parliament. We passed the Battle of Britain memorial, and stopped to talk about it. Lunch was in the grass that’s in the middle of the roundabout thing just outside Parliament, with statues of leaders around two edges (Peel, Mandela, Gandhi etc.) and lots of flags on another. A short stroll to the education centre at the other end of the building, and we met up with the rest of the group – going past a statue of Richard I, and meeting by a statue of Emeline Pankhurst (lots of statues). Airport security, although we didn’t have to take off our shoes, and then onto the tour.

We couldn’t get into the chambers themselves, as they were busy being used by politicians (who’d have thought it). It actually turned out quite well, as the education centre has a room where they have lots of projectors and can make it look like you’re in the middle of the chamber. The guide had an iPad that controlled it all, and could play clips of the Speaker saying “Order, order” etc, and he put silhouettes of the PM etc and other explanations on top of the photos. He was very good – informative, engaged the children and seemed to be glad that we were there. After that we were led around the public bits of the building that weren’t in use, and at the end we got back to the education centre and I thought that was it.

No! We were handed over to another person in another room, who said “I’ll be with you for the next hour”. I thought that this might drag, but she was really good too, and I think the children got quite a lot out of it. She had the children divided up among tables, with a rosette each on it. There tables were constituencies, and the rosettes were parties. Each child picked a rosette, then had to get together with the rest of their party to choose a manifesto.

There was a menu of 10 or so points from which they had to pick 3. Each had a price – up to 50p – and the total price had to have 50p added on for contingency. This was a good exercise in presenting a case to convince people, choosing things fairly and so on. These were then presented to the whole group and put up on the screen – it was interesting that all 5 parties had chosen to increase foreign aid.

Then back to your constituencies to vote. You couldn’t vote for yourself. The red party got 3 MPs and the others 1 each. H was one of the red MPs – none of the others with me got elected. A and her fellow not-elected-red candidate got to chose which of the elected red MPs got to be Prime Minister, who was a girl I didn’t know.

All enjoyable and educational, then outside for refuelling and running about for a bit. We walked back to the Tube, and by popular request went to Harrods rather than a museum – I thought they’d done plenty of educational stuff and should have some fun. We went up the Egyptian escalator to the toy and technology departments. The demonstrators in the toy department were excellent, as were some of the toys. It was interesting to see a couple of augmented reality toys, plus a toy that blended a scalextric-type track and cars with a racing app on a smart phone.

Back to the Tube, which was quite a crush for a few stops, for a brief visit to Coram’s Fields – one of my favourite places in London. Unfortunately we only had a short time before it closed, but it was still good.

No more Tube, as King’s Cross was walkable. We stopped for chips to add to sausages K had packed for us, then had to wait aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages at the station for our train’s platform to be announced. Chocolate biscuits to revive flagging spirits, and then back home.

Films, dancing, camp… but not much sleep!

On Saturday the girls had music school and then L gym, as usual, while the boys pottered and J and H packed for a week away and an immediate night of scaring on return. A, K and I went to a Re-enactors’ fair to help a friend choose wool for a future kirtle and to catch up with friends a little, then picked up L and took her with us to a family barn dance and dinner at our old church. It was fun, especially as we had the chance to meet up with old friends from Uni days, from church and also from Kentwell (over for the fair, then barn dancing on their way home).
At the same time, Bob was taking H and J down to London for a film festival as the start point of a youth camp promoting intercultural relations between Spain, Slovakia and England whilst looking at environmental issues. H stayed over afterwards for a bushcraft day on Sunday but J had to come back for a music day, then Bob drove him down to rejoin the other camp teens and young people for the rest of the week. They were staying in the South London Scout Centre so had proper beds (although apparently rather short?) with sleeping bags rather than having to actually camp, fortunately.
On Monday the day started for them with films and facts about the ocean and pollution, and some poetry writing, followed by a trip to the Horniman Museum. Tuesday was a watersports and activity day, including kayaking, swimming and orienteering round the Olympic Park. Wednesday should have been a press call at the Houses of Parliament, but since nobody turned up to answer or ask questions was a bit of a disappointment. They did still get the chance to take part in a gamelan session, though – less exciting for J than it might have been if he didn’t get to do it at Holiday Orchestra 😉 In the evening they filmed video diaries. Thursday was the last day the English young people were there so they had a celebratory meal at a Turkish restaurant then J and H caught the train to the station near Bob’s office, so that I could hand the girls over to Bob and go on with the boys to Scaresville for another night of scaring. It was a little bit of a surprise to see J crossing the bridge from the other platform with a white blond lad; H having decided to go along with the small crowd of boys who were bleaching their hair! How it survives the chlorine of his frequent swims remains to be seen, as does the school’s reaction when he goes back – I think he had forgotten that it is only a matter of weeks now, as he confidently told me it would be fine because it would grow out in three months!

Meanwhile, after a day of music on Sunday L, K and A had gym on Monday and then Guides for L. Tuesday was an introductory Bronze Arts Award session for L and K, where they began to decide what to do and got an outline sheet for how their work could be spread through the year, and then Brownies for A, but no fencing for L this week. On Wednesday they had a very gentle self-guided morning while I took an Usborne stall to a local toddler group (and booked a party – yay!) and then we headed off to choir. Thursday should have started early with History, but I couldn’t rouse any of the children so left them to sleep in peace while I had a quiet cup of tea 😉 They were all up and about in time for Multisport, then Bob and I juggled children so the boys and I could get to Scaresville. A shortage of scarers meant that J, K and I did the same scare as last time but H was needed elsewhere, so he got to dress as a clown (which had been one of his requests) and be a living painting. I think he enjoyed it less than he had expected, partly because it required a fair bit of sitting still and partly because he was utterly exhausted from staying up every night at camp to play cards – and then to play tricks on other campers in the wee small hours! He was asleep almost by the time we got to the end of the drive on the way home and still stayed in bed until noon the next day!
K, on the other hand, had to be up in time for cello on Friday, but at least had less of a backlog of sleep to make up! Choir was only for those going on tour, so A was excused and I left her with J and H while I took L to violin and K to the library, then dropped L at choir for Bob to pick up later. That meant I could take J to the station with his stuff for a NMYBB weekend – walking a mile with bags is not so bad, but with bags and trombone perhaps asking a little too much! Unfortunately he was clearly not quite himself as he discovered first that he had forgotten his sleeping bag and then that he was on a train in the wrong direction, both things he has never done before but fortunately both easily remedied with a little help from his NMYBB friends. On Saturday he went on to have a severe migraine, which may explain his unaccustomed discombobulation 🙁

L had her first ever fencing competition on Sunday, having been persuaded that it would be a good thing to start competing while she was still an under 11 (the age being based on the 1st of January of each year) and everything was informal and gentle. Then 2 weeks before the competition somebody decided that for this competition a different date would be used, which put her into the under 13s, with far more experienced opponents and less leeway for error! Under the circumstances, she did very well – she won one bout, lost six and came bottom of the board after the round robin, but only one point behind the next last. Then in the knockout round she faced the overall winner and took him to 10-8 😀 It was a good ending to the morning for her and gave her more confidence than the result might have done without that boost.
We dropped A at church for eucharist and K at his friend A’s house on the way, then stopped on our way back to pick them both up and somehow ended up staying for lunch and several hours of the afternoon – a lovely little oasis of friendship and chat and a chance for me to revisit both crochet and German as the girls wanted to learn and the book they had was a gift from Oma!
Meanwhile Bob and H went to our home church and then did a bit of helpful housework (it’s been sadly neglected of late) before H went swimming to try and catch another club session. J got home in the early evening and took himself pretty much straight to bed, to sleep off the remains of the migraine.

Today Bob was to have taken all five children to London for a workshop and tour of the Houses of Parliament, but given J’s poorliness over the weekend we decided to offer his place to the Beans’ Spanish daughter instead, so J and I have had a quiet day at home, punctuated only by a French lesosn this afternoon, while Bob does the HE and negotiates the Capital.

Can you see me in the dark?

More training on Monday morning – I’m in Elite for four months and want to make the most of every opportunity while I can, even if I don’t have time to put it all into practice right now!
Gym was good – and while the others got their exercise J helped me to get a bit more clued up on how to create and maintain an online presence for my Usborne business. I’m still not quite sure what I’m doing or how much it can help, but it’s exciting to be doing something and I’m hoping to get together with Jax at Live Otherwise and do more soon 😀
I took some books along with me which I’d sold via facebook to another HE mum I met years ago and hadn’t seen in person since, and she came along to gym with her boys to collect them. It was lovely to see her again and to catch up a bit – a definite bonus of having done a Not Back To School sale!
We had to hurry back because I was teaching a French lesson in the afternoon – the first for a few months so we did lots of revision and getting back into the swing of things.

Tuesday was the big day for J, K, H and me! I started everyone off with lapbook work in the morning, then popped off to visit a nursery and talk about Ready Steady Read, following that up with a charity shops trawl to find black clothes… Then we were off, leaving Bob to get the girls to fencing and Brownies as best he could. Scaresville Dress Rehearsal turned out to involve actually experiencing some of the scares ourselves, which was somewhat outwith J’s comfort zone (and mine too, if I’m honest) but was useful in letting us see how they work. We finished by having the opportunity to list three scares we’d most like to operate – although both J and I felt we’d rather have said which ones we’d like to avoid. He found three to list, but I ended up saying I didn’t mind which so long as no strobes or exceptionally loud noises were involved – the last thing I need at the end of a long night with a fair old drive home is a migraine.

After such a late finish, and with another late night to come, Wednesday was very quiet 😆 The boys and I made it back to Kentwell in time for food before briefing and found that we were to be followers on the gallows walk, which suited all of us quite nicely. We collected costumes (big black cloak and mask with attached hood) and emergency kit (whistle and torch) then made our way to the walk while it was still light enough to set up and work out who would be where. We had a fab night – I’d been very unsure about the whole thing, really, but it was much better than I’d feared it might be. Wearing a mask really helps, as does being in a place you already know well, and being there early enough to feel at home before it gets dark. Everyone coming round had chosen to be there and from all sides the fits of giggles and gales of laughter outweighed the screams by a long way. Not that there weren’t screams – there were plenty and it was a fantastic feeling to creep up round the side of a group of people and take someone by surprise by appearing as if from nowhere! My favourite trick was to make my way to the front of a group, gaining a scream on the way. The leaders of the group would turn to see what was going on, giving me just enough time to nip in front of them so that when they turned back, nonplussed, it was to come face-to-face with a hooded figure they had no idea was there. Surprisingly fun for a timid soul like me 😀

Sluggish Thursday, not surprisingly 😆 Everybody was on top form again for band though, fortunately 🙂 J stayed for senior band, but I didn’t manage my usual quick supermarket trip (and vulch ;)) whilst waiting for him because another band member had an accident as she was arriving and I ended up waiting with her for her car to be recovered – it was in the middle of the road and she 20 weeks pregnant so understandably feeling rather vulnerable.

On Friday we were up bright and early so that children could fit in music practices before we left for a visit to Sizewell B. This was because I was singularly unimpressed that not one of them had managed to get any done the day before… We had a two hour drive, including a rather dodgy bit at the end where the roads were unmarked and unclear. K’s superb map-reading and my bump of direction together saved the day, fortunately, and we arrived in plenty of time. There was only time for a quick scout through the interactive displays (and I must admit I spent that time catching up with friends so left the children to it) before the introductory talk began. J is now considering an apprenticeship with EDF – it’s nice to have options 😉 Then we donned protective gear (lots of it!), emptied our pockets into a locker and followed our guide through some serious security control to enter the site itself. It was a very interesting tour and our guide was informative and helpful, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more of the processes involved, even if that was only possible via video links or a video and live expert. About twenty years ago I was lucky enough to go on a tour of the COGEMA facility near Cherbourg and it felt as though we saw much more and were able to be far more involved with what was going on. Perhaps that set my expectations too high.
I had hoped that we might be able to get to the beach and spend a little more time with friends whilst there, and the glorious weather made that a very tempting prospect indeed, but H was very keen to get back for his swimming session so we reluctantly left straight after the tour ended, only to get caught up in very bad traffic as a result of road closures, accidents and fires! In the end we arrived home at about the time he should have been at the pool, so he rushed in and grabbed his stuff and I gave him a lift down there instead of him walking as usual.

Cut my hair? No way!

SB has been trying very hard to sell air cadets to K, which wasn’t a hard task given that he was already interested anyway. On Saturday there was an open day, so he cut short his sleepover to go to that, with Bob taking him. It was very impressive and he’s even more interested now (as is Bob, I think!) but the major sticking point is still a major sticking point – he would have to cut his hair and he is simply not prepared to do that. He did have it cut a year or so ago, and sent off a 12″ length to the Little Princess Trust, but hated having it short and has been growing it back ever since. SB had rather optimistically suggested that he might be able to keep it long and still join, but staff at the open day gave an unequivocal no to that idea. So air cadets has been shelved as a plan, to be revisited later when perhaps length of hair will no longer be an issue to one or other of the affected parties.

While K and Bob were off finding out about opportunities with the RAF, I was collecting the girls in a rather more leisurely way, with tea and chat involved 😉 L had gym so we headed back in time for that, then enjoyed a quiet Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was a church sandwich: eucharist and mattins for the girls, evensong for the boys and an added special service in the afternoon at our home church, to celebrate and rededicate the refurbished church halls. L was reading at that, while K was singing at evensong, so we took him in early with the girls and left him with friends for the day – a happy solution in all ways other than the early morning, he felt 😉

J and H were due back from Oop North on Monday, by train to the same town where we do gym on Mondays, but a little too late to join in with the session, so we collected them afterwards, then stopped for food because they were as hungry as might have been expected for two teenaged lads who’d spent the morning travelling! They appear to have had a fantastic time, including visits to MOSI, Old Trafford and Alderley Edge, playing with Grandad’s remote controlled boat, watching the rugby and being well and truly stuffed in true grandmotherly style by Gran-gran!

On the way home we got stuck in terrible traffic, but fortunately Bob was working from home, thanks to office redecoration, so he was able to get everything ready and immediately take K and L to string orchestra (and fit in a bit of extra work whilst there) while I sent H off to the swimming pool (“I’ve been sitting down in a train or a car all day” not being a good enough excuse, after a week off, to get out of it in my eyes – we had words :roll:) and the rest of us pottered and got dinner ready.

Tuesday was a quiet catching up day (including some last minute work ready for WedEd the next day – nothing like a deadline to keep things moving!). I had a training call from my business support mentor at Usborne, which was really helpful in making some decisions clearer for me and Bob was still working from home, which I suspect is nicer for us than it is for him! A had Brownies in the evening, while L had fencing, which she is really enjoying.

Bonus WedEd on Wednesday 🙂 We went to TheBabs’ for a change, so swimming was added to the curriculum – or at least playing in water 😛 Science happened, as did Maths for those who wanted to do it, but lapbooks remained unopened since we were a little short of time and a new venue meant it was all just too exciting! We left J and H there and came back for choir, then HH kindly gave them a lift home. This could have meant extra time for maths, but I think actually led to extra computer gaming. Ah well.

On Thursday I was helping to test a new website for ICE, which involved using remote meeting software for video conferencing. I had to get J up to help me set it up – it’s so helpful to have a choice of computer whizz in the family 😉 It all took a little longer than expected (apparently I was the very first tester and there were a few issues to work through) so the children had to rush around and get themselves ready to go out while I finished off, then we dashed to multisport and made it in time to meet the others as they walked to the park. Phew! It was such a lovely day that the parents and hangers-on decided to sit in the park too, and we had a very interesting discussion about societal expectations and similar highbrow topics – it’s been a while since I did that and it was good 🙂 Trombone hasn’t got going yet, so we were able to stay and chat for a while at the end, unusually, but not as long as the children would have liked, I fear, before having to get A to gym and starting the quick turnaround of dinner and car-packing before collecting A again and going to band. K and H were both in junior band this week, rather than in lessons. They’re progressing well 🙂

Early cello on Friday, but no violin because L was getting more and more snuffly through the day and when I asked her teacher if he’d rather she didn’t come he said yes. Usual choirs and swimming to fill the evening and self-propelled work to fill the day. Saturday was another day of poddling along, with music school for the girls in the morning and gym for L in the afternoon, while Sunday was similarly quiet. The boys and I did start to get ready for Scaresville though, finding black clothes and dark shoes and working out what layers we could wear so I could see what gaps still needed filling.