Natural unschooling.

 I've been toying with adding in more structure, in part because of Rye almost certainly being

aspergers, I am informed that such children thrive with routine and structure

I look at our days though, and I wonder...

 He is loving the connecting straws and building more and more

complicated structures.

Nervous mama has given him unrestricted access to scissors.

And as a consequence his scissor skills are improving dramatically.

Came back from hanging out laundry to find with a 

Thomas the Tank Engine first handwriting book.

(and yes he loves the "new" chair)

For Aunty Jen - a citiblock aeroplane.

A house, which he's played with all evening, creatively

and also working out scenarios.

We've been discussing quite a bit what happens should we ever loose each other in town

Rye finds it distressing to talk about, yet this evening he was telling the figures

"If you get lost go into a shop and tell the person at the till you're lost and I'll find you"

**melt**

Making cake.

We've also watched short videos on meerkats and bat earred foxes on National Geographic Kids

he's played with mindie, and shared beautifully.

He's played with playdough 

He's sung songs

He's asked questions

But the most important thing......

He's happy.

Saturday and beyond.

Had a lovely day on Saturday.  It was my birthday, 37 years old.  Gosh how did that happen?    I went to the Nurtured Family, Nurtured Earth even in Hasslemere, Surrey.  Had a little drama first.  The day before I'd left my purse on the bus, (fell out of the buggy pocket), thankfully it was handed in, nfortunately had to wait until after 9am to pick up the purse, so we were much later in setting off than planned.

Still, it was ok, we arrived just after 11am, and thankfully found some parking really easy.  The museum where the event was held was lovely and the grounds beautiful.  Gosh it was a hot day though, so I confess I did spend a lot of it in the shade people watching with my friends and oohing and arring over the many lovely slings and little babies in arms :-)

Rye had a ball, although he didn't want to join in too much; although he did play with some of the crawling babies on the lawn, which was so sweet to watch.

 Oooh loved the bell tent! 

 Rather taken with the tipi too, but I very much doubt my backside would fit through that door!  lol.

I bought Rye a storm maker from the museum gift shop.  Sadly he's managed to loosen the wire, so I'll have to try and glue it back onto the base, at the moment the storm sounds is rather rattly lol.

 Sunday, so very tired still after the long day on Saturday.  Decided to try and blow away the cobwebs with a wee walk, and a visit to my local park.  It was a good move, Rye these days bounces off the walls if he doesn't get space to run around, and the walk did indeed blow the cobwebs away.

 Hiding in the bushes.

 "Take a photo, mum", he begged.

"Roooooaaaaarrrrrrrr"

Monday, it was raining here, good for the garden, not so good for my boy's energy levels.  I was somewhat bemused when I suggested a walk and Rye demurred, "But mummy, it's raining!"
"So?  We can put on our waterproofs."
"But the rain is dirty"

No idea where that one came from!  I reminded him that rain makes puddles, and that we drink the rain and all the plants in the garden drink the rain too.  He seemed rather more taken with going out in the rain after that.  Ohh but then came the evening and a serious case of hollow leg. 

Even after eating a large dinner of colcanon, sausages and carrots, he proceeded to cry that he was hungry and would I please make him something else to eat...... 2 pints of chocolate milkshake, banana, thick slice of bread with butter and lemoncurd and 5, yes FIVE cheese and seed muffins later, he finally stopped crying - although I think he would have eaten more muffins had I let him.   He woke a couple of times in the night too, and got himself a drink of water.  Today, naturally, he's not eaten a great deal, but I have encouraged him to drink more, as I did wonder if part of the mammoth food session yesterday, might actually have been him mistaking hunger for thirst? 

And he's been a very lucky boy - my friend, Izzy has given him a bike that was her eldest boy's.   Rye is a little nervous becaues he can only just touch the ground with his feet, but I think he's gonna be riding the bike before long.  Mind, Izzy also brought me up a spanner to lower the seat on the one I bought him too, I think with the seat lowered on that one, he might feel a bit more in control.

I had promised to take him to the park after mindie went home so he could have a proper go on the bike, alas he fell asleep on the sofa.  (I took the kids to the big park in the afternoon and he raced around on his scooter), so it was too late, my lad was one little boy in desperate need of a bath. He was not a happy bunny and insisted he hadn't been asleep at all.  Hmmm, what was the snoring then?  LOL. 

Then after the bath we cuddled up on the sofa and watched Shark Tale.  I've implemented Tuesday night movie night :-)  I need to puruse dvd lists though for better quality movies.  Shark Tale was ok, and Rye did seem to enjoy it, but I dunno - not that keen.  I'm wondering if I should introduce him to Star Wars.  I'll have to watch it myself again though first, can't remember if it's really appropriate for him.  Or maybe we can watch Dr Who?  But again not sure.  Any suggestions? 


Oooh and I bought the reading egg subscription for Rye.   He's enjoying it a lot, and I've learned I need to set my mobile alarm so he's not on there all evening.  I've found if I sit with him, he is constantly looking to me for vindication his choice is right and thus missing instructions.  So I have started sitting behind him, crocheting, however one evening I became engrossed in crochet and the film I'd popped on.. and before I knew it Rye had been sat on there all evening!  Oops.  Double edge sword, of being impressed by his concentration and a little bit wigged out that he could spend that amount of time on there so easily!  Thus the mobile phone alarm, I've now earmarked 3 evenings when he can have 30-45 mins max on Reading Eggs.  I think, for his age, that is sufficient.

Oooops.

Dear me, my addiction to FB was deeper than I realised.  I opened the laptop this morning to check updates before remembering I'd cancelled my account.  So I checked my email, quick nosy at blogs and then, well felt a bit lost.

Life soon took over though.  Beautiful day, sunny and crisp, so down to Toddler group first thing and then into town for a few bits and bats... and oh dear, a trip to the yarn shop.  Hmm, still an addiction to yarn is healthier than FB, isn't it?  I did only buy 3 balls of yarn:

Oh and the pins too.  In fact the pins cost more than the yarn!  (£3.60).

And look at me, I even bought myself a few more clothes and a pair of faux walking boots - those are for the winter and bought with the next Green Parent meet, in the Forest of Dean in November, in mind.

We popped into the secondhand book store,which also sells second hand toys and I saw some lovely wooden threading beads.  Turned around and Rye was looking at me hopefully, and stood beside this:

 How is a mama suppose to refuse?  OK, honestly, I nearly did as it was £15, which I thought for a secondhand scooter was a bit pricey; there again it is sturdy and well, Rye just looked so hopeful, with a tinge of "she'll say no" about him, and that made me feel a bit sad.   I have been saying "no" a fair bit recently, something to be mindful of, definitely.  Perhaps I'll ban myself from saying the word for the rest of the week - I think sometimes "no" can become an automatic response, and, I feel, denying a request or a want ought to be subject to some scrutiny.

He made me a beautiful necklace from the beads, which are wooden leaves, flowers, suns, coloured round beads etc.  That boy of mine, has excellent fine motor skills :-)