Harry Potter, and the Beach Day

Last week I encouraged Joshua to go and queue up at midnight for his reserved copy of the new Harry Potter. He was amazed to be allowed to stay up that late; and I was amazed he wanted to go! Whilst he didn't dress up or anything, its still the sort of thing that even up to a year ago I can't see him having wanted to do.

It shows that my little boy is growing up!

He managed to go straight to bed afterwards - though he was very late for breakfast the next day, NOT because he was sleeping in but because he was in bed reading! He finished it in one day, but has been very good about not spoiling it for me as I haven't had chance to read it yet!

On Tuesday, we went along to the South East Home Educators' Beach Day, which our group hosted at Joss Bay. Its a fabulous beach for families, and those that hadn't been before were suitably pleased with it.

In total, fourteen families made it to the beach. I was pleased to meet a number of our group for the first time, especially those that are on the far edges of Kent and therefore don't get along to our regular meetings. Also, those with older kids don't find many of the activities suitable; but the beach appeals to all ages!

We all chatted, the kids went in the sea, built sand structures, tunnels, channels, collected crabs (thanks Brian!), found fossils, went rock pooling, buried each other in the sand, body boarding.. and generally having a great time.

There was another group on the beach, who Roarke approached to see if they were home educators. They weren't. They were a school group! By the end of the day they'd been approached several times by families looking for us, which we found ironic (and, to be honest, highly amusing!)

We'd had to hire a car for the day, in order to all be able to go. It was a brand new kia sedona, and rather flash. However...

On the way home, the car broke down! (everyone blamed me, saying it must be something to do with me and kias!). So we spent 2 hours by the side of the Thanet Way waiting for RAC to do their thing. We then limped home, praying all the way that it wouldn't go again.

Thankfully, we arrived without any further delays, during which journey I'd had the interesting experience of leaning over Jonathan in his car seat, in order to breast feed him!! Honestly, the things we do! (I did still have my seat belt on, by the way, as a lap belt, and he was still strapped in, in case anyone worried).

Not very comfortable, but I was definately thankful for the convenience and portability of breastfeeding!

As part of stepping up our cooking again (which I've let fall by the wayside as I don't like cooking in mum's kitchen as its not a "chef's" kitchen like ours was), I'm watching the cooking programmes when I can, and the boys have got back into the habit of watching them too, like we all used to. Having seen someone cooking trout on Ready Steady Cook the other day, Joshua asked to try it, so we've just all had trout stuffed with dill and orange. Despite William telling me he didn't like "just fish, only fish fingers", he was the first to finish his fish!

Following an increasing battle to get William to go to sleep at night, we decided to try something I saw discussed on the HE Special Needs list a few months back, and have pushed back their bedtime to see where their "natural" bedtime is.

Amazingly, just as this other family had found, it turns out that Samuel, and William to a lesser extent, are at their best at night. The first night, having been told they had to stay in their rooms, and could either read, write or draw, we found he had started writing a book (story), and had written a page and a half - more writing than he's done in months, and the first totally spontaneous.

The next night he finished the short story, stapled the pages together, including a front cover which he drew, and even a back page with an extract from the book, and a publisher's comment!

Incredible!

They are still waking around the same time in the morning, so it seems that they just need less sleep. So now they all go up at 9, and when we bring Jonathan up for bed (around 10) we turn their light out. That last hour seems to be making all the difference.

The family that shared on the other list were up till 2/4am sort of time, but as we live with Mum I can't do that (that's MY excuse anyway!). But it still seems to be making a difference.

Think that's all for the moment; run out of my snatched time anyway!