Ok, I'm going to try this again (blogger ate my post and I bitched a little about it here ;)  Yesterday Sam, Frodo & I went on an adventure to a somewhat local Medieval Tournaments kids' day.  It was much further than I thought (about 100km total) and we got seriously (but briefly thank Goddess!) lost on the way there, and it rained.  Ye gods did it rain lol  <----See the 'castle'?  Amazingly enough it's a giant 'set' sort of.. totally fake, and the kids thought it very cool.  It was placed on the tournament grounds to add a bit of ambiance and every kid there was just fascinated!

There were tons of activities...we did brass rubbings, medieval coin making, crown, mask & shield painting (those three were huge hits).  We listened to a few olden tales, and Samwise even tried out Stilts!   He was happy enough to get a couple of steps with the gentleman helping him though, and wasn't keen to have another go.  There were Middle Eastern & medieval dancers, drummers & drum making workshops;  junior knight training, archery workshops  and lots of food on a stick ;)   Food on a stick is always a hit at these things for some reason.

(blogger rearranged mah photos sorry)  Here Sam & Frodo 'stormed the castle gates' and tried to get those gargantuan doors open, to no avail.   This was during a rare moment where it was only barely misting, the rest of the day there was a very annoying light, steady rain.  The grounds were slicker than owl sh*t in places as well.  I felt rather like a pack mule carting around umbrellas x3 (when the boys were in an activity), my handbag, and their Great Helms (see photo below!) among other things.

Here are Sir Frodo & Sir Samwise (Frodo is in red) posing with their little wooden shields and great helms.  They have barely taken those things off lol.  And below is a photo of Sam's very own 'Edward I silver penny' ..which he is sleeping with tonight (it's a lucky coin I'd say.. it already survive the washing machine thanks to it's trusty plastic baggie!  I figure these will be great keepsakes for the boys to have.. but seeing how they will get lost, thank goodness for digital photos and blogs to prove they ever existed.                                                          

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In a previous post I hinted at a possible shift in my blog and life, and this seems like as good a time as any to elaborate.   After my extended illness, we had so much trouble getting back 'on track' .. the kids' behavior was pretty bloody ordinary (Aussie slang for suckful), and lessons were met with 'how long will this take?' or 'can I be done now?'  *sigh*    There was fighting and yelling ... some of it even from the kids ;)   I was thoroughly at the end of my rope, I was looking for a full time job and going to put their behinds in school.  I honestly had no idea WHAT to do, and didn't really think school was the way to go, but I was feeling like a complete failure.

What saved us from this fate?  Logistics & scheduling!  I have a 2 week overseas trip coming up, which did not even come close to coinciding with school holidays.  That got me started thinking about how stressed I was when Frodo WAS in school, feeling like my days were dropping off/picking up and little else.   So, in short, no the boys are not going to school... and no I'm not going to work full time (although I may look for a casual evening job)  We're actually going the opposite direction.  

Which brings me to the title of this post.. My DH suggested to me that maybe it was all just too much, and maybe I needed to try what Ms. x does (a homeschooler we know that is an advocate of Natural learning).. and you could have knocked me over with a feather.   What brought this on, I asked him?? Do you realize what that means exactly?  No required daily curriculum, just following what they are interested in etc?  His answer was ' But you said when I came home that the kids didn't really do any schoolwork today, but here's Samwise counting coins he's scrounged from all over the house and grouping them into like piles.  Then you're discussing how much he has and what he could buy with it etc.  That sounds like math to me?' *insert jaw drop here*  I knew that, but it's the first time he really put it that way to me.  

So, I hit MDC as I do for all things ;) and asked the Unschooling mamas' there for advice on how to actually DO this thing.  I was referred to another message board and on it I found a thread with various terminology for 'unschooling' (delight led learning, child led, natural learning etc etc) but one mama coined the phrase LIFE, or Learning In Freedom Everyday!  and I just thought how COOL is that??   

So without further adeiu,  HERE is our new classroom -------->

I have no fears of them 'doing nothing' all day, because everyday is filled with so many possibilities.  They quite often ask me to 'do math' or to look at their great Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History etc that I'm just going to stop telling them it's time to do X, and wait for their lead.   It should definitely be interesting, and I'll still pick up library books on things I know they are interested in (dinosaurs, space, ocean stuff, anything ancient) and I'm sure I'll pick up lots of little educational games & kits at Aldi and the Early Learning Centre (our fave 'toy' store) and they won't lack interesting things to get stuck into!  

Here goes nothing!

Why, oh why, did it never occur to me that there would be NICE, free blogger templates somewhere to download?   Ok ok.. it DID occur to me, I just never bothered looking *sheepish gryn*   As you can see if you're reading this, I finally got around to it and I found the perfect template for my little blog.  

When I came up with the pseudonyms that I use for the boys, the only group of 3 names I could think of was the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings and they seemed to fit fairly well to boot.   Well, when I came across the Hobbit blog template here  , I just had to have it :D   I hope you like it as much as I do!

I don't think I've ever mentioned on here just what a LOTR geek I am?  I was heartbroken when I heard that the people in NZ that owned the land Hobbit town was build on were just dismantling it! I know I for one, would have paid damn good money to go there as a holiday spot.. it being just across the ditch was just that much more convenient!   Probably about every 3months or so The Ritual begins... I get the hankering to watch The Trilogy again and we start from the beginning.  It takes us a few weekends to finish it (hey, we're old we like sleep... and 9+hours of movie would be impossible at one go with 3 hobbits of our own underfoot).

So no, there's not a better template out there for me... Unless someone knows of a REALLY good Coffee themed one ;)