Wednesday 19th October
Some of us went for a walk around the village and collected leaves to make lanterns. We visited a villager's garden and played with their dog. There were lots of little paths among the trees and the children found an old treehouse. Will, Lydia, Hannah and Zac climbed up into it. Lydia and Will went up really high. Meanwhile back in the garden Tobias, George, Oscar, Moses and Josh did some 'warring'. Edward let it carry on for a bit and then suggested they do something else. They decided to dig a hole under the yew trees and eventually dug an enormous hole - the height that Arthur is (almost 3) in the vegetable patch. Lydia pressed all the collected leaves between paper and books, ready to make lanterns after half term. Best bits: Hannah - picking up leaves and climbing the tree, playing with poppy (the dog); Tarka - the bit when I was going down the ramp and I was going super fast down in the car; Moses - I think making the hole, a big hole; Matilda - playing with poppy and picking up really pretty leaves; Georgina - my best bit was playing with the dog; Josh - digging a trench; Oscar - DIGGING!
Tuesday 18th October
We had a yummy tea - lots of chocolate spread! Matilda and Emerson cooked eggs (fried). Zinny showed Elen round the garden where they were joined by Will. All three played hide and seek - Will was very good at not finding the others!! It was lovely game. Tobias collected kindling for the fire, determined to make it a one-match-fire. ("Quite alot of matches, actually" Tobias). Will climbed to the tope of the walnut tree (almost) - "Oh no, we must fetch Mrs Warne" (Zinny & Elen). We looked at the funny shaped leaves - "They looked like angels" (Elen). Zinny found a mushroom growing in the lawn - we looked at the beautiful gills. Magnus helped Tobias collect sticks for the fire. He found a huge charred stick - "This is the biggest pencil I've ever seen!". Meanwhile, up in the house....Thea, Matilda and George played a brilliant board game called "Shadows in the Wood". A tea light tries to find dwarves hiding in the dark forest - it meant Matilda spent quite a lot of time under the table! (so she couldn't see where the dwarves were hiding). Matilda's favourite bit was playing this game. Emerson enjoyed talking about Star Wars and music.
Thursday 13th October
Alfie, Luca and Edward played football, practising their goal skills. Josh, Oscar, Tobias carried on blacksmithing with a small fire. Alfie and Luca joined them. Beth played a gameboy sitting by the fire. Rachel and Louise pulled up the last of the runner beans.
Wednesday 12th October
Oscar, Josh, Moses, George and Tobias decided to make a 'fire pit' to do their blacksmithing. They set up a stone for hammering onto, brought hammers, copper pipe, water and tongs down the garden. They wanted to make daggers and knives. There was a busy, concentrated atmosphere - hammering and turning the poles in the embers, "Can someone pass me the tonges?", "We're going to make Christian holy knives", "That's what I call a fire boat".. Oscar described the process: "You saw the copper into bits. You make a fire. When it gets to embers you shove the copper in. You wait and then dump it in the cold water and then you hammer it". Josh was the expert blacksmith. Later they discovered that you can make the copper knife shine, shine, shine with wire wool. Zac and Arthur gathered up all those cars into a 'garage'. Zac threaded a rope through. Will and Jacob rode likeabikes and climbed the walnut tree. Lydia, Matilda, Will and Indra and Hannah started off making little dolls for the dolls house. "We whittled some hazel poles and carved them into people, with Edward". Some of them went out and did football skills in the garage and the others made a cake. Indra was in charge of making the icing. Everyone thought it looked disgusting - then had a taste, "That's the best thing I've ever tasted!". Best bits: Will - playing with Jacob on likeabikes; Matilda - whittling this stick; Moses - my favourite it was making my wierd knife; Oscar - making the knives and talking with Josh; Hannah - making cakes; Imogen - I don't really know....all of it!; Josh - all of it which contains black smithing and some pieces of bread!; Lydia - making the icing.
Tuesday 11th October
Warm and grey afternoon. Xavier "liked collecting these beans (runner bean pods) - they're really cool". They are magic beans. Emerson played a plastic tube like a trumpet, and also rode a likeabike all the way down the hill. Beth and Matilda rode likeabikes down th eramp and found themselves going round in circles! Alex and Will played a war game. Zinny played mums and dads with Beth and Matilda in the playhouse. Then Zinny did lots of backward rolls down the hill. She taught Xavier to do them too. When George came home, he played a game of bat and ball with Zinny and Xavier - excellent co-operation. The war game grew with Emerson, Tobias and Arthur joining in. Xavier, Zinny and Margaret played hide and seek, and hide and seek tage. Poor Margaret (helper) was worn out! Matilda, Thea, George, Tobias, Zinny made a boat move using candles. Matilda had a great ime lighting lots of candles. Discoveries - Matilda - I've discovered that you can use matches to make a little boat turn into a steam boat; Zinny - discovered magic beans and the boat; Will - I've just had fun. I liked playing a war game with Alex; Emerson - I always enjoy "Garage Band" and I've also enjoyed the game. Written by Margaret.
Thursday 6th October
Misty but warm afternoon. After tea Alfi, Calum and Luca played Edward, Tobias and George at football. They won 10-5. Josh and Oscar and Rachel started lopping up elder and lit a bonfire. Louise came down to help. There was lots of lavender to burn and it smelt wonderful. The children roasted small green figs. There was white sap in them. The fire was red hot, had black smoke. Oscar and Josh started their own fire in an ash pit. Most of the children gathered round to 'feed' the fire with wood. Arthur did some sawing and climbed up into the hedge. Hannah, Beth and Lucy played in the tree house - 'servants', a continuation of their game in previous weeks. Best bits: Lucy - probably the most goodest thing was playing servants; Calum - building the bonfire; Oscar - the fire; Alfie - football.
Wednesday 5th October
Moses, Zac, Tobias, Oscar, Hannah, Josh, Will and Rachel went off to Beech Wood. We took balls, handsaws and ropes. Once in the wood - it was misty and filled with mature beech trees - Oscar told us (most of the rules) and some of us played 'Wide Open Game'. Will climbed trees and Zac made a pretend fire with leaves and stones and the ropes. Then some of us played vampire (group tag). Before we knew it it was time to drive home along the misty valley, feeling like it was November already. Back home Tarka had played with dominoes and cards and cars. Indra and Lydia started making clothes for the dolls house people and Lydia had thought of making curtains and they went on from there. They rearranged all the furniture in the dolls house so it looked really cosy and real. Best bits: Tarka - playing with the car; Will - prob. playing in the woods; Moses - going into the wood and playing 'wide open'; Zac - I made a little fire, gathered leaves and twigs, made a stove,tippled it into the hole, then I put the leaves in; Hannah - playing the open wide game.
Tuesday 4th October
Beautiful sunny day. Big tea including fried eggs. Will and Matilda practised cartwheels and handstands when they weren't fending off the jam monster (Arthur). Emerson climbed the walnut tree. Cricket: Shania Warne (Matilda), Shane Warne (Luca) and representatives from around the world played a closely fought contest. Will and Alex played in the walnut tree. Rachel took Magnus, Beth, Thea and Arthur to collect George from football (by foot). Best bits: Will - climbing in the tree and playing cricket; Tara (mum) - probably playtime on top grass when the sun was out, sitting under a tree; Alex - cricket and climbing trees; Thea - I don't know; Matilda - doing handstands against Miss Warne adn nearly learning how to do cartwheels - just need to straighten out the legs part.