Highschool Starts

It seems the different milestones of life keep clicking by. 

The children have gone back to school, only this time our eldest has gone off to secondary school.

It suddenly feel very different. With Primary school you're really involved, invited in for different things, it somehow feels you have to be a part of it. Secondary school it feels like you're sending your child off into the world, the school doesn't want you, just your child. 

The first day I drove her to a friend's house in the town and all the children from her class that had chosen this school walked into together. She went in smiling.

When I came to pick her up that evening, I met another mum who was waiting for her son. She said that they had to lock the door to stop her son getting back in the car! So I felt like my daughter was winning that day!

She came out smiling that day as well. She had a slight issue with one teacher and her phone. She has to have it out to monitor her blood glucose levels for her diabetes unfortunately. All teachers were meant to be informed but her tutor came over and asked her to put it away. She said she was a little upset but didn't argue, then she watched this teacher read her emails, look up at her, then come back over and tell her it was fine to check her levels whenever she wanted!

But it was today (as I write this it's Friday) that it all sinks in. We were sat on the bench, I'd left the other two in the truck, so just her and I were sat their waiting for the bus. We chatted and to me she just seemed instantly more grown up. The bus rolled up and she gets in on her own, I'm not going with her, I'm not speaking to the driver or checking everything is okay. She gets on and sits down and I watch her go off down the village. 

That afternoon she comes walking back up the road to meet us. A smile on her face, a whole series of experiences of her own, ones we sit and talk about if she chooses to share them. 

She makes me proud and happy every day. 

Eldest's Last Day At Primary School

 Oh what an emotional week it's been! 

Our first born has finished primary school. Feels like such a big step. And I know many of you have followed this blog since she was a baby and have seen the milestones in our lives, it feels right to sahre this one as well. 

I'm a soppy fool and had a few emotional wobbles this week. My daughter on the other hand is as stoic as ever! To be fair she just seems excited about what is to come and is looking forward to secondary school. 

School Talk

 A few months back, the lovely Kat from the Hellen's Garden Festival team asked if I'd be up for doing a talk to a school she'd been working with. 

My brief was just that brief! My job was to talk for about 45 minutes and to inspire them about growing. 

Luckily Kat had been working with them for a number of weeks, she'd made some great planters at the school and talked about where we get our food from. 

The class were brilliant, so well behaved and attentive, they asked loads of questions and there was a few farmers children in the crowd so they had some great answers to my questions. 

I did some talking about what we get up to here and talk about our growing year. I then asked some questions about the names of different fruit (and pokemon) and they had to guess which was which, I threw out a few curve balls! 

It went down a storm (even if I do say so myself) and the head mistress even came up to me afterwards to say how it was perfectly pitched to the age group. All the kids went away with a couple of packets of seeds that I had bagged up and I knew it was going well when the teachers asked for some as well! 

I stayed afterwards and helped them make some planters from old milk cartons. This was Kats great idea and it worked so well, the children all got to decorate them in different ways and they looked great! The planters will then be used to put up around Hellen's Garden Festival in a few weeks time (Where I'm speaking again).

A great fun thing to do and one that put me a little out of my comfort zone. I wonder if I'll get to do any more in the future. 

Anyone else gone to schools to do a talk or speak to children about food and growing?

Youngest Started School

 So that's it - all three of my babies are at school now! 

6 years of being a stay at home dad have come to an end! Blink and you miss it!

First Day At School Number 2!

So Tuesday it was time for my youngest daughter to start school.

Sisters ready for school

Like when my eldest started, I enjoy sharing milestones with people and friends that have read this blog for years and it's also something I love looking back on.

She was so excited about this and has been ready to start for well over a year now!

Walking The school Run

Now things are starting to dry up we're going to try walking the school run down the footpaths when we can. The road by us is just not very safe for walking with little ones.

The boy is just old enough now so I don't have to carry him the whole way, although he's not as fast as the girls (he only has little legs). It's just under a mile each way and the only bit of tarmac we touch is to cross the road from school. 

It's great fun to do some plant spotting and have the girls ask me questions about what they see. Although today I was having to answer questions about pilewort...

Reading Pod or Nook

Sorry no posts for a week, as you can imagine it's been busy! 

I've had great fun over the last few days on my Facebook Page trying to get people to guess what I was making by showing them the following picture. 

I had about thirty people guessing until one lady came up with the right answer - a reading nook.

This is a commission I'm building for my daughters new school which they go into in the new year (it's really exciting for them and me!).

The idea was to have some standard book shelves then some little reading pods for them to curl up into. There's also going to be a tree but I've no idea how I'm going to build that yet! 

I'm building it out of MDF as it keep cost down (I'm on a very tight budget) but also takes a finish really well if there's no edges.

 It's not something I've ever built before so it took a bit of thinking about and a few trials using my eldest daughter to test for size!

 The pictures below show a "dry" assembly, with no glue. It'll be too heavy for me to move if I assemble it here unfortunately so it'll have to be put together at the school after Christmas.

  I'm really pleased with how it turned out and looks. There will be trim on all the corners and a fascia around the pentagon to hide cut edges of the MDF

Hopefully this will be the perfect size as well and nice and cosy when there's a few cushions in there! I've built two of these units and I'm really looking forward to getting them in, they're currently on flat packed on the floor of the extension. Some nice colours will really make them stand out as well.

I'm hopeful the kids will like them as well!

This certainly isn't a job I'm going to make much (or any really) money on but I love the idea of building something for the local school and my children will see them everyday and think "My dad built them!"

I've got some benches to build and a big tree yet so it could be interesting trying to come up with interesting ideas for those as well!