Howdy partners!

Facebook and I have parted company, differences to large to reconcile.....So please do keep up with the sparrows here, you are most welcome!

August has been holiday month, memories in the making. A trip to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

 Pudding club masterpieces.....

 Fun in the sun, Mildenhall woods a favourite family place.

Art Camp, where our inspiration was Jackson Pollock, Messy Kids= Happy kids- Thank you Julie!

 Papa's birthday, you can feel the love his grandsons have for him!

 A bit of Fen river swimming!

 And belly flopping, he told me his face hurt after this one, practice makes perfect!

And today a birthday Rodeo for this handsome sparrow. 6 years since we first met him with Elvis hair and Eskimo eyes!

 

Achy feet and cheeks, from so much fun and smiling. Happy boys fast asleep wondering what tomorrow holds.

Oh the summer time is come and the trees are sweetly blooming....

A month and more has gone by since I last wrote and in those 40 odd days Papa sparrow and I have managed to move 4 children, 2 rabbits, 1 dog and a whole loada STUFF to a new home. Which was only possible with the hard grind of gracious and generous friends..thank you so much.

The sparrows settled in effortlessly. Our new home is beautiful, we hope and pray that in it we may bless all those who walk through the door.

With the rest of those 40days? We had chicken pox (yes all 4 of them one after the other). We explored our new village and we went on a camping holiday with some wonderful wonderful friends and had a BLAST.  The two youngest sparrows had birthdays and they have all grown inches...

There have been moments of doubt this month, "Can we do this?"..."Are we crazy??"

Probably we are crazy but these little dudes fill my heart right up.  Mr Sparrow and I are surely blessed. Happy summertime to you all.

And the trees are sweetly blooming and the wild mountain thyme grows around the blooming heather. Will ye go Lassie go! 

A day in the sparrows nest.

There is nothing extra-ordinary about this family and home education is not a statement of arrogance or intellectual prowess.  Our lifestyle is not an expression of judgement upon those who choose a different route.  Indeed what we do together is what many others 'would do' and 'do do' with their children, only we have time on our side- all day to do the things that we feel are important.  So what does a day in the life of our flock of sparrows look like?

Tuesday 22nd May 2012 looked like this....(All times are ISH)

5.30am(oftentimes the snooze button gets hit til 6!): Mama and Papa Up and showered. Dog walked.
6am: Quiet time and prayer
7am: Sparrows are usually up by now. Household chores
7.30am: Breakfast
7.45am: Morning devotion (short bible reading/prayer/song)
8am: Sparrows chores and Up (breakfast tidy, rabbits food etc, teeth, dressed).
8.30am: Gabe copy work (30mins)
              Toran Letters/numbers story/game . Today he had letterland.(15mins)
               Jesse Life of Fred maths, 1 chapter (15mins)
9am: Gabe Life of Fred maths (15mins) 1 chapter
          Toran Ipad time.
          Jesse Reading lesson (15/20mins) currently working through Dr. Zeus "1 fish 2 fish red fish blue  fish."
9.30am: Jesse computer time
              Gabe Math Mammoth worksheets (20mins).
              Toran Beatrix potter tale, Today he had Benjamin Bunny
10am: The tesco shop was delivered. All the boys helped to unload and pack away.Took about 30minutes.
10.30am: gabe computer time
                Jesse, Toran and Oisean played in the garden with the water table- the sun was out!!
                Mama gardening/household chores
11am: All outside playing.
12noon. Picnic lunch in the garden
1.30pm: Oisean went for a nap.
2pm: Pudding club preparation (once a month pudding competition at church. The sparrows choose to make chocolate and marshmallow rice crispie cakes. Mama made raspberry and armarreti cake.
3.30pm: Gabe and mama 'Birds of the air chapter 9' with oral narration from Gabe.
4pm; Garden play, Trampoline and water gutter run with balls and food colouring.
6.pm: Papa bird came home!
          Sparrows garden tidy up
6:15pm: Gabe read aloud time (15mins) Nature Reader.
6:45pm: Pudding Club!
9pm: Sparrow bedtime
        Mama and Papa tidy up time/household chores
9.30pm: RELAX and admin bits!

The sun came out, it was so good, the boys immediately stripped down to pants, what sun starved children!

Food colouring in the water, yellow, purple and orange were the favourites.

And of course in between all that they built with lego, read books and played ....lots.

The two lego birds Jesse was inspired to make after voting for the British birds lego series, a Goldfinch on the left and a swallow on the right.

Meet Alpha, Gabe spotted him in our tank, the first froglet of many. We also watched Brian hatch, our first Indian stick insect.

We play games, scrabble, top Trump, memory games and board games. This was one  of Gabe's Scrabble plays, 27 points...the boy is learning!

But everyday is different really and truly.....

 

The bigger picture

Today I saw the first swift circling high over our garden, catching his dinner on the wing. The first of many to have travelled for 14,000 miles to get back to this particular spot in the (rainy) fens. What have those eyes seen?! I did ask him, though I only got to guess in place of reply.... Saharan plains, sandstorms, mountain ranges, open ocean as far as the eye can see....what wonders of creation do his eyes behold on his annual pilgrimage, chasing insects to the tip of the African continent, what array of peoples, nations and culture!

It is no wonder that I dreamt of being able to fly like a bird when I was a child, what freedom to be able to see the bigger picture.

Whilst the world has been busy spinning and the stars come out every night for eyes everywhere to see, the sparrows and I have been busy in this tiny corner of the world we call home. It has rained. A LOT. Nearly everyday for an entire month. Though we are not complaining, rain is needed! Gabe made a rain collector, we hung it out in the garden in the second week of April, since then it has recorded over 8cm of rain falling over house in Isleham.  Despite the wet we have been out and about.We took a trip to Biggleswade Bird of Prey Centre, birds were amazing, look at this guy!

A lovely friend is raising these Bantam Chicks and the boys have been following their progress avidly...

 Hours out of doors as usual with wellies and rain macs...

Arts and crafts..still life a la Henry Rousseau and carpentry, Gabe made this feeding table for the rabbits, they love it.

  A trip to Legoland for their cousin's Birthday made their month, not least because they LOVE those cousins. They are still talking about it. 

So we are busy, good busy, messy busy! The house is often a mess, muddy footprints line the hallway, wellies tossed outside the back door and lego strewn across the den but they won't remember the mess so I'm learning to let go a little and see the bigger picture.

One day I want my sparrows to soar.