Thursday 29th September
Sunny and breezy. Luca set up the cricket pitch and he and Edward played cricket. They set up a series of wheelbarrows to be their wicket. Beth, Lucy and Iona played in the garden. Lucy and Beth played a game - "We are orphans. Our mother died when we were babies. That's our house, we like it. I'm pretending to do a bonfire." (Lucy). Beth climbed a tree, "I can see heaven". Lucy pretended to do a bonfire by digging in the ash with a spade. Iona did a fantastic crash into the hedge on her likeabike. She laughed! Alfie, Luc, George, Tobias, Arthur and Rachel went for a conker walk. We visited some chickens in Ruth Holden's garden and fed the goldfish in her pond. We picked up conkers and knocked them down off the tree. There were some 'beauties'. We walked down Kent lane picking blackberries. George pointed out fresh mint. Meanwhile Hannah, Josh and Oscar continued inventing a play called 'A series of silly clips'. It involves burglars, laser guns, an old woman and sound effects. They (plus Tobias) performed to an audience of children and adults. Best bits/discoveries: Lucy - jumping into the compost I must say. And watching the play was really good. And also playing a game with Beth; Tobias & George - finding conkers; Iona - one of the parts definately was falling off the bike. I crashed and a flower stuck up my nose; Oscar - doing a play with Josh; Alfie - collecting conkers; Josh - the play cos it was really funny. It made us laugh everytime we did the rehearsals.
Wednesday 28th September
Raining and windy. Lydia and Indra dyed fleece with a natural dye mixture of blackberries and elderberries and cream of tartar (to fix it). Later they went down the garden to pick more. "My feet are stone cold and grassy" (Indra). A group of us - Moses, Josh, Oscar, George, Tobias, Hannah, Zac went to collect crab apples from the Charington's garden. Everyone had a go climbing a ladder to pick them. Indra had made everyone hot chocolate when we came back. Moses, Oscar, Josh, George and Tobias worked on their show. "It is slap stick comedy". Best bits: Moses - I enjoyed doing that show, doing the clumsy robbers; Hannah - crab apple picking; Oscar - the show; Indra - I discovered that dyeing is fun; Lydia - dyeing the fabric.
Tuesday 27th September
Alex and luca set up a game of cricket. Edward and Tobias and Xavier joined in. Xavier bowled and was wicket keeper. Beth and Margaret wetn on a lavender hunt in the garden,but it took them a long time to find it even whey they could smell it! (That's because it had been cut and put on the compost heap). They made lavender bunches to take home. Emerson and Magnus shut themselves in the larder - it made a great dark place to play with the laser guns. Earlier Xavier had had a go in there with Emerson too. Thea played on the likeabikes. Then there was a great expedition to collect conkers and pick blackberries. Magnus: Oh lovely. This is a great place!; Beth: This is a conker place! Best bits: Alex - cricket; Thea - (shruged shoulders!); Beth - no best bits. I enjoyed getting conkers. Magnus - my favourite thing was Tobias and George letting me have some of their conkers; Tobias and George - collecting conkers; Emerson - playing with the lasers; Xavier - I loved doing the conker finding.
Thursday 23rd September
Oscar, Josh, Hannah, George, Beth, Tobias, Arthur went to Warleigh Weir with Rachel and Louise. We saw a heron fishing by the side of the river. The children and Rachel crawled/walked along the top of the weir across the river. Back home Luca, Calum, Alfie and Edward played cricket. Luc climbed trees and a bit of fielding. Lucy was digging potatoes. Best bits: Luc - being with Alfie; Calum - cricket again.
Wednesday 22nd September
Hanna, Zac, Tobias, Oscar, Mo, Josh, Rachel and Charlotte all headed to the woods. Tobias and Zac collected kindling and sticks and we lit a fire. Oscar made sure it kept alight. Then we feasted on jam and honey sandwiches. Tobias, Mo and Zac did some sawing of big logs and branches. Hannah and Josh went to the 'vine village' to weave moss into the roof to 'make it waterproof'. Moses decided to make a sign out of an old piece of wood for 'vine village'. He used charcoal to write on the wood. Oscar and Josh helped. Best bits: Hannah - I liked the vine village; Zac - I liked hearing about vine village and I'm going to make a model of it; Tobias - playing; Josh - all of it; Moses - making a sign, that was wicked; Oscar - making the sign. Matilda, William, Indra, George, Arthur, Lydia played in the garden at home in the covered geodisic dome. They dressed up as Victorians. The game was extrememly sosphisticated. Edward playing a ball throwing and catching game with Tarka and George.
Tuesday 20th September
Went to the woods. Matilda whittled a stick, and swung on a vine with Beth. Beth also did some great whittling - she tacked a big stick. Matilda "I had a really fun time and I love going to the woods. I can't wait til its winter and we go there again." Will and Alex played a war game - they found some empty cartridges. "I enjoyed chopping trees down and playing in the woods". Xavier made a fire and lit it himself. Then he ound a good stick to whittle and stuck a feather on it. " I did a little walk. Luca chopped a tree down with an axe - great work. Tobias - I liked eating food and chopping down trees. Emerson had a lovey time swinging and made up a song. Thea did some sawing for the first time.
Thursday 15th September
Alfie, Luca, George, Calum, Oscar, Tobias played cricket with Edward. Josh, Hannah, Lucy and Beth played in the treehouse. Beth and Lucy played 'mean mother'. "We've got a stepmum who stole us from our real mum. She makes us clean and do chores. We need to make everything perfect for her". (Lucy). "She stole our lipstick". Josh fell out of the tree house! - not serious - kind of a slow slipping fall. Josh made his own fire under the yew trees.Lucy and Beth and Arthur went down the slope on likabikes. Arthur was their brother. Best bits: Calum - playing cricket cos it was fun; Tobias - playing cricket; Josh - falling out of the tree house; Lucy - playing with Beth; Oscar - I don't know; Hannah - watching Josh fall off; Beth - going down on likeabikes; Luca - cricket, just like playing cricket, that's it.
Wednesday 14th September
Sunshine! And a picnic on the lawn with honey and jam. Josh, Moses, Oscar, Hannah are building a fortress in the trees with gangways and perhaps even a secret entrance and escape 'in case anyone attacks us' (Hannah). Arthur is being a farmer by raking the grass ready to 'plant tractors'. Emerson wanted to stay in the house and read Asterix. Will, Matilda and Lydia have been 'treeing', apparently 'it's the latest fashion' (Will) - dressed as 'nanangas' in white sheets! Zac and Tobias are making a 'funny house' (Tobias). Zac - 'it's for protecting'. Tobias - ' yeh, from wolves and stuff'. Back at the fortress....'The planks are the skeleton, the ropesare the muscles. The flesh is the floor and the skin is the people' - Oscar. 'I think it should be called 'the body project' because we're making a skeleton' - Moses. Edward is preparing to make a dome with some help from Matilda, Lydia, to poke sticks in the ground. Moses and Oscard held a doublathon - like a triathlon but just with 2 events, running and cycling. Zac and Tobias made a canal boat called 'canal boat hay' to deliver 'has to the vegetable garden' and 'stuff to the dump'. I will remember: Will - squashing ants on the tree and flicking them off; Matilda - making the dome with Edward and Lydia; Zac - I liked making the canal boat; Tobias - playing with our den and this (canal boat); Hannah and Oscar (in chorus) - making the tree house; Josh - all of it. The treehouse all the time; Moses - making the tree house; Lydia - making the dome.
Tuesday 13th September
Warm, we had tea outside. Alex, Luca, Will and Edward recreated the thrills and spills of the Ashes series. Will bowled Alex with his first ball; Alex was a great wicket-keeper; Luca was a mean bowler. Matilda, Xavier, Beth and Magnus earned chocolate brownies by picking up flowers and leaves from the lawn (left over from the wedding). Xavier found a ribbon bow and some rope, so he made a kite. Matilda and Beth had some white fleece fabric and dressed up as bride and bridesmaid. Then they whizzed down the hill on bikes and a go-kart, dressed in their finery! Tobias and Arthur played on bikes and tractors. Magnus then joined them and they played on the treehouse and swing. The new men in black suits (Auguy and William) arrived from Beechen Cliff to play cricket, complete with peanut ties and a cricket ball. The cricket was played to a very high standard. Best bits: Xavier - I don't want to go; I'm having fun!; Alex - Good because I climbed trees, went on the likeabikes and played cricket; Will - It was OK; Magnus - I liked fighting with swords and being in the castle; Matilda - Me and Beth had loads of fun dressing up and it was really funny when we went on the likeabikes dressed up; Beth - going on the likeabikes.
Thursday 8th September
Warm day, we had tea outside. Hannah, Beth and Lucy, Tobias and Arthur made a house out of plastic tubes that fit together. They were people and Hannah was their servant. "We treat her as our servant. Everytime we accidently break something, she has to fix it. If she is naughty she's grounded but she gets a warning first." Luca, Calum, Alfie, Oscar, George played cricket with Edward. Oscar made a campfire out of the embers from yesterday's bonfire. Calum dug a hole in the bonfire area. Best bits: Oscar - playing cricket - it was fun and it was completely fair. Alfie - cricket - it was fun and fair; Beth - playing that game and going down the hill on bikes. Lucy - playing with Beth and Hannah cos we were laughing all the time cos funny things happened. Tobias had the giggles - everytime I fell off my chair he started laughing his head off; Calum - playing cricket because it was fun; Hannah - playing with Lucy and Beth.
Wednesday 7th September. Matilda, Will, Hannah and George played in a tree, wrestled in the grass and doing handstands. Best bits: Will - probably climbing the tree; Matilda - climbing the tree; Zac - we went and did some building on the little sculptures thing and we made it into a house and Arthur kept pocking the floorboards up; Hannah - throwing apples at each other; Oscar - making a mindfield - threaded the bramble (wire) through the cardboard; Mia - when I was making the fire with you; Tarka - my favourite bit was all of it;
Tuesday 6th September. 8 guest children, 3 adults. We all went off in the landrover to Gerald's wood. The track at the end was very bumpy! Edward made 2 rope swings with help from Indra and Matilda, which was great fun. George, Beth, Will, Emerson and Xavier had lots of turns. Xavier was a bit wobbly when he got off the swing! Emerson span round and round. Indra and Matilda chose a nice spot to make a fire where they could keep an eye on the swing at the same time. They cooked baked beans on their fire - "delicious" -, "perfect temperature". Luca and Will used axes and saws to chop down trees (not just any old tree - Edward told them which ones (blackthorn)).Luca proved to be something of an expert with an axe - 3 trees, just like that! Arthur had a turn on th eswing (helped by George) and then he made a "fireworks sword". Beth, Magnus and Xavier learnt how to make smoking sticks in the fire. They had to learn how to do it safely. Magnus also did some sawing. Tobisas did some fantastic whittling. What have you discovered? Indra - don't bend down near a fire because you might get an ember on you; Will - I haven't learnt anything, I've just had fun; Luca - axing; Xavier - I found this eggshell; Beth - I liked the baked beans; George - very good; Matilda - I discovered a new place I hadn't been to before; Magnus - I discovered places that have never been seen before except by the dinosaurs; Emerson - It was good.
Thursday 1st September. 4 guest children. We went in the car up to Charmy Down and then we picked some blackberries. We saw some Deadly Nightshade and 2 sweet doggies - one was of a Golden Labrador and the other was a Basset Hound. We went home and boiled them with sugar. The end. Best bits: Lucy - seeing the first dog, not the Golden Labrador but the other one; Tobias - eating blackberries; Alfie and Oscar - blackberry picking; Hannah - going across the bog and blackberry picking. back to after school page