Conversations round the tea table

Today's discussion turned round whether people appreciated something less when there was a lot of it ! Quite a deep philosphical discussion for thirty minutes around the tea table!

I'm not quite sure where these questions come from but again and again they do! They have just become part and parcel of our everyday life and it's interesting to watch the dynamics as each member of the family gives their pennyworth. Each opinion is valid and valued and the children are encouraged to think about and appreciate each others point of view. Unstructured learning has certainly given our autistic son a freedom to ask questions and argue in a way which his schooled brother and sister would feel more inhibited to do because of structure within the curriculum and lack of time within the school day!

It has been a day of learning in different ways.I have been given a wormery, something I have wanted for a while.We have a large garden and are up to four compost bins now although the quality of compost is often too bulky to serve well when planting up plants in flower pots. Wormeries are supposed to create finer compost and I can keep it within reach of the kitchen door rather than walk up the garden on rainy days.I already had worms in the lids of my existing bins so they have gone in together with the peelings left over from our roast dinner today.

My eldest spent the night in a barn in the Lickle Valley,he and his friend emerged out of the mist this morning, soaking wet' having slept on the floor of the barn with a group of friend with whom they had celebrated a seventeenth birthday party last night. The barn was in the middle of no-where, half a mile from the nearest human habitation and it brought back memories of a birthday party I'd been to in the snow thirty years ago at roughly the same age when we walked along country lanes in the snow on a clear starry night as there was too much snow to access the village by car. I used to pick wild daffodils in the Lickle valley as a child. There was an honesty box at the field gate. I wonder if it is still there?

My daughter practised drama for the village holiday bible club next week. She is helping and is looking forward playing with the little ones. It is all helping to build up her portfolio of experience for later when she's looking for a job!

*Lickle valley walk