Over lockdown, we’ve been getting together virtually as a family on Houseparty & Zoom. Today’s “theme” was Off Menu: each person picks their ideal starter, main, dessert & side. Along with two drinks and poppadoms or bread. It doesn’t have to be a perfectly cohesive meal – it’s more about sharing your preferences and experiences. […]
We have spent the loveliest afternoon and evening together. We’re both a little under the weather, so we took it really easy and snuggled up together in our pjs and watched films. This is such a rarity for us. We spend the majority of our time outside, and when we’re home she usually plays, while […]
I’d been a bit of a “hands off” mum this afternoon. A long week at work had left me worn out, so I’d been getting a bit of my coursework done, while my daughter was happily occupied with sorting out (emptying onto the floor) all her pencil cases. She decided she wanted to sharpen some […]
I’m proud of my daughter. Of course I am. No more so than recently, at her first swimming lesson. We’d reached the point where I was out of my depth (excuse the pun) in terms of teaching my daughter how to swim. She can propel herself in a general direction wearing armbands, but I have […]
Tonight my daughter is sleeping in her own bedroom. I’ve never been able to say that before. Yes, she’s slept in a room with her bed and her things, but it hasn’t been truly hers until now. It’s been a rough few years. When I had my daughter, I brought her home to the toxicity […]
We shared this wonderful story by Oliver Jeffers at bedtime recently. We had a little chat about it afterwards. I asked my daughter who she thought the moose belonged to. She thought it belonged to Wilfredo (he’s the chap on the front), even though the others thought it belonged to them. I put forward the […]
My daughter has conceived a little project for herself, and has been ardently collecting cardboard toilet rolls for the past couple of weeks. She’s delighted every time we finish a roll, and proudly lines up her collection. Well today was the day she announced she was ready to start. Depending on when she’s talked about […]
Recently my daughter has stopped calling me mummy, preferring instead to shorten it to mum. My sentimental pangs aside, to me this is another way in which she is asserting her independence and her ownership of the world. She’s assigning the names she feels fit, and thus making things her own, rather than parroting names […]
Unconditional Unschooling 