Wishing all our friends and family a very merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
Pleasingly, despite rarely updating this website, I am managing to keep up with our end of year round up, in time to share the link when we post our Christmas cards. So, here is a brief-ish round up of what we’ve been up to over the last twelve months.
It was a gentle start to the year, still very much easing into home educating with both Hatty and Wilf. We celebrated the publication of a special guest edited edition of the British Psychological Society magazine which Anita had been working on guest editing with colleagues for some months – check it out here.
In February we made the most of the winter storms with several early morning walks to hunt for fossils. Wilf’s collection, mainly of Iguanodon fossils continues to grow… After two car-free years, we somewhat reluctantly stepped back into car ownership – a necessary tool to aid ferrying the kids to clubs and activities, though we still use the cargo bike as much as possible.
In March Hatty and Wilf attended a lovely home ed animation day at Hastings Museum (you can see the results at the bottom of this page). We popped up to London for a few days to catch up with friends and visit the Natural History Museum where we spoke to an expert about Wilf’s fossil finds. At the end of the month I ran the Hastings Half Marathon, which I’d been training for since the beginning of the year and I’m relieved to say that I finished in a respectable time, without seriously damaging myself.
At the beginning of April we looked after a quite adorable Dachshund called Lenny, via the Borrow My Doggy website. The usual activities continued to keep us busy through spring – Hatty’s regular gymnastics, the allotment for me, sea swimming and pottery for Anita and the beach hut which we share with a small gang of friends.
In May Wilf caught chicken pox, closely followed by Hatty. Thankfully neither suffered too much, although Hatty ended up missing the first couple of nights camping at Elderflower Fields, where we returned in a non-working capacity to enjoy the woods, music and activities. At the end of the month Hatty also joined the local Brownies group and has made some great friends there. They meet every Friday and she’s enjoyed trips to the science centre, cinema and lots of other fun activities.
We’re lucky to have a big network of other home ed families here in Hastings and there is almost too much to do during the week. On Monday’s Hatty and Wilf attend a full day of forest school run by an excellent local organisation called Project Rewild. They also attend choir, acro, public speaking, tennis and sewing groups, as well as trips out – in June we spent a fun day at Knockhatch adventure park with a big gang of other home ed kids.
The highlight of July was undoubtably our 5 day cycle tour with the kids. Having recently upgraded to larger bikes, the distance we were able to cover each day increased compared to previous tours and we planned a 100km loop from home, up to the edge of the south downs and then back through the high Weald and Pevensey Levels. If you haven’t seen it already, have a look at our little highlights video to see exactly what we got up to here.
In August, we looked after another dog – this time Mumbles; a lovely golden labrador belonging to some friends on our street. The kids were again besotted. Towards the end of the month, we spent a short week back at Eweleaze in Dorset; the same beachside campsite we visited last summer. Some breezy weather, but a delightful few days spend with a gang of friends and kids. The month finished with a wonderful celebration of (great) grandma’s 100 birthday!
As we moved into autumn me and the kids stepped back into a more regular home ed pattern as their various clubs started up again. We returned to the Ashdown forest for a rainy but fun weekend of camping at Into the Trees. The allotment held a harvest celebration and produce show – my last coordinating act as chair before stepping down as chair after two years (it’s more a sideways move actually as I agreed to take on the treasurer’s role). Anita took some time off work to attend back to back retreats. The first in Devon before then dashing back to Sussex for a silent mindfulness retreat.
Later in October Anita supported her mum to visit Cyprus for a short break to celebrate her brother’s wedding. And then November saw probably the most significant thing to happen for our family this year as Anita left her role within the NHS after more than 15 years, 6 within her current post. It was a huge decision for her and certainly tinged with sadness, but for many reasons it was the right time to move on, and I know Anita is looking forward to the next phase of her professional life after taking some time to rest and reflect. Amongst the backdrop of this big change, we also hosted two separate ninth birthday party sleepovers for the kids and Wilf started attending karate lessons and has already progressed to red belt.
And that brings us to December. We’re looking forward to slowing down a little, ‘wintering’ for a few weeks and spending time with friends and family.
As always, our door is open and we love hosting friends, so if you are ever near St Leonards, please do pop in to see us.
Lots of love,
Anita, Stuart, Hatty & Wilf
