A different learning environment

Some days are more structured than others here at our house, but the unstructured days are often hard work. I don't by any means plan our days out to the hour, but I usually have an idea of where our day is going to go... and more often than not, that includes leaving the house for an adventure as I am still at the stage where I value that over most things.

The days that we have adventure plans are the easiest for us, as we all prefer being outside and there is less pressure and no walls for anyone to climb, myself included because I go slowly stir crazy if I stay home all day. However, there are days when we have to stay home, or when we have plans to do some more structured learning at home. These days can get pretty rough sometimes. Especially, as proven this last couple of weeks, when we're trapped due to the weather altering our plans. I hadn't realised, until I had my kids, just how much the weather actually affects me! 

We had a day this week where we had been in the house all morning and the rain outside had kept us there. I felt naff, the boys were climbing the walls and annoying each other which, in turn made me edgy. We'd tried playing games, which had ended up in a lot of frustration and some tears. We'd read some books, but they'd kept arguing about who got to choose the next one, and by lunch time I was counting down the hours until bedtime.

In the end, I packed a few things into a bag and got out of the house, heading for one of our favourite places. - Grimm & Co.

The boys had magazines recently that had several activities left inside to do which I took with us in lieu of other 'learning work' as they were easy to pack and often have lots of different kinds of activities in and Bear doesn't even realise he's doing work that counts towards his learning. I packed a book for Bear to read, which he is always more than up for at the minute, and his ability is coming along so quickly that he astounds me daily.

Once there, we ordered ice cream, cake and drinks, and the boys picked their favourite table and we played some board games that are kept at The Feastery. Bear loves playing Guess Who at the minute, and there are a couple of Orchard Toys games that The Cub always pulls out. We ate our snacks, played the games, then sat and worked through some of the activities and stories in their magazines. Bear practiced some adding and subtracting after some very simple ones in his magazine, then we had a go at one of the activities from The Apothecary where Bear invented a magical potion and wrote down it's name, and its properties, practicing some writing and spelling before he read the book we'd taken with us to me and The Cub, who loves sitting and listenign to his big brother read.

All in all, we spent just under a couple of hours there, and honestly, did more learning than we probably would have done at home. We had less frustration, complainng or tears, and we actually enjoyed each other's company!

What have we learned from this... that sometimes we just need a change of scenery!!

Where do you go? I'd love to have a few palces that we could escape to when these situations arise - we've already done this again since the original time, and it worked just as well for us.

Mama Bear x