Mother Culture

Mother Culture, from the home education perspective, is based on a Charlotte Mason approach where the mother needs to care for herself to ensure she has enough energy to look after her children. Basically, it's about ensuring that you fill your own cup, so that you can fill those of your children - you can't pour from an empty cup and all that!

It's about making sure that in a busy world, you carve out a little time that's just for you... which isn't an easy thing for any parent to manage, but even more so for the home-educating ones, as we spend all day, every day with our children.

For me, I stick to quite a strict bedtime routine with my boys that has them both in bed before 8pm. The littlest is fast asleep long before then, and Bear stays awake a little longer, but does it in his room and stays in bed. The time after they've gone to bed is my time. Two nights, occasionally three nights a week, my partner is out, which means I really do get them all to myself. 

During the evening, I try to get 'chores' done on certain nights so that others are totally mine. I clean, tidy, and manage home ed plans as soon as they're both safely in bed, and then after a shower, my time is mine and is normally spent chilling and watching a little TV with Daddy if he is home before we go our separate ways to do our own thing. And on nights that I am home alone, more often than not, you will find me writing or reading, as those are my biggest passions. Sometimes I watch a movie and crochet or colour on nights when I'm solo, if I'm really tired or just don't have any drive to write.

I recently took up running as a hobby too, something I did pre-motherhood, and try to get out once or twice a week, in an evening, after the boys are in bed and Daddy is home to be with them. I'm hoping to turn this into swimming/gym time over the winter, as I don't want to be out running after dark. I have just completed the Couch to 5K program, and just a few days ago, managed my first 5km run!

Other than the evenings, the only other time I'm really away from my boys is when I go to work for two days a week. Which, in some ways, is okay as far as time away from them, but it's not exactly a break as I'm busy working and traveling all day.

When Daddy is out gigging, I like to try and get to the most local ones as I love seeing him play. I was at all of his gigs before we had the boys, and I do sometimes miss being able to go and see him play. To go out, I have to rely on having someone to come watch the boys, which isn't as straightforward as it sounds. As I imagine is the same for anyone.

I have an amazing friend who occasionally watches the boys in an evening so that I can go out for date night with my partner and I have had the odd evening/afternoon out with a friend or my sister when he is available to stay home. But to go out at the weekend when he's home means that I miss out on the small amount of time we get to spend together as a family. It's all a very hard line to balance.

However, five and a half years into motherhood, and the stage we're at currently, where the boys are always bickering, I am finding myself needing some time to myself. I'm hoping to organise a few friend dates and some time with my partner, I just have to find the right way to do it so that I don't need too many babysitters!

How do you get some time to yourself? I'd love to hear how it works for you and your family.

Mama Bear x

Summer Pond and Tree Study

Thursday 3rd July

We packed our bags with everything we could possibly need and more, made a picnic, enlisted the family for an adventures, and headed out to Clifton Park to go and visit our conker tree and the pond to do our seasonal studies for summer! The boys were more than a little excited to be going back to the pond and couldn't wait to get their duck back in there to see how warm the water was. If this makes no sense to you, then check out our post from spring, when the boys used their new thermometer for the first time.

We met Nannie, Auntie Hammy and Baby Panda at the park and then went to show them our tree. Bear was quick to point out the tree and ever quicker to notice the conkers growing on it where it had been covered in blossom last time we did our studies.

The boys got their gear out and went about their investigations. There was lots of measuring, magnifying and microscoping, (yes, that is a word now,) and they collected lots of tiny conkers from the floor under the tree where they had been knocked out prematurely. The Cub was actually first to voice the fact that they were so small, and Bear picked up on it and immediately informed us that it was because they hadn't finished growing yet. I backed this up by breaking into a few to show them the miniscule little conkers that had started to grow inside, which they found absolutely fascinating and continued to find ones for me to open to see if they could find one big enough to class as a conker.

After plenty of investigation, we had our picnic close by, meaning the boys could both still go to and from the tree, checking stuff out and asking lots of questions. They're both always so full of questions and it makes me so happy that they're so interested about everything.

After lunch, we headed for the pond, which is their favourite. I can understand why, there is so much more to see and do at the pond. Their bags were immediately emptied and the duck came out and got thrown straight in by Bear to take the temperature of the water. The water registered at 20 degrees this time, up by 6 degrees since we did our study in spring. The pond lilies had beautiful big white flowers on them, there were pond skaters and water boatmen in the water, which was pretty clear. 

The Cub checked it out in his magnified pot and everything! Aunty Hammy and I had a go at catching a bug, but I'd forgotten to pack the net and they were far too fast to catch in the pot, so we had to settle for catching a pond snail to look at under the magnifying glass. The Cub took the duck thermometer for a walk pond while Bear played with ripples, and even Panda came to get involved, checking out what we were doing and chewing on a magnifying glass!

Ice cream was next on the list, and a play on the rocks for us before heading home, where we will be putting journal pages together with our findings. I will do a post with our years' worth of findings once they're all complete to show you the changes we observed over the year. Then it will be time to start searching for a new tree and a new pond ready for next year! If you have any recommendations, please share them.

That last photo, because who doesn't need to see a boy taking a duck for a swim?

Mama Bear x