hot day in office

Wow - its been baking here today. Luckily I only had a half day in the office as it gets a bit close working on a computer in the heat. This morning we had friends over and we went on a treasure hunt, which turned into a bit of a litter pick, due to a bunch of concerned kids. On the way home, laden with crisp packets, bottles and cans, I overheard my eldest and her friend talking about polar bears. Her friend claimed that we're killing them with all our litter (according to a TV programme she'd seen). I was surprised at how eloquently my daughter explained that that is an indirect result, the more immediate one being the threat to British wildlife. Although we do talk about global environmental issues, we tend to focus more on what's happening at home and in our community so it's good to know that she has managed to fit her views into a wider context as well. For us, so much of our home educating experiences centre round conversations. We always eat together, at least once a day, and a lot of family conversations take place round the table after dinner. Our youngest is intrigued by economics and how small scale independents compete with the multinationals. A wee socialist in the making? We have been talking around the subject of the Nestlé boycott and artificial milk marketing in the developing world. I am trying to present just the facts to ensure that they can make up their own minds - sometimes not so easy to avoid a biased opinion. 

A new daily ritual is the bike ride after dinner - tonight we discovered a magical oak wood and went off-roading - feels very liberating to be able to cover such distances and explore our surroundings in a completely different way. Vive le velo!!