Plastic Free Challenge

I know I started this blog predominantly to talk about family travel, world education and parenting, but I'm ready to branch out a little (and it's all kind of linked).
Mini-me (aged 9) has a passion for animals that makes me prouder than I've ever been in my life. She latched onto the concept of refusing straws months ago after hearing the effect they were having on our sea creatures. She truly believes that animals are more important than humans and they need our protection over everything else.
When her school introduced a topic on coasts and gave them an open ended project to complete (I like to think my parent governor rants about pointless worksheet homework tasks have  made a bit of a difference this term), we decided to embrace her passion. To save her precious wildlife, we agreed to undertake a month long challenge of not buying any plastic at all.
I admit, I'm a total novice eco warrior and completely ignorant right now. Yes I recycle what our local council can manage and we do a lot of cooking from scratch, but I also buy the cheapest food I can from Lidl most of the time and that, by nature, tends to be totally over packaged.
So I've got some research and reading to do. I have a feeling the more I learn, the harder it will be and the more involved I will get. But I'm willing to give it a go. Who's with me?.....
https://www.mcsuk.org/plastic-challenge

Busy doing nothing

As much as I love to travel, explore and go on adventures, I'm starting to feel over-scheduled  and in need of a break. What with Easter holidays, Brownie camps, Beaver sleep overs, a nearly full time job and various swimming lessons and extra-curricular activities, I'm realising we have too little time for just 'mucking about'. In fact, I'll edit that last sentence without the 'just'...... 'Just mucking about' makes it sound like it's not important, a low priority, a negotiable use of time. In fact, I feel quite the opposite about mucking about time- It's essential to our well-being, our creativity and our patience levels. We live in a society which is so used to instant gratification, we have no strategies to curb our boredom. We're unable to even wait in line or for our doctor appointment without fishing out our mobile phones from our pockets.  I remember as a middle schooler (yes I grew up in the Primary, Middle, High school model and no I'm not American!) having to wait for my parents to collect me from various activities and I would make up games to while away the time, guessing and counting how many cars would pass before my mum's milkfloat car (anyone remember the Daihatsu Move?) would appear round the corner. I also used to make up a lot of stories in my head, that I planned to one day write down, but never did. I lived in a total fantasy world for my whole childhood, I probably still do a fair amount to be honest.
 I believe that adults and children still need this unscheduled down time, not to zone out in front of TV or Ipads, not to spend the whole weekend slobbed out doing nothing at all, but to just see what happens..... go with the flow, watch this space, enjoy the home that we've carefully planned and decorated, get to know each other, let the adventures come naturally or not, whatever!
So, on Friday at work, when the usual 'What ya got planned for the weekend?' chat came around, I replied 'Nothing, absolutely nothing'. And the response of my colleagues was 'ooh lush'. In fact, anytime I talk about trying to be less scheduled, more 'unbusy',  I get a similar response. It's what we all seem to want, less hurry, less stress, more freedom. This weekend, it worked and we ended up chatting in the local pub for an hour Friday evening whilst the children drew pictures and sipped lemonade. Saturday, we painted rocks with mandalas and vegetable on for the garden (we came up with the idea and collected the rocks months ago!), played a few games of chess (I was beaten by 'mini-him' as usual) and baked some chcocolate muffins. On Sunday, the children went off to wash the campervan with 'him', whilst I finally got round to starting the blog 'proper'. This weekend I've also managed to read a whole book (short, but sweet) and squeeze in a bike ride and trip to the gym.  I should also mention, the kids have managed two whole films and several hours of their new favourite game 'Roblox'.  Now I'm feeling good, rested, recuperated, re-charged and ready to start another busy but fulfilling week and I'm promising myself I won't leave it this long again until the next weekend of 'nothing planned'.
So how do we ensure we leave time for being free and unbusy in our scheduled, modern lives?
1. Decide your priorities and choose your compromises- Chances are, if you have primary aged children, they're not going to take it well if you decline their classmates birthday party in favour of doing nothing. However, do they really really have to play football/go swimming/(insert whatever weekly activity you like here) every single Saturday?  Only you will know what your family's priorities are and even then, they'll probably change throughout the year/week/hour. You just need to reflect regularly and make sure you're only doing things that are important to you

2. Learn to say no kindly- There's been multiple weekends when we've been invited for dinner at a family members, asked to babysit, texted about impromptu nights out and I've thought 'well I/we could, but.... do I really want to? What am I giving up if we go?' It feels kind of harsh to say no at the time, but once I've got my mind set on a 'nothing planned' period, it becomes my priority. It's up to you what commitments you decide to say no to and nobody else can make the decision for you. However, when you say no, there's no need to be unkind about it and no need to lie. Just a simple 'Sorry I can't do that today' will suffice. If they really push for a reason, just say you need a break.

3. Prepare for the pain of boredom.- This generation is not used to being bored and it's quite a skill to learn to entertain yourself when you're used to picking up a device. Maybe it'll be the adults who find it hardest or maybe the children will be demanding of your attention. I recently taught 'mini-him' to tell me 'with his words' when he needs my attention, rather than rolling around on the floor/winding up his sister/descending into tantrum mode. This has been both a blessing and a curse, as I now have to act when he asks, rather than putting him off with 'in a minutes', but on the whole the improved communication has worked really well and the lack of tantrums is magical! If you prepare mentally and practically with a few different ideas or the resources you need for things on the 'to do list', it'll give you an easier transition. However, saying that....

4. Don't make any plans, just let it happen naturally- Sometimes a weekend of 'nothing planned' can end up being super busy or productive, sometimes it'll end up exciting and adventurous and sometimes it could end up totally lazy and restful. Just let it happen.

5. Make yourself available and present to your family- As much as it was lovely to sit back, relax and read my book this weekend, I needed to be prepared to be disturbed and not get frustrated when asked to stop and get the baking equipment out. I do admit that I find this much more easy to do when I don't have a schedule or plan, because actually it doesn't matter whether  I  read this now or later, they'll still be time. I've also been trying to seriously cut down my own screen (read facebook/pinterest scrolling) time, which also helps me to feel less frustrated with interruptions.

6. And finally commit to it now. Schedule in your 'no schedule' time. Plan your weekend of 'nothing planned'. Enjoy!

Perhaps you could start with No Screen Week starting tomorrow.....https://www.childrenandnature.org/2018/04/18/a-time-to-unplug-get-ready-for-screen-free-week/
We'll be joining in too, let us know how you get on......

A Local Adventure

Unfortunately, not all family adventures can be exotic, exciting and far flung. In fact, actually when it comes to entertaining children, I tend to believe that simple is better. When asked this morning 'What adventure shall we go on today?', mini-he (aged 7) came up with all sorts of expensive and predictable suggestions of soft play, bowling, Chessington World of Adventures, Lego Land. However, what ended up being a simple walk in the countryside, game of Uno in a pub garden and trip to feed the chickens, seemed to please him just as much. 

 We ended up walking some of the Watercress Way from the Chestnut Horse Pub in Easton, Hampshire and the combination of fresh air, meeting some animal friends, some inter-family competition in bird spotting and a bit of exercise was enough to blow the cobwebs away. 
Our first encounter was a gorgeous pygmy goat, cue lots of ba-ing to get it's attention and the little blighter choosing to totally ignore us to the point I wondered if it was related to our pet cat who has the same habit of ignoring.

 Meeting and spotting animals whilst on a longer walk with children is great at distracting them from the physical exertions and monotony of walking a long way and also perfect for learning  'on the go'. 


When we met the next creature, a beautiful swooping heron, it took the children a few goes to recall the name for the magnificent bird. It always surprises me in moments like that, that they don't already know the name of such a popular bird, which kicks in mummy guilt for not having taught it already. However, isn't that the whole point of this parenting, world education project?..... let's learn together and discover these things in a meaningful and real way. I'm fairly certain that they won't be forgetting the word 'heron' for a while after experiencing the bird swooping over their heads and our chat about it eating fish and how still they can stand like a statue for long periods of time. 

We turned the  bird spotting into a competitive game, which always has the potential risk to turn into an argument, but today we were lucky! We spotted swans, pigeons (easy peasy), crows and some sort of wagtail. There was talk of robins and tits from Mini-him, but I'm fairly sure they were made up and a sneaky, but unsuccessful attempt at cheating. Luckily Mini- me is a super cheater spotter and he doesn't generally get away with it. Happily for 'Him' there was an information board to read, always a favourite moment on any family trip! Information boards are perfect opportunities for honing reading practice and comprehension skills in a real way, whilst learning a little more about where we are and some interesting trivia.

The best kind of countryside walks have to end up in a pub and the Chestnut Horse, has to be one of my favourites in Hampshire. If you're ever in the area, I would 100% recommend the Chestnut Horse and the local walks. Happy bird spotting! 

The Beginnings of a plan....

Welcome to my first blog post as 'Across the Merry Miles'. It seems that on this day, the day we booked the ferry for our next big trip, is a good a time as any to start blogging.
There's something about hitting the 'book' button for  a trip that sends a ripple of anticipation. This particular 'book' button caused extra shivers as it's the most expensive initial booking we've attempted. Usually our trips are as budget as possible when it comes to the initial outlay and I love how booking the Dover to Calais route is usually cheaper than a day visit across the solent to the Isle of Wight. P&O list the 24 hour crossing from Portsmouth to Santander as a 'cruise' which i have an inkling may be pushing it just a little. Anyway, regardless of the technical name for this purchase, the cost to our bank account was £900, more than we've ever spent in one hit on a holiday before.
The main plan at the moment is to hit North Spain in the middle of August, pootle about in Spain for a bit exploring and sampling the local tapas. Then we're going to head back up through France and come home via Cherbourg. The rest of the plan is pretty woolly, but aren't they always the best sort?
Watch this space for minimal planning, following our noses and probably lots of social media faux pas, as I try to get the hang of this blogging malarkey.