Hobbledown Farm

 I came across this adventure park/farm in Epsom randomly through browsing a website. Looked like some much needed active fun we wanted to shake off the lockdown blues. 

Not far away from London, the farm wasn't busy which was good to know. We first headed to the mini farm/zoo to see the various animals including meerkats, peacocks, wallabies, etc.... The farm lead us to the massive adventure playgroup with lots of wood houses and big slides. I couldn't resist the kids having all the fun so i joined in and god wha a work it was. I'm glad that despite me putting some kilos on, i still fit i those small tunnels and holes. It was so much fun running after the kids chasing them up and down those gigantic wooden houses. 

To catch our breath, we then headed for the bouncy mat which was fun. My kids have decided that there weren't done chasing me around so hey chased me around the bunny mat too which again was excellent exercise ti get rid off my belly fat. 

There was another play area where kids got to dig for gold and another play area with dragons and what looked like fairy houses which I couldn't climb into, much to my dismay.

There was a maze which was fun to run around in and the kids had a dizzying time in the zorbs!

We ended the day by doing a Go-ape obstacle course. While Mahi completed the course like a pro he is, i fell, much to my kids amusement, half way through and had to be rescued. It's ok, i still zip lined like a superhero!

A day trip to Margate

 On an extremely hot day in August, we decided to travel down to a beach. We wanted to go somewhere we never been before and not too far from London. We therefore picked Margate. I know, the news kept saying how busy it was however we went there bright and early around 11am and there was no-one so we picked the best place and made our territory so we could socially distance! Unfortunately, Dreamland wasn't open so not ride for us this time.

I didn't know there was a swimming pond right next to the sea which was very convenient for when I just wanted to read a book. Once we settled in, we went to dip our toes. It was full of seaweed and algae which rather put me off swimming in the water but that didn't deter the kids. Once the kids pulled me through the algae and seated, the water was so refreshing and clean in the hot weather. 

We needed  a break from the sea so we headed for lunch and the seashell grotto. The grotto was small but stunning. The grotto was made entirely of shells with a bit of history to it too. It was reasonably priced and not too far away from the seafront. The gift shop wasn't like any other gift shops with quite nice and rare gifts.

We then returned back to our place which became quite full however since we had our borders, nobody was close to us. We spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of the water and before we knew it, it was time to go home.

It was a day well spent!

Post summer holidays blues

As we say goodbye to the last summer day and the family has got back to the school routine, it is a great time to look back but at our summer holidays.

Lucky went back to school just the last week before school broke up. This was her year 6 graduation and sending off week and me or her wanted to save whatever we could from her last week in primary school before she goes to big school! I have to say that since there wasn't many students, my fears of sending Lucky back to school were calmed down. It was easy to socially distance and with different entries and exits for the other 2 year groups. Anyways, Lucky had a wonderful last week. They had a socially distance class party and a more socially-distanced graduation party. I wasn't too pleased about the people who received the awards but very proud of how much my little 11year old achieved in her primary school years including being a rights ranger, campaigning about anti-bullying, being a sports captain, always being called for different sporting events, many concerts and more importantly being there for everyone! She won the best friend award and how true is the?1 i'm so proud of the human i created. It was quite an emotional farewell saying goodbye to all my mummy friends. 7 years of supporting each other through all our different issues.... What a journey it has been.

The summer also meant we moved out to a bigger property at another borough meaning the kids needed to change school. That bought on  a whole kind of nightmare i wasn't ready for but we have finally settled in.  Literally, if you decide to move to a whole other area, make sure you do it before you kids start any schools!!! Settling in is so tough. I hate moving and everything that comes with it.

We also went away for short trips in August which I will detail in separate blog posts.

My school shop was so expensive this year what with Lucky starting school and buying several types of uniform since the turnaround for the schools was so high! However, the kids are so happy to go back to school and be social butterflies again. I was a bit apprehensive as I didn't want to deal with school runs, bedtime routines and classes. I also was still undecided about  whether to send kids back to school or not with being unsure whether it was safe or not knowing the'll be a surge in cases. However, the kids wanted to go back to school to see friends and interacting again with their age group kids. Both have now started new schools nearby. Lucky hates hers (for the moment) and today was Mahi's first day so I won't know how his day went for another hour or so. 

Fingers crossed for the new term and a mess-free academic year!

Start to Mid June 2020

I have no idea where time goes but here we are in the middle of June. Lucky's Year 6 group is going back next week and I'm still not sending her in.

So what has happened in our lives now?

Our entertainment involved the following:

1. Building an outdoor den which is used as a chillout one for the kids to read and draw.

2. We made an adventure play area inside. We made a big inside den and made a maze out of ribbon so the kids had to go through ribbons to escape the horrors of a jungle. This kept the kids busy and active the whole afternoon/evening and I didn't even see the time pass. I was the danger creator so was making their stay in 'the jungle' more dangerous by throwing water, having snakes roaming around and throwing obstacles at them. It was a tough journey to survive for the kids.

3. The kids had their first playdate with her neighbour where they went to the park. Thye were overjoyed by this.

4. More dance battles which I obviously won.

5. We also made lots of animation videos using Lucky's animation kit. Since it was D-DAY.  the kids animated their own version of D-DAY by using Disney Princesses dolls we had.  Lucky was the doctor while me and Mahi were the actors. 

6. We also made squishies and stress balls. All we needed was cornflour, balloons and water.

7. We visited the maternal grandparents for the first time since the lockdown.
8. We tried pendulum painting but it has failed miserably. We tried with a cardboard and the flow of the paint wasn’t enough to create a painting. We’ll be trying again with LEGO. Wish ya luck!

In our homeschooling curriculum, we made it very topical with everything going on:

1. D-Day - we learnt about the important of the date and like i said above we made an animation video. We used this day to also learn about Winston Churchill and France as a country and it's features.

2.  UK - I thought this will be a pretty good time to learn all about the UK and its countries. The kids were also asked to write  list of places they wanted to visit when we travel to the countries.

6. #BlackLivesMatter - With the murder of George Floyd and all the protests happening, we learnt about systematic racism and police brutality including the Stephen Lawrence, Sarah Reed amd Shukri Abdi cases. We are also learning about important  black activists that stood against anti-racism. We are reacting speeches from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The kids had a lot of questions which lead to an hour discussion about how they be better human beings and how to deal with these issues if they come across such a situation. This is why I love homeschooling. Because you can teach things that schools won't teach but it is vital to our growth and thinking.

I hope you are keeping well and safe.

To send or not to send them back to school?

It was announced that kids is reception, year 1 and year 6 will go back to school this week.

Our school was meant to reopen on Tuesday but there were not ready so they are opening next week. Mahi doesn't fall in the year groups but Lucky is. Her start date is 22.6.2020 with half of the year group in the class for a week only.  I have come to the conclusion, as the situation stands, not to see Lucky in.

With the lockdown eased off now, I'm worried about a second wave especially with the number of deaths still so high compared to the rest of Europe. I also don't know how they are going to teach social distancing with reception and year 1. It is Lucky's last year in primary school and she is desperate to see her teachers and friends but for just a week and half of her class, is this worth it? They definetely won't be learning anything but it'll do good for Lucky to get out and see her friends. The other thing will be that drop in times will be 10am which is inconvenient for us to drop her.

I'm still in 2 minds. I'll see how the situation gets in 3 weeks time and decide. She won't get a graduation, activity week and trips or a final year party and this is not the way I wanted her to finish her primary school. Given the circumstances, will letting her go even for a week to say goodbye, be bad?

Confusion all around.

Week number???? (Mid May to June)

I've lost count of week numbers so I have decided to just name the month.  

Since, I last wrote, there was another birthday in lockdown and we are trying to create a new normal with all these government announcements.

We have upgraded to to long walks and during the bank holiday weekend, did such big walks ending up a few towns away and my son nearly disowning me but I love those walks! It helps us discover the area but gives us so much time to talk about everything and anything. The weather has been lush and discovered some hidden gems in our area and neighbouring areas.

We've had our first McDonald's a few days ago. Yes, it deserves a special place in my blog and a dedicated paragraph. The smell and texture. Oh God, it was such a beautiful moment where we spent a few seconds just admiring our burgers. It was so delicious too after so many months.

In terms of studying, our special topics were to learn about the North Sri Lankan history and learning about key freedom fighters and our national heroes. It was quite nice to see how much my kids have taught me about events and people I didn't know. Don't you love when your kids teach you things? They even wrote in Tamil or tried to. It was so sweet! Mahi has started his art class over zoom too which is missed enormously. The school has also made arrangements for children to see their teachers. Mahi had his tongue tied as it has been so  long since he's seen his teacher but it was so nice to see his teacher and just touch base.

On the entertainment side, we are trying to learn to ride a bike without stabilisers. We had our own adventure land including a laser beam maze. Lucky had her birthday party which was a nice day actually. I invited all her friends over zoom and did plenty of games over it such as dumb charades with books and movies and pictionary. This took place over a whole afternoon but it was such a sweet moment to know that her friends made the effort to also make Lucky's day special. The kids are killing their plants through lack of care. We are still building our library.It is so intricate. We made Lego Ninjago viewfinders and did a story with it. It only works in the dark. All we need to make a viewfinder was cling film, toilet paper roll, a torchlight and drawing characters. 

In therms of me, I started to document all the books I wrote which is a nice little project and see how much I read. I also made more earrings. That's all I had time to do over the last few weeks.

Stay safe

Quarantine diary week 4- week 7

The last couple of weeks have just been a blur and not knowing how the time flies. I've been working 6 days a week now therefore trying to fit it all in 1 day. When I mean all, I mean cleaning the house top to bottom, correcting the kids work and sitting with them to go over things they didn't understand and spending time with them.


The kids have been quite upset they can't see me as much but they are being rockstars. They pull their weight around the house and can do house chores for me so I don't have to spend much time on cleaning. I do some basic cleaning during the week like dusting, vacuuming and laundry. Cooking seems to be nonstop. In the morning, before work, i cook lunch for everyone and once I come home from work, after my shower, I'm going straight in the kitchen to cook dinner because if I ever sit without doing the necessary, I'm not getting up from that sofa because I'll be too exhausted to get up.

Anyways, after work, on warm days, we go out for our long walks and we love finding out hidden paths and corners of our borough. The kids have been baking and cooking more which has become a favourite past time of theirs. We've done colouring and have been followinghttps://www.redtedart.com to do more arts and crafts. We came across a super cool pokemon evolution kaleidoscope which Mahi can't get enough. I had to involve my colleague though for the origami part as i'm so bad with it.  Lucky has found a new interest in testing my dancing skills and so battling with her has been exhausting but at least I'm keeping myself active.

For my wellbeing, I've been heavily invested in both Money Heist (what the hell was that last season's ending?!!!) and now Breaking Bad. This means I had no time for my other hobbies such as jewellery making. I'm also reading non-stop and finished 3 books in 3 weeks.  After work, me and the kids have been spending time together by building our mini library. It is coming along nicely, i have to say.

On the studying side and with a few key celebrities happening, the kids have been learning about other cultures. It was Vaisakhi so the kids learnt about Sikhism and came up with a extremely good rap about the Gudwara and had fun recreating Punjabi dancing (i've given up after a few minutes!). Since it is Ramadan, the kids have been learning about Islam and are observing 21 days of kindness too which is one of the key elements of Ramadan. It was also VE day so the kids baked VE day cupcakes and decorated the house with bunting. All thanks to Twinkl for providing me with plenty of resources for the kids to expand their knowledge.

Keep up the good work everyone!