Ten days back at school, both the boys have colds and it feels like they’ve never been away! Actually, apart from the colds it’s been a good week back. Toby and Gabe both seem to have settled in really well to their new classes, and are dealing with all the covid changes without any fuss too.

Before lock down we had got really lazy about the school run and nearly always went in the car even though it’s only about a 10 or 15 minute walk. I’d mentioned to the boys a few times before they went back that we would be walking to and from school from now on unless the weather was really bad, or I needed to go somewhere straight after dropping them off. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised! We’ve only used the car a couple of times since they went back, and even more surprising is that they haven’t complained about it at all!

So all in all the return to school has been relatively pain free so far – I hope it’s been the same for you and your children too.

Toby and Gabe have been pretty tired since they went back though, so we didn’t do much this weekend. On Saturday Barry took Gabe to go and buy some more plants for the garden and then we all spent a bit of time outside planting, tidying and weeding.

Then yesterday we were back at forest school again. I’m so pleased it has started back up again – the boys love being in the woods so much and I love that they can go off and explore without me and I know they are in a safe environment.

I remembered to take the big camera with me this time too (and I’m still practising using it on manual) so I managed to get some decent pictures…

We spent some time this week looking at different trees and learning how to identify them. Gabe decided this ‘three tree’ was his favourite because it had three trunks – I neglected to find out what kind of tree it actually was though!

And here Toby was happy because he had found a good stick to make a catapult out of!

I had a lovely time too – a couple of Toby’s friends from school go too so it’s always nice for me to have a catch up with the mums. And I got to practice my fire-lighting skills again – I’m definitely getting better!

That was our week anyway, I hope you had a good one too. I’ll be back next week with another Living Arrows update.

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.