After the party

Well, the Halloween party has been and gone. So much sewing, baking, decoration making, game planning, and then finally the pleasure of a house full of children having fun. I just LOVE parties!

We are now getting back to normal. It's been a quiet week, by design, because I have learned that after organising a party we all need some recovery time! We did very little the day after the party. Astra made a bunch of Christmas cards - because it's never too soon to start preparing for Christmas! She came up with some wonderful designs, my favourite was just a tree covered in snow, blowing in the wind. Very simple, very effective. We made some hand puppets, sewing pieces of felt together to make a monkey and a cat. We ate leftover party food and explored the trick or treat bag. A lovely cosy day at home.

On Wednesday we went to our trampoline class. The coaches have introduced a scheme for the children to work towards certificates. Astra said she wasn't interested in certificates, it's just fun to bounce! After trampoline we spent the afternoon in the park with friends, eating our lunch there. Many questions today, about the tooth fairy, and father christmas, and the easter bunny. Are they real?....no. Okay. Well, I think you're wrong about father christmas. I think he IS real. Okay! Questions about the moon. Why is it bright when we can't see the sun? I explained by waving my arms around and pointing at the moon and the horizon. Back home Andy explained again with suitably sized balls.

Questions about Christianity. Some of our friends are Christian so this is always a fascinating topic for Astra. Why would God have let her grandma die? Why doesn't daddy believe we have spirits? Questions about Capital Punishment. She said, 'but if killing is wrong, then the person that killed the murderer would also have to be killed, and then you'd have to kill THAT person, and then the person that killed them, and then before you know it there'd be no humans left on the planet'. What a girl. I told her how Gandhi had said the same thing, 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'. We talked about some of the various punishments that are still used in other parts of the world. She always loves the gory details!

Then we talked about the difference between us debating something, and a government debating something. This is how our conversations go, we leap from one topic to the next, there are no distinctions between subjects. In a child's mind, it is all connected, all one. It is all 'the world'.