This is possibly the longest blog break of all time, I took an actual summer break from the internet… and I missed it. So I am back. For the longest time I have wanted to update our introduction and our blog and get back to speed on the blogging bus.

This blog has always been about my journey as I raise my kids, from all the stories read on the couch, to getting up and getting out the door on another adventure… endless adventurous hikes and even more open water swims…

The kids have grown over the years, from a collection of little hoods to a wonderful gang… they appear to have survived homeschooling. While the three youngest hoods are finishing up with high school, two of the gang are in college, one is in university and one is completing his Master’s Degree. We have a pastor, a lawyer, two kids in retail and a volunteer fireman. We have an ultra runner, a trail runner, in fact a load of runners, a cyclist and a hockey player… and I would never have imagined any of these for my kids. You cannot know the future, but faithful parenting and buckets of prayer seems to gather them from a collection of little people underfoot to really nice adults to be around…

For the last two years I have been raising funds for the I Am Water Foundation, a local organisation that gives children from Cape Town and surrounds a two day ocean experience, with snorkelling and rock pooling… and a load of ocean learning and love. These children wouldn’t normally have access to an experience like this and it is life-changing for many of them.

I Am Water

We have always used our blog for the greater good, we have raised libraries for under privileged children in Cape town and surrounds. Volunteering is a way of life and have attended hundreds of beach cleanups and planted loads of trees. Recently, I have been swimming to raise funds for ocean loving non-profit organisations. I can only imagine swimming my heart out, for a great cause.

Brand Ambassador for One Life Swim It.

Previously Brand Ambassador for the Best Balega Socks (Balega Impi 2019, 2020, 2021) and the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, who trained me from sedentary to the Two Oceans Half Marathon.

Write For Several Publications

Over the years I have written for several publications and lately contribute Book Reviews and loads of fun ideas to

Wild Kids Digital Magazine.

Books, Books, Books

Review books for several publishers including:

Penguin Random House, Penguin Kids, and Penguin Young Adults.

As well as:

Struik Nature, Lapa Uitgewers and Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Years ago, when we began blogging, our se7en kids were small and life was busy, very busy. We added just one more kid to the gang to make it se7en + 1 and then settled in to living our very best lives. Just a blink and the kids are all grown.

Thousands of arts and crafts… at our Complete Craft Collection. As well asMasses of Recipes…and Quick Kitchen Ideas!!! AND Loads of Adventures with and without Kids Around Cape Town and Beyond. Not to mention raising eight kids, means quite a few blog posts on parenting!!!

Scroll Down Here to See More Welcome Pages… Stepping Back in time.

We are an environmentally friendly, homeschooling family with se7en+1 kids and we blog from our seaside town, Fish Hoek, just south of Cape Town in South Africa. We are a lifestyle blog and we write about our life and times as a family with a gang of kids. We blog about fun things to do in Cape Town, the environment, hiking and the great outdoors. We blog about green living, volunteering and environmental issues. We read tons of books together and we love sharing our latest reads with our followers.

We have been blogging since 2008, we have shared homeschooling journey, as well as plenty of ideas for keeping kids busy. We have also blogged about life with se7en+1 kids, how to stay organised and how to feed a small army healthfully and how to live life to the full. We have blogged about parenting and things to do with small kids… our memories have been stored on our blog and we hope you enjoy them. If you would like to work with us then please pop over to our media page.

 

Let’s Meet the Gang

 

The Mother Person: I am a book loving, hiking mom of eight kids, my nick name is se7en, after the name of our blog and the number of kids we had when we started blogging. I love learning and the great outdoors and I am always looking for ways to share our adventures so that other families know that they too can get up and get out there and enjoy. I firmly believe that we should embrace the season of life that we are in… seasons with babies, seasons with toddlers, seasons with big kids and seasons with teens. Each season comes with its own set of challenges and adventures and all seasons move on faster than we expect them too.

Hood #1: Is almost twenty, a book lover and has survived our homeschooling journey. He is currently in his second year of college and is an avid photographer and Lego fiend.

Hood #2: Is eighteen, a book lover and is in his final year of school and will be heading off to college next year… he is all about technology and everything to do do with the computers.

Hood #3: Is sixteen, a book lover and half way through high school. She loves the great outdoors and baking and she keeps our cookie jar full of treats, which is quite a job for a family of ten.

Hood #4: Is fourteen, a book lover and absolutely loves running, the great outdoors and parkour. He is also an artist of note and creator of Lego worlds.

Hood #5: Is twelve, a book lover and loves being in the great outdoors, he loves spotting wildlife and doing jobs of all kinds, a genuine handyman.

Hood #6: Is almost eleven, a book lover and our maker of anything and everything… taking creativity to new heights.

Hood #7: Is nine, a book lover and lover of babies and Lego. She loves adventures and creating houses in the great outdoors.

Hood #8: Is se7en, a book loving pirate, he is skilled at woodwork and was born hiking, he loves to climb mountains most people wouldn’t even think about starting.

The Father Person: He is the book loving voice of reason in our family, the one that goes to the ends of the earth to make sure that our crazy adventures do actually come true and the one that says, no you cannot actually walk over and visit your friends on the far side of the world.

We have been blogging away since 2008, when we had only se7en kids. This post is an update to our previous home pages, feel free to scroll down and see the children grow up.

We are a family with se7en + 1 kids living in the seaside town of Fish Hoek just south of Cape Town, South Africa. We blog about our life and times – the things we get up to and the projects that we are involved in. We are a Bible believing family and we blog about parenting and how we get things done with our crew. We also blog about food, we love trying new tastes and flavors, plenty of recipes and cookbook reviews. We love everything to do with traveling, but the reality is that we are mostly tourists in our own town. We love visiting restaurants and sites, not to mention some of the hidden secrets of Cape Town.

We blog about things that we love doing together… so lots about reading and the books we like reading; lots about the great outdoors and hiking with kids; as well as homeschooling. As a family we lean towards a lifestyle of learning, and though we don’t advocate a specific homeschool style we tend towards child led learning and project based homeschooling.

We are a family of keen environmentalists and we continuously try to improve our green living stand. We also believe in supporting a good cause, such as the Penguin Waddle and Greenpop’s tree planting project. With our readers, we have an annual project to create a library for underprivileged children in our region.

 

And let’s meet the gang:

 

Hood #1: Is se7enteen and an avid book lover. He also loves photography, trumpeting and filling sketchbooks with drawings and obscure factoids. He enjoys writing and creating worlds for his characters to live in. And need I say LEGO.

Hood #2: Is fifteen and an avid book lover. He loves everything to do with computers, gadgets and science. He is our resident technology guru and loves a good discussion.

Hood #3: Is fourteen and an avid book lover. She is also an avid photographer and loves baking and journaling. Mostly you will find her reading… reading, reading, reading.

Hood #4: Is eleven and an avid book lover. He is wild about the great outdoors and fitness and loves trail running. He enjoys creating comics and is always making things from recycling. He is also our champion player of all things imaginary and lives for LEGO.

Hood #5: Is ten and an avid book lover. He loves making things and projects and he also really enjoys the great outdoors and every thing to do with our local nature reserve. He spends a lot of his free time swimming and reading.

Hood #6: Is eight and an avid book lover. She is all about friends, and lots of them. She also loves making and creating things. Arts and crafts are her first love.

Hood #7: Is se7en and and avid book lover. She is all about construction and homemaking. She loves building houses and homes and everything to do with them… houses big enough to play in and small enough for LEGO mini figures.

Hood #8: Is five and an avid book lover. He is our busiest kid by miles. He absolutely loves hiking and the great outdoors. Everything to do with pirates and LEGO of course.

The Mother Person:

I am the mom behind the kids, the writer behind the blogger and I am an avid book lover too. I am somewhat of a dreamer and firmly believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I love blogging, and I love doing stuff with my kids. My perfect day would be spent hiking in the great outdoors or an amble on the beach, not to mention reading through a pile of books with my kids.

The Father Person:

Is also an avid lover of books. He is the technician behind the blog… and the one that keeps all our wild and imaginative projects within the realm of reality. He is also a great encourager, the one that puts some of our crazy plans into practice and the one that supports us when we do launch a project that seems so much bigger than something we can hope to achieve.

We have been blogging away since 2008, when we had only se7en kids. This post is an update to our previous home pages, feel free to scroll down and see the children grow up.

We are a homeschooling family with “Se7en + 1” kids living in Fish Hoek, a seaside town just south of Cape Town in South Africa. We love sharing our outings and photo walks in and around Cape Town, showcasing what our city has to offer families. This is a lifestyle blog, we blog about the books we read, the heaps of arts and crafts we get up to, as well recipes and parenting… organising and interesting spots around our home. We are Bible believing christian family and we blog about fun Bible based lessons as well as other lessons that we are studying for school.

Meanwhile our blog is mostly about our kids and what they get up to do let me introduce them:

Hood #1: is fifteen and is mad about reading, trumpeting, photography and LEGO. He loves writing and illustrating… and fills countless sketchbooks with drawings and epic poetry. He also loves scouring books for strange and obscure facts. He is avid about reading and loves History and Shakespeare and Roald Dahl.

Hood #2: Is fourteen and all about gadgets, electronics and computers. He loves figuring out how things work and is my resident technology guru. He fills notebooks with his inventions. He is a wild reader and reads anything he can lay his hands on.

Hood #3: Is twelve years old. She loves friends, cooking and anything pretty. She fills her notebooks with clothing designs. Her favourite thing to do is read, read, read…

Hood #4: Has just turned ten and he is the king of dressing up and really does wear a suit and tie everyday, no matter what!!! He is the champion of play and can get quite wonderfully lost in the worlds that he creates. He is a wild out door player and he loves LEGO and making up stories. He fills his notebooks with epic comic books, most pages end with “and then…” . He loves history and reading books packed with facts.

Hood #5: Is eight years old and our celebrity chef… I tell you we need one!!! He recently discovered that if you can read and follow a recipe then you can read and follow any instructions and he is really good at finding and figuring out experiments and crafts that he wants to do. He is passionate about everything to do with food and cooking and he fills his notebooks with ingredient lists. He has recently discovered that there is more to reading than cook books and is getting lost in the world of Enid Blyton.

Hood #6: Has just turned se7en. She loves people, pets and projects. She absolutely loves projects of any kind… crafty projects abound. She is the “Great How-To… Book Champion of the world!!!” She also loves the great outdoors and rescuing endless bugs and beasties. She fills her notebooks with wonderful and wacky pictures of all sorts of things. She loves books and reading… she is very selective and spends hours in the library reading carefully through dozens of books before she selects the ones that she wants to bring home and read again!!!

Hood #7: Is five years old and loves being busy… she is always off setting up something to do: Be it a cooking project in the garden or an art project at the table… paper dolls and stationary. She loves joining us for school and spends a good part of each morning creating “school projects” for herself. She fills her notebooks with pictures of the most incredible dashing and daring princesses. She absolutely loves reading and reads her way through piles of books every day.

Hood #8: Is three and a half. And busy. VERY busy. He leaps from bed in the morning to set up a new world of play… he packs it up for lunch because after lunch he climbs into bed with a mountain of books to devour… then he leaps up again to create a new world. He recently discovered gardening and there is indeed truth in the saying: “They eat what they grow…” A pinch of lettuce from his garden and he will pile his way through an entire bowl of salad to get it!!! I cannot share what he has in his notebooks apart from: eclectic!!! He has always loved mountains of books and especially books with animals in them, did I say dogs!!!

And I don’t normally include the parents in our about pages… but these are the parents…

The Mother Person: I can not fathom how I got to have such grown-up children when I still feel about nineteen… time certainly does fly, that is the truth of it. I cannot resist an opportunity – of any kind… to head out on an adventure, or try something new. I love spending time with my kids and have wiled away most of the last fifteen years reading books with and to my children. Getting outdoors and learning and doing projects with my kids is the best way for me to spend a day. I obviously love blogging… and like dozens of bloggers, I hope one day to write a book. That’s if I can ever figure out a topic!!!

The Father Person: He also loves reading and books… and is the ultimate gadget man. He is the reality check in all the amazing projects that we concoct… he keeps us grounded and prevents our projects from escalating into the realm of total unreality!!! It is not unheard of for him to arrive home and discover we have made plans… in every detail on how we could walk the length of our country or how to turn our house into a traveling tree house… nothing is too farfetched for us to conceive. He works with computers and is the technician and support and encouragement behind our blog.

This post is an update to our “About page” if you would like to step back in time and meet the kids when we began our blog… in the days when there were just se7en kids then scroll on down!!! I can’t believe how they have grown myself!!!

We are a family of “Se7en + 1” kids living in Fish Hoek, a seaside town just south of Cape Town in South Africa. We blog about the heaps of arts and crafts we get up to, as well recipes and homeschooling… We love sharing our weekly outings and showing you spots around our home. On the left hand side of our blog you can find collections of our posts – all our crafts, homeschool posts and outings in one spot. On the right hand side we have special features like our Keyhole Garden and our River Cottage Project. We also have our calendar, highlighting events and celebrations around the world for each day of the year. We love folk to stop by our blog and say hi and if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Meanwhile our blog is mostly about our kids and what they get up to do let me introduce them:

Hood #1: He is thirteen and mad about dragons and trumpeting. He loves writing and illustrating… and creating weird and wonderful artworks from the recycle basket. He is avid about reading and loves Shakespeare and Roald Dahl.

Hood #2: Is twelve and all about gadgets and spying… electronics and computers. He loves figuring out how things work and is my resident technology guru. He ia a wild reader and reads anything he can lay his hands on.

Hood #3: Is ten years old. She loves friends and anything pretty. She loves sewing and clothes. And she is an avid reader. Her favorite author is Enid Blyton and she returns to her again and again!!!

Hood #4: Has just turned eight and he is the king of dressing up and really does wear a suit and tie everyday, no matter what!!! He loves history and reading books packed with facts.

Hood #5: Is six years old and our resident celebrity chef… I tell you we need one!!! He is passionate about everything to do with food and cooking and spends hours of his life reading through cookbooks!!!

Hood #6: Is five and a flittery twirly whirly butterfly girl who loves arting and crafting… and wild beasts, which she avidly collects from the garden… always bringing in stray bugs, spiders and snakes… She loves reading “How to…” books.

Hood #7: She is three years old and loves, loves, loves reading and loves reading any number of books every single day!!! There are not enough stories in the world for this girl.

Hood #8: Is twenty one months old. He is our champion player, he loves playing with cars, he loves playing with trucks and he loves dogs!!! He will read anything and everything especially books about farms and especially books that have a dog in them!!!
This post is an update to our “About page” if you would like to step back in time and meet the kids when we began our blog… in the days when there were just se7en kids then scroll on down!!! I can’t believe how they have grown myself!!!

Welcome to se7en + 1, and we hope you enjoy your visit:

We are a family of Se7en + 1 kids, we live in Fish Hoek, which is a beach town in Cape Town, South Africa. We homeschool and do lots of arts and crafts, and reading. We blog snapshots of our life that will hopefully provide some encouragement and ideas for families with young kids. I don’t blog about the nitty gritty daily grumbles, there are enough blogs about that, we try and keep our blog fun and positive and a bit of a haven to come to for some family fun inspiration.

Our blog has a weekly rhythm:

• Monday Munchies: Recipes and cook book reviews that our family have enjoyed.
• Tuesday Art Tasks: We do a weekly craft that is usually suitable for all ages since I can’t imagine any of my kids being willing to not participate!!!
• Working Wednesdays: On Wednesdays I usually blog about school stuff or organizing life with kids.
• Thoughtful Thursdays: On Thursdays we usually blog about parenting and life with more than a few kids.
• Fabulous Fridays: We have a Fun Carnival going where we link to a couple of great posts around the blog world.
• Saturday Spots: On Saturdays we post reviews of places we visit or show you spots around our house that we thank you would like to see.
• Sunday Snippets: Sundays we review and link to resources that would be useful for Sunday School and Family Bible Study.

Since I blog late at night once the kidlets are in bed our posts often lag behind their relevant days… but don’t worry if you hang on a while the post you are waiting for will come around!!! Meanwhile a lot of our posts are question driven so if you have homeschool questions or “life with little kids” questions please feel free to ask away on our contact page. I will respond given time!!! I don’t claim to be an expert but I do promise to share, straight from the trenches, our experiences and what works for us.

Otherwise apart from our Weekly rhythm we have a couple of feature posts:

• Celebrity Calendar: We blog a list of events and days to celebrate in the week ahead.
• GiveAways and Swaps: We love these, look out for them, we usually have one on the go.
• Practical Parties: We have a lot of parties round here and we have covered heaps of party themes and are building up a party resource list over time.
• The Week That Was: Is a weekly post that summarizes the things we have been getting up to.
• Home Truths: These are bits and pieces about us and life with a whole bunch of kids.

Since our blog is all about our family, lets meet the kids:

Hood #1: Age 12 and Avid Reader. Lover of Shakespeare and trumpeting. Spends his time writing and illustrating epics.

Hood #2: Age 10 and Avid Reader. Inventor of note and lover of gadgets. He is mad about electronics and kitchen science.

Hood #3: Age 8 and Avid Reader. Crafter of note. Loves stitching and sewing and anything pretty.

Hood #4: Age 6 and Avid Reader. Mad about sports. Player of note, without him we wouldn’t need toys!!! With a wild imagination he generates a whole new world every day!!!

Hood #5: Age 5 and Avid book lover, especially cook books. He is our resident chef and active partaker in meal preparation – and there is a lot of that around here.

Hood #6: Age 3 and Avid Book Lover. Mad about animals, the wilder the better. And you have never met anyone who can snip with a pair of scissors like this one… she has been snipping madly for two years straight!!!

Hood #7: Just 2 and Avid Book Lover. Has a great way of speaking, that I don’t want to forget: Whatever you say she responds with No, “and the last word you said.” Would you like something to drink? “No, drink.” Did you have a good sleep? “No, sleep” and so on… positive or negative it all starts with a no!!!

Hood #7 + 1: Almost four months and is not too familiar with books, though he does sit through a lot of stories. He is mad about arm waving and totally smothered in love!!! He has a brilliant laugh and it is well worth provoking!!!

That’s us!!! Really we hope you enjoy your visit and take the time to say “hi.” We would love to hear from you.

This is the end of our About update, and the start of our previous About page. You are welcome to scroll down and see the Hoods when they were a whole lot shorter!!!

 

 

Welcome to our blog. I hope you enjoy your visit…

Our blog is all about the life and times of a se7en kid family. And covers the things we love the most:

• reading
• cooking
• crafting
• arting
• schooling
• surviving

We have a weekly rhythm to our blog:

• Monday Munchies
• Tuesday Art Tasks
• Wednesday Practical Parties
• Thursday Se7en do School or Organizing Se7en or Home Truths
• Friday The Week That Was
• Saturday Spot
• Sunday Snippet

But since there are Se7en Little Hoods, all blogging occurs in the early hours of the morning and often a post gets posted the day following the event… Probably the easiest way to explore past posts is to click on the sitemap button where all the posts are listed according to category.

Let’s meet the se7en hoods all over again:

 

Hood 1. Dragon Boy: 11 years old and avid reader. He is still mad about Shakespeare and Roald Dahl, and is busy writing and illustrating heaps of his own books at the moment. He loves making crafty goodies and blogs about them at Owl Books.

 

Hood 2. Gadget Boy: 9 years old and avid reader. Still inventing all sorts of gadgets. And is very handy to have around because he knows more about computers than I could ever dream.

 

 

Hood 3. Fairy Girl: 7 years old and avid reader. Loves all friends and dancing and girly girly stuff! She is very good at packing for picnics and any spot is a good one for her.

 

 

Hood 4. Artist Boy: 5 years old and avid reader. Wild, passionate artist who creates more cut-out paper-scapes in a day than you can ever imagine.

 

Hood 5. Celebrity Chef: 4 years old and avid reader of cook books. Loves cooking and being a chef. You can find all his posts on his own Celebrity Chef Page.

 

Hood 6. Wild Child: 2 years old and avid reader. Loves drawing and chopping with scissors more than most. Crazy for real live animals and since we don’t have pets she finds her own.

 

 

Hood 7, Surfer Girl: Almost one and avid page turner. Loves her siblings and anything anyone else is doing. Her favourite things are whistles and balls, not to mention surfing on the kitchen tray. She just discovered she can make it up and down the front stairs and suddenly the great outdoors is part of her every day world.

This is the end of our about update, and the start of our first about page.