m-m-m-mane-iaaa!

A couple of weeks ago I gave a friend a lift to the vets with her cat who was going to be spayed, and while we went my sprogs stayed at her house with her husband and girls.

When I picked them back up they were raving about having watched My Little Pony and could we watch it, could we, could we, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeease?!

So, we hunted for the first episode in the Friendship is Magic Series on YouTube (both parts - it's a 2 parter), and the latest obsession was born. Yay!

We struggled a bit at first with finding episodes that didn't have commentary over them so it was great when, at a group the very next day, another home ed mama let us know that they were available on Netflix with the addition of a handy unblocker addon that allows you to use the American site rather than the British one! We downloaded it and got stuck in (although we've stopped doing that now and watch them here instead).

In the space of less than 2 weeks we have watched all 4 seasons (that's 91 episodes!), and the film Equestria Girls which fits in between season 3 and season 4. To be perfectly honest, we are on a bit of a My Little Pony overload. My Little Pony Mania. Mane-ia. Har har de har.... (See. O.ver.load. And that's the new name for my post!)

One morning, Little came to me and said she had dreamed about a MLP book, and described it to me. So we bought The Elements of Harmony book from Amazon which the kids have really enjoyed reading. It's not the book she dreamed about, but we agreed that it was unlikely that it actually existed (although we will keep looking). There have also been requests for particular ponies in toy and teddy format.

Everybody has their favourite pony: Little's favourite is Luna; Small's favourite is Rainbow Dash (because she "is super-fast and has loads of energy, just like me!"); and Tiny's favourite is Celestia. And mine, mine is Fluttershy, but y'know...

At first I was a bit fed up. There's a few things I don't like about it, but then I realised that, as a family that leans towards embracing an unschooling approach and child-led learning, it really didn't matter what I thought, or anyone else. If this is where the children's interests currently lie, then this is where we will go, and learning will occur, whether we like it or not! And it has.

Friendship is Magic. The clue is in the name: the episodes are peppered with lessons on friendship. Loyalty, generosity, kindness, fun, honesty and a little bit of magic to bring it all together... ;) sounds like a good recipe to me. And the sprogs are loving it. So I love it too. And I love that I'm learning and taking another step on our journey while I'm doing it.