Catch Up - Part Two

In attempt to get my neglected blog up to date, this post is very picture heavy!

 

Back in the spring we took a short break in the Lake District to tie in with a unit study we had being doing on the life and work of Beatrix Potter. My favourite place that we visited was Hill Top Farm, her Lake District home which was to become the setting for some of her later books.

 

 

 Thanks to our Home Educators National Trust card we had some lovely visits to beautiful sites in the Lake District including Wray Castle.

 

 

Inside the Castle the children could run about, dress up and play imaginary games.

It was such fun!

 

 The scenery was breath-taking  

 

 

and the children enjoyed paddling in the lakes and running free in the woodland.

 

 

 When we came home the children compiled their work into lapbooks.

Another enjoyable day was had at a scarecrow hunt at Styal Mill. The scarecrows were book characters and the children had fun finding them.

 



Burglar Bill

Paddington

The Iron Man

 At one of our spring Christian Home Education meets ups we found out about living things and the children planted sunflower seeds.

 

After a few weeks, they did some observational drawings in their sketchbooks. They enjoyed looking at the book, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, for inspiration

 



 

The children planted out their sunflowers into the garden and made labels so that they could keep monitoring whose was the tallest!

 

 

I took the oldest three on a trip into Manchester to attend pizza making workshop with some other home educators.

It was such fun finding about where the ingredients came from, making and of course eating our pizzas!

 



 

In June it was a special birthday for Daddy and we celebrated with an interesting day out at the Liverpool World Museum.

 

 

Paul and I had a rare night away on our own to celebrate his birthday and we returned to the Lake District to see some of the sights at a more leisurely pace.

 

Birthday season was upon us and we had fun celebrating some friends' birthdays.

 

Our sweet Miriam turned four and she had a birthday lunch to share with some friends after the church service.

 

Miriam would be due to start school this September. She is a real joy and is keen to join in with schoolwork with her older brother and sisters.

 

 

We finished a project on Electricity

 

in which the children had fun experimenting with static electricity and making simple circuits with lamps, switches and motors as well as investigating materials which were conductors or insulators.

 

 

Our current project is on India and even Elisabeth is keen to join in.

 

 

More Geography fun was had at a home ed meet up where we found out about Italy

 

...and we made even more pizzas!

 

 



Whilst we have continued with some school work throughout the summer, we have also had lots of free time to do different things. We went on the Gruffalo trail at Lyme Park on a very hot summer afternoon.

 

 

 

A highlight of July is always the Stockport Carnival where we had a church stall.

 

Into August, and Nathanael enjoyed a day hiking and a night camping in Edale with Daddy.

 



 

 I think I have now officially caught up with our family news! Of course I have missed much out (for there have certainly been days which were not blog worthy) but on the whole we have had a very enjoyable spring and summer. God has been good, we are so blessed. 

 

Catch Up - Part One

Trying to catch up on some of the things we have been up to over the last few months...

 

Nathanael had his eighth birthday at the beginning of March. To celebrate, we had a fun day out together at Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester.

 

 

We were blessed to have a few days away on the East coast of England in a caravan, which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

 

Do they look like they're ready to go to sleep?!

 

 

A highlight of the holiday was a day out in York, where we visited Jorvik Viking Centre. 

 

 

Particularly memorable was a ride that took us through the reconstructed village of Jorvik (York)  meeting different Viking model people as we travelled. The commentary gave a good overview of the Vikings and has fired an enthusiasm for the subject. Since returning home the children have begun a new project, researching further this period in history.

 

 

We also visited the York Castle museum which spanned several different periods in history. There they had a fantastic reconstructed Victorian street where we could enter the shops and buildings - a lovely hands on approach to learning.

 

Whilst we were away we viewed the Solar Eclipse which tied in nicely with our Space Project that we completed in January. We also spent some time learning Psalm 8 together which includes the words "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

The children enjoyed our Reptile Day. I think just spending a day on a theme can be a good introduction to a project and can spark interest to pursue a more detailed project in the future.

We spent time preparing for and participating in the home educator's Science Fair.

 

 As part of this preparation we revisited Quarry Bank Mill and the waterwheel.

  



 

My Mum taught an introductory lesson on electricity and the children made simple circuits.



 

They made clowns with noses that lit up!

 



 

A highlight of the Easter period was taking the older three children out one evening to an Easter Story Trail. Scenes from the Bible were recreated and the Easter story was told. It really brought Easter alive to the children.

 



 

 

In our Easter Bible times we looked at the week leading up to Jesus' death and resurrection and as a follow up we made an Easter wreath to help us all remember the events in the story.

 

The wreath halfway through the week.