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.

Space Project Part 1

Over the last four weeks we have been learning about Space. The children started the project by copying out some verses from Genesis Chapter One on how God made the Heaven and the Earth. They found out that the Solar System is our family of planets and that the Solar System makes up a tiny part of our Milky Way galaxy.

 

 

They had fun playing with our Solar System jigsaw

 

 

and made planets out of play dough to compare and contrast the different sizes.

 

 

Together we made a glow in the dark mobile of the Solar System. They loved this so much that I had to split it into two and hang some of the planets in the girls room and the others in Nathanael's.

 

 

We watched some interesting video clips on how astronauts do various things in Space and we have enjoyed reading the book To Space and Back.

 

 

 

We planned what we would take into Space in our rocket!

 

 

The children found the Moon fascinating

 

and they each wrote their own legend about the Moon based upon the story of the
Man in the Moon.


In the January sales I made a bargain purchase... a cardboard rocket! The children enjoyed colouring the pictures and playing inside it, imagining they were travelling to space.

 We revised what we already knew about the Sun from our previous Seasons project and found out more facts from books and video clips.
 

The children made their own galaxies using lots of glitter

 

 and made meteor craters by smashing play dough shapes into a tub of flour.

On our visit to Jodrell Bank we saw the Lovell Telescope

 



and identified the different planets on the moving clockwork Solar System.

 

We have taken a break from our Space project and plan to revisit it in a few months.

 

"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?"

Psalm 8:3-4

Life Lately - Christmas, Birthdays and Space Project

My updates are becoming less and less frequent, but I see that as a good thing, because life is very full and busy! I do however wish to keep a record of what we do as a family and our home education journey, so I am determined to keep posting whenever I get the chance.

 Before Christmas the children took part in our annual church nativity service.

Our baby turned two (she is still our baby!) and we celebrated with breakfast at Krispy Kreme 

doughnuts followed by a game of bowling.

A few days later our middle child Abigail turned 5!

Her birthday treat was a trip to the cinema to see the Paddington Movie followed by lunch at a family favourite, Pizza Hut!

In between birthdays we had a quiet family Christmas and kept our focus on Christ and His birth.

On New Years Eve Abigail was in hospital undergoing a Bronchoscopy under general anaesthetic to assess any changes in her airway restriction, caused by her double aortic arch.

We were really proud of how brave she was.

At Christmas we had a week off from formal lessons, but we were back the week after and have started a new project on Space. The children are thoroughly enjoying it and so am I.

Each day we set aside time to play puzzles and games. I found a lovely 3D Solar System jigsaw at the charity shop that ties in well with what we are studying.

For my Birthday (yes another one!), we had a family day at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre. The children were very excited to see the Lovell telescope up close.

 Looking forward to another home schooling year in 2015!

Life Lately

Time has been flying by! Back in November we celebrated Thanksgiving day. The children mapped out the journey made by the Pilgrim Fathers.

 

 



Following that they modelled turkeys out of apples and sweets and made thankful placemats for our special Thanksgiving meal.

 

 

 

The children sewed their own Jesse Trees to go with our December daily Bible readings, which will lead us up to Christmas Day.

 

 

Each day after we have read the Bible verses, the children make their own ornament to hang on their tree with drawings to help them remember the story.

 

 

The days are getting colder and much to the children's delight, we had some heavy hail showers last week.



Tabitha, enjoying the hail storm, was far too excited to remember to put her coat on!!!

Another bonus of the cold days are Christmas hot chocolates after winter walks!

 

 We have enjoyed some special family days out, our favourite being to Ordsall Hall.

 



"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

 In History the children have moved back onto Ancient History after their WW1 project and are now studying the Romans. 

 

Our very own Roman road.

We had a lovely Christmas home education group meeting where everyone made mini gingerbread houses, lavishly decorated with sweets!

 

 

 We did a family performance of a Christmas song. 

 

We are planning one last week of school work and some cleaning and decluttering, before Elisabeth and Abigail's birthdays and our Christmas break.