January and February

Over the last few weeks we have been busy working on our current project on Brazil. The children and I have enjoyed learning about this country and I feel we are progressing well.

 

I hope to write another post soon detailing all that we have done on this project.

 







We had some snow in January and the children were very excited to get out the sledges. Elisabeth didn't enjoy it so much so she and I retreated to the warmth of a nearby café whist the other children took turns sledging down the hills with Daddy.



 

During the school half term holiday we had fun decorating and eating biscuits at a special event arranged for Valentines Day.

 



 

 

We took a trip to Bury Fusiliers Museum where the children dressed up in military costumes.

 



 Nathanael enjoyed a day out in Manchester with his Granny and visited the Cathedral, John Rylands library and the huge Waterstones bookshop, always a favourite to browse around.

 

 

A highlight of the month for Nathanael was having a loft bed built in his small bedroom. This means he has doubled the space in his room which enables him to build Lego on his new desk below his bed.

 

 

Another interesting day was spent in Liverpool joining with other home educators to attend a performance for schools by the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

 

We were seated in the boxes at the side of the hall and the children enjoyed listening to the live performance.

We also visited Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, which is an incredible building, and explored a contemporary art exhibition there based on the Bible.

 

Another highlight of the month was our home education meeting where the children presented a book review on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

Despite flurries of snow and cold winds, we are glad that Spring is finally here and we are looking forward to sunnier weather!

China Project

Last month the children completed a project on China.

 

Yesterday we made a video of their project. We hope you enjoy it!



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. 

Our Week - China and Guy Fawkes Night

We have started a two week study on China. As part of this, we took a trip into Manchester to visit China Town.

 

The children had fun exploring the different shops and we tried some Chinese food for our lunch.

 



 

 

The children made Chinese dragons following these instructions,

 

 

have found out about Pandas

 

and Chinese inventions.

 

 

On November 5th in the United Kingdom, we celebrate the foiled attempt of Guy Fawkes to blow up the houses of parliament and King James I in 1605. This has special significance for us as Christians, because it was King James who authorised the translation of the Bible into English in 1611, the same version our family use today.

 

The children made mini Guy Fawkes models, which they burnt on the bonfire in the evening.

 

 

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.



For tea we had hot dogs followed by parkin for pudding. We then went out in the garden to light our bonfire, watch the fireworks and the children had sparklers for the first time. Tabitha and Abigail concluded it was their best night ever!

 



On Friday we had a home education visit to a local pet shop where the children had the opportunity to hold some pets and they found out how to care for them.

 



Life Lately

Autumn has been very mild so far this year; we have enjoyed had some beautiful walks in the country. At home, we have come to the end of our weather and seasons project. The children have learned, through hands on activities, about day and night and shadows

 

and have drawn what they have found out in their books.

 

 

They have written some sentences on sun and rain

 

 

and have discovered some of the different cloud formations.

 

 

We did two mini unit studies on the books A New Coat for Anna (seasons link) and the Little Red Hen (windmill link).

 

The children did some paper weaving

 

and inspired by a visit to the Stockport Hat Works, they designed A New Hat for Anna.

 



 

 Little Red Hen activities included bread baking, making windmills and acting out the play with masks.

 

The Vikings came to Stockport Market last weekend, so we went to visit them!

 



 

Nathanael had the opportunity to fire a cross bow at a Knight.
 

We also had a lovely morning out in Manchester this week to see the Halle Orchestra's interactive children's performance of the book Giraffes Can't Dance.

 

 

We celebrated Reformation Sunday at church, with the children performing a short drama and song.

 

 

In History, the children have been finding out about the Reformation, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, Anne Askew and Thomas Cranmer.  

 

We are moving on to a two week study on ancient and modern China and finding out about Hudson Taylor and Gladys Aylward, missionaries to China.