Cheltenham Science Festival

Today we went along to the Cheltenham Science Festival. We had tickets booked for three events and needed an early start as we were watching Robert Winston at 10.00am! I had been so excited about finally seeing him in person. (N had been less excited after watching some of his lessons on Jamie's Dream School - a bit too much blood for her) I was confident no blood would be spilled in this experiments show :) It was really good and showed the children how to do some of the experiments in his new book, which we had conveniently purchased of course. Afterwards you could get your book signed........... so we got to meet him, he is so lovely, and a legend naturally!

 We watched a show called One Tough Cookie with Zoe Laughlin (internet photo), she explained materials and composites using biscuits. How materials can be changed, or combined into composites to be stronger and how they can be stronger in different ways with experiments to test how strong, tensile and ductile they are.

I sense lots of biscuit based experiments in the future. 

Finally we watched Stefan Gates (internet photo) and his Future Food show. It was interesting how what we eat will almost certainly have to change in the future with a growing population and less land to farm. There were lots of cooked insects being passed around to sample, along with chicken hearts. Luckily if you had a food allergy you couldn't try any of it, so that got me off the hook, not sure what N's excuse was!!

I also took part in Dr Yan's Dance Lab an experiment for the BBC show Bang Goes The Theory, they are trying to find out what your dancing says about your personality and traits. After filling in a multi page but simple questionnaire I danced on a stage and the moves were reflected in an avatar recording the information on their computer program. You had to be 18 years old to take part in the experiment but they still gave the children the opportunity to dance on the stage and watch the avatar copy their moves. N enjoyed that very much.

All in all we had an absoloutely fabulous day, N enjoyed it much more than she was expecting, and we both came home tired but with smiles on our faces.

Philosophy at Cogges

Today was the second session of our family philosophy and outdoor learning course at Cogges. We arrived first so took advantage of the time to wander around. I couldn't resist taking this photo.... best to snap the blue sky while its there!!!!!

 N and I were split into different sessions today. I went off to philosophy while N added more clay to the ovens and drew designs for them. In the afternoon N took part in the philosophy session while I watched the younger children learn how to make string from nettles, (definitely something I would like to have a try with in the garden!) and start to construct a shelter over one of the clay ovens.

Here are the fruits of our philosophy session;

After dinner we watched a segment on BBC Oxford News online about home education being on the rise and N felt inspired to tackle two pages of English!!

Upcycling a white vest

Today N decided to spice up one of her white vests. She used the sewing machine for the stitching and hand sewed on the buttons. Lovely.

This evening we were looking at famous fictional cats for N's cat project. We discussed how a lot of the famous fictional cats have been around for a long time (longer than me!) and the possible reasons why cats are not so prominent in modern childrens cartoons and programmes.

Daddy Time and Sewing For Pepper

We had another busy weekend! Saturday we went over to see N's godmother and had a lovely afternoon. We sat in the sunshine and all the dogs played together, and the children of course :)

Sunday we drove down to see Grandma......

 The dogs love Grandma's treats.

As it is Monday, it was N's morning with her Dad. She had been really looking forward to it. They went to the park for football practice and a picnic. N loved it.

In the afternoon N was feeling musical and got all of her little musical instruments out and played with them all. After that N wanted to sew a scarf that would slide onto Pepper's collar the same as Ralph's does. She used the sewing machine and here is how it looks;

Lechlade On Thames and Ralphs New Haircut

Thursday afternoon we decided to take a trip to Lechlade and walk along the river with the dogs. The sun was shining the birds were singing and the dogs had a great time!

 Pepper enjoyed playing in and out of the river and as usual Ralph barked at her every time she went in! Although he did eventually jump in for a swim himself and swam out deeper than Pepper had ventured :)

 We felt sorry for the owners of this boat, the cows were merrily chewing through the weather cover.

 Ralph posed unaware it would be his last photo in his very long but beautiful coat of many colours....

As yesterday it was time for the groomers again, they came home smelling of flowers, and Ralph was wearing his summer coat!

Art & Craft Exhibition at Blenheim Palace

On the way home from Newbury we decided to pop into the arts and crafts show at Blenheim for a couple of hours.  There were some fantastic displays and truly gorgeous things to purchase (if money is no object!).

N and I decided to try 'Pyrography'. The art of decorating materials with burn marks.

N chose a cow.....

 After you had burned your design onto the wood, you could colour it in........

 Next N had a go at the costume design workshop.

There were many more stalls to see and lots more to try so we are going back on Monday!

Sealed Knot - Battle of Newbury

Today we went along to the re-enactment of the second Battle of Newbury in 1644. I have always wanted to go to a Sealed Knot event and I finally made it! It's great to be able to talk to the living history people on site about what life would have been like.

 This lady was making lace, she told us it takes about an hour per inch of lace.

 Here is one of the Pikemen, their pikes were often 18ft long, they told us that this was one of the last few battles which would have used pikemen in the frontline.

 N with a musket!

 and a pike, probably the first pikeman to be wearing pink shoes!

 Period glasses; quite a few of the living history people were wearing these, N thought they were very cool.

We also met a lady using a Lucet, and she showed us how cord (to tie up corsets etc) would have been made. It was very similar to french knitting and a type of anglo saxon weaving we have done previously. Anyway N is very keen to purchase a Lucet in the very near future! 

There was also a lady making griddle cakes, she told us that a typical soldier would have eaten 8000 calories a day (mostly in bread).

 Battle scenes from afar; musket fire was all a bit much for N and we made our way back to the car.

But we did spot these before we left :)

Building & Baking Workshop

We were at the Cogges Manor Farm site again today for a Building & Baking Workshop. We had a great time and the rain held off too!!!

 Building the brick base for a clay oven

 Breaking up the hard lumps of clay

 Adding the clay/straw/water solution to the clay oven structure

 baking bread in the kitchen, here is N's covered in sesame seeds

 building clay reliefs....

 tasting the baked bread....

Blenheim Palace, Cogges Manor Farm and Swallows and Amazons

On Wednesday we decided to have the book club at Blenheim Palace as it was such a lovely day and there is so much space for the children to run around. Now it may be ' a unique example of English baroque architecture set in 2100 acres', but when you are nine years old it is so cool to roll down the moat!

 We got our annual pass while we were there so we have so many more moat rolling opportunities ahead of us! Dogs are allowed on leads in the park land so that is another great place to take them for a walk.

Today was the first day of our 12 session course focusing on outdoor learning and philosophy at the Cogges Manor Farm site in Witney. Even with the rain we still managed to have a great day, and thankfully the sun came out in the victorian walled garden when it was our turn for the gardening. The parents and children were tasked with digging up all the existing plants and weeds and replanting new seeds and plants.

 N felt a bit sad about some of the plants that were being dug up and disgarded. There was one in particular that she liked as it looked and felt like velvet. One of the other mums told us it was called Mullein, we asked if we could take a couple home and try to save them............

Here they are, all we can do now is wait and see if they 'take' in our garden after being dug up and carried home by N. We looked Mullein up on the internet to find it is a proven medicinal herb backed by scientific evidence and legend has it that it keeps evil and bad magic away as well :)

We have started the new book for book club - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. N seems to be really enjoying the first few chapters. I have printed a diagram of boat terms out for us to look at while reading it and we had to find out what promontory meant this evening as it is repeated a lot in the book!

Our next challenge is to try and drop that one into general conversation.

deco patch, wood carving, Grandma's, cricket and cats.......

We have been up to so much recently.....

N started a new deco patch project, we will post a photo once it is completed

 On Saturday we went along to a wood carving session that has kindly been organised for home educating families. On the way home we stopped in Abingdon and had a browse around the town. Saturday evening we were off to the cricket club for a bar-b-q, Hubby was celebrating another win!! Sausages and smiles all around.

Sunday we drove down to see Grandma.....

 As Hubby is extremely busy this time of year and does work seven days a week, we decided to make a new rule that Monday mornings be 'Daddy and N time', and he would try really hard not to book any work in until after 1pm.

N decided she wanted some cricket coaching of her own this morning followed by a picnic so that is what they did....

bowling...

 batting

 obligatory dog photo :)

After lunch we were back to our cat project so after doing some other English work, N wrote a cat poem that goes like this;

Crystal is on her owners lap

purring softly in her sleep

she's dreaming about mice

just about to catch one

just about to creep

just about to jump on it

still purring in her sleep

the mouse was clever

cleverer than you'd think

you wouldn't even believe it

it jumped in the sink!

now cats don't like water

especially this cat

so she jumped up on the worktop

looked in the sink

the mouse had gone

quick as a wink!

Crystal was annoyed

and gave a little hiss

and then her owner woke her up

and gave her a kiss!

Felt Cat for the project

Georgian History Workshop

Today we went along to a Georgian history workshop in Oxford. N really enjoyed the day...

 Here she is as Anne a mill worker.

 Here she is with the Jolly Roger of Bartholemew Roberts (the most successful pirate in Georgian times)

 Making a Georgian lady's box

and a Georgian lady's fan.

Sleepover and a new project begins.....

Yesterday N had a friend to play and sleep over. They seemed to have loads of fun, but not so much that N forgot about her Dad......

here is a decorated gingerbread man she gave him, complete with note...

 This morning the girls were busy making spectacles and I believe playing opticians.....

 N then went over to her friends house to play until early afternoon!!

I asked N after dinner what she would like to do for her next project. "Cats" she said. Even if she is allergic it doesn't stop her loving them!

We threw ourselves into the project. We quickly found a blog that showed you how to draw cats and this is N's first attempt......

 I love it.

There was just enough time before bed for N to have a browse of some childrens cat-fact websites.

 I don't think Pepper and Ralph are very impressed with the new topic :)