Geffrye Museum, London

We went to the Geffrye Museum in London, it had been kindly suggested by another home educating family on the Yahoo List as a good place to visit for our Georgian period project.

The building is beautiful and built at the beginning of the Georgian period.

 Inside the museum are various 'rooms' set up as they would be in different eras. We felt spoiled as three of them were Georgian and there were lots of things to look at.

 N's favourite Georgian chair.

 copies of Georgian period newspapers

 We had a lovely time at the museum and I would thoroughly recommend it to any history loving family.

Getting back into the swing of it...

Okay, we have been away in Devon, we came home and we had a glorious week of summer-esque weather, but there comes a time when we have to slip back into our schedule!

We are still working through our Georgian project, yesterday was an excellent opportunity to discuss the voyage of the Beagle. Any excuse to talk about Charles Darwin and i'll take it! Next week is Dr Edward Jenner.
These are the things I love about home education, the freedom to play, make or learn about whatever we choose. Helping N to understand how clever and inspirational people throughout history have helped change the world is very important to me.

I am loving Education City (http://www.educationcity.com/) at the moment. Yesterday we were identifying Protagonists and Antagonists within stories. This morning we discussed it again in the context of some of N's favourite shows. After a quick reminder of the definitions of protagonists and antagonists she could quickly identify both (with good arguments to back up her opinion if challenged!) N loves watching television and I don't discourage it. In fact when she was diagnosed with Aspergers, they commented that it had most probably helped her a great deal.

Glorious October Sunshine

We have been busy enjoying the glorious sunshine that we have been so lucky to have. Picnics, water fights, conker hunting, every opportunity to be outside we have taken.

 We even put up the pool in the garden (for the first time this year!), N had great fun with her friend all weekend cooling off in that.
Here is a good example of what happens if you dare to relax on a sun lounger in our garden.......

Ploughing Championships

We went along to the local ploughing championships at the weekend....

 We had been really looking forward to it, so we could put Ralph into the terrier racing. He is the fastest dog at the park after all! (and he really wanted to win me a bottle of wine, he told me so!) Just look at how excited he was at the prospect of chasing a small furry thing across the field....

 Sadly for poor Ralph, the only thing on his mind when the stalls opened was - where is my mum?! He didn't chase after anything! Never mind.

After a trip to the hospital on Monday, N had her cast taken off and as long as she is careful doesn't need another one on. No cartwheels for 3 more weeks!

Living Coasts - Torquay

Living Coasts in Torquay is a coastal zoo, and definitely the best aquarium type attraction we have ever been to.

The macaroni penguins they have outside are amazing and N even said it is the best penguin enclosure she has seen. At feeding time the ropes were pulled back and the penguins came out to be fed.

They also have an excellent seal enclosure outside and the seals were very willingly sitting up on the rocks close to us posing for photographs.

Inside is where the magic began. As we made our way down through the mangroves (which was too noisy and dark for N), we came across a 'bubble' which you could sit, stand or lie in and it put you underwater in the seal enclosure. The seals were playing with N while she was there, coming up and laying alongside her. Living Coasts was quite quiet at the time so N could spend a lot of time interracting with them.

It was a very magical time that I don't think any of us will ever forget.

Pennywell Farm

We took a trip to Pennywell Farm . We had a really great day, there lots of things to see and do and everyone was very friendly.

N always loves to see the farm animals and although her mum (me) ALWAYS feeds the goats (my favourite) and the sheep, she has never been brave enough. Until we visited Pennywell! She loved feeding the animals and was thrilled that she managed to do it.

 She even stroked an owl.

 Cuddled a piglet....

 How adorable!

Becky Falls - Dartmoor

We visited Becky Falls in Dartmoor, the woodland park was beautiful. Peace and Nature.

 We enthusiastically followed the stamp nature trail.....

 N told us all about the money tree

 we left a coin each on the tree to ensure safe passage..

Babbacombe Cliff Railway

We are back from our holiday to Torquay, we had a lovely time. It was probably the first time we have been on a seaside holiday without playing on the beach, paddling in the sea and using the caravan park swimming pool...(all out of bounds to poor N with her cast on her arm)

However it meant we had time to have lots of fun elsewhere.

 Hubby is an old pro of cliff railways but N and I were newbees!

The cliffs were 400 million years old.

 large rockfall..... think of all of the fossils in that, I mused.

Afterwards hubby very kindly drove us to here.........

The first 'chip shop' fish and chips I have tasted in almost 10 years. It was magnificent!

Next Post - Becky Falls

Taking Science Thursday toooooo far

Okay so today is Thursday that equals Science.

I had a Robert Winston experiment planned, instead we spent 3 hours in the local hospital getting N's arm in plaster.

She came off her scooter with a somersault yesterday evening and has a possible fractured scaphoid, which apparently doesn't show the fracture for 10 days.

 She coped so well with the 3 hour wait, but it all got a bit too much with the apparent smell of the wet plaster and the sling on her arm (she doesn't like things on her arms)

 we mentioned we home educated to the nurses and they printed out the x ray for us - sweet.

We are off to the John Radcliffe tomorrow for further examinations...........

Coconut Biscuits (Cookery Wednesday)

It is Wednesday and that means (according to our schedule!) that it is cookery.... today was all about Coconut Biscuits

225g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g butter

175g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 beaten egg

50g dessicated coconut

1. sift together flour and baking powder
2. rub in butter
3. add sugar, coconut, vanilla and egg
4. mix to a dough
5. refrigerate for at least one hour
6. roll out and cut into whatever shape you desire
7. bake at 190 for 10 minutes

 guess who went a bit giddy at the supermarket when choosing the food colouring?

we came home with green, yellow and black

(at least halloween is approaching, although I don't think that was in her thoughts at the time)

N's Grandma visited today and managed to come to the park with the dogs using her frame. She said she took great pleasure in watching both dogs chasing after their balls and racing around with such happiness.

So here are a couple of dog photos as I haven't posted any for a while......

Pepper got bored with her ears so decided to wear them inside out for a change.

Last night I took this picture of them sharing the same bed.....they had been to the groomer's and did smell particularly sweet = even more reason to snuggle up.

Art Friday

N's chosen subject for art today

Banana and Apple

 Pencils

 Pastels

 Pens

OPAL Biodiversity Survey

Today we did a little biodiversity survey kindly recommended by the blogging family at The Chicken Shed , this survey and others can be downloaded from OPAL Explore Nature

Our little patch of chosen hedgerow

 completing the workbook

 examining the wildlife

Double Figures and Strawberry Crumble Cake

We've had a birthday in the house! N is now 10 years old. Single figures are a thing of the past now for this family!

N's collection of cards....

 N had a sleepover with her friends and we had a family picnic ( thankfully it didn't rain)....
we popped to Daisyroots for some supplies and they all decopatched together....

 the finished result, N did the star, you can tell which ones E, M and L did can't you?

 Tuesday was the start of the schedule and Tuesday is French, so we dragged out our BBC French is Fun DVD..... SALUT SERGE (anyone outhere with that DVD will now be hearing the theme tune in their head!

Wednesday is cooking, N got down to it listening to her new ipod (I don't think she knows that I took this picture so i'm probably in trouble).

 Strawberry Crumble Cake - twas delicious and will definitely be made again. N decided to make it gluten free, so I could have some, so we just substituted normal flour for gluten free flour.

Anyone want the recipe?
Oven 190C
Cream together 85g butter  and 85g caster sugar
beat in 2 eggs
fold in 85g self raising flour
add milk to give dropping consistency and set mixture aside

slice 450g strawberries and mix in 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar - set aside

put the cake mixture into a 20cm cake tin and put the strawberries on top

then rub 60g butter in to 85g plain flour and add 30g caster sugar and sprinkle the topping over everything else

bake for 1 hour

eat it all up

day 2 at Cogges Camp and Apple Dappys

It had rained overnight, and as the girls needed to cross the empty moat to get to their den, they were finding going up and down the slope a bit slippy. They decided to tie a rope to the tree and that seemed to work perfectly and made it even more fun! They also started to make a ladder.....

 N sawing the wood

 A knotting the rungs

 we were cooking in the clay ovens we helped to make again today, here it is lit....

The recipe today was Apple Dappy;

200g of self raising flour

60g of softened butter

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

120ml of cream

combine together, roll out and sprinkle grated apple on top, the children collected apples from the garden in Cogges and blackberries were added from the hedgerows...

sprinkle some more sugar or cinnamon on top if you like

 then roll that up into a sausage and slice....

 place on a tray....

lovely

The children loved it so much we made 3 rounds of it! I can't wait to make a gluten free version at home.