Excited about the next project..........

Following on from our Georgian workshop we attended recently, our next project is the Georgian Era. Before starting a project, I try to do a bit of preparation, ordering books from the library, searching the internet for resources and getting support from local home educators via the email group, who have given me some good suggestions.

The more I look into the period, the more excited I am getting about the project. I forsee this one taking us up until Christmas!!!

I think we will look at........
The Kings
The Clothes
The Food
Art
The Houses
Window Tax
Boston Tea Party
Efficient Farming
American Independence
Highwaymen
Pirates
Nelson
Napolean
Industrial Revolution
Literature

There really is so much to look into. It seems like it was such a great time and not covered in primary schools. A great excuse to watch Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth version of course) with N, visit Bath, the Geoffrye Museum and Kew Gardens and then anything else that inspires us on the way.

It's so good to get together

There is nothing quite like the happiness we feel when the family is all together

Ralph's 1st Birthday

Yesterday was Ralph's first birthday.....

He received his home-made card early in the morning

 cuddles in the garden

 When M, L and E joined us both dogs had a celebration treat

We sang happy birthday first though!

After they had gobbled that down, eveyone gave Ralph a birthday toy each, he raced around at top speed VERY excitedly. He managed to stay up until about 12.30am until he finally had to give in to sleep, but he kept a toy with him!

Dogs Trust, Potatoes and Dogs!

We have been.......

 to a Dogs Trust fun day

 harvesting our potatoes

and someone has been dreaming about turning 1!!

Do you have room to squeeze in a little one?

The National Space Centre & Abbey Pumping Station

Today we went to the National Space Centre or 'the bubble' as N has renamed it.

 It was VERY busy and very noisy inside

 We did see this space toilet. The yellow spout is for the urine, which is then purified for 4 days for the astronauts to drink.

 N finding out what its like to jump on the moon.

We went inside the planetarium show 'We Are Astronomers', which was very good.

 We popped next door to this little 'free' museum

 The sewage water treatment works - never has the phrase 'they don't make them like this anymore' been so true - its beautiful

 inside there were lots of bathroom based things to look at - a kind of bathroom through the ages...

there were also zoetropes and phenakistoscopes to look at which was great but bizarre in a pumping house museum!!!

We came home very satisfied with our few days away. N was sad to leave the hotel but eager to see home, her Daddy and her pets again. I was very grateful for the opportunity to borrow hubbys SatNav while we were away, it was great to help me find all of the different places - even if it took me on the most far reaching routes to get there. Never mind - how would I know of places such as Sheepy Magna and Barton On The Beans if I hadn't had the scenic tour!!!

Snibston

On Wednesday we went to ......

 (We tried to blog it Wednesday evening but the free wifi at the hotel had such poor broadband we gave up!)

There were lots of things to see and do there.......

 Lifting a mini

 teaching a skeleton to cycle

 Agatha Christie exhibit

 The largest fashion exhibit outside London

 inspecting fabrics under the microscope

my personal favourite - the handbag game you had to decide whether the items could be found in a 1880's, 1930's, 1940's or 1980's handbag

 outdoor hands-on water based science

They also had a large country park with nature trails and at the end of the day I couldn't manage to coax my tired 9 year old to walk too far, (I suspect she was saving her energy for the hotel pool) but I did spot the most caterpillars I have ever seen in one place. These are just a handful of them.

Twycross Zoo

Today we went to Twycross Zoo, as we are having a short stay in Leicester....

 It is a world primate centre

 we blended in nicely

 This was definately the highlight of my day - the baby Bornean Orangutan born in January

 Here is N and Ganesha - its hard to tell which is which isn't it!!!!

Afterwards we came back to the hotel and had a swim in the pool, which was fantastic.

M's Birthday

We met up with M and E for M's birthday lunch. We had a lovely time it was nice to spend some time together as we have not seen them since Florida! M has been poorly with glandular fever and frantically trying to finish all of his assignments for his college course.

All of his assignments complete he can relax in the knowledge that he has completed his course with 18 distinctions. WOW :)

Well done M - we are very proud of you and everything you have achieved.

Leanne's Art Show

We were very excited to go along and see the Art Exhibition for the end of Leanne's art course. Two years of hard work complete :)

Her work looked fantastic and we were very proud.

It is amazing to look around at all of the other student's work, all of the show unit pieces are so different, its incredible how everyone interprets art in a different way. It is very inspiring.

Chessington World Of Adventures

We went to Chessington World Of Adventures for a couple of days and stayed in the hotel there, we had a great time (despite the bug I seemed to have that culminated in me being sick quite a few times!)

 N was very excited from the moment we got there, we spent the first day on all of the rides, N must have ridden Dragons Fury at least 12 times! We had a wander around the animals towards the end of the day....

 N's arm span compared to the average 8 yr old in yellow and the wingpsan of a condor.

 any excuse to play music

 You could get very close to the Larakeets.......

 We went back to the hotel for a swim, and a go in the steam room, sauna and jacuzzi, followed by a very rough night on my part, but N did a great job of looking after me. The second day I wasn't really capable of much except walking around the aquarium.....

Jellyfish

 Regal Tang and Yellow Tang

Clown Fish - which apparently are very  agressive!

N repeatedly rode Dragons Fury for about 4 hours while I sat still on the bench, it seemed the best course of action to avoid vomitting! She said she really enjoyed chatting to everyone in the queues and on the rides. We had a fabulous couple of days and N was sad to leave yesterday evening.