Educating Hannah

Schooly Things and Art

2012-03-02T15:39:00.006-08:00

We had been at home for most of today, and Hannah has been very busy!

She did some reading comprehension questions,

and math this morning,

and then we worked through the first chapter in her Social Studies workbook. She really enjoyed this activity, and had lots of questions about map reading afterwards.

After lunch she wanted to do art because earlier this week I bought her this lovely Crayola Sketch and Shade set. She absolutely loves it and has been spending all her spare time using it.
Today she drew Mist, the border collie from her favourite tv program Mist, Sheepdog Tails

A self portrait as a gift to me,

Spring,

And The Faraway Tree, from the book by Enid Blyton.

I'm so pleased she is enjoying them so much :-)

To finish off her day Hannah went to Brownies tonight and had a lovely time!!

'A Tale Of One City' At Portsmouth City Museum.

2012-03-02T05:38:00.007-08:00

Continuing with our exploration of all things Charles Dickens, yesterday our little 'Girls Study Group' visited Portsmouth's City Museum to look around the new 'A Tale Of One City' display.

We read a short story of Charles Dickens life and then the children explored the displays looking for evidence of the things we had read about.

There were masks to try out, a kitchen area where they could discover the fruit and vegetables available at the time and those which we enjoy freely now which would have been a luxury in Victorian England (bananas and pineapples!).

We looked at 'old money' . The UK money system became decimalised in 1971 and these displays show some of the coins which would have been in circulation up until that point.

There were question and answer boards based on Charles Dickens novels for the children to complete,
a knitted mouse hunt,
and a 'servant vs sailor' activity where Mimi tried the shoes shine challenge - she did really well !!
One of the mums brought an activity comparing the life of a poor Victorian child to that of a wealthy Victorian child, so the children all completed that at the workstation set up in the museum,

and then they were able to try Victorian schooling and practise writing on a slate,
Hannah said it was very tricky!

We finished our visit with a walk around the Victorian areas of the museum and found this large Victorian park scene mural,
a Penny Farthing,
a Victorian sitting room or parlour,
and some old photographs of the period.
Hannah really enjoyed the whole day and learned so much about the Victorian era, i definitely recommend visiting the 'Tale Of One City' if you are in the Portsmouth area

Getting Back To Normal

2012-02-29T11:28:00.003-08:00

Thankfully this week has been a lot more normal so far! Dean has returned to work and Hannah is feeling better!!

On Monday she started off gently with a little more work on her Charles Dickens project. She made a nice bright front cover for her folder and looked at the BBC History site to find out what they had to say about him.

She decided to do some writing practise in her journal and chose Robins and Squirrels to write about. Usually Hannah asks me to spell every word out to her as she hates to get things wrong, but this time she tried to write the words she didn't know phonetically.

I wrote the correct spellings underneath when she had finished so she could refer back to them.
'Robins have red breasts. I love Robins because they have the ability to fly.'
'Squirrels are different colours - Red, Gray - I have never seen a red squirrel but i have a poster.'

I was really pleased to see that she is developing the confidence to attempt to spell words by herself and she told me she wanted to learn more words so she could write more things down - bless!

The weather has been much milder this week and we were getting tired of Winter, so Hannah cut out lots of Spring pictures and chose a Spring poem for our notice board. Then she organised them into a lovely cheerful display!

Yesterday we had our monthly art group - we have merged it with adventure group now as the adventure group has such a nice inside space, and i think it worked well. The children learn how to water colour and texture sand by adding salt to the wet paint.

The lighting was bad when i took the picture, but you can just about get the idea i think. Hannah loved it anyway and was one of the very last to pack away her painting things and go out to play!

Today has been a play day as Hannah had her friend Tess over for the afternoon and they had fun with Barbie and Moshi Monsters!

Our Week

2012-02-26T11:48:00.002-08:00

Gosh! I haven't blogged for over a week!

I've been busy taking care of sick people as not only was Dean still recovering from pneumonia, but then Hannah got sick as well!!

She has spent most of the week on the sofa coughing and trying to keep her fever down, but she did manage to do some painting one day,

and has printed off lots of activity sheets from our favourite website www.familyfun.go.com . She has done wordsearches, mazes, puzzles and colouring. I've read lots of books to her including her new Ralph Mouse collection and am currently reading her The Faraway Tree for the second time - it's her favourite book EVER!!

Finally yesterday she felt better and we made it to the seafront for some fresh air and a coffee (me) and fruit juice (Hannah).

Today we went to church which was nice. Hannah woke up this morning and really wanted to go to Sunday School because she felt better and missed her friends, so we did and she had a lovely time learning about Lent, and then helped me tidy the garden this afternoon!

Hopefully this week will be back to normal :-)

History Study Group

2012-02-16T13:44:00.003-08:00

We have had a very nice day today! We met up with two other families from our group so that all our girls could learn some more about Charles Dickens together and Hannah really enjoyed it.

They started off with a questionaire to see how much they could remember from our museum visit. They must have really enjoyed the museum because they all remembered lots of facts and finished the question sheets in no time!

Next they used the resources they had chosen on our museum visit to colour scenes from the stories - Hannah is colouring Mr Pickwick here,
and construct either a Victorian Church or Schoolhouse. Hannah chose the church. It was really fiddly to cut out and construct and our finished church is authentically vintage looking, but it was fun!

To finish they had a go at writing their own stories. Hannah and her friend Melissa worked together to write a ghost story inspired by 'A Christmas Carol'. Hopefully they will finish it off at our next session and i can get a picture of it!

Hannah loved working with a small group of girls today, it definitely suited her learning style as she came home inspired to do more writing and looking forward to the next session.

Valentines Day!

2012-02-14T13:56:00.002-08:00

So today is Valentines Day, and poor Dean is sick. So Hannah made him a special valentine banner to make him feel better!

Here he is, he has pneumonia and had just been for a chest x-ray when i took this! Get well soon Dean!
Hannah also received a valentine gift! Her best friend Sydney sent her this lovely boxed set of books all the way from the USA, she was so pleased :-)

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day - hope you've all had hearts of fun!

Lights, Camera, Action

2012-02-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

Hannah has discovered photography! She has spent the last few days holding photo shoots with her dolls Lanie and Kanani, and also making mini movies of them which she hopes to put on You Tube eventually!

She even managed to work the timer to get a few shots of them together!
And then posed for a few herself - she does like a camera!

Royal Marines Museum Trip

2012-02-11T14:03:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we went on a Home Education Group trip to the Royal Marines Museum . Hannah and i had never been there before, despite it being almost on our doorstep, as i didn't really think it was somewhere she would enjoy. Anyway, since her friends were all going i thought we'd go along and give it a try. I was totally surprised! Hannah was really interested and joined in with all the activities. She even wanted to stay after the workshop and go around the museum again!

The day started off with a drill session outside in the museum grounds - it was bitterly cold but Hannah was well wrapped up and willing to give it a go!

Then we (thankfully) moved inside and the session leader told the children a little bit about who the Royal Marines are and what they do.
Next he told them about WW2 and talked about which countries were involved and why the war happened,
and then the children went into the classroom to learn about air raids. They were given maps of Portsmouth and learned how the enemy planned the bombing targets, finding locations and colouring them on the maps.

One of Hannah's friends dressed up as a WW2 marine and the session leader told them all about the kit the marines would have used to finish up the session.

After the workshop we all went to the cafe on site for lunch and then some of us stayed on to have a good look around the museum.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon!

A Home Front Kitchen

Life in the barracks around 1911 looked a lot like this!

Recruiting!
In the trenches.
A model of Portsmouth during the bombing.
We went through the 'What it takes to be a Marine' section and established that Hannah does NOT want to join up!! She was finally coaxed into the practise tunnel by her friend Melissa though!
The 'Jungle Warfare' area had a real live snake in it!
and this..........
..........ewwwww!!!
Finally, here are Hannah and Melissa leaving the Jungle - they still look like they are having a good time!
The museum was really interesting, definitely one to visit if you're ever in Portsmouth.

Staunton Farm

2012-02-05T10:49:00.001-08:00

We have had the BEST Sunday!! We went to Staunton Farm for the first time in ages and Hannah was sooooo excited. She absolutely loves being in the countryside and around animals and is just so happy and relaxed when she is there so today was perfect. We saw baby animals, early spring flowers, lots of wild birds and enjoyed walking out in the fresh cold air.

The first snowdrops we've seen this year.Shaggy little Shetland pony
The boar taking a drink!
Hannah in the walled garden.

This Sow had a really young litter, they were still under heat lamps and so sweet!

Hannah feeding the Fallow DeerFeeding the goats

Pretty Cow!Happy Face

The Donkeys came to see us!And the Shire Horse.

We visited the Citrus House which smelled beautifully of orange blossom and had orange, lemon and lime fruits.

In the maze the friendliest little Robin was following us around, he wasn't at all afraid and chirped and hopped all around us.

I love the way these roots are entwined!
Hannah read all the information sheets and found lots of signs to look out for.
She also enjoyed running and puddle jumping!!
Amber the barn owl
Hannah met a little kid who was born on New Years Day!
The chickens were enjoying the playground!
Wintery Sky
And finally, Dean was very popular with the birds ha ha !!

Art

2012-02-05T10:42:00.001-08:00

A River Scene

Hannah has been enjoying practising with her watercolour paints this week. In the second picture she tried some texture by adding sugar and glue to make the sand!

Egyptian Pyramids

A Visit To Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum

2012-02-03T04:31:00.000-08:00

On February 7th it will be the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens birth, and his birth place is right here in Portsmouth. So, yesterday Hannah and I met with two other homeschooling families we are friends with and went to visit his birthplace museum.

It is a small 3 story house in the centre of Portsmouth, and has been recreated to look as it would have done in 1812.

The Dining Room
The Parlour
This was Charles Dickens' crib.
The Bedroom where he was born.
Each room has information boards - here is Hannah reading about the bedroom.

We came across a maid in the attic!
And Hannah tried on a washmaids cap and apron!The children really enjoyed seeing around the house, and all chose some resources to buy in the shop to do next time we all get together.

Children's Concert

2012-01-31T14:14:00.001-08:00

Today we joined some of our homeschooling friends at The Children's Concert performed by Southern Pro Musica at The Guildhall in Portsmouth.

This was Hannah's first taste of classical music and she really enjoyed it.

The program was chosen especially for children and was as follows:

Overture 'Ruslan and Lyudmila' - Glinka
Meet The Orchestra - Jonathon Willcocks (he is also the orchestra's conductor)
The Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba -Handel
Tubby The Tuba - Kleinsinger
Waltz From Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky
Trumpet Concerto (Finale) - Hummel
Hornpipe - arr. Henry Wood
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka -J Strauss
Wigwam - Jonathon Willcocks
Wigwam had actions and words to go with it which all the children had fun joining in with and it was a lovely finish to the performance.

We will definitely be going back next year!

Still Here!!

2012-01-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

We're still here! We lost our internet service 9 days ago and it only just got fixed today, so sorry for the lack of posts!

Anyway, we had a relatively quiet week as I wasn't well (horrible coughing virus!) so you didn't miss much, but Hannah did entertain us by making a puppet theatre and puppets from a box and some card. She did it all herself, and then made up a play called 'I love you'. The puppets are our family and the play was about us all going out on a country walk and picnic - it was so cute!

She also started working on a Social Studies workbook that her friend sent her. I have been reading alot about unschooling, and would be happy to move away from curriculum based learning with Hannah, but she really does seem to like it. She picked this workbook up and decided to do it for herself - she really enjoyed it and talked for ages about our neighbourhood and lifestyle after reading about those things in the book. She also discovered Mental Arithmetic this week and has been endlessly asking for problems to solve!

Fun Stuff!!

2012-01-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

Last week was quite a quiet week. We spent all of wednesday and thursday waiting in for the plumber to come fix our central heating and hot water so rather than getting out and about Hannah rediscovered games and puzzles! We played lots of memory pairs, and Hannah spent ages doing this lovely puzzle that Grammy bought her for Christmas. She also played lots of Moshi Monsters online.

On friday we spent the afternoon with friends and then in the evening Hannah joined a Brownie pack. She tried out Brownies last year but decided she wasn't quite ready for it then. She was nervous about going this time, but after a little while she was brave enough to join in and make some friends! It helped that her homeschooled friend Mimi was also there and she gave Hannah a bit more confidence to take part in the activities. Hannah came home afterwards really excited about the next meeting and already working on her Winter Badge!!
She made this Pompom Penguin and did an Arctic Animals wordsearch towards her badge.
And on Saturday her Tap Class resumed! This is Hannah waiting to go into the class!
She really enjoys Tap and is working on her Grade One exam.

A Little Bit Of School

2012-01-18T07:27:00.001-08:00

We've been getting back into the rhythm of 'school' this week after a few busy weeks out and about!

Hannah has been practising her story writing skills with this story sheet i found on a Berenstain Bears website ( Hannah loves Berenstain Bears!)

She has also completed the next section in her Alpha Omega Lifepac Math and completed the self test,
Before moving on to the next section.

And she has used the computer to play some games - Moshi Monsters is her new favourite, as well as printing out activities, birthday cards and art work she has done online.

Home Education Trip To The D-Day Museum

2012-01-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Hannah and i went to The D-Day museum in Southsea with our home ed group. Hannah found the museum pretty scary on the whole, she did look around most of it and definitely learned something about her grandma's childhood (my mum was 4 when WW2 started) but we didn't go into it in too much depth as Hannah can be very sensitive and worries a lot!

The visit started with a short film about the war, then we walked around the exhibitions,

This is President Franklin Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill planning the D-Day Invasion
Hannah and her friend Melissa
A mock camp

US Army - spot the Hershey Bars!

Operation Overlord in progress

Melissa, Hannah and Oliver
Injured troups in Normandy on D-Day ( Hannah hated this bit but still managed to pose for a picture lol).

This is me!!
Sparkle Kitty
Hannah

And that was the end of our visit! Maybe i'll take Hannah back when she's a bit older because it was actually a really great museum and i would have loved to spend more time there looking around.

Evening At The Pond

2012-01-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

This evening Hannah and I had a walk around Baffins Pond - it was beautiful, wintry and refreshing!
Some other walkers were feeding the birds so we managed to get up close to Coots, Moorhen, Ducks, Geese and Swans.

There were also Herons on the water but i couldn't get my little camera to zoom enough to capture them..............next time!

Art Class

2012-01-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the second of our home education group art classes. The children continued with their water colour theme and learned how to paint the sea using wax sticks under the colour wash to make a wave effect.

Hannah loved it and was very proud of her efforts!

waiting to begin
Claire showing Hannah how to use the wax stick
colour washing over the wax.

The finished painting!

Epiphany

2012-01-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

This morning we went to a family service at our church to celebrate Epiphany.

Hannah played the part of the second king,

She delivered the gift of Frankincense to the baby Jesus who was in the nativity scene in the church foyer (hence the bad pictures!)
I did manage to take a picture afterwards,

Hannah really enjoyed the service and remembered some of the prayers and responses this time. She sat apart from me with her Sunday school friends and went up to the alter for a blessing with them as well. She did keep checking i was there though :-)

Indoor Camp-out!

2012-01-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hannah loves camping and has this play tent that she likes to hang out in, but has been asking for a sleeping bag since we went camping in the summer. Well, we found a lovely childrens bag in the sales last week and she was so excited that she set up camp in the school/dining room with her American Girl dolls.

She had a really fun time, and can't wait to go camping again for real :-)

Bikes and Barbies

2012-01-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

One of Hannah's Christmas presents from Santa was a new bike. It's much lighter than her old one and the brakes work (yaay for brakes!) so she is really enjoying cycling around on it. Yesterday went on a long ride in the very windy afternoon and she did really well!

Today she has spent most of the day building a Barbie world. She has such a lot of Barbie toys, most of them rescued from charity shops or picked up at the recycling plant and they don't often get a lot of play but today they were all out!!

First she set up their house,

Then the Mini Mart and they went grocery shopping. I love that the sales assistant is wearing a princess ball gown!

Then it was time for Barbie School!

Hanging out at the lockers!!

And finally i managed to get in there and reorganise it all to make it easier to play with in future!
Four pretty big storage containers later it was all done, dolls and clothes in one, baby things, mini-mart and Barbie school in another, household furniture, and finally horses, cars, bikes and boats!

Is it possible we have too much Barbie do you think??

Winter

2012-01-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

Today we packed away our Christmas decorations for another year. I love the fresh new feeling you get when all the decorations go away and the rooms are all clean and fresh.
Hannah made a winter display board to hang on the wall with a few of the less christmassy, more wintery cards we received and found a poem called 'Winter Morning' in her poetry book. She copied it all out (quite an achievement as she doesn't usually choose to 'do writing'!!) and put that on the board as well. She was really pleased with it and has read it aloud to us several times this evening.

We also redid our winter table, although it still doesn't look terribly wintery so i think a walk is in order soon to gather some nature bits to go on there.
All we need now is snow!!

Versatile Blogger Award

2012-01-02T12:37:00.001-08:00

Thank you very much to Lisa at An Ordinary Life for awarding me the Versatile Blogger Award.

The rules of this award are:

Thank the person that nominated you with a link back to them.
Tell everyone seven things about yourself.
Pass this award on to 15 (actually i only managed 5!) newly discovered blogs and let them know that they’ve received an award!

So, seven things about myself..........

1. My new favourite book is Mrs Darley's Pagan Whispers

2. I love VW Campervans

3. My life dream was always to be a mama

4. My favourite colours are purple and blue

5. I am NOT a city person and yearn for fields and woods.

6. I don't have a driving licence

7. My nickname is September

I'd like to pass the award on to

Life, Love and Literature

The Enchanted Tree

Carried Family

Ordinary Life Magic

Winding Circle Unschoolers

All The Fun Of The Fair

2011-12-31T10:54:00.001-08:00

There is a funfair in town for the holidays, and today Hannah and her friend Coral spent the day there having fun on all the rides and trying out the (plastic) ice rink.

Hannah loved the skating, but Coral wasn't too sure!

But both girls loved the roller coaster and rode it 3 times!!
The fair has some BIG rides, the girls didn't ride this one but did have a good view of it from the top of the roller coaster.
That's them, near the back at the highest point of the ride!
Coral, me and Hannah.
The carousel was heaps of fun,

as were the teacups.

Hannah thought the air balloon ride was pretty cool too!
But by far, the favourite ride was the Runaway Train!!
They LOVED it!!

What a great way to end the year. Happy New Year everyone and thanks for following us through 2011 xxxx

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas has been lovely! Hannah slept until 8am on Christmas morning, then had a very exciting time opening all her gifts. Grandma - my mum - has been staying with us so she was able to share in the excitement of Christmas morning, and Daddy had Christmas off of work so he was here too, and made us a lovely Christmas dinner. Today, (Boxing Day in the UK) Grandad and Grandma Heather - my dad and step-mum- came to lunch, Grandad assembled the new bike that Santa brought, and Granny Heather took Hannah out to the park for a lovely play and bike ride. It's been a really nice Christmas.

Here are some of the pictures I've taken:

Santa Has Been!!
He Left Heaps Of Presents!!

Including Lalaloopsy, Strawberry Shortcake, a Shiny New Bike, and Some Build-a-bear Goodies

Hannah's Gift From Us Was The Much Longed For American Girl Doll Kanani! She Was Soooooo Happy!

Hannah Dressed For Dinner In Her Red Velvet Christmas Dress and Flashing Earrings.
And After Dinner She Dressed As Miss Santa To deliver Little Stockings To Dean And I. My Mum Organised Them, Aren't They Cute!

Boxing Day

Grandad, Hannah and Grandma Heather
Hannah and Her Royal Subjects - See How She Is Waving Like The Queen Of England!!
Grandad
Auntie Nita and HannahWe hope everyone has had as wonderful a Christmas as we have had!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:34:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful, wonderful Christmas and New Year xx

Children's Nativity and Christingle Service

2011-12-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Eve Nativity and Christingle service was lovely tonight. Hannah was an angel in the nativity, the first year she has been brave enough to take part, and really enjoyed it.

We sang children's carols,
and watched the sunday school children act out the scenes,
and afterwards lit the christingle candles and said prayers and sang 'Away In A Manger'.

Beautiful!!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year x

A Visit To Santa

2011-12-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

Today Hannah has been to see Santa! She looks forward to seeing him every year and the best one we have found is in Debenhams department store in Southsea.

He was very friendly and spent a good ten minutes chatting to her and telling her all about the North Pole.
Then he gave her a beautiful book. The story of The Nutcracker.
Hannah is loving the Christmas countdown this year :-)

'Tales Of Winter Magic' - Solstice Celebration

2011-12-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (a day early) we went to 'Tales Of Winter Magic' at Butser Ancient Farm to celebrate the winter solstice.

We had such a lovely time! There were yule crafts in the Roman villa for children, Hannah made a yule table centrepiece and a storytellers staff, then we had mulled (no alcohol) wine and mince pies or chocolate logs before going into the big roundhouse for stories told by the fantastic Red Phoenix . She told winter tales, sang the traditional ancient version of 'The Holly And The Ivy', and told an interactive tale with children from the audience acting out the parts. It was absolutely magical, around the log fire with fairy lights and candles lighting the roundhouse, warm spicy fruit juice in hand we were transported back to winters of long ago.

The Roundhouse before the storytelling commenced

Making a Yule table centrepiece.

Hannah with her finished centrepiece.

Making her Storytellers Staff
The finished Staff!

Animals around the farm.

Exploring the roundhouses

The Large Roundhouse ready for the Storytelling.

Enjoying the stories!
Happy Winter Solstice Everyone!

A Busy Sunday

2011-12-18T12:47:00.001-08:00

Hannah and I have had a busy day! We went to our usual church service this morning, where Hannah lit the four candles of advent at the beginning of the service, and then joined the Sunday School where she learned about Mary and Joseph's trip to Bethlehem, and drew a picture of them on their journey for the Sunday school display.

After church we met our friends Sarah, Jack and Sam at Gunwharf Quays for some lunch and Christmas shopping. We visited the farm nativity scene (too crowded to get pictures!) and Hannah and I bought the last few gifts we needed to get, and enjoyed catching up with our friends over hot chocolate and ice-creams!

Finally we rushed home, dropped off our shopping and headed out to the Evangelical Church where (different) friends are the Pastors, to go to their annual Christmas celebration. Hannah joined the children from the Discoverers group ( a kind of Sunday School class) on stage to tell 'A Donkey's Tale' and sing Christmas songs,

and we all sang carols and were reminded of the real the meaning of Christmas. It was a lovely celebration, followed by coffee, cake and hot dogs with friends!

On the way home we came across this very twinkly Christmas display on a near by house! Hannah was most impressed :-)

Christmas Display - Keydell Nursery

2011-12-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

After the homeschool group party yesterday Dean and I took Hannah over to Keydell Nursery in Horndean to see their annual Christmas display. It was soooooo Christmassy!!

They had goats, donkeys and pigs outside for the children to visit,

and inside everything was twinkly and magical.

Isn't it all beautiful? Hannah loved it all, and I even managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping while she was looking around - perfect!

Homeschooling Group Christmas Party

2011-12-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

Our Homeschooling Group finished for the Christmas break yesterday with a Christmas party at the adventure playground.

We had food,
games, music, decorating gingerbread cookies,

and making Christmas crowns.

A lovely time spent with lovely people!

The Pantomime

2011-12-11T12:31:00.001-08:00

Last week we took Hannah to see her first ever pantomime, Cinderella. I thought she might be a little overwhelmed and wasn't at all sure she'd understand the pantomime concept, but i shouldn't have worried!
She was totally captivated by it. She joined in with calling out the traditional pantomime catch phrases of 'he's behind you!' and 'oh yes it is!'. She danced, clapped, jumped up and down and laughed. A lot! It was so lovely just sitting and watching her having such an amazing time - definitely an experience to repeat next year!

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-07T08:35:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days has been all about Christmas for Hannah! She is wildly excited this year and can't wait to decorate the house on saturday after her Christmas party at her Dancing School.

Yesterday we made natural decorations at Adventure Group - Pomanders, Glittered Cinammon Sticks and Fir Cones, Snowflake Suncatchers and Star Wands.

And today Hannah has made more snowflake suncatchers and also made a rainbow tea light holder.

Tonight we are going to the pantomine ' Cinderella' at the local theatre - Hannah's first visit to a pantomime :-)

Art Class

2011-12-05T10:40:00.001-08:00

Today was the first session of an art class that i have recently organised for some of the children at our home education group.

I found a really kind lady to hold the class purely by chance as she is the grandmother of one of Hannah's friends, and she agreed to come along and show the children how to start painting with watercolours.

All the children seemed to really enjoy themselves, and made some beautiful paintings.

This is Hannah's finished painting, she was so pleased with it!
She is really looking forward to the next class now :-)

Exploring Nature.........................At The Shopping Centre!!

2011-12-04T11:40:00.001-08:00

Today we went shopping for art supplies and Christmas presents to a local (ish) shopping centre. It was busy, very busy and Hannah was tired and grumpy - until we got outside and she discovered some park land around the shopping centre!

She had a lovely time running, exploring and nature hunting!

She found this lovely patch of Clover,
Toadstools,
and natures own trampoline - a REALLY springy patch of mossy grass!

It just goes to show that being outdoors is always better than being indoors if you are Hannah :-)

An Extra Special Saturday

2011-12-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago Hannah switched from Fusion dance back to Tap. She did tap and ballet a couple of years ago and though she enjoyed it, she found that particular class was too strict for her. This time she is taking tap at The Theatre School, which so far has been a lovely welcoming experience for us both. Today she received her uniform and tap shoes and was so excited to go into class.

It was super successful as well, as having the shoes made all the difference to her hearing the right way to dance and she came out with a handful of new steps!

After lunch we met up with some very special friends. Hannah's oldest friend Coral and my friend, Coral's grandmother. She is such a special lady, and Coral is a lovely friend to Hannah.

We met for hot chocolate and play in the park where the girls ate their snacks in their favourite tree,
Then we went into town where there was a beautiful German Christmas market. We stopped for coffee and the girls did arts and crafts together and browsed the toys, before stopping to ride the merry-go-round swings on the way home.

They had a lovely time together and hugged and hugged before they finally parted. We had such a lovely afternoon :-)

Work and Play!

2011-12-01T13:10:00.001-08:00

Hannah has been practising her cursive writing some more this week, as well as writing beautifully in the christmas cards she has started making for her friends. She is really determined to 'learn joined up writing' and has been writing lots of little notes and messages to Dean and I with big loopy tails and swirls - she is really enjoying it!

At adventure group the children learned about 'wet on wet' painting and Hannah made me a picture.
She also made a Christmas themed collage at home,
and used a computer program to make some snowflake pictures.
Today we spent a lovely afternoon with friends and left their house to walk / cycle home in a twilight rain storm. As we cut through the park Hannah noticed that the mini skate park was flooded and thought it'd be a great place to stop and play! The next few pictures say it all really, it grew completely dark while we were there and very, very wet!!

Needless to say she was a little cold and grubby when we arrived home so a bubble bath seemed in order :-)

Hannah said tonight that she had the most fun afternoon ever........................and my coat is still drying and may never be the same lol!!

Church

2011-11-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and Hannah was thrilled to be chosen to light the first Advent candle in church this morning. She was nervous about going up to the alter in front of all of the congregation, but she did it - she was so proud!

History Day

2011-11-25T02:26:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we spent the whole day at an Introduction to History session that I helped to run with two other mum's from our group.

Sarah ran the morning session. She taught the children about ordering events, timelines, evidence, and making deductions from primary and secondary evidence.

Here are some of the children ordering themselves by date of birth!
All the children brought photos of themselves with them, one for each year. They sorted them into order,

and made their own timelines.
This is Hannah's completed timeline!
Sarah explained evidence to the group.

and the children sorted it into primary and secondary (and at least one mum - (that would be me) - learned something as well!!)
After a break for lunch we had an afternoon session of Victorian Christmas crafts.

I made Christmas crackers with the children,
Sarah made tree decorations,

and Claire made Sugar Mice with everyone.
It was a really busy day, but so worth it as Hannah told me last night that she had really enjoyed the whole day and wanted to do it all again :-)

Santa Comes To Town!

2011-11-20T14:07:00.001-08:00

Last night was the night that the Christmas lights were turned on at our favourite local shopping center Gunwharf Quays

Hannah was really excited and totally in the Christmas spirit! She watched out for Santa from daddy's arms as she was too little to see over all the people, and finally saw him coming through the crowd with his reindeer and elves!!

She loved the show they did on the stage, and joined in with the Christmas songs!
And then it was time for (faux) snowflakes, fireworks and finally Santa turning on the lights.

Now, of course, Hannah wants us to put our decorations up, but i'm holding out as long as i can on that one!!

Park Play

2011-11-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

This afternoon we went to the park. It was really, really quiet for such a sunny day! Luckily Hannah took Lanie to play with.................

..............and had a fun time :-)

A Chilly Allotment Group!

2011-11-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

I think winter is finally on it's way! Yesterday's allotment group was a very chilly, mist, damp session - but Hannah still had a really good time!
She planted beans and onions out into the beds,
and harvested parsley, chard, raddish and nasturtiums.

It was lovely to see her busy in the earth and especially nice that she had her harvested food for dinner last night!

Blog Award :-)

2011-11-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

I've been awarded the Versatile Blogger and Stylish Blogger awards by the lovely Adventurer over at (Our) Life's Adventures . As i did this recently i'll just direct you to my replies here - Blog Awards - and say a huge Thank You to Adventurer for thinking of me! Please check out her blog, it is really lovely.

Sunday Sunshine

2011-11-13T10:40:00.001-08:00

What beautiful autumn weather we've had today! Dean was working, so Hannah and i went for a walk down to the seafront. Hannah took her dolls pram (with Lanie in it!) and i packed her a picnic and we walked down to The Rose Gardens just across from the beach. There were a few stops on the way for tree climbing!

And then a picnic in the sunshine! There were even a few roses still blooming.
After our picnic we went across to the beach, where there were some quite excited waves, and a quite excited little girl!

Throwing pebbles in to the waves,
and running away from them when they came too close!

Whenever we visit the beach Hannah always leaves the sea a gift - last week she left a sand face with seaweed hair, today she left a stone circle!

The beach certainly blew the cobwebs away today!

A Couple More Pictures From The Tree Walk!

2011-11-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

My camera ran out of power just before the end of the tree walk, so i took these on my phone and have just found them!

This was the Dawn Redwood tree, a branch had come down and the children got to have a good look at it, Hannah loved the color of the bark - it reminded her of hot chocolate!

That's definitely all the photos now ;-)

Victoria Park Tree Walk

2011-11-11T00:51:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we met with our friends Elly, Melissa and Oliver to do the Victoria Park Tree Walk. Elly had printed the map guides out for us and the children brought their sketch pads to draw the trees they spotted.

They had a great time following the trail and discovering all the different trees in the park, picking up tree treasures and spotting squirrels!
Thank you to Elly, Melissa and Oliver for a lovely day :-)

Cursive, Time-Telling and Other Things!

2011-11-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Today Hannah's math curriculum took us to 'time'! We made a cardboard clock and Hannah practised telling the time in minutes. She has been able to tell the hours, half hours and quarter past / to for a while now, but hadn't quite got the 4.10, 4.35 etc concept yet so the clock was really helpful.

She also did a couple of sheets of 'Fact Families' which she was very entertained by!!
She completed 4 states in her USA workbook and found them on the big wall map,

and then practised her cursive writing book. She asked last week if she could learn cursive so i picked up a workbook to get us started - she seems to be really enjoying the challenge.
After lunch she played on her favourite website - www.girlsgogames.com ,

and this afternoon she did some reading :-)
No dance class today as she has been coughing after her cold, so we've had a very homey day !

Hot Rocks At Adventure Group

2011-11-09T14:40:00.001-08:00

This week the children all brought pebbles and rocks along to group to decorate. We heated them in the oven and the children melted crayon onto them in lovely bright designs.

It was the first time some of them had done this activity and they really enjoyed it!
Afterwards Hannah went out to play and built a sand car with her friend Melissa - here they are driving along the road they marked out :-)

Monday

2011-11-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

Today was an average kind of 'nothing much going on' day for us - no groups to go to and no play dates planned, so here's what we did:

Hannah did her lessons this morning (English, Math, Handwriting and Geography today), and then i remembered that we needed some big pebbles for our 'hot rock art' session at Adventure group tomorrow. So after lunch Hannah got on her bike and we went down to the beach to collect some.

Hannah seemed to forget all about the pebbles when we got there and collected seaweed instead,

turns out she was making a sand face!!
Then she played 'catch me if you can' with the waves........luckily she was too quick for them and stayed dry!
Once she tired of that she thought it'd be a great idea to push her bike to the top of the pebble bank and free wheel down to the sea as fast as possible

many, many times !!
Great, I thought , she'll be so tired we'll go straight home and have a quiet sit down..........i was wrong!

Instead went to the park!

When we did make it home it was time for dinner, and then Hannah wanted to bake.

She made Whoopie Pies and a chocolate frosted, sugar sparkled butterfly cake.

We even saved a couple for daddy :-)

November 5th - Bonfire Night!

2011-11-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, here in the UK, it was Bonfire night. Traditionally it is celebrated with a bonfire and fireworks in rememberence of Guy Fawkes foiled attempt to blow up the Houses Of Parliment in 1605!

Our day started with a trip to the park with Hannah's friend Coral. Hannah hasn't been well this week and was really keen for some fresh air so we met Coral and her grandma and the girls climbed trees and ran around outside exploring and having fun together.

We had lunch with them and more play before Hannah and I left to go to Southampton. Hannah had been saving her pocket money and wanted to go to Build-A-Bear to get a puppy dog.

When we got home it was dark and Dean had bought food and fireworks! We built a fire in the fire pit, cooked sausages and hash browns and made a little firework display for Hannah.

The Fire PitFireworks!

Hannah with her sparklers!
She is very fond of sparklers!!

Nature Journal

2011-11-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get Hannah started on a Nature Journal for a few weeks now. She loves everything about nature and is never happier than when she is out in the woods or fields so I thought it would be nice for her to have her own nature journal.

She wanted to start with trees, and chose the Horse Chestnut as she has recently had fun searching all the parks for conkers.
We picked two books to help, ' A Childs Guide To Trees' (an Eden Project Book), and 'Tree Detectives'.
Hannah drew a Horse Chestnut leaf and a conker and then painted them using water colours, and then wrote a little bit about why she likes the trees.
We found a poem in our ' Festivals, Family and Food' book called 'Among The Nuts', which Hannah read, it was perfect as it is all about the life of a conker!

To finish off we found a conker craft, making a conker web - simply stick tooth picks around a conker and weave yarn around them - very similar to a 'Gods Eye' and beautiful hanging over the season table!

Pumpkin Fairy House for Autumn

2011-11-01T13:45:00.001-07:00

Hannah and i thought our season table fairies needed a little autumn home to live in so we made a pumpkin cottage for them! It's so cute, when the candle is alight all the windows and around the door glow and it looks really pretty :-)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hannah has been so excited about Halloween this year! She begged us for a party, so we thought we'd have a few friends over. A few turned into 15 (in my very tiny house!) and she had a lovely time. They played games, danced, ate party food and finally we took them all 'trick or treating' !

Here is Hannah waiting for the party to begin - I made her American Girl doll Lanie a matching cat costume!

Decorations
Party Food!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

A Day At The Races

2011-10-28T14:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Hannah and I accompanied Dean to a catering exhibition at Fontwell Racecourse. He was invited there in a work capacity, but was able to take family along and enjoy the races as well as the exhibition.

We arrived early enough to see the horses unloading - Hannah was so excited to see them all!

Then she visited all the catering stands with her daddy and taste tested lots of goodies - she was especially happy with the ice cream stand!
After that we were able to look around the course and watch the races.
Hannah thought the horse and jockey topiary was fantastic!
She watched the horses get ready for their races,

and watched all of the races - she was much braver than me, I was terrified one of the horses would fall and hurt themselves and had to keep my eyes shut for the jumps! Needless to say they were all fine, but i don't really think i'm cut out for the races!!

After each race the horses were taken back to the collecting ring to cool down, so we had a really good view of the winners.
Hannah loved her day, and really loved being around all the horses as well as helping daddy with his work function.........................and i won £6.40 on the last race :-)

Art and Baking

2011-10-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had an arty, crafty, cooking sort of morning!

Hannah tried some hot rock art. One of the mum's at home ed group suggested it for a group activity next half term, and Hannah was really interested to see what it was. So, we found a huge stone that she had me drag back from the beach one day, and popped it in the oven to heat up. Then Hannah carefully decorated it with crayons which melted to give a really nice effect.

Next i felted Hannah a new toadstool for her season table (and also a Smurf although i didn't get a picture of that before in disappeared to live in the doll house!)
and then Hannah wanted to help make lunch. She chopped up lots of root veg and squash for our soup and then made spelt bread.
She loves to knead the dough!
While the dough was rising she turned the flour sprinkled counter top into a snowy landscape for her little doll house doll to play in :-)
While keeping a close eye on the soup and rising dough on the stove.
The loaf turned out really well, (despite the poor picture!) and we had a lovely lunch before Hannah's friends arrived for an afternoon of play!
My favourite sort of day!!

Blog Awards

2011-10-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

I would like to say a huge thank you to Danielle at Raising Little Rhodies for sending me these two awards - i'm very happy to receive them!

The Rules

Thank the person(s) who nominated you and link back up them.
Tell Readers 7 things about yourself.
Pass this award onto your favorite newly discovered bloggers and let them know.

Seven Things About Me -

1/ My life dream was always to be the mama to a wonderful little girl - some dreams do come true :-)

2/ Danebury Celtic Hill Fort is my 'go to, safe place' - it's the most peaceful place i've ever known.

3/ I'm from Devon

4/I crave countryside and open spaces.

5/I have Generalised Anxiety Disorder.

6/ I can play the violin

7/ I believe in Fairies.................i really do!

And finally, i'm passing the awards on to

Stella's Apron Strings

Waffling Through Life

Outside The Box

Check them out :-)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Adventure Group

2011-10-22T02:03:00.000-07:00

This week at Adventure Group the session was art based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The children could choose their activities, and Hannah chose to make a paper chain caterpillar and a finger painted scene.

It was a beautiful day so afterwards (as always) there was lots of outside play!
Hannah is the tiny pink dot in the middle of this picture!!

Long may the good weather continue, the children have such a good time playing outside together :-)

An Autumn Walk

2011-10-18T14:15:00.003-07:00

On Sunday afternoon we went out to 100 Acre Wood near Wickham for a lovely autumnal walk! We found a stream and Hannah spent ages following it, playing in it, exploring it and 'pixie fishing' in it!

A really beautiful English autumn day :-)

Little House In The Big Woods - A Lapbook.

2011-10-13T13:14:00.001-07:00

Today Hannah started her 'Little House In The Big Woods' lapbook. It is the first of the Little House On The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Hannah loves the Laura books and is fascinated by Laura's life in the late 1800's as a little pioneer girl, so this lapbook really appealed to her.

Activity 1 was to make a vocabulary folder to be added to as the book progresses.

Activity 2 - Laura's biography!

Activity 3 - draw your favorite scene from the book! Hannah used the front cover as inspiration as she loves the part where Ma mistakes a bear for their cow one night!!

We found out where Wisconsin is, and found the lake that Laura and her family crossed while it was frozen on their journey west.

I think lapbooks are such a good idea. I especially like the book based ones, and Hannah really enjoys them while also getting to practise her reading and writing skills, comprehension, discussion, art and all manner of other things AND enjoying a good book as well!!

Fairy Looms at Adventure Group

2011-10-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today at Adventure Group Hannah and her friends made fairy looms. We took some forked twigs with us and yarn, beads, buttons, ribbon and wool tops. The children all wove the yarn around the fork and added beads and decorations as they went.

Hannah was very pleased with her creation!

This is the second time we have done this craft - it's really simple and the children make the most beautiful creations to take home.

A Few Days In Wales

2011-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

We have been away for a few days to visit my dad and step-mum at their house near Criccieth in North Wales. We've had a lovely time! The weather was kind and it was lovely to spend some time with my dad and step-mum, especially for Hannah, who hasn't had much opportunity to spend time with them due to living so far apart.

It was a 300 mile drive, and took us 7 hours each way, but it was definitely worth it! They live on a farm about 3 miles outside of Criccieth and so of course Hannah was in her element. It was so peaceful at their house, and the farm had ponies, cows and dogs to visit and some beautiful walks around the fields and footpaths.

This is Criccieth TownOn Tuesday we went to a children's farm where Hannah immediately found the most adorable Shetland pony called Stella to ride!

She loved looking around with Granny and Grandad,

This little kid followed her around all morning.

Back at Granny and Grandads' house we visited Rosie the pony who is just 2 years old and beautiful!
and went for a long walk with daddy across the footpaths .
There were streams and rivers everywhere and Hannah wanted to splash through them all!
There are mountains in the distance every way you look.

On wednesday we went to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysyliogogogoch which is the town with the longest name in the world and is on the Isle of Anglesey. The name means 'The church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tyslio by the red gate' isn't that an amazing name!!

We also went into Criccieth and looked around the shops there, checked out the beach and had a look at Criccieth Castle and Caernarfon Castle.

We are planning to go back again very soon!

Thank you very much for having us Dad and Heather xx

Off On Holiday

2011-10-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

We are off to Wales in the morning to visit my dad and step mum for a week! I'll blog all about it when we get back,

Susie........................

Portsmouth City Museum

2011-09-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today we met some friends at the city museum for lunch and then had a look at the new military display.

Hannah and her friend Oscar enjoyed dressing up in British Naval Uniforms - don't they look adorable?

Looked at the replica ship and the Navy Days display

and checked out some historical army uniforms.

The museum is amazing, we love going there and everytime we go we discover something new :-)

End Of Season Splash Pool Fun

2011-09-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

This week is the last week that the splash pool is open, and since we are having a mini heatwave we headed over there yesterday to meet up with friends and have some water fun!

Hannah had a really fun afternoon :-)

Adventure Group - Tie Dyed T-Shirts

2011-09-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

This week at Adventure Group the children learned a tie dying craft. They all had t-shirts or plain cotton bags to decorate and started by making a drawing surface with the t-shirt / bag. Hannah elastic banded the fabric over a plastic cup to hold it steady, and then drew out her design with Sharpie permanent markers. Once the design was finished we dripped surgical spirit onto the designs to disperse the ink in a tie dye pattern.

Hannah was really pleased with her shirt, and made a little one for her doll Lanie as well.

Here are the shirts drying in the sun!

Hannah wanted to wear hers as soon as it was dry!

After the craft one of the older boys very sportingly agreed to let the little ones bury him in the sand pit - they LOVED it!

He even let them use water and got absolutely drenched - luckily his mother had had the foresight to bring spare clothes!

They all had such a fun time that i can see it becoming a regular occurrence - note to self, pack dry clothes!!

Sunday School Picture

2011-09-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

This week in Sunday school the children learned about autumn, had an autumn story and drew autumn pictures!

Medieval Life Workshop At Portchester Castle

2011-09-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday I took Hannah to Portchester Castle to join in with a medieval workshop being run by another home schooling group. The castle is beautiful, the subject was interesting to Hannah and it had the potential to be a really good day. Unfortunately the teachers leading the course were not what I would have hoped for. They treated the children with very little respect, and Hannah found them really intimidating, so much so that she dropped out of the workshop very early on and watched most of it from a distance. I find it so disappointing when children arrive for a workshop so full of enthusiasm only to have it squashed when they excitedly 'forget' to raise their hand before speaking, or are pushed to answer questions when they are feeling shy, or are humiliated in front of their peers for failing to notice a sign, or any of the other multitute of things that some educators seem to think is perfectly acceptable to subject children to - it's just heart breaking. Thank goodness not all workshops are led by such people.

Anyway, i did take some pictures of the activities, and the castle looked beautiful in the sunshine!

I think we'll go back on our own really soon!

Outdoors

2011-09-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

We've had a couple of lovely autumnal days here so yesterday after Hannah had finished her lessons we went out to the park with her bike - she loves to ride her bike now and cycled miles around all the pathways making up exploring games and practising standing up on her pedals!

Today we had a lovely morning with friends, followed by a couple of hours of school work and a trip to the library. On the way home we discovered a perfect fairy ring in a different park from yesterday. Hannah was thrilled!

Can you make out the dark circle of grass Hannah is standing in?
Complete with toadstools around the edgeSo we stopped here for a play and Hannah did handstands and cartwheels around the circle,
Then it was Lanie's turn (she really does go almost everywhere with us!)
Anything Lanie can do Hannah has to have a try at lol!!
They even did a fairy dance!
And finished off with a quick visit to the playground!
A lovely end to the week :-)

A Thursday At Home

2011-09-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today was a typical day at home and started with Hannah reading a chapter of her reading book while Lanie (her AG doll) researched the book on her laptop!!

Her English lesson was all about story predictions, and her Math was number bonds and addition practise.

We did some work in her 'God and Me' book, and Hannah learned the meanings of her names and wrote some words which told about her using the letters from her christian name.

Then she started her United States workbook which her best friend Sydney had sent her. If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll remember Sydney, she lived near us for three years before moving back to the US and she and her mom still send us curriculum, fun activities and goodies -we miss them so much!

Anyway, Hannah loves her workbook so that will be her geography covered for a week or two and she'll have fun doing it!

She finished up by practising her computer skills surfing the American Girl website and playing some of the games on there!
This afternoon we went to the park and Hannah spent an hour cycling around there before going out to play with her friends until dinner time!

Our Autumn Season Table

2011-09-21T01:03:00.001-07:00

..........because suddenly it seems to be Autumn!

Chalk Art

2011-09-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hannah has recently made friends with three other little girls, all 7 years old, who have moved into our street over the summer. The girls call for each other after school every evening, and are in and out of all our houses playing together. Every dry evening they collect Hannah's sidewalk chalks and create huge pictures on the pavements and Hannah is LOVING it!!!

This picture is her latest creation, it's a self portrait!!

Adventure Group - Leaf Craft

2011-09-21T00:44:00.001-07:00

It's definitely autumnal here now, so yesterday the children all had fun making pictures with fallen leaves we had collected over the past week.

First Louise told them a little bit about the job of the leaf, why they change colour and showed them a chart of lots of different types of leaves found in England .

Then the children all chose an activity and got to work!

First Hannah tried Leaf Rubbing,

Then she and her friend Melissa designed and painted a huge tree on a roll of craft card, it will eventually be decorated with leaves when it has had time to dry.

And finally she moved on to the leaf pictures

and made a beautiful woodland scene.

After the craft it was time for a picnic lunch and then lots of free play in the sunshine!

Back To Allotment Group

2011-09-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

It was lovely to get back to the allotment today after our summer break. The children all planted up mini container gardens with peas, beans, radish, lettuce, parsley and spinach and then decorated a wooden name label for them.

They also went bug hunting, did some watering, ate lots of grapes, tomatoes and nasturtium and ran around alot!
Hannah had a lovely time!

Circus Stars Presentation.

2011-09-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today Hannah went to The City Museum for her Circus Stars presentation. Here she is with her medal and certificate!

We celebrated afterwards with chocolate cake in the tea rooms :-)

A Project - Our Seaside Town

2011-09-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Hannah got together at the library with a few friends to work on a new project. The children are looking at 'A Seaside Town' and yesterday they all brought holiday memorabilia to share, and compiled a list of all the things they would expect to find in a seaside town.

Then we went out into the glorious sunshine to walk around the area and see how many of the things on their list they could find.

At the crazy golf
The Shoreline WalkThe Pier
We ended up at Canoe Lake and the Natural History Museum, so popped in to see if there were any butterflies in the butterfly house - there were!

and we finished the day with some playtime in the park!!!

Back To Adventure Group

2011-09-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today was our first session back at adventure group since the summer break and it was a lovely relaxed session. We brought along some art and craft supplies for the children and set up a few tables of activities and just let them take their pick!

Hannah really liked the rainbow painting!

The Junk Modelling was a hit too!
There was plenty of sunny play between showers as well
Hannah was so pleased to see all her friends again, and we parents had time to catch up and make some plans for the new term so it was all together a very successful session :-)

Play Silks

2011-09-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write for ages about just how much fun Hannah can have with a square of silk! She has a basket of these play silks and loves them! This week she has played out in the street dressed as a barefoot rainbow princess, she's been a technicolour jack in the box, she has camped under them, dressed her dolls in them and made dens with them! Last night they were a teddy hammock and tonight they are a toy dog house.................really, they are brilliant!!

Back To (Home) School!!

2011-09-07T12:40:00.001-07:00

Today was our back to school day after the summer break. Hannah is officially doing grade 2 this year (we follow a US curriculum), but having started it this morning we discovered that the early work really wasn't challenging enough for her so we've skipped through quite a bit! We'll do the later lessons this term, and then move on to grade 3 i think.

Anyway, Hannah started by learning about The Parts Of A Story.

She read the mini stories on her worksheets and then had to pick out the plot, or main idea, and write them down.

After that we moved on to start the grade 2 math and found the same problem, so we pulled out some of the earlier lessons and started at times tables and multiplication.

So, the first lesson now was counting in twos and fives. Hannah like the worksheets, they are fun and colorful and have some nice activities so hopefully she'll enjoy grade 2/3 this year.

After math Hannah read a chapter of her reading book which she is really enjoying.

This term we are also going to be using ;

and these;

We have some lapbooks all ready to start, we have Little House In The Big Woods, The Big Snow, and Native American Indians, and we have a couple of science projects all lined up as well, so here's hoping this is a good year for us !

Reading Blogs!

2011-09-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

I still am, honest! I just can't comment on anyones blog that requires a google sign in (Fiona etc!). I don't know why and as soon as i fix it i'll be commenting all over the place, but for now please know that i'm still reading them all :-)

Not Back To School Picnic 2011

2011-09-02T11:39:00.001-07:00

Today we have been to our annual Not Back To School Picnic with our homeschooling group. What a great day!! Lovely weather, lots of fellow homeschoolers, games, crafts, face painting and socialising!!

One of the dads in the group is a screen printer, and he made us some fantastic banners to advertise our group - aren't they fab!

Hannah had a lovely time playing with an old friend whom she hadn't seen for about a year. They spent the whole picnic together!

This was the water bomb factory!

I think everyone really enjoyed today, and hopefully a few more families now know that homeschooling is a real option :-)

Sunday

2011-08-28T09:26:00.001-07:00

Today started with a trip back to our old church. It was lovely to see everyone again, Hannah caught up with her friends from sunday school and i enjoyed the traditional service.

Hannah drew a picture to go with the bible story the sunday school did, and she requested prayers for all our friends and family affected by the hurricane in the US.

After church we went home for a quick lunch, and then over to my godmother's farm for some fruit picking. She has plums, greengages, apples and blackberries ready. Hannah picked lots of them for us, so this week we will be making pies, jam and chutney!

BlackberriesUnder the plum tree
Apples
The Veggie garden
Happy Hannah!!

It was lovely getting out of the city and visiting my godmother again, the farm is so peaceful and relaxing - such a contrast to where we live.

Circus Stars Summer Reading Challenge - Completed !!

2011-08-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hannah finished her summer reading challenge yesterday and collected her final sticker from the library. She was SO excited!! She also received an invitation to The City Museum to a special fun day where she will be awarded a medal and certificate for completing the challenge :-)

Well done Hannah xx

Hannah and Coral

2011-08-24T02:47:00.000-07:00

When Hannah was just a year old we met a little girl also just a year old in a playground. She was there with her grandmother who took care of her while her parents were at work. The girls became friends almost immediately and for the next 4 years they saw each other several times a week at least, we took them to the same playgroups, went to each others houses, met in the parks and had days out together.

This is them aged 3 years
Then Coral went to school, and her grandma didn't have her during the day anymore and they both made new friends - but they didn't forget each other. Every holiday Corals' grandma arranges to have Coral stay with her for a few days and the girls have a big catch -up, and they have stayed as close as ever!

On monday we met up for the day at the splash pool and it was as though they had never been apart! They were so busy being together and playing that i couldn't even get a photo opportunity lol. But i did get them chasing each other through the water .................just!!
I hope this bond they have stays strong always - their friendship is so precious.

A Christening

2011-08-24T02:31:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were invited to a christening at a catholic church. The church was so beautiful and ornately decorated and the service was lovely.

Dean and Hannah outside the church
Receiving the christening candle.
At the Font
Afterwards we went to the christening reception at a nearby grass bowls club.
Table decorations

There was a bouncy castle there for the children which Hannah had a lovely time playing on!

Congratulations to Lilianna Edmonds on her special day, and thank you to Steve and Barbara for inviting us to be a part of it.

Random Stuff from this week!

2011-08-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

This week Hannah has been :

Riding,

Painting!

Don't believe Crayola when it says washable on the bottle - it took several soakings to get the paint off of Hannah's hands and feet - she looked tie dyed lol!!

She painted these in the garden and managed to add quite a bit of sand to the paint which made for an interesting texture!

We have also done some cooking and baking.We made apple pie (no picture - i forgot and we ate it lol),

Apple Sauce
and Hannah made cinnamon sugar cookies.
She has also done lots of reading, and we're off to the library now to collect more stickers in her reading challenge :-)

Falconry Display At The City Museum

2011-08-16T09:19:00.001-07:00

Today we met up with a group of friends from our homeschooling group at the City Museum to watch the Xtreme Falconry display that was being held there as part of the Out To Lunch activities.
Here is Hannah arriving at the museum.
Some of the birds on display.

The Barn Owl gave a flying display,

I think this one is a Horned Owl, but i could be wrong!
This is definitely the American Bald Eagle
He was HUGE!!!
It was amazing watching him fly!
And afterwards Hannah got to play with her friends and look around the museum - here she is with Melissa :-)
The museum is great, there was so much to look at inside (no pictures allowed though!), we will be going back for more exploring very soon :-)

Pottering Around Southsea

2011-08-16T09:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a really nice, quiet sort of pottering around day!

We cycled down to Southsea seafront (well, i cycled - Hannah rode in the trailer) and had a picnic and play in the Rose Gardens,

Hannah spent ages climbing the trees around Canoe Lake,

and then we went on to the beach for a paddle! Hannah collected about 500 shells and pebbles to bring home (seriously, the shell collection is going to need it's own room soon!) and she had fun throwing pebbles into the sea and generally messing about on the shoreline.

A nice ordinary sort of day :-)

Beach Buggin' 2011

2011-08-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Annual VW Beach Buggin' show on Southsea Common. We were going to a Gymkhana until we saw all the 'Vans and Beetles pouring into Portsmouth and then we HAD to go!! We used to have a red VW camper called Daisy, and we miss her so much - she was the best vehicle EVER!! Hannah and I are always hoping we'll spot her at a show one day and get to say hello again! We didn't see her yesterday, but we did have a lovely time checking out all the Splitties, Bays, Wedgies, Beetles, American Day Vans etc etc..............

Here are just a few of the pictures we took.

I saw this on the side of a 'van - it says it all really!

Daddy with his friend who owns this really cool Day Van!

The cutest Beetle :-)

Hannah wanted us to get this instead of the bicycle and trailer lol!
Our favourite Bay (also called Daisy!)

We even watched some street dancing performers!

It was a great show!!