Gravity, rocket building and alphabet game

We have had a good couple of days and it's been lovely and sunny too! Harry started his space badge at Beavers this week so we have been talking about space and doing a few themed activities. He also brought home his safety badge. He is really enjoying Beavers still and likes working towards the badges.

At our church hall group session yesterday we looked at some gravity experiments. We talked about center of gravity and tried to balance pencils and spoons on our fingers to find the center of gravity. We tested to see if various items would fall quicker than each other. They all fell at about the same rate due to gravity acting in the same way upon everything, whatever it weighs.

The boys had fun trying to keep balloons in the air by blowing through straws.

Harry drew some planets at craft time using his 'See Inside Space' book for inspiration. We read about Edwin Hubble, as the Hubble Telescope had been in the quiz at Beavers and about the Milky Way. 

Harry was given a cardboard rocket for a 5th birthday present and I don't know why we didn't build it last summer but it was sitting under the spare bed so we took it out into the garden today and the boys painted it, while pretending to be Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. There have been a few cleaning jobs that have been nagging at me for a while so I did these while they were in the garden - my kitchen window blind is now sparkling! The rocket is still in the garden as it's a good weather forecast this week so they can continue to play in it.

Harry practised his cello and they both did Reading Eggs after this. Peter is managing well with it and seems to enjoy it. We also played an alphabet game. I gave Peter a bag of objects and set out letters of the alphabet on the floor. I asked him to put each object with it's starting letter. He did really well and went off to re-fill the bag with his own letter objects. I just need to find a different 'w'!

We also went to the allotment this afternoon and I meant to take pictures there but forgot. The weeds are looking healthy so we weeded a couple of beds and put some weed killer on the paths. We also planted out our first courgette seedlings and the last of the onions. The boys enjoyed riding their bikes there and back.

Harry has been reading a lot in bed still and also reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with me. His confidence has improved so much in the last month and it's really great that he is actually enjoying reading now, rather than it always being hard work.

Harry's weekend - Dig, Jorvik and York Railway Museum

Harry really enjoyed his two days away in York with Stuart on Sunday and Monday. He was exhausted on Tuesday and went for a nap in the middle of the day! 

They visited Dig, where he had a go at excavating some building foundations and Jorvik Viking Centre.

They did lots of general exploring around the City Walls and streets and up Clifford's Tower.

They also enjoyed the Railway Museum. Harry was a fan of the speedy bullet train.

Peter's weekend

We have had a very different Sunday and Monday to usual this week. Harry and Stuart went off to York on the train early on Sunday, stayed in a hotel and returned home this afternoon in time for Beavers. It was nice for the boys to both have extended one-to-one time and we do try to do this most weekends but it is only for the odd hour. I think they really missed each other, although I am sure they appreciated the space too.

Peter requested a bus trip and a park trip, so they were quite easily fulfilled! We went to town on the bus on Sunday and bought some new pyjamas and books. We also went to the allotment. Peter had his enjoy-a-ball class this morning and he rode his bike to the local playground this afternoon, managing yet another graze in the process! He seems to be permanently in a state of injury at the moment - the perils of being three. He also had a Mister Maker magazine and we did some activities from there. 

I will post Harry's trip separately.

French and play

Harry and Peter were enjoying some quiet activities this morning so I left them to it and ignored my list! I love it when they find their own things to do and usually don't interfere as finding their own, appropriate activities is an important skill I would like them to have. Harry was making geometric shape pictures while wearing bunny ears and listening to Gangsta Granny by David Walliams and Peter was dressed as a knight making various weapons for Lego men to fight dragons! 

We have also done some French activities as our class wasn't on this week. We played a memory tray game, where we said the names of the objects then someone took one away and the others had to try to remember which one had been removed.

We also watched some French BBC Class Clips - one about food and a song of Old Macdonald Had a Farm and did some French sticker book. Peter chose the pictures and Harry found the matching words.

It was quite warm this afternoon and Peter played in the garden lots with his ball and with water.

Harry made some tin foil boats for him to use.

Harry has spent a lot of time building Lego this afternoon. He has been saving his money for a few months and had enough to buy the set he wanted - Museum Break In. I was really proud of him as it's the first big thing he has saved for instead of spending money the moment he has it on smaller things.

He just finished building it all in time to go to enjoy-a-ball class and played with it afterwards when Stuart got home. He also practised cello ready for his lesson tomorrow. 

Kitchen science, Indian art and writing activity

We finished off week 3 of 6 in our Kitchen Chemistry online course this morning by looking at surfactants. We talked about emulsions and why they are different to solutions and used an experiment from Science Bob to demonstrate how a surfactant (washing up liquid) works to dissolve the fat in an emulsion (milk).

Harry also practised his cello then, because our French class wasn't on today, we went to the regular home education art group instead. This is held in the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle and is run by the learning officer there. It was nice to have a change but Peter wasn't really interested! They did enjoy a run around the Civic Centre Gardens afterwards with some friends though.

Today we were shown Indian pictures and fabrics and then the children designed their own pictures. Peter coloured a bird and a Taj Mahal. 

Harry used one of the pictures we were shown as inspiration for his picture of the Sun God's crown, with the sun behind it.

Harry seems to be quite interested in news and writing at the moment so I asked Harry and Peter to cut out an interesting picture from a stack of old newspapers and think of a news article to go with it. Harry cut out woodland activity themed pictures and wrote this list.

Obviously I did Peter's writing for him, but he really enjoyed being involved in this one and telling me his story. I'm not sure why he was thinking about coconut trees! I think we will do this activity again as there is no limit to the creative element and I am trying to do some activities now that can be done by both boys at the same time.

Maths games, park, reading and baking

Today has been a very typical 'stay at home day' for us. We haven't actually stayed home all day but we haven't met anyone else and have followed a natural, relaxed schedule. It's been a lovely day.

Harry came downstairs first this morning and prepared fruit and cereal for us. I love the Christmas napkins he found in the cupboard to use!  

We played some maths-based board games after breakfast - Trilemma, Insy Winsey Spider and more place value target - Harry is very good at recognising numbers into thousands now and wants to make a really big target with numbers up to millions. 

After hanging up some washing we went to a local park and had a great time. We took a ball and played football and piggy in the middle and had a few games of hide-and-seek. The boys used lots of energy!

At home, we baked gingerbread cake and biscuits and listened to a Listen and Play BBC podcast.

I read some Fantastic Mr Fox and Harry read his new reading book - I am Wonder Woman. He is really enjoying the superhero books from the I Can Read series. He read some more at bedtime and we played Roald Dahl Brainbox. We have also played with Lego and building bricks.  

Nerf gun play and games

We met several other home educating families this morning for an hour of nerf gun play. We hired a sports hall and the children had a whale of a time running around and shooting each other, with no tears from anyone!

We also went to the park next to the sports hall to play outdoors for over an hour.

Harry practised his cello and had a hair cut before we went out this morning. He chatted away to the hairdresser while I read some books to Peter. This afternoon Peter and I have played alphabet lotto - we matched the pictures and chose the correct letter for the start of the word. 

Harry has done a Reading Eggs lesson and we have played target, a place value maths game. 

Harry also had his gymnastics class at 5pm - he has done a lot of exercise today and fell asleep very quickly! Stuart is working abroad for a few days so I thought we all deserved fish and chips for tea, which was well received.

We have been to the allotment a few times recently to weed and water. We have also started leaving our sweetcorn, squash and courgette seedlings outside the greenhouse for short periods in advance of planting them out in the beds.