Finally, an update!

My blog has been neglected for a few weeks as lots has been going on in our life so I'll just post a quick update then hopefully will be back to regular posts.

Peter had his fourth birthday! No longer a toddler and he had a nice visit to soft play and build-a-bear.

Harry has continued to create great pictures at art class and has been playing cello very nicely.

Harry has been reading Beast Quest books and has read the first two Artemis Fowl stories borrowed from the library as well as King of the Cloud Forests by Michael Morpurgo. Peter has started blending sounds to read simple words in the stage 1 Oxford Reading Tree books. He is also using the Teach Your Monster Read app.

Harry has started working from the Galore Park English textbook which is the perfect level of challenge for him at the moment. We are doing some of this each week. He has also been working lots on the basic maths functions using techniques for larger numbers, in Conquer Maths and the Mr Thorne Maths Universe app.

We have been using the BBC Schools Let's Move podcasts based on Ten Pieces classical music programme, so we have been following the podcast through dance and movement then watching some of the Ten Pieces too.

I recently received a set of free challenge cards from Dyson, which contain small science and engineering challenges. We have started following these last week, by using coke to clean a penny, which teaches about chemical compounds.

Harry has been to a family stargazing event at Kielder Observatory with Stuart, which he really enjoyed.

Harry and I have just started following a futurelearn online course about moons. He has always been interested in space and I think we will enjoy this.

We have been working on the Stone Age for a few weeks. We have read several books, looked up details about Germany (where the first bones were found) and visited the Hancock Museum in Newcastle using their downloadable object sheets to discover items in the Stone Age gallery. The boys played a great imaginative game for a long time involving hunting and being Cave Men. Harry also wrote a report back to the future from the Stone Age. 

We talked about Cave art and why it existed and also generally about art and how it can transport us to imaginative places or make us feel emotion. We looked at the posters and pictures in our house and said how they made us feel. 

WWI and the rest of the week

After visiting the war memorial in Newcastle we watched this CBeebies animation several times yesterday; Harry and Peter really liked it. It was still available on iPlayer today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04p4zsl/poppies

Peter also traced the word 'poppy' and Harry copied words from 'From The Fallen'.

We have been round to a friend's house this week and Harry has had his swimming lesson. 

Harry has been working through a lot of Conquer Maths lessons this week as he is enjoying it at the moment. I think we will be on track to finish year 2 by Christmas so I can start using the Galore Park textbook alongside the year 3 lessons.

Peter has done two Reading Eggs lessons and has been playing Teach Your Monster to Read.

We also had a trip out to an activity centre in Durham with the Group Scout Leader from our Scout group, in order to book the venue for a family camp next year. Harry and Peter had a good run around in the trees! 

In decorating news, the colour is starting to go on the walls in the hall and I have started the task of painting the wood on the staircase; I hope this is the only time in my life I will do this!! 

Speech therapy, war memorial and library

Harry had his speech therapy group this morning. His 'ch' sound has really improved and he will probably only go to one more group, to work on his 'j' sound.

As we were in town, we went to see the war memorial in Newcastle. Smaller poppy crosses had been planted around the area too. We talked about the WWI anniversary and the poppies and read the poem 'In Flanders Fields' at home.

We also visited City Library and Harry chose a few longer books to try in between Sea Quests. He also liked the look of some audio books from the Spy Dog series so we will be listening to those in the car.

Peter has been very under the weather today, probably caught from me, so he didn't go to his enjoy-a-ball class. Instead, the boys watched a feature length Bob The Builder DVD they had borrowed from the library. We read several of the new library books too.

Cousins and Vikings

Harry and Peter are delighted to have their bigger cousins visiting this week from Lancaster, with Stuart's sister and brother-in-law. We went to the Hancock museum today to see a mock Viking settlement. We held some weapons, saw wooden spoon carving, watched a fire cooking a stew and wove some bracelets. The boys all enjoyed a battle enactment!

We made some playdough this afternoon which did a great job of occupying the age range of 3 to 10! 

They have been playing lots in the garden together too, making loom bands and Hama beads and playing board games. We have a few more trips planned too so it will be a fun and tiring week! 

Great Fire of London workshop

We took part in a really interesting Durham University workshop on Friday with other home educating families about the Great Fire of London. The children looked at photos of objects damaged by fire and thought what they might tell us about the fire. We also discussed primary and secondary historical sources. We looked at some primary newspaper reports and talked about supporting evidence. We checked that the newspapers had reported the same facts, which would make the story more reliable.

We had a look at a map and some paintings of London at the time of the fire. We discussed the architecture of the time and how that contributed to the spread of the fire: streets close together and overhanging jetties. 

We read some of the diary extracts of Samuel Pepys about how he buried his wine and cheese to save it. The children thought what they would save from a fire and wrote this using a quill. 

The children also enjoyed making a human chain and role playing putting out fire by passing a bucket along the chain after filling it up in the river. They also enjoyed discussing how dirty the river would have been given the lack of proper sewage facilities! 

We really enjoyed the workshop. Peter spent most of it cutting up an old magazine and making pictures with it, so he was happy! We also went to buy my mum a birthday present afterwards and Harry had his enjoy-a-ball class.

Roman workshop, times tables and our weekend

We went to a super Roman workshop last Thursday at Segedunum Roman Fort where the children were 'trained' to become part of the Roman army. They had to march in columns, polish their shields, learn the soldiers oath and try on chain mail and weapons. They all really enjoyed the hands on nature of the workshop.

We finished off our list of work on Friday morning before heading out to French and enjoy-a-ball classes. 

Harry has been interested in times tables since we listened to Matilda by Roald Dahl. We have done quite a lot of multiplying but never the tables in order so we have started to work on that by rolling a ball to each other as we say the tables - he has easily managed 2, 3, 5, 6 and 10 and we will work on the others next week. I also used the ball rolling game to count with Peter. Harry joined in and we managed to get to 50 together before the lure of kicking the ball around became too much for Peter! 

Harry and Peter have been making bead bracelets as presents.

And Hama bead designs. Peter used the mini beads for the first time and managed to complete two small boards. 

They also did some symmetrical butterfly painting.

We have been to the park, where Harry now has the strength to traverse the monkey bars unaided. He is very pleased as he likes to do all things physical! 

We have also been playing games - Bananagrams, Shut the Box, Pop up Pirate and Insey Winsey Spider. Harry has some new superhero and Lego reading books and the boys are enjoying watching the original series of X-Men cartoons on Netflix. I used to watch them as a child and I think Harry is quite impressed by my X-Men general knowledge! Harry and Peter have also been adding stickers to the World Cup sticker book and I have a couple of themed activities planned for next week.

Tudor Quayside with That History Bloke

We had a brilliant tour of Newcastle/Gateshead Quayside yesterday with That History Bloke. Richard's passion for history certainly came across and the children were interested immediately due to his Henry VIII costume! 

We started in St Mary's Heritage Centre in Gateshead and learned how to bow and curtsey. 

Richard explained some Tudor games and toys and we played cup-and-ball, spinners and 21's with dice.

We walked over the Swing Bridge, spotting St Nicholas's Cathedral and the Castle Keep, which are around 1,000 years old so would have been there in Tudor times. Richard showed us some photos of the Tyne Bridge in Tudor times, which was a bustling market area. We discussed which goods were imported on ships then role played trying to sell our items. 

Over the bridge we looked at pictures of the flood that destroyed the original Tyne bridge in 1771. We then visited Bessie Surtees House, an original Tudor building. We completed a search and find activity for various objects then discussed them. We also looked at various Tudor artefacts and completed a worksheet. We talked about the differences between rich and poor in Tudor times by looking at typical items of clothes.

This tour was enjoyed by everyone and we left feeling fully immersed in history. Harry remembered all the facts we had learned as I asked him on the way back later in the afternoon. 

After the tour we headed onto the Quayside for lunch. A small 'beach' area is set up for the summer with deckchairs and buckets and spades and there were some CBBC Roadshow activities which the boys joined in with. We ended up staying for a couple of hours and sourced an ice-cream on the way back to the car, which was well deserved!

Tudor workshop

We attended a Tudor workshop on Friday with a group of home educating friends. The venue was Durham University and they had a fabulous new classroom with lots of space and child-sized furniture and toilets. It was a long and intense day and Harry worked really hard.

We started with some object handling. The children looked at Tudor objects, such as a ceramic oil lamp, cannon ball and pewter spoon, and completed a sheet to describe them and what they told us about the Tudors. We all shared ideas at the end and discovered what some of the objects really were.

They also tried some Tudor writing using quill pens. Harry copied the Tudor alphabet to write his name and wrote an inventory of some of his belongings, as we were told that the Tudors left lots of information behind for us in inventories.

We went for a walk around Durham too to spot Tudor buildings and clues and complete some questions. I worked hard at this point as I had to piggy-back Peter most of the way round! 

We went back to the classroom to design a coat of arms. Harry chose lots of animals to represent the characteristics he would like to have.

We are following this up with another Tudor event in Newcastle next week.

Tudors, baking and gymnastics

Yesterday was a bit of a disaster! Waking up at 5.15am is never going to be the best start to the day and especially not when you are Harry, who does not cope well when tired at all. Peter had his enjoy-a-ball class yesterday morning and I spent most of the rest of the day trying to stave off meltdowns! Harry went back to bed but refused to try and sleep - at least he was resting and listened to lots of audio books. I am very pleased he can do this when he is really overtired as he would get nothing but a lot of stress from a day at school. Peter had a daytime bath - one of his current favourite activities! Harry had Beavers yesterday evening, which he enjoyed as there were police officers visiting to talk about safety.

I am pleased to say that today has returned to normality! We listened to and talked about some audio clips about the Tudors this morning at our group session, in preparation for some organised events coming up. We also watched a couple of BBC Class Clips at home. Harry seemed to really enjoy craft time and made some pictures for grandparents. 

At home this afternoon, we made rocky road as we had some marshmallows in the cupboard. Breaking up the biscuits was a popular activity too. It was very nice! We also baked some chocolate buns.

We have been listening to a new BBC learning podcast in the kitchen: The Tales of Beatrix Potter, which we are all enjoying.

Harry practised cello and did some reading before going to play games on the iPad. Tuesday is an intense day as the church hall session tires him out after his late night at Beavers and he has to be ready for gymnastics at 5pm, so I usually try to build in some down time. He did really well at gymnastics and passed 4 activities towards his next badge. 

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.

Literacy games and Arbeia Roman Fort

We played one of our favourite literacy games this morning before we went out - word wall. I wrote 30 words taken from Harry's latest reading books on post-it notes and stuck them on the hall wall. He had to read them before he could remove them. I wrote some single letters for Peter to do the same. They like jumping around to get the notes!

We then went to meet other home educating families at Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields. It was a lovely sunny day too. We looked round the barracks, Centurion's house and Commanding Officer's house, comparing the differences. We used some of the schools downloads on the way round, which ask questions and have areas to label.

We went up the reconstructed West Gate and saw a weapon display and enjoyed the view from the top. Harry and Peter enjoyed collecting herbs to make Roman medicine!

We also used the indoor learning area and 'excavated' some Roman artefacts.

There is a good park close by so we went there for an hour afterwards so the children could play together.

It's been a very active day as Harry also had his enjoy-a-ball class this afternoon. He was very tired! Peter started a number sticker book during the class.

We played a new favourite game at bedtime and have used it a few times this week - Roald Dahl Brainbox. There are lots of different topics available for this game and I am sure we will be getting more. The point of the game is to study a card then answer a question on the back from memory relating to the picture and text. Harry is really good at it and we haven't managed to beat him yet! We are all really enjoying reading and listening to Roald Dahl stories at the moment so this game complements that perfectly and it's some good extra reading practise for Harry.