Thames and Kosmos physics science kit

Harry asked to do some activities from this science kit this morning. It was a Christmas present but we haven't used it before. We made a gravity motor which worked really well. When something heavy enough is attached to the cord, it pulls downwards and moves the cogs to turn the propeller. 

The set is recommended for age 8 upwards, but Harry understood all the concepts fine and the model was actually quite sturdy once built so it was certainly suitable for him. He could not have built it without help as the propeller and cord tying was quite tricky but he put all the cogs in. He took it away for half an hour after we did the initial demonstration and experimented with different objects tied to the cord then dangled over the staircase to see if they were heavy enough! He is looking forward to building a water wheel model and bicycle next. Thames and Kosmos make lots of different science kits and I am sure we will be trying out more of them in the future, as science is always a topic that is enthusiastically received in our house.

Rainforest themed activities

We have been enjoying some rainforest themed activities this week. There were recently three podcasts on the BBC Learning Let's Move station based on the rainforest so we have listened to those on three consecutive mornings. They involved moving like sloths, leopards and flying dragons, making rain noise and listening to the noises of the rainforest.

I also found this book at the library, which the boys love. We have read it several times and Harry easily remembered the four levels of a tropical rainforest from the flowing, rhyming text.

We made colourful rainforest birds from paper plates. We folded the plates in half so they could stand alone and added feathers, tail plumes, eyes and beaks.

Harry and Peter created their own 'rainforest' in the garden and played there for nearly two hours. They packed rucksacks with towels, drinks and their 'scientific equipment'. They took their birds and perched them in plants.

They used long pieces of coloured wool for snakes, foam butterfly stamps and bright wind up caterpillars from the toy drawers for the other rainforest creatures.

They examined the creatures to see if they were new species and if they were poisonous! 

Harry made some drawings in his notebook of new discoveries to tell other scientists about. He seems to have been in his pyjamas a lot this week at home!

We also had a lovely outdoor story and snack on the picnic rug. We read Superworm and ate flapjack! Harry and Peter both love this type of imaginative game and absorb lots of facts in the process as I talk to them. They have previously been polar explorers wrapped up in warm clothes, collecting ice samples and volcanologists, looking for gems in volcanic rock!

Finishing the weekly list!

It's been a very productive week and day of home education! We are going on holiday shortly and so I have been really keen this week to finish my to-do list! I usually make a weekly list of things I would like to get done with Harry and Peter and often some things will be rolled forward to another week. I like the flexibility of this as it means we can take advantage if something unexpected and interesting happens, or we can spend longer than expected doing a particular thing. I didn't want to leave anything unfinished this week though, so that we can have a proper week off and start something new afterwards. 

We have spent lots of time celebrating World Book Day and doing some rainforest activities this week (in separate posts). We also had French class yesterday and the children all played together in the park afterwards.

Harry has played lots of cello this week as he had a hard page to practise in his book this week and he has definitely got better at it, so hopefully he will be able to do it in the lesson tomorrow. In other exciting musical news, we have acquired a piano from the parents of a friend and it will be arriving in two weeks! I definitely want to learn and I hope that Harry and Peter will too.

We made bread rolls to go with soup for lunch today. I didn't manage to photograph the finished article as we were all too hungry, but they turned out well!

Harry and Peter also prepared a big tray of vegetables for roasting. I usually make a batch of vegetable sauce every week to use as pizza topping and pasta sauce and this was it. They love being involved in the kitchen.

Harry has written all of his birthday thank you notes. He did some lovely writing at a good speed. I helped with some spellings whilst helping Peter to do some of his Kumon number book and reading The Highway Rat to him. Harry has also done a spelling list on the Squeebles spelling app and a Reading Eggs lesson this week. Peter has been cutting and out and sticking Alphablocks pictures from the CBeebies website. He knows quite a few letters now.

The boys rode their scooters to the post box this afternoon to post the thank you notes and had a run around in the garden before we went to Harry's enjoy-a-ball class. The children were learning basketball skills today. I read Richard Scarry's What do People do all Day? to Peter during the class and he played a new shapes app on the iPad, Busy Shapes by Seven Academy, which they both really like.

Harry is really enjoying his latest Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Stuart continued reading this to him at bedtime. He was quite tired after lunch today so he listened to an hour of his latest audio book, Grk and the Phoney Macaroni, while Peter had a bath.

I am feeling ready to go on holiday (once the house has been cleaned this weekend)!

World Book Day craft and Five Children and It activities

We celebrated World Book Day late this week, so we could do it with the friends we usually meet for a group session on a Tuesday. Harry and Peter watched the World Book Day episode of Blue Peter to get them in the mood.

I made Harry a crossword using clues from books we have recently read. He hasn't done a crossword before and he loved it - his face lot up when he realised the answer to a clue! The coloured squares spelled the word 'fruit' and he went off to find a chocolate orange prize hiding in the fruit bowl. The crossword maker I used was great and almost instantly created the crossword based on the clues and answers I gave. I also gave Peter a short verbal book quiz, as he likes to be involved!

We made book cover collages. I printed a variety of book cover pictures I found on Google Images from books we have read recently. I gave these to Harry and Peter together with some collage embellishments and shiny paint sticks. They were really enthusiastic and focused doing this so I would recommend this as a really fun World Book Day craft for all ages.

Harry split up the words and pictures from several covers and used them for his collage. 

Peter made his own Misterland using Mr Men covers.

The boys dressed up. Peter loves Spider-Man at the moment and is delighted that Spider-Man is really called Peter too. Harry dressed up as Mr Bump and loved adding plasters all over himself!

We met friends at the park, who were also dressed up. The children played then we sat down to discuss 5 Children and It, which we have all been reading. We talked about the wishes in the book and how you could ensure that bad consequences didn't happen from wishes you might make. We talked about the family and what clues there were as to whether they were rich or poor.

We talked about the Psammead and watched YouTube clips from different TV/film versions of the story, which had different interpretations of the Psammead. This is Harry's interpretation.

We looked at this book, which has some good pictures of life around 100 years ago, when the book was written. The first cars appeared in the streets and families started having photo portraits taken. The clothes were quite different and we discussed this.

We used the comprehension dice to answer post-reading questions. Harry said the main idea of the story was about the children making wishes. He made up an imaginative alternate ending with a foreign spy who kidnapped the Psammead, so he could wish for his country to rule the world and the children had to go to the rescue.

Harry and I looked through the book for some interesting words and defined them - he had a really good attempt at the meaning and I read him the dictionary definitions too. We also talked about similes and thought of some other ways to use the beautiful comparison from the wish to 'be as beautiful as the day' (I liked Harry's Mummy one!). 

We really enjoyed 5 Children and It and will be listening to the other stories in the trilogy as they were all in the same download from Audible. 

Heart and lungs, park and gymnastics

Harry started writing his birthday thank you letters this morning before we went out and read some more of his new Oxford Reading Tree book, 'Superdog'. He is doing really well with the words in the stage 9 books but there is a lot more text than he has read before, so he is doing 4-5 pages at a time.

Peter asked if he could ride his bike to our group session this morning and it was a lovely sunny day so Harry and Peter both went on their bikes. Peter did really well - it took half an hour each way and it was great being out in the fresh air.

We have been looking at the heart and lungs in our Tuesday group session for the past two weeks. We have estimated and measured how many breaths our lungs take and how many pulses our hearts make. The children enjoyed racing around and doing star jumps to make their hearts beat faster!

We have talked about the role of the heart and lungs, measured the temperature of our breath and done an experiment to show how much air is in the lungs. This involved filling a large bottle with water then submerging the neck underwater in a bowl so the water could not escape. The children then blew through a straw into the bottle to displace the water with the air from their lungs. There was a good bit of competition going on as to who could do it in one breath! 

The weather was lovely today so we headed to the local park after an hour at the church hall. We had lunch outdoors then the children played for over two hours. They had a great time in a very involved police chase game.

There were 4 children in this happy heap! Peter is underneath and had a great time chasing around with the bigger boys, although he ran out of steam in his small legs sooner! 

Harry and Peter were very tired riding their bikes home after the park, so they watched TV to have a rest, then we had an early tea and went to Harry's gymnastics class. He was delighted when he came out to have passed his next badge, so he has a second certificate to add to his Beavers one this week. I read Peter several books while Harry is in gymnastics, then he goes straight to bed when he is ready at home as Tuesday is a busy, long day for him.

Stuart started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Harry at bedtime, before he crawled into bed and went to sleep instantly. He has had a very active day! 

Beach, allotment planting and Beavers

It's been a very busy few days! We had Stuart's parents visiting for the weekend after Harry's birthday and it was also Stuart's birthday. We all went out for lunch on Saturday after Harry's music class - this is the view from the Baltic art gallery on the Quayside.

The boys really enjoyed having their grandparents to play with and show things to. We visited a bookshop too, so Harry could spend some birthday money and I am really happy that we will soon be reading another Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Peter also chose The Highway Rat, by Julia Donaldson. We have been reading The Cat in the Hat Comes Back twice every day for several days since we borrowed it from the library too - Harry and Peter both love it!

We started planting seeds for the allotment this weekend - tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers for the greenhouse and courgette and sunflowers for the beds. I will keep the pots at home for now so we can water them regularly. We also planted some seed potatoes in a bag at home. Harry and Peter love garden and allotment work and I am sure they will be delighted to get back into it.

We spent a lovely few hours at the beach with several home ed friends today, after Peter's enjoy-a-ball class. It was really sunny and all the children had a great time. It was nice to see some friends we haven't seen for a while too.

Harry was invested at Beavers tonight and received a certificate and his necker and woggle. He had to find out some facts about beavers (the animal) and Scouts, which we had done last week. He also won the Beaver mascot to bring home for being the best Beaver of the week - I am not sure why he has such a serious face here!

Videos for learning phonics and words

We have recently discovered and been watching some Mr Thorne videos on YouTube. Harry and Peter both laugh at Geraldine the giraffe especially, who falls asleep while being taught letters and words! These are great for both boys as there are single letter sounds for Peter and tricky words for Harry. They definitely enjoyed these videos as they didn't try to put anything else on!

There are also Mr Thorne apps which I might try.