History and halloween

A ghost spider :-0


Things have been a bit different this week. The kids built a huge den in the dining room which covered the whole floor and made workboxes inaccessible - so we didn't do any:0) The den stayed up all week and they slept in it too for a few nights. They loved it :0)
We started an Anglo-Saxons project - almost by accident really. I got a free project pack from Hands of a Child to review which I was initially chuffed about 'cos I've only ever read rave reviews about their stuff. Unfortunately, I wasn't so impressed with it really but we are using it albeit in a much adapted fashion. I'm using library books rather than their info - which I have read (and found a bit dry to read straight out to the childer). I learnt some bits from it and learnt tons more when I double checked it all. (If I'm reviewing something I want to make sure it's accurate!) I thought that loads of interesting bits were missing...well, interesting to me, I like all the legend stuff about Alfred and Canute and think my two will too. Anyway, usually people say what a time-saver these packs are. Not for me :/ Maybe I'm just fussy, but I spent ages re-jigging the whole layout so I wasn't using so much paper - I estimated I used about a third less that way. (They did say they are going to update this particular pack and have made the layout more economical paperwise). I also added some mini books of my own as I thought it was too much writing for mine - it would probably be better for older kids who like writing. It has been useful though as it's helped me to formulate a loose plan of order which is still manages to stay flexible as well as giving me a good idea what to include and more importantly, where to stop. (Left to our/my own devises we/I can drag a topic out for weeks.Ooops! )
Other than my own little learning journey with that review millarkey, we've been to a rare breeds centre and seen some owls and got some owl pellets from them and dissected them :0)

Would you believe this is the same bird? It's a Scops owl.


Owl pellet dissection.

They've also played with train tracks , built with bricks, played out, been foraging, finished the book group book, watched Beowulf - an old 20 min animation - v. child friendly NOT the new CGI version, made maps of France, written about Calais using Openoffice and learnt how to get fonts how you want them (the girl), practiced some French, practiced cornet, sung lots, read loads of stuff about Anglo-Saxons, started an Anglo-saxon village...

This is their Anglo-Saxon village brick version. No roofs but lovely plank walls :0)

Then celebrated halloween with Girligig's drama group trail of terrors in the local park. She was a victorian child ghost playing on the swings - very eerie! They did really well and the weather was lovely and mild for them. I hope they do it again next year.
Oh yes, and we've been swimming, been to gym, had friends to play and sleepover (lots of different ones), and played and read and made felt in the library and been to story time and made halloween spiders and webs and baked bread and squeezed in some Maths ;0)