Manor Farm - WW2 Experience

Yesterday we went to Manor Farm with one of the local home education groups to experience life as a WW2 evacuee.

There were three separate sessions, domestic, school and farm/field, and the children all got to have a try at everything.

Hannah's group began in the farmhouse learning about domestic life.

Laundry

Rationing

Money

Home Life

Anderson Air Raid Shelter

The lady leading this part told the children all about rationing, showed them examples of how much food they would have had, showed them gas masks and told stories from the times. Then the children were able to visit the old air raid shelter where they would have sheltered from the enemy bombs.

Next Hannah had a school lesson - 1944 style!

Lining Up For Class

Morning Prayers

Answering Spelling Questions During A Lesson About Homographs

Hannah especially liked the classroom, answering lots of questions and really enjoyed writing with chalk on a slate (because ink was scarce in the schoolrooms during the war),

Lastly we went out with the farmer to learn about the jobs children would have done on the farm during the war.

Hannah tried milking and feeding the pigs, and learnt that had she not been good at milking she would have been sent out to the fields to clear stones from the sowing areas and pick up potatoes! Luckily she is a bit of a natural when it comes to hand milking :-)

It was a really interesting day, the staff did a great job of being just authentic enough without overdoing it, Hannah learnt loads about life during the war and the surroundings were lovely!

On the way out through the country park i took a few pictures of the trees changing colours -

Beautiful!