While sorting out some of my sisters old childhood belongings my mum found some unopened craft sets from about 30 years ago. There are sewing samplers, knitting sets and tissue paper craft.
Here is Hannah making the tissue paper pictures today, they are lovely and she was really pleased to receive them.
For the last week Hannah has been excitedly spotting birds nesting everywhere we go, and has been asking lots of questions about how they build their nests, when the babies hatch, how they learn to fly and so on, so today our learning was based all around the birds in spring, resulting in a lovely birds nest for our season table.
First Hannah got out all the bird books, and looked at the different kinds of (mainly British) birds, and she discovered that they lay different coloured eggs and build them in various different locations (buildings, trees, flowerpots), she was fascinated with the idea that the mother stays sitting on the eggs keeping them warm and turning them until the are ready to hatch - then she wanted to build a nesting box..........................unfortunately we didn't have the materials for that, so she settled for a nest made from twigs, grass and cotton and filled with dough eggs.
Learning about different styles of nesting.
Today we have been out in the countryside to Catherington Down Nature Reserve and to Petersfield Lake. Hannah has been watching a childrens nature program called The Green Balloon Club, which she finds really interesting and informative, so today she was inspired to become a "nature detective" at Catherington Down. Here is what she found.....................
The first Blackthorn Blossom.
After leaving the downs, we went to Petersfield Lake as Hannah was really keen to try out her pond net. Unfortunately she didn't catch anything, but had lots of fun trying and the lake was beautiful today.
What's in the Net??
My mum came over this morning before Hannah had started her "learning" so Hannah asked if she could help her with her lessons today. They both seemed to really enjoy themselves, and Hannah loved reading aloud to Grammy.
No Helping Grammy, i can read it!!
Today we visited The Natural History Museum with Hannah's homeschooled friends Jack and Sam. It was a fascinating day and Hannah particularly enjoyed learning about butterflies. The conservatory is filled with butterflies during May - September, but today they had all the information boards out and displays showing the lifecycle of the butterfly, it's natural habitat and cases of different species. We plan to go back to see the live butterflies in the summer and help them with their local butterfly survey.
The museum also has exhibits on Farlington Marshes, Woodlands, Local Ice Age, The River Bank, Shells, The Solent Seashore, The Solar System, Local bones and Fossils.
Here are our pictures from today......................
Hannah, Jack and Sam in the Butterfly Conservatory.
Well the weather is still so beautiful that we have really been making the most of our tiny back yard. Hannah and i bought a few cute garden ornaments, and planted up some tubs of bright spring pansy's and have been enjoying just being outside. The back wall is covered in really thick ivy, and last summer it was swarming with bees and butterflies. This year we signed up to "Save Our Bees" at http://www.saveourbees.org.uk/register.asp for National Science And Engineering Week, and have sown lots of bee friendly flower seed in our borders including Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Poppies and Corn Marigolds.
Here is the beautiful card my special little girl gave me this morning, she wrote in it all by herself, apparently daddy "just had to spell mothers" for her - i'm so proud of her :-)
Hannah also decided that my mum should have a special present as well, so she started a book of pictures just for grammy - here is the first one!!
Here is our Spring season table - Hannah and i made the felt flowers and the felt bluebell lady, and Hannah arranged all the pieces on the table. We are intending to add to it as spring progresses - our next project will be an attempt at a birds nest, and we have some Easter pieces to add later too.
Now that Hannah is able to read a little (not fluently yet but she's getting much more confident) she has taken much more interest in choosing her own books to read.
Here are some of the books we have bought this week - 4 were from a library sale, 2 were part of our library Bookstart set, and the latest "My First Little House On the Prairie" book she has bought.
My Hippie Grandmother, Beautiful Bananas, A New House For Mouse and Handa's Surprise.
Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" celebrates its 40th birthday this week, so our Home Education group got together today to listen to stories and do craft's connected with Eric Carle's books. It was a really fun, interesting session led by one of the mum's in our group. The children were interactive in the story telling, each having a cloth picture or word to stick to the felt board as they were read out in the story, and then they made catapillars and butterfly's to take home.
It was such beautiful weather again that we had a picnic at the recreation ground afterwards with some of our friends from the group. Hannah was very pleased that we took her tent along too!
Hannah doing one of the Eric Carle Puzzles.
