Butser Ancient Farm - Autumn Fayre

This weekend was the Autumn Fayre at Butser Ancient Farm

There were lots of traditional displays such as cooking, flint knapping, iron working, stone age tools,  farming, and story telling in the roundhouse for the children. Hannah did more chalk crushing which she loves to do everytime we visit Butser  (the chalk is then used to fill in the floor of the Roman Villa), and made a colourful mosaic in the Villa. Her favourite part (as always) was seeing all the animals, especially as these were traditional and rare breeds, and they were very friendly and happy to be stroked and talked to.  We ate our picnic lunch sitting around the fire in the great roundhouse, and picked blackberries from the hedges of the farm in glorious sunshine. A perfect autumn day.

Roundhouses nestled at the foot of the hill

Watching the pigs

colourful chickens
The farm has Mouflon, Soay and Manx Loaghtan sheep.

Lunch in the roundhouse
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go..................
crushing the chalk for the Villa floor
mosaic making
stone age tool displays

flint knapping
The green man artwork inside the Villa
mosaic floor inside the villa

Painting, Playing, Dancing and Reading

Yesterday, Hannah and i went to Baffins Pond to meet up with our friends Carole, Tess and Brodie for some painting and playing. 

We started with some outdoor painting under a beautiful shady willow tree,

then moved on to running, playing and skipping before a picnic lunch.

After lunch we went to the library where the children chose lots of books, and Carole read stories to them all.

Then it was time for the girls to try their new dance class at The Ashcroft Arts Centre where we went for an open day last weekend. It was a lovely, relaxed, fun class which they both seemed to enjoy very much. We will be going back next week :-)

Finally, after dancing we went to Grandma's house for a cup of tea as Hannah wanted to show her one of her library books. Hannah is very interested in what life was like for her grandma when she was a little girl during the war, and had found a fascinating book called Grandma's War. She was really pleased when she and grandma sat and read the book together, and my mum was able to tell her all about her own experiences prompted by the things Hannah saw in the book.

I feel a museum trip coming on!!

Home Education Group and Victoria Park

On wednesday we went to our weekly home education group. This week the children were looking at Autumn and brought lots of autumn finds with them. 

Here is Hannah wearing a plaited corn hust hair decoration!

After the group finished it was raining, so we all went to the coffee shop so that we could chat, relax and eat together.

Hmm, there's a camera in my face!!

Once it stopped raining Hannah wanted to go to Victoria Park, so off we went to do some tree climbing and playing.

Chatting with a squirrel

Making her way up the tree
Ummm, there's still a long way to go!!
I think i'm happy here!!

When we got to the playground Hannah worked out an obstacle course for herself and had lots energetic fun completing it! 

Tuesday...

Tuesday...............and we were at our friends house today child minding her little boy. Hannah was really excited to hear that there were newts and frogs in the garden and set off at once to hunt some out! 

The first one she found was tiny,The second one was bigger and much more lively!!

Then we spotted the tiniest frog hiding in the fallen leaves.
Hannah helped out by watering the tomatoes......and then tried out all the musical instruments

doing her best 'rock star' impression!!Next she did some art and drew this Rainbow Duck...........

.....and almost correctly spelled rainbow duck all by herself!

On the way home we walked through the cemetery to collect some autumn treasures for our home education group tomorrow.

The Cemetery looking very autumnal.
Collecting conkers
Our autumn bounty
Beautiful autumn colours.

Ashcroft Arts Centre Open Day

We had a really interesting day yesterday. The Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham had a taster day for lots of their different activities and courses, and we went along with our friends Carole, Tess and Brodie over at Adventures in Wonderland. 

Hannah, Tess and Brodie took part in a 'Street Dance' workshop which they loved. They learnt lots of street moves and put them together in sequence finishing with a 'streetpose'  (the girls were frighteningly good at that part lol). 

Next they did a drama workshop. I did think that Hannah might be too shy to really get anything out of the drama lesson, but she really surprised me. She and Tess paired up together to learn a little sketch and then volunteered to get up on stage at the end of the session to perform it for the other children (and the mum's and dad's). Brodie went up on stage as well to help out, and they were all adorable and very brave.

After the two workshops there was face painting, tie dying, art and craft to do before we left.

Beautiful Butterflies and Flowers

Face Paining Fun
Tie Dying 

Hannah's is one of the turquoise shirts
Colouring in an Indian Rangoli Pattern
The finished design
A frog finger puppet

And finally a mouse finger puppet.

Hannah absolutely loved the whole day, and really enjoyed trying some new things with her friends. We are going back again on thursday so the girls can try out a new dance class they are running there.........................watch this space!!