Home Education Group - Play Meet

Hannah has had the best afternoon!! We had a play meet at a new playground near Canoe Lake which was really good fun.The playground has hills and tunnels, water sprinklers, a zip wire and wooden climbing frames. There is so much more to it than i managed to take pictures of, but i got chatting to some of the other parents and forgot all about photographing......oops!! The water sprinklers seemed to be Hannah's favourite part! Despite the fact that we didn't have any spare clothes, Hannah still spent most of the afternoon in the water! She actually went home in a shirt that another mum had bought for herself and kindly lent to us for the trip home (thank you Claire)!


I did get some pictures of Hannah on the zip wire, i really wanted a go myself but it didn't seem quite the done thing - i'll go back and sneak a ride when it's quieter ;-)

What a great way to spend a friday afternoon :-)

Home Education Group - All About Me

This week the children began the session by talking about themselves. They shared baby photo's, found out the meanings of their name's and discovered why they were named those names. Hannah found out that her name is Hebrew and means God's Grace, and I told her how I had chosen her name after being inspired by the biography of Hannah Hawkswell who is a Dales farmer (google her, she is amazing!!).
For their craft this week the children all started to learn cross-stitch embroidery, and began making themselves bookmarks.
Hannah found it quite tricky as she has yet to master the art of patience, but she did get the hang of it in the end and quite enjoyed what she did.

After the session we all picnicked in the park in the sunshine, and the children had a wonderful time playing an elaborate game of chase and climbing trees. Hannah certainly had fresh air and exercise today!!!

The little ones were trying to catch the older one, who managed to escape by climbing high up into the tree!!

This picture is of the little ones planning tactics to bring him down!!

Hannah loved every minute of today and made new friends that she is really looking forward to seeing again soon.

A Picnic at The Pond

We have had a lovely picnic at Baffins Pond today with some of our friends. It was beautifully sunny, and the children had lots of fresh air and exercise running around playing ball and frisbee.

Hannah, Oscar and Maggie playing on the field.

Even Orla joined in the fun!

Then Hannah and Oscar had a walk around the pond looking for ducklings and feeding the birds. Hannah had the pigeons eating out of her hand!!

These little ducklings were so sweet, and very friendly - they hopped right up to Hannah's feet!

Finally Hannah and her friend Esme went to Rainbows, which Hannah said was brilliant. It's been a good day :-)

Another Riding Lesson

Hannah enjoyed another lovely riding lesson today. She is doing so well, and has gained so much confidence with her new instructor. She is also (really importantly) learning to care for the horses as well as just ride.

Today she caught Chunk from his field, groomed him and tacked up,

and then had her first ever road ride. The field is a mile away from the yard, and the bridleway was shut so she had to ride him on the road to the yard to use the school.

Once in the school Hannah rode quite confidently off of the lunge rein for the first time, and was very pleased that she was able to control Chunk and have him listen to her aids.

Then she started trotting over trotting poles on the lunge, doing rising and sitting trot alternately. This was 'super exciting' according to Hannah!!!

Finally she finished with a bit more 'off lunge' riding, and then rode back along the roads to the field.

After riding Hannah and i visited my Godmother who lives in the farmhouse and Hannah spent a happy hour playing with her German Shepherd and Terrier dogs in the garden.

Sunflowers and Fun with Claire

On Sunday Hannah was given this sunflower seedling, and was told it should grow to over 7 feet tall. She found this quite astonishing, and started asking all sorts of questions such as how 'fast will it grow' and 'will it be taller than daddy', so today she decided to keep a chart of it's weekly growth.

She has very carefully measured the sunflower today using string and a ruler, and it is 6cm tall. Watch out for regular updates over the spring and summer!!

This afternoon Hannah's tutor Claire came. Claire is lovely and Hannah really looks forward to seeing her. She brings a fresh approach and a new learning experience to our homeschooling and Hannah is enjoying every minute of their time together.

Hannah and Claire with today's reading book ' If I Were Boss'
Hannah thinks writing on the white board is 'very fun' !!

Rhyming Words

Playing 'Silly Sentances' which according to Hannah is really, really good and everyone should buy it!!

A Day Spent With Good Friends

Today we have spent a lovely day with our friends. We started with a play and some breakfast at our house, and then went out for a delicious lunch followed by a trip to Canoe Lake in Southsea.
The children had a really fun time in the sand pit and playground, they built castles, dug holes and buried legs and hands in sand before moving on to ........... .....a ride on a swan boat!! There was a lot of hopping on and off, changing seats, and chasing a ball floating on the lake!! Luckily Emma and I sat peacefully on the shore watching all this so a big thanks to Steve for doing all the peddling - Hannah thought it was fantastic!!

On Canoe Lake they also have Wave Walkers. They are giant inflatable plastic balls and you bounce around on the lake inside them. Of course Hannah and Ben HAD to have a go, and really enjoyed themselves!

Here's Hannah ready to be launched.

Synchronised tumbling!

crawling back to shore - apparently it's quite hard work

On the way home the children found some good climbing trees - how cute are they!!

Thank you Emma and Steve for coming over and for such a great day out :-)

Riding Today

We spent the day on the farm again today, and Hannah had another riding lesson. It was a beautiful day, warm sunny and the Swallows had arrived for the summer. I thought a bunch of photo's of Hannah sitting on a pony might be getting a bit old now, so i took a video instead :-)

Next week she is learning trotting poles !!

Today is Thursday.......

............and it started quietly with Hannah doing some of her worksheets. She's been enjoying working out these simple number grids recently so she did some more of those first this morning. Then she wanted to try some real joined up writing. She had trouble making her writing small enough to fit on the lines given, but nevertheless she managed to write the whole sentances (just) and was very pleased that she had done it.

This afternoon we went to Baffins Pond for a walk and to feed the ducks. There are signs of spring everywhere now, and we saw our first ducklings of the year!

Hannah's special 'Fairy Tree'.

Ducklings!!

Gorgeous Blossoms.

Nature Walk On Portsdown Hill

We have had a gorgeous nature walk today with our home education group. It was led by a friend of mine who volunteered to take us out as he knows the area well, and is a very knowledgeable wildlife enthusiast. The children found animal tracks, a badger set, rabbit burrows, wildflowers and were treated to a picnic lunch around a fire by a stream. It was a fantastic experience for us all.


Hawthorn just flowering.
Deer Tracks

Badgers Sett

Second Entrance To Badgers Sett

The badgers have dragged the hay you can see in this picture from a field nearby to use as bedding in the sett.


Lesser Celandine

Cowslips

Badger Hair from a fence across one of their runs.

Into The Woods

Roger teaches the children how to light a fire safely.

Hannah adds wood to the fire.

Nice and Warm (later they toasted nettles on the fire)

Roger lost his hat temporarily!! Happy Face!

A woodpeckers Hole.
Badger Tracks

Fox Tracks Violets in the Sunshine (the sun did finally come out!!)
We walked for 3 hours in total and learnt so much, and the children really appreciated the natural life all around them and totally immersed themselves in the experience. We can't wait for the next nature walk now :-)