Getting Back To Normal

Thankfully this week has been a lot more normal so far! Dean has returned to work and Hannah is feeling better!!

On Monday she started off gently with a little more work on her Charles Dickens project. She made a nice bright front cover for her folder and looked at the BBC History site to find out what they had to say about him.



She decided to do some writing practise in her journal and chose Robins and Squirrels to write about. Usually Hannah asks me to spell every word out to her as she hates to get things wrong, but this time she tried to write the words she didn't know phonetically.

I wrote the correct spellings underneath when she had finished so she could refer back to them.
'Robins have red breasts. I love Robins because they have the ability to fly.'
'Squirrels are different colours - Red, Gray - I have never seen a red squirrel but i have a poster.'

I was really pleased to see that she is developing the confidence to attempt to spell words by herself and she told me she wanted to learn more words so she could write more things down - bless!

The weather has been much milder this week and we were getting tired of Winter, so Hannah cut out lots of Spring pictures and chose a Spring poem for our notice board. Then she organised them into a lovely cheerful display!

Yesterday we had our monthly art group - we have merged it with adventure group now as the adventure group has such a nice inside space, and i think it worked well. The children learn how to water colour and texture sand by adding salt to the wet paint.

The lighting was bad when i took the picture, but you can just about get the idea i think. Hannah loved it anyway and was one of the very last to pack away her painting things and go out to play!


Today has been a play day as Hannah had her friend Tess over for the afternoon and they had fun with Barbie and Moshi Monsters!

Our Week

Gosh! I haven't blogged for over a week!

I've been busy taking care of sick people as not only was Dean still recovering from pneumonia, but then Hannah got sick as well!!

She has spent most of the week on the sofa coughing and trying to keep her fever down, but she did manage to do some painting one day,


and has printed off lots of activity sheets from our favourite website www.familyfun.go.com . She has done wordsearches, mazes, puzzles and colouring. I've read lots of books to her including her new Ralph Mouse collection and am currently reading her The Faraway Tree for the second time - it's her favourite book EVER!!

Finally yesterday she felt better and we made it to the seafront for some fresh air and a coffee (me) and fruit juice (Hannah).

Today we went to church which was nice. Hannah woke up this morning and really wanted to go to Sunday School because she felt better and missed her friends, so we did and she had a lovely time learning about Lent, and then helped me tidy the garden this afternoon!

Hopefully this week will be back to normal :-)

History Study Group

We have had a very nice day today! We met up with two other families from our group so that all our girls could learn some more about Charles Dickens together and Hannah really enjoyed it.

They started off with a questionaire to see how much they could remember from our museum visit. They must have really enjoyed the museum because they all remembered lots of facts and finished the question sheets in no time!




Next they used the resources they had chosen on our museum visit to colour scenes from the stories - Hannah is colouring Mr Pickwick here,
and construct either a Victorian Church or Schoolhouse. Hannah chose the church. It was really fiddly to cut out and construct and our finished church is authentically vintage looking, but it was fun!

To finish they had a go at writing their own stories. Hannah and her friend Melissa worked together to write a ghost story inspired by 'A Christmas Carol'. Hopefully they will finish it off at our next session and i can get a picture of it!

Hannah loved working with a small group of girls today, it definitely suited her learning style as she came home inspired to do more writing and looking forward to the next session.

Valentines Day!

So today is Valentines Day, and poor Dean is sick. So Hannah made him a special valentine banner to make him feel better!

Here he is, he has pneumonia and had just been for a chest x-ray when i took this! Get well soon Dean!
Hannah also received a valentine gift! Her best friend Sydney sent her this lovely boxed set of books all the way from the USA, she was so pleased :-)

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day - hope you've all had hearts of fun!

Lights, Camera, Action

Hannah has discovered photography! She has spent the last few days holding photo shoots with her dolls Lanie and Kanani, and also making mini movies of them which she hopes to put on You Tube eventually!


She even managed to work the timer to get a few shots of them together!
And then posed for a few herself - she does like a camera!

Royal Marines Museum Trip

Yesterday we went on a Home Education Group trip to the Royal Marines Museum . Hannah and i had never been there before, despite it being almost on our doorstep, as i didn't really think it was somewhere she would enjoy. Anyway, since her friends were all going i thought we'd go along and give it a try. I was totally surprised! Hannah was really interested and joined in with all the activities. She even wanted to stay after the workshop and go around the museum again!

The day started off with a drill session outside in the museum grounds - it was bitterly cold but Hannah was well wrapped up and willing to give it a go!


Then we (thankfully) moved inside and the session leader told the children a little bit about who the Royal Marines are and what they do.
Next he told them about WW2 and talked about which countries were involved and why the war happened,
and then the children went into the classroom to learn about air raids. They were given maps of Portsmouth and learned how the enemy planned the bombing targets, finding locations and colouring them on the maps.

One of Hannah's friends dressed up as a WW2 marine and the session leader told them all about the kit the marines would have used to finish up the session.

After the workshop we all went to the cafe on site for lunch and then some of us stayed on to have a good look around the museum.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon!



A Home Front Kitchen

Life in the barracks around 1911 looked a lot like this!

Recruiting!
In the trenches.
A model of Portsmouth during the bombing.
We went through the 'What it takes to be a Marine' section and established that Hannah does NOT want to join up!! She was finally coaxed into the practise tunnel by her friend Melissa though!
The 'Jungle Warfare' area had a real live snake in it!
and this..........
..........ewwwww!!!
Finally, here are Hannah and Melissa leaving the Jungle - they still look like they are having a good time!
The museum was really interesting, definitely one to visit if you're ever in Portsmouth.

Staunton Farm

We have had the BEST Sunday!! We went to Staunton Farm for the first time in ages and Hannah was sooooo excited. She absolutely loves being in the countryside and around animals and is just so happy and relaxed when she is there so today was perfect. We saw baby animals, early spring flowers, lots of wild birds and enjoyed walking out in the fresh cold air.



The first snowdrops we've seen this year.Shaggy little Shetland pony
The boar taking a drink!
Hannah in the walled garden.



This Sow had a really young litter, they were still under heat lamps and so sweet!


Hannah feeding the Fallow DeerFeeding the goats

Pretty Cow!Happy Face


The Donkeys came to see us!And the Shire Horse.

We visited the Citrus House which smelled beautifully of orange blossom and had orange, lemon and lime fruits.

In the maze the friendliest little Robin was following us around, he wasn't at all afraid and chirped and hopped all around us.

I love the way these roots are entwined!
Hannah read all the information sheets and found lots of signs to look out for.
She also enjoyed running and puddle jumping!!
Amber the barn owl
Hannah met a little kid who was born on New Years Day!
The chickens were enjoying the playground!
Wintery Sky
And finally, Dean was very popular with the birds ha ha !!