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!

Photography Workshop

The activity at Adventure Group this week was photography. The children learnt all about different techniques and tried their hand at a few unusual shots.
Hannah worked with her best friend Melissa and took these -

and then the batteries ran out in the camera! Melissa let Hannah share hers though, so there will be more pictures to follow :-)

What Hannah Is Learning .............

We use a fairly eclectic mix of tools when it comes to homeschooling. Hannah likes to mix things up, and doesn't often like to sit for too long at one thing. She really enjoys a lot of Steiner Waldorf style activities, loves art and music, and also enjoys traditional style workbooks.

Currently she is working through these books -

and did these pages today -

and has also rediscovered this book -

It's a really great book! It is split into five subjects with three levels for each. The recommended age for level one is 8-9.

This is what Hannah did in it today -

Some of the early activities were a little basic for Hannah, but she enjoyed doing them and the book does build on the activities through the levels, so all in all I'm very happy that she is working through it and having fun with it..

History - Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

This week for our history group we had an American lunch to celebrate (an early) Thanksgiving, and the girls learned about the American Indians who helped the Pilgrims build shelters and grow crops during their first year in the USA.

We didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving lunch, but we did manage some American goodies. We had Skippy peanut butter sandwiches, hot dogs with French's mustard, apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, s'mores ( i managed to get imported Graham crackers, Hershey and marshmallows) and root beer!!

The girls made USA flags and had a really fun time !!

Writing, Math, Baking and Shopping!!

Over the last few days Hannah has been using her American Girl Writing and Math Smarts books. She wrote a short story using the ideas from her book, and made a graph chart of the favorite flavors of her friends and family! 

We also emptied the writing bureau and gave it to Hannah to work at.

She has done some of her grade 4 math book this week as well, and has also done another page in her Waldorf book.

On Tuesday we went to Adventure Group for Book Club - this month was Winnie The Pooh by A. A. Milne, and when we came home Hannah baked lemon cup cakes.

They were very good !!

And, today we went shopping at Gunwharf Quays. Hannah was really excited to see that the Christmas lights were up and even more excited to get a woolly hat and mittens, and Dr Martens at the new outlet store there!

Liberty Print Dr Martens

All cozy on the train coming home!