Emsworth Marine Discovery Day

The Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust runs a marine discovery day every year during the summer. We heard about it last year but missed the event so this time we made sure we booked places.  We started in a hall near the harbour where there were marine activities set up to discover and explore. Then we walked out to the jetty to catch the boat.

We were early, so Hannah and her friend enjoyed a spot of paddling and watched the tiny fish and crabs in the shallow waters.

 Then we went on our solar powered boat trip. The children learned all about plankton, sea birds and the tides and currents and were given bird spotting sheets and binoculars to see what they could see.

Hannah thought you might like a look through her binoculars!!

The trip was really interesting, and it was lovely being out on the water in the sunshine.

After the trip ended we thought we'd head home, but Hannah and her friends had other ideas!!

So there was sea swimming...........

and then more water play at a friends house (and home made lavender shortbread - it tastes like heaven on a plate - seriously)!

A lovely summer day!

Making Natural Shower Bags And Lipbalm

Every month we have an arranged play date with Hannah's friend Tess and her mum and often try to do something different with the girls. This week Tess's mum brought lots of goodies over to make natural organic toiletries for the girls.

They made muslin shower/bath bags filled with organic oats and almonds, coco butter, and rose and lavender petals all tied up with ribbon, and also made lip balm from bees wax, coco butter and coconut oil. Hannah loved making them and they came out really well!

I think |Tess is trying to tell me something about my photography skills lol!

Thank you Carole for making these with Hannah and for all the lovey ingredients!

Paultons Park - Theme Park Trip

This week Dean had a few days off of work, so we booked onto the home educators annual trip to Paultons Park . It was such a fun day! Hannah loved the rides, especially the water rides and Peppa Pig World. She used to adore Peppa Pig when she was younger, and really enjoyed revisiting all the characters and stories.

Here is Hannah riding the dinosaurs in Peppa Pig world,

and here is Dean!!

Oh dear!!

We met up with some friends during the afternoon and rode some of the rides with them,

this was my favourite!!

 and this one,

and the double decker Victorian carousel was lovely.

Hannah also rode the smaller roller coaster with her friend Tess, the astroglide, viking boats, trampolines and played in the water park! It was a completely fun packed day.

Wildlife Watch - Bat Walk

Friday night was the night of the annual bat walk with the Hampshire and IOW Wildlife Trust. At sunset we drove over to the Gosport Wildgrounds and gathered with almost 80 other walkers to spot bats! We were given a talk and slide show to begin with to help identify the bats we saw and then we set off on our walk through the woodland and down to the lake.

We saw a lot of bats and were able to identify the Pipistrelle and Long-eared bats in flight.

When we arrived back at the center after our walk the staff had set up at moth trap.

They caught some of the moths in viewers so we could see the markings and identify them before setting them free. The pictures came out badly as it was so dark by then, but live and close up the Mother Of Pearl moth is beautiful!

Photography Club

Hannah is very interested in photography, and thinks that she might like to be a photographer when she is older. We have a good friend who is a photographer, and she kindly agreed to run a little photography club for Hannah and a few friends, to teach them more about taking pictures.

We had the first session last Thursday and Hannah thought it was great! She can't wait for the next one, and has rarely been seen without her camera ever since!

Street Art Workshop

On Wednesday Hannah went to a street art workshop run by  Art And Soul Traders in Portsmouth, and came home with a lovely canvas for her bedroom wall that she had painted herself.