Another Week

Still having a few computer issues here, but have managed another weeks worth of activities!

On Monday Hannah and I went to Staunton farm with some friends. Hannah was very taken with the little kids who were frolicking in the sunshine.

Hannah has been riding twice with friends this week, first on Tilly and then yesterday on Coco.

On Wednesday Hannah had her monthly drama class with some other home educated children. No pictures of that as the parents all dropped the children at the theatre and went out for coffee! After drama we walked down to Southsea beach and had a picnic while Hannah collected several gazillion shells to bring home! It was a beautiful afternoon.

We finished our week with a visit to the lovely East Hampshire home education group.
This is fast becoming one of our favourite groups to go to and Hannah looks forward to it each week now. This week was all about weather, with the children creating the water cycle in a bag, a storm in a bottle, and cloud identification wheels (which they then used to identify the clouds over the park outside). Hannah loved the storm in a bottle so much that she has recreated it at home for everyone who has visited us.

So, that was our week, and now we have three weeks off for Easter holidays. We still have lots of fun things planned though, even though the groups are on a break :-)

A Whole Week Catch-Up

I'm doing a big catch-up today after being without my laptop for almost a week, and it's been a really busy week!

Hannah took part in the home-ed yoga session at adventure group on Tuesday,

On Wednesday we joined some friends on a trip to Northney Dairy Farm, where the children learned all about running a dairy, visited the milking parlour, went on a tractor ride around the fields where the farmer grows the crops which feed the cattle , and saw how the dairy makes their own ice-cream.



The little black calf was only three hours old when we visited!

We have been doing some spring watching in our garden, and discovered that the frogspawn had all hatched on Thursday and in it's place we have hundreds of tiny tadpoles! The garden is also bursting with beautiful spring flowers

On Friday we met some friends at the beach early in the morning in the hopes of seeing the solar eclipse, but it was far too cloudy to see anything. Hannah enjoyed some playtime with her friends though, so all was well.

Yesterday was Dean's day off and he really wanted to go to Beaulieu Motor Museum . He and Hannah really enjoy the tv program 'Top Gear' and Beaulieu has a whole Top Gear section as well as the history of motoring, some lovely old vehicles and some cars from film and television. They even have the Ford Anglia owned by the Weasley's in Harry Potter (see the first pic below) and Elvis Presley's Cadillac Seville ( Dean and Hannah pose as Elvis, last pic below)! 

 

It was a great day out for car fans, and even if you aren't a car fan then the house and gardens are beautiful and well worth a visit.

Beaulieu is in the heart of the New Forest, so on the way home we went in search of wild ponies. Some of them were very friendly and came right up to us to say hello. Hannah was so happy! Most of the ponies are now wearing reflective collars to help motorists to see them on the roads at night.

Further Afield

Yesterday we went to Petersfield to try a new home education group. I had only recently found out about this group, and after reading about some of their activities Hannah was keen to try it out.

It was a very successful visit! The group was small enough for Hannah not to feel overwhelmed, and very friendly. She made a new friend, played all the outdoor team games, and made a lovely insect house and potted plant to bring home.

Planting her pansy

Lots of nature and science activities to do.

Playing games.

Making her insect home.

Scenes From The Adventure Playground

Today was the weekly home education group adventure playground session at Paulsgrove, and Hannah was very happy to see her friends after having a few days at home with a horrible cold!

They were having such a great time together that i felt a few pictures were in order, so i suggested that they might like to pose beautifully for a shot or two............................ clearly this was the most 'boring mum' idea ever, so they did their own thing instead!!

Later on I got a few shots of sand play (the girls made a pencil and scroll??)

 and some play in action on the spinning platform thingy!

I just love watching them all play together, so happy and relaxed, it was one of those really good afternoons!

Riding and Rock Up!

Yesterday was a busy day! Hannah had an early riding lesson,

Hannah and the rather adorable Maisie!

Blurry trotting - must get a better camera!

then it was off to Rock Up.

Hannah had never been climbing before and was a little nervous, but had a great time and did really well.

After climbing Dean had an appointment in Emsworth, so Hannah and I went for a lovely walk along the Mill Pond and around the quay.

So bright and sunny and very peaceful by the water!

Chemistry and Physics

We had a great session at our home education group this week. The children all had the chance to do some 'hands-on' chemistry and physics, and Hannah was really excited to join in.

The session covered acids and bases, polymers, surface tension and density.

Lili explaining the science behind the experiments to the children.

 Hannah tried the leak proof bag experiment first and learned about the chemistry of polymers. She managed to put 19 pencils through this bag of water before it started to leak!

 Then we tried out the density experiment - squeezing the bottle forced water into the pipette tube making it more dense and causing it to sink in the bottle. Once you stop squeezing the water leaves the tube and the pipette floats again.

 Hannah tried the surface tension vs gravity experiment,

and then her very favourite experiment - cabbage water chemistry. She got to make a rainbow of colours by testing the pH of various household liquids in cabbage water.

She tested bleach, lemon juice, water, vinegar and baking soda solution.

After the activity it was such a beautiful day that Hannah and her friends ran off to play in the sandy sunshine (and brought more than a little sand home in her clothes!)

Thanks Lili for a great activity.