Home Ed Sports Day

This week was our home ed group annual sports day and Hannah was sufficiently recovered from whooping cough to go along and (gently) try a few events. She did a short running race, egg (potato) and spoon race, skipping race and three legged race with a friend.

We were blessed with perfect weather on the day, and everyone seemed to have fun - Hannah definitely did!

Huge thanks to Vicki who organised the whole thing and did a great job as always :-)

Stop Motion Video And Lego

Hannah has been teaching herself to make stop motion videos using Lego! She is really into Lego at the moment and has spent hours making up scenes and stories, so making the videos was the next logical step for her.

Currclick American Girl Club

I think everyone  knows by now that Hannah loves American Girl dolls. She loves the stories and historical characters, the magazines, the online games - everything! So, we are always looking for opportunities for her to expand her knowledge and interests through the dolls. Well, imagine how pleased we were to discover that Currclick has a free American Girl Club! Why did we not know this before?? It's great. Every month she joins an online teacher led session with a number of other girls   (mainly from the US ) to discuss one of the books and complete story related crafts.

This month the book was 'Josefina Saves The Day'. The students are sent out an email in advance of each lesson telling them what the activities will be so they can prepare before it starts, and there are three time slots to choose from so even if you are overseas you can still find a time to join in.

Hannah was emailed a list of questions that the class would discuss for this month, and given the chance to collect items for the crafts which were decorating flower cupcakes and making memory boxes.

The questions were great talking points and really gave everyone a chance to join in. The teacher is very sweet with the girls and makes sure they are all included, reading out and commenting on answers from everyone.

This months questions were -

1. Who are the main characters in this story?

2. Describe the main setting of the Josefina series.

3. Where are they staying and why are they staying there in this story?

4. Who does Josefina meet in this book?

5. Give examples of Josefina’s maturity throughout this story.

6. What do you think is the most significant scene or point in the story?

7. What important decision did Josefina’s family make?

8. Have you ever made an important decision that impacted someone else? What happened?

9. How did Josefina save the day?

10. Which of the Josefina stories that you have read is your favorite and why?

I love that the girls get to relate parts of the stories to their own lives, and really get to think about how they would react in similar situations to the characters, as well as having a glimpse into the life of a 10 year old in 1824 ( in the case of Josefina). 

Hannah during June's session - with a helping hand from Saige!

Working on her memory box during last night's lesson. It was late when we got into the class (10 pm hence the pj's), but totally worth staying up late for!

Finally, here's a link to Currclick for anyone who might be interested - Currclick

Home Educators Marwell Zoo Trip

Every year one of the local home education groups organizes a Marwell Zoo trip for all the home schoolers in the area. The turn out is usually big and this year more than 300 people attended!

Hannah loves the zoo trip, and this year even more so, as she wasn't sure she'd be well enough to attend. She is still fighting off an illness (which has almost definitely been whooping cough) and has good days and less good days. Luckily Marwell landed on a good day.

A Tapir on a mission.

Giraffe on the hill

Sleeping Cheetah

funny looking meerkats

The real meerkats were an adorable heap!

Hannah's favourites were the Cotton-Top Tamarins.

 The mother and father were each carrying a month old twin on their back.

looking for the red panda

and finding him eventually in the tree.

 One of my two favourite sections is the wallaby walk . I love them so much. They were a little bit too far away for a good phone camera picture, but they made me happy!

My other favourites are the tortoise.

and this one seemed to like me too. We had quite a long person/tortoise chat through the glass and he posed for a picture :-)

The lemur also had babies but they were much too quick for a photo!

 We had a break in the flower and herb gardens, which were gorgeous.

Inside the tropical world we saw a West African Dwarf Crocodile,

and outside Hannah has fun on the hippo!

Many thanks to those who organised the trip - I can only imagine the planning and coordination that is needed for such a large scale event, and we really appreciate it.

Discovering Moths

It's been so warm here that we have had the doors open really late at night, leading to a collection of moths in the house. Hannah has been really interested in them so we have been trying to identify the ones we have seen.

So far we  have these,

Common Emerald

Dark banded Riband Wave

 Riband Wave

Twenty Plume Moth

A smaller Common Emerald.

we think we have the names correct, but welcome any corrections if we are wrong !

A New American Girl Doll

Last week Hannah added Grace (doll of the year 2015) to her American Girl doll family!

Grace seems very happy in her new home :-)

Sunshine And Flowers At Staunton

Yesterday Hannah and I spent a lovely afternoon at Staunton Farm. We spent most of the time in the gardens, which were beautifully peaceful and full of early summer flowers.

Esme the pig keeping cool in the mud

Hannah keeping cool under a tree!

Hannah petting the free range goats

Cucumber smile, or as i like to call it 'lunch'

 Foxglove 

 The flowers in the walled gardens were so vibrant and summery.

The herbs smelled amazing in the warm sunshine.

There were pots of flowers everywhere as well!

 In the gazebo the pond was full of tiny fish and giant lily pads,

 The geraniums were beautiful,

and the tea rooms had ice cream! Perfect.