Lessons

Every Thursday since September Hannah has been going to English, math and art classes at the local homeschooling group. She has really been enjoying going, and meeting new people, and has loved the English and art classes. The math class just didn't click with her though, and she started to lose confidence in her ability. The teacher was lovely, and really tried to help, but this week Hannah decided she wanted to try something else instead. She tried biology and was so excited after the class that she just had to swap!

So, now Hannah is doing math at home with me, and English, biology and art with the homeschool group.

Today we did multiplication, number factors and prime and composite numbers.

We are using the spectrum books which seem to suit Hannah's style of learning very well.

Today she also did her biology homework. In class they were learning about the function of the lungs and made a lung model, and she had two worksheets about the lungs as homework.

She also checked over her English class work and finished it for homework.

Where Did The Daylight Go?

Yesterday we went to the park at 4pm,

It was cold!

Hannah discovered that wellies don't slide!

so she abandoned them, which meant I had to carry her back to the top (that didn't last long!)

By 4.30 pm the moon was up, and a little while later it was dark!

I do love the winter with the dark cosy evenings and frosty mornings, but we could do with a couple more hours of daylight to get all the playing done!

Fun At The Farm

This week we also managed a trip to Staunton with some friends that we hadn't seen for a while. It was lovely to catch up, and Hannah had a really fun time with her friend Finn. These two have know each other for most of their lives ( they are 9 and 11 now) and Hannah always says that Finn is like the brother she never had - I love that :-)

Drama And A Tour Of Portsmouth Guildhall

In drama class the children learned ballet this week. They are learning the dances from the stage show Matilda.
After class we all went into Portsmouth for a tour of The Guildhall. It was pretty interesting, especially the music memorabilia and going behind the scenes of the concert stage and dressing rooms.

Art work on the walls of the box office.

Music memorabilia

Spike Edney's guitar (Queen's Keyboard player)

 In the Lord Mayor's chambers

Glass wall mural in the Zodiac Hall

The Logomania Christmas Tree - all the snowflakes are made from brand logos!

 In the main dressing room back stage.

Lighting men at work

 

 On stage!

Gunwharf Quays Firework Display 2015

Hannah and I went on our own this year as Dean was working a late shift. It was crazy busy, the busiest I've ever seen it and we did have an anxious few minutes from Hannah when she was squashed in the crowd. But we fought our way out   and changed viewing location which turned out to be pretty good with room to breathe and see the display.

I didn't get many pictures as Hannah thought that climbing on to my shoulders would make her view perfect - it's quite hard to take pictures with an 11 year old balancing on your back!

It was lovely though, and afterwards we walked around the newly installed Christmas scenes.

Hannah is looking forward to the tree going up later as it's always really pretty there.

Into Film Festival 2015

The Into Film festival is a free, annual festival of films for children aged 5 -19 in the UK. Every year Hannah picks two or three films to see from the list on the website and this year she picked Inside Out, Minions and Sponge Bob.

Inside Out was lovely, a really nice film, Minions was crazy but fun (and in 3D) and we've yet to see Sponge Bob but Hannah is excited to see it!

Here she is in her 3D glasses waiting for Minions to start!

Riding Lesson

Hannah had an entertaining riding lesson this week. The indoor school has a massive new mirror so that the riders can see their positions during their lessons. Hannah rode Coco who thought the mirror was just for him. He kept trying to stop and look at himself, so sweet!

Very handsome Coco!

And the drive home through Stansted Woods  is looking very autumnal now, especially after rainfall.