A Trip To Cowdray House

Yesterday we visited Cowdray House in Midhurst, West Sussex. The house. which is a ruin now, was one of England's most important early Tudor houses. The house was partially destroyed by fire in 1793 but before that it was visited by Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII.

Approaching Cowdray House

A Grand Entrance

Hannah and I climbed to the top of the tower to wave to Dean down on the ground!

View of the rooms from the tower.

In the kitchen.

Exploring with daddy.

Dean explains the ruins to Hannah.

In the beer cellar!

If there is a puddle, Hannah is in it!

The majestic house and some of the artifacts found there.

If anyone would like to know more there is a website - http://www.cowdray.co.uk/historic-cowdray/ .

 

A Rainy Autumn Walk

Today was wet! Really wet! But we had a city nature walk planned with a few other families from our homeschooling group so off we went!

The park had massive puddles, much to Hannah's delight -

and she picked up some sweet chestnuts to take home for the season table.

 In the cemetary there were lots of squirrels getting ready for winter. Hannah and her friends had a lovely time feeding them peanuts.

This one kept coming back for more

Then running off into a tree

to eat his snack!

We also found a lot of mushrooms and toadstools. Hannah is really interested in fungi and likes to identify as many as she can. We think the one above is a Shaggy Parasol

It was a good day despite the weather!

Wild Group

Today was our weekly Wild Group session and this week's theme was trees.

The children began by doing their weekly weather record and filling in their charts. Hannah was surprised to find we had had 8 inches of rain this week!

 Next they each chose a tree from around the gardens to draw, identify and describe.

 Here is Hannah drawing the tree she chose,

 and her tree, from root to tip!

She used her ID book to discover that her tree is a Beech.

At lunch time the children all had a fantastic time playing in the fallen leaves!

After lunch it was circle time, and Hannah had prepared a poem called Autumn Woods to read to the group which really fitted in with todays theme.

Our final activity was a craft, and children were all given a ball of clay to create faces in the trees. They looked awesome when they were finished!

Hannah made 'The Old Tree Man' - I think he is great!

Hannah's friend Amelie made a really good womble face in her tree, you can see it here on the left with Hannah's further back on the right.

Womble and Old Tree Man  .

And after all that we caught the boat home!!

Adventure Playground

Yesterday Hannah and I went to the adventure playground to catch up with some of her homeschooled friends.

The girls all like to take their Moshi Monsters cards and figures and swap, compare and play games with them!

Those girls really love their Moshi Monsters!

Baking Bread

Yesterday Hannah had a go at baking bread all by herself for the first time!

She chose a recipe from Baking Bread With Children which is her favourite baking book,

and set to work - weighing,

Mixing,

Kneading,

and plaiting the dough.

Then it was time to pop it in the oven,

and here is the finished loaf!

So, how does it taste?

Really, really good!! We may never buy bread again :-)