Hooray!!! Today I finally finished uploading 10 months worth of photos! I wanted them recorded as a log for everything we have achieved this year. They are all here below. We did projects ranging from Australia to Space and from Spring to The Good Shepherd.

To view all the projects (they date from January 2007 - October 2007) on one complete page click October in the archives on the right hand side of this page.

My next job is to link all the good websites that I use frequently for ideas to my Blog.

We are currently exploring (not literally unfortunately) Scotland...tbc

Pumpkin window display

This project turned out to be much bigger than I had anticipated - and all from a pumpkin! We used pumpkin worksheets for maths etc - using pumpkin seeds for estimations and actuals. We did lots of craft and cognitive development work. The girls enjoyed the pumpkin sequencing and matching and life cycle activities that I had set up for them and they also learnt the Peter Pumpkin Eater rhyme.

They had immense fun making pumpkin muffins after we spent a happy evening with Papa, de-seeding, flesh-scooping and carving the pumpkin and then we decided to hold a pumpkin party at the end of the week. I made various pumpkin soups and more pumpkin muffins and we were joined by grandparents, aunts and uncles for a great pumpkin evening followed inevitably by the girls dancing around the living room after commanding us all to watch.

Making pumpkin faces - the girls really enjoyed this. I gave them blu-tac and pieces of card which I had cut out for them.

Elodie's pumpkin face - she was excited about making a not so happy one!

Lucia's pumpkin face

Dominique's pumpkin face

The girls loved this - Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. They loved the rhyme and pulled 'his wife' inside the pumpkin at "so he put her in a pumpkin shell" - they thought it was very amusing

Pumpkin life cycle sequencing

The children had to place each loose pumpkin faces onto its matching one on the card

I numbered a piece of card 1-8 and the children had to stick each picture in the correct sequence for the pumpkin life cycle

The pumpkin

Looking at the inside - Elodie was incredulous and excited!

Separating the pumpkin seeds for use later

Dominique bagging up the pumpkin flesh

Bagging the pumpkin flesh

It's empty!

Our Jack O'Lantern - we carved a cross out of the other side

Pumpkin and seeds all bagged up ready for cooking / freezing

Making pumpkin muffins

Cleaning up while the muffins cook

Pumpkin muffins made by Elodie, Lucia and Dominique

Eating their pumpkin muffins :)

Various pumpkin soups and pumpkin muffins

Our Pumpkin Party table all set up

The Saints window display

This sort of project is always an inspiration. It was just as much for my benefit as for theirs and I am determined to remake the effort to read as many lives of the Saints as I can. Of all the aspects of my Faith this area is always there like a rock. These were real people, living real lives. I love it!

The photograph of St Therese of Lisieux, to whom our home-school is dedicated, was of huge interest to Elodie. Here was a real girl, about her age, with a similar temperament who tried so hard to be good. Lucia asked me to tell her story again and again. I often say to the children "do you think that is how St Therese would behave?" and now they understand what I mean!

Elodie did some work using her nun habit pack. She chose a habit and dressed her card nun and we then discussed the name of and reason for the order. She and Lucia then played 'nuns' for the rest of the day which was very sweet and, at times, very funny to watch.

Lucia's St Therese of Lisieux

Elodie's St Therese of Lisieux

Autumn window display

This is our second Autumn project and both times have been just as interesting. The conker hunt from our horse chestnut tree was a daily event and caused a lot of happy squealing. We did lots of autumnal worksheets (maths, words, letters, motor skills), lots of sorting (acorns, conkers, 'helicopters', etc), and lots of treks, leaf jumping and painting. We have a lovely Victoria Plum book about trees which we read and discussed. The girls chose their favourite trees and they did some fun squirrel activities. I also purchased a book called "The Listening Walk", which the children thoroughly enjoyed and remember on our daily walks.

Leaf mobile

We went on a nature walk and looked for natural living, natural non-living and man-made objects. We categorised them at home and made this collage.

We are lucky enough to have a horse chestnut tree in our garden. Every day for about 3 weeks we went on a conker hunt and here is our collection

Mexico window display. The girls enjoyed this project. Ced and I often converse in Spanish so the girls were intrigued to learn some words. It was a very sunny project and they especially enjoyed learning about Chilli Peppers - I don't know why!

We ate tacos and tortillas and hubby came home to a spicey Mexican one day that week :)

Mexican flags and sombreros

Newspaper sombero. We modeled this on Elodie's head and Elodie and Lucia painted a side each. We let it dry and then added some elastic.

Paper plate Mexican Maracas. The girls enjoyed painting these and attaching the tissue paper to the wet paint which they found an interesting alternative to glue. We filled them with chickpeas and lentils and the girls sealed the maracas with staples.

We danced to some good Latin American Music and boogied around with our shakers.

We made a great vinegar and bicarbonate of soda Mexican volcano with red food colouring for special effects. The girls loved it, especially Dominique who screeched "BUBBLES!!!" at the top of her lungs each time I poured the vinegar in. I had to empty the plate twice!

The girls each made a collage with some typical Mexican images which they cut out and glued.

London Display

To ease Lucia into her visit to Great Ormond Street I decided to do London project. It was very basic with lots of colouring the familiar London images.

On our visit to London we took 3 taxi rides, saw Trafalgar square, Big Ben and visted the Houses of Parliament. We had special entry as my sister works there. It rained but it was a good day with good results from the GOSH visit too!

Camping project. Elodie and Lucia 'sleeping' in their sleeping bags. Look at Dominique's tiny one!

We decided to set up the tent in the garden instead of going on our intended camping holiday as it rained and rained and rained so much this Summer. 3 small children and camping in the rain - call me a chicken but I couldn't face it!

Elodie's backpack, complete with fishing rod, torch and sandwich

Camping back-pack and hat ready for the girls when they wake up in the morning

Decorating binoculars and colouring some fun camping pictures

Our indoor tent and fire with food cooking :) This was set up for the girls for when they woke up in the morning.

Africa window display.

This was a fun project. We read some good African books, learnt to count to 5 in Swahili (5 months on and we are now learning up to 10), did lots of dancing to African music and watched some great African dancing on Youtube, looked at Papa's pictures of Namibia (where he lived for 3 years) and I face-painted the girls as Massai princesses... We also did lots of work on African animals, African instruments and African jewellery

We cut out, named and glued all the countries of Africa. Elodie and Lucia then chose their favourite flag

Sorting African animals into their habitats; desert, savanna, jungle, river

African animal mobile

Summer window display

I incorporated some work on Summer into our Summer Break. We did lots of worksheets, mazes, matching etc and read lots of summery books. We bough the girls a big new paddling pool and Dominique enjoyed lots of sand and water play for most of the summer.

Lucia serving and Elodie buying at our home-made ice cream shop