Today we learnt about St Dominic of the Rosary and Our Lady of Fatima.

Panda Girl's beautiful colouring.

This week we started a new project about Our Lady.

Firstly we talked about St Anne, Mary's Mummy and then how Mary was a good girl, and helped with all the housework. We spent a long time looking at and talking about the Visitation. The two eldest also drew a picture of what they thought Our Lady may have been doing when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her.

(Monkey Girl's colouring picture)

We discussed how Mary worked really hard and how maybe she was doing a daily chore when the Angel Gabriel visited. It seemed fitting that we all have a go at some tough housework. They cleaned, 'ironed', washed, scrubbed, dusted and swept -maybe we should do this one everyday!

Cleaning the walls.

And then they made bread. Monkey Girl had fun poking it, as you can see.

They listened to Ave Maris Stella while they kneaded away :)

The girls' bread. We ate it with our lunch (saving some for Papa at his request) and it was yummy!

We discussed the Nativity and how Our Lady looked after Jesus like all Mummies do. (Ballet Girl's picture)

And then we looked at the Assumption. We discussed how Mary is the Queen of Heaven. The girls made her a beautiful crown (designed by Papa and decorated by les filles). (Ballet Girl's picture)

The girls love these books - gorgeous pictures.

The two eldest made stained glass windows of Our Lady and the Baby Jesus.

We said a 'Hail Mary' and gave these tissue paper flowers to Our Lady.

Also today Monkey Girl did some sorting, all three listened to a Postman Pat story-tape...

...and Ballet Girl had great fun with number rods. She was so imaginative.  Great visual tools.

Sea and Ocean window display.

Todays' work: making a jigsaw, a mobile, sea vocabulary, sea stories and beginning letters.

Sea face painting. Ballet Girl asked to be a mermaid...

... and Monkey Girl asked to be a pufferfish!

Playing 'beach' outside in the stones.

Some seafood we have eaten during our project. The girls are asking for crab next which they haven't tried before. My husband is a seafood fan so the children also enjoy mussels, oysters and cockels.
When Ballet Girl's first tooth fell out she asked if she could buy Papa a rainbow trout with her tooth fairy money. The second tooth bought squid which she loves. All 3 girls love the fish counter at the supermarket. I am not a fish fan so I have to smile sweetly and cook all this food for my fish fanatics without giving away the fact that Mummy does not like it!

The two eldest did some lovely work in their ship's log. Today we travelled South East (progression from our normal N,S,E,W), to Australia. The Great Barrier Reef was an obvious place to go and the girls recorded some of the things they saw.

Today's worksheets.

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl's turtles.

This afternoon we looked at how to use a compass. I found the girls using it later trying to 'find their way' on their hobby horses.

Sea books. We have been working our way steadily through these. We have also been singing lots of sea songs...

When I was one,

I'd just begun,

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship,

And the Captain said to me

We're going this way, that way

Fowards and backwards over the Irish Sea

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me!

Sea stamps. The girls made some lovely sea pictures and got very inky in the process :)

Making waves.

We did a Float or Sink experiment. The girls guessed what they thought would happen and Ballet Girl recorded our findings.

I put Boogie Beebies on the lap-top and the girls practised their dance moves for the Ocean Motion:

Do the ray fish

Do the tail swish

Do the jellyfish

Do do do do do the Ocean Motion.....

On Saturday my wonderful Husband took us all out for a yummy meal.

On Friday, I made a last minute decision and we went to the play gym. A nice break from work and some good energy spent!

Sea Memory Game. The girls loved this. Panda Girl had no idea what we were doing but she shut her eyes anyway, then studied the tray very carefully, squealing 'turtle!!' etc when her big sisters did.

Science experiment: How Sand is Made:

The girls put sugar cubes, representing rocks and cliffs in a pot of water (the sea). They shook it pretending they were big waves. We let the water settle and discussed that over hundreds of years the rocks break down and make sand. They really enjoyed this and Panda Girl had a fine time counting sugar cubes "toooo, fwee, five, fwee toooo!"

This morning the girls made their ships (they have been logging their journey across the world), The Diamond and The Poppy. We discussed lighthouses and their importance for those out at sea.

Recently the girls have been learning how to draw 3d boxes. This is Ballet Girl's treasure box (glitter for the treasure), and underwater scene.

Ballet Girl sewed a beautiful starfish this afternoon. We filled it with polystyrene balls and made it into a starfish beanbag.

Apart from a bike ride this afternoon, Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl spent most of the day on their roller boots.

Lighthouse - made with a torch, card, pebbles and netting for sea foam.

Work-time today. Panda Girl wanted to sit next to Ballet Girl and mid work gave her long happy hug.
Today, amongst other things, the girls did some good work in their activity books, listened to a Bob the Builder Story CD, and had an hour of gymnastics lessons. Ballet Girl is teaching herself to do a walk over from the bridge position and her teacher recommended today that we stretch her shoulders back a little to help her.
We took the dog for a good run on the fields and the girls had great fun rolling down the hill as fast as they could - lots of giggles.

In the girls' Ship's Log Books today they travelled from Mexico, through the Panama Canal, West to China across the Pacific. They saw a shoal of fish, went fishing and "swam with mermaids".
They also stencilled some sea animal and named their favourite. Ballet Girl is working hard on her joined up handwriting in her log book.

Panda Girl is 2 and 2 months. She concentrates so hard when she is colouring.

She did this all on her own. It's amazing to watch her.

Dancing with armbands and goggles to The Little Mermaid's 'Under the Sea'. Very funny.

Beach scene in the living room, complete with towels, goggles, armbands, buckets and spades, and a palm tree...!

Bright and early this morning the girls spent 2 hours in a nearby gymnastics centre, walking on the beam, trampolining, climbing through tunnels, racing, bouncing about and generally 'legging it around' - so to speak.

After lunch the girls listened to Paddington Bear on CD, read by Stephen Fry, followed by some really good maths work in their Sea and Ocean workbooks....

...then made steady progress in their activity books...

...while Panda Girl played with a big tray of rice, pearl barley and corn. Can it get any more fun when you are 2?!

I made a treasure map as a surprise for the girls. I put it on their desks for them to find in the morning. They followed the map and found mini spice loaf cakes I had made for them hiding behind the sofa. They were delighted!
Later I showed Ballet Girl how to make a treasure map, tearing at the edges and using coffee to stain the paper for an old parchment effect. She drew a beautiful map on it and hid some blueberries in Monkey Girl's bed for her to find. Great fun!
Monkey Girl made one later and hid a bone at the park for the dog! :)