Hans Christian Anderson and Snowmen with Stick Hair.

Today began with a smattering of snow!  By the time I'd dragged myself out of bed they had made their beds, done their chores and were outside making footprints.  I love them :)

Eventually, rosy-cheeked and snow-fulfilled, they came inside and cracked on with their EU work.

These two had a maths activity to do for their next EU clue.

The two littlies located Denmark on the map and we made a Hans Christian Anderson display.

Monkey Girl made all the flags of the Member States of the European Union.

After lunch the snow was too enticing to ignore.

We made a few snow masterpieces.

And came home for some of Mummy's home-made smoothie, before Ballet and Football.

The European Union Thematic Unit

As a nice follow on from January's 20th Century thematic unit, we started a new project on the European Union today .

We began with a brief overview of the EU, its history, its Member States and its Four Freedoms.

The two littlies sorted through our foreign coin collection and identified Euros and their country of origin.

We chatted about Belgium and Bulgaria, looking at their currencies, flags and national monuments.  We found out which animals live in Bulgaria's Rila National Park and made a cute collage.

The two eldest are using a EU pack designed for children to give them a deeper understanding of the EU and its role in our world today.  Later we will look at material which argues against the UK's involvement and the children will make their own judgement.

After outside play The Boy found different ways to add up to a number using cuddly penguins - always more fun than a workbook!

Panda Girl's new panda bottle arrived from Hong Kong today.  She is rather pleased. :)

Mental arithmetic 

The Boy set up a police station and was a great help when I reported that my debit card was missing.

After which Trampolining and Sea Cadets happened. And this Mummy curled up on the sofa and studied Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. G'night y'all!

A Whole Bunch of Stuff

This Darling Boy made a super picture of our grocery delivery driver, which he gave to him when he delivered our shop this week.

Finishing off our project on 20th Century the children did a mini unit on the British Royal family.  The two eldest listened to the Queen's 2014 Christmas speech and then wrote their own, being careful to be as eloquent and as articulate as possible.

There was lots of outside play

And lots of inside studying.

A trip to the library.

 It snowed a little bit...

...just enough to make tiny weeny snowmen.

Monkey Girl ready for Ballet pick up.  Thank goodness for Mummy friends that can share lifts!

A new minibus was purchased for the Sea Cadets..

...just in time for Ballet Girl's UK Eastern Area Drill and Piping Competition this weekend...

I'm so proud of this girl!

While Ballet Girl was away, Papa took the rest of us to St. Albans' Verulamium Museum, on the site of one of the largest Roman settlements in Britain.

Also in the news this week: lots of reading, much rehearsing for the girls' upcoming dance show, Minecraft, cooking, Trampolining classes, Gymnastic, Football and messy play.

Mount Everest

Today we made Mount Everest.  As you do.

We have now progressed to the 1950s of our 20th Century project.  0n 29th May 1953, New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Napalese Tenzing Norgay were the first ever people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a staggering 8,840m above sea level: the cruising height of most transatlantic passenger jets.

And so we made a mini Mount Everest out of salt dough...

...complete with Hillary and Norgay, Base Camp, Camps 1,2,3 & 4, the Chinese and Nepalese borders and a helicopter to pick up poorly climbers at Base Camp.

The kiddies decided to camp outside in the bitter cold for an hour.  I say 'bitter' - I kind of doubt it was as bitter or windy or in fact as dangerous as Everest, but Winter seems determined to ruin my positivity with its endless grey.  Bleurgh.

Monkey Girl is working on this for Sea Cadets.

The Boy asked to make a poster about protecting yourself from spies.

I.  Love. Him.

We finished the day with Trampolining and Sea Cadets.