Agriculture in the UK

I wanted to return to a farm unit, a subject which we have not covered in about five years, but we approached it from a more mature general agricultural perspective to keep the older ones interested. Having said that we did have some fun this week, exploring what a year on a farm would look like, making use of various toys and cuddlies while we covered each season.

Winter

*ploughing the fields

*spraying cereal crops

*feeding the livestock their winter feeds (sugarbeet, hay and silage)

*general farm maintenance

*housing the sheep

*eggs from the hens

 *scanning the ewes for pregnancy

*weaning the calves and feeding the livestock

The children created a seasonal and monthly diary for their work on the farm.

Spring

*vaccinating the sheep

*liquid fertiliser applied to the potatoes

*lambing

*fertilisiing the fields ready for grazing

*tailing the lambs and tagging their ears

Summer

*shearing the sheep

*making hay

*irrigating the potato fields

*baling and carting the hay

Autumn

Many farmers consider Autumn to be the beginning of their year. They sow new crops, plough, cultivate and harvest.

We spent a morning accounting, working out profits from the harvesting and selling of cereal crops, potatoes and hay, and also the selling of livestock after lambing and calving.

Victorian Schools and the Victorian Seaside

We had some fun re-enacting a Victorian school day.

The children had to pay a penny for their education at the local village school.

 The kiddies dressed in Victorian clothes and we started the day with The Lord's Prayer

Reading from the Bible

Victorian schooling was a lot about rote learning. The kiddies recited their times tables over and over. It was hilariously boring.

Learning and reciting poetry

Handwriting practice

My poor sweet boy had a go at the dunce hat. Gosh - it made me feel so awful! I'm so glad we've moved on from that type of education!

A classroom poster of the British Empire

Break time - wooden toys and marbles

We had a look at Victorian photographs - all women, which made a nice change!

Writing with an old fashioned fountain pen.

Analysing Victorian school primary sources

The Boy picture-matched the Royal Family Tree

And we finished our look at Victorian social history from a child's perspective, with a morning learning about the impact of the railways on day trips to the coasts and the evolution of the seaside holiday

We learnt that a lot of the things we associate with the seaside today originated during the Victorian era, e.g. donkey rides, Punch and Judy etc.

We looked through some old postcards...

...and then made our own Victorian style postcards

We finished with a Punch and Judy show on YouTube and The Boy had fun recreating it!

A Social History of the Victorians

We have studied the Victorians before but I thought this time we could study the social history of the era, focusing particularly on Victorian children.

To start with the children did some research on Queen Victoria. Her reign was the longest of all British monarchs at 23,226 days -  before Queen Elizabeth II overtook her in September 2015. 

Following this idea, the children worked out how many days they have been alive. Cool maths and fun to know!

The kiddies used a selection of history books to glean information and answer questions on Queen Victoria, her reign and her family tree.

Poverty was rife in Victorian England and many children went without shoes. The kiddies tried going barefoot in the frost - there wasn't much positive feedback.

Victorian toys remain popular today. We learnt about toys used by richer children and basic toys used by poorer children.

Although modern versions, we realised our home is full of toys Victorian children would have recognised.

Paper dolls were popular during this era.

The BBC has some great webpages on the Victorians where Monkey Girl and The Boy did some detective work about Victorian time capsules.

Making simple Victorian toys.