Extra Thingummy Bobs

Remembrance Sunday with four of the family in the cadet corps.

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl passed their Royal Marines Cadets Advancement Boards in the top tiers.

The girls had five ballet and tap exams between them.

All Saints party

My beautiful Panda Girl had a birthday :)

She had a surprise trip to the Harry Potter Studios

And we had a fun family morning at the cinema

My Wonderful Boy had his First Holy Communion

Dressing up for the annual cadet Mess Dinner

Nominations all round and Ballet Girl won the Marines Commendation

It snowed!

The Boy made the cutest koala drawing collection.

Panda Girl and The Boy learnt how to make lasagne.

Winter walks

My Darling Sunbaby continues to grow and delight us all.

Trips to the library

Much much crafting happened.

Cocktail stick wands

Harry Potter craft. I love it all!

Advent and Christmas

Family hot chocolate at the pub

We spent a large part of Advent making gifts for friends and family to emphasise the joy of sharing and giving.

Christmas Eve arrived. This year I have five children!

We spent Christmas with our extended family

Monkey Girl's beautiful sketching

Hanging out with cousins

A go kart from Santa!

Panda Girl is setting up an Etsy shop for her lovely drawings

And the New Year saw rugby starting again for The Boy.

Happy 2018! Let's do this!

Glue Gun Fun, Keep Cross-Sections, Knights and Falconry

Our project on The Normans and The Middle Ages has surpassed our normal 2-3 week time frame for thematic units because there is just so much to fit in!

We made medieval jewellery using plasticine, gold paint and beads.

The papier mache swords were completed. The Boy's is an early medieval one-handed sword and Panda Girl's is a 15th century French sword.

The Boy added a few effects.

The portcullis, entrance to a tunnel of murder holes. Who would want to invade a castle?!

The kiddies experimented with the idea of arrow slits in castle walls: how much easier it was to fire through and down in defence of the castle, than up and through in attack. Firing arrows through cardboard box slits soon became a full on castle siege.  

After 13 years of homeschooling we finally bought a glue gun! Yay! We used it to make a cross section of a keep, including a bedchamber, The Great Hall and a store room/kitchen.

The Boy added a chapel in one of the turrets.

He made some brilliant medieval weapons out of K'nex.

Our focus turned to knights and Homeschoolshare allowed us to make this great lap book.

We read about famous knights and decided Godfrey de Bouillon and The Black Prince (brother to Mummy's favourite historical character, John of Gaunt) were our favourites.

Horse armour - the destrier's must have been incredibly strong.

We took a detour to the Dark Ages to explore the legend of King Arthur and to better understand the origins of knightly chivalry. 

And we added some bits to the timeline.

Back in the Middle Ages we learnt about hunting, hawking and falconry. Kings would have had gyrfalcons which are truly majestic. Barons would have had buzzards and knights, kestrels.

Massively impressed with the childrens' drawings today!

The Boy's

Panda Girl's