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.

The Battle of Britain, Alan Turing and VE day

More often than not, memorable activities are the best way to introduce new themes, ideas and concepts, or facts.  It becomes a discussion point for later and can push their interest in pursuing the subject at a deeper level.  It's something I try to do often in our work to keep the kiddies excited about learning and it also engages my youngest in our school work.

So on Monday we made Britain out of wooden blocks.  We talked about the Luftwaffe and the German plan to destroy British air bases, coastal convoys and shipping bases.  But the British decoded the messages sent to Luftwaffe Command and prepared their defence:  The Battle of Britain.

Mummy's lovely cousin arrived from Australia for the week and so we engaged him in making a timeline of the World War II (with a crown on, of course).

The Boy finished his book.

On Wednesday we celebrated VE day with a party.  

Monkey Girl made biscuits and the others made cheese and cucumber sandwiches, jam sandwiches and egg sandwiches, as instructed by our neighbour who was 11 on VE day and remembers it well.

Panda Girl used the sewing machine to ake her own bunting.  She did a smashing job.

Nanny M came to visit and shared her stories of post-war rations.

Our neighbour shared this magazine front cover with us.  She is in this photo!

Bletchley Park  

Home of the Code Breakers

The Enigma Machines used by the code breakers at Bletchley Park.  Their work was said to have shortened the war by two years.

Alan Turing, a brilliant mind.

The recent movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch about Alan Turing and Bletchley Park was partly filmed in this room.

Code breaking

 

Hut 6 is where, amongst others, the code breakers deciphered German encryptions about the invasion of Britain by air.

 

 Alan Turing's office.  A sobering room.  How indebted we are to these men.