The Edwardians and The Great War

This was a small introduction to The World Wars.  The concept of how WWI actually started is quite difficult, so I simplified it as much as possible.  We painted flags of the countries in the War and the girls acted out the role of each country and how it became involved.

Our sources

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made lap-books about the Great War

 The girls made a lovely Edwardian paper shop :)

The Suffragettes!

St. George's Day. :)

Our Easter Holidays was 3 weeks long!  We caught up with friends and cousins and I had a new Baby Nephew born on Easter Sunday.  Here's a little of what we got up to:

We started our Easter holidays early as the sun is shining an Spring is here and it's just too wonderful to do anything other than play outside!  Here's a little of what we've been up to this past week:

The Boy baked with his Birthday cooking set.  He's a whole THREE years old now and I LOVE him :)

This is him at his Mini Chefs class

Nature Detective work outside in the sun

Monkey Girl wanted to learn how to make egg mayonnaise :)

Panda Girl and her FAVOURITE messy play.

Ballet Girl has written some lovely stories on the lap top.

My asthmatic Boy got himself a chest infection and has had a tough time this week.

High on his inhalers he made a lovely bird feeder with peanut butter and cheese :)

Forever reading

I'm on the rota for craft at the Boy's Playgroup.  This week we made rockets :)

St. Patrick's Day!  We learnt all about St. Patrick and the Spiritual Works of Mercy.

 The Victorians

We completed our Victorian theme with an introduction to the British Empire and how it had been evolving since Tudor times.  The girls worked steadily on their Victorian packs and have learnt about Victorian fashions and houses, inventions, school life, Florence Nightingale, work houses, children's work laws and education laws and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

   

Being a Victorian inventor.  Ballet Girl invented a hearing aid/megaphone/hat!  Monkey Girl invented a flour pour-er for use in the Victorian kitchen and Panda Girl invented a 'sucker maker' which has no apparent use.  It did, however, cause us all to fall about laughing for ages, Panda Girl included :)

Fresh air :)

My Baby turned three last week!  He is just so delicious and is thoroughly loved by us all :)  He got some wonderful cooking equipment from his Aunty.  Boy does he love cooking!

"Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know."
- G k Chesterton

I didn't even dream it would be so good. But I would never let my children come close to the thing.
- Vladimir Zworykin, agd 92 on his invention, the television

Great spirits have always been violently oppressed by mediocre minds.
- Albert Einstein


I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
- Albert Einstein

I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas. 
- Agatha Christie

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Thoreau

We started our Victorian project with a  traditional Victorian Sponge cake.  This was interesting for the Boy  (my darling mini-chef) as he learnt how to separate eggs, whisk the egg white, pour the flour slowly etc, rather than pouring everything in and mixing it all up in one go.  Equal amounts of flour and sugar in this recipe and my gosh it tasted great :)

Queen Victoria fact bookmarks with Victorian lace

 We took a visit to our Discovery Centre which has an incredible transport museum.  I wrote the dates of Queen Victoria's reign on the children's hands (1837 - 1901) and they had to spot as many things as they could find from this era.

We watched some fun Horrible Histories about the Victorians and the girls had a delve into their dressing-up box to find clothes that looked Victorian or that we could accessorise to make them so. 

We've shared 'round a nasty bug this week and have all taken it in turns to be ill over various days. On 'well days' the girl have worked methodically through their Victorian packs and have completed some lovely work 

Our Victorian resources

Lent

The girls learnt a little more about the concept of Lent...

...They made bread pretzels to symbolise arms crossed in prayer...

...a dough crown of thorns with the intention to remove a thorn each time they do something kind, thoughtful and selfless.

Catholicicing.com has such fab ideas.  This one is a lent path so we can countdown to Easter.

Everyday throughout Lent the girls are choosing someone to pray for and offer up their day for.  They put their person up on our display so we can have a whole collection of people we have prayed for by Easter :) 

I like this one.  This is the path to Calvary.  The girls colour in a brick on the path each time they are obedient or truthful. :)