Monkey buisness

Highlight of Reuben's month, MONKEY BUISNESS

Thursday

Thursday is Hillsborough sports, while the girls do their sport we go for a walk in the park.

paper race

The children were asked to make an animal out of paper to race. It quickly became evident that the smaller paper animals moved much quicker than the larger ones. Imogen started with a large paper animal and ended up with a tiny one by the end of the race. Later she said 'i think a paper flea would have been the winner'

The Queen's birthday

We found out about the Queen's life, we also made scones, a very British snack!
We challeneged Geoff and Nanan to name all 10 prime ministers that had been in power since the Queen had been on the throne, I think they named 9.

Jamie Oliver's Ministry Of Food

The girls have started a ten week cooking course at the ministry of food centre in Rotherham, this was set up by Jamie Oliver last year. It's an adult course the first week they cooked eggs in various ways, the sexcond week was soups. I'm amazed by the cooking tips the girls pass on to me -'Don't put the basil until the end', 'when making tomato soup, put in the spiders (stalk), all the vitamins are in the spiders'.

lists and planning

We have acquired a large selection of gardening books. The girls have started planning our new garden, thinking about the fruit and veg they want to grow. Mima recorded this in a list.
and other literacy stuff this week...
Mima read the begining of a story and wrote the ending, looked at syllables.
Imogen did a comprehension excercise and looked at 'ie'/'ei' spellings. Imogen is also planning to write a short story, starting with a plan.

New flour

mmm tasty bread.

Bread Making

Yesterday we made bread. It was the first time we had done it for a couple of years so the flour and yeast were a bit old and we didn't know if it would work at all!! The girls did all if apart from a bit of help with kneeding when they got tired. Surprisingly the rolls rose quite well though they did taste a bit stale. Today we bought some more unbleached white flour produced at the local mill so next time it should be a bit more tasty.

Hen pecked

Another visit to Wigfield farm, baby lambs are now in the fields. It was fascinating watching the hens, one particular hen was laying down, while other hens pecked her. We chatted for ages about sayings such as 'hen pecked' 'pecking order'.

Sir Winston Churchill

Imogen wanted to find out more information about Winston Churchill, after our visit to the NCM museum. We found some of his speeches on the internet, but Immy not to impressed.

cat and mouse

Geoff spotted this cat chasing and playing with a mouse. We spent ages watching the cat play with the mouse, letting it go and re-capturing it. Several times we thought the cat had killed the mouse, when it came out of the bushes carrying it in it's mouth. Then we'd be pleased when the mouse looked as though it had got away, but eventually the cat settled done and we didn't see the mouse again.

Family quiz

Once a week we try to have a quiz, based on something we have been learning about, this week it was a nature quiz.

Soap making

We read alittle bit about the history of soap. Then using glycerine and titanium dioxide blocks, the girls melted and added colours and perfumes, to make soap blocks and shaped soaps.

Spring walks

Geoff has been taking the children on walks around the reservoir. They love walking around the res. in the evening, they have seen bats, heard the blackbirds in their beds and seen people lighting chinese lanterns!

Worsbrough Mill

Our visit to Worsbrough mill, gave us an opportunity to look more at energy sources, the mill has been over the years by, water, steam and oil. We did loads of talking about renewable and non-renewable energy sources, and how they effect the environment.

Coal mining museum

At last we got to visit the National Coal Mining Museum in the school holidays, and we managed to see friends there too. The living drama performance was excellent, a good insight to life during the second world war. The girls got to do jobs and found out about rationing, growing veg (dig for victory) etc.
We also got to go to the Hope pit, something we've wanted to do many times, but never managed.

I plan to follow this visit up with looking at different types of energy sources, renewable and non-renewable and how these different sources inpact on the environment.

Easter hols

Great time meeting up with friends and visiting clifton park and Wentworth Castle. The kids loved the treasure hunt, finding the clues and they were very quick considering we only had about 15 20 mins to get around the garden and get all the clues.

Hotel chocolat

Girls enjoying posh chocs!

Another family tradition...

Making a bonfire and toasting marshmellows.
The bonfire did have flames at the start!

Easter egg hunts

The children love the Easter egg hunts, the first one was at Pirate Island, the second hunt we collected natural nesting materials and made a fantastic nest for a sea bird. The kids then went off to find mini chocolate eggs and plastic eggs containing little chicks.

Family time

Lots 0f time with cousins to play, chat, ride bikes, dance, read books and to catch ducks (well try)!

We made this video. We took videos of each other bouncing on the beds then slowed it down twice on movie maker.

A free ride

Hi everyone!

Me and jemima went and caught  the bus to barnsley interchange by oursleves to meet our dad. I read the bus times and as soon as I found out the time the bus came and I had to stop it. It was a 66 bus!  We went on the bus for free because we had our mi cards! After we met our dad we bought some guinea pig food and some easter things.

Imogen

Woodlice

The warmer weather brings the insects out, and into our house!!!
The girls have various pots with woodlice, they have researched how to look after them and also do various experiments with them.

Barnsley group

More fab easter crafts, games, plasticine and cups of tea.
Oh, and a lovely warm room.

Easter Games

Despite the rainy start to the day, We managed to meet up with other home ed. families for Easter games. The kids made nests, played egg games (egg cracking, egg and spoon, egg rolling) and finished with a treasure hunt. We even managed a picnic.
Oh and then a long sit in the cafe with chips and toast, mmm!!!

Easter makes and bakes.

We have looked at Easter, from religious, cultural and historical point of view.
and also baked cakes, made and coloured Easter stuff.

Monkey buisness

all enjoyed playing at monkey buisness, as usual!!!

Cannon hall farm

We made our first visit of the year to Cannon hall farm. The kids had a great time with their cousins. Followed by an extra long play at the bluebell inn.

model making

Imogen and mima made and decorated a cat, they used junk modelling and then painted the model.

Teeth

Jemima had a dental set bought for her, with this the girls counted their teeth and identified the different types of teeth. We then compared our teeth we other animals teeth, and discussed animal diets. We got different food and worked out which teeth we used for eating the foods, e.g. crunching cereals used molars.
We also did a comprehension exercise, where we found out about plaque, tartar, cavities etc.