We have a brilliant set of books called Art from the Past that Sam spends a lot of time browsing. For the last 3 years or so I’ve been promising him a Trojan Horse. So using the 1000 coffee stirrers I was sent in the run up to Christmas, I give you…
It even holds soldiers
I would have called it a day of culture personally, but when you are a 10 year old boy the naked boobs are obviously attention grabbing.
We were heading up to London to watch Horrible Histories, but as we opted to grab a lift to the train station from Pete on his way to work we were in London nearly 3 hrs early. So a bite to eat down on the South Bank and then over the bridge…
no I have no idea what Sam is doing…
to Trafalgar Square…
Where we paused to recognise Nelson and have a long discussion about the logic of building statues and memorials to dead people, because after all they don’t know or care. Sam remains unconvinced..
and the National Gallery.
This is where we first started encountering naked boobs, lots of them.
Many moons ago when I was still living with my parents in Wales and Pete was in London, I used to go to the National nearly every other Friday afternoon, to potter for an hour or so, then I’d walk along the Strand into the City to meet Pete from work before going for a few pints and a curry in the East End. Happy days!
Anyway I’d never taken the boys (apart from nipping in to use the toilets 
) as they are not interested enough to justify it as a day trip. But it seemed a very good way to kill an hour. We planned well, looked at the maps when we got in to the gallery, identified four or five rooms we wanted to visit, did those and left. No one got bored, everyone stayed cheerful.
We went to see the Leonard Da Vinci they have as I’m hoping we can hitch our wagon to Big Mamma Frog and do our own Da Vinci project. Although I suspect we may well get sidetracked by the Borgia’s a bit as this is Jack’s favourite HH song at the moment (I know we wouldn’t be the first to find ourselves led down this path so any suggestions of resources welcome).
We did Titian, late 18th Century Britain, Impressionism (Monet’s Waterlilies in particular), Seurat and Van Gogh. Pretty random really, just what caught our imagination. We stopped at things that caught our eyes as we walked though other galleries, mainly battles, crucifixions and greek myths (with naked boobs!).
We stopped for a drink and snack at the back of the museum opposite the theatre. I love the going to the theatre but have strangely never been to a show in London, so there I got to do something new.
On the walk up to Trafalgar Square we had an interesting discussion on Georgian Theatre and how many theatres were set up and named after Georgian actors. I also got to pass on the story I’d happen to read on the train of Samuel Foote losing his foot in a riding accident that was the fault of George III’s brother, hence they gave him a license to set up his own theatre which he called the Theatre Royale. Occasionally things like that work out and you get to sound very knowledgeable
I won’t bore you with my thoughts on the show again as I blogged them separately here. Theatre was beautiful though, lovely domed ceiling covered in naked ladies to Jack’s chagrin.
Rather than head straight home we decided to go and spend an hour in the British Museum which appears to have replaced the Natural History as the default hang out.
We’ve been before so only did some of the Greek and Egypt galleries.
Parthenon Sculptures
But Sam was more interested in the patterns on the floor
Venus and her boobs
And some male bits to balance it out
Egyptian boobs
and a scarab beetle
The mummies were their favourites
mummy
mummy and x-ray
With canopic jars runners up. Although we were disappoint that the info plaques never told us the names of the four sons of Horus from whom the jars get their heads and the staff in the room didn’t know and looked quite disconcerted when Sam ran up and asked him. Hapi the baboon (lungs), Imsety the human (liver), Duamutef the Jackel (stomach) and Qebehsenuef the hawk (intestines) if anyone cares.
Canopic jars
But this was the highlight.
Rosetta stone! Jack has wanted to see it since he read the first Kane Chronicles. Somehow we missed it last time we were at the museum. I suspect because it was surrounded by tourists photographing it, took me ages to get this.
On the Kane Chronicle theme the shabtis were also popular.
Highlight for me was something we nearly missed. On the way out a sign caught my eye, following it we found…
…Olympic medals
We meandered back through Covent Garden where there were no naked boobs but there were lots (and I mean lots!) of flags.
And of course street entertainers.
And this would be where my camera started playing up and I missed the man doing a handstand on some bricks on the vaulting horse.
To finish off the Kane Chronicles thing we stopped down on the Embankment to see Cleopatra’s Needle.
And have a run around in Victoria Gardens trying to catch pigeons to the amusement of bystanders.
Before heading for home.
I love London!
For Sam, St Pauls is the one on the left, the Gherkin on the right (he gets them mixed up )
A lovely day!
Yesterday we went to watch Horrible Histories, Barmy Britain, at the Garrick Theatre. General consensus was that we did enjoy it but no where near as much as the other Horrible Histories stage shows (this is the 5th we’ve seen).
Previous HH plays have all focused on a particular era and have hung together better. This was too vague a topic, all they could do is pick a few random bits of British history and throw them together. If I was the sort of home eder who had to analyse and justify these things I would be hard pressed to see what educational benefit the boys gained. It was a few standard well known bits (wives of Henry VIII!) with some quite obscure bits (Amelia Dyer — Victorian baby farmer), with no fitting together of it chronologically.
It is probably worth noting for anyone who has not seen the stage shows that it is not the TV actors. In fact they are very different, much more of a narrative feel. This one however was clearly influenced by the TV show and was much more a set of sketches, we covered Masterchef, Who wants to be a Millionaire? and the Apprentice. And it did not work anywhere near as well.
I’d have probably been a lot more positive about the whole thing if it hadn’t been for the Apprentice sketch with General Hague getting fired because of the carnage of the Battle of the Somme. It was impossible to see the humour in it. I know that not all they do is supposed to amuse, they mix in the more tragic. History is horrible after all. But they handled that one badly.
On the positives, there were laughs. Anne Boleyn was good. And we had an interesting discussion on the mechanics of death by hanging on the train home, which attracted some strange looks, inspired by the Tyburn jig song.
My advice though is skip this one and wait for the Vile Victorians and Terrible Tudors later in the year. We hope to catch them in Cardiff at the end of Nov/early Dec if anyone wants to join us.
The boys have been keen to visit Stonehenge for quite a while. It has always seemed a lot of fuss though to look at some stones from a distance.
Anyway as our route back from Somerset took us nearby, we decided it was probably worth a 20min detour.
So we parked, decided that no way were we paying over £20 to go in a visitor centre about the size of our living room and queue for 20 mins to walk in a slow snake with lots of people about 20ft from the stones, when we could cross the road, spend 5mins staring over a fence (or through it if you are as short as the boys )and then jump back in the car and head for home.
20 mins down the road, Sam asked if we’d be at Stonehenge soon. Think he was a little underwhelmed
Last week we had a bit of a Titanic theme.
We started off on Sunday with a visit to SeaCity in Southampton. The photos aren’t great sorry but I was on no flash setting as I wasn’t supposed to take any, sneaked a few at the start but missed the one interesting bit which was the court room.
He’ll steer it away from that iceberg
eye spy…
Deciding who to save
modern lifebelt
Titanic style lifebelt
The museum was rather rubbish really, no soul and nothing that really fired mine or the kids interest. We had a very nice day though as we met up with a lovely family we’d met through A Little Bit of Structure.
For the rest of the week we worked though various little bits to flesh it out.
fact worksheet
We looked at replica packs and in particular the posters and they drew their own with oil pastels. 
We talked about why people would have been on the Titanic. Discussed that many would have been emigrating and we looked at what they would take if they had to pack everything into one bag.
We researched the different types and prices of accommodation and made first class tickets.
We plotted the route using longitude and latitude.
And used the timeline of events to practice handwriting and telling the time.
We made and sank models
And having seen at the museum the diversity of novels available that feature the Titanic (Indian Jones and Dinosaurs stick out) they wrote Dr Who stories on the Titanic.
We also read
Last Friday (or possibly the Friday before last by now– I lose track) we had a home ed group trip to the Royal Marines Museum in Southsea.
We started with a 20 min walk along the seafront in sub-zero temperatures and then had to hang around outside for 15 mins waiting for others. We were rather chilly by that point and keen to get inside, but no such luck, the session started with 20mins military ‘drill’.
Must admit I had visions of the session going to pot at this point, with crying, refusing to participate children. This was so far removed from what they are used to and he was very brusque and sarcastic. But not one whimper of complaint, all instinctively sensing it was ‘role-play’, if anything they all seemed to rather enjoy it. We mums didn’t, by this point we had huddled into a penguin formation in a desperate attempt to stay warm and shelter a baby, the announcement that we were going in was greeted with an enthusiastic cheer
Inside the children were given some background into who the Royal Marines were.
Then we moved upstairs to the World War 2 gallery for a bit of background into the war. While this was going on us parents were amused by a ‘home front’ display, which had this cheesy, slightly sleazy looking man
…returning home to this…
She really doesn’t look pleased to see him
Into the education room, the children coloured a map of Portsmouth plotting likely bombing targets.
Then some of the children were dressed in Royal Marines uniforms (although not the green beret!). Jack was dressed as a commando
…and taught to fire a gun (which apparently was very heavy).
After lunch. We went around the museum itself, which is large and well worth a trip. The favourite bits were the bunks
and the training area with a tunnel that was very popular.
Sam’s favourite part was an icy den.
A cold but good day out.
Following the visit a couple of weeks ago, to the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, we decided to make our own embroideries in the style of the Overlord Embroidery (appliqué).
Unfortunately the boys enthusiasm for the project lasted as long as we were in the fabric shop. The fact that we have a finished result is down to sheer bloody-mindedness on my part with liberal doses of bribery, corruption and threats. But everyone is happy with the end results
Having bought the fabric we started of with simple sketches of what they wanted.
Sam’s sketch
Jack’s sketch
We then simplified these down into simpler shapes and cut out the fabric.
Sam’s design
Jack’s design
Then of course we had to sew them together. In general we stuck to simple running/back stitch
The Overlord Embroidery tells a story so here are our finished works with the stories to go with them.
the first blue nose friends
tatty teddy fond a bode he hud a giglig sord the end
(Tatty Teddy found a body, he heard a giggling sound)
George the 4th
George the 4th was about to eat a pie. When he ate the pie he fell over dead. So George went to the underworld. He went into heaven and saw a room full of pies. Then he saw a room full of gorgeous girls. Then he went into a room labelled hell. He looked through the door and saw is wife with a axe. He ran through another door and saw his father. He ran back through the door labelled hell and kept running until he reached a room filled with sweets, icecream and cakes. He was in heaven.
Think I’ve got sinusitus — eyeballs and head hurt! Anyway I’ve been avoiding the computer as the pain is worse when I’m on it. Boys are also coughing, sneezing and generally unwell so productivity has been low. But here is a bit of a fill in the gaps while I wait for the boys to finish their maths and english. Rest of today’s work is going to be done from the comfort of my bed (reading) or under the duvet on the settee (documentaries).
There have been planes
Paper ones at Cubs and Airfix ones at home.
And maps
Using the globe to locate members of the axis and the allies during WW2.
Jack has been learning about Map symbols.
Jack has laces on his tapshoes for Gang Show so has been practising tying laces.
They had a cd-rom of French games that ties into the course they are following so they have played on that.
And chess.
Jack made a marble cake and has been practising the magic tricks he had for Christmas.
We also had a very nice morning at Portsmouth Dockyard with Claire and Oscar.
A bit rushed there but Lemsip and bed are calling.
Misplaced my camera over the weekend so a bit slow.
On Friday we met up with some friends from the local home ed group for a visit to the D-Day museum in Southsea.
Boys and I were early (surprise surprise) so had a walk along the promenade first. Past the Victory anchor and stopped for a look at the war memorials,
At the museum we watched a short film and then toured the museum. Not sure how much the boys took in. All their best home ed friends were there, most they haven’t seen for at least a month, so they were rather excitable. And we mums hadn’t seen each other for a while and were too busy gossiping to really keep them on focus.
Anyway I think they all enjoyed it (despite Jack’s expression!). Oscar obviously did — seems rather manically happy!
Model planes. I predict an Airfix resurgence here. 
Then we looked at the Overlord embroidery for a while. I tool this before I noticed the signs telling me not to.
Then there was time for a run around outside.
Before meeting up with some of the other families for lunch and a potter around the shops.
A few months ago Jack made serious indications of wanting to try school, rather than airey fairy one day type comments. I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t react well and got a bit upset, not saying no of course, it has always been their decision just overly negative. 2 days later, PMT had gone and I’d done a U-turn. Once the rational part of my brain kicked back in I know full well it is curiosity based on the fact most of his friends go rather than unhappiness at home that is the motivator, and I am rather proud of him having stuck to his guns when I was clearly against the idea. Academically it won’t do him any favours but doubt it will be that bad either, we’ve given him a good start and home environment will always play a major role whether a child is in school or not. Also he’s a social being and I am so not, so the idea of letting him go off and do his socialising without me is not without appeal. And it might be nice to focus on Sam a bit more (he is very adamant that he doesn’t want to go), he has always kind of had to slot in around Jack. Of course in the time that it took me to reach these conclusions Jack cooled on the idea. Based on the fact we have some days out and weekends away booked we (to clarify by we I mean the entire family, Pete included!) have agreed to put the idea on the backburner to revisit Feb time, and if he wants make inquiries then with a view to him starting after Easter.
With my ‘enjoy the moment’ frame of mind I’m not letting what might happen in the future effect too much what we do now. I let him type most things at home and I think this is something where he does lag behind schooled kids. And anyway at some point in 3 or 4 years he will start on GCSE’s so will need to write more quickly and legibly. We’re trying to make it interesting though by transcribing poems that he likes, thanks to work I have the fonts available to produce handwriting sheets easily. Academically I suspect he is way ahead in many areas and where he does lag behind he is bright enough to catch up quickly.
I’ve rejiggled (or rejigged if you insist — I quite like the word rejiggled though even if it is a ‘comedy word’) our timetable a bit to take account of various things
So this week started gently on Monday. We used Activity Village’s New Year Doodle Fun to reflect on 2011
Jack’s funniest moment
Sam’s favourite memory of 2011
Sam’s favourite outing
And the same resource to help with them consider goals and make plans for the upcoming year. I am not unaware of the inconsistency here, I want to live in the moment more but am encouraging the boys to develop planning skills. I’m good at planning, they’re good at living for the now (in the way that children are) if we all get a little better and the other, everyone will hopefully be happier. For the kids some of this simply means working out plans of saving up for things they want and everyday thinking ahead. If they are told the bus is due in 20 mins getting dressed and ready (ideally in weather appropriate clothes) in an organised manner! But also particularly in Jack’s case it is about him taking more control over his education.
Jack’s reading plans
Also been moving on with galore park. Science involved sorting food labels
New projects were started, WW2 and Village Settlements in Geography. We are using resources from Planbee. They are lesson plans for school but adapt well for home use and I find them a good way of checking we have covered the majority of NC topics. Particularly like the geography resources as I struggle to find good UK based Geography resources.
Sales have also meant boxes of books turning up with regularity and causing distraction and excitement. I treated us to a globe with my Amazon voucher which has given us all (Pete and I included some fun).
Activity Village updates
