Friday 29 June 2012

Silverbells shawl

I've been knitting a silverbells shawl for the last couple of weeks.  I used Araucania Ulno Multy, which is a cotton DK yarn in shades of blue.  It knitted up a little small for me, as I don't like tight scarves or shawls round my neck.  I sewed on a button to fasten it instead, and I'm very pleased with it.



{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual, inspired by soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


Thursday 28 June 2012

Science club

I offered to run a monthly science club from our house.  We started in May, and had the second one today.  Two families came each time, with 8 kids joining in.  So far I have given them bicarb/viniegar experiments (it's cheap, and fun!).  At the first club we did volcanic egg painting from toddlerapproved.com, and fizzy explosion bags from homeschooljournal.  Both experiments were exremely satisfying, though it took some tweaking to get the bags to blow up.

Today we made a volcano, and inflated balloons with carbon dioxide (great tute here).  I didn't take any photos but my friend Carrie did.  I'll add them in once she sends them to me.  Huge thanks to Carrie for taking the photos here too xxxx


Tuesday 26 June 2012

Verrry long slide

The biggest slide in Aylesbury, according to the council website.  

Sunday 24 June 2012

Being 2

It's Meg's 2nd birthday today.  We went to the zoo for a birthday treat (it was a good excuse to renew our lapsed membership!).
We started at the hippopotamus enclosure.  It's the first time we've seen them all outside, rather than in the hippo house.  We saw one of the big ones in the pond, partly submerged.  
Meg looked so delighted when she spotted it!
Next were the cheetahs.  The kids scooted there, Meg with her brand new bright orange one. She's very pleased to have her own scooter.
The cheetahs are beautiful, and we were lucky enough to see them up close today.
Betsy and Meg jumped along the rocks outside the cheetah enclosure.  I love this leap Betsy is doing here:
As usual the lions were all sleeping.  I'm always surprised by their size, they are so big and magnificent.
Nearby, we looked at the meercats and the zebras.  One of the meercats was enjoying the very fleeting sunshine, laying on its back.  A man next to us had a very pretty insect land on his hand (a shield bug maybe..?), and once we'd all had a look he shook it off and it landed next to another meercat.  It was eaten in a flash!
The kids were getting hungry by this point, so we jumped in the car and drove round to the elephants.  We had that very British summer lunch - a picnic in the car!  Quite honestly the weather has been awful.  There's been flooding in Kent, Wales, Yorkshire.  It was torrential on the way to the zoo, and windy and cold and, well, not very summery at all.  I have the  right hump about it, as we'd planned to go camping for the week in the Peak District.  There's a home ed camp near Buxton called Peak Camp and I really wanted to go.  I'll plan it for next year instead.
By this point, Freddie had jumped into so many puddles he was soaked through.  I got very grumpy and insisted we went home.  Not my finest hour.

Friday 22 June 2012

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual, inspired by soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.



Thursday 21 June 2012

Quick, quick, slow

We've had a couple of busy days, making the most of the sunny weather.  
We went to a park in Watford, that has a lovely playground next to three big paddling pools.  The kids absolutely and totally loved it!  Freddie is rarely happier than when he's playing in water.  We splashed, picnicked and played.  I forgot my phone so missed many excellent photo opportunities *sigh*
The next day we met up with some of our home ed group at a fruit picking farm.  It wasn't so sunny, and the sky was dark and threatening on one side of us, sunny on the other.  Sorry about the mismatched font sizes, I was playing about with a photo editing website (and not doing it terribly well!)
After playing some football and hide and seek, and a picnic, we went to pick some strawberries.


From there we went to the Thames, to  a spot that's perfect for paddling.  
Freddie stayed in the river for 3 hours.  He wanted to stay in longer, but our journey home was quite long and the girls were getting tired and hungry!  We'll go back to that spot again, it really was perfect.
We had a really lovely, busy couple of days, and I was totally knackered today.  The kids were ready for a slower paced day too.  Freddie played on the Wii, we went to the pet shop and looked at the fish and the furry pets for sale. 
After lunch we made a volcano using (way too sloppy) salt dough and a plastic bottle.  
After we'd exhausted our supply of bicarbonate of soda and vinegar, the kids did some playdough and plastacine modelling.
Freddie made a plastacine snail and Betsy made a playdough pig.  They were so cool!

Saturday 16 June 2012

Glitter and glue

The kids have done lots of crafts this week.  It goes often in phases - we'll have a playdough week, or a painting week.  This week has been all about glue.
The kids decorated some craft foam people, which we turned into Fathers Day cards.
Betsy and I made some felt butterflies, leaves and a bee to go on the wooden tree on the seasons tray.  Betsy really enjoyed the design process.
Freddie and Betsy did some more collage and glitter this morning, and Meg loved rubbing her hands in the glitter that was all over the table when they's finished.
In non-glue craft news, Betsy was drawing around her feet.  I got out a roll of paper and asked her to lie down.  I drew round her, making a life sized Betsy to colour in.  Flat Betsy is now on display in the living room!