Art Badge for Brownies

The girls are working on a few Brownie Badges over the summer holidays. The first one is the art badge.
They have to know the primary colours and how to mix them to make new colours and make a pattern with three colours in paint.
Very different designs to one another.
The next is a bookmark, they are getting the idea for this one from an art book.
It involves glueing over a picture and painting over with acrylic paint, finished product to be shown later.
The next is a collage, they chose to make coloured pasta.
And made a butterfly collage.

I loved the glitter on the penne.

How to Train your Dragon - A Book review by Eden!

I have enjoyed this book. We have read the book and listened to the Cd.
The book is about a Viking tribe. They have a Chief called Stoick the Vast. He has a son called Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the 3rd. Hiccup has a friend called Fishlegs. Hiccup and Fishlegs aren't very strong, but Hiccup is very thoughtful though Fishlegs is not. But in the tribe there are two big bullies called Snotface Snotlout and Dogsbreath The Duhbrain. They are friends. The bullies are tough and strong. Hiccup knows a lot about dragons, and he knows how to speak Dragonese. In those days there were dragons. Hiccup and the whole tribes boys are learning how to be terrible Vikings. In the first part of the Viking course they have to climb a snowy mountain. At the top of the mountain is a cave. Inside that cave is a dragon nursery wich has over a thousand dragons. They had to go and get themselves each a dragon without waking them. Will every single Viking boy in the tribe get themselves a dragon before someone wakes them up?

Escape in Time with the Victorians

The children have been watching a series on BBC called Escape in Time. Two families have to live in a Victorian farmhouse as it was in Victorian Times. They have to make the food that Victorians ate, do the jobs and even they have to learn the entertainment of the day.

Studying the Victorians with the children has been a major learning curve for them. In some ways I think it has been more alive for them than say learning about the Egyptians or the Romans as we see so much of the evidence of this era still around us in Britain. Also reflecting on the fact that their grandparents grandparents were alive at the time Queen Victoria was ruling also brings it closer to home for them. They are now more aware of time lines, and when they come across and author or composer they will now work out whether they were alive in Victorian times or not. This has prompted me to look into making a visual timeline for them so as we learn more about history we can piece it together on our timeline.

Eden's Victorian Study

Eden decided to do her own study and project on the lifestyles of the rich and poor in Victorian times. She enjoyed illustrating each one too. This study helped her get more into aspects like occupations, housing and food of the Victorians.










This last page is Niamh'.

Oliver Twist and all puzzled out!

In our ongoing Victorian study we have read, listened to and watched Oliver Twist.
The audio cd.
Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist.
Jude has enjoyed this version.
Niamh did a small narration and illustration of the book.

And this week we have all been puzzled out. I have been busy in the house, so it has been a time occupier for the children to get stuck into some of their puzzles.
Niamh did this 300 piece, but I couldn't resist sneaking some pieces in too.
Edem loved all the animals in this Noah's Ark puzzle.
And of course Jude loved this puzzle and has done it a few times over.

Jude really got stuck into this Hama bead creation and worked on it a little at a time, he was so pleased to finish it, it will make a lovely addition to his wall. Thanks Biebuycks for the great gift!

More sewing and insects

Niamh made this pouch for Eden, but I thought that it would be put to much better use to be used as a pouch for their UNO card set. (BTW Belinda I think we got the inspiration from a pouch that Rachel made a while ago).

We have been looking at insects this week and when I picked some lettuce from the garden today I found a dead ladybird, so everyone had a good look at it under the microscope's magnifying glass.
The ladybird puppets that were made this week. Ciara also made one but was not available for the photo, she had gone with daddy to visit the neighbours.
Niamh's caterpillar.
We have thoroughly enjoyed a link that Grant sent us of exquisite macro insect photography, I can sincerely say I have never seen insects like this in my life:

Amazing Insect Photography

Jude enjoying the Roman puzzle book. One of the things I appreciate most about home educating is the cross children education that takes place, so even though I haven't formally done the Romans with Jude he has picked up so much from his sisters. 3 for the price of 2 :D

A love for writing

From the moment that Eden learnt to write, she has written stories. Her first real book was when she was 5 (The Magic Horse) and she hasn't stopped since. A good portion of her spare time is spent writing stories about all sorts of things, most of them have horses and cats and dragons in, but she does explore many other subjects too. I suppose it is her love for books that also gives her the enthusiasm to write, as we walked into the library today she took a deep breath, glanced sweepingly around the library and declared "Mummy, I love books so much". Learning how to type has now opened a new avenue for her book writing, and she can wile away many hours just typing away. She is creating a series about a family of dragons which we all find entertaining, and Jude asks for her illustrated books as if they had came straight off the library shelf.

She plans to illustrate the stories too, these ones were done on the computer.

These are her hand written ones, this horse one is a particular favourite of her brother.
This is a series that she has created about a Bakery called The Cooking Parlour. Each character has their own personality, and she has created uniforms for all the staff working there.
The series goes on.
This is a colouring in version, she adds so much detail to each book.
And a new story about a cat to find an excuse to use the typewriter, there are many more mistakes on this one as she was not able to go back and erase her mistakes.
She also creates worksheets and activity books for Niamh and Jude, which she sells to them.
Well, she seems quite decided that she wants to be a writer/illustrator one day and says that is what she will study for when she is older.