We Cheered the Olympic Torch!

We weren't able to cheer the torch through our home city as we were celebrating my cousin's 40th Birthday that day so we planned it for the following day. After spending a wonderful afternoon exploring Kenilworth Castle, we set up our picnic rug on the grass outside and sat down to wait - it was really exciting just waiting, with police officers whizzing around on motor bikes and a local radio station roving reporter interviewing people - Eve and my Mum were interviewed about the torch relay as well and my Mum 'bigged up' home ed on the radio!!!!

Here you can see how excited Idris was about this momentous occasion in his little life - exhausted by an afternoon running around the castle chasing balls and frisbees, he slept through the whole thing - never mind!!

There was a whole cavalcade of vehicles that came through - one bus dropping off the next person in the relay, one picking them up, one with spare police officers in from the team escorting the torch, one blacked out bus with goodness knows who in, two cars going ahead and making sure everything was in order.... it went on and on!! Every bus and car had Wenlock the mascot in them and everyone was really friendly, waving at the children!

I was expecting the police to be a bit officious and make us move back but they weren't at all, we all crowded forwards to see the torch come in to the car park at the castle, disappear from view for 'the kiss' where the flame is swapped from runner to runner and then emerge again in the hands of this gentleman (have no idea who he is!). It was a great vantage point as instead of seeing the torch whizz by just once, we saw it twice, once running and once walking - hats off to my Dad who did the research on that one and found us the spec to watch from! In the bus at the back there is a 'torch rack' with all the spare torches in.

This is Eve making her own vantage point on my Dad's shoulders - please take note of the need for tights and fluffy jumpers in JULY - soooooo fed up of this RAIN!!!!!!

This is one of the outlying cars with Wenlock peeping out of the window!!

This was the first runner - don't know his name either!!!

 

It was a momentous occasion and although I'm not entirely sold ('scuse the pun!) on the national cost implications of 8000 torches and the kit and hangers on, I appreciated being able to bring the children to be a part of it - especially as we didn't get ANY of the tickets we asked for in the ballot - but don't get me started on that one........

Hands On at The Water Mill

Last weekend was Heritage Open Day where lots of places are opened up or made free entry for the day for everyone to enjoy. We went to a water mill about half an hour away from us and I was amazed by how brilliant it was!

They had scale working models of all of the mill machinery, made from authentic materials, above, Faith is trying out turning the mill stones and watching ground wheat come out from between the stones. It was really good to play with the models then watch the real machinery do the same job - the girls really understood what was happening.

This was the best fun of all - up on the fourth story of the mill house was a pulley and trapdoor to pull the sacks of grain up to the rafters before using gravity to trickle the grain down into the mill stones turning below. The girls got to have a go..... they pulled a handle and it operated a pulley system and all of a sudden a sack flew up through the trapdoor and the doot then banged shut again - brilliant fun!

We went round the tree trail that explained what properties the wood of each of twelve native British trees had and what they were used for - on the way the girls stopped to have a go at weaving on a peg loom.....

And sitting in a classic car pretending to drive - they were very taken with the little catches that held the doors shut so they had to get out and change seats very often!

And Idris? He missed the whole thing because he slept..... all day! The sling I use is called a freedom sling but I have no freedom as one arm is hampered by the sling over it and the other hand is holding up my sweet boy's head. Why? Because he doesn't like to snug in and sleep head on chest like he's supposed to, he likes to sleep with his head tipped back so I have to hold it!!!! Me thinks I need to get me a different sling!!!

'Sense'ational Woodland!

I deliberately didn't take my camera with me today when I took my girls to the woods, as I sometimes get a little too taken up with getting nice shots and lose the essence of what we are enjoying!  We went to Dudmaston Dingle near Bridgnorth, it is an absolute treasure of a woodland valley and we were totally absorbed for a happy two hours! 

Later on I reflected on what we had done and realised that all five senses had a good workout whilst we were there:

• Sound - we listened to the birds, heard a mouse scurry away, heard the steam trains.  We also tapped logs with sticks (OK we whacked them!) to listen to the sound to see whether the wood was healthy or rotten and used pine cones as instruments to rake down the edges of cut logs and across bark. We threw pebbles into the water and listened to the splashes.
• Sight - we collected different specimens of lichen on fallen twigs, we identified some trees by their leaves and bark and learned some new ones, observing the shape of the leaves. We dug through rotting wood to find bugs and looked at the shapes, sizes and colours of fungi. We watched the patterns of the sun dancing through the canopy of trees and twinkling off the lake.
• Touch - we felt healthy wood, crumbled rotting wood, touched leaves, insects, berries, water, rocks, grasses, we felt the wind through our hair and the sun warm on our faces
• Smell - we collected pine cones full of delicious smelling sap to take home.
• Taste - we picked and ate juicy blackberries!!

All this and more.... we observed wood in various stages of the rotting process, we looked at how a once tiny sapling had grown into a mature tree and split a rock apart as it grew, we peered down a freshly dug badger set and looked at the footprints left outside, and the girls ran and balanced and jumped and climbed and pushed and pulled and sang and laughed and.... didn't fall of the stepping stones over the stream!!!

A Day out With my Girls

Today we went to Snibston Discovery Park and spent a day exploring the magic of science and learning about the area's coal mining history, as well as having a good play in their adventure park! I had forgotten about this place although I remember visiting myself as a child.

This is Eve and I creating fire using a spark and bellows to ignite and fan the fire!

This is Faith observing the forces inside a black hole!

This is the Stephenson shaft photographed by Eve.

And this is part of a retired train captured by Faith.

Those girls are so good with a camera!  They were as always a pleasure to take out and it was a joy to spend the day with them, their curiosity and enthusiasm is so infectious!

Woodland Discovery in Shropshire

After being shown around the nature trail we went on a scavenger hunt for laminated clues about the functions of the parts of the tree.  We found out about seeds, flowers and cones, the leaves, the branches, the trunk and the roots, except we didn't need to find that clue because the children knew all about them already!!

Next came a group game where each child had a necklace that depicted a part of the tree and what it did and what their 'lines' were!! The children built a human tree with the help of a picnic bench to stand on.... it was very effective and added into the layers of knowledge that the children built up during the day!

Faces were painted with different colours to show how leaves made food for the tree using Carbon dioxide (red), water (blue), sunlight (yellow) and chlorophyll (green).  A very simple and dynamic explanation.

Nearly the end of the day and stream-dipping was the mission! The children found freshwater shrimps, mayfly larvae (with three tails) and various other tiny wriggly stream creatures.  They very happily splashed and poked around the shallow stream.

All in all a really great day that the children got a lot out of.  We will definitely go back to the spot as there is a lot there and the nature trail and stream are perfect for small children.  I'm hoping to get the children to make a big tree this week with some labels and pictures and see how much of the information they recall!

How Avenues of Learning are Opened!

If, like me, you sometimes second guess yourself then you will totally be on my wavelength here.  If, unlike me, you are always totally level-headed and rational about planning for the EYFS then you will be groaning and saying well... yeah, of course!! So to get on with the story, I have been wanting to take the children to the National Sealife Centre in Birmingham for a while but putting it off because I thought it should be part of a 'theme' rather than stand alone because they would get more out of it that way.  Well yesterday I decided to make it happen and we went today.... and I have completely changed my mind!

Where do I start?

• The rays were partially hidden on the floor of the tank and the girls discussed camouflage from what they remembered from Eric Carle's 'Mr Seahorse'.
• They also remembered that the male seahorses looked after the eggs and babies, and took their own pictures of the seahorses.
• They watched a ray breathing and commented on them breathing under water so we talked about that.

• They were shown a rectangular ray 'egg' and were fascinated to discover that not all eggs are ovoids!
• They came up close with a starfish and now know that they have five eyes (one on the end of each leg), that they have legs on the arms, and that if one arm is lost, they can grow another one!!

• They discovered themselves that crabs walk sideways. not forwards like they do.
• They thought that the nautilus at the top of the page was the same as the fossils they had seen at the dinosaur museum!

It was an amazing day for them and for me!! It has opened up so many ideas to take further and to talk about again. Very well worth not over-planning it and just seeing where the children took it!