a letter from bolivia

We were very excited to receive a letter from our sponsored child, Silveria, in Bolivia. It was written by her father in Spanish, and translated for us. It must have crossed with our letter to Silveria. 

train stories

Over the Easter hols, our local library ran a train stories session for the under 8s. So of course, we had to go along. As well as the stories, there were some activities. 

Brodie stuck this train onto the paper and coloured it in .....

Tess cut out lots of different pieces and stuck them together to make James .....

We also left with a huge pile of all the train story books that we could find!!!!

big friendly giant

This month's book group was about Roald Dahl's BFG (Big Friendly Giant). 

As well as some discussion about the book, Tess made some giant ears .......

and a dream catcher ....

Brodie picked up a large pile of train books from the (adult) railway section just outside the room we use at Gosport library, and worked his way through those during the session! There was another young boy doing the same thing, so they were able to compare notes.

tess's new bike

After our trip to the New Forest a few weeks back, we decided we'd better bite the bullet and get Tess a bigger bike. She's getting on really well with it, though never when I have a camera handy, so here is a quick snap until we get some proper action shots (well, she is quite fast now, with the bigger wheels!) ....

sponsored children

We have recently started sponsoring 2 children through World Vision. We have lots of reasons for doing this, which I am sure are self-evident, but we were also keen to sponsor children who were close to Tess & Brodie in age, to allow them to each write to, and hopefully form a connection with, the children, and to learn about lives in other countries and in different circumstances. We hope that one day we might be able to visit the children in their villages.

Our children (who both have birthdays coming up in May) are ......

Theodor, aged 3, from Senegal ...

and Silveria, nearly 6, from Bolivia ......

We have already received a letter from Theodor, which we were very excited about ....

We have written letters, drawn pictures and put together some photos to send to both children, as well as some crayons and drawing books ....

We included a sheet of photos .....

Our letter to Theodor ....

Brodie drew a train ......

Our letter to Silveria ....

Tess drew a picture of the christmas tree with an angel on top (taking inspiration from the picture of her on the photo sheet) .....

and a rainbow ....

music

We had the second of our new monthly music sessions today. Both Tess & Brodie were very excited and keen to go, and were playing instruments in the car on the way there. However, I think we might have peaked too early for Brodie, as he didn't really want to join in much when we got there! (It was held at someone's house, so he was able to do a jigsaw in the background).

Tess, however, thoroughly enjoyed it, and joined in with everything. We have hired a music teacher to lead the group, and she helped the children to warm up their bodies and voices with some songs, actions and chants. Tess listened really carefully and copied all of this very well. For the chants, they had to listen to the words and the rhythm, and Tess did a great job of repeating it in the right way. They also used some percussion instruments to shake along with the rhythm. It was quite complicated, and I thought Tess did really well to copy the words and beat. Then everyone sang along with a simple tune ('Hot Cross Buns') and each person had the chance to play it on some chime bars. 

The group ended with a first recorder lesson for the older ones (Tess included). They just had to learn & play one note, but had to play for a certain number of beats, then rest for a number, then play again etc. We are going to be working from a particular book (which is on order, but hasn't arrived yet) and Leanne, the teacher, used this today. It comes with a CD of music to play along with, and was really good fun - the music is quite lively, so even though the children are only playing one note, the overall sound is quite sophisticated, and they are adding to the overall sound with their playing. It was certainly a lot more inspiring than I would have expected for a first recorder lesson! (and a lot less screechy). Again, I thought Tess did brilliantly to keep time within the group (the others were all a couple of years older) and to keep playing the correct note.

We stayed on after the group, and Tess & Brodie had a fabulous afternoon playing with Jack & Sam, whose house we were at. When we got home, Tess wanted to practise her recorder playing and has informed me that she is going to practise a lot so that she becomes really good (I guess we'll have to see whose genes dominate on that score .... practising was never my strong suit when I was playing instruments as a child!!!!!). 

london

We spent the weekend in London, and had a busy time, although most of our original plans were changed at the last minute. We had intended to visit The Portrait Gallery with our home ed group on Friday, as a follow-on from the art session looking at paintings from there. However, this had to be postponed at the 11th hour. We had also planned to go to The Science Museum as a family on Saturday, which we had postponed from last month, when we cancelled our trip due to snow and ice. But with the G20 protestors planning to march along our route to The Science Museum, we decided to postpone again to avoid getting caught up in that.

So ..... with some late rejigging, Tess, Brodie & Carole spent Friday in Greenwich Park. Even then, things didn't go to plan, as we had simply intended to go to the large playground there, and maybe have a wander around the park. But the weather turned cold and wet after a sunny start, so we decided to go to the National Maritime Museum there for a while. I hadn't prepared for this, and hadn't been there before, so have since discovered that there was a whole interactive section for young children which we totally missed!!! Still, it's right on the doorstep of the flat, so we will be able to go for another visit very easily. Things we did enjoy seeing included the maritime artwork in the cafe, the large propeller in the main hall, the steam paddler wheel, some very grand royal rowing barges from 300 years ago, naval uniforms from the past, a large collection of swords, compasses and sextants ..... and the shop and the pirate ship playground outside! 

On Saturday, we travelled on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Stratford, and got our first views (for Carole, Tess & Brodie) of the Olympic Stadium building site. We then went to a place called Discover, which had been recommended to us by some other home educating friends who used to visit family near there. Discover describes itself as a story making centre, and has lots of different activities to fire children's imaginations and get them involved in 'the interactive story trail'. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there, and as it was fairly quiet when we got there, we were able to stay for 4 or 5 hours. They've got a pirate exhibition and activities from mid-May, so we'll definitely be going back over the summer!! 

Brodie crossing the sparkly river using the Trip Trap Bridge .....

Brodie in the secret cave ......

Making noises with the mystical sound machine inside the secret cave ......

Jumping around to make music in the Polka Dot Sounds room .....

Making spoon puppets .......

Tess's sparkly princess and handsome prince unicorn spoons .....

Daddy's spoon .....

Setting out a tea-party for the imaginary friends ....

Making up & recording stories in the story telling machine ....

Putting on a puppet show in the puppet theatre ....

Working puppets by turning the handles .....

Posting a post card .....

Shadow puppets ........

Discover puts on lots of special activities at weekends and in the holidays. On Saturday, they had a Jungle Book day. Someone told The Jungle Book story to the children, in a very interactive way, using puppets and getting them to join in with the noises and actions. Afterwards, they could get their faces painted as a Jungle Book character. Brodie didn't want to do any of this, but Tess thoroughly enjoyed herself, joining in with the story with great gusto. She wanted to be painted as Baloo the Bear, but unfortunately none of us could really think what he looked like (I think they were hoping mainly for tigers!), so she ended up looking a bit like a cat!!!

Tess's best Baloo the Bear pose ......

Outside, there was a fantastic playground, made mostly of natural materials, and including a letter climbing wall, a pirate ship, a space rocket, a monster slide, and a willow tunnel......

On Sunday, we met up with an old friend of Carole's and her family in Kensington Gardens. They have a 5 year old girl and a 7 year old boy, so all the children enjoyed playing together. We met at the Princess Diana Memorial fountain and played there for some time, then had lunch at the nearby cafe at the Lido on the Serpentine. We then went over to a playground in the park. Our friends had to leave after that, so our family went to pay homage to the Peter Pan statue again, and then wandered back to the river boat via another playground and the London Eye (though we didn't go on it). We had a lovely day.