French Brunch

We had a lovely French brunch last Wednesday. The children asked for food and drink using vocabulary learned this term. This was SO MUCH FUN!

Alice fait un croissant.

Play in the garden while the food was being prepared.

Bon appetit

The pain au chocolat was well received.

Field Trip: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

We've focused on insects and other mini-beasts during our nature time this term. Kirsty organized a field trip to the Museum of Natural History for a workshop entitled: Minibeast Madness. It was excellent! The education officer was well-informed and engaging.

There's a 15 child minimum, so other homeschoolers joined our normal crew.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

The girls had a go too.

After the workshop, we explored the museum.

Noah sprawled out on the floor to sketch one of the exhibits.

The honeybee hive was a big hit and was GREAT reinforcement of the previous week's lesson on honeybees. The comb is inside the glass, and the bees are able to travel through a tunnel outside of the museum to collect pollen at University Parks and other locations. We watched them do their waggle dance.

The exhibits are great and the architecture is not too shabby.

Back in the Groove

We jumped right back into school after our month-long trip to the States (arrived in London on a Friday afternoon and started school Monday morning), but blogging has been delayed due to a super-busy mom. Here are a few photos from our first week back:

Caleb has LOVED his new workbooks. My mom and I visited Anders Bookstore in Mobile - an ENTIRE STORE dedicated to school supplies. I don't know of any such stores in the UK. We spent a long time there, and I stocked up on some goodies. As an aside, I don't think workbooks are necessary at Caleb's age, but he wants to do school like big brothers.

For our art project, we read about Giotto and then painted mini-frescos by applying a thin layer of all purpose filler to cardboard.

It's been great to get back to the nature reserve. I think of it as ours because we live so near and know it so well.

Hedgehogs

After morning French class...

There was reading.

There was play.

There were 12 children eating lunch.

 Then we had our nature lesson. This week concluded our study of mammals with an emphasis on mammals in Britain. We learned about hedgehogs and then ventured into the garden to collect insects (favorite food of the hedgehog) and other creepy crawlies. Did you know that a hedgehog may eat 7 oz of insects in one night?

Yummy.

Hedgehog Freeze Tag - Curl up into a ball to stay safe from the predator.

The boys picked a rough "camp spot" for snack. First there was fruit. 

Then there were hibernating hedgehogs. Use your imagination. The hedgehogs are under a pile of leaves.

The girls had a "tea party" snack in the playhouse.

Muscles and Math

We're continuing our study of the human body. This week we focused on muscles.
There's been a lot of flexing going on.  

Cooper worked on estimates and had a little help. 

Haydn and Giotto

We finished reading Joseph Haydn, The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher. Another great read. There were two notable highlights for the boys. 1) Hadyn visited England and was invited to Oxford where he enjoyed walks and picnics along the River Thames (us too!). Do you see the Sheldonian Theatre in the picture above?  2) His surprise symphony has a sudden sharp chord that was meant to wake the ladies who nodded sleepily during the concerts. We had to play Adante from the Surprise Symphony several times so the boys could crack up at the surprise chord. 

This book introduced us to Giotto. It was also the perfect follow-up to our last two art lessons on Cimabue who was Giotto's teacher. 

Weekly art project:

First, cover cardboard with white or grey oil pastel. 

Look super cute while doing so.

Next, apply black pastel liberally over entire surface.

Finally, scratch picture. We used nails.

Fishy Fun, Body Parts, and Athenian wax tablets

We read Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Lucy Collins' Hooray for Fish! Caleb completed a number of fishy projects as well as other "F" work.

We're now studying the human body in science. To get things started, the boys identified and labeled body parts. 

Caleb rolled the die and did some graphing.

Yesterday, we read about the Spartans and today the Athenians. The boys attempted to write on "wax" tablets. We all decided paper and pencil is an easier (and neater) option.