wednesday

Started off with some Khan Academy for some....Addition 1,2 and 3 nicely conquered.

For others, it was more about volume and capacity, and a sink full of water combined with a selection of empty tubs....does a one litre bottle really only hold one litre? Only one way to find out obviously.

We watched "The Private Life of Plants" on my newly discovered addiction, documentary tube over lunch. Lots of questions prompted by this, some serious "how do they film it?" some silly "did they add in the machine gun noises or do plants really make that noise when they fire out seeds?"

Then the big three went outside for a run around, and Lb and I played a shape matching game. It was cut short as we were asked to go and watch a riding demonstration as Eb rode Spike. He managed to stay on even though the naughty Shetland gave an almighty buck at one stage. One of Eb's greatest assets is his refusal to flap in any situation. He simply carried on as normal.

There was pirate play, with a make shift sail after the original one got accidentally chewed by Rodney in a former life. There was an argument over the pirates....who should be Captain? Two chaps put themselves forward as possible candidates but the crew didn't like either of them, so they were turfed overboard and fed to the giant scorpion waiting below....a giant water scorpion I'm assuming. There was also tears when someone changed their mind about the Captaincy and was told by a big brother that it was too late.

This leads nicely onto a programme we listened to in the car yesterday on the way to a home ed meet up. The Waterboatmans Song was so good, even the smallest person in the car listened all the way through....and plans were made to try and record the sounds of our own aquatic life in the spring. On the way home we also caught Word of Mouth : Stories from Other Cultures which was also a huge hit.

There were baths, and stories and further discussion of an upcoming film study we're doing....plundered from Grit a while back. We have recorded many films over the festive period, and we're taking a selection and watching them as film critics, complete with home made critique sheets. I love the prompts we've needed to include, such as "Favourite Character" and "Worst Moment" and "Were you surprised by the ending????" The four question marks were specifically requested.

We're kicking off with the 1931 black and white Frankenstein film, followed by Against All Flags, an Errol Flynn pirate adventure and then Laurel and Hardy The Flying Deuces.

Clip boards at the ready.....