we are still home educating

It is looking like history.

Lots and lots of history.

Romans, Celts, Victorians and smattering of Normans.

Ancient peoples from the Iron Age, where we got the bonus of being the only people to visit Castell Henllys that day, and the caretaker told us we could go into the exhibits as it was just us.  So, we got to sit at the weaving loom, around the central fire, lay in their beds, work in the blacksmiths, the grain store, the Chief's house. 

So lucky.

This was the Iron Age, and from here we visited Nevern again, to fast forward to 550 AD to ponder the sophisticated Celts and then the Normans.

I have a love for old castles and churches, which I've mentioned before.  I particularly love about this one that St Brynach used to commune with Angels on the hilltop nearby.  I want to try it myself sometime soon.


We learnt of the poor monk who was hung on a Yew tree in the Church yard for crimes he didn't commit, and who cursed those that hung him, making the tree bleed red until this day and the mystery Roman buried there.

At the castle, the boys played Knights, and the girl and I made land art.  I say land art but it was more like a mobile made up of leaves, plaited grasses and twigs.  We placed it around the notice board in a kind of frame.  We also made oak leaf wreaths for the wooden throne that sits at the top of the castle. We sat on the throne - it fits four of us easily - and practiced our Owl calls.

We've also been on a tour of a local village, Drefach- Felindre.  At it's peak there was twenty four mills in this tiny little village.  The stories behind them are mostly depressing but with the highlight of the Rebecca Riots, and the thought of grown men running around in women's clothing in the nineteenth century.

We've found out about Druids too, and found out that our spring is probably about two thousand years old, and that the heavy quartz rocks we've found dotted about could possibly be Druid markers for the Spring.  One wall leading down to the house is completely made out of the stuff.  By the ponds there are stones at least a metre across.

When we've got home we've continued to read about history.  Horrible Histories, the Miles Kelly Guide to British History and a host of others.

And a moment in my own personal history....the first day of the year that I've been able to put the washing outside and bring it in dry.