Trip to HMS Warrior.

Today we went to the dockyard where we got to go on board HMS Warrior and join in with some workshops.

In the morning Oscar learn't about life on board a Victorian warship throughh the story of Jess the Ships Cat. Then we went to find the missing kittens hiding on the ship.

Oscar got to try out a hammock.

And make a ships biscuit.

 Then the children were able to dress up.

 

 

In the afternoon  Oscar learn't about life for Victorian children, he learn't about the types of toys they played with and the games they played.

  

 

Oscar and Hannah being the farmer and his wife in a game of the farmers in his den.

Oscar got to make some toys of his own to bring home.

Then we got to have a look aroung the ship.

 

 

Oscar really enjoyed his day out today and learn't alot too.

Tuesday 26th.

Today I decided to have a go at teaching Oscar place value. He got the idea really quickly, I think sometimes I underestimate his ability with numbers.

Then he did some of his reading/ writing. sticker book.

Then spent some time on the computer playing word games.

In the afternooon we made some shortbread biscuits. Learning about weighing and measuring.

 

 

 

 

 They didn't keep their shape very well when they were cooked.

But they tasted good.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Today Oscar.....

did some of his maths workbook,

 

some reading,

some computing,

made a Birthday painting for Grandad,

helped me wrap his Grandads birthday presents, with a little assistance from Stanley one of our kittens,

got a hair cut and a free lollipop,

took a long walk to taekwondo splashing in lots of puddles on the way,

and played some Mario Kart before bed.

Home school group.

Today we went to our home school group at the library. It was really nice as it has been a while since we saw everyone due to Christmas and then the sonw.

Oscar had a great time with his friends, Hannah, Tess, Brodie and Scot.

I asked Oscar and Brodie if I could take thier picture so the posed beautifully for me.

After the library and lunch Oscar and Hannah insisted on a trip to the park even though it was cold and wet.

Litttle Angels

 

 When Oscar and Hannah get together, somehow they always get covered in mud.

 

Bowling

This morning Oscar and I went bowling with some other Home Ed families. Oscar got to spend some time with his friend Hannah and make some new friends too. It was the first time he had been bowling and he really enjoyed it. He also enjoyed his first ever Slush Puppy.

After bowling we met my mum and dad for lunch. Then back home Oscar spent some time on the computer....

 

...and did some reading.

Then we sat and watched countdown whilst building a robot using his construction set.

Another good day.

Religion.

Well today was an interesting day. Oscar started the day by writing some thank you letters for his Christmas presents. Ok, so we should have done that a couple of weeks ago, I just completely forgot about it, but better late than never I guess. He has some more to do so I can see it being the end of the week before we get them all done.

After that Oscar did some sums, he really likes working with numbers but lacks confidence in what he's doing. I'm not really sure how to help him with this except give him lots of praise and make a big fuss when he does well (which is most of the time).

Oscar then read to me for a while before I read to him. The book I started with him today was The Bible. This has been a difficult decission for us. My husband and I are athiest and as much as we might not like it we accept that religion is part of our culture and the wider world and that it's something Oscar needs to learn about and understand.

We feel it's very important that Oscar knows about as many different religions and cultures as we can teach him about. But it is a huge subject area and there are some really big concepts to grasp so we decided to start small with a childrens bible.

I told Oscar I wanted to read to him from a book called The Bible, I explained that it was a book that had lots of short stories in it. I figured we might as well just start at the begining and work our way through so I read him How the World Began and Adam and Eve. When I had finished I asked him if he thought the book was fact or fiction. He said it was fiction so I asked him why he thought that and he said "because it has lots of fiction things it it like a talking snake". I then explained to him that some people believe that the stories in The Bible are fact and they believe that God is real and that these people are called Christians. He looked a little surprised and and said that he doesn't believe God is real. I explained that it's fine if he doesn't believe in God or the stories in The Bible but that it's really important he learns about it because so many things we do are because of these stories, like Eatser and Christmas. By this point he looked a bit bored so I have left it there for now but we will come back to it later in the week and probably over and over agian during the next several years. Ultimately what Oscar does or does not believe is entirely down to him we just want to make sure he is able to understand his own and others cultures.

I looked at lots of Childrens Bibles and decided this one from Usborne was best for us as it's just right for Oscar's level of understanding.

After lunch we went out to the post office then Oscar spent some time playing with his trains. Finally we sat and watched Countdown whilst doing one of the jigsaws we bought last week. A very nice way to  finish the 'school' day.

Having fun.

Well we were stuck in the house again Tuesday and Wednesday, Oscar did lots of reading. He has started reading to his fravourite teddy bears. His dad bought him a comic on Tuesday, these are great as Oscar thinks he has a treat but I see it as a workbook. They are packed with stories and activities. The activites are quite simple but thats fine as with comics I leave Oscar to do them by himself. We think it is important that he learns to read instructions and then carry them out on his own . He has needed some practice with this as I usually find he has only done one or two pages but this week I was really pleased to find that he completed all the activites by himself.

Then I asked him to read one of the stories in the comic and later in the day I asked him to tell me about it. I do this every so often because we feel it is important that he doesn't just learn to read but is able to remember what he has read and share what he has learn't with others.

On Wednesday Oscar wrote his first book review. It was a review of  The Giraffe the Pelly and Me. Oscar wrote  "It was fantastic. My favourite bit was the giraffes magic neck". Then he drew a picture of the giraffes neck. I was really impressed that without prompting he used capital letters and full stops in the right places and I was amazed when he spelt fantastic without help.

In the afternoon we got out the Logiblocs Oscar recieved as a Christmas present, these are great, they are a bit like lego but you put them together to do different things. This is a starter set and depending how you put them together you can make a light come on, make a buzzer sound or both. They are great for early learning about electricity and circuits. Oscar was fascinated and we will definitely be looking to get more sets in the future and finding out what else we can make.

On Thursday the snow had finaly melted and we got out of the house for the first time in nine days. We didn't do much, just a trip to the park, a cafe lunch and then into a couple of charity shops on the way home. We had a few good finds that should hopefully keep us amused next week.

Here are few pictures of some of the other things we got up to this week.

More education city.

Oscar put together this train track and I haven't been allowed to take it apart yet.

And finaly some spelling in the bath.