Basing House & Story Writing

Wednesday we had a bit of quieter day, 'M' decided she doesn't want to go to gym any more and to be fair I was expecting it. In her words she wants to go to big girls gymnastics. So I've sent a few emails off to find her another class.

With our now free morning I got the kids making little books and creating their own stories. A bit of hidden English work for them as I don't think especially 'H' realised he was in fact learning!
'C' wrote a pretty short book, only 2 pages long but at least I got him to put some effort in,  he really doesn't like writing. I wrote as 'M' told me her story which changed plot a number of times.
'H' is still going 2 days later on his, he's currently on page 9 and insists he is going to fill the book right up until page 10.

That took up the morning and we spent the afternoon visiting grandparents.


Yesterday we took a last minute decision to head to Basingstoke for the day. We couldn't pick between Milestones or Basing House. After weighing it up we decided to go for Basing House as we haven't been there before. We were all pleasantly surprised. I don't think any of the leaflets we have seen have done it justice. I for one was expecting to find some sort of posh house and not much else. We had a lovely walk from the car park down the side of a stream, saw some ducks and played pooh sticks. It was a nice sunny autumn day and we found a bench to have lunch before going in.

The first thing we saw was a huge Tudor barn, on entry we were made to feel very welcome. I don't think they had many visitors that day. The kids were taken off to a corner by a staff member while I signed in on my pass. They were shown a new scheme 'The big draw' which is encouraging kids to draw what they think will be in the museums in a hundred years time. We then spent at least the next half an hour sat in the reception area drawing! They did really well though but I did have to explain to them in the end that we hadn't driven for an hour just to do drawing...

Eventually we headed out to what used to be a farm, a lot of the buildings remain and we had an audio show in the big barn telling us a fascinating story of what happened to the barn during the civil war. I wont spoil it for anyone who hasn't been.
The site is huge and we had to cross a road to get to where the Norman fort used to be, built around 1100, the site is also where basing house used to be (there was no posh house like I had thought :-)) and a further extension added by the Tudors.
In a small building again not expected was one of the biggest Lego models we've seen outside of Legoland of the former Basing House.

On we went exploring the ruins and we found another small museum in a corner of a garden containing  items found on the site.
Back for another walk alongside the steam and some more pooh sticks, and off home we went to get back in time for swimming lessons where they collected their 5m swim badges.

We have spent Friday morning working though some history books. With dad home now for the weekend, family down visiting from Wales and a big storm predicated I expect we will have a busy weekend.

Science, Crafts and more

The home ed science and craft group started our Monday off, 'M' made a very lovely Kaplinsky style bit of art while I ran the older science session.

We were building paper bridges in small groups using only 5 bits of paper and a small amount of tape. The idea was to find what sort of designs did/didn't work. They all had a look around at each others designs at the end and it was quite obvious which group won! But they all worked, which was great, as I was a little worried myself how well it would turn out. I had also made a few extra worksheets up to show the kids real life bridges like Tower Bridge. The kids all had a lot of fun and the time ran away with me, didn't realise we had in fact come to the end of the session. Quick tidy up and the sessions switched over.

I'm not 100% sure what the boys were studying as I was busy with 'M' but it involved a painted character rock and a passport. Have a feeling they were making a character to go towards future story telling sessions.

'M's science session was bubble based which made for a bit of mess and a little chaos.

We enjoyed ourselves and despite a few small issues with the hall, timings and peoples expectations hopefully we are going to gain a valuable weekly home ed group in the long run.

Today we had a free cinema visit in the morning courtesy of the national schools film week, the kids were more than happy watching Despicable Me 2 and it was a nice change, despite the cinema being full to breaking point with school kids. Was a little chaotic but once the film started it was mostly quiet in there. 

We then went on for a treat lunch at KFC, before heading to the Forest of Bere, we had been reliably informed there were chestnuts waiting to be found! We were not diapointed, 2.5kg worth came home with us.

We found some lovely looking mushrooms, which then made for a good conversation on poisonous ones etc. 'C' has a bit of a phobia about things that might harm him so tried to make them less scary and more pretty, just don't touch them sort of thing.

A few sculptures in the sand pit and a play on the park before heading home.

Our evening was pretty usual up until the thunder storm started, then we were all crowded around the bedroom window talking about what causes thunder and lightening and having a good home ed chat in general. At bedtime, myself and M spent some time on the megasketcher going through the numbers and the alphabet. Megaskethcers have got to be one of my favourite tools, even though the boys are older they still like to do spellings on them as a bit of a game when I shout out the words. Everyone should have a megasketcher :-)

Ancient Egypt

We started the day off by heading over to Portsmouth Museum to take a look around the new temporary exhibition.

Ancient Egypt!

I love history if I haven't already mentioned it before. I hope the kids get my enthusiasm when I'm explaining stuff to them and hopefully take it all in a bit better because of it.

I really was in for a surprise as I had no idea there was going to be a real mummy there. Which was fantastic, although  the kids were a little grossed out by the point you could actually see the mummies toe nails!  

There were a few activities to do, we picked up a work sheet to do the trail and some rubbings. An interactive quiz, some ancient god sorting and pyramid building too. 

We managed to spend an hour and a half in there, followed by a quick look around some more of the museum then off home for a chip lunch. 

The afternoon was spent with dad playing football, riding scooters, picking flowers. 'H' went to Jujitsu in the evening. Currently the boys are sat doing ancient Egypt word searches to round off the day. 

Why is it the week back home following a holiday is always a bit dull? Well it is for us at least.

With a bit of a slow start back to norm, we've done some gym, maths, lego, shopping, education city and 'H' has made a very good cardboard box car using some bits and bobs of junk.

Bit more of a productive day today and feel a bit better about getting on with home ed rather than wanting to be on holiday still! 'C' chose to get on with a good few pages in his maths book, 'H' chose geography and 'M' worked on some playdoh plates of food for the morning.

A few kids were off due to the teachers strike so a deal was struck up with the boys so they could go out and play early. The boys have finally been given a chore list that I think will work after realising they are pretty lazy unless instructed. Each of them have a list of what they are responsible for, making beds, putting clothes away, tidying up after themselves. Then on top of those they have 2 tasks to do for the day such as emptying the bins, wiping the sink. Not big tasks but I really think it's important that they don't think everything is all fun and games even if they are kids. Learning to do some basics and freeing up a tiny bit of my time is no bad thing. They have to do it before they go out and play, so not impacting on our home ed day. I hope though that they will learn to make their bed when they get up instead of leaving it to the middle of the afternoon!


I think 'M' might have started to get interested in starting to read. Bedtime stories resulted in lots of sounding out little words :-)  

One mad week was had last week and I'm going to try, quickly, to recap some of it! Monday was spent at the home ed group. The older science group worked on making paper rafts and made a reasonable amount of wet mess seeing how much of a load each type of paper could carry before it sank. The instructions stated that 30 marbles per group would be enough. I'm not sure if our kids made super strong boats but 30 was nowhere near enough and we ended up improvising using pencils and by the end anything else they could find!

'M' made some very pretty colourful crafts.

When they swapped the boys worked in a group on their stop animation. Not a bad result for the first attempt and I have now been instructed to buy the kit so they can have a go at it themselves. The younger group went bug hunting.

The afternoon was spent at the new hall, having a bit of a coffee afternoon. Despite forgetting my purse and having to go back home before picking the keys up we still got there in time. All of the kids and adults seem to have had a nice time. There was lots of crafts and toys to play with while parents chatted about ideas for new groups and current ones to join in with.

A pretty tiring full on day after which I had to make a start on 'M's birthday cake.

Tuesday was a bit more of a laid back day, we went to the park with friends for the afternoon.

Wednesday was 'M's birthday and we really packed in the birthday treats! She had been mega excited for days about it. Pressies followed by a trip out to the blue reef aquarium in Southsea, we then went on to have lunch at the Harvester and bought a few toys in Toys R Us. Back home to get ready for family and a couple of friends to come around for a last minute cupcake party.

Thursday was taken up with a home ed trip to Marwell, we managed to see all the Rhinos together that we had previously hunted out while they were scattered around Southampton over the summer and a few animals too!

Then off we went for a long weekend away to Wales visiting family and generally chilling out. Really needed the break and for a change feel more relaxed having been away. Normally a holiday involves me planning every day out as we like to visit museums etc. We literally threw everything we needed in the car and went, which made a nice change.

Now back on with the usual tasks, luckily enough a bit of a quieter week to come.

Friday was spent at the last archery lesson for the boys. They had to dress up as robin hood too. They were told about weekly sessions that they can go to in the evenings. Although they have enjoyed the archery the boys aren't too fussed about continuing on with it. 'M' made some crafts with me.


We went straight onto Staunton country park and farm where some of the home ed group had spent the morning at a workshop. We thought we could join them all for lunch and spent the afternoon playing and looking at the animals.

Bit of fun learning too. 

Football Saturday for 'C'. I spent much of the day ill. 'M' had some fun down the allotment with dad. She found a lizard and picked some huge marrows. 'H' spent his spare time building a game out of cardboard. He took inspiration from the fact it was national cardboard challenge day.
He wants to make a stand for it tomorrow, aim of the game is to score 1000 points with 5 throws. Your prize is a sweet.

Well I have well and truly lost track of the last few days, we have been very busy indeed.  As well as fitting in the usual book work, education city games, crafts and reading books. Tuesday we met up at a local village with a few other home edders. I think myself and 'M' had a lovely time as I had like minded people to talk to and 'M' met some new friends :-)

The boys took a ball and were quite happy playing with a friend.

They picked blackberries, hunted for conkers, found half a birds egg and played on the park. 'H' went to Jujitsu in the evening.

Wednesday they all went back to basics and did a few worksheets tracing around letters for the boys and numbers for 'M'. I'd noticed that some of their letters were being drawn the wrong way so found some good sheets with numbered arrows so they know what way they should be doing them. Makes life a bit easier and hopefully writing a bit neater.

It was 'M's usual gym class later, then we went to visit a church hall after a quick lunch to see if it was suitable for what I hope will be a new monthly history/geography group. Plans are going quite well for that. Football training for 'C' and we all went along to play at the park and have a go at flying 'M's kite which she had built and coloured herself. Wasn't the best kite flying evening but we had fun all the same.

Thursday was meant to be a day at home, but I had been roped into giving a lift to the hospital so we did leave the house for an hour. I came down the stairs to find 'C' had got up early and took it upon himself to do a few pages in his geography book. He does surprise me sometimes as he usually has to be shoved in the right direction to get anything done! We carried on with some of the Autumn display we have been working on and the kids seemed to spend most of the day cutting and colouring after that. I was quite happy to leave them to it as they were at least having creative fun. After a while I figured out why they were so engrossed in what they were doing. They had all decided that the buildings in 'M's Peppa pig toys needed graffiti, so they had been scribbling colourful pieces of art to blu tack on. Oh well I can't complain. Swimming lessons for all of them after dinner. They came home and caught me having a go at icing cupcakes so all three of them wanted a go at using the piping bag, didn't do a bad job really.

Busy few days to come too.

Now as long as I write my blog at the end of the day I can remember mostly what we did. Which is why I find writing it so helpful. If I can't remember what we did only two days ago you can see why I would think we hadn't achieved much over the course of a week!

Anyway with dad at home we thought we'd take him out for what we would call a typical home ed day. We decided to go up to Fort Nelson which is a very good museum and has the added bonus of being free entry. Fort Nelson was built to defend Portsmouth from a possible French invasion in the 1860's. The museum has updated so much over the last few years and it makes things much easier to explain to the kids. There was a good interactive map to demonstrate to the kids exactly why it was built on top of the hill and not where you would imagine a fort should go. I really think mine take things in much better if they have a visual to aid it. So they had this map/video which shows that if the French had landed they wouldn't have necessary gone straight into the city and attacked. The theory was that they would land their ships further away and go up and around the land to attack Portsdown hill from behind. Having 'won' Portsdown hill they then would have had free reign to shoot down at Portsmouth from a very good vantage point. Obviously this invasion from the French never happened and the Fort wasn't really needed. It was however used again in WW2 and we had a look at lots of different things that had been added to it over the years.
There was a nice section of Florence Nightingale which 'H' seemed very interested in.


After a picnic lunch in the car we went into town to the library, spent a good hour there. 'C' was pleased as we finally found him some books on graffiti with the help of the librarian. I picked up a couple of the home ed books I had been after by Gareth Lewis. I picked 'H' up a Florence Nightingale book which he was very happy with. 'M' wanted a book about babies but I couldn't find much that was really all that suited to a 3yr old. So in the end she chose a book about senses.

On our way back to the car we found a conker tree so the next half an hour was spent finding conkers in the grass. We collect them up every year and then don't do much with them. I really must make sure we find a craft to use them in.

Back home for a tea, play with friends and 'H' went off to Jujitsu.

Although not really HE related I'm quite pleased with myself that we finally made a start at tidying upstairs and finished our room, 'M's room and started the boys. Anyone who home eds probably knows trying to fit in housework is last on the list of priorities. I try to stick to my own rule which is I don't care about any other room as long as downstairs in tidy enough. I need to have a clear space to work with the kids which is the kitchen table and a clear space to sit in the evening. That usually means though that upstairs gets used as a dumping ground. I have cleared a whole box of work that needs to be lofted from the top of the stairs. The rest was mostly toys and washing to be fair. I do dread the boys room and although they do tidy it when I tell them to they don't quite do it properly and every now and again I need to go in there for a proper crack down on the junk!