w/e 29th April, 2006

Good old St. George's day last Sunday, so we had a quick look at the story of St. George and the dragon on one of our favourite websites (Woodlands Junior School) and the kids decided to write their own hero and dragon stories. As B is very interested in flags and was pleased to see the England flag was involved in what we were doing, we also re-touched on the significant use of colour in flags (first looked at during our Commonwealth sessions - see previous blogs) with the help of Enchanted Learning. B and K took this in much easier this time as it was just the three of us, and they both designed their own flags using colours that had a meaning to them.

The weather is certainly Spring like at the moment, so we are making the most of it, working on and having picnics in the garden and going to the park to play in the sand. B enjoys the company of younger children so this is perfect for him as the only children (usually) around during the day are pre-school age. K and I had fun making a large rabbit warren in the sand, and K also practised her gymnastics by balancing on the small fence around the sandpit, doing jumps etc. Rabbits are on K's mind at the moment since we saw the beautiful Rex rabbits at the local garden centre. She desperately wants one but we still need to find a good hutch for Herrence (the guinea pig) as he needs to leave his indoor home soon (I would prefer him to be in the large shed as Billy (the rabbit) is). K drew a lovely little picture of Herrence this week, he is getting very friendly towards us and even let us feed him some carrot (he's refused fresh veg before now - very child like!).

I have been busy clearing a patch of grass for carrot seeds. K helped to get the earth prepared and she sowed the seeds and is asking to do more vegetable growing. We have tomato plants on the way, thanks to a friend, beans, salad and potatoes - this should keep her busy. Will need to get some netting to keep the cats off the fresh earth I think! We had the joys of the blackbird family close by while we worked today (see previous blog), and even witnessed a butterfly open its wings for the first time (it came out of the compost bin!). Jasper, the ageing cat, managed to catch one of the baby birds this morning. Luckily, he hadn't hurt it and so we were able to carry it back to the end of the garden, close to the nest, before any more damage was done. We weren't sure if the baby would be accepted back into the family if we had handled it, but we found mummy bird with the baby later in the morning, so all seems to be OK. Mummy bird was cleverly enticing the baby back towards home by using a piece of paper in her beak as bait. Truly amazing, don't you think?

K has been drawing lovely horse pictures for some time now, but she's just decided to offer her drawings to her friends on the horsey forum. A couple of them have requested pictures, and also one of her friends has asked to buy one of her home-made leather headcollars. As you'd guess, K is pretty chuffed about that. She also got results of a model horse photo show she'd recently entered and learnt that one of her horses had come second in one of the classes. Although no certificate this time for 2nd place, she's still pleased at the result.

Started our Madagascar topic and have found lots of wonderful information on the internet to help us along. We have been looking at the foosa, which of course features alot in the Madagascar film, and have been finding out about other creatures, big and small, that live only on this island.

We did lots of baking on Thursday ready for a picnic on Friday at a near by stately home (with the HE group). Rather than let the kids trudge around Sainsbury's for the necessary food shop, I decided to divide the list up, asking them to make their own shopping lists of the food we needed to buy, and they were in charge of finding the food on their list. The kids were great at looking at different prices and finding bargains, so that together with the weighing of ingredients for the baking, made a pretty good maths day all round! Baking went well and was completed by about 4 p.m.!

Lovely day on the Friday with the group. Visit to the home was wonderful and the sun shone for us and the wind levels dropped in time for a friendly picnic afterwards. Kids had great fun feeling the freedom of the great outdoors which made us all tired out at the end of the day.

K and I went to see Annie at the local theatre today. Two sisters from the group were in the show which made it even more special. Well done to them, a wonderful performance. K has decided that she'd like to try tap dancing and be in a musical like her friends!

Have a good week!