Well the schools in our area were on their half term break this week and I intended to continue with a full week's work for K and B seeing as how things ground to a halt a couple of weeks back when we decided to put the house on the market. However, having said that, we only managed two morning's of work, but they certainly were full mornings!

We have finished looking at the USA for our "Around the World" lapbook, finding out some unusual information on the White House here together with a recap on the Declaration of Independence (which we'd covered about a year ago). We've nearly finished this whole topic now. It seems like we've been studying it forever, but I believe it's just over a full term really. Anyway, next week we're going to briefly look at the Reform Club in London (as this was the start and end of the Palin series) and the oceans and seas that he travelled on.

As our HE group visit to the local museum to "meet" Galileo fast approaches, and because it was the anniversary of his birth on Thursday, we've started our little project about him, his life and work. Enchanted Learning has a good section on Galileo, and for more indepth information, shown as a timeline, and some experiments I've found this site. So far, we've checked out his birth place, Pisa, reading about the leaning tower. We've also read about his early study on pendulums which lead to him making a clock. As Galileo investigated potential energy, we did a simple experiment dropping heavy marbles from different heights onto soft clay (and recording the indent diameter, which gets slightly bigger the higher the marble falls) to gain a better understanding of forces and energy.

On the maths side (which I must admit is beginning to get a little tedious for K and B) we've finished the poster on circles which include pi, working out the circumference and also the area using formula. Perhaps I should leave it at that for now and return to the work books as I'm beginning to hear groans whenever they see a fresh sheet of A3 paper appear in preparation for a new maths poster! Would like them to do an angles poster - perhaps I can get away with just one more!

K has been updating her website with pictures and information on her new models. She's decided to try very hard to save up for an original Julip model horse that she's been after for a while. It's pretty expensive so K's agreed to put her pocket money for the next 5/6 months into her bank account rather than her purse so she can't be tempted to spend it - wise girl. She was lucky enough to find £5 lurking in her handbag yesterday. Why can't that happen to me? Talking of websites, I really must start to update mine. I was thinking of letting it lapse as it's hard work just keeping the blog up to date, but I came across a blog this evening that has put in an entry about my website (which naturally was great to read) so I guess I should keep it going.

B has started his BASIC programming course learning very quickly a simple program to work out VAT. Having learnt this, he wrote a program to work out the area of a rectangle (with a little help from me) and then, by himself, one to do the circumference of a circle. Cool. He's itching to get on to the section for making a simple game.

Finally, K had a fabulous time at Butlins in Skegness on Wednesday with some friends to celebrate a 10th birthday. A long day (8.15 - 8.30) but full of lots of fun things like swimming, gaming and fair ground rides. Thank you C and family!

Clay horse produced by K