Mud, mud, glorious mud!

Catch up of the things we have been up to.  More playground fun! 

Caden's artwork is getting back into full flow again after a few dry months. Here are a few pieces he did. The top one is a map. I think I have photographed it upside down actually (!)    It has (had) trees, an animal and the grass is below the trees. There was an attempt at fire. He used three shades to create a fiery look, with yellow, orange and red and he used brown for the base, which I guess is wood. I like how he is demonstrating an understanding of fire. We have talked about the fire triangle lately, on another post. The other two the bottom right and bottom centre are Milesy scribbles. 

Caden has also been experimenting with drawing faces. I LOVED the day he drew all these different faces for me. Look at the experimenting with different eyes. There are eyes on stalks, set into the head and odder things. Really awesome work! 

They have had a lot of playtime in the glorious sun, on their own and with friends. Here they are running with their friends at Stockgrove. 

Caden climbing the tree. 

Running in the bluebells! 

Caden and Arthur talking like old chums! I love these photos! They are having a proper conversation here! 

Movie night! They watched Tarzan together!

Playtime at Rushmere with other friends. They had a huge push on this hammock swing! 

Miles is testing the slide for whizzability!

Knocking on the faery doors!

More tree climbing!

Occupying the giant's chair! While he was away, obviously!

MIles and Meg reading The Big Bardic Book!

They are sooo cute together! 

The wobbly bridge! 

And yes... lots of mud! 

Caden chose a book called 'Make friends and play' to read to me. He learned a couple of new words that I have now forgotten and pretty much read the book cover to cover. 

Visits from other friends drawing together. Caden drew a pirate ship for Harlow on this occasion. 

They have acquired a drum kit! They really, really love it! Caden tends to lead the percussion, giving Miles instructions which are loosely followed. It has been lots of fun! I am hoping to get them lessons soon! 

More rainy woods time!  I like to call this Cadeydendrons!

Running about from one deep, muddy puddle to the next!.... 

Look at that mud!

Still no giant.... 

and collecting sticks and floating leaves in the last muddy puddle before home. 

We have done a bit more reading eggs. It is half term so I am laying off the maths program with Caden. 

In other news... Caden and I have had conversations and researched a little bit about WWII this week, talked more about time travel, looked at a historical timeline showing everything from pre-history to the modern day (which is one reason we looked up WWII) also we had a look at Viking facts. We looked at a map of Africa and Caden looked at all the different countries and told me the smallest one was Gambia. He learned that we call it The Gambia and that it is the smallest mainland country. We looked at pictures of The Gambia and after seeing the holiday brochure photos that came up on |Google images Caden declared he would like to visit (yep, me too). He was less keen after seeing the more slum-like photos, though I have heard it is a stunning country in many ways. We also looked at the work of Claude Monet together and read about his life briefly and also about Leonardo Da Vinci and his amazing inventions and art. We are still reading the BFG, it is tense, there are two chapters left and Caden is so excited about the finale tomorrow. It has been great reading it to him.  I think he would like a story about a boy in a time machine next... please comment if you know of one. I am sure there must be something.

Sunshine fun!

This weekend the boys built a BBQ together. They carried single bricks with two hands to help build this masterpiece. Then we lit the briquettes and cooked meat and fish (caden cooked squid in foil) and we toasted marshmallows. It was such a lovely evening. 

We went with friends to Stockgrove woods again. They have new hats for the sun! Funky ones from the charity shop. They are both very proud of them! 

Miles looks like a right geezer!

The boys pretending to be dinosaurs. 

Caden and Miles in the hedge. Caden says his hat makes him look like an explorer. 

We visited the splash park again. Making the most of the fine weather. 

They played in the adjoining playground. Miles really loved Caden pushing the swing about. 

We made some chocolate cakes. Here is Caden with the egg. 

Miles and Caden did some drawing too, they drew lots of dinosaurs. Caden's drawing is coming along. He has been experimenting with drawing faces and eyes in different ways I have noticed. 

We also tried to finish the money section in maths this week but found that the last section, getting change, was a step too far for Caden right now. We have abandoned that at this point in time, marked to return in a few months and see if it is easier for him then. We moved on to non-standard measuring (with shoes and footballs and other things) then onto lengths that are larger or smaller than a metre. This was no problem for him. 

Miles is learning his letter steadily. We are fairly clear on b, c and f now and he began learning I and a, so that he can read one letter words in sentences and hopefully things will begin to make sense in context a little bit more for him. 

They have both played lots, they made a fishing line from a magnet, string and a wooden stick because they lost their fishing lines for the magnetic fishing game. They have made masks with paper and scissors and tape. They have played with water, bubbles, letters in the bath and enjoyed stories. They have played games on the ipad and watched dinosaur and deadly 60 documentaries for kids on the TV. Lots of outdoor play, they have been for a picnic at Caldecotte Lake and been to the canal. 

Sunshine and Splash Parks

It has been a busy, social, splash-parky week! We had their friends round or visited their friends almost every day, all day! We are glad of a quiet Friday to wind down from it all. 

We had their friends Isla and Harlow over for a few hours, I took them all shopping, they all had a bag each to pack at the end and enjoyed getting things off the shelves to put in the trolley and putting things on the conveyor belt.  Here they are in cahoots under the packing shelf at Lidl. 

I took them all down to Leighton Buzzard splash park. They were in the water about 2 hours and then at the playground about an hour too. Lots of home educating families were there, so loads of their friends were there.  Here are some of them in the water. 

Miles took his bike in the water. 

Caden at the edge of the giant picnic with his koala towel. Miles in the pirate towel sat down. 

Time at the playground, Miles balances...

On the seesaw..

Climbing on the pyramid with Harlow.... 

They had a major swing about on the hammock swing...

Another day we did a science experiment intended to show how the surfactants in washing up liquid disperse the fat molecules (split the fat) in the milk across the plate so you can create beautiful patterns with food colouring. There is some interesting science behind this which is a bit advanced for the kids right now but if you are interested you can read the science bit below. It is good to see the colours shoot to the edge of the plate and observe that you can only perform the experiment once. 

http://www.nipissingu.ca/education/jeffs/4284Winter/PDFS/MagicMilk.pdf

Miles was quite happy playing with the toy canal in the sun while we were doing the experiment. 

We went back to the splash park again with different friends. They love it so much there. It was so sunny too. 

It was their Dad's birthday this week so I had them making lots of plans for the things they would make and do for him. We have made a nice photo up for him to receive from them and they made him cards and a 'minibeast map'. 

Oh and they drew on the walls..... (!)

We also found a really unusual caterpillar on the pavement. 

Every time Caden went to pick it up, it sort of attacked him (though it couldn't really hurt him), it made him jump and drop it. Miles touched it a couple of times too. 

Eventually Caden overcame his fear of it and picked it up, he carried it to a safe place in the bushes and threw it in. 

We've made more progress on maths this week. Caden has been doing money, adding coins, working out which coins he needs to choose to make a certain figure and doing the same with notes too. It is all coming along nicely... we also hope to finish the BFG this afternoon finally.