The weather really turned cold this week but there have been some really beautiful Winter days to take advantage of.
One morning the boys and I went out about 8am and gathered loads of sticks to make a den. Here is Miles in the den, overexposed.
Caden insisted on being photographed in it too. We all really enjoyed this. It still needs finishing.
Caden feels an affinity with a Robin he was watching from the narrowboat when our friend hung up some fat in a coconut shell for the birds to eat. Since then he feels that 'his' Robin is hanging out waiting for him and that it is quite tame. It's very sweet. The Robin was allowing the boys to get close.
The canal properly froze over one night. This was the first time we have experienced it. I could really feel the temperature go down overnight that night. It was very beautiful in the morning.
The boys both had fun throwing sticks onto the ice and listening to the metallic ping as the sound reverberated around the ice.
They adore their £2 hats which we got from Bletchley.
Caden was asking about metals. He was reading about them in the car and telling me the properties of them. We decided to do a project where we would look for metals being used in our environment and try to identify them. We talked about alloys, Caden knows now about what an alloy is and what stainless steel is made from. He also knows what applications many metals have for industry, just things like he knows that aeroplanes need to be made of aluminium, for the same reason that his Robin has hollow bones, so it has less weight/density. We also learned that some metals are highly toxic - lead and mercury, and that some metals are essential for us to be healthy - zinc and copper. Miles was involved in this project and will be taking it all in too. We all had a bit of fun looking for metals that are used in everyday life.
We found the buckle on my handbag, a screw holding a wooden table together, the clasp on Caden's shark tooth, a door lock, a radiator and the car too.
Then we talked about money and how old coins used to be part actual silver.
We have all been having some wonderfully relaxed times together on evenings. It is sooo relaxing on the boat with music on, the boys playing on their iPads or we are all reading a story. We cuddle together on the couch, we are close and talking on and off. In the other houses we have lived in, there was so much space that I felt I was always drawn away from them to do other jobs. It is a huge benefit to me and the boys to have this lovely relaxed aspect in our lives now. I am very grateful for it and they love it!!
Caden some good work in his art class. This is on one side and I can't rotate it but you can see he has drawn fruit on a tree and made a dinosaur (which he apparently drew with no help at all). You can see the circles drawn where the joints are for the moving parts. Very cool! Also he has been colouring in the lines and using two colours to show where the light goes.
Some more art work from this week. He has also practised drawing shapes. He loved his art class again. I think it is the highlight of his week. Miles and I used the hour respectively to study and mine! Miles is so good with the computer, I am beginning to wonder if I should encourage him towards that side of things early... I might try him with some coding too.
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