Amsterdam - Ripleys Believe it or Not!

We have walked about 13,000 steps today. My Fitbit told me. The boys have done the same walking as I, so they have walked about 10k (6 miles). We are all knackered!

We walked all over the centre of Amsterdam. Wrote postcards for Daddy, Grandma, Marc and Bella and posted them. 12 euros... we can't do that every day! We visited Ripleys believe it or not, which they both absolutely loved! It was really interesting, freaky and wierd.... right up their street. We paid 5 euros extra for the magic show which we were the only ones into.. so we had a private magic show! The boys loved that. Caden was amazed and silent... in awe! Miles thought he should explain to the Magician all the things that magicians have to do so that they are real magicians... he was so sincere and funny! Caden was clutching his sides laughing at Miles telling the magician how to do his job.

I started reading The Diary of Anne Frank to Caden. It's a bit slow going for him but we will see how long it keeps him interested for. Though I don't think we are going to have time to visit her house now... too many other things to do.

We watched street performers spinning on their heads. I had a 30 min foot massage while they had some iPad time. We had lunch in a cafe and got back to the boat just as it was getting dark.

We are going to sleep so well tonight.

Here are some photos of our day...


Get a load of Miles' Hulk face.... don't make him angry....

More terrorised pigeons.

...and so to bed on the boatel with cuddles and kindles.

Interrail trip 2016 - Amsterdam Boatel

We are interrailing.

Lots happened... I decided Home Ed wasn't going to work for us this year and persuaded the boys to go back to school for this school year, subject to review in a year's time.

I promised them we would still travel but in their half terms and here we are in Amsterdam.

We are staying on board a floating hostel. The cabins are teeny tiny but the bottom bunk is easily fine for two small boys to share. They sleep together usually anyway so it's nothing new for them! You can hear the people moving all around you but it's low level noise and not obtrusive. Caden and Miles kept saying how 'awesome' and 'totally cool' the boat was when we first arrived, they are really excited about sleeping here. It was a lot of travelling for them, carrying their own backpacks and heavy coats. We have to take lots of warm clothes because we are going to some cold countries after this.

The plan is:

London-Luton (I just spent the weekend with friends and the lads went caravanning with their Dad) to Amsterdam
3 nights - 2 full days in Amsterdam
Train from Amsterdam Centraal to Berlin (direct - woo hoo) - this will take all day.
3 nights - 2 full days in Berlin
Train Berlin to Wroclaw
2 nights and 1 full day in Wroclaw
Wroclaw to Krakow
1 day in Krakow
Krakow to Prague (Sleeper train) The boys are very excited about this one
1 night and 2 days in Prague
Prague to Zurich (Sleeper train again)
Zurich to Lucerne by bus for the day trip to Mount Titlis up a cable car
1 night in Zurich
Zurich to Geneva (it will be a long long 2 days but the train goes the whole way around Lake Geneva - I think it will be spectacular)
1 night in Geneva
Geneva-Paris-Angouleme

Some of these train journeys are meant to be spectacular for the scenery. We have lots of reading material though and iPads of course.

Tomorrow will be NEMO science museum and a wander around Amsterdam to go on the fairground rides and spend lots of lovely time together.

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Tired at the airport....

We arrived in Amsterdam. The angular building behind the boys is the NEMO science museum. They are on the boatel. 

We took a wander through the lanes and saw the canals and houses and boats.

 Some scrapbooking in a little cafe for lunch...

Chasing pigeons in the square. 

Parc Belle Vue - Limoges

To celebrate our wonderful court win this week we took the children to Parc bellevue in Limoges. We had heard great things about it. 

Miles in the funny mirrors. 

The hilarious motorised 'donut' boats. This was the kid's all day favourite. 

Picnic lunch.... 

Inflatables... a huge sack which the children clamber up and then the mischievous adult sneaks around the other side of and throws themselves at, thus launching said children into space... great fun for all! 

Ball pool happiness! 

We waited for 1.5 hours for this caterpillar roller coaster to open (lunch time finishes at 1.30pm) 

Swing ride... Miles was 'just' allowed on this. 

It was beautiful weather and a really fabulous day out! 

Earth science with LEGO

We used LEGO to create soil layers and label them with Hugo, Caden's friend, who came over for the  session. 

First they sorted the lego, then they build their models according to diagrams on google images of cross sections of soil strata (a job in itself).

Then they did diagrams to label the layers of soil.... 

..and put their models next to the labels.

I love Miles' spelling - Bedrok! Awesome! He writes so well and he is only 5! I am so proud of these big efforts!

Having fun and learning!

Caden's diagram

Hugo's diagram and model!

All the boy's work! 

Story writing and alphabets

We have had old home educating friends come to visit us from Asturias, Spain (Shout out to Pepe and Ben) and we have been enjoying a heatwave, it has been seriously hot! So lots of pool time and lots of friends have been round to visit!

We found a giant grasshopper and discovered that there is very little difference between a grasshopper and a locust, it is more about their behaviour that gives them the name. The kids all loved watching this fellow! 

We went into Chabanais one Sunday for a local fete, we found out that they were celebrating the anniversary of the double carriageway being built. They really must have been very happy about that then! The whole through road in Chabanais was blocked off and there were giant long tables for a huge meal! We took a walk around and played at the park. 

Old cars and tractors! Fun to look at! 

Miles has been practising his writing and alphabet! He copied an alphabet from google images. 

Caden also did an alphabet in his beautiful cursive writing with his new fountain pen! 

This is one interesting thing that French school has taught them, how to write beautifully but in general so illegible that only those who are used to this style can read it! 

 They have been watching French cartoons. This is also helping my own French to improve as we keep the subtitles on and I help them with the translations as we watch.

Caden wanted to write a story one day. So I suggested that he make notes of a plan of how the story might go. He put them in boxes which led to us talking about flow diagrams and story planning. He also tried to draw a cat from his 'Dessin' book.