Body Worlds Museum Berlin

This afternoon we visited the Menschen museum at Alexanderplatz in Berlin. I was blown away by this, the kids learned so much! You can't plan for this kind of learning. There was so much going on, they were so excited about what they were learning. Pulling me from this exhibit to that, telling me what they had learned about... all of it was different, personal to them and at their own range of understanding. The important thing was they both showed a huge interest in this museum and we all find human anatomy fascinating! Even the simplest knowledge of knowing the names of the organs of the body and what they do... Seeing nerves, tendons, muscles and understanding their function and their relations to each other... it's just wonderful! I couldn't have taught them this much with loads of textbooks at home. Getting into it like this is the thing! Seeing it in action! 

My personal favourite The digestive system!

All the internal organs as they are packed, naturally. 

This is just art... 

How obesity changes your physiology... and reduces your quality of life then kills you! 

The urinary system of men and women!

I kid you not... a cross section of a dude on a bike! 

The circulatory system! Oh wow! 

More art... 

Lungs of a smoker compared to a healthy person. Good image, this! Also the cup in the middle is full of tar and that is the amount of tar a smoker on average collects in their lungs every year. As a ex-smoker, this makes me feel so grateful to my former self for quitting when I did! 

The nervous system!

Something beautiful! 

Larks outside... 

We ended today with a green smoothie and a healthy burrito at 'The good seed'. 

Berlin Naturkund Museum

We are in Berlin on a little educational holiday. We are all getting educated on this trip as I get to see my current teacher Dr Jordan Peterson in Helsinki while the boys get to do every museum we have time for, that they are interested in. We are flying to Finland on Saturday but we loved Berlin last time we came, two years ago so we are taking three days in this city too. As Caden wants to be a paleontologist and as the Naturkund museum has the tallest dinosaur skeleton in the world, we had to come back. We spent all morning there today. What is particularly lovely is that both the boys took so much more out of this visit. In particular Miles. Miles stood with me as we watched a good film about plate tectonics with great demonstrations of how mountains are made and how tsunamis happen. We saw hot smokers and talked about halophiles and barophiles, thermophiles and the worms that live on the hot smokers, it's such a fascinating eco system... I love participating in their education on all these subjects. It's gratifying to see their understanding deepen.


This was when we got the bus at 6am from our local small town to the city to get the train. Public transport all the way... Miles fell asleep shortly after this was taken.

We arrive at the Naturkund Museum (Natural History)

 Caden took great pleasure in telling me the names of everything we looked at and correcting me wherever I made a mistake (often).

We went back to the minerals room, we had loved it here last time. It's a very good collection. 

There is a good evolution room, with all kinds of species of animal in the glass cabinets to observe. 

(Since I am going to see Dr Peterson this weekend, I had to make sure a photo of the Lobster made it into my blog, it's only right!)

 I love how since this is Caden's 'thing', he spends time telling Miles stuff about what they are looking at. That's a lovely thing to step back and watch.

 We found this room and just, wow! Each microscope was ready set up with a slide underneath and properly focused. There were lice (yeah, eugh! but also woah!) There was a little worm.. it was alive and swimming around and around... Caden thought it was cute :-| (it was not cute!) There were plant cells - so amazing! All green and uniform! I would have liked to have a more powerful microscope to see them! There were also cheese mites... The boys said it was gross and Caden said he would never eat cheese again... that opened up a conversation about how we are in fact, made of bacteria and why we eat probiotic food (they love home made kombucha). 

A bit like a scene from the science lab in Alien! 

A brief lesson on taxidermy. 

Then we got the U bahn and the overground train to Alexanderplatz for the Fernsehertur.. Television tower. Just a really high, iconic building with a great view of Berlin. The kids thought it was OK. I wouldn't recommend blowing 25 quid unless your kids really want to see Berlin from above. It wasn't personal enough to us and we looked and left. The lift was pretty cool.. it had a glass roof so you could see the entire lift shaft going up really high. 

We fed a pigeon her lunch! 

October 2018 - A little bit of everything

We were so excited to be home for 5 weeks when we got back from the UK and Holland. I got the kids set up on their laptops with their own accounts for Khan Academy, Duolingo, Reading Eggs, Nat Geo and many others... We are doing Conquer Maths from next January but as we are going away for a couple of weeks in November, there didn't seem much point starting the subscription yet. Khan Academy is fantastic... I can't recommend it enough! There is something for everyone. It's free and the quality and presentation of the information is top class! 

We went shopping at our local charity shop and rummaged around in the toy bin to find a big box of cowboys and indians which have given the boys hours of fun! 

Usual walkies.... 

Caden's Grandad Bill gave him some dinosaur skeleton models. Caden was very exited to assemble them all in his newly organised bedroom. They have pride of place in there. Thank you Grandad Bill! Caden is very grateful and loves them! This is his bedroom with the skeletons right next to his bed. 

We organised Caden's bookcase. He is a bookworm as well as a paleontology buff! 

Miles positively identified shaggy ink caps in the woods, they are edible and easy to distinguish from other mushrooms... 

Lunch in the garden before it's too cold to eat outdoors anymore. 

More walkies with friends. 

   The kids have been dressing up. We made a playroom for them and they have been enjoying their toys a lot.  

Miles has shown some promising abilities with cross fit, he is enthusiastic about it and we have enrolled at the Angouleme cross fit box. We go every Saturday now and we do a little bit of cross fit at home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually its about 15 minutes of circuits that includes some basic olympic weightlifts. I am doing cross fit too. Miles is the youngest member of Angouleme cross fit and he loves it when all the fit and muscly dudes fist bump him after a hard workout! I am really hopeful about this as a venture for him.  This is one of our circuits. 

more walkies but dressed as Spiderman today! 

Miles, not the dog! 

In the meantime, I am constantly renovating the house and making it better and better! It's come such a long way! This is our boot room just after the floor was laid. I've painted it all now. 

Miles and Caden are taking private French lessons each week. Miles loves his teacher and is coming along really well with his French and English reading and writing. 

Paul is contributing to the boy's fitness classes and that meant Miles could go out and get a new pair of Asics gel trainers. Ideal for Cross fit  - he absolutely loves them! 

Caden read his way through about 7 Horrible Histories books in a week! I must find the rest of the collection for a Christmas present for him! 

They have had many sleepovers and play dates with their friends. More cross fit. 

 One beautiful evening where we had a campfire in the garden before a spectacular sunset. 

Walkies, dressed as batman, a fox and an owl. 

The kids helped me to make lunch for them all. 

One early morning on the farm. 

Miles' favourite board game, Wildcraft. We played, he won (he cheated again :D ) 

More shrooms that Miles found,  we left them alone this time. 

... and playtime on the rug with friends by the fire as it's becoming quite chilly outdoors now at the end of October.