A varied week

This week has been somewhat varied in our activities.

The week began with a funeral and as always with home education, every experience is a learning experience. Not sure that the middle of the service is a good time to explain what the curtains around the coffin are for though. We also had a discussion as to what happened with the coffin, where it went, and how it got to the furnace. We even had to watch the smoke rising from the chimney. D as always thought of something that would never have occurred to me.

From bonfires in the garden, he knew that ashes blew in the wind, and the crematorium being at a top of the hill, is a very windy place. So the question was-"what stops the ashes from blowing away?" So we now know the difference between an open fire and one that is enclosed.

This week D has been busy with his pencils. The first masterpiece was a medieval knight


The next is a Xweetok from Neopets. We received more seeds in the post too. This time it is to participate in the "save our bees" campaign. We are going to start these sunflower seed in pots indoors and transfer them outside later in the year. We are also going to do this with the tomato seeds we bought. D has already picked out the beans he wants to grow.The weather seems to be taking a turn for the worse, but as soon as it brightens again, we need to get outside and tidy up the garden and sort out the pots ready for planting.

J had his survival swimming this week and he has decided he will do Level 2. He now has 3 weeks left on the course.

All the hard work he did Wednesday, didn't stop him swimming for 3 hours on Thursday with D and others from the local home ed group. There were a few extras there this week.

D had Spanish on Thursday morning which seems to be going well. He is using some of the things he is learning at home, which means he has to translate so I know what he is asking. J has also started learning Polish. Soon I will be completely lost.

Yesterday morning, there was a large crowd at ice skating which the boys enjoyed. This was followed by a very interesting tour around Cineworld.

The boys came back with the film times that the staff use to make sure the cinema runs smoothly and a piece of film each. Each 35mm film runs at 24 frames per second. We found out that films are delivered in 20 minute segments which they then have to splice together. This is a very technical operation, the pieces of film are stuck together with sticky tape! We also saw the digital projectors. One of them was showing a 3D film. Sitting at the cinema will never be the same again.

Coming home Thursday, I wasn't feeling well, so D offered to make dinner. He even had a go at making crisps. These weren't bad for a first attempt, but he wants to try them again.