Saturday 26 March 2011

Cromford Mill

A lovely day at Cromford Mill and Village.  We had a tour around the village before lunch, and then a tour around the mill grounds in the afternoon.  A great insight into the life and work of Sir Richard Arkwright and his son, Richard Arkwright.

  View towards first building-top floors lost in a fire after the cotton mills stopped working
 Iron Mine
Grade 2 listed pig sty


  North Street-top floors housed loom for father to work at home.  the streets wide enough so the shadow didn't hit top floor                                  

Original main road
 Main building as it would have looked
 Foundation of second factory-door ways to first inside toilets
Alarm clock-bell to summon workers

Sunday 13 March 2011

Hoober Observatory Visit

Friday night the boys went with some of the home ed group on  a visit to the Hoober Observatory.  As their dad was up for the weekend, he took them.

Fortunately, they got there early and managed to catch the only break in the cloud to see the moon.  Daniel was astounded by the amount of detail they could see.  The lack of visibility didn't seem to dampen any one's enthusiasm for the visit.

They had a slide show about the universe and different galaxies and a tour around the observatory.  It must have been good, Daniel wants to go back.  Even better, he would love to have tens of thousands of pounds to set up his own.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Art-March 8th

Theme this time-Sustainability in three groups-artistic, everyday and technological.  Artistic and creative thought was shown to be important to come up with new ways of sustainable innovation.

This was followed by a visit to the local park where everyone participated in exercises to enhance sensory perception-1-walking round getting snapshots of the park, 2-collecting five natural objects of interest and making up a story about them, 3-drawing a sensory map of the area.

Once back in the classroom, the children collaborated to draw a sensory map of the park, using symbols, pictures and words. 

The session ended with us watching the following video Using Natures Genius in Archtecture

Tuesday 8 March 2011

I'm in heaven

Spotted from the front room yesterday.  One almost teenager, sheltering in the warmth of his greenhouse with his carnivorous plants for company.  What is he reading?  His book on carnivorous plants!

Sunday 6 March 2011

I don't 'do' art

So says Jonathan,

so what's this?

Saturday 5 March 2011

The Deep-March 4th

Wow, what a long day, but worth it.

It was the first time we've been to The Deep in Hull, and we could have probably done with longer there.  The highlights were a workshop on coral, and watching the divers feed the sharks.  We were too high up to see the saw fish getting their meal, but they were impressive.

Daniel was delighted to see a small collection of carnivorous plants, it was just like looking in his bedroom!

Friday 4 March 2011

Science Museum Live Tour

A quiet night it wasn't, but definitely lots of fun.

Last night we went to The Lyceum for the Science Museum Live show. It was a fun, noisy way to get scientific facts over to kids.  Some of the experiments we'd seen before, but that didn't take anything away from the enjoyment.

They covered, energy, electricity, gravity, Newton, Hook, Watt, Christopher Cockerel and the Hovercraft.  Unfortunately, the boys now want to try and make their own!

Thursday 3 March 2011

March 1st Art Workshop

February's workshop had been cancelled due to sickness and rearranged for March 1st.  The theme this time was Islamic Art.  After spending some time exploring the purpose of Islamic art and seeing examples, the next stage was to think how art could represent their own identity.  This involved looking at the meaning of colours and thinking of other things that represented who they were.

This is Daniel's painting, we're all still trying to work out what it's is saying about him, lol.

Meanwhile, Jonathan is trying to get to grips with CAD.  Our house has gone through several changes, some good, some not so good.  I'm just glad it's done on computer and not in real life!