Busy, Busy

It has been a really busy 10 days or so.  We have had the Film Education showings, though we were unable to get to yesterdays due to a bus strike.  We got to see G Force 3D, Bee Movie, Star Trek and Hotel for Dogs.

D has still been keeping up with his Spanish and is now doing irregular verbs.

On Tuesday, I spent the day with D and 5 other youngsters at a workshop at Bloc Project in Sheffield.  They had a tour of the studios, met a couple of the artists and had a look at an exhibition.  They then did a workshop with one of the artists and produced a piece of work using the exhibition pieces as inspiration.  The older children had been there the day before, and the two end products were completely different.  I hope to have photos soon, once they have been sent through.

Wednesday, we went and saw Skellig at the Lyceum.  There was a Q and A session with the actors after the performance which really enhanced the enjoyment of the day.  We even had a one to one chat with the actor that played Michael on our way out of the theatre.  J had already read the book, but he has got it out again since seeing the play.  As the play was written by the author, the performance was very true to the book.

As well as all the comings and goings, we have been reorganising D's bedroom.  He is in the box room and he had wanted to have his clothes in there.  We managed to get a canvas wardrobe and some drawers that fit.  Everything came out of the room, got sorted and went back in, a huge task.  He now has his bed, desk, chair, 2 sets of drawers, a wardrobe, bookcase and even space on the floor for a rug!  He must be happy with it as he has gone back to sleep in there and has been doing lots of drawing and painting.

Next week the schools are on holiday.  We are going to get J's bedroom reorganised so we should be ready to get back to work the week after.

Another week begins

These weeks seem to come round faster and faster. 

J did some Polish and D his Spanish.  To go with the viewing of Romeo and Juliet, J read the next act of the play.

Together we went through the online resources from Film Education for Star Trek.  This examined the advertising campaign that goes with films, from the posters, to the trailers and film clips. It was quite an interesting exercise to see how the information increases nearer to the release date.  It will make seeing the film more interesting as they will be able to pick out the bits they have been discussing.  They were struck by how little transcript there was for a two minute trailer, but how much information was given in that time.

D is still enjoying his bread making.  We had two loaves made yesterday.  This was a basic loaf, but he did add honey to the mixture.  It tastes delicious and I will be more than happy for him to take over the bread making duties.  He did everything on his own with no help from me at all. Nice to be redundant, lol

Still Baking

We had a Spanish start to the day Friday as D decided to make churros.  They were really delicious.

It was a good start to the day as D then went on to do his Spanish homework.  J did some maths and we had another viewing of Romeo and Juliet.  They seem to have the Shakespeare bug as they want to see some more.  We are going to borrow the classic and modern version of Taming of the Shrew to watch and compare.

Good news for next week.  The bus strikes are suspended, so it looks like we will get to all the cinema bookings without problems. 

The artist becomes a baker

There has been more maths and science work done here.  J has been trying to take the maths he's done online to paper.  The long multiplication looks different on paper, but he soon got the hang of it.  A little more practise will certainly come in useful. 

D finished his science workbook and the final test.  We are going to see if we can find him something else when we go to town today.

D then did some more pictures.  I love the dimension he managed to get with the hole in the ice.  It seemed to work out really well.  He has decided he wants to do art at college so I will be on the lookout for other art courses he can do in the meantime.

The lobster was done using water soluable pencils.

When we went to the library yesterday, all the books we had ordered had arrived, so J was reading Lord of the Rings on the way home.  The afternoon was spent watching Romeo and Juliet.  J is going to write a review. 

The viewing was interrupted by a power cut and D went and prepared Vetkoek, which is Afrikaans for "fat cake".  These are bread balls that are deep fried.

By the time he took this photo, six had already disappeared.  The rest were gone at dinner time.  Although it was a savoury dough, they tasted sweet.  I think they were confusing the brain into thinking they were doughnuts as the outside texture is the same.  I am hoping he will make them for tea on Sunday so we can have them warm with some homemade jam.

He has been going through the whole book, lining up other breads to make.  Methinks he will keep going until the cupboard is bare.

Today, we will be going swimming once we have been to town to find some more art supplies.

The artist returns

It was a very varied day yesterday.  J did Polish and D did Spanish to start the day. J  then did maths while D did his science. He got full marks for the test at the end of the section.

D then decided the paints were coming out and when I got out of the bath, he was half way through making the mask.

Once he had completed the mask, he did the painting of the boat using gouache.  For a first attempt at doing reflection, I think he did briliantly.  Can't wait to see if the paint box will be coming out again this week.

Jorvik

Wednesday D went to Spanish and then we went a gave the man at the library a hard time.  Poor man seemed rushed off his feet with people coming in and the phone ringing. To top it all, J had him looking for and then ordering Lord of the Rings.  Once he had sorted that, D decided he wanted the bread book out again that he had before.  Trouble was he couldn't quite remember the title, but the librarian found it eventually, and it's on order.  Just as he thought we were going, I asked him for a DVD of Romeo and Juliet.  Another computer search, and that is on order.  I think we certainly made him work for his money!

Despite feeling pretty rotten, and not at all like going out for the day, we had a fabulous time in York.

First up was a trip round the Jorvik museum.  I forgot to take my camera which was a shame.  D's face was a picture when he went in because of the smell.  I had a head so bunged up, I couldn't smell a thing!  We enjoyed the way we were taken around the museum.   We sat in capsules and were taken through a reconstruction of Viking York.

The boys enjoyed seeing the bones and all the information they could tell us.  D was particularly interested in how they reconstructed a face from the skulls they found.

We then went to DIG which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.  It was fascinating to see what trained people could read from the remains they found.  The highlight for the boys was the fosilised human stool!  It was definitely one of those things you had to see to believe.  It was huge in it's fosilised state, never mind what it would have been like to pass.

On the way back to the station, we stopped and listened to a busker in the shopping centre.  He was brilliant and considering it was the 1st October and we were sat with no coats in the sun, it was a lovely end to the day.

The boys decided they would like to go back to York for another day out, this time to the York Museum and possibly the Transport Museum again.

Today will be spent recovering ready for another week on Monday.