Solar Eclipse

We joined lots of people at Heaton Park on Friday to view the solar eclipse. After 2 glorious days of blue skies Wednesday and Thursday, Friday turned out cloudy, but we headed out early, arriving at Heaton park by 8.30. It was already getting busy and we secured our eclipse glasses and some literature kindly provided by the astronomy society.

The boys had their scooters and Amy her bike  so they were happy enough waiting around for some action!

 

We met up with quite a few other home schoolers and one was even interviewed for BBC radio5

There was lots of cloud cover

But every so often there was a break in the clouds!

View through the welding mask which proved the best way to view! The glasses gave too dark a filter with all the cloud.

By 9.30 the peak of the eclipse arrived and it felt like dusk, with only about 5% of the suns light and warmth.

At 10 we'd seen most of the action and we headed off to the playground and had a fun time. Glad to enjoy the experience.

Marbling

A friend and I have been getting together to craft on a monthly basis and this month I ended up having my 2 boys with me, so we decided to have a go at marbling.

My friend had made up the special thick solution 24 hours in advance and had her kitchen all set out ready for us when we arrived, so we got straight stuck in!

We each had a tub with the solution in and dripped a choice of yellow, red, blue and orange ink in before mixing it around with a toothpick. Its amazing the different effects we created.

Using dropper to add colour

Mixing it up

Lay on the paper

The finished result

We each had a surface to put our finished pieces on - Luke managed to fill his and his was the biggest!

Luke's creations

Bens creations

Mine!

We had a fun morning and left the kitchen completely covered with pieces waiting to dry - hope they managed to cook tea!

Term 1 2015

This year I thought I would keep a track of what we have been doing termly so here is our first term of the year

Maths

 Ben has been working from CGP maths book for KS3covering revision of long multiplication and division, ratio, square numbers, perimeter and area. 

Luke has been using a KS2 work book covering decimals, square numbers, multiples and factors, prime numbers, shapes and angles

We have also done some work on multiplication tables using grids and die games

 Amy has been playing games that involve counting such as snakes and ladders, she loves her matching game. She has been hanging numbered socks in order on a washing line.

English

Ben is continuing with his online CMlive class. he has read Frankenstein this term and given a PowerPoint presentation on one of the chapters via webcam.

Luke has been using a KS2workbook and has written a number of blog posts here lego marble run and here I am 11 and also Thank you letters for Christmas and his birthday.

Amy has starts making an alphabet book. She likes doing her alphabet jigsaws. She is fascinated by the starting sounds of words and loves to just blurt out examples when she thinks of them.

R.E.

We are using postal bible school This month the subject has been Daniel

Topic work

The boys have continued to work through the Answers in Genesis -  Machines in Motion book with their dad on Thursdays. They have looked at Inclined planes, Wedges and screws, levers, gears and pulleys

I have been reading a book with them called "The Blood of the Martyrs" looking at the history of the early church.

Gateway

They have been looking at The Celts

Nature study 

Precipitation (snow, rain, sleet and hail)

Winter tree study

Water birds

Sports

We have continued attending the home ed sports groups on Monday mornings, but Luke has had to miss the last 2 due to problems with his foot.

Home ed meet ups - Fridays are our social day

Wk 1 we met in Rochdale town centre and had a bit of a tour looking at some of the history of Rochdale and finding out about the plans for opening up the river which flows under the town centre



Wk 2 - Following the snowy weather we had a look at how snow is formed, made some snowy pictures and snowflakes and read about Snowflake Bentley

Wk 3 We had a go at melting some crayons and enjoyed playing with lego

Wk 4 We made some soup and chocolate beetroot brownies - yum
We added the recipes to our books

Wk 5 It was Lukes birthday this week so we had some changes and met up on wed instead and had a day at the park with bikes

Wk 6 I had to spend some time with my dad and the kids all had fun playing at Lisa's

During the half term it was the Chosen generation group meet up which was on the theme of stories and parables

Pictionary

The Gruffalo

One to one time

Ben - spent a morning at The Saltcellar in Oldham sharing cake and discussing adolescence!

Luke - spent a morning starting to build a cardboard marble run.