Trips Sept - Oct

15/9/16
On Ben's first day at college, Luke, Amy and I headed to St Annes to make the most of the lst of the summer. It was a bit hazy during the morning but brightened up after lunch. Here they are on the prom

and doing some Maths on the beach

It was a long way to the sea so we just made our own moat!

Muller Wiseman visit 23/9/16

Learnt all about the process of milk getting from the farm to the fridge. The dairy works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so we can have our milk for breakfast!

The tankers can hold up to 30,000 litres and are insulated to keep the milk cool. They collect the milk at each farm once a day and the driver checks the quality and takes a sample. This is tested again when the tanker returns to the dairy.

Once the tanker arrives at the dairy, another sample is taken before the milk can be transferred to large chilled silos. Each of these holds up to 250,000 litres.From the silos, the milk goes to be pasteurised, which involves heating the milk very quickly to 72oC for a minimum of 25 seconds and then cooled to ensure there are no germs.

The cream is then separated from the milk before being combined to make the different types of milk, including whole milk and semi–skimmed milk. Whole milk is homogenised to mix the cream with the milk.

The milk is then packaged into cartons, plastic or glass bottles. All of which are colour-coded into the different types of milk, skimmed (red), semi skimmed (green), whole (blue) and 'the One' (purple).

Dewlay Cheese 29/9/16

Thought we would follow up the milk visit with a trip to a cheese makers as I'd spotted this place close to Bens college

We were surprised how much was done by hand.

We purchased some yummy creamy Lancashire from the shop ;)

6/10/16 Visited Andrea in Blackpool and had a walk along the front

13/10/16 Afternoon walk with the Welbys

ENWC Oct Pond Study

On Friday we visited out local park to see what was going on at the pond in Autumn

Three pairs of Mallards watched us carefully

Emergent plants

Think these are flag iris

Water lilies (partially submerged)

Lots of duckweed at this end

A view from up the hill

Here are our nature journals

ENWC Sept Seeds

We have started to look at Exploring Nature with Children.

We took a walk round Kersall Moor with some friends and observed different types of seeds and discussed how they were spread - by animals, wind or self dispersal. The favourites were these balsam seeds which they had great fun "popping!" Oh dear - not helping to reduce their spread are we.

Here are our notebook pages 

Summer crafting

I have been making and selling some small crochet items in aid Of The Message Trust where Paul has just started working

Autumn Term 2016

A new school year and some changes afoot. I attended the CHESS conference where The Clarksons gave much encouragement for the home school journey. I would love to incorporate some of their ideals into our home.

Ben has started 1 day a week at Myerscough college doing his Maths and English GCSE's. This college is the only one locally(!) that take home educated students to do these exam courses, so we are all having a day trip out to Preston on a Thursday to take Ben.

Amy has joined our home school this year and we are settling into a new routine with her joining in too - its nice to have one keen child.

Monday 
Sports group and Gateway on alternate weeks with our meet ups with The Williams to continue with the Who Am I study for the older ones and Leading Little Ones to God for the younger 3














Tuesday
I purchased the Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science book at Cefn Lea this year and all 3 are working through this together!

In the afternoon Emma is coming over to join with Amy to look at some Geography - we are looking at some different countries in the world - starting with those in the United Kingdom

Wednesday 
Phil is continuing to teach the boys Computer science while Amy and I are thinking about how we can serve others in the church. Luke has asked to do more art so we are continuing with our artist study and doing some art work in the afternoon.

Thursday
Ben at college, Luke and Amy day out/visiting the Welbys and joining in with their activities

Friday 
Meeting up with the Williams and any other families who want to join us to do exploring nature with children

Bible - I want to try and include some bible memorisation this year in our morning time. I have been looking at The Fighter verses and hope to make a start with these

Read Alouds - I want to include more read alouds this year.
We have started with Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe and Our Island Story H.E.Marshall

Maths

• Ben is studying the Edexcel Maths GCSE
• Luke is working through Key stage 3 CGP maths book and doing some math on Khan academy
• Amy has some workbooks form Grandma and we will do lots of games

English

• Ben is studying for Edexcel English GCSE
• Luke is working though a KS3 CGP workbook on Spelling punctuation and grammar and has a comprehension book on The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe
• Amy has some workbooks we have acquired and just enjoys writing when she has the opportunity. She is also continuing with Postal Bible school

Tamarak Renezvous

This year we took our holiday at the Tamarak Rendezvous - a family event organised by tamarack outdoors. They take over Bowley scout camp and run lots of lectures, demonstrations and have a go sessions for everyone.

We set up the tent on the field - look at the view sat outside

Then Paul set up the hammocks in the wood

Paul slept her the whole 4 days but Ben only managed 1 night and Luke 2! Amy fancied a go but once we'd got her all tucked in she decided the tent was the place for her!

The first 2 days were a bit rainy but the children made friends and we often had a tentful!

Paul went to all the talks and demonstrations. Here he is having a go at making a fire

Thursday was the wild game preparation demo followed by wild game stew the following day on the cafe menu - we had to have a try - very tasty.

Every afternoon there was shooting, Tomahawk throwing and archery, run by Wood sage outdoor education. They also ran a craft afternoon one day where we all made paracord bracelets and Amy made some fridge magnets and stone painted bugs.

Paul and I had an early morning walk enjoying the sunshine on the Saturday - what a beautiful country we live in

The children are already asking if we can go again next year - obviously a success ;)