Treasure map

This was something we did a while ago for Andrew's birthday.  We had got him a canoe as a surprise so we made a treasure map as the canoe was hidden in a friend's field.  We aged the map with tea and scrupling and then I did a pencil outline of the peninsular that we live on.  The children then added details and shading, using symbol ideas from the ordinance survey map.  Lastly we put it in a bottle to wrap up for his birthday.

Table activities

We've been doing quite a lot of activities around the table in the mornings.  The children are really enjoying colouring in at the moment so I drew them an aeroplane to colour and they added birds, clouds and people in the windows.  They then wrote 'Aeroplane to Thailand'.

Keziah played with coloured rice at a friend's house yesterday so she made some with me this morning.  Blue, red and green with food colouring and yellow with turmeric.  We're waiting for it to dry to hide some objects in it and make pictures...

We're going split pin crazy and the children have made several characters this morning!

Keziah had a go at drawing mirror images on some dotted paper.

Outings

We get out and about nearly everyday, visiting all sorts of places and I usually take a photographic record on my phone.  The images don't normally make it off my phone though, so here are a few of what we've been up to recently...

We discovered this walled garden in the Penrose Estate when cycling along the bike trails at Loe Bar.

First trip out on Andrew's canoe, which we got for him as a surprise for his birthday.  Reuben and Keziah both had a go at paddling and Seren slept at the bottom!

Creating a colour wheel with leaves at Glendurgan garden. 

Using oil pastels to make a still life drawing at the Maritime Museum.

Bike maintenance - most days involve getting out on the bikes.

Butterfly collection at Plymouth museum.  We took the train there to meet up with Aunty Zoe and Matt.

Planting trees at Boot up, with SEEDS, an outdoor educational home ed group.

Keziah's tree.  We got drenched but no complaints from anyone!

Number Formation

This term we have been really finding our feet and trying lots of different approaches / activities / groups etc.  We haven't had any trouble filling our time - our weeks have been full and sometimes we've needed to plan in time to just be at home.  I've been able to recently find the time to plan ahead for some morning activities, which the children enjoy doing.  Today we did some activities based around number formation.  This involved different ways of making number shapes - play dough, tracing in salt, cotton bud painting, lining up buttons etc.

Reuben is really into colouring at the moment.

Seren with her treasure basket.

I had printed a world map with a key of 6 different countries.  The children used our big world maps to help them find where the countries were. 

Tall Ships

Falmouth recently saw the Tall Ships Regatta come to the town's harbour.  We enjoyed seeing them close up one evening and glimpsed them leaving on the start of their race to London from a headland near our house.  August is always a very busy month in Falmouth with lots going on and plenty of people around.  With a bit of careful planning there are endless free activities / events / workshops to join in with!

Shells

 After a summer of collecting vast quantities of shells and stones from various beaches we've been making use of them by creating some little works of art.

Reuben and Keziah made these mini mosaics at the beach with a great local group called The SEEDS Project.  We've since made plans to create a mosaic on the wall in our garden and have begun the collection of sea glass, stones, shells and broken pottery for it.

Seventh Day

We all need time off, time to rest.  It can be hard to understand how that works out in the midst of parenting three children under 5, as their demands are constant.  Somehow though God gives us the strength to make it through each day - and the grace to give us rest when we need it most.  Today I was blessed to have some time to myself this morning - a much needed chance for headspace.  I enjoyed running to our nearest beach, which was beautifully calm and surprisingly quiet despite it being mid August.  I had a long swim in the sea and then ran on to Princess Pavilions - a sub-tropical garden in Falmouth, and had some time with God (and chocolate).  I'm finding that I'm able to give so much more to my children (in being able to be more happy / calm / positive...) if I have spent time with God and done some exercise.  Andrew and the children then met me and we had some great family time before meeting up with some families from our church for a fun scavenger hunt in the woods.

Small World

I've got a backlog of things I want to post but haven't had the time yet (I've been trying to limit screen time over the summer!)... but for now here's a quick one of what we're up to today.

After a busy out-all-day yesterday we planned to spend some time at home today.  We had the usual engery burst first with a scoot around the block and to the post office.  Back at home I suggested to Reuben and Keziah that they could make a small world in the lounge and got out a few toy boxes.  They really enjoyed creating little areas - farmyard, train through a forest, boats in the sea etc.  They used the book You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart for inspiration on different zones.

After lunch Reuben got out Keziah's new puzzle of the British Isles and drew around different counties to create his own map.  We love anything to do with maps and learning about other parts of the world!

Wild Camping Trip

Summer is in full swing and we're doing our best to make the most of the weather (which has been amazing).  We decided to take off on Friday night to a secluded beach, away from the crowds that arrive this time of year.  We took what we could carry and had endless fun... rock pooling...sea swimming...fire building...pancake cooking...shell collecting...tree climbing...and spending quality time with family and friends.  Camping at its best!