Bit of a list of a post, this one, as it’s been one of ‘those’ weeks – chugging along, with Ted off on Thursday for an inset day and snow as a distraction.
We received our Grow Your Own Potatoes (GYOP) pack from The Potato Council – a fantastic project pack that involves planting the potatoes they send (this year’s varieties were Rocket and Casablanca for our area) and then taking part in the various activities suggested on the GYOP website. We really enjoy taking part!
In preparedness for the work we have to do on our new garden, I’ve signed up for RHS Campaign for School Gardening (not sure why I haven’t done so before!) but haven’t had much time to actually explore their site. We’re working up to starting to sow some seeds to germinate on a our sunny conservatory windowsills soon (likely to make a start in the next few days) to be planted out when the weather warms.
Natural Sciences (including Geography)
As we have been moving towards doing the main ‘groundwork’ on the new garden, readying it for planting as the weather warms, Nin has been researching the best flowers to plant to encourage bees and other wildlife, moving on from that she has also spent some time learning about moths, in particular, hawkmoths. A site she has enjoyed is: http://ukmoths.org.uk/
Following on from watching The Great British Winter: Lakes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r6gdf ) last week, Nin has been learning about The Lake District: http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/ . As part of this we looked at a map of England to find out where the Lake District is and then Google Maps in order to get a satellite view of the area.
Leading on from the wildlife mentioned in the programme, Nin has been focusing on otters. Unsurprisingly there’s a wealth of information out there and some of the websites she has used this week are:
- Various video clips from BBC Nature: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_Otter#p00bhnqn
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Mustelidae (about the ‘Weasel’ family)
- The Wildlife Trusts “How To Spot An Otter”: http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/2012/10/30/how-spot-otter
Maths
Nin has continued using Conquer Maths, this week moving on to: Patterns & Algebra.
Foreign Language
Predominantly using Duo Lingo we have concentrated on French this week (thankfully, as my poor head was beginning to get rather frazzled with Nin’s insistence on covering three languages. Nin has also been writing her first letter in French to her new French penpal who lives in Brittany (and is also home educated).
Bits & Pieces
There’s also been a guitar lesson, playing in the snow and with friends, plus quite a bit of drawing. It’s very likely I’ve missed something as this week has been a bit of a blur!
