Project 218: Typography and calligraphy

 As some of the children's handwriting leaves much to be desired, we decided to have a project on typography and calligraphy to try to encourage them to take more pride in their work.

They made use of some worksheets to practice writing with calligraphy pens, before creating there own bookmarks:

After going through a Twinkl PowerPoint on illuminated manuscripts, they used their calligraphic skills to create their own manuscripts with an appropriate biblical verse. 

They also picked their own style of lettering to produce a word of their choice:

And explored some of the different types of type that are available. 

They finished the week by watching The Secret of Kells (Again!! - see also Project 133: The United Kingdom and Project 100: The Middle Ages). 

While the children all enjoyed learning about typography and calligraphy, unfortunately there was no real notable improvement in their writing!

Next Project: Random Science

Project 217: Even More Extra Maps

Last time we tried a project on maps it went wrong from start to finish (see Project 76: More Maps), so as we haven't had a successful maps project since our second ever home education project (see Project 2: All About Maps!) it seemed a good time to have another one. 

The week started with an orienteering workshop at the local country park, which involved an orienteering task to solve a puzzle, and creating their own maps using natural resources. 

We made use of lots of Twinkl worksheets to learn about Ordnance Survey maps and compasses: 

And they went out to discover a new local geocache:

Next project: Typography

Project 216: Board Games Three

With Christmas bringing a raft of new board games, we decided it was time for another board game project (see also Project 154: More Board Games and Project 32: Board Games). 

Alongside many of the family's favourites, we played five new games. 

Forbidden Island is a cooperative card game where you have to collect treasures on a sinking island. With different roles and abilities it reminded us a bit of Pandemic, and all the children enjoyed it. 

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is a standalone expansion of Terraforming Mars, and whilst it has a few variations, if you've got the original it's probably not worth spending your money on this additional version. Solomon loves the complexity of these games, although the younger two (ages 6 and 7) are not so keen. 

Evolution is another card based game, and it introduces the notion of evolutionary traits. Solomon always wins, and is a big fan of the game, but the fact that he has memorised all the traits and their interactions means it's not much fun for the rest of us. 

Dungeons & Dragons: Adventure Begins was another game that was popular with all the children, and is a brilliant introduction to D&D as it doesn't require players to build their own characters, but retains all the key elements of the original game. 

Horrible Histories: the Board Game was a nice classic roll-and-move board game with questions, although it was let down by the quality and annoyingness of some of the questions. 

Next project: Even More Extra Maps

Project 215: Penguins

It was Sam's birthday, so his choice of project, and he wanted to learn about penguins. Unfortunately, as it was over the Christmas period, and the omicron variant was at its peak, we had to primarily make use of online materials. 

We watched a penguin documentary, followed by a Twinkl PowerPoint, and made use of lots of Twinkl worksheets:

They created their own colony of penguins using their fingerprints:

And they revisited some Scratch programming:

Finally they created their own Antarctic scene in the tuff spot:

Next project: Board Games Three