Project 229: Easter V

This project ran from Monday 11th April to Sunday 17th April.

This was our fifth year of home educating at Easter, so unsurprisingly there was a repeat of many activities from previous years. 

We made a simnel cake: 

They made cards and chocolate nests:

And they did an Easter trail at Peterborough Cathedral:

The children also made a last supper diorama with an egg box after getting the idea from a Ministry to Children video:

Next Project: The Netherlands and Belgium 

Project 178: Easter IV

It was our fourth Easter as home educators, so an opportunity to revisit some of the previous crafts and activities, as well as doing some new ones (see Project 29: Easter and Spring, Project 81: Easter II, Project 130: Easter III). 

There were the usual chocolate nests, as well as our first simnel cake, which everyone enjoyed:

We added to our Easter bunting (for the third year running), made some Easter cards, and even attempted to make a Lego hatching egg:

We also revisited the Easter story, explained the traditions of Holy Week, from palm crosses to the washing of feet, and watched a couple of Easter(-ish) films. We watched Ben Hur (the 2003 cartoon version on Amazon Prime):

And the 2016 film Risen: 

Risen has a 12A rating, and Amazon suggests 13+ for Ben Hur, although neither are particularly inappropriate for younger children. The ratings primarily reflect the fact that they deal with the subject of Christ's crucifixion in a more violent time. 

Next project: Materials

Project 130: Easter III

This week's project was prompted by Easter, and was our third Easter as home educators (see Project 29: Easter and Spring, Project 81: Easter II) . While we always do lots of Easter crafts, unfortunately (for obvious reasons) we were restricted to the house this year.

Nonetheless we updated our bunny bunting from last year, made our Easter nest cakes, made some toilet roll chicks, and created some Easter cards to cheer up family and neighbours.

Easter 2020 Crafts

Hopefully things will be back to normal next year!

Next project: Minecraft Education

Project 81: Easter II

As it is now our second year of home education, it is also our second Easter as home educators, and unsurprisingly there was some crossover between this year's project and last year's (see Project 29: Easter and Spring). After all, it wouldn't feel like Easter without chocolate nests!

Easter Nests (again).

The children also completed the Easter trail at Peterborough Cathedral:

Easter Trail

Decorated some blown eggs:

Blown Eggs

and made some Easter bunting (Solomon decided to make his in the style of Mondrian - Project 79: Art and Mondrian):

Easter bunting

Next week's project: Football.

Project 29: Easter and Spring

This week's project ran Sunday-to-Sunday rather than the usual Monday-to-Sunday so that we could couple together Easter and Spring, and make use of some of the activities that have been organized locally for the school holidays. 

As may be expected, we started Easter Sunday with the usual chocolate eggs, an Easter egg hunt, and explained to all the children why Christians celebrate Easter with a couple of picture books The Story of Easter and The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross. The Story of Easter is better for the Easter story, The Garden... is better for the wider biblical context. We also made some chocolate nests and made and decorated our own Easter eggs.

Chocolate nests

Home-made and decorated chocolate eggs

Peterborough cathedral had a number of Easter craft activities going on this week, and Solomon made an Easter bonnet and wreath. It's the first time that we'd been to Becket's Tea Room, and as it's a really nice space we stayed for lunch. Unfortunately the service and food wasn't as good as the space.

Making Easter bonnets

Later in the week we went to the Green Backyard, a local community garden, where another home educator had organized an Easter egg hunt. This was followed by a 'family gardening' session, where the children did some weeding, planting, and made bird scarers to take home. It was the first time we'd been to the Green Backyard, but we will definitely be returning as everyone had a great time. We also finally got around to buying some seeds and planting our own veg patches, and made use of our new bird scarers.

Bird scarers over our veg patches

Next week's project: Electricity!