After Solomon rediscovered his v-tech camera at the back of the cupboard, we decided it would be a good time to do a project on photography.
The week started with a presentation and videos on photography and the history of photography.
The children then helped making their own pinhole camera, following instructions from the National Geographic's Guide to Photography.
The children were also given three photographic assignments:
Self-portraits with composition and framing (not for the blog!).
Monochrome and shades (following this week's BBC Your Photos theme)
Textures, curves and patterns.
All the children enjoyed getting out and taking photos, although special mention for Sam who won the household photography competition for his monochrome graffiti.
We don't do as much cooking with the children as we would like to, in fact the only project specifically on cooking was over a year ago (see Project 87: Cooking), so we decided to have another project on cooking.
Each of the children were expected to help with a breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as make a dessert.
Solomon made a pizza, a golden syrup cake, added some scotch pancakes to the lunch, and pineapple with breakfast.
Monica made a korma curry, added some pancakes to the breakfast and cheese straws to the lunch, and made some homemade ice-cream.
Sam wanted to help make a lentil curry, added some melon to the breakfast and chipolata wraps to the lunch, and made some gingerbread men.
The children all enjoyed the project, and we're working on cooking becoming more a part of their regular routine.
We wanted a relaxed project for this week's project as it coincided with Solomon's birthday, so we settled on knights and fantasy, focusing primarily on the tales of King Arthur.
We made use of numerous online videos to explore what it means to be a knight, and some of their literary depictions.
We also read knightly tales in the form of Morpurgo's Arthur: High King of Britain and McCaughrean's George and the Dragon. Morpurgo just about manages to safely skirt some of the more salacious aspects of the King Arthur stories, although as a parent you do find yourself concerned throughout about what might be coming next!
There are obviously also a lot of King Arthur films and we watched two: the classic Sword in the Stone, and the modern interpretation with The Kid Who Would Be King.
Finally, as a craft activity the children designed their own heraldic shields (the elder two had previously designed shields back in Project 100: The Middle Ages).
As it was half-term this week, and the school children were expected to be filling the local parks, we decided to get some exercise a bit further afield with a mushroom hunt.
We started the week with the usual raft of videos exploring the fungi kingdom, and by the time we went on our mushroom hunt the children had a far better idea of what fungi were and the important role they have in the local ecosystem.
We spotted a wide range of fungi in the local woods, and Sam was particularly enthusiastic about the hunting process.
Once they'd seen a few of the wide varieties available, they made some Play-doh models (using pictures from a book) and drew some mushrooms.
We also did three different mushroom science experiments. Using guidance from Twinkl we collected spores from a mushroom:
After the children enjoyed Project 146: A Wrinkle in Timewe thought it would be a good idea to look at some theories about light and space a bit more closely. Although we have done projects on light (see Project 107: Light) and space (see Project 8: Space and the Planets) previously, this was a project more about our understanding of space and light, and the change brought about by Einstein's theory of relativity.
It was a project that made use of a lot of videos and a lot of books, although we did finish with a some practical gravitational experiments at the end of the week.
There were a number of different strands to the week's work.
2) We explored the theory of relativity and some of its unexpected behaviours as you near the speed of light with The Time and Space of Uncle Albert, multiple online videos, and the classic 1980s film The Flight of the Navigator.
3) We explored alternative perspectives on higher dimensions with Edwin Abbott's classic Flatlands.
In the back of The Time and Space of Uncle Albert there was a quiz on the theory of relativity, and the children's combined efforts achieved a score of 15 out of 18, so we can rest assured they picked up something over the week. Obviously with children aged 4, 6, and 7, we don't expect them to remember everything, or come up with a theory of everything, but we do like to put certain ideas and concepts on their radar for future reference.
Like a lot of people we've ended up with far more board games than we generally have time to play, so we decided to have a week of playing board games. We last had a board game project back in Solomon's first year of home education (see Project 32: Board games), so it was a good opportunity to introduce some games to Sam, and hopefully clear the cupboards of some of the most childish games. In the end, however, the project stretched over two weeks, we still didn't have time to play all the games we wanted, and only managed to persuade the children to give one game to the local charity shop.
Week 1
We set off at at good pace in the first week, and managed to play 41 different games, from simple snap card games suitable for everyone to more complicated strategy suitable only for the big two.
Mousetrap
Tummy Ache
Mr Men Card Game
Guess Who
Snap (animals)
Snap (numbers)
Dominoes
Hare & Tortoise
Operation
Pass the Word
Frozen Memory Game
Paddington
Rummikub
Pass the Pigs
Memoir '44
Rockin' Robot
Wall Game
Junior Scrabble
Upwords
Destination Norwich
Mastermind
Pop Up Pirate
Connect 4 Flip
Monkey Business
Picture Tri-onimoes
Don't Rock the Boat
Countdown
Where is Moldova?
Frozen Labyrinth
London Underground Game
Top Trumps (Marvel)
Monopoly (Despicable Me)
Ants in the Pants
Spinergy
Around the World in 80 Days
Timeline
Hungry Hippos
Dobble
Ticket to Ride First Journey
Catan
Mario Match
Week 2
We found we couldn't quite keep up the pace in the second week, and only managed to play another 28 different games, partly due to playing pandemic three times.
Shopping List
Mario Monopoly
Carcassonne
Snakes & Ladders
Pandemic
Kerplunk
Picture Lotto
Scotland Yard Jnr.
Tell the Time
Backgammon
Loopin' Chewie
Stratego
Fortnite Monopoly
Ramses Pyramid
Downfall
Staying Alive
Scrabble
Ticket to Ride
Robochamp
3 in a Row
Flag Dominoes
Cubeword
Boss Monster
Bugs in the Kitchen
Othello
The Peterborough Game
Risk
Subma-Fight
Pandemic was the only game we bought specifically for the project, and everyone enjoyed it. We think Monica was particularly attracted to the collaborative nature of the game, rather than having to face the competitive nature of her older brother, so we'll definitely look out for more collaborative games in the future.
The children were asked to pick their favourite top 3 games out of the 69 played over the two weeks.
Monica's top 3:
Frozen Labyrinth
Mastermind
Monkey Business*
(* mostly picked because this one was designated for donating to the charity shop)
Subma-Fight, picked by both of the boys, is a 2-player submarine strategy game that Solomon designed for his mum's birthday; it was high praise for Pandemic to knock Subma-Fight off the top spot. The Peterborough Game is another game you won't find in the shops, a game from 1992 that we picked up in the local charity shop; it actually turned out to be an interesting game with some novel elements, although it's a bit tricky to win, so now mostly being kept for historical reasons.
Our first book project of the school year was picked because it was suitable for all the children, from the youngest to the eldest, and they'd all enjoyed the author's work previously (see also Charlotte's Web).
Most of the week was spent reading the book and watching the three films (Stuart Little 3 was on Amazon Prime).
As a small craft activity the children created their own little mice on sticks.
We also spent some time learning about mice and mouse-like creatures. Solomon particularly liked the sound of the grasshopper mouse, while Monica pointed out that jerboa appeared in Into the Jungle, so we read that section of that book too.
