Thursday 19 July 2012

Space and other (animal) frontiers

We wanted to fit in a visit to the National Space Centre before the school holidays started so that we avoided the crazy crowds. The boys usually have two favourite things there: The We Are Astronomers show in the planetarium, and...


...the Mercury Capsule. If only I could build one of these at home I think they'd be happy for weeks! I'm going to hunt out our Makedo set and some cardboard and attempt to make something like this I think.

The interactive media about meteorites is fun, showing where they've hit in the past, and showing animated impacts of different sizes of meteorite.

 There was also...

 ...Lunar Jim 'dress up'...

...spinning the earth to mobilise the 'atmosphere'...

...planning shuttle size and fuel for the optimum launch...

...walking in astronaut footprints... 

...simulated intergalactic phonecalls...

...planet jigsaws...

...controlling a Mars Rover...

...and making lots of smoke on take-off!


There were also doughnuts :D

Sprout's new favourite activity there was planning the payload so that the shuttle had everything it needed to take to the International Space Station but was still within an acceptable weight range. I've tried to find him something similar online, but the closest I can find is Mission 1 of Nasa's Kids' Club. Any better suggestions would be welcome!

We usually go to the Abbey Pumping Station too when we go to the Space Centre, as it's only over the way, free to enter, and has some fun interactive displays about sewers, toilets and pulleys, but the rain was torrential so Sprout and Squidge opted to stay dry(ish)!

At home they've had the Geomag out this week, and have built...

...a space shuttle (this is them ready for take-off!)...

...lots of tents, towers and giant stars...

...and Squidge has been using them to plot out maps on the fire, including places we've been and family's homes.

There's also (surprisingly haha) been Lego...

...Sprout has been watching some Big Brother and made the eye logo...

...and Squidge has mostly been building spaceships and towers.

We had an afternoon at Chatterbox Ceramic Cafe in Tutbury which was loads of fun...

...Sprout painted a face on his mug...

...while Squidge painted a monster on his. We had some lunch too and are planning on going back in a few weeks to pick up their fired and glazed mugs and get Moppet's handprint done in clay as a memento for her upcoming (and yet to be organised as we've been so busy!) Naming Day just as we did for the boys.

A quiet afternoon saw us using our bodies as canvases...

...smiling tummies...

...and talking hands!

Sprout built me this on Minecraft <3

This week has also been rather animal-centric...

...with Squidge getting more and more confident at holding Babbit...

...and the arrival of six week old Fly.


Along with time at the park...

...and their first proper karate lesson, it's been a fun week!



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