Sunday 4 May 2014

Wildlife Critters and Dandelion Fritters

Squidge began the week by watching Stomp on tv, which gave him some ideas for making music.


He also found a Jamie Oliver episode we'd recorded but not watched yet, so we watched that together and he told me which things he'd like to make so we've put the ingredients on the shopping list. 


Early in the week we went to the monthly Stone home Ed group, where we mostly picnicked and played outside for a couple of hours as the weather was lovely, then the next day was sunny too and we headed to the park for the weekly home ed park day.


Moppet and Squidge watched a little bumble bee for ages as it wandered through the grass...


...Squidge spotted this log that he said reminded him of a snake...


...and the boys climbed a tree. Sprout was fascinated for a while looking at some of the various trees and shrubs and comparing the size and texture of their leaves. Later on at home I heard him telling the neighbours of his findings in this regard :)


There was some negotiation with Moppet when it was time to go home as she wanted to be the one to drive :)


And Sprout found this flower. We consulted his grandpa to find out what it was as Sprout would like to plant some, and it's a pompom daisy.


Sprout and Squidge had a discussion about whether there was a pitch black dye in existence, and I showed them this picture of pitch to explain where there word came from. This led onto whether it's a liquid or solid...


...which led to a video of the science experiment that's recently come to a partial conclusion when the pitch dropped. This then led back to the discussion Sprout and I had a while ago about whether glass is a solid or a liquid and other ways of categorising it.


Squidge was excited that the edges of the rear view mirror were refracting the sunlight and making rainbows on his jeans and his arm :)


We got the Epica app and spent some time playing around with it...




There were quite a few sunny afternoons so lots of time was spent on the trampoline, either bouncing, having snacks, or convening for a chat :)


We went to visit their grandparents, and they noticed a ladybird on the steps on the way in. They stopped to watch it and Sprout let it walk on his hand.


Moppet and I played a bit of football...


...while Squidge watered the plants with his water shooter...


...and Moppet and I found another bee with different markings from the one we watched the other day.


We found a toad in the compost heap, and after they held him Sprout released him under the shed where he'd be safer.


Squidge watched some videos on YouTube where people were playing football on trampolines, so he tried it too :)


Sprout informed me, "You can never have too many dandelions!"


Squidge and his friend decided to wash my car and their bikes, then took photos of their handiwork :)


Moppet and her friend made a life size cut out of her (with a bit of help from me!)...


...which I later found peeking at me from among the raspberry canes...


There's been lots of playing and building ogre villages in the sandpit!


Squidge and Moppet set up a shop and sold each other Easter eggs and crackers...


Sprout went to another B&Q Kids Can Do It class and made this planter, complete with rocket, coriander and oregano planted inside.


He also played a lot of Garry's Mod, and collaborated on Minecraft via Skype with some of his friends throughout the week to build a hotel on his server. 
We tried to do a couple of experiments, one reacting potassium permanganate with glycerol, and one using iodine as a catalyst with hydrogen peroxide. Neither worked...



...and we think we need a warmer environment for the first, and stronger H2O2 for the second, so we're going to try again. 


One afternoon he was postulating to me, after reading his new Science Uncovered magazine, what he thought other universes might be like. He thought there might be one where everything was exactly the same as this one, *except* that people would have slightly shorter fingers. He was also thinking about what the Big Bang would have looked like, after we were talking about it being less of a bang and more of an expansion, and he was thinking he would have liked to have been there to see it. That led us to Douglas Adam's Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and time travel possibilities. 
We had a visit from old friends one day, and all the children played together for a few hours which was lovely.
While Squidge and his friend went to the park the next day with Gruff to see a dog show and play on the playground, Sprout played with Moppet and we made ice cream floats.


Squidge has been wanting to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again, so when the DVD arrived we watched that, followed by some clips from Heston Blumenthal's chocolate factory episode, with lickable wallpaper, chocolate water, Terry's chocolate duck a l'orange, and gold leaf cherry bars. We then moved onto magic tricks, for no discernible reason :)
He and his friend did a lot of painting, while Sprout had a bit of a Nerd Cubed marathon and chatted to his guinea pigs.
Sprout and I had a forage in the garden for wild food, and found some Jack by the Hedge (we rubbed the leaves to check it smelt of garlic, and chose the young leaves and the flowers), and a huge load of dandelions, so we added some peppers and cucumber to the garlic mustard to make a salad, and made dandelion pancakes for after. All the kids and their friends too tried the salad (they preferred the flowers to the leaves), and they all wolfed down the pancakes :) (In fact their friend came round first thing this morning to ask me if he went and found some more dandelions would I make some more?) 

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