Warning!! Ultra, ultra looooong post coming up with over 60 photos. Apologies (but it was such a good day, I couldn't resist 🙂 ) The morning eventually arrived. We were all experiencing a mixture of anxiety and exhilaration. I had spent a night worrying whether I was pushing the chicks out of the nest too…
Category: Around the World in 80 Days
Around the World in 80 Days: Week Four
This week we finished up Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. I'd like to say we finished strong, but to be honest we were rather distracted by the up and coming trip to London. That said, I wanted to get this post up so I could at least say we had finished. Not…
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ Birthday Party for A8
Today we celebrated A's eighth birthday. We had decided to throw an 'Around the World in 80 Days' birthday party (of course!). The plan for the day was a Cheerio breakfast, opening presents with Granny in tow, pop to town to buy a watch with Grandad and Granny in Ireland's birthday money, and then spent…
Around the House in 80 Hours: Hallway/ Office
This week we were going to focus on the Living/ Dining room, but really we needed to get the hall and office organised in order to find a place to organise the mess of the living area into (if you see what I mean). I really struggle to keep my office area clutter free, mainly…
Victorian Steam Punk: Week Three
- I finally finished all the sewing of the costumes, so the photos you see here are their final ones. Not a pin in sight! We also added a few accessories, although that will be our main focus next week. Steam Punk Hat Bearing in mind we are trying to do this whole thing spending…
Around the World in 80 Days: Week Three – Typhoons, Japan and Acrobatics
The last thing we covered during week three was Passepartoute's journey to Japan and his time spent there trying to earn food to feed himself. He sailed straight to Yokohama from Hong Kong. Fogg was not so fortunate. He had to catch a much smaller boat to Shanghai (which coincidentally he missed!) sailing through a…
Around London in 8 Destinations: Planning Session Two
As part of their summer challenge, the three older children would need to plan, prepare an itinerary for and execute a whole day in London by themselves. They would be required to visit 8 Victorian land sites, taking their photo outside each one. Their smaller challenges to be completed during the four weeks of summer…
Around the World in 80 Days: Week 3 – Victorian Drug Use
Fix attempts to waylay Fogg by getting Passepartoute not only drunk but drugged with Opium. This was a good opportunity to do a bit of research into the use of drugs in the 19th century. Victorian Drug Use There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old…
Around the World in 80 Days: Week 3 – Calcutta to Singapore
We spent a day learning about the geography of the route between Calcutta and Singapore. It was interesting to go on Google Earth and track the route Passepartout and his master Mr Fogg took. We learnt about: The Bay of Bengal The Strait of Malacca Singapore Gothic Architecture Samuel Morse Fix sends a telegraph to Great…
Around the House in 80 Hours: Week 2 – Kitchen
This week was all about the kitchen. I basically wanted to give it a really deep clean, a thorough organise and a little bit of prettying. We all worked so hard on this, clocking up over 50 hours between us. Gary helped out by giving me a whole day of work, which given it was…
Victorian Steam Punk: Week Two
This week we got out all the clothes and started playing about with them, trying different combinations on until we had a vague idea of what we wanted: Steam Punk Sketches I sketched some outfits (which I have to admit, don't look in the slightest bit steam punkish on paper) B5's Steam Punk Costume: B5…
Around the World in 80 Days: Week 2 – India Part Two
Fogg and Passepartout's Journey Across India The book took us on a very detailed journey through the varying landscapes of India, and I thought it might be quite nice to show visually what Verne was describing in his book, as Fogg and Passepartout made their way across India. This took a long time and required…
Around the World in 80 Days: Week 2 – India Part One
I haven't so much to write this week because all our time was spent learning about India. Phileas Fogg traveled from Bombay to Calcutta, first by steam train, then by elephant. This week we only read the chapters pertaining to India. We have covered India before in our home school and I fortunately had posted…
Around London in Eight Destinations: Planning Session One
Things were about to get interesting. As part of their summer challenge, the three older children would need to plan, prepare an itinerary for and execute a whole day in London by themselves. They would be required to visit 8 Victorian land sites, taking their photo outside each one. Their smaller challenges to be completed…
Around the World in 80 Days: Day Four
Today we read the next four chapters so that we could free up some time to look at Steam Punk on day 5. Chapter 7: Which Once More Demonstrates the Uselessness of Passports as Aids to Detectives Phileas Fogg gets his passport Visaed in Suez and manages to avoid getting arrested by Fix, who doesn't…