This week has been a bit slow in the school department with much of my time taken up creating a new learning space out of our old hallway. The reason for doing this is to have a quiet place for the older ones to study, away from the little ones when necessary and also it will give us a place to leave out projects instead of them using our dining table (preventing us from eating dinner at the table). Here is a little peek at the work we have managed to do so far:
1) Gary shelved our old porchway, creating a huge school cupboard to store all our science, needle work and dressing up
2) We’ll be covering the ancient barn door, which used to be the front door (200 years ago) with a wedge of foam. This is easily removable when the weather improves, but whilst it is cold it will go a long way to insulating our hallway/school room
3) We are in the process of completely emptying the whole room, going through all the boxes that used to be stored in the hall way (this has basically been used a s a storage room for the past five years). Once empty we will be shampooing the carpet and then building little nooks and desks for all our students.
4) Our aim is to make a few more cupboards like this one to store home school stuff. The room doesn’t look like much now, but I have big plans!!
Whilst we have been busy school room creating the children have been learning about the Hundred Year War and as always have been doing much work towards their individual project work, which will form the basis of their presentations in April:
1) L11 is burning the edges of her banquet invitation in order to age it (post to come soon)
2) A5 got dressed in her astronaut costume and told me she was just popping to the moon and she’d see me in a couple of days.
3) T12 finally finished his play about the War of the Roses. I was blown away by it! For a boy who hates writing, he sure did write a lot (over 1000 words!) (post to come soon)
4) C11 is sewing the final touches to her peasant costume for her dolly. (post to come soon)
1) Having finished his play, T12 is putting together his costumes for the characters, using the dining room chairs as shoe horses!
2) These are dress designs the girls have done whilst watching Henry V, using inspiration from the film.
3) More costume sewing from C11
4) Here, L11 is designing some shields to attach to the velvet curtains for tapestry decorations for the banquet.
1) Here is Emma (our old baby sitter) playing guess who? with the children. She comes round every Monday night for dinner and play time with the children!
2) Daddy and his girls!
3) C11 helping her little sisters with their school work. This week I have been almost entirely occupied by clearing out our hallway, so I have leant heavily on my older three to help the younger one’s with their school work. The girls, in particular, enjoy doing this.
4) The little ones painting with their new palette paints. I knew I wouldn’t be so available over these two weeks, so bought in lots of bits and bobs to help keep the littles busy, yet still learning lots.
1) C11 is learning a dance called the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ at a youth group she attends. Here she is showing us all she had learnt
2) Then B3 wanted to join in and do a bit of jigging, which C11 was happy to oblige
3) L11 and B3 watching their sister whilst she dances. Look at that smile on B3’s face. Enough to melt the hardest of hearts, I think!
4) Gary and A5 also watching and enjoying a sneaky cuddle at the same time.
And finally a bit of sheer indulgence just for me. My lovely children:
So much gorgeousness all in one place!
And there you have it. Our week in collage. I hope everyone has a blessed week-end with friends, family and lots and lots of fun!
I love your collage, Claire! It really captures all the activities and precious moments each week in your household. Thanks for sharing. They always make me smile. 🙂
That’s lovely of you Hwee, thank you!
Oooh, a fun new school room! Lucky you!
It will be if we can actually get rid of the junk!
School room sounds like it’s going to be great 🙂 love all the photos!
Thanks Debbie!
You must be getting excited about the hallway school room – sounds like quite the undertaking! I may have mentioned this before, but can’t wait to see and read about the Medieval feast! The kids are working so hard, it just sounds incredible. (Love the indulgence 🙂 )
Thanks Marie. The feast is coming up quickly, and we’ve still got loads to do! Heeeelp!!!
Oh, and you DO have lovely children. What a beautiful family, inside and out. We love seeing your weeks and all the incredible things your family is up to. It is so fun to see the behind-the-scenes photos, and not just the finished products. Thank you. Have a great week.
Thank you Phyllis. I hope you have a wonderful week too.
Looks like another busy, fun week at Angelicscalliwags. Love the pictures of the family. Blessed! Looks like the new school area will be fabulous. Can’t wait to see the pictures when it is completed. I am looking forward to the presentations. The children are so industrious. I know you are proud of them. You are doing a splendid job with the collages.
Have a lovely weekend, Claire.
I’m laughing at the industrious comment. They are usually, but today not one of them wants to do any work at all!! We all went to the beach yesterday and had such a wonderful time. I think they were a bit tired from all the paddling, running and walking along the peer!
Sounds like a wonderful week to have. We had a slower week too, though I think your slower week was a lot more productive than mine was.
I’m not sure about that! They are working entirely independently, even the little ones, and really the little ones need their me to propel the whole school thing!
I always read your posts on my phone when I wake up – then when I head back on the computer to leave a comment, I get the pleasure of seeing your photos again on the big screen! I love all the smiles! And your Magna Charta (from your other post) made me smile. What wonderful values 🙂
Have a gorgeous weekend. Enjoy the sunshine!
Oh, you’re very sweet!
Did you get to your beach house? We went down to Worthing for the day and had a ball. Amazing what a bit of sunshine does for one’s general demeanour!
That astronaut costume is awesome! Love it. I can’t wait to see your school space when everything is completed. I bet you’re all going to love have some dedicated space.
Isn’t it? It belonged to the older ones. She found it in all the reorganisation we’ve been doing. It was huge on her, but so very cute!
What a lovely family you have. I love all the wonderful learning. The learning spaces look great.
Blessings, Dawn
Thanks Dawn! It wasn’t such a productive week, a bit like this week, but next week we’ll be back to normal school!
I just love the delightful red hair on your little one!! Seriously, I wish we had that in our crew.
We just love history! Do you get to travel to some of these places being in England? I can imagine you get your hands on quite a bit of history there.
We need to find a spare desk of some sort. I think we may need to have a study space for my oldest as well. I am not very creative with space, so I am hoping a desk in his room will suffice. But that is a great idea!! Looks like the kiddos had a great week while mom was busy 🙂
They’re wanting me back this week! I think it was fun to school without me for a week, but now they want normal back!
I think this whole project will need to be spread over a few weeks instead of being crammed into two.
Lovely week, lovely photos and lovely smiles. There’s not much else to add!
Thank you Kayle!
I love all the collages Claire!! Love all the History and that astronaut costume is wonderful. Wish I could poof you all here to visit our Space and Rocket Center with us! I think Keilee would love creating with T12. He is very talented. As always it looks like you all had such a lovely week full of learning!
Yes, I think you are right. Keilee reminds me a bit of T12! Constantly busy, both of them.
I’m so glad you came back for another visit! You have such talented and cute children! I’m looking forward to seeing your new school room reveal! I love organization!
Oooh, perhaps you could come and organise me? I hate organisation, and I am so naff at it!!
So fun! Love the little astronaut!
Thanks Mary!