
This week we have been listening to Handel; notably The Water Music & The Royal Fireworks. Ellie was working on her Latin lessons, Rosie played. I asked them to try to picture in their minds what they imagined to be happening….
I had planned our pond study for Monday, but when the time came it was lashing down with rain. So we had nature study indoors & sketched Mallard ducks from our nature guides.


We were very fortunate this week to take part in a Cosmetic Chemistry workshop at UCLAN (The University of Central Lancashire) with our local home ed group.
The girls made bath bombs & lip balms & learned about the chemistry behind them. They had a marvellous time and the lab was fantastic!
We are still reading through The Water Babies. This is such a beautiful & dense book. This week we had quite a discussion about ‘The Hippopotamus Major’. This is a reference by Kingsley to a debate that raged in Victorian Britain between Thomas Huxley & Richard Owen. Central to the debate was whether or not the human brain was unique in having a hippocampus minor….or do apes have them too…
The Water Babies also led us to look at ‘The Triumph of Galarea’ by Raphael. If you have not yet read The Water Babies, I would strongly recommend it! I did not read it as a child & I have really missed out!
Elianna has again been creating with clay. This time a plaque for her room with the name she would rather like for herself – Pandora – inspired by her readings from Age of Fable. She is fascinated with Runes & so has also written Pandora in Runes.
Science this week was BFSULesson A2 – Solids, liquids, and gases. We worked through the lesson, copied the main points into their science notebooks & made a little ‘foldable’ to show the main points of the states of matter, such as molecular structure.
We also worked on pumpkin inspired art that was a complete flop, and had Rosie in tears! We were making a wax resist picture, which we painted over with black acrylic paint. I fear I must have watered the paint down too much as once it washed away, it left just a grey residue, instead of a fine, bold black. No after photos I am afraid, too many tears 🙁
Some of the books we have been reading this week:
D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
I wonder Why Camels Have Humps
I wonder why snakes shed their skin
I’ve not read “The Water Babies” either-must look it out. The mallard pictures are beautiful and remind me of the “Diary of an Edwardian Lady.”
Thank you Sarah. We do read through the Diary each week to compare changes in the seasons.
I love the artwork and I love that you included a book list! I LOVE books!
Thank you Carol. How would we manage without our books 🙂
That’s a really good drawing of the mallard! I’m sorry that the pumpkin-inspired art didn’t work out. Sometimes that happens, but luckily you have so many other good things going on in the week to make up for it. You have a fantastic book list going on here. I’ll be interested to hear your views on “Consider This”.
We have a plan to fix the pumpkin art 🙂
I will keep you posted on the book..
The Charlotte Mason book seems to have magically found its way on to my kindle. Love the mallards.
I had a fail on the wax resistant front this week too but the other way. Ours didn’t resist! Cheap crayons and paint not watered enough is where I’m placing the blame.
Let me know what you think of the CM book, Sarah.
Arrgh, sorry your wax resist did not work out. We used oil pastels & I think I diluted our acrylic paint too much!
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