Abi's Adventures

My home education journey

  • Playing school

    Today one of my home ed friend came over and we played schools and did some writing practice and some sums on the white board.

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  • Fat and science

    Today I helped make flapjacks and granola and it turned into a science lesson. I learnt about properties and how they can change.

    We spooned out some coconut oil from the jar. It’s properties were solid, hard and white. Once we put it on the baking tray and into a hot oven the properties changed. The coconut oil was now tranlslucent (see through), hot and very runny.

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  • Buzzing over bees

    Our neighbour keeps bees and one of his hives is in our garden. Today, he came to check on them. Sadly, there were no bees, so I was invited to have a closer look at the hive.

    It seems like a mouse chewed it’s way into the hive and the bees all left. We couldn’t find any dead bees but they had left their honey.

    Some of the honey had started to go moldy, but some was edible and I was allowed to dip my little finger in and taste honey made in our own garden. It was delicious.

    I hope a new swarm of bees moves in soon.

  • Dressing my dolls

    I LOVE making dolls clothes. I’ve recently starting cutting up balloons to make dresses, skirts and tops.

  • Recent Arts & Crafts

    • I’ve made lots of birthday cards
    • lots of free style drawing
    • painting
    • weaving a paper sheep at The Woollen Mill
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  • Experiencing London

    I really enjoy visiting London, it is so different to home. Everywhere is really busy and noisy.

    I like taking the underground tube and riding the double decker buses, we don’t have either of them in Carmarthen.

    We saw lots of landmarks and different people from all different countries. We heard people speaking all different languages.

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  • LongPlayer 1,000 year long symphony

    Whilst in London we visited LongPlayer which is a 1,000 year long symphony that started on the eve of the millennium and is programmed to play uninterrupted until the end of the year 2999 without repetition.

    The composer, Jem Finer (founding member of The Pogues) used a 66ft wide orchestral instrument to create the individual notes used.  The piece is generated from six simple musical themes played on Tibetan singing bowls.  Although mostly played by a computer, it can (and sometimes is) performed live by people.

    It is located in London’s only Lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf.

    From the top floor there are great views across the River Thames and of the city of London. We could see The O2, Canary Wharf and the IFS Cloud Cable Car, which was our next stop.

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  • Natural History Museum

    Last night in the travel lodge I watched some of a Jurassic Park movie which I really enjoyed. Today, we visited the Natural History Museum where I started to learn about evolution and we saw lots of fossils and dinosaur displays.

    We saw a model of a Archeopteryx, which is the earliest known bird. It had a long jointed tail and shrap teeth like a reptile but it also had flight feathers on it’s arms and tail, like a bird. This supports the theory of evolution.

  • Science Museum

    We visited the Science Museum and I enjoyed looking around the Space section. They had some things on display that have actually been in space, as well as an astronauts suit.

    We went to see one of the shows included with our ticket and for the first time ever I was picked as a volunteer to go up on stage. I had to help with a mission to mars but suggesting where a good place to land the spacecraft would be. We dropped ping pong balls into a tray of sand to make craters like the surface of the moon. I thought the spacecraft could land neatly inside one of the craters, but actually the scientist explained that the spacecrafts are designed to land on a flat surface as they have short legs and they could tip over.

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  • H.M.S. Belfast

    The H.M.S. Belfast is one of the places I can visit for free with my Blue Peter badge.

    I got to sit on a torpedo, which was really long and slippery.

    Because the stairs are so step you have to climb facing them, no matter whether you are going up or down the steps. It is also important to hold onto the hand rail.

    The kitchen was HUGE, it used to cook 5,600 sausages every week! There were lots of interactive screens and you could open and close some of the doors and machinery.

    I had lots of completing the kids worksheet. I learnt that every letter of the alphabet has it’s own flag and there were signs hidden throughout the boat showing a set of flags. I had to work out what each item was and write it down. It was a shopping list!

    Facts Learnt:

    • it was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast
    • it was launched on St Patrick’s Day (17 March) 1938
    • it served in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific and played a major role in WWII.
    • it is 613 ft 6 in long
    • its fastest speed is 32 knots.
    • Knots are the measurement used to record the speed of sea vessels.
    • Miles Per Hour (MPH) is the measurement used to record the speed of land vehicles.
    • it has twelve 6-inch guns, twelve 4-inch guns, and multiple smaller anti-aircraft guns.
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