Abi's Adventures

My home education journey

  • Rancho Texas Zoo

    We visited the Rancho Texas Park twice during our stay. We spent the mornings in the zoo and the afternoons in the Waterpark.

    We watched all four educational shows on parrots, dolphins, sealions and birds of prey.

    Dolphins: (read separate blog post)

    Parrots:

    • we learnt about hybrid macaws:
      • Catalina Macaws are a cross of the Blue & Gold Macaw and the Scarlet Macaw
      • Harlequin Macaws are a cross of the Blue & Gold Macaw and the Green Winged Macaw.
    • we watched a Blue + Gold Macaw fly several laps of the arena, they fly so much faster than our pet parrots back home.
    • they demonstrated how parrots use their feet and beaks to climb.
    • they also threw some waste plastic bottles and scrunched up paper onto the floor of the arena and had trained the birds to fly down, pick them up and them put them in the recycle bins!
    • we saw how cockatoos use their wings and crests to communicate

    There were lots of chickens and cockrels wandering about. The cockerels had huge spurs which they can use for fighting. They spent most of the time in the restaurant area eating scraps people had dropped. There were also lots of pretty tame collared doves and one even landed on mummy’s plate as we were leaving, and it started eating her leftover jacket potato. On our second visit I was able to hand fed the doves.

    Crocodiles:

    Scarlet Ibis:

    Here I picked up a red feather to take home for my collection. It’s a bit bigger than our African Grey’s tail feathers and the shaft is much lighter in colour.

    Birds of Prey:

    • the display showed:
      • Black Kites
      • Bald Eagles
      • Griffon Vultures
      • Turkey Vultures
      • Shielded Eagles
      • Andean Condor
    • Bald Eagles are born with all brown feathers. The white feathers on the head and tail appear when it is around 4 years old.
    • the Andean Condor is actually a vulture
    • Vultures are scavengers. They only eat dead animals, for this reason they have bald heads to keep them clean whilst they are feeding on carcasses.
    • there was a collection of feathers and other bird of prey artifacts on display outside the arena in a wigwam which we had a look at.

    Other animals:

    • Bison
    • Armadillo
    • Eurasian Lynx
    • Humbolt Penguins
    • White Tiger
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  • Cycling to Arrecife

    Today I cycled 16 miles from Puerto del Carmen to Arrecife and back. Arrecife is the capital of Lanzarote.

    We followed the cycle path along the seafront and went right past the busy airport. We stopped to watch several planes take off and land. They make a lot of noise, and the wind from the engines blew mummies hat off and almost blew her off her bike!

    When the planes touch down you can actually smell the burning rubber from the tyres.

    We watched the wheels (known as landing gear) fold up under the aircraft once it was safely up in the air.

    We stopped for some lunch in Playa Honda and then continued our ride into Arrecife. Our first stop was to see the wild Cattle Egrets that have colonised a part of the town. We found several skulls and some egg shells.

    We stopped for refreshments by the harbour in the old town part. We saw lots of small fish in the harbour. There is also a real whale skeleton on display. It was from a female whale that got stranded and died on a beach in Tenerife in 1995. We all learnt that whales (an dolphins) actually have 5 fingers inside their pectoral fins.

    I’ve written a separate blog post about whales & dolphins here.

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  • Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote

    During our two week visit we spent many hours walking and cycling around our resort of Puerto del Carmen.

    We spent lots of time on the beach and saw some strange looking things washed up on the shoreline. We later found out they are ‘Velella velella’ also known as By-The-Wind Sailors. They are free-floating hydrozoans that are related to jellyfish. They live on the surface of the water and can be washed up onto the beach. They are not considered harmful to humans.

    There are lots of stray cats in Lanzarote and the locals take good care of them. This means they are nearly all really friendly, which I think is great.

    We spent some time in the arcades where I played games like air hockey, netball and whack-a-mole. These help me develop my reflexes and hand/eye coordination. I also had a go in what I can only describe as an inflatable hamster wheel.

    Our hotel had a heated pool which meant I went swimming almost every day. I can now swim underwater and pick up things from the bottom of the 1.4m pool.

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  • Flight to Lanzarote

    Today we flew from Bristol airport to Lanzarote.

    We were sat in row 18 which was directly over the wing.

    I could see the emergency exit arrows on the wing. If we needed to exit the plane we would follow the direction of the arrows and slide off the wing.

    It was cloudy when we left England, but we were soon up above the clouds enjoying the sunshine.

    We had a tail wind which means the wind was pushing us along so we arrived sooner than expected.

    We flew at 37,000 feet and were doing 600mph. The flight took 3.5 hours.

    As we touched down on the runway, mummy showed me how the flaps on the wing lift up to help slow the aeroplane down.

    As we were leaving the plane, I asked if I could see in the cockpit. The pilot said yes and I sat next to him. There were so many controls!

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  • A Local Walk

    The weather was calm and dry today so mummy and I asked daddy to drive us to the church in Penboyr so we could do the one hour walk home.

    Whilst we were coming down the by-way we meet a group of men enjoying riding their dirt bikes up the lane. We watched and chuckled as they fell off and got stuck in the ruts.

    We played pooh sticks at the little bridge over the river and then whilst walking up the hill the other side we found a bone.

    We stopped and listened to our neighbours wind turbine, it sounds like a train. It generates enough electricity to power everything in their house.

    Finally we stopped to stroke another neighbours horses and sheep, they are always pleased to have visitors.

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  • Cooking a fry up

    After a morning working in the garden I helped cook a fried breakfast for our lunch!

    Skill Practiced:

    • cracking eggs
    • lining the baking tray with foil to catch the bacon fat
    • using the tin opener

  • Planting Shrubs

    I helped mummy move some shrubs today. We cleared space in a flower bed and worked out where they should go and how close together they should be.

    Whilst digging the holes we uncovered lots of bulbs, even though it’s the middle of winter they were starting to grow and we could see the roots.

  • Folly Farm, January 2026

    This year we have annual membership at Folly Farm so this afternoon we spent a few hours there enjoying the rides and learning about different animals.

    First we went on the carousel and chair-o-planes, then we went outside and had a couple of turns on the diggers and took a trip on the Ferris Wheel.

    Then we went to see some of the animals.

    We observed how many of the animals had found sheltered sun traps within their enclosure and were just sitting there, enjoying the winter sun. There was a line of meerkats all leaning against a sunny wall, mummy explained that the wall had probably heated up from being in the sun, and therefore would have provided extra warmth for the animals.

    We saw:

    • ring neck lemurs
    • red ruffed lemurs
    • rhino
    • lions
    • camels
    • tortoises

    There were baby goats (kids) in the farm area drinking milk from their mum.

    We spotted a turkey that had what looks like a tail growing out of it’s chest, I said it looked like a beard and it turns out, I was right. These are known as turkey beards and they grow on some wild male turkeys.

    I also got most of the “Which animals lay eggs?” quiz right. I didn’t think that crocodiles laid eggs, but I now know that they do.

    We learn’t that Torddu Badgerface Welsh sheep are ENORMOUS, literally bigger than my aunty’s shetland pony!

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  • Making hot chocolate

    I can make my own hot chocolate. First I add 1 teaspoon of sugar, then 1 heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder. Next I pour in a little bit of milk to and stir make a paste.

    The next step is to plug in the milk frother, switch it on, pour some milk up to the line, then press the go button.

    When the milk is frothy, I pour it into my cup and add a handful of mini marshmallows. It is delicious.

  • Reading Challenge

    I was having so much fun at my friends house making biscuits and playing, that my friend and I thought we’d ask if I could stay for a sleepover. Our parents agreed that if we completed a reading challenge that I could stay the night.

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