History of Launceston for Kids - Prince's Square

Tuesday's are our History learning days. We are having a ball getting out and about in the crisp Winter air and discovering the wonder of the History of Launceston.

 

Prince's Square, once called St John's Square is a remarkable place of interest! Whether it be the stories about the amazing fountain in the center, of the fact that convicts used to make bricks there or even that the Duke of Edinburgh himself planted two Oak trees (that are still standing.) There is PLENTY to learn about this square!!

Like why is there a statue of Dr William Russ Pugh on the steps of the park??? Well you will need to read on HERE to find that out.....

Here is the old hospital building that he worked at... the plaque tells all about it. Hannah is reading it out to everyone.

See the awesome old sign in the footpath...... sooo very cool!!
WE are loving this,
Smiles The Torrents'

History of Launceston for Kids - {Chalmers}

 

 We have started to do some local History, right here in Launceston! There are some wonderful places of interest just oozing with historic goodness! For our first outing we went to
"Chalmers" which is now Walker Designs. We had the very groovy Matt give us a tour of the old building and showed us all of what Chalmers has to offer!
You can read more about the history of the place HERE.

 Looking through the small window that used to be the old keepers house, 

which looks out to the Chalmers Hall across the road.

 Up in the Bell tower, note the large ropes to the right! 

The stain glass windows are all original, built over 150 years old.

 The view from up stairs, with it's amazing old wooden flourishes.

Matt explained that the patterns look a little like small ghosts! 

He mentioned that they even had a "spirit/ghost" expert come in to see if the place was haunted,

 The Good news was that it wasn't!!

 The colour of the ceiling is the exact colour that was painted when the church first opened, it was said that the reason they chose that colour was so it looked like the sky! (pretty grey day I think!)

 Display of old goodies and explanations of the church's history.

 The tour by Matt was soooo interesting, even after a full hour the children were wanting more! It certainly was a HUGE highlight for us all and a great way to start our local, Tasmanian History!
Smiles The Torrents'

Cave Painting for kids (History craft)

With a new History curriculum that I've just started with the children (which by the way we are LOVING!!!) We've been looking at the Ice Age and Dinosaurs and Noah and more......
It came to me that for Art this Friday we would make a cave (like HERE) and do some cave paintings!! WOW the children were soooo excited!! That of course makes for a happy homeschooling Mummy!!

 

  

 I suggested that they could "draw" under the table, similar to how early man/woman would have done it! Zeke and Sophia jumped in for that..... as did Sapphire, well she jumped on Soph more to the point!!! hee he!

 

 Sophia's finished cave art

 Zeke's Wolly Rhino cave painting

Hannah went to drawing straight on the "cave" sides.......

A cave being drawn complete with family

To finish their art off I sprayed over their hands to mark it like a signature (saw that idea HERE) The cave is proving to be a HUGE hit, even our new kitten loves the russle of the paper cave walls!! Who would have thought History could be sooo fun!!!
Smiles The Torrents'

The Ice Age - Timeline Tuesday and History day!

We believe in the power of words, they can either speak life or death! SO when our family gets hit with constant amounts of colds and viruses we have a saying....
"we are sick and tired of being unwell and sleepy!!!"
It's a funny thing to say but its the truth as we hit another week of one of our treasures being unwell!
Last week it was Hannah, beginning this week it was Sophia and now as of today Zeke has the hot and colds!! OHhh dear it certainly is that time of year!!!!!

On an up side we looked at the Ice Age on Tuesday for History and timeline Tuesday!! It was wonderful, we all had heaps of fun and I've got some cool ideas of what we can do while people are getting their strength back......

Like making a cave painting

picture from HERE

or even a cave!!

picture from HERE

Drawing a Mammoth

picture from HERE

or simply looking through a book and reading!

just got this from the library as it has pages on The Ice Ages!

Either way we are taking things easy and with the rain outside I think the Ice Age Movies will be rented very soon for some popcorn and movie time!!! Yippee to that!!
Smiles The Torrents'