Medieval Unit study

We have kick started our second term and all in all it's going quite well. Last week wasn't TOO painful getting back into the swing of things and so I'm hoping that this week will continue on that good way!
With Ezekiel wanting to study "who sat on the throne first," Hannah thought it would be good to focus more on the Ladies of the time. It seems that there is quite some info on the period of the Middle Ages and some very interesting women from this time so that's where the focus is for her this term.
For Zeke we will go with the same time period but mainly all about the Kings, Knights and so on going on through the ages till now.
I have some great ideas for the little one's too on craft and activities so here is a list of links that you might find helpful if you'd like to study this fascinating period of time.

Middle Ages Women
Medieval Kings and Queens
The Great Cardboard castle (need a lot of help for this masterpiece!)
Castle Craft (much easier)
Labeled Diagram of Castles
Castle Middle Ages (like the picture of this one!)
Paper Dolls
The Middle Ages for Kids (awesome site with HEAPS of things!)
FREE Middle Ages Games and Activities
Unit Study on Middle Ages outline
The Plague lapbook
Kings and Queens of England lapbook (awesome lapbook with pictures and poem!)
Abstract Castle (for Art)
Castles for Kids
Medieval flash cards
Medieval Musical instruments (for our Music Monday study)
Medieval Music (on YouTube)
Middle Ages Music Pictures
Middle ages map of England 700 (for our Friday Geography)
Map of England 878
Map of England in 1066

I hope this is helpful to someone, someday! In the meantime I better get some things printed ready for our school day! Hope yours is a super,wonderful one!
Smiles The Torrents'

Royal Crown's been lots of fun!

I'm really so proud of myself for actually tackling this project and getting this special Royal Crowns done for our treasures!! This pic was taken on Monday when I'd finished hand-sewing all the "jewels" on and got the stretchy bands sewed for the back.

 Hannah's is the Top

Esther's is next

Zeke third and 

Sophia's last

They are actually complete now but I still need to take a pic of them on my children's heads!! It's been so cool to do something different, the girls in particular are loving wearing them, I caught Esther with hers on after we'd said good night last night!!! CUTE!
Smile The Torrents'

Making our royal crowns

I'm sooo proud of myself, usually I have these awesome ideas for sewing craft with/for the children but then they just seem too hard and the moment passes. NOT THIS TIME!! YAY I'm totally making THESE crowns and they are coming up pretty cool (the children are heaps excited too!!)
By the end of today they should be finished... YAY!!!

Hope your days ahead are full of wonderful things and I'll pop in again soon
Smiles The Torrents'

Queen's Diamond Jubilee Anniversary Craft ideas

Now that first term is over (sooo excited about the next 2 weeks of holidays!!) I'm already looking for ideas and resources for our new unit study next term which is The Royal Family!!
With today being the anniversary of the Queen's Coronation Day I was wanting to make some crowns with the children and perhaps have a tea-party later this afternoon!
I went searching for crown patterns last night and THIS is the one that I found which I'm hoping to try today!
I found THIS site too which has loads of fun children craft ideas and then lastly in case you haven't seen the latest Woman's Weekly has a Limited Special Edition all on the Queen. It's full of fabulous photographs and info... just what i need for my shelf leading up to term 2!
Oooo if you're into knitting ( so love to make cute little projects) then THIS is the perfect crown for you!!
I'm hoping that my beginners knowledge will not stop me from knitting one of these beauties but firstly I need to talk with my mum and get the low down!! I also would love to knit THIS! I LOVE a theme and to make these would be sooooo fun! :)
Well for now I hope that I've inspired you to do something cool and hopefully I'll show you what i make later but until then here is one more crown of the more simpler type... good ol' paper, click HERE if you want to give it a go!
Smile The Torrents'

LEGO TITANIC

 Building the Titanic with Lucas

 Inspiration picture as a guide

As my wonderful son is incredibly into Lego I thought it a super idea for him to make a model of the Titanic. He wasn't too sure of this but when one of his dear friends came over to play they tackled it together and this is the awesomeness that they made...

 The finished Ship with even an ice berg and a shark attached to the anchor!

(love the little details!)

  Here is a pic of the ship opening to show the Boiler workers inside!

 

Lastly the crow's nest with good old Fleet looking out!

 

I was sooo proud of their efforts and think they did a SUPER AMAZING job! We are about to finish our Titanic study today with the final of our Test questions. I'm sure the children have really enjoyed it (even though they say it was just work and it was boring.....) I would have to argue that point!! he he

 

Smiles The Torrents'

 

 

 

Titanic Unit Study

All this term we have been studying the Titanic. It's been super informative and I've personally enjoyed it HEAPS! I know the children have too, though Hannah has had moments of "NOT AGAIN" when the word has been mentioned!!

One of the idea's I got one Sunday planning night was to make Paper Dolls from the Edwardian period for the little girls. I SOOO LOVE GOOGLE!!! To type in "Edwardian paper dolls" and then to find something is the coolest feeling and wonderful help and resource! YAY love it!
So I found THIS super site from a lady who has drawn them all and there are other periods too. I printed out 3 for each of the girls and ALL of last week they were happily colouring and me happily (well mostly) cutting all the little bits out X2!! Yes cut it out and then again after laminating... HUGE job but totally worth the smiles and hours of play that they have gotten out of them!
Of course with all this Zeke wanted some too...... ummmm.... boy paper dolls are much harder to find!! In the end I did come up with something but I'll show you that soon when I've got the pic's!
There's LOTS more we've been up to and it's certainly not too late to do a study yourself!! There is LOADS of info out there at the moment as last month the14th April was the 100th anniversary of it's sinking.

 If you'd like to see more that I did with this amazing anniversary, go to my Stamping Blog HERE and check it out! As I said, I've had lots of fun with this study!!

Smiles The Torrents'

Our Cute little bunnies and more...

Hello dear friends,
How are you?? We are all fine and wonderful! I know it's been awhile and for that I'm sorry, life here seems to keep moving seemingly slowly but really quite fast!
There is sooo much to share....
1) Our homeschooling is going well, including a Titanic unit study for this term.
2) We have some news.... the end of September, early Oct will bring with it a new addition to our family!
YES we are having another baby!! So excited!!
3) We are currently in the process of putting in a new Wood fire! Been soo cold since putting in the heat pump and mold has seemed to take over too. So we're putting in another wood fire and we can't wait!!!
4) We have NEW PETS!! It's been a LONG TIME since we bought some cute fluffies, in fact about ten years. SO after the loss of out last pet Kaizahn last year we decided that Easter was a GREAT TIME to buy some cute little bunnies!

 

We wanted to get 2 so they kept each other warm and company! Allan and I knew that we wouldn't be the one's naming them so it was interesting when the children came up with Honey and Spice! LOVE IT!!!

Honey is the grey rabbit and Spice is the Blackish one. Sophia came up with Honey and it just seemed to stick, though Zeke mentioned that she didn't look anything like the colour of Honey! Esther however loved it and instantly kept saying it so it was locked in. After a while of not knowing what to call the other bunny, Zeke went to Google and typed in "Names for black rabbits"
He came up with Soot, Ash, Black Moon, Dark Star, and in there was Spice! I said to him what do you think of that and he decided that it was perfect!! And so it was!
They have grown heaps already in the time we've had them, and they LOVE to get out and have a hop around! It's so wonderful to have pets again!

Well that's it from us, at least for today... I hope to be back sooner this time and appreciate you popping in and saying HI!
Smiles The Torrents'