First sewing lesson

P was very excited when my friend asked her if she wanted to have a go at sewing on her machine.  P has been asking me for ages to do sewing.  We have done some hand sewing but my machine has broken.  I do have two very old hand operated sewing machines which belonged to my grandmother (or more likely great-grandmother). I have used them before and will have to get them going again I think I prefer them to the electric.

Anyway, she concentrated really hard, she operated the pedal and didn't go too fast and managed to keep her fingers out of the way of the needle!

This is the finished result.  I think its really good.  Very professional. :0)

P is pretty pleased with it too!

Circus Day

Our local home ed group meets once a month and has a different theme each time, this month it was the circus.  There were not many of us there this time but we still had fun practising  plate balancing, giant hula hooping and balancing skills.

We took along our popcorn making machine and there was also popcorn making in a saucepan as well, so we compared the two.  Ours was quicker and less messy but you could make more in one go in the saucepan.
Both tasted good.

Yet again the children all disappeared into the woods at the end to play.

Raystede Animal Rescue

During half term we visited the local animal rescue sanctuary (blue skies for once) with some of P's friends.

We listened to a demonstration about their work with rescued dogs.  P decided that the dog for her was an enormous Rottweiler!  I don't think she would have been so brave if there wasn't the glass between her and him. (P is usually very scared of dogs)

After studying all the parrots P decided that the one for her was . . . . 

This one with no feathers on his front.  Still, I quite liked him too, he came rushing up to us, climbed down the bars as close as he could and put his head against the bars for us to stroke.  Still, I don't fancy a reputation as a collector of bald animals, we already have a chicken with no feathers on its rear (never grew back after moulting), a dog with hair that comes and goes (mystery allergy) and an ancient black cat which is beginning to show definite signs of fur thinning.

Yet again the kids favourite part of the day.  The play park at the end.

Knockhatch Adventure Park

P and the Wallaby

We went on a home ed visit to Knockhatch Adventure Park at the beginning of February.  This is P in the mud looking very unimpressed by the wallaby (notice the hands tucked up inside her coat - the keeper had just told her that they bite!)

We had an animal encounter talk - the animals were snakes, spiders, scorpions and white hedgehogs! I really must get a camera that can take pictures indoors just for this blog!  Sorry about the blurry pictures.

An even blurrier picture of a very large spider!  I think I was pretty brave to be this close.  P didn't want to get very close.  This one can flick poisonous hairs from its back at you.  It was pretty bald already so was not a nice spider.

The park was pretty deserted apart from our group.  This was great because we soon discovered the inside play area with enormous slides, swings, etc for the kids and  hot coffee for us and as it was so cold and damp outside most of us stayed there for the whole afternoon.