Workbooks, water and Romans (said with a Jonathan Ross voice otherwise the alliteration doesn't work)

Despite my feelings towards workbooks, they have seen on the conservatory table these past few weeks. Miquon maths, CGP maths and Sequential Spelling. They don't have a huge fan base among junior members, but they tick a fragile little box in my head and once that's ticked, it means that the kids can get on with learning the important stuff.

Dd in the meantime has started a very small 'paint by numbers' picture, which we picked up at the roman villa (see later). Of course it's a completely useless set, with hardly any paint in the teensy paint pots they supplied. What paint there was dried up on contact with air, so she ended up using our own paints that were similar colours. It is still a 'work in progress'.

In between workbooks and more useful learning, we've been carrying on with a Roman theme. Ds2 seems to enjoy it, but ds1 has made it clear that he is far above all of this stuff. It doesn't stop him joining in though{g}.

I've been reading the book 'Across the Roman Wall', which is ok, but feels a bit as if it was written to fit in with the National Curriculum. It probably was. Having listened to book 1 on CD we've also been listening to a few more Roman Mysteries on audio CD ('Vesuvius' and 'Collossus of Rhodes'). Both v.good, though I do wish the author would find some more varied vocabulary. I swear EVERY CHAPTER starts with the phrase 'Presently, he...' or 'Presently, she...'

Last week we finally made it to the Roman Villa that we visited the week before (on the one day it was closed!). The little carry-around commentaries were popular and kept my 3, plus 2 other children that I took with me, interested for a while at least.

Ds1, forgetting for a moment to put on his I'm-miserable-why-did-you-drag-me-to-this-place face:

Ok, I spoke too soon:

He's in training for a life in the public eye (no comment):

Ds2 naturally fleeced me at the gift shop:

So what else? Well the garden/veg plot/allotment is a shameful disaster,so no photos. But here's a photo of what we found coming out of our pond, a dragonfly (I think) nymph, ready to transform:

Dh took the boys on a work trip to Stratford (which apparently didn't just involve eating food and drinking in the pub)

Ds1 tested out his home-made (from plastic fizzy bottles) raft at sailing club. He discovered that although it floated, it floated about a foot under water when he sat on it. Hmm...back to the drawing board then.

The boys show that you're never too old to play in a sandpit:

Dd tests my patience by doing some sewing. Omitting swear words I calmly untangle, mend, untangle, prod, untangle and nurture the sewing machine into action, with small person at the helm. I don't intend to make it a regular occurence. (Perhaps I should hide the sewing machine on the top shelf, like I did with those apalling Letterland books that my children insisted I read to them)

Dd shows how photogenic she is in her new hat that was free from the local swap shop:

A session on World War II at our home ed group.

Even my children participated (a bit). It will go down in history.

Ds2 finds out all about hot air balloons at cubs:

A sign of a fun day - straight to the bath with you missus!

Oi! Hadrian! We got some bricks for that wall of yours!

My non-resolution is still continuing successfully (see my blog entry for 13 January 2009). Perhaps so successfully I should take it out of the non-resolution classification and re-categorise it as a 'pending resolution', or even as a - shock horror - a 'resolution'.

Though if I call it a resolution (in a very quiet voice) would that be tempting fate to strike and turn it into a short-term-non-happening-doomed-to-fail-in-public-disasterous resolution? At least while it's a non-resolution, I can't possibly not succeed to make it a success because it isn't actually something I have determined to be a challenge that I need to succeed at.

IYKWIM?*

Maybe I think about these things too much.

Anyway, I suppose what I'm trying to say (yeah, hang in there it's coming) is that my non-resolution of going somewhere new once a week/fortnight took us to a Roman Villa on Wednesday.

I'd played down all expectations (in fact I distinctly remember telling the kids that we were going with some friends to see a pile of old bricks in a field and not to get too excited about it). But...our low expectations were far exceeded and the site was greeted with oohs and ahs from the children (shame I didn't get that bit on film).

The Roman Villa

All 10 of them (+ one baby) spent the afternoon running (not the baby obviously) around the ruins pretending to attack each other, form fighting alliances and generally do 'war type' stuff in and out of the trenches and courtyards. They even took a brief look at the under-cover Roman mosaic AND the map of the Roman Villa layout. Shhh...don't tell them that was the educational bit.

A Roman mosaic (you have to squint a bit to see it)

In between the 'war stuff' ds1 told them the trick about hunting in mole hills for ancient relics; this treasure-hunting kept them happily occupied for quite some time. It's addictive stuff, so I couldn't resist joining them too.

[If you haven't tried digging around in molehills I can thoroughly recommend it. Moles are pretty good at digging up good stuff from underground and over the years I've found some fab fossils in their piles of earth].

One of the children found a Roman tile in a molehill - yes a real Roman tile - and others found bits and pieces of pottery that looked rather like the modern chunks of brick and flowerpot that I find in my garden, but of course these were much more Roman {g}.

A real Roman tile

We had to disuade some keen collectors from taking anything larger than pebble-sized molehill junk. Some sensible members of the company (adults mostly) firmly discouraged the more enthusiastic junior archaeologists from dismantling the Roman Wall and carrying it home in a bucket**. Thinking about it, Ye Olde Roman Barbecue might have been an interesting addition to my back garden...

I think English Heritage would rather those bits stayed here...

Lighting up the Storm Kettle on our excursion proved an interesting experience; the damp newspaper and sticks ensured that the Roman Villa and most of the surrounding fields disappeared in a cloud of thick grey smoke. So, despite our quiet entrance, we made our presence known to everyone within a 2 mile radius. Hello! Here we are! Come and investigate what we're doing! We're lighting a bonfire on your monument!

Conscious of our predicament I tried to tame the metal beast, but to no avail. Once a storm kettle gets going, it smokes like a Victorian chimney. Thankfully the water boiled quickly. I could return to looking like a normal tourist - at least a normal tourist in the presence of 10 'truanting' children running wild across a national monument.

[*As they say in Brainiac: 'If you set out to fail and you are successful, what have you done?'

[**Disclaimer: (just in case anyone from English Heritage finds their to this website) No ancient monuments were harmed in the making of this blog, though a few moles may have to do some renovations to their molehills]