Michael Morpurgo and the Imperial War Museum, London

Thinking of putting this photo permanently on my blog:

(It's a chunk of The Berlin Wall outside the Imperial War Museum, London)

Yes. I'm the nutter who takes photos on London buses.

Michael Morpurgo talking at the Imperial War Museum.



'Little Manfred' the wooden toy dog that inspired Michael Morpurgo's recent book.



A gun. (There were lots more).


First World War Trench Experience (obviously you can't tell by the photo but it was very smelly and a tad claustrophobic):


ds2 posing by a tank:


dd getting to grips with submarines


Perfect photo opportunity:


Ice creams by the Thames:


Southbank:

A wolf made of (?) straw:


Beach huts (they weren't there last time so I'm assuming they are part of something arty):


Yep. It's bigger than our kitchen.


'Rent a dog'. For a dog-mad daughter (on the side of a beach hut):


I think they call it dancing. Looks painful to me:

The end.

Highs and spies

Saturday at the climbing wall with friends


Wednesday, a WWII spy training day for the two boys:

While I sat in the van reading Raymond Carver and spied some sunshine for several lovely hours.

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!