Library Homeschool Group

We've had a couple of meetings at the library group since my last post; the first of which we all got to don white cotton gloves {oh the excitement they caused!}and handle lots of interesting things...

A Homepride Man  (scared the life out of me when I was a nipper, lol!)

Old Newspapers

Wafer Press

Rocks & crystals

Hippopotamus tooth

Lions Claw

Hippopotamus tooth

Mammoths tooth

 

Dogs skull

Baboons Skull

Caimen Crocodile Skull

 

Inside view of a shell

The kids just loved this session and were thrilled to be holding real skulls and stuffed animals (yuk!).  Daisy was also dead chuffed that the librarian, following a question from Daisy about how the scanner thang worked, let her check out all the books and explained what was happening everytime a book was scanned.

The following week the kids had the launch of their photography project which sadly marked the end of their  work with the museum for now!

The launch was a great experience for the children with speeches and local authority dignitaries and some lovely grub, the kids were bowled over and really enjoyed the afternoon.  However, despite all the lovely displays - that included their photographs; which was the whole reason everyone was there - my kids were obsessed about that fact that I had worn a pair of platform shoes {I never said the 70's was renowned for it's style} like the ones on display and that my father had worn a pair of the crepe soled shoes also on display {he was a teddy boy back in the day, lol}and would depart this knowledge upon anyone who would listen...including the dignitaries lol.  There were also some craft activities for kids and mums to do and I got to try some block printing...I just mentioned on a sisters blog that I would love to have a go at block printing and praise be to Allah I now had the opportunity.  It was great fun but I don't think I'd better give up the day job just yet lol; here is my humble effort.

Library Homeschool Group

We missed the first week of this project as we were all poorly; in the first week they looked at old and new photographs of different landmarks in the are [places of worship, terraces, victorian buildings etc] and discussed how things had changed. We had done this before as part of one of our projects so hopefully we didn't miss out on much.

This week we got to look at lots of different cameras from different eras and learned how they worked and we got to play with them too...the kids loved this session and asked lots of good questions mashaAllah. All the kids were also given a disposable camera to take home and take photos of their week; homes, food, hobbies, days out etc...they were given advice on how to take photos and some different techniques they could use and were advised to take a few photos every day so they didn't use up all their pictures too quickly. Of course, most didn't listen LOL!

Library Homeschool Group

 

We had a wonderful day at the museum.  We were collected by minibus; of course the kids loved this and it was a real treat for me not having to worry about getting everyone there and parking, yay!  We were split into 2 groups and began our behind the scenes tour.  We got to see and learn how paintings were restored, how the museum stored and acquired it's exhibits, we learned how fossils were prepared and put together and we also had quite a long stay in the taxidermy department.  The boys, in particular, loved all the skins and stuffed animals [hence the pictures, I was pushing a wheelchair so Lego was in charge of the camera!] and we spent quite a time learning how animals were 'stuffed'.  We also got to see all the sea/water creatures stored in jars [I felt like I was in the middle of some evil doctors lab LOL] and all the collected and preserved insects.  The private areas of the museum had a certain smell and feel to them and you felt very special to be allowed to see it all.

Then, after some tea and biscuits, we learned all about the Ancient Egyptians; we got to walk around some of the exhibits and had the Egyptian death rituals explained to us. We also got to see a typical Ancient Egyptian kitchen and learned how food was prepared and cooked.  We got to handle some original artifacts and the kids got to put cloth body parts in the correct canopic jar.

It was a great day, enjoyed by all!  Sorry for the poor photos, lots didn't come out for some reason.