Half Term Jaunt

We decided to do a sneaky long weekend jaunt during half term.  Our destination was Warwickshire and we stayed in a caravan in Riverside Camping on the banks of the River Avon.  The main reason is because I wanted the boys do a bit of fishing, but fishing was out of the question because of 'the storm'.  We felt a bit like hurricane bait in our caravan but thankfully it was quite mild by the time it reached the Midlands.  Most of the chaos happened while we slept and funnily enough the days were sunny and mild.  We were joined by some friends which was a nice surprise.  We don't know them all that well but it was nice to have company (Alex is in Danny's music class so we see him and his lovely mum once per week).  You'll also see Kuri, Nick's class pet, in some of the photos.  All in all it was a lovely fun-filled get away!

The caravan

 

Walking along the River Avon

The calm after the storm

We had to visit some of The Shakespeare Properties since we were so close.  The first thing that struck us was that almost every building in Stratford is built in the Tudor style.  The tourism industry puts a big effort into promoting everything to do with Shakespeare.  The boys got a bit of archaeology experience at one of the houses - hands on - some excellent activities and props. We also got roped into taking part in a Midsummer Night's Dream skit with some actors outside another house. So it was fun excursion!

Stratford-Upon-Avon

We also went to a science activity centre which was awesome.  The boys got to choose 4 activities which they had to do without parents and then 1 activity for the whole family together.  They chose tower construction (spaghetti and marshmallow towers), space (portable planetarium), Roald Dahl (bit of acting and arts and crafts) and I-Spy (codes, invisible ink and finger prints) and then we all went to the lab for molecular experiments together.  It was loads of fun and sure did spike their curiosity!

We stumbled across a random mill on the way back to the camp site.  The boys thought it was amazing how the river flowed underneath the building and the road.  It was all visible.  The old building was rather spooky.  And that night everyone slept well while the storm raged outside!

Warwick Castle

The main reason why we picked the location for our half term break was its close proximity to Warwick Castle.  In my opinion it is definitely one of the best castles in England especially for children.  It transports you back in time with all the actors and activities that are continuously on the go.  We watched the birds of prey display, saw the trebuchet in action, learnt about the ghostly past of the castle, enjoyed an interactive show in the witches tower, watched a fencing duel, saw a headless horseman - the list of exciting things is endless - you really need an entire day there to make the most of it.  Since it was almost Halloween we also went on a Spooky Trail in one of the many gardens - it was so well done - the boys were intrigued and terrified at the same time.

Warwick Castle

The view from the top

Watching the trebuchet in action

Headless horseman!?

The Fencing Duel


A bit of sword fighting (inspired by the professionals)

Birds of Prey

Lots of interesting things inside too

The witches' tower

Pumpkins everywhere

The spooky trail

The view from a bridge over the River Avon

Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars

The boys are back at school today after a lovely half term break for a week.  It's always nice to relax out of the regular routine and do things out of the ordinary.  Nicholas had some interesting 'homework' to do this time.  He got Kuri, the class' wild dog, to entertain for the week.  We had to take him with us whereever we went, take photos of him doing different things and then do a write up about his experiences.  Nicholas' teacher is full of creative ideas like this that make the children work in a fun fashion.  The write up will also give you a sneak preview of our half term break!

 

Last term ended off on a high note with both my boys getting 'Star of the Week' certificates.  Each boy basically gets a turn to get one of these so they are quite common.  What I really like about these is what they are for (Nick: For your wonderful attitude towards learning / Danny: Lovely neat sentence writing).  So proud!

Nicholas also got two Semper Magis Certificates last term.  These are really difficult to get and they are quite rare so it was really impressive that he got two of them already.  The first one was For Outstanding Work in Geography (speaks for itself because he does have an extraordinary knowledge about the world for his age) and the second one was For Outstanding Work on 'How to Brush Your Teeth' (sounds a bit arb - would have been better if it said 'For Outstanding Work in ICT - as they had to do a write up in ICT using a wordprocessor about something they learnt on the Life Bus).  An excellent start to year 2!