Keeping up some momentum...hopefully

We started looking at explorers and began by watching The Lost City of Z. It's a film based on the life of Percy Fawcett and his travels in the Amazon. It took all morning to get through the film because it raised so many questions from the children. We stopped the film frequently to research many topics. Some of these included, feminism, World War One, PTSD/Shell Shock, chlorine gas, the Amazon, the term 'civilisation' and colonialism. 

The real Percy pictured here. he and his wife were very much ahead of their time and an incredibly interesting couple. The children were facinated by so many aspects of the film and we made a list of other related facts the children would like to look at later.

Sam made pain au chocolate later, he's getting good at managing this on his own more and more now.

We have started watching the Rotten series about the food industry on Netflix this week too.

The first one was about the honey trade. You also learn about bees too.

Nest it was peanuts and food allergies.

Then we learnt about the garlic trade and forced labour.

We then had a few games of Triominos. These games can go on a long while and be pretty challenging .

Owen and I have a particularly long game, whilst Sam hopped round us eager to 'help'.

We also listened and learnt about Chinese characters.

In the evening the children attend their jujitsu class and on their return want to learn about dangerous aminals, so we do that.

The next morning the children want to learn more about Brasil and the Amazon.

We watch the BBC programme about Amazonia, presented by Micheal Palin. This week he talks and visits Indigenous populations in the rain forest. This raises huge and important questions from the children.

They then go off to find out more facts about the Amazon.

Then they helped with tidying their rooms.

Later in the week Sam decided to do his maths lessons.

And write in his notebook.

Owen faced wheeling it the Hama beads and made a design using 'L' from Death Note. He is currently devouring the novels.

I was impressed that, despite some major setbacks, he persisted with his design until he had finished. This is something he couldn't do before.

Sam wanted to write a story.

We also met up with Brian's parents to celebrate his and his dad's birthdays. We had a lovely meal.

Over the weekend the children played at home. The weather was really cold and there was sleet and snow on and off. We played games and watched films in the warm under blankets. Blokey went out to get dog food and also got us our fav meals to cook for an easy supper.