Historyetc – antipodes and franks

this was a wierd group of subjects tied together by their order in story of the world! Aboriginal australians and dreamtime, maori, frankish empire with cathedrals. We had lots of fab crafts brought again. I love the historyetc days as we get our children of different ages and ability moving between different crafts, aided by different adults and giggling and laughing with friends of all ages.

Starting with my craft, as first out of the bag We did aboriginal stencil art. instead of blowing around hands, we used cut out stencils. I made a variety of australian animals , some hands and some stick people, and various children made their own stencils. We ground down our rock/ochre – mostly colour chalks! we prewetted the paper, applied the stencils and then blew the chalkdust through straws. I did have some natural straws made from rolled eucalyptus bark from a ghost gum that some of the children had a go with. We discussed aboriginal art, colours from rocks, marking of important sites etc as we went on. We got some great results.

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I wasn’t the only one having fun! Jax had brought a kingdom plan, each child to mke up their kingdom and draw it on paper, then make some rules with it and if time draw a family tree of rulers. This was a runaway hit! my girls had a molly fish kingdom and a toad [mario brothers] kingdom. I loved that M made factory kingdom to provide other kingdoms with goods. and all through the day they were making and breaking alliances. V V interesting! Jax had thought this would be an ‘if there is time’ filler activity, and i think it was one everyone crowded to do. Obviously the pictures can’t show how this activity panned out!

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Zoe did some maori face-painting – lots of hands and a coupke of faces that were fab. Also made for snack some traditional australian fried moths!!! except these were popcorn and peanuts in honey – phew In the pm she did maori bone carving [since michelle couldnt come] using soap. Also worked brilliantly, and had the added advantage of making the conservatory smell nice

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Meanwhile Gina had brought beautiful dreamcatchers to make, with wire hoops and different wools, beads and feathers. i didn’t get to take so many pics of this as was keeping the majority of blown chalks on the table as a losing battle! Sb made a really gorgeous one all by herself, but I helped do BB’s as the wool winding took longer than her attention span – she did do 3/4! Ginal also brought a stained windows craft that i managed no photos of at all, as i was engrossed in fimo!

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Merry brought the fimo, and we made dreamstylish pictures of a variety of australian animals. I found this very therapeutic SOme great animals made, and lots of chatting whilst fiddling – always good. Ultimately of us competitive adults, think Zoe did the best!

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Nother pictureless craft is the sword making with katy, which BB did very happily and has been waving hers around – should be able to grab a shot at some point! and then a play and discussion of frankish laws and the fairness of them. [or not!]

overall a fab day.

finished with a surprise stay by jax et al due to their house having a flood scenario , and also zoe and family, but just for tea SB was succesful in her judo grading.