Anglesey Abbey

Today we went to Anglesey Abbey. It had a great garden. It was much bigger than our house. It even had its own nature reserve and mill. The mill was great. It was a bit like a museum. We got to see all the things that millers used.

I got a medal for turning the grindstone eight times. It was fun but it was only one for children.

Then we went to the Abbey. We had to wear plastic shoe things. I loved the adventure trail. You were supposed to look for an intruder who can change shape. We found out that his favourite shape was a circle. We won another medal at the end. There are three things I learned:

1. Lord Fairhaven has chandeliers that used to belong to George II.

2. Lord Fairhaven's mum was a pianist.

3. Lord Fairhaven collected clocks.

On the way to the car Jacob spotted a pheasant in the snow!

Northanger Abbey

I have been reading a book called Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. It is about a girl called Catherine Morland who goes to Bath and meets a handsome man called Henry Tilney and a nice young girl called Isabella. But is Isabella really her friend? Soon she is in Henry Tilney's home - Northanger Abbey. Catherine learns that you shouldn't trust Gothic novels.

The main characters are Henry, Isabella, Catherine and Eleanore. Henry is very handsome and "understands muslin"! He loves reading. His father is General Tilney. He marries Catherine. Isabella is Catherine's best friend. She is friends with her only because she wants to marry her brother. When she is engaged with him she betrays him and runs away with Captain Tilney. Catherine is the daughter of a clergyman. She likes reading Gothic novels and hates history. She gets a bit tired of Bath after a while. Eleanore is Catherine's true friend and Henry's sister. She loves history and her brother.

My favourite part is when Catherine spends half the night trying to open a chest and it had a shopping list in it! She was so keen to open it because it looked exactly like a chest that Henry had described and her mind was running wild with ideas about secret autobiographies. It is funny when the reality is so much less exciting.

Bath

Last week we went on a journey to Bath. It is a place with lots of Roman baths. On the way we stopped at a few different places. The first place was Salisbury Cathedral. It was very pretty. There was a font that was beautiful. You could see all the stained glass windows in it and it looked like it was glass:

Then we went to Old Sarum. It had a very nice view and was very grassy. It had a castle that was in ruins on it.

Next stop was Stonehenge. It is some stones were probably used to look at the stars. They are very famous and quite interesting. Some people think that aliens put the stones there. That is stupid. The stone age people probably did.

The next day we spent in Bath. First we went to the Roman baths. It was very exciting. We went on the day on which the great baths were very mucky. It only happens once every ten years when they desludge them!

People from Roman times threw curses into the baths. They were made of lead. They also went there to talk and gossip and have a bath!

Next we went to the Pump Room which is a place where all the fancy ladies and gentlemen from Georgian times would drink and dance. We had hot chocolate and bath buns there. Bath buns are bun with sugar on top and sultanas in them.

Then we went to the fashion museum and we got to dress up as Victorians. It was very fun. The Assemby room was there too. That's where all the Georgian ladies and gentlemen would dance. Jane Austen talks a lot about the Assembly room and the Pump room in some of her books.

Then we went to the Jane Austen centre. It was my favourite part! I learned that Jane Austen was the second youngest in her family. She hated Bath and made bad characters in her books come from it. People did not know she was an author until after her death. I bought a book by Jane Austen called Emma and a very pretty Emma postcard. Then we went back to the place we were staying and had a delicious dinner.

The next day we came home from Bath. First we stopped at Bourton on the water. It was very pretty.

 Then we went to Oxford. We saw C.S. Lewis' house. It was owned by some people which is strange. I would turn it into a museum or maybe find a way to make it into a portal to Narnia!

Then we went to C.S. Lewis's church. His grave was quite pretty but I expected it to be more fancy. I bought a postcard for a souvenir from inside. I also got to sit on C.S. Lewis's pew. I would love to go there every week if I lived in Oxford.

After that we went to J.R.R. Tolkien's house. It was much bigger than C.S. Lewis's.

Then we went to the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met sometimes. It was called the Eagle and Child. It had a picture of an eagle holding a child on it. The sign was as I expected. The pub was very different to what I expected. I expected it to be a sort of museum. Instead it was an active pub where you could have nice lemonade. It had toilets and was quite big.

Then we went across to the road to the Matryrs' memorial. It was a memorial for three bishops that were burnt by Queen Mary.

Then we went for a quick visit to the museum there and came home.

Archaeology

Yesterday I went on an archaeological dig that the archaeology museum was organising. There were some other home-schoolers there as well.

First we went to a tent and learned that wooden houses have foundations under them to hold them up. When the wood rots everything falls down except the foundations.

Then we started walking into the dig site. It was very, very, very muddy. Our shoes were completely covered in mud, so later we couldn't wear them into the car!

When we arrived at the dig site we learned that you can work out where an ancient Roman house was by looking at the difference in the soil. The archaeologists had also found a place where the Roman road was but the house was right in the middle of it. So they realised that the house was a Celtic house and the road was a Roman road.

Then we went to a place where the archaeologists were really digging. They were digging at a place they think was a Victorian dump. The Victorians didn't have any rubbish bins so they put all their rubbish in the dump. The archaeologists had found a lot of bottles and two marmalade jars. They'd also found a lid which fitted one of the marmalade jars.

After that we went back to the tent and did an object description sheet. I did a jar that was probably Roman. She also explained a bit about Roman pottery and we got to hold some Roman pottery.

Snow

Here is a poem I wrote about snow. I hope you like it.

Snow

The thing I like best about winter is snow

sometimes it is here,and then it will go

like fairies they twirl,and flutter around

and touch the ground gently,without a sound

a winter wonderland where secrets dwell

which nobody knows and never will tell

as snow being watched by you and me

drops onto the ground but very lightly

I wonder what mysteries hide out there

in the snow like a maiden, sweet and fair

 

Little Women

I have read a book called The Complete Little Women. It has four books called Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys.

The story is about Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Their father has gone to war and they have to grow up without him. Then their father comes home and Meg gets married. Beth dies and Amy and Jo get married as well. Jo sets up a school and soon all her children got married. That's the end.

The main characters are Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Meg is the oldest and is very wise. She is also very pretty. She marries John Brook and has three childen named Demi, Daisy and Josie. Jo is the main character and is a tom boy. She is not very pretty but she is adventurous. She marries Mr Bhaer and has two children - Rob and Freedy. She makes a school for boys and Meg sends Demi and Daisy to it. Beth is the kindest and everybody loves her. She helps poor people and died of a sickness that a poor little baby she tried to help had. Everybody was sad. Amy's youngest and most fashionable. She would be the prettiest if her nose wasn't spoilt (Jo dropped her and it went all wonky). She loves art.

My favourite person is Jo because she is a lot like me. She loves books and is very adventurous. She likes to play with boys. Jo is also Louisa May Alcott's favourite character. She represents her.

I liked these books because they show how boys and girls will behave if they are nice. Their mother tells them how to behave. It also tells us how to behave.

I also like it because it is based on Louisa and her sisters. An example is Beth dying. Louisa's sister also died and everyone was sad.

Wimpole Hall

On Saturday we went to Wimpole Hall. It is a house owned by a very rich person. First we went to the home farm. It was great! We saw some baby lambs that had JUST been born. They looked so weak with their tiny legs.

The piggery was my favourite. One piglet puts his legs on another pig so he could see us better!

I went outside and patted a donkey.

Then we watched the turkeys. They were proud, sinister and ugly. I called them Great Uncle Walter and Great Aunt Harriet. Next we went to the garden. It was very beautiful. Me and Elsie pretended to be millionares. It was very fun. Mum said it reminded her of The Secret Garden (a books she likes).

Then we went to the hall. We had to wear shoe covers. I did a trail called the 'mob cap trail'. It was the one about the servants.

 Here are things I learned:

1. Some people can build fake ruins;

2. It takes 100 normal baths to fill a fancy bath;

3. Elsie Bambridge (the last owner of the house) was the daughter of a great author!

Middle Ages Jobs

We have been learning about the Middle Ages this week and I have been reading about the different jobs that people did. The people from the Middle Ages had lots of different jobs. Here are just a few of the ones that I love and hate. I hope you will learn lots.

Jobs I hate

1. Serf

 Serfs are people that work for their local lord. You cannot go away. When the land is sold you still have to work for the new person. The only good thing is that your lord feeds you and protects you.




2. Fuller

 When a weaver finishes his work, it's the fuller's job to make it ready for customers. He uses a type of clay and some urine (wee!) to make it wet, and then walks on it to make it harder. Then it is stretched out on a tenter to dry. As it dries it shrinks.






 3. Bishop

You may think that this is a great job but it is not. You have two bosses. One is the pope and the other is the king. When they argue it is very hard to choose who to go with.








4. Chaplain
A chaplain is a very holy person. He sees the bad things kings and queens do and corrects them. But the king could get very angry and sometimes he kills a chaplain.

Jobs I like

1. Yeoman
A yeoman is a man with a farm. He doesn't do any work - only peasants. There are lots of animals around, and I love animals.

2. Baker

Bakers start work in the morning. They knead bread that people pay for them to cook. There are three types of bread: big knights' loaves, medium squires' loves and tiny pages' loaves.






3. Salter
Salters make a sell salt. It is a very good job. People need salt to keep meat from rotting. They used lumps of brine and turned them into salt. The only bad thing is that the king usually taxes them.

4. Squires
Squires are knights in training. That's good because they will not get injured, because they fight dummies. They can't read but they have a good time anyway.

The best day ever!

Today we went to a castle AND Sutton hoo which is a place with lots of burial mounds.It also has the burial ship of a king!

First we went to the castle.It was very interesting.Two of Henry The Eighth's wives came from there and was the place that Mary Tudor hid in. We even got to walk on the castle walls! Then we went outside and tried to climb the hill.It was really hard!

After that we went to Sutton Hoo. There were a lot of sheep and pigs. Then we went to Edith Pretty's house. That was my favourite part. Next we went to a museum about the Sutton Hoo burial mounds. It had the king's helmet, which was AWESOME! There was also a recreation of the ship that they found. Then we went to a playground that had a flying fox and a model ship. 

Then we went home and I had my first game of Moshi Monsters. My monster is a poppet.