Mmmnn Gyozas.

Our culinary exploration of Japan continues! Making veggie filled dumplings called Gyoza. They can be filled with all sorts and cooked several ways, deep fried and steamed and they way we chose, to pan fry in a teaspoon of oil on both sides followed by a flash steam with a ladle full of hot water with the lid on. They were one of the most yummy things we have tried the only problem being there are never enough!!!

chopping

stirring the filling

filling the dumpling

quick grab one before they all go!

frying

Done, yummy!

We have also completed our first, or should I say Ollies first, Kimono.  With quite a bit of success too! We trawled the internet for inspiration and patterns and cobbled together something we are both very pleased with. And as an added bonus it required lots of measuring and number crunching to make it just so, maths box ticked then!!!!

measuring up

sewing

one warrior ready

Beware!

He will not take it off now! I think he'd like one to sleep in too.

Squeal! (I am very excited)

Weeks of waiting are finally over. We have all been awaiting the news. What will it be, What will it be? But now we know, it will be Medieval!

No, not our new topic of choice, although it may spark an interest. But the theme of this years Camp Bestival fancy dress. Headline acts have also been announced. OMG! I am going to see Blondie and Mark Ronson all in one sun filled (hopefully!) weekend.

What? It's not that exciting? Well you should try living with four children and a few grown ups for the past couple of months, you would think it was the most important thing to be happening to them EVER! There was a little disappointment that a James Bond outfit would not be required but that has been replaced with cries of "never mind, I can be a medieval samurai warrior, you can make that can't you Mummy?".

We are all a little bit music obsessed, our lounge looks more like a practice room now and our favourite family game is our own version of the intros round from Never Mind The Buzzcocks! Also known as the kitchen game where it is invariably played! Someone is normally singing or playing or dancing somewhere in the house. And we love the fact that, as we did as children, our children love listening to all sorts of music and genres. Not for us a car cd player full of nursery rhymes, they never really had a choice!!!

Outside our Tipee 

Waiting for the very first act

sword making at spinney hollow

View from the Castle towards main stage

My dressing up concession!

Waiting for The Wurzels (a highlight!)

David rocking out with the "school of rock"

Now Camp Bestival is a big thing, it's expensive and a long way from home. But as family festivals go for us it's a winner. Now we just need to find some gigs closer to home to fill the gap between now and August!

Local resources

Like most of the home educators I know and no matter what their educational philosophies are, we all use our local resources to their fullest. Libraries, parks, museums and workshops are all regularly used and enjoyed.  We go to the library at least once a week and are very fortunate to have our own small library with lovely helpful staff. We also use the bigger library in the next town (a much bigger YA section is the main draw!). It also houses an art gallery and next door has the tourist information centre and a small museum.

Just gonna slip this on!

New bedroom furniture?

I am enjoying myself

See, I think its really interesting.

Trainers of the future info.

matching the shoes

brass rubbing

To be honest we frequent the museums little shop most often!!! I find it useful for odd little resources when doing history projects and it has good pocket money items when the kids are feeling flush. But the other day visit to the museum was requested by David so that we might see the temporary exhibition on trainers. He had found out about the exhibit via the facebook page of his favourite local shop (who said social network sites are all bad!!). It was small but perfectly formed and had some really interesting facts presented as well as some very cool trainers. We followed it up with a bit of brass rubbing in the room next door and a visit to the shop. The museum is quirky and all higgledy piggledy but always we find something of interest, although the staff are not the most welcoming and when we visit during school hours we are regarded very suspiciously.

Japanese food!

Our Japan project is still holding everyones interest. I think having it last for a longer time is working for us. We always end up doing all sorts through the week that we hadn't necessarily planned and the ideas ebb and flow. But this project is being held together even more by the childrens love of and for making Japanese food.

noodles- Yum!

Snip snip

Play food has been made and served at the "Super Sushi" resturant. We have also made and sampled Tempura, Udon Noodles and last night made a feast of sushi with everyone trying their hand at rolling Maki and making Nigiri.

Ah yes the way to engage my children, through their stomachs. Can't think how we could apply this to the ancient egyptians yet!!!

valentines craft

Valentines Day is not a huge point of celebration in our home (much talk of commercialisation!!!) and the children had no interest in delving further into the meaning this year! But a craft idea had caught my eye on another blog and so Mia and I decided to have a try. You melt down old, stubby broken crayons in molds to make funky mixed up new ones! We ran out of heart shaped molds and had to diversify (also not sure the wax will ever fully come out, doh) but we were really pleased with the effects.

They do look super cute and bright and Mia thought they would make a brilliant gift to make for a younger friend.

This Moment

                           This moment inspired by www.soulemama.com. A picture from the week.

Phillips' take on Japan.

Well, in topic form at least!

Planning our Japanese food week

The start of our display

Long in the planning and inspired mostly by the boys love of "The young Samurai" by Chris Bradford. We had a little trouble convincing pink princess that there would be lots of interesting things to do and find out and it wouldn't just be about swords and blood shed! Much talk of Kokeshi dolls and making play sushi from felt and she's convinced!

Aging maps

Flag Bunting

Trying the characters for "Japan"

Getting down to work!

With lots more planned for the rest of the month we made a good start and have decided we would have a display wall to show off all our work (not sure how the planned kimonos will fit!). Already lots of play is happening around their ideas too with a very lovely sushi restaurant opened just this morning, I recommend the Miso!

At least the days are getting longer!

Proof if needed that the days are getting longer, six eggs in one day (from 7 hens).

Despite the continuing wind, drizzle and general greyness and the horrible lurgy going around our house the days ARE getting longer and spring must be around the corner. Something to look forward to indeed!

This Moment

As inspired by soulemama.com.

Charity shop find.

Oh! the joy of charity shops and the things you find in them.
Like this Philips Modern school atlas, 1989 edition,  actually not that modern after all. Don't let the "new edition" tab fool you. Purchased originally for me to pull apart, for an arty travel inspired make, but poured over by the kids. And then inspired wonderful discussion about new country borders and wars!

Didn't we have these when I was at school?

The history to be had from an old geography book! £1.10 well spent.