We’ve Been to London to Visit the Queen

While we were on our travels last year, the girls made some rather lovely wish-lists of things they wanted to do when we got back to the UK. These included things like Go to the cinema with Grandad; Build a den with friends; Learn archery and, my favourite, Take Grandma to visit the Queen’s house

Taking Grandma to The Queen’s House

We waited until the school term had begun in order to avoid the crowds and booked tickets for the Buckingham Palace “A Royal Day Out”, which included entry to the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews, where the royal carriages and the horses used to pull them are kept.

We started with the Queen’s Gallery – an exhibition about some aspect of royal history which was, on our visit, the Georgians. Unfortunately a lot of the exhibition was a little dry and not very engaging for the girls, but they did have fun with the family backpack that was provided which included things to spot in each room.

Completing the puzzles in the family kit, in the Queen’s Gallery

George II

After this was the highlight – the State Rooms in Buckingham Palace. Wow. Just. Wow. It was amazing to see! We all donned the audio guides – adult ones for Grandma and me, interactive children’s ones for the girls, which were great. They also had an exhibition about childhood on and lots of memorabilia from royal babies and children. We were green with envy over some of the fabulous toys!

Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the state rooms, but here is us in the back garden at the palace!

Just visiting the palace.

We finished off with a visit to the Royal Mews where the horses and carriages are kept. It was dinner time so the horses weren’t feeling very sociable – too busy eating – but the gold carriages and amazing royal cars were fab to see!

Royal Horse

We finished the day with a picnic dinner at St Pancras station, and the grown ups even managed a small glass of grape juice while we waited for the off-peak train times!

Train home. Reading while travelling!

Reading and Recipes

J is seven years old and has, in the last year, ‘discovered’ reading. She has transformed into a moany, whiny monster who I had to cajole to read into a complete bookwork with a thirst for more stories!

We go to our local library at least once a week, often twice, and get new books for them both. A recent favourite series is the Bake A Wish series, which is all about two children who bake with their Grandma. Every recipe they try makes them feel better in some way – braver, stronger, less grumpy… the latest one was Get Better Jelly, which helped with a sore throat. When we finished the book, J claimed she had a sore throat (ahem!) so needed to make the jelly.

It’s regular strawberry jelly, but made with lemonade so it has a very sugary fizz to it. J enjoyed making it and we all enjoyed eating it!

The finished book and the finished recipe!

Artist Study

We cover art once a week. To make for a fun start to the term, we have kicked off by looking at Jackson Pollock. We spent the first lesson reading about his life and studying his pictures. We also found a video online of him painting in his studio in New York, which really gave us a feeling of the movement, excitement and enthusiasm in his painting. The girls then spent some time writing about what they saw in his art.

J wrote: “The big lines and fast splashes make me feel like I am moving very fast”

K decided: “I thought that the pictures would all look similar, but because of the colours some are happy and some are sad. And the drips are different sizes, which makes it different too.”

In the following lesson I decided to let them create their own Pollock-inspired masterpiece. We started by using a website where you can draw your own picture, and talked about the colours they wanted to use in their own composition, Then I let them loose with paint!

They had lots of fun and came up with two very different but both very creative pieces of work!

J and her colourful masterpiece

To round off this study, both girls created a piece of work on Pollock. J did a poster, with information about his life and her thoughts about a couple of his pieces of work, while K used the computer to create a presentation on the artist.

Bath time!