The Little Nemeceks

Last weekend we took a drive up to Northumbria to visit Alnwick Castle, which has been used for filming in Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, and more.  We visited Knight's Quest where Avila dressed up like a princess and where we threw rats at each other in the stockade, Dragon's Quest (no pictures), the State Rooms (also no pictures allowed), walked the gun ramparts, and visited the Harry Potter car.  They also had broom stick training (pretend to fly), but the kids thought it looked too silly and refused to try it out.  As we were leaving we discovered that Alnwick Castle's garden is home to the famous poison garden, the most dangerous garden in the world.  We were out of time for this trip, but we'll probably come back to visit the gardens another time!

The castle from the outside

Broomstick trainees

They also had an owl display

Avila in her princess dress

David manages to hit me with a stuffed rat in the stocks

Nathan scarfs down a Harry Potter cupcake

The boys wanted a picture on the cannon

All the kids in the Harry Potter car

Another pic of Avila in her costume

Josh in the stocks

Josh and I sit on the thrones

Two more weeks of the school year are finished, this time spent in China.  We learned all about the dynastic history of China, the geography, music, art, and tea ceremony.  We also did multiple experiments in magnetism for science, with the kids having fun looking at the magnetic fields of various magnets using iron filings and creating an electromagnet by wrapping a copper wire around a nail.  We finished up our art classes with one last sculpture creating time, and ate pineapple cashew chicken for our cultural meal.  I don't have tons of pictures this week, but we still had a good time :)

David wanted a picture of his jenga tower at art

Avila has been having fun playing in the sand while her brothers have soccer

Another cute Avila picture!

Forbidden Corner is a folly maze located north of here in the Yorkshire Dales.  It's supposed to be a wonderful family day out, so we took the kids and headed there for a warm Saturday afternoon.  We spent several hours wandering around the maze, trying to find everything on their sheet (and not quite succeeding, but almost!).  The boys attempted to complete the rubbing sheet, and managed to find 12/15, which was pretty good considering the intricacy of the maze.  There was stuff all over the place, around corners, up and down.  The boys had fun finding things, and so did Avila (although she was very scared of the burping monster at the beginning and still talks about it!)

Nathan completing the first rubbing

The burping monster

Statues playing cricket

There were a few motion activated water features.  This one pretended to pee on you!

Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!

Dragon door in the underground part

The cat is coming, the cat is coming!

The past two weeks we have been busy studying Japan, one of the countries with so much material we needed to weeks to complete it all!  We have learned about the samurai, the tea ceremony, the written Japanese language, music, sushi, and lots more!  For our cultural celebration, we took the kids out to Yo Sushi!, a restaurant in town complete with a sushi conveyor belt.  We all ended up having a lot of fun, especially Avila, who loved watching the conveyor belt and eating chocolate mochi for dessert.  The boys tried smoked salmon rolls and California rolls and didn't really like them, but did find a crispy chicken dish that they enjoyed.  This was my first time having sushi, as the idea of raw fish has always grossed me out, but I ended up trying several rolls and liked all of them :)

We've also crammed quite a few other things into our routine these past weeks, with two art classes, a Discovery STEM chemistry session, at home science experiments with electricity, a biography of Julius Caesar for Nathan's writing, plus our usual math and language arts assignments.  We are quickly heading for the end of the year here, with only four countries left to study, and are glad to have had such a great variety of experiences to go along with our move to England!

Avila works on her masterpiece

Nathan made Serpinski triangles inside a Koch snowflake for modern art (fractals)

David did an imitation Mondrain

Testing household items to see if they conduct electricity

Building a series circuit with lightbulbs

Nathan's chemistry session

David's chemistry session

Josh demonstrates how to use chopsticks at Yo Sushi!

Nathan had trouble using his chopsticks

Family selfie

The sushi conveyor belt

This week we took a field trip to the Star Centre in Keighley, about an hour's drive away from Harrogate.  The star centre is connected to Leeds College in Keighley.  We went as part of a large west Yorkshire homeschool group, and participated in a full day space program.  In the morning, the kids rotated through the "Earth" side, with a stop at Mission Control, complete with games where the boys had to change angle and thrust of a spaceship in order to launch it around the moon.  The other stop was the Cosmodome, a small planetarium.  After lunch, we rotated through a robot demonstration, an EVA on the moon where all the kids dressed up as astronauts, and finally a 3D printing and laser cutting demonstration, where they got to take home a laser cut keychain.  The boys said the trip was "Amazing!" and were really glad that we went.

Working with launch angle and thrust

Avila played the game on my lap

Cosmodome show

Robot demonstration

The boys work a robotic arm and try to pick up a toy

Dressing up like astronauts

Avila got to dress up too, but her suit was a bit big!

3D printing demonstration

Watching the laser cutter

The kids and their laser cut keychains

For our final half term break of this school year, we took the kids down to London for a long weekend trip.  We stayed at the Highbury Center, formerly the FMC, where Josh and I stayed for our semester in London in 2001.  We then proceeded to wear ourselves out wandering all over the city, seeing the Tower of London the day we arrived, then Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye on day 2, the Victoria & Albert museum and the Science museum on day 3, the British museum, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, and National Portrait Gallery on day 4, and St. Paul's Cathedral and the British library on the morning of day 5 before heading home.

Highlights for the kids were seeing Big Ben, the London Eye, making a digital synthesizier with a makey-makey kit in the Victoria and Albert museum, and climbing on the lions at Trafalgar square.  Josh and I also spent quite a bit of time reminiscing about our time in London so long ago. Pictures were not allowed in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the British Library.

The outside of the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Tower of London outer courtyard

The White Tower

Collections of armor inside the white tower

Cannons and cannonballs, with David's head as a size reference

Gates of Buckingham palace, with a random tourist

We tried to get a family picture in front of Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament

This is the Thames, with Nathan and David's hats floating in it, after being blown off by a gust of wind.  They were rather upset, so we bought them new hats later.

Waiting for the London Eye

Near the top of the ride

Another view of London

Avila loves looking at water, here on a bridge above the Thames.

Highbury Fields, with lots of barbeques.  It wasn't ever like this when we were here last time.

Sweet kid picture

Avila became a seasoned tube traveler over the weekend.

Victoria & Albert museum, Japanese tea collection.  The boys really liked this room since we are currently studying Japan.

Michelangelo and his David.  Our David didn't want to look, because the statues were naked.

I was surprised to find this already in the museum!

Here, Nathan works on constructing his digital musical instrument

David made a drum

Here he is, testing it out

I decided to strike a pose

In the science museum, all the kids enjoyed a projector show about the planets

The beginning of the robot exhibit.  Avila was fascinated by this robot baby.

The boys loved this interactive robot, complete with fist bumps!

We got the family guide at the British museum, which took us around to some of the top exhibits.

I preferred to see some of the things from other cultures, rather than the things I had been forced to study.

David got to hold a stone age rock

Help!  Someone stop me before I write a 5 page paper on neighborliness!

Sutton Hoo helmet.  This one was on the cover of our Beowulf book.

The boys had lots of fun playing on the lions in Trafalgar Square

David climbed on the lion's back.  Nathan wasn't sure if he wanted to or not.

I had fun showing the boys the skull in this painting in the National Gallery

We also saw some Van Gogh