Sleepover and Duxford!

On Friday, Tilly came for a 6 night sleepover! It was originally going to be a 3 night, but we were having so much fun we convinced Tilly's mother to let us stay! We had a great time, and we did a bit of work as well! We filled in quizzes and read a bit about Valentine's Day, made some rose scented bath bombs and we went to Duxford Air  Museum on Monday. We brought Tilly home again after Duxford, for an extra 3 nights! We did really cool experiments with Milk and Soap and we even experimented with Skittles! I'll write about them later though.

Finger of Four

 At Duxford, we saw most of the stuff that we didn't see last time. We had a look around the Battle Of Britain area, which was really cool! I was especially interested with the battle tactics between the Luftwaffe (German) and the RAF (Britain). The Luftwaffe had better tactics than us at the beginning, but the RAF copied them and invented the Finger Four. It's called that because it's the shape of a hand!

Playing a game with a very tricky Dice!

Lieutenant Shovlin!

It was so cold, running warmed us up!

We also boarded the De Havilland Comet 4. It was the very first jet plane to cross the Atlantic with passengers! In the time when the Comet 4 flew, most parents worked abroad and had to leave their children behind at boarding school. Every school holiday, all of the school children would board the plane and fly to the country where their parents worked. The only adults on the plane would be the pilots and the crew! That would be a bit noisy! This was called the Lollipop Flight.
 Me, Tilly, Alex, Beth and Cat were all Baggage Handlers, and we had a few special missions!  First, we had to investigate a suspicious suitcase, and we had to answer questions like who it belonged to. After we found the suspicious bag, we had to find the area where you put the luggage underneath the plane. It was quite difficult, but I eventually found it! I was so proud, because everyone was doubting me, so I asked the supervisor who was watching us, and he said I was right!

We also saw the Control Room at Duxford, where the important people planned where to attack next, or where they were being attacked. There was a giant table with numbers and co-ordinates on it, and it looked very complicated! There was also a script to read, but since there was so many people in it I got a bit confused...
We stayed for a long time in this room because it had a lovely warm radiator, and everywhere else was so cold!

All of the kids had a bit of a lesson in the education room but it was actually really fun. The lesson was about different forms of transportation.
 The man who was talking to us had made loads of Lego vehicles like cars, ambulances, planes, boats, loads!! There was a giant carpet which had roads and rivers on it, and he told us to carefully get a vehicle and place it where you think it would be in the map, also how fast it might go. He also told us to try very hard not to brake any of his Lego! No kids knocked or broke anything.... except Tilly! Apparently, someone pushed her and she tripped on a building. She knocked it over, but it wasn't broken, thankfully! It was so funny!

Naughty Tilly!



Bramble!

As most of you know, I've adopted the neighbour's cat and called him Bramble because he looks just like Bramblestar from Warrior cats! Yesterday, I went outside with Tilly and played and took some pictures of him. Here they are!

Here's me and Tilly holding him!

Bramble wouldn't stop head-butting the camera!

Here's Bramble in his new territory, my driveway!

I'll do a Blog Post later about Tilly's sleepover and our visit to Duxford Air Museum!

The Lion Dance

Chinese New Year is here and I went to a great party to celebrate. There was loads of things going on... but my favourite was the Chinese Lion dance!

Street celebrations in China often include a traditional lion dance which is thought to bring good luck. There are usually two dancers. One acts as the head and the other the body. They dance to a drum, cymbals and a gong. On the head of the lion is mirror so that evil spirits will be frightened away by their own reflections. As the lion runs along the streets they begin to visit different places. On their way they meets another person, the ‘Laughing Buddha’ who is dressed in monk’s robes and a mask. He teases the lion with a fan made of banana-leaves which makes the lion jump around.

The lion dancers need to be very fit. As the lion moves from place to place he looks for some green vegetables such as lettuce which are hung above the doors of houses or businesses. Hidden in the leaves is a red packet of money. The lion eats the lettuce and red packet. He then scatters lettuce leaves to symbolize a fresh start for the New Year and the spreading of good luck.


Any way, at the party, there was loads going on! First, all of the kids sat around and watched two people get into an amazing Chinese Lion suit and then do a dance around the room! It was really cool, and loud! Another person was playing the drums and they were really loud, we had to put our fingers in our ears! I thought I was going to go deaf!

I played the drums too!

Afterwards, loads of people did really interesting displays of Martial Arts. One of the men who did it looked quite old, but he was so nimble, it was really amazing! When the Martial Arts display was over, everyone had a few minutes to get a drink and a snack, then a special visitor came! Kung Fu Panda! He gave everyone fortune cookies and we all got a picture with him! He was so fluffy and soft!

Kung-Fu Panda

Fortune Cookies

Then everyone went into a different room and decorated our own dragon! Well, most kids did the cape and Elise did the head. It looked really cool when we'd finished it! Much better than the other kids'.

We used colourfull feathers to decorate the Lion

Then all of the kids went back to the other room and we got to do the Lion Dance ourselves! We all took turns wearing the lion suit and we got to walk around and roll over (even though me, Tilly and Lavinia were the only kids who rolled over...)! It was so cool! The head was really heavy, though!

That's me in the front.



The Head was really heavy!

Finally, most of the kids got to control a giant pink Dragon. You had to hold a pole in the air and you could control one bit of the dragon's body. It was so heavy, but I loved it! You had to run around with it and do tricks with it.

My favourite part was definitely watching the Lion Dance, it was so majestic! The kids at the front got to touch it aswell. It felt so fluffy, even it's silky cape was so soft.


I loved it! I can't wait until next year!

Bramble!

When I moved to Lincolnshire, my neighbours had a black cat. The cat became ill and the owners never took it inside their house, never mind to a vet! The cat eventually died, and some time later they got a new kitten. This kitten was so cute, he was a little brown tom with dark black tabby markings. He has a blue collar on with a bell on it, and every day I go out to see him and stroke him and play with him. I've even started to buy treat bags for him.


But Bramble's not the only cat coming to our house! I attracted a ginger tom that I've called Fire. I was trying to feed Fire, but I didn't realise Bramble was watching. He went absolutely insane that someone else was eating his treats. Bramble pounced and chased Fire all the way to my house. After that, they just hissed at each other. Then another cat came along! It was the black and white tom from down the road. Bramble chased the black and white cat away and then came back to make sure Fire wasn't getting anymore treats.


Even though Bramble's a bit vicious, I love him! If I get a picture of him, I'll put it on this post.

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day tomorrow! To celebrate, I learned a bit about the holiday's history and made a Valentine's Day Card! Since I have no boyfriend to give the card to, I gave it to Bramble, my new pet cat! Only... Bramble isn't actually my cat! I'll do another post about him later.


Valentine was a Roman priest. His emperor decided that married men couldn't fight in armies as well as single men, so he created a law banning young men from marrying. Valentine didn't agree to this rule, and started having secret wedding ceremonies. When the emperor found out, he held Valentine as a prisoner. Valentine fell in love with his jailer's daughter, and before he was sent to be killed, he wrote the first Valentine's Day card that said "Your Valentine" on it.




My Valentine's Day card for Bramble!
This is a cinquain_a five line poem



Minecraft HomeSchooling!

As you all know, I'm home-educated and I love minecraft! Recently, I signed up to Minecraft Homeschooling, which is a month-long kind of tutor on History and other subjects. You pick a course and each week you get a new assignment to learn. You can read a bit about it and maybe watch a few videos and answer a quiz, then you build what you've been learning about! It's really cool, and you get a new assignment every Monday. Ralfie's just joined as well, and I'm giving her a tour of the server and teaching her how to navigate around all of the areas!






This week, I had to learn about the history of money!


In 1900 BC, people first started trading. Farmers traded things like cows, sheep and wheat. But there was a problem with trading, nothing had a proper value. Another problem with this, was that some things like food, would go rotten. However, in China, people started using Cowrie shells as money. No one in the West knew about this, because there was no Social media, or anyway of communicating.
All of the other places in the world decided to stop using things like apples or jewellery in trading, as some foods go bad and jewellery brakes very easily. Instead they used gold, as gold was very strong and very valuable. But gold was too heavy to carry around everywhere, so people started pressing gold into small, round flat pieces. In 200 AD, coins became much more popular. Each coin was weighed and stamped so everybody knew  how much they were worth. In the 1950's, credit cards were invented. In recent years, there's hardly any need to carry coins and paper notes around anymore, as almost everything is done online. Most of the money in the world is now invisible.