Yesterday the boys and I went to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich with another Home Education group. Rabbit had a Dramabuds lesson in the afternoon so she stayed at home with Supergirl for the day. I decided to drive there, as the route by public transport was a bit complicated and not that appealing on a cold, wet day in November. The drive wasn’t a lot of fun either, and I did get a bit lost, but I found my way there eventually (it took an hour and twenty minutes) and I was quite proud of my achievement.
It was good to meet up with some other home educators, and the children enjoyed each others’ company. I found, as always, that it is considerably easier to have one child fewer than the usual number, though it is very hard to work out why. Perhaps I should borrow other people’s children from time to time, so that when I give them back it will seem easy having just four! Maybe I’ll borrow these ones – they are no trouble. Anyway, I digress…
We started off with a “moon-walking session” aimed mainly at the younger children, but the lady who was running it was extremely good at dealing with the wide age range (about 1 to 9 years, I think.) She started off with a presentation about the planets, and shared a few key interesting facts about each one. She also handled it very well when Owl, Monkey and a couple of the other children kept putting their hands up to add more facts of their own, and was very patient. We sang some songs (five little aliens, and similar) which kept the little ones entertained, then pretended to be in a rocket flying to the moon, getting out and walking on the moon and then flying back home. It was a really good mix of interesting information, imparted in a very simple way, and active learning. My personal highlight was probably when the lady said (after the millionth interruption) “I love having Home Ed groups, you’re all so intelligent, you know everything!”
After that, we ate our packed lunches and had some free time to look around the exhibitions, and go to the shop. Then we had another session in the planetarium. I thought that Monkey and Tiddler might be afraid of the dark, but they were fine and they loved it. All three boys wanted to see it all over again, so I think we’ll have to go back with Rabbit and daddy sometime. We had a final quick look at the exhibitions, and they didn’t want to leave, but we had to. The journey home was better because I took an alternative route and didn’t get lost, but it was dark before we got back and the traffic was heavy so I was glad to get home. I asked the boys if they wanted to draw or write anything about the day, and Owl wasn’t in the mood, but Monkey made this model of a space shuttle.
