Stampede by the sea, ED TED and surprise unicorns!

Building a unicorn

Being met, bleary eyed, first thing in the morning by this on your stairs…is quite something. Small picked this cardboard kit up in a charity shop yesterday and obviously decided to build the thing as soon as she woke up. Masterfully, I must say. In order to do this, she had to check and read the instructions. Identify the pieces, and work on the dexterity to manage fittings that she (or I, actually!) had never come across before- and accurately construct it. All by herself.

Ed Ted Periodic table

After a lovely long bath for Small (Self care is so much more important than I had ever learned, and something they have next to no room for in a busy school week.) She distracted herself while I brushed her insanely long hair with the periodic table on ed.ted.com . This interactive periodic table is genius. I love it. It is stunning, you can’t help but interact with it. So, over a hair brushing session we learned about Helium (and now have to buy a balloon the next time we see one!) We saw Hydrogen explode, watched Magnesium burn bright white and Neon, red. We discovered Rhodium, and the ways in which it saves lives- including their very own Grandma. (Namely its importance in Cancer treatment and pacemakers.) Suddenly a boring chore was transformed into a fascinating discovery session, being able to pick and choose elements at whim and really absorb what they did. Like your very own exciting advent calendar – What’s behind door number 1? BOOM.

Heffalump hunting! Stampede by the Sea

After lunch we decided to get out and enjoy the sun. We’d seen some enormous elephants around the last time we were at the beach and decided to find out what they were all about. The kids had a wonderful time, being given charge of my phone (Eeeep!) and navigating their way around the map by themselves, finding each code and entering it in correctly, taking turns as a team and admiring each of the fun and funky designs! Stampede by the Sea is an Art trail set up in aid of Weldmar Hospice, a fantastic charity offering end-of-life care. The trail is centred around Bridport and West Bay, with a few stragglers over in Lyme Regis. A lot of the elephants have been decorated by local children and schools, with local artists contributing some truly beautiful pieces. The kids even found a picture of their cousin on one! Each installation has its own individual number code which has to be entered into the app to find out information and maybe win a prize. The designs all have some link to the local area, historical or present and it was great to find out things we didn’t know about our local area. It also gave us a wealth of further ideas for learning opportunities around us, with prizes like discounted tickets for the open-air theatre and half price entry to Bridport museum along with many other things that we didn’t win……yet.