Autumn Season starts

The fresh but sunny weather coupled with the smell of woodsmoke in the air definitely tells us we have started our Autumn season here!

Leo has started his Vikings topic - with mum yesterday, he started to read a book by Rosemary Sutcliffe 'A Wayside Tavern' which covers the period around the last of the Romans leaving Britain, to give him a good sense of the time around the coming of the Vikings and Saxons. They did a review on what they've read so far, Leo always takes it in and remembers so much. Jealous of his good memory!

Today was brilliant, he worked with me so enthusiastically he was a joy to be with. We started with a bit of fun, he coloured in a Viking helmet for us to start our Viking display on the wall with; though he did already know that the helmet was historically incorrect, and told me that the helmets did not have the horns that we usually think of when we think of Vikings.

We found a recipe that the Vikings used - baked apples. All ingredients that would have been available to them - apples, dried fruits, oats and honey. Leo did all the work himself so it really was a learning experience. Our recipe was larger than we needed, so he used his maths to halve all the quantities, which he did fine. We set the timer and he was really impressed with his efforts, though he wasn't mad keen on the taste - we discussed how much sweeter foods are today as compared to this...

We also found Viking runes and wrote lots of family names down - later on in the topic we will make gifts for people using their rune names.

Lastly he did some piano practice - not much, but he practiced the tune from Lesson 1, and became more secure on it and better at 'one finger at a time' so it sounded better. And he was so enthusiastic which is so lovely to see!

oh and as a little aside we put stars on the solar fabric that he had left from before, and have now used up all the fabric, so his project for tomorrow at Nan's is to take the fabric and sew it into bags which will be Christmas gift bags.

It was a fab day where he got so much done and clearly enjoyed doing it. I compare it with what he was learning at school before he left - which was nothing, because he was so anxious and unhappy! It's heartwarming to see how rich his education is at home and how much he's able to do.