15th June - 29th June 2018 Lake District
We have been on holiday to the Lake District!
There have been loads of learning opportunities. Vin seems to find things to learn about wherever he is! We started the very day we got there - the house we stayed in had a box of a dozen of the Beatrix Potter books. Over the course of the 2 weeks, we read them all together. We learned a bit about Beatrix Potter and how she loved the Lake District and had an influence on a lot of farming in the area.
The house we stayed in had its water source from a spring. This was very different to at home! We talked about how our water comes from a reservoir and is treated in a big water treatment plant and sent to many houses. Whereas from the spring, it only went to a small number of houses and each house treated the water with a special pump and filter.
The first day, it was so rainy! Luckily it got hotter and hotter every day after that. As it was rainy, we went to the Ruskin museum, very close to where we stayed. John Ruskin was a famous resident of Coniston and we learned a lot about him and also about the things he himself learned about. We learned about the geology of the area, about Arthur Ransome, the author of the Swallows and Amazons books set in the Lakes, local copper mining, the water speed records set by Donald Campbell in Bluebird K7, local building techniques and the local Herdwick sheep breed.
We visited a nearby quarry and learned a bit more about the rocks.
Vin was inspired by a map of a village to make his own map. He used the "fire escape" floor plan of our cottage as a guide to make his own map. Then hid 5 of his toy cars around the house, marking them on the map so daddy could go find them.
We went on a boat across Windermere to visit Wray castle. We did a walk round the grounds and found lots of geocaches, using coordinates and the map on the phone to find our way.
The holiday cottage had some good board games. One of them is the puzzle "rush hour". Vin was great at figuring out how to move the vehicles to free the car!
We visited The Lakes Aquarium with many creatures from the Lake District and around the world. Vinnie really liked seeing the different types of camouflage that the fish had, and learning about the different habitats.
Of course he enjoyed a bit of dressing up too!
He filled in the quiz and spotted all the creatures to win a medal!
We visited a place called Claife viewing station. It was really interesting to learn that the Lake District wasn't always a popular place to visit. When it first started becoming a tourist location, specific viewing stations were set up to "frame" the views. Different colour glass windows were put in so artists could paint the views as if there was a specific weather or season. We found it funny that it was thought people may faint at the splendour of the views!
It was also interesting to look through the available different colour glass frames ourselves and see how it changed the scenery!
We visited the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. They had a new museum at Ravenglass. There was loads of displays about how steam engines work, Vinnie could have a go at some of the controls, looking after an engine. As well as this, there was a model to try out building different bridges.
We walked a short way to an old Roman bath house ruin. It was over 2000 years old! You could still see some of the coloured render on the wall. It's amazing how well preserved it was.
On the way home, we stopped at England's deepest lake - Wast Water, and walked part way up England's tallest mountain - scafell.
While there, we saw an arched bridge just like the one Vinnie had built in the museum!
While rowing in the dinghy on Coniston water one day, we spotted a wild heron. During our trip we also saw buzzards and lots of other interesting birds and insects.
Over one weekend we did a treasure trail walk around the area we were staying, and the next day we walked to the top of Coniston Old Man. Vinnie did so well, walking about 15 miles over 2 days! During the walk, he collected a lot of interesting looking rocks to weigh himself down with too!
We visited Muncaster castle. While there we learned a lot about owls and other birds of prey. We also had a lovely walk around the gardens and learned a bit about meadow voles.
The next day we had a bit of a quieter morning, staying at the cottage to try out some of the other board games! They had a good selection and Vinnie did really well taking turns, following the rules of the games and having fun! In the afternoon we had a nice walk around Tarn Howes finding some more geocaches!
As it was a bit too hot to do much walking on some of the days, we went back to Wray castle to explore the fun activities they have indoors there. Vin built an amazing castle, decorated a crown, built a dry stone wall and , of course, some more dressing up!
Over the course of the 2 weeks, Vinnie has been keeping track of his holiday money and spending, learning about budgeting and doing some maths!
Our holiday nearly at an end, we climbed one last summit at Beacon, wrote some postcards and headed home.
We're so lucky to be able to go on holiday when places are a bit quieter and Vinnie can take his time to learn and absorb his surroundings. I feel like he's really learned a lot over the last two weeks and developed emotionally too. Well done Vinnie!
There have been loads of learning opportunities. Vin seems to find things to learn about wherever he is! We started the very day we got there - the house we stayed in had a box of a dozen of the Beatrix Potter books. Over the course of the 2 weeks, we read them all together. We learned a bit about Beatrix Potter and how she loved the Lake District and had an influence on a lot of farming in the area.
The house we stayed in had its water source from a spring. This was very different to at home! We talked about how our water comes from a reservoir and is treated in a big water treatment plant and sent to many houses. Whereas from the spring, it only went to a small number of houses and each house treated the water with a special pump and filter.
The first day, it was so rainy! Luckily it got hotter and hotter every day after that. As it was rainy, we went to the Ruskin museum, very close to where we stayed. John Ruskin was a famous resident of Coniston and we learned a lot about him and also about the things he himself learned about. We learned about the geology of the area, about Arthur Ransome, the author of the Swallows and Amazons books set in the Lakes, local copper mining, the water speed records set by Donald Campbell in Bluebird K7, local building techniques and the local Herdwick sheep breed.
We visited a nearby quarry and learned a bit more about the rocks.
Vin was inspired by a map of a village to make his own map. He used the "fire escape" floor plan of our cottage as a guide to make his own map. Then hid 5 of his toy cars around the house, marking them on the map so daddy could go find them.
We went on a boat across Windermere to visit Wray castle. We did a walk round the grounds and found lots of geocaches, using coordinates and the map on the phone to find our way.
The holiday cottage had some good board games. One of them is the puzzle "rush hour". Vin was great at figuring out how to move the vehicles to free the car!
We visited The Lakes Aquarium with many creatures from the Lake District and around the world. Vinnie really liked seeing the different types of camouflage that the fish had, and learning about the different habitats.
Of course he enjoyed a bit of dressing up too!
He filled in the quiz and spotted all the creatures to win a medal!
We visited a place called Claife viewing station. It was really interesting to learn that the Lake District wasn't always a popular place to visit. When it first started becoming a tourist location, specific viewing stations were set up to "frame" the views. Different colour glass windows were put in so artists could paint the views as if there was a specific weather or season. We found it funny that it was thought people may faint at the splendour of the views!
It was also interesting to look through the available different colour glass frames ourselves and see how it changed the scenery!
We visited the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. They had a new museum at Ravenglass. There was loads of displays about how steam engines work, Vinnie could have a go at some of the controls, looking after an engine. As well as this, there was a model to try out building different bridges.
We walked a short way to an old Roman bath house ruin. It was over 2000 years old! You could still see some of the coloured render on the wall. It's amazing how well preserved it was.
On the way home, we stopped at England's deepest lake - Wast Water, and walked part way up England's tallest mountain - scafell.
While there, we saw an arched bridge just like the one Vinnie had built in the museum!
While rowing in the dinghy on Coniston water one day, we spotted a wild heron. During our trip we also saw buzzards and lots of other interesting birds and insects.
Over one weekend we did a treasure trail walk around the area we were staying, and the next day we walked to the top of Coniston Old Man. Vinnie did so well, walking about 15 miles over 2 days! During the walk, he collected a lot of interesting looking rocks to weigh himself down with too!
We visited Muncaster castle. While there we learned a lot about owls and other birds of prey. We also had a lovely walk around the gardens and learned a bit about meadow voles.
The next day we had a bit of a quieter morning, staying at the cottage to try out some of the other board games! They had a good selection and Vinnie did really well taking turns, following the rules of the games and having fun! In the afternoon we had a nice walk around Tarn Howes finding some more geocaches!
As it was a bit too hot to do much walking on some of the days, we went back to Wray castle to explore the fun activities they have indoors there. Vin built an amazing castle, decorated a crown, built a dry stone wall and , of course, some more dressing up!
Over the course of the 2 weeks, Vinnie has been keeping track of his holiday money and spending, learning about budgeting and doing some maths!
Our holiday nearly at an end, we climbed one last summit at Beacon, wrote some postcards and headed home.
We're so lucky to be able to go on holiday when places are a bit quieter and Vinnie can take his time to learn and absorb his surroundings. I feel like he's really learned a lot over the last two weeks and developed emotionally too. Well done Vinnie!
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