1000 hours and first National League Competition

Max Force - NDP level 4 Semi Finals

Max Force - NDP level 4 Semi Finals 

Wetlands Centre - London

The Wetlands Centre is a great place to go to if you want to see birds. This was the first time that I visited in winter. They provide lots of activities such as crafts, otter feeds and family trails that you can download before your visit.  In the photos you can see that I am jumping in a puddle. This is because they had an annual puddle jumping competition. It was great fun, but you do need wellies and waterproofs.

                    

Max Force Trampolining - National Development Plan Level 4 competition

I have been doing trampolining for a long time and it is great fun and keeps you fit. I started off doing only 30 minutes a week and now train for 6 hours a week. 

I have been lucky enough to go from beginners to intermediate level and wish to move up to elite when I am older. My club has only just joined Children's University so I am now excited to be able to add more hours to my passport for the activity I love best.

I recently got a gold medal in the South East area, Kent, Sussex and Surrey, for my age group. I am just about to compete to see if I can get a place in the South East area team.

This is one of the routines I am doing.

Bodiam Castle -National Trust

These are some of my pictures of my visit to Bodiam Castle for the very first time. On the outside of the castle it pretty much looks like a lovely place to live and I wish I was around in the medieval times so that I could have looked in the castle before it turned to ruin .

The National Trust have been able to keep some of the rooms how they looked like back in the day and you can climb the towers and look inside them which  gives you an idea of what it looked like.  The stairs are very steep. 

If you are lucky enough to visit you can go on a guided tour of what is left of the castle and in one of the pictures there is a photo of me and the tour guide,  she knows a lot of facts about the castle and made my day very enjoyable one. There us also a very good video about Bodiam, which you can watch when you arrive and a good audio tour.

'Joan the Brewster' Tour Guide

Parent's guide to safe blogging

Dear parent,

Welcome to my daughter's Children's University blog. Hopefully it will inspire you to get your own child(ren) documenting their visits and activities.  But if you are like me, you will want to ensure that your child's blogging experience is safe.

This blog has been created over a period of four years, but I have only just made it public as initially it was a private record of my daughter's journey through CU. But the more I looked at it the more I thought it would be a valuable resource to share to spread the word about CU to other parents and children.

In case you have never used a blog before there are a couple of ways to navigate through the posts:

1. You can simply scroll down and you will see each post... The newest one is at the top of the page. When you reach the bottom click on Older Posts to see another batch of posts.

2. You can look at the right of the screen to see the dates in the blog archive, Click on the little arrow next to the date to see the months, click the next arrow to see the posts added in the year.

If you see something you like please feel free to add a comment. However, you won't see your comment added immediately as I have set it to moderate. That means I get to vet each comment made and add it as long as it is appropriate...... More about that in the guide.

The guide covers:

• Creating a Google account
• Creating a blog
• Adding a post
• Adding a photo
• Setting your blog as private
• Preventing your blog being searched for on Google search engines

Guide to using Google Blogger (To be added)

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Wrapping paper

First you get some potatoes, cut them in half and get some Christmas shaped cookie cutters . Push the shape into the potatoes and then cut around the potato up to the cutter. When you pull the cutter out it is ready to use.

Here are four I cut. I only used 3 on the paper, the star, tree and gingerbread man.

lay the paper out and put some weight on the corners to keep it flat. I didn't use glossy paper in case the designs didn't stand out or smudged.

Then put some paint onto a paper plate. Dip your stamp into the paint and wipe off any extra paint. Using the stamp push it onto the paper gently.

Keep stamping until you are happy with the design.

Christmas Challenge 2015 - 12 days of Christmas diary

This is my 12 days of Christmas Diary and my bird feeding diary combined.















23rd December 2015
Family Party - It was very nice to see my family and friends all together at my Christmas Party. There were snacks and drinks and lots of laughing. We have a lucky dip Santa that we filled up with presents for everyone as they left. It belonged to my nan and granddad who put it out every Christmas. The family were excited to see Santa being used again as it bought back lots of memories for them.

Made my bird feeders for Children's University and put it out in the garden - This evening I saw a robin and 1 blue tit feeding.

Weather - Rainy but warm

Christmas Eve
We wrapped all the presents up and sat as a family watch Christmas films.
Outside the house we have flowers, which is unusual as they don't usually blossom in winter as it is normally cold. 
This morning  I saw a blue tit feeding and in the evening 3 blue tits

Weather - Rainy but warm



Christmas Day
I got up very early and woke everyone up. We opened all our presents and had a lovely breakfast together. Later we went to my brother's house for Christmas lunch and I got the bike that I wanted which I was really excited about.  In the evening  we went to my brother's fiancés parents house. There were lots of people there and we all enjoyed playing family games and chatting. My favourite game is the raffle game. It was really funny as there was one blue present that everyone kept stealing off each other (it is part of the game) and at the end we opened it and it was just a Star Wars cupcake mix, so it was very funny. Just before we left we did some Karoakee and sang some of my favourite songs.

This morning  I saw a robin and a black bird.

Weather - Rainy but warm

Boxing day
We were all tired today as we stayed up very late. We had to cook food for our guests coming round. We all opened our presents together and played board games and cards games and they bought some of their own games. 

This evening  I saw blue tits and 2 pigeons

Weather - Raining heavily all day

27th December 2015
Today we watched tv most of the day and watched all the Christmas specials. 

This evening  I saw pigeons and blackbirds in the garden

Weather - Rainy but warm

28th December 2015
Today we went to Airhop a trampolining park which was bought for me, Liam and Jo to do. We all had fun jumping up and down and I was surprised that Liam could do somersaults. Mum and dad got some very good photos of us all. After Airhop we went to Frankie and Benny's for a family lunch as we were all so hungry. 

This evening  I saw 3 blue tits near the feeders

Weather - Rainy but warm

29th December 2015
Today we went to Anisa's house to meet up with a group of friends. We have known each other since we were babies. We did a secret Santa and I got a £10 Primark voucher which I might spend tomorrow. We had a nice buffet lunch and desert .. Thank you parents for all the lovely cooking.

I didn't see any birds today, but I was out most of the day.

Weather - Rainy but warm

30th December 2015
Today we went out shopping from 11 o'clock until 1 o'clock. We were staying in Croydon because we were going to the cinema in the clock tower to see the suffragettes . Before we went to the cinema we went for lunch in a Weatherspoons . As we sat down we remembered that my brother was in Croydon so we invited him to come. The film was amazing and it was my first 12a film.

I didn't see any birds today, but I was out most of the day.

Weather - Rainy and a little cooler

31st December 2015
Today we played board games during the day and then we went to a  friends new years party. It was really fun everyone got up and danced eventually and sang along to the songs.When it became midnight they switched the telly on and we watched the fireworks on the River Thames.We were sitting by the window and we saw some fantastic fireworks they were right on the field in front of us we had a brilliant time.

I saw 2 blue tits today

Weather - dry most of the day with showers. Very cold at midnight

1st January 2016
Today we are extremely tired so it is just a lazy day at home.

I saw 1 blue tit today

Weather - dry most of the day with showers. Feeling colder at night and started raining  in the evening.

2nd January 2016
Today we went to my aunties house for dinner. We had cooked us 3 different curries and lots of Indian food which was lovely. We had a really relaxing day.

I saw loads of  blue tits and sparrows today on my aunties bird feeders.. She gets lots of birds in her garden.

Weather - raining again.

3rd January 2016
Today we had a quiet day at home because we have been doing a lot. 

I saw 3 blue tits today

Weather - raining again.
4th January 2016
Today we went to Dennis Sever's House. It was really unusual as it was very dark. It didn't have any electricity. It is a museum in a house, so the house looks like Victorian times. We also went for a look at the market.

I saw 2 blue tits todayWeather - raining again.

News event - 

The news says "Major Tim Peake was the first official Astronaut in space as his mission was publicly funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the first to visit the International Space Station. "

This story was all over the news just before Christmas and most people watched the news to watch him blast off into space. Space stories are always exciting. The thing I found most interesting was when Tim called down from space to Earth to try to talk to his mum on the phone and this happened. He dialled the number and a lady picked up the phone and Tim said "Is this planet Earth?" The lady didn't know what to say and she didn't answer as she didn't know who she was talking to. Later on that evening the lady turned on the news and realised that it was Major Tim Peake that had talked to her by accident as he had called the wrong number. 

But he is not the first person from Britain in space! My mum told me about Helen Sharman from 1991.

Wikipedia says "Helen Sharman first British woman in space in 1991! She left earth on a privately funded mission.  She blasted into orbit aboard the Soviet Soyuz TM-12 space capsule on a mission to the Russian Mir space station - one of the team on the privately-funded Project Juno expedition. " 

It seems  that people don't remember that a woman from Britain went up in space first but Tim Peake gets lots of attention on the news. She was the first British person in Space. What do you think about that?

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Bird feeder

How to make

To make this bird feeder you need these following things :

lard

thistle seeds

monkey nuts (do not use if you have a nut allergy)

flower pot 

string

pine cone 

Step 1

Buy some monkey nuts but do not get expensive ones.

Then you need to take the shell off and break the nuts in half.

Step 2

You need to buy some lard and soften it by butting it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Step 3

Thread some string through the holes of the flower pot then turn it upside down.

Step 4

Mix the lard and nuts together and then add some thistle seeds .

Fill the flower pot completely pressing the mixture down as you go.

Step 5 

If you have any remaining mixture left instead of wasting it get your pine cone and press the lard into it.

 By doing all of this you will have your own home made bird feeder.

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Make a how to video

Here is my video on  How to decorate a Christmas tree

I had a lot of fun making this video and my mum edited it .

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Decorations and poem

These are all of my things that I made over the holidays.

This is my icing snowman that I made at Guides.

 This another snowman that I made out of a sock, rice and a few buttons.

                                               

This is a poem that I wrote about Christmas in my spare time.

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Mini reading challenge

I have read

Diary of Anne Frank - Only managed 1/2 of this book. I started reading it at the start of the holiday. Anne Frank is quite cheeky and some of the things she writes have been very funny which I was not expecting at all. However, it is not a funny book as she was hiding with her family from the Nazis. As I read more of this book I know it will be very sad.

Olly Murs on the Road - This book tells you about what he does when he is touring and funny things he did on X factor. I got this book from my mum for Christmas. It is a signed copy if the book so I love it.

Christmas Challenge 2015 - Wreath Making

On Sunday 6th December I went to Wandle Park and made a wreath. 

I learnt that we can also use grape vine to make the frame and we have lots of this in the garden.

Graduation 2015

Summer Reading Challenge - Record Breakers

I read 7 books over the summer as part of the Record Breakers summer reading challenge. 

CU Ambassadors visit to Oxford University

As you know I am an CU ambassador and we were all invited up to Oxford University because our chancellor works as an English tutor there. While we were in Oxford we went on a scavenger hunt and we had tour guides who were actually students who stay there overnight. 

The library was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We saw some student rooms, it was interesting to see how they live there with shared kitchens. We had lunch in the dinning hall and it was just like being in a Harry Potter film!

Brownies

When I was at Brownies I did loads of arts and crafts, played games and went on may trips and camps. I made lots of friends and before I left I was lucky enough to become a Sixer, which means you are a leader of your group.

I did lots of badges and you can see my sash with some of them on.

CU Graduations 2012 2013 2014

2012

2013

2014

London Mozart Players - Unknown Solider

It was really fun meeting new people at the different schools.  We worked with Domenic and the sessions were hard work but fun.

One the night we all sang World War Two songs in the foyer at Fairfield Halls. Then we went onto the stage to sing for Jonathan Dove and the London Mozart Players. It was a long day and we were all tired at the end.

For an unknown soldier - WW1 commemoration

A few months later the children from the London Schools went into a recording studio to record the songs for a CD. I am looking forward to getting a copy of it.

Recording Unknown Soldier for CD

Mythical maze reading challenge