In Hot Pursuit

Following our recent study of Sherlock Holmes, Tiger and I decide to keep up the interest in all things mystery.

I chanced upon a company that sells various themed mystery/treasure trails around the country.  The trails look quite interesting and challenging, and appears to offer a fun day out, so we tried out the one that is set in Convent Garden area.

Tiger was keen to take the lead for solving the mystery.  The trail is designed such that we are only told the starting point (this particular trail started outside the Leicester Square tube station), and have to find our way around by following the clues given in each step of the trail, which are in turned only revealed when we solve each cryptic code accurately.  We thought it would be very easy, but we realised that we were totally lost after three hours of walking around the side streets and narrow lanes in the Soho/Convent Garden vicinity and finding ourselves barely halfway through our trail.  The guideline on the trail says that it should take 1.5 to 2 hours to complete the trail.  Ooops.

Feeling very hot, bothered, and utterly defeated, we gave up for the day and went home to rethink our strategy for solving the mystery. 

We returned to complete the trail the next day, this time better prepared, both mentally and physically.

There must be something about wearing the Yorkshire flat cap that invoked Tiger's inner detective, as we were much more successful on our second attempt to complete the trail and hence solve the related mystery.  It took Tiger less than an hour to this time, and as we ended up in Convent Garden Market where there are many interesting sights to be seen, we spent the rest of the day congratulating ourselves for being super sleuths and rewarding ourselves with fantastic food found in the market.

Encouraged by our success at the Convent Garden trail, we then spent another fun day solving a second murder mystery, this time at Bankside.  I chose this location thinking that we would have a greater success because it has a shorter completion time of 1.5 hours, and that having been to that area many times we ought to know most of the places there.

Not wanting to take any chances this time, Tiger started studying the trail and working out the most efficient route once we got on the tube to get our first destination.

Our starting point this time is outside the London Bridge tube station, near the Southwark Cathedral.  This proved to be very interesting for me because we had mostly hung out on the St. Paul's Cathedral side of the river, so starting the trail from Southwark is an opportunity for us to explore a few new places.

And exploring and discovering new places we certainly did!  The trail took us through many significant, new-to-us landmarks that we did not know about or had not visited before.  Seeing new places is always exciting, especially when it is done in conjunction with delicious food, as we found when we were led to Borough Market.

It was Tiger's first visit to Borough Market, and the sights and sounds of the market fascinated him.  More importantly, we found a stall that sells Thai desserts and mango sticky rice which we both love to eat!

The trail gradually led us towards the side of the Thames that we are more familiar with, whereupon we walked past the Clink Prison Museum and Tiger wanted to go in to take a look.

I knew about this museum but did not take Tiger here for a visit when we studied Medieval England because I thought: (1) it looked more like a commerical attraction than a real, historical accurate museum, and (2) the content may be too gruesome and hence inappropriate for a young child.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only are the exhibits and artefacts historically accurate, the representation of this gruesome aspect of medieval history is not unnecessarily gory.  Tiger was fascinated by the exhibits, while I was slightly appalled by the inhumane use of certain instruments of punishment.

As we approached the end of the trail, we were brought to 'theatre-land' (at least in Tudor/Elizabethan times) and came upon the original site of the Globe Theatre, which was burned to the ground.  Although Tiger and I have visited the current Shakespeare's Globe theatre many times in the past, we have not been to the original site until now.  It is interesting to see that the site is now part of a compound inside a housing estate.  Not far from it stands the Rose Theatre, which was the first purpose-built theatre on Bankside (predating The Globe Theatre) in Tudor time.

We walked the trail at a very leisurely pace, so it took us nearly a whole day to complete it but we stopped and enjoyed our discovery of many previously unknown-to-us places as the clues took us down side streets or made us look closely at certain architectural and historical features along the way.

Heaven! (for a military history buff)

By looking at my plan for Tiger this academic year, it may appear to many that I am overriding his  interest in military history, or that I am abandoning the interest-led learning environment that dominated our household last year to a more classically-driven environment.  Contrary to these appearances, my goal this year is to find a way forward to amalgamate both approaches to provide Tiger with a rigourous foundation in his area of interest.

It seems that military history is here to stay for the foreseeable future.  To bring the life the information in the books that Tiger has read,

I took Tiger to a military machines and vehicles show to look at and touch the various machines up close and to talk to those who are as keen on this subject as Tiger is.

There was so much to see that we spent a whole day (10am to 6pm) there.  Never in a million years would I have thought I would attend such an event, but there you are, I was there walking around the grounds with my boy for eight hours.

There were so many different military vehicles on display that the many hours we spent were necessary just to look at everything.

A sample of the military vehicles on display.

The best thing about going to such a show is that the vehicles are not static displays but are actually in excellent working conditions so we could see them in action:

I was amazed at how fast some of these tanks can go, so I really appreciate being able to see them in action.

Besides watching the tanks and other military vehicles roll by, Tiger also got to go on a 'tank ride' (it's really an armoured personnel carrier).

Tiger really enjoyed the experience, although he admitted that ride was very bumpy and rather uncomfortable when compared to riding in a normal car.

There were also many soldiers' tents set up to depict the weapons and machinery used in different regions/conditions or in different historical periods:

With bombs and weapons at one end of the conflict, at the other end we find the Anderson shelter.  The one on display there was kitted out inside so we could get a really good idea of the amount of available space inside the shelter:

The site was roughly sectioned into different areas of:

• land vehicles
• air vehicles
• shelters
• tents
• weaponry

In the weaponry section we saw many different types of guns and explosives, including land mines.

Many of the displays could be touched and felt, so Tiger had a good time working his way through the various types of guns.  I was fumbling about with a hand gun at a stall where different guns were taken apart and the event-goers were challenged to put them back together, not quite sure which part goes where, when Tiger decided it was too painful for him to watch his mother struggle with it so he asked, "May I show you?"  I promptly passed the gun over to him and watched him assemble it together and showed me how to hold it, load it and fire it, all under 30 seconds.  I don't know where he's learned how to do this but I'm guessing it's from all the military books and documentaries he has watched.

Interspersed with the moving vehicles display were reenactments of battle scenes throughout history, which helped us understand the development of warfare tactics as a result of the advancement of weaponry.

It started off with guns in the Hundred-Year War:

Then the next big leap forward in technology came in the First World War when the British developed the Mark IV.

Tiger has read about the Mark IV tank in the various historical books but this was the first time he came up close to it, to be able to touch it, walk around it, look inside it, and best of all, to see it in action.  Although the Mark IV is very slow compared to the modern tanks, it must have been a terrifying sight to the soldiers 100 years ago when they had never seen anything like it before:

Closely associated with the First World War is the trench warfare.  We saw a few "desmontration" trenches on site. These were not the full size trenches of the First World War but they gave us some ideas of the equipments used and the hardships endured by soldiers who have to fight in that condition. 

From the First World War, we moved on to the Second World War.  The majority of the vehicles and machines we saw on site were from WWII.

We also wtached a reeanctment of a WWII skirmish between the British and German troops:

The reenactment went on for about half an hour and gave us a realistic idea of what the numerous WWII skirmishes might have looked like:

While the majority of the displays were land vehicles, we did see a few planes and helicopters.

What we saw, which we haven't seen anywhere else, was a working life-size plane engine:

It was a very long day but Tiger came away at the end of it saying that it has been his best day out so far.  Tiger's love affair with military history continues.  All I can say is that I am grateful to find such opportunities where Tiger's keen interest is supported and where he can meet and talk with fellow enthusiasts to his heart's content about something that both my husband and I aren't particularly knowledgeable or enthusiastic about.


This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 9/16/14
2. Finishing Strong #29
3. History & Geography Meme #135
4. Home Education Blog Link Up #15
5. Collage Friday - A Well Rounded Homeschool
6. Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Officially Have 3 Teens
7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (9/20/14)

Mid-Autumn Moon, Poetry and Tea

Monday was the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节), the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar.

There are many legends about this festival, the best known one being the legend of Chang'e:

As with many ancient Chinese legends that were originally orally transmitted, there are many different versions of the same story.  The version that is depicted in the clip above differs slightly from the ones that Tiger learns from the books or from the ones I heard as  a child:

I asked Tiger for a narration of the various legends about the festival and he rattled off three superb narrations of the various stories he has read.  I was so amazed by his new-found willingness to provide a long narration that I forgot to type them out as he spoke, so unfortunately I have no record of them but at least I now know that Tiger is able to narrate beautifully when he can be bothered to.

After his narrations, I told him the different versions of the legends that I learnt as a child.  Using these different versions, we discussed about the beauty and drawbacks of the ancient oral tradition to transmit knowledge and wisdom.  I also told Tiger about the lesser known, related stories of:
(1) the only other human occupant on the moon (besides Chang'e), Wu Gang (吴刚), and his divine punishment of having to chop down a self-healing osmanthus tree, and
(2) the Jade Rabbit (玉兔).

These two stories are beautifully depicted below:

As with all major Chinese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival is to celebrate family togetherness with specific symbolic foods.

The food that is specifically tied to the Mid-Autumn Festival is the mooncake (月饼), so called because of its traditional round shape that symbolises the moon, union, and togetherness.

Our double-yolk and walnut mooncakes with date paste.  Yum!

There are many varieties of mooncakes, depending on the regions in which they originate.  The type that is most widely available in the West is the Cantonese type.  Other varieties of mooncakes are explained in the clip below.

Other than the traditional custom of consuming the mooncake as a symoblic festive food, there is also a more political association in medieval Chinese history.  In the 14th century, the ethnic Chinese used the mooncake to conceal revolutionary messages that led to the toppling of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, and the subsequent establishment of the Ming dynasty.

Besides the mooncake, the other symbolic item of the Mid-Autumn festival is the lantern.

In a similar fashion to the Yuanxiao Festival (元宵节) that marks the end of the Chinese New Year, lanterns are lit and displayed at the Mid-Autumn Festival, with riddles to be solved.  However, the difference is that the public display of lanterns at the Mid-Autumn Festival encompasses all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours.  Moreover, Chinese children in the Southeast Asian countries also have the additional practice of carrying lanterns in a procession.

The traditional custom is to sit outside in the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival to admire the moon whilst enjoying tea and mooncake.

We stood outside for a short while to admire the full moon and the very bright moonlight.

It has been very chilly in the evenings here so we decided to alter the tradition slightly to suit our circumstance by having a Chinese version of poetry tea in the afternoon instead.

The format follows that of our usual English version of poetry tea, except that:

• we ate mooncakes instead of scones or biscuits;
• we drank rose tea instead of peppermint tea;
• we used our traditional Chinese tea set instead of an English tea set;
• we worked on Chinese classical poetry instead of English poetry.

I used this opportunity to show Tiger the proper procedures of using the Chinese tea set and to some of the Chinese tea etiquette:

An additional aspect of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the poetic connection, which lends itself very well to the format of poetry tea.  There are many classical Chinese poetry about the moon and the feeling of home-sickness associated with not being able to be with one's family at this particular time of the year, the most basic of which is Contemplation on a Quiet Night (静夜思):

I taught Tiger to recite the poetry, followed by discussing about its structure, rhythm and rhyme, as well as the poet's choice of words.  Naturally, we also worked on its meaning. 

The final piece of work Tiger was to do was to write the pinyin (phonetic tones) for every character of the poem and to write below each verse its English translation in coherent sentences without losing the poetic meaning of the original verses.  He was given the tasks prior to my showing him the clip above so he was pleased to see that he has completed the tasks correctly.  After some practice (and a few pieces of mooncake), Tiger is able to recite this poem fluently in Mandarin as well as translate it instantly.  This poem is now part of his daily memory work. 

Since we have learned this poem, it makes sense to know a bit more about the poet, Li Bai (李白), the 'immortal poet' from the Tang dynasty.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is such a poetic time that this post will be incomplete without leaving you with another beautiful depiction in sand art:

The song that accompanies the clip above is set to verses from another classical Chinese poetry (水调歌头) by Su Shi (苏轼), a famous poet from the Song dynasty.  These verses are more complex than Contemplation on a Quiet Night (静夜思) so we will only learn them in a few years' time, after Tiger has acquired sufficient knowledge of the Chinese language to meaningfully appreciate the sentiments described in the verses.

This post is linked up to:

1. Hip Homeschool Hop - 9/9/14
2. Finishing Strong #28
3. History and Geography Meme #133
4. Collage Friday - Classical Education: Making the Transition in Our Homeschool
5. Weekly Wrap-Up: The last one in which I have a kid who's not a teen
6. Home Education Blog Link Up #15
7. Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #19

A History of Paper Making and Printing

Inspired by Claire's very fine study of Gutenberg and His Printing Press, we followed suit to find out more for ourselves about this remarkable invention that improved literacy in the Western world.

We started by reading Gutenberg's story from the following books:

Some books only have a paragraph or so about the inventor and his invention.  We found the following to be particularly informative:

The two videos recommended in Claire's post are also very useful.  The first gives a short overview of Gutenberg and his printing press:

We particularly enjoyed watching Stephen Fry's investigation into the history of Gutenberg's motivation to invent the printing press:

Being part of a huge homeschooling community has its advantages.  There's always someone else who's interested in a similar topic at the same time as we are.  When an opportunity to participate in a 'history of printing and paper making' workshop at the world's oldest mechanised paper mill came up, we were only too happy to go along!

We were greeted with a short yet detailed presentation of the history of paper making and printing in Britain, and of the mill.

We then went on a guided tour of the mill.  The first machine we saw was the a paper making machine that is still actively in use to make paper.

This machine uses all kinds of recycled paper and even elephant poo as source materials!  The machine was using elephant poo on the day of our visit, but it was certainly busily working away.

We also saw the Fourdrinier paper making machine, which was installed at the mill in 1902.  It's a huge machine.  We were told that when any of the drums needed cleaning, a worker would have to "dive" into the hole (see photo below) to get inside each drum.  Either people were much smaller back then, or they must've used children (child labour was very common in Victorian Britain) because the hole is very small.

The Fourdrinier machine wasn't working when we visited but it is still in working condition, as shown below:

The foundations of the paper mill date back to the Anglo-Saxon period, and a previous mill in the same location has been recorded in the Doomsday Book.  We were able to see the Anglo-Saxon remains of the mill, which is the water wheel part that used to provide power to the mill before steam power was discovered.

Another part of the mill is dedicated to paper recycling, which feeds the pulp as source material for paper making.

The pulper wasn't working when we visited but, like the Fourdrinier machine, the Watford Pulper is still being used on other days.

We were also given detailed explanation of original printing presses that were installed at the beginning of the 1900s,

as well as the development of different type cases.

After the guided tour, we were given a detailed demonstration and talk on more about history of printing, engraving, paper making by a man who had worked in the mill since 1966, so he knew everything about every machine that was used in the mill and every step that took place in the printing process there.  We learnt much from his intimate knowledge of the mill and its processes.

Another part of the workshop has to do with paper making.  Tiger has made his own paper before, but that hasn't stopped him from enjoying the process again, after a demonstration by the workshop leader.

Tiger and I knew that the Chinese had invented paper making and printing a thousdand years before these methods reached Europe, so it was interesting for us to see this fact acknowledged in the exhibition gallery.

It was fascinating to read that T'sai Lun, who invented papermaking in 105 A.D., was inspired by how wasps make their nests, so we looked up the history of how papermaking was invented in ancient China:

Along with papermaking, printing technique was also invented ancient China, the basic method being individually engraved characters lined up to be printed on papers.  The same principle is used by the Western letter printing method.

This post is linked up to:

1. Science Sunday: How to Make a Candy Spine
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 7/15/14
3. History and Geography Meme #126
4. Weekly Wrap-up: the one where we talk curriculum and the first day of school 
5. The Homeschool Mother's Journal (7/19/14)

The Other Scottish King: Robert the Bruce

England feud with Scotland started with Edward I's compaign against Scotland and continued into the reign of Edward II.

While Edward I was pitted against William Wallace, Edward II's nemesis came in the form of Robert the Bruce.

Robert the Bruce's rise to power wasn't straightforward, as he had to contest with his Scottish rival, John Comyn, for the kingship.  He eventually murdered John Comyn in the process.


Robert the Bruce's greatest victory against the English was at the Battle of Bannockburn.

After watching the videos, Tiger was inspired to make a Scottish armour out of a few pieces of red cloth, aluminum foil, and some masking tape.

Naturally, there has to be an epic battle to put the armour to good use.  This time Tiger took the role of  a Scot who was killed by the pike on the battlefield.  It has taken a few years of mock battles for Tiger to be able to take on the role of one who is defeated.  Compared to the previous few years when he felt absolutely invincible (or that he could never be wrong about anything), he is starting to show some maturity and awareness of his own ego, and is ready to acknolwedge that he, like everyone else, has some areas of weaknesses.

This post is linked up to:

1. History and Geography Meme #107
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 3/11/14
3. Entertaining and Educational - Art Masters 
4. Collage Friday - Homeschooling Girls and Boys
5. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with Cat Surgeries and Early Mornings
6. Homeschool Mother's Journal (3/15/14)