Home Educators Group Visit

The Autumn farm visit for the Worcestershire Home Educators group has always been popular. The Grange garden looks beautiful with wonderful autumn colour and often yields lots of different types of mushroom.

Armed with a clipboard and a basket, family groups set off on a trail marked by blobs of flour.  Their task was to find letters and pictures of animals found on the farm and to record them on their sheet. At the same time, they collected anything interesting... beautifully coloured leaves, fir cones, fungi, feathers etc.  Although they set off at different times, most arrived back into the garden at the same, having enjoyed a wander on a sunny, autumnal day. The children then rearranged the letters they found to make a word... thinking of letter blends, they soon worked out the word was  "chicken".

Out of their baskets came a surprising variety of different fungi, including a couple of unusual earth stars and a rare lactarius.  They laid them out for all to see. Tom gave a little talk about the different types and tried to answer their questions.  Fungi sparks the imagination of many children and adults alike. There are so many types and so much to learn.

Inspired by the pictures they saw by Andy Goldsworthy, everyone set to making 'pictures' from the leaves, twigs and cones which they had collected. Animals seem to be quite a theme - a fox chasing a chicken - laying eggs in very quick succession! a hedgehog, a snail and a very splendid cockerel.