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The diary of a child travelling in Steerage on the SS Great Britain

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

As I walked along the dockyard I got my first view of the mighty ship, the SS Great Britain. It was bigger than I expected and I started to feel very excited about the journey we were going on. The noisy crowd hustled and bustled their way towards the gangplank and I felt nervous that I might lose my mummy, daddy and sisters as I was budged and banged along.

We finally made it aboard the ship all together still. As I looked up I saw the towering masts and wondered how big the sails would be when they were opened. A very tall, serious man told us that we weren’t allowed past the white line on the deck unless we had a First Class ticket, which we did not have. So we had to go down three narrow, dark staircases to find our bunks in Steerage.

The bunks were very narrow and short and I had to share with one of my sisters! Mummy had to have our little sister in with her so she made a little hammock for her to sleep in. The blankets were thin, itchy and woolly, not as nice as at home. There weren’t many other children on board, only in First Class and we weren’t allowed to play with them, so I felt a bit lonely. Daddy had to sleep in a different area to us with all the men. We went to see him but it was very smelly (like stale ale and sweaty clothes!) so we were pleased that we were with mummy. The lady next to us had a new baby who was crying lots but we helped to look after her and she thanked us for being so helpful.

On the first night I felt cramped and scared because of all the loud noises. We were very close to all of the ship’s machinery so we could hear the floor creaking, cogs crashing, chains clattering and the loud, powerful blasts of the siren, which put fear into my heart. If it was ever quieter I could hear rats squealing and children crying. Lots of people were seasick so the smell was disgusting. I wasn’t, so I had to keep going up two flights of stairs to get fresh water for everyone!

In the daytime we played chess, cards and tag in the corridors to keep ourselves busy. We were allowed on deck in the afternoon to get some fresh air, but it was very crowded and cold. At mealtimes we were usually only given herring (fish), bread and garlic. I was desperate for some different foods. One day I was really lucky when we were up on deck because I saw an apple roll from First Class, past the white line and I grabbed it! I hid it in my dress pocket and shared it with mummy and my sisters when we went back to the bunks.

The journey seemed to go on forever, but we got used to it and were lucky that we had a routine to keep us busy.

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By Mummy, Poppet and Pickle 19.10.2016

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There is no such thing as bad weather…

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

… Just unsuitable clothing (Alfred Wainwright or an old German proverb, but either way it’s so true!)

As we head into autumn our home ed days have to alter slightly. That doesn’t mean we spend more time indoors, probably the opposite; I just have to ensure that I’m more organised and have all the appropriate wet and cold weather gear!

Last Thursday on our weekly visit to Westonbirt Aboretum I was not prepared. In the morning the weather was warm and sunny so we headed to Westonbirt in lightweight clothing with thin waterproofs just in case. Well,as quite often happens at this time of year, the weather changed and it not only began drizzling but it also got bitterly cold! I was freezing. Luckily the big Ps were so busy playing with their friends, whittling and using tools that they didn’t really notice. Piccalilli was warmed up with a big cuddle and we cut our visit short.

Having learnt that the weather is changeable (you’d think I’d know by my age really!) or finally accepted that we are in autumn, I was ultra organised when we visited the SS Great Britain this week 🙂

So off we went to Bristol for the second time in as many weeks (this time by car thankfully!). We had the most amazing glorious sunshine for the morning and thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be Victorian passengers on a huge ship.

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We definitely all enjoyed the First Class experience more than the Third Class Steerage accommodation (Pickle was especially freaked out by the sounds and smells being hyper sensitive to them!) The experience has definitely affected them and they wrote a wonderful diary this morning which I will post after this.

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After a few hours on the ship we were all hungry so ate our picnic in the sun – I started to wonder why I’d bothered carting a huge, heavy bag of warm tops and waterproof around with me!

After lunch we went under the ship and learnt a bit more about how a steam ship would work. The Ps kept imagining they were working on the ship and I was amazed by their increasing knowledge of technical facts.

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After a while my mum and me were craving a cuppa! So we headed up to the cafe for tea, Babychinos and cake. We decided it would be nice to get a bit of fresh air and walk along the waterfront. At which point my bag of preparedness finally came in handy as the rain started just as we left the cafe!

I’ve realised that the easiest thing is to have the bag packed and ready so I can just grab it every time we’re heading out the door. I know as the weather gets colder that the bag will probably get bigger!

A week of days…

~ lornafowkes ~ Leave a comment

I know what you’re thinking and you’re right of course; every week has days – seven if we want to be precise about it. But sometimes I think it’s easy to forget that each new day can be a fresh start and we can do/be whatever we want each and every day.

I know that as adults it is harder to start afresh every day. There are things that need to happen. There are consequences of the previous day to deal with. There are plans to be made for the following day.

But children don’t see the world like us. They live for the moment. They forget about the argument you had yesterday, well yesterday! They don’t worry about what’s happening in the next hour  (as long as they’ve been fed recently!) let alone the next day.

What I’m trying to say is that for the past week I’ve been trying to get into a child’s mindset and just enjoy each day as it comes. And do you know what? I’ve enjoyed our days more for it.

I’m not worrying about trying to link all of our learning and going totally with the flow of what the Ps want to know – we’ve had an Isambard Kingdom Brunel day of designing and making bridges inspired by looking at local history films on YouTube (check out the Brunel one – it’s brilliant).

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Followed by a Roald Dahl day (#roalddahl100) designing chocolate bars (which the Ps are now keen to make!) and learning about fairtrade after Poppet asked what the symbol on the packet meant.

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We’ve managed to practise times tables in fun ways linked to the things we’ve been finding out about; bricks for bridges and sharing out chocolates – can you guess which one we enjoyed the most? !

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Pickle has been the most inspired to learn something than I’ve seen her in a long time. Poppet told me today that having special days at home was a lot more fun than going out to groups (I hope her enthusiasm continues!)

Living for each day is going well in our world 🙂

Adventures in the City Take 2!

~ lornafowkes ~ 3 Comments

After our previous visit to the City Museum going horribly wrong (see Good days, Bad days), we thought it was time to give it another go!

So today we headed into the city (in the car this time, just in case!) to visit the Folk Museum with our home ed friends. We arrived with no dramas and had the whole museum to ourselves – despite it officially being closed they still take educational visits, which officially we are!

20151117_113303 (2)As soon as we entered the door, the big Ps were whisked off by their friends to the very top of the beautiful Tudor building. After following them up slightly more slowly, to marvel at the amazing wooden structure, my friend and I sat (on a flight of stairs), observed and chatted. Initially the big girls wanted our attention – something they are all used to having fully in both our home ed households – but they soon organised themselves into a fantastic game of dressing up and playing home in the Tudor times! Piccalilli played around us with toy animals and food, occasionally requesting our input, mainly to retrieve an animal that had been borrowed by a bigger girl!

We laughed lots about the teaching and learning that was happening on our educational visit! Seriously though, I do think the girls all got a sense of what clothes and beds were like in the Tudor times 🙂

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We headed downstairs for some lunch, followed by some chocolate biscuit treats, followed almost immediately by five hyperactive girls… The rain had stopped so it was definitely time for a play and run around in the garden. More learning took place – playing with Victorian style toys, hiding in the Anderson shelter and discussing why the word ‘shop’ was spelled ‘shoppe’. We’ve covered so many eras today and we didn’t even make it into the retro rooms at the museum (so we’ll be heading back in a few weeks for a further educational visit!)

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Everything was going so well until tidy-up time, when Poppet decided that, as the oldest child, she should be in charge (as the photo above captures so well!) and so didn’t like it when Pickle started to put things in the wrong place in the shed! We heard a lot of screaming and their friends exited the shed very promptly with worried looks on their faces and it turned out that Poppet had punched Pickle (a regular occurrence at the moment sadly). Time to go home…

… But thankfully a less stressful experience than our previous visit and we’ll definitely be going again soon 🙂