Seasonal activities – Chestnuts

We love the changing seasons. The marking points of the year. When we see the ripe apples on the trees, Christmas, Easter and so on. One of these markings is when we can collect chestnuts that has fallen from the trees.

We are so lucky. We live right by a whole street that has Horse Chestnut trees.

Horse chestnut was introduced in Denmark in 1721. It often can be found near roads, parks or in private gardens. It can be around 30 meters tall and has large leaves with 5-7 leaves on each that look like fingers.

When regarding food, the term “horse” used in a name refers to that it is inedible. Animals do eat them, though. An interesting use, is that you can make soap out of horse chestnuts.

We usually make animals out of them and seasonal decorations. For many years, we have struggled to make holes in them with toothpicks, pins, an awl or other sharp things. This year our children were old enough to learn how to use a drilling machine and has really become experts.

And the madness continues 🙂

Sea Cucumber

For the past few years, the children has on their own initiative, been making movies and stop motion. They are having a lot of fun making them and we all enjoy watching them. They have themselves found free editing programs on their computer and on the internet, which they have taught themselves to use. One of our children has also started Drama School, and really enjoys acting. Two of our other children are really interested in biology, so the idea to make a knowledge channel, emerged from there. This is our first production on the “Videnskanalen” youtube channel. Our plan is to start of with 5 episodes about sea creatures, we find fascinating. Our oldest daughter is fond of latin, so we try to insert some latin names for animals as well. It is also a good excuse for making interesting field trips. In this case, we visited Den blÃ¥ Planet which is Northern Europe largest Aquarium, to find information about the Sea Cucumber.