In England, there are two holidays in May:  a bank holiday Monday at the beginning of the month, and one at the end of the month.  Being the conscientious parents that we are, we always feel that we have to go and Do Something with the children on these days.  So, for the bank holiday at the end of May, we took our children to see Isaac Newton's house.
      This may make us sound more virtuous than we actually are.  Isaac Newton's house was only a 40 minute drive away from our house, and despite living at this location for almost three years, we had never managed to visit there previously, opting for air shows and trips to Cambridge or whatever else instead when we had some time off.
     But no matter - the important thing was that we actually went, and I, for one, am definitely a better person for doing so.  Isaac Newton lived on a farm, and fortunately he was famous enough when he died that people had a suspicion that it would be important to preserve it in some way, so most of the original buildings are still there.

 

     His mother, Hannah Newton, raised sheep for income, and on the estate today they raise a breed of sheep very similar to the one she did (apparently a rare breed with very long wool), so you get a great sense of what the farm would have looked like when Isaac was growing up.

 

 

 

 

     When you first go in, you can watch a movie about Isaac Newton, but it is told from the perspective of his mother, before he becomes famous.  It's only 10 minutes long, but it brought me to tears!  Isaac was a genius from the beginning, and so he was different from people around him.  Fortunately his mother wanted him to succeed, so she didn't hold him back, but she also expected him to fulfill his duties around the home and farm, something which he didn't always do very well.  He would go to the market, and forget to bring the horses back.  He would be asked to do his chores, but would be found in the hayloft reading books all day.  He would perform experiments with light and gaze at the stars, etc. instead of helping on the farm.  One day he stared at the sun for as long as he could, and was blinded for three days afterwards! 

     At the time we went, I was really struggling to write a philosophy paper and I was so frustrated with how long it was taking me, and how much I was having to just sit and THINK before I could produce anything.  But this movie showed how much Isaac Newton sat around and THOUGHT, trying to figure things out.  It doesn't make for good farming, but that's what it takes to make a great mathematician and scientist.  I saw how he differed in his approach and how he thought about things from so many other people he knew, and it inspired me so much.  God gave him a great gift, and he was given the freedom by his mother to develop it, but it wasn't easy for her.  She loved him but at the same time she didn't really understand him. 

     Here is the house in which he was born, and grew up.  Many famous people have made pilgrimages here, including Albert Einstein.

 

 

     And of course, there is the famous apple tree.  It is the SAME TREE that Newton sat under when the apple fell and inspired him to think about the force of gravity.

 

 

 

 

 

     After we toured the house, we went into the Science Center which they have there.  There are lots of experiments which you can do which teach about the principles of physics.  It is staffed with several volunteers who are all science teachers, and they were excellent - very outgoing and enthusiastic, as well as being very good at explaining things. I think I might even have learned something from them.

 

 

 

 

 

     Here is Samuel standing on the sun dial.  Can you tell what time it is?

 

 

     After the trip to Newton's house, we then took Imogen to a not-so-surprise party which had been planned for her by five of her friends from school.  About a month earlier, I had got a call from the grandmother of one of Imogen's friends, Katie Bunting, who was very sad that Imogen was going to move to America in the summer, and wanted to do something for her before she left.  So her grandmother decided that they should plan a party and invite all of the students in Imogen's grade to come to a party.  Very ambitious!  I don't know if I will be planning parties which involve inviting over 100 children when I am a grandmother!  We were so grateful, and we kept it a secret, but one day Imogen saw one of the invitations on the floor of the school, and so she figured it out.  I made her promise, on pain of severe punishment, that she not utter a word to anyone that she knew about it.  They worked so hard!  I didn't want it to be spoiled for them.  Anyway, about half the year showed up in the end, which was a great turn out.  There was lots of great food:

      Including some awesome cakes, which somebody took a lot of time to make!

     However, once people come to your party, what do you do with them, especially a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds?  Well, there was some present giving:

     And there was lots of dancing:

     Verity was the star of the show - she does the 'Gangham Style' dance better than anyone else!

 



     Imogen had a great group of friends, and she, perhaps more than any of our other children, really did not want to emigrate to the States.  How do you explain to your child that even though they have a wonderful life in one country, it is time to move to another?  The only approach I could take was to say that, unlike most people who stay in one place, she has been blessed with lots of friends, in lots of places.