Learning outside in the sun

Yesterday we were out and about - did the Sculpture trail at the Uni, stopped there for lunch, had a walk around the grounds and then went onto our local Home Education  Group at the park.

Today J did Reading, Writing and Maths in the garden as the weather was so nice

For History we are finding out about Anglo Saxons, starting off with looking at how they lived using the BBC Bitesize Website, going on a virtual Archaeological dig and watching the Anglo Saxon Horrible History Episode on You Tube.

We also did a bit of Cloud Spotting using this Cloud Spotting Sheet from the Met Office

Spotted Alto cumulus Clouds, which could be the sign of an on coming storm, but no thunder and lightening as yet

As it was such a lovely day we headed to the pool

Later we went to the allotment where we picked our biggest strawberry yet

B sat the first paper of her GCSE Maths Exam this morning, and D is still studying, aiming to take his next year.  All three will finish at the end of next week when B finishes all her exams for the summer, so just over a week to go before they are on their "school holidays". Hopefully we will continue to have this lovely warm weather!!!

Mainly a geography based day I think

Today we focused mainly on Geography topics

China - we looked at what various children's lives were like living in different parts of China.  It featured lots of magnificent scenery, and one little girl was shown painting the mountains, so I thought I would set the art and craft table up for J to follow suit.

He did however, end up drawing lots of comic strip type villains alongside his brother.  (They were very good though).

We then went back to the soil experiment from yesterday, looking at the different layers and discussing what these layers were made up of.  We also mixed  compost and water together to see the difference, which resulted in the compost floating at the top, which was the opposite to the soil.  We then took a small sample of soil to look at under the microscope
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In the afternoon, once M was home from work we went Geocaching for the first time and found 3 out of 5 caches which wasn't bad for our first attempt. Using the Geocaching app on my phone, J was able to use the local map to pinpoint the cache.  It is aimed at adults but there are quite a few all over Devon and beyond that children can do. The one shown below though was a bit too high for J  and he had to go on his Dads shoulders to reach the cache.

Also throughout the day he has been on and off on Minecraft, building a house.

Tomorrow, hoping for nice weather, maybe go to the allotment, play some maths games out in the garden and get round to doing the handwriting practice that we didn't get to do today.

June

Pouring with rain all day is not unusual during the British Summer, or gale force winds, but not so when you find yourself putting the heating on for an hour to take the chill of the place.

Anyway, with the impending heatwave (believe it or not) due to arrive within the next few days, we spent today catching up with educational programmes, (computer and TV) and experiments as I anticipate that we will be making the most of the sunshine and will be outdoors from Thursday onwards.

So today has been mainly science topics. We have looked at different parts of the eye and its functions, started a soil experiment using soil from our allotment.   Bees - watched a children's schools programme on iPlayer all about bees and made honey cookies. Watched a Science programme about shadows, then played an online game on BBC bitesize about shadows made from sunlight and moonlight. Also had the usual reading hour, which includes reading programmes, apps, games and of course reading books.

Tomorrow weather looks bad again, so looking at Geography topics, maths and a handwriting.