New Term Begins

Started today with English and Maths, then as India is our topic on the timetable today (not to be messed with lol) Mike and James tried their hands at Rangoli craft:

Then they watched Tough Rides India - Delhi to the Himalayan Foothills.

After lunch James and I went to Bernaville nurseries.  As part of his nature study, he will be planting vegetables and flowers on a patch on our allotment.

He also helped me on my parents allotment - harvesting a bountiful crop of beetroot, apples and purple carrots (of course there was a carrot in the shape of a penis 😄)

And there were only a few casualties that fell out of the wheel barrow on the way home 😀

Louise

Victorian Project Planning

Our Victorian project will run from now up until Christmas, as I do love Victorian Christmas activities, and we will be starting with the Industrial Revolution and Victorian Farming. 

This week will firstly be an introduction to the Industrial Revolution, learning about how it had a trans formative effect on the world. From  harnessing fossil fuels to power engines, factories and machines, and how the Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed the way that human beings live.

Will start with showing James a picture of  a pre industrial scene and post industrial scene

Will watch THIS short video by Andrew Marr.  He tells the story of Britain's Insustrial Revolution.

Canals - will use this  RESOURCE  and watch this VIDEO and of course visit a canal.

How water mills were replaced by turbines.

Farming - will watch the Victorian Farming series on Amazon Prime. Using this RESOURCE

Craft for this week will be making a Thaumatrope and will make a decoupage box,

Cooking - Spotted Dick lol

Louise

India Project Planning

Planning so far for the next month:

India

The display for the wall has been printed and is waiting to be transferred from a pile on the desk to the actual wall.

The Geography of India, using resources from Twinkle.

Peacock Oil Pastel drawing from The Crafty  Classroom    Gandhi using resources from Twinkle.

Divali, using resources from Twinkle and making   
Rangoli, a traditional Indian decoration and patterns made with ground rice,used during festivals.  How to make it here.

In addition we will be reading an Indian folk tale each week from this website Indian Folk Tales, and also reading The Swiss Family Robinson ( and trying to work out why there are penguins on a desert island off the coast of India!)

We will be trying various recipes and of course we will be going over to the park to play one of India's favourite sports, Cricket.

Louise

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
.

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.

Week Two - Still on Target

We have managed another week of following our semi structured Home Ed plan for J - it doesn't always go exactly to plan, but we did cover most of the activities planned.

English and Maths - from workbooks and printable sheets.

Science
Experiment - Food Colouring  and Oil, Density.   Mix equal parts oil and water and then adding a drop of food colouring. The water-based drop remains intact until it sinks through the oil and contacts the water, at which point the colour at last disperses. The oil remains separate from the water because it lacks polarity  and floats because it’s less dense.
Workbook - Living and non living things and naming parts of animals and plants.

Also taking part in the Garden Bird Watch for the RSPB this weekend.

History 
Egyptians - We didn't look inside a virtual Pyramid as planned but instead performed a virtual mummification, which was quite gruesome but J enjoyed it.

Coloured in a sarcophagus

Mummified Action Man.

That was the end of History for that morning as J then went and mummified all his action man and had a mass battle.

Geography

Rocks and Minerals- watched The Magic School Bus on you tube, all about this subject obvs.  Read this book

Also found a magazine at Tesco,  first issue focusing on Gold.  It was 99p, but of course the price will go up,and then I wont be able to find the rest of the issues without paying a fortune for it which is what often happens with these kinds of educational magazines, but this issue was quite useful and has lots of photos of various rocks and minerals with descriptions.

The soil experiment is being saved for today when we go to the allotment to collect the main ingredient.

B is continuing to study for her exams to be taken this year, and this week submitted an application form for our local college to study A levels in English, English Literature, RE and Politics.

D also continue to study for his exams to be taken next year, which includes, English, Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.  

Now making plans for J's activities for next week :)

First week of the new term 2015

Home Ed this week

First week of  our "workbox" theme and J has completed  the activities set out for him, apart from trips to the park because of bad weather.

First part of the week was taken up with English and Maths, then Wednesday he was so into his action man game all day so we carried the activities over to Thursday and were all caught up by Friday.

I don't like strict schedules for learning at this age, but I as I have only organised a few activities I would like to try and get the few I have organised done each day if possible.

So Thursday and today the activities have been Science, History and Geography based.

Science - Workbook, covering animal classification and healthy eating. Science Experiments were "What dissolves in Water"

We used five jars and rice, salt, sugar, coffee and honey

(should have been ground coffee as well as this wouldn't have dissolved but I only had instant)


 Also "Do soluble substances evaporate with the water?"

No result as yet, have to wait a day or so for the salt crystals to form.

History - Egypt, which we will be following this month.

Read a story involving Egyptian animals in the dessert, Egyptian mazes, colouring and making an Egyptian neck torque and headdress

Geography was my favourite, Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks, along with the Earths Crust and Tectonic Plates, explained in Primary age form of course, and also using chocolate and pink marshmallow wafer biscuits:

 Sedimentary Rock

 Igneous

Metamorphic rock was explained by bashing a curly wurly (no photo as it got eaten straight away by J) around in a sandwich bag, then sitting on it, explaining how heat and pressure can change igneous and sedimentary rocks into metamorphic rocks.

 A Mars bar representing a tectonic plate and how it forms a mountain

The Earth, aka a cream egg, showing the earth's crust, mantle and core.

So all subjects covered this week, now to start planning for next week :)

Getting Organised for the new year

Getting organised for next Mondays "back to school".  Although the eldest two have already gone back to studying,

Will be looking at a Workbox themed learning style for J, which will including reading, writing, science, etc and lots of different activities to choose from. The Workbox theme takes a lot of organising and planning, but I think once I get into a routine, it should be pretty straight forward.

I haven't  got all the equipment, but that isn't  necessarily a requirement for work boxing,  so I am just going to use different folders for each subject, and I will use jars for each day of the week.

Each jar will contain a picture card printed from Homeschool Creations

Subjects will include, Science, Nature, PE, Literacy, Numeracy, Geography, History, Computer time, Bible Story and Art and Craft. Also will include library visit, museum, field trip, church, playdough, tv, puzzles, board game, game console, bike ride, park, walk, excercise, swimming, cooking, chores and clean up to also be included.

Science Resources

Science Workbooks - covering living things and non living things, different animals, parts of animals, animals on land and animal in the water, food of animals, parts of a plants, fruits and seeds, long or short, tall or short, big or small, heavy or light, hot or cold, hard or soft, smells, shapes and colours, body parts, senses, habits, food, solid and liquid,water. float and sinking, sound and light and shadow.Also one weekly science experiment

Plus Nature walks with spotting and activity sheets from Nature Detectives

Geography

Rocks and Minerals  using  chocolate geology which I did with my eldest two a few years ago after reading it on the  Peas in a Pod blog, and also using worksheets from Homeschool Den

History

Egyptians

Colouring - Princess of Egypt
Pharaoh Headdress from Firstpalette
Egyptian themed maze
River Nile Maze
Colouring Pages

Toilet roll cats

Egyptian Collars

using paper plates



English and Maths will be using worksheets and workbooks, and also websites during computer time.  Also will add read aloud time. M is reading The Faraway series by Enid Blyton at bedtime, so will find another book to read aloud during the day, maybe Harry Potter.

The eldest two are carrying on with their studying, B will sit 4 exams this summer, English Lit and Biology iGCSE, Religious Studies (Roman Catholic and The Gospel of Mark Units) and Maths GCSE.  D will be taking his next year, and for the moment is studying for Maths, English, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.

D is obviously still playing rugby, will his final Devon trials for under 15 taking place next month, and also continuing with his training with the Devon School of Rugby Academy

Just have a few more things to organise, then I am all ready for Monday..... I think!

Autonomy, gardening and Trials (of the sporting kind)

I cannot say that the last four months (since my last blog post) has gone to plan with regards to J's Home Education Plans.

But I think I have given up on that.

So I guess we are completely Autonomous.

We started allotmenting about two months ago, and J has learnt a great deal while there.All different kinds of mini beasts and various plants and we have almost got to the point of digging over most of the allotment, once this is done he will have his own patch to tend to, where he would like to plant pumpkins in time for Halloween and carrots for Rudolph at Christmas.  He also has his own spade and rake, along with garden gloves.  He also spends a lot of the time there playing with his action figures, and hurdling over bamboo sticks!

Plan to print out a few identification sheets for insects before our next visit, and he is always referring to various Characters from James and the Giant Peach, which I think we may start reading again, after I have finished reading him Charlotte's Webb, which I am starting this evening.

J spends a lot of time drawing, sometimes from Tutorials online.  He recently copied this from an online Simpsons Tutorial

We have also been watching Astronomy programmes, and we are currently watching Earth's Extraordinary Jouney on BBC2.

With regards to reading and writing, he going at his own pace, and we are not making him sit and practice his reading and writing every day, that will come when his is ready and willing.  Having watched the other two start learning to read at age 7 without any problems I am not particularly  worried, and am more confident this time around.

So going OK, apart from I really would like to do more Science Experiments with him each week, so must get my act together in that area.

Teens.

B is studying away, ready for her iGCSE English exam which she will take soon, as well as still holding down a part time job.

D is studying, not as intensely as B, as he will take his first two next year.

The Rugby season has now come to an end, D and M have really enjoyed  playing and coaching, but are both in need of a rest now I think.  D has recently been selected for Front Row training by the Devon School of Rugby, and has been asked back for further training in the summer, so about a months break and it will all start again.

In the meantime the Athletics season has started, and D threw in his first Discus Competition of the year yesterday, throwing a PB of 30.03.  Wednesday will see him at the Devon School Trials, which is a great achievement for Home Educators as I had to go through all sorts to get him there. Eventually though it has all been sorted, and he will be taking part will all of the other Devon Schools.

So a busy month ahead, exams, trials and of course J's birthday!!!

Christmas Holidays

Friday was the last day of "term" for our family, with a typical end of term week, where a lot of things started to slack as we are all getting into the festive mood.

This week we went into the HE Group to make lots of different Christmas decorations, and the weather was very mild so we spent a lot of the time outside in the park enjoying the sunshine.

J has been occupying himself with plain paper and felt tips.  He drew a great picture of a Doctor Who scene, with Dr Who himself, the Tardis and  Slavenes

He also made Cookie decorations for the tree, whilst wearing his Rudolph glasses

Also had fun climbing trees

We have now reached day 16 of our Book Advent Countdown, this week we have read:-

As we are currently watching The Polar Express, this book will be next on the list to be opened.

On Saturday we went into our nearest City to get the remaining presents.  It did get  bit hectic towards lunchtime, and M ended up going back to the car with J as it got a bit too much, but in the end we got all the presents sorted, bar one  (my Mother of course).  So one more to get!

On Sunday it was up early for an extra early KO for an away game, where it rained continuously, and our team won.

We met up in the evening with the other players and their families for a Christmas Meal which was very enjoyable and all the kids looked like they had a great time.

Today - bit of a stay at home and wash a load of muddy clothes type of day.  J hasn't even changed out of his PJ's.  We did manage to get the food cupboards ready for our Christmas food shop which will be arriving on Thursday.

Tomorrow, present wrapping, card posting and Christmas baking.

Christmas Decorating and Craft

So we didn't put the decorations up today as planned, we were a bit impatient and went out and got the tree on Monday

We haven't  put the ceiling decorations up yet, and of course the fake snow, but hopefully we will be doing that tomorrow afternoon.

The Christmas Art and Craft table was set up during the week, and consequently there is glitter everywhere!

J has been painting winter scenes from his Usborne 100 Christmas things to do 

We went to the HE Group this week too, more Christmas crafts going on, followed by a visit to the Scrapstore to get more materials for the craft table.

He has also made a start on the Christmas packs I printed out, which includes colouring, counting, writing, sequencing and puzzles.

We are now on Day 7 of our Advent book Surprise. today it was

J had never heard about Charlie Brown before, so it took him a while to get into this book, but he did like the little props that went with it - the blanket, tree and bauble.  Afterwards I played him a Christmas special on You tube, which he enjoyed, and both M and I had forgotten just how funny the series used to be.

He is really enjoying the Advent book surprise, more than the chocolate calendar and the treats.

So far this week he has opened:-

So here at our house, we are definitely getting into the Festive Season :-)