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!

Elf on the Shelf

Having realised that you can have a frugal version of Elf on the Shelf,  I decided about a month ago to give it a go this year.

It was only a few days ago though that I suddenly had a thought, that we may only have a couple of years left of him believing in Father C, and this made me a little sad, as for the last 16 years we have had the magic of Santa in our homes at Christmas.

So, will make the very most of making these next few years very magical.

Back to the Elf.  The Elf on the Shelf is a children's book explaining the story of Santa's scout elves who are sent to be Santa's eyes and ears at children's homes around the world. The original book and Elf are around £30 on Amazon but you can buy the  DVD from Argos at £2.99 (p&p inc) and I  found a cuddly Elf for £1.99 at the Card Factory.

So basically, this little Elf who I have called Elfie, is supposed to arrive with a letter from Mr C. There are lots of different versions according  to Pinterest, but I like this one:

I hope you are  excited that Christmas is almost here!

As you know, this is my busiest time of the year as I'm here in the North Pole finishing off all of the toys for the boys and girls around the world.  Because you have  been good so far this year, I’ve have sprinkled magic dust on your little Elf which will last until Christmas Eve/

Elfie is going to watch over you and let me know if you’re being naughty or nice so I want you to be on your best behaviour.  As long as you continue to be good then I will be delivering you some lovely presents ready for you to open on Christmas morning.

I must tell you this though, Elfie may be a little bit cheeky and he might get up to a little mischief while he’s staying with you.  He might to play hide and seek and may  find new places to hide and new messes to make so I hope you enjoy looking for him every day and tidying up the mess he might make!

Please leave him on your Christmas tree before you go to bed on Christmas Eve and I’ll take him back to the North Pole with me until next year when he’ll be back to stay with you again – if you’ll have him!

Lots of Love,

Santa

Now I have changed the original letter around and made up the bit about the magic dust. The normal Elf procedure is for him to "arrive" with the letter from Santa, bus as J was with me when I bought the Elf  I decided to go with the whole magic dust thing.

So from the 1st of December for  24 days M and I will have to hide Elfie in different places and also stage his mishaps and naughty antics.  Lots of ideas again on Pinterest, and here are a few of my favs: (the original Elf is more bendy than the cuddly one I have bought, so is less adaptable in certain situations)

I like this idea of preparing a real sugary breakfast of donuts and cupcakes with Christmas crockery and napkins

Other ideas:-
Elf sat in action man car
Sat in a toy digger
With his head in a bag on sweets
Listening to an iPod
On the laptop
Hiding in a glass or jar
Sat in a Lego made chair
Playing cards
Hiding in a pair of shoes or wellies
Playing the keyboard (or other musical instrument)
In the fridge with a blanket around him
Sat next to a family photo - with fake moustaches on the faces
For Christmas Eve, sat looking or in if you have a big enough set, a Nativity Scene.

(that's 24 ideas)

You can also get the printable cards here

October

Still not into the routine I would like, home education wise, but working on that.

After going to the College open day last Tuesday with Becky, we have had a re-think about what exams she should be studying for  now, in preparation for College.  Having talked to the nice Head of Englsih Teacher, Becky can now apply to go onto the English A Level Course, along with English Lit, RE and possibly Sociology.

With this in mind, she doesn't know if she should continue with Biology.  So she is mulling this over during her half term break,taken early as she has a week off of dog walking.

All very please though that the English teacher was impressed with Becky's A Grade in English.

Danny will be studying English, Maths, and three Sciences over the next two years.  I think though it is difficult for him to get into a studying routine, but I think the recent rugby upset from leaving Crediton to Topsham played on his mind a lot, and I think now that he is happy at Topsham (has been from the start, but was nervous about his first few games) that after this half term Mike and I will talk to him about his study routine.

James is not into the routine I would like, but that is probably my fault.  When I get up I tend to be washing, cleaning etc and I let him watch TV, and then I find it difficult to get him away from it.  So during this half term I will be working on a routine for him and getting myself more organised housework wise.

Mike has now adjusted to his role at the ruby as parent and supported, as opposed to Head Coach, and is much more relaxed now, as we all are, that Topsham have played Crediton and got that out of the way - and of course WINNING 27-19!  Very pleased, although at the time we all said it doesn't matter if Tops lose, as long as Danny is OK.  Which is true, but it was an added bonus winning.

I have also been taking James to the Group, which he seems to really like, and this week we are all going in, as Mike has the day off to take Danny to training as they wouldn't let him change his shifts and my Dad couldn't really take him as it is my Mums birthday. There is also a talk on Islam which will help Becky with her RE study.

At the moment I am on day 2 and a half of not feeling well, head cold, bit achy, so not sure what to do today, so may rest another day and plan routines, including study, allotment time, James's routine, Halloween craft ideas, finances and books on Amazon for English Lit and RE.

That aside, October is going OK, but as I said at the beginning of this post, would like to get into more of a routine all round, which will also include daily posts here, which is now for my own personal use and  no one else can read - so crap shit bollocks, bogies poo and wee!!!   LOL.

Also from next week will update my HE Diary for James, but going over there now to update for September and October and do some planning.

Planning for Autumn, but still enjoying the summer

So in July I was going to make a start on Home Ed planning for J.  Actually looking forward to this as my role as a Home Educating Mum has declined a bit over the last couple of  years due to fact that the older two are  studying towards their iGCSE's/GCSE's and therefore have their own timetable and study pattern.  Help is needed occasionally and usually M has more knowledge in these areas, but all in all it feels that I have become some what redundant.

My time is taken up of course with my little whirlwind of a son, and also all my energy I have to say.  Following the same child led approach of my other two, hardly any formal learning has taken place for J in the early years, now, however as he is 7 years old  I intend to start introducing just a little bit of structure to his learning routine.

So I will be gathering all sorts of info/plans/projects etc over the summer months, ready to start with J in September.

In the meantime, learning is still taking place of course and we are spending quite a bit of time at the allotment

Harvesting Potatoes

Nature Walk (which involved a lot of tree climbing)

Making Peanut Butter Cookies

Swimming

Next week - hoping to go somewhere nice  by train and make the most of our free family railcard!

June 2014

Again, cannot believe how quickly the days fly by and that we are in the second half of the year already.

Looking back over June:

"School" has now finished until September.  After B sat her last exam for the year on the 13th of June we decided to finish for the summer.

We then took a short break to Dorset

Looking for Fossils on Charmouth Beach

In the sea

Rockpooling

Crazy Golf Pirate Style

Christchurch Priory

Highcliffe Castle

 Highcliffe Beach

 Isle of Wight

It was also M's birthday while we were away and  we were extremely lucky to have such lovely weather, which lasted all week.

The rest of June has been taken up with the allotment

and of course watching the World Cup - still getting over Englands very early exit :-(