Learning outside

This has been a short week, in the UK, as Monday was a public holiday. We had a great tramp in the woods. It is so, so good to be outside especially as we've had so much rain in the last few weeks.
Several of the best parts of the week have been outside: reading aloud Black Beauty while sitting in the garden; being interrupted by my five year old to tell me that a blue tit had gone into the nesting box; planting seeds with Mr Exuberance, aged three and acting out The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton, with Duplo.

The Little House tells the story of a house, built in the country, which gradually becomes a house in the city surrounded with tower blocks and with traffic in front, above and below. The concepts of the seasons and day and night are woven in.

Our version of the house in the country.

The traffic from the encroaching city.

The elevated train track and blocks of flats-now part of the city.

Moving the house back to the country.

Middle Son has been learning about the plague in a group. We added to this by going to see paintings about the plague and he has been writing an eye-witness account with a twist.

What has worked well?

• going outside whenever it was fine.
• Black Beauty-I had forgotten what a splendid book this is.
• re-enforcing maths concepts by on-line explanations.

What I need to think about?

• Making sure Mr Exuberance has a sufficient number of activities to occupy him while his sister does her work.
• Managing home education and appointments which took up a fair amount of one day.

This is linked to the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.