Spring days

We are coming up to our Easter break so I thought that I might write about home education in our family, over the last few weeks. Mainly, some of the things that have worked well for us, some books and some thoughts. We aren't a typical family- who is? What works for us may not work for you but other people's ideas have often been a springboard for me to find something that works for us.

What has worked for us

• Studying the Georgians with my younger two. They have particularly enjoyed some of our trips. I'm hoping that we might fit in another one or two over the next few weeks.

• Middle Son has been studying history with Northstar Worldwide over this academic year. He finds this a fair amount of work but has learnt new skills particularly around extracting information from sources. He is currently studying the First World War. Interesting for me, as I hope to reach the First World War with the younger two in the autumn which should, of course, tie in well with the centenary events.
• The younger two have enjoyed some hands on science with Supercharged Science (review coming soon).

Pressing flowers

• Middle Son has just starting using Conquer Maths. He was using a textbook but didn't like either my explanations or those in the book so Conquer Maths which has videos seems ideal. So far, so good!
• Going outside, of course.
• Ice skating, well, perhaps not for me. I've still got to pluck up my courage!

Books

• I was reminded, recently, by Home Education Novice's post about the Christian Focus Lightkeepers books so pulled out Ten Girls with talents to read with Younger Daughter. This is a fascinating book and there are biographies of women that I have never heard about interspersed with famous people such as Sarah Edwards and the Countess of Huntingdon. These, of course, fitted very well with our Georgian studies although that wasn't by my planning.
• My younger two have been loving the Usborne sticker dressing books. They have Kings and Queens and Knights. I haven't seen the others in the series but have appreciated the standard and information in those that we have.
• My husband read and recommended The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg. This is subtitled The biography of a language. I've just started it. This will be a long read for me but looks fascinating.

Thoughts

• Spring is a time to start planning for learning in the autumn. I love the unpressured nature of planning a long time in advance. There are plenty of decisions to make although there are some things that work well for us and I hope to continue. Galore Park maths books were something that I used for Middle Son. I'm hoping to start Younger Daughter on Junior Maths 1 in September.
• Planning physical exercise so far, much of the children's exercise has been informal: runs in the park, going to the playground and so on. They do ice skate and swim but I'm wondering about some more formal sport. There are several possibilities!
•  I'm tired by the end of term and this time, so are the children. We've had minor illness this last week. I'm hoping for some outdoor time and rest over the Easter break. I shall probably need some thoughtful but not too challenging books. Any suggestions?

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