Summer Learning

This summer seems to to running away with learning, a 93rd birthday and of course, wedding preparations. Anyway, this is mainly about learning although life and learning are inextricably mixed.

Morning Time

Currently, morning time consists of

• prayer
• learning Psalm 119 v1-8
• Training Hearts: Teaching Minds: Family Devotions on the Shorter Catechism
• a hymn from our church hymnbook. This half term, we are singing a different adaptation from Psalm 119 each week. 
• God's Smuggler. Prior to this, we read Natasha Vins' autobiography Children of the Storm
• a double page spread from the Usborne Introduction to the Second World War.

On a rotating basis, we read from the children's book club books (The Endless Steppe and The Treasure Seekers), a book about bridges (Who built that? Bridges) and songs from The Pirates of  Penzance. 

Science has involved several components:

• Mystery Science
• a science theme at our local home education group. As part of this we had a mushroom kit from Grow Wild. 
  
• a series of lifecycle days at the home of another home educator. We came home from one session with frog spawn and were able to watch our spawn turn into tadpoles and finally, much more slowly than everyone else's, into frogs. The frogs have now been released.
  
  
  
  We now have caterpillars which are proving less stressful than tadpoles!
• a hedgehog detector from the London Wildlife Trust. Sadly, we haven't spotted any hedgehogs yet.

History has been about the Second World War. I have already written about the resources that we have used.

Youngest Son has finished Dancing Bears! We have been working through this series for a looong time. There have been some interludes, particularly a long one a couple of summers ago with Nessy.  I would recommend Dancing Bears for a child who needs a second line phonics programmes. The stories are rather wacky and we gave up on them near the end of book B but by this stage it is easy to substitute with other books.

Maths

Youngest Son also finished his Galore Park Junior maths book 2 early so has now started on book 3. His daily maths is divided into two or three sections.

• Schofield and Sims mental maths. This is independent work.
• Galore Park- this is his main text and I use this to guide me teaching new work and the exercises to practise what he has just learned.
• If time, either Prodigy maths free programme or a maths game either a download from somewhere like Nrich maths or Trilemma, fraction dominoes or the fraction pizza game. Sum Swamp is much loved but I don't think it contributes to his learning anymore!

Younger Daughter uses Schofield and Sims Understanding Maths series and is currently working through the Stats and Multiplication and Division books. She does a bit from each every day.

Of course, summer has to involve Sports Day. We went to the East London Christian Home Educators' event by the Thames Barrier. Over 120 children took part and it was lovely to meet friends old and new. 

This term, I am especially glad for strength for each day and God's all sufficient grace.

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