New Year and Resources

Happy New Year!

I haven't blogged much recently with plenty of other things going on, and in particular, caring taking more time. I would like to make time to write during this year although what transpires could be another matter.

These are some of the resources which we are using-the ones that I particularly want to recommend.

Oaka Books produce resources for visual learners. We have been using the biology matching pairs game and On the Map which is a global locations game.

The latter has been used on an almost daily basis, only takes 15 minutes to play and has helped the children's geographical knowledge enormously. On the Map is designed for Common Entrance so some of the answers are over simplified, for example, there are more countries in Africa beginning with S than the options given. These cases have proved discussion points.

There is a discount for home educators.

Learning how to learn: how to succeed in School without spending all your time studying is a book which I first about on the Brave Writer podcast. Since I read it, I have been quoting the principles to the children on a frequent basis! At some point, we hope to read though in morning time. 

Seterra is an online geography game. Last autumn, each child had a challenge from this and I plan the same again. This can get a bit competitive and involves Mum having to revise/learn geography!

Duolingo is a free app for language learning. It is aimed at beginners and only takes a few minutes each day. Younger Daughter has begun language lessons, this academic year and supplements these with a daily Duolingo session. Yes, Mum is also working on her daily Duolingo. Who said home education was only for the children!

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) has a helpful website with ideas for books and poems. I was able to visit the library which was a delight. 

Many of my usual book ideas come from the Read Aloud Revival podcast (definitely worth listening) but these tend to be American and so not available from our local library whereas the books recommended by CLPE are mainly from the UK. Many of these are in our local library system so I have been able to put them on order.

The Daily Poem is a podcast from Close Reads which does what it says. So far, I have listened myself rather than getting the children to listen. My plan is to enlarge my range of poems to share with the children. 

Please add your favourite resources to the comments.

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Catch Up

I haven't posted in over two months. We have been busy: our eldest daughter was married in July.

Cake by Little Cake Garden

Wedding photos by John Hollingsworth

Our middle son celebrated his 18th on the same day. He is hoping to start university later this month. Elder Daughter has now moved to the West Country with her new husband.

There have been some trips. Beachy Head was impressive but I don't recommend it as a restful trip with children. 

The Postal Museum was somewhere we hadn't been before and is worth visiting.

As usual, there has been loads of cooking, this is part of Younger Daughter's cooking challenge,

 and planning for the new term with one child who is year 5 age and another year 7 age.

 Our morning basket

Our not back to school activities have included a home educator day at the Science Museum, seeing Elder Daughter after her graduation and a trip, way out of London.

Anyway, just a few things that I have been reading.

Se7en has written about lessons she has learned about homeschooling. This is the first of a series through this month.

Frugalwoods has posted about postpartum depression. Some of her description brings back memories of the first year of my eldest son's life when I felt much the same. I have vivid memories of planning my husband's funeral when he was late one day and the dreadful anxiety about my little one and his health, including how my state of mind would permanently scar him. Anyway, please see a doctor if you are feeling depressed or anxious after having a baby or for that matter, at any other time.  

On a more cheerful note, this recipe for cherry chocolate brownies is one of the best!

I am hoping to keep up this blog rather more regularly, especially, posting about resources, articles and books that have been inspirational, challenging or otherwise thought provoking.

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May Inspiration

Between home education, wedding planning and caring, life seems to be getting busier and busier. I'm trying not to let the important get wiped out by the urgent but it isn't always easy! 

Anyway, here are a few links.

Pam Barnhill has a podcast about morning time which is amongst my regular listening. This blog post has 100 things to do in morning time. Please note that Pam is a Roman Catholic and this is reflected in some of her choices. However, the "Religion and Virtue" section does include Little Pilgrim's Progress, How God used a Thunderstorm and The Children's Story Bible by Catherine Vos which I would happily recommend. There are so many other suggestions, in different categories: some of which we have used; some I plan to use and some unknown to me.

My Little Poppies has a post with many art appreciation resources. We are hoping to use Vincent's Starry Night and other stories, which is mentioned here, as part of our Morning Time next year.

A very practical post from The Frugal Girl about Reasons your grocery bill is too high.

Like many home educators, we don't have a specific room for home education. We use our living room, the kitchen and the garden. However, I was struck by this post with thought out areas in a homeschool classroom. The Jumping Station particularly appealed.

This list of Morning Time Games has ideas for games which might also work well over the summer. It doesn't include Monarchy perhaps because it is a US list but I would certainly add this  game! Do you have any games that you would add to this list?


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April Inspiration

The sun has come out! The last few days of grey and rain have seemed so long but today is spring.  I took the children out to Walthamstow Wetlands which is new to us. By the way, I seem to be running out of ideas for places to go or things to do in London for my 9 and 11 year old and the Summer holiday isn't far away. Any suggestions? 

This is an amazing list of maths resources for children who struggle with maths but don't let the title put you off; this list would be useful for most children. It does include Sum Swamp which is a brilliant game for young children learning number bonds. We used to play Sum Swamp daily! 

Again, about maths, Jo Boaler talks on this podcast about fear of mathematics, worth a listen.

Frugal Girl published an encouraging post about how to make your house lovely for $0.

I have been reading Sarah Mackenzie's new book, The Read-Aloud Family: making meaningful and lasting connections with your kids. This is a book that I will probably return to again and again. The book lists and questions to use to discuss books with children are particularly worthwhile as well as the chapter around having a book club atmosphere at home. I think that Sarah goes too far about the moral benefits of books but otherwise the book is worth a read and a place on the bookshelf.

The current read is about sleep: Matthew Walker's Why we Sleep. Reading this has taken a little while and I haven't finished yet, partly, because it keeps reminding me about the importance of sleep and that takes away from reading time! This book runs through what is known about sleep and its importance as well as scary stuff about sleep deprivation. Most of the latter isn't new to me but having it in one place does pull a punch. 

More book recommendations are always welcome! 


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March Inspiration

I'm afraid I haven't written much recently. Life has been busy. My eldest daughter has got engaged and we are looking forward to a summer wedding. Just alongside this, my husband's Mum has been less well and of course, family life and home education  have carried on. Sadly, the blog has suffered!

We've had snow, in London, in March! The temperatures were well below freezing but now there is no trace of snow.

Seterra is one of our favourite sites with its free geography games. It now also has some anatomy quizzes.

This is report on improving maths at Key Stage 2 and 3. Much of this is applicable to home educators and is worth a read.

Recently, we spent time with some friends painting using a tutorial from Mr Otter Art Studio. I was really impressed with a quality of the instructions and hope we can work on more of these.

This is an interesting list of handwriting resources. We actually use something different: Morrell which uses a more UK style. 

Read aloud Revival has just published a list of books that boys like. There are many that I haven't read but The Mysterious Benedict Society and My side of the Mountain have been real favourites here recently. 


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February Inspiration

We've just finished the first half term of 2018. These few weeks seem to have flown by with our home education dominated by a First World War project.

This post starts with a couple of lists.

Elsie at Farmhouse Schoolhouse has a post about the books that have shaped her homeschool. I haven't read many of these but have been busy adding them to my wish list.

A rather different list is of top UK money blogs. I haven't looked at all of these yet but for home educators on single incomes (most of us!) there are certainly some with helpful ideas, as well as some rather crazy ones. 

I have never been certain about the idea of taking time off education to establish discipline. Surely, working consistently imposes its own discipline? Dawn has written a post about the benefits of consistent home education.

At the home education group, my book group has been reading Linda Sue Park's book, A long walk to water, which has led to discussion about water supply and drought. Se7en posted about the reality of living in Cape Town in a serious water shortage-it goes a bit beyond watering the plants with the water left in the water jug!

Finally, a bit of fun. Antipodesmap is a website where it is possible to enter your location and find out what is on the opposite side of the world. It also gives a list of opposite cities.

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January Inspiration

January is almost over but here, in England, it always feels a month where it is most difficult to go outside but where the rewards for being outside are greatest. The photo is from Richmond Park on a rather murky day but so good to get outside even in the mud.

I loved this post about how to teach maths consistently. Not mega-science, just a reminder to keep going every day.

This literature map of the world made me wonder whether my book club could make something similar.

Another common sense post was this one about talking to tweens from Ben and Me.

One of the children and I have been reading The Hiding Place about the work of Corrie ten Boom and her family who hid Jews in the Second World War.  Her home is now a Museum and looks fascinating. I've wasted a bit of time, this week,  looking at how to get from London to Haarlem.

For a bit of beauty, pop over to Raising Little Shoots to see Lyn's lovely nature journal.

Hope that you are having a happy January!


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December Inspiration

London feels chilly today. My children are hoping for snow! The photo is from a Park Run a couple of weeks ago when the frost was thick and my feet were cold.

It isn't always easy to get up when outside is dark. This article is a very practical list of 102 ways to start your homeschool morning out right.

The Institute of Engineering and Technology has a guide to making STEM toys using cheap and cheerful items. I know that one of my children is going to love these ideas.

Hedgehogs are becoming rare. For anyone who lives in a London borough and who has access to a garden, Wildlife London will provide hedgehog detective kits on a first come, first served basis. An ideal opportunity to be involved in some worthwhile research.

This year, I have been working on the 2017 Christian Reading Challenge. I don't think that I will complete every category but it has been a stimulating challenge which has expanded my reading. My progress is here-the list of books read is first followed by the categories in the Reading Challenge. This week, the list for the 2018 Challenge has come out.

Annie Kate has published a review of a book called The Fundamentals of Literature. I haven't read the book but she follows it with a summary of concepts in English literature from a Christian world view. If you want the name of an eight verse stanza or the difference between blank verse and free verse, this is your opportunity.

Do let me know about articles that you find useful. 


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November Inspiration

We are well into November now. Well past Reformation Day,

 Guy Fawkes night and even Remembrance Day.

November is also a month for anyone who wants to write a novel. The NanoWriMo site has a special feature for younger writers with the ability to set an individual word target and help designed for children.

There are plenty of children though who struggle with reading and writing. This can induce a fair amount of parental guilt especially when there is a societal expectation that anyone from a home filled with books will love reading. This is a really helpful article about Where kids still struggle with reading even in a print-rich home.

We haven't really got into podcasts for children yet but this is a list to explore.

I'm not an unschooler but this post about learning and living is thought provoking. Yes, home educated children do get a chance to follow their interests now in a way that wouldn't be possible for a child in school. 

This model DNA is so easy. We made it recently and unlike many other cell/DNA activities around it isn't  filled with sugar!

I am currently on the look out for book club suggestions. The club has children from 10-13. We read both fiction and non-fiction. The group has a science theme, this year but the books don't necessarily have to have a scientific theme although  bonus points if they do! Any suggestions?


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October Inspiration

We are almost a month into term and there has been plenty going on. Our home education group has been studying science and planning this has been busy, as well, as providing my children with the chance to help me practise activities. Recently, we did acids and bases at the group and used Sarah Dees' magnificent rocket activity for the older children. It worked very well but I'm sorry, teaching and running the activity took precedence over photos.

Ambleside online has produced an enormous list of Charlotte Mason resources. Many of these are relevant for those who aren't strictly Charlotte Mason followers.

Helping children learn about subjects where we are weak can be challenging. This is a helpful article about teaching music appreciation for non-musical mothers. 

Reformation Day is on the 31st October and this year is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther pinning his theses to the door of the Castle church in Wittenburg. Talking mom2mom has a free set of intricate colourings of the Five Solas which are ideal for older children. The Trinitarian Bible Society produce a rather splendid Reformation timeline.


It is easy to get dragged down by difficulties when home educating. This isn't a Christian article, and this shows in the solutions, but the list of joy suckers is pretty accurate.

Hope that your autumn is going well. Does anyone else struggle with not overloading the day but wanting to fit enough in?

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September Inspiration

I had every intention of blogging more in August but despite having a break from formal learning, this hasn't quite happened. We have had various trips out,

a photography workshop and many friends to play, plus a garden which has been wonderfully productive.

Grandma has enjoyed the general summer bustle and we have made major progress toward her being able to sit out of bed. It has been a long, long saga!

Planning for next year has happened and I hope to post about the resources we hope to use soon.

Earlier in the holiday, we popped into a temporary exhibition of Shirley Hughes' work. Shirley Hughes is famous for her books about Alfie and also Dogger. We particularly like her poetry anthology for younger children, Out and About. 

The Read Aloud Revival has had an interview with another favourite childhood author and illustrator, Helen Oxenham. Helen is the illustrator of Going on a Bear Hunt and it turns out that she is married to John Burningham of Mr Gumby fame.

Nothing to do with education but, at long last, I have found a yeasted banana bread recipe.

Yummy! I have tried increasing the number of bananas for extra flavour but this didn't make much difference to the taste and adversely affected the consistency. If any is left, this loaf is great toasted.

Some time ago, I reviewed Hazel Stapleton's book Looking back with ME. This was orginally privately published but has now been attractively republished by Day One Publications.  

Not infrequently, I am asked about starting home education and resources. Now, into our ninth year, we use a mixture to suit the children's needs and interests. I hope to post about the resources for this coming year very soon. However, there hasn't been a UK Christian curriculum divided by key stages and looking toward UK exams. Just recently, I found out about Valley Christian School Online which plans to fill this gap. I haven't used the resources as yet but am in the process of signing up to use some of the Key Stage 2 materials. It is looking very promising and if all goes well, I plan to update about this.

Farmhouse Schoolhouse is a US blog and Instagram feed and one of my favourites. There is a new post about resources on the blog. I like the disclaimer that the post is to give ideas rather than something to copy. The part about not buying cheap crayons resonated. We have found that, here in the UK, Straedtler pencils and Berol felt tip pens last far longer than cheaper alternatives. 

We are looking forward to the start of the new learning year and hope to be having a not back to school picnic with our home education group to celebrate! Do you have plans to mark this time of year?

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August Inspiration

August is here. A month of planning, being outside and trying to make sure the children don't get bored!
In July, we've had a fair few days out as well as our lovely holiday in Wales. 

Brogdale, near Faversham, has national fruit collections and has amazing tours where it is possible to sample the fruit. We ate lots!

The Jewish Museum was fascinating and fitted well with a read aloud from earlier in the year, the Family with two Front Doors.

We haven't been to the brand new Postal Museum yet but this article has information and pictures about the old postal railway under London.

The National Gallery have a scheme for schools called Take One Picture. Schools study and do cross-curricular work around one picture. Apart from the teacher training, I can't see any reason why home educators can't benefit from this resource. Various pictures have been used in the past and the notes on the picture and ideas for activities are on the website. The picture for 2017-2018 is Joseph Wright's An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump but pictures from previous years could also be used.

Morning time is an important part of our day and I have written about what we do here. I have recently come across a post about how another family have arranged their morning time.This post has links to a couple of books about morning time. I haven't read either so this is more of a comment than recommendation!

Kate from Kate's homeschool math has produced an excellent post about the nitty gritty of how to actually teach a home education maths lesson.

Hope that you are having a happy summer!

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July Inspiration

I've been missing in action. Our school year has now finished. This year hasn't been a stellar year. In many ways, it has been hard work, particularly, trying to balance the needs of the children and of a frail elderly person. At one point, I decided that what would really help would be a butler to answer the door to the carers, nurses, therapists, deliveries and more that seem to arrive daily. Sadly, I'm not sure that a butler is going to happen.

Last week, we had a week away. It was complicated to arrange but it was so refreshing to have a break in one of our favourite places, the Welsh borders. If you haven't been to this area, I highly recommend it: countryside, not over crowded, reasonably accessible and beautiful.

Like many others, I struggle to find clothes for my preteen daughter. Recently, we found Purple Parcel and have been delighted with the skirt that we ordered.

Summer is time for the Big Butterfly Count.

Shelly has published the most enormous list of unit study resources.

Some children are busier than others. Amy has a post about occupying high energy preschoolers. I could have done with this post a few years ago!

Something completely different, these are really old colour photos.

How about this for building a library?

I'm hoping for a few slower weeks and time to plan for next year.  Two years ago, I put in a couple of items which have worked well and I would love to add to these. These added extras are a longer morning time and poetry tea. If you have any components/parts of the day which work particularly well, please leave a comment.

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June Inspiration

Summer has arrived. I know that officially, Summer doesn't begin until 21st but it feels like Summer. In the days when I was running a memory clinic, official advice was to allow 1st to 20th June as Spring or Summer. I'm in the Summer camp.

We've had half term, this week. It has been great to stop and read more than usual. The younger two and I enjoyed our church outing and, on another day, wandering round a, new to us, park. 

This summer "pizza" is on my to do list for a hot day.

Wasting bits of bread was annoying me. This post has 20 ideas to avoid wasting bread.

Our home education group is hoping to have a science theme, next year. These videos about each element in the periodic table are a tremendous resource. We are also looking forward to taking part in the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize judging again. The books arrived today and my own children are very excited about their sneak preview!

There is a trend to try to measure and test everything in education. This post is about those things that we can't measure.

My youngest has been talking about fidget spinners and today, made his own. He was inspired by this tutorial although he has made his own modifications. Try using red and blue bricks for the arms and see the effect.

Have a happy June!

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Sources of home education inspiration: English

This is the second post with resources for home education. I don't pretend to list every resource. These are either programmes/sites which I have used, referred to or seriously considered using. The comments are my personal views.

• Early years: we loved the picture book based curriculum, Five in a Row which has ideas around picture books. Even if you don't use the books, it is worth checking out the book lists. Branch Out World has a similar type of idea but produces unit studies around UK based picture books.

• Learning to read. Opinions on learning to read vary and some children seem to learn with very little instruction. For the rest, programmes which teach synthetic phonics seem to have evidence based approval. We have used Jolly Phonics but found that there wasn't enough repetition nor explanation of some difficulties. 
I have written about reading programmes for children who need more instruction. If I were starting to teach a child to read now, I would use either All about reading or Dancing Bears. Reading Eggs is a popular on line programme. It is helpful re-enforcement for other reading instruction as is Nessy.  The latter is particularly useful for learners who find reading difficult.

• For spelling, we use All about Spelling. This is a methodical, teacher intensive programme with plenty of review built in. In the past, I have used Schofield and Sims spelling workbooks with an older child. These are a cheaper alternative for children who don't struggle with spelling. 
I haven't used but was impressed with Alpha to Omega which would cover reading and spelling. Again, I haven't used the Structured Word Inquiry but this sounds a fascinating way to help children with spelling. I haven't been able to find a book about this-I'm sure that someone should write one or tell me where one exists! Nessy is a painless way of re-enforcing spelling.

• Poetry. PoetryTeatime on Instagram has plenty of ideas and is linked to the Brave Writer site where, I think, Poetry teatime started. Other sources of poetry ideas are Poetryline which is a UK based site designed for primary schools, Poetry Foundation and the amazing list on Homeschooling without training Wheels.  Young poets may like to enter for the Betjeman Poetry Prize. How Poetry Tea works in our house is here. 
  

• Creative writing. There are an enormous number of programmes around and even more views on how to teach creative writing or, indeed, on whether it should be taught at all. Anyway, we have used WriteShop which has clear instructions; Bravewriter which has somewhat less clear information about what to do but plenty of encouragement for helping reluctant writers and a set of books: . Pie Corbett's books are helpful. I have used the Key Stage one book, How to teach story writing at Key Stage 1, and also Jumpstart: Literacy games for 7-14 year olds. A helpful set of books are published by QED and called How to write. 

• Grammar, punctuation, comprehension. We don't do as much grammar as schools seem to be doing for the year 6 stats testing. We tend to use the Galore Park books for this part of English although we have the older edition. The newer edition seems to include more grammar. Jumpstart, by Pie Corbett, has some games which can be used. This year, we have used Writing with Ease which has worked reasonably well for one child and not at all well for the other. This is sold as a writing course but includes copy work, dictation and close style narration. I find the narration questions similar to the comprehension questions in Galore Park. The premise of this book is that creative writing is not necessary at a young age. I struggle with this idea so wouldn't use Writing with Ease alone for writing.

• Handwriting. We have used several programmes: Schofield and Sims (we liked this but my children need more than two thin books worth of practice), Getty Dubay (this worked well until we reached cursive which looked too different to UK script), Morrell workbooks. I have wondered about Handwriting without Tears but rejected this as the cursive was unlike most UK styles. Please let me know if you have any recommendations. Ideally, I would like something which can be done for a short time daily.

• Extras: Shakespeare week has plenty of resources for introducing younger children to the bard. Don't forget the local library for books. Recently, I have used the library online search more and more rather than just looking at random when I arrive. 

Please do write about your favourite resources and let me know if I have left out some major area. 

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