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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Top Home Educating Resources

Welcome to week three of the Virtual Homeschool Fair run by Susan of Homeschooling Hearts and Minds. This week the topic is How do we cover it all? This is about the programmes and resources that we use.

We have been home educating for almost nine years. This post is about some of our favourite resources.  Some of these items we no longer use but they are ones that have left happy memories. Two of these are free!

• Five in a Row

My children are now too old for Five in a Row but this was a happy curriculum. Five in a Row is a gentle curriculum aimed at 4-8 year olds around picture books. Each week a different book is selected and read each day. The handbooks then have activities around the book which cover science, maths, art, English, craft and cooking. 

Plus points

-the children and I loved Five in a Row.

-excellent selection of picture books

-manuals have a high resale value

-enormous range of activities so those which fit your family can be selected.

-designed for home educating families

Bear in mind

-Five in a Row is probably better for the lower end of this age range.

-many of the books are American and some are out of print. We decided only to buy the books which were inexpensive and easily obtainable and were able to find the vast majority. 

-It isn't necessary or desirable to do every activity in the manual.
-Branch Out World is written by a UK home educator. This is a similar sort of programme based around picture books but these are based in the UK. For example, Mousehole Cat or Katie Moray.

• Veriatas self paced history

Veritas self paced history is an on-line history course which is used daily. It has an accompanying list of literature which we used and found enhanced the course. We used it for two years covering New Testament, Greeks and Romans and for the second year, the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation.  A typical day would include teaching, maps, a history song, a game and a revision game and more.

Plus points
-generated a love for history.
-requires little parental time and virtually no preparation.
-attractively designed.
-literature bundle enhances the on-line programme

Bear in mind
-after the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation year, the course starts to cover mainly US history. We stopped using the course at this point.
-not cheap but there seem to be sales about twice a year with major reductions (about 50%).

• Exploring Nature with children

This is a weekly nature curriculum written by UK home educator, Lyn Seddon. 

Exploring Nature with Children is based around a weekly nature walk to the same venue. This can be the back garden, a local park or some countryside. Each week has a theme, for example, seeds, lichen or birds and the weeks are grouped into seasons. Each week includes a poem, book recommendations, an art suggestion and activity suggestions. This may be art or craft, science, writing or music. Children and parents are encouraged to keep a nature journal but there is a separate, more structured journal which can be purchased either with print copy or cursive copywork.

Plus points

- a major encouragement to get outside and to look at nature.

-plenty of activities for a range of ages.

-ideal for UK seasons.

Bear in mind

-this book is written for UK weather and seasons. It may need some modifying if your seasons are very different.

-it isn't necessary to do every activity.

-these are ebooks. The main title can be used on a tablet but the journals obviously need to be printed.

• Poetry Teatime

Poetry Teatime is a brainchild of Julie Brogart who designed Bravewriter. We have used Partnership writing and certainly use some of the ideas around teaching writing. However, the part of the Bravewriter programme which has impacted us most is the concept of a Poetry Teatime. This is a time set apart for reading poetry, and sometimes other books, over a drink and a snack. Sometimes, we have a carefully laid table and a special snack and other times, the poetry reading is less formal. I have complaints when we miss Poetry Teatime.

Plus points

-poetry in a relaxed environment. 

-reading aloud practice

-sometimes, we write. Covering the table with brown paper and providing pens helps this.

-sometimes, we invite friends to this sociable occasion.

-poetry tea can take place outside the home. We have had poetry in cafes while waiting for an older child taking exams or at Bateman's,  Rudyard Kipling's home, because this seemed the place to read Kipling .

Bear in mind

-you might not want to introduce an extra snack! We are trying to have healthier snacks although this doesn't always work.

-funny poems work well, particularly, with children who aren't used to poetry.

• Morning Time

Morning time is another free resource. This is a time to gather all your home educated children and spend time together. Morning time can make a definite start to the day and helps put first the items that you want to be first in importance. We start with prayer, a Christian book, memory work and a hymn. 

We then put in either extras that we don't want to miss or a special book/topic. Our current items are

-a double spread of  the Usborne Introduction to the First World War

-a chapter from one of the children's current book club choices: a Long walk to water and the Astounding Broccoli Boy.

-a weekly podcast from Classics for Kids or music from the First World War.

Resources for Morning Time include

-Pam Barnhill's podcasts Your Morning Basket
-Kendra Fletcher's book Circle Time: the best part of your day
-the Farmhouse Schoolhouse posts about Morning Time.

What are your favourite home education resources? 

Looking for more curriculum ideas? Visit my fellow homeschool bloggers! 

Our Homeschool Plan for 3rd, 6th, 8th, & 12th Grades by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Our 10th Grade Plans by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Planning Out Our Unschooling Studies by Jen @ A Helping Hand Homeschool
The Details of Curriculum by Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays
Reflections of a Curriculum Junkie by Brittney @ Mom's Heart
Freedom through nature journaling. by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
How I pull together a homeschool curriculum without packaged curriculum by Dana @ Life Led Homeschool
Our Favorite Curriculum and Resources - An Annotated Bibliography by Sabrina @ Kids, Crunch, and Christ
Our 2018 Homeschool Curriculum Choices by Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool
Top Home Educating Resources by Sarah @ DeliveringGrace
Homeschooling Curriculum We Are Using This Year by Laura O @ Day by Day in Our World
Use the Force and Complete the Course by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
Choices, choices - how to choose your curriculum wisely by Lizzy @ Peaches@Home
Our Curriculum Needs - grade seven by Annette @ A Net in Time
The Heart of Our School by Laura @ Four Little Penguins
What I Use with 7th and 9th Grader - Virtual Homeschool Fair -Week 3 by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
How to Avoid Gaps in Education by Kristen H. @ Sunrise to Sunset
Tricky Subjects and Starting the Decision Making Process by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
High School Syllabus by TrueNorthHomeschoolAcademy @ GoldenGrasses

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Please note that the Exploring Nature with Children links are affiliate links.

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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A day in Education at Home

There isn't an average day but I thought that I would write about a fairly ordinary day. Like most days, there were some differences: on more days than not we see other children and not going out because of the weather is a very rare event. Anyway, here goes:

 We were about on time starting, today. Sometimes, we lag. I don't like dragging tired children out of bed and the children can be a bit reluctant to have breakfast when there are carers in the kitchen but today, things went fairly well. When we start late, I try to stop a bit later for lunch.

We start Morning Time with prayer, a reading from The Ology,

work on our memory work which is currently Psalm 98-today we focused on verse 4 and sang our hymn for the week: Before Jehovah's awesome throne. We then did the day's problem from Bedtime Math. Today, this was about Lego towers. 

Younger Daughter then went to read The Thieves of Ostia while I read Charlotte's Web to Youngest Son. 

 We went onto English/literacy/language arts or whatever you want to call the subject. This included

• reading for both children.
• spelling. Both children use All about Spelling.
  Younger Daughter had a day off spelling as she had put in tremendous effort to finish her book yesterday. I hope to start the next level with her on Monday.
• Writing with Ease for Youngest Son.
• Latin for Younger Daughter. We started Minimus Secundus today,
  
  having finished the first book, yesterday. Minimus is a primary Latin curriculum which is working well for us. 
• Younger Son working on a talk for our local home education group. The children take turns to give a short  talk and Powerpoint presentation to the group. As we are studying countries, this is currently about a country. Younger Son's talk is about the USA so he was finding pictures of early explorers and putting these into the presentation.

 Break.
Today, Younger Daughter wanted to do a Skittle and water activity. The results were splendid.

She and her younger brother then went on to make lava lamps with oil, water, food colouring and a vitamin C tablet.
I used the break to spend a bit of time with Grandma and sort out some household tasks.

 Maths
Both children start with 10 questions which I write in their maths books, the previous day. These questions are usually around tables practice. After that, they go onto Galore Park Maths. 
My daughter was working on transformations and enjoyed this. 
Youngest Son continued work on equivalent fractions and then all three of us played Fraction Bingo which looks, again, at equivalent fractions.

Youngest Son requested another chapter of Charlotte's Web so I thought the lunch could wait!

Break for lunch/answering door to carers and district nurse and being around for them.

After lunch, both children spent about an hour on the trampoline and in the garden. It was very windy and we ended up sorting out some fence repairs from the wind.

We had a read aloud from Children of the New Forest and then about how bicycles work from Can you feel the Force?
At this point, the wind was howling and small branches were hurtling around. I had planned to go out, look at our bikes to fit in with the reading, do a nature walk and end up in the playground but I lost my nerve. Usually, we go out whatever the weather and  think that there isn't bad weather only bad clothes. Today, I wasn't sure how clothes would protect us from the wind so we stayed in and watched a video about Home Science activities. 

 Younger Daughter went on to make coloured sand (rice) from the instructions on the video and then a file to hold her books from another video on this channel. 

Not a bad day but not a perfect day. I would love to know about your day and in particular, what has worked well for you.

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Starting the Day Well

This is the first post in the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair. This is an annual event run by Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds. This year, there will be five weeks of the Fair with the following themes

• Week One: See how we learn: the Nuts and Bolts of what makes our home education come together
• Week Two: Playing with Words: the Language Arts
• Week Three: Discovering Patterns: Mathematics, Logic and Science
• Week Four: Social Studies and more Science
• Week Five: Seeking Beauty: The Arts and anything that adds Beauty to our World

This week, I hope to write about how we start our day. 

I am convinced that having a set order to our day saves thought and hassle. The way we start the day also shows what is most important. For this reason, we have a set order to our day

• Morning Time
• Rest of the morning: mainly English and maths
• Afternoon: other subjects

Groups and meetings with friends tend to happen in the afternoon which means that we are more likely to miss afternoon than morning subjects: this is intentional. 

Morning Time is the most important part of the day. We start with the most important things: prayer, a Christian book, Bible learning and a hymn. We also include in this session a little fun boost for subjects that might need this and some enjoyable subjects which might be missed and don't need too much time. We don't do these subjects/boosts everyday but once a week. Alternatively, they could be put on a loop of any length as described in Sarah Mackenzie in Teaching from Rest.

Note: the Bible part of Morning Time happens every day but the extras, apart from the daily maths, happen on four days of the week.

These are some of the resources that we use for Morning Time.

Bible book
A Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos-we finished reading this during the autumn and have now started
The Ology by Marty Machowski.
We read from the Bible itself during family worship and in the evening with the children so use a Christian book for this slot.

Bible Learning
During last year, one of the children completed the Trinitarian Bible Society Sabbath School Memory work prize since then we have worked on verses from the children's Sunday School and other Bible verses.

Hymns
Generally, we try to learn a hymn. I try to work out which hymns often come up in church and make sure that we learn these. In addition, we have worked on learning Great is the Gospel of our Glorious God by Vernon Higham, Let us with a Gladsome mind in the early autumn, and O come, O come Emmanuel and Come Thou long expected Jesus in December.

Other Subjects in Morning Time
Maths
I wanted to add in a little extra maths, this autumn, and found the free app Bedtime Math. Despite the fact that we don't use this at bedtime, this has been well received. Each day has a paragraph or so about a topic followed by maths questions at different levels. Younger Daughter likes to read the paragraph and questions to us. The lowest level is very simple but the questions get gradually more challenging. They aren't particularly difficult though and answers are provided.
In addition, once a week, we will play a maths game in this slot. Favourites include

• Sum Swamp-really a bit too young now but very loved.
• Trilemma
• Equivalence dominoes
• Time Lotto
• Tables matching pairs
• Tangrams

Music Appreciation
This is a subject that we rarely actually did before it was added to Morning Time. Initially, we used the Ladybird composer books but once we had finished these, we started to use the six minute podcasts from Classics for Kids. There is a weekly broadcast but so far, we have tended to chose composers or music which fits with the rest of our learning. Recently, Younger Daughter worked on a European music topic for her piano teacher so we linked the podcasts to this.

Art Appreciation
We have used a variety of sources for this

• James Mayhew's Katie books
• Lawrence Anholt books
• the 13 ... Children should know series. We have use the bridges, buildings and artists books.
• Picture study using postcards purchased from an art gallery.

Science
Again, we have used a variety of sources

•  Books short listed for the Royal Society Young People's Science Prize. Our book club was part of the Judging Panel for  that prize so we were able to read copies of these books. Our favourite and the prize winner was David Macaulay's How machines work
• Model ear and eye.
•  A page from a science encyclopaedia. We use The Ultimate Book of Science
• Very occasionally, we do a science activity often using the Dyson Foundation Challenge Cards

Other
This routine sometimes alters. Sometimes, instead of maths we will do a spelling or phenomic awareness game such as Slug in the Jug or correcting punctuation and talking about grammar in a sentence. We have also used this slot to read simplified Shakespeare.

What has changed
Many families read aloud during Morning Time. Other than short read alouds as part of music, art or science, this hasn't really worked for us. I sometimes read to the children over breakfast and usually, after lunch but find that adding a longer read aloud to Morning Time just takes too long. My aim is that Morning Time takes about 30 minutes. Another ten minutes is fine but otherwise, we struggle to fit in other morning activities.
When the children were younger though, we did read picture books in this slot, particularly, their Five in a Row book for the week. This worked well but as books and chapters have become longer we have changed this.

Do you have this type of beginning to your day? How does it work in your home?

I invite you to see how my fellow bloggers learn in their homeschools 

The Evolution of Our Homeschool by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Us-School Because We Are Us, Not Someone Else by Laura @ Four Little Penguins
It's All About the School by Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays
Setting the Stage- the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair! by Lisa N. @ Golden Grasses
New Year, New Goals, New School! by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Homeschooling - A Glimpse into How We Do it by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Spotlight on How We Learn in Our Homeschool by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Our Unique Eclectic Homeschool  by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
How We Learn on the Go by Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning
Home Education - 10 Ways We Make It Work by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Schedules, where would I be without them? by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Education at Our House by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Starting the Day Well by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Making a Change - Accountability and Responsibility Through Routine by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
A time to be encouraged is coming.. the Virtual Curriculum Fair by Annette @ A Net in Time
Loving the Moment! by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind
Keeping Our Homeschool Organized by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Homeschool Goal Setting – Looking Forward, Looking Back by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset
How We Choose Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom's Heart
This Is How We Homeschool by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
How we don't learn in our homeschool & how I don't plan {2017 Virtual Homeschool Curriculum Fair} by Meghan @ Quiet in the Chaos
Learning Our Way by Lisa @ McClanahan 7
Limping Along: Our Semi-Eclectic Approach to Homeschooling by Debra @Footprints in the Butter
2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair: See How We Learn by Dana L @ Luv'N Lambert Life

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Autumn half term: the Highs and the Challenges

We've just reached the end of the first half term of the year. As usual, there have been highs and lows. As time goes on, I do think that it is important to take into account our individual slants on things. I'm a pessimist and tend to second guess everything. Tiredness exacerbates this trait so it is useful to look at the substantial highs of this autumn as well as areas which need attention.

The Highs

• Morning Time is a regular part of our day. It means that we start the day with the most important things: God's Word and prayer. We have been using this time to learn the children's Sunday School memory work as well as to read from The Child's Story Bible. We read from the Bible itself at different times of day. We learn hymns that we typically sing in church.
  
  Added to this is a cycle of art appreciation, music appreciation, maths games and a science book.
• Poetry tea.
  
• Cycling each day.
• Regular meetings with our friends in the home education group where we are learning about geography: Europe, this term.
• Trips out: recycling unit, Chiltern Open Air Museum, Fire, Fire exhibition at the Museum of London and a special birthday trip for ,Younger Daughter, to Paris.
  

The Challenges

• The increasing around care for my husband's frail mother. Yes, this is part of life and part of learning but balancing this with the children hasn't been easy. As far as possible, I try to arrange meetings/conversations so that they avoid timings when I am working with the children but medical equipment deliveries don't respect our working hours and I can't dictate times to the district nurses.
• Fine tuning curriculum. This is an on-going process. So far, this term, I have had to alter spelling and Latin plans. Just using Nessy for spelling wasn't sufficient so, in addition, we are using All about Spelling. This is something that I have used before with Younger Daughter but dropped to make extra space for reading practice. All about Spelling is new to Youngest Son. Nessy is still being used as it is useful and fun for extra practice.
• Latin. It become obvious that it would be best to use the primary Latin curriculum, Minimus, before going onto Galore Park Latin. This change has worked well.
• Maths hasn't really been a challenge before but this term has seen maths become hard work and it has felt as through progress has been slow. About a week ago,I realised what might be the root of the problem. We have been starting with morning time and then English. The children have been starting to tire, every day, when we reach maths. After half term, I'm hoping to alternate starting with English and maths.

Any thoughts about high points or how you would tackle these challenges?

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High Points of the Year

We are slowly coming to the end of our academic year. I'm working on lists and ideas for next year as well as evaluating what has and hasn't worked. You will be spared the latter but here is a list of some of the highlights.

Poetry Tea
Tuesday afternoon is Poetry Tea Time and a popular time of the week!

We have all become familiar with more poetry. Sometimes the poetry has sparked wide ranging conversations. We have mainly had poetry tea at home but we have pulled our books out at Bateman's , home of Rudyard Kipling and in a coffee shop while waiting for Middle Son to take an exam.

Poetry Tea has sometimes included friends who have even written poetry for the occasion. We have also started a family anthology which includes poetry that we have selected and poems that the children have written.

Plans? I would love to have some themed teatimes and ideally, would like us to eat fruit  rather than less healthy delights!


Morning Time
I have written about our future plans for Morning Time recently so won't elaborate except to say that this has proved a happy and useful part of the day.

Nature Study
We have had a weekly nature walk using Lynn Seddon's Exploring Nature with Children  as a guide. Going outside and observing more has been a plus and amazingly, I have enjoyed my nature notebook.

We also took part in a nature swap with a Scottish family which was fun even if we realised that London lichen is rather tiny compared with the Scottish variety! The swap plus some of our London finds are displayed on our rather full nature table. 

Read Alouds
Many of our read alouds have been around either history or related to the book club. It is sometimes challenging to find books which appeal to both of my younger children. Recent favourite books have been Swallows and Amazons (Younger Son) and the Grandma's Attic books. The latter have appealed to both children although chiefly to Youngest Daughter. We have almost finished our second book in this series and there have already been requests to download the rest.

Pencil Holder
I'm embarrassed to stay this but providing a pencil holder with a plentiful supply has saved us so much time, this year, Previously, I had assumed that each child would need a pencil with a couple in reserve. This may work in other families, and I know that I'm not the tidiest person on the planet, but we wasted so much time looking for lost pencils. At the end of the year, our supply is dwindling and I will need to buy more over the summer. I don't intend to start in September without a large number of pencils ready to be used.

Nessy
Nessy is new to us, this term and has been a great boon. I have written before about second line reading programmes. One of these, in particular, has proven valuable and has given major measurable results but has been painful to use. We really needed a change and to something that was fun. I found out about Nessy on a reading website; we used the free trial and signed up. We are still fairly new to Nessy but the children love the programme and are very happy to work on it. One child needed a complete break from their reading scheme so has just been using Nessy while the other has used Nessy plus a scheme. 
Nessy is designed for children with dyslexia or who are behind in reading for some reason. It has three branches: reading and spelling, numbers and dyslexia assessment. We have only used the reading and spelling. There is an initial assessment for placement and the teaching is via videos and games. The children earn nuggets to spend in Monkey Town to make their monkey look cool or unlock various buildings. 
Nessy costs £60 per year plus VAT for one student and £70 per year plus VAT for two students. There is a home education discount which was about the same amount as the VAT. So far, this seems to be money well spent!

Do post about what has really added to your year. I would love to make improvements for next year and ideas are the fodder of progress!

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Morning Basket Plans 2016-2017

One of the best parts of the day is our Morning Time. Over the last year, I have gradually increased the items that we do in this time. The most important part of Morning Time is our Bible time but we also use it for subjects such as music and art appreciation which would otherwise be neglected and for extra practice for other topics.

These are some of the things that I hope that we will do in Morning Time next year. This is flexible, we often use this time to talk about topics that come up such as the Referendum or items around a forthcoming trip.

Bible
This part of our Morning Time consists of prayer, reading a book about the Bible or doctrine, memory work and singing.

We are currently reading The Child's Story Bible volume 3: The New Testament. This is written by Catherine Vos. We won't quite finish it, before the summer, so hope to finish this book in the autumn.

Once we have finished this, we hope to start The Ology which is a children's theology. These books won't last the whole year. We may well use Jean Stapleton's book God's Special Tent after this. We have used this book before but ages ago and I would like to tackle a model of the tabernacle.

Memory work-the children usually have memory work from Sunday School in the first part of the autumn term. Once they have finished this, we plan to restart the Trinitarian Bible Society memory work scheme. Younger Daughter has already completed the under 10s part of this so would need to go onto the older children's part of the scheme whereas Youngest Son would work on the under 10s section.

Hymn- we usually sing a hymn each morning. Sometimes, we learn a hymn but often the children choose. Next year, I would like to make sure that we learn a new hymn each month. We won't sing it every day but probably 2-3 times a week. The other days, the children can choose.

Painless Grammar and Punctuation
For the last few weeks, I have written a sentence on the blackboard, most mornings and the children have added punctuation and identified parts of speech. This has been a painless way to work on grammar. I hope to continue this but need a book which gives me a framework. Any suggestions?

Other items, will rotate and will happen once a week.

Art Appreciation
I am hoping to use a Charlotte Mason style picture study probably using postcards. Hopefully, it will be possible to tie this in with the period in history that we will be studying (about 1600 to 1850. Having just visited Flatford, I hope to start with Constable. 

Music Appreciation
Again, the plan is to tie this to history and to use the short podcasts from Classics for Kids.

Maths Game
A variety of  board games, items from life and even the odd computer game. This time game is a current favourite.

Nature Study
Either one of the suggestions from Exploring Nature with Children or looking at a Ldaybird book. 

I'm looking forward to our new Morning Time. Please do comment, if you have Morning Time, I would love to know how you arrange this time.

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