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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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.

Learning Plans 2017-2018

We have just started our more formal learning again and with a new year there are a few changes. This is a list of my plans. Please note that what works for us may not work for you. Having made this disclaimer, I would add that many of my best ideas have come from other home educators' plans.

Younger Daughter is almost 11 so UK year 6 and Youngest Son is 8 which is UK year 4.

English aka Language Arts
English consists of multiple parts

-Reading. I am planning a time of individual reading, after lunch. This will be reading of the children's choice. Youngest Son will also read aloud to me daily.

-Writing. During morning time, I plan to work through the writing workshops in How to teach English at Key Stage 2 by Pie Corbett. Most  writing will be linked to topics in other subjects.

-Spelling. The plan is that one child will continue to use All about Spelling and the other will use Touch Type Read Spell.

Handwriting: Younger Daughter has been practising calligraphy over the holiday and will have some time to work on this. Youngest Son will use a handwriting workbook and copy work.

Typing: Nessy Typing and Touch Type Read Spell.

Poetry: we plan to continue to have a weekly Poetry Tea. This is much loved and has many benefits including reading aloud, enjoying and discussing poetry, reading dialogue poems with friends and writing. In additon to this, Poetry Tea helps with  planning a small snack and decorating a table.

Grammar and punctuation: we plan to use the Galore Park English books for this.

Extras: We hope to read Julius Caesar, this term, both in a simplified version and as the actual play to fit in with a Royal Shakespeare Company production of this play for schools in the late autumn.

Maths
We tend to start math with 10 questions which I write in the children's maths books the previous day. These tend to be short and cover topics which might need revision.                                                                                                                                            
Youngest Son has already started Galore Park Junior Maths book 2 and we hope to continue this.

Younger Daughter is using a different programme this year with the Schofield and Sims Understanding KS2 workbooks.

Maths games most days.

Science
Energy: its forms, changes and functions from the Elementary Physics Series.

Exploring Nature with Children: we are planning to use the new journal although work on one journal between the three of us.

Our home education group is studying science, this year and the group is also a judging panel for the Royal Society Young People's Science Book Prize.            

History  
This year we plan to study the Victorians and the First and Second World Wars.
For the Victorians, we plan to use Our Island Story as the core text and for the First and Second World Wars, The Story of Britain by RJ Unstead.
We hope to supplement with many other books, trips and activities.  This week, we have been consulting a rather old copy of Mrs Beeton to write a Victorian dinner menu.

Geography
I have planned three country afternoons during this term. In addition, we use Seterra and probably will use the geography from Valley Christian School Online.

Art
Younger Daughter is signed up for an Explore Art award and has done her first activity for this. While she is working on this Youngest Son will be working on coding using Code.org. 

Music
We plan to use Classics for Kids weekly during morning time. We sing each day and Younger Daughter has piano lessons.

Latin
We do a little Latin daily using Minimus. Younger Daughter is already familiar with book one so this is revision for her but new for Youngest Son. 

Physical education
This is mainly informal with visits to the park and time on the trampoline most days. Younger Daughter has been running with friends and has started to go to Park Run, on Saturdays. I would like to add in some longer cycle rides.



       
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New Nature Journal

Lynn Seddon's Exploring Nature with Children is the best resource I know for learning about nature with a family. As part of this, Lynn suggests making a nature journal and now, to help with this she has produced a guided nature journal to help you and your children keep a record of what you have learned and seen. The journal is set up by seasons with a section for each week and includes

•  a page for a picture about the nature walk. This page has a box to record the weather
• a poem to copy
• an art study page
• pages for extension activities
• a place to record nature books read 
• a calendar of firsts
  

The journal comes as a pdf and is available in printing and cursive versions. 

I am looking forward to using the journal with my family and creating a record of our year. 

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Exploring Nature with Children: Exciting News

Nature walks form part of our week. Over the last couple of years, we have used Lynn Seddon's book Exploring Nature with Children for weekly inspiration and guidance. I have written about Exploring Nature with Children before. 

The nature walks don't have to be anywhere special or difficult to get at: the back garden or local park are ideal venues. The book provides so much more than just ideas for nature walks. It includes a poem and picture suggestion for each week as well as titles of books for additional reading. There are also many ideas for additional activities which cover art, science,writing and more. 

Lynn is now about to bring out another volume called Exploring Nature with Children: a Guided Journal. The aim of this book is to take a child through a year of nature journaling. I am excited about this new book and will let you know about it as soon as possible. 

Exploring Nature with Children can be started at any time of year although it begins from September. This is an ideal addition to a home educator's week but could also be used with schooled children after school, at weekends and holidays.

Disclaimer: These are affiliate links but this is a resource which we have used and enjoyed.

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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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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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Summer so far!

This blog has been rather neglected recently. June, in our family, has been about taking Middle Son to exams; increasing amounts of time spent caring and a joyful few days spent camping with three of my children, in Suffolk. We've just come back from camping so this will be short. It has been good to have a time to recharge, to think and sleep! The campsite had a silent after 10pm rule which was greatly conducive to rest. 

We spent hours on the beach.

These holes are the nests of sand martins. 

Evening sea.

Sand and pebble sculpture by Youngest Son.

Our tents. We are not professional campers although it is surprising how much can be cooked on one burner in the rain!

 This end of the year is hard work and I know that I'm not the only tired home educator around.  It is easy to get overtired and lose perspective. I am grateful for a husband who held the fort at home and that we were able to have a break. Refreshed and grateful!

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June Inspiration

It is almost summer although London is decidedly chilly at present. 

Fitting in well with summer is the Wildlife Trusts 30 Day Wild challenge. I'm hoping that we will spend plenty of time outside. The last couple of days, we have spent some hours out of doors but mainly in playgrounds. Anyway, here are the dog roses spotted on our journey.

Creekside Learning has produced more ideas for handwriting practice. The mud writing reminded me of when we tried mud painting- an unforgettable experience!

Edsnapshots had an excellent podcast about maths in Morning Time. There is a fascinating list of resources and some useful suggestions in the actual podcast. I have one of the books winging its way to me!

Adventures in Literacy Land had a post about using Marcia Williams' graphic novels. It is written from a classroom perspective but has some different thoughts about how to use these books. These books are popular here and we find that the library stocks a wide range. So far, we have used them as an introduction to authors but may expand!

Finally, some simple instructions for keeping nature notebooks and making the point that this isn't some exclusive home education club but for everyone.

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Nature Parcel

Today, we had an exciting parcel arrive in the post. We had been linked to a Scottish family in the Nature Pen Friend's Swap and our parcel arrived this morning. It contained all sorts of goodies. There was a long letter talking about all the wildlife that the family see- even an otter in the river but also deer, oystercatchers, swifts and nuthatches. They had also thoughtfully sent an email with photos of where they do their nature walk and a bonus, for me, a photo of some typical John Buchan country.

I must say that my only concern about this swap had been about what to include. We had gradually found some ideas and were able to put our parcel together although my plan to send to send some London plane tree seeds was scuppered when we realised quite how itchy they are! Our swap family sent us an inspirational parcel.

In the parcel, we received,was an amazing twig covered with lichen. We had sent a twig with some London lichen but ours was nothing like this.

There was also a spruce cone, a red twig from a Scots pine which has a reddish bark, a little cone from a Scots pine, sheeps' wool, a pheasant feather and a black feather and more lichen.

There were pressed flowers: dog violet, a broom sprig and leaves from a rowan.

They also kindly sent seeds, a Field Studies Council card and a postcard.

Our nature table has expanded but so have our thoughts about the variety of nature in the UK and of course, why our lichen doesn't grow so well!

Thank you so much to the kind family who sent this lovely parcel and to Lynn from Raising Little Shoots for arranging this swap. 

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Bluebell Woods

Last week, we, almost accidentally, visited the most beautiful bluebell woods. Wanting to make the most of our National Trust membership, we decided to go to Emmetts Garden with those of our children who weren't revising! The Garden is near Westerham so quite accessible from London, for half a day. When I looked up the details, I found that the bluebells were one of the attractions at this time of year and well, that was definitely true.

We had been having long discussions about Spanish and English bluebells over the previous week and these bluebells seemed to be the real native British variety.

I've been impressed at how child friendly the National Trust has become and a wild play area kept one little boy very happy although using the stakes provided to help with a den was not on his agenda! He took the sticks out and built his own!

Younger Daughter loves taking photos and the photos in this post are all thanks to her.

There were formal gardens.

The best part were the gorgeous bluebell banks.

End of the magnolia blossom.

More bluebells:

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I sayb unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith.

Matthew 6 v 28 to 30

View out over the Weald of Kent. Not shown in the picture but we were able to watch a couple of buzzards which seemed to be hunting, in the distance.

Definitely worth a visit in bluebell season and ideal for children as well as adults. This was a very informal nature walk but certainly not the least!

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