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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Not Giving Way to Fear

One of my biggest home education struggles has been with fear. Fear from several sources: fear of the children turning out badly; fear of poor academic results and fear generated by gainsayers. This fear isn't productive as it makes me tired, anxious and irritable. 

The fear makes it a worry that the children don't start work as early as I would like. The anxiety that adds to the difficulty of a struggling reader. The worry around having to take an elderly relative to yet another appointment and whether the children are working at home while their father is busy with his work in the study.

OK, I'm a worrier but there are plenty of other worriers out there who doubtless have the same concerns.

Recently, I've come to see that this fear is counterproductive and wrong. We believe that it is right for us to be home educating these children. Home education wasn't a snap decision but a decision made over years and with much prayer and examining of how the Scriptures apply to us as a family. Whatever anyone else says or thinks, I shouldn't be afraid. 

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Philippians 4 verse 6

Whose daughters ye are (Sarah's), as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

1 Peter 3 verse 6

Of course, I have to do my best for my children. Timothy was told to be a a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2 v15). In many ways, this applies to us as educators. We have to be skillful workers and treat God's Word properly so that it isn't brought into disrepute. 

So how can we avoid fear?

• Prayer
• Reading God's Word and hiding it in our hearts.
• Talking to trusted friends. My husband is a great sounding board and has listened to any number of my concerns about not getting things right.
• Meeting with others, of course, in church but also with other like minded educators. Often, just the chance to talk and laugh with others can bring worries into perspective.
• Taking advice when the going is difficult. There are plenty of home education on-line groups where it is possible to ask questions.
• Avoiding taking advice from nay sayers. Of course, unasked for advice can be reasonable and helpful but it is important to remember that it can come with an agenda.
• Going outside. Often, minor difficulties and stresses can be ironed out with some outside time.

Please comment with any other thoughts about not giving way to fear in home education.

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The Bible in English

The Trinitarian Bible Society's Canadian branch has produced some free publications for children to mark the 400th anniversary of the Authorised (King James) version.

These are well produced and there are versions for different ages.

• a colouring book for preschoolers.
• a primary school aged publication mainly about William Tyndale
• a secondary school version about the story of the English Bible to be read alongside Peter Hallihan's work, The Authorised Version: a wonderful and unfinished history.

We have used all three parts of this.

We found that reading the first few chapters of the primary school version alongside the colouring book was useful with occasional modifications of the language. Some simple printing also enlivened this as well as plenty of description about what a service would be like in Latin. A few sample sentences in Latin help!

 There are plenty of other things that would be useful-using a quill pen, illuminating letters, counting Bibles in the house, acting out William Tyndale's escape from the spies and so on.

The older version has suggestions for further thought and for construction of a timeline.

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English Bible timeline

We have just purchased a beautiful colour timeline of the English Bible.

It is a reproduction of an original by Abigail Mohon who, I understand, is a home education graduate-a rare species in the UK.

The timeline is in 100 year intervals from New Testament times until 1400 when it alters to 10 year intervals ,for two hundred years, to include the major events in English Bible translation. It is a beautiful piece of work and contains loads of information.

It can be purchased in a large size (three sections 420mm x792mm) for £8.99 or as a small size (two sections 297mm x 840mm) for £6.99. We have the larger size which I suspect is preferable in terms of font size. It is available from the Trinitarian Bible Society and I believe that their branches outside the UK will also stock it.

The timeline can be viewed on Abigail Mohon's website.  Click the images for a more detailed view. Please note that there are also free colouring sheets of Tyndale, Wycliffe and a ploughboy on the site.

Punctuation

Over the last few weeks, I have realised that frequently I cannot write out the Bible from memory. This, often, isn't because I can't remember the words but because I am unable to manage the punctuation. I don't for one minute think the punctuation is inspired but I suspect, no, know, that the people who punctuated the Authorised Version, which I use, were far better grammarians than me.
My punctuation is a bit wobbly. There is probably the odd semi-colon on this blog but I doubt that I have managed a colon. In fact, I only know one use for colons; they can go at the start of a list. It is fairly obvious that they are used for other purposes in the AV.
Anyway, having become interested in this subject, out of the blue, there was an article on marking in the AV which includes punctuation, in this edition of the Trinitarian Bible Society Quarterly Record. The Quarterly Record link is found on the left hand side of the home page and the relevant article is Called "Aspects of the Authorised Version, Part 2: Marking the text." It also covers the other interesting but uninspired features of capital letters and italics in the English translation. It is worth a read.